Potato skins = Yum. These take a little work to put together, but the effort is worth the end result. Save the potato insides for a quick potato salad later in the week. The cooked potato insides will stay good in the fridge for a couple of days until you have time to throw together a potato salad. Feel free to change up the potato skin toppings to your liking. We love them with a dolop of sour cream. Ingredients: 9 russet potatoes bacon, cooked and crumbled olive oil butter salt shredded cheese 1. Wash and prick potatoes with a fork. Rub with a little olive oil. Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes or more until tender. 2. Slice potatoes in half and scoop out insides leaving some potato around edges for stability. A grapefruit spoon works well for scooping. Save the potato insides to make potato salad later. 3. Brush outside of potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake about 5 minutes potato side down. 4. Flip potatoes over and place a small piece of butter in each potato skin. 5. Sprinkle with sea salt, cheese, and bacon. 6. Bake another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.
0 Comments
We really love our flannel sheets during the cold winter months. We had flannel sheets on every bed in the house except our toddler bed. I searched online and in several stores for toddler bed flannel sheets with no luck. Finally, I decided to try making them myself and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I am by no means an expert seamstress and I managed to put together a pretty good set of sheets. If you have access to a sewing machine and can sew a straight line, you can handle this do-it-yourself project. To make this sewing project even easier, I purchased a flannel crib sheet on Amazon for the bottom sheet. All I had to do was make a simple top sheet and a pillow case. I already had some flannel I had purchased for baby gifts on sale a couple of years ago and never used, so I put it to good use. I didn't take any notes as I was making the sheets, but I think 3 yards of fabric should be plenty for a top sheet and a pillow case. Top Sheet Instructions: I used a toddler bed sheet as a pattern and left room at each end to turn the fabric under and make a nice hem. I used the entire width of the fabric b/c I needed all of it to make the sheet wide enough. This was nice because I only had to cut one end of the fabric. Next I turned under each side and pinned them in place. My hem is very small here so that I could get as much width as possible. Then I sewed the hem in place removing the pins as I went. I sewed the sides first and then the ends, leaving a larger hem on the ends. Top sheet complete. Pillowcase Instructions: I used a standard pillowcase as a pattern to cut the fabric for the pillowcase. Fold the fabric before cutting and you only have to cut and sew three sides of the pillowcase. When you cut the fabric for the pillowcase, cut it slightly larger than the pattern pillowcase on three sides and a lot larger on one end so that you can make a nice hemmed edge on the open end. Turn under and sew a nice wide hem on the end of the fabric where the pillowcase opening will be. After you have made the hem for the opening of the pillowcase, pin the side and end that still need to be sewn. Make sure to put right sides together. Sew the end and side. Turn pillowcase right side out and then you are done. Cozy Toddler Bed Flannel Sheets
My three year old has only eight students in his class so I thought it would be really easy to make play-dough Valentines for his Valentine party tomorrow. I picked up a set of eight small Glad containers on clearance for $1 and they were the perfect size. I made some really simple labels so my son's name would be on his Valentines. And it only took one batch of homemade play-dough. This was so easy to do and I think the kids will love them.
Guest post by my sister, Rebecca My husband and I installed new shower doors during our bathroom renovation a few years ago and were disappointed when they were quickly covered by scale buildup. We had opted for a silk finish on the doors and were concerned that abrasive cleaners might mar the finish. After many trials and little success with various cleaners including vinegar, I finally sprayed a paper towel with vinegar and effectively “soaked” a small section of the shower door. To my relief, the vinegar soak was successful in removing all of the scale buildup. I recently cleaned the shower doors again and decided to take some pictures to show the amazing results. This time I used a spare roll of liners for cloth diapers as the soaking material (since I never bother using the liners in our cloth diapers). Any thin material that will cling to the glass shower doors when soaked with vinegar should work. Here are the steps that I took to clean the shower door. This method also works on tubs and surrounds. 1. Drape a thin material (e.g., paper towels or cloth diaper liners) over your shower door and spray it with vinegar until it is well soaked. If necessary, smooth out the material so that it is in complete contact with the door. Allow to soak for 10 or 15 minutes. 2. Remove the soaking material and wipe down the shower door with a damp cloth. If the vinegar has had enough time to penetrate the scale buildup, little to no scrubbing will be necessary. 3. Transfer the soaking material to another section of the door, and repeat the process. If you are not fond of the smell of vinegar, keep in mind that as it dries, the odor will dissipate. As I was growing up, I always hated the smell of vinegar when Mom used it to clean; now that I have small children of my own, I buy vinegar by the gallon and know that it is a safe and effective cleaner for our home. The pictures below show the vinegar soak (on the left) and scale buildup (on the right). I’m so glad that we are able to restore the look of our shower doors to their new condition. As a lasting solution to the problem of scale buildup, we are currently researching water filtering options for our home. Although we will likely choose to install a whole-house filter in addition to our water softener, another solution would be to install a showerhead filter. You can see the vinegar soak on the left side of the door. If you look really closely, you can see the scale buildup is on the right side of the door, but no longer on the left. Thank you Rebecca for taking the time to share your cleaning success story.
This is the easiest homemade laundry detergent. I have been using it for a couple of weeks with great results. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for 20 Mule Team Borax. Ingredients: 2 cups Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax 1 Fels-Naptha laundry bar 1 capful of Purex Crystals (optional for added scent) 1. Grate on a fine grater a bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap. 2. Then mix in the super washing soda, borax, and optional Purex Crystals. That is all there is to it. Use 1 to 2 Tbsp. detergent per laundry load depending on size of load.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
I don't know why, but I have never thought of creating a maze on the sidewalk for my boys. (Maybe I'm lacking a creative gene.) My super creative husband made some intricate mazes with sidewalk chalk. (affiliate link)
This was a great activity. Our 4 year old loved the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment when he solved each maze.
The younger boys didn't get into solving the mazes, but they loved being outside.
Today is my 36th birthday. My sweet sister Rebecca baked me a cake last weekend and gave me this cute apron. She had it embroidered with my website name, Home Ec @ Home. One of these days, I will film some vlogs (video blogs) and this apron will be perfect. Thanks Rebecca!
This is a guest post written by my sister Catherine. She recently had twins and has been buying formula like crazy to keep up with them. This article is about her research involving name brand formula versus store brand. She is also a pharmacist and mother of 3.
With the twins' increased nutritional needs as they grow, their formula supplementation has increased and they are eating us out of house and home! (With brand name formula, anyway.) We intially used brand name Similac Advance we had stockpiled before their birth when CVS had 30% off employee discount days, combined with $5 manufacturer rebate checks on each can. That wasn't bad. Then we were getting it at the regular 20% off emp discount (which basically made it the same price as Wal-Mart & other big discount retailers, but CVS was just more convenient since Matt was already there) + rebate checks. Alas, we ran out of rebate checks last week. I then bought a big container of Similac for $21 at Wal-Mart, which only lasted about 3&1/2 days since we are feeding 2 babies 6 oz bottles every few hours. The next time, I ran out in a formula emergency to the closest grocery store to our house, HEB (a TX chain). I noticed they had a store brand of the Similac Advance for $11.88 for the large can vs $21 for the same size of the brand name, a greater than 40% savings. I broke down and bought one can of the generic to try out. (I had never used generic on any of my kids before) I found that it mixes well, the twins eat it with the same vigor as the name brand, and, in fact, their stools are more regular with the generic! This morning I went back to HEB and bought 3 more large cans to get us through the next several days, including our trip to Naples, FL this week. I didn't want to run out there since I don't think they have HEB. Which got me thinking and researching... Q: Does the same company that makes the HEB formula make other store brands in case I can't make it there? (One of the reasons I had always had a brand allegiance to Similac was that I could find it at any retailer that sold formula and know that my baby was being fed the same thing. I didn't want to introduce something new constantly, and chance gas, fussiness, etc...) A: Yes! I called the 800 # on the back of my formula can, which rang PBM Products, a USA company. I spoke to a rep and found out they make pretty much all of the store brand formula. (And it recently won another huge lawsuit against Mead Johnson, the maker of Enfamil, who had deceived customers into thinking that its product was somehow nutritionally superior to the store brand.) Q: Were there any additional coupons that could help me save even more on the store brand? A: Yes, I filled out an online form which will supposedly give me a $3 off coupon and I think I can call and request it monthly. (And I read on one blog that I may be able to get 2/month since I have twins.) Here are some links where I got my info: http://iamwickedcheap.com/2010/08/05/free-sample-parents-choice-walmart-brand-infant-formula/ http://www.pbmproducts.com/default.aspx http://www.storebrandformula.com/default.aspx Maybe you already knew all of this, but I found it to be eye-opening and exciting. I am hoping to largely use store brand formula from here on out till the twins are on milk. It shoud save us a ton of money! |
Welcome to Home Ec @ HomeHi, I'm Faith, a former Family and Consumer Science teacher turned food blogger. I love God, my family, and food. You can usually find me in the kitchen preparing family friendly, homemade recipes and taking lots of pictures. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesFan Favorites
|