It's Official

In the last four months we have eaten more mexican food than I have ever eaten in my entire life.  True story. 

That my friends is a puffy taco.  Oh, and an enchilada too.

I've come to learn that there are two ways to ask questions about the menu:

#1

Me:  What exactly is a puffy taco?

Mexican waitress: ....a puffy taco.

Me: Ok, but what is it?

Mexican waitress:  It's....a puffy taco.
*Insert "you're crazy lady" expression here.

or #2

Me: What exactly is a puffy taco? I'm from Illinois.

Mexican Waitress:  Oh! It's a flour tortilla that is deep fried and when they fry it, it puffs up! A puffy taco!

Works every time.
Either that, or secretly google unknown food with my phone.  That works too.

S'mores Cookie Bars

I ran across this recipe today on pinterest and had to make it! Looked delicious and, since we won't be roasting marshmallows anytime this season, was a good substitute.

Bonus, I had all the ingredients except the marshmallow fluff and chocolate! It was easy to make and didn't take long either. I ended up using a round cake pan because we don't have a square one yet. It worked just fine, just looks like cookie pie instead of bars.

The verdict: YUM. Cody had 1 1/2 pieces and asked if I could make it everyday. It is super rich though, but still so good!

Repurposing Wine Corks

For our guest book at our wedding we had guests sign wine corks. With some awesome help from my Aunts we collected a ton of corks! After the wedding I had a bunch leftover just waiting for a project.

I found this Monogram Letter idea via pinterest (finding lots of neat ideas there!) and thought it looked easy enough!

I picked up a wooden "M" from Hobby Lobby for about $1.50 with a coupon. I sorted out the blank corks for the middle and the decorated/printed corks for the outside. Then I hot glued away!

95 corks, 9 glue sticks, and 3 burnt fingers later and I had this:

I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. I originally was going to add ribbon and hang it on the front door, but now I might just set it on the mantle or hang it on a wall some where. For now it's living on the kitchen table. Which still looks pretty cool.

Laundry: Loads of Fun

I recently ran across this recipe for laundry soap via pinterest.  At first I thought "Why in the world would I take the time/effort to do that?" but the recipe was actually really simple.  Once I saw that it made enough for an estimated 576 loads for $6 I was sold!

I figured it was worth a try for that price!

(Plus, hearing my sister mad it and it was working well didn't hurt either!)

I found the washing soda, borax, and bar of soap (Dove) at Walmart, and totaled about $10.

I ended up making half a batch since my pot wasn't big enough for full one!

It was super easy, didn't take long, and I have a ton of supplies left over.

I'm storing it in my old Tide bottles, so I can use the lid to measure, and so far it's working really well! It doesn't leave a strong soap scent, and everything looks clean.

I even washed Cody's yucky muddy/sweaty workout shoes and they came out looking brand new!

Quick and Easy Smoothies

I think I've mentioned how we recently fell in love with the frozen Jamba Juice Smoothies we found at Costco.  They are super fast and easy to make, and so yummy!  However, Cody kept mentioning how it would be cheaper to make our own.  Yeah....riiiight sure it would.  Cheaper, but so much more work!

Or so I thought.  I ran across this idea/recipe somewhere on the internet.  I can't remember where anymore, but it looked pretty easy:

3-4 cubes frozen yogurt.

1 1/2 frozen fruit.

Since that's about all the recipe I found said, I had to kind of guess what amount to buy.

I ended up with:

1 large container of Vanilla Yogurt

Two 16oz bags of frozen Strawberries

A few bananas we had at home.

One tub of yogurt will fill about 1.5 ice cube trays.

I fill my ice cube tray with yogurt and pop it in the freezer.

Then I fill sandwich size baggies with 1 1/2 cup fruit each.

You can use fresh or frozen. I use 1 cup frozen strawberries (cheaper and easier than fresh) and either a half or whole banana.

 I lay the bag as flat as possible and squeeze out all the air. 

 Then I lay all my little baggies in a large freezer size bag, and the whole thing goes in the freezer.  I try to get it to lay as flat as possible to save valuable freezer space, as well as making it easier to get all the extra air out.

My bananas need to ripen a bit before I can add them to this batch!

Later, once the yogurt cubes are frozen, I throw 4 cubes in each smoothie baggie.

When we make a smoothie all we have to do is pull out one baggie and empty it all into the blender add a cup of juice, and blend it up!  We use apple juice, but any kind works.  One baggie makes two smoothies.

We've also added some coconut rum to the smoothie as well.  Although we learned if you add alcohol you need to decrease the juice to about half, or it is more soupy than smoothie!

Prep time really only takes a few minutes to divide the fruit into the baggies, so it really isn't anymore work than the Jamba Juice version!

Estimated Savings:

Jamba Juice -- 5 smoothies = $10

Homemade -- 10 Smoothies = $5

Pan Dulce

One morning when I was out and about I stopped at a different Wal-Mart to grab a donut. 

I was a bit confused when almost the entire case was filled with strange pastries.

 There were coconut coated ones, jelly covered ones, ones cut open to show pudding filling, and odd seashell shaped ones. Most were labeled as Pan Dulce and, from what little spanish I remember from high school, means sweet bread.  They also had some called Mexican Pink Cake which, let's face it Mexico, is nothing but slices of birthday cake with pink icing and confetti sprinkles.  

Luckily I turned the corner and found a small selection of 'normal' donuts.  

I kept thinking about the weird ones though and decided to try one next time.

I checked my regular Wal-Mart and they didn't have any!

So today when I was near that special Wal-Mart I stopped in to pick one out.

I settled on this one thinking it kinda looks like Pecan Pie filling...minus the pecans.

I don't like coconut, or pudding filling, and let's face it, those seashell ones look gross!

It was okay.  Not as sweet as a donut.  The topping was actually caramel, which was pretty good.  It was also pretty dry.  We each had a couple bites and then threw away the rest. I'm glad I finally tried it, but it's not something I want to eat again!

*I googled Mexican Pink Cake and found that apparently it's not just birthday cake with pink frosting.

It's dry birthday cake with hard pink icing.  That sounds like old cake tasty?  I think I'll skip trying that one!

Magic Carpet Cleaner

*The title to my post just got that song from Aladdin stuck in my head.  Anyone else?*

When we moved into our house, we had inherited a lot of carpet stains. 

Mysterious, probably years old, who knows how they got there stains.

Oh, the joys of renting!

When I moved in Cody explained that he had tried to get them out, but was unsuccessful.  

I, of course, assumed that I could get them out with a little carpet cleaner and elbow grease. 

No such luck.  So we have been planning on eventually having our carpets professionally cleaned.   

Until I ran across this lovely idea on pinterest.

I figured it was worth a shot, especially since we wouldn't have to go buy anything to try it.

So today I picked out an icky spot and got to work.

The Spot was in front of my sink in our room.  I figured that way if something went wrong (like I turn the carpet blue) it's not in a public space.  If The Spot turns blue I can just toss a rug over it.  Good plan right?  I thought so.  

1. Scrape up the liquid. (Obviously only if it's a fresh spill.  Mine wasn't so I skipped this)
2. Sprinkle baking soda or cornstarch on stain and let absorb for 10 minutes.
(Not sure if this is a must-do step, but figured I shouldn't skip it.  I even worked the soda down into the carpet a bit)
3. Mix one tablespoon clear dishwashing liquid and one tablespoon white vinegar with two cups warm water.
4. Using a white cloth sponge the stain with the detergent/vinegar solution and blot until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. Sponge off with cold water and blot dry.

I honestly didn't think it would work at all, and didn't take pictures of The Spot.

Of course, once I got that spot done I noticed a bunch more in our room.

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm amazed.  The spots are still a little damp, so you can kinda see where I was scrubbing, but the black stain is gone.  Although, I still keep going in there expecting to see weird white spots emerging.  (White seems more possible than blue after all)

I'm going to let it dry over night to make sure they are good to go, then I'm going to tackle the living room stains! 

Especially that one by the couch we hide by putting our shoes on top of it....

We will probably still get the carpets professionally cleaned someday though.  It may be spot free now, but it's still rental carpet. Yuck.