Not Your Mom's Edamame

I saw this wonderful recipe on Pinterest Garlic Parmesan Edamame.  I am a little bit of a lazy cook, so I did a little bit of my own spin on this, oh and what I have on hand dictates it all.

1 Bag of Frozen Microwave Edamame
Pecorino Romano Cheese
Minced Garlic
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Red Pepper Flakes

I steamed the Edamame in the microwave for 4 minutes.

While the microwave was working its magic reminding me that I do not hate how large it is and how much I would rather have a awesome cooking vent, I heated up the olive oil and garlic in a saute pan.  Pour in the edamame and cook for about 2 minutes.  Top with pepper and your grated pecorino, then serve it up! 

I will say this, the pecorino is pretty salt so keep that in mind if you buy the Edamame with the sea salt.  But if you love salt like I do, you won't even notice.

"Alice Springs Chicken" with a New Spring

So, I spent 9 years of my life working for Outback Steakhouse.  Still to this day my favorite job.  I started off as a hostess at 16 and moved my way up to server, trainer, bartender and manager.  The day I graduated college and moved on all I could think about was how much I will miss the employee discount.  They have some serious yummy food. 

The Alice Springs Chicken is one of their best.  I wanted to create my own spin on it and save on the calories that this yummy dish serves you.  And here was the result........

4 Boneless Chicken Breasts
Sliced Raw Mushrooms
6 Slices of Turkey Bacon
4-5 Slices of Gruyere Cheese
S&P

Honey Mustard Dressing
1 Tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Honey
Mix them together until blended 

Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and bake them in an oven safe dish at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until thermometer reads 165.

Put the bacon on a foil lined baking sheet and put in the oven with the chicken.  I read about cooking bacon like this and I will never cook bacon in a pan again.

While the chicken is cooking saute the mushrooms in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. 

Take the chicken and place on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Pour about a tablespoon of your honey mustard on the chicken, put one piece of bacon (torn in two pieces) on top of that, mound up the mushrooms, and top with one to two slices of cheese.  Place in the broiler on high for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Then serve it up!!!  This was incredibly tasty and I sure did not feel as bad as I usually do after I indulge in this belly buster meal.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail......

So I have a deep love for wreaths.  I will make a new wreath for every holiday just because, so here is my Easter wreath. 

What I have always hated about Easter wreaths is your choices for decorations.  You have bunnies, eggs, and chick's.  That's it.  What I love, pastels!!!!!!

 I took plastic eggs I got from the dollar store and some decorated, glitter eggs from the dollar store and jazzed them up a bit.  I used little bit of felt cut outs of bunnies and chick's with the eggs and some leftover Valentines Ribbon wreath love and threw it on the wreath.  I found a new love for some bunnies and chick's!!!

I Like it Cheesy!

If you have searched far and wide for that perfect potato recipe, you can finally end your search.  These potatoes are the very best casserole and your entire family will love them.  Extra bonus is that they are awesome served as leftovers.

Cheesy Crunchy Potato Casserole
1 32oz bag of shredded hash browns (thawed)
1 10oz can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup of melted margarine melted
1 10oz bag of sharp cheddar shredded cheese
8oz of sour cream
Salt and pepper

Topping
3 cups of crushed cornflakes
1/4 cup of melted margarine

Mix all of the ingredients, except for the topping, into one very large bowl.  Spread this into a 13x9 casserole dish ungreased.

Next take the cornflakes and pour them into a freezer bag and bust them up.  Take out some aggression, then pour the melted 1/4 cup of butter into the bag.  Toss it all around and pour the topping evenly on top of the potatoes.

Put it in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes until the top is nice and toasty.

Now sit back and enjoy.  Make sure you get all you want on the first serving, because there won't be any left for the second helping.

Time for a Re-Org

It was finally time to address our master closet "situation".  I have a bit of a shopping problem and I needed to have a little bit of a reality check, as well as, clean up our closet.  I wanted to do it on a budget and not spend a ton because I am hoping in a year to do something fancy.  Have my own little Mariah Carey closet ;)

Here are some of the cheap ideas I came up with.

1. Towel rack for ties
This one was about $10, but you can get a plastic one for $3-$4.

2. Hook towel rack for belts
Cost- $12

3. 3 Hook over the door hanger for purses
This one cost $10, but they have so many different types and some were is a little as $5.

4. Single hook over the door hanger for my husbands belt
Cost: $4

5. And the shoes.
This is about a quarter of my shoes, do not judge me, and I had this shelf that was taking up a little nook in my closet.  This is where I wanted to hang the towel racks for belts and ties.  So I turned it on its side and put it on a shelf that was not being used.

So the whole thing was about $35, which I thought was pretty good.  What budget friendly organization ideas do you have?

They Call Me a.....Carpenter?!?

I found these awesome door knobs at Hobby Lobby for a dollar each and I wanted to do something cool with them.  During my manic master bedroom organization, I decided to organize all my necklaces and here is what I came up with.  This was my very first "carpentry" project!!

What you need:
Piece of wood (you choose the length and type)
Door knobs (however many you would like)
Drill
Forstner bit
Drill bit
Pull saw
File


Since the knobs I brought had nuts that screw into the back, I had to recess the wood so the nuts would fit with a 3/8" forstner bit. 

Next I used a 3/16" drill bit to make a hole all the way through on the front.  Then you screw the knobs in.  The nut goes on the back of the hole in the recess on the back of the wood, knob in the front.

The screw will be much longer then you need, so use a pull saw, have it flush against the wood and saw off the extra length.

If you need to you can use a file to smooth out the jagged edge of the rest of the screw.  This will keep you from cutting yourself or scratching up your wall.

And you are ready to hang.  I used two eye hooks and some ribbon and the finished look.......

WineS

I fell in love with all the craft projects that have a solution for all my wine corks!!  So I decided to use them on a giant initial.  I think I had about 80 wine works, which I had saved for the last four years.  Naturally, I felt this would be no sweat....WRONG.  I ran out of corks.  So, if you are OCD like me you can order these online.  I got 200 for $40 which I know I will use the rest in other projects.  These are not used, so they will be wider then your used corks and some will not have a label on them.  If you are a patient soul and the blank letter does not bother you, then you can add this as you drink.  I honestly love the end result and the entire project was super easy.

Here is what you need:
A giant letter (I used one of the paper letters because it was much cheaper and easier to find)
Paint
Brush
Glue gun
Wine corks

Paint the sides and front of the letter with the paint color of your choice.  I initially laid out my corks to see how many I would need.  You can also just lay this out as you go.  I kept my corks pretty close together, you can space this out more and you could probably less corks.  Simply put a thin layer of super glue on one bottom of the cork and clue to the letter.

And here is the final result.

Get to drinking and make sure you host those wine parties and keep the corks! 

Cheers!!