Facebook share test: clean microwave

I'm sure you see them all the time....those facebook post that tell you "share this so it saves to you wall!" it's either a recipe or fun, easy trick. I got one on my newsfeed today, about cleaning your microwave. and I thought..."hmm...not a bad idea..." because THIS is my microwave:

yuck....

Lots of left overs and four growing boys to feed...along with a full time job for each parent, endless loads of laundry, and a house that just won't clean itself...the microwave never crosses my mind. Until I saw that facebook post tonight and took a peek. gross. So this is the facebook post going around:

"CHECK this out!! We all know the microwave can get out of hand!! Who loves to scrub that bad boy?? NOT THIS GIRL!

Try this! --- SHARE IT TO KEEP IT ON FILE!!!

1 c vinegar + 1 c hot water + 10 min microwave = steam clean! Totally works. No more scum, no funky smells."

Well, this girl, also, does not like to scrub anything...so I grabbed my pretty pyrex cup and measured out the water and vinegar and let 'er rip for 10 minutes:

After the 10 minutes timer beeped, I grabbed some paper towels. And indeed, while it didn't come out perfect like the photo showed, it was pretty close. And everything came off easy, just a quick wipe down!

Much better....

I had put aside the hot cup of water/vinegar mix, so I dipped my paper towel in to wipe off the pesky remaining spots. Came off easy--took no more than 5 minutes! I'd guestimate about 3.5 minutes, tops. Not bad for a microwave that hasnt been clean in at least a year and a half...good call, facebook....

More pork: honey glazed!

I tweaked the last pork recipe I posted a few weeks ago. I defrosted pork last night to cook today, and as I was taking it out to cook, I decided I wanted something different. So I took out the honey and poured some onto each slice of pork. I sprinkled with thyme, like I did last time. I cooked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. For a side, I cooked fresh pea pods straight out of our garden! In a skillet on the stove top, I heated up about 1 teaspoon of olive oil and poured them in. I heated them for about 4 or 5 minutes, while moving them around a bit. We had a very good lunch! It was very satisfying to have contributed to the meal by picking veggies out of a garden instead of buying at a store. :) I can't wait for my green beans, tomatoes, and pumpkins to grow in!!!

ingredients! :)

finished product!

Peanut butter m&m Cheerio treats!!

We just recently were given two huge box of generic cheerios. I had just bought 12 boxes of the "good stuff" (cinnamon toast crunch, reeses puffs, trix....ect). How was I supposed to feed a bunch of kids under 6 cheerios while we had all this good stuff? I started by giving them bowls of half cheerios and half yumminess. Then my baby sister suggested on facebook "make cheerio treats!." I've never even made rice krispy treats, but I was up for a challenge if the result was yummy! Here's what I used:

1 bag marshmellows

3 tablespoons of butter (I used the real stuff!)

5 cups Cheerios 

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup white chocolate m&ms (these I got cheap at easter, you can use any kind!)

Special ingredients!

I melted the marshmallows and butter together in the microwave for a minute and a half. I was paranoid about burning the marshmallows since I had never done it before, so I pulled them out and stirred every thirty seconds. When it was melted, I added the peanut butter in and stirred until it was blended.

omnomnom!

Then I just mixed in the cheerios and m&ms

and using a spatula, I scooped it into a greased 9X13 glass pan. I spread it even, making sure to press it into the shape of the pan so they would be even when I cut them out.

I put it in the fridge for a few hours. The result?

SUCCESS!!

As a side note, I would love to try this with honey nut cheerios! I have the new medley ones in my "snack closet"....maybe those next?? so many options!!

Lions and Bears and.....slugs??

This year I really kicked my gardening up a notch. I have raised beds with fruits and nuts, pallet gardens filled with veggies, and a pretty flower garden with concert scalloped edging. I'm very proud of the work I've done. So imagine my disappointment when I went outside one day to find most of my baby cuke leaved chewed off!! A quick google search told me that slugs were the culprit...gross, slimy slugs. ugh! I have never seen that many around here, but it made the most sense. I was chatting with my friend Becca about this when she suggested a beer trap. Some people swear by it, so I decided to give it a shot. The idea is that slugs are attracted to the wheat in the beer, crawl their slimy selves down to drink it, then drown. The other alternative it to go outside at night with a flash light and salt the buggers to death. No thanks, I'll try the beer first!

Supposedly this is all you need to catch some gross critters

The idea seems pretty simple...pour an inch of beer in a container with a small hole or notch for the slugs to crawl in. If you use a container with a lid, you dont have to refresh when it rains (as it started doing when I was coming back inside). Put the container into the ground. In a few days, you'll have some dead drowned slugs. Worth a shot, right? I'll blog my results. :)

When I lifted up a concrete block to dig a hole for the trap, i was greeted by 3 slugs...so apparently we ARE overrun by them....

yogurt with fruit in it on the cheap!

yogurt is expensive! anywhere from 50 cents to $1 for one of those cute little cups. And who doesn't love the kind with the fruit on the bottom?? My mom taught me a trick when I was younger...she had either bought some yogurt tubs because they were way cheaper or gotten some from my dads work. He worked at a supermarket that would rarely send him home with left over product--we once had an entire upright freezer filled with carvel easter bunny cakes and cadbury eggs--BEST TIME OF MY LIFE!! :) Those tubs of yogurt are great--big size, more affordable, ect...especially with a lot of kids! The down side? There's no fruit in those things!! Kids tend to be picky--plain vanilla yogurt isn't especially fun! Even the strawberry and blueberry kinds lack the cool fruit pieces. So the cool trick?? Add some strawberry jelly to the yogurt and mix it up!! It tastes awesome and turns the yogurt pink--can't get much better than that! I had blueberry yogurt on hand when I did this, so in the photos mine looks purple--still cool! It's a great way to give the kids a nice snack while on a budget.

add some jelly to give plain old yogurt some jazz!

you can see the yummy strawberry pieces in the yogurt!

simple pork chops & potatoes

I love quick and easy things to make for my kids. I often make them pan-fried pork chops...nice and easy...but then I have to find an easy side...and time everything just right...and keep an eye on the pork chops so I don't over cook them...so I decided to try oven-baking. I googled to get an approximate cooking time frame and just went with what I had on hand and hoped for the best. I used thin-cut boneless chops. I placed them in a glass pan and sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. I cubed a few large potatoes and placed them in between the pork chops. I topped everything with some salt and a tiny bit of thyme. 

I cooked everything in the oven for 40 minutes (uncovered) at 350 degrees. Some of the really thin pieces (2 out of the 6) came out a tad overcooked--but still good! The potatoes and rest of the pork were perfect!!

Melting crayon into new, fun, crayons!

My kids have lots of broken crayons, so small that they are barely usable. I remember when I was younger, my mom used to melt crayons together to make a big, multi-colored crayon. I used a silicone muffin pan, so a quick google search gave me a starting point as all the recipes I found used a metal one. I had to play around with the timing to get it right. I started by unwrapping any crayons that still had wrappers on them and breaking the crayons up into smaller pieces to have a nice variance of colors. I tried to mix up the colors so that no one color took over the crayon. 

While I did that, I pre-heated the over to 250 degrees. I heated up the crayon for 30 minutes. If you use a metal pan, I'm sure the time would be a little less. I just kept checking the oven every few minutes and took them out when the crayons were melted.

 I let the wax and pan cool (though I forgot to take it off the oven top--so my first crayon i took out got stuck--its the middle one in the photo--oops!) and popped the crayon out. They look neat and make pretty colors when I drew with them on paper. I can't wait to show my kids these when they wake up!