After Dinner Chore Chart, Spinner-Style!

I think the time has come for me to pass on some of my dinner chores!

 Hallelujah!  This is why I had children, right?  Just kidding!

But I have hoarded dishes and dinner clean-up for myself long enough and I think I'm ready to enlist more help.  This is not only for myself (though part of me thinks this will probably not be any easier for me) but for them, too!  I think it's important that my boys learn how to do some housework.  It will make them better husbands and men.  (And my daughter-in-laws will thank me someday.)

So I got this idea to make an after dinner chore chart with a spinner.  Nothing fancy- I made in the Paint program.  I laminated it, cut out the circle and arrow (spinner) and attached the spinner with a brad in the center.  Every night each family member takes a turn spinning the spinner and where it lands is their chore for the night.  I'm hoping the game aspect of it will make this more fun, at least at first.  

We  presented the spinner at our Family Council on Sunday.  And so far the boys are excited to take part.    

I will let you know how it goes!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Pizza

Now this is my kind of pizza!!  

We are big chocolate paired with peanut butter fans around here and we tried a new recipe over the weekend that was a huge hit!  I got this recipe from a booklet of Christmas recipes that my mother-in-law gave me years ago.  Now you can find the recipe at  Betty Crocker.com.  I'll include it as well...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Pizza

Makes 16 servings

1 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 c baking cocoa

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce (see below)

1/4 c Spanish peanuts

1 bag (1.63 oz) M&Ms

1 package (1.6 oz) Reeses peanut butter cups (2 candies), cut up

1/4 c semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix brown sugar, butter and egg in medium bowl with spoon.  Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Pat dough in ungreased 12-inch pizza pan.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until edge is set.  Cool at least 30 minutes.  Make Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce.  Spread over cookie pizza.  Top with peanuts and candies.  Drizzle with melted chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Pizza Sauce

1 bag (10 oz) peanut butter chips

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Heat ingredients in 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth.

Enjoy!!

Christmas Advent Calendar

I'm a little late in posting about our advent calendar, but this is one of our favorite Christmas decorations so I didn't want to ignore it on our blog.  I made this two years ago and it was so fun to make!  Felt is the best invention ever!  Here is a picture of it yesterday.  In case you can't tell, its basically a big piece of white felt with a green felt tree on top.  There is an ornament for each day in numbered pockets.  My kids take turns putting up the ornaments each day.

 And here is what it will look like on Christmas day with all the ornaments on the tree.  Can you believe there are only 18 days left until Christmas!  Oh boy!  I've got some shopping to do!

 Some of my favorites:

Christmas Quilts

 It may not be warm enough for snuggling up under a Christmas quilt right now but that won't keep us from trying! Sometimes we turn our ceiling fan up high just so we can justify snuggling under the quilt and reading Christmas stories!

 I've made a couple of quilts throughout the years and have one that I'm ready to get started on. My first quilt is a lap-size one from a pattern I got from the magazine McCall's Quilting. I love the poinsettia fabrics in this! 

 The next one I made I love partly because it's a scrappy quilt. I used scraps from Christmas quilts and crafts I'd made throughout the years. I love that with quilts you can take a bunch of small little scraps of fabric and make something as beautiful and whole as a quilt.  I can't think of the name of the pattern- can anyone help me out, please?

With my Mom's help, I used her quilting machine to quilt poinsettias throughout, which looks especially nice on the white fabric. 

It's great for playing peek-a-boo under, too!

 And now I'm ready to get going with this gorgeous fabric! It's by Kate Spain for Moda and it's called flurry. I found it on fabric.com a year or so ago in July. They were having a great sale on it.  

I have wanted to use this great pattern featured on modabakeshop by Angela from Fussy Cut.  

 I'm hoping to a get some free time at night to start working on it and hopefully I'll have pictures to share before too long!

Nativity Puppets

Before we had children, Jer and I were nursery leaders at church for the 18 month old children.  

We had about eight 18 month to 24 month old children.  They were adorable but it was quite a challenge to keep them happy for 2 hours and try to teach them a lesson and sing songs when most of them couldn't talk. My Mom made me these wonderful puppets to use with them at Christmastime and they are still a favorite at our house.  

 I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE FELT!  

It is so easy to create with and great for things like this!  

I love the details on each one- yet they are so simple.

We use them to act out the nativity story or the boys just like to play with them around the house.  Thanks, Nana, for making these for us!

4 Family Favorite Recipes for Leftover Turkey

Turkeys are awesome for living on a tight budget! It's one of the cheapest meats (especially if you get a free one around the holidays), it's healthy and they freeze well. Yet I don't see a whole lot of recipes out there that call for turkey. Maybe that's because you can basically substitute turkey for chicken in most recipes. Well, here are 4 of our favorites.  They are all family recipes that originally call for chicken but you can't tell the difference when you substitute turkey.

 Turkey Bundles

2-3 c leftover cooked turkey

6 T softened cream cheese

3-4 chopped green onions (including green parts)

2 T milk

3 T melted butter

2 package crescent rolls (without seams)

Combine all ingredients except crescent rolls and mix until well combined.  Open up rolls and cut into 6 squares.  Flatten out squares a bit.  Place a spoonful of turkey mixture into center of each crescent square. 

   Bring corners up to center and seal edges together to make little bundles.  Place on cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Enjoy!

printable recipe

 Turkey Tetrazine

2 c cooked turkey

1 8 oz package spaghetti

1/2 c chopped onion

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1/2 c chopped celery

1/4 c melted oleo (butter)

1/2 t celery salt

2 pimentos

salt and pepper

speck of cayenne

3 t flour

2 c milk (or 1 c broth and 1 c milk)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c sharp cheddar cheese, grated + more for sprinkling on top

1/2 c breadcrumbs

Boil noodles according to package.  Saute onions, pepper and celery in butter.  Slowly stir in flour and cook until thick.  Then add seasonings and cheese.  Stir until melted.  Add 2 c milk, pimentos, noodles, chopped turkey and soup.  Turn into shallow dish and cover with breadcrumbs and more cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 min.  This is good to freeze ahead also.  Don't top with breadcrumbs and cheese before freezing.

printable recipe

Turkey Stuffing Casserole 

(sorry, no picture of this one)

2 lb cooked turkey

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 small carton of sour cream

1 package stuffing mix

1 T butter

2 c water

Butter a 9X13 pan and place turkey on the bottom.  Mix soups and sour cream and pour on top of chicken.  Sprinkle stuffing mix on top of mixture.  Microwave 1 T butter and 2 c water until hot.  Pour over dressing.  Bake at 325 for 50 min to one hour.

printable recipe

Turkey Broccoli Casserole (a regular at our house)

1 c uncooked rice (I usually use brown rice but allow extra time for boiling)

2 c water

1 1/2 c cooked broccoli
1-1 1/2 c cooked chicken or turkey

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 t lemon juice

1/2 t curry powder

3/4 c grated cheddar cheese

1/2 c mayo

Boil rice in 2 c water.  Boil broccoli and drain.  Put broccoli in casserole dish.  Layer cooked chicken over broccoli.  Mix soup, mayo, lemon juice, curry powder, rice and 1/2 c cheese.  Pour over chicken.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and then top with breadcrumbs (or cracker crumbs).  Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

   printable recipe

What do you do with leftover turkey?

Winter Pajamas

The weather is getting a little more frightful (at least in some parts of the world) and my boys need some warmer PJs.  Pajamas are one of the few things I can really sew for my boys these days and I'm always on the look out for fun fabric.

This is a tradition in our family.  Grandy used to make our brothers scrappy pajamas out of her scraps- a pocket from this, a sleeve from that.  I wish I had a picture because they were so cute!  Mom makes our kids PJs for birthdays and at other times- pictures for another post- that are adorable!  When it comes to sleeping we know how to dress!

So my boys have been bugging me for a few weeks to make them some pjs- I LOVE that they want them HOMEMADE.  I had found this cute fabric on fabric.com (see side button) for a steal awhile back and it's been waiting for the perfect opportunity to fulfill its potential.

A little ironic for sleepwear, don't you think? (Men at Work?)

For my oldest I used McCalls 6227 size 10.  It seems to run a tad on the large size but then my oldest is only 9.  This was a new style for me to sew and it was a cinch!  So easy!  I'm definitely using that one again!  However it is very roomy at the top so I don't know how warm and snug it will be.  Here's "keeping it real" for you- if you look closely you'll notice that the signs are upside down!!  It must have been pretty late because I didn't notice this until I'd finished sewing the top.

For my almost 7 year old I used Simplicity 3987 size 8 and it was on the small side.  It fits just about perfect but I thought it would be looser since I was using a size larger than he normally wears.

Sleep tight, my little men!