a few freebies

I know we're all busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, but I couldn't sign off for the week without sharing these great goodies I ran across! Don't ya just love a freebie?

Well, hats off to Crystal for sharing these awesome freebies!

I just ordered 200 digital prints, plus 50 Christmas photo cards, for FREE!!!

Well, I had to pay shipping, but the prints themselves were free. :)

Wait, wait! I have over $13 accumulated in my Inbox Dollars account, so by the time I request a check for that, I guess my photos really will be free! How's that for a real freebie?!

Here's how I did it:

New customers receive 100 FREE 4x6 prints at See Here. Just enter the promo code prints when you check out. This offer is only good until November 30th, so hurry if you want to redeem it! Shipping was about $5 for 100 prints.

See here also is offering 50 FREE Christmas photo cards, promo code new baby. I had a blast designing Christmas cards for our family to send out this year... shipping was around $3. You will need to order the 100 free prints separate from the 50 free photo cards.

But wait, there's MORE!! Snapfish is offering 50 FREE prints for first time customers. Just add photos to your cart and the promotion will automatically apply. Shipping was around $3 here too.

Then, hop over to Kodak and grab another 50 FREE prints when creating a new account. Shipping was cheap- $1.99.

Now, if I could only find some free scrapbooking supplies for all these pictures. :)

Have fun!

whole wheat pita bread

Monday is my busy day.


Well, every day of the week could qualify as my "busy" day, but Monday is the day I catch up on housework, laundry, and whatever else needs doing to get the week in order. So Monday is my really busy day.


But why am I talking about Monday? I'm supposed to be posting about pita bread, for goodness sake.


Well, today is Monday, and today I am making pita bread. So there you go.

On to pita bread.

On my menu for today are tuna salad sandwiches and pita bread. Since I don't have any store-bought whole wheat pita pockets, I'm going to make them.

So, this morning after bathing, feeding and dressing the kids (and cleaning the kitchen and starting laundry, and making my bed, and helping the girls clean their room, and taking a shower and... oh yes, the pita bread...)


Ahem. This morning after breakfast, I gathered all my ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C warm water- The water needs to be 110 to 115 degrees in order to activate the yeast. I generally use a candy thermometer to get the water just right, but sometimes I "cheat" by testing the water on my wrist. When it's a little warm but not too hot, it's just right



• 2 tsp active dry yeast- Just plain old yeast will do.



• 3 C whole wheat hard red flour- Hard red flour has higher contents of gluten than pastry flour, making it a great choice for making yeast breads. The brand I use is "Bob's Red Mill", but you can also use freshly ground wheat flour, or half white flour and half whole wheat flour. I don't recommend using all whole wheat flour unless it is hard red flour, since the bread tends to turn out heavier and too coarse.



• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt- Sea salt is rich in essential minerals lacking in regular "table" salt. Don't make the mistake of buying the "coarse" sea salt- it does not dissolve well and you'll end up tasting SALT in everything you bake! I always look for "fine" sea salt.



• 1 TBSP wildflower raw honey- I prefer wildflower honey over clover honey because it is less apt to contain pesticides or other harmful chemicals. More on the many benefits of raw honey.


• 2 TBSP olive oil- I removed all hydrogenated oils (including shortening) from my pantry several years ago. Olive oil is much more healthy for our bodies and can be used in place of vegetable or canola oil, cup per cup. I usually buy light tasting, extra-virgin olive oil for the best flavor. You can replace the 2 TBSP of olive oil in this recipe with 2 TBSP melted butter (no margarine!).

To active my yeast, I poured the water into my mixing bowl and sprinkled the yeast on top. Within a few minutes, it began to bubble. Sometimes I sprinkle a teaspoon or so of sugar on the yeast to help it activate.

Here is what the yeast looked like once it started to activate. See the little bubbles starting to foam?

Once the yeast was good and bubbly, I added the flour, salt, honey and olive oil. I stirred the ingredients with this pretty red spoon.





After the dough was well mixed, I formed it into a ball. Next, I attached the dough hooks to my electric mixer, spun the dial to "knead", set my timer for ten minutes, and let my pretty red machine do all the work! Have I told you how I love red?





While the dough kneaded, I changed Keith, put him down for a nap, and worked on some laundry. And did I ever mentioned how much I love my stand-up mixer???? A busy mother's best friend.

Once the dough was good and kneaded, I placed the ball into a large, greased glass bowl, turned the dough once to cover it with oil, and set the bowl in a slightly warm oven (about 100-degrees) to rise.

The dough needs to rise for 90 minutes; this is what mine looked like a little while ago with an hour yet to go:






I need to fold clean laundry and diapers, so I'll be back with the next step once the dough finishes rising.

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And this is what my dough looked like after rising 90 minutes. If you have trouble getting your whole wheat bread to rise, try adding one or two teaspoons of wheat gluten to your ingredients.

Next, I punched down my dough, separated it into 8 balls, and placed them on a cookie sheet. Back in the warm oven they went to rise for 20 more minutes.

And back I went to work on more laundry.

After the balls had risen a bit, I removed them from the oven and turned it to 400-degrees to preheat. I also placed my baking stone in the oven on the middle rack to preheat.

I lightly floured the counter and flattened the balls of dough with a rolling pin. I tried to keep them round and kept rolling until I flattened them to about 1/4-inch thick.

Next, I placed two of them on my preheated baking stone (because that was how many would fit) and cooked them in the hot oven for about 4 minutes. The pitas puff out while they cook! Be careful not to over cook them or they will turn out dry.

I baked the rest of the pita breads until all 8 were done. To make pita pockets, cut the bread in half and stuff in inside "pocket" with a filling of your choice. Today, we're having tuna salad in our pita pockets.

Now it's time to set the table!

$avvy $ubstitutes

I've mentioned before on this blog that our family budgets $50 to $60 a week on groceries. To feed a family of five on approximately $200 to $250 a month takes some fancy corner cutting, to say the least!

One of my favorite "corners" to cut is making my own "extras", such as whipping cream, half-and-half, and creamed soups. Most of the time, a carton of whipping cream ends up partially-used and forgotten in the back of my fridge- a waste of a measly two dollars, but a waste nonetheless! I've been very happy to discover that I can easily substitute many of these "extras" at the rate of pennies on the dollar.

Here are a few substitutes I use frequently:

Heavy Whipping Cream

Mix 3/4 cup milk and 1/3 cup melted butter together. Use as much as needed for a recipe, then store the rest in a small container in the fridge. When you need to use it again, heat the sauce in a pan until the butter softens. This cream will not "whip" but the consistency and taste is still great!

Creamed Soups

As a substitute for cream of mushroom or chicken soup, melt 2 TBSP butter in 1 cup of milk. Whisk in 2 TBSP whole wheat flour; boil and stir until sauce thickens. I usually add beef bouillon if a recipe calls for cream of mushroom soup, or chicken bouillon in place of cream of chicken soup. You can also add diced mushrooms or chicken to the sauce if you want it to be hearty. This substitute works great in casseroles and is SO much cheaper than store-bought creamed soups!

Meat Broths

Instead of buying chicken or beef stock for soups, I make my own by saving the broth off chicken, roast, or other meats. If I don't use the broth right away, I store it in a glass jar in the fridge, or even freeze it for later use. Homemade broth is basically free, since you've already bought and used the meat in the first place, and isn't packed with the preservatives and sodium that store-bought varieties have.

Half-and-Half

Simply mix 1 cup milk with 1 TBSP melted butter in recipes that call for half-and-half. I've used this substitute many times and am always pleased with the results!

You can find these and lots of other money-saving recipes and homemade substitutes in our ebooks, particularly our Meals for a Month volumes and Wholesome Mixes.

I'd love to hear some of your money-saving substitutes and homemade recipes!

learning to make homemade peanut brittle

I blogged earlier this week about mentoring. My girls and I were blessed to be on the receiving end of a sweet mentor a few days ago.

Sis. Margie, a lady in our church, invited us over to her home for a hands-on lesson in how to make her "famous" peanut brittle! I was thrilled for several reasons- one of them being that my only attempt at making peanut brittle a few years ago ended so badly that I couldn't even get it out of the pan!

Needless to say, I was excited about our little cooking lesson with Sis. Margie. The girls talked about it all day on Monday. After lunch, we gathered our ingredients and aprons and headed to Sis. Margie's home, which is about a mile from where we live.

The first thing Sis. Margie did was measure out the ingredients:


1 cup raw, Spanish peanuts



1 cup sugar



1 cup corn syrup

We poured all the above into a heavy pot and let it cook over medium/high heat until it began to boil. Amy and Emily were our official "stirrers"- and they enjoyed it! (Emily kept trying to touch the pot while she stirred... it wasn't hot here, but later we had to keep her hands back so she wouldn't burn herself!)

We let the brittle boil and cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until it reached the "hard crack" stage (300-degrees on a candy thermometer). Sis. Margie shared that, when she didn't have a thermometer, she learned to judge when the brittle was done by checking if the brittle could "spin a thread", which means it forms a hard "thread" when you lift the wooden spoon out of the pan and let the brittle run down. I thought that was neat! (But I'm very thankful for candy thermometers all the same!)

Once the brittle reached the "hard crack" stage, we added 1 teaspoon of baking soda and stirred until it was well blended. It foamed up huge once the soda was added!

The next step was to pour the brittle onto a greased cookie sheet.

Sis. Margie pointed out that the brittle does best when it is spread out thin.

Once the brittle was ready to set, Sis. Margie placed it in a cool place where air could circulated beneath the pan. After about 15 minutes, it was ready to crack and eat. Yum!

fillin' Daddy's shoes