WFMW - gosh it's been a while!

Well, it's been pretty much forever since I had anything to contribute to a WFMW! We are currently prepping our house to put it on the market. While it's true that the cost to effect ratio is fabulous for paint, (meaning that it doesn't cost that much, but it has a really great effect on your house), it takes a lot of work. Here's a couple other cheap and quick fixes that I have found to be really effective in making your house look fresher and up-to-date.

• Change out your switch and outlet plate covers. These cost me a whopping 39 cents each at my hardware store. They take just a couple of minutes to replace an entire room's worth, but even if you didn't think they were that bad to start, you'll be shocked at how much new covers freshen up a space.
• If your floor / wall vent covers are really gross, and I don't just mean dirty but corroded, they cost about $5 at your hardware store. Again, a screwdriver and a couple of minutes, and you've got a quick freshening for the whole room.
• Clean your windows. I know, I know, everybody says to do it before you sell your house - and even though I thought my windows were pretty good, I cleaned them and was amazed at how much more sunshine it seemed to let in.
• Take out most of your stuff. I'm not talking "eat pizza off paper plates while sitting on the floor," but by removing clutter from walls, furniture and even removing extra furniture, your rooms will look so much bigger. Of course, you need somewhere to put this stuff, but maybe you have a friend with a garage you could borrow.
• Take out a ton of stuff from your linen closets / kitchen cabinets, etc. I'm going to be living with the bare minimum of spices, etc., for a while, which makes my cabinet look like there's actually room for them. Usually, my hundred different spices (exaggeration!) are jammed into a small space, and I have to paw through to find the one I want. Now my top twenty are neatly arranged in the space - when I eventually get bigger kitchen cabinets, my hundred can be neatly arranged, but for now I'm going to do everything I can to make my cabinets look gigantic!

I may add some more today as I think o f them, but I hope this helps!

wfmw - what to get at sonic??

This may seem waaaay weird to some of you Southern Gals who have become accustomed to a Sonic on every corner... but I am thrilled about the prospect of a Sonic being built just a couple of miles from my blogging location!

I've experienced the goodness of Sonic drinks on three occasions, but I have to say that once I tried the Strawberry Limeade, I was in luv. Fizzy, sweet, tangy, fresh, with little ol' chunks of strawberry shooting up the straw periodically to remind me that this was a HEALTHY drink, yup... I'm in luv.

But I don't want to get in a comfort zone and miss out on Sonic's other goodies. So I'm turning to you, Oh Experienced Sonic Aficionados, and asking what I should order the next time I'm there?

WFMW - swim diapers for less

This tip may come late in the summer for you moms out there, but since swim diapers are so expensive, I thought I'd let you know that you have an option!

I use cloth diapers exclusively on my Peanut for a variety of reasons, but one of the most cost effective things about cloth diapering is the comparison between cloth and disposable swim diapers.

The purpose of a swim diaper is to let sterile urine pass into the pool, but contain poo. Cloth swim diapers are trim, cute, and easily washed... and for a one-time-up-front cost, you'll never have to think about them again!

Here's a link to see some options.

They work for me, but for more great tips, head over to Shannon's!

wfmw - for firefox users

Hello all there, fellow Firefox users that also hang around Rocks in My Dryer!

Here's a tip to make your Firefox usage even that much cooler. You already know that you can open up multiple tabs and read a bunch of WFMW tips easily - but did you know that there are shortcuts for all that opening? I would sit there and right-click-open-in-new-tab over and over... until I found an extension that would do it for me!

Snap Links makes that a breeze. I right click and drag, creating a box over whatever links I want to open - and it opens them ALL in new tabs. If you do it on a page like Google results, it'll only open the main links returned, not all the "cached / open in html" options, so you'll get each one to open once.

Beautiful.

wfmw - put de lime in de coconut and mix it up togedduh

maltodextrin... monosodium glutamate... citric acid... lactic acid... dextrose... gum arabic... glycerol... blue 1... red 40... sodium diacetate... partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

if you're anything like me, you're not particularly excited about eating all of those ingredients (and more!) when you're sitting down to enjoy those AMAZING Tostitos chips with the Hint of Lime. but they're just soooo good. plain. with salsa. with queso. did i say plain? with a slice of avocado.

i have a solution, ladies!! for a heck of a lot cheaper, and really with very little fuss.

gather corn tortillas (i buy a 4 inch stack for $1.84), a lime, a salt shaker, a pizza pan or cookie sheet and a pizza cutter. you're ready to go. preheat your oven to about 350. roll the lime on the countertop for a minute to loosen the juices. slice off one end - just enough to expose some limey goodness. rub the exposed surface of the lime on as many tortillas as you like. if you stop getting lime juice, just slice off a little bit and you've got fresh juice! when your tortillas are shiny with the juice, salt 'em. slice them up with your pizza cutter. you can make chips by cutting wedges, you can just do strips, or you can do skinny strips for taco salad (we like those!). for added zing, lime up both sides.

put your pieces on your pizza pan / cookie sheet. i prefer my pizza pan because it has little holes in it, which allows me to skip the step of flipping them. put them in the oven for a few minutes - watching carefully. you'll want to experiment with how crispy you like them.

but that's it. they're so good hot - and really, they're very simple. i get chatty when writing recipes but the steps could have looked like this:

• cut lime
• rub on tortillas
• salt
• cut
• place on sheet
• bake
• eat

that's not too daunting, is it? and they're cheap and WAAAY lower in fat and sodium and all that stuff.

wfmw - breakfasts

We love breakfasts in our house. Bacon, coffee (decaf for me!), juice, eggs, pancakes, muffins, french toast, etc...

But in the mornings, if we have pancakes or french toast, that's a lot of sugar to be starting our day with. We like syrup, and sometimes there might even be chocolate chips in our pancakes... and for whatever reason, if there's chocolate, Mister likes a little whipped cream on there for good measure. But talk about getting your blood sugar all goofy!

I don't have time, though, to make pancakes AND eggs to balance out the breakfast. So I make big batches of pancakes or french toast, and freeze them. That way, I can scramble up a couple of eggs and microwave some frozen french toast, and voila, a fabulous balanced breakfast.

When do I do this? That's the tip for the week... One of our local grocery stores does a (about) monthly special where their loaves of french bread are two for a dollar. I buy a ton of loaves, and have the bakery slice it for me. Thin slices (normal sandwich slices or just thicker are great) are key, since those microwave more evenly and a heck of a lot faster than the thick chunky slices I cut if I'm making it to be eaten fresh. Make sure you buy a lot of eggs, since the thinner slices really do use up eggs at a remarkable rate. Add a splash of vanilla, a good healthy dose of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg, and you have a winner. I assembly line them, stacking them on cooling racks, then when they're fully cooled, I put them in ziplocs, and into the freezer they go. If you do have nice thin slices, they really only take 20-30 seconds for a plateful to go from frozen to steaming.

That works for me!

WFMW - piecrust tips

When making a pie, I usually make my crusts from scratch using my momma's 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening recipe that makes a deliciously sweet, sugar cookie-ish crust...

But sometimes you're in a hurry. That's when I turn to the pre-made, refrigerated pie crusts. They're not too bad, considering the tons of time that they save. They're not sweet at all, though, so be warned... (which makes them good for pot pies, too.)

One way to get around that - brush the top of your crust with a little egg or milk, and then liberally sprinkle sugar all over it. The more sugar, the better! To give your pie a little homemade flair, play with your steam vents. Instead of just cutting a slit or two, take an extra 30 seconds and try this tip:

Roll the crust out onto your counter before placing on the pie. Using a cookie cutter, cut out a shape from the center of the crust. Place the main part of the crust on the pie, and then crimp the edges. Add some details to the cut-out, if desired, then place in the hole on the crust. This one will shrink away from the edges a little bit, leaving you with a elaborate (and simple) steam vent... Here's a "Easter bunny" I put on a recent apple pie:

WFMW: tip and recipe

I just spent a good hour reading through all of this week's kitchen themed tips on WFMW. The whole time, I have in the back of my head "hey you, you have a blog now. Got a kitchen tip?" I had originally thought I'd post my grocery list tip, but it's pretty darn similar (although with a twist) to Shannon's and lots of other peoples. Then I thought I'd post how I use tupperwares and great waterproof labels I got from labelyourstuff.com (I couldn't find their kitchen set of labels on their site anymore, but you could just use the blank ones) to organize my very tiny pantry cabinet so I could see everything at once...

And then I went to go make a sandwich and realized I have a great tip for making your sandwiches lower in calories... I love mayonnaise. Love it with anything. We have a sandwich chain in town that slathers mayo all over their sandwiches, which is why I go there. That's sad now that I see it in print. But mayo's not all that low in calories. So now I use this: Grey Poupon's Mild and Creamy mustard. It gives the creaminess of mayo with the zip of mustard. With the added flavor, you don't notice that you're not using as much. And the best part? ZERO CALORIES. That's right. You can use as much as you want. :)

Here's an extra recipe for you. I know it's Brussels Sprouts and you may not like them. Or your kids might not like them. But all veggies are better roasted, and you add bacon? These are to die for!

ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

INGREDIENTS:

2 slices bacon

1 clove garlic

1 lb brussels sprouts

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt

pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 450. Trim brussels sprouts. Quarter the larger ones, halve the smaller ones. Cut bacon into small pieces. In a 13x9 baking pan, toss all ingredients, making sure to keep all sprouts in a single layer. Roast in oven for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until edges are browned and curling.