Have you ever had lime build up on your dishes in your dishwasher? At first I thought the dishes were just not getting clean or that the dishwasher was throwing grime and remnants back up onto the dishes. So, I went online and searched for how to clean my dishwasher. There were so many different methods, but I ended up trying a vinegar rinse cycle and adding lemon juice to the detergent dispenser. Neither of these helped at all. I was embarrassed for people to come over and see my dishes. It was terrible. I thought well since they are not getting clean in the dishwasher than I will just have to start hand washing them all again. Do you know that lime build up just does not come off easily at all? I soaked those dishes for two days in my sink with bleach and still nothing. I was getting a little irritated and just plain lost as to what else to do. I was afraid that I was going to have to buy all new glasses and throw my old ones away. My last resort was trying Lemi-Shine, and oh my freaking goodness it worked like a charm. I am so not at all affiliated with this company or trying to sell this product in anyway. I just truly love it. So, I wanted to share it with all of you.

The ball jars on the left are my ones that I soaked for two days in bleach and were still coated with lime. The one on the right of the Lemi-Shine is after just one wash of using the Lemi-Shine. It looked exactly like the ones on the left before I used the Lemi-Shine. Thank the Lord for whoever created this product especially for those of us who live on limestone infested ground.

After proof reading this post, I thought, “Wow, how many times can one person use the word Lemi-Shine in one post”?.

The kids loved our family breakfast tea. I highly recommend doing this with your children. Its super easy and they just love it, plus it is absolutely adorable watching them eat and drink from their little tea cups and plates.

This time we had aunts and uncles to share our tea with. (Sugar plum fairy with her Uncle)

And cousins! (My little old man with his cousin)

Did you notice the tiny feet in the last picture? Our youngest (we’ll call him smiley, cause seriously that’s all he does) finally made it into a post.

Ever wonder what the colors of the tie tags on loaves of bread represent? They’re a code designating the day of the week on which a loaf was baked:

* Blue: Monday
* Green: Tuesday
* Red: Thursday
* White: Friday
* Yellow: Saturday[...]

An easy way to remember it, though, is to simply recall the alphabet. The colors run in alphabetical order, so the earlier they appear in the alphabet, the earlier in the week the bread was baked. And it’s true. Even the ever-cynical Snopes.com backs it up.

Ratatouille is normally a summer time favorite in our house. The majority of the ingredients you can pick right out of your own garden or get at a local farmers market. If you do have to buy all of your items at the grocery store, normally you can get all of them for under $20. Plus, some of the ingredients you can use again for other meals. In the summer I have made this meal for around $4.00 for the whole family and had leftovers. My husband was craving this dish the other day, so I thought why not share one of our favorites with you.

Ingredients:

2-3 Zucchini
2-3 Yellow summer squash
3-5 Whole tomatoes
1 Large purple onion
1 Package of Kielbasa
Olive Oil or Butter
Italian Seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Crushed Garlic
Chicken Stock

Directions:

I start first by getting out my mandoline (and play a little tune, jk) and use it to cut up my vegetables. I highly recommend a mandoline, because it takes half the time to get all of the vegetables cut up. ( I purchased my mandoline from Pampered Chef)

This is how my slices look after cutting them up. I haven’t measured them to know their thickness, but I would say around an 1/8 of an inch. I do all of them close to this size so that they lay and stack nice in my pot.

Once, I have all of my veggies cut up, it is time to start layering them in my pot. I use a cast iron dutch oven because I love how cast iron helps to flavor my cooking, plus to me they are durable and easy to take care of. Although, I would guess that it would turn out well in any pot you decide to cook yours in.

I take a little of every vegetable and some kielbasa and layer the bottom of the pot.

Between each layer I add the other ingredients. I shake a little pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning over them. Then I sprinkle a 1/2 a tablespoon of garlic on each layer (if you really love garlic, then you may want to add more). I drizzle some olive oil and chicken stock and then your ready for the next layer.

When, you are close to getting to the top of your pot you may notice that you have an excess of one vegetable or the other and this is when your pretty layers become jumbled. If you are a perfectionist then save those veggies for some other yummy dish or you can do as I do and just stuff them on top. Who cares right? All of the flavors are going to meld together anyway into to this hodgepodge of mouth watering goodness.

Mine always sticks up a little bit higher than the rim of the pot, but I put the lid on it anyway, because it will cook down some in the oven.

Now, you preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cook for 45 mins to 1 hour. This is what mine looks like after it is done cooking.

Enjoy! We did.

(I took the previous picture after all of the family had their share, the Ratatouille does not cook down that much)

Well, I had important company coming to the house, (Geek Adonis’ family) so I had to make something delectable. It was so yummy and absolutely perfect. Everyone loved it. So, if you have lots of company coming or just really want to impress your DH, I highly suggest trying this recipe. Plus, it has an entire package of bacon in it, who can refuse that?

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 (12-ounce) package bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 (5-ounce) package grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (5-pound) pork loin roast

Directions

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently; or until tender. Stir in spinach; cook for 3 minutes. Add bacon, Parmesan, salt, and pepper, stirring until cheese is melted; set aside.

Butterfly pork loin by making a lengthwise cut down the bottom third of 1 flat side, cutting to within 1 inch of other side. From bottom of cut, slice horizontally to 1/2 inch from left side; repeat procedure on right side. Open pork loin, and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness, using a meat mallet. Trim uneven edges to make a clean rectangle.

Spread spinach mixture over loin, leaving a 1/2 border. Roll up pork, jelly roll fashion, starting with long side. Tie at 2-inch intervals with heavy butcher’s twine (if you do not have butcher’s twine, dental floss will work).

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Place pork loin on a lightly greased rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees; cover and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion reaches 155 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

Soups were originally made from leftovers, or so history tells us. So, to go back on old times I came up with a quick, easy, and yummy leftover potato soup. Well, because I had leftovers and today is nasty, rainy, and dreary. Perfect day for pleasurable tummy warming soup.

Look at this soup like a base which in itself is tasty, but that you can improve on.

Ingredients:

Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Leftover Bacon Grease
Leftover Chicken Stock (or store bought)
Shredded Cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preparation Instructions:

Just slightly warm mashed potatoes. If they are cold then mashed potatoes tend to get hard or chunky, so then it is hard to tell how much chicken stock to add. If you add the chicken stock to cold mashed potatoes then you may over add and have very very thin soup. So, warm your mashed potatoes then slowly add chicken stock to desired viscosity (word of the day, must see how often I can add it to a sentence). Or desired thickness of your soup. Next, add bacon grease. I add about 3 to 4 tablespoons for flavor. If you have any of the bacon left from frying the bacon then I would crumble that up and add it too! But, who in their right mind has leftover bacon? (the reason I didn’t add it to the ingredient list) Now, the next part is entirely up to you, because people differ on how they like their cheese. On top or gooey melted inside? I prefer at this point to add my cheese, then stir all of these ingredients together and pop it in the microwave and nuke for about 30 seconds to a minute. If you prefer the on top method, then I would stir all the above ingredients together and nuke them and then sprinkle cheese on top.

Extra yummies to add:
green onions
bacon bits
more cheese
chives
sun dried tomatoes
leftover cheese artichoke spinach dip – yes, I tried this method and it was extremely tasty

Its all Ponyo’s fault. Well the movie Ponyo, which is exceptionally cute and well made. I am pretty sure I loved it a lot more than my kiddos. My son was watching it and I was folding clothes and I happened to look at the movie where the mom is making dinner for the kids and she makes ramen with ham and egg. I immediately had a craving for ramen. I knew that I didn’t have any ramen in the cabinets, but I thought I had some udon noodles, which I thought would work nice. Boy, was I disappointed when all I had was some wheat spaghetti noodles. Although, I was at the determined and salivating point where I was going to have something similar to what was served on the movie.

So, this is finally what I came up with. It was tasty for the quickness, but I will definitely try ramen or udon noodles next time.
Yummy!

Our first tea party!

Well, the kids actually drank juice!

I was so excited when I finally found a tea set for me and the kids. I have looked for a while now and all I could find was the cheapy plastic sets at Toys R Us or really expensive nice ones that I would always be afraid to use. Another blog steered me towards One King’s Lane. I would look on there from time to time and one day I just happened to notice they had china tea sets with extra plates and totally within my budget. I was super excited. I bought it without thinking twice. My little old man, loves them and asks all the time when are we having our next tea party. What he doesn’t know is that I am making scones this weekend for our next tea party. I cannot wait.

Being in my thirties now, I have had plenty of time to realize that eating well is so much better for my body in so many ways. Normally, I do pretty good and here lately I have been doing close to excellent (in my book anyway). I had decided after this last baby that I was going to work really hard to lose the weight quickly and get in decent shape. I was doing great, even getting my kiddos switched over to eating raw fruits and veggies every night with dinner. This went on for a few months (that is pretty good, right?) Then, out of nowhere I get this huge craving for coca-cola, which I cannot have because of a nursing baby. Which I would also normally totally ignore anyway. I just couldn’t ignore it this time. I went to the store and bought a small case of caffeine free coke. What is wrong with me? Why is it so hard to eat well. Is it the variety? I honestly would not chalk it up to taste. I really love the taste of my smoothies in the morning and all of the raw fruits for lunch, plus the raw fruits and veggies for dinner. Plus, I know without a doubt that I have more energy and feel better overall when I eat this way, which honestly should be enough reason to eat better. So, I guess I have a question for any readers out there. Do you have any recommendations on how to stick with a healthy raw diet?

Have you ever considered how many chemicals you use in just one day? I personally think women use more than anyone. I have decided to challenge myself into using less and less harmful chemicals in my house, starting today. I have over the years done little things here and there, but never really stuck to much of anything. I have decided to start with a regular day (not a typical day though, this is what I might want to get done if I was supermom) and make a list of different tasks that I do. With many of my tasks there are different chemicals involved. For example:

1. Wash face – face wash
2. Brush teeth – toothpaste
3. Take a shower – shampoo, conditioner, shower gel/ soap, shaving cream
4. After shower –
*Apply deodorant
*Apply make-up (Well, I do this on days I actually leave the house)
*Apply face lotion & body lotion
5. Get the kids up – change diapers & use wet wipes
6. Start a load of laundry – laundry detergent and dryer sheets (stain remover)
7. Make breakfast – cooking oils
8. Wash dishes – dish detergent
9. Clean house –
*clean bathroom – shower/tile cleaner, toilet cleaner
*mop floors – wood floor cleaner, regular floor cleaner
*clean rugs and couch – upholstery & rug cleaner
*dust furniture – pledge
*wash windows – window cleaner
10. Work in the garden – pesticides & herbicides
11. Fix dinner – cookware, aerosol cooking sprays

I realize that I have not listed everything and as I think of things, then I will try and add them to the list. My plan is to each week research the products we use in and around our house that are laden with chemicals and replace them with healthier and less harmful products. As I research each number in my list, I will post my findings and use these products and tell you my results. I challenge myself and you to join me in making a healthier and fresher home for you and your family.

Please feel free to comment with ideas that you and your family use already. I would love to try what you are doing and pass them along to other readers. With your permission, I will cite you on my posts as well.