Random Update

Just a quick note to say I haven't dropped off, just behind in my posts.  This week has been all about food projects, lucky us! Tomorrow, thankfully is Friday, and I can't wait.

Day Eleven: DIY Vitamin Water

The caption below my pin for today read:  "Best drink ever!!! Eat whatever you want with this metabolism quickening DIY vitamin filled water. I drank this for two weeks straight while eating anything I wanted with little to no exercise and I still lost about 5 pounds!!! Recipe: About 10 medium size strawberries (sliced) A half a lemon (or whole depending on your flavor preference) One whole sprig of mint leaves Fill with water and shake! Try to get more water than ice, or drink melted ice. Have fun :)"

I don't know about all that.

But, I do know I've been trying to drink more water on a daily basis, and I also know I like the taste of flavored water a lot more than the plain stuff.

 

The strawberries and lemon sounded yummy, but I didn't know about the mint.

 

I also didn't jam the whole bottle full like the pinner - It seemed like a waste of good strawberries. I put a good amount in, about 5-6 strawberries, two thick slices of lemon and a sprig of mint. The result? Yummy! It took a few hours for the flavor to really develop, though, and I honestly only drank half of the water. To get the full effect and not be wasteful, I'll have to assemble it the night before and let the water sit in the fridge overnight. Which, considering how I function in the morning, is probably a good thing anyway.

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Project Score: Success! 
Cost: The strawberries were $4.50 for 2 pounds, the mint $2.25 for a pack, and the lemons 50 cents each. Of course I didn't use all of that in one water, so there's lots leftover for other things.
Frustration level: None, super easy.
Repeat? Yep, though I want to mix it up with different flavors.

Day Ten: Pancake Bear!

Today I thought I would take advantage of all that pancake mix in my fridge and whip up a batch of yumminess.  And because I love a two-fer, I thought I'd try my hand at this adorable pancake bear while I was at it.




What I learned is: Making perfect pancake circles is tougher than it looks.




These were my failed attempts. Good thing I made a double batch.


 

The final result was cute though. I used dried cranberries for the eyes and nose, and good ole Hershey's syrup for the mouth.



And met with approval of the Nutter.


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Project Score: Success!

Cost: Zip. I had everything on hand.

Frustration level:  It was tricky to get those pancakes in nice little circles.

Repeat?  Oh, yes.  It was a big hit.

Day Nine: The Well Stocked Kitchen

Ladies and gentlemen...

My pantry.

 

I was compelled tonight to choose something a little more time-intense than the projects I've been doing lately. And I almost wussed out because of it. But I digress. The pin I chose was this one from the fabulous blog Iowa Girl Eats. I'd never been to this blog before but oh what a find. I see many days of procrastinating in my future. Me? Digressing again.

 

My pantry was a total disaster, stuff shoved in any old way, bags without clips, expired and stale foodstuff. I hate throwing away food. HATE IT. You might as well take a ten dollar bill out and burn it. But I always seem to let my pantry and fridge get to the state of being so cluttered I don't know what's there, leading to me tossing money aka wasted food in the trash.

 

 I need to put together a meal plan and go grocery shopping this weekend, so I figured, what better way to prepare than to "shop" my own pantry first and take stock of what I already found. Those potatoes you see? They were hiding on the shelf below. An insane assortment of grains was shoved in willy nilly. And two jars of pickled beets. Because, you know, a girl needs pickled beets.

I made a nice orderly list of what I have and what I need using the awesome pin for ideas, and then went to put my son down for the night, as his attempts to do it on his own were failing miserably.  As it turned out, my attempts failed miserably too.  An hour later, I was cranky, he was goofy as ever, and hubby took over with the boy so I could return to my project.

Except I didn't feel like it.  It was 10 to 10, I'm running on sleep fumes from the week as it is, and I opened my freezer to this:

 

I wanted to run back to bed and say F it. But then I realized I was only on day nine. I'm continually amazed at my ability to justify anything. It's a little scary, really. In the end I buckled down and was done with fridge and freezer by 10:10.

 

 And I discovered I have A LOT of condiments.

 I also discovered that these projects aren't nearly as difficult, costly or time consuming as I'd imagined. Quite the opposite. It's just the committing to doing things - a bit at a time - that I've struggled with. But it's oh-so-satisfying to complete these little jobs. More so even than doing massive weekend long cleaning binges. Those just leave me exhausted and crabby. These little projects are much more manageable, but feel just as good to complete as the big stuff. Ah, life.

 Up next? My spice cabinet, lol:

 

Day Eight: Copy Cat Big Mac

Tonight was a tasty project.  I took advantage of my hubby's decision to make us burgers for dinner to try out this pin:  A copycat recipe for McDonald's Big Mac sauce.



 It was insanely easy, and most of the ingredients I had on hand.  Just mix, let sit a few minutes and add to burger. I even added the shredded lettuce for effect.




Also, McDonald's doesn't have wine.

 

For the complete effect, I fashioned a pseudo Big Mac, complete with extra piece of bread in the middle. It was messy and yummy and dripping with sauce - WIN!

Day Seven: All Natural Sink Scrub

This project was so quick and easy, I finished it in the intermission of a movie we were watching.  Hubby decided he needed to run to the store for something sweet, and I thought, "Ooh, I'll do my project quick!" I'd picked out this one earlier in the day. My sink, while not nasty looking, had developed that strange brownish color that sinks tend to get, especially if like me you try to stay away from harsh chemicals.



Here's a shot of the before. I wish I could capture the true essence of that brown film in my sink, but my camera has it's limitations. You can see all that brown crud that builds up in the seam around the drain, and a couple of odd don't-know-where-they-came-from brownish lines.



The pin's idea is simple: Scrub your sink with baking soda and salt. Like the pinner, I've tried baking soda in the past with less than stellar results. Apparently the salt aids the scrubbing and eliminates that weird baking soda film you get post wipe-down.  I didn't have any sponges on hand, so I just used a cleaning rag and had at it.



And here's what happened. EW! This is just from one side of the sink, too. So even my not-so-dirty sink was WAY dirtier than I thought.



I was so happy with the results of my super shiny sink! This idea is a win-win-win - it's quick and easy, uses products that should already be on hand, and yields amazing results!

Day Six: Natural Remedies for Heartburn

Today was a self-imposed snow day.  I debated till late last night, but my son's coughing fits waking me every hour on the hour helped support my decision not to take him out in -50 wind chills.  I thought it would be a great day for projects, but no.  We took down the Christmas tree and decorations, and I attempted to clean my living room.

Here's what it looked like mere minutes after vacuuming:

I attempted to entice the boy into a Sniper sandwich a la this pin, but he declined in favor of regular old PB & J. Then, my over-tired boy and me took a much needed nap. Until 5:00. Which I awoke from with the most irritating case of heartburn I've had since pregnancy. The kind the burns straight up your throat until you want to vomit.  Eh. And no Tums in the house. And still -50 wind chills. So, I sidestepped my usual friend, Google, in favor of the Pinterest search. At first I felt guilty - using Pinterest to find both a solution to my pesky problem AND a potential blog post project. But then it hit me - this is one of the questions I hope to answer - can using Pinterest help improve your life? In this case, rid me of the retched taste in the back of my mouth and the feeling I had a hole being burnt through my stomach.

What I settled on was this pin, with an array of choices, some of which I actually had on hand.

First, my arsenal:


And no, not all at once. My first attempt was the celery, because according to the section on apples, "Celery sticks and cabbage will also minimize stomach acid." It did seem to help a bit at first, but after the allotted half hour, the burning returned with a vengeance.

So, next came half a banana, which honestly didn't seem to help at all.  But still I waited the half hour.  I was hoping against hope that it would work, because third on my list was something I'd heard of prior to this experiment - the apple cider vinegar trick.

 

This concoction looks appealing, but oh boy, is it not. A mixture of 1/2 cup apple juice and 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, which you are supposed to guzzle down to find Instant! relief. I managed to drink about half. And it did help. But nothing is worth the taste of that drink. NOTHING. And half an hour later, the heartburn was back. I didn't know what to do. Next on my list was the baking soda cure, which I was preparing myself for, when, as luck would have it, I remembered a stash of licorice tea given to me by my mom because she didn't like it. I had no idea if this licorice had the "form of licorice called DGL also provides heartburn-soothing effects," but it also had cinnamon (#7 on the list) and sounded wayyyy more palatable than a teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water.

 

I drank my giant cup of licorice tea in a nice relaxing bubble bath, and tried to just chill out. And you know? It worked. I still have the vaguely unsettling feeling the heartburn is just itching to creep back up my throat, but so far it's held at bay. Now, this being about as far from a scientific experiment as one can get, I have to admit I have no idea what it was that actually helped. It could have just been the passing of time for all I know. But I've learned something. The next time I have heartburn, I'll give the tea a shot before reaching for the antacids. Maybe it will help, maybe not, but it's pleasant and relaxing and worth a try.

I also know I will not be indulging in any kind of vinegar cure for a very long time.

 


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Project Score:  Moderate success.

Cost: Nothing. I had everything on hand.  In fact I saved money by not having to run to the store for antacids

Frustration level:  Pretty frustrating, especially when I know two Tums would have knocked that heartburn right down.

Repeat?  Probably.
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Now for the irony add-on.  Just as I was finishing this post, my husband announced he was running to the store for antacids, as he had heartburn.