Mirror mirror on the wall...

I have been shopping for a large mirror to go over the big empty wall over our couch. Unfortunately, mirrors are expensive and you rarely see coupons for them. A couple months ago the Sissine family was yard sale-ing and I came across this gold mirror. The lady wanted $50 for it and I politely declined. A few hours later we went back and the mirror was still there. I offered her $20. She said "$20?! But its a real mirror!". The first thing I thought was "As opposed to a fake mirror?". I didn't say that to her of course =) I just stood there and looked at her. She finally accepted my offer and we stuffed it in the Prius!! So now that I finally have it hanging, I am contemplating painting it black or not. Any opinions? Paint it or keep it gold? Here are a couple pictures of it:

Crock Pot Apple Crisp

There are two desserts that I love to order at restaurants. Either brownie a'la mode or apple crisp a'la mode. I have made brownies several times but I have never attempted apple crisp. I heard about a great recipe on allrecipes.com and figured I'd give it a try. I did alter it slightly so if you want to see the original recipe feel free to visit their site.

Ingredients:
(makes 6 servings)

8 medium apples (I used granny smith and gala); peeled, cored and chopped
1 lemon (or 2 tbsp lemon juice)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Topping:
1/2 cup of butter; cut into pieces
1 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt

Directions:

1. After you prepared your apples place them into the crock pot.
2. In a separate bowl combine the sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon.  
3. Add the combination into the crock pot with the apples. Juice your lemon over the apples and stir.

4. Now to the topping. Combine the flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and pieces of butter into a bowl.  
    Mix with hands or a fork until a crumbly topping forms.

5. Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the apples.

6. Set crock pot on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.
7. Take off lid and let cook on high for 1 more hour so that the topping hardens.

8. Serve with ice cream!!

I must say, it was just as good as the restaurants and much much much cheaper!

Triple Coupons at the HT.

In case you haven't heard, Harris Teeter is now tripling coupons with a face value of up to $1. Meaning if you have a coupon for $1, they will TRIPLE IT to $3!! (cue the hallelujah chorus).

I created my grocery list using the greatest website ever, Southern Savers. She will tell you what items to get,  what coupon to use and where to find that coupon. I will explain the steps in another blog entry.

Anyways, now the good part. I got $54 worth of groceries for $10. Yes, you read that right. I was so excited that I put all my groceries away as soon as I got home instead of taking a picture of it for this blog. Fortunately, I left out a few items so I just took a quick picture of them:

Here is a run down of what I got:

• Nestle Semi-sweet morsels bag- $.96 x 4
• V8 Fusion Juice- $1.33 x 3
• Covergirl Eyeshadow- $.03 x 2
• Colgate Toothpaste- FREE
• Secret Outlast- $.99
• Aquafresh Toothpaste- FREE
• Stouffer's Lasagna (single serve)- $1.39 x 2
• Ore-Ida Tater Tots- $.22
• Ore-Ida Hashbrowns- $.22

Not too bad if you as me! I ended up going to another HT later in the afternoon and was able to get some more deals. I love couponing =)

Baby 'stache

Today I had a wonderful time hanging out with my friends Courtney and Rachel. We had lunch at the delicious Hwy 55 restaurant and then headed over to Hobby Lobby. We were browsing the fabric section and came across this SUPER cute fabric:

Rachel and Courtney are much better at sewing than me (and when I say much better I mean that I haven't sewn a thing in my life and they have made many things) so they are going to use the fabric to make a cute outfit for each of their baby's. Since I am new to the sewing world, my first project will be a baby blanket for David. I even got that super soft bumpy baby fabric for the back of the blanket. I CANNOT WAIT TO USE IT! And of course you know, I will post the final project next week =)

Delicious Pasta Bake

If you know my husband and myself well (or really at all for that matter) then you know that we both LOVE pasta. We eat it at least once a week and go to Olive Garden often. So, when I came across this recipe on Pinterest (via this blog)... I knew it had to happen! It's a great recipe to make if you are wanting to make something easy. It is also a great recipe if you coupon. I don't know how many boxes of noodles and jars of pasta sauce I have gotten for free or close to free. This is a great way to have pasta a different way. I'm sure you could also add some veggies or meat if you'd like to jazz it up a bit :)

Ingredients:

1 jar of marinara sauce

1 jar of alfredo sauce

2 cups of mozzarella cheese

1 package of penne noodles

parmesan cheese to sprinkle

Directions:

1. Cook noodles as normal.

2. Once you drain the noodles, return them to the pot.

3. Combine noodles with both sauces and mozzarella cheese.

4. Pour the pasta into a 9x13 pan.

5. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Side note- I learned something pretty awesome on Pinterest awhile back and would love to share it with you. If you put a wooden spoon over your boiling pot, it prevents the water from boiling over. Genius!

Homemade Flour Tortillas

If you can make a pancake, you can make a flour tortilla. They really aren't that hard to do. Plus, they taste much better than the packaged ones and cost so much less!

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tbsp. vegetable shortening
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup very warm water

Directions:

Add the vegetable shortening to the flour/salt mixture and mix together with your hands.

Add the warm water to the mixture and blend with fork until dough forms.

 Add dough to floured surface and form into a log shape.

 Break up the log into 10 pieces and roll into a ball. Place plastic wrap over the dough balls and let sit for 20 minutes.

Roll out each ball into a very thin circle. The first time I made these I didn't roll them out paper thin and the tortillas ended up turning out as thick as pita bread.  Make sure you roll them out thin! Go ahead a warm up your iron skillet to medium-high while you roll these out.

 Place the tortilla on a warmed iron skillet and let sit for about 45 seconds on each side. You will know when to flip the tortilla when it starts to bubble (just like how you make pancakes!). I usually stack the finished tortillas and cover them with a damp paper towel to keep them from drying. 

And that's it! I have used these to make tacos, enchiladas  grilled cheeseburger wraps and to just eat plain. The more you make them the easier it will get. 

Auntie Anne's Pretzels- Copycat Recipe

I made homemade pretzels for the first time last weekend. They turned out super delicious. I found the recipe on Pinterest via Yammie's Noshery. Don't let the recipe intimidate you. I have never made bread before in my entire life and I did this. If you know me, I am not known for cooking or baking. This is something new that I am trying. So trust me, if I can do it, you can do it. I used my KitchenAid Classic Series White Stand Mixer - K45SSWH (Google Affiliate Ad) mixer for this which made the job much easier.
Just like usual, I wasn't thinking of making a blog entry out of this... so I only have a picture of the finished product.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 1/2 tbsp. active dry yeast (or 2 packets)
6 tbsp. brown sugar
4 tbsp. butter, melted
4 1/2 cups flour (I used all purpose)
2 tsp. fine salt

1/4 cup baking soda
2 cups warm water
Coarse Salt (pretzel topping)
6 tbsp. butter melted (pretzel topping)

Directions:

1. Warm the milk in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. It should be warm enough for you to comfortably leave your finger in it. Make sure it is not too hot because it will kill the yeast. Stir the yeast into the warm milk and let sit for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the butter and brown sugar and mix.

3. I then changed from the whisk attachment to the dough hook attachment. Add the flour about 1 cup at a time. Then add the fine salt.

4. Kneed for 10 minutes in your mixer or by hand.

5. Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let it sit and rise for about an hour in a warm room. The dough should double in size.

6. Punch down the dough and divide it into 12 balls. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

7. Roll out each ball into a long dough strand by hand. The thinner the strand the thinner the pretzels will be. You will see in my picture that I didn't roll them out thin enough because they came out kind of thick.

8. Twist the pretzels into a pretzel shape and submerge it into the warm water/baking soda mixture.

9. Place the pretzel onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper. Sprinkle the pretzel with the coarse salt.

10. Bake for 7-11 minutes, until brown. Brush each pretzel with melted butter and top again with coarse salt.

11. Enjoy!