Homemade Suddenly Salad: Ranch and Bacon Pasta Salad

Before our switch to mostly homemade foods, Hubs and I always had a few boxes of our favorite side dish, Suddenly Salad Ranch and Bacon Salad. When we stopped buying the boxed items, we stopped buying Suddenly Salad. I tried, and was successful, in recreating the suddenly salad. (We chose to omit the peas from ours.)  

It’s super simple folks:

8 oz of SMALL shells (I found them at Wal-Mart)

1 tablespoon oil

3-4 mini carrots, grated

1/2 cup frozen peas
 
2-3 tablespoons of real bacon bits (or 2-3 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled)

1/2 cup mayo or miracle whip (or your favorite mayo substitute like yogurt)

3 Tablespoons of homemade ranch seasoning (see it here)

2 Tablespoons of milk

Pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil 3-4 cups of water, adding the oil at the start.

Add the pasta

Boil for approximately 5-6 minutes then add carrots and peas

Continue to boil until pasta reaches desired tenderness.

Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Transfer to large bowl.

Mix mayo, ranch, milk, and bacon bits into small bowl. If the mix is too thick, add an additional tablespoon of milk. You do not want it to be runny, but you also do not want it to be exceptionally thick.

Stir in to cooled pasta.

Can be served immediately or refrigerated prior to serving.

 

 

Like I said, simple!

God Bless Y’all!

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DIY Missing Sock Board

Okay folks! Finally getting back to posting. We have been busy this summer and the schedules have been jammed packed. We are still in mid transformation in our little farmhouse and the crafts have been pouring in. My favorite craft as of yet was a "missing sock" board. I am sure you have seen them plastered all around Pinterest. They have some of the cutest sayings on them. 

Well, this one is unique to us as it shows off one of our favorite things....a love for Harry Potter books! (And movies too of course!) And a good sense of humor I might add. 

This was a super quick project. We had a cheap dresser drawer that fell apart so I took the front of it and used it for my board. A little sanding, and a coat of paint and I was ready to go.

I used a free font download to get the lettering, printed it out, and did a pencil-rub transfer. Then painted the letters in.

I did a quick google search for a Hogwarts crest, printed it off, and modge-podged it to the board. I used the same technique to put the phrase "This board is S.P.E.W approved" between the clothes pins. 

To paint the clothes pins, I clipped them to an empty plastic coffee can. The can has a nice little handle on it that allowed me to maneuver it around to paint all sides of the clothes pins with out having to wait for a side to dry or getting my fingers bathed in paint. 

A few dabs of hot glue and the clothes pins were stuck on the board. 

All I lacked was the hardware to hang it with. (That's why it's pictured on the kitchen table) We didn't have any in the house and I was too excited to share the project to wait until it was hung properly. 

So there you go! Any Potter fans out there approve? 

Have fun y'all!

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Freezing fresh spinach

We are not extremely picky about our vegetables being organic. While there may be a million opinions about organic versus non-organic, I pay them no mind and buy what suits the wallet. It just so happened that I got an opportunity to buy some fresh organic baby spinach (16 oz) the other day. It was reduced from $4.99 to $1.00. Now that’s a price for organic veggies I can handle! While some people snub their noses at the packages with the bright yellow and orange manager special stickers, they call to me and say “Hey! Come check this out!” Rather than have an overload on spinach dishes, I decided to freeze it and save it for later to use.

 

There are lots of opinions on how to freeze vegetables. Some say pre-cook them, some say blanch them (quick dip in boiling water) and some say forget all that just freeze them as is. Do some research and make your own judgment on how you wish to freeze fresh veggies. My preferred method: it varies from item to item. In the sake of the baby spinach, I chose blanching first to preserve the green color.

 

I started out by rinsing my spinach. I filled one pot with water and brought it to a boil. I took a bowl and filled it with ice water. Then I took another bowl and lined them with a couple paper towels.

I used a strainer to keep the leaves from going all over the place in my boiling water and transferred them to another strainer I left sitting in the cold water.

 

Once in the boiling water, I used my kitchen tongs to make sure the leaves got a good dunk in the water and left them there for about 20 seconds.

I removed them and put them in the ice water. I left them there to cool a while then transferred them to the bowl with the paper towels.

Once I made it through the entire package of spinach, I took the paper towel that was around the blanched leaves and gave it a good squeeze to remove excess liquid.

 

I plopped the spinach on the cutting board, gave it a few good chops, then into a freezer bag.

 

 

Voila! Done!

It should keep for about 10-12 months for the best results (based on a web query) My freezer has a list of items and lengths of time for freezing and leafy greens say 12 months.

If you get the opportunity to buy reduced price fresh produce, take it if it won’t break the bank. Most of the time they will last well past the sell by date anyway. And many are suitable for freezing.

Happy Freezing Y’all!

 

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DIY Long pasta container

Just dropping in to share a quick craft. Things here on the farm have been quite hectic! The refashioning of the house decor is coming along nicely and we are getting lots of areas organized in the process. 

The family gave up all kinds of junk food type snacks nearly a year ago when we made our switch to mainly homemade food items. But I saved this one container of Pringles with a craft in mind....and I am just now getting around to using it. 

All you need is an extra tall Pringles can, some tape, and a 12x12 sheet of paper and you can fashion yourself a cute little pasta container for your long spaghetti type pastas. 

(I used a damp sponge to wipe out the container.)

Wrap the paper around your container, taping both the starting edge and the ending edge, cut off the excess and put on a label. 

We have been using Angel Hair Pasta more than Spaghetti noodles lately so I chose to store them in my new container. 

There you have it folks! One simple little craft!

God Bless!

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Tick Tock Redo!

The crafting muses are hitting me left and right! While still going about with my challenge to give the house a new look without breaking the bank, I have been looking at every decoration in the house with a new purpose. I look at something and ask my favorite question: “I wonder if I could paint this or fix it up to match the new décor?” Well, today the mantel clock was the focus of my crafting energy.

This little clock sits atop our entertainment center since we don’t have a mantel (or fire place for that matter.) We purchased it from Target many years ago. And while I never thought it to be boring or out of place with the previous décor, I have a whole new love for the clock now as it brightens up our little farmhouse living room with its new look.

It was super easy to do: sand it down a little to get the factory sheen off, throw on a few coats of paint, sand it again and then glue a fancy cabinet door handle on the top.

 

I had the handle already. Funnily enough, this handle was on the doors at the bottom of the entertainment center before we changed them out with some decorative ones we liked better that we found at a thrift store.  

Wasn’t that easy! And I kept in my cost parameters: $0.00!

 

Well, I am back to my kiddo and scoping out the house for more fun projects.

Happy crafting y’all!

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House decor makeover: give your current decor items a makeover...for free!

The transformation here at the little farm house is continuing! I have challenged myself to use what we have on hand before buying anything, including craft supplies. First up was finding things around the house that with a little fixing up would fit the new décor.  

I decided to paint our knife block with one of our accent colors….lime green.

 

 

It turned out fabulous. The knife block was black and I used flat paint to help give it a little distressed look without all the sanding. Using flat paint makes each brush stroke stand out too. But not to worry, it was the look I was going for. I attempted to take off a plaque that was affixed to the front….it wouldn’t budge… so I coated it with paint and put a vinyl scrapbook sticker on it. I think it gave it a nice little something extra.

 

This led me to give an old wooden (well, technically resin made to look like wood) owl a redo too. Again I used flat paint so it would show the brush strokes and keep it looking  more like a painted "wooden" owl. I wasn’t particular about getting every little crevice painted, letting some of the original paintwork show through to aid in the distressed look.

 

 

 

So, total cost of these two projects: $0.00 because I only used stuff I had on hand.

Well, that’s about it for now….. I’m back on the hunt to find more stuff to fix up!

 

God Bless!

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Creamy herb and butter rice using cream of whatever dry mix

In our little house there is a dinner time dilemma when it comes to having rice as a side dish to our meals. I will eat rice in pretty much every form. Hubs only likes plain white rice with milk and sugar. The kiddo refuses to eat rice, no matter how you fix it. Since we are still on the make it from scratch kick I don’t purchase the box rice mixes with the exception of plain white Minute Rice. So tonight I decided to fix some rice to pair with our chili and Lime tilapia filets. Figuring I would be the only one to eat it, I decided I wanted some buttery herbed rice. Then a thought occurred to me….what if I used my ever handy Cream of Whatever Dry Mix in the rice?

Well….Both my guys cleaned their plates of the rice! And I of course love it too! So our rice dilemma has been solved. So here you go…give it a try and see what you think.

 

2 cups uncooked minute rice

1/3 cup cream of whatever dry mix (get the recipe here)

1 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1-2 tablespoons of butter

Dried or fresh parsley for garnish

 

Mix together the milk, water and cream of whatever mix in a sauce pan.

Bring just to a boil, remembering to stir frequently.

Remove from heat.

Stir in the uncooked minute rice.

Cover and let set for 5 minutes.

Add butter and stir the rice.

Garnish with parsley

(If you rice is too dry, add a couple tablespoons of milk or water.)

 

You could even liven it up a bit more and add some cooked veggies to the rice, like mushrooms or broccoli. The possibilities are endless!

 

Hope Y'all enjoy it!

 

 

 

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