Mom Tip # 1,692

When feeding your child a popsicle give them a cup so that when they inevitably put it down they have a place to put it. (Someone please tell me my kids aren't the only ones who put their popsicles down and walk away!)

Problems Solved

I love when an idea about how to solve a problem just suddenly pops into my head! What I don't love is when I realize that the solution to my problem was something the rest of the world probably figured out a long time ago and I feel a little less smart. So, for the sake of me not feeling dumb, we are going to pretend like none of you have ever thought of this before. Got it?

OK, so a few days ago my husband and I were discussing canned peaches. Specifically the ones down in our food storage. (It would makes sense if you heard the entire conversation) basically what it came down to was me saying "And what am I supposed to do with canned peaches? The kids won't eat them." Well, the next morning I was making a smoothie for breakfast and suddenly realized that all I had was half a banana, three small strawberries and some spinach. Not exactly enough to make a filling smoothie. So, remembering our conversation from the night before I went and got a can of peaches and added a few to the blender. The smoothie turned out great, but I still had half a can of peaches left over. Suddenly, I thought about a friend of mine who makes her own baby food and freezes it in an ice cube tray. Genius! I can puree the peaches, freeze them, and then just drop a few in when I need them.

I hurried and threw the rest of the peaches plus one other can into the blender and then into ice cube trays. And, as it turns out, if I offer my children canned peaches, they turn up their noses. However, if I puree said peaches and freeze them into cubes, they are suddenly edible. Of course!

Alright. Are you still with me? OK, so after my first batch of peach cubes was done, I was getting ready to do a second batch, when the next idea hit me. I'm always throwing out the last of my spinach because I never use it fast enough, and because the containers are HUGE! So, why not solve that problem also.



Ta Da! Remember, you've never thought of this before!



I might have been a little bit giddy as I was explaining what I was doing to my husband, and since my husband has serious spinach issues which date back to childhood, he thought I was CRAZY.

Now, as if this silly post about frozen canned peaches wasn't long enough already, it's about to get longer.

See, in the 12 years that I have been married, I have never had a freezer that makes ice. I have to make it myself. Poor me, I know. Anyway, it's really not that big of a deal since the only thing I use ice for normally is to cool down my kids' bowls of Ramen noodles. occasionally though I do need ice for some other purpose and it always happens that I pull out the ice cube trays and there are crumbs all over the ice. How do crumbs get in the freezer!!! It grosses me out. So, I dump the ice into the sink and refill the trays and then they sit there un-used for weeks until I pull them out again only to discover the crumbs.

So, as I am making my awesome canned peaches and spinach ice cubes, I realize that there is this equally awesome invention called freezer bags to put frozen things in. You know, like ice cubes so they don't get crumbs on them.

Ya, that one only took me 12 years to figure out. 12!!!

Now, feel free to laugh at me in your head, but remember, in writing, this is totally revolutionary!

Mom Tip (courtesy of my husband)

I know I've mentioned before how my kids always ask for pancakes on Saturday morning. My husband started it about 6 years ago and now it is a family tradition. If we didn't have pancakes or french toast or waffles on Saturday morning I think the kids would rise up in rebellion.

A couple months ago I got everyone's pancakes all ready and asked my husband if he would cut them up for me. It's pretty much my least favorite part of making breakfast. And since he is a guy and always thinking about how to get things done the fastest and easiest way possible, instead of reaching for a knife and fork like I always do, he pulled out the pizza cutter.

Seriously, every Saturday I kick myself and think "Why didn't I think of that ages ago!" Now it probably takes me 30 seconds or less to zip through all the plates.

Thanks Babe!

Hair Repair At Home

Some people suffer from over active sebaceous glands causing them to have oily skin and/or hair. In the winter months when my hair feels like straw and my skin is peeling I kind of envy those people. Nothing I do is going to change the way my body produces oil though, so I buy a huge container of moisturizing cream and try and give myself weekly conditioning treatments.

Whenever other people ask me about dry hair I usually tell them to invest in a good leave in conditioner and buy some protein packets from Sally's Beauty supply. I still stand by these two suggestions, but there has always been something that bothers me about these store bought moisture treatments. If you look at the ingredient list, the first ingredient will always be water, and 99.9% of the time the second ingredient will be alcohol.

Does this seem a little contradictory to any one else? How can we moisturize our hair when we are lathering it up with alcohol?

The only company I've ever heard of (I'm sure that there are others and I just don't know about them) that uses all natural products and no alcohol is Pureology. I love their products and highly recommend them to everyone. However, they are a bit pricey and not always available where other professional products are sold.

So, in the spirit of all natural hair care products I started thinking about how I could make my own. This is not a new concept by any means. People have been doing this forever, but it was something that I had never done. I searched the Internet for at home hair mask recipes and came up with an astounding number of results. There are tons of different recipes out there, but they all centered on the same basic ingredients. All of which you probably have in your house right now.

Bananas

Avocados

Honey

Eggs

Another key ingredient is some sort of oil. Olive and coconut would be my top recommendations, but you could also use almond.

Coconut oil is my personal favorite because it smells so good and it is also great for your skin. I did have to order it over the Internet, but it was not expensive at all. I got mine here.

So, here are the two hair masks that I came up with, but you can really use these few ingredients in any way you want. No combination of them is going to be bad for your hair.

Avocado Mask (Looks and smells horrible, but works great!)

1 very ripe avocado

2 tsp of honey

1 Tbs olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth and apply to slightly damp hair. Leave on for 30 min and shampoo as usual. (This might be a good time for lather, rinse, and repeat)

Banana Mask

1 very ripe banana

1 egg

2 tsp honey

2 Tbs coconut oil

2-3 drops orange oil- optional

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth and apply to slightly damp hair. Leave in for 30 minutes and shampoo as usual. (I would again recommend shampooing twice as you don't want food particles drying in your hair)

Those were my two favorites, but you could also whip up a few eggs as a straight protein treatment. You could soften a chunk of coconut oil and apply that directly to your hair for moisture or add just the honey for shine.

Have fun experimenting with these. I sure did.

Linked up to I Heart Naptime, Just A Girl, Flamingo Toes, and Passionately Artistic.

DIY Brown Sugar

I was talking to my mother in law the other day (who is an avid baker/cooker) about food storage. I mentioned that I needed to add Molasses to mine so that I didn't have to try to store brown sugar. She was surprised as I explained that you can make your own brown sugar.

This got me thinking. If my mother-in-law who loves to be in the kitchen doesn't know this simple trick maybe there are others out there who also don't know. So here it is, straight from my kitchen to yours: Do It Yourself Brown Sugar!

Ingredients:

2 C. granulated sugar
1-3 Tbsp molasses

Seriously! That's all you need!

1. Put your sugar in a bowl.


2. Add molasses (1 tbsp to start)

3. Using a fork (or for a much easier method use a mixer!) mix together your sugar and molasses until completely blended.

4. Continue adding molasses 1 Tbsp. at a time until you reach your desired color (light or dark brown sugar).

And that's it. Your done! My brown sugar is pretty light but I used regular molasses. I had to add 3 Tbsp of molasses to get this color. If you use blackstrap molasses your brown sugar will be darker and you won't need to use as much.

Now when you make that special someone their Valentine's Day treat today you can add a little extra love by using your homemade brown sugar!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did You Know?

Maybe I'm way behind the times here. Maybe this is common knowledge and I just somehow missed it. But just in case you didn't know either.....

Did you know that if you wrap a paper towel around your hotdog before you put it in the microwave it will help prevent the hotdog from splitting open? I know what you're thinking! She feeds her kids hotdogs!! Yes, I do. Let's skip over that for now though. It's really works. Wrap a paper towel around your hotdog, corn dog, taquito, etc., next time you nuke one and see what happens.