Salt River Bars

Girls get your girdles out, there's another ultimate evil on the block Salt River Bars. I found these dreamy little gems of calories on Pinterest, if you're not on Pinterest check out the button on the right side. And tell your family I'm sorry I sent you down the road that is time suck.


 On to the need for girdles. Like other ultimate evil delicacies I bring you, do not under any circumstances make these while you plan to be alone in your house. Or while you may be slightly depressed. Or right after a fight with someone. Because every one of those reasons, along with a million other reasons will cause you to inhale the pan of Salt River bars. Alone. And hiding in a closet if need be. I made them to take to a friends house, we fed the kids gluten free muffins and sent them out to play, and then had a moment with coffee and Salt River Bars. I brought some home and grudgingly shared with my small boys. My husband loved them and finished them off. The end. I miss them.


 Salt River Bars

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, dark if you have it
1 box of club crackers
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, I used milk, I prefer them (please don't hurt me)

course sea salt

in a medium sauce pan melt together the butter and sugar
once it boils let it boil for 4 minutes
meanwhile line a 8X8 pan with foil and butter it
lay down one layer of club crackers
when the sugar and butter is good and cooked pour 1/3 of it over the crackers
sprinkle on a third of the peanut butter chips and top with another row of crackers
pour on half the remaining syrup and half the remaining peanut butter chips
top that with another layer of crackers, the last of the syrup and the last of the peanut butter chips
cover the whole mess with one last layer of crackers
melt the chocolate chips and pour them over the top of the crackers
sprinkle on some course sea salt or good grey salt, I used some Himalayan pink
let it rest at room temperature
to serve lift the foil right out of the pan and slice with a knife
we refrigerated this batch and they got too hard

Peace and Love--


 

Just Another Meatless Monday

Here is the vegetarian version of the wildly popular Bubble Up Pizza Bites. We love pepperoni and all things cheesy but sometime we need to go vegetarian and these fit the bill. From the crunchy crispy cheese melted on the top to the veggies poked down inside these babies are sure to knock your veggie lovin' socks off.

 Bubble Up Pizza Bites-Vegetarian Style

 12 slices of zucchini

 4 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced 

dash of olive oil

 1 loaf of bread dough-use your own, mine or frozen bread dough 

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 

1/4 cup pizza sauce

 heat a small skillet over medium heat add a dash of olive oil 

sauté the zucchini and mushrooms until cooked through

 remove from heat 

preheat oven to 350˚ grease a muffin tin divide dough into 12 pieces

 place each piece in a muffin cup

 place a slice of zucchini, a few mushrooms and a pinch of cheese on the top of each piece of dough

 use you fingers to shove it right down into the dough

 then add a little dollop of, about a teaspoon of pizza sauce 

sprinkle the top of each bite with cheese, about 2 teaspoons

 then press down on the cheese well into the dough

 the dough will bubble up around the filling, you want it to do this

 bake about 15-18 minutes until the bites are cooked though and beginning to brown lightly

 keeps 2-3 days

  Peace and Love--



 

The Penny Worthy Project

In keeping on with my "goals" my list of things I want to accomplish this year I bought these.

Have you used them before? If you remember one of my goals for the year was to move farther into the realm of organic living, this is step for us. Our trash output is so little that I felt like the bag we make a week could go one more step and

1. support a small business
2. use a bag that will break down
3. reduce polyethylene use

Now on to some fun finds! I found these tall jars with clasping lids. I love decorative storage and I promptly pour acorn caps into them.

  I also found this brand new train track and promptly listed it.

Our home life has been pretty normal for mid winter, we're all ready for a change but it's not coming, yet.
Midge finally found a foot rest, in the kitten, have no fear she's asleep on Midge's bed. All is fair in dogs, cats and cabin fever.

And in other news the gnomes and chess men finally came together over a bonfire. Mid winter you have to create your own fun.

What's keeping you sane this winter? Feel free to link up ebay auctions, easy listing, craft ideas, recipes and anything see that makes your heart soar.

 I have started a Penny Worthy Project board on Pinterest, if you're on, look it up and look for your goodies pinned!







Peace and Love

Weekly Meal Planning

Just picked up my box of GOODNESS from Full Circle today, what a great gift for our family in the dead of winter. My box contents always lead me to wild menu planning and big dreams. Looking at this produce can you blame me?

I am going to make our family happy with a big pot of potato leek cheddar chowder, such a great soup for winter evenings.

The mushrooms are destined to be made into Vegetarian Pot Stickers and maybe some Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms.

The jewel yams will be made into Indian Inspired Sheppard's Pie HAPPY CURRY TUMMY.

The peanut potatoes I wan to roast or fry with a homemade bacon ranch dip, if this is successful I'll share the recipe. But really how can it be bad?


The peppers I think I will  make into Spicy Pepper Jam, we're out of it and that way we can savor the deliciousness for a while longer.

Beets are begging for Borscht, do you have a good recipe? Mine is only so so, feel free to please pipe up and leave me a link or recipe for Borscht. The best I ever had was in a Russian Old Believers town way back in the hills, so good and the hostess/cook was completely entertaining too. Ohhh Nina I wish I had your recipe! Picture is horrid, beets are lovely.

These are destined for leftover pickle juice, I love to make quick over night carrot pickles like that. No real recipe, just peel, slice or chop and drop in pickle juice.

School lunch munchies and snack foods

• kiwis, we have this cool spoon knife combo, lets kids cut in half then scoop it out, makes eating them fun
• pickled carrots
• fresh carrots
• snow peas
• mango smoothies made with kefir

What would you make??



Peace and Love--

 

Easy Ebay Listing

A friend of mine was listing some things on ebay and she complained it took her forever. I feel her pain. I used to struggle through listing auctions only to find out I didn't know what I was talking about. Or I forgot to upload my pictures. Or edit them. Or any other myriad of reasons it was painful to list anything.

But then it got easier for me to list things and I didn't even realize it. I was pondering what to say to my friend, how to help her and it made me see my own process very clearly. I thought I would share with you all, in case you are struggling or want to get started on ebay.


I work in three distinct phases

• #1 research--I can't say it enough, know what you are selling, usually the first thing I do is see what things are worth--through current auction prices on ebay and past/closed auctions these are a wealth of information-I also read lots of thrifting and selling blogs, these posts share tons of information on things that sell and the blogger's research too Late Night Coffee, Parsimonia and Apron Thrift Girl to name a few
• #2 clean up and photos--I clean things that need cleaning and take a slew of pictures, in good clean daylight if possible, I wipe down the table or lay out a cloth and snap away, I pack the items in a "To Be Listed" box, then load the pictures and edit as necessary
• #3 then I list items when I can take about an hour, if I have done steps 1 and 2 then step three is a breeze, I get the "To Be Listed" box and cup of coffee, I work through the box and list as much as possible in one sitting,
• #4 I know I said only 3 but I have a step 4 that is to be avoided, do not hover over your auctions, don't check them every ten minutes, watched auctions never get started, I try to check twice a day and occasionally I will tweet or link to an auction to drive traffic that way, ebay is no fun if you haunt it

 Happy selling!



Peace and Love--

Just Another Meatless Monday

Speaking of singing livers, oh wait were we talking about singing livers? No? Dang, such a good opening line too!




Speaking of using up a 1 1/2 pound beet, no listen up I was talking about that, I know it, I finally figured it out. Ohhh yummy we juiced it. Along with a pear that needed to go and banana that was too ripe. I found a juicer last weekend on our thrift crawl and bought it up so fast it made my head spin. But hey 3 dollars for a Jack LaLanne Juice Tiger is a great price and since I killed the last one I was very happy to find this. I am saving pennies for a VitaMix but that day is very far away.



Basically Beet Juice is just that, the juice of a beet root. MMmmm I love beets and so do my boys. I love them for their taste, they love them for other pink reasons...


Now that I've made and drank the beet juice I read that you should definitely juice another vegetable with it, to combat the possible negative side affects which the article I was reading didn't go into detail on. The side affects listed were: pink urine...which is a plus for some of us around here, kidney stones, vocal chord trouble(??) and fevers chills and rashes. Hmmm Seeing as how they don't tell you how mixing in another veggie helps out I tend to think this might be bogus, but that's up to you to decide for yourself. Thoughts?

The positives far outweigh the negatives: lowers blood pressure, cancer fighting powerhouse and it's packed with  vitamins and minerals. Check out WHFoods for a great article on beets.

SO if life ever hands you a huge beet, make beet juice with it.

Beet Juice
1 1/2 pounds of beets
1 very ripe pear
2  ripe bananas

Steam the beets until cooked through, you want to cook them but not over cook, you can cut any large beets into quarters and steam time will be considerably less
let the beet come to room temperature
feed the beet, pear and bananas into the juicer
cut the collected juice with water to make it thinner and easier to drink
you won't need any honey or sweetener with this juice, it is fabulous

 Just out of range here are my two smallest boys having a silent deadly battle for this cup of juice, me I'm waving my arms windmill style to get them to stop.

How was your week??











Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

 It's been a busy thrifting week around here, the resell bug bit and I was off and running. Lots of sales on ebay, I also worked on budgeting my time so I can work, keep the house clean AND not get sucked into the internet. It's working well I'd say.

I have a secret project I'm working on, I can't show you yet but it's cool and it's upcycling. I hope to be done SOON, I'm getting kind of tired of it.

Last chance to sign up for the Homemade Valentine Swap, send me an email to jinxyjune(at) gmail(dot) com. If you signed up be on the look out for an email from me with your valentine exchange address list, it's time to get working on them.


Here are a few of my thrifting finds from the first Thrift Crawl last week. Good grief that was fun!

A friend found these

but didn't snatch them up, I did. I have a great idea for wrapping them in a little wrap bag mat thing for presents for kids. I saw the idea here and I have a feeling they'll be a real hit at birthdays. Stephanie don't look, Gabe's getting one next week.

Micro crock--small California Pottery was a dollar. These can hold anything you can think of, this one is currently holding acorns.

 I bought this and sold it the same day, apparently Boynton is a big seller. Good to know.

I have this one listed on ebay, if you're interested make me an offer!

 Spanish books sell well! These sold in less than a day. I have another lot I'm posting this weekend and I'm hoping it sells as well.

This is probably my favorite find of the week. I walked by it twice and debated it for a while before finally picking it. I don't need more stuff,(HOARDER) but I love it.

What is making your heart sing? Your etsy store? Your ebay auctions? Your decorating style? Your thrift finds? Couponing? Leave a link and share your inspiration.








Peace and love--