Homemade Ranch Dressing Seasoning mix

Homemade Ranch Dressing Seasoning Mix

Source: 5dollardinners.com via Cindy on Pinterest

Ingredients
2 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp pepper
Directions
Add each of the dried spices to a bowl and gently stir. Store in a resealable plastic baggie or small ball canning jar with tight fitting lid in your spice cabinet.

To make the ranch dressing, whisk together:
1/3 cup mayonaisse with
1/4 cup milk (more or less depending on the consistency you want)
1 Tbsp of the homemade ranch dressing seasoning mix.
Season with salt, to taste. Use immediately and can refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Makes about 4 Tbsp worth of mix. Or use the ratios above and mix up however much you’ll need!

Review: Worked great in the recipe that I needed and was fraction of the cost of the store bought packages!!

Works for me Wednesday

I hate dust bunnies on my TV screen, but I have found the perfect solution. Use coffee Filters to clean your TV screens, computer screens and other technology. The best part is that no fibers are left beheind!

Source: unplggd.com via Teresa on Pinterest

Worked for Me Wednesday

Hello,
Need an easy way to haul those strawberries? Look no further use a straw!

Source: amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com via Bernadete on Pinterest

Start at the bottom of the straw and push your way up. As your push the white part and stem of the strawberry will pop it's way up!

Worked for Me Wednesday

How many of you have pen marks on your microfiber sofa? Get ready because here is the cure..
Rubbing Alcohol.

Just rember to test a specific area first!

Source: chrisandrobinsnest.blogspot.com via Anne on Pinterest

All you have to do is spray a little rubbing alcohol and scrub with a sponge and the dirt will come right off. To make the surface nice and soft again...just use a bristle brush in a circular motion. (Need more detail...check out the above link).

Worked for Me Wednesday

Tired of getting dirt in your face when cleaning ceiling fans? The perfect solution is to use an old pillow case. Place the pillow case on one blade at a time (by feeding it over the blade). Then move it away.. the pillow case will catch all the dirt and fibers.

Source: simplystated.realsimple.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Grocery Shopping with Kids

picture crdit of Hubpages.com


When takig children to the store timing has to be just right..little ones can not be to hungry or tired and they have to be engaged. One of my favorite was to keep my kids happy at the grocery store is to play food bingo. Here is an example of a food bingo card from kidzclub. I create mine using Word based on what I need for that shopping trip, and give my daughter a crayon and she starts crossing the items off as we put them in the cart. I sometimes also ask her to put that item in the cart. Are you an avid coupner? Instead of using computer graphics have your child cut out the items from a grocery add and glue them on to a blank bingo card. Do you have emerging readers? Great write the word instead of pictures to help them learn some great new vocbulary sklls.

To check out more great ideas go to We are THAT Family

Cleaning the microwave

Do you want to easily clean your microwave? GREAT!

Tools:
Coffee Mug
2 Cups of water
1 Lemon slice (optional)




Directions:
Place two cups of water in a microwave safe mu.
Place lemon slice in mug (optional)
Microwave on high for 4 minutes.
Let mug stand in microwave for two minutes, as contents will be hot.
Remove mug and clean as usual

The water loosen the food particles and the lemon provides it with a nice clean smell.

A little prep can save you time

As a working mother of 2, I often look for shortcuts in the kitchen. Here are a few that work for me:




1. Meal plan. Planning ahead helps save time in the kitchen as well as money at the check stand, espically if you meal plan based on whats on sale for the week.




2. Prepare veggies for a dish at the start of the week, or the night before. Once I know what I am cooking I can prepare certain veggies/or parts of meals ahead of time. For example chop veggies for stir fry on Sunday of the week you plan to serve and place in a plastic storage container, or cut and season meat the night before you are going to cook it/serve it. This way when you get home you simple grab the meat and veggies and cook them.



3. Clean as you go. This helps decrease my likelihood of getting overwhelmed and helps keep everything tidy.



4. Empty the dishwasher/ drying rack when you get up in the morning that way you will not have to do right before cleaning dinner dishes.





5. Prepare for the next day. I always layout my clothes and my childrens clothes ahdead of time as well as prepare the diaper bag and lunches the night before!

Muffin Tins for more than baking!

Muffins tins are for more then baking.

I love using muffin tins for lunch with the kids. I found this idea while browsing the Internet and thought I would share. Its a great way to put some kick into lunch. You simply place different food options in each compartment of the muffin tins!!
The muffin tin contains fruit bar, peaches, green beans, turkey, raviolis, and Gerber veggie snacks, vanilla cookies, Gerber yogurt snacks


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You can also fill your muffin tin with themed ingredients such as " Yogurt and Fruit" or "pizza" and fill each cupcake with toppings or fruit.

To check out more great ideas go to We are THAT family or for more about muffin tins Mondays click here

Ok if that's not enough try using a muffin tin to organize supplies for a small craft or baking project. For example, over the holiday we created a gingerbread house and used a muffin tin to hold all the candies and goodies. We have also used a muffin tin to secure items for a craft project (glue, sequence, yarn etc).

Looking for some great preschool sized main dish check out a few of my favorite recipes using muffin tins:

Turkey and Spinach Lasagna Cakes

Baked Egg Cups

Mini Marvelous meatloaf

Works for me Wednesday...

For more Great ideas check out We are THAT Family



How many of us have plastic container with a tomato based stain? Spray your plastic container with Pam or other cooking spray before placing the tomatoe based product inside and it makes clean up simple and you will have no more tomato stains :)