Practically from scratch

I have tried and tried again to make my own dough from scratch without much *consistent* success. I have found the best alternative is to pick some pre-made dough at Winco (a discount grocery store similar to Foodmax and FoodForLess etc). It is about $1.50 and makes a good size pizza that feeds our family. I usually buy two, but honestly one usually feeds us (without leftovers), because it is so dense once all the toppings are on.

There is a real learning curve when it comes to working with dough and making pizza at home, but my best recommendation would be to keep trying, because eventually your pizza will taste even better then what you can purchase at the pizza parlor and it won't cost nearly as much.

Here are my hot homemade pizza tips that I have learned from the "school of hard knocks," but hopefully you won't have to if you take these into consideration when making your own pizza at home:

1. Start with mini pizzas. Since the process can be a bit tricky, I have found that it is best to pull the dough apart to make two medium pizzas rather then one large one--at least until you really get the hang of it. It is a fun to personalize your pizza and each member of the family can add their own toppings to their individual pizza. The reason why I recommend this is because not only is it easier to handle, but it cooks better and you are less likely to come out with soggy under-cooked/doughy pizzas.
2. Tap the dough lightly with flour while handling it so it doesn't stick to your hands.
3. Don't over handle it. Let it stretch gently by pulling at the sides until it is at your desired thickness. I personally don't need to ever use the roller.
4. Butter the bottom. The butter really makes a difference. I am sure that you could use olive oil as well if you are trying to watch your calories.
5. Don't use too much sauce. Otherwise it will get soggy and won't cook right. This truly is an occasion when less is more! 

The real cost savings comes by way of ingredients. It is so pricey to buy a fully loaded pizza, but when making one at home, the more the merrier. You can also make your own sauce to save even more.

I am not one to make homemade pizza sauce, but last night, I found myself without any sauce and only diced tomatoes with spices and jalapenos in them...gasp. So I did what any desperate woman would do: I popped out the blender and started experimenting! So out of necessity and my flair for a-little-of-this and a-little-of-that experimentation, it turned into the BEST pizza I have ever made.  Here is the recipe as recalled from my squirrel memory and do also note than I cook as if throwing things into a cauldron because measuring after-all is for suckers LOL. (Actually measuring is a very good thing, and I am trying in earnest to justify my lackadaisical cooking practices with good old fashion humor):

SPICY Supreme Pizza 
1 package of pre-made dough
Spicy peperoni
bell pepper
mushrooms
olives
shredded mozzerella cheese

Sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes with green pepper/onions (drain if you like your sauce chunky). I kept the water in there for easy blending, but if I had to do it over again I would have drained it just a little bit.
pepper and salt to taste
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon pizza seasoning (you can buy this in the spice section. At Winco it is available in the dry goods bins)

Work the dough as instructed above. Preheat the oven at the temperature instructed on the dough packaging. I always have to cook it longer then the suggested time because my oven sucks.
Add the sauce sparingly (about 4 spoonfuls for a large pizza and 2 for a medium/small pizza) spread evenly, then sprinkle on the cheese and the toppings and pop it in the oven.  Viola. You made your very own pizza practically from scratch and everyone will LOVE it!

Easy factor: D 
Money saving: B+ (depending on ingredients)
Taste: B (although this particular pizza got a resounding A+ from my taste-testers)

The Learning Center

So today has been a fun day of cleaning and organizing the learning space in preparation for the start of school. Hubby already got Ethan's computer station set up and now I need to de-clutter our Learning Center/Cabinet.

• Here is what it looked like BEFORE:    

AFTER:There is still a lot going on in there, but it is definitely more functional now. I added the cubbyholes for each day of the week and then made the binders more accessible. Before, it would cause an avalanche just to pull them out of the cupboard. Now everything has a place. I would eventually like to get another stack-able crate but I made it a point to only use what I already had on-hand to prevent me from heading to Target to spend more money.

And the best thing about the learning center is that I can close the doors!

Money Saving Tip ALERT:

Speaking of learning, I want to showcase one of my favorite ways to save a little bit of money on materials and workbooks. At the Dollar Tree there are usually a variety of topical (alphabet, shapes, phonics, numbers etc) children's workbooks available. Rather then just going through those page by page and discarding them after they are written in, I place each page in protective plastic and the boys can write on it with dry erase markers and then we can erase and reuse the page over and over again.

Ideally, you should erase the same day otherwise the ink sets up and is harder to erase. If that happens, spritz it with a bit of vinegar (which truly is a miracle product) and it wipes right off. It is also a great way to track their progress. I have noticed how Ethan is advancing through the pages that originally were very difficult for him. Of course, JoJo just loves to scribble in them like big brother and I don't have to worry about the waste! Although I do have to keep an eye on him, as last time he decided that the chair and wall needed a bit of decorating LOL.
I give this an A for ingenuity and an A+ for cost savings!

TTC and a vision of things to come

Well we had originally planned on waiting until October to start trying again but I am not very good at taking my birth control pill and an IUD is not practical since we only planned to delay trying for a few months as we got a few financial matters under control. With our financial landscape looking much better, ultimately the decision was cemented by a vision I had that was quite lucid. It was like a memory yet to happen, in which a child--a daughter--was sitting on my lap with my two boys next to me. A daughter! Over the past year and a half I have been praying for direction and guidance on adding to our family. The silence has been, at times, excruciating. However, in that crystal clear moment, I knew that God heard my cries and listened to my hearts desires and that he will fulfill his promise to bring another child into our family. Now I wait with hopeful anticipation for "no one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame" Psalm 25:3.

If you are unfamiliar with our story, it is that I have a long history of pregnancy loss. I have been pregnant 9 times total; have had two live births: my beautiful boys Ethan and Jonathan; and the rest, all ended in early miscarriages between 4 and 9 weeks. We have undergone a variety of testing all leading to no answers: unexplained. That word sometimes seems a bit daunting-- pernicious even, but I truly believe that we were not always meant to understand everything. God did not call us to understand His ways, or to be able to unravel the mysterious of the universe or even the complexities of the human condition; he simply calls  us to love Him and trust Him to work out all the details of our lives. Granted a life with Him is not free from pain, but it is full of blessings-countless blessing that are seen and unseen.

On another day I will retell the stories of my boys miraculous conceptions, births, the times I almost lost them and the visions that preceded their arrivals.  They are my miracles. I have seen God work all throughout my life, in subtle ways, but at this season in my life on this particular journey (of growing and sustaining our family) I have seen him move mountains. It has been a humbling, awe inspiring and amazing time in my life. I am excited to see how the next chapter will unfold and as of now, I simply wait...

Marcie's super-easy-even-I-can-do-it stuffed mushrooms

So you will find that I am not much of a cook. However, I do have to cook--as it is part of the job description--but it does not come easy for me. Which is why I absolutely love it when I find a recipe that is easy, tasty and so simple that even I--the Ethel of the culinary arts--cannot screw up. So when my friend Marcie gave me this recipe, I was excited to try it. It involved some of my favorite ingredients: mushrooms, string cheese, bacon bits, olive oil, bread crumbs, salt and pepper.

So how it works is that you wash the mushrooms and then just pop the stems off with your thumb....yeah I had no idea about this concept until she told me. Apparently those stems just pop right off there. All those years of toil wasted.

Next you drizzle olive oil into the mushroom, then cut up chunks of string cheese and place in the mushroom divet-make sure it sits a little high so that when it melts it will fill it perfectly. 

Add some more olive oil and sprinkle your ingredients: a dash of salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, bacon bits here and there, and bread crumbs. Keep an open mind about your ingredients. I am sure there are tons of other ingredients you could add to this recipe. I think adding some tomatoes or even minced garlic might be tasty. Maybe I will even try it with some chedder cheese sprinkled over the mozzarella to add a bit of zest. 
Then pop it into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Overall this recipe was indeed fool-proof.  So I give it an A for the easy factor and a B for taste. However, I am sure if Marcie made it I would give it an A+ for taste as she has that extra special touch that I am apparently devoid of. If ever I was to come close to resembling a culinary-champ, popping these beauties out of the oven for dinner guests would definitely earn me that title. Thanks Marcie for this simple and fabulous recipe! My pictures don't do it justice. 

Super Soak The Alphabet

So I just signed Ethan up for kindergarten...eeek. I can't believe it! I initially intended to hold him back a year but there is a wonderful opportunity to go through an online public school and he can learn at home for FREE. They provide all the supplies, curriculum, offer support and trained teachers to work along side of us, so it just made sense. Rather then repeating preschool, we might as well march on together this year and see how it goes. If he needs another year then we can start him in Kindergarten next year at the Charter school. I am excited but also nervous. It looks pretty rigorous.

So in order to prepare, we have been doing lots of learning activities to get E ready for school.  Here is one of our latest creative projects that he seemed to really enjoy: Super Soak the Alphabet!
 On our retaining wall in the back-yard I wrote the alphabet in chalk making sure to mix up the letters to make it extra challenging. I quizzed him on the location of each letter one by one. When he identified the correct letter, he got to SUPERSOAK it! If he identified the wrong letter...I got to supersoak him ;-). If he successfully made his way through the alphabet then he got to supersoak me! It was a perfect outdoor, hot-weather activity. I give it an A for fun-factor and a B for creativity! I plan on doing numbers next.

hobby-horse-a-palooza

Since I do not know how to sew, and have been looking for ideas for E's upcoming birthday party that will be knights of the round-table themed, I came across this no sew hobby horse from Family Fun. It was way easier then I expected and the initial prototypes came out quite nice if I do say so myself. I plan to modify the harness apparatus with felt and make it look a bit more medieval but I think they will be a big hit. The kids had fun playing with them. More pics to follow in the coming weeks...pray for me; I have 20 more to make.
I used old work pants that I can no longer squeeze into (because dress slacks are simply not practical these days) and then I made a mini-sized version for babyJ out of some of E's old jeans.
Estimated cost=$2 per horse based on using used pants and stick handles found at home (although I do plan on getting sticks from home depot and covering them to add a more festive flare but that shouldn't break the bank at all), but theoretically depending on the supplies you have on-hand it could be free! You could even tear up a t-shirt (into strands) to make the horse mane if you don't have yarn. You could also substitute buttons for the eyes or use beads or anything else that you have on hand. I give it an A+; it was a super fun, easy and was a big hit.