DIY Bulletin Board Ribbon Border

Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have been frantically busy getting my classroom ready. Summer School starts Monday! I decided to totally overhaul my classroom since I was switching it from the Kindergarten Room it has been for the last 5 years into a Title 1 Resource Room. The room had to fit students who range in age from 1st grade to 3rd grade this year and I decided on a teal and lime theme. (Our school colors are Black, Silver and Teal) I am LOVING it! Here's one quick and easy way I updated my bulletin boards. I cannot tell you how easy this is and how amazing it looks! 

First, I took a long piece of butcher paper (we have big rolls of it in several colors) and loosely folded rolled it up so I didn't have to cut long strips, I could make a short cut and it cut the whole length at once. (A major time saver)

I used a random piece of boarder that I had laying around so that I could make each strip the same size. 

Once you have your strips, bunch them, scrunch, them and make them very wrinkly. The wrinklier, the better! (Is wrinklier a word???) 

I then bunched and scrunched it on the board and stapled it in several places. Fluff it up and you're done! 

I have a huge "fake" wall on one side of my room that is actually a divider between my room and the room next door. Technically, you could open the divider and have one huge room, but we just use it as a big bulletin board. I have it sectioned off, so that is why you see two boarders with the paper ribbon.  Excuse the crooked photo. I took it with my phone. I have black plastic as the background instead of paper. It doesn't fade and holds up great fairly well...if you don't have a bunch of 5 year olds picking at it during Daily 5 Read to Self! :)
I will be posting an update on how the classroom makeover is coming soon!
MB

Tomorrow is a new day!

Via http://cloud9and3quarters.tumblr.com/

Anne Shirley said it best when she said that. I think too many times, we worry about the past and forget that we get to start over every single morning. My goal for myself lately has been to not worry so much and let things go. I've never been one to hold a grudge, but I am very over-analytical! I'm hard on myself and I need to remember that yes, tomorrow is a new day and I can shake it off and start fresh! 

What will your tomorrow bring?

$10 Dollars + 10 Minutes = 3 Freezer Meals for the Grill

I've mentioned before how much Wildtree Products can save you time and money in the kitchen. Well...today, our grocery store was having a huge sale on meat. {SCORE} Most people choose to pass on meat that needs to be used in a day or two, but when you put it in a freezer meal...it doesn't matter. You get the best deals this way! 

So...for less than $10, I bought 4 center-cut loin pork chops and 2 ribeye steaks!

 As soon as I got home, I got out a couple Wildtree ingredients from the cupboard, a couple gallon sized freezer bags and went to work. 10 minutes later, I had three meals {I'll have leftovers for sure.} ready to go in the freezer to marinate so we can just throw them on the grill later. 

{Freezer meals have saved my life! I cannot tell you how fabulous it is to have a freezer full of meals ready to go at all time!}

Here's what I made!

LEMON ROSEMARY PORK CHOPS

2 Center Cut Loin Chops

1 Tbs Natural Grapeseed Oil

1 Tbs Lemon Rosemary Blend

Gallon Freezer Bag

I use the dump, squish, mush, freeze method of Freezer Meal making!

Dump all of the ingredients in the bag.

Mush and smush it all around to make sure that everything is coated well.

Squeeze all of the air out and freeze! 

When you are ready to eat, you just take it out the night before and thaw in the fridge. 

You can thaw in the microwave if you forget to take it out. {Like I usually do!}

I {try} to take out about 3 meals on Sundays and stick them in the fridge to thaw for the week. We always have leftovers and so 3 meals gets us at least 5 meals for the week and we can still eat out once and have something like frozen pizza one night as well. 

Here are the other two meals for the week!

CHIPOTLE LIME PORK CHOPS

2 Center Cut Pork Chops

1 Tbs Natural Grapeseed Oil

1 Tbs Chipotle Lime Rub

Gallon Freezer Bag

RANCHER RIBEYES 

w/Blue Cheese Crowns

{Hubby's Favorite}

1-2 Tbs. Natural Grapeseed Oil 

1 Tbs. Rancher Steak Rub

Gallon Freezer Bag

Make sure that you don't use too much Rancher or it will be very salty later. 

I try to make sure a little is all over but it's not coated. 

While you have the steaks on the grill, you can mix together the {crowns}.

You can do this before hand and freeze them, or just mix it up quick when grilling. 

BLUE CHEESE CROWNS

1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs

I use Dockside Fish Market's Secret Breading

1/4 Blue Cheese Crumbles

3Tbs Melted Butter

Mix all of this together in a bowl to form a paste. 

(Measurements are approx.)

Make the paste into small patties and place on the steak for the last couple minutes of grilling so that the cheese starts to melt and bread crumbs get crispy. 

There you have it! 

$10, 10 minutes and 3 meals ready to throw on the grill to stick in the freezer. 

Happy Grilling!

MB

Wildtree Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs

Since we had a bunch of sauce left over from last night's Grilled Pizza, I decided to use it on spaghetti tonight and make some meatballs with the Herb Grilling Marinade. 

For those of you that missed last night's post, here's the quick and easy recipe for homemade spaghetti or pizza sauce using Wildtree's Hearty Spaghetti Blend .  

Mix 2 Tablespoons of the Hearty Spaghetti Blend seasoning into a can of tomato sauce and Voila! 

Healthy, homemade spaghetti sauce for around $1.00!

For the meatballs, I used: 

1lb 97% lean ground beef

1 egg

1 Cup of Breadcrumbs

(I used the Secret Breading from Dockside Fish Market in Grand Marais, MN.)

2-4 Tablespoons of the Herb Grilling Marinade

Preheat the oven to 350*

Mix all of the ingredients together well in a medium sized bowl with your hands.

Shape the meat into small ping pong ball sized meatballs.

Bake on a baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly.

Serve sauce and meatballs over your favorite pasta.

Top with Italian Cheese and a side of garlic bread!

It must have been a great meal because Graysen looked like he thoroughly enjoyed himself!

Happy Eating!

MB

Monday Morning Meeting

Monday morning is here and while I need to go into school to get my classroom ready for Summer School, which is starting in a couple weeks, I had an early morning meeting to attend first. I know, I know...Monday morning meetings SUCK right? Well...when your meeting involves chocolate combined with coffee on the front porch with the sun coming up, I won't complain!

After dropping Graysen off at daycare this morning, (I luckily get to walk him two blocks down the street.) I took a few minutes to myself with one of my loves (COFFEE) on the front porch, watching the world wake up!

Cafe Escapes - Cafe Mocha for Keurig

Wildtree Homemade Grilled Pizza

Tonight for supper, Tim and I made homemade grilled pizzas with the Wildtree products that I sell. They were fabulous and here's how you can make them too!

It only takes a few ingredients plus whatever toppings you choose to put on it.
(You can purchase any of the products used by either emailing me or ordering from my website linked above.)

For the dough, you will need:
Wildtree Pizza Dough

Wildtree Grapeseed Oil in your choice of flavor 

(I chose to use Roasted Garlic)

1/2 Cup warm water

For the sauce, you will need: 

Wildtree Hearty Spaghetti Blend Seasoning

Tomato Sauce

To make the sauce: 

Mix 2 Tablespoons of Wildtree Spaghetti Blend into the tomato sauce and Voila!

To make the dough and pizzas:

1: Whisk Wildtree dry ingredients, 2T GSO (grapeseed oil) and water together

2. Whisk until a ball forms

3. Knead dough for two minutes on a slightly floured surface until its stretchy and smooth. 

Let dough sit on counter for 10 minutes to rest.

4. Press dough into either one 12-14in crust, or two 6-7in crusts.

5. Dough will look rustic...just the way you want it to!

6. Brush a small amount of GSO onto the crust and put oil side down on a hot grill.

7. After grilling for a couple minutes, take crusts off and top grilled side with sauce and toppings.

8. Make sure that you don't load up on toppings, or it will be soggy. 

9. Put it back on the grill for a couple minutes to grill the other side of crust and cook the toppings. 

 ENJOY!

MB

Easy Breezy DIY House Numbers

So...our house numbers were really cheap and pretty ugly looking to start with. They were there when we moved in and right in the middle of a random pole on our front porch. We took them down when we painted the porch from an extremely awful periwinkle blue, to white and we never put them back up. We  I had been debating on what to use instead. I saw this post on Pinterest and was inspired to make my own version. 

The numbers are from Menards and the wooden blocks were around $.50 each at Michaels. I already had the acrylic paint (Martha Stewart Brand from Michaels) and the foam brush. All together, this project cost right around $5.00 to make. 

I used my trusty E6000 glue to glue them to the bottom post of the front steps leading up to the porch. 

I really like the way they turned out and they go great with our green shutters.

MB