Blackberry Banana Bread!!

I got 3 packages of blackberries from Sprouts this week.  They were on sale for .88 cents each!  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but I knew I had to get them.  After looking at various recipes for muffins, cakes, and cobblers I stumbled upon this recipe for blueberry banana bread.   http://damndelicious.net/2012/06/23/buttermilk-banana-blueberry-bread/

The recipe sounded simple, which I liked.  I decided to try it out, substituting with blackberries of course.  I went according to the recipe except I added a little more then a cup of berries.  I didn't think a cup was enough :) Luckily I have been freezing any bananas we don't eat so I had a bag in the freezer ready to go.  I used my mini bread loaf pan and got 9 mini loaves.  They turned out delicious!  Just the right sweetness, fluffy, a hint of banana, and loads of berries.  K loved them so much, he wanted to eat all of them!   Give them a try! 

Look at all those blackberries!

A handful of peaceful moments

I don't know how it is for other moms but at lunch time (or pretty much every meal time lol) it's chaos!  All the kids (except T because he doesn't talk yet) want to get my attention.  Z wants some juice, K needs a spoon, they keep running away so I tell them to sit at the table over and over again lol.  Can anyone relate?  By the time I get everyone everything they need, get them in their seats, and have a prayer  they either gulp down their food and run away or just run away after taking one bite.  It is a constant battle that I think every mom (or almost every mom) has to go through at least once or maybe a bazillion times in her life.  BUT every so often I have a moment with the kids like last week.  My mom had given me some leftover taco meat so I heated that up for lunch.  I called the kids in.  K and Z helped me set the table, without fighting :)  Then they sat at the table and waited patiently for me to put all the food on the table and get everyone a drink.  The day before we had received a box from Bzzagent.  In it was Welch's Refreshingly Simple Juice Strawberry Raspberry.  I get to try it FREE and give my honest opinion.  I poured us all a glass.  Not only did the kids sit there and eat the tacos, they also drank the new juice.  It was super delicious and the bottle didn't last very long.  The kiddos were mostly quiet with a few "yum!" and "Mmmmm!" For about five minutes that is lol  It was back to normal after that but I wouldn't change my life for anything!  I love my littles! :)

Knee Deep In Chicken....

Today I picked up my very first order from Zaycon.  Have you heard of them before?  Its a nationwide company that offers deep discounts on meats sold in bulk.  Before you run away scared that the quality of meat is probably awful, listen to me.  I did lots of research before ordering.  Zaycon has GREAT reviews! I only read one blogger who gave it a "bad" review and that was because of delivery issues not the actual meat.  I also have a bunch of friends who have been ordering from Zaycon for years and love it.  Google it and you'll see what i mean :)

I was kind of dreading the pickup since I had never done it before.  I had ordered a 40lb box of boneless skinless chicken breasts at $1.89lb.  I wasn't sure how the pickup worked.  Would I have to carry a 40lb box of raw chicken back to my car? Plus, I had a car full of little kiddos and grandma.  Our pickup was between 2 and 2:30...if you were late, well, your chicken would probably be donated.  I put the address in my gps.  It was only about 20 minutes away so that's not that bad.  To keep prices low Zaycon invites churches or other businesses to be a pickup location.  I pull into the church parking lot and right away I see the Zaycon truck and a line of cars.  To my surprise, I don't even have to get out of the car!  I waited in the car line.  When it was my turn I told the guy my last name and he got a box of chicken out of the truck.   He put it in my car. Yay!  He even laid a piece of plastic down before placing the chicken down.  It was awesome!  I thought I would be in a long line of people waiting forever but I was done in 5 minutes!

The chicken comes packaged in 4 bags.  First, I took about 15-20lbs of chicken put them in two pots with onion, garlic, carrots, and celery and covered it with water.  I put them on to boil. (Side note, these are some of the biggest chicken breast I have ever seen before!)

They had hardly any fat on them.  They were very well trimmed which made it a lot easier on me.  I trimmed the remaining fat and my mom wrapped them in paper and plastic wrap.  We didn't weigh them but I guess that each breast was 1-1.5lbs each.  We wrapped them individually because one would make a meal for our families.  I did cut a couple of them into chunks.  After we got all the raw chicken packaged and in the freezer I checked on the boiling chicken.  I pulled the chicken out and put it in a bowl.  Then I used the hand mixer to shred it.  (It sounds weird but it really works!)

We put the shredded chicken into labeled baggies and into the freezer.

We used a slotted spoon to get the vegetables out of the stock.  I put some cheese cloth over a strainer and poured the stock through it.  While I waited for it to cool I set the containers out.  I found these 16oz food storage containers on Amazon $13.95 for 36.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M9Z4SXY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 Great deal!  My mom ladled the stock into each cup slowly.  We got 19 16oz containers and 1 32oz!!  Happy dance!

It took about 3hrs to do all this.  I was very lucky to have my sister helping to watch the 3 kiddos :)  My mom and I will split everything and end up with roughly 20lbs of chicken and 1.5 gallons of chicken stock each!

I loved my experience with Zaycon!! I haven't tasted the chicken yet but it looked like great quality chicken. I have already ordered my 40lbs of 80/20 ground beef! I definitely recommend Zaycon so give them a try!  Here is my referral link... zayconfresh.com/refer/zf63553

Thanks for reading! :)
Jessica

Redoing a laundry closet on a budget! Step 1

My house is SO unorganized. Sometimes I feel like my life is always in chaos! Little by little I have been trying to organize my home and make my life a little easier.  One of the biggest problems we have is LAUNDRY!  We have one of those closet laundry "rooms" in our kitchen with sliding doors. (And the doors always fall off the runner and almost crush my kids!) There is always a big pile of clothes on our kitchen floor. It doesn't matter what I do, it never goes away!  About a month ago an idea popped in my head to help fix the problem.  The first thing we did was pull the washer and dryer out, clean the floor, and replace the hoses. It was disgusting! YUCK! The second thing we did was take down those awful doors. I was so happy to get rid of those things, I have always hated them. After that was done we went to Lowes and bought a stacking kit for $35.  We installed the kit and put the drier on top the washer. It was super easy and made all the difference. We now have a large space for storage, which our house severely lacks btw.

Please ignore the crooked frames lol

Now this is what my laundry closet currently looks like.  My hubby is working and going to college so he doesn't have much time for projects.  I'm hoping to get this done by Christmas, lol.  Anyway, the wheels started turning in my head once again on how to cover up the closet but make it look nice.  CURTAINS! Yes, that would be perfect!  

I'm going to side track a minute.  My kitchen has been a work in progress for almost 2 years.  It had hardly any storage and a big gapping hole on the side of the fridge where a pantry should be but wasn't. (We bought a brand new home, but apparently to save a couple bucks they left out the pantry) So about 2 years ago my awesome hubby and father-in-law installed a freakin awesome pantry! But we still haven't painted it! LOL! I have this whole design in my mind, and it has been there a while now.  We just need to find the time/funds to finish it.  Okay, so my goal is to paint the kitchen a light gray color.  I'm going to paint the pantry door and (maybe) inside the laundry closet blue. (I did buy the blue paint recently! yay!)  Now back to the curtains :)

Lately I have been obsessed with chevron.  The perfect curtains for me would be blue and white chevron! I start looking.  I check Target, Kohls, Walmart....every place I can think of.  The cheapest I find is $13 a pair at Walmart. I'm about to order them but decide to read the reviews first.  Good thing I did!  I thought they were 56" wide each...but NO...they are 56" wide total! Wait, what!? I need 72" to even fit the space. So those were out.  The ones I really like are $50 a pair from Kohls.  It might now seem like much to some but for me it is.  I try to be as frugal as I can without being too extreme.  

I've looked into making them and I may end up doing that.  I'm going to wait a while and see if anything goes on sale for the holidays. I would like to mention that not only do i want curtains for the laundry closet I would also like matching ones for the dining area and possibly the window above the sink.  For now I can just enjoy my stacked washer and drier and search pinterest for new projects to start.  My next blog entry will be how to make curtain panels from sheets!