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Wednesday

CHEAP, EASY, HEALTHY HOT WINGS

I say three ingredients I mean it...I say healthy I mean...baked! It really doesn't get any easier than this!


Three ingredients that you probably have sitting in your fridge and freezer will make some DELICIOUS wings.




Ingredients:
20 Chicken Wings
1/2 cup Hot sauce (your choice how hot you like it!)
1/3 cup Butter


Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2) Get together about 20 chicken wings (if frozen, make sure you thaw them first!)
3) Melt about 1/3 cup butter.
4) Pour 1/2 cup hot sauce in a bowl.
5) Take wings, dip in butter, then dip in hot sauce.
6) Place on a baking sheet (I would cover with aluminum foil first that will save you a LOT of scrub time!)
7) Bake for 25-30 minutes.






VOILA! Hot wings! Match up with your fried pickles and you a restaurant style dinner at half the cost and calories!
Again...easy. How easy? My four year old did everything put melt the butter and handle the oven! Of course mine are never as pretty as the picture but they were YUMMY!

You can add whatever you want to your wings but I like it simple and they were GOOD! I used a mild hot sauce, but you can get them as hot as you like them!



Pinterest Rating: I give them a 9! Mostly because I love hot wings! And anything that my daughter can put together for me! Ha! Easy, cheap, fast! I like it!

Tuesday

CHEAP & EASY SALON NAILS

Whiten your natural nails:


I was a little skeptical of this at first because it seems so easy. But I decided to try it since there are only two ingredients, and I already had both of them! Whowouldathunkit?


1 Tbs peroxide
2 Tbs baking soda


Put in a bowl - swirl together - and soak your nails for a few minutes. Some I've read 1 minute, some 5. My big brain tells me though that the longer you do it, the more results you will see! I've also read other "recipes" that add different levels of ingredients and maybe add some water, some add lemon. But for this purpose, this worked for me! I could tell a difference instantly, and even more so the next morning (I did it at night before bed). The baking soda can be rubbed in to exfoliate your nails as well. You can finish off with a clear coat of polish to fancy them up even more! If you are like me with young kids this is one for after they go to bed...1) because you have to sit still for longer than 5 seconds 2) because they will likely try to get in it and you probably don't want that!


You can see from the picture above - the left is my Pinterest inspiration - and the right is my nails. I do have a clear coat of polish on but I am pretty darn impressed with hot white they turned out! I have used this once a week every since I found this!! No more paying for a manicure for this gal!

FREE MASCARA

Well you paid for the original bottle of mascara, but this tip WILL help you get more out of it. So it's like getting free mascara! I saw this on Pinterest and thought as I think of many ideas...why didn't I think of that?
Typical mascara dries up when about half of the bottle is used This tip can make your mascara last about 3 times longer than it normally would. Obviously saline solution is safe for your eyes, and this is the perfect way to get more out of your mascara. So I gave it a whirl!

For those of you who wear contacts, or have someone in the house who does, you already have saline contact solution. Take 4-5 drops of saline solutions or eyedrops in the mascara. Insert your wands, stir, and WHOO HOO - your mascara will last about 3 times longer! It has worked for my mascara. I was getting ready to throw it away a few weeks ago, and I'm still using it daily thanks to just a few drops of saline!

Friday

"Fried" Baked Pickles - Easy and Quick



"Fried" Pickles (Baked)

Now before any of you shake your head or saw Eww...these are AMAZING! And baked..so a better alternative. Again, EASY EASY. My 4 year old once again made these herself (save getting the ingredients together and the oven again)...what? She shouldn't earn her keep by cooking for me? C'mon....

Ingredients:


1 jar pickle slices
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

Directions:
Turn oven broiler on high. (BEFORE you put them together and make sure if you use the oven before hand to make something (like wings) that you give it time to switch to broil properly. Note the black side of my pan...live and learn!
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and flour. Add Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, garlic powder, Cajun seasoning, and pepper. Mix well. (I didn't have cajun but had some red pepper I threw in)
Place panko bread crumbs in a shallow dish. Dunk each pickle slice into the egg mixture, than dredge it in the panko bread crumbs. (If a 4 year old is doing it for you, let them take their time or the pickles will NOT get coated properly)
Place coated pickles on a rack set above a baking sheet and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray (Or use aluminum foil AND spray it, so you don't have to scrub your cookie sheet). Place pan in the middle rack of the oven. Broil for about 3 minutes on each side. Watch it closely! It will burn!

Pinterest rating: a 9! These things are amazing! My husband and I scarfed them down almost before the wings were cooled down enough to eat! (I didn't give it a 10 because it used the broiler on my oven and I didn't even know what that was!) It was quick, easy, and used ingredients you would likely have on hand (if you don't have bread crumbs, some other coating)

Below is the Pinterest inspiration picture and my picture side by side. Bet you can't guess which one is mine!




Two Ingredient Cupcakes: Does it get any easier?


My second Pinterest Project..I'm on a roll

Pineapple angel food cupcakes

No you weren't misreading that title, it's really just two ingredients. I was REALLY skeptical because:
a) How in the world can you really make it with two ingredients - what about the eggs, flour, milk, water, oil, SOMETHING you have to add? NOPE, nothing of the sort.
b) It says FAT FREE which usually means it doesn't taste good! Mmm-hmm.

Now THIS is my kind of project! My kind of cupcake, my kind of cooking! Seriously..... my 4 year old made them by herself- minus the handling of the stove!

Ingredients


Instructions

  • Blend cake mix and an entire 20 oz can of cruswhed pineapple with its juice. DO NOT ADD ANYTHING else- just the mix and the canned pineapple. (The box says to add water- ignore) Using a 1/2 cup ice cream scoop (I didn't measure), this should yield 32! Turn upside down to cool. 375 oven, 15-20minutes.  
It's really that simple. The picture on the left is my Pinterest inspiration. The one on the right is mine. Sure mine looks like crud, but they are DELICIOUS! I've seen some recipes where they add frosting, but I figured I'd try with this fat free stuff (oh yeah, and I didn't have any frosting!) So there you have it.

My Pinterest rating: 9! (I didn't give it a 10 because well face it...it's not chocolate.) 
Caution: Angel Food cake makes them very fluffy - don't put too much in each space! And watch your time - they will burn quickly! (Ahem...yeah you should have seen some of the other batches...)









Rug Job


My First Pinterest Project



Wow - way to boost that creative gene you say. Your first documented Pinterest project in Action is a rug?
Well...it's our runner. We moved recently and the runner that was previously on carpet is now in our kitchen on a tile floor. And needless to say it's pretty slippery. With a 1 year old learning to walk, a 4 year old tearing through the house, and my less than graceful self...yeah, it needs to be fixed!

So this first pin I found was actually via Martha! Way to jump in the big leagues there! Martha gives instructions on how to slip-proof your rug by using caulk. This beats buying a mat to go under the runner.

Step 1: Get a tube of caulk (about $1 but you probably have some laying around or some you could borrow from someone - it doesn't take much!)
Step 2: Put caulk on bottom of rug
Step 3: Let dry
Your finished! Okay those were her words not mine, she is obviously so much better at this tutorial stuff.
But here is a picture of Martha's rug job vs. my rug job. Give me a break I had a 1 year old and 4 year old running around my kitchen. I am aware that it looks horrible! Also note that I did not use a ruler and create a chalk line where I wanted my caulk lines to be. That would have been a smart idea to follow!

Bottom line: It worked decently. You can still slide on it but it's not the dangerous death trap it was before the caulk.

Project score: 10 I give it a 10! Ok...maybe it's an 8. It's not the most mindblowing idea in the world, but it's pretty handy. And it was SIMPLE. And for me - free (I borrowed caulk). It took about 10 seconds to put the caulk down, an hour or so for it to dry , and 3 1/2 hours to figure out how to use a caulk gun in the first place. But that's a different tutorial! All in all, I chalk it up to a great Pinterest Job!

What in the Pinterest is That?

The Inspiration of Pinterest



So we pin and pin and pin...and then what?


Do we ever put the pins into reality? I know that out of the hundreds of pins that I pin on average, 0-1 actually come to life!


So we will walk through a journey of bringing some of my favorite pins to life!