Suzie Homemaker in Training

I Love Mac & Cheese!! If you are ever in Nanaimo you need to stop by the Modern Cafe for their Mod Mac & Cheese, it is to die for! However this is a quick and easy way to make delicious Mac & Cheese at home. What you need: 2 1/2 cups of milk 2 cups of dry pasta 1 cup of hard cheese such as parm or cheddar   What you do: Add the milk and pasta to a pot and bring to a simmer. NOT a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Once the pasta is cooked add the cheese and turn off the burner. Stir in the cheese until it is melted and the sauce is thickening up. And there you have it, creamy delicious Mac & Cheese.   For extra cheesy version you can sprinkle cheese on top and pop in the oven for 10 minutes on Broil. Watch it closely as all ovens vary in temp. Another delicious option is melt a little butter and mix it with some bread crumbs. Spread on top of the Mac & Cheese and pop in the oven until the top is browned. ...

I had a "free" weekend, meaning no tests to study for or assignments to finish, just a ton of reading. I find myself craving the creative when I am busy with school and work. My grandparents 50th wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend and so I thought the grand kids could make a nice lunch for them. I bought all the stuff I need to make cake pops for dessert (as they are my newest obsession) and that got me thinking that I want to have something nice to display them on. My other inspiration for this project, obviously pinterest because I am obsessed, is the new show Sugar Stars, have you seen it, OMG this is what I want to do that for a living. I would be so content making sweets and candy all day! But their displays, they are amazing! I am not into the kitchy things like the make up cases and dragon eggs but the colours, the symmetry, the creativity, I cant get enough.   Well back to the topic at hand. These cake plates are jus...

I love blackberries one because they are delicious and two because they are free! This season I decided to keep some of that deliciousness for the rest of the year. For all of $2.00 for the pectin and $4.68 for the containers I made enough freezer jam for the entire year and them some. I used the freezer jam pectin because it calls for ALOT less sugar, only 1 1/2 cups rather than the 5 cups in a normal recipe. Also there was no cooking involved. You just mix and put in containers then let it set up for 30 minutes. We picked about 4x as much as needed for the one batch of jam so needless to say we had enough over to make a little Friday night treat blackberry mojitos! Maybe this weekend we will make a pie too, or a crumble!

This one is short, sweet and delicious. Chocolate chip cookies, everyone loves them. Here is the recipe I have been making for over 10 years and before that my mom would make them for us. http://m.pillsbury.com/recipes/soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/7fd0ee7b-fb8a-46c4-8bc5-ca58a0d6057d The only change I make is that I use less chocolate chips, the dough is sweet enough already that it doesn't need that much chocolate. I think the most I have used is about a cup and a half but usually I just eyeball it. These cookies stay soft and chewy so if you like crisp cookies these aren't for you. I use a one ounce scoop and it comes out to be about 4 and a half dozen cookies so make sure you have someone to help you eat them all

I don't know about you but we never seem to be able to finish our spinach before it starts getting wilted. Colour me picky but I don't like making salads with wilted spinach. I also hate throwing out food or being wasteful in general and we had an extra large amount of spinach this week. So I went online and looked up what to do with wilted spinach. My favorite result was spinach pesto. So here are the general guidelines for a pesto. You can create something suited more to your taste or to accommodate the ingredients in your cupboard. 1 1/2 cups spinach 1/2 cup of your favorite herbs good ones to use are basil or parsley 1/2 of nuts walnuts, almonds, pine nuts or anything in that family works 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese or feta would work 4 cloves of garlic 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 cup olive oil Put everything except the oil in the blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add the olive oil and blend until mixed evenly...

Ok so I love Pad Thai, it has everything you need for a balanced meal and it tastes great! You have noodles, veggies and whatever protein suits your fancy. We tried to rotate a good Pad Thai in our routine every couple weeks but found the sauce and noodle combo was expensive so we waited until everything went on sale. Not anymore! Due to my new pinning ways I have found the secret to the Pad Thai sauce that tastes just as good as those greasy packages you get in the store but without all the grease and at a fraction of the cost! We also have gotten a cheaper brand of noodles that taste just as good and the bigger name and they go twice as far. Half of a package will feed us both for dinner and lunch plus one more portion left over so 5 healthy portions overall. Pad Thai Sauce: 2 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar (I used agave syrup because we are trying to stay away from processed sugar as much as possible) 2 Tablespoons of Lime Juice 3 Tablespoons of Soya ...

Seriously the easiest! Four ingredients and a little time and you are done. This loaf is a cranberry and lemon, but you can make any kind you want. I also tried it with whole wheat flower and it turned out great. Here is the original recipe: 3 cups unbleached flour 1 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon yeast 1 1/2 cups water In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and yeast together. Mix in the water. Done! It won't look pretty but don't worry it will be pretty. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for 12 - 18 hours. After you have let it sit preheat your oven to 450. Once heated put your baking apparatus in the oven for 30 mins. I say baking apparatus because the recipe calls for a Dutch oven (<-- in the picture) but not everyone has one. You can use a pot and lid or anything you want as long as it has a cover. Dutch ovens are not cheap I have learned so don't worry if you don't have one, luckily I found one at a garage sale because we ...

I asked for this book for Christmas and when I got it I was super disappointed that all of the recipes were for ice cream machines. I put the book away for months because I was mad I couldn't use it. Luckily I also received a gift card for Home Outfitters and after 5 months it hit me, buy a ice cream maker. So I used my GC and bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker. The difference in the quality is amazing and knowing everything that is in it feels good too. I bought $6 worth of ingredients and the rest was just stuff I had around the house and it made 3 quarts of ice cream. A big savings in my book. The book is jenis splendid ice creams at home by by Jeni Britton Bauer and the Cuisinart ice cream maker was obviously from Home Outfitters and was $69.99.

I had to try it for myself. I kept seeing these posted on pinterest and wondered if there was much truth to it. I used the ends of 6 green onions that were going in the trash regardless and cut them about two inches from the root. This picture is a weeks worth of growth. I'm never buying green onions again! **Update**  This updated photo is 24 hours of growth, we have been doing this for a while now and it still amazes me. It is about half an inch in just 24 hours! 

Whenever I open the drawer to wrap something I always reach for the plastic wrap because this is what my family has always used, but every time I have to throw away a piece of plastic wrap I get an awful feeling of wastefulness. I have done a little research about when you should use one or the other and what the environmental effects of each foil and wrap have on the environment. Foil What it's best for: If you're refrigerating something smelly, foil creates a stronger barrier to keep odors in. Just be sure to seal as tightly as possible. Foil is also ideal if you'll be reheating the food in a conventional oven, since it can withstand heat. It’s also good to wrap a snug layer of foil around plastic-wrapped foods you plan to freeze like meat because it keeps out oxygen, which causes freezer burn. Plastic What it's best for: Keeping acidic foods such as fruit or avocados from browning, and keeping other foods like sandwiches and cut produce fresh. And...

Often we like to make quiche for lunch because it will feed us for a few days. Normally we make our quiche with no crust just to be healthier but because of the longer hours I am working we find there are longer waits in between meals and the carbs help the meal go a bit farther. These two quiches from start to finish cost about $8 to make and will feed both of us for at least four lunches which is $1 for each lunch. In our quiche we have: Zucchini Red pepper Spinach Ham Mozza cheese Salt & Pepper And the obvious egg What I like most about this is it is quick and we can make it on a Sunday night and then have lunches for the rest of the week. Otherwise I end up being too tired to make a lunch at night and I never have enough time in the morning. This means I end up spending unnecessary money on lunch.

I may be showing my age here but most of the time Chad and I like to spend Friday nights at home. We make a homemade pizza get a bottle of wine (or two) and maybe fire up the wii. This is a Hungarian salami and shrimp pizza with caramelized onions and peppers. It cost us less that $10 to make this pizza and about 30 minutes start to finish. Plus homemade pizza is twice as filling as delivery so we usually have lunch for the next day too. I highly recommend switching from delivery to homemade. The quality is worth the extra effort. **UPDATE**   I have started making my pizza dough a bit healthier as that seems to be our trend, but we still like to have some indulgences on the weekend. I found this recipe on Pinterest (where else) but I am sorry, I didn’t pin it and can’t remember which of the 100 different posts it was from. This is beyond easy, anyone can make this. Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1...

So this cheesecake was one I made for Chad 's birthday because he is a Toblerone lover. It actually turned out really well and not as sweet as I thought. Here is the link to the recipe As far as cheesecake goes this is a really easy one to make and you don’t need a lot of ingredients. One thing I did notice is that it didn’t come out quite as tall as the picture makes it look, but I think that helps with cutting down the sweetness. You could easily change out the cheesecake recipe for one that you have in your repertoire and just use the toppings. Overall it was a crowd pleaser and it was put my back pocket for an easy go to dessert that I can make the day before if I need to.

Today my friend Katlyn came over and we made Sesame Street cupcakes. We used the #233 Wilton tip for the fur, marshmallows for the eyes and cookies for the mouths. The cake mixes were still $2.98 and the icing sugar, butter and vanilla were just in the cupboard so I can't really say how much they were. Plus Katlyn brought the goodies for decorating. I find that the food colouring ruins the consistency of the icing because you need so much to get the right colour. The gel you can get at Michaels is better for keeping the consistency but is more expensive. But I did learn that if you make the icing the day before the colour becomes more saturated and will look red rather than the pink you see here.

It was a pretty good mail day today... Overall I think there is $39.40 worth of savings just in one day. If you are thinking of becoming a couponer too here are a few websites that have helped me out: http://www.savealoonie.com/ https://www.websaver.ca/en_ca/ https://www.brandsaver.ca/en_ca/ Another new site I have been trying is Superpoints, you do small tasks or watch videos to earn points. Each point you earn equals 1 penny. Once you have enough points you can redeem for PayPal cash, Amazon gift cards and more. It is an invite only site but if you like you can use this link to sign up... http://superpoints.com/refer/karlielalonde

More on Valentines day... My BF has been picking up all the slack that I have been leaving behind with my work and school schedule so I thought I would make him an awesome V-Day dinner. I don't know what this cost me but it was so worth it. We sat in our PJ's drank wine and champagne and ate the awesome meal. One thing I will say is making your own pasta from scratch is a little bit time consuming but you feel good for doing it and it costs pennies. I also made chocolate souffle from the Kraft website, but I forgot to take pictures of it. It was so tasty I will be making it again for sure, so next time.

The boys I work with are always requesting treats and baking so I thought I would pull out all the stops for Valentines Day. These are cake balls or cake pops, the powder on top is ground cinnamon hearts and red swirl is just candy melts from Michaels. Cost breakdown: Cake Mix $2.98 from Walmart Icing $2.99 Save on Foods Chocolate melts bulk foods $0.53/lb Save on Foods Cinnamon hearts $0.43/lb from Save on Foods Red candy melts $3.49 less 40% off coupon Michaels This made about 36 cake pops for an approximate cost of $0.25 each. I have to say everyone who tasted them thought they were store bought.

So a little about me and what you'll be seeing on this blog. Ok, I'll be honest I created this blog because I wanted to make some extra money. But at the same time, I do get asked for my recipes and tips on different things. I am an accountant by day and a student by night but when I have some spare time I enjoy baking, cooking and recently I have gotten into couponing. I'm no extreme couponer but I am learning more and more about how to my couponing experience. These are the two loves of my life, my boyfriend Chad and my puppy Rypien. They are a handful, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) I hope I can help other Suzie Homemakers in training, and we can share tips and recipes too. I will try to break down my projects by cost so you can see how easy it is to be thrifty and still have it look like you spent a bundle of time and money on it.