Gutter Bookshelves for Kids

Our Little Girl has a lot of books. We originally had a little corner in the dining room for them all (which is nicely attached to our living room, giving her more play space) with a regular bookshelf. However, the bookshelf was a little uneven on our wood floors and we couldn't anchor it to the wall. This worried me a little bit because little kids love to climb up things and I didn't want her getting hurt.

We thought of doing regular shelves that attach to the wall but then they would stick out really far and we would need bookends to keep her books on them. It just wasn't ideal for us. After some pinteresting, we came across bookshelves made out of gutters. We actually had picked up some gutters at Menard's a while ago when they were free after rebate so really, this project didn't cost us any money! We simply cut them to our desired length and screwed them into the wall (in studs of course). You can sand the edges smooth if you want but ours didn't seem that rough. Some people also add crown molding or end caps to theirs and we may add this later to make them more sturdy but for now, they work just fine.

I apologize for the bad lighting but you get the idea. The books face outward and the kids can easily pull them off the shelf. I will admit for now, Little Girl can only reach the bottom shelf but she knows to ask for books she wants on higher ones. This is also an easy way to rotate through her books so I don't have to read Moo Baa La La La to her every single day! (For those of you that know this book, you know how annoying it is. I think I've had it memorized since my third time reading it).

We also picked up a Winnie the Pooh floor puzzle at Goodwill for a dollar and made the whole corner her toy corner. Of course, it doesn't usually look this nice but it is really easy to clean up, since everything has a home. Little Girl even helps sometimes (or just pulls out all the books you are putting back on the shelf). I will also mention that to keep library books from getting mixed in with the regular books (and lost forever), we put them in the little red basket on the floor. Then when we put them away each night or have to return them, it is easy to find them again.

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

Especially being pregnant, I have a hard time cleaning things due to the smell of my commercial cleaners. They're just overpoweringly strong and make me gag. Besides the fact that I shouldn't be breathing in that stuff anyway, I thought it was best to change to homemade cleaners.

One of my favorite recipes is 1 part dawn dish soap and 1 1/2 parts white vinegar mixed together in a spray bottle. It helps to warm up the vinegar first to get it to mix but it's not necessary (and it's definitely not necessary every time). I use this on my kitchen counters, mirrors and anything glass, appliances, bathroom and kitchen floors, showers,toilets, tubs, sinks, etc. Basically, EVERYTHING. It gets soap scum off. It removes hard water stains. It gets regular grime off. All without scrubbing. You can leave it on a surface for a few hours and come back to wipe clean the toughest of stains (instead of having to scrub and scrape).

For regular cleaning, I spray and wipe right away and rinse. For the tougher stuff, usually 10 minutes suffices but I did have some hard water stains that took more like 45 minutes to get off.

I even use this as a toilet bowl cleaner (when I can get our cheap spray bottles to spray upside down). With the dish soap, it clings easily like the commercial stuff.

This stuff is such a miracle cleaner and the ingredients are cheap! I did a side by side test (sorry I don't have pictures to prove it) with Lysol Kitchen Cleaner and this. This stuff won! I can't rave about it enough.

Mushroom Spinach White Sauce Lasagna Roll Ups

Whenever possible, I prefer to do lasagna roll ups instead of layered lasagna. Then I don't feel guilty serving it with bread (since it's less noodles per serving, less carbs)! I also think they are easier to eat and cut with a fork. For some reason, I really struggle with layered lasagna. I end up eating the layers one by one because I am unable to cut them. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, I found this recipe for the roll ups. I have made something similar before (check my posts from July of 2014 I believe---sorry no link back) but these were with a white sauce and I think that made them so much better.

I will say I left out the broccoli. That sounded like an odd combination to me and I get nervous when dinner has too many vegetables in it (too healthy=doesn't end up tasting good in my experience). Plus, all I had was frozen and I wasn't sure that was what they meant for the recipe. I didn't use fresh spices or fresh garlic (I used the spice version) but it worked out.

I followed the instructions and was surprised you cook the noodles after you cook everything else but it really does take that long (at least at my house) to boil the water. However, like with most recipes, she has you preheat the oven way too early. I would preheat it while your noodles are cooking.

Ours didn't turn brown on top, probably because of the foil and the directions never said to take the foil off but we ate it the way it was. This was so good! My husband and I both rated it a 9/10. I don't think I'd make any changes if I make it again but I will say that with prep time, this took us 2 hours to make. Definitely not going to get added to the weekly rotation!

I served it with bruschetta because I had a little leftover tomato and parmesan cheese to use up. I used the recipe that I used last April (again, check my archives). This also turned out great.

I would definitely eat both of these meals again and for once I agree with the servings per recipe. The lasagna makes 6 servings (2 roll ups a person).

Coconut and Lime Chicken

Because we somehow still have more coconut milk lurking in our fridge, we decided to cook with it again. I found this chicken recipe that would actually use up a lot of our Ruby's Pantry things. We also were having company over to celebrate my birthday so we had 5 adults, 1 child, and Baby. Everybody, even Baby and the picky child eater, loved this chicken!

I made a lot of changes from the original recipe so I will rewrite it the way I did it.

Ingredients:

• chicken breasts. We had a package of 20 chicken breasts and I had no idea how many pounds that was so I pulled out 9 for our 6+ people. 
• 3 T vegetable oil
• lime juice
• cumin (I don't measure spices, remember?)
• 2 T soy sauce (low sodium)
• salt
• 2 T sugar
• turmeric
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• chili powder (not a lot. This didn't turn out spicy at all, just flavorful)

Directions:
1. Thaw chicken. Place each piece between sheets of wax paper and pound with a meat mallet until even thickness.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients except for lime juice.
3. Put chicken and marinade in a ziploc bag and place in the fridge for up to two hours. (She doesn't recommend going longer than that because then the flavor gets too strong). I did mine for two hours. (Other commenters said they didn't notice a difference between 15 minutes and two hours so if you are short on time, I think it's okay)
4. Using our reversible grill/griddle, use the grill side over high heat to cook the chicken. Don't flip it for a few minutes on each side. Be sure to cut them open to tell if they are done.
5. Using a pastry brush, brush on lime juice (on one side). Put chicken under foil on plate while the rest of the chicken cooks.

I served this with green beans and potato wedges. This recipe turned out just fantastic. I give it a 9.5/10. You didn't even need a knife to cut the chicken! We will definitely make this again!
4. 

Another Banana Bread Recipe

Banana bread is something that doesn't stick around for long in this house. Even Baby likes to eat it! I already have a tried and true recipe from my mom that I like to make and I already have a butterless recipe to speed things up. Now, I have a butterless recipe that uses coconut milk! We don't care for coconut but we are still trying to use it up from Ruby's Pantry.

The recipe is pretty basic and comes together quickly. I did leave out the shredded coconut for our tastes. I also left out the almond extract, simply because we don't keep that on hand. I used the all purpose flour and added more baking soda (like she suggested) to make up for it. Also, I used regular coconut milk and my bananas weren't overly ripe. This is actually my first time using regular bananas, instead of black ones but I think it turned out the same.

The recipe says it makes one loaf but don't be fooled! It makes one HUGE loaf. It was about a half inch from the top of my pan when I poured it in. That should've tipped me off to use two pans but I was already doubling the recipe (although making it twice, not doubling everything at once). I ended up with two loaves (with my doubled recipe) but I easily could've had four or maybe even six! It took an hour and twenty minutes to bake. I had to move my oven rack all the way to the bottom after an hour because the top was getting browner quicker than the inside was cooking. If I had split the recipe, this wouldn't've happened because the middle wouldn't need so much time to cook.

After the slight baking issues, this bread was really really good! We couldn't taste the coconut at all (a good thing! If you want to taste the coconut, people suggest using coconut oil as well). It was super moist and had a nice crust on it. We are never going to buy coconut milk on our own accord but we are already planning on making a third (and fourth) loaf to use up more of what we have!