Feeding Soldiers: Meatloaf

My Husband has Staff Duty tonight, for those of you that aren't military this is a 24 hour duty they have to pull every so often, where basically they take calls on any Soldier issues that may come up! My Husband always asks for a single Soldier to volunteer to pull duty with him. The PERK of pulling duty with him is that they get to choose, either Pizza, or a Home cooked dinner of THEIR choosing! We’ve been doing this well it seems like forever! I love that a single Solider living in the Barracks gets to eat something besides food at the DFAC (dining facility).  This time I have a request for Meatloaf, twice baked potatoes and a salad!



 



Calling all Kiddos! Let's mix this up!



Ready to BAKE!

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1-1.5lb ground beef

2-3 slices bread (torn into small pieces)

1 egg

1TBSP Dehydrated Onions

1tsp Garlic Powder

1tsp Italian Seasoning

Salt & Pepper to taste

Ketchup (for the top)

 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except ketchup into a medium bowl. Mixing with your hands is the best way to incorporate everything  (or get your kiddos to help with this step if you are like me and  hate  dislike touching raw meat)  Grab a loaf pan, and then add in the meat mixture. Bake in a pre heated oven @ 350 for an hour. 30 minutes into baking I take it out and squirt some ketchup on the top and then place it back into the oven and continue to bake until the meat is longer pink! Let cool for a few minutes and then slice and serve!

Come back next week to check out the Twice Baked Potatoes!

Twine Letters

A few months back before I'd even really heard of Pinterest ( I know, I know I was a little behind) my friend said she'd seen these cool letters wrapped in twine! I was like "Really? That sounds kinda cool" So we got busy and made one up! And I LOVE IT! I love the possiblities it has. It's been hanging on my front door since April! It is so simple and cheap inexpensive to make!

The letter all covered in Twine!

Added a ribbon and hung it up on the front door!

Stuck some flovers on it to "dress it up" oh the possiblities

Here's what you'll need to make a twine covered letter of your very own!

A Letter ( I got mine at Michaels)
Hot Glue Gun
Twine ( can be found all over @ craft stores, hardware stores)

Decide how you want to wrap your letter, I just went around the letter the same direction. Place some hot glue on the letter and cover with the twine. Just keep doing this until you have it covered! Be careful the glue is HOT!

I just glued the ribbon on the back after it was finished! But you could use some kind of hooks, like the ones on the back of picture frames!

For the flowers, I just stuck them in the grooves they stayed for awhile I didn't want to glue them because I wanted to be able to put different things up there! You could put pinwheels, poinsettas or poppies in there! But seriously, you can change it up for whatever Holiday or event you are celebrating!

Fisher House

    Today I’m baking Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Fisher House. The Fisher House is a Non Profit Organization that provides a "home away from home" for military families to be close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury.”  I’ve been lucky enough to help out our local Fisher House through my Husbands Battalion. Once a month we (the Battalion Spouses) provide a meal for the families that are staying there. So this month I volunteered to bring chocolate chip cookies! I love that I get to give back to my community doing something that I love to do! Feeding people seems like such a simple way to help fill a basic need!

Lets get started!

 

 

Butter and Sugar creamed together:)



I like to stir the chocolate chips in with a spoon!



All mixed together... try not to eat it all before ya bake them;)

 

                                                 I know I need new pans right? ;)

Here's What You'll Need:
(Tollhouse Cookies)

2 ¼ cups flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

3/4cup sugar

3/4cup brown sugar

1tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups Chocolate Chips

Directions:

In a small bowl combine, flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl cream together butter, both types of sugar and vanilla. Add eggs beat until combined. Mix flour into the butter mixture. Then stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 9-11 min @ 375

                                                                 YUMMY! ENJOY!

Lounge worthy Pillow Mats!

So another idea from Pinterest… I saw this great idea for a pillow mat!

I made these when my sister and 3 of her 4 kids came to visit! I thought Pillow mats would be so much more comfortable than just sleeping on the floor! I even made one for my son and an extra one for when he has friends over!

For the boys I decided to dye the pillow cases red & blue and I used one printed case for the top, a Spider Man and a Darth Vader!

 For my Niece I bought pink polka dot pillowcases!

They all loved lounging around on them and they folded up easily to be out of the way!

Ok so here’s how you make these super comfortable pillow mats.

You will need:

 4 pillow cases (I used 5 for my son but he’s almost 5’4”)

Matching thread

4 pillows

Then you sew the cases together, lay them right sides together and sew them so that the openings are on the same side! You want all the pillows to go in on the same side! Just sew a straight stitch I used about a 1/4in seam.  Just sew all the cases on and you are done! I did see on Pinterest that you could put a snap on to keep the pillow cases closed, but I decided to forgo this step!  (and it worked just fine)

This project can be made almost for free if you use old pillowcases and have extra pillows lying around! I bought all new pillows from Wal-Mart and they were $2.50 a piece. I got a great deal on pillowcases from Burlington they were $6 for 4! I bet Thrift stores would be a great place to look as well!

HAPPY SEWING!

Jello Gummies?!

I saw this recipe for Jello Gummies on Pinterest! I just had to try them! I mean homemade gummies? Who wouldn't want to do that? The original post is from www.sixsistersstuff.com 

Ok so it was crazy stupid easy!
You just mix
2(.25oz) packets of unflavored gelatine
1(3oz) packet of flavored Jello! (I used strawberry)
1/3 cup of water
Pour all of this into a sauce pan, on medium heat and stir it until the jello disolves! Then pour into whatever molds you happen to have. I had football ice cube molds and heart molds so that's what I used! Let it sit, on the counter is fine, for 20 min and then they kinda just pop out! My molds are silacone so I think that helps I could just push them outta the mold!

Next time I will attempt to do a step by step, and bare with me as my camera is a little on the old side:) and I'm new to this whole thing!

 

So the vote @ our house is this is a keeper! Next time I would try a smaller mold so I would have more gummies! I think I also would double the recipe!
Let me know whatcha think?!

Kismet Kreations

Wow, so exciting starting my own blog! YIKES! ok! So this blog is going to be about me, and my family and the things that we "kreate" from crafts, to food, to random things I find on Pinterest, to the things that life creates around us! The name Kismet Kreations is because no matter how something turns out it's kismet or fate! Even when something turns out to be an "epic fail" as my son would say, I'm going to put it all out here for you, the good, the bad and the ugly!