31 Pins: Day 3

Original pin:

Actually, this is not the original-original pin.  I specifically remember pinning (or at least seeing) some type of spaghetti bread on Pinterest.  However, it is nowhere to be found on my boards.  A quick search remedied that and brought me to this wonderful blog post (linked in photo above). 

Here is how today went down:  This was not my original pin to complete today.  I had plans of an organizational task today, but could not find what I needed to hang something on the wall.  Of course, it was recently moved (not by me) after being in the same place for MONTHS.  Anyway, I moved on and worked on some other things.  I did finish a kid's birthday gift for my niece that will make its blog debut shortly.  Then 2:45 rolled around and I thought to myself, "I had better decide what's for supper."  (No, being a stay at home mom has not changed this last-minute-supper habit.... yet). 

I saw some meatballs in the freezer and decided on spaghetti.  Then I remembered that pin with the spaghetti inside the bread!  I looked at the time again... knowing I would need 1.5 hours to make dough (I LOVE my bread machine!!).  Perfect timing!  Just enough to make the dough and bake the meal.  In the last half-an-hour, while the bread was kneading and rising in the machine, I cooked the pasta and heated the meatballs in sauce.  Coincidentally, I made the sauce myself a few weeks ago... and was supposed to blog about it but have not.  Sorry!

The results:

I used a semolina pizza dough recipe from my Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook.  I had some semolina/durum flour sitting in the cupboard from my pasta making endeavor and had been thinking of trying this.  The dough was very easy to work with and extremely tasty!

You can kind of see it, but there is also mozzarella cheese inside of this shell.  The recipe calls for an egg white wash on top, but I opted for butter instead.  And lots of garlic salt.  And parmesan cheese.  I figured we would want it to taste as much like garlic bread as possible.

Half an hour later...

The WHOLE family... yes, ALL 4 of us!!!  were eating the same thing for dinner.  Max only took one bite, but he is sick, so it still counts. :)  I am calling this one a huge success.

BONUS: There was so much dough and so much spaghetti that I had enough to make 2 loaves!  The other one is sitting in the freezer for a busy day. :D

Expense rating: Cheap

Difficulty rating: Easy

Keep pinning, but start doing!!!

Day 1:  Fun Photography

Day 2:  Family Conversation

31 Pins: Day 2

Welcome to day 2 of 31 Pins in 31 Days!  This week is super busy with making gifts, getting ready for our next MOPS meeting, and of course real life (complete with sick child!).  I figured I would work in the things I NEED to get done into the repertoire of this blog focus.

SPOILER ALERT for any mom in our local MOPS chapter: We will be doing this on Saturday!

Original pin:  

This blogger created a very special gift for her readers... a 20-some page long list of conversation starters/questions for families (including images to paste on to your container of choice)!  I downloaded the PDF as soon as I found it and am using it for our craft at the meeting.  Click the image to head to her page.  There are something like 220 starters, so you can print as few or as many as you would like.

The results:

I ended up cutting out the starters and laminating them, then cutting them out of the lamination sleeve.  I used a half pint jar with a lid and ring.  I mod podged the image to the lid and then added more mod podge on top.  Immediately I screwed on the ring so it would stick to the glue.  My 3-year-old and I then hot glued some buttons around it to make it look prettier.  

I think this will be good for all ages, and is especially fun at dinner parties with friends and family! :)

Difficulty rating: EASY

Expense rating: CHEAP

Did you pin something that you have been dying to try?  If so, what??

Day 1