Coconut Popcorn Chicken

Coconut Popcorn Chicken

I found a recipe on Pinterest... so used that as a guideline and combined it with my previous recipe.. IT IS GOOD, let me tell ya.  The kids are leaving little to no leftovers.  Usually the package of 6 chicken breasts from Sam's gives us a gallon and a half of baggies of baked chicken, I barely have half a bag full after two days of cooking. :) 

I chopped the chicken into bite size pieces, then marinated. 

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tablepsoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons onion powder

Then came my 'breading'.  

Half a bag of coconut flakes (about 2 cups)

2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons garlic

2 tablespoons onion

I ran out of coconut after about half of the chicken, so just used flour instead-still good! 

 All breaded and ready for oven!

Bake at 390 for about 16 minutes, turning halfway.  One pan, I didn't get the pieces separated enough so it took a few extra minutes. Just make sure you check it before you take it out if you are worried it isn't done. 

For freezing and reheating: I let the pans cool, then placed the whole pan in the freezer for 15 minuts to flash freeze.  Once they were cold, I dumped it in a ziploc bag and put back in the freezer. The first freezing makes sure they won't stick together.. To reheat, throw in the microwave for a few minutes or the oven for 10 minutes at 400. 

Shopping Trip 11/19 and A few Recipes

I cannot even begin to express how much I wish Aldi's was open... but it's not.. so Hyvee and Sam's is who I have to deal with.  I'm also grabbing a few things from our local store this time, because of the price.  And we are getting honey from a local beekeeper...because we need honey and local is best. :D 

I'm over budget for a few reasons this month... We need oxi clean for the laundry, my homemade stuff just isn't cutting it-so that's an extra $15.  We are taking advantage of HyVee's buy a ham get a turkey free deal, while it's a lot of meat for around $20-it's still an extra expense.   Of course the special Thanksgiving meal is costing a little more because I'm making things that aren't normal...and I want shrimp, and cinnamon rolls to eat while the parade is on.  We are also doing a small order from Azure Standard, so that's adding to it, too.  

So all things put together and I think I heard the checkbook gasp then fall down from fainting. 

We are trying more new recipes than normal.  A few venison roast recipes along with coconut shrimp with sauce and coconut popcorn chicken.  

I found both of the coconutty recipes on Pinterest, and they looked good. :D I've really been craving popcorn chicken lately, but I can't use the recipe we love because it calls for egg dip which Grace can't eat. But this coconut popcorn chicken sure sounds good. 

Baked Coconut Shrimp with Tropical Fruit Dipping Sauce
Original Recipe Found At Live Love Pasta
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deviened
1 cup cornstarch
2 egg whites
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup orange marmalade
1/4 crushed pineapple 
juice of half a lime
Preheat oven to 375. Whip the whites into stiff peaks.  Set up an assembly line with raw shrimp, corn starch, egg whites and coconut. Dip the shrimp into the corn starch and coat well, egg whites then coconut. Place on a rack on a baking sheet and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. While baking whisk together the marmalade, lime juice and crushed pineapple. 

Now I am going to change this a little... The shrimp is just going to be coated in just coconut and the original recipe calls for peach-mango marmalade, but I did see a recipe using orange.  The rack under shrimp will help it get crispy all the way around and you won't have to worry about turning it.  

Popcorn Chicken
Original Recipe Found At Brittany Angell
2-3 cups Unsweetened Shredded Coconut Flakes
3 Tablespoons each of garlic and smoked paprika
1 pound meaty chicken pieces cut up
dash of salt
Preheat oven to 350
Cut the chicken. In a bowl combine the coconut flakes, spices and sat. A handful at a time, add the raw chicken to the coconut flake breading. Toss until each piece is well covered. 
Place breaded chicken on a dry baking sheet. (Do not coat with oil.) Place into oven and bake 45-55 minutes until chicken is cooked through and the breading is golden. Toss popcorn chicken a few times to make few it get crispy all the way around (or just use the baking rack).  

Another recipe... We always do ham for Thanksgiving-we just aren't turkey people. So I buy a bone in ham, throw it in the crock pot the night before to marinade with about a cup of vinegar, 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of honey.  Put the crock in the pot the next morning as I'm making breakfast and it's done by lunch time leaving the stove and oven free to cook the rest of the meal.  

Hot Cocoa Mix!

'Tis the season for cocoa! Come on, you know you want some! :D 

My mom always made a dry mix when I was a kid, and now I'm making it, too. While I know there are healthier options to put in the mix than what I do, and I will let you in on the ones I know of, I prefer this. It's cheap, easy and yummy. 

(excuse the grater in the background, I was taking a break from shredding) One of those creamer containers is the acutal creamer, the other is what I use to store the cocoa mix

Hot Cocoa Dry Mix
5 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cup creamer
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup (1 8 oz container) of baking cocoa


Now obviously, you can forgo the powdered milk and just do the rest, heating up milk instead of water when you want a cup of cocoa.  I like the creamer (we usually keep plain, non dairy creamer in the house, so use that) because it adds a little flavor and thickness to it.  If you use baking cocoa, you want the sugar... I've never tried the Hershey cocoa powder, so don't know if that would be sweeter than the store brand?  In place of baking cocoa, you can also use carob powder.. This is what my mom uses as she's allergic to chocolate.   

Now, how much you use, depends on how strong you want your cocoa. It always takes me a few cups making it to remember how strong I want it...Then I have to readjust after hubby wants some because he likes it stronger lol. 

Something else going on around here. I'm shredding cheese, a ton of cheese it seems lol.  I bought a block of parmesan last month and since I'm making lasagna today, I had to get it shredded. Sore arm! And I still have mozarella and cheddar to shred! 

Enjoy your cocoa! 
~Tabitha 

Things Around Here and a Recipe!

To say we've been a little crazy around here is a severe understatement.  

The kids and I spent some extra time at my parents a few weekends ago.. Had lots of fun and made peppernuts-an old family recipe that is a blast to make with kids, trust me, you'll want the help. 

We brought a flu bug home, thankfully it was just the girls and I and only lasted a few days.  Then grocery shopping right after we got better.  My stomach has had a few issues recovering from that. 

I'm also combating morning sickness (Baby Hidalgo due in April! YAY).  So finding things I can eat lately are challenging.  My usualy remedies are not working this time and it's leaving me a little puzzled.  I'm usually fine eating what I'm craving and being done... But no, this baby decided that wasn't going to work. :p lol. So it seems my go-tos are pizza and tomato soup.  But hey, it works. I also have Morning-Ease herbal pills from SolarRay and Papaya Enzyme to help.  

The kids are back in the swing of school.  We are working our way through the alphabet, on letter J this week.  I'm trying to think of ways to make the letter writing fun for my five year old, he's not much of a writer.  I simplified from my original plans and we are incorporating chalk boards instead of doing everything on paper and playing some board games.  

I'm still working on Christmas stockings, have the cross stich part done on two, now I need to do the sewing part so they are ready to hang next month. We'll see if I can get another done before Christmas.   I have to make pajamas for the kids and slippers from the scraps of the fleece.  

We are working on establishing a cleaning routine, something I've never been great at it, but I think it will help my anxiety level if I can figure something out.  I'm trying to pick an area of the house and do that a day out of the week.. Plus the typical and daily laundry and dishes.  

The weather has turned colder here so we are wearing sweaters and not going outside as much (where'd my sanity go again?).  It's definitely cocoa and hot tea season.  YUMMY. :D  My favorite.  

Onto the promised recipe. This has been passed down for at least three generations on the German side of my family.  Trust me, you'll want kiddo help to make the cookies. :) Makes it go a lot faster and they'll have fun. 
Fair warning-the 'anise' flavoring is the same flavoring as black licorice.. Personally, I HATE black licorice but LOVE these cookies. Also, this recipe makes 3-4 GALLONS of bite size cookies. 


Peppernuts (Pfefferneusse) 
3 cups brown sugar
3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 scant tablespoon anise
1 cup shortening or butter
1 teaspoon each of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, coriander (or       cardamon), nutmeg
1 tablespoon baking powder 
About 5 lbs of flour

Soften shortening, cream in sugars, mix in the rest. Then add the flour. It will be almost as stiff as bread dough and require your hands to work in all the flour. You don't want it to stick to your hands, but more flour can be added and will be needed later-probably a cup or two.  
Chill for a couple of days.  
(Now comes the fun part, and the part where you want help!)  Roll out the dough and cut in small pieces.  How we do it, is we sprinkle flour on the table or cutting board-whatever you are using. Work a chunk of the dough soft (treat it like you would sugar cookie dough, get out a little at a time then put the rest back for a bit), roll it out like play dough in about 1/2 inch diameter 'strings'.  Take a table knife and cut in about 1/4 inch long bites.  
Bake at 375 about 10 minutes.  They will be brown on the outside but nice and soft on the inside.  

How I Make Money From Home

I keep seeing these posts on how to make money from home.. they give you all these great ideas, but I have to be honest, not many work for me.  

You've seen the ads on my blog, but in order to get paid, enough people have to click... So I would love to say that writing gets me paid, but it doesn't.. 

I have tried many different sites, from a transcriptionist site, to a secret shopper site-but apparently I don't have the stuff it takes for those. So for now, I just stick with survey sites (yes, the links here will make me money if you join and get to so many points)...  While it's not big money, it helps a little.  So I'll share with you my favorites.  

Vindale Research, there are some surveys you get through them but they are mostly a trial and review company.. Meaning you pay a low price for something (we've done coffee and books) and you get paid for the review you provide.. Yes, that requires money out of pocket the first time around, but you get paid quicker doing the product reviews than just the surveys. To get paid, you have to get to $50.. I haven't gotten there yet, so I can't tell you how quick it is, but my husband has gotten paid twice from them so it is legit. http://tryvindale.com/ViowMkJy
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Mommy Talk Surveys is one of my favorites, but it does take awhile to get to the thresholds. They have a lot of different options for payout and it is strictly a survey site.  I've done it a few different ways, $50 paypal and $25 amazon gift card... Both ways it takes them about 6 weeks to get the payment to you... the $50 I hit about once a year, $25 about twice a year, but it really does depend on how much time you are willing to give to surveys. No referral link here, but if you want to give it a shot the website is www.mommytalksurveys.com

Inbox Dollars is really my favorites because there's many different ways to earn and they even have some free stuff available.. There's surveys, product trials, discounts to buy, internet searches and paid emails. You have to get to at least $30 to cash out with them and they send a check or load it onto a prepaid card which you keep around for next time.  http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref13994113

Bing is also one of my favorites.  I get about $5 from them every month.  Bing, you search. That's it. On the computer, you can search up to 30 searches a day and 10 searches on the phone if you have a smart phone. Plus they send out emails with bonus searches and have different opportunities to earn extra each week.  While their cash out options are limited, we find a lot of benefit in the Amazon gift card option.   https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards?PUBL=REFERAFRIEND&CREA=RAW&rrid=_2bbfb1ad-d7ab-589a-01cb-7029fa1cbf9

My Points is also a favorite.  They send out paid emails and offers for many different, have a few surveys available and also pay to search.   I've cashed out with them once and gotten a gift card to Sam's Club. For that one I have to have somebody's email to refer, but if you want to try go to www.mypoints.com. 

Ibotta is an app I've been trying. Even though my smart isn't hooked up anymore, I'm still able to use a few of the apps through the wifi.  It's an online coupon app basically.  You go through and upload coupons of things you bought (you have to watch a commercial), then when you have your receipt, you sometimes have to scan the product code sometimes just the receipt. You get the money back for however much the coupon was for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I know the threshold is $10 and I'm almost there. You can find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. https://ibotta.com/r/eqpameo

Another app I used is called Receipt Hog. You scan your grocery receipts and get so much money back-it depends on how much the receipt is for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I'm halfway there.  The referral code for them is STRAY857. Just find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. 

If you join Inbox Dollars first, they have links to a lot of these and you get money for joining the other survey site.  My husband tried pay to click... that was tedious and a little annoying. 

Like I said, this isn't big money... I've also gotten surveys to enter survey communities-which guarantees me money every months-which is nice... I've made $160 this year...so it's been enough to help with dry goods things we can online, or I bought school supplies from Dollar Tree with a Inbox Dollars payout.  

-Tabitha

Cloth Feminine Pads

This post is about how I made my light days/panty liners pads... Minus the snaps.. because I'm arguing with Amazon over the payment method.... 

So I made my pattern through measurements I got through the Amy Nix videos on YouTube. That was a lot simpler than it sounds.. Take two computer paper sheets, fold in fourths.  I wanted these pads 8 inches long, so I made a mark at 4 inches, then a mark about halfway down at 1 1/2 inches to get my pad three inches wide, the wings were measured at 3 inches to make sure I had them wide enough to fasten underneath.. Connect all your dots. For your seam allowance, you want to measure 1/4" from the first line. Cut along the outside line and unfold your papers.  Take your second paper, draw a line to cut the wings off, then mark 1/2" inside that line and the edge. (I did 1/4", it was too long.) Cut along the last line made, this is your liner. I marked them both since I plan on making more than one pattern. 

My finished Pattern

 I used flannel for the outside, traced around my pattern making enough for 12 pads.

 Here's the tracing of my inserts, I used cotton for this-old cloth diapers and a tshirt. 

 Here's all my pieces cut out. 

 You pin however much you are comfortable with. For me, it just took enough to hold it in place. I did an assembly line, so one step at a time.. Can you see how there's not much room between the liner and the outer layer? That caused a few issues later on.   A lot of the instructions I have seen, women use a zig zag or decorative stitch for this part-makes it fancy.  So if you have a fancy sewing machine, go for it. I did use a different color thread on some of them... but then the thread decided it didn't want to cooperate with the bobbin.

 My 80 year old sewing machine I'm still learning how to use. :) The only thing I miss is the zig zag stitch some days. 

 My helper. Both girls love to help pin-makes me nervous! LOL 

 So when you get the liners sewed on, you want to sew the right sides together, making sure you leave a spot  (about 2 inches) to turn it right side out, a lot easier on a straight side. 

Here's the two pieces sewn together.   

Instructions I've seen also said to clip the corners, being careful not to clip your stitches, there won't be as much bulk when turned in the seams this way. Personally, I haven't seen much difference, I clipped some and I didn't clip some. 

Here it is after I turned it.  A lot of people use a chopstick to help make sure they get everything flat, my hands are small enough I don't need the extra help-at least with these.  It's also recommended you iron to get the seam flat after this step, but I didn't-mostly because of the little finger help I had.  

And here's the finished project. After you turn, you want to top stitch to keep everything flat and to get that turning spot closed.  If you have snaps, now is the time to do those. Fold the wings around, mark where they overlap and then follow the instructions for your snap pliers/press.  

For now, I'm just using a diaper pin, a little uncomfortable, but until Amazon processes the gift cards, I'm stuck.  

Hope this helps any who are thinking of making their own pads. 

Tabitha 

Mamacloth Information

Fair warning, if you're a man and you're reading this-you might want to stop, because this could get uncomfortable very quickly for you. (Don't say I didn't warn you if you keep reading.) 



Mamacloth 

photo credit goes to sewnpads.weebly.com

Also known as cloth feminine pads. 

Now before you start in on 'eewwww', think about it this way. It's a GREAT money saver.  Even buying enough fabric at the store to get your supply going or buying them already made, we're talking $30-$40 for the rest of your life-or, at the very least, years depending on if the cloth wears down or not.  Is there a certain ew factor, yes, I would have to agree with that, but it's not really that bad.  

There are many different styles, from the "stuffed" ones like in the picture, to All In Ones (AIOs), where everything is all together and you just have to put it on. 

(Now for the personal part..) Since I started using cloth-still only part time since I just now found a pattern I love and it works great-which will be a different post-the length in periods has gotten shorter, the cramps are going away... All in all-it's a better week for everybody in the house. Sure I still get the PMS symptoms and mood swings, but even I can tell it's not NEAR as bad. 

Switching to cloth can be pretty simple. If you sew, you can make your own very simply, or you can buy them already made. There are a ton of ladies on Etsy, Luna Pads, Kawaii Babies has some (I know I'm missing a ton of the big ones).  Pretty much any place you can buy cloth diapers, you can buy mama cloth.  

Making your own is simple, too once you find a pattern you like.  I first started off using Hillbilly Housewife's pattern. Simple, but not quite what I wanted. After much searching on Pinterest and Youtube, I found a tutorial to show me what I was doing wrong and am now working on building my cloth pad stash.  Amy Nix does awesome tutorials from how to make your own pattern, to what you could be doing wrong that your pads aren't turning out how you want them to.  There are even some groups on Facebook to get you going (Isn't there a Facebook group for everything?).   If you choose to make your own, you have to decide what you want to make them out of. You need an absorbent layer, I've seen everything from bamboo to flannel. Personally, I like flannel..mostly because I have it in the house just sitting in my huge scrap pile. So that's the core... Then you have the front layer (layer against your skin), you obviously want this to be soft, so something cotton or flannel (again lol) would work just great.. Now comes the back layer. For the 'just in case' scenario, you'll want something that will keep your clothes clean.  You can do PUL (a waterproof fabric), or you can do fleece. While fleece doesn't have the waterproof way that PUL does, it seems to work just fine for me.  

Most people use snaps to hook them together, those fancy plastic snaps you know-they are a lot easier that the metal ones.. I just have to save up for the tool and the snaps.  Right now I'm using a diaper pin...that has to be situated just right or it's very uncomfortable.. You can use velcro, or I've even seen buttons. It's really up to you. If you don't want wings, you don't have to have wings. If you need them longer, wider... There are entirely customizable-as is anything homemade. 

Sew all your layers together, insert the snap if you have them and you're ready to go. 

To wash, some people wash in the sink after putting them straight in a pail of cold water to minimize staining.  I just throw them in with the cloth diapers and wash at the same time.  

Cloth pads do have more than just the monetary value, there are no chemicals against your skin and they are less abrasive-not to mention you don't have to worry about toxic shock syndrome.  If you have issues where you have to wear a panty liner all the time, it really is a money saver.  

Leave any questions you have and I'll see if I can find the answer! I'll follow up with a blog with pictures on how to make your pattern (straight from an Amy Nix video) that was as easy as pie and what part of my final stash looks like. 

~Tabitha