Homemade broth

Most of you know, our quest for eating healthy.  We try to stay away from food colorings, perservatives, and gluten.  Hubby eats a little gluten, me not a bit.  So we use broth to flavor a lot of meals, some meals I was paying $8.00 for broth, not to mention having to bring all those cans home.
Well, this is $8.00 worth of fresh veggies.  Look how easy, I chopped them into huge pieces, seasoned them with olive oil and Toni Chachere's.  Quick and easy, and I estimated it made $24.00 of broth.  That makes me happy.

Wash, and chop in large pieces
1 bunch celery
2 bell peppers, seed also
3 onions, I left the peelings on
1 pack carrots
drizzle on olive oil
drop in 3 cloves olives
season to taste
bake 2 hours at 350
cover with water, simmer 2 hours
cool
strain
I put in glass jars and froze.  Leave at least 1 inch space at top
We have used it in several recipes, and love it.

Food in a jar

Well, its all the rage.  And I love it.  I have been having lots of fun making treats in a jar.  For some reason, I thing they stay fresher, look better, and you get portion control.  I may keep eating if the bowl is out, but for some reason, I would NEVER eat 2 jars.  I do bring the jars to work.  Haven't had any break.

For these pudding treats I used:

5 pint jars
1/2 sliced banana to each jar
Mix one large vanilla pudding according to directions, I shook mine in a jar
Divide pudding evenly
put 4 low fat Vanilla wafers on top
Close lid, and refigerate immediately.

Hubby loved these, they only lasted 3 days, but were still fresh for that long.

Christmas Wrapping

I can't be more excited.  These will be the wrapping for our Christmas presents.  We like to use reuseable bags, etc.  I found these at the Dollar Tree.  I plan on putting a big bow on each, and fill with handmade goodies.  We give dog treats to some people, this is the first year in a while they have had the big dog bowls, so we were excited about that.  The girls and I are giving some joint gifts this year, I think it will be fun. 

Practing quilting

At the beginning of the year I decided to do a challenge for learning quilting techniques.  With our crazy year, I didn't get too far, but everyone who received a practing pot pad was happy.  I have a whole stack ready to practice on.  I would really like to start back doing the challenge.  I used blanket stitch to finish this binding.  I am very happy with it.  What a great way to practice a new technique.  If you don't like it, you haven't wasted a whole lot of time.

Block a day

Here's our little sweetie watching guard as I am cutting out fabric.  Here is a whole bunch of string blocks that I am work on at one time.  I don't think I am going to like tearing all the paper off.  I wonder if I would have been happier using fabric.  Which would you rather us?

Block a day

Well, my block a day kinda fell to the way side.  But I plan on slowly finding them in the stack, and see how many I can finish this year.

Another Finish

This is a small fleece blanket for a friends baby.  I love small finishes.