Day 158: Homemade Bubbles (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I count these as a success, although I still haven't found homemade bubbles that rival the "blowing power" of store-bought bubbles.  My kids seemed to like this previous recipe a little better than this one today.  Anyone else have a recipe for me to try??

Ingredients:

6 cups water
2 cups Dawn dishwashing liquid
3/4 cup light corn syrup

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large container.  Shake everything up and let sit for a few hours. Pour into empty bubbles containers to use with bubble wands.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 157: Strawberry & Banana Popsicles (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I recently decided to invest in a ZOKU Quick Pop Maker, as my kids love Popsicles and I was hoping to sneak healthier ingredients into their favorite treat. Since this was our first time trying the Quick Pop Maker, we didn't combine the strawberry and banana flavors into one pop, as this took an additional step with the machine.  We made strawberry ones and banana ones separately, and the kids loved both.  I personally thought there was a bit too much lemon juice in both, particularly the banana flavor, but as you can see, my banana-loving child wasn't fazed!

Strawberry Popsicle Ingredients:
6 ounces hulled, quartered strawberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons sugar

Combine ingredients in a mini food processor (I used my Magic Bullet machine) until smooth.  Freeze mixture in Popsicle molds for a few hours (or 7-9 minutes with the Zoku Quick Pop Maker!).

Banana Popsicle Ingredients:
6 ounces (about ¾ cup) mashed ripe bananas (this was two small bananas for me)
2 tablespoons milk
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine using the method described above -- puree, freeze & enjoy!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 156: Pom-Poms as Erasers (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

My kids love to use dry erase markers and this pin looked like a quick way for them to easily erase their work if they made a mistake.  This was easy and worked -- simply hot-glue gun a pom-pom on the bottom of a dry erase marker.

The only negative was that my son kept losing the marker cap (since he usually sticks it on the bottom of the marker while in use), but he was occupied for quite awhile with drawing and erasing, so I count that as a success!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 155: Tension Rod to Hold Pot Lids (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I had to modify this pin a bit, as my pots and pans are not in a drawer, but in a large cabinet underneath the stove.  I already use a tension rod in the cabinet to keep cutting boards, placemats and cookie sheets upright, but the pots, pans and lids are a mess:

I took the pots, pans and lids out, installed a tension rod along the back of the cabinet and stuck 4 of the 6 lids along the back wall.

I was then able to more easily stack the pots and pans (and only 2 lids) in the front of the cabinet.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 154: Olive Oil to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances (fail).

Pinterest pin (no website link).

I have stainless steel appliances and small kids with sticky fingers, so I was excited to try this pin.  This was my dishwasher last night:

As the pin suggested, I put olive oil on a paper towel and rubbed it on the front of the dishwasher before using a clean towel to buff the residue off.  Unfortunately, it just made the front of the dishwasher appear to have a film all over it; the olive oil residue wouldn't come off.

As you can see, I also forgot to clean the right-hand side of the dishwasher, so I'm off to do that now with the stainless steel cleaner I bought at the store!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 153: Cleaning Dirty Oven Racks (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

 

I've completed several pins on cleaning my oven, but have never found anything on cleaning the oven racks.  And I think we can all agree that mine were disgusting :(

Instructions:

Place oven racks in the bath tub and fill with HOT water until racks are covered.  While the water is on, add about 6 dryer sheets and 1/2 cup of dish soap (I used the original blue Dawn).

Let sit overnight. Remove any remaining buildup with the dryer sheets.

They're not perfect, but they're SO much better -- and  most of the grease and build-up came easily off by lightly scrubbing with the dryer sheets in the morning.

This probably goes without saying, but you'll need to clean your bathtub after completing this pin!

 

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 152: Camping Tacos (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

These were so easy and perfect for our upcoming camping trip!  And as a bonus, the only items to wash were the serving dishes, as we will use plastic silverware while camping.

Instructions:
Buy snack-sized bags of chips (I bought the variety pack and thought we'd only use the Fritos, but my husband thought that using Doritos tasted better!). 

Open and roll down the edges of each chip bag.  Add any taco ingredients you normally would (we had sour cream, cheese, salsa, lettuce, and olives, plus ground beef with taco seasoning).  When taking this as a camping meal, I'd cut up all ingredients prior to leaving, plus brown  the meat at home and then warm up over the fire or camp stove.  The kids couldn't believe they got to eat chips for dinner!

Verdict: SUCCESS!