Slow Cooker Roast And 1 Hour Rolls

There's not a whole lot that compares to a slow cooked roast. It's the ultimate comfort food. I make one every so often when we are craving a substantial meal. I love that it's SO easy to put together. Literally just throw it all into the slow cooker and turn it on. This recipe is an oldie, but a goodie.

 

 

Here are your ingredients. A roast (I don't think it matters what kind), onions, mushrooms, baby carrots, a brown gravy packet, a ranch dressing packet, an Italian dressing packet and water.

 

Mix the brown gravy packet, ranch dressing packet and Italian dressing packet with 1/2 C. water

 

Put roast in the slow cooker. Layer the remaining ingredients (carrots, mushrooms and quartered onions) I usually like to do potatoes in here too. I either cut them into pieces, or use fingerling potatoes. I left them out 

This time. Feel free to throw whatever you like in there.

 

Pour the packet sauce mix over the top of everything. Cook (preferably) on low for 8 hours. You can do it on high for 4 hours if you don't have the time. That's what I did this time.

 

Progress about halfway through the cook time. (two hours for me)

Finished product.

 

Serve and enjoy!

                                                             1 HOUR ROLLS

We LOVE fresh baked rolls at our house. I usually make traditional rolls, but decided I'd try out this quick 1 hour recipe tonight. Rolls were kind of an after thought this evening and I didn't have time to go the traditional route. These were quick, easy and tasty. I will change up the recipe next time though and use a different fat... probably softened butter... because I could taste the oil in the finished product. The rest of the fam loved them. Its a good go to for when you're in a time crunch! And did I mention EASY???

 

 

Combine warm water, oil, sugar and yeast. Be sure your water is not too hot or it will kill the yeast. Also, if you're using a metal bowl its a good idea to run the bowl under warm water before beginning. A cold bowl will bring your water temperature down significantly.

 

 

 

Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes until its frothy like this.

 

Add beaten egg and salt.

 

Mix in flour until combined. You want to add enough flour to make a sticky dough.

 

Mix with dough hook. (if you don't have a mixer, combine it by hand and turn out on a flour surface. Knead for 5 minutes.)

 

It should look something like this. It will be sticky. That's ok. Don't add more flour or they'll turn out tough.

 

Let rest for about 10 minutes on the bowl. Then it's ready to shape.

 

 

Spray your baking sheet with non stock spray. I spray my hands too. It makes the sticky dough MUCH easier to handle.

 

 

Take the dough and shape onto a ball. Push your finger up through it, as pictured. Pinch the dough closed on the bottom.

 

Place the dough on the greased sheet, seam side down.

 

 

Line 'em up! I got 15 rolls out of this recipe.

 

Cover with a light towel and let rise for about 20 minutes.

 

Ready to bake! Bake in 375° oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

Brush with butter or enjoy as they are!

 

Recipe as follows:

 

Ingredients

- 1 C. warm water

- 1\4 C. sugar

- 1/3 C. oil

- 2 Tablespoons of yeast

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 egg, beaten

- 3 1/3 flour

 

Directions

1. In a kitchenaid mixer bowl, mix together warm water, sugar, oil and yeast. Let stand 15 minutes until yeast mixture is frothy or bubbly.

2. Stir in salt and beaten egg into yeast mixture.

3. Gradually add flour. Dough will be sticky. Add enough flour to make dough manageable. Let dough sit in bowl for about 10 minutes.

4. Spray baking sheet and hands with non stick spray and form dough into balls. Place dough on baking sheet, cover with light towel and let rise for about 20 minutes.

5. Bake in a 375° oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly brown.

 

 

I got this recipe from whatsonyourmenu.blogspot.com via Pinterest.

 

-Lauren

 

 

Pajama Pants

I have recently been going through my enormous stash of things to refashion and my raw fabric. I'm trying to get everything organized and functional. It always amazes me how much stuff I have accumulated!!! And after all of the moving I have NO idea what I have anymore. It is always SO exciting for me to open up a box of my thrift store treasures that I have in storage. It's better than Christmas for me! :) I've been feeling very inspired lately and have been working on a TON of projects. Now it's time to get them all on my blog to share them with you :)

My oldest son, "The Potus", is LONG and LEAN. I have problems finding pants for him that are long enough and also skinny enough at the waist. He has recently outgrown ALL of his pajama pants, seemingly overnight. (by length obviously...he has yet to outgrow a waistband lol). I decided to whip him up a few pairs. I hardly ever use "new" fabric. I feel like it is less of a challenge. Plus I like to reuse as many things as I can. I do have quite a bit that I have accumulated over the years that I've picked up on sale along the way. I got this fabric for $1 a yard. I'm going to be trying to use up a lot of my raw fabric the next few months just to get rid of it...so there are more "raw fabric" projects headed this way :)

I started these the other day, but have been SO busy I didn't get a chance to finish them until tonight. They are SO UNBELIEVABLY easy. It's ridiculous.

STEP 1: Lay your fabric out (folded in half). You can pin it if you'd like...I don't. Use an old pair of PJ's for a rough pattern. Turn them inside out and make sure they're laying flat. Then trace around them using something.  BTW, this is the FIRST TIME I've EVER used tailors chalk. I finally bought some and retired my trusty sharpie. We'll see if it lasts. These old PJ's are WAY too short so I made sure to add a bunch of length at the bottom. And don't forget to leave room for a hem! Once you have traced the outline move them over and trace again.

 

STEP 2: (not pictured) Cut out your traced pants. You should have 4 pieces.

 

STEP 3: This is VERY important. Take one of your scraps and tie it around your head like Rambo. And don't forget to make a goofy face. I was lucky to have "The Tao" around to help me with this. 

 

STEP 4: Put two of your pieces right sides together and sew up the seams. (I sew and serge...just because I can...it's not necessary though) There's probably a "right" way to do this. But I am self taught and I do what works for me, so by all means do what works for you. I sew up the back and front seams first. Meaning crotch to waistband. This will give you two pieces now instead of the 4 you started out with. And they are now "pants" shaped. Then I put the two "pants shaped" pieces right sides together and sew up the inseam and then the outer sides. Again, you can pin if you'd like or if you feel more comfortable. I don't. You will now have a constructed pair of pants! (as pictured above) All that's left is to hem the bottoms and make a waistband to put elastic in.

 

STEP 5: (not pictured) Turn the bottoms of the pants up and run them through your machine. Easy.

 

 

STEP 6: Fold the waist over a bit. Then fold over again. I folded mine down about an inch. You can iron for perfect crisp results. I'm not that worried about it :) It would certainly make things easier, but I am lazy with things like that and just do it on the fly. I did pin it though, quickly, this time because it kept unrolling and pins were within arms reach. Don't forget to leave a little opening to feed the elastic through.

 

STEP 7: Measure your piece of elastic. I just put it around "The Potus'" waist and added a little bit as a seam allowance. I used 1/2" elastic.

 

STEP 8: Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic and feed it through the opening you left. Once it's all the way through make sure it's laying straight and sew the ends together, making a loop. Try very hard to ignore the ugly thumbnail. You can do it. 

 

STEP 9: (not pictured) Sew the opening closed and turn your new pants right side out. DONE!

 

 

And here's the finished product! He loves how they fit (he likes things a little higher waisted) and he's got some room to grow. These were SO easy!!! Took just a few minutes and they only cost $1! Now "The Potus" is ready to wear them to Pajama Day at school tomorrow! He is so excited. He's ALWAYS so impressed with my projects and shows them off to everyone. Always proud of his Momma. He's such a sweetheart. And did I mention handsome?

 

Now I gotta make some for "The Tao" and some for myself. They're so comfy!

 

These were done just in time to eat some stuffed peppers

 

 

And cinnamon rolls! Yum!

 

It was a good day.

 

I'm BAAAACCCCKKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Man, I've been gone a long time!!! SO many things have happened. I've got yet another long distance  move under my belt. Ugh. But Things are finally getting settled and are getting back to normal. YAY! Finally. I had the chance to get my sewing machine and serger out last week. They were in need of a good cleaning and new needles.

 Its SO dirty!

 Bent needle.

I got them all taken care of and I'm ready to start refashioning again! I can't wait to show you!  I've been working on quite a few and plan on posting here regularly now so be sure to stay tuned for new things! Thanks for your support :)

Toy Hooks!

Time to start the LONG process of playing catch up!!! I've been SO, SO, SO busy! I have seriously almost 50 projects to post here to get current. I apologize for the delay :) I'll start with this toy hook project. This project was fun, easy, practical and best of all...CHEAP! I needed some hooks to hang toy bags in the boys' room. I started with a piece of wood I got out of the scrap bin at home depot...it set me back .51. Good stuff. I sanded it smooth..Slapped some green paint on it...Finished it off with a sealer...Screwed it to the studs in my wall...Screwed the hooks (that I found at the dollar store) to the green board and done! And it cost under $5!!!

Really Ugly Skirt Into A Cowl Neck Top

I love working with skirts and dresses and I haven't played with them in a while. I stopped in at my favorite thrift store while I was in Utah and as usual they were having a .25 sale. I picked up 6 different items for a grand total of $1.50 (that's right, I'm a baller!!!)...one of them being this hideous skirt.

BEFORE-This thing is BAD. It had a zipper up the back and a slit up the side. SO CUTE. I started playing around with it...putting it on every different way I could think of. After playing with it (and looking like a total freak of nature)...(btw, that's how you know you're doing it right.if you look wierd/crazy doing it. lol) I decided this skirt would end up upside down..and with only a tiny bit of tweaking would make the perfect effortless cowl neck shirt.

I decided to sew together the bottom part of the slit. I just rejoined it at the very bottom and planned on keeping the slit open to use as an arm hole. (This skirt is ending up upside down when I'm done with it)

Opening up the seam on the opposite side of the slit. This will be my other arm hole :)

Taking off the excess fabric. I was kind of bummed out because I wanted to keep the length...but when I turned it upside down the waist part was too small to fit over my hips. So, I cut it off just below the zipper and hemed the raw edge. It was just the perfect length after that..although I wish I could have kept it longer.

AFTER - Here it is...I hemed the side seam that I opened up for the arm hole. Then all that was left to do was kind of form fit it to my body. (For this I just put it on inside out and pinned the fit I liked. Then sewed it up and that was it! Really easy project! I want to do this again...I can't wait to get my hands on another skirt! :) (Oh, and P.S. this after pic is awful...I did this project while I was in Utah and I finished it in the middle of the night...that's why I'm looking so good lol. And thanks for taking the pic for me, ma)

Men's Dress Shirt Into a Cute Frilly Top

So, this is a shirt I made a while ago...I didn't document the making of this along the way, but here's the before and after. (Sorry, I forgot to turn the flash off on my camera...bad pic...I'll redo it later) This project was pretty easy and straight forward. I just unpicked the sleeves and sized it down. I cut a scoop neck out to get rid of the collar. Then I cut 2 long strips out of the sleeves (maybe 3" wide and the entire length of the sleeve. I gathered the strips and layered one on top of the other one. I sewed these onto the hemed scoop neck and finished it off with a brown braided leather belt. Half of the time I wear a belt high waisted like in the pic...and the other half of the time I wear a thick brown belt around the hip area. (I'll post a pic of it this way soon!) And that's it! Fairly easy and super comfy :)

T Shirt Scarf

 Before and After. I saw a scarf similar to this on P.S. I made this and I ecided to make one of my own. Here's how to do it! (Super easy!)

 Start with a regular old T. I chose a purple one with stripes because it's what I had in my suppy closet and I thought it would make a more interesting scarf instead of using a plain T. But you can use pretty much any colored T and any sized T.

 Cut it off just under the armpits...not sure why this pic is upside down...it will NOT let me turn it. lol.

 I kept the bottom hem of the shirt in tact so I didn't have to worry about heming it myself. I just cut a bunch of strips in a length and width that I thought looked good. Believe me, this is not a scientific process lol. (This pic is about halfway done. I ended up cutting each of these strips in half because I wanted thinner strips.)

After...seriously, SO easy to make and fun to wear :) Love it!