Make-Ahead Breakfast Meals

It goes without saying that sometimes mornings can be a little chaotic. Whether you homeschool or send your kids off to school, they still have to eat! Not only do they have to eat but your husband has to eat and if your lucky you'll get some breakfast too. I tend to save my "special" breakfasts like pancakes, waffles, eggs/turkey bacon/potato breakfasts for the weekends since they take more time to prepare and often, I don't want to get up early enough to pull it off during the week. I really dislike buying from the freezer section and I am not a fan of cereal because I feel like it leaves you hungry too quickly. So, I rely on these lovely go to recipes. They are either easy to make in under 5 minutes, prepared in the crockpot the night before or you can make them up quickly and toss them in the freezer. This ensures that you never (or almost never!) have to send off your husband and/or children with a less than nutritious and filling breakfast.
This recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's recipe and is a great one if you have a large family to feed and your on a tight budget or just really short on time in the morning. It is filling, versatile and ready when you wake up in the morning.

CrockPot Steal Cut Oatmeal:

4 servings (you can easily double or triple this)

1 cup steel cut oats

1 cup dried or fresh cranberries, chopped apples, raisins, blueberries, strawberries... the list is endless! (optional)

1 cup pecans, walnuts, almonds, flax seed, dried coconut... again, the list is endless! (optional)

1-3 tbs combined of your favorite spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger...)

1/8-1/4 cup of honey (I like mine sweet, you can certainly leave this out)

4 cups water

1/2 cup milk (I use rice milk so any "milk" works here)

Dump all of your ingredients into the crockpot, give it a light stir to combine. Set the temperature on the longest setting. That's it! You can choose to flavor it with fruit, nuts and spices ahead of time or you can make it competely plain and let everyone make it to their liking with whatever fruit/nuts/sweetener you have on hand. Depending on your texture preference you will probably want to play with this a little so don't give up if you don't love it the first time! You can always add/reduce the ammount of water and oats.

This is a very quick breakfast that will make your family feel like they are getting a special treat in the week. The great thing is your getting whole grains, eggs and you can top it with fresh fruit, honey or syrup.

Quick French Toast:

3-4 servings at 1 1/2-2 slices per person

• 6 slices of whole grain bread
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

This is pretty self explanatory. Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix the cinnamon and nutmeg in with a fork. Dunk bread into the eggs and put quickly into a hot pan. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Serve. Protien, whole grains and fresh fruit. Quick, easy, minimal mess.

Another easy make-ahead meal that you can keep in your fridge. This is one of my husbands favorites and often takes an extra to work for a snack or shares with work buddies. I usually make these in bulk for the week.

Breakfast Burritos (bulk recipe)

7-10 servings depending on how large/full your tortillas are

• 10 eggs
• 2 potatoes, grated
• 1 cup of desired cheese, grated (you can add or reduce this ammount)
• 1 lb ground turkey sausage/turkey bacon/turkey ham
• 7-10 whole grain tortillas
• 1/4 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1/4 pepper, chopped (optional)
• 1/4 cup mushrooms, chopped (optional)

First, cook up your sausage. When it is nearly done, toss in your onions, peppers and mushrooms if your using them. Drain off grease and then dump them into a large bowl. Scramble eggs in the sausage pan. Once cooked, dump into the large bowl. Toss all of your grated potatoes into skillet (remember to salt and pepper them) and cook till crispy. Drain off grease and, you guessed it! Dump into the large bowl. Now dump in your cheese. Lightly mix all this together until its evenly distributed. Now you can just scoop out filling into the tortillas. I like to put my finished burritos in a long tupperware dish and keep it in the fridge. You can also wrap them individually and freeze them.le

One of my favorite things to eat (though its been a couple years...) is McDonalds Breakfast Sandwiches. As I mentioned before, I don't like buying from the frozen section so Jimmy Dean was a nogo too. I saw this idea on Pinterest and find it makes for an easy breakfast sandwich!

Sausage Egg McMuffins

6 servings

• 6 eggs
• 6 slices of desired cheese
• 6 whole grain english muffins
• 1 pound turkey sausage

Heres the fun part :) Grab your muffin pan and swipe a little butter in each one. Crack one egg in each slot. In the remaining 6 slots press in your turkey sausage to desired thickenss. Put in a preheated oven at 350. Cook until Egg is firm and sausage is cooked. Once your eggs and meat have cooled simply assemble the sandwich, wrap in tin foil or put in a large freezer baggie. Place in your freezer. Reheat like you normally would in an oven, toaster oven (my preference) or microwave.


What are some of your go-to breakfasts on a busy morning? How do you make sure your family has a filling and healthy meal?

Written By Happily Domestic Contributer: Brittney Thompson

Okkatots Travel Baby Depot Bag WINNER!!!

CONGRATULATIONS JOANNA!!!

She left winning comment #106

(number drawn using the random number generator at Random.org)

JoAnna said...

I follow on gfc
joanna.hay.dvm@gmail.com

October 21, 2011 4:16 PM

Winner has been contacted by email and has 48 hours to claim prize or a new winner will be drawn.

Green Smoothie Recipe!

If you have a hard time getting your children to eat their greens or just need a super healthy breakfast pick me up, the Green Smoothie is what you need! Packed full of superfoods and amazingly healthy, this smoothie is so delicious even your toddlers and picky eaters will love it. You may want to send your kiddos out of the room when you make it though. If they see all the spinach you are putting in they may refuse to try it. Okay, here is how you make it....

Green Smoothie

2 cups organic spinach leaves

1 organic apple sliced (leave peel on, it adds fiber!)

Juice from 1 lime

2 heaping tablespoons raw organic hemp seed (I bought Holy Hemp brand as it is not gritty) (By the way, this adds protein)

1 organic banana

1 pack stevia extract

10-15 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients until smooth, but not liquid. You want a nice smoothie consistency, this is not juice. Serve immediately! Makes apx. 4 cups.

Glow Bug Cloth Diapers 2 Diaper WINNER!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO YESENIA!!!

She left winning comment #88....

(number chosen by the random number generator at Random.org)

Yesenia said...

Email subscriber entry 2.

morales_y at yahoo dot com

OCTOBER 12, 2011 1:30 PM

Winner has been contacted by email and has 48 hours to claim prize or a new winner will be drawn.

Super Easy Freezer Meals!

I am always on the lookout for easy and delicious freezer meals. Sometimes, if I have time or extra resources I will make an extra lasagna and freeze it or if I have a lot of extra spaghetti sauce or soup I will freeze it. In general though, I feel like that is so much work. It seems to me that whenever I try to get ahead of the game I end up doubling my workload for a few days and inevitably my kitchen will be wrecked. Then Im exhausted like this lovely housewife. Over time I have gathered a few great ideas from different people and found what really works best for me. As wives and mothers we don't get to be lazy very often, so when I have the opportunity to be lazy yet still feel like super woman getting things done, I am all over it! I don't remember where I saw this idea, but I absolutely love it! It is a great time saver and can be done quickly either as your putting your groceries away or on a freezer meal cook day.

First, get a freezer baggie big enough to hold 1 dinner's worth of meat,. 2 if you like to have leftovers for lunches. Stick the meat and whatever marinade/seasonings you like to use into the baggie. Seal it, rub it around, date it, label it and toss that baby into the freezer! All you need to do now is lay it in the fridge the night before to thaw and marinate and it's ready to be cooked for dinner the next night. You can also toss this right into the crockpot depending on what your wanting to make. This is great for making things like fajitas or stir fry too. Just slice the meat first and chop up some peppers, onions, mushrooms.. whatever you like and freeze it. After its thawed just throw it in the pan!

This next thing is absolutely brilliant and takes the above mentioned method to the "next level". I would love to take credit for the idea but I actually saw it on Mom and Baby Love blog. How could I not have thought of this before? Basically, you are freezing your crock pot meals. As if crock pot meals weren't already super easy you can make it even easier. Yes, it's true, pick your jaw up off the floor and get ready to speed through that freezer meal cook day!

First, pick out whatever recipes your wanting to use. Than your going to chop all your vegetables and meat and throw it in a large freezer baggie. Next your going to put your seasonings/sauce into the baggie. You are then going to label and date it and put it in the freezer. All you have to do on your crock pot mornings is set the bag out while your making breakfast and when breakfast is over (so like 20-30 minutes later) put the contents into your crockpot. No chopping, no seasoning... no cleaning!

Not only are both these freeze tactics fast, but I also like that when they are cooked the ingredients are fresh. The vegetables and meat aren't being cooked twice. I don't like when I have made past meals and they end up being a little dry because of that double cooking. This way your meat is cooked only once and your veggies are retaining more of their vitamins and nutrients. In my opinion this is a win/win/win.

Crock pot tacos or chili starter

Crock Pot Tacos/Chili Starter

1 pound ground meat of choice

1 whole green pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic minced

1/2 white onion chopped

2 tbs ground chili powder

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs ground paprika

1 pinch of salt and pepper

1 can beans, 1 can tomatoes, 1 can beef broth (if your wanting chili, not shown in this picture)

You can use this for either tacos or as the meat starter for chili. If you are sure you want it to be chili than just add the tomatoes, broth and beans now. If your not sure, than they can be added straight to the crock pot the morning of. Just put your meat in the bag, chop up your veggies and beans/tomatoe/broth if your using them and put them in the bag. Dish in your seasonings. Label, freeze. To prepare just lay out on the counter while your making breakfast or you can lay it in the fridge to thaw over night. Cook on whatever setting you need (8 hrs is best if your cooking it frozen). Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite freezing techniques? How do you get ahead of the game without overwhelming yourself?

Written By Happily Domestic Contributer: Brittney Thompson

Wordless Wednesday- The Ultimate Oxymoron!!

Enough said, the picture speaks for itself!

A closer look

WOW!

My 33rd Birthday- A Trip to the Mountains!

A couple weeks ago I celebrated my 33rd birthday. For the occasion my family and I headed up to the mountains for a picnic. The scenery was beautiful with all the fall colors. We had a nice lunch and then took a long walk on a trail. I wanted to share my pictures with you all.....

E is always picking me flowers! He says, "For you, ma".

Such a sweet boy!

My chillins chillin' by the lake.

Walking with Papa

By the way- Don't you know blankies make a pretty awesome fall poncho?

Taking in the views

We found the perfect tree for our picture! :-)

C-man

I-girl

E-boy

J-bug

Adventure

Autumn Splendor!

Juggling

We mommas are excellent jugglers! We don't even have to pick up balls, or pins, or batons to accomplish this feat! All we have to do is get out of bed in the morning. But how do we juggle all that we have to do each and every day without burning out and getting run down.


Dishes......

Laundry......

Dirty Floors....

the list goes on and on. So, how does one continue on this path and enjoy it while serving others ALL. THE. TIME.

Here are my top 3 thought....

1. Keep it in perspetive! When you start to feel overwhelmed, taken advantage of, and otherwise drained remember what Christ did for you. As a sinner, He died for you! That is the ultimate sacrificial lifestyle. And what you are doing has eternal worth. You are training hearts for service to Christ. You are impacting generations to come!! That is a worthy endeavor, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
2. Prioritize!! - No one takes a job and then stays in the office. If you are striving to be the homemaker that God has designed women to be, one that has a presentable house, home cooked meals, and completed laundry, you must stay at home. You can't keep up with the responsibility of a home if you are never there. Be very selective of what calls you away from home. The fewer times you leave the happier you will be in your home.
3. Enlist help - Training children to be responsible for their things and to be a contributing member of a family helps them to be better adults. And while the first few months of training can be time consuming and tedious, the effort will be worth it. Because one day you will be able to call your children to you and hand out tasks to be done and before you know it the house will be cleaned and you and the children will be able to happily meet Daddy at the door when he arrives from work.

Are you struggling today with finding joy in a life of raising children, cleaning house, cooking meals, and folding laundry? If so, I pray that today you will be encouraged and you will know that you are making an eternal impact on society by molding and shaping young lives to be moral and Godly adults that can shine for Christ. And if nothing else know this promise.....

..........and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14

God made you for now! For this job, at this time, with these children, and as the song says "From life's fist cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny" everything is in His control!So, my dear sister, rest in His plan and embrace the life He has blessed you with and find joy in the everyday!

Written by Happily Domestic Contributer: Amanda Sikes

Traveling Organized with Okkatots Review and Giveaway!!

Okkatots is a baby gear company founded in Utah by a woman with a passion for her children. Since her daughter was 18 months old, Jeanette has been designing practical and stylish baby gear for friends and family. When she created Okkatots her goal was to make parenting a little easier and more enjoyable with functional diaper bags, what has become an award winning frontal baby carrier and now the travel bag, which also happens to be award winning! After using the Travel Baby Depot Bag, I would say that the goal has been reached!

Let me start by saying that this travel bag is made with total functionality in mind. There is a place for every thing and every thing can be in it's place. I tend to be an over packer, especially when it comes to my son. This often means that I have stuff everywhere and that I have to take apart my entire bag or suitcase to find what I need. I know I'm not the only mom to do this, right? To show you just how amazing this bag is, I wanted to show you everything I packed in it for a weekend trip.

2 lg bottles, 3 jars baby food (just in case), spoon, 5 toys, 3 pacifiers, lotion, body wash, wash cloth, teething tablets, rescue remedy, 2 essential oils (lavender & theives), finger toothbrush, diaper cream, wipes, 7 diapers w/ inserts, 10ish outfits/jammies, 4 blankets and my breast pump.

That's a lot of stuff. I am a cloth diapering mom so that adds even more bulk to my packing. Now this is all of that stuff neatly packed into the travel baby depot bag, with room to spare. Accessible and organized. Stress free!

As you can see, this bag is the size of a large backpack. In my opinion it is too big for everyday use, but as the pictures show, absolutely perfect for traveling. After trying this bag I am quite interested in trying their backpack diaper bag for everyday use as it appears to share several of the organizational qualities I love.

Some of my favorite features:

Quality. Ok, so maybe this isn't really a "feature" but it is still one of my favorite things. Often when purchasing diaper bags or travel bags, quality is an issue. If your child plays to hard with the zipper or some other silly thing, the zipper breaks or the pockets tear... The fabric on both the inside and outside is high quality and durable. The same goes for all the zippers and pockets. Everything is well put together. This means that your money is being well spent and you will get lots of use out of it.

Accesibility. Everything that opens on this bag, opens to your particular needs. You can open this all the way, or you can open it back pack style, you can hang it up in your closet and open it for hands free access. The many pockets make it a cinch to reach in and find exactly what you need without having to dig around too much.. This makes getting to everything you need so easy!

Insolated Side Pocket. Your probably thinking "Oh ya, our diaper bag has insolated bottle holders...". This is not just an insulated holder pocket. This is like a built in cooler! I have not seen such a well insulated compartment in a diaper bag/travel bag, ever. There is enough room to pack multiple bottles or if you are past the bottle stage, you could put in snacks you'd like to keep cool. Or warm! See the video below for a closer look!

Overall, I am so happy with this bag! Staying organized while traveling with little ones is not easy. The stress of all their junk necessities can be overwhelming when you are away from home. This bag can do exactly as they hoped it would: Make being a parent less stressfull and more enjoyable.

To see all the features of the Okkatots Travel Baby Depot Bag, check out the video below. I show you step by step the ammount of thought that was put into the creation of this bag. I will show you all the pockets and all the fun perks like the built in diaper dispenser!

Written By Happily Domestic Contributer: Brittney Thompson

BUY IT- You can purchase your own Travel Baby Depot Bag as well as their other award winning baby gear from their online store by clicking here.

WIN IT- Okkatots has generously offered to give one of Happily Domestic's readers a Travel Baby Depot Bag! This is a $119 value!!!

First Mandatory entry: Go see Okkatots and look at all their other baby gear products. Come back here and tell me what your favorite product (not the Travel Bag) is and why.

After you have completed your first entry you are eligible for additional entries. *See my giveaway instructions here for more information. * *Remember to leave a separate comment for each additional entry and include your e-mail address.*
Extra Entries: (1 each unless specified, leave a separate comment for each thing you do)

• Follow Happily Domestic blog publicly through Google friend connect (can be found at my right sidebar.) - current follows count too! Counts for 2 entries.

• Subscribe to Happily Domestic's blog emails via Feedburner. Sign up box on right sidebar. Counts for 2 entries.

• Blog about THIS giveaway between October 11th and October 20th and gain TWOentries!!! link back to Happily Domestic- leave the URL where you blogged. Please leave separate comments for each entry. Example "I blogged about your Okkatots giveaway@ #1" then "I blogged about your Okkatots giveaway@ #2".

• Grab the Happily Domestic button! (found at right sidebar)- Leave the URL where it is posted.

• Follow Happily Domestic on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (counts as 1 entry)- after this you may "tweet" daily and gain an extra entry each day that you tweet-limit one per day.Leave your tweet status.

• Like Happily Domestic on Facebook. Click here. Leave a comment saying that you did this.

• Enter any of Happily Domestic's current giveaways, leave a comment and tell me which giveaway you entered. Counts as 1 entry per giveaway entered. Please leave separate comments per giveaway you entered.

• Follow Okkatots on Twitter. Click here.

• Like Okkatots on Facebook. Click here.

Giveaway ends October 25th, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.(MST). Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

*This giveaway is open to USA residents ONLY.
Must be 18 years old or older to win.*

Thank you to Okkatots who provided me with the Travel Baby Depot Bag free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review and giveaway.

Please Pray for Little E

I would appreciate your prayers, our Little E has been diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency. In the past I have written about E's small size and the delays he has encountered. He has had severe low muscle tone since he was a baby and didn't even walk until 23 months. He has been in physical therapy since age 5 months and is now in speech therapy as well. It has been a long road trying to figure out what was causing his troubles. He has seen several specialists in the past 2 years and had many, many blood tests. Finally, after only growing 1 inch this past year....they did several genetic tests as well as the GH Deficiency test. The genetic tests all came back normal (praise God), but he did fail the GH test.

Tomorrow E wil have an MRI first thing in the morning. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30am and the MRI will begin at 7:30am. He will have to be completely put under for this as they need him lying very still for almost 1 hour. They will be looking at his pituitary gland to see what it is doing. I really do not know a lot about it, but they say this will determine if he will have problems with it later on in life. At any rate, looks like we will be giving him nightly injections of Growth Hormones here soon. This would freak most people out, but we have actually been doing this for our daughter for the past 9 years (she has Turner Syndrome).

So please pray for E's safety. He has never had anesthesia before and so we do not know he will react. This always makes me nervous. Pray for his overall health and growth. Pray for us as parents to keep trusting God with our children and to not give in to fear.

Thank you,

Beth

Wordless Wednesday- Coming May 2012!

Children are a heritage of the Lord:

ans the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;

so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:they shall not be ashamed,

but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Psalms 127

Along with the May flowers, there will be a new baby blossom at our house!

Yes, that is right...baby #5 is due to arrive May 22nd 2012.

We are truly blessed.

Glow Bug Cloth Diapers Review and 2 Diaper Giveaway!!

As you all know, I love cloth diapers! They are better for the environment, better for our babies...and did I mention super cute? Now that I have an established stash of diapers, I am constantly on the look out for cute cloth diaper prints. If you are a cloth crazed mama like me, you will agree that a new cute print is hard to pass up.

I recently discovered a company that not only has quite possibly one of the best selections of diaper prints I have ever seen, but also a great functional diaper design! This wonderful Canadian (mom ran) cloth diaper company is Glow Bug Cloth Diapers!

Glow Bug Cloth Diapers are a one-size pocket diaper fitting your baby from birth to potty training. They come in 12 adorable girl prints, 12 fun boy prints and in 6 solid colors with multi-colored snaps called their "Spectrum" line. No boring solid white diapers here! Now you can match your diapers to your baby's wardrobe!

Girl Glow Bug Prints

Boy Glow Bug Prints

Spectrum Colors

My Glow Bug Experience:

I was sent 4 Glow Bug cloth diapers for review. I chose 2 boy prints (Guitars and Robots) and 2 girl prints (Butterflies and Lady Bugs). Oh my! These diapers are cute! When I first opened the package the first thing I noticed was the matching snaps to coordinate with each diaper. Love it!

I also noticed a few features I knew would make for a great diaper. These features are the front and back pocket with waterproof flap ( The insert agitates out in the wash!!! Major bonus-no pulling out yucky inserts!), double gussets to help contain messes, and an inner snap for snapping in the liner.

I also really like the front design of these diapers. There are 2 rows of snaps across the waist for a secure fit around baby's tummy and there is also 4 rows of snaps in the rise. This is great because most OS diapers only contain 3 thus not giving a true newborn fit. These diapers snap down small to fit a baby as small as 7 pounds (the size of most newborns).

Each diaper comes with 2 super absorbent micro-fiber inserts. You only need to use one insert, but can always add the 2nd for night time use.

Another thing I love about these diapers is their trimness. Every Glow Bug cloth diaper is made with SlimDry fabric. This special inner fabric is made to keep baby's skin dry without the added bulk. Makes for a nice trim cloth diaper that fits nicely under jeans!

How do the Glow Bug diapers function? Great! I tested them out during the day, naptime and over night. No leaks whatsoever! I really am pleased with my Glow Bugs. I can't wait to add more to my collection (at this point, I think I do collect cloth diapers, haha).

BUY IT- You can purchase Glow Bug Cloth Diapers in packages of 12 (Girl, Boy, or Spectrum) for $150 (That breaks down to $12.50 per diaper)! Each diaper package comes with a FREE wet bag! Order here.

WIN IT- Glow Bug Cloth Diapers is giving one lucky Happily Domestic reader 2 cloth diapers in their choice of print or color! $25 Value.

First Mandatory entry:
Check out the prints in the Glow Bug collection and tell me which 2 you will choose if you win. (Click on where it says "Glow Bug Cloth Diapers" and then you can click on the packages to see the variety of prints.)

After you have completed your first entry you are eligible for additional entries. *See my giveaway instructions here for more information. * *Remember to leave a separate comment for each additional entry and include your e-mail address.*
Extra Entries: (1 each unless specified, leave a separate comment for each thing you do)

• Follow Happily Domestic blog publicly through Google friend connect (can be found at my right sidebar.) - current follows count too! Counts for 2 entries.

• Subscribe to Happily Domestic's blog emails via Feedburner. Sign up box on right sidebar. Counts for 2 entries.

• Blog about THIS giveaway between October 11th and October 20th and gain TWOentries!!! link back to Happily Domestic- leave the URL where you blogged. Please leave separate comments for each entry. Example "I blogged about your Glow Bug giveaway@ #1" then "I blogged about your Glow Bug giveaway@ #2".

• Grab the Happily Domestic button! (found at right sidebar)- Leave the URL where it is posted.

• Follow Happily Domestic on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (counts as 1 entry)- after this you may "tweet" daily and gain an extra entry each day that you tweet-limit one per day.Leave your tweet status.

• Like Happily Domestic on Facebook. Click here. Leave a comment saying that you did this.

• Enter any of Happily Domestic's current giveaways, leave a comment and tell me which giveaway you entered. Counts as 1 entry per giveaway entered. Please leave separate comments per giveaway you entered.

• Purchase a Glow Bug Cloth Diaper pack between today and October 22nd using the link from my blog and get 5 extra entries!!! All orders will be verified to win. Click here to purchase.

• Follow Glow Bug Cloth Diapers on Twitter. Click here.

• Like Glow Bug Cloth Diapers on Facebook. Click here.

Giveaway ends October 23rd, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.(MST). Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

*This giveaway is open to USA and Canadian residents ONLY.
Must be 18 years old or older to win.*

Thank you to Glow Bug Cloth Diapers who provided me with the diapers free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review and giveaway.

Vinyl Wall Decor by Wall Praise- Review and Giveaway!

I was recently given the opportunity to use a Scripture verse vinyl wall decoration from Wall Praise. This company has been great to work with. They have been easy to communicate with and have always kept me up to date on what was going on with my product. Their shipping was fast and efficient, and from the moment that I pulled the product from the box. I fell in LOVE!.

I choose Ephesians 3:20 for my wall this time. I have plans to buy some black frames and put snapshots of our family around this verse but I haven't been able to find simple black frames that I like that wouldn't break the bank when I bought several.

I have wanted to add Scripture to my walls for sometime now and when I found Wall Praise I found what I had been looking for. They have a great selection of products, the option to customize the verses, and to choose whatever verse in the Bible I want. They offer the cutest wall décor for family rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, churches, and even children's bedrooms!

The application wasn’t too hard, although I will admit to being intimidated at first. Wall Praise offers online videos demonstrating their application technique. And I found out the hard way that when they say to use masking tape you can't use enough. The first beautiful verse that they sent me ended in a mangled mess of sticky paper because we didn't use enough masking tape and while rubbing the vinyl onto the wall one end fell off and onto the other side and ruined the lettering. I CRIED!! But the second time we used several pieces of tape and it went just fine! Just don't skip the tape step and make sure you use enought! Once I figure out that little tidbit and got started it was smooth sailing and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

There are no pictuers of us applying it to our wall as we were hands on the whole time and we couldn't find an extra hand to step back and take pictures. But the video will show you step by step in pictures.

BUY IT- You can purchase any of the beautiful Wall Praise products HERE.

WIN IT- Wall Praise is graciously offering one Happily Domestic reader $70 toward the product of their choice!

First Mandatory entry:Visit Wall Praise and share with me one of the vinyl wall clings that catches your eye.

After you have completed your first entry you are eligible for additional entries. *See my giveaway instructions here for more information. * *Remember to leave a separate comment for each additional entry and include your e-mail address.*
Extra Entries: (1 each unless specified, leave a separate comment for each thing you do)

• Follow Happily Domestic blog publicly through Google friend connect (can be found at my right sidebar.) - current follows count too! Counts for 2 entries.

• Subscribe to Happily Domestic's blog emails via Feedburner. Sign up box on right sidebar. Counts for 2 entries.

• Blog about THIS giveaway between October 10th and October 28th and gain TWO entries!!! link back to Happily Domestic- leave the URL where you blogged. Please leave separate comments for each entry. Example "I blogged about your Wall Praise giveaway@ #1" then "I blogged about your Wall Praise giveaway@ #2".

• Grab the Happily Domestic button! (found at right sidebar)- Leave the URL where it is posted.

• Follow Happily Domestic on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (counts as 1 entry)- after this you may "tweet" daily and gain an extra entry each day that you tweet-limit one per day.Leave your tweet status.

• Like Happily Domestic on Facebook. Click here. Leave a comment saying that you did this.

• Enter any of Happily Domestic's current giveaways, leave a comment and tell me which giveaway you entered. Counts as 1 entry per giveaway entered. Please leave separate comments per giveaway you entered.

Giveaway ends October 31st, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.(MST). Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

*This giveaway is open to USA residents ONLY.
Must be 18 years old or older to win.*

Written by Happily Domestic Contributer: Amanda Sikes

Thank you to Wall Praise who provided me with the vinyl wall praise free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review and giveaway.

Fagor Non-Stick Cast Alluminum Cookware Review

Fagor America is a worldwide company that is famous for their high quality pressure cookers, but did you know they also sell quality kitchen appliances and cookware? Considering I only had 1 pot and 1 cast iron skillet in my kitchen, I was quite excited to be reviewing their top notch 7 piece Cast Aluminum Cookware Set. This comes with a 9.5" Skillet with Stainless Steel handle, 11" Shallow Casserole with glass lid (3.5qt), 9.5 Stock Pot with glass lid (5 qt), 8.5" Grill Pan with Stainless Steel handle and a 6.5" Sauce Pan with Stainless Steel handle (1.5qt). Oh yes, a much needed addition to my pitifull little collection!

Some of Fagor America's 7 pc. Cast Aluminum Set features:

All lids are oven safe

Handles detach to optimize storage space

Perfect for use on all stovetops: gas, electric, radiant and induction

Made of durable cast aluminum

Healthy meals due to very little or no oil used when cooking

I really enjoy using these pans. It has been a long time since I have owned a non-stick pan as I am a little apposed to the chemicals in teflon. How happy I was when I learned that they use a PFOA and PTFE free non stick coating for their cookware! I really tested it out too, for the sake of a thorough review I even let the roasted chicken pan sit overnight (it wasn't at all because I didn't feel like doing dishes...). I was a little surprised that I was able to wipe it clean with no difficulty at all.

The quality of the cast aluminum cookware is fantastic. I really like how evenly the pans heat, this makes for perfect cooking. I particularly enjoyed cooking with the grill pan. I got those gorgeous grill lines on a steak and beautiful lines on a panini that I made for lunch the other day. Very cool!

I wanted to show you the wonderful non stick feature so I decided to fry an egg with no oil or butter. I heated the pan to med-low and dropped the egg in.

I decided to break the yoke open and let it run all over the pan, the messier this egg is the better, right?

Next, I threw in a little cheese... just to really give the pan a challenge.

This smeared around egg with cheese came out of the pan perfectly, all in one piece! Not a single thing left in the pan... No oil, no butter, no extra egg for the pan!

Other features I liked:

Removeable handles. The handles are removeable for easy storage, simply turn the knob at the end of the handle and it will loosen it from the pan. This is a nice little perk when you are in a little kitchen like mine. I need all the cabinet space I can get!

Oven safe. The lids and pans are oven safe, that really comes in handy when you are making something that needs a little browning on the top. It is important to note that the handles are not oven safe, so if you need to put your skillet in the oven for any reason you need to remove the handle.

Healthy. I know I have already said that they use a safer non-stick coating, and I have also shared the ability to cook oil free, but I would like to touch on this again. I have made several meals with less than 1 tbs of oil or butter. This is a great improvement! Being able to "saute" my vegetables without oil and still get that lovely color and crisp on them is wonderful. It is a relief to know that I am doing this without harming my body with toxic teflon chemicals.

Overall, I highly recommend purchasing one of Fagor America's Cast Aluminum Cookware Sets. I have been impressed by the quality of their product. When purchasing new appliances or cookware, I will definitely be looking to Fagor America in the future!

BUY IT- You can purchase your own Cast Aluminum Set online at Amazon.com for $249.99. To see some of Fagor America's other products and where you can purchase them in a store cllose to you, click here.

Written by Happily Domestic Contributer: Brittney Thompson

Thank you to Fagor America who provided me with the Cast Aluminum Set for this event free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review .