{Guest Posting} Crustless Bread – Who’d have thought?

Again let’s give a dandy welcome to Kendra from The Things I Love blog.  Thank you Kendra for another great guest post and recipe!
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Out of all the Yummy bread recipes I tried I finally found one I am going to stick with for a while. I kind of put together the best part of each recipe and made up my own. I do use these extra products, but just so you know they are cheap. I got the dough enhancer, gluten and tofu drink mix all for under $10 and they will last me a year. This recipe makes 4-5 loaves which last us about a week. I slice the bread once cooled and put it in freezer bags and leave one out and freeze the rest! Hope you enjoy!
Kendra’s Bread Recipe
100% Whole Wheat Bread
6 cups warm water
2/3 cup oil (canola)
3/4 cups honey (I added the extra honey to give it a sweeter taste)
2 T dough enhancer
2 T Vital Wheat Gluten
2 T Tofu Drink Mix (Adds a bit of protein, and also makes the bread have more of a creamy texture)
2 T SAF Yeast (seriously THE best kind)
2 T lemon Juice (helps with elasticity and holding the bread together)
2 T salt
10-15 Cups Freshly milled Whole Wheat Flour
Pour warm water into the Bosch. Then add oil, honey, enhancer, gluten, Tofu drink mix and yeast. Mix together then add Salt and Add 6 cups of fresh milled wheat flour on top of liquid. Mix well. Turn the machine to speed 1 and continue to add wheat flour only until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl (do not add to much flour)
Turn oven on 175 and once preheated turn it off.
Set timer and let dough knead for 10 mins. After 10 mins, oil or grease cutting board and hands. Remove dough form bowl onto counter and divide into equal portions. (makes four 2 lb loaves) Put the dough into well greased pans immediately. Let the loaves rise until they are double in size in the oven (this will take about 30 -45 mins) Then turn on oven to 350.
Bake for 40 -45 mins until golden brown. Remove from pans when done, and cool on wire rack. Rub tops of hot bread with butter for shiny appearance.
Now on to the title of my post….Crustless bread? Who’d have thought?
Well I guess our grandmas did!!! I was talking with my aunt and cousin the other day and they were eating this funny, but yummy looking whole wheat bread that was round and had no crust. I was going to laugh and make fun of my 21 year old cousin that cut the crust off her bread when my aunt started to tell me that she makes her bread that way. She told me she learned about it from a neighbor.
My next door neighbor after I made this and took some over to her, also told me that she had heard about her grandma doing this when her mom was little, but didn’t understand how to do it! So it has been around, I just haven’t heard about it until now!

So here is how. You need to buy a big can of tomato juice, V8 or Pineapple Juice. Empty it {by using it…waste not want not!} and then wash it out. Now you have a new bread pan!! Cool huh?

Make your bread dough, you use a little less than a normal loaf in these pans. Spray the pan really well and plop the dough down inside.

Then raise and cook like normal! and…….
Walla!! Isn’t is pretty!!

My kids are fine with eating crust, but a lot of kids don’t like it and parents have to cut it off. Now you can save time and money by not having to cut the crust off the bread. My kids seem to eat the whole sandwich better when we have this bread. It is a perfect size for them and they think it is fun!!

{Guest Posting} Fruit and Yogurt Parfait

Happy New Year’s Eve from Dandy Giveaway!  Can you believe that tomorrow it will be 2011?  Are you ready for it?  Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions?  One of my big ones for this next year is to get more exercise and continue on my weight loss path.  Here’s a little tidbit that you didn’t know about the Tara, because I’ve yet to disclose this information on here…  :)   It’s actually my eleventh week on Weight Watchers and so far I’ve lost 22 lbs!  (Gasp I know!)  I’d be happy with losing just 10-15 more.  Then of course I plan on eating healthy and working out to maintain.  That all being said I’m really excited this week to feature Kendra from The Things I Love, because she is sharing a healthy breakfast option!  So welcome back Kendra!
 
Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
This is the breakfast I ate everyday while I was on my diet. I actually still eat it every day!
I start out with 3 T oat bran and put steaming hot water on it until it is mushy like oatmeal. Then I add 1tsp butter. After that I measure out 8 oz {1 cup} plain yogurt, and put that on top. After that I mix in 1 packet of Stevia {0 calorie Sweetener} Then I add 8 oz of what ever fruit I want. Most mornings it’s a banana and frozen Costco blueberries, but lately I have been getting a lot of fresh produce. Some of my favorite things to add are blackberries, fresh strawberries, peaches and mangoes. It is a very filling breakfast, and I NEVER get sick of it!!
Since going off the diet if I don’t feel like oat bran I will do a 1/4 cup of granola
Yogurt is so good for you. Go hereand read about the benefit that it has for our bodies! I usually buy Mountain High or Cascadean farms plain yogurt at the health food store. If I buy flavored yogurt I try to steer away from light yogurt. It is usually sweetened with Aspartame, which is not very good for you. I have heard a lot of good stuff about Greek yogurt, but I haven’t tried it yet, but I will! I have also made my own yogurt but I will save that for another post!!
Have a wonderful day!!
 

{Guest Posting} Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed reading blogs?

Welcome Kendra…blogger from The Things I Love!

A few months ago I read a blog titled The Super Mom, or something like that {I will not post the real title in case some of my readers know this person}. It had a lot of amazing ideas for any woman that has 400 extra hours during the day and $400 extra dollars to spend daily. I wrote this post a while back on my family blog and wanted to share it with you…..

Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed?? I did yesterday. I had a friend send me this link, The Super Mommy Blog saying how awesome this blog was. So I went to it, and then started scrolling down, and down, and down, WOW, by the end of page 3 I was thinking I am such a slacker mom. Don’t go look at it if you want to still feel like you are a good mom. I have always wanted to be a “super mom”, you know the mom that has crafts and food and decorations and an amazing scrapbooking contraption to make cute things for my whole house, but it just is so expensive, and time consuming. Then I started to think of all the food blogs that people have and wished that I cooked like them. I was on this “Wo is me” kick and turned the computer off.
I laid in bed that night and started thinking about it, and where we could get the money for me to do stuff like that, and then the thought came to me that those things are fun, and it is okay to do fun crafty things every so often, but it doesn’t need to consume me. I don’t need to decorate and bake and make tons of crafts for every holiday. Then I got to thinking that most people are not like this “super mommy” {the super mommy probably has her days of not being a super mommy}, but we are all super mommy’s and daddy’s in our own way. I started to think of things we do to help our kids everyday. Sure it would be fun to make amazingly cute crafts, bake yummy treats, and go on fun trips, but kids really don’t care. They care that we sit next to them and read to/with them, they care that we feed them good food, and a treat every so often, they care that we are teaching them about right and wrong, and about God and his plan for them. They care that we do fun things as a family, and they care about how much time we spend with them. They care that we have a warm house and a nice bed for them to sleep in. Then I realized, I may not be like this “super mommy”, but I am a “super” mom to my kids. I can not compare myself to other people and especially their blogs 🙂 So thank you Super mommy for your cute craft ideas, you keep them up and maybe one day I will make something from your blog!

I just read a couple of blogs today about how blogging posts can sometimes make the readers feel like the author is like Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect in Every Way!! I was just discussing this with my husband recently, and told him that I hope my readers don’t think I am some perfect mom that cooks and has a clean house, and perfectly well behaved children {My neighbors can attest to this} I do try, but we are all human and none of us are perfect. We all have hard days. Life is hard. I try to stick to a schedule, a menu plan, and be super healthy. I really wish that every day I could have time to cook perfectly healthy food from scratch for my kids and get take away all eating of high fructose corn syrup, white flour, white sugar and have it be all organic everything, but that will probably never happen. I wish my days went by perfectly. But they don’t…Strange huh. Not one day goes by as planned, I give in and make Yellow Death for lunch, I eat not just one but 6 chocolate chip cookies when I was trying to just do a treat a day. My kids talk back to me, I yell at my kids, my husband and I miscommunication and are frustrated with each other. I want you all to know I am in no ways perfect at everything put on here. I am just like you, a normal person trying to make my family life as good as I can. We sometimes miss Family Home Evening, Morning Prayer and reading scriptures. I have days where I get frustrated at my kids way to much. I have moments where I just go to my room and shut the door and cry because I am stressed out about finances and wish money grew on trees or my kids are being super naughty and I just can’t handle it anymore! Know that just because I home school does NOT mean that I was born with way more patience than you. I have my days where my kids and I butt heads and I just want to give up. I have hard days, don’t we all? I do think though, that we can make progress and work on things a step at a time. I know I will never be perfect at home school, dieting, crafting, feeding my kids healthy food or even being a super mom, but I do love to blog, and who really wants to hear about the hard things going on in my life. My blog, for me, is a time to look at the positive and to work on being a better me. I hope you enjoy what you read and keep coming back, and feel free to comment or email me if you have any question, I am happy to help!

{DIY} From The Blue Chair

I’m so excited for this next guest posting, because I actually know her personally and she’s awesome!  I know that you are going to find her to be just dandy!  She crafts, she quilts, she photographs, she blogs…  I told you she is awesome!  This particular guest posting doesn’t pertain to her quilting, but I LOVE her quilts.  In fact she is entered right now in a Halloween quilting contest and you can vote for her fabulous Spooky Wonky Log Cabin HERE.  It’s quilt #1 so get voting!  :)   And here is my friend and former roomie, Kati…

Hi! I’m Kati from the blue chair. Thanks so much to Tara for letting me do a guest post today about my blue chair. Tara and I were roommates in college. I certainly have some good stories, but we’ll stick to refurnishing chairs today.

I have a thing for chairs. I like to get them from Goodwill for around $5 and paint them. It’s become a bit of a problem. My husband even asked me recently to stop. I guess no more Goodwill chairs for a while, but at least I have my favorite chair to use every day while I sew. This is the chair that inspired my blog name—from the blue chair. This was a pretty sad little Goodwill find, but sturdy. He definitely had some potential, but needed a lot of love.

 

When scouring for chairs I look for a few things—sturdy, solid wood, relatively good condition, and character (you don’t want just a plain old kitchen chair). Sit in it. Wiggle the back. Flip it upside down and make sure those legs are well attached. Once you have your chair, get it ready to paint.

Painting prep:

This guy needed some work, but it wasn’t too bad. I filled the deep scratches with wood filler then sanded the edges a bit to smooth things over. I cleaned it and wiped all surfaces down with an everyday kitchen cleaner. Then I wiped it with a clean, damp cloth.

 

Replacing the seat:

I removed the original seat by flipping it over and unscrewing it from the bottom. Then I cut a piece of high density foam using the seat base as my template. My foam was 2” which is pretty thick but I sit in this guy while sewing. I wanted it to be comfortable. I used a little hot glue to adhere it to the seat base.

The seat fabric is Tufted Tweets in Grass by Laurie Wisburn. I chose the fabric for the seat cover because I adore it, but it’s quilting weight fabric and not available in décor weight. To strengthen the fabric, I fused it to heavy twill using Ultra Heat and Bond. This made it a bit more difficult to work with than normal décor weight fabric, but it made it durable for long-term use. After getting the fabric ready, I started stapling it on using a craft staple gun. I did the sides first and then the front and back, pulling the fabric as tightly as I could.

Painting:

To paint this guy I used Pacific Sea Teal in gloss by Bear from Home Depot. I chose to brush on the paint rather than spray painting because I was a bit particular about the color and there aren’t a lot of color options in spray paint. I used their Ultra paint with primer in it, making painting one easy step.

Finishing:

After allowing the paint to cure for a couple days, I attached the seat using the original hardware. After a little work, some new paint and fabric, I have a funky new sewing chair that I love!

Painted chairs make a fun accent in any room or a fabulous photography prop. For a super funky look, collect an assortment of chairs and paint them each a different color for your dining room table. My next chair project might be a pink one. My three-year-old has requested a pink chair for the dinner table. I just might indulge her.

{DIY} Hairstyling Tips From The Wright Hair

The Wright Hair

 

 

I just wanted to let everyone know the story of The Wright Hair…

I am fairly new to blogging about hair but I have been doing my oldest daughters hair since the day she was born almost 7 years ago. The first thing out of the doctor’s mouth was I hope you ordered a girl with a full head of hair. My oldest has the most gorgeous thick brown hair. Doing her hair was a so much fun and her hair always turned out so cute.

When my 2nd daughter arrived we were not so lucky with the hair genes. She has very thin straight hair. Her hair doesn’t grow very fast either. She is 3 now and her hair is cut into an A line. It was with the frustrations of my youngest hair that I started The Wright Hair Blog.

I figured if I struggled this much doing her hair there must be others struggling too. I am a working mom and getting my girls ready every morning is the best time of the day for me. This is our quality time without other distractions. Right now my girls and I are enjoying our time together. I am sure it will only be a short time before my oldest wants to do her own hair. But for now we invite you to join us on the Wrights Journey through hair. Because of being a working mom, sometimes we will do fancy dos and sometimes quick dos, other times are do’s are don’ts but we welcome everyone to come along for the ride.

I also want to share a few tips I have learned along my journey of doing hair.

Tip 1. For a smooth hairstyle especially for braids it is always better to do the hair while it is wet. So either right out of the tub or spray the area with a squirt bottle.

Tip 2. Remember that bobbie pins are your friends. If a style is not working exactly how you want use bobbie pins to move the hair and keep it in place. On the market now is bobbie pin that is about half the size as the old ones, these are perfect for little girl’s hair.

Tip 3. For infants use Karo Syrup or a stick of Glue to attach bows onto their head. Both of these are easy to use and will come off with water or during their bath.

Tip 4. If you want to use sponge curlers remember to make smaller parts if your daughter has thick hair. Otherwise the hair will not dry by morning.

Tip 5. For ringlets I use a special curling iron that has grooves in it. When using this curling iron the ringlets stay in all day and can be used for a 2nd day style (with a few touch ups)

For more tips and cut hairstyles check out my blog at thewrighthair.blogspot.com.

I would also love for all of you to share your styles and tips with me. You can post your pictures on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hairstyles-for-girls-The-Wright-Hair/117955318220916?ref=sgm.

{DIY} Please Welcome Paisley Passions

HELLO all of you Dandy Giveaway blog readers out there! I am thrilled to be guest posting with Lanni and Tara on their super cute blog today!
My name is Lori and my blog is called Paisley Passions.

I am a mother of five (four of which are teenagers!  YIKES!), wife, full-time returning college student, and a lover of all things “crafty”.  I LOVE to create things!  My Paisley Passions blog is a place where I have an outlet for when my creative mojo starts flowing 😉

I have been out and about in blogland for a couple of years now, but I just started my Paisley Passions craft blog the first week of July 2010. It is so fun to have a place to share all of my creative projects and I love making new friends through the world of blogging 🙂


On my blog you will find easy Home Decor projects like this:

Vanity Before and After

A few Fun Projects like this:

From Picture Frame to Laptray

And even some stuff like this:

Party Time Fun!



Or some stuff like this:

Trick or Treat Candy Chest

If you are ever looking for a Fun Blog Hop or a Linky Party to join in, I also have a Linky Love Library and a Blog Hop Library on my blog, so that the parties out in blogland are easy for people to find and join in the fun! They are free to use (and if you host one, come by and link it up!), all I ask is that if you find one that is new to you, that you let the host/hostess know you found them from my blog. As simple as that! 🙂

On Thursdays I host my own linky party called Thrilling Thursday.  It is a fun party where you can link up YOUR creations, or just come over and check out the creations of the other talented people out in blogland.  It is a great way to spark your creativity!

Thanks, Lanni & Tara, for letting me guest post today!!!  I hope that all of you Dandy Giveaway readers will pop on over to Paisley Passions and say hi!  I would love to meet you!  🙂

Isn’t Lori so cute?  And with five kids — how DOES she find the time?  I’m impressed!  Thank you again so much to Lori for her post and her creative and useful ideas – stop on by Paisley Passions and show her some comment love 🙂

{DIY} Bat Shirt with Sumo’s Sweet Stuff

We are so lucky to host Sumo, from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff today here at Dandy Giveaway!  Here’s Summer:

 
 
Hello everyone!

I’m so excited to be guest blogging here today!

I’m Sumo, from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff!



Sumo's Sweet Stuff

My real name is Summer, but my husband nicknamed me Sumo when we were dating. (Should I be offended?) Now he’s got all of my family, as well as lots of our friends, calling me Sumo. I think Aunt Sumo sounds pretty great, don’t you? I live in Utah with my husband, and our two beautiful daughters – Reece & Remi!

 

 
Growing up, I never used to be all that domestic or crafty, so I think no one is more surprised than my mom at how I’ve ended up where I am today! I started Sumo’s Sweet Stuff last May as a place to keep some of my crafting projects so that my personal blog wasn’t overrun with them. Somehow, that developed into a place to host giveaways, share tutorials, share recipes, and feature fellow bloggers’ ideas and blogs! I also use my blog to promote my etsy shop, so if you’re ever in the market for some baby girl accessories, come on over! Every Monday is Market Yourself Monday, where you can link up your latest projects, and visit other blogs to get some inspiration!
Sumo Sweet Stuff

 

 

Hello everyone!

I’m so excited to be guest blogging here today!

I’m Sumo, from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff!



Sumo's Sweet Stuff

My real name is Summer, but my husband nicknamed me Sumo when we were dating. (Should I be offended?) Now he’s got all of my family, as well as lots of our friends, calling me Sumo. I think Aunt Sumo sounds pretty great, don’t you? I live in Utah with my husband, and our two beautiful daughters – Reece & Remi!

 

 
Growing up, I never used to be all that domestic or crafty, so I think no one is more surprised than my mom at how I’ve ended up where I am today! I started Sumo’s Sweet Stuff last May as a place to keep some of my crafting projects so that my personal blog wasn’t overrun with them. Somehow, that developed into a place to host giveaways, share tutorials, share recipes, and feature fellow bloggers’ ideas and blogs! I also use my blog to promote my etsy shop, so if you’re ever in the market for some baby girl accessories, come on over! Every Monday is Market Yourself Monday, where you can link up your latest projects, and visit other blogs to get some inspiration!
Sumo Sweet Stuff

 



Today I’m going to be sharing a tutorial with you for how to embellish your kids’ Halloween shirts with bat wings!
 
After my daughter Remi was born this past March, I made her a butterfly wing onesie.


I thought it would be fun to put a Halloween spin on that idea: bat wings!

Last year I purchased Halloween shirts from Target during the post-Halloween clearance sale for super cheap. I had thought about getting them new shirts to put the bat wings on, but then I figured their Halloween shirts would actually be perfect!

What you need:

– shirt/onesie
– fabric
– heat and bond (if you are putting wings flat on the shirt)
– interfacing (if you are putting wings that hang off the shirt)
– wing template (I looked at some pictures online and free handed mine)
– iron
– sewing machine/accessories


We’ll start off with Reece’s shirt. I wanted her wings to hang off of her shirt since she is mobile and can (obviously) sit, stand, and walk on her own (unlike the little Remster.)

Start off by tracing your template on the interfacing. You’re going to need two.



Next you’ll want to trace your template on your fabric. You’re going to need four wings total since you’ll be having a front and back. I cut a bit outside of the template so that my interfacing would fit in between the layers easily.



Take your interfacing and iron it on to two of your wings.


Next you’ll want to sew the top layer of your wings on to your interfaced wings.



After that, iron down small folds on your wings. This is where you’re going to sew the wings on to the shirt.


Take your shirt and measure the width. Place a pin where the middle of the shirt is. This is where you’ll sew your wings.


Pin your wings on to the shirt.


Sew the wings on to the shirt and you’ve got your little bat ready to go!





I did a different option for Remi. I just wanted her wings to be flat on her onesie.

You’ll want to iron on some heat and bond to a piece of your fabric. (I didn’t take a picture of this step for some reason!)

Trace your wing template on to your paper side of the heat and bond and cut out your wings.


Take your tape measure and find the middle of your onesie.


Take the paper backing off of your wings and place them on the onesie where you want them to go.



Iron them on.


Sew around the edges.


And your other little bat is ready to go!

 
Cute, fun, unique Halloween shirts!


And even cuter when on your sweet little ones!

 



If you have a little guy, a fun way to do the wings would be to have them extend from under his arm to his side (does that make sense?) Maybe that would seem more boy-ish.
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Enjoy turning your little ones into bats!
Come visit me at Sumo’s Sweet Stuff anytime for more tutorials, recipes, and ideas!

 

Thank you Summer!  I love this bat shirt — I think it’s equal parts hilarious and adorable.  I will be making one for my own little guy for Halloween for sure — I just hope it’s as cute as hers.  We’ll see, huh? 



{DIY} Photography With Belle Petite Photo

Do you like to take pictures of the kiddos, but could use some helpful tips?  Well then our next guest posting is sure not to disappoint.  Ready for the dandiness?  Here you go! 

Hi!  My name is Sarah and like many of you out there, I LOVE taking pictures! 

Especially of my husband and daughter :0)  People often ask me when I started out with photography and I tell them that I was the girl in junior high and high school that always had a camera!  Thankfully digital cameras came around so that I can now take pictures to my heart’s content without paying a fortune.  After the birth of my daughter I started taking even more pictures and before I knew it I had started a blog, Belle Petite Photo, and was taking pictures for family and friends and clients.  I still have a LONG way to go with my photography, but I’m enjoying the journey.  For those of you who are looking to take your photography up a notch, here are a few simple suggestions:

1) Take lots of pictures.  (Even very experienced photographers take a lot of pictures…it gives them options to work with after the photo shoot is done.)  Especially when you’re taking pictures of your kids in action….the more you take, the better chance you have of getting a great one!  Plus, sometimes it is fun to put a series of pictures together.

2) Try a new perspective.  Too often we document our cute-kid moments the same way every time, from above.  Try getting down on THEIR eye level or even laying on the ground to capture moments. (i.e. your infant learning how to crawl).  More interesting perspective = More interesting picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Zoom in, zoom out.  Try zooming completely out to get the whole scene then zooming in to focus in on what’s happening.  Then, try capturing the same scene from a different angle or area of the room.  Each picture will paint a different part of the story.

4) Use whatever you have.  My first few photo shoots were done with my Canon 3.2 point and shoot.  (I was a little sheepish to accept $70 for such a photo shoot, but hey…that was all I had at the time and it worked!  Don’t worry folks, I only use my Nikon DSLR for photo shoots these days :0))  If I’ve only brought our camcorder to an event I’ll take still shots with that and call it good.  Really, it doesn’t have to be an expensive piece of equipment to capture great moments :0) 

If you have a second, click here to see my blog!  If you have two more seconds, I’d love to get a comment too!  Most of my time is spent with my sweet little family, but if you do live in the St. Louis area and are interested in booking a photo shoot, I do have some available sessions.  Email me at:  bellepetitephotographie@gmail.com