I've been a bad girl lately and haven't been forcing myself to take the time to write here. Basically it boils down to dealing with the school because of Brielle's disorganization which is causing her to lose assignments and also contributing to her showing up to classes late. I've also been very tired lately averaging 5 hrs of sleep per night so I haven't had much motivation for anything and then we also had Halloween. It's been a busy few weeks and other than taking pictures for A Budget You Can Live With of my shopping trips I've just not bothered spending the time I normally do. Let's see if I can catch up on a few things.
Product Review
Garnier Fructis Anti-Dandruff Shampoo - Clean & Fresh
Over all the smell of this shampoo is pretty good not too much perfume and I've had an over all positive experience with this product though it is pretty thin and I prefer a thicker shampoo personally. I don't really have heavy dandruff so I cannot speak to how well this product works on that. Would I buy it? It depends on how cheep I can get it but I would not be opposed to it if I found it on sale.
Kitchen
So this past Monday was Halloween which means we carved pumpkins this last weekend I found a farmer's market trying to clearance out their pumpkins and got each pumpkin for $1 so I bought 5 of them. What does all this mean? It means this past weekend I was baking a lot of pumpkin seeds, 5 1/2 cups to be exact!
My Pumpkin Seed Recipe
Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin, rinse and try and get what little bits you can off and any seed shells that didn't develop seeds separated out. Boil seeds in salt water for 20 min. this helps get the salty taste in the seeds and also makes cleaning them much easier. Arrange tray's with cloth or paper towels, lay the seeds out in a single layer (this will probably take a couple trays), cover with a cloth and let the seeds dry over night (if you start this in the evening or approx. 8 hrs). The seeds do not need to be perfectly dry so don't try for that, you can also speed it up by patting out the moisture if you are in a bit of a hurry.
Now my recipe:
3 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Salt
4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Salt
2 cups Pumpkin Seeds
Melt Butter then add salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and blend together. Add seeds and stir until all seeds are completely coated and then put on trays in a single layer. Bake @ 300 degrees for 40 min. (I prefer my seeds a little more crisp since I eat the shell and all so you may need to adjust the baking time). Remove the seeds, lightly sprinkle with sugar and then allow them to cool before storing them in an air tight container.
Alt. Recipe
3 tbsp Butter
1 Tsp Steak Seasoning (You can definitely add more for a more pronounced taste I sprinkled extra on before baking)
1 1/2-2 cups Pumpkin seeds
Shopping & Planning
So I'm not going to go over my whole shopping trip if you want to see pics of this last week then please join my Facebook page linked above. What I will say is that I've already started buying for Thanksgiving. I'm trying to work out my complete list of what will be needed as we are going to have guests for Thanksgiving and if I leave it all to the last minute then I know I'll be doing some midnight shopping trips. As we get closer to time I will start working out my cooking schedule and will try and remember to post it up. I encourage people to go to my Facebook page linked above and look at the older document I wrote up about keeping your sanity during the busy cooking holiday season.
Well I've used up all my time and it's time to get ready for work but I will try not to take such long vacations from here in the future.
