Thursday, July 12, 2012

Renew, Reuse, or Throw it Out??

Do you ever find yourself looking at your recycle bin thinking, "Surely there is something else I can do with most of this stuff."

I have a major issue with pretending like I can upcycle anything.  I will literally save every jar and large yogurt container until my cabinets are crying out for an intervention. Sadly, wood can not speak, so it is usually my husband that has to put his foot down and STOP THE INSANITY.  There is a fine line between reusing and straight up hoarding.  


So when I saw this pic posted online I thought "How great! I can't wait to do that." Yup, you can take the hoarder out of the girl, but you can't take the girl out of the.....hoard?. 


Baked Zucchini Chips



Healthy chips??? Don't mind if I do!

Ingridients:
1 zucchini
1/8 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg white
A few pinches of finely grated funky cheese*
5-6 basil leaves chopped
salt and pepper to taste

*I used an aged white cheddar, but parmessean is just as good

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with canola oil. Set aside.

Slice zucchini into thin medallions, about the thickness of a quarter. I would highly suggest a mandoline for this type of business, but if you don't have one, try to make the slices as uniform as possible.

Toss zucchini in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Lay out slices on prepared baking sheet, and spray tops lightly with additional cooking spray. Season with salt and pepper.  Place in preheated oven and bake 45 minutes. Rotate baking sheet, and bake an additional 30-50 minutes, until chips are sexy. Enjoy a supper healthy crispy treat!

Organizing Embroidery Thread

I can be a very sloppy crafter at times, even though I am super anal about cleanliness and organization.  Recently I threw a ladies sewing party and was a bit embarrassed at my hectic and random sewing/craft boxes. I needed to get my craft life in order.

 I love embroidery thread, and have tons of it, but never knew how to keep all of the leftovers in check. A friend of mine suggested a super easy way to get them in order quick, easy, and cheap. This is only a bit of the mess I had in one of my boxes:


Take cardboard (just check your pantry for cereal boxes, etc.) and cut out two layers in an "H" shape. The multiple layers is for sturdiness. Glue or sew the two pieces together. I happened to have my machine out for the first round (in brown) and used glue for the second (white cardboad).

Wrap up your thread:
And that's it! You're thread is officially somewhat organized for your next sewing party. Show it off ladies!