Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The ever expanding world of Rane Body Decor

It started out with a pretty simple idea: make and sell friendship bracelets. 

It has, at time slowly and at other times quicker then I'm able to keep up, evolved into something much larger and more complex and, in a word, overwhelming, but still completely exciting!

Rane Body Decor has become a misleading name, but one that will stick around. I feel as though RBD is an entity unto itself. 

I have, at this current time, published 35 Snapguides. Started 2 blogs (though I've not written nearly enough posts for all the ideas I have). And created a Facebook page featuring jewelry and crafts ranging from those humble friendship bracelets, to toothpick dolls, learn your name books. I even have a twitter... 

It's so exciting but at the sane time I fear I can't keep up with it all... So the time has come! I'm finally going to give into the the Pinterest urges I've been having and search for a few different ideas on 'command center' boards. 

I'm hoping that it'll bring some order to my crazy life and maybe help keep my head on a little straiter... Hey maybe I'll even get more house work done this way! Haha. 

The next few posts will be updates on what I'm doing and how I'm doing it! 

Wish me luck and comment with any ideas you have, I'd love to have your input!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Zucchini fritters!

Here is yet another guide about food, rather than crafting. I swear I really do craft quite often, but food it just so easy to blog about!

I got this recipe from a poster on snapguide, an app for sharing tutorials on everything from food, to home, to magic tricks. I love to snapguide and get a ton of great ideas there, many if which come from Tamara Letter. Her food guides are easy to follow, down to earth and full of stuff you already have in your cabinets! 

The link to her guide is: http://snp.gd/tbctjo



I amended her original recipe just a little by adding about 1tbsp more flour and coating spoonfuls of the batter in bread crumbs to help them keep shape for freezing. 

Here's the recipe just for the batter (my freezable version). Visit Tamara's guide for the chili lime sauce and for great pictures with step by step instructions. 

2 large zucchini, shredded
1 small onion, diced
2 large eggs
1 c + 1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Enough unflavored bread crumbs to coat. 


Mix onions, zucchini and eggs in a med-large bowl. In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients except bread crumbs and stir we'll. Fold dry mix into zucchini mix and set aside. You want it to be a kind of stuff batter. Not a dough. 

Add bread crumbs to a shallow bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop, one at a time, a healing teaspoon of batter into the bread crumbs and cost. Gently shape into a ball or oval shape. Place on parchment and continue. Leave them about 2-3 cm in between to spread. 


When you've breaded the whole amount but into the freezer for around an hour. Once fi and frozen add them to a ziplock bag and date it. When ready to cook deep fry!


Thank you so much to Tamara Letter for her great recipe! 

Enjoy and leave a comment with how you like to dress up your fritters!



Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Healthy eating CAN taste good!

When ever I make something yummy and healthy I just want to shout it out.
Healthy eating isn't cheap, and who ever says it is... Well they obviously have a secret the rest of us don't possess. But eating right doesn't have to break the bank either, nor does it have to taste gross.
The first step is acceptance of the fact that at some point you're going to have to do some work. Figure out what's most important to you and focus on that. For instance, would you rather have convenience or keep your cost down?
For me, I usually think I wanna keep my cost down but convenience always wins out (boyfriend doesn't cook lol).

If you're going for saving money, here are some quick tips, but I am by no means an expert:
🔸Coupons aren't just in paper, check to see if your grocery store offers electronic coupons and what their policy on those are.
🔸Make sure you're using your best coupon, if you store only doubles paper coupons, make sure they get that before your ecoupons.
🔸Check and see if your store as a place for marked down items. Often stores will reduce the price of items getting close to date for faster sale, or products that need to be moved for new product to come in.

Okay, now convenience:
🔸Purchase veggies that are made to be steamed in the microwave, some come preseasoned.
🔸Shop in the nutritional department of you grocery store for quick skillet meals.
🔸Preplan your meals based on your weekly schedule.
🔸Buy versatile ingredients.

Okay so, like I said, nothing special. You're either going to take time clipping coupons and finding savings, or doing the prep work for from scratch meals or spending more money and getting something quick and easy, albeit with the potential to still be healthy.

But it still doesn't have to be gross. And with a little creativity you can buy just a few items and create a lot of meals with varying degrees of time and preparation.

Find things you like, and use them often. I love kale, and miraculously so does Boyfriend, who's main food groups are meat-cheese-sauce. Kale that is prewashed, precut and ready to use comes in a huge bag, and it goes bad quickly, but it's less expensive and more convenient than buying it by the bunch.
So I use it as much as I can in a short time. I sauté it, I make it into soup, I use it in eggs, I bake it for snacks, I eat it raw, I toss it in the crockpot and I make smoothies and sauces with it. It's versatile enough that my family doesn't complain about eating the same thing every night.

It may seem strange at first, the different flavors, but as your body gets less processed foods and more natural, yummy nutrients, you will start to feel better and enjoy the healthy foods more.

Other very versatile healthy foods are peppers. You can buy a small bag of mini sweet peppers that can be used in several meals. Kids will enjoy getting those choose between red, yellow and orange, and can eat them raw just as they would an apple. There are minimal seeds so aside from a rinse, they don't require cleaning and cutting.
But what if you want to put them in a stirfry? Just slice up a few short ways into cute little rings and toss 'em in the pan.
If you have far more forethought (and space) than I do, you could precut half the bag and freeze them in portions for a quick and easy go to. They can also be chopped up and added to soups and sauces. Toss some chopped mini peppers with some sautéed kale and a tbsp of premixed garlic and add it to a jar of spaghetti sauce. It ups the nutritional factor and the taste without you having to spend all day cooking.

But those are just some ideas from my kitchen. Get yourself a magnetic dry erase board and start keeping Track of when or how often you use a food, you'll know what to buy and when, and then start thinking if ways to add yummy veggies. It's okay to use the sand veggie twice in a row, just make them taste different.

This has gotten far longer than anticipated, so here's an interesting salad it threw together the other day, and look out for my next update that will be just a list of versatile foods that will make you kitchen a little healthier!






Sunday, April 21, 2013

Icebox cake

I know there's been about a million posts throughout the interwebs about various recipes for icebox cake... But that's because it is truly a simple and exquisite treat.

The first thing you need: Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers.
Before you go running to the cookie aisle let me save you some time and aggravation, Unless your local grocery store has come to its senses since the posting of this blog... It's not there.

These amazing chocolate cookies/biscuits can be found in a number of strange places. At Kroger, and in many other stores, they can be found at the end of the ice cream aisle, with the toppings.

Alright so now that you've got those out of this world cookies, gather up some ripe plump strawberries, some heavy cream, and a tiny bit of granulated sugar.

That's it!

4 ingredients to make a light, airy, perfect for spring-almost-summer evenings.

So add the sugar to the heavy cream and whip it till stiff and fluffy. I didn't add a lot of sugar, maybe 1/4c because I didn't want it ultra sweet.
Now grab a cookie sheet or serving plate and cover with parchment paper (or don't.... It's optional but makes for much easier clean up when it's gone). Sandwich some whipped cream and strawberries between two cookies.
Okay now here's where you have a choice: go traditional and do a few layers, turn it on its side and create a log. Or make a layer of six cookie sandwiches (2x3) then add another layer of cream and berries and a layer of cookies and repeat.

The second way is a bit faster and easier but the coverage isn't as complete. Personally I was too lazy to figure out the log thing.

Anyway, when you've got enough layers, cover the whole thing in whipped cream, decorate with strawberries and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour. The longer you leave it the softer it becomes. We ate it about an hour later and it was soft enough to cut but still had a slight crunch. Perfect for me!

I wish I'd taken better pictures but I was a bit distracted when I made it.... And then of course there was the eating of it.

So maybe pictures next time lol
We will definitely be having that again!

So, recap:
1box Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
1qt heavy cream
1/3-1/2c sugar
I pint strawberries, hulled and diced


Whip sugar and cream. Add whipped cream and strawberries to cookies, after several layers, turn on its side creating a log. Cover log with the rest of the whipped cream and add strawberries to top. Refrigerate for 1-4hrs before serving.
Nabisco suggests cutting on the diagonal for a pretty look.

This would be awesome with raspberries, black berries or even peaches!
Try out a summery fruit and let me know what you think!

Friday, April 19, 2013

A new beginning

When I start reading a blog, I try to get back to the first posts they made. I wanna know who they were, where they were coming from.... Anything that helps me understand the blogger better.

So here is my quick and easy first blog.

I've never blogged before and I'm a bit anxious and not very secure. I've had a number of disappointing endeavors within the great big interwebs, but I refuse to give up! I have a voice, and even if I'm the only one listening, I will speak.

I'm a mother, a homemaker, a DIYer and an all around crafty kinda girl. I love what I do and when I find a secret to making something delicious, of a secret to making life simpler, all I want to do is share that.

I hope this blog opens up some new doors for me within myself, as well as aiding the general interwebbing public in all if your crafty, homemaking projects.