This isn’t a cleaning hack post or an organization post, like the other posts I have. This is just a checking in on all of you. It’s been so crazy since March and I’ve really not been active on my blog, I’m sure all of you can understand that! Lately I’ve been trying to go out into nature and breathe and enjoy.
How are all of you doing? I hope you’re all safe. I’ll be putting up a post on some great cleaning and the top disinfectants, how to stay on top of things, etc. most likely this weekend. I barely have time to think as of lately, just due to working from home, also going to school and having my children home for schooling too. It’s been busy, but Thank God we are all safe. We had a scare recently, someone in my little ones class contracted COVID-19 and so my little ones have been in quarantine but I’m happy to say they’re healthy and safe.
I’ll post something on Saturday afternoon and I’ll be more active with you all. Thanks for keeping up with me!
Hang this paper garland on the mantel, outdoor table, a wall, or on your front porch railing. Choose your cardstock or scrapbook paper with interesting patterns in a red, white, and blue color theme. Fold the paper accordion-style and fan it out, then you can either connect the “fireworks” together with string to make a garland or attach a stick to create a fan.
If you can’t get enough of mason jars, this is the project for you. Create a centerpiece by painting the flag pattern on a row of three jars. Place them on a tray or rectangular plate and fill with pretty flowers – simple white ones will work best and won’t take away from the flag design.
This silverware holder will complete any place setting. Or if you’re planning a party with a buffet table, you can set these at one end of the table so guests can grab a utensil sleeve before they sit down. You’ll need some thick white fabric, swatches of red, white, and blue fabric, and some basic sewing skills.
Nowadays, no party is complete without a photo booth. Set one up and make these “fireworks” for guests to pose with. All you need are old toilet paper rolls, scrapbook paper, rope, and wooden dowels. They can also work as table decor, too.
Need a last-minute decorating idea? Take your plain plastic cutlery and add some washi tape in a patriotic theme. You can get creative with mixing and matching the different patterns and colors. It’s a small festive detail that will really surprise your guests.
Photo and idea from Tikkido. Get instructions here.
Confetti-Filled Fireworks
If you aren’t allowed to light fireworks in your neighborhood, or you have younger kids who might not be ready for that, this is a genius solution. Take jumbo straws (like those used for smoothies or bubble tea) and seal one end with glue. Then fill the straws with confetti and top it off with a small, rolled-up piece of card stock with gold confetti strips attached.
Personalize some napkins to use for all of your summer gatherings. With bleach pens and 100% cotton napkins, add stars, stripes, or any other favorite patterns. Let them dry for an hour and then rinse them out.
Can’t get enough of the dip-dyed trend? Bring it home for your Independence Day party. Create a tassel out of yarn and dip it in bleach to create a two-tone, ombré effect. Take another string of yarn and use it to connect the tassels together so you can hang it on your mantel or wall.
Dress up your table with a super-easy, no-sew table runner. Cut slits in the burlap to weave in red and blue ribbons. This vintage, Americana-inspired craft is festive enough for a 4th of July party, but not so flashy that you can’t use it for other celebrations.
If you plan on using plain white plates and simple cutlery, make each guest’s place setting even more special with a personalized placemat. Using the American flag as inspiration, take a red placemat and paint white stripes using painter’s tape as a guide.
There are few rites of spring more satisfying than the annual deep clean. For many people, however, the pleasure comes only after the work is finished. Cleaning your home from top to bottom may never become effortless, but you can make the project more manageable-and even enjoyable. The printable checklist down below offers an overview of everything you need to know-including information on cleansers, stain removal, fabric care, and storage-to zip through the process.
After you read through the tips and techniques, tailor the list to your home and yard. Whether you prefer to proceed from the attic to the basement or start outdoors and wind your way inside, create a realistic schedule and focus on one task at a time, keeping in mind that a single weekend won’t suffice. You’ll need several days for more involved projects, such as shampooing carpets and organizing closets. And be sure to enlist the help of family members.
The tips below outline basic techniques that will help you clean almost every surface (or object) in any room, leaving your home refreshed from top to bottom.
Before you can get to work, you need to make sure you’re stocked with your must-have cleaning supplies. On the natural front, baking soda, white vinegar, and Castile soap are essentials you can use to make natural cleansers for nearly any spot in the house. A microfiber mop, like Libman’s Wonder Mop, makes easy work of cleaning vinyl, wood, linoleum, laminate, marble, stone, and ceramic tile—we like that the Wonder Mop’s head is machine-washable, making it an eco-friendly alternative to most conventional alternatives. Plant-based sponges and a reusable spray bottle also make most cleaning jobs easier. You’ll also want to stock up on your favorite mild dishwashing detergent and all-purpose cleanser, or else make a batch of your favorite DIY solution.
Wipe Walls and Ceilings
Use a vacuum to remove dust. Tackle stubborn surface grime, especially prevalent in kitchens, with a solvent-free degreaser (test it first in an inconspicuous area to ensure it won’t mar the surface).
Reseal Grout Lines
The cement-based material between wall, floor, and countertop tiles is extremely porous and stains easily. Protect it with a penetrating grout sealer; it’s best to apply it with a small foam brush.
Vacuum and Shampoo Rugs
Synthetic carpets and rugs with waterproof backings can be deep-cleaned with a rotary shampoo machine and a hot-water extraction machine. Rugs without backings, including Orientals, require professional cleaning.
Dust Books and Shelves
Take everything off the shelves, and brush them (along with the books) with a feather duster. Use the dust brush or crevice tool on a vacuum to reach into tight spots. Wipe the spines of leather-bound books with a clean, soft cloth.
Clean Upholstered Furnishings
Take cushions outside and gently beat them by hand to remove dust. If there are stains, check the pieces for care labels. Use a vacuum’s upholstery and crevice tools to clean under seat cushions.
Polish Metal Door and Window Hardware
Liquid polishes and polish-impregnated cloths work well for medium-tarnished surfaces; pastes and creams are best for heavier work. If the tarnish doesn’t come off, try a stronger product.
This includes hard-to-reach places, such as the tops of ceiling fans and window casings. Always work from the top of a room down, vacuuming the dust that settles on the floor. Avoid using dusting sprays.
Wax Wooden Furniture
Wipe surfaces with a soft cloth dampened with water and mild dishwashing liquid. Apply paste wax, such as Butcher’s wax, a few feet at a time with a cotton rag folded into a square pad. Let the wax dry; buff with a clean cloth.
Ensure Fire Safety
Change batteries in smoke detectors (this should be done twice a year), and make sure units are free of dust. Teach everyone in your household how to use a fire extinguisher, and review escape plans.
Wash Window Screens
Using warm water and a mild dishwashing liquid, scrub each screen with a brush; rinse thoroughly.
Clean Window Treatments
Many draperies and curtains are machine washable; check labels. Dry clean fabric shades. Wipe wooden blinds with a damp cloth; warm water mixed with a mild dish washing liquid is safe for metal and vinyl blinds.
Wax Non-Wood Floors
Vinyl and linoleum floors that have lost their shine should be waxed with a polish designed for these surfaces. Most stone and tile floors can be treated with either a paste or a liquid wax designed for the material.
Here’s how to do a quick pick up in your kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, office, and more with simple techniques that work.
No matter how neat and tidy you naturally are, it’s all too easy for clutter to pile up in your home. There’s mail, books, school supplies, tax forms, and so many other odds and ends — plus, the items you use all the time that never seem to get put away. Fortunately, there are simple ways to stop clutter in its tracks.
If you’re not sure where to start, follow these expert decluttering tips to help you take control of your home. From organizing tips that will help you maximize your space to design hacks that will make everything look more streamlined, these decluttering techniques will change the way you live. And if you really want to overhaul your home, don’t miss my best cleaning tips of all time.
Declutter Your Kitchen
Messes materialize fast in the heart of your home. Keep it clean and tidy (until your kids roll through) with some pro advice.
Expand Cabinet Storage
When it comes to the kitchen, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Make the most of your cabinet space — no matter how small — with a quick DIY project. “Mount a rack on the back of a cabinet or pantry door, or try a roll-out rack in a lower cupboard to amp up cabinet space,” recommends organizing expert Alejandra Costello.
Use Up Wall Space
“Bulky pots and pans can quickly gobble up valuable cabinet space,” says Alison Victoria, host of HGTV’s Kitchen Crashers. “Be like Julia Child and put them on display — just hang them from S-hooks on a pegboard or from a suspended pot rack.” Now, go and be like Julia Child!
Tame Your Spices
As a general rule, spices stay fresh for roughly four years. If you’ve had the same container of coriander for more years than you can count, ditch it. When it comes time to organize, either place them alphabetically or categorize them by use.
Declutter Your Bathroom
At this point, your bathroom practically has as many products as a Target beauty aisle. There are the scattered cotton pads, expired mascara tubes, an assortment of toilet bowl cleaners, just to name a few. That ends now.
Toss Expired Products
When was the last time you checked the expiration date on a bottle of sunscreen? Exactly. “Take 20 minutes every three months to pull everything out of your bathroom cabinets and check expiration dates. Throw out all expired products and items that you just don’t like,” says Susan Santoro, owner of Organized 31.
Keep Towels on Hand
If you’re short on closet space, then bring your everyday linens right into the bathroom. Stuff decorative wicker baskets with bath towels for a practical yet stylish accent.
Amp Up Under-the-Sink Storage
Instead of filling up your precious vanity space, take advantage of the space below the sink with labeled baskets, bins, or stackable plastic drawers. Decide what’s worth keeping by following HGTV and DIY Network’s Matt Muenster’s trick: “Tuck everything away out of sight and watch what builds up over the next two to three days. Those items are worth keeping in an easy-to-reach spot. Everything else should be packed away.”
Declutter Your Bedroom
Your bedroom should be your place of zen. After following these genius tips, it can be. *Breathes a sigh of relief.*
Hide a Hamper
Place a basket underneath an open bedside table to create an undercover drop spot for laundry or throw pillows.
Think Below the Bed
If you’re tight on closet space, under-the-bed storage works wonders. Store any out of season clothes or accessories in space-saving vacuum storage bags or foldable fabric storage. Before storing any apparel, toss any that has rips, stains, or pulls.
Declutter Your Office
A cluttered desk and a cluttered mind go hand in hand. Make your office space productive again by listening to the experts.
Follow the Rule of Three
Open shelves are great in theory — until you fill ’em with knick-knacks, and straight-up clutter. “Restrict non-book items to a maximum of three per shelf,” says Melissa Picheny, founder of declutter+design. “Their sizes and shapes can vary, but relate the pieces by color or theme — say, ceramic vases in shades of cream.”
Leave Room to Grow
If you fill your bookshelf to the brim, then you won’t have any room to continue growing your collection. Good point, huh? “The goal is to leave at least 10% of each shelf bare and book-free,” explains Justin Klonsky, author of Organize & Create Discipline. “Before filling bookshelves, do a side-by-side comparison, ask yourself: If I could keep only one of these two volumes, which would it be?” (Remember, you can store everything else on an e-reader.)
Detangle Cords and Cables
Between chargers, lamp cords, and laptop wires, your desk can quickly become a maze. Secure wires in a cable box, which keeps things tidy, or install a shelf with cable “ports.” You can also use decorative washi tape to label cords for easier use.
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Declutter Your Living Room
You live here — and it sure looks like it. Give your living space a warm, cozy, and functional feel with these decluttering tips.
Clear the Coffee Table
Coffee tables are the focal point of most living rooms. As tempting as it may be to cover it with books, candles, and flowers, prop stylist Stephanie Hanes recommends you keep it as clear as possible. “To give the illusion that a room is a clutter-free, the top of the coffee table should be 75% clear. Styles with drawers or shelves below the surface will get you there fast,” she says.
Create Good Flow
“It’s not as much about where you put your furniture as it is about the types of pieces you choose. In each room I design, I try
to include at least one round piece, such as a coffee table, that people can walk around without bumping their knees,” says interior designer Katie Rosenfeld. She also recommends filling the space with versatile pieces like an ottoman, which can be used to sit or to hold a drink.
Make It Guest-Friendly
“Corral smaller items — vases, candles, and decorative accents — on a handled tray that’s easy to relocate when company’s coming,” says Klonsky. That way you can quickly sweep away excess clutter in a snap before they arrive — because we’re clearly more inclined to clean our house for guests rather than ourselves.
Pair Pillows by Color
Whatever you do, don’t go overboard on the throw pillows. “Stick to a trio in complementary colors and patterns — always have at least one solid — for most sofas,” says Picheny. A massive couch, however, can handle five pillows — two solids, three patterned.
Sensory activities play an important role in the cognitive development of children. When children get the opportunity to explore their senses—sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch—they learn more about themselves and the world around them. As they use their senses, children develop memories and associations that will help them to solve problems and make decisions throughout the rest of their lives.
The crafts and activities we’ve rounded up here use a combination of the senses. While some crafts are preferred for being quick on time or mess-free in the making, these hands-on activities are delightfully squishy, slimy, and stretchy for play. Activate their imaginations by building miniature model worlds in small cardboard boxes or sculpting familiar objects out of homemade play dough, slime, or clay. Let them search for materials in nature that they can use in their art projects like leaves and stems for textured paintbrushes or inks that derive color from wildflowers and pantry items.
Crafts like kinetic sand or magnetic putty will prompt a conversation around scientific concepts like heat, color, and light. And who doesn’t like to play in the sand or play a game of sponge ball? Talk to your kids about shapes, colors, mathematics, and nature as they have fun creating and playing with these everyday objects. In fact, the entire family can participate in the gameplay for a quality social and learning experience. Let them experiment and see what they can come up with. (Maybe they can teach you some of the things they have learned.)
Homemade Play Dough
What’s more fun than playing with play dough? Making it from scratch. Kids will love mixing the ingredients and shaping them into a squishy, moldable medium. It’s the perfect activity for getting messy and having fun.
Sponge Balls
In the warmer months, this activity turns into a fun game for cooling off. Take kitchen sponges, cut them into rods, and tie them together into a squishy, textured ball that soaks up water. Then your kids are ready for a splashy game of tag.
Kinetic Sand
Try kinetic sand: It feels different than play dough, but kids still love squishing it through their fingers. Build sandcastles, sculptures, and more. Food coloring can be used to create a rainbow of hues. (You can also make it thermochromic, which means the heat of your hands will change the color of the sand as you play with it.)
Fluffy Slime
That ooey-gooey substance is always a classic crowdpleaser. This recipe uses kitchen ingredients, sans the laundry booster known as Borax, for a fluffy texture.
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscopes dazzle the senses, and you can make this one with items you already have around the house. An empty paper roll, translucent beads in assorted colors, scrapbook paper, and a clear plastic lid from a disposable container provide the main materials for creating this colorful optical illusion-maker.
Pasta-and-Leaf Leis
Little hands will have fun holding the pasta noodles, feeling the ridges and bumps, as they’re linked onto a string. You can talk about the different varieties as an educational bonus. Use alphabet soup noodles to spell out names for each child’s artwork.
Clay Necklaces
Clay, leather cord, and beads: this craft has it all. And its simplicity means that younger and older kids alike will have fun rolling, folding, and stretching their pendants into shape. Once the pendants are baked in the oven with a parent’s help, the kids can wear their necklaces (and even make a piece of statement jewelry for Mom too).
Clothespin Paintbrushes
Spend a day outside by searching for leaves and other plants that would make interesting brushes for a paint project. Clothespin becomes the paintbrush handles. Get out a canvas or some paper and washable tempera in a variety of colors, and see what your little ones come up with!
Natural Ink
While parents will mix and heat the ingredients, kids can choose their favorite colors for ink. Outside in good weather, have your budding artists paint with their hands and feet on large pieces of butcher paper. Because they are non-toxic, kids will enjoy the opportunity to get a little messy.
Sidewalk Chalk Paint
It’s easy to make your own wash-off nontoxic pigments using just a few household items. This is a great hands-on activity to keep the kids happily occupied at your upcoming block party, barbecue, or any ordinary summer day.
Block Printing
Grab a few old T-shirts, tea towels, or fabric bags. Dip potatoes, blocks, and any other items you can salvage into the paint to create custom clothes and accessories. This can be an activity for the entire family that encourages creativity and conversation.
No-Bake Cookie Cottages
Sometimes, it’s fun to play with food. Cookie houses are a tasty treat. The frosting makes for an ideal “glue” to build the cookie house while candies and other small treats make wonderful embellishments. Let kids sneak a few bites of the sugary decorations in moderation.
Splatter-Paint Cups
Chances are, everything you need to make dappled eggs is already in your kitchen: dried grains or legumes, food dye, and eggs. All of the supplies shown here impart particularly impressive speckles, but feel free to test out any small dry spices or grains you have on hand.
Bubble Paper
Finally, a project that gives your kids permission to blow bubbles at the table. To create beautiful gift wrap out of white butcher paper, build up a froth of paint and water in a baking dish, then gently place the paper on top to create a print.
Pom-Pom Animals
What’s cuter than baby animals? Pom-poms are great for creating small representations of your children’s favorite creatures. The soft and fluffy texture of pom-poms delights kids and adults alike. Your kids will have a blast playing with the adorable toy animals once the project is done.
Ice-Dyeing
Cool to the touch, ice cubes are the secret to our favorite new method of dyeing: It works like tie-dye to give any solid cotton fabric a watercolor wash.
Dot and Stripe Painted Treat Bags
These plain muslin bags are given graphic patterns printed with do-it-yourself “stamps.” The dots come from bubble wrap; the stripes, corrugated cardboard.
I will start a series of kids crafts and explain how to make each of these! Which is your favorite? Which have you already done?
Get crafty with paint and a salad spinner and make colorful works of art with your little ones. Spin art is perhaps the most fun, well-contained type of mess that you can make — even toddlers can easily participate. Consider this activity on a rainy day or during arts and crafts at an outdoor summer camp.
What You’ll Need
salad spinner
paper
scissors
washable paint
Set Up Your Art Space
Prepare an area where you can lay your finished art, and get your paint canisters opened and ready for use. You may be reluctant to destroy your kitchen salad spinner — rightfully so — but the washable paint should easily come off the tool if you soak it after use. If you’re planning on making spin art all summer long, consider sourcing an inexpensive or secondhand spinner that you can dedicate to this craft.
Cut the Paper
Cut pieces of paper that will fit into the base of your salad spinner. Large squares and freehanded circles work best. Too small, and the paper may flip up when you activate the spin cycle.
Drizzle the Paint
With a piece of paper positioned in the center of the salad spinner basket, pour assorted pools of paint directly onto the paper. A quarter-sized dollop will do, but feel free to explore with less or more.
Let the kids make their picks, and experiment with primary colors, the addition of white or black paint, and whether or not the paint colors sit separately or flow together on the paper.
Spin, Spin, Spin
Put the lid onto the salad spinner and activate the tool. The basket and the paper inside will spin fast, and the paint will immediately force across the surface of the paper, splattering beyond the edges to coat the walls of the spinner. This is a good opportunity to point out to the older participants that centripetal forces are at work, and an interesting opportunity for younger kids to learn about the mechanics of the tool.
Let Your Project Dry
Remove the paper from the salad spinner and set it in a flat space to dry.
Take a moment to observe the wet paint and see how the colors have flowed together. If your child selected primary colors, they might see a rainbow. If they opted to experiment with red and white, they might be amazed at the shade of pink they created.
When dry, display!
I had to share this adorable idea, I got this cute idea here
Get rid of your visual clutter so you can live a happier more peaceful life!
Today I read a powerful article about the link between cleanliness and personal happiness or peace. I am pretty sure we all know there’s a link. I know if my home is cluttered, I feel like I can’t breathe well (not literally) but I feel so overwhelmed, and down. The moment it’s clean, I’m happy and so is my family. In the article, they mentioned “Women who described their living spaces as “cluttered” or full of “unfinished projects” were more likely to be depressed and fatigued than women who described their homes as “restful” and “restorative.” The researchers also found that women with cluttered homes expressed higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol.”
It makes sense to me! So let’s concentrate on HOW to organize and unclutter our home! I want to go through a quick visual clutter guide. I think this will be helpful. Most of us have a hard time knowing where to start so let’s start with containers! In 2011, researchers at Princeton University found that clutter can actually make it more difficult to focus on a particular task. Specifically, they found that the visual cortex can be overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects, making it harder to allocate attention and complete tasks efficiently. So let us concentrate more on the visual clutter and what to do about it.
Get containers
Get containers or jars for the things in your pantry and things, it helps reduce the visual clutter really well! The boxes and things at the store were never meant to fit neatly in your pantry. It doesn’t matter if you chose different shapes and sizes or uniformed containers and jars, it will make your shelves and your countertops look so much nicer and most of the time it makes it easier to use the products! If you go with clear containers and jars you can see how much of the product you have left and if you need more! Anyone else ever has 3 different packs of facial cotton pads unopen in the cabinet because they couldn’t remember how much they had left? Just me?
The Pantry
One of the added benefits of transferring your items into containers and jars is that you won’t have to fill your cabinets and pantries with the unsightly stacks of pasta boxes. Dry goods are great for these containers and jars! Rice, beans, and things like that because they are long-lasting, just be sure you get an airtight container. Also, do the same for all your baking needs, like flour, and sugar because you can easily put your measuring cups inside! If you have anything with an expiration date that you’re transferring into a container or jar, be sure you place the date on it, you can get chalkboard stickers to write that on, that’s an easy to update method!
The Laundry room
You probably don’t think it’s worth transferring laundry products into jars but once you see how nice laundry pods and dryer sheets look in clear containers you’ll think differently! Just be sure that all of these products are out of reach of young children and pets.
The Refridgerator
The door on the fridge can get way too overcrowded with odd-sized bottles and jars, transfer the most frequently used items like salad dressings, condiments, into a squeezable bottle to make it easier to store them side by side and use every last drop of your favorite dressing! Use a label maker to mark what’s inside each one and the expiration date. Plus, You can put your olive oil and vinegar in a squeeze bottle to make it easy to drizzle over pasta and other dishes without the mess!
We will go through more of these visual clutter tips this week!
You can make a few small bottles of this spray hand sanitizer to carry in your purse, store in your vehicle, and toss in the baby’s diaper bag. You can easily sanitize and kill germs on the go. Plus, it smells beautiful!
INGREDIENTS
10 drops of essential oils
190 proof grain alcohol (or the highest proof alcohol you can get)*
1 oz plastic flip-top bottle
INSTRUCTIONS
Pick and choose the essential oils to meet your desired result.
Drop essential oils into the bottle.
Then add alcohol to fill the bottle.
Mix thoroughly until the essential oil is fully mixed.
Enjoy! Yes, It’s THAT easy!
Be sure to give your hands a thorough soak, rub vigorously, and keep wet for as long as possible until your hands air dry.
* At least 60% alcohol is necessary to sanitize the hands, but this concentration is not adequate for solubilizing essential oils.
NOTE ABOUT ALOE
You may have noticed that aloe is NOT in this recipe. Like many of us DIY bloggers out there, I used to recommend aloe in this recipe until an expert product formulator advised me with the following…
Basically, aloe can’t really be added if you want to keep essential oils in this recipe. Since it’s soluble in the alcohol, it will reduce the concentration to a level that doesn’t allow the EOs to stay in solution anymore. And if one were to used the thickened aloe gels (stuff with polymers) it would turn into a gunky mess and then also not allow the EOs to stay in solution. So, you have a skin risk with the EO when this happens.
Long story short, alcohol was misunderstood in aromatherapy for a while and there are changes coming out about these now.
Aloe can be added to sanitizers, but it’s usually incorporated as a 200x powder concentration that is included in the water phase of the formulation. If you wanted to do JUST aloe and alcohol, as long as the alcohol level remained at 60% plus AND the aloe being used was not already contaminated beyond a reparable level, you might be able to get away with it. But essential oils wouldn’t be able to be added for the reasons stated above.
What I would suggest if you want to keep aloe around for its skin moisturizing benefits is this: make the changes I recommended using and all alcohol spray with essential oils. But suggest a two-step process.
After the alcohol and essential oils has been allowed to dry on the hand (and it must be dry).
Add the aloe after to soothe and protect the hands. Lotion or our healing skin salve could also be an option here.
BLENDS THAT YOU MAY LIKE
Here are some of my favorite blends that work great in this highly diluted formula. Choose from below or make one up yourself:
Deep Breathing Blend – Cardamom, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, tea tree
Focus Blend – Cedarwood, frankincense, sandalwood and vetiver
Good Bye Allergy Blend – Lavender, lemon, and peppermint
A comforting baked spaghetti casserole with plenty of melted cheese is the perfect dish for potlucks, family gatherings, or a week-night dinner.
Prep:
25 mins
Cook:
1 hr
Total:
1 hr 25 mins
Servings:
8
Ingredients
Ingredient Checklist
1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 (32 ounce) jar meatless spaghetti sauce
½ teaspoon seasoned salt
2 eggs
⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups small curd cottage cheese, divided
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
Frugaloverload.com
Directions
Instructions Checklist
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Step 2
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain.
Step 3
Heat a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir beef and onion until meat is browned and onions are soft and translucent about 7 minutes. Drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and seasoned salt.
Step 4
Whisk eggs, Parmesan cheese, and butter in a large bowl. Mix in spaghetti to egg mixture and toss to coat. Place half the spaghetti mixture into a baking dish. Top with half the cottage cheese, mozzarella, and meat sauce. Repeat layers. Cover with aluminum foil.
Step 5
Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until the cheese is melted and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes longer.
Nutrition Facts
Per Serving:
728 calories; 33.6 g total fat; 150 mg cholesterol; 1250 mg sodium. 61.9 g carbohydrates; 42.5 g protein;
These are the top 5 DIY crafts I want to try this week! With quarantine and all, I think it’s a good time to post some awesome DIY’s I want to try! Some of them, you can actually decorate with which is an added benefit. I love it when you can DIY and use the item in your home for some cute decor. I’m pretty obsessed with BOHO anything.
DIY home decor is a top trend nowadays anyway, it saves money, it’s fun and it turns out to be exactly the way you want it. It’s totally a win-win. I think everyone has been so creative lately! I love seeing everyone’s DIY crafts on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Here are my top 5 musts for DIY this weekend!
1.) I found this on Pinterest and I’m SO going to give this a go this weekend! I love anything Bohemian!
2.) This is one of my favorites! I absolutely love this! I am hoping to be able to do this one. When I do I’ll let you all see it. It’s so beautiful and it doesn’t look crazy hard, either.
3.) I have to do this and I know this isn’t a weekend project. I think I need a whole lot of twine! I really love the rugs that are made of twine and the little baskets and things. I’m going to have to start on this asap. It’s beautiful!
4.) Isn’t this adorable? I saw this and I have to make it. Perfect for beautiful DIY home decor, right? I love it!
5.) Last but not least, this adorable dandelion picture! What I was thinking about doing with mine is having my little ones put their small little fingers around it, not only as home decor but also a keepsake!
