Terrari-yum

We're linking up to: 

Back to our title-Will you forgive me? It's rough to think up funny post titles, so I usually end up erring on the side of "no she didn't". Sorry.


Anyway- we made these cute faux terrariums this weekend to give our place a little dose of springtime amid all of the snow and cold. We've been inspired by all of the plant-based decorating that we're spying around the blog world. Check out these lovlies from Pottery Barn:


At $250 smackers, I think we can take a pass on these particular ones! But...we still craved a hit of nature in our otherwise drab living room, so we decided to make our own!!! In fact, while browsing around the interwebs, I found this project over at the AMAZING Dollar Store Crafts and decided to change it a little to make it our own. It was super easy, here's how:





Step 1- fluff your moss a little bit and fire up your glue gun. You can also use regular glue, but it takes longer to dry.


Step 2- Hot glue your candlestick to the bottom of the hurricane. You can score both of these things easily at your local thrift store, if you would like to do some recycling.





Step 3- Glue the moss around the base of your faux plant (found at the Dollar store or tuck some craft store greenery into a small styrofoam block). Make sure to cover up all of the foam.


Step 4- Stuff it into the bottom of your hurricane and you're done!


Easy as pie! If you wanted to make it look authentic, you could also fashion a top to your terrarium out of a small bowl, etc. Here's the cost breakdown:


$3.50! Not too shabby!

It's Time to Make the Bagels!

Okay, forgive me for this self-indulgent trip down memory lane (those who grew up with Dunkin Donuts know the reference). Last week, we had two snow days, which left me with plenty of time to scheme what I would bring to our weekly brunch that we have with neighbors. I've conquered cinnamon rolls, gone down the fritata and quiche route before and made an amazing banana french toast. Hmmm. I wanted something satisfying. Something really not virtuous at all. I was stumped. Then, I browsed over to Smitten Kitchen. Where all of my good dieting and exercising intentions go straight to hell.

And I saw this. Homemade bagels. Time consuming, but exactly what I wanted to eat. It was on. I had nothing but time.

Homemade Bagels

Part 1- Make the Sponge:

1 tsp active, dry yeast (from a packet, reserve the other tsp.)

4 c. flour (I used all-purpose, because it was all I had and I wasn't about to go out in a blizzard to get bread flour)

2 1/2 c. warm, not hot water

Mix together the yeast and flour in a large bowl. Add the water and mix well. Our mixture was really thick, although the original recipe says it should be like pancake batter. It still rose well, so don't worry.

Cover with saran wrap and leave to rise for 2 hours. We left ours in the oven, since our kitchen is cold and drafty. Lucky us.

Part Two- Make the Dough:

1 tsp. active, dry yeast (reserved from original package)

3 c. flour

3 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. agave nectar, honey or brown sugar (original recipe calls for malt powder)

The dough should be well-risen (ours was just about doubled). Tap the bowl a few times on the countertop to deflate it. Transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer and fit your mixer with the dough hook. Add 1 tsp. yeast (reserved), 3 c. of flour, salt and malt powder (we used Agave nectar, which worked fine.) Stir until ingredients form a ball. The original recipe calls for an additional 3/4 c. of flour, but we didn't need it. Our dough was super stiff at this point.

Transfer to a floured counter top and knead until dough becomes really smooth and elastic. This takes some muscle so be prepared.  We kneaded for about 10 minutes.

Prepare your baking sheets. We used a total of four (4) half-sheet pans. Spray them with non-stick spray (Pam) and then top with a sheet of parchment.

Begin breaking off pieces of dough. It's best if you have a food scale so you can make sure they 're uniform in size and will bake evenly. We made our bagels 2.5 ounces each.

Roll into little balls and cover all of your dough with damp paper towel. Rest for 20 minutes (we again rested in the oven).

Part 3- Form the Bagels:

After 20 minutes or so, take them out and form into your bagel shape. We did this by poking a hole in the middle of each little ball and gently stretching the dough into a 2 1/2-inch ring. Spray your parchment lined baking sheets with a little spray oil and place each bagel about 2 inches apart on the sheets. You want to leave plenty of space around each bagel.



Cover with saran wrap and let the bagels sit for another 20 minutes at room temperature.

Fill a wide bowl with room-temperature water. Take a bagel and plunk it into the water. If it floats, you're ready to refrigerate the bagels. If not, let them continue to sit at room temperature and check back after another 10 minutes. Dry your test bagel off, wrap the sheets really well with plastic wrap and slide into the fridge. You'll leave them there overnight, or for up to two days.

Part 4- Bake the Bagels!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees f. Take your widest pot (we used a cast-iron Dutch oven) and fill it with a few inches of water. Place it over high heat and bring to a boil. Add a tablespoon of baking soda. We also added a tablespoon of agave nectar to give the bagels some color.



When water is boiling, add in a few bagels- they shouldn't be crowded into the pot. While the bagels are boiling, spread out some cornmeal on your baking sheets.  After two minutes, flip each bagel and boil for an additional two minutes (We use a chopstick for easy flipping!). Remove the bagels back to the cornmeal lined baking sheet (if you want to top with anything, now is the time!) and place into the oven.



You'll need to do this in batches, but it's easier to just have a system where you can boil, bake, rotate and remove.



Bake for 5 minutes, then rotate your pan and bake for 5 minutes more. Bagels should be browned on top. Remove from pan onto a cooling rack or large platter.



Et voila! Bagels, from your very own kitchen. They were chewy, bready and delicous. Exactly what the doctor ordered on a snowy, icky New England weekend. Oh and they cost about $2 to make two dozen bagels. Score one for the Tiny Wallet!!!!!

Spicy Chicken "Lasagna"

Sometimes the best laid-plans just don't work out. I had been dreaming about a steaming hot bowl of the Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup (you may have noticed that I mention PW every 1 in 3 posts- obsessed much?) all of yesterday. When I got home and began preparing to make it, however, I neglected to read the cook/simmer times (rookie mistake!). The problem? We were hungry like...10 minutes ago. Since I had already roasted off the chicken breasts, I needed a plan B. I still wanted that spicy, tomato-ey taste that I'd get from the tortilla soup, just quicker.

Enter the "lasagna". It's obviously not a real lasagna, but a layered casserole made with spicy chicken, creamy beans and tomatoes and layers of corn tortilla. And let me tell you- it was super delicious. Here's how you can make it in your very own kitchen!

Spicy Chicken "Lasagna"

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (we made a whole pound because they're yummy!)

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can Ro-tel (or tomatoes and chili)

1- 28 oz. can black beans, drained

3 tbsp. cream cheese

12 6-inch corn tortillas

1 c. sharp cheddar

cilantro for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°f. Rinse and dry chicken breasts. Arrange on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil.

Combine the cumin, chili powder, salt and garlic powder.

Coat each breast with the spice mixture.

Roast for 20 minutes or until done.

While the breasts are cooling, add the onion and garlic to a pan with a little oil. Saute until translucent, about 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add Ro-tel, drained black beans and cream cheese and mix. Continue to stir until the cream cheese has melted.

At this point, shred the chicken with two forks or chop roughly.

Begin assembling your "lasagna" by layering corn tortilla halves on the bottom of a casserole dish or dutch oven.

Next, add a layer of the bean mixture and a layer of chicken.

Top with another layer of tortillas, bean mixture and chicken. Finish it off with a top layer of tortillas and some cheese, if desired. I added some jalapeños and tomatoes to the top of mine. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the inside is hot.

Garnish with cilantro, more cheese, pico de gallo or just eat as it is!

Not too shabby for plan B!

Thrifty Tips- Cleaning House

Oh housecleaning. While we wish we could just call a cleaning service or have a robot-maid ala The Jetsons, it's just not in the cards at Tiny Wallet Headquarters. So, we're doing the dirty work all by our lonesome.

The problem is, I'm slightly addicted to cleaning products (I blame my mom- hi Mom!). I buy anything with a brightly colored label that promises to make my job as easy as possible. Now, I know it's all marketing, but I'm a sucker. So, one of my new year's resolutions last year was to green our clean. Cut out the chemically heavy (and expensive!!!) cleaning products and figure out how to do it ourselves to save some bucks and live more green! Here's how our little experiment went down in 2010.

Thrifty Tips- Becoming a Cheapskate

Truth time: Early on in our lives, we cultivated a nasty little habit of living beyond our means. Dinners out, bucket loads of shopping and a taste for high-end electronics ate through gobs and gobs of cash. Thankfully, we grew up and realized that the only way we can hope to live a happy and fulfilling life is to eliminate the spending.

Easier said than done, for sure. I still get that urge to pop into Target or Homegoods "just to browse" and end up walking out with a bag of stuff. So...our challenge to ourselves is to break the spending habit. How? Here is what we are thinking for 2011:

1) Write down all of your financial goals and post them everywhere. By the computer, so you think twice about online shopping, in your wallet, etc. If you see the goals in black and white, you'll be reminded to think twice before whipping out the Visa.

2)  Make a list and stick to it. No shopping unless we need it, its budgeted for and we cannot live without it.

3) Give things away/sell things. I think that once we get the ball rolling on this we will feel rewarded by the act of minimizing and decluttering.

4)  Cultivate a roster of cheap but delicious dinners to save cash! Dinners out are a weakness and if we don't have something on the menu, we tend to slip back into our old ways.

5) Budget and stick to it. Hold ourselves accountable for our spending. Its way too easy to let ourselves slip and overspend, so we need to figure out a way to stay on track. Hmmm.

Now it's your turn! How do you guys save cash?? We're always looking for new ways to become even thriftier!

Tiny Holidays: Matzoh Crack

Guys. Prepare yourselves for trying this if you have not. We call it matzoh crack for good reason: you literally can't stop eating it. Crunchy matzoh, sweet brown sugar caramel and creamy, melty dark chocolate. Swoon. If you have any plans whatsoever in the next week, make and bring this. And then prepare yourself to become the most popular person at the party. This is THAT good..

Tiny Holidays: Typographical Wrapping

So I was browsing around ManMade when I spotted a great and cheap way to wrap and personalize holiday gifts. Using simple mailing paper and a page from any old book, you end up with an extremely simple but amazing wrapping for any present. Here is the tinywalletstyle method of making Typographical Gift Wrap

Thrifty Tips: How We Save Cash Around the Holidays

The holidays are approaching quickly and we have been doing quite a bit of thinking about Christmas shopping lately. Our families are both huge, so buying gifts for everyone is quite the task! With the new budget in place, our holiday spending has starting shrinking which makes shopping for lots of people even harder. We love giving gifts, so not shopping at all is out of the question. We have, however, come up with some sneaky strategies to save cash AND still play Santa to our family and friends.

1) Make a list and stick to it! Seriously. Estimate how much you will spend and budget for your gifts as far in advance as you can -we budget in January and then split the total between 12 months. Every month, we contribute to our Christmas gift fund. This really takes the financial burden off of you when December comes rolling around.

Tiny Holidays: Quick Gift Wrap Upgrade

Howdy! We're taking a break from the trenches of gift wrapping to bring you this cute idea we came up with to jazz up an otherwise boring gift. For the holidays, we like to give tickets- movie, concert, sporting event, etc. The problem with giving tickets is that they just kind of...sit there in the envelope. We are festive kind of people, so of course we had to find a quick (and cheap!) way to jazz up our presentation.

Tiny Holidays: Easy Shortbread Cookies

Guys. I awoke yesterday morning with a desperate need to bake 20 dozen cookies. Does that ever happen to you? I think it stems from the fact that my brain correlates Christmas decorations to baking cookies. As soon as the decorations are up, the cookies appear- just check out our "to-bake" list!! Our freezer, by next weekend, will be chock full of cylinders of dough waiting to be sliced and baked. If you want to get a jump on your cookie baking, here is my very favorite bake-ahead recipe- shortbread!

Quickie Dinner- Perfect Tomato Sauce

In honor of our recent monthly meal planning post, we decided to share with you the most versatile and delicious recipe in our cooking arsenal: tomato sauce. We use it for EVERYTHING. Pasta, obviously. Pizza sauce. A base for quick chili or minestrone soup. A simmer sauce for meatballs. It's so good I could eat it every night. We plan to make a huge batch and can it to give away as Christmas gifts along with some fresh pasta. Enjoy!

How We Meal Plan on a Budget

During the holidays, things get very hectic around Tiny Wallet HQ so naturally we slide on some normal household duties. The first thing, in past years, was cooking dinner. Instead, we'd opt for take out and going out to restaurants. Well, since the budget has gone into place, we realize that takeout and going out for dinner is a thing of the past. We had to change. Enter...the internet!

Tiny Holidays: Repurpose What You Have!

Howdy from the holiday decorating department here at Tiny Wallet Style. We l-o-v-e decorating for Christmas, so much so that Mike has to implement arbitrary rules as to when the decorating can commence. If these rules are not in effect, Ally might just bust out the Christmas boxes mid-summer.

Tiny Holidays: Perfectly Easy Dinner Rolls

If you are like us, you become a carb-glutton on Thanksgiving. The more carbs, the better. So in addition to stuffing, potatoes and everything else, I made homemade rosemary rolls at 10pm this evening. Insane? I think so. Delicious? I also think so. Here is the recipe- they are easy enough to whip up tomorrow morning, if you so desire.

Tiny Holidays: PW's Pecan Pie

This is my first pecan pie, and I must say that it seems...terrifying bad for you. Which obviously means that it tastes fantastic. This recipe comes from the Pioneer Woman, who is an evil genius. Evil, evil, evil. But still a genius.  I'm not quite sure this pie is going to make it till the morning. If not, don't tell my family- okay? You can check out PW's recipe here.

Tiny-Budget Entertaining: Infused Vodka

One of the few things we love more than saving money or hosting some of our friends for a mid-week dinner party is drinking hard liquor!

While that's a joke, we do love a cocktail every now and then, and one of our favorite ways to make a delicious cocktail and save some money, is to use cheap/er Vodka and then infuse it with some fruits or herbs.  You can even filter your own cheap Vodka at home, using a water filter to remove some impurities.

But here's how we roll!

Step One-- Vodka buying time

Tiny Holidays: Turkey Day Decor

We did some last-minute crafting in preparation for our Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's family. I thought since we are not eating at home, we could make a few fall-ish crafts that would inject our personality into the meal. Also- I really wanted to make a banner, so I did! This could be easily adapted to any holiday/occasion with different papers, and it cost just a few cents to make! We bought the scrap booking paper on sale at A.C. Moore, and we had the white card stock, so it was really cheapy cheap.

First up, a Thanksgiving banner reminding us to Give Thanks for our many blessings. I look forward to hanging this up again next fall in our own home.

We started with some cardstock (we used size A2 flat cards from Papersource which measure approximately 4"x5"). I cut down some scrap book paper in a fun, sunny yellow pattern to size with scallop scissors. Note- I didn't measure at all for this project. If your banner is a little lopsided I promise you that the world will not end as a result. Glue to backing card stock- we use a glue stick and it works fine.

Tiny Re-Do: Operation Awesome

Here is a story of transformation.  It is the story of how our old (ugly) bookshelves and coffee table, became our new TV Bench with storage.

Shall we begin.

It all started with this

Tiny Holidays: Get In the Kitchen

Here at TWS Headquarters, the second that the thermometer drops below 60°, the oven goes on and the baking commences. I dream about what I'll bake through the entire summer. But, for me, there is no greater time to bake then for the holidays. It's become a tradition that we will deliver freshly baked treats to friends and neighbors instead of giving gifts. With an adorable box or bow, some homemade treats make a perfect (and cheap) holiday gift! Let's check out what goodies are in the running for Tiny Wallet Christmas Gift Boxes 2010:

Merely Lovely: Thanksgiving Edition

We loooooove Thanksgiving. Not just because of the food, either. It's an amazing day filled with people who love each other gathering around a table and celebrating the things that they are thankful for. The chilly fall air, the piles of red and yellow leaves, the noise of happy conversations (and a football game or two!), and the wonderful, soul-satisfying smells of a meal that's been cooking all day.