Delicious Sliders - Bulk Cooking

I'm a huge bulk cooker, if I'm going to make a mess in my kitchen better to make the mess once and have enough food to last a while!  One of my kids favorite recipes are my slider burgers.  These take little time and freeze great.  I also love them because they make a quick meal for when you've got a packed schedule.  Here is the recipe!

Ingredients: 

• 3 pounds of Ground Beef 

• 1 cup of cooked rice or cooked quinoa

• 1 white onion chopped fine

• 2 Tbs. garlic salt

• Sliced Cheddar Cheese (or whatever cheese your family likes best)

• 2 - 24 packs of hawaiian sweet rolls

DIRECTIONS: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees

• Mix all ingredients together

• Split mixed ingredients in 2 - 9 x 13 glass pans

• Cover pans with tin foil

• Bake for 30 minutes

• Remove foil and place sliced cheese over cooked meat

• Let the sliders cool a few minutes while the cheese melts

• Now comes the brilliant part!  Open your hawaiian sweet rolls (can I say YUM!).  Take them out of the package still connected together, and slice the rolls in half horizontally.  Take the sliders from the 9x13 pan, and set the entire patty on top of the bottom slice of sweet rolls.  Put the tops of the sweet rolls on top of the sliders.  Using a knife cut along the sweet rolls lines!

• Top with burger toppings of your choice.  My kids are pretty simple, they like pickles and ketchup!

• Freeze the leftovers for another meal!

Homemade Pancakes

Hi Friends,
Hope you are having a great week!  Today I'm talking pancakes!  We love making pancakes, and specifically pancakes for dinner on Sunday night!  

I make my pancakes from scratch, which sounds more fancy then it is!  Pancake mixes from the store are packed full of too many ingredients and yucky chemical and that you don't want to be feeding your family.  Just look at the list of ingredients listed on your box, if you don't recognize them you shouldn't be eating them!  Homemade pancakes are simple and full of basic yummy ingredients!  

However, I do love the convenience of store bought pancake mix.  To solve this problem, I premix my dry ingredients for pancakes and put them in a large glass container.  Then when I'm ready to make pancakes all I have to do is add eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk or water.  This pancake recipe is delicious and a favorite for my family!  

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour (you can use any flour: white, whole wheat, or whatever you prefer.  I do a mix of half and half)

• 7 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp salt

• 2 tbs white sugar

• 3 cups of milk or water 

• 2 eggs

• 6 tbs melted butter

• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Mix all dry ingredients together

• Add wet ingredients

• Mix well

• Cook on griddle or frying pan, I use this recipe in my waffle maker too!
• If you want to pre-make pancake mix simply add 3 1/4 cups of pancake mix to the wet ingredients for perfect pancakes every time!  

• Extras: We love to add in extras to this recipe - chocolate chips and blueberries are my families favorites to add to this recipe.  I simply add the berries or chocolate chips directly to the pancake on the griddle.  

• Freeze:  These pancakes freeze great too!  They can be reheated in the toaster oven or on the griddle.  

We're on Facebook

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to make sure you all knew Vintage Burlap Barn is on Facebook!  If you are on Facebook come and like our page.  The Vintage Burlap Barn is where I post quick tips and tricks with Essential Oils, recipes, and other fun stuff.  A lot of what I post on the Facebook page eventually makes it to a blog post here, but you'll get a sneak peak if you follow our page!  Come check us out, Like us, and share us with your friends!
https://www.facebook.com/VintageBurlapBarn
In His Love,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 5

Hi Friends,
Today I'm showing you a few basic ways I keep my kids on task during the day without having to repeat myself 800 times! (that makes me crazy!)

Here is Cole's bulletin board, I have one for each of the kids.  On the board you will see our memory verse for the week, his sticker charts, spelling words, and a small whiteboard.

Details:

• Memory Verse: This month our memory verse is Colossians 3:12-17.  I put the verse on his board to use for handwriting practice throughout the week.
• Sticker charts: I'm a big fan of sticker charts, especially with BOYS!!!  My son needs to see big picture.  He needs to know the point of all this math is to get to the end of the year!  Sticker charts help him see the end goal.  A couple of the curriculums we use come with sticker charts and a couple don't.  I made a template for the subjects that don't have sticker charts, if you would like my sticker chart you can download it by (Click Here)
• Spelling Words: We practice these throughout the week in different ways and I've found having the words pre-printed for him to use really helps.  We write the words on the white board, with magnet tiles, and as handwriting practice!  
• White Board: This is without a doubt one of my favorite things in our homeschool room and something that keeps the entire family sane!  I write 2 groups of things on the board each day.  First, I write what individual homeschool work that is expected of Cole for the day and second, I write what chores are needing to be finished for the day.  My kids love knowing what they need to do and feel like they have accomplished things when they can wipe an item off the board.  We also have strict rule that if the whiteboard isn't cleaned off then free time isn't happening.  It's a simple little thing to have in the room and it makes a world of difference in the smooth runnings of our home!

I LOVE my maps!  I bought these at Costco for $24 and it was a United States and World map and the best part: it's laminated so we can white board marker all over them!  I only have up the United States map in our room because there isn't enough space for both - eventually I'll figure out how to stack them and roll one up when I need the other, but for now the World Map will have to wait.

I have 2 desks, these are Ikea desks and they are super simple - no drawers, just a great spot in the back that can hold a file holder.   The desks are left empty so that any of my kids can sit at any desk when they need a place to work.  

Since my children don't have a desk to keep there individual work at, we instead keep these individual file holders with their work.  They pick it up and take it with them to whatever location they want to work at - a desk, the kitchen table, even their bedroom if they are needing some quiet space!  Works really well for my family and I never hear "I can't find my notebook!"

So there you have day 5 in my homeschool room!  Questions or comments feel free to email me - vintageburlapbarn@yahoo.com

In His Service,
Jenny

Homeschool Room Open House Day 4

Hi Friends,
Forgive me, this post should have happened last week and I can give you a million reasons why it didn't, but I won't bother - I'll just say sorry!  

Here are a few more  areas in our homeschool room!  First, meet our class pet, Spike:

Spike is actually my sons tortoise, but we've all adopted him as the class pet!  And yes, since our room is patriotic and in my grandma's wealth of bulletin board pictures she just happened to have a huge picture of the white house I decided to decorate Spike's tank too!  I know this is silly, but my kids think it is hysterical - so Spike gets his tank decorated pretty often (he's sat with the pilgrims at thanksgiving and he does get a Christmas tree at Christmas!)  What tortoise wouldn't want the White House lawn as the background of their tank?!?

Next, I have to show you my newest addition to my homeschool room this year and without a doubt my favorite organization piece I've ever had in the room!

Thank you Ikea!  These buckets were all of $1.99 each and the rod they hang on was $2.99.  I added the Chalkboard labels, because I love labels (I have a problem, I know!)  These buckets just hook right over the curtain rod so you can take them down to put at the homeschool table when someone needs them, but I can stick them back on the wall when I want them out of the way!  Here is the big picture so you can see the wall.  

I bought 2 sets and the buckets hold the following items:

• scissors
• glue sticks
• pencils
• tape
• crayons
• markers (skinny and fat)
• white board markers

I had my darling husband mount them for me right under my whiteboards.  Side note on my whiteboards: originally I looked into buying one large whiteboard, but holy cow those are a couple hundred dollars so that plan was scratched really quick!  

I found these whiteboards last year at Costco for $15 and instead bought 4 of them and again my husband mounted them up on the wall for me all right next to each other.  I LOVE having the separate whiteboards because it divides up subjects while we are working throughout the day.  I'm so glad I didn't spend big money on one big white board!  

Here is my Art Bulletin board:

We did a unit study on Van Gogh and did this Sunflower Art Project through See the Light.  It's a 4 part DVD with step by step instructions.  This was such a fun project to do with the kids.  Click Here to check out their website, LOVE them!

Alright that is all for today, I still have at least one day, maybe 2 more days of fun stuff to show you in the homeschool room.  Hope you enjoyed today!  Questions/comments feel free to email vintageburlapbarn@yahoo.com 
In His Service,
Jenny

Best Pizza Crust

Hi Friends,
I am a pretty firm believer that anything you make at home will taste better than buying at a  restaurant.  However, I have tried making homemade pizza many times, but each time these pizzas left me sadly disappointed and wishing I'd paid the big bucks for yummy delicious pizza.

Then one day I found Pizza Pizzazz!  I love this machine!  It cooks from both the top and the bottom and makes your pizza turn out so perfect every time.  I've tried cooking pizza in the over even with a pizza stone but the crust is just never quit right.  The pizza pizzazz gives you the perfect crunchy crust every single time!  It has paid for itself a million times over considering how much eating pizza out costs.

The other important thing needed for homemade pizza is a good crust recipe and I just love my pizza crust recipe.  I love to put a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle my Homemade Italian Seasoning on the crust.  My kids also love it when I just make the crust and cover the entire thing with olive oil and the Italian seasoning and a little bit of parmesan cheese. We cut it up as an appetizer with marinara sauce for dipping or serve it with Spaghetti  in place of a garlic bread and it is so delicious! 

I also love this recipe because you don't have to wait for the crust to rise before you cook it.  A lot of times I'll make the dough then cut up the ingredients I want on my pizza and by the time I'm done with all the chopping (and snacking, cause who can cut up ingredients like olives, bell peppers, mushrooms and artichoke hearts and not nibble right?!?) it has risen enough that it will be light and fluffy!

Recipe:

• 2 cups of warm water (warm not hot!)
• 2 T dry active yeast
• 2 t salt
• 2 t sugar
• 4  T Braggs Organic Olive Oil
• 5 cups of flour (you can use any flour I usually do a mix of wheat and white)

Directions:

• Mix warm water and active yeast together and let sit for a couple of minutes.  
• Add the rest of your ingredients and mix (I use the dough hook on my kitchen aid and let it do all the work but you could do this by hand too!)
• The recipe should make 2 thick fluffy full crust pizzas or 3 thin crust pizzas.
• Bake in the oven at 500 for 10 minutes or on your pizza pizzazz for about 10 minutes!
• I've found that if you cook the pizza dough for 5 minutes without toppings then pull it back out and add toppings you will get a much crispier crust!

Freezing:

• I make 4 batches of this recipe at a time, giving me 12 pizza crusts - which lasts a month eating pizza once a week
• I cook the pizza crusts without any toppings
• Layer the cooked pizza crusts with wax paper in between each layer of pizza crust
• Put pizza crusts in X-Large ziplock bags (the regular freezer size bags are NOT big enough)
• Freeze pizza crusts
• Pull out and thaw crusts for about an hour then bake like normal

Hope you love this recipe as much as my family does.  Our family tradition is pizza on Friday nights I love having food traditions for a few reasons:

1. I don't ever have to figure out what I'm eating on Tuesday night (Taco Tuesdays) Friday nights (pizza) or Sundays (pancake night)
2. My kids LOVE the repetition and expectation of what we are eating on specific nights
3. And Lord willing, someday when my kids are no longer living at home they will make it a point to stop in on nights when they know what we will be eating!