DPP Day 20

Today was a very full day for us, as I'm sure it was for all of you. We had a few really good coupons to take advantage of, so we headed to the mall to try to get some last minute good deals. We made out pretty well, though only Mark and the girls bought something! I gave them the coupons that I had, though, so they could save money. (After Christmas, I will get into telling you more about how we are saving money around here!)

One of the deals we took advantage of was broccoli and cauliflower for .33 per head! No, that is not a misprint - Target had it on sale for $1.33 per head and I had 12 $1.00 off coupons! So, when we got home, we cut it apart, blanched it and put it in the freezer. We then started off using up some of the broccoli by making a yummy broccoli quiche for dinner with ingredients we had on hand and corn chowder (using a recipe from Mimi's cafe that was simply divine!!!!). Comfort food at it's best!

Our next big project was making up little packages for the kids Sunday School teachers and some of the people who work with us on a regular basis. The kids wanted to make them banana bread, so we got to work. First, we were going to make them in mini bundt pans that I have that are so cute, but after 2 batches stuck and we only had about 3 that were give awayable (is that a word?), we decided to rethink our plan. For the next batch, I would have to get creative. I found 8 medium canning jars and got to thinking. Beth made cupcakes in jars once, so why couldn't I make banana bread. It was worth a try! So, we poured the batter in til it was about 1/2 full and placed them on a cookie sheet, then in the oven to bake (sorry that I didn't take pictures - it never occured to me!). When they came out, we cleaned off the rim and put the sterilized lids on right away. Pretty soon, we heard the rhythmic popping that tells that they had sealed themselves shut! How neat! I wished that I had had more jars, but that was all that I had so that was that. We finished off by just making mini loaves.

When it came time to package them, we started with the jars. We cut squares of pretty Christmas fabric to put under the lids, attached a tag telling what it was and then placed the whole thing into fun Christmas gift bags which we tied shut with pretty ribbon. The neat thing is that we did all of this with things that we had on hand, so no money was spent out of pocket! I am getting better at being frugal every day!

For the mini loaves, we wrapped a wide piece of ribbon around them, then a thin piece of ribbon centered over that with the label attached to it. Here are some pics:

The mini loaves:



The cute little jars:


Packaged and ready to be delivered:


Though we couldn't do all that we would have liked to have done, it is important to us that our children learn to express their love and appreciation for those who weekly invest their time, talents and resources into their lives.