I’ve been making homemade turkey sausage for several years, which is especially nice to have on hand for Pancake Sausage Muffins, Easy Breakfast Casseroles and Cheesy Turkey Sausage Stromboli. Everytime I make the sausage though, I have to empty out half of my spice cabinet. It’s not difficult, but I knew it would save time to prep the seasonings for this sausage ahead of time, just like I prep Taco Seasoning, Ranch Dressing Mix, Italian Dressing Mix and Onion Soup Mix.

I just hadn’t found the time to figure it all out.

But guess what? One of my readers, Karen, figured it out for me. So excited was I to see her email, I high-fived everyone in the house and together, we sang a song of celebration in four part harmony. (Just kidding, but I did send Karen a virtual hug.)  She has saved me a lot of time and thought – and she took a picture too. This will for sure be going into our upcoming free Gifts in a Jar eBook, and I’m posting it here as well, because this is one time-saving idea I’d like everyone to have!

Homemade Turkey Sausage Spice Mix

2 cups dried minced onions
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons marjoram
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons basil
4 teaspoons thyme
4 teaspoons sage
4 teaspoons sea salt

Mix altogether and store in pint-sized jar. Shake to mix.

To Make Homemade Turkey Sausage

1 pound ground turkey
¼ cup turkey sausage spice mix
1 egg

Mix all together. Chill for at least one hour to blend flavors. Form into patties. Saute. These freeze well for later use. OR  sauté mixture into a crumbled mixture for Pancake Sausage Muffins or other recipes which include cooked sausage.

What ideas are you working on for our Gifts in a Jar eBook? Remember, I’ll need your ideas, thorough directions and pictures by Thursday, November 10. Read all the details here and get busy on those ideas!!!

Enjoy this fun guest post from Maria!

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers—it’s for the whole family. Spend an afternoon with your kids this February 14th with these two simple crafts. Make a few extra to spread the love around to friends and family.

Lollipop Bouquet

This sweet craft costs considerably less than a store-bought set of flowers and is easy enough for kids to give to Mom or Dad as they please.

Materials Needed

Colored paper in green and pink, red, or other flower-like colors
Flat (not ball) lollipops
Scissors and glue stick

Directions

Fold the colored paper in half. Keeping part of the shape along the folded edge (so that the heart is a folded card), cut out heart shapes just bigger than the lollipop candy. Write a short message in the heart (“Be mine,” for example) and then glue it to the lollipop wrapper. For the leaves, fold the green paper in half. Cut out leaf shapes, keeping the stem part of the shape on the folded edge. Unfold the leaves and coat them with the glue stick. Fold it back over the lollipop stem.

Candy Cane Leftovers Chocolate Cookies


Image Credit

Still have candy canes lying around since Christmas? Recycle them in this simple chocolate cookie recipe. Bringing kids into the kitchen (with supervision, of course) is always good practice.

Ingredients

2 ½ cups bittersweet chocolate chips (but don’t go over 61% cacao or it will be more bitter than sweet!)
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup natural unsweetened fair trade cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 stick (or ½ cup) unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
2 eggs
4 candy canes, coarsely crushed (an easy and safe way to do this is to take them out of their original wrappers and freeze them in a paper bag. Once frozen, take it out of the freezer, cover with a thick dish towel, and give them a good whack with a hammer or rolling pin.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir 2 cups of chocolate chips in a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water so they melt. Measure out 2/3 cup and put into a separate bowl. Take them off the heat. You’re going to use the 2/3 measurement to drizzle over the cookies later.

Meanwhile, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter in another bowl until creamy with an electric mixer. Add sugar and vanilla and peppermint extracts. Add eggs and beat. Add what’s left in the original chocolate bowl to the mixture and beat. Finally, add the dry ingredients and beat just to blend. Stir in the remaining ½ cup chocolate chips.

Take the dough 1 level tablespoon at a time and roll between palms into a ball before placing on the baking sheet. Space the cookies about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for about 8 minutes or until cracked all over and a tester comes out with moist crumbs. Cool the cookies for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack (still on the parchment paper).

Remember that 2/3 cup of melted chocolate? Warm them over simmering water again and, once melted, drizzle over the cookies using a fork. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes. Make sure that some of the red show on the cookie to give it a Valentine’s Day feel. Chill the cookies for about 20 minutes so the chocolate sets. Then, enjoy!

Looking to create some fun valentines this year? Check out these fun free or inexpensive ideas!

Download your free Love You to Pieces Elephant Puzzle Valentine here! 
(Once you “buy” the free puzzle, scroll down to find the link to download.)

Purchase this entire set of Love You to Pieces Valentine Puzzles here for only $1, 
download, then print off as many as you want! Hurry while sale lasts!

Learn to make this valentine in mint condition here. 
So easy, so cute…so inexpensive to make!

You’ll find a pattern and instructions for these great Valentine spectacles here. 
If you click over, you’ll be rewarded with a picture of yours truly
wearing the beautiful heart shaped glasses. 
Go ahead…you know you want to see it.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

Last year, some friends of ours dropped off these fun May Baskets at our door. I declared them the cutest May Baskets I’d ever seen! The boys loved them!

May Day (May 1) is only a week away…so I just had to share these with you! Beecause these baskets are really beeautiful. (Sorry…you know I couldn’t write an entire post without some sort of silliness.)

Here’s what you need to make them:

• black, yellow and light blue construction paper
• glue stick
• elmer’s glue
• googly eyes
• white pom-poms
• black pipe cleaners
• pencil
• stapler

What to do:

Use elmers glue to fasten googly eyes to pom-poms. Allow glue to dry.

Cut black paper into a 9×9 inch square. 

Cut off one corner into a curve.

Fold paper into a cone and staple ends in place.

Tear yellow paper into strips. Glue them as stripes onto the black construction paper cone.

Curve ends of pipecleaner around a pencil, fold pipecleaner in half, then fasten with stapler as antennae onto “bee”.

Cut a “heart” out of yellow paper for face, and a smile out of black paper for smile. Glue eyes and mouth onto face. Glue face to the rounded corner of the black paper, covering the staple used to attach the antennae.

You’ll find the pattern for the wings here. Trace it onto blue paper, then cut it out and staple it onto the back of the bee.

Fill “bee basket” with popcorn and other fun goodies.

Deliver them to your friends on May Day!

Aren’t these the most beecoming May Baskets you’ve ever seen?

Do you usually make and deliver May Baskets?  Or, have you been the recipient of May Baskets before?

I really and truly think that it is one of my boys’ favorite “holidays”! 
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For more Frugal Fun…visit Life as Mom!

Looking to fill your kids’ Easter Baskets this weekend? Do it simply with these Six Easy Steps:

1. Purchase the biggest basket you can find.
2. Dump in a good portion of the money you earned this week.
3. Pour in five pounds of sugar.
4. Drizzle on three cups of High Fructose Corn Syrup.
5. Add a wide variety of artificial colors. (Go ahead, don’t hold back.)
6. Toss in several cheap plastic toys (the kind that like to re-locate themselves under your van seats and couch cushions after one short use).

What? You don’t like my Six Easy Steps? Neither do I.

But that’s often what many of us do when we put together Easter baskets for our kids. We spend more money than we mean to. We can’t decide between the jelly beans, the chocolate bunnies or the malted milk balls…so we get all three (plus several of those foil covered cream filled eggs). The little yo-yos with little yellow chicks printed on them are too cute to pass up, so we throw those into the cart too.

Before we know it, we have completed the Six Easy Steps in twelve expensive minutes.

How about taking a look at some new ideas this year? There are so many fun ways to create gifts for your kids that cost just a few cents and a small amount of your time. Here are a few that our kids have enjoyed.

Fill the Easter Baskets

Homemade Flubber

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Tootsie Rolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

Homemade Bubble Bath

Homemade Fruit Leather

Honestly, my kids enjoy the Easter Egg hunt so much, they really don’t think too hard about what’s in the eggs!

AND…what’s really important about Easter anyway?! :)

What kinds of things do you like to put into your kids’ Easter Baskets? Have any fun ideas or neat family traditions to share?