Cinnamon Choc Oat Cookies

These cookies are the perfect blend of Oats and chocolate, with a hint on cinnamon. They are delicious! The recipe makes 45-50 Cookies and they can be frozen and thawed when you want to use them. Here is the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

* 1.5 Cups Plain Flour

* 1 cup brown sugar

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 2 tsp cinnamon

* 227g butter (at room temperature)

* 250g chocolate chips

* 3 cups rolled oats

* 1 tsp vanilla

* 2 large eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

2. In a seperate bowl, beat butter, brown sugar and sugar with an electric beater, until light & fluffy.

3. Add eggs and beat until fully combined.

4. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

5. Add flour mixture and beat on low until fully combined.

6. Cover the dough in the bowl with a tea towel and place in the fridge for an hour

7. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius and line baking trays with baking paper.

8. Remove dough from fridge and seperate into balls.

9. Place on baking paper and flatten with a spatula.

10.Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly golden.

I have recently switched to using Homebrand Choc Chips. At $1.39 a bag, they are 1/3 of the price of the other brands. And they are just as delicious!

 You just cover with a tea towel over the mixture. It doesn't need to be in a nice pretty ball when it is in the fridge.

 The pile after the kids had already gotten to them!

Happy baking!

Kylie xx

DIY Chalk Paint

If you don't already know this little cheap trick than you may be very excited by this!

I have been super keen to try chalk paint for ages but in all honesty I was not keen about the price for a little tub. Not to mention that you have to buy a new tub for every different colour that you want to work with. When I saw this little trick, I was super stoked and hoped that it would in fact work. Well low and behold it did. DIY chalk paint...Here's the recipe...

Ingredients

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Plaster of Paris 

1 1/2 Tablespoons of Cool water

1 Cup of paint

Instructions

Mix the paster of paris and water together and then pour it into 1 cup of paint and stir until fully combined. 

That is it...seriously how easy is that!!!

One 2.5Kg bag of Plaster of Paris cost me $8.09 from Bunnings and I used a cheap $2 tube of paint from Spotlight. So for $10.09 I made the chalk paint that I wanted, plus i still have most of the bag of plaster left! I plan on using it to paint the bottom of my dining table. And the great thing is I can use it in whatever colour I want! You may have guessed by now that I was pretty excited about stumbling across this recipe!

 Here is what I painted...

I had this home sign sitting around that I was dying to give a makeover

Before...

After...

This Chalkboard used to be my Grandma's. It was originally a wooden calender board. So she would hang her calender inside it. Because of this, there are some thumb tac marks in the blackboard section, but I don't notice them when there is something written on the board. I had painted the chalkboard paint last year and had painted the frame a dark turquoise but I had never really loved it . No before photo's sorry. And I haven't cleaned the board very well, but you get the gist. I only did 2 coats of paint as I liked that you could slightly see the turquoise coming through which gave it a weathered look.

 

I'm so happy with how they both turned out! I love the colour and this cheap DIY recipe!

Kylie xx

Cheesy Bacon Muffins

My son is 4 and attends preschool a few days a week. They have some fairly strict rules around what you can send in the kid’s lunchboxes. They are great rules and they encourage the kids to be healthy, but I must admit that sometimes I find them a bit of a pain in the butt! Only because it means that you have to be more organised and it takes a bit more prep. In saying that though, it has definitely made me be more prepared and has encouraged me to start cooking more from scratch. This is a win/win because I find that cooking things from scratch saves me money too. One of the things that he is allowed to take to preschool is savoury muffins. So a few weeks ago I set out to make something from ingredients that I already had in the house. I desperately needed to use some bacon in the fridge, so I made cheesy bacon muffins. They are yummy, cost effective and can be enjoyed by the whole family. I freeze them and can transfer them to lunchboxes. They are also perfect as a breakfast muffin or great for lunch with a salad. If it’s frozen and you want to eat it warm, you just put it in the microwave for 1 minute and it’s perfect and ready to go! You could very easily use the basic ingredients of the flour eggs and milk and then just add whatever yummy meat or veggies you wanted. 

Here is the recipe....

Cheesy Bacon Muffins

Makes: 12

Ingredients:

*2 cups of Self-raising flour

*1/4 cup diced bacon

* 1 cup grated cheese

* 1tsp salt

*1 cup milk

*2 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 190c

2. Place flour, bacon, cheese and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir till all ingredients are combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.

4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture in. Gently mix until all combined.

5. Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

 You can freeze a few batches in a container by putting baking paper in between the layers.

Kylie xx

40 bags in 40 days Decluttering Challenge!

I feel like the first step to being organised in your home, is to get rid of all the junk! The less junk you have, the less mess you have! If you know me well, you know that I HATE junk! Now junk is going to be different for every person. What I consider as junk, may be a prized possession for someone else and vice versa.

So as tomorrow is the start of a new week and a new month (not to mention the 1^st full week of the kids being back at school), I’m going to be starting the “40 bags in 40 days challenge” and would love it if you joined in with me. You try to fill at least a shopping bag each day with "junk" from the days area. The challenge can be found at "Inspired by Familia". Either copy and paste in a word document the challenge from bellow or follow the Link above to print the challenge out.

Mari suggests that you ponder these things as you declutter and purge! 

• Do you need it?
• Do you use it? 
• Have you used it more than a few times in the past year?
• Do you like it?
• Does it work?

Hope you will join in with me. Let's get rid of that junk.

Kylie xx

Free Printable 1st Day of school signs

After 7 weeks on holidays, my little kidlets are heading back to school this week. My little man is heading into his 2nd (and final) year of Preschool and my daughter is heading into 3rd grade! 3rd grade...when did she grow up so fast??!!! We love taking photo's on the 1st day of school each year,but this year we are going to start using 1st day of school printables. 

There are so many to choose from! Here's a list of free printable ones that you can use. You can personalise them to your child. Click on the link to each site and follow the instructions. 

http://www.yellowblissroad.com/first-day-of-school-chalkboard/

http://www.theshadylane.com/first-day-of-school-printable-chalkboard-sign/

http://www.grantavenuedesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/freebie-friday-its-your-lucky-daytwo.html

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Editable-My-First-Day-of-School-Sign-FREEBIE-1325435

http://hiphomeschoolingblog.com/first-day-of-school-signs/

I hope your babies all have a fabulous 1st day back at School!

Kylie xx

2016!

Welcome to 2016! I’m a little behind the 8 ball given that it is already the 17^th of January! But I have been enjoying some much needed holiday time with my little family. This week I’m getting back into it and sharing some of my goals and plans for this year. I love the idea of a new year. It feels like a fresh start, a clean slate to try and do better than you did the year before. The reality is that we actually get that every day. If you have had a bad day for whatever reason, you can wake up in the morning and start over, try harder. For me, trying harder actually means doing less. Last year I took on too many commitments outside of the house, which then had a negative impact on my family. The things that I was involved in were all fantastic to be part of but it’s not fantastic when your home life suffers as a result of them. So this year, although I am still involved in as many committees or activities, I have lessened my responsibilities within them. One of my goals this year is to run a Stress less household and cutting down on responsibilities outside the house goes a long way to contribute to this.

I have some personal goals around health & fitness and I am also working on being more organised with life, the house and budgeting! Speaking of budgeting, we are actually going to be trying to pay off a significant amount of debt that sits outside of our home loan. This is part of our plan to become completely debt free! We have been living in survival mode for the past few years and with some changes this year, we want to be wise with the money that we have to get us back to a better financial situation. We will see how we go!!

We have so many plans for around the house. So many projects, all done on a budget of course. Here are some photos of what we will be working on.

First, this door is not going to be pink...yes that’s right PINK, for much longer friends. I am so excited. As soon as the kids go back to school (in 10 days, but whose counting. Actually I’m loving having them home!), It’s getting done. As in that day! I can’t wait!!!

 These kitchen cupboards (which can only be described as Salmon!) are getting a makeover. Clearly this house was built in an era when pink was in! Did that exist??!

The blinds and flooring makeovers will be finished!

This door into our ensuite will be going....stay tuned for what we do in this area!

                                                  

There are many other projects, including a lot of painting but they are just the major ones.

And last but certainly not least...actually it’s the most important and my number 1 goal for this year (and life)! I want to love & serve God in all that I do. I want to spend more time reading God’s word and learning how to better honour Him in my marriage, with my kids, in relationships and just generally in the way I act & speak. I would not be here if it wasn’t for our great God and he deserves my best!

Thanks for following along in my journey. This month has just ticked over the 1 year mark of blogging @ A Happy Frugal Life! Wowzers that year went fast. Thanks for listening to all my ramblings! And putting up with all my exclamation marks!!!!

Until next time,

Kylie xx

Countdown to Christmas Day 4...Christmas Tree Meringues

These are so cute and perfect for little kids ( & adults!) as dessert or just a yummy treat. Here is an awesome recipe that has been shared by bargainmums.com.au

Christmas Tree Meringues

Ingredients

4 egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

green food colouring gel

sprinkles

sugar star decorations

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 100c and line two baking trays with baking paper.

In a stand mixer with a wire whisk attachment or using hand beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks begin to form. Slowly add the sugar with the motor still running, add a little food colouring, and continue beating until the egg whites are thick and glossy.

Transfer the meringue to a piping bag with a star nozzle fitted and pipe Christmas tree shapes onto the baking paper. Decorate with the sprinkles and top each tree with a sugar star.

Bake the meringues for 2 hours, checking every so often to make sure the meringues are not starting to brown. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Recipe from - http://bargainmums.com.au/christmas-tree-meringues

Enjoy baking!

Kylie xx