Valentine Roll-ups

Strawberry flavored cream cheese
Strawberry jam
Tortilla

Spread cream cheese and jam on a tortilla. Roll the tortilla into a log and cut into 1 inch thick slices.

Valentine Kisses

6 cups crisp rice cereal or chocolate rice cereal
1 pkg. marshmallows
3 Tbsp. margarine
1″ x 11″ strip of paper per child
12″ square of aluminum foil for each child
 
Write a note on each strip of paper such as “A Kiss For You!” Melt margarine in a pan. Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Stir in cereal until well blended. Allow the mixture to cool until easy enough to handle. Mold it in a well-greased funnel. Place on waxed paper to cool completely before wrapping. Wrap the kiss and a strip of paper with a note in the aluminum foil.

Valentine Fizz

Bright red fruit juice
Soda or seltzer
Slices of lemon, lime or orange
Ice cube trays

Fill up ice cube trays with the juices you want to make into ice cubes. Place the trays in the freezer. Mix together even amounts of red juice and the soda or seltzer in a glass and add the frozen juice cubes. Place a slice of lemon, lime or orange on top of the drink to add a bit of festivity.

photo by: grendelkhan

Related Photos

In years past, I have given you a Valentine’s Day Menu but, since the nicest thing to do on Valentine’s Day is to make your sweeties their favorite foods as a special treat, I will be giving you recipes and tips for cute things you can do on this special day instead of a menu.

Heart Shaped Biscuits

Instead of using the usual round biscuit cutter, cut your biscuits with a cookie cutter. Serve with strawberry jam.

Heart Shaped Muffins

For heart shaped muffins, place a marble on the side of the muffin paper before baking.

Heart Shaped Pizza

Make pizza and shape the dough into a heart shape instead of a circle. The red sauce is perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Valentine Meatballs

Once again, form your meatballs into heart shapes. Then, you can toss them in spaghetti sauce or cover with barbecue sauce.

Peppermint Heart Lollipops

Lay two small candy candy canes on a piece of wax paper to make a heart shape. Place a sucker stick between the candy canes at the bottom. Pour melted white chocolate into the center of the candy canes. Make sure the stick is up far enough to get some chocolate on it. Then, you can sprinkle the white chocolate with red sugar, sprinkles or whatever you like.

Lemonade Love Potion

1 – 12 oz. can pink lemonade concentrate
1 cup raspberry sherbet
1 – 12 oz. can lemon/lime soda (7 UP)

Mix the lemonade with water according to the directions on the can. In a separate pitcher, mix 1 cup lemonade with sherbet. Add soda, stir and serve. Makes 3 servings.

Note: This is the original recipe. Since I hate dirtying too many dishes, I would just fill a large glass (like an ice cream soda glass) 1/3 full of lemonade, add a large scoop of sherbet and pour the soda over everything to fill the glass.

Heart Shape Cookie Cutters

Get a set of different sized heart shape cookie cutters. Use them to cut things like rice krispy treats, bar cookies and brownies.

• Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make an imprint on a cake to give you a guide line to decorate with frosting. For a simple but pretty cake, you could use different sizes of cookie cutters to make imprints and then just outline the shapes with frosting.

• Use the cookie cutters to cut out things like fruit roll ups or cheese.

• Cut pancakes into heart shapes and use strawberry jam or syrup with a dollop of whipped cream.

Last But Not Least…

Here is one of my favorite cookie recipes from our Dining on a Dime Cookbook. In all my 60 years, I have never been anyplace where I have seen these served. That doesn’t mean no one else has the recipe but it’s not your usual run of the mill cookie and they are oh-so-good, especially if you like coconut and nuts!

Romance Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2-1 cup walnuts, chopped
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter. Add flour, sugar, and salt. Spread in an ungreased 9×13 pan. Combine eggs, brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla, coconut and nuts. Pour over flour mix. Bake for 20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Cut into bars. Makes 24 cookies.

Do you have any favorite Valentine Recipes? Post them and your comments below!

Photo By: Amydeanne

Related Photos

Valentine’s Tresure Hunt For Your Husband

Take your spouse on a treasure hunt. Send an email message or mail a card with the first clue. Place the clues all over the house, car, yard, and neighbor’s yard. At the end, include directions to a mystery spot for a picnic, movie, dinner out or to you all decked out on the bed. Use your imagination and have fun. It’s the simple things people remember.

Here are some clue ideas to get you started:

Roses are Red
Violets Are Blue
Run to the Fridge
To Find a Clue

Now that you’re here
It’s all clear
It’s a treasure hunt!
Now to the shed, my dear.

I love you so much
Yes, a bunch and a bunch
Look in the pantry next
where we keep your lunch.

Don’t grow weary
My sweet deary
To the bathroom you go
For a note that is cheery!

Are you getting excited for your treat
My dear who is sweet?
Out by the birdbath where the birds go
Tweet, tweet.

This is the last one
Did you have fun?
Downstairs to the bedroom
Now let’s go have fun.

(Note: We were going to play Bingo in the bedroom. My My, what were you thinking?!)

Tawra

photo by: jkavo

Related Photos

Here are some inexpensive ideas to romance your husband and to have more fun on Valentine’s Day!

• Go to a bookstore, enjoy the silence and browse. Get a cup of coffee and make a date of it.

• Celebrate Valentine’s Day AFTER Valentine’s Day. Everything is half off.

• Mail a love letter to your hubby’s work.

• Send your spouse a sexy email message.

• Leave “Why I love you” messages all over the house. Buy a package of the cheap Valentines. Leave a message on each one and hide them all over the house for your honey. They will get to enjoy the gift for months!

• Use lipstick to make hearts and love notes on the rear view mirror, car windows, bathroom mirror or windows of the house. Leave a kiss on his napkin for lunch or dinner.

• Make a bunch of hearts out of construction paper. Put a love note on each one. Paste them all over the front door or car before your hubby or kids come home from work.

• If you don’t have money to go out, have a picnic on the floor. Use some candles and lay a soft blanket on the floor. Put on some soft music and have a romantic Valentine’s dinner on the floor. Use some white Christmas lights for additional romantic lighting!

• If you are planning on spending the evening in front of a warm crackling fire snuggling with your true love, (Yeah, right! What planet am I from? Did I forget about the 3 kids, 1 dog and 2 cats in the middle?) try spicing up the romance with a couple of handfuls of dried orange or lemon peel thrown into the fireplace.

• Cover the inside of your love’s car with cut out hearts with romantic notes written on them.

• Buy a balloon bouquet at the dollar store. Most dollar stores have nice Mylar balloons for $1 each. You can also get some cute cards for 50 cents.

• Make chocolate covered strawberries and enjoy them with sparkling cider.

• Don’t forget to stock up on Valentine’s cards and other Valentine’s Day supplies for next year on February 15 when they’re all marked down.

• I love fresh flowers, but they are so expensive and are a luxury item for me. The morning after Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, I go to my regular grocery store where I can usually find unbelievable buys on fresh flowers. One year they had one dozen roses for just $3!

• Everyone has her own favorite way of keeping flowers fresh. Mine is to cut all the stems at an angle, add about 1/4 tsp. of sugar and 2-3 drops of Clorox to a vase of warm water. The warm water helps the blooms open fully. Change the water every 3-4 days. Most of the time, my flowers last for two weeks or more when I do this. I also remove any flower as it dies so it won’t contaminate the other ones.

• Mail a card to your spouse or kids each day during the two weeks before Valentine’s Day. A nice surprise that’s even cheaper is just to put a card or note in each of their rooms or in hubby’s car each morning.

• Decorate a small box and fill it with cut out hearts for your spouse or kids with messages saying why you love them. Give it to them on Valentine’s Day or give it to them February 1 and let them draw one message each day. Here are some sample messages:

  • “I love you because you love me unconditionally”.

  • “I love the way you smell so good.”

  • “I love it when you think of me first and do things like the dishes.”

  • “I love it when you take the kids to the store with you and give me an hour to myself.”

photo by: Walt Stoneburner

Related Photos

Here are some cute and easy ideas for Valentine cards.

Hi Tawra,

I was just thinking of a new idea this morning as I read the Sunday paper and browsed through the colorful comic section. As I read and chuckled through some of the comic strips, I realized how perfect some of them could be to add to a Valentine Card.

Being familiar with the song, “My Funny Valentine,” I noticed a couple comic strips that would be well suited to be cut out and glued to a piece of festive paper with the phrase, “You are my Funny Valentine!”

Initially I thought of my Grandmother who is in a nursing home and can always appreciate a colorful “hello.” She would love to receive a Valentine with something so bright and cheerful. Also, my DAD, who is always so serious, might even be caught off guard with a little chuckle when a comic strip Valentine arrives in the mail.

I also remembered that my kids always like to see the “Peanuts” comic strip as well as the “Family Circus.” As a plan for next year, I will create a file folder and fill it with some of the cutest comic strip editions throughout the year to use for making a poster sized version of “My Funny Valentine” to present to each of my kids next year.

For my kids, “Bigger always means Better!” A poster sized Valentine will surely bring a smile and hopefully… a laugh!

The challenge of “Living on a Dime” is so much fun!

      -Robin

Photo By: Spec-ta-cles

Related Photos

We’ve decided for a limited time to offer a free Valentine’s Day on A Dime e-Book!

Here is your free copy of the Valentine’s Day on A Dime e-book from LivingOnADime.com. We hope you enjoy it!

Here’s what to do now:

1. Right click the “Download” link below and save the files to your computer.
If you are a Mac user, you may have to use “Control+Click”.

Right click here to download the free “Valentine’s Day on A Dime” e-book now!

2. Open the pdf file using the program of your choice.
(If you would like to download the free Adobe Reader, you can find it on Adobe’s web site here.)

Related Photos

I have been buying sweet orange cinnamon tea for a long time. I love the smell of it. One day a few years back I was dumping the tea leaves out and they still smelled so good I really hated trashing them. Then it dawned on me– Why not put them in a pot of water and simmer them for potpourri?

Each time, when I am finished with my tea leaves, I dump them in the same pan and just boil it some more. It makes the house smell so good. You can do this with any flavor you like. The stronger the scent, though, the better it works.

      -Jill

Photo By: Eduardo Mueses

Related Photos

Using Leftover Candy Canes

Are you drowning in leftover candy canes? Did you find some at your after Christmas sales and, now that you’ve bought boxes and boxes of candy canes, you haven’t a clue about what to do with them?

Well, grind them into peppermint sugar. Keep it in a handy container and then sprinkle in or on things like:

Cupcakes
Hot Chocolate
Brownies or Cakes
Ice cream (especially good on chocolate)
Tea
Coffee
Frosted cookies
Add to your favorite sugar cookie recipe
Dip pretzels in white chocolate then roll in it
Dip cookies in white chocolate and roll in it.

Photo By: Nicholas Bufford

Related Photos

Get Organized and Get Out Of Debt – Where Do I Begin?

It’s almost New Years Day and many of us are already starting to think about making resolutions. Most resolutions sound something like: “I’m going to eat healthy and lose weight“, “I’m going to get out of debt” or “I’m going to get organized.”

These are great things to WANT to do but I’m afraid that about 90% of us won’t keep these resolutions. Here are a couple of things to think about that will hopefully give you greater success in keeping your resolutions.

I can’t, in this one sitting, give you all the details about how to handle every situation but I can give you some things to think about that will help you in all of these areas. Then for more details check out LivingOnADime.com, or our e-books to help you in each specific area and to give you practical ways on how to accomplish what you want to do.

It helps to understand why we do the things we do. Most of us want to lose weight and eat healthy on New Year’s Day because we have just spent the past month gorging ourselves so that we now feel bloated and sick and can’t fit into our clothes anymore. Like a pendulum that swings from one extreme to another, we think that the answer is to eat carrot sticks for the rest of our lives. That usually lasts about 3 days and then we give up.

The same applies to the idea of getting out of debt. Most of us have just spent the past few weeks spending more money than we had planned and now we feel guilty. We’re determined that we are not going to spend a penny on anything. Then we will panic every time we have to buy something like food or gas because the price is so high.

Then there is the thought of getting organized. Right now you are probably surrounded by a Christmas tree and decorations that are starting to accumulate a thin layer of dust, which is giving a dingy look to everything. The once bright and cheery look of the Christmas lights have dulled. The candles on the mantle have burned down to nubs and look more like they belong in a haunted house or in a horror movie.

There is leftover wrapping paper strewn here and there. Piles of Christmas dinner platters and dishes sit on every counter. You close your eyes every time you open the fridge so you don’t have to look at the piles of leftovers inside it. Then there are all the mounds of new toys, clothes and gifts. How do you stuff them into the already full closet? No wonder you have the urge to clean and get organized. You wonder, “Where do I even start?”

As I’ve said before, too much of even a good thing can make us sick and frustrated.

Here’s my point: You can do everything you resolve to do, but you need to pace yourself. It’s like running a long distance marathon. You don’t just shoot out of the starting line going as fast and hard as you can. You will never make the distance that way, so you pace yourself. In the same way, pace yourself in everything and do a small amount at a time, breaking things into manageable pieces.

Have a plan, whether it is writing menus for good balanced meals for each week, making a budget or, even more important, being bold enough to write down and acknowledge what your debts are.  Make a plan. Plan where to cut your spending or when it comes to organizing, try making a list of 1-2 areas of your home you are going to organize each day.

Next prepare. When you are preparing for a race, you would ask yourself, “Do I have the right shoes”, “Are there water stations?”, “Have I slowly worked my muscles into shape?”, “Am I prepared for some pain?” and “When it hits, will I not be afraid of it but keep going in spite of the discomfort?”  In the same way, you may have to spend some time preparing things like planning good meals, balancing your checkbook or making sure you have cleaning supplies and boxes for when you start organizing.

Pace Yourself
Plan
Prepare

One thing you must remember – discouragement and a sense of being overwhelmed will hit most of us once we start. Pacing will help but it is especially important to have a plan and be prepared when discouragement sets in so you can overcome it and keep going. Here are some things to think about when you start feeling discouraged:

Have you ever looked up the definition of resolution? I did. It means to have firm determination, to be bold and steady and to reduce something to a simpler form. You need to be steady and pace yourself. Little by little and piece by piece, reduce your mess to something simpler and more manageable. You can’t accomplish any of it in a week or two. You took a long time to make the mess and you may have to take just as long to clean it up but like the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare, keep a slow but steady pace and you will win the race and succeed.

Lastly, get up and do it. Stop blaming everyone and making excuses. You won’t even get out of the starting gate if you spend all your time standing there telling everyone why you can’t run. Even if you have a real excuse for not running then at least start taking baby steps and walk. You’ll at least be getting somewhere but if you just stand bemoaning your lot in life and how miserable the world is in these hard economic times, you will get nowhere.

You may fall (or eat that piece of chocolate cake, spend more than you should have or leave dirty dishes in the sink one day) but pick yourself up, brush yourself off and keep going. The only thing that will keep you from getting there is if you stop (quit and give up), so keep at it.

We will try to do the same and keep plugging along with ideas on how to accomplish all of the above. Now I must quit because I have a messy room that I really need to deal with today! : ) : )

       -Jill

For more help with organizing, cleaning and laundry, take a look at our Keeping It Clean e-books.

photo by: rainchurch

Related Photos

Sending Christmas Thank You Notes

From: Robin Souder

Although Christmas cards are dwindling more with each year,  the acknowledgment and gratitude of a gift is still crucial in our family.  As the Christmas cards come in, I ask the children to pick out their favorite designs. I cut the front from the card and turn it into a postcard for my kids to use as a thank you postcard, a note card, or a gift tag.

As a thank you for a Christmas gift, the front of the card is perfect.  I draw a line down the center of the blank side vertically to resemble a postcard.  I let the child write the thank you message on the left side with the address on the right. Postage for postcards is cheaper than a letter. I know most people will say that an email is even cheaper, but I find that those who send a gift love seeing the handwritten thank you of a child or even an adult for that matter (especially those gift givers who are from an older generation.)

Cherish those who have come before us, as they have enlightened us with the beauty of personality, character and the work of the hands!

Thanks Robin for a great tip and reminder about the importance of Christmas thank you notes. I have to take my hat off to my daughter Tawra in this post because she is one of the best when it comes to writing thank yous and I do appreciate it. She has her kids write a thank you note for every birthday or Christmas gift they get. I think that doing this teaches the kids many things like respect, gratefulness, the importance of doing something that might not be their favorite thing to do but that is important to do anyway in consideration of someone else and much more.

Tawra always sends a thank you note or small gift to someone who does an extra service for her like the trash man or a neighbor. It is truly a good thing to teach our children and a habit some of us adults need to get into.

-Jill

Photo By: karen.tkr

Related Photos