Pinterest Tested: Cauliflower Pizza and Refrigerator Oatmeal

Welcome to Pinterest Tested! Ever wonder if that miracle cleaner is really miraculous? Or what about that homemade facial cleanser or delicious-looking recipe? The Craft Patch is the place to find out! I am testing Pins that catch my eye to see if they really live up to the claims made on Pinterest. It's like the Mythbusters of Domesticity!

Today I am testing two healthy recipes I pinned.

First up, Cauliflower Pizza. 

I had to try this one just because it seemed so strange (and I happened to get two heads of cauliflower in my weekly produce basket).

The crust is made from shredded cauliflower! You can go to the original post for recipe details, but here is a list of what's in the crust:

2 cups shredded cauliflower

1 egg

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Here's what my pizza looked like when I baked it up:

 And I'm introducing a new rating system for all my Pinterest Tested posts. The cauliflower pizza gets:

Yep, it was a Pin-Between. I liked it, the kids ate it, even my anti-health-food husband liked it okay. But we didn't LOVE it. It used a ton of cheese, which can get pricey and high-calorie. It was definitely not as good as a Deep Dish Pizza Hut Pizza. That said, if we had restricting dietary considerations, I think we would have been thrilled to find a way to make pizza without gluten.

Next Pin up for testing is Overnight Refrigerator Oatmeal.

Another healthy recipe that seemed intriguing. The recipe is:

1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats)
1/4 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt is fine too)
1/4 cup milk
fruit/mix in of choice (I used frozen raspberries and tried 1/2 a peach once too.)
dash of vanilla

You mix all that up in a container and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, breakfast looks like this:

Overnight oatmeal gets this rating:

It's a Pin Winner! I love the stuff. You eat it cold, so I would describe it as more like eating yogurt than oatmeal, even though it has oatmeal in it. It's more like a parfait or something. But however you want to describe it, it's a delicious, healthy, no-sugar breakfast that takes no AM prep time, which I love since I usually resemble a grumpy old bear most mornings. I have made this for breakfast a dozen times in the last couple weeks. Can't wait to try my sister's favorite flavor add ins: peanut butter, applesauce and cinnamon. Doesn't that sound good?!

Painted Canvas Bins

Sometimes a project comes along that makes me giddy. Today I get to share one of those projects with you.

It all started when I bought a shelf with four canvas bins at a yard sale. I thought it would be perfect for craft room storage:

It was a little dingy (okay, a lot dingy), but I thought I could just wash the bins.

I had already bought it (for a whopping $3) and brought it home before I realized that the supports inside the canvas are cardboard. Doh! So then I thought about taking them apart and sewing all new bins using the old cardboard as the supports. But that sounded like a lot of work and I was not happy about that.

Then one night, I woke up at around 1:00am with a brilliant idea. PAINT! I could paint those dirty bins and give them a whole new life.

What do you think?

First I penciled on the designs I wanted, then filled them in with regular old acrylic craft paint. It was easy! And I think it helped with the tedium that I was unreasonably giddy. I may or may not have been doing ballerina leaps each time I ran to the bathroom to wash out my paintbrushes. I told you I was giddy about this project.

I love how they turned out. They make me so happy! And now they can brighten up my craft room and inspire me to keep on crafting.

Crockpot Chicken for the Freezer

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite money and time saving tips in the kitchen. I mentioned it in THIS post and have had so much interest, I decided it needed it's own post. 

I usually buy the family sized packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts when I find them on super sale. Trimming, cutting, cooking and cleaning up after meat every night makes dinner take so much longer, so I have learned a trick to cut a ton of time off my nightly meal preparation. I cook all the chicken at once in the Crockpot! Here's how I do it:

1. Cut an onion into chunks and layer half of it on the bottom of my Crockpot.

2. Layer the whole family pack (about 8 breasts) into the Crockpot.

3. Place remaining onion pieces over the top.

4. Optional: Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika

5. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours or until chicken is done through and tender.

This is what it looks like when it's done:

6. Put each chicken breast into it's own plastic bag with a spoonful of the juices from the bottom of the Crockpot. This will keep it moist when you defrost it. I use regular zip-lock bags because I use the chicken quickly. If your chicken will be in the freezer for a while, you might want to use freezer bags.

7. Put all the individual bags of chicken into a bigger bag. This keeps the chicken all in one place in the freezer so it's easier to find, and it adds another layer of protection from freezer burn. I recycled an old bread bag and totally felt like a grandma for doing it, but it's earth-friendly and budget-friendly, so who cares?!

I use chicken cooked this way in all my soups, sandwiches, casseroles, and pasta dishes.

Some of the benefits of pre-cooking chicken in the Crockpot:

1. I am not a fan of touching raw chicken. Ew! It's just gross. This method reduces the amount of raw-meat-touching because I can basically just dump it straight from the package into the Crockpot.

2. There are a dozen recipes I can make in less than 20 minutes because I have my chicken cooked and ready to go.

3. It reduces dishes. One pot to clean instead of busting out the frying pan for every meal. And even though the Crockpot looks scary, if I soak it overnight, the baked-on crud comes right off.

4. The chicken is just plain tasty cooked this way! It's so juicy and tender. Yum!

5. When I've got pre-cooked chicken in my freezer, I am not tempted to spend money eating out because I know a home-cooked meal is only a few minutes away.

6. In the summer when it's hot, I don't have to heat up my house by using the oven or stove top.

You can do the same thing with ground beef. How nice would it be to buy a 10 lb chub, cook it all up, divide it out, freeze it, then have meat for tacos, sloppy joes or casseroles done and ready to go? Talk about a time saver!

Update: You asked for it...here are 30 recipes using pre-cooked chicken! Enjoy!

Pinterest Tested: Doll Hair Detangler

Welcome to Pinterest Tested! Ever wonder if that miracle cleaner is really miraculous? Or what about that homemade facial cleanser or delicious-looking recipe? The Craft Patch is the place to find out! I am testing Pins that catch my eye to see if they really live up to the claims made on Pinterest. It's like the Mythbusters of Domesticity!

I think every mother of girls pinned THIS PIN about saving ratty doll hair. Who doesn't have at least one Barbie with a crazy fro?! I cut many a doll's hair as a kid because I couldn't stand their messy hair.

So I mixed up 2 tablespoons fabric softener and filled the rest of my spray bottle with water. The original Pin says to buy a wig brush, but I did not want to make a special trip to the store or have to spend money on it, so I used my regular plastic comb.

Here are the results:

Dolly did make quite the hairball by the time I was through: 

But...

Woot! Woot! This doll has been saved! It took a lot more work than I was hoping for. I spent about 30 minutes combing through the crazy tangles. But that is not so bad considering how her hair looked before. I did not think it was possible to comb out some of those rats, but I guess the fabric softener helped because Dolly is looking much sleeker and less like a demonic wild woman. And her hair smells fantastic, too!

One last note: some people commented on the Pin about how toxic fabric softener is and were worried about using it on a child's toy. I sprayed the stuff on, combed through it and let it dry thoroughly before letting my daughter play with it and I feel fine about that. But this is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

$4.47 Pin Tuck Shower Curtain

I've been looking to make a homemade shower curtain since we moved in to our new home. My former shower curtain clashes with the vintage mint green tile in the bathroom:

Then I got the West Elm catalog in the mail and saw this lovely duvet cover:

West Elm Duvet Cover

So I searched for a tutorial on how to sew this type of pin tuck. THIS TUTORIAL was awesome! I bought a plain flat sheet from Wal-Mart for $4.47 and in less than an hour turned it into this:

A feminine shower curtain that won't clash with my vintage tile. I am in love.

I finished it all up and hung it in the bathroom. That's when I realized that all those tucks had made the width shrink more than I thought they would. Dang. It's a little skimpy in size (next time I'd use a full sized sheet), but I still think it's pretty and I'm calling it "good enough."

And now I'm thinking I might make a duvet cover for my bed using the same method. I love it that much!