Product Review: Shout color catchers

I am a mom with two kids, which means I have a lot of laundry to do.  And because I have so much laundry occasionally a little black pair of leggings sneaks its way into the brights leaving me with a heaping pile of shirts with black splotches.  Or more often than not, I will buy my daughter some cute little black and white outfit and as soon as I wash it, it becomes a black and grey outfit.  So when I saw the ads for the Shout Color Catcher I was intrigued.

BRAND NEW, NEVER BEEN Washed fabric.

As it happened I got a great new sewing pattern and bought some materials for it.  Black, red and white.  Now if you know about sewing, you know that fabrics have to be washed first.  Yipee! I got to test out my new color catcher sheets!  (When you're a work at home mom it doesn't take much to get you excited) So I tossed my black, red and white materials into the wash machine with 2 color catcher sheets.  For colors that are more likely to bleed the package recommends using 2-3 sheets for the first wash.  Seems reasonable as red and black do tend to bleed most during their initial wash.  So I set the washer to cold water, tossed everything in and crossed my fingers.

About 30 minutes later the timer went off on the wash machine so I eagerly went to examine the results.  As I pulled out the pieces I was impressed.  There was a small amount of bleeding from the black flowers into the red flowers.  This may have been remedies by using 3 sheets instead of 2.  Here is the after shot:

Looks pretty good right?  So their tag line is "The proof is on the sheet." So I took a picture of my two used sheets next to a brand new sheet.  The proof was indeed on the Sheet, but more importantly, the proof was in my fabrics!  I never would have thought that I could safely wash brand new black, red and white fabrics together.  Shout Color Catchers definitely work, however if you are washing 'high bleed' fabrics for the first time I would recommend using 3 sheets.  I probably won't be throwing my blacks in with my brights or whites any time soon.  However for those fabrics that are black and white, black and red, or any combination there of where I am concerned about a color bleed ruining the outfit, the Shout Color Catcher will be part of my laundry tool kit!

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane, Operation Christmas Child



We're ready to FLY!!

My boxes are packed, ready to go


They're sitting here outside my door
I cant wait to ship you out today


But you won't board the plain 'til Monday
The jet is waiting, to take you away
I'm so excited I could almost fly...

Dear child, I hope you'll smile for me

Tell me that you'll write back to me

God loves you more than you will ever know...

So lift your voice and sing for me


Let our Lords love set you free


He'll hold you close and never let you go


There's so many times lifes let you down

So much sadness to be found
I'll tell you now, they don't mean a thing


Every place I go, I think of you

Every box I pack, I pack for you

Jesus loves you and so I hope you see

So lift your voice and sing for me
Let our Lords love set you free
He'll hold you close and never let you go


Dream about the days to come

When we will see his will be done

And all the sorrow and saddness goes away...


So lift your voice and sing for me



Let our Lords love set you free

He'll hold you close and never let you go

Never let you go!!

mystery smudge

i will send a $10 Starbucks giftcard to the first person who guesses what this mystery smudge is on my end table.

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Halloween 2010

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Project Pantry...The End

Project Pantry continued to be a success at my house.  Thursday we had Spaghetti.  Not all that creative but hey, who says every meal has to be a big deal?  Not me!  So Tony pulled some of his moms delicious spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and we cooked up some pasta from the pantry.  We also had some meatballs in the freezer so I pulled those out and put them in the oven.  I tossed together some salad and voila! Dinner is served.    I love spaghetti dinners, they are easy to make and fun for the kids!

Friday was another pasta day, which my kids loved.  I had a handfull of rotinis and another opened box of penne.  Fortunately they had the same cooking time so I decided to throw them in the pot together with some chicken broth.  I cut up and roasted the last of the sweet potato and onion. 

The kids always love pasta, especially Sam, because it's easy to pick up with his chubby little fingers.

Saturday was more of a laid back, eat what you can find day because I was busy getting ready to go out with my Dad and Mom was watching the kids.  

Sunday we gobbled up the rest of the leftovers, popped popcorn and chilled!

Did you have any success with your Project Pantry?  Any hits? misses?  Tell me about it! 

Project Pantry... an update

Monday we had delicious butterfly grilled brats with sauted red bell peppers, onions and garlic with saffron yellow rice.  Unfortunately it didn't really last long enough to take a picture but here's the menu:

mmmmm brats!

I started off with one red bell pepper and one yellow onion I had hanging out in the fridge.  Earlier in the day I had pulled out some Johnsonville Beer Brats and they were defrosted and ready to grill.  I grabbed some Mahatma Yellow Rice out of the pantry and got the water started.  While that was happening  I cut the bell pepper and onion in to bite sized squares and coarsely chopped up some fresh garlic.  Then I butterflied the brats.

I sauted the veggies until they were soft but not mushy.  The brats took about 7 minutes total grilling both sides.  Once everything was done I spooned some rice on the plate, layed out a brat and covered it with the peppers and onions.  It was delicious!

Sizzle, Fo Shizzle!!

Tuesday I had originally planned to make chicken enchiladas.  Well you know what they say about the best laid plans...exactly.  So we ended up with chicken taco's instead.  Which worked out well because I had a bunch of taco shells to use up.  So, I defrosted some chicken breast and then marinated it in kosher salt, coarse ground pepper, olive oil and freshly chopped cilantro.  I then made a corn salsa with finely chopped onion and coarsley chopped cilantro.  A dab of olive oil and a couple pinches of salt, stir and set.  I grilled the chicken and then cut in on a diagonal across the grain. 

Into each taco shell went 2-3 slices of chicken, a small dallop of low fat sour cream, the corn salsa and some monterey jack shredded cheese.  Everything was okay.  I think the chicken may have been freezer burnt because despite my  marinate and my superior chicken grilling skillz, the chicken tasted dry and a little chewy.  Not a total FAIL but not a home run either.  I am ashamed.

Wednesday I redeemed myself.  We pulled a pork loin out Tuesday night and by Wednesday afternoon it was ready to receive it's marinade.  I marinated the pork around 3pm.  This gave it at least 2 hours prior to grilling to bask in the glory of the marinade.  I got the recipe out of Everyday Food magazine.  Here's the recipe:



•4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


•1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar


•1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder or other single chile powder


•1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon


•1/2 teaspoon ground cumin


•1 boneless pork loin (approx 3 pounds)
 •Coarse salt and ground pepper


Now, no offense to Ms. Stewart, however I added a couple dashes of low sodium soy sauce and a dash of dry white wine.  It's worth it.  Trust me.

To go with my sexy pork loin I pulled out some sweet potato and yellow onion.  I cut the sweet potato up into about 1 inch 'fries' about a 1/4" thick and cut the onion into crescents.  I placed the sweet potatoes in a bag, drizzled about a tbl spn of olive oil on them, then sprinkled them with salt, fresh pepper, cumin and chili powder.  For the onions I drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Pork so good, you'll wanna slap yo mama!

I also had a box of butternut squash risotto squatting in my pantry so I pulled that out got that prepped.  Depending on the size, a pork loin can take 20-30 minutes to grill properly.  So I put the veggies in the oven on 400 at the same time Tony started grilling the pork.  Then a few minutes later I started the risotto. 25 minutes later the pork was almost done and the risotto was just finishing.  I turned the oven on to broil and set the veggies under the broiler. 

The finished product was a 5 star meal at my house.  Even Anna (my picky eater) asked for more pork.  It was a fine night at the Lego house.  And this time, I managed to snap a picture before the feasting began!

We have 4 more days to go, and so far, Project Pantry is a hit!

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment on each post to win a free years subscription to Everyday Food Magazine.

Project Pantry

No dear friends, this is not a food shelter, this is my pantry.  Overflowing with food.  I'm afraid to show you my freezer!  In fact just yesterday I had throw out a pound of shrimp that was freezer burnt!  Looking at all this has brought me to one unavoidable conclusion, I need to eat.  Not just in general but I need to eat what I have.  Granted many of the items in here are foods that go with other foods, such as salad dressing or bbq sauce.  However there are lots of other items in here; rice, pasta, risotto, etc...  And like many people I look in my pantry and say to myself "Uh, there's nothing to eat!"  Oh, the shame!

As I browsed through my Samaritans Purse catalog looking at buying a chicken for a village for $14 I could not help but feel disgusted and ashamed at how much food I have.  Here's these kids, all over the world, who are happy just to have a hot rice meal and this is my pantry. 

So I resolved to eat what I have, and be thankful for it.  Through out this week I will be making a concentrated effort to eat only what I currently have on hand.  If that means I have to practice portion control to avoid over eating a high calorie dish (Hello Hamburger Helper!) then that is what I will do.  The only exception I am making to this resolution is fresh fruit and vegetables.  Otherwise I have a fridge full of protiens, a pantry full of sides and accompaning ingredients, and no more excuses. 

Last night was day one of the Pantry Project.  So for dinner we had some Saffron Yellow rice with butterflied, grilled brats and sauted red bell peppers and onions.  It was delish!  (Sorry, no picture, it didn't last long enough).

Tonights menu: Chicken Enchiladas.  I am pretty sure I have everything I need. Stay tuned for pictures and results. 

Does your pantry look like mine?  Are you willing to take the challenge?

Want to win a free one year subscription to Martha Stewarts Everyday Food Magazine?  Enter a comment below and at the end of Project Pantry one winner will be selected to receive a free subscription.