Category: Works for Me Wednesday

We leave cookies out for Santa, but what about the reindeer? They’ve got to be hungry after flying all the way around the world!

The solution? Reindeer food!

Reindeer food is also a solution for another problem – what to send with your kids to their Christmas party at school, daycare or church… and it’s not more junk food or yet another trinket!

My friend at work gave me this idea and if you google “reindeer food” you can find several variations. The one I liked best is just raw oatmeal and colored sugar (some recipes use glitter but that’s not good for the birds… and besides, glitter is messy!). I put about a 1/2 cup of the mixture into a sandwich bag, tied it with ribbon and attached a tag that contained a poem. It turned out pretty cute!

Here are a couple pics:

Here’s what the gift tag says:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night,
The moon will make it sparkle bright.
Santa’s reindeer fly and roam,
This will guide them to your home!

If you’re really motivated, you can layer the ingredients in a baby food jar – super cute! The instructions and a picture of that can be found here.

I’d also like to point out that this project is extremely budget-friendly as well! The oatmeal I bought was $1, and I got the colored sugar from the Target dollar bin (I used 3 containers of it, though). I had the baggies and the ribbon already.

And here is the file for the poem! reindeer-food.doc

Cute, simple and cheap – that works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in my Dryer!

Well, this Works For Me Wednesday is about that terrible crisis we all have at least a couple times a week month…”What the heck am I gonna fix for dinner????” In our house, the recipe I throw together on the fly is one that was passed down to me from my mother-in-law. It’s called “Mexi-Stew.” I think we all have our own variations on it, but this is the basic recipe:

2 cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans corn
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans mild chili beans
1 pressed garlic clove (or 1 tablespoon garlic powder)
1 tablespoon chili powder
Cut-up hot dogs or polish sausage

Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes or so….it’s soo yummy and it’s even better leftover! It’s also very good meatless…I always pick the meat out of mine and give it to my hubby. We add lots of shredded cheese on top too.

If any of you try it, let me know! For more great on-the-fly recipes, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.