Russian Guluptsi Recipe

Don't click away just yet.... I know the food pictured may not look 100% delicious, but I promise it tastes awesome! Aren't those little Russian Dolls so cute? Don't you just want to eat them up? Hehe. This is one of Troy's favorite meals. (It's a basic dish using rice, beef, cabbage and spices). If you are looking for something new, easy, healthy, and affordable to make for dinner this week, try this! I make this like once a month at our house, since everybody likes it.

I learned the recipe from my big sister, Kate. She did a study abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia when she was in college. She lived with a Russian family, who cooked for her. She has taught me several recipes that I just love, and this is one of my favorites. She says there are several ways to make Guluptsi, but this is the version her host family made most often. It's sort of the "poor man's" version.

My sister dug out a few pictures from her time in Russia and sent them to me. I was so tickled to add these to my Russian Gulupsti post.

This is her host family's kitchen. Can't you just picture them making Guluptsi in there? :)

I brought this meal to a church party a few weeks ago for an "international cuisine" themed dinner. This recipe is great for large gatherings, because it makes a ton and isn't too expensive. Plus its gluten-free, which is great for many people these days. And, it makes great leftovers!

Russian Guluptsi:
2 cups brown rice / 4 cups water
beef base (or broth)
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 pkg shredded cabbage (or coleslaw mix)
a couple TBs olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp dill (if you have some fresh in your garden, that is the BEST)!
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano

1. Cook rice. I use enough beef base for 4 cups of water. You could also use beef bouillon cubes, or substitute 2 cups of the water for rice with beef broth.
2. Brown beef and drain. Set aside.
3. Cut onion, fry in olive oil. Add garlic at the end.
4. Add cabbage, cook down for a few minutes.
5. Add browned beef.
6. Add rice.
7. Add all seasonings to taste, and more olive oil so its not dry.
8. Toss to stir.

*Use the largest frying pan you have. I am lucky to have a nice big wok, which is perfect for this meal, but a large pan should also work.

Disney Dollars for Kids- Free Printable

Thanks for stopping by my little Disney Week series today! My parents recently took our family on a trip to Disney, so this week I am sharing a few tips and ideas about preparing for our trip and pictures from our vacation.

A couple of weeks before our trip, I created some "Disney Dollars" for our kids, which we used in place of our regular allowance (which is just a couple of coins a week, which can be used to purchase toys that I have sitting in a special bin). These Disney Dollars were such a fun deterrant from our normal weekly allowance routine. The kids had extra pep in their step and worked hard to earn them. (This is how we finally potty trained our 3 year old boy. Yay)!

We let our kids earn their Disney Dollars to save them for souvenirs on our trip. They handed over their Disney Dollars, and we took care of the real tab. We didn't necessarily place the same monetary value on the actual items as the Disney Dollars were worth.

We actually only let the kids spend about $10 each, which was within our budget. With the leftover Disney Dollars that they had, we let them "buy" ice cream and other treats... which were actually free on the cruise, and which they could have had without their Disney Dollars, but they don't know that :)

The little bucket was home to the Disney Dollars. Once earned, the kids put them into their individual tins. (found at Target)

These printables are free for you to use, for personal use only. Before downloading, I would love for you to follow my blog in some way. If you use these printables, I would LOVE to see what you do with them! Email a picture (familyeverafter at gmail) or leave a link in the comments if you have a blog!

Download here


Here are my other Disney posts:
 16 Disney Inspired Outfits, modeled by my little sis :)
Disney Vacation Countdown, free printable

Disney Vacation Countdown- Free Printable

Our family recently got back from a trip to Disney World and a Disney Cruise. It was a vacation that we had been planning for 2 years. Bless my parents heart, they took us 5 daughters, plus our spouses and families. We all live in different states throughout the US, so we don't get to see each other all that often. It was the trip of a lifetime, and I am incredibly grateful for having such a wonderful vacation! My kids started asking when our trip was probably 3 months before it was time. So at our one month mark, I decided it would be a great idea to count down the days... not only for the excitement and anticipation, but it really helped them visualize how many more days there were until we left.

 I love this paper ring idea, making it look like Mickey's ears and trousers. I did not come up with the idea; I have seen several versions of it floating around on Pinterest. As far as I can tell, it originated here or here. Check out both of these posts for some fun family activities to help count down the days, in addition to the paper rings! For me, getting ready for a 2 week vacation at the end of the school year was enough to worry about, so we didn't do a daily activity, but I think its a fun idea. Neither of the posts offer a printable, which is why I made my own to share with you!

The countdown was really quick to put together- I just used construction paper, staples to keep the rings together, tape for the ears, and a hole punch to get the small white dots.

I made this printable, and printed it on white cardstock. Then I made a yellow paper medallion and glued it onto that. In addition to the papter rings, I wanted a place to write out the number of days so we wouldn't have to count the rings each day. I originally planned to use two Mickey ears (printable found below) for my countdown, but I got really tired of cutting them out. So my next plan was just to cut them out of chalkboard vinyl and use chalk to write new numbers every day. (You don't need a cutting machine to do this... I just used scissors)! The vinyl worked out much easier! I left the Mickey ear printables on this post just in case there's anyone who prefers them, or if you have any other grand ideas to use them for!

I used a bistro pen (a chalk marker), to write on my vinyl.

Chalkboard Vinyl from Silhouette.

Bistro Pen found here.

These printables are totally free for you to use (for personal use only). All I ask is that you follow my blog in some way :) If for some reason you are having problems downloading, please leave a comment.  I hope you get some fun use out of these printables!

 Download: 8 x 10

Download: 8 x 10

PS- If anyone uses these printables, I would LOVE to see what you do with them! Email a picture (familyeverafter at gmail) or leave a link in the comments if you have a blog!

Thanks for stopping by Disney Week on my blog! Check out yesterday's post for 16 Disney Inspired Outfits, modeled by my little sis :)

once upon a weekend... disney edition!

Summer vacation is HERE! I'm so incredibly happy to have my oldest daughter home all summer. Call me selfish, but I LOVE having all my kids home all day and all to myself, to come and go as we please. My heart is so full and happy.

We spent our first week of summer sleeping in and relaxing, planting our garden, wading in the creek, jumping on the trampoline, running through the sprinklers, and going for a few bike rides.

With all the fun during the day, I've actually been putting my kids to bed on time at night so I can have some quiet time to sew!!! It's been quite a while since I've had a good sewing routine going, and its been nice. I'm working on a bunch of fun stuff. :)

Here's a few pics from this past week (from instagram)...

 dance recitals... jumping in the rain

a hilarious drawing by our 7 year old... the boy playing with his superhero dolls

teaching a sewing class at my local quilt shop... happy mail (new fabric and books)!!

A word about blogging... this afternoon I spent a few minutes reading over old posts from my blog. I realized that I miss just posting to say hi or with a random thought. Not every post needs to be something glorious that took hours to concoct. The blogs I love reading most are where there's a good combination of projects and behind the scenes looks into the blogger's mind and thoughts. So hopefully I'll find my balance one of these days. I know that recently I've had quite a few sponsored posts. In all honesty, I can only say that I'm grateful to have had the chance to earn a little extra money lately. I plan on keeping this blog forever, and I yearn for the day that I can turn down sponsored posts and purely blog for my enjoyment and creations. But for now, when a particularly great opportunity is handed to me, I can't afford to turn it down. We are trying to figure out where we will be moving our family in the next couple of years, and with that big decision will hopefully come a signing bonus and take some pressure off financially. But I am so grateful for the ways that I've been able to earn a bit of extra money for our family, because of my blog. It's been a huge blessing! So that's my little apology/explanation for why my posts have been a little dry lately. :) That.... and I've actually been sewing tons, but I just haven't finished anything blog worthy yet. Soon, very soon!

I feel like I've done this a lot, but I actually tweaked my blogging schedule yet again. It's only slightly different than it was before. But I know this time it will work to my advantage! lol. I'm sure no-one cares, but I still feel the need to post it:

monday- once upon a weekend (the post where I share my insta pictures and life)
tuesday- tasty (you know i love food and could never have a blog without a day dedicated to it)!
wednesday- whatever (series, work in progress, what i wore, or just a break)
thursday- this or that.... (giveaway, review, etc)
friday- feature (featuring a project that i've made)!

So that's my new schedule, with the exception of this week, which is......

"Disney Week" on my blog! 
I've been planning this for months! Just 2 weeks ago, I was in Disney World with my entire family. I'm excited to share a few projects that I did to celebrate and count down to our trip.

To kick things off today, I've got a round up of all the 16 Disney Inspired Outfits that my little sister wore last year (she did this just for fun, while at college, only using items she had in her closet already). If you've been following my blog for a while, you might have seen these before. I posted them all separately while I was on a little blogging break. But I've been wanting to put them all together in one post... so here they are! HUGE thanks to my baby sis for doing this little series with me! She is just so cute and creative, and is the perfect gal to pull such fun little outfits off!

Snow White:

yellow lace shirt, blue cardigan, red bow headband, red flats, apple

Carl (from "Up"):

balloons, black glasses, bowtie necklace, sweater, circular pin

Captain Hook:

captain hat, black and white shirt, vest, black skirt, red tights, black boots, and a pocketwatch!

 Sleeping Beauty:

hot pink and light pink clothes, golf headband, rose ring, princess bracelet, and grace

 Rapunzel:

hair extentions, flowers, purple dress, frying pan

Mulan:

Asian-printed shirt, gray skinnies, black flats, awesome ninja skills

 Woody:

plaid headband, red necklace, plaid shirt, vest, cowgirl boots

Cinderella:

top bun, black choker, blue ruffly shirt, gray skinnies, gray flats, and pumpkins of course!

Mary Poppins:

 umbrella, hat, bag, long jacket, skirt, tights, pointy shoes

Ariel:

beach curls, pearl headband, shell necklace, sandals, beachy background

Flit:

do you recognize this little bird from Pocahontas? hehe

Perry the Platypus:

this silly guy is from Phinaeus and Pherb

Alice in Wonderland:

(She played Alice last year in her high school's One Act, so this is probably my favorite outfit).

blue shirt, black skinny jeans, black flats, a sparkly black bow headband, a pocket watch necklace, and a black ring. All of this completed with an Alice in Wonderland Tea Cup

Lion King:

cheetah-lined sweater, african print shirt, jeans, giraffe shoes, zebra earrings, sunshine necklace.

Minnie Mouse:

black dress, black tights with polka dots, black boots, red rain coat, red polka dot headband, mickey mouse earrings.

Pocahontas:

blue bohemian shirt, tan sweater, jean skirt, tan moccasin shoes, homemade leather headband, 2 different feather earrings, and brown flower ring.

Stay tuned every day this week... there are more Disney posts coming!
*Disney Dollars
*Disney Vacation Countdown Printable
*Disney Quotes printables
*Disney Cruise tips and pictures

The Staple Dress + fun little announcement

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet the super cute and very talented April Rhodes, creator of The Staple Dress pattern. The dress pattern recently made its debut in the sewing community, and there was a Staple Dress craze (check out #thestapledress over on instagram)! I was super excited when April asked if I would be interested in teaching The Staple Dress classes at Sew to Speak. Of course I said yes, I am so excited!

A few words about this awesome dress.... as soon as I saw pictures of The Staple Dress, I knew I had to make it. It looked so comfy, and seemed like it would be a quick, fun dress to whip up. It's exactly that! Some of my favorite features are... the shirring at the waistline which gives the dress cute shape... I'm in love with the french seams used throughout the dress... and there are no sleeves to inset, whoop whoop!

The pattern is very easy to customize, and April gives several suggestions for added detail- a high/low hemline, keyhole opening, shortening it to a tunic, etc.

For my fabric, I used 2 coordinating prints from Indian Summer by Sarah Watson for Art Gallery Fabrics. I love how the pockets add contrast- they definitely add to the comfort and casualness of the dress.

I wanted to include the coordinating accent fabric on the sleeves somehow, so I sewed on some little tabs.

I also used my Staple Dress pattern to make a shirt... which I LOVE! I actually wish I would have made it about 3 inches longer, so I guess that means I need to make a couple more :)

I didn't do the shirring all the way around like I would for the dress. I added just a few rows at the back of the shirt to give it some shape.

I got this Leopard Interlock Knit from Nick of Time Textiles. It is just $5.25 a yard. It's so lightweight and silky, with just right amount of stretch. Mmmm!

So if you've been thinking about making The Staple Dress, I would highly recommend it! It is such a versatile pattern, and renders a very comfy dress or shirt. And, wish me luck teaching the class... I'll be sharing a few behind-the-scenes pictures over on instagram for anyone wanting to follow along!