Fun on the farm

A couple weeks ago we got to spend some time with my nieces. My sister and mom were out of town so I was called in to chauffeur :) Adam got to take a few days off and come with us and we had a great time.

Morning chores at the petting zoo (aka my sisters house):
Bucket calves.




Chasing the kitty.


Duckling.


Rabbits.


Not pictured are the dogs, horses and turtles(that Lauren loved!).

Jumping on the trampoline is one of Lauren's favorite pass times.


Walking around Grandma's new flower bed.


and stopping to pet the kitty as often as possible.


Grandma also has 4 kittens that were a Lauren magnet. Luckily they all survived the death grip of a toddler :)

Last but not least, playing in the river!




No, apparently she doesn't know yet not to eat sand.

Getting rid of the bad stuff.

My goals for last year were simple. Get rid of the bad stuff.

Well, that is NOT a simple goal. There are many aspects to getting rid of the bad stuff, many ways to go about it, so much research to be done, and many different levels you can take it to. So I accomplished a few things and the goal of getting rid of the bad stuff has carried over to this year.

The things I accomplished last year were:

1. Clean up the cleaning products. I'm talking simple homemade solutions(vinegar, baking soda, peroxide,  etc). Those things that I don't make at home are free and clear and from eco-friendly companies. It's taken me a while to figure out what I like and what works and I'm sure that I'll still end up changing a few things here and there.
2. Make a conscious effort to create less waste(grab Tupperware instead of Ziplocks, Silpat mats instead of parchment paper, of course cloth diaper, wipe Laurens nose with cloth wipes, rags instead of paper towels, etc.) and to be creative in using what I have to do what I want(I want to organize? Use the cardboard boxes I'm always getting in the mail and cut off the flaps instead of buying new matching tubs. Etc, etc, etc.)

My goals for this year are to clean up our food. This I believe is going to be quite the journey. My first goal is: If I can make it, make it I shall. Get rid of processed food. This is a way to get rid of all those nasty ingredients on the sides of prepackaged foods that none of us can pronounce. I think this is first and foremost. 

Then, 

1. I may switch out a few things for organic.
2. I may buy raw sugar instead of bleached/processed sugar. That sort of thing.
3. Use unsweetened applesauce when recipes call for oil. Hiding veggies in food. That sort of thing.
4. Slowly, I hope to start making things as healthy as possible. Switching out sugar for other natural sweetners. Soaking whole wheat so your body can process it better. Maybe. Maybe I'll decide that as long as we get rid of all those crappy ingredients we can't pronounce that is all we need. 

All those things among others I'm sure.

A lot of these things make sense to me. When you make stuff, all you need are a few basic ingredients and you really can make MANY items. I also like knowing how self-sufficient we can be. Getting back to the basics. Things seem to fall into place. If you make yogurt, it's super easy to then make cream cheese. Guess what? You can also make mozzarella cheese pretty easily. Cool huh? This also means I will be stepping up my gardening/canning/freezing game. 

So, I'll be taking you along with  me on this journey and showing you what I've cooked. So far this month I've made the following from scratch:

1. Tortillas (1/2 whole wheat)
2. Biscuits
3. Make your own yogurt! Essentially follow this. While looking around I learned a few other things and I used less yogurt starter. 2 T per quart of milk. Also heat milk to 180 degrees to begin and cool milk and keep at 130 degrees while culturing. 
4. Healthy snack. Fruit leather in the dehydrator. Unsweetened applesauce with blended strawberries picked from Adams parents patch.
   
   
   
   Use saran wrap, NOT waxed paper. If you use waxed paper it'll stick. In the interest of switching out for something re-usable, I ordered the fruit trays from the dehydrator manufacturer since I hope to make this often.
   
5. Pop-Tarts (but eaten for dessert). I put strawberry preserves that I made last summer in as a filler.
   
   

That's what I'm up to. Hopefully you'll be seeing more food tutorials this year once again. I haven't done one in a while.

Walmart Score!

I just got back from the North Lincoln Walmart and if you need outdoor stuff, back to school stuff or Halloween stuff GO NOW. Halloween stuff is 75% off and all the clearance stuff is an additional 50% off of the already clearance price!


I got Britney Spears perfume, Kenneth Cole cologne, 2 9x13 Wilton cake pans(they're stuck together so I only paid for 1 - hopefully I can get them separated pretty easy), 2 75 foot flat soaker hoses, 4 window box planters, paper, hanging folders, push pins, Halloween baking stuff, Light up plastic pumpkin, couple skirts to start Laurens dress up bin, Halloween socks and gloves to send my nieces next year, makeup (we'll see if it lasts until next year) and a scary mask and blood for Adam so he can scare trick or treaters next year :)

I just looked up the pans, perfume, cologne, and hoses and those alone cost double what I paid for everything!

The total should have been at least (estimating everything that was already on clearance) $250. I got it all for $83.83. Much more than I went in expecting to spend but still awesome :)

AND I easily got my cake pans separated!

600 wins!

Congrats Aunt Cindy on winning 600 games in her career!
Article



Lauren was oh so tired but she sure loved sitting on uncle Rob's lap!

Zucchini Bread

Remember when I froze zucchini and had no idea what I was doing?

I finally made some bread a while back. I made a recipe I found on another blog and it was wonderful! I left out the raisins. Yuck. :)

I used the zucchini that I froze w/ the juice and everything worked just fine. I did notice the lady in that blog skinned the zucchini before using it. I didn't. IDK if it makes much of a difference. I will probably skin them next time.

Some images from Easter (a week late)

Meet Jersey

Even though she's already a week and a half old - meet Jersey! Laurens new side kick.

She is the daughter of Adam's sister. Girls are a very rare thing in her husbands family so we were very excited when she made her entrance into the world!

Brown Thumb

I have a brown thumb. I think in the last 3 years I've killed probably 4 houseplants. One of those was sentenced to death by my sister in law and just wouldn't die at her house. For some reason, a while after it came to live with me it died.

A house needs plants though. Right? I have not given up yet. I have a peace lily which is one of my favorites and it has somehow survived my wrath. This plant came from Adams grandpa's funeral so maybe that has something to do with it. It is by no means in great shape. It hasn't gotten much bigger from when I first got it and there are usually some leaves that are brown.



Lately it has been getting sadder and sadder. But there was an actual reason that I could see happening. The soil was washing away when I watered it. I always thought that you were supposed to put rocks in the bottom of the pot to help the water drain.



Google however tells me different. It says that rocks are bad because the soil will wash away. Hmmmm. So it was time to re-pot. I went out to my shed and found a pot with this black thing in the bottom. Looks like it'll let the water drain but maybe keep the soil in so I tried it.



I learned that after you re-plant you are supposed to fill the sink and set the bottom of the pot in the water to let it soak up as much as needed for about 1/2 hr. So I did that and here is my poor plant now.



It has a much better environment to live in now and hopefully it can start to grow and flourish instead of just try and survive.

Lauren carefully watched over my work so hopefully she can help me turn this brown thumb green.

Cloth Diapering Basics

We cloth diaper. I actually love it. I had a friend ask about cloth diapering so I figured I'd wrote a blog post about it so maybe I can help other people too when looking into cloth diapering. Cloth diapering can be very overwhelming when you first start looking into it. Here is my take on the cloth diapering basics. Hopefully in layman's terms :) Also I've included just some general info that I've picked up along the way. If after reading this you still feel that disposables are for you, good for you. Do what is right for your family.

Benefits of cloth diapering:
-Better for the environment - no diapers sitting in landfills.
-Cloth diapers are more sanitary for the environment. Improperly disposing of human waste is illegal. So why is it ok for us to put tons of human waste into our landfills in diapers? The bacteria can leak into our water from here. With cloth, poop goes into the toilet and gets treated before going back into our drinking water systems.
- No chemicals sitting next to your childs skin every hour of every day.
- They are cuter than disposables : )
-Cost. It can cost as little as $1500 - $2000 per child for disposables. You could cloth diaper for as little as $300 and you can use them for multiple children!
-I also find that it's nice to not have to worry about if I have enough diapers on hand at home. If you run out of disposables at home you're S.O.L. With cloth you just wash one quick! I think it gives a little more flexibility. We were at my parents house recently and we weren't planning on spending the night. I was thinking though that if we randomly decided to stay the night we could, we would just throw our diapers in the wash! If we did disposables, we wouldn't have that option because we would have run out of what we brought.
-Cloth diapers are less prone to blowouts and leaking.
-Your childs bottom will be touching cloth all day instead of chemicals and plastic.
-Cloth diapered babies tend to potty train earlier and easier.

There are different “systems” of cloth diapering. Each has pros and cons. Each system has different brands you can choose. There are also accessories that you would need to purchase to aid your cloth diapering experience. Here are a few of them that I think are important.

Snappi.

This is the modern replacement of pins. Instead of pinning each side of the cloth diaper, the snappi has teeth that grip the sides and you can quickly “pin” your diaper on.



Pail and pail liners.
Cloth diapering used to be done with simple pieces of cotton. Essentially rags. This led to wet pails which means that the diapers were thrown into water after being removed from the baby to soak. With modern diapers, there are often many parts to the diaper that can not be constantly stored in water - such as elastic. This would cause your diapers last only a short while and not be worth your money. The pail I have is just a trash can with a swinging lid. Pail liners are waterproof bags essentially. You could use trash bags but since you are going to be doing laundry anyway, you might as well use a reusable bag and toss it in with everything else. There are a few variations with these. Some are a bag with an elastic top, some have drawstrings on top. A bag with drawstrings is helpful if you are spending the night away from home or sending the bag to the babysitters, etc. There is a new bag that came out that has handles for you to hang over a doorknob eliminating the need for a pail and then it has a zipper on the bottom for dumping the diapers in the wash. I have three liners. It's helpful to have more than one so you have one to put back in the pail while one is in the wash. There are different brands - here are a few examples:


Wet Bags.
Wet bags are waterproof bags. They are great for on the go. There are different sizes of wet bags. I have a medium one that I leave in the diaper bag for putting soiled diapers in until we get home. They are also great to just put wet stuff in such as swimming suits.


Covers.
Covers are needed if you are using flats, prefolds or fitteds. They are the waterproof outer layer of your diaper. Most of these you have to buy by size. There are a few coming out that are now one size. If you see OS when looking about something talking about diapers, it means one size. This means that there are probably snaps on the front that allow the diapers to fit from newborn until potty training. They adjust to fit the size of your baby. There are some covers that are single gusset or double gusset. This means one or two pieces of elastic around the leg area.


Option #1:
Flats with cover

A flat diaper is old school. It is a large single layer of cotton. This must then be folded multiple times to create an absorbent diaper. Helpful Link

Pros: Thin so it dries faster. I think you would have control over how this is fitting and you would have a lot of options of what you could do with it. Inexpensive.

Cons: Time is spent folding the diapers. You may not feel like you are able to fold it just right. Requires you to fold, put the snappi on or pin, then put the cover on.


Option #2:
Prefolds with cover

Prefolds evolved from flats. They are a flat, just already folded and layered and sewn in place for you. This is the "cheap option" most people go with these days. Helpful Link

Pros: Cheap. Simpler than flats. Very handy around the house!

Cons: Still needs to be folded to fit onto the baby. Needs snappi and cover. Need to be purchased by size.

Option #3:
Fitteds with cover

Fitteds are material that has elastic around the legs and snaps or velcros at the waist. They are already made to fit your child.

Pros: Simpler and fast.

Cons: Can be almost as expensive as pockets and all in ones once you buy the covers. Still have to cover.

Option #4:
Pockets
I'll let the image explain for me

Pockets can come in OS or sized. They can have velcro closures at the waist or snaps. Velcro is a little easier and more like disposables. Some people like snaps because as kids get older they can figure out how to take off the velcro. You'd have the same issue if they were in disposables though.

Pros: Very easy. Put it on and go. You can customize your diaper to how much absorbency you need by what you put in the pocket. You can put in the insert and doubler for overnight. You can insert your prefolds if you have some to increase absorbency.

Cons: Have to stuff the pocket. More expensive than other options.

Option #5:
All-in-ones

Everything is there in one piece. Exactly like a disposable except you have to wash them! They can have velcro closures at the waist or snaps.

Pros: No work for you

Cons: Do not come in One Size. Take a long time to dry. More expensive than other options.

Cleaning them: There are different ideas on how you can wash your diapers. Most importantly though, please know that not all detergents are cloth diaper friendly. Softners, whitners and additives can break down your diapers making their life span much shorter. Choose some sort of "free and clear" detergent. Here is a list of cloth diaper friendly detergents. Bleach should be used sparingly on your diapers. Only use if you really think you need to. Bleach will break down your diapers faster than you'd want. It might also irritate babies bottoms. Sunning is a great alternative. Lay your diapers out in the sun for a few hours and they will come back in bright white! Think about how the sun bleaches wood surrounding windows or rugs under french doors or something that you left laying in the back window of your car.

If your baby is exclusively breast fed, their poop is water soluble. All you have to do is take the diaper off and throw it in the pail. I use pockets so I shake the insert out as I throw it in the pail.
If your baby is formula fed or eats solids, they make rice paper liners you can put in the diaper that are biodegradable and you can just toss that into the toilet and flush. Liners aren't always so friendly on septic tanks though. If you have a septic tank you can get a diaper sprayer that hooks up to your toilet and looks kind of like a shower head. Take the diaper off, give it a quick spray and put it in the pail.

I personally don't use any of those. I take the diaper to the toilet, turn it over and shake off what comes off easily. Anything else I just take toilet paper and swipe the diaper a few times. The diaper does not have to be totally clean, just chunks off because they won't break down in your washer as easily. You do not have to dunk or have the diaper totally clean.

I have used the rice paper liners to help protect the diaper when I've had to use an unapproved diaper cream.

Here is how I wash my diapers. Throw them in the wash and do a quick rinse. The initial rinse gets the poop off the diapers and out of the washer before you actually start washing the diapers. Then I wash with hot water. Make sure that you do not use too much detergent in your washes. If you do and it doesn't get all rinsed out it can build up on your diapers and can irritate your baby. If there are still suds in the machine, just do another rinse.

You also do not want to use dryer sheets with your cloth diapers. You can use dryer balls as an alternative.

Some people say "I don't have time to wash my laundry as it is", but really, it's not that big of a deal. I've heard people say "I never do my own laundry but my diaper laundry is always done. It's more fun!" Really, I just think you know you need to do it. When I go to put a diaper on and see that there are only 4 or so left in the bin, I know it's time to wash. Or you just know that you need to wash every 2nd or third night.

Here's what I chose to use:
My "stash" consists of:
24 Green Mountain Prefold Newborn Sized Diapers
6 XS Thirsties Covers
3 Snappi
24 BumGenius(the brand) OS(One Size) 3.0(Version 3) Pockets(type of diapering system)
3 used Haute Pocket Pockets
3 BumGenius Doublers (we use these at night as doublers as she's gotten older)
2 Hemp Doublers
1 package Imse Vimse Flushable Liners
Med Planet Wise wet bag
2 Planet Wise pail liners
1 Blueberry Pail Liner (has drawstring) (nice for when traveling)
Country Save Detergent
Dryer balls
CD friendly diaper rash cream

For a lot of babies, the OS diapers won't fit until 10 lbs. We decided to go with prefolds until she hit that 10 lb mark. Now we are using BG Pockets. For us, Lauren fit into the pockets at about 9 lbs. She has pretty chubby legs though. Now that we aren't using the prefolds full time I still use them quite a bit - or at least a few of them. I left a few out of storage and I use them as doublers, to put under her when she's airing out, cleaning up messes, etc. I love having them around.


Helpful Websites:
Nicki's Diapers
Green Mountain Diapers
Cotton Babies
Pin stripes to Polka Dots
Diaper Swappers
The bump Eco-Friendly Family Forum
A few cheaper diaper options that get great reviews:
NuBunz
SmartiPants

Additional random thoughts:
-Different brands will fit different shaped babies differently. If they don't fit correctly they could leak. A lot of online stores will sell trail packages where you can get a few of different diapers to try them out. Or you can take the chance and build your stash from the beginning with all one kind.
-Diapers actually hold their resale value very well. They can be boughten used and resold after you are done with them.
- You will need to purchase as many diapers for how often you want to do wash. If you want to do wash every other day, it's recommended that you'll probably need 24 diapers. If you use flats or prefolds, you do not need a cover for every diaper. Maybe 5 covers total. You can lay them out to air out in between changes and only really need to wash if the gussets get wet or dirty.
-Running out of clean diapers and no time to wash. Put an insert or doubler over the dirty part of the diaper next to baby's skin and still use the dirty diaper as a cover essentially. Wa la. Clean diaper in a pinch. (sorta)
-Different brands use different materials for their diapers. Cotton, Microfiber, Microfleece, Suedecloth, Hemp, etc. Example, BumGenius uses suedecloth as the material that touches your babys bottom. Their inserts are microfiber. The microfiber is designed to pull moisture in away from the skin and the suedecloth acts to keep your baby's skin away from the moisture and dry. I have a few hemp inserts that hold more moisture than microfiber will. These hemp inserts are made a certain way that there is blue stitching on one side and that is the side that faces the baby's bottom.
-Some babies can be allergic to suedecloth. If there is a persistent diaper rash you can not figure out, try a diaper that isn't made of suedecloth.
-Not all diaper creams are cloth diaper safe. If they are too oily they can build up on the diaper and make them repel moisture instead of absorbing. You would then need to strip your diapers. Stripping is using dish soap to wash them and boiling them. I have heard of success with putting a little dish soap in the washing machine and washing in hot water.
Safe Diaper Rash Creams
-Of course not all daycare providers will be ok with cloth diapering. But most are thinking of doing it the old school way and think that it's just a lot harder. I suggest using a pocket or all in one system if this is the case and taking one in to show them. Show them how it'll be no different for them except they would have to throw it into the bag instead of a trash can. Especially if you use velcro closures. If they still say no, you can still use cloth at home at night and on weekends. This may not be quite as cost effective but if you are doing cloth for environmental reasons, it still helps in that area.
-You can dry your covers, pockets and all in ones but if you do they will wear out faster. It's best to air dry for the majority of the time.

There are a few other options and more out there to learn if you research. I'm going to quit now as I've probably overloaded you :)

Edit: Lauren is now on formula and solids. I have to admit that I was a little scared of the diaper situation once we make the switch to formula and started solids. It's really no big deal. The poop is now more solid and I just give it a little shake over the toilet. If there is still some on there I just take a little toilet paper and swipe it. No different than wiping it off of her. You don't need to get it totally clean, just the majority of it off. That is what the rinse cycle before the wash is for - to get all the rest of it off before your actual wash. They stain every so often now but no biggie - that is what sunning is for and they still work the same!

MSPI Diet

After I posted last I talked to our pediatrician and she put Lauren on a stronger reflux medicine - Prevacid. She said that this new medicine could take 2 weeks to make a difference and to go ahead and get her started on that. She said that ideally we wouldn't want me to change my diet at the same time we are switching her medicine because we wouldn't know what made the difference if she got better but that if I felt the change was needed we could go ahead and do it and add in a little milk later to see if it bothers her. If so, we know she does have a milk allergy. Adam thought there was more wrong with her than just the reflux so on Thursday I went to the grocery store and started my new diet.

Here are some things that I've learned.

-Hy-Vee has dietitians on staff. They can help you shop the store at no cost. I called ahead and when I got there she had printed off a list of information for me including all the ingredients I had to watch for and some of the products in the store that I could have. She then took me around and pointed out some of those things and helped me read the labels. She was very helpful.

-Health food stores aren't just for people who eat all organically or are Vegans or stuff like that - they are really great for people with food allergies. Most stores have a "Health Mart" like Hy-Vee or an isle with heath foods in them.

-There are brands out there dedicated to helping people with food allergies.

-All labels are required to have allergy information on them. After all the ingredients it will say Contains: Wheat, Milk, Soy, etc. However, this is a fairly new law so something that has a really long shelf life may not say it on the packaging since it could have been manufactured before the law was passed.

-There are many different types of milk that aren't from animals. Rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk - to name a few.

-There are many crazy and unnecessary ingredients in many products once you start reading labels. I can't have caramel coloring. Who cares if your product is caramel colored? Just to make it more appetizing? IDK but I sure wish A-1 didn't put caramel coloring in.

-Many ingredients are greatly different in one product from one brand to another.

-It's crazy how much stuff milk is in - but yet there are still so many different foods you can have. You just have to find the brand w/o the milk in it!

-Many labels say natural flavorings. This is the bane of my existence. Most things probably won't have milk or soy in them but since you never know, you can't have anything that says natural flavorings. Could be butter flavoring. Could mean a presence of soy. So many things I want probably have no milk or soy in them but say natural flavorings so I can't have them! UGH. Just tell me what it is already.

-Some labels list all ingredients and they are all fine...but then at the end they say "May contain soy". What? Another UGH.

-I'm amazed at how little I miss the presence of cheese in some things. A taco w/o cheese really doesn't taste a ton different.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more to add later.

AND, I went to the Dr. today and my blood pressure was 118/63. Woo Hoo! And I didn't even take medicine today (and haven't been that great at it some days lately) so I don't have to worry about medicine anymore.

Old English on my Cedar Chest

I have a cedar chest that was my grandma's. I took it to college with me so that combined with being moved so many times in the last 5 years, it's taken a beating. It's in the baby's room now and last week it occurred to me out of the blue to try Old English on it. I have no idea why I haven't thought of this before but it worked WONDERS. It's so fun to just see the scratches and dings disappear before your eyes. I also fixed a couple things inside that had come loose.

Here is the result


Some day I'll work on getting the paint off of it. The feet also need a little work. For now, I'm so happy the Old English made a world of difference.

Quick and Easy Runzas

Something that has always been a great thing for my family to have on hand has been Runzas. Runzas are something that will probably not be liked by all and a lot of people have probably never even heard of them.

Wikipedia on Runzas:
A runza (also called a bierock, fleischkuche or Kraut Pirok) is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, pork, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. They are baked in various shapes such as a half-moon, rectangle, round (bun), square, or triangle. In Nebraska, the runza is usually baked in a rectangular shape. The bierocks of Kansas, on the other hand, are generally baked in the shape of a bun.

Both the bierock and the runza sandwich have German-Russian roots going back to the 18th century. The term bierock comes from the Russian word pirogi or pirozhki and is the name for any food consisting of a filling stuffed into dough. The recipe was passed down from one generation to the next, and was brought to the Americas, particularly to Argentina and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, the U.S. states of North and South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska by the Volga Germans.

There is a chain restaurant called Runza that is only in Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. It's one of those places that you must visit if you come here and if you are from here and move away, you have to have when you come back.

So two weeks away from the arrival of our baby, of course I'd turn to Runzas as a freezer staple for quick and easy meals after the baby is here. Now, as I said - this is my quick and easy version. And of course this can mean that the taste can suffer slightly. They're still great but not quite as good as Grandma would have made them :)

Runzas
Package of Rhodes Dinner Rolls
4 lbs hamburger
27 oz can of kraut plus an extra regular sized can
2lbs cheddar cheese (you'll probably use a little less)
Minced Onion
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Seasoned Salt
Salt
Pepper

If you were going to make them the way grandma would have, you would use her Basic Roll Recipe and use American Cheese instead of cheddar. The Rhodes rolls are obviously much less time consuming. You will see I used white rolls here but they have a whole grain roll that is to die for and works great for this also (for some reason I just picked up white at the store this time). American cheese will melt better and be a better consistency for your rolls but most of us keep cheddar cheese on hand more often than American and it's also cheaper.

I also must say that I sell Pampered Chef and I use a lot of their products to make Runza's that I feel make things easier/faster.



I use the Pampered Chef Micro cooker to cook my hamburger. I have the small one so I do one lb at a time. I put it in the microwave for two minutes. Then put it into the micro cooker and cut it up a little. 2 more minutes in the microwave. Chop it up with the Mix n Chop. 2 more minutes in microwave. Chop.
It'll look like this at this point:

2 more minutes and your hamburger will be done.

After your hamburger is done, add the rest of the ingredients to taste.

Stir until the cheese is nice and melted.

For your rolls, you can either take them out of the freezer early and let them thaw until pliable or I have taken them straight from freezer and microwaved for 5 seconds on both sides to get them de-thawed to the pliable stage.

Put down on some flour so it doesn't stick to the counter.


Roll out. I use the Pampered Chef Bakers Roller. It's the perfect size. Make sure you roll it pretty thin. They tend to want to spring back and you won't fit much stuffing in.


Add your meat. I use the Pampered Chef Medium scoop and add two scoopfuls. Then begin to pull the sides up around the filling.


Pinch all the sides together.


Line 'em up...


...and stick them in the oven.


Cook at 350 until golden brown.


This can make 36 Runzas give or take depending on how much stuffing you put in each one.

Usually when making Runzas it's easy to make Pigs in a Blankets also. Use your rolls like you would for Runzas but put a hot dog in the roll and wrap it up. Bake. Super easy and great for the freezer also!