January Menu Recipes

2nd: Vegetable chowder w/ homemade bread

3rd: Shepherds pie (a Martha Everyday recipe)

4th: Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry / Balsamic Glaze

Credit for this regular family dish goes to my dear friend Rachael:

Other than the onion, everything else is a pantry item that you can have on hand anytime.
½ c chopped red onion (or whatever you have, or nothing if you don’t have)
½ T dry or fresh rosemary
½ t salt
¼ t pepper
4 chicken breasts, trimmed
½ c olive oil
½ c raspberry preserves (seedless is best but I can’t seem to find seedless)
3 T balsamic vinegar

Marinate chicken breasts in rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil.

In frying pan sauté red onions and chicken breasts until cooked. Remove from pan.

Combine raspberry preserves and balsamic vinegar. Using same frying pan over medium heat reduce mixture until thickened slightly (I don’t usually have patience for this and it doesn’t matter and I speed this up by cooking both the chicken and onion in one pan and the raspberry & balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan).

Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

I usually serve the chicken over rice or a bed of fresh raw spinach, then drizzle the sauce on top – the that wilts the spinach slightly and is very good. But for a “throw it together meal rice works well also.
This freezes very well. To Freeze: Combine the raspberry preserves and balsamic vinegar in a small baggie and combine the chicken and other ingredients in a separate bag. Place both bags inside a large bag and freeze. It can be a last minute meal if you put the frozen chicken in the oven for 35-40 min @ 385 degrees and heat the sauce in a saucepan.

5th: Stuffed Shells w/ salad

Thanks to dear friend Barb for this fabulous regular in our house:

Stuffed Shells

Sauce
2 onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs oil
½ # chopped mushrooms
2 29-oz cans tomato puree
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 c. water
1 ½ tsp. basil
2 tsp. oregano
1# hot Italian sausage
1 box large shells

Filling
12 oz mozz. Cheese, diced
2 15-oz containers ricotta cheese
4 eggs
6 tbs. parm. Cheese
2 tbs. parsley
2 tbs. chives
Onion salt or salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Romano cheese, grated

Sauce
Saute onions, pepper and garlic in oil for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, and sauté 5 minutes more. Stir in tomato puree, paste, water and spices. Cook and crumble sausage in a separate pan. Drain off fat. Add to sauce and summer about 3 hours. Add more water if sauce gets too thick. Shortly before assemblage, cook shells according to directions; drain.

Filling and Assembly
Combine all ingredients except Romano cheese. Spoon into shells. If mixture is too thin, add more parmesan. Spoon some sauce into bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Lay stuffed shells in pan. Pour on additional sauce. Sprinkle with Romano. Bake at 325 for 30 min. Serves 12

6th: Chicken Fried Rice, a simple quick Martha Kids recipe. I double the sauce

7th: Singapore Noodle Curry w/ Scallops - I am substituting Scallops for Shrimp simply because I have some in the freezer.

9th: African Peanut Soup w/ salad and homemade bread. Looks interesting and it fit my veggie day.

10th: Stuffed Peppers - Thanks to fellow freezer friend Ann who cooks the most fabulous recipes but who does not measure (which is probably why it turns out so great).

Stuffed Peppers

4 Bell peppers, any color

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces ground beef

onion

thyme

cooked rice

garlic

basil

Worcestershire sauce

salt

Sauté onion in olive oil, cook ground beef thoroughly. Add both to boll and add the remaining ingredients. Stuff cored peppers and cook for one hour at 350 degrees.

Pour tomato sauce over stuffed peppers and top with parmesan cheese if desired.
*I use lots of veggies, whatever I have on hand, mushrooms, lots of onion, diced zucchini, anything.

11th Chicken Lettuce Wraps - thanks to fellow freezer friend Katy.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps
2 lb ground chicken
Salt & pepper to taste
2T sesame oil
5 cloves garlic minced
2T olive oil
5 carrots minced
1 lg head bok choy, minced
2 cans water chestnuts minced
¾ cup soy sauce
4T hoisin sauce
1 T peanut butter
1 head iceberg lettuce

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Sauté meat in sesame oil and set aside. I drain the meat now so that it doesn’t get too greasy. In a separate pan, sauté garlic in olive oil. Add minced vegetables (I mince them all in a food processer) and sauté until crisp tender. Mix soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and peanut butter. Add chicken and toss to coat. Mix in veggies. Cut lettuce in half. Serve chicken in lettuce cups. Serve with white or brown rice.

12th: Meatball Pasta

13th: Moo Shu Pork w/ side of sesame rice

14th: Fish & veggie packets in the crockpot with yellow rice

Yellow rice
1. In a saucepan, heat 1 TB vegetable oil over medium heat. Add 1 chopped onion, and cook until soft. Stir in 1 cup rice, ½ ts salt, ½ ts turmeric, 1 dried bay leaf, 1 pinch cinnamon, and 2 cups chicken stock or canned broth. Bring to a boil; cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Stir in 1/3 cup raisins with fork, and simmer until stock is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Set aside, covered, 5 minutes.

16th: Classic Minestrone soup w/ hearty bread

17th: Beef Enchiladas w/ corn and salad

18th: Pasta w/ Turkey Meatballs and Bocconcini

19th: Hamburger Pizza

20th: Jodi's Cranberry Chicken over Rice w/ veggie

21st: Asian Chicken Soup (Martha Stewart Everyday)

23rd: Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta:

1 (8 oz) angel hair pasta or penne pasta

¼ cup butter

1 lb shrimp, peeled & deveined

1 clove garlic

½ t black pepper

1/8 C all-purpose flour

2 T Cajun seasoning

2 cups cream

¼ t salt

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute shrimp for 1 minute on each side. Stir in garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon; set aside. Stir in flour and Cajun seasoning. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, then cook until thickened. Add parmesan. Remove from heat, and season with salt. Return shrimip to sauce, and spoon over cooked pasta.This recipe found its way to me through a freezer friends group of two years ago. Thank you Rachael!

24th Moroccan Beef Stew over Rice

25th Chicken Pot Pies wtih Ham

26th Veggie Pasta

27th Beef Veggie Soup (recipe makes 2-3 meals) Thanks Katy for adding to our favorites!

@ 5 beef/soup bones
2 lb. stew meat
6 beef bouillon cubes
1 quart (4 cups) spaghetti sauce
1 large can V8 juice
Water to cover meat
4 bay leaves
1 yellow pepper
Onion

Cook the above for 3 hours on the stove. Spoon off fat and take meat off of bones. Remove bones then add the following:

Celery
Turnips
Parsnips
Onion
Green Pepper
2 (1 lb) bags of frozen mixed vegetables
1 box frozen chopped spinach
1 box frozen chopped broccoli

Cook for at least 1 hour more. I tend to simmer for a few hours.

28th *Asian Shrimp Stew with steamed Rice (Martha Stewart Everyday)

30th Eggplant Parm -- Thanks Ann S!

Olive Oil

One eggplant

3 eggs

Bread Crumbs

Red Sauce

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Oregano

SaltSlice eggplant into thin slices. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Dip eggplant slices in whipped egg and then dip in breadcrumbs. Place the eggplant in skillet and cook for about ten minutes on both sides. Slices should be brown on both sides and soft in the middle.Cover the bottom of baking dish with sauce, and layer eggplant mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and oregano. Bake at 350 degrees for forty minutes. Enjoy!

Notes: 3 Large Eggplants made 4+ meals, maybe could have made 5, I threw some out and several got burnt and were tossed. I used 2 large Sam’s club Prego/Ragu sauces (as per Ann) for 4 meals.

31st German Rouladen w/ veggie & potatoes

Day Before Meal Prep

An excellent time-saving mind-easing good habit to get into is looking at your meal plan every night before you head to bed. I am usually too tired to do any real meal prep at night, in fact I hardly do much of anything productive after the kids go to bed, but I do take a peek at my menu to see what needs to be taken out of the freezer for the next one or two days’ meals. It depends on what the food item is as to how many days prior to a meal it should be taken out of the freezer. A 3 lb pork loin is going to take at least 2 days in the fridge to thaw whereas a flash frozen salmon steak will only take one night. I try to anticipate all frozen items that will be utilized in a meal when making my monthly menu and I make notes in my monthly menu calendar in blue (blue signifies frozen to me) on the days that frozen items should be taken out.

In addition to thinking about your next day’s meal the night before, it is best to make sure that you have all your ingredients for tomorrow’s meal (and the day after that’s meal ideally) the day before. In a perfect world, if you are meal planning and shopping for everything well in advance this isn’t a problem. However, we have all wanted to make some specific meal and went to the grocery with the best of intentions only to find out that our grocery store is completely out of an essential ingredient. To celebrate Saint Dominic of Silos day (which was yesterday but we are moving that meal to today) I decided to try a new Dominican stew which would introduce two new ingredients to our family. One new ingredient was a plantain which was easy to find. The second was yucca. Our local grocer does not carry yucca and when I inquired I was lucky enough to speak to the produce manager who had worked in produce for nearly 30 years and was familiar with every fruit and vegetable known to man. He suggested trying another store located in a more Hispanic community. After 3 phone calls I sent my visiting brother-in-law to hunt down a yucca. Of course I didn’t have to do this, this dish is more of a fun experiment and I had help from a visiting family member so we went for it. But we did it yesterday not today, the day we are cooking the stew.

I know people who think about what is for dinner in the early afternoon. Then they realize they don’t have everything they need and they head out to the grocery. If you don’t have a gaggle of young kids or if your schedule permits these multiple grocery tips maybe it works for you as long as your meal does not require a lot of cooking time. That would be disastrous in our house so a little day ahead preparation out of pure habit makes meal prep a breeze.

Grab-N-Go Snack Bin

In our cupboard I keep a little bin labeled “GRAB-N-GO SNACKS.” I am not big on giving kids snacks as they usually will not eat their more nutritious meals if given snacks but there are occasions when a snack on the go is necessary. For instance, the post office visit this Monday. I KNEW it was the post office’s most busy day of the year and that’s just hard on a one year old. I grabbed a snack and off we went. It kept him busy, that and the playing with the flap on the trash can (YUCK!) while waiting in line.

Grab-N-Go Snack Bins can be stored with trail mix, granola bars, mixes of cheerios/raisins/nuts/mini marshmallows/pretzels and I keep some lollipops in mine for the really tough trips. This bin has been very handy for me this season while doing my most dreaded task . . . shopping with a one year old!

Extraordinary Uses for Binders

Binders can organize so many things. If you have some shelf real estate to plop them on they are so accessible and have so much potential. Of course there are obvious uses for binders. I use several for recipes. I have one binder labeled “Culinary Experiments” (recipes I have not yet tried but intend to), another “Culinary Collections” (the tried and true recipes), and one for “Desserts and Breads.” I don’t get bogged down with details like cutting and pasting recipes. I just slide cardstock in clear protector sheets and put the cut out recipes on top so they are easier to read. I don’t paste or anything, that way if my Culinary Experiment recipe is a success I can easily slide it out and move it to the Culinary Collections binder.

I used to enjoy browsing through home magazines (who has time for that now with three kids?) and I would always tear out a picture of something that I really liked. I have a “Home Ideas” binder that includes several categories of my magazine tear outs. The tabs include “Architecture,” “Gardening,” “Decorating Projects,” and “Gift Ideas.” The binder came in very handy when we moved into our untouched 1970s house that was in terrible need of a new kitchen. I had collected pictures of kitchens that I liked for years and even though I didn’t know exactly why I liked the pictures, it gave the cabinet makers a place to start when trying to figure out what we wanted.

The best housewarming gift ever given to us was a binder labeled Menus. Several years ago we moved from the east coast to the Midwest when I was 8 months pregnant. A friend of ours drove around our new town before we arrived and gathered take out menus. Not only did she put the menus in clear protector sheets in a binder that was cleverly decorated in old photos but she even categorized the menus by food type: Italian, Chinese, Sandwich Places, etc. This binder is a permanent fixture in our house.

My most recent binder creation of a couple years ago is labeled “Greeting Cards.” In the front I have a sheet that lists everyone’s birthdays by month and I included greeting card holidays like mother’s day and father’s day by month. Behind that sheet I have 17 clear protector pocket sheets. Each clear pocket is labeled with my handy dandy label maker at the top right hand corner. The first twelve are labeled the months of the year, then there are clear pockets for blank cards, generic birthday cards (those that aren’t for anyone specific), get well cars, sympathy cards and thank you cards. So, you know how sometimes you will be looking for a birthday card for Amy and as you are reading them you come across the perfect card for Jim? Well now I can get the perfect card that I found for Jim even though his birthday isn’t for another 10 months because I have somewhere to put it that I know I will find it again. I’ll put it in my October pocket. For some reason card shopping is one of the most challenging things to shop for with my kids. They have no patience for me to pick out the perfect card and if they aren’t restrained in a shopping cart they love to run down the card isle and pull them out and destroy any card organization the store has in place.

I use binders when we go home to the east coast to visit family. I print out the phone numbers to our friends and family out east as well as favorite restaurants that we want to visit and phone numbers of our neighbors in case we would need to check up on something back home. I include maps, activities for kids and the hours of the various establishments we hope to visit and I keep our receipts in one of the clear protector sheets with a tally sheet so we can stay within our vacation budget.

I know there are many more ways to use a simple binder with clear protector sheets to organize various things. I have several empty binders waiting to be filled.

Simple Method of Organizing Sheet Sets

One of the many reasons I get happy when I open my linen closet that I shared in a previous post, is the super simple way that I store our bed sheet sets. It looks somewhat neat and keeps the linens under control. I got the idea from a Martha magazine years ago but I can't say that I do it "Martha," I don't have time for that. I fold the fitted sheet, flat sheet and one pillow case in a pile and then I stuff them into the second pillow case. It's not quite "Martha" because the picture in her magazine showed a perfectly boxed folded stuffed pillow case whereas mine are not so picturesque. It must have taken the photo set person a couple hours to get Martha's to look like that. Who has that kind of time? Mine is just stuffed in there and thrown on the shelf and it might not be pretty, but it works.

Daily Lunch Salad for Mom

I have been on this salad kick for about 8 months. Never before has a salad habit lasted so long for me. In the past whenever I switched to salad eating it was always in an effort to loose a few pounds so I limited what went into my salad making it as fat free and low calorie as possible. Well clearly that was my salad success downfall. Last Spring I had lunch at my friend Karen's and she grilled a chicken breast and served a simple salad with Good Seasonings Italian dressing. I fell in love. All that oil and the warm meat with cold crunchy fresh greens . . .yum! So I established my salad habit. On Mondays or Tuesdays, depending on when I do my produce run, I make a big salad that will last me about 5 days. It's rather simple really, I put whatever fancies me at the moment into it and whatever I have on hand. Generally it consists of:

Romaine lettuce, chopped
Spring Mix or Baby Spinach
Green, Red, Yellow, Orange Peppers
Scallions or red onion minced
Carrots
Cucumber (de-seeded or seedless since I am told that the seeds wilt your salad faster)
Cherry tomatoes when in season
Apple, diced and tossed with lemon juice to prevent browning


Then I diced up a block of sharp cheddar and keep that in a separate container otherwise it gets slimy or mushy if it is put in with the greens. When I go to have my lunch salad I just toss in the

Diced cheese or feta if I have it
Walnuts or pecans
Craisins
Chopped turkey deli meat or a grilled chicken breast

My New Year's resolution is to take the time to figure out how to make the Good Seasons salad dressing from scratch. I'm sure there is a formula out there somewhere to be found.

I am no photographer, but I try:

I like that my daughter sees me eat a salad every day at lunch. I always offer salad to her but she declines. She often tells her playmates at lunch time, "my mom ALWAYS has a salad . . . EVERY DAY!" as if I'm a freak or something. It's funny but I hope it sticks with her as a good example. I don't push it for lunch but for dinner it is a must. The big salad prepared in the fridge makes it easy to dish out a little salad for everyone with every dinner meal.

Invention Box – Perhaps A Lesson in Minimalist Frugality?

I would think that most of us would like to teach our kids to think creatively so that they can overcome obstacles in life and make the most out of things and I would also guess that we all want them to be able to do this with little or no resources. Planting some seeds for this skill is my goal with our “Invention Box.” I don’t recall where I originally came across the idea, maybe my mother-in-law or maybe the Tightwad Gazette, but it has been a hit with my 6 year old for quite some time and I am working on developing this skill with my 4 year old. My kids love making stuff. They don’t need a whole lot. A box, some construction paper, scissors and tape are favorite “making stuff” materials. I keep trash for our invention box. Plastics, cardboard, yogurt containers, cottage cheese containers, you name it. If my son sees me putting something in the recycle bin that has an interesting shape he say, “no mom, put it in the invention box!” So we have a huge pile of trash, I mean Invention Box materials for making “stuff.” We even get neighbors and grandparents to saving stuff for our invention box. Once we solicited everyone we knew for frozen juice lids to make a knights armor. We had neighbors that drank orange juice from frozen concentrate every day. We had it together in no time.


Here is a picture of my son’s latest space ship creation with “stuff.” On this one he even got his school Principal to agree to let him take home an empty milk carton. I'm not sure it is supposed to be on the front but I do know that the paper towel rolls are the "blasters" in the back. The black things are pipe cleaners. He can stick his head through the bottom hole that he had me cut and fly it around while he looks out the clear container that our Sam's Club spinach came in.





Here he is flying his straw jet plane.






For Halloween we made this spooky graveyard out of a box, tissue paper, construction paper, Q-tips and some Halloween stickers someone gave us. This is the only project that I helped invent. Usually he does it all one his own.
He also made a cool monster using a clear V8 container, filling it with green tissue paper and taping green construction paper arms. I did not get a picture of it before my 1 year old tore the arms off though. My daughter made a haunted house out of a box but she lost interest before finishing it. Why we buy toys I will never understand.

Homework Task Schedule - Keeping Order in the House

One of the many reasons I like “To Do Lists” is because I get great satisfaction crossing things off the list. Having a list of chores for myself allows me to cross stuff off and it keeps me on task. I have not stuck with a household task schedule since having my one year old so I am looking forward to using a schedule again. For each child I have, my task list gets more scaled down so that it is doable. I do not like having a list that never gets checked off.

So if you are feeling that your house is out of control and want to get some order BUT you want to do it while feeling that you are spending very little time and effort keeping order try using a task schedule. Sounds tricky, doesn’t it? It really isn’t. I tape this list on the inside of one of my command central cupboard doors. I cross the boxes off throughout the week as they get done. At the end of each week I can either print a new list or I can use the same list and cross the items off in a different way. I have a pencil taped with a string to the cupboard by the list. It isn’t strict or time consuming to stick to because I try to keep each days’ tasks simple. If I don’t get to everything or if I don’t even get to an entire day or two I know that my house won’t be spiraling out of control because I will get to it next week. Of course bathrooms with a household of five need to be tended to at least weekly but other things can certainly slide now and then.

If you can not read the above list you can double click on this one to enlarge:

Frugal Snobbery

I had a few miniscule drops of energy left after putting the kids to bed this evening so I thought I’d search the blogging world for frugal tips (yes, I know, totally nerdy Friday night behavior, go ahead point and laugh). I found some fantastic new blogs that I can’t wait to spend more time with and I found a ridiculous one as well. I came across a blog all about a person’s “frugal life” and I had to laugh. Then I realized that I am a frugal snob. The author of the “frugal life” I will call it had a Christmas list that involved her 15 year old daughter getting some $300 ipod thing and her husband wanted some matching animal skin belt and boots that together cost well over $700! I can’t find the darned blog now so I can’t quote the exact price on the man clothes but I had to laugh. Then she snapped a photo of a great shopping trip where she utilized sales and coupons and got a whole load of crap for only $42.50. Her shopping spree included several packages of cookies, boxes of cereal, dozens of oozy type lip gloss and many other “stuffs” that would never even be purchased in my home regardless of price. Soon after reading that blog I stumbled upon these posts and I just KNOW the author this blog would also be laughing at that lady right along with me because he despises stuff I think even more than I do. Oh us frugal snobs could have great party making fun of those frugal-wanna-bes. For my imaginary frugal snob party there would have to be carpooling involved to save on gas and what would we serve? Certainly all of us would all drink water. Oh man, what I have become?

Here are some goodies I found:
http://poorerthanyou.com/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/
http://www.bloggingawaydebt.com/ (mostly b/c anyone that LOVES Amy Dacyczyn’s book the Tightwad Gazette like I do ought to come to my frugal snob party)
http://livingthecheaplife.net/

Peace

I suppose all of us would name different things that bring us peace on earth. Inner peace for me starts with earthly things, or actually the lack thereof. I get easily bogged down when I am preoccupied with stuff. So I strive to defocus my life on stuff or to have the necessary stuff in my life organized in a way that I need not occupy my thoughts with it. This is why home organization is of interest to me. I know people who are not very organized that aren’t bothered by such things and I think that is a quality to be commended. Since that is not one of my qualities, I will continue my organizing ways and hopefully help a few people living less than organized lives that are not feeling inner peace as a result.

Having inner peace allows me to be closer to God and to find time in my day to pray or read scripture with my kids or to just spend the time I have in a day towards something that matters. So I find that spending a little time to organize the necessary stuff of life eliminates barriers to the things that matter.

My Love Affair with my Label Maker

Generally I believe that you do not have to spend money to be domestically organized. Occasionally there are circumstances where a few plastic bins or a set of shelves are absolutely necessary but beyond that there is no need to spend kazoodles of dollars on organizational tools. If you want to hire California Closets consultant and spend a thousand or so on a new pretty closet go ahead, but spending a lot of money is not necessary to enjoy an organized home. I love to organize people’s closets, kitchen cupboards, basements, etc. but I can not promise that it will look like a California Closets magazine ad. I can promise you that I will make it work for you. I am driven by functionality alone.

With all that said, I do own a money sucking organizational tool that I am in-love with. I LOVE my completely unnecessary label maker. You can get a Brother label maker on sale at Office Max for $20 or less. It is one of those items that goes on sale around every 6 weeks so do not pay full price. The refill cartridges are around $10 and that is what makes it a money sucker, however, once you have everything labeled in your house then you don’t use it all that much and the cartridges can last quite a long time.

I label anything and everything that makes sense and then even the things that don’t make sense. My friend Amy watched as I labeled my soup shelf “Soup” and said, “because you can’t tell which shelf the soup is on?” Good point. But I still love the label. It’s like jewelry to an organized cupboard to me. Whenever I label something unnecessary and my husband is around to witness it, when I put my beloved label maker back in the kitchen drawer he opens the drawer, takes out the label maker, and turns it upside down searching for the label that says, “label maker." (I actually had a label on one at work once. The label said, "Jenn's Label Maker.") He has made the mistake of saying “why don’t you label it then” a few times when I complain that he doesn’t put things back where he got them like the jam from the fridge. There is now a shelf in our fridge labeled “Jam.” It doesn’t help his bad habits though. I suppose it’s a good thing he is lackadaisical about such things. I can not imagine two A type labeling freaks sharing a home harmoniously.

This is a picture of my upstairs hall closet. I have medicines and such up high since I have little ones in the house. I am sure they could climb the shelves in they really wanted to but it hasn’t happened yet. This closet is one of my prettier closets. It makes me happy when I open the doors. Can you see the sparkling jewels on each bin?

Frugal Beauty Products and Christmas Gifts Ideas

I am totally plugging my friend’s little Avon business with this post but honestly that is not my motivation. You can not beat the price and quality of a lot of Avon products. The fact that you can be helping a fellow mom earn some bucks is just a plus. Another friend of mine got me hooked on some of Avon’s Mark products a couple years ago and then she stopped selling it so I was thrilled when my friend Stacy told me that she started selling Avon. I just placed an order for powder (buy one get one ½ off), Mark foundation and a few stocking stuffer: princess lip gloss and some body bath paints (got one for each kid, 3 for $5). You just can’t beat it for price or convenience. Stacy emails her customers when they have free shipping specials, which is ALL the time including right now for orders over $30, or you can have her deliver it for free. She is cute as a button and sports some Avon fashions which I didn’t even know they had.

Most Frugal Household Cleaning Tip

Vinegar Water
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle with reusable cloth rags
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle with reusable cloth rags with children doing the cleaning

Vinegar is a natural disinfectant. It will not contaminate your food, your pets or your children. It is safe, effective, environmentally friendly, disinfecting and most of all totally frugal.

**For my wood floors and painted or finished wood I use 1 part vinegar to 16-18 parts water (or for my spray bottle that's 1/4 cup vinegar to 4 cups water). I am told that any higher ratio may take the shine out of such finishes.

Budget Book Review

Money for Life: Budgeting Success and Financial Fitness in Just 12 Weeks by Steven B. Smith


I like to pick up budgeting ideas from wherever I can find them. I suppose I am searching for a magic solution that will make us rich overnight. All the books I have read so far just tell me to do what I already do with perserverance over time.

I found the title of this book on some other blog that I can’t recall. I picked it up at the library (aren’t libraries great) and had a chance to read most of it. I was surprised to see that someone had written a whole book on the envelope system that I have been using for almost 2 years. But this guy took the envelope system to an new level by creating software to streamline what I sit down in my word document and do manually. Not only does the software add and subtract and total envelopes (my husband keeps telling me to make my system do that in excel but I don’t have the patience or time to figure it out) but he also has some online service or something that you pay for. The book comes with a disk and a free trial period. It seems counterintuitive to pay for something that you can do yourself when the whole point is to become financially successful by not spending unnecessary money, however, I can see where his program would benefit certain people who do not have the time perhaps or patience to deal with the details that my system does.

I liked his chart on debt reduction and the debt reduction roll down principle. Basically he suggests that you list your debts from left to right in order of highest interest to lowest with the balances and payments. As each balance is paid off you do not absorb the payment into your regular spending, but instead add that payment amount to the payment amount of the next highest interest debt until all the debt is gone. For instance (I can't seem to get the tabs or spacing right so I'll try to demonstrate):

20% Visa 3,000 Payment $50
7% Home Equity 12,000 Payment $75
5.75% Mortgage 170,00 Payment $1200

When Visa is paid off, add the $50 payment to the $75 Home Equity payment and pay $125 until the Home Equity is paid off. Then add the $125 to the $1200 mortgage payment and pay $1325 until the mortgage is paid off. When the mortgage is paid off put the $1325 into savings. Of course you want to maximize the payment you make to the highest interest rate debt to trickle it down.

There are some other simple things spelled out in the book that I also liked. I always wonder what we should be saving if we have debt that we are trying to eliminate. Should we put ALL of our money towards the debt and then when it is paid off start from zero? He suggested saving 10% of your income if possible until the debt is paid at which point you would put the payments that had gone toward debt elimination plus the 10% into savings.

The book was long and drawn out and presented in a rather lame manner. Maybe I thought that because of where I am coming from in my own budgeting process. Perhaps the story would be helpful for someone who has not yet budgeted. The book told a fictional story about a couple who was spending 10% more than they earn each month but because they were not budgeting or paying attention to what money was coming in and out. They had taken a home equity loan out to pay off credit cards but two years later they were back in the same credit card situation. Then the story tells of their meetings with a financial advisor who helped them get on an envelope system. I have never heard of a financial advisor that does that, but how nice would that be? The envelope budgeting system changes their lives and their marriage and trickles down to their parents and some other friends through word of mouth. They also have a friend, a single mom, who had been using the envelope system for several years and they run into a couple, millionaires, who had been using the system for 30 years. At the end of each chapter there are learned principles with instruction on how to apply the principles. There are charts that break down the budgeting system into very simple terms. That is probably the intention of the fictional characters, to try to explain the system in a way that everyone can understand it.

I skimmed a lot of pages about the characters and rolled my eyes quite a bit. The story made it sound like everyone they talked to about the envelope system thought it was just great and peachy and they ended up thinking that they should also do it. I have tried having these same conversations with friends that are struggling and that is not how it goes. I find that just the discussion stresses people out if they are in a financially bad place and do not budget and do not really have a grasp of what money is coming in and out. I have found that people resist this sort of budgeting at all costs which is why Americans are so in debt and in such a bad financial state. Mr. Smith threw in a lot of those scary statistics in his book that we keep hearing in the media to convince the reader that to be financially fit you have to do what others do not do. You have to be a little abnormal in a sense to find financial freedom and peace within. It is always reassuring to read that what you are doing is weird and abnormal but that it is the right thing to be doing. So for that I thank Mr. Smith.

I Might Have to Rethink my December Menu

I was so happy to let my son pick our turkey for Thanksgiving this year and he really really wanted the 20 pounder. I figured that Thanksgiving only comes once a year so, fine, I let him. I did not realize at the store that it would not fit in my huge stock pot for brining. It is sitting in the garage brining in an enormous bucket. Nor will it fit into any roasting pan that I own. I bought a flimsy metal one which we will use placed on top of a cookie sheet for stability. In reviewing roasting time for weight of turkey I came across information that said that you should figure 1 pound of turkey per person. Gee, I'm glad we are having 20 guests. NOT! There are seven of us and three of the seven are age 6 and under so really we are more like five feasters. Holy moly. We have 15 pounds of excess turkey. I do not believe in wasting food when people in the world are starving (yes I finally realized that my grandmother was right about that) so I've got to put this turkey to use. I will be looking up turkey recipes over the next couple of days and would love any suggestions. I am assuming that I will have no problem freezing the roasted meat for use in recipes later, right? I don't want it to dry out in the freezer.

I am going to try a Turkey Hash recipe for Friday's breakfast that my SIL found: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turkey-Hash-350650

This Turkey Gumbo looks interesting:http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/turkey-gumbo-thanksgiving-leftovers-recipe.html

I will make turkey stock in the crock pot from the carcass like the crock pot lady did with a chicken carcass: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/01/homemade-chicken-broth-crockpot-recipe.html

We will of course have lots of turkey meat for sandwiches and I am thinking that using a whole turkey for that and slicing it for lunch meat may be cheaper than the $5.99/lb deli meat. Hmmm. I'll have to give that more thought.

Our Simple Thanksgiving Menu

This year will be different than last year. We are on our own along with my Mom and Step-dad, who will be driving a little over an hour to visit with us. I'm keeping the Thanksgiving menu simple while adopting a couple of the favorites from our more elaborate feast of last year. Last year, my sister-in-law put our fabulous menu together and we had fun cooking together for our family plus four out-of-state family members. We ran out of oven space we cooked so many dishes so we called our next door neighbors who were away visiting family and they allowed us to use their oven. It was fun going back and forth with our oven mits. But, this year I will be the only cook so I've scaled it down.

Brined Roasted Turkey
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_8389,00.html
My son went to the store with me to pick our turkey this year. He picked a 20-pounder -- I'm hoping to freeze some cooked turkey meat for many many turkey dishes to come.)

Gravy
I am no gravy expert. I'm going to try to do this by whisking the scraps from the roasting pan with flour and chicken broth as it should be done.

Cranberry Pear Chutney
http://www.marthastewart.com/cranberry-pear-chutney?lnc=369ad9e51c2ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=photogallery_thanksgiving_holiday_thanksgiving_p5
Last year we added some candied ginger to this recipe and it was delicious.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
I just roast a head of garlic at 400 for about 40 min. and squeeze the cloves into our mashed potatoes. I'm just going to throw the other ingredients in as I usually do: butter, salt & pepper, cream cheese and milk.

Corn: just straight up frozen stuff.

Stuffing: just plain with sauteed celery, onion, mushrooms and seasonings. Nothing fancy.

Apple Pie
This is in the freezer just waiting to be baked.

Pumpkin Roll: the first one I have ever made. Can't wait to eat it.
Pumpkin Pie
I asked my mother to bring this and dinner rolls.

Apple Cider

What more do we need really? I am hoping to have time to make some more of those browned buttered frosted pumpkin cookies. We decided against a salad because it seems unnecessary with all the other food and our holiday being just a few of us. No one eating with us likes sweet potatoes or squash. So hopefully the turkey will be the showcase.

I'm also looking forward to reading our Gratitude Jar. This is the first year that I remembered that I wanted our family to do a Gratitude Jar. The day after Halloween I put a lidded jar on our dining room table and each day (that I remembered) I asked the kids to think of something that they are grateful for, however small or however big. I wrote what they thought of on a piece of paper with their name and we will read them all before our dinner prayers on Thanksgiving. Mom, if you are reading this it would be nice if you and Dad thought of some to share on your drive up. I hope to make our Gratitude Jar and annual tradition.

Dinner was a Flop Tonight

I think that trying new foods and new recipes always carries the risk of a dinner flop. Tonight was the first complete flop I have had in quite some time. I think there was another dinner involving curry last spring that was terrible and only my husband ate. Tonight I made the Curried Butternut Squash & Apple Soup, Roasted Salmon and Sauteed Spinach with feta and pine nuts. Doesn’t it sound lovely? UGH! Every part of it was terrible. Well, actually the salmon was ok after I microwaved it a couple minutes because I discovered that it was undercooked once I had it on everyone’s plate. I usually would not microwave fish but it was clear at that point that the dinner was a complete disaster and I just wanted it over with. The last batch of the soup that I pureed in the blender popped my hand off the lid (too hot, duh Jenn) and sprayed me and most of the kitchen AND the darned thing didn’t even taste good. I suppose I’ll get to cleaning the squash soup from my kitchen and hope to get it out of my hair which is dried and crusty now. Don’t worry about the kids, I let them have some chicken nuggets and pear slices. I even dropped a chicken nugget in the sink before getting them to their plates!

Pepperdige Farm Outlet Specials

If you haven't made it to the bread outlet yet but have been thinking about it, look at these specials. Clear out our freezer for some freezer real estate and save some cash!

Incredibly Useful Purchase for Paper Control

I do not know anyone who would not agree to this statement, “I hate paper clutter.” I grew up in a house where paper was a serious problem. 80% of our dinners were spent at a table with piles of paper at the opposite end (sorry mom). As a teenager, if my parents went away for a day or so I would get the clean bug and gather up all the papers sitting in various piles around the house and put them in a plastic sack. I was so proud of how clean the house was when they returned but now I realize how much work that meant for my mom because then she had to sort out the one gigantic pile into her previous piles before my clean bug destroyed her mountains.


My mother wants me to add that her house USED to be like that BEFORE she was diagnosed with ADD and that now her house has no paper clutter or piles of paper anywhere. I must admit, I haven't seen any paper messes in her home for years.

Four years ago I purchased a wall mounted magazine rack from this company . This purchase works miracles in our home and effectively eliminates the paper problem. It is opposite my basement door so it is mostly tucked away and it is within close proximity to my trash can. So every day I take the mail to the kitchen counter, throw away 90% of it (recycle bin of course, ah hem) and then file it in the correct pocket of my magazine rack. My friend Jodi (fellow paper hater) was visiting one day and remarked at how I disposed of my mail when it arrived in about 60 seconds. It has become so routine and takes up so little time and effort that I don't even think about it. I have 7 pockets on my magazine rack to distribute my mail:

(1) “to be filed” (those go to the basement once a month where my filing cabinet is)
(2) Bills (I pay those on pay day twice a month and then they get put in “to be filed”
(3) Daddy (he never looks at his mail but it’s there and it is no longer my problem)
(4) Uncle Mike (I was shipping my brother-in-laws mail to him in Iraq but for now it’s a free pocket)
(5) Grocery Fliers (I write the expiration date at the top left for each flier so I can clearly see when they are to be tossed)
(6) Coupons
(7) Magazines/catalogs (most just get thrown out around here)




When I have all three kids in grade school I would eventually like more pockets so I can assign a pocket per family member and have additional pockets for coupons, grocery fliers, etc. My oldest is in 1st grade so I’ll hold off on upgrading my magazine rack but I definitely will get one with more pockets in a couple years.

If paper clutter is getting the best of your home I urge you to take a peek at that website, it has a lot to offer and a lot more than what I have seen at other stores. There are wall mounted magazine racks with various numbers and configurations of pockets and made out of various materials. Mine is wood and I will warn you that you can lose small pieces of paper at the bottom of some pockets. I have wasted a bit of time using kitchen utensils to retrieve a water bill a couple times. The wall-mounted racks free up counter and desk space. Heck I like anything that can be mounted to the wall. It opens up space on horizontal surfaces. Resting my eyes on clean and clear clutter-free space makes me happy.

December 2008 Menu

My husband thinks that I make many simple tasks more difficult than necessary. I totally disagree with him on this but for this December menu I would have to agree. I have been monthly meal planning now for a year an a half. I have a lengthy eight page entrée list with ingredients listed. I could have easily cut and pasted from my existing list and used a new recipe once a week to keep things fresh. But NOooo, I decided again try 13 new recipes (partly in the spirit of seeking new crock pot recipes) and as if that wasn’t enough work, I came across this blog: http://www.catholiccook.blogspot.com/ and I thought how cool it would be to work in the Saints on the Church calendar into our menu. I love creating opportunities for religious education with my kids (and me, the convert) and what a perfect pairing, right? Ok, so if you haven’t thought that I am a complete obsessive compulsive dork at this point, now you MUST. I tried as much as possible (I gave up on some as you can see) to have an ethnic dish that matched the Saint of the day. My proudest match is on Lazarus’s day we will have Live Longer Casserole, a favorite of my husband. It was kind of fun to shout out, “I need a Dominican Pork recipe idea.” I actually utilized the advanced search options at some recipe sites where you can select the cuisine (German, Spanish, Mexican, etc) for the first time. We will definitely be introducing some new vegetables thanks to St. Dominic of Silos so it’s all good.

So if you are new to monthly meal planning and want to get started, I am happy to email you this word document if that is easier for you. I also urge you to get your menu started asap. It takes time and if you get it done early you can tweak it.

You should be able to double click on the smaller images to enlargen.

The recipes for December can be found here: http://jennshomework.blogspot.com/2008/11/december-2008-recipes.html

How to Create a Monthly Meal Plan 101

A few people I know have said that they would very much like to stop running to the grocery store so often and would like to try a monthly meal plan. I will also say that several other people I know just think that monthly meal planning is plain crazy. I love it for so many reasons but regardless of my reasons I’m probably not going to talk anyone into doing it if it does not appeal to them. I can guarantee you that monthly meal planning will save you time, money and get your family eating healthier and more of a variety of foods. Don't think that it is inflexible. It totally is. You will have the ingredients to make anything on your menu for a week. It is not so different than planning weekly in that regard. So if you don't feel like having hamburgers tonight, if you've planned for the month and shopped your produce for the week then you probably have several dinners to choose from.

(1) So the first thing to do to get started is to list all the meals that your family enjoys regularly. Of course you will want to do this in word document on your computer. Under each meals list all the ingredients that you would shop for that make up that meal. I call this my “Master Entrée Ingredient List.” I like to organize my entrée list by beef, chicken, pork, seafood and vegetarian categories so that when I am filling in my menu I can easily find the dish that I am looking for. This step may take several nights after the kids are tucked in bed and an hour here or there but it is worth it because it will save you SO much time in the end. This is the step that takes the most time.
I also like to make the produce or parishable food items on each meal ingredient list in green type at the top. That way when you go to make your grocery list from your Master Entrée Ingredient List you will easily be able to pick out your weekly produce runs and once a month shopping trip items.

I haven’t updated my Master Entrée Ingredient List in a few months and I have several new recipes that are keepers to add to it but here are several pages of mine to give you an idea:

(2) Once you have a list of several meals with their ingredients you can pull up a calendar to start planning your month. I download the free calendars at http://www.calendarsthatwork.com/ and then save it in a folder for menus. Or you can save it wherever it makes sense in your word document file list so you can retreive it later. That calendarsthatwork website only allows you to get one month in advance for free so I just use one I have and change the numbers on it if I want to plan more ahead. KWIM?

(3) I have found that it is easiest (if you want to get a variety of foods in your family’s diet) to label each day of the week with a kind of dish like chicken, pork, beef, etc. That makes plugging in your meals easier. For my fellow Catholic folks, this meal planning technique also makes it quite simple to revert back to pre-Vatican II practices of abstaining from meat on Fridays which is an added bonus on many levels. Then you simply start plugging in your meals in the squares of your calendar and copy and paste from your Master Entree Ingredient List on the second page (3 or 4 columns at 8 pt font so it fits on one page) to make up your corresponding grocery list. Be sure to break out your regular calendar to look at dates for things like Christmas concerts or sports activities and such. This way you can be sure to plan a meal that either cooks fast, travels well or is done in the crockpot for those days. You can also double or triple freezer friendly meals on days that you know you will have time to assemble them. Also be aware of meals that require you to defrost things from the freezer. In my calendar I type the items that need to be removed from the freezer in blue one or two days before I need to us them.

(4) If you find that you do not have enough meals initially to plug in a 30 day calendar don’t be discouraged. It’s difficult to come up with 30 meals off the top of your head in the beginning. As you do this month after month it gets easier and faster because your list gets longer and then you find yourself wanting to try new recipes. We always fill up the calendar with one leftover day per week and at my husband’s request a pasta meal once a week. This not only fills up the calendar but it is also budget friendly. Other ideas to fill up a calendar when you are struggling is homemade pizza or a breakfast for dinner night.

I also try to get everyone in the family involved in the menu planning. I fill up our calendar as much as I can and then I start asking everyone for ideas. Last month Carter came up with fish sticks when I told him I needed a seafood dish. I never made fish sticks so I tried a new recipe and Carter loved it and was excited that he had come up with our dinner idea that day.

(5) Once you have a monthly menu with the shopping list on page two, print two copies out, each with the calendar on one side and the shopping list on the back. Keep one in a handy place in your kitchen and the other stick in your purse. Before you shop, be sure to look to see what you have on hand in your pantry and cross off the things you do not need to buy.

Some other things I have found helpful since I started monthly meal planning is making sure that the first two days of the month have meals with items that I already have on hand or that are quick and easy. I do my monthly shopping usually in two days at the end of the month when we get paid. For the best prices I hit Sam’s Club first, then Aldi’s for whatever Sam’s didn’t have and then Giant Eagle (similar to Piggly Wiggly, Stop & Shop or Krogers elsewhere) for the items that Aldi’s does not have. Dragging little ones with me is no fun so I usually do one or two stores over a two day period. So I don’t want something on my menu on December 1st that I will have had to hit all 3 stores in order to make because I might not have made it to Giant Eagle yet, KWIM?

Another very important tip is to start your monthly meal plan EARLY. It's too difficult to get a whole month together in two days. I get sick of looking at it and take a few days break and then I look at the month fresh the next time I sit down with it and come up with new ideas. It's better to do it a few minutes here and a few minutes there. Eventually you will find that you sometimes have TOO MANY entrees and your ideas will spill into the next month.

I also try to plan my meals that use produce that parishes quickly at the beginning of the weeks and meals that use produce that lasts longer at the end of the week so that I can do my weekly produce runs successfully. That is really for advanced menu planning, but something to keep in mind. Scallions for instance may not be in the best shape for Sunday if you purchased them on the Monday before.

It's also good to keep seasonal produce in mind when creating a meal plan. I put the seasonal items at the top of each of my menus for meal planning purposes and for when I am shopping for a veggie at the grocery. In season produce is usually what is on sale and travels less. Produce that travels less is most nutritious.

To best utilize an ingredient that you may not cook with very often (and is not likely to be completely used with one recipe) it can be useful and economical to plan another recipe to use the leftovers of that ingredient. For instance in October I wrote about how we used ½ can of pineapple chunks for two different meals and the pineapple juice from the same can for a third marinade recipe.

There are always ways to improve a menu plan I am sure but in the beginning you just want to get it together. Improvements can be made later. Happy monthly menu planning!

Oh, and if you want to see my October and November Menus just find "Monthly Menus" on the articles list or click here: http://jennshomework.blogspot.com/search/label/Monthly%20Menus

Empty the Pantry Dinner Entrees

Being as the December menu is during the Holiday season, I thought it would be a good time to institute a pantry dinner entrée. About 7 years ago as a novice cook I wanted to branch out so I started seeking out recipes for ideas. It has been a good learning experience and I have certainly broadened our horizons but now I use recipes as a crutch. I can throw some simple things together but ultimately I rely on recipes too much. So in the sake of saving some extra cash for Christmas I thought that trying to throw together an “empty the pantry meal” every couple weeks might not only save some money but also get me back to “creative culinary genius” as I like to call it. The best meals always used to come out of my kitchen when stuff was just thrown together. My husband misses those days but he forgets how annoying it was when he would ask for the same meal again and I couldn’t replicate it because it was just thrown together. Now of course there are a lot of great resources out there on the web to give you some ideas. Here are a few I have come across:

http://www.supercook.com/
http://www.foodieview.com/
http://www.recipematcher.com/

Most recipe websites will allow you to search recipes by ingredient:

http://www.recipeland.com/search/by_ingredient/
http://allrecipes.com/Search/Ingredients.aspx

And yes, the December menu is almost done!

I don’t even care if it tastes good!

I love having dinner cooking on the crock pot. I just love it love it love it love it. I love it so much that I am cooking two crock pot meals two days in a row and I wish I was doing it every day for the rest of the year. AND, since I’ve been under budget with groceries for two months in a row (planned so that we could replace our DVD player that the 1 year old broke by repetitively pounding on buttons unsupervised) I am also going to purchase ANOTHER crock pot if possible. I would like a larger one with more cooking options. Get this, in December I am planning a couple meals that require TWO crock pots cooking simultaneously! CRAZY!

Tonight I was trying a new turkey chili and my afternoon went so smoothly not having to cook that I thought to myself that I didn’t even care if it was good or not. It just made me so happy that dinner was cooking away on my counter and I did almost nothing to prepare it. As it turns out it was pretty good. Jim and I thought it was a little on the bland side but it could be spiced up a bit with tobasco or more chili powder or loads of garlic. The corn bread recipe I tried was excellent. I’ve been looking for a good one for quite some time and I think this one is a keeper: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmothers-Buttermilk-Cornbread/Detail.aspx . I’m still searching for a moist sweet corn bread recipe with corn in it but for now this one satisfies.

December 2008 Recipes

1st: Chicken Spaghetti bake from Freezer Friends w/ salad



2nd: *Apple, cheddar turkey meatballs (crockpot lady) w/ broccoli and rice pilaf


http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/apple-cheddar-and-turkey-meatballs.html



http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=a5f54019ecfd3110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=f76b0edafa588110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=menu_food&lnc=5a79cf380e1dd010VgnVCM1000005b09a00aRCRD

Skipped over this one due to extra Thanksgiving leftovers.

3rd Cajun Shrimp pasta (x2 to freeze meal) w/ spinach salad& homemade bread

http://jennshomework.blogspot.com/2008/11/freezer-friends-swap-today.html

5th: Onion Soup w/ pesto pasta & onion cheddar biscuits


I just sort of combine these two recipes and throw it together:






6th: Poppy Turkey from freezer w/ salad

7th: Eggplant parm from freezer w/ salad

8th: *Flank Steak stuffed w/ apple, feta, & almonds w/ garlic mashed potatoes& gravy &corn

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-flank-steak-stuffed-with-apple.html

9th *Refried Bean Soup (crockpot lady) w/ *Crock Pot Chili Chicken Tacos

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/crockpot-smoky-refried-bean-soup-recipe.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chili-chicken-tacos?autonomy_kw=chili%20chicken%20tacos&rsc=header_1

10th: Meatloaf from freezer w/ crockpot augratin potatoes & veggie

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search?q=augratin

12th: *3 Bean Burrito Bake (FixIt&ForgetItDiab pg 27)

13th: Tandoori Chicken – yellow rice/peas & salad

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1734277

Yellow rice:

1. In a saucepan, heat 1 TB vegetable oil over medium heat. Add 1 chopped onion, and cook until soft. Stir in 1 cup rice, ½ ts salt, ½ ts turmeric, 1 dried bay leaf, 1 pinch cinnamon, and 2 cups chicken stock or canned broth. Bring to a boil; cover, and simmer 15 minutes.

2. Stir in 1/3 cup raisins with fork, and simmer until stock is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Set aside, covered, 5 minutes.

I've had this on my "to try" list since my sister-in-law raved about it but now that it's December I said to Jim, "oh, I suppose we don't want to be grilling in mid-December" and he (who loved all Indian food) said, "why not?" So here it is. I'll just broil it if it's snowy.

15th: Crockpot Rotisserie Style Chicken w/risotto(2crocks) &side veggie

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/crockpot-rotisserie-style-chicken.html

http://www.justslowcooking.com/slo-0014826.html



16th: Soulful Stew (FF via Barb) w/ homemade bread

Soulful Stew

10 oz fresh spinach
2# boneless chicken breasts
1/2c flour
Kosher salt and black pepper
1/2c olive oil
2c chopped onions
1 ¼ c chopped green pepper
1c chopped celery
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1# baked ham, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1c chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes (14 ½ oz)
1 c bbq sauce
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 c sliced carrots
1 can (15oz) drained black-eyed peas
1 can (15 oz) corn kernels, drained
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbs dried oregano
Tabasco sauce

Wash and dry spinach. Stack and slice into wide ribbons. Set aside.

Cut the chicken into 1 x ¾ “strips. Season the flour with salt and pepper, and toss the chicken in it. Set a large Dutch oven on the stove and heat 6 tbs olive oil over medium-high. Add the chicken in batches and brown lightly. As the chicken gets done, scoop it out of the pot into a bowl. Set aside.

Add the remaining olive oil to the pot if it looks dry & toss in the onions, green peppers, celery and jalapenos. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in the ham and garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Put the chicken back in, along with its juices. Add the bay leaf, broth, tomatoes, bbq sauce, Worcestershire and carrots. Cover the pot and bring everything to a boil; then crack the lid and turn the heat to low and simmer til the carrots are soft, 15-20 minutes.

Uncover the pot and put in the black-eyed peas, corn and spinach. Season the stew with the cumin, thyme and oregano and let everything simmer for another 15 minutes to blend the flavors. Take out the bay leaf and taste the stew for seasonings, spice up with tabasco if needed.

10 servings

17th: Live Longer Casserole (LLL Whole Foods Cookbook)

19th Fish foil packets w/ rice pilaf

I've made fish foil packets for years ever since my brother-in-law visited and made them for us. I throw some tilapia, onion slices, sweet pepper slices, tomato slices, mushrooms and zucchini or whatever veggies I have on hand in layers (tilapia on the bottom). Every 1-2 layers I drizzle olive oil and sprinkle some seasonings and seasoned salt and diced garlic in. I usually bake individual packets or grill them but the crockpot lady cooked just fish packets in the crockpot http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search/label/fish so why not try mine in the crockpot? From her recipes I'll guess that the rather small tilapia will take only 3 hours max on low. I'll have to keep checking it, no one hates overcooked fish more than me. We'll see how it goes.

As for the rice pilaf I'll try this one: http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=f690da2c36484110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&rsc=header_4&autonomy_kw=rice+pilaf



20th: Chicken & Pork Stew with Plantains & Yucca

The reviewers of this recipe said to use ripe (not green) plaintains and to substitute yucca (a new veggie our our family, yea!) for the potato.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-and-Pork-Stew-with-Plantains-and-Potatoes-234801


21st: *Vietnamese Pho Soup

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-vietnamese-pho-recipe.html

22nd: Pepperoni Pizza & Pasta with Red Sauce



23rd: GrilledBroiled Apple Cider Chicken, Cinnamon Baked Apples, with Sautéed Cider-Cabbage

Ok, so I wanted a Polish meal for St. John of Kanty and I used this one because it has cabbage and is from my Polish sister-in-law. I realize that it is more of a fall dish than winter (hopefully I can still find apple cider) but my mother-in-law will be visiting and, like me, she likes cabbage and this recipe just looks so good.

http://daniellekathleen.blogspot.com/2007/09/as-apple-season-approaches-grilled.html



24th: Crock Pot Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese

For those of you, like me, hate canned tomato soup this is supposed to be good stuff. We'll see.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/08/restaurant-quality-crockpot-tomato-soup.html



28th: This is just an "Empty the Pantry" day but I'm excited because my brother-in-law will be visiting and he is so good at throwing stuff together.



30th: Crockpot Indian Chicken Curry

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-indian-curry-recipe.html



31st: Sauerkraut, kielbasa & beer
Why? For good luck.
We order Chinese take out every New Years. It's our tradition but we must have sauerkraut also for luck. Normally I might have made sauerkraut balls but I don't know how to do those gluten free for my visiting mother-in-law so maybe next time.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Kielbasa-and-Beer/Detail.aspx

Extraordinary Uses for Bread Tabs!

While I am putting off completing my December menu I thought I would tell you about the extraordinary uses of bread tabs. Yep, those little plastic things that you find on the end of your store bought loaf of bread. They are actually quite useful and I don’t mean for bag cinching. Just yesterday I used a bread tab to help scrub my sink and to scrape three cookie sheets clean of chocolate chip cookie crusts. They are great at getting hard to get globs of who-knows-what that is stuck to nearly anything without scratching the surface and drastically cutting down on scrub time. Bread tabs are much like those plastic scrapers that you receive from Pampered Chef with their stoneware. I only have one of those Pampered Chef scrapers but I keep several bread tabs in my sponge pullout sink drawer thingy (whatever it’s called). The bread tabs aren’t sturdy enough to last years but you come by so many of them that they are easily replaceable. You can also use them to scrape out bar soap gook from your soap dish in the bathroom.

Interested in Starting up a Freezer Friends Group?

I have had a couple people tell me that they would be interested in doing a Freezer Friends group. I am willing to participate in another group or at least put some people together to make up 5 Freezer Friends. If you are interested email me asap and I’ll see if I can bully . . . I mean get some additional people for a new group. If you are having a baby soon, (ahem, you know who I mean) or if you are so busy that you are struggling to get dinner together every night (YOU also know who I mean) or if you would just love to have some new meals ready to go in the freezer let me know asap so you can get started before the winter season is over.

Just to entice you, I have received 4 meals today and 1 is coming tomorrow:

Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Chicken Spaghetti Casserole
Soulful Stew
Rolled Chicken with Pasta


The sooner you contact me the better! And if you don’t think you have recipes that freeze well to offer I can help you with that.

Oh and if you don't live near me and would like to start a Freezer Friends group, just email this to everyone you know:

Hi Friends,

I would like you to join me in a Freezer Friends
group. Basically we need 5-6 people to start a Freezer Friends
group. As a member of the group all you have to do is multiply a meal that
freezes well that you are already cooking for your family by 5 (or the
number of members we get to join) and package the meals up in 5 individual meals
and freeze. At the end of each month (or a date that we agree on) we will
designate someone's house to meet at to exchange our meals. You cook and
freeze your meal at your convenience anytime during the month before the due
date and in the end you will receive several different and new meals for your
family to enjoy. If there are dietary concerns we can make sure that we
decide what we are cooking well in advance so that we can accomodate those
issues if possible. The winter season is the best time for a Freezer
Friends exchange so please reply to my email as soon as possible!

Can't wait to share my favorite recipes and try your favorites!

Freezer Friends Swap Today!

I’m so excited. Today is our first freezer friends swap of the season here at my house. We have added one person which makes our group 6. I have always thought that 5 was perfect because when you cook a meal you want to multiply it by 5 so that you are left with one meal for your own family and then 4 for the freezer friends. Multiplying meals by 5 was challenging enough so we will see how 6 goes. I am so excited to get five new recipes in the freezer. This time around I made Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta to which I was shocked that there were no objections. I can’t believe that out of 6 families there is no shellfish allergy, seafood dislikes or whatnot which makes me really excited because I think this dish is potentially one of my all-time favorites and it’s so fun to share something with others that you think is so delicious.

Here it is, Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta:
1 (8 oz) angel hair pasta or penne pasta
¼ cup butter
1 lb shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 clove garlic
½ t black pepper
1/8 C all-purpose flour
2 T Cajun seasoning
2 cups cream
¼ t salt
¼ cup parmesan cheese

Melt butter in large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute shrimp for 1 minute on each side. Stir in garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon; set aside. Stir in flour and Cajun seasoning. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, then cook until thickened. Add parmesan. Remove from heat, and season with salt. Return shrimip to sauce, and spoon over cooked pasta.
This recipe found its way to me through a freezer friends group of two years ago. Thank you Rachael!

My All Time Favorite Kitchen Tool

Actually, I am not sure that it could be considered an actual “kitchen tool” but it certainly is a tool in my kitchen. I bet my sister-in-law had no idea how valuable this simple Christmas gift of years past would be to me. Ever since I opened up the gift package several years ago it has sat on my kitchen counter and I probably look at it twenty + times a day. It’s a simple recipe holder with a glass front and oak base which matches the oak floors in my kitchen. I believe the sturdy materials add to its value since I have seen many recipe holders made of plastic. I’m not certain a plastic recipe holder could hold the heavy hard-backed books that I sometimes put in mine and the plastic may not clean up as well as the glass in mine. I put my menu in the recipe holder and reference it throughout the day. I also put to-do lists behind the glass as well as any recipe that I am currently fixing and there are adjustments on it for thick stacks so I can pull all my recipes for the month and stack them neatly behind the front menu. Not only is it handy but it keeps everything neat looking and for someone like myself who does not like kitchen clutter of any kind on my counters it is a perfect fit.

Breakfast Popsicles

An Old Favorite Returns

We often have fruit smoothies for breakfast. I mentioned them before but I will elaborate. Basically I freeze browned bananas (after peeling them) three at a time in a freezer bag. In the blender, I toss in a bag of frozen bananas, a few frozen berries, some yogurt (plain or with fruit), some whey protein powder, and orange juice or whatever fruit juice we have or some milk if none and mix it all together. The kids love these smoothies and haven’t tired of them. When there are leftover smoothie slush I pour the remaining liquid into popsicle molds for later. Then we’ll have popsicles for breakfast on another day. They used to think the popsicles were great but somehow it lost its appeal and we haven’t had the popsicles in nearly a year. Well I broke out the popsicle molds again and we had breakfast popsicles this morning and the kids loved them all over again. I suppose it’s like the toy rotation method, sometimes you have to put it a toy away for a while, get it out again and it’s like brand new.

I just read in Martha's Everyday magazine that you can make similar smoothies with rolled oats. I have not tried that before but will give it a shot next time.

Efficient Kitchen Processes saves time and Money

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that there are many tasks in the whole food kitchen that can be done efficiently to save time. Warning: I’m about to babble on yet AGAIN about how great meal planning is. Here it goes. If you have a menu printed out with the ingredients in each meal, when you go to chop your onions for the first meal of the week it is super simple to scan the rest of your week to see if you can chop up 4 onions instead of one for later use. Throw the unused portions that you have chopped in a container and throw them in the fridge. This kind of efficiency can be used in so many ways to reduce the time you spend in the kitchen without sacrificing a whole food diet.

Besides dinner meals, I efficientize (ooo, a made up verb) several breakfast processes also. Whenever I make pancakes for instance I will get out my bowl plus two airtight containers. I measure out my dry ingredients first and triple my recipe into each container. I then label with the kind of pancake and the needed ingredients on the airtight containers since we have 4 or more different pancake recipes regularly. I also do this with several cookie mixes and muffin mixes and most anything that I bake often.

Other ideas include tripling rubs or spice mixes. We like a yellow tumeric rice recipe but there are about 5 or 6 dry ingredients to it. The recipe goes so quickly when it is already mixed up and it takes so little extra time to quadruple the recipe when I already have the ingredients out. I also have a blackened catfish recipe that I like to make so I make a big batch of the blackened seasonings and it lasts many meals.

I believe that the more of these processes that you approach with efficiency in mind the more second nature it becomes for you. It’s like trying to establish a new good habit or way of thinking. You can approach many tasks with an efficient mindset but the kitchen holds the most opportunities.

This efficient approach also lends itself to less waste and therefore money savings. For instance, we love our pumpkin pancake recipe but it only calls for 6 T of pumpkin puree. One can of pumpkin puree holds a lot more than 6 Ts so unless I want to get myself into trouble with those browned buttered frosted cookies (and I have in order not to waste pumpkin puree), I will measure out as many 6Ts in containers or baggies to freeze as the can holds. Then when I get out my premixed pumpkin pancake mix, I just microwave the frozen 6Ts of pumpkin puree, add my butter and milk and we are cooking. Also, in October my menu had three dishes that used canned pineapple chunks. This was no coincidence. The pineapple chunks were needed for two recipes and a third recipe just called for pineapple juice to marinate the meat. When I cooked the first entrée that called for pineapple I scanned the rest of my meals and saw that I needed to divide the can for the second recipe (rather than let the kids gobble up the pineapple) and save the juice for the third.

So when you are all wondering how I cook so much with 3 young kids, I swear to you that I do not. I have freezer meals, crockpot meals and simple pasta meals during the week and I efficientize processes as much as possible for the other meals. The most time I spend in the kitchen for a meal is when I am making a massive amount to freeze or when I am trying a new recipe. It can be done.