Jenn's Homework

Simplified Meal Planning

2011-03-24T06:24:00.007-04:00

I have to accept the fact that there are many people, (several close friends of mine even), that are not going to embrace my monthly meal planning no matter how much I promise that it is easy and will bring you greater inner peace, enable you to eat healthier, and spend less time and money on grocery shopping. But, alas, I give in to the resistance and will scale back the monthly menu approach to something I’ve actually been doing lately which is a weekly meal plan. A lot of people plan meals by the week and that’s all fine and dandy but what if you labeled your days with themes? Sounds dorky? Of course it is. It’s just the kind of dorky thing that I love because it makes something mundane fun and efficient. If you don’t see the fun in it stick with me for the efficient part. See, if you have themes for your weekly meals, filling that 7 day meal planning chart goes so fast that it will start to make you think that you could move on to monthly planning and experience that inner meal-planning peace and spending less time shopping and all that jazz.
We’ve been floating these themes around in our house:

1. Soup or Chili Day
2. Separate Day: Meat, veggie, rice or leftover pasta side
3. Pizza day! There are so many possibilities for pizza dinner: Bar-b-q chicken with zucchini, apple and pork tenderloin pieces with blue cheese, roasted veggies, hamburger pizza, pesto with caramelized onions and mushrooms and feta or the plain standbys. With homemade whole wheat pizza dough it really is a healthful meal. Check here for some fun and interesting pizza topping ideas.
4. Taco Tuesday, (includes anything Mexican: enchiladas, burritos, etc.)
5. Left over day, (sometimes 2 days.)
6. Pantry Meal day. You can’t plan this meal. The objective
is to use what you have and not let perishable items go to waste. I look in the fridge and throw something together or search online for new recipes using ingredient search engines. (See www.supercook.com and other recipe sites that have ingredient search tools like allrecipes.com.) I love discovering new favorites this way.
7. Pasta day, (at hubbie’s request.)

If you have a general outline such as this for your 7 days and designate one of these themes for each day of the week, deciding what to have for dinner each day goes very fast. For instance, I start with a chart that looks like the one below, (Yes, I start mine on Mondays.) Every Monday we have soup or stew and every Tues. we have Taco Tuesday and every Friday we have Pizza day. The other pantry and leftover days can be swapped around:

Monday / Soup/Chili Day: Crockpot Vietnamese Pho Soup with Veggie wonton wraps
Taco Tuesday!: Chicken Enchiladas
Wednesday / Separates: Marinated Flank Steak with barley risotto and salad
Thursday / Leftover Day: LEFTOVERS
Friday /Pizza Day: BBQ Chicken Pizza
Saturday / Pasta Day: Eggplant Parmesan
Sunday / Pantry Meal: ????

Other themed meal planning ideas:

Rotating Meats: If you dedicate every Monday, for example, to chicken, Tuesday to vegetarian, Wednesday to pork and Saturday to red meat, you can fill out a weekly menu faster than you can say “well rounded diet.”

Rotating Cuisines: Mondays could be Italian, Tuesdays Asian, Wednesdays Mexican, Fridays new discovery cuisine (try a traditional German or Polish meal for instance).

Movie night theme: If you have a weekly movie night you could pair up a themed meal to go with your movie. I’m not sure that this would make meal planning more efficient but it sure would be fun. You could cheat and do what we did one night which was to order Chinese take-out when we were going to watch Kung Fu Panda.

Saintly Meals: Go to www.AmericanCathlic.org and jot down the Saint of the day for each day of the week and the country they are from. Choose meals that match the saint of the day’s heritage for at least 5 days of the week, (use the other for leftovers, eating out or a pantry meal). See my monthly plan using this theme here. Be sure to read about the saint of the day as you are eating the meal in his or her honor. A kid’s version of Saint of the day can be found here.

IF you bake (and you should bake) . . .

2011-03-18T17:53:00.008-04:00

Have you considered trying flours outside of the whole wheat market? I’m sure that most people perusing this blog bake their kids’ birthday cakes and cookies and mix up their own pancake mix, right? RIGHT? Well here is yet another reason to bake from scratch, (besides eliminating all those preservatives and gross amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and those pesky unpronounceable or unrecognizable chemical ingredients in premade mixes) – you can increase the amount of fiber and protein as well as whole grains if you bake from scratch. We are so lucky to have a bulk country store reasonably close by that sells most of these grains at a bargain price. So really, with some natural maple syrup I nearly consider pancakes as a healthy meal any more. Take a look at these nutritional comparisons of some of the flours available:

Barley Flour
½ Cup
Cals 220
Fiber 10 g
Protein 6 g

Buckwheat Flour
½ Cup
Calories 200
Fat 2 g
Fiber 8 g
Protein 8g

Bulgur Wheat (Sprouted Wheat) Flour
½ Cup
Cals 300
Fiber 8 g
Protein 10 g

Quinoa Flour
½ Cup
Cals 240
Fiber 8 g
Protein 8 g

Soy Flour
½ Cup
Cals 173
Fat .5 g
Fiber 9 g
Protein 24 g

Spelt Flour
½ Cup
Cals 193
Fat 1.1 g
Fiber 7 g
Protein 7.8 g

Flaxseed Meal
(technically not a grain)
½ Cup
Cals 240
Fat 18 g
Fiber 4 g
Protein 12 g
**Omega-3 Fatty Acid benefits

Just for comparison sake:

Enriched White Bleached Flour
1/2 Cup
Cals 228
Fat .6
Fiber 1.7 g
Protein 6.5

You can get real specific and complicated in your muffin and cookie recipes and get all confused by how much soy flour should be substituted for white flour in a recipe but really I think that you can just use some common sense. You do not want to substitute 2 cups of wheat germ for the entire 2 cups of flour in a recipe but you can probably get away with substituting 1/8 of a cup. Get creative and just make sure that you have some similar consistency flour as the recipe calls for and experiment. Too runny? Add more. Too thick? Add a splash or water or milk or if you were using applesauce then toss in a little more. I like to toss in a scoop of flax seed meal in just about anything so if I think we need a protein boost or if someone in the family (who will remain nameless) requires some more fiber then I can toss in some coconut flour. It’s not rocket science. In fact I think it’s fun to experiment. It might not always work out perfectly but neither do ordinary recipes that use less beneficial ingredients. Now I wouldn’t recommend playing with a cake recipe, but muffins, cookies and pancakes . . . I say experiment away!
My favorite pancake recipe:

1 ½ Cups Flour (any variety, any kind, including a scoop of flax seed meal)
3 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 T melted butter
1 egg
1 ¼ C skim milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix. If the mixture is too wet add more flour of choice. If the mixture is too thick add a splash of milk. Cook as any other pancake recipe.

It's FREEZER FRIENDS Time!

2010-08-09T07:47:00.003-04:00

It’s time to start thinking of getting a freezer friends group together. My freezer is pretty empty right now and I can’t wait to start doubling and quadrupling my garden made tomato sauces, eggplant Parmesans and stuffed cabbages and who knows what else this first year of gardening will grant me. Anyone who lives in my area who would like to be put into a freezer friends group just email me with “Freezer Friends” in the subject line. I like to get the groups together by Sept 1st.

If you do not live in my area then consider starting your own group. It’s so rewarding to have meals ready to go in your freezer and it’s so fun to try new recipes.

For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about I'll describe how we do Freezer Friends in a nutshell. Each group consists of 4 or 5 friends (I've found that any more than that is just too much quantity to fit into the pots most people have). Each friend is responsible for making one meal a month and multiplying it by the number of friends in their group. The meals are to be divided into meals for each friend's family and frozen. The due date is generally the last day of the month when the friends arrange a time and place to exchange their meals. So really, you have an entire month to complete your assigned meal. You cook it and freeze it at your convenience sometime during the month as long as it is done by the exchange date.

The rules are simple:

1) BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT RULE: make healthful meals made from scratch (NO canned soup as an ingredient or other such prefabricated processed things like processed cheese-like products) - If anyone ever has doubts I will always advise.

2) meals are due the last day of the month unless the group makes other arrangements

3) family size should be taken into consideration when proportioning out the meals and make enough for a whole meal for the family

4) email your group the meal you plan to make as soon as possible so that the group doesn't end up with 5 chillis in one month

5) try to provide a whole meal so if your dish is a pasta sauce, also provide a box of pasta

6) email or include a copy of your recipe with your meal and the thawing / reheating instructions

7) freeze meals that are freezable

I think I've covered it all.

Now I like to mix up the groups and there are usually 4-5 groups organized so we can mix up the groups throughout the winter so the schedule is this:
Group 1, September, October and November.

Break for December, no exchange.

Group 2, (new members in your group), January, February, March

Group 3, (new members again), April, May and if members agree to June they may exchange in June

July 2010 Menu - Renewed Enthusiasm for Healthy Cooking

2010-07-10T11:52:00.005-04:00

We just returned from visiting family in Savannah, GA. Somehow my brother-in-law’s girlfriend effortlessly threw together fresh ingredients to make several dinners that were delicious. She told us how her parents raised her and her siblings on whole organic foods and by some miracle she grew up without much of a sweet tooth at all. She craves healthful foods naturally. Our kids were not quite the angels on our trip that we would have liked (imagine that). To be honest, we have slipped down into such a junk food pit that I believe their junk intake may contribute to some of the negative behavior we witnessed (go ahead and laugh but I have heard of links between behavior and diet before). So anyway, I am feeling super motivated to cut out the junk we have been eating along with all the excuses we were using to buy it (treat for the pool, road trip, summer excursion, got a coupon, etc.). During our 26 hours spent in the car last week I went through magazines and got some healthy meal plans together for the remainder of July. I am hoping that I will find the time to report back with my reviews of how these new recipes worked out. Among my recipe finds are some chewy energy bars and healthy dessert ideas. I expect to get some resistance from the kids for a while during their junk detox but I’m motivated to stick to it and get them eating healthier. Afterall, it’s my job!

April 2010 Menu

2010-04-08T08:39:00.005-04:00

March 2010 Menu

2010-03-02T15:49:00.003-05:00

The “Monica Closet”

2010-01-27T15:04:00.003-05:00

A couple months ago I was watching Mother Angelica on EWTN while ironing. I don’t recall the exact point of her message (not good I know) but she talked about how most of the viewers probably have drawers in their home that they aren’t even sure what is inside them but yet they are full. Her point had something to do with not sharing our abundances or the meaning of a true sacrifice versus giving of our abundance or something really meaningful like that (which I didn’t quite retain) but it made me think of my “Monica Closet.” If you don’t know what a “Monica Closet” is, well, it’s a reference to Monica’s catch-all closet on the show, "Friends". Yep that’s right. I just referenced Mother Angelica’s show and Friends back to back. Anyhoo, thanks to the help of a couple very generous friends, (one who painted and one who sat my 2 year old), I finally tackled my Monica Closet. When I have been asked whether I have such a closet I usually say, “Ahhh, there’s this spot in my basement but no, not really.” Lies lies lies! My laundry area of my basement has been such a dark secret. It’s been my dumping ground and it’d held junk that I couldn’t part with but knew that I should and who knows what else. Basically, it’s the spot of my house that I go to other people’s home to “fix.” Things finally got cleaned out, the walls were scrubbed and it is painted a bright white. No more Monica Closet. No more, “don’t look in there!” moments. No more feeling like I am holding onto material things unnecessarily. No more living with a dark secret. It feels good spiritually and intellectually.

Now I know I should have taken true “before” pictures with my big mess in it and I would have except I just um forgot, eh hem. Here is a picture taken while I was in the midst of emptying the room and an after picture (with a chaise lounge in it that my step-mom is coming to pick up soon). I ran out of tiles to finish the black and white floor, but hope to get to that soon. It was difficult to get a good picture of such a long room but if you are so interested perhaps you can get the jist.

February 2010 Menu

2010-01-26T11:11:00.003-05:00

Anyone who ever visits here probably wondered if I was ever coming back. Yes I love doing this little blog. I will be back. The Holiday Season and my 3 little ones tugged at my time. Admittedly I did not enter this past holy season prepared as I would have liked. This doesn’t happen every year for me. This year will be better. I will be done with the gifting ideas by Halloween so I can truly enjoy the season. While I was gone I put together this Februrary menu with all new recipes which I am excited about. Being a bit lazy with it, however, in putting it together, I basically sat down with my latest copy of CL magazine, (heard they were nitpickedty about copyright rules on blogs and such but I know you can figure it out), and used all their recipes because everything looked so yummy.

More Wisdom for Creating that Greeting Card Binder

2009-11-20T07:07:00.000-05:00

As it’s been mentioned in passing before, I keep a binder for my greeting cards and I find it to be very helpful.

In the front of my “Greeting Card” binder is a list of all the birthdays and holidays that require a greeting card purchase, (or kid created greeting card), by month. Behind the list I keep 12 heavy-duty clear sheet protectors that are labeled at the top right corner with the months of the year. Then there are more sheet protectors labeled by occasion, “thank you,” “blank,” “friendship,” “sympathy,” etc. Shopping for cards seems to be one of my biggest mommy challenges. My kids do not have much patience for watching me read card after card looking for the perfect witty choice for a friend. When I am hurridly searching for a funny birthday card for my father-in-law but in the process come upon the perfect card for my girlfriend, Anne, I will buy it even though her birthday isn’t for several months. When I get home the card I found for Anne gets filed under January for her birthday. So, you get the idea.

I thought I was just so nifty with my little Greeting Card binder until my friend Anne called me with some ways to perfect it. She is my go-to bargain hunting friend so she always has the ins and outs on how to get the most out of retail stores which I just tend to try to avoid but sometimes fail. American Greeting stores are having a buy 3 cards get 3 free sale right now. (An even cheaper way to go is to have your kids make your cards for you of course but sometimes you want an actual greeting card.) If you can put aside an hour or so without kids, take a list of all your greeting cards dates with you to your local American Greeting store, or any bargain card store that you prefer, and buy ALL of your greeting cards for at least an entire year and file them in your greeting card binder. While you're reading a zillion cards, be sure to poke around in the congratulations, thank you and other card categories and find some that you'd like to file away. They aren’t likely to have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards or other holiday-specific cards but you can have your kids make those. Also, with everyone using online bill pay it seems more likely that you are without a stamp for a greeting card. Just tuck some forever stamps in the front of your greeting card binder and you can eliminate that problem as well. These are two tips I know will definitely eliminate my forgetting a card event or scrambling around at the last minute to get one.

Healthy Chorizo! No, seriously, really it’s healthy.

2009-11-12T07:34:00.003-05:00

Get this. I have no menu for November. No kidding! I am flying by the seat of my pants. Aside from weekend plans to make large batches of freezer-friendly meals, I haven’t even pulled my November 2008 menu to copy. We will be out of town and there's an abundance of things in the freezer and pantry to work with. So, anyway, I asked Shirley, a very health-conscientious gal who runs the child care at my gym, what my family should have for dinner tonight. She is full of good, healthful ideas and even teaches people in her home kitchen how to cook without fats, dairy, meats and still enjoy yummy food. Shirley used to have diabetes and suffered a stroke several years ago and completely reversed the direction her health was taking with some major dietary modifications and exercise. She said to try the Mexican Chorizo Sausage at Trader Joes that is made from soy and is completely vegetarian. She said the spices in the chorizo will flavor a whole stir fry dish of veggies, (She also suggested adding diced tofu), and we could have them with whole wheat wraps. Simple. Sounds good. Sounds healthy. I was in.

When we arrived at Trader Joe’s, my 2 year old pointed at broccoli slaw. I took it as a sign and grabbed it. Why not? So with some onions and peppers I already had at home, broccoli slaw, mushrooms, Soy Chorizo, turmeric rice (for my carb-loving husband), and whole wheat wraps we had a delicious dinner. Get this - the Chorizo was only $2 and I only used ½ of it and threw the other half in the freezer. Thank God I had the sense to taste it before adding the whole package because I found out that it was quite spicy. The veggies were plenty to dull the spice along with some mild salsa so my kids could eat it with no problem.

Mexican Soy Chorizo Wraps

1 onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
½ bag broccoli slaw
4 oz finely diced mushrooms (less complaints by children)

1 can black beans, drained
6 oz Mexican Soy Chorizo
Salsa
1 cup rice – cooked with 1 tsp turmeric

Warm a little olive oil in a skillet. (Shirley only uses water). Cook onion and peppers for approximately 4 minutes, add crumbled Chorizo. Add a few TBs of water if needed to prevent burning, then add broccoli slaw, mushrooms and black beans. Add a little salsa if desired to the vegetable stir fry. Wrap a good layer of rice, veggies, salsa and light sour cream, (if desired), in a whole wheat wrap and enjoy!

Ambitions – Live and Learn

2009-11-03T15:04:00.004-05:00

Never again! Unless I can devote an entire 2 or 3 days to baking, never again will I think it is a splendid idea to pick two bushels of apples with my family. I have been baking like a mad woman. My laundry has piled up, social engagements have become stressful, my organizing appointments have not been as enjoyable as they should be and my son STILL doesn’t have his cub scout uniform -- all the while $48 of apples slowly rot in my basement fridge and call my name. They want to be more than just rotting apples. They call me to be made into more applesauce, more pies, more apple hermits, more scalloped potatoes and apple gratins. I have already made several batches of applesauce which my kids have devoured, I have 5 or 6 pies in the freezer and several have been consumed, we have eaten batches of apple cookies and apple / potato gratins with two gratins in the freezer. But STILL there are more apples! So if you have ever contemplated getting TWO bushels instead of one because one seems to disappear too quickly DON’T DO IT.

I did come up with a fabulous new cookie recipe though so I will share that with you. I modified an Apple Hermit cookie recipe I found on allrecipes.com to make them more guilt-free:

Apple Hermits

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
Handful of flaxseed meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup softened butter
¼ cup FF plain Greek yogurt
¾ cup cups packed brown sugar
¼ cup agave nectar or honey
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped walnuts (chopped fine so undetectable to kids)
1 cup chopped apples
1 cup raisins

1. Soak raisins in hot water while mixing other ingredients.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, flax seed, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Mix in yogurt, sugar, agave or honey and egg. Stir in flour mixture, and mix thoroughly. Fold in nuts, apples, and drained raisins.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto prepared cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

YUM!

Thank you!

2009-11-02T14:16:00.001-05:00

Recently, I was invited to speak at the local MOPS group about home organizing. I was a nervous wreck with anticipation of talking in front of the group but I survived. The women were very nice and thankful that I came. They even gave me a cute little rose plant. I just want to say thank you in return for having me there to speak. My kids had a blast in the sitting room and I enjoyed praying with a new group of moms. I hope I left the group with some organizing ideas and and not just an impression of "that crazy lady." Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

I am not a Pickle Jar Wiper!

2009-10-23T14:33:00.001-04:00

You know what a “Pickle Jar Wiper” is although you may not have thought of it in those terms before. I am describing a kind of person that is an anomaly to me. The kind I often want to be like but just never really can be. You know the type. Their houses are always immaculate and everything is in order and they always possess a sense of calm, even when kids enter their lives. They seem to live in a magic world of dustless order where things never get messy and certainly not sticky. They always wipe the bottom of their pickle jar before returning it to the refrigerator (so have I have coined them “Pickle Jar Wipers”) as well as the tops of their ketchups. Their good habits are too many to list and include always wiping their shoes on the doormat before entering the house. I am not a Pickle Jar Wiper. It just is not me even though I realize that people think this is the kind of person I am since I am so fond of organizing topics and other household workings. I think I enjoy organization because it is something I HAVE TO DO. (and rather enjoy), and not something that comes naturally. My house gets messy like any one else’s with three young kids. I have recently come to the realization that I have stopped having people over as often as I used to because I seem to have developed this reputation for having that perfectly orderly appearing house. It has been brought to my attention by my wise friend, Tracy, that my house ought to be messy because it means that I am spending time with my kids or doing something more valuable with my time than scrubbing my floors every day. This idea goes right along the same thought as my husband's who never wishes to have a perfectly maintained house. He says that is NOT how he plans to spend his free time once he has it and is retired. It is an impossible image to try to keep up as a Non-Pickle Jar Wiper. Now, it’s true, my spices are always in alpha order and my budget is balanced and I seem to have eliminated paper chaos from my life but my house gets messy and I need to start being ok with that. I hope my friends will be too. My good neighbor-friends who stop in regularly, already know about my frequently messy house but I just want to get it out there to all my friends so that I might feel better.

DO IT NOW!

2009-10-04T08:01:00.002-04:00

Doesn’t everyone strive for a joyous stress-free Christmas Season filled with the true meaning of Christ-mas? An entire season dedicated to celebrating God’s gift to us should not be bogged down with tons of “to dos", rushing around and stress. So often this is how our Christmas goes no matter how hard we try. You CAN have a wonderful joyous Christmas filled with baking with the kids, feeding the hungry, adding to your Church’s "needy family gift tree", or doing whatever generous act the Holy Spirit calls you to do without worrying about your Christmas cards, shopping, beating post office deadlines and scheduling get togethers by doing it NOW! That’s right, in October! Give yourself a Halloween deadline to get your Christmas card address list updated, select your family photo or take it to be copied for your cards, purchase your cards or schedule the portrait for your cards NOW! NOW NOW NOW! How can I motivate you to set a deadline of Halloween to be ready for Christmas? Only you can do it. I know a few people who have mastered this skill for years. If you know someone similar, just think of the peacefulness they seem to enjoy during the Christmas Season. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to be able to show your kids the TRUE meaning of Christmas? Recruit some friends to take on this challenging goal with you and check in with each other regularly. Think of how much more fun Halloween will be to celebrate this year!

October 2009 Menu

2009-09-29T14:45:00.003-04:00

October 2009 Recipes

2009-09-28T17:10:00.002-04:00

I am not finished posting the recipes but I will get it done. I feel bad that I haven't been on top of it since I promised some people I would have them up last week. I'm getting it done. This is what i have so far.

1st Grilled Chicken w/ Spicy Orange Marmalade sauce & cous cous & Brussel sprouts

3rd Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & corn/green beans

Pick your favorite meatloaf recipe. Aren't there hundreds of versions?

6th Mac & cheese spaghetti w/ veggie & salad

7th Taco Soup w/ cheese quesadillas
Cheese quesadillas are just flour tortillas grilled in a little oil in a non-stick pan with a cheese of your choice in the middle. It's really just a grilled cheese sandwhich made with tortillas instead of bread. I usually use a mild cheddar and sometimes I'll throw in some Mexican cheese mix if I have it.

9th Grilled Flank w/ Granny Smith & Smoked Cheddar Gratin & Salad

11th Pork Noodle Salad w/ Soy-Buttered Sugar Snap Peas

13th Crockpot Orange Chicken w/ Brussels

14th Chicken, Red Grape & pesto pizza

15th Grilled Salmon w/ smokey tomato salsa & yellow rice

17th Classic Minestrone Soup w/ hearty bread

18th Cranberry Pork roast w/ side veggie & rice

19th Spaghetti With Best Ever Bolognese Sauce & Salad

21st Chicken Paprikosh w/ salad

22nd Crockpot Flank Steak Stuffed with Apple, Feta & almonds w/ broccoli

23rd Jerk Spiced Shrimp & pineapple w/ skewered grilled veggies & cous cous

25th Tangy Sirloin strips (allrecipes) w/ salad & pesto pasta

27th Crockpot Jamaican Salmon w/ leftover pasta

29th Pineapple Pork Tenderloin w/ rice & side veggie

30th – Stuffed Jack-o-Lantern peppers x2 to freeze

More Great Uses for Binders

2009-09-23T20:23:00.001-04:00

The usefulness of binders is nearly endless when it comes to keeping order with just about any kind of paper. I thought I had exhausted all possible uses for binders in my house until my friend, Denise, said to me, “Now, you DO have a binder for each of your kids don’t you?” I said, " No,” and thought that I wouldn’t know what to put in a binder for my kids. She explained that she keeps schedules and activities and medical information in her kids’ binders and I thought that was great but I didn’t have a need for such a thing. Shortly after that conversation the school year truly commenced. Oh boy. Papers from school were flying! Then, I recalled the kids’ binder idea and got some old binders out and organized some of the kids’ papers. My two school aged kids now have a binder with their name on it. In the front of their binders I put academic reference materials that are helpful to both them and me concerning how their teacher wants homework completed and returned and a letter and number chart, home address, phone number, etc., for my kindergartner to glance at. The binders also have tabs for each subject that they study in school and I have put some math, reading and writing sheets that I printed out for free from online websites behind each subject tab and some “Parent Tips” sheets that have come home for a few subjects. I now have a place to put all the religion papers that we can review regularly. I even put a tab marked “$$” so they can keep track of their bank accounts and such all in one place. Behind a “Misc.” tab we can find girl scout fliers, boy scout papers and flag football information. (A list of team members and plays their coach wants them to learn). All the papers are easily visible in those handy-dandy clear sheet protectors. It is one of those organizing projects that brought me such peace and when I showed my husband where he can find such things he didn’t laugh at my organizing for once. He nodded so as to say “Good! Now I know where to look for those things.”

September 2009 Menu

2009-08-29T21:06:00.006-04:00

I have finally gotten back to posting the recipes that go along with my monthly menu. It wasn't even that hard or time consuming. We will be trying a new veggie Boboli recipe inspired by my friend Megan. I have tried to incorporate a lot more veggies in this month's menu. Maybe there were loads of veggies in the past months but this month there was a real effort to load up on them so hopefully you can see that. There are lots of new recipes that I am excited to try. Thanks to my sister-in-law I got a subscription to Cooking Light of which my friend Barb is a big fan. That magazine may be part of my inspiration to load up on veggies. The recipes look great and healthy. I used to have the mistaken belief that Cooking Light was for people who dieted and ate bland and uninspired meals. It is clearly not true. I have already recommended it to people looking for recipe ideas to feed their family healthy. I too am a big fan. Thanks sil!

September 2009 Recipes

2009-08-29T20:15:00.006-04:00

1st: Italian Sausage Pasta

I just throw onions, peppers, garlic and whatever I have together with some Italian sausage and cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes from my garden if I am so lucky). Throw in some basil and whatever herbs I feel like and spread over pasta.

2nd: Roasted Corn, Pepper & Tomato Chowder w/ Grilled tomato/brie/arugula/spinach sandwiches
I didn't get around to the Chowder but I did try the brie sandwich. Why on earth did that sound good to begin with? Yuck. And this is coming from a familly that loves brie!

3rd: Veggie Pizza & Poor Man's Caviar

It really is so easy to make your own pizza crust if you have a food processor. I wouldn't have the time or patience to deal with it if it wasn't for the food processor. I have been gradually increasing the whole wheat flour in this recipe and it seems that I can get away with 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat. My husband LOVES the summer veggie medley. I cut way back on the oil, it just isn't necessary.

4th: Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Always a favorite:

5th: Sirloin Steak w/ roasted fingerling potatoes & asparagus

My kids will NOT eat potatoes other than french fries. For some reason they think that fingerlings are near enough to french fries that they will eat them (dipped in ketchup of course).

8th: Thai Curry in the Crock

9th: Veggie Pasta
Basically I do the same thing as with the Italian Sausage version (see the 1st of the month) except I try to step up the variety of veggies and omit the meat.

11th: Manhattan fish chowder w/ corn bread

13th: Spicy Sweet & Sour Pork w/ broccoli over rice
I can seem to make a stir fry of any kind without loads of veggies. I am going to add broccoli and maybe some carrots and whatever else my fridge has or my budget permits.

15th: Slow-cooked tex-mex chicken & beans w/ wraps & salad fixings
We wrap the chicken and beans in flour tortillas with salad fixings (leaves, tomatoes, salsa) and sour cream (light of course).

16th: Pasta w/ sun-dried Tomato Pesto & Salad
This is the yummies and freshest and most simple thing ever. A definite keeper! I am too cheap to buy fresh pasta and it was wonderful on the box dried type.

17th: Hummus & Veggie Boboli Pizza
I am not sure if I can bring myself to buy pre-made pizza dough but I'll give it a try. Hopefully I will find a coupon. Anyone???
This was not a hit. I even warned the kids that it wasn't actual pizza but it was "salad pizza." It was "ok" with me but hubbie didn't even like it. I won't waste $$ on this again.

19th: Eggplant Parm x3 to freeze.
I swore last year when I made 4 or 5 of these meals to freeze that I would never do it again. It's such a pain. But it's so delicious that I can't help but make it and suffer for an afternoon.
Recipe courtesy Ann Shenk
Eggplant
Parmesan
Olive Oil
One eggplant
3 eggs
Bread Crumbs
Red Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Oregano
Salt
Slice 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 baked my eggplant this time after dredging the slices in egg and breadcrumb/parmesan mix and it was great. Why on earth have I been wasting my time and calories on frying this? Never again. I took this healthier baked version to a pot luck and everyone raved about it.

20th: 3 Bean Chili x 5 for Freezer Friends
This has been a favorite recipe for years. I hope my FF like it.

21st: BBQ Chicken Zucchini Pizza
I just realized that I have that Boboli pizza scheduled 4 days before this one. They are totally different so maybe it'll work. I may try to space them out more though.

23rd: Phili Cheese Steak Sandwiches w/ fries and salad

I looked up another recipe and combined the two. I threw in some garlic and 1/4 cup of beef broth. I only cooked the sirlion tri-tip for about and hour or so b/c the butcher was kind enough to slice it up for me. I didn't want it over cooked. It was delicious. My hubbie had TWO and a HALF sandwiches on those large sub rolls. Geesh.

24th: Veggie Pasta
See the 9th

25th: Gingered Scallops over rice with Salad & Sesame Sugar Snap Peas

27th: Sirloin Steak w/ roasted potatoes & Veggie
Yes, this is a repeat recipe from the 5th. Usually you will only see pizza and pasta repeated throughout the month but I was looking for a red meat dish and this is just so simple and good and we've only had it once, so why not?

28th: Chinese Lemon Chicken over brown rice w/ salad
I have a hard time getting brown rice to cook so it isn't still crunchy. I like to bake it like Alton Brown says to here. I will probably put it together in my oven, program the oven to turn on and bake, so it's ready when I come home along with the crock meal. If I baked it right before dinner then it would take away the convenience of my crock cooked meal, ya know?

29th: Coconut & Basil Steamed Mussels w/ Asian Noodles & Asian snap pea salad w/ sesame orange dressing
Doesn't that salad look fantastic? I can't wait to try it.

August 2009 Menu

2009-07-31T21:25:00.007-04:00

Don't worry. I haven't lost interest in this little blog. It's these kids. They keep me so busy in the summer. We've been having a blast. When they are back at school I will get back to this blog. I already have ideas in the works.

Here is our August menu. I am trying to get the most leftovers while still being realistic. Once a week wasn't working out to be enough, twice a week was sometimes leaving us with too little leftovers, so my husband thinks that we can have leftovers every 4 days. So I'm giving it a shot having mindfully filled the 3 days between leftover days with meals that seem leftover-worthy. I may not get to posting the recipes so if there is a recipe that you want just email me and I will get it to you. Oh and as always, asterisk are new recipes and purple meals are slow cooker recipes.

Laziness is the Goal

2009-07-16T07:51:00.009-04:00

This July I have been lazy. Very lazy. I never came up with a new menu. I was away for a week. I have not been doing all the proactive things that I usually like to do to keep on top of things. However, I have not become unorganized and chaos has not taken over. How can this be? I have been monthly planning long enough that once it was obvious that I was not going to get around to creating a new menu for this month I simply pulled last years July menu and roughly followed it. Of course I could have redone last month too if I wanted but I like to mix it up a bit more. This is the perfect example of why it pays off to put in some extra time and effort to get really organized. If you get organized in a way that is truly functional and works for you then you can turn on autopilot and get lazy later. Here is the 2008 menu I followed for this July:

June 2009 Menu

2009-05-31T10:13:00.006-04:00

I think this is one of the most simple menus I've had in a long time. I am utilizing the crock pot and cooking up some simple meals that can be taken to the pool. We are so excited for our town pool to open on Monday. We get to the pool nearly every day that it is open and enjoy the most simple basic and free things in life. I think I only survive the 9 months of fall, winter and spring because I know summer is the reward. There is always something magical about being with the kids away from the house. There are no "to do" list distractions, no laundry that can get done, no house . . . anything. So hopefully this menu will allow us to be at the pool as much as possible this June.

June 2009 Recipes

2009-05-28T15:08:00.010-04:00

1st: Asian Shredded Beef over rice w/ broccoli

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/05/crockpot-asian-shredded-beef-recipe.html

3rd Chicken w/ Raspberry Balsamic Glaze over Spinach

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.

6th: Mango turkey burgers (x3 to freeze) w/ Kristin’s strawberry spinach salad & sweet potato fries

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/perfect-turkey-burgers?autonomy_kw=mango%20turkey%20burger&rsc=header_1

Kristen’s Strawberry Spinach Salad
Dressing:

1/2 cup EVOO
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp. salt and pepper
1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Salad:
2 lbs. spinach (2 bags)
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 - 1 pint strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup chopped, fresh dill

Chill dressing, pour over salad.

7th Chicken Curry Salad (Mark’s recipe)

Curry Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1 large roasted chicken cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 8-ounce can sliced or chopped water chestnuts drained
2 cup seedless red grapes halved
1 2-ounce package slivered almonds

Directions:
Dressing:
1-cup mayonnaise
1-tablespoon soy sauce
1-tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon prepared mango chutney
Salt

Gently combine the chicken, celery, water chestnuts, grapes, and almonds in a large glass bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients and mix well. Add to the chicken mixture and stir gently to combine. Season with salt, to taste.

Yield: 6-8 servings

8th Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken over rice w/ side veggie

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/08/crockpot-brown-sugar-chicken-recipe.html

10th Squirrel’s Sirlion v/ veggie kabobs & rice

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Squirrels-Great-Beef-Steak/Detail.aspx

13th Grilled Salmon w/ orange glaze, cous cous & side veggie

Grill Salmon and top with orange glaze.

Orange Glaze:

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 T orange juice

2 t honey

1/8 t ground ginger

Simmer the above on medium low until reduced by half.

14th Momwiches w/ salad & fries

15th Black Bean & Salsa Chicken soup w/ cheese quesadillas
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/11/salsa-chicken-and-black-bean-soup.html

17th Sesame Noodles

Coarse salt
1 pound thin spaghetti
½ cup smooth peanut butter preferably natural
1-2 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 English cucumber, peeled and halved lengthwise
2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded

1 In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl
2 Meanwhile, make peanut sauce: In a blender or food processor, blend peanut butter, garlic, pepper flakes, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil until smooth.
3 Cut cucumber crosswise into thirds: cut each piece lengthwise into ¼-inch slices. Stack slices: cut lengthwise into very thin strips. Transfer pasta to a large bowl: toss with sauce, cucumber, and carrots. Serve at room temperature.

20th Grilled marinated Flank steak w/ poor man’s caviar & pesto pasta
The show is really the "caviar." This is delicious and worth the effort.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Poor-Mans-Caviar/Detail.aspx

22nd Tacos w/ leftovers & dirty rice
Dirty rice is just rice cooked with some cumin and chicken broth for flavor, maybe a little cilantro.

24th Crockpot Fillet of Sole with Pesto w/ veggie cous cous
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-fillet-of-sole-with-pesto.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/steamed-flounder-with-vegetable-couscous?autonomy_kw=flounder%20with%20cous%20cous&rsc=header_1

27th Wraps w/ black beans & corn on side
I just grill some chicken and throw together some veggies (sugar snap pease and sprouts are always good) which all gets wrapped up in whole wheat flour tortillas and slathered in salsa and sour cream. The kids love it but it's messy. It's a good dinner to wrap in foil and take to the pool.

28th Salmon & Braised Lentils & Salad
http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/grilled-wild-salmon-with-braised-lentils-orange-balsamic-reduction/

29th Vietnamese Pho Soup w/ salad fixings
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/05/crockpot-vietnamese-pho-recipe.html

“Efficientize” Kid MealPrep

2009-05-27T20:28:00.002-04:00

I get tired of the before-dinner-halt that occurs due to the required cutting up of all of my darling kids’ meals. Sometimes the cooking part is a cinch but getting the food from pan to plate to child takes forever when the little crew is cranky, tired and hungry. So when feasible I get out my handy dandy Pampered Chef chopper! I have heard from many a mom who has been suckered into buying this gadget that they don’t use it. ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!? Just dish out each child’s portion onto plate or bowl and bang bang bang, dinner delivered kitty food style! Here is a picture of the pasta we had last night which reached my kids’ tummies in record time thanks to my chopper. Oh, and if you don’t have one of these handy dandy choppers, I have a friend (Courtney M.) who happens to be a Pampered Chef dealer. I am happy to get you in contact with her regardless of your location.

Time Manage your Kids’ Routines

2009-05-20T13:13:00.001-04:00

Your kid isn’t the only kid on the planet that needs to be told TEN times EVERY morning to get dressed, make their bed and brush teeth. I hate it when I start the day getting upset or irritated at the gifts God gave me because they won’t JUST GET DRESSED. Soooo, yesterday morning I played an upbeat dance song that they love and told them that whoever finished making their bed and getting dressed by the end of the song got a little Mike & Ike candy (I just happened to have 3 leftover from decorating some cake with them). It worked! They were downstairs dressed with beds made ½ way through the song. YIPPEE! Then at night I told them that whoever had their jammies on and their book picked out by the time I got upstairs got to watch a cartoon in the morning. YIPPEE! It was better than saying “If you don’t have your jammies on and your book picked out then you won’t get any tv tomorrow morning.” I am quite pleased with these new kid time management techniques. Maybe someone reading will have success with it too. Simple, nearly effortless and it worked!

Designate a High Closet Shelf for Temporary Housing of Items

2009-05-14T05:09:00.001-04:00

When you have little ones, there is going to have to be a toy jail or other high up out of reach shelf to place items that must be kept from little ones hands. The last time we moved we had a two year old and the conflicting interest of getting moved in. You know how it is, we were getting pictures hung, painting rooms, hanging shelves, etc. So screwdrivers, levels and other items that we didn’t want our 2 year old to get his hands on ended up on whatever high shelf we could find at the moment. Then when we started another project we had to waste quite a bit of time going around the house checking all the high places to find the tools. Now some things end up high when our kids fight over toys or start to beat another sibling with an object. Generally our fireplace mantel is our designated shelf but sometimes it bugs me that it isn’t more hidden. I suppose it gets me to put the items away sooner than if the shelf was tucked away in a closet. Either way, a designated closet shelf can be the keeper of items that you don’t want little hands to get a hold of or those items that you are using but got interrupted using and didn’t have time to put back in their proper place. This way you have only one place to look for your lost screwdriver and one place to look for those odds and ends that need to be placed back in their proper homes. This can be useful even for households without little ones. If you designate a closet shelf area for such things somewhere on each floor in your home then you will probably spend less time hunting for those things that you didn’t have time to put back.

Just Get a Box, or 2 or 3 and Have At It!

2009-05-08T21:28:00.001-04:00

Sometimes getting some boxes or laundry baskets and just hacking away at the clutter that is bugging you is how to get the job done. Categorizing your clutter is often tedious and perhaps boring but it is almost always less painful, takes less time and feels better when it’s over than you initially imagine. If you should just NOT be able to force yourself to do it then call me. I love to do it. Actually I love to do it more if it is someone else’s clutter than my own (as evidenced by my hall closet right now and my desk space – shhh, don’t tell anyone). It is always easier to look at someone else’s situation and see through clear lenses than it is your own, in life or in clutter. So if you can’t afford a professional organizer or you don’t know someone like me who is starting up an organizing business and looking for Guiney pigs, then make a swapping organizing appointment with a friend. Sometimes it isn’t difficult to get organized, it’s just a dirty task that we put off. Spring is the perfect time for getting organized. The air is fresh and it just feels good. Putting off getting organized can waste so much of your valuable time (looking for things) and money (buying things you already have but can not find or don’t realize you have due to disorganization). If you make an appointment or a date with a friend or an organizer then you have no choice but to face the task. Just don’t let the friend that shows up to clear you of your clutter get talked into chips, salsa and margaritas instead. Really make a commitment to each other and you’ll be so glad that you did.

Organizing Your DVDs, CDs and other Disks

2009-05-07T20:25:00.002-04:00

I am not sure what the purpose is of saving those breakable-space-robbing cases that CDs and DVDs come in so I haven’t thrown mine out yet. I have placed them in a box in the basement until I feel completely 100% certain that I can toss them. I have taken the disks out and put them in various CD books throughout the house. The kids each have a small book for the music that they like to play in their room (we rip them onto the computer first because they are bound to scratch them up). A larger CD book holds all the other music by the stereo and another book by the tv holds our DVDs. The books with the zippers are great because they prevent CDs from falling out when my kids drag them around. I am a little behind on technology but I do realize that one day we won’t have to have any disks to organize . . . at least for music. It seems that a lot of people, if not most, have fancy tiny things that hold their MP3 files and plugs into a sound system of some kind. One day our house will get up to date on such things but for now we store our disks in CD books.

One draw back on the CD books that I use is that the pages do not come out to rearrange things. I like to have my music disks and DVD disks in alphabetical order (probably doesn’t surprise you, right?). If a new disk is acquired it is nearly impossible to alphabetize it without moving every single disk in the book and who has time for that. So I am on the hunt for 3-ring binder inserts that hold disks or for an inexpensive CD book holder with pages that can be removed and rearranged. I am certain it is out there, I just haven’t seen them yet.

My neighbor keeps a small CD book for his computer system disks. You know, those important-if-disaster-should-strike disks that float around in a box somewhere. Keeping those important CDs in a zipped up little CD book will certainly help you to sleep better – that and a reliable external backup system of course.

May 2009 Menu

2009-05-03T17:56:00.004-04:00

Well I’ve had some computer problems. Thankfully they have been resolved so I can finallyshare my May 2009 menu with you. It's amazing how much I rely on my computer. Some sleep was lost but all is well. I will get the recipes together asap.

I am still enjoying a lot more leftovers than I am used to which means less cooking (perfect for good spring time weather) and less shopping. The menu looks so sparse compared to menus prior to April but it’s working. I am just trying to cook extra so we can stretch leftovers. A couple times last month I ran low on leftovers so I just threw some chicken breasts on the grill with a big salad. Simple. Easy. Healthy. That’s my new spring and summer motto.

Organize your Family's Library Books

2009-04-26T08:40:00.007-04:00

As most people with kids, we are frequent library patrons. My mother-in-law has passed on some wisdom to me for keeping track of our library books. Pick a number, any number, one that you feel is a manageable number of books to have checked out. I like the number 4. It’s my birthday month and it’s just a nice round number. So each time we visit the library each child may select 4 books. If they choose less than 4 books I just grab a couple on our way out so our total is 4. This way I always know how many books I need to return. Our school’s library has a similar system but the limit is 2 books per child. If a child returns only 1 of her 2 books checked out then she may only check out 1. So the total checked out is never more than 2 per child.

Thankfully my kids love books. Many months ago I deviated from my 4 book system because one of my kids wanted to check out a gazillion books. I decided that it would be an opportunity for him to appreciate my system. I allowed my 7 year old to check out as many books as he could carry thinking that the heavy load would be enough for him to want to limit his book selection. He carried a pile of books up to his nose all the way out to the car grunting and struggling! He didn’t care! He was thrilled! So much for that experiment. I got loosey goosey on limiting the kids to 4 books after that but it got out of control and a bit confusing so now we are back to the magic number 4 system. It certainly is easier to manage.

At home you can make a habit to read your library books in a designated spot like a favorite couch and keep a tote, bin or what-have-you to keep them in. Then you don’t have to go hunting for them. I am all for being organized but if my child wants to dig into a book in her room I am going to let her. So I don’t have any one designated spot for ours. Our limit of 4 is a sufficient system for us.

Make Deadlines Work for You

2009-04-23T07:58:00.010-04:00

A couple months ago I thought we were going to have a new guest staying at our house. I got some of those little nagging projects done thinking that the guest would be arriving soon and I wanted the house to be, well, fresh. I got a fireplace, a bedroom and a stairway painted and finally got to putting a much needed new toilet seat in the guest bathroom. The guest ended up not coming but I was thrilled to have been pushed to get some things done.

This reminded me how effective deadlines can be. I’d like to have some self imposed deadlines on these little nagging projects. It is really the lack of deadlines that keep us from completing them. I have a few more small inside paint projects I would like to get done and I am thinking that they ought to be completed in time for the warm weather that is approaching. I don’t want to (and probably won’t) spend warm sunny days inside when I can be outside gardening and playing with my kids. I know that I will be able to appreciate God’s outdoor creations even more knowing that everything inside is taken care of. We’ll see how it goes. If I can meet my inside projects deadline then I can see how imposing the same annual deadline for inside projects could be productive. I also like to keep to a monthly menu deadline of the 15th of the preceding month. If I can complete next month’s meal plan by the 15th then I am not rushing to get it done and I can spend a little time tweaking it to make the most of the fresh ingredients and such. It just works better if I stick to my deadline. Most people have a January 1st deadline for packing away their Christmas decorations. These deadlines just keep us ticking some times.

A wise neighbor once told me that it is of no use to get all those little nagging projects completed because new projects will just step into their place. Her statement made me realize that I operate on the belief that one day all these projects can actually be done! Complete! Finito! I don’t want to start thinking that her wisdom is correct because then I may never attempt to get any of them done. I am determined to win!

Whenever I see a well kept home I point it out to my husband and he says that if his home ever looks that perfect then he’s spending his time the wrong way. Maybe he is right but I enjoy getting house things done, after all one of us should.

Outgoing Bin for Smooth Sailing Mornings

2009-04-21T16:14:00.008-04:00

At night, after the kids are tucked into bed, I go scurrying around the house for a few minutes picking up and getting my act together for the next morning. This makes my tomorrow run smoothly. Weekday mornings are crazy with kids. Getting the kids dressed and fed, beds made, lunches packed and out the door are all I can handle in the morning. I use a large open flexible bin placed by the garage door to toss all the things I need to take with me in the car the next day. Things I throw in there include library books, outgrown clothes that need to be delivered to a friend's kid, toys or clothing left behind from a playdate, pants that need to be hemmed, package for the post office, store return, etc. In the morning I simply grab my bin and go about the errands dictated by the items in the bin.

Organize your Kids' Turn Taking

2009-04-14T14:36:00.000-04:00

I have received great wisdom from my in-laws with regard to settling turn-taking disputes between my children. My husband and his 2 brothers called it “Priority Day.” Each day someone has “Top Priority." The child with “Top Priority” for the day gets first choice for his/her cup color, who takes his/her bath first, whose room we read night time books in, who gets a toy first if they both want it at the same time, first pick for dessert plate, pushes elevator buttons, chooses whether to put the quarter in or take it out of the cart at Aldi’s, etc. etc. This system works wonders. There have been too many situations to count where I pulled “Priority Day,” out of my pocket when no other dispute resolution tool was working. There have also been several times when the dispute was SO heated that I never thought the "Priority Day" card would work and I witnessed in amazement at it’s power. My third born is 2 years old so I have been using Priority Day with only two kids up 'til now but my little guy just announced, “MY DAY,” so I think we are going to have to start working him into the rotation. Whoever has second priority gets second pick or first pick if the Top Priority child is not home. Occasionally, I do lose track so I will put initials on the calendar to make sure there are no disputes about who is Top Priority but as they get older my in-laws tell me that their boys NEVER forgot whose turn it was for Top Priority. I have heard of mothers doing it week by week but my kids are too young to feel the justice in that so we’ll stick with day by day for now.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T07:39:00.004-04:00

HAPPY EASTER!

Save Time and Money with Click N Pull @ Sam's Club!

2009-04-11T21:01:00.004-04:00

Get this! My neighbor, Mark, has opened a whole new possibility for time and money savings with regard to groceries! He told me about the Click N Pull at Sam’s Club. I was not aware that such a magical operation was occurring on a regular basis at my good ‘ol Sam’s Club. I have been walking past several taped off shopping carts full of merchandise at the front of the store and not questioning what they were or why they were there. It should be no wonder since by the time I reach the front of the store at Sam’s Club I am pushing my 100 lb cart ahead of me with my arms locked straight and my body at a 45 degree angle while my 2 year old, (who has kicked both his sneakers off at this point), sits backwards in the seat with the belt on his back after squirming around in a full 90 degree turn and is hollering at the top of his lungs, “DOWN!” So it is no big surprise to me that I never wondered what the shopping carts at the front of the store were. I had no idea that my curiosity of those shopping carts could have changed my life quite some time ago. Thanks to Mark, I may finally benefit from this Click N Pull operation that I didn’t know existed before.

So here is the magic. You can shop at Sam’s Club online, submit your order and someone at your local store will gather all the items for you and a shopping cart will be waiting for you when you arrive WITH YOUR STUFF ALREADY IN IT!!!!!!! Isn’t this HUGE? I’m sure you have some questions as I did so let me tell you what I found out. If you place your order before 5 pm it will be ready the first thing in the morning. If you are a business member it will be ready at 7 am or if you are a regular member it will be ready for you at 10 am. You will get an email to notify you that your order is ready for pick up. You pay when you go to the store to pick up your merchandise, not online. If you do not pick up your merchandise within 72 hours then they will reshelve the items. They place your frozen and refrigerated items in their respective coolers in the back so when you arrive for pick up someone is sent to bring them up front. If you want something that is not listed online, (I had 3 items), you can make a note of it in the notes/substitutions box but my notes got overlooked so it is best to call to notify the customer service desk that you have notes written and they will look for them. My local Sam’s Club has a guy, (Bob), who is the designated Click N Pull guy. He fills all the orders in the morning when he arrives at 6 am and I was told that he never misses the notes. My notes were overlooked because I placed my order in the afternoon when he was gone and someone who isn’t accustomed to filling Click N Pull orders filled mine. If I can figure out all these little nuances this could really be a HUGE time saver as well as a money saver for my family.

Why do I refer to Sam’s Club Click N Pull as a money saver you ask? We all know that when we are going through the isles we end up buying something that we don’t really need and which may also not be in our budget. At Sam’s Club and other wholesale clubs, it usually isn’t an innocent $2 donut purchase that we go home with. Instead, it’s a $5 case of donut purchase that ends up in your cart. Come on, you know what I mean. So, if you can plan your list more objectively at home with your shopping list rather than perusing the isles with a hungry stomach or a sweet tooth I believe that there is no doubt that Click N Pull will be a grocery money savings. I haven’t been this excited about a time saving/money saving scheme since I started monthly meal planning. Ahhhhh, it feels good to be a planning/organizing junkie today.

Discover Aldi's and Save $$

2009-04-09T04:18:00.000-04:00

I discovered the unbelievable grocery savings at Aldi’s a few years ago. Once I “got it” I couldn’t believe that I had passed up the Aldi’s experience for the first couple years that we lived near one. Once you “get it” you belong to the Aldi’s fan club. I told my friend Colleen that I had finally shopped at Aldi’s after hearing her rave about it for some time and she said, “I TOLD YOU.” I was officially a member. Let me explain how awesome the savings are at Aldi’s even if you don’t track the price of every item you buy. You know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when you check out at the regular Piggly Wiggly/Giant Eagle/Stop & Shop/Krogers when you hear your total? It just seems that you can never get over the fact that you spent THAT MUCH on harmless little necessary grocery items. Well, you get the complete opposite feeling at the Aldi’s check out counter. You can’t believe that ALL those groceries you bought only added up to the total the smiling clerk tells you. It’s unbelievable the difference you experience at the check out.

What the heck is Aldi’s anyway you ask? It is a small grocery store that sells the best quality items it can at the lowest possible price. It does not try to be a full service grocery because of it's size. Aldi’s started in 1976 in Iowa and has grown to over 1,000 stores from the East Coast to Kansas. They attempt to eliminate the bells and whistles that increase price. You’ll see how they do that by visiting a store once. Be sure to take a quarter with you because you will need it to access a grocery cart. You’ll get your quarter back when you return your cart. Don’t be afraid, it’s simple and intuitive. You’ll figure it out. When you enter the store you will instantly sense that something is different but you may not be able to figure it out. It’s the lack of music, (which I believe large grocery chains insert subliminal messages into to get you to buy more and I am only ½ kidding). The products are shelved in the bulk box cases that they come in rather than placed neatly on fancy shelves by store employees. Aldi’s does not supply grocery bags or a bagger. You will bag your own groceries with bags that you either bring or purchase there (paper for 5 cents or large heavy duty bags for 10 cents each). Aldi’s does not accept credit cards but you can pay by debit card or cash. So, the Aldi’s experience is a little different from your typical large chain grocery store but the differences allow for savings that are passed on to the consumer.

Unfortunately you can’t get EVERYTHING at Aldi’s. And a few things I feel may be lacking in quality but there are some really good finds at Aldi’s that you simply can not go wrong with. Here are some items that I have had consistent good luck with at Aldi’s:

Milk
Yogurts
Sour cream/butter/cottage cheese/cream cheese and other dairy goods
Refrigerated Shredded Parmesan/Romano and other premium cheeses such as feta and blues
Spinach
Blueberries
Lettuce leaves of all kindPeppers – red/yellow/orange are always great
Bananas – sometimes a little browned so they go right into the freezer for smoothies
Oranges, strawberries, grapes
All tomatoes, including grape tomatoes
Cucumbers
Beans – pinto dried and canned refried beans
Flour & corn tortillas
Tuna
Pepperoni
Brown Sugar/Flour/Sugar/Vanilla/salt/pepper/baking powder
Honey
Pickles
Corn Meal
Oatmeal
Oat O Cereal
Generic Cereals: raisin bran, rice krispies, cheerios
Tortilla chips & other chips like generic doritos
Frozen berries
Frozen orange juice
Fruit popsicles (yummy)
Ice creams

I would love to add to this list of things that other people regularly buy at Aldi’s so please post here and I will keep adding to it.

It was a Poppy Turkey Night!

2009-04-08T04:30:00.000-04:00

Oh how we love Poppy Turkey. Oh how we love to SAY, “Poppy Turkey.” Poppy Turkey Poppy Turkey Poppy Turkey. It’s just fun to say. I went to Aldi’s yesterday to stock up for a triple batch of Poppy Turkey when I ran into Sue. Sue said that she had made the Poppy Turkey and loved it. I have several friends who have turned their noses up at it because they think the ingredients sound strange. Sue was brave, as was Anne and Marilyn. Of course, they loved it! It’s yummy. It’s creamy. It’s good comfort food and it’s delicious. Be sure to make a triple + batch, (after you confirm that it IS yummy of course), because it freezes wonderfully.

I add peas and mushrooms as you can see by my notes. You can get away with 1 1/4 lb of turkey easily.

Purging Feels Goooooood

2009-04-07T05:07:00.001-04:00

I just did some major toy purging this weekend. I got rid of 5 very full trash bags. It feels so good! No, my kids have not yet noticed which is why it is still feeling good.

To get organized sometimes you have to purge your household of all your useless excess stuff. It can be tedious work. You have to be in the right mindset. You have to be ready. You have to be tired of the status quo. You have to be willing to let go. It has always interested me as to what causes people to hold on to stuff that they don’t use. Sometimes there is an emotional attachment to an item or memories that surround the purchase of an item like a special trip. Then, there is the fear that as soon as they rid themselves of an item they haven’t used then they will come up with a use for it and wish that they had it. I believe that the latter motivation for holding onto stuff has deep roots in our past. For instance, if you grew up in an affluent household and were able to easily replace a broken or lost item as a child, you are probably more likely to discard items that you aren’t currently using. You have little fear of never being able to replace the item if necessary. On the other hand, if your parents barely scraped by with what little they had you might appreciate coming across items that might possibly have some obscure purpose sometime in the distant future and therefore have a difficult time parting with stuff. I must confess that it is rather easy for me to discard things. I do not suffer from sentimentality. Besides, you can’t take things with you when you die. We’ve all heard that before. So, unless I am using something or going to use it in the immediate future, I don’t want it cluttering up my home. Photos are a great way to compromise getting rid of a useless item. Take a digital photo of the item. It won’t take up physical space in your home but you can easily keep the image forever.

There are many different approaches that professional organizers use to get their clients to purge clutter. Usually 90% of clutter is easily identified as such and tossed. Beyond that, see if you can discard items by going through these questions: I don’t think it’s all that complicated.

1) Is it useful or necessary?
2) Do you have the space to keep it?

3) Do you have a duplicate/triplicate/etc so that you can purge the extras?
4) Why are you holding on to it?
5) Is there a reason that a digital photo / scanned image cannot replace the original?
6) If you still cannot part with it can you find an immediate use for it even if simply for display purposes?

Beyond that, if you do not have space for something that is not useful, then it is your choice to be tripping over it until you get the courage to discard it. I have some boxes of things in the basement that I have not yet had the courage to toss. I would love to rid myself of these things but cannot. I do not like them. They are not useful. My dear grandmother values things a lot more than I do and has given me some things that I feel too guilty to get rid of because I know she would not be happy if I did. She is also of the mistaken impression that they are valuable antiques. After much research I have proved that they are not valuable but I still cannot discard the items. I need to get the courage to toss them or talk to her about it. Maybe I can push them off on another relative instead (hello mom, Aunt C or Cousin C). Hmmmmmm

I am Not A Whole-Foods Saint

2009-04-01T13:14:00.004-04:00

My friend, Amy, had just come home from the grocery store and had all of her purchases out on her kitchen counter when I arrived unexpectedly today. She said something to the effect that I was looking at all of her previously hidden processed food sins as if I were some kind of whole foods saint. Truly, I am not but I can see how someone might get that impression of me. I do believe that the whole foods approach to feeding your family is an ideal that we all ought to strive for but let's face it, we all have our vices. I, for one, am a HUGE sugar addict. I have consumed a pound of jelly beans, (sneaked without the kids seeing), in the last 48 hours after almost 72 hours of yet another NO sugar attempt, so anyone who thinks I am a righteous judge of their grocery purchasing habits is clearly wrong. It may not seem timely now that we are into April but I have some New Year's resolutions concerning processed foods that I want to replace with homemade versions before the end of this year. Here are some of my processed foods confessions and New Year's resolutions:

Tyson Dino Chicken Nuggets
Kraft Mac N Cheese (it just seems like an American childhood tradition, so I'm not sure about replacing this one, I just limit the frequency)
Good Seasons Salad Dressing Mix
Taco Seasoning packets (it's so easy to mix your own, I have just not gotten around to it)
Jiff Peanut Butter - Skippy makes a better whole foods version but I don't have easy access to a bargain price for it

There are some other confessions that I should make that I have no intention of replacing with homemade versions:

Cheese-Its (my husband has these in his lunch every day)
Fishy Crackers (occasional)
Pretzels

I am sorry to tell any true whole foods saints out there that there are no homemade versions that will replace the occasional Oreo, Pringle or Ritz cracker. I think the goal is to feed our family the closest to whole foods as possible considering our culinary experience, budget and time constraints.

April 2009 Menu

2009-03-31T13:23:00.005-04:00

I wonder why I’ve been killing myself, (I haven't really), to come up with 25 or so fabulous meals each month for my family when all I really have to do is cook about every other day? I recently organized my friend Jill’s kitchen and when I do such a thing I have the pleasure of bonding with someone over a 5 hour period of laborious tasks. Unfortunately for my friend-clients, they must also spend that time putting up with me and my opinions about everything in the world that doesn’t really matter in relation to their kitchen. Anyhoo, my wise friend Jill told me that they only cook a dinner every couple of days and then they eat leftovers. This idea has sat with me for a couple of weeks now. WHY am I not doing this also? I think partially because I just love food and always have so many new recipes that I want to try. I am also in a habit of torturing, (it’s not really torture it’s a “learning” experience), my children by placing dinners that are healthy for their growing bodies in front of them regardless whether or not they like the meal. I think that having the same meal 2 days in a row that they don’t like lowers their chances of enjoying meal time but, regardless, we are giving it a try. Here is the absolute most simple month I have ever done. It just doesn’t seem right, but I’m going to cook more of every meal to make sure we get a leftover meal out of each one (aside from pizza and the occasional meal taken from the freezer). We'll see how it goes.

Oh and I forgot to add April's in-season produce to the top of my menu for shopping purposes. I will do that now . . . .

Recipes to Accompany April 2009 Menu

2009-03-31T12:39:00.016-04:00

2nd: Thai Shrimp Soup w/ Lime & Cilantro (Southbeach Recipe)

4th: Bloody Mary Flank w/ mashed potatoes, gravy & veggie (thanks to Kristin D for passing this along)

6th: Poppy Turkey
This is fabulous. I realize that the ingredients sound weird but it is delicious I promise! It's from a freezer friendly cookbook called "Once A Month Cooking," which is definitely worth checking out.

8th: Calzones or Pizza with Salad (whichever I feel like making that night)

9th: Shrimp & veggie Thai Curry over rice

For this I just loosely follow a recipe on the jar of red curry paste. Use any veggies you like. I use onion, carrots, peppers, zucchini and sometimes mushrooms and always peas (but add frozen peas at the end).S o what I do is throw in some Olive oil in the pan and let it heat up, then spoon approx 1 ½ T of curry paste till fragrant. Then add your veggies in cooking order then add a can of coconut oil and some chicken broth or clam juice. Stir 1 T corn starch w/ 1 T chicken broth (clam juice if using) and add to thicken. Sometimes I add a can of diced tomatoes. Peas and shrimp at the end. Serve over rice. It’s a general recipe and it’s different every time but that’s about how I make it. I have purchased red curry paste in a large can at the Asian market and I just freeze the remaining paste in ice cube trays and then put into a freezer bag for later use. The jar that you can purchase at Giant Eagle is fine to just keep in the jar at room temp for several months.

*FYI: Trader Joes has the best price on coconut milk @ .99 cents/can.

11th: Taco Soup w/ cheese quesadillas

12th: Cranberry Pork Roast in the crock w/ side veggie & rice

15th: Momwiches w/ fried & salad

16: Cornmeal crusted fish fillets w/ side veggie & pesto pasta

18th: BBQ Flank Steak over salad w/ corn bread

20th: TGI Friday Spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta (thanks mom)

10 ounces cooked fettuccine (cooked al dente)

1 cup Spicy Cajun Pasta Sauce (recipe follows)

1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

1 boneless chicken breast, cooked and sliced in strips

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Spicy Cajun Pasta Sauce:

2 ounces olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh chopped garlic

1/2 cup onion, cut in large chunks

1/2 cup green peppers, diced in large pieces

1/2 cup red peppers, diced in large pieces

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup V-8 juice

cornstarch (mix about a table spoon with a couple table spoons coldwater to form a slurry)

salt and pepper to taste

1. Prepare sauce: Heat oil in saute pan; add garlic; saute for 30seconds; add onions and saute for 1 minute; add peppers andcontinue to saute for another minute. Deglaze with chicken stockand reduce to half. Add V-8 juice and cayenne pepper; bring toboil; simmer 10 minutes.2. Thicken to consistency with cornstarch; season to taste withsalt and pepper.3. Add cooked pasta to sauce and heat through until hot.4. Arrange on serving dish and top with chicken breast. Sprinklewith Parmesan and parsley.

Serves 2 to 4

22nd: Pizza w/ pepperoni & Salad (homemade as usual)

23rd: Classic Minestrone Soup w/ hearty bread

25th: Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & veggie

27th: Chicken Paprika w/ salad

30th: 3 Bean Chili w/ corn bread

Get Your Spices Cheap & Save Loads of Money

2009-03-28T05:05:00.000-04:00

Do you ever visit a country store that has flour, oats and spices priced crazy cheap? Have you ever sat in front of the spice bins wishing you remembered which spices you were running low on? I have and then I kicked myself for wasting the trip because I could have used quite a few spices and things and I would have saved some bucks if I had only known what I needed. Now we visit the same country store every Autumn for apple picking so I plan my visits more wisely. My mother also happens to frequent some country stores so I keep a list of the items that those stores carry. (They thankfully keep such a list). If I can’t make my annual trip Mom will pick up some things for me when she goes to her stores.

It is a mystery to me how or why these country stores sell their herbs and spices so inexpensively. However they do it, you should take advantage. I keep quite a number of spices since I am a frequent cook and I like to explore new recipes. I keep the little store size jars in my cupboard for easy access and a bin in my basement pantry for the overflow. In my overflow spice bin I keep a list for my annual country store trip. So when I go to refill a store size jar in my kitchen with my overflow bin and I see that something is running low I add it to my annual shopping list. It is easy to do and it saves a ton of money since I cook a lot.

Here are some examples of the savings I have experienced over the last few years. I have this rather large bag of bay leaves that cost 72 cents at the country store but a store size jar which would be about ¼ of the amount costs around $5 at the grocery. There is also a 1 lb bag of sesame seeds which cost $1.33 but the jar you get at the grocery store holds a measly 2.25 oz (there are 16 oz in 1 lb) and costs around $5. This could easily become a quantifiable category for the “Things I didn’t Buy” savings envelope.

Turn Room Clutter into Fabulous Closet Shelving

2009-03-27T05:00:00.000-04:00

Do you have a little book case or old shelves sitting with “stuff” on it making your room feel cluttered? My son had one in his bedroom with his banks on it, some Leggos and miscellaneous books that never stayed neat. By moving the shelving unit into his closet we uncluttered his room instantly. It made such a huge difference in the feel of his room that I am convinced that nearly all open shelving units in a room should be abolished. Of course, I am not into “stuff” or displaying “stuff.” The feel of an uncluttered stuff-less room makes me breathe easier. But let’s face it, we all have stuff whether we want to have stuff or not. So try moving your stuff to a shelving unit inside a closet. Don’t have closet room to spare, you say? You’d be surprised at how much more storage real estate you can gain on shelves in a closet as opposed to empty hanging air space. If you have such a situation, try it out and see how much harder your shelves can work for you when they are hiding inside a closet as opposed to being out in the open and having to look pretty.

It's Springtime! Get your Garage Sale List together!

2009-03-26T10:13:00.003-04:00

There are several things that came up in conversation over the Winter that my kids or I would like to have that are clearly garage sale purchases. For instance, my son wants a soccer net. Now, I can imagine that a lot of soccer nets may get torn or broken before they are discarded. I can also imagine that a well built soccer net that has survived a kid or two would be just the kind of cumbersome thing someone would like to unload at a garage sale. There are several of these kinds of things that have come up over Winter which have inspired another one of my many lists. I love lists. They keep me focused, remind and applaud me when entries are crossed off. So, anywho, I made up a Garage Sale list for 2009 just to get us excited for Springtime Garage Sale season. If you keep a Garage Sale lookout list you can share it with other garage saling friends. You may find that someone you share your list with has something on your list that they want to dispose of. For instance, my mom seems to spot things that I am looking for rather quickly (sometimes in her basement!). For some items, you have to tell everyone you know and be patient. There have been two such items that I waited nearly two seasons for before I landed them one of which was an upright freezer. I scored it for $50 and it was only 3 years old! The other was a bike trailer. I told everyone I knew about my desire for a bike trailer. Right about when I was going to give up and pay retail I finally found one right down the street. Now the part where my husband backed the van over the beloved bike trailer is another story. So if you see another bike trailer out there, I am on the hunt again. Ugh!

In case I get lucky with any of my readers, here is my current list. I haven't browsed Craigs List or FreeCycle.com lately so maybe I'll get lucky there?

Garage Sale 2009 List

Hamburger press/maker/shaper
Garlic Press – preferably pampered chef
Pasta maker
Pastry/Pasta roller for ravioli edges
Cake décor tools
Attachments for kitchen aid mixer

Girly Bedroom Lamp
Girly Trash Can
White/floral vintage curtains for girly room

Soccer net for backyard

Always:
Picture frames – black, white & silver 11x14 and bigger
Gift wrap & bows
Girly hair accessories
Kids clothes/snow suits/boots/etc
Picnic table - large with attached bench (octagon preferably but any kind)
Yard tools (rakes, shovels, bulb planter, hand shovels, etc)

Art Management 101

2009-03-25T16:31:00.010-04:00

Young children come home from school, Sunday school, and other places with wonderful art projects they've made. We have a craft area for the kids so they can create many masterpieces right at home. I really appreciate the words of advice that our preschool gave with regard to appreciating their masterpieces: Don’t ask what it is, instead ask them to tell you about it. Luckily I got that advice pretty early on in my mothering career so I haven’t made too many of those “what is THIS?” blunders when I should have known that it was an airplane or a self portrait or whatever. Even though I get great explanations about the artwork that enters my house, I can not be the only one guilty of thinking “WHERE am I going to put this?” when praising my child on the 24”x36” poster about God creating the world that they made in Sunday school. I have some rules of thumb to prevent my kids’ artwork from cluttering up my house.

1) If it is mostly school-made and not child-made it goes in the trash the evening of the same day it entered the house

a. “school-made” means that the school printed out, cut out or laid out all the parts and the child merely put them together in the manner they were instructed leaving no creative expression from the child
b. “Child-made” means that the idea or creative spin on the project came from the child rather than specifically guided instructions from someone else.

2) There must be a clearly defined area for artwork to be displayed, (usually a door, a framed bulletin board or some other clearly defined area), and that area is NOT the refrigerator!

3) Coloring pages get bottom priority to all other child-made projects and should not occupy more than 50% of the designated art display area.

4) Artwork must be rotated as it comes in so that it does not spill outside the designated art display area.

a. “Rotation” means that one artwork finds the trash as another artwork finds a place on the designated art display area
b. Should artwork appear that you do not want to find the trashcan but has overstayed its welcome, (beyond 3 months or out of season), see rule 6), 7) or 8).

5) One piece of artwork is not to overlap another. (This keeps the designated art display area from becoming cluttered and it truly shows off the pieces that are there.)

6) If it is something truly wonderful that we want around for a long time it gets a frame and is placed somewhere in the house.

7) If the artwork is of construction paper size or smaller and is very special we may place it in the posterity box or with the seasonal decorations if it is seasonal so it can be displayed annually.

8) If the artwork is something that we do not want in a frame or can not frame due to the size/shape/construction then we will take a digital photo of it (or scan it) before disposing of it and once we have several pictures of various art pieces we will order an art photo book of the pictures for each child/artist.

9) If the work of art is something that can not be taped or pinned to the designated art display area it may sit on the counter for the remainder of the day that it arrived and if the child does not want to part with it they may keep it in their room until their little brother destroys it or I find it trampled on the floor somewhere or it is no longer coveted and I can safely dispose of it.

My kids are not aware of these “rules” and this is the first time I have ever written them. These guidelines that I have implemented really do keep the peace and keep order in our house. The quantity of artwork that will enter this house could easily fill several rooms in our house by the time they graduate high school if I didn’t have some sort of artwork storage/display system. These rules also help to alleviate the mother’s guilt that often accompanies disposing of artwork.

P.S. The picture of Mary with baby Jesus above is in a frame in our living room. Decorating your home with your children's artwork can be both special and frugal.

Frugal Habits – Skip the Juice, Eat the Fruit

2009-03-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

We all know that juice is packed with calories. I haven’t come across too many parents who give their kids free reign with regard to juice intake. Juice that is truly juice, 100% fruit juice, has many health benefits as evidenced by the nutrition label on the container with all the vitamins. Juice comes from fruit so what is the harm? It is a processed food that strips away the fiber from a fruit. It is also expensive, (as are all processed foods that claim to be “healthy”). Eating the fruit that juice is made from is much more beneficial than consuming just the juice from the same fruit and it is usually less expensive. I know that someone reading this wants to bring up the fact that some juices are fortified with additional vitamins. If you aren’t eating a well-rounded diet that provides all of your required daily vitamins perhaps your doctor will provide you with a script for a vitamin, (cheaper than over the counter vitamins), otherwise just eat a healthy well-rounded diet of whole foods with natural fibers that will satisfy your hunger without excessive calorie intake (yea, sure, says the sugar addict) and save some bucks on unnecessary juice.

Do my kids drink juice you ask? Sometimes they have orange juice with their breakfast but otherwise we do not buy any other juice keeping the grocery bill down and fruit consumption up. On top of that, juice is a special treat to my kids and is much more appreciated that way.

Keep your Hand Towels Off the Floor

2009-03-23T05:00:00.001-04:00

If your kids are like my kids and every other kid that visits my house, they find it impossible to keep a hand towel off the floor. They just can not do it. So rather than fight them about it just clip the towel on the towel bar with a large binder clip underneath.

Or have a knitting relative make these button towels for you:

Blarney Rice

2009-03-22T12:53:00.002-04:00

Sometimes a new recipe sounds like a good idea when placed on the menu weeks in advance but when the time comes to putting it together I sometimes have second thoughts. This happened last Friday when my in-laws were visiting and I wanted to try a new split-pea-over-rice recipe. I had originally come across the recipe in search of looking for ways to use up my pantry items. I was also looking for a gluten free recipe for my mother-in-law. This recipe fit the bill so I put it on our menu. On Friday, the thought of having split-pea-over rice did not sound appealing but then I also felt that it may be wrong to serve such goup to my in-laws but I did it anyway. I decided to cook some flounder on the side so we would have something in our bellies should the green goup not work out. Surprisingly we all liked it . . . well, at least 1 out of 3 kids and 4 adults. So I thought it would be nice to brainstorm a better name for it since I could only think of it as split-pea goup. We decided to adopt my father-in-law’s “Blarney Rice” idea since it was green and rather close to Saint Patrick’s day. I don’t think we’ll have this dish once a week or anything but it was super cheap, pretty tasty, quick to throw together and healthy so we’ll see it repeated in this house even if it isn’t 'til next Saint Patrick’s Day.

Organize a Kid’s Birthday Party

2009-03-17T10:30:00.001-04:00

I have held 4 or 5 at-home birthday parties for my kids, (or perhaps more but I have chosen to block out the memories). I think I may finally have it down to a science. When I leave too much left unplanned things can get a little crazy especially with 10 six and seven year olds dressed in Star Wars costumes, sporting their best light saber moves. Parties are usually 2 hours long and on a couple occasions I have said to my husband, “Only 1 hour and 20 minutes left”, and soon after, “Only 1 hour left, Honey. We can do it!” So, this past weekend I believe I have conquered the at-home birthday party challenge. I put together a party agenda and printed two copies. I taped up a copy in each location where we would be sure to see it so we could refer to the agenda at any time. In the past, I had an idea of which games and things we would do but didn’t necessarily have the location and order of things figured out thinking it was best to see how the party was going first before deciding. I had good intentions but with a load of young kids filling the house and my mind with loud noises I could barely think about what to do next. But, for this last party, I had the order of events figured out exactly how and when we would do them and it was a lot of fun. I had to look at the clock only to make sure we would have enough time to fit it all in, not to see how much longer we had to endure. The kids and adults had a blast.

An at-home party is classic. There is nothing like it. And it is super cheap, if you don’t get sucked into spending money on unnecessary things. Kids, (at least mine), love having a gaggle of friends over to their house to celebrate. With all the friends and talk and games, no one is going to notice that you are using white paper plates and napkins instead of fancy princess ones that get thrown out any way. The games cost only some parental guidance, creativity and energy, (which can be easily accessed with caffeine). Noone wants those junky little party favors that end up trashing up people’s homes until they break or get thrown away. Heck, using Evite for your invitations is not only “green” but also free. I do, however, use real cards for thank you notes but those can be purchased rather inexpensively.

Here is the agenda that worked for us: If planning an at-home party scares you, just think it out ahead of time and organize an agenda to pull it off smoothly. Also, you will be glad you saved yourself loads of money!

Princess Party Agenda

1) Eat Pancakes & Apple Juice (upstairs)
2) Introduce yourself and Name Your Favorite Princess/Hero & Why while eating Pancakes
3) Princess Story Time (living room)
4) Pin the Crown on the Princess (basement)
5) Dance Party music (basement)
6) Musical Thrones and/or Pass the Princess Slipper (basement)
7) Steal the Slipper or Queen/King Says (living room)
8) Cake (dining room)
9) Presents (living room)
10) Easter Egg Hunt (basement) -- (at birthday girl's request)
11) Guess how many candy eggs are in the jar while parents arrive.

Oh and here is a picture of the castle cake I made just to give you a good laugh!

Homemade Ravioli

2009-03-06T21:39:00.004-05:00

I should have written about the Ravioli we had last week. It was the first time I have ever attempted homemade pasta and I am proud to report that it was a huge hit. Having a picture in my head of the kids helping me roll out the dough and crimping the edges together that didn't happen is probably one of the reasons I wasn't so excited to write about it. The kids' disinterest in helping me in the kitchen is rare so that was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't take any pictures because, to be honest, the ravioli weren't pretty but they were delicious. Everyone loved them so much, (after getting past apperances), that I am certain that the next time I say we're going to make ravioli they will come running with excitement to help me.

Making the ravioli wasn't nearly as difficult as I had suspected it would be but that's really because I used my handy food processor. It isn't traditional or perhaps authentic but it worked. Rolling the dough out was a bit of a challenge because the dough was rather tough but it was not as difficult as I had imagined. The rest was pretty much a breeze. I made the ravioli one day ahead and put them in an airtight container separating them with waxed paper. I lost one or two ravioli because they adhered to the waxed paper with such a vengence that they tore apart when I tried to pry them off. I boiled them in two batches and for the second batch I just plopped them into the boiling water, paper and all, and they eventually boiled off the paper. I don't know how to store them next time between the prep work and boiling process, (suggestions will be appreciated), but I do know that we will be making it again soon.

I loosely followed these recipes: http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Pasta-3474 & http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Ravioli-with-Tomato-Sauce-58226

Consolidate Your Grocery Bags!

2009-03-04T20:31:00.004-05:00

I just made this handy dandy grocery bag holder and I am quite pleased with it. I used to have all my grocery bags stuffed on a bottom kitchen cupboard shelf which was fine but they took up the entire shelf. So, I took one of those plastic Cascade Capsule boxes that you get at Sam’s, Costco or BJs., turned it upside down and cut a hole in it. I taped around the hole so the jagged edge from my not-so-smooth cutting did not rip the bags as I pulled them out. Then I filled the box with my grocery bags using the little door on top where you get your capsules out. Check it out. It holds plenty of bags and takes up minimal space. I also just happen to like anything square in shape. Round containers waste so much space. Ahh, it’s nice to live a simple life where the little things can make you so happy.

This could also be done using a plastic coffee can or a coffee can with a plastic lid or an oatmeal container or, well, just about anything. First consider the shelf space that you want your bag container to fit and then start thinking of your recyclables that would work in that space.

Top 10 Reasons Why Cooking and Baking from Scratch is Superior to Eating Food made from Boxes and Mixes:

2009-03-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

10) Contrary to what you may think, cooking and baking from scratch really is as easy as making it from a box

9) It is more time consuming to research the harmful effects of those big artificial ingredients on a box than to just mix it yourself

8) Scratch cooking tastes better once you cut your taste buds off from the processed food wagon

7) It has been predicted that our generation, (30s/40s), and those born after us will NOT outlive our elders – why do you think this is?

6) You will consume significantly less sodium eating homemade foods than boxed/processed and that will make your heart happy

5) Foods that come from real plants and animals are more nutricious than man-made non-pronounceable ingredients

4) You can drop an expensive vitamin habit by getting all your vitamins and minerals from eating homemade food

3) Cooking/baking from scratch is almost always less expensive

2) To teach your children to cook healthy nutritious food is to give them lifelong tools for living a long healthy life

And the Number 1 Reason That Cooking and Baking from Scratch is Superior to Eating Food from Boxes and Mixes (drum roll)

1) Homemade/scratch food is made with love

Stop Renting your Wardrobe

2009-03-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

I have been washing and ironing my husband’s work shirts for 5 ½ years now (gasp!) and was interested to hear, on the radio the other day, that stay-at-home moms are getting hit with cutbacks by having to iron the family’s clothing rather than sending them to the drycleaner. I had to laugh at the horrible lives of these stay-at-home mothers ironing for the first time in years. More evidence of how spoiled middle-class Americans really are for the comment to have even been made.

When purchasing new clothing I always skip over things that must be dry cleaned. That’s right, ALWAYS, with the small exception of business suits. If you are paying to have your clothes dry cleaned you will be paying more in the long run to keep them than you paid to buy them. I see it as rental wear and I refuse to “rent” my clothes. Due to the available fabrics years ago, our garment choices were limited and if you were a working professional, dry cleaning was a necessary evil. Now, there are so many alternatives to the dry-clean-only fabrics, (aside from the traditional suit which seems to be reserved for interviews only these days) that there is no “need” for such things in our wardrobes. Sometimes I wish I had a wasteful habit like regular dry cleaning so that I would have a way to save some money to put to better use..

March Monthly Menu

2009-02-26T16:04:00.007-05:00

My meal planning advice of the day today is DON'T do what I did for March. Plan your menu early in bits and pieces and do not wait till the end of the month to do it. My daughter watched an hour more of tv than I would have liked as I rushed to get my menu together so that I could make ONE trip to Sam's club instead of two. I know that pulling it together will be worth it over the next 4 1/2 weeks but it wasn't fun doing it last minute.

Well coming up in March I tried to get super cheap and even though we follow the pre-Vatican II abstinence on Fridays year round, we will be trying some new vegetarian recipes on Fridays during this Lenten Season. The new veggie recipes were more inspired by what odds and ends I found in my pantry than a desire to try a yummy sounding recipe. A couple of them I am not so sure about but hey, it's always good to try something new and at least it uses some pantry items that I already have on hand.

I hope the Pad Thai is good. I just had the pleasure of having Pad Thai out for the first time in years thanks to my friend Theresa and it made me want more!

Recipes to Accompany March Menu

2009-02-26T10:07:00.012-05:00

1st *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

2nd Homemade Ravioli, I'm going to combine some various recipes and kind of throw it together. Here are some I have found. http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Pasta-3474 & http://www.recipezaar.com/Homemade-Ravioli-with-Tomato-Sauce-58226

3rd Oriental Chicken Salad over rice

Can't get much cheaper than this.

4th *Pineapple Pork Tenderloin w/ rice

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/02/pineapple-pork-tenderloin-crockpot.html

6th: Spinach Nuggets (x3 to freeze) w/ fries & pesto pasta
http://www.recipezaar.com/Spinach-Nuggets-307877

7th Raspberry Balsamic Chicken (from freezer) over spinach w/ rice pilaf on side
Spinach

Rosemary Chicken with Raspberry / Balsamic Glaze

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.

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

8th: Pumpkin bean burgers w/ sweet potato fries & fruit salad

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/BUSHS-Pumpkin-Bean-Burgers/Detail.aspx

9th: Pad Thai w/ shrimp & chicken

I am going to combine these two recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pad-Thai-2/Detail.aspx
http://joelens.blogspot.com/2007/05/pad-thai-riffic.html

10th BBQ Chicken Pizza

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/barbecued-chicken-pizza?autonomy_kw=chicken%20pizza&rsc=header_2

11th Slow-cooked tex-mex chicken & beans w/ wraps & salad fixings
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/slow-cooked-tex-mex-chicken-and-beans?autonomy_kw=chicken%20tex%20mex&rsc=header_1

13th Manhattan Fish Chowder w/ Rolls

http://jennshomework.blogspot.com/2009/01/snow-day-baking-day.html

14th *Cranberry Pork roast w/ side veggie & rice
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/02/crockpot-cranberry-pork-roast.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/manhattan-fish-chowder?autonomy_kw=manhattan%20fish%20chowder&rsc=header_1

15th Pasta (1) w/ Italian sausage & ground beef

I'm just throwing this together

16th Corned Beef, cabbage, potatoes & rolls
Irish in-laws are in town and they will cook.

20th Curried Split Peas on Rice w/ Sweet Mashed Potatoes
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/12/curried-split-peas-on-rice.html

21st *Chickpea Stew w/ some pulled pork over rice & apple muffins
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/11/chickpea-stew.html

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeDisplay?RID=R755

22nd Bacon wrapped Cheeseburgers w/ fries and salad
If I have some feta I may get fancy but we'll see.

23rd Stuffed Shells from freezer w/ salad

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

24th Chicken Burritos (x3 to freeze) w corn & dirty rice

25th: *Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles w/ side veggie

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1535413&package_id=1535442

27th Tofu Fried Rice
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chicken-fried-rice?autonomy_kw=chicken%20fried%20rice&rsc=header_1 (sub firm tofu for chicken)

28th Breakfast for Dinner

29th Hamburger Pizza

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/hamburger-and-grape-tomato-pizza?autonomy_kw=hamburger%20pizza&rsc=header_2

30th Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli

I am combining a tried and true: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-and-Broccoli-Alfredo-533 with a new one: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1571495

31st Cheese Quesadillas w/ Crockpot Salsa Chicken & Black Bean Soup
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/11/salsa-chicken-and-black-bean-soup.html

Ideas for Lent that may Create Frugal Habits

2009-02-24T20:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some ideas of things that you can give up for Lent that maybe you never thought of that could also create a new frugal habit for your family. If you choose to give up one of these things for lent not only will save money but you may also discover that your family does not “need” them after all:

1) Dry cleaning
2) Juice (eat the fruit instead)
3) Fabric Softener
4) Cleaning Chemicals (use vinegar water & reusable rags instead)
5) Catalogs & other advertising media that arrives in your mail (trash them immediately)
6) Shopping for unnecessaries
7) Eating out (take up cooking and meal planning for every meal)
8) Coffee from the “outside” (brew your own at home)
9) Tabloid magazines
10) Cereal (other than homemade cereal of course)
11) Cable (look into reconnection charges first if you are certain that you will be reconnecting)
12) Entertainment that costs money
13) Cleaning services, babysitting or other services that you pay for but can do yourself or do without
14) Newspaper

There are people even in America who have given up all these things or never even had them to begin with and they are still alive! So yes, it can be done. Most of these things I have been able to give up (or never had) for prolonged periods of time (years) and I still have friends, a social life, healthy children and a wonderful marriage. Really, it will not kill you, I promise.

Need vs Want Frugality

2009-02-24T13:48:00.001-05:00

For several years my motto for frugality was to not spend a penny on any nonessentials in order to meet some hefty financial goals, (paying off 2 rather large grad. student loans on one income), except for a rare occasion. I pondered that kind of purchase a lot longer than I had been used to while trying to squeeze out the purchase price from my budget first. It’s a discipline of sorts that my financial situation forced me into but I have learned from it.

Just as I have done on those occasions, some of my acquaintances justify purchasing many frivolous things as "needs" rather than the "wants" they truly are.
I have made myself very cognizant of the use of the word “need” and have trained myself to catch it as it sometimes comes out of my mouth. If you really focus on needs vs wants you start getting a little judgmental when you hear other people say the word “need.” It’s amazing at how loosey-goosey we are with the word. Being judgmental of others is of course not good but an awareness of the use of the word “need” I think can be a positive eye opener. Many people are facing this “need vs want” discipline for the first time in years due to our current economy.

As I have explained before I have been going down the opposite road of the mainstream in this economy by spending more money and enjoying some things that we haven’t for a while having paid off our student loans. I feel a slippery slope occurring which tells me I ought to go back to my frugal ways in order to meet more long term financial goals (pay off mortgage and save for retirement). At first it was difficult to part with money that I so desperately pinched and reallocated for quite some time. After making a few nonessential purchases I found that they made me really happy and parting with the money became easier and easier. So now 7 throw pillows, some curtain rods, a lamp and some new bedding later I am thinking that it may be a sin to allow such purchases to bring such joy. I will say that I appreciate them a lot more than I would have before my frugal days but I’d like to stay in a state of appreciation so I’m going to do my best to hold back again. It also seems appropriate for this Lent Season.

So if you are trying to become more frugal not due to job loss but due to a down turn in your portfolio or job insecurity or even Lent, know that it can be a positive growing experience that can set you ahead financially and emotionally especially if you can embrace it over a long haul.

Timer: Friend or Foe?

2009-02-19T09:50:00.004-05:00

Somehow,some people often find time in a full and busy day to enjoy brainless, enjoyable things like wasting away in front of the TV or the computer. Then, there are those who have yet to find surfing the internet a fascinating and entertaining exercise and never even turn on the TV. I am certain that those people are keeping their brain cells intact by reading intellectual books while the rest of us are letting ours deteriorate in front of one monitor or another stealing valuable time from us. Alot of my web research activity for various bits of knowledge turns into a marathon of facebook viewing or typing e-mails and my intended 5 minute search for a particular bit of info stretches into a much longer period of time. My strong-natured friend, Anne, has figured out that a moment of oogling can develope quickly into an hour of "Googling" so she sets a timer for 15 minutes whenever she sits down in front of her computer. Of course, young children can serve as your timer and until they are tucked into bed for the night there really is no such amount of "free" time unless they aren't home. Another friend of mine, Amy, uses the timer a little differently. She sets it to motivate her to get an unpleasant task done like cleaning the house. It's a race against the timer to clean the floors in less than 15 minutes! You can get a lot more work done and feel the satisfaction of accomplishment if you play the "race the timer" game!

Whoa That was Gooood!

2009-02-17T19:19:00.005-05:00

We just had the Crockpot Lady's Salsa Chicken & Black Bean Crockpot Soup tonight. Whoa. Wow. I can't believe how simple (and cheap) it was and how completely fabulous it was. The pairing of simple fried quesadillas was a perfect pairing. The sour cream complimented both perfectly. I highly recommend this meal. I used 2 cans of beans instead of dried beans just because that was what I had on hand. I didn't read all the directions (I do that often) and had it on high for most of the day. When I read the directions which said that I should have had it on low instead of high since I was using canned beans I thought I may have ruined it but no . . . it was whoa good!

You can find the recipe here.

Thank you Auntie Dani!

2009-02-16T07:42:00.006-05:00

Just when we really needed some new breakfast ideas and just when we had an abundance of ripe bananas Auntie Dani came through with a delicious healthy whole food banana muffin recipe. Usually my kids don’t get too excited about all the various healthy muffins I try to get in their bodies in the morning but these healthy banana muffins have chocolate chips in them so it was a no brainer for them. These are made with whole wheat flour and just a bit of brown sugar. Thank you Auntie!

___________________________________

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins—from King Arthur Flour: Whole Grain Baking

Ingredients:
½ c unsalted butter
½ c packed light brown or dark brown sugar
¾ t baking soda
½ t salt
½ t cinnamon
¼ t nutmeg
1 t vanilla extract
1 ½ c (about 3 large) mashed ripe bananas
¼ c honey
2 eggs
2 c whole wheat flour
½ c choco chips

Preheat oven to 350*

Line muffin pan with muffin cups, lightly grease them with veg spray.

Beat together butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla until smooth. Add bananas, honey, and eggs and blend until smooth. Slowly add the flour and choco chips.

Spoon into muffin cups and let stand at room temperature for 10-minutes. After resting place into oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes in muffin pan, then remove cups from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.

Yields 12- jumbo muffins or 24-medium muffins.

_____________________________________

Oh and if you are wondering why we have so many bananas, I freeze them 3 at a time when they get very ripe. I make breakfast smoothies with the frozen bananas. It looks like we have enough bananas to freeze and to make another batch of these muffins AND a new banana bread recipe Auntie is also sending us.

Closet Door Real Estate

2009-02-14T08:32:00.007-05:00

Valuable storage space that is often overlooked can be found on the backs of your closet doors. There are better alternatives to those over-the-door organizers which almost never allow a door to close. I am no decorator by any stretch but even I know that the hooks that are visible into the room when the door is closed looks terrible.

These great adjustable shelves can be attached to the inside of a closet door and the items it can store are endless. You can create a much needed pantry out of otherwise wasted real estate behind a closet door in an older home that lacks much needed kitchen storage. I use a couple smaller shelves like these to store my cleaning supplies out of reach of little hands and freeing up closet shelves for other things without taking up kitchen cupboard space. You can find these shelves at Walmart, Home Depot and similar stores but be sure to measure your closet door first so you purchase the correct size.

Hooks, hat holders and so many other organizers can be utilized on the back of a closet door. Nearly any organizer designed with a hanger (like this jewelry hanger), can be hung on a door with a hook and secured at the bottom to prevent it from flopping around. Attaching these organizers to the back of a closet door is better than hanging them inside where things can fall out of the pockets as they get snagged on clothes that you move while looking for the right outfit. If you've ever used one of these hanging organizers on a clothes rod you probably know what I mean. They are also more visible and accessible attached to the back of closet door than hanging with your clothes. If you have hollow doors like I do, don’t discount the closest door real estate, there are screws that can be used to properly anchor screws and hooks, just ask your friendly hardware store employee and they will show you which hardware to buy.

You can get creative with the backs of your doors to really utilize their valuable real estate. Things that I can think of to store behind a closet door include shirt ties, belts, any pantry items, light bulbs, tools, extension cords, cleaning supplies, jewelry, scarves, most any clothing accessory, medicine or linen closet type goods, children's hair accessories, etc. The possibilities are endless.

The only closet doors that do not offer storage real estate are those pesky bi-folds. I value the real estate that the backs of closet doors offer so much so that the bi-fold closet doors in our 1970s home was one of the first things to go when we bought our house 5 years ago. Our coat closet door stores ball caps with a handy organizer and the other closet door holds my kids’ backpacks on hooks. I am so glad we replaced the bi-folds with usable storage real estate. It was well worth it.

Carpe Diem!

2009-02-10T17:03:00.001-05:00

Early Work Out Schedule

When I tell people that I hit the gym at 5:20 am they generally think I am crazy. Crazy I may be but not just because I work out early. I was off the early work out wagon for a while and I am back on hopefully to stay. I can not tell you how much smoother my life goes being able to walk in the door at 6:30 am having already worked out. On an ideal day, my alarm goes off at 4:45 am and I hit the treadmill at 5:20 am. My husband wants me home by 6:30 so he can get ready for work. It just works for us. One reason it works is that my kids get up at 6 am. So when my alarm goes off I tell myself that it is only an hour earlier than I would be getting up anyway. Also, we do not yet have kids in late night activities so they are in bed at 8 pm and I try to get myself in bed by 9 pm. If you can get a work out in the early hours do it. Of course if you are currently not working out at all then I probably can’t talk you into working out early but you should know that working out really boosts your energy level in addition to many other benefits.

When I first heard of people working out in the 5 o’clock hour I thought I could never do it. I was motivated by a friend who did it nearly every day and she has five busy children so I figured if she can do it then I should be able to do it. Now I know of a few other people that hit the gym early and I suppose it helps to get me out of bed knowing a few other people are doing it too. Working out early also appeals to me because it is really all about time management. If I don’t work out early then I can’t start my day till about 11 am. I have to wait to get kids to school and for the gym child care to open at 9 am, work out till about 10:10, go home then shower. Being able to start my day at 9 right after dropping the big kids off at school makes a HUGE difference in my day.

Sauerbraten Review

2009-02-07T21:12:00.004-05:00

We finally had the Sauerbraten that I turned over each of five nights for tonight's dinner. I missed turning the beef last night but I doubt that the omission made a difference. My friend, Marilyn, said that she’d be thinking of me each night turning that darned beef so I knew I needed to do something to offset the Sauerbraten obsession. I set out to read the Gospels front to back each night and am ashamed to say that I missed two nights of that but made up for it with more lengthy reading the next night.. I am still committed to that end.

Now for the Sauerbraten review. The roast was very tough and didn’t seem to absorb much flavor of the brine that it soaked in for those 5 days. Bummer. However, all is not lost because the sauce that was served over the beef was excellent with our mashed potatoes and made the experiment well worth it. The sauce captured the flavor of what Sauerbraten is all about. The sauce is made from mixing the brine with sour cream. I may consider making the brine sauce as a gravy some time and skip the 5 day brining process since that labor seemed fruitless. Mushrooms would be a good addition to the sauce, but then, I think mushrooms are a good addition to any sauce.

Random Thoughts on Surviving Family Life

2009-02-05T20:49:00.004-05:00

I get quite overwhelmed with the busy-ness of our lives with three kids some days. I know we aren't really terribly busy right now as mine are fairly young but as they get older we will get busier. I've had this thought floating around in my head every day for a couple of months. A wise friend of mine brought it up during a Familia meeting that..........

If you have taught your children about God, haven't you done your job?

So, here is my new organizational tip for moms who are having one of those out-of-control days. (It's not really an organizational tip but let's pretend that it is related somehow.) Stop whatever you are doing and take a moment to pray with your kids or read a bible story to them. Because in the end, no matter how (un)organized your home is, whatever you feed your family for dinner to get you by till the next meal or even how well planned your budget may or may not be, if you have taught your children about God then you have most certainly done your job for the day.

Fabulous Bulletin Boards!

2009-02-05T15:34:00.003-05:00

I can not imagine running my house without a bulletin board or two, (or three or four). I suppose a lot of people put papers in sight with magnets on their fridge but that just feels cluttered to me so I prefer to use a bulletin board. If you don’t think that the papers you have on your fridge make your house feel cluttered and the fact that they fall off now and again when the fridge doors are opened, try this. Clear your fridge of every magnet, paper and doodad and clean the doors and the exposed sides of your fridge. Now look at it. Doesn’t that feel good? Ahhh. I can’t explain why a bulletin board with papers tacked to it is better visually than a fridge with the same papers magnetized to it but it just is.

The paper clutter issue bugs nearly everyone I know. If it isn’t the papers on the fridge then it’s the papers piled on the counter that is bugging them. A bulletin board can be one of the first steps in solving a paper clutter issue. I have a couple of small corkboard squares inside my computer armiore for passwords, receipts that I want to put into my pricebook, laminated Nicene Creed, and other papers and notes that relate to anything I will be doing on the computer. The kitchen, being central station of our house, has a prettier pottery barn bulletin where I keep our pocket calendar, my son’s class schedule, beatitudes ( We can always use a reminder of those), a photo or two, gym exercise class schedule, basketball game schedule and any school papers that require attention in the immediate future. My bigger kids have a small bulletin board in each of their rooms for motivational sticker charts, routine charts and calendars. Bulletin boards keep paper easy to find and prevent paper clutter from growing on horizontal surfaces. Even if your bulletin board gets cluttered, it will seem less cluttered visually than having a counter or table cluttered with paper piles.

Waste Not Want Not

2009-02-02T18:49:00.000-05:00

After I rearranged some cupboards I went to Church and listened to a homily where thankfulness was mentioned. Watching the school kids after Mass diligently hold out their pots to collect money for their annual “Souper Bowl” hunger charity, I have come to the conclusion that I MUST use my pantry items. These topics may seem unrelated but they aren’t. We are so fortunate with what we have that it would be a sin to let the food in our cupboards go to waste. My house is abundant with food at a time when people in our country and around the world struggle to feed their family. Not only do I bulk buy and freeze meals, I don’t always get to every new recipe on my menu. We usually luck out and have a couple extra leftover nights in the month but because I have done my once a month non-perishable shopping I end up with some extras. Thanks to my freezer inventory I am good about using what I have with regard to meat and other things that I freeze. I look at my freezer inventory as I make out my menu each month. I do not keep an inventory on my pantry items and such because it fluctuates too much and I can see what is there easily. However, for March I will jot down a list of the items in my pantry so that when I sit down at my computer to make out my menu I will either finally cook the entrees that I never got to that made me purchase the pantry items on my list or I will research a new recipe that uses up my pantry items. Hopefully this will be good on my grocery budget since I am $200 in the red due to Christmas festivities. I was $300 in the red but skimping in January got me $100 out of it but there is still a ways to go to break even. So, my promise to myself and my budget and my cupboards for March is to come up with a creative menu that will use up what I already have.

A trip to the Grocery Store CAN be enjoyable

2009-02-02T15:41:00.001-05:00

I got the pleasure of running to the grocery the other day BY MYSELF. NO KIDS! As if that wasn’t good enough I happened to get a really sweet cashier. She asked me who the caramel lover in the house was when she saw that I was getting an entire 14 oz bag of caramels. I said, “who isn’t?” but then explained that I use them in a cereal bar recipe for my son’s lunches which is really just more like a candy/cookie recipe. She got my madness immediately and said that it was probably better than a lot of the packaged stuff sold in the store with a bunch of unpronounceable preservative ingredients and such. I thanked her for “getting” my madness. THEN, get this, THEN on top of all that when she got to my wine she says, “I know you said that you have kids and all but could I please see your license?” Oh My Goodness! YES YES YES! You may see my license! She said that I didn’t look that old when she saw that I was 34. I suppose 35 shouldn’t be feelin’ all that bad this year, huh?

Ok, my girlfriends are sick of hearing me say, “did I tell you that I got carded the other day?” so now you have to read about it. Ok, I’m done with the story . . . for a while anyway.

Kitchen Corners

2009-02-01T11:55:00.001-05:00

Unlike my husband, (who gets so frustrated at trying to find things every time I move them), I am always open to storing things in a different way or rearranging things to improve efficiency, workability and storage. Today my poor husband is sick so I probably should have spared him but I got the bug to reorganize a few kitchen cupboards and went to work on them.

Kitchen corners have often been a source of frustration for me. It seems that things just disappear in the back of a corner especially if you are 5’3” or under with regard to those upper corner cupboards. I have found that if I put the right things in a trouble corner cupboard then I don’t get so frustrated with the corner space. I had been putting large cereal boxes on my top corner shelf but that wasn’t working well, (despite my neat label on the shelf that read “CEREAL”). The box that I wanted would often get pushed to the back and I would play the “Get it From the Back Game” by grabbing a pair of high heels, scooting a chair over to stand on or trying to grab the box with salad tongs. I pulled a muscle once playing the Get it From the Back Game. The box won. I’m sure I will miss that game but I think that storing my large bags of flour and sugar will work better. I will only need to get to the bags when my canisters are running low.

My kitchen is like most kitchens in that the bottom corner cupboard has a large two shelf lazy susan in it which is supposed to be a storage solution to the Get it From the Back Game. I tried putting baking supplies on the lazy susan but I often still lost things in the back. We have all done it. When you have a heavy load on a corner lazy susan and you get a good spin going, off pops all your little things like muffin liners, vanilla, etc. I think the use of lazy susans is limited. However, I moved the canned items, including a couple of bulk canned items that I leave in boxes from Sam’s Club, to my corner lazy susan and it is working better already. So the answer for corners I think is to store the least-used items there and those larger items. If you are vertically challenged as I am only put rarely used large items in that top corner shelf unless you want to play the Get if From the Back Game. Wish my husband good luck when he looks for his canned soup that (which he shouldn’t be eating anyway), has been moved.

Happy Birthday Anne!

2009-01-31T11:35:00.003-05:00

And also to my sister-in-law many miles away. I made my dear 5 week postpartum friend an Angel Food Cake with mixed berry frosting. Totally guilt-free, right? If my sister-in-law was closer I might consider making her a Birthday cake but if you have seen her blog you would understand that I might hesitate. She makes gorgeous cakes, whereas I just make . . . cake. Oh and I have I mentioned that I am also no photographer.

Snow Day = Baking Day

2009-01-28T20:37:00.004-05:00

We had a glorious snow day today. School was cancelled. Even my husband stayed home which is incredibly rare. My kids must have logged 6-8 hours in the snow taking turns on our man-made snow hill by our house. I also played in the snow a bit but I also had the kids help me bake some dinner rolls and sticky buns. I usually have such bad luck with anything that involves yeast (I buy it in bulk regardless of my bad luck and keep it in the fridge) so if I can do this recipe anyone can. My kids mixed in the flour and I split the dough so that all three had their own to play/knead. I didn’t care for thebit of chocolate chips that the recipe called for in the sticky buns but I think the kids loved them. Both the dinner rolls and the sticky buns are so pretty and so simple that I want to make some for everyone I know. Oh and I just LOVE a recipe that gives you freezing instructions. Thank you Martha!

February Menu

2009-01-26T21:55:00.006-05:00

It seems to me that there are too many new recipes to try and too little time to try them all. I really do try to keep my menus simple but I am constantly coming across new recipes that I want to try to make. Often, as is the case for February, when I sit down to put the menu together I realize that there are about three new recipes each week. Too many new recipes can be a recipe for disaster. Not all new recipes are a success so my family and I can get tired of flop after flop so hopefully we will have good luck this February. Sometimes a traditional ethnic recipe sounds so terrible awful but has such great reviews that I must try it. So this February we will give the German dish Sauerbraten a try.

Double click on the smaller images to enlarge:

February Menu Recipes

2009-01-26T20:25:00.009-05:00

1st: *Fast Chicken Fajitas w/ dirty rice (rice with cumin and other misc spices) & black bean/corn medley (a favorite side of my husband's) smothered in salsa
This was very simple and everyone loved it. Will definitely add Fast Chicken Fajitas to our regular meals.

2nd: Veggie Pizza w/ salad
Just pizza dough which I purchase in bulk at Sam's (but I ought to make my own and plan to one day soon) with whatever veggies I feel like putting on it plus cheese of course.

3rd: Chicken & Pork Stew with Plantains & Yucca = a new family favorite after discovering this recipe in December on St. Dominic of Silos Feast Day.
Loved this recipe again. Yum. Next time I will triple to freeze.

5th: Pasta w/ Italian Sausage & ground beef like Uncle Mike makes.
This was requested of my 7 year old since Uncle Mike visited at Christmas and cooked pasta with loads of yummy meat and spices. I will give it a try.

6th: *Wild Salmon w/ braised lentils & orange balsamic reduction
A new recipe I found that was on a healthy food blog. I don't care for lentils but this looked like it might work. We'll see.
My seven year old asked for SECONDS of the lentils so yes, we will definitely be adding this to our regular menu. We had rice on the side and it was so good with the lentils.
The sauce for the salmon was simple and yummy too.

7th: *Sauerbraten, broccoli & creamy mashed potatoes
Will keep the brine/sauce recipe as a gravy but toss the flipping for 5 day hassle.

8th: *Chicken Saute with Carmelized Ginger Sauce, leftover mashed potatoes & veggie
This was a hit even with my friend's picky kids. Yea for new yummy recipes! This should be served with rice and next time I'll add veggies to make it a stir fry.

9th: Calzones FF - Thanks to Amber, my fellow Freezer Friend, this sounds fabulous

BASIC BEEF BOLOGNESE
2 lb. lean ground beef
3 medium onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1/2 cup beef broth
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, crushed
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil **(I used just 1 tsp. of dried)
In a dutch oven cook beef, onion, carrot, celery and garlic over medium heat until browned. Drain off fat.
Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, Italian seasoning, sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt and red pepper.
Bring to boiling over medium-high heat; reduce heat and simmer (covered) 30 minutes.
Stir in fresh basil and cook, uncovered 5 minutes more, stirring often. (I just added dried basil in with the other seasonings)
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
***at this point you can divide the sauce into portions and let cool for 30 minutes then freeze for later use on pasta or for calzones.
CALZONE
1 1-lb. frozen pizza dough, thawed
about 2 cups of BASIC BEEF BOLOGNESE SAUCE
shredded Gouda, or cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese
Let dough stand at room temp. for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with cornmeal. **
On a lightly floured surface roll dough to large oval.
Transfer to the baking sheet. **
Lightly brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle with oregano.
Spread 2 cups of sauce on half of Calzone to within 2 inches of edges. Top with cheeses.
Fold dough over filling; press edges together. Seal edges by pressing with a fork.
Cut several small slits in top of crust with a sharp knife.
Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes before cutting.
Serve with extra sauce.
**(I assembled it first then transferred to a preheated pizza stone -- just an option)

10th: *Chicken & Rice Soup (crockpot lady) w/ homemade bread

12th: Veggie Pasta in Crockpot
I am finally going to try to make the same old veggie red sauce I always make but in the crockpot.

13th: Steamed Flounder w/ veggie cous cous

14th: *Beef Marinated Kebobs w/ rice & side veggie (I will be using beef instead of Lamb unless I find a good price and I am feeling adventurous.)

15th: *Spicy Coconut Chicken Casserole

16th: Cheese Quesadillas (just tortillas stuffed with shredded cheese burnt over my gas stove -- however you make them - my mom used to do them in the microwave) w/ *Crockpot Salsa Chicken & Black Bean Soup

17th: *Crockpot Indian Chicken over rice

19th: Eggplant Parm from freezer
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.

20th: Fish Sticks w/ fries & salad

21st: Turkey chili & corn bread

22nd: *Tandoori Chicken over rice w/ side veggie (I am just going to broil the chicken rather than grill.)

23rd: *Veggie Lasagne in the crockpot (Maybe I will add meat, we'll see.)

24th: *Stacie’s Chicken Tortilla Soup (Stacie's adaptions: omit water and substitute more broth, may omit green onions but not lime and cilantro and use chicken with the skin on but remove skin before serving. Also blend some if you don't like the chunks and want a smoother soup. Add corn and black beans for a heartier soup.)

26th: Chicken Parm FF (Have not received the recipe yet but will post it as soon as I get it.)

27th: Fish/Veggie Foil packets in Crockpot w/ 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.

28th: Reuben Casserole FF - thanks Ann S

1 25 oz can drained sauerkraut
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 cup Thousand Island
10 ounces fresh corned beef cut in small chunks
2 cups shredded swiss cheese
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup crushed rye crackers2 tablespoons softened butter

Heat oven 425 degrees. Spread sauerkraut in 9 by 13 inch pan. Sprinkle with caraway seeds, cover with dressing. Top with corned beef and cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.Separate each biscuit onto crushed crackers, roll coating the sides. Arrange over casserole. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Brush biscuit tops with butter before serving.

Pricebooking 101

2009-01-24T09:29:00.000-05:00

What is a Pricebook? I got this term from the esteemed Amy Dacyczyn. It is a little comparison price list of items that you regularly purchase and consume. You can keep a Pricebook in many ways. You can hand-write everything in a small notebook to keep track of prices or you can keep it up to date on your computer in a word document or excel format and print it out to take with you as you shop. It is sometimes difficult to keep track of the “true” price of items (so you can compare on an apples-to-apples basis) because they are sometimes sold in different quantities in different stores. Unless you are a math whiz the best way to get a handle on how you can get the most for your money is to sit down and calculate the best price per quantity. I will not lie, it is a bit time consuming to start a Pricebook, but like a lot of organizational money-saving tools, once you have it up and running it takes very little time and effort. I have not been keeping my Pricebook up to date lately but I have been saving my receipts so today I will be updating my Pricebook.

When I first made my Pricebook I got very excited about playing the “game.” It was empowering to know that I was no longer throwing money into the wind by purchasing the wrong items at the wrong store for the wrong price. It is an eye opener.
It is also scary to see how prices have been creeping up .10 or .60 cents at a time. We have all been complaining about this price creeping phenomena in our current economy. I try to remember that Americans and other Westerners spent a small fraction of their income on food in comparison to other countries where 80-100% of people’s income must often go toward feeding their family (see More with Less Cookbook).

Keeping a Pricebook opened up an underground grocery world. I quickly found that I was not the only one keeping up with the best prices. If you shop the grocery flyers you will see that it is filled with not-so-great bargains marketed to make you think that it is a great bargain. Before Pricebooking, I didn’t realize this. Many sales prices in a weekly grocery flyer can be beat at Aldi’s or Sam’s Club. When you identify a sale in a weekly flyer that can not be beat elsewhere and therefore is truly a good bargain it means that it’s time to stock up on that item if it is a pantry item, freezer friendly item or paper item. I found that there is a whole underground world that I didn’t know about of people like me who were keeping track of these truly good bargain stock up sales because when I went to the store to stock up the item was GONE! SOLD OUT! And it was ONLY those items. Sometimes it’s like getting an A+ on a report card because if you see that the item you have identified as a true bargain is missing from the shelves or nearly missing, then you got the answer on the test right. Our local store, Giant Eagle (equivalent to Super Stop and Shop, Piggly Wiggly, Krogers, etc) will give you a “rain check” on these items that are sold out which will allow you to purchase the item at the sale price when it comes in even if it is after the weekly sale flyer. You can get your rain check at the customer service counter.

Yes I know that this is a lot for some people and most people I know that love to tease me about these things will have a field day with this, but I will tell you that I am paying less for the same stuff that they are buying and that is worth it for me. I do have a couple friends and my mom who like to do the pricebook occasionally with me by checking prices with me so that is fun. I must admit that I haven’t figured out the coupon world just yet. I have tried a couple times but I never seem to pull out the right coupon with kids in tow and I never seem to come across the right coupon so the Pricebook is my replacement for that although I aspire to get the coupon thing down. I find the Pricebook more satisfying because a coupon you can usually only use on one item whereas hitting a Pricebook bargain you can really stock up at a great price. Here is a view at how I have kept my Pricebook in word format. I occasionally just delete the stores that do not have the best price and leave just the best price on my Pricebook so I know the number I am trying to beat.

Have you Gotten Your 2009 Calendar Yet?

2009-01-21T07:41:00.000-05:00

Every January, it seems that everyone I talk to is having calendar issues. I have friends who are missing appointments, not feeling back into the school routine and generally needing someone to kick them in the behind to get going all because they “NEED TO GET A CALENDAR". Being the planning dork that I am, I get my next year’s calendar by August. Did you know that they come out in July? Put that info. in your 2009 calendar right now (assuming you have one), for July. In big black marker letters write at the top of July 2009 “GET 2010 CALENDAR!” It feels good when it’s September and you are scheduling your next dentist appointment for March. The appointment has somewhere to go on your calendar because you already have one. Also, I encourage you to buy one with a pocket on each month (see pic). I have been using these pocket calendars for years. They are simple to use and they work. Got tickets for a football game two months away? Put the tickets in that month’s calendar pocket. Got directions to a birthday party next month? Put it in February’s calendar pocket. Flyer for a church retreat? No problem. It’s a foolproof way to always be able to find invitations, directions, tickets, and other info relating to calendar events.

Organizing the Spices of Life

2009-01-20T10:51:00.000-05:00

Professional organizers will always cushion their advice with, "different organizational systems work for different people so you just have to find the one that is right for you." I will buy that nicety for SOME things but in some instances there are systems of keeping order that are superior to others. For instance, how DO you find your seasonings and spices if they are not in alphabetical order? This is one area in which friends enjoy poking fun at me but, really, HOW do you find your spices if they are not in order? I like mine stored on a lazy susan in alpha order. I have seen the various spice organizational mechanisms like the little shelves or the SPINEY counter-top things. Neither seems to be better than my simple lazy susan alpha system. If you put your spices on those little stair-like shelves you can see only the labels on the jars in the very front row and in the process of removing one to use it is nearly impossible to not knock down others. I don't get those shelves at all. The spice spinners that come with their own jars could work if they had space for ALL the spices but I have yet to see one that does. Whenever I pass anew spice spinner in a store I always stop to debunk it's usefulness by thinking of spices that are missing and/or would not have a place on it. (Yes, it's an obsession this organizing thing. It's what I do.) If you use only the spices that come with the spinners and you are not an adventurous cook and you know that you will never branch out to try a new spice such as tumeric, (which is almost never on one of those spinners), then I suppose it could work, but limiting your seasoning to 12 jars just sounds depressing to me. I had hope for those drawer spice organizers when they first came out but the most spice jars they can hold is 24 and you need to have a huge drawer for all 24 jars to fit. My kitchen does happen to have a gigantic drawer but if I used it for spices I would have to find somewhere else to put my knives and cooking utensils or silverware and even then my spice collection is 39 right now. So, even those drawer organizers would be limiting at some point. The 11” lazy susan fits in standard upper cupboards and will easily accommodate 13 spice jars side-by-side and if you have those little rectangle tins, more will fit. You can also stack the little short ones and store the refills in the middle of the circle. Wiggle room can be made by zig-zagging the jars, increasing the space for more than 13 jars on a susan making it expandable to grow as your culinary skills grow. It is clearly superior!

Another well orchestrated evening dinner thanks to my friend, Crockpot.

2009-01-16T13:32:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night, I had to pick up my 1st grader from school at 4 pm, drag all of the kids to drop off dinner a a friend’s and attend a preschool open house. Once we got home I needed the 1st grader to complete his homework and dinner by 6:30 in order to get him to basketball on time. Millions of mothers, I am sure, have similar if not more hectic evenings on a regular basis. For my evening I planned on using my trusty crockpot to get me through. Fish packets is a regular meal in our house but I had never thought to cook them in the crockpot until I read a smiliar recipe on the Crockpot Lady’s Blog. When I first saw her recipe that takes 3-4 hours in the crock I thought how helpful is that? I am a crockpot purist who thinks of crockpot recipes as being convenient and delicious only if it cooks for 6-8 hours but I figured I would try this short-cook idea.

I thawed the fish for our fish packets at 3:00, in cold water and cut up the veggies, (onion, tomato, mushrooms, zucchini, peppers). Once thawed, I made the fish packets by placing each of the fish fillets on the bottom of a piece of foil and layering them with veggies, olive oil, minced garlic, basil, chopped rosemary and seasoned salt. I folded each of the layered piles up in individual foil packets and placed all the packets in the crockpot. The prep took less than 10 minutes. My husband doesn’t eat fish so I made a chicken packet for him. (So far, the kids haven’t noticed these replacements for daddy but he’ll have some explaining to do about a made-up allergy when they do figure it out). I placed them in the crockpot on high and they were warm when we rolled in the door at 5:20. Perfect! I cooked the tumeric rice in advance and warmed it in the microwave. Perfect. There was no rushing and dinner was delicious and ready to go. Thank you Crockpot!

With Kids, you Need to have a Clothing System

2009-01-14T09:13:00.000-05:00

I have heard of several great ways to get your kids, especially girls, to put matching outfits together. You can invest in hangers of several different colors or put colored paper on your existing hangers and hang the coordinating pieces on them. Or you can put colored paper around the hangers for the same thing. I personally have no desire to have a 3 or 4 year old coordinate. I would rather see my daughter in a polka dot skirt, striped sweater with flowered tights than a perfectly coordinated outfit. It just makes me smile when I see young girls who have clearly dressed themselves. I mean really, you only get to be young and get away with it once and if it makes her happy then I say go for it. My only rules are that their clothing be weather appropriate and fit. You can bet that if there is a spaghetti-strap sun dress two sizes too small within my daughters reach during zero degree temps in January THAT is going to be the only thing she is going to want to wear and a tantrum will ensue when she is told that she can not wear it. So I must be sure that such clothing is out of reach.

My kids' closets have clothing bins that make up our simple clothing system. It has worked for us for a few years now. I put clear bins in my two oldest kids' closets that they use for clothes that are to be worn in the future. I label the bins with size and either “winter” or “summer.” Those two season categories tell me whether it’s long or short sleeved, long pants or shorts, etc. My youngest has a tall dresser of drawers so I use his drawers to do the same thing. We are often lucky to get hand me downs which go into the appropriate bin/drawer. I also try to hit big sales at the end of the seasons and I am never too shy to buy something that won’t be worn for 2 or 3 years if the price is right (if you could read the labels on the drawers in my 1 year old's room you'd see that the last drawer is for size 4). My daughter’s bins are up high out of reach (or she would cause trouble as explained) but my son’s closet makes it best for them to be piled on the floor and he doesn’t get into them.

There is a separate place in each of their closets for clothes that they outgrow. My kids are boy 7, girl 4, boy 1, so I only get to pass down the 7 year olds clothes within our house. So the oldest boy has a large bin for the things he outgrows that will eventually be worn by his little brother. When the bin is full they get filed in the youngest boy's room. The 4 year old girl has a shelf of outgrown things that gets bagged regularly to hand down to a friend’s daughter as does the youngest boy.

I find that having a place that is easily accessible to store future clothes can be a real money saver. You can buy clothes for the kids ahead on sale and you can be sure to find them when you need them. Of course I am hesitant to do this with pants because once kids have grown out of the toddler sizes they almost have to try pants on to get a good fit. However, shirts, sweaters, underwear, socks, pajamas, etc. can always be bought ahead. How many times have your kids grown something like pajamas mid season so you go and buy a couple pairs only to find that you had some tucked away in the back of a drawer. Well I have in the past, but not any more!

Another Reason to Love a Label Maker!

2009-01-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

As much fun as friends like to make of my labeling around my house I do think it's great for kids sight words. I have my son's clothes drawers labeled more for his sight word vocabulary than anything. We have labeled socks, underwear, winter pjs, summer pjs, sweat pants, short sleeved shirts and shorts. For toys we have several bins labeled also. I'll have to quiz him some day soon to see if these words have seeped into his brain yet.

Ideas to Help you Spend Less $

2009-01-10T18:07:00.001-05:00

Baby sit friends kids. Really. Do it a lot. Fill your calendar. Not only will you not be able to go shopping but if you have the right kind of rambunctious kids and enough of them then you will be too busy to occupy your thoughts with shopping or to browse the internet for purchases. Oh and babysitting for short spurts just happens to be fun and helpful to your friends.

Organizing Winter hats, mittens & scarves

2009-01-09T12:16:00.001-05:00

For a long time I wondered what people could be purchasing those large plastic drawer sets for. I just love organizational tools and so I must know all the multiple uses for them. But these large drawers had me puzzled. You can’t put anything in the drawers of much weight or the bottom of the drawer will bend down below the frame making it difficult to open. You also can not pile anything on top of the set of drawers or the plastic frame will bend down preventing you from opening the drawer below it. I have found that a set of drawers works perfectly for winter hats. lint rollers (for when you are going out the door), mittens and scarves. I put a few umbrellas on top which is also a light load perfect for the plastic drawers. The drawers we have has a set of wheels on it which makes it easy to roll out of the coat closet into more light so everyone can dig for what they want before a play day in the snow. I can imagine using them to store undies, socks and the like in a bedroom closet but I'm not sure what else. If you have found other uses please share.

Making Time for Friends by “Efficientizing” a Visit

2009-01-08T08:53:00.001-05:00

I find that this time of year has me missing friends but I struggle to find the time for a nice visit. Everyone that I know with young kids has a pretty hectic schedule and it seems that everyone is going in different directions. However, if you can multi-task a visit with a good friend you both may be more likely to make it happen. We recently had two new neighbors move in on our street. Yesterday a neighbor across the street who I just love but don’t get to see enough came over and we made brownies and took them to each of the two new neighbors to introduce ourselves and our kids. We got to visit and welcome the new neighbors together.
I have also made dates with friends to organize their kitchen and attic (which I love to do) and not only did we get a task done but we spent some quality time together. Sometimes I’ll just tell a friend to “swing by one your way to Target and chat with me while I fold laundry.” If you put it out there with the invite then it is understood that you’ll be tasking during the visit so no one cares. There are parties that couple friends of mine will hopefully hold every year which I love that is along this line. Meg has a “Christmas Card Party” where everyone brings their Christmas cards to address and stuff and stamp. It give you a due date to get your cards which is nice but one gal didn’t have her cards ready so she brought nail polish and did her nails instead while we did our cards and another didn’t have her cards yet but brought envelopes to address that she put her cards in later. That’s really thinking! My friend Sue held her first annual (hint Sue) Christmas gift wrapping party. This had to be done with a small group of course because of the space constraints. I think there were 6 or 7 of us. It was so fun to see the other gifts and to chat while getting a bunch of gifts wrapped. It was worth hauling in laundry baskets of wrapping paper and presents.

I have also gotten together with a friend to get some freezer meals assembled. Anne and I did this before she had baby #3. We each planned the grocery shopping, met at my house, did the meal prep and exchanged grocery money to even out the bill. Another thing to do for a friend who just had a baby is to tell her that you’ll come over and fold a load of laundry or sweep the floors or something while she nurses or just demand that she give you a task that would be helpful. Heck anytime you can plan to swap floor cleaning or some other daunting household task. It goes super fast with two people on their hands and knees and then you can get the other person’s house the next time and your little ones will be preoccupied with playing together. Of course maybe some of these type of tasks is left only to close friends. I have had a very good friend offer to come and paint a room with me. Now that is friendship!

There are still a bunch of friends I would like to see soon so I am considering having a little no reason party in February or March but first I might think about what I can do to “efficientize” the party. Any ideas now that the Christmas season is over?

Extraordinary Uses for Hanging Produce Baskets

2009-01-06T12:32:00.000-05:00

Our basement is circa 1970. The ceilings are on the low side and filled with water pipes and gas pipes and some mysterious phone pipes that are no longer used. Our electric box is right behind the washer and dryer which is annoying because I would have liked to put shelves there for dryer sheets, stain remover and detergents and the like. So, I found a perfect use for this hanging produce basket which was once very useful as a produce basket at our last house which was skimpy on the kitchen cupboards. In the basement of this house I hung it over the pipes in the ceiling and it hangs at perfect arms reach for grabbing stain removers, dryer sheets and other laundry necessities above the dryer. I am sure these hanging baskets could come in handy in many places. I love finding unintended useful purposes for cheap things or in this case for something I already had.

There is still plenty of winter left to enjoy the convenience of Frozen Meals!

2009-01-03T21:13:00.000-05:00

In case no one actually reads the details of my monthly menus (is anyone really spending time doing that?), I will brag that for the first couple weeks of December I never cooked a meal and for about 10 meals in January I will provide my family with delicious whole food meals that I simply take out of the freezer and pop in the oven. Today I made six batches of shepherd’s pie for my next Freezer Friends exchange. One of the six we had for dinner. I have organized a second group of Freezer Friends and thankfully got my dear friend Jen to join today so that I won’t have to be cooking for two groups. Thanks Jen! After talking with her I got to thinking that most of the women in the new Freezer Friends group have not been in the habit of doubling or tripling or quadrupling meals they make to be frozen but they are interested in trying it. I haven’t seen any emails yet about what they will be making for their first January 29th due date so I thought that a list of freezer friendly meals might get some ideas generated. Here is a list of things that I have doubled/tripled/quadrupled for freezing or have received in a Freezer Friends exchange. There are so many more possibilities but this is a good sampling:

Chilis, stews and soups of almost any kind

Chicken Entrees:
Chicken tortilla soup
Chicken tex mex (rice and such)
Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken pot pie Chicken Divan
Mexican chicken lasagna
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Rosemary Rasberry Balsamic glazed Chicken
Creamy Chicken enchiladas
Chicken Burritos
Baked Pasta w/ chicken sausage & spinach
White Chicken Chili
Beef Entrees:
Shepherds pie (pot roast shredded or ground beef)
Taco pie (biscuit type topping)
Moroccan Beef
Burgers (turkey, mango chutney turkey, southwest beef, bbq pork, bacon wrapped, momwiches, etc.)
Beef enchiladas
Meatloaf (many variations)
Stuffed Cabbage
Stuffed peppers
Beef Veggie soup with many variations
Meatballs (turkey or beef)
Lasagne
Stuffed Shells
Misc:
Poppy Turkey -
Creamy Cajun shrimp pasta
Eggplant parmesan
Spinach pie – a lot of egg in a spring form pan w/ phyllo on top
3 bean chili
Calzones
Gumbos (many variations)
Pasta Sauce with meat or veggies
Pizza (homemade and ½ baked can be frozen and popped in the oven)

My latest goal is to start freezing crock pot meals. Two conveniences combined! Does life really get any easier?

January Resolutions to Spend Less Money

2009-01-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

I have heard a lot of people making New Year’s resolutions to spend less money. I have been doing that for a couple years and it has been a wonderful experience. Why do I say it was an “experience” (other than the fact that I have become a frugal nerd)? When you set out to stick to a tight budget which limits your spending to only necessities you can actually have a wonderful experience. Let me explain. I could really go on and on about the wonderful experience I have had over the last couple years not spending money but I am trying to be brief. Think about the purchases that you are considering in the near future. You may be saying that you don’t have any. Uh huh. I doubt it. You are thinking of curtains for some room or the next car purchase or perhaps a new purse or boots that you are hoping will be on sale. Even if you know you can not afford these things right now you are probably thinking of how you might be able to make those purchase in the future. If you totally forget about acquiring any of these things for an extended time, say until your student loan/ home equity/credit card/mortgage (you name your enemy) is paid off, and focus on using the things that you already have and being completely satisfied with what you have it can be an awesome experience. Not only can you experience the strength you get from setting a somewhat difficult goal and achieving it but you also free yourself from thinking about acquiring stuff or improving the stuff you have with more stuff or spending your precious time and energy shopping for stuff. To be successful at being satisfied with the stuff you have you must shut yourself off to the things you know that make you want stuff. This might mean changing who you spend time with or not looking at magazines or watching certain television shows and throwing every last single catalog that comes in the mail straight into the trash WITHOUT perusing it first or not attending an annual homes tour. Identify honestly the things in your life that cause you to want stuff and eliminate them until your goal is met.

I recently shared with a few friends that I hadn’t spent any money on any unnecessaries in about two years and how it was difficult to part with money now. My friends gasped in horror at the idea of not spending money or shopping for such a long span of time. I suppose I don’t particularly like shopping with kids in tow (and I’ve generally always been too cheap to pay a sitter to shop) so it didn’t seem like that much of a loss to me but I was surprised that my friends thought that it would be so difficult. I suppose that if you have financial goals or needs bigger than acquiring more stuff then you just do what you got to do (or don't do). I am certain that these friends of mine would be able to do what needed to be done if they were faced with a financial challenge. I know they could do it if they had to but they just have not faced such a challenge. These are strong intellegent women, don't get me wrong, they are my friends. :)

The really fun part of spending less money is the creative thinking you force upon yourself to make do with what you have. The library is a wonderful resource for jump starting this kind of brainstorming which is where I came across Amy Dzcyczyn's The Complete Tightwad Gazette . Amy’s book gets you in a mind set of creative frugalism. I have established uses for things in the last two years that I will continue for years to come that saves money and encourages creativity. Finding extra-ordinary uses for ordinary items can be rather surprising and quite fun. Thinking outside of the box is what has me using bread tabs for cleaning/scraping gunk, using potato/onion sacks for scrubbers, cleaning with disinfecting vinegar water, planning our meals and grocery trips like never before, creating our invention box, mastering stain removal (I have never been good at this but I am getting better), redecorating with curtains I found in a box from our last move and mending socks and other garments rather than tossing them. Sometimes you do have to purchase a few things but you can do so in a minimalist fashion. For instance take up garage saling or searching Craigs List and surprise yourself and your family at what you can do with nearly free items. Buy shoe polish or shoe strings rather than buying new shoes, shop for kids clothes at resale shops (they keep growing so there is no way around buying kids new cloths at some point), or admit to yourself that one pair of decent shoes for a child is plenty and you do not need to buy another because those ones on sale are just so cute. Being honest about what you need versus want is a great experience also especially when you really want is financial independence.

My New Year’s resolution for 2009 is actually to spend more money. In two months we will have met a huge financial goal of paying off our student loans on one income. We have limited our spending to such a great extent that resolving to spend more money is not exactly going to be difficult or haphazard. In the last two years I think we have eaten out about four times although I can not recall the specific instances (my husband says only about two times) and visited McDonalds about 6 times (3 times involved a road trip to visit family). Up until a couple months ago I think I bought 3 shirts off the clearance rack and a skirt to get me through post partum weight struggles at discount stores in two years. So this year for us will be about putting those former student loan payments into savings (easier now that we have changed our spending habits) and trying to relax a little with some entertainment money. It would be fun to visit the movie theatre at least once and to get a sitter every couple months so we can have a date night (just did that last night and it was wonderful). Perhaps taking the kids out to dinner a few times would be nice and adding a few activities to our current fun free activities that we may not have splurged on pre-school loan pay off. I know that these little things we do will be enjoyed much more after our two year tightwad venture and knowing that we met our financial goals before enjoying them again. Karate lessons for my son and gymnastics classes for my daughter will also be a wonderful way for us to enjoy having met one of our big financial goals.

January 2009 Menu

2009-01-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I started off my new year updating my freezer inventory list. Ahhh, that feels good.

Here is my January 2009 menu. It's going to be a month of laziness in the kitchen here. I only have 5 new recipes on this month's menu and we are resorting back to our tried and true recipes. I have baked and consumed enough cookies this Christmas season for about a year! The solution may be just to stay out of the kitchen. We will be having a lot of meals from the freezer and focusing that domestic time and energy on cleaning and reorganizing all the closets, cupboards and drawers that have gotten a bit out of control over Christmas. The storage area of our basement gets strategically very messy around Christmas for Santa so it is time to clean that area out as well, which is no small job.

You should be able to double click on these smaller images to enlarge.

January Menu Recipes

2008-12-30T19:48:00.000-05:00

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:

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

2008-12-21T07:07:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-13T20:49:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-12T21:38:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

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?

2008-12-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-06T08:08:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-05T21:14:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-04T09:52:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-02T13:51:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-02T06:59:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-29T11:19:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-26T21:46:00.001-05:00

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.