Today I'll post my progress on the food goals I made at the beginning of the year. It's helpful for me to check back every so often and see how I'm doing.
Here are the four areas of food/cooking that I want to change/learn/ improve on this year along with my current progress.
1)Learn to use my new grain mill.I'm eager to begin grinding my own wheat as soon as my grain order arrives!
Progress: The Nutrimill is really easy to use. I've only ground wheat berries so far but it has been successful. I'm finding that with grinding my own flour, a baking project takes significantly longer. I can only do one thing on the counter at a time in my small kitchen so I use the grain mill, then clean it up and put it away before moving on. Because of this, I've started grinding several extra cups of flour each time. I've been freezing it so it's ready to go for the next baking project. This is working great. I assume that since I'm freezing it right away, I'm still getting the nutrients from the fresh flour. Does anyone know anything more about this?
I special ordered a bag of Hard White wheat berries from my local health food store. They don't carry them normally and I get a ten percent discount for buying a big bag. Based on their bulk prices for wheat berries, I will pay several dollars more from them than from ordering from Azure Standard, but with no extra shipping fees. So I feel like it's a good deal. My order should be in by the first of next week. They already carry Hard Red and Soft White varieties so I've been buying that as I need it.
2)Begin soaking grains.Start with bread and basic grains and beans and as I'm successful and produce a finished product that we both enjoy, branch out to include other baked items.
Progress: I've successfully made soaked bread and tortillas. The main issue I've had is planning for the soaking time. This will take practice to get it into a routine. The last couple of times that I've cooked beans, I've soaked them with a little lemon juice or vinegar overnight. I haven't soaked rice or oatmeal yet. As I become more comfortable with using natural sweeteners and such, I'll try some other soaked baked goods.
3)Drastically reduce our consumption of refined sugar products. I would like to eliminate them altogether but realize that may not be totally realistic right away. My husband has a major sweet tooth and we both love our chocolate! I've already reduced the amount of desserts we eat and will continue to make more healthy options available. My plan for this is to use Rapadura and honey for baking. We've been quite satisfied with the muffins and cookies I've prepared with Rapadura in the past.I just need to stick with it and make this a habit!
Progress: This has been the hardest step so far! To be honest, I've cut back on the amount of baked goods that I prepare rather than experimenting too much. This is good for the waistline! Muffins and quick breads made with whole cane sugar or honey and whole wheat pastry flour have turned out great! I need to keep working on finding a good cookie recipe that is "healthy". I've made a few kinds that were good but not great. Sometimes the rapadura or whole cane sugar seems to not dissolve and gives a "grainy" texture which I don't really care for. My husband thought they were good and had no trouble eating them!
4)Eliminate high fructose corn syrup! This is in almost everything! Even canned beans. I make most of our foods from scratch already so where this affects us the most is with salad dressings, ketchup and barbecue sauce. I've already purchased some ketchup without HFCS and it is pretty good. More expensive, yes. But we don't eat a lot of ketchup so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm going to experiment with some homemade salad dressings and barbecue sauce to find one or two that we really like!
Progress: I've made some homemade blue cheese dressing(my husband's favorite). We really don't care for too many vinaigrette-type dressings on a regular basis. We're more creamy dressing people.:-) The homemade dressing turned out good; next time I'll make it a bit thicker. I haven't had a need for barbecue sauce yet. I'm amazed at what all contains HFCS! We haven't been totally perfect with eliminating this from our diet yet but I'm much more aware now and certainly consuming less than we were before.
So as far as my food goals go, I've taken some baby steps and made a little progress but still have a ways to go. It's good that I still have 9 more months in 2009 to get better in these areas!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Update On New Year's Goals
Sine we're now almost to the middle of March, I thought I'd do an update on my New Year's goals. I've copied and pasted them from this post. For the sake of simplifying, I'm adding a note of my progress under each category.
Spiritual:
--Reading and studying God's Word
Plan of action: Continue reading one chapter each day, writing down what jumps out at me and how it will change the way I live my life.
--Develop a meaningful prayer life.
Plan of action: Continue reading and praying through The Power of a Praying Wife as I seek to lift my husband up in prayer each day. Pray for people I know immediately as the Holy Spirit brings them to mind. Keep a list of ongoing prayer requests and a list of answered prayers.
Progress: I've been having a pretty consistent quiet time which has been so helpful to me. I've been getting up early to be able to do this before my day starts. I've found that if I wait, it just doesn't happen. So rising early has been a good thing for me right now.
I'm almost to the end of The Power of a Praying Wife. I have spent a whole week or more on some of the chapters as they were areas that I knew I really needed to be praying for my husband. What I like about this book is not that I have to pray just like the author but using her prayers as a springboard for a deeper prayer life.I really like all the specific areas and verses that she lays out. I have a list of prayer requests in my quiet time journal that I've been using to help me remember to pray. I still want to do a notebook for only prayer requests so that I can record the answers and be a bit more detailed.
Physical:
--Exercise 3-4 times a week.
Plan of action: Currently, I'm getting started running by following this 8 week program. My motivation is my first 5k that I'm planning on participating in on March 7. Yikes!!!
--Losing a little weight.
Plan of action: Continue watching food portion sizes, eliminating most snacks and limiting fast carbs(breads, sweets, etc.).
Progress: I've been running but not making as fast of progress as I had hoped. Once I started running a bit longer distances, I started experiencing a lot of knee pain. Because of this, I've had to really scale back and do a lot more walking again, instead of mostly running. Up until the knee pain hit, I was still planning to run my first 5k on March 7th. I knew I would be really slow and possibly not even be able to run the entire thing, but I was still going to participate. This 5k was out of town and I was going to do it with my sister-in-law who was running the 10k that day. My knee pain really slowed me down and then some other things came up where we decided to not go out of town that weekend after all. In the meantime, doing more of a walk/run and applying ice and heat to my knee is really helping. So I'm continuing on, working up to more running again. I still really want to run a 5k eventually and I am continuing to work towards that.
Weight loss. This isn't going very quickly at all. I've lost 2 pounds total so far and now I've gained them back. Losing weight is much harder now that I'm in my 30's! I realize that with all the running, I was building a lot of muscle so that will slow down the weight loss. I'm starting to keep track of calories in hopes that I will see a bit more progress.
Homemaking:
--Simplify.
Plan of action: Simplify by continuing to declutter, carefully analyzing whether or not I need an item before purchasing, use what I have.
--Continue my quest for healthier living.
Plan of action: Find natural alternatives to all cleaning supplies and air freshener. Continue to cook healthfully by implementing more whole foods into and eliminating refined sugars from our diets. (More on this next week as I participate in this carnival!)
Progress: Unlike weight loss and exercise, this area of simplifying and homemaking is a fun one for me! In January, I sent several more boxes of donations to Goodwill. I've slowly been working through each drawer and shelf, reorganizing and decluttering. I'm not done by any means, but working on one thing at a time is certainly progress! For now, I've really focused on the kitchen. You know your cabinets need to be cleaned out when items fall out and break when you open the door! Next up is my drawer that holds my leftover containers. As I've slowly been switching to glass containers, it's time to weed out some of the plastic ones.
Even though we go to yard sales and thrift stores fairly regularly, I've been trying to be extra careful what I bring home. So far, so good!
I purchased some essential oils last fall. These oils have added so much to my homemade cleaners. I've been making a new all-purpose cleaner with castile soap that I really like. I scented it with peppermint oil and this smells so good as I'm cleaning! I still use regular Windex and furniture polish. Baby steps, baby steps. I have a recipe for homemade air freshener but I still have many cans of Glade to use up.
As for food, I'll be sharing an update on that tomorrow.
Financial:
I don't feel very comfortable divulging many specifics on this topic since I have many real life friends and family reading this blog. I love them all very much, but I do like to keep some things private!
I will say, though, that our main financial goal this year is to continue saving for a down payment on a house. Last year, our goal in this was to get a house fund started, which we did. We haven't yet established a specific goal for this year.
Progress: Our focus right now has turned out to be our emergency fund instead of the house fund. We've been putting all extra $$$ towards building that up a bit more.
Are you making progress on the goals that you set for this year? Please share how you're doing!
Spiritual:
--Reading and studying God's Word
Plan of action: Continue reading one chapter each day, writing down what jumps out at me and how it will change the way I live my life.
--Develop a meaningful prayer life.
Plan of action: Continue reading and praying through The Power of a Praying Wife as I seek to lift my husband up in prayer each day. Pray for people I know immediately as the Holy Spirit brings them to mind. Keep a list of ongoing prayer requests and a list of answered prayers.
Progress: I've been having a pretty consistent quiet time which has been so helpful to me. I've been getting up early to be able to do this before my day starts. I've found that if I wait, it just doesn't happen. So rising early has been a good thing for me right now.
I'm almost to the end of The Power of a Praying Wife. I have spent a whole week or more on some of the chapters as they were areas that I knew I really needed to be praying for my husband. What I like about this book is not that I have to pray just like the author but using her prayers as a springboard for a deeper prayer life.I really like all the specific areas and verses that she lays out. I have a list of prayer requests in my quiet time journal that I've been using to help me remember to pray. I still want to do a notebook for only prayer requests so that I can record the answers and be a bit more detailed.
Physical:
--Exercise 3-4 times a week.
Plan of action: Currently, I'm getting started running by following this 8 week program. My motivation is my first 5k that I'm planning on participating in on March 7. Yikes!!!
--Losing a little weight.
Plan of action: Continue watching food portion sizes, eliminating most snacks and limiting fast carbs(breads, sweets, etc.).
Progress: I've been running but not making as fast of progress as I had hoped. Once I started running a bit longer distances, I started experiencing a lot of knee pain. Because of this, I've had to really scale back and do a lot more walking again, instead of mostly running. Up until the knee pain hit, I was still planning to run my first 5k on March 7th. I knew I would be really slow and possibly not even be able to run the entire thing, but I was still going to participate. This 5k was out of town and I was going to do it with my sister-in-law who was running the 10k that day. My knee pain really slowed me down and then some other things came up where we decided to not go out of town that weekend after all. In the meantime, doing more of a walk/run and applying ice and heat to my knee is really helping. So I'm continuing on, working up to more running again. I still really want to run a 5k eventually and I am continuing to work towards that.
Weight loss. This isn't going very quickly at all. I've lost 2 pounds total so far and now I've gained them back. Losing weight is much harder now that I'm in my 30's! I realize that with all the running, I was building a lot of muscle so that will slow down the weight loss. I'm starting to keep track of calories in hopes that I will see a bit more progress.
Homemaking:
--Simplify.
Plan of action: Simplify by continuing to declutter, carefully analyzing whether or not I need an item before purchasing, use what I have.
--Continue my quest for healthier living.
Plan of action: Find natural alternatives to all cleaning supplies and air freshener. Continue to cook healthfully by implementing more whole foods into and eliminating refined sugars from our diets. (More on this next week as I participate in this carnival!)
Progress: Unlike weight loss and exercise, this area of simplifying and homemaking is a fun one for me! In January, I sent several more boxes of donations to Goodwill. I've slowly been working through each drawer and shelf, reorganizing and decluttering. I'm not done by any means, but working on one thing at a time is certainly progress! For now, I've really focused on the kitchen. You know your cabinets need to be cleaned out when items fall out and break when you open the door! Next up is my drawer that holds my leftover containers. As I've slowly been switching to glass containers, it's time to weed out some of the plastic ones.
Even though we go to yard sales and thrift stores fairly regularly, I've been trying to be extra careful what I bring home. So far, so good!
I purchased some essential oils last fall. These oils have added so much to my homemade cleaners. I've been making a new all-purpose cleaner with castile soap that I really like. I scented it with peppermint oil and this smells so good as I'm cleaning! I still use regular Windex and furniture polish. Baby steps, baby steps. I have a recipe for homemade air freshener but I still have many cans of Glade to use up.
As for food, I'll be sharing an update on that tomorrow.
Financial:
I don't feel very comfortable divulging many specifics on this topic since I have many real life friends and family reading this blog. I love them all very much, but I do like to keep some things private!
I will say, though, that our main financial goal this year is to continue saving for a down payment on a house. Last year, our goal in this was to get a house fund started, which we did. We haven't yet established a specific goal for this year.
Progress: Our focus right now has turned out to be our emergency fund instead of the house fund. We've been putting all extra $$$ towards building that up a bit more.
Are you making progress on the goals that you set for this year? Please share how you're doing!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Weigh-In Wednesday
Here's another look at how I did this week:
Food:
I did quite well with eating balanced meals with plenty of veggies and salads. That being said, I had a bit more trouble with snacking, especially the last few days.
Water:
Doing ok here.
Exercise:
I'm getting back on the wagon. Due to knee pain, I've scaled way back with my running and working my way back up. It's getting much better!
Successes:
Saying 'no' to sweets this week. I took a nap on Saturday afternoon and when I woke up I really wanted a sweet snack. I went to rummage for something in the pantry. Right before tearing into a package of graham crackers(I really was desperate!), I was able to think clearly and put the snack away without eating anything. After all, it was only an hour until dinner! I was happy about that little moment of clear thinking.:-)
Challenges:
My will power is a bit on the low side when it comes to snacking and eating little bites of food while I'm cooking.
Plans for next week:
Start with calorie counting to see if I can speed up my weight loss a bit. I'm doing pretty well with portion control and eating mostly whole foods. I think I'm probably getting a lot more calories than I'm aware of.
Weigh-in:
I gained 2 pounds this week. So I'm now back to where I started! I really think this is more due to hormones than snacking, though.
Like Kate, I'm finding out that it is much more difficult to lose weight now that I'm in my 30's than when I was younger.
Visit Happy2B@Home for more weigh-in Wednesday posts.
Food:
I did quite well with eating balanced meals with plenty of veggies and salads. That being said, I had a bit more trouble with snacking, especially the last few days.
Water:
Doing ok here.
Exercise:
I'm getting back on the wagon. Due to knee pain, I've scaled way back with my running and working my way back up. It's getting much better!
Successes:
Saying 'no' to sweets this week. I took a nap on Saturday afternoon and when I woke up I really wanted a sweet snack. I went to rummage for something in the pantry. Right before tearing into a package of graham crackers(I really was desperate!), I was able to think clearly and put the snack away without eating anything. After all, it was only an hour until dinner! I was happy about that little moment of clear thinking.:-)
Challenges:
My will power is a bit on the low side when it comes to snacking and eating little bites of food while I'm cooking.
Plans for next week:
Start with calorie counting to see if I can speed up my weight loss a bit. I'm doing pretty well with portion control and eating mostly whole foods. I think I'm probably getting a lot more calories than I'm aware of.
Weigh-in:
I gained 2 pounds this week. So I'm now back to where I started! I really think this is more due to hormones than snacking, though.
Like Kate, I'm finding out that it is much more difficult to lose weight now that I'm in my 30's than when I was younger.
Visit Happy2B@Home for more weigh-in Wednesday posts.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Simmering Kitchen Spice
I often enjoy simmering a pot of spices on the stove to give the house a pleasant, spicy, and homey scent. This 'concoction' usually includes a couple of cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, leftover orange peels and sometimes a bay leaf. I fill the pot with water and let it simmer.
The other day, I was poking around again on A Year Of Crockpotting. How I love this site! I was reading through her 'fun stuff' category, which is basically non-edibles. I came across this post about using the mini-crockpot as a room deodorizer or an air freshener.
Well, with one dog and two small childcare kids, this house needs plenty of deodorizing. Add to the fact that the windows in our rental are painted shut, this poor house can smell pretty stale pretty fast!
I noticed that the air freshener recipe was similar to the one I usually simmer on the stove. So I got out my $1 yard sale Little Dipper and got her going!
I added a drop of eucalyptus essential oil to the mixture of orange peels, cinnamon sticks, cloves and water. It worked and made the house smell great! I like that I can move the crockpot around throughout the house instead of having it just in the kitchen like the pot on the stove. I also noticed that the water doesn't evaporate as quickly as it does on the stove.
Whenever we eat oranges, I save the peelings in a freezer bag to use for potpourri. Apple cores and peelings make a nice scent as well. This is a frugal way to use up something that you would normally throw out.And makes your house smell awesome!
A word of caution: Whether you choose the stovetop or crockpot version for a simmering potpourri, be sure that you keep an eye on it and add water as needed. You do not want the pot to go dry and the spices to burn. Also, be sure to turn the stove off/unplug the crock if leaving the house.
**Thanks to Amy for hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays today!
The other day, I was poking around again on A Year Of Crockpotting. How I love this site! I was reading through her 'fun stuff' category, which is basically non-edibles. I came across this post about using the mini-crockpot as a room deodorizer or an air freshener.
Well, with one dog and two small childcare kids, this house needs plenty of deodorizing. Add to the fact that the windows in our rental are painted shut, this poor house can smell pretty stale pretty fast!
I noticed that the air freshener recipe was similar to the one I usually simmer on the stove. So I got out my $1 yard sale Little Dipper and got her going!
I added a drop of eucalyptus essential oil to the mixture of orange peels, cinnamon sticks, cloves and water. It worked and made the house smell great! I like that I can move the crockpot around throughout the house instead of having it just in the kitchen like the pot on the stove. I also noticed that the water doesn't evaporate as quickly as it does on the stove.
Whenever we eat oranges, I save the peelings in a freezer bag to use for potpourri. Apple cores and peelings make a nice scent as well. This is a frugal way to use up something that you would normally throw out.And makes your house smell awesome!
A word of caution: Whether you choose the stovetop or crockpot version for a simmering potpourri, be sure that you keep an eye on it and add water as needed. You do not want the pot to go dry and the spices to burn. Also, be sure to turn the stove off/unplug the crock if leaving the house.
**Thanks to Amy for hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays today!
Too Many Lids
This is what happens when I take my own advice too seriously-over 2 dozen leftover mayo lids living in my cabinet!
That's a lot of lids. Especially considering that I don't normally use more than 5 at once!
Even though I really wouldn't be considered a packrat, sometimes I religiously keep things to reuse never thinking of how many I already have or could possibly use.
Some examples:
--gift bags
--twist ties
--grocery bags
--rubber bands
--salsa, peanut butter and spaghetti sauce jars with lids
--paper that's only printed on one side
Reusing and recycling is good. But if not used, it eventually becomes clutter.
When you clean out your drawers and cabinets, what sort of things do you find that you've saved too many of? Please share!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Happy Homemaker Monday
On my bedside table:
--no books right now!
On my TV:
--Super Why for the littles
On the menu for tonight:
--eat at church meeting. I'm baking wheat rolls to take.
On my To Do List:
--clean kitchen
--laundry- I'll be able to hang laundry out on my clothesline today!
--bake bread for tonight
--childcare
New Recipe I tried last week:
--Chicken Piccata. Yummy, yum, yum.
In the craft basket:
I have many things on my list. Maybe I'll actually get to them this week!
--felt pieces for the flannel board.
--curtains for shelves in office.
--denim place mats.
Looking forward to:
--hanging laundry out to dry today!
Homemaking Tip for this week:
A few minutes spent wiping down the washer and dryer and rearranging things can make a huge difference!
Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
How I lost 20 pounds in 2 minutes at Life as Mom.
Favorite photo from last week:
A bouquet of tulips adds a fresh touch of spring to my mantle!
Lesson learned the past few days:
--Snow and cold weather don't last here in the South. Last weekend was cold and snowy. This weekend we are having sunny summer weather in the 70's and 80's.
On my Prayer List:
--my husband
--our president and nation
Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
John 15:5:
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
Thanks to Sandra for hosting Happy Homemaker Monday!
Menu Plan Monday
Another week, another menu!
Last week's menu went according to plan. I tried a new recipe, Chicken Piccata, which was really good. I didn't have any capers but will buy some for the next time I make this dish. Capers would add that tangy flavor the sauce was lacking. On a scale of 1-10, my husband rated this dish at an 8. I will be making this one again!
Now, onto this week!
Sunday
To do: mix baked oatmeal, make cream cheese spread
B-eggs,toast,fruit
L-crockpot of mashed potatoes, muffins
D-hummus, tortilla chips, veggie sticks, fruit
Monday
B-baked oatmeal, smoothies
L-wraps(tortillas, cream cheese and olive spread, shredded carrots and various chopped veggies)
D-eat at church meeting; I'm taking wheat rolls.
Tuesday
B-leftover baked oatmeal, oranges
L-pepperoni pizza**, salad
D-sausage and cabbage skillet dish, applesauce
Wednesday
B-baked oatmeal take 3, smoothie
L-leftovers
D-tacos (taco shells, taco meat, lettuce, salsa, cheese and sour cream), fruit
Thursday
To do: Start bread dough soaking.
B-eggs, toast, fruit
L-leftovers
D-homemade macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli
Friday
To do: Bake bread.
B-cheese grits, smoothie
L-leftovers
D-chicken paprika over rice(new recipe), salad, steamed veggies
Saturday
To do: shred cheese, bake brownies for Sunday
B-cold cereal, fruit
L-leftovers
D-breakfast sandwiches (homemade biscuits, eggs, cheese, sausage or bacon), some kind of fruit
**denotes freezer items
To look at several hundred menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie!
Extra Coupons?
We live in an area where we can get our own town's paper as well as a larger major metropolitan newspaper.
Our local Sunday paper costs $1.00 whereas the larger paper costs $1.50. So naturally, being the frugal soul that I am, I have been buying the cheaper papers each Sunday. After all, I figured that I'm buying the paper mainly for the coupons and the coupons would be the same in all the papers. Right?
I noticed that even though I always get the inserts I'm supposed to get for that week, I rarely get a lot of the coupons mentioned on coupon sites and forums. In fact most of the better food coupons were never in my inserts!
Recently, I read in the comments to this post that one lady had better success with getting a bigger city newspaper. She commented that a lot of the coupons would be of better value than the same inserts in a smaller newspaper.
Could it be? I decided to give it a try. Of the three newspapers I buy each week, I decided to buy one of the larger papers to check and see if the coupons were different. Would spending fifty extra cents be worth it?
Due to the larger papers being sold out by the time I got to my neighborhood market, yesterday was the first day that I was able to get one.
I eagerly spread the coupons out on the table when I got home and started going through the inserts. I had bought two smaller papers and one large. The first thing I noticed was that the inserts from the larger paper looked completely different. And there were different coupons in it.
Every coupon from the smaller paper was also in the larger paper. I counted 37 extra coupons that came from the larger paper that were not in the smaller paper. Thirty-seven! And that was from only 2 inserts!
So is it worth it for me to spend fifty extra cents on a larger newspaper? For today, it most definitely was! I would like to compare the two papers for a few more weeks before I switch over to buying all of the larger and more expensive paper.
What about you? Have you found different papers to be better values for the coupon inserts?
Our local Sunday paper costs $1.00 whereas the larger paper costs $1.50. So naturally, being the frugal soul that I am, I have been buying the cheaper papers each Sunday. After all, I figured that I'm buying the paper mainly for the coupons and the coupons would be the same in all the papers. Right?
I noticed that even though I always get the inserts I'm supposed to get for that week, I rarely get a lot of the coupons mentioned on coupon sites and forums. In fact most of the better food coupons were never in my inserts!
Recently, I read in the comments to this post that one lady had better success with getting a bigger city newspaper. She commented that a lot of the coupons would be of better value than the same inserts in a smaller newspaper.
Could it be? I decided to give it a try. Of the three newspapers I buy each week, I decided to buy one of the larger papers to check and see if the coupons were different. Would spending fifty extra cents be worth it?
Due to the larger papers being sold out by the time I got to my neighborhood market, yesterday was the first day that I was able to get one.
I eagerly spread the coupons out on the table when I got home and started going through the inserts. I had bought two smaller papers and one large. The first thing I noticed was that the inserts from the larger paper looked completely different. And there were different coupons in it.
Every coupon from the smaller paper was also in the larger paper. I counted 37 extra coupons that came from the larger paper that were not in the smaller paper. Thirty-seven! And that was from only 2 inserts!
So is it worth it for me to spend fifty extra cents on a larger newspaper? For today, it most definitely was! I would like to compare the two papers for a few more weeks before I switch over to buying all of the larger and more expensive paper.
What about you? Have you found different papers to be better values for the coupon inserts?
Friday, March 06, 2009
Free Lunch- A Finer Thing
Last weekend, Andy and I went to Quizno's for lunch. We redeemed our free sandwich coupons and brought them home to eat.
At home, I pulled out some chips and a bottle of Powerade to go with our free sandwiches. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious and we enjoyed being able to have a lunch out for free.
It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that the sandwiches weren't the only free items in our meal. The salsa-flavored RiceWorks chips were free with a coupon(and very good, by the way!) and the Powerade was gotten free after ECB's at CVS some time ago.
This weekend, we're planning another lunch at Arby's getting free Roastburgers with the purchase of drinks!
While I think that an occasional meal out is certainly worth the money, it's fun to get things for free sometimes, too!
Free or nearly free lunches. Definitely one of the finer things in life!
**Thanks to Amy for hosting Finer Things Friday!
At home, I pulled out some chips and a bottle of Powerade to go with our free sandwiches. The sandwiches were absolutely delicious and we enjoyed being able to have a lunch out for free.
It wasn't until afterwards that I realized that the sandwiches weren't the only free items in our meal. The salsa-flavored RiceWorks chips were free with a coupon(and very good, by the way!) and the Powerade was gotten free after ECB's at CVS some time ago.
This weekend, we're planning another lunch at Arby's getting free Roastburgers with the purchase of drinks!
While I think that an occasional meal out is certainly worth the money, it's fun to get things for free sometimes, too!
Free or nearly free lunches. Definitely one of the finer things in life!
**Thanks to Amy for hosting Finer Things Friday!
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Crockpot Lasagna
Traditional lasagna is delicious but can be time-consuming to prepare. I really enjoy making this easy crockpot version that is perfect for taking to a potluck or to have ready when you come home from church.
When I take this to church events, I rarely bring even a spoonful back home with me. It's a crowd pleaser!
Crockpot Lasagna
12 lasagna noodles,uncooked
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning(I use oregano and basil instead)
1 jar(28 ounces) spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup water
1 carton (16 ounces) cottage cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese,grated
Break noodles in half. Place half of the noodles in bottom of greased 4-quart slow cooker. Stir Italian seasoning into meat and spread half over the noodles already in slow cooker. Then layer half of the sauce and water, half of the cottage cheese, and half of mozzarella cheese over beef. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours. Do not cook more than 5 hours.
Makes 6-8 servings.
Serve with salad and garlic bread.
**Today's theme for the Ultimate Recipe Swap is pasta so be sure to check it out!
**Visit Slow Cooking Thursday for more crock pot recipes!
When I take this to church events, I rarely bring even a spoonful back home with me. It's a crowd pleaser!
Crockpot Lasagna
12 lasagna noodles,uncooked
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning(I use oregano and basil instead)
1 jar(28 ounces) spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup water
1 carton (16 ounces) cottage cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese,grated
Break noodles in half. Place half of the noodles in bottom of greased 4-quart slow cooker. Stir Italian seasoning into meat and spread half over the noodles already in slow cooker. Then layer half of the sauce and water, half of the cottage cheese, and half of mozzarella cheese over beef. Repeat layers. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours. Do not cook more than 5 hours.
Makes 6-8 servings.
Serve with salad and garlic bread.
**Today's theme for the Ultimate Recipe Swap is pasta so be sure to check it out!
**Visit Slow Cooking Thursday for more crock pot recipes!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Weigh-In Wednesday
It's Wednesday and I know what that means! Time to look at how the week went weight-loss wise. I'm sharing my progress along with Kate and Joy again at Happy To Be At Home. Be sure to stop by to read about their progress and perhaps join in!
Food:
I've done really well with portion sizes and not snacking between meals. I do need to keep working on eating more veggies.
Water:
This is going well.
Exercise:
We've had a lot of rain and very cold winter weather the past 5 days. I have not been out running or walking except for a couple very short strolls. I'm getting back into regular exercise soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Successes:
Staying on the weight-loss train for 2 months now!
Challenges:
Getting enough veggies.
Getting back into my exercise routine.
Plans for next week:
I definitely need to get back into regular exercise as well as work on getting more veggies into my diet consistently. I eat veggies, just some days not enough.
Weigh-in:
I lost another pound! Woo-hoo!
Food:
I've done really well with portion sizes and not snacking between meals. I do need to keep working on eating more veggies.
Water:
This is going well.
Exercise:
We've had a lot of rain and very cold winter weather the past 5 days. I have not been out running or walking except for a couple very short strolls. I'm getting back into regular exercise soon, hopefully tomorrow.
Successes:
Staying on the weight-loss train for 2 months now!
Challenges:
Getting enough veggies.
Getting back into my exercise routine.
Plans for next week:
I definitely need to get back into regular exercise as well as work on getting more veggies into my diet consistently. I eat veggies, just some days not enough.
Weigh-in:
I lost another pound! Woo-hoo!
Clean Swap
I was excited to be able to participate in another one of Carrie and Monica's sister swaps. The theme for this one was Clean. I always find these swaps as a fun challenge to see what I can come up with to go with the theme and this one was no exception.
It was so much fun to do a three-way swap with Monica and Wendi. I have been long-time readers of both of their blogs and it was nice to prepare boxes for each of them. Even though I have never met them in real-life, I still feel as though both ladies are dear friends!
For both boxes, I tagged each gift with an appropriate verse mostly centering around homekeeping and clean heart.
Wendi has been focusing on organizing and decluttering her home so I tried to put together a few items to help her with that.
I filled a blue organizing basket with:
--dusting cloths
--drawer organizers
--Glade air freshener
--small body wash and lotion
--Orbit gum/breath mints
--kitchen towel
--scrubbie for washing dishes
--small bag of clothespins with instructions for writing prayer requests on each one as a way to pray for family and different needs while hanging the laundry.
--handmade frame with verse from Proverbs 31 written on it.
My box from Wendi was cute and practical. She wrapped every gift in brown paper and tied little tags on that said,"C is for clean." Very cute!
The box included:
--a cute cherry apron that I think Wendi made herself!
--cherry dishcloth
--a book about a million uses for vinegar. Right down my alley!
--hand soap
--Glade scented oil candles and refills
--sponge
--Mary Engelbreit magnetic note pad
Thank you, Wendi for your careful thought in putting my box together!
I filled Monica's shoebox with:
--a handmade hanging frame with a quote by Elisabeth Elliot:
"I'm mothering young children who some day will fill important and useful spheres in life, and washing clothes is part of my grand task in caring for these souls who shall live forever."
--a small bag of clothespins with instructions for writing names and prayer requests as a reminder to pray while doing the laundry!
--drawer organizers
--scrubbie for dishes
--small body wash and lotion
--kitchen towel
--Glade apple cinnamon candle
--Orbit gum
Monica's gift to me was also very practical which I love! She filled a plastic organizing box with:
--decorated spray bottle
--embroidered cleaning mitt
--fun container of dishwasher soap
--sponge
--fabric
--handmade apron that is so cute and looks like spring!
--small dish
I appreciate the thought that went into preparing my box. Thank you, Monica!
Visit Carrie's blog to peek at more of the Clean swap boxes!
It was so much fun to do a three-way swap with Monica and Wendi. I have been long-time readers of both of their blogs and it was nice to prepare boxes for each of them. Even though I have never met them in real-life, I still feel as though both ladies are dear friends!
For both boxes, I tagged each gift with an appropriate verse mostly centering around homekeeping and clean heart.
Wendi has been focusing on organizing and decluttering her home so I tried to put together a few items to help her with that.
I filled a blue organizing basket with:
--dusting cloths
--drawer organizers
--Glade air freshener
--small body wash and lotion
--Orbit gum/breath mints
--kitchen towel
--scrubbie for washing dishes
--small bag of clothespins with instructions for writing prayer requests on each one as a way to pray for family and different needs while hanging the laundry.
--handmade frame with verse from Proverbs 31 written on it.
My box from Wendi was cute and practical. She wrapped every gift in brown paper and tied little tags on that said,"C is for clean." Very cute!
The box included:
--a cute cherry apron that I think Wendi made herself!
--cherry dishcloth
--a book about a million uses for vinegar. Right down my alley!
--hand soap
--Glade scented oil candles and refills
--sponge
--Mary Engelbreit magnetic note pad
Thank you, Wendi for your careful thought in putting my box together!
I filled Monica's shoebox with:
--a handmade hanging frame with a quote by Elisabeth Elliot:
"I'm mothering young children who some day will fill important and useful spheres in life, and washing clothes is part of my grand task in caring for these souls who shall live forever."
--a small bag of clothespins with instructions for writing names and prayer requests as a reminder to pray while doing the laundry!
--drawer organizers
--scrubbie for dishes
--small body wash and lotion
--kitchen towel
--Glade apple cinnamon candle
--Orbit gum
Monica's gift to me was also very practical which I love! She filled a plastic organizing box with:
--decorated spray bottle
--embroidered cleaning mitt
--fun container of dishwasher soap
--sponge
--fabric
--handmade apron that is so cute and looks like spring!
--small dish
I appreciate the thought that went into preparing my box. Thank you, Monica!
Visit Carrie's blog to peek at more of the Clean swap boxes!
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Master Grocery List
Something I find very helpful is to have a master grocery list of all the items that we like to eat and keep on hand. This makes planning for grocery shopping so much easier and I am not as likely to forget something.
My updated list(below) is set up according to the layout of my local Aldi store. Although Aldi doesn't carry everything on my list, it is the store where I buy most of my staple items. For our area, Aldi definitely has the best prices on most basic items unless there is a good sale somewhere else.
Since I do my biggest shopping trip at the beginning of the month, I print out a new list for each month and go through the pantry checking off what we're running low on. I keep the list hanging in the kitchen where I can check off what I need as I go along throughout the month.
I don't buy every single item on my list every month. For both fresh and frozen veggies and fruit, I make sure I have several varieties on hand. On the list are the kinds we buy most often.
To make my master list, I started by making basic categories then listed the things we buy in those categories. For the next week or so, I came back and jotted down things I had initially forgotten until I felt it was complete enough to type up. Also, I can always edit the original document when it's time to change something.
Having a master grocery list helps streamline my shopping and is a kitchen tip that helps me simplify my life.
(Click on the right arrow to maximize the document. Arrows at the bottom will help you to see both pages 1 and 2.)
**Visit Tammy's Recipes for more kitchen tips!
**Visit We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday posts!
My updated list(below) is set up according to the layout of my local Aldi store. Although Aldi doesn't carry everything on my list, it is the store where I buy most of my staple items. For our area, Aldi definitely has the best prices on most basic items unless there is a good sale somewhere else.
Since I do my biggest shopping trip at the beginning of the month, I print out a new list for each month and go through the pantry checking off what we're running low on. I keep the list hanging in the kitchen where I can check off what I need as I go along throughout the month.
I don't buy every single item on my list every month. For both fresh and frozen veggies and fruit, I make sure I have several varieties on hand. On the list are the kinds we buy most often.
To make my master list, I started by making basic categories then listed the things we buy in those categories. For the next week or so, I came back and jotted down things I had initially forgotten until I felt it was complete enough to type up. Also, I can always edit the original document when it's time to change something.
Having a master grocery list helps streamline my shopping and is a kitchen tip that helps me simplify my life.
(Click on the right arrow to maximize the document. Arrows at the bottom will help you to see both pages 1 and 2.)
**Visit Tammy's Recipes for more kitchen tips!
**Visit We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday posts!
Snowy Day!
We had a fun snow day yesterday! It doesn't snow much here in the South, so it's a big deal when it does.
It snowed from Sunday afternoon to sometime during the night. We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland Monday morning! It's already pretty well gone now, but it was fun while it lasted!
I took a couple of pictures while I was out with the dog. Rock just loves playing in the snow. The only way I could get him back inside was with an opened can of wet dog food!
Enjoy!
Rock felt it was his duty to move a rather large limb that was down!
Monday, March 02, 2009
Happy Homemaker Monday
On my bedside table:
--new issues of Southern Living and Country Home magazine
On my TV:
--Super Why for the littles
On the menu for tonight:
--eat at church meeting.I'm providing bread.
On my To Do List:
--clean kitchen
--laundry
--bake bread for tonight
New Recipe I tried last week:
--turketti. A turkey spaghetti casserole. It was good; probably not something I'd make often but still fairly tasty.
In the craft basket:
--felt pieces for the flannel board. Didn't get to them last week.
--curtains for shelves in office.
--denim place mats.
Looking forward to:
--meeting with a friend or two to share what we are learning through God's Word. This will hopefully become an ongoing weekly occurrence.
--a snowy day today! Yeah!
Homemaking Tip for this week:
Don't be afraid to minimize and declutter. I haven't been happy with my hutch for a long time. It is really the only place to keep the dishes that I don't use daily and it was too full. Plus it shakes when someone walks by. On a whim, the other day, I got out a box and started to fill it with the items that aren't my favorites or used on a regular basis. I may get rid of a few things but for the most part I'm storing them away for now. Now there's room to breathe as well as add a decorative touch or two. I like it!
Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
--Living A Simple Life(A New Season) at Frugal Granola.
This post was so encouraging to me. It is a wonderful story of God's continuing direction and provision.
Favorite photo from last week:
Rock only knows one trick-"High 5". I think it's so cute and funny when he stands on his back legs!
Lesson learned the past few days:
--It's been a little more difficult than I thought to switch to baking with more whole grains and natural sweeteners. I'm still looking for a good cookie recipe. The peanut butter cookies I made the other day didn't turn out so well.
On my Prayer List:
--my husband
--my dad who is having outpatient surgery tomorrow
--baby daughter of friends who has been undergoing different surgeries and tests.
--teenage son of friends who is having trouble in school as well as making choices that are not wise.
Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Romans 8:38-39:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks to Sandra for hosting Happy Homemaker Monday!
Menu Plan Monday
Last week's menu went as pretty much as planned except for Tuesday night's pinto beans and cornbread. That ended up being the menu for Monday night's meeting! Even though pinto beans and cornbread is one of our favorites, I decided to just skip it until this next week. I had tuna melts on the menu for Monday lunch but we had plenty of leftovers, so I moved the tuna melts to Tuesday night. I served the melts with a salad, cooked veggie and apple slices for a complete and filling meal.
Gail asked a great question in response to last week's menu plan:
I notice you have a couple meals where you aren't serving meat. How does your hubby handle this? I would like to do this but need some ideas how to get my meat and potato husband on board. Any ideas?
I answered Gail's question by email, but thought I'd answer it here too, if anyone else is wondering about this. Especially since this week's menu only has 2 nights with meat(which I totally did not think about when planning the menu)!
My husband doesn't complain about meatless meals as long as we eat some meat each week and as long as he gets enough to eat at each meal. I have always cooked this way and he really doesn't seem to mind it. Eggs and cheese are also a good source of protein and we eat plenty of those.
Eating less meat is a great way to cut down on grocery costs. Some ways to do this would be with soups, casseroles, pasta dishes, stir fries and "breakfast for dinner". Not all husbands go for this, though, so you need to keep your own husband's preferences in mind. My next suggestion is to look for other areas to save money so that you can serve a bit more meat.
Does anyone have other suggestions for Gail? Please share!
Here's what we'll be eating this week.
Sunday
B-pancakes, apple slices
L-taking crockpot lasagna to our fellowship
D-popcorn, cheese, apples
Monday
To do: make yogurt, soak beans
B-oatmeal, grapefruit
L-mini pizzas(crusts in freezer), salad
D-eat at church meeting
Tuesday
To do:make chicken broth, make salad dressing
B-apple-carrot muffins, strawberry smoothies
L-peanut butter and honey sandwiches, cottage cheese, salad
D-pinto beans, cornbread, salad
Wednesday
B-eggs, toast, grapes
L-leftovers
D-grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade tomato soup
Thursday
To do: next week's menu plan
B-oatmeal,grapes
L-turkey, bacon, guacamole sandwiches, tortilla chips
D-salmon patties, homemade bread, green beans
Friday
B-apple-carrot muffins, strawberry smoothies
L-leftovers
D-chicken piccata(new recipe), salad, breadsticks
Saturday
To do: prepare food for Sunday
B-cold cereal, milk, fruit
L-leftovers
D-omelets, toast, fruit
For more menu-planning fun, don't forget to visit Organizing Junkie to read lots and lots of menu plans!
Friday, February 27, 2009
A Verse To Ponder
It's Friday and my brain is about worn out. So while I run errands and work around the house, reflect on this promise from God's Word.
Have a wonderful and refreshing weekend!
Ephesians 3:20(The Message):
"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."
Have a wonderful and refreshing weekend!
Ephesians 3:20(The Message):
"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Baked Oatmeal
This yummy dish shows up on my menu plans quite often. It's easy to prepare the night before and have refrigerated to bake the next morning. This makes 3 breakfasts for the two of us. Not bad!
My mom made this for us growing up. Now it's one of my husband's favorites! It's good warm out of the oven or cold the next day. We eat it like cereal with milk.
Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients:
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup brown sugar or 1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup melted butter or oil
Mix all ingredients. Pour into a 8 or 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve with milk. Makes 4-6 servings.
For fun, add in some chocolate chips, blueberries,cranberries, dried fruit, nuts or coconut! Our favorite is walnut and cranberry(dried or frozen).
**This post is part of Life as Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap. Today's theme is favorite breakfast foods, so head on over!
My mom made this for us growing up. Now it's one of my husband's favorites! It's good warm out of the oven or cold the next day. We eat it like cereal with milk.
Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients:
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup brown sugar or 1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup melted butter or oil
Mix all ingredients. Pour into a 8 or 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve with milk. Makes 4-6 servings.
For fun, add in some chocolate chips, blueberries,cranberries, dried fruit, nuts or coconut! Our favorite is walnut and cranberry(dried or frozen).
**This post is part of Life as Mom's Ultimate Recipe Swap. Today's theme is favorite breakfast foods, so head on over!
Kreativ Blogger Award
Tracy from Lines From The Vine recently awarded me with this award. Thanks, Tracy!
I'm tagging the following blogs I love to read for this award:
--The Homespun Heart
--In This Season
--Challenges and Adventures
--My Heart Is Always Home
--A Simple Walk
To claim your award you need to:
* 1. Thank the person who gave the award to you
* 2. Post the award on your blog or on a post
* 3. Nominate blogs which show great attitude/gratitude
* 4. Link to the people you chose on your post
Then comment on their blogs to tell them about the award.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Blog Housekeeping
I noticed that there were a number of links in recent posts that were not working properly. I've corrected them and they are working again.
Sorry about this!
Sorry about this!
Weigh-In Wednesday
I'm joining in once again with Kate and Joy from Happy To Be At Home to update you on my weight-loss progress.
Food:
Doing pretty well. I'm making sure to add a salad or vegetable to my lunches which helps to balance the carb factor that seems to be more present with lunch leftovers.
Water:
I'm getting back on track with drinking enough water. Not perfect...but I'm doing better.
Exercise:
I've slowed down a bit due to the pain in my one knee. Taking a friend's advice, I'm icing my knee (with ice not frosting,LOL!!!)after running as well as every evening and applying heat to it before I run. It really does help! He also suggested going back to more of a walk/run again. This week I've been doing more walking than running, to give my knees a bit of a break. Hopefully I'll get back into the groove soon.
Successes:
I made a chocolate pizza for our belated Valentine's dinner at home. It was very good. I only ate a small piece and sent a large amount of it the next day when my husband went to be with some friends, leaving only a small portion in the refrigerator for him to eat over the weekend. I did eat a small chunk later on but wasn't tempted to overindulge. That is a big success!
Challenges:
The knee pain makes it difficult to keep running, so it's hard to know whether to keep on or just walk instead.
Plans for next week:
Continue on!
Weigh-in:
No weight loss or gain this week. I wish the weight-loss would go faster but I am grateful for the discipline I am learning. It will be worth it in the long run!
Food:
Doing pretty well. I'm making sure to add a salad or vegetable to my lunches which helps to balance the carb factor that seems to be more present with lunch leftovers.
Water:
I'm getting back on track with drinking enough water. Not perfect...but I'm doing better.
Exercise:
I've slowed down a bit due to the pain in my one knee. Taking a friend's advice, I'm icing my knee (with ice not frosting,LOL!!!)after running as well as every evening and applying heat to it before I run. It really does help! He also suggested going back to more of a walk/run again. This week I've been doing more walking than running, to give my knees a bit of a break. Hopefully I'll get back into the groove soon.
Successes:
I made a chocolate pizza for our belated Valentine's dinner at home. It was very good. I only ate a small piece and sent a large amount of it the next day when my husband went to be with some friends, leaving only a small portion in the refrigerator for him to eat over the weekend. I did eat a small chunk later on but wasn't tempted to overindulge. That is a big success!
Challenges:
The knee pain makes it difficult to keep running, so it's hard to know whether to keep on or just walk instead.
Plans for next week:
Continue on!
Weigh-in:
No weight loss or gain this week. I wish the weight-loss would go faster but I am grateful for the discipline I am learning. It will be worth it in the long run!
What Still Works For Me?
Sometimes I read through my blog archives and I am slightly amused at some of the things that I've posted about. This blog is clearly a running diary or journal of the happenings of my life. Maybe I don't write about what happens every day, but there is a rambling pattern of phases, stages and what has been and is important to me.
Then there are my Works For Me Wednesday posts where I tell the w.w.w.(whole wide world) about something that works so well for me. I read some of these and think, "Oh boy, do I need to update this one!"
So today, I'm sharing a round-up of some of my oldest WFMW posts that still really work for me.
What Still Works For Me:
--Stamps in my mailbox. This is the best! I put my order out with the mail and like magic, the stamps appear within a few days.
--Keeping my tithe money in my Bible.
--Having birthday cards ready. Which reminds me. I haven't done this year's yet!We only have one family birthday between January and March so I'm really still ok!
--Using a binder for bill-paying.About a year ago, I thought perhaps I should look into some other more tech-savvy ways to keep track of my bills, but I quickly came back to this simple method. This works for me right now!
Don't forget that Works For Me Wednesday has a new home. It can now be found every Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
Then there are my Works For Me Wednesday posts where I tell the w.w.w.(whole wide world) about something that works so well for me. I read some of these and think, "Oh boy, do I need to update this one!"
So today, I'm sharing a round-up of some of my oldest WFMW posts that still really work for me.
What Still Works For Me:
--Stamps in my mailbox. This is the best! I put my order out with the mail and like magic, the stamps appear within a few days.
--Keeping my tithe money in my Bible.
--Having birthday cards ready. Which reminds me. I haven't done this year's yet!We only have one family birthday between January and March so I'm really still ok!
--Using a binder for bill-paying.About a year ago, I thought perhaps I should look into some other more tech-savvy ways to keep track of my bills, but I quickly came back to this simple method. This works for me right now!
Don't forget that Works For Me Wednesday has a new home. It can now be found every Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Free Book
Moody Publishers is giving away a free book as a way to promote their new book club.
Visit their site for more information!
Thanks to my sister for letting me know about this!
Visit their site for more information!
Thanks to my sister for letting me know about this!
Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Favorite Kitchen Tools
Even though I'm not one to have all the latest and greatest one-use gadgets such as smoothie blenders and quesadilla makers in my kitchen cabinets, I do love good tools that make my job that much easier.
And when it comes to good kitchen gadgets, I find that buying quality and often more expensive tools last longer than their cheaper counterparts. While I often purchase items from yard sales or thrift stores and certainly look for a deal whenever I make a purchase, I figure that a well-made kitchen tool will serve me well for years to come.
My kitchen is small and storage space at a premium. What I choose to keep and store must be something that I will use on a pretty consistent basis. Of course, some things like canning supplies, Christmas cookie cutters and a large roaster that you only pull out during the holidays are the exception and are worth keeping. I think you know what I mean.
In no particular order, here are ten of my favorite kitchen items.
1) Pyrex mixing and measuring bowls. These were a wedding gift. I really think that I use them every day. My set of 4 includes a 1-cup, 2-cup, 1-quart and 2-quart sizes. You can measure, pour and mix right in these bowls. In simplifying my kitchen, I've decluttered a lot of my other various measuring cups and kept these.
2) Baker's Roller. This two-sided rolling pin from Pampered Chef is awesome. I get so excited about this product that some would think that I get a cut from every one they sell. I am not really brand-loyal for most things but this item from Pampered Chef is worth the money. I use it for pizza crusts and any desserts that require rolling or pressing a crust into the pan.
3)Pyrex 3-cup rectangular dishes. Ok, so this is not technically a "tool". But in the process of ditching most of the plastic in favor of better quality and safer leftover containers, I've found these to be very useful. This dish is just right for lunches-the right size for dinner leftovers such as meat and a veggie or two. They stack really nice in the fridge and can be put in the oven(minus the plastic lid, of course). I also really like the 9x13 pans that come with the plastic lids. They're so great for stacking and transporting.
4)3-sided Grater. Well before I was married I was given a small gift card to Belk's. Being the practical sort I headed right to housewares to see if there was anything that I needed. All kitchen items were on sale and I was able to get one of these graters. I will not go back to the little flimsy graters that slide and fall and scrape my skin off. For large amounts of food, I'll pull out my food processor. But for everyday use, this grater is awesome.
5)Crockpot. This wonderful servant gets plenty of use in my kitchen. Not only can I cook main dishes in it, but it is also used for making yogurt, chicken broth, applesauce and cooking beans.
6)Bosch mixer and blender. Regular readers will know that I mention my Bosch a lot. Yes, a Kitchen Aid mixer is great but a Bosch is even better, in my humble opinion and is made for heavy-duty mixing such as large amounts of bread dough. I was blessed to receive mine as a wedding gift from my parents. If you're looking for a mixer that will stand up to making batch after batch of bread dough as well as other mixing, then the Bosch is for you. It is expensive, but will last and last with regular use.
7)Skinny spatula. The rubber spatula or scraper, depending on what you call it is the frugal cook's savior. It gets the last of the pancake batter from the mixing bowl and scrapes every bit of peanut butter out of the jar. Again, this is a tool that I use every day!
8)Mini-whisk. This is wonderful for gravies, pancake batter, sauces, scrambling eggs, anything that needs to be blended until smooth. I've had this for many years. I believe my mom purchased it from a restaurant supply store so it's nice stainless steel. I also have a large whisk which I rarely use. If I could only have one whisk in my kitchen, I'd choose the little one.
9)Rada vegetable peeler. My dad sells Rada cutlery and gifted me with a full basic set. I like the way the knives feel in my hand and they do a good job of cutting, too. My favorite piece, however, is the vegetable peeler. It peels quickly and smoothly. The cheap ones from the store don't hold a candle to this one. Again, I hope I don't have to go back. With items such as these, every cook gets used to and prefers the kind that they use. If you're looking for a good peeler or set of knives, I would recommend Rada,though.
10)Large baking pans. Not just a cookie sheet, these can be used to bake almost anything. I wouldn't suggest using them for lasagna or thick casseroles, though. LOL!!! Pizzas, french bread, rolls, bar cookies, cookies, roasting vegetables, granola....the list could go on and on.
So there you have it. My top 10 kitchen favorites. At least the top 10 that I can think of right now! My list is always changing since I love cooking. I love being in my kitchen. I love kitchen tools. Tools that don't clutter up my home but actually make some aspects of my job as cook a whole lot easier!
What are some of your most-used kitchen items? Please share!
For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes.
And when it comes to good kitchen gadgets, I find that buying quality and often more expensive tools last longer than their cheaper counterparts. While I often purchase items from yard sales or thrift stores and certainly look for a deal whenever I make a purchase, I figure that a well-made kitchen tool will serve me well for years to come.
My kitchen is small and storage space at a premium. What I choose to keep and store must be something that I will use on a pretty consistent basis. Of course, some things like canning supplies, Christmas cookie cutters and a large roaster that you only pull out during the holidays are the exception and are worth keeping. I think you know what I mean.
In no particular order, here are ten of my favorite kitchen items.
1) Pyrex mixing and measuring bowls. These were a wedding gift. I really think that I use them every day. My set of 4 includes a 1-cup, 2-cup, 1-quart and 2-quart sizes. You can measure, pour and mix right in these bowls. In simplifying my kitchen, I've decluttered a lot of my other various measuring cups and kept these.
2) Baker's Roller. This two-sided rolling pin from Pampered Chef is awesome. I get so excited about this product that some would think that I get a cut from every one they sell. I am not really brand-loyal for most things but this item from Pampered Chef is worth the money. I use it for pizza crusts and any desserts that require rolling or pressing a crust into the pan.
3)Pyrex 3-cup rectangular dishes. Ok, so this is not technically a "tool". But in the process of ditching most of the plastic in favor of better quality and safer leftover containers, I've found these to be very useful. This dish is just right for lunches-the right size for dinner leftovers such as meat and a veggie or two. They stack really nice in the fridge and can be put in the oven(minus the plastic lid, of course). I also really like the 9x13 pans that come with the plastic lids. They're so great for stacking and transporting.
4)3-sided Grater. Well before I was married I was given a small gift card to Belk's. Being the practical sort I headed right to housewares to see if there was anything that I needed. All kitchen items were on sale and I was able to get one of these graters. I will not go back to the little flimsy graters that slide and fall and scrape my skin off. For large amounts of food, I'll pull out my food processor. But for everyday use, this grater is awesome.
5)Crockpot. This wonderful servant gets plenty of use in my kitchen. Not only can I cook main dishes in it, but it is also used for making yogurt, chicken broth, applesauce and cooking beans.
6)Bosch mixer and blender. Regular readers will know that I mention my Bosch a lot. Yes, a Kitchen Aid mixer is great but a Bosch is even better, in my humble opinion and is made for heavy-duty mixing such as large amounts of bread dough. I was blessed to receive mine as a wedding gift from my parents. If you're looking for a mixer that will stand up to making batch after batch of bread dough as well as other mixing, then the Bosch is for you. It is expensive, but will last and last with regular use.
7)Skinny spatula. The rubber spatula or scraper, depending on what you call it is the frugal cook's savior. It gets the last of the pancake batter from the mixing bowl and scrapes every bit of peanut butter out of the jar. Again, this is a tool that I use every day!
8)Mini-whisk. This is wonderful for gravies, pancake batter, sauces, scrambling eggs, anything that needs to be blended until smooth. I've had this for many years. I believe my mom purchased it from a restaurant supply store so it's nice stainless steel. I also have a large whisk which I rarely use. If I could only have one whisk in my kitchen, I'd choose the little one.
9)Rada vegetable peeler. My dad sells Rada cutlery and gifted me with a full basic set. I like the way the knives feel in my hand and they do a good job of cutting, too. My favorite piece, however, is the vegetable peeler. It peels quickly and smoothly. The cheap ones from the store don't hold a candle to this one. Again, I hope I don't have to go back. With items such as these, every cook gets used to and prefers the kind that they use. If you're looking for a good peeler or set of knives, I would recommend Rada,though.
10)Large baking pans. Not just a cookie sheet, these can be used to bake almost anything. I wouldn't suggest using them for lasagna or thick casseroles, though. LOL!!! Pizzas, french bread, rolls, bar cookies, cookies, roasting vegetables, granola....the list could go on and on.
So there you have it. My top 10 kitchen favorites. At least the top 10 that I can think of right now! My list is always changing since I love cooking. I love being in my kitchen. I love kitchen tools. Tools that don't clutter up my home but actually make some aspects of my job as cook a whole lot easier!
What are some of your most-used kitchen items? Please share!
For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Happy Homemaker Monday
On my bedside table:
--The Many Loves of Marriage by Thomas and Nanette Kinkade. This was a $1 yard sale find from this past weekend!
On my TV:
--Super Why! at noon for the kiddos
On the menu for tonight:
--eat at church meeting. I'm taking corn bread.
On my To Do List:
--clean kitchen
--laundry
--clip and sort coupons
--work on upcoming blog posts during nap time
New Recipe I tried last week:
--chocolate pizza from the newest Taste of Home magazine-Yum!
In the craft basket:
--felt pieces for flannel board
Looking forward to:
--a quieter week
Homemaking Tip for this week:
--If you use whole milk, you can dilute it with water for cooking. I dilute it almost 50/50 and it works fine. This stretches your gallon of milk and saves a bit of money.
Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
Pedestals at The Homespun Heart
Favorite photo from last week:
Sorry, no picture this week. I really need to do better in using my camera!
Lesson learned the past few days:
Washing whites with a dark blue item will cause socks to turn blue! Duh!
On my Prayer List:
--my husband
Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Isaiah 26:3:
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You.
Thought to go with this verse:
"Your focus will become your reality." Instead of focusing on negative thoughts, finances, our poor economy and so on, I want to focus on Jesus Christ. I want that perfect peace the Scripture speaks of here!
Thanks to Sandra for hosting Happy Homemaker Monday!
Menu Plan Monday
I took a few weeks off from serious menu planning. I had a plan, just in my mind and not down on paper. Having my plan on paper or online works better because I'm more apt to remember it! A menu plan makes my days so much easier and more scheduled.
I have a full refrigerator, pantry and freezer from recent shopping trips so it was easy to come up with a menu!
Sunday
To do: mix baked oatmeal and refrigerate overnight
B-scrambled eggs, toast
L-All-Day Church Event: Lunch provided.
D-green salad, cottage cheese, apple slices
Monday
To do: soak beans overnight, remove quiche from freezer
B-baked oatmeal, grapefruit
L-tuna melts, carrot sticks
D-eat at meeting
Tuesday
B-baked oatmeal leftovers, fruit smoothie
L-spinach quiche**
D-pinto beans, cornbread, salad
Wednesday
B-baked oatmeal leftovers, apple slices
L-leftovers
D-turketti (A new recipe. How could I refuse such a fun name?), steamed mixed veggies
Thursday
B-scrambled eggs, toast
L-leftovers
D-pepperoni pizza, salad
Friday
B-chocolate-zucchini bread**, fruit smoothies
L-leftovers
D-Israeli Spice Chicken, steamed green beans, brown rice**
Saturday
To do:make food for Sunday's fellowship
B-cheese grits
L-leftovers
D-pancakes, scrambled eggs
**denotes ready-to-eat from the freezer
For more menu planning fun, please visit Organizing Junkie!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Homemade Bread
One of my favorite aspects of homemaking is having the time to bake homemade bread. To me, it is an old-fashioned and homey skill that produces something wonderful!
Learning to bake bread is an art and is one that takes time to learn. With the right recipes and experience, it becomes easy to create homemade bread that your whole family will love!
While I still buy a loaf of bread from the store on occasion, I aim to make most of our breads myself. The varieties that I make most frequently are Honey Wheat Bread, French Bread, and Wheat Rolls.
Since I'm learning the art of soaking grains, I've been using this recipe for whole grain bread and it is delicious!
Baking my own bread has proved to be a frugal choice most of the time as good loaves of bread cost a lot to buy! It can also be a more nutritious option especially if you grind your own grains.
Unlike pioneer women who kneaded their bread by hand, I enjoy using my Bosch mixer which was a wedding gift from my parents. I sometimes knead a small batch of bread by hand, though. Even though I have a mixer and learned to make bread that way, I still feel that it's important to know how to do it by hand in case I need to do it without my mixer someday. It has also enabled me to be able to teach other ladies how to bake bread when they don't have a mixer at home.
Baking bread gives the house such a yummy smell. This smell carries to outside our home to welcome my husband and guests with an enticing aroma.
And I don't think anything is as delicious as a slice of fresh warm bread slathered with butter.
Homemade bread--definitely one of the finer things in life!
Stop by Amy's blog for more Finer Things Friday posts!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Banana Snowmen
When I saw these fruity snowmen in Family Fun magazine, I knew my little childcare boys would like them for a special snack one day!
Instead of threading the fruit onto skewers, I simply arranged the fruit in a snowman shape on a plate. Two and a half year old boys are plenty dangerous without the help of sharp pointed objects!
I used blueberries instead of a grape, large chocolate chips instead of minis and carrot sticks instead of pretzels for the arms. Older kids would enjoy assembling this snack themselves.
There were smiles all around when these fun snowmen were served!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Weigh-In Wednesday
Another weigh-in Wednesday! Let's see how I did this past week...
Food:
Not so good. Valentine's Day and hormones had me snacking on as many sweets as I could find! I also made and ate way too many sugar cookies for Valentine's Day.I think I ate more sugar last week than I have in all of 2009 so far. Not good, not good.
Water:
I was doing really well on drinking enough water, but have gotten off track in the last few weeks.
Exercise:
The running is going well. It is a lot of work! Now that I am running longer distances(20 minutes this week), I'm having a lot of trouble with stiffness and soreness in my knee. My first thought was that the muscles are getting a workout. And they are, but it appears that it may be something more than that. I'm hoping that it will go away soon!
Successes:
I'm doing well with portion control at meals.
Challenges:
Staying away from the sweets!
Plans for next week:
Up my water intake.
Concentrate on more veggies.
Stay away from the sweets!
Weigh-in:
I lost 1 pound this week. Yeah! If you have been following these updates, you will know that I hadn't lost any weight in the 8 weeks that I've been exercising and watching what I eat. So let's all do a happy dance! I dropped one pound even with eating Girl Scout cookies, Valentine cookies and banana cake! Not that I should try another week like that....:-)
**This post is part of Happy To Be At Home's Weigh-In Wednesday.
Food:
Not so good. Valentine's Day and hormones had me snacking on as many sweets as I could find! I also made and ate way too many sugar cookies for Valentine's Day.I think I ate more sugar last week than I have in all of 2009 so far. Not good, not good.
Water:
I was doing really well on drinking enough water, but have gotten off track in the last few weeks.
Exercise:
The running is going well. It is a lot of work! Now that I am running longer distances(20 minutes this week), I'm having a lot of trouble with stiffness and soreness in my knee. My first thought was that the muscles are getting a workout. And they are, but it appears that it may be something more than that. I'm hoping that it will go away soon!
Successes:
I'm doing well with portion control at meals.
Challenges:
Staying away from the sweets!
Plans for next week:
Up my water intake.
Concentrate on more veggies.
Stay away from the sweets!
Weigh-in:
I lost 1 pound this week. Yeah! If you have been following these updates, you will know that I hadn't lost any weight in the 8 weeks that I've been exercising and watching what I eat. So let's all do a happy dance! I dropped one pound even with eating Girl Scout cookies, Valentine cookies and banana cake! Not that I should try another week like that....:-)
**This post is part of Happy To Be At Home's Weigh-In Wednesday.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
No Crackers For Soup? Improvise!
When serving soup one day last week, I discovered that we were out of saltine crackers to eat with it.
Normally, I would serve bread or toast with soup, but this time I remembered a bag of croutons that I had in the pantry and used those instead.
They were crisp and seasoned with garlic and added a nice little extra to a bowl of soup. Yum! I'll need to use croutons instead of crackers more often!
For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes!
Normally, I would serve bread or toast with soup, but this time I remembered a bag of croutons that I had in the pantry and used those instead.
They were crisp and seasoned with garlic and added a nice little extra to a bowl of soup. Yum! I'll need to use croutons instead of crackers more often!
For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes!
Our Valentine's Day
We had a nice Valentine's day. My husband took me to downtown Salisbury, NC to spend the day poking around. We spent approximately 6 hours in a 3 block radius just checking out bookstores, thrift shops and antique stores. We didn't buy a whole lot but enjoyed the time spent together. This is an activity that we enjoyed often when we were dating, but has kind of gone by the wayside since the wedding. I admit that at first I didn't want to go away on Saturday. All of last week, it seemed that I just kept falling further and further behind in my tasks and things I needed to do. I thought I needed to spend a day at home working and catching up. (I'm a really fun wife, aren't I?!?) But I am glad I went. It was refreshing to spend a day with no schedule.
Before we left, I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and served them with strawberries.(Forgot to take pictures.) Yum! In the evening, Andy took me to Olive Garden. We had part of a gift card, a coupon and some gift money to use, so we came out pretty good. They were crazily busy but a meal there is always worth the wait!. Our waiter sang us an Italian love song. Turns out he sings opera. It was beautiful!
I had planned to cook a nice steak dinner for us at home for Valentine's day. Since we went out, I moved the meal to one night this week. It will be just as special then. After all, Valentine's isn't the only day to do special things!
Before we left, I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and served them with strawberries.(Forgot to take pictures.) Yum! In the evening, Andy took me to Olive Garden. We had part of a gift card, a coupon and some gift money to use, so we came out pretty good. They were crazily busy but a meal there is always worth the wait!. Our waiter sang us an Italian love song. Turns out he sings opera. It was beautiful!
I had planned to cook a nice steak dinner for us at home for Valentine's day. Since we went out, I moved the meal to one night this week. It will be just as special then. After all, Valentine's isn't the only day to do special things!
Monday, February 09, 2009
Happy Homemaker Monday
On my bedside table:
--February'09 Country Home magazine
--Two Yada Yada Prayer Group books from the library. Why do I bother to borrow these? I can't seem to get into them. Too many details.:-)
On my TV:
--Super Why
On the menu for tonight:
--Garlic-butter spaghetti with chicken; salad
On my To Do List:
--Childcare
--Laundry
--Clean kitchen
--Spray paint planters
New Recipe I tried last week:
--Sweet Potato Waffles from Taste of Home. These were okay. I doubt that I'll be making them too often, though.
--Soaked Whole Grain Tortillas. Yum!
In the craft basket:
--crayon pouches
--valentines for my husband
Looking forward to:
--Planting some seeds this week.
--Valentines Day!
Homemaking Tip for this week:
We rented the Rug Doctor(carpet cleaning machine) to clean our carpets this weekend instead of having them done professionally. It was an easy process and we're happy with the results. The best part? We saved $40 to $50 dollars by doing the carpets ourselves.
Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
Simplifying:Buying Less and Giving More
Favorite photo from last week:
Seeds to plant outside this week!
Lesson learned the past few days:
Training to run a 5k hurts!
On my Prayer List:
--my husband
--clear direction for Andy and I for the future
--our nation and new President
Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
In reading through the book of Ephesians this week, these verses stood out to me as Extreme Makeover: God Edition.
Ephesians 4:22-24:
"You were taught...to put off your old self...to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Thanks to Sandra for hosting Happy Homemaker Monday!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Thursday Thirteen: 13 Things I Want to Grow This Year
It's February and I'm ready to start gardening! Here in the South, we can start cool weather seeds and plants such as peas, lettuce, and lettuce early. I need to buy seeds!
Between using pots and containers, my small garden here, and gardening with friends, here's a list of 13 things I'd like to grow this year:
1)basil
2)chives
3)dill
4)peas
5)green onions
6)spinach
7)leaf lettuce(a couple kinds)
8)radishes
9)green and red peppers
10)zucchini
11)tomatoes
12)cucumbers
13)green beans
Do you have the gardening fever yet? What do you want to grow this year?
**This post is part of Thursday Thirteen!
Between using pots and containers, my small garden here, and gardening with friends, here's a list of 13 things I'd like to grow this year:
1)basil
2)chives
3)dill
4)peas
5)green onions
6)spinach
7)leaf lettuce(a couple kinds)
8)radishes
9)green and red peppers
10)zucchini
11)tomatoes
12)cucumbers
13)green beans
Do you have the gardening fever yet? What do you want to grow this year?
**This post is part of Thursday Thirteen!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Weigh-In Wednesday
It's Wednesday again and time to track my progress on the weight loss/fitness/healthy lifestyle front.
Food:
I've not done well with staying away from the carbs so I'm adding them back into my diet in limited amounts. I'm focusing more on portion control and not getting so hungry that I over eat.
Water:
I'm still doing pretty well with drinking enough water. Some days I do better than others but overall, this is good..
Exercise:
A.Little.Old. Lady. That's what I feel like since I'm now running a lot more than walking as I've now reached week 6 in my 8 week program to getting started with running. My muscles are certainly getting a workout! I told Andy that even though this is difficult, I don't want to stop now because then I'd have to start all this over later. I've been aiming for running 5 times a week(which I have been able to do) and taking a break and walking instead on Mondays and Fridays.
Challenges:
Why am I not losing weight with all this exercise and watching what I eat?!?
Successes:
I pulled out my old jeans to do some painting yesterday. I know they are a looser cut than my current jeans, but I don't ever remember them being quite this loose!
Plans for next week:
Continue on, trying not to be discouraged over the lack of weight loss.It would be easy to get off the wagon about now.
Weight Loss:
None again! I'm losing some inches here and there as some of my clothes fit a little looser now, so hopefully...
**This post is part of Weigh-in Wednesday.
Food:
I've not done well with staying away from the carbs so I'm adding them back into my diet in limited amounts. I'm focusing more on portion control and not getting so hungry that I over eat.
Water:
I'm still doing pretty well with drinking enough water. Some days I do better than others but overall, this is good..
Exercise:
A.Little.Old. Lady. That's what I feel like since I'm now running a lot more than walking as I've now reached week 6 in my 8 week program to getting started with running. My muscles are certainly getting a workout! I told Andy that even though this is difficult, I don't want to stop now because then I'd have to start all this over later. I've been aiming for running 5 times a week(which I have been able to do) and taking a break and walking instead on Mondays and Fridays.
Challenges:
Why am I not losing weight with all this exercise and watching what I eat?!?
Successes:
I pulled out my old jeans to do some painting yesterday. I know they are a looser cut than my current jeans, but I don't ever remember them being quite this loose!
Plans for next week:
Continue on, trying not to be discouraged over the lack of weight loss.It would be easy to get off the wagon about now.
Weight Loss:
None again! I'm losing some inches here and there as some of my clothes fit a little looser now, so hopefully...
**This post is part of Weigh-in Wednesday.
Works For Me Wednesday: Updated Cleaning Schedule
I love having a cleaning schedule. Over the past few years with doing childcare in my home, I've found that cleaning one room a day works a whole lot better than trying to clean the entire house one day a week on "cleaning day".
Lately though, my schedule hasn't worked for me. If I didn't get to the room of the day early in the morning before the kids got here, most likely I wouldn't get to it at all.
This meant that I was spending my day off on Friday cleaning all day. Except that I often have to run errands on Friday so I'd push the cleaning to Saturday. And if we are busy that day, well...let's try again next week!
Obviously, it wasn't working for me. But after carefully looking at it, I realized that I needed to make cleaning a little each day part of my routine again. Because this is the best option for my schedule right now.
I revised the schedule putting tasks together to make it a bit more streamlined. For example, previously I cleaned the bedroom one day and the living and dining rooms the next. All rooms are fairly small and I basically just dust and vacuum in each one so it makes sense to do them together. Adding the bedroom to the same day as the other two rooms makes about an additional ten minutes. That works!
One thing I'll have to work on is being more flexible. Such as doing a bit here and there if that's all I can do. Such as mopping the bathroom floor during nap time if I just didn't get to that in the morning. Or finishing up the cleaning as soon as the kids leave for the day like I did yesterday with the bedroom dusting. The trick is to be consistent with doing something rather than skipping it all since I don't have a block of time to do it all right now.
I have a regular morning routine that is very helpful. This includes sweeping and vacuuming all floors, general clean-up, emptying the dishwasher,fixing the bed, etc. So even if I don't get the cleaning done every day, the house still stays pretty neat-looking!
So far this new and improved cleaning schedule is working for me.
Monday:
--laundry (wash sheets every two weeks)
--clean kitchen and laundry room
Tuesday:
--dust and vacuum bedroom, living room and dining room
Wednesday:
--clean bathroom
--change towels
--water plants
Thursday:
--laundry
--clean office
--menu plan
--grocery list on shopping weeks
--one deep cleaning or organizing project
Friday:
--errand day
--catch-up or special projects if at home
--wash mirrors and windows(especially those at toddler and dog height)
A very specific new and improved cleaning schedule: this works for me!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Cooking Day
I love having meals and different meal components cooked and ready in the freezer for quick meals. That doesn't happen automatically, though. I often cook and bake double or triple what I need so that I have extras all ready to go.
I wrote about nap time freezer cooking in December. This is where I prepare some foods for the freezer while my childcare kids nap. While I haven't gotten around to doing it again since that first time, I still want to make this a habit. But with ever-changing nap schedules and just not planning ahead, it hasn't happened yet this year. It will, though!
This past Saturday, I declared a cooking day and cooked up a bunch of stuff for the freezer. Most foods were not completed entrees but different foods being prepared so that it will be easy to throw a meal together.
Here was my list for the morning:
1)cook ground beef
2)cook brown rice
3)spinach quiche
4)mash leftover sweet potatoes
5)cook three kinds of beans-kidney, chickpeas and white/navy beans
6)chop ham off ham bone from earlier in the week
7)make sweet potato waffles
8)boil eggs
9)make split pea soup in crock pot with ham bone
I started the night before by soaking the beans. That way, they were ready to cook first thing! While the beans cooked, I worked on the other prep, ending with baking the rice and quiches at the same time.
It took me about 3 hours from start to finish, plus extra cooling and packaging time. I decided against making the waffles since I already had the crock pot using the only outlet in the kitchen and I still have several breakfast baked goods still in the freezer. I put the waffles on this week's menu-the sweet potatoes are already mashed and ready to go!
Here's the fruits of my labor:
--2 crustless spinach and ham quiches(completely baked; just need to be thawed and heated)
--4 (3/4 lb.) bags of cooked ground beef
--2 (1 cup) bags mashed sweet potatoes
--2 (2 cup) bags chickpeas
--5 (1 cup) bags navy beans
--5 (1 cup)bags kidney beans
--4 (2 cup) bags brown rice
--1 dozen hard-boiled eggs(8 for deviled eggs for Sunday's party and the rest for creamed eggs this week.)
--1 pot split pea soup with ham(We ate this for dinner plus there's enough for at least 2 lunches this week.)
--1 1/2 cups chopped ham (1/2 cup for each quiche and 1/2 cup to cook with black-eyed peas this week.)
I love having all this food prepared and at my disposal for the next few weeks. Spending a day or even a half day cooking can make meal prep so much easier!
For more kitchen tips, please visit Tammy's Recipes each Tuesday!
Monday, February 02, 2009
Menu Plan Monday
I looked through my pantry, freezer and fridge to plan meals for the week.
Hence, we proudly present this week's menu! (I thought it would be fun to use the word hence.)
Breakfast- the most important meal of the day:
M-banana carrot muffins,pineapple smoothie
T-baked oatmeal
W-baked oatmeal again
Th-baked oatmeal still
F-fried egg sandwiches, fruit
S-cold cereal, fruit
Lunch-The second most important meal of the day:
M-split pea soup, leftover nachos
T-cabbage salad with chicken, oranges, green pepper and whatever else suits my fancy
W-split pea soup, crackers
Th-leftovers
F-leftovers or peanut butter sandwiches
S-leftovers
Dinner- the third most important meal of the day:
S-Super Bowl Party: I took deviled eggs and nachos.
M-dinner at meeting
T-creamed eggs on toast, steamed veggies
W-sausage and cabbage skillet dinner, brown rice, applesauce
Th-black-eyed peas with ham, corn muffins, applesauce, salad
F-lasagna soup, garlic bread, salad
S-sweet potato waffles, scrambled eggs
For more, actually about 500 more menus, please visit Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday!
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