Menu Plan Monday

Monday- chicken and rice(top of the stove dish)

Tuesday-tuna pasta salad

Wednesday-beef tips(bought on super sale a while back!), gravy, mashed potatoes

Thursday-sloppy joes

Friday-sweet and sour pork with rice

Saturday-leftover buffet

For more menu ideas, please visit I'm An Organizing Junkie!

What To Do With 10 Pounds Of Ground Beef

When ground beef was on sale last week for $.97 a pound, I bought 10 pounds. It was packaged in 5 pound packages, so I bought 2 of the big trays.

I used 2 pounds(with 1 pound of sausage) to make a huge batch of meatballs to freeze. I cut the rest of the beef into approximate 1 pound portions and froze 6 pounds in 1 pound bags. I browned the remaining 2 pounds and froze that already cooked in 1 pound portions as well. (This will be great for quick meals!) All this meat should last us for several months!

I'll share my recipe for meatballs and you can check out this article for many ways to use them!

Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound sausage(can use all ground beef if desired)
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2-3 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion

Mix all ingredients together and shape into small balls(I use my cookie scoop). I usually make around 80 meatballs with this recipe. Place meatballs on waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid. Remove from pan and package in meal-sized portions(I like dozen size packages for us).

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

We love these baked with BBQ sauce and served with rice or pasta. Easy!

I have also put partially cooked meatballs in cooked jumbo pasta shells and then layered them with spaghetti sauce and cheese- one of my husband's favorites!Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so.

The newest Taste of Home has a recipe for meatball calzones which I plan to adapt for us.

Happy cooking!

Making A List

No, I'm not talking about Christmas right now, even though I am already planning fun gifts!

I'm trying to do better at planning and projecting as to what I need for groceries and household items. So this month I decided to make a list of items that we frequently use that I need to be looking for ahead(before I am completely out) on a good sale. It's such a simple idea, but it has already helped me so much!

I use a clipboard (hanging in my kitchen)with a pad of paper that I write my grocery lists on as I notice I am running low. This month I simply kept a list on the front left hand side of items I wanted at a great price. So often I forget what I want to stock up on as I go from week to week so this is a simple thing that really helps me!

When looking at the sale ads, I kept an eye out for some of the items that I had on -my "sale" list. Either this was a good month for sales or my list really helped to remind me of what to be looking for.:-)

On my list this month:

-Brita filters
-liquid Tylenol
-canned salmon
-ziploc bags-all sizes-(bought for 99 cents a box)
-ground beef-(bought at 97 cents a pound)
-fish-(found some tilapia for a good price in the ads this week)
-mayo-(bought at 70 cents a jar with sale and coupons)
-whole chickens
-chicken breasts-(bought at $1.77 a pound)
-ranch dressing
-whole wheat pasta-(Harris Teeter has some spaghetti advertised)
-tuna
-sausage

Of course, not everything was found yet, but I was able to get several of these things at very good prices! I'm also trying to do better at keeping some of my husband's favorite foods on hand and this will help me to remember to look for things that I normally wouldn't think about.:-)

Who would've guessed that such a simple idea would help me so much?

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: BBQ Chicken, corn on the cob, salad

Tuesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs

Wednesday: Calico Bean Bake(a new recipe)

Thursday: London Broil with roasted potatoes and carrots

Friday: homemade pizza

Saturday: leftovers

For more menu ideas, please visit I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Frugal Fridays: Spaghetti Pie

Today I'm sharing my new favorite make ahead freezer meal. Not only frugal and easy to make, it's also a cinch to mass-produce these to freeze. These make a wonderful hospitality meal to have on hand to either bake for unexpected guests or to take to someone who needs a meal brought to them. This has a "lasagna taste" to it and is so much quicker and less expensive than lasagna! I've figured that each pie costs about $3 to make.

My sister shared this recipe with me and we love it!

Spaghetti Pie

(Amounts given are for one pie; multiply according if making more than one)

Cook half of a 1 pound box of spaghetti(4 cups cooked pasta; approx. 1 1/2" diameter of uncooked)per package instructions.

Mix 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese with 2 beaten eggs and a little butter. Add to the hot noodles and mix well.

Grease a pie pan and nest in the noodles, bringing them up on the sides to resemble a crust.

Put spaghetti sauce with meat or leftover lasagna sauce on top. You can add mushrooms to this if you would like.

Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.

If freezing, double wrap and freeze until ready to use. (Thaw in fridge overnight.)



Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly!

Cut in wedges and serve with garlic bread and a salad.

For more frugal ideas, please visit Biblical Womanhood!

Two Small Cleaning Jobs-Done!

It seems there are always relatively small cleaning tasks around the house that seem to continually be put off. I've tackled two of these this week: cleaning the microwave and the ceiling fans.

I used this easy tip from Paula to clean the microwave. Hat tip to Mrs. U!

To clean the fans, I simply spray my dust rag and wipe all the blades down. Some people use special dusters to do this-which is fine. The important thing is that the job gets done!

Both of these tasks took only a few minutes each to complete. I love that there are no dust bunnies lurking on my fans and my microwave is sparkling clean-if only for a little while!

Blessings to everyone as you care for your family and home today!

Menu Plan Monday

Here's my menu for the week.

I have chicken breasts that needed to be used baking in the oven right now and my menu for the week reflects that!It will make for an easy cooking week. I'm all for that!

Monday- chicken salad wraps, sliced avocado, green salad

Tuesday-chicken and dumplings

Wednesday-baked potatoes, veggie medley, rhubarb dumplings

Thursday- White Bean and Chicken Chili, cornbread, salad

Friday-Homemade pizza

Saturday-eat out

For more Menu Plan Monday inspiration, please visit I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Freezing Fresh Lime Juice

I found a tray of organic limes on the marked-down shelf at the health food store a couple of weeks ago. 5 limes for 89 cents!

They looked so pretty in my fruit bowl, but it was a very busy week so I didn't get around to using them. To make use of the limes before they went bad(remember, no deal is a deal if you end up not using it!),I squeezed them and froze the juice in ice cube trays.

After freezing, I popped out the lime juice cubes, put them all in a ziploc bag and stuck them back in the freezer. About 3 cubes equal 1 lime, so I wrote that on the bag as well for when I'm using the fresh lime juice for a recipe. Just thaw how ever many you need and the fresh-squeezed juice is ready to use!

This can be done with lemons and limes and is so nice to have ready to pull out for recipes!

Menu Plan Monday

Here's what's for dinner at my house this week. I planned mostly from my pantry and freezer for an interesting variety this week! A can of oysters that I've been storing for a looong time was begging to be finally used! All meals will include either a salad or extra veggies on the side.

Monday- hot dogs, corn on the cob, fresh fruit

Tuesday-lentils and rice

Wednesday-sausage cooked with peppers and onions

Thursday-oyster dressing, veggie

Friday-sweet and sour chicken over rice

Saturday-tuna melts

Sunday-leftovers

For more meal-planning inspiration, please visit- I'm An Organizing Junkie!

Fleece Blankets

I've had a big bag of fleece scraps sitting in the house for over a year now. Finally, out of disgust for continuing to store them and not doing anything with them, I decided to put them into the yard sale pile and just get rid of them.(I am constantly torn between decluttering and resourceful frugality!!!) These scraps were from several service/sharing projects I helped to do with the kids at church last year.

I felt really good about getting rid of them, but since they were still setting in my house-by the back door this time- I was still walking past them every day. Last week, while thinking of some easy projects to work on while recuperating from my wisdom teeth extractions, I remembered the fleece and decided to go ahead and cut squares out of them and make a throw blanket or two to give away.

With about 2 hours of work, I had all the squares cut out and arranged into 3 different throw blankets-one clearly for a girl, one for a boy(Andy loves how this turned out to be Redskins colors! It wasn't planned this way-that's just how it turned out.:-), and one smaller sized blanket to use up the rest of the blocks.

I got these out last weekend and was thrilled with how fun they were to put together. This turned out to be the perfect project for learning to use my new sewing machine which I have had for a year now without using it!

I will be backing these with a solid piece of fleece;hopefully bought on sale or with a 40% off coupon at Hancock's. Instead of quilting the blankets, I just plan to tie them instead. These will be so warm and cuddly when finished-I can hardly wait!

Banana-Carrot Bread/Muffins

Ruthie asked for the recipe for banana-carrot bread/muffins. Here it is!!! I'm sorry that I don't have a picture to post, but I can assure you these are extremely delicious!

This is actually a plain banana bread recipe that I added shredded carrots to on a whim a couple of weeks ago. Yummy! It added a nice touch to an old favorite.

As with all quick breads, these can be made into either loaves or muffins.

Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
4 T. milk
2 cups flour(I use mostly whole wheat pastry flour and it works great.)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed bananas(appox. 2 bananas)
1-2 cups shredded carrots(optional)
1 cup chopped nuts(optional, but walnuts or pecans are really good!)
a handful of wheat germ (optional)

Mix sugar, oil and eggs well. Add milk. Mix dry ingredients together and add to sugar mixture. Last, add bananas and any of the optional ingredients desired. Pour batter into greased bread pans or muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. (Muffins won't take quite as long to bake-check after 25 minutes or so.)

This recipe will make one large loaf(regular bread pan size), about 4 mini loaves or about 18 muffins.

Enjoy!

This Week's Menu

Here's our dinner menu for the week!

Monday-ham slices, steamed zucchini, green beans and tomatoes, dinner rolls

Tuesday-leftover sloppy joes from lunch with guests

Wednesday-chicken & rice, leftover green beans and tomatoes

Thursday-spaghetti pie(from freezer),salad

Friday-spinach quiche, fruit slush, banana-carrot muffins

Saturday- chicken patties on rolls, pickles, salad or fresh veggies

Little Blessings

This afternoon, my husband and I went to look for a new belt for him. The one he is currently wearing is ripping and will not be usable much longer. He wears a hard-to-find size so after much searching at all the "cheaper" stores, our only alternative was to buy a $35 belt at Belks. We were not tickled about that price at all! Especially considering that his current belt is from Belks and has lasted only a year and a half!

Right before we left the house, I had the feeling that we should stop at Goodwill and check to see if they had anything. At first, I felt very foolish about this and thought I was just imagining. Our local Goodwill isn't known to be that great most of the time, so I don't make the trip that often.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that we should at least stop and check so we went over to Goodwill just in case. If they didn't have anything, then at least we would know that we had covered our bases.:-)

We walked in and went directly to the men's section. They had 2 (not one, but 2) belts in his size. One black and one brown. For 99 cents each!

Wow! We saved over $30 by shopping second-hand. I think my husband may finally be becoming a believer in the true savings of thrift store shopping. :-)

This is just another small example of how God cares and provides for us even in the small things. We are so thankful!

Frugal Friday: Lots Of Zucchini

This week, I will share some recipes and ways to use a lot of the zucchini that may be coming your way this summer! We like zucchini a lot, but after a while, we start to grow tired of the old standbys and want to try some new ideas!

For starters, you can freeze shredded zucchini in recipe-sized portions. This can be frozen alone or with the amount of oil needed for your zucchini bread. I freeze mine in 2 cup portions. If using for zucchini bread, leave the liquid when thawing and using-it is part of the zucchini.

Sliced zucchini is great steamed with a bit of olive oil, onion , garlic and salt & pepper. Throwing zucchini into a stir-fry alone or with other veggies is also delicious! My mother-in-law sautees zucchini and then adds a sauce of soy sauce and hoisin sauce(mix to taste). It is really good! We enjoy chunks of zucchini threaded on skewers with chunks of meat, peppers and whatever other veggies that we have on hand. These are good marinated in your favorite dressing or sauce and then cooked on the grill.

Tiny baby zucchinis are really crisp and yummy cut up into sticks and served raw on a fresh veggie platter.

Add a layer or two of shredded zucchini to lasagna. I did this a couple of weeks ago and it was really tasty!

You can google for zucchini recipes. My husband's grandmother gave me a great little zucchini cookbook when we visited her home a couple of weeks ago. There are so many ways to use this plentiful veggie!

Now I will share a few of our family favorites for using zucchini:

Zucchini bread- Here's my recipe. For variety, you can add 1 cup of shredded carrots. Some folks put crushed pineapple in theirs, too. My mom purees an orange with the oil in the blender to add to her zucchini bread.

Zucchini Soup-
1/2 pound sweet or hot sausage, remove casing; crumble as you fry it; drain well.

Add to pot:
1 pound thinly sliced zucchini
1 (14 oz.) can beef broth
1 onion, chopped
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce(I use 2 cans)
1 cup water
2 T. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. basil

Cook on low heat and simmer until zucchini is tender. Serve with crusty bread. This freezes well, so make up a big pot to freeze and enjoy later!

Zucchini Fritters-

Vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 of 1 oz. package ranch dip mix(I just add my own combination of spices)
2 cups shredded zucchini

Fill a skillet with oil to a 2 inch depth. Heat to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, combine milk and egg in a mixing bowl. Stir together dry ingredients and add to egg mixture; blend well. Fold in zucchini. Drop batter by rounded teaspoonful into hot oil. Fry until deep golden brown, turning once. Drain thoroughly on paper towels.

Makes 1 1/2 to 2 dozen fritters.

Sausage-Stuffed Zucchini-

4 medium zucchini(6 to 7 inches)
1/2 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise. Place cut side down, in a large skillet; add 1/2 inch of water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until zucchini are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Remove zucchini and drain water. In the same skillet. cook sausage, onion and garlic until sausage is browned. Drain fat. Add oregano, corn and tomato. Cook and stir until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in 2/3 cup cheese; set aside. Scoop out and discard seeds from zucchini. Divide the sausage mixture among zucchini shells. Place in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until heated through.

Serves 4-5.

Baked Zucchini Casserole-

3 cups sliced zucchini or yellow squash
1 1/2 cups coarse saltine cracker crumbs(about 20 crackers)
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (4 oz.) jar of diced pimento, optional
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients. Pour into greased 2 quart casserole. Bake uncovered at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. (May need to bake longer until eggs are set.)
Serves 8.
This is really good for any meal-even reheated at breakfast! Yum!

Enjoy your zucchini harvest this year!

For more frugal ideas, please visit Biblical Womanhood.

Scratch Paper

We always end up with lots of papers around here that have only been printed on one side. I use these for coloring papers for my child-care kids, but I end up with way too many for even them to go through!

Yesterday, I cut a pile of paper into quarters and placed them in a small basket with a couple of pens by the phone to use for scratch paper.

While I am making an effort to not print out so many things, not throwing away perfectly good paper(on one-side anyways!) is just one small way that I can reduce the amount of paper waste in my home.

Do you have any other ideas on this?

Frozen Green Beans

The fruit of yesterday's labors-7 quarts of green beans for the freezer! I will probably will do some more beans later this week; there were so many still hanging on in the garden. I would like to preserve 20-25 quarts in all.

I followed the easy instructions for blanching and freezing in my Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving. This is an invaluable resource if you are serious about canning and preserving-it tells you everything you would ever need to know!

If you don't have access to this book or any other canning instruction manual or wealth of knowledge(like a mom, aunt or grandma), here are the instructions for freezing your own green beans.

You can freeze any amount of beans-a little or a lot. Snip ends and break beans into halves or thirds or leave whole if you like it that way. Wash beans in cold water.

Meanwhile, put on a big pot of water to boil. Having a strainer or colander that fits in the pot to hold the beans under water while boiling will really help. I used my large metal strainer.

Prepare either one side of the sink or a large dishpan with ice cold water. Using large ice chunks is a better idea than little ice cubes because they don't melt as fast. (Plan ahead and freeze plastic or stainless steel bowls of water the night before.)Keep extra ice cubes and chunks back as you will need to replenish as the ice melts and water gets warm again.

When your water is at a full boil, immerse a small batch of prepared green beans in the water(keep in the strainer or colander for ease in removing quickly). Time for 3 minutes. When time is up, remove from boiling water immediately and dump beans in ice water. (It is very important that the water is icy, icy cold!)When beans are completely cool, remove to another bowl to continue cooling.(You can put ice in this bowl as well.) Drain beans well and pack into freezer bags or containers.

Repeat process with remaining green beans. As you work, you will get your own rhythm. I keep the beans going and package them all at the same time at the end.

Happy freezing!

Edited to add: I've had questions about how I cook these after freezing. I steam them for about 15 minutes or until soft. Remember they are pretty much still raw so they need to be cooked well. We like them this way. Frozen beans have a different texture than canned. We prefer frozen to canned but not everyone does, including some of our family members! Feel free to add your personal preference for cooking frozen beans.

This Week's Menu and Shopping List

I thought I would post this week's menu as well as my shopping list for those interested. I am working off of a very well-stocked pantry and freezer and the menu and short shopping list reflect that! The garden is also in full swing, providing us with piles of yummy fresh veggies. It is such a blessing to my grocery budget.:-)

Breakfasts this week will be granola, oatmeal, whole wheat toast with peanut butter and pancakes. Lunches are mainly leftovers or peanut butter sandwiches. All dinners include either a salad or fresh, steamed or sauteed veggies to round them out.

Here is my dinner menu:

Monday- Chicken Salad in pita pockets, fruit slush

Tuesday-Lentil and Rice Casserole in crockpot (pantry mix)

Wednesday-Stuffed Zucchini

Thursday-Creamy Chicken Burritos, Spanish Rice (both already prepared in freezer)

Friday-dinner with friends; take green salad to share

Saturday-Layered Mexican Dip, Hummus, tortilla chips, fresh veggies

Sunday-leftovers

Now on to my grocery list. I am still working on mainly a $100 a month grocery budget in order to save a little extra money and pay a few things off. This translates into $25 a week, but normally I buy enough groceries to last several weeks and just spend more at one time. This month, I'm making an extra effort to shop once a week and stay at $25 a week to stretch out the grocery budget and hopefully have a little money left for good buys toward the end of the month.

This week, I took my list to Aldi's and did all of my shopping there. For what I needed, Aldi's was the best option price-wise. Then I stopped at our garden(at our friend's house) and did the rest of my "shopping" for free! This week,we have fresh zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, cucumbers, peppers and okra.

I was very pleased to get everything that I needed for the week's meals and stayed just under my $25 budget. Yeah!

Here's my list:
-seedless watermelon: $3.49
-celery: $1.29
-can of olives:$.99
-2 pounds carrots:$.99
-bag of fresh spinach:$1.49
-Roma tomatoes:$1.39
-ketchup:$.99
-canola oil: $1.89
-bag of onions:$1.69
-yellow mustard: $.59
-freezer quart bags: $1.99
-dozen eggs: $1.19
-refried beans: $.49
-orange juice concentrate: $1.29
-brown sugar: $.99
-white sugar: $1.98
-tortilla chips: $.99

Grand total(with tax included): $24.73

From The Garden

Any guesses as to what I'll be doing this morning?!?

Oregon Pictures

We are headed to New York state to spend the 4th of July with family. In the meantime, please enjoy browsing these few pictures from my recent trip to Oregon!

I pray that all of you have a safe and happy holiday as we celebrate the wonderful freedom God has given us in this country!

Graduation Day: My brother Nathan. We are so proud of him!

Agate Beach along the Pacific coast.


My mom and dad.


It was the perfect day for flying kites on the beach!

My little nephew, Knox, playing on the beach. As you can see, one must often wear jackets when visiting the Pacific coast!

Dill Pickles

Thought you might like to take a peek at my first canning experience of the season- 6 quart jars of dill pickles!

These were very easy to make. From start to finish was just under 2 hours. Some I put in the jars whole;others were sliced in chunks and spears. We'll see which ones we like the best!

I'll be sharing more of my canning days with you as the summer progresses. Canning is a fun and useful art to learn and while I've helped my mom and sister do a lot of canning, I've never done a whole lot by myself! So I am excited about learning more about canning and preserving this summer.