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!