{using ideas from favorite blogs}

If you've been here a while, you may know that I'm a big fan of Google Reader.  If you'd like to know more about why I love it, see the bottom of this post.  I save a lot of great ideas from blogs that I read, but only get around to doing a small portion of the things I'd like to. 

My brilliant, yet unoriginal suggestion to you is to utilize this wonderful information to the betterment of your family and home.

Here are some things that I've done recently that I learned about from favorite blogs:

I made these cute ghost pancakes for our family to eat for dinner one night.  Around here we love eating breakfast for dinner...maybe even once a week!  Along with the pancakes, I tried cooking our bacon in the oven.  Way less mess and it didn't shrink!  We loved it.

(didn't my ghosts turn out cute?)

Yesterday, we made CrockPot Pizza Soup.  It was the perfect chilly fall day and it was so yummy!  My 9 year old daughter made the whole thing.  The only thing I did was cut the pepperoni.  She loved it so much that she wanted me to pack it in her thermos for lunch today.  It is definitely a keeper recipe!  By the way...if you haven't been to that wonderful CrockPot recipe blog, you need to go.  Now.  It is amazing.

(this picture is from A Year of Crockpotting)

For more kitchen tips, go see Tammy.

More about Google Reader: I love that it virtually delivers new posts directly to me from all of my favorite blogs.  P.S. - I have a lot of favorite blogs.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the vast amount of wonderful ideas flooding into my reader.  I liberally use the star function in reader to flag posts that I'll want to refer to later.  I also love the fact that I can search by keywords from all of the blogs that I subscribe to.  That way, if I've forgotten where that brilliant idea is to be found, I simply search for it.  Another great thing is that I can view the posts (either in regular delivery or search mode) by the expanded view or the list view.  The list view makes it easy to scan through posts to find the specific one I'm looking for.

{kid's school lunches}

So today is the first day of school in our neck of the woods. It involves a ton of preparation so the mornings run smoothly around here. The 7:30am school bus comes awfully early! So the more things I can get done before the morning, the better.

I've been enjoying posts like this and this that have really got me thinking about what I can do ahead of time. The kids and I spent some time creating a master list for school lunches broken into 3 categories: main dishes, fruits/veggies, and snacks. The list is upstairs and I'm down, so I'll give you a sample list from my brain (its scary in there, I know).

Main Dishes

• spaghetti-o's
• chicken salad sandwich or crackers (will be referred to as s/c)
• tuna salad s/c
• egg salad s/c
• pb & j sandwich
• turkey, ham, or bologna sandwich
• homemade lunchable
• leftovers
• bagel & cream cheese

Fruit/Veggie

• apple
• applesauce
• oranges
• mandarin oranges
• banana
• cold veggies & ranch (carrots, celery)
• fruit salad

Snack (salty treat or dessert-type treat)

• crackers
• nabs crackers
• chex mix
• homemade quick breads (banana, zuccini, pumpkin)
• cookies
• homemade muffins
• chips
  

Remember, this is just a sample list of some of the things I remember from our custom list. I have been a menu/meal planner for quite a while now...really since I've been married (our 11 year anniversary is this month!). But for some reason, I've only pre-planned and written out our dinners. Never breakfasts or lunches. But I am going to add that into the planning session from now on. It is going to be so freeing not to have to "dream up" what to pack in the kids' lunches each morning. It will already be decided...AAAND...I'll have everything in the house, because those ingredients will have been added to my grocery list during that planning session. Some of those items might already be pre-prepared, packaged up, and frozen. Seriously...such a simple solution, but something I hadn't done, nonetheless.

For more kitchen tips, head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Blog notes: the cute picture is a bento lunch . I'm going to be learning more about that type of packing method soon!

Menu Plan Monday

For your viewing enjoyment, here are some pics of yummy kebobs that my hubby made. I didn't get any of the post-grill kebobs, but they were tasty!

Sunday – Breakfast Casserole & Melon
Monday – Apricot Chicken & Funeral Potatoes, Freezer Veggies
Tuesday – Moe’s Quesadillas Copy-cat & Mexican Rice, Melon
Wednesday – Sloppy Joes & French Fries & Sweet Fruit Salad
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Visiting with friends out of town
Saturday – Visiting with friends out of town

For more menus, look to Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Mondays.

For more of my posts on menu planning, check out these posts:

Five Ingredient Recipes

Meal Planning Using Sales

Menu Plan Monday - March 3, 2008

Menu Plan Monday - February 26, 2008

Be sure to check in tomorrow for a fridge tip and Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Gimmie Five (or less) - Recipes with 5 or less ingredients

Here are a couple of my stand-by recipes that need only five ingredients (or less!). I am a very, very simple cook and like recipes that have few ingredients and ones that are easy to find.

Apricot Chicken

1 package dry onion soup mix

1 cup apricot jam

1 cup french dressing

6-8 pieces skinless chicken breasts or thighs

Combine first 3 ingredients. Place chicken in crockpot. Pour sauce over top, making sure each piece has sauce on it. Cook on low 7-9 hours. Serve with rice. Makes great sauce! Yum!

Mock Caesar Salad

3 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup olive oil

7 cups torn romaine lettuce

Mix first 4 ingredients in blender (I use my magic bullet). Pour over greens and mix to cover greens. Serve immediately. YUMMY!

If you'd like some more great recipes with five ingredients or less, head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

Meal planning using sales - Frugal Friday

For a long time when planning my menu, I would scour my cookbooks, pick out some recipes, then make a shopping list with the ingredients I needed.

Now, I buy meat when it is a great price. I try not to pay over $1.99 a pound for any type of meat. I stock up when it is at a monumental low price. I also do that with other food and things.

I now have a good little stockpile. I pick my recipes based on what I already have. Sometimes I search the internet when I know I have some ingredients that would make something great together, but not sure of a recipe on how to do it. I have found some great meals that way. I really enjoy the challenge of doing my meal planning that way and love how it feels to know that it didn't cost much to make. I have also began to make more from scratch, when needed. It's usually not as tough as I previously thought.

I know this is not a new idea, but it is something that I have recently begun to do and it is really working well for me. Thought I would share! Check out Biblical Womanhood here for other great frugal ideas.

Menu Plan Monday

Hope y'all had a great weekend. Here's the menu for this week.

Dinners -

1)Roast in the Crockpot, canned veggies, applesauce, homemade bread

2)Beef Stew (with leftovers from the roast), bread, green salad

3)Spaghetti - served with Italian Cheese Bread...oh my...I can't wait to try that one out! I'll let you know how it is! :) - this is a leftover meal from last week I didn't get to.

4)Homemade Pizza, green salad

5)Appetizer night

6)Hotenanny - yummy breakfast dish to serve with fresh fruit, whipped cream, & powdered sugar! - or with maple syrup (like pancakes)

To see more yummy menus, check out orgjunkie.com's Menu Planning Monday!

Menu Plan Monday

OK - I know that it is really Tuesday, but we had guests for dinner last night, so I spent most of yesterday cleaning and preparing for that. It was a fun evening! I have checked out the ads for this week's sales, and am ready to get it all planned out. I'm going to use some new recipes and/or try to find pictures of the ones I already make...it just makes it funner to read, huh? And I'm just going to post dinner meals, the lunch ones are almost always the same.

We did Homemade Pizza last night. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've used this recipe and each time I make it I try something new and it becomes even yummier! Last night was THE BEST and I'm not changing anything else! This is definitely something we'll make every week. In case anyone wants to know, and has tried this recipe, I find that letting it rise in the oven for only about 5 minutes (while the oven is preheating) and then baking the crust for about 7 minutes BEFORE the toppings are put on, then topping and baking for about 10 minutes works the best for us. All I can say is YUUUUUUUMY!

So for the rest of the week...

Pork Chops - OK, I couldn't find a link for this one the way I make it, so I might just take a picture and add the recipe on here later....we shall see. Served with flavored mashed potatoes from a box (I think I got that for next to nothin') and cold veggies with ranch.

Oven Roasted Chicken -

4 Bean + Tomato Soup - so my mom just told me about this one yesterday. And canned beans are on a great sale this week at Kroger. Perfect timing! I am in love with making homemade dough in my kitchen aid mixer. It's soooo easy. I'm going to make some homemade bread to serve with this soup.

Farmhouse Chicken -made with leftover chicken from the Crockpot chicken recipe. Served with leftover homemade bread and some kind of frozen veggies.

Spaghetti - served with Italian Cheese Bread...oh my...I can't wait to try that one out! I'll let you know how it is! :)

Tacos - served with spanish rice and cold fruit salad

Check out all the other menus posted at orgjunkie.com's Menu Planning Monday!

Menu Plan Monday

I was sick this week, so several meals did not get cooked from last weeks plan. We just "scrounged" from the pantry and freezer on those nights. So there are some repeats from last week.

Breakfasts -Cold cereal

Scrambled eggs

Grits & Toast

Oatmealetc., etc., etc....

Waffles on the weekend! :)

Lunches -Sandwiches for the kiddos

Spaghettios for the kiddos

Leftovers for mom & dad most days

Dinners -Potato, Ham & Cheese Soup, breadsticks

Pork Chops w/ cider vinegar glaze, couscous, cold veggies & ranch

Apricot Chicken, green salad

Appetizer Night (got some lil smokies on sale :))

Crockpot chicken, rice, cold veggies & ranch

Homemade Pizza

Leftovers

Check out orgjunkie.com for more menu plans.

Menu Plan Monday

I am joining in with Larua at orgjunkie.com and participating in Menu Plan Monday. I'll post my weekly menu here. For a peek at other's menus, check out her blog here.

Breakfasts -
Cold cereal
Scrambled eggs
Grits & Toast
Oatmeal
etc., etc., etc.....
Waffles on the weekend! :)

Lunches -
Sandwiches for the kiddos
Spaghettios for the kiddos
Leftovers for mom & dad most days

Dinners -
Potato, Ham & Cheese Soup, breadsticks
Pork Chops w/ cider vinegar glaze, couscous, cold veggies & ranch
Apricot Chicken, green salad
Appetizer Night (got some lil smokies on sale :))
Chicken Helper, corn muffins, peas
Freezer Pizza
Leftover Night :)

I usually pack lunch for the kids to take to school, so I usually have plenty of pack-friendly foods for them.

Pizza Night Tonight!

A comment from Jamie led me to her blog and to this Frugal Friday idea. Homemade pizza! I really don't like to deal with dough. It gets everywhere and you end up all sticky, no matter how much flour you use. The thing about the recipe that Jamie linked to (actually from Crystal's blog) that caught my eye was that it didn't have to rise! I thought that I would try it out tonight since Mike & the kids have a slumber party on Saturdays (isn't that sweet? he started it when the kids were toddlers-real little- to give me a break, and it stuck) and we always eat pizza for dinner that night. The kids were so excited to help me make the pizza. We don't do many things from scratch around here, can you tell? That is beginning to change, though I hope. I decided we'd make 2 pizzas. Taylor insisted that we knead one of them by hand (I was all for using the kitchen aid mixer to do the work) so we did one her way and one my way. I had never used the kitchen aid for dough before and used the mixing attachment at first. I kept wondering why it wasn't looking right, then remembered the dough hook attachment. That worked much better. After we were done preparing both doughs, we all agreed that from now on we'll use the machine!

Too sticky!Dont'cha love that eager little face watching the pizza cook? It looked good and tasted good, too. We did a cheese pizza, very traditional, and an "experiment" pizza (what T called it). On the experiement one we used some leftover bean chip dip we had made the other day for lunch. Then we used a mexican blend cheese on the top. On half T let me put shredded chicken (canned). Talk about yummy!

Bean dip recipe (in case you want to know)

1 can refried beans (we used fat free)

1/3 an 8oz. block of cream cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup (or 1/2 the tostitos black bean and corn) salsa

Can use saucepan or frying pan - put on medium heat. Put all ingredients in and mix until blended and the cheeses are melted. With tortilla chips....yummy! PS - it helps to cut the cream cheese into a few chunks before adding it to the pan.

Organizing - time on my hands

I am recooperating from my sinus surgery which went well yesterday. It is giving me a lot of time to play on the internet and I have discovered some INCREDIBLY inspiring blogs. For now, I have to plan to work on these projects for when I'm feeling better, but I want to share Lara's blog with you. She is the Organizing Junkie and I have gotten some great ideas from her site. She details the PROCESS of organizing here. I can't wait to orgainze my entire house! There are only a few places in my home that are already the way I want them, so I have plenty left to do!


I also think that I'll start adding my menu to my blog as I've seen on some others like this. So look out for those menus on Mondays!

As I have fun exploring blogs on the laptop while in bed, I will share some links that really inspire me!