The Ground Beef Post

This week we are a little short on cash but we have a freezer full of ground beef. I sat down and thought of cheap meals we could have out of the pantry.

Here is the list I came up with:

Spaghetti: I buy tomato sauce and stewed and diced tomatoes at Costco by the case so we always have enough on hand to make pasta sauce. Spices and brown sugar finished off the sauce. Last time we were at Costco they had Whole Wheat pasta by the case so I picked up three cases.

Chili: I buy bags of beans and cook and freeze them all the time. So we have kidney beans in the freezer. The cases of Tomatoes and sauce come in handy here as well. Just add the ground beef and spices and top with a little cheese, that we also buy in bulk and the it's dinner time. I have cornmeal so I will probably make corn muffins to go with the chili.

Shepherd's Pie: Frozen mixed vegetables, some BBQ sauce, ground beef, mashed potatoes, and cheese.

Poor Man's Stroganoff and frozen broccoli: Whatever noodles I have on hand, ground beef, sour cream, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. It's much better than it sounds. :)

Hamburgers and baked beans: ground beef, dried onions, garlic powder, Worcester sauce mixed together and made into a patty. Topped with cheese and tomato on a hamburger bun.

"Hamburger Helper" and frozen corn: my own mix. Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, some spices, ground beef, and shredded cheddar all mixed together with whatever noodles I have on hand.

Of course if we get tired of eating off of our ground beef stash I also have lentils and black beans and rice that I could make.

We go to Costco about every two-three months and stock up on meat, cheese, and tomato products. Sometimes we get other stuff but so far those are the things that seem to be the cheapest at Costco. It's amazing with those three things on hand how many meals I can make.
I get our rice and pasta there sometimes. I love their frozen broccoli and we get a few bags of that, but we don't really like a lot of the other frozen veggies there.

At the store yesterday all I had to buy was frozen veggies, two packs of lentils, sour cream, eggs, a couple of tomatoes, flour, grits, tortillas, hamburger buns, and bread.

I have not gotten back into making our bread yet so I still buy the best I can at the grocery store.

Just a little peek into our menu for the week. :)

Be Blessed!

Cassaroles for Diabetics

I made up a dish last night and I have to say it was quiet yumm! It's a little hard trying to find something low carb that the whole family enjoys. Everyone seemed to like this except my non veggie eaters, Adrian and Jonathan.

First I half cooked some frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I did this to try to release some of the moisture so the casserole would not be too watery. It worked.
Then we took some tomato sauce and added seasoning. Onions, garlic powder, and my go to spices, Basil and Parsley.
I layered in a casserole dish the sauce, some go to precooked meat, a layer of broccoli and cauliflower, more sauce, mozzarella cheese, meat, b and c, sauce and then last cheese.
I then baked it for about 30m at 350 degrees.
Oh it was so good! I had some for lunch today.
The best part is that it did not affect my blood sugar at all.
I'm sorry the recipe is not more scientific. I kind of make stuff up as I go along. I have finally taught Roy not to ask how much of a spice goes into the dish. I always just say, "Eyeball it!" Which of course he hates. LOL He's getting better at it though! :)
I will have a baby update in the next few days. I have a busy weekend planned.
Be Blessed!

What's a girl to eat?

Not much going on there right now. I am having this weird craving for bite sized frosted mini wheat cereal. It's insane. I can not eat brown rice. Most of the time I can't eat poultry unless the flavor is HIGHLY disguised. Eggs are also a food I have had to force on myself.
Because of dietary restrictions pasta, chips, and potatoes are pretty much off the table.
So, to recap, no bird, no brown rice, no pasta, no potatoes, no tortillas, no tortilla chips.
What's a girl to do??
Meatloaf. Lots of meatloaf. Turnips instead of potatoes. Lots of veggies.
PB on whole grain bread. Cheese on whole grain bread. Salads. OH my how I love salad right now. Tomatoes. OH my I LOVE tomatoes right now.
And, sigh, frozen dinners. Yep. I have been eating those nasty frozen dinners from WW and Lean Cuisine.
I had to give up my diversion to lunch meat. Yes, I know about Liseteria. I also know that I have to be able to eat something! PLEASE! My OB told me to eat the lunch meat. It might have had to do with the tears being shed in his office that day. I am a hungry girl. :)
The good news is if I could just hold to a lot of this diet, minus the nasty processed junk, I really think I would see a difference in my weight post baby.
I gained 10 pounds during my first two trimesters. In this third trimester I have fluctuated between one and two pounds gainage. My baby gained two pounds the same time I did, coincidence? :)
As a big girl those numbers are not too low, just so ya know. Can you imagine if I get to the end of this pregnancy having gained only 12-15 pounds? I would be ecstatic! Not because weight it important to me, but health is.

Be Blessed!

Menu planning

Pictures from BHG.com.
Menu planning has taken on a whole new dimension around here. I can't stand brown rice and most chicken. Unfortunately, before I found this out we went to Costco. Yeah, we brought a lot of brown rice and chicken. :) I am working with some recipes that I am hoping will cover the chicken taste some.
Also Roy has been making most of the meals. I tried to pick some meals I can do most the prep work for in the morning when I feel great. That would ease some of the burden from him. Lunch has also been pretty hit or miss around here. I tried to come up with some easy but yummy lunch meals.
For breakfast I'm stuck with mostly eggs. Though I did find I could have a granola bar with milk. Not granola cereal just the bar. CRAZY! Well, my OB says, that he hates processed food. So I decided to try to make my own granola bars. We'll see.
I am seriously craving fruits and veggies so I'm really looking forward to using more of those.
I checked out a Rachel Ray low carb cookbook from the library and also a Quick and Easy low carb cookbook. Someone had ripped a lot of the pages out of the RR cookbook. I still found a few recipes I can use. The Q&E cookbook rocks though. YUM!



Here is what our menu plan looks like for this week.

Breakfast:
Bacon and Egg w/cheese
Fried egg on bread with cheese
Hard boiled egg with ham and string cheese
For kids:
Oatmeal
Granola cereal with fruit
muffin w/yogurt and granola

Lunch:
Leftovers
Taco Stoup with salad RR
Grilled chicken salad
Tuna with salad
Veg Soup Q&E
PB & J with fruit and string cheese

Dinner:
Chicken Au Gratin w/ Baked stuffed tomatoes RR
Chicken and peppers Q&E Asparagus and turnips
Beef stew w/polenta triangles Q&E
Tomato soup with basil and curried chick spread on veggies Q&E
Pecan crusted chk strips Q&E w/broccoli and fruit

I also let the two older girls pick three things from their cookbooks we will have this week.
Karly:
Mimi's Strawberry Trifle
Paula Deen's Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki Kebabs with grilled pineapple
BH&G Junior Cookbook Cheesy Beef sandwiches

Kelsie:
Cookbook for Girls Club Sandwich
Rachael Ray Cheesy fries
Cakes and Cookies Chocolate Choux Buns


Hope you all are doing well!
Be Blessed!

Whats the plan?

I have always had a love/hate relationship with Flylady. I am the ultimate perfectionist to the point of inability to function. Regardless of what she said I always thought I had to follow every list, assignment, suggestion she sent out just perfectly. Then I would think this is so pointless and unsubscribe.
Well I'm back. But this time I'm dragging my kids with me. My two oldest girls do the dishes so I will show them how to shine the sink. We are blessing our home today and I assigned each kid and myself one chore from the list.
For the zone cleaning today which was hotspot cleaning in the living room I assigned hotspots from top to bottom til I ran out. Starting with myself.
We will also spend 15m in a room a piece today to declutter.
If I divy up the work then I don't think it all has to be done and in a certain way.
Weird? I know. That's how I hop.
My 15 minutes will be working towards finishing up decorations. I planned two of those and two other 15 minutes for our bedroom.
We'll see how it goes.

Floors are being finished up here this week and we have a party on Saturday that Dhs family is all coming over for. They have not really seen our home in awhile and I am really working hard to make sure that it's nice and clean and inviting. My sister in law is crockpotting a roast for Saturday and I think I will do the same. Just to make sure we have enough. I need to make sure we have enough seats and pretty up the dining room and kitchen. It's in honor of my Mother in laws birthday and I want it to be nice.
On top of all that I really need to bust some homeschooling out this week. We ended up taking off last week except for one day and I have to bust a move to make sure we make our January goal.

I have been reading PennyAnnPoundwise these past few days and I am so inspired. Usually when I plan a menu I go way over budget, but looking over her menus I realize that is not really necessary.

Here is our menu for this week.

Monday:

Breakfast- leftover oatmeal and apple cake

Lunch- Toasted PB and J and fruit salad

Dinner- Cincinnati chili, green beans, and pecan pie

Tuesday:

Breakfast- oatmeal and PB toast

Lunch- Leftovers or hamburger soup

Dinner- Shepherd's pie with sweet potato topping, pineapple and raisin salad

Wednesday:
Breakfast - pancakes and eggs

Lunch- leftovers or hamburger soup

Dinner- chicken fried rice w/brco and cauli, strawberry cake

Thursday:

Breakfast- Cinnamon French toast, turkey bacon

Lunch- Leftovers or hamburger soup

Dinner- meatloaf, corn, mashed potato, pumpkin pudding

Friday:

Breakfast- Hashbrown casserole (I am getting desperate here!) LOL

Lunch- Leftovers or hamburger soup

Dinner- Chicken pot pie, Fruit (must get to store soon! Hopefully today)

Saturday:

Breakfast- oatmeal, PB toast

Lunch- leftovers

Dinner- Birthday party

Sunday:

Breakfast- muffins, smoothie

Lunch- Sandwiches, chips, fruit

Dinner- spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, cookies

Most of the stuff I am using I have on hand. Towards Friday I was getting a little desperate but I pushed through. I am trying to get my shopping day to Friday morning. Early. We'll see how that goes.

Well I need to run and work on my 15m hotspot.

Be Blessed!

Twas the day after Thanksgiving

All my Christmas stuff is down from the attic. Now I have to sort through it and come up with new creative ways to decorate. I'm hoping to have it all done by the end of the weekend. Last year we were in Atlanta for a week before Christmas and then at DH's parents house for Christmas so we did not put up any Christmas decorations. The kids have asked many times if we are going to have a tree this year. LOL

I am headed out to Target in just a little bit for a few things for Roy and I want to cash in on one of the deals today if they still have any. Five dollar pajama sets. Yes! My kids all need new pajamas and robes. My friend said they still have some at the Target in the next town which is the one I will go to. It's usually not crowded during the holiday season. The rest of the Christmas shopping will be done next week with Roy. I am pretty excited about it. I can't think of a better way to spend the day than alone with my honey.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Time with family, good food, and sale ads everywhere. :)

I tried my hand at some new recipes. Some worked, some were ok, but everyone said the food was good.

Here is a recipe for Turtle Pumpkin Pie. Everyone claimed it turned out great.

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

Well I better get busy on sorting through this Christmas stuff.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Be Blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving

We are busy beavers around the homestead today. Cleaning and baking. My mom is preparing the turkey and dressing and I told her I would take care of the rest.
So today I am making fruit salad, oatmeal cookies and a turtle pumpkin pie. It's a new recipe I am trying. I might pick up a pumpkin pie just to be on the safe side. :)
Tomorrow I will get up early and crockpot green beans and corn, roast carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, and bake a sweet potato casserole.
I love to cook for the holidays.
Saturday evening we will be going to the Light Parade on the River here in our town. People decorate their boats and then float up and down the river. It's a lot of fun. Especially when the weather cooperates and it's nice and chilly. :)
One day next week Dh and I will drop the kids off at my mom's early and then we will get most of our Christmas shopping done. I was going to go online and do it all, but the prospect of a day out with my honey was more than I could fathom. So our excuse is Christmas shopping. I can't wait. Hopefully since we are going early in the month on a weekday it won't be to bad.


In just a few days we will be celebrating my mother in laws birthday here at my house. Roy's sisters are coming so it will be a fun time. I'm not sure of the menu as his sisters want to plan all that. My plan is to put up our fall decorations tomorrow evening and pull out our Christmas decorations. I will decorate through the weekend and be ready for the party next Saturday.
I think I might plan a birthday party for myself this year as well. I have been wanting to have a night of desserts and games for all of our friends. I might just do that on my birthday which falls two days after Christmas.
Our anniversary falls on December 15 and Roy and I are looking into affordable options for a fun time. I am continually amazed at how our budget is met every month and even stretched to allow some fun things. God is awesome!
Lots of fun and exciting things going on in these next two months. I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays. But I also enjoy the coziness and togetherness that this holiday season invites.
One night we will turn on the AC and have a fire in our Florida fireplace. It's tradition. LOL

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Be Blessed!

Cooking with kids

I have been eating up these videos lately. She has even more at her website Greenlitebites. Some great cooking videos with Ryan and they are always taste testing new fruits. It gave me some great ideas for not only cooking with my big kids (ONE AT A TIME!) but also with little Jonathan.

I hope you enjoy.

Be Blessed

In the Kitchen

I decided recently to take up bulk cooking again. Of course with my large family anytime I cook it's bulk cooking. But I mean making enough to freeze for later.
We have been bombarded with illnesses and deaths around us lately and I wanted to not only have something stored up for my family but for others as well.
Our ladies ministry usually has a cooking day where we make and freeze meals for occasions such as this but we have not been able to do that this year and my freezer (which held all the meals) has run dry. I am looking to store up until our next cooking day.
In the past when I have tried this on my own I have been overwhelmed and quickly all the
great plans I had ran the way of the dinosaur.
This time I decided to try something a little different. For the whole week I will be making 1 or 2 meals to freeze every day. For instance today I made a Macaroni and Beef casserole. We will have one for dinner and I have three more to add to my freezer. Tomorrow I will make Beef Stew. Tomorrow night we will have Beef Stew and I am hoping enough to add three or four bags to my freezer.
Some people might think that I should just do it all together and get it over with or that I should do my beef stuff one day and my chicken stuff one day ect.. but I have tried that. I really think this will work better. By the end of this week if my calculations are right I will have at least 20 meals in my freezer.
I will let you know how it works out. :)

Be Blessed!

Food Diary - Thursday and Friday

Sorry about missing yesterday. I had a bad headache most of the day and we had some extra errands to run. Here is what we ate yesterday.

For breakfast we had oatmeal. An always filling food. :)

For lunch we had leftovers. Remember the yummy hamburger steaks I was going to make Wednesday night? I did and WOW they were great. Even better the next day. Although I did not have enough for the poor children. They had to survive on peanut butter sandwiches and bananas.

For dinner.. we ordered pizza. *Sigh* Remember the headache and the extra errands? Sometimes it happens.

An even better idea would be to make up a batch of pizza dough and freeze for nights like this. I will work on that.

Today's menu looked like this:

For brunch, because everyone slept late this morning. I mean really late. It was weird, but needed I think. We had oatmeal.

For dinner we had beans and rice. An easy meal and cheap. :)

Tip of the day: Freeze some meals ahead of time. Have some pizza dough in the freezer. There will always been one night that the schedule is off or something happens. I wish I'd had something already prepared instead of ordering pizza. :)

Be Blessed!

Food Diary - Wednesday

For breakfast the kids had oatmeal. I noticed the other day the oatmeal made me sluggish so I opted for two eggs. Dh had an egg sandwich after the kids and I left for our homeschool co-op.

For lunch we had leftover chicken and rice from last night.

For dinner I am making hamburger patties and melting a slice of mozzarella cheese on top. I will also saute some mushrooms and onions. I have some red potatoes that are getting old so we will mash those up. And I know I have some frozen veggie in the freezer. End meal!

Tip of the day: Don't be afraid to make your own. Your own bread. Your own spice mixtures. Your own salad dressings and condiments. It really does save money and it's healthier. If you have older children teach them how to do these things. Call it school. I am teaching my two oldest girls to bake bread in the next few weeks. Eventually it will be their job.

Food Diary - Tuesday

For breakfast we ate out with my mom. This is a tradition for Tuesday mornings. My mom is so gracious and she buys us a big breakfast.

For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches and bananas. I had to use store bought bread because I did not make any this week. I spent a little extra for good quality bread without high fructose corn syrup. I can't afford some things that are supposedly needed for a healthier lifestyle but I do try to avoid products with MSG and high fructose corn syrup and dyes as much as possible.

For dinner I had a few packs of yellow rice. DH grilled a few chicken breasts and we chopped them up and mixed them with the rice. The rice was already flavored so we did not even need to season it. The grilling of the chicken gave it a great flavor with no extras needed. I steamed some broccoli and melted butter over it and some salt and dinner was served. The whole family sang it's praises. It was a simple meal with only a few ingredients that went together pretty quickly.

Tip of the day: Save all of your leftovers. Even if' it's just a spoon full of veggies. Look for dishes to add leftovers to and stretchhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Be Blessed!

Food Diary - Monday

I did not have to go to the grocery store for big shopping this week and probably next because I have chicken, beans and rice over flowing. It's nice when I am a little low on funds to have the needed ingredients just waiting for me. I stopped off and picked up 2 18 pack eggs, 2 gallons of milk, and 2 boxes of oatmeal. These are staples that I usually do have to buy every two weeks.
Anyways here are our meals for today.

Breakfast was oatmeal. I can make two big containers last about 2 weeks. We eat oatmeal about 4-5 days a week. Sometimes if we are in a hurry I smear peanut butter on tortillas or we have eggs on tortillas.

Lunch was cheesy rice. This is just leftover rice with some frozen mixed veggies (which I ALWAYS have in my freezer) and herbs (whatever's handy) fried in butter or sesame oil and topped with grated cheese. We either have this, leftovers, or quisadillas for lunch.

Dinner will be shepherd's pie. I take some ground beef, beans if I have some (to stretch the beef), veggies and either bar b que sauce if I have it or some gravy and mix it together with whatever herbs and spices I grab. I top it with mashed potatoes (from real potatoes, it really is cheaper and does not take that long) and shredded cheese. I bake it for 15-30m and boom dinner is served. If I have stuff to make a salad I will throw a salad with it. I do buy the big cans of mixed fruit and sometimes we will have that on the side. Tonight I don't have either one so it's solo. I think I have some apples so we might cut those up and let the kids have that for dessert.

We don't snack a lot around here. I try to keep apples, oranges, and bananas around. If I have them I will cut up carrots ( I always buy them whole and wash and cut myself). But we rarely snack on those. We might have them with a meal or if we are on the go.

Tip for today: Make up big batches of beans and freeze or can. Use them to stretch beef recipes. I can use a little bit of beef and get away with it if I have some beans to either mash up and throw into a recipe or just throw them in whole. Kidney beans and pinto beans work great for this.

Be Blessed!

At the grocery store

Since finding Dave Ramsey we have been very strict about eating at home as much as possible. We do have a budget for eating out but with five kids lets just say it's not much of a budget. LOL
Now, we have decided to tighten our belts even more for awhile and not eat out at all. (That's our goal) for awhile. Sorry, my Chik Fil A friends that includes my Tuesday lunches. I thought the best way to do this would be to plan every menu before shopping.

After 4 weeks of this I remembered why I don't do it that way. My grocery budget went up about $100-$150 dollars. Not really working out for me so much..

So I'm going back to the old ways. A stocked pantry, meal planning when I get home from the grocery store, crockpots working over time.... the frugal kitchenista. :)

With the above method I can spend between $175-$250 every two weeks on groceries for a family of 7 with leftovers. LOL

I buy a couple of whole chickens either roast them for a meal one night or boil them for meat.
If I roast them I take all the bones and leftovers and throw them in the crockpot with some water, some vinegar, carrots, onion, maybe some spices. I let sit for a little while so the vinegar can do it's magic then I turn on the crockpot. In a few hours I have chicken broth that I can now can with my new handy dandy canner and store. If I boil the chicken I do the same thing as with the roasted chicken except when it's all done I tear the meat off the bones and freeze it for future use. This works great when chicken is on sale. I hear you can do the same with turkey but the only turkey I ever bought ended up thawing in my garage while we were out of town. Yeah. Yum.

We also buy beans and brown rice like it's going out of style. I always have those two staples in my pantry. Doing this we discovered that our family LOVES lentils. Who'd of thunk it? We have a lentils meal at least once a week now.

I only buy fresh produce if it's a great sale. With the exception being greens and carrots. They are so much better fresh. Frozen fruits and veggies are a better fit for my budget though I know some would disagree. Also I am hoping to get more from my garden this year.

I do splurge and buy cheese every shopping trip. I get the cheapest I can find but it goes a long way in helping to pull a meal together. I also splurge on Organic milk and when I can really find some extra money I buy raw milk.

I buy cans and cans and cans of tomato products. I buy salsa and spices. With a few ordinary ingredients it's easy to throw together a meal for just pennies.

Every three months or so I go to the health food store and buy olive oil, coconut oil. and honey. I also get organic wheat flour and pastry flour for my bread.

We eat oatmeal for breakfast most mornings and lunch is either pb or cheese on tortillas or leftovers.

When I get home I sit down and plan my menu for the week. My crockpots pull duty with chicken broth, beans, or meals. My oven bakes bread for the week. My food processors chops and dices and shreds. The stovetop is used to brown beef and cook rice. I do a lot of my cooking on Monday and it's that much easier throughout the week to have stuff ready when dinner time rolls around.

Next week I will blog about meals I made and prep that went into it. I won't be grocery shopping for about 4 weeks but then I will blog about that adventure. :)

Be Blessed

In the Kitchen

As promised so many moons ago, some recipes from our Valentines day dinner.

Chicken Stroganoff

1 pound fresh mushrooms sliced ( I used canned)

1 large onion chopped

2 tbls butter

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts cut up

1/4 c browning sauce

1 1/3 c beef broth divided

1 c white wine or additional beef broth

2 tblsp ketchup

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp salt

3 tblsp all purpose flour

1 c sour cream

6 c cooked egg noodles

In large nonstick skillet, saute mushrooms and onion in butter til tender. Remove and set aside. In the same skillet, cook the chicken with browning sauce until browned. ( this made us laugh because after you put the browning sauce on it looks browned.. ) Add 1 c broth, wine or add. broth, ketchup, garlic, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15m.

Combine flour and remaining 1/3c broth until smooth; stir into chicken mixture. Add reserved mushroom mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low. Stir in sour cream and heat through (do not boil). Serve over noodles.

Mile High Lime Pie

1 can (14oz) sweet condensed milk

1 c sour cream

1/3 c plus 2 tblsp lime juice

5 drops green food coloring (optional)

8oz frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 8inch graham cracker crust

In a bowl, combine the milk, sour cream, lime juice, and food coloring. Fold in whipped topping. Pour into crust. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

There you have it.

Be Blessed!

The Simple Life: Yogurt

I have only made my own yogurt a few times, but man was it easy! It taste different than store bought but is that really a bad thing?
Here is a whole discussion on how to make yogurt.

This is how I made mine the few times I made it.
1. heat milk to 160 or so.
2. put 3 T. starter in qt. jars
3. let milk cool to 110
4. use funnel to pour milk into jars with the yogurt starter (2 c. per 3 T. of starter)
5. put jars in oven with light on.
6. leave 12-14 hours and remove. do NOT stir, put lids on and refrigerate.

I used raw milk and Dannon full fat plain yogurt. According to the discussion above you can use non-homogenized milk or organic whole milk as well. I have never done either one. I just used a candy thermometer to check the temps.
Next time I make it I will take pictures. If we ever get a battery for my camera. :)

Here is another neat way to make yogurt. I think I will try this soon.
Make yogurt in your crockpot.

If you don't want to make your own yogurt it's probably not that big a deal. Honestly, I usually just buy the Dannon full fat plain yogurt and use it for all my yogurt needs. Its really not that expensive and I love plain yogurt.
I can substitute it for sour cream, I can put it in smoothies, I can add fruit and honey and have a great snack, I can use it to bake with... so many uses.
Making my own yogurt just makes me feel good. Maybe I'm just weird. LOL

Be Blessed!

Our Cooking Ministry

Well, Im ready for something a little lighter around here, how about you? :)

The ladies from our church get together every other month and make up a big batch of freezer meals. One lady has a pressure canner so sometimes we make soup and sauces as well. We store these freezer meals and pass them out throughout the month to families in need. Job loss, new baby, illness, family crises... you get the picture.

Its been so wonderful to have this time of fellowship and also to not have to coordinate a bunch of different meals for a family in need. I keep them in a chest freezer I have here at home. Another lady with a big pantry keeps all the canned stuff.

We make chicken and rice, mac n cheese, meatloaf, mashed potatoes.. all sorts of different meals.

We take donations from members for food. Also we have some money budgeted for it. It's worked out great for the past 4 months we have done it.

Does your church have anything like this?

Be Blessed!

To Share

I found some great crockpot websites. We were talking about not heating up the kitchen this summer and someone shared all these links to crockpot recipes. Here are a few of my favorites!

A Year Of Crockpotting

Crockpot Happiness

Natural Mom's Recipes

I was hoping to have pictures this morning, but I don't know what DH did with the download cord so we must wait until he returns tonight.

Be Blessed!!

"Best Ever"

After dinner last night DH declared the Italian Meatloaf I made the best meatloaf ever. That's a lot to say for him. :)

Here is the recipe.

Italian Meatloaf
Recipe courtesy Michael Chiarello
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 red pepper, seeded, small diced

1 onion, diced

2 teaspoons (about 3 cloves) chopped garlic

1 pound ground beef

2 eggs

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1 cup grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves

1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat and add the peppers, onions and garlic. Saute until just soft, remove to a plate and cool.
When the peppers and onions are cool, combine all of the remaining ingredients together except for the marinara. Pack the meat mixture into an oiled loaf pan, if you do not have a loaf pan, form the meat mixture into a loaf shape on an oiled oven tray or baking dish. Top with the marinara making sure to spread evenly over the top.
Bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F in the middle of the meatloaf. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

I served this with yellow rice and mixed greens. I don't know if any of you have tried the Glory brand greens, but they are the best greens I have ever had!! Even DH likes them and he is a bona fide Yankee!
We all enjoyed this meal. Even the kids enjoyed it. Of course my kids eat just about anything.
Dh is seriously threatening to get cable. He is so in love with all these new meals. :)

Be Blessed!!

My own cooking...

Because I had so much leftover roasted chicken I made up some recipes for using it.
Last night we had BBQ chicken sandwiches and cheese fries.


For the BBQ chicken sandwiches I put some olive oil in a skillet and heated it up. I then sauteed onions, garlic and shredded carrots. When they were tender I added leftover cooked chopped chicken. I poured honey BBQ sauce and Sticky Fingers Sweet Carolina BBQ sauce over it all and continued to heat it up.
Meanwhile, DH used seasoning salt and seasoned the french fries. He cooked them in the oven until done. He then transferred them to a big bowl covering each layer with shredded cheddar.
When the fries came out of the oven I buttered the rolls and placed them face down on a pan. I cooked them at about 350 degrees for 4 minutes. Perfectly toasted.
To assemble the sandwiches we placed a few spoon fulls of BBQ chicken mixture on the roll and topped with shredded cheddar.

The kids enjoyed this meal. I enjoyed showing them that you don't always need a recipe to work with. :)

Be Blessed

Check out more frugal tips at Frugal Fridays at Mrs. Crystal's blog.