Here are a few of the meals I plan on making in October...
Ravioli Soup
Cheeseburger Soup
Spaghetti Pie
Fried Rice/ Crab Rangoon
Pork Loin
Mini Chicken Pot Pies
Creamy Italian Chicken
Fettuccine Alfredo
Make sure to check out the upcoming post to see these recipes!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping for the Month
Well the end of the month is drawing near and it is time to get ready for next months meals and grocery shopping. I only do one large grocery shopping trip (two different stores for the most part) for the month. I do have to go back to pick up milk, bread, and other items I may have forgotten or ran out of. My goal is not to go over $350 a month for the four of us. Nine times out of ten it works. Some months I go over due to entertaining friends and family or not finding things on sale or finding things on sale, or running out of items that I didn't plan on having to get.
How do I do this?
1. I make a list of 20-25 meals we plan on eating during the month.
2. I put a star next to the items that have perishables that need to be made first.
3. I make a master grocery list of what we will need to compete those meals.
4. Add to the list any items we may need to go with these meals or things I have ran out of.
5. Go through my coupons and see if there are any for what I am making this month.
Go shopping:
How do I do this?
1. I make a list of 20-25 meals we plan on eating during the month.
2. I put a star next to the items that have perishables that need to be made first.
3. I make a master grocery list of what we will need to compete those meals.
4. Add to the list any items we may need to go with these meals or things I have ran out of.
5. Go through my coupons and see if there are any for what I am making this month.
Go shopping:
- I shop at Aldi's, Walmart, and HyVee
- I did my own test of shopping at Walmart, HyVee, Target, and Walmart/Aldi. The Walmart/Aldi mix came out about $50-60 cheaper. About $600-700 savings a year...
- I do everything I can not to bring the kids with me. (I spend more than I have with them) There have been times when I have shopped at Walmart at 10:00 at night... (Although, I do take my youngest when I have to go to Aldi's, however, there isn't much she really cares about there)
- I start at Aldi's. They are much cheaper on dairy, chips, salads, veggie, fruit, frozen garlic bread, Parmesan cheese, canned veggies, brown rice, breakfast bars, whole grain pasta, and much more) Once again, I have price compared all of these items...
- Then I go to Walmart and get everything else I need off the list.
- I only go to HyVee for certain items I can't get at the other two, or depending on the produce at Aldi's and Walmart, I might have to go to HyVee. I like the frozen chopped broccoli at HyVee and the Chicken Grillers there. I also hit up their 2-3 day sales, they are usually well worth it.
- I pretty much by only generic of everything, especially dairy, frozen veggies and fruit, and apple juice
- Buy only one impulse item for yourself
- The more times you go to the grocery store, the more money you spend!
- I try to only buy whole grain products or 100% wheat.
- A lot of Aldi's products are whole grain or organic surprisingly
- Read the ingredients, the labels and titles will mislead you
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Enchiladas
Enchiladas (Recipe by Mrs. Salzar, my International Foods Teacher at Northwest)
Brown ½ lb hamburger and season with
½ t cumin
½ t garlic powder
¼ t pepper
¼ t salt
Sauce
2T shortening
2 cup water
2-3 T flour
Half of a 1lb can tomatoes (diced)
Melt shortening on low heat. Add enough flour to make a paste. Slowly stir in water. Add tomatoes. Season with:
1 ½ t chili powder or more to taste
½ t cumin
½ t garlic powder
½ t salt
½ t pepper
¼ t ground red pepper or cayenne pepper
Stir till mixture boils and thickens. Dip tortillas into sauce (both sides), place on a plate, and fill with grated cheese and seasoned meat. Roll and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.
You can top these with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or whatever else you like.
I serve this with corn on the cob, salsa and chips, and guacamole.
Picky Eaters: I end up making a couple with cheese only, since my youngest is not a fan of hamburger.
Little Helpers: ~I let the kids fill the enchiladas with the hamburger and cheese. The tortillas
are too hot for them to roll...
~Have the kids set the table! Mine love to pick out which plate they want to use!
~ I also have them put out the hot pads I will need to set the food on the table.
Then they are there and ready to go when I put the food out!
***Please don't think this always goes beautifully as it sounds. Sometimes there is a fight about plates or who gets to do what, but the fact they are are eager to help makes me happy and it keeps them out of trouble while I am cooking!
For those of you home during the day: This is a great recipe you can work on as the day goes by... I browned the hamburger during the kids nap time, so it was ready to go when I made the sauce and fill the tortillas.
***And I keep forgetting to take pics! I will work on that!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The Chicken Griller
Every now and then you need a night off from cooking. However, I get tired of going out for dinner and it adds up with the four of us. I have a few things I have found that taste great and don't involve me cooking. One of them is a Chicken Griller.
HyVee always has sales on something called a Chicken Griller. They are found at the meat counter. They are on sale about every other week from 2/$4 or 2/$5. They come in 8 different flavors. (Cowboy, Cowgirl, Pizza, 3 Cheese, Ham and Cheese, Spinach and Ricotta, Hawaian, Southwestern) Everyone of couse likes a different kind, so it works out great! I prefer the Southwestern, my husband likes the Cowgirl, and Nadia likes the Pizza one.
You can grill them or bake them in the oven. Last night I baked them. I also picked up four twice baked potatos 4/$4. They all bake at the same temp and tada, dinner is done! Throw in some frozen corn or green beans or fruit and you have a complete meal. Only costing me about $14. Cheaper than Taco Bell!
The grillers can be put in the freezer. So when they go on sale, I pick them up and keep them for nights I don't feel like cooking!
HyVee always has sales on something called a Chicken Griller. They are found at the meat counter. They are on sale about every other week from 2/$4 or 2/$5. They come in 8 different flavors. (Cowboy, Cowgirl, Pizza, 3 Cheese, Ham and Cheese, Spinach and Ricotta, Hawaian, Southwestern) Everyone of couse likes a different kind, so it works out great! I prefer the Southwestern, my husband likes the Cowgirl, and Nadia likes the Pizza one.
You can grill them or bake them in the oven. Last night I baked them. I also picked up four twice baked potatos 4/$4. They all bake at the same temp and tada, dinner is done! Throw in some frozen corn or green beans or fruit and you have a complete meal. Only costing me about $14. Cheaper than Taco Bell!
The grillers can be put in the freezer. So when they go on sale, I pick them up and keep them for nights I don't feel like cooking!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Ready in: 1 hour Servings:6
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
6 oz egg noodles
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
Salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
1 cup crumbled buttery round crackers
½ cup butter
(I also add a cup of shredded cheese, whatever I have on hand)
- Poach chicken in large pot of simmering water. Cook until no longer pink in center, about 12 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside. Bring chicken cooking water to a boil and cook pasta in it. Drain. Cut chicken into small pieces and mix with noodles
- In separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, and sour cream, (and cheese). Season with salt and pepper. Gently stir together cream soups mixture with chicken mixture. Place in a 2 quart baking dish.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan, and remove from heat. Stir in crumbled crackers. Top casserole with buttery crackers.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.
***I just mix the soup mixture in the dish I am cooking it in and they add the chicken and noodles and mix in the pan to save on clean up. I also melt the butter in the microwave…
Savings tip: We are not a huge meat/chicken eating family. So when making recipes with large amounts of chicken, I use half of what it calls for, or even sometimes less.
Time saving: This would also be a great recipe to double and freeze the second one for later.
Picky Eaters! My three year old is very picky right now. So last night I made extra noodles and held them out before I mixed all of the noodles together. I put some butter on them and some Parmesan cheese and she was happy.
My little helpers: My five and three year old love to help. However, there is not always something for them to do... Last night, my three year old crumbled the crackers in the bag and they both helped with the crescent rolls we had with dinner. Crescent rolls are one of my kids favorite things. We have them a lot; they are fairly inexpensive and they can make them on their own.
Monday, September 24, 2012
What's For Dinner?
What is for dinner? It is sad to say, but this is the question I ask myself every morning. Because my goal each day is to have dinner on the table when my husband comes home.
I am a homemaker and have been for three years. Many people call themselves a stay at home mom, however, my job doesn't stop at mom. My job is to make our house a home for our family. A home full of love, cleanliness, laughter, alittle bit of craziness and good food. Yes, our home had all of these qualities when I was working, however, they were all done "half ***ed". Now that I am home, I feel as though it is an opportunity make all of these qualities my top priority and perfect them to my best ability.
Love, laughter, and craziness are all natural for the most part; I don't have to work as hard on these, most days, however, cleanliness and good food are difficult, especially with two kids running around. I have pretty much given up on having the cleanest house in the neighborhood, which before kids, would have been on the top of my list thanks to my "OCD." My house is now clean about 42% of the time; the time in which my children are sleeping.
The good food has been my most difficult to accomplish. When I first got married, my husband cooked the majority of the time. While I was working, he was in grad-school and was the one who had dinner on the table for me. However, once he was finished, he didn't have time to get it done before I got home and so I started helping him cook. As time went on, it seemed as though he was cooking less and I was doing almost all of it. My family use to joke about my cooking, prior to getting married. You could say that the fire alarm in our house told everyone when dinner was done, if I was left in charge of making a meal. It didn't help that I almost cooked the directions to my parents brand new oven back when I was 16. That is a story for another day... And after hearing many stories from my family, obviously my husband did not marry me for my cooking. But after time and lots of practice, I have came a long way and would consider myself a pretty decent cook.
I am writing this blog for two reasons. The first, to share quick and easy meals with others. It doesn't take a lot of ingredients or expensive gadgets, cookware, or time to make a great meal. The second reason, is to encourage others to sit down as a family and eat dinner as much as possible. Growing up, my mom always had dinner on the table and we ate together, sometimes someone would have to miss, but no one every ate alone. Dinner was not just about eating, it was family bonding. There were times when our family of five would be at the dinner table until 9:00pm, just talking and enjoying each other's company. The TV was never on, except those nights when we ate late and Home Improvement was on... It was just human conversation, which I feel has been lost at the kitchen table, and everywhere else. And to this day, if you were to go to my mom's house, we are usually in the kitchen or on the beach, they live on a lake now days, but I can guarantee, there is always food involved.
That being said, my goal is to share meals our family enjoys, along how I plan meals, how I save money on meals, and what we do to "bond" at the kitchen table!
I am a homemaker and have been for three years. Many people call themselves a stay at home mom, however, my job doesn't stop at mom. My job is to make our house a home for our family. A home full of love, cleanliness, laughter, alittle bit of craziness and good food. Yes, our home had all of these qualities when I was working, however, they were all done "half ***ed". Now that I am home, I feel as though it is an opportunity make all of these qualities my top priority and perfect them to my best ability.
Love, laughter, and craziness are all natural for the most part; I don't have to work as hard on these, most days, however, cleanliness and good food are difficult, especially with two kids running around. I have pretty much given up on having the cleanest house in the neighborhood, which before kids, would have been on the top of my list thanks to my "OCD." My house is now clean about 42% of the time; the time in which my children are sleeping.
The good food has been my most difficult to accomplish. When I first got married, my husband cooked the majority of the time. While I was working, he was in grad-school and was the one who had dinner on the table for me. However, once he was finished, he didn't have time to get it done before I got home and so I started helping him cook. As time went on, it seemed as though he was cooking less and I was doing almost all of it. My family use to joke about my cooking, prior to getting married. You could say that the fire alarm in our house told everyone when dinner was done, if I was left in charge of making a meal. It didn't help that I almost cooked the directions to my parents brand new oven back when I was 16. That is a story for another day... And after hearing many stories from my family, obviously my husband did not marry me for my cooking. But after time and lots of practice, I have came a long way and would consider myself a pretty decent cook.
I am writing this blog for two reasons. The first, to share quick and easy meals with others. It doesn't take a lot of ingredients or expensive gadgets, cookware, or time to make a great meal. The second reason, is to encourage others to sit down as a family and eat dinner as much as possible. Growing up, my mom always had dinner on the table and we ate together, sometimes someone would have to miss, but no one every ate alone. Dinner was not just about eating, it was family bonding. There were times when our family of five would be at the dinner table until 9:00pm, just talking and enjoying each other's company. The TV was never on, except those nights when we ate late and Home Improvement was on... It was just human conversation, which I feel has been lost at the kitchen table, and everywhere else. And to this day, if you were to go to my mom's house, we are usually in the kitchen or on the beach, they live on a lake now days, but I can guarantee, there is always food involved.
That being said, my goal is to share meals our family enjoys, along how I plan meals, how I save money on meals, and what we do to "bond" at the kitchen table!
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