Asian Beef Kabobs

I am thrilled! I made up a recipe that matches almost perfectly the Asian Beef Kabobs we had from Dream Dinners as part of our moving stash! It was a high priority because Miss Pear actually ATE BEEF and then ASKED FOR MORE! You mommies of 2 year olds know what I am talking about!

So here it is!

Mrs. Pear's Asian Beef Kabobs

1 tsp ginger
2 cloves of garlic (4 if small)
2 tbsp hoisin sauce (available in almost all grocery stores in the asian section - about $2.50 for 3/4 cup size)
1/4-1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

1 lb good cut of beef (like sirloin) cut into kabob size

Mix ginger, garlic and hoisin. Stir in teriyaki. Add beef and mix well, if beef is not coated nicely with marinade, add more teriyaki.

Let marinate for at least the afternoon.

Grill beef with onion and peppers. (Cook beef to no more than just barely a hint of pink left or it gets tough)

Serve with rice.

(If it is not BBQ season or your BBQ is in full sun for supper so it is just too hot, it cooks up wonderfully on an indoor grill, but not so great in an electric frying pan.)

To Freeze
Put marinade and beef in freezer bag, using the Zip Top Bag Method!


Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning
Freezer Cooking Online Resources

Frugal Friday - Couple Good Deals

This week I found that the sales were kind of scarce, which is surprising considering that it is a long weekend, and the long weekend that usually signals the last hurray of summer! Not that you would know it in Southern California with this heatwave, but that is another story!

Albertsons - Totino's Pizza Rolls $1 (there are lots of coupons out there for $0.40 - 0.50)
(a very rare and special treat, bought only at this price with coupons, so many 4 times a year)

Vons/Pavilions - Electrosol Tabs/Gel Packs (qty 20) $3, and this becomes a good sale if your store is doubling coupons and you have one of the $1 floating around then it becomes $1 for 20 washes!

Still at Vons and Pavilions is the Horizon Organic milk (HorizonOrganic.com) on for $3.50 (regular 3.99) and Dawn Direct Foam on for $2.50 (regular 3.79) To explain why these two are such a good deal, can I just show you my receipt?

$3.50 Milk - Half Gallon Horizon Organic Whole Milk
-$1.00 coupon printed from Horizon's web site (can print 2)
-$1.00 (my store doubles)
$2.50 Dawn Direct Foam
-$2.oo Coupon from paper
-$1.00 coupon double (not limited at the max value of the item)
-$0.40 10% grand opening bonus discount
$0.10 tax

$0.70 Total!

We did this deal twice in addition to my regular shopping where I picked up a third milk. Please excuse me while I do a happy dance because milk is SO expensive! (Usually the best I can do is at Costco where I can get 2 gallons of no fat milk for $5.39 and 2 gallons of whole milk for $6.39)

Even if your Pavilions/Vons is not doing the 10% back, a lot are currently offering the double coupons while they update older stores, $1.10 for milk and Dawn Direct Foam are not bad!

If you do the CVS Extrabucks and Walgreens Register Rewards there are deals to be had too, but Crystal already mentioned those! Although if you were planning on doing the rebate on Nexcare band aids at Walgreens for $5 this is a good week to do it as they are on sale 3 for $10 plus there are coupons out there that expire 8/31)

Freezer Cooking Online Resources

It is very hot here, actually it is hot all across California this week, and in this heat the thought of having to making a big meal that will heat up the kitchen kind of makes me twitch. We had pizza last night, and seeing as the oven was on I threw in a batch of hamburger buns as soon as the pizza came out, so it was only an extra 15 minutes of oven time rather than an extra heat up and cool down. Tonight I am using the slow cooker and pulled some rolls I made a while ago out of the freezer to accompany the meal.

In this heat I am very grateful for the option of pulling something out of the freezer that requires little to no oven time. Such as hamburgers all made and ready to go, marinated meat that I can just use my electric frying pan for, and anything with a short oven time that does not require me to be in the kitchen when the oven is on!

So my mind is finally back on freezer cooking. I did not abandon you or the series, just got sidetracked!

In traveling my way around the internet I have come across a few freezer cooking sites that I actually return to, in addition to a few blogs.

So in the order I can actually find the links.....

A reader recommended Freezer Chicks blog to me, and I have swiped...I mean borrowed...a few recipes from them.

I started reading Happy to be Called Mommy just for Bethany's usually monthly feature of her Once A Month Cooking extravaganza. She posted her August Recipes, Shopping Lists and Pictures for your enjoyment! If you are looking for recipes, or are curious about a large freezer cooking session looks like, I recommend this post in particular! Of course, the fact that she used some of my recipes makes me happy too! Clicking on her Once a Month Cooking Label reveals lots of great stuff too!

Through Bethany's wonderful readers I also discovered Recipe Zaar's Freezer Cooking Section. Which is nice to look through. While I have not made anything from this site yet, there are a couple on my "to try" list, and have heard wonderful things about.

I have also checked out 3o Day Gourmet's site, but to be honest, I find it to be a mixed bag of amazing hits and toss it out misses, so just really thing through anything you try from there.

There are some other sites that I am still checking out myself, and will let you know what I think as I get through them!

Oh, and I am including my menu planning in the freezer cooking series because it is definitely important to get your freezer cooking day on your menu plan so you get the ingredients you need and actually make it, as well as actually use the meals in your freezer!

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Successfully freezing cookies and baking
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method
Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Menu Planning

Sale at Biblical Womanhood

As many of you know, Crystal at Biblical Womanhood had horrible server problems last week!

So to thank her many loyal customers, she is having a sale!

All ebooks are 50%off (and of course there is no shipping fee on those)!

Might I recommend this ebook?:

And shipping is free in the US with coupon code freeship when checking out.

She posted about this sale Tuesday afternoon, and it is only a 48 hour sale, so if you are looking for something, head on over!

Of course, as an affiliate I would appreciate it if you would click through my blog to her site!

Ramblings and Vacation Planning

It is very hot here today, again.

And Miss Pear is still sick, but at least the fever is over. So now we just have the cold and being awake (but remaining in bed) for two hours last night. However she was talking to her puppy and duck most of that time off and on. It was very cute.

We are getting ready for a visit back home this fall, and Monday night sat down and made up the schedule to see what fits, and here it is:

Sunday - flying, stay in city
Monday - drive to country to see my family, recover
Tuesday - shopping with my family in the AM, resting and relaxing rest of the day
Wednesday - AM return to city, PM shopping for the good things you can only get in Canada
Thursday - AM Children's museum with the Grandmas, PM - mini family reunion supper
Friday - AM Shopping at a wonderful bookstore for Canadian Literature for Miss Pear and I, PM - Date night (MIL babysits)
Saturday - AM still deciding amongst options, PM BBQ with friends (is it tacky to ask them to bring a salad or dessert to share?)
Sunday - AM Church PM Family supper (My parents, Mr. Pear's mom, brother, sister-in-law and nephew)
Monday - preAM get on a plane home.

Yup, I get tired just thinking about it!

Today I am ordering some books from Amazon.ca so that they will be waiting for us. Books we cannot get here. That actually defines the small amount of shopping I am hoping to do there - stuff I cannot get at home!

Last night I got Miss Pear's epipen refilled as her old one is expiring this month, and a new toothbrush holder for her. Oh, and the pencil crayons I still wanted for on the plane (they were 25% off, and I paid for them with the CVS gift card I got for a new prescription).

I have also assembled activity bags for on the plane, nice flat ones, but that is another post.

Suffice to say, we are getting very excited about our trip.....

Menu Planning

It seems like whenever I play Menu Plan Monday which is most weeks I get comments on my menu planning. Somehow I think people got the idea I was super organized and on top of everything.......yeah, maybe not!

But before I became a stay at home mom I was a business woman that had to be super-organized to succeed, which I did. I became the spreadsheet queen. Just because I left the business world does not mean I left behind the tools that I could adapt to serve my family well! So I made up my menu plan worksheet in excel.

Half of each page looks like this:


I print two to a page, and print about 10 copies at time, hole punch them, and put them in my home keeping journal. Filling out the bottom one first and cutting it off so that there are no loose pages to get lost!

So here is what I do each week for my menu plan.

I plan out our meals aiming for the following.

1. Healthy, inexpensive meals
2. Ideally most things are in my pantry and freezer so that I can use my grocery money to shop the sales of things we use all the time! (Or use things that are on sale! My goal is to have nothing on my grocery bill that was not on sale or reduced, except for milk)
   
3. I move forward meals from the previous week that we did not make (I do this as I go along through the week).
   
4. I copy forward the repeating Saturday - we only have one car, so if I was not able to take the car on Thursday we do our shopping Saturday morning as a family.
   
5. I carry forward all the baking we did not do and try to have 3-4 items under each category so I have lots to choose from when we bake and Mr. Pear can request stuff that sounds good to him.
6. Sunday is family day, and our day of rest, so I try to keep all the meals easy, and have supper be straight out of the freezer.
7. Saturday morning is family breakfast morning - we started this when Mr. Pear was commuting 80 miles each way to work as a special treat, and we love it, so we are keeping that.
8. Plan a slow cooker meal for errand running day and if we are going to be out most of Saturday then Saturday too.
9. Check out our family calendar for nights that need quick meals or something special. (I will note these in advance on my chart if I know about them.)
   
10. On Kitchen day be making supper for us and a meal for the freezer (two sets of meals if it needs some stock up help!)
11. If I see meals that I want to try I write them on the upcoming weeks so that when I get to the next week I have the chart partially filled in!
12. I don't worry if the weekday breakfast plan is the same every week (cereal and fruit M,W,F and yogurt and granola T, T - it is hot here, who wants a hot breakfast!)
13. At the end of the week I have started transferring the recipes that worked great onto a set of lists that are marked weekend breakfast, breakfast, lunch. weekend lunch, supper, slow cooker (crock pot), freezer, bread, cookies, muffins. This way whey I have no ideas I can scan the lists to pick from!
14. I keep a freezer inventory list to choose from, so I update that each week too.
15. Be sure to include where to find the recipe on the chart and on the lists, including the page !
16. Plan a special family meal to start the week on Monday (nothing labor intensive, just a nice treat, like our spaghetti!)
    

When I am all done I cut it off or remove it from the binder, and post it on the fridge!

While this seems like a lot of steps, it is actually a bunch of little things that I keep in mind, and with my menus always in the kitchen I can work on them whenever I have a spare moment! Or whenever I come across something that sounds good to me!

This method definitely helps me save money and be organized! It is great to see the week's plan at a glance and to easily consult it to see if I need to take anything out the night before, and what I can do in the morning to be a bit ahead of things come supper time!

How do you plan your menu? What tricks do you have to make it easier for you?

P.S. Feel free to help yourself to our chart if you think it would help you!

Cookie Help?

I was looking at my list of freezer goods, and my worst fears were confirmed. I have no cookies or muffins in the freezer! Time to stock up! If you have looked at my menu plan this week you will see that I have lots of ideas for muffins! I looked in the old cookbook my denomination did when I was just learning to cook and found some that sound great!

However, I am still trying to adjust to no nuts or peanut butter in my cookie recipes, and creativity is escaping me this morning (I was taking care of two patients yesterday who are still not feeling that great.)

I guess I am just tired of my cookie recipes and on the hunt for something new, but all the new ones that catch my attention have nuts or peanut butter in them, which Miss Pear is SEVERELY allergic to (to quote the lab results).

So, please share your nut free cookie recipes with me!

Menu Plan Monday - August 28

Saturday

Breakfast - Banana Bread and Fruit
Lunch - Burgers
Supper - Minisubs and salad

Sunday

Breakfast - Scones
Lunch - Church Potluck
Supper - Pesto Chicken, Rice and Veg

Monday

Breakfast** - Cereal
Lunch - Chicken Salad
Supper - Ribs and Fries

Tuesday

Breakfast - Granola and Yogurt
Lunch - macaroni bake (freezer)
Supper - Spaghetti and Rice Casserole ~

Wednesday

Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Supper - Sloppy Joe Pizza


Thursday

Breakfast - Granola and Yogurt
Lunch - Pizza Leftovers
Supper - Irish Beef Stew (slow cooker) and rolls

Friday

Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - Cheesy noodles
Supper - Enchiladas with tomato chili rice (rice is a very complex recipe - add can of diced tomatoes and can of drained green chilis to your rice, adjust liquid accordingly, cook per rice directions....)

Saturday

Breakfast - Overnight French Toast
Lunch - Enchilada Leftovers
Supper - Turkey Burgers and veggies

Breads
3 Flour Bread~
Winnipeg Rye Bread if I can ever track down cracked rye! (I gave up and ordered it online after the last possible store to have in said that maybe a store an hour away might, possibly.... well there was a small chance they might have it)
Oatmeal Bread


Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin

Loaves and Muffins
Banana Bread
Tropical Muffins
Banana Berry Muffins
Berry Oat Muffins
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Other
Brownies
English Muffins~
Hamburger Buns
Granola
Granola Bars

~ from the More with Less Cookbook (can be found on my sidebar if you want to check it out).
** During the week it is just Miss Pear and I for lunch, so we eat some strange lunches....

Frivolous fun!

I have been tagged by Carey for this fun meme!

Where did you meet your husband?

Marketing class - most interesting thing in the class! And the best part of my entire college experience!

Where was the first date?

We went to see Clear and Present Danger (my choice) and had a wonderful evening together!

Did you have a long or short courtship/engagement?

We dated for 4 years and about 4 months before we got engaged. And while we were married 4 months later, we only really had 7 weeks and 6 days to plan because all of a sudden we were pulling the date in to leave the country!

Where did you get engaged?

A quiet, sweet afternoon at my apartment (we were both having crazy work schedules so a quiet afternoon was a treat!), I was totally surprised! My ring was in a box shaped like a rose. (ring box was the flower, and there was a stem, kind of hard to explain but very beautiful and sweet)

Where did you get married?

My little church in Canada (my husband did not know his new pastor, and the one he knew and loved had just left to become a bishop so could not return which made deciding whose church to get married in very easy).

How did the reception go?

It was a blast! An afternoon reception at a country club. Everyone had a great time. And the staff loved us so they did lots of little extras for us to make it extra special, and the events coordinator loved us so much she told the chef about us and asked him to make an ice sculpture to compliment our wedding cake, and he agreed! It was stunning! (And the cake was delicious! and gorgeous!)

How was the honeymoon?

Wonderful! Our wedding night was spent at a beautiful historic hotel, then the next day we drove to our honeymoon destination for 3 nights in a cottage by the lake. Blissful calm after the chaos of planning a wedding so fast and before the chaos of moving 2000 miles away (and internationally) exactly 3 weeks to day after our wedding! While we did not get the exotic tropical honeymoon we were originally planning, it was great! And then we drove to our new home for part two of our honeymoon and that was wonderful too! We still joke that we are honeymooning because we did not get the three weeks we had wanted, so we invested the rest of our days at a high interest rate with compounding interest! (Yup, we were business majors).

Oh, and if you read here, I tag you! Please leave me a comment with the link if you play!

Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce

I still cannot figure out how it happened, but I completely missed Favorite Ingredient Friday last week. I had a recipe picked out and everything! But all of a sudden it was Saturday, and then Sunday, and then Monday! However, here is my:


This is also the recipe I was freezing in the Zip Top Bag Freezing Method Tutorial that I promised to post.

Italian Sausage and Tomato Sauce
1 lb Italian Sausage (either in bulk or thinly sliced) (I use turkey sausage so do not worry about draining the fat off because there is none!)
1 tbsp oil
1 onion diced
1-2 sweet peppers diced
2 large or 4 small garlic cloves, finely minced
2 x 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
salt and pepper
1 lb of pasta, cooked
2-4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Saute sausage in oil until almost cooked. Add onion and garlic. When sausage is cooked and onion is translucent add the peppers, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Mix sauce with pasta, pour into casserole (9x13 for whole recipe, 9x9 for half recipe) and top with mozzarella cheese.

Cook at 350F for about 30-40 minutes, until pasta is hot through and cheese is melted and just starting to brown slightly.

Options for Freezing

1. Freeze sauce, and then on baking day thaw sauce, cook pasta, pour into casserole and top with cheese. Bake as directed.

2. Mix pasta with sauce, and divide into freezer bags and freeze (this is what I did in the tutorial). On baking day, thaw, pour into casserole and top with cheese. Bake as directed.

3. Assemble right up until you would put the casserole in the oven. But rather than put it in the oven, cover it, label it, and freeze it.

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session
Zip Top Bag Method

The Stash

If you have been reading here for a while, you may have noticed that I love to quilt, sew, embroider, knit, cross stitch, and am anxious to learn to crochet. Basically I have not met a sewing based craft that I have not loved. But if you are not careful, these crafts can be very expensive!

So I though I would share a few tips that have helped me craft without breaking the budget!

1. Try to make useful things. It is easier to spend the money when you will be able to use them either in your home or as gifts. Making things do dual purposes saves money. I try to always think of making things multitask! So for quilting I quilt things that I need for the house. For example, right now my MIL and I are working on a quilt for the guest room, as it needs one. It will also double as a guest book as we embroider our overnight guests names on it!

2. Pick up patterns on sale. I try to get all my patterns on sale or as gifts. When Crystal had her sale a couple weeks ago I ordered 4 patterns that I have been watching to go on sale somewhere for some time. It was a great find! (and I do plan on making them this winter) I have also been given beautiful quilting books as gifts!

3. Share patterns! My MIL and I are crafting buddies, so we share patterns back and forth!

4. Cut sewing patterns to the biggest size so that you can use all the sizes included in the pattern and then fold to the size you need. That way you can use the pattern lots!

5. Photocopy your own patterns for your own use. I read in a knitting book one time that it is not a violation of the copywrite to photocopy a pattern out of your own book for your own use. This way you can write all over the pattern as you make it and still have a brand new copy for next time!

6. Don't decide you are going to make something and then run out and get all the supplies! Know what your next project will be, and watch for sales! I am currently knitting an afghan to be a gift for my parents this Christmas. I know that my next project will be a blanket for my daughter, so as I have a 40% off coupon for Michael's I pick up one ball of wool (matching dye lot is not a concern for this project). Also, I am planning to embroider some tea towels, so I pick up a skein or two of embroidery floss while I am there. Watch for the sales as much as possible, and if you have a little bit of extra money that month pick up a small item that will not likely go on sale anytime soon, or is too inexpensive to use your coupons on.

7. Don't let your stash get out of hand. If you have everything you need for a couple projects, stop shopping, don't let it get too out of hand or you will have money tied up unnecessarily. To use a good business expression, avoid excess crafting inventory!

8. Trade your leftovers! At the end of a quilting project I often have some material left as I cut very conservatively. So I trade with friends who quilt! It works out great! I have also used my quilting leftovers to make cloth napkins (anything bigger than about 11x11 works great!)

What do you do to save money crafting? I am always looking for more tips!

For great frugal tips, head on over to Crystal's!

Happy Way too hot Friday

Yesterday we went to a Pirate themed birthday party. Miss Pear had fun as the blue pirate with her blue pirate bandana hat, and loved the treasure hunt, and the swimming. But we were tired when we got home, it was very hot.

So today we are catching up on things.

Although yesterday we ran a couple errands before picking up Mr. Pear.

At Michael's we picked up wool and embroidery cotton. There is a wool that Miss Pear cannot get enough of, it feels like velvet, and is very thick, and is $6 for a ball that does not have much wool, so I am picking it up as I have a 40%off coupon and am planning on making either a doll blanket or small blanket for Miss Pear. It depends how many balls of wool I have when I start it. And that depends on when I finish the afghan I am working on now. It is supposed to be a Christmas gift for my parents, and if it is not done in time I am going to take a picture of what I have, and package that up with the pattern and wool samples. The other wool is the crochet wool that I have started picking up slowly so that I have enough to learn either when my MIL is down at Christmas or her next trip. The embroidery cotton is for the flour sack tea towels I am collecting stuff to embellish. (I will write more about this for Frugal Friday).

We stopped at Target for diapers, and did a small bit of Christmas shopping while we were there. Miss Pear loves Handy Manny and Little Einsteins, two of about 5 shows we let her watch very occasionally. Both have new DVD's out, and the Handy Manny has a peelie for $6 off when you buy both together, so I did! One will go in her stocking, and we will see about the other one as Mr. Pear has a business trip in October so one might be broken out then!

So today we are slowly getting caught up on laundry and the like. It is very funny, down here stay at home moms are never home! I have never seen such busy women! We are the oddity because we stay home! Although in September we will be out one morning for play group (chance to meet other women in our new city), and even more fun, out one morning a week for BSF as Miss Pear is old enough to go! I am SO excited!

So the plan for today is lots of laundry, a general tidy for the weekend, and lots of reading! (and 2 more blog posts when I get to it!)

Oh, and possibly a third post about a class I am taking with Crystal.

Oh, and possibly a fourth with the recipe I made up for Asian Beef which we had from Dream Dinners that we all loved so much and could not find a recipe for! So yummy, and best BBQed which is great in this heat!

Is it worth the time and hassle?

I often hear it said that it just takes too long to clip coupons and study the flier and the return is so minuscule!

Hmm, let's see.

Tonight I went grocery shopping. Just to one store, mind you it is a store that is currently doubling coupons up to a dollar or the total value of the item (just the first coupon though), and is offering an additional 10% off your order because of the grand reopening.

Total before sales and coupons: $115.16

Admittedly, one of my store super coupons did not work so I had to get a cash refund to correct it, but:

Total after sales, coupons, and cash refund for error: $33.89

May I point out that my order, among many other things contained 2 x 24 packs of coke, 4 boxes of cereal, dishwasher detergent, milk, 2 bottles of fancy, refrigerated salad dressing and the fancy packed lunch meat?

If it is all the same I think I will continue clipping my coupons and studying my fliers....

The Joy of Baking

I am one happy baker lately. Before anyone thinks that I am this wonder cook, I do love to bake, but I have been doing all our own baking out of a need to manage Miss Pear's allergies, and having some rude surprises, not because I am superwoman. We have a very hard time even finding bread that we can buy and not worry without paying $4 a loaf, and even then we have had surprise allergic reactions!

With baking all our own bread, rolls, hamburger buns, sub buns etc. we started eyeing up this little gem:

Without the blender, just the Bosch Universal Mixer. With just our Kitchenaid mixer I was often making bread twice a week or more, and while it is great for a lot of things, bread is not its strength. This combined with the fact that an old injury has left me with what acts like arthritis in my left wrist and hand meant that we needed help.

We waited until we moved and were certain that we had room for this little gem, and then ordered it with the money we had slowly been saving.

I have to say, it was worth every penny. I am such a happy baker it is not even funny! Actually, it is probably very funny as I am downright giddy about baking bread.

I am such a happy baker.

In case you were wondering, this is the special package I was anticipating very much!

And here is what one morning of baking looks like...er...there were two dozen cinnamon buns to start with...


Baking image courtesy of allposters.com

Nice Definitely Matters

Mrs U is so sweet to me, and here is just more proof. She blessed me with the Nice Matters Award. She said that "She's a super sweet lady! She is so kind in her emails and in her blog posts. I appreciate all that she shares and she always shares it so graciously." Of course at first I wondered who she was talking about! Then I remembered that Mrs. Pear was my screen name...

Thank you so much Mrs. U! You have once again blessed me!

Always fresh guest sheets

I have many a compulsion when it comes to keeping our home. Some things are just worth the extra work for things to be nice for our family and the guests we welcome.

One of these compulsions is our guest linens. We don't have a dedicated guest room, and it will be a long time before we will (short of a miracle of course!), so we make good use of what we do have.

Our office / guest room might not be as roomy as I would like, but I do my very best to make it welcoming, and that means always having fresh sheets.

When our previous guests leave, I put the sheets in the wash, and return the futon to it's folded up position. I then hang the sheets on hangers in the closet, or fold them on the shelf, depending on where we were living at the time. When guests are coming, I give the sheets the sniff test. If I am not please I either air fluff them in the drier, or if they really smell stale I rewash them.

One day, when we have a dedicated guest room, I will stick to the secret women in my family have used for generations. When guests leave, strip the bed and wash the linens. Make up the bed with just the quilt or bedspread and pillow shams - no linens. If you make the bed up, the linens can develop a closed up stale smell. When company is coming then make up the bed, freshening the linens if necessary.

Oh, and feel free to leave chocolate on my pillow!

There is nothing more welcoming in a guest room that fresh linens to tell your guests how welcome they truly are!

Zip Top Bag Method

It has definitely been too long since I posted anything on my freezer series, so for today's Kitchen Tip Tuesday here is a tutorial on the zip top bag method - the best method for maximizing space in your freezer and protecting your food from freezer burn!

First, label the bag with the appropriate information:

Name of Dish
Date

Feel free to add the optional information too, it will make life easier:

Baking directions (or name of cookbook and page number)
Note of side dishes that may have been prepared to go in the freezer with this, or that you want to remember!

Then put one meal's worth of what you wish to freeze into the appropriate zip top bag like so:

Second, squish the meal down to the bottom of the bag and fold the remainder of the bag over, doing your best to squish out all the extra air, it will look like this:


Next roll the filling part of the bag over the empty part of the bag to force any air out. If you are freezing something with lots of liquid you will want the top mostly closed with just a small opening to allow air out. It will look like this:

Work to force any remaining air out, rolling the full portion of the bag further towards you, then seal the bag. It will now look like this:


There will likely be a small bit of air left no matter what you do, short of using one of those fancy machines, but do your best.

Now you want to coax all the food in the bag to be as flat as possible, just gently press with your hands, the finished product will look like this:


A side view:

Now put your freezer bag on the bottom of your freezer to freeze, or on top of other items frozen the same way, or on a cookie sheet or cutting board to freeze so that it stays flat!

Keeping the items flat like this allows for:

1. Maximization of freezer space
2. Ease of finding meals whether you stack them or "file" them.
3. Meal to freeze quickly
4. Meal to thaw quickly
5. Lesser chance of freezer burn
   

Recipe for the meal in the freezer bag to follow this week - it is a Mrs. Pear original created after a great Italian turkey sausage sale!

We regularly get coupons in Sunday's paper for Ziplock bags, and find that most warehouse stores have excellent prices on these even without coupons!

Next up in the series, apparently in no particular order:
- Planning your shopping, prep and cooking
- Storing your meals revisited and revised
- Keeping track of what is in your freezer and what is the oldest
- Freezer lunch stash complete with ideas
- Freezer breakfast stash complete with ideas
- Recipes I used in my marathon cook that have not yet been posted
- What little I know about having a group of friends who share freezer meals
- Books and resources I love
- Answers to questions you post for me or email to me (email button is in my profile).


Previously in the series:
Introduction to the series
Why Freezer Meals?
My Usual Method
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Pesto Butter and Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Enchiladas
Kitchen Day - Tortilla Soup and Enchiladas (How To)
Blessing of Freezer Meals
Lazy Lasagna - A Freezer Meal
Sauce for Freezer Meatballs
Pineapple Tuna Cracker Snack
Freezer Cooking with Limited Space
Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Orange-Apricot Glazed Pork Chops
Converting your Casserole Recipes to Freezer Recipes
Converting your Meat Recipes to Freezer Meals
Triple Chocolate Cookies
Bacon-Macaroni Bake
Once A Month Freezer Cooking Simply Explained
Planning Your Freezer Cooking Shopping Session

News Coverage Clarification

Many of you have probably read the story of the illegal immigrant mother who was deported back to Mexico this weekend, being separated from son.

The news story I read certainly played up the tragedy of the division of a family, particularly that of a mother and her child.

You may have also heard of the singer whose work visa was revoked due to an arrest in her native country who had a few choice words for the US government.

Can I just point out four little things?

1. This is not unfair treatment only to illegal immigrants. This applies to legal immigrants as well. We are here on green cards, and if something happens and we have to leave the country, Miss Pear would be allowed to stay as she was born in the US (after we had been here for 6 years, legally). However, most parents do not choose to leave behind their children who were born in the US (and we would not leave her behind, we would take her with us as we could not bear for our family to be separated, nor would we allow her to be exposed and used as a political pawn). (I am NOT saying that this is why the child was left behind, and certainly hope it was not).

2. Children born in the US are US citizens, even if their parents were here illegally, and even if they leave the country for some period of time they can return on their own once they are of legal age. (Or as a family once the paperwork issue is corrected).

3. There is an expectation when you are given your work visa that you will be law abiding. Additionally, as part of your green card application you are required to pass both an FBI back ground check and a background check in your native country. This is one of the reasons they take your finger prints.

4. When a family welcomes you into their home you are a guest. It is no different when a country welcomes you. We are here legally, it took me 6 years to get my green card. It took my husband 7 years. It was very costly and we had to jump through many hoops and follow numerous guidelines that effected our everyday lives. Some we did not understand the point of, but we humbled ourselves and did it, after all, we are guests in this country.

I am certainly not looking to get into the whole immigration debate, but in talking to some of my US friends, the above facts were very shocking to them, so I though I would share here....

Updated to add: I really do not mind the restrictions that have been placed on us, the "jumping through hoops...we did not understand the point of." We view our residence in the US as a gift, not our right. Residency and citizenship should not be taken lightly. If the citizens of the US feel that these are things we need to do, and they must as their elected officials made these laws, then as a condition of our gift to be here we do them.

As for the requirements of citizenship, it certainly is not easy, but again, citizenship in any country should not be taken lightly, for the native born or the immigrant. Applying for citizenship, passing the test, and taking an oath make sense to me, after all, it makes sense to ask for permission, it makes sense to understand the rules of and political and judicial inner workings of a country you wish to be a citizen of, and it is nice to make it official, or so I am told. Of course, a lot can change in 3 years, when I can apply for citizenship, and 4 years when Mr. Pear can apply for citizenship.....

And if you are wondering where I got this attitude from? It is from the Lord, we felt strongly that He instructed us to:

Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
1 Peter 2: 17

Menu Plan Monday - August 20

It actually is to hot to think here, so I anticipate substituting recipes depending on how exhausted we are!

Any ideas for meals that are either cold or in the crock pot or on the BBQ?

Saturday

Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Meatball subs
Supper - Crock Pot Chicken and Noodles

Sunday

Breakfast - Cinnamon Buns
Lunch - Taco Chili
Supper - Spaghetti

Monday

Breakfast** - Cereal
Lunch - Sunday Leftovers
Supper - Asian Beef Kabobs and grilled veg

Tuesday

Breakfast - Granola and Yogurt
Lunch - Cheese and Jam Sandwiches
Supper - Orange Snails and fruit

Wednesday

Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Orange Snail Leftovers
Supper - Pasta Salad


Thursday

Breakfast - Granola and Yogurt
Lunch - Pasta Salad Leftovers
Supper - Garden Summer Casserole ~

Friday

Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (with cream cheese) and fruit
Supper - Fajitas (if not too hot I will freeze a couple meals of filling for the freezer).

Saturday

Breakfast - Banana Bread and fruit
Lunch - Sandwiches
Supper - Turkey Burgers

Breads
3 Flour Bread~
Winnipeg Rye Bread if I can ever track down cracked rye!
Oatmeal Bread


Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin

Loaves and Muffins
Raisin Muffins
Banana Bread
Apple Loaf ~
Orange Loaf ~

Other
Yogurt
Brownies
English Muffins~
Hamburger Buns
Granola
Granola Bars

~ from the More with Less Cookbook (can be found on my sidebar if you want to check it out).
** During the week it is just Miss Pear and I for lunch, so we eat some strange lunches....

Grand Re-Openings and Not Quite Double Coupons

In our little corner of the world the Safeway/Vons/Pavilions are all getting face lifts. Which is kind of annoying when you are shopping in the middle of construction, but they entice you with sales and promises of double coupons. However, the double coupons are not really double. Say that you buy two jars of pasta sauce and have two coupons good for $1 off each. They will double the first one, but not the second one. This caught me a couple times too. Also, they will not double up to $1 on a manufacturer's coupon that is for one free.

What they have been doing though is linking your customer loyalty card to an automatic 10-15% off your total purchase for a period of time. So that is nice, and makes me feel better for the misleading coupon doubling thing.

Oh, and they mailed us all coupons for freebies - tomorrow we will be getting a free dozen eggs.

So for Frugal Friday, when they say double coupons find out if:
1. There is a limit on the double of $1 (usually there is)
2. If they double all coupons or just the first 1
3. If you can use more than one freebie coupon per card, some say per card, some say per transaction but they mean per loyalty card.

There are less surprises at the check out this way!

I am not sure how long this double coupons at Pavilions will last, but I am hoping for a while because it is the closest grocery store to us, and is right beside CVS.

So what else do I need to know about double couponing? (Besides always try to combine it with a sale). Is this practice of only doubling the first coupon and then only up to $1 the way it is usually done? I am new to this, and am curious!

For wonderful tips from the experts head on over to Crystal's!

Delightful Day

Our wonderful day started last night when our delightful neighbors invited us over for a lovely supper of mexican delicacies, including Carne Asada, a treat that most people do not discover until in this area!

Miss Pear and I drove Mr. Pear to work this morning, and then joined friends from my very old job - I quit about three and a half years ago, and then about a year ago they moved the plant up here from where we used to live, which is how we could still meet them for lunch.

It was fun to see everyone and laugh and talk. And I have NO desire to go back! But it is fun to see them!

Then we came home and had a long nap as it was 95-105 for the last few days around here, and it is tiring us out.

Then we ran errands in the heat:
Walgreens (sales and coupons)
(then picked up Mr. Pear)
Michaels (knitting wool, and coupons)
CVS (sales and coupons)
Joanne's (fabric for a dress for Miss Pear, with coupons)
Babies R Us (baby gift for friend who had a girl this past weekend)

And came home for a cold supper. It is so hot that we had cereal for supper as nothing hot sounded good, and cereal was the only cold thing that appealed to us!

So tomorrow it is back to normal, and if I can convince our camera and computer to talk to each other and play nice I will post the long promised zip top bag freezer tutorial sharing my really easy method of getting all the air out. (I think it is common sense, but everyone I tell is amazed, not sure, but I will share nonetheless!)

But tonight we are very tired, and are going to bed early. Provided we can convince Miss Pear to stay in hers! (for some reason she has been having trouble going to sleep for about a week, and we cannot figure it out!)

And the winners are.....

The winner of:

is Dawn!


The winner of:

is Betty-Jo


The winner of:

is Mrs. Brigham!

All winners will be contacted via email!

Thank you to everyone who participated for the wonderful comments which will be such a help to us!

Water fun, clean doorway

We love to play at the water table out back, but I don't love the mess our entry way would become. In our town home we had wood flooring at the entry from the backyard, so it got dangerously slippery when wet. And the average throw rug is not absorbent enough, so I got creative, or desperate, kind of hard to say.... But I use this tip at our new home too!

When we play outside with water I grab us each a towel, and then an old towel. I put our towels where they will stay dry, and place the old towel as a rug inside the house right at the door, so we step right onto that! Even toddlers cannot move fast enough across it to not get kind of dry feet!

Works for me!

By the way, our survey/contest ends today!

Because I value your opinion....

You may remember that in May I posted a survey asking a series of questions about being a stay at home wife and mom for an article I was writing. I was working on an article to help women (and their families) who wished to leave the workplace and return home. I discovered that even though I got some great replies, I needed more answers and more input. I also discovered that I could not cover it all in an article. So now my husband and I are working on a book. We hope to find a publisher, but if not we will publish it as an e-book. We are basically trying to write the book that we wish we had when I quit work and stayed home full time.

But we really need your help!

In the next week I will be posting two or three questions each day in addition to the freezer series and other assorted stuff I like to blog about.

The questions are geared towards women who are at home full time, or would like to be. We are finding that there are a growing number of families making this decision regardless of religious beliefs.

And to encourage you to participate, and to thank you, we are going to host our first ever contest!

There will be three prizes, an e-book and two books that I use all the time and are very helpful to me:

Crystal at Biblical Womanhood has generously donated a copy of her e-book: Secrets to Supermarket Savings. She has been very helpful in teaching me how to save on our grocery budget while still eating healthy, good meals through both this e-book and her blog! (She is also hosting a class in August on this exact topic - I am already signed up!) There is a big sale at her site this week - I talked about it here with a coupon code to get an extra 10%off)

These are two of my favorite books of freezer recipes and will ship directly from either Amazon.com or .ca.

There are two ways to be entered in the drawing for these three great books (I will be posting reviews of them this week!)

1. You will be entered in the contest each time you post an answer to my questions in the comments section, however, each comment must answer the question and contain an email address so that we may be able to contact you!

2. You will also be entered into our contest if you blog about our contest and survey, and link back to us. Please include a link back to this post in your post as I will be adding the link to each question on the bottom of this introductory post. (Please send me an email to Mrs.Pear(at)cox.net with the link to your post to be entered in the contest!)

The fine print.....

All the questions will be posted this week, two or three questions each day, starting today.

Contest closes Wednesday, August 15 at 7:00 PM Pacific time. (Of course, if we don't close comments, keep commenting, but I am just saying that we have a plan!) The winners will be announced next Thursday, August 16.

The contest is open to shipping addresses in the US and Canada.

Also, I reserve the right to quote any comment in our book as this is research, so PLEASE DO NOT share anything you would not be comfortable with us using. We will only use first names or made up first names if we quote you.

We will be hiding the comments once the contest is over so your email addresses will not be left available.


The Questions:

Question 1 and Introduction

Question 2 - What is it you do?

Question 3 - Biggest Fears

Question 4 - Biggest Issue

Question 5 - Why didn't you tell me????

Question 6 - Thank you for telling me....

Question 7 - A Word of Advice

Question 8 - All about the budget

Question 9 - Frugal Sources

Question 10 - Home Management

Bonus Question: Schedules

Question 11 - Your Story

Bloggy Goodness

Do you remember the Dog Days of Summer a couple weeks ago where Mrs. Dryer hosted a Mr. Linky for giveaways?

Well, one of the MANY participants was my dear bloggy friend Mrs. Momrn2 over at My Quiet Corner. And I was shocked when she posted this, that I won!

She sent of this wonderful gift package:

And I confess, I copied the picture from her site because my camera is fussing and does not want to sinc to the computer.

Thank you so much for the wonderful present, I love it, and especially appreciate the gift of quiet! Please know that I am trying to find the top of my precious roll top desk so that I can return to my favorite place for quiet times!

End of Season Berries

It seems like each summer the strawberry season ends long before I am ready.

This past weekend I picked up 4 one pound boxes of strawberries that looked delicious! Yet they were very tart and started to get soft rather fast. Yes, it is the end of the strawberry season. Plus I had approximately two pounds of strawberries in the fridge that our neighbors could not finish and passed on to us (they do not have a secondary freezer while we do).

So I started going through my mind of things I could do with these berries seeing they were not good for eating.

We often do the following with berries that are still good, just past their prime, or are tart.

1. Freeze cleaned sliced berries in 6 cup packages for jam making during the winter.
2. Freeze cleaned sliced berries in 2 cup packages for syrup over our waffles and pancakes.
3. Make jam.
4. Prepare syrup and freeze it.

I did number 4 yesterday.

First I sorted the berries and tossed any that had touches of mold or rot on them.

Then I sliced the cleaned berries into a sauce pan.

I added about half a cup of water to ensure the would not burn to the bottom and put them over medium heat.

I added enough sugar to get the sweetness I desired. I confess I added more than I would normally like to as the berries were very tart.

Once the mixture reached a boil I kept it at a low boil for about 10 minutes to make a nice deep red sauce, and to break up the berries a bit.

Then I added approximately 1-2 tbsp of corn starch mixed with water to thicken it and simmered a bit longer (if it is not thick enough you can add touch more using the same method.)

Once the syrup was a nice thickness I removed it from the heat and let it cool. Because it was close to supper time I popped the syrup into the fridge, and will freeze it in zip top bags that have the right amount for one breakfast in each bag.

And I have made good use of my end of season, very tart and slightly soft berries.


Just a reminder, our survey / contest ends tomorrow and we would love your opinion!

Who me? Surely you jest!

I am very late in posting these wonderful honors, between Mr. Pear bringing home a bug from Mexico on his last business trip (and sharing it) and the chaos of a new project at work for him, and running our contest last week, I am woefully behind in important bloggy business.

Mrs. Joyful Days honored me with two awards:

The Creative Blogger Award is for those who bring unique and creative elements to their blogs. For those who incorporate art, music, creative writing, photo's, and other beautiful visual effects into their website. For those who put a unique spin on things and come up with new ideas. This award is for the artsy, the funky, the inventor, and even the rebel. This award is for those creative individuals who stand out from the crowd.

The Thoughtful Blogger Award is for those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others' feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping other bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

She said that:

Mrs. Pear--I want to be her when I grow up. Even though I am already considerably older than her. She is tidy and organized and a sweet mommy. She is willing to help those challenged in the menu planning and freezer meals in the kitchen. She pre-blogs before moving and leaves a cool study for her readers. She said if I come to visit I can be Miss Pear's sister and she will adopt me. Oh will I eat well...

So I did what any woman would do - I cried! Her sweet spirit is always a blessing to me, particularly on that when she provided much needed encouragement! Then, of course, I realized that it was probably a good thing she could not see the pile of laundry I had yet to fold!

Oh, and if you are wondering, the Bible study she is referring to can be found here.

As for passing this one on, well, I could not possibly keep the list under 10, so for fear of leaving some very sweet women out, I will just say that if you see me popping over and commenting, please know that I mean you!


So if that were not shocking enough! Mrs. Alexandra and Mrs. Revee both blessed me with the


This is described as:

This is the start of a new meme - the Frugal Subversive Award. I am giving my award to three bloggers who consistently turn their backs on consumerism to live frugally in a creative and authentic way. These bloggers have made me think in innovative ways about my own life and how I can make a difference making, reusing, and just saying "no" to mindless spending.

If you are given an award and want to take part in this meme, you can in turn select three other bloggers who have inspired you to be a frugal subversive. Passing the rules on with the award will make it easier for everyone to participate. Congratulations on the award. I hope it helps you spread awareness near and far.

There are only two thoughts I can get my mind around:

1. How ironic this is because I read both sites for just this reason, along with encourangement about homeschooling of course!

2. And secondly, that maybe I am doing better at this frugality business than I thought.

I just blog about what is going on, and what I am doing. As a family in Southern California living in the second most expensive part of the entire country, this takes a dedication by the whole family! The fact that thrift shops down here are usually the stuff that could not sell at garage sales because they were in such poor condition makes it even harder! So often I am left feeling such a beginner in the area of frugality! So these two sweet ladies encouraged me tremendously!

Along with reading these two wonderful blogs, and I think tag backs are probably not allowed! I also recommend:

Kim at Life in a Shoe, Frugal Hacks, and Shoelaces

Crystal at Biblical Womanhood

Tammy at Tammy's Recipes and blog

in addition to the wonderful blogs that they posted about!

For Better or For Worse

I love this comic strip - it is a Canadian one that I grew up with. I feel like I grew up with Michael and Elizabeth! And I read this comic strip almost like a visit from old friends. It often curbs my homesickness when I crave all things Canadian!

Poutine anyone?

Any ways, today's was particularly funny as I just made a special lunch party of BBQ cheeseburgers with a side of coleslaw, and cake with berries and whip cream. The sundays were our special Sunday treat yesterday....

http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/002632.php

Oh, and please don't blame me of this comic strip becomes a regular stop for you!

P.S. Bonus points if you can comment on what poutine is!