Recovery Friday

Well, we made it through the week, and that was no small feat! It was a crazy week!

Monday I took my MIL for a blood test, which would not be a big deal, but I thought I kind of knew where we were going, but because I am geographically challenged, I checked the map on the office's site, and was so glad I did because according to the map, I was wrong. So we went to where the map says, and it was wrong, there was nothing by a tree covered hill. So we stopped and asked for directions, and it was exactly where I thought it was.....We got there and had the worst service ever, and my MIL had a huge raised welt/bruise after. Our other errands ran smoothly until a gentleman almost backed into us (literally slammed on his brakes and threw it in reverse!) and then glared at me when I honked at him because I could not back up quick enough! There was no accident, thank you Lord!, but we were done for the day and returned home. Except that after nap time we needed groceries, and nothing was where it should be, and we were over charged and had to return to the store for a $17 refund.

Tuesday was a wonderful morning of BSF and evening of having our neighbors over for supper because the husband was away on business.

Wednesday we had a meeting with our financial planner, which went well, but always leaves me mentally drained.

Thursday morning we got caught up on all the house work. Thursday night we went to a hockey game. Mr. Pear was given ticket and a parking pass from work. It was so much fun!

It was a fun week (except maybe for Monday (-: ), but I am very happy that it is Friday. Today we recover from the week - the cleaning is done, and supper is in the slow cooker! Miss Pear is napping, and that sounds great to me!

If you need a good laugh to start your weekend off right, might I recommend clicking here?

The Toys are on Sale!

My dear neighbor was at Target this morning, and reports that the TOYS ARE ON SALE! The average discount seems to be about 50%, but some are more and of course some are less. I asked if this was just the usual 1 row of clearance and was told no, it was at least 6 aisles!

So, if you have birthday's and occasions for littles coming up, might I recommend a Target run?

Famous Chili

When we were first married and in a strange country in a strange state (U.S. and California respectively), we joined a small group in an attempt to find community. It worked wonderfully! And a long the way we found some fabulous recipes! One man in the group made the absolute best chili, and it was his own somewhat secret recipe - as in it was only in his head, not written down!

He has since passed away, I remember going to his funeral hugely pregnant, and we have since cracked the code on the chili recipe!

Famous Chili

2 pkgs ground turkey (or 2 and a half lbs ground beef) browned.
Season with a bit of salt and pepper while browning.
2 onions, diced (I like to fry them up with the meat)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cans of pinto beans, rained and rinsed
2 cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans of crushed tomatoes
2 green peppers, diced
1 cup chopped celery
Chili Powder to taste - about 2 tbspish
Salt and Pepper
1 bunch of cilantro (about a fist full of stems), chopped, leave the stems out.

Put all ingredients except the cilantro in the slow cooker. Cook all day on low, or all afternoon in high.

Add the cilantro for the last half hour of cooking.

Serve with cornbread (preferably over the cornbread), shredded cheddar cheese, more peppers and onion, and if you want, sour cream.

Freezing Cookies

I bake cookies by the double batch around here, I have a family of cookie monsters who I love, so this helps a lot! And because I have a secondary freezer that is NOT frost free, I can freeze baked goods for a fair bit of time! If you have a frost free freezer, and leave them too long, funny tastes develop.

I was just starting to think about guidelines for how long I can keep cookies in the freezer when I picked up Cooking Light in December (Free at CVS, really, I needed it to get up to $15 so I could use my $5 off $15 coupon!).

Any way, according to Cooking Light, cookie dough for drop, rolled, sliced/icebox, and hand shaped cookies is good in the freezer for 3 months. (2-3 days in the fridge) They do not recommend that you freeze twice baked or bar dough though.

As for baked, well, all baked cookies are good in the freezer for 3 months.

As for packaging baked cookies, I just put them in a plastic tub (Rubbermaid, Tupperware, no name, whatever is the right size and fits) and pop them in. If they are delicate cookies I will layer them with wax paper.

Cooking Light also says that baked cookies are only good for 3-5 days at room temperature, so it is a good idea to freeze your cookies and then refill your cookie jar from the freezer! The cue for an empty cookie jar in our house is the lid left off, that way I know!

As for the 3 month marker working...I couldn't say, cookies don't last that long around here.

What is your family's favorite cookie recipe that you have to make in double batches?

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
- 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
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken
Swapping Meals with a Friend
January Swap / Orange Teriyaki Chicken

Pavillions Freebies

These 4 deals are good for today and possibly tomorrow.

I did not include them in my list from last night because I was not able to get them for two reasons. One deal were out of stock in my store, one size was not carried in my store, and two deals were missed because as a Mac user I still cannot print coupons from SmartSource.com!

Rice-A-Roni Natures way is on sale 10 for $10. If you go to Smart Source and print the coupon for $0.50, and your store doubles you can get one for free!

Pure Protein High Protein Bars are on 10 for $10 and there was a coupon for $1.50 off 2 in the paper this past week, so if you buy 2 for $2 and your store doubles, there is a chance they will pay you overage unless they limitted their computers, which they some times do, but worst case is they will be free!

Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer , the 2 oz is on for $1.99, and there are both $1 coupons and $1.50 c0upons out there, so if your store doubles, you will get it for free.

Chinet Cut Crystal Cups, 25 ct, are on 2 for $4, and SmartSource has a $1 printable coupon, so if you buy one, and your store doubles coupons, it will be free.

Pavillions Deals

We went shopping at Pavillions today, and there were some great sales! So if you have a Safeway, Pavillions, or Von's near you, it is worth a trip.

These deals are good until at least Tuesday night, most until Wednesday and I think a couple were good even longer. These deals were great because our store doubles up to $1.

Rice-A-Roni - 10 for $10 with $0.50 off 2 coupons from the paper so 2 for $1

2 General Mills Cereal (Cheerios or Lucky Charms) for $5 - $1 coupon for $3 total
Plus 2 Nature Valley bars 2 for $5 minus $0.75 coupon for a total of $3.50, and because you bought 4 of these they take another $4 off, so 2 Cereal and 2 Granola Bars for $2.50

Quaker Old Fashioned Oats 42 oz. on for $2.49 minus $0.60 coupon from paper for $1.29 each!

Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap 10 f0r $10 minus $0.35 doubled coupon

Tyson Chicken Strips BOGO for $3.99 minus $0.55 coupon doubled, minus $0.55

Yoplait yogurt 10 for $5 with $1 off 8 coupon and $0.40 off 6 coupon, both coupons doubled

Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt $2.50 minus $1 coupon doubled.

Frigo Cheese String $3 each minus $1 coupon doubled.

Kleenex Antiviral $1.50 each minus $0.40 coupon doubled.

There were other good deals, but there were the best ones. I spent $25.90 for $107.76 worth of groceries.

Four potential Freebies I was not able to get are listed here....

A New Year, A New Card and Gift File

This is my last post in this little mini series, and believe it or not, this is my best kept secret.

Except for the couple months after our daughter was born my cards are always on time, I don't forget, and I don't miss occasions.

My friends are always shocked, and impressed.

But the secret is, I make my computer work for me!

I have all birthdays and occasions in an online planner with reminders set for two weeks to a month ahead of time, depending on what is appropriate, and I look each Monday (other times too, but I make a point of Mondays).

I have an Excel file with 4 workbooks in it for Christmas Presents, Christmas Cards, Other Presents and other Cards sorted by date and recipient and includes item, cost, store, if I bought it, if it is wrapped, where I hid it, and if I shipped it.

While it is a big job the first time I set it up, now with each new year I save it under the new year, clear out last year's cards and presents, and it is all set with names and dates pre-filled, waiting to be filled with cards and gifts purchases all over again. It saves me from running to the store at the last minute, and wondering who in the world I bought that for!

Possibly over the top, but it really does work incredibly well for me!

Menu Plan Monday January 7-12

It has been almost a month since I played along for Menu Plan Monday, and while I missed it, I had a wonderful Christmas season! But now it is the new year, and back to organized neat orderly business!

We have a crazy week planned with something every day - except Friday which I have named Recovery Friday!

So in lieu of my usual full menu with baking plan, here is the short version! (Full version to return next week!)

Breakfasts this week will be variations of cereal, toast, fruit, yougurt and granola!

Lunches will be assorted sandwiches such as grilled cheese, tuna salad and chicken salad.

Suppers

Monday - Farmhouse Chicken and veggies
Tuesday - Stuffed Shells with Salad and a Mixed Fruit Tart (company for supper)
Wednesday - Orange Teriyaki Chicken with rice and veggies
Thursday - Date Night
Friday - Tacos Carne Asada and salad
Saturday - Pizza

A New Year, Time to Slash and Burn

I use this old phrase, slash and burn, to describe how I go though my paperwork this time of year.

It seems to always creep up on me, little piles that need to be filed, sorted, and purged.

While I work through this on a regular basis, the first week of January I am RUTHLESS!

I use an old adage from my purchasing days - when in doubt, throw it out!

Out go old recipes that I am not going to try, papers for things I am not really interested in any more, notes that I replied to that I am not keeping (I only keep a special few and all from my husband). I throw out old receipts that are not needed. I file everything I am keeping away. And then I do the hardest part. I throw out the Christmas cards that are not from immediate family or pictures (after making sure I have updated addresses of course!). This one always hurts, but it serves no purpose to keep them even though I enjoyed them tremendously!

And even though this normally applies to my attitude towards paper, often when I get into a "toss it out" mood, it overlaps into other areas.

Although I find the hardest thing to throw out is recipes I have printed or clipped from magazines that I had thought I wanted to try, but now will not likely. I have no idea why!

What is the hardest thing for you to toss when it comes to taming the paper tiger?

Don't Buy That Cookbook!

If you have been reading around here for long, you may have caught on to the fact that I love to cook, and bake, and generally play in the kitchen.

Which means that when I actually watch TV, which is rare, I often tune into the Food Network! Recently I had borrowed the cookbooks of a few well known chefs on the Food Network from a friend as I had some Christmas money I could use to buy one. I discovered something shocking.

Out of the roughly 25 recipes I was dying to try from one cookbook I was able to find about 21 of them for free on the Food Network's web site, which is free! I will be copying the remaining 4 recipes from my friend's book. Upon further investigation, this held for a lot of the chefs!

The only glaring exception I found was Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking.

Also, it used to be that to peruse Cooking Light's recipe archives you had to have the code from the most recent edition of the magazine. Not so any more! My Recipes features Cooking Light, Southern Living and a few others!

Just a little tip to save on cookbooks but still get the great recipes!

What are some of your favorite online sites for recipes?

What cookbook could you simply never do without?

January Freezer Meals Prep

On Saturday I will be swapping freezer meals with my regular swap partner and also another friend, so it will be six meals!

This morning I made everything up!

I am making Mexican Meatloaf, but am freezing it raw so that it is a thaw and cook kind of meal, and it looks excellent! We will be having it for supper tonight! But because it is cool here today, and the oven always heats up the house, and I have a sweet potato recipe I would like to pair it with, I will be cooking it for about 2 hours in the oven at 350F.

I am also taking Orange Teriyaki Chicken from Dont Panic - Dinners in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead.

Which I am also sharing this week for:



Orange Teriyaki Chicken

1/4 Cup soy sauce
3 T chopped onion (can substitute 1 1/2 T minced onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 T olive oil
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp red pepper sauce
1 - 6 oz can orange juice concentrate
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Cooking Day - Mix all ingredients except chicken. Place chicken breasts in freezer bag and pour marinade over chicken. Freeze using Freezer Bag method.

Serving Day - Thaw chicken breasts. Grill 4-6 inches from the heat source for 35-40 minutes. (I will probably use the oven at 350F)

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
- 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
Asian Beef Kabobs
Honey Mustard Chicken
Swapping Meals with a Friend

A New Year Brings A New Cleaning Schedule

One of the things I frequently hear my friends feeling overwhelmed by is the house. Cleaning it, tidying it, keeping it from looking like a hurricane blew through or an earthquake hit. And while I do have days where stuff does not get done (Like the whole week between Christmas and New Year's - yikes!) for the most part I keep caught up enough to not be caught in a jam.

While we often have some degree of clutter around the house - toys being played with, projects in progress and actively being worked on, etc - our house is clean, and everything has a place.

Okay, so technically I did create my cleaning plan in the fall and all the links can be found here, but the truth of the matter is that I made a number of fine tuning changes and additions so I would not forget things, so I am updating my copy and printing it all out again. No matter how good your cleaning list, it will need to be re-evaluated and updated as life and schedules change! For instance, I still do not know why mending is not on a laundry day - it will be now! And I had to add reminders to take the garbage to the curb as one morning dash was quite sufficient to get the garbage out before the truck arrives at about 7:45AM!)

And while it is a bit of work, it is worth it because having a master list with everything on it really helps me get going and stay on track! It also means that:

• I don't get caught with a disaster of a house on my hands when unexpected company pops in
• I never end up taking on the front step because I am too embarrassed to open the door all the way (although there is a great bench out there!)
• I can always invite someone over for coffee or supper with out worrying what we will walk into or how I will tidy and clean in time
  
• I can find what I am looking for (in a timely manner....)
  
• I never have to hunt through the house for clean clothes for my family as the laundry is done
  
• I don't waste time trying to figure out what needs to be done, or where to start, I just open my book!
  
• I have time to play as it does not take me long each morning!
• I am not wasting weekend time trying to get caught up because everything is done!

While I cannot perfectly follow the list every day, after all, I am a mom now, but if I miss it this week, you can be sure I get it next week, and it really does help!

How do you keep on top of things around the house? (I could always use a few tips!)

New Year Bible Reading Plan

I have to confess, I am still casting around for a Bible reading plan that works for me.

Before I was a mommy I would start in Genesis and plow through to Revelation, hopefully finishing on or before December 31, and most years I was successful. This gave me an excellent overview of the Bible. The only thing I did not like about it is that I had to wait until about September to be in the New Testament.

Then I began reading an Old Testament book, a Wisdom Book, a Gospel, and an Epistle before beginning again. And that worked fairly well too, but I did not have that "read in a year" focus, so I don't think that I read as frequently or as much.

This past month I started another plan that has me read 4 chapters a day with the Gospels being read more than once, so I will let you know how that goes. But reading a chapter in Genesis, a chapter in Ezra, a chapter in Matthew and a chapter in Acts each devotional time was making me feel like I was channel surfing through the Bible and was way to discombobulating! So now I am starting with a chapter in Psalms and then reading 4 chapters. In my 4 chapters a day I will first read Genesis (OT book) then read Luke (Gospel) and then read Acts (NT Epistle) before going back and reading Exodus. Once I finish Psalms I will read Proverbs before again returning to Psalms. I have discovered that I am the kind of girl who needs to just spend time in one place at a time in the Bible to be really enriched by what I am reading!

If you are new to the faith or to reading your Bible your goal may be one chapter of the Gospels a day all year, thereby getting a solid understanding. It may be reading through the New Testament this year.

The best Bible reading advice I have ever received, aside from, "This is your Bible, your manual for life, READ IT!" was to pray before I started reading, asking the Lord to teach me something new, to show me a new aspect of Him and of His plan for me, and then write it down.

But whatever your plan, may I encourage you to make a plan and stick to it?

What is your Bible reading plan for 2008?

Sale on Ebooks at Biblical Womanhood

Did you hear that Crystal is having a big sale on her ebooks at her site until midnight tonight?

Her ebooks have been a big help to me, particularly Secrets to Supermarket Savings and the class package for Supermarket Savings 101 which is deeply discounted!

A New Year, A Fresh Start

There is something about the New Year that gets me going. And I cannot figure out exactly what it is.

But on January 1 we do the same thing each year.

We watch the Rose Bowl parade, and take down the tree - usually by this time all the other decorations are gone except for the Christmas tree and Christmas serving plates and table linens that I will use tonight still. (I pack these in the open first/pack last box that also has our Christmas books and music!)

I make a big brunch, which we eat while watching the parade. The menu is always the same:

• Waffles
• Strawberry syrup (home made of course!)
• Whip cream (with icing sugar and vanilla)
• Sausages

Supper will be Ribs, sweet potato fries and a salad (only the salad type varies).

It is our tradition, a nice quiet day.

But when I wake up on January 2 it is back to normal. Everything from Christmas is put away and all the new stuff has a home. Sure there might be little projects to be done (like putting a shelf in the built in to hold more of Miss Pear's books), but vast majority is done.

So I am not starting the year behind, I am giving myself every advantage to be off to a good start for the year!

When do you put your decorations away?