A recipe and an update.

Just felt like sharing a recipe here today.  In addition, an update.  My quilt top is almost finished and I can start soon on the quilting of it.  I'll post a picture when I get the top finished.  It's looking pretty good.  Today has been an interesting day.  Just looking at Facebook today and seeing some recipes and feel like posting a  sumptuous restaurant quality recipe. This one is not one of my dollar a serving recipes, but it is so good and tastes like the ones you spend twenty dollars and up to eat in a fancy restaurant.  However, I can make it for the whole family for what it would cost us for one to order it in the restaurant.  This is my own creation. 

Angel Hair Pasta with Lobster and Scallops in a Butter Garlic Sauce

1 stick of butter
3 cloves of garlic (I also used minced garlic)
1 pkg fresh spinach
3 T Lime juice
1/4 c cornstarch
1 pound of large scallops
1 large lobster tail
1 pound of angel hair pasta cooked
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (I like the largely grated pieces)

Directions:

Coat scallops in cornstarch. Melt 1/2 of butter in a skillet and add garlic.  Place scallops around the outside edge of the skillet.  Cut lobster tail into bite sized pieces. Place lobster meat in the center of the skillet.  Cook scallops until golden brown on all size and lobster until pink and opaque.  When fully cooked drizzle lime juice over all.  Remove to a plate.  Add remaining butter to skillet and add spinach when butter is melted.  Cook spinach until wilted.  Serve by placing angel hair pasta on plate, place spinach on top and top with scallops and lobster meat.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. 

It's just that simple.  And it tastes like the expensive restaurant meal.  I sometimes substitute shrimp if I'm trying to save money or I don't have scallops and lobster, but it's really only truly decadant with the scallops and lobster.  Of course, it really needs a good cheesecake to go with it, but that's another post.

Quilting my latest project

A few years ago, I took a beginning quilting class.  While I had sewn for years, I had never really tried the quilting thing.  When I took the class, the teacher wanted us to hand piece the first block and then she said if we wanted to we could machine stitch the remaining blocks.  I found that I enjoyed hand piecing the blocks and finished the entire project hand piecing it.  I got to the quilting stage and began quilting it, but did not finish it. Life got busy here and after the fire I have been unable to locate the project. I still have hope that I might come across it when I finally get things finished up in my craft room. 

A couple of weeks ago, I had a friend call me and ask if I would like to go check out some quilt shops.  A couple of them I had been to before, but we also checked out a new one.  As I love the feel and color of the fabrics of course I was game to go.  We spent the day going to these shops and stopped for lunch along the way.  It was a great day.  My friend even gave me a little "spending" money to get something to work on (of course, I probably have enough fabric in my "stash" to make numerous quilts). I chose some materials and we copied a pattern out of book she had for a small wall hanging. I began piecing the blocks and again find that I enjoy the hand piecing.  We decided that over the summer we would get together from time to time on rainy days and work on our projects.  She pieces hers on the machine, so hers go together much quicker.  Yesterday we got together at a local quilt shop and worked on our projects.  I had pieces the blocks that mine needed pieced and was able to cut out the remaining blocks and triangles to begin putting together my rows.  I laid out my blocks and arranged them as I wanted them and pinned my rows together.  Last night I came home and while watching television, I put together two more rows. I'll take it along today and work on putting my rows together while I wait for a doctor's appointment for Jim.  It will give me something to work on while we wait.  I'll  be putting my final pictures here when I finish. The pattern that I chose to work with was Pink Patches Doll Quilt.  I mostly chose it because it was fairly simple.  And while I have years of experience sewing, quilting is still somewhat new to me. 

Of course since I am now looking at quilt projects I'm now looking at fabric in a whole new light.  I happened to be in the fabric section at Walmart and came across a fabric that just has to go in one of my next projects.  I couldn't just stop with the paisley print I found. I had to continue until I had enough pieces to be able to make another small quilt and had to match the colors in the paisley.  so, I have another project ready when this one finishes.  Yesterday while we were at the local quilt shop, I also saw a quilt on the wall that I would love to do for our bedroom.  So, I need to get the book with the pattern and start collecting fabric to make it.  I already have an idea what colors I will do it up in, but finding them will be lots of fun.  While I would love to make it up for our bed, I'm not sure I can aspire to making a King sized quilt yet. I think I need a few more that I can put on the walls first. 

I'll post when I have this project finished and what some of my upcoming projects will be. 

Later this week I will be doing a bulk cook prior to the beginning of my new classes starting.  I'm hoping to have enough meals in the freezer that it will make cooking during the next several weeks much easier.  I'm sure these classes will be at least as demanding as the previous ones have been.  I'll post what meals I end up with in the bulk cook.  These are mostly freezer casseroles and dinners to dump in the crock pot.  It is so much nicer to be able to just reach in the freezer and put it in the crockpot and go on about the day. 

May Cooking Class Ministry

Today was awesome.  I had four women come to my cooking class and we had a great time.  Today, I shared some foods that I've seen in the food pantries that people don't seem to want to take with them as they aren't sure what to do with it.  The foods I chose to highlight today were Kobacha squash, avocados, and turnips. I know that avocados make excellent guacamole, but not everyone likes guacamole, so I looked for another recipe to use with those.  I came across this recipe on my facebook page, and tried it and it was delicious.  It made avocados taste totally different. The blog that I borrowed it from is here. 

Here is the recipe.  I don't have all the pictures, but if you want a step by step guide and to see the pictures, feel free to click on the link above. The general consensus on these was that they would be great with a dip like ranch or French onion or even a cheese dip would be good.

Avocado Fries

Avocado Fries are baked, crunchy and delicious, and perfect as a side dish or snack.

Author: Stacey

Recipe type: side dish or snack

Ingredients

• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1¼ cups Italian Style bread crumbs
• 2 firm-ripe medium avocados, pitted, peeled, and sliced into ½-in. wedges

  Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Put flour in one bowl, eggs in another bowl, and panko in another bowl
3. Coat avocado slices in the flour, then eggs, then panko
4. Spread on a cooling rack that has been sprayed with non-stick spray
5. Place cooling rack on a cookie sheet
6. Spray the top of the wedges with olive oil or butter flavored cooking spray and sprinkle with salt
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown

 

 

The second treat we had to sample was crispy turnip fries.  Those were also a hit.  I'm putting the recipe here, it came from allrecipes.com originally.  Disclaimer here, while they are very tasty. I wouldn't describe them as crispy.  They don't get crunchy like you think of fries being, but they are very good to eat.  Much better when served hot.

 

Crispy Turnip Fries

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 8 servings

• 3 pounds turnips
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil and lightly grease.
2. Peel the turnips, and cut into French fry-sized sticks, about 1/3 by 4 inches. Place into a large bowl, and toss with the vegetable oil to coat. Place the Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, paprika, onion powder in a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Place the oiled turnips into the bag, and shake until evenly coated with the spices. Spread out onto the prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven until the outside is crispy, and the inside is tender, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

The last recipe was roasted Kobacha squash.  The recipe calls for salt and pepper on it, but I love my squash with a little brown sugar on it, so I made it both ways.  Both were a hit as well.  This is another recipe that I found on another blog.  Here is the link to their blog.

She also has some beautiful pictures of the steps.  Feel free to go to her blog for the step by step pictures.

 

Roasted Kabocha squash

1 medium kabocha squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

I preheated the oven to 400 F, rinsed the squash under running water, and dried it.

Like all winter squash, kabocha takes a sharp knife and a bit of brute force to cut up. I’ve found that the best way to attack it is to cut off the top and the bottom. I scooped out the seeds and cut the squash into thin wedges. Next, I tossed the squash with the olive oil and seasoned the slices with salt and pepper. I put the squash in a single layer on a foil-lined baking tray and popped it in the oven.

I roasted the squash for 30 minutes, flipping them over at the midpoint. The wedges are ready to eat when they’re slightly crunchy on the outside and fluffy and soft on the inside.

I also used brown sugar on some of them instead of the salt and pepper. I just sprinkled the brown sugar over the squash.  I found it baked a little bit better when I put it on a wire cooling rack on top of the cookie sheet.

 

Now I know you are wondering what was the recipe that we made that cost less than a dollar a serving.  The answer would be a chicken pot pie.  All made from scratch.  This recipe incorporated two other recipes to complete.  I started by boiling up the chicken with a few vegetables tossed in. 

 

The first recipe was a pie crust that doesn't require rolling out.  This pie crust can be used for any type of pie, and you can just put it together and press it into a pan.  This pie crust is pretty simple, but when measuring the flour and oil and water, if the flour is packed down in the measuring cup, you might need another tablespoon or so of water or oil. We made a double recipe because this recipe is for a single crust pie and we wanted a crust for the top of our pot pie.

 

Easy Pie Crust

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 c vegetable oil

2 T water

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt. Stir in oil and water. Mix until combined. Then form it into a ball.  Spray your pie pan with nonstick cooking spray. Put the ball of dough in the middle of your pie dish.  And start pushing down on your ball of dough and begin spreading it towards the sides.  Do as best as you can to evenly pull it up the sides too so you can crimp it at the top edge.  You can even get in there with your knuckles if you need to.  Make sure you also press down into the bottom rim of the pan to spread out the dough so it's not too thick.  And then you can start to go around and crimp the top edges of the crust.  Remember this does not have to be perfect. It's a bottom only pie crust.  It's rustic and it's homemade. It should look that way.  Once it's ready, fill with your favorite filing and bake according to your pies's directions.  If you are using this crust in a recipe that calls for a pre-baked pie crust. Before baking, just make sure you use a fork and prick lots of little holes all over the crust.  This will keep the crust from puffing up too much while baking.

 

Just put this in your pan.  We used 8 inch round pans for our pies.

 

The next recipe is for the cream soup that is the sauce in our pot pies.  I love this recipe and I found it here.   I make this recipe up in bulk and freeze it to use in casseroles all the time.  I keep it on hand so that I have it whenever I need it.  For the class, I used leg quarters and put a sliced onion, a couple of carrots and a couple of stalks of celery in my stock pot and filled it up with water and cooked them up.  That is the broth I used to make the cream soup for the sauce.  Usually, when I make broth, I strain out those veggies, but since we were using those same veggies in our pot pies, I left them in the pot when I made up the soup.  However, I had a fair amount of the soup left over and decided to run it through the blender to blend up those veggies so as to not have chunks of veggies in my other casseroles when I use the remainder of the soup.  It turned out beautiful. 

 

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

 

• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (or less; taste to test)
• 1/4 teaspoon parsley
• dash of paprika
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup flour

1. In medium-sized saucepan, boil chicken broth, 1/2 cup of the milk, and the seasonings for a minute or two (longer if using fresh onions or garlic).
2. In a bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour. Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens.

*This yields about two cans of condensed Cream of Chicken soup.

 

Chicken Pot Pie

4 Servings

2 cooked chicken leg quarters remove meat and cut into bite sized pieces

3-4 potatoes peeled and cubed

2-3 carrots peeled and cubed

1 small onion diced

1 stick of celery chopped fine

1 small can peas or 1/2 cup frozen peas

2 recipes pie crust

1/2 recipe of cream soup

I began by cooking the chicken leg quarters as stated above the cream soup.  I used that broth to make the cream soup. Once chicken is cooked, cool and remove from the bone. Place veggies into a pot and cover with water add salt to taste and cook until tender.  Put one recipe of pie crust into pan.  Drain cooked veggies and mix in chicken meat.  Mix in 1/2 recipe of cream soup and pour into pie crust.  Use remaining pie crust and either sprinkle on top or pat out small rounds of the pie crust between your hands and place on top.  Bake at 350 45-60 minutes until crust is golden brown.  (It would be best to place pan on a cookie sheet to avoid drips in your oven.)  I frequently make these up and freeze.  If cooking from frozen, add about 30 minutes to the cook time.  I put these in a 8 inch square baking pan and place in a ziplock freezer bag. Be sure you put the directions on the bag. 

 

The Plan for Next Month

 

Next month I'm going to take desserts in for taste testing.  I'm going to take in an avocado chocolate pudding, a garbanzo bean flourless chocolate cake and maybe the garbanzo bean chocolate chip cookie dough or some roasted garbanzo beans in a variety of flavors. Next month we are making homemade cleaners and talking about menu planning and shopping lists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April Cooking Class Ministry

Today was the first class in the new cooking class ministry at our church.  The plan for this class is to teach people to prepare meals that cost around $1.00 per serving. We started off small today with just one participant, but had a good time preparing a meal that she was able to take home to feed her family tonight. The recipe I chose for this class was extremely simple to prepare.  I usually make it and make two of them one to eat one and one to put in the freezer.  This recipe will make two casseroles that serve four people each.  This is a recipe that I made up on my own.  It's something that includes items that are given out at the food pantry.

This first recipe can be prepared for $1.22 per serving. Some of the other recipes are a little lower cost.

Penne pasta with Sausage

 

 

1 pound sausage or three Italian brats ( I like the turkey brats less fat.)

1 pound box penne pasta (can be made with any shaped pasta I also use bowtie and rotini)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 cup shredded cheese of choice

 

Brown sausage  (if using brats remove from casing and brown). When sausage is browned add diced tomatoes and allow to simmer until some of the juice cooks off of it. Cook pasta al dente and drain water.  Combine pasta and sausage mixture and place in pan. I usually use a 9 inch square pan which will fit in a gallon ziplock bag. Divide pasta mixture between two pans.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Place in ziplock freezer bags and freeze. When cooking from frozen, bake at 350 for 60 minutes. If you don't want to freeze it, bake until cheese is brown on top. I usually just toss it under the broiler for about 5 minutes and it comes out nice  If you refrigerate it will probably have to cook about 30 minutes or so heat through and brown the cheese on top.

This recipe had a cost of $1.22 per serving.

 

 

 

I also gave out two recipes for rice casseroles at the class. These are the recipes I shared today along with the one we made together. These recipes are also designed to make two pans with four servings a piece.

 

Sausage and Rice Casserole

 

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup (I make my own cream soup from this recipe and keep it frozen www.stacymakescents.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup I just use one of these and add in some mushrooms. The recipe makes about 2 cans worth of soup)

4 cups rice cooked (I cook brown rice in my rice cooker and it makes four cups at a time.)

1 pound sausage

1 small onion diced

 

Brown sausage and mix with cooked rice, onion and soups. Put into pans and place in ziplock bags.  Bake at 350 for 60 minutes.  If not freezing and just baking it bake about 30 minutes.

 

This recipe comes out to $1.00 per serving with store bought canned soup.  Using the homemade version cuts the cost.

 

 

 

Chow Mein Noodle Casserole

 

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup (I use my homemade version from above)

1/4 cup soy sauce

4 cups rice cooked

1 pound ground beef
1 onion diced

1 cup chow mein noodles

 

Brown ground beef. Mix together the soups and the soy sauce.  Mix ground beef and rice with soup mixture and pour into pans. Place in ziplock bags. When ready to bake put 1/2 cup chow mein noodles on top. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes. If not freezing bake about 30 minutes.

 

Don't forget to label your ziplock bags with the name and directions for preparation. It will save you time later. I like to put some of these in the freezer and on days when I don't want to cook or don't have time, I only have to pull the casserole out and stick it in the oven.  Meal done in an hour. 



 

This comes out to $1.10 per serving with store bought canned soup, using the homemade soup will cut the cost.

 

These costs were figured buying the meat in the grocery store in bulk when it is on sale.  (I never buy meat full price) I usually buy my meat in bulk from the local meat packing place, when I buy it that way, these costs are even lower.  We usually buy half a cow or hog at a time.  I'm fortunate that the  local place buys from local farmers and while the meat is not necessarily organic, the local farmers tend to feed their animals less hormones etc.  They also allow me to rent a locker.  The locker rent is $15.00 a quarter, which I have yet to be billed for.  (We've been buying our meat there for at least 4 years) I calculate that an extra freezer would cost me more than $15.00 for three months for electricity. It makes it easy.  When I need meat I call and tell them what cuts I want from my locker and they have it bagged and ready for me when I get there to pick it up.  In addition, the meat is much leaner than what I find in the stores.  Even the ground beef is lean.  I usually have to put some sort of oil in the skillet to keep it from sticking to the skillet. I live in Indiana so prices will vary from one region to the next.

 

 





 

 



 

Super Bowl Sunday Projects

This day didn't start out so good, I woke up with the same headache I went to bed with last night. Spent the better part of the day laying around and reading a book.  By late afternoon, I finally felt like doing something.  I have several projects that I have wanted to try and decided to start by convincing James to help me with making some refrigerator dough to make cinnamon rolls and various things this coming week. Then decided to make some Cool Ranch Doritos. I came across a recipe for them recently on this blog http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2012/03/24/homemade-cool-ranch-doritos/  I decided not to start with making my own corn tortillas, as my shoulder still doesn't like rolling out things with a rolling pin. I cheated and went to the Mexican grocery and bought a bag of 60 for $1.99.  While I'm sure I could have made them for less, the pain just wasn't worth it.  I also revised the recipe a bit as I didn't want to buy the white cheddar Mac N Cheese.  I considered my options and decided that the white cheddar popcorn topping would work. So here is my revised recipe.  I'd take a picture of the results and post, but unfortunately, they were eaten as fast as I could take them out of the oven and coat them.  I don't think they even had a chance to cool off. So, maybe they should be called warm ranch doritos. 

Here's my recipe:

Cool Ranch Doritos

I took a stack of tortillas not quite a third of the bag and sprayed the top of each with cooking spray and stacked them in a pile. I cut them into 6 pieces. I spread them on a cookie sheet and baked about 13 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Watching for them to turn just slightly golden.  It's a fine line.  If you cook them too long they are overcooked, but if you don't wait until they are getting golden, then they will be a bit chewy in the middles. When they came out of the oven, I put them in a bowl and put more tortillas on the cookies sheet to bake.  That gave them about 5 minutes to cool a bit. I then sprayed the chips just slightly with cooking spray and put into a ziplock bag with about 2 tsp of seasoning mix. 

Seasoning Mix

4 tsp Ranch dressing mix
4 tsp white cheddar popcorn topping
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder

I shook them in the seasoning and poured back out into the bowl.  I just did one cookie sheet at a time and most of mine didn't even make it to the cool stage. Definitely a hit in our house.  The first batch I didn't spray with cooking spray before I coated them and they only had a very little of the seasoning stick.  Definitely worked better with a little cooking spray to help coat them. I didn't use all the seasoning mix, so I'll just store it for the next batch.

While I'm posting I'll put my mom's refrigerator roll dough here too.  This dough is awesome and it comes from  Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from the 1960s.  I put this together in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook.  It makes good rolls, or cinnamon rolls or just a loaf of bread.

Refrigerator Rolls

2 pkg. yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

2 c. milk scalded

2/3 cup shortening melted

¾ c. sugar

4 tsp salt

2 eggs beaten

10-11 c. flour

 Mix together 1^st three ingredients and let set about 10 minutes and rise. Scald milk and add shortening, sugar and salt and eggs. Mix in flour until the dough has an elastic consistency and forms a ball. Let set for 10 minutes.  Punch down and place in refrigerator. Use to make rolls or loaves.  Can store in refrigerator up to a week.  When you use, shape into desired shape and place in pan. Let rise until double and bake at 350 for approximately 23-30 minutes, until golden brown on top.

 

Freezer Cooking Recipes

Here are the most recent recipes I have put into the freezer complete with a picture. My hubby loves Banquet fried chicken, he will settle for Aldi's brand fried chicken, but since our budget has been so drastically cut, he has to make do with mine. (Which he likes, but he hates for me to have to take the time to make it for him.) Today I put a batch of fried chicken in the freezer.  Here is my recipe.

 

Fried Chicken

1 cup Drake's breading mix
1 cup Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
10 lb. bag of chicken leg quarters.

Preheat oven to 350. Cut the leg quarters into thighs and legs. Cut off any excess skin and fat and save for broth making. Mix together flour, Drake's and seasoning. Coat chicken with flour mix and fry in small amount of oil in skillet.  Fry until the skin is a little crispy and just starting to brown.  Place in a baking pan and put into oven. Try not to have edges touching. Bake in 350 oven for about 90 minutes, until chicken is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.  Carefully remove from pan keeping skin intact and place on a cookie sheet.  Make sure edges are not touching.  Place cookie sheet into freezer and freeze overnight. Remove cookie chicken and put into a freezer ziplock bag. To eat, just place one or two pieces in the microwave and cook on high for 2-3 minutes, or place into  350 oven until warmed through.

Chicken Nuggets

1/4 cup Drake's breading mix
1/4 cup flour

Ok1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 egg beaten
4 chicken breasts

Cut chicken breast into nugget size pieces. Mix together Drake's, flour breadcrumbs and seasoning.  Put nugget pieces into egg, then coat with breadcrumb mixture. Fry in small amount of oil until chicken is cooked through and nuggets are golden brown.  Place on cookie sheet with edges not touching. Place cookie sheet in freezer and freeze.  Once frozen, put chicken nuggets into freezer ziplock bag. To eat, place number of chicken nuggets desired and microwave on high  or bake in oven on 350 until heated through.

Ok, so my picture taking leaves something to be desired, but these are the recipes of the day.  Hopefully, my photography will improve as I share more.

My Latest Project

I have taken on a new project.  While I have been going to the food pantries during the time I have been off work and trying to make ends meet on very little, I have thought about and/or noticed some things.  First I have noticed the types of people that come to the food pantries.  I have sat and talked with some of them while I waited to pick up food. I've met some people that I have talked to several times at the various pantries.  I have also heard what they have to say about the food stamp system and how the benefits have recently been cut.  I have seen first hand the items that you receive in these places.  While it is definitely helpful to get the additional food, it also is very lacking in the types of food that they give out if you are trying to piece together meals, solely from what you receive at the pantries.  There have been three pantries that we have gone to, and they give out different types of food at each of the three pantries.  There is a little overlap, but mostly, the concentration of food is different at each of the pantries.  I have also watched people use food stamps in the stores over the years. I frequently see these people purchasing mostly prepackaged or prepared foods that are more expensive and less healthy for them.  These observations lead me to believe that some of these people could benefit from classes that show them how to use their resources to make the healthiest and least expensive meals possible with the items they receive. 

Over the last couple of years, even prior to my accident, I have felt a calling to help feed the hungry people in our area.  I have thought about different avenues that could be used to do this and I have come to the conclusion, that offering classes that show people inexpensive ways to cook and/or use the items that are frequently given out at the food pantries is a good idea.  I thought about just doing classes about food, but over the last several months, I have started making most of my own cleaners, and many of the ingredients in those cleaners can be purchased using food stamps, which allows people to not only obtain food, but cleaning supplies as well from their food stamps.  To me this opens up an area that would help to save money for people that have very limited resources.  I am currently developing a plan to help teach people about bargain/coupon shopping, meal planning, inexpensive meals (including freezer cooking and crockpot cooking) and homemade cleaners.  I'm trying to develop a program, where we might provide the ingredients and people would be able to come and take from the class, a meal for their family, or cleaners to use in their home along with ideas about bargain shopping and coupon use.  If this idea takes off, over the next several months, I will be posting the recipes along with the cost breakdown of my recipes and hopefully, pictures of these recipes on my blog.  I will also update and post my meal plans and hopefully, I can give costs for each of the meals that I have on the menu.  While I usually purchase most of my meat through a meat packing company, I will also try and have costs if the meat were purchased in the store.  Of course, sale shopping will help reduce those costs. 

I'm hoping that by doing this, I can help others rather they are in my classes, or just following along online.  I think this is what God has called me to do, and it may be part of the reason that I am currently experiencing this situation.  Hopefully, I can use this to help other people that may be in this same type of situation.  Prior to this accident, I had no idea how or where to find help in our community.  Now I have a much better grasp of the assistance that is out there.  Hopefully, I can use some of this newfound knowledge to help others.

Recipes and Snow

Today is a snow day.  That means that we won't even leave the house.  It snowed yesterday and for once the weather forecasters were right.  We got a fair amount of snow and the temperature plummeted from 30 yesterday to -11 this morning.  As I look out my window I see everything white and the snow igloo Jim and Carolena were working on before the temperature dropped to low to make it stick together.  Hopefully, they will be able to finish it this week. 

I was sure that I had posted the recipes for a couple of my New Year's Eve menu items, but as I looked at that post today I realize I somehow didn't get them posted.  Not sure where they went as I know I typed them out.  So, I'm going to include them here.  I was hoping to take pictures, but they all got eaten, so that didn't happen.  Here are the recipes:

Egg Rolls
1 pkg wonton wrappers
1 lb. sausage
1 small head of cabbage
1 can mushrooms
1 small onion
1 can water chesnuts
3 T soy sauce
3 T corn starch
1/3 cup water

Brown sausage.  While sausage is cooking chop up cabbage like for cole slaw. I used my little Ninja food processor.  I also chopped up the mushrooms, onion and water chestnuts in the Ninja.  When sausage is cooked, add chopped items to skillet.  Allow the cabbage to cook until a little soft.  Combine soy sauce, water and corn starch and pour over mixture stirring to thicken.  Remove from heat and let cool.  When mixture is cool roll up in egg roll wrappers or wonton wrappers.  For our party, I use the wonton wrappers and make small egg rolls, but you could make regular size egg rolls as well.  For the wonton wrappers place about a teaspoon of filling in the center and fold the wrapper up like an envelope sealing sides on three sides, then roll it over the open side again using water to seal the edge.  Fry in hot oil until golden brown. You can serve with sweet and sour, duck sauce or a hot mustard sauce.

The other recipe I was going to provide was my recipe for cheese puffs.  This recipe I adapted from a cookbook. I think the original recipe started with feta cheese, but I have adapted it to use other shredded cheese.

Cheese Puffs
1 pkg phyllo dough
1 stick butter
2 cups grated cheese of choice I use mozzarella, Colby jack or cheddar (not mixed)

These amounts are approximate, you may need a little more or less cheese and butter to do the entire roll of phyllo dough.  I open one of the inner pkgs of phyllo dough and be careful to keep the part you aren't working with covered with a dishcloth so it doesn't dry out. Unroll phyllo dough and cut a strip off the short side about 2 inches wide.  Roll remaining dough up and cover.  Take a spoonful of cheese and place on the one end of the strip of phyllo dough. Pick up about 3 sheets and fold the dough into a triangle end over end (like folding a flag) until you reach the end of the strip.  This will close off the edges.  Dip into melted butter and place on baking sheet. (If you want less butter, you can just put them on the baking sheet and then brush them with butter. I just find this easier in the long run) Continue until you finish all the sheets in the stack.  (These are pretty forgiving if you get 4 sheets, no big deal.) When you finish the stack cut another strip and continue until you have used up the entire roll of phyllo dough.  Place baking sheet into 350 oven and bake until golden brown.  The cheese may ooze out of the corners a bit. 

My family loves both these recipes and these are things I generally make only the one time each year.

So, what did I come up with for goals? I know you are asking, but I haven't finalized my goals yet.  I will be doing that this week.  The snow days have altered my plans slightly.  Carolena is out of school today and tomorrow still and I have to finish up the one course I'm taking for my master's program this week. So, hopefully, I will get to finish up my goals this week. I'm not in a rush as I have the entire year to work on these goals.  I don't think there will be any playing in the snow with wind chills at around -40 not really a safe thing to do.  But hopefully, later in the week, we will have weather that allows for snow play.  Today I'm just going to stay inside and stay warm and  work on dishes.  Nothing exciting there.  Maybe make up another batch of cocoa.  I thought I had published this earlier, but realized when I went in today to do the next post that I had failed to publish it. 

A New Year's Eve Party

What do you do for New Year's Eve?  Several years ago, we started a little New Year's Eve party that has blossomed into an annual tradition.  Even last year we had our little party after I worked a 12 hour day. Every year our menu varies just a little bit, but we have some staple items that are requested every year.  Most of these foods are things that we only eat the one time a year.  The standard fare that never changes on New Year's Eve is small eggrolls, and cheese puffs.  The eggrolls are easy to do and the cheese puffs are a recipe I adapted from a cookbook to suit my purpose.  Along with these foods, this year our menu is as follows.

1. eggrolls
2. cheese puffs
3. hot cheese dip
4. old English cheese dip
5. buttery swiss cheese ball
6. pizza rolls
7. homemade fried mozzarella sticks
8. fried ravioli
9. ring bologna and cheese slices with crackers
10. spinach dip in Hawaiian bread
11. hot chicken salad on Hawaiian rolls
12. Crab Rangoon

This party just includes the family.  Over the last several years I've had teenagers in the house, and we worked together on the food.  This year, we just have Carolena in the house, but we are getting her little brother Derrick for our party.  I imagine we'll watch some old movies and the kids will probably play with their dress up clothes they got for Christmas.  It should be a fun night.

Goals for the new year.

Well, it's that time again.  Every year I try and write goals for the following year.  Last year, life was so busy that I never really got around to writing my goals. Maybe that's part of why it seemed so chaotic all year.  I can definitely say if you had told me I would be working on my Master's by the end of the year, I would have told you that you were totally out of your mind.  But here I am almost a month into the Master's program.  We just never really know what life has in store for us.  Thank God that he does. I know I could never have survived this past year without that knowledge.  So, I'm ready to start working on my goals for this next year.  I start by breaking down the different areas of my life.  What things would I like to accomplish in each of these areas?  First and foremost, I want to draw closer to God.  I know with the addition of school, my time will be more limited than it has in the past.  But I definitely want to find a way to increase the time I spend communing with my heavenly father.  I have a couple of new apps that give me the Bible in a whole new format.  I may switch to one of these tools away from my hardcopy book.  Even though I prefer reading from an actual book, being able to take my Bible along will make it easier for me to spend time in the Word wherever I may be.  I plan to find a good devotion app that I can use on a daily basis, and while I started reading through the bible this past year, I have not gotten all the way through it, so I will continue with that program throughout this new year.  When I write my goals, I usually try to break them down into steps to help get the habits engrained in my routine.  That way I can accomplish my larger goals.  I build in rewards as I go for making those small steps towards those goals.

Another goal I will be working on this year again, will be weight loss.  I definitely need to work on this as over this past year I was diagnosed with diabetes, so getting more weight off can only help my control of the diabetes.  I don't really have a plan for how this weight will come off as last year, I started the program that has worked better for me than any other, but during this past year, they closed their doors.  While this program worked the best for me, I will have to find another way to accomplish the weight loss.  I would like to say that by the end of the year I will be at goal weight, but that would truly be unrealistic, so I will break it down into manageable chunks to be able to attain my goal.  And along the way I will build in rewards for accomplishing those steps.  So, for my weight loss goal I would like to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year.  In order to do that, I will have to get better at logging my food intake and increasing my exercise.  So, by the end of January, I will be consistently logging my food into a food diary.  Again, I have an app that I can use for that, so I will start logging everything I eat again.  Another step that I need to take there is eating more frequent meals consistently.  Not only will that help with my weight loss, it will make huge gains for my diabetes to be able to do that.  It is a circle because the low blood sugar contributes to the weight gain by allowing my body to think it is in starvation mode.  So, by the end of January, I want to be consistently eating three meals a day with 2 snacks.  If I can accomplish this goal, I will order myself a new stamp set.

My other goals will include financial goals.  One of my biggest goals this year, will include adapting to my reduced budget, as well as trying to save some money for Christmas next year.  I have already started a program there of trying to save money over a 52 week period to have the money for the Christmas presents next year. In addition, I am going to make more gifts this next year, as those I made this last year were definitely a hit.  I would like to start saving for an emergency fund.  I'm not sure I will be able to accomplish that while the budget is so severely limited, but I am going to give it a good effort.

I will include some goals on where I would like to be with the remodeling of the house.  As well as some goals relating to developing better organizational skills and routines that help me keep things less cluttered and increases the comfort level of my home.  This will involve doing some major reorganization and decluttering.  I definitely will have some goals to help me reclaim my craft room over the next few months.  I need to have a place to work on my school away from the family.  In addition, I will have some goals that pertain to how much time I spend working on school work.  In order for these goals to get accomplished, I will actually plan time in my calendar for these things.  I also write up goals for me time. One of the things I have difficulty with is taking time for myself to just relax and do things that I enjoy.  I find it hard to take me time when there seems to be so many other things that need to be done in my house.  So, I actually have to build that into my schedule and set some goals to get me on track.  I feel good about writing my goals this year. I feel like I've been wandering in the dark this last year without any set goals.  I put these goals in several places.  I will put them into my electronic devices where I can look at them from time to time, and I will print them off and put them in my control journal where I keep my routines so that I can look at them there as well. 

Will I accomplish all my goals for the year?  Probably not, but if I am moving in the right general direction, then that is what is important.  These goals are not an all or none proposition.  They are just guidelines where I want to go.  If I don't reach all these goals this year, then I can revisit them and include some of them again next year.  But the biggest things will be developing the habits that move me in the direction of my goals.  I find this activity is better than writing resolutions, that expect me to make changes overnight.  That is never a realistic view.  It takes approximately a month to develop a habit and make it stick, so expecting to make an overnight change sets us up for failure.  I hope this post helps people see how to go about goal setting.  I will put some of my goals up when I finish developing them along with the steps I need to take to get myself to the goal.  But we have to continually reevaluate our goals and see if they are still something important to us and the progress we are making towards them.  I will post a few examples of my goals after the first of the year.

December In the Craft Room

December has been an interesting month. We celebrated Christmas in a whole different way this year.  We usually have income to buy most of our Christmas presents, but this year, we had to do things a little differently due to decreased funds.  While I've been continuing with my physical therapy, I'm still not able to go back to work. We were approved for some government assistance, we were able to get 54.00 in SNAP assistance.  This makes life interesting to plan our meals.  We received a letter right before Christmas that that amount will decrease to 104.00 as they are somehow not allowing my husband's medical expenses.  I'm planning to appeal that decision, but we'll see where that goes.  Fortunately, we have gotten other assistance besides going to the food pantries.  After the last experience at the mobile food pantry, we were unable to go on there the last time they came to the area.  They are not going to be coming to our area as often as they had been in the new year.  We did go to the other two local food pantries, but I noticed that the amount of meat these pantries are able to give out have decreased significantly.  We will figure out a way to make do.  I'm working on new recipes to use some of the items that we would not normally purchase that have been given to us.  We did get some assistance for Christmas from Community Partners that took me shopping at Aldis on two separate occasions with 100.00 to spend.  That has helped us considerably.  in addition, some secret Santa donated money and our local grocery store delivered approximately 200-250.00 in groceries about 3 weeks ago. The food that they delivered was nice in that they brought a fair amount of meat and even some little extra things that I haven't been purchasing on our severely limited budget.  We also applied for a program for Carolena to have Christmas presents called the Reindear program, and they provided her with a digital Barbie, several outfits, a couple of pairs of pajamas, a pair of shoes and a pair of snow boots.  In addition, the local fund provided us with a large box of canned goods and a 30.00 gift certificate for our local grocery store to purchase meat.  These donations, helped to restock my severely depleted stores of food.

For the items that I gave for Christmas this year, we only gave gifts to our children and grandchildren.  My children received some of my home canned foods, such as apple butter, strawberry preserves, and blueberry butter, along with some canned apple pie filling, turkey broth and canned turkey.  I also made up some spice mixes for them. I worked on cookbooks for the boys, but my printer decided not to work when I was ready to print, so I have to print those cookbook pages out and put together the cookbooks.  For the grandchildren, we shopped at places like Goodwill this year.  We were able to get a walking dragon and some trucks for Derrick.  Carolena got some movies from Goodwill and they both got a suitcase of clothes for dress up play.  After everything was opened, both kids played first with their suitcase of dress up clothes.  Some of these clothes I purchased at Goodwill and out mission outlet thrift store, and others I got at a local clothes closet, that give out clothing.  I had a couple of projects that I wanted to get done for the kids, that didn't get finished up, but I will finish those up here in the next couple of weeks anyway.  I just gave them as they were for the time being.  Carolena will enjoy helping me to remake some of the things to play with. Overall, I spent very little money on Christmas presents.  Although, with the added driving we have had to do, this will be an interesting week as we are down to nearly no money left until Jim's disability check hits the bank on the first of January.  Our activities will be severely limited, but we will manage.  I will post some of the before and after pictures of our projects as we complete them.  This next week I will be writing out goals for the new year.  These goals will be interesting.

I also started working on classes for my Master's program.  I decided that I needed to do that in order to have a chance at getting a job teaching.  So, to add to the busyness of the holiday season, I started classes on December 2nd. This didn't help me with getting everything I needed to do for the holidays done, but I felt it was necessary to help with having an income again. 

This next week, I will be posting information on my next menu plan along with recipes and I will be doing a post on goal setting.  Every year, I set goals in various areas of my life.  I try and look at the different areas of my life and set goals, which I also break down into smaller steps to make them less overwhelming when I'm trying work towards those goals.  I'll post how I go about that process and set up rewards along the way to help me achieve those goals.  I'll post some pictures of our Christmas.  I'll also be posting some pictures of how the house is coming along.  Jim and I spent the day of our anniversary window shopping for colors for our bedroom/bathroom suite.  We are trying to make a small retreat for ourselves so that we have a nice relaxing place to spend time.  The drywall is mostly up in our bedroom, and we are the stage of mudding and taping.  Soon to be followed by painting.  We have also looked at ideas for flooring and think we will be trying a new technique  for flooring, that will be much less expensive than the hardwood flooring we would like in their.  If it works and we like it we will be using it in other areas.  If not, it will at least have the floor mostly prepped for putting the hardwood flooring down at a later time when our finances improve.  We picked out the colors we want and were given a comforter with those colors for Christmas.  So, I'm ready to start painting and move in.  I'll be putting together pictures to post here soon of our space.

Our Family Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house for a meal with my parents, my brother and his family, and my uncle Billie and his wife.  We enjoyed a nice meal that my mom prepared and spent time visiting with the family.  I hadn't been able to visit with my Aunt and Uncle for some time, so it was nice to catch up a little with them.  They are also raising grandchildren.  They have a daughter that lives with them off and on along with her four children.  One of the grandchildren is currently in the hospital with a rare condition.  They diagnosed him this week with pheochromocytoma, which is a rare tumor of the adrenal gland that secretes epinephrine.  They are currently stabilizing his blood pressure and will eventually be looking at removing the tumor.  My Aunt and Uncle live on an extremely limited income and my Aunt and I compared notes a little and discussed various recipes for use on a low income budget.  One of the foods that I have noticed we receive consistently when we go to the food pantries is canned spinach.  I decided to find some ways to be able to use my canned spinach.  Unfortunately, canned spinach is not very appetizing to me, but last week I took a can of spinach, a pound of ground beef and a small container of cottage cheese.  I mixed that together and stuffed some large pasta shells with the mixture.  I portioned out the shells for meals and froze them.  I was able to stuff 39 shells with that amount of mixture, for us that translates into 3 meals.  Later in the week, I prepared one of those meals by placing the shells in a baking dish and covering them with a jar of alfredo sauce.  I covered with aluminum foil and baked for an hour then added some cheese and baked uncovered for another 30 minutes.  I did not cook my shells in advance, because I thought they would be easier to work with when I was stuffing them. By making sure all the shells had sauce on them, and covering them to cook for the first hour, the shells were fully cooked.  I am also thinking that I will put some of the spinach into some lasagna.  In the meantime, we still have two meals of stuffed shells in the freezer for future meals.  I shared this recipe with my Aunt, who had no idea what she was going to do with a can of spinach she had on the shelf. 

I was also able to search online and tell my Aunt where the next mobile food pantry was going to be in her area.  They recently moved and she didn't know where in that area the mobile food pantry stopped.  I was able to locate on food-finders.org the schedule for the mobile food pantry, and there will be one coming to her area this coming Friday.  I can see as I go through this journey, how I am able to identify resources that I never even knew existed.  I'm hoping that familiarizing myself with the resources, will not only help us to get by until I am able to work again, but that I can develop a list of resources that I might refer others to for help.  I have to give a little credit though for the people that have been helping guide me on this journey.  We have hooked up with an organization called Community Partners and these people have access to and can identify all the resources available in our area that might be able to assist us as we need help.  Without these people, this journey could be rough enough to make someone want to just give up.  I am finding that navigating through these resources is not the easiest.  Having someone that knows how the systems work to give me the information that is available and to help me know what to expect and when I should be questioning things has been invaluable. 

Today I spent some time looking at ideas that I might make gifts or repurpose items for gifts for the kids.  I'm planning to use up some of my material stores and make some dress up clothes for Carolena and maybe even Derrick.  I saw a few good ideas that would be very simple to make and I'm going to work on some of those this week.  I'm going to also put together a basket for the kids that has some of my apple butter, strawberry jelly and some blueberry butter I'm planning to make later this week.  Most of the gifts under our tree this year are going to be homemade.  It's the only way I will be able to afford Christmas.  Tomorrow I'm going to the thrift shop and see if I can find some inexpensive beads and baubles to include with Carolena's dress up clothes for jewels. 

I intended to post this yesterday, but we ended up spending our day vegetating in front of the television watching the old Christmas specials.  It was a nice relaxing day.  Today, I'm preparing a turkey for our family as my mom didn't fix turkey at her dinner.  I'm not making it very elaborate, just a turkey, some basic sides and a little time spent with my son and his daughter.  The other kids weren't able to come.  I also received my text books for the journey I'm beginning, working on my Master's in Nursing.  I'm looking forward to opening those and starting my reading.  It's been a while since I've been in school, but I can actually say I'm looking forward to it. 

Thanksgiving From the Craft Room

I need to start this post by saying I never want anyone to think I am complaining about any of the help we get from the safety net organizations. I'm just going to share my experiences here. I am grateful for everything we have been given. We started this week by dropping Carolena off at school and going to the mobile food pantry on Monday morning. They ask people not to line up for this more than 15 minutes early, but the line was already about 15 or so when we got there at 7:45 and they didn't start passing out food until 10:00.  We got our spot in the line and waited for the doors to open. At  around 9:15  someome made a scene that people had moved her cart in the line. A few minutes later they opened the doors and instead of going down the line as was normal, they just let people flood in. The people were pushing and shoving their way in. So there was no semblance of a line. By the time we got a number we were number 40. We were then sent into the gym to wait our turn. Around 10:00 the line began to move. When we left at 11:00 we left with the followung foods to work with. A frozen jug of orange juice, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of corn, two boxes of granola bars, a box of cereal, a bag of fresh green beans, a bag of cranberries, an acorn squash, a package of english muffins, a bag of flat buns and a package of pecan tarts. There were a couple of times the people got upset with the woman that had earlier made a scene. We heard there were 500 people in the line this week. This is a small town. I can't imagine what it would be like in a city. This was the first really bad experience we have had with going to the food pantries. We will continue to go, but it saddened me to see how people were so rude and obnoxious with the workers. These people were trying to help, and yes they misjudged by not passing the numbers out in a little more orderly fashion, but at least they were trying. I was disappointed that there was no protein choices at this mobile pantry. Fortunately, prior to my accident we were well stocked so I should be able to work with these ingredients and make some meals with food we already have in our freezer and pantry.

Yesterday, I spent the day baking cookies to donate back for the Community Dinner that they are having tomorrow. Even though things are extremely tight for us, I wanted to try and give something back. I made four batches of cookies and two gluten free chocolste cakes I  was able to drop those off today and say to the people at one of the food pantries we've been going to, thank you for the help they have given us. The gluten free cake uses garbanzo beans which we have recieved an abundance of from the food pantry so it was nice to find a recipe that allows us to use these in a different way. I'm going to tweak these a bit and add a few nuts, but they make a great brownie like cake. When Carolena tried these she told me they were better than the other brownies I make. Tomorrow we are going to my parents' home for Thanksgiving with our family. I can honestly say that this year even though we are having a rough time financially, we have more to be thankful for than we have in some years past.  Over the next several posts.  I will talk about other sources of help we have had since we have moved back into the house. The surrounding communities have been helpful in providing us help to get our house back into a livable habitat.  I probably won't blog tomorrow as I plan to spend the day enjoying my time with family. But I should start back with posts on Friday. Will I be out Black Friday shopping? That would be a huge NO as I have no cash until Jim's disability comes in and at that point we will probably only have enough for the basics once again. But if we have the basics covered, I will praise God for that as even that didn't look possible a few weeks ago. Tomorrow I will be able to take the first step in the new chapter God is writing in our lives as I can start working on my online classes for my master's program. I'm not sure where God is leading me, but I trust he knows the way. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

My Blog Gets a New Twist

So a lot has changed since I last blogged. Once again, I'm hoping to get better at this "blog thing". Over this past year we have had our youngest child move out and although technically we should be "empty nesting" our nest still has our granddaughter Carolena living there.  During the summer we made the decision that we had no choice but to get the house that burned livable enough to move back in. Finding the money for repairs was impossible while paying rent, so we started working really hard and with help from Community Partners to get us a dumpster we were able to get things to a point where we could move back in to 3 rooms. I signed a weekend contract to increase our income and we were ready to begin major overhauling of the house. I worked one weekend and the following week I stepped into a furnace vent hole which I uncovered to clean. With that one step our lives changed dramatically. On August 5th I dislocated my shoulder and broke the trochanter where the muscles attach to the bone. For 6 weeks they wouldn't let me move my left arm. After 6 weeks I began physical therapy and at this point I can lift my arm barely over my head and still can not lift any weight. So, I have been unable to work since August 5th. As of today November 26th, my work has ended my leave of absence.  It looks like I will be looking for a new job. I have had several ups and downs with this dillemma. Some if which has occurred because I've been waiting to hear about my job. In the meantime I have signed up to begin a Master's program online so I have the option  of teaching which I should be able to do without full use of my left arm. Where is the money for school coming from? Only God knows. I'm taking a huge step of faith here believing He will show me the way.

During the last 4 months I have learned a lot on how to survive on a very low income. We have been down to my husband's disability income which is less than a fourth of our normal income. Fortunately, we have a very low debt load or we would not be able to survive. We have been learning to use the public assistance programs that are available and in future posts I will describe some of what we have experienced there. We have learned how to access some of the safety net organizations. I will expand on some of these things as I post in upcoming days. I will also share ideas I've come up with to use food that has been given to us at the local food pantries. It can be challenging. I recently downloaded a free app that can help with meal planning as well as generating grocery lists and inventory  of the ingredients you have on hand. I'm currently using the free version, but like it well enough I'm considering upgrading to the pro version for less than $4.00. I'll keep you posted there. My blog will still feature my craft projects, but will be expanded to include these other types of posts as well.

These last four months have given me time to reflect and return to doing some things I really enjoy. While I haven't been able to really do much of my crafting as my room still isn't usable and I can't lift and move things around. I've spent time getting back into canning and preserving. With my husband's help I can put things in jars to help decrease the work it takes to make a meal. I've also been able to save food that might have gone to waste for another meal. I definitely enjoy doing it. I'm looking forward to making and giving mostly homemade gifts this year as our budget has no room for store bought gifts. I will share this journey as we go so that hopefully it will help and/or inspire others to be able to do the same. I will also share some of what we have experienced in our remodeling projects which are quite interesting on a severely limited budget. I will go back through some of the happenings of the last couple months in my upcoming posts. Come along on this journey with me. Let's see where it takes us.

Life sometimes gets in the way. Another adult child

My baby turned 18 today.  So, now I have another adult child.  While he still lives in our house and is still in high school, it will be interesting to see what the next few months hold. 

We have gotten a little derailed from our menu plan this month.  Mostly because I haven't had time to get the things we needed to make the meals.  But now we are back on track.  I will be posting the next month's menu her in the next week or so, although it will have a slight disclaimer on it.  We won't have tried all the new recipes at that point.  I will be sure and let you know which recipes have been taste tested in our kitchen.  My goal for this weekend is to make up the remaining dishes that can be put together in advance.  I will edit the previous menu plan and let you know which casseroles I put into the freezer in advance to make my life easier.  I try to do that as often as I can, although I have to say here lately, I just haven't had the time.  I rarely do a full day in the kitchen to do this.  I usually just put an extra casserole in the freezer at the same time I put one in the oven.  (In other words, when I make something that does well in the freezer, I make two or three and put the extra one in the freezer) Some of the links I included in the original recipes were designed to put together and put in the freezer.  I love those meals because I don't have to work at them.  Keep an eye out here for more of those types of meals.  I have investigated the once a month cooking sites and use some of their ideas, but some of them are like cooking food and eating leftovers, and those recipes I don't particularly care for.  If I'm going to eat leftovers, then I mights just as well eat it when I cook it the first time and enjoy the flavor the first time.  I prefer to put casseroles that either get better by melding the flavors or items that are just prepped, but not fully cooked into the freezer. I find that pastas and rice casseroles do very well here.  I also enjoy making my own hot pockets, frozen pizzas, and breakfast foods (french toast sticks, pancakes, waffles etc.) for the freezer.  They keep really well, and save us a fortune, not to mention, they are much better for us, without preservatives.

My newest undertaking is making my own cleaners.  I have used various sites as well as friends for recipes for this.  I have been making floor cleaner, that does considerably better than anything we can buy in the store.  I have recently tried my hand at laundry detergent and fabric softener and am just getting ready to start using these new cleaners.  I'm looking forward to the savings I have as well as the fact that we are putting less chemicals out into our environment.  As I use these, I will critique them here and share the links to the recipes I used.  I'm definitely getting the spring cleaning bug feeling, so I am hoping to put these cleaners to rigorous testing here in the next several weeks.  I'll post my results. 

Recipes for Menu Plan Month 1

Salisbury Steak Casserole

1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Cream of Celery Soup
Press hamburger in the bottom of a baking dish. Mix together soup mix and canned soup plus 1 can water and pour over soup.  Bake on 350 for 30 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Chicken Alfredo Pasta

2 chicken breasts cubed
2 zuchini cubed
2 yellow squash cubed
1 box penne pasta
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Brown chicken in skillet. Cook pasta according to directions. Saute squash and zuchini.  Toss all together with alfredo sauce.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese over top and serve.

Chow Mein Noodle Casserole

2 cups Brown Rice cooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 onion diced
1 package chow mein noodles
Brown ground beef and onion. Mix with rice. Mix soy sauce and cream of mushroom soup together and mix into rice mixture.  Top with some chow mein noodles and bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Sticky Chicken

see link http://organizedhome.com/recipes/freezer-cooking/sticky-chicken
This is a freezer recipe, but can be cooked instead of frozen.

Rice Casserole

1 lb. bulk sausage
2 cups brown rice cooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 onion diced
Brown sausage and onion. Mix with rice and soup.  Place in baking dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Can sprinkle with cheese on top last few minutes if desired.

Crockpot Pesto Chicken

1 jar pesto sauce
1 pkg. ranch dressing mix
1 box chicken broth
6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
Combine ingredients in crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve over noodles. (Note this is how the recipe was written I don’t remember where I found it, but I’m going to tweak this one, probably only a couple of tablespoons of pesto sauce would be more than sufficient for this recipe.)

Rubber Chicken

This is a Flylady website recipe. Here is the link. http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/control-journal/step-8/

Baked Tortellini

This is a recipe I tweaked from Pinterest.
1 pkg Tortellini cooked
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 pkg prosciutto ham
1 leek
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Slice leek and and cut ham into small pieces.  Saute  in a little butter.  Mix together cooked pasta, ham mixture, and alfredo sauce.  Put into a baking dish and top with parmesan cheese. Broil about 5 minutes, or until cheese is brown on top.

Crock Pot No Time to Cook Chicken

This came from allrecipes.com.  Here is the link.http://allrecipes.com/recipe/no-time-to-cook-chicken/detail.aspx

Creamy White Chili

This came from allrecipes.com Here is the link http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-white-chili/detail.aspx

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

This came from allrecipes.com. Here is the link http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-chicken-stroganoff/detail.aspx

Those are the recipes for the first month of menus.  I’ll post the next month of menu plans when we have tested all the new recipes on it.