Menu Plan....

Welcome to another MENU PLAN MONDAY!

(Lemon Zest Wheat Cookies)

BREAKFASTS: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes (from the freezer) with Peanut Butter-Honey Syrup, English Muffins (from the fridge) with homemade jelly and applesauce, oatmeal

SATURDAY:
-eggs, homemade applesauce, toasted breakfast bread with homemade jelly
-hoagies
Snacks: almonds, heated chocolate milk

SUNDAY:
-Brandy's Chicken Enchiladas, Salad, 4 pepper Confetti
-Flatbread sandwiches, carrots and dip, ice cream
Snacks:popcorn, juiced apples, Refrigerator Rolls with jelly

MONDAY:
-(shrimp) frugal stir fry, fresh lemonade
-Creamy Chicken Spaghetti, salad, sweet potatoes, Lime Zest Cookies
Snacks: Cracker Candy with peanuts, Rugelach (made with kefir), apples

TUESDAY:
-Calf Liver-n-Onions with Biscuits and Gravy, homemade applesauce
-Frittata, green salad, Easy Spelt Cinnamon Rolls
Snacks:juiced apples, popcorn, raisins, crispy chickpeas

WEDNESDAY:
-Beef-n-cheese patties, potato wedges, salad, My Fave Banana Nut Muffins
- Breaded Turkey Cutlets, turnip greens, speckled butter beans, Wheat Rolls
Snacks:Coconut Milk-berry smoothies, boiled eggs and mustard, stuffed celery sticks

THURSDAY:
-Chicken salad on homemade wheat pita bread, carrots and dip, cranberry salad
-Pinto Beans, cornbread, turnip greens, corn, real pumpkin pie
Snacks: pumpkin pie, Cherry-blueberry smoothie

FRIDAY:
-homemade refried bean burritos on homemade tortillas, green salad, apple crisp
-Turkey Meatballs with Leek Sauce over brown rice, kefir-peach cream smoothies
Snacks: Nana-yogurt Dish, juiced apples

(Confetti)

Confetti...

1 1/2 cups kernel corn

1 chopped orange bell pepper

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

4 green onions sliced

1 can black olives, drained and sliced

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 T finely chopped chillies *opt (I used some that I canned from my garden- a little hot!)

1 T minced garlic

1 t dried cilantro

1 t cumin

1/3 cup Italian style dressing

Marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Two days is even better!

Turkey Meatballs and Leek Sauce....

You can use any favored meatball recipe, or even meatloaf recipe with a little extra bread crumbs to make meatballs.

Here's how I made these:

2 lbs ground turkey

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (I used homemade bread)

1/2 cup quick oats

2 T fish sauce (or Worcestershire)

2 eggs

1/4 cup ketchup

2 T dried onions

1 t salt

Mix well. Roll into walnut-sized balls and bake at 400 for approx 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring 2 quarts chicken broth to a simmer and add sliced and thoroughly cleaned leeks (3 medium).

In a separate pan, saute 2 medium chopped onions in 3 T butter and add to broth once cooked til clear.

Add to broth; 2 t rosemary, 1/2 t ground mustard, 2 t minced garlic, 1/4 t sage. 1/2 t thyme, 3 t pepper, and salt to taste.

Once leeks are cooked tender, blend 3 T cornstarch or arrowroot to 1/2 cup milk. Blend well and add to broth and cook until thickened. Remove from heat.

Serve over brown rice or egg noodles.

Place meatballs on cooked rice or noodles, then top with leek sauce.

I mixed all the leftovers for lunch the next day! ;-)

HEADS UP!!! WEBKINZ SALE!!!!!

WALGREEN'S IS HAVING AN AMAZING SALE ON LIL KINZ AND WEBKINZ!

LIL KINZ ARE 2 / $5 !!!

THE WEBKINZ COME WITH A CLIP OR AN AMAZING HAMSTER AND THEY ARE $4.99!
(Yes-double pack!)

THE AMAZING HAMSTERS ARE NEW AND THEY ARE 7.95 AT B.A.M. THE WEBKINZ ARE 12.95 AT B.A.M.    LIL KINZ 9.95   - SO THIS IS AN INSANE DEAL!!!!!!

ACCORDING TO WEBKINZ WEBSITE, THESE PRICES ARE GOOD AT ALL WALGREEN'S!
THE SALE STARTED TODAY(Thanksgiving) AND WILL GO THROUGH THE 27TH.

Happy Holidays and Happy Frugal Black Friday!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! What's on your menu?

Here's ours:


23lb turkey

spiral ham

green bean casserole

dressing

sweet potato casserole

cranberry sauce

cranberry salad

potato salad

homemade wheat rolls

speckled butter beans

stuffed celery
spiced applesauce cake

2 homemade pumpkin pies

1 homemade apple pie

1 homemade pecan pie

Menu...

Welcome to Menu Plan Monday! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

(Marshmallow Pizza-Stevie B's style)

BREAKFAST: Cinnamon Rolls, soaked Bug Oats, eggs and toasted Breakfast Bread


SATURDAY:
-indoor picnic
-Turkey Meatballs and Leek Sauce over Egg Noodles, Chocolate Meringue Pie
snacks: leftover Cream Cheese Bars, raisins, apples

SUNDAY:
- PB&homemadeJ, sliced apples, leftover pie
-Soft tacos, corn salsa, Marshmallow Pizza
snacks:apples, grapes, Cinnamon Rolls

MONDAY:
-Shredded Chicken Sandwiches, salad, sour gummy worms
-Turkey-Rice Bake, sweet potatoes, green beans, Citrus Zest Cookies
snacks: blueberry-cherry smoothies, apples

TUESDAY:
-Pita pockets with egg salad, salad, fried apples
-Oven Fried Chicken Thighs, Golden Cauliflower Salad, green peas
snacks:buttered popcorn, homemade applesauce

WEDNESDAY:
-English Wheat Muffins with bacon, eggs, carrot sticks, fried apples
-Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie
snacks:pie, coconut milk

THURSDAY:
- turkey leftovers
-Indian tacos-fry bread, black bean salsa, homemade applesauce
snacks:pumpkin pie, juiced apples and carrots

FRIDAY:
-turkey leftovers
-Turkey-beef Meatball Subs, salad, Snowflake Cookies
snacks: sour gummy worms, celery sticks and baby carrots with cheese dip

Marshmallow Pizza- Stevie B Style...

My older boys came in raving about this pizza...and begging me to make it! I've never been to Stevie B's so I had never seen this but with all of their descriptions and a lot of my guesses, I was able to get pretty close! (According to them;)

I based my crust on Tammy's Apple Pizza with a few changes.
Here's how I made it;

1 cup warm water
1/2 t salt
2 T cane sugar
1T yeast
3 T melted butter
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Allow the dough to rise about 30 minutes. Punch down.
Press out on buttered pizza pan. With a fork poke a few holes in the center of
the pizza. (If it puffs up while baking anyway, you can lightly push it back down.)

Allow the crust to rise while oven preheats to 400.
Bake crust until lightly golden, about 10-12 minutes.

While crust bakes, make chocolate pudding. I used the instant, boxed kind, but you can make it homemade. You will need 2 cups.

Spread the pudding over the lightly baked crust. Top with mini-marshmallows and drizzle lightly with chocolate syrup. Return to oven, on top rack. Bake until marshmallows are lightly golden and melted. Remove from oven and drizzle with additional syrup.

Homemade Vanilla Yippee!

Madagascar Vanilla Beans bought with Amazon/Swagbucks:

Cut the beans open, lengthwise:

Scrape into jar. Place beans in the jar.

3 per pint, 6 per quart.

Cover with vodka.

Tuck in the cabinet for 6 months, shaking them every couple of days.

I can't believe it! I found organic wheat! Woo Hoo!

For years- and years- and years---- I've usually bought Montana's Prairie Gold. Its certified chemical free- but organic- I couldn't find it. ..talkin' hard white wheat...

I still wonder why this is--- My only guess is that wheat was modified years ago, like in the 1800s, and since that modification, its been almost impossible to get a pure form of wheat. Anyone know????

But- for now- I have organic! yah! And it was only like $2 or $3 more per bag....which is like 4 to 6 cents more per pound.

I also bought some organic spelt. Its more expensive or I would buy more of it...but if this wheat is non-gmo...I'm just as happy with it!

Soups for the Season...

-(French) Onion Soup

-Black Bean Buffalo Chili

-Leek Soup

-Hearty Beef Stew

-Beef, Barley, and Lentil Stew

-Pasta Flowers and Red Bean Soup

-Hoppin' John in Wacky Bread Bowls

-Hamburger Soup

-Bean with (Turkey) Bacon Soup

-Corn Chowder with (Turkey) Ham

-Chicken Turnip Soup

-Cream of Cauliflower Soup

-Chicken Stew

-Split Pea Soup

Buttered Tilapia:

Butter light-colored pan or baking dish. Place tilapia fillets on pan. Baste with melted butter. Sprinkle lightly with onion powder and salt. Sprinkle with chives or green onions. Bake at 425 for approx. 20 minutes and can be flaked with a fork.

Easy and fast!



BTW, this is Annie's mac and cheese and it's great! It has been running on sale at Krogers!

Homemade Ice Cream Tip:

Homemade ice cream can get almost rock-hard when you store it in the freezer, making it impossible to scoop out!

Here's how my kids like for me to store it:

I can set these out for dessert and they are just right by the time they eat their food. They're also good as a snack!

*These are all yogurt cups.

This is also a great ice cream to use in a float. Just run water over the bottom until the ice cream slides out, plop in your cup, top with pop, and wallah! A float!

Pumpkin:

We love Pumpkin Pie- especially Real Pumpkin Pie!

Making your own pumpkin for pies is easy and frugal.

2 years ago, we grew  several in our garden and I had frozen pumpkin throughout that winter.

This year- only one pumpkin! Grr.

To cook pumpkin, slice it in half and scoop out all the seeds.

The seed cans be rinsed, soaked in salt water, and baked until crisp for a great treat!

Lay pumpkin halves, cut side down in a baking pan. Keep just about a 1/4 inch of water in the bottom as pumpkin bakes so it doesn't dry out.

Bake at 350 until it is easily pierced with a fork. Approx. 45 minutes.

Cool and scoop pumpkin out into blender or food processor.

Try to keep mashing it down to puree it, but don't add any water. It should have enough moisture.

Measure out and freeze.

I got about $14 worth of pureed pumpkin from a pumpkin that cost me a little over a $1!

I will use most of it in pies and some in Real Pumpkin Pecan Cakes or Pumpkin Pancakes.

Pumpkin Seeds...

I sure hope we get more of these soon! Fixed this way my kids will gobble them up!

Rinse pumpkin seeds well. Soak in salt water at 1/3 cup salt to 2 cups of water, overnight.


Drain but don't rinse.


Bake at 350 until dried and just barely starting to brown.

I don't get to store them- they eat them right away!

Kitchen Tip: From Lettuce to Salad in a Snip!

I've found yet another great use for kitchen scissors! Cutting lettuce into short strips! This way I can also keep the size down to something that will fit on my fork and in my mouth! (Ha ha- I know that shouldn't be too small then, right?)

Be sure to visit Tammy's Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays!

Marinated Pork Loin-

 I almost never buy pork...

 MAYBE 3 to 4 times a year, and that's usually a ham during the holidays.

I've read several negatives about pork so I prefer to avoid it...If I could get organically raised, I probably would serve it more often.

But- if I'm gonna buy pork- this is probably my favorite cut!

Why? Well- I like that I can cook 5 pounds of meat in just an hour and a half!

I also like tenderloins because there's a lot of things you can do with it.

MARINATED PORK TENDERLOIN

2 T prepared mustard

1 t horseradish*opt

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 T raw cider vinegar

1/4 cup Marsala

1t ground mustard

1 t rosemary

1/2 t fresh ground black pepper

1 T molasses

1/2 T minced garlic

Mix well and baste the pork, covering completely.

Top with addtional rosemary, approx. 1/2 teaspoon.

Allow to marinate for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Cook at 425 for 1 1/2 hours, fat side up.

Slice with electric knife and drizzle with the drippings.

*served here with dressing and lima beans

Menu Plan for This Week...

Well, I've got most of my monthly shopping complete, I have beef fat to render in the fridge, I have about 4 bushels of apples in my kitchen - now to MENU PLAN (MONDAY).

BREAKFASTS: Oatmeal, eggs and toast


SATURDAY:
-Onion Soup, bread, baked apples
-Hamburgers, Apple Pie Smoothies
snacks: Apple-Walnut Bread, sliced apples- tons- I mean bushels of them! ;-), Cracker Candy


SUNDAY:
-snack lunch: tuna salad, leftover Apple-Walnut Bread
-Marinated Pork Loin, lima beans, dressing, Homemade Chocolate Pudding
snacks: grapes,leftover Cracker Candy, apple-carrot juice from the juicer and popcorn


MONDAY:
-Hamburger Soup with 4 Loaves of White Bread, fried apples
-Easy Maple-Dijon Chicken, green salad, toasted cheese bread, green beans, Citrus Zest Cookies
snacks: Sprinkled Donuts, apples


TUESDAY:
-Black Bean Buffalo Chili, Mexi Cornbread, French Coconut Pie2
-Chicken Meatloaf, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, Sour Gummy Worms
snacks:gourmet popcorn, apples with peanut butter


WEDNESDAY:
-Cheese and Onion Strata with leftover white bread, green salad, Tutti-Fruity Compote
-Leeks and Chicken,spinach salad, buttered corn, Lowfat Pumpkin Bread
snacks:Strawberry Frothy, 10 grain choc. chip muffins


THURSDAY:
-Cauliflower Quiche, green salad, black bean salsa (using extra beans cooked on Tuesday), fried bananas
-Breaded Tilapia, buttered squash, turnip greens, Blueberry Crisp
snacks:Whole Food Fondue- Dr. Axe style with sliced apples, graham crackers and milk


FRIDAY:
-Frugal (shrimp) Stir Fry with brown rice, Fruit Cobbler
-Frugal Beef Bake, brocolli, maple glazed carrots, Glazed Pumpkin Cookies
snacks:Liver Pate with veggies and crackers, fresh limeade, nutty maple granola

More Apples!

Well, I asked the Lord for more apples and more apples He gave!

(See the burnt spill on the pan- the rest is in my oven- oh bugger!)

Here's another bushel of those Arkansas Black apples and a bushel of Pink Lady apples..yum!



The amazing value of home schooling and reading to your children:

Once the hurdle of teaching a child to read has been crossed, the world opens up into a vast oasis. There is nowhere that the child cannot go! The fun part for you, the parent, is that many trips can be taken with your children right on your own couch!


For the last week or so, we have been visiting an old cowboy town, way out west during the late 1800s, while never leaving our home. We sit on the couch, but our minds are hundreds of years away in a place that our bodies have never been.

We go together. We are a group, eavesdropping on a group of cowboys and a new evangelist in their town. We wait, and watch, and hope, as tragedy weaves its ugly way through their lives, to see how each will respond to this missionary, sent from God. Will they be angry? Will they reject him and his Message?

But there’s also something else that happens in our living room. We learn-together. From time to time, we pass over a word that they don’t know. From time to time, we pass over a word that I don’t know! We look it up, we learn it. We continue on our voyage across the prairie.

There’s other things that happen too. We feel together, as we read through the trials of those in the story. We laugh at their folly, we smile at their jokes, we wince at their shame, but given that my children are 5/6 boys, we don’t cry- but we feel the seriousness of their situation. Our minds race together and we feel relief that it is not our home that suffers as some do in these stories.

What about you dear mother, dear father? What land or bridges have you crossed with your children today? What mountains have you scaled? What seas have you sailed?

Is it cold at your house today? Has homework got everyone in a tizz? Is the mood of your home just a little off today for reasons that can't be helped? Is it raining at your house today? I say, batten down the hatches, pull your children close, and take a journey!

Our Frugal, At-home Halloween

The favored game was Stuff the Fatman. This Fatman is my non-fat 15yr old, surrounded by his giggling siblings.

Apple Bobbing-always fun

"Blood-Ade"

Our mini-jacks, the objects of the game Hide and Go Seek the Jacks!

Halloween Soup- butternut squash soup

15yr old got the job of carving the pumpkin, not bad for his first one!

"Bloody Gummies" and Molded Chocolate

Apple Orchard Trip!

Saturday, we got to go to the Apple Orchard!

...ah one of my favorite places in the whole wide world!

This is the orchard, on a hillside.

You can smell the apples when you get out of your car!

Heaven!

Here's 2 bushels of drops that I bought for $10 a box. Not bad, huh?

Some will be juiced, lots will be eaten, some may get canned! ;-)

You know what these are?

I bought  a peck of these Arkansas Black Apples, otherwise known as Winter Apples.

Why? Well, most of you know, I'm sure, but just in case you don't...these apples are very firm and crisp and will store easily through the winter.

Lord willing, we will go get a box (or 2, fingers crossed) of these to store. The drops will be $10!

I ate 2 of these on the way home!~

We love apples!

Its so exciting to go to the orchard!

Menu:

Welcome to Menu Plan Monday! These pics our from Halloween. You'll also notice lots of apples on the menu this week, due to a trip to the apple orchard! Yay!

BREAKFASTS: oatmeal, bug oats, eggs and toast with jelly, leftover pancakes from the freezer

SUNDAY:
L-Halloween Soup (Brandy's Butternut Soup), Blood-ade, Bloody Gummy Candy, and Molded Halloween Chocolates...we also bobbed for apples, carved a pumpkin, played Hide-Jack-and-Go-Seek, and Stuff the Fat Man!
S-Oven Fried Chicken Thighs, green salad, speckled butter beans, leftover candy
Snacks: apples, candy

MONDAY:
- leftover cup of soup, grilled cheeses, Cherry Crisp
-Chicken Loaf, lima beans, sweet potatoes, French Coconut Pie2
snacks:carrots and dip, apples and peanut butter yogurt dip

TUESDAY:
-10 grain pumpkin pancakes, turkey sausage links, cranberry slushes
-Herb Roasted Chicken, green salad, corn,Sweet Potato Casserole
snacks: baked apples, popcorn

WEDNESDAY:
- Tilapia, green salad, lima beans, No Bake Cookies
-Italian Baked Chicken Breasts, spinach, crowder peas, Real pumpkin pie
snacks:Apple Pie Smoothies, sliced apples, baby carrots and dip

THURSDAY:
-Butter Beans with (turkey) Polish Sausage, corn, cornbread, leftover pumpkin pie
-Shrimp Alfredo, green salad, Rye Rolls, Tutti Fruity Compote
snacks: homemade lowfat brownies with walnuts (use pumpkin instead of butter), carrots and dip, juiced apples

FRIDAY:
-Leftover Beans, cornbread, peach and blueberry crisp (frozen fruit)
-Homemade Hamburgers, lettuce, tomato, onions, bananas
snacks:apples, carrot and celery sticks with dip

SATURDAY:
-Italian Open-faced Tuna Sandwich on homemade bread, homemade chocolate pudding
-Oven Fried Chicken Thighs, buttered potatoes, green salad, fried apples

snacks:Garlic Almonds, Lemon Oatmeal Bread