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Kind of like the last few weeks I will not be around here very much. I am making quite a lot of Christmas presents this week because I want to make sure I have enough time to get them done. So if you would like to make some gifts I will leave you with some good links. And you do not have to know how to sew. There are all kinds of different things you can make.
Skip To My Lou (button is on the side)
Martha Stewart Homemade Gift Guide
There are many others and I will post more as I have time this week. Let me know what you all plan to make.
I haven’t been posting a lot lately. Right, yes you can see that. It is the busy season and I have been doing lots of things. Nothing too exciting, but wonderful just the same. So I will leave you with some pictures that you may look at.
Big Brother, Little Brother
My Adorable Kitchen Assistant
Making cookies
Getting into Mommy's lipstick
Going to school (my neice and nephew are in the picture)
A picture of the backpacks (very important)
So I may not be posting regularly, but I do hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m tired just thinking about this week.
Roast, roasted potatoes and spinach salad
Vegetable soup (made with yesterday’s roast), corn bread
Sandwiches! – lots of cooking to do for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day – LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD
Leftovers
Pizza and a salad
For more menu plans, please visit Org Junkie.
I have some favorite recipes that I have made for Thanksgiving.
No Fail So Easy Pie crust (can use whole wheat or just all purpose flour)
All of the above recipes can be made ahead and frozen. I also make mashed potaotes. You can do some of the work ahead for those. Peel and cut them into small pieces and cover with water and refrigerate overnight and make them the next day. You could whip them up the night before and refrigerate but you would have to add more milk and butter the next day when reheating.
For more great Thanksgiving recipes, please visit Life as a Mom.
Tonight while I was doing disco aerobics, my son Isaac was watching me and they did some hip moves and he was like, “Mom, move your hips.” Then he sighed and was looking at the hip-moving women on the tv and said, “I wish I was married.”
Ahhhhhhh, I immediately said, “Well, time for a Bible video in your room.” So he watched David and Goliath while I finished my aerobics. At least he has the right idea about marriage.
Now I know the title sounds scary – The Kitchen. It isn’t the whole kitchen. I am asking you to pick one thing – your spice drawer or your cabinet where you keep your Tupperware. You know you have that scary Tupperware cabinet. I am not asking you to go out and buy new things. You don’t have to do that. I did. I got rid of all of my plastic ware. I wanted to get glass but my husband said he would break it at work and since I pack all of his lunches and he is the one that uses the plastic ware I did not buy glass.
Here is a before and after of my plastic ware:
Here is what I did. I took everything out. I kept a few things and then I did buy those lock lid Rubbermaid things. I wanted the lids to fit together. I was tired of all of the mish mash. I did invest a little less than $20. There is a few ways to keep your plastic ware. A book I read suggested that you put all of the lids onto the proper container. If it doesn’t have a lid – get rid of it. Then you may store them like that although that does take up more room. If you don’t want to store them that way take a plastic container and put all of your lids in there. You are still going to have to search for a lid but at least the lids will all be in one place.
Now onto the spices:
In the plastic container is where I keep any mixes in a pouch that I might have. I do try to make my own, but I am not superwoman. I also wanted to label the lids of the spices but I just ran out of labels for my labelmaker so I will be doing this soon. Some of my spices already come with their lids labeled. As you can tell I moved them from a cabinet to a drawer and this has worked SO much better for me.
So your assignment this week is to tackle one thing – a drawer or a shelf in your kitchen. Take everything out and reorganize or throw away or better yet – give away!
Please leave a comment and let me know what you do or if you have a post with pictures I will link it to this post.
Happy Monday!
I am listing this post at Tackle it Tuesday on 5 Minutes for Mom.
All right people, I am out of inspiration for meal planning. I just have no idea what to fix. I ask my husband and he said, “Do you have any cheeseburger macaroni?” Um, yes that is hamburger helper and no I do not have any of that. I could try a homemade version. We might try it. Anyway, I am at least going to plan and we will see how it goes. And have I mentioned that I cannot make anything with red sauce because my husband has acid reflux? I can’t make spaghetti or lasagna or most taco things. People, these are the easiest meals to make. So now I have to get creative. Also, as for the Sunday Dinner Challenge – it has been canceled because we have been sick 2 out of the last 3 Sundays. The other Sunday my mom volunteered to watch the kids and we actually got to have a date – woo hoo! I am going to try for the first Sunday in December and probably let the challenge go after that until January. Is anyone else doing it?
Slow Cooker Orange Chicken, peas and peaches
Cheeseburger Macaroni, broccoli and fruit smoothies
Oven Fried Chicken, baked potatoes and salad
Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup and homemade bread or rolls
Biscuits and Gravy, scrambled eggs and bacon (and maybe some fruit)
Leftovers one night, pizza maybe one night and we may go out to eat – who knows! I may have to try Kate’s Barbecue Chicken Pizza. It looks pretty good.
There you have our weekly menu plan. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
For more menu ideas, please visit OrgJunkie.com.
This recipe is from a friend from church – thanks Anna! The pictures of her hamburger buns are MUCH better than mine.
These are her notes: **This is my Hamburger bun recipe that I LOVE and is super easy…
I use my bread machine to make the dough and then shape as needed. Again, I use all instant yeast, so any water needed in a recipe can be cold – make it warm if you use a different yeast:)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk (warm if non-instant yeast)
2 tablespoons butter, melted, cooled
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 bread flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast
1 egg white, lightly beaten
sesame seeds
Mix as you would for bread in your bread maker – liquids then dry stuff – set on dough setting and once it is done…
move to a clean bowl and cover and let rise for 30 minutes or so until doubled in size (I grease my bowls)
Gently punch down dough to deflate; place on lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Form each into a ball; place on a cookie sheet (I grease mine instead of using parchment paper). Cover and let stand 3 minutes. Flatten into just about 4 in rounds. Cover with towel and let rise 15 minutes.
Place another lightweight baking sheet/pan on top of the buns (helps to make them flatter and more even) and let rise another 25 minutes until almost doubled.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly brush the tops of the buns with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Allow to cool on a wire rack. After completely cooling, I wrap mine in foil and then place into freezer bags and freeze – I use them in 2s and they thaw and reheat wonderfully!
***My notes: I did not do the thirty minute rise and they still turned out very good. They were really delicious and I would make them again. I think I may try half whole wheat flour next time. Yet another reason to love my breadmaker. Also, I did not use the egg white and sesame seeds. I just brushed them with butter and called it a day.
For more recipes please visit:
Tasty Tuesdays at Beauty and Bedlam
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
You probably thought I was going to talk about exercise didn’t you? Well, I guess I am talking about a different kind of exercise. Move your Butt Monday is something my cousin and I are going to be taking turns hosting. We are doing this mostly to get ourselves motivated, but you are welcome to join us in tackling things that need to be done around your house. We liked the “Make your Home a Haven” idea but no one seems to be doing it so we decided to. Of course “Make your Home a Haven” is such a nice and polite title, but my cousin is a little more crass than I (right Amee) so she titled it “Move your Butt Monday” and really it does make you want to get up and do something right?
First of all, head on over to her blog and she will give you very good instructions on how to get started. Today we are working on cleaning up our fridge.
After much sickness this weekend I feel like I need to clean everything so why not start with the the fridge:
Before
And After:
Looks a little empty now doesn’t it? I still need to tackle the top of the fridge where we keep our snacks, but I need to go get a few baskets for that this week.
Don’t forget to head over to Klutzymama’s blog and see what she did. We will be doing this every Monday. We are going to keep thing simple. Also, we are not doing a Mr. Linky but we will add your’s to our post if you leave us a comment.
Tonight we had the privilege of having Heather from Simple Family Suppers come to our Titus 2 meeting at our church. She spoke on the importance of family supper. She brought her friend Kiersten to be her worship leader. She gave spiritual encouragement and practical advice. She really encouraged us that we do not have to do it all. We don’t have to be so hard on ourselves. She talked about starting simply. The focus was on sitting down at the table together as a family at least once a day. One thing she said really stuck out to me, “Use the family meal to fight for your family“. If you have been reading my blog you know how I feel about Sunday dinner. She provided research that states the good things that happen to children who sit down with their family to eat once a day.
I could go on and on. She has some E-books for sale. She has a blog and a Simple Family Suppers facebook page. She sells monthly menu kits. I did get to see her November’s menu and it is really comprehensive and there are some wonderful recipes in there as well. I would encourage you to check out her e-books!
We hope to have her back at our church soon.
Thank you Heather, I know there is so much more we could learn from you!
Please visit Heather at her blog, Choosing Simplicity, More than Survival.
For more Frugal Friday posts, please visit Life as a Mom.
