Sorry!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Last week my daughter and I took a trip to be with family because an uncle was dying. It was good to be with family, even though it was for a sad reason, but because of this obviously we completely went a different route with meal planning. My husband ate whatever he could find and my daughter and I depended on family to feed us. We will try to get on our feet again this weekend and try to update on Monday.

Will My Family Starve This Week (Another Failed Recipe attempt)?

Ugh! I want to love $5 dinners, but nothing I have made has tasted great. We tried again tonight, but another night, another failed recipe. This was a vegetarian meal, so I didn’t even try it out on my husband, but my daughter was sobbing throughout the meal (so NOT like her at all). Ever time she took a bite she would look at me and start crying again. I eventually gave up and gave her leftovers from lunch (and of course cakeJ ). I ate my portion, and I guess I’ll be eating it again for lunch, because I can’t stand waste, but I am not looking forward to lunch tomorrow. This meal was the gnocchi meal, and it wasn’t awful, it just didn’t have a whole lot of taste. Maybe if I added something to it it would pass, but I don’t plan on making it again. Sorry guys. I’ll let you know if I find a winner.

Recipe Review- Bacon wrapped Apple Chicken

Have to say that I am disapointed with how dinner turned out tonight. :( I made the recipe from $5 dinners and it was so dry! I have been having that problem lately with crock pot dinners, so I am wondering if my crockpot may be cooking a little bit too high? I put the chicken in for the allotted time, but alas! My husband was not pleased with the sauce either, so for 0 for 2. I knew I had him on the sweet potatoes, how can you resist all the brown sugar! Those he liked. :) Well, better luck next time...one of these $5 dinners will taste great, right?

Menu Plan Monday ~ April 19

A new week and a new plan! This week I checked out the $5 dinner Mom's Cookbook and I like the way it looks. We are going to try out two of her recipes this week (the vegetarian one I will be trying on just my baby girl and myself, DH need meat!) and I'll let you know how they go.

Sunday - Sloppy Joe's
Monday - Wrapped Apple Chicken (from $5 dinner cookbook), mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans - Here is the Review
Tuesday - Gnocchi & Spinach (also $5 dinner) - Another Review
Wednesday - Church
Thursday - Tacos and corn
Friday - Family night
Saturday - Ziti (from the freezer)

Check out Orgjunkie.com for more great ideas.

Menu Plan Monday

Sorry I forgot to post my menu plan here, but don't worry, I did post it on my fridge which is of course the most important place for it to be :)

Monday - Steak (broiled), potatoes (for my hubby), green beans, and butterhorns.
Tuesday - Calzones from our freezer day
Wednesday - Church
Thursday- Homemade Pizza (We are going to try FishMama's Pizza Crust) Don't laugh at us for the Calzones on Tuesday and Pizza on Thursday! It was because of a scheduling snaffu with Hubby's work.
Friday - Granny and Pop-pop are coming to visit!
Saturday - Tacos.

Cinnamon Rolls!

I tried FishMama's Cinnamon Rolls last night and they were amazing! My husband doesn't do particularly well with eggs, so we tried it just because it was egg-free, but they were great. I also felt a little better feeding my family something so sugary for breakfast since it was also whole grain (by the way, did you know cinnamon can help keep blood sugar from spiking). You should try it.

***update***

Finally remembered to post pictures of the cinnamon rolls before cooking, but alas, totally forgot to take pictures after they had risen and after baking, but here are the before :)

Couponing - My system

I know that everyone has their own couponing strategy, but some of them just seem so complex, I developed my own. :) When I get coupons I go through them immediately and only keep the ones that my family may possibly use (assuming good sales come up) and toss them in one ziploc bag and toss that bag into my diaper bag. That way I have the coupons if I go to the store unexpectedly (not unplanned mind you, just unexpectedly). When I plan a shopping trip I take just a few minutes to run through the coupon bag and put the ones that I am going use on that trip in a separate bag. Tada! All ready to go...no sorting into piles or any of that. I like it, it works for me. Do you have a favorite system?

Freezer Cooking Day!

I had my first freezer cooking day with a friend today. We worked from about 9:30 till 3, but we took a break midday for lunch and for me to put my toddler down for a nap. It went really well. My daughter did pretty well (until lunch/naptime) and we got a lot done.

Here is the total list of what we got done (we just split the meals).

Ziti - We made 6 batches (Huge batches - it will probably go for 6 just at my house) I guess we didn't really realize how much we were making, but it will all be eaten I am sure!

2 Lasagnas - We used the recipe here.

Sloppy Joes 1 batch (I didn't realize we weren't really making that much, so I sent it home with my buddy)

12 single serving size Calzones

and 1 batch (32 rolls) of the make ahead butterhorn rolls from here. (Already baked up a couple of those, yum!)

and finally I made my hamburgers for dinner tonight.

There are a few pictures here , but only about half of the food is pictured. :)

Menu Plan Monday

A friend and I are trying our hands at freezer cooking day on Monday, honestly we are only making a few meals, but hopefully it goes well and we can expand in the future. She is expecting her first soon and would love to have a freezer full of meals ready to go. We also tried out strawberry shortcake and a fruit pizza earlier this week if you want to check those out.

Easter Sunday - He is Risen Indeed!
We will have our big easter meal after church with family and then dinner will probably just be sandwhiches later on.

Monday - Ziti - we are making this for our freezer cooking day, so I will keep one batch out to cook. Basically it is just penne or ziti pasta spaghetti sauce and ground beef with cheese on top baked for 30 minutes. We will freeze the pasta, beef, and sauce in gallon bags and the cheese separately and then put them into 13x9 pans when ready to bake.
Tuesday - Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries- We haven't had burgers in awhile, so here they are. We add applesauce to the meat before cooking, it keeps them really moist.
Wednesday - Baked Chicken
Thursday - Sloppy Joes (Got use up the buns before they go bad :) )
Friday - Family Night
Saturday - Chicken Fingers

Strawberries on Sale!

This week strawberries were really cheap (about $1.25 for a quart) so we picked up a few and today I got the chance to use them. I made a shortcake to top with strawberries and what my mom used to call a "fruit pizza." We have siblings in law coming over this evening to test out both of them, so I can't confirm that they taste good yet. I can give you both links to recipes and promise to have pics up soon. :)

Shortcake - I only used 1/2 tsp of salt in this recipe.

"Fruit Pizza" - Ok, She has a much fancier name, but I promise fruit pizza will get kids.