Meal Plan Monday

Another week, another meal plan! Last week the Homemade "Hamburger Helper" was pretty good. I did add some cheese to it, and Jer said that it was way better than the box kind! Which is a success in my book. K thought it was macaroni and cheese. :) It also made pretty good leftovers for lunch.

Also, the Crockpot Pork Chops we made yesterday turned out really well. I didn't care for the potatoes, but Jer thought they were okay. If I were to make it again (which I probably will) I will just make the pork chops in the crockpot and make mashed potatoes on the side.

Also, I decided that Meatless Monday is much more appealing when I make things to go with our main dish. Having the quesadillas, plus corn bread and cookies for desert this week made for a much better meal. So, I'm going to try to plan side dishes and deserts for Meatless Monday from now on. The only hard part about it is often the type of meatless main dish that we eat is usually served as a side dish to meat, so it's hard to come up with some other kind of side dish to serve. I'm thinking I'll often be making bread in the bread machine, because homemade bread is always yummy!

Here's this week's menu:

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with fruit
Rice Krispies
Waffles and fruit
Green Smoothies

Lunch:
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
PB & J (the J being homemade apricot Jam - Yum!)
Egg Salad Sandwiches
Chicken Ranch Wraps
Leftovers

Dinner:

Meatless Monday - Lentil Tacos, cornbread, brownies

Tuesday - Grilled Chicken topped salsa and cheese

Wednesday - Chili

Thursday - Dinner with our small group, I'm making yummy Chocolate Cake!

Friday - Thai Lettuce Wraps

Saturday - Hamburgers or Brats on the grill

Sunday - Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Homemade Fruit Snack Bars

As I said in my meal plan post this week, I am on a quest to find frugal homemade alternatives to convenience food items. And, one of the results of my garbage inventory was that I want to try to reduce our waste from food packaging.

Snack bars, like granola bars or Nutrigrain bars, are so convenient to pack as snacks or to take for lunches. But, they are full of high fructose corn syrup, enriched (white) flour, white sugar, and lots of other things that really aren't good for you. Also, because they are individually wrapped, they create a lot of packaging waste, and are pricey for an individual serving.

My wonderful hubby saw an article in the paper with a recipe for homemade fruit snack bars, and cut it out for me, and I was so excited to make these. We used fresh peaches that we picked ourselves, and frozen store bought raspberries. I'm really bad at calculating the cost of making things from scratch (I need my math genius sister's help with that!), but I'm pretty sure that these would be cheaper per serving than a Nutrigrain bar.

Oatmeal, Raspberry and Peach Snack Bars
1/3 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp., plus 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh peaches
1 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. baking soda
1 large egg, lightly beaten

In a medium saucepan whisk together the orange juice, cornstarch, and 2 Tbsps. of the brown sugar. Add the raspberries and peaches and stir over medium high heat until the mixture is simmering and thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350. Add the oats, flour, remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar, butter and baking soda to a large mixing bowl and mix together with a fork until the dough is crumbly but beginning to stick together. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture.

Mix the egg into the remaining dough. Transfer the dough with the egg to a greased 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish and press it evenly over the bottom.

Spread the fruit filling on top, then sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over it.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until lightly browned and bubbling. Place dish on a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into 16 bars.

These did turned out pretty well. The fruit filling is really good. The bars were a little dry on the bottom and not as firm on the top as I thought they would be. They need to be refrigerated if not eaten right away (learned that the hard way!). All in all, I think they were a good alternative to nutrigrain type bars. They are really not anything like a granola bar, so I'll still have to work on finding a recipe for homemade granola bars. I will definitely be making them again - maybe cooking for a little less time to keep them from getting to dry on the bottom. Also, I'm thinking it would be fun to try them with different fruit combinations - maybe blueberry/raspberry or strawberry/blueberry. Yum!

Do you have any good recipes for homemade snack bars or granola bars? Please leave a comment with a link or your recipe!

Visit Grocery Chart Challenge for more great recipes and Life as Mom for more great frugal tips!

Meal Plan Monday

I'm a little late with the meal plan this week, but better late than never, right!

So last week the Curried Lentils and Rice were actually pretty good. Especially considering I only had about half the amount of curry powder called for. Even K had a few good spoonfuls, and normally she is very picky! I think it could be a 'make it again' meal!

This week we're going to do Meatless Monday on Wednesday because we are bringing dinner to friends, and she is a vegetarian, that just recently had a baby. So, I'll just be doubling up the amount I make and taking half over to them!

Also, I'm going to start planning breakfasts and lunches. I wanted to do this before Brenden was born, but just didn't have the motivation. We want Jer to bring his lunch for work - brown bagging your lunch is a very frugally green thing to do - and it's better for your waistline too!

Here's this week's menu:

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with fruit
Rice Krispies (got a item for a free box!)
Waffles and fruit
Green Smoothies

Lunch:
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
PB & J (the J being homemade apricot Jam - Yum!)
Chicken Ranch Wraps
Leftovers

Dinner:

Monday - Breakfast for dinner (didn't do last week - would be meatless too, but Jer ran to the store last night to pick up a few things and bought sausage patties!) :)

Tuesday - Homemade "Hamburger Helper" - I'm excited to try this recipe - I really want to eliminate convenience type foods (like Hamburger Helper) and replace them with homemade, healthier versions.

Meatless Wednesday - Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas, cornbread and salad - taking dinner to friends

Thursday - Dinner with our small group

Friday - Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza - made this a few weeks ago and it was so yummy I want to have it again!

Saturday - not sure yet...

Sunday - Crockpot Pork Chops


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Before and After: Living Room

I know I promised before and after pictures of our new house a long time ago. We are feeling very comfortable and settled, but of course there are always more projects to work on, like better organizing the guest room/office, or painting the kid's room upstairs.
But anyway, here are pictures of the Living Room.

Before - and yes, the fruit stained glass lamp is still hanging, it's just up a little higher and more out of the way. Jer says he likes it, so I guess we keep it for now.

After - It's amazing to me how a room can actually look bigger when you put stuff in it. We were pretty impressed with how we could fit most of our furniture from our old house into this house, which is significantly smaller. I think we did a pretty good job. :)

Enjoying God's Bountiful Creation - Our First Experience at U-Pick Farms

We have had the pleasure of enjoying local u-pick farms for the first time this summer. We picked blueberries back in July and peaches and apricots a few weekends ago. There is something so fun about going to where the fruit is actually grown, picking it yourself and bringing it home to enjoy. I think sometimes we get so detached from where food actually comes from - we just go and pick up whatever we need at the "big-box" supermarket, and forget that real food is grown on trees and bushes, and produced by the land. Stephanie at Keeper of the Home wrote this great post about teaching our kids where food come from. It's so amazing to experience God's creation and enjoy the yummy food He has provided for us. I strongly believe in supporting local farmers and local agriculture. Food that is grown by local family farms often do not have the chemicals and pesticides that mass grown produce may have. It may not be certified organic, but less chemicals and pesticides are good for the environment and good for your health. Also, when you buy locally, the food doesn't have to be transported across the country (or from around the world!) so less pollution is created in getting your food from where it is grown to your home to be eaten and enjoyed.

We picked about 8 lbs. of blueberries (not a whole lot, but it was really hot that day and we had K and B with us), we froze about 5 lbs. of them and ate the rest in muffins, pancakes and just by the handful! We picked 18 lbs. of peaches and 4 lbs. of apricots, plus we got about another 4 lbs. of apricots for free because someone had picked them the day before and left them out in the field, so they let us pick out the ones that were still good to take home and use. We froze most of the peaches and made apricot freezer jam and apricot baby food for Brenden. I also tried to make dried apricots, but that didn't turn out so well.

In past summers, I have always wanted to take advantage of local u-pick produce, but never really knew how to find places to go. I wanted to pass along these two resources for finding u-pick farms. For those that live in our area, Michiana Green Pages is a great guide for local green businesses, including local produce and u-pick farms. Also Local Harvest is a website that lists local farms, CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture), farmer's markets, etc. It is also a great resource for supporting local farmers and buying local produce.

The other great thing about going to u-pick farms is that it is usually cheaper than buying produce at the supermarket or farmer's market, and the quality of the produce is MUCH better than what you would get at the grocery store. Plus you can get a lot at one time, to have some to eat right away (Yum!) and have some to preserve and eat later. It's also just great, quality family time to get outside and do something fun and productive together! We are still hoping to pick raspberries at my parent's house for yummy pies and to freeze for smoothies, and also to go apple picking this fall. I am planning to make u-pick farms one of our family's summer-time traditions!

Meal Plan Monday

We had a great time on vacation last week - it went by too fast!! We have to get back in the swing of things though, luckily we have a pretty easy week this week as far as meals go.

So far we're really striking out with Meatless Mondays. Most of the meals I have made are either just okay, or really not very good. I've only found one meatless recipe so far that we both enjoy, but Jer said it would be even better with chicken. :) We're still going to stick with it though, and Jer has been such a good sport about at last trying everything that I have made.

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Curried Lentils and Rice (If this is any good I'll post a link to the recipe next Monday.)

Tuesday - Dinner at friend's house

Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner - waffles, eggs and hashbrowns

Thursday - Dinner with our small group

Friday - Grilled Tilapia with veggies and rice

Saturday - Burgers on the grill

Sunday - probably a crockpot meal - not totally sure yet.


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Vacation!

We're going on our first vacation as a family of four tomorrow. We're going up to my family's cottage in Northern Michigan - one of my favorite places in the whole world!! I am so excited! It's such a great place to relax and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation. And I'm excited to spend some quality time with my parents and sisters! It will be interesting to see how it goes traveling with two littles, but it will be fun to keep making memories together as a family!

I'll be back with Meal Plan Monday next week!

Meal Plan Monday

We had a great time seeing my sister-in-law, Hannah, and her girls this week - we miss them already! But, the meal plan pretty much got thrown out the window. It's all good though because now I don't have to come up with anything new this week.

We are headed out of town on Wednesday, so that makes things pretty easy this week too.

Meatless Monday - Monterey Spaghetti (from last week)

Tuesday - Chicken and Noodles (from last week)

Wednesday - Sandwiches or eating on the road

Thursday - at the cottage

Friday - at the cottage

Saturday - at the cottage

Sunday - probably out to lunch after church because we will just be getting back into town.

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Hidden Moments of Joy

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I knew that having 2 kids under the age of 2 would be hectic, trying, and pull my hair out crazy at times. Yesterday was one of those times.

We went to the beach with my sister-in-law, her girls, and Grammie Susan, and had a fun time playing in the water, getting covered in sand, and just enjoying the beautiful weather. When we finally left though, both kids were exhausted! We had to leave the parking lot quickly to avoid having to pay for another hour of parking, and we had driven ourselves separately, so a few miles down the road I start looking for a place to pull over, to get us all situated for the 45 minute drive home. As I'm looking, K says to me, "I spit up." and almost simultaneously B starts crying. (Why does it always happen that way??) I finally pull over and look back at K, yes she threw up cheerios and Doritos (not a whole lot, but still) all down the front of herself and her car seat - gross! B is continuing to cry and starting to get more upset (you know the frantic newborn cry). I'm trying to figure out which child to deal with first.

So, I jump out, grab wipes and a change of clothes for K, and proceed to try to clean her up as quickly as possible as B screams. Whenever B screams, K gets really upset too, so she starts crying and fighting my efforts to change her clothes and get her back into her carseat. Finally, I finish up with her, give up trying to put her in her seat, and go to get B, when I realize I don't know where I put the car keys. I search around but have to stop to get B out, who is gasping at this point, and bring him into the front seat to nurse him. K is crying and wants to do the buckle on her carseat herself saying, "I do it!" over and over. I finish nursing B and change his diaper and onesie because he was all wet from me carrying him with a wet bathing suit on. Put him back in his carseat and he is fortunately relatively calm. I'm still looking for the keys, desparately digging though my bags, shaking out wet and sandy towels, trying to remember what the heck I did with them.

I'm not having any luck, so I try to get K settled back into her carseat, but the straps are all messed up and I spend at least 5 minutes just trying to get them straightened out, and get her back in, so I can keep looking for the keys because I'm starting to panic about them at this point. As I'm frustratingly messing with the straps and taking her in and out of her seat, she starts singing Jesus Loves Me.

Oh... deep breath... "Yes sweetie, that's right." My 1 1/2 year old is reminding me of what I so often fail to remember in the middle of the craziness. So I say to her, let's pray. And we pray that Jesus will help us find the keys.

I'm getting her settled back into her seat with the straps all worked out, and hear B explosively filling his diaper. Another deep breath. I get him out and change his diaper, again. Get him back into his seat. Start looking for the keys, again. Oh, there they are, of course.

I change my soaking wet clothes and put on new shorts and t-shirt over my bathing suit. Get back into the car, another deep breath, a silent prayer of thank you, look back at my beautiful babies, and just have to smile.

Things can get crazy, life can get hectic, babies will wake up and scream at the exact same moment, yet they are so sweet, so tender, so loving, so innocent - and they remind me in simple ways to stop and remember that it's not about all that. Jesus loves me, Jesus loves them, and He is with us in the midst of those moments.

"Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children." Luke 18:16 (NLT)

Going Green - Smoothie Style

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We have been making fruit smoothies for breakfast for a while now. I go in phases of making them a lot and then not making them for a few weeks or even months. I am determined now, though, to make them at least 3 times a week for breakfast. They are such a great way to get lots of healthy stuff into your diet, just by drinking a glassful.

Lately, I have come across the idea of green smoothies - as in putting green things (leafy green veggies!) into your smoothies to give it even more nutritional value. Since we (specifically Jer and Kaelyn) are not big green vegetables eaters, I thought this would be a great way to sneak some good stuff into our diet. So, I tried it out, by putting spinach into our smoothies, and I have to say it was a great success! I had told Jer I was planning to make some green smoothies and he was, of course, skeptical of the idea. The first day I made it, I gave him his glass, and he asked, "Is this a green one?" I said, "You tell me." He took a drink and honestly couldn't tell the difference. I was thrilled! I had actually convinced him to eat (well, drink) something that was really good for him! And Kaelyn drank a big glassful too, which is awesome because she refuses to eat almost any kind of vegetable. We are converts - we will be making green smoothies in our household from now on!

Here's how I make them. I don't really measure ingredients, I just put them in the blender in amounts that look good to me and then taste it and adjust it if needed.

Green Smoothie: (all measurements are very approximate)

• a cup of Milk or Soy Milk (we have been using vanilla soy milk)
• 2 large handfuls of spinach
• a cup of plain (or vanilla) yogurt (we use my homemade yogurt)
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
• 1 -2 tablespoons ground flax seed (a great source of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids which most of us don't get nearly enough of in our diets!
• 1 banana

Put the spinach in the blender and pour the milk over it. Blend on high until relatively smooth. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until you have a nice smoothie. Taste and adjust with more fruit, honey or even a little vanilla if it needs to be sweeter. Enjoy! And be impressed that you just got between 4-6 servings of fruit and veggies taken care of for the day!

On the left is the blended spinach and milk. Doesn't look to appealing, huh?
And to the right is the finished product. You can't even tell there is anything green in there. It looks like a regular fruit smoothie! You can sneak the greens in there if you want and your hubby and kids will never know! :)

Have you ever tried green smoothies? What's your favorite green smoothie recipe?

Meal Plan Monday

This week my sister-in-law and nieces are in town visiting from Oregon, so we'll want to spend as much time as possible with them. I'm planning meals so we will have something to eat if we are home, but we might not stick to the plan to closely this week.

We're still trying to use up stuff from our pantry and freezer - just trying to keep our grocery bill as low as possible right now.

The BBQ Chicken Pizza from last week was a big hit! We had friends over for dinner and everyone enjoyed it. I followed a recipe from This Week for Dinner (you have to scroll down the page to see it). Super easy and very yummy!!

Okay onto this weeks menu:

Meatless Monday - Monterey Spaghetti

Tuesday - Chicken and Noodles

Wednesday - Sloppy Joes (from last week)

Thursday - Egg Salad Sandwiches or Eggs and toast

Friday - Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

Saturday - leftovers or freezer meal

Sunday - freezer meal

Check out more great meal plans at The Happy Housewife this week!