Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Stouffer's Lasagna, Salad and Garlic Toast made from Homemade bread

Tuesday: Chili and Cornbread

Wednesday: Turkey Sandwiches and Leftover Chili

Thursday: Sloppy Joes, Broccoli Salad (you probably see this a lot; it's one of George's favorite)

Friday: Dinner out and then we will be out of town for the weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding. So happy to see that guy get married!

My Cooking Skills are Still Evolving......

Just so you know, all my dinners are not as delicious as they sound. Last week I made the most horrific "tuna noodle casserole" you could imagine. How can I list the ways this went wrong? First I used whole wheat noodles -- we use whole wheat noodles for most everything and like the taste, but when you use whole wheat noodles, you need to add a little more liquid to the dish because ww noodles tend to absorb more liquid. I didn't do that AND, I got busy with something and let the casserole cook waaay too long. It was one big dried up lump. And, then, let's see I forgot to add the tuna. So we had one big dried out lump of noodles for supper.  Uh, not very appetizing, huh? George was a real sweetie and ate a big helping though, he didn't want me to have make anything else.

And We Will Be Eating a Box of Frozen Lasagna

We are not big on eating frozen prepared meals -- usually too low on taste and too high on salt. However, today we will be eating Stoufer's Giant Lasagna in a box. I'm going to buy a big family sized one at lunch time today. As a bachelor, a big pan of Stoufer's lasagna was like a home cooked meal to George. He's mentioned twice this week that he would like one. Last night before closing his eyes to sleep, he mentioned it again. So my husband is dreaming of Stoufer's lasagna... and we are going to have it for supper tonight.

Menu Plan Monday: The Egg Edition Part 2

This week is Egg Edition Part 2. One night we will be having a breakfast casserole for supper, my husband likes to refer to dishes like this as egg pie. I decided to follow Mama Hen's very wise advice of making up several batches of cookie dough for the freezer. I love to make frosted cut out cookies for almost any holiday, so it will be nice to have all that cookie dough made up -- and luckily the dough recipe contains 3 egg yolks so those eggs will get used up yet! 

For this week's dessert, I will be making one of my husband's favorites, pineapple upside down cake -- it's a 3 egg cake. How do you think this would freeze with the pineapple?

Monday: Chicken Fajitas with all the fixin's

Tuesday: Breakfast Casserole, Broccoli Salad

Wednesday: Tuna Noodle Casserole, Broccoli Salad

Thursday: Lemon and Dill Tilapia, Au gratin Potatoes, Mixed Vegetables

Friday: Cheeseburger Pizza (ground beef, green peppers, mushrooms, onions and cheddar cheese)

The Art of Frugal: Learning What DOESN'T Save you Money

Saving money is terrific, but what if you are doing something that you think is saving you money and then you discover it's not? You stop doing that money "saving" activity! Or, at least find a way to do it that actually saves you money!

For the longest time I thought I was saving money by cooking up a big package of chicken thighs and then taking the meat off the bones and shredding it for future recipes. Sure it was more work than just cooking up boneless skinless chicken breasts, but was it worth it? The last time I cooked a batch I decided to calculate if it saved any money or not, in comparison to using boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Here's what I started with: $4.22 worth of .99 a pound chicken thighs -- complete with fat, skin and bones. Total package weight was 4.26 lbs Please note, the picture below shows them trimmed of most of the fat and skin. I don't know how your store does it but, mine seems to find a way to include all the skin from the whole hind end of the bird. I've plucked enough chickens to know they don't come with that much skin!

After spending 10 minutes trimming the 8 thighs I had exactly 1 pound of trimmings -- fat and skin. This is great if you have a pack of wolves you are feeding -- not if you are trying to save money. After I roasted and cooled them I spent about 15 minutes cleaning the meat off the bones, no doubt missing some of the meat as it's so hard to get into every little nook and cranny. I didn't weigh the bones, but I'm going to estimate they come in at a 1/4 of a pound to make for a nice easy calculation.

By my calculations, the 4.26lb package of .99 per pound chicken thighs has only 3lbs of edible meat so that means the meat comes in at $1.40 per pound. Now, how does this compare to boneless, skinless chicken breasts? In my area, boneless, skinless chicken breast frequently goes on sale for $1.79 - $1.99 per pound, which is anywhere from .39 to .59 a pound more than what chicken thighs cost. Guess what? The thighs are still cheaper, BUT when I take into account the 25 minutes I spend trimming and taking the meat of the thighs I don't think buying thighs are a big money or time saver for me.

For "stocking up the freezer" purposes I will be purchasing boneless, skinless breast because that works best for me. But, I will continue to buy the thighs for eating bbq style because my husband likes to be able to pick up a piece of chicken with bones in it for that kind of a meal.

What doesn't work for you?

This post is linked to Frugal Friday @ LifeasMOM.

This post is linked to WFMW @ Weare THATfamily.

Menu Plan Monday: The Egg Edition

Please help me out and share your ideas for using up eggs!

I had our weekly menu all planned out. It's a menu that doesn't call for a lot of eggs. One of our neighbors just gave us 3 dozen farm fresh eggs, plus we have nearly 1 dozen in the fridge now. This is good, but maybe it's too much of a good thing, after all there are only 2 of us!

My husband and I like eggs, but they just aren't a food we eat very often, most likely because I tend to think of them as a breakfast food and my husband doesn't eat breakfast and I'm certainly not going to whip up a dozen eggs for my breakfast.  I rethought our menu to include using at least one dozen eggs. Drat, we are having apple pie this week for dessert (I know, how can that be bad?!) so I won't be using up any eggs for that.

Here is my revised-- flexible menu. Please give me your suggestions on how to use up nearly 4 dozen eggs in the next couple of weeks.

Monday: Homemade Salisbury Steak, Baked Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday: Breakfast Burritos, (thank goodness I have every thing on hand to make these, so no special trip to the store)

Wednesday: Chili and cornbread (2 eggs!)

Thursday: Homemade Ham, Egg and Cheese McMuffins, Cottage Cheese and Peaches

Friday: Pizza

As an aside, George said our neighbor had a sow that just delivered (farrowed) a litter of 10 piglets -- 8 surviving. They are 3 weeks old and according to my husband's "city boy" description of them being "just plain old pink!" they are little Chester Whites like the ones pictured in my header above. I wanted to run right over there and scoop up a whole armful of those cuties and bring them back home.  You had better believe it, I will be stopping by our neighbor's place for some quality baby pig cuddling time.

Michigan Fall Colour

Friday George had me take a few photos of the fall colour around our place.

This is my favorite. It's the big maple tree outside our bedroom window. It's the first thing I notice when waking up and looking out the window. We feel so blessed to live out here where the first view of the day is this tree, a freshly plowed field and the old milk house.

The view across the front yard -- that's a lot of leaves to clean up! George spent all morning doing just that and now you can hardly tell.

 A view of the side yard looking towards the rear of our property. Way off in the distance is our old red shed that's more of a home for squirrels, opossums and raccoons than for farm storage. Every year it leans a little more; it really needs to be torn down, but I love it too much. A new pole barn doesn't come with the same level of warm fuzziness.

Here's the view looking towards the road. Those ornamental grasses were so small when I first planted them, the middle one towers over my by a good two feet.

Menu Plan Monday

In spite of a cold, dreary weekend, we are fore casted for a beautiful, sunny week. When planning our menu this weekend, I was really (cold and dreary, remember) in the mood for comfort foods so that's mostly what's on the menu. We will see how that works out.  For dessert this week we are having what will probably be our last strawberry shortcake of the season.

Monday:  Meatloaf, Butternut Squash, Coleslaw

Tuesday: Lemon & Dill Tilapia, Au gratin Potatoes, Mixed Veggies

Wednesday: Turkey Sandwiches and Bean Soup

Thursday: Ham & Mac Casserole, Garden Salad

Friday: Cheeseburger Pizza

It's a cold dreary day today. Rain is continually drip, drip, dripping. A roaring fire is in the wood stove and the heat is radiating throughout the family room and kitchen. Days like this are wonderful for body and soul. I've needed a day like this for a long time, where there's no pressure to get out and do anything or work on outdoor projects. 

I slept in until 6:30 and awoke refreshed and ready to start the day, armed with my list of errands and chores. But upon hearing the rain softly dripping down and taking note the sky was still black as night, I decided to decadently pull up the covers and sleep in some more. I lay there a long time appreciating all the things that we so easily forget to be thankful for when we are busy or things aren't going our way. 

Once our little family of husband and beagle were up, we leisurely watched the news and had coffee and tea. I pared down my must do errand list down to the one and only "must do" item: getting groceries. Turns out those other errands weren't nearly as important and I thought! The rest of the afternoon was spent on laundry, a few phone calls, and puttering around the house. I love puttering. I'm not sure how you would describe it, but to me, it's a no hurry approach to tidying up the house. It's doing a few little things here and there in among leisurely pursuits, like taking a break for tea, or reading another chapter in a book, or playing with the dog.

What a quiet, refreshing day! How was your day?

My First Post From A Lap Top

Well folks, the title says it all: this is my first time posting from a lap top -- my new laptop. Our old Dell desktop is nearing the end of its life so we thought it best to get a new computer before it totally dies. Our printer has been deceased for a while now so we replaced that too.

I can hardly get over the novelty of being able to type from the comfort of the recliner or actually printing something out. For people that don't print a lot, we sure did miss having a working printer! One thing I'm especially looking forward to is being able to use this thing at the kitchen table or counter when I enter piles of business receipts. My desk has a free area of about 1 square foot to set stuff on, so it will be really nice to be able to have everything laid out within easy reach for entering. Of course, you notice I am typing this post instead of entering receipts. Ahem.

For the past month I've been researching the best buy for the buck and after awhile it feels like you are going to lose your mind. Maybe that's just me, there is only so much technical computer talk I can take. Picking out a new computer (or any electronics) is almost paralyzing in it's complexity. Is it worth it to spend a little more to upgrade the whatz it and the hoozit and even that will be old and outdated in 6 months? Good grief, who cares?! So finally I picked out what seemed to be a good buy at a good price that will do what we need it to do. So far all is well.