Chicken & Rice Wrap with Peanut Dip

Tonight I tried a new recipe to "get me out of lunch time rut" from a book I picked up last weekend called:

The Lunch Box: Packed with fun, healthy meals that keep them smiling.

<~~~~~~~~ Here is the cover of the book
The book itself covers sandwiches, wraps, salads, snacks, smoothies, dips, and soups/warm meals. It's very clever and has ideas for using leftover food from dinner in a new and exciting way.

Tonight I used things I had in my fridge/or shelf to make 4 wraps for my husbands future lunches. I used Rice, tortillas, 2 cutie clementines (the original recipe calls for canned mandarin oranges), 3 mini red peppers, 1 left over rotisserie chicken breast, and chopped baby spinach. I also used staples from my pantry to create a peanut dipping sauce. If you don't like oranges you could just use the peppers, if you don't want meat you could canned, drained chickpeas or cooked tofu, and if you can't do nuts (like at my toddler school) you could do hummus or Asian sesame dressing.

The peanut sauce itself is peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and water. Interestingly enough if you asked my parents if these things would be in my cabinet as an adult they would probably not hesitate to say an emphatic NO (except the peanut butter and water). But I have grown and learned to really enjoy cooking with the other items in Asian cooking.

Here it is all prepped: Chicken, red pepper, spinach chopped, Rice - cooked and cooled, oranges peels, and way in the back peanut sauce mixed and ready.

I laid a piece of foil down, then put the tortilla in the center (could probably work 2/3rd down from the top too.) I added a dollop of peanut sauce across the middle horizontally. Then piled on the rice, peppers, chicken, spinach, and oranges. Then I folded the wrap in thirds from the top and bottom. While holding them in place I folded over the left and right sides of the foil. Then rolled the bottom over the wrap and the top over that. In retrospect my tortilla was way too small, but I made do because it's what we had on hand.

This is where I have to end my post as I was preparing these for tomorrow. I will attempt to heat these tomorrow morning at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes (enough to heat it through). The book talks about putting it in a insulated container to keep it warm. I might just leave it un-heated, depends on what time I wake up and how long it takes my oven to heat up to 400.

I will post what my hubby thought of the wrap as soon as I know...He did have a small taste of the peanut dip...he said it tastes good at first bite but after the initial taste it's very peanut butter-y then the aftertaste is as good as the first bite.  I hope he likes it...crosses my fingers!

Book Review #3 of 2013

I was Jane Austen's Best Friend
By: Cora Harrison

Synopsis: Amason's blurb:

When shy Jenny Cooper goes to stay with her cousin Jane Austen, she knows nothing of the world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance that Jane inhabits. At fifteen, Jane is already a sharp observer of the customs of courtship. So when Jenny falls utterly in love with Captain Thomas Williams, who better than Jane to help her win the heart of this dashing man?

But is that even possible? After all, Jenny’s been harboring a most desperate secret. Should it become known, it would bring scandal not only to her, but also to the wonderful Austen family. What’s a poor orphan girl to do?

In this delicious dance between truth and fiction, Cora Harrison has crafted Jenny’s secret diary by reading everything Jane Austen wrote as a child and an adult, and by researching biographies, critical studies, and family letters. Jenny’s diary makes the past spring vividly to life and provides insight into the entire Austen family—especially the beloved Jane.

 

Readability: It is very easy to read as it's told from a teenage girls journal. It was quick and flowed well.

Predictability :  I don't think I had the upper hand on this book. I was very excited to find a couple points in the book that caught me off guard.
Couldn't Put it Down Factor: This was such a unique way to hear more about Jane Austen's world. The author did much to make you feel as if you were right there in the late eighteenth century with Jane.
Recommend it?: I would definitely recommend it.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5. Just be warn that it is written from the view point of a teenager...so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

side note - Apparently in Feb 2012 Ms. Harrison wrote a second book called "Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend" Hmmm...would like to read it to see more of the history she pulls in but we'll see.

Book Review #2 of 2013

 

Old Friends & New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen

By: Sybil G. Brinton

Synopsis: This book pulls in characters from all of Jane Austen's famous novels and weaves a tail of friendship and love. It's a continuation of the beloved characters that many of Austen's fans would devour.

Readability: It is easy to read and seamlessly picks up the stories of all those wonderful characters as if you just turned the page in the original novels.

Predictability :  I was able to predict one of the two love matches, but I didn't see the second one until it was right there in print.
Couldn't Put it Down Factor: I love the idea that all the characters from Austen's novels would have interacted. Many of them mention the same parts of the country and it would make sense that the circles of people would be small in society.
Recommend it?: I would recommend it. It was a nice revisit to "old friends"

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5. Great book, But not one I was bursting to tell people about as I read it (hence the minus one star).

Virtual craft night

First Craft project of 2013 completed:

I have a blog post in draft status talking about my to-do list for crafts this year...luckily I as able to have a weekend away from home to relax and craft and this was one of the projects I worked on:







It's such a cute design and I'm excited to try making the orange version. But first:

Here is the completed Green Apple Sewing Kit - one side is a pin cushion, the other is a pocket to hold your thimble, measuring tape, thread, and other notions. In the middle is a pad to hold your sewing needles:

Here is what it looks like from the inside with the pocket unzipped:

and here is the side view showing the needle pad:

Quinoa and Beef Stuffed Peppers

Tonight's dinner was suppose to happen last night but in a moment of weakness I caved and we went for burgers and chicken nuggets. So I made Stuffed peppers tonight. I had 5 peppers in my fridge from my produced co-op basket from before new years (shame..shame shame). I also had a yellow squash (my personal preference is for zucchini) and some carrots and onions.  I pulled some meat out of my freezer to thaw and picked up a zucchini from the store because once I started thinking about it, I had to have it in this meal.  Aside from the zucchini everything in the meal was from my produce basket or from my shelves/freezer.

Look at the yummy veggies sauteing! Smelled so great!

Once the veggies were done sauteing, the meat was browned, and the quinoa cooked. It was time to assemble the stuffed peppers. I baked them for 15-20 minutes in an oven set to 350 and let them rest for about 5 minutes while I finished the dishes.

After I pulled them out of the oven.

Don't they look wonderful? I added cheese to only three since my husband is lactose intolerant.

And I dressed one up pretty with the melted and browned delicious cheese:

Can you see a butterfly?

EDIT: did the family like them?  My little man had a small two bites from the spoon before he didn't want any more (that's actually really good). My husband had one half pepper serving, my brother had two half pepper servings, and I also had one. The best was my brother saying that the extra left over filling would go well with the leftover refried beans and tortillas in the fridge. Guess we'll have to make this again.

So here's what you scrolled through my post to find.  The recipe:

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients for 2-4 servings with enough for left overs:

5 bell peppers of your choice, one chopped the others halved and seeded
1 zucchini, diced
1 med yellow squash (I used 1/2 a large one)
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 a medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles, drained(this brand gives the mixture a nice heat)
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup quinoa rinsed
2 cups water


Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350. Heat a medium pan on med-high with a tablespoon or two of your favorite cooking oil. Added onions and carrots. Saute for 2-3 minutes then add garlic. Cook another 2-3 minutes then add the zucchini and squash. Cook until all veggies are tender and browned a bit. Meanwhile brown your meat in a separate pan (adding salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you want while it cooks. I added a dash of onion powder, garlic powder, and Lawry's seasoning salt) and add the water and quinoa to a medium pot. Bring the water/quinoa mix to a boil, cover, reduce to medium low and cook for 15 minutes. Once veggies are cooked, add can of tomatoes to them and combine, add the meat and quinoa when they are finished. Stir until combined.

Take the mixture and spoon it into the cavities of the bell peppers and place them on a foil wrapped cookie sheet. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese if you prefer. Bake for 15-20 minutes for semi-crunchy peppers, or bake until the peppers are as soft as you want them. Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Pinterest Anonymous

I have a serious problem. If you could see my firefox window right now you'd understand. You see I have so many tabs open for things I have found while surfing through the DIY and Crafts catagory of Pinterest that I am sure it will crash my computer any time...

Does anyone else have this problem. It's especially bad at night when I should have time to look through the tabs to see if there are things I want to pin or mark to make later in life (when does that later happen anyway?) I end up wanting to continue to scroll down the page and look at all the clever, useful, pretty things people create...

Tonight I was actually in the middle of writing a post about my crafting projects I have lined up, started, dream about and here I am abandoning the post to stare at more projects I don't have time to do. So Now I am sure I will go back to my surfing and eventually leave the tabs open to one day finally just "close all tabs" and lose the future projects until I find them while surfing again.

Night folks! More posts coming this week.

Making progress...

So...This is the progress I'm making on organizing and de-cluttering my kitchen.  I have managed to clear off the front counter and the left hand side by the coffee pot. I'm also pretty happy with the status of the dirty dishes - ZERO! I've been working on getting the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded while the kiddos are napping and making sure I do all the dinner dishes during the food prep of dinner or with an hour or two of dinner.Still have a bit to go and you can see I haven't taken my christmas cards down yet...

Book Review #1 of 2013

Last year I read 68 books in a year. This year I'd like to keep a bit more information about the books I'm reading for others that might or might not care.

Okay so I have to point out that the cover of this book does not make me "swoon". I really contemplated posting it(okay I will...below - but be warned...This guy is better to look at!)

<~~~This is Rupert Penry Jones when he played Captain Wentworth on Masterpiece Classic's last version of Persuasion (Isn't he dreamy?) I believe this was in 2008. It's the version I have watch over and over and over...

I took this book review format from my friend Erin. She is Hilarious. But don't take my word for it.



Captain Wentworth's Persuasion: Jane Austen's Classic as Retold through His Eyes  by Regina Jeffers

Synopsis: Witty, romantic and insightful, this novel retells the love affair at the heart of Jane Austen's Persuasion from the perspective of the suitor--Captain Wentworth. Written in the language of the era, Captain Wentworth's Persuasion re-creates the original style, themes and sardonic humor of Jane Austen's novel while turning the entire tale on its head in a most engaging fashion. Readers hear Captain Wentworth's side of this tangled story while gazing into his thoughts and emotions.

Wentworth initially suffers rejection and frustration because the titled Elliots do not consider him good enough for their daughter Anne. Despite her feelings for Wentworth, Anne allows others to persuade her to break off their engagement. Eight years later, when Wentworth returns from fighting against Napoleon's army, the difficult years of war have reversed fortunes. Now it is he who is rich, having won many prizes in battle, while the Elliots are deeply in debt and in danger of losing their good name.

Will Wentworth seek revenge by choosing another woman over his former love? Can he walk away from Anne, or will the memory of her lips and her touch capture his love once again?

(this is the blurb from Amazon...It's very dramatic when you read it...but if you know the story it's sort of like 'really, "will he seek revenge..."come on...' Only a Jane Austen fan would pick this book up really so they already know the story, Amazon.)

Readability: It is set in a period where there was a bit more formal language but I did not have trouble reading it. I have however read the original Persuasion (and seen the movie enough to know the story very, very well) so I might be bias.

Predictability: Well as I said above...I knew the story. But Ms. Jeffers does continue on a bit where Persuasion left off...I found that really intriguing and could read more if she wrote more.
Couldn't Put it Down Factor: I read this on my cell phone through our library check out. I was about 50% of the way through last night and started at seven p.m. after the Munchkin was down for the night. The next thing I knew it was midnight...and I was finished with the book and staring at the pile of dishes that were waiting to be washed.
Recommend it?: YES!

Overall Rating: 5 stars from this Janeite! If you like reading the spin offs from Jane Austen, this one will be a nice touch of re-visiting the story. You may also like Mr. Darcy's Story.

Resolving messiness 2013

Here is a snapshot of my kitchen...scary right?

The kitchen usually have stuff all over the counters, dishes stacked in the drainer and in the sink...

Now you have to take one or two things under consideration before you shake your head at me...First, I am the sole female in the house of 4 adults and one toddler. Secondly, I have been the only one who hasn't been sick this past week, and to further compound things my husband has been sick for nearly 5 weeks with various ailments.  So there...I have some excuses reasons for this craziness...

I've always wanted my kitchen to be more organized and ready to bake a moments notice. AND I always find I am shuffling things around to make room to cook or to move things from in front of my microwave to let someone cook something. It is inevitable that the last scenario occurs right when I've moved something from the counter not in this picture to the front of the microwave for room to work when one of the members of my household decides it is the opportune time to heat something in the microwave. Does that happen to anyone else? 

So one of my resolutions this year (aside from blogging more) was to de-clutter and organize in anticipation of moving from this home we've lived in for 3 years.

ENTER: Home Storage Solutions 101 and their de-clutter and organize your house in 52 weeks challenge.

Each day has a 15 minute minimum challenge to work on some cleaning in your house. Each week is an article on the area we currently focusing. Each Month seems to be a different room or area.

For the month of January the room is the Kitchen/pantry. I love this because it hits on the major command center of our home. The Kitchen is home base. I cook, we adults congregate when the limited seating in the nearby living room runs out, my toddler and my babysitting charge eat and play nearby, and did I mention I bake and cook, and cook and bake?  So I decided that yes I could blog about this and show some incredibly embarrassing photos of the mess of our house and hopefully after picture of the de-clutter 2013!  I'm hoping that blogging will also help keep me accountable for continuing on this overhaul of our house hold.  Maybe it will even start you thinking about cleaning around your home!

Here is the link for this weeks challenge article:  Kitchens!

 

2013 - The year of accomplishment

Hi ghosts of my former blog followers...I hope you are doing well reading my non-existent blog posts for the 4 months or so...

I am here to tell you that I am hoping to ACCOMPLISH quite a bit during 2013.  I have many unfinished projects and ideas of things I want to do between my overwhelmingly growing list of crafty things.

so I've decided to work on some of those things while simultaneously attempting to declutter and downsize the amount of junk hanging out in the house. We have lived in our rental house for 3 years and have had a baby and so things are piling up all around. There is a potential threat to leave this place at the end of our current lease so I'd like to purge and finish things that have been hanging around for some time.

Now I know you are asking me WHERE ARE THE RECIPES? because in the past this blog is mainly focused on my food adventures in the kitchen. I still am cooking, in fact my brain is churning out ideas for posts on my favorite Christmas baking recipes (that I have started hoarding), adventures in candy making and probably some gluten-free and healthy alternatives to hotdish, fried foods, and potatoes.

That being said I am about to overhaul the look of this site and hope you will leave feedback if any of these changes affect how you read (or not read) my blog.

Cheers and Happy New Year! 

My First 5k Run...Supporting Seattle Children's Hospital

I've been toying with the idea for a year or two to push myself to do a 5k...so I'm hitting the ground running and registered for my first 5k to raise money to benefit uncompensated care at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Join me and donate what you can to this worthy cause and support me as I enter into a new realm of fitness and fun!

My 5k FirstGiving Fundraising Page

Wrap up - meal planning Month One

As you can see I haven't posted about all the meals I planned to cook. This didn't necessarily go as planned this month but...I have learned what I would like to do for the month of June.

First, why didn't I didn't follow the plan. My husband would say it's because we never stick to a plan, but honestly I did not want have soup on a hot day. We had a week or two of hot weather here in the Pacific Northwest and it was the last thing on my mind. I am proud to say that we didn't just go out to dinner those nights we chose not to have soup. We had left overs (because I didn't factor in how fast my fridge would fill up after some of those freezer meals) or sandwiches (nothing like having a cold tuna sandwich on a hot day).

So I plan to do this meal planing again for the Month of June with some hot/cold weather options and still working on clearing out some of the meals I've put in the freezer. The first hiccup is that I am going to be gone friday - sunday on my "weekend off." I am checking into a hotel in Seattle and vegging out without distractions of toddlers or husbands, or roommates. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my time yet...but I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Okay...back to working on our grilling dinner of Antelope burgers with homemade buns (they are rising a second time right now) and corn on the cob (from my Bountiful Baskets Co-Op). 

I will admit to making one spur of the moment dinner for my husband on Saturday for his birthday. I bought salmon and asparagus and we had Sauteed Citrus-Herb Salmon with roasted asparagus and vegetable Quinoa (this was used with vegetables and quinoa from my pantry and fridge). DELICIOUS!

Okay so today is a brief departure from otherwise planned meals for the month. Our power went out at 5:45 and I didn't want to open the fridge for the chicken sausage and zucchini and squash.  So we went to Taco Bell. I'm writing it here because I feel like mis-steps are things people need to know about in challenges.  Tomorrow...tacos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Day 2 and 3

Day two of my challenge has me making Chicken Alfredo with home made Alfredo Sauce.

I used the Food Network recipe found fettuccine-alfredo.  Now the recipe doesn't have many ingredients but I found it a bit difficult to get the thickness I wanted without over-doing it. It tasted okay. I added a few crushed garlic cloves to the cream while it cooked for added flavor and then fished them out before pouring it over the chicken and pasta.

 I knew I was going to cook either broccoli or asparagus for the side dishes (turned out to steam both) and I was thinking what else I could do that would be easy and fun.  I came across this recipe Home Made Olive Garden Breadsticks, which were just what I was looking for. They tasted delicious and next time I might not cook them as long because I think they would have been even better!


So the first day and then again here Day Three I tapped into previously prepared freezer meals to stick in the crockpot from this BLOG. Today was Teriyaki Chicken. I had previously added yellow and orange bell peppers and an extra 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce and just put it in the crock-pot and left it.  I decided to again have some more steamed broccoli and asparagus and some long grain rice. This was a very good recipe. I'm excited to have it again near the end of the month. Here is a picture of my plated food:

The rice I shaped by using molds that have placed to press on in the back to help pres them out. I have to confess that I'm usually not very good at cooking rice. The rice you see in the above picture is long gain rice, not Minute Rice, not Boil-a-bag rice...but actual cooked on the stove rice. It turned out amazing like sticky rice. 

Tomorrow is suppose to be Spaghetti. I just realized I don't have any ground beef but right now I'm thinking maybe just boost the veggies with yellow squash, zucchini, and use some chicken/mozzarella sausages.  As a quick note I'm three days in and I'm already thinking about what to plan for next month...I like knowing what we are having and knowing that half my meals are easy to throw together!  Until tomorrow when I report what I did with the spaghetti.

Challenge - Month of May!

So as I was working on finances with my husband I realized that we had spent too much money this month. Nothing super drastic but it's easy to do if you aren't diligent.

So I started thinking about ways I can help cut back. Particularly I think I spend too much money at the grocery store and then eating out instead of cooking things. So I decided to plan out 31 meals using as much of what I had at home as I could.

Luckily I had just made 8 freezer meals for the crock-pot that have 4 servings a piece. So I was a bit ahead of the game. I added in a few favorites and what we have in our chest freezer!

Then I planned them out so we repeat each meal a second time during the month.  Next was plotting out how to make these meals so they weren't the same meal back to back. I did leave 2 days to have special eating out dinners because 4 of the 5 of us in our house have birthdays this month.

Today is day one. I have Savory Ground beef soup on the menu. It's on the counter thawing so I can get it out of the freezer bag and into the crock-pot.

Lunches are going to be primarily leftovers, salads, and sandwiches with what we have at home.  The goal before Saturday is to finish looking at my meal plan and make a list of what foods we still need to finish the rest of the meals. I'm going to get bulk meats and freeze them for the remaining meals and Produce from my weekly produce Co-op (Bountiful Baskets) to fill the meals and snacks in. I am hoping a side effect of this challenge will be more fruits and veggies eaten and hopefully healthier outlook on life.  I'm also going to keep doing this next month to see how much we can save and change up the meal plan with favorites not on the list yet.


Here goes my adventure! Wish me luck!

Caramels!

Here is a break from the coupon adventure for a recipe that has been requested that I post (Hi Sue!):


Granny's Caramels

This recipe was introduced to me through my husband's Grandma.

1 lb (4 sticks) butter
2 lbs light brown sugar (1 bag)
2 cups white Karo syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Butter a 9x13 inch pan (or a long cookie sheet with at least an inch high edge.
Melt the first two ingredients in a heavy kettle (needs to be deep because it bubbles up).
Add 2 cups light corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk.
Cook until candy thermometer reads 245 degrees F. (do not go below 240 or above 250 degrees)
Carefully pour mixture into buttered pan. Cool mixture in the refrigerator.
Take out 30 minutes before cutting, Wrap in waxed paper.

Tips to take into consideration: It takes a few makings to figure out your stove and how much to heat these caramels to. The candy thermometer is very important because it is your key to either caramel sauce or hard HARD caramels.
This recipes does make roughly 250-275 caramels depending on how big you wrap them. You should keep that in mind when you see how much butter and sugar is in this recipe.


I love this recipe. When I need to wrap these I put a movie on, and sit at the table and wrap, wrap, wrap (and try very hard to not eat them all.)

Couponing this weeks meals - Working out the Kinks - Week 1

Okay so a few friends asked me to post a blog about my attempt to keep our weekly food budget at the grocery store under $25. This is week one...I like to call it working out the kinks...

So We've run into a rough patch with money this month between paying for a couple vacations from previous two months, car problems, and probably some unchecked spending. As a stay at home mom, there isn't much I can do to help bring in more money so I decided to help where I could.

First, I decided to take a month off my ballet classes (a whopping $165 a month savings) because yes I love it but I'm hoping to figure out how to work at the studio to earn some free classes to go back. I also decided if it's just a month or two it's ok. I can do my ballet at home and maybe take a class here and there. I'd like to mention this was voluntary as my husband did say I should keep going. I feel that it's an extra splurge at the moment.

Second, I have been dabbling in couponing since july and decided I could "kick it up a notch" and really try to spend only $25 dollars at the grocery store for a weeks worth of food. This week happened to be the best week for it as our local grocery store, Albertson's, had twice the value coupons in the sunday paper. They will double a coupon up to a dollar making some items on sale free.

For those not new to the best way to use coupons, here's a quick run down. Manufacturer's put items on sale. They also send out coupons weekly in papers they have contracts with. Your best bet is to match the coupons up with the sale (which makes things WAY cheaper than just using sales only or coupons only.)

How did I figure everything out? Well luckily there have been a couple ladies who live in my are on the show Extreme Couponing and they actually make things easy for me. They figure out the ads and coupon match ups and even highlight those items that are best to "stock up on".

DISCLAIMER: I do love to watch Extreme Couponing but I am not of the opinion to get something I don't need because it's free. I like to think of what I am doing as realistic couponing. I stock on the items my family uses and try to work off my stockpile when money is tight (such as now). Also stockpiles take time to create, unless you have buckets of money laying around, try just using $25 aside from your weekly budget to add new items to your stockpile (anything left over from that $25 you can add to next week's $25 stockpile budget.)

Anyway...So I used my favorite site Coupon Connections and made a list of things I would like. A few months ago I had a friend (Hi Becky!) send me her spreadsheet on how she lists out her trip to the grocery store. It helps me figure out where I'm using coupons, how to maximize any Catalinas that print for "future" purchases (coupons that print when you check out good on your next purchase), and what my total might be.

I must tell you I went back over that list 3-4 times trying to make sure all my math added up and I was making the smartest choices. So Jeremy, my husband, went with me last night around 10:30pm because I was afraid a couple items I wanted that would actually make me $3.00 would be sold out at midnight and that would blow my budget. (when I have money makers that expands my budget without costing me more.) I was working on getting those items that would make me the $3.00 and asking the nice cashier if the items I got matched my coupons when we found out the store actually closes at midnight...well darn...

The nice, nice, nice cashier told us we could still shop for our items and she would put them in the freezer/fridge and we could pick them up today!

So we did that, I came home, secure in my purchases...and then I woke up and checked back on my favorite website to make sure one last time that things added up. Boy am I glad I did...i almost didn't make the extra $6.00 because I failed to put 4 items in one transaction...so I quickly re-organized and added a couple free products I found I had coupons for and off I went.

I had a total of 5 transactions (normally unless you find a cashier as nice as I did, the store says 3 transactions per store trip.) Plus one transaction at a different grocery store yesterday for some produce and things.

Here's a list of what I bought:

1 French's mustard
3 20 oz Heinz Ketchup
1 Kroger's brand Aluminum Foil 75 feet
1 bag pinto beans
2 Hass Avocados
4 roma tomatoes
1 2lb bag carrots
1 gallon 1% milk
1 box Loaded Mash Potatoes
5 Loaded Chicken and potato TGI Friday meals for one
2 heads of iceberg lettuce
3 Steak Fajita TGI Friday meals for one
3 Bird's Eye Steamfresh Frozen broccoli and rotini with cheese
2 Bird's Eye Steam fresh Frozen penne and veggies
3.29 lbs chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1.27 lbs broccoli (bunch of three heads)
1 loaf bakery cinnamon bread (this was free from a coupon I had from a previous purchase)
1 5 oz kikkoman soy sauce
6 jello puddings (2 chocolate, 2 vanilla, 2 butterscotch)
2 jello - strawberry
2 Dreamfield Pasta spaghetti (this is pasta good for diabetics - very expensive normally)
1 small Morton's sea salt
3lbs 85% lean ground beef
1.48 lbs Honey Crisp apples
1 Sara Lee Whole Wheat Hearty and delicious honey bread
2 Beechnut Baby Oatmeal Cereal

Total retail value: $134.60
Total paid : $60.44
Total saved: $74.16
Percent saved: 55%

So I ended up getting more meat and chicken then I was planning on because the cost was better and I can roll that meat over into next week's meals. Best things I got for free: 2 boxes of Baby Oatmeal for Lucas, 1 loaf of cinnamon bread (which I used to make yummy french toast for brunch), and the pasta which is normally $2.79-$2.99.

Things I learned: My grocery store closes at midnight. I need to patiently look at the deals from the website to make sure I put my transactions in order. Have transactions as low as 67 cents is pretty awesome when the retail value is $25.

Food to make this week:
Chicken Stir-Fry (from fridge and pantry - rice and veggies, chicken from fridge as well)
Roast with potatoes and carrots (roast and potatoes in the fridge already)
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup and bread bowls (from stock and from my list)
Tacos
Pot Roast Pot Pie (from stock and fridge Items)

Planning already for next week:
Juicy Lucy burgers (from stock)

So there is my adventure.

Things I need to buy next week:

Dish soap if on sale
Vanilla extract
Butter

Last thoughts: I usually spend between $150 - $200 a week - this weeks purchase was a 70% savings. I think that works for us.

Baltimore Beef Sandwich

So after letting the piece of top round beef marinate for two days we finally took it out of the fridge and grilled it up for sandwich meat.

This is from an episode of Guy's Big Bite where he was making a Baltimore Beef Bad Boy.
My brother, roommate, and I drooled over what he did to this piece of meat. So I thought I'd try making the meat at least. I'm not a horseradish person so I figured we could make our own sandwiches out of the beef.

First and for most...when marinating this meat with the spices - know that when you open your fridge you will smell the seasoning...and it will happen when someone else opens the fridge and you are across the room and you will smell this deliciousness. It's a big tease for how it will smell when cooking it.

Side note - make sure you have enough propane in your tank before you start your grill...we ended up bring this in and cooking it over our stove top grill board.

It's juice and delicious and each of us in the house made it a bit different on our sandwiches. There isn't much left.

Cooking marathon continued

What else have I been working on you say?

Oh well I made some of my standard dessert recipes.
Peanut Butter Balls and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Both of the middle part of these yummy treats comes together very quick. What is the most time consuming is the dipping of the balls in Candy-quick/Almond bark like yummy coatings. They are really easy desserts that take time but usually have a wow factor when you bring them to a get together.

What else can I say - they are both very rich desserts and I love them.

Roasted Chicken - Just a little note

I've been cooking the last two days. I haven't really taken any pictures but I can tell you what I've been doing and some successes I've had.

First the biggest success. I have been dabbling in couponing. Not the Extreme couponing you can see on tv...but realistic couponing which scales down extreme couponing to have a nice stock at home for 8-12 weeks until the product goes back on sale.

In this endeavor I found chicken thighs and legs on sale for 88 cents a pound. So I got one of each plus an extra package of legs for a BBQ I was invited to. The last time we had a gathering at this friend's house she had "marinated" her chicken legs in buttermilk before grilling them. I have never done that nor have I actually cooked thighs or legs aside from the Thanksgiving turkey.

So I do what I always do when I'm experimenting in the kitchen...I went to the net for inspiration. I finally settled on a recipe from Nigella Lawson found here.

It was a very simple recipe and I dove right in did this recipe with all of the chicken I had in the home - Two packs of ten chicken legs, one pack of ten chicken thighs, and four boneless chicken breasts. I used garlic powder instead of bruised garlic, I also added Lawry seasoning, and used some Maple Syrup from my hometown that has been in my fridge for a long time.

The trick is to let it brine for 2 hours if you need to cook it the same day. It was very quick to get all this chicken in their plastic bags. When these chicken pieces started cooking I could start to smell the seasonings...oh man...it was smelling delicious and my brother could smell it downstairs so much that he commented on it on facebook.

This recipe makes such juicy roasted chicken! It's now going to be a staple for me to cook a bunch of chicken quickly and deliciously. Today we had the second chicken legs over the grill at the BBQ and oh man...soooo good. I'm looking forward to using this chicken meat in other dishes this week.


On a side note: When I'm feeling down...I cook and invariably I feel somewhat better.