Mama Mia! Italian Meatballs

During our January Challenge I discovered that I simply could not afford pre-made frozen meatballs.  I was determined to find a meatball recipe that I actually liked so I could make a big batch and freeze them for myself.

I wanted to have a recipe for Italian style meatballs and a traditional meatball recipe.  The traditional style recipe came as a lightbulb moment.  Another blogger mentioned that she simply used her meatloaf recipe for her meatballs.  Ta-da!  I love (and my family loves) my meatloaf.  It is a recipe handed down to me by my mother.  This is one of those rare recipes that I don't tweak when I make it.  I have tried tweaking it over the years, but I always come back to the original.

For the Italian meatball recipe, after some serious trial and error, I found my meatball! The pictures and directions below are for the Italian meatballs.  I will include the recipe for my "meatloaf" meatball at the end.

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
2 teaspoons Nature's Seasoning Salt
½ teaspoon ground fennel
3 tablespoons minced onion
½ cup Italian breadcrumbs
¼ cup parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.  Mix all ingredients together except for the olive oil.  The best way to mix this is definitely with your hands.  You want the mixture incorporated very well.  No one wants a meatball that has a big bite of fennel!  Plus, it's just fun to mix this kind of thing with your hands.  I remember growing up I loved it when my mom made meatloaf because she would let me be the one to mix it.  I thought it was so cool and gross to feel the meat and slimy eggs squeeze between my fingers.  It was quite the thrill!  And yes, I have passed that on to my daughter!

2.  Next you need to roll the balls.  I like big meatballs.  Meatballs the size of my fist would make me happy.  But realistically, I rolled these to a bit bigger than a golf ball size but not quite as big as a clementine.  Still, nice, good sized meatballs.  Make sure that when you roll them that are packed fairly tight.  You don't want them to fall apart or crumble when you try to pick them up.

3.  Use the oil to coat your baking sheet or dish.  This will help to keep the meatballs from becoming stuck to the pan.

4.  Place your rolled meatballs on the oiled pan.  You can place them close, but not so close that they are touching.

4.  Bake the meatballs at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.  You may have to adjust the time based on the size of the meatball.  Just make sure they are baked through when you take them out.  A good way to test this is to take the biggest, juiciest meatball and cut it open.  If there isn't any pink, you're good!  Then of course, since you only want to serve the best and prettiest to your family, you will need to dispose of this now broken meatball.  In you mouth.  Slowly.  Oh, the sacrifices we make for our families!

5.  When the meatballs came out, they had more grease sitting around them than I would like to see in my arteries, so once they cooled enough to touch, I transferred them to a paper towel lined cookie sheet.  This soaked up a lot of the extra grease.

6.  Finally we move to the freezing.  Once the meatballs are cooled, place them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Again, make sure they are not touching.  Stick them in the freezer until they are frozen through.  Then throw them in a ziploc bag and you're done!  Ready to use meatballs whenever you want.  To use them, throw them in with your favorite sauce or dish and just heat until heated through.  So simple.  They are great to use in crockpots.

Mom's Meatloaf Meatballs
2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
2 eggs
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon basil
1 Tablespoon parsley
Dash of pepper

Follow the same steps as the Italian Meatballs!

Apple Pie Pork Chops

Yesterday was a long day.  It started with me waking up at 1am and unable to go back to sleep.  It ended with us finally getting in bed at 10:00pm only to get a phone call that the cows were out.  My husband took off to the farm (only a mile down the road) and I went and woke some sleepy kids and jumped in the van and went to try and help.  Thankfully, they were able to round the cows up quickly and we were back to bed by 11pm.  Still, I was exhausted going into today.
All that to say that although I simply love to cook, there are days when I want things done as simply as possible. Enter tonight's tweak (and experiment) on dinner.  I was planning on doing parmesan sage pork chops tonight, but the later it got in the day, the more I realized I wanted to do something easier.  The pork chops were already thawed, so on my way out the door to take my daughter to ballet, I threw this together.  It's four ingredients and I only dirtied two dishes.  Yup, that is simple and that is what I needed today!  Thankfully I had my camera there in the kitchen so I grabbed a few quick photos.  Here it is!
Apple Pie Pork Chops
1.  Grab all your ingredients
          1 apple (I used red delicious because that is what was on hand!)
          4 boneless thin sliced pork chops
          Sparkling apple cider
          Apple pie spice (If you don't happen to have this don't fret.  All it is is cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.)

2.  Put you pork chops in the bottom of your crockpot in a single layer (if doing more than four they could be layered, just be sure to add liberal spice to each layer).  Liberally pour on the apple pie spice.  I'm not one for measuring, so I can't tell you how much exactly to use.  Just coat those babies well!

3.  Pour in the sparkling apple cider.  Again, no measurements, I just poured it over the pork chops until they were almost covered.

4.  Slice up your apple in fairly thin slices and layer over top of the pork chops.

5.  Close the lid and walk away!  I cooked these on high for 3 hours.  You could do low for 5-6 hours as well.  Whatever works better for you.

When I walked back in the house not only was our main dish ready, the entire house smelled amazing!  I am all about utilizing several senses to enjoy food.  The look and smell of the food is about as important as the taste.  Well, sometimes.  I have made things that smell amazing and taste amazing, but they have been affectionately called "goo" or "glop" or some other endearing name.  It is what it is!

The pork chops were absolutely delicious!  My family just gobbled them up.  They were super tender.  No knife needed!  I might add a dash of ground ginger next time.  I don't know yet.  The apples had a fabulous light sweetness to them as well.  We ended up having these pork chops, homemade applesauce, tomato cucumber salad and left over Caramel Apple Sticky Buns (from our prayer meeting the night before) for dessert.  It all went together so well and my family just loved them!  That always thrills my soul!

So there you have it.  A super simple recipe and next to no cleanup!  All I had to wash from the pork chops were the knife I used to slice up the apple and my crockpot.
*Side note on the cleaning of the crockpot ~ I am a big believer in crockpot liners.  They are just like oven bags, but made to fit a slow cooker.  They are amazing little things.  Instead of having to scrub out your crockpot after dinner, you simply lift out the bag, toss it, and wipe out your crockpot.  So very simple!  The liners can be pricey, but I find that I can get coupons for them all the time.  I just picked some up last week at Giant Eagle and they had rebate for them so I ended up getting them for free!  WooHoo!  They make crockpot cooking even easier on tired mamas!

Well, since my dishes are done and the kiddos are in bed, I am off to bed with my sweet hubby!  Good night, y'all!

January Challenge ~ almost there!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!  Yes, that is what I am chanting to myself over and over right about now as we near the end of our January Challenge.  I had a whopping $27.00 going into this week to purchase groceries for the rest of the month.  On Monday I went to the store and stared at prices, weighed every piece of produce and hemmed and hawwed about what was absolutely necessary.  My son was in charge of adding up the items as we went, always rounding up a bit.  When I got to the check out, instead of placing the items how they should be bagged, I placed them on their necessity level.  I carefully watched the total and decided if the last couple items could be purchased or not.  I was left with $2.37.  And I still have to get eggs from my niece.  So that means that for the three days next week I will have $1.37 to spend.  Honestly, I'm not that worried though.  We will simply have to do canned fruit and veggies (the store bought canned stuff ~ remember, I don't have that beautiful pantry filled with jars upon jars of summer produce yet!) and rely on ground beef.
I had to make choices on this last grocery trip that I had not faced before.  One thing that I determined we could do without was milk.  Thankfully, my husband is a dairy farmer and every other morning he brings home fresh, raw milk.  The benefits of this are amazing.  It is better for us to drink and it makes everything I cook/bake creamier (& yummier) when I use it.  The only issue is that this girl grew up on skim milk alone.  I can't take the thicker consistency.  It is about 3.6% milkfat.  I'm working on it though.  I have worked myself up to drinking 1% milk and am in the process of trying to get used to 2% milk.  So when I say that I didn't get milk, that just means that I probably won't be drinking any milk until February.  The kids will be fine and the baking will be done.  Just mama has to do without!
I also really had to study and do a lot of price comparison.  I looked at the list and had to make choices as to what I absolutely needed to have now, versus putting off for another week or so.  I usually buy 2 or 3 loaves of bread at a time and that will last us a couple weeks.  Monday I just bought one loaf.  Every dollar counts!  I also nixed the snack foods altogether.  I was just working on the main meals.  Everything else was cut.
I will say that one thing that has helped out considerably this month was that earlier in the month I made our own instant oatmeal.  My children will go through 2 or 3 bowls of cereal EACH and every morning just about and that gets expensive in a hurry.  It took me about 10 minutes to make a month's worth of instant oatmeal and they now prefer that over cereal.  It is just as fast in the morning and that is important when trying to stay on schedule!  All I do is heat water in the tea kettle and pour it over the mix in their bowls.  I let it sit for a couple minutes and then stir it together.  Waalaa!  Yummy, filling breakfast ready to be "personalized"!  The kids add fruit or brown sugar or cinnamon and eat it up.  It is so much better for them than cereal or store bought instant oatmeal packets.  There is no sugar or MSG in it.  I just love the stuff and it is a fraction of the cost of their typical breakfast.  If I still had to buy boxes and boxes of cereal every week, we never would have made the budget stretch this far.  This has been a lifesaver!
Tonight is our last night of hosting our weekly prayer meeting at our house.  For snacks tonight I am using all items I have on hand.  I am making Pioneer Woman's scrumptious Caramel Apple Sticky Buns, Cranberry White Chocolate bread, and gluten free raspberry coffee cake.  I doubt anyone tonight will realize that I am on my last legs with my grocery budget!  I was going to make some of these items last week, but my cousin called earlier in the day last Wednesday and delightfully informed me that she was making her fabulous cilantro bread with butter and garlic and fresh tomatoes and fresh cilantro topped with melted cheese.  Yes.  Fabulous is the proper word to describe this little taste of heaven!  Along with scrumptious, delicious and all other sorts of yummy type words!  All I did was slice up some apples and cube some cheese to have on the side.  That allowed me to save the baked goodies for this week!
I will say that my little pantry is showing the abuse it has taken, along with my freezer.  My pantry now has two and half completely bare shelves.  Oh does this make me sad when I walk in there!  Oh well.  February is coming and past that, it will be summer!  Oh the dreams I have of a pantry filled with jars upon jars of the blessings of the Lord and the work of my hands.  What sweet, sweet dreams!  But for now, I trudge through to the end of this month anxiously looking forward to working my own garden.
I leave you with a picture of some of those dreams in my head.  Ahhh . . . . so pretty!

January Challenge update ~ phew, this is getting tight!

I did my grocery shopping last night and it wasn't pretty.  Two of the items I had on my list ALDI did not have in stock.  The one item was frozen meatballs.  I know, I know, that is essentially a convenience food, but it is one I hesitate to give up.  I have never really found a recipe that I truly love for meatballs.  However, frozen meatballs were not in the budget and I do have ground beef, so I will be searching for a recipe and making them from scratch this time!
The other item was turkey kielbasa and I had to go to Giant Eagle to get it.  Thankfully it was on sale.  While I was there though, I discovered that they had a bunch of meat (mainly pork) on sale for buy one get one free!  Although there is definitely not room in the January Challenge budget for it, I decided that it would be foolish of me to pass up such a rare and great deal!  I went ahead and purchased some of the meat, but I didn't go crazy with it either.  I did not count it towards my January Challenge budget (is that cheating?).
I also struggled with what to do for prayer meeting this week.  I already have the ingredients for the muffins, but I don't know what to put with them.  I was originally thinking some fresh fruit and there was some on sale at ALDI, but if I purchased enough for everyone it was going to add $7.00.  At that point I knew that I was already pushing my budget limit with the basics for my family.  I nixed the idea of fruit, but I'm still searching for what to put with the muffins.  It may be simply muffins and nothing else.  We shall see.
All in all I ended up spending $44.04.  Seven dollars over budget for the week and I'm already running low for the month.  Thankfully, this is the majority of the food needed for the next two weeks.  I only have a few perishable items to purchase for next week, so hopefully it all works out.  I am thinking that the last three days of January will be a lot of cheap-o meals.  Things like breakfast foods (eggs, pancakes, etc.), spaghetti with meat sauce (unless I find that I really like the meatballs I make for next Tuesday) and such things.  It is certainly TBA!
Well, back to school.  The kiddos are finishing up their Bible lessons and it's time to move onto Spelling!

January Challenge ~ second two week meal plan

As I wrote before, the last half of this month in the January Challenge is going to be a little harder.   I was able to switch out some of the fruit salads from the last menu plan thanks to some great deals on cantelope and cherries.  Because of that I can utilize some of the supplies that I purchased last week for this week.  Also, we started purchasing eggs from a neighbor (and relative), so that saves us a bit.  I took stock of my freezer again and this time I spent some time in my pantry figuring out what I had.  My cash is running low heading into the next two and a half weeks and I will have to purchase some meat to get through the month, but I am determined to still make this work. Here is the menu plan for the next two weeks:
Sunday, Jan 15th ~ Chilli, Cornbread, Salad, leftover fruit salad
Monday, Jan 16th ~ Grilled Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad, Homemade bread
Tuesday, Jan 17th ~ Meatloaf, Garlic red-skin mashed potatoes, spiced pears
Wednesday, Jan 18th ~ Chicken Crescent Wreath, Triple berry yogurt parfait
Thursay, Jan 19th ~ Turkey kielbasa with green beans and potatoes, Homemade applesauce
Friday, Jan 20th ~ Date Night! *Side note, gift cards are fabulous things!  Don't be afraid to request gift cards for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas gifts, etc . . .  It gives you the opportunity to eat out and enjoy something special without busting the budget!  We were able to use a gift card for our last date night and we only paid 99 cents for our meal!  Love that!
Saturday, Jan. 21st ~ Takeout and foreign movie night with my wonderful sister-in-law!
Sunday, Jan 22nd ~ Curried Coconut Chicken, mixed veggie blend, mandarin oranges
Monday, Jan 23rd ~ Amy's soup (yummy gift from Christmas), cornbread, pistachio fruit salad
Tuesday, Jan 24th ~ Sweet & Sour Meatballs, Botan rice, Pineapple
Wednesday, Jan 25th ~  Tilapia, Honey-roasted red potatoes,  sliced peaches
Thursday, Jan 26th ~ Parmesan-sage baked pork chops, Mama's fruit salad, Cucumber-tomato salad
Friday, Jan 27th ~ Family night (We could use yet another gift card, do leftovers, make our own pizzas, etc. It's kind of up to the kiddos.  We usually do a very laid back dinner and either watch a movie or do board games until bed time.  Good times for all!)
Saturday, Jan 28th ~ Pizza party with our small group from church

Phew!  So there it is!  I'll make it through the next two weeks and then there are only 3 days left in January.  We will make it after all!  I can say though, that on this restricted budget I have no option but to stick to ALDI for just about everything.  I have also had to be more cautious about what I plan to make for dinner.  I have really been craving Lasagna Soup, but it has some ingredients that I don't have on hand that can get expensive.  So, no soup for us (forgive me, I am a child of the nineties!)!  It has been good to get out of the habit of picking up ingredients at the closest store even if it is more expensive.  I got used to convenience shopping versus economical, planned shopping.  It has also made me shop my own home, too.  For our weekly prayer meeting at our house last week, I used all stuff I had in my pantry.  I made two different kinds of Chex Mix and made a fruit bake with canned fruit.  The fruit bake called for almonds, which I didn't have, so I simply made it without it.  No one seemed to mind!  This week I am making a couple different kinds of muffins and maybe whatever fruit I can find on sale. We will see!
On to the Walmart part of the challenge, that has gone well, too.  Now, I have to confess I have been to Walmart twice.  Both times though I needed things that I could not get at any other local store (and yes, I tried and searched!).  My only other option was heading about 20 minutes away to the closest Target.  Now, in the interest of saving money, I decided to just head to Walmart.  Gas isn't exactly cheap and it makes no sense at all to spend the extra money on gas just to prove a point.  Both times that I went to Walmart though, I was in and out and ONLY purchased exactly what I needed.  So I still consider it a success.
Now, on to the rest of my to-do list now!

January Challenge week two

Week two has definitely been harder for my January Challenge.  There are a handful of items that I am a bit of a stickler on for name brands.  Not many, but just a few.  I find that sometimes when baking, there can be a difference in some recipes.  I get picky.  I want things to turn out just so.  I ran out of a couple of those items by the end of last week and when I went to the store to get them, I was a bit shocked at the prices.  I guess I had not really been paying attention to the price, because I knew that I was going to get that particular brand even if something else was cheaper.  Ugh.  That set me back a bit.
Then I also wanted to get some fresh herbs for the recipe I was making today.  Now fresh vs. dry herbs decidedly make a difference.  I wanted to proper flavor for our dinner so I went to pick up some fresh herbs at the store.  Yuck.  Again, I must not have really been paying attention to the price.  I have resolved that I need to start an indoor herb garden with some of the herbs I use the most.
So here I am not even halfway through the month but I have already spent about 60% of our monthly budget.  I will need to do some tweaking.  One thing I have found though is that if I watch the sales, the fruit costs can work itself out a bit.  Twice this past week I was able to pick up fresh fruit that was on sale that worked out to be cheaper than what I had planned in our menu.  It was great!
At the end of this week I will plan out the menus for the next two weeks and I may have to get creative with what I have left of my original $150.  I am determined to make it work!

January Challenge ~ first two week menu plan

I said that I would post the menu for our first two weeks into our January Challenge.  So here it is:
Jan 1st ~ Meatloaf, Peas, Homemade bread, fresh applesauce
Jan 2nd ~ Roast Beef with red potatoes and carrots, Triple Berry Yogurt parfait with granola (the granola was a gift from my S-I-L.  Yup, she's amazing!)
Jan 3rd ~ Honey & Spice Pork Chops, Garlic Red-Skin Mashed Potatoes, Home For Christmas Fruit Bake
Jan 4th ~ Chicken Fajitas w/ green pepper and onion, salsa and cheese, Homemade applesauce
Jan 5th ~Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Botan Rice, Pineapple
Jan 6th ~ Hopeful Date Night!
Jan 7th ~ BLT sandwiches, Tomato Basil Soup, Mama's fruit salad
Jan 8th ~ Company coming over!  BBQ ribs, Broccoli Raisin Salad, Homemade Bread, Gluten-Free Bread, Macaroni Salad (some GF mac), Strawberry Shortcake, Gluten-Free Brownie Torte
Jan 9th ~ Pinto beans, Corn Bread, Spinach salad, Pistachio Fruit Salad
Jan 10th ~ Lemon Pepper Steak, Cheesy Broccoli Bake, Festive Fruit Salad
Jan 11th ~ Apple Orchard Pork Roast, Spinach salad, Homemade applesauce
Jan 12th ~ Calico Bean Soup and Sweet Corn Bread (compliments of my fabulous niece who gave us the mixes for Christmas!) and Ambrosia Fruit Salad.
Jan 13th ~ Flank Steak, Honey Roasted Red Potatoes, Strawberry/Banana Fruit salad
Jan 14th ~ Wedding!  No meal prep for me!

Now you may note that there is no mention of lunch or breakfast.  For lunch we always have leftovers from the night before or earlier in the week.  So simple and the food doesn't turn to science experiments in the back of your fridge.  No waste!  For breakfast we usually just have cereal or oatmeal and fruit, or something of the sort.  My husband doesn't have a lot of time when he comes home for breakfast.  It has to be something super quick.  We will have cinnamon rolls throughout the month this month, too!
That is the plan for now, anyway.  It is definitely open to change!  I was able to do my grocery shopping for $32 for the first week.  Keep in mind though, that the only meat I had to purchase was some ham for the Calico Bean Soup on the 13th.  I still do need to get some broccoli and cucumber, too.  What they had there at ALDI was not looking too good.  I was able to get some snacks that I will work on serving for prayer meeting.  It took me back though, going to ALDI with my cash in hand carefully adding up what each thing costs, knowing that I had no room for error or any extras.
The Walmart part of the challenge is already challenging me.  There are things on my list (that I couldn't get at ALDI) that I need to get, but I am forcing myself to wait till later in the week when I will be in town and can hit up the Dollar General.
All in all, though, it's so far so good!

The January Challenge

For the month of January I am imposing a reality check on our grocery budget.  Lately it has gotten way out of hand.  I thought back to my budget as a single mom and quickly realized that there was a dramatic difference.  I used to pride myself on how low I could keep my food budget.  I shopped almost solely at ALDI and like stores.  Presently, I find myself shopping more at our local grocery stores and even Walmart more than ALDI.  That is a quick way to add extra $$ to the budget.  Now, I will say, that I do feel that we eat better now than we have in the past.  Due to my son's health issues, I have always had to be very cautious about getting enough fruit in his system.  He needs to have 4-6 full servings a day of fruit and only one of those servings should come from juice.  I used to depend more on canned fruit and applesauce and such, but now we indulge in a lot more fresh fruit.  That is a big change.  When I was a single mom, fresh fruit was a rare and oh so special item.  Even now fruit is still pretty much considered dessert at our home.  Most of the time I make some sort of a fruit salad with dinner and that is the last thing the kiddos get to put on their plates.  That being said, our food budget was still way over the top.  I knew that I had to pare down.
That brings us to my January challenge to myself.  I am determined to feed our family of four for the month of January on $150.  That breaks down to about $37 a week.  Phew, even typing that overwhelms me a bit.  I have done it on less though, so I know it is possible.  Now in full disclosure, I have a freezer with quite a variety of meat.  That will dramatically help in keeping costs down.  I spent some time taking inventory of our freezer last week in preparation for this.  It took about 2 hours and some good gloves.  I also usually have a well-stocked pantry, but with the holidays, it has really taken a hit.  Some of my staples are running low heading into this month, but that's okay.  I do have 6 quarts of fresh homemade applesauce that my mom and I canned on Saturday, so that helps (it was seven quarts, but we already demolished one whole quart!).  I must say that I long for the day when I walk into my pantry and I see jar after jar of fresh fruits and veggies all nicely canned.  There is something so special about hearing that pop when you open up a jar.  It is as though you are releasing summertime into your kitchen.  Until that day of a beautifully stock pantry arrives, I must rely on what my grocery store offers.  I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday about this little challenge and she (being a wonderfully frugal mom) suggested that I simply buy the fruit that is on sale at ALDI.  Now, being a gal that feels the need to plan out her menus two weeks in advance, it can be difficult to wait and see what is on sale once I get to the store to figure out what I am going to feed my family.  I have determined that I will still plan out my menus, but with a big asterisk for the fruit part of the dinners.  If I see a great deal on fruit, I can scoop it up and simply substitute it for the fruit that was planned.  Plus, I can go online (they don't mail out their ads) and check out the ALDI ad before I head out so I have an idea what to look for when I'm there.  So, can I do this?  Can I feed the four of us well balanced meals, 3 meals a day and snacks on $37 a week?  I am going to give it my darndest!
The little unexpected kink that has been thrown into all of this is that Sunday morning (after I had already determined to do this challenge) one of our pastors approached us about hosting our mid-week prayer service at our home again for (wait for it!) the month of January!  (If you remember, we are out of our church building and we are currently a "gypsy" church!)That might not seem like it is related at all, but please realize that I am a girl that feels the need to offer some sort of food to any potential visitor to my home.  I don't know why, but it just doesn't seem right to have people in my home and not have them munching on something.  The last time we hosted prayer meeting I provided freshly baked cookies, clementines, pretzels and other little goodies.  With this challenge, I am either going to have to set aside my desire to play hostess, or I'm going to have to get very creative as to how I am going to make this work.  We shall see how this all works out!!
Now there is a part two to this challenge as well.  Although I am not enforcing a strict toiletry budget (that hasn't been blown out of whack like the grocery budget), I am banning myself from Walmart.  It is simply too convenient as it is right around the corner and has pretty much anything I could want or need.  The problem is that it is also too easy to go there for three items and walk out with ten.  So for the month of January there will be no Walmart for this lady.  The only exception is their pharmacy as that is where I go for the children's prescriptions.  This will not be easy.  This will take some planning on my part.  I can't wait until I am out of something and then run up to Walmart to get it.  I will be relying on stores that are in town, so I will need to make good use of my trips to town.  There was a day that I lived by the thought that if I couldn't find it at ALDI or Dollar General, then I didn't really need it after all.  For the month of January, we will be pretty close to that!
So I start off today on this challenge.  I will finish planning out my menus for the next two weeks with my freezer inventory in hand.  I will learn to be more flexible with our fruit choices and I will put aside my fear of serving a vegetarian meal every once in a while.  If I can get enough time, I will even post our menu plan for the next two weeks.  This morning I am starting off with a bang though and I will be making a big batch of cinnamon rolls to freeze.  This is a new recipe and I am so anxious to try it.  It won't seem like we are really cutting back when I get to greet my hubby home for breakfast with freshly baked cinnamon rolls throughout the month!



~I would love to hear thoughts and tips from any readers.  Am I crazy to try to make this work?  Do you think I can still cut back more?  Let me know!

Grapefruit

The real reason I can't do the grapefruit diet: Grapefruit and coffee don't mix. It just makes my coffee taste like broiled rubber. Grapefruit v. coffee ~ just guess which one I will quit! :-)

Creativity on Crack

That is what I call Pinterest. I recently discovered Pinterest and I am completely addicted. I have gotten some wonderful ideas from there! And yes . . . I have actually used what I have discovered. About once a week I am using a recipe I found there and the organizational tips are a life saver!! Plus I have made a few crafty-type things! I am not a crafty person either, but there are such simple crafts that I can even do on there. (Case in point: see pics). I love it!

Cooking=Love

Cooking for others = LOVE