1/31/13

It is just about to get frigid here again.  Tomorrow morning it is supposed to be 10 degrees.  I have to admit I was really enjoying the warmer weather.  The cold just makes me wish even more for Spring to hurry up and get here.   And since my New Year’s resolution several years ago was to stop wishing my life away,  I have to get that under control.  It is just so hard to enjoy the winter with its lack of sunshine and cold weather.

I have been experimenting more with my Cricut and here are pictures of a couple of things I have done. 

Unlike last January when I tried not to spend much on groceries, I decide to keep to my normal budget and see how much I could stock up on.  I have managed to be quite a bit of meat.  Last week I bought 11 meals of meat (not counting leftovers) for $42.00.  I  have already cooked 2 of those meals and came up with enough leftovers to have lunches for the both of us for 4 days.  So that already makes it 15 meals instead of 11.

This weekend since it is supposed to be cold and snowing I think I will make a pot of soup.  I just haven’t decide which kind to make yet. 

I am back at trying new recipes even though I didn’t make it to 3 new recipes in January, I did manage one new recipe.  

Here is the recipe I tried:

Berry Cobbler

Two 12-oz bags frozen mixed berries/peaches

1 box white cake mix

Approximately 1 can of diet 7-up or other clear soda 

Place frozen fruit in a 9x13 baking dish. Add dry cake mix over the top. Pour soda slowly over cake mix. DO NOT stir, this will give you a crust.

Bake 350 for 45-50 min or longer until berries are cooked.

I used peaches and strawberries and sprite zero from a 20 oz. bottle.  I think the next time I will add most of the bottle, I still had dry spots on the cake mix.  It was pretty good the first night we ate it but was only okay as leftovers.  When we reheated it in the microwave it got pretty gooey, where it had been a little crisp the first night. Next time I try it it will be for a larger crowd so I will not have many leftovers.

Have a good day.

Mae

Did You Know Chickens Have Bones?

We are considering raising meat chickens to sell.  We have been checking into the regulations to be able to sell them and asking around for prospective buyers.  One common response is "We only eat boneless, skinless chicken breast."  Now I'm not downing anyone who only eats boneless, skinless chicken breast, because we eat quite a bit of that, too.  Mostly because it is quick cooking and a lot of times I need something that cooks fast.  But do most people realize all the flavor they are missing.  I would much prefer chicken with bones, it has so much more flavor and believe it or not, bones are good for you.  You can search the internet for the benefits of cooking with bones and you will find plenty of articles telling you how good they are for you.

A broth made from a chicken or turkey carcass has so much more flavor than one without.  I know the skin adds extra fat, but it is fairly simple to skin a chicken but the chicken will have so much more flavor and only a few more grams of fat if you cook it with the skin on and then remove the skin before you eat it.

But what do you do with a whole chicken?  The crock pot is my go to way to cook whole chickens.  But they can be cut up into serving pieces.  It is really easy to do and thanks to YouTube there are plenty of tutorial videos on how to do it.  I realize that I have failed my daughter in not teaching her how to cut up a chicken.   But she does know that they have bones.  I am wondering if our children or their children will even know that chicken have bones.  Most kids only get boneless, skinless chicken breast or chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, etc.  I have cooked lots of chickens in my life and I have never seen a nugget or a finger on a chicken.

I challenge you to try a whole chicken.  Put it in the slow cooker with an onion, a sprig of rosemary, a stalk of celery and a carrot stuffed inside the cavity.  Sprinkle it with salt, garlic pepper and Cajun seasoning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  It will be delicious.  If you have leftovers make soup or casserole.  We can usually eat at least three meals off one chicken and a whole chicken usually runs $.98/pound instead of $1.99.  More meat, more meals, more flavor, less money-win, win.  And your kids will learn that chickens do indeed have bones.

Have a blessed day.
Mae

Dial Foaming Hand Soap Review

As a Purex Insider I received some Dial Foaming Hand Soap to review.  The bottle of one of them had peppermint swirl on the front so I thought it would smell like peppermint.  I used it first as I thought it was a Christmasy scent.  Even without the scent I was expecting I really liked it.  I noticed that my hands did not seem to dry out too much from using it and the bottle is very pretty sitting by the sink.  I smells clean and lathers nicely.  I would recommend Dial Foaming Hand Soap.  It is antibacterial and while I don't use a lot of antibacterial products because we have a septic tank, and I think you do need some bacteria, I like to use antibacterial hand wash during the cold and flu season which we know we are right in the middle of a pretty bad flu season this year.  It makes you feel as if your hands are clean and they also feel soft.

Thanks,
Mae

1/7/2013

This past weekend was pretty productive.  We got the tree and all the decorations down and put away, the house cleaned, laundry done, and we did our grocery shopping.

I am having to take a look at our grocery budget again.  Prices just keep going up.  I was looking at what one blog considered deals at Kroger this week and it occurred to me that none of the meat was below $2.00 per pound.  If you have read my blog you know that I use to only buy meat that was below $2/pound.  That is getting close to impossible now. But I refuse to pay as much as they are asking for some meats.  Even some of the manager’s specials that were marked down weren’t a deal.  Turkey wings were marked down to $1.79/pound.  They had turkey breast on sale for the same price.  That made no sense at all to me.  Why would you buy wings when you could purchase a whole breast for just a few dollars more.  You’d get more meat and less bone.  I still had money leftover in the grocery money envelope mainly because I just wouldn’t pay the prices they were asking.  Fortunately, I have plenty of food in the house and did not really need anything other than produce.

We are looking into growing chickens for meat this year.  We plan to start with 100. 50 for our freezer and 50 to sell.  Right now we are still doing research on the selling portion.  We also want to expand the egg production.  We are getting more customers than we have eggs for.  That is a good problem to have. 

We are also planning to plant more fruit trees, some rhubarb, and maybe some asparagus and enlarging the garden area.  I would also like to plant grapes, elderberries, gooseberries and strawberries this year.

What is it about winter that makes us yearn for spring so badly?  Every winter all I can think about is what we will plant this year.

Here is my list of blessings that I have counted this week:

Jan 3– I won $5 on the new Kroger game.  I rarely win any thing so I count that as a blessing.  It’s $5 worth of food off my next purchase.

Jan 4– Sunshine-it is so nice to see the sun shining and feel the warmth if offers.  We have had snow on the ground for several days now and it is still too cold for it to melt but it’s still nice having the sunshine.

Jan 5– Was able to get my tree down and get my house back to normal

Jan 6– I managed to get everything we needed from the grocery store and still have money leftover in the grocery envelope.

Jan 7– It’s treatment day and I know that I am blessed to be able to continue on treatments that cost so much with very little coming out of my pocket.

Have a great day.

Mae

2013

Most of you know from previous years that I do not make New Year’s resolutions.  I do however set goals.  As the old saying goes “It’s better to aim at something and miss, than to aim at nothing and hit the target.”  So my goal for this year is to name or count one blessing per day.  I am a believer in the fact that we miss our blessings because we aren’t looking for them.  I have to admit that sometimes it’s easy to feel like things aren’t going your way or things aren’t like you’d want them to be.  But most of the time it’s because we aren’t looking at what God has blessed us with.  Blessings are offered to us every day, even if it is just waking up everyday.  But there are far more blessings that we receive daily other than our food, warm home, life, etc.  

I will probably not be posting my blessings daily because I just don’t post every day.  But I am going to attempt to keep a list of blessings each day so that I can look back at the end of the year and see the blessings that I was aware of through out the year.  I want 2013 to be a year of blessings, even though when you look at the economy and the current events of this world, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be.   I am thankful that we don’t know the future but we know the One who does. And in Him we can place our trust for our futures.

Blessings so far:
Jan 1 The past year.  It wasn’t always a good year, but it was good more than it was bad.  Past years are what makes us who we are and teach us what we want to be.  Mistakes were made and always will be, but that is how we learn.

Jan 2. A New Year. It’s almost like having a new beginning. It’s a chance to make changes, improvements and corrections because of what you learned in years past.

Blessings to you,

Mae