M.R. Ducks
M.R. Not Ducks.
O.S.A.R.
C.D.E.D.B.D. Legs?
C.D.E.D.B.D. Feet?
L.I.B.
M.R. Ducks.
Um, Guys. They’re Geese. Canadian Geese. Now go get some crusts of bread.
Big Haul from Dirty Don’s
I hate reading posts like this. The ones where someone tells you the great deals they found–that you can’t get. I hope you will humor me a little and not throw tomatoes. There’s a purpose (besides shameless bragging…)
Dirty Don’s is a salvage store. I’m not sure where they get their stuff, but it looks like restaurant supply and mis-delivered or damaged train cargo. There are stores like these in major cities spread across the United States and most people have access to some sort of deal if they know to look. Some days I go into a store like Dirty Don’s and leave empty handed–not every day is a haul. In fact, I’d had so many bad days that I stopped going for awhile.
But a friend called and bragged about her awesome purchases, and I ran right over to see if there was anything left.
Here’s what I got: 4 boxes of Larabar’s with 16 count each at $2 a box.
4 bottles of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce $.50 each
2 containers of Feta cheese: $.50 each
9 lbs of Fajita Chicken Sausage: $6
9 lbs of Spinach Asiago chicken sausage: $6
24 lbs of shredded rotisserie chicken breast: $15
lunch box size individual organic Strawberry applesauce: $.25 for 4 servings
Cottage Cheese: $.50 a 24 oz carton
Cereal (off-brand of Special K with freeze dried strawberries.) $1 a box
3 pkg of Burrito Size Tortillas: $.50 a bag of 8
Individual lunch box hummus containers: $1.50 for 12
And organic white blueberry tea: $1.50 a box
Everything that could be frozen went straight to the freezer. Then I started planning my meals based on the food I just got. I didn’t decide what I was going to cook, then make a list and go buy it. I looked at what I have and said, “Now what are you going to do with this stuff?” I love the creativity that comes with this way of thinking. Sometimes amazing new dishes are born. On the first night we had feta chicken wraps on tortillas (imagine that :).) And all that cottage cheese will become protein pancake batter.
So anyhow, the point is–look for deals. Know your prices! Just because it’s at Dirty Don’s doesn’t mean it’s a good price. Use a portion of your grocery money each month to buy those amazing deals (and if there aren’t any deals–save the deal money for when you find the mother-load.) Then fill your freezer and pantry (watch for expiration dates.) And use what you find. I still spend a portion of my budget each month on fresh produce, dairy etc. and to fill in some gaps–but this is the main way we feed our family for so little.
Brandon’s First Skate
When we were homeschoolers we went skating once a month at the homeschool skate. Brandon was in the stroller or with Grandma and had never put on real skates before. (You know it’s a homeschool skate when there are tons of strollers on the floor and brothers and sisters help each other skate without fighting. Not that homeschoolers are perfect…but it’s a pretty special culture.)
Now that all the kids are in private school, we rarely go skating. So I was excited for Brandon to be invited to a skating birthday party. I dropped off the rest of the kids with Grandma this time, so I could focus all my attention on him.
The wheels on real skates spin super fast. Brandon was sure he was an expert skater and didn’t wait for me to go on the rink floor. He looked like something out of a Disney Goofy movie. Ouch! He was ready to go home. I couldn’t even hold him up with his arms and legs flying everywhere. I can’t tell you how many times I said, “Just stand up.” (Patiently…of course :P.)
We tried having the wheels tightened on the skates, but his feet were too narrow for the velcro ones and the tie skates can’t be tightened. Next try were the fisher price shoe skates. His shoes were too big for those so he just wore his socks. Now we’re ready for some fun!
His new friend from school was there and they were an inseparable pair.
She was a fearless skater and when she took a tumble Brandon was right there to help her up. It was so sweet, I tried not to cry. I love it when I see one of my son’s be gentle and strong.
One of the games was the limbo :). They were pretty lenient on the rules and I laughed myself limp watching the kids army crawl under the pole.
The rink had one of these thingies made up out of pvc pipe to help the really struggling skaters. I wish they had 10 of them. They looked really easy to make so I took this photo to help me remember how to put it together.
The Mom hosting the party is super creative and made these minion cupcakes for the kids. Adorable.
Hope you enjoyed my super blurry phone pictures (bwa ha ha.) We sure enjoyed the day.
Pumpkin Everything Is Here
I’ve had a lot of pumpkin type of recipes on my blog over the years, including:
(Last year a gray pumpkin gave us the best flavor–sweet like a melon and darkest color.)
We still have a freezer full of gorgeous puree. It’s no longer recommended to home can pumpkin, so freezing is the way to go.
Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Cutouts
Easy Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Bagels–These are the BEST
Pumpkin Granola
Pumpkin Donuts (no special pan needed)
I also have a Pumpkin Recipe Ebook: Called Perfectly Pumpkin with these recipes and many more of our favorites like pumpkin biscotti, chili, oatmeal, smoothies and more!
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Mac
I can’t wait to tell you about this recipe! Sunday, I stayed home from church to kick the last bit of an infection, but still needed to have lunch on the table for 8 of us (and a young guest.) So around 8 am, I snuck up to our attic kitchen and threw 2 (24 oz) cans of spaghetti sauce, 1 frozen 2 lb log of lean ground beef, and a cup of water (which I used to rinse out the sauce cans) in a large oval slow cooker on high. Then back to bed for me.
At 11:30, I took the lid off, and smashed the now cooked beef into crumbles with the back of a fork. (A potato masher would have been handy…but which box did I pack that in?) (The beef had taken on all the yummy flavors of the sauce.) And stirred in 1 lb of dry macaroni noodles. Then I replaced the lid and waited for the family to come home.
Darren found some lettuce, cottage cheese and pineapple to make it look something like a meal. But oh, that spaghetti mac was yummy. We had 1 serving left over and I packed it into a lunch kit for a lucky child. I’m going to say this serves 8-10 of a mixed age and gender family or 6 growing boys.
I imagine this recipe would work with gluten free noodles, or low carb Dreamfields pasta too. The pasta shape is important though. Full size macaroni takes longer to cook than thin spaghetti which would have turned to mush in the crock.
Oh the bliss of not thawing meat or standing over hamburger browning in the skillet. Imagine it, you pregnant ladies who can’t stand the smell of cooking meat! Imagine it, you busy working mom’s or homeschoolers who don’t have an extra moment in the day. This is a life changer.
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Mac
Ingredients
- 2 cans 24 oz each of spaghetti sauce
- 2 lbs uncooked ground beef
- 1 cup of water
- 1 lb of macaroni shaped pasta, uncooked
Instructions
- in a large slow cooker combine the sauce, water (use it to rinse your cans first), and ground beef. Cook on high for 3-4 hours.
- Smash beef with a fork or potato masher until it is crumbled.
- Stir in pasta and cook for 1 hour longer or until pasta is tender and sauce is quite thick.
Lace Fingerless Gloves
Instead of sewing my afghan squares together, I made these:
From this free pattern (click the photo below to go to the pattern) (Argh–cue angry pirate sounds–wordpress is deleting my links so I put a hard copy below the picture. You’ll have to cut and paste):
http://bethsco.blogspot.com/2011/11/ripple-lace-fingerless-gloves.html
I like them in a color better than white. It takes some of the saccharine sweetness out of it. But white was my only sport weight yarn in stash and I was still resting from an illness while I stitched. This pattern is super fast and I was able to complete a pair of gloves in a couple of hours. (They’d be good for stocking stuffers if you have a tween or teen, or trendy teacher on your list.)
Which one do you like better?
This polka dot afghan was supposed to be part of Heather’s room reveal. That was crazy. As if I had time to sit and crochet with all the other projects. But I’ve taken it with me for car rides and appointments and meetings, and now it’s time to make a decision on how to sew the squares together.
Do you like Rainbow?
Or Random?
There’s one square left to stitch up. In rainbow mode it would be light blue. In ‘random’ dark blue.
This was my inspiration photo: I didn’t have all the colors, so went more simply. I used only the small dot squares in solid colors.
From Made by Do. Click picture to go to the tutorial for this afghan.
I had originally thought to make mine random too. But the rainbow has a nice orderly feeling to it.
I’ve been in bed for 2 1/2 days with a kidney infection (follow up appointment on Tuesday). So if you follow me on Pinterest, I apologize for filling up your main page with Christmas ideas and crochet tutorials. I decided while I lay (lie–hmmm, That’s why I teach choir) here I decided to get a jump start on Christmas planning.
I lost all humility and told my husband I AM A GENIUS. You know why? Last year on December 26th I took a few moments to take notes on our last Christmas, including what gifts went over well and are a definite re-do; what I’d like to do differently with decorations; and updates for my Christmas card list. So when I went to brainstorm for Christmas 2013, half the work was done for me and the ideas were really good.
Like: Make a bound photo book for Great-Grandma. Her mind isn’t clear and it’s hard for her to remember everyone’s names, so it will be easy to make that part of the book. And maybe if I start now on Teacher gifts, I’ll get them done on time….maybe.
My Birthday Present
For my Birthday, we got family photos taken :). My cousin Rachael did them and was so patient. She kept the camera clicking even when we weren’t posed and some of those were my favorite. Here’s a sampling of the over 225 photos she took of us.
What I loved most about this session was how casual and relaxed it was. We were at a park so when it wasn’t a child’s turn He could play. AND the frugal part of me loved paying Rachael an hourly wage and then getting a disk with all the pictures on it in full resolution to print at my leisure.
Brandon’s Dinosaur Backpack
Back before we started Heather’s room project, I stitched up Brandon a kindergarten sized backpack. He loves green and dinosaurs so I dug through my stash to see what I could find. I had already been to 3 stores and decided that it was hard to find a quality back pack that was affordable too. (I needed it to be less than $15.) After I was done sewing, my friend told me she snagged a really great quality bag at the thrift store for $2. Smack. (That’s me smacking my forehead because I didn’t think of looking at the thrift store.)
My goal was to make the backpack entirely out of stash, but I ended up buying $1.50 plastic pieces for the straps. I had the zipper on hand, because I took it out of a bag that had worn-out fabric before throwing the bag away, and put in my stash. It pulled a little rough, so I put silicone lubricant on it (from my sewing machine repair box) and that fixed it right up.
I used this inspiration photo. And this tutorial (I skipped the pocket and used wool quilt batting in the straps because I didn’t have fleece in stash.)
If I had it to do over, I would have made the bag 2 inches shorter. It would have still held a folder and fit his body a little better. I lined the inside with canvas from the rest of a drop cloth that I had cut up for a previous project. Then any exposed seams got bound on the inside with blue bias tape. It about killed me to use the smoky blue bias tape but it was the ONLY color I had in the right size and I was challenging myself not to buy anything. The kids put it in perspective for me–“Mom, it’s on the INSIDE.” They were right.
Wrist wallet for lunch money. Tutorial here.
Happy Kindergarten Brandon!
Skillet Shepherd’s Pie
Monday, I came home from my teacher meetings (Which were amazingly wonderful for reals. It is very possible that I have the best job in the world.) And Darren met me at the door with a huge silly grin on his face. Then he grabbed me and swung me around and said, “How was YOUR day?” As if he wanted me to ask, “How was YOUR day?” Right back.
Heather’s official birthday is tomorrow–the first day of school. So she ate on a leftover plate from Darren’s party.
So I did. And guess what?! Yep. Our kitchen passed inspection and we got the thumbs up to put up dry wall. So Wednesday after my last round of teacher meetings, we hooked up the utility trailer and bought 12 huge sheets of drywall. They are stacked in my kitchen right now waiting for Saturday’s installation :).
So when do we eat?
So along with this great news is a super easy recipe for you. It’s perfect for an emergency speedy family dinner–and works even if you only have an electric skillet and microwave to cook in. If you want to reduce the carbs use the glucomannan option and top the dish with parmesan mashed cauliflower instead. If you have extra time and a kitchen, you can top it with real mashed potatoes instead of instant.
Skillet Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
- 2 cups Beef Broth
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb frozen vegetables
- 1 Tbs glucomannan powder or 2 Tbs corn starch
- 2 cups instant potato flakes
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup milk
- 3 Tbs butter
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar blend cheese
Instructions
- In a large skillet, brown ground beef and drain (I used my frozen bulk cooked ground beef from the slower cooker.)
- Stir in broth (whisked with glucomannan or corn starch); and frozen veggies
- Cook and stir until thickened. Turn heat down to warm.
- Meanwhile, heat water, milk, salt and butter together (I used the microwave.) Then stir in potato flakes and 1 cup cheese.
- Top beef mixture with cheesy potatoes and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover with a lid for 3 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with tossed salad.