Menu Plan Monday 2013 ~ week of December 31 (2012)

Since today is the last day of the year and the rest of the week begins the new year, I figure it's safe to date this menu plan with 2013.  The number thirteen is a good number for our family and I hope to make it a great  year!  More about that in another post!  For now, I'm working on getting back on track with my menu planning and keeping our grocery bill as low as possible, something I plan to do all year long!

I've been away from menu planning and cooking for over a month now and it's about time for me to get back into the swing of things.  I already started by making a wonderfully frugal and flavorful soup that I'll be sharing with you all later this week.  Making that pot of soup was all I needed to get me interested in getting back into the kitchen to whip up some great meals for the next several weeks!

Here's what's cookin' this week:

Monday 

Chipotle Turkey Chili 

Our days of going out and partying on New Year's Eve are over!  

Long ago, we started a tradition of getting together with friends 

and preparing a huge meal of all of our favorites.  

This year, it'll just be the three of us.  

We'll snuggle on the couch with a movie 

and MAYBE make it 'til midnight!
*We ended up having a short visit with friends
over some Chinese takeout.
At 9pm, it's still not certain if we'll last 'til midnight!  

Tuesday 

photo credit:  Extraordinary Life 

 Crock Pot Pork and Sauerkraut

I've been in the mood for pork and sauerkraut lately. 

So I was really pleased when I was taking inventory of our chest freezer 

in the basement and found a pork loin that I had forgotten about!  

Some mashed potatoes and a frozen veggie will finish off this 

delicious, comfort-food meal!  

Wednesday

Polish Cabbage Noodles 

Since we have leftover ham in the freezer,

I want to make this dish using some ham in this recipe 

in place of the turkey bacon that I usually use.  

I have all the ingredients on-hand, so this will be both easy and frugal!  

Thursday 

Chicken 'n' Dumplings 

Right now, as I am typing up this menu plan, 

I am making broth from a meaty rotisserie chicken carcass.  

I will pick the meat from the bones, strain the homemade broth 

and set aside in the fridge for this recipe.  

Leftovers will be turned into a soup (shown above) 

and put in the freezer for next week!  

Friday 

Leftover Night.  

With all of the wonderful meals made throughout the week, 

there's bound to be a lot of leftovers!  

I LOVE leftovers!  

Not only does it use up stuff from the fridge so it doesn't go to waste, 

it also allows me to have an easy, no-cook night!  

Saturday 

Bacon, Potato and Egg Skillet

While I prefer to use regular bacon for this recipe 

since the grease is so great for frying up those potatoes, 

I'll be using either turkey bacon or leftover ham this time.

Sunday

I'm still undecided on dinner for this night.  

I'd love to do a big Sunday dinner and invite my family over

but we might actually be out of town for the day. 

(Depending on the hubby's schedule.)  

In the end, it might just be another leftover night!  

Now that you know what we're eating this week, let us know in the comments what's for dinner at your house this week! Or, if you need more menu planning inspiration? Follow me over to Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm an Organizing Junkie! Or, if you like what you see here, you can check out my past menu plans.

You can also find this week's menu plan linked to On the Menu Monday hosted by Yvonne at Stone Gable.

Bear River Photo Greetings Review

We're into the second week of December and Christmas isn't too far off!  As usual, I'm running way behind!  There's still baking to do, gifts to buy and I haven't even started my menu plan and shopping list for Christmas brunch or dinner yet.

In the past, this is the point in the holiday planning where I would decide if I'm going to send out Christmas cards or not.  I would debate on if I had time in our schedule to go look for cards at the store, fill them out, and would I still have time to get them out in the mail.

Since Grace was born, sending out Christmas cards has gotten much easier and I have Bear River Photo Greetings to thank!

It all started when I was checking out birth announcements on Etsy.  I found the perfect one at an affordable price.  This was my first time ordering photo cards and the owner of the shop, Angie, was really friendly and helpful.

Once I decided on which of her beautiful designs I wanted for our announcements, all I had to do was email Grace's photo to Angie and she created the perfect card for us.

Within 48 hours, our design was ready and the file was emailed back to me, all ready for me to have printed...at my convenience!  I could order as little or as many copies as I needed at my favorite photo lab!  At the time, I used a couple of online photo printing sites (such as Winkflash, Shutterfly, and Snapfish) but I also find that one-hour photo options (such as Walmart, Target or CVS) work well when in a pinch for time!

I knew right then, that I would be using Angie's shop for all of my future orders.  I will admit that we didn't send out cards last year since I was unable to get a decent Christmas photo of Grace.  She just wouldn't cooperate at all!  But Angie did create a wonderful invitation for Grace's birthday that year!

This year, I was able to pair one of Angie's beautiful cards with the talents of my favorite local photographer for a really great holiday card.  One that I'll share here closer to Christmas when I'm done sending them out to our family and friends!

So, if you are running behind schedule and are still in need of purchasing your Christmas cards, check out the holiday selection in Angie's Etsy Shop.  Angie suggests placing your order by December 14th at the latest, to allow time to get your cards printed (at your favorite overnight or same day photo printer) and get them in the mail on time!

Also, I want to mention that 20% of all Bear River Photo Greetings sales will go to "Hands at Work in Africa", an organization that helps Orphaned and Vulnerable Children in Africa. Please read Angie's Profile to find out more.

You can find them on facebook, too!

California Wine Club Review (part 2)

It's already a week into the month of December and each new day is bringing us closer to Christmas.  I wish I could say I was one of those people that has all of their Christmas shopping finished by August, but sadly, I'm not one of those people.  Usually, I'm that person running around that last week before Christmas still without gift ideas.

The week before Christmas, I often find myself in the local wine and spirits shop trying to find a bottle of wine to pair with a warm scarf or gloves.  The only problem with that scenario is that I spend way too much time mulling over my choices, since I don't really know too much about wine other than the old rules of red with meat or white with fish or poultry.  Rules that I think don't always apply these days.  

After enjoying a two-month membership to the California Wine Club, I decided to let them help me pick out some wine for family and friends in the form of their Wine of the Month Club!

As part of a blog campaign, I received a two month membership to the Wine of the Month Club.  This is the first time I've ever had wine delivered to my door.  I couldn't believe how well it was packaged.  Two bottles of wine were shipped safely in a snug-fitting, foam holder that fit perfectly into the shipping box.  I was impressed with how much nicer it presented than the bubble wrap and packing peanuts I thought would be in the box!

Since the gift is delivered right to the recipient, it's one less thing I have to gift wrap (by the way, in the shipment I received this month the bottles were festively wrapped in red and silver foil gift bags) or haul out to the truck when we do our holiday visiting!

This year, I'm all about making the holidays a bit easier on myself and the California Wine Club is helping to alleviate some of the holiday stress!

Now that I've taken care of a few more people on my Christmas list, it's time for me to sit back, put my feet up and enjoy a glass of wine!

If you have a wine lover on your Christmas gift list, you should definitely consider the California Wine Club and the Wine of the Month Club.  Note: Shipping Alert! Ground Shipping Deadline is December 12th, orders placed after that date incur expedited air charges for Christmas deliveries.


For more information about California Wine Club's subscription plans, or to find out how the company got started, check out their website at www.cawineclub.com.

Also, look for them on the web:
 
      Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/cawineclub
     Twitter:  http://twitter.com/cawineclub

California Wine Club is also offering a bunch of prizes in their Blogger Palooza Giveaway

Prizes include:

• One of four, Three Month Wine Club memberships (A $150 value you can give as a gift, or keep for yourself)
• One of 50 handy Two Bottle Wine Totes ($25 value)
• One of 50 Red Tulip Music wine country CD's ($15 value)

Disclosure:

• This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a 2 month Membership to the California Wine Club for the purpose of this review.
  

Menu Plan Monday 2012 ~ Week of November 19th

Guess what!  Last week's menu plan went as planned last week!  I know!  I can hardly believe it myself!  Granted, I only planned 4 meals for the week, but all 4 meals were prepared and served.  Leftovers filled in the other three days of the week, along with a bit pot of Chicken 'n' Dumplings.

Today, I'm planning on cleaning and organizing the kitchen.  I started a bit yesterday, but didn't get as much done as I had planned, since Grace was tearing things apart in the next room.

Meals this week will be easy, so I can keep on top of keeping the kitchen cleaned up.  I don't want to be up all night cleaning the kitchen on Wednesday night.  Plus, I want to get the rest of the house ready for Friday.  Since we don't participate in the Black Friday festivities, we figure we'll spend the day getting into the holiday spirit by decorating the house!  Grace is already getting very excited about putting up our many Christmas trees!  Yep, you read that correctly.  We put up 4 Christmas trees in our house!  Check back next week to see what I'm talking about.

Monday:  

Breakfast for Dinner.  

Tuesday:  

Semi-homemade Pizza 

Wednesday:  

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce 

Thursday:  

Thanksgiving Dinner 

Friday:  

Leftovers

Now that you know what we're eating this week, let us know in the comments what's for dinner at your house this week! Or, if you need more menu planning inspiration? Follow me over to Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm an Organizing Junkie! Or, if you like what you see here, you can check out my past menu plans.

You can also find this week's menu plan linked to On the Menu Monday hosted by Yvonne at Stone Gable.

Soup's On! Sunday Link Party ~ Week 3

Good morning, Friends!

I'm so sorry I am late with this week's Soup's On!  Are you all ready with your favorite soup recipes?

Again this week, I didn't get the chance to prepare a new soup recipe.  We had a fridge full of leftovers to use up and I wanted to avoid the grocery store until we had the chance to use what we had.  Early in the week, we enjoyed a nice pot of Chicken Noodle Soup that my brother sent over for my birthday.  That was super delicious!

Also in the soup category, I made a big pot of Chicken 'n' Dumplings for dinner last week.  Mmm!  So good!  Can't wait to make Turkey 'n' Dumplings next week!



*Soup's On! Sunday Link Party will begin every Sunday at 12:01am and will close on Wednesday evenings.

There are just a few simple rules, please:

• Link to your recipe post and not your home page. It just makes it easier to find your recipe!

• No Giveaways Please!

• Provide a link back to this Soup's On! Sunday post somewhere within your post.

• Leave a comment on this post after linking up. Let me know what you shared this week or simply say "hello"!

• Check out some of the other recipes shared here this week!

• Enjoy!   

California Wine Club Review and Giveaway

When Joe and I dated, instead of hitting a local chain restaurant on date night, we would prepare special dinners at his home on the weekends.  We would watch the cooking channel on TV, make a shopping list and head out to pick up what we needed to prepare our meal.

Since he didn't have a much in the way of cooking utensils, we would hit the mall first and pick up whatever kitchen gadget we needed.  Next up would be the grocery store always followed up by a trip to the liquor store (here in Pennsylvania, we can't buy alcohol at the grocery store) for a nice bottle of wine.

At the time, I preferred white or blush wines, so I usually played it safe with a White Zinfandel.  Now, I tend to prefer the bolder flavors of red wines.  I'm not going to pretend that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to wine and throw around a bunch of wine tasting terms.  I'll fully admit that I've purchased a bottle of wine based on the pretty label, rather than based on any research done beforehand.

As our schedules became busier, our weekend trips to the Wine & Spirits Shoppe were spaced further and further apart.  Instead of each weekend, it became more of a special occasion thing.  Not because we didn't enjoy a nice bottle of wine with dinner anymore.  Our schedules just didn't allow us to fit a special trip to buy wine into our weekly errands anymore.

Now, with a child, our time is even more limited.  Sadly, a nice bottle of wine is skipped even on special occasions because we just can't manage to find the time to make it to the liquor store before closing time.

Recently, I learned about California Wine Club.  When you're a member of California Wine Club, you can have your wine shipped directly to your home!  How convenient is that?  No matter your taste or budget, California Wine Club can accommodate your wine needs with four wine of the month clubs to choose from! Making it easy to stock your own wine collection or send a gift to a friend, relative or colleague.

For more information about California Wine Club's subscription plans, or to find out how the company got started, check out their website at www.cawineclub.com.

Also, look for them on the web:

• Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/cawineclub
• Twitter:  http://twitter.com/cawineclub

California Wine Club is also offering a bunch of prizes in their Blogger Palooza Giveaway

Prizes include:

• One of four, Three Month Wine Club memberships (A $150 value you can give as a gift, or keep for yourself)
• One of 50 handy Two Bottle Wine Totes ($25 value)
• One of 50 Red Tulip Music wine country CD's ($15 value)

Disclosure:

• This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a 2 month Membership to the California Wine Club for the purpose of this review.
  

Wordless Wednesday ~ Fall Fun!

We spent a few hours working in the yard on Saturday.  Well, Joe worked in the yard while Grace played and I took some pictures!  

In a week or two, we'll have to put away some of her outside toys, so it was great to let her enjoy some time in her sandbox.

Grace LOVES tractors!  Any chance she gets she climbs up onto our beat up mower and pretends to drive! She likes to sneak over to "drive" the neighbor's tractor, too!  

By the end of the day, this leaf pile was as tall as Grace!  She had a blast running and diving into the pile.  Sadly, I didn't have the camera outside then, but am happy I captured a couple of pictures of her playing in the leaves!  

Probably the only thing she liked more than jumping in the leaves was standing in front of the leaf blower!  I finally had to take her inside so Joe could finish cleaning up the yard.  

I'm not sure how many more beautiful days we'll have like this, but we're going to enjoy them while we can!


Don't forget to enter our current giveaways! (Links are at the top of the page, below the header!)

Also, please join us for Soup's On! Our weekly link party where you can share your favorite soup, stew or chili recipes every Sunday (link goes live on Sunday and remains open until Wednesday)!

This post has been linked to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Outdoor Wednesday hosted by A Southern Daydreamer
• Wordful Wednesday hosted by Parenting By Dummies 

No Cheese Please Braided Spaghetti Bread

Oh, my goodness!  Dinner tonight was soooo good!  I wanted to rush right over to the laptop so I could quick share with y'all how wonderfully delicious our dinner turned out, but I needed a shower, had to feed the dog, load the dishwasher and all that other "mom stuff".

Of course, as I finally get to sit down to type, the day is almost over.  Which, I guess is okay since I probably won't officially share this post here until sometime next week.

Many months ago, after seeing me post about Fried Spaghetti, my friend Nicole told me about this recipe.  She told me that she made it and about how amazing it turned out!  I knew this would be a great way to use up some leftover spaghetti!  I don't know about you, but when we have leftover pasta and meat sauce, I usually just dump them both into the same bowl and pop it into the fridge.

While the original recipe instructs you to cook some pasta, measure out some sauce, etc.  I just measured out 2 cups of leftovers!  Perfect use for that small bowl of leftover pasta that normally wouldn't be enough for another meal.

For some reason, all recipes that involves anything having to do with dough really intimidates me.  Potpies, dumplings, pizza.  If it didn't involve a can of biscuit dough, I usually just skipped it.  While this recipe is a far cry from homemade bread dough, I still felt unsure about attempting to make it.  Which most likely accounts for it taking me this long to get around to finally preparing this recipe!

As always, I adapted the recipe.  The original recipe includes cheese which I left out.  People that know me in real life will probably assume that I omitted the cheese on purpose since I'm not a huge fan.  But no.  I loved the idea of mozzarella cheese, I just didn't think we had any in the fridge.  Turns out, I didn't look hard enough!

Also, the original recipe called for parsley flakes.  When it came time to add those, laziness caused me to skip the trip to the basement pantry to retrieve my spice jar.  Instead, I topped with some Italian Seasoning and some crushed red pepper flakes!  Mmm!  Perfect!

The recipe below reflects how this recipe turned out tonight, sans cheese.

Braided Spaghetti Bread (no cheese)

Ingredients

• 1 loaf Rhode's frozen bread dough, thawed to room temperature
• 2 cups leftover spaghetti with meat sauce
• 1 egg white, beaten
• Italian Seasoning, to taste
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to taste

Cooking Directions

1. Lightly spray work surface with cooking spray.
2. Roll thawed dough into a 12 x 16 inch rectangle.
3. Cover with plastic wrap or dish towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
4. While dough is resting, reheat leftover pasta and sauce in microwave.
5. if desired, run a knife through the pasta a couple times.
6. Spread pasta and sauce mixture in a strip down the middle of the dough.
7. With a knife, make cuts about 1 1/2 inches wide (keeping about 1/2 inch away from pasta) into the dough on both sides of the pasta.
8. Fold the dough over the top and bottom of the rectangle, then continue braiding the stips left over right, right over left.
9. Spray large baking pan with cooking spray (I lined my pan with foil, sprayed with cooking spray, for easy clean up)
10. Carefully, move braid to the pan and brush top and sides with egg white.
11. Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning and Crushed Red Pepper Flakes.
12. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

The result?  Amazing!  Joe and I really had to show some self control to keep ourselves from devouring the entire loaf!

We still had a bit more leftover spaghetti in the fridge, so I thawed another loaf of bread dough and made this again over the weekend.  I'll share those results, soon!

A lot of times when we try a new recipe, we'll discuss over dinner how we could make it in the future.  I was thinking added pepperoni would be good, while Joe thought adding some sliced hot sausage would be good.  Leftover meatballs chopped up would be excellent, too!  

I'm thinking this might be the perfect food to serve the guys while they're watching some football!  Or as an appetizer for a dinner party.  Even as an alternative to pizza night!

No matter what the occasion, I know we'll be making many times in the next few months!  I'm already trying to decide when our next pasta night will be...just so I can use the leftovers!

Don't forget to enter our current giveaways!  (Links are at the top of the page, below the header!)

Also, please join us for Soup's On!  Our weekly link party where you can share your favorite soup, stew or chili recipes every Sunday (link goes live on Sunday and remains open until Wednesday)!


This recipe has been linked to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:

• Delicious Dishes
• Open Call Tuesdays

Menu Plan Monday 2012 ~ Week of November 12th

Last week, we had a couple of changes to the menu plan.  Resulting in 2 new recipes. Crock Pot Chicken & Peppers (link below) and Braided Spaghetti Bread (recipe will post this week).  Both were a huge success.  Definite keepers!

This week is going to be Chicken Week.  Last week, I cooked up a lot of chicken and chopped and froze for future meals.  I originally planned on using it a few weeks from now, but since I need to work on a shopping list for Thanksgiving, I want to avoid grocery shopping for this week.  We have plenty to choose from between the pantry and freezer for this week.

photo credit: Home Crafts & the Old Ways

Chicken Noodle Soup

Over the weekend, my brother sent over a big bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup for my birthday.  (Thanks, Tom and Jen!) Since our meals were already planned out for the weekend, we didn't get a chance to enjoy it.  Today is the perfect day for this since I'll be catching up on laundry and other chores today and will appreciate not having to cook tonight!  

Polish Cabbage Noodles 

I'm really looking forward to preparing this simple, frugal meal again.  Grace and I have a play date this week, this easy meal will be a snap to throw together while she (hopefully) naps or relaxes on the sofa! 

Chicken Pot Pie 

Another easy meal since I have homemade broth and diced chicken already set aside for this recipe!  I'll just have to find the time to get some veggies chopped between my other chores today.  

Chicken & Peppers 

We still have a bit of this leftover, (no complaints here!) so we'll be finishing it up one night this week.

Black Bean & Spaghetti Squash Casserole 

I bought a spaghetti squash a while back and really need to use it before it's too late!  I originally planned to try a new recipe with it, but we just love this one so much! 

Now that you know what we're eating this week, let us know in the comments what's for dinner at your house this week! Or, if you need more menu planning inspiration? Follow me over to Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm an Organizing Junkie! Or, if you like what you see here, you can check out my past menu plans.

You can also find this week's menu plan linked to On the Menu Monday hosted by Yvonne at Stone Gable.

Also, please check out and link to Soup's On!  Our Sunday linky party featuring soups, stews and chilis!  Linky will be open until Wednesday!