Works-for-Me Wednesday

For a Saturday breakfast any day of the week, one thing that works for me is to make it ahead of time. I prefer homemade pancakes, so when I make a batch I'll double the recipe and pour it into a pitcher.

We'll use the rest of the batter during the week. (You might want to enlarge the batch depending on the size of your family. It'll last 3-5 days, any longer and the batter gets yucky.) It makes for a quick, yummy breakfast.

For more WFMW tips, go here.

Oh, so cute!

I was perusing Biblical Womanhood today and came across her post on 56 free apron patterns. They are so cute! Here's a few of the ones I like best...I might be making some of these soon. Especially with the denim apron!

This one's called a Tea Apron...oh, so cute!

I've got plenty of these to try out...

Isn't it adorable?

I can't wait to get to sewing!

Frugal Fridays

I love cooking, but I usually avoid using spices that aren't already in my pantry. Curry, dry mustard, and, you know, other stuff like that I don't have. When spices range from $3.99 to $5.99 (and higher) it's just too expensive, especially when a recipe will only call for a teaspoon.

But at Henry's on Wednesday, I decided to go ahead and get a few spices that I usually avoid. To my surprise they had the normal shelves of spices, but also a few shelves of spices in large containers. I had never seen this before! There was a scale and little spoons in each jar and little bags. It was so much fun!

Excuse my excitement, but instead of buying a whole bottle of a spice I can measure out the amount I need and go. So instead of $4-something for the curry I bought it only cost me $ . 12. So, that's my Frugal Friday tip for the week. See if your grocery store (or a whole foods type store) does a similar thing and save!

Early California Enchilada

Ingredients:
1 dozen tortillas
1 pound of cheese
1 can of enchilada sauce (large)
5 onions (chopped and sauted)
4 hard boiled eggs (chopped)
3 cans chopped olives



Directions:
Heat the 2 sauces together in a skillet. With tongs, soften tortillas one at a time in the pan of sauce. Put a spoonful of each ingredient on each tortilla and roll and secure with a wooden toothpick. Put in a casserole dish. Cover with remaining sauce and cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

(Lovely picture...I know)

*Amendments: I used only one onion and found that that was too many onions, and definitely remember to sauté the onions. I missed that part, and you could definitely tell. Also, we upped the egg cook to 6 chopped hard boiled eggs and omitted the olives.

Meal Plan Monday

Monday Leftovers

Tuesday Saucy Honey Mustard Chicken w/ brown rice & corn

Wednesday Toasted Tuna Melts w/ fruit

Thursday Spaghetti

Friday Zesty Parmesan Corn w/ __?___

Saturday Porkchops w/ mashed potatoes

Frugal Fridays: Cheap Meat!

Alrighty, this week for Frugal Fridays this is what I've got: cheap meat.

I use to never buy meat before I was married, except on occasion when I had a coupon for the Tyson family chicken pack (the frozen chicken breasts that are oh-so-itty-bitty). However, one Sunday Joe and I were at Vons picking up something and were browsing by the meat section hoping to see some spicy Italian sausages (a favorite of Joe's that is usually onsale for about $3 for 2lbs.) That's when we saw the clearance section for meat!

It's the stuff that either needs to be used in the next day or so or freezed. And all the meat is marked between 30 to 50% off and occasionally there are things like stuffed mushrooms or chicken marsala. It's a good buy. I only buy meat from the clearance section now and freeze it.

Here's what I've gotten on my last few trips:

Organics Chicken Thighs - .68lb/Reg. $3.39 Clearance $1.69

Porkchops - 1.44lb/Reg. $6.47 w/ club card $5.03 Clearance $2.51

Ground Turkey Breast - 1.25lb. (x2)/Reg. $5.99 Clearance $2.99

Sirloin Steak - .77lb./Reg. $5.38 Clearance $2.69

Breast Fillets - 1.65lb./Reg. $9.88 Clearance $4.94

Drumsticks - 1.52lb./Reg. $3.02 Clearance $1.51

Lean Ground Beef - 3lb./Reg. $10.96 Clearance $5.48

It's always fun to find good deals, especially now that my husband gets meat with his meals!

That's it for me....I'm off to make Sloppy Joes and homemade french fries. I've been keeping the menu easy this week, since it's the first week back from Spring Break at work. ;)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Leftovers

Tuesday Meatloaf w/ salad

Wednesday French Dip Sandwiches

Thursday Hamburger Beef Dinner (the last box dinner in my pantry--no more!)

Friday Sloppy Joe's

A Week in Pictures...

Homemade Strawberry-Banana Smoothies in the making.

(Joe actually ended up having both smoothies, since I have an aversion to bananas. I tried, but it just didn't work out.)

Grilled cheese on my homemade bread!

The beginnings of homemade cereal.

The finished product.

My homemade verison of Nestle ready made cookie dough. I had frozen some cookie dough a few weeks ago and thought it was time to pull it out.

They were quite petite cookies.

My two loaves of whole wheat bread I made on Monday.

Yesterday, I made two loaves for this week.

Frugal Fridays: Free Cooking Magazines

As I was going through my magazines yesterday and tearing out recipes and helpful articles I had a few Kraft Food & Family magazines that I got one year. They're free and you can sign-up to receive them at www.kraftfoods.com/free. They have a ton of different recipes, of course using quite a bit o Kraft brand foods (but those can always be substituted). If I remember correctly they are quarterly, one for each season. Enjoy!