Homemaking Organized Blog

Archive for December, 2011

This week’s menu…

Breakfast

Fruit Smoothies and homemade breakfast sandwich (just egg and biscuit)

Buckwheat pancakes with added flax and wheat germ thrown in (family LOVEs these)

7 grain cereal and boiled eggs

French toast in the oven, fruit

Fruit Smoothies and muffins (batter is in the freezer)

Cereal, boiled eggs, fruit

Lunch

A little of this and little of that. Alternate between PB& J and crackers with cheese and fruit. Always fruit with lunch.

Dinner

Leftovers

Crabcakes (with some alterations), mashed potatoes, and coleslaw

Homemade pasta with meatballs and pesto sauce (this has become a thing with Sweet Peanut so we make the pasta together). Salad

Crock Pot beef stew with fruit on the side

Baked catfish, wild rice blend, green beans

Tacos with all the fixin’s

 Download a free printable of Victorian paper dolls from a vintage issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book. Courtesy of Victoriana Magazine.

A great winter break activity for the little lady in your life.Victorian paper dolls

Molly’s Econobuster is taking a small hiatus and while on break there are big savings in store for you. For $49 you over 40 resouces (ebooks, mp3 files, digests) to help you save and frugalize at home. The combined value of these resources is $238.85 but you get it for $49 for one week only.

5 E-Books:

• E-Book: In the Kitchen With Molly
• E-Book: Molly Goes Camping
• E-Book: Molly Makes $5 Dinners and $3 Desserts
• E-Book: Molly Makes $7 Slow Cooker Suppers
• E-Book: Organize with Molly–2009

36 Digests:

• Centsible Celebrations
• Comfort and Joy for Christmas
• Emergency Preparedness
• Evaluate, Prioritize, Organize
• Family Photography
• Frugal Decorating
• Frugal Family Vacations
• Frugal Fashion
• Gardening Basics and Natural Cleaners
• Home Sweet Home (Business)
• Homebound Happiness: Frugal Indoor Fun
• Homemade Happiness–Frugal Fun and Games
• Learning for Life–Your Child’s Education
• Let’s Get Organized for Fiscal Fitness
• Living the Good Life–Frugally
• Making a Frugal Fresh Start
• Making Money from Home
• Molly Saves in the Bedroom
• Molly Saves in the Closet
• Molly Saves in the Garage and Shed
• Molly Saves in the Kitchen
• Molly Saves In the Nursery
• Molly Saves in the Office
• Molly Saves in the Outdoors
• Molly Saves on the Go
• Molly Saves! In the Dining Room
• Molly Saves! In the Family Room
• Molly Saves! In the Laundry Room
• Molly Saves! In the Powder Room
• Organization for Busy Families
• Preparing Our Hearts and Homes for the Holidays
• Socks, Suds, and Savings
• Spring Is in the Air–Frugal Choices Everywhere!
• Storing Summer’s Bounty
• Summer Fun From A to Z
• What Can We Learn From the Great Depression?

2 Expo MP3 Items:

• Company’s Coming!–Molly Green MP3
• A Minute with Molly–Living Better on Less Set of 5 MP3s

Well as we were passing the exit of the store the other day my Sweet Peanut exclaimed loudly that she wanted the plastic Noah’s Ark so nicely displayed in the corner at kiddie eye level.

Now we are a simple folk who do not celebrate The Lord’s birth with gift giving and such so she wasn’t asking for Christmas she was just asking just because. So I quoted her the price and let her know in no uncertain terms that we would not be buying that big hulking thing that would just sit in the corner and catch dust. Besides she rarely asks for toys. It’s usually food because she’s a foodie.

So all the way home in the car she analyzed that she could have the full dollar amount by the next day (I’m not sure how she thought she could do this). While I tried to reason with a six year old.

So knowing how much most children just love the whole Noah’s Ark thingy I thought maybe I could make her one out of felt in time for her next birthday (early next year) and was kind of talking this over with my mother who thought it was a good idea. So she overheard me talking about this and announced she wanted the plastic one so she could play with it in the bathtub. Sigh! Oh well I still think she would like the felt one and frankly she’s getting old enough to help me make it. Which is my what I think I will do. Teach her to sew with this pattern. My thinking in the felt one is that actually it would perfect for future siblings, cousins etc.

I found a cute pattern at esty.com with BuggaBugs. I’ve also made the felt groceries, felt fruit, some of the homemade bread, and pies from her patterns.

I’m all about easy cooking, but it has to taste good. Many Sunday’s a month we cook dinner and invite our extended family over for a meal and fellowship after church. Since we are part of the support system in our church (I’m one of the pianists etc..) we are there early and leave later than most. So making dinners that don’t take all day to cook (unless I’m using the crockpot) are key.

Usually fish is the fare of choice. Salmon to be more precise. It’s a tasty item that cooks up well and quick. But we like to change things up a bit. You may have seen my post about Chuck Roast in Foil. That is a delicious keeper that we make up regularly but recently we decided to cook another dish that I make for the regular family meals. It’s easy and is actually in the healthy, low fat section of one of my older cookbooks.

It’s from Sunset Casserole Cooking, 1980.

Baked Turkey Legs and Vegetables

Serves 4

Bake time 2 hours

Prep time about 15-20 minutes

4 Turkey drumsticks for 2 drumsticks and 2 thighs (3-3.5 lbs total)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup white whine (I use apple juice here)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon oil

1 clove minced garlic

1 large onion sliced into rings

2 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

2 stalks celery cut into  1/4 inch thick slices

1 large potato ( I use more like 2 or 3)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the turkey pieces into a shallow casserole  or 9×13 inch dish. You are supposed to remove the skin but I never do.

In a small bowl mix together your chicken stock, juice/wine,  pepper, paprika, salt, and cornstarch.

Heat oil in a pan and saute your onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and just when you smell it (about 15 seconds or less) gradually add your broth mix.  Continue cooking the mixture until it boils and is slightly thickened.

Pour your cooked broth/veggie mix over the turkey legs and cover with foil. You can refrigerate this until the next day or bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Meanwhile dice the potato and place in cold water until you’re ready to add to the casserole. After an hour pull it out of the oven, add diced potato, recover and bake another hour until done (or meat near the bone is no longer pink.

We serve this with a cooked veggie. Or you can omit the potato and serve over rice which is what we do for Sunday dinner.

Enjoy!

 

Time to get your 2012 Calendar. Save 15% on any order with code 15OFF. Discount applies to calendars, games, puzzles, and gifts! Offer expires at Midnight PST tonight.

15% Off Any Order at Calendars.com with code 15OFF. Plus Free Shipping Over $25!

Perfect! You know when you just find something that answers a question you’ve had for a while?  Well this blog post is an answer to my question, how to keep Sweet Peanut attentive during church.

We’ve always gone to a Family Integrated Church (didn’t know that there was a name for it). Where our children attend the main service also. Sunday School for the children and the adults is before the main service and then we all attend service as a family.

I’ve done different things throughout the years to keep her attention and facilitate the learning process but none seemed to be quite right. From writing the names of the books of the Bible, to coloring a picture of what was being taught, to finding the scriptures in the Bible as they were called out in service. Either her attention was on the coloring or writing or she had a hard time keeping up with trying to find the scripture (this was shortly after she started to learn to read).

Just by happenstance this morning I landed upon this post about Listening Pages on Amy’s blog Raising Arrows. This is a wonderful idea and I shared it with my husband who agrees also. So we’ll be testing these out over the next few weeks to see if this works for our family.

Read the full post to find the links for all three types of pages. There are pages for regular service, Christmas, and non-readers.

Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience has designed this beautiful perpetual calendar, A Year of Graces, to keep track of the special things going on in your life. There are special quotes from the blog on each month. And also a free app card to give to a friend.

Print a coupon and save 1/$0.75 cents on Muir Glen Organic. I buy Muir Glen when I can since they taste better than most other brands. They also won a past taste test on America’s Test Kitchen.

Thanks Money Saving Mom