These Boots

Last week went very well. However, my husband was not a very big fan on the Chicken Enchiladas they were too soggy. I usually just get the can of enchilada sauce and follow the recipe on it and he likes those much better. Also on Saturday we did not end up having chili. My parents and grandma came over so we had taco bake (made using the same recipe as a couple weeks ago). I made on following the exact recipe and one substituting black beans and corn for the meat (my mom is a vegetarian), they both turned out very well, my grandma really liked them.

The Menu for this Week:

Monday- Brats and Baked French Fries

Tuesday- Spagetti and Meatballs with Bread

Wednesday- BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Corn

Thursday- Chili

Friday- My Baby Shower!!

Saturday- Leftovers

I am trying to get prepared for Peyton’s arrival! Here are some pictures of my newest project:

This week I have been at work later so I have had to depend on my husband to put stuff in the oven! He has been doing a great job at it!

Monday- Meatloaf and Green Beans

Tuesday- Once again dinner at my parents (to meet my sisters new guy she is talking to)

Wednesday- Mexican Dorito Casserole and Fresh Fruit

Thursday- Chicken Enchiladias and Fresh Fruit

Friday- Steaks and Baked French Fries

Saturday- Chili and Sandwiches

One helpful thing I did after I went grocery shopping was cook the chicken needed for the week in the crockpot so it would already be cooked and shredded! Also I was excited I got a good deal on the chicken it was buy one get one FREE!!!

Time to get caught up! Here was my menu for the third week:

Monday- Grilled Fish and Hamburgers on the Grill with Corn on the Cob (with this meal you would think it is the middle of the summer but is was actually one of the coldest days we have had this winter in Ohio)

Tuesday- Brats on the Grill and Baked French Fries (my husband has been on a saurkraut kick so he made extra brats and ate them for lunch/snack all week!)

Wednesday- Slow Cooker Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken on Rice with Fresh Fruit

Thursday- Crockpot Beef Stroganoff with a Salad

Friday- Pizza and Bling at a friends house so no cooking for me!

Saturday- We went to a motorcycle show with my parents so we just ended up eating at their house

This week went very well once again! We had plenty of leftovers and we bought fruit to have for lunches! Next time I make the garlic and brown sugar chicken I think I will add some stir fry vegs. The beef stroganoff was very good I did have to add some cornstarch to make it thicker because it was very thin.

I was making these fajitas today and the colors were so pretty I just had to take pictures! Here is a link to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chilies
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 large bell pepper, seeded and sliced (I use half a green and half a red)
• 12 flour tortillas
• Toppings such as cheese, sour cream, and guacamole – if desired

Mix together the vegetable oil, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, and salt.

Slice the green peppers, onions, and chicken.

Put your chicken in your baking dish and stir in the vegetable oil and spice mixture. Once the chicken is all coated add the green peppers and onions and stir.

Then stir in the tomatoes. (I forgot this part but I am going to have my husband do it before he puts it in the oven!) Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. I put the cooking directions on the top for my husband tonight and helpfully he has it in the oven when I get home tonight!!

Week one went very well even though I did have to make some adjustments!

Week Two

I created my menu for the week and made my grocery shopping list. Then it was time to go grocery shopping and I took my husband with me, this was a little bit of a mistake! I got all the items on my list but I also ended up getting some items that weren’t on my list because he convinced me we needed them. So I ended up spending a little more than I wanted to! But at least I got everything I needed and won’t have any last minute runs to the grocery store!

My Menu for Week Two:

I made baked potato soup on Sunday for lunches and snacks!

Sunday- Once again we had dinner at my parents, my mom is a vegitarian so my dad needed a little help from Nate to eat all the ribs!

Monday- Taco Bake- I made this last night and my husband LOVED it, he ate it for three meals straight!

Tuesday- (I have to work in the evening this day so this meal I will make during the day then we can have it as we want to) Pizza with whatever toppings we have!

Wednesday- Baked Fajitas (I have to work till 6 this day so I will get it all ready in the morning and then have my husband put it in the oven shortly before I come home)

Thursday- Crockpot Coconut Curry Chicken and if I have time I will make naan to go with it

Friday- Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

Saturday- Leftovers

A lot of the recipes I make I get from pinterest so I will add links to them. I am not that experienced as a cook so a lot of the time this is the first time I am trying the recipe. So I will try to post a little bit of a review for them!

I will post a follow up next week as to how it went!

So far my menu planning for this week has went really well!

Monday we went out to a very nice restaurant for my sister’s 21st birthday!

Then tuesday I made spaghetti and meatballs! I used canned sauce but I did make my own meatballs for the first time! I was a little nervous making them for the first time since I really ahdn’t seen anyone else make them before but they turned out really yummy! Here is a link to the recipe I used for the ingredients, in the cooking directions it says to put them in the sauce for three hours and I didn’t have that much time so I did it a little different. I mix all the ingredients together then formed them into balls. I then rolled them in a little flower just to coat them lightly. Then I put a layer of olive oil in a pan and warmed it up. Once warm I placed the balls in the pan and browned them on each side. At this point they don’t have to be cooked all the way through because the last step is to put them in the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes. If I could make these as a beginner anyone should be able to!!

Last night was brats, fresh cut french fries, and corn. For the fries I just cut them up, placed them in a bowl of cold water while the oven warmed up, and then coated them with some garlic olive oil and a little salt! I am mean and made my husband cook the brats on the grill in the middle of the winter but he was a pretty good sport about it!

Tonights plans have changed, my mom invited us over for dinner tonight because she is having saurkraut and my husband loves it! Therefore, todays dinner will be pushed to Friday and Fridays to Saturday. Which is probably a good thing because we have ate all of our left overs for lunches!

Now I have to start thinking about next week’s plan!

As I posted yesterday I made bread last night and I was very happy with how it turned out! This was my first time using this recipe and also the first time using my Kitchenaid mixer. The recipe listed below came with my mixer and it was very easy to make. I tried making bread in the past but didn’t have any luck but this turned out wonderful!

Rapid Mix Cool Rise White Bread

Ingredients

6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

3-1/2 teaspoons salt

3 packages active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter or margarine - softened

2 cups very warm water (120 F to 130 F)

Directions

Place 5 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and butter in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 20 seconds. Gradually add warm water and mix about 1 1/2 minutes longer.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 2 cups at a time, and mix about 2 minutes, or until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and a towel. Let rest 20 minutes.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a loaf. Place in greased 8 x 4 x 2 inch baking pans. Brush each loaf with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 2 to 12 hours.

When ready to bake, uncover dough carefully. Let stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Puncture any gas bubbles which may have formed. Bake at 400 F for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

I am finally back, school is over and I am now expecting!!! This has lead me to want to get into budgeting. I figured the perfect time is now as a new year is starting. If it works out really well I will share it on here.

 For now though, as part of my budgeting I want to keep the grocery bill below $200 a month and not go out to eat as often as we used to (which was a lot!!). To help me with this I am going to start menu planning. I am going to start out one week at a time and hopefully build up to two! I have heard of people planning for a whole month but I don’t know if I am up for that, I guess we will see!

I will share on here my menu plans and I am going to start doing a little bit of couponing! I am hoping this will keep me a little more organized and maybe even help someone out along the way!

This week Jan7th-12th

Sunday I made Stuff Pepper Soup and Chicken and Noodles (click the links for the recipes). These will be used for lunches and snacks. I also plan on making bread one day this week. I will have two loafs so I plan on freezing one of the.

Monday- Going out to dinner for my sister’s birthday

Tuesday- Spaghetti and Meatballs with Garlic Bread

Wednesday- Brats and Homemake Baked French Fries

Thursday- Beef and Noodles on Mashed Potatoes

Friday- Deer Steaks, Garlic Potatoes, and Corn

Saturday- Leftovers

I will also use leftovers and fruit in lunches to help reduce cost. I also had my mom make me some ice cream to have as a snack this week.

When I started planning this week’s menu I tried to use things I already had. My husband hunts so I have a lot of deer burger, a couple roasts, and some steaks so this reduced my cost a lot this week, which is a good thing because all of our big bills are due at the beginning of the month. Therefore, I only had to go grocery shopping for the following:

Bananas

Blackberries

Potatoes

Vanilla Pudding

Whipping Cream- for the ice cream

Yeast- for the bread

I also found kiwi on sale so I bought some of that! Actually all the fruit was on sale at Aldi’s, the Aldi’s near me has very good produce and at a good price!

This was a fun project I did this weekend! I spelled out my last name but there are many other ways you could use them. Some ideas are to spell out a babies name over their crib or on a child’s bedroom door you could make them for holidays.

I started out wondering through Joann Fabrics to figure out exactly what i wanted and this is what i ended up with:

-Three different sized embroidery hoops 

-Paint brush

-Different fabric (I had a bunch from my Grandma and I also bought some of the scraps from joann fabrics)

-Beads

-Buttons

-Twill iron on patches

-Needle

-Thick thread

-Tape

-Stain or paint

I started out by staining the hoops a darker brown. This is an optional step you can stain them, paint them, or leave them they way they are. I wanted mine to be a little darker so I stained them. You only have to stain the outer part and the outside edges of the outer ring.

This is what they looked like once they were dry:

The next step is to match up the different fabric patches to the different colors of fabric you have. Once that is decided it is time to cut out the pocket patches into the letters you want. I made my own stencil out of paper or you could use a store bought stencil.

Here it is already to be cut out:

Here it is all cut out:

Next I put the fabric in the rings and cut around the edges to make the fabric smaller so I will know where to iron the letters on.

Next I followed the directions on the fabric patches and ironed them onto the fabric. Once that is done they are ready to be placed in the hoops.

I trimmed the fabric a little more then taped it back so the edges wouldn’t show.

With the little hoops I put the fabric in them and taped it back then added decorations like embroidery, buttons, and beads.

I had the perfect little wall to hang these on! I just put thumbtacks in the wall and hang them from them.

Final product: