Tasty Tuesday: Quick Smoothie Recipe

I love this recipe for several reasons: 

1. It hits most of the food groups
2. My kids love it
3. it comes together so fast!
4. It is filling enough it can be a breakfast substitute on "one of those days"!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of milk or vanilla soy milk
• 1 cup of frozen fruit of your choice
• 1 banana
• 1 TBSP honey

Throw everything in the blender.  Blend until smooth.
Serves 2.  (or me and my two kids for a snack!)

For more Tasty Tuesday Recipes go HERE!

WFMW - Having a Library Card

This week's tip has saved my marriage.  Ok, maybe we weren't quite at THAT point!  My husband hates it that I have an addiction to cookbooks.  He once made me give 20 cookbooks to goodwill and you could not see a difference.  He had to build me shelves in my pantry for all my cookbooks because they were taking over!!!  I love cookbooks.  I get a new one and read them front to back and mark the recipes I might like to try.  I also have a lot of cookbooks that I have never ever used though.  I will read them, put them on my shelf, and never look at them again.  It drives my husband nuts.

The solution?  A library card!!!  Now I go to my local library, which has a HUGE cookbook section with literally every subject you could imagine, and I take out whatever my heart desires.  Then if a recipe catches my eye I will write it down and I keep the collection of recipes I have written down in a 3 ring binder.  I also print recipes from the internet and keep it in the binder. 

My kids come with me to the library and they love to take out books on every subject imaginable.  We spend far too much time there somedays!  They have learned magic tricks, string games, how to take care of animals I will never let them have for pets, and everything else under the sun!

Check out your local library, most places have a year's membership for very little money and if you are an avid reader like me it might save you quite a bit of money in books!

Check out Works for Me Wednesday here for more tricks and tips!

Reason #8426 why my life is a gong show.

Wow!  What a busy day!

We started out with a nice breakfast, then we got rolling. 

The kids and I went and delivered our paper route.  Then we came home and E went and changed into her full brownie uniform for an event later in the day.  Then it was off to the library where we dropped off the books due today.  I meant to have time to get new books out but I looked at my watch and realized we had to choose between that and eating lunch, so we ducked into the mall on the other side of the library and grabbed some food.  Then it was off to drop E off at a play where she was meeting her brownie group.  The Children's Theatre was putting on 101 dalmations and a couple of her brownie mates were playing puppies!  T and I headed to Walmart to pick up a Birthday present for a friend of his and managed to get a Valentine's present for Hubby, a few groceries, 2 bar stools for my kitchen, and a few other random things.  I hate Walmart.  I always spend at least twice what I intend to when I walk in.  LOL!  We wrapped the birthday present in the car and went and picked up E, then Terry got dropped off at the local rec center for the birthday party and E and I came home. 

My darling husband had supper going and did dishes while we were gone!  I was so amazed!  :)  I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated it.  I practically gushed.  Ok, actually I told him I loved him just a little bit more for it.  I was telling my sister and she said "Oh, he got pizza?"  LOL.  That's what it usually means when he "makes" supper.  But he actually got frozen cabbage rolls made by real local Babas and made homemade tomato sauce to go over them and had them baking in the oven AND did dishes!!!  I really do love this man.  Then he built the two new stools I bought!  I tidied up the house a bit and went to get T from the party.  Then we had supper. 

After supper I decided I needed to sit down!  What a busy day after being sick for the 4 days previous!  But everything was perfectly timed and executed and nobody was late for anything (which MAY be a first for me!) 

We watched the movie Aliens in the Attic.  It was hilarious!  I highly recommend it.  I think it's PG13 though, so if you have kids that scare easily I don't recommend it.  We all enjoyed it though, so it was a great family movie!

Phew, another day done at the gong show.

Good thing Sunday is a day of rest!

WFMW - The Perfect Boiled Egg

I know most people find making a hard boiled egg pretty easy, but I have gone through dozens of eggs trying to get perfect eggs for devilled eggs.  Then I finally figured it out, based on methods from several people!

1. Put the eggs in a pot.
2. Put enough water in the pot to just cover the tops of the eggs.
3. Put it on the stove and turn the burner on to high.
4. When the water starts a rolling boil, time for 5 minutes and let boil the whole time.
5. Take the eggs out and rinse quickly under ice water
6. Crack the egg gently on the counter and take a teaspoon and slide it under the shell, if you slide the teaspoon around the shell it should come off really easily while keeping the egg in tact! 

Want to know my other devilled egg tip?  Use dijon mustard instead of regular mustard when you are making the filling!  It makes a huge difference!

For more household tips check out Works For Me Wednesday here.

Thrifty Thursday - Cheap Chicken & other deals

Today I am going to share with you some of my tips for spending less money.

First, let me tell you about the all the meat I bought on Monday when I went grocery shopping.  I went to costco first and bought a $12 roast and a $13 tray of pork tenderloins.  When I got home I cut 3 good sized steaks off the end of the roast and put them in marinade then froze them.  The roast is still big enough that I will get a pot roast out of it on Sunday night, and beef dip out of it for leftovers.  3 meals for 4 people out of a $12 roast?  Sounds like a deal to me!  I always buy my meat at costco. It is cheaper, and they hang their meat longer, so it is more tender and tastes better.  The $13 pork tenderloins got cut into 5 meals worth of meat.  12 pork chops, 5 good sized chunks for stuffing, and 2 baggies full of sliced pork for stir fry.  I made one last night... there was tons of meat left over.  Then I was at superstore and they had 4 kg boxes of Chicken on for $32.  Boneless, skinless, frozen chicken breasts.  Yes, that works out to be $8/kg.  Yes, you probably pay $18 per kg at you local Safeway for boneless skinless chicken breast.  Seriously, check out the per kg price you pay next time you are there.

Second, let me tell you about the deal I got last week on Winter boots for my kids.  I bought them a size too big so they will wear them next year.  I paid $9 a pair for Sorel boots regularily priced at $50.  Isn't that ridiculous?

Where do you go for deals?

WFMW - my PVR

I was raised in the TV generation.  I love TV!  And unfortunately I have no preference in programming either.  I like it all!  Game Shows, Reality TV, Drama's, Talk Shows, Comedy, etc.

Before my PVR TV ruled my life.  I would have to be home to watch certain shows, I would have to decide what to watch at a certain time if two shows were on at the same time, I couldn't watch a movie with my boyfriend, family, husband (whatever the case my be at whatever time in my life). Etc.  My PVR has changed all that.  Now I can set reminders for shows I want to watch and it will pop up for me while I am doing other things (I hate missing the first 10 minutes of something because I was doing laundry or dishes and wasn't watching the clock). Now I can record one show and watch another.  Now I can quickly set the timer to record a show with one button!  (Find show on guide, click record.  Done.)  Remember how painful it used to be to set a VCR?

I know it sounds really silly.  But I only just recently realized how much my PVR can actually do for me.  Before I just used it for the guide and that was about it.  Gone are the days of running out of tape and missing the last 10 minutes of a movie. 

Do you have any technology in your life that has made your life easier?

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, this week's blog carnival is being held here.

Tasty Tuesday - Chicken Pot Pie

**Please excuse my unmatching header.  I am working on a blog reno!  New improved blog header coming soon!  The new background is a keeper I think though.**

Today for Tasty Tuesday I would like to share a recipe I made last week that my whole family devoured!  There were hardly any leftovers at all!

The original recipe is from "Life's On Fire" cookbook by Sandi Richards, whoever I did modify it quite a bit.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 onion

10 mushrooms
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme leaves
1-1/2 Tbsp butter or margarine

1-1/2 Tbsp flour
1 cup 1% milk
1/2 to 3/4 cup of low sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
Biscuits (see recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick wok or stove-top pot on med-high.
3. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and gradually add to pan as you chop.Toss until meat is no longer pink.
4. Chop onion (finely) and add to pan. Wash and slice mushrooms, adding to meat pan as you cut. Add spices and stir.
5. Add to pan in this order: butter, flour and gradually add milk. Stir until thickened.
6. Stir in broth.
7. Rinse vegetables under cold water in a colander. Add vegetables to meat pan, stirring until mixed. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes. Make biscuits.  Pour this entire mixture into a rectangular oven-safe baking dish or pan.

Biscuits:

1 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar, if desired
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup milk plus 1 TBSP

Directions:

1. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky).
2. On lightly floured surface, gently roll dough in flour to coat. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter.

Place biscuits on top of pie filling.  Bake for 18 minutes or until biscuits are browned.

For more great Tasty Tuesday Recipes check THIS out!