Frugal Menus

Chiliman Cooks

March 3rd, 2010

He made chicken and rice!

But first he had me write down EXPLICIT instructions!

LOL

I told him to start with rice. And I wrote down ‘where’ we keep the rice….

He cooked the rice a little too long, that was AFTER he burned the water!

How’d he do that?

He put the water on to boil and walked away… … … Never a good thing…

Then I wrote down what ‘canned’ ingredients he could combine.

A small handful of dehydrated onion (no chopping that way)
a can of cream of mushroom soup
a small can of mushrooms (which he had to call me to find in the pantry even though I wrote down ‘where’ they were - turns out the can was turned around backwards so therefore he couldn’t find them)…
a can of chicken
a can of chicken broth

It was good. (The bottom of the pot was a little crispy but it was his first time!)

Guess we’ll call this dish Chiliman Chicken & Rice!

Way to go Chili-man!

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Poking Out

March 3rd, 2010

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

The daffodils are poking their heads out of the ground. Are YOU poking out of your clothes?

Now is the perfect time to get a hold of yourself, spring into action and do something about that roll, those extra inches, that weight. Summer is right around the corner. This year, vow to be able to wear shorts ‘in public’!

Got a buddy you can exercise with? For many of us, we live miles and miles from a gym, or exercise class. Neighbors, who can even ’see’ the neighbor? For us country gals, and the shy city girls, consider joining an online community of like minded people also on their way to their perfect healthy bodies.

One such online resource is www.wellnessdaily.com. Tons of health and wellness resources and as a bonus the first 25,000 can sign up for a $5 rebate! They even have a Twitter contest to win a year’s worth of Jennie-O Turkey products and a gym membership (valued at $1250). (The Twitter promo runs til March 10th)

Someone took a picture of me last week at a party. OMG - It’s time for me to take charge of my body and my weight and finally DO something about it! That’s my motivation! That and the fact that I might like to wear shorts to town on the hottest day of the year…

BRING IT ON - SUMMER!!!

Visit my sponsor: Attention health enthusiasts!

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Blogroll?

February 17th, 2010

Dark Chocolate

Ok so I’ve been doing this awhile but I still had to go look up the term “blog roll” ….. Apparently that’s the ’slang’ term for the list of fav sites over there on the left.

Hmmm, How do I add to that?

Might be time to ask my web person!

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Wiggle Room

February 10th, 2010

Today, well yesterday by the time I get this posted I finally did something with the cube steak that was thawing in the fridge. I put it into a baking dish and emptied a pack of onion soup mix on it, as well as some water to cover. I covered it with foil and put it back in the fridge.

Why’d I do that?

Chili-man was working from home today, so I intended to have him put it in a low oven around 2. Little did I know that he had a computer programming program advisory committee meeting this evening at Moore Norman Vo Tech. So, if I have him put it in the oven, well no one will be home later to eat it.

So, I decided to just ‘not’ tell him and cook it myself when I got back in. That way he can either eat it when he gets in or it’s dinner for tomorrow.

Planned menus don’t always work.

BUT they are still the BEST way to create a frugal menu plan. Plan your menus around items that need to be cooked, or items that are on sale. Just leave yourself some wiggle room. Because life just gets in the way sometimes.

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Today

February 8th, 2010

Today,

I intended to put cube steaks in the crockpot.

I also intended to pack my lunch.

What happened? (Email – orders – papers – animals – wheres my cell phone? – gather the packages – didn’t I have a bill to mail? – MUD – wet dogs - ARGH)

Sometimes life just gets in the way.

The good news is I’ve now got a cube steak defrosted so that it can be dinner (in the crockpot) tomorrow, that is if I get around to readying it tonight.

Oy vey…. The more I try to simplify my life – the busier it becomes….

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Housing Stimulus

February 4th, 2010

There’s still time to take advantage of the first time homebuyer credit. You wonder why I keep talking about this program? Because it’s important!

I ‘so’ remember what it was like when I was trying to buy my first home. It seemed then like there were so many obstacles in my way that I then felt like I’d never have a house of my own. I’d been single and struggling for years and a new marriage brought hope but it also had bills to pay. Coming up with that down payment hurt. We struggled for ages to come up with it.

Today, with the current but soon to expire tax credit, more and more people can get that first home in a much easier fashion that in years past.
If you haven’t already started looking, well, you need to do so now. In order to participate in the program you need to have the home under contract by the end of April. You also need to finish the closing process by the end of June. Doing so will give you the advantage of thousands of dollars of tax credits.

The first time homebuyer tax credited were created in the stimulus plan. That plan has since been extended as well as expanded to including existing homeowners in the Worker, Home ownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. That Act was signed into law this past November.
The Act provides for ‘qualified’ homebuyers to obtain up to $8000 in tax credit as a first time purchaser and for those upgrading the credit extends all the way up to $6500.

Many savvy people are now considering purchasing that first home (or upgrading.) Whether you’re looking for your first home, a starter house, upgrading to a bigger residence or downsizing, you’ll want to take advantage of this program. It will either reduce your tax bill or increase your refund, dollar for dollar.

You can read more about the program at: Housing Stimulus

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Flood the Stores

February 2nd, 2010

Why do people flood the grocery stores right before a winter storm? Aren’t they prepared? We keep food in the house in the event of an emergency.

BUT, I discovered during this recent ice and snow storm WHY people at least stop for milk and bread.

WE RAN OUT!

Yes, we ran out of milk and bread and no-way out. Now I had some powdered milk so I used that to cook with…. and I baked bread from scratch… But I sure miss my Braums milk.

Next time. We stop for Braums milk!

milk

milk

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Ice Storm Oklahoma

January 29th, 2010

Yes, it ’s cold.

Yes there’s ice.

If you venture outside all around you you’ll hear cracking and then popping and then crashing as the trees succumb to the ice.

This dinner bell is hanging on the front porch. See the ice?

ice

ice

And look at my driveway NOW.

snowed in

snowed in


We won’t be going anywhere for a while… ….

UPDATE:

It started to snow on top of the ice

and snow

and snow

and snow

Don’t know if you can tell, but the tree in the middle is a huge hickory tree and those heavy limbs are almost touching the ground NO way you could drive past that ‘if’ you could get traction in the first place…. Not to mention that the first tree down in the drive is still down… …
Drifter sticks his tongue out to get a taste…

drifter

drifter

We sure need some warm sun!

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Recipe for a New Bath?

January 23rd, 2010

Sure it’s not my normal post, but I have to share.

I’ve been wanting something unusual for one of the extra bathrooms. I think that in a guest bath that you’re allowed to go hog wild, don’t you?

Suppose you had a small bathroom, a powder room actually, and it’s windowless. I’ve seen one done in deep dark blue that was gorgeous AND the dark color did NOT make the room appear small. It made it vibrant!

I’ve always wanted to do a room in an Egyptian theme. Now that’s wild!
Egyptian knick-knacks.

small

small

Egyptian prints.

egyptian

egyptian

AND I found the perfect sink for a modernized Egyptian theme.

pretty-sink

pretty-sink

How’s that?

It’s an inverted pyramid!

It’s a glass sink and it’s decidedly different! Of course, even if you weren’t going ‘wild’ like I’m thinking you can still update that little bath from an ugly old sink to any number of glass sinks. Or how about a glass vessel sink that actually sits ‘over’ the counter? Those are classy man.

It’s easier than ever to update your bathroom these days. I’ve chosen mine. Now, if I can just get Chili-man motivated…

pyramid

pyramid

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You know what I miss?

January 23rd, 2010

You know what I miss?

A long time ago, when I lived in town, I used to get the Sunday paper and stretch out on the floor in the living room, Dr Pepper by my side, and read the paper.

I’ve never been one to sit at the dining room table, sip coffee and read the paper. I’d rather be all stretched out.

When we moved to the country however, we moved into a place without carpet. None whatsoever, and I was pleased then, and pleased now. It makes it so much easier to clean up a spill, to sweep instead of vacuum and keep clean in general. But, one thing I still miss to this day, is stretching out on the floor reading the newspaper.

And laying on the floor with a little baby.

And relaxing on a plush rug watching a movie.

And playing board games cross legged on the floor.

And kids sitting at your feet while you tell them stories of your youth.

Sounds like I really miss flooring doesn’t it?

But then again, since I ‘am’ in the country, without wall to wall, I don’t have to worry about that Oklahoma red dirt being ground in day by day until the carpet is red/brown. I don’t have to concern myself with the grass burrs being tracked in and embedded in the fibers. I don’t have to wonder if anyone swept the dirt ‘under the carpet’. Or scrambling to get a suddenly sick cat or dog out the door before ‘it’ comes out. Or worry about new puppies piddling on the new carpet.

But then again, I won’t have kids in the house playing magic carpet with the area rugs.

Or rearranging the throw rugs to create forts over the tables.

Or tracing car paths in the design.

Indecision. It’s a fact of ‘my’ life, so today I’ll make no decision at all and remain carpet-less, for a while anyhow.

sit-carpet

sit-carpet

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