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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

thoughts & prayers

Today I have been following a lot of news stories about the tornado victims here in Minneapolis and the town of Joplin Mo.
Both are in need of the following items:
Baby supplies (including diapers, wipes, A&D Ointment, baby food and juices)
Convenience food (snack type)
Deodorant
Diabetic Monitors with Strips
First aid supplies
Over the counter medications (mainly tylenol)
Pet food
Shampoo and Conditioner
Soap and body wash
Soap Powders and Cleaning Supplies
Sunscreen and Bug Spray
Toothpaste and Tooth Brushes
They are asking that we refrain from sending clothing.
I'm going to send one package of my own items to them from our family. 
And this is where my couponing becomes not only money saving for my family but allows me to offer items to people in need. So if you have coupon inserts in your garage, recycle bin, or at work I'm asking that you please clip them and start couponing for this cause. If not I will take your coupons that you do not use/ or need and will get the items I can for the families in need.
This was done for the victims in Alabama a week or so back and it had an outstanding amount of items sent off to families in need. 500 boxes have been sent to Alabama families.
Here is where you send your packages or I will put the items in with what I will be sending.
Disaster Relief
c/o Pentecostal Church of God
4901 Pennsylvania Avenue
Joplin, MO 64804
God Bless.
Thursday, May 19, 2011

my babies.

Me as a first time momma at the age of 18 yrs old.
Me 14 yrs later becoming a new momma all over again.

Fourteen years later?! 
People ask me all the time why did you have a baby when your almost done?
HA! Almost done? Seriously do they just think that when the child turns 18 you are no longer a mom? No longer a parent?
And I did not choice this gap in years. I struggled. 
Emotionally, mentally, physically. 
My relationship with my husband was challenged. 
My relationship with god was tested.
I felt alone.
It was as though no one understood at all. 
I found a group online that struggled just like me. 
Had the same symptoms as me
Did the same treatments as me.
And for years these woman were the only people that understood me.
Understood my anger.
My sadness.
My fears.
My pain.
They to had all the same emotions. 

I love being a mother.
And as my oldest starts to spread her wings more and prepare to leave the nest, I'm sad. Granted I have 2 years. But that will go by so fast!!
I will miss her.

She is my first born. My first miracle baby.
She and I grew up together.
She is my little girl!
Mom loves you Maddie girl! 


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Monday, May 16, 2011

make ahead meals save time & money!

I know if you are anything like millions of american families your days can often be busy,busy, busy!
And if you are like me dinner sometimes sneaks up on you and you have no idea how you are going to prepare dinner and get it on the table before 6pm. 

So like some you order out. Even though in your house you have plenty to make but just didn't have the time. 
So you spend say $25.00 on delivered pizza. GREAT! Dinner is done.
But you are out $25.00 that really wasn't necessary to spend because you have the food just not the time.

Well I read awhile back on another blog of mom's making meals ahead of time and freezing them. PERFECT!
What a great way to avoid ordering out when you are just to busy or let's be honest, just do not feel like cooking!

So now I set aside time one day a week usually for me at night because everyone is in bed and I can focus entirely on cooking. But obviously it's up to you when you decide to do this if you decide to do this. 

Now tomorrow night I will pull out one of my freezer meals and TADA! Dinner is done in 30 minutes and it only took me 5 minutes to get it out of the freezer and pre-heat the oven.

I wanted to share one of my favorite freezer meals. Best part about this meal is it can either be one large dinner or broken down into multiple lunches. 

Chicken pot pie
Large or handheld

the crust.
1 stick of butter 8 tbsp's
4 0z of cream cheese
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
* In your stand mixer or handheld whip together the butter and cream cheese.
Once combined at the heavy whipping cream and whip for 1 minute.
The add flour and salt and blend until dough starts to combine and you can see that it is ready to roll into a ball.
Sprinkle flour on your cutting board or counter top and knead this dough a few times to combine more. Then half it and form into 2 disk that will go in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Now while you are waiting for the dough prepare the inside of your pot pie
Here is where you have options. I buy one whole organic chicken and boil it for a few hours before I start prepping this meal.
From this chicken I will make 2 pot pies or 24 hand held pot pies for lunches. I also will have some chicken left for another meal of my choice. usually I go with a soup because of all the broth I end up with.
You can also go the easy route if you only intend on making a large pot pie or 12 hand held pies and buy a rotisserie chicken. How easy! But then remember to purchase a pack of chicken broth for the filling.

Filling:double if making more then 1 pie or more then 12 hand held pies.

1 carrot(chopped for pie, diced for hand held)
1 celery(chopped for pie, diced for hand held)
1/2 small onion(chopped for pie, diced for hand held)
1 small potato( chopped for pie, diced for hand held.)
peas & corn(optional)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 heaping cup of shredded chicken
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
In saute pan melt butter. Then add all your veggies except for pea's and corn if you are using.
cook 5 minutes.
Then add any other veggies you plan on using and flour.
With the flour you are making a roux.
Once that is mixed add the 1 cup of broth and parm cheese.
Then add chicken.
Filling is complete set aside until dough is ready.
Roll the dough out to either fit into large pie crust or use small biscuit cutter or baby snack gerber bowl (which some may or may not have)
and cut out small circles. 
If you are making hand helds then drop in 1 tbsp of filling wet the sides of the dough and fold in half sealing the sides.
Then place on sprayed cookie sheet and crimp with fork and poke a few holes as well to let steam escape. Now at this point I do a egg wash on top of mine. This is only if you are going to cook and then freeze not just put them straight into freezer.
Now if you doing large pie put one half of the crust into greased pie pan and put in oven for 5 minutes at 400 degrees.
Then fill the crust and top with the other half of crust. poke holes. Now same thing here as for the hand helds if you are cooking and freezing egg wash now. if you are putting this straight into the freezer egg wash when you are going to cook it. 
These both need to be cooked at 400 degree's. Hand helds for 10 minutes large pie I go about 25-35minutes depending oven. They both should be golden brown on top.




Just an FYI 
use the leftover dough to make cinnamon and sugar scraps! YUM! 
spread on a little butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and bake for about 10 minutes or less. YUM! And no waste :)
Also this crust is great for fruit pies!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Trying new things...

We have been trying new things in our house. New things meaning meals & foods that some have tried some haven't. Some like some look at me like omg did she just make that! But through the past month we have been able to add more items to "THE LIST".
This list is something my husband started to say after I made something he loved. He would say " oh this goes on the list". Never wrote anything down just knew the meals he liked and I enjoyed and we would make that.

My husband has been eating my food for almost 17yrs now. He will tell you in the beginning it was looking grim for good meals.
But come on I was 17 yrs old!
Frozen foods etc was a specialty in our house. Boxed Lasagna was our Italian dinner night go to meal!
As I grew up I started to bring out both of my grandmother's awesome cooking skills! Slowly.........
As I started to actually "try" cooking it came so naturally to me. Like it was in my blood.
My Irish Grandma, Greek Grandma, and Italian Grandpa, Aunt's and Uncles had taught me something.
And now I think I can make a good meal. 
Like most I have made a few flops that involve ordering pizza after trying the meal, but how will I know if I don't try!

So these past three weeks we have cut back on our meat intake and started making meals that we would only have on meatless Mondays or just never tried. Also having only chicken on the days we do have meat.

I want to share a few of them with you that I can say everyone in the house enjoyed. None of these recipes were invented by me, but I did do a few things to a few of them to make them my own.
I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
And thank you 
http://weelicious.com/ 
This recipe I made and then added the little buggers to pita bread, with the yogurt sauce, lettuce, feta cheese, red onion and tomatoes. YUM!
Joshua helped me make these and was eating the bean mixture while I was making the little patties.
Mexican Lasagna 
to this recipe I used the low fat cream cheese, low fat cheese and less of it, and added another 4 corn tortilla's to the top. 
Served with corn, and spanish rice (recipe later) and it was a huge hit with the family!


Monday, May 2, 2011

MIA AGAIN!

Been MIA for awhile again. 

Have been trying to stay off the pc as much as possible. About a month ago we moved our computer/office room downstairs into what used to be the storage room. Before that the pc's were way to accessible and I would find myself running into the next room to "check" something and end up on the darn computer for much to long. 
But now that it is downstairs I come down maybe once a day to check things early in the morning before my husband leaves for work and again when Jman is napping.
I feel so much better about the time I spend on the pc!
But I miss blogging, so here I'm. 
Taking a break from coupon hunting, (which is what I do at night) so I can pop in and blog a bit.

In other news little man has been done nursing now for 5 weeks! Crazy I tell you. Mom's a little sad about this but he could care less.
Potty training next?
Ha!

 

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