Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Family Heirloom Recipes on a Towel

Yes folks, this must be the most awesome Christmas gift idea I've run across in years.  I am so stoked to make these for all the women in the family.  I collected family recipes from my great aunt and grandma, my brother's wife's mom, and my husband's grandma, and then scanned them into my computer as a color PDF file.  Next I opened them in Picasa without having any luck, and eventually had my husband help me work on them in Adobe CS5.   That worked out much better for me than Picasa, but it helps to have someone who knows how to use the program.  I don't know how to use CS5 at all, so my husband has to walk me through every step.

When you first open it up and choose "new," you will be asked what dimensions and at what resolution you want your file to be.  This is tremendously helpful, as you need the collage to be 54x36 inches.  I set my resolution to 300 pixels per inch.  That's a pretty high resolution and will work out great for this project.

On your right, you should see where you have your background layer listed.  Currently, it should be your only layer.  You'll want to make it a pretty color that compliments your recipe card, if you want the hemmed edges to have color to them.  Do you see the two boxes of color just above the layers, one overlapping the other and slightly above and to the left?  Double click on the one on the left, and move your cursor around on the color box until you like the color.  Hit okay, and then on your toolbar (mine's on the far left of the screen), choose your paint bucket.  Click on your plain white image, and it should fill with your selected color.

Now it's time to begin adding the recipe photos.  Choose "File" and then "Place."  Choose your first recipe.  It will be too big when it first show up, so hit SHIFT and then drag the corner until it's the size you want it.  You can also drag it around to one of the four quadrants of the image, so that you'll be able to fit four recipes on the same document.  When you're satisfied, click the checkmark.  By the way, if you don't hold down SHIFT while resizing, you will find that the recipe's dimensions will get distorted.

Place and resize your other three recipe photos the same way, and then you're almost done.  I'd make the border just a little thicker than you think it should be.  I made the mistake of making mine too narrow, and it was a real pain to hem.  Just keep resizing (SHIFT and dragging the corners of the picture) until it looks right.

If you want to switch from one photo in the collage to a different photo within the collage, here's what you do so that you're able to grab that second photo: Click on the correct layer on the right side of your screen and then hit CTRL T.  Every time you resize or move an item, make sure you click on the checkmark to finalize the movement.

Want to see some yummy family recipes? Yeah, I thought so. May I recommend Nan's Sugar Cookies, as the most awesomest cookies on the planet? She made them every easter, cut them into rabbits, iced them with white icing and then piped a pink trim. Ah, those were the good old days. Love and miss you, Nan!









Linked up to Fingerprints on the Fridge and Classy Clutter

Friday, June 22, 2012

1895 Pineapple Custard and an Old Fashioned Codfish Pie

When I'm not sewing, painting furniture, or staring at Pinterest, you'll find me doing genealogy or other history-oriented things. One of the things I love to do is find historic recipes in old newspapers and make them. I'll leave you with a few (some look good, others not so much).



On tonight's menu is Pineapple Custard from 1895.
And french toast with the leftover egg/milk/nutmeg mixture ... it seems that 6 eggs and a pint of milk were too much. I even put in two cans of Dole pineapple, one crushed and one chunked. I served it with Cool Whip. I love me some Cool Whip. Unfortunately, this got mixed reviews at our house. My son loved his first bite. I have a feeling it was a bite of 100% Cool Whip. He spit out his second bite. *Sigh* I think it's alright, but I probably won't be making it again. It's pretty eggy. Or perhaps I would halve the amount of milk and eggs in the recipe and add yet another can of pineapple.

Pineapple Custard, 1895
"Fill a deep dish with a can of 'Home Guard' pineapple, cut into small pieces; add five large tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Beat six eggs very light, mix them with a pint of milk and four more spoonfuls of sugar, adding some grated nutmeg. Pour this over the pineapple, set the dish into a moderate oven and bake half an hour. Serve when cold. This will make a delicious custard."

Steamed Corn Bread, 1893
"Did you ever try steaming corn bread in place of baking it? If not, do so. Use my favorite recipe. This one has proved very satisfactory: Two cupfuls of cornmeal, a cupful of lour, 1 1/2 cupfuls of buttermilk, half a cupful of molasses, butter the size of an egg, a teaspoonful each of salt and soda. Steam 1 1/2 hours, bake 10 minutes."

Corn Beef Hash, 1902
"Equal parts of boiled prime corn beef and potatoes are prepared. The beef is chopped as fine as possible, the soft, mealy potatoes are cut into tiny cubes. A small onion is minced to add flavor to the mass, and the dishes are rubbed with a head of garlic. Another garlic head is wrapped in a piece of the fat and thrown into the center of the mass. The whole is then mixed thoroughly and nicely browned in a big skillet or frying pan. During this operation disks of Bermuda onions, cut so that each round shows every ring of the onion, are thrown into a deep dish of pure lard and browned separately. When these disks are crisp, they are used to garnish the edge of the platter, and the hash is served garnished with parsley or herbs and the usual condiment is a squeeze of a lemon."

Blackberry Shortcake, 1902
"Sift together three cups of pastry flour, a tablespoonful of salt and six level teaspoonfuls of baking powder. With the tips of the fingers, well floured, work in a third of a cup of butter, wet with about a cup and a half of milk and water and mix to a soft dough; spread in two buttered pans, smoothing the dough with a knife of spoon. When baked, butter the under crust and put together with two baskets of blackberries that have been standing with sugar sprinkled over them."

A Fruit Sandwich, 1902
"If other sandwich-fillings fail, try one of dried or candied fruits. A recipe to fill fifteen sandwiches calls for a quarter of a pound of candied cherries, a quarter of a pound of seeded raisins, and a quarter pound of dates chopped very fine. Mix, add a quarter of a pound of grated cocoanut, and moisten with the juice of half an orange and a quarter of a cupful of grape juice. Cut thin slices of white sandwich bread info fancy shapes, butter and spread the filling between." {I want to try this one!! Seems kid friendly and a good way to get in more fruit without all the added sugar in jams and jellies}

A Fruit Cake Recipe, 1893
"If fruit cake you essay? to make,
One pound of sugar you must take
Three pounds of raisins, flour one pound,
Two pounds of currants, cloves, well ground,
Three quarters pound of butter, one
Gill of molasses. This being done
One and one quarter pounds you'll take
Of citron and eight eggs you'll break
One nutmeg and one half, and one
Half gill of brandy add this done,
And all well mixed, with care you'll bake,
Twill make eight pounds of fine fruit cake."

An Old Fashioned Codfish Pie, 1890
"The codfish pie of our grandmothers makes a famous dish for frugal Friday and Lent. Here is an old recipe for it by a Connecticut lady. Line a deep baking dish with a good pie crust, or with a good soda biscuit crust made in the following manner. Sift together four cups of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of soda and two of cream tartar (or three heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder), and one teaspoonful of salt. Rub in one half cupful of shortening. Add milk enough to make a medium soft dough- about a pint. Some flour takes more than others. For the upper crust spread butter on twice and fold and roll out. Cut out a round piece in the center.
Take a pint of picked up salt codfish, cover with boiling water, let it stand two minutes, drain, pour on more water, let stand and drain dry, put a layer of this codfish in the dish which has been lined with the crust, sprinkle with bread crumbes, pepper and a little salt if the fish is very fresh, put on bits of butter and some cream sauce which has been made by thickening one point of boiling milk with two tablespoonfuls of flour, and seasoning with salt and pepper, break in three or four eggs according to the size of the dish, piercing the yolks, repeat the codfish, bread crumbs, cream sauce and eggs, put on the top crust, and bake a delicate brown."

Um, not so sure about that last one...


Mixitup

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Construction Birthday Par-tay!


Here are some photos from today's birthday party :) I can't take the credit.... pinterest was a great source of inspiration!

The mason jars were free; I had one and was given three others. The fabric I used on them was from my stash, and I created the tags on my computer. We already had the large dump truck for the chex mix and the figurines on top of the cake.









"Thank you for cone-ing to my party" ... I thought of that one all by myself :) No pinterest needed!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Meat and Potato Cupcakes





When I saw these TV dinner cupcakes all over the internet, I knew those would make good Thanksgiving/Birthday cupcakes for my hubby :)

Here's my version:



Instead of cornflakes, I used graham cracker crumbs, and instead of using a donut hole to make the turkey leg larger, I used an Oreo. I like how they turned out :)

In case you're really interested in my beastly cake-decorating skills, I'll leave you with pictures of from my husband's 30th birthday (2009). Can you guess what the green part of the pumpkin is? I'll give you a hint. It rhymes with mice dream phone :)






Link Party

Monday, November 21, 2011

Menu Planning Monday: birthday week

So I haven't really menu planned for a long time. I've been pregnant for what seems like forever, and when I'm pregnant, I don't cook. When I want something, I want it now, and there's no time for cooking. Then after the baby was born, I started cooking again, but it was more like popping a ready-made frozen lasagna in the oven.

I think I'm ready to regularly start cooking from scratch again. I can do this. It's a short week, right? I really only have to cook and menu plan for five days, since Sunday is already over, and Thursday for Thanksgiving we'll be at my husband's family's house. My parents are coming over Friday and staying for the weekend, and my mom is a diabetic who is also on a low sodium diet. That greatly impacts what I'll be making for the weekend. I found a website, Dashing Dish, that specializes in light recipes, so I'm going to make some things off there that my mom can eat. Also, did I mention that this Saturday is my husband's 32nd birthday? Ok, here we go.

Monday/Tuesday: burgers and brats! Both the burgers and the hamburger buns and the bratwurst buns were marked down for quick sale. Too bad the brats weren't though! Side dishes will be blueberry muffins and pasta salad (don't get too excited; they're from a box!)

Wednesday: stir fry. A can of stir fry veges was marked down for quick sale, plus I have a bag of frozen stir fry veges in the freezer. I also have several bags of asian style noodles on hand already.

Friday: Low Carb Ground Turkey Lasagna, complete with low sodium, homemade spaghetti sauce, since my mom can't eat jarred spaghetti sauce due to its high sodium content. This will be a real treat for her, because come on who has time to make their own spaghetti sauce?

Saturday: For breakfast, crustless quiche in a cup, leftovers for lunch, and for dinner, we'll surely go out for my hubby's birthday. I will be making these awesome turkey leg and mashed potato cupcakes for his birthday :)






Join the party at orgjunkie.com

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Independence Day Fun, Food, and Family


I saw this awesome fruit kabob idea on pinterest and decided, "Hey I can make that!" The original photo used bananas instead of marshmallows, but I thought that they would brown too quickly and chose something else white instead. You could use mini marshmallows, but as you can see, I opted to use large ones cut in half to match the size of my strawberries.


Mmmm... the toddlers loved it!
Don't poke your eye out on that sharp stick, kid.


Enjoying a kabob in a thrifted top and super-clearance el cheapo shorts


Joel's cousin loved the fruit kabobs too!


Was this outfit thrifted too? You betcha. So were the flags the kids were waving and the quilt we laid on while we watched the fireworks :)






Someday Crafts Patriotic Linky Party 2012

Monday, June 6, 2011

A birthday party!

Back in February, my little boy turned T.W.O. How time flies! My baby has turned into a full-fledged little boy with his own likes and dislikes, mood swings, and sense of humor :) He absolutely loves monkeys, so when it came time to pick a theme for the party, it was a no brainer.

If you google "monkey cake," a million and one cake images come up. I opted to go with the monkey cake from parenting.com. The only bad thing is that all the little things you have to buy in order to make the cake look like a monkey really rack up the price. You need mini chocolate donuts, licorice, brown M&Ms, peppermint patties...

I really like how it turned out!


One cake isn't enough for my husband's ginormous family our large guest list, and so I made some monkey cupcakes to go with it. I used these cupcakesas a jumping off point, however for the life of me, I could not get the vanilla wafers cut in half correctly to make the ears. I eventually gave up, raided the cereal cupboard, and decided that Cinnabon cereal made pretty good ears. They were a little Princess Leia-ish, but they did the trick.


And here's an action shot of my son enjoying said cupcakes:


This one's not the best photo of him, but it does show off the shirt I made for the special occasion. At a thrift store, I found a blue, furry, (still new-in-package!) "2" applique and a solid colored turtleneck to adhere it to. For under $2, Joel had a special birthday outfit :)

Sunday, January 31, 2010

His and Hers Meatloaves


I bought a couple jars of pineapple salsa on clearance for 75c. As it turns out, they were on clearance for a good reason. It is nasty. I even tried cooking with it to disguise the flavor, but it still came through. Ugh. Hubby didn't seem to mind it though, so I figured I'd make some Mexican meatloaves in muffin tins for him. I didn't use the Rachael Ray recipe that I linked to, however I'm sure it's a good one (it is Rachael Ray, after all!)

I took two pounds of ground turkey, one pound of ground sausage, 3 eggs, almost 2 cups of cracker crumbs and some oatmeal to make up the difference, some pepper, and a chopped onion. I mixed well and divided it into two bowls.

To his meatloaf, I added 1/2 cup of nasty salsa and all the shredded cheese that was left (probably somewhere between a half cup and a cup). To my meatloaf, I added 1/2 cup of ketchup, almost a cup of chopped dill pickles, 3/4 cup of pickle juice, and a dab of brown sugar.

I put the meatloaf mixture into muffin tins and popped them in the oven for about 30 or so minutes at 350 degrees. Three pounds of meat makes about two dozen meatloaves. If we weren't such pigs in this house, we could pop the extras into the freezer. (We can eat 24 meatloaves lickety split).

What's your favorite meatloaf recipe?

Sunday, August 16, 2009

You say Tomato, I say To-mah-to

Yes folks, it's that time! Time when tomatoes are ripening, and I'm bringing them into the house by the truckload.

I haven't done menu planning lately, but as I'm about to go back to work in a few days, *sigh,* then I better get my act together and get organized!

This week our meals will be based on tomatoes. This morning, into the crockpot went ten fresh tomatoes, an onion, two tiny lovely garden-grown, yellowish-orangish bell peppers, along with chili powder, pepper, curry powder, paprika, oregano, and two pounds of ground turkey. Hopefully this turns out like Cincinnati style chili, but we'll see. I'm going to cut up a pack of hotdogs and toss it in too, and the whole concoction goes over spaghetti and is topped with cheese and oyster crackers. Never heard of Cincinnati chili? Boy are you missing out!!!

After that's gone (maybe Tues?) then I'm going to make turkey burgers with some garden-grown shredded zucchini, topped with... you guessed it... sliced tomatoes! To go with that, I think I'll make some macaroni and cheese with chopped tomatoes in it.

That should last us until Thursday maybe. By then I'll be back at work, so my stay-at-home husband will have to start learning how to cook! He can grill very well, so we'll probably round out the week with marinated pork chops on the grill and some frozen vegetables. (Not tomatoes) And after heading back to work, a tall glass of wine might on the menu!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Party in Your Mouth with Barefoot Contessa

Yum. She made macaroni and cheese! I of course did not follow her recipe (at all) but mac and cheese sounded so good. I do not have fancy schmancy mushrooms and butter like she has… (apparently the key to her mac and cheese is this expensive flavored butter…)

I do have some shredded cheddar cheese, milk, elbow macaroni, and Blue Bonnet margarine! Mine won’t be as elegant as hers. So what?! (*puts on my flannel shirt, tattered jeans, and sits on a bale of hay*) Elegance isn’t my strong suit anyway.

I decided to throw in some extras I had on hand. Barefoot Contessa did not do this, but I was just winging it. I had some smoked sausage thawed in the fridge, so I sliced it very thin and placed it into my BFF, my trusty 9x13. I also had some frozen broccoli and cauliflower (what’s not to love about cheesy broccoli and cauliflower?!) so I thawed it and tossed that in too. Meanwhile of course, make sure your macaroni is boiling in some salted water. The next part I just eyeballed so I can’t give you definite measurements. I put two globs of butter in my pan, followed by about 2 cups shredded cheese and enough milk to make it the right consistency. I also dumped in some onion powder for taste. I stirred until it looked like a good cheese sauce, then I stirred it in with the elbows. I then dumped it all in my 9x13 and cooked it for about thirty minutes in a medium oven. I cooked it at 325 because the other thing I made was supposed to be baked at 325. It’s just a casserole, and everything was already fully cooked, so the temperature really doesn’t matter, does it? I wouldn’t go cooking it at 450 or anything though.


Please disregard the spoon. I got hungry. So sue me.


Do you subscribe to the philosophy that you should never wash a half load of dishes or laundry? Me too. What about cooking? Do you believe that you should never just use the one rack in your oven? If the oven’s on, you might as well stuff it full of food so as not to waste all that heat, right?

So I also made some A to Z bread. Basically, it’s a use-whatever-you-have-on-hand-to-make-some-kick-@ss-bread recipe. You can use anything from apples to zucchini. Hence the name. How clever.

My babies



Today, I used four past-their-prime bananas with enough raspberry jam to make 2 cups. (You need two cups of A to Z ingredients for this recipe). It says to bake for an hour at 325, however I ended up baking it about ten or fifteen extra minutes. I think maybe upping the temp a little bit would have worked better. I’ll be taking one of the loaves to my mother-in-law’s fiftieth birthday party today. I’ll be hiding the other loaf from my husband so I can eat the whole thing myself. Funny thing is, you think I’m joking.



That reminds me. I went over and paid my in-laws a visit a couple days ago (I usually hang out with them a few times a week while hubby works). My father-in-law came home and saw me sitting on the couch, and he said to my MIL, “I thought you said you were cooking dinner? Not that you invited a cook over for dinner!” Well thank you, thank you very much. I’m known as the cook of the family. I feel so special!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Foodie Friday: Baby Food Edition

I forget who turned me on to this book, but I read about it somewhere. I had to run out and get it from my local library right away! Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel gives you all sorts of recipes and food combos from your little one’s first foods all the way up through one year. Annabel’s philosophy is that babies become picky eaters because they aren’t exposed to flavorful and interesting foods. Babies don’t want bland, nasty food from a jar; they want to eat food chock full of flavor like adults do! Annabel points out that your baby’s taste buds are starting to develop, and this is a crucial time for your baby to experience an array of appetizing flavors!

I thought I’d share some things from this book so you can see what kinds of flavor combinations Annabel recommends. She says to combine pureed parsnip, carrots, and either sweet potato, pumpkin or rutabaga for six month olds. Avocado and banana with a tad bit of formula or breast milk is an easy no-cook option for six month olds. At around seven months, she includes recipes such as Fillet of fish with cheese sauce and vegetables and Easy One-Pot Chicken. She also says that combos such as peach, pear, and blueberry or apricot, apple, pear, and vanilla are suitable for seven month olds. (I read some of these to my sister-in-law who has a six month old, and she told him no way was he getting any of these homemade gourmet meals!)

When a baby is 7-9 months old, he can eat Tomato, Cauliflower and Carrot with Basil or Pasta with Butternut Squash, Tomato, and Cheese. Or perhaps Fillet of Fish in an Orange Sauce will tickle his fancy! No? How about Salmon Surprise or Chicken with Leek, Carrot, and Peas? Desserts and fruits for 7-9 months old include Apple, Pear, and Prune with Oats and Strawberry, Peach, and Pear Crumble. (Is your mouth watering yet? Yeah, mine too).

And finally, for 9-12 month olds, try Tuna Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce and Fillet of Cod with Spinach in a Cheese Sauce. He might also like Tasty Chicken Bolognese and Tender Casserole of Lamb. Sweet tooth? Try Nectarine and Strawberry with Vanilla. (Damn, these babies are eating better than me. I plan on making my own baby food but I think Lamb might be taking it a little too far).

I’m going to cut this posting short. I have a date with some nectarines, strawberries, and vanilla!


Visit Ann's website for more Food on Fridays! Make sure to leave all participants lots of bloggy love!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Beef Stew, Burgundy Style: Update

Hubby called from work and told me that some of his coworkers were inquiring about the beef stew. (Quick shout out to Adam and Flora! If you stop by my blog, leave me a comment, yo!) I did link to the recipe on Monday, however since I didn't really follow the recipe (at all), I figured I better just redo it. I'm going to copy and paste the recipe into this post and add my own things in italics. Here it goes.


  • 1/4 cup dried parsley- didn't use this
  • 2 tablespoons dried thyme - didn't use this either
  • 2 tablespoons dried bay leaf- I have this, but for some reason didn't use this
  • 2 tablespoons dried rosemary- You guessed it. I omitted this too. Geez. You mean to tell me the only spice I did use wasn't even on the original ingredient list?! (I used some oregano)
  • 3 pounds beef chuck, cut into large pieces-I think I used about two pounds of roast
  • 1 large yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped- I used a regular white onion but at least I used an onion!
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped- used some frozen carrots on hand and also threw in a can of corn and a can of green beans
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled- I buy the little jar of garlic already minced. I'd say I probably used about a teaspoon or so
  • 25 1/2 oz wine, (1 bottle) rich red burgundy or California pinot noir- I used a little over half a bottle of red wine. Don't even ask where the other half went...
  • 6 ounces Lean salt pork, diced- Ew, this just sounds bad so I left it out.
  • 1 tsp each Salt and Pepper- Come to think of it, I can't remember if I put S&P in or not!
  • 1/3 cup flour- This would have certainly thickened it up a bit, but I didn't put any flour in my concoction
  • 2 cups water-I used beef broth rather than water, and I also added in a can of whole tomatoes in their juice. Smash up the tomatoes with your hands. I think the addition of beef broth and tomato juice made the soup a little less knock-your-socks-off-with-the-taste-of-wine
  • 1 pound mushrooms, stems trimmed and caps peeled-Crap, I knew I forgot something...


Basically I marinated the meat and onion in the wine for 24 hours. I then browned the meat and sauteed the onion with it. I placed the rest of the wine marinade in a crockpot along with all the other ingredients and cooked on low for about 8 hours.

De-frickin-licious.

Friday, May 29, 2009

99 Bottles of BBQ Sauce on the Wall

99 Bottles of BBQ Sauce,
Take one down,
Pass it around,

98 Bottles of BBQ Sauce on the Wall!

Hello to my friends and followers at Gap Inc Direct! Jason tells me that some of you (okay one of you) are quite enamored with my blog. I'm quite honored! I must tell you that it makes me feel like quite the celebrity. I'm practicing "the wave" .... you know the one, right? The one where the girl who won Miss Pork Festival stands on a float and waves that fake wave? Yeah, that could be me alright.

Anyway.... Jason told me I need to post about the BBQ Chicken- Asparagus Pizza in case any of you drop by looking for the recipe. Sorry I don't have any photos of it. I always mean to photograph my creations however I'm such a pig that I simply cannot take the time to take pictures of my food. Once it's out of the oven it goes promptly into my belly.

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

I used two store bought crusts like Boboli (though I used the Meijer brand). On top of that, I put a layer of shredded cheese then one chopped and sauteed onion (half an onion on each pizza). Next goes on a mixture of 2 cans of asparagus (though fresh would have been way better), about 2 lbs of cooked, cubed chicken, and a bottle of bbq sauce (about 18 oz). Finally top with parmesan cheese, and bake as directed on the pizza crust packaging.

Now breathe in the aroma of the pizza as it bakes because that's the best part! Okay, that's almost the best part, second only to the taste of it as you scarf it down!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Tough Meat Tuesday

Memes are all the rage now, aren't they? I had never even heard of the word "meme" until a couple days ago! I actually had to go to Merriam-Webster to even find out what it is. (I know I'm a dictionary nerd).

What about Tough Meat Tuesday? That's one that I don't think exists yet. With the current economy being what it is, we should all be making use of cheap meat. There's lots of people who do meatless days (especially Meatless Monday) but my hubby is a carnivore. He likes his meat, and I couldn't stand to watch his sad little face if I were to sit a vege pizza or some kind of tofu burger in front of him once a week.

Today I'll be crockpotting some pork shoulder to make barbecue pork. What's going on in your kitchen today?

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Menu Planning Monday: 5-18-09



For those of you who are visiting me from orgjunkie.com, hello! Let me introduce myself briefly. I'm a new SAHM to a beautiful little boy. I've been on maternity leave from teaching since my son was born in February and since then have been laid off due to a levy failure in my school district. My husband's salary is only about half of mine so needless to say, we're living pretty tightly now!

I had my first menu planning experience when I was in middle school. My best friend was in charge of cooking dinner every night for her family. Her mom was a dietician at a nursing home and so she was probably used to coming up with meal plans. She would write everything out on a calendar and post it on the fridge so her daughter knew what she was supposed to make each day.

Fast forward 15 years. I've embraced it on and off for several years, however now that I'm a SAHM, I'm going to stick with it! (I think). Wish me luck :) Without any further ado, on to the meal planning.

Due to the fact that we have not one, but two weddings to attend this weekend, plus one rehearsal dinner and a graduation party, I don’t have to cook a whole lot this week. I think that three homemade meals will be enough, and leftovers will fill in the rest.

BBQ Pork in the crockpot to use up a bottle of barbecue sauce, and Jenny’s Baked Oatmeal Bars.

Extreme Nachos, consisting of some tortilla chips (we currently have 2 ½ bags to use up), ground turkey browned with taco seasonings, cheese, and salsa. I first made this in eighth grade for Spanish Class when everyone would bring in a Spanish or Mexican dish, and we would party like it was 1999. Even though back then 1999 would still be five years in the future.

And for dessert and/or breakfast, something that really doesn’t go with nachos but does use cereal (which is always a good thing when you’re trying to use up twenty boxes):Breakfast bars.

And last but not least: Chicken and rice with Asparagus Sauce that uses several egg yolks. To use up the whites, I’ll make Egg Drop Soup and Egg White Cookies.