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Menu Plan Monday: Winter Doldrums!

 

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I just feel kinda icky!  Like I should just crawl back in bed. I really have nothing to complain about.  It isn’t as if it is so cold that we are all stuck inside.  No, in fact, we have been running our air conditioner for the past 4 days!  Not sure what it is.  Oh well, I will try to make us some sweets this week to help me get over it.

If you are reading this post, I have to assume you haven’t jumped to my menu plan at the deals site.  Well, the menu is the same, but the difference is that I have a giveaway going on over there.

Be sure to print out your coupons this week!  Remember, you should be able to print them twice.

 

Ok, on to my menu plan for this week:

Monday: Southwestern Cheesy Chicken

Tuesday: Saucy Beef Chili

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Friday: Jerk Chicken Nachos

Don’t forget to visit Org Junkie for Hundreds more menu plans and before heading to the grocery store… Print coupons for your favorite brands and save at Coupons.com.

Looking for more ideas?  You can find plenty of recipes as well as a free menu planning sheet on my kid friendly recipes page!

Review: Dream Dinner Store

Review: Dream Dinner Store

I had no idea that the Dream Dinner Store even existed until I was asked to do this store review. Let me try to explain what it is. You go to their website, pick your session time, pick your menu, then show up to the Dream Dinner Store at your scheduled session time to prepare your food. When you get there, you will wash your hands and get an apron. Then get a clipboard with your menu and get to work. Each station has 2-3 menu items to prepare, which includes all seasonings and ingredients for that recipe. You find a menu item that you chose and start preparing. This is a great  idea. You can prepare your meals for the week or for the month and freeze them, and not have to dirty up your kitchen, or have keep so many ingredients on hand. The meals are prepared either in a pan ready to cook or in a Ziploc bag, and all you have to do is but it in a pan and pop it in the oven.

What the website says:

 

DREAM DINNERS,
WHERE QUICK & HEALTHY MEALS
BECOME REALITY

What’s for dinner?
Do you ever come near the end of a busy day and wonder, “What’s for dinner?” At Dream Dinners we answer that question for you. Our monthly menu includes over 14 different recipes each month, along with additional pre-assembled dinners, sides, breads and desserts ready for purchase while in one of our stores. A wide variety of options means there are plenty of meal preparation choices to satisfy everyone in the family.

We provide everything you need to assemble delicious dinners from easy-to-follow instructions to fresh, pre-cut ingredients. Learning how Dream Dinners works is easy.

Service:

18 recipes, which guests choose according to their preferences, and then assemble all at once at Dream Dinners locations – only taking about an hour. In addition, guests can supplement their main meals by purchasing preassembled frozen side dishes, desserts and breakfast menu items that complement each monthly menu.

Benefits:

Dream Dinners is perfect for keeping busy families together at dinnertime, with significant benefits including:

Saving Time

– all of the menu planning, prep work and clean up is taken care of by Dream Dinners, so guests simply assemble and go!

Saving Money

– food is purchased in bulk by Dream Dinners to pass savings on to the customer, plus there is no “unused” grocery waste for the home cook.

Eating Healthier – Dream Dinners uses low and nofat options wherever possible, and most dishes are between 135 340 calories per serving.

Cost:

 Guests make a minimum 36serving purchase to participate in a session. The average serving cost is $4.25.

 Mission:

Dream Dinners is founded on a mission to bring families together at dinnertime. Food and families are at the heart of everything Dream Dinners does by providing guests all the ingredients they need for a great meal. Dream Dinners offers freedom from the hassles surrounding the planning and preparation of meals night after night, and allows families to come together at the end of day to eat a healthful meal as a family.

Right now they have a special a going on……ALL new customers get a FREE dinner. You will get 24 dinners for $75.

www.dreamdinners.com

http://www.facebook.com/dreamdinners

http://twitter.com/#!/DreamDinners

 

 

Simple Food for the Good Life {Book Review}

Simple Food for the Good Life: Random Acts of Cooking and Pithy Quotations by Helen Nearing

This little book has been through multiple editions since it’s original publication in 1982. Helen Nearing and her husband Scott were pioneers in homesteading and there have been over 30 books written about their lives. The book is much more than a cookbook ; it is a blueprint for living a more simple, basic, back to the land life. The author did not consider herself a good cook or a willing one. She was convinced, finally, by French friends to put her recipes on paper {anyone that knows anything about French cooking knows how they feel about the way they do things in the kitchen so this was a major compliment}.

Once she finally became convinced by her French friends to put her recipes on paper, she spent countless hours in rare book rooms in the New York, Boston, and Philadelphia libraries, researching previously written cookbooks because she was concerned she would be writing a book someone else had already done; she wanted her book to be unique!

 

 

Description from the publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing:

Fifty years before the phrase “simple living” became fashionable, Helen and Scott Nearing were living their celebrated “Good Life” on homesteads first in Vermont, then in Maine. All the way to their ninth decades, the Nearings grew their own food, built their own buildings, and fought an eloquent combat against the silliness of America’s infatuation with consumer goods and refined foods. They also wrote or co-wrote more than thirty books, many of which are now being brought back into print by the Good Life Center and Chelsea Green.

Simple Food for the Good Life is a jovial collection of “quips, quotes, and one-of-a-kind recipes meant to amuse and intrigue all of those who find themselves in the kitchen, willingly or otherwise.” Recipes such as Horse Chow, Scott’s Emulsion, Crusty Carrot Croakers, Raw Beet Borscht, Creamy Blueberry Soup, and Super Salad for a Crowd should improve the mood as well as whet the appetite of any guest.

Here is an antidote for the whole foods enthusiast who is “fed up” with the anxieties and drudgeries of preparing fancy meals with stylish, expensive, hard-to-find ingredients. This celebration of salads, leftovers, raw foods, and homegrown fruits and vegetables takes the straightest imaginable route from their stem or vine to your table.

“The funniest, crankiest, most ambivalent cookbook you’ll ever read,” said Food & Wine magazine. “This is more than a mere cookbook,” said Health Science magazine: “It belongs to the category of classics, destined to be remembered through the ages.”


Though we aren’t vegetarian, I really enjoyed reading this book and looking through the recipes because I do want my family to have healthy and yummy meals.  After all, you don’t have to sacrifice yummy for healthy!  What I loved about the book was that it is full of simple recipes with emphasis on a minimum number of ingredient and as many raw ingredients as possible. Here is a three course meal example:

Salad: Apple Slaw
Ingredients:

  • 3 apples, grated
  • 1/2 head red cabbage, grated
  • 2 cups of celery, chopped coarsely
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons of oil

Directions: Combine the apples, cabbage, celery and raisins.  Add the honey, lemon juice and oil.  Tossing well after each addition to coat the ingredients well.  Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

 

Soup:  Super Supper Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of any kind of dry beans, soaked over night in two quarts of cold water
  • 2-3 tablespoons of butter or oil
  • 2 onions or leeks, sliced
  • 2 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
  • 2 stalks of celery, sliced
  • 2 turnips cubed
  • 1 clove of minced garlic
  • a pinch of thyme, marjoram, aniseed

Directions: Bring the bean and water to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the beans are soft (about an hour).  In a large skillet, heat the butter or oil and saute the vegetables until they are soft.  Add the vegetables with the beans along with the seasonings and simmer for 30 minutes.  Serves 6-8

 

Dessert:  Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients:

  • 3 Cups of Old Fashioned Oats
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of honey
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1 cup of chopped nuts

Directions: Bring the oats and peanut butter to a boil with the 1/2 cup water.  Add the honey, vanilla, and chopped nuts.  Stir well and being once more to a boil.  Cook for a minute or so.  Remove from the stove and let it cool.  Spoon unto a buttered plate or pan and roll into balls.

The chapter on herbs and other seasonings is particularly informative especially if you or your family are watching your salt intake.  In this chapter you learn how to substitute spices, seasonings and herbs in place of salt.  Along the way, the book is peppered with delightful quotes from cooks and cookbooks over the centuries.

If you would like to simplify your life and your diet, learn more about why you should absolutely do this for the mental and physical well being of you and your family, this is the book for you!

To order a copy of your own, please visit Chelsea Publishing,  or order it from Amazon.  If you want more information on Chelsea Publishing visit them on Facebook or Chelsea Green’s Twitter feed we’re @chelseagreen.

 

Like this book? Digg it!

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Book Data

ISBN: 9781890132293
Year Added to Catalog: 1999
Book Format: Paperback
Book Art: index
Number of Pages: 6 x 9, 309 pages
Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Old ISBN: 1890132292
Release Date: January 1, 1990
Web Product ID: 266

Also By This Author

Simple Food for the Good Life

Menu Plan Monday: One More Month of School

Wow!  That was one crazy weekend.  I stirred up the drama with my own variation of the Follower Giveaway, had a crazy busy Easter, started my Share The Love Giveaway, and ate until I couldn’t eat anymore. LOL!  How was your weekend?

Today, I realized that in exactly one month school is going to be OVER for the SUMMER!  Whoo hoo!  What am I going to do next year when all of my children are out of the house?

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Oh well, lets not get teary eyed here, but instead move onto the menu. (be sure to look for the sneak peek below!)

Monday: Easter Leftovers Smile

Tuesday: Roast in the Crock Pot, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Wednesday: Full-Moon Howlers*

Thursday: Chicken Nuggets and Potato Salad

Friday: Leftovers

*SNEAK PEEK* I am reviewing the cute cookbook, Little Monsters by Zac Williams, published by Gibbs Smith.  The recipes are so fun in here and I will be writing up a new post soon with my thoughts after dinner this week.

Be sure to check out Org Junkie for hundreds more menu plans!

Menu Plan Monday: National Cleaning Week

How did yesterday go on our National Cleaning Week kick off?  How many boxes did you fill?  How many loads of laundry did you do? Today is about the kitchen!  We want to get it spotless.  I am also going to share my super easy menu for the week since I am going to be busy Spring Cleaning!

My National Cleaning Week Menu:

Since I am going to be scrubbing and preparing for a yard sale all week, I need meals that I can fix and forget or that can be made pretty quickly.

Our Kitchen Cleaning Tasks:

Obviously, National Cleaning Week isn’t about the normal day-to-day cleaning.  It is about all the other things that get put off!  Some of the tasks might require some help.  Do NOT do more than you can handle!  Don’t be afraid to ask someone for help.  Here are your tasks to handle today:

Pull out the cloth! Start with pulling down curtains, pulling up rugs, and yanking down the dishtowels.  Throw everything in the washer (if it can be done).

Clean out the fridge! Take everything off one shelf at a time and wipe down the shelf, walls, etc.  Be sure to start at the top so the dirty water drips to the bottom instead of over your cleaned spots!

Clean off the fridge! Again, start at the top.  If you keep pretties on the top, soap them up and get them spotless.  Take down all the papers and other items stuck to the front and sides.  Does it really need to be there?  How long has it been there?  Let’s start fresh!  Be sure to wipe it all down.  Now is a good time to change your filter, too if you have one inside your refrigerator.  Don’t forget the vent area at the bottom.

Clean behind the fridge! How long has it been since you moved your refrigerator?  Move it, sweep behind it, wipe down the walls, wipe down (and dust) the back of the fridge (especially the coils), put it back.

Do the stove! Repeat all of the above steps with your stove and oven.  A little vinegar cuts the grease that seems to accumulate in the kitchen. Be sure to pull it out, too (if possible).

Flip a load! Flip the aforementioned load of laundry over from the washer to the dryer, then take a short break with a glass of water.

Do the microwave! The easiest way to get the inside of your microwave clean is to put a microwave safe bowl of water in it and turn it on for about a minute.  The steam from the water will loosen any cooked on food making it wipe right off.

Clean the pretties! Gather all of your decorative items and clean them really well – don’t forget the vinegar to cut the grease.  This includes the globes over your lights.

Clean the a/c vents! Get a stool and go to town scrubbing those vents in the ceiling.  You want them to sparkle!

Clean the fan! After dusting your fan blades, you might need to take a vinegar and water soaked rag and really wipe down the fan.

Dust everything else! After you have finished the above tasks, wipe down the counters and other flat surfaces (shelves, furniture, window sills, door frames, etc)

Sweep it up! Sweep the floor really well.  You could even run a vacuum over it to be sure everything gets GONE.

Hand and knees time! Get you some scrubbers and an old tooth brush and start attacking that floor. Be sure to get on and around the baseboards really well.

Re-hang the cloth! Hang your curtains, replace your dish towels, and put your rugs back down.

How does it look?  Tomorrow we are going to tackle the living areas in our home (living room, den, rec room, playroom – that type of thing.

Be sure to visit www.orgjunkie.com for hundreds more menus!

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