MEAL PLANNING FOR THE BUSY FAMILY

Do you ever get bogged down with trying to come up with ideas for dinner. Dinner does not need to be take out or frozen packaged food from the grocery store.
 Make a list of about 20 favorite recipes. Write this list on a piece of paper out of a note book
or on the computer and print out. Post this on your refrigerator.
Decide which of these would be good for double batches to freeze when a quick easy dinner is needed.
Make a list of ingredients you need for these meal ideas.
Check your pantry and refrigerator for what you all ready have.
Plan the weeks menu around this list, what is in the pantry and what is on sale at the grocery store.

One dinner idea in our home is meat loaf. I can have two meals out of one meat loaf since there are only two of us. Bake some potatoes with the meat loaf. Later in the week add potatoes to the meat loaf and you have home made hash. Double recipe if you have more than two in your household.

I HAVE BEEN BITTEN BY THE TRAVEL BUG ~ DREAMING OF ROUTE 66

 Hubby and I love to travel, to see new  places and  visit with people we have never met. We have traveled most of the US in the past years.  Traveled in a van with blow up mattress and owned a motor home for a few years. We have been to California and back more than once. Seen places that I did not think I would see.
The dream of travel is with me again. Yesterday hubby and I went and looked at a used motor home and two new trailers.  We sat with finance guy and got pricing options and walked away with information and brochure.
Okay so what can we do to make our dream come true and what is the real dream. Is it to have a small home base and travel some. Or is the dream to sell unneeded items and put other items in storage and travel for a year.
Decisions to be made but the important thing is to think it through. Check out all our options and find out what is the best idea for us.
We are leaning towards one of the new trailers should we decide to buy one. Used 2004 motor home is nice and only 37,000 miles but payments are higher than we want and just does not feel like a good deal.
The two trailers are not all that big and would sleep up to 4 if needed. Easy to pull and affordable payment wise if we make some adjustments in living quarters.
We could find a smaller apartment and do just fine. Our apartment is two bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths with spectacular views of Lake Superior. The decision is do we down size and travel more often or stay where we are and save money to travel as we can afford it.
We visited Las Vegas for a few days last month. This was our first trip in 5 years.  We did our trip there on a budget and even came home with money not spent. We put that money right back into our travel fund and planning a trip to New York this summer.
So the travel bug has got us but we are saving money for our travel and now deciding on whether to buy a travel trailer or not.
The more we can put down on this trailer the better it would be. Do you have the travel bug or a dream of something you are willing to save for.

BRRR ~ It Is REALLY Cold Out There This Week ~ Whats Happening In My World

Boy is it cold out there this week, right now it is 17 below. I have no idea what the wind chill is and really do not want to know.
Schools are closed and they are encouraging every one to be safe. We are going out some during the day to warm the car and do errands. Otherwise we are staying close to home.
Was so cold we decided to stay home last night rather than go to the auction.
If you are in the cold areas of the country be safe and if you live where it is warm I really do not want to hear it is 59 degrees and I was walking my dogs in a short sleeve shirt.
I am wearing long johns, winter coat, a hat and gloves plus my boots to take the trash out.
Grace

2012 Books I Read and What I am Reading January 2013

2012 is gone and I did not read as many books as I would of liked to have but I did read some good books.

For a reading club I read The Immortal Life of  Henrietta Lacks 

Other nonfiction books I read
The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith  




Some of the fiction books I read this past year were
 I'll Walk Alone by  Mary Higgins Clark  


Brian Freeman's Immoral,
 Stripped  
 and Stalked

by Harlan Coben I read Gone For Good



John Sandford Buried Prey 

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron


I will add to what I read in 2012 as I recall my books.

Watch for my posting on Books Read 2013
I am starting off January with The Great Partenship by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for a book club on religion and science
and for fiction I am reading Rough Country by John Sandford.   




What are you reading this year? To see what others are reading check at Family Your Way

Menu Plan Monday ~ Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup On The Menu

Time to make up my menu for this coming week. I am feeling like home made chicken noodle soup.

Monday night will be ham salad sandwiches with chips, we have an auction to go to that evening

Tuesday Chicken with Rice, peas and crescent rolls

Wednesday Homemade Chicken Noodle soup with left over rolls

Thursday Hamburger hotdish, homemade bread and corn

Friday pizza

Saturday left over chicken noodle soup with peanut butter sandwiches and crackers

Sunday left over buffet of anything left over from the week

Whats For Dinner ~ Beef and Been Enchiladas ~ Saving Money Eating Mexican At Home

When I crave Mexican I refer to my cookbooks rather than going out for an expensive dinner. Tonight on the menu was Beef and Bean Enchiladas, side of Refried Beans and Taco chips.  Tonights dinner came from Favorite Brand Name Incredibly Easy Weeknight Meals. Recipe was tweeked with some changes due to our likes and what I had in the pantry.

needed
nonstick cooking spray
3 cups of shredded mexican style cheese
1 1/2 cups sour cream divided
1 can of Rotel with green chiles
1 pound of ground beef ( if you want chicken use 2 cups of diced chicken)
1 10 oz can of Ortega Enchilada Sauce
10 8 inch soft flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 , spray 13 by 9 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray
Reserve 1 1/2 cups of cheese, 1/2 cup sour cream
Brown hamburger, degrease and add drained can of Rotel with green chilis, add remaining sour cream and shredded cheese. Mix and warm
Spread about 2 tsp of enchiladas sauce over each tortilla. Top each with about 1/2 cup of meat mixture and 1 or 2 small teaspoons of refried beans. Roll up tortillas, arrange seam side down in baking dish.
Top tortillas with remaining enchiladas sauce. Sprinkle with reserved cheese
Cover with foil. Bake 50 or 60 minutes or until hot, remove foil and bake 5 more minutes.

Serve with some sour cream, side of refried beans and some chips. Dinner is ready.

We saved money eating at home and it was so tasty. Hubby and I ate 4 of the 10 enchiladas,  I was able to freeze remaining enchiladas. Hubby and I will have dinner some evening with just having to thaw and reheat.

2013 My 13 Goals For The Year PLUS update on my 2012 Goals HOW DID I DO

Now that it is time to think about what my goals are going to be for 2013 I was looking back on what I had written at the beginning of 2012. There they were right on my side board looking at me was my 2012 Goals .

I have to admit that I have not looked at it in months. I wonder if I accomplished any of these goals. The following is what I wrote.


Hard to believe that 2011 is almost gone. Just days away till we start a new year. Time to work at planning what I would like to accomplish this next year.

1. Cutting down the cost of eating out expense. If we do eat out try to find a coupon to reduce the price or bring home some of it to eat another time
2. Pay down debt of $2610 this does not include our car that has a balance of $7500
3. Work at decluttering our home by selling items I buy items to resell faster. Boy things pile up fast. Cookbooks, books, barbie clothes and dolls and so much more.
4. Build up our eBay and Amazon sales to about $1,000 a month net
5. Read the New Testament on a daily basis. I have a 5 minute a day New Testament to help me accomplish this
6. Try one new meal a week and blog on it
7. Eat better and find time to walk daily with the goal to eventually lose about 40 pounds
8. Work on my family research on a weekly basis trying to break down some of the brick walls
9. Read at least two books a month one being a non fiction book.
10. Spend more time with family and friends and less time watching TV
11. Be more organized around the home with chores, coupons organizing

Regarding my goals for last year

1.  Still eating out a lot but we are using coupons, deals or eating at places that cost less. This is our main entertainment and works when we are out hunting for items to resell. We have been known to buy a sub sandwich on sale and a McDonalds $1.00 soda and eat in a park.
2.  Personal loan is $300 and car loan is $4,200, if we make normal payment March of 2014.
3. Working at decluttering is hard when we buy to resell, as items go out we add more to the pile.
I just bought more Barbie and friends dolls and items and I am busy listing and selling.
4. I have added etsy to the selling menus besides eBay and Amazon. We are selling a 1,000 or more a month among the three before costs. Hope to increase that by quite an amount so that it is $1,000 net
The rest of the goals have been hit and miss. I did not lose 40 pounds so that is on this years goal list. Did not get out and walk 1/2 hour daily.  I did read some books but did not get read as many as I would like to have done.
I did try a few new meals but did not do it on a weekly basis.
Lots of improvement to be done this year, but alot of goals and dreams to get done. Emergency fund is not there at this time

For this year Goal of 2013

1. Get that $1,000 in emergency fund
2. Pay off the $300 personal debt and attempt to get car paid off by end of year or sooner.
3. Work at selling some personal items that we do not need or want to accomplish goals number 1 and 2.
4. Continue to sell on eBay, Amazon and etsy working to increase sales above the $1,000 total.
5. Lose at least 25 pounds and hoping to get it to the 40 pounds by eating less and walking more.
6. Read my New Testement this coming year. I did that on and off this year. Into it this week and hoping to get into the habit before the New Year comes.
7. Continue to work on my photo and genealogy project. You can read about my family at my other blog My family Roots Run Deep.
8. We have joined a reading group based on Religion and Science. Our book for January now and into January is " The Great Partenship"  by Rabbi Jonathan Sachs. Hubby and each bought the book and hope to start this week. Goal is to read first 77 pages by the 9th of th of January.
I also hope to add a fiction to the reading list every month. I am in the process of reading  " Stalked"  by Brian Freeman. It is the third book in his series.
9. Look forward to finding more interesting recipes to try out and share with you.
10. Hubby and I hope to work towards a goal of traveling around the country this next winter. Means saving money and decluttering some of our items. Will share more of this if we go to the next step.
11.Continue spending more time with friends and family each  month.
12. Contine to work on being organized with meal planning, coupons, rebates and chores around the home.
13. To be find ways to make life happier and better for myself, hubby and family.

This is a good start on what I would like to accomplish this next year. Sounds like a lot but just a little every day will help on some of these goals.
Do you have any goals you would like to accomplish next year?
Thanks for stopping by.. hope to see you soon and lets keep saving together.. Grace