Another hit!

Well, thanks to Meal Planning Mommies we had another hit with the family. I fixed this Mexican Tortilla Skillet that is very easy and yummy too.

Mexican Tortilla Skillet

1 lb. Cooked ground beef

1 can tomato soup

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1/2 cup salsa

12 flour tortillas (burrito size)

1/4 cup

** I used a Mexican blend for the cheese instead of just cheddar. Also I only used 8 tortillas which was plenty for us.

Brown the hamburger meat.


Place tortillas on a cutting board to cut in 1" pieces.


Using a pizza cutter makes it pretty easy.

After getting the tortillas sliced in one direction turn cutting board to cut in other direction.

Mix all ingredients except cheese in a skillet and heat over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until heated through.

Sprinkle cheese and let melt.

Here is the finished meal: Mexican Tortilla Skillet, Applesauce, Corn and Chips. Our family really likes cheese so I sprinkled more cheese on top before serving.

This meal was very easy and yummy. Even our lil man liked this one. It has been very fun trying new recipes this week, and I have to say having the week of meals planned has made it so much less stressful. Hope you enjoy the recipes!

A hit with the family!!

Well, I tried my first "experiment" meal, and it was a hit with the family! Thanks to Simplify Supper for the great recipe, Honey Chicken. I decided to try something new and document the steps. Although it doesn't compare to the quality of The Pioneer Woman Cooks I gave it a try.

Honey Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup butter

1 cup honey

1/4 cup Dijon Mustard

2 tablespoons Curry Powder

First, melt honey, mustard, butter and curry powder in saucepan over medium heat.

Then place chicken in casserole dish (I used 3 chicken breasts instead of 4 since they were larger.)

After placing the chicken in a 9x13 pan pour sauce over chicken. Cover and cook @ 350 degrees for one hour.



As a side we had mashed potatoes. I quarter peeled potatoes and bring to a boil. Once boiling cover and put on low-med heat for 20-30 minutes depending on how many potatoes you have. Then I drain them, add milk, butter and salt to taste and use my hand mixer to mix them.



And a new favorite of my family are these vegetables. All you have to do is put them in the microwave for 4 1/2 minutes and you have yummy steamed vegetables.

After an hour of cooking remove the foil and the recipe calls to cook for another 30 minutes. I checked on mine after 15 minutes and my chicken was done so you might want to keep an eye on yours.

The final product. Honey chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Our oldest liked the sauce on her potatoes too.

So, if you are in the mood to try something new and like honey and chicken give this meal a try. I'll let you know on my other "experiment" meals!

Savings!!

I didn't know it could happen but it can. I just saved $31 at the grocery store! Now for me that is a lot. For those of you who save more than that please don't burst my bubble. The grocery store that I use has a website that I found I could enter my shopper card and it would automatically download the coupons I selected to the card. That was a huge thing for me because no matter how hard I try most the time if I do clip the coupons I always forget to take them. Or if I take them I forget to give them to the cashier. So, this is a huge plus for me. It connects you to other sites such as Shortcuts.com and P&G eSaver that will upload coupons to your shopper card too. There are also coupons you can print but for some reason my computer won't let me download the coupon printer function, but if yours can you can get even more coupons. Also since I use a shopper card the store sends out coupons of things I normally buy every so often (not often enough sometimes). I know that some people especially right now are looking to save money and I am here to tell you there is a way it might just take a lil time.

Another way I am trying to save money is by meal planning. This week will be my first go at it. I have planned out my meals for the week and went to the grocery store so now I just have to follow through with the plan. I will let you know how the week goes and the new meals I am trying out.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

I may have an addiction....

The other day I was looking for good coupons. Well, somehow I stumbled on a blog and that blog led to another blog and before I knew it I had flipped through several blogs and couldn't even remember where I had started. I stumbled on a couple of blogs and websites that I think I am going to really like.

One thing that is very hard for me is planning meals for the week. What is really sad is I don't even have to do a whole week because a couple times we eat with the grandparents and then Wednesday we eat at the church. But for whatever reason it is very hard for me to figure out what we are going to eat. It bothers me so much that I end up stressing about it, which I know is silly but it still happens.

I found a blog the other day called mealplanningmommies. I think it is really going to help with me finding new recipes to try out on the family. The blog is of 3 mom's who post a weekly menu and then daily put the recipes up they are trying. That way I can look through it and see if there are some recipes I think my family will enjoy. I found a couple already that I am wanting to try out.

Another site I found was Simplify Supper. It has a calendar where you can pick what recipes you want and it even gives you a shopping list for the week. Here you can pick the recipes you like and plan either a week or a whole month and then each week print your grocery list. The best part of it....its FREE!

I know there are several meal planning websites (trust me I have looked) and they are probably very good, but I have a hard time spending money on a service that I might not try any of the recipes they suggest. I have picky eaters so not just any recipe will work for my family. This way with these websites I can look through them find a recipe I like and think my family might at least try and call it good.

So, if any of you have the same struggles with dinners and the grocery store as I do check out one of the sites above or find another one you like. I have a good friend who is trying out relishrelish.com (it does have a fee for subscription). There are definitely several tools out there you just have to find one that will work for you.

I will keep you updated on how I like the recipes and sites as I go. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Great minds think alike...

My sister in law is one of my best friends. Not only do we share the same values and views on lots of things but we think a lot alike too. For example we both went to a baby shower for a friend a couple weekends ago and we both wrapped our diapers and wipes the same way. As another example I changed my background today and then later in the day went over to my sister in laws blog and to my surprise found the same background :) All I can say is Great Minds Think Alike!!

love ya R Family of 5!!

Guys and Dolls

Last week was a whirlwind for our household. Our oldest daughter was in her High School's musical Guys and Dolls. Performance week for her was busy and crazy. She had practice late on Wednesday and then a performance Thursday, Friday and Saturday. She had lots of family and friends that came to support her each night. My hubby went one night and the other 2 was on lil man duty. There was no way that lil man would make it through a concert of our oldest much less a 2 1/2 hour show :) By the end of the 3 nights I was waking up singing songs from the show. Our oldest did absolutely wonderful and is a natural on stage. She was a Hot Box Dancer and danced and sang a couple of numbers plus had other lil appearances. This is her 2nd musical and although she wasn't a big fan of the story she had a lot of fun. We look forward to more musicals and concerts for her. Here are a couple of pictures there are more at md's vantage point.

Our Hot Box Dancer and me.

Sisters!

Daddy's girl

Would you go out of your comfort zone to save someone's life?

A question that was asked in our Bible study class this week that has really been on my mind. Would you go out of your comfort zone to save someone's life? Now that seems like a silly question right? If there was someone about to step in front of a bus and you saw it wouldn't you say something or do something even if you didn't know the person? Now when I thought about that the answer was easy but then I started thinking about the spiritual side. How many people have I not even mentioned my Savior to in fear they might reject me? If I am willing to go out of my comfort zone to save someone's physical life, shouldn't I be even more willing to go out to save someone's spiritual life? Our physical life is but a mist, our spiritual life is for eternity, FOREVER! That question really made me think and realize that if someone rejects me for sharing my Savior, they are rejecting my Savior Jesus Christ not me. Although it sounds not too hard I know I will still be challenged with it. I am challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone and share Jesus with others.

So I leave you with the question Would you go out of your comfort zone to save someone's life?

Photoshoot

The other day my 2 younger kids and I were killing time so we had fun with the camera. Both my younger kids like to ham it up for the camera. They are not camera shy at all, which if you know my family that is a good thing. Pretty much everyone in my family loves taking pictures so there is always a camera around. We had fun being silly and taking self portraits of ourselves. Here are a couple of my favorites!

My youngest daughter and myself.

My younger 2 kids and me.

2 of my kiddos.

So the next time you are killing a couple of minutes grab the camera and make a memory or two :)

Electronics and toddlers

I know that kids usually can work electronics better than their parents but I didn't know how young the kids start. Our lil man has learned this last week how to unlock his daddy's iphone, make a call and turn mommy's laptop on and type. The other night he was messing w/his daddy's iphone when all of a sudden we heard someone talking. He had unlocked the phone, got into the phone book and called one of the contacts. My hubby had to apologize to the person because it was kind of late and not a person that we talk to on a regular basis. Then he was wanting to play with my laptop. Usually I can just turn it off and put it away. Well, the other night he went over to it, opened it up and turned it on. I was shocked I didn't know he even knew how to turn it on but he had watched mommy so now he knew too. He was so proud of himself. I knew the electronic age was getting younger and younger I just didn't know how young it really was until lil man came along :)

Here he is trying to be sneaky.

He thinks he is big typing on Mommy's laptop.

And then there is that smile that is my weakness. Isn't it just too cute?!

Beware no electronics are safe around toddlers, at least not our lil man...