Cooking

Oct
17

31 days to {a better} ordinary :: day 16 ~ grocery pre-list

I like to go grocery shopping on Friday each week. Actually, I don't like to go shopping any day, but Friday usually draws the short straw. So, I end my week by trying to throw together a quick shopping list, print or clip a stack of coupons, grab two hours worth of groceries, and then fit all that food into the fridge and pantry before I collapse. Fun.

To help ease some of the pressure of that day, I want to get back in the habit of making a grocery pre-list earlier in the week. On Sunday or Monday, I'll use my favorite deal sites (moneysavingmom, savingslifestyle, and stretchingabuck) to compile a list of the sales I hope to take advantage of that week. I'll just copy and paste the sale items and coupon matches onto a Word document.

Then, I'll quickly pull out any clipped coupons and print any online coupons I may want to use later in the week. I often find that by Friday, the printable coupons are gone. It's very frustrating to see all the cheap or free coupon match-ups I miss out on because I tried printing the coupons too late.

When Thursday or Friday rolls around, I can use this pre-list to make my menu and the final grocery list I'll take with me to the store.  It will be such a relief to have a big part of the grocery shopping process completed before the end-of-the-week rush.  It's a simple little task on my Weekly To Do List that will make a huge difference.

Click to learn more about 31 days to {a better} ordinary and to find links to all the posts in this series.

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Sep
22

Who Knew?

Yesterday, I knew I needed something easy for dinner. It was just that kind of day. I chose a super-easy meal from my menu: Rigatoni with Meat Sauce.

I simply boiled the rigatoni, drained it, and dumped it into an oven-safe dish. Then I mixed the pasta with some meat sauce from the freezer and half a jar of marinara from the fridge. Finally, I sprinkled a bunch of mozzarella cheese on top and popped it in the oven until melted. It really couldn't be any easier.

I was happy that I didn't have to work too hard and I was able to use up some stuff from my fridge and freezer. But my kids were happy that I had made one of their favorite meals. Say what?

When my youngest kiddo saw what I was making, he surprised me with a big hug and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Um...you're welcome? Then, when my daughter came to the table, she was too excited and told me this was one of her favorite meals. Really? Who knew?!?

Have you had any surprising successes lately? Comment to share the fun!

Sep
19

Oven Cooked Bacon

When the kids and I took my mom to visit family in West Virginia last month, we stayed overnight with my Aunt Conda and Uncle Jim. For breakfast, my aunt insisted on making us a full-blown meal. We would have been fine with some simple buttered toast, but we sure enjoyed the eggs and bacon. Especially the bacon.

She told the kids that they could eat as much of it as they wanted (if it was alright with me). Are you kidding?  My boys were on cloud nine. I don't think they've ever started a day with so much joy!

She cooked the bacon (lots of it!) in the oven. I had heard of people doing this, but I set off the smoke alarm every time I tried. Every. single. time.

When I got back home, I decided to give that whole cook-bacon-in-the-oven thing another try. Guess what?  It worked. And I didn't even have to open all the windows and fan a blaring smoke detector.

Here's how I did it:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (could probably do 375, but I'm paranoid).


2. Move oven rack to middle or lower-middle position, depending on how paranoid you are.

3. Place bacon strips on rimmed cookie sheet. Thicker sliced bacon works best.


4. Place in preheated oven and set a timer so you don't lose track of time and set off a smoke alarm. I start with ten minutes, but usually end up cooking it for about twenty minutes all together.

5. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towel-lined plate. If thin bacon sticks, try removing it with a stiff spatula.


So, do you cook bacon in the oven?  Have any additional tips to share?  Give us your bacon-wisdom in the comments!

This post is linked to Raising Homemakers.

May
18

Soft Eats



See that picture up there? It's a tile that was painted by my sweet girlie. I think it's beautiful. And I think she's beautiful, too.

Right now my beautiful girl is suffering through metal-mouth. Ever heard of it? It's where we take a cute little mouth and fill it up with enough braces and metal appliances to make a small robot. The result will (hopefully) be straight teeth, but the process is painful and frustrating.

Mackenzie is having a really difficult time eating. Debris gets stuck in her braces, her mouth is torn up, her teeth hurt, and food gets caught on her appliance, causing her to gag. Fun, huh?

Finding foods that she can eat is becoming quite a challenge. More than once I've made a quick trip to buy her a milkshake for lunch. Not exactly the healthiest meal, but at least she's getting some calories.

Since I want her to be both happy and healthy, I need to come up with some ideas to fill her tummy and boost her nutrition (without causing her discomfort). Besides the usual soft foods like applesauce, jello, and pudding, I need to be armed with some real foods that are really easy to eat.

Here's some ideas I've come up with:

Smoothies (need more varieties)
Hard boiled eggs (for egg salad or deviled eggs)
Mashed potatoes
Potato salad
Homemade chicken noodle soup (with carrots and celery)
Tomato soup
Ground beef (seasoned with salt and pepper or tossed in tomato sauce)
Shredded chicken
Cheese cubes
Glazed carrots
Mandarin oranges
Canned peaches
Cooked apple chunks
Chocolate milk

Have any ideas? I sure could use them! I'd also love to know if there are safe protein or vitamin powders that can be added to smoothies to boost her nutrition without affecting the taste or texture. Can you help a mama out?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Mar
16

Cooking Cabbage

When I was in high school, our history teacher gave us an assignment to encourage us to learn about our family's heritage. We were to talk to relatives who could tell us where our ancestors came from and when they arrived in America. If we couldn't come up with enough information to write a paper on that topic, we were stuck writing about a famous inventor. I definitely wanted option number one.

That evening, I called my grandma to ask her some questions. If anyone would know who we were and where we were from, she was the one. Her answer was not what I was hoping for. She said, "Well, your great-great-grandpappy came over the hill from Virginia and said he was Irish." That's all she had. Ummm.....Thanks?

I wrote a lovely (and boring) report on Thomas Edison.

Although I wasn't able to write a paper on my family, I've laughed about that phone conversation countless times. And even though I don't have any documentation, I'm pretty certain Grandma was right about our Irish roots. She had the red hair to prove it. That's enough for me.

Maybe it's my great-great-grandpappy's blood that makes me a sucker for Irish food. One Irish food that I really love is cooked cabbage. It's one of my all-time favorite foods. Crazy, right?

I fix cabbage with a variety of meals. Amittedly, most of them wouldn't count as Irish fare. I regularly fix it with anything barbecue. It often ends up on the menu when we have some sort of smoked or spicy sausage. And sometimes I'll make a big pan of it when I'm hungry and can't think of anything else to eat. Yep, I like it that much.

It's very easy to prepare. Here's how I fix it:

Slice cabbage very thin. I use my food processor with the slicing blade attached. You can easily cut it by hand, too. I always cut a full food processor bowl because my family likes it so much. You may want to use about a quarter to half a head of cabbage. Keep in mind that the volume will decrease greatly as it cooks.

Wash cabbage and allow to drain. Meanwhile, in a large skillet or saute pan, heat one to two tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium high heat. You want enough oil to just coat the bottom of the pan. When oil is shimmering, add the cabbage (be careful that no oil splashes up if the cabbage is still wet). Cook, stirring and turning often, until it is beginning to turn translucent and brown slightly in some places.

Reduce heat and cover. If the pan seems dry, add a small amount of water, approximately a quarter of a cup. Be careful because cabbage often releases a lot of water as it cooks, and you don't want to to be soggy.

Continue to cook, stirring often, until all of the cabbage has just wilted and turned slightly translucent. It cooks very quickly. Do not overcook! Remove lid and continue to cook for a couple more minutes to allow some of the liquid to evaporate.

Salt and pepper to taste. I think that a key to great cooked cabbage is plenty of salt, so be sure to taste it and add more if needed.


If you've never fixed cooked cabbage, maybe this St. Patrick's Day is the time to try it. It's yummy!

What's your favorite Irish food? Tell us about it in the comments!

This post is linked to Life As Mom.

Mar
15

Menu Planning 101

I have to admit that menu planning is not one of my favorite weekly tasks. But I also have to admit that it really isn't that hard, and it makes my life tons easier. So...I plan a menu. Every week. Cheerfully. Sort of.

I'm hoping to come up with a meal and grocery planning system that will help me be more efficient in the planning, shopping, and cooking phases. I've played around with various ideas, but since I'm also trying to implement some of the grocery shopping strategies I learned in Grocery University, for now I'm going to stick with the same, simple planning method I've used for years.

Here's the steps:

    1. Start off by taking a look at last week's menu. I jot down any meals I didn't end up using but still have the ingredients for.

    2. Take a quick peek into the fridge, freezer, and pantry to see if there are any meals that can be made from what's on hand. I especially notice things that may need used up, like the jug of buttermilk or head of broccoli. The lunches or dinners I come up with that use these ingredients get added to my list, along with choices from my easy meal ideas. By now, I usually have a list of six or seven things that we can eat with just a few odds-and-ends picked up at the grocery store to complete the meals.

    3. Grab a calendar or make a basic chart for plotting out the plan. I simply use a piece of notebook paper with a line down the middle to divide it into lunch and dinner columns. I sketch vertical lines to separate the days, and label with the names of the days of the week and any schedules or activities I need to consider. An excel file or iPod app would also do the trick.

    4. Use the list of meals on hand and easy menu ideas to fill in as many blanks on the chart as possible. As I do this, I think about whether or not my husband will be home for the meal, if we'll have a particularly busy day, or if we have ball games to work around.

    5. Finally, take a look at the grocery ads. I try to make the main parts of my menu plan with what I already own, so I leave this step for last. This forces me to think more carefully about using up what I already have, and it saves the day if I'm not able to make it to the store for some reason. When things go according to plan, I'm always shopping one week ahead of time. I make an exception if my cupboards don't contain enough enjoyable meals to fill the menu, if I find some meat on sale that I wouldn't want to freeze for a later week, or if there's a family favorite in the ad that I want us to munch right away.


This entire process takes me less than ten minutes each week. It may take a little longer if I need to look up a recipe or two in one of my favorite cookbooks. I find that shopping my own kitchen enables me to have several meal ideas already floating around in my head when I finally sit down with pencil and paper, greatly reducing the time needed for coming up with menu items. For example, when I purchased ground beef at the store on Friday, I knew I wanted to use some of it for making chili next week. As I get ready to make my menu this week, I'll add "chili" (and the resulting leftover meals) to my list. No thinking required.

Do you menu plan every week? Do you have any tricks of the trade you'd like to share? Leave a comment!

This post is linked to Raising Homemakers.