Triple Clicks

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Popcorn Chicken!

As we were meal planning last week, hubby decided that he wanted popcorn chicken for lunch again.  I found a recipe on Pinterest months ago that I tried, and everybody LOVES it.  You can look at that here.  I know the original poster (who is linked to in the recipe) has a printable version.  

I know from trial and error (and running out of corn flakes), that you don't want to just use flour for the second coating, it just doesn't work.  

With most of this batch, I am baking them, letting them cool, then putting them on a cooling in the freezer to flash freeze for about 10 minutes, then throwing them in a freezer bag. I have about 20 pounds of chicken breast I'm making into popcorn, so this will keep it fresh. Warm it up in the microwave for a few minutes and you are good to go. 

I think it's good just plain, the kids like it dipped in ketchup and hubby prefers BBQ sauce. 
If you get really adventurous (and love spicy), mix Arby's sauce, Arby's horsey sauce, honey mustard and a squirt of sriracha sauce. Shake it all up so it's coating the chicken and eat with a fork. Now there's some good chicken. But in the interest of my baby's belly, I'm not even trying. LOL 

Enjoy! 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Meal Plan September 28-October 4

So I'm trying something new this month with the planning... I had a list of meals once I saw the ads (using sales and what I had in the pantry). So now, every week, I'm going to make a meal plan, along with a baking list for each day. 

Sunday-Breakfast-Eggs, bacon, pancakes
       Lunch-Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, apples
       Supper-Ham, Potatoes, Vegetables 
Monday-Breakfast-Egg Burritos
       Lunch-Burritos, popcorn chicken
       Supper-Leftover ham, potatoes and vegetables
   Baking List-Popcorn Chicken, Bread, Chicken broth, mix trail mix
Tuesday-Breakfast-same
        Lunch-popcorn chicken, fruit
        Supper-Tacos
   Baking List-Tortilla, Blueberry Coffee Cake, Pear Turnovers
Wednesday-Breakfast-egg burritos, coffee cake
        Lunch-Popcorn chicken
        Supper-Leftover
   Baking list-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thursday-Breakfast-same
         Lunch-same
         Supper-Ham Bone Soup
   Baking List-Take ham off bone, hamburger buns
Friday-Breakfast-same
       Lunch-Popcorn Chicken, PB & J
       Supper-leftovers
   Baking List-Bread
Saturday-Breakfast-eggs, bacon, pancakes
         Lunch-hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries
         Supper-Roast Beef Sandwiches

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Shopping Trip September 27

Boy oh Boy did we get some good sales!!

We decided we were going to cut out the processed foods a little at a time. Snacks came first.  We will slowly be cleaning out the cupboard with the process foods we already have. 

Sam's Club
Vinegar 2 at 3.88 7.76
Beef Patties 19.88
Mixed Nuts 14.98
Bacon 2 packages of 4 lbs 11.36 each 22.72
Corn Tortilla 3.50
Eggs 3 dozen 3.89
Chicken Breast 10.23
Chicken Breast 11.52
Hot Dogs 3 pounds 5.16
Sliced Cheddar 11.98
Smoked Ham Deli 6.98
Flour 4.69
Sugar 3.98
Brown Sugar 3.90
Whole Dill Pickle 4.62
Cat food 18 pounds 8.98
Total of 153.54

Dollar Tree
Banana Chips 4
Pretzels
Paper Towels 2
Liquid Dish Soap 2
Total Of 9.54

HyVee
Butter 2 at 3.99 7.98
Baking Cocoa 2.69
Baking Powder 1.58
Baking Soda 2 at .69 1.38
Instant Dry Milk 8.28
Minisweet chocolate chips 2 at 1.88 3.76
Ground Beef 4 at 2.99 each 11.96
Cheddar Cheese Dip 2.88
Carrots 4 at .88 3.52
Total of 46.67

Sunshine Foods
Sour Cream 2.29
Frozen broccoli 3 at 1.00 each 3.00
Frozen Corn 3 at 1.00 each 3.00
Picante sauce 1.50
Nacho Cheese sauce 2.50
Round Roast (3.99 per pound) 8.14
Round roast 10.13
Turkey (Buy a 12-14 lb turkey, get potatoes, onions and celery free) 12.71 lb at 1.19 a lb 15.12
Boneless Half Ham 2.99 per lb 23.20
Potatoes 5 lbs 2 at 2.49 each 8.58
Total of 79.15


Trip Total of 288.90
I'm doing the happy dance. :D 

Have a good weekend and I'll see you next week with my meal plan and extensive baking list. :) 

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Ads Are Out! Shopping Trip Septemter 27!

Hello Hello! Well, we're back at meal planning and grocery shopping again. How to months go so fast? 

I got excited when I looked at the Sunshine Food Store Ads this week. They have some awesome meat sales going on that I will definitely be taking advantage of. Can't say much for the other store, and Sam's hasn't come out with their instant savings yet so no comments there. 

Here's the links. Happy Ad shopping! 

Dollar Tree
Sunshine Food Stores (Sioux Falls store) Be sure to print off the ad coupons or grab an ad as you go inside. 
Fareway Food Stores (weekly)
Fareway Food Stores (Online)
HyVee Be sure to check out all the ads here, they have sales on pet care. 

Monday, September 22, 2014

Preschool

I have my plans set. We have done a few worksheets, but not many. 

For the most part, I'm getting my worksheets for the kids from resources through Free Homeschool Deals.  Jamerril Stewart gathers some awesome resources.  Mama's Learning Corner has some awesome resources she shares as well.  

My plans for each letter are 

  • Learn the letter. I have a sheet with a block letter, with an animal that starts with that letter. We will color and have things to paste onto the page. I found stickers at Dollar General that I plan on using. (1+1+1=1)
  • We will learn a nursery rhyme song. (The Teacher's Guide)
  • We will practice what sounds the letter makes and find things in the toy box that start with that letter. 
  • We have Bible stories that go along with the letter. (Bible Fun For Kids Blog, Mama's Learning Corner) I read a corresponding story while they color pages to along with. Sometimes they join me in reading instead of coloring. 
  • We will sing a Bible song, these are songs I got from my mom who used to teach preschool in a church. She kept all the songs on index cards and gave the index cards to me. We don't remember all the tunes, but we can make them up. :) 
  • We will practice number, writing uppercase and lowercase and work on shapes, I have a preschool learning book from a box store for this. Along with worksheets from The Measured Mom for extra practice in writing letters.

I anticipate that all this will take about two or three weeks of two school days a week to get through. I'm not rushing anything and I know my four year old gets bored really quickly. 


Hope this gives somebody else some other ideas. We are looking into curricula for structure when we get into needing a structured program, but this works for now as he is still learning basics. For the worksheets, I print off one copy, mark it with a small, red 'm' in a corner to know that's my master copy, then make copies from there. That way I know I have it and I won't have to go find it. 

We do want to add something about character traits in the mix, but haven't found what yet.  

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Family Planner

I have been feeling very disorganized and disheveled lately, so I've been working on getting a planner fixed up to keep track of everything going on. 

My problem is that I wanted everything in one spot, but nothing you can buy at the store will keep everything in one spot.  

I needed a place for a lot of things

  • Keep track of bills
  • Keep track of spending
  • Keep track of school lessons (which are pretty lose, but I want to start now so it's not completely foreign when we have to report to the state)
  • Keep a calendar...seriously, I have four different calendars running around that have events on them, that's not productive for anybody. But I not only want a monthly, but a weekly.
  • Meal planning
  • Grocery List


I think that's everything. I also need to able to label and find things quickly. So I'm raiding our store supply of binder labels. 

I did do an internet search of free printables and found a few websites where I'm utilizing what they have. (Here) When I started saving sheets, I realized that I bought a bundle of books and printables a few of my blog sites that I follow were offering in the spring... Hello DUH. So I am also using a few of theirs, which I can't share because of copyright, but the one that I'm sticking with for sure helps me keep track of bills and where I'm not using how it's intended, it's helping us see how much in bills we are spending.  

So I'm getting my notebook set up. I have a separator sheet, labeled with the month, behind that I have the monthly calendar, with a weekly planner page for each week.  Then comes the bill tracker sheet (lists the bills, date due and I fill in the amount paid under the month paid), grocery list (notebook paper), meal planner (notebook paper), a notebook sheet I can fill out if we do bills when I'm not on the computer-then I can enter in my check register spreadsheet when I get on.  

I'm trying this method out until the end of the year. If I like it, we will keep going with it, or tweak until I do like it.  

I'm using a binder I got from my mom that she had stashed around the house from somewhere. It has two pockets on each of the inside covers. So I use a pocket for bills that need paid, a pocket for my WIC folder and that's all the pockets I'm using right now. I have a shipping envelope (5 inch by 7 inch) with holes punched in it in the front of the binder to hold receipts. 

Hope this gives you some good ideas to get you started if you are working on your own planner. I did pin some ideas and I believe the website I used are on the board, you can check that out here


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Creamy Chicken and Rice with Fruit Salad

I found this recipe via Pinterest from Tasty Kitchen. Oh man, it's good!!! 

It does come out very much like a soup by the time it's done,  so beware. :) But it's good!! And the kids love it, which is a major plus. 

Our menu for the night was Creamy Chicken and Broccoli with Rice, rice, biscuits and fruit salad.



Creamy Chicken and Broccoli with Rice
6 chicken breast
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans cream of cheese soup
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (I just used water)
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoo cajun or creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
4 cups cooked white rice ( I make enough for one meal at a time)
4 cups broccoli (one 16 ounce bag of frozen veggies, I used gree beans)
2 cups sour cream

Put everything but sour cream, broccoli and rice in crock pot. 
Cook on low for 6 hours or hi for 4 hours. 
Remove chicken and add broccoli. Start your water for the rice.
Shred chicken then put back in. 
The broccoli needs to cook for about half an hour, which is about as long as it takes rice to cook. 
Just before serving, stir in sour cream. Serve over or beside rice. 


Biscuits
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup butter or coconut oil (we prefer butter because of the flavor)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk or 1 cup milk (I used 1 1/4 cup water)
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cream of tartar. Cut in butter. Add milk and stir until moist. 
Add 1 cup of cheese and 3 tablespoon parsley for cheese biscuits. 
Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes. 

Fruit Salad
Dice 6 apples
Dice 4 oranges 
About 1 cup coconut 
About 1 cup raisins
About two cups whipped cream 

Add whatever fruit you have in. This is what I had, Do the citrus last so the juices will be over the rest and prevent browning. Mix it all together and let chill until ready to serve. 


Saturday, September 6, 2014

Apples!

My sister has an apple tree. Yummy yummy. She shared apples with us last time we were down. As soon as we got home, I cut up a bunch of the apples and froze 3 quarts worth, I have one more quart in the fridge (I have plans for those) and I baked apple crisp with the last. The kids are slowly working on what is left and I go through them everyday and cut up what is getting bruises.  


The apple crisp recipe I used came straight from a Betty Crocker cook book and can be used with any fruit you have on hand. 

5 cup sliced apples (the recipe says to peel them, but I left the peel on)
2-4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ginger or cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut

Thaw fruit if frozen. Do not drain. Place in a 2 quart square baking dish. Stir in the granulated sugar (I left this step out and it tasted just fine). 


For topping, in a medium bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour and nutmeg. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the nuts. Sprinkle topping over fruit. 


Bake in a 375 oven for 30-35 minutes (I should have given it five more minutes as the apples weren't quite done).  Or until fruit is teder and topping is golden. If desired, serve warm with ice cream. 



It's apple season! Check in your local area to find an orchard or a friend with too many apples, I know there's an orchard around Sioux Falls where you can pick your own for so much (but I've never been, so don't know details). 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Shopping Trip August 28

Hello All! It's been crazy around here... We were out of town and Grace is in full swing teething mode. Poor thing is waking up way too early. :( 

We didn't do too bad with the groceries this time. 

HyVee
Sour Cream 1.58
Sweet Cream Butter 4 at 3.99 each -3.02 special by the store total 12.94
El Monterey frozen burritos 5 at 3.88 each 19.40
Frozen corn 3 at 5/ 5.00 each 3.00
Penne garlic chicken frozen meal 2.99
Tai Pei Chicken meal 2.68
Tai Pei orange chicken 2.68
Totinos pizza rolls 5.99
Cheddar cheese soup 2 at 1.68 each 3.36
Cottonelle 12 pack 5.88
Folgers 9.99
Cream of mushroo 2 at .94 each 1.88
Honey Graham cereal 2.58
Auto Dish Detergent 3.78
Plastic wrap 2.49
Quart storage bags 8.99
Refried beans 2 at .99 each 1.98
BBQ sauce 3 at .69 each 2.07
Ruffles 3.34
Hot dogs 3 at 5/ 5.00 3.00
Egg Roll Wraps 3..29
Total of 110.13

EarthGrains Bakery 
8 loaves bread
Dill pickles
Soy Sauce
Donuts
Sweet Snacks
Total of 23.81

Sam's
French FRies 6.98
Beef Patties 19.88
Batteries 12.98
Yogurt 2 18 packs 7.48 each 14.96
Cod Fillets 11.98
Chicken Nuggets 9.98 -2.00 coupo 7.78
Whole chickens 2 pack 11.39
Corn Tortillas 3.57
Cat litter 11.64
Vinegar 2 pack 3.68
Nutty Bars 3.48
Bacon 2 at 11.78 each 23.56
Chicken Breast 10.32
Deli Meat Ham 6.98
Sliced Cheddar 11.98
Ketchup 3.64
Miracle Whip 5.78
Hamburger buns 2.79
Granola Bars 8.98
Goldfish 9.33
Dorito 50 pack single serving bas 11.98 -2.00 store coupon 9.98
Total of 213.71


Final Total of 347.65