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. 

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. 

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). 

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 

Ads Are Out! Shopping Trip August 28

Some of my favorite bloggers keep posting about how good the organic deals are at Costco. Hope we can get there soon. In the meantime, we are still shopping at Sams, HyVee, the Dollar Tree and the bakery outlet this time. I'm debating Sunshine.. LOL

Here's your ad links (and even for the new Walmart on 60th, I must say, It's tempting)..

Hy-Vee
Fareway
Sunshine Foods
Dollar Tree
Walmart


Happy Ad Shopping!

Changing The Diet

We've had some major hits to what we can eat at our house. 

Hubby has been having some stomach problems, so we have to take out if not eliminate the majority of tomato/cheese combinations. Bye bye pizza and spaghetti.  

Eva is what makes things challenging. She has an allergy to beta-carotene.  Basically nothing red, orange or green can enter her stomach without it making her sick. Do you have any idea how much food that eliminates?? You just tell me a fruit or veggie that ISN'T one of those colors. It's HARD. 

Add to that everybodys intoleration of dairy products and this is making meal planning SO MUCH FUN! (Insert sarcasm) 

Luckily, we have figured out with Eva the various amounts of certain food she can have and how often. In the meantime, we get a hurting stomach and fun clean-up for mommy. (again, there's sarcasm there). But every once in awhile we let things slip and I feel bad.  The only way to figure this out is keeping a food journal. I keep track of what she eats when  (and I do mean EVERYTHING), then write down if she has a reaction. With cantaloupes and carrots, it's been within hours and lasted for days from a small amount. With watermelon, the effect wasn't realized until we added cantaloupe to the mix. (And there went the smoothies, out the window...) 

In the meanwhile, I am working on meal planning for this week and trying to keep in mind all the allergies and intolerances so we don't have sore stomachs to deal. So far for this month I have 

• Egg Rolls (I'll share the recipe when I get batteries in my camera)
• Sweet Hawaiian Chicken
• Chicken and Broccoli over Rice
• Tacos

Now. Only 10 more meals to figure out! Happy meal planning! 

Grandma's Birthday Dinner

I was excited at the prospect of trying out my adult cake making skills. I'm learning through the internet on how to decorate cakes. It will make it cheaper in the long run with birthdays. 

I made a basic buttercream icing for the flowers two days before. 

1/4 cup butter

about 1/4 cup water (supposed to use milk, but we are all allergic-especially grandma)

a splash of vanilla 

powdered sugar

Cream the butter, water and vanilla together. Add sugar until it reaches the consistency you want. Remember if you are adding food coloring to add more sugar because the food coloring will make it runnier. For the flowers, I made purple, pink and yellow. 

I used my Pampered Chef cake decorating kit and went to work. I think they turned out pretty good, but I definitely need some practice. :)

For the cake, I cheated and used a cake mix we had sitting the cupboard. I had heard that if you add a splash of vanilla to it, it will make it taste like it's from scratch. I didn't notice a taste difference, but it certainly didn't hurt it any. 

 

 That's my coconut oil melting, don't look at the messy counter lol

 Of course Andrew and Eva had to help, it was for grandma, after all. 

I put coconut oil and flour on the cake pan before baking so the cake would pop out easier. Then followed the box instructions for baking-but with my crazy oven it took more like 45 minutes.

For the cake icing, I did a cream cheese icing with less sugar than the recipe called for, I just added until spreading consistency. 

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Powdered Sugar

Soften the cream cheese and butter. Cream together then add powdered sugar. 

I did add some green to it for a border and some yellow for the words since My words wouldn't come off the wax paper. 

Added my premade flowers and wa-la. :) 

Dinner was steaks, potatoes and broccoli. 

I cooked the steaks on the griddle (we aren't much for outdoor grilling around here), steamed the broccoli and baked the potatoes....And forgot the rolls. So now I have a tube of biscuits to do something with. 

It turned out pretty good and the steaks were pretty juicy. :D I didn't do too bad. And grandma loved it-which was the important part.