October Menu Plan

I know that I say this just about every month, but... how is it OCTOBER already? I thought that time picked up speed when I had the Munchkin, but being pregnant with Baby #2 just makes it go even faster.

ANYway...

It's a new month, which means time for a new menu plan! We ended up not fixing all the meals I had planned for September, so you'll see a few repeats in October. You may also see a few themes running through this month's meals... We have TONS of apples that we just picked, so a lot of our treats this month will be apple-themed. And I am also trying to use up most of the venison we have leftover from last year to make room in the freezer (Lord willing!) for this year's hunting season. We shall see.

October Menu Plan

Main Meals

Venison Tips & Gravy over Mashed Potatoes*
Hamburger (Turkey) Stroganoff*
Homemade Pizza (bread machine dough)
BBQ Chicken (crock pot)
Mexican Stuffed Shells
Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup*
Venison Fajitas
Overnight Slow-Cooker Venison Roast*
Lasagna (Stauffer's frozen... I had a coupon!)
*See this page for printables!

Sides & Treats

Yellow Squash Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Butter Dip Biscuits

Peasant Bread

Easy Garlic Knots

Pumpkin Snicker-doodles

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Apple Butter

Easy Apple Dumplings

Apple and/or Pear Crisp

So there you have it -- this is what our household will be munching on in the coming weeks. Lots of yummy fall-inspired goodness to get us through the month of October. If you have questions or comments, please share!

Saturday Mornings and Sour Cream Banana Bread

Saturday mornings have a special place in my heart...

... And a special place in my menu plan! Saturday morning is when I set aside time to do some baking, and today it was banana bread. I've had some bananas on the counter for *several* days, and today was the "make banana bread or throw these away!" day. So I made banana bread.

A close friend gave me a recipe for Sour Cream Banana Bread, and I've been intending to try it for a while, but never had an extra half cup of sour cream on hand to make it. But today I did, so we tried it... and it is AMAZING. 

Now this is a very simple, basic banana bread. No fussy substitutions. No chocolate or nuts to distract you from the delicious banana flavor. Just a hint of cinnamon to give it some spice, and some sour cream to make it super soft.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

(Recipe adapted from Food.com found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/sour-cream-banana-bread-9351)

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)

1/2 cup sour cream

• In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients. 
• In same medium bowl (that you just emptied), peel and mash up the bananas. 
• Add bananas and sour cream to mixture and stir until combined. 
• Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 F for 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Now, quick-breads such as banana bread are *supposed* to be cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and set aside overnight before serving. We don't do that in our house. We did cool it enough so that no one ended up with burnt fingers, but within a few minutes of slicing, we only had half of the loaf left!

To quote the wise Andy Taylor, "Eating speaks louder than words!" The Munchkin was pretty silent while he devoured his first piece, and the Hubby and I made short work of our slices, too.

The sour cream makes this bread extra moist, while the outer crust still has a fabulous slight crunch to it. Mmmm. Maybe I'll have another piece...

This will not replace my typical go-to recipe for banana bread, but if I have rotting bananas and sour cream on hand at the same time... you can bet I'll be making this again. 

Making the Most of Leftovers

Today let's talk about a controversial topic in households across the country... Leftovers!

Most people are not fence-riders when it comes to leftovers. They either love them or hate them. I recently watched an episode of Chopped in which the mystery baskets all had leftover food in them. I was not shocked to see the chef who said, "I hate leftovers!," chopped in the first or second round.

You can spend all the time in the world making a fancy meal plan, budgeting your groceries and clipping coupons, and slaving away in the kitchen to make tasty dinners, BUT if you end up throwing away uneaten food, you are WASTING YOUR TIME.

I have to admit, we do throw away our share of leftovers now and then. But I have some super-top-secret tips to share with you to help maximize your meals before they spoil.

Labels

What's my big secret for tackling leftovers? Label absolutely all leftovers before they go into the fridge or freezer. All I use is a roll of cheap masking tape and a Sharpie. I tear off a piece of tape, stick it to the lid, and mark it with the contents and the date. This helps eliminate the "When did I make such-and-such casserole?" question later on. Doubting whether or not something is still fit to eat seems to be a big problem when eating leftovers. A good rule to live by is "When in doubt, throw it out." Well, by taking the doubt out of the equation you'll know if things are still good to use. I also mark opened cans of spaghetti sauce, salad dressing and other condiments with the date (on the lid) so I know when to use them by.

Note: Speaking as one who has fallen off of the labeling bandwagon now and again, I can say with 100% certainty we eat up our leftovers better when they are clearly labeled. Keep the masking tape and marker handy so you aren't tempted to slack off!

Portion Control

Another big issue with leftovers is portion control. Many recipes make way more food than my family can possibly eat at one meal. If it's something that we eat well leftover, it's not an issue. If it's something that doesn't reheat well (like stir fry), any extra portions are essentially wasted (and money down the drain!). If you find yourself constantly throwing away leftovers from specific meals, cut the recipe in half the next time you make it to eliminate leftovers. Or, save yourself some time later on down the road and put half of the meal in a Ziploc bag and pop it in the freezer (cooked or uncooked, depending on the ingredients). For example, I made chili earlier this month and doubled the recipe, leaving us with three quart-sized Ziploc bags for later this fall. 

Note: Make sure to LABEL your frozen leftovers just as clearly as the ones that go in the fridge. Place them within easy access in the freezer, otherwise you'll end up forgetting they are in there!

Lead By Example

To change how your household handles leftovers, lead by example! If you want your husband or your children to be better leftover-eaters, then you need to do it yourself. Leftovers make great (and easy!) lunches during the week. Most are probably healthier than that Hot Pocket or boxed pasta, too. If you are the one planning dinners in your household, you have the power to work leftovers into your meal plan. You can serve it up buffet style and let everyone choose what they want. Or you can put a new spin on a leftover dish by adding fresh-baked bread or rolls and a vegetable side dish. Either way, you'll save yourself time making a whole new dinner, and money by not having to throw away the leftovers. 

I hope this post has been helpful! Nothing earth-shattering, but it is amazing how small, simple steps can help us live better, more organized lives.

Under the Kitchen Sink Revisited

When you love organizing, sometimes your "me time" is spent playing with the contents underneath the kitchen sink.

For those of y'all who don't know, we moved into a new place in late February. So all that work that I did getting the last under-the-kitchen-sink cabinet all clean and pretty was, well... wasted. Since this move was just across town, our approach to moving was the "just pack it up quickly and dump it over at the new place" approach. Which makes for a quick move... and a long period of reorganizing things later, one area at a time.

The under-the-sink cabinet at our "new" place is HUGE. It is the space under the sink plus about two extra feet of cabinet. Yikes! I crammed a whole lot of... "stuff"... in it when we moved in. And then immediately forgot what was tucked away into the dark and scary recesses of the cabinet. So when I pulled everything out to start organizing, here is what I ended up with:

I told you, there was a whole lot of stuff in there, from cleaning products to bubbles and water pistols. But
enough of the "before" mess, and onto the organizing!

Step 1: Empty Out the Space

• Clean the base of the cabinet and line it with contact paper or shelf liner. The point is to create a nice, clean slate for you to work with. I prefer to "splurge" on the heavy duty latex shelf liner ($5 at Big Lots) because it is durable enough to last through several moves. The cheap stuff from Dollar Tree has the tendency to stick to surfaces and leave little bits of itself behind. Yuck. 

Step 2: Purge

• Go through things and throw away what you don't need. (i.e. nearly empty bottles, fifty different wash rags, old moldy rubber gloves, etc) Keep in mind that not everything has to necessarily go back in this space. Some things may not belong, some can be trashed, etc.

Step 3: Containerize

• If you're like me, you seem to always have a stash of unused organizers on hand. I had several bins, handled caddies, and shelf risers to work with this time. Perfect for making the most of this cavernous space. Most of my containers come from Dollar Tree, but the shelf risers are from Walmart. Keeping things in the same color family really helps it look more organized in the end.

Step 4: Grouping & Placement

• Start grouping like items together. Not only will this help with organizing things, but you'll be able to double-check and see if you need to do further purging. Items you use frequently should be placed for easy access, and items you don't use often (but need to keep on hand for those rare occasions!) can be placed towards the back of the cabinet.

Step 5: Labels

• Labels can be as fancy or as plain as you want to make them. They can be scribbled in Sharpie on a piece of masking tape, or printed out and laminated. Mine are printed on copy paper, laminated, and adhered with a little loop of masking tape. I'm more likely to remember where things go if there is some sort of label. Labels hold you accountable to where you have decided to keep something, keeping you better organized in the long run. 
• Side note: I recently spent around $25 on a laminator and pouches for it, and let me tell you... I absolutely love it. If you are putting off buying one for some reason, just do it. You won't regret it. I've already got my money's worth with Bible class materials alone. 
  

The Finished Result

Start to finish this took about 2 hours, and that includes the time spent typing out labels and laminating them. There is still a little "wiggle" room for additional supplies. Sorry that there is no "overall" picture, but the sliding cabinet doors make it impossible to show the whole cabinet in one shot.

So what are you waiting for? The only one suffering from your messy under-the-sink cabinet is YOU. You are the one that has to get in there and find/use things. So take a little time for yourself and get it organized in the best way possible to fit you and your needs.

Blueberries, Baking, and a Helpful Toddler

The Munchkin loves to "help."

Be it doing laundry, or picking up his toys, etc, he just loves to be involved. And I am 100% OK with that. One day he will roll his eyes at me when I ask him to clean his room, but luckily that day is still far ahead of us. :)

So this morning we had a "first" -- he helped me bake a blueberry coffee cake for breakfast.
(See this link for the recipe.)

First we got the pan out of the cabinet:

And then we sprayed the pan with cooking spray:

Then we measured out all the ingredients. This was the Munchkin's first experience with flour, and it will not be the last. :) I still remember when my mom would pull out the giant Tupperware container of flour and let my sister and I play with it using cups and spoons. Good times.

Once the dough was all mixed up, we spread it evenly into the pan, and topped it with the crumb topping. I think this was the Munchkin's favorite part. One corner of the cake had a LOT of crumb topping. :)

The one thing he didn't get to help with was putting the cake in the oven. We're still working on not touching the hot stove, so it didn't sound like a good idea to me.

But here we are, proud of our finished cake!

And it sure was delicious. Just ask him:

He was silently devouring his piece for several minutes straight. If something captures his attention for that long, I know he likes it!

And in true "helping" fashion, he even helped me clean up the kitchen afterwards! A big part of Mommyhood is cleaning up messes. An even bigger part, though, is allowing your children to make messes. Moms (and Dads, too!) need to encourage their children to want to help and want to learn. So if we make a mess in the mean time, it's OK! We'll clean it up. :)

Meat Markdowns and Making the Most of Nap Times

The Munchkin took a three-hour nap today and as much as my pregnant self just wanted to take it easy, I decided to be a whirling dervish in the kitchen instead!

I recently snagged two large packs of fresh ground turkey at Food Lion. Six pounds of meat for a whopping total of $11.18. If you continue to do the math, you can see that comes down to just $1.86/pound. I don't know about where you come from, but here that is CHEAP. We eat ground turkey in EVERYTHING. Tacos, chili, spaghetti sauce, soups, etc. So when it goes on sale, I stock up!

Now, meat markdowns are only a great deal if you will actually use or freeze the meat before the 'use by' date. And as long as you have a few minutes, some freezer bags, and a Sharpie, you're all set! I like to divvy the meat up into one-pound portions since most recipes call for one pound of ground meat. These are three pound containers, so I eyeball it and stick the meat into pre-labelled bags. Then I smoosh all the air out, flatten them into nice little rectangles, and pop them in the freezer (making sure to rotate any older packs to the top of the pile to be used first). 

Want to know a neat trick about freezer bags? You can store AND defrost the meat in the same bag. When you need the meat, just open the bag a teeny bit and microwave it in short intervals until it is thawed and ready to go. How easy is that!? (Make sure, though, to check the directions on the box, because you don't want any melted plastic in your food!)

After just 10 minutes, I've managed to: 

1. Shave time off of dinner prep later on.
2. Save MONEY!!
3. Feel super organized and prepared. 

It doesn't get any better than that! 

**Tangential Note: Do not be fooled into thinking that Walmart has the lowest prices. If you shop at smaller chain stores, you can get a great deal if you shop smart. Some people like to price-match at Walmart, but I'd rather give my money to another store if I can. Stick to sales, and keep an eye out for markdowns. Our Walmart does not have a large variety of fresh meats to begin with, so they never EVER have markdowns on ground turkey. And rarely on chicken. So when an item you use a lot of goes on sale, make sure to stock up and save some $$ in the long run. Things like meat, cheeses, butter, and veggies are great staples to have on hand and freeze well.

September Meal Plan

Welcome to September! Wow. It doesn't seem possible that we are entering the last third of this year. Fall will be in full swing before we know it, and then the holiday season... Yikes. How about for right now we just enjoy September? :-)

As I admitted in this post, I've been pretty bad at following through with meal planning the last few months. I'm 5 months pregnant and the truth is other things have taken priority over meal-planning. All my slacking has accomplished though is shooting myself in the foot, since without a plan it is a bazillion times harder to put dinner on the table *nearly* every night.

So, I took some time and kicked out a plan for September. The month promises to be a busy one, and I want to be ready!

September Meal Plan

Click here for a printable list or here for the Pinterest Board

Main Dishes

Tacos / Taco Salads (See this post for taco seasoning)
Chili & Cornbread
Hamburger Soup* & Butter Dip Biscuits
Crockpot BBQ Chicken
"Bourbon" Chicken & Rice
Homemade Pizza
Mexican Stuffed Shells
Venison Stir Fry & Rice
Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings
Poppy Seed Chicken
Venison & Gravy over Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Macaroni & Cheese*
Sausage & Potato Bake

Sides & Extras

Blueberry Muffins
Banana Bread
French Bread (bread machine)
Cornbread
Butter Dip Biscuits
Yellow Squash Casserole
Broccoli Casserole
Fresh Apple Cake

Labor Day Picnic

Tortellini & Pepperoni Salad 
Snickerdoodle Bars
Hot dogs, buns, drinks, chips

*These recipes can be found in this printable.

Note:
Not all main dishes or sides  have links. Sorry! The truth of the matter is that a lot of these things I either make from the BH&G cookbook, or I make them without a recipe. For example, broccoli or squash casserole is pretty much the veggies, chopped and half-cooked in the microwave, and then topped with cheese and buttered cracker crumbs and baked for however long it takes till they are tender. Stir fry is made with whatever meat and veggies I have, and I follow the instructions on the Kikkoman bottle. See? I wing it. But if you have ANY questions about a particular item there is no recipe for, please comment or contact me! :-)