Here is a recipe I created on the fly tonight.  It was 6 o'clock, I had baby gold potatoes and asparagus that HAD to be cooked.  I needed a meal that was quick.  I knew I wanted to roast the potatoes and saute the asparagus.  So I needed to create something that could sit on a plate next to my veggies, and could be made on the stove top.  This is what I came up with.  It is economical, contains only five ingredients, and is quite tasty.
Chicken Chili Stew
2 Chicken Breasts (I had a larger one and a very small one.)
1 can of corn
1 can of great northern beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon of cumin (use more or less to suit you)

Dice chicken breasts.  Cook in skillet until done.  Drain and rinse corn and beans.  Add corn, beans, undrained tomatoes, and cumin to chicken.  Stir well.  Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until most of the liquid cooks out.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

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I recently heard about a scheduling system by Steve Teri Maxwell called, "Managers of Their Homes."  I decided to give it a go.  I went to the website and gave them my $25.00 plus shipping.  I read the book.  It took me pretty much all week.  It is spiral bound with a bigger font and a lot of white space, it was easy to read, easy to follow, and was like having someone just talk to you about it.  It did help me to realize that I pretty much already live by a schedule.  It was not written down anywhere, but we basically do the same things every day, so putting together the schedule was relatively easy. 
The system works like this:  Read the book.  This would be an important step.  It explains scheduling and why you need to do it.  It has a ton of suggestions about scheduling your children and yourself.  It also has a chapter dedicated to scheduling infants.  I don't schedule infants and whole heartedly disagree with the notion, so I skimmed that part.  But, if you are like some of my dearest friends, and you want to know how to schedule babies, this would tell you how to do it. 

For me, there was nothing 'earth shattering' or life changing as far as new information goes, but there were some very practical suggestions and some much needed reminders.

After the book is read, you follow a few steps and fill out a couple of forms.  You will have written down for everyone in your home, except for your spouse, a list of things they do and things you would like for them to do and how long it takes to do it. 

Then you transfer that to a bunch of colored squares.  Each person has their own color.  Mine was golden.  :)  The squares represent either a half hour or one hour block of time.  You cut out the squares and sticky tac them onto the 'master schedule worksheet'.  It was fun!  It was like putting together a puzzle. 

I did all the scheduling work today.  Interestingly enough, my house near about fell apart while I was doing it because we were so far out of our normal routine LOL....  They do suggest that you plan blocks of time to do all this and NOT sit down for 4 hours at the kitchen table.....  Unless, of course, that is what you planned for. 

I am not overly concerned about the implementation of the schedule.  It is VERY close to what we do now.  The biggest difference is I have tried to make sure everyone will be purposefully occupied for the majority of the day instead of turning into vegetables in front of the TV.

I have also made sure I worked in blogging time, household management time, and school planning time into my schedule.  I previously just hoped to find a second. 

So I am committed to giving this a fair shake.  I am glad it is set up to where you can move around the blocks and rearrange things with out having to retype and reprint the whole thing.  I expect we will do a bit of that before we can make the "final schedule." 

If you are interested, this can be bought from Ebay or Amazon, but you will not have access to the support forums if you do.  The best place to get it from is titus2.com. 

This is NOT a paid review.  I bought this book with my own money.  I have nothing to lose or gain if you buy 1 or 100 or none.  :) 

Jessica


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Part of how we save money is by planning.  Dinner comes around every evening.  Yet, sometimes we are surprised by this.  When you regularly find yourself saying, "Oh Crap!" around 5 o clock, and everyone in your family is hovering around you like hungry baby birds, it is sometimes easier to go out and grab something.  You think, at this point, that it will be faster. 

If your family is anything like mine, it won't be that much faster.  By the time you load the kids up, and drive to the local hamburger joint, you will have taken 30 minutes.  Then you have to get out or go through the drive through.  If you go through the drive through, is everyone eating in the car?  If they are desparate, and you let them, they will! But then there will be french fries all over the back seat, and really, haven't we all found those pickles in the most interesting of spaces!

When I have to pull something out of thin air and need to get it together quick, I run to the kitchen, turn the oven on to 350, and set a pot of water on to boil.  This does two things:  It lets my family know supper is on the way, and it is there just in case I need it.  :-D 

Here is a list of ideas of quickie meals:
Taco Salad - Ground beef or canned chicken, taco seasoning, lettuce, salsa, cheese, and a can of corn, black beans, or pinto beans.  Use tortillas, taco shells, or chips if you have them.

Macaroni and Cheese - Macaroni or some other type of pasta (yay for having the water boiling already).  Put half a stick of butter or margarine in a sauce pan, once it is melted add 1/4 cup of flour.  Stir to combine.  Add a couple cups of cream or milk, stir until combined.  Add 2 cups of whatever cheese you have and some salt and pepper.  Stir until melted and thickened.  Pour over the cooked noodles in a baking dish.  Turn the oven up to 400.  Cook for 10 minutes or so and then turn on the broiler.  Let it it start to brown and it is done!  Woo Hoo!  Serve with a can of green beans, peas, or a salad.

Sandwiches, chips, and a can of fruit. 

Chili - Ground beef, couple 15 ounce cans of tomato something (sauce, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes).  Add chili mix if you have it, cumin and chili powder if you don't, and salt and pepper.  Throw in some chili beans, brown beans, kidney beans, or black beans.  Serve with hot dogs and cheese or just serve with crackers. 

There are a few ideas of things I can put together fast.  Make up your list and then make sure you keep those pantry ingredients on hand at all times.  :)

Happy Cooking!
Jessica





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I am tired and a bit overwhelmed.  I started a new homeschool curriculum today and it took me until 2 pm to get it all done.  Then I had to wrap up some loose ends with the planning of it and that took until 4 pm.  On top of all that, my 22 month old is very crabby.  I think she may be coming down with something.  I have yet to plan my menu out for this week and earlier today I had big plans on making Tilapia and fresh asparugus.  HAHA!  Ok so instead I decided I would make something fast.
There are several things that can be thrown together in a pinch.  Taco salad is one of them.  I can put taco salad on the table, from frozen meat to the table, in 20 to 25 minutes.  But, we had taco salad a couple nights ago.  That was out.  So I decided to do Cabbage and sausage.

Cabbage and Sausage
Core and chop a large head of cabbage.  The cabbage pieces needed to be bite sized.  Slice a pound of smoked sausage, bratwurst, or kielbasa.  Put everything into a deep skillet.  Pour in a cup of water, plenty of salt and pepper, and half a stick of butter.  Put a lid on it and turn the heat to medium high.  Stir occasionally.  If it starts to brown, add a half cup more water and turn the heat down a bit.  That means it is cooking to fast.

Turn on the oven.  If you have Jiffy Cornbread Mix, this would be the day to use it.  If you don't then here is a great cornbread recipe.  It tastes like cake.  I got it from my BFF, Kim.  (Check out her blog, Kim's Whims.) 

Kim's Cornbread
1 cup Cornmeal mix
1 cup self rising flour
4 tbsps sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup  melted shortenting

Preheat oven to 400.  In an 8 x 8 baking dish or cast iron skillet, pour in melted shortening.  (I put the glob of shortening in the skillet and stick it in the oven while it is preheating.)  Mix dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  Do not overmix.  Pour into baking dish.  Bake until beginning to brown and knife comes out clean when inserted in to middle. 

Jessica

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If you are a reader at Feeding the Family for Less, I’m sure you want to provide your family the best possible food all the while saving time and money.  Saving time and money requires a little effort on your part.  Following are some tips that you should look into now.

1.  Get the coupons under control.  By this time in the month, I usually have gone through my coupon binder and removed all coupons that expired in the last month.  While I’m doing it, if there are any expiring in the next week and I know I won’t use them, I pull and toss those as well!

2.  Take a minute and consider your family’s grocery needs for the month.  A great way to start is to take an inventory of everything you have on hand.  There is a simple Pantry Inventory Form here.  If you have never used one before this is a good time to start.  If you do not know how much ground beef your family uses in a month’s time, then you won’t know how much to buy when it’s at it’s lowest price!

3. If you have a good idea of the food you have on hand, then start looking at this week’s grocery store ads.  Your coupons are up to date, you know what you already have, now you can plan a menu that incorporates this week’s sales.  With the money you save, you can take advantage of some of the low, low prices on meats and produce to stock up for future use.  Don’t make the mistake that many of us have made when starting out in couponing.  Do not go rushing into the store to grab the good deals and come home wondering what in the world you’re going to cook for supper.  Canned soup for $.10 per can is a very good deal, but not if you spent your entire grocery budget on it!

Plan now.  Put in 15 minutes as you can.  Before you know it, you’ll have a system that is manageable and works for your family!