A Horrible Situation!

I usually try to get my meal planning done over the weekend. I check the sales and plan my meals accordingly. Well, last Saturday my son had District Speech contest in Laurens, Iowa. That is only about 20 or 25 minutes away, but we were there until about 11:30 or so. When we returned home I wanted to get some chores done at the house so I put the meal planning off. Well, Sunday came and went and the meals still were not planned and frankly, the house wasn't even clean. I have absolutely no idea where the time went. Really! So, when I returned home from work on Monday, I was in a panic with no meal and not sure of what I even had on hand. I was whining about the situation on the phone to Peggy (big surprise) and she said, "You have to blog this!" Needless to say, I hated that feeling. I am hoping to never have it happen again, but I know better!

On a more positive note, today I used another recipe from my friend Kathy (she is the superstore of cookbooks) and put together some homemade Turkey Sausage. I thought it was pretty good. I will add a little more spice next time but we used it in Jumbalaya for a healthier sausage choice. I was pretty proud of myself. I also baked the bag of chicken breasts to use in meals later in the week. Again, a proud moment.

Even though I had a little setback last week I still like the meal planning thing. It has been good for me. Sometimes I even look forward to trying a new recipe for supper. Please don't let that get back to my husband. He still thinks I am slaving and sacrificing to help with the cooking. He used to do almost 100% of the cooking while I owned my scrapbook store. Now with my
wonderful part-time job I am home by 4:05 and have plenty of time to get a meal made. He still doesn't have to know that I sometimes enjoy it. Notice I said, sometimes!! Still not my favorite thing to do.

I think being organized in this part of my life has helped me become more organized in other parts of my life. I am not procrastinating as much as I used to and I am keeping my office clean of piles of paper. That can only be a good thing, right? Although my friend Peggy has now become me! We are not sure what happened but somehow we switched our organizational personalities. That is an entire different story that you can read about on our blog
www.micheggy.blogspot.com

Now, I just need to get the house cleaning in there somewhere! Let me know if you have any good suggestions in that area!

Thanks for reading,
Michelle

Success at The Craft Spot!

Peggy, Kathy and I had our open house last night for The Craft Spot. Wow! We were so excited about the turnout we had to toast our efforts afterward at The Pub!!! Who wouldn't, right?

We met our goal of 10 sign-ups, one great lady even signed up for the entire year. Woot Woot! But we saw more than just those 10 people. There were a lot of curious people that came by to ask many questions.

So, thank you to everyone who came by, signed up or are thinking about signing up. We appreciate you. And...you have officially put The Craft Spot in business.

A Fun Day!

Well yesterday was the day that my friend and I got together to craft and cook. Our menu? Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole, Caesar Salad, Corn and bread. And for dessert? Berry pie with vanilla ice cream. Yummy! The casserole was from the recipe book pictured above. Kathy has a library of cook books and it is fun to skim the pages looking for something fun. But then it just becomes impossible to decide.

The recipe we chose for our first meal was very simple. Kathy already had the chicken baked, so we just cut it up, mixed everything together and baked. It included chicken, almonds, green beans, mayo, lemon juice and probably a few more things that I have missed. Then we added cheese to the top and put it back in the oven to melt it a little.

Except for the two teenage boys not liking the Caesar dressing, they got ranch on thiers and for most of the guys not liking water chestnuts and me not liking pimentos (both left out), everyone enjoyed it. We are going to try another recipe next month. It was a fun experiment!

I did my shopping yesterday for next week and still spent another $45. I just can't get below that number it seems. And we have an awful lot of food still left in the fridge. Today I am going to take inventory of what is being wasted and adjust for next week. I will get better at this. I know it takes experimentation and some time but in the mean time is a little frustrating. Any suggestions?

Til next time,
Michelle

A New Place to Craft!

You all know that I love to craft. Who doesn't, right? Since I closed my store at the end of May last year I have had many people stop and ask me if I miss it and if I am going to be teaching any more classes and if we can get together to scrapbook sometime. Well, all this will now be available.

Peggy, Kathy Jackson and I are starting "The Craft Spot" in Emmetsburg. It will be located inside K. Jackson & Co. in the back. We have set up tables and chairs for crafting. You will even be able to store some of your supplies there if you want. It is a membership based club that will allow you to come in and work on your own anytime the store is open, and to attend classes and events. It is not just for card makers and scrapbookers. It is open to all crafters. Do you knit, needlepoint or quilt? This is a place for you too. In fact, not only should you join, you should think about teaching the rest of us how to knit and sew.

We are hosting an open house for the club and have sent out a lot of invitations. But, if you do not receive an invitation and would like to attend, please do. It is not by invitation only. Bring your friends if they like to craft as well.

The open house will be Wednesday, January 26th at 6:30 pm. Come in, complete a free make n take and see what the Craft Spot is all about.

We want to make it "a fashionable place to craft".

See you there!

Michelle

No Cooking Tonight

When I got home Jeff told me that we did not have to make supper tonight. I was kind of happy. My mom invited us over for Roast beef, green beans, garlic bread and potatoes. It was very yummy.

So, I don't have any tales to tell about the meal planning thing, so I decided to post pics of my craft room. I really do love it.

My husband did all of it e xcept the painting of the walls. He is the most wonderful! The closet shelving and organizational cubbies are my Christmas present from my family. I am so excited. The cubbies are from Neatnix. I just got them today but I can't wait to get them filled up. I am not sure I have enough to fill them all now and it is nice to know that I will have future storage. I am off work tomorrow so am looking forward to getting things put away.

Have a great day!

Kitchen Time!

I spent a lot of time in my kitchen today. First I baked chicken breast to use later then made chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies (snacks for Brian) then made supper. Chili and corn bread. I had my laptop with me and did some digital scrapbooking shopping while I baked. It was actually pretty fun.

Thanks to all of you who have posted comments. It is fun to know that someone has read the blog.

Michelle

Shopping This Week

Well, I finished my grocery shopping for the week. I spent $55 which is much better than last week, but still a lot in my opinion. My goal is to get that way down. I am not sure that I am sharing ingredients as much as I can and leaving a day for leftovers. I need to work on these things a little better. But my pantry is still full and I took advantage of some sales for items that I know I will use in the future.

Saturday the 15th will be a fun time. My friend Kathy and I have decided to try one new recipe per month, make it together and get our families together to eat. We are going to scrapbook during the day, then make our meal. I can't wait. I think it will be tons of fun. Her son, also a Brian, said it sounded scarey! Too funny.

I will keep you posted!

Here We Go Again!

Well, it is Friday and I find myself needing to plan my meals for next week already. That went really fast. Anyway, this week should be much easier. I am planning, obviously, to use the food I already have and just add the extras that I need. Just thinking about it I came up with about 3 meals that are fully stocked in my pantry and freezer. Woo Hoo! I am sure that once I get going I will be able to come up with a couple more too.

I did make one trip to the grocery store this week for 2 items I had forgotten to put on my list and for some great bargains on items that I couldn't pass up. So, I guess that is okay, right?

I made some very healthy Banana-oat pancakes yesterday and this time remembered to double the batch. I am stocked up on pancakes for a while anyway. Thanks to Kathy Merrill for the recipe.

Peggy Stolley had a great idea for exchanging recipes with others. I do love this idea. Please e-mail me if you have a great, somewhat healthy recipe that you would like to share with me or post it on this blog. I think that would be fun for all 4 followers to read it. LOL!

Well tonight is BLT's. We do that when Brian will be working because they are not his fave. More yummies for us!

Michelle

Week one

Obviously I have changed the theme of my blog. I no longer have my store, Look Who's Stamping so I am going to write about my new life. I have more time off now and one of my goals for 2011 is to start cooking healthier meals for my family and to plan these meals for a week at a time and do all my shopping for the week. Eventually I would like to shop for the month, but I better start out slow. Everything I read says this will save you money by making less trips to the store. We need to save some money, so I decided this was a great idea.

So, my first task was to plan my week of meals. I found a site online called GourmetBetty.com. At this site I was able to print these great meal planners. On one side you plan the meals for the week and on the back side you plan your shopping list. It is a great system and worked well for this first week.

It was hard to plan the meals. I just kept looking at the blank page, then finding something else to do. That way I could put it off a little longer. I finally sat my self down and got it done. I also wanted to make some cookies for my 14 year old, Brian so that I would not have to purchase Little Debbie's all the time. He loves his nutty bars. After that I went through my pantry (it was pretty empty) I made my list for the grocery store.

Yesterday I went to Fareway at 4:02 pm. It took me an hour and $142 but it was done. I thought that was a lot of money but I had purchased some things that would be in the pantry or the freezer for at least a month if not longer, so I guess it was justified. Of course by that time we still had to make supper and then I was so exhausted I did not have the energy to make the cookies. I decided I could get that done the next day.

This afternoon when I got home from work I started right in. First I made the cookies. I forgot to double the recipe. I wanted to have extra for the freezer. But no......! Whatever, I will get over it. Then I started supper which I wanted to have done by 6:00 or so. The meal turned out good, it was a Salisbury Steak recipe from Pampered Chef and a lettuce salad. Pretty easy. But I think we ate around 6:35. Wow, was my timing off. I had no idea how long it would take to chop onions, mix stuff, then cook it up. It is not the same as dumping everything out of a box and into a pan.

In the end, we all liked it and it was definitely healthier than our usual meals. Don't tell Brian. Hopefully he won't read this blog. I guess he wouldn't be caught dead reading this. He unfriended me from Facebook for goodness sake so he would not have to have anything to do with my dorkiness.

Tomorrow is hamburgers. Brian is excited, but I probably shouldn't have two beef meals in a row. Oh well, I guess I will learn as I go right?

I will keep you posted!

Michelle

P.S. As a plus, Jeff did the dishes!