Brain Dead...

Dinner brain dead that is. Last week's menu was Pizza, Tacos, Spaghetti, Meatloaf. May as well have been Dull, Mundane, Boring, and Not Again!

Truly, I have been so out of ideas. I had been "Ad Shopping", as in, when the weekly ad came out, I made a menu around what was on sale. That got me by for a little while.

So I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan...we used his plan to get out of debt. E-Mealz is advertised on his show and I had thought about signing up. But what spurred me on was talking to a co-worker and hearing she is signed up for a similar menu service and loving it. So I signed up for E-Mealz and we are loving it! For a buck and a quarter a week, the menu is planned and the grocery list made. It is two pages...page 1 is the weekly menu with the recipes right there, and page 2 is the grocery list. All the meals have been good and the amount of prep and time to make pretty easy. Maybe eventually I'll get my dinner mojo back, but for now this has been a life saver!

In other news, the Guineas have started a nest! It is not in the coop...it is between the duck house and creek in a bramble of fallen tree branch. Our plan is to keep an eye on it and when she has a full clutch and starts sitting...move her and the nest to a confined area. Last count she had 13 eggs. And she is not sitting on it yet, so it is not time. Hopefully this will go according to plan and we'll have Guinea Keets someday!

Oh, and we have a pregnant cat. She's not a very friendly cat so all kinds of questions come to mind...like will she be a good mom? Will her babies be friendly? WILL SHE LET ME PLAY WITH HER NEWBORNS?!?!?! I hope so! :) We are getting her spayed after this litter, which is her first litter.

Garden is well under way. Onions are growing, Potatoes should be sprouting any time now, and the first succession of Carrots, Spinach, Chard, and Lettuce seeds are in. My Tomato, Pepper, Ground Cherry, and Broccoli plants are in the process of hardening off. It is a pain in the rear to drag them in at night and out of the house in the morning, but I keep telling myself it won't be long now! We have had an amazingly mild and warm spring. I am getting ready to start Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash seeds. I will start them outdoors in flats - they'll stay outside during the day and come in at night. A lot of people around here are planting warmer season stuff already....I am still leery so I am sticking with my original timing schedule.

That is about it for now! How's it going in your neck of the woods?

Another Successful Recipe! Easy Chicken...

This time with chicken breasts. It is a modified version of a recipe I came across online. Put your chicken breasts in the crock pot (I had a pack of 3). Mix a packet of dry Italian dressing mix in a little bit of water and pour it over the chicken. Cook on low for a few hours. I then took out the chicken and shredded it. Then mix together a package of cream cheese, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a can of water in the crock pot. Add the shredded chicken back in and cook for another hour or two on low. Serve over pasta, we did bow ties, the Barilla brand (I think that is what it is called!) with the omega 3's and what not in it. I was a little leery, something about the cream cheese in this recipe sounded weired, but it turned out delicious! Like an Alfredo type sauce. We had it with a salad and homemade rolls. Yummy!

It is stinkin cold here and supposed to get even colder! Below zero temps, snow on the ground, and more to come. Winter has made itself known! Pretty sad when you wish it was 25 degrees! That would be a welcome relief! I have been knitting a set of dish cloths to go along with the table cloth dish towels. Oddly enough, these are the first dishcloths I have knitted for us! I haven't been doing anything fancy...cast on 36 stitches and knit each row til it is an even square and bind off. I can get 3 of them out of one ball of yarn! :)

Are you staying warm?

You Simply Must Check It Out!!

My friend, Breanna, has three wonderful blogs going and I'd love to share them with you!

This one, her original, has a lot of neat stuff. Delicious yarn photos (she spins and dyes and knits!), pictures of neat places she has visited, her beautiful children and family, pugs, some neat crafty ideas, and more. Go on, have a look-see!

This one is one of her new blogs and it is about FREEZER COOKING!! :) I really want to get into doing this. She has some great recipes up. Check it out!

And last but not least, she is a preschool teacher. She was my youngest daughter's preschool teacher last year and I give her an A+! She's a wonderful teacher. She has recently started a blog about Montessori activities . It's new, but one you'll definitely want to follow especially if you have little ones!

So there you have it. If you are getting hit with this winter storm as we are, go grab a cup of cocoa (Or coffee for you in particular Coop Keeper Jayme! Or decaf tea in my case because I mixed a packet on cocoa in coffee just a bit ago and I am on caffeine overload!), snuggle in your warm robe, and go check out Breanna's blogs!

What? Only 139 Days Until Christmas?

Yes, it is true. Only 139 days until Christmas. And holiday pumpkin pies are on my mind! I baked the pumpkins, then I scooped the meat out, pureed it in my brand new food processor, bagged it up and put it in the freezer. Each bag has enough for two pies in it. Yum! I was going to make some pumpkin bread this evening but got busy and ran out of time. I have only done these two pumpkins so far and they made enough for 7 pies! WOW! I remember my Grandma Edna baking THE BEST pumpkin bread in coffee cans! I wish I had that recipe...does anyone have a good Grandma one?


This recipe ROCKS! It is battered jalapenos and oh man, are they good! I made them last night and served them with some cheesy queso dip. Delicious! You can find the recipe here. I am going to slice up some jalapenos to freeze to make this recipe later this winter. I think this would be a perfect way to use up frozen peppers, and freezing is so easy.

Grating up Zucchini to freeze, for the ducks. Let me ask you....how did I ever live without a food processor? Don't laugh...I have been grating zucchini by hand! With one of those flat cheese graters! Until I broke it while grating all that gosh darn zucchini! : ) LOL The thought of grating up a gazillion more pounds was just a little daunting, so I invested in this baby and it has already earned it's keep between the zucchini and the pumpkin! I can already think of a ton of uses for it. I have no idea, however, where I am going to store it!

Some of the peppers I canned today. More mild jalapenos and cherry peppers.

Knitted Babe momma and boy/girl twins I made for my niece's birthday. Tomorrow is her party and I am very excited to give them to her! I hope she likes them.

I hope you have a great weekend! :) Next week I think I'll do a Christmas Is A Craft update....How are you doing on your Christmas preparations?

I'll Be Drooling in My Sleep.....

because I have both crock pots going and my house is going to smell so nummy! One crockpot has quartered potatoes and onions topped with cooked breakfast sausage for the kids for breakfast in the morning. Yummy! The other has a big pork roast in it to make pulled BBQ pork for dinner tomorrow night. I made four loaves of homemade bread today, but I am thinking I will make some homemade onion rolls tomorrow afternoon to eat it on.

Oh man, I will surely have sweet dreams! :) And a wet pillow from the drool! haha

We had homemade cheesy potato bacon soup for dinner tonight. Not my favorite only because it is so rich flavored, but the family absolutely loves it.

It was a rainy cold day today. We are supposed to have a hard freeze tonight and tomorrow night. I was reading online to figure out if I need to cover anything up. I came across an article that says if you have rain before the freeze that is a GOOD thing because a freeze pulls water from the plants and damages them. It said if you haven't had rain then to water before the freeze and it will protect the plants. For siome reason that seems so counter-intuitive. We had rain all day, so if all that is true then I think we'll be ok. The only things I am worried about are the strawberry plants and the raspberries. I may run out and cover the raspberries. Maybe the strawberries too, just in case. Ok, honestly I won't run out there, I'll ask my hubby to do it. :) He gets the crappy jobs...like running out in the rain to cover plants, de-skunking the dog.....you get the idea...but he LIKES those jobs! And thank God for that! He called me today while he was cutting fire wood and said "If you want a good manly picture of me, come down here because the splitter isn't working so I am splitting wood by hand." :) LOL

Laundry and housework are all caught up for the week, which is why I LOVE Sunday nights....I feel so on top of things.

Have a goodnight!

Here Comes a Heat Wave!!!!

The book I am currently reading....



My two oldest, after school instrument practice....

My youngest's room was a disaster!

Before...

After....

Before....

After...

My oldest daughter with her dance date...

Last night's dinner. Homemade chunky chicken noodle soup. It was delicious!

And that is probably it for me for a few days. The weather is supposed to be outstanding...in the 60's and perhaps even a 70 degree day! Hooray! We'll be outside, working on the garden soil, compost system, and the chicken house to get ready for the ducks. What are you up to? Wishing you wonderful weather!!

Recent This and Thats.....

Treasures found in the basement...8 storage containers with lids, a large strainer, a thermometer, and a glass cotton ball jar with lid.



We cooked and ate duck for the first time...and we all loved it! The only problem was one duck was barely enough for our family of 5. Turkey or chicken is much more economical.

This is that naughty dense flat wheat bread I spoke of before....

This is the double batch of homemade playdough we made for my daughter's preschool class. It was my month to make it.

Here is the recipe....

2 cups boiling water

2 packets unsweetened Kool-Aid (makes it smell fantastic and the color is so bright)

4 tsp Cream of Tarter (I buy mine in bulk at the Amish store)

1 cup salt

2 TBS oil

2 cups flour

Mix all dry ingredients well while the water is boiling. Add the oil to the boiling water and mix well into the dry ingredients. Let cool and then knead until smooth. The keeps for a long time in a ziplock.

My beautiful oldest daughter all dressed up for the Courtwarming dance at school.....

If you look close, on her ring finger is a silver Chastity Ring (or True Love Waits ring, whichever you call it). In case you are wondering, no, they don't make matching silver Chastity Belts. I asked. ;)

Making fresh juice from juice oranges....putting the peels in the kitchen compost bucket (Check out this blog for a wonderful idea for orange/citrus peels! ) and the finished product.

Today I did our taxes in my jammies. Is there any better way to do them than that? :)