This past week, David and I were having a mid-afternoon snack of a few Triscuit crackers, plus a Laughing Cow cheese wedge. In my efforts to eat slower (an ongoing goal I have), I was taking very teeny tiny bites and making each cracker last as long as possible.
As I was doing this, I started thinking about how very crisp Triscuit crackers are. They are super crunchy! It was in that moment that I thought how they would make a good "breading" for oven baked chicken.
That brings us
10 Simple Ideas For Making Meal Planning Easier
I've always enjoyed having a meal plan each week. The week's that I don't do it, I am stressed and feel frazzled. I've tried so many things over the years, so I thought I would share a few ideas with everyone -- things I have personally done at points and times. Perhaps one of these ideas will be something you can use while creating your menu plan:
10 Simple Ideas For Making Meal Planning Easier
1. Plan one night per week to be your "YOYO" night, which means "you on your own". On this
Spaghetti Casserole
Spaghetti Casserole is a easy and frugal dinner idea that only needs a few ingredients, such as bacon and cheese.
Spaghetti Casserole is a meal from my childhood that I've always enjoyed. It's also one of the few dinners that I was willing to reheat the next day as leftovers (I'm not big on leftovers). When talking to David and the kids today I mentioned that we were having it tonight and that I would post it on the blog. I said that I think it might need a more "fancy" name. Spaghetti
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Until about a year ago, I never made fish at home. David always said he didn't like it (that's changed), and fish was very rarely, if ever, one of the meals I had as a child so I had limited experience with it. I found fish to be a bit intimidating. It just seemed like something I would definitely screw up if I ever tried to cook it.
But here we are. Sometime last year I decided it was time to get past these fishy phobias. We had started Weight Watchers and I wanted
Creamy Cauliflower Soup + Sunset Magazine
Growing up, there was only a few magazines that I remember my mom reading regularly and one of them was Sunset. I remember flipping through it and often seeing cool houses and wishing I could live in one of them. Other than that, I didn't really get what was so special about the magazine. But I was much younger then.
Fast forward to today and Sunset is one of those magazines that invokes happy feelings in me. When I see their usual cursive "Sunset" at the top of the cover of the magazine,
Thyme Roasted Vegetables
Anyone get those $5 off Jennie-O coupons that were given away during an episode of The Biggest Loser in 2009? Well, they expired on December 31, 2009. On New Years Eve (HA - that would be December 31, 2009 - the reason for this story), I was busy in the kitchen finishing up cooking all of our party food when I realized that I didn't use my coupon! Perhaps most of you would have let it expire, but not this frugal mama! Hubby and I headed out in the cold to Food Lion (just before they closed, I
Cheese Bread
Homemade Refried Beans
My husband isn't a big fan of canned refried beans, but he's LOVES them when I make them myself. Even leftovers of them get eaten up quickly.
Homemade refried beans are super cheap and they freeze great. And while I am listing the recipe below for only 1 pound of beans, I don't cook such a small batch. If I am going to make them, I usually do at least 3 lbs at one time and I freeze the leftovers into smaller portions for future meals.
Here's how I do them. You will notice that I DO NOT add
Any Cereal Chicken Tenders
One of the favorite meals in our house is Chicken Tenders...yum, yum, yum.
I make mine by baking them in the oven, rather than frying, and the coating on them is any kind of cereal that I have on hand. Just about any cereal will work - in the past I've used sugary cereals like Captain Crunch (I have no problem admitting that these are GOOD), but lately I use cereals such as Fiber One or Total - which everyone in my family gobbles up too. I've even used Shredded Wheat or Cheerios. The cereal I
A Side of Black Beans
In our family, refried (pinto) beans are almost always served with the Mexican food I cook. While I love refried beans - my husband would rather have black beans. Here's how I make black beans for a side dish:
Black Beans
3 cans of black beans; drained and rinsed
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less or none if you don't like spicy)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a