Crumby People

I am wondering - Are you a crumby person? Is someone in your family rather crumby?

Chances are if you own a dog you can't even answer this question (ha, didn't think I was going there did you).

You see we had 2 dogs, then we had 1 dog and while I used to complain about the dog hair...I had NO idea just how crumby everyone in my family was until we had no dogs.


I have to sweep everyday, YES everyday - because there is a difference between stepping on dog hair and stepping on bread crumbs, cheese crumbles, and other various crumby foods.

So I ask you this, if you have a dog may I please borrow him for 5 minutes a day for the rest of my life?

Will someone please make me some of these?

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SWIRLED™ Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Morsels, divided
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease 12 muffin cups. COMBINE sugar, butter and water in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Add semi-sweet morsels; stir until melted. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir well. Add flour and baking soda and stir until blended. Allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in 1 cup Swirled morsels. Spoon a heaping tablespoon batter into each prepared muffin cup. BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top is set and wooden pick inserted center comes out still slightly wet. Place muffin pan on wire rack. Centers of brownies will fall upon cooling. If some do not, with back of teaspoon, tap center to make a hole. PLACE peanut butter in small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; stir. While brownies are still hot, spoon a scant tablespoon peanut butter into center of each brownie. Top with remaining Swirled morsels. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Run a knife around edge and carefully remove from pan.

I can wait...You can bring them over tomorrow!

(oh, and please use the SAFE Peanut Butter!)

Meal Planning Part 3

We are in the final stretch. This last part is a super time and money saver - even if you are not looking to save money - you will.

You have your calendars filled in right? Complete with sides? GOOD!

Now grab that little rotation spreadsheet (4 or 8 weeks) and your notebook again. This time it would helpful to have any recipes near by that you may need. For my 8 week meals I keep recipes that I use in a binder, in a drawer in my kitchen so I don't have to hunt down a cook book or recipe card.

In your notebook label one Page STAPLES and the next pages Week 1, Week 2 and so on.

Take a deep breath, and another - OK you better take one more.

Now. Start with your staples page. Start writing all your needs for the rotation that you can purchase ahead of time that wont spoil, bread crumbs - spaghetti sauce, dressing, butter, pasta, taco shells, spices, oils, jellies etc. Write them down and a quantity for the rotation (Spaghetti Sauce - 8). You can also write the meat you need for the rotation on this list as that can be frozen!

Once you have all the staples done - move on to your weeks. Go to week one and write what you have to buy fresh that week; lettuce, fruit, eggs, dairy etc.(do this for each week) you should find that your week lists are rather short.

DO NOT INCLUDE YOU FAMILY STANDARDS ON THESE LISTS (milk, bread etc) you will add those later.

Now you have 1 long list and 4 to 8 short ones right?

SO here is what you do...On the first shopping day of each 8 week rotation you will shop from your staples list (IN MY CASE THIS INCLUDES MEAT)AND your Week one list. SO this is a "big" shopping trip.

At our house we buy our meat from the meat market near by - 8 weeks at a time - except our chicken comes from Costco. So meats are not on my grocery lists but a separate list.

With week one and the BIG SHOP out of the way - all you do now is look at the fridge (where you hung your calendars)to see what you're eating – Sticky note in hand – I open the pantry and the fridge make sure I have what I need and write down the fresh stuff needed for the week – Add the essentials (milk, OJ, Bread, lunch meat) and I am done. I can fit the list on a sticky note and I am in and out of the store in 20 minutes for 7 weeks.

The bonus in all this? Other than the time saver for rest of your life (ha ha) with your meals posted -there is never any question what is for dinner - everyone can look at the fridge and see it for themselves.

REMEMBER - you can change it anytime if parts don't work well for you, if meals get boring you can add or delete - you can move around scrap night or use it as Out night. YOU HAVE TOTAL CONTROL - the weeks leave room for flexibility. If you take out chicken and don't want to make it tonight sub in scrap night or look at another chicken meal for the week and trade them. If you go out an extra night or don't cook - hold it over to the next week (sub it on the calendar so you don't forget you don't have to buy that) etc etc etc

I hope all of this made some sense? I am not sure how well it reads but I know it works for me. SO GOOD LUCK and email me anytime if you have a question or comment!

Thanks for reading.

Meal Planning part TWO

Now I know that everyone that reads my little blog got straight to work and didn’t start finished their dinner’s list!

So we will move right on to step two. This part is the most aggravating part. It is perhaps the most time consuming and it is also the hardest part for me to explain in type without talking in circles so bare with me and here we go.

Part Two:

If you have Excel you can re-create THIS page on your computer if not you can probably use google docs spreadsheet program and get the same results.

Start filling in your “dinners” only into the above spreadsheet. DO NOT worry about sides or desserts at this point. I used to do a 4 week rotation but I recently switched to 8 weeks and I love it. You can choose which way you want to go.

As you fill in the dinners pay VERY close attention to what comes on Monday following Sunday and place Chicken, Beef etc. meals apart – You don’t want to have Chicken Pot Pie on Sunday and Chicken in Dumplings on Monday for example. You also probably don’t want to have a week of chicken and nothing else.

Mine looks like this - but read below before you start

IMPORTANT: You need to give yourself one SCRAP meal each week. For us this is Veggie night. This meal can be moved to any other night if you forget to defrost your meat or just can’t pull off dinner that night.

IMPORTANT: Remember how you sorted them Easy, Hard and Splurge- You only want one hard and one splurge meal per week! (see mine for example of how it can look)

IMPORTANT: If your family eats out once per week still fill in all the days you can use your scrap meal as an out night. For example – if we go out to eat it is usually on Friday so I put my Veggie night on Fridays each week. Veggie night is baked potatoes, salad and a fruit – so I can sub these into any other meal easily and don’t have to throw anything away if we don’t eat them. It is also very easy to sub veggie night onto another night when I have to. (thus why Veggie night is my scrap night)

IMPORTANT: If your family likes to try new things – you will also use your scrap night for that each week. On your shopping day you can decide to add a meal and take out scrap night or leave scrap night (veggie night in our house).

Are your 4 or 8 week rotations filled in? Ok, then - Now

Print these CALENDAR pages

And start adding your rotation to the actual weeks. USE A PENCIL. Write the dinners at the top of each day. I filled my in for the whole year because I know this works for our family. You can start with 8 weeks or rotate through a few months or the whole year. If you do the whole year…consult your real calendar for vacations etc.

Once you have your dinners filled in on your calendar pages you can break out your SIDES list. Remember when I told you to do dinners that MOST of the family will eat. Well, this is where you can make sure everyone has something they will eat on their plate. As you fill in the sides look at who will eat and who won’t and plan your sides accordingly.

NOTE: my sides rotate with my meals so if we are having steak it is always steak, salad and potatoes (non specific on how I will prepare those potatoes)

NOTE: We don’t do a lot of dessert around here, if you do fill that in after you do your sides. I make a dessert twice per month at the most – so mine don’t make the calendar.

TOMORROW NIGHT:
I will post the grocery planning for the calendars you just made. You can place your calendars in a binder or tack them to the fridge. I like the fridge IN YOUR FACE approach.

Dinner and shopping Part One

First it is SNOWING - I love the snow but this caught me off guard - I swear I checked the weekend weather a few times today and I saw NO snow in the forecast...and yet I can't see my yard, I can't see my driveway and it is frigid cold out! Guess that is why we had 40mph winds today!!

OK OK....I am FINALLY posting my meal/shopping planning plan. On popular demand I must say. I hesitate - what if you don't like it, what if it won't work for you? Well then I am SORRY! But maybe you will be able to use parts of it to simplify your life a little bit!

I am going to do this in a 3 part post over the weekend. Why?? You might ask...because it can be very overwhelming - especially at first. If you are up for the challenge over the weekend you will be done by Sunday Night and ready to shop (though I kind of recommend that you start on the first week of month...(and probably save a fair amount money too)! If you are not ready you can print the posts or bookmark them and come back when you are!

1. Planning family meals

Get yourself a notebook, a spiral will do you well. I prefer the little lined ones (college ruled) cuz you can fit more on a page!

Get yourself a pencil and a sharpener (you will need it) and make sure it has an eraser that works too...non of that black smeary junk it will be frustrating for you.

Now put your notebook and your pencil someplace you can get to quick and jot on fast!

Title one page DINNERS
Title the next page SIDES
Title the next page DESERTS
and finally make a SNACK page (if you want)

Now it is time to put the wheels in motion. You have to write down EVERY dinner that MOST of the family will eat (excluding babies of course) and I mean EVERY dinner soup and sandwiches all the way up to Fillet Mignon.

You have to write down all the sides you ever put with dinners from rolls to veggies and even more complicated sides..

and obviously start jotting down favorite desserts, easy desserts and snacks.

If your family does not eat dessert often that is OK write them down anyway! (we don't eat dessert often in our house but having it down really helps in this process)

Once you feel comfortable with your LISTS ignore the second three and focus on the DINNERS for a while. Turn to a blank page and break them out into sections (beef, pork, chicken, fish, veggie, other)

Now that you have those separated by food type, devise a code (makers or crayons work well) I use colors -
RED = HARD (as in takes more than 30 min to get ready, requires a boat load of ingredients or simply the fam loves it but you hate to make it)

Blue = EASY

Black = SPLURGE (the meals you wont make often because of cost or time commitment)

Now - take a deep breath and wait till tomorrow night for the next step.

NOTE: you will need to think about the list of dinners for a while before you move on to seperating them by type (or you could roll as you go but you are more apt to forget meals that way) - you don't want to think of another one later that will really bum you out.

NOTE 2: if you want the list of "our" dinners here it is - my family is PICKY so our meal list is fairly boring but you mind find some inspiration!

REMEMBER - 2 more parts of this process are pending! Check back tomorrow night for Part 2.

Ooh, that smell, Can't you smell that smell?

Pillsbury cookies and and a nice warm oven;
There’s just one thing in my way.
There's too much smoke and too much Stench

Look what's burning up around here

CHORUS-

Ooh, ooh that smell

Can't you smell that smell?

Ooh, ooh that smell

The smell of ash surrounds you. Yuck.

Color of darkness is upon you.

Stuck with charcoal in your oven (you, fool, you)

So try not to choke, open another window for your nose,

light candles, fool, get off the net. (heck yeah)

Now they won’t call you Martha.

Can't eat a crumb when its charcoal and dust

Say you'll try again,

but their might not be any left.

CHORUS

Aw, you, fool, you.

They were supposed to be dummy proof

I know I been here before.

One little problem that confronts you,

got a monkey on your back.

Just one more look, Blog, might make you miss.

One hell of a price for you to get your kicks. (hell, yeah)

CHORUS-

Ooh, ooh that smell

Can't you smell that smell?

Ooh, ooh that smell

The smell of ash surrounds you.

Oh, you, fool, you

Don't cook those too long.

You're just a fool, just a fool, just a fool.

McDonalds Surprise

Hailey and I had to run a couple of boring errands yesterday. Off to Bed Bath and Beyond to exchange a table cloth I bought in the wrong shape...Yes I know what shape my kitchen table is but no I did not manage to buy the right one. Then Safeway for some Tide and Bounce two of favorite to blow 30 dollars on (not). So after that we hit McDonalds for a little Health Food again...

When we walked up to the door Hailey ran to the window, I couldn't figure out why at first because my eyes were looking down at her, as soon as I lifted my eyes I knew...Ronald McDonald was at McDonalds! WOW! What a treat! She waved at him, I smiled and rushed in hoping to get the worlds cutest picture of Hailey with the worlds most famous Clown...
Mommy hopes crushed once again...it was kind of like at Disney when Lauren did this

But at least above I was there to take the picture of Dad and Lauren...in this case we had to ask a stranger to take a picture with the famed BlackBerry...because....Hailey would not go any where near Ronald once we got through the doors. He was perfectly fun and perfectly safe through the window but LIVE and IN PERSON inside - NO GOOD.

But Ronald Rocked and made Hailey this lovely note, and she did tell her his name (6 times in a voice a mouse couldn't hear)

And back at the table, safe and sound with Nuggets, Fries and a Sprite - Hailey couldn't take her eyes off him.

But he left - Returning Next Friday at 5:00 (the 21st) for a magic show and more (Town Center McD for those who want to go)

Recipe swap follow up

Sadly only one kind person participated in my recipe swap...so I am going to post her recipe and one of mine (my moms) just so I can have some closure from the original post. If you're interested click here

I did get a lot of feedback - people saying they would love to post a "sweet treat" so I will take another crack at it now:

If you want to post a favorite Holiday Sweet Treat Recipe please email it to me or post it in the comments and I will create a sweet treat soon.

I know I am a glutten for punishment - but I have faith that my friends and their sweet toothes will come through on this one

RIGHT?

Favorite Holiday Recipe Swap

My mom just called and we were talking about how hard it is to find certain "favorites" at the grocery stores anymore. In this case it is the Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Cubes - we like the cubes not the crushed stuff and we mix a bag of herbed with a bag of country...well in the last few years they have been tough to find and the cube size has shrunk...PF if you happen to read this get your act together and start making things the way I like them again (please)!!!

So that got me thinking about all the holiday food I love and I even started my Thanksgiving food list so I don't forget anything!! While doing that I stopped to blog...because I decided it would be fun to swap favorites with friends! I figure by doing so now we may even have time to try a few before the big days and possibly change things up a bit?

Ok...not the sweet yummy delicious highly fattening deserts (we'll do those in December!) but the yummy Delicious dish that just makes every holiday perfect to you.....

Email me (or post in comments) by Friday October 31st and I will post them here for all to see and share!!! If you have a picture please include it too!

Midweek Update

I saw this delicious, easy recipe on a neighboring blog earlier this week and just had to try it with my girls. Let me simply say YUM! OMG, these little turnovers took a total of 30 minutes (prep and bake) and were absolutely delicious! We tweaked the end version just a bit because of my sweet tooth and during the last 5 minutes of baking I brushed a little melted butter on top followed by some sprinkled Cinnamon and sugar and voila - amazing. This is something I will now keep the ingredients in the house for because it was easy, delicious and fun for us to make together! Unlike the other mom I did not photograph the experience so you will have to click over to her page to see them in action!

Today is a BIG day for Lauren - she gets her expander out at 9:30! YEAH! That thing has not been a pleasant part of her young life. Once it is removed she will do impressions for her retainer to help correct the overbite and the orthodontist is placing a small spring in it to also push her two front together a bit, though the fact that the two teeth beside her front teeth are finally joining the outside world has already helped with this a lot! Lauren is not looking forward to the retainer but I keep telling her "it comes out!!!" you don't eat with it in etc. The expander was a permanent fixture in her mouth - ick. Next week she will visit the good ole dentist and see what kind of damage was incurred while while wearing the expander for several months...that appointment will likely be slightly unpleasant...

I have plenty more to talk about: Lauren's water color painting for school, making our own snow, Hailey becoming SHY, the impending Holidays, the Dyson getting a haircut and more...but for now I am off to start Thursday and hope to make the best of it!

More later...

Train Wreck

Football Sunday? Love it. Ha. A whole day of football, mostly teams I don't care about...I like it when the games are close but that is about it. So I set out to keep us (the girlies) busy today...

First the girls painted pumpkins - you know the little ones they call gourds at the grocery store. They were cute. Do you think I would have thought to take pictures of this? NO...and I should have because that about the best part of the day...no fighting, no whining just pumpkins and paint! Cute.

Then we set up a bunch of the playmobil stuff out up in the playroom. Not all of it but a fair amount. They played for 15 minutes. Count em 15. It took longer to set it all out. Apparently today was NOT a playmobil day.



Next we browsed the net for some cute cake ideas. We were going to bake. Hmpf. We settled on this super cute train cake from Betty Crocker (Because no-ones bakes from scratch anymore do they?) we decided to adapt it a little to meet MY needs...and instead of using loaf pans we were going to use the multi mini loaf pan (don't know what you call it but it is like a muffin pan but has loaf shapes instead)

Bear with me...I could not find a good way to make this short...

We did very well in the beginning, both girls working together



Then came our first train wreck...The first batch...I guess we filled the loaf thingies a little too much...starting to look more like a cake a little less like train cars.


so we moved on...to batch number 2 - it went better. The girls had fun goofing off with the camera and the train cars blew up like Volkswagen Beatles but did not run together so bad...

BUT...all good things must come to an end...we went to the library (Lauren got the book she wanted!!) and then came home to frost our "fully cooled" train cars. I got them ready (trimmed, sliced and somewhat shaped like rectangles again) and began frosting my fingers, I mean the cars. The girls set up all kinds of candy on the table for decorating the cars...and KABOOM - Train Wreck.

One needed help with everything and I was still frosting my fingers ( I mean the cars) the other didn't want to help the poor little one because she had her own agenda (who Lauren, couldn't be! HA HA) Hailey whines, Lauren stomps, Hailey whines some more, Lauren stomps around some more...MOM throws the little snowman frosting Knife in the sink and says FORGET it...here is what we ended up with



And the best part, the proudest mommy moment of the day, the cats meow, the real pooper...When I was rinsing everything off and hit the garbage disposal button what do I hear? CRUNCH, KLANK, CRUNCHLE, KRANKLE...AHHHHHH. Turn it off...what is that?

Step 1. Cringe

Step 2. Tell Hubby your certain it is nothing bad

Step 3. Cringe

Step 4. Reach hand in garbage disposal

Step 5. Cringe, Gag, Wish you hadn't done step 4

Step 6. Pull out first handfull of busted snowman frosting knife

Step 7. Listen to those around you tell you that you shouldn't have thrown your little proud mommy moment tantrum...

Step 8. Let it go out the other ear

Step 9. Repeat steps 4 throuh 6 at least a dozen times

Step 10. Cringe, test disposal and MOVE ON

Calling all good cooks...

HA! Even you aren't a good one I am still calling on you! I am hunting recipes that can be prepared ahead of time, bake in the oven for roughly 2 hours or in the crock pot most of the day...I have spent many an hour on the Internet and the problem is you never know what it really tastes like! So I figure...hit the blog - your friends must have a few recipes for you!

So...here's the gist...I need dinners for Dance nights this fall...I need to either be able to put them in the oven before we leave the house and have them done when we return (up to 2 hours later) or do the crock pot thing. Sounds easy enough right? Well, they also have to meet the family requirements, no fish, no rice, no nuts, no tomato or onion chunks (sauce or seasoning OK), no ricotta or blue cheese, - Hmmm I think that is it - oh wait...NO BONES.

We can do the basic lasagna, stuffed shells, beef stew, potato soup type things any thoughts? Post em in the comments or email me terra@temerson.com

THANKS!!!

(PS - I am NOT a good cook!!)