• Life Simplified: No Grocery Shopping (Meals)

    A couple questions we have been asked several times over the last month regarding my No Grocery Shopping challenge are – What have we been eating?  Do we have any recipes?  I am thrilled that we were able extend this challenge into February!   The quick answer is the meals have been “simple”.   Thankfully my family does not have any food allergies so we can be a little more flexible on what we eat.

    Here are a few ways we made our pantry stretch:

    • Always Eat Leftovers
    • Keep it Simple
    • Make Meals with Few Ingredients
    • Cook 1 Main Meal a Day
    • Cut back on Snacks
    • Make Meatless Meals

    On typical day we eat toast, cereal, eggs,  oatmeal or something we have on hand for breakfast.  The girls have lunch at school so they are covered for that meal.  Jake and I eat left overs for lunch (the left overs are usually from dinner the night before).  For dinner I fix a simple, few ingredients main dish to feed our family of four then add fruits, veggies and other sides to compliment the main dish.

    The first place I noticed a dip in the pantry was with the snacks.  When the kids get home form school they are HUNGRY (they eat their school lunch at 10:30 AM) and are always ready for a snack.  If it has been a busy day for me a lot of times they will grab an item from our “snack basket” on the kitchen counter which contains items such as granola bars, pretzels, crackers, etc…. We have noticed a dip in our dairy products too.  The girls will often have a cheese stick or yogurt for a snack after school so those have been being utilized.  Another snack they enjoy after school is a half of peanut butter & jelly sandwich or peanut butter with honey and veggies which gives them an extra boost of protein.

    One of the neat parts about doing this challenge is I have started noticing trends in our family.  I have seen what we eat more of as well as the items that get left behind more frequently.  It is important to me that we all continue to get healthy meals and snacks, however, I want to eliminate wastefulness.

    Along with the main meals we have a fruit and vegetable.  We still have chicken and beef weekly as well as fish every couple of weeks.  I will be adding the recipes for these items in the next day or two.  It is our plan to continue this challenge yet another week!

    I will continue to share with you the challenges, successes and what I have purchased so you can keep me accountable or even go through the journey with me by participating  and sharing your story.  I am thrilled that we can extend this goal and continue to use up the items we already have in our home!

    Life Simplified is a series on getting rid of the extras in our life while learning how to enjoy what God has given us so we can continue to be a blessing to others.  Our homes can quickly start are bursting with “stuff”  and if you are like us we just have too much.  I am doing a series on ways we are learning to simplifying our food, homes, and lives.  When our hearts, lives, and homes get too cluttered we may start missing out on opportunities to serve and bless the people around us.

  • Book: Better Homes and Gardens

    Grandma Willa gave me this cook book –  Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book as a wedding gift and we use it all the time.  Grandma Willa is one of the most amazing cooks I know.  I am thankful for the times we had cooking together.  Grandma is still cooking a lot of meals for family and friends but due to distance I am not able to participate in her cooking adventures as often as I like.  Below is the note she put in my cook book, which I treasure even more then the cook book itself:

    What’s Cooking?

    Bridgette,

    My Aunt Zell Body, gave me a BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS cook book as a Wedding gift.  It was my first and faithful cook book, and I found it to have many helpful hints as well as great recipes.

    I and the girls wore one out, and almost the second one over the many years.  If I couldn’t find something, needed to substitute, know cuts of meat etc….. I’d go to old faithful BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS.  I hope this new version is as good or better than my old one was.

    Happy Cooking!!!

    Love,

    Grandma Willa

    “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” – John 6:35

  • Recipe: Beary Cute Cookies

    We were not able to make these on our Christmas Baking Day, however, the girls were excited to do them so we decided it would be a neat recipe to do with the girls.   I have had their recipe for a long time, you can either use this Sugar Cookie recipe or following the one below.  The basic idea is the same and the bear shape is a huge hit with adults and kids alike.  The following recipe is from Quick Cooking.

    Beary Cute Cookies

    • 3/4 cup Shortening
    • 1/2 Sugar
    • 1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
    • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 1 teaspoon Salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
    • Additional Sugar
    • 30 miniature Chocolate Kisses
    • 60 miniature M&M Baking Bits

    1. Preheat oven to 375° F.

    2.  In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugars.  Beat in egg and vanilla; mix well.  Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well (dough will be crumbly).  Set aside 1/2 cup of dough for the ears.  Shape remaining dough into 1 inch balls; roll in additional sugar.

    3.  Place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Flatten to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Roll reserved dough into 1/2 inch balls; roll in sugar.  Place two smaller balls about 1 inch apart touching each flattened ball (do not flatten smaller balls).

    4.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned.  Remove from oven, immediately press one kiss and two baking bits into each cookie for nose and eyes.  Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.  Makes about 30 cookies.

    Picture by Cooking

  • Recipe: Berry Shortbread Dreams

    I made these after our Christmas Baking Day for another event.  They are a super delicious treat for those looking for a fruity shortbread cookie to share this Holiday season.  I got this recipe originally from 2002 Taste of Home Annual Recipes and have done it several times with different flavors of jams, all of the ones I have tried have been awesome.  Chose a flavor that you enjoy for this recipe, we picked raspberry because it is one of our favorites.

    Berry Shortbread Dreams

    • 1 cup Butter, softened
    • 2/3 cup Sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
    • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/3 to 1/2 cup Seedless Raspberry Jam

    1.  In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in extract; gradually add flour until dough forms a ball.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

    2.  Preheat oven to 350° F.

    3.  Roll into 1 inch balls.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in the center.  Fill the center with jam.

    4.  Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Remove and cool on wire racks.  Spoon additional jam into the cookies if you want.

    GLAZE

    • 1 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
    • 2 to 3 teaspoons of Water
    • 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

    Mix ingredients and drizzle over cookies slightly cooled cookies.  This recipe makes about 40 cookies.

    Photo by Taste of Home

  • Recipe: Orange Dreamsicle Cookies

    Our family enjoys baking special goodies for family, friends and neighbors.  The Orange Dreamsicle Cookies are from The Ultimate Cookie Kit by Scholastic.  It is a great cookbook for kids and comes with a rolling pin, wooden spoon, measuring spoons, cookie cutters, frosting bag, and tips.  If you like orange creamsicles you’ll enjoy these cookies.

    Orange Dreamsicle Cookies

    • 1/2 cup Orange Flavored Powdered Drink Mix
    • 3/4 cup White Sugar
    • 1 1/2 cups Vanilla Baking Chips
    • 1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
    • 1/2 cup Butter
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

    1.  Preheat oven to 350° F.

    2.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix the butter, egg, and vanilla.  Pour into the dry ingredients and blend completely.

    3.  Roll heaping tablespoons into balls.  Place 2 inches a part on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

    4.  Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes or until tops are very lightly browned.  Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

    Makes about 24 cookies.

  • Recipe: Oreo Truffles

    I picked up all the ingredients to make this on our Christmas Baking day, however, I didn’t have enough time to make it on Saturday.  Since I had all the ingredients made this for another Holiday event.  I picked up this recipe by Kraft at the grocery store and it is delicious!

    Oreo Truffles

    • 1 package (8 ounces) Cream Cheese, softened
    • 1 package (approximately 1 pound) Oreo Cookies (or other chocolate sandwich cookie), finely crushed (about 4 1/4 cups)
    • 2 – 8 ounce packages (8 squares each) Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted (you can use 1 Semi-Sweet and 1 White Chocolate if you prefer more variety)

    1.  Mix cream cheese and 3 cups of cookie crumbs until well blended.

    2.  Shape into 48 (1 inch) balls.  Dip in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper.  Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.

    3.  Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

    Photo courtesy of Kraft.

  • Book: “Cooking for Kids, Kids’ Party Food”

    My Mom gave me this book for Christmas 2005 Favorite Brand Name: Cooking for Kids, Kids’ Party Food.  The girls were still small then but it has been a great book that all of us have enjoyed over the past few years.  We love looking through it and have tried many of the recipes; several have become family favorites.  It has creative recipes that the girls love helping me with and some they can do almost on their own with a little adult supervision.  Once they start reading it will be even easier for them.  There are are pictures along with creative ideas for cooking and parties. If you are looking for a great gift for a young child or Mom and they like to cook this may be an awesome book for them.

  • Gift Giving: Christmas Baking Day

    I spent several hours on Saturday, December 11th doing a Christmas Baking Day with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life making treats to give to family, friends, and neighbors.  We started about 3:30 PM and were finished around 10:30 PM that night with another hour added for cleaning and packing up the goodies.  Ashley was kind enough to open her home up so we could get the baking done. The house smelled amazing with all the delicious treats we made throughout the evening.

    Ingredients Table
    (You can tell we shop some of the same sales based on our ingredients table)

    Ashley was organized with several tables full of specific items which helped us keep the clutter off the counter tops and island as we were each working on recipes:

    • Baking Ingredients Table for the recipes we had a picked out
    • Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table for easy access to items we need
    • Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
    • Finished Products Table which was full of treats by the end of the evening

    We would pick out ingredients and utensils as we needed them from the necessary tables.  The goodies got bagged in between baking items.  It was a very efficient system and we were able to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time plus we were able to talk, laugh and enjoy each others company in the kitchen.

    Cooking Pans, Bowls, and Utensil Table

    The kids popped in and out, occasionally helping with recipes that intrigued them.  Our husbands had fun hanging out too.  They were kind enough to pick up the pizza for us and an extra bag of powder (or confectioner’s) sugar for us at the grocery store.  Thankfully that was the only ingredient that we really seemed to go through more than expected.  We were both prepared with the ingredients and items for the day which allowed the event to go smoothly.

    Cooling and Packaging Goodies Table
    Ashley packaging the Cinnamon Rolls! Yum!
    Her smashing sticker is compliments of my daughter, Brina.

    Honestly, despite it being really busy and standing on our feet for a long period of time everything went pretty smoothly. Only one minor casualty, my small Christmas Tree cookie cutter managed to work it’s way down to the garbage disposal.  It made a loud noise when it was turned on so nothing was broken and the tree was able to be bent back into a tree like shape.  The only thing that would have made it a little more efficient would be to have two ovens but since neither of us have that we were able to work everything out fairly well.  Her oven was probably ready for a break by the end of the evening, but I am sure it felt very loved.

    Baked Goods Table
    (Starting to fill up)

    It was our desire to accomplish as much as we could in the time table allotted and we did it.  We had up to 17 recipes prepared to make for the event.  We were able to complete 12 of the recipes which is pretty amazing especially since majority of the items were baking ones and we had only one oven. I will posting the recipes for the ones that we accomplished throughout our baking adventure throughout this week.

    The following are the recipes that we accomplished that evening:

    Below is a picture of all the goodies we were able to make over the course of just a few hours.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share in this event with Ashley.  It was a lot of fun, enjoyable and rewarding.  I look forward to doing it again!

    We DID IT!
    I think we were two very tired Momma’s by the end but we had a lot of fun!

    Table full of Baked Treats to Share with Others

    It was so full we almost didn’t have enough room to squeeze everything on it!

    The recipes that we didn’t get to during our baking day I plan to make over the Holidays as well since I have all the ingredients for them already in our kitchen.   I will be posting the following recipes for you next week:

    • Chocolate Crackle Tops
    • Oreo Truffles
    • Orange Dreamsicle Cookies
    • Berry Shortbread Dreams
    • Sugar Cookies/Bears

  • Gift Giving: Baking Christmas Goodies

    It has been a busy week!  Tomorrow I am very excited to have the opportunity to get together with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life and cook up some yummy recipes to share with friends, family and neighbors.  It should be a lot of fun and I am sure we’ll have some funny stories to tell and pictures to share.   I have all my recipes marked and a table full of ingredients to pack.  The girls are licking their lips thinking about all the amazing goodies that are going to be created tomorrow.  They have been asking for two weeks if the “baking” day was here yet.

    Here is what we are looking forward to baking tomorrow:

    Several of the recipes I have never tried, however, they all appear to be fairly easy to make.  It will be interesting to see what we can accomplish in a few hours and if we have any hiccups along the way. No matter what happens it will be a day full of fun and memories.  Since the oven will be full of baking goodies we decided to give ourselves a break from cooking a meal for everyone and will be ordering pizza for dinner.

    While we are busy in the kitchen cooking the men will be helping entertain the kids, enjoying some time gaming together among other tasks I am sure they will be delegated to do.  They don’t get together as often now with all the busy family schedules so they are looking forward to some fun time too.   The kids are really excited about having some time to play together while we cook.  Although I have been told from my girls that they want to taste every recipe to make sure it is good before we give it to anyone else.   So now I am off to pack up the ingredients, sprinkles and all, so we can eat dinner at the table tonight.  I look forward to sharing our adventures with you next week!