Recipe Re-Cap and Review

My personality is to jump in with both feet when I get an idea or find something I like. So when I finally decided to try a recipe from the cookbook I had gotten two years earlier, Deceptively Delicious, I made almost every type of puree she described and have tried many of the recipes.

Here are my reviews of the recipes I've tried. I know several of you have said you have this cookbook too, I'd love to hear which recipes you've tried and how you liked them.

French Toast (with pumpkin) page 49 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Scrambled Eggs (with cauliflower) page 53 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Banana Bread (with cauliflower) page 54 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Chicken Nuggets (with broccoli and beet) page 75 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy! They looked very strange and they were very difficult to fry without burning, but maybe that's my own personal handicap and not the recipe's fault.

Italian Meatloaf (with carrot) page 79 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Pita Pizzas (with spinach) page 96 - Only one vote: Okay. I made this just for myself and found the spinach did not disappear either in presentation or taste, I don't think my kids would eat this, but it was edible to me.

Macaroni and Cheese 1 (with butternut squash and cauliflower) page 104 - The vote was unanimous: Just a'aight for me dog (sorry I just channeled Randy from Idol).

Burgers 2 (with mushrooms and zucchini) page 115 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy! I didn't read the directions correctly and used pureed zucchini rather than grated, but it was not a problem.

Spaghetti Pie (with broccoli and carrot) page 116 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy! I have made this twice, the first time I used seasoned spaghetti sauce and it was awesome; the next time I used plain tomato sauce like the recipe calls for and I didn't like it as well, but no one else complained.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (sweet potato or butternut squash) page 135 - After some tweaking, the vote was unanimous: Yummy! The first two times I made them with butternut squash, Cade, Mike and I loved them. Kyle hated them. The second time I added more cheese than called for, Kyle still wouldn't touch them. The third time I added more cheese still, Kyle still wouldn't touch them. The fourth time I used sweet potato (but only half of what it called for) and I probably doubled the cheese and Kyle ate it up. He was leery from the recent grilled cheese experiences and had warned me beforehand he does not like mushy cheese!!

Tortilla "Cigars" (with yellow squash and carrot) page 144 - no one liked these, except moi so I probably won't be making these again, although personally I thought they were really good.

Tacos (with sweet potato or carrot or butternut squash) page 148 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Doughnuts (with pumpkin and sweet potato) page 160 - The vote was unanimous: Yummy!

Chocolate Cake (with beets) page 194 - The vote was unanimous: Just Edible. The cake was dry and I could definitely detect a "beety" flavor. It was okay with lots of frosting, but I don't think I'll make it again.

As you can see, it has been almost all success. I don't know what it is, but Kyle in particular (my pickiest eater by far) loves these recipes and almost always says, "Make this again, Momma!" or "I want this for lunch tomorrow."

I made a homemade pizza last night and to my ground turkey I added pureed carrot and pureed broccoli. There was only a 1/2 cup total of pureed veggies, but it was more than we would have had otherwise. I am beginning to think Kyle might not end up malnourished after all! Cade hasn't hit his picky stage yet so he has eaten it all up.

Reusable Bags with an OCD Twist

This is my first Works For Me Wednesday post - long-time lurker, first-time linker.

It would be fair to say I am slightly obsessive about raw meat safety. In the process of making meatballs I probably wash my hands no less than 5 times. I cringe when I see a chef on TV just wipe their hands on a dishtowel after working with raw meat or, even worse, when I'm at someone's house and they do that. Soap and water are our friends!

When I shop it makes me crazy when raw meat or poultry gets bagged together with my cookies or ice cream fresh fruit or whole grain bread. I have concluded that the only bagging training the checkers get is to be certain that under no circumstance should they put the bags in my cart for me while I am caring for my children, getting my coupons ready, and paying for my stuff. (I have occasionally wondered if their pay gets docked if they are caught putting bagged groceries into a cart for a customer.) I told my four year old that when I was a little girl they not only put the bags in your cart, but they wheeled your cart out, and put the groceries in your car - many times I longed for that type of service when I was pregnant!

Anyway, on to the three things that work for me:
First, since I am often distracted when they are bagging my purchases and may not catch them in time, I try to put the raw meat and poultry on the counter last, so that there is at least a chance they will bag them separately.

I have a different method when I shop Aldi because there you bag your own groceries and use your own bags (unless you want to buy bags, which I do not). I have a few different types and colors of bags. I only have one white bag though so I always use that bag for raw meat. Since I'm bagging my own groceries I can make sure to separate raw meat from cookies, fresh veggies, yogurt, etc. If all of your bags are the same you could tie a ribbon around one to designate it as your raw meat bag.

Third, when I don't use reusable bags, I always save and reuse the plastic bags, except the ones that had eggs and raw meat in them, those get thrown away just in case I end up re-using the bag for something other than trash in the future.

Protecting myself and my family from salmonella and e-coli works for me!

For more great tips check out: We Are That Family.

Love a Bargain

I was super excited to find these two adorable pairs of shoes for Cade at Once Upon a Child today. The blue ones are Pedipeds and in the past I have paid over $30 for them. The khaki ones are the Croclings I mentioned in this post were on my "want list" for the boys, they retail for at least $20.

I paid $10 a piece and no one would know they aren't brand new except me (well and now you, but I know you won't tell anyone. Actually go ahead and tell, I love a bargain!) I'm still on the hunt for Croclings in Kyle's size and a nice pair of sandals for him, I love his little feet in sandals!

I didn't even have to use my "discretionary money" for these because I have an amount set aside each month in our Freedom Fund for clothes and these fell within that amount, woohoo!

Money, Saving, Holes in Pockets, etc.

I must profess my love for spreadsheets. Also for on-line banking, balancing the checkbook, creating budgets, and on and on. I eat it up. So when I read Debt-Proof Your Marriage and learned about all kinds of money management techniques I could hardly wait to turn them into spreadsheets and plug in our numbers.

It has been eye opening! We have had a budget for years, or at least I thought we did. What we actually had was a list of expenses and income which wasn't taken very seriously. When we "needed" something I would just buy it whether we had the money or not. We have a handy little crutch called a home equity loan. I would basically buy whatever I wanted using the credit card and pay the credit card in full every month. So I thought I was doing everything right because we didn't carry over any credit card debt.

But sometimes (probably most of the time) in order to pay the credit card I would have to borrow from our home equity account until Mike's next paycheck. Most of the time (or sometimes) when he got paid I could pay back what I had borrowed from our equity line, but not always. Even when I was paying it back we were basically living one paycheck behind all the time in a never-ending cycle.

As long as I paid our credit cards in full though, I convinced myself we were doing fine and not in debt. After I read that book it really brought some things to light for me. (I had also just read The Duggars: 20 and Counting! and it was very inspiring in many ways, but one specific thing is that they have no debt, not even mortgage debt.)

Mike does not really like to read so I summarized the book for him and we committed to stop using our credit card and our home equity line, period. That completely opened my eyes to what true needs are.

Prior to stopping our credit use cold turkey, when I would make a trip to Sam's Club I would pass the black olives and think, "Oh, that's a good price and we need black olives." I would throw them in the cart and there went $7. Well, that's great, we would use them, but a few more purchases like that would seriously throw my grocery budget out of whack when I really only "needed" one can of black olives that week which would last until the next paycheck when I could afford more black olives.

Even toilet paper is not truly a need unless you are out, but I would buy it just because I was there whether or not we were running low.

Now I am much more strict about only buying what is on my list and not buying things until we are out (unless there is room in the budget and I won't have to borrow from our future paycheck).

We have been through several different money management systems in our almost twelve years of marriage. For a while we were using our debit cards for everything so we could track all of our spending, but we would still pull out the credit card if it was a big purchase or we knew we were close to running out of funds in our checking account.

Then we went to a cash only (or cash mostly) budgeting system and that worked somewhat successfully for a while, but there were so many things we couldn't use cash for (bills for one thing and it is very inconvenient to buy gas with cash when you have kids with you) so we gradually fell away from it. The best thing that came out of the cash system was Mike getting a specific amount of cash out for himself with each paycheck. That saved us some fights because I knew exactly how much he would be taking out each pay period and I didn't have to see all the individual charges he made and get upset when I judged some of his purchases as wasteful. I never kept cash out for myself because I just spent all the money that was left.

Once we stopped using credit it took us about two months of watching our spending very closely in order to pay the credit card bill we already had without using our equity line and we did not spend a dime that was not absolutely necessary during that time. I am happy to say our spending plan is now working for us and we are living on 80% of our income (giving 10% and saving 10%).

As part of our spending plan we both get the same amount of cash out each pay period and we call it "discretionary money." (It's just semantics, I like the sound of "discretionary money" better than "allowance.") I got my first discretionary money last Friday and it is so exciting! I spent all the money I wanted before, but I always felt guilty for it. Now I know I have a set amount that I can spend or save in any way I choose and I don't have to feel one bit guilty about it.

I have only spent $5 so far, but I have been tempted many times to use it for Chick-fil-A lunches for me and the boys, but I know I would probably regret spending it all on food! So I decided instead to track a list of "wants" and it is has gotten so big that if I buy all of it at full price it will take me a year of saving. I have things on my list I want to buy for the boys (a battery operated ride-in jeep, Croclings, books), things for the house (pots and pans, a new vacuum, re-tile our fireplace), and things for me (Photoshop Elements, bedroom makeover, new purse).

The old me would have looked at almost every single item on the list and seen it as an immediate need (really, I am a pro at justifying: I would have thought the ride-on jeep was a need because the boys won't be little forever so we "need" it now. My sad little, 3-wheeled vacuum seems like a "need" as I'm fighting to push it around the house, but I'm not desperate enough to go into debt over it). The new me is going to save, prioritize, and look for the right opportunity to make those purchases.

The other crucial part of this money management system is a Freedom Fund. We save (novel idea!) for irregular expenses (car insurance, Christmas and birthday gifts, vehicle and house maintenance, vacation, etc.). I tallied up and estimated (on the high-end) all of those type expenses from the past year and divided it by twelve months then added it all up and save that each month. There is more to it than that, but it is detailed in the book.

Here is my spreadsheet for our monthly spending plan. If you like it and want to use it, but need help tweaking it to fit your finances, or have any questions let me know. I'd love to try to figure it out with you. Monthly Spending Plan Spreadsheet

Bird Legs, Mouse Poop, Pods

Harmless seed pod thingies

I avoided my basket of laundry all day yesterday because Mike would not come home to see if there was a dead mouse in it. When he got home I showed him the suspect object from the trash and he immediately knew what it was. Some pod/seed thing from one of our trees which had dried out and shrunk up in the wash. Phew! Strangely enough I had been frightened by these strange looking things a few days earlier when Kyle carried some in and said, "Momma, look bird legs." Logically I knew they weren't really bird legs, but they looked so much like them I couldn't bring myself to touch them!

That is the closest shot I could get with my camera, but can you see how I might confuse it for mouse poop?

Still unfolded laundry, but at least I am not expecting to find a dead mouse within.

It Couldn't Be, Could It?

I pulled the clothes from the dryer this morning and after the last handful there remained a tiny brown object. I reach in to retrieve it and upon closer inspection think, this looks like mouse poop. (I have never actually seen mouse poop before, but I am guessing this is what it looks like).

As a hundred things run through my mind, I throw the pellet in the trash. I stand there pondering what to do. I look to see if it was possible for a mouse to have entered the dryer through the vent. It doesn't look possible, there is a grate with holes smaller than a dime covering it. Maybe a baby mouse? But then it couldn't leave a pellet that size. Maybe the mouse got in through the open door of the dryer? No, I never leave it open because the light stays on until I close it.

Maybe it isn't mouse poop, maybe it is a ??? I can't think of another scenario. The trash can is empty because it's trash day so I reach down and pull the brown object from the trash, look it over, break it in half (gag!!). Okay, still seems like it is possibly mouse poop!!! Ugh!!!

Then I think, if this is mouse poop, surely the suspect couldn't have pooped in the laundry basket and then gone on it's merry way because the poop would have gotten washed away. Therefore, if the pellet is poop that means a live mouse was in my dryer and now it must not be alive anymore. Furthermore, that means there is a possibility that when I dump the clothes out on my bed I will also dump a dead mouse. (screaming in terror)

So my clothes are in the basket in my laundry room and I guess they will stay there until Mike gets home and can figure out where to dump them (or inspect the pellet and completely rule out mouse poop). Gross, gross, gross.

If I saw a live mouse in my house I would be very distraught, but if there is a dead mouse in my laundry, oh my. I hope those aren't any of our favorite clothes because they will go in the trash along with, possibly, the dryer. Please don't be mouse poop, please don't be mouse poop, pretty, pretty please!!

Letter Confusion - Any Ideas?

I am using this book to teach Kyle to read and it is going great. He is doing so well, but when he is sounding out the words he gets mixed up between lowercase b/d and h/n. It is frustrating for him and while I know he will eventually learn to differentiate, I wish there was a way to make the process quicker for him.

I made these little cards with the lowercase b, d, h, and n and inside the lowercase I wrote the uppercase of that letter (he has no problem with the uppercase). We cover the uppercase with a magnet and he says what letter he thinks it is, then uncovers it to check himself. Does anyone have any other ideas for how I can help him learn to differentiate these letters? A rhyme maybe? Or a different way of thinking about it?


You can order cards to go along with the book or you can make your own. I had a ton of index cards so I decided to make our own.