Family Dinner

There are so many benefits to having dinner together as a family. I love spending that time in the evening enjoying each others company and modeling good eating and manners for our kids too! ;) It's been a priority of mine to have dinner as a family each night, at least as often as possible. It has required us to work around my husband's work schedule, but it's an adjustment that has given us many benefits.

What I like even more then just sitting around the table to eat are the opportunities when we can make the cooking a family experience too. Last weekend we had one of those fun moments and I wanted to share the idea with you!

I had some coupons for the pre-made refrigerator pizza crusts, so I thought I'd give them a try. The next evening we pulled them out and gathered up any ingredients in our fridge that could work as pizza toppings. We divided them up into 4 individual sized pizzas. My husband and I did the chopping and pouring and then let the kids top their pizzas. All of them ended up having something different on them! Our daughter loved being able to make her own dinner and was especially happy about eating it. Our son was a little too young to full grasp the fun, but he still enjoyed the process too.

After we finished eating my husband and I talked about how lovely of a family time that had been and it didn't take hardly any effort or money to create a great memory!

Thankful...

We have SO much to be thankful for this year. We have been so blessed by God and his goodness to us. We have a beautiful family, all of us have our health, we have all that we need and even lots of extra bonuses and 'wants'. I'm thankful that this year has been a year of learning and growth in the area of our finances and also in our ability and desire to serve and reach out to those around us. The list goes on! Thank you for joining us on this journey too!

A raise = an extra blessing!

This week my husband was offered a new job, which also comes with a raise. We are so thankful for this pay increase because it's giving us the opportunity to pay off debt quicker. We know that God has provided this for us and count it as a blessing from Him on our family. I'm certain God is pleased with our desire to have our finances in order and honor Him by living within our means. It's a further testament to His provision for us. God is SO good to us!

Expensive time of year

Here we go again. November and December seem to always hit our budget hard! Between Christmas gifts, donations and gifts to charities and ministries, extra parties and events to attend and buy tickets too, traveling expenses to see family. The list just keeps going...I'm sure you're all familiar with all the same expenses. Then, by January we're all shell shocked by the bills coming in and the total amount of money we've spent over the holiday season.

I'd encourage you to make this year different. We've been working on making the changes necessary for our family to not feel these effects in January and I'm hoping we won't.

Here are some things we're doing differently that maybe will give you some ideas for saving too:
-Saved for the last few months and continue to put money away for gifts (I got a later start on this this year, and hoping to do some of our shopping throughout the year next year).
-Saved and continue to put money away for our trip to see family for holidays
-Staggered our shopping, so we could pay for it as we bought things
-Waited for sales on items we knew we would need for gifts or dinner gatherings
-Paid cash for everything! This is really the key. If you're paying for things with cash as you go along, it ensures you stay on budget.
-Being realistic about what we can afford and who we can buy for
-We hardly buy anything for our kids. They get a lot of gifts from family, so we buy one or two larger gifts for them and then a few small things for their stockings and that is always plenty!

What ideas do you have? What are you doing to save money this holiday season?

Easy Dinner!

Tonight I discovered a really easy recipe, so of course, that means I need to share it with you! :) I found this recipe in "Don't Panic-Dinner's in the Freezer" cookbook that I just got a week ago. I've been trying some of the recipes before I make a lot to freeze to see which we really enjoy. Since I didn't want to go to the grocery store for a bunch of ingredients, I chose some of the recipes that were made with ingredients I usually have on hand.

The first one I tried was a little more labor intensive and time consuming and not a fam favorite, but it certainly wasn't bad either.

But tonight's, was so easy, that I'm sure I'll keep in our list of meals and just jazz it up a bit like I did tonight. I think it took me less than 10 minutes to get this dinner going. It's called Taco Soup.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 package of taco seasoning
1-15 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Rotel or diced tomatoes with green chilies)
1-15 oz can corn
1-15 oz can kidney beans (or black if you prefer)
1-15 oz can pinto beans
1-15 oz can water (this one was a little tricky, but we found some! ;) ).

Instructions: Brown the hamburger and onion in a large saucepan/pot. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until hot or for about 30-40 minutes. That's it!

It's so easy to get it going. I did add some salt and pepper to it and also added some yummy toppings that added a great amount of flavor to it. I cut up avocado (another regular item around here!), sour cream, shredded cheese and chopped fresh cilantro. I'm not sure it would've been as good without those things, but it all depends on what you like! ;)

So tuck this idea away for a night when you need to get dinner going in a hurry while you work on other things and dinner will be ready when you are!

Refrigerator Update and Stock Pile Tips!

For anyone who cares, and even if you don't, I'm reporting about the status of my refrigerator! About five minutes after posting my last post, I was in the kitchen emptying shelves. It took me a good chunk of time, but the inside of the fridge is looking amazing! While I was cleaning it, I was imagining the thank you note it will be sending me here any day now. :) Seriously, how does a refrigerator with all closed containers in it get so gross and dirty?

Now that my fridge was cleaned, my oven felt left out, so it's working on getting a good cleaning while I type! ;) Thankfully some appliances come with a 'self-clean' button. Anyone want to work on inventing one for the rest of them?!?! ;)

It's good to clean out. It's a great feeling at the end of it, I can see and find everything in my fridge now. Nothing has anything sticky on it and I have a cupboard worth of tupperware again! ;) I also discovered I have a great variety of sauces and marinates that I've been forgetting about. Now I've got all kinds of ideas for dinner menus again too! :)

Speaking of dinner, which reminds me of groceries, the sales around here are great for stock piling. I'm sure they are probably similar in most parts of the country because all the Thanksgiving dinner items are on sale. I wanted to remind you all to stock up on items that you know you'll use a lot and don't just buy enough at the rock bottom prices for your Thanksgiving dinner plans. For example, we have canned green beans and corn on sale for 49 cents at one local store. I got the limit worth. They're good until 2013 and I know they are things I'll either use in recipes or on the side when I'm in a bind and for that price, it's worth it. This is also the season to buy pie fillings. Most flavors are on sale now and they are expensive during the rest of the year. If that's something you use as a topic for a favorite dessert or you're a pie baker, get a bunch this week. Like I mentioned earlier, turkeys are a great way to get meat for cheap. I just bought a turkey that was over 20lbs for $9.99. That averages out to about 49 cents a pound! This is a great week to thing long term, as far as sales go. Even if you end up going to several stores to get stocked up on the foods that you family will enjoy for longer then next weekend. Get that pantry stocked! :)

Also, keep in mind baking season sales will be coming up next. Watch for really great deals on all kinds of baking essentials and make room in your pantry for another stock up! :)

Cleaning out the Fridge!

I've had this task on my "to do" list for about three weeks now. Ugh! Can you tell I've been avoiding it? ;) I've certainly had the time and opportunity to do it, I just don't wanna!!

I did hear a good idea of a way to handle such a time consuming and annoying task as this, but have yet to try it. Remember, I'm avoiding it.

For those of you who may actually *want* to clean out their refrigerators, but have a limited amount of time on your hands, here's the idea:

*Find a time that you are already in the kitchen working on something. I think dinner time clean up would be a good fit.
*Clear off a shelf or two, throwing out what's gone bad & adding the dirty dishes to your current load. Wipe down the shelves and walls around it and reload.
*Do another section during your routine for the next few days until all of the refrigerator has been cleared and cleaned.

Sounds great, huh? If you are motivated to it! ;)

Alright, well this post served as a distraction from--you guessed it--cleaning out my refrigerator. All good things do come to an end, including my procrastination.

Wish me luck, I'm going in!

De-Clutter=Simplify!

Yesterday we spent some time going through our children's toys and things in their rooms and took a load to Good Will. It's so nice to get rid of things we don't need or use. I've discovered that one of the best ways to keep your house clean is to have a space for everything and when you have TOO much stuff, you always have a mess to deal with. So, we're wanting to keep up with the de-cluttering to hopefully minimize the messes around here too! :) That's always a plus. :)