Three Meals Down... 2-13-12

This evening I decided to cook three meals at once to save time tomorrow and Wednesday. I don't always have extra time, but this evening I did. For dinner we had one of my family's favorite casseroles pictured above, sausage and potato casserole topped with onion rings and cheese, yum!

Potatoes.................$ .50
Sausage..................$2.00
Green Beans..............$ .60
Cream of Chicken soup....$1.00
Sour Cream...............$ .50
Cheese...................$1.00
Homemade onion rings.....$ .25

Total $5.85

We also had mandarin oranges and a little macaroni from tomorrow's casserole which I'm not counting the cost of today since I'll count it tomorrow. And the oranges were $2.00. So that was a grand total of $7.85!

Tomorrow I'm serving macaroni casserole and Wednesday's dinner will be spaghetti and meatballs. Thankfully, the majority of the work is done.

And...for Valentine's Day, we recently ate at a fancy restaurant (that wasn't crowded) and last night we had our "Poor Man Pancakes". My husband gave me roses, a card and chocolates tonight. I might do a little something creative to make our dinner special tomorrow, but I'm happy to share my delicious Macaroni Casserole with the man I love and have shared my life with for over twenty two years.

Ham & Swiss Muffins 2-6-12

I learned something about myself this weekend. I do not have time to make an assortment of foods just for the sake of experimenting with new recipes. If we are going to eat it I will make it, otherwise I'm going to experiment in real time, meal by meal as we eat! Tonight we had these muffins for supper as we hurried to baseball practice. It was a hit...no, an absolute home run! The thing I learned was that I'm going to have to double this recipe. Twelve muffins weren't enough for a family of seven...yes, I know, we are a family of 9, but two are away at college.

Ham & Swiss Muffins
1 egg, beaten............. 3 1/4 t. baking powder
1 c. milk...................... 1 T. poppy seeds
1/4 c. vegetable oil..... 1/2 t. salt
2 t. Dijon mustard....... 3 green onions, chopped
2 c. flour..................... 1/2 c. Swiss cheese, shredded
1/4 c. sugar................ 1/2 c. diced ham

Beat together egg, milk, vegetable oil & Dijon mustard. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds and salt. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Fold in green onions, Swiss cheese and ham. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees in greased muffin tins.

I find that the key to a pretty muffin is mixing the wet ingredients well, mixing the dry ingredients well and stirring them together just till they are well blended...don't over stir.

I still need to figure up the cost of these muffins. I wonder if I can put a price on the "cool" factor of eating delicious homemade muffins on the go?

I am accepting the challenge of a busy life! Now that baseball season has begun, each week we will have an evening, an afternoon, and a Saturday morning practice (that doesn't include games...I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). The older 3 kids have decided to get involved in the youth group at our church on Wednesday evenings, and twice a month my husband and I attend a Bible study while the younger 3 kids go to AWANA's. My husband and I try to have a date night each week, too.

The seasons of our lives have been changing about as rapidly as the seasons change. That's okay with me as long as I can get a game plan going. This past week was full of strange meals. Monday was french toast and biscuits...a free for all, not sit down kind of evening meal after Monday night's baseball practice. Wednesday we had a snack between baseball practice and youth group and cereal for supper. And last night we stopped at Wendy's drive-thru on our way home from church.

Next week we don't have Bible study or AWANA's, so it will be a little less busy, but I'm planning to be prepared so supper can go smoothly, whether we're at home or on the road. I will be searching for ideas this weekend for kid friendly, nourishing, and healthy meals (easy to make and serve). And while I'm planning, I will decide if we will have our traditional heart shaped pancakes for supper on Valentine's Day (that was our poor man's dinner when we were first married).

Hopefully, my next post will exude order and peace...haha, we'll see! If I can't achieve that, maybe we will all just have a good laugh.