Archives for 2009

Recipe of the Week: Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet

January 11, 2009 26 Comments

I’ve been looking at a lot of new recipes lately, and a few weeks ago, I decided to make up one of my own. My husband really liked it. It’s a kid friendly, and I would say a man friendly recipe. And best of all, it was relatively quick and easy! My husband called it Bacon Cheeseburger Surprise, but I called it Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet. You can use whichever name your prefer!

I had a good time visiting the other blogs from the memes last week, so hopefully I’ll be able to join in on the fun every week. And now here’s my recipe for this week.

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger meat
3-4 potatoes, peeled, & diced (boiled or fried)
3-6 bacon strips, cooked. (I think I used about 4 or 5.) Or use bacon bits.
Shredded cheese (I just sprinkled some over the top)
Mustard (poured on top & serve on the side)
Ketchup (poured on top & serve on the side)

Directions: Cook potatoes potatoes entirely. You can boil or fry them; it’s up to you. Cook bacon (I actually used the pre-cooked bacon that you just microwave.) Brown hamburger meat in skillet. Drain fat. Add potatoes to skillet and mix. Crumble the bacon and place it in skillet. Mix all ingredients together. Top with cheese, ketchup, and mustard. (I only put a little; then everyone can put on as much they want on their plate.) Season with salt or your choice of seasoning if desired.

Tips & Suggestions

– You could spoon the mixture out on tortillas and have wraps, or perhaps roll it up inside refrigerated pizza dough and bake and make your own hot pockets or calzones. Or you could do sub sandwiches or pitas. It would work with just about about every kind of bread-type that you could think of. You could even load it up with lettuce, tomato, onions and other sandwich toppings.

-Instead of potatoes, use hasbrowns, french fries (possibly chopped up), or those little potato cubes from the freezer section.

-Instead of shredded cheese, use slice cheese, cheese cubes, or slices of block-cheese. I used cheddar with mine, but I know it would been great American or other cheeses.

**********

Well, that’s it. Pretty simple, huh? And best of all, my husband loved it!

Please visit the following sites for more great recipes & other ideas:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays is hosted by Tammy’s Recipes.
Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Forever Wherever.

-Jerri

Filed Under: casseroles and quick meals, Recipe of the Week, Simple Solutions

Menu Plan Monday for January 12

January 11, 2009 4 Comments

Breakfasts – cereal, buttered biscuits, Bacon & Egg Sandwiches

Lunches – tuna sandwiches, Spaghetti Os, soup

Dinners –
Monday – Mexican Chicken Casserole (did not make last week)
Tuesday – Ranch Chicken, and I’m experimenting with some Ranch-Rice. I’ll post the recipe later.
Wednesday – Buffalo Chicken fingers
Thursday – Pork Potatoes
Friday – Chicken Fettucini Alfredo
Saturday – pizza
Sunday – not sure yet…but it’ll probably be something with hamburger meat.

Stop by Org Junkie for more MPM.

-Jerri

Filed Under: menu plan Monday

My Word for 2009

January 9, 2009 6 Comments

Tip Junkie is having a contest where everyone has to tell what their word for the year is. I decided that I would get in on the action too.

For some reason, the first word that came to my mind was Peace. I tried to think of something else, but my brain just kept coming back to Peace. And no, not world peace! I don’t really believe in the notion of world peace…it’s kind of a humorous concept actually.

It’s more like inner peace. I tend to worry about things a lot and I get very anxious and apprehensive over the smallest things. I think my life would be 100% better if I worried less. In the past, I’ve faced a lot of challenges, and somehow everything turned out alright. This past my husband and I were faced with a ton of challenges, and I have a feeling that this year will be no different.

And apart from my personal life, I worry about world affairs. I don’t talk about world events on the blog, because it’s not that kind of blog. But I am an avid news watcher and political junkie with strong opinions, and sometimes I get a little worked up about things. While I don’t think ignoring the problems is a good idea (everyone should be informed & involved), I do think it’s a bad idea to live in fear all the time.

So this year, I am going to try my best to be at peace with myself, my circumstances, and the world around me. Whatever will be, will be.

The lovely clipart came from Gospelgifs.

-Jerri

Filed Under: About Me

Help With Those Dreaded Taxes

January 8, 2009 3 Comments

With every year that rings in, comes the dreaded tax season. Last year in March I wrote some posts on tax information. I decided to post the links to those posts for those of you who need the information this year. I realize that last year, by the time I wrote the posts, a lot of people had already filed their taxes, but maybe if I post them up in January, they can be useful for someone.

I recommend that you read the over the deductions posts; there are a lot of things that I’d never know were deductions, if I hadn’t read about them.

I also highly recommend that you take a look at the organizing posts. The accountant we went to last year said that I had a really good system. My systems are very easy and straightforward, and it’s really helped me to stay organized. Anytime my husband has a question about a particular business expense, it’s very easy for me to locate things on the computer or in our files, (Plus, because of this system, all our deductions are already added up this year…actually they were added up a couple of months ago….all I have to do is print out the spreadsheets and wait for the other forms to come in the mail. Yes!)

I didn’t update any of these for this year, but I did add a link at the bottom to some information on environmental deductions (which I don’t believe were in my posts at all last year).

Taxes: Basic Info – Information about how to file online/offline and information about deadlines, etc.

Tax Deductions for the Self-Emplployed and Other Job Related Deductions – A list of business deductions such as office & shipping supplies and uniforms. It also includes a list of deductions related to job searches.

More Tax Deductions – Misc. deductions such as medical & education expenses, moving, and others.

Organizing Tax Information, All Those Forms – This post teaches you my system for organizing the tax forms which are mailed to at the begining of the year. To tell you the truth, since I only do this once a year, I decided to re-read the post just to make sure that I do the same things this year that I did last, and it was actually helpful to me.

Organizing Tax Information, Personal & Business Receipts for Deductions – This post teaches you my system for organizing receipts throughout the year, including how I file the reciepts & how I keep the saved on the computer. The system is for businesses but it can also be used for business deductions. Or you could use it for non-tax related expenses & budgets if you wanted. This system works very well for me, and since it’s early in the year, if you like the system if would be the perfect time to adopt it, so that you can use it throughout 2009 for an easy tax filing in 2010.

Environmental Deductions – Not a post of mine, but rather a list from Energy star of things that you can get tax credits such as energy efficient home improvements, appliances, and cars.

I hope you find these helpful!

-Jerri

Filed Under: organizing, personal finances

Adventures in Shopping: Menu Planning Stuff!

January 7, 2009 6 Comments

Welcome to my newest feature. Well, actually it’s really an old idea reimagined. In the past I’ve written some posts pertaining to shopping, such as product reviews, money saving tips, etc. And over the Christmas holidays I got this idea to combine these posts under the umbrella of “Adventures in Shopping.” In addition to the things listed above, these posts will also include deals that I find. Sometimes I may share something that I got a good deal on (at the thrift store perhaps). Other times it may be a deal at a chain retail store or online that you guys may be able to take advantage of as well. Or it could just be anything that I think might be interesting or helpful to you guys.

I’m going to try to do this once a month. I’ve got so many different ideas it’s hard to schedule everything. For instance, I’d like to do my Sweet Thursday feature once a month too, and then there are just so many other topics to cover in relation to the home plus seasonal topics. I like to get in as many “special features” as I can, but at the same time, I don’t like to have a rigid schedule….so I’m conflicted a bit on this. We’ll just see what develops.

Anway, for the first Adventures in Shopping post I wanted to share these cute menu planning items that I found a week or two ago. I was at Wal-mart taking advantage of the after Christmas sale when I found them. Perhaps you guys can find them at your local store.

The first item is a notepad, and the second is a flat marker board. Both of these items were $1 each. Great Deal! I guess if you have one, you don’t really need the other, but for a dollar, I couldn’t pass them up. I had to have both.

The notepad is very cute and colorful. And it has 3 lines for each day of the week. There’s also a magnet on the bag so that you can place it on the back of the refrigerator. In addition to using this notepad to write your menu down, I thought it would be good to have one for shopping list purposes. While planning your menu, you could use the notepad to write down extra ingredients that you need at the store. Just a thought.

Or here’s another idea. You could use the notepad to write down several menus at a time. Just have one big meal planning sesssion, and then each week, just go to the next page. Your menu will be there, and all you’ll have to do is check your inventory and go to the store.

And then there’s the board. I love—LOVE this! I thought this was just the cutest! It also has a magnet on the back so you can post your menu on the fridge. And it comes with a dry erase marker, with a little eraser on the end of it and a magnet on the back so that you can place it on the fridge next to your menu board.

All in all, I thought these were excellent deals! Maybe you guys can find them too. I did look online at walmart.com, amazon, and a couple of other places, but I didn’t see any notepad or marker boards for meal planning. I guess if all else fails you could make your own!

**Update: I forget to mention that I found these in the lawn & garden (seasonal) section. They were on a four-sided cardboard display, like you might in between two aisles, or out in the middle by itself. It’s like the kind where you might see greeting cards, shipping supplies, or calendars. Or you may find them with stationary/school supplies.**

While looking on Amazon I did manage to find this Betty Crocker Cooking Calendar. It’s got menu ideas, recipes, and stuff. It’s a reprint of an old book I believe, and it looks pretty neat and very retro. I looked at the “preview” of it, and it looks just like an old Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom gave me. I may actually buy this one myself, so itt may be worth your time.

Please tell me what you think of this feature idea. I hope you like it!

(A link to this post, along with tons of other great ideas can be found at WFMW sponsored by Rocks in my Dryer.)

-Jerri

Filed Under: menu plan Monday, organizing, shopping

Recipe of the Week: Potato Soup

January 6, 2009 19 Comments

With so many people experiencing cold winter weather, it seemed like a good time to post a soup recipe. I made this potato soup a few weeks ago. My dad used to make this for me, and it’s one of my favorites.

By the way, I am submitting this post to a few carnivals. I had a tough time deciding which one to particpate in, so I decided to try a few. I think I’m still going to use “Recipe of the Week” in the title though, or maybe I’ll come up with something else.

Anyway I’d like to say a big welcome to everyone who’s visiting my blog for the first time via those blogs. I just love sharing recipes, and I hope that by participating in these weekly events, I can not only get new ideas to try but also pass some good ideas along, and make some new friends at the same time.

Ingredients:
1 bag hashbrowns (thawed) (I believe it’s a 1 lb bag)
1/2 stick of margarine
2 cups of milk
1 can cream of mushroom OR cream of chicken soup (I’ve used both)
1 small onion (chopped, optional)

Directions: Saute onions (if using). Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low. Cooks in 1 to 2 hours on low. (3 or 4 hours if hashbrowns are still frozen at the start of cooking) Serve with cheese and bacon bits.

Tips & Suggestions:

-I’ve actually cut the recipe in half here. As there are only 2 of us, we can eat this size batch for 2 meals, sometimes 3. If you have a bigger family, you’ll want to double this recipe.

-If doubling the recipe, you can use 2 cans of cream of mushroom/chicken, or use one can of each. I can’t ever really tell much of a difference in the taste.

-The last time I made this I had some extra chicken broth in the fridge, so I added some to the mixture. I believe I added either a half a cup or a full cup. It turned out good.

-This recipe also freezes good.

-By the way, my crockpot cooks super fast, so if you have an older model, then this may take a little longer to cook.

-Now here’s something that I haven’t tried yet, because I only just thought of it while we were eating it this last time. My husband is a big meat-eater…well, I am too actually, but my husband really is…he hates meatless meals! So I was thinking the next time I make this I might put some chicken or even some hamburger meat in it.

Now for the memes…I plan on posting my link to the sites listed below. Normally I’d post their icons at the top of the post, but since I found more than one place to post it too, I thought that would look a little cluttered at the top of the post. I had never actually thought of placing the same the link on more than one carnival, until this last month with all the different Christmas events.

And then I was looking around at some of the people who post for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, and I realized that some of them were posting their link for more than one event, so I decided to do the same thing…I guess this means that if some bloggers decided to jump off a bridge, I’d have to do it too! (As long as the water’s not too deep, and they’re serving cake & cookies below.)

Not sure if I’ll put the icons up every week…maybe just the links, and I’ll see how these icons look in my sidebar. (And sorry if these are aligned all funny, I’ve worked & worked with it, but it just keeps formatting itself….does anyone else have this problem?)

Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life As Mom.

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.

Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.

Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….

Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom.

-Jerri

Filed Under: Recipe of the Week

Menu Plan Monday for January 5

January 4, 2009 4 Comments

Breakfasts: Bacon Egg & Cheese Biscuits, cereal, banana nut muffins

Lunches: soup, sandwiches (not sure what kind, I still have to go to the store tomorrow)

Dinners:

Monday – Roast beef (left from last week) w/ mashed potatoes, black eyed peas & biscuits
Tuesday – One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake
Wednesday- Tacos (didn’t make last week)
Thursday – Red Beans & Rice, corn, and cornbread
Friday – Leftovers
Saturday – Brunswick Stew
Sunday – Mexican Chicken Casserole

For more MPM, visit Orgjunkie.

-Jerri

Filed Under: menu plan Monday

Thoughts & Plans for 2009

January 4, 2009 2 Comments

I never really make any big life-changing resolutions, apart from doing well in school (while I was still in school) and other general things that I had no problem keeping. This year I have a few different things in mind:

Cooking – Last year I began meal planning. It’s helped me to stay organized and save money. So this year, I’m making it my resolution to make more new recipes. I bookmark recipes all the time and never make them, and I end up making a lot of the same things over and over. So this year I want to make at least one new recipe each month. I’d love to do more than one. But I figure if I just make it my goal to do one, then it will be just super if I can do more than one.

Home Improvement Projects – We have several projects that I want to get done in our house. It’s hard to say how much we can get done this year, because it really all depends on my husband; I need him to help with all the heavy lifting and stuff. Plus we’ve already put a lot of time & money into making improvements on the interior (which I still need to post about). But I hope we can get at least a couple of projects completed this year. I hope to paint & fix up the front porch area, re-stain the front door, and build & plant some new flower beds for the front yard.

I’ve also got to do a little more decorating in the house. I’ve been shopping around for stuff, but I still have some things to buy and things that I’ve bought & haven’t put up yet.

I’d also like to paint the cabinets in our kitchen. Upon getting the house, we installed new floors, lights fixtures, and a new stove/fridge, and we replaced the countertop, but we kept the cabinets. The one’s we have were installed not too long ago, so they didn’t need to be replaced, but they could use a little touch up paint.

Budgeting & Bills – For the past two years I’ve been keeping account of all our expenses on a spreadsheet. (which is something I highly recommend, by the way.) So I’m going to continue to do that, and as we expect to make more money this year than last (& neither of us are in college anymore) we plan on starting to pay off our debts this year.

The Blog – I’m looking forward to another great year of blogging. Some time this year I hope to get a new design for the blog. I’ve been looking around for templates & designers for a while now, and hopefully I’ll have something in the next few months. I’ve also been thinking of some other changes for this year. One small change that I plan to make is the Recipe of the Week. I still plan on featuring at least one recipe each week, but I plan on posting it early in the week so that I can submit my link to a couple of carnivals that I’ve found. I’m also working on an idea for a new feature, which I’ll announce at a later time. I’ve also considered reorganizing & restructuring the posts so the blog will be more cohesive (for lack of a better word), but I just can’t decide exactly what I want to do. Hopefully in this new year, I can figure it all out!

I hope you are all having a great 2009 so far! I look forward to talking to you and sharing new ideas with you this year!

-Jerri

Filed Under: announcements

December 2008 Poll Results & New Poll for 2009

January 1, 2009 Leave a Comment

I posted a new poll for January: What’s your New Year’s Resolution? (Creative, huh?) I put about 10 different answers up, and since some of them are related, I made it so that you can pick more than one answer if you want. I based the answer choices on the fact that a lot of people in polls, as well as people I know, have said this year or in previous years that “this” or “that” is their resolution. You can choose from: Exercise more, eat healthier, lose weight, be more organized, meal planning, spend more time with friends/family, Church/religion (I figured I’d use this as a general term for religious activities/devotions, etc.), and also saving money and paying off debt. And then of course, there is the “Other” choice, if your resolution in not included with the answer choices.

Also, in case your interested, here are the results of our Christmas song poll:
White Christmas – 22%
Jingle Bell Rock – 6%
O Holy Night – 29%
The First Noel – 6%
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas – 9%
The Christmas Song- 6%
Other – 19%

Thanks everyone for voting in our Favorite Christmas poll, and I hope you’ll participate in the New Year’s resolution poll as well.

-Jerri

Filed Under: announcements

Favorite Recipes of 2008

January 1, 2009 2 Comments

Last year I did a post, highlighting my favorite posts of 2007. This year I’m doing something a little different. I did a round up of some of my favorite recipe posts. After all, the recipes seem to get the most comments; plus, a lot of my other posts are seasonal in nature, but recipes are relevant for the entire year.

I can’t really say that I have any *absolute* favorite recipes. Then again, does anyone really have a #1 favorite recipe or even a favorite recipe post? But I felt that all of these were worthy of a second look. Happy New Year!

Cakes & Pies