Beans

Dried beans are an excellent source of protein, and are way cheaper than meat.  Unfortunately, they are pretty boring by themselves.  So, you have to be creative about how you spruce them up.  Things that I have found to work the best are chicken/beef/ham stock for both the soaking and the cooking liquid, plus I add salt to the cooking water.  This improves their flavor significantly.  Then, I also add them to other dishes instead of just having them as their own dish (except baked beans at a barbecue - love those).  For cooking tips and recipes on beans, check out The Family Homestead and click on her kitchen link and she gives you several tutorials on bean cooking.  Then you can also visit sites like all recipes, cooks.com, simply recips, etc and check out their bean recipes too.

Link

I peruse websites from time to time, and there are always a few that I go back to time and again.  The Family Homestead is one such site.  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ it provides a plethora of information as well as meal planning ideas, cooking tutorials, craft ideas, all done from within a budget (one income family homeschooling 8 kids).  She also does this while slowing incorporating more organic and natural food choices for the conventional ones.  You go girl!

Chicken Chili

Chicken Chili

1 leftover chicken carcass
3 quarts of water
*Boil these 2 for about 45 minutes until the water has become a broth and the meat begins to fall off. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool, continue to boil the chicken broth

1/2 pound pinto beans
1 tbsp salt
1 quart water
*add these to the chicken stock and boil about an hour and a half (until beans are tender and done)

chicken meat from cooled chicken
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 diced onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp chili seasoning (purchased or homemade)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1 tsp cumin
*add these to the pot and simmer for about a hour


Get creative and modify this to your taste - enjoy!

top with sour cream, cheddar and fresh cilanto

Home Decorating and Organization

I am not the most well organized and managed woman on the block - not by a long shot.  Of course I also don't claim to be.  However, there comes a time in every person's life when they realize that they need to be more organized and more managed because they need to be more responsible with their time and energy.  So I have been perusing the websites to look for good ideas, great pictures of ideas and of course, cheap ideas.  So, I have added a new link box to the right for Home Organizing/Management.  Enjoy the links, and if one doesn't work, let me know so I can fix it.

Harris Teeter is back to triples!

From November 4-10, Harris Teeter is offering triple coupons again - face value up to .99 which means your highest possible total value of the coupon is 2.97. ***However, make sure you look at your coupon closely and make sure your coupon does not say 'do not double or triple' or 'face value only'

Happy Shopping.