Meal Planning with Connie

We have had a pretty full day working around the house today. We were making some progress on a couple of projects, and I needed to make something quick supper. The other day I noticed that I had a can of lump crab meat and a can of tiny shrimp in the pantry that I had bought during a sale several weeks back. I decided to try this recipe. We all liked it, except M.C. She thought she would have probably liked it without the pimentos. I thought it was a pretty good dish, especially for the time and energy expended on it. We ate the rest of the Leftover Wedding Salad and a loaf of French Bread, and we baked 4 cookies from our freezer stash! It was all very filling and didn't take long to make! Easy Seafood Au Gratin Easy Seafood Au Gratin 1 sm. onion, diced 2 - 4 tbsp. butter 2 tbsp. flour, rounded 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk OR 1 1/2 c. milk 1 can lump crab meat 1 can shrimp 1 sm. jar pimiento, drained Salt & pepper to taste 1 c. sharp cheese, grated Buttered bread c...

I made some cookies for the freezer the other day. These come in really handy for a variety of reasons. 1. When the kids have friends over, they all like to pull some of these out and bake them. As a matter of fact, Logan and friend baked some of these macadamia cookies and some of the Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies (both from our freezer) just yesterday! 2. If you need a "happy" for a friend, a batch of cookies, on a cute plate. makes a great little gift! 3. There's always a need to carry a dish to an event. On those occasions when you're really crunched for time, cookies from the freezer are great for this! 4. We use them for a quick dessert for the four of us on week nights. I like that I can just bake four cookies, which helps with portion control. I do usually cook an extra one or two to put in Larry's lunch the next day! As I've shared before, I make my dough, line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper, using a cookie dough scoope...

Mississippi's First-ever Tax Free Week-end July 31-August 1, 2009 This isn't really a food deal, but you can use your savings at the grocery store!! Applies to: Clothing under $100 Shoes under $100 Great time to get back-to-school shoes and clothing for the kids!!! http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2009/PDF/history/HB/HB0348.xml Coupon for a free Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Desert Mix Call General Mills Consumer Services at 1-800-446-1898. Select option 4 on the main menu. A customer service representative who will ask you a few questions about your family’s gluten intake. You will receive your coupon by mail. Thanks to Jane for this info! 15% off coupons for Walgreen’s - Today only!! Pair this coupon with grocery items that are already on sale for the best deal!!! http://www.walgreens.com/dmi/instorespecials/default.html?ec=hn1028sr_getcoupon Thanks to Deal Seeking Mom for this info! Magazine Deals from Amazon Food Network Magazine subscription for $15. This is a 62% savings...

We had Monday's menu plan tonight! I had bought the chicken strips a few days ago, and they needed using. When I tidied my fridge, I found a couple of cans of biscuits that need using, so we had "Biscuit" Rolls, too. Leftover Wedding Salad If you noticed in this post's title, we also had Leftover Wedding Salad. What is Leftover Wedding Salad?? It's a nice salad you make from bagged salad left over from your friend's daughter's wedding, of course! :) Susan came by the other day with a load of goodies that were left from Rebecca and Will's wedding. Besides the salad, she blessed us with a big hunk of wedding cake and some wedding punch!! Sharing with others is the best way to use excess food from an event like a wedding! Thank you for sharing with us, Susan!! We enjoyed it all!! The punch Susan brought by reminded me of the funny story I told you about Robert St. John sharing at the Link Centre Fundraiser a few weeks back. A quick search of the...

It's Meal Planning Day!! New cooking quotes and tips for the kitchen, baking and recycling have been added in the left sidebar!! Don't forget to tidy your fridge and sort your coupons before beginning your meal planning this week!! Just want to say a quick thanks to everyone for reading! We just completed our first three months of blogging. I understand this is a bit of a milestone in the blogging world. It has really been fun! It started out as a little project for Logan and me to work on together. Before long, Larry and M.C. were involved, as well. Larry has enjoyed taking the photos when he can. (The good photos are his. The not-so-good ones are mine!) M.C. has also taken a few of our photos, and she is the best little sous chef any mom could ever hope for! It's become a fun family hobby! Thank you so much for all your sweet comments! We appreciate your encouragement and love hearing that you've tried a recipe or two!! The Lord's richest blessings t...

We had a Leftovers Buffet tonight. I usually do these on Thursday nights, if we have enough leftovers to make a meal. We just take everything out of the fridge that needs eating, heat it and serve it up buffet-style. This is always fun to me. It's kind of nice to be reminded of the meals I've managed to put together for my family. Plus, there's usually a few - "Oh, yeah! There's some of that left?!" Of course the elation I feel from that compliment is usually quickly tempered by someone else making a comment something like this - "Oh, no, I thought we'd finally gotten rid of all that!" Oh, the joys and pains of being a mom and head cook!! When I looked things over today, I realized there were a couple of things in the fridge that really had to be eaten tonight - or discarded. We truly had a dab-of-this-and-a-dab-of-that. It was a great way to clean out the fridge and not let these bits of food go to waste! Plus we were all full when we...

Our ice cream freezer died! We had hoped to replace it this week, but we didn't have any luck! I hate we didn't get to make this ice cream recipe that Holly F. shared with us! I know it is delicious!! Thank you, Holly, for sharing all these wonderful homemade ice cream recipes! They've made great Desserts of the Week for July!! I had bought my Butterfingers in anticipation of making the ice cream. So, I decided to use them for Butterfinger Blondies instead! We really like these!! Here are the recipes for the ice cream and the cookie bars: Homemade Butterfinger Ice Cream 2 1/2 cups sugar 6 eggs 1 can Eagle Brand Milk 1 can pet milk 3 T. vanilla 4 butterfingers crushed Whole Milk to fill freezer Cook first 5 ingredients. Add butterfingers. Pour mixture into ice cream freezer and add whole milk to fill line. Freeze according to freezer directions. Butterfinger Blondies Note: Be sure to check for the best price on the Butterfingers. Those ba...