Grocery Shrink

Hi Friends, It’s a super busy week for me.  I’m going to attempt to paint my entire main floor including walls, trim, ceilings, and stair cases.  I’ve been up since 5 am and I’m sure I’ll need a nap later on.  So my postings this week may be….well if you see one, you can be super shocked and so excited!

Also Thursday there is a Veteran’s Day sale on mulch and I’m hoping to go get a trailer full to enhance the curb appeal of my lovely home.  If all goes well we will be ready to list the house on the market by Thanksgiving.  But it always takes longer than I think it will.

Next week I will try to paint the second floor and basement of our home.  But I don’t want to think about that right now.  :).

I’m excited to list my home while we are in it.  It’ s a first for us.  I’m hoping it will help me get some good housekeeping habits and to train my children too.  Do you have any tips for me?

  •3/4 cups brown sugar

•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup white sugar

•3/4 cup butter, softened

•1/2 cup eggnog

•1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•1 egg

•1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

•3 cups all-purpose flour

•2 teaspoons cream of tartar

•1 teaspoon baking soda

•Additional ¼ cup sugar and ½  teaspoon nutmeg for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter, sugar, eggnog, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix remaining sugar and nutmeg in a small bowl.  Roll rounded balls of dough in the sugar mixture and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

We tried the baked pumpkin donut recipe (in regular, not gluten free.)  It was easy, fun and delicious!  My dough seemed dry so I added 2 Tablespoons of milk and it was just right.  We rolled out in a mixture of flour and sugar to keep them tender.  Little fingers kept showing up to snitch a pinch. 

Yummy warm with a mug of milk. 

In case you wondered:  If the recipe makes 24 doughnuts, 1 glazed doughnut is 160 calories.

While I love to bake sweets, we eat a lot of healthy foods too.  I’ve posted before about marinating and grilling 10 lbs of chicken at a time and then freezing it sliced.  This beautiful meal was a super fast lunch we had last week that utilized the precooked chicken.

Earlier in the week, I cooked a pound of dry black beans slow cooker style (no soaking.)

I put a half a cup of the rewarmed beans in the bottom of the bowl.  Then I stirfried 1/4 of a fresh red onion, sliced; with 3 sliced baby-bell peppers (from Coscto.)  I tossed 4 oz of  chicken in at the end to rewarm and put it over the beans.  A little lettuce on the side finished it off.  I only wished I had some cilantro too!  This is very high protein, very low calorie and very tasty!  You can always add cheese and salsa if you want too.

I love books and that I can get most of them for free through our huge library system.  I usually order them from the library first and if I think I will use them a lot, buy them when I find the right price. 

Note:  My favorite places to buy books are Amazon, Ebay, HomeschoolClassifieds.com, Alibris.com, and BetterWorldBooks.com. Between all of these I can usually find what I want at a great price.

Kaboose has lots of printable Thanksgiving word puzzles and craft pages.  These are perfect for passing out during family read a-loud time and keep everyone’s attention span going longer. 

Part of our Thanksgiving celebration is reading aloud seasonal books.  We enjoy starting early in the season and reading Margaret Pumphrey’s book Stories of the Pilgrims.   It is written in novel style and really catches the kids’ attention.   Love to Learn (no affiliation) has a decent price at $9.99, or you can search for a good used copy or even check your library.

 Another Thanksgiving book we enjoy is Squanto And The Miracle Of Thanksgiving.  The pictures are gorgeous and it really shows the relationship of the story of Squanto to the Biblical Story of Joseph.  I had never heard the full story of Squanto before this book!  And I loved  it as much as the children did.

I like the next ones, because they have photographs instead of illustrations and it feels like you are really there:

Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl, On The Mayflower, Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy, and Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times all by Kate Waters.

I look for these books at the library too: Three Young Pilgrims, Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage, . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, Pilgrims Of Plymouth, and Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving. 

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving Book?  I’d love it if you left a comment with the title and why you love it,  (even if it has already been listed.)

Note:  All the titles link to their Amazon page where you can read reviews, descriptions and search inside the book.  If you choose to purchase through the link, a small part of the sale will go to support this blog.  I recommend getting the book from the library and if you love it as much as I do, come back and purchase through this link. 

I’m hoping one day to have a Thanksgiving box with all of the books I’ve collected, simple costumes for the children, and festive decorations. 

Tomorrow I’ll link up to some super cute Thanksgiving crafts for kids.

Dub is now 5 and Brandon is 3.  This picture was taken almost a year ago, but the brothers are sitting still and aren’t they precious?

Dub was at the refrigerator a few days ago playing with our magnetic letters.  He said, “Mom what does AIEU spell?”  Me, “Nothing.”  Dub, “Oh, wow!  Nothing.  No–th–i–ng, nothing.” Sounding very pleased with himself.  I didn’t say anything more.  I didn’t want to burst his bubble by correcting him, lol.  But if one day when he is quite grown you get a letter with the word AEIU in it, you’ll know what he meant.

Brandon is a funny one too.  I was leaving this week to get my blood drawn for prenatal testing.  He says, “Mom, I can’t wait to see your blood.”  Me, “I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to let me take it home.”  Brandon, disappointedly, “Then how in the world will I ever know what blood looks like?” 

Monday we were waiting at a stop light.  Darren is driving and I’m in the passenger seat.  Brandon, “Mom, where in the world are we going?”  Me, “To church.”  Brandon, “Then what’s the hold up.  Let’s go already.”  Me, “Well Brandon, I’m not the one driving.  The light is red and there’s 3 cars in front of us.”  Brandon looked very stern and pointed his finger at me and said, “No excuses, you.”

Yesterday at the Pumpkin patch I was carrying a tired out Brandon.  He lays his head on my chest and says, “Mom, your baby is getting sooo big and I love it!”  Me puzzled (I’m not really showing yet), said, “Where is my baby?”  Brandon smiles and lovingly pats my chest, “Right here.”  Darren says boys are born this way, lol.

We went to the pumpkin patch today and after we did everything there was to do, we bought a dozen pumpkin doughnuts and devoured them.  Yum!  Those were fried in an automatic doughnut machine just like the one described in Homer Price. 

I had a hankering to make my own pumpkin doughnuts, but I’d prefer to bake them for simplicity and health.  I found two promising recipes.  One is from Cheeky Kitchen:

Cheeky Kitchen: Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

 And all the gluten free folks out there can try this recipe from Bob’s Red Mill:  http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=812

With my new Christmas Book coming out, I don’t want to overlook Thanksgiving.  It is one of my favorite holiday’s and I’m hoping to do some fun things with the kiddoes this year. 

Here are some fun Thanksgiving Decor Ideas.  Click the pictures to go to the tutorials:

The thrift stores are fantastic places to find sweaters.  I can see these little cuties made up in various fall colors.

Sweater Pumpkin Tutorial from Small Fry and Co.

You’ll have to click the link to see the picture, but Smashed Peas and Carrots has free patterns and tutorial for a darling felt Turkey dinner complete with pumpkin pie and whipped cream!  I can imagine my little ones cooking up a feast beside me.

Pilgrim Hat Cookies from Oodle Kadoodle Primtivites

More tutorials tomorrow!

Menu planning makes my life sane.  I do it by the month instead of the week because that allows me to pick up non-perishable items all at once at the beginning of the month and only take short trips for fresh veggies and dairy later.  Menu planning is something I don’t really enjoy, so I prefer to get it over with early and enjoy the fruits all month.

Cajun Shrimp with sweet peppers, onions and baby spinach

Here’s a post I wrote earlier detailing how to write a good plan and you will find printable pdf calendars to download and make your task easier.

I’m off to print my menu and get started. Care to join me?  I could use some inspiration this month.  What’s on your menu?

P.S.  It’s not too late to grab your copy of How to Have a Grocery Shrink Christmas.  It’s only $4 through Friday and lots of recipes are also appropriate for the Thanksgiving table.  You’ll learn how to make bread stuffing, sour cream and chive mashed potatoes, and herb roasted turkey, all without commercial mixes!