How-To Get a New Microwave - A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Alternately could be titled "How-To Never Have to Cook for your Family Again

1. Take chicken out of freezer
2. Neglect to see the twist tie on the bag
3. Don't worry about BPA and put said bag in the microwave
4. Set it for 10 minutes on time defrost
5. Sit down and spend some time on Facebook/blogging/email etc...
6. Smell something funny, but ignore it, cause it is probably nothing
7. Have amazing peripheral vision that you see something orange out of the corner of your eye
8. Jump up screaming "oh my goodness...what happened??" even if it is only the 3 year old in the house
9. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR cause you learned in school that oxygen feeds the fire (I knew that money would be worth spending;-)
10. Open door when flame is out and take a picture of the burned chicken and the twist tie that caused it all
11. Tell hubby that microwave is broken so that he can see for himself
12. Watch it start to flame again
13. GET NEW MICROWAVE!!

It was even stuck to the plate...



See the twist tie? 



So, there you have it.  A step-by-step guide to getting a new microwave.  We figured we may as well get the one we have wanted for quite some time so are going with an over the range microwave.  I put a question on Facebook about installing it and how easy that was...cause we really aren't that handy, and a friend called to say she has one, in the box still, sitting in her garage, on it's way to Goodwill!!

We are so blessed!!

Stay tuned for my next How-To (Get Out of Doing Laundry)



HAVE YOU EVER HAD A 'DOH' MOMENT BEFORE?  SHARE IN MY COMMENTS!!



Why I am cutting carrageenan out of my diet...

Tonight, I was at the store with a friend. She had some prescriptions to fill and to kill the time I was wandering through the vitamin and supplement aisle. Looking specifically at calcium and vitamin d...found what looks like a good one, for only $5

As I passed by one of the aisles, I saw this box stand out at me. It said carrageenan on it. This is one of those moments, you know, that you go...right, I was going to look that one up to see what it is.

I have been noticing, since we are reading labels on a regular basis, that carrageenan is in a lot of our food products. I was curious what it was and meant to look it up...

Meanwhile, I am at Shoppers Drug Mart and it is in this non-food section...hmmm...now I was intrigued.

So, the pharmacist had my friends order ready and we headed over to the counter. I thought, I am going to ask him what it is. He has been in school and all, right? He should know...

Here is how the conversation went:

Me - Do you know what carrageenan is?
Him - Ummm...not really, what is it in?
Me - Food, like cereal bars etc...but I saw a box here with the word on it too.
Him - well, if I could see something with it in, I may be able to figure it out.
Me - Runs over to that aisle and grabs the box off the shelf, and hands it to him.
Him - Hmmm...
Me - (after reading the box) Oh, this is a personal lubricant...um...It is not that I was looking for this...I just saw the word...ummmm.....
Him - Hmmmm....
Me - Oh my goodness, this is so embarassing...
Him - Hmmmm....
Me - Nevermind, I will look it up at home...

Running out of the store red faced...

I think that any ingredient that is used in a personal lubricant, should not be used in food...my opinion, and that is all that matters...

See the shock in the kids faces? They can't believe that this additive has been added to some of their favourite foods!! Do some research and come to your own conclusions...

Carrageenan is coming out of my diet!!!

Friday Food Recap...

I am going to try to keep track of what we have been eating over the past week and put the recipes I like into a booklet of some kind...so I don't have to search the internet everytime I need a new recipe...

So, Monday night we had a sausage macaroni and cheese bake and we always just throw together whatever is kicking around for it. It turned out really good though, but it usually does;-) Princess made it this time and she did a great job!!

Tuesday we had Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup with a nice green salad. The soup was the best one I have found and very easy, because here, if we want to eat, it has to be easy!! Everyone inhaled the soup!! We used 15 potatoes, 7 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 1 onion, 7 pieces of bacon and around 4 cups of milk. Boiled the potatoes and carrots (both bought from a local farmer...50lbs of potatoes for $9...) and fried the bacon, drained the bacon and cooked the diced celery and onion in the bacon grease. Threw it all into the potato pot, added the milk and used the mixers to make it creamy. Just for fun at the end, and because we had some kicking around we threw in a handful of cheddar cheese. The salad was nice. Just the clearance leaves we found at the store, not regular lettuce, but a mixture, with mandarin oranges (the cans were on sale this week) and sunflower seeds (thanks Cheryl...) and topped off with ricotta cheese (on sale too).

Wednesday night we had homemade chicken wraps, with homemade tortillas...much easier to make then you may think...2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup shortening, 3/4 cup water and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Mix it all together, I used the mixers until it was mixed well, then rolled it into a ball. Break the big ball into 8 smaller ones and knead them for about a minute each. Then you flour the area and roll them into paper thin sheets. Very easy to roll!! They go in a fry pan (cast iron is best) and when there are bubbles on top they are done. Apparently it is better to just cook it on one side. Then we baked some breaded chicken strips and ripped up some lettuce. You pour ranch dressing on the wrap and add the lettuce, chicken, and shredded cheese and it was better then those fast food places!! We also had the leftover potato soup.

Thursday night, we had shepherds pie. My husbands favourite...and apparently all the kids except Pooky, who chose to go to bed instead of eat her supper...oh well...the will of a 3 year old!! Peeled about 10 potatoes and boiled them, mashed them and added 2 pounds of ground beef, cooked, with (cheating here) Manwich sauce (but it was on sale) and some frozen veggies (bought at the local wholesale store...2 cases...not realizing I bought $50 worth of veggies until after the fact). We also had a garden salad, with 2 kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, a pepper, sunflower seeds and mushrooms.

I haven't thought about Fridays meal yet...I really need to do some menu planning, but that will come in time, I am sure...

From these meals we also ended up with some frozen things...so, we have turkey stew (from last week) and potato soup and a smaller shepherds pie leftover. Probably enough for 1-3 servings each, so when we don't feel like cooking (weekend;-) we can just pull something out and thaw...very easy.

Anyhow, so if you actually read this post...thanks, it is boring, I know, but I want to keep track and where better to do that? I think for Friday I am going to look for another soup recipe. Hubby has been asking for corn chowder. I am not sure how easy that is to make...

Living on a budget - Food

From the last post you can see that we are living on a budget now. We have to prepare for and get used to this lifestyle for another 5 years or so, but really this is for the rest of our lives. Why make a change and not carry it on...so, we are dealing with food.

Our budget allows us $500 in food for the month. This food budget does not include diapers, cleaning supplies, personal products - razors, shaving cream, feminine products etc...that comes out of a whole different area.

So, $500 a month for food for 7 people: 2 adults, a 13 year old boy, and 10, 7, 3, and 1 year old girls. Sound impossible? We were fortunate to be able to start this journey with a stocked freezer. We have lots of chicken, ordered from a church fundraiser and a few other meats that were picked up on sale in December. We also have a fair amount of canned veggies, plus a mistaken purchase that led us to have enough frozen veggies for about 6-8 months...don't ask;-)

This week, we spent most of our money on fresh stuff. We bought melons, and clementines, bananas, and tomatoes, lettuce and we scored baby romaine on the clearance rack to throw in with the salad. Juice boxes were on sale again, so we bought 3 more cases for school. We have enough now for about 2 months and will watch for it to go on sale again.

I figure the key is to not let anything run out, and we will never have to have huge grocery bills. Ground beef was not on the list, but it was on sale, so we bought some. We are just paying more attention to what is important and what it not. School snacks and pop were the items we chose to stop buying...much to my husbands discontent!!

Back in December those packaged cake and muffin mixes were on sale for .75 each. I stocked up!! We are not very good at baking from scratch here and just don't have the time, so the packaged stuff comes in handy, plus the kids can do most of it themselves and it is a fun activity!! So, this weekend we made 3 dozen mini muffins of each: chocolate, apple cinnamon and chocolate chip. We wrapped them in packages of 2 and put them in the fridge. We also made 6 dozen each of chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and wrapped them in packs of 3.

We are fortunate to be able to buy bread at the outlet, 2 loaves for $1.70 While there, we found a mega sized bag of cheese flavoured nacho chips $1.29. We bought them and packaged them in containers for the kids to take to school. There is still a bunch left over to package when we have more containers to fill again.

We also had bought some apples when we were planning a Sunday school class recently. We didn't want to spend a lot, since we don't have a lot, and found a nice little apple farm that sells a half bushel of seconds for $7.50. We got at least 75 apples in that half bushel. We will buy our apples from there again!! But they were starting to go bad, so the kids peeled and sliced them with our handy gadget, that we haven't used in a long time. They had a blast with that!! We boiled them down and made applesauce with them. They are in containers too for the kids to just grab and go. Today I am making banana bread with the rotten bananas from the countertop.

Eating well on a budget I think is all about using what you have and not wasting anything. Also, looking around where you live and finding those outlets or local places. Watching for sales when you are at the store and buying one extra each time.

We were fortunate to find eggs on sale and bought 3 dozen. We made Egg McMoms to freeze for breakfasts or lunches. They are easy to make and taste as good or better then the original from you know where...;-)

All in all we are looking forward to doing this all the way. We have spent $200 of our monthly grocery budget and that should last for at least 2 weeks. We will continue to buy milk on an as needed basis along with other fresh things. We are excited for the fresh choices and that they are healthier choices too...

Which will help with my weight loss and other medical issues that I will blog about at another date...when I know what is going on!!