Search Results for: blog three ideas for cooking what we have

Over 40 Holiday-Themed Scrapbook Title Ideas

  “Holiday Hoopla” is the title of a scrapbook layout I made last year.  It features photos of three generations of my family cooking together.  I was going to use “Organized Chaos,” but decided to go with the seasonal title instead. Coming up with page titles is a passion for some scrapbookers, while others see it as a pain.  I like to ponder page titles while I am figuring out the placement of my photos, memorabilia and embellishments.  Often, a title will pop into my head as I survey all of the materials I am featuring on the layout.  However, … Continue reading →

Back-to-School Breakfast Ideas

Now that the new school year is underway, my days as a short order cook are over… at least when it comes to breakfast. This summer, I could have easily earned employee of the month honors as a flapjack flipper at IHOP, but instead chose to use my pancake-making skills to keep my 7-year-old happy and full. Kids need a healthy breakfast in order for their bodies and brains to function properly. However, during the school year, this important morning meal often gets skipped in the interest of saving time or scoring a few more minutes of sleep. Ironically, eating … Continue reading →

Valentines Food: Heart Felt Cooking

Scouring the internet for ideas for a Valentine’s party? Valentine’s Day is not known for its dedication to superb nutrition, but it can be a great time to create lovely goodies for friends and family. But first, what does cooking teach your kids? For one, it teaches them about nutrition. As they work with you to create meals or treats, they get to know what’s important about a meal. After many long discussions, my daughter now knows about carbohydrates, protein, fat, fruits and vegetables, and why each of them is important at different times. Cooking is also a wonderful way … Continue reading →

Freezer Cooking without Effort

Today my freezer is somewhat stocked with meals that are ready to go. This really comes in handy on those nights when you just don’t feel like making dinner or the times when you want to save money and reduce your budget. Forget the elaborate all day plans that keep you in the kitchen morning until night cooking away. There is a reason that these methods encourage you to do it with a friend. It is a lot of work! While there may be a time and a place to do these massive freezer cooking sessions, I find that our … Continue reading →

Creative Pregnancy Portrait Ideas

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I have seen some really cute pregnancy portraits lately. It’s got me thinking about what I might like to do next time around. I did the cliché heart-on-the-belly photo, the daddy-holding-the-bump photo, and the classic stand-by-the-crib shot. I tried (and failed) to take a similar photo every week to track my growth. I really want to be more diligent next time; and I really want to be more creative by capturing both meaningful and humorous elements of pregnancy. Here are some of my ideas: From the sibling’s perspective: imagine a shot taken at eye level with the big brother or … Continue reading →

Halloween or Harvest Cookie Pops

We spotted a version of cookies on a stick recently at our school festival, and ever since then, my kids have been asking to make them. Since Halloween is coming up this week, I better get going. This sounds like a good bit of cooking to do on Friday after school. I bet all of the neighborhood kids will want to join in as well. An easy way to make cookie pops is to use a basic sugar cookie dough. Sugar cookie dough is easy to cut into fun shapes and easy to decorate. Plus, the dough will accept a … Continue reading →

Three Recipe Ideas for Overripe Fruit

You may have heard me say this before. Americans routinely toss out 25 percent of their food! Can you believe it? A good portion of that waste can be attributed to produce that goes bad before it can be used. Here are three recipe ideas that you can use to use up overripe fruit instead of tossing it out. There are other ways we waster food. We just tossed a huge bag of chocolate chips (my kids will eat whole wheat and flax as long as it has chocolate chips in it) because of our recent mouse problems. Boy did … Continue reading →

Frugal Food: Three Ways to Do Leftovers

Whether your leftovers are planned or just accidental, they can help you to save money when you actually use them instead of tossing them, as most people tend to do. Here are three different ways you can do leftovers. The Bait and Switch If you go for a restaurant meal, each order a favorite and then when it arrives, halve each plate so that you only plan on eating half of the meal (fill up on any bread and salad that is brought to the table). Get the other halves of your meals to go and plan on eating them … Continue reading →

Frugal Freezer Cooking: “Hot Pockets” 2

We are working on a freezer cooking idea–that of making “hot pockets.” You can make these pockets for pennies as opposed to buying the expensive ones in the grocery store. They are also much tastier than those other ones, I personally think. The hot pockets can be brought in for lunch or just heated for snacks. If you missed the first post that appeared earlier today, please click here. Frugal Freezer Cooking: “Hot Pockets” Now let’s continue. You can then form the pocket into a rectangle, if you want to more traditional shape. I do this by flatting the pocket … Continue reading →

Frugal Freezer Cooking: “Hot Pockets”

Stocking your freezer using leftovers or foodstuff that you buy in bulk on sale can really save you quite a bit of money. If you have the freezer and the room, I highly recommend doing some freezer cooking. It will give you the opportunity to have low cost meals handy and avoid eating out, and it will also give you the opportunity to eat food that you might have otherwise thrown away. These are free meals, as I like to call them. With panic in the economy, it makes so much sense to cut expenses and pay down as much … Continue reading →