Thrifty Thursday

One sure way I've learned to be frugal is in the kitchen. While I love my boneless, skinless chicken breasts for ease and convenience, they don't score high on the frugal scale. If you're willing to put in a little work, buy using a whole chicken, you can get three good meals from one bird. I once heard it called "stretchy chicken" because it stretches out over days of cooking.

3 Day Chicken
(using a whole roaster... currently $.69/lb at local discount store)

Day 1: Roasted chicken
1. Roast chicken in oven with olive oil and seasonings. Serve breasts and legs with salad and fresh bread.
2. Pick all meat off the bones and separate into two containers.
3. Keep carcass for tomorrow.

Day 2: Chicken Soup
1. Boil carcass with garlic, onion, carrots, and celery to make your own stock. You could also put all ingredients in crock pot and cover with water the evening of day one and cook on low all night. When you wake up, the stock would be ready.
2. Remove bones and drain stock. Discard vegetables.
3. In bottom of dutch oven, add chopped carrots, celery, onion, and garlic to olive oil and saute.
4. Add leftover chicken and stock. Simmer for 1 hr.
5. Add cooked noodles before serving.

Day 3: Chicken and rice
1. Prepare yellow rice as directed, bring to a boil.
2. Add remaining leftover chicken and small package of frozen peas.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until rice is fluffy.


The possibilities are really endless depending upon what you're family enjoys at mealtime. You could a chicken spaghetti, tetrazzini, chicken and dumplings, etc. The main goal is to make good use of what you have!

Find more Thrifty Thursday ideas at Generation Cedar.

Trying to figure it out...

I realized that there is no way you can even read the kids course study spreadsheet in the previous post. Until I figure out how to make it larger, you can click on the picture itself to enlarge. Bear with me, please!!!

Homeschool Planning

I'm really excited for the upcoming school year....My children are coming home! I've been planning their course study lately and this is what I've come up with.

I'm still looking for something to do for Bible time. I'll start by reading...the Bible. :) I would, however, like to get them something to guide their individual devotional times and work on character training as a group. Any suggestions?

I haven't homeschooled in 2 years, so I feel a bit rusty. I really like the way this looks so far, the tough part will be the schedule. To be continued......

Thrifty Thursday

Kelly, at Generation Cedar , has challenged her readers to share our thrifty ideas. Not only does this help those of us who choose to live on one income, but in this economy, many people are being forced into situations where they have no choice but to pinch pennies. Here is a very frugal, but yummy lunch that our family really enjoys.

Egg salad Sandwiches (1/2 dozen eggs, 1 loaf bread, 1/4 c. mayo) - $1.00
Carrot Sticks - $.25 (that's a rough estimation, I can get a bag for $1 at Save-a-Lot)
Orange Slices - free (I live in FL, which is an unfair advantage, I realize)

Total lunch cost - $1.25. This will feed our family of 6 just fine. I keep my prices low by making my bread or buying day old bread and freezing it. Eggs right now are $.99/doz., which is as low as I've seen them for a long time. If you aren't fortunate enough to own a fruit tree, buy in season which will help keep the cost down. Just to give you a comparison, school lunches are currently $2.10/person. Yep, this is one cheap lunch!

Easter Recap...

Yeah, yeah....Easter's been over for weeks...I know! For those of you just getting to know me, you'll find out something pretty quickly...I procrastinate. It's a horrible affliction, and I'm trying very hard to overcome it...maybe I'll start tomorrow. Anyhow...here are some pics from Easter I thought you might enjoy.




Almost my entire, crazy family came to visit...minus my brother and his family in Oklahoma. This shot includes my brother and his family, my parents, my mother in law, my family (minus hubby behind the camera), and my aunt.




Posing before church.

Erin's creative photography!

Dinner at the Quinn's house.

Easter egg hunting at a friend's church...

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday, hope you all had the same!

Update

Yeah, I know...it's been forever. Things have really been busy around here. The kids are home for Spring Break this week, which has been wonderful. You would think that it would make things crazier, but I really enjoy having them home. When the kids are home, our house is happier. No, really...stop laughing! I mean it...I'm not shuffling kids to and fro every activity under the sun. Not to mention no trips into town twice a day for school. It has been lovely. I'm even getting more accomplished than when their in school. To tell you the truth, it's a little depressing when they're gone all day, I can't wait for summer!

My husband is in his second week of radiation treatments. He is receiving high dose radiation 5 days a week for 4 weeks. The radiation clinic is in Bartow, which is about a 1 hour drive....everyday. He's a trooper though, he hasn't complained a bit. But he is sick. Oh, is he ever sick. We were really thankful when we found out they were going with radiation instead of chemo because we had heard several people who had radiation say that they tolerated it just fine. Well, for whatever reason, he is sick within an hour of treatments every day. It drains the energy right out him, and he winds up sleeping most of the afternoon. This should all be over, Lord willing, the last week of April.

Everything else has been pretty good, too. Aside from a few ER visits and sick kids (nothing out of the norm) we're good. I've been looking at homeschool curriculum. I think I'm pretty set on what I'm going with. There are a few choices that I still have to make. I'm seriously thinking of using Switched on Schoolhouse for Language Arts, just for ease of planning and to give me some time with Ty. They are having a 20% off sale this month at AOP, so I need to decide quickly. I will be using Mystery of History and Apologia Science for everyone to work through together. For math, I'm going with Horizons for my 3rd grader, and I haven't decided for my 5th & 6th graders. I gave them the Saxon placement test and they both were recommended to start in Saxon 8/7. I'd hate to buy two textbooks, but I doubt they'll share! For reading, everyone will read their choice of books from the 1000 Good Book List. Then there's my little guy. He's turning 5 this August, and I know he's ready to start some formal work. I'm definitely going to use Horizons for math, and probably 100 EZ Lessons and the kindergarten workbooks from Rod & Staff...that'll be it for him, not too much pressure there!

I'm starting a new sewing project soon. I haven't sewn in forever, so something simple is perfect. Over at momys.com we're doing an apron swap. You send in a handmade apron, and the coordinator of the swap will send you someone else's handmade apron. That should be fun....I'll post pics of the pattern and material later.

Well, that's about it for an update. I really hope to post more soon. Thank you all for your prayers for our family. The Lord is good, and He continues to be our refuge!