Service FHE with Countdown to Valentines

 Tami, my sister, called this afternoon and gave me a great family home evening (FHE) idea that we used tonight.  She told me how to make a countdown to Valentines Day.  Basically each day there is a heart with a service idea for them to do and some candy to eat.  The kids helped put them together for our FHE activity and then we had a little lesson on service.   They are excited for the candy and hopefully catch on to the idea of serving each other.  Olivia and Vivian even went the extra mile tonight and let us each order a couple items from their menu for our treat.  They were very happy to serve the family and they look forward to doing it again!

The Menu

 

Corbin chose chips and my favorite, strawberry milk!

One Down One To Go

I haven't had a spare minute to blog (plus my internet connection hasn't been working).  I have been bustin' my buns over the past week.  I finally got the old house all clean and ready to go - it sparkles!  Now the new house needs some mighty attention.  I can barely make my way around the house because it's such a mess.  But I know it will come together, I am starting to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel.  In fact, Paul and I have the opportunity to escape and catch some real sunshine, as well as, eat good food,  explore new places, and enjoy some much needed time alone.  I will tell you all about it when I return!

The Final Moving Push

I am here to remind you that moving is not fun!  You think I would have this down to a science since this is our third move in the last 1 1/2 years, but I don't!

This move we have been blessed more than ever with the help and support of many friends and family members.  Just when I would be at the end of my string, I would receive an unexpected blessing.  The blessings came in many forms, including: dinners for my family, emails of encouragement and support, help with loading/unloading of the U-Haul, help packing boxes in a cluttered house, phone calls, muscle power with all of our food storage, help watching the children, and more. 

Thank you all for all the help, we couldn't have done it without you!

Meal Planning Your Food Storage

Tammy Price spoke to our ward's RS meeting last night about her food storage meal planning method.  I absolutely love her concept.  Here is a copy of the handout the ladies received.  She did a wonderful job sharing her testimony of food storage and why this way works for her.  She had to come up with an easier way of feeding her family because with each of her five pregnancies she was on bed rest for months at a time.  I know she was inspired to learn this for herself and then to teach it to others.  She is coming out with a book in a couple months titled, "All Things Provident" - look for it on Amazon or I can buy copies from her directly.

I have learned from Tammy over the past year as I served as the ward Provident Living Specialist (she is the Stake Provident Living Specialist).  I learned how to make beautiful rolls, how to cook beans and store them for later, and much more.  She is a wonderful resource!

Food Storage Meal Plan

The easiest way to be sure you have a year supply that your family will eat and you know how to fix is to base it around recipes you already use.

1. Collect recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that can be converted to fully storable meals. 
2. Determine how many times per year you will serve the recipe.
3. Multiply the ingredient amounts by the number of times you will serve the recipe and record the total in the table below.
4. Use your table as your shopping list.  Take inventory every 6 months and update amounts.
5. Keep in mind that you should incorporate all food groups over the course of the day, not necessarily in every meal. 

Storage Item	Amt I need	Amt I have	Amt I need to buy

By serving food storage meals twice a week, you will rotate an entire year supply in 3 ½ years!  Everything can then be rotated within or close to its shelf life.

Shelf life recommendations are not throw-away dates.  There is plenty of nutrition left in the food.  Open it and start using it.  If there is an odd smell or color change, or the can is bulging, then throw it away. 

The important thing is that you individualize the plan to your family’s tastes and your cooking habits. 

Things to think about when choosing recipes:

-          Cost of items in recipe

-          Limit the amount of items that are harder to store (i.e. eggs, meat, cheese)

-          Ease of preparation

-          Some recipes should be simple enough to make without electricity in case you are in a situation where no power is available for a few days

Here are a few of the recipes that we tasted (from Tammy).  The formatting might be a little funky because I just cut and pasted it from my email:

Chicken Caesar Tetrazzini
8 oz spaghetti, cooked	4 ½ oz mushrooms, drained
2 cups chicken, cooked	½ cup parmesan cheese
1 cup chicken broth	2 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
1 cup Caesar dressing
Directions:
Combine noodles with chicken.  Add broth, dressing, and mushrooms.  Mix.  Place in a 2 qt casserole dish.  Mix together parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and sprinkle on top.  Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.  Or, leave off topping and heat in microwave.  Makes 4 servings.  (Can used canned chicken).

Fettuccine Carbonara
8 oz noodles, cooked	1 tsp chicken bouillon
2 ½ cups milk (use powdered)	½ cup parmesan cheese
5 Tbsp flour	2 Tbsp bacon bits, cooked
5 Tbsp margarine
Directions:
Combine milk, flour, margarine, bouillon, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in pan.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Simmer 1 minute.  Stir in bacon.  Serve over noodles.  Can add peas or carrots.

Creamy Chicken Rice Soup

6 cups water

3 chicken breasts, cubed and precooked

2/3 cup celery (optional)

¼ cup dehydrated carrots

½ cup long grain rice, uncooked

1 Tbsp dried onions

2 Tbsp chicken soup base

1 tsp lemon pepper or to taste

2 Tbsp cornstarch

12 oz evaporated milk

¼ cup butter or margarine (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except the cornstarch, milk, and butter.  Boil for 20 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender.  Stir cornstarch into milk and add to pot.  Boil another few minutes until thickened.  Add butter if desired.  Note:  You can always use canned chicken.  I often use evaporated skim milk and I always add more carrots and celery.  You can freeze this soup.  It looks like it has separated when it thaws out, but it heats up wonderfully.

Navy Bean Soup
2 cups dry navy beans (or 5 cans beans)	½  cup dried carrots
2 qts chicken broth	1 celery rib, chopped, optional
2 tsp parsley	4-5 Tbsp dried minced onion
2 bay leaves	6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
¼ tsp pepper
Directions:
Place beans in soup kettle; add water to cover by 2 inches.  Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat; cover and let stand 1 hour.  Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid.  Combine remaining ingredients except the bacon in soup kettle.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 ½  hours or until beans and vegetables are tender.  Stir in the bacon.  Discard the bay leaves before serving.  Makes 8-10 servings.  Note:  I use real bacon bits that come in a jar and can be found near the salad dressings.  If using canned beans, rinse beans.  Combine all ingredients and simmer 30 minutes.

Tamale Casserole

2 cans of tamales (Hormel brand found in the chili isle)

2 cups rice, cooked

2 cans chili

Grated cheese

sour cream

Directions:

Empty your two cans of tamales into your casserole dish.   Remove papers and cut into bite sized pieces.  Spread evenly in your casserole dish.  Cover evenly with cooked rice.  Spread the 2 cans of chili over the rice and top with cheese.  Bake @ 375 for 30-45 minutes or heat in the microwave.  Serve with sour cream. This freezes very well.

Stove Top Rice Pudding
1 cup rice	12 oz evaporated milk
¼ cup sugar	Cinnamon to taste
2 cups water	1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
1.      Stir sugar and rice into water.  Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is tender.  Stir in milk, return to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and vanilla.

Mashed Potato Layer Casserole

1 lb hamburger, browned		2 cups potato pearls
2 cans cream of mushroom soup		4 cups boiling water
1 can green beans		Cheddar cheese, grated
Directions:
Mix potato pearls with boiling water.  Layer hamburger, soup, green beans and potatoes  in a 9x13 pan.  Top with cheese.  Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30-45 minutes. Or place in a microwave pan and cover with plastic wrap.  Heat through.
Basic Muffins
¾ cup wheat flour		¼  tsp salt
¾ cup white flour		1 Tbsp vinegar
½ cup sugar		3 Tbsp Applesauce
2 tsp baking powder		2 Tbsp oil
¼  tsp baking soda		¾ cup milk (2 ½ Tbsp milk powder + ¾ cup water)
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.  Pour into muffin tins.  Bake at 400° 20-22 minutes.  This is very versatile.  I sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. You can stir in berries.  Sometimes I make Surprise Muffins by filling muffin cups half full and then hiding a spoonful of jam before filling the rest of the way with muffin batter.  Just use your imagination.

Mexican Rice
1/3 cup dry minced onion	8 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic powder	2 Tbsp bacon bits, cooked
1 cup rice	1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 tsp chicken bouillon	1 can corn
1 cup water	Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix together onion, garlic, rice, bouillon, water, and tomato sauce.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer 20-25 minutes or until rice is tender.  Stir in bacon, beans, and corn.  Heat through.

I am a Mother

Jane Clayson Johnson spoke at Time Out For Women a few years ago in my city.  I was impressed with her testimony of being a mother.  When her book came out,  I bought several copies to give to new mothers.  I have been reading her book recently and am excited to share her words and other's quotes with you.

In her book (I Am a Mother, pg. 7) she quotes California's First Lady, Maria Shriver, who is explaining her agenda as the state's first lady and her goal to "empower mothers."  Maria asks,  "How do we get women to stop saying, 'I am just a mother.' Or, 'I used to be such and such, but now I'm just a mother?  We need to market motherhood.  So I am up with a saying: 'Motherhood:  24/7 on the frontlines of humanity.  Are you man enough to try it?'" (from "First Lady Maria Shriver--Her New Life, " The Oprah Winfrey Show, April 29, 2004).

Thank You!

 

Look what I found by my door this afternoon after coming home from attending a wedding and luncheon!  Wow, what a kind friend (I think I know who you are) to go out of her way to buy me some milk  and a pizza for dinner.  Thank you, thank you! 

Milk vs. Costa Vida

It's been a bit crazy around our home lately with moving, packing and still trying to functional as normal (ie. meals, laundry, etc.)  With all of this going on we ran out of milk a couple days ago.  Last night I realized that I had forgotten again to go buy milk. Paul asked a dangerous question when he said, "How can you not make time to buy milk, but you have time to take the kids out for Costa Vida lunch?" 

What do you mean?  That is an easy question to answer, right? 

Menu Monday

I am planning my menu according to my pantry and freezer - it's time to clean out!

Monday - Crockpot roast beef dinner with potatoes, carrots, salad, and rolls (postponed Sunday dinner)

Tuesday - Chili (or taco soup) and cornbread
Wednesday - Ham, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, veggie
Thursday - Spaghetti and meatballs, corn, edamame

Friday - Ham Soup (I love April's recipe), bread

Christmas Food Court - Hallelujah Chorus

Paul showed me this video last night!  This was at the Gateway Mall in SLC.  It's powerful!

New Year's Celebration

I enjoyed this short video this morning before church. It starts out with a little humor and then ends with a spiritual message of hope, faith, forgiveness, and Christ's atonement. It's a great message to start off the year of 2011.

The kids and I celebrated New Year's Eve with the Richael Family (Corbin was there but not pictured).  It was decorated so beautifully!  We enjoyed pizza along with other fun food.  Then we played Bingo for prizes!  Paul and Porter were in Burley for the weekend (on business) so they missed our fun. 

New Year Day Festivities

Last night Corbin, Olivia, Vivian and I celebrated the ringing in of the new year once again.  We enjoyed Subway sandwiches, Caesar salad, peachy flavored Sprite, tater tots with fry sauce, tangerines, and Chex Muddy Buddies.   We enjoyed dinner while watching the cute, new-released movie, Despicable Me.