What's for dinner? 6.29.2014

So for dinner tonight I made Homemade Chicken Nuggets, green beans (the undercooked ones from last night), baked sweet potatoes (also leftover from last night), and a spinach and spring green salad (sounds fancy, but it all comes together in a plastic container from the grocery store). The bowl in the top right is a mixture of hotsauce and butter to dip my chicken in. All together was very tasty. 

What did you have for dinner?

This Mornings Harvest and Breakfast 6.29.2014

This morning after I had my morning coffee I went outside to pick what was ripe. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to add to the kids and I breakfast smoothies! I did learn that our chickens have been picking through the blueberries for their breakfast as well, which is probably why I didn't even get a handful.

The picture below is all of the fruit that went into our smoothies. 

• 1 Apple
• 2 Oranges
• Strawberries and Blueberries that I picked
• 1 Peach
• 1 Banana
• 1 Plum
• A Good Handful of Grapes (which are getting past their freshness point)

I put everything into my NutriBullet and done! Added some water to thin it and some ice to cool it and breakfast is served!

What's for dinner? 6.28.2014

Hi everyone. Tonight for dinner we had salmon patties, fresh green beans from the Farmer's Market which we picked up this morning, and baked sweet potatoes. I thought it was good and so did the husband. The kids on the other hand did not like the sweet potatoes. I don't know why because they were delicious. 

The salmon patties were simple. Two cans of salmon with the spine? removed. I didn't worry about the smaller bones or skin since that is where all of the wonderful vitamins and nutrient are. I just made sure to squish it all up really good. I added 2 eggs, salt and pepper, and some bread crumbs and mixed, in the squishy kind of way. I then added more bread crumbs, then some more bread crumbs. Fried them up in some olive oil, squishing them down with the spatula when I flipped, and bam! Salmon patties! with Miracle Whip, of course!

I put the green beans in a 9 x 13 and salt and peppered them, threw some minced onions in (yes, the dried minced kind), and drizzled them in olive oil. I then put the green beans in the oven at 375 degrees for not nearly enough minutes. They were not done all the way and therefore will be cooked again tomorrow for lunch. 

For the sweet potatoes I washed them with a brush, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and put them in the microwave for about 12 minutes. After they had cooled a little I cut them in half and peeled the skin off and mashed them with a fork. It was so easy. 

 

What did you serve for dinner tonight?

Ebates: It Really Does Pay to Shop Online

My lovely Aunt told me about Ebates. She had just received her first check and even though it wasn't very much, it was something. If you do any online shopping your going to want to sign up. For those of you that have never heard of Ebates let me tell you what it is. 

Ebates is an online rebate website. When you are needing to make a purchase from an Ebates approved website you use the link from Ebates and it opens up the website and you shop as normal. After you have made a purchase, Ebates automatically applies your rebate amount to your Ebates account. Each online store has a set percentage for rebate. Here are some examples:

Ebay (yes, Ebay is on there) gives you 1%. That isn't a lot, I know, but if you do a lot of shopping on Ebay it's basically free money. 

Sears gives you 6%!

Kohl's is 6%!

Even hotel finding websites. Hotels.com will give you 3.25% in rebate money. So let's do some math here. If you were to stay in a hotel for 5 nights at $100 a night ($500) you would receive.....$16.25 into your Ebates account for purchasing something you were already going to purchase.

The Apple store gives you 1% back so buying an iPad that cost around $500 would put $5 into your account.

Again, it's not a lot, but it's things you were going to purchase anyways.

There are a TON of websites on Ebates that I will not list and they have a lot of coupons as well.

They send out checks quarterly throughout the year. They also can pay through Paypal, which is always my preferred method.

You can sign up for your account here.

If you are an existing Ebates customer please let me about your experience in the comment section below. 

Plan to Eat: A Fabulous Meal Planning Site

Hi everyone. I have just begun using Plan to Eat and I am very happy with it so far. It allows you to input your recipe from just the link, which is a huge deal for me since I find most of my recipes on Pinterest and really just don't want to have to type everything in. You can sort your recipes in many ways so I'm sure everyone will be able to find their own way to use it.

In addition to storing all of your recipes in one place this site also has a wonderful meal planning section. It's a simple drag and drop style calendar where you simply drag your recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to the correct dates and your done. Once you finish planning out your week, 2 weeks, or even a month worth of all meals in the household you can then print it out, also a big deal for me.

As if this site wasn't already awesome enough once you have your calendar planned you can then create your shopping list (which you can also print or use on your phone) for whatever dates you specify. So, if you create your meal plan for the month you can then go in each week (or however often you shop) and print your grocery list for that time period.

It is so easy to set up and use and very user friendly. Plan to Eat allows you to try it for 30 days free, without having to put in a credit card. Afterwards the pricing is not bad at all:

-1 month 4.95
or
-$39 for the whole year

Obviously, the year price is the way to go if you are going to use this site to handle all of your meal planning needs, which it is fully capable of. I can't wait to add this into my grocery routine for good!

Do you use this site? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Greek Egg Bake

I LOVE this breakfast!!

Ingredients:

• Red Onion (2 thin slices, diced)
• 1 Tomato, seeds removed
• Kalamata Olives (5 or 6)
• Greens of your choice (a handful)
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• Salt and Pepper for your eggs
• Feta Cheese (a sprinkle)
• Parmesan Cheese (a sprinkle)

As far as measurements go, I just put in whatever I want. It depends on how hungry I am :)

Procedure:

1. Dice all ingredients.
2. Cook onions in oil, butter, whatever over medium heat.
3. Once the onions have begun to brown add in the tomato and olives and cook till hot.
4. Next, thrown in the greens.
5. Once the greens have cooked down add the eggs. Stir consistently.
6. When your eggs are almost cooked add the feta and parmesan cheese.
7. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I found this recipe at Betty Crocker. The pancakes were very good and everyone really enjoyed them. You can find the recipe for the Cream Cheese frosting here.

Simple Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this frosting this morning to go with these Red Velvet Pancakes. It was so simple and tastes so delicious. It only has 4 ingredients!

Carrot Poke Cake

This morning I made Red Velvet Pancakes with this Simple Cream Cheese Frosting. I had a lot of frosting left over and didn't want it to go to waste so I bought a box of carrot cake from the store. I turned it into a poke cake.

Hamilton Beach Digital Steamer

I have been wanting a steamer for quite some time now. Steaming food does not require the use of any added butter or oils so this makes steamed food a little more healthy for you. Plus, it is so easy to do. 

I purchased the steamer above a few months ago and am now reporting back to let everyone know what I thought about it. After many uses I have decided that I LOVE this steamer. It is so easy to use. You just add water and set the timer. When it is finished it let's you know with a few beeps and there you go! Perfectly steamed vegetables every time. It comes with a time chart so you always know how long to steam things for.

It has two tiers so you can do multiple items at once. You can even steam eggs! There are little indentations where the eggs fit perfectly. You can steam up to 16 eggs, hard or soft boiled, and peeling them is easy. Well most of the time. I have had some eggs peel just perfectly and I've had others that took a little more time and patience. You can also stand up whole ears of corn in these holes and steam it as well. I haven't done this yet, but will this summer once the price of corn drops.

The product even states that you can steam fish and other meats. I have yet to try this, but am looking forward to it.

I have cooked the following in my steamer so far:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Soft Boiled Eggs

I look forward to steaming:

• Fish
• Chicken
• Asparagus
• Corn on the Cob

The price of this steamer is only $34 on Amazon. I believe it is worth every penny. If you decide you would like to add this steamer to your kitchen, please purchase it through the link above. It helps support this blog and my family. Thank you!

What have you steamed today? Let me know in the comments below.

Baked Brown Rice

I got this recipe from Good Eat's Alton Brown. It is the best brown rice and is foolproof.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Brown Rice

• 2 1/2 cups H2O

• 1 tblsp. Butter

• 1 tsp. Salt

Procedure:
1. Combine all ingredients in a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9. Cover tightly. Bake at 375 for one hour. Done.
Watch it the first few times you make it to see when it is done. Mine takes about an hour. You're going to want to check the rice starting at about 40 minutes and pull it out when almost all of the water has been absorbed. Allow it to sit with the lid on for 10 minutes to absorb the rest. DO NOT TAKE OFF THE LID.

This recipe is so simple it only needs one step.

Cabbage and Eggs

So this morning I wanted a healthy, low carb breakfast that used cabbage. I, for some reason, have two heads of cabbage in my fridge and no plans for them. I came across this recipe at Summer Tomato: Cabbage and Eggs and it is so good. I do not have any pictures yet. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be blog worthy, but I assure you the next time I make it, which will probably be tomorrow, I will take pictures.

I have changed the recipe slightly to fit me. I didn't think 1 cup of cabbage would be enough so I used two and then doubled the soy sauce. I don't take in much sodium during the day so the extra soy sauce didn't bother me. Feel free to adjust the recipe as you wish.

You can also pre-chop your cabbage ahead of time to save on prep time.

Crockpot Philly Cheesesteak (made with ground beef!)

I don't know about you, but I love a good Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. Now, what I don't like is having to use an expensive cut of meat to do this. Since we are a family of four on a one job income I can't be spending so much on just one meal, even if we do love it. I have to always be budget minded.

I found this recipe on Spend With Pennies and immediately put it on my list of dinners for this week. I knew I had to try it. It was soo good! I will definitely be putting this on our meal rotation list.

Kale and Eggs

Kale is packed full of potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin C. When you pair it with eggs you get a high protein, high vitamin breakfast that is simply delicious! This dish is easy to prepare and does not take much time. You can also wash, cut, and dry your kale ahead of time.

Simple Homemade Biscuits

These biscuits are cheap and simple to make, which is what I am all about. They take only 5 ingredients and just about a half an hour to put together. Plus, they are freezer friendly. These are great to have on hand in the freezer when you need freshly baked biscuits.