My Herb Garden

I am so excited to be settled into our new home. A few weeks ago, I started some projects that I had been waiting to start. One of the projects was my herb garden. Our family loves using fresh herbs in our cooking, so I thought it would be fun to have the kids help me plant the seeds and watch them grow. Every day the girls help me water the plants. It teaches them some responsibility and gives me a little help as well.

After a few weeks, our herbs are off to a great start! We planted our favorite and most used herbs basil, oregano, and parsley, but we are planning to add to our garden since it has been a success.
Growing your own herbs saves money and it is a fun project for the kids. My herb garden Works for Me!

-Robin

Share your money saving link tomorrow on Thrifty Thursday!

Grateful For Apple Season!

Here in the Midwest, the apple orchards are filled with fun family activities and loads of apples ready to be picked. We are super excited because our favorite variety, Honeycrisp, just became available! Apples were a bit late here due to our unusually cool summer, but we are happy to help harvest them now!

Heading out to several local orchards is one of my favorite fall activites. I love the joy of choosing the perfect apples together. I love to watch my kids try to carry our haul to be weighed, each of us guessing what the total will be. I love the fresh donuts and cider available in the little shops. And, we have become huge fans of corn mazes. We have two on our list this year and we're just waiting for a rain-free weekend to tackle them. Of course, the best benefit is the huge supply of fresh apples that grace our home for weeks after our visits.

I am always grateful for opportunities to make wonderful memories with my family, and apple season is one of our favorite times of the year. On this Gratituesday, I am thankful for this time of year.

-Julie

My Favorite Fruit Salad

Last week, I found my recipe for Seven Cup Salad. The name gives it away. It is literally one cup of seven items mixed together to make a wonderful fruit salad.

Seven Cup Salad

1 c. Coconut
1 c. Mandarin oranges
1 c. Chunk Pineapple
1 c. Sour cream
1 c. Cool whip, thawed
1 c. Pecans or walnuts
1 c. Miniature marshmallows

My kids and I love this salad. I hope you will give it a try! Enjoy Menu Plan Monday!

-Robin

Happy Sunday!

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24 NIV

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

My husband and I are big on safety in the house. The start of fall always reminds me that lots of families will soon be using gas for heating in their homes. We are strong believers in carbon monoxide detectors and have them in each bedroom and in the hallway. They are all plugged in to the wall with batteries as back up. There is no gas connected to our house, but our garage is connected to the house.

I hope you will consider a carbon monoxide detector to protect your family. You may want to consider taking them on your winter vacations just in case they aren’t provided in your cabin.

-Robin

Book Review

One of my favorite, recent book finds is What To Read When by Pam Allyn. This is a gem of a book that should be part of every household's library. Some of our favorite family time is spent reading together and this is a wonderful resource.

I believe that reading aloud to your children is one of the most powerful things that you can do. That time together and the bonding experience of sharing good literature cannot be topped.

From the back cover:

What To Read When is a celebration of storytelling, of new worlds to explore and the sense of endless possibility that parents and children can discover together through books.

Ms. Allyn gives recommendations of books by age and by subject matter. I hope that you will take the time to look thru this newer release.

-Julie

Thrifty Thursday-Freezer Chicken Mix

I am so excited to share this Thrifty Thursday with you. My family has been practicing low cost eating now for a while. We have found that sometimes it is cheaper if you find a sale on chicken breasts and stock up or buy them in bulk. My favorite is boneless skinless chicken breast. I know they actually cost more, but sometimes I find that I am in a rush during food preparation. At times, I have found bones in my chicken while eating if I buy whole chicken or bone-in chicken breasts. For this reason, it is actually worth buying boneless skinless chicken breasts for us. My children are very small and will choke easily if I accidently miss a small bone.

Our children start to get restless about an hour before dinner time. It is sometimes hard to keep them entertained and make dinner at the same time. So, I buy chicken breasts on sale and boil about 14 chicken breasts at one time. I got this idea from my Make-A-Mix book. It has a recipe for “Chicken Mix.” You can follow their recipe or boil chicken with the spices you like. After the chicken is boiled, pull the meat apart, wait for it to cool and then place it in labeled quart size freezer bags. If you need a quick meal like chicken tacos, chicken and dumplings, chicken casserole, etc. just thaw the chicken and you can have a quick meal in no time.
One of the best things about making a “chicken mix” is that you can save all of the chicken stock. I strain the chicken stock and put it in the refrigerator to let it cool. Then, skim any fat off the top and save the stock in labeled freezer bags. This is a great money saving technique as canned chicken stock is expensive.

Here is a list of suggestions to add to your boiling chicken for great chicken and tasty stock.

Chicken Mix

14 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Carrots
Parsley
Garlic
Dried Basil
Salt and pepper

Stock up while chicken breasts are on sale and do some meal preparation ahead of time.

-Robin

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