Chili Chops

Chili Chops


4 pork loin chops, 1/2" thick
4 onion slices
4 green pepper slices, 1/4" thick
1 bottle of chili sauce


Place the pork chops in a greased 9" square baking dish
top with onions, green peppers & chili sauce.
Cover & bake for 20-30 min @ 350 (or until meat juices run clear)

Sweet & Sour Pork

The next 3 recipes are some of our family's favorite pork recipes for Cousin Molly.  As with the other picture-less posts, I'll try & remember to get pics the next time I fix these. 


Sweet & Sour Pork


4-6 thick pork chops
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. chili sauce
1/4 c. honey


Preheat oven to 350.


Mix honey, soy & chili sauce.


Place pork chops in greased 3 qt. casserole dish.  Pour sauces over chops.  
Bake for 1 hour. 

5-Can Soup

This super simple soup is on the menu this week.  I'll do my best to try & remember to take a picture when I make it.  This recipe is just a small piece of paper torn from a cookbook so I have no idea where it came from. It is a Weight Watcher's friendly recipe having only 2 pts per 1 cup of soup.  Most shocking to me was how filling it was.

5-Can Soup

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can minestone soup
1 can mixed veggies (you can use frozen if you want)
1 can of black beans (or you can use whatever kind of beans you have on hand)


Mix all together in a pot, heat & serve.


How simple is that!?!?!

Menu Planning

When I started school, it immediately became apparent that meal time was going to be a challenge.  First off, 2 nights a week my schedule has me getting home at times that mean Liv has to either start supper or be solely responsible for getting dinner on the table.  Secondly, deciding what to fix, what to have on hand & what to buy at the store was consuming a lot of my extra time (which I have precious little of). 


So, I decided to sit down & make out 6 weeks worth of menus.  I added a section for helping Liv know what she needed to do each night. I added in all our favorites & tried to use one crockpot recipe & one soup recipe each week to keep it mixed up.  All together it took me 2-3 hours to come up with 6 weeks of menus.  

Obviously, the stress of "what am I gonna fix when I get home" disappeared. However, interestingly, a couple of benefits came from this that I hadn't expected.  


1).  Getting my grocery list together became extremely easy.


and 2). My grocery bill decreased significantly. 


Now, when it's time to get my grocery list together, I go to the kitchen, get next week's menu, pull out any needed recipes for that week, check the cabinet/freezer for what we already & add what we need to my list.  Add on the usual milk, cereal, etc. and my grocery list making is done. (These other add-ons are actually kept as a running list on a recently acquired white board in our kitchen - thanks Chad & Sheena! - so all I have to do is copy them over to my paper list, erase the board, & we're ready to start another week! )

Another benefit, is that I'm realizing that we have enough left overs during the week that I'm usually having one extra meal each week left unmade.  I either make the meal on the weekend or I put the perishable ingredients in the freezer & plan on using it for a 7th week menu comprised of "left over" meal ideas from weeks 1-6.


It was time consuming to make the menus, but it's been well worth it. I would highly recommend trying this to any family that's busy, wants to save $$$ on their grocery bill or is just sick of the "what's for dinner" stress every day. 

Country Brunch Skillet

This recipe comes from the very 1st issue of Quick Cooking magazine.  I made it years ago but had since lost/forgotten about it. I found the magazine a couple weeks back & decided I needed to make it again. It's a delicious & filling breakfast & a nice change from the usual pancakes or eggs & bacon. 

This morning's breakfast :) 

Country  Brunch Skillet

**The recipe calls for cooking bacon & crumbling, but I just used real bacon, bacon bits.  If you use bacon bits, add a few tablespoons of veg. oil to your pan before putting the hash browns in so they don't stick :) **

6 bacon strips (or real bacon, bacon bits)

6 cups of frozen cubed hash brown potatoes

3/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

6 eggs

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon; crumble & set aside.  Drain, reserving 2 TBSP of drippings. 

OR

If using bacon bits, heat 3-4 TBSP of veg. oil in pan & proceed to next step

Add potatoes, green pepper, onion, salt & pepper to drippings or oil. 

Cook & stir for 2 minutes. 

Cover & cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are browned & tender, about 15 minutes.

(Pic from Taste of Home website)

Make six wells in the potato mixture; break one egg into each well.

Cover & cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes or until eggs are completely set.  

Sprinkle with cheese & bacon. 

Nacho Soup

I came across this recipe in an old magazine I had.  Nacho Soup is soup-er easy to make & tastes soup-er great! :)  (You can thank Toby for all those bad puns :)

Nacho Soup

1 package (5-1/4 oz) au gratin potatoes

1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes & green chilies, undrained

2 cups of water

2 cups of milk

2 cups cubed processed American cheese

dash hot pepper sauce, optional

minced fresh parsley, optional

In a 3-qt saucepan, combine the potatoes and sauce mix, corn, tomatoes and water; mix well.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover & simmer for 15-18 min. or until potatoes are tender. Add milk, cheese and hot pepper sauce if desired; cook & stir until the cheese is melted.  Garnish with parsley if desired.

**I didn't use the hot pepper sauce & I didn't have any fresh parsley on hand so that got left out as well.  It still was spicy & really tasty. This is an easy to make and inexpensive supper.  I made some grilled cheese sandwiches to go with ours.

Homemade Cleaners

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Mary Hunt's Cheapskate Newsletter or that I'm...er....frugal, we'll say. Toby & Liv love to tease me when I say, "Oh wait!  I have a coupon for that."  Truth be told, though, I'm not ashamed of being considered cheap.  My "cheapness" has allowed me to be a SAHM for many years, attend college & still allow us to do a few things we want to do along the way. So it's served me (& us) well. 

When I first was introduced to homemade cleaners, I was drawn in by the lure of cleaning without harsh chemicals & ingredients I couldn't pronounce. Mine & Liv's asthma required we clean with something besides store bought cleaners & I recently read an article a friend posted about new studies linking breast cancer to household cleaners.  Health reasons were the 1st reasons I got into homemade cleaners. Since then I have realized the cost benefit as well.  


A quick internet search will net you thousands of homemade cleaner recipes.  The ones I'm going to include on this blog are the ones I personally use & can attest to their ability to do just as good a job as the brand name cleaners sold at the store.

Let me preface this blog by saying that I am a HUGE fan of vinegar so you're going to see the word "vinegar" a lot. Vinegar is one of those things that has about a million & one uses &, although it stinks while you're using it, will not leave an odor in your house.  It also does not seem to bother mine or Liv's respiratory systems. 


I mop with a strong vinegar & water mixture & I recently used vinegar to clean our carpets (put it in the carpet cleaner instead of carpet cleaning solution) & it worked fantastic! 


Side note:  Vinegar is vinegar.  I buy the cheapest (which is generally Kroger brand at my local Rulers).

My other household favorite is:  Original Blue Dawn.


My all-purpose, go-to cleaner is a mixture of Dawn & vinegar.  Now some people cut this mixture with water or use different measurements of each.  What I use works so I'm not going to tweek what works.  Feel free to tweek away if you want (& let me know how it goes if you do :) 


Take a spray bottle.  Fill it 1/4 of the way with Dawn, fill the other 3/4 with vinegar.  Put the nozzle back on & shake.  


I originally made this mixture for cleaning the showers & tubs.  (A job I absolutely loathe doing & one which I'd never found a cleaner that would really do a good job without a lot of elbow grease).  


This mixture not only does a fantastic job, it requires little scrubbing. I also use it on the sinks & toilets.  It works great for cleaning counter tops in the kitchen as well.  


I spray it on the shower/tub, toilet, & sink & let it sit for a few minutes.  Then come back & wash everything down, rinse, & I'm done.  One of the greatest things about this mixture (besides it's lack of requiring massive amounts of scrubbing) is that it retards mold & mildew growth. I've been amazed at how well it fights off nasty mold & mildew in the bathroom & even on the shower curtains/doors.


Glass/Mirror cleaner:


1 c. alcohol
1 c. water
1 Tablespoon vinegar


Mix these together in a spray bottle & you have a great window, mirror & glass cleaner that doesn't streak. 


Homemade Laundry Soap


There are nearly as many homemade laundry soap recipes out there as homemade cleaner websites.  The following was given to me by my friend, Allison & is used by many people I know. (According to a friend who uses it in her HE washer & several other sources I've read, it is safe for use in HE washing machines too.  It doesn't create suds.)


It is super easy to make, is a GREAT stain remover (it actually took out stains that had been in a couple of items for many washings & dryings!) & is VERY cheap to make.


I've also heard that it has been recommended by an asthma doctor for his patients because it is great for people with allergies & asthma.  So that's another plus!


12 cups Borax
8 cups baking soda
8 cups washing soda
8 cups Fels Naptha (finely grated)
(*Note:  1 bar of Fels Naptha = approx. 2 cups grated)


It's important to get the Fels Naptha grated very finely so it can dissolve quickly in the wash water.  I recently used my food processor to grate mine.  (I grated it with the grater attachment & then ran it through the chopping process).  Since it's just soap, it didn't hurt anything & the food processor & attachments washed up just fine. 


To use:  add approx. 2 Tbsp to washer


One other thing I've noticed with this soap: I don't really have much need for fabric softener or dryer sheets.  The clothes are soft, smell good (without smelling "flowery"), and have little to no static after being dried.  


I didn't make the full batch above, but I bought enough to make about 3/4 of the above batch. I didn't figure it up exactly, but the ingredients cost me less than $10 & I will end up getting probably about 1-1/2 - 2 months worth of washing out of 3/4 batch. Considering I use to buy at least 1 of the big bottles of Tide per month, plus a bottle of Downey & at least 1-2 boxes of Bounce....I'd say the savings is pretty obvious :) 


Grease Stain Remover:


The best thing I have found to remove grease stains from clothes:  Plain ol' Original Dawn.  


Yep, I've even had it take out old grease stains that had been washed, dried & were set-in.  (Obviously, it's much easier if you catch it before you wash it, but I'm notorious for forgetting & washing stained clothes...)


Simply put full strength Dawn on the grease stains, allow to sit & soak into the fabric (I usually let mine sit at least overnight) & wash.  This almost always works.  I've only had a couple of REALLY bad grease stains that wouldn't come completely out with this method. 


This is my most commonly used cleaners.  I have some recipes for homemade drain cleaners that I am going to put to the test next week on a slow draining bathroom sink.  I'll try & remember to post if I find a good recipe :) 


In the meantime, Happy Homemade Cleaning!!!