A few weeks ago we were buying groceries at Aldi and I was comparing the prices of the different cuts of chicken. It was daunting. So all the way at the bottom of the freezer section were the whole chickens. Now, I had never purchased a whole chicken because I didn't really know how to cook them to get a good flavor and I had no idea how to cut them properly. But when I compared the prices, I figured I would figure it out!!!!
I have a perfect glass dish to put the chicken in for baking. I rinse my chicken, cut up potatoes, throw them in the dish and top with about half a bottle of lemon pepper marinade from Aldi ($.99). I bake at 325 for approximately 3 hours with the lid on. When done, there are about 2 cups of chicken stock in the bottom of the dish. I use the chicken stock to create a gravy to make home made chicken pot pie. I accidentally left out the chicken meat a few weeks ago for my "chicken" pot pie but I had used my left over chicken stock and you couldn't tell the chicken was missing!! Use the cut up potatoes for your pot pie, also. That is meal number one from my whole chicken. I then used half of the chicken meat to make chicken salad for the children and I for lunch the next day. For dinner that evening I used the remaining half of the chicken to make a rice, broccoli, and chicken cassarole. You could also use part of the meat for chicken noodle soup. I'm sure you have a gazillion uses for chicken meals!!!
So that is how I get at least 3 meals for my family of 5 (the twins don't eat real food yet) out of one chicken!! Talk about stretching your dollars!!!!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Money and Meal Stretching Tip - French Toast Bites
My family is a little bit picky about bread. If the bread starts to get dry, they aren't fond of eating it. That's okay. Introducing French Toast Bites!!!!! Take your bread that is getting a little stale, obviously no mold, and tear it up into pieces. Make your french toast mixture. I use eggs, milk, and a touch of vanilla in mine. Then, toss your pieces of bread in your egg mixture until completely coated. Fry on the stove top until done. Put on a plate or in a bowl and drizzle with syrup. Voila!!!! French Toast Bites. My kids think they are the greatest and have no idea that mommy has put to use that "dry bread" that they don't like.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Having a Baby Changed My Life
I knew having a baby would change our family. I knew having twins was going to be a complete upheaval. I wasn't prepared for how having these babies would change us as a family unit and how much it would change me.
After Lydia was born, 3 years ago on the 26th, I had a very difficult time. I'm sure anybody who knows me personally didn't much enjoy me. I struggled with depression. Daniel's work schedule was very hard. Elijah was extremely difficult to deal with. I was fighting my life. I wasn't content in anything. It was a very hard time. So when Daniel very seriously started talking about wanting a baby, I fought that, too. I didn't WANT another baby. I felt like I couldn't handle the children I had. Throw on top of that being sick every 45 minutes all day with a pregnancy . . . . . . no thank you. But the Lord worked on my heart. And one day He told me that when the time came that I was ready for another baby, I might not be ABLE to have another baby. Wow. Talk about a punch in the gut. So along comes that first, faint, positive pregnancy test.
I'll fast forward to just after the birth of the twins. It was hard. I had to have a 4 unit blood transfusion and that was scary. I felt awful after the birth from being so anemic for so long and the ordeal of the birth and transfusion. I had no idea how hard it would be on my body to have been that low for so long. Adjusting to their births was more time consuming than I had thought. It was a good 10 days before I felt "maternal" towards them. But then it just seemed like things clicked one day and I realized these babies were the greatest thing that had ever happened to me.
All the sudden I was so content in my life. The babies didn't require an overwhelming amount of work. More work? Yes, of course. I was exclusively pumping for both of them and changing diapers and feedings and taking care of the other children was/is truly a full time job. (Praise the Lord we no longer pump. They both nurse now.) But it all just seemed to flow somehow. I'm enjoying my life so much more than I did before they were here. And I don't know if I'm enjoying the "twin" aspect of it. Maybe I would have settled in the same way had we had another singleton. Maybe God knew the uniqueness of having multiples would settle me - I don't know. But I'm having the time of my life. They just "fit". I've never been more settled and content. Someone used the phrase "calming influence" and that is precisely what has been brought to our home with their births.
Yes, having twins is a lot of work. But it doesn't really feel like SO MUCH WORK now that they are here. They are so much fun. And its a truly wonderful thing to watch my older children interacting with the babies and each other. I'm having fun watching them grow and develop. Its very interesting to have 2 babies the exact same age and watching them do the exact same things at the exact same times. Yet they are so different. And its a joy to see some of the character traits that we've been TRYING to instill in our older children coming out in how they deal with the babies. Elijah is so gentle and even Lydia is amazing with them. Abi is the "little mother" that I expected her to be, maybe even more than I thought she would be!
Looking forward to what the Lord has in store for the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
After Lydia was born, 3 years ago on the 26th, I had a very difficult time. I'm sure anybody who knows me personally didn't much enjoy me. I struggled with depression. Daniel's work schedule was very hard. Elijah was extremely difficult to deal with. I was fighting my life. I wasn't content in anything. It was a very hard time. So when Daniel very seriously started talking about wanting a baby, I fought that, too. I didn't WANT another baby. I felt like I couldn't handle the children I had. Throw on top of that being sick every 45 minutes all day with a pregnancy . . . . . . no thank you. But the Lord worked on my heart. And one day He told me that when the time came that I was ready for another baby, I might not be ABLE to have another baby. Wow. Talk about a punch in the gut. So along comes that first, faint, positive pregnancy test.
I'll fast forward to just after the birth of the twins. It was hard. I had to have a 4 unit blood transfusion and that was scary. I felt awful after the birth from being so anemic for so long and the ordeal of the birth and transfusion. I had no idea how hard it would be on my body to have been that low for so long. Adjusting to their births was more time consuming than I had thought. It was a good 10 days before I felt "maternal" towards them. But then it just seemed like things clicked one day and I realized these babies were the greatest thing that had ever happened to me.
All the sudden I was so content in my life. The babies didn't require an overwhelming amount of work. More work? Yes, of course. I was exclusively pumping for both of them and changing diapers and feedings and taking care of the other children was/is truly a full time job. (Praise the Lord we no longer pump. They both nurse now.) But it all just seemed to flow somehow. I'm enjoying my life so much more than I did before they were here. And I don't know if I'm enjoying the "twin" aspect of it. Maybe I would have settled in the same way had we had another singleton. Maybe God knew the uniqueness of having multiples would settle me - I don't know. But I'm having the time of my life. They just "fit". I've never been more settled and content. Someone used the phrase "calming influence" and that is precisely what has been brought to our home with their births.
Yes, having twins is a lot of work. But it doesn't really feel like SO MUCH WORK now that they are here. They are so much fun. And its a truly wonderful thing to watch my older children interacting with the babies and each other. I'm having fun watching them grow and develop. Its very interesting to have 2 babies the exact same age and watching them do the exact same things at the exact same times. Yet they are so different. And its a joy to see some of the character traits that we've been TRYING to instill in our older children coming out in how they deal with the babies. Elijah is so gentle and even Lydia is amazing with them. Abi is the "little mother" that I expected her to be, maybe even more than I thought she would be!
Looking forward to what the Lord has in store for the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Yep - I'm a Loser!! (In more ways than one!)
So I knew to start blogging would be a hit and miss thing with me! I've been "missing" for a while, I guess. Almost a year since I last posted. But to say our life has changed and that I've been a bit busy would be a gross understatement.
The twins were born May 28th. They are now almost 5 months old! Its taken me this long to figure things out and get things situated. We are finally settling into life and some seblence of a routine and I thought I might try blogging again. I'll be posting some pictures from their birth and since then. I can't post any more recent pictures because my digital camera finally died, so sad, so nothing within the last month or two.
I'm currently working on cutting out a doll pattern to hopefully make the girls some dolls. Not that they need any but I would like to see if I can do it.
OH!! And the biggest way I'm a loser . . . . . . . . I've lost 61 pounds since the twins were born! I have about 73-75 more to go! All kinds of weird issues there! I didn't think losing weight and going down 4 (or 8 - depending on how you look at it) would effect me mentally so much. Its a double edged sword. But more on that later.
So I'll get a family update posted here in the next day or two and I hope to start updating my blog several times a week.
Best to all!!
The twins were born May 28th. They are now almost 5 months old! Its taken me this long to figure things out and get things situated. We are finally settling into life and some seblence of a routine and I thought I might try blogging again. I'll be posting some pictures from their birth and since then. I can't post any more recent pictures because my digital camera finally died, so sad, so nothing within the last month or two.
I'm currently working on cutting out a doll pattern to hopefully make the girls some dolls. Not that they need any but I would like to see if I can do it.
OH!! And the biggest way I'm a loser . . . . . . . . I've lost 61 pounds since the twins were born! I have about 73-75 more to go! All kinds of weird issues there! I didn't think losing weight and going down 4 (or 8 - depending on how you look at it) would effect me mentally so much. Its a double edged sword. But more on that later.
So I'll get a family update posted here in the next day or two and I hope to start updating my blog several times a week.
Best to all!!
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