1. Crock pot oatmeal
2 apples chopped
1/3 C Brown Sugar
1 t cinnamon
2 C Old Fashioned Oats
4 C water
1 pinch salt
Let cook all night and enjoy with walnuts mixed in if you like. EVERYONE in my house liked this....Amazing!
2. Sock basket in the kitchen
I have an ongoing war with socks at my house. I can never find them when I need them and yet they are always all over my house. Plus my boys seem to think of socks and shoes at the very last moment when getting ready in the morning. I've fought this battle for years...this year I got out of the box. We now keep our(the kids) socks in the kitchen in a basket....I wish it were always full..but I'm getting better at it. It has taken a lot of stress out of my morning...I love it!
3. The grocery cart challenge blog This is a fantastic blog about a super mom who is homeschooling 4 kids and keeping her grocery bill below $100 a week! Amazing. Although I don't aspire to do this...she does have a feature on Thursdays called Recipe Swap, where tons of women link to their favorite recipes. This week I looked at all the links that I thought we would like, cut and pasted the recipes into a word document called Menu, cut and pasted the ingredients into a Word document called grocery list. Printed the list, went grocery shopping and now keep my laptop in my kitchen for dinner time. It's inspired! This simple task has helped me reduce the stress of mealtime immensely and helped me appear like Bree VandeKamp at dinner time....sans the apron.
12 comments:
ha! growing up we had our "sock pile" in my parent's room. every morning, we would go in there to get our socks and spend several minutes finding a matching pair. it was right next to our "ironing pile."
we have a sock bucket in my closet and every so often i pull it out and match socks and throw away socks that haven't been matched in a long time. good idea, though about having it in the kitchen... i'm going to consider doing this in our laundry room since i dont' have an inconspicuous place to put the basket in my kitchen...
I am going to try the oatmeal tonight. Did it feed your entire family? I'm excited about it - I've been looking for a crockpot oatmeal recipe that didn't include tons of sugar and butter.
By the way - I think it is difficult to grocery shop the way this girl does and other people on the web (moneysavingmom etc.) when you live in our area. I've heard about these women who pay 1.35 for $150 worth of groceries because they used their coupons... but they HAVE to be shopping at places that do double or triple coupon days and unless I'm an idiot, I don't know of any store in the SW suburbs that does that. In addition, we don't have many options other than Dominicks, Jewel, Aldi and Walmart - seems like these other women have some other discount grocery stores in their area... When comparing food prices between D, J, & W the difference is pretty neglible - the minimal amount that you're saving at Walmart is negated by the cost of gas to drive that far out of the way (in my opinion). Aldi, however, is definitely good for a HUGE savings in food prices - but your selection is minimal. (I've found that since I've shopped there for 6 years, I know exactly what they carry and plan around that so I don't have to make extra trips). I do go on one big Walmart trip every 6 weeks or so and stock up on toiletries and vitamins, which are much cheaper there than Walgreens or D or J... Target would be similar to Walmart for that, but Walmart has the extra groceries if I need them.
Sorry - my two cents on this based on what I've been thinking about lately.
I tried this oatmeal last night and it didn't turn out. Probably the biggest problem was that I looked at it before I went to bed and it seemed too thick so I added another cup of water - this morning it was like oatmeal soup with no texture or substance. Also - it burned and stuck to the bowl - should I grease it first? I think I'm going to try it again tonight minus the extra cup of water.
okay, we made this again last night and Dave and I thought it was good, however, I didn't like the texture as much as my regular morning oatmeal. Nora thought it was alright, but she didn't finish it (she didn't like the apples in it). Ryann didn't like it at all (but she doesn't like anything except PB&J, cereal and hot dogs right now), and Georgia thought it was good, but she was crabby about it because of Ryann's suggestion that it was bad. Ultimately, not worth it for our family right now... Which is disappointing, I thought it would be this lovely family experience, but alas not so much:)
Alright then.
I was really excited to try the oatmeal until I read Jana's comments. LOL I think I may give it a shot anyway - my children aren't fond of oatmeal but if this is really yummy then that'll be a big yeah! :)
I can't wait to check out this lady's blog - thanks for sharing! :)
(I'm confused about the socks...I just fold & put away? Am I missing something? :)
I've been having a conversation about the oatmeal with Jana on two different blogs. So, Melissa, please don't be afraid! The extra cup of water would be way too much. Everybody here loved it?? It did get stuck to the sides of the crockpot...but even that was yummy. The texture is thick and not chewy...but again feels like oatmeal should be. Just be sure to use the old fashioned oats, because the quick cooking stuff would NOT work at all. The third time I made this I did add a little more cinnamon and about 1/2 cup of sugar.
OH, and it's not you Melissa who is missing something...it is me. I just hate laundry...hate socks more and my kids never put two matching ones in the same place....It's a war only a someone with the "messy" gene would understand, so don't feel left out, instead be grateful that God gave you the gene for clean...love ya!
Oh I'm glad I checked back in! :)
I think I'll try the oatmeal this weekend. :) I'll go ahead & add your extras too. :)
Regarding socks - maybe I'm just weird. Ok, we all know I'm weird. :) I have never lost a sock. Maybe one in 14 years? LOL When socks are removed they are automatically placed in the laundry room in the basket for whites/towels/socks, etc. Then I fold after washing & put away & then we start all over again. LOL
I thought that's how everyone did it!? :)
Melissa: Can you be my mommy/wife?
I've decided that all of the girls' socks - paired and folded - will now go into a bin in the laundry room. I am going to pair them for now because I don't think my girls could handle finding a matching pair of socks amongst a bin of mismatched socks. This has saved room in their pajama/underwear drawers and is conveniently located in the same place as their shoes so getting ready is easier. I think it will also make laundry a little easier because I don't have to make piles for each of them - just one big pile of girls socks. Good suggestion!
so, I've been fighting the sock thing my whole life, however, after thinking about this, my husband has NEVER lost a sock either...this, I don't get...we (*the kids and I) are always losing socks...I have a basket in my laundry room for "lost" socks, and I've been staring at the basket in my room overflowing with socks feeling guilty because I haven't sorted and folded them...so, how joyous a day it was for me to just let that go and call it my sock basket! Since, that's really what it is anyway! I just don't think it would work in my kitchen...you know the hubby better than that!
Thanks sistafriend!
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