Catching up....

Well I never finished the TV Dinner posts so a quick catch up on what I ended up having. So we did the Chicken Fingers, Mac and Cheese Banquet meal and I made homemade onion rings for that one. Basically what I did was I bought 4 of the same kinds of dinners and we had 1 each for 2 weeks. The dinners I got:

1. Cheesy Beef Patty
2. Chicken Fingers and Mac and Cheese
3. Rigatoni
4. Lasagna
5. Chicken Nuggets, Mashed potatoes, Corn
6. Salisbury Steak, Mashed potatoes, Corn
7. Chicken Fried Chicken, Mashed potatoes, Corn

What I added to each:

1. (Previous Post)
2. Homemade Onion Rings (will post recipe soon)
3. Salad and Mozzarella bread
4. Garlic Bread
5. I also made my own mashed potatoes (since they only give you a scoop :D), and homemade mac and cheese.
6. Made my own mashed potatoes again, green beans
7. I made black eyed peas, and broccoli and cheese

Sorry for the boring post- I have been super busy with going on vacation and my mom ended up coming for a visit- having to have back surgery so I went back to Arkansas for 2 weeks, and then School was starting so it has been crazy around here! I just wanted to do this quick catch up and get on to the fun stuff! Halloween is just around the corner! So this weekend I plan on cleaning the house and getting it ready for fall! I have been all over the Internet looking for decorating Ideas so I am excited to see what I come up with! Have a good night all and check back this weekend to see what kind of decor I find :D ~Kimberly

Cheesy Beef Patty with Sautéed Peppers and Onions!

OK for my first night of TV dinners I started with the Banquet Cheesy Smothered Charbroiled Patty and Mashed Potatoes meal. I had never had this one myself so I was kind of worried if I would like it. When I first seen it at the store I instantly thought oh I could do something like TGIF's sizzling chicken and cheese!(which I have made recently and need to get posted :D). So this will probably be the most "enhanced" meal that I do, I will probably just add veggies and such to the others. OK to start just get the cheesy smothered charbroiled patty meal like below.

So the back of the box says to remove film from the potatoes and place on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. So do this first. While your meal is cooking go ahead and get your cutting board, a knife, bell pepper (washed), and a peeled half of an onion ready.

 

Go ahead and slice your bell pepper into strips like so, you will want to do the same with your onion or I just cut my half into half (fourths) and then chopped each half up. Then put all into a small saute pan.

Next you want to add about 1 table spoon of butter or vegetable oil into your pan and saute on medium heat for maybe 5 minutes or so until they get a little brown or if you like them a lot brown like me you can leave them in a little longer like the picture below.

To me the dinner seemed kind of southwestern so I thought adding some ranch style beans would be a good touch plus with the spoonful of potatoes they give you, you need something else to go with it!

So I just used regular ranch style beans, simple to prepare, just open the can and heat until hot!

So this is what the meals look like straight from the oven! Not very tasty at all right? Well I read some where that if you eat TV Dinners to always put them on a plate instead of eating from the tray because the portions make you feel like you are eating less and you are are more likely to eat more later. So first I put my sauteed veggies on the plates then I topped them with the cheesy patty, and put the scoop of potatoes on the plate too.

I think the finished product looks much nicer, and a lot more tasty! As you can see I added just a pinch of  shredded cheddar cheese to the top because there really was not much cheese on them. I also added some sliced tomato which I think was a nice addition, it kind of gave it a sweeter flavor. And of course some "Texas Toast" which was actually wheat bread with "I can't believe it's not butter" sprayed on top!

For dessert tonight I mashed strawberries and mixed in about 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar!

Over all I believe this meal came out very well. It was actually really flavorful, and my husband and I were both full after eating. I also don't think it was too unhealthy either. The meal itself was 280 calories for the meat patty and potatoes, so then the calories from the butter, veggies, beans(which was probably around 65) and bread, I didn't add them up but surely it was not over 500 calories! So not too bad for a TV Dinner! As for the total cost of the meal, of course I already had bread and I only used 2 slices at that, the meal was 1.00, the beans were .69, tomatoes were .99 a pound I only used one so maybe .25 for that, .49 for the bell pepper, onions were 1.49 per pound and I used half of one so maybe .35 that comes to about 3.00 FOR 2 PEOPLE. This will for sure be added to our menu list to do again another time! I hope you enjoy it if you give it a try! 

Check back tomorrow for Chicken Fingers, Mac and Cheese and Homemade Onion Rings and a Brownie for dessert!!

Crazy Tv Dinner Idea

OK, so my husband and I are going on vacation at the end of the month and last week we were brainstorming on ways we could save a little more money. One of his ideas was to eat TV dinners for the next few weeks instead of spending a bunch of money and cooking every night. At first I laughed! But when all else failed as far as where to cut back on expenses groceries was honestly the only way to go about it. So once I put some serious consideration into it, I had an idea. Instead of just TV dinners, which are not so healthy little alone very filling I would buy TV dinners and then "add something" to them for each night. I chose to go with the Banquet dinners, because not only do they offer the widest variety but they are also the cheapest, at about $1.00 per meal. Banquet is also rather low on the calorie side compared to a few of the other brands. So we needed 18 days of meals which is 36 dinners. As well as the extra sides and dessert! I plan on doing a blog for every TV dinner I "enhance" over the next 2 weeks starting today. However, I want to add here that my total came up to about $128  after I bought the dinners and extras. This is feeding us for a month, starting from June 6th which is when I bought groceries and we will be leaving for vacation on July 2nd. - I also had 8 days worth of food saved up from the previous week so that is why it is only 18 days instead 26. This is good for us at $128 for a month because usually we buy groceries every 2 weeks and the total is never under $250! So we would regularly spend $500 a month and this time only $128 saved us almost $380 which will pay for our food on our trip! The store also had a limited variety so I had to get several of the same meals for more than one night, so my plan is to use the TV dinners until we are repeating the ones we had and I will cook a normal meal, then start over with the TV dinners. So let's get started! My next blog will be on tonight's first dinner!

Just a little bit about me!

OK so now I have got a few "how to" posts up, and still have a little time before the hubby gets up so I thought I would just write a little about my life and such. So my husband Brandon recently got a great job as a diesel mechanic in Wyoming. So we packed up our entire life and moved 2000 miles away from out little home town in Arkansas. I was a little scared at first, being as the farthest I have moved from my parents and family was 30 miles away and pretty much seen them at least once a week since I was born. But now that we are here and settled down I absolutely love it! I am going to the local college and just finished my first semester! I am also taking a few summer classes. I know my minor is going to be business however, I am not dead set on a major although I do have a pretty good idea of what I would like to do. Brandon and I try to be pretty active as far as getting out and exploring our town, I think that this has really helped me in adjusting to the move. One of my main fears was getting lost and not knowing how to get back home. So we get out and explore and drive to new places together so I feel like I really know where I am going when I set out to go somewhere. This has also been helpful in meeting new people. The one thing that I do miss about Arkansas is being able to drive 5 minutes to go shopping, here it is a good 2 hours to get to a mall or even a chain restaurant. We have however, found several great restaurants that we love not far from home. Some other things we have done to get to know our town better is going to the local attractions, like the circus, the different parks, a rodeo, we also took a drive to Devils Tower which was beautiful. Today we are actually planning on going to a car show and going to check out the local lakes. So overall I think the move has been wonderful for us and I can not wait to see what the future brings. Some more about me... I love Mario, Mario 64, Super Mario World, Super Mario Brothers Wii, just about all of them :D. The problem is I will be stuck in front of the t.v for days if I start playing any of them! I love love love movies, mainly movies from my childhood that bring back good memories, but I am a movie freak. I also love netflix! Not so much for the movies but for the t.v show selection that they have. I am addicted to Secret Life, Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game, and Make it or Break it was one of my favorites! Now I would have to say the Big Bang Theory is my most favorite, and I often find myself watching repeats lol. As I mentioned in my about me section, I love to take pictures and that is probably my favorite thing to do with my spare time. I like to take pictures of anything and everything, I love to scrapbook as well. I am also a Christmas NUT I love to decorate for Christmas, and have a habit of buying too many Christmas decorations! Now I also mentioned in my about me that I am a food nut, really I love to cook, I like to cook anything and everything and especially new things. There is nothing more exciting than being absolutely terrified of what something will taste like in that moment when you can't recall if you did exactly what the recipe said, or if you changed it up just a little and are worried if it will be worth eating and then when you finally taste it, it is better than you could have ever imagined! That to me is just the best feeling. Now before I got married, almost 2 years ago, I put on about 25-30 pounds over a 5 month period. So my main goal when we got to Wyoming was to lose the weight. It made me crazy that I went from a size 0 to a size 6 in just a few months. So I will say I have tried all kinds of diets in the past 6 months; counting calories, a weight watchers simulator, the Acai pill (which only made me sick), and the Special K Challenge. But the thing that honestly has worked best for me is limiting what I eat and exercise. So instead of counting calories, I cook~ I generally try to make it healthy, but not overly so, and do the portions where you put half your plate veggie a fourth protein, and a fourth grain, I think is how it is, now this does not always work, but in that case I eat until I feel full and do not push myself, I also DO NOT drink carbonated drinks, I drink water, diet green tea(sometimes), milk, or orange juice, and then every night with dinner I have 1 8oz glass of sweet tea, and I always have a glass of water with it, so when I drink all of my tea then instead of getting up to get more I immediately have the water. Some examples of what I eat daily would be, a toaster strudle for breakfast with milk or orange juice, or special k cereal, for lunch, I have soup (chicken noodle, broccoli cheese, tomato), or a turkey or ham sandwich, if I grab fast food for lunch I try to make it something small like the little cheese burger at McDonald's with a small order of fries and a bottle of water, or I get subway. Typical dinners may be homemade pizza (2 slices), grilled chicken salad, chicken and rice (usually the rice a roni recipe), grilled chicken and veggies, "hobo" dinners, grilled tuna sandwiches with sunchips, chicken enchiladas and rice, meatloaf with 2 veggies, turkey spaghetti, taco salad (with turkey), pork roast, hamburger steak, etc... So I do not generally cut out tasty food to lose weight, when I have tried, I often find that I am hungry later, usually while I am trying to sleep, and then I just gain more weight( this is what happened on the special k challenge, I could not stand all of the sweets for one, but I ate what the plan said anyway and then around midnight or so I would be starving, by then end of the challenge I had actually gained 4 pounds.) So anyways I watch my portions as well as exercise. I try to walk 2.5-3 miles a day a couple times a week (usually around 3 times) but I like to try and make it 4 a week if possible, and then I also have an ab circle pro, and I know several people say that it does not work however, if you use it properly I believe it does. I do not only do it for 3 minutes a day I do 5 minutes and am working my way up to 10 minutes right now 3 days a week but hopefully will get to 4 a week with it as well. Now doing all of this believe it or not in the past 2 months I have lost 10 pounds, and gone from a size 6 back down to a 4. But, just because this works for me does not mean it will work for someone else, I am just stating what has helped me to lose weight. I still have a ways to go, but I am proud of myself for the time being. So anyways, I think that is enough about me for one day! Everyone have a great day!!

~Kimberly



Yummy Pizza!!

So my husband and I met when I was in the 8th grade and started dating about a year later. One of the things we LOVED to do when we were dating was to cook together. We made all kinds of things, however, our favorite (to this day) is our "Homemade Pizza." It is super simple to make and is less homemade than just thrown together. Non the less, our families still call us and ask us to make them one of our pizzas :D Whether you just want to try for yourself or are looking for something new to do with your special someone, it is super fun either way! So here is how we do it....

So we use Mama Mary's crust and all of the above ingredients will make 2 Pizzas, with the exception of the cheese, to make 2 you would need 4 cups of pizza cheese (2 cups per pizza). Then pizza sauce, we have always used Great Value, but I am sure any kind would taste great, Hormel Pepperoni (original), and we use sliced olives and bell pepper. We have also added Roma tomatoes before but this time I didn't use them. You could add anything you want, pineapple, onion, whatever you like!

First I preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the pizza stone in the oven. (If you do not have a pizza stone skip this step) then use the pizza pan to make your pizza. If you are not going to make to pizzas at this time you will want to put your extra crust in the provided plastic bag and store it in the fridge until ready to use.

Like So...

Next, you will need some veggie oil, or olive oil your choice. Enough to cover the entire pizza lightly.

Use a brush to lightly glaze the crust, this helps make it crispier and helps the sauce too.

Now using the same brush pour about half of the jar of sauce onto the crust and spread it around, avoiding the outer "crust" area of course.

It does not have to be perfect :D

Now spread your cheese around on the sauce like so...

Don't worry when it melts it will fill any gaps.

Now for your toppings...

Pepperoni

The next few pictures are of how I slice the bell pepper, you can do it however is easiest for you, I like doing it this way because I have almost cut myself too many times! (I only use one half of the bell pepper per pizza).

Starting at the top of the pepper and cut straight down the center. Now take your thumb and finger and pull down on the white center part like above. This will pull out the pulp and some seeds without having to cut the pepper and loosing most of it. You can pop/tap the pepper in your hand lightly a few times to get the remaining seeds out.

The Clean center and you still have the top in tact.

Now cut 3-4 small slices (see the 2 slices on the bottom of mine in the picture) in the top and bottom side of your pepper and take your palm and flatten the pepper. Now you are ready to slice!  Just slice slim strips until your pepper is all cut.

Now I take the slim slices and cut them right in the middle to make them a little shorter.

Now open your olives and drain(use about half a can per pizza) place them around your pizza as well as the pepper, and any other topping you would like!

Also USING OVEN MITTS take your stone out of the oven and CAREFULLY place your pizza onto the stone, be aware that because of the oil we put on the pizza earlier it is most likely going to sizzle and pop on the hot stone so be careful not to get popped or burned on the stone.

Bake your pizza 10-15 minutes at 350 until desired crispiness is achieved. I like crispy crust so I do 15 minutes!

Yummy Pizza!

Hope you enjoy! We buy groceries once every 2 weeks so this pizza is great! It is super simple to make when you get home late from work and we can make it once a week for 2 weeks! The ingredients we get for it generally cost us about $12 so $6 for 2 days is not bad. We also usually have 2 slices left over- one for each of our lunches the next day! *To make the pizza go further we have also made garlic bread, parmesean bread, or our favorite with this pizza is the Bisquick garlic cheese biscuits (you can get the mix in the flour isle at Wal-Mart)

~Kimberly

If you haven't tried this yet....

Just a quick thing that I LOVE. If you have hard water that leaves your glasses and pots and pans spotty then give this a try!

I love Lemi Shine! I tried it maybe about 4 months ago, after trying other products that only made spotting worse, or didn't seem to make a difference. I usually go through a bottle of the cleaner every 2 weeks and the rinse aid I have had for 3 months and just now going to have to buy a new bottle! The original cleaner is around $3.00 at Wal-Mart, I think, maybe a little more. But worth giving a try if you have never tried it before :D ~ You have to use this along with a detergent, on the back it says for best results use a powder detergent but I have used both cascade liquid, and palmolive liquid and they seem to do great, I like the smell that Palmolive Green Apple has though!

Time To Clean The Stove... AGAIN

So if you are like me, you have probably at one time or another noticed that yellowish sticky mess all over your stove top. No matter what you use- 409, Spic and Span, it just does not seem to want to come off and it just gets stickier and stickier with every try. Most likely the sticky stuff is dried oil. Now I don't often deep fry food on my stove, we have a deep frier for that, but things like browning hamburger meat, frying pork chops, or maybe the oil from your stir fry splattering on the stove could cause this icky mess! So my stove recently needed a good cleaning and after trying to scrub it for about 30 minutes with a household cleaner I decided to search the internet for the best way to clean the sticky mess! I read many sites, and one gave me an idea, it had 4 suggestions of common every day house hold chemicals to clean the dried on oil splatter. I had all 4 at home so I decided to do my own little experiment and find which in my opinion works best! So the 4 cleaners I used were; White Vinegar, Dawn Dishwashing Liquid, Baking Soda, and Vegetable Oil.

So after I gathered my "cleaners" I also got 4 dish cloths, paper towels, an old tooth brush, ran some hot water(as hot as I could stand to touch), and took the grates off of the stove top.

Now I used one cleaner per burner area of the stove. I actually thought the vinegar would work best so I used it on the worst area.

The next few pictures were taken before I began to clean the stove, with the exception of the baking soda, I started with it before I thought to take a picture but it was not as coated with grease as the other burners.

                                                                           Vinegar

                                                             Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

                                                                     Baking Soda

                                                                      Vegetable Oil

So now I let the vinegar sit for about 20 minutes, I soaked a cloth in very hot water, once again I used water as hot as I could stand to touch, and poured a bit of the dawn on the cloth (enough to make it good and sudsy, and then began to scrub the oil, after a few minutes (5 at the most) it had only taken away a small amount of the oil, so I covered the next burner area with baking soda, and while letting it sit I poured a bit of veggie oil onto a paper towel and began scrubbing the last burner area with the paper towel, it was quick to notice that the vegetable oil was working, however it was only cleaning the small areas of oil, if the spot was very thick or sticky at all it hardly cleaned it, I imagine it would have taken all day for the oil to work. The ideal behind this was that oil cleans oil, and it did just not for the amount that I had on the stove. So now the baking soda had been sitting for about 3 minutes or so, and once again I took a cloth and wet it with hot water, ringed it and began to scrub. I was AMAZED,  it took the mess off instantly and with ver little scrubbing! Now on tougher spots I did have to use a little more elbow grease but nothing to extensive. Baking soda is non-abrasive therefore it will not scratch your stove! Also here is where the old tooth brush came in, I put a bit of water on the brush and used it to get around the small areas (like right around the edge of the burner) and in the corners of the burner area. Up until now I had been cleaning for about 20 minutes, and figured the vinegar had sat long enough so I took a hot dish cloth and started to scrub, it took no time for me to realize that the vinegar was not working like I thought it would. It barely even cleaned as much as the oil cleaned. The mess was just so sticky it just kept getting stickier and stickier.

Here are the after pictures right after I cleaned up the vinegar that was left on the stove.

                                                                             Vinegar

                                                           Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

                                                                         Baking Soda

 

Vegetable Oil

So as you can tell the Dawn, and Baking soda were the 2 that worked the best, now I like Dawn, but I will say it took a lot more scrubbing then what I would prefer to do. I was very suprised (although my husband wasn't) that the Baking soda did work so well, there was very little scrubbing, and after I finished cleaning the other cleaners up with hot water I used baking soda on the entire stove and I am very pleased with my results and will continue to use baking soda when my stove needs to be cleaned!

After I cleaned up the stove it took me another 10 minutes to scrub with the baking soda, so I imagine it would have only taken 5-10 minutes to use baking soda to clean the entire stove :D

*Note- make sure you clean all of the vinegar from your stove before applying the baking soda to the same area, or it will bubble up on you :D

Here are some pictures of the stove after I finished cleaning using the Baking Soda.

After I finished cleaning up the excess baking soda, I sprayed the stove with Fantastik and wiped it down with a paper towel to make it a little more shiny!

I hope this helps if you are having trouble getting your stove clean!

~Kimberly