What's Cooking Thursdays? French Bread

Welcome to What's Cooking Thursday! A place for you to link up whatever it is you've been cooking at your house! Not a blogger? Leave your recipe in the comment section. Look for a featured recipe next week. Feel free to link up as many recipes as you'd like, all I ask is that you link back to What's Cooking Thursday!





As promised, I finally have a recipe to share! :) One of the things hubby didn't like about homemade bread was the crust was always too hard for him. This bread doesn't have a hard crust, but it is really good.

French Bread - Joy In My Kitchen


1 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast

3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. butter
Combine water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Let sit until it becomes bubbly and doubles in size, about 10 minutes. Add flour, salt and butter. Knead (I used my kitchen aid) for 8 minutes. Let rise 45 minutes, shape into loaf, let rise 45 minutes more. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Chicken Empanadas

Baked Blueberry French Toast

What have you been cooking this week?

Friendly Wednesday 6/29

Welcome to the Friendly Wednesday Blog Hop! I'm glad you're here!


Thank you to all the bloggers who linked up last week!

Please feel free to grab the button (located in the right side bar) and add it to your blog to get more bloggers to participate in the blog hop!!




How to Participate:

Follow the hostesses - Feeding Four and Scraps of Life Blog. If you want me to follow you back, please leave a comment letting me know that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog.

Create a new Friendly Wednesday blog post on your own blog and be sure to use the button provided on the side bar.

Enter your information into the linkup below.

Follow all the other blogs you want. This is a great way to get more followers!

Friendly Wednesday will be posted once a week. Your link must be added every week so be sure to come back to linkup!

Grocery Trips (6/24)

I went wayy over my grocery budget for the month. But really, I didn't use any of my grocery budget. Let me explain....

I have been babysitting a lot lately. Like every. single. day. I've been taking that money and stashing it away. I don't want it to be spent on bills or stuff we need. That's what hubby pays for. We've decided that "my" money is going to pay for our fun stuff. Our entertainment fund if you will. For the last 2 years Giant has partnered with Kraft Foods and Hershey Park to have a "Hershey Park Promo" [my trip last year] where you buy a certain amount of Kraft foods and you get FREE Hershey Park tickets. This year, if you bought $75 worth of specified Kraft Foods, you got 2 FREE Hershey tickets. I did this deal 4 times, netting a total of 8 tickets and a TON of product. Not only did I save on the tickets, (if I would have paid $75 out of pocket for them they would have been $37.50 each) I got food in return. Seemed like a no brainer to me.

sorry that picture is so dark, it looked a lot brighter on the camera

I went directly to the Pepsi guy who was stocking the shelf at Martins. He looked at me like I was nuts when I asked for 12 cases, but said he had more than enough and even loaded them up for me. :)

I got a TON of stuff - not all of it is pictured.

15 one pound packs of lunch meat

at least 40 bags of shredded cheese

28 capri sun

12 twenty packs of Pepsi/mtn dew

4 - 24 packs of water

kool aid

jello temptations

oreos

crackerfuls

pudding

3 sour cream

2 cottage cheese

and more

PLUS

8 Hershey Park tickets

Total OOP : wayyy more than I would have liked to spend, around $200. BUT considering the cheapest I could have gotten Hershey park tickets this year was $36/ticket ($288 total) and I have all this - enough to get through a few birthday parties this summer plus feeding a small army of kids everyday.

OH. And by buying the dairy products I earned gas points which gives me even more savings. But that's another post for a different day. :)

there's also strawberries and 2 Pillsbury pizza crusts (I had free product coupons for the Pillsbury)

Meal Plan 6/26

We're back from the beach! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. We miss the beach, but it's nice to be home. We don't have too much going on this week, so I'm fixing a few of the old favorites. We are going to a baseball game this weekend through the hubby's work and dinner is catered so we'll get dinner there.

This week we're having:

Enchiladas (the guys cooked!)
Lasagna
Monte Crisco Sandwiches *new to us*
Leftover Enchiladas
Baseball Game
Leftover Lasagna
Pillsbury Pizza

What are you eating this week?

Check out 100s of other menus at OrgJunkie.com

Cheap & Healthy Picnic Dish

One of the things I love about summer is all the picnics. But if you have to bring a dish to every picnic, it can get kind of expensive. I decided I wanted to bring a fruit tray to one of our picnics. I was blown away that Giant wanted over $30 for one fruit tray! So, I bought some fruit and made my own.

I had a leftover veggie tray container from a party last year, so I filled it up with fruit that I bought from WalMart/Aldi.

 I made two fruit trays for $11.98. That means I saved over $35! So if you're looking for a healthy, cheap dish to bring to a picnic, consider making your own fruit tray!

What's Cooking Thursdays 6/23

Welcome to What's Cooking Thursday! A place for you to link up whatever it is you've been cooking at your house! Not a blogger? Leave your recipe in the comment section. Look for a featured recipe next week. Feel free to link up as many recipes as you'd like, all I ask is that you link back to What's Cooking Thursday!




No recipe from me again this week, we're at the beach! But because I love seeing all your recipes so much, I wanted to have the linky up for you guys to share what you've been cooking. Look for a new recipe from me next week!

Hawiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Garlic Tear & Share Bread

Chocolate Banana Freezer Pie

Friendly Wednesday 6/22

Welcome to the Friendly Wednesday Blog Hop! I'm glad you're here!

Thank you to all the bloggers who linked up last week!

Please feel free to grab the button (located in the right side bar) and add it to your blog to get more bloggers to participate in the blog hop!!





How to Participate:

Follow the hostesses - Feeding Four and Scraps of Life Blog. If you want me to follow you back, please leave a comment letting me know that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog.

Create a new Friendly Wednesday blog post on your own blog and be sure to use the button provided on the side bar.

Enter your information into the linkup below.

Follow all the other blogs you want. This is a great way to get more followers!

Friendly Wednesday will be posted once a week. Your link must be added every week so be sure to come back to linkup!

Meal Plan 6/19

Our menu last week did not go as planned. Hubby was sick for 3 nights and did not feel like eating. Most of the time, I plan my menu to please him, as he is the picky one. So since he was sick, I made it easier on my self and fixed some different meals.

We had :
Chicken Nuggets
Hotdogs
Grilled Cheese and tomato Soup
Pork Stirfry
Pork Roast
Leftovers

This week, we'll be at the beach all week, so who knows what we'll eat!!

What's on your menu this week?

Weekly Grocery Roundup 6/18

Nothing too exciting this week. I got a few gas deals, and there was a deal on pretzels ($0.50 a bag!) and that's about it.

I spent $11.XX out of pocket and received $0.40 off/ gallon ($12) in gas rewards.

Vocalpoint - FREE Sample of Mott's For Tots

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What's Cooking Thursdays?

Sorry this is so late! I've been having internet issues since yesterday afternoon.

Welcome to What's Cooking Thursday! A place for you to link up whatever it is you've been cooking at your house! Not a blogger? Leave your recipe in the comment section. Look for a featured recipe next week. Feel free to link up as many recipes as you'd like, all I ask is that you link back to What's Cooking Thursday!


 
Since I've been running around after a bunch of kids this week, packing for the beach and tending to a sick husband, I haven't been cooking much lately. We've been having a lot of easy meals. So, instead of one of my recipes, I'll share a few of the recipes from last week.
 

Strawberry Syrup

Crab Meat Rolls Ups

Zucchini & Rice Gratin

What have you been cooking this week?

Friendly Wednesday 6/15

Welcome to the Friendly Wednesday Blog Hop! I'm glad you're here!

Thank you to all the bloggers who linked up last week!

Please feel free to grab the button (located in the right side bar) and add it to your blog to get more bloggers to participate in the blog hop!!





How to Participate:

Follow the hostesses - Feeding Four and Scraps of Life Blog. If you want me to follow you back, please leave a comment letting me know that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog.

Create a new Friendly Wednesday blog post on your own blog and be sure to use the button provided on the side bar.

Enter your information into the linkup below.

Follow all the other blogs you want. This is a great way to get more followers!

Friendly Wednesday will be posted once a week. Your link must be added every week so be sure to come back to linkup!

Garden Update 6/14

Not much going on in my garden... I've managed to keep all the plants alive still so that's good. :) I'm hoping for some rain some time this week! Everything in my garden seems to thrive when it rains. When I water my plants, they grow a little, but when it rains, they grow a ton!

We've got snap peas! I tried one the other day and I don't think it's quite ready yet.

This year, we let C pick out some plants he wanted to take care of himself. He picked out the plants and planted them. I've been doing the weeding because he planted them with my other garden plants, but he's been watering them.

This is C's tomato plant - the only one with a tomato on it! C doesn't even like tomatoes, but he wanted to plant a plant for his daddy. Daddy can't wait until he has a garden fresh tomato. He's been asking since May when we were going to get them!

That's all for my garden this week, how is your garden growing?

Meal Plan 6/12

Where last week was busy with camp, this week is crazy busy. I am babysitting all week long and we're packing because we leave for the beach on Sunday!! So the meals will be made from the leftovers I have in the fridge and things I need to use up. But at the same time, I need to make those meals as easy as possible because I'm not going to feel like cooking after running around after 7 kids all day.

Chicken Nuggets
Hotdogs
Pork Stirfry (didn't get to last week)
Grilled Chicken
Pork Roast
Grilled Chicken Salad
Leftovers

What are you having this week? Check out 100s of other menus at OrgJunkie.com

It's Back! 2 Movie tickets for ONLY $9!!

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What movie will you see with your tickets?

What's Cooking Thursdays - Pasta Carbanora

Welcome to What's Cooking Thursday! A place for you to link up whatever it is you've been cooking at your house! Not a blogger? Leave your recipe in the comment section. Look for a featured recipe next week. Feel free to link up as many recipes as you'd like, all I ask is that you link back to What's Cooking Thursday!





I have been wanting to try this recipe for weeks. I had to wait until the timing was right (aka when hubby would be willing to eat it) and this week was perfect. I kind of swayed from the recipe a little bit  and the end result tasted just like the dish I ordered at Olive Garden. (Okay, I just realized I added 2 CUPS of milk when the original recipe called for 2 TBSPs. Oops.)

(her picture is MUCH better looking :) )

1 pkg fettucine

3 Tbsp olive oil ,divided
8 slices bacon, cooked & diced
1/2 onion, Chopped
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tub Kraft Original Cooking Creme
½ cups grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup egg substitute

Directions:

Cook fettucine according to package directions. Drain. Toss with 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and set aside.

Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add chopped onion, and cook until onion is soft. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute. Add bacon, cooking creme and cooked linguine to pan. Toss to coat and heat through.
Mix the cheese, milk and egg substitute together in a small bowl. Stir into pasta, and take the pan off the heat. Toss for 2 minutes and serve.

This week's featured recipes are:


Reese's Cup Brownies

Cooking With Grass Fed Beef

Now it's your turn, what have you been cooking this week?

Garden Update

There is lots happening in my garden these days. Sort of. Everything I've planted is dying. There is lots that is growing on it's own and it's doing great!

This is our compost pile from last year. There is lettuce, tomatoes and who knows what else growing. Could be pumpkin, squash, cantaloupe or maybe watermelon. I threw seeds from everything in there! Oops. :)

In the top right of this picture is a plant I bought and planted. It's dying. In the bottom left are cantaloupe seeds that I threw in there and they're thriving.

There are also a lot of tomato plants popping up. I bought broccoli plants that are dying. It's just not my year for gardening. :(

I hope your garden is doing better than mine!

Friendly Wednesday 6/8

Welcome to Friendly Wednesday Blog Hop! I'm glad you're here!


Thank you to all the bloggers who linked up last time!

Please feel free to grab the button (located in the right side bar) and add it to your blog to get more bloggers to participate in the blog hop!!




How to Participate:


Follow the hostesses located in the first and second spots - Feeding Four and Scraps of Life Blog. If you want me to follow you back, please leave a comment letting me know that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog.

Create a new Friendly Wednesday blog post on your own blog and be sure to use the button provided on the side bar.

Enter your information into the linkup below.

Follow all the other blogs you want. This is a great way to get more followers!

Friendly Wednesday will be posted once a week. Your link must be added every week so be sure to come back to linkup!

Meal Plan 6/5

Well it seems I've taken a week off of blogging. It felt great to spend my time focused on things other than blogging, but I've missed blogging. I didn't meal plan last week and I hated it being 5:00 and not knowing what was for dinner.

This week, we have camp most of the week so I'll be wanting to fix quick and easy meals. Hubby found bacon in the freezer and fixed BLTs for breakfast this morning. I'll use the bacon in a dish I've been wanting to try. There's leftover pork chops in the fridge from last week that I'll use in another dish. Hubby requested a few meals, so I'll fix those and fill in the rest of the blanks.

Cheeseburgers
Enchiladas
Pig Roast (at camp)
Pizza
Pasta Carbonara
Pork Stir fry
Leftovers (Enchiladas)

What are you eating this week? Check out 100s of other menus at OrgJunkie.com