I had to borrow a photo from Taste of Home for this one. Meatballs are very hard to photograph. Even though they taste good, they don’t look very appetizing on camera! But I finally found a photo that made them look as yummy as they are!

This is a super easy appetizer (or main meal if you add rice) that is inexpensive and comes together fast!

Sweet N Sour Meatballs

1 2lb pkg of frozen meatballs

2 cans cranberry sauce

1 bottle chili sauce

Put everything together in a crock pot for at least 2 hours and serve! I bring these to holiday parties a lot and they are always a hit!

For more great recipes be sure to visit Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

I have a confession to make.

I don’t eat meat. Anything that involves an animal dying I don’t touch.

No fish, chicken, burgers. None of that stuff. People usually ask me what in the world I do on Thanksgiving day! Well I load my plate with yummy veggies like carrots, potatoes, squash, corn, a healthy heap of dinner rolls and finish it off with chocolate cream pie. I do not miss out, trust me!

But my husband and chidlren are all carnivores. So I do make meat, but since I don’t actually eat it, I have no idea what it tastes like. I just go by what they tell me. If they say it’s good, I believe them!

Why am I telling you this? Well because my husband actually does the turkey cooking for us. And he promises me that this way (my mom’s way!) is the ONLY way to make a turkey so that it is moist and tender. So this tip is from him to me and here I share it with you!

Introducing the resident turkey maker (otherwise known as my hubby Scott).

First, rub your turkey all over with lots and lots of Mayonnaise, which he has done here. I am so thankful that he does, because not being a meat eater, I am also not too thrilled about touching it!

Secondly, wrap it up super tight.

And last of all place it breast side down, put about 1 cup of water in the bottom of the pan and cook on 325 at 18 minutes per pound.

And that is all you have to do. We don’t brown our turkey. We just let it cook like this and then they all eat it up.

Then I do the dishes.

That’s the trade off!

What are your tips for a super moist, delicious turkey?

This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

photo by subspace

My husband loves lasagna, and me well, I love to make him what he likes

But oh those hot slippery noodles make lasagna a rare feature in our menu plans. I thought I found my answer with the no boil noodles, but my family had a strong aversion to the flavor so I was left with those hot and slippery noodles again.

Then I saw a tip on my favorite cooking show, and lo and behold, it was the answer to my dilemma.

• Using as-hot-as-you-can-get-it tap water, fill a large bowl or pan.
• Soak the dry noodles for10-15 minutes or so, and then use them as normally would. No burnt fingers. No sticky wet noodles. Its a win-win situation!

I didn’t tell my family my little trick at first, you know because I wanted and unbiased opinion . They never even knew the difference, and I have used this method ever since.

Give it a try, maybe it will work for you!

I planned on having a baking day this week to use up  some of the apples we recently picked, so I was extra excited when Crystal announced a baking day party!

Here are the things I plan on cooking up today:

Whole wheat bread (2)

Apple crisp (2)

Jewish Apple Cake

Corn Chowder

Butternut Squash Soup

Chicken Stock

Apple Pie

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Scones

Kombucha Tea (my first batch!)

Applesauce

Church Lady Coffee Cake

I’ll link up the recipes a little later! And if you would like to join in on Twitter the hashtag is #bakingday. Happy Baking!

A few  years ago when we began with zeal our frugal journey, I realized one the best ways to save on our weekly grocery budget was to cut out bottled drinks and mixes. I began serving water at each meal.

After a few months, my husband told me that he liked having something “other than water to drink” at each meal. “But it is so cheap and good for you!”, I argued.  Well he didn’t budge, so I challenged myself to find a way to put something else on the table at dinner time besides water. We still drink water at every other meal and as drinks throughout the day. I watch for the occasional coupon and good deal on juice at the grocery store, but I have found a family of 5 can go through a lot of juice!  So over the years I have found several ways to serve up frugal and tasty beverages from home that can handle our thirsty crew.

Photo by me

One of our favorite drinks has  become Sweet Iced Tea, and with tea you can make some amazing variations either by adding fruit to it, or purchasing fruit flavored teas. I haven’t calculated out the costs but a large box of tea can yield me many gallons of iced tea for very little cost. I often make up a gallon or two in the morning and keep them in the refrigerator.

We also make up large batches of lemonade in gallon jugs and keep that on hand. I can purchase lemons 2/$1 at our local farm store so making up a batch of this also very inexpenisvely. I purchased a small electric citrus juicer on clearance that makes this go really quick. I also like to grab bags of oranges reduced at the grocery store and make up yummy orange juice for a healthy morning beverage.

To keep things interesting, I make variations on lemonde such as Three Citrus Lemonade and Summer Strawberry Lemonade. We have also enjoyed variations such as Maple Lemonade and Honey Lemonade! I also found a great little pdf download here of  various lemonade recipes to try.

Photo from muuuusics

In a time crunch, I have also sliced up lemons and limes and just put them in iced water to steep for a while. this atleast gives water a little “zip” and my husband doesnt mind drinking it that way.

Photo from FLOODkOff

I have also find a little garnish makes a frugal beverage extra special. Try a sliced lemon or lime wedge on the side of the glass or a few mint leaves in your iced tea! I freeze bits of lemon, lime, or fruit in my ice cube trays and add them to our drinks for some extra flair.

Not only are these much better for you than those sugary juice drinks at the store, they cost pennies on the dollar to make as well!

Do you have any frugal beverage ideas/recipes/tips to share? I’d love to expand my repertoire of beverage offerings, so do share!

Visit more Wordless Wednesday photos here, as well as Wordful Wednesday, and Mostly Wordless Wednesday!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

Whew what a busy weekend! On Friday morning I packed up for a weekend camping trip to Soulfest (a huge Christian music festival) with my girls and sister in law. Right before leaving, I discovered that my blog had been hacked into. Great way to start out a vacation, eh?

After coming exhausted yesterday, I think I may have fixed the hack codes that were put in, but there is still some more work to do. I have NO technical knowledge whatsoever so this is like learning a foreign language. Bluehost has been awesome in helping me, and after a franctic email to Jocelyn I am feeling a little better about all of this.

On a happier note, we had a lot of fun this weekend. The worship was incredible, and it was great to be around so many people who loved the Lord in one place. Third Day, Casting Crowns and Natalie Grant were so good to see live.  I am not much of a camper, so this was a feat for me. I am also not used to staying up until the wee hours of the morning either! I made it though!

We had some dear friends who were packing up and moving to Kansas City, and on Sunday morning I awoke early so I could join my husband in helping them pack.  Tiredly hopping into my car, I started it up and tried to back up. It didn’t take me long to discover my car had sunk into the mud after all the heavy rain we got, and not only that, I had a very flat tire!

I learned to fix my own tire yesterday (pat on the back for me!) and a group effort from some other campers got me out of the mud, but I missed saying goodbye to our friends. Eventually we all made it home tired, safe, and happy.

I am incredibly sore for some reason, and so tired I couldn’t even fall asleep last night. That hasn’t happened to me in a long time. I think it is going to take me a few days to recover!

In other news, I have been extremely busy helping care for my grandmother, planning out our school year, declutterig our basement, harvesting my garden and just enjoying my sweet kiddos. I haven’t had a chance to post the stationary winners yet, but Lord willing, will get to that later today!

How was your weekend? As adventourus as mine?  And just out of curiosity, do you know how to change your own tire?

I am so excited! After a few weeks of diligently clipping, cutting, prayer and planning I finally managed to get our grocery bill down. The great part about it is I even stocked up in the process!

If you remember, my goal has been to get our budget down to $100 per week  for our family of five (ages 7, 10, 14 and a hungry husband!). I set the goal with much skepticism, but aimed high anyway. I just got back from grocery shopping, and folks, I did it! Happy dance, happy dance!

Here is what I got:

Store #1: Shaw’s

Can  you say FREE milk? Yep, two gallons for nothing. I also got those two orange juices in the reduced bin for $1.50 each. The meat was marked down, and the cereal was a super steal. I realized that after I took the picture I still had another bag with two boxes in it. I got 7 boxes total.  My kids love to have cereal for a snack, and I could live off Raisin Bran! The straws were a .50 splurge, and the Hamburger Helper is for the local food pantry. Total spent: $23.88.  (I saved $27.96 in coupons and sales)

Store #2: Fiddleheads (a local farm store)

All their items at this store are organic, and you can’t beat the sales prices. Raspberries and strawberries are on sale for .99 each!  Total spent here: $10.93

Store #3: Market Basket

This store is where I do most of my shopping each week. They almost always have the best prices. I just discovered that the store in the next town takes printables so I have been going there. This week I needed toilet paper, bleach, trash bags and dish detergent and none were on sale. I had a .75 off coupon on the dish stuff and that was it. I still made out well.  Total spent here: $61.32

That leaves me with a grand total of 96.13 this week!

I was so excited to come under budget! Woo hoo! Did I mention I even had my children with me while I was shopping? There are several things I can think of to cut our budget even further, so I am actually seeing some wiggle room here!

Our total food budget for the month is $400, and so far we have spent 318.00. That leaves me about 80.00 to do groceries with next week. No problem, right!?  I am determined to make our goal this month! Make sure you pop in next week for the results!

This post is linked up to the Grocery  Cart Challenge, my new favorite blog She is feeding a family of 6 on a $60 weekly budget, which is so inspiring to me! You never know, I may get there one day too!

Photo by 3rd foundations

I woke up to another rainy day today. It has been raining a lot here lately, but I am not complaining.

On rainy days, the birds outside are still singing their song. I think I know why.

Rainy days allow you to sleep in late……….

Rainy days make it easy to slow down………..

Rainy days free up time for a hot cup of tea and a good book………….

Rainy days are great for indoor forts………..

Rainy days are great for a movie and cuddle time complete with hot chocolate and popcorn…………

Rainy days make it ok to stay in your pj’s a little longer……

And you don’t have to feel one bit guilty. You don’t feel like you should be doing something else. My to do list gets shorter on a rainy day. And that’s a finer thing indeed.