Dinner Gone Wild!

The Menu:

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

The Step I Accidentally Forgot:

Spray the griddle with non-stick cooking spray.

But here's what happened after I realized my mistake:

Whoops!

What I Served My Family (or How It Turned Out):

Is this a mess or what?

Burnt, topless, still have raw egg in them Monte Cristo sandwiches.

Can you believe they ate them?

How I Made Up For It:

Homemade Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

(which is so divine I literally am eating a bite of it every 15 minutes)

Have good weekend, ya'll!
Mama Said

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Makeover Week #3: (Watch Out! It's a starchy week!)

Monday-Impossible Cheeseburger Pie (HBHW), Corn: This recipe is kind of quiche-y, but Rhett still liked it to my surprise. Actually, it was to my surprise that is was quiche-y which shows you how much cooking knowledge I lack.

Tuesday-Pinto Beans, Boiled Potatoes, Fried Squash, Corn Bread: Make enough beans and potatoes for Thursday leftovers

Wednesday-Steak (George Foreman is my hero!), baked potato, and frozen veggie medley (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)

Thursday-Pinto Beans, Fried Potato Patties from Tuesday's leftover potatoes, hominy, corn bread: I can't really remember how to make the fried potato patties. I have to call my mom every single time I make them. But I think you kind of mash the potatoes up a little and mix in an egg and a little flour and fry 'em up.

Friday-Frozen Pizza

Have a yummy week, y'all!

Mama Said

Menu Plan Monday

Here's Week 2 of my Menu Makeover: This is a really easy week and is great for a busy week like this one where I'm knocking myself out trying to get BFG's clothes ready to consign.

Monday: Braised Beef Cubes in Gravy (HBHW), Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Tuesday: Chili Pie--My own very simple concoction of Aldi's brand of chili and Fritos topped with shredded cheddar cheese in an 8x8 pan popped in the oven at 350 til cheese melts. Simple, simple and cheap!

Wednesday: Steak, Baked Potato, Candied Carrots (HBHW)--These carrots are delicious, but BFG still didn't go for them.

Thursday: Chicken Fingers, Knorr-Lipton Rice Side, Corn

Friday: Quesadillas--The frozen dinner kit at Aldi. Only costs like $4.00 and is super easy. A great alternative to eating fast food on a Friday night when I am just plain sick of cooking all week.

Have a blessed week, Y'all!

Mama Said

Menu Makeover

I've mentioned before to ya'll that I am doing a menu makeover. I was inspired by Kathy Peel's Desperate Households to get that area of my life in order. I just got sick of never knowing what we were going to have for dinner, scrambling to come up with something, tired of BFG eating junk all the time 'cause I didn't have a plan on what to feed her (now it's just half the time), and throwing away food that expired 'cause I'm buying crap I don't need or I have good intentions of being a gourmet chef when I buy it but never follow through with that particular meal.



I've read alot of organize-your-life-books and decided that I wanted to plan out 6 weeks of menus that I can rotate and to try to have different things for dinner for each night of the 6 week period. I started out by listing all the meals I could think of that I can cook or have cooked in the past. The list wasn't very long. I know I used to cook alot more different things, but I absolutely cannot remember what I used to cook. I don't know why I ever stopped cooking those thing either whatever they were. Is that really weird? Or did I cook? Do I just think I did, but I really didn't? That was before BFG came along and we had two incomes. Did we eat out alot? Or have coupons now changed the type of food I buy?



Anyway, I'll stop the psychoanalysis and move on. After reading through my list which mostly consisted of very easy things to make like Hamburger Helper, I decided that I was going to learn new recipes and I refused to reinvent the wheel. I turned to one of my sources of inspiration Hillbilly Housewife. She already has menus made out, she focuses on feeding your family cheap, she has conservative beliefs that support that this is a way to minister to my family, and I have tried some of her recipes before and loved them! Plus, bless her heart, she must know how lost some of us are in the kitchen. She tells you the absolute basics and takes you through step by step. If you've never cooked before, you could cook with her recipes. I always hate when recipes assume you know what something means. I can't even think of an example. That's how clueless I am. But if you're like me, you know what I mean. Plus, any good ol' Southern girl knows that good ol' Southern cookin' is throw in this and that with no specifics, which makes it quite difficult for the Southern girl who's trying to learn to cook. Hillbilly Housewife tells you how to cook from scratch with the specifics. Yea!



I know I've seen around cyberspace a blog that does a Monday Menu thing. So, I think I'm gonna do that and share my menus with ya'll. I know ya'll are just dying to know how Mama Said eats! I will warn you I don't eat healthy at all! In fact, the pounds are coming on 'cause Hillbilly Housewife's recipes are soooo good! So, follow my example at your own risk.



Here's a few notes about my menus before ya'll go and start thinking we're loaded or something:

• If it sounds like something pricey, I either bought it dirt cheap with coupons or at the grocery outlet.
• I get day old bread, bagels, and Entman (sp?) doughnuts and bites FREE in a nearby community. Yeah, it totally rocks! It's the same stuff I used to buy at the grocery outlet.
• You will see alot of beef in my menus including steak. The reason for this is we divvy up having a cow--hmmm, how do I say this delicately---okay, I can't, folks---we have a cow slaughtered, okay? We go in on it with my parents and it averages around $2.00 per lb. for all cuts of meat. So, when I fix steak, it only cost us $2.00. This does make our hamburger a little bit higher than I could buy, BUT it is like 90/10 hamburger with barely any grease, tastes like ground sirloin, and is basically organic meat. Free range, grass fed cows. If you can find a deal like this in your area, this is the way to go on buying meat!!!! And don't look for those people advertising that they sell organic meat. Start asking around just regular farmers or part-time farmers that have cows. Or heck, buy your own cow and raise it if your able.
  

My Mixer, My Friend

Yes, yes, yes! My Kitchen Aid mixer is finally out of storage!!! (Picture me standing on a chair pumping both fists in the air.) I am so excited! This has been one of the things I have missed the most. Hate to sound like a mixer-snob, but a dinky little hand mixer just doesn't cut it. Anyone who does not have a big ol' mamma-jamma Kitchen Aid mixer is missing out. I'm telling ya' this baby is worth scrimping and saving up for.
Aaaaaah! My mixer! How I do love thee! We go way back. I was blessed to have received this as a gift when I was 20. So, for my whole adult-out-on-my-own life, I have gotten to use this for all my mixing needs. (Well, except for those few things in which a hand mixer is superior like 7 Minute Frosting.) Isn't she beautiful? That steel grey has blended in beautifully with the decor in at least 5 different homes in the past 10 years. Wait! Oh my gosh! I have had this thing for 10 years! How twiddle-aged is that? Next thing you know, I'll be like my mom and talking about towels I've had for 30 years. Yikes!
But, anyway, 10 years is a long time for an appliance to last and I've had no problems at all from it. (Knock on wood.) And they are made in the USA. Ya'll know how important that is to me. And I think if Kitchen Aid should ever see this post, they should pay me, don't ya'll? Of course, why I am basically writing a commercial is beyond me. I guess I think every woman should have one. It really makes cooking esp. baking so much easier.
The only down side is I worry a little about BFG sticking her hands down in it while it's running 'cause it is so powerful. But I scare her off with a story about my sister getting her hands caught in the beaters once. Every time I use it I say, "Remember what happened to your aunt?" and BFG's eyes get huge and she recites the story and the no touching-the-mixer rule back to me. I really get a jolly off of it every time. I'm so bad!

Rhett's Birthday

Well, for all my scrambling yesterday, Rhett's birthday turned out pretty nice except for my ill mood from scrambling all day. But he loves me enough to look over that. BFG wanted to make Rhett a cake and all on her own thought up making a basketball cake because Rhett loves basketball. Here's how it turned out:

Okay, ya' got me. I had to throw this picture in there to show off two of my yard sale finds last weekend. I got the cake topper for $1.00! Isn't it beautiful? Makes our cake look alot spiffier than it actually is. And the lamp . . . oh the lamp! I love it! Hang on to your seats: The lamp only cost $3.00!!!!! And it works!!!! I also got a Barbie castle for $1.00! It was the best yard sale ever! Okay, here's the cake:

Now, our dinner was Rhett's birthday gift from God 'cause, honey, my meals don't look like this. It was so beautiful to me that I took a picture. And I have to say even if I did cook it myself with God looking over my shoulder, it tasted delicious, too! We had Hillbilly Housewife's Oven-Baked Swiss Steak (don't be fooled like I was there is no Swiss cheese involved, go figure!), rosemary green beans, baked potato with butter and sour cream, and Paula Deen's Sour Cream-Butter Biscuits, and fresh garden tomatoes from my bother-in-law. Yum!

All in all: Pretty good birthday dinner except for Rhett spotting one of the groundhogs during dinner and wanting to go shoot it. I said, "Now, Rhett, this is your birthday dinner and BFG has been so excited all day." So, Rhett asked her if she minded if he went out and shot a groundhog. BFG's response, "Well, okay, as long as you don't hurt it's feelings." Result: No feelings hurt--Rhett missed.