In The Kitchen With Linda

What’s For Dinner?

September 17, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

The Menu:

Saturday – Sabbath- Make ahead meals- Dinner at church

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Dinner at church, Homemade Nachos Bel Grande for supper

Monday – chicken – Homemade Chicken Nuggets, salad

Tuesday – pizza/pasta – Homemade pizza using our homemade pizza crust, carrot sticks

Wednesday – super simple – Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans

Thursday – beef – Tacos with all the fixings, including homemade sour cream and homemade taco sauce

Friday – Sabbath Dinner – Oven Fried Chicken, Oven Roasted Zucchini and Onions, quinoa

For more ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday

What’s For Dinner?

September 10, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

The Menu:

Saturday – Sabbath- Make ahead meals- Cincinnati Style Chili Spaghetti

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Turkey, or Chicken or Tuna sandwiches, homemade pickles, carrot sticks

Monday – chicken – Oven Fried Chicken, Oven Roasted Zucchini and Onions, quinoa

Tuesday – pizza/pasta – BBQ Chicken pizza using our homemade pizza crust, carrot sticks

Wednesday – super simple – Chicken Potato Pie from the The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook

Thursday – beef – Tacos with all the fixings, including homemade sour cream and homemade taco sauce

Friday – Sabbath Dinner – As far as I know, family will be at church early, they might eat sandwiches before they leave, though

For more ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday

Everyday Homemaking- Everyday Cooking Review

September 5, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

As part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received Everyday Homemaking’s Everyday Cooking ebook. This review is part of The Molly Crew. The Molly Crew provides product reviews for your home and family.

Everyday Cooking is a collection of tried-and-true recipes for simple, everyday cooking with an emphasis on whole foods. Vickie Bentley is a busy homeschooling mother of eight. She knows what it’s like trying to take care of a family and put tasty, nutritious food on the table every day. Everyday Cooking also has plenty of hints and tips to help you.

I didn’t print out the ebook, I used it straight from my computer. Check out my tip for cooking with the computer. Everyday Cooking will make a nice cookbook when printed out. I very well may do so in the future, especially as my daughters start making more and more recipes from it.

Chapters included in the cookbook are:

Timesaving Tips
Breakfast Ideas
Appetizers and Dressings
Breads and Grains
Main Dishes & Soups & Sides
Deserts & Snacks
Basic Measurements and Helps
Meal Planning and Shopping Hints
Basic Cooking Skills Checklist
Sample Menus and Menu Planning Masters
Basic Kitchen Accessories
Kitchen Equipment
and more…

The only thing I didn’t like was quite a few recipes called for instant rice. I never use instant rice. I try to use brown rice most of the time, but my husband prefers white rice. So I make that about half the time for him. Other than that, I didn’t have any problems with any of the recipes. There are a lot of recipes that I want to try. I also found quite a few recipes that I’ve seen before online. It does make it handy, though, to have them all included in this cookbook.

Here are a few of the recipes I tried:

Italian Chicken and Rice This recipe was one that called for instant rice. With a simple adjustment, I served it with brown rice and green beans from our garden.

Hamburger Gravy – served over our homemade biscuits, it was a lunch that the kids loved. My mother used to make something similar when I was growing up, only the gravy was milk based. It’s nice to have a non dairy version.

Chicken Taco Rice Ok, that’s not chicken, it’s hamburger. That would be user error. I guess I was thinking “tacos” when I pulled the hamburger out of the freezer. It was already defrosted when I realized my error, so I just went with it. This picture was taken before the cheese was added on the top. Chicken or beef, this is a recipe that my family loved. Next time, I will use chicken and try serving it on a bed of lettuce with diced onion and sour cream on top. yum!

Italian Chicken and Pasta was another winner for my family. I served it with zucchini from our garden and it was delish. This will definitely be a regular on our menu.

I haven’t tried any of the desert or bread recipes yet. I went straight for the main courses. Those are the recipes that make the biggest difference in cooking for my family. I know my daughters will love to try all the desert recipes.

You can view sample pages , 12 in all, including the table of contents. Under the picture of the book, click “Preview” . Everyday Homemaking is a great cookbook and kitchen help for young and old alike. With all the extra helps included, it would also make a great addition to a home ec course.

Everyday Homemaking is a 100 page coil bound print book selling for $17.99, $14.99 in eBook form.

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. My opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

What’s For Dinner?

September 3, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I’m officially doing away with left over night. I have come to the conclusion that it takes more effort to warm up all the leftovers, and wash all the pans then it does to just cook a simple meal. We don’t have a microwave, so all leftovers are warmed up on the stove top, oven, or toaster oven. Since left over night usually involves leftovers from a couple of different dinners, it takes a lot of pans. Can I just say I’m tired of washing dishes? lol No dishwasher here, either. Well, except for me! lol

The Menu:

Saturday – Sabbath- Make ahead meals- Italian Chicken with Pasta, zucchini

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Homemade Bean Soup, Chicken sandwiches, homemade pickles, carrot sticks

Monday – chicken – Cookout- Hamburgers with fixings, homemade potato salad, homemade baked beans, stuffed eggs, carrot sticks, desert?

Tuesday – pizza/pasta – BBQ Chicken pizza using our homemade pizza crust, carrot sticks

Wednesday – super simple – Frittata, green beans from the garden

Thursday – beef – Tacos with all the fixings, including homemade sour cream and homemade taco sauce

Friday – Sabbath Dinner – Oven Fried Chicken, Oven Roasted Zucchini and Onions, quinoa

For more ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday

Honey Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

September 3, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I saw a recipe for cereal bars on Facebook last week. They used a different cereal than I did, they used Cherrios. I decided to use brown rice crispy cereal.

These are so good! I’m going to make these when we want rice crispy treats, instead of using marshmallows. These are better for you, and taste better. Use a natural sugar instead of white sugar, and this aren’t too bad in the nutrition department. My whole family loved them!

Honey Peanut Butter Cereal Bars

Recipe Type: dessert

A very good alternative to marshmallow treats

Ingredients

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups brown rice crispy cereal

Instructions

Combine honey and sugar and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
Remove from heat.
Add peanut butter, stir well.
Fold in cereal.
Pour into a greased pan, pressing down firmly.
Chill for 1 hour.

Notes

If using a different cereal, start with 2 cups, then add more if needed.

Or if your like me, put in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill quickly. lol

I don’t know the original source for this recipe, if I find out, I’ll give credit.

For more recipes, visit:

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What’s For Dinner?

August 27, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I’ve been busy preserving our garden harvest. I’ll share more tomorrow on Making a Home, so be sure to check it out.

We’re taking a break from pizza this week. While homemade pizza is cheaper than carry out (unless you get the $5. pizzas), they way we make pizza can get expense. Lots of meat and cheese. So in an effort to keep this weeks grocery bill down, no pizza. Nobody knows this yet, well, except for me, of course. They won’t be happy. They do all really like spaghetti, though, so I don’t think I’ll be hung out to dry. lol

What meals do you serve when your trying to keep your grocery bill low?

The Menu:

Saturday – Sabbath- Make ahead meals- leftovers

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Egg salad sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade pickles

Monday – chicken – Italian Chicken and Rice, green beans from the garden

Tuesday – pizza/pasta – Spaghetti with meat sauce, zucchini

Wednesday – super simple – Left overs, carrots

Thursday – beef – Chicken Taco Rice, yellow squash from the garden

Friday – Sabbath Dinner – BBQ Chicken, brown rice, whatever veggies we have from the garden

For more ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday

What’s For Dinner?

August 20, 2012 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

BBQ Chicken Pizza is now my favorite. Guess what kind of pizza we’re having again this week? lol I might throw in a cheeseburger pizza so the family has a choice. Then again, I might not. roflol

Everyone had birthday parties to go to on Saturday, so I didn’t have to cook! yippee! lol

We’ll be eating whatever veggies we get from the garden this week. Squashes on Monday, Green Beans of Wednesday, and whatever we have the most of on Friday. Love fresh veggies from our garden!