Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We sure did, but it flew by quickly. Today, Mark begins in earnest working at his new job. Our first paycheck from this job should be at the end of the week and, boy, am I excited about that (might just have to go thrifting!).
Okay, so for Menu Planning Monday (link) today, I am having the following this week:
Monday - Spaghetti and Meat sauce, tossed salad and pineapple sherbet
Tuesday - Maple Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli
Wednesday - Homemade Chicken Soup, mixed fruit salad
Thursday - Lasagna Rolls, garlic bread and salad
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Taco Salad, fruit and ice cream
This week, I will be adding beans to a number of my recipes: Chicken Soup, leftovers (ha) and Taco Salad. I find it most affordable to use dry beans. These are very tasty when prepared properly. Plus, this helps with rotating my food storage.
For those of you who have never used dry beans...Following are instructions for preparing them properly. Once you get the hang of always cooking some at the beginning of each week, you will always have some on hand to add to your recipes. This will stretch your grocery budget, add fiber to your diet and will allow you to build a long-term food storage for your family, if you are interested in doing that.
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PREPARING DRIED BEANS
First, sort through the dried beans for anything that doesn't look like a bean (I rarely find anything foreign, but once I found a little pebble).
Next step is to put them in a big pot and cover beans with water. Swish around to clean the beans.
Rinse the beans under cold water ...
Continue this process until the rinse water comes out clean...
Discard water and then re-fill pot...Add:
1 T. of Salt
1 T. Sugar
1 T. veggie oil
I then slow cook the beans either all day or all night. 8 hours later, they are very tender and ready to use in salads, soups, meat mixtures or just by themselves! Enjoy!*************************************************************************************
My cat, Sunny wanted to say Hello and to wish you a happy day!
Love,Elizabeth
8 comments:
Dried beans are such good budget food! I wish I could get my family to like them more. I try to cook them at least a few times a month.
Congrats on the new job! My hubby started his new job January 1 and WOW it was great to get a paycheck again! Woo hoo!
Yummy menu. I'd love to come over on Tuesday, please?
blessings
melissa
Yum...I am alllll for using dried beans and lentils. Check out my recipe for lentil curry at http://themadchemist-trish.blogspot.com/2009/02/curried-vegetables-with-dahl.html I love your menu planning for the week. I usually organize but then forget just what I was going to make...making up some very interesting recipes along the way with the ingredients I bought. Thanks for stopping by today dear Elizabeth....happy thrifting! You are so good at it!
What a beautiful blog! Was it Elder Nelson that reminded us what a good way blogs are to share the gospel and be a light to the world?
Love your menu planning, and congratulations on the new job. What a blessing in this economy.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Myrnie
I'm so very happy for your husband and his new job!!! I hope that he loves it Elizabeth! And I just love that kitty cat...what a cutie ~ have a wonderful week, your menu sounds delicious, xxoo, Dawn
I love your kitty!!! I have 3 orange ones myself. One is very large and he (Zim) sleeps just like your cat is sitting - lol! I love it!
There is always room for you in The Shadow of the Cross. Feel free to stop in anytime.
I need to use my food storage! I found out a few weeks ago that some of it will be expiring soon. I love that you post ideas for how to use it. I hope everything works out for uncle Mark at his new job. Its so cute that you love thrift store shopping. Kellie and Becca just moved into their first place in an old house in the avenues and they LOVE the shabby chic look too.
I love dried beans.... and what have you been feeding that CAT?!!!! So adorable.
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