Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Frugal Advent Calendar

The countdown has begun!  Our Christmas tree is up and decorated and slowly, but surly, the rest of the decorations are making there way up around the house. 

The little Beanes are VERY excited this year.  Every commercial they see sparks the desire to have that toy. 

I am excited too.  I love Christmas.  I love the excitement that my little Beanes have.  When I was growing up, my favorite Christmas tradition was the advent calender.  I always had the kind that you buy in the card section of Hallmark.  You open the door every day counting down to Christmas Eve.  My favorite kind was the progressive story.  Each day it told a little bit more.  I remember having one that told the story of the Littlest Angel and one year I had one that told the Bible Christmas story. 

This year, I am trying out a new advent calender for my little ones.  I hope it builds a cool Christmas tradition that we can do as a family for many years to come.


I went through all of our children's books and pulled out all of the Christmas ones.  I wrapped each one up in newspaper and tied a Christmas ribbon around each one.  I used some old scrapbook paper and number stickers to number each present 1-24.

I used to teach kindergarten and I have a love for children's books, so I actually had 23 Christmas books.  I am going to have to run to the dollar tree and pick up one more to wrap up.

We will use this as our advent calender this year!  Each night, before bedtime, one of the children will get book numbered for that date and they will open it up and we will read it at bedtime.

I did not order the books I had in any particular way.  With the exception of, book number 1 is the Elf on the Shelf book and book number 24 is my favorite version of The Night Before Christmas. 



This one is The Elf on the Shelf

This could totally been done in a much cuter way.  But I am one of the crafty impaired moms of the world.  My little ones really just love to open presents and, truth be told, so do I.  And I was trying to create a frugal Christmas Advent calender and buying a bunch of wrapping paper and supplies would not have been cheap!  So I just used what I had on hand.


I am trying to decide how I want to handle this though.  Should I just let the little Beanes take turns opening the book each night or should I have one of them get the correct number and give it to their brother or sister to open up?  What do you think? 



What Christmas traditions are you trying this year? 


I am linking up at Metamorphosis Monday and these other Awesome Parties!


Monday, November 28, 2011

Menu Plan Monday Nov. 28

I am stuffed!  We had our family Thanksgiving meal Saturday and I am still stuffed to the gills.

It is hard to even think about eating this week.  Luckily, I scouted out some great thanksgiving leftover ideas last week.  So now all I have to do is pick out some new recipes to try out.

Here is what we are looking at this week.

Monday
Crackers

Tuesday
Picture of Turkey Spring Rolls Recipe
TPW_1357

Wednesday
Ham Steak
Broccoli

Thursday
BBQ Chicken Calzones Recipe
Corn
Applesauce


Friday

Golden Yam Brownies Recipe

That should pretty much use up all of my left overs.  How are you planning on using your Thanksgiving leftovers? 

I am linking up again at Menu Monday.  Check out what everyone else will be eating this week.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Day After! Thanksgiving leftovers

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the cooking.  I love the eating and I love the time with family.  

I also really enjoy using the Thanksgiving leftovers and turning them into new and delicious meals.  I have been searching Pinterest for some new inspiration this year.  Wow!  There are a ton of recipes and ideas on how to turn your Thanksgiving leftovers into yummy new meals.  Check out some of my favorite finds.

Turkey Spring Rolls
Turkey Spring Rolls

Stuffing Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffing Stuffed Mushrooms

Cranberry Salsa
Cranberry Salsa

Turkey Soup with Homemade noodles
Turkey Soup with homemade Noodles

Broccoli Turkey Hotdish
Broccoli Turkey Hotdish

Pinned Image
Sweet Potato Baked Oatmeal

Sweet Potato Bagles
Sweet Potato Bagel

Cranberry Crunch Squares
Cranberry Crunch Squares

Sweet Potato Biscuits
Sweet Potato Biscuits

BBQ Turkey Calzones
BBQ Turkey Calzones

Turkey Shepherd's Pie
Turkey Shepherd's Pie

Golden Yam Brownies
Golden Yam Brownies

Turkey Cobb Salad
Turkey Cobb Salad

Turkey Waldorf Salad
Turkey Waldorf Salad

Quesadillas
Quesadillas with chutney and brie

Shepherd's Pie
Shepherd's Pie

Turkey and String Bean Pot Pies
Turkey and String Bean Pot Pie

Turkey Milanese
Turkey Milanese

sandwich
Grilled Turkey, Brie and Apple Butter Sandwich

turkey Bolognese
Turkey Bolognese

Thanksgiving Won Tons
Turkey Hashed Browns
Turkey Pad Thai
Chocolate Yam Marble Cake

I am almost more excited about the leftovers than the actual meal!  What do you do with your leftovers?


I am linking up again with Metamorphosis Monday and these other Awesome Parties!






Monday, November 21, 2011

Menu Plan Monday Nov. 21

Last week was so busy!  I am glad to start a new week.  However, this week seems like it will be just as busy.  At least I do not have any out of town trips this week.  That will be a help.  The little Beanes will be getting their picture made with Santa Claus on Wednesday, so at least I have some leverage for good behavior this week. 

Our family is going to do something different this year.  We will not be celebrating Thanksgiving until Saturday.  So on Thursday, Mr. Homegrown and I are taking the little Beanes out to eat on Thursday and going to see the Muppet Movie together.  I am so excited to be doing something fun since we can't be with our families on Thanksgiving day.  And I will have extra time to prepare my house and kitchen for the influx of family coming in on Saturday!

Here is the line up for this week.

Monday
Fried Pork Chops
Cabbage
Rice

Tuesday
beef stew

Wednesday
Chips
Fruit

Thursday
Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel
and
The Muppet Movie

Friday
I will use these recipes as a guide to cook Italian sausage, potatoes, and veggies!  Mr. Homegrown will have a great time cooking this for me (and no one will be in the house messing it up while I am on a mad dash to get everything ready for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!) 
S'mores

Saturday
Pinned Image

I am linking up with Menu Plan Monday.  Go over and check out everyone's menu and recipe ideas for this week.  There is so much inspiration over there!

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving Menu Plan

This year for Thanksgiving, I will be cooking at out house.  I love to cook for people and Thanksgiving is a great reason to cook!  This year I have the ability to add pecans and almonds in our recipes since String Beane has passed those food challenges. 

Here is a line up of some yummy things that will probably make our table. 

Pinned Image
Throw it all in a Reynold's Turkey bag and let her go.



Two-Cheese Squash Casserole Recipe

Pinned Image

Cranberry Pineapple Salad Recipe

Pinned Image
My Mom will be bringing Deviled Eggs








Pinned Image

What will be on you Thanksgiving table this year?  Happy Thnanksgiving everyone.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday and cherish them time with your family.

Linking up with Metamorphosis Monday
These other Awesome Parties
and Organized Junkie

Sunday, November 20, 2011

$10 Amazon Gift Card for Referring 5 Friends to StumblUpon



Do you Stumble when you see something you like?  StumbleUpon is offering up $10 Amazon gift cards for every 5 people you refer to StumbleUpon.    If you are new, you can register for StumbleUpon and still participate in this offer. 

To get your referral link go here and request it.  You can share via email, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

 
Fine Print: Gift cards take up to 6 weeks to arrive. Referrer shall receive one Reward valued at $10 in for each five Qualified Referrals generated by Referrer. For every 5 referrals who register for the StumbleUpon Share Program, you will receive one $10.00 Amazon gift card. Sorry, no partial credit. You will only receive a gift card for every 5 Qualified Referrals. Delivery of gift card will be made within 6 weeks. Self-referrals not allowed. Gift Cards subject to terms of card. Gift cards may be delivered digitally to recipient. StumbleUpon is not responsible for gift cards delivered to spam folders and will resend original link, but not replace link.

(Thanks The Secret to Saving!)

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday Favorites

Woo to the Hoo for Friday!  I have had such a busy week and an even busier weekend coming.  We will be having String Beane's 6th birthday party on Saturday.  There should be plenty of wild boys running around here!
  String Beane had a food challenge for pecans Tuesday and we go back this morning to challenge almonds.

He passed the pecan challenge!  So we will be pecan pie for Thanksgiving this year.  Yea! Here's hoping he will pass the almond challenge today as well.

So in light of the pecan pie being an option for us this Thanksgiving, I am going to feature some of the Thanksgiving yumminess I have seen on Pinterest.


Pumpkin Love
I am drooling looking at this wonderful thing.

Pecan Pie Bars
Pecan Pie Bars
These look so good, and long overdue here.

This might be the dressing that makes it to our table this year.

Pinned Image

There are some precious ideas to make the kid's table fun in this link.

This is the pie that we will have.  She calls it "the pie that will make you cry".  I am so thankful that we have added a new food to String Beane's diet that I might just cry over this pie.  I think she gave it a great name!

What have you got planned for Thanksgiving this year?  I would love to know.  I will be cooking for 16 people this year!  Help me out people.  Give me some ideas.

I am linking up at Finding Joy in my Kitchen.  Go and check her out and see what has made the list!