September Meal Plan

This month I grabbed 3 cookbooks that I have brought to the lake house and decided to try to plan our monthly meal plan based on those. 

I wrote down 20 meals - mostly from these cookbooks - trying to use things I knew I had on hand so to keep my grocery purchases low.  Side dishes will consist of whatever is still coming in from the garden and what we have preserved or purchased in bulk.  I've missed my crock pot lately, so one cookbook was my crock pot cookbook - perfect for game nights!

1.  Curried Chicken Salad
2.  Red Beans & Rice
3.  Arroz Con Pollo
4.  Baked Herb Chicken Breasts
5.  Chicken Tikka with Naan
6.  Dah Lentils
7.  Cavatelli
8.  Pork Roast Grilled
9.  Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes
10.  Greco
11.  Chili
12.  Beef Fajitas
13.  Baked Fish
14.  American Favorite Pot Roast
15.  Chicken Sandwiches
16.  Pork Chops & Potatoes
17.  Cantonese Sweet & Sour Pork
18.  Fisherman's Catch Chowder
19.  Salmon & Potato Casserole
20.  Black Bean & Potato Soup

Twenty meals isn't quite a complete list, but some meals will be leftovers (maybe once a week), some will be breakfast suppers and hopefully one or 2 nights of Little Caesars.  :)

Call Me Crazy

I did something a bit crazy today.  I hesitate telling you because you will probably think I'm nuts.

A few hours ago I was setting up for our adoption yard sale tomorrow.  I was wearing flip flops and suddenly felt stinging bites all over my left foot.  I looked down to see hundreds of ants on my foot - so much that there were more ants than skin showing.  Of course I went nuts...screaming, hollering, kicking, slapping, dancing to get them off.  I went into the house and was frantically thinking of what I needed to do, as the stinging on my foot intensified.

Then I remembered this article I read a few years ago.  Crazy to think of this, but I did.  (I call that the Holy Spirit whispers.)  Just yesterday I noticed this plant (weed), plantain, growing on the grass between our chicken coop and house.

I ran to the backyard with my 3 year old following.  I picked leaves and being the country girl I am but the not-quite-extreme country girl as in the article, I wadded up the leaves in my hands, spit a few times on them, keeping rubbing and smeared them all over my foot.  I did this 5 times as my Little Peanut kept running back down the hill to grab more leaves for me.  Almost instantly the pain stopped and then I saw the little red bumps start to disappear.  Amazing!!

I might be crazy to do that, but hey, it worked and I promise the Fish Sticks are having a plantain lesson tomorrow when I wander the yard with them.  As many times as they get bug boo-boos, plantain is worth learning about.  So who's going to do it next??

Garden Supper

 We have been eating garden produce for months now and I never tire of it.  Tonight we had BBQ pork loin that had been cooking in the crock pot all day, watermelon, honeydew melon and cantaloupe (all from our garden) and a Turkish-like salad of bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers chopped (all from our garden) and seasoned with sea salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice and olive oil.  Many of us add feta cheese to it, but I keep it on the side because 2 Fish Sticks are not keen on feta.  Add pickled okra, refrigerator bread and butter pickles and refrigerator sweet pickles and you have one good meal and all I paid for was the pork loin!

Have you considered gardening?  It's worth it!

Herbal Order

I've been a bit out of pocket with posting because I have been working on fund raising for our adoption.  This past week I opened my first Etsy shop, co-hosted a 2 day garage sale and participated in a children's consignment store.  Did I mentioned I also started filling out applications for grants?  So in the midst of all that, I didn't shop with coupons last week or even look at ads.

I did order from Bulk Herb Store though and wanted to show you what I got.  About once a year I place an order and try to place it with a friend to help with shipping costs.

Nettle Leaf - most of my herbal remedies call for Nettle, so it is always good to have around with cold season fast approaching.  Nettle has been proven to help with diarrhea, hemorrhoids, colon health, eczema and much more, plus it's full of rich vitamins!

Cinnamon - We use lots of cinnamon whether it be for cooking, baking or herbal remedies;  cinnamon is a good thing to have on hand. We add it to smoothies also.  It can be a tonic to the entire body.  It helps fight colds, chills and can kill a variety of illness-causing bacteria.

Ginger Root - I love Ginger Tea most of all.  Ginger is great for upset stomachs, digestive and circulatory problems.  It is great for nausea and motion sickness too.

Activated Charcoal - This is the first time I have purchased this.  It has been an anti-poison remedy for centuries.  It works as an absorbent of toxins in the digestive system, relieves gasses, eliminates fungi, viruses and bacteria and promotes recovery from food poisoning.  My kiddos have had a skin virus called Mulluscum.  It's harmless but makes small bumps on your skin that can irritate and form heads like acne.  Our pediatrician says there is no remedy and usually they go away within a couple of years!  YUCK!  That's a long time.  I read recently that a paste of activated charcoal mixed with raw honey can rid your body of this irritating virus.  I'm game to try it.

Jasmine Green Tea - I tried this a few years ago before I really got hooked on unsweet, herbal tea.  It tasted like flowers to me and I passed on future orders of this tea.  I've decided to give it another try.  Certainly I can get used to drinking flowers when it's so good for me??  It's rich in fluoride, can combat stomach and skin cancers and is a great way to boost your immune system.  An increase in consumption significantly improved the odds of survival of breast and ovarian cancer in patients also.  Sounds like a smart thing to me.

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Tea - I bought this last winter and absolutely loved it.  I added a few drops of stevia and some cream to the hot tea and it was like drinking yummy pumpkin pie.  It was perfect for cold, winter mornings.  It's made with red rooibos tea, cinnamon chips, orange peel, ginger root and cloves.  YUM!

If you want to learn more about herbs or order some, click on my family blog on the right and order from my button there.  You can search their site for all kinds of good articles and home remedies.  It's a great place to start and this company is what got me started on my herbal remedy adventure 9 years ago! 

Help Support 3 Kiddos Come Home

Hey Friends,

We have paired up with our good friends, who are also adopting internationally, for a fund raising garage sale.  So if you happen to live in the Nashville area, come by and see what we have.

The Craigslist listing is found here.  Thanks!

http://nashville.craigslist.org/gms/3224616599.html

My First Etsy Shop

I have a big announcement to make.  I have opened my very first Etsy shop.  For those of you out there who don't know what Etsy is, it is a place to sell your handmade goods.  My shop is called Fish Sticks For Africa.  I opened a shop in order to help raise funds for our adoption of twin boys from Africa.

It would make me so happy if you would spread the word to your friends and family through Facebook (which I don't do), Twitter or email.

I made a few sling bags out of blue jeans and they are listed individually.  If they sell well, then I will make more.  My daughter LOVES hers to hold her Kindle Fire.

The main item is my t-shirts.  I applique them by cutting out the t-shirt and adding a backing knit fabric.  I started by making one for our school last year, reading GCA.  Then recently I tried one of the country of Africa with our country marked with a hand sewn heart.  I have been stocking up on adult, youth and children's t-shirts at discounted prices so that I can make these to order.  I am in the process of making some for our cousins with the cut-out of Turkey and trying a sample shirt of Tennessee with a heart on Nashville.

Please pass my etsy link on and help us bring our boys home.  Thanks a ton!!

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/FishSticksforAfrica?ele=shop_open

Expected Short - Took Too Long

Went to Walgreens today.  Had a few problems and it ended up taking me 5 times as long as it should have.  The Scope was $3 each and you get $3 RR when you buy 2.  I had 2 coupons for 75 cents off making them $1.25 each.  They had mislabeled the sign on the Scope, putting the deal sign on a much larger Scope, which of course did not ring up correctly so I caught that and we had it corrected.  The Omega Smart supplements were on sale for $10 and get a $10 RR making it FREE.  It didn't print and so I waited for the manager to get a form for me to fill out and mail in with a copy of  my receipt in order for Walgreens to mail me a $10 gift card.  I also purchased a Good 'N Natural bar for $1.29 and this Sunday's paper had a coupon for a free bar.  I wish I had more than one coupon, but it's not in the photo because it was my lunch.  :)  The total on these 4 items was $2.50 + a lot of trouble.  Guess it's par for the course.

I also saw that they had summer clearance items.  Since we frequent the lake and my mom's pool each summer, I always stock up on clearance items for the following year.  I grabbed a few swimming rings, arm floaties, water balloons and goggles all at super prices - 80% off.  I also purchased t-shirts for $2 each.  I am stocking up for a fundraiser idea I have for our adoption.  The tees rung up at $2.50 each and since I was getting 10, it was worth it to me to say something once again to the clerk.  I'm sure she was glad when I left.

I'm skipping CVS this week.  Didn't see anything that really struck me for a trip to the store.  Hope your couponing this week takes shorter than mine did.  :)