These blasted dishes!

My new dishwasher, purchased this summer with some of our "economic stimulus" money. It's been getting a good workout lately since I haven't been buying paper products for serving meals.

The dishes are piling up in the sink AGAIN, this time because I haven't been buying paper products for serving our meals lately. A budget crackdown of late has kept me out of the store except only when absolutely necessary, and then only to buy what is absolutely necessary, so I just haven't bought any of the plates, cups and bowls that I like to have around.

I started buying paper plates, etc. last summer when the kids had a lot of their friends over. I was driving myself nuts trying to keep all the dishes washed, so I gave up and gave in to buying paper. I always feel bad about making so much trash but my sanity is also very important.

The bowls seem to be the main problem. We eat a lot of cereal and ice cream, and sometimes I serve the kids their meals in bowls. Now without the paper bowls the sink fills quickly with plastic bowls. To top it off, no one rinses their bowls out (the kids do from time to time) so I'm left with a sinkful of sticky, crusty bowls. GROSS.

It doesn't take long for the sink to get full of all these bowls.

As far as cost goes, I wonder if it's not cheaper for me to buy paper instead of using a lot of water and soap to wash all the regular dishes, or at least the same price. Hmmm ...

Roast Beef with ... Coffee?

Yes, you read that right! That does say Roast Beef with Coffee!

The recipe from All Recipes says not to pass this up just because it sounds strange. No joke! I do love roast beef cooked in the slow cooker and I do love coffee; I'm just not sure about the combination. I have to try it!

Roast Beef with Coffee

4 pounds chuck roast
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups prepared strong coffee
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water


Preheat slow cooker to low setting OR preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Using a sharp knife, make 5 or 6 deep slits around the top and side of the roast. Push the whole cloves of garlic down into the slits. Place the meat in a slow cooker OR a 10x15 inch roasting pan and pour the coffee over the meat.

Cook in slow cooker on low setting for 6 to 8 hours OR bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 2 to 3 hours.

When roast is done, remove from slow cooker OR oven, and pour the drippings into a small saucepan over medium low heat. In a separate small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water. Mix well and add slowly to the drippings, stirring constantly. Simmer until thickened.

Use your leftover coffee grounds!

This coffee tip came from a frugal blog a few years ago. I mentioned it a few days ago in my Kitchen/Food Tips post but it bears singling out, if you ask me.

It seems a bit weird, maybe even gross, at first but I guarantee if you try it you will be impressed.

Use your leftover coffee grounds to make the next pot of coffee! When you make a pot of coffee, save the grounds until the next time you make coffee. Put half the amount of fresh coffee grounds that you normally use in with the leftover grounds. For instance, if you use two scoops of fresh grounds, place one scoop of fresh grounds on top of the leftover grounds. Brew the coffee with the same amount of water you normally use.

You can't taste the difference, or at least I can't!

You can do this at least once and I've even used the leftover grounds twice.

(Now if I could just cut back on the amount of sugar and creamer I use I'd really be getting somewhere.)

School lunches

My kids usually eat lunch in the cafeteria at school, but some days the lunch is just icky and I let them take their lunch to school.

At night I prepare the dry part of the lunch (chips, cookies, etc.) by placing small amounts in snack size plastic baggies (I have to buy name brand plastic baggies for food because the store brand ones make your food stink, or to me they do.) I put that and a piece of fruit in their lunch bags (got some nice basic ones at Target for $3.99 each) at night before I go to bed. In the morning they usually like to make their own PB&J sandwiches, and then I cut them up into halves or fourths and put them in sandwich size plastic baggies. The last thing that goes in is a juice box or water bottle. (I haven't had either this week so they've gotten milk from school.)

The hardest thing with school lunches is getting the girls to remember to bring their lunch containers home!

Good ole PB&J

Thank goodness for good ole PB&J! My kids love it and eat it for snacks and quick suppers. They take their lunch to school sometimes and they usually rather have that than a sandwich with meat and cheese.

My six-year-old literally ate PB&J for every meal a couple of days ago. She wanted to make her own lunch for school, but the sandwich turned out a bit messy so she decided to eat it right then instead of trying to put it in a bag. She still wanted PB&J for lunch, so I made her another one and put it in her lunch bag. She picked at her supper that night and ate three -- count 'em, three! -- PB&Js afterward.

Needless to say we are running through about a loaf of bread a day and a lot of peanut butter and jelly.

Our favorite kind of peanut butter is the Kroger brand roasted peanut butter with honey, followed closely by the Kroger creamy peanut butter. We aren't picky on brands/varieties of jelly so we just usually grab whatever. I like the kinds that smear easily, and I'm partial to blackberry. For bread we love Nature's Own wheat bread and we've just tried the Market Pantry brand of wheat bread at Target and we just love it. It's so wheat-y! We also buy the Kroger brand wheat bread a lot.

I love PB&J myself but I love PB&B (banana) even better. It's excellent with thick peanut butter and thick bananas on wheat bread and washed down with a vanilla cola.

Chicken and Veggie Pasta

You can have a delicious hot cooked meal in mid-August without heating the house up! All you need is a slow cooker and an electrical outlet outside.

We loved this Chicken and Veggie Pasta, another one of my meals cooked in the slow cooker outside. The variations are countless, so you could basically have this same meal for days on end without any complaints

Chicken and Veggie Pasta

6-8 chicken thighs
1 lb. package angel hair pasta
1 cup frozen veggies (I used corn, peas, carrots, and green beans)
Medium onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Place chicken, cut up onion, and salt and pepper in the slow cooker. Plug up outside and cook for a few hours on high or several hours on low.

When the chicken is done, drain the juice out into a pan and add a little bit of water if necessary. Break the pasta into thirds and place in the pan. After a minute or so, add the vegetables. Cook until the pasta is almost done (Be careful, angel hair pasta cooks very quickly.) Drain the pasta and vegetables over the slow cooker so that the juice goes back to the chicken.

Serve the chicken either beside the pasta or torn over the pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Kitchen/cooking tips

A friend emailed me some great kitchen/cooking tips. I added some tips of my own (and some comments). Here they are:

Eat bananas the easy way
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little strings off of it. That's how the primates do it. (My husband does this sometimes.)

Ripe bananas
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. (I like mine ripe so I won't be pulling mine apart.)

Storing cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Frying ground beef
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. (We don't even use ground beef but this is a great tip to share!)

Rich eggs
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

Brownies, only better
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Garlic
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Heating leftover pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to medium-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy.

Easy deviled eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip-seal plastic bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up, mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expand your cake frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Warming refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. (My husband always does this.)

Sticky stuff in the measuring cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Clean stains off the counters
Use baking soda to clean stains (red juice, etc.) off of the kitchen countertops.

Mopping the floor
Use vinegar and water to mop the kitchen floor and you'll find your floor has never been so clean. Just run a sink about half-full of water and add a cup of vinegar or so. It's safe to use on all floor types.

Scrubbers
Throw away your disgusting kitchen sponges and scrubbers and recycle instead! Use the mesh bags that produce like onions and apples come in. Place a wash rag inside and scrub your pots, etc. The stiff ones that onions come in work best for tough jobs. After a few uses, discard and get another one.

Stretch your coffee
Keep the leftover coffee grounds from the last time you made a pot of coffee and use them again! Just add half the amount of coffee grounds you normally use to the leftover grounds and brew as normal. (If you use two scoops, just add one scoop of grounds to the leftover grounds. You can use leftover grounds at least once and I've done it twice.) The coffee tastes just fine.