Thursday, September 10, 2009

Another servant in my house!

Hey you guys ~ what's up?!?!

What a beautiful day (although, I'm ready to get RID of this high 70's/80 degree weather....bring on the 60's please!).  We've got breakfast eaten (banana bread pie made last night), bread dough in the bread maker (love that thing), lunch in the crock pot (hamburger casserole, a new one), everyone dressed, teeth brushed, beds made, and rooms cleaned up.

Even with all that, I'm a bit behind (schedule-wise) yet I'm learning that the schedule will *always* be more of a guide, to help me make my way through the day, rather than trying to get it all done at specific times.  Hmmm....maybe that's just me though.

Tonight is our "Reward Night" for our first week of school.  This goes along with our new behavior chart, names "How am I doing?".  It has X's & smiley-faces, to let everyone see how they are doing in any particular catergory (i.e.  bed made, room picked-up, school-time, chores, energy-wasters, etc.).  I'm actually really going to try to make sure everyone gets enough smiley-faces today so we can ALL enjoy this first Reward Night.  Then, in the future, if someone doesn't earn this privilege - they'll *know* what they're missing!!  (btw, tonight's reward is a Netflix movie & the season's first batch of Punkin' Bread - YUM!  Anyone who doesn't earn it, has to go to bed early....bummer.)

So anyway, today is Thrifty Thursday and here's my tip:

Use your crock pot.

Ha!  You thought it was going to be profound....NOT!

Seriously though, I just put in some cut up veggies, some seasoning, some browned meat and we'll have lunch here in a bit.  My house is NOT heating up, therefore the a/c is NOT required any more than normal.  I used from-scratch ingredients, which also saves me money (I guess the Crock Pot meal-in-a-pack has it's place, but...ick).  I am not at a loss for what to cook later, which leads to frustration, which can sometimes lead to a trip through the fast-food lane (don't tell me I'm the only one who does so!?!).

And it really is like the servants of old ~ instead of directing and supervising some housemaids (ha!), I'm supervising my crock pot, and my bread maker, the dishwasher & the washing machine - maybe even my coffee pot (I don't have to build a fire, right?!)

And I'm teaching my children how to be thrifty - in a good way!  I'm not laboring over the cutting board, complaining about the  L O N G  process and how much quicker it would be to head over to McD's.  We talked about the veggies, why I cut off certain parts, why I was cutting them the way I was, talking about how yummy it was all gonna taste later...oh, just an overall nice experience with my kiddos.  Something I'm praying they will repeat with THEIR children later in life!

Oh, and another benefit of the crock pot?  The delicious smells as things cook all day.  You come in from some time spent outdoors to the most wonderful smells!!  And your time later in the day can be better spent.  They say time is money, and that's true even especially for a SAHM.  At the end of the day, I'm beat.  If I have to spend an hour in the kitchen, I'd rather do it in the morning!  Due to my crankiness later in the day, so would my children!! HA!  Instead, I can sit down, read some books with the lil' ones - or we can work on a nice table display for dinner that evening;  candles, a tablecloth, maybe a handmade decoration or two, the NICE plates....Awesome!!

So pull your crock pot out from the back of the cabinet, google a few recipe sites (I really like RecipeZaar), find a great soup or stew and give it a try.  It's almost autumn around here, so it's a TERRIFIC time to test out some of those fall recipes~

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Can't use the crock pot... 1. all of us are out all day... I'm not one to leave ANYTHING while not home.
2. I think the "fumes" make me sick. Every time I've used it, I've felt nauseated all day. (I used it when I was home) the last time I used it, same thign happened, after that few hours, I unplugged it, opened the backdoor and put the meat in the oven... and voila, no more being nauseated! the crock pot went in the trash that night!

Brooke said...

Hmmmm...interesting on the fumes, I've never noticed any from my crockpot....maybe it was just a faulty one?
Anyhow, thanks for the reminder on that today Lori. Thursdays we get home from the gym around 630 and I almost always end up picking something up on the way home. The crockpot would be a better idea!

Mary said...

I love my crockpots! I have three of them, two 3.5 quarts and a huge 6 quart. We only have one child left at home and she dosen't eat meat, so most of what I cook in them are vegetarian dishes that seem to cook faster that meat dishes. You can't beat pinto beans with chopped green pepper and onion and cornbread on the side. We usually have this with carrot rasin salad for some reason. Odd combination, I know, but really good.
Also, who hasn't put a whole chicken, seasoned to taste, on a rack in a crockpot all day? Roasted chicken tonight, chicken salad tomorrow, then chicken soup on the third night. Whip[ up some rolls or biscuits and a nice salad and Ta Da! Dinner's served. Your welcome. ;)

Mary with the STILL un-updated blog!

Virginia Revoir said...

That is so weird about the fumes from her crockpot. I've never had that. Maybe it was faulty?

I love crockpot stuff too! I just don't do it often enough.

We been excited around here that the temperature as been 100 degrees verses 113 degrees! I was excitd to go outside today. Ha ha. I love the fall when it's in the 80's. You can tell we live in Arizona. LOL.

Anyway, thanks for reminding me about crock pot ideas. I will google some ideas.