FREEBIES #3--Homeschooling Resources

**These freebies are NO longer available, however you can still purchase them from CurrClick!!**

Another day of freebies over at CurrClick!!!

To celebrate Mother's Day, CurrClick is giving away FOUR freebies today for you to download each day for the next five days!! The freebies will change each day! The days that they will still be offering the freebies is May 8, 11, 12, 13!!! So do not delay in taking advantage of this wonderful resource!!

Today's Freebies are(there are FIVE today!!):

• The Daily Bird (Cardinals)--a one-day, mini-Unit Study on just one type of bird. This Unit includes a lesson, reading comprehension worksheet, coloring page, notebooking sheet, and related activity.
  
  
• Nesting Birds Unit Study - Creative Homeschooled Kids Magazine, Apr-May 2009--The theme for this unit study is birds and their nests. Includes a special 10-page Mother’s Day section, with colorful pictures and sentiments to use in making Mom a card, instructions for having a Mother’s Day tea, a heartwarming and humorous story, and an article on how to love Mom in practical ways all year.
  
  
• Come on, Mom! 75 Things for Mothers and Daughters to Do Together--From making paper and perfume to having backyard races and going on butterfly safaris, these fun activities are guaranteed to keep mothers and daughters smiling on rainy – and sunny – days. Each activity includes easy-to-follow instructions and a materials needed list (if supplies are necessary). Even a super-mom can use some new ideas for fun things to do! This girls-only guide will create memories that last long after the book is closed.
  
  
• Shemot or Exodus 1-5 Interactive Lap Folder--Here is the first bible series Lap Folder in the book of exodus. It serves as a great study of the bible on its own and also works well with the Pesach Lap Folder giving a nice historical overview to the story behind the holiday.
  
  
• You CAN Do a Unit Study!-- This book will help you understand how unit studies work, how you can make them work for YOU, how they will benefit you and your children and give you practical tips for using unit studies. Learn how to enhance your learning experience with this practical and useful book!
  

Don't miss out!!!

Where to find the freebies: You can click on the picture above to get to CurrClick's homepage (or the CurrClick links in this post)and then click on the same picture over on the homepage to find the freebies!!

This post is linked at: 

• Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!

Being Real with a Recipe Flop!

The ladies over at Home Ec 101 are starting a new blog meme called Fearless Fridays.  It is going along with their new series, "Kitchen Bravery", basically it is a meme to brag about your successes and failures in the kitchen.

I decided to play along today and humbly brag about a failure that I had in the kitchen this past week!  I am not sure what exactly went wrong with my main course meal on Monday night but to have only one or two people out of seven tolerate the meal means something was not right.

A little background...I am working at trying at least one recipe a week because I really need to get out of the rut of the same meals over and over again. In taking inventory of my freezer, I found that I had several packages of already browned ground beef and they were in need of getting used up.  So I did some recipe searches to find some ground beef recipes that did not use a tomato based sauce. 

I came across this Hobo Casserole over at Recipezaar that looked yummy and definitely fell into the new recipe category.  I decided to give it a try.  The only substitutions I did was using dry minced onion instead of fresh onion and garlic powder for the minced garlic.  I also made up some beef broth using water and bouillon for some of the milk. Everything else I used as according to the recipe. Here is how I put it together...

Hobo Casserole

2 lbs ground beef, browned (thawed from freezer)

8  potatoes, peeled, cubed and cooked

3 large carrots, peeled, diced, and cooked

2 tsp. garlic powder*

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 can 2% milk (used the soup can)

2 tbsp. minced onion*

4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce*

a few shakes of salt and pepper

1 beef bouillon in 1 cup of water for beef broth

Cook the potatoes and carrots on the stove until tender. While the potatoes and carrots are cooking, combine soup, spices, milk, broth and meat together in a separate bowl.   Once the potatoes and carrots are done, mix into the meat mixture.  Pour into your baking dish and cook at 350° for 30-40 minutes until heated through.

*spice amounts are approximate

The Results: It was fairly easy to put together. It smelled and looked appetizing. However, the texture was mushy, that it was hard not to have my(and hubby) gag reflex engage while I was eating it.  It was not very flavorful and what flavor there was seemed more of a bitter, vinegary taste, maybe because I did not measure out the spices or worcestershire sauce.   It also came out more like a stew/soup in consistency rather than casserole-y. 

Now I have a TON of it as leftover and not even sure if I can salvage it into a better dish as a "leftover makeover" or if I just need to bite the bullet and trash it.  

What do you think??  What could I have done differently? Do you think I should trash it or is there a way of salvaging it?  

This post is linked at: 

• Fearless Fridays at Home Ec 101!

FREEBIES #2--Homeschooling Resources

**these freebies are no longer available, however, you can still purchase them by going to CurrClick!**  Go here for today's freebies!

Another day of freebies over at CurrClick!!! 

To celebrate Mother's Day, CurrClick is giving away FOUR freebies for you to download each day for the next five days!! The freebies will change each day! The days that they will still be offering the freebies is May 7, 8, 11, 12, 13!!! So do not delay in taking advantage of this wonderful resource!!

Today's Freebies are: 

1. Ancient Rome Mini-Lapbook (TM) (K-8th)--This product comes with an extensive Study Guide, so you can easily teach as much detail as you choose and add to the lapbook as you see fit. All instructions and templates are included, and a layout makes the process fun and easy!
   
   
2. Mother's Day Blessing--This set of Notebook Papers includes journal pages with quotes and scriptures, there are food journal pages, diary pages, shopping lists and even recipe cards.
   
   
3. Footsteps on the Road to Learning ~ First Phonics Book--ideally for preschool and first grade. There are 52 phonics lessons with a number of fun activities in each lesson.
   
   
4. Happy Scribe Copybook - Life on the Farm--It has twenty different sayings, presented in three different common handwriting fonts; Classic Block Printing, D’Nealian Italic, and Cursive.
   

Don't miss out!!!

Where to find the freebies: You can click on the picture above to get to CurrClick's homepage (or the CurrClick links in this post)and then click on the same picture over on the homepage to find the freebies!!

FREEBIES #1---Homeschooling Resources

***these freebies are no longer available!*** If you would still like that them you can purchase them at CurrClick's website. 

To celebrate Mother's Day, CurrClick is giving away FOUR freebies for you to download each day for the next five days!!  The freebies will change each day!  The days that they are offering the freebies is May 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13!!!  So do not delay in taking advantage of this wonderful resource!!

Today's Freebies are:

1. Prince Caspian: Living for Christ in a Fallen World--unit study that gives you the opportunity to go through the book. The unit study has chapter summaries, memory verses, vocabulary and more.
   
   
2. Meaningful Bible Copywork - Variety 1--This is a collection of near 60 Bible verses. They range from short to medium in length and provide a good solid foundation
   for memorization at any age.
   
   
3. A Simple Booklet-Making Kit for Mother's Day--Make a lovely booklet or two for Mother's Day with the variety of sweet templates.
   
   
4. MIRL Arithmetic I--math featuring real life learning.
   
   

Don't miss out!!! 

Where to find the freebies: You can click on the picture above to get to CurrClick's homepage (or the CurrClick links in this post)and then click on the same picture over on the homepage to find the freebies!!

Using freebies works for me in keeping homeschooling costs down! There are more homeschooling freebies in my left sidebar!

This post is linked at: 

• Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

Menu Plan Monday 5/3-5/9

Last week's menu plan went pretty smoothly!  I “flew by the seat of my pants” a couple of nights for dinner because I didn’t have a plan but made it through with delightful dinners prepared and ready for consuming at a reasonable hour.  This past week, my downfall was being so busy that I forgot to take the time to pull meat from the freezer to use for dinner!  I did that one night and ended up going after take out because the meat was just too frozen to do anything with in a timely fashion.

For this week’s shopping trip wasn’t anything to write home about as I didn’t use much in the way of coupons. However, I did snag a couple good deals, including getting some boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.79/lb!!  I made it through my pantry & freezer spring cleaning event during the month of April; however, I am extending the event into May!!  The reason is that Sara over at Learning the Frugal Life is having an Eat from the Pantry Challenge during May and I decided that I would join her!  I learned a few  valuable lessons during the month of April in regards to my grocery budget…stay aware of what you have on hand and use it because it will keep your budget in check and you will not go over the monthly allotment! Also, I learned that I can feed my family of seven(2 adults/5 kids under 12) 3 meals and 2 snacks on $16 per day!!

This week’s menu consists of one new recipe along with family favorites.  I am using what I have on hand.  Any shopping that I do this week will be for next week’s meals!

Lunches listed are for the kids & me. Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or baby carrots along with fruit juice or water.  Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover along with various snacks for his work lunch.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 400 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie’s site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists! 

Sunday (5-3)

Breakfast: eggs, sausage or steak, hash browns, and banana muffins (from freezer)

Lunch: deli meat sandwiches and chips

Dinner: chicken club sandwiches served with fries and fresh veggie tray (carryover from last week)

Snack: snack basket

 

Monday (5-4)

Breakfast: cereal, toaster strudel, yogurt

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: hobo casserole(new recipe) served homemade honey oatmeal rolls

Snack: snack basket

 

Tuesday (5-5)

Breakfast:  waffles and sausage

Lunch: deli ham sandwich & chips

Dinner: choice of chicken or beef tacos topped with rice, refried beans, lettuce & cheese served with tortilla chips and salsa

Snack: snack basket

 

Wednesday (5-6)

Breakfast: cinnabites, eggs and cereal

Lunch: sandwiches & chips

Dinner:  smothered chicken served with boiled potatoes and peas

Snack: cookies & milk 

Thursday (5-7)

Breakfast: Pancakes and sausage

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner:  whole roasted chicken served with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and hot biscuits

Snack: snack basket

 

Friday (5-1)

Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel

Lunch: sandwich & chips

Dinner: homemade mini French bread pizzas (using mini sub buns)

Snack: ice cream night                                          

 

Saturday (5-2)  

Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”

Lunch:  chicken nuggets

Dinner:  grilled burgers or hot dogs served with pan fries and corn on cob

Snack:  snack basket  or popcorn