Poppin' Tags for My Midcentury Fix

This is what my latest thrifting escapade has lead to... My lovely green couch acquired at a bargain basement price of $28!!! You might be saying to yourself- what's so great about that? It's just an old couch... No, my friends - it's a little bit of lovely in my basement! This gorgeous, classy lady is straight out of the 70s, and someone took great care to maintain her beauty despite her age. This baby probably spent its early years covered in plastic, and was barely sat on, or so it seems because the seat cushions are pristine. Finds like this just make my day. This is how I say Happy!

Here are some tips for buying furniture from the thrift shops: 

• Note the overall condition of the piece -

Does it have a good bone structure? Is it a piece you love enough that you might consider possibly spending extra time & money to give it new life - if it requires reupholstering - that can get expensive so this should factor in your buying price. Can you get it for a good price?

• Make sure it's in good CLEAN condition! A few spots here and there are to be expected, however, you definitely don't want to bring home little beasties that might be more expensive to get rid of than the price of the furniture piece. Look under cushions or open the dresser drawers and check for any evidence of critter activity. Check to see if any spots or stains can possibly be removed with a good cleaning. 

• Pay attention to the sales.... Yes, thrift stores have sales! Incredible, I know, because you're already getting a deal - but usually thrift shops will have a color coding or some similar system where certain colors will go on sale and the price will be reduced by a percentage. You might get an additional 50% off on pink tag items, or 25% off on blue. This makes the item you are buying an even better deal!

Lastly- make sure you have help getting your new item home! Especially if you are hunting a big furniture piece... Like a big green couch! Happy Thrifting!

Just Right for Fall - Pears & Pork Chops

    This is a dish I'm including in this week's meal plan - it's very simple and has sweet & subtle flavors that go well with your sides. 

    I bought my chops from our local butcher - J & M Butcher Shop over on Jefferson. He always has a great selection of meats. 

    First, I seasoned the chops with salt, pepper, & apple pie spice. Then I browned both sides on the stovetop in order to give them a little color. Next, I transferred the chops to a baking dish. You can use fresh pears, but this time I used 2 cans of pears. I poured both cans with juice over the chops, set the oven to 350, and baked the chops for about an hour. After the hour, I check on them every 15 minutes until I feel they're done.

    This is a versatile main course, I served it with green beans and rice, but you could serve it with carrots, mashed potatoes, and many other side choices.

Atomic City Mom's Easy Cooking

I have a very busy household with 5 children, so it's good for me to have a couple of easy dinner options for those days that I'm just dragging. Here's a really easy meal to whip up when you're having one of those crazy days - Easy Chicken Fajitas!

Ingredients:

4 large chicken breasts

4 medium green bell peppers

1 large red bell pepper

1 large onion

1 clove garlic

salt

pepper

3 packs of fajita seasoning 

Tortillas

You can vary your ingredients to your taste and quantity. The chicken breasts were huge so this recipe fed 8 with leftovers at my house.

First, I cooked the chicken over a medium heat, with a little olive oil in the bottom of the skillet. While cooking season the meat with salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is almost done, then remove the chicken and cut it into slices. Then dice your garlic into tiny pieces and sautée in skillet. Return chicken to your skillet and continue cooking on low. Next slice the bell peppers and onions into long strips and add to your skillet. Finally, add your fajita seasonings, and if it seems dry I like to add a little chicken broth to the mix. Cook until the bell peppers and onion soften. 

I like to serve this over warmed tortillas with a little shredded cheese & sour cream on top. Enjoy!

Variations: 

You can use steak instead of chicken, add salsa, or even put a little cooked Spanish rice inside.

Meal Planning - Save Time & Spend Less

Meal planning is a concept that isn't just for large families like mine. It can also actually benefit seniors, home bound individuals, and folks with extremely busy weekly schedules who either may have very limited time to do regular shopping trips or may not have the physical ability to get out on a regular basis to grocery shop. Once you get the general idea, meal planning can actually be fun!

For most people, I recommend planning your meals out on a weekly basis. This requires taking a little time out on one designated day of the week so you can plan your meals for the entire week. This way you can see exactly what you need to pick up from the grocery store in order to be able to prepare your meals for that week. By doing this, you can actually minimize your shopping trips to once a week. I like to do my planning for the upcoming week on Sunday mornings. This is so that I can look over the Sunday paper to see what products are on sale for that week. Then I can coordinate my coupons with grocery store deals to maximize my savings. With a little practice, meal planning is not only a time saver, but also a money saver.

For me, my biggest headache is doing dinners everyday for a family of seven. I started out only planning my dinner menus. Your meals can be as simple or as creative as you like. There are a lot of great websites out there where you can find sample menus or quick and easy recipes. I personally recommend www.allrecipes.com and http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com - these are great resources for recipe ideas and meal planning advice. 

Here's a sample weekly dinner menu I've used:

Monday:

Personal Meatloaves made in muffin cups

Baked Potatoes

Green Beans

Tuesday

Garlic Whole Baked Chicken stuffed with carrots, celery, and onion

Brown Rice

Veggie Medley - Cauliflower & Carrots

Wednesday 

Apple Cider Pork Chops & Baked Apples

Macaroni & Cheese

Mixed Veggies of Choice

Thursday 

Taco Bar with all the fixings

Friday

Chicken Quesadillas

Fried Bananas

Southwestern style Sweet Corn

Saturday 

Pizza Night - either delivery or frozen

Side Salad

Sunday

Chicken and Dumplings

Glazed carrots 

This is just one example of many. You can get more gourmet or go as simple as you like... We might have breakfast for dinner one night, or pigs in a blanket, or a leftovers night to make room in the fridge. 

Once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless. If live in the Oak Ridge, TN area, and you are a senior, home bound, or too busy to fool with it- check out my personal lifestyle maintenance services -www.Facebook.com/TheAtomiccitymomConcierge

Couponese Tip of the Day - Get Rid of Expired Coupons

I know it seems like sacrilege... The idea of not using every coupon we've taken the time to clip- the sad reality is that most of us don't use ALL of our coupons before they expire. Sometimes they're not items we use regularly, or they don't coincide with a good sale price... Or maybe we just didn't have time to get to the store that week. Oh well, that's life.

Since there were no coupons in this past weekend paper, I'm taking some time today to clear out my expired coupons to make room for this week's new ones.

Your expired coupons can still go to good use- military families stationed overseas can sometimes benefit from expired coupons. I believe they can use expired coupons for up to 6 months from the date of expiration. For more information about sending your expired coupons to military families check out Military Money Matters for tips on how to help. As a former Marine Corps wife, I wish I had known more about Couponing back then, it would have helped us tremendously with our ridiculously tight budget. Even so, I remember those years very fondly.

Couponese Weekly Haul

I wanted to post a pic of my grocery haul for this week... I'm doing this to show that with a little planning that you can catch some decent deals.

My grocery budget for a week with a family of 7 is $200. This is my personal budget, not necessarily one I recommend. I am trying to get that down to less than $150/wk. This is my goal, I got pretty close this time.

I like to shop at Kroger, they have the in-store coupons and Kroger plus savings that you get simply by having a store card. I also appreciate the fact that they double coupons up to 50 cents. This means if I have a coupon worth 50 cents, it doubles up to a dollar off that item! Pretty sweet!

Not pictured in this haul were the 6 packages of Perdue chicken breasts, and a 5 lb package of ground beef. I had a Kroger coupon for fresh meats that gave me an additional $1.50 off, and the chicken breasts were buy one get one free! Awesome!

I'm including a pic of my receipt totals. I bought a lot of big ticket items like diapers, paper towels, and TP, as well as meats which are expensive.

This week I was able to spend $159.57, very close to my goal of $150. Plus, I stocked up on big items like diapers.

I also earn fuel points through Kroger which you can use at the Shell. This is another perk with gas prices going up the past week!

Couponese Tip of the Day

A lot of serious couponers are doing so not only to shave money off the weekly grocery bill, but also to create a stockpile of items that they use often. Buying a large amount of something at its lowest price means you can stock up on that product and not have to buy it for awhile.

My biggest stockpile item is laundry detergent. I have 5 children, so laundry is a daily chore. I am not a slave to a particular brand, but I do have a few brands I do buy when they are on sale.

This week there's a great sale on Arm & Hammer Laundry detergent at Kroger. It's $2.99, I have 3 coupons for $1 off one bottle, so I'll get them for $1.99 each. That's a great deal for me.

Couponese Tip of the Day

While school supplies are on sale, it's a good time to stock up on couponing supplies too! Now's a great time to snag a binder, stock up on your coupon sleeves, dividers, scissors, and even sharpie markers.

My Luxury Drink

Isn't it pretty! Tasted so refreshing too. I made a cup of chamomile tea, added honey, and then mixed it with cold water. Served it over ice and added lovely orange slices. It was SO yummy!

My Sweet Pregnancy Essential - 28 Weeks

Super adorable slip on shoes!!! These are a must for the last trimester- when it's getting tough to bend over and tie laces or do buckles. You can still feel super lovely in a low heeled pair of slip on mules.

Conquering Clutter Monday

Okay, I am going to be completely honest here today- I am letting you in to a dirty secret that I try desperately to control. I have a paper clutter issue... Let's say that it wouldn't be too over the top to classify my little problem as 'bordering on hoarding' paper. I watch that show Hoarders- and feel sympathy for the guy who has amassed a huge collection of useless newspapers over the years... It's bad!

Needless to say, having four children doesn't help matters much when they are bringing home all kinds of cute artwork, quizzes, and lovely school papers. Plus, having children puts me in a perpetual time crunch! I had to find a strategy that would help me work through this problem! Especially since I don't want my children to pick up this problem and think it's okay to live like this.

Here are some clutter management tips that I've found to work for me:

Don't bring unnecessary clutter inside the house. How I've employed this strategy is that I open my mail next to my recycle bin. Any junk mail and flyers go directly into the recycle bin, it doesn't make it into the house.

Today, I actually took about 20-30 minutes of the morning- after dropping off the kids and grabbing a huge cup of coffee, to declutter my kitchen counter. This space has become an easy catch-all for paper clutter items. It's right by the door as you come in- so it's quite an eye sore. I started by grabbing an empty plastic container to dump all the recycling, and organized all of the mail into piles- bills, bank statements, etc. Then I opened all the mail and recycled any envelopes and excess papers. I store my paper shredder close by this area, this makes it convenient to get rid of anything containing personal info.

The cardinal rule of organization is that 'everything must have a place.'Recipes go in the recipe box, bills, and important papers can be stored in a large filing system like an accordion style filing folder or a large binder. I even am starting a coupon area. Knowing everything has a designated area makes it a lot less stressful.

I'm always working on my clutter issues, but today is a step forward- it's sweet progress... And it feels good!

In the Kitchen - Superbowl Treat!!

From allrecipes.com - I tried the Warm and Creamy Bacon Dip. It turned out really yummy! It's also giving me a chance to break out my new casserole dish! I've been dying to use it. I picked it up at a local flea market, and I LOVE it!! The kids are loving the dip right now- they helped me to make this. Instead of bacon bits- I fried up some bacon and crumbled it into the dish. It's SUPER yummy!

In the Atomic Kitchen

Easy Mayonnaise Drop Biscuits with Fruit!

I got this recipe from GeorgieBrent on allrecipes.com and after reading all the positive reviews, I decided to try it out. I'm always on the lookout for versatile recipes that can be used in a variety of ways. I have a large family, so a quick recipe is golden for me. This was both super easy to make and super versatile! Here's the basic ingredient list from allrecipes.com

2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons mayonnaise

How it's Done:

1. Pre-Heat Oven to 400 degrees

2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients until just blended. Drop by spoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.

3. Bake for approximately 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

After spooning the dough onto baking sheets, I then plopped a spoonful of preserves over each one. Then I covered it with some batter I had reserved. My batch only made 9 biscuits, but they were really generously sized, and just enough for everyone to have their fill. Check out my photos for ingredients used, and how everything turned out.

Deviations from the original recipe:
I would recommend mixing the flour and mayo first... Then add the milk slowly until you reach desired dough consistency. I added all the milk and ended up having to use more flour.

S-N-O-W!!

It's a winter wonderland!! Left the gym this morning and the ground was covered!! Snow Angel time! :)

In the Kitchen

Homemade Chili in Bread Bowls!!

1st Attempt at Personal Pizzas

This may not look pretty but it sure was a fun little dinner to make with the kids. There are so many different toppings you can do, but we did cheese and sausages.

Ice Storm Cometh!

Hey All- Be careful traveling today. Newscasts are advising staying in today if you can. Main roads in Oak Ridge appear to be okay, but my Hubbs almost slipped and fell going out to his truck this morning.

Here's what I found coating my car and the driveway a few minutes ago!

Momma Stylin' - Monday's Rainy Day Wear

My round pregnant belly likes to be shown off in style, so this winter I've found myself sporting these open sweaters with a dramatic draping quality. This is my newest find... I love the earthy browns mixed with a turquoise blue. I've paired it with a simple empire waist top with its own bit of detail across the bust-line. It's casual but I still feel pretty, and not clunky and bloated.

My Frugal Finds

Love is... This red hot little beauty that I found at Goodwill for a steal. The circles are made of real leather! Perfect find for Valentine's Day fun.