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.