I think when most people think of the slow cooker and the things that we cook in it, they think winter.  I know that was my first thought before I learned that the slow cooker can be my best friend.  I have learned that you can cook almost anything in your slow cooker and it really saves lots of time.  On those busy summer days when you want to be at the pool but you feel like you need to cook instead, pull out your slow cooker.  Several of my friends say that this way of cooking is not for them but I have some tried and true recipes for the slow cooker. 

Roasted Chicken
1 whole chicken (approx. 3-5 pounds)
Salt and pepper (or any seasoning of your choice)
Wash chicken inside and out (remove anything inside).  Sprinkle with seasoning.  Place three balls of aluminum foil in the bottom of your slow cooker (this will be a rack for your chicken).  Place the chicken in, breast side down, and cook on low for six to eight hours. (This recipe is from Amy at www.momadvice.com)

Italian Beef
1 chuck or round roast (5-6 pounds)
1 package of Good Season’s Zesty Italian Mix
1 package of onion soup mix
Fresh garlic (we like a lot but you can use as much or as little as you like)
1 large can of beef broth
2 bay leaves
Pinch of salt
1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 green pepper sliced

Mix all ingredients together in crock pot.  Cover and cook on low setting for 18 hours or on high for 7-9 hours. 

Macaroni and Cheese
8 oz. dry elbow macaroni (cooked)
3-4 cups shredded sharp cheddar, divided
12 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
Chopped onion to taste

Combine all ingredients except 1 cup cheese in greased slow cooker.  Sprinkle reserve cup of cheese over top
Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours.  Do not remove lid or stir until the mixture has finished cooking.

These recipes are just a few to get you started.  There are endless resources for slow cooker recipes on the internet.  An interesting blog you might want to visit is Crockpot 365.  Stephanie has committed to cooking in her crock pot everyday for year.  You should go check it out because she has made some awesome meals in her slow cooker.

Tami is a former teacher. She is now a stay-at-home mom and has four children. She enjoys writing about their everyday life and the adventures that motherhood brings. You can find her at Muddlin’ Thru Motherhood.

Each hour today, we are blogging for charity.  Please consider making a donation to The Children’s Hunger Fund. 

I had a problem. When I went to the grocery store I had to take my 2-year-old with me. My little boy is normally very well behaved but for some reason, whenever we walk into a grocery store he starts acting as though he’s never been in public before.

As you can imagine, grocery store visits were taking a lot of time. I had my grocery list from the grocery game and my coupons, and I was trying to find the best deals while dealing with a 2-year-old. I decided I’d better find a quicker way to get out of the store.

Here’s what I did to save time:

First, I looked over The Grocery Game list for the week. I printed off only the items that I was interested in purchasing.

Read more

I don’t know about you, but I get more than a thousand junk emails each week!  To help cut down on the number of spam emails that I receive in my inbox, I created another email account at yahoo.  This is the email address that I always give away to businesses, Cash Crate (lol), websites that are giving away freebies, etc.  I still receive way too many spam emails at my regular address, but this system has helped out a lot.  It has saved me so much time when sorting through emails each day.

Do you have more than one email address?

Here we are with just a few weeks left until Christmas and I thought you all could use some tips to help you save time while shopping.

1.  Ask for gift suggestions.  If you don’t feel comfortable asking the person, the try asking their friends or family members.

2.  Go shopping with a list.  Have each person’s name on the list and some gift ideas.

3.  Avoid shopping during mealtimes.  This will only cost you more time and money, plus the wait time in the restaurants from all the extra business.

4.  Delegate.  If possible, give some of the responsibilities to someone else.  Have your husband be in charge of buying for his parents or have him go pick up the Nintendo game system your child has been wanting.  There’s no reason that you have to do it all yourself.

5.  Shop during off-peak hours.  Right now it seems like there are no off-peak hours, but you know the stores are going to be busier on the weekends.

Read more

Do you find yourself losing pieces to things?  Do your kid’s toys have a bunch of toy pieces that they can’t keep up with?  Do you like to organize with baggies, but find they’re not sturdy enough?

Last week I let you in on 10 organizing & decluttering tips, so this week I want to tell you about these great organizing bags by The Lazy Organizer.  There are 5 sizes to choose from, ranging from teeny tiny to extra large.  Each bag has a black handle, strong nylon coil zipper, and durable vinyl window so that you can see what’s inside.  Click here to see Lara’s organizing bag website.

Read more

Lately I’ve been visiting b5’s Home & Dining Channel and I’ve found some great blogs.  Today at Keeping the Castle, I found that Maricar has compiled a list of 50 crock pot recipes to keep you warm and full.  Thrifty Mommies are always looking for easy, time-saving meals to serve their families.  Check out Maricar’s awesome list.

Being home has allowed me to find many great resources to share with you.  I normally don’t have much time to watch tv, but sometimes I will turn it on while I am blogging.  Today, I was excited to discover Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller. 

Of course, I had to google their site because I wanted to find many great, time saving recipes.  Don’t go out to dinner tonight and spend $30.  Take a look at these easy recipes instead.

Here’s some that I found to try:

• Steak fajitas with fresh guacamole
• Adobo Rice and Black Beans
• Hawaiian Pizza
• Chicken Pot Pie

I hope you’ll enjoy this site as much as me!

I did something last week to save time on meal preparation and I wanted to share this idea with you. 

Last week, my local grocery store had hamburger on sale for a really good price.  I bought a large family pack.  I cooked ALL of the ground hamburger and added some ground turkey to help cut down on the fat. 

After the hamburger/turkey combination was cooked, I divided the meat up into 1 - 1 1/2 lbs and put it into freezer containers. I let the meat cool for a little bit, wrote the dates on them, and froze them.

Sunday this really saved me some time.  We had a covered dish meal at church Sunday that I didn’t know about in time to prepare.  I pulled two pre-cooked hamburger containers out of the freezer and made a Shepherd’s Pie.  (I’ll give you that recipe later.)

The pre-cooked hamburger is certainly a time-saver.  With it you could cook spaghetti, lasagna, taco salads, tacos, dirty rice, Hamburger Helper, Shepherd’s Pie, and more.  Of course, I wouldn’t recommend eating hamburger every night, but this method is a sure time-saver for the nights that you do eat it.

Do you have any tips for making meals easier?

Picture from shoplocal.com.

I don’t know about you, but papers and records are a major burden, baggage, thorn in my side, . . . you get the picture. 

To me, papers, receipts, and all that stuff are worse than laundry.  It seems the laundry never goes away.  Even if you are “caught up”, you know that everyday 4 more people will come home with dirty clothes on their bodies and create another 1 1/2 loads for you to do. I feel the same way about papers. 

Thankfully, I just found an article that tells which papers to toss after 1 month and 1 year, which ones to keep for 7 years, and which to keep forever. This will definitely be a time and space saver for me.

I find myself too attached to documents and receipts because I’m never sure what I’ll need.  Then when it is time to purge my documents, I have to look at the same ones again and again.  I really hate that these papers have this kind of power in my life.

I want to be freed from clutter and papers.  I hope and pray that I can find the time to purge.  This article from Real Simple will certainly help me.  I hope you find it helpful to you too. 

Images from maine.gov and urbanext.

Company’s coming and what do you fix?  How about cube steak?  This recipe is easy and tastes great.  Just put the steak on to cook and you will have time to finish cleaning up the house or getting ready for company.

cube steak - as much as you need
flour
oil
salt & pepper
powdered gravy mix

Flour both sides of your cube steak (that you got on sale!). Sprinkle with salt & pepper, if you’d like. Put a little oil in your pan and brown both sides of your steak. You will only need to cook it for a few minutes on each side. In a bowl or measuring cup, mix your powdered gravy mix with water. I usually use twice as much water as the directions call for. I also use 2 packages of gravy mix so that I have gravy for my mashed potatoes too. Pour the mixed gravy on top of the steak.  Cover the pan and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, turning occasionally until the meat is tender.  If the gravy starts to get too thick, then just add a little water.  

I like to serve this recipe with mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and bread.  Ummmm, yummy!

Simple enough?  This recipe was given to me by my mom, The Queen of Thrifty.  She taught me about everything I know about penny pinching.  Love you Mom!