Menu Plan Monday 1/31 – 2/06

Hi everyone!

It’s time to plan our menus for the upcoming week. Making a weekly menu does not mean that you will be following it exactly. It is just another tool to help you save time, money and stress.

I really try to plan my menu from my pantry. Meaning, I build around what I already have and then buy the few things I still need.

Monday:

Lemon and Dill Baked Fish

Roasted Herbed Potatoes

Cole Slaw

Vanilla pudding & Fruit Parfaits

Tuesday:

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Rice Pilaf

Asian Salad

Pears, Raisins and Walnuts

(use canned pears and juice, cut into bite size chunks, add raisins and walnuts. refrigerate for at least an hour before serving)

Wednesday:

Ground Beef and Mushroom Carbonara

Corn

Jello with Fruit

Thursday:

Ham and Egg Strata

Fresh Veggies

Applesauce

Friday:

Restaurant Night:

TGI Friday’s Nine Layer DipYield: 12 servings.
2 strips lean bacon

1 16 0z Can Refried Beans

Plain 1/2 C. Sour Cream

1/2 tsp. Taco Seasoning

3/4 C. Shredded Cheddar Cheese

3/4 C. Guacamole (Frozen or Prepared is Fine)

1/3 C. Diced Tomatoes (about 1 Romano Tomato)

1 Tbsp. Fresh Cilantro Chopped Finely

2 Tbsp. Sliced Black Olives

2 Tbsp. Finely Sliced Green Onions

Fry diced bacon until done, add refried beans and cook slowly and stirrer frequently until the bacon and bacon drippings are mixed through about 15 minutes, remove from heat. Mix taco seasoning with sour cream and set aside.To built 9 layer dip place ingredients in this order.Place refried beans on serving platter spread out to 1 – 1 1/2 inches thick.1/2 C. shredded cheese1/2 C. prepared sour cream3/4 C. guacamolediced tomatoesdiced cilantroblack olivessliced green onion1/4 C. cheese for garnish

I am going to serve this with baked potatoes to turn it into a meal.

Peaches

Saturday:

C.O.R.N

Clean Out Refrigerator Night

Turn all your little dabs of this and that and leftovers into a buffet style meal.

Sunday:

Eat Out (YIPPEE!)

My recipe for the week will be the Ground Beef and Mushroom Carbonara which I will post of Friday.

For more ideas for dinner check out: Menu Plan Monday

Seeing it in a Different Light

Hi everyone!

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Christmas Tree shops looking for bargains. I showed you a bunch that I got. What I didn’t show you was this cute cotton red, white blue crab valance. Now, this design does not go with my kitchen what so ever. However, I really liked it as a fabric. When you are out bargain shopping and come across a design or pattern on a valance, curtain, sheet or any other fabric piece, don’t just look at it for what it is, think of it as a partial finished piece of fabric. Fabric is so expensive, so finding alternatives that are bargains is a must for me.

Here is the valance.

How cute is this fabric! And check out the price.

Now seriously, you can’t pass up .28 cents for this pretty fabric!

Can you see what I see? Yup, an embarrassingly simple easy metamorphosis! A perfect table runner that is pretty much already made!

I just need to remove this piece of solid blue fabric. Fortunately, there is already a finished seam so, I just need to cut it off carefully and I won’t have to sew it.

Instant table runner!

Now I am thinking I may take it one step further and cut this piece into 4 pieces and turn them into cloth napkins. I would only have to sew 2 napkins on two sides (or heat and bond it) and sew one side on the remaining two pieces.

So, for .28 cents and very little time or effort involved, you can have a new table runner or 4 new napkins. So, keep this in mind when you are out there thrifting!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed your visit!

I am joining:

Metamorphosis Monday

Blue Monday

Thrift Share Monday

Masterpiece Monday

What have I done to Her?

Today for Sunday Favorites I thought I would repost this special tablescape from a year ago.

As I was putting together this week’s tablescape, the little munchkin was doing the same in the living room. When I was taking pictures of my tablescape, she asked me to take some of hers for my blog too. So, I promised her I would post her tablescape as well so she could see it on Mama’s blog.

So, here are some action shots of the making of a tablescape!

Now for the Viewing!

So, what is being served at this fine tablescape? I’m thinking “alphabet soup”!

Tip of the Week #1

Hi everyone!

I used to have a little weekly post called “Tip of the week”. They are just small little everyday helpful tips that you may or may not think about. I have decided to bring this back. These little tips are not part of any blog party. Just a quick little post. Generally in the Thrifty area.

Today’s Tip.

As with most holiday, the grocery stores start having good sales on certain items that relate to that holiday. This is the best time to stock up on these items. And the next big grocery store holiday for sale items is …Super Bowl!

That’s right, Super Bowl. You are going to start seeing good “Loss Leaders” that will be game day type of party food start to pop up. Super Bowl 2011 is on February 6 this year. This is a good time to start checking out coupons, whether in the paper or online, for foods associated with game day food. Think snacks, chicken wings, brats, hotdogs etc.

Even though you may not have a Super Bowl party, this is the time to stock up a little bit by taking advantage of these sale items!

If you have a thrifty little tip you would like to share, please feel free to email it to me and I can share with everyone else (credit you of course!)

Centerpieces

Hi everyone!

Miss Donna at Funky Junk is having a “Centerpiece” party today so, I thought I would revisit past centerpieces.

We will start with last years Valentine table

“Warm and Golden”

2010 Wintery Table 

Easter

Vintage Myott and Copper Table

 

Outdoor Berry Sunny Table

Black, Red and White

Transitional Table

Fall Tablescape

Warmth of Rich Gold

Thanksgiving

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at a few of my centerpieces from 2010. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Cleaning Aluminum Thrift Finds

Hi everyone!

I received a couple of comments on yesterday's post and a lot of email from different readers all asking the same question, "How do you clean aluminum?". Now, let me first say, I am NOT an expert in this field. This is simply what I have found that works for me. There are a lot of different resources out on the web that tell you how to clean aluminum. Check them out if my methods don't work for you.

To be honest, 90% of my thrifted aluminum pieces really only require a good soak and scrubbing in warm water with dish detergent. If you have some stubborn crud on your aluminum or you want to restore the shininess to them, here is my method for that.

Fill a large pot with water and two tablespoons of cream of tarter. Bring to a boil and then add a couple of tablespoons of lime juice and simmer. Add your aluminum piece and let soak for about 10 -15 minutes. Then wash with dish detergent and dry. Now, most of my pieces are large serving platters and generally don't fit into any large pots I have (sometimes I can you my canning pot) so, I do the above and then dump the water into my sink and let the pieces soak there.

Most of the time, this method is all I need to get my aluminum cleaned. I have only once bought a piece that had some serious corrosion to it. I had to really search the internet to come up with a method of getting the corrosion out. What I found was, after doing the 2 methods above and I still have corroded spots, I tried this and it worked for me.

In a pot, mix half water and half white vinegar and a couple of tablespoons of lime juice. Bring to a boil then to a simmer and put our aluminum piece into it and let it soak for another 15 minutes. This worked for the most part to get the corrosion off my piece.

Some things to keep in mind when it comes to aluminum pieces:

**NEVER use silver polish on them!! You can buy polish of pewter which works on aluminum just fine.

**Remember aluminum does not have the mirror shine as silver. but, when restored (above methods) it should have a nice shine to it.

**If your pieces have lots of pretty details in them and after you have polished them, you have some polish or lint or whatever in the details, just use some rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and get into those crevices.

**As with polishing silver, use a soft cotton cloth to dry and shine your pieces.

**They say you can use a bit of steel wool to get out some corrosion as well. I tried this once and I just didn't like the small minute scratches the steel wool left on my piece. It worked getting the corrosion off but, I ended up with tiny scratches. So, this one is up to you.

**Remember, also like silver, the more you use it and wash in sudsy water, the nicer it becomes and it stays free of corrosion.

For the most part just soaking in warm sudsy water and then scrubbing a bit generally is all I ever have to do with my thrifted aluminum.

I hope this helped. Thank you for your comments and always feel free to ask a question because it seems a lot of others are wondering the same thing!

Here are pictures of what I did with the set of aluminum I got and showed you yesterday (above pic). This set just required a simple washing with dish detergent.

Yup, I turned it into a 2 tiered server.

Perfect for fruits, veggies, chips and a bowl of dip on top.

What? Did you think I only repurposed china into pedestals or servers?

This makes the prettiest server for different things like this. And, when you are taking crudités to a get together, this is nice and light and will present so beautifully. I hope this post helped and I hope my “redo” with my aluminum pieces gave you some fun ideas for your own pieces! So, start looking for those gorgeous aluminum pieces at great thrift prices!

Pretty Thrifty Finds

Hi everyone

About a year or so ago, I found myself with a new love ~ Aluminum. You heard me right. I said Aluminum! I keep finding these beautiful wrought or hammered aluminum serving pieces. They are so pretty and I really like to use them. The really awesome part is, I find them for generally only a dollar. You know that just makes my heart sing!

I showed you one of my recently thrifted aluminum pieces on my tablescape yesterday.

I paid .80. cents for it at a thrift store. Right now this pretty little aluminum tray is in our small bathroom holding a couple of brushes and combs.

This large tray was $1.00 at the same thrift store as the above little tray.

Oh, she needs some cleaning up, that’s or sure. But, the flowers and the overall design is so pretty!

One of the things I really love about these beautiful aluminum pieces is that they are so light. When I take food for an occasion to a family or friends house, I like to make sure I use pretty things to present the food. And aluminum servers are just perfect for that.

This next set of aluminum serving pieces were sold as a set and had an original sticker price of “2 pieces for $4.99”. But, I got them for a $1.00 (for both) because it was “5 for $5.00 Day” at the Salvation Army I went to.

These are wonderful. Really beautiful design. If you would like to learn how I clean my thrify aluminum pieces and what I did with this set of aluminum, check out this post.

I have to confess, every time I see a cloche I think of Miss Marty at A Stroll Thru Life. don’t you? She always has the best cloches! Well, when I spotted this one, I just fell in love with it! Perfect for Spring.

Look at those pretty hand painted pansies!

Want to see something even prettier than the pansies? Check out the price. Yup, $1.91!

I saw this doily and just loved it! It is large and fits perfectly on a vintage round table I have. I could NOT pass it up! Even though I have a gazillion doilies and vintage linens.

Isn’t that just so pretty? The colors are just wonderful!

The pretty pink center.

Now, I have to confess, I paid more more for this doily than any other doily or even vintage linen I have ever thrifted. It was $3.10 and I didn’t hesitate. This definitely was my big splurge!

So, those were my pretty thrift finds for the week. Did you find anything you just fell in love with while thrifting lately?

I hope you will join me at these fun parties:

Junkin’ Finds

Show and Tell Friday

A Few of My Favorite Things

Pink Saturday

Slow Cooker Potato and Double Corn Chowder

This is my easy version of potato corn chowder. Using the hashbrowns is a quick way to get a soup going if you are in a hurry.

 

1 bag (16 ounces) frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed (4 cups)

1 can (15.25 ounces) whole kernel corn, undrained

1 can (14.75 ounces) cream-style corn

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon pepper

In 3- to 4-quart slow cooker, mix all ingredients.

Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 8 hours (or High heat setting 3 to 4 hours) to develop flavors.

Stop by and visit these blogs:

Foodie Friday
Weekend Cooking