Valentines

I love our Valentines traditions. We eat the traditional steak and potatoes meal by candlelight with everyone. (This is the only time every year that I will buy steak.) Ray gives everyone a heart box of chocolate. He wants the girls to be treated with love all the time and it's good for them to have a tangible picture of it on a special occasion. How he treats them now is giving them a standard to expect from their future husbands.

We often draw names to give gifts to our Valentine. It's fun to see the thoughtfulness put into each gift. Rachel actually touched our dog to make a painting for Mary. (If you know Rachel, she doesn't like dogs, at all.)

This was by far the easiest "special dessert" we've ever had. I bought a Sara Lee pound cake and sliced it. Abigail used cookie cutters to make hearts and the word Love to place on a plate around fruit. Then we dipped it in melted chocolate.

Soy

Hannah has had headaches and fainting spells for a long time. She went through every test that could be taken. After hundreds of dollars and countless doctor's appointments she was still constantly dizzy and randomly fainting. Someone suggested she look up different diets and menus for people with headaches, specifically migraines.

We cut out lots of different foods and finally found that the biggest culprit is soy and cured meats. She has been some time without fainting, feeling dizzy or debilitating migraines. She had dropped a few pounds (which is not good for her) but her weight seems to have leveled off again.

It was harder than I thought it would be to cut out soy, but once we got used to it, it isn't so bad. The first thing that I learned was that vegetable oil is actually soybean oil. And an olive oil bottle that says contains pure olive oil doesn't actually mean that it's 100 percent olive oil, it means that there is some olive oil in it but that there also may be some soybean oil.

I have appreciated her attitude about the whole thing. When she is in public she tries not to make a big deal about any food that is served. If she can't ask discreetly and politely about the soy, she doesn't eat. (Usually, there is the fresh fruit option.)

I have learned how to cook healthier and have expanded my recipes. The most useful is- I always have a bottle of this available. It's actually really good in chicken salad and on sandwiches.

Italian Salad Dressing

• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
• 2 tablespoons salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic salt, onion powder, sugar, oregano, pepper, thyme, basil, parsley, celery salt and regular salt. Store in a tightly sealed container.
2. To prepare dressing, whisk together 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2/3 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons of the dry mix.

A Recipe NOT To Try

So, I heard this great recipe to make your own cooking spray. It was cheaper, less expensive, and cleaner. It was -mix one part of cooking oil with five parts of water in a spray bottle. Voila, cooking spray! Right? Wrong! My girls and I have been scrubbing pots and pans for days! Everything sticks to the pans and the muffin pans that I have used for 26 years may not survive. I'm planning to buy steel wool to save them, but I'm wondering if it might be cheaper to but new pans. I know it would be easier!

Meal Planning

How do you save time on meals? I have been all over the place on time saving for meals and never seem to get it down right.

A couple of weeks before I gave birth to Sarah, a friend came over and helped me cook a month's worth of meals in one day. She had gotten the book, Once a Month Cooking, and I bought all of the groceries. Between the two of us we had four small children, and it turned out to be a full day of fun. It was great to have so many meals to pull out whenever I needed them. Ray didn't love all of the meals, but the concept was so helpful.

I started working harder to cook dishes ahead of time to put in the freezer. I often cook double the meat so that I don't have do that, but if I don't pull it aside before it goes on the table, it will get eaten before I can get it in the freezer to save for another meal. Last week I cooked a pound of bacon for supper early in the day and I was left with only three pieces to use for the recipe at supper.

This week, I got a good deal on meat at Sam's so I cooked up two pounds of sausage, eight pounds of ground beef and about five pounds of chicken. I planned a bunch of meals and divided the meat into the meal sized portions. If I stay on my normal schedule and plan the meals for the day early in the morning I can get the food out of the freezer and have it on the table without too much trouble. (Our microwave is broken, so I can't defrost meat quickly anymore.)

Here I go, planning again. It seems like so much of my life runs better if I plan ahead. I need to keep planning and reminding myself Proverbs 16:9.

The heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps.

Coupons

Okay, I've jumped on the coupon bandwagon. Here is what I think- You can save money, but it will cost you in time. I have this elaborate notebook with baseball card pages and am getting the newspaper every week with double coupons. My coupons are not filed often enough so I still spend time standing in the aisles looking through the stack of clipped coupons. I signed up with The Grocery Game but have used it only once. I plan to cancel it soon. The Coupon Mom site was interesting and probably gave me the most help out of all the websites. A friend came over and helped me navigate the Southern Savers site and that's where I will probably print off my lists, if I ever get time to actually do that before I run out the door to buy groceries.
The idea that I can use coupons to get the best deals on the items that I buy is the most appealing to me. I like stock piling items that we need often; no one wants to run to the store at the very moment of certain needs. I have to be careful not to buy things we don't eat or want just because it's only 20 cents a box. There are items that can be gotten for free if you work the system right. I hear stories of people who buy their groceries for 50-80% off of the retail prices. One person even told me that it pays her to use coupons but she has to go to many different stores and doesn't have children at home to school or ferry around.
The biggest problem I see is that we don't eat like that. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies and I don't see how you can save 50% on those things because there is almost no coupons for that stuff. Another issue is how the cashiers react. My goal at the grocery store is to be a witness as well as feed my family at the best price possible. But if it means I have to wrangle with a clerk over a 45 cents coupon I plan to choose not. Also, there is a price you pay for spending time with your children. If it comes in the price of groceries, that's where I have to spend it. If I can spend that time with the girls I will, that's why I won't abandon the system completely.