This summer my parents surprised us with a membership to our local recreational association. E.B. is 6 now and loves to swim, so they thought it would be a great way for us to spend some time together as a family. They were so right! E.B. and I have had a blast spending a couple of hours every few days a week at the pool. He is improving upon his swimming skills and I am improving upon my tan. It’s a win-win situation for us both.
I have a very wasteful kitchen. Yes, it’s clean and organized, but I have quite a collection of spices, sauces, and other random products that have probably been used in a recipe only once and then sit until I realize they’ve expired. I hate complicated meals and prefer fast and easy. However, we all know that often times “fast and easy” means unhealthy. It’s a battle I wage on a daily basis.
To the rescue comes The Stocked Kitchen, a great new cookbook written by Sarah Kallio and Stacey Krastins. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Great! Just another thing to clutter up my kitchen”. Not so, I say! This cookbook is so much more than a cookbook. Allow the authors to tell you a little more:
I suffer from all of the symptoms the authors talk about when it comes to cooking: poor meal planning, having one ingredient on hand but not another, and just finding a great recipe that doesn’t require tons of prep and cooking time. When offered the chance to review a copy, I immediately said yes, because I want to learn to love cooking and stop hating it for all the reasons mentioned above.
The book is full of delicious recipes that my family would actually eat and comes with a grocery list (even tear-out lists!) of ingredients to always keep in stock in your home so that you are always prepared. All of the work is done for you. All you have to do is decide which amazing recipe you want to cook. Less waste, less time agonizing over meal planning, and less trips to the grocery store which saves you money.
Like me, you may have several cookbooks, but this one is one that will actually be used and not collect dust on the bookshelf. Think of the money and time you will save by always being prepared!
The Stocked Kitchen: One Grocery List . . . Endless Recipes
Being a good steward of money is definitely one of the hopes I have for my son. We’ve started implementing a money management plan that is age-appropriate for him to teach him that money is earned (in his case, chores) and money is saved, spent, and tithed. Our goal is to help him to learn to be financially savvy and independent by the time he reaches adulthood.
Because it’s so important to teach children about saving and spending, T. Rowe Price has partnered with Disney to create The Great Piggy Bank Adventure , an online game and interactive experience at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World®. It is their hope that this will be a teaching tool for parents to use to talk with their children about good financial habits.
GIVEAWAY:
I would love to hear how YOU talk with your kids about money. In return, one lucky winner will receive this awesome Great Piggy Bank Adventure Flip cam!
TO ENTER:
Leave a comment below answering ONE of these questions. Giveaway will close on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 11 PM. U.S. Only.
*When do you talk to your kids about money?
*Do you talk to your kids about money at the ATM or the grocery store?
*How do you teach your kids about financial concepts in the news today such as inflation and setting financial goals like saving for college?
*When you give your kids an allowance, do you ask them to set a goal for their spending and/or talk about ways to spend wisely?
*Do you ever use items in the news, such as inflation, as a chance to teach your kids about the concept? If so, what have you found works well to help them understand inflation or other financial concepts?
BONUS ENTRIES:
After you have answered one of the questions above, you can also earn up to 6 bonus entries by doing the following (but please leave a seperate comment for each):
1. Subscribe to Mommy Cracked in a reader by clicking here. (Leave a comment on this post telling me you did so).
2. Subscribe to Mommy Cracked by email and confirm the subscription. This option is in the sidebar. (Leave a comment on this post telling me you did so)
3. Tweet this contest and leave a comment on this post with your link on Twitter. (You can hit the Retweet button at the top of this post to make it easier.)
4. Click here to follow me on Twitter and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.
5. Click here to become a fan of Mommy Cracked on Facebook and leave a comment on this post telling me you did so.
6. Follow me on Google Friend Connect. Just hit “Join” under “Followers” in the sidebar.
That’s it! Good luck!
A gift card and the Great Piggy Bank Adventure-branded Flip camera have been provided courtesy of T. Rowe Price. T. Rowe Price is not involved in or responsible for the outcome of this giveaway.
Now that summer is here, I love being able to enjoy all the fresh fruits and vegetables in season. Salads are so quick and easy to prepare, but I was getting a little bored with our regular salads made with lettuce, so a couple of weeks ago while looking into the refrigerator, the fruits and vegetables inside gave me a little inspiration to throw them together and try something different. It ended up being delicious, so I thought I’d share what I now call the Fruit/Veggie Vinaigrette Salad
What You’ll Need:
Cucumbers, small grape tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, and a bottle of Wishbone Red Wine Vinaigrette salad dressing.
Since my husband and I were the only ones eating this on this particular night, I only used the amounts of fruits and veggies you see below. You can add more or less and you can even throw in some other fruits/veggies that you like.
Directions:
Wash your fruits and veggies thoroughly. Then, simply cut into bite size pieces.
Next, add in some Wishbone Red Wine Vinaigrette salad dressing and toss together. Now, I didn’t measure how much of the red wine vinaigrette dressing I used, but you can add as much or as little as you’d like.
The end result was a wonderful combination of sweet, tangy, and crunchy…a perfect side to any meat and extremely easy to put together. Definitely not your usual salad!
And I am all about some easy food prep!
Now that summer is in full swing, you may find yourself attending graduations, back yard barbeques, and just enjoying more meals with your family and celebrating the end of the school year for the kids. Around our home, we are relishing the slower pace of life that summer brings and have been enjoying afternoons at the swimming pool and ballpark.
If you’re looking for some inspiring ways to celebrate the milestones as summer begins, consider these:
* Encourage your child to invite a couple of friends over to celebrate the end of this school year. They’ve worked hard all year (and so have you!), so take an afternoon or evening to reflect on the year and recognize everyone’s hard work.
Tip: Serve a new twist on an all-time favorite with Braided Stuffed Pizza Bread or Easy Pepperoni Pizzas and pop in a favorite movie.
* Give a grad a unique gift with a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. This classis is an inspiring story for any graduate starting a new chapter in life.
* Celebrate the start of summer with a backyard barbeque with the whole family. Be sure to have outdoor games like croquet and badminton that are easy to play and fun for everyone.
Tip: Everyone is sure to love BBQ Blue Sanwiches with a side of Grilled Fruits and Applewood Bacon Spinach Salad.
I’d love to hear in the comments section how you and your family will be kicking off the beginning of summer. Whatever you plan, have fun and let Hormel help you make it a little more delicious.
I wrote this post as part of my participation in the Hormel Foods Extended Family Bloggers Program.
I love having a garbage disposal in our kitchen sink, but I often don’t use it for the simple fact that it’s hard to keep it smelling fresh. I can remember years ago doing an internet search for a product to clean the disposal and finding absolutely nothing but homemade remedies that never worked. Since moving in our new place, I’ve avoided using the garbage disposal altogether because I just didn’t want to have to deal with this issue. Luckily, there is now a product to keep the disposal AND the dishwasher smelling fresh and running smoothly.
Affresh Dishwasher/Disposal Cleaner works hard to eliminate odors that can build up in your dishwasher and garbage disposal and keep these hard working appliances performing the way they should. Affresh Dishwasher/Disposal Cleaner is safe for septic tanks, dishwashers, disposals, and plumbing and is the #1 recommended cleaner by KitchenAid, Amana, Whirlpool, and Maytag brands.
I’m definitely guilty of loading our dishwasher and letting dirty dishes sit in there a couple of days until I have it filled up and ready to run, but I decided to try out Affresh in our garbage disposal first since it hasn’t been used by us yet.
Using the Affresh tablet couldn’t have been easier. For garbage disposals, you simply place the Affresh tablet into the disposal and run hot water down the drain while you turn the disposal on for 15 seconds. After turning off the water, let the tablet sit in the disposal for 30 minutes and then flush with hot water.
I’m pleased to report that after following the instructions, the Affresh has our sink area smelling great! Everytime I walk by the sink I catch a faint scent of the Affresh and I love that. It also lasts up to one month, so I’m excited about how long it works at keeping odors at bay. Whirlpool recommends using the Affresh tablets once a month or as needed to keep your dishwasher and garbage disposal smelling fresh. I can’t wait to try it in our dishwasher.
Affresh Dishwasher/Disposal Cleaner retails for $5.99 for a package of 6 tablets and can be purchased at Sears, Best Buy, Kroger’s, Food Lion, and www.affresh.com.
I’ll be trying our Affresh in our dishwasher next and will report back with my results.
I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Affresh and received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.
10 Annoyingly Cute Things You Do That Drive Me Crazy But I Love You Anyway:
1. You steal my sunglasses in the car so you can look “cool”. Nevermind that the 8:00 AM sun is blinding your mother’s eyes on the way to work. Image is everything.
2. When I don’t give you your way, you say, “You’re FIRED!!”. At current count, you have fired me 42 times so far this summer and it’s only June. Donald Trump would be so proud.
3. When we drive into Sonic for our 8:00 PM ice-cream runs, you unbuckle yourself out of your booster seat once the car is parked while we wait on our order and sit up front with me so you can “be my date”. I treasure our “dates”. Someday you won’t think riding in the car with your mom is any kind of cool. But to my credit, I do park on the “cool side” at Sonic.
4. When we do order fast food, you tell me exactly what you want, down to the number of napkins, plastic cutlery, and “don’t forget the straw”. Nobody can ever accuse you of not knowing exactly what you want in life.
5, You tattle on our cats. This is usually done at night and it’s at this point I know that you are tired (because, really…tattling on the cats? You must be tired. Or bored.).
6. You have learned how to open our front door with the key and insist on opening it every time we come home. It takes you a while to get the key in right and actually get the lock to turn, but that’s ok. I’m just proud you are taking initiative and being helpful. While I’m holding 50 pounds of groceries in my hands. And it’s 102 degrees outside. And mosquitoes are attacking.
7. You insist that we listen to your favorite song (Sadness, Part 1 by Enigma) over and over in the car. And over. And over. I’m pleased you have such interesting taste in music. However, we have been stuck in a 1990’s time warp since probably last November….I’m just guessing. At this point, I feel like Will Smith, Bel Biv Devoe, and P.M. Dawn are close personal friends and we should invite them over for a barbecue or something.
8. You leave your dirty clothes right beside the clothes hamper. Not in the hamper. Beside the hamper. I’m sure it’s only because those clothes just jump right out as soon as your back is turned. It happens to your dad alot, too. But I still love y’all.
9. You monopolize every TV in the house. Nevermind that you are in your room playing a video game. If you can’t hear your cartoons on the TV in the living room or happen to walk into my room and I’m watching Army Wives, you want the TV on cartoons. Every TV. At the same time. Just because.
10. You ask me, down to hours, minutes, and seconds when things will happen. How many days until you go back to school….how many days until Christmas, and how many days until you’re a grown man. I usually rattle off a random number and you’re totally satisfied. That last one? I’m totally not dwelling on because I don’t want to even think how quiet it will be around here when you are a grown man and on your own.
Can you remember the first book you ever read, besides the Dick/Jane/Tag books from first grade? I can, and loved them so much I saved them. I firmly believe that if you can find a book that actually interests a child, something they are passionate about, they will learn to love (or at least tolerate) reading. In my case, humor was what spoke to me as a 6 year old. My dad was a big reader and I saw him read daily. He also loved (and still does!) to peruse the book section anytime we went to one of the “big” (at least back then) stores in our town. One day while out shopping with him, I spotted the series of books that would forever hook me on reading.
Yes, on one of those fateful shopping trips, the Family Circus series by Bil Keane caught my eye and would hold my attention for many years to come. These books were about your average family with 4 children and consisted of simply a drawing with a humorous one-liner on each page that was family friendly and amusing enough to have me chuckling page after page. There were no vibrant colors in the book, just black and white cartoons with words. It didn’t matter. I loved these books and couldn’t wait for Friday afternoons at school when we would have “Silent Reading” time so I could bring one of these from home and enjoy it.
There were many, many books in the Family Circus series, and I’m pretty sure I have each one. If not, then I have almost all of them. I’m anticipating that by next summer, E.B. will be just learning to read. I can’t wait to break out my collection of these books and share them with him. I hope he will love them just as much as I did.