Thinking About Christmas?

First off, I have to tell you, yes, in my opinion, it is still way too early for Christmas decorations and music. But, now is the perfect time to plan!

It's mid-November, craft shows are in high gear and we're starting to get into make-ahead season. Now is the time to set aside some extra time and some extra money (if you haven't already) to make sure that Christmas doesn't surprise you.

I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what you are going to do this year. Just ask yourself some questions and write down the answers:

• Who is on your gift list?
• How much money do you plan on spending on gifts?
• What might you get for each person?
• Are there any crafts you need to get going on?
• How many get-togethers do you want to go to?
• Are you hosting any of these get-togethers?
• What goodies are you going to bake?
• What baking can be made ahead?
• And don't forget your family traditions!

November is a great time to get started on crafts and baking. A friend of mine has a craft show every year with her mother and one or two other vendors. I always go and usually get all my stocking-stuffers there.

My sister and I bake together, and we had our first session on Saturday. It was extra fun this year because now my seven-year-old niece is old enough to help (not just busy-work 'help' but actually help). We make our list, pick our dates and split the groceries. It's always a lot of fun.

If you start planning now, you can beat the rush and avoid the malls on crazy December Saturdays. If you can swing it, try going on a weekday-day during November to get a head start on your gift buying.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Chow Down

Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming!

We all have extra shopping to do in December, let's help ease the burden and chow down! I challenge you to do less (regular) grocery shopping in December. Eat what you have, go 'freezer diving', get creative, and save some money!

I have the habit of putting  leftover sauce into the freezer. Plus I usually stock up on the meat that's on sale for half price at my store. I know I have another half a bag of black beans, plus a few 'cans' in the freezer. And I REALLY need to finish that box of rice I bought... too long ago.

Is your food storage in a similar state? Will you accept the Challenge?

Chow Down Challenge:

1. Wait as long as possible to go grocery shopping this month and buy as little as possible. (I'm talking about regular grocery shopping, not Christmas Dinner.)
2. Use up what you already have. Get creative. Dig to the bottom of the freezer and the back of the pantry.
3. Save some money.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown the the Holidays! Treats, no Tricks!

First of all, I am NOT saying Halloween is a holiday. It isn't. But it IS part of the busy-ness of the Holiday Season :)

I'm not big on Halloween at my place. I buy candy and turn on the outdoor lights and that's my prep. BUT for those of you who are going to be dressing up or have kids who will be dressing up, now is the time.

Sit down TODAY (if you haven't already). And decide what you will be, and ask your kids what they want to be. Then, decide if you're making or buying costumes (or if you already have something that could work). If you're making it, get started as soon as possible. If you're buying, you'll still want to head out fairly soon so there's some selection and you're not rushed.

Now is a good time to add the Halloween treats to your grocery list, too!

And remember, have fun!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - Thanksgiving Prep

Hello everyone!

Since I'm making Turkey Dinner for my in-laws on Monday, I'm trying to spread my prep work out so I'm just doing a little each day.

Today I turned my turkey over (hoping this will help it thaw more evenly) in the fridge. I went over my recipes again and pulled out the rest of the ingredients I needed out of the freezer so they will be thawed in time.

I got out my turkey roasting pan (which I pretty much only use for Thanksgiving and Christmas) and washed it along with the rest of the dishes. DH put the dishwasher on for me, and I'm having my normal laundry day.

I'll also have a '15 minute tidy' later on, to baby-step the whole 'cleaning the house for company' thing. It's not too bad, just needs some touch ups. :)

It's cool and rainy today, maybe I'll do some baking, too. We'll see.

Are you getting ready for the big day?

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Coundown to the Holidays! Getting it Together

Well, they DID actually have turkeys in stock yesterday morning, yay! So now I have two. One is defrosting in my fridge for Thanksgiving and the other is waiting patiently in my chest freezer for Christmas.

If you're cooking a turkey this year, it's time to get it thawing :) And  while you're putting the turkey in the fridge, you might want to clean it out. Not clean-wash, clean-declutter. Well, you can clean-wash if you want to. I'll be cleaning out my fridge today to make room for Thanksgiving.


While I was in town yesterday I also picked up bread at Westons - so much cheaper than the grocery store. They bake the name-brand bread and deliver to the grocery stores. What the stores don't sell the day of, gets returned, and I can get one-day-older bread at the Westons thrift store for less than half price! I was nice and grabbed two squished loaves as part of my purchase - they can be for stuffing.

Today is Thanksgiving grocery day for me. I'm going to look at my Thanksgiving Planner and pull the recipes for the dishes I picked. Then I'll check the fridge, freezers and pantry for what I already have and make a grocery list for what I don't, then it's off the the store! Shouldn't be too much. I already did a 'normal' grocery trip. This is just holiday 'touch-up'.



Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Planning for Sanity

Thanksgiving is going to be here soon, so I'm doing my best to be prepared. Hopefully by the time you read this, I will have purchased my turkeys. I am bound and determined to find some at a good price, so I will be going to Walmart for a THIRD time, first thing at opening this morning (I'm writing this last night). You'd think Walmart would realize that they should stock up on items that are on at a really good price; I mean, if you keep running out of the turkeys that are on sale, maybe you should start ordering MORE?? Maybe?

Sorry. Rant over :)

I did sit down and finalize my Thanksgiving menu and update my planner page.

• White Bean Dip and Veggies
• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• Garlicky Smashed Red Potatoes
• Nutmeg Green Beans
• Marshmallow Salad (family tradition)
• Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

I've got the basics covered and a bit of my weird upbringing thrown in. The plan is to make the dip, chop the veggies, and make the marshmallow salad on Sunday. And the pumpkin pie can be baking somewhere around when the turkey's half done.

My favorite trick (and one you'll love too!) is to make the mashed potatoes (whatever kind you like at your place) EARLY. Then put it in the crock cooker with a little butter over the top on 'keep warm' until dinnertime. One less thing to do later. Just be sure to test run your crock pot first (you can make a potato chowder if you want afterwards) you don't want scorched potatoes on the big day! I got that tip from Leanne Ely who got it from Flylady.

I've got a few things to do each day from Thursday to Monday (including tidying the house in babysteps) so I'm not doing everything at once. Sounds like a plan to me!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! The Turkey Hunt

 It's October! Can you believe it? Neither can I! But it is, nonetheless.

October is time to officially kick off your holiday planning. And I'm not just talking about Christmas. There's Thanksgiving (and even Halloween) thrown into the mix, too. (Plus Hanukkah, or whatever else you celebrate at the end of the year.)

Head's up, Canadians! You have just one week until Thanksgiving! Turkeys are on sale, pick one up ASAP. Ninety-nine cents a pound for a frozen turkey is a good price. If you can afford it, pick up two and you have Christmas dinner handled also! That's my plan. I'm heading to town tonight. There are two stores that have turkeys on for ninety-seven cents a pound, so I'm picking up two turkeys. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

Later this week, I'll do the rest of the groceries. But I don't want to be going to 7 grocery stores the last weekday before Christmas hunting for turkeys EVER again! (That's what happened last year - boo!)

I like to keep my holiday meals simple and make up a 5-day plan (or so) I just recycle and tweak the last one, most of the time. I spread the meal prep and house cleaning over 5 days and then I only have a little bit to do each day. That'll be the job for tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

 Please comment here or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Homemaking Diva Routines Two

More work in the kitchen! How are your dishes doing? I hope you're doing well and aren't too overwhelmed. Next step: Having food ready to cook.

Now, I work for Saving Dinner, so I do have a bias with them, but they ARE really good in and of themselves, and I am NOT getting paid to promote them here :) So if you don't know WHAT to make for dinner, we sell all kinds of plans for you that give you the recipes and the categorized shopping lists to make life just that much easier :) But that's only part of what I'm talking about today.

Today what I really want to talk to you about is setting up routines to get your food planned, into the house, and out of the freezer.

Planning meals: This doesn't have to be complicated. Look at what's on sale (to keep it simple, try sticking to just one store), think about what you and yours like to eat, and see what matches. And don't forget to check what's already in your cupboards, fridge and freezer. Think breakfast, lunch, and dinner. List a few things, see what you need to buy, and make your list. If you're just starting out, you can do just a couple days, I like to do a week at a time.

Grocery shopping: You've made your list, you've checked it twice, it's time to head to the store. The. Store. Singular. That's right. Actually, you can do whatever you want, I don't have any Homemaking Diva Police (yet) to come and fine you if you go to multiple stores, but hear me out. Every store has a sale every week, most stores will have everything on sale at different times. I do all of my grocery shopping at one store, yes chicken is on sale at another store this week and I eat chicken, but chicken was on sale at my store a couple weeks ago and it will be on sale at my store again. To me, multiple stores are not worth the hassle. Plus, since I only go to the one store, I made my grocery list to fit my store, so I know which aisle everything is in, plus I'm familiar with my store, so I can get in and out quickly.

Today and Tomorrow, Everyday: Remember my chicken sale example? Well, chicken was on sale a couple weeks ago at my store, and I bought it then... actually I stocked up. And that means that if I want to eat chicken THIS week, I have to thaw it out because it's in the freezer. So, everyday need to think about what's for dinner today and what's for dinner tomorrow. When I think about today I consider if there's any extra prep work that needs to be done early (marinating, crock cooker), and I need to pull meat out of the freezer for tomorrow.

You routines to build:
Everyday, think about what's for dinner today, and do any preparations you need to. And have meat in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner so it's not frozen when you need it.
Weekly, plan your meals, make your list, and go shopping!

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Frugal Hospitality

Some of you may remember last time I told you that I was going to try and be especially frugal for the next while as we just invested in a sectional.

On Sunday, we decided to invite my in-laws over after church. This is frugal for us because we often end up going to a restaurant for lunch. But that meant I needed to figure out what to make. :)

Brunch is always a delicious and frugal choice. It doesn't get much cheaper than eggs and toast. Especially since I get my bread from Westons for 99 cents! (They're the bakery that makes the bread for the grocery stores. Whatever the grocery store doesn't sell gets returned to Westons and sold in their 'thrift store'. Bottom line, the bread is one day older and a heck of a lot cheaper. I go when I can and get some for now and some for the freezer.)

I almost made lasagna for dinner, but that meant buying a ricotta, and the day ended up being way too hot to turn on the oven. I decided to make burgers. I originally didn't want to because I'd just pulled the ground beef from the freezer and knew it would be VERY cold on my hand mixing it up later. But then my brain clicked and I decided to let Todo do it. Todo is my stand mixer... we named it that because it's shape reminds us of two droids from Star Wars, one of which is called TODO-360. (Yes, I'm weird.)

But aside from the fact that I've named my stand mixer, it really IS handy and makes a good burger. I used the Basil Burgers recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and the regular 'blade' in the stand mixer. Want to know ANOTHER ground meat trick? Doesn't matter if it's meatballs, meatloaf, burgers, or something else. Mix all the 'stuff' together first, THEN add the ground meat. Everything goes together faster and more evenly.

So we had burgers for dinner, and I had everything on hand for them. Score more frugal points!

We all enjoyed each others' company and tried out the new sectional while watching some episodes from Shark Week :)

None of it cost me a cent!


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!


Love,

Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1

Jan 12, 2011

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1 :D
First of all, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while... I got a job at Saving Dinner of all places (after I was fawning all over them here) and I got busy, and distracted... Typical SHE ;)

So I'm back, and Saving Dinner is doing a Losing It With Leanne challenge right now! In fact, the whole staff is doing the challenge right along with everyone else!

So anyways. I ordered my protein powder a week ago, and it's not here yet, but I'm done waiting! (I'm in Canada, and I ordered from the States to get the specific one that Leanne recommended, so it's nobody's fault it's not here yet.)

Today, I sat down with my grocery list, Losing It With Leanne volume 1 (well, I have the whole thing printed off in my binder, but I'm starting at the beginning), and my Saving Dinner recipes that I already had printed out. I flipped through the Body Clutter menus that I had and picked dishes based on what sounded good and what meat I either had or was on sale. (That's how I usually shop, except I'm not always in the BC recipes.) I picked 6 recipes that look SOOO yummy even though they're good for me ;) and noted what I needed to get to make them (mostly produce, you'd be amazed at how little time I needed to spend in the middle of the store).
Sirloin tip roasts were on sale this week for half price, so I bought 3! You'll love this trick: they were on for $2.00 a pound and I had 2 beef recipes, one called for 2 pounds and the other for 3/4 pounds... So I looked for a roast that was as close to $5.75 as I could find :D Actually, I ended up buying three roasts and froze 2!
After I did my mains, I went through the rest of the daily eating plan and picked my options. There are 7 breakfast options in the LWL plan and 6 lunches, and I didn't want to buy for ALL of them at once, so I picked - again, based on what I had and what's good. Now I have most of the stuff for the breakfasts and stuff for 4 lunch options plus the soup! And I added some stuff to the list for my DH, he's not officially going on the plan with me, but I'm not cooking separate dinners for us. I jut told him that the recipes look good in and of themselves and he's fine with that. But I did get him 'regular' cereal and Black Forest ham for sandwiches, because he likes that.
That's the great part about the Losing It With Leanne plan, it's not all that different from regular eating, we just really need to make the healthier choices (low fat, not full fat dairy products, lots of veggies, less carbs (not no carbs, less carbs), and watch our portion sizes. It's more regimented for the people on the plan, but it's not the type of plan that turns you into a short order cook because your family "won't" eat it.
When my grocery list was done it was almost 50% produce, with a LOT of stuff around the outside of the store, and I only had to go down 4 centre aisles and that was for: Picante sauce, Kashi (and regular cereal for DH), bay leafs, tuna, white beans, and diced tomatoes. In my opinion, that's a pretty good list! And the best part was, I got to the cereal aisle and Kashi was ON SALE!! I love it when I'm going to buy something anyways and it's on sale! :D I really didn't spend any more than usual, especially considering how much nutrition was in my cart, plus I was buying 3 roasts instead of just the one I needed. So it cost about the same as normal with a little extra for all the meat, but that is normal :D
OK, so that's groceries... Got home, put everything away, had my 'mid-afternoon snack' of Kashi and then did all my measurements, then went downstairs and got on the wii fit to weigh myself. Today my BMI is 27.18 the wii wants me to aim for 22. It's a little high, but it has been slowly but surely coming down with me making good choices and learning by osmosis while working at Saving Dinner. I set my goal to lose 3 kg (6.6 pounds) in the 4 weeks of the main plan. I think that's doable. I've been slowly losing weight already, but now I'm going to be putting an effort into it!
I even did my circuit on the wii and burned a glass of coke and then some! (I have a list of about 8 of the activities that I 'always' do.) And I even hit a new high score in boxing, guess I'm not that rusty after all. I'm gonna plan to stay active through the duration of the Challenge, no easy task in the winter when you work from the computer ;) But I ran through my circuit today in 28 minutes, and I repeated some activities, so I should be OK. Plus, I'm committing to all of you and putting this our in cyberspace so I will be held accountable!
Dinner tonight from a past Body Clutter Menu-Mailer was Autumn Apple Chicken with acorn squash. What an easy and yummy recipe! I asked DH and he's all for us having it again someday (although apparently he's not a squash fan).
Hope to see you here more often as well as on the Losing It With Leanne facebook page!

Grocery Shopping

OK, people, let's talk food!

Everybody needs to eat and cooking your own food is the easiest way to be healthier and to save money. Now in order for cooking at home to save you time, you have to take a little time to do some planning. Running to the store or the drive through every evening wastes an incredible amount of time, plus knowing ahead of time what you want to make takes the stress out of dinner.

I try to grocery shop only once a week, usually when my list of dinner entrees is down to one and/or the milk is running low. I start with a menu plan. I have a pretty good idea of what food I already have in the house, so I can usually plan most of my meals around what's on hand and what's on sale. So my menu planning is really simple: I pick 6 entrees for dinners. That's it. As I pick the entrees I list ingredients that I don't already have on my shopping list and then I'm mostly all set. I quickly go through the flyer and see what else I "need" then I look in the fridge and pantry to scan for any staples that we're out of. I add that to the list, grab my shopping bags, and I'm ready to go.

Now, you may have noticed that I've been using a lot of singular words, so yes, I only shop at one grocery store and I really like that. It's the store closest to me, the next closest one is 10 minutes further away, and while 10 minutes doesn't sound like much, I'm not driving 10 extra minutes both ways every week just to save 15 cents on apples (or whatever). And even if I lived close to several stores, I still really like only shopping at one. I can find things faster because I am familiar with my store, I only have to stand in line once, and I only have to look through one flyer each week. I don't have to take the time to compare (and keep track of) pricing and sales at several stores.

Also, I have made up a form grocery list with items I buy frequently in an aisle by aisle format for my grocery store in the order I walk through the store. So picture that my piece of paper is divided into 12 squares and each square has several lines listing items (and prices) I frequently buy with a few spaces for other things to be written in. Because when I walk in the store I first come to the produce, deli, and bread departments, the first box has items I buy in those departments listed. (I enter the store, walk around the outside U of the store and then go through the centre aisles.) The second box is the meats and milk, the third is the dairy, frozen foods, eggs, and refrigerated juices. Then I get one box per middle aisle with those items listed and the best thing is that if I don't need anything in aisle 7, I don't have to walk through it!

I hope that form makes sense because it's really helpful to have one and I encourage you to make one. I did mine on the computer, but you don't have to. If you're already shopping at one store, you can start making it now. When you are familiar with a store you can remember roughly where things are. You know if you start in the middle or the outside of the store. Don't make your list in my order, make it in the order you walk around the store. Think about where you go first and write down a few things that you get in that aisle, then think about where you go next and continue the process. If you don't remember if the cereal is in aisle 5 or 6 don't worry about it, try to remember everything that you get from the cereal aisle and the next time you're in the store you can edit your list. It will take a few times to get it the way you want it, but that's ok. I still edit mine on occasion, but for the most part, I have the set up done.

When I started my form I didn't include prices, I added those later. I put down the regular price and the brand(in shorthand) of what I like to buy and that way I can tell if a deal is really all that great. Also, each square in the chart has a column for writing down how much you want and a column for checking it off.

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :)
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