It has been awhile

To all of you who hang on my every word (ha) and wait to hear about all the new things I have to fuss about each day, I am sorry for abandoning you. I have been busy working and creating a new site. My father in law has been nagging me for several months now to share my couponing experiences and teach the newbies a little bit of my knowledge. I really think he just wants another opportunity to do SEO and web design work. We'll see. Now that I am ready, he is not so I am going to start with my new blog Chattanooga Coupon Addict (dot) blogspot (dot) com. I will walk you threw all of my great shopping adventures and give you pointers on how to get the most bang for your buck. So in your spare time check it out.

Well Tuesday night dinner did not happen. We decided at 4:00 to run to Target and Big Lots. By the time we were finished everyone was starving. There was no time to go home and cook so we ate at Blue Coast Burrito. I am going to fix everything but the artichokes tonight for dinner. I hate I will not be here to enjoy it since I have to be at work at 5:00. Til next time......

Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup dried Italian-style bread crumbs
• 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan
• 4 (1/2 to 3/4-inch thick) center-cut pork loin chops (each about 10 to 12 ounces)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

Whisk the eggs in a pie plate to blend. Place the bread crumbs in another pie plate. Place the cheese in a third pie plate. Sprinkle the pork chops generously with salt and pepper. Coat the chops completely with the cheese, patting to adhere. Dip the chops into the eggs, then coat completely with the bread crumbs, patting to adhere.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add pork chops, in batches if necessary, and cook until golden brown and the center reaches 150 degrees, about 6 minutes per side. Transfer the chops to plates and serve with lemon wedges.

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Tuesday night dinner menu

Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops
Artichokes w/ Bearnaise Sauce
Whipped Garlic Potatoes
Bread Pudding

It's snowing here. I had to pick the kids up from school at 10:30. It seems kind of pointless that they even went. Mathis is dying to go out and play in the snow. Daniel is home from work because snow means no masonry work today. I have lots of cooking and laundry to do today but I really just want to get a blanket, hot cocoa, and watch a movie. Stay tuned to see if anything gets accomplished.

Post dinner evaluation

Well dinner turned out really good. Sometimes I surprise myself and cook something that tastes pretty good. Daniel did not make it home in time to eat with the rest of us so I waited and cooked his chicken and biscuits when he got home. He jokingly asked where I had gotten take out from. HAHA I asked him what he thought of the mac and cheese and if he noticed anything different about it. He never guessed it had cauliflower in it and neither did the kids.

Fabulous Frozen Green Beans

Green beans out of season ? - no time to shop ? - too hot to cook ? - no time to cook ? You will treasure this recipe! Be sure to use "whole" frozen green beans.

by Lorac

20 min | 5 min prep

SERVES 4

• 1 (1 lb) bag frozen green beans
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning mix
• garlic salt

1. Microwave beans according to package directions and drain.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet, add onions and sautee over medium low heat until they begin to yellow.
3. Add bread crumbs and seasonings and saute 1 minute.
4. Add green beans and saute 3 to 4 minutes.

© 2009 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com

Macaroni and Cheese With Cauliflower

Ingredients

• 12 ounces multigrain elbow macaroni
• 1 head cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 4 slices multigrain bread, torn
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup 1 percent milk
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400° F. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the cauliflower during the last 3 minutes of cooking time; drain.
2. Meanwhile, pulse the bread in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Add the parsley, 2 tablespoons of the oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper and pulse to combine; set aside.
3. Return the pasta pot to medium heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the onion, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, just until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Mix in the pasta, cauliflower, cheese, sour cream, milk, and mustard.
4. Transfer to a shallow 3-quart baking dish, sprinkle with the bread crumbs, and bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

By Sara Quessenberry and Kate Merker, February 2009

Monday Night Dinner

Tonight for dinner we are having:

Honey glazed Fried Chicken Breasts
Mac and Cheese w/ Cauliflower
Green Beans
Creamed Corn
Cheddar Garlic Drop Biscuits
Strawberry Shortcake


I think I am going to go ahead and make the pound cake for the strawberry shortcake and make the cauliflower mac and cheese so it will be ready to go in the oven when I start the chicken about 5:00pm. I also need to finish cleaning up the kitchen and maybe put the dry goods away from yesterdays shopping trip. Our cabinets are bursting at the seams now, (thanks to savvy coupon shopping) I don't know how I will fit anything else in there. I think I may make a donation to the foodbank this week.

Recovering from the weekend

This weekend was the best I have had in quite a while. It was my first weekend off work in months and all I really wanted to do was go on a childless outing with Daniel. My wish was granted twice!
Here is how the weekend went, I had to work over on Friday so I got home just in time to pick up Skye from school. We ran home and I took a quick shower and Skye, Evie, and I went and saw Isabelle's school performance of High School Musical. I was really surprised by how elaborate the whole thing was. Afterwards the family (all 18 of us) went to Steak & Shake for dinner.
Saturday morning came quickly and I was ready for my date with Daniel. We were going out for brunch and an early movie. Well instead of things going smoothly, Daniel started ranting about how trashed the house is and started making everyone clean up. Mind you he had been home from work all day Thursday and Friday and could have done this then. I kind of started to think that my plans were not going to happen. I tried not to get upset but well I am an emotional person and I was ready to fight for what I wanted. After much fussing the playroom was cleaned and Daniel and I were on our way to Bluegrass Grill. When we got there the line was out the door and people were waiting on the side walk in the cold. Daniel was not up for this. So off we went to nowhere in particular. We drove up and down the street but neither of us could agree on a place to go. Finally we agreed on a spot and ate then went to the Majestic and saw Cop Out. I scored some free movie tickets from a coupon trading site so the movie was free. That made things even better. After the movie we went home and Daniel got a call from his friend Josh about camping at Skull Island. He asked if it was ok to go and since he had been such a good hubby and went out with me I said go, have fun. He packed up and was gone within a hour and had a great time.
On Sunday morning I was going to run to the new donut shop on Northshore and pick some stuff up for breakfast. Evie had a friend spend the night and I thought this would be a nice treat. Plus it is almost next door to Walgreens so I could go ahead and do my RR shopping while I was out. Mathis decided to come with me and we ran over to Frasier only to find that the donut shop was closed. What a bummer. I went ahead and went to Walgreen's and got a few deals, nothing nearly as good as last week. On the way back the donut shop was still closed so I ran to Krystal. It is the only fast food place near the house so my options were limited. Sunday, Daniel was home by 1:00 and after we had all eaten lunch and Daniel had showered away the campfire aroma we went and did our grocery shopping. First I went to Bi-Lo for size bags of FREE dog food that I had a rain check for and 20 containers of cat food. Everyone stayed in the car so I was in and out in just a few minutes. Then I went to Publix. I did pretty good. I spent $112.66 and saved $106.01. I could have done a little better but when the whole family comes with you to the store your buggy ends up with things that are not on the list and I had $3.00 in expired coupons that I could not use. They expired the 27th! I was there on the 28th. I also left my grocery list at home so that made things a little harder. After we got home from the store Daniel and I were not in the mood to cook. So we all went to the Chilli's downtown and used the gift card mom gave me for V-day. It was pretty good. We took the kids home and I told Daniel I still had one FREE movie ticket left that was going to expire that day. To my surprise he agreed to go to the movies with me again. I got on Fandango and found an 8:00pm showing of Valentine's Day. I punched in my FREE movie code and reserved a ticket. It was 7:20pm so I helped Daniel unload his camping stuff from the car and we went back to the Majestic for another relaxing movie. What a great way to end a weekend.