Organizing Round Up: Cabinets

For the Organizing Round-Up at I'm an Organizing Junkie I worked on a few cabinets in my kitchen. Since we just moved here last fall, the cabinets weren't terribly cluttered and they were already pretty well-organized, but I did make some slight changes.

My goal for this round-up was to take the space I have and re-arrange items within the space so that the space can be used to contain more items. So while, my tranformations aren't very dramatic, I did at least accomplish this goal.

Also, check out my post on Cabinet Organizing Tips and Kitchen Organizing tools. Now onto my project:

Cabinet Above Stove: Before

After: I removed a few items from this cabinet and placed them in drawers or in the "spice cabinet" which you'll see in another photo. And meanwhile, I took the baking mixes I had in my spice cabinet and placed them in this cabinet. The result: A neatly arranged cabinet of baking mixes and breakfast items.

Spice Cabinet: Before


After: I did some swapping around with some of the items from the cabinet above the stove. Result: The bottom shelf of this cabinet is a lot neater.

Bowls, Etc. Cabinet: Before


After: In this cabinet, I have my storage containers, baking dishes, bowls, and a few serving dishes. The only thing I did here was a little re-stacking, and I took some items from another cabinet and placed them in here. The Result: More items in one place, and I now have a little space to work with on the top.


Food Cabinet #1: Before. I went through a process with this one. I have a small pantry, so I store some of our food in this cabinet, as well as vitamins and prescription meds that my husband takes each day. And for the round-up project, I decided to clear some of this space so that more food could be stored here.

In this pic, as you can see, the top left hand shelf has been cleared of the bakeware that was there, and it now contains food. Also, the can goods that were on the bottom right have now been contained on the left hand side.
Later in the month, I decided to store some snacks in this cabinet, and bakeware on the middle right hand shelf got moved (to the cabinet with all the bowls and stuff). And come to think of it, this third picture looks worse than the original picture.

And finally I took the snacks out of their boxes and plaed them in the little white basket. I also managed to do a fix my husband's medicine shelf with a little basket. The Result: A much neater cabinet with a little extra space to spare!





-Jerri

Cabinet Organizing Tips

This week I'll be posting my Cabinet/Closet entry for the Organizing Round-Up. Here are a few general tips for organizing your cabinets:

• Go through each cabinet and purge it of items you no longer need. If you haven't used something in over a year, this may be a good time to rid yourself of it. (Place everything in a yard sale box, or give it away to a friend or family member.)
• Match up all your containers with lids. Throw away anything that doesn't have a mate.
• Create a system for organizing your plastic containers and stick to your system. (I use gladware containers because they're cheap to replace, and I can easily make 2 or 3 stacks of them in my cabinet.
• Place items that you use most often on lower shelves and in the front of cabinets so that they are easily accessible.
• Place items that you use less often on high shelves, in the back of cabinets, and in places that are harder to reach or get to.
• Group similar items together.
• Stack items to ensure that you take advantage of all the vertical space you have available.
• Place items in a logical location. (Example: dishes near the dishwasher/sink, pots & pans near the stove, etc.)
• Define the space & set parameters. (Example: This shelf will be used for mixing bowls. And this shelf will be for glasses and coffee cups. Etc.)
• Use shelf dividers, baskets, and organizing tools to separate items, and use labels if necessary. (In an upcoming post, I'll be featuring some great organizing tools for your cabinets.)

-Jerri

Recipe of the Week: Mexican Chicken Casserole

This week I'm sharing my Mexican Chicken Casserole. I've posted the recipe before in a Menu Plan Monday post, but since then I've taken more pictures of the casserole and wanted to post it by itself. And since we're having it this week, it seemed like a good time to share it.

This is one of our favorite meals! It's a pretty versatile recipe, and it makes a great make-ahead meal, and I think it would be good to freeze too. Enjoy!

Recipe for Mexican Chicken Casserole:

Ingredients:
2 cans chicken breast, drained or 3-4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked & chopped/shredded
1 reg bag tortilla chips (use as much as you like)
1 1/4 cup chicken broth or water (I use the broth drained off of the canned chicken)
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 - 1 1/2 cups of salsa (I don't really put an exact amount)

Instructions: Spray 9X13 casserole dish with cooking spray. Mix together all ingredients except chips. Layer bottom of casserole dish with crushed chips. Then place part of the chicken mixture on top of the chips. Continue to layer chips and chicken mixture, ending with chips on top. Then sprinkle some additional cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Tips & Suggestions
-I usually place a pile of chips on a plate and then serve the casserole on top of the chips. Additionally I get out additional salsa, shredded lettuce, extra cheese, and sour cream to go on top. You could also use peppers, onions, diced tomatoes, or any other topping with this recipe.

-Also, the original recipe included jalepeno peppers and rotel tomatoes with the chicken mixture instead of salsa.


-This is a great way to use up crumbled chips from the bottom of the bag. My husband hates eating small pieces of chips so I find that this is a great way to make sure that they don't go go waste. Plus, you don't have to work as hard to crush them.

Above is a photo of the casserole after it's baked, and below is a picture of how it can be served. I like to place it on a bed of chips and top it with sour cream and extra cheese.

And if you like a little more heat, you can follow this example. In this photo, the casserole is served on a bed of chips, and topped with sour cream, cheese, salsa, and taco sauce.

-Jerri

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I'm posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays is hosted by Tammy's Recipes
Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom and Diana Rambles.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.
I Am Blissfully Domestic is hosted by Blissfully Domestic.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.

Menu Plan Monday for April 27

Before getting to this week's menu, I want to tell everyone who may just be stopping in from Org Junkie about my Break Pal Giveaway. I'm giving away 5 memberships to the Break Pal Fitness Website. It's designed specifically for bloggers and people who work at a desk job. So if you use a computer a lot, you should definitely enter to win!

Now for the menu: I'm planning for an easy week this week, because I have a lot of chores and things to do around the house. By the way, in case you tuned in for last week's MPM post, I have to tell you that the Oven Chicken on last week's menu was very good, but the next time I make it I'm going to pour about 1/2 cup of rice into the baking dish so it will cook up more like a casserole with just a little bit of sauce/juice over the actual chicken. I may also try it again without adding water, so that the sauce will be more thick. But anyway, it was good. My hubs really liked it. The pictures I took of the dish didn't turn out so good, so I may have to make it again before I post it to see if I can get some better photos. But one way or another I will post it in the future. (Till then, just see last week's post for a link.)

Breakfast: Cereal, Banana Muffins, Waffles, oatmeal

Lunch: salad, tuna sandwiches, chicken fingers, leftovers

Dinners:

Monday - Pork Sandwiches

Tuesday - Mexican Chicken Casserole

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Hamburgers & Fries

Friday -Easy Alfredo, salad, garlic bread or biscuits

Saturday -Eat Out

Sunday -Smokey Mountain Chicken

Visit Org Junkie for more menus and recipes.

-Jerri

Break Pal Review and Giveaway

Can't find the time to exercise? Finding it hard to stay fit when you're sitting at a desk all day? Looking for a convenient alternative to the gym? Then you should try Break Pal. It's a great site where you can access quick workouts every day.

Break Pal is devoted to "Fitness at Your Desk." It is specially designed for people who work at a desk job and would be perfect for bloggers and people who own a computer-based home business.

Here's how it works. You sign up for a free trial, and then download the Break Pal widget onto your computer. When you're working at your computer, you'll get an alert when it's time to exercise. You can set your alerts to come at the intervals of your choice: every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes. You then click on a link to go to the list of exercises on the Break Pal website.

The site has a variety of exercises that can be done right from your desk such as stretches, Chi Kung, yoga, and Cardio Karaticise. (My favorite exercises are the Block Lunge exercises, which are Standing Cardio Karaticise.)

There are videos that walk you through each exercise. Each video lasts only a few minutes, which is perfect if you're on a tight schedule, and it's great for someone who wants to incorporate a short work out into their day. The exercises are fun and can be done by anyone, regardless of your current fitness level, and because each session only lasts a few minutes, you can avoid the fatigue, sweating, and shortness of breath that goes along with a lot of traditional workouts.

What I love about the site is the flexibility that it offers. I always find it difficult to get into a regular exercise routine, so having this widget is very helpful to me. And I love that each exercise routine only lasts a couple of minutes. This allows people of all fitness levels to participate, and it allows you to do the exercise regardless of how much time you have on your hands. It's also great that you can set your alerts to come at different time intervals. This means that whether you'll be at your desk for a couple of hours or all day long, you can set aside plenty of time to exercise.

The website also offers a point system for doing your exercises, and they have a network where you can make friends with fellow Break Pal users. You can also create your own profiles and post to an online blog about what your doing on Break Pal.

A membership to this website normally costs $9.95 per month. And today I'm happy to announce that BreakPal is going to give away A Free Membership to 5 lucky Simply Sweet Home Readers. Your membership will never expire, and it will give you access to the Break Pal Widget, all the great exercise routines, and other features on the site.

Giveaway Rules:
To enter, leave a comment telling me something that you think would like about Break Pal. (Don't forget to leave your email address if you do not have a blog or profile so that I'll be able to contact you if you win.)

Additional Entries: Please leave separate comments for each entry to ensure that all your entries are counted.

1. For one additional entry, you can tweet about the giveaway, or spread the word on another social networking site. Just leave a comment letting me know that you did that. (Please leave your username or a link.) You can make up your own tweet or use the following:

"New Giveaway - Break Pal Fitness Site Membership - 5 winners -http://simplysweethome.blogspot.com/2009/break-pal-review-and-giveaway.html"

2. You can also get 2 additional entries if you do a blog post on the giveaway. Please mention my blog and Break pal in the post, and be sure to link back to my blog. (Please leave two separate comments saying that you posted about the giveaway, and in one or both of your comments, leave a link to your post.)

3. You get one additional entry if you sign up today to be a Follower of my blog via blogger, a feedblitz subscriber, an RSS/Atom feed subscriber, or if you subscribe in a reader. Just leave a comment telling me how you subscribe. (1 Entry for Each Method through which you follow.)

4. To reward current subscribers, I'm also offering an additional entry if you are ALREADY a follower of my blog or a Feedblitz subscriber, prior to this giveaway. (Just leave 2 comments saying that you are already a subscriber.)

5. Become a Fan of Simply Sweet Home on Facebook, or follow jhrivers on Twitter (1 entry each).

6. And one additional entry will be given if my button is posted in your sidebar. (Just leave a comment saying that you have my button.)

This giveaway is now closed. Winners will be announced over the weekend.

-Jerri

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I'm posting this at the following carnivals:

Life as Mom and The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday.

The Springtime Giveaway Carnival at Heavenly Homemakers.

Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family

New Award

DarcyLee at In This Season gave me this Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks DarcyLee. It was nice of you to think of me.

One of the rules to this award is that I must list seven things I love....only 7? Okay!

1. My Husband.
2. My cats.
3. My family & friends.
4. My country.
5. Blogging & doing creative stuff.
6. Good music & Good Food.
7. Learning/Education (I'm a nerd!)

Now I must pass this award along to some great bloggers. It's always so hard choosing, because there are so many great blogs out there. This time I've chosen a handful of blogs that are kind of new to me, some of which I found during the Ultimate Blog Party.

Brea's Mommy
Peanut Butter and Smelly's Dad
GEORGIKIDS
Kara's Kitchen Creations
Katiecakes
Teresa's Treasures
Sweet Southern Journey

Congrats and keep up the good work!

-Jerri

Recipe of the Week: Crispy Ranch Chicken

This week I'm sharing one of favorite chicken recipes. It's one of the first dishes I made for my husband while we were dating, and it is super yummy!

Recipe for Crispy Ranch Chicken

Ingredients:

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1 envelope (1 ounce) ranch salad dressing mix

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups of crushed tortilla chips

2 tablespoons butter or margarine


Directions: In shallow dish, mix soup, milk, and salad dressing mix. Reserve about a cup for sauce. Dip chicken into soup mixture. Coat with tortilla chips. Place chicken on greased baking sheet. Drizzle with margarine. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until done. In small sauce pan, heat reserved soup mixture to boiling. Serve with chicken.



Normally I put in some different suggestions and variations on the recipes, but I think this one is perfect as is. I suppose you could leave the chips out or use something else such as bread crumbs for the crispy part. Or you could use this recipe/technique with various types of sauce. Let me know if you have any good ideas!

-Jerri

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I'm posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays is hosted by Tammy's Recipes
Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom and Diana Rambles.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.
I Am Blissfully Domestic is hosted by Blissfully Domestic.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.

Menu Plan Monday for April 20

I'm a little late with the menu. It was sort of a busy weekend because my husband started his 7 days off (yay!). And yesterday evening when I tried to get on the computer, the internet was down due to storms in the area.

But I did manage to plan a good menu for this week. I've got a new recipe to try plus an old favorite that we haven't had in a while, and one of our favoirtes Mexican Chicken Casserole.

Hope you're all having a good Monday!

Breakfasts: cereal, chocolate chip muffins, cinnamon toast or monkey bread

Lunches: chicken fingers,tuna sandwich, turkey sandwich, salad, leftovers

Dinners:

Monday - Sloppy Joes

Tuesday - Oven Chicken (new recipe), rice, and Great Northern Beans (from the freezer)

Wednesday - Leftovers from Tuesday

Thursday - Broccoli Cheddar Chicken & Mashed potatoes

Friday - Eat Out

Saturday - Mexican Chicken Casserole

Sunday - Not sure...possibly leftovers

Visit Org Junkie for more menus and recipes.

-Jerri

Town Hall For Hope

I just found out about this free event that's coming up next Thursday, April 23. The Town Hall for Hope is being hosted by Dave Ramsey, financial couselor and author of The Total Money Makeover. (If you're interested in getting out of debt or managing your money better, you should check him out.)

The Town Hall for Hope is a nationwide event. It's an opportunity for people to come together and listen to Dave Ramsey talk about the economy, the recession, foreclosures, and other topics. After the presention, Dave will be taking questions through email & Twitter and answering them live.

This event is FREE to the public and there are many host locations. Just go the website and type in your zipcode to find a location near you. (There are over a dozen locations within 15 miles of my house, and I live in a small town, so it looks like there's a location for everyone.)

And if you can't attend an event, then you can view the town hall from your living room via YouTube. For more information on this event, go to The Town Hall for Hope.

-Jerri



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I'm going to share this post for Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.

Adventures in Shopping: I Love Ross! (Dress For Less, that is)

One of my favorite places to look for bargains is Ross Dress For Less. They have a vast selection of clothing of all sizes and styles, and they have a number of housewares, kitchen, and decor items. I've bought items from every single department in this store, but I've been most impressed with the deals I've gotten on jeans, shorts, and capris. I can usually find really cute stuff for $15 or less, which is awesome if you're on a tight budget.

I also love their housewares stuff, and I enjoy looking through their picture frames and photo albums, and if you're in to organizing, they have great deals on baskets and stuff.

My husband also likes this store. He loves athetic shorts and jerseys, and he especially loves Adidas and Nike stuff, and he's found some good deals on these. Last trip he was looking for a pair of comfortable shoes to wear for work, and he was pleasantly surprised to find a very stylish and comfortable pair of Dr. Martens for $30. (They would have normally sold for over $100) Overall, I'd have to say that this is the best deal we've ever gotten. The cashier was even commenting on what a great deal we were getting and how great the shoes looked....but I think she thought we were a little crazy when my husband said he was going to wear the shoes for work.

Last trip I also bought something really cute for myself, which I think all my baking, homemaking, blogger friends will love! It's this lovely Butterfly Apron:

I always have to check out the back of the store to see if they have any nice kitchen or household items, and this last trip, I was really surpised to find a stack of aprons. They've never had these before at any of the locations where I shop. It may be a new item that they're going to carry regularly, or it may be a limited time thing. Whichever the case, I was really happy to find these.

Each apron is made of cotton, and is one size fits most. They all tie around the waist and around the neck, and they have a single pocket. And they had several colors and designs available at my location. (I remember seeing a couple of different flower patterns and also a polka dot one.)

I've looked around at aprons on the internet. The cheapest ones I have found are around $20, though many are $30, $40, or even $50. So I was very pleased to find the ones at Ross for only $7. If you're in the market to purchase an apron, you may want to check them out.

-Jerri



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I'm sharing this post for Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.

Recipe of the Week: Pineapple Angel Food Cake

This week I'm sharing a yummy recipe for Pineapple Angel Food Cake. My mom made this a couple of weeks ago and gave me some slices to take home (hence, there's no photo of the whole cake).

This is the perfect dessert for spring and summer. And this was very easy because it was made using an angel food cake mix. But of course, you could incorporate this into a homemade angel food cake recipe as well. Enjoy!

Recipe for Pineaple Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:

1 box of angel food cake mix

1 (15 oz) can pineapple chunks, drained

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 teaspoon ginger

Directions: Mix up angel food cake batter as directed. (The kind I used only required that you add 1 1/4 cups of water before mixing.) Then add ginger and coconut and mix. Fold in pineapple chunks. Pour into a tube pan or a 9X13 pan. Bake as directed on box.

Tips & Suggestions:

- Try serving this topped with whipped cream and additional pineapple chunks.

- Reserve the juice from the pineapple chunks and pour it over baked cake like a glaze.

-If you love coconut, I suggest adding more to this recipe.

-Jerri

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I'm posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays is hosted by Tammy's Recipes
Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom and Diana Rambles.
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Balancing Beauty & Bedlam.
I Am Blissfully Domestic is hosted by Blissfully Domestic.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.

Menu Plan Monday for April 13

Breakfasts: pancakes, cereal, carnation instant breakfast, yogurt, fruit

Lunches: tuna sandwiches, salad, leftovers

Dinners:
Monday - Roast Beef & Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Biscuits
Tuesday - Hamburgers & Fries
Wednesday - Shrimp Alfredo, salad, & garlic bread
Thursday - Bacon & Egg Sandwiches
Friday - leftovers
Saturday - eat out
Sunday - Cheeseburger Macaroni

Visit Org Junkie for more menus and recipes.

-Jerri

Sweet Thursday: Easter Parade of Goodies

Is everyone ready for Easter? The people who made these lovely desserts certainly are! Thanks everyone for allowing me to feature your lovely work here!

Next month's theme is going to be a little different, and I'm sure you'll all enjoy it. Next month we'll be featuring Cupcakes! If you'd like to be included in the cupcake round-up just send your pic and/or link in an email to simplysweethome@hotmail.com. And let me remind you that it's okay to submit a pic of cupcakes you've decorated, even without a recipe. In fact, you don't even have to have a blog! And it's okay to send in something from an older post.

Now for the due date: I will be posting the round-up on Thursday, May 14, so as long as you get your stuff sent in before then, you'll be fine. For more information on Sweet Thursday, click here.

Thanks you guys and enjoy the Easter Parade!

Flower Power Brownies Five Star Sweets

Birds Nest Macaroons from Five Star Sweets

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Eggs from ROOTSANDWINGSCO

Crunchy Critters from Georgikids

Rolled Fondant Sugar Cookies from The Parson's Wife

Chocolate Dipped Peeps at Forever Wherever

Easter Cupcakes from Nina's Culinary Creations

I found this the other day and wanted to share it here as well. It's a Rich Chocolate Cake with Truffle-Egg Nest from Martha Stewart.

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I'm sharing this over at Ultimate Recipe is Swap, hosted by Life as Mom.

-Jerri

Review for List2Shop.com

We all know that having an organized shopping list is an important key to saving time and money at the grocery store. Today I'm going to tell you about a site where you can create multiple shopping lists. It's called List2Shop.com.

With this free site you can easily and quickly create and print your shopping lists online, and if you sign up for a free account, you can save your shopping lists to use at a later time. This is a perfect tool for someone who wants to list a few items at a time and then come back later to add a few more or for anyone who wants to create a master shopping list to print out for each trip.

Also, consider this: How many times have you been at work and thought of something that you needed to add to your grocery list? And how times have you planned a shopping trip for after work and realized that you left your list at home? With this website you can access your list from anywhere.

A free account also gives you access to the Favorites Tab, where you can create a list of your favorite stores or a list of your favorite items. With this feature, you can make a list of a few items that you buy every week, or you can create a larger list of items that you buy when your stocking up.

I just signed up for a free account and began making my shopping lists. It was very easy to set up, and the features on the shopping list tab allow you to create a detailed and organized list. I'll explain how it works.

On the page you have 3 columns. Under the first column, there's a list of categories such as "baked goods," "medicine" and "spices & herbs." When you click on the category of your choice, a list of products that belong in the category pops up in the second column. You then click on the item that you want add to your list. (There's also a place where you can manually type in an item that may not appear on the menu.)

Then there's an optional third column, which allows you to pick a store that you'd like for the item to be listed under. I really liked this feature, because I always make one list for Aldi and one list for Wal-mart. And this feature will allow me to easily add an item under one store or the other. (And I think you will be impressed with the vast array of categories, products, and stores that are listed.) You can also minimize your lists on the page, so that you can easily or focus on a particular list.

Now as I said, the site allows you to create a detailed list. For each item that you place on your list, you have the option to enter a quantity, the price, and even a comment. This is perfect if you're someone like me. I often write a quantity beside each item on my list, and in the past I've also used my old receipts to determine the price of each item so that I can have an idea of how much my grocery bill will be. And now that I have access to this website, I can enter the prices so I'll be able to quickly estimate my grocery bill each week.

I also like the idea of the comments section. I think this would be a great place to type in the brand name and/or the portion size you want to buy, which will really save time when you're in the grocery store, and it would also be helpful if you ever send somebody else to do the shopping.

And once you've created your list, you can easily edit your items and move them up or down on the list for perfect organization.

What I love about the site is that it is very easy to understand and navigate through. Your shopping lists and the menus used to add items to your list are all located on the same page, so you don't have to go back and forth between webpages. You can add items to your list with just a few clicks. And most of all, I enjoyed being able to organize my list and add the extra details about each item.

If you're a busy woman looking to get organized and save time and money, you should check out List2Shop.com.

-Jerri

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I'm going to share this post for Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.

Craft Corner: Fun Easter Projects

Just in time for Easter, here's a collection of craft projects that you can try. There are so many cute ideas out for Easter eggs, including these lovely flower and bird decoupage eggs that would look lovely in your home year round. I've also been finding different ideas for making your own dioramas, which are very cute!

Oversize Botanical Decoupage Eggs from Martha Stewart

Elegant Eggs from Country Living

Easter Diorama from BHG

Bunny Painting Egg at Favecrafts.com

Bright Ribbon Eggs at Favecrafts.com

Bird's Nest Easter Card from Kaboose

You may also like some of these Easter Ideas:
Cute Easter Crafts
Egg-cellent Eggs, Part 1
Egg-cellent Eggs, Part 2
Sweet Thursday: Fun Easter Sweets
Easter Bunny Cake

-Jerri

Recipe of the Week: Foil Pack Potatoes

I'm posting my menu & recipe a little later than usual because I wanted to give my posts that I published over the weekend a little more time at the top of the blog. And then I flipped through all my photos and just could not decide on what recipe to post for this week.

Finally I decided to go with these foil pack potatoes. Sorry that the photo's not that great, but it is a delicious side item that you can bake in the oven or on the grill. The recipe I used called for taco seasoning, but I used chili powder and a little salt and pepper instead. But you could use any seasonings or toppings you like.

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Recipe for Foil Pack Potatoes: Ingredients:

Potatoes (1 or 2 per person)

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Chili Powder

Salt & pepper

Directions: Cut potatoes into thin slices or cubes. Place slices from one potato (or 2 small potatoes) on a piece of foil. Sprinkle with chili powder and cheddar cheese. Bring up foil sides and fold down to seal the packet Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Serve beside your favorite dish. (Optional - Top with sour cream and other toppings when serving.)

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Tips & Suggestions:

-I actually boiled my potatoes on the stove for 10 to 15 minutes to ensure they were soft enough for our liking. But I suppose you could also bake them a little longer, and maybe add a tiny bit of water to each pack to prevent them from being too dry.

-Add other veggies to your pack like peppers, onions, carrots, or mushrooms.

-For a complete meal, add a piece of chicken or other meat to your pack.

-For a cookout, place your packets on the grill for 35 to 40 minutes.

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I'm posting a link to this post on the following sites:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday is hosted by Blessed With Grace.
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by 11th Heaven’s Homemade Haven.
Making A Happy Home Monday is hosted by As For Me and My House….
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays is hosted by Tammy's Recipes
Make Something Monday is hosted by Go Graham Go! and Jolly Mom
Tasty Tuesday is hosted by Forever Wherever.
I Am Blissfully Domestic is hosted by Blissfully Domestic.
Ultimate Recipe is Swap is hosted by Life as Mom.

-Jerri

Menu Plan Monday for April 6

Breakfasts: French toast, waffles, yogurt, fruit, Carnation Instant Breakfast

Lunches: Bacon & Egg Sandwiches, Grilled Chicken Salad, leftovers from dinner

Dinners:

Monday -Chicken Mutz - I'm doing a slight variation on this recipe.
Tuesday - Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday - Tacos
Thursday - Chicken Poulet
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Going out for Hubby's Birthday
Sunday - Sloppy Joes or Hamburger Helper (for hubby's birthday)

Visit Org Junkie for more menus and recipes.


-Jerri