Monday mornings are always a shock to my system after the leisurely pace of the weekend. I usually stumble out to the kitchen, bleary-eyed and confused, and stare dumbly into the fridge and pantry for about 10 minutes, hoping for breakfast inspiration.

This morning, I was very thankful that I found Jiffy blueberry muffin mixes at the scratch and dent store for a mere 15 cents each. I prefer to make muffins from scratch, but at that price, I just couldn’t pass them up. Combined with some fresh pear slices and milk, they made a filling and yummy breakfast.

While the kids were eating breakfast, I packed my daughter’s lunch for school. Little Miss Picky-Pants rarely likes the food that is served at school, so to avoid excessive waste of food and money, she usually brings her lunch. Each month we print the lunch menu off the school web site, and Bee can decide each day whether to eat at school or bring her lunch. Today’s offering was Salisbury Steak, which apparently makes her gag, so I packed her a ham and cheese sandwich, strawberry yogurt, applesauce, a small baggie of chips, and a thermos of skim milk.

For us, I made a simple lunch of tuna salad sandwiches, sliced fruit, and chips. I make a 3-ingredient tuna salad that is quick, easy and delicious (the secret is the sweet pickle relish). After we finished eating, I took a package of 80% lean ground beef out of my garage freezer to defrost for tonight’s chili. I decided to make chili because we had about 2 cups of homemade tomato soup leftover from yesterday, and I was looking for a recipe that would creatively use it up. At our house, we call this “leftover wizardry,” because I “magically” turn leftovers into an entirely different dish. Careful leftover management insures that no food goes to waste, which is why I plan my menus daily, based on what needs to be used up.

My chili recipe can be made with ground beef or turkey, and it has a little bit of zip from the addition of taco seasoning and green chiles. I also made a pan of my sweet, moist, scratch cornbread, which is a perfect compliment to the spiciness of the chili. I never make cornbread from mixes, because they just can’t even compare!

My husband absolutely loves cornbread, so he will finish up the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow morning, with butter and maple syrup. He adores cornbread so much that he always thanks me profusely when I make it. Actually, he’s quite generous with compliments and thanks for everything I cook.

It’s nice to be appreciated.

(NOTE: All recipes mentioned in this post can be found on my recipe blog, Economical Eats.)

Thank you for opening your kitchen to us all this week, Heather.

If you are interested in participating as a guest blogger for this 3 Moms feature, please leave us a comment or send us an email at 3moms@happytobeathome.net. We are looking for a variety of women willing to open their kitchens for one week to all of our readers. You do not even have to have your own blog in order to participate.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites