Grandma Carol's Oatmeal Cookies

Today, Daddy Bear (aka Jon) is feeling a little down. We had a rough evening yesterday with our oldest in residence. Tempers got heated, and things were said that were later regretted. We all managed to work things out in the end, but he's still having a hard time forgiving himself this morning.

And so, toddler squad and I have been hard at work in the kitchen this afternoon, making Daddy's favorite cookies. The recipe is one from his childhood, oatmeal cookies just the way his mother used to make them.

They're just the right combination of crispy and chewy, and a stack of these with a cold glass of milk is the perfect snack to take your mind off your troubles. So today, I'm going to share the Mosher family secret recipe with all of you.

Grandma Carol's Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons real butter

6 Tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 cups quick oats

Directions: 

Cream butter and shortening together with both sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in water, egg, and vanilla until well-blended, then add salt and soda. Stir well. Stir in flour, then stir in oats. Drop by tablespoons (happens to be the measurement of my cookie scoop) onto ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350℉.

Baking time will vary depending on your oven and how crispy you like your cookies. If you like them chewy, like I do, check them a little early, and pull them out just as the edges start to brown. The middle of the cookies will still look underdone, and that's ok. They'll set up as they cool.

Cool for a couple minutes on the baking pan, then remove with a metal spatula to a plate or (preferably) a cooling rack.

Enjoy with cold milk. Or, with the cooler weather coming on, I also recommend hot cocoa, tea, or coffee. Don't be afraid to dunk. 😋

Weekend Excitement

Well, it's been a busy weekend at the Mosher house, but now it's Monday. . . and it's still busy! Lol. I'd venture a guess that with all the children and the husband at home, you can pretty much count on not hearing from ICHM over the weekends.

Buttercream transfer Hylian shield.

Saturday, we did our grocery shopping (and a little window shopping, which is always fun) and celebrated our freshly-minted 12 year old's birthday with his choice of dinner (burgers, corn, and potato salad) and cake and ice cream. For the cake, I tried out a new-to-me technique I've been considering for a while--buttercream transfer. If you haven't heard of it, I'll spare you the tutorial (mostly because I was in a hurry and didn't take photos during the process), but if you Google it, you'll find lots of information. I learned a couple things I could have done differently, but for the most part, I was really pleased with how it came out. And so was he, which is the main thing. ☺ This poor kid. It seems like his birthday cakes never come out quite right. He's a huge Legend of Zelda fan. Last year, I attempted a 3D Triforce for him. . . not my best work.

The offending Triforce cake.

It would be comical if it wasn't just so darn sad. I mean look at this thing. The gold sugar sparkles refused to stick to the icing properly, and I really should have cut my sheet cake in the opposite direction to make the layers. . . oh well. Water under the bridge, as they say. And if I'm ever crazy enough to do that again, at least I learned a few things to help the project along. Poor kid. I always seem to be busy, stressed, and broke for his birthday. That's what he gets for being born right at back-to-school time. 😜 

Today, so far, it's been sports physicals (late, oops) for 2 of the kiddos, a little bit of laundry, and a bunch of sorting out chores and schedules that I hope will make this place run a little smoother. Dad decided last night after dinner to assign two of the kids to clear the table and wash the dishes, and I was inspired. I have six kids around here, y'all--count them, 6--who are darn well old enough to help out with the chores. Although last night when I ventured into the kitchen and saw this, I sort of questioned that premise. 😆

What happens when you have 2 12 year old boys do the dishes.

So starting tonight, we're going to be running some new chore and bath routines, and if they actually work, I might share them with you guys. But for now, it's on to the next thing on today's to-dos, and I'll see you again tomorrow!

10 Ways I Keep Our Grocery Budget Under Control (And You Can Too)!

Feeding a big family isn't always easy. Sometimes people wonder how we do it, especially since it can seem impossible even for a "normal" family. Costs always seem to be going up, don't they? Well, today I'm going to share a few of the ways I keep our big family's grocery budget under control.

#1. Shop Sales

 This is my first step every week. When the sale flyers for local grocery stores start coming in the mail (or on apps I keep on my phone, for those that are in the neighboring town), I scan through them to see what's on sale for the coming week. I open my notebook and make a list of the items I'm interested in. This isn't a grocery list that I'm committing to buy, just a reference point as I compare sales and make my menu plan for the coming week. Which brings us to #2. . .

My current planning system.

#2. Plan, Plan, Plan

I cannot stress enough the importance of a weekly menu plan when it comes to keeping your food costs down. We can (no joke) cut our budget in half with a
little forethought, compared to deciding daily what's for dinner and going to the store for just those ingredients. Don't forget, when planning dinners, to have a plan for breakfast and lunch as well! Your plan doesn't have to be precise. I simply plan 7 dinners for the week and decide as I go what to have on each day. But make a plan!

#3. Use Up Leftovers

You know that meal plan? If you're making something you know you're likely to have leftovers of, have a plan for those leftovers. Will they be lunch the next day, reheated? Will they be morphed into something else later in the week (or next week)? Will they be frozen to reheat and eat later in the month? I'll write a separate post later with more details, but there are certain meals I make knowing that they will give us another meal or two later in the month.

#4. Buy in Bulk

This one has two applications. One is, when possible, buying more than you strictly need this week when something is available for a particularly good sale price. The other is buying in larger quantities when the cost per pound/ounce is lower that way. For example, I can often save up to $1 a pound on ground beef just by buying a ten pound package vs. a one pound package, then dividing it into quart freezer bags (one pound each) and freezing it. For a family that uses anywhere from 10-20 pounds of ground beef a month, that's a significant savings. However. . .

#5. Only Buy What You Can/Will Actually Use

Watch yourself on those sales and bulk buys. It can be tempting to buy things we don't need just because the price is a good deal. If you would never have bought it without the sale price, chances are you didn't actually need it, and it's still money better spent elsewhere. It can also be tempting to buy that ten pounds of hamburger (or bulk quantity of whatever) without a concrete plan of how you'll store it, only to realize half of it went bad before you could use it up. Don't let this happen to you! Buying in bulk is only a good deal if you actually get to use all the product you purchased. Also. . .

#6. Watch Per-Unit Pricing

You may want to take a calculator along or use the calculator app on your phone until you get the hang of this one. Some stores show their per-unit pricing on the shelf sticker; others don't. And even in stores that do, I've found that they're sometimes calculated wrong, or in a way that makes comparisons difficult (for example, one might be calculated by the ounce, while another is calculated by the piece, making it hard to accurately compare the two). The point of all this is to remind you that the larger package, while often the better deal, is not always the better deal. Sometimes sale pricing makes a smaller package cheaper by the ounce. Other times, there's virtually no difference, meaning you might as well just buy the size that's most convenient for your family.

#7. Cook From Scratch

 If you're willing to invest the time, this one suggestion can offer substantial savings. Convenience always costs. Whenever we have spaghetti for dinner, my
family enjoys garlic bread with it. If I purchase the frozen garlic toast they like, it costs me $3 a box, and we eat 2 boxes. That's $6 just on garlic toast! OR, if I plan ahead and invest the time, I can make garlic breadsticks, which taste suspiciously like those served by Olive Garden, for little more than some of my pantry staples. The cost is negligible, and a fraction of what I pay for the more convenient option. If you'd like to try making them for yourself, you can find the recipe here.

#8. Think Outside the Box

Sometimes savings can be had just for a bit of unconventional thinking. I sometimes like to make pork chops for my family, for example. Pork loins (especially if you buy whole or half loins) are frequently on sale in my area for around $1.79-$1.99 per pound. Chops? Never! Yes, sometimes they're on sale, but usually for around 50 cents (or more) per pound extra. But if you have a sharp knife and a reasonably steady hand, you can save that money and still have pork chops. Just buy the whole or half loin, and cut your own boneless loin chops! Depending on the size of your family, you could even cut off a few chops and still use the remainder as a roast for another meal.

#9. Buy Generic

I realize this doesn't work for all people or for all products. We cloth diaper, and one area I refuse to compromise is laundry soap. When your baby routinely poops on something, it absolutely, positively HAS to come clean, EVERY time. But if you haven't tried generics, you're probably missing out on a lot of money saved. Many generics are virtually identical to their name-brand counterparts. Some are noticeably different, but still quite good. You might even find, as we have, that you prefer the generic version of certain foods. My husband is the one in our family who tends to have what I call "brand hang-ups," but there are a few products he actually favors the store brand of over the name brand. You might wonder how a product that's so much cheaper can be just as good (the phrase "You get what you pay for" comes to mind), but what you are likely paying for is the name-brand company's advertising budget.

#10. Use Apps

You have to be careful with this one, because sometimes it's easy to get sucked into buying something you wouldn't have otherwise bought, but rebate apps like Ibotta (my personal favorite) can be quite useful at saving you a few cents here and there, which adds up in the long run. I also use a handy tool on the Wal-Mart app called Savings Catcher. You can enter up to 7 Wal-Mart receipts per week, and the app will track what's on sale at area competitors and give you back the difference if a better price is found. The only caveats are that it works using UPC codes (so no store brand comparisons), and you can only get the money back on a Wal-Mart gift card. I find myself shopping at Wal-Mart enough that that's not a problem for me, personally, and there's no limit to how much you have to accumulate before they'll let you cash out. I also use the store apps for grocery stores in the next town over to access their sale flyers, since those don't come with my weekly paper.

Bonus: Aldi!!!

I added this one as sort of a bonus suggestion, as I realize not everyone has access to an Aldi store. (My deepest sympathies if this is you.) Aldi is sort of my secret weapon as a mom who's trying to feed a large family on a (relatively) small budget. They carry mostly their own brands, and cost savings aren't that substantial on the few name brands you'll find there, so you have to be able to let go of those brand hang-ups I mentioned earlier. However, I haven't tried a single thing from there yet that my husband (the picky one, remember?) has asked me not to buy again. If you've never gone before, you'll find that they do things a little differently than most grocery stores. You'll have to bring your own bags (or buy some for a few cents), bag your own groceries, and return your own cart, but the cost of paying someone to do all those things for you isn't rolled into your grocery prices, which adds up to some pretty amazing savings at the end of the day. If you have one nearby, I highly recommend checking it out!

Garbage Rolls

Y'all, we had something new for dinner last night. And they were so good (and Jon liked them so much) that I'm putting them in the blog, if only so I have somewhere to look to remember how I made them for when I want to make them again! Anybody else out there do that? Seems like it happens to me all the time. You make something for dinner, and you didn't use a recipe. Maybe (like me) you were trying to use up leftovers by turning them into something else, or maybe you were just creating dinner out of what you had on hand. And it. was. AWESOME! But then a couple weeks (or months) later when you want to make it again, you can't remember how! So frustrating. One of the biggest lies I tell myself is, "I don't need to write that down; I'll remember it." Haha, yeah, right. Once upon a time, I had a mind like a steel trap. Now, it's more like a steel sieve.

And so, even if you never make these enchiladas (because that's what they are, but "Leftover Enchiladas" sounds too much like enchiladas that were left over, not enchiladas made from leftovers), I'm going to share with you how I did it, and in so doing, share how to do it with my future self.

The first thing you're going to need is some specific leftovers. The first is taco meat, which we've been making recently with a ratio of 3 pounds of hamburger to 2 cans of small red beans, and 4-5 packets of taco seasoning (I don't remember, ok? Use what suits you.), because it saves money by stretching the meat, and the family still likes it fine. In fact, I have one son who actually prefers it this way. But I digress. The second leftover you're going to need is some ham and beans, though not necessarily the ham part. Say 3-4 cups, though I really just scooped some out of the bowl until it suited me. If you don't have the leftovers, but you still want to make these rolls, I'd recommend using 1-2 pounds of ground beef, a can of red beans, and 2-3 cans of pinto beans, plus a couple envelopes of taco seasoning (and the water called for on the taco seasoning packet). Just brown the meat, drain the grease, add the beans and the seasoning, and smush the beans up a bit with a potato masher. Voila, that should do it.

 Next, you need tortillas. I like to make my own when I can, using this recipe I found courtesy of Pinterest. If you've never made your own tortillas, I highly recommend giving it a go. It's pretty easy, and fresh tortillas are better than store-bought any day. Plus, it hardly costs anything and uses ingredients I pretty much always have on hand. Win. If you'd rather buy yours, you'll need about a dozen soft taco size flour tortillas. They come in packs of 10, if I'm not mistaken, so that'd probably do. Don't overthink this and buy 2 packs of tortillas, ok?

To finish it off, you need some shredded cheese (probably 2 cups; cheddar, mexican blend, or colby jack are all good choices) and a large can of red enchilada sauce.

Got all that? Is your beef and bean mixture warmed up in a pan somewhere close by? Good. The next thing you want to do is pour a little of the enchilada sauce in a 5 quart glass baking dish (or a couple 9x13 cake pans; really, work with what you have). Just use enough to make a thin layer on the bottom, and spread it out with a spoon. Now take a tortilla, and put a line of cheese down the center, then spoon your beef and bean mix down the center on top of the cheese. Roll up the tortilla around the filling and put it in the dish. Repeat with the rest of your tortillas, and then pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolls. Bake at 350℉ for 30 minutes, then sprinkle the cheese you have left over the top and put your garbage rolls back in the oven for about 10 minutes or so--just long enough to melt the cheese.

Sorry I didn't get pics of the process, but you're going to end up with something that looks kind of like the picture on the right. Of course, this was taken after my family had devoured half of them, lol.

Now, for most of you folks with normal, average-sized families, this is going to be a "potluck" type dish. Feel free to cut it in half if you feel that will work better for you. Or, make the entire thing, split it between 2 (or more, depending on the size of your family) pans and freeze the extras.

If you do decide to make it, I hope you like it as much as we did!

Ingredients:

Leftover taco meat and ham and beans

OR

1-2 pounds ground beef, 1 can red beans, 3 cans pintos, and 2 packs of taco seasoning

plus:

10-12 flour tortillas

2 cups shredded cheese

Large can of red enchilada sauce

Playing Catch-up

The other day, my husband and I got an unexpected package on our front step. The return address showed it to be from his mother, but we were still slightly baffled, as she hadn't called to inform us she was sending anything. But then we opened it, and the confusion disappeared. It was a beautiful album of our wedding photos (she was our photographer), lovingly put together as her gift to us! (I'll share some in a separate post, so those of you who saw them already on Facebook can avoid scrolling through endless wedding photos if you'd prefer.) :)

 Yes, dear readers, almost 3 months ago, after 3 years of untangling red tape, planning, and preparing, we finally were able to tie the knot. And I look at my list of posts, and I realize it's been nearly six months since I published an update of any sort. Shame on me.

Life with a big family will keep you busy, I suppose, especially during the summer months, when all of them are home from school and bickering with one another (seemingly) non-stop. But school recently started up again in our district, and I'm looking forward to a few things, among them having the house stay tidy longer than 2 minutes, and spending a bit more time developing the ol' blog. I keep

First day of school! Don't they look excited?😜

hearing rumors it's possible to make money from that sort of thing. And well, who doesn't like the idea of earning a bit of extra cash? Especially when your ability to do so in the traditional way (you know, like getting a job) is sort of limited. Can't afford to shell out for hosting on the more "professional" blog sites at the moment, so I'm sticking to good old (free) Blogger for the moment as I work on developing content and seeing if it actually starts to gather enough of a reader base to worry about migrating to a more professional platform.

So, friends, here's the part where you get to make suggestions. I already have a few ideas for categories posts could fall into:

Large Family Life Hacks

Meal Planning

Recipes

Saving Money

Grocery Shopping

Cloth Diapers/Wipes/Pads

Sewing Tutorials

Decorating on a Dime

Catholic Corner

Cakes

Funny Things Kids Say/Do

Perhaps you have some other ideas. What might you like to read about? Which of the categories above seems most interesting? Do any fall flat for you? Let me hear your thoughts!