Glazed Pork Chops

This is a Superrrrrr easy and delish way to do up pork chops. It is a recipe from my "Cooking For The Rushed" cook book by Sandi Richard.

Glazed Pork chops

8 pork chops medium thickness, boneless and trimmed (approx 700 g)

Preheat oven to broil. Place pork chops on a broiler pan. Broil just until white in color. Remove the chops from the oven and flip them cooked side down. Turn oven down to 350 F on bake.


These amounts are per chop:

1/2 tsp prepared mustard
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp each of cinnamon and basil

Spread each pork chop thinly with the following in this order:1/2 tsp prepared mustard, 1 tsp.brown sugar, 1/8 tsp each of cinnamon and basil.

Return the chops to oven at the lower temperature and bake.

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I usually just quickly fry mine up till almost cooked and then spread the mixture on each chop, pop them in the oven and they are usually ready to eat in about 25 to 30 minutes. Broiling them would be much healthier though.

Already Foiled Up My Menu Plan For This Week.

Yup, yesterday I wasn't feeling that great so I didn't cook up the turkey pot pie with ceasar salad but we did have it tonight and ohhhhhhhh but was it good!

I will not be having the beef barley soup as that was supposed to be schedualed for this evening so I will just carry on with the menu plan and have Fridays Glazed Pork chops with rice and green beans. It is quick, tastes great and super easy too....I love those kind of meals lol.

I can always add the beef barely soup either in next weeks menu plan or the week after.

I am going to wait for Saturdays flyers to see what is onsale next week for loss leaders and work around that for our meals.

For my turkey pot pies I used my left over gravy from Christmas dinner, cut up about 3 cups of turkey, added a can of peas and carrots, and I boiled up some potato I cubed up. I didn't cook the potato all the way as it cooked in the potpie while in the oven and I didn't want the potato overcooked. I did cheat with the pie crust, dh picked up some already made at the store which was nice since my pie crust is always a bit thicker than store bought. I should have made a biscuit mix instead I suppose to save money that is always good too.

Anyhow, I have an extra cooked potpie to freeze not to mention that while I was throwing everything together I ended up with a turkey mixture for another future potpie lol,. I will be freezing the rest of the turkey this evening for a future casserole, turkey soup and of course making up the broth for the soup and gravies.

My freezer in my fridge is getting stocked that is for sure between that and the meats onsale I have picked up over the past month or so.

Our January Goals

You know, I thought about making goals for the whole year of 2008 but then I decided to just make up a list of goals as each new month approaches.At the end of 2008 I will go through each month and see how we did. I have so many "Big" plans for our families finances among Frugal goals. I am not going to overwhelm ourselves either but only list 2 or 3 each month.

For the month of January:

(1) Start paying down our mortgage with biweekly accelerated payments.

(2) make a double payment on our credit card.

(3) make a menu plan each monday for the week and stick to it.

I think that the hardest ones will be #2 and #3. I already know that dh will be calling the mortgage company tomorrow to have the mortgage payments changed so that goal is pretty much a given. I still wanted to list it however as come years end it will be nice to review on the changes we will have made by then.

Anyone out there care to join me each month with their goals? We can at the end of each month review how we all did together :).

Editing to add that we have accomplished with changing our mortgage to biweekly! YAY GO US :), the other two goals still working on UGH.

Back to Paying Down Debt!

Well, today is December 26th, only one day after Christmas and I just went and put $500 on our credit card through online banking. Gotta love that online banking eh?

Basically a bit more than a double payment. We have met at least one of our December goals, Yay! Go us :).

I don't understand why it almost "hurts" to pay back money on debt. It was never our money to begin with but yet I found myself hesitating putting extra on our credit card. It really is one of our goals to get it paid off and we are totally excited to be debt free,like we were before this last move. Maybe it is a good thing that it does hurt, if I remember this feeling and learn from it I will be better off in the long run :).

Well, tomorrow is the big day when dh will be calling our mortgage company so that we can start mid January to pay biweekly accellerated mortage payments. We still have our regular monthly payment due the 1st of January of $873.14( This amount includes our property and school taxes) and then on January 11th it will start coming out every two weeks. It will be nice to break it up so that we are not paying the lump sum all at once.


How's everyone doing with their debt paydown?

Menu Planning

I need to get more motivated with a menu plan. I am finding that it isn't that we eat out alot or even order take-out but I am leaving it to the last minute on what we are having for supper on any given day. I have been so bad lately, it is to the point my kids will say "Mom, what's for supper tonight?" My response is for them to give me 5 to 10 minutes to think on it. Not every night do I go through this but lately it seems like at least 3 to 4 nights out of the week. I end up usually whipping up spaghetti,soup and grilled cheese, kraft dinner with hotdogs etc... It isn't so terrible as I usually have a big dinner 3 nights out of a given week. I usually have our salad in the fridge and if not I haul out the pickles and some bread to go with whatever we are having. I just need to get organized in this department to make my life a little bit easier :).

We had of course our turkey dinner today and I have Tonsssssss of turkey left. So I have decided tonight that for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: turkey pot pie with caesar salad.
Thursday : Beef Barely soup with homemade rolls.
Friday : Glazed Pork chops with rice and green beans.
Saturday : Grilled cheese with home fries and dill pickles.
Sunday : Ham slices, mashed whipped potato and corn.

I want to start this upcoming Monday with a weekly menu plan. I will be freezing leftover turkey for future meals and tomorrow I will be doing up my turkey broth for future soups and gravies.

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

I am skimming through this book right now, I will read it through after the holidays.

I found really interesting however on page 98 of the book where the author T.Harv Eker wrote this; I'm sure you've heard the saying "Birds of a feather flock together." Did you know that most people earn within 20 percent of the average income of their closest friends?

The friends dh and I have made over the years are actually within 20% of our income range. Just about all of our friends we have met through work.

Does anyone else find this to be true? There are exceptions of course but all in all the authors choice of words really hit home with me.

I do have a close friend with whom I went to school with and for years where you saw one you saw the other lol. My friend is doing quite well financially, and she associates with the wealthy. Dh and I lived in the same city as my friend for a couple of years and I met alot of wealthy people through my friend.One thing that sticks in my mind is that noone ever mentioned the cost of anything, like for example, I bought this new car and it cost x amount of $. Oh, look at this new watch, I paid x amount of $ for it.

I was treated with the uppermost respect. I am ashamed however to admit that I did have a feeling of nervousness in the beginning if that makes sense, I was going out of my comfort zone.People are people, however when it comes to money it seems to change ones thoughts on this subject.

What makes Your Hubby or Wife So special?

Ok, I know...kind of sappy! However, I am so thankful for dh and all that he does. Reasons :

(1) He will not let me shovel snow,he said that he will shovel till the cows come home before he will see me out there lol.

(2) He always makes sure that the garbage is out for first thing Monday Morning,

(3) He calls me up after work everyday when he is here ( not away for work) to see if I need anything at the store on his way home from work.

(4) If for some reason I am not home to cook supper he will cook it up for me :).

(5) When he is home I have "never" ever woken up without a fresh pot of tea waiting for me and that has been for the last 16 plus years :).

(6) I can't remember a day when he has not told me how much he loves me!, again, kind of sappy but I tell him how much I love him too!

(7) In the past I have messed up, he will try to cheer me up for sure! A couple of times he told me that if I am really feeling down to never forget that feeling and to move on and learn from it!

There is much more than this but I wanted to start it off by us all being thankful for our significant others :).

Please, leave a reply on why you are thankful for your Husband or Wife :).

I Met A New Friend And She Likes To Shop!

Although, they are mortgage free! Did I mention that their 3 second hand cars are paid off?

My friend received an inheritance from her Fathers estate. Her and her dh paid off their mortgage, WTG!

I have been riding with her to work as it is too cold for me to walk. This week with dh being in Toronto on a business trip I have had our car so I am driving her :). I have noticed that she shops alot but then again Christmas is just around the corner too.

After work a couple of days ago I took her into the city shopping, We had so much fun!

We went to 4 different stores and at the last one she picked up two beautiful sweaters, I said how nice they were and they felt so soft! My new friend said well we have time, go pick yourself up a couple and I will wait for you....I can't believe this but I "Almost" went for it! I looked at her and then I took a couple of steps in the direction of the sweaters! I stopped for a second and thought "what am I doing?". I rationalized that yes, I would love to have something new and nice for work but I have nice sweaters at home and buying a couple of these sweaters is not a Need, it is a Want. I turned to look at my new friend and said that I think I will hold off as I don't really need a new sweater or two right now lol.

I have been on this frugal journey now for 5 years , since moving here in this province I have not had a friend to go shopping with. It was just too easy for me to "almost" slip back to my old ways because I almost went on impulse.

I hadn't eaten anything all day and it was 4pm while we were still out and about so I did pick up a burger at McDonalds. My friend looked at me and said how I hadn't bought anything at all while out shopping. I told her that I still had loads of fun, and that I would be Christmas shopping at the end of the week.

So, today after work we will be going again but the difference for me is that I will have a list with me, always carry a list and stick by it whether it is for groceries, gifts, things for your home etc..

Am I proud of myself? You bet I am! :).

Where do you see yourself right now as well as in 10 years from now?

As I am typing this blog entry I am thinking of how great dh and I are doing. Over the past 3 months we have paid off $3800 in debt,funded our baby emergency fund with $1000, we are not behind on any of our bills, have lots of food in the house, our health is good, and we have a steady income which we are not taking for granted.We live in a modest bungalow of our choice along with a paid for car which means no car payment :).

We do have luxeries such as basic cable, internet,and phone with a long distance plan . I do consider these luxeries as they are not necessities,at least for us.

Dh and I have a dream where he has a choice if he so desires to retire in 10 years from now, I am pretty sure that we can reach this goal. Even though 10 years might seem so far away to some, in reality, it is like time being magnified under a microscope, it is closer than we think!

We have had a lot of fun dreaming about when that day finally arrives. Dh wants to sell the house pick up a used RV and just travel all over North America. I would rather keep the house,rent it out so that we will always have a place to call home.I think it would be neat to buy an old milk truck (my friend did this) renovate it ourselves (the interior) and possibly put in a better engine if that is required. It would be the perfect size for the two of us although I am not sure how fast they travel.

I have thought about having to store our furniture and dh said to just sell it all lol. I realize that furniture are only objects but I find that I have an attachment to a few pieces. Our dining room table for example, we eat there every night for supper as a family, we have had this table and chairs for many years. It was second hand when we bought it at a store and it took us 9 months back then to keep it on lay-a-way until we had paid it off in full to bring home. I remember the owner saying that we could take it home with us right away but we didn't like that idea until it was paid off. Funny how we were so smart as a young couple about that but yet so dissapointing in other financial ways.

For the fun of it I went to the NetworthIQ website to get an idea of where we are at right now, at this time dh and my net worth is $57,690 and once the credit card is paid off it will go up to $63,420. We will have another 10 years to add to that :). The thing is however, that is not liquid money, it is mostly invested between our home and investment property not to mention if we keep our main house we won't have that equity however, it is perfect for us for when we retire opposed to having it sitting around elsewhere.We also have to consider the capital gain tax we will have to pay on any profit once we sell the investment property.

Another thing for us to consider is dhs military pension.If we rented out this house, and had no mortgage payments to pay had money in the bank to cover emergencies including in case our house became vacant, his pension would do us nicely while on the road.

All in all it is a very good start in the right direction with our plan. I am not sure if we will travel around, maybe for one year but I want us to plan so that we will at least have that option when the time comes and the time will come.

Could You Live Off 70% Of Your Income?

Most of us have all heard of the 60/40 plan where you live off 60% of your income and divide the other 40% between retirement,savings,etc. We have also heard of Mary Hunts Plan where you live off the 80/20 plan, live off 80% of your income and with the 20% left you will tithe 10% of that and put the other 10% aside for savings. Of course it will depend on your income but even if you could live off 95% of your income that would be great! One could start off by doing up your budget, write down everything including entertainment etc.Here you will find a % guide for a family of four and here for a family of six. The main webpage for a % guide whether you are single,married couple,single parent etc can be found here. Get an idea on how low you could go to still live without feeling deprived. If you owe debt however, you would have to include that in your living expenses and not take that out of your savings from what I understand, correct me if I am wrong :).However, dh and I would have to throw that 30% onto our debt if we try out the 70/30% plan opposed to dividing it up into savings as long as we have the $1000 emergency fund still intact which we do have now. I guess that would be similar to the Dave Ramseys plan.

I am really starting to think that dh and I could live off 70% of our income. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, we do owe debt on the credit card which needs to be paid off however since paying off previous debt,everything else are regular bills. Our house in which we bought was well below what we were approved for by the bank,however we also bought another house prior which my parents are living in and they pay the mortgage although we are however paying the taxes and insurance each month.If and when my parents decide that they don't want to live in the house we bought for them to live in dh and I will be putting it up for sale. We will then take the equity from that house and put onto the mortgage of our principle dwelling.

Dh and I will have to go over the figures until we have everything budgeted to a "T".

Something to think about and we could at least try it for 3 pays or 6 weeks and see how we adjust.That is how long it normally takes us to adjust and we will know if it is a yay or nay. It is certainly worth trying after the New Year to start our 2008 goals on the right foot. We might just find that we can even move down to the 60/40% plan or we might even have to move up to the 80/20% plan.

Does anyone else go by living on a % plan for their budget?

Our Staff Christmas Party

Well, the Christmas party for my work was a hoot! I got home at 4:30a.m. There were 9 of us gals and we all went dressed in our P.J's and ended up playing hide and go seek through the whole first floor of the school. I honestly didn't think that at age 42 I would ever have so much fun playing a game in which I havn't played since I was a kid lol. We had a beef fondu,salad,french bread,rice,and veggies with dip. For dessert we had an ice cream log cake. Our party started at 7pm so that was a total 9 1/2 hours of fun fun fun. I havn't actually laughed that hard in a very long time. We played a couple of other games,listened to Christmas songs, chit chatted away and took our time opening our gifts. I can't believe how quickly the time went. Oh, did I mention we also did karaoke? lol.

I received for my gift handmade oven mitts, an apron and an egg timer. I soooooo needed those things as I had been using my tea towels to take out my baking etc from the oven.I did have pot holders but I can't even find them now, I am baffled to where they would be.I have never owned an apron and I love to bake and the kitchen timer I wanted so I could start timing myself when cleaning etc, like they do on flyladys website.

Dh will be gone tomorrow for a week. He has to go to Toronto for his work. I should have quite a few no spend days for sure! Today I will be gasing up the car and picking up a few things to tie us over until next Saturday.

Two No Spend Days So Far This Week For December 6th 2007

I am going to try for one or two more before this week is finished.

Today I donated $20 towards a family in need, we actually all chipped in a certain amount from work today.

I still have not started my Christmas shopping. Our tree is still not up but will work on that this weekend. I am hoping to also get our Children their gift bags completed next week along with their stockings. All that I will have left after that is one item off of their Christmas list. Their gift bags are filled with things in which they have not asked for, seems to save money for us there too and they always end up enjoying them :).

My staff Christmas party for work is tomorrow evening, just the gals and it is a fondu pajama party.....should be interesting? lol!

Have a great night everyone :).

My December 2007 Goals

Nothing big but every bit helps :). I came up with 3 for this month.


(1) Live at least within our means this month although I am hoping to live below our means and make a double credit card payment.

(2) I already set up with our ING account to automatically have $100 taken out of our regular bank account at the end of each and every month starting Dec 31st.

(3) Gas up once a week for work ,probably Saturdays, and on the same day pick up any groceries in which we will need for that week. We have lots of food so the trips to the grocery store should be very limited. This should help with our No Spend Days.

Should We Provide For Our Parents?

Dh and I are paying off debt however, we also bought an investment property this past July....I am sure you all must be sick of hearing about it by now lol.

The investment property we bought was for my parents to live in to up their quality of life. I don't regret it one bit. We do have debt to pay off on the credit card plus we are waiting to hear back regarding our appeal on our investment property taxes. They were too high.

Dh and I are paying the insurance which is $96. a month plus whatever the property taxes will be. They could have moved in with us I suppose but it would be in a different Province and my parents friends and son,my brother, live in their province and they do not speak the language here anyhow (French is the main language here).

My parents (mother and stepfather) are on their senior pensions. They pay the mortgage for our investment property which is a couple of hundred plus cheaper than their house they were in and now rent out. It is much better for them now.

We all see other cultures take care of their elders and even though sometimes for us it can be extra tight, it is so worth it in the long run. Take the Chinese culture for example.

The extra money we pay for them to up their quality of life I consider as tithing. Dh father passed away a year ago unexpectly and we try to also do our best with his mom who is also on a seniors pension. We try to even it out the best we can.

My mother and I were never close while I was growing up, my grandmother brought me up from the time I was 7 when my parents divorced. I strongly feel however that it is my duty and right to help out my parents.

What are your views on this?

Mushroom Gravy Sauce

Mushroom Gravy Sauce

1 can of cream of mushroom soup , noname is good.
1/2 can of milk
1/4 can of water
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce .

Stir until mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

This can be used on Oven Meatballs, or served over mashed potatoes, french fries, hamburger patties, fried pork chops etc....

This recipe comes from Me :).

Sweet and Sour Sauce

This sauce can be made ahead and frozen or put into a jar for a dipping sauce. It goes really well with the Oven Meatball recipe I posted under Hamburger.I find this recipe very close to the taste and texture of the restaurant sweet and sour sauces. I usually double this recipe and freeze any leftovers.


Sweet And Sour Sauce

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2/3 cup ketchup


Bring to a boil and add 2 tbsps. of cornstarch to thicken.

This recipe comes from an old cookbook (no cover) and was submitted by St.Theresa, Ear Falls, Ontario Canada.

Oven Meatballs

These are the "best" meatballs. When you are making the mixture it will be kind of gooey but don't let that fool you.Once baked they are firm and unbeliveable :). You can use either with a Mushroom Gravy Sauce and have a side of mashed potato, Sweet and sour sauce with rice, or even have meatball subs with a pizza sauce.



Oven Meatballs


2 lbs. lean hamburger
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs (must be fresh bread)
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup onion
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. salt
pepper
Garlic powder.

Make into 1" balls and bake on cookie sheet at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes. Use a mushroom gravy or a sweet and sour sauce.

Bring to a boil and add 2 tbsps cornstarch in water to thicken.


This recipe comes from an old cookbook and was submitted by St.Theresa Ear Falls, Ontario Canada.

Well, We Didn't Put Extra Money On The Cedit Card, UGH!

For starters, we live on a snow belt and dh couldn't keep up with the snow so we ended up paying our snowplow guy earlier than planned which totalled $300 for the year. We are actually having our third storm of the season right now although this one is mega bad. Everything is shut.

Couldn't find Samanthas boots from last year so spent $91 there.I picked up lots of extra groceries as I wanted to stock up in case of a power outage so I "gulp" spent an extra $200 there. Food is expensive here not to mention we do not have double or triple coupons. Although I did go overboard and there are no "buts".

I keep thinking of the ice storm in which our province had in 1998. We didn't live here then but alot of people went without power for weeks.We have been hearing on the radio lately that this winter will be the coldest in 15 years not to mention the most snow in about 15 years as well.

The school lunch fees I still also need to pay which everyone pays regardless whether you children stay at school over lunch or not, unless you live right by the school.

Guess I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that I should have paid the credit card as soon as we got the extra money as I did with funding our baby emergency fund. At least we have that.

I feel like I have failed , at least this time around, however, when I fall off I "Will" hop back on :).

So, back to the drawing board!