Double Your Meatloaf with Beans in This Recipe!

Double the size of your meatloaf at a fraction of the cost, fat & calories by using Van Camps pork & beans instead of doubling your meat. This recipe still has a pound of ground beef, so they won't even know that a second pound is missing for such a large loaf that SERVES 8. 

I often see Van Camps pork & beans on sale for 2/$1 or even sometimes I have seen it as a loss-leader for 3/$1. Instead of paying $3 for another pound of ground beef, you could pay 50-cents or less. Give it a try!

When I made this, my husband knew I did something to it since I am always doing something to a recipe to make it healthier but he had no idea that it was beans in there for half the ground beef until I showed him a bean that I had not mashed very well.

Also be sure to read my post on Northern Cheapskate titled "Learn to Stretch Your Budget with Beans"

Meat and Beans Meatloaf Recipe
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 C fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 C finely chopped onion
1/2 C shredded carrot
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 pound ground beef
1 15 oz can Van Camps Pork & Beans, mashed
Ketchup for the top, optional

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees
* Beat eggs in a separate bowl
* Mash beans with sauce in a bowl using a hand potato masher
*Combine eggs, beans. bread crumbs, onion, carrots, basil, oregano and beef in a bowl
*Mix well - I find the best way it to use your clean hands to mix meatloaf and to shape in to a loaf
*Shape mixture and place in a bread loaf pan
*Top with ketchup, if desired
* Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour

YAMUNA® BODY ROLLING FACEBOOK CHAT

YAMUNA® BODY ROLLING FACEBOOK CHAT

Founder of Yamuna® Body Rolling Yamuna Zake answers all your questions live on her Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/YamunaBody

Wednesday, November 7th

12:30-1:15pm ET

Enter to win a free consultation from Yamuna just by RSVPing:

http://bit.ly/AskYamuna

(consultation will be done via email if winner does not live in NY)

John Deere Tractor Theme Party

 Birthdays for my kids tend to span a couple weeks with several parties. This is the party at Ag Power (John Deere dealership) that he invited a few of his friends to. So, here is another one (if you remember I posted about the Football Theme Party last Sunday. 

What I did for Party Favors: Bags with "Tractor Tires" (aka Oreos), Bags with Animals Crackers, Homemade Lollipops in John Deere Colors, Green Boogie Wipes, and Homemade Playdough with Farm Animal Cookie Cutters

 What I Did For Party Food: I went the John Deere Green & Yellow route and serves cucumbers and celery with homemade hummus, bananas and honeydew melon, corn chips, frosted cupcakes, bottled water with personalized labels, and turkey, cheese & lettuce sandwiches

Just some of the decorations from his party included lots of green & yellow balloons, a John Deere balloon, yellow streamers, yellow tablecloths & napkins, green plates, a couple of Happy Birthday Banners and my handmade signs.

And here is my sweet little boy! He was very happy with his party. The kids played on the 2 ride on tractors the dealership put out for them to use, with all the balloons they had and watched a Farm DVD I bought on the big screen in the room (they even had to turn the lights off so they felt like they were at the movies.)

Ag Power had this nice, big conference room and it was a great place to have a party and all his friends (plus some from his family) bought gifts for him there.

FREE 2-Week Subscription to Reading Eggs

Are you looking for a new program that will help your child further their reading skills and help them become better readers? Check out this new program called Reading Eggs. The Reading Eggs program has been developed by a highly experienced team of teachers, educational writers, animators and web developers.

I have 2 kids ages 3 & 6, that fit right in the age this program is designed for, which is ages 3-12. Reading Eggs focuses on a core reading curriculum of skills and strategies essential for sustained reading success. I am excited to begin this program with them and see what it does for their reading skills. My daughter is already a pretty good reader for her age but she is driven to be an even better reader and my son is just beginning to identify words on a page.

My Readers receive a Free Two-Week Trial OfferRegister now for a free two-week trial of our program. No credit card required. And if you like it, you can continue your subscription for a fee. 

Let me know what you think of the program once you have tried it. We can compare notes.

I was given a free subscription to Reading to review. I was not compensated for this post.

Just What You Wanted - MORE Pinterest Ideas I Liked

1-10 Number Worksheet - A worksheet I did with my son for our "preschool-at-home". This website is filled with a bunch of great printable worksheet.

Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins - Mine did not turn out like the picture, but they sure taste fantastic, although part of that may because I used raw sugar instead of an artificial one. Maybe I will buy a box of stevia and try these again with that.

Reese's Peanut Butter Bars - I did do this recipe just slightly different because I used my "clean eating" homemade graham crackers to make the bottom layer, even though the rest of this recipe is not at all clean.

Hard Boiled Eggs in the Oven - This is not necessarily a quicker way to make hard boiled eggs, but I wanted to try it just the same. I really wanted to see if they were easier to peel and if it actually worked. Plus, this would be handy to throw some eggs in the oven if I am already baking something at this temperature and use the additional oven space rather than turning on the stovetop. They were indeed easy to peel.

The Hard Boiled Eggs in the Oven Recipe is as follows: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove immediately. Allow to cool to touch and peel.

Caramel in a Can - I actually first read about this in the book, Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris and then I found it on pinterest and thought I should try it because it seemed simple enough and I love caramel.

Miracle Bread - I plan to try a multi-grain miracle bread recipe next. I am a big fan of homemade bread!  (Guess I have my great grandma to thank for that.) And an even bigger fan of bread that doesn't take much work, like my Artisan Bread.

Book Review: Weirder Than Marshmallows

Today I would like to share with you my review of the book Weirder Than Marshmallows by Dan Fogg.

I am always intrigued by how an author comes up with a title to a book. Sometimes they are pretty self explanatory and other times they seem more obscure. Until I dove in to this very quick read of essays, I wasn't sure exactly what the title referred to. My curiousity as to the naming of the title was quickly answered when I read the preface and was asked to ponder why (white) marshmallows list the dye blue 1 as an ingredient. Yes, that does seem weird to me. And yes, I did check my own bag of marshmallows in the cupboard and saw it listed as an ingredient. So, I thought that this was a good start to the book and was interested to see what other essays and musings Dan Fogg had to share with us.

As I read though the section of "Do Not Stop On The Tracks", I couldn't help think about all the many baby products that I have read such warnings on, those warnings that were common sense and didn't need to be spelled out but they obviously had to because more than one person lacked the common sense that was required to use such a product.

The book includes other sections titled "En Masse" "Technology Sucks" 'That's Just Freaky" and "Weird Stuff". I did find some of the observations to be more critical and cynical than I am myself, but some of the other observations were entertaining to read. My favorite essay in the collection is called "The Vortex" and seemed to be the start of a movie. He did a good job describing the setting that allowed me to get a clear picture and understand his feelings. And I thought the most, shall we say - educational, was "Electile Dysfunction 2000: Heard from Florida Lately?"

I did enjoy reading though his collection of favorite quotes. Reading what inspires or provokes a person helps you to draw up a mental image of their character and provide a deeper insight to their writings.

Weirder Than Marshmallows: Musings and Essays by Dan Fogg is available for purchase from Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle.

To learn more about Dan Fogg, please check out this autobiography.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Thrifty Thursday: Single Sort Recycling

Our recycling program just changed and is now a single sort recycling, which means we put everything in one bin. But what I also found out is that now they are recycling MUCH more, including all plastics labeled 1-5 & 7 as well as a cardboard dairy and juice containers. Since there will be no more yogurt and cottage cheese containers or half & half containers going in to my trash, I should see a decrease in the amount of refuse we put out for the trash guy.

Pay attention to how full your trashcan is, if you are not filling it full it may be time to consider downgrading your service to a smaller can.

Our service offers 3 sizes to residential customers and we are already at the smallest size thanks to the composting and recycling we already do. But with being able to recycle even more and pretty much being a diaper-free household, my trashcan should start to be even more empty.