We are giving back this holiday season.  You can nominate a friend for a Menu Planning Central Lifetime Membership (and win one yourself too!)  See the details here:  http://www.themenumom.com/nominate-a-friend-for-a-menu-planning-central-membership

Also, we have some help for you!  We have planned Thanksgiving and Christmas for you!  (this makes it soooo easy!)  Here are the details:  http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/holiday.html

Have you joined us on facebook yet?  So many fun things going on there – including lots of give-aways! 
www.facebook.com/themenumom

Finally, here are some highlights from our community this week:

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal: 
http://www.theblogfrog.com/581761/forum/62211/pumpkin-pie-oatmeal.html
Cream Soup ?:
http://www.theblogfrog.com/581761/forum/61551/cream-soup-.html

Wash Potatoes in the Dishwasher?:
http://www.theblogfrog.com/581761/forum/62204/wash-potatoes-in-the-dishwasher.html

I hope you have a great week!

Christine Steendahl
"The Menu Mom"

One of my cooking friends, Shelley from OneRoastVegetable.com, has created a brand-new cooking for the freezer class called "Fresh From The Freezer:  Healthy Meals for Busy People."  What perfect timing since we just released a couple freezer cooking resources ourselves! 

Two things you need to know:  The class starts TODAY – Tuesday October 19th. And there is no charge for you to take it!

http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/freshfreezer

This class is made up of short video lessons that you watch online, each one showing you step-by-step how to successfully use your freezer to help make meal preparation easy.

Enjoy!
Christine

P.S. I’m taking this class too and I look forward to seeing you on the ‘inside’. Make sure you forward this email to all of your friends, because the more people who sign up for this class, the more videos Shelley’s going to release! Sign up now: http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/freshfreezer

P.P.S. If you missed the freezer resources we released in the last couple weeks – here they are again:

Freezing Food Guide:
http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/FreezerFoodsUsed.pdf

Freezer Recipes Ebook:
http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/FreezerRecipes.pdf

I enjoy spending time in the kitchen in the fall – the kids are off at school, it is cooler out, and I just have a tad bit more time.  How about you?  When I have extra time, I like to pop a few things into my freezer to use on the days when I am super busy, (or just feeling lazy).  Today I thought I would share with you some of my favorite freezer recipes. 

But before I do, I also wanted to share with you that if you like this resource, I know that you will LOVE all the resources we have available in Menu Planning Central.  Have you taken a look at all we have to offer?  It is a super value, but to make it even better, I will extend 50% off to you through Friday – the 24th, you can use this link:  http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/halfoff.html

Okay, here is your Freezer Recipes Ebook: 
http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/FreezerRecipes.pdf

Enjoy!

Christine Steendahl
"The Menu Mom" 

P.S. You really don’t have anything to lose by checking out http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/halfoff.html with our 14 day full refund guarantee! 

With it being the end of July, we thought it would be fun to celebrate with some Christmas in July! Therefore, I have put together a special gift for you – our Christmas Made Easy Guide, To-Do List, Christmas Menu & Shopping List. (Yes, I know Christmas is five months away… ) However, we sell this program for $14.95 at Christmas time, so why not grab it now – FREE? Just save it on your computer (the files will only be active until July 31^st) and then you will have it come December. Here are the files:
http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/xmasjulygift.html

You’ll also find a special surprise offer here as well:
http://www.menuplanningcentral.com/halfoff.html

Hint: Back to school is just around the corner – it’s time to get organized in the kitchen, and this will help – BIG TIME!

Enjoy!
Christine Steendahl
“The Menu Mom”

I hope you’re having a great week!  With the weather getting nice again, we are spending more time outside.  We have a big garden to plant, our kids LOVE playing outside & the older kids are playing soccer.  This means I have less time to devote in the kitchen.  It’s this time of year I particularly enjoy my slow cooker!  It doesn’t heat up the house, it is super quick to get something going in it, and it serves me a delicious meal in the evening without much effort at all!  It’s definitely one of my favorite kitchen tools!  As I was looking at some new recipes the other night, it occurred to me that my friend Susanne, "The Hillbilly Housewife" has a wonderful e-book crock-pot collection that I return to again and again.  I wanted to share this resource with you, but first I went and twisted her arm a bit (okay, we’re friends.. we do nice things for each other once in awhile..) and asked her if she could give my customers a discount.  She responded generously!  We’re talking a NICE discount!

Until midnight on April 23rd 2010 you can get Susanne’s entire crock-pot cooking collection for 50% OFF (yes, you read that right)

Here’s where you can grab your entire crock-pot cooking system for half of what you’d usually pay for it:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/crock-pot

Susanne and I are holding this special sale as a way to say THANK YOU to all the people who read my newsletter and blog

Here’s where you can grab your copy and save 50%:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/crock-pot

*******************************************

Try The Crockpot Cooking System for 50% And Get Four Free Bonuses

*******************************************

If the 50% discount isn’t enough to have you heading to the website, these FOUR free gifts will surely do the trick.

* Bonus 1: Homemade Breads and Rolls

Almost every crockpot meal I serve for dinner has a hot bead on the side. Here are Susanne’s favorite quick bread and breadmaker recipes that go perfect with just about any crockpot meal.

* Bonus 2: Pantry Cooking Guide

If you ever stand in front of our pantry at 5pm trying to come up with something for dinner, you need this ebook. Find out what you should have stocked in your pantry, then try one of the many yummy (and fast) recipes.

* Bonus 3: Cut Your Grocery Budget in Half

Just imagine how much you can save each month if you could cut your grocery budget in half. Susanne will show you how she did just that.

* Bonus 4: My Favorite Recipes

Susanne put together a short little printable report with her own favorites from the Hillbilly Housewife website. Print it and stick it in your household binder.

WHEW! That’s a lot of goodies… and you get it all FREE when you try the entire crockpot cooking collection for 50% off.

Go here right now and claim your copy before they’re all gone!

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/crock-pot

Talk soon,

Christine Steendahl
"The Menu Mom"

P.S. This special sale ends at midnight on April 23rd. If you’d like to get the revolutionary crockpot cooking system so many moms are raving about … and save 50%, then go here now:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/crock-pot

Have you hopped over to the Blog Frog Community yet?  Here’s what is happening there this week:

Bridal Shower/BBQ Recipes & Ideas

Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes

Favorite Summer Salad Recipes

Meals to Take to Others

Your Most Desirable Recipe

How to Incorporate Your Kids Into the Kitchen

Traveling Meals – What To Take on a Trip

Of course you can also start your own topic as well.  We’d love to have you join us! 

Christine

I am super excited to announce that we have a new Blog Frog Community!  This is your place to share recipes, questions, cooking tips, parenting advice, prayer requests – you name it!

I wavered on whether or not to create a community or not, as there are so many forums and blogs out there.  However, I have had many emails asking about where to share recipes, deals etc. and there just really wasn’t anywhere for us to do that.  That, and I also just love getting to know you guys!  You get to know me through the blog, but I want to get to know you!

The deal is… in order for this to work, I need you all to participate!  So please head on over now and join a discussion or create a new topic.  Then, come back often!  There is even an option to be emailed when people respond to your thread, or a daily e-mail update featuring new posts.  It’s a fun place!

I can’t wait to see you there!

Christine 
“The Menu Mom”

My good friend Susanne Myers, “The Hillbilly Housewife”, comes up with the best things!  She just published a fun e-book “The ABC’s of Christmas” and after a bit of coaxing, I convinced her to let me share it with you!  You see, she runs a really fun club, called the Hillbilly Housewife Club, (that I am a member of) and in the club the past few weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about homemade and frugal gift ideas.  To really get our creative juices flowing, one of the members started a post in the forum called the ABCs of Christmas Gift Giving.  This e-book is a compilation of the best ideas from those forum posts.  So for every letter of the alphabet there are several gift ideas.  These are really fun and creative – a lot of things I hadn’t thought about!  For example B:  Baking Lessons and I:  Ice Candles  (I had never heard of those!)

Before I tell you how to grab your copy of the e-book, I also wanted to let you know that Susanne has decided to extend her Thanksgiving special offer, to you, for a Hillbilly Housewife Club Membership.  This is such a great deal!  (I honestly can’t believe she is offering memberships this cheap, but SHHHH don’t tell her I said that – I don’t want her to change her mind.)  It is normally $15 per month to be a member of the club (see
here:  http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/christine )  But until Wednesday – Dec. 9th, she is offering a year membership for $50 or a 6 month membership for $30!  That is like paying for a little over 3 months to get a YEAR worth of access, or paying for 2 months and getting 4 months free!  That is a total no-brainer to me!  At any rate, obviously she can’t extend this offer much longer (it took work to convince her to leave it up for you guys until Wednesday) so hurry over and grab your membership while you still can!  http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/hbhwsale

And no, I didn’t forget.  Here is your ABC’s of Christmas Ebook http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/abcgifts-christine.pdf Enjoy it, I know I did!

C-

I am pleased to itroduce you to Miss Annika Rose Steendahl!  She was born Oct. 14th, 2008 at 8:10 p.m. weighing 8 pounds 10 ounces and 20″ long.  We are getting used to having a baby around the house again.  She loves being held and keeps us very busy, but we of course love her to pieces!  Her three big brothers think she is pretty great as well!

Christine
“The Menu Mom”

Hi there,

If you have visited Menu Planning Central in the last week or so, you have probably noticed that things aren’t quite right.  Last week our web-host was doing some minor maintenance on our site. When he finished he went to restore our site from the back-up. The only problem? For some reason the back-up feature had not been working properly since September. Apparently this had never happened before to our hosting company, but it happened to us. Therefore, when our site was restored, it was restored back to September.

What does this mean exactly?
- Most member accounts were deleted
- My Menu Maker Recipes were all deleted
- The Blog disappeared
- The Forum only has posts from Sept. and before

As you can imagine the staff and I were devastated. For one we lost hundreds of hours of work, second we obviously lost quite a bit of income, but most importantly we let you – our customers down. After the initial panic, we spent hours crying and trying to decide what to do.

Honestly, we considered just closing Menu Planning Central’s doors and writing the business off. However, after we came to our senses, we realized that we still feel very strongly that menu planning is an important issue, therefore we have decided to work our tails off and re-open Menu Planning Central’s doors.

Here’s what you need to know:

- All Accounts have been cancelled
- If you don’t want to continue as a MPC member, you don’t need to do anything
- If you would like to remain a Menu Planning Central, you will need to sign-up again with a new account
- If you are an affiliate, you should have been contacted by Nicole our affiliate manager with information.

Here’s where we’re at:

- We are working hard at re-entering recipes into My Menu Maker
- We have moved our hosting to a dedicated server to hopefully prevent anything like this from ever happening again
- We need YOU to continue to join us and help us rebuild. We will be re-opening our doors today. We will be offering past members the first month for $.01 and then every month from then on out at $9.97 per month. We will be offering new members a half-price discount – $9.97 per month instead of $19.97 per month – good though the end of January.

If you have any questions, please contact our support desk at
support@menuplanningcentral.com

Thanks for helping us rebuild Menu Planning Central!
Christine Steendahl
“The Menu Mom”