Saving for the new year...

I was so happy with the sale ads this week! My purchases were reminiscent of what I used get for my $50 when I started this blog. I was able to get A LOT of produce and stay at about $55 after tax. I didn't even really use many coupons. Maybe $10 worth or so. This is the picture from my trip to Hy Vee. The picture from my trip to Price Chopper turned out horrendously blurry, so we'll just forget about that.

It's been a rough year for us, in some ways, and a very blessed one in others. I have a lot spinning in my head right now about how we're going to move forwarded financially and with a renewed commitment to savings. I'll be updating in the next few days about all of those ideas.

In the meantime, here is our meal plan for the week,

Saturday - cereal / leftover spin dip macaroni and cheese / chili, guacamole and brown butter brownies

Sunday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / cheesy vegetable chowder (a double batch for the freezer!) / my mom's chicken and rice

Monday - bagels and cream cheese / brown bag lunches / chicken broccoli cheddar braid

Tuesday - cereal and fruit / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches / tortellini soup

Thursday - cereal /brown bag lunches / cheesy vegetable chowder from the freezer

Friday -100% whole wheat cinnamon toast /  brown bag lunches / dinner at ballet

For snacks, we'll be eating cinnamon sugar pretzels, bagels and cream cheese, pumpkin applesauce, veggies and dip, crackers and fresh fruit.

See other meal plans at www.orgjunkie.com.

A Sad, Sad Tale...

I haven't updated with a final picture and the recipe that I used for my first apple pie. It's taken me this long just to admit to myself what really happened.

I know you are all asking, "What really happened?"

What really happened is this...

After a super long Christmas day that included a sick husband and three kinds 5 and under, I slaved away making that beautiful first apple pie for our celebration with my in laws. I was successful in constructing the pie, and I figured that was half the battle. I'd used a tried and true recipe, so I know it would have tasted just fine at the very least.

Now, I can't account for the flavor because I never got to taste it.

As we were loading the car on the day after Christmas, without my knowledge, my husband set my first apple pie (in my new Crate and Barrel pie plate) and a bowl full of homemade salted caramel ( in one of my favorite latte bowls) on the washing machine. That was running. I was buckling my girls in to the car when I heard a crash and a shatter. Everything tumbled to the ground and landed in a million apple-y pieces on the garage floor.

My father in law called the incident an exercise in "character building." I might have failed.

Vanilla Bean Salted Caramel

One of the items on my menu of things to bring was a fruit or a sauce to go over my mom's cheesecake on Christmas Eve. I was hoping to make my favorite blueberry sauce, but when NO BERRIES of any variety were on sale Christmas week at all, I had to go with inexpensive plan B. I did a quick recipe search on Google and realized I could make a salted caramel sauce pretty easily and without much expense! As a bonus, it could double with the apple pie I was planning to make for Christmas with my inlaws. I had a vanilla bean on hand from a Christmas stocking from LAST year, so I decided to doctor it up a little with a vanilla bean salted caramel recipe. Here is the recipe I chose,

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 vanilla bean, sliced and seeded
1 teaspoon sea salt

Slice a vanilla bean in half.  Using the back of the knife, scrape the seeds from the pod.  You can save the pods, and put them in a jar of sugar.  Pretty soon, you will have the most fragrant and delicious sugar. (I used mine in my apple pie.) Pour the cream into a measuring cup and add the vanilla bean seeds, and sea salt.  Set aside. Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring the sugar to a boil. Let the sugar cook (do not stir using a spoon, at most, you may swirl the pan to avoid hot spots) until it reaches a deep amber color. Whisk in the cream mixture.  It will bubble and go nuts, but keep whisking.  It will come together. (I whisked mine for a few minutes over the heat.)

This was ABSOLUTELY a show stopper! Everyone loved it. It was wonderfully easy, and my kids really enjoyed watching me make it too. As a side note, if you don't have a vanilla bean I wouldn't say that you HAVE to buy one. The vanilla bean is just a Christmas Eve kind of fancy bonus! I would think you could add a little extra vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste to your cream mixture, and it would still be outstanding! The sea salt is what really shines through. Without the vanilla bean, the salted caramel sauce costs right around $2 to make. I can't believe it's cheaper than buying a bottle of caramel sauce. The flavor  is 1,000 times better!

For more recipes see Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

My First Apple Pie!

I made it very late last night. I was mega tired and in a mega hurry, but I thought it turned out well! Pictures of the finished project and recipe to follow soon!

Christmas Meal Planning

We're starting to cook Christmas food around here!  This is my first of two trips to the store. I spent $50 of my allotted $100. Even with $100, I had to be extra conscientious at the grocery tab we were racking up as my $100 also had to cover our meals for the week.  Rather than sharing our meal plan for the week, I'll share what we're cooking for our various events! These are the frugal ideas I cooked up for some of the various events we had going on. Some of the new recipes will follow soon!

Christmas Eve -

My Mom's Cheesecake with my Salted Caramel Sauce

Christmas  Day-

Blueberry Lemon Scones (cranberry orange recipe, sub blueberry and lemon)
My dad's favorite Holiday Broccoli Salad
Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Red Hot Jello
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream for Jesus's Birthday

The Day after Christmas with my in laws -

Veggie Tray
Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels (Next year I might fill a popcorn tin with these! People have loved them!)
Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

Merry Christmas!

For more meal plans see www.orgjunkie.com.

Cheesy Veggie Chowder

 (Not a great picture because my people were IMPATIENTLY waiting to eat!)

I think I initially saw this recipe on MoneySavingMom from LuLuTheBaker. My people absolutely LOVE Broccoli Cheese soup, but I had never made it! When I saw that this recipe was so EASY, I figured I should give it a shot. Oh, we loved it! My only regret is that it doesn't make much. The second time I made it, I double the batch, so we had some for the freezer! I highly recommend it! It's very tasty, hearty and EASY. And ya'll know I love anything that will get veggies in my kid without a fight!

Here is my adapted recipe,

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I used bullion cubes and water for $ saving purposes.)

3 baking potatoes, peeled and diced

1 Tablespoon flour (I used a little more.)

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

1 lb of broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onions, carrots, and saute over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

 

Viola!

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Recipe

It should be illegal for something this easy (AND CHEAP!) to be THIS GOOD.

A lady I work with has a gift basket company. Before the Holidays, she tests a lot of new recipes out on the people in the office. These delicious little pretzels turned up last year, and I thought they were OUTSTANDING. Of course, she wouldn't tell me how to make them! I searched the internet and came up with NOTHING. Now, imagine my excitement when they turned up on Pinterest! Here is the recipe,

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels 

1 (16 oz) bag pretzel twists 

⅔ cup vegetable oil 

½ cup sugar (I used homemade vanilla sugar.)

2 tsp cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pour pretzels into a roasting pan. In a medium sized bowl mix together vegetable oil, cinnamon and sugar. Pour over pretzels and stir to coat. Place in oven on top rack and bake for 30 minutes, removing twice to stir.

I haven't been able to stop eating these since I made them! I am hoping to make a few more batches next weekend to take to our Christmas festivities. If you're looking for a last minute DIY Christmas gift, these would be great. You can easily make a lb of these for under $3 if you buy your pretzels on sale. If you're looking for a last minute idea for your teachers, friends or neighbors, try tying a cup of pretzels in cellophane and tie with a ribbon! You'll have all of your last minute gifts covered in a snap!

See other recipes at www.beautyandbedlam.com. 

Twas the week before Christmas...

I know I've been a little bit MIA on the grocery project, but believe me, we're still going strong! It's gotten a little tougher. I really think the quality and availability of grocery coupons has gotten a little more difficult. I did just pick up a SavingsStar card, and I also "inherited" a printer, so hopefully I can start to put that to good use! If only I can find time to actually SIT at the computer to get some work done! We're just SWAMPED here right now!

The above pictured was right around $35. The plan for the remaining money is to buy 2 gallons of milk from Aldi, several loafs of bread at the Oroweat outlet and a few bags of cheese from another local sale. I'll be honest when I say that our pantry is looking very sad. I truly do not have a lot to work with at the moment. We've been out of chicken and ground beef for WEEKS. As I was coming home yesterday, I realized that I don't really have anything special to cook for the week before Christmas. Next week's budget will cover the food that we need to share at our various festivities, but we'll be out of time for special cookie baking, projects, etc. It's a little bit of a bummer, but it is what it is. When you take a pay cut like we took in September, some things have to give. I guess special holiday baking is one of those things! Maybe I'll be able to figure something out with the things that I do already have. If not, we at least already did a little!

Here is our menu plan for the week before Christmas,

Saturday - cereal / garlic cheese bread with marinara / ham sandwiches and fruit

Sunday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / cheesy vegetable chowder (a double batch for the freezer!) / stuffed shells

Monday - cereal / brown bag lunches / spin dip macaroni and cheese

Tuesday - cereal and fruit / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches /eggs, hash browns and bacon

Thursday - cereal / spaghetti with marinara and sauce / ham sandwiches and fruit

Friday -100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / possible inexpensive lunch out / dinner will be from a new round of groceries

For snacks, we'll be eating cinnamon sugar pretzels, crackers with cheese, pumpkin applesauce, graham crackers, veggies and fresh fruit.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

Last weekend, as part of our Advent Conspiracy celebration, I decided we would spend the afternoon baking for the girl's Sunday School teachers. I planned on making a pistachio cookie recipe that I had seen on Pinterest, but when I went to get started, I discovered it required a sugar cookie mix, which I didn't have! Instead, I adapted a recipe from allrecipes.com to use the ingredients that I DID have.

My family really liked these. (Yes, "liked." They are long gone!) They turned out very moist and flavorful, and the salt from the pistachios gave them that great salty/sweet factor! The best thing about this recipe is that you don't have to give a cookie mix any credit!

My adjusted recipe is as follows,

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.5 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chopped pistachios
• 1 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add pudding mix, eggs and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in pistachios and cranberries
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. 

50% off Domino's TOMORROW!

Don't worry about dinner tomorrow night! Dominoes will be hosting their first ever Global Pizza Party! You'll be able to place an order priced at half off through a special tab on Domino's facebook page!

I'm stoked! We've ordered their new pizzas a few times, and we've been really happy with the quality and price! Plus, the party is on Bible study night, and I could always use a little help with dinner before we run out the door!

Spin Dip Macaroni and Cheese

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine mentioned that she had made a spinach dip macaroni and cheese recipe that she found on Pinterest. I was seriously like, "Why haven't I thought of this????" I have the BEST spinach dip recipe EVER! Incidentally, she said her fiance didn't like the recipe all that much, so I decided just to adapt mine.  The recipe is as follows,

1 cup chopped artichokes (I omitted simply because I didn't have any.)
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed (I used fresh.)
8 OZ. cream cheese
3/4 cup chicken broth (approximate)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
dash pepper

In a small saucepan, boil artichokes and spinach in a cup of water for 10 minutes. Heat cream cheese for 1 minute in microwave or saucepan till hot. (While you are doing this, prepare your noodles as directed.) Then, stir all of the ingredients for the SAUCE together.Once your sauce is well incorporated and warm, stir in your hot noodles. If you wanted, you could definitely spread this in a pan, add some cheese and brown under the broiler! We were going for FAST on this night, so I didn't!

This recipe went over VERY well with my family. Everyone absolutely loved it. My daughter even ate it cold in her lunch one day. SO good!

Free Stocking Stuffers!

 

It's Dec 1! Are you feeling the pinch yet? Coming up on the expense list this week, we have recital costume dues (for 2 costumes this year!), an oil change, and we need diapers! *phew*

Would some free stocking stuffers help?

My favorite free stocking stuffer idea at the moment are the McDonald's coupons through RecycleBank for just 100 points. You can easily earn a free ice cream cone or smoothie in five minutes. Here is how,

Join Recyclebank (if you haven't already!)
Once you're logged in, click on "Earn Points" (I recommend completing the Green Your Seasons and the Ziploc offer as these will quickly give you 100 points.)
Next, click on "Get Rewards" and go to "Restaurant Offers"
From there, you can use 100 points to order a coupon for a free oatmeal, a free ice cream cone or a free smoothie!

So easy! We've ordered these many times and have had no problems with mailing or redemption! These are so perfect for the kid or college student in your life!

Harvest Sangria

We are not big drinkers at all around here, but I wanted to make something special for our Thanksgiving dinner. (Not to mention I was afraid I needed something "special" to survive cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner!) My husband and I both like sangria (probably because it doesn't taste like alcohol,) so I concocted a new little recipe!

Here's how I made it,

1 bottle of Chardonnay (I used 2 buck Chuck, of course.)
1/2 cup of Triple Sec
1/4 cup Vodka
16 oz of apple cider (or more or less to taste)
1 apple, sliced
1 pear, sliced
1 orange, sliced
3 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
A splash of club soda

Yesterday, I mixed everything but the apple cider together. I stirred it several times over the course of the day, and I let it sit in the fridge overnight. This morning, while I was making everything else, I added the apple cider. I also fished out the pears, cinnamon sticks and cloves, and I rimmed our glasses with cinnamon and sugar. When it was time to eat, I topped our glasses off with a little bit of club soda! So delicious, and the apple slices are absolutely a treat! YUM!

From our family to yours...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

(Are we the only ones that ate in our pjs?)

Thanksgiving Menu

I know everyone is looking for some new inspiriation for their Thanksgiving table in these last few days before Thanksgiving! Here is what we are having, along with links to some of our tried and true frugal favorites,

Turkey (We will stuff with aromatics - rosemary, an orange, a yellow onion, a carrot and a sweet apple.)
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (Method coming soon.)
Pepperidge Farm stuffing (Cori's favorite for some reason.)
Country Store Fried Apples
Corn
Cranberry Sauce from a can
Trader Joes Maple Sweet Potatoes
Fresh Green Beans
Whole Wheat Rolls
Harvest Sangria

For dessert I am making a double spiced pumpkin pie and caramel apple cider floats (recipe coming soon.)

A Frugal Thanksgiving

In a somewhat unusual twist of events, it ended up that I am hosting only the five of us for Thanksgiving this year. With both of our families in town, that is definitely not the norm! Regardless, we are excited to have some old-fashioned family fun and figure out how to cook a turkey for ourselves. Someday I know our Thanksgivings will be "just the 5 of us" plus spouses and grandchildren, so I guess we better figure the turkey thing out now!

The groceries above cost me right around $75 AFTER tax. It doesn't look like a lot, but it does include a ham AND a turkey. They turkey was free with a purchase of a ham this week at Hy-Vee, so that was a nice bonus for us. I've never bought EITHER. The gallon of apple cider was a total budget breaker too. Regardless, we'll take the $25 overage from our regular spending money. I don't have anything planned for our spending money this pay period, so it's nice when it is available! A lot of times I have it spent on things that need to be paid for over the next two weeks before I even get it!

In the meantime, our menu plan looks a little like this,

Sunday - biscuits / ham and baked potatoes / fish sticks and pears

Monday - cereal / brown bag lunches / spinach and artichoke macaroni and cheese (stay tuned for recipe)

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - cheesy eggs / Campbell's chicken noodle soup and apples / black bean and cheese quesadillas

Thursday - TURKEY DAY (See my separate Thanksgiving menu post. I will be sharing various favorite recipes and a few new ones.)

Friday - I will be Black Friday shopping. We'll try to eat as frugally as possible, but it will probably be a lot of leftovers and possibly some eating on the go.

I definitely spent the bulk of our budget on Thanksgiving food! Sun-Wed might be a little interesting in the eating department, but we'll be fine. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Cake Mix Chocolate Waffles

Pin It

Yes, you read right! I made these with a Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix! All you do is prepare as directed and ladle in to your Belgian waffle maker. How is that for SUPER EASY??? They were very sweet. (We saved up our sugar content during the day and had these for dinner!)  They also don't get quite as crispy on the outside as a "normal" waffle does, but no one at my house complained! Have fun with this one!

See other recipes at http://www.beautyandbedlam.com/.

I'm back!

So, about six weeks ago, my little guy started CRAWLING. He's thrilled to be able to keep up with his sisters, but I'm realizing that this development directly correlates to when I started to feel overwhelmingly busy. Along with being overwhelmingly busy has come a few weeks of really bad or non existent cooking and no grocery project updates. However, after a few weeks, I'm finally feeling a little bit of relief!

The above picture is Round 1 of 3 of my grocery trips. I went pretty badly overbudget this week, but it is ok because we had some breathing room (for once) in our spending money. Round 2 was a trip to Hy Vee. I got a lot of yogurt, some cereal, pears, bananas and I truthfully do not remember what else. Round 3 was a trip to Aldi where I got 2 gallons of milk a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread, some cheese and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

Our menu plan is as follows, starting with Sunday because that is as far back as I can remember...

Sunday - pancakes and cinnamon sugar / Dorito salad at my mom's and Paula Deen's banana pudding (We took chips.) / Campbell's chicken noodle soup and bananas

Monday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches / crockpot soup (This was ok at best.)

Tuesday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole and apples

Wednesday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / spaghetti with marinara

Thursday - Alphabet cereal / brown bag lunches /chocolate waffles and strawberries

Friday - Rice Krispies / brown bag lunches / my mom's chicken and rice

I also made a huge batch of apple, pear and pumpkin baby's favorite and used some of it to make oatmeal and applesauce cookies. Both turned out just great!

As you can tell, we're still functioning a little bit in "crisis mode." We may kind of be in that "mode" until after Christmas, but usually the deep freeze gives me a few months to pull my life back together before Spring Break and the end of school hits! I'm going to try to do a better job of updating, so hang in here with me!

Also, did you see how super cute our Jack O Lantern pudding cups turned out?! Better Pin them for next year!

Jack-O-Lantern Pudding Cups

Check out the Jack-O-Lantern pudding cups we made for my sweet kindergartner's class! I thought they turned out so cute!

Yesterday, while daddy was carving pumpkins, the girls and I drew Jack-O-Lantern faces on plastic cups. Today, daddy and I tinted instant vanilla pudding with orange food coloring and filled the cups up. We covered them with crushed Oreo (actually Who-Nu) cookies and then a few Halloween sprinkles.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out, and I love that it isn't total sugar overload like a cupcake with a mountain of frosting. I think my big girl will be really proud of our handmade art too!

Hy Vee Shopping Trip

I'm a little late updating, obviously! I feel like I have been SO busy since the school year started. Dance, homework, Bible study and having my husband gone an extra day on top of what I am used to is wearing me out! We've also been dealing with a lot of allergy related illness the last few weeks. I'm still trying to keep up with our grocery project updates, but it is sure getting hard!

When I got home from the store, I thought I did really good with our $50, but even as I am writing, I'm realizing our fridge is looking empty. I just didn't get much to put in it! Hopefully we'll manage because I have about $12 for the rest of the week left to cover anything that might come up between now and then.

Our meal plan for the week looks a little like this,

Saturday - pumpkin smoothies / burritos at Taco Bell / chicken and potato bake

Sunday - went to church without breakfast / vanilla Dutch Baby with country store fried apples /ham and cheese sandwiches

Monday - bagels with pumpkin cream cheese / brown bag lunches / crockpot chicken and wild rice soup (We didn't have this last week.)

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches / tuna noodle salad

Wednesday -cereal / brown bag lunches / broccoli and cheese baked potatoes

Thursday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / grilled cheese and tomato soup

Friday - apples with peanut butter / brown bag lunches / crockpot black beans and cheese

I have a few recipes I need to find time to add. Hopefully I'll find some time to share how I've been making pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin smoothies and the new chicken and potato bake that I made last night some time this week!

In the early days of our $50 grocery project, I used to panic a little bit when it felt like we were low on groceries. These days, I've learned that we usually fly through the week, and we're on to a new start pretty quickly. Hopefully that we'll be the case this week!

For more meal plans, see www.orgjunkie.com.

Egg in the Hole

I've been meaning to make this for my family for a LONG time, but I always used to forget! Incidentally, I watched Ree Drummond make it on her new Food Network show a few weeks ago, and I realized how ridiculously EASY it is. I followed her instructions, plus added a few things, and my family is IN LOVE.

Ingredients,

1 piece of bread
1 egg
1 tbs butter
grated cheese
salt and pepper

Here is how I did it,

After cutting a disc out of a piece of bread with a glass, place a generous tablespoon of butter in a medium hot pan. Throw in your bread and round bread disc and crack your egg in to the center. Salt and pepper to taste. After 2-3 minutes, carefully flip and repeat. I have been adding a sprinkle of cheese to the second side.

SO DELICIOUS and ridiculously cheap. It's not even worth calculating! I'm so glad I added this to our repertoire of favorite dishes. It is a life saver if you need something quick, and it certainly comes in handy on a low grocery week. Eggs and bread are something I ALWAYS have.

Dirty Kids

Every year for my birthday, we hit the pumpkin patch for some old fashioned fun. (Isn't that the best kind of fun anyway?) This year, the pumpkin patch added a fabulous new DIRT slide. It was seriously fun, and we got SERIOUSLY dirty.

And here, for the first time ever (as far as I remember,) are the five of us together!

My intentions were good...

I didn't get a picture of my groceries last night. I didn't get home until almost ten, and I had been going strong since 5 AM. I was just exhausted. I wanted to get things put away and GO TO BED. So I did.

I did a really bad job menu and grocery planning yesterday. I DID manage to get a list done, but as soon as I got to the store, I realized I hadn't even considered what I was going to actually cook or making anything new this week. So irritating. If I don't have a meal plan in mind, I end up with a bunch of random stuff. Of course, that is exactly what happened.

I spent $48 after tax, and I got cheese, a ton of yogurt, Sun Chips, canned pumpkin, dried black beans, granola bars, pears, salad mix, bagels, waffles, and I don't even remember what else. I at least did end up with some good lunch items, which is helpful because we had been running very low on lunch items.

That being said, I'm short a few items to make meals. I'm going to make another quick run for apples, cream cheese, cream of chicken soup and....ice cream. There I said it. We can't live without ice cream around here. We've given up soooo many luxuries lately, that I think ice cream is a relatively fair one to keep as long as I buy it on sale.

My husband is finally starting his regular work schedule at his new job, so we're starting a new tradition - crockpot Monday! I'll be working different hours on Mondays for awhile, so he'll be in charge of having dinner ready when I get home. Yay for me! I need a break! Thursdays, we have Bible Study, so we're switching over to a leftover night. (We're reading the book Practicing the Way of Jesus, if anyone is interested.) On Friday, we have to eat SUPER fast between school and three hours at the dance studio. I'm trying really hard to avoid fast food and am having reasonable success. The biggest problem is that we're usually just about out of EVERYthing!

Our meal plan for the week will be something like this,

Saturday - egg in the hole / birthday lunch out / my mom's chicken and rice and salad

Sunday - bagels with pumpkin cream cheese / grilled cheese and tomato soup /chili from the freezer

(We really drag out the birthday thing around here. Today is actually my bday.)

Monday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / crockpot chicken and wild rice soup

Tuesday - cereal / brown bag lunches /breakfast sandwiches

Wednesday -cereal / brown bag lunches / tuna noodle salad

Thursday - pumpkin smoothies / brown bag lunches / leftovers

Friday - apples with peanut butter / brown bag lunches / crockpot black beans and cheese

I'd really like to do some baking this week, but I'm not sure I'll get to it! I've really been craving some apple cider scones, though!

See other meal plans at www.orgjunkie.com.

$50 week grocery project (30th Birthday Edition)

I'm running super late (again) updating this week. We've had a busy week celebrating my birthday, and I am, once again, fighting off a sinus infection.

The above purchase was right around $22 after tax at Hy Vee. I also went to Hen House and Price Chopper where I got milk, cheese, yogurt, apples, and I don't even remember what else now.

We stuck almost perfectly to $50 this week, and I will tell you that my fridge is already looking BARE. Lucky for me, I have a few birthday coupons laying around that I will be able to use, but the budget doesn't really allow for a whole family affair. I will probably use them mostly for lunches this week. Thankfully, my kids don't seem to mind sticking to the super simple and cheap favorites too much. Heck, they don't even know the difference. And, to be honest, they've been eating really well lately. I'm proud of what well rounded eaters they are!

Here is our menu plan for the week, starting with yesterday. Saturday is a distant memory.

Sunday - cereal / Mexican buffet with family (I took black beans and queso.) / Mexican buffet leftovers

Monday - cereal / tuna noodle salad and apples / cavatini and a garlic Boboli

Tuesday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / egg in the hole

Wednesday - 100% whole wheat cinnamon toast / brown bag lunches/ vegetarian chili

Thursday - cereal / brown bag lunches / broccoli cheese baked potatoes

Friday - smoothie popsicles / brown bag lunches / Little Caesars at dance

Snacks will include our usual banana smoothies, cottage cheese, pumpkin applesauce, yogurt, PBJ and whatever else I can come up with!

For more meal plans, see www.orgjunkie.com.

Birthday Freebies (in honor of my 30th!)

 

It's true! This is my birthday week, and it is a BIG one! 30?!?!? Where does the time go?

I'll be celebrating with some special birthday freebies this week. If you haven't signed up, some of my favorite eateries that offer birthday surprises are,

Red Robin
Baskin Robbins
Cold Stone Creamery
First Watch
Ben and Jerry's
Caribou Coffee
Culvers
Dunkin Donuts
Noodles & Co 
Olive Garden
On the Border
Papa Murphy's
Sonic
Starbucks

Have fun!

(Photo Credit, I Am Baker)