A visit to Sam's Club and a new recipe...

I ended up not making it to Hy-Vee today. Instead, we went to Sam's Club because I had some Tylenol products to take back. I ended up walking with an almost $50 gift card. I was SO excited. $50 sure doesn't go very far there, but I got a few things that will come in handy for our trip: a box of Organic Z-bars, a huge tub of cashews, 14 oz of raspberries and 3 lbs of bananas. I spent about $30, and my mom bought the rest of the $15 gift card from me. I used to cash to replace the medications I sold back to Sam's with generics for our trip.

When we got home, I was super anxious to try out the new fruit salsa recipe I decided to make for Mother's Day tomorrow. Here is the recipe from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 2 kiwis, peeled and diced
• 2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
• 8 ounces raspberries
• 1 pound strawberries
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor
• 
  
• 10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• butter flavored cooking spray
• 2 cups cinnamon sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

***
I chopped up the strawberries, added the raspberries and a few black berries, the sugar and a little bit of apricot and raspberry preserves and left everything in the fridge to sit overnight. I'll add the apples and the kiwis in the morning. BUT, I just COULDN'T wait to try what I had. I also wanted to test the chip recipe before tomorrow, so I threw together a quick snack for me and the girls. It is SUPER delicious. I almost am temped to not add the apple and the kiwi, but Ill try it this time since that's what I have on hand. I'm thinking it would be SUPER delicious with peaches instead of apples. I'll definitely be trying that soon! I also love how the little scooper chips turned out. I did have to bake them for close to ten minutes, but they were great -- crunchy and sturdy! So fun!

Disney World Edition...

I can't believe I haven't gotten around to mentioning it yet, but we're going to Disney World...a week from TODAY! I can hardly wait! Because of our trip, I decided to combine our two week grocery budget. $100 still isn't sounding like a lot as I am trying to pick up food for this week, add to my stash of snacks for our trip, pick up some ingredients for the dessert I am making for Mother's Day AND food for daddy to eat while we are gone.

We made two grocery store trips tonight I can't find my receipt from our Hen House stop, but this is what we got:



I saved 50%.

After that, I swapped kids with my husband, and the baby and I went to Price Chopper. They were having a super good weekend and anniversary sale. I bought considerably more "junk" than usual, but it will tide daddy over while we are gone. This is what we got:


1 dozen eggs
3 packages of shredded cheese
1 package of bagels
1 package of mini cream cheese
1 Minute Maid OJ
1 Minute Maid Pomegranate Blueberry with DHA (LOVE this stuff)
2 Robert's cottage cheese
1 gallon of hormone free whole milk
3 rising crust Palermo's pizzas
2 of the cheaper variety of Palermo's
1 Belfonte ice cream
4 Lean Cuisine's
1 package of Tornados
3 boxes of Pop Tarts
3 bags of Doritos
2 packages of Stride gum
2 Vitamin Waters

My pretax total was right at $50.00. I saved $66.83. A pretty good savings, but I suppose with all of the processed stuff it should be!

See this week's other trip along with a new recipe here.

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

Don't forget that the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is on Saturday! We participated last year, and we certainly will again! All you have to do is leave a bag of food for your postal service worker, and they will collect and deliver to a local food pantry. It's so easy! If you participate, take a picture and link it up via my comment section. I'd love to see how we're able to give!

Works For Me!

10% off a Hy-Vee purchase

About twice a year, I get a coupon in the mail for 10% off a Hy-Vee purchase of $50 or more. It's my favorite mail day! This week happened to be that week, and it was great timing! The only thing that wasn't so great was that the other sale ads were decent too. I ended up deciding to just stick with using the coupon and using my whole $50 at Hy-Vee. We had a REALLY long day yesterday! I was up before 5, worked my regular day, went to an event at Chief's stadium, took my girls to dance class and then we were FINALLY able to hit Hy-Vee. It was late, and we were very tired, but we managed just fine. Dare I say we had "FUN?"

Several items aren't picture (or aren't visible) due to space constraints, but this is what we got:

1 generic cottage cheese
1 generic unsalted butter
1 Valley Fresh Steamer
2 Freschetta pizzas
3 boxes of Fiber One shredded wheat (My favorite! I love it with fresh strawberries!)
3 cans of generic corn
2 cans of generic black beans
3 boxes of Gerber fruit strips (These were $.25 a box!)
2 bottles of Old Orchard
1 jar of Skippy Natural
1 bag of Tostitos
1 box of 48 count Benadryl (This was $3!)
1 box of Cascadian Farm chocolate almond fiber bars
2 bottles of Glaceau Vitamin Water
1 box of Kashi Blackberry Graham bars
1 gallon of whole hormone free milk
1 Yoplait Greek yogurt (Love the protein in this for my girls! And no HFC!)
1 box of Electrasol Gelpacs
2 bags of generic cheese
2.50 of apples
1 bag of frozen cranberries (Yes, these were $.50 again! I have SO MANY cranberries in my freezer!)
2.27 lbs of organic pears
4 lbs of strawberries

My total came in at almost exactly $50 before tax. However, 2 lbs of strawberries and the Benadryl are for my mom, so I will recoup $4.50 or so. I need to try to make it to the Oroweat outlet on with that $4.50 at some point this week.

Also, a little tip on the medicine. The bargain section of the store was FULL of over the counter medicines at discounted prices . I think the store must clean out their shelves the last day of the month to make sure they're not selling anything that is expired as they could be fined. The closer they were to expiration, the cheaper they were. (I've gotten big boxes of Claritin for as cheap as $1 a box before.) The Benadryl I bought expired yesterday, but we'll use it fast enough that it's not a problem. I'm sure all stores do some sort of cleaning out like this. It would be worth checking with customer service of the store manager to see what you can find out. It's a great find -- especially if you can pair it with a coupon!

I don't really have a fancy meal plan for this week. We're really busy getting ready for our summer vacation (stay tuned on that,) keeping up on yard work, finishing up school, etc. My family is always very content to eat a simple meal, but they are even easier in the warmer weather. The girls are happy to eat something as simple as fruit and cottage cheese or a smoothie for dinner. My husband understands that sometimes he just has to fend for himself -- that's part of having a mommy who works. I am going to make a big pot of salsa soup tonight (since I didn't make it last week) for dinner. Then, I'll have the leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week. We're also still snacking on blueberry buckle, but I might make some whole wheat pumpkin cranberry muffins later this week for quick breakfasts and snacks.

Blueberry Buckle

I had a rare moment when my girls took naps at the same time AFTER I got home from work, so I decided to test out a blueberry buckle recipe. I'd actually never HAD blueberry buckle, but you know I love blueberries! I'd actually already spent some time scouting out a recipe since I have had blueberries in my freezer just waiting to be used for quite some time. I decided to use this one from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• TOPPING:
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup cold butter

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fold in the blueberries. Pour into greased 9-in. square baking pan.
2. For topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over blueberry mixture. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

***

It turned out really good -- like a big blueberry muffin with yummy cinnamon streusel topping! It's nice because it's not overly sweet, so it makes a good coffee cake. It could also be served warm with ice cream, which is how we ate it. (Remember all that ice cream I bought!!!???) The thing I would change in the future is that next time I would make it with half whole wheat pastry flour. I think it would actually improve the depth of flavor not to mention the adding some extra nutritional benefits!

See also Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

A quick and green grocery shopping tip...

I used to make the statement that I didn't have enough hands to take my own grocery bags to the grocery store. I was already balancing a baby, a 3 year old, a coupon book and a purse. That's 4 things for two hands. I realize now the error in my ways. Have you tried using one BIG reusable bag and stuffing your purse, coupons and all of your other reusable bags in to it? It works like a dream, and now I get to save $.05 a bag too! Give it a try!

Works for Me!

Stuffed Shells

Stuffed Shells is hands down my husband's favorite meal. I usually opt for the less labor intensive cavatini and use the excuse that shell noodles don't typically go on sale when the smaller shapes do. This week, when I was able to catch shell noodles on sale, I figured I would make the time to make hubby's favorite meal!

Though filling the shells is slightly time consuming, it is somewhat of a show stopper. It's a great dish for company because it's inexpensive and pretty easy, but I think people think that it is more laborious and gourmet than it actually is!

Here is the recipe:

1 big tub of cottage cheese
1 8 oz bag Italian blend cheese
About a half cup of Parmesan cheese
1 cup of thawed spinach
A few shakes of parsley, garlic, oregano and basil, salt and pepper

Before I start filling the shells, I cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan with a layer of sauce and about a half cup of water. Because the noodles are dry, I really have to make sure there is enough moisture to cook the noodles. Once I've coated the bottom of the pan, I carefully fill the dry shells with cheese mixture using either a butter knife or a baby spoon. I line them up carefully. I can usually fit about 5 across and 7 longwise. Then, I top with a generous amount of sauce. (Usually, I would use a little more sauce on this, but I ended up squeezing in a second layer this time, so I saved the bulk of the sauce for the top layer. I'd never added a second layer before, but I had half a box of noodles on hand that I figured I could use up. When I ran out of cheese, I just threw some of the empty shells on top. It worked perfectly.)


After I added my second layer, I covered with about the same amount of sauce. (I used two jars of organic Ragu.) I also added about another cup of water. This needs to bake covered at about 350 for approximately an hour and fifteen minutes (or until bubbly in the middle.) I pulled mine out about when there was about 20 minutes left, and poured another half cup or so over some of the noodles that were still looking a little dry. Here is the finished product:


It looks a little bit "sloppier" than normal since I kind of pieced the second layer together where I had space, but it still tasted great! Daddy was thrilled!

For more recipes, see Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, LifeasMom, Joy of Desserts, Grocery Cart Challenge.