Don’t miss these $2 camis from Old Navy!! They will be available from 7/29-7/31 and there is a limit of five per customer. You will need this $2 printable coupon or say “Cami 4 me” to a store associate.
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I’m back and I survived twenty three hours on a bus with 26 high school kids!! It was actually great – the kids were great!! New Orleans was hot and humid — not my favorite part of our trip. I wish I’d had more time to explore the city but we were there to attend the National Youth Gathering and it was very busy with all the events. I would definitely go back to New Orleans for a vacation – in February! My husband and daughter had fun cooking dinners together and followed the menu plan quite nicely. I made the Grilled Chile-Lime Chicken on Sunday and it was a hit with the whole family. It has a really nice, refreshing lime flavor to it. Next time I will leave the seeds in the jalapeno for some kick and add more cilantro. This coming weekend I’ll be heading out of town again for a camping trip with some members of my son’s cross country team. My job is to plan, shop, prepare and feed around 20 teens and 5 adults. I love it!! However, I also need to make sure I plan dinner for my husband and remaining two kids while I’m gone. So, here’s the plan: MONDAY: Pulled pork, Homemade buns, grilled corn on the cob, green salad – I’ve been using this pulled pork recipe for years. It is our absolute favorite and very simple. TUESDAY: Santa Fe Chicken Salad – I didn’t get around to making this last week WEDNESDAY: Shredded Beef Burritos, chips and salsa – I’ve never made these but they look good, simple and cheap. They really seem like a cross between burritos and enchiladas, but I don’t care about the name as long as they taste good! I plan on using some beef that I canned along with all the optional ingredients. That should make it a very cheap meal. THURSDAY: Chicken Noodle Soup FRIDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad, bread SATURDAY: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, pasta, green beans SUNDAY: Whole wheat waffles, eggs, bacon , toast For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Okay, here’s where I admit that I didn’t plan a menu at all last week. Yet, somehow we managed. We have enough food in our house right now that I didn’t even do much shopping. I’ve been feeling uninspired lately when it comes to cooking and shopping and I finally figured out why!! My husband has been working late and missing dinner most nights. When he does that he tends to eat out for lunch than eat the lunch I made him for dinner. So, he doesn’t eat the dinner I’ve prepared. My daughter is working a second shift job and is only home for dinner on Friday. My older son is always out with friends and I very rarely see him for dinner. That leaves me and my 16 year old son and for some reason I just am not inspired to cook for two people!! However, this is great practice for that sad time when all my children have moved out and it’s just my husband and I. So, I’m going to embrace this and get back to being creative in the kitchen!! Having said all that, my two sons and I will be leaving for a trip to New Orleans with our church this Thursday and we will be gone for a week. So, I need to plan meals for my husband and daughter that are fairly simple and quick to prepare — they both informed that they really don’t want to do much cooking. Also, because I will be gone through most of next week as well, I’m going to plan for two weeks. So, here goes: 7/12 MONDAY: Sam’s Club Take and Bake Pizza 7/13 TUESDAY: Chinese takeout 7/14 WEDNESDAY: Teriyaki Tenderloin, steamed rice, steamed broccoli 7/15 THURSDAY: Brats, beans, carrot and celery sticks, chips 7/16 – 7/21 Dinner choices while my sons and I are gone: Sloppy joes, chips Grilled marinated chicken breasts hot dogs, beans, chips grilled ham steaks, mashed potatoes, vegetable pancakes, eggs, bacon frozen pizza 7/22 THURSDAY: Eat out or order pizzas – we’ll be returning on this day from New Orleans and a twenty hour bus ride so I’m not cooking! 7/23 FRIDAY: Grilled Chile-Lime Chicken, steamed rice, steamed broccoli 7/24 SATURDAY: Santa Fe Chicken Salad 7/25 SUNDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad, bread For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Hmmm…very interesting week. My husband was working late Monday – Thursday and my kids were very busy this past week. This left just two of us home for dinner most nights. So, instead of cooking dinner Tuesday and Wednesday, we had leftovers and foraged through the pantry and refrigerator. I also didn’t make dinner on Sunday because I forgot that we had a graduation party — free food!! Nonetheless, I still consider it a good week since we didn’t resort to fast food or order pizza. I tried two new recipes this week and both were quite good. My boys and I had the Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas on Monday and we all approved of this new recipe. I toned down the spices as I was afraid they would be overpowering. But, next time I’ll use the amount called for in the recipe because it needed a smidge more bite to it. The Whole Wheat Waffles were amazing!! I made a ton of them and froze about two dozen. My only complaint is that the waffles didn’t come out very crispy. The only way to get them sort of crispy was to leave them in the waffle iron a very long time. But, then they seemed too dark on the outside. I did use half apple sauce and half canola oil as suggested in the recipe so that may have been the issue. Or maybe I need a new waffle iron. Next time I make them I’ll use all oil and no apple sauce and we’ll see. I noticed that we had various vegetables in our fridge that needed to be used, so Monday will be a garden salad day. It’s a great way to use up those veggies before they go bad and so healthy, too! I’m also looking forward to one new recipe on Thursday. It’s a bit different but got great reviews so we’ll see how that goes. We’re going camping for Fourth of July so our meals will be a bit simpler throughout the weekend. We’ll be having spaghetti and meatballs while we’re camping — this is a favorite and so easy! The spaghetti was free with coupons, the spaghetti sauce is home canned, and I’ve got the homemade pepperoni bread ready to go in the freezer along with the homemade meatballs. My friend and I spend a day together cooking and canning the spaghetti sauce. While the spaghetti sauce is processing in the canner, we make dozens and dozens of meatballs, divide them in ziplocs and freeze them. Here’s the plan: MONDAY: Garden salad TUESDAY: Pizza Casserole, leftover garden salad, fruit WEDNESDAY: Angel Hair Pasta Chicken THURSDAY: Romaine Rice Tuna Salad FRIDAY: Roasted hot dogs, homemade potato salad, chips SATURDAY: Pork chops, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, canned green beans – We love to cook over our campfire so that is how we’ll do the pork chops! SUNDAY: Spaghetti and meatballs, pepperoni bread – I love this meal! For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Walmart will be hosting a Kraft Independence Day Sampling Event July 1st – 3rd. Check out the details and find a location near you here. My local Walmart is hosting this event and I plan on checking it out to score some free food and coupons. Hopefully, there will be good deals going on for the sample items too!
Kellogg’s has issued a recall on Apple Jacks, Froot Loops, Corn Pops and Honey Smacks with certain packaging and within specified used by dates. Kellogg’s has posted a consumer alert with more complete information. I found two of these packages in my pantry and will be calling in the morning. All You is having a grocery challenge contest and I decided to enter — what fun!! Each participant is judged on their ability to stay within budget ($25 per person), creativity and ingenuity, and healthy choices. Recently we started working to improve what we eat by eliminating hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup and increasing our vegetable and fruit intake. This grocery challenge seemed like a good way to help me stay motivated and get the support of many others who are striving to make changes in their family’s diet, too. So, I’ll be giving a weekly update about my shopping trips that will include how I’m doing with the budget portion of the challenge. On Monday’s, I will give an update on the other two aspects of the challenge when I do my menu plan posting. Although I have five people living at home right now (myself, husband, two teenage sons, and my college-age daughter), my budget will be $75 dollars instead of the $125 that is allowed in the challenge. This has been my budget for awhile now and we really need to stick with that. One other thing — the $75 budget includes personal care items as well as food. This week I shopped at Rainbow, Cub, Walmart, Walgreens, Aldi, CVS, and Sam’s Club and spent a total of $74.87 on $175.76 worth of groceries!! There were 3 great findings from my various trips that I want to highlight before going into the details:
Here are the stories: On Monday, my first stop was Walmart where I spent $14.00 on $15.27 worth of groceries. Here what I bought: Whole wheat pita bread, $1.50 Next was a quick stop into Sam’s Club to buy 3 gallons of milk for $5.64. After that, I made a rare trip to Walgreens where I spent $1.29 for $11.78 of groceries. 2 Gillette body wash, $8.98, used B1G1 free I also used a $6 Register Reward from a previous shopping trip and received a $4.50 Register Reward for the Gillette body wash. That completed my Monday shopping. These three stores are literally across the street from each other and less than a mile from where I live, so I didn’t feel like I was doing too much running around. Wednesday is Double Daze at Rainbow and that is typically when I do the bulk of my grocery shopping.
I took two trips through the checkout and spent $28.15 on $67.53 worth of groceries. Here’s what’s on the table: 1 lb dry black beans $2.09, sale price$1.20
Next stop — Aldi where I spent $15.49. Here’s what’s on the table: 3.3 lbs bananas, .25!!!!!! Saturday brought a trip to Cub followed by CVS.
At Cub I spent $8.05 on $23.97 and bought the following: 3 3 liter pop, $2.34
My last trip of the week was to CVS where I spent $2.01 on $35.44 worth of groceries. Here’s the breakdown: 2 Pantene, $9.98, sale price $6.97, used 2 $2 coupons
Wow!! Another Friday has gone by and I totally missed it!! Here are the freebies I found this past week. Cascade Action Pacs – Sam’s Club membership number required Baby Barn – Baby Body and Hair Wash and Soft Skin Baby Lotion. These could make great baby shower gifts — just tuck them in with some baby towels and washcloths and you’re set!
I recently made my own yogurt for the first time. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and how wonderful it tasted! There were a couple of reasons that I decided to try this. First – to save money!! Homemade yogurt is typically cheaper. I know there are times when you can actually get yogurt for free and I have done it quite often. However, I found that my family didn’t really like the varieties I was able to get for free. So, I went back to buying the types that we liked, but even with a sale and double coupon I was paying .25 to .35 per 6 oz cup. I was easily spending $4 or more per week on yogurt!! With that same amount of money, I can now make 30% more yogurt. The second reason I decided to make my own yogurt was so that I could control the ingredients. When I read the label of popular yogurts they were full of things I either couldn’t pronounce or was trying to remove from my family’s diet (e.g. high fructose corn syrup). I was so happy to find an easy way to make yogurt in my crockpot!! It required 2 ingredients: milk and a starter yogurt with active cultures. This really couldn’t have been easier!! The result was a little over 40 ounces of plain yogurt that cost approximately $1.45 or .036 per ounce. My next batch will be even cheaper as I can use my own yogurt as a starter! I used skim milk and was really happy with the consistency. We tend to like a creamier yogurt — not too thick. If you like yours thicker, there are a lot of suggestions here. My son tasted the plain yogurt and made quite the face! So, I added some mashed bananas and vanilla and he loved it!! I had some with home made jam mixed in — heaven!! I’m planning on trying some honey as a sweetener as well. The possibilities are truly endless.
My friend made this salad for lunch one day at her house and I immediately fell in love with it!! I served it to my family and the feeling was mutual — it’s a winner. The first time my daughter tasted it, she couldn’t stop eating it!! The recipe makes a HUGE bowl that easily feeds my family of five. There is typically some left over for a few of us to have it for lunch the next day.
The ingredients listed below are from the the original recipe. I made some modifications to save money of which the biggest is making my own broccoli slaw. I save at least $1 by making my own and still have broccoli florets to use in another meal.
Ingredients: 1 bag romaine lettuce (I use 1 head of romaine) Directions:
Verdict: This is such a pretty and flavorful salad!! It is one of my families favorite meal-size salads and they look forward to having it. It comes together very quickly and the leftovers hold up very well. I’ve used various BBQ sauces and that really changes the flavor, so you can have some fun experimenting with that. |
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