Look What I MADE!!

Ok, I forgot to take the pictures, so you can't really look, but I am so excited. I made Vanilla Wafers from scratch. I was checking out everyone's menu plans for Menu Plan Monday over at Orgjunkie.com and ran across this site with a great recipe. We all loved them. You should definitely try it. : )

Menu Plan

Here is our plan for the week.

Tonight we are going to turn our leftover chicken into a chicken pot pie (I really messed up the last one...it was not edible!)

Monday - French Dip Sandwhiches

Tuesday - Pizza

Wednesday - Church

Thursday - Country Captain Chicken

Friday - Stuffed Shells

Saturday - Family night.

She's teaching me!

Here is my frugal idea of the week! Let your kids talk you out of purchases. My daughter did a great job of that last week.
I took my toddler with me to pick out a birthday present for her cousin last week and let me tell you, she is the good shopper! I was drawn in by the clearance aisle and pillow cases and other things for her, but when I asked her if she wanted to take things home she said no. She was quite content to play with the toys for a few minutes in the aisle and then return them to the shelf. She didn't feel entitled to a toy just because we were getting one for her cousin. Amazing, she talked me out of purchases, and she is two!
For more great frugal ideas check out Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

FRUGAL FAILURE!!!

I was determined to stick to plan this week, and thus far I have, however....While I was making dinner tonight apparently I was out in la la land. I used the sticky chicken that I planned on making for freezer day (finally got around to making it yesterday, and then ended up eating with extended family, so it was around today) and turned it into Chicken Pot Pie. Unfortunately I managed to forget to salt and pepper my chicken as I was putting it into the pie, used a mixed veggie can that had potatoes (I HATE potatoes), and last but not threw it all in with cream of mushroom instead of cream of chicken! Agh!!!! Let me just tell you that none of us ate a whole lot of dinner tonight. Oh well, better luck next time!

Menu Plan Monday

Last week we didn't get to eating the Chicken Pot Pie, or the Johnny Marzetti, so we have them set up again for this week.

Sunday - Chicken Pot Pie - I have to pick up a few things today to make this work, but it should be fine. :)

Monday - It's my nephew's birthday, so we will be celebrating with him tonight.

Tuesday - Lemon Chicken (from an older freezer day)

Wednesday - Church

Thursday - Johnny Marzetti

Friday - Family dinner out

Saturday - Tacos/Burritos

For More Great Menu Plans Check Out Orgjunkie.com.

Freezer Follow Up!

We had our freezer cooking day today and it went pretty great. Both of the kiddos (my 2 yr old and my bud's 7 wk old) did great, both napped for part of the time, watched a bit of Curious George, and "helped". The only thing that didn't get done was the Sticky Chicken, and that was completely my fault! I forgot to cook my bird the night before, so nothing to debone come cooking day. Here are the pics of a few projects, and a very full freezer. (I'm going to say I don't know where the banana muffins went...hmm...)

Cinnamon rolls, ready to go in the freezer!

Half of the Banana Crumb Muffins.

Stuffed Shells, mmm!

We had a ton of other things going, but I am not a food photographer by any means, so here is our stuffed freezer. It should keep us in food for a few weeks anyways :)

Let us know if you have any ideas for our next Freezer Cooking day!

Shopping Trips!

Yesterday we made a trip to CVS and I am pleased to report that we saved as much as we spent. We did spend a lot more than we normally spend, but we also got a lot yesterday.

paper towels
Easy ups- We have made the switch to training pants, our girl is merely "potty aquainted" but we are working on that.
3 boxes Raisin Bran
3 boxes Band-Aids (Hello Kitty for my shopping helper)
Q-Tips (not on sale, just desparately needed)
3 cans olives

Nearly everything was on sale (minus the Q-Tips) and we had a coupon for every item! We bought the raisin bran first and got our $5 ECB and then everything else in the second transaction with our 20% off coupon. In all we spent about $31 and saved $30.

Menu Plan Monday - 8/16

This week is a little crazy because we have family pictures one night, and another is my birthday, but we are still making a plan. We also have a freezer day planned for Friday, we shall see how it all goes.

Sunday - Lemon Chicken (Ok, I'm already thinking I am changing this to Spaghetti, but maybe we will stick to it.)

Monday - Family Pictures - Dinner out!

Tuesday - Penne Rustica (Frozen from a few weeks ago).

Wednesday - Burritos/ Tacos

Thursday - Chicken Pot Pie

Friday - Freezer Cooking Day - Family dinner out

Saturday - Johnny Marzetti (from freezer day)

Check Out Our Dinner

Here is what we ended up eating for dinner last night.

Our menu plan has been more of a guideline this week. It hasn't completely rolled off the track, we have eaten what we had at home, but not was on the plan. The above picture is what resulted :) . I count that as success! I had planned on roasting a whole chicken, but it has been so hot I didn't want to heat up the kitchen, so we grilled our tiny electric grill instead, and then put it all in a salad. If I can just make mistakes like this all the time, we should be good.

A New Freezer Day!

********UPDATED - See the pics from our freezer day here!**********************
My cooking buddy is back. Her beautiful son is now 6 weeks old, and we are ready to attempt another cooking day, this time with 2 kids around :)

Here is our plan so far.

Sticky Chicken - We will try to do this ahead of time and just divide up the meat when we get together.

Stuffed Shells - I am a sucker for Italian, no Fishmama Lasagna this time, so this will have to do!

Banana Crumb Muffins - My baby girl (and her mom) goes crazy over all things bread, so we might have these around for a few mornings :)

French Dip - We'll do the meat on cooking day, and purchase the rolls when we are going to eat them, or when they go on sale and then we'll freeze them.

Johnny Marzetti - chicken and cheesy noodles, need I say more?

Country Captain Chicken - More for my crockpot!

Cinnamon Rolls - These are my favorite, because they are yummy, but still have the whole grain and the oats in them.

I may also make a batch of Baked Oatmeal, but my buddy says they'll pass on that one.



*** I went ahead and made my baked oatmeal, check it out!***

What do you think? Anyother exciting ideas for us. We'll let you know how it goes (and I will try my best to do pictures too.

Swagbucks!

I love swagbucks. When I first started it I wasn't sure about it, but now that it has earned me over $15 in amazon gift cards, I'm on board! When I first started using it I didn't really know how to make it work for me, because I do not ever download toolbars. Now I have it set as my home page, so it is the first thing that pops up, and I use it to navigate to whatever page I want to go to. For instance, one of my favorite sites is Money Saving Mom, so I would open up my home page and type it in the search bar instead of going straight there. I earn points all the time. I am also finding that I earn a lot of points just from having friends that I have referred to the site, so all this in an attempt to say, YOU SHOULD DO THIS TOO. If you sign up here I'll get points from you, and you can start earning your points and recruiting your friends too. As a bonus, right now if you sign up and use the code BackToSchool you should start off with 70 points, and if you start today or tomorrow (August 12, 2010) They are running a promotion all day tomorrow that will give 5 codes to add even more points.

Menu Plan - 8 - 9 - 10

Another week, another menu, but first let me tell you that the "Better Than Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce" was true to it's word. We loved it!

We have a bit of scheduling nightmare this week, but so far we think that we should all be able to sit down and have dinner together, so I am going to plan thinking that way.

Monday - Burritos - The Kits were on sale a few weeks ago, so we just need the ground beef.
Tuesday - Roasted Chicken, Salad, Green Beans, and Bread
Wednesday - Hamburgers, beans, salad
Thursday - Southwest Rollups
Friday - Family night
Saturday - Spaghetti, salad, rolls
Sunday - TBA

For more great menu ideas check out orgjunkie.com

A yes mom!

Fishmama has been sharing recently how she wants to be a yes mom. Yesterday afternoon I decide to follow in her footsteps. I wish I had taken pictures, we were quite the mess! When my 2 yr old woke up from her nap she told me she wanted to help cook. ( I stir it mommy!) At first I said no, byt she convinced me, and I am so glad. It probably didn't go as quickly as it would have, but it was fun, all the way to the licking of the spoon. (don't worry, no raw eggs in our shortcake recipe)

Menu Plan Monday 8-1-10

It's a new week and we are ready to set up for a week of meals. We will be missing DH at dinner for most of the week, so a lot of the meals we have planned are more simple than they would normally be, or "girl food." DD and I are looking forward to the "girl food."

Monday - Leftovers - I made pretty simple CHEESY CHICKEN PASTA last night that I enjoyed, but DH did not, so DD and I will finish it off Monday. Cook some rotini pasta and chicken (in separate pots!) When the chicken is mostly done add 1/2 cup chicken broth and simmer for 3 minutes or until chicken is done. Melt 2 oz low fat cream cheese and 1/2 cup mozerella into cheese mix. Meanwhile, a few minutes before the pasta is done throw in brocolli or frozen peas. When the pasta and veggies are done drain. Add pasta mix and chicken mix both into a casserole dish, or 8x8 dish and mix together. Throw another 1/2 c mozzerella and 2 T parm on top, and you have a pretty simple dish.

Tuesday - fun with friends - Homemade Pizza - This is my favorite dough recipe! These will be definite "girl pizzas" complete with pesto (thanks Sandy) from our freezer cooking day and other fresh veggies.

For dessert shortcake!

Wednesday - Church

Thursday - Grilled Cheese - Simple food!

Friday - Chicken Alfredo - I found an alfredo recipe that says its better than Olive Garden's, we shall see! I don't have the link right now, I will try to put it up later.

Saturday - Burritos - If you are a publix shopper these kits are on sale B1G1 thru Tuesday or Wednesday depending on your store's sales cycle. :)

Sunday - I know we will be eating out one of these nights, but I'm not sure which one, so whichever day gets bumped will be Sunday :)

Try menu planning this week! It makes it a lot easier (and cheaper) to grocery shop and makes it easier to get dinner on the table. For more great ideas check out orgjunkie.com!