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)