One thing I really love is musicals, any musical will do. They all have a romantic story behind them and are such fun to watch. Wouldn't it be fun if our life was a musical? You could be out shopping for dried beans and powdered milk and bust into a song and dance. Imagine how great that would be.
My favorite musical of all time is "Sound of Music". Although lately we have been watching "Mama Mia" quite a bit. Actually April has been watching that every morning before school & "Sound of Music" before she goes to bed. She is a musical junkie too. We have so much fun watching them - just singing and dancing along.....
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Creative Home Mixes
There are so many mixes that have come about over the years to make our lives easier and more convenient. Often these items don't seem expensive until you actually figure what it would it cost you to make the mixes yourself.
One such convenience item is Shake 'n Bake. You may think the box at the store is reasonable. I honestly haven't priced it lately, but I'm sure it's somewhere in the $1 to $1.50 range. However you can make the same stuff at home for probably less than $0.50. The main ingredient is bread crumbs. Keep the ends of your bread loaves in a plastic bag in the freezer till you have enough for a cup. Grate them into an freezer safe container. Use 1 cup for this recipe, store the rest in the freezer for another use.
Home version of Shake 'n Bake
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour (I use a 50/50 mixture of white and whole wheat)
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp pepper
4 tsp onion powder
1/2 cayenne pepper
Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Use as needed. You may want to adjust the amounts of the spices to your taste.
***********************************************************************************
Another convenience item that gets expensive is instant oatmeal packets. I usually make our own packets, using sandwich or snack ziploc bags from the Dollar Tree to store them. The measurements of the additions to the oatmeal are going to vary according to what you like. Some people like more fruit or they like their oatmeal pretty sweet. The measurements I have below are simply guesses cause quite honestly I don't actually measure - I just add whatever ingredient till I think it's looks right.
Apples & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
1 container of instant oatmeal (I do like to use Quaker Oats because it doesn't get as gummy.)
2 cups of dried apple chunks
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Peaches/Blueberries/Strawberries & Cream Oatmeal
1 container of instant oatmeal (again... I'm partial to Quaker)
2 cups dried fruit
1/2 cup non-dairy powdered creamer
1/4 cup sugar
************************************************************************************
Honey Mustard is yet another example of overpriced convenience food (well, condiment). It's so easy to make. Again - taste it as your making it and adjust the measurements to your taste.
Honey Mustard
2 cups dijon mustard
1/2 c honey
1/2 cumin (to give it a little smokey depth to the flavor)
Mix well. Store for up to a month in the fridge.
************************************************************************************
Honey Butter
This is by far the easiest thing to make. Simply mix together equal parts of honey and butter. It's easiest if the butter is softened. Whip together and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
************************************************************************************
I hope you can benefit from at least one of these. By the way, the Honey Butter & Honey Mustard could be mixed and put into a cute jar, add a spreader, and pretzels and you have a great gift for someone!
If you want some other great recipes go check out The Grocery Cart Challenge!
One such convenience item is Shake 'n Bake. You may think the box at the store is reasonable. I honestly haven't priced it lately, but I'm sure it's somewhere in the $1 to $1.50 range. However you can make the same stuff at home for probably less than $0.50. The main ingredient is bread crumbs. Keep the ends of your bread loaves in a plastic bag in the freezer till you have enough for a cup. Grate them into an freezer safe container. Use 1 cup for this recipe, store the rest in the freezer for another use.
Home version of Shake 'n Bake
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour (I use a 50/50 mixture of white and whole wheat)
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp pepper
4 tsp onion powder
1/2 cayenne pepper
Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Use as needed. You may want to adjust the amounts of the spices to your taste.
***********************************************************************************
Another convenience item that gets expensive is instant oatmeal packets. I usually make our own packets, using sandwich or snack ziploc bags from the Dollar Tree to store them. The measurements of the additions to the oatmeal are going to vary according to what you like. Some people like more fruit or they like their oatmeal pretty sweet. The measurements I have below are simply guesses cause quite honestly I don't actually measure - I just add whatever ingredient till I think it's looks right.
Apples & Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
1 container of instant oatmeal (I do like to use Quaker Oats because it doesn't get as gummy.)
2 cups of dried apple chunks
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Peaches/Blueberries/Strawberries & Cream Oatmeal
1 container of instant oatmeal (again... I'm partial to Quaker)
2 cups dried fruit
1/2 cup non-dairy powdered creamer
1/4 cup sugar
************************************************************************************
Honey Mustard is yet another example of overpriced convenience food (well, condiment). It's so easy to make. Again - taste it as your making it and adjust the measurements to your taste.
Honey Mustard
2 cups dijon mustard
1/2 c honey
1/2 cumin (to give it a little smokey depth to the flavor)
Mix well. Store for up to a month in the fridge.
************************************************************************************
Honey Butter
This is by far the easiest thing to make. Simply mix together equal parts of honey and butter. It's easiest if the butter is softened. Whip together and store in an airtight container in the fridge.
************************************************************************************
I hope you can benefit from at least one of these. By the way, the Honey Butter & Honey Mustard could be mixed and put into a cute jar, add a spreader, and pretzels and you have a great gift for someone!
If you want some other great recipes go check out The Grocery Cart Challenge!
February Budget
Boy am I close to my budget. I had $5.58 remaining for our February budget. We did have to buy milk and luckily the price of milk has gone down considerably. I picked up 2 gallons of milk to get us through this week for $2.29 each. Our new remaining balance is $1 even. As of right now we do not need to buy anything and shouldn't have to through the weekend. On Saturday I will have to go pick up the Angel Food we ordered for this month. I will pay for my March order and deduct that from my March budget. Right now I'm not sure what I will get for my order.
One great deal that I came across this month and somehow forgot to blog about was a fantastic deal on whole chickens. On Friday the 13th our local Hy-vee had whole chickens for $0.59 a pound!!! I haven't seen it that cheap in over a year. I picked up 5 of them before I even went to work. When I got off work I brought them home to put in the freezer. I was truly hoping to have more room in the freezer so I could go buy more (there was no limit) but I could only fit 4 of them into the freezer. So we left one out and smoked it for supper that Sunday. It's not very often that a deal that great comes along it seems.
One great deal that I came across this month and somehow forgot to blog about was a fantastic deal on whole chickens. On Friday the 13th our local Hy-vee had whole chickens for $0.59 a pound!!! I haven't seen it that cheap in over a year. I picked up 5 of them before I even went to work. When I got off work I brought them home to put in the freezer. I was truly hoping to have more room in the freezer so I could go buy more (there was no limit) but I could only fit 4 of them into the freezer. So we left one out and smoked it for supper that Sunday. It's not very often that a deal that great comes along it seems.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Disasterous Supper
Tonight we were supposed to have leftover steaks, potatoes, & peas for supper. However I spent most of the day freezing my rear off (oh, wait - it's still there. Darn!) so by the time I got off work I wanted nothing more than a nice warm bowl of lentil soup. When I got home I cut up the onions, carrots, & celery. I sauteed them in the pan and added some broth and the lentils. Everything was going terrific. I brought the lentils up to a rapid bowl to cook them quickly - well, somewhat quickly. I fixed a small salad to eat while the lentils cooked. Of course Layne & April were going to have no part of lentil soup so Layne had the leftover steaks & April had cereal. When I finished my salad I put my dirty dishes in the sink and lifted the lid to my lovely lentils to give them a stir. Only to notice a burnt smell coming from them and my spoon hitting burnt bottom. They boiled dry and burned in the time it took me to eat the salad. I was so disappointed that I almost cried, seriously. So instead I had a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, still good and warm. But sadly disappointing since I wanted lentils.
So tomorrow night we will have tuna melts............... and lentil soup. I have to try again - you know how it is!
So tomorrow night we will have tuna melts............... and lentil soup. I have to try again - you know how it is!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Weekly Menu
Monday - Leftover steak, potatoes, peas
Tuesday - tuna melts
Wednesday - grilled cheese & tomato soup
Thursday - French toast w/ lite syrup
Friday - chicken breast & a green salad
Saturday I will go pick up our Angel food boxes and start to plan our meals for next week.
Weekend Happenings
Friday I left my cell phone at work. Boy did I feel strange without it at first, but honestly it was kind of nice not having it. Not that I get lots of calls anyways! April also stayed overnight at my mom's house that night. Which meant my husband and I could spend a whole night full of passion together. As if that really happened!! In all truthfulness I spent a good part of the night cleaning April's room and dusting it. Yes I know April is old enough to do it herself, and on rare occasions she will. But I want it thoroughly cleaned because I could tell her allergies had been bothering her and thought a thorough cleaning would help out.
Saturday we did a whole lot of nothing, other than sitting and looking at each other. Which was actually kind of nice. We spend so much time on the go and with both Layne and I working full-time outside the home that it's nice to just sit here and spend time as a family. We decided that on Sunday we would go see Coraline in 3-D at the theatre so we would go to the early service at church.
Sunday April came up to our bed around 5:30. At 6 she woke me up saying "It's 6:00 mom. It's time to get up." Okay, that would be a great gesture if I didn't have my alarm set for 6:30. So twice more I had to go through her waking me up to tell me the current time. On the way to church I told her that since I have an alarm clock for what time we need to get up I don't need her to wake me up every 10-15 minutes to give me an update on the time. : )
Church was great - although I do like the contemporary late service better. After church we went to my mom's house so I could use her printer. Back in December I had bought some make-up through E.L.F. online (Eyes, Lips, Face) and they had sent me a code to get a free movie pass which would actually work for our local theatre. Since we were wanting to go to the movie I thought I'd use that pass towards this movie. So I got online to use get the movie pass, except that when I went to check out and entered the code they had sent me an error popped up that it had already been used. So I couldn't get my free movie pass. Which was very disappointing.
When we got to the theatre to buy our movie passes it was $9.50 per ticket because of the additional charge for 3-D glasses. I told the gal there that we didn't need glasses because we had some (from when my mom took April to Nightmare Before Christmas). She said that it didn't matter because they can't discount even if we don't need them. Which is a crock. It would have saved us $2.50 per ticket for the glasses. First no free movie pass, then an extra charge for glasses when we didn't need any. It certainly was not working out to be an affordable outing! But the movie was really cute and 3-D was kind of neat, but not worth the extra $.
Saturday we did a whole lot of nothing, other than sitting and looking at each other. Which was actually kind of nice. We spend so much time on the go and with both Layne and I working full-time outside the home that it's nice to just sit here and spend time as a family. We decided that on Sunday we would go see Coraline in 3-D at the theatre so we would go to the early service at church.
Sunday April came up to our bed around 5:30. At 6 she woke me up saying "It's 6:00 mom. It's time to get up." Okay, that would be a great gesture if I didn't have my alarm set for 6:30. So twice more I had to go through her waking me up to tell me the current time. On the way to church I told her that since I have an alarm clock for what time we need to get up I don't need her to wake me up every 10-15 minutes to give me an update on the time. : )
Church was great - although I do like the contemporary late service better. After church we went to my mom's house so I could use her printer. Back in December I had bought some make-up through E.L.F. online (Eyes, Lips, Face) and they had sent me a code to get a free movie pass which would actually work for our local theatre. Since we were wanting to go to the movie I thought I'd use that pass towards this movie. So I got online to use get the movie pass, except that when I went to check out and entered the code they had sent me an error popped up that it had already been used. So I couldn't get my free movie pass. Which was very disappointing.
When we got to the theatre to buy our movie passes it was $9.50 per ticket because of the additional charge for 3-D glasses. I told the gal there that we didn't need glasses because we had some (from when my mom took April to Nightmare Before Christmas). She said that it didn't matter because they can't discount even if we don't need them. Which is a crock. It would have saved us $2.50 per ticket for the glasses. First no free movie pass, then an extra charge for glasses when we didn't need any. It certainly was not working out to be an affordable outing! But the movie was really cute and 3-D was kind of neat, but not worth the extra $.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Update on budget
Unfortunately I haven't kept that great of track of my grocery budget this month. Tonight I decided to pull together my receipts to see where I stand.
My starting budget is $120. I purchased some boxes of Angel Food for a total of $52. Then I spent $27.72 for our sushi meal (I did also buy $15 worth of bagels but I used our entertainment budget for that. I also have spent $45.02 on various groceries through the month. So my total is $139.74 ($9.74 over budget) and the month isn't over yet. I did end January with $15.32 still in the grocery account. So that does help to offset the deficit from this month. But only leaves me $5.58 between the 2 months for the remainder of February. Yikes! that means if I buy 2 gallons of milk my budget is completely gone.....
My starting budget is $120. I purchased some boxes of Angel Food for a total of $52. Then I spent $27.72 for our sushi meal (I did also buy $15 worth of bagels but I used our entertainment budget for that. I also have spent $45.02 on various groceries through the month. So my total is $139.74 ($9.74 over budget) and the month isn't over yet. I did end January with $15.32 still in the grocery account. So that does help to offset the deficit from this month. But only leaves me $5.58 between the 2 months for the remainder of February. Yikes! that means if I buy 2 gallons of milk my budget is completely gone.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
