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There has been a lot going on lately, and to add to that, I've had tons of peaches to do something with. So since you have heard from me last, I've made 5 batches of jam (peach berry and spice peach) and canned 7 quarts of peaches. I'm done for a little bit until I get my apples (at this point I don't know how excited I am for them to come, but it's always nice to have it!). Friday for dinner we had breakfast, we had Oatmeal Pancakes. Saturday was a our date night and we went to subways and got some footlongs $10 Sunday I made this Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak, and we really enjoyed it. If it is something you want to try here's some advice...For my family of five (2 adults and 3 small kids) I cut the ingredients for the patties in half and that was plenty for us. When I made it I cut the whole recipe in half, but that didn't leave you with much sauce, so next time I'd keep the quantities the same for the sauce, also I substituted cream of mushroom soup for cream of chicken. To me cream of mushroom goes better with beef than cream of chicken. Tonight for dinner we are just having sandwiches. We have stuff in the fridge to make several different kinds and after spending all morning and most of the afternoon (not to mention most of the weekend) in the kitchen I'm done for today. I also bought some more bananas which would put my total amount of money left for the month to about $9
Today is a crazy day for us, so we are just doing tuna melts with tomato soup. I did go shopping today Bananas $1.80 Parmesan Cheese $2.50 Graham Crackers $3.69 Eggs $1.88 Total Spent $9.98 Total left $20.76 I think we'll make it! I'm not sure about the eating out part, but that's ok.
Today for dinner we had a very simple recipe, that I learned to make when I was a young teenager. Seasoned Pasta Bow Tie Pasta (several cups uncooked), cooked and drained 1/4 c. butter 2 cloves garlic 2-3 green onions finely chopped 1/3 c. chopped parsley 10 large basil leaves chopped 1/4 - 1/3 c. Parmesan cheese Melt butter in a deep pan on medium heat, then add garlic and let cook a minute or two. Then add green onions, parsley, and basil and let cook for a couple minutes. Add hot pasta to the pan and toss to coat. Add parmesan cheese, stir. Taste it and see if it needs salt and pepper. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top before serving.
For dinner tonight we had baked chicken, with some rice and veggies. I did take readers advice and bake it instead of broil it, I also cut back on the butter, which I'm not sure I would do again, since by the time it was done baking most of the liquid was gone and starting to burn a little on the bottom of the pan, so maybe instead of using 1/2 of the butter I'd try 3/4. Nothing too exciting. Things have been kind of hectic and busy around here so I don't have much to talk about sorry!
Well I took an inventory of the fridge and there is a lot of left over food in there, so I opted to have today be leftover day. It ends up working rather well, because my son went to the orthodontist today, which means a soar mouth. The meal I have planned next probably would be better for him tomorrow, so he'll have pasta or a sandwich tonight.
Today for dinner we tried a new soup using things out of our food storage. We didn't really love it so I'm not going to be sharing the recipe with you.
Today was quite the busy day! We got a swing set last Saturday! But it came with A LOT of pieces. It took the hubby and I (mostly the hubby) several hours to organize and label all the pieces to make the set up much easier. His younger brother came over several times throughout the week after the kids had gone to bed for an hour or two each time. And today was the get it all done day! Which meant a lot of work for the hubby and those who helped, his brothers and my brother (a BIG THANKS to them)! Work started bright and early, around 7:30 in the morning when my brother arrived. I usually don't make something for every meal, but today I did because I felt like that was the least we could do was to feed those who were here helping us. For breakfast I made german pancakes. Shortly after that I had a volleyball game. When I got home from that, I had to take my daughter to a birthday party, then come home and make lunch for the crew. I had a ham and cheese loaf. While that was cooking, I started making bread, since we were almost out. After lunch I decided to take the 15 minutes I had to go and get ready for the day. Then ran to pick up my daughter from her party. Finished making bread. About this time all the help had gone, so I became the helper, I'm not sure I was the best helper, but better than nothing I guess. Well we finally got it all up and done, with even enough time left in the day for the kids to try it out. For dinner we had chicken salad sandwiches which I had put together the chicken salad the night before, because I knew what kind of day we had. Here is the recipe for my mom's ham and cheese loaf Ham and Cheese Loaf Preheat oven to 400 1 Tbs. yeast 1 c. warm water 1 Tbs. softened butter 2 1/4 c. flour 1 Tbs. sugar 1 tsp. salt Mix all together and knead until you have a soft dough. Roll out to a 14x10 rectangle. Then down the center of the dough layer, leaving about an inch at the top and bottom. 1 lbs. of thinly sliced ham American cheese slices Swiss cheese slices Cut the sides of the dough starting at the edge and cutting until you have almost reached the ham, making one inch strips on both sides. Weave the cut ends over the top of the ham and cheese, to seal everything in. If this is too complicated, I would think you wouldn't have to worry about cutting the dough and just fold all the edges up and over to surround the meat and cheese. Beat egg whites and water and brush the top of the dough with that and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes.
Tonight for dinner we are having Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff. I love searching around All Recipes looking for a new recipe. Ingredients - 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
- 1/8 cup margarine
- 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
- 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
Directions - Put chicken, margarine and dressing mix in slow cooker; mix together and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.
- Add cream cheese and soup, mix together and cook on high for another 1/2 hour or until heated through and warm.
Today for dinner we are having enchiladas. A while back I was asked if I would be willing to have a freezer meal in my freezer ready just in case someone in our area got sick or needed help and needed a meal. So I made several pans of enchiladas to have ready, since I had most of the stuff I needed to make it anyway. Well I have yet to be called and they need to be eaten, so I got one out and let it thaw and am going to cook it for dinner tonight. I also went shopping today, again! I didn't have enough time to hit the last store I needed and it's only a few minutes away and they usually stock well for sales, so I wasn't concerned about getting there the first day. 3 Onion soup mix packets - $1 4.4 lbs. Ground Beef - $7.85 Celery - $0.97 Total $9.82 (I bought some other things to stock up on so I wasn't sure the exact total) Total left for the month $30.74 The store I went to today had Quaker granola bars on sale for $0.98, so I stocked up and bought 15 boxes. Since I almost always pack my child's lunch, fruit snacks and granola bars are nice to have around to toss in there on occasion. I'm planning on not using them until after the project, I have them kind of hidden in my storage room, so hopefully the kids won't say anything, or I can talk them out of it. If I do use any I'll subtract what I use.
Today for dinner we are going to our friends house. One of the nice things about inviting people over to dinner, like we did on Sunday, the action is often reciprocated. But I did go shopping today, which means less in my budget for the rest of the month. Shopping 3 Gallons of Milk - $5 4.68 lbs. of Bananas - $1.78 2 lbs. of Mini Carrots - $2 Sour Cream - $1.38 Applesauce - $1 Sugar - $1 (I only needed a tiny to last me the rest of the month, so I went to the dollar store) Total Spent with tax - $12.24 Total left for the month - $40.56 I'm going to do a little more shopping this week at another store. They have the hamburger I need on sale! After this trip it should be my last besides for staples like milk and produce, but we'll see if I can make what we have last. Also there were some really good deals this week, which mean I spent money outside of the $100 for my food storage. Here's what I did. Walmart 7 Gain dish soap - Free 3 Johnson EZ grip soap - Free Grocery store 16 Fruit Snacks - $0.75 each 16 boxes of cereal (trix, reese, multi-grain cheerios, apple cinnamon cheerios, ect. ) - various prices Total spent - $31.43, averages around $1 per item I'm almost half way there!
Well today for dinner we are going to use what we have from our garden. We are making a zucchini casserole that is in our family cookbook, from my sister-in-law. Zucchini Casserole 1/4 c. onion, chopped 4 c. sliced zuchhini 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 package of stuffing 1 c. sour cream 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese Cook onion and zucchini in boiling water about 5 minutes, until tender, drain. In a bowl combine soup, sour cream, and cheese, stir in cooked zucchini and onion. In another bowl, make stuffing according to the directions. Spread half of the stuffing on the bottom of your dish. Pour zucchini mixture over top. Top with the rest of the stuffing. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes until bubbling. Top with more cheese.
Today was breakfast for dinner. We did french toast and I tried something new. It didn't turn out fabulous, and for that reason I'm not going to share the recipe. I still have about $47 left in my budget and still should be fine making my goal of $100 or less. I'm just hoping that the new sales starting this week some of the items I need will go on sale.
We've been trying to get together with some friends for a little while, and last night we decided on today and doing dinner. So when I got home last night I went through my list of menu items to see what would work for 11 people and I didn't have to go shopping for. So we decided on on Hamburger Rolls. This is a recipe my husband grew up with. You make a bread dough, and let it rise for an hour. Then you roll it out into a rectangle. Then you sprinkle cooked hamburger (I cooked my with onions) on it, along with Italian herb seasoning and grated cheddar cheese, this time I also added parmesan cheese (the kind in the green jar). Then you roll it up and cut it like you would a cinnamon roll. Put them on a greased pan or cookie sheet and let rise for an hour. Cook at 350 for about 20 minutes until it's golden brown. Serve with warm spaghetti sauce on top along with some more cheese if you would like and enjoy.
Well today for day 11, is another babysitting day, although this time it isn't our turn, so the kids will be fed there. I'm not sure what we will be doing for dinner, but I think I'm doing an exempt day. I know I'm such a cheater! But remember I'm going until October 5th so it's really 35 days to do this challenge. And today I ran my first 5K with some friends, and I surpassed my goal on how quickly I wanted to finish it, so I think the hubby and I are going to celebrate on our date night.
Today was pretty low key when it comes to dinner. The hubby worked kind of late and we went to the new park and water pad near by. So tonight for dinner we had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with carrots and some peaches we picked from our own tree! Our tree is still pretty young and small and this is the first year we have let it produce fruit so it's kind of exciting. So sorry for the boring menu for tonight, but lets face that's life and reality or at least for our family.
Sorry this is a day late, but our internet was down ALL day! So here it is a day late. Tonight for dinner we had Tostadas with homemade refried beans. I used this recipe for the base, but used dried beans I cooked myself, because it's cheaper and also I can control what is in it. Did you know you can cook your beans in your crockpot, so you don't have to watch them or worry about staying at home for a few hours? Also you can freeze them in ziplock bags after they are cooked, so all you have to do is cook a big batch and have some in the freezer to pull out later. I usually put 2 cups of cooked beans per bag, which gives you about the same as a can, a little more, but 2 c. is easier to measure than 1 2/3.
Well today for dinner is nothing too exciting. We are doing left overs, since we have food in the fridge that needs to be ate. I did go shopping today and got quiet a few things. Something some of you might not know about me, is I love a good deal, and there were a couple this week, one on lunch meat (need to stock up for my baby girl who won't eat peanut butter and jelly, although it is a good after gym snack to get some protein) and one on deodorant (it was an awesome deal, I used as many coupons as I had, so I stocked up for a while and also to put in a 72 hour kit). Now the hubby said if there were good deals I could stock up, but just can't use what I bought this month and that way I wouldn't have to have it count towards my $100 for the month. But as of now I feel confident in my abilities and even with the things I bought, I can still do it (although I guess deodorant isn't food, but I'm going to ad it to my money spent, because you'll be shocked at how little I spent on it). We do have a tradition around here where we go out to eat once a month and take turns choosing where to go. I'm still up in the air on whether we are going to do that or not, because that will take a good chunk out of the budget, and we'll have to go some where rather cheap, so we'll see if I have enough left over towards the end of the month to cover that. Here is what I bought: 1 head of lettuce $0.99 Nutmeg $0.69 Peppercorns $0.69 4 pack of Kraft Mac and Cheese $1.98 2 Gallons of Milk $1.98 each so $3.96 1 lbs. Black Beans $1.79 1 lbs. Black Eyed Peas $1.59 Italian Dressing Mix $0.59 Cream Cheese $1.19 Nectarines $0.98/lbs total $3.08 Onions $0.79/lbs total $1.41 Parsley $0.79 Garlic $0.50 7 packages of Carl Buddig Deli Lunch Meat, after coupon $1.29 each, total $9.03 10 sticks of Right Guard Sport Deodorant, after coupon $0.23 each, total $2.30 Total Spent at the store: $32.30 Money spent this month $52.80 Now some of you might be worried that I'm already half way done with my money and it's only the 8th! Never fear my friends! Looking a the things I need to buy for the rest of the meals I have planned for this month, it's about $15, and I don't need to go shopping until about the 18th, if my milk lasts that long. So that leaves me with about $37 to cover milk and fresh fruit and vegetables, and possibly a dinner out. I keep my finger crossed that the things I need go on sale, especially the hamburger I need to get.
 So today for dinner we are having Pasta Ceasar Salad, I posted this recipe on another blog, so you can go check out the recipe there. This is a super yummy and easy recipe and everyone in the family will eat it, even my picky 3 year old that I have a hard time getting to eat his veggies will eat this salad. I did have to have the hubby pick up a head of lettuce for this salad on his way, but I'll add that to the price of things tomorrow, since I am shopping tomorrow (I have just enough milk to cover breakfast tomorrow morning).
Today we are doing a bbq. When we put this on a schedule, we really didn't have any plans, just sticking around here. But now we are getting together with friends. I have several packages of hot dogs in the freezer that I bought a little while ago, for under 50 cents, but I can't remember how much. I also happened to have some buns in the freezer. Since we are doing a bring your own meat bbq, that is what we are going to bring. Also the hubby is taking some fish we had in our freezer that a friend of ours gave us. But I don't care for fish and some of my kids haven't made of their minds about it, so hot dogs are a safe bet. We also made this Spicy Bean Salsa to make to share, except we adapted it a little because I didn't have any black eyed peas, so I just used white beans. And we used fresh tomatoes, and peppers from our garden.
 Today for dinner (I got the idea from a local blog) we are having pulled pork sandwiches. She used beef, but I had a pork roast in my freezer and already had a packet of Italian Dressing mix, so I thought we'd give it a try, since it wouldn't cost me nothing out of pocket. I made homemade rolls to serve them on. We are also having artichokes out of our garden along with another vegetable which I haven't yet decided on since I'm typing this up before we actually eat.
Pulled Pork/Beef Sandwiches
Roast 1/2 c. water 1 pkt of Italian Dressing mix
Combine in the a crockpot on low and let cook 8-10 hours.
 Our family along with two others do a babysitting co-op on Saturdays. We each take turns watching all the kids (10 of them to be exact, ranging from 1-8 years old) for a four hour chunk of time. Which means often times when it's your turn it's a crazy 4 hours, but that means you get 8 hours of free babysitting during the month. So definitely worth the craziness that might come for the freedom you get. Since there are so many kids and we have some picky eaters, it's usually something like pizza or mac and cheese for dinner when it's at our house. Today we had pizza for dinner and breadsticks. Earlier this week Papa Murphy's had a customer appreciation week, and had their large pepperoni pizzas for $3.99, and I heard they froze well. So we bought 3 pizzas and put them in the freezer. We used two of those tonight with plenty of leftovers. And since we bought them in August, I didn't have to take any money out for my September budget.
So for this month, I have spent $20.05
 Tonight for dinner we are doing breakfast. We do this every two weeks or so. During the week, mornings are kind of crazy, and Sunday mornings the hubby isn't around for breakfast, so the only day a homemade breakfast gets made is Saturdays sometimes, if we aren't out the door early to go the gym or something else. Also I have one that usually isn't patient enough for me to make something, sometimes he can't even wait the couple minutes it takes to make oatmeal. I enjoy breakfast food, so that is my way of getting it more. Today for dinner we are having Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (although some don't have chocolate chips in them, for some who don't like chocolate, or for me if I choose to save me some calories). Along with them we are having scrambled eggs and fruit. And since I'm typing this before we actually eat, I'm not sure what we are drinking. I always love a good glass milk, so that is what I will probably do, but the rest might have home made grape juice or apple juice that I canned last year.
 Today for dinner is Alfredo with whole wheat pasta. After making this, I think I would add another TBS of flour next time, since I used milk instead of half and half to make it thicker, the sauce was rather thin. It's a quick an easy recipe from my mom. For the garlic toast we used this that we put on buttered bread then put under the broiler. You should really try the recipe for the garlic bread seasoning, super yummy, another one of my wonderful sister-in-law's Cori introduced this to me through a link she shared. Alfredo Sauce 3 Tbs. butter 3 Tbs. flour 1 1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes 1/2 tsp. onion powder 3/4 tsp. salt 3/4 tsp. pepper 3 c. half and half (I'm using milk) 1/2 - 3/4 c. grated Parmesan Melt butter in a sauce pot. When butter is melted add flour and spices and stir to combine. Stir for a couple minutes. Whisk half and half in slowly to combine, and continue to stir until starts to simmer and thicken. Then stir in Parmesan and continue to stir until cheese is all melted. Serve over your choice of pasta. So today I made my first grocery trip because we were running low on fruit and there was a good deal on sour cream and eggs, that I know I'll need later. So to keep track of things, I'll be posting what I buy and what I spend and then have the total of what I have spent this month. Today at the store I bought: 2 bags of Potato Chips (to use occasionally for school lunch) 18 ct of large eggs Light sour cream Sandwich Bags (for school lunch) Lunch meat (I have one who will RARELY eat a PB&J) 2.37 lbs of Gala Apples 2.12 lbs of Bananas 1.15 lbs of Broccoli 2 lbs of mini Carrots Total Spent $20.05 Total for this month $20.05
The hubby has started doing 30 day projects. He chooses something to work on or do for 30 days. The first one was not watching any TV for 30 days. Now he is onto writing a game in 30 days. He told me I should do one. Well we had already discussed being super tight on our budget this month and he informed me that could be my 30 day project and I should blog about it, so here goes. My 30 day project is to spend no more than $100 in groceries this month! Although, realistically it's more than 30 days, because I'm starting the 1st and going until the first payday in October which is the 5th, so I guess it's 34 days. Crazy, huh? For those of you who might not know our family, we are a family of 5, and usually I try to keep my food spending to under $200. The best way for me to keep our food spending to under $200 is to only use cash when I'm at the grocery store, plan my meals out based on what's on sale, use coupons, and rarely, if ever eat out (we've started a new family tradition of going out to eat once a month to a sit down restaurant, and rotating who chooses, so we'll see if that fits into this months budget). So how in the world do I plan on doing this? I've taken an inventory of all the food I have at my house, and tried to plans meals around that. (I love that I can search for recipes on Allrecipes by ingredients I want to use) So we are going to be trying a few new recipes so hopefully it goes well, if not, there is always tomorrow. Luckily when it comes to breakfast we have a stock of cereal and cooked cereal. For lunches for the kids we usually just do sandwiches and I have plenty of jam to last a while, and I make my own bread and have enough supplies on hand to cover bread. So for the most part the money will go towards a few ingredients I need for each dinner and perishable things like fruit and veggies (that we don't have in our garden), milk, and eggs. Part of this will be hard on me, because I love stocking up when there is a good deal and but I'll try to resist my temptation I hope and pray there are no killer deals! So I have the menu planned for the month, and the things I need to buy for the meals. So here goes nothing. I hope that I can still be successful on my attempt to loose weight with the lack of money to spend. It's September 1st and what's on the menu tonight is chicken pot pies, which I have in the freezer. They are based on this fun idea . And have the filling from our family cookbook that was shared by my wonderful sister-in-law Amanda. We are having corn on the cob on the side, which we got from my cousin.  Pot pie filling 1 family size cream of chicken soup, or I used 2 small ones 1 pkg frozen veggies Cooked shredded chicken Combine filling together and fill pie or jars that have pie crust in them.  So out of pocket for this one for September is $0.00
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