Shopping 2/2-2/8

Well another weeks worth of shopping, we started out with 43.97 here's our totals;

Smiths

(things with a star we just bought to have "stocked")

7 Hormel Chili 7.00 - 2.60 in coupons 4.40 *only needed 2*

2 daisy sour cream 3.98 -1.00 in coupons 2.98 *only needed 1 but they dont exp until 3/20*

3 green giant steamers 4.50 -1.50 in coupons 3.00

2 spicy mustard 4.98 - 1.50 in coupons 3.48 *

1 Kens salad dressing 1.99 -1.00 coupon .99 *

5 cans Rotel 4.35 *

1 pack hot dog buns 1.00

total 20.20

- 10.00 for the MEGA event

total 10.20

(.51 an item, thats really good!)

Walmart (33.77 left)

2.67# banana 1.55

2 heads of lettuce 2.56

4 oranges 1.12

Alfalfa sprouts 1.87

1.16# Roma tomato .29 (price match from Rancho market 4# .99)

heavy cream 1.98

10# potato .79 (price match from Rancho Market)

can olive 1.00

1 # ground beef 2.43

2 avacado 1.36

stew meat 4.58

2 gallon milk 2.00

1/2 gallon Dairy Ease 3.26

2 crescent rolls 3.04

total 27.83

total left for the week 5.94

**For more shopping trips, check out the Grocery Cart Challenge**

Recipe Review X 2....

I made 2 new recipes and I forgot to review them, well I reviewed them, I just didn't blog about it, so I guess I will do that now...

Famous Pork Chops this was a really good recipe, I think the next time I will use a boneless piece of pork, we had baked potatoes and corn with this, also next time, I am going to flip them about half way threw, because the bottom side was crisp and delicious but the top was a little mushy, still good, just mushy.

Stupid Easy Crock Pot Sausage and Potatoes where do I start with this recipe? At first it looked like someone threw up in my crock, then it looked okay, then the taste test... me and H thought we would give it a try before L got home from work, just in case it was awful and we needed her to make a quick stop at KFC (which was the promise "I know it looks gross but if it tastes gross we are going to KFC for dinner" me and the checkbook were crossing our fingers that it was good) but that wasn't necessary it was good, well the one potato that we shared, after serving it up, and pairing it with green beans, we were a little disappointed, this is definitely not something you want to eat alot of, it was really rich and about half way threw I was again promising that we would never eat this again. There are som many other things I could have done with sausaga and potatoes. I think I will take the advice of my "friend" Dori if there is no picture and not too many good reviews pass on the recipe.

Recipe Review... CrockPot Chicken Cacciatore

When I was young my mom would make chicken cacciatore once in awhile, and I really liked it, so when I came across this recipe I figured that is sounded easy enough! It was really good, and really saucy, I think I will make this one again, next time I am going to use more chicken broth (I didn't use white wine), more bell peppers, and more pepper flakes.


3 lbs chicken, cut up in pieces
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
6 ounces sliced mushrooms(didn't have)
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon celery powder (didn't have)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine (used chicken broth)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional

Directions
1 Place onions in bottom of crock pot.
2 Add chicken pieces.
3 Stir all the other ingredients together.
4 Pour over chicken.
5 Cook on low heat 7 to 9 hours or high heat for about 3 to 4 hours.
6 Serve over pasta or rice.

I think I should start adding photos of food I review... if I remember

Giveaways

What have I been doing today you ask? I have been over at bloggygiveaways.com
signing up for some of the giveaways! Some require you to link back to them others dont, I just wanted to be nice and link back to them. So here are the ones I did today, I made it up to post 844 I am sure by the morning there will be more, so I will add more when I do more.


25.00 TJ Maxx gift card

10.00 Starbucks gift card

120.00 worth of books

Valentine soap gift bag

100.00 visa gift card

20.00 paypal

Magnetic calendar for kids

50.00 Amazon Gift card

Kate Spade Hobo Bag

Mini massager, target gift card

Tote bag

10.00 walgreens giftcard

50.00 Target Gift Card

25.00 Barnes and Nobel Gift card

15.00 book store gift card

20.00 Walgreens gift card

5.00 Starbucks gift card

45.00 Gift card (you choose)

25.00 Walmart giftcard

Journal

30.00 Visa gift card

All You Mag subscription

monogrammed bag

Sock Monkey

popstar guitar for WII

10.00 starbucks gift card

25.00 restraunt gift card

Troll tote

5.5 capacity crock pot

20.00 Target gift card

Bath and body works bundle

50.00 Barnes and Nobel Gift card

10.00 Walgreens gift card

25.00 Borders Gift card

5.00 Subway gift card

Leopard luggage

Recipe review... Beefy Mac

This was on the menu for Saturday, but we went out to Sizzler for a late lunch so we just had leftovers on Saturday, and Beefy Mac on Sunday. I am glad that we waited, it was really filling, I think next time I make this one I am going to add a little more salt.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 lb lean ground beef
1 (15 ounce) can tomatoes, drained and chopped
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions
1 Cook macaroni in large pot of boiling salted water until done; drain.

2 Meanwhile, heat oil in large frying pan and sauté onion until softened.

3 Add ground beef and cook until browned.

4 Add tomatoes, thyme, oregano and salt to taste.

5 Cook about 5 minutes to blend flavors.

6 In a small saucepan, whisk together flour and milk.

7 Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture comes to a boil.

8 Continue cooking 1 minute.

9 Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 cup cheese.

10 Stir until cheese is melted.

11 Stir into meat sauce.

12 Combine with macaroni.

13 Pour into prepared baking dish.

14 Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

15 Bake at 375° until golden, about 20 minutes.

Meal Plan 1/26-2/1

The meal plan for the week

H's breakfast;

M- Cereal and fruit

T- Oatmeal

W- waffles

Th-eggs and toast

F-oatmeal

L and I are eating oatmeal, fruit, or granola bars for breakfast

Lunch;
School lunch for H, and for me and L its leftovers and fruit or sometimes breakfast L comes home for a break between 930am-1pm so we just eat whatever.

Dinners;

M- Crock pot Chicken Cacciatori, white rice, salad (new recipe)

T- Meatloaf, baked potato, broccoli

W- Famous pork chops, corn, rice a roni (new recipe)

Th- Stupid easy crock pot sausage and potatoes, green beans (new recipe)

F- spaghetti, texas toast

Sat- Sticky Fingers, baked beans, corn bread (new recipe)

Sun- leftovers/ Ramen

For more meal plans (and a giveaway) be sure to check out Im an organizing junkie

Shopping 1/26-2/1

Okay we went and did our weekly shopping yesterday, here's the totals;things with a star weren't on the list

Raspberry Vinegar dressing 1.98

Ranch dressing 2.00

Ritz crackers (generic) 1.38

polish sausage 2.98

*2 avocado 1.36

frozen broccoli 1.23

bag salad 1.78

chicken tenders 3.98

ground beef 2.28

2 tomato paste .74

cream of celery .54

2.44 # pears 2.15

*sliced cheese 2.68

Texas toast 1.72

2 french vanilla creamer 5.48

packet ranch mix 1.23

*2.38 # banana .93

2 bell peppers 1.18

2 right guard deodorant 6.84

napkins 2.93

food totals for this trip 35.56

next store (10.22 left)

*Cherry 7up free*

2 bags Doritos BOGO 3.99

*1/2 # smoked turkey 2.43

*1/2 # roast beef 3.63

We only went here to get whole chickens (.69#) but they were out so we got a rain check which is kinda what I was hoping for because I didn't really budget in 12.00 for them, so I think I will get them next week.

total 10.08

total left for the week 0.14 woo hoo!!

total left for the month 87.94 (43.97 per week)

Recipe Review...Smoky Refried Bean Soup

Here is my third recipe review of the week, I have one more coming tomorrow. I got this recipe for Smoky Refried Bean Soup from Stephanie over at A year of CrockPotting. It was good, next time, (there will be a next time) I am going to add ground beef, or shredded chicken, I also to the advice of the commenter's, and added 1/2 a packet of taco seasoning.

--1 can of vegetarian refried beans (I used regular)
--1 can of black beans
--1 cup frozen roasted corn (all I had was regular frozen corn so I used that)
--2 cups of vegetable broth (chicken broth works just fine)
--1 cup baby tomatoes cut in quarters (you could used canned tomatoes--no juice-- instead)
--1 cup diced carrots
--1 t garlic (If using fresh, chop up 2-3 cloves)
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1 t cumin
--1 t oregano
--1/2 t chipotle chili powder
--salt and pepper to taste

The Directions.
--dump in refried beans into your crockpot
--turn your crock to high, to start to melt the bean blob
--rinse black beans, add to crock
--chop up the tomatoes and carrots, add to mix (I added corn at this time)
--pour in your vegetable broth
--add all spices
--give a quick stir
--cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8. You aren't really "cooking" anything---just letting it all simmer and getting the carrots to soften. The soup is done when the carrots are to your liking.

Recipe review... Sausage Torellini Soup

When I first saw this recipe I thought "wow that's alot of ingredients" but really its not so bad! I started this soup at about 3 this afternoon and then I just let it sit without putting the noodles, until right before L came home (@515) after 15 minutes of boiling it was a success! The noodles were a tad bit hard in the middle but that will be solved the next time I make it, and there will be a next time. Every one really liked this one!

Makes 10 servings (that's 2 meals here!)
Ingredients
1 lb mild Italian sausage
1 cup onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 cups beef broth
2 cups carrots, thinly sliced
2 cups tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used canned)
1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
1 (9 ounce) package refrigerated basil and cheese tortellini, uncooked
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated


Directions
1 Remove and discard casings from the sausage.


2 In a large Dutch oven, brown sausage over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 Tablespoon drippings in the pan. Set sausage aside.

3 Add onion and garlic to the drippings in the pan; cook, stirring constantly, until onion is tender.


4 Add sausage, beef broth, carrots, tomato, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato sauce, water, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper, stirring well.

5 Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes.


6 Add tortellini and parsley, stirring well.

7 Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes or until tortellini is tender. Adjust spices to taste.

8 Ladle soup into individual soup bowls. Sprinkle each serving with cheese

last shopping trip... sorta

L went to day and picked up 3 limes and a gallon of milk leaving us with 1.90 for the week and no more things to buy...

sorta...

the Kmart by my house is doubling, so I am going to go tomorrow morning to see what kind of damage I can do there! I will post my finds when I return.

Left for the week 1.90
left for the month 133.55

Recipe review... Chili Verde

I make there are probably a thousand recipes, if not more, for chili verde out there. I make one that is actually "chili verde" (green chili) the recipe that I made last night (here)was more like a chili Colorado it was really good just something different then what we are use to, I am definitely going to keep the recipe, I should post mine, maybe the next time I make it.

We are probably going to eat the leftovers with eggs and tortillas later on in the week, I think it will be very good with scrambled eggs.

Thanks Trish for the recipe!

Meal plan

Here is the Meal plan for the week,

H's Breakfast;

M- Cheerios's and bananas

T- oatmeal

W-eggs and toast

T-waffles

F- oatmeal

Sat- french toast, sausage, eggs

Sun- cereal, or oatmeal

L and I usually eat, granola bars for breakfast, just something quick.

Lunch;

School lunch for H, and for me and L its leftovers and fruit or sometimes breakfast L comes home for a break between 930am-1pm so we just eat whatever.

Dinners "Sorta Soup Week"

M-Chili Verde, Spanish rice, black beans from My Daily SAHM Life

T-L's Fideo soup

W-Italian sausage and tortellini soup

T- refried bean soup

F- Lasagna

Sat- Beefy Mac and cheese

Sun- C.O.R.N (clean out refrigerator night)

For more menu plans be sure to check out, Im an organizing junkie

No more shopping!

I made my last (planned) trip to Smiths last night;

2 butter 1.54

1/2 # deli turkey 1.92

1/2 # deli ham 2.94

2 avocados 2.50

head lettuce 1.29

total 10.19

total for the month 135.89

So that leaves us with 4.89 for the week! Still good, since we are going to have to get milk probably on Wednesday

... and still more shopping...

With 174.00 left in the grocery budget we went shopping again....

Walmart
2 bell peppers 1.36
cilantro .60
bag of onions 1.50
bag salad 1.78
tortelloni 1.56
crushed tomato .87
lays 2.50
2 2lb bags brown sugar 2.56
frozen lasagna 5.28
2 squash 1.16

total 19.17
total for the month 154.83

Sara Lee bread store
2-8 packs hotdog buns 2.00
Buttermilk sandwich bread 1.25
2 honey wheat bread 2.00
relish 2.00
pecan pinwheels 1.00

total 8.75
total for the month 146.08

I still have 15.08 left for the week (1/19-1/25) and then 43.00 for every week after that until 2/15 I think we will be just fine!I am going to run to Smiths again tonight to get sandwich meat from the deli but that will still leave us enough for milk later on in the week... so far so good!!

More groceries

So like I said we needed to stock up on our meat, and there was that Quaker sale so we did that too! we lost a huge chunk of our budget tonight, but it was all necessary!

Rancho Market trip # 1

5 pieces pan dulce

total 3.80

total for the month $292.88

Rancho Market trip #2

5 lbs rice 2.99

8 bags fideo noodles 1.98

2 bags carrots (2lbs) 1.58

1.68# nectarines 1.33

candies for L .75

total 8.63

total for the month 284.28

Albertsons **Quaker Sale**

3-7oz cans chilies 3.00

10 captain crunch 15.00

3 cans diced tomato 3.00

2 dozen eggs 2.00

10 boxes granola bars 15.00

10 cinnamon life cereal 15.00

5 instant oat meal 7.50

1 can black beans .88

5 Original oats 7.50

4 pot roasts 18.52

6 #'s red apples 3.72

total before coupons 91.12

total after coupons- 69.78

total for the month 215.13

Smiths

drumsticks 11.65

18.4 #'s pork chops 27.04

big sticks 1.79

total 40.48

total for the month 174.65

we still have a very small list of things that we are going to need for next weeks dinners so... that will leave us with @ 43.00 a week for the next 4 weeks... not bad I think we can do it, as long as there are no more crazy sales!!

Grocery budget 1/15-2/15

This afternoon H and I took a walk to the store, for a few things that we needed for next week, we just wanted to save a trip, since we usually do all of our shopping on Saturday heres what we got;

Kroger Brand "Goobers" (pb&j in the same jar, gross! but L and H like it) 1.99

4 boxes rice a roni 4.00 had 1.00 coupon so 3.00

2 lbs Cache Valley Cheddar on managers special 4.00

2 bags elbow macaroni 1.38

2 bags quaker quakes 2.00 had 2 1.00 off 1 coupons so FREE!!

3.05 # bananas 1.86

1.68 # pears 2.52

1.48 # roma tomato 1.48

total for todays trip- 17.93

total for the month- 296.68

Grocery Budget 1/15-2/15

I am going to start my grocery budget again... and since we just got paid and my food budget has started over I thought today was the perfect day. All money that is left over on 2/15/09 will be rolled to next months food budget. This will only be used to track groceries. Paper products, toiletries and all that other good stuff, will be different, I am not going to track that just yet.

I am planning a trip to Albertsons to stock up on Quaker stuff but I think that will only be 40.00 I also need to restock my freezer with meat, and that usually takes about 100.00

I am trying to do about 50-60 a week on everything else, so I am already @ 60.00 over budget!

oh well we will see how this goes, once the budget is gone, its gone.

so here we go....

Balance 314.00

Chicken Spaghetti

I found a recipe for chicken spaghetti on recipezaar, but then I found another on a blog that I visit Penny Pinching Diva (I am not sure how many blogs back I am supposed to credit but she got it from here) It made a full 13x9, it was enough for all of us to have seconds and lunch for all of us again the next day, so 9 servings, I am sure it could have been more but we did "over eat" because it was so good! I changed the recipe just a little bit, but I am sure it didn't change the out come at all!

3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, bite-sized pieces)
1/4 - 1 cup colorful bell peppers (diced)
Small onion (diced)
1/4 cup butter or margarine (didn't have any so I used 2 tbs oil)
12 oz of Mexican Mild Velveeta cheese (I just used regular)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
10 oz diced tomatoes (optional- with green chile's) (I used walmart brand "rotel")
1 package of taco seasoning mix (I only used half)
16 oz of spaghetti (cooked)

1) Put on your apron! And heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) Prepare the spaghetti per package directions. Drain and set aside.

3) Saute the chicken, bell peppers and onions in butter or margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until cooked through, for approximately 5-10 minutes.

4) In the same skillet, add the Mexican Mild Velveeta cheese, cream of chicken soup and milk. Heat until melted, stirring frequently. Add the diced tomatoes and taco seasoning mix and cook until heated through.

5) Spoon the spaghetti into a 13x9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray and cover with chicken and cheesy tomato sauce.

6) Bake 15-30 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Serve with a simple salad, and garlic bread

Dinner for the week

Here is a list of our meal plans I am trying alot of new stuff this week,

hopefully it all comes out good

Monday- Tuna Casserole

Tuesday-(new) Chicken Spaghetti

Wendesday-(new) Albondigas

Thursday- Roast in the crock

Friday- Mexi Fries

Saturday-(new) Salsa Chicken in the Crock

I have recipe links but recipezaar is not cooperating this early in the morning!

I will edit that as soon as they are available

For more meal planning ideas check out, Im an organizing junkie

Our weekend in Review

We spent our Weekend pretty busy, but we did do alot of fun stuff lets start with Saturday shall we;

*L and her mom and her little sister went to go see Body World,

not something that H and I are into, so we stayed home, in bed..

*When L got home we, had breakfast,

apple french toast it was really good.

(we are going to try to get in the habit of cooking a

"big" breakfast on Saturday mornings since L is off now)

*Then we went and ran some errands

*paid some bills

*bought new shoes for me and H

*took H to her soccer game

*had some tacos from Burger King for lunch

*went to the downtown library

*picked up L's coat from the dry cleaner

*Went to Toys R Us, H had a gift card that she wanted to use to buy a new game

*then we came home and just hung out for the rest of the night NOT really

*L and I sat down and worked on our budget for the next few months
and then we just hung out for the rest of the night.

On Sunday we were determined to just "hang out" and not go by a schedule... and that's pretty much what happened, we planned on going to the movies at 140 missed that one, so we went and did our grocery shopping, planned again to go at 305 missed that one because we were shopping, so we went at 430.

We watched Marley and Me, it was really good, Sam and Gus were glad that we found a new appreciation for dogs because last night they got to sleep up on our bed...

Recipe Swap

My new favorite site is recipezaar.com yesterday I found a great recipe for Teriyaki Chicken, that has now become an addition to my recipe arsenal it so quick and easy;

8-12 drumsticks

1 cup soy sauce (next time I am going to use 3/4 cup)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

3 tbs oil

1 teaspoon ginger (optional, I didn't use this because I HATE ginger)

Directions
1 Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.
2 Brown chicken pieces in hot oil.
3 While chicken is browning, mix together the soy sauce, sugar, water, and ginger.
4 Add the sauce to the chicken.
5 Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low and let simmer, uncovered, for about 20 to 30 minutes or until chicken is done and sauce has thickened. (at this point I added about 1 heaping tablespoon of flour to make the sauce thicker, it came out perfect!)
6 Turn chicken pieces occasionally during cooking process.
7 Serve over cooked rice.
8 Serve excess sauce along side, people always seem to want more of it.
9 To reduce the calories, skinless chicken may be used.

I served this with brown rice, and Frizzled Cabbage

I am adding this to the Grocery cart challenge's Recipe Swap be sure to go over and check it out!

Banana chocolate chip muffins

I had some bananas that were on my counter for a while and they needed to be tossed, but I thought that I would make some banana bread, well turns out there are about 1 million recipes for banana chocolate muffins,

and what better to pair fruit with then chocolate!

So I searched allrecipes.com and came out with this one:

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (I used 4 regular sized bananas)
2/3 cup sunflower seed oil
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). (I did it at 350)

Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl blend the banana, oil, egg and vanilla together.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in the banana mixture until just blended. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling 3/4 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

H and I made them, and then we ate them well one (each) they are really good, I didn't have baking powder so I just used baking soda, even after the folks on yahoo answers told me that I shouldn't...

here is a picture of the ones that we made, see how I got all fancy with the photography?

(guess I am going to buy the "red taped" bananas from now on, just so I can make these!)

Meal plan

Well this week is going to be pretty simple... instead of planning every part of the meal I am just going to plan what the "main" thing is going to be and then I will figure out the sides later on

So so far I have

Monday-Chicken breast, they were put in the freezer with seasonings so as it is defrosting it will "infuse" with flavor

Tuesday- Pork Chops

Wednesday-Drumsticks, probably in the Crock Pot

Thursday- Sheppard's Pie

Friday- spaghetti

Saturday-L is going to make ribs so maybe potato salad with it??

Sunday- maybe I will make some Chili and corn bread

(I am going to be searching recipezaar for new recipes for the next few weeks)

I am PISSED!!

I HATE MY NEIGHBORS!!

HATE

HATE

HATE

I am not sure which ones did it, so I will just hate all of them!

I sell Avon, it will a year in May...

We have never had anything stolen from our porch,

(not that there is often stuff out there)

but last night at approximately 5:20 pm

(or somewhere in between then 10:30 pm when we got home)

someone stole my package!!

I cant believe it I had to come and blog about it because I am pretty sure that

my family is tired of hearing about it!

I called Avon and they are going to replace it

but I still feel MAD,

Someone came to MY porch

took something that had MY name on it

took it in to their home

and is looking at MY things!

I could just scream...

but I think I will just go have a beer...

Now I don't mean to point finger but we do have new neighbors....

I am going to go over there in the morning

(with my mother in law because she speaks Spanish and she can pull off the "kill them with kindness routine")

to ask them

"Excuse me I had a package delivered, maybe did you pick it up and put it in so that it didn't get snowed on...?"

just to see what they say.

Too bad for them, I am going to change my mailing address and they wont be able get free products anymore!!