Shopping

We had to go to Sunflower Market this evening, they over lap their ad on Wednesdays, so you can go and get double deals!

starting balance for the day 17.79

Smiths

Baking mix 1.85

balance 15.94

Sunflower Market

6 grapefruit .50

1.89 # brown onion .83

3.01# pears 3.01

2.52 # granny smith apples 1.69

3.27 # asparagus 2.88

5 limes 1.00

1.40 # tangelos 1.40 (this was only 2 but they are SO GOOD)

2 celery 2.58

1.54# broccoli 1.54

3 cucumbers 2.07

1 cantaloupe 1.00

2 (HUGE) bunches of spinach 1.54

3.91# bananas 2.31

total 22.35

oops we went over! no biggie! we have so much produce in the fridge, as in we have no room for anything else! I doubt that we are going to need to buy much (produce) over the weekend, so I am just going to take from what we are going to use next week;

3/1-3/8 we will have 52.59

3/8-3/15 we will have 59.08

Meal Plan 2-23/3-1

MONDAY ALREADY!!

Wow that was a short weekend. Here is the plan for the week,

Snow Whites Breakfast

M- oatmeal

T- cereal

W- waffles

Th- English muffins and eggs

F- oatmeal

Snow White eats lunch at school and Grumpy and I usually eat leftovers.

Monday- pork chops, corn bread, vegetables

Tuesday- Breakfast, French toast, eggs, sausage, fruit

Wednesday- Baked chicken, rice, corn, jello

Thursday-ground beef tacos, chips and salsa

Friday-Bow ties w/ tomato, sausage and cream rolls

-Saturday-

Breakfast- biscuits and gravy, eggs, English muffins

Lunch- Chili dogs, fruit

Dinner-Fried rice

-Sunday-

Breakfast- baked oatmeal

Lunch- grilled cheese, soup

Dinner- make your own pizza

For more meal plans go to Im an organizing junkie

Our Saturday...

On Friday we thought that it would be a good idea to check out a hockey game, since none of us have ever been and there was a home game. We payed 9.00 a ticket so it was really cheap entertainment. And we had alot of fun! We will definitely be going again... here's a few pictures from the night;

The first fight

Another fight...

and another fight

There were many more fights, but I didn't get pictures of them,in the end the Grizzlies beat the Stockton Thunder 2-1.

We also got our dinner at Chili's free with the coupons that I got in the mail from bzzagent.com, and after the game we all got grizzlies shirts, they were last seasons, so they were on clearance for 2.00 each! So it was a pretty cheap night out.

Shopping 2-23/3-1

We went out last night and did out grocery shopping we still have to go to the Sunflower Market and get some produce but heres what we have so far;

Begining Balance 59.04

Walmart

Chicken wings 8.98

lettuce 1.28

bowtie pasta 1.08

mixed veggies .96

2 butter 1.46

.98 # roma tomato .96

2 cans olives 2.00

can tomato .87

heavy cream 1.98

French Vanilla creamer 2.74

pizza sauce .92

biscuits .86

2 sausage gravy 1.72

1 gallon milk 1.66

total 28.97

balance for the week 30.07

Smiths

10/10 packs oatmeal (had a rain check) 9.90

kraft cheese had free coupon 0.00

grape soda .69

strawberry soda .69

dole salad 1.00

chicken biscuit crackers had free coupon 0.00

planters peanuts had free coupon 0.00

total 12.28

balance for the week 17.79

New Names!

Our new names H- Snow White L- Grumpy and C (me) Dopey

I am just really tired of writing L C H so I thought I would use these names instead! I have a Dopey tattoo, L has a Grumpy and Dopey tattoo and going with the theme, of course H has a Snow White tattoo! (just kidding)!

Chicken Enchiladas

I just finished up dinner and I thought I would share the pretty picture!

(they still have to cook in the oven)

Usually I use four tortillas and they end up being just wet burritos but I had some corn tortillas in the pantry so I thought I would give it a shot! I used 3 chicken breast a can of sliced olives and a can of green sauce, I made this dish of 7 and then I have another with 6 in the fridge for this weekend or for lunch later on in the week. I only had one crack on me see it there third from the right? I'm not really use to corn tortillas for anything but chips! I will just give that one to H and all will be fine!

I am serving this with some fruit that we have in the fridge and chips and salsa, I am trying to change up our side dishes a little bit.

Waffles

Since yesterday was a holiday, and L and I were both off and H was home I thought I would volunteer L to make breakfast (so nice of me), since that's her thing and its pretty rare that we are all home in the morning with nothing to do.

So we brought down the waffle maker and L went to work!

We ended up with about 30 waffles, but of course we ate some and L's mom and little sister showed up so they ate some too, so now we have 20 in the freezer just waiting to go into the toaster on a busy morning!

Its so much cheaper then Eggo's or even generic waffles.

We bought our maker about 5 years ago (on clearance for 10.00) and I dont know why it took so long for us to figure that out (we have only used it one other time).

We decided that probably once a month or so we will pull it down and make another 30 or so and freeze them.

(I say "we" will but I really mean L will and I will watch)

More shopping

We had to finish up our shopping for the week, here's what we bought;

balance 9.94

meat balance 57.00

Super Saver

Spaghetti sauce .98

olives .58

tater tots 4.58

2 packs noodles 1.96

enchilada sauce 2.08

11 # ground beef 19.21

1 pack sausage 1.18

total 30.57

balance .24

meat balance 36.61

Albertsons

chicken breast

(I dont know the exact weight, but we got about 16 peices)

total 20.26

meat balance 16.35

We still need a little meat for the month, nothing major, some Italian sausage, drumettes, pepperoni, but we are not going to be making any "meat trips" so I am going to add the 16.35 back into the regular budget and we are just going to shop weekly for the rest of the things that we need.

balance for the month 177.12 or 59.04 per week (2/22-3/15) oh we can so make that happen, even if there are some stock up sales!

Meal Plan

H's breakfast

M~we are all off so L is going to make us waffles

T~ oatmeal

W~ eggs, english muffin

TH~cereal

F~oatmeal

L takes coffee and oatmeal or cereal to work for breakfast and I just usually have coffee and a granola bar

H has lunch at school and L and I have leftovers, or sandwiches.

Dinner

M~Spaghetti, salad and rolls

T~ Meatloaf, potato, broccoli

W~ chicken enchilada, fruit, chips and salsa

TH~Baked whole chicken, stuffing, jello, corn

F~Mexi fries

S~ OUT

S~ L's fideo soup

Shopping

Today we did our shopping we have to finish it up tomorrow morning, apparently Sunday afternoon is not the greatest time to do the shopping;

beginning balance for the week 53.00

meat 100.00

Sunflower Market

4 cucumbers 2.00

4 # strawberries 5.00

1.73 # pears 2.23

1.18 # Roma tomato .91

.60# broccoli .53

Romain lettuce .88

10 kiwi 2.00

4 pineapple 5.00

total 18.55

balance 34.45

meat balance 100.00

Albertsons

4 dozen eggs 4.00

8 whole chickens 24.47

total 28.47

balance 30.45

meat balance 75.53

Smiths

Cheese 4.99

Italian sausage 3.99

total 8.98

balance 25.84

meat balance 71.54

Super Savers

Ice Cream 4.98

Ramen 3.88

chips 1.08

2 packs steak 9.10

stew meat 5.44

flour tortillas 2.98

10 # potato 2.98

total 30.44

balance 9.94

meat balance 57.00

We still have to buy ground beef and a few things for the week, but we are going to go and get that tomorrow morning so I will add that in tomorrow after we go.

grocery shopping 2/15-3/15

We have 314.00 available for the month! I broke it down this morning 100.00 for meat and 53.00 a week. Today we are going out to do our first trip so its going to be pretty big (153.00) I am stocking up on a few things that we don't "need" but are good deals. I sat down last week and did the menu for the whole MONTH! I know I am so cool! I am sure a few things will get changed around, but I just wanted to see how much meat we would actually need. So I will be back later on tonight or tomorrow to post the shopping trips and the menu.

whos your favorite?

Last night American Idol picked the top 36

1. ANOOP DESAI (I like his name)

2. VON SMITH

3. ALEXANDER WAGNER-TRUGMAN

4. ADAM LAMBERT

5. TAYLOR VAIFANUA (from UT)

6. JASMINE MURRAY

7. ARIANNA AFSAR

8. CASEY CARLSON

9. MEGHAN CORKREY (from UT)

10. MISHAVONNA HENSON

11. STEVIE WRIGHT

12. JOANNA PACITTI (replaced last night with Felicia Barton)

13. KENDALL BEARD

14. KRISTEN MCNAMERA

15. ALEXIS GRACE

16. SCOTT MACINTYRE (H likes him)

17. LIL ROUNDS

18. JESSICA LANGSETH

19. ALLISON IRAHETA

20. DANNY GOKEY (all of us really like him)

21. RICKY BRADDY

22. MATT GIRAUD

23. JUNOT JOYNER

24. JORGE NUNEZ

25. BRENT KEITH

26. STEPHEN FOWLER

27. NICK MITCHELL (Norman)

28. JACKIE TOHN

29. TATIANA DEL TORO (please go away)

30. NATHANIEL MARSHALL (follow Tatiana)

31. JEANINE VAILES

32. KAI KALAMA

33. ANN MARIE BOSKOVICH

34. KRIS ALLEN

35. MATT BREITZKE

36. MICHAEL SARVER (we like him)

Another giveaway

My friend Erin is having another giveaway at her blog and I went and entered, I also went and checked out the product and have decided that even if I don't win I think I am going to get myself some of these. I really like the snack bags and the set is only 25.00 so that's pretty good. I think that they would be pretty easy to make but I am not a sew-er but maybe I could get my "friend" Trish to make me some...

Meal Plan

Another week another meal plan

H made her breakfast menu for the week

and as for dinners;

M whole chicken (that didnt make it to the table over the weekend), baked potato and salad

T Pork chops, pasta side, veggies

W shrimp pasta and salad

Th Enchilada casserole and veggies

F Whole chicken in the crock pot (again I know but we need the leftovers for Sunday)

Sat potato tacos

Sun Japanese fried nooddles

Finished our shopping

Balance 9.63

Sara Lee bread store

hot dog buns 1.00

2 loafs of bread 2.00

1 6 pack rolls 1.25

total 4.25

balance 5.38

Smiths

Ice cream 2.99

total 2.99

balance 3.39

We didn't get any lunch meat but we have some in the freezer and also tuna and pb&j so we decided against it and got ice cream instead!

Shopping 2/9-2/16

Here is the rest of the shopping that we got done tonight started with 30.00;

Walmart

2 # ground beef 4.86

corn tortillas 1.72

refried beans .63

chicken wings 8.38

total 15.59

balance 14.41

Smiths (again)

1.10# Roma tomato 1.10

1.67# grapes 1.65

total 2.75

balance 11.66

Rancho Market

2 heads lettuce .99

3.16# oranges 1.04

total 2.03

balance 9.63

We still need bread and hotdog buns and lunch meat with 9.63 I hope we can pull it off!

Another contest...

The beginning of December, I entered a contest

threw Chevron, I had forgotten all about it, but here's it is 5.00 to Chevron! We don't get our gas from there, but L will take it and use it while she is out driving and thirsty!

this must be my week of winning, on Tuesday I won this.

Thomas English Muffins and a little shopping

I saw this really good deal on PYP this morning, I was going to the store anyway so I thought I would check it out here's the deal

Thomas English Muffins are on sale 3.59 Buy One Get One FREE with your fresh values card, they have coupons on the package for 3.00 off when you by 3 so here's the break down;

buy 6 = 21.54
-3 free = 10.77
- 2 3.00/3 coupons = 4.77 or .79 each!!

Its almost cheaper to buy 6 then it is to buy 1 so I have to take that off my budget.
also on my walk I bought-
1 head of cabbage 1.21
2 packs of shrimp 4.49
sugar 1.89
eggs 1.47

total for the day 13.83
total for the month 30.00- I don't think we can make it (keeping my fingers crossed)... we are shopping tonight or tomorrow, so I will post the trip later.

I also bought 3 yogurts (1.00) and 2 pies (2.00) earlier in the week

Chili Verde

Now before you read this post keep in mind that you are not over at Pioneer Woman, so these aren't going to be the greatest pictures....

But here is what you need

potatoes I use about 5-6

1 tbs garlic

1tbs oil

chopped onion

salsa verde

season salt
1-2 # stew meat I use beef I am sure you could use pork

water

flour

cook meat and onion in oil

Meanwhile peel and dice your potatoes.
After your meat and onion are done, remove all that juice from the pan and add garlic

Add the whole 16oz of salsa verde Mix in potatoes and 32oz water, (2 jars, or enough to cover everything)

put the lid on and let it cook for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft, then in a small bowl mix about 3 tbs flour with some of the juice from the sauce
Mix it back into the pot and let it simmer for another 30-45 minutes (the longer the better) but be sure to stir it up every once in awhile to make sure its not sticking
That's it, serve it with warm tortillas

I think that this is a pretty frugal dinner, the reason why I add potatoes is because that's the way my grandma makes it, back in the day when she was living in Mexico and meat was too expensive they would just buy a little bit and then use the potatoes as a filler, since potatoes are cheap and very filling I think its a great idea. And we are a 'meat and potato' type household so it works for us!

Jetta...

Our good friend is having her dog Jetta put to sleep this afternoon. She has some sort of blockage, she is a 9 year old Rottweiler and the vet said that they could do exploratory surgery but she probably wouldn't make it much longer after that. They adopted her 5 years ago, she once lived in a dark cement warehouse where her only friends where shadows, so she had a strange obsession with staring at them, which was really funny.
I know they are going to miss her...

(what can I say I like to dress up dogs)

Recipe Review... Cheeseburger soup

We thought this one was good, if you thought "cheeseburger" while you were eating, you could definitely taste it. We topped our bowls with cheese, next time I think I will add jalapenos to mine, and maybe bacon then you could have a bacon cheeseburger, or maybe sauteed mushrooms then you could have a mushroom burger the possibilities are endless... and its too early to be thinking about food! So here is the recipe;

Ingredients
3/4 lb ground beef (I used a whole pound)
1 cup minced onion
1 teaspoon basil (I used dry)
4 cups beef broth
3 cups diced potatoes
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
4 teaspoons butter
4 teaspoons flour
8 ounces Velveeta cheese, cubed
2 cups light cream (I used 1/2 cup heave cream and 1 1/2 dairy ease)
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions
1 In soup pot, cook and break up ground beef.
2 Add onion,basil and beef broth.
3 Bring to a boil.
4 Add potatoes and green pepper.
5 Cover and simmer 12 minutes.
6 Bring back to a boil.
7 In saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour.

(after the butter and the flour were combined I added a dash of the milk I already measured out just so it wouldn't get that burnt flour taste)
8 Cook 2 minutes.
9 Add to soup, stirring.
10 Reduce heat to low again and add cheese, cream and pepper.
11 Stir until cheese melts. (or until potatoes are soft it took about a half hour, on low)
12 Serve.

Next time I think I am going to add more flour maybe 2 tablespoons so it is a little more "chowder-y"

There are no more recipe reviews this week but on Wednesday (maybe Thursday, but at the very latest Friday) I am going to post my Chili Verde recipe.

If you are cool like me....

Then you entered the Kraft "So good together on game day" instant win game a few weeks ago and you don't need to read the rest of this post, however if you are un-cool then let me show you what you missed out on...

3 great coupons for FREE Nabisco crackers, planters snack product, and cheese.

Giveaway!

My "friend" Erin over at Jane4girl $800 Annual budget (who I would like to add, I knew WAY before the whole 800.00 budget explosion, I am trying to get some bonus points here) is having a giveaway on her blog for a really cool product "QuickSeals" in order to get extra entries I am here blogging about her and her site!

Which I just figured out will just reduce my chances of winning because all of my readers, yes all 3 of you, are now going to click on the link and go and enter too, that sucks.

Oh well if you won and it is because I sent you over there you must share... or at least tell me how great the bags are so I can go and buy them myself.... I think they would be really great to seal crackers or how about when you cant eat a whole bag of popcorn? not that we would ever have that problem here!

No really if you go over there and enter, good luck, and may the best blogger win! (Or the one that's known Erin longer, has her personal email address, and has her on 2 instant messengers.... I should totally win)

(Erin's pick will not be based on who has known her longer its totally random so if I do win its just because I was lucky and you weren't.

please don't be a sore loser!

Even though I will totally throw it in your face, because I am a sore winner!

and just note that I signed up for about 30 bloggy giveaways

and lost them all

so you have a REALLY good chance,

because I have REALLY bad luck!)

one last trip

On Saturday we used a head of lettuce to make a salad so we needed to get 2 more for the week, so we ran out on Sunday with 5.94 left for the week here's what we bought;

2 heads of lettuce 2.10

1 cucumber .99 (ouch that's alot on $)

total 3.09

total left for the week 2.85 ( I bet I could do some real damage with that!)

Meal Plan 2/2-2/8

I cant believe it is already February, more then that I cant believe that damn Punxsutawney Phil is predicting 6 more weeks of winter (jerk!) well here is our menu for the week:

H's Breakfast

M cereal and fruit

T eggs and toast

W oatmeal

Th cereal and fruit

F oatmeal

(I am the worst mom ever and forgot to get waffles this weekend, oh well!)

Lunch

H eats school lunch, and L and I just eat whatever, for "brunch" usually leftovers, a sandwich, or some sort of breakfast.

Saturday/Sunday we usually just make something simple this week is chili dogs and sandwiches, we have found that if we plan a lunch for home we are 95% less likely to go and eat out!

Dinner

M- Cheeseburger soup (new recipe) rolls

T- drumsticks, rice, corn

W-Chili Verde (my version watch for the recipe later on in the week)

TH-Pork chops, baked potato, green beans, corn bread

F- Pizza Pasta (I am just going to "wing" this one hopefully its good) salad and rolls

S- Whole chicken in the crock

S- leftovers, (there is going to be some chicken leftover from Saturday so we will do something with that)

For more menu plans (usually over 200!) be sure to check out:

I'm an organizing junkie