MyFreezEasy-a Review

Freezer cooking has always seemed pretty intimidating to me. Enter the MyFreezEasy Freezer Meal Plan Membership. When I saw that the Schoolhouse Review Crew would get a chance to review this online program, I jumped at the chance to up my meal planning game. MyFreezEasy brings freezer cooking to your kitchen and offers a variety of recipes for all taste buds.   Learning to meal plan and freezer cook is such a valuable skill to hon in the kitchen, and will prove your friend many times over in those busy seasons. Plus, it saves time and money! Like I said, the freezer cooking part has always left many questions swirling through my head and so I never fully tackled it.  Back when I was very pregnant with my #2, I made a few "beginner" type freezer meals since I knew cooking would not be at the top of my priority list after baby boy made his entrance. Once our meals from friends slowed down, it was so incredibly nice to simply pull out a meal, thaw and throw it in the crockpot. Fastforward four years, and I am finally getting back into the idea thanks to MyFreezEasy.

If you're a visual person like myself, MyFreezEasy offers lots of videos on their website to help you better understand the art of freezer cooking. In these "how to" style videos you will learn the secrets of freezing food and thawing it.  

Erin Chase, the brains behind this delicious operation, has done a wonderful job organizing and presenting all of the meal plans and recipes on her website. Each new month offers a pre-designed meal plan that offers 5-10 recipes to make 10-20 meals. Each plan includes the recipe, grocery list, assembly instructions and labels in case you choose to freeze for later. If you have special nutritional needs, modifications are also included to make meals gluten or dairy free.  Plans include:

• Traditional Meals
• Gluten Free Meals
• Clean Eats Meals
• Chicken Only Meals
• Ground Beef Only Meals
• Slow Cooker Meals

How it works is simple. Prep(you can't get out of that!), freeze, thaw, and eat-voila! Instructions are clear also that you can simply prepare and enjoy, the the most "bang for your time" comes in the freezer cooking. In about an hour the goal is to make up to 10 meals to stock your freezer with-think about it ladies, you could spend an hour making just one meal!

If you know me at all you'll know I'm not the most adventurous eater and can be sort of picky about food. While there is a TON of variety offered here, I just found a handful of recipes that I liked and were different enough from what our family usually eats. That is not to say that someone else wouldn't love the "all chicken plan." With the premium membership, you also have the ability to "create your own" meal plan, and that was especially helpful to me. 

The MyFreezEasy Freezer Meal Plan Membership is $95 a year or $10 monthly, and includes a bonus side dish cookbook. Happy cooking!   To connect with MyFreezEasy on social media, see the links below: Social Media Links:
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/freezeasy
Instagram:  http://www.instagram.com/freezeasy
Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/5dollardinners/freezeasy And, be sure to click on the banner to check out what the rest of the crew thought.   

 

Meal Plan

The short n' sweet version...one I know will come in handy months from now when I'm agonizing over the grocery list and looking for meal ideas that won't make hubby roll his eyes and say "again?" ;-) Thanks Pinterest!

*Since we'll be on the road to PA for Aunt Paige's wedding Friday, I just planned thru Thursday.

Sat-Eat out (We'll be walking around the Smithfield outlets that afternoon)

Sunday-Taco salad with a twist

Monday-Pizza

Tuesday-Crockpot cheesy chicken & rice

Wedsnesday-Creamy tomato & tortillini soup

Thursday-Teryaki steak on a stick...ahem...this

Thankfully we were able to make a Trader Joe's trip this week, so our lunch bases are covered. Yum!!!

Meal Planning...May

Bump meal planning Monday, I'm ready to blow it out of the water this month with meal planning May! Yes, I'm taking back the kitchen-and my grocery budget. Let's see how far we get in before Taco Bell intervenes. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm tired of busting the budget- and honestly I'm a glutton for punishment. If I'm halfway successful, I hope this post will serve as a good bookmark for future meal planning purposes as I've laid out most of family favorites.

*It should be noted that...

• I took a good look at our calendar before planning to avoid getting too sidetracked. So in case you're wondering why the week starts on a Thursday, I let the calendar be my guide. I'm open to better suggestions!
• I'm giving myself $50 for "sidetracked"...because I'm a realist.
• I set a budget of $350 for the month-that's four weeks for a family of four.
• I don't usually include weekends in my regular planning, hence the sprinkling of frozen dinners.
• As you can see, I reserved (on avg) one day each week for eating out. Listed below are just the dinner plans...who knows what we'll have for lunch. Leftovers, smoothies, salami and crackers, and tons of chicken nuggets is my guess.

and....

I'm planning to fail, so no pressure in this kitchen!

Week 1
(Th May 1) Macaroni-a family favorite
(F May 2) Evan's birthday party with friends-TBD
(S May 3) Grandma's in town, we're eating out!
(S May 4) Tomato soup and grill cheese sandwiches
(M May 5) BBQ chicken pizza (Baseball game)
(T May 6) Oven baked chicken, asparagus and red potatoes
(W May 7) Breakfast for dinner-pancakes, sausage and fruit

Week 2
(Th 8) Grilled chicken and roasted veggies(mixed bag from farmers market)
(F 9) Spaghetti (baseball)
(S 10) Soft tacos and Spanish rice
(S 11) Eat out in Raleigh for Mother's Day
(M 12) Spinach stuffed manicotti with garlic bread
(T 13) Kids eat free night at Moes Southwest!
(W 14) Salad with roasted veggies a la farmers market(church)

Week 3
(Th 15) Wil Med hospice event-dinner provided
(F 16) Eat out-burgers and (baseball)
(S 17) Chicken Parmesan 
(S 18) Minestrone soup (church)
(M 19) Steak, corn and broccoli
(T 20) BBQ chicken quesadillas
(W 21) Frozen pizza (baseball)

Week 4
(Th 22)Mom's night out-Olive Garden
(F 23) Chicken poppy seed casserole
(S 24) Baked ziti
(S 25) Breakfast for dinner- hashbrown casserole
(M 26) Vegetable stir fry
(T 27) Chicken tettrazini
(W 28) Cheese quesadillas

(Th 29) Burgers and (baseball)
(F 30) Lasagna a la Stoffers
(S 31) Arroz con pollo

Keep me accountable folks, how I would love to post a success story come June! 
PS-This took me an hour and a half. #worthit #Ihopeso

Stop and smell the...lunchable?

Sometimes, motherhood can prove an monotanous task. Coffee, cheerios, wipe, change, bathe, laundry, Yooooo Gabba Gabba, snack, repeat...I love my job as a stay at home mom and would'nt change it for the world. Looking down at the shaggy haired boy attached to my leg while I attempt to load the dishwasher, I'm a lucky girl. A bigger boy's voice from the top of the stairs calling "I need to you wipe my booty!!" Yep, lucky again.

But even I'm not superwoman. Sometimes, this task gets wearisome. It's a heavy load raising these precious gifts(heck, it's tiring just to take them to Aldi by myself!). And yet, I'm happy to say I caught small, bright break in the clouds today over this little one's lunchable. Small wonders.

 Just take it in-look at that face! In the business of the mundane, underneath the whining and mess of the morning, look at what I was missing.

 Cheese?! Literally, I asked him to say cheese and he shows off the real thing. Ha!

 How sweet this boy is, and how blessed I am to be his mommy.

Today I'm thankful for this tiny moment to blur the business around me and stop and smell the...lunchable.

#RealLife

Meal Plan Monday!

Saturday-Lasagna and salad
Sunday-Cinco de Mayo fellowship dinner with church care group, Mexican style!
Monday-An unusually early 5:30 teeball game=dinner on the fly.
Tuesday-Chicken noodle soup, it's gonna be a rainy day after all.
Wednesday-Burgers on the grill, farmers market fruit/veggie of choice for sides
Thursday-Spinach tortellini...this is becoming a Trader Joe's staple
Friday-Breakfast for dinner, blueberry pancakes with oven baked bacon

You'll notice two new additions to this week-Saturday and Sunday. I rarely if ever plan weekend meals, but am trying to start. We do usually have one built in "go out" night during the week, but often veer off course on the weekends. Our grocery budget may squeeze into a new belt hole, but I know it's much cheaper than eating out and will save money overall. Unless you're talking Little Caesars that is....we are SO doing pizza for lunch this week!

Meal Plan Monday

I took a break from the meal plan last week but I'm pleased to say we did pretty good. Once I get this down, my next goal is to be better about planning more lunches at home. We're not leftover snobs, but I'm so used to halfing recipes for our family size that we rarely have leftovers anyways. However, I sense with these growing boys that times are a changing. On another note, I'm SO excited that farmers market and strawberry/blueberry season is just around the corner-we always seems to eat so much healthier in the Spring and Summer!

Monday-Caesar chicken pasta
Tuesday-Spaghetti
Wednesday-Grilled barbeque chicken and corn on the cob
Thursday-We'll be eating out on the go since we have a tee ball game that night
Friday-Cheese quesadillas with Spanish rice

It's pretty simple, but that's my plan and I'm stickin to it. Also on the menu this week-a little Spring cleaning, painting, baseball, some yardwork and Bennett's first time strawberry picking at Dean's Farm!

Monday Meal Plan

Monday-Breakfast for dinner
Tuesday-Spinach/ricotta stuffed manicotti w/ salad
Wednesday-Chris will be in Raleigh all day for a BB&T workshop, so the boys and I are on our own! (Read-chicken nuggets, mac n' cheese, apple slices oh my)
Thursday-Chicken tortilla soup a la "The Pioneer Woman"

Friday-Baked ziti and a veggie side (My little boys LOVE peas and broccoli and I don't take advantage of this nearly enough!)

Meal Plan Monday

It feels like just yesterday I wrote last week's "Meal Plan Monday" and here we are again! We did fairly well with our plan last week, and this blog is doing a great job at keeping me accountable.

On the menu in the Scott kitchen this week...
I'm throwing the Minestrone into the rotation again this week since I ended up bringing ours to another family last week, and because it was it made my house smell divine. Thanks for your recipe Lori! :-)

Monday-Hamburgers and homemade fries
Tuesday-Mexican chicken and rice
Wednesday-Vegetable minestrone soup
Thursday-Pizza puffs and a veggie side(Rachael Ray's recipe here)
Friday- Early dinner out...Chic-fil-a?

Also on the menu this week, I'm going to try a few freezer snacks and breakfasts from Su Soutter's "Intentional Home" blog.  These chocolate chip pumpkin muffins look delish(and easy!), hopefully they'll taste as good as they sound. We will see, this one definitely falls under what my husband would term the somewhat questionable "wild card" category. Recipe here.

 For breakfast, I'm going to give her make ahead breakfast burritos a try. I'm awful about eating breakfast-truly. If these work out they have big potential in the house! Recipe here.

Happy cooking!

Meal Plan Mondays

Last week at MOPS we took a refresher course in the Dave Ramsey financial peace plan, and I was encouraged once again to be more diligent in my meal planning. As a mom, I sometimes feel like my whole day is about "planning." It's just how the cookie crumbles. So, I'm embracing it! Thankful me, I do love a plan.

This would be a good place to pause and remind myself of last week. Last week I did not plan well. Sure, we bought groceries. But somehow, my groceries just didn't "go" together the way I had imagined(or in my case, didn't imagine). Sort of like buying clothes without thinking of the complete "outfit," my food just did not "go" together to make cohesive meals. Result-a lot of eating out, and MUCH more money spent on the fly.  It was even worse than an "I forgot to thaw the chicken so we're ordering pizza" kind of week-even then I'd give myself credit for trying! So, before the weekend I took some extra time to think through my grocery list, and hope my  planning will result in fewer last minute trips to food lion. All of that to say, it's Meal Plan Monday!

Monday-Crockpot chicken and dumplin's (Recipe here)
Tuesday-Minestrone soup and honey cornbread
Wednesday-Taco salad with spanish rice
Thursday-Chicken poppy seed casserole
Friday-Spaghetti and veggies

I'm going trying my hand at a simple homemade artisan bread recipe this week to go alongside some of these meals, and if my boys are especially good will make some chocolate chip cookies for desserts as well. Who am I kidding, for snacks. :-)

Off to crock pot!

Joyful Joyful

"I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Being so early on in our life with littles, we're still working on establishing our own special traditions.  Christmas is probably my most favorite holiday, and we like to do it right. ;-) In addition to holiday pj's, Charlie Brown Christmas music, Elf,  gingerbread cookies and more, this year we added our first family advent calendar. While I really enjoyed it, I have to say I'm looking forward to the future when Evan is a bit older and A)can sit still and listen for longer and B)isn't more interested in the advent candy. I also did Jesus' birthday cake again, and it was scrum-didley-umptious! Otherwise, we're still looking for our Scott family "Christmas Groove" as we tend to do things a degree differently every year depending on family plans and traveling. This year Chris' mom and family came down to NC while my family spent the big day in Florida.

Grandma and Aunt Paige on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had a big present opening, honey baked holiday turkey eating time with Chris' family, preceded of course by quality grandma time and a trip or two to Raleigh for some last minute shopping. On Christmas day we opened our presents, just the three of us, before heading out for a morning of worship with Christ Baptist-as an aside, it was so special to share Christmas and Sunday morning this year, how appropriate! Later we enjoyed a laid back afternoon complete with naps, new toys and an early dinner at Denny's since our beloved Olive Garden(and everything else in Wilson) was closed. Next Saturday we will be celebrating with my side of the family-by golly that's three Christmases! :-)

And now, more pictures...
Where better to begin than with Jesus' birthday cake?

And from the Iphone...

   

 Good luck getting this kiddo to stand still!

Last but certainly not least, the following is a video clip of Evan's first glimpse of Christmas. Notice our rookie parent mistake-leaving out the big present for him to see first! This little guy was so enamored with his new "race along Chuck" truck and had very little interest in opening anything else after seeing it. That, a drawing pad and his new stuffed "Lightning Mcqueen" took the awards for favorites of the morning.

So thankful for our many good gifts this Christmas, and not just the ones under the tree. :-)

Meal Planning "Friday"

This is the plan, and I'm stickin' to it!

Monday-Chicken fettucine alfredo w/ sister shubert's rolls
Tuesday-Layered Mexican dinner and Spanish rice
Wednesday-Poppy seed chicken casserole with corn
Thursday-Good ole' faithful Macaroni
Friday-Chicken alfredo bake...because I am resolved not to throw away another "half" empty jar of sauce!

These days, meal planning and grocery shopping happen on Friday. I admit some weeks are more productive than others when it comes to planning out dinners, but this week I've found some fresh motivation...maybe it was that $10 off of $50 E-vic special from Harris Teeter!

Every week I eagerly look forward to perusing my favorite coupon match up site "Southern Savers," (which I have no doubt previewed on Wednesday when the stores start up the new deals for the week) and then gleefully collect my coupons. With coupons, grocery list, and arsenal of snacks in hand, me and my little are ready to go!

Today was especially exciting as I took home some great deals, and all for $31!!! Granted, we did make a separate trip the day before and spent $12 on the "buy 2 get 3" pepsi products promo-but all in all a great week for sticking to(and under!) our budget. Knock on wood.

And, because I have no new foodie pictures to present, here's one just as edible...

Butter is better

This past week, inspired by "Pioneer Woman" Ree Drummond's cookbook, I made several new dishes for dinner. I have to preface this with saying that everything she makes is very hearty-and makes for a happy hearted husband! Her recipes are rich with flavor and generous in ingredients(read-butter). Bless her for using so many step by step photos in her book-nothing speaks to this kitchen amateur's heart like lots of pictures!

First up I tried her lasagna recipe, and it was an A+ success! Move over Stoffers, there's a new sheriff in town! Not only did it taste great, but made enough for two dinners and a few lunches left over. Next I made her chicken pot pie, which was very tasty, and nothing like Betty Crocker's "quick & easy" version using Bisquick. Using real "from scratch" pie crusts really made the difference!

 (Picture taken pre-pie topping...let's just say it looked better before the big "flop" of pie crust)

Lastly on the dinner list, I made her chicken spaghetti, which was very similar to a chicken tetrazzini. Easy enough and two thumbs up on taste-it's a winner in this house!

I also made two of her breakfast recipes this week(adventurous right!)-buttermilk biscuits and cinnamon rolls. For some reason the biscuits were a total bust. I blame my bad luck in all things bread making. In fact, I may even throw out the frozen leftover dough because well, there's no saving those rolls. :-/  On the other hand, my labor of love cinnamon rolls were very sweet and tasty, and will serve us breakfast for weeks to come(her recipe makes a ton).

All in all, a good week of trying new things! You can only imagine the state of my kitchen this week...over and over again. Kitchens are meant to be messy if you ask me. It's a vicious cycle-cook, clean, cook, clean, cook, clean. But in the end, the warmth of a hearty chicken pot pie, the taste of rich lasagna and the sweet smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls make all the effort worth it.

A special thanks to my friend Jeanna for letting me know this treasure of a cookbook was at the library! :-)

PS-What's on the menu this week? Well, let's just say we're going out to eat tonight, and having frozen pizza tomorrow!

In the kitchen

My kitchenaid was given a work out this week with these new recipes! :-)

First, easy apple tart with homemade pie crust, courtesy of the next Food Network Star Melissa Darabian. Bookmark this one ladies! While practice makes perfect, I'm happy to say my first try didn't turn out half bad, and was greeted with great reviews. *Lesson learned-best served fresh out of the oven, warm and ooey gooey good. :-) Post picture, I made a whip cream topping with some cinnamon to garnish. Maybe next time around I'll tackle the crumble topping. Maybe...

Next-melt in your mouth, take that Quaker Oats, homemade granola bars. I'm so excited to eat these for breakfast this week, and feel like this is a must have mommy recipe. Because I needed to re-use the dish for Rice Crispy treats, I went ahead and cut the bars out and pre-packed into snack sized, ziplock bags. And voile, breakfast is served! *Lesson learned-adding a little extra honey and butter goes a long way in the texture(more chewy, less crumbly). Also, I substituted a 1/2 of rice crispies with the Oates and really enjoyed the result.

And last but not least, the cake boss' special recipe for Chocolate chip cookies-simple and delicious! In spite of his loud Italian heritage, I heart Buddy the cake boss, and was super excited to catch him on the Rachael Ray show last week. A little piece of "Carlos Bakery" in my own kitchen! This is a clean, classic, tried and true choco-chip cookie recipe, and makes enough to freeze for later(love love love it when that happens). *Lesson learned-who knew you could taste the difference between light and dark brown sugar? Okay, just me? Blush.... Also, if you've run out of baking soda-or vacuumed it all up as I did-you can substitute baking powder by using 3x the amount baking soda required.

I have to say that Yankee Candle can't touch the sweet smell of golden chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, or fresh apple pie with a pinch of cinnamon swimming in the living room air. There's nothing like a warm stove, clean kitchenaid, pink measuring cups and a favored, flour crusted apron to make my afternoon!

Recipe sources:
Quick cinnamon apple tart
Homemade granola bars
Buddy's chocolate chip cookies

Adventures in the Kitchen take 1

In making the most of my new enthusiasm for stayathomemom-dom, I've resolved this week to try a few new recipes.

Cookbooks from the library-check
Apron-check (seriously, have you seen my collection?)
Inspiration from "The Food Network"-double check
A refined palette and willingness to try new things-let's just say we're working on it, one tomato slice at a time!

On Monday night I started the week off with a "Tomato Vegetable Minstrone" soup and garlic bread sticks, courtesy of Betty Crocker and insanely modified by yours truly.

First, I have to say my excitement for getting creative and trying new things was slightly dulled when my husband quickly informed me that a soup & bread dinner was in fact no dinner at all, due to the absence of a manly meat. Ohhh boy. My response? "Deal with it." Ahem, I mean..."It really is hearty dear and I know you're going to love it! :-)

Second, I admit I took a wide margin of creative license with the ingredients. Zucchini and beans in this house? HA! Like I said, I'm working on it. :-)

The verdict?
Surprise surprise, Chris loved it, and even had a second helping or two! It was the perfect complement to the rainy day outside. Unfortunately the tomato taste was a bit strong for my sensitive taste buds, but I ate it lest my mess in the kitchen be in vain. And, Evan even got a piece of the action with some spiral pasta of his own!

All in all, a simple, small step in the right direction. Next up, an apple tart. Wish me luck!

Adventures in baby food

Evan is a joy of an eater-not picky in the least can you imagine? At least, not yet! He seems to like almost everything we give to him, and even if he makes a face(ie-peas), he still gobbles down every last spoon full. Thank you Lord, for not giving this child my tastebuds!

Making my own baby food was something I really wanted to do for a long time. But let's face it-it's a lot of extra work! Plus, there are perfectly healthy, natural and nutritious baby food options of the jarred variety. That being said, while I'm still working we have adopted a blended diet of homemade and store bought food. It's been a fun adventure learning to make baby food, getting to know my vegetables as well as my food processor.  It's a little intimidating at first, but really very simple once you get the jist. I also discovered that while generally it's much more cost effective to make your own baby food, some things can be more expensive to make at home-like apples. And with all the extra labor, well, Earth's Best wins that war!

Evan's favorite food by far is sweet potatoes. Lucky for me, this is an easy one to buy and make at home, and with a wonderful Fall scent to boot! So far we've made sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin and carrots. I don't have a pro-steamer just yet, so as far as most of my prep goes I've mostly stuck to baking.The very first thing I made was a winter squash, and I was so excited I just had to document the process!

First, one butternut squash, found at Target on sale for .99c/pound. Hello Mr. Squash, you look mighty yummy today!

 Like most fruits and veggies that are headed to the oven, I didn't worry about skinning. I simply cut into four peices and faced meat side down in about an inch or two of water. Because this was a squash, and the squash belongs in the pumpkin family, I did need to scoop out the insides and seeds first.

Into the oven it went at 400 degrees for about 45 min-1hr until soft. Once they past the "fork test," I let them cool and scooped scooped the good stuff directly into the food processor with a pinch of water. Fire it up, pulse, pulse and baby food here we come!

I was surprised to see how much food one squash made, and was able to freeze a bunch for later. I had been  recycling the baby food jars to store it in but just recently bought an ice cube tray, which was doubly worth my one dollar and forty cents! In addition to being perfectly portioned, the ice tray is really nice to use because once you let the food sit and freeze over night, you can simply pop em' out the next morning into a big, marked zip lock bag.

And voile, dinner is served-with a side of trial error, a pinch of patience and small sprinkling of cinnamon! :-)

Harris Teeter Super Doubling Nov. 3-9th!

It's time to grab those coupons and go! In the circus of moving, I haven't yet had time to organize and hit up this sale, but am super excited to go grocery shopping this week(especially now that Harris Teeter is in my backyard!). If you hadn't noticed by now, I think it's safe to come out of the closet and say that I am a couponer! Call me frugal if you will, but I am so proud to cut coupons and make the best of our family's resources. Saving money and finding great deals on groceries takes time, organization, and prudent meal planning. The rewards? Priceless! Happy budget, healthy tummy...and, it's fun to boot. Call me a nerd, but I really look forward to cutting and organizing coupons from the Sunday newspaper. Life on the wild side...haha!

While the following is no secret by any stretch, come in close and listen to my two favorite couponing resources. Ready? First is the "Southern Savers" website and secondly, WRAL's "Smart Shopper" blog by Faye Prosser. If you can snatch a few extra minutes in the day, they would be very well spent taking a look at those sites!

Here are a few tips from Faye on this weeks Harris Teeter's super double coupons:

Store Policy Reminder: 
 *HT will Super Double coupons worth up to $1.98 face value. A $1.50 coupon will double to $3.00. A $1.00 coupon will double to $2.00. A $2.00 coupon will not double at all and will only be taken at face value ($2.00).

*HT will super double/double up to 20 coupons per day. Period. End of story. Spouse's cards registered with the same address are linked because the policy is 20 per household, per day.

* HT policy is to double up to 3 identical coupons (as long as you buy the product required for each coupon, of course). So, if you have five $1.00 coupons for a product, the policy is to only super double the first three.

* Rainchecks can be written for a limit of three unless otherwise stated in the ad. Make sure you get rainchecks for items out of stock and use the rainchecks at the next promotion since they don't expire!

*BOGO's pro-rated.

Be on the lookout for...

Dairy & Frozen:
Coffee-mate Original, 32 oz $2.85 - $1.50 printable = FREE

Buitoni Linguini and Angel Hair pasta on sale for $1.50 - $1 printable coupon = FREE

Country Crock margarine 15 oz tub BOGO through 11/9 - .40 printable

Dannon Activia yogurt, 4 pack $2.50 - $1 coupon from 10/10 (expires 11/7) = .50

Green Giant Frozen Boxed Veggies will be on sale $1 each - .60/3 coupon from 10/3 = .60 each

Nestle refrigerated ready to bake cookies on sale for $3 through 12/28 - $1 printable coupon = $1.00

Grocery
Mentos Gum $1.50 - $1 coupon from 10/3 = FREE

Bush’s grillin beans $1.99 - $1 coupon from 10/3 = FREE

Kikkoman soy sauce $2.00 - $1 printable = FREE (if sale continues)

Muellers pasta, 8 oz macaroni .79 - $1/2 printable = FREE

Martha White Muffin Mix BOGO for .57 each - .55/2 from 8/8 = .02 each

Chef Boyardee canned pasta $1 through 4/5 - .75/2 coupon from 10/3 = .25 each

Campbells condensed cooking soups $1.28 (.80 if sale continues) - $1.50/3 printable coupon = .28 each if not on sale, free if sale continues

Quaker Instant Oatmeal in boxes $3.39 through 12/28 - $1 coupon from 9/12 = $1.39


Non-Food:
Reach Floss $1.65 - $1 coupon from 5/16, 10/10 = FREE

Dial Basics soap, 3 pack .99 - .35 coupon from 10/10 = .29

Colgate Total $2.50 through 11/9 - $1 coupon from 10/31 = .50

Pert Plus $2.99 - $1 coupon from 10/17 = .99

Pampers/Huggies diapers pack $8.99 - $1.50 coupon = 5.99



Thank you for being so generous Harris Teeter!

Cookies, Crayon rolls and Couponing

Boy did I get some creative juices flowing this weekend! After going to the Creative Hearts craft fair at Open Door church, I was newly inspired to break out my dear, dusty sewing machine. I had the perfect project in mind for a sweet little girl's 6th birthday-a "crayon roll." :-) Both fun and functional-and not to mention outrageously adorable-the crayon roll was a great sewing project for me  and one I will definitely do again. Talk about an exercise in sewing straight lines! I used the instructions found here: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

The finished product:

On a side note, I can't say enough how much I love Joann Fabrics! I could spend forever getting lost in their colorful aisles, but since I had the baby and hubby in tow, we made it out without a major hit to the clock and check card, haha. Thank goodness Joann neighbors one of our favorite Raleigh restaurants-it's wonderful husband bait!

On Saturday I attended a Smart Shopper Couponing class courtesy of WRAL studios here in Raleigh, and let's just say my head is still spinning. The workshop was incredibly helpful and I'm SO excited to use these techniques in our household. Plus, the speaker was really entertaining and held my attention the entire time, never missing a quick witted beat and keeping my pen at a steady pace with oogles of budget saving tips and tricks. This is another post entirely, and I will hopefully get to posting it soon with the fruits of my clipping-watch out Lowes Food, I am armed, organized and ready to do some damage!

Unfortunately, my culinary endeavors were less successful(though I did find a super deal on flour). For the past two weeks I've been dreaming of beautiful fall sugar cookies. But not just any sugar cookies-I was exicted to explore the world of royal and glace icing to pair with my sweet treats. You know the kind-the kind of icing that's shiny and stays perfectly put on top of the cookie, that makes your cookie creations look like patterned peices of stain glass art and are stackable to boot. Sort of like this:

Well, let's just say that my first time around the block with this new recipe was, well, a disaster. If you've ever seen Nickelodeons "goo," you can imagine the messy splatter that painted my cookies, wax paper, spoons, bowel and counter tops. Neat it was not. Even the color was less than best...my pumpkin orange turned into sort of a melon/salmon color, which is to say it looked sort of pukey. :-/

Looking at my true trial and error of a batch, I knew without a doubt that these cookies would not be going to work with my husband the next day as planned haha! O well...at least design aside, the cookies did TASTE pretty amazing. And the learning experience really is a necessary one-after realizing my mistakes made, I'm almost positive I can make it much neater next time. Practice does make better, and I'm excited to whip out this recipe again with much more success come Christmas time.

As you can imagine, all of this craftyness is sure to leave a trail. I'm off now to vacum stray threads, wash cookie sheets and clean counters!

Meal Planning Review

So I hopped back on the meal planning wagon about 2 weeks ago, and I've gotta say I'm enjoying the ride! Sure, there have been bumps-a trip or two to Target for poorly planned mozzarella, and some list busters like ice cream shoppe poptarts(who could resist?)-but for the most part things are going swimmingly. :-) Here's what dinner looked like this week:

Saturday: Chicken & Cous Cous
Sunday: Taco Skillet
Monday: Homemade Pizza (It was AWESOME, and I froze half the dough for another time)
Tuesday: Chicken Teryaki a la Stouffers
Wednesday: Spaghetti & garlic bread (Made double on Tuesday for friends)
Thursday: Errands = eating out
Friday: Lori's Chicken Poppy Seed dish, rolls & farmer's market corn *Yes Lori, we named it after you!

Unfortunately, we busted the grocery budget for this past week-boo! But it's bound to happen on some weeks and things always balance out by months end. For example, this week our bill was much higher because we bought chicken and ground beef, plus diapers and dog food. Of course those things are part of life and list, but they don't happen every week. And because we got our main proteins last week, they spill over into this week's dinners and voile, that's $10 off our bill. So for the most part, I'm happy to say that were staying within our monthly, if not weekly budget, and cooking much more efficiently around here. Success!

A Picture Parade

We've been busy bees these days-here's a glimpse of what we've been up to... A trip to the Farmers Market would'nt be complete without a country ham biscuit from the famed Farmer's Market restaurant(for Chris that is!).

We went to see Chris' dad and Evan got to meet his other Grandpa for the first time-and seeing the great grands was icing on the cake. Four Generations.

Mommy's been cooking up a storm in the kitchen-making messes and meal planning in high gear.

And last but not least, Piper's been driving us cuh-razy! Sigh, but who could stay mad at a pup like this?