Operation $40K

OK, I am running late this week, LOL. It's that danged holiday weekend...I did a quick survey of the freezer and am working on using it up...all items with a * are from freezer fishing =) Here is how I do my meal planning. 1) I grab the calendar and see where we are for the week and what we are doing so I don't plan a meal for a night we are at a friend's party or working. 2) I grab the freezer list so I know what ** and *** items need to be used. 3) I look at the last 2 weeks so I don't feed my family the same thing, week after week. That's it! Here is my plan of attack: Breakfast is usually the same: granola, French toast, fruit crepes, Breakfast Cookies, cold cereal or oatmeal with a piece of fresh fruit (apple, strawberries, grapes or banana) or homemade cereal bars as we have a LOT of cereal right now. Lunch is either: leftovers, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, quesidillas, or cold plate with sausage or diced chicken - cheese - crackers* & fresh fruit...

After a quick inventory -- I decided that I really didn't need to hit the store this week. My chest freezer is full to the brim, the pantry is well stocked and it's time to just dig in and get busy cooking and baking! I did add my Walgreen's run to the total for the month -- Total for the month: $100.00 -27.73 (week 1) -------- $72.27 to go -4.79 (Wags this week) 4 cans oranges for $.50 each, 1 gallon of milk for $2.79 ----------- $67.48 to go That's it......not really loving the new sales either but I will get those apples and make some apple butter! :) What's on your list this week?

I have tried a lot of recipes looking for something easy, yummy and that my kiddo would like! This simple recipe can be changed up SOOO easily by changing the flavor of the extract you use, or by using almonds instead of walnuts, skipping the nuts altogether and going with toasted shredded coconut...the sky is the limit on the variations! I did skip the sauce pan last time and used my microwave - I zapped for a minute on high, stirred it, zapped one minute more, stirred it and then zapped for one last minute. It came out perfect! It can't get much easier than this recipe - Granola Preheat oven to 375° 6 cups dry oatmeal 1 cup butter 1 cup honey 1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, almond, etc) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup wheat germ OPTIONAL 1/2 cup chopped nuts, shredded coconut and/or sun flower seeds First melt the butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey, extract and salt and briefly heat with the butter. Turn off the heat and add the oatmeal and wheat germ. Stir. Pour...

Early June, I shared a huge list of things we planned to do this summer. This is my accountability check for what I had on it and what I might have added to it as summer is now officially over as school has started! So here was our list: *swimming (done a bunch so far) *make popsicles (did it a few times!) *library and bookstore reading programs (We are only doing Half Price Books!) *Going to the Dells with our Russian Girl Dasha--thinking Circus World and Devil's lake - (Dasha has come and gone - we never got to this) *Going to Branson (had fun!) *Going to the Voss's cabin with my inlaws (Had a nice time and ate WAY too much!) *crafting (making a red white blue 8x8 album for the Dasha to take home)- Album done - she just loved it! *make homemade ice cream (I got a machine free from TW a few years ago and we didn't use it ONCE last summer and found a pretty cool recipe for SnickerDoodle Ice Cream to try!!)We *MIGHT* try the ice cream in a bag recipe! - It was yummy! I will ...

It's that time of year...the kiddos are going back to school. I was just outside of Walmart and saw that they had Mum plants for just $1 and I was hit by some inspiration for a teacher gift for the first day. On the Scrapfreak message boards someone had shared a link to a neat project where someone used colored pencils to dress up a vase for a floral bouquet. It was all pastel-ly and cute. =) I tweaked it a bit: -Instead of a vase, I used an empty Quaker oatmeal container. -Instead of colored pencils, I used yellow #2 pencils. All I needed to do was glue the pencils around the container - right? This turned out to be a little trickier than I thought it would be. The container wouldn't lay correctly because the pencil weighted side kept making it roll over. If I stood it up, the pencils fell off. You can benefit from my simple errors, LOL! Once I figured out this little trick, things went MUCH smoother. Rubber bands. That's right, I put several rubber bands around the contai...

Sometimes, it's the simple things that are so yummy. This is one of those times! I had pre-cooked and shredded seasoned chicken in the freezer. Add a free Boboli pizza crust, free BBQ sauce and a $1 brick of cheddar cheese and you have a simple, yummy treat: BBQ Chicken Pizzas! I used the BBQ sauce instead of the more traditional pizza sauce on the crust. I grated the cheddar cheese and sprinkled it on top. Then, we sprinkled that chicken over the cheese. I would have added diced onion but Sarah doesn't like onion... Into the over it went, until the cheese was melted and bubbly... I should have taken an after picture but we ripped into it like a monkey on a cupcake before we remembered the camera!! It's neat how the smokey flavor of the BBQ Sauce compliments the sharp cheddar cheese...add caramelized onions and it actually makes me want to make another as I type this, LOL! Have you made something easy and yummy lately?

Sure - I can't find my receipt so I have to do this by memory. Lucky you, LOL! I have been a little disappointed in Walgreen's this summer - the RR (Register Rewards) have been fairly low for transactions, the sales haven't been that hot and sales items that generate RR aren't always in stock! I guess that is why I haven't talked about them much and, end up using my RR at the grocery store because there wasn't anything exciting the week AFTER I earned them. Dear hubby was almost out of shower gel and there was a deal on Irish Spring. 2/$7 and you got $5 in RR back. Use 2 coupons for a buck off one gel and they just became FREE! Now I have a reason to go there -- what else was on sale? Cans of Mandarin Oranges for $.50 each, cans of baked beans for the same price, white envelopes on sale too... No beans when we hit the store but there were oranges and envelopes...I added a gallon of milk so I wouldn't have to hit another store on the way home. Here is a summa...