Finally Meal Planning

I know I have taken some time off of my weekly meal planning. Well back at it, we are staying home and trying to save some money. This is what I am planning so far this week.

Tonight: The kids picked out buttermilk pancakes and bacon. They love having breakfast for dinner.

Sunday: Having dinner with the in-laws.

Monday: Shopping day! I will make something easy like beef stroganoff since I am planning on making some things for the week. Making mine with Quinoa instead of pasta.

Tuesday: Lasagna with homemade rolls and salad. I will make turkey meatballs first and add them into the layers of the lasagna. It gives it more depth in flavor.

Wednesday: Date night with hubby

Thursday: My mom's b-day dinner at our house. Pan-seared Salmon tostadas with fire-toasted corn salsa and chili lime rice. For dessert I am making a Key lime ice-box cheesecake with a pistachio crust.

This weeks makes and bakes:

Homemade yogurt
Strawberry jam
Banana chocolate chip bread
Strawberry/Banana yogurt popsicles for the kids

Sunday breakfast:
My mother-n-law bought me the Western National Parks' Lodges Cookbook and this recipe was in it and looks wonderfully delicious! I want to make it and see how it turns out to see if I want this for Christmas breakfast.

Date-Cranberry French toast

Bread Pudding
10 cups day old danish, torn into large pieces
6 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
Pinch salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup chopped dates
1 cup milk

French Toast Batter
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp orange juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the bread. eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, cranberries, dates and milk in a large bowl. Spoon the mixture into two loaf pans coated with nonstick spray. Bake for 1 hour. Refrigerate until you are ready to make the french toast (make this the day before).

Slice the bread pudding. Mix eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, OJ, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt with a hand mixer. Soak the slices of bread pudding in the batter. Heat a nonstick skillet and cook the french toast until done. Serve immediately with butter and maple syrup.

I'm going to La Boulangerie to see if they will sell me any day old danishes for a discounted rate.

Soleil 100 Days

Soleil 100 Days: "There are thousands of fun, sharable prizes in the BIC® Soleil® 100 Days of Sunshine promotion. Join now! www.FeelTheSoleil.com"

Great Bargains Out There!!

Today the hubsters went to Rite Aid to buy the Nivea for men body wash and toothpaste. We had a $4.00 off 2 Nivea men products plus a $1.00 off coupon for Nivea as well. Colgate toothpaste was on sale with the Up Rewards card plus we had a $1.00 off coupon. He spent $1.61 on these three products and received $3.00 back in Up Rewards that we can use like cash on our next purchase.

I went to Walgreens this afternoon to pick up a prescription and had a 2 coupons for the olives making them .50 cents each, the crayons .39 cents and 4 packs of gum for $1.00. I spent $2.60, so for all of this in the picture we spent a little over $4.00 out of pocket but received $3.00 back.

CVS right now has boxes of Pampers (60 count) on sale for $21.99 and you will receive $10.00 back in extra cash. I used a $1.50 off coupon with my purchase with tax came to $21.00 cash, but received the $10.00 back. With the $10.00 we were able to purchase 2 loaves of bread, 2 gallons of milk and 4 cans of beef broth. That is a lot for $21.00!

Overall pretty pleased with all of the sales and coupons coming out. Make sure you pick up your August coupon book at Walgreens. There's over $400.00 in coupons in their book and then match them with manufacturers coupons and store sales for big savings.

Mega Swagbucks

Have you checked out Swagbucks yet? If not, you are seriously missing out! I absolutely love it and there are no strings attached. You earn points for doing your normal everyday searches, and those points can be redeemed for things such as Amazon, Sephora or Starbucks gift cards, iPhone’s, HD Digital Camcorders and more!

Fridays are Mega Swagbucks days where you can earn Swagbucks in increments of 10, 20, 50 and even 100!

Edit to Budgeting

My husband thought that when I put "collecting cans" as a way to make more money he said it sounded like we go out and dig through trash cans...LOL! So, I am telling you how we really collect cans. We save all of our cans and water bottles. Our parents save their cans and water bottles and give them to us to recycle. We make about $40.00 a month with all of our cans. When little man helps his dad, he gets the change to put into his piggy bank as well.

Great Coupons for Target This Week!

Clippin with Carie had this on her site and I know if you look in the Target ad and look on Coupons.com you can find some more deals. Go to the Target Coupon site for most coupons and save lots of $$. I spent $14.04 for $38.55 worth of groceries today.

Chef Boyardee Microwave Ready Cups $.80
Use $1/1 Chef Boyardee Target Store Printable
FINAL PRICE = FREE

Chef Boyardee Cans (14oz) $.99
Use $1/1 Chef Boyardee Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = FREE

Schick Hydro Razors $6.99
Use $4/1 Target Coupon (6/20 SS)
PLUS
Use $5/1 Coupon (6/13 SS) (EXPIRES 7/30)
FINAL PRICE = FREE + Money Maker

Bic Stic Grip 7 ct Easy Glide Ball Point Pens $.99
Use $1/1 BIC Stationery Product Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = FREE

Kids Aquafresh $1.62
Use $1/1 Aquafresh Kids Bubble Mint HERE
PLUS
Use $.50/1 Aquafresh Kids Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $.12

GE Reveal (4-Pack 40, 60, 75 or 100 Watt) Standard Bulbs $2.19
Use $1.50/1 GE Light Bulb Reveal or CFL Target Store Printable Coupon
PLUS
Use $1/2 Printable Coupon HERE
FINAL PRICE = $.19

Bagel Bites $2.24
Use $1/1 Coupon (6/13 SS) or Printable Coupon HERE
PLUS
Use $1/1 Bagel Bites Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $.24

Kid Cuisine Meals $1.75
Use $1/2 Kid Cuisine Coupon in June All You Magazine
PLUS
Use (2) $1/1 Kid Cuisine Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $.25

Sobe Lifewater $1
Use B1G1 Sobe Lifewater (not reset) HERE or play game HERE
PLUS
Use $.50/1 Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $.25

Hunts Pudding (4pk) $.95
Use $1/3 Hunts Pudding Target Store Printable Coupon
PLUS
Use $1/3 Coupon June All You Magazine
FINAL PRICE = $.28

Juicy Juice 8pk $2.04
Use $1/2 Prinatble HERE or $2/4 Printable HERE
PLUS
Use (2) $1/1 Juicy Juice Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $.54

Hamburger Helper $1.25
Use $1/2 Betty Crocker Hamburger Helpers Target Store Printable Coupon
PLUS
Use $.75/3 Coupon (6/20 SS)
FINAL PRICE = $.67 each wyb 3

Buy 4 Kashi TLC Bars $2.50 each
Use (2) $1.50/2 Kashi TLC Bars Coupon Coupons.com
Use (1) B2G1 FREE Kashi Products Target Store Printable Coupon
Use (1) $1/3 Kashi Snacks Target Store Printable Coupons
FINAL PRICE = 4/$3.50 or only $.88 each

Chex Mix Asst. Flavors $1.50
Use $.55/1 Printable Coupon Coupons.com
FINAL PRICE = $.95

Wheat Thins (10 oz) $2
Use $1/1 Facebook Coupon HERE
FINAL PRICE = $1

Nature Valley Bars $2.39
Use $.75/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars Coupons.com
PLUS
Use (2) $1/1 Nature Valley Target Store Printable Coupon
FINAL PRICE = $1.02

Kashi Frozen Entrees $2.85
Buy 3
Use B2G1 FREE Target Store Printable Coupon
Use$1/2 Kashi Frozen Entrées Target Store Printable Coupon
Use (2) $.75/1 Kashi Frozen Pizza or Entree Printable HERE
FINAL PRICE = 3/$3.20 or just $1.06

Smart Ones Entrees 5/$9
Use $3/10 Printable Coupon Coupons.com or
Use $3/6 Coupon June All You Magazine
FINAL PRICE = as low as 6/$7.80 or $1.30 each

This past year of budgeting

It has been a year since I stopped working at Federico's and now only work at the gym 7 hours a week. That means that I am bringing home half of what I was making a year ago. With the checks that I get from the gym, I cash them and that money is what we use for groceries, going out to eat, entertainment and gifts. When we run out of cash we have to find inventive ways of coming up with more money or just not spend any money until the next payday. Different ways we come up with extra cash have been: collecting cans and taking them in (extra $40.00), once a year we have a big yard sale (extra $300-500), taking kids items to the consignment store (made about $50.00), I do Inboxdollars.com and have a check coming for $30.00, Pinecone research ($3.00 per survey) and Swagbucks for free giftcards. You can see that even when money is tight, there are always ways to get more.

The biggest savings on our budget is using coupons and shopping around. I have been an avid coupon shopper since January and I have more in my cabinets then I have ever had. Since I have been making less money and now know where all of our money is going, I feel like we have more than before. Once a month I spend about $75.00 on groceries and that is my "big" shopping trip. Every Sunday hubby and I spend about an hour cutting coupons and looking for sales. I have a Target trip planned for tomorrow to get lots of food and when I added up what I am going to buy it will be under $15.00. When I do coupon shop, I make a list, have my coupons ready and only buy what is on my list unless there is a ridiculous sale on an item I did not know about.

Other ways we have cut back is by shopping around on car insurance, phone service and lowering our cell phone plans. Whatever area we think we can save in my hubby researches it and finds the best price. I leave that up to him since I am a impulse shopper, which brings me into another way that I save BIG. I DO NOT WINDOW SHOP! Since I am a impulse shopper and want to buy what I see, I just do not go shopping. I only go when I specifically need something. Doing this has saved us the question, "Where did all of our money go?"

I can honestly say that it has taken us 5 years to really get what budgeting is and how to stay on a budget. I think our thinking has changed and our bad habits with money have been fading away. I stopped working full-time 5 years ago and slowly I have been working less and less and it has really shown us how we can stretch a dollar and what is important to us. We still love taking trips, looking nice and having nice things, but we always do our research first before spending money in all of these areas.

I hope this motivates you in some way to look at what is important to you so you can save money and pay off that debt, or put money away for a rainy day. That is our goal and it feels good that we can see the finish line and know that what we are doing today will help us in the future. I feel more in control and I do not feel like I am missing out on anything. The biggest change for me was mentally and now it is okay not to have the newest and coolest thing (and you would know that if you saw my cell phone...LOL).

Sliders

I thought tonight I would make sliders for dinner. I thought the kids would like them since they are small. I am going to make different toppings for them and everyone can make their own burger. I am going to saute onions and mushrooms, have provolone cheese, pickels, guacamole, lettuce and BBQ sauce. I think it will be fun and good at the same time! I just think the slider rolls are so cute.

Yummy salad dressing

This is a good salad dressing to make with a steak dinner.

1 cup light sour cream
4 oz. gorgonzola cheese
1 lemon zest and juice
3 slices bacon cooked and chopped
Olive oil
Pepper

In a blender mix in sour cream, cheese, lemon, bacon and pepper. You want to stream in the olive oil until you get the consistency you like. If you do not like blue cheese dressing you may not like this, but I love blue cheese and thought the bacon gave it a smokey flavor and I like sour cream instead of mayo.

I added bacon crumbles to the top of my salad too. I know not the lightest dinner, but tasty. I make steaks about 1-2 times a month, so I don't feel bad and I split my steak with the kids.

And Costco sells Artisan lettuce for $2.99 for a huge package with 3 types of lettuce!

Pictures from our vacation

This is only 5 pictures out of the 188 that I took. Our kids love to look at the pictures, so a lot are to look at on the computer, but will never get developed.

This is little man pretending he is a mail man. He knows our mail man personally and waits for him every day. He loves that he can play mail man at the SLO's Children Museum.

Little missie wanted to dress up like a princess but was not happy that there were not any shoes for her!

Little man had fun collecting sand dollars on the beach. He found 10 then put them back so they would not die.

It was such a pretty night to be on the beach. I loved the shadows and the way the sand looked.

I love capturing the profile so we can see their cheeks.

We had good times this year. Lots of swimming in the pool and in the ocean. We went to our favorite spots, Avila Valley Barn, Klondike Pizza and Doc Burnstien's ice cream parlor. Hubby's cousin and family came while we were there so we spent one day with them and 2 days on the beach with some of our other friends. The kids love going to the beach and they love that they know what to expect. Lots of family memories are being created. We go about 3 times in the summer and atleast once in the fall. I know as they get older we will take other vacations but I think we will always go back to Avila Beach since we have created some family traditions there.

I'm winging it this week!

Yeap, no real plan for dinners this week. Tonight I am making spaghetti and turkey meatballs. I have lots of veggies for salads, stocked up on fruit and may run to get corn and a couple of items to make easy meals. Maybe BLT's will make an appearance this week? Who knows, but it is too stinkin hot to cook!

Hot weather and cooking!

I am not inspired to cook at all when it gets this hot. I usually cook the basics trying not to heat the house up too much. All I want to do is sit in front of the fan and drink my ice tea. Tonight I bought a rotisserie chicken, making some pilaf, salad and hummus and flat bread. I don't even want to BBQ when it is this hot.....blahhh.....I need to come up with some salads this week to make and eat lots of fruit.

If I had an iPhone....

I would show you some pictures, but I don't have a iPhone. I took some great pictures of the kids tonight on the beach. Little man found 10 sand dollars and he put them back because he wanted to keep them alive. My nose is sooooo sun burnt even though I put sunscreen on it 20 times a day. Tomorrow I need to find a bigger hat, guess my hat is not cutting it and we are back to the beach tomorrow.

I have been doing my workouts every afternoon, but I can't jump very much since we are on the 3rd floor and I don't want to wake up little missie. I even skipped ice cream last night, though I ate too much Klondike's pizza since it is my favorite pizza ever!

The kids are looking at themselves in the mirror right now in their jammies. We have been all sleeping in the same room and we are all sleeping until 8:30 am and not getting out until 10am which is a nice change. I think the kids are having a great time and we are enjoying ourselves too.

So far so good!

This morning we went on a bike ride down the Bob Jones trail to Avila Valley Barn. We fed the animals and got roasted corn on the cobb....yum! We rode back and got ready for the beach. We took the trolley down to the beach and played a couple of hours until little missie was beside herself. We are waiting for her to wake up and then we will head out to Mei's Chinesse food and then swimming until bedtime! Today has gone by too fast!

San Luis Bay Resort

San Luis Bay Resort in Avila Beach is a fun place to stay! They have a pool, kid pool, activities center, activities you can sign up for like a bonfire at night, which we are going to do. It is walking distance to Avila Beach and the park. I think we are going to have lots of fun this week! Tomorrow we are heading to the beach to dig in the sand and soak up the not too hot sun!

We took a boat ride today at Morro Bay to the sand dunes and little man went into the water thinking it was like the beach, but it has a drop off a couple of feet in and he went in the water face first fully clothed. He was startled and cold, but he got up like a trooper and laughed about it. Wish I had a camera for that moment. Note to self, always have your camera with you! I am sure we will have lots of fun moments to come this week and I will be taking my camera with me!

Insane!

I am on my 2nd week of Insanity (a fitness DVD series) and I have a love hate relationship with it. I love that I can already feel results after 7 days, but hate it while doing it. My body has not felt this fatigued since my triathlon days! I am still teaching 7 classes a week, but this week I have mostly shown my classes what to do and then walk around and correct their form. I am taking my DVD's on vacation with me and I am only going to allow myself dessert once while I am gone.

I have measured myself so I can see the results of this 8 week program. My FB and blog friend is doing it as well. I think I am insane, but want to get down one more size, shrink my belly and become stronger. I will let you know my results once I get there. Wish me luck!

Tonight's dinner was a flop!

Yes, it was meatless Tuesday and I had all these wonderful (what I thought would be great) sides planned out. First it was zucchini fritters. The recipe called for dill and I like dill, though I should have known the kids would hate it and also hubby. I have to say the dill in the zucchini fritters was not a good combination.

Second, the green beans would have been great, but the recipe called for toasted cinnamon and I thought either we would love it or hate it....yeap....hated it! I am going to make them again but I am going to add garlic instead of cinnamon. It was a pretty easy recipe and I will post it how I am going to make it next time.

We ended up eating the roasted red potatoes and bread for dinner and I sliced up a watermelon too. A lot of work for most of it going into the garbage, but hey you have to try new things every now and then. We are looking forward to carnitas tomorrow night! It is marinating in the frig already.

Green Bean Recipe:

1 lb green beans
4 Shallots
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Olive oil
Flour
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil your green beans until tender 6-8 minutes and drain.
2. Thinly slice your shallots and place in a bowl with milk or buttermilk, whatever you have on hand and season with salt and pepper (you are going to deep fry them).
3. Heat up in a sauce pan and place the shallots that have been sitting in the milk into a bag of seasoned flour. Deep fry until golden brown and place on a paper towel to drain.
4. Once the green beans are done, place them back into the skillet with 2 tbsp olive oil and add the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes adding salt to taste. Stir in the 1/2 cup Greek yogurt and toss.
5. Serve the green beans with crunchy shallots on top.

New Look

Thought I would give my blog a new look. I wish the tomatoes would show up more, the picture of them is really cool. I will post some pics and the recipes to our meatless meal tonight. On the menu:

Zucchini fritters
Roasted Red potatoes
Green Beans with crispy shallots (made with Greek yogurt)
Homemade bread

The green bean recipe I have looks good, so I will let you know how that turns out.

Moo Shu Pork

I made this tonight and it was really quick, easy and good. I baked tortillas for hubby and the kids and I used lettuce to wrap mine in. I made extra sauce since I made brown rice with it as well.


Ingredients:

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce, plus more for serving
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 14-ounce bag coleslaw mix
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
12 Bibb lettuce leaves

Directions
Whisk the hoisin sauce, vinegar, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the pork and marinate 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. Remove the pork from the marinade using tongs (reserve the marinade) and stir-fry until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons water to the skillet, then pour the pan juices over the pork on the plate.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the skillet; when hot, add the mushrooms and stir-fry until slightly golden, about 2 minutes. Add the coleslaw mix and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the pork, the reserved marinade and half of the scallions; stir-fry 2 more minutes. Season with salt and sprinkle with the remaining scallions. Serve the stir-fry in the lettuce leaves with more hoisin sauce.

Meal Plan Monday

Monday- Moo Shu Pork wraps

Tuesday- Green Beans with shallots and roasted rosemary potatoes
(Do you think I will get away with no meat?)

Wednesday- Carnitas w/homemade salsa and if I have time homemade tortillas (Never got to it last week)

Thursday- Turkey Burgers w/fruit

Friday- Time for the beach!

Sunday Paper and Coupons

Target:
If you receive the Sunday Fresno Bee and have the Parade section, there are 3 Pantene coupons. At Target they are on sale for $3.49 for the styling products. To get 2 styling products for .50 cents this is what you need to do:

Use B1G1 Pantene Styling product
Use $2.00 off a Pantene Product
Use $1.00 Pantene Target coupon from the Sunday Target insert

Use in the order above and you will buy each product for .25 cents each!

Kraft salad dressings is $1.52. There was a $1.00 off coupon in the paper making it .52 cents.

Single roll of Bounty paper towels are .97 cents, use $1.00 Target coupon to receive one roll for free. Also in the Target coupon insert there was a buy Bounty multi pack of paper towels and receive one roll free.

Hunt's ketchup is .97 cents, use .20 cent coupon for .77 cent ketchup.

Pampers wipes had a $2.00 off coupon recently in the paper for 60ct or more. Target has them for $1.97 making them free.

These are the deals I found today on my shopping trip.

Rite Aid:

This week at Rite Aid you can buy Crest sensitive toothpaste for $2.99 and receive $2.99 rebate. There was a .50 cent coupon in last Sunday's paper, so you would make .50 cents on this toothpast. When you are at Rite Aid pick up their rebate flyer and keep your receipts. You enter your rebates online for one month and then send for the rebate at the end of the month once all your rebates are in.

Secret deoderant is $1.99, receive $1.00 back in UP rewards (with your wellness card), use .50 cent Secret coupon and it will cost .49 cents.