Menu 8/24-8/30

Here's our menu for this week. We actually didn't get around to having Roast yesterday since we spent our afternoon after church at the zoo so we're having it tonight instead. Again, I probably will switch the days around some but here is the tentative schedule:

Monday
Cola Braised Roast
Mashed Potatoes
Green peas
Corn
Biscuits

Tuesday
Chicken Nachos

Wednesday
"Pink" Tortellini
Salad
Garlic Bread

Thursday
Roast Beef Sandwiches (using leftovers from monday)
Homemade fries (sweet and regular potatoes)

Friday (new recipe)
Southwestern Chicken and hashbrown bake
Salad

Saturday
Pepper Steak
Brown Rice
Fresh Corn
Garlic Bread

Sunday
Grilled Chicken
Baked Potatoes
Salad

Lunches:
Red Beans and Rice
Kashi meals
leftovers
chicken tenders and pinto beans

Breakfast
Egg and Sausage breakfast bake
waffles
cereal
oatmeal
smoothies

Baking Schedule
Brownies (we had so many cookies from last week we postponed these)
Fresh Bread (in my new bread maker!! post to come)

Naked Juice

If you have a Kroger near you then you are going to want to get in on this splurge. Right now Kroger is having their Mega sale and the Naked Juice products (found in the produce section) are part of the deal! They are normally $2.99 but are on sale for 2.50 this week. After the mega deal (buy 10 or add them to your 10 item total) and they are only $2. Make it even better and use this coupon. Best part is that it's a pdf so you can print as many as you want. No, I'm not telling you how many I bought... but I will tell you that the 'red machine' is faaaantastic.

Only $1 for these absolultely DELICIOUS drinks. Yes, they are a little splurgy still at $1 but come on, you deserve it. I promise. And no, it's not just my prego hormones talking ;)

Kroger Mega Sale Time!

I can not begin to tell you how excited I get when it's Mega Event time at Kroger! I mean, seriously people it's unreal. The sale doesn't officially start until tomorrow but my Kroger always has a price change/signs up on Tuesday night for the new ad so I went tonight simply because I couldn't wait until tomorrow to go :) I know, therapy needed, yadayadayada. So here's what I got for, wait for it, $10.61 (after catalinas) and 2.71 of that was tax!Ben puts one of those granola/fiber bars in his lunch every.single.day at work so these are such a great stockpile item for us. Best part is they print a $3.50 off your next order at the register when you buy 5 boxes

so:

1.99 each - .80c coupon (.40 doubled) = 1.19 (print and use 5 .40c coupons)

1.19 x 5 = $5.95

$5.95 - .40c shortcuts - .40.c cellfire - .50c shortcuts coupons

$4.65 - $3.50 off next order catalina = $1.15 FOR 5 BOXES or .23c a box (normally 2.99 each)!

Same thing goes for the fruit snacks. Jackson LOVES these things so they are a definite treat for him! Either use 5 .40c coupons or 1 .40c coupon and 2 .50c off of 2 coupons to buy 5 and get a $3.50 catalina for your next order. Remember if these don't print at the register go to customer service or call the catalina company and they will mail it to you :)

The point of stockpiling is to buy it while you can get it for pennies on the dollar so you don't have to pay full price when you run out or there isn't a coupon for it. Also, when sticking to a budget it's hard to have 'treats' to throw into the mix so when times like these come along you can really take advantage without blowing a ton of money on things that aren't necessities. Yes, I do prefer homemade and organic but let's be honest - we have a baby coming in December and it will be nice to have convenience food in the house :)

All in all, here's what I got:

5 boxes of fruit snacks

5 boxes of nature valley granola bars

2 bags of nature valley clusters

1 box of fiber one bars

1 box of chex mix bars

2 boxes of true delights bars

2 boxes of trix cereal

4 cans of crescent rolls

4 cans of cinnamon rolls

4 old el paso crunchy/soft tacos

Original price of items: $91.26

Price paid: $17.61

Catalina's received for next purchase: $3.50 for fruit snacks and $3.50 for nature valley (makes out of pocket $10.61)

Overall savings: $80.65 or 89%

A.mazing!

Want in on these deals? You can SO do this too... go over here to southern savers and get the full list of Kroger participating items. Then go to the various coupon links under each item (here and here), load the shortcuts and cellfire coupons to your Kroger card and ROCK this sale out! I have other things I'm going to go get (naked juice, more Pillsbury, fiber one bars, cereal, yogurt, etc) but I need to come off of this high before I go back ;).

Just for laughs...

6 months prego

And already feeling big as a house...

Menu Planning Monday

Here's what we're having this week. In no particular order because some mornings I wake up feeling like switching it around to different days! Today (monday) I have the BBQ in the crock pot, the pork chops marinating for tonight and the Pot Roast 'marinating' with the garlic and rosemary. I'm also doing all of my baking so treats will be made and handy when desired throughout the week! Best part is I've only spent $28 on groceries this week and actually only have a few more things to get (about $10 worth) for the rest of the menu!

Grilled Pork Chops
Yum-o Rice
Steamed broccoli
Garlic Bread

Cola Braised Pot Roast
Mashed Potatoes
Green peas
Corn
Biscuits

Crock Pot BBQ
Slaw
Baked Beans
Homemade Fries

Ashley and Sam's Lettuce wraps
Chips and Rotel dip

Homemade Pizza
Salad

Red Beans and Rice
some sort of vegetable

Chef Salads
Baked Potatoes

My baking treats (for snacks and desserts)
Brownies
Banana Bread
1 dz oatmeal/1 dz oatmeal raisin/1 dz oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Breakfast:
Cereal
Waffles with fresh fruit
Smoothies
Oatmeal

Lunches will most likely be:
Leftovers
Egg Sandwiches
Turkey and cheese roll ups
Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches
Eat out with Dad one day :)

So that's we're eating this week...I'm actually in the process of starting a recipe only blog. Not because I just think my recipes are the best but because I LOVE sharing and looking up recipes. Just seems like fun!

What are ya'll eating at your house this week? I'd love to hear!

trucks

Once upon a time there was a cute little boy...

who loved to play with trucks.

One day while he was playing with his trucks

his mother noticed he was lining them up in a neat line.

He then went about choosing two at a time to play with.Luckily some things, like hamming it up, never change.
The End.

brought to you by the number 22

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this post for almost a week now but just haven’t found the time. I’m currently at work, taking my automatically deducted 30 minute break and thought this would be as good a time as any to finally get to writing. As of this week Jackson is 22 months old and I am 22 weeks pregnant. Pretty fun stuff, huh? We’ll start with a Jackson update.

First of all can we talk about how we’re 2 months away from my child being 2 years old?!? I don’t want to talk about it.

Oh Jackson. Where do I even begin with this boy. He’s intense and gentle all at the same time. He listens well and pushes limits. He eats me out of house and home and barely touches a thing. Life with a toddler is anything but boring and I honestly love every minute of it. I was just thinking earlier today how easy it is to be his mom and how I’m not sure I’m ready to start all over again in a few months J Some new things going on in Jackson’s world include learning ABC’s. He can go up to G all on his own. I wish I could put a voice clip of his ‘f’ on here. It sounds like AWWF – it’s hilarious. Equally funny is that when he recites the alphabet after me he will try to say every letter except for J. Instead it goes like this:

Me: I

Jackson: I

Me: J

Jackson: that.

Me: No, say J

Jackson: that.

So, future kindergarten teacher, if my child says, “…g, h, i, that, k, l” well, we tried. Anyway, we work on our ABC’s every day and he knows which one is the last one he can make it to because he enunciates it twice as loud and long as the others (currently GEEEEEEEEEEEE) and immediately starts clapping for himself and then expects a high five from everyone in the room. Hey, positive reinforcement is the way to go in our house! We’re still slowly but surely easing our way into potty training. Here’s the deal with that – if the boy stays naked he goes in the potty every.single.time. Both #1 and #2. Seriously, every time, no accidents. BUT, if you have a diaper or a pull up on him you can forget it, he’ll take convenience over the aforementioned positive reinforcement any day. We obviously can’t go naked all the time so we still have a long way to go. I’m not going to push it until he’s at least two. Good grief, let him be my baby for a little while longer! Ben and I have noticed for some time now that he is aware of quantity. He now refers to things as one, two or ten. He gets one and two right on the money but if anything has more than two, like from 3 to 23432 it’s automatically 10. Makes sense.
I just can’t tell you how much I love being his mom. Watching him grow into this amazingly complex, ultra personality filled being is such an honor. I remember Ben telling me about reading Wild at Heart and I see so many aspects of being a ‘wild man’ in Jackson. He just really lives life to its fullest every day. This usually means I’m saying no to him 483 times a day but man – what zeal…I love that.

As for me, I’m 22 weeks along…well 22 weeks and 6 days as I write this. Nonetheless, I’m trucking along quite nicely. Now that I’m not sick anymore I can honestly say that I love being pregnant. I amazingly started to feel this baby move around 16 weeks. With Jackson I was at least 22, maybe even 23 weeks before I felt anything. He seems to be a lot more active than I remember Jackson being. I hope that’s not foreshadowing of what’s to come. I don’t know if I can handle two wild men. Heaven help us all. I go back to the dr when I’m 24 weeks to do that nasty glucose screening. I hate having to drink that stuff. Worst part is I failed the first screening with Jackson by 2 whole points so I had to go in and do the super long one where they draw your blood every half hour for 3 hours. By the time it was over I was so shaky that I started licking sugar packets once we got to IHOP afterward (we had to be at the lab at 630am and didn’t leave until 10). Thankfully I passed the second time around and didn’t have to be put on that super restrictive diet. Here’s hoping I just pass the first time around with this one. Please Lord. Speaking of diet I’ve done nothing but crave junk food. How fab is that? I’m trying to keep my weight gain under 25 lbs and all I can think about are chips, big macs and sour gummy worms. Geez. It really isn’t like me to crave that stuff. I love healthy food. Honestly. But, since being prego, not so much. We had grilled fish, brown rice and steamed veggies the other night, one of my favorite meals, and I had to choke it down. Although I do love being pregnant (for the second half anyway), it will be nice to be me again… whatever stretched out, hormone crazed, sleep-deprived remnant of my former self that might be anyway.

Hope ya’ll are doing well.

22 weeks

so I remember

There was a time when my child ate healthy...he preferred fruit and veggies over junk and gladly finished the meal in front of him. I have a feeling I'll need documentation of this later on in life.And speaking of chicken salad - I have craved this like no other my entire pregnancy. Back when I was realllllly sick it was one of the few things that didn't send me into immediate heaves. My favorite way to make it is with grilled chicken, lots of grapes, apple, raisins, celery, dill relish and a little mayo mixed with milk to make it go further without having to use very much. Yum tummy tickly!

Our New Fave

If you haven't read this book then go get it. Now! We love it :)