Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey already. Your suggestions have helped me a ton! It’s not too late to take the survey–you can do that here. Here’s a free printable for you to plan your March menu. Click here to download the pdf.
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Will you take a few minutes and answer the 8 questions below? Also if you have any additional comments about Grocery Shrink Plus, you can add them as a comment to the post. Your survey comments are private the website comments are not :).
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Old Lamp New Table
This is a test to see if I can post from my phone yet. Heather won the Pottery Barn knock-off lamp when the sisters divided their room. We just bought her nightstand tonight on Craigslist. We hope to furnish our new house mostly by buying and selling on craigslist.
Join me at Learnvest
Whew! I had a few days of technical difficulties. It started when my old computer crashed and the new one didn’t like my blog program. My techy updated the blog and just like that–I can post again. Hooray :).
Yesterday I was blessed to be a feature over at Learnvest. You can read the article here. You might be surprised to read there that we were guest “stars” on the new TLC reality TV series Extreme Cheapskates. I didn’t mention it before for several reasons. The producer kept me out of the loop about when it would air and made me promise not to talk about it until he said it was okay. The first I knew it had aired was when a sweet viewer sent me a note of “I saw you…” I assumed I missed my chance to let you know so you could watch it. But they keep playing that episode over and over and over. In fact it aired again just yesterday, so I’m guessing, if you get TLC, it’s not to late to catch it.
As a disclaimer: I don’t have cable and have never seen the episode–Some people have loved it, my extended family was completely embarrassed by it; and one friend said, “Let me put it this way: You looked pretty, but the show wasn’t.” So whatever it is, just know that they can take little clips out of context and make the whole thing mean something different. For example the clip on the show’s webpage shows my 4 year old son folding washcloths. One is all brown and he holds it up and says, “This one looks dirty.” I said, “It’s fine.” That washcloth was brown because it had been scorched in the microwave (huh? long story) so I knew it was perfectly clean and fine to use…but the way they edited the clip it made me feel a little gross about the whole thing.
My biggest disappointment was that they didn’t mention this website at all on the show so most of the viewers will miss out on all the extra ideas and help they could get to save money. But I have gotten several other media opportunities because of the show that will help to spread the word.
Sweet Potato Chips
Daddy is in the big overstuffed rocker holding Grant while they both sleep. Caleb has a friend over and I can hear their muffled voices talking excitedly through the door and the chink, tinkle, of legos as they look for just the right piece. Every so often a little boy chuckle adds percussion to the happy song. The two friends have been kind to include Heather and the two little brothers in their play. Heidi is curled up in her brand new room with a good book. This is a happy time :). So I am taking a few moments while the house is calm and happy to catch up on some blogging. (Ooops, wrote too soon–now the screaming commences…I’ll be back…)
I’m on the search for new foods that will fit into my healthy lifestyle but still give me the satisfcation that junk food did on the comfort side of things. Enter the baked sweet potato chip. Yum! The key to doing this well is selecting a sweet potato that is long and thin and relatively uniform. Wash it well then slice it right through the middle (the short direction.)
I use a mandolin slicer to make the slices uniform, and work from the middle towards the ends. This gives me the best looking slices with the least amount of waste.
Next I lay them edge to edge on a cookie sheet covered with a silicone baking mat. Spritz them lightly with olive oil (or non-stick spray) and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then take them out and flip. Spritz and sprinkle the second side with oil and sea salt and return to the oven for 13 minutes. At this point, I turn off the oven and leave the door shut, letting the chips crisp up as the oven cools down.
I can’t tell you how delicious these are! My daughter, Heidi, and I had the first batch gone before the rest of the kids trickled in the kitchen and asked “What smells so good?” and “Can I have some?” My solution is to make them often enough that they aren’t such rare treats, lol.
Creamy Southwest Soup: A slow cooked masterpiece
I ♥ pinterest. From homemade Valentines, to kitchen remodel, to new healthy recipes–the inspiration is all there. Tonight’s dinner is no exception.
Mondays and Wednesdays I play Mama Taxi and arrive home at dinner time. By then blood sugars are low and tempers are high, so using the Slow Cooker is a must.
The original recipe for this dish came from Jenna at Held Scraptive. I modified it to fit my pantry stash and to enlarge it for our family.
Creamy Southwest Soup
2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can tomates and green chilies, undrained
2 cans whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (we used 2 cups of black beans cooked from dry)
1 brick, 8 oz, 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 envelope ranch dressing mix (I had some of JPs Bacon Ranch Mix that was a gift that I used, but next time I’ll use a homemade ranch mix recipe.)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 cup brown rice, cooked (we had some leftover from Sunday so I threw it in to make the soup stretch.) (I also threw in half a can of leftover enchilada sauce, just to use it up.)
In a 4-5 quart slow cooker, combine tomatoes, corn, and beans. Place the brick of cream cheese on top, in the center away from the sides. Place chicken in a single layer over the top, sprinkle with spices. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours. Turn off the heat. Shred the chicken with two forks, and stir in the cream cheese, brown rice, and cilantro. We served ours with cornbread muffins.
How it went over with the family: I thought it was delicious (but I will eat anything….). It fit in well with my FYM healthy eating plan. 1 Cup has 255 calories; 22g carbs, 7g fat, and 22 g protein. Darren said, “Wow, this has great flavor but it’s going to be spicy for the kids.” Heidi drank 3 tall glasses of water but ate her whole bowl. She declared it tasty but HOT. Caleb, Heather and Brandon ate it all without a word (but I had to feed Brandon’s to him). Dub didn’t mind the spiciness but hated the look of it, especially the tomatoes. Darren had to feed him every bite and hid the tomatoes under stuff. All in all for as picky as my family is, this is a recipe that I would try again.
I am just about sold on boneless skinless chicken. It has been going on sale around here between $1-$1.39 a lb and to come home and just shred with 2 forks and eat was a huge mind reliever. If DH was out of work, I would have used a $.69/lb whole chickens and not complain, but wowza was this easy and delicious.
Banana Ice Cream
This treat is amazing, if you like bananas. There’s only three ingredients and it only takes a few minutes…but it tastes so good.
Slice 4 ripe bananas onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone baking sheet (or wax paper.) Freeze until hard, about 3 hours.
Place 1/2 cup milk into a blender. Add a few banana pieces at a time and blend into a puree. Keep adding until all the bananas are used and you like the consistency. (Note: I have a Vitamix blender and made the mistake of adding all the banana pieces at once. It was really hard on my machine though we finally did get to the creamy ice cream texture.)
Variations: Add 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter or peanut butter powder (PB2) to the milk. 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder is also good. Up to 1 cup of other fruits can be added like frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango etc. The bananas are essential to the creaminess of the dish so the more bananas you have the better it will be.
Emergency Snacking
There’s a time of day when the 4 year old should have had a nap, but now if you lay him down he won’t sleep tonight. It’s the time of day when he sees his sister’s chocolate protein bars that are tucked away in her closet, so her brothers and sisters won’t eat them, and she can have them for after her pointe class. The time when he brings the box to her with his big baby eyes and says, “Can I have one?” And she has to say, “no” because if he gets one then they all will want one and she won’t have what she needs for dance class.
Then his cute little lip sticks out, and big alligator tears trickle down his cheeks and your heart breaks and melts into a pile of enabling goo. And you know if you don’t do something, that sad little moment will turn into a kicking, screaming, thrashing, a “oh why didn’t I give the toddler a nap?”, moment.
When this happens, I take him by the little hand. And put a spoon in it. Then we pour honey, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and oats in a pan and wait for the magic to happen.
Snack Balls
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup quick oats
Place honey in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stirring until it is very runny. Turn off the heat and add the peanut butter and cocoa powder, stirring until smooth. Add oats and stir until mixture forms a dough. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and let cool for a few minutes (or don’t.) Eat right away and store the leftovers (there won’t be any) in an airtight container. Then cuddle your boy with a good book.
As seen on pinterest….
Self braided headband. Tutorial Here.
Just a little spraypaint…
I’m having a great time at the new house. The previous owners left quite a bit of stuff. I’ve been cleaning up some of it and selling it on craigslist to help pay for the renovations. Some of it is just trash, like the original bath rug with the backing that turned to dust. And some of it I can hit with a touch of spraypaint and make like new :).
Above is the brown return air vent from Heidi’s new aqua and white bedroom. A rusty vent fan cover from the boy’s bathroom, a 3/4″ steel conduit pipe ($3) that I hacksawed to fit the window in my office, and wooden finials and mounting brackets that held a smaller curtain bar in the master bedroom.
Add the last bits of white primer and spraypaint from the garage….
Total out of pocket cost: $3. Money saved: $50. Smile.
The fabric should arrive today for my office curtains and Heidi’s room will be carpeted this week!!!! I can’t wait to see it all come together.