The Grocery Cart Challenge

Corned Beef and Cabbage

2012-02-29T00:01:00.002-08:00

As a kid I looked forward to holidays. They held such excitement as I anticipated the presents, special foods and fun family traditions. But there was one holiday that brought fear to my grade school heart; the dreaded St. Patrick’s day. Every year I worried that I would forget to wear enough visible green to avoid getting pinched during recess. I remember the brave kids who would wear a

Menu Monday - Keeping it Easy

2012-02-26T21:22:00.003-08:00

I'm going into this week feeling like I'm trying to fight off a cold and biting off more tasks than I can chew. So meals this week need to be E-A-S-Y! Out comes the crock pot and the meals with only a few ingredients. And did I mention it's snowing here? Yahoo! I can still make soups.Breakfasts:Oatmeal, fruit smoothies or farina.Dinners:Crockpot Chicken CacciatoreCheese Enchilada ChowderBeef

Free App Finder

2012-02-26T21:06:00.003-08:00

There's a new site on the web. Go check out appsmitten and sign up for their free email newsletter. They search the million plus apps that are out there and then hand pick the ones that you will like. A short email arrives in your inbox and you can check them out from there. It saves me tons of time and did I mention it's free?

GCC Recipe Swap

2012-02-23T09:42:00.004-08:00

So um....we had a little fire in the microwave this week. One of the kids decided to go to the dollar store and buy one of those noodles in a Styrofoam cup things. When the kid cooked it in the microwave he opened it, put it in for 5 minutes and walked away. He forgot to add water. I wasn't here but my husband said there were flames. The stench is still in the house. I've cleaned the

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-02-22T08:45:00.003-08:00

I actually shopped late Monday night but it's taken me this long to get it put up here. It's been a good but busy week so far. Every morning when I take the dogs out I've been staring at my garden and dreaming of what it will look like this spring. I can't wait to see the fresh soil and the tiny veggie sprouts growing out of it. It will be so nice to eat organic homegrown vegetables. But

Menu Monday

2012-02-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

I had some over ripe bananas to use up so I pulled out the best ever banana bread recipe. Currently the house is silent as all 4 kids are stuffing their faces with warm bread. I'll have to freeze the second loaf or it will all disappear today. Here's what is cooking at our house this week.Breakfast:Sour cream banana bread, oatmeal, farina and/or fruitDinners:Crock Pot Cheesy Ravioli

GCC Recipe Swap - Clean Coffee Pot Recipe

2012-02-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

Who even THINKS to clean their coffee pot? But once you use this recipe and see what comes out, you won't ever forget to do it. Here's what you need.1 cup warm water1/4 cup baking sodaMix the two together and pour into your water reserve. Let run like a normal brewing cycle but don't use a filter. Rinse out the pot and then run 2 to 3 cycles of just plain water. Repeat once a month for

Getting The Most From Your Meat Purchase

2012-02-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

Aside from my vegetarian daughter, we are a meat and potatoes family. I have four hungry guys in this house who don’t consider it a complete meal unless there is some kind of animal on their plate. They will tolerate my non-meat creations but to them, it’s more of a snack than an actual meal. But being a carnivore can get expensive. A large portion of my budget goes directly towards meat

Best Valentines Day Present Ever!

2012-02-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my love of all things butter and I got an email from a creamery saying they wanted to send me some of THEIR butter. It was strange but I checked them out, they seemed legit and I sent off my mailing address thinking...#1 I hope I didn't just give my address to some crazy person and#2 There is no way some one is just going to send me butter.Today I had a

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-02-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

We did our grocery shopping this week on a weekday after an early morning trip to the orthodontist. It was so nice and quiet and we were in and out in less than 30 minutes. Here's what we got.Win-coOlive Oil $2.85Canned Whipping Cream $1.732 packs of frozen Egg Noodles $4.00garlic bread $1.98bulk penne pasta $1.87butter $2.69spaghetti sauce $.98ricotta cheese $2.34bulk taco seasoning $

Menu Monday

2012-02-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

We have a special meal planned for Valentines Day this week. Since I'll be at work all afternoon I'll be making most of it ahead in the morning so that when I come home the kids will have already cooked and assembled what was left to do and made the table all pretty. I thought about taking everyone out so that I could have the night off but really, I just want to be home and cozy. We may

Calling in Back Up...Freezer Food

2012-02-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

I'm spending the day filling the freezer with goodies. I've got dough for rolls in the bread machine, found some blueberries in the back of the freezer for some muffins, and I'm making a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup to stock up the freezer. The thing that saves me every week is knowing that I have back-up in my freezer. Sometimes I don't have time to put something in the crockpot

GCC Recipe Swap - Valentines Day

2012-02-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Valentines day is coming up. Do you need a special dessert recipe for the whole family? Here's a great little recipe that feeds that chocolate craving and still looks fancy even though it's super easy. Just whip it up and put it in tall wine glasses with a dollop of whipped cream on top and it looks like a fancy dessert. Hope you like it.Valentines Chocolate Mousse8 ounces chocolate chips6

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-02-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

I visited my favorite bread store this week. I haven't been in for a while but it was worth it because they filled me in on a great deal. If you're local you won't want to miss this Groupon deal for the Franz Bakery Outlet. Spend $5 and get $10 worth of product. Here's what I got this week.Franz3 boxes of donuts5 loaves of bread1 hoagie rolls1 bagelsSubtotal $10Win-coLettuce $1.78white

Menu Monday

2012-02-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here watching the tail end of the Superbowl and finishing up my menu plan. No rest for us busy moms. Our bellies are full of Superbowl snacks and we are all vowing to not eat again for days. (groan).My freezer has a whole chicken in it, so I think that's what will be first on our menu. Here's what is cooking at our house this week.Breakfasts:Apple Oat Bran Muffins, oatmeal, or

GCC Recipe Swap - Easy Dip

2012-02-04T16:01:00.000-08:00

It's Superbowl tomorrow, the only football game that I watch all year. We are heading over to Grandma's for all day snacking and all the game highlights. I'm way more excited about half time and all the fun commercials. So if you need an easy dip for tomorrow, we've got one that just might do the trick. It meets my boys standards of gut-wrenching junk food and my daughter's vegetarian bent

For The Love of Butter

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

I used to be a die hard margarine fan. It was what I grew up with, I was comfortable using it and it was cheap. Why mess with a good thing? But my culinary friends would all tell rapturous stories of their experiences with butter. They would have a dreamy look in their eyes as they told me about their flakier pie crusts, lighter breads and richer gravies. The retelling of their experience

Menu Monday- New Cookbooks!

2012-01-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

I came across a stack of Weight Watchers cookbooks so I'm going to be giving some new recipes a try. I made my kids look through them and put sticky notes on the recipes that they would like to eat so we'll see how it goes this week. If you're interested in any of the recipes, the books I'm working from are pictured here.Here's what's cooking this week!Breakfasts:Oatmeal, farina, pancakes or

GCC Recipe Swap- Thrifty Coffee Drinks

2012-01-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

In the comments of my last post someone asked me why in the WORLD I bought sweetened condensed milk so often! So I thought I'd let you in on my Starbucks busting secret. Instead of buying a $5 coffee every day I make my own sweet coffee drink for less than $2 per week. And it's so embarrassingly easy. All I do is make a full pot of coffee, mix it into my Pampered Chef Quick Stir Pitcher (

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

I tried to offset last weeks budget blow-up with a slim and creative week this week. I built my menu around meat already in the freezer, fruits and veggies I already had and just got the minimum we'd need to feed us healthy meals for a week. Here's what I got.Fred Meyer'sFamily Size Pork chops marked down to $11.02Win-coWorcestershire sauce $1.10Soy sauce $1.93Milk $2.53Almond Milk $3.24Matches

Menu Monday

2012-01-22T19:20:00.001-08:00

A couple of nights last week, I came home from work too tired to cook so I assigned kids to pull something together. We all got fed, they had a nice little lesson in cooking and serving and Mama was happy. It also left me with a few recipes that I have all the ingredients for, so they will get moved to this weeks menu. And since I blew last weeks budget out of the water, it's really going to

Soups On!

2012-01-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

I wish that my parents had written a hand book for my husband when we first got married. It would have made life so much easier. There were just some things he needed to know about living with me that I couldn’t explain to him all by myself. For instance, there were certain times that he needed to have a bag of peanut butter cups ready for me with no questions asked. He also needed to know

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-01-17T07:07:00.000-08:00

Boy did I blow the budget this week. But we'll be trying out some fun new vegetarian meals to add to our future list of meatless recipes. All in the name of research, right?Win-co2 bags tortillas $3.76TP $4.98mushrooms $1.989 mini pizza crusts $10.022 vegetarian refried beans $2.10butter spread $2.642 cans garbanzo beans $1.362 gallons milk $5.06salsa $3.98English muffins $1.98apples

Menu Monday - Mostly Vegetarian

2012-01-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Having a vegetarian in the house is complicated. Even when she was a little girl she would pick a green pepper over a hotdog and peel the meat off her hamburger before eating it. It was inevitable I guess. But living with 5 other carnivores can be rough on her. I try and cook a portion of each meal without meat in it but sometimes that doesn't cut it. So this week she requested a

GCC Recipe Swap

2012-01-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

We have full days and need quick breakfasts. One of the kids' favorite breakfasts is simple and provides a whole lot of healthy goodness to get them ready for a day full of learning. I hope you like it.Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast (for one)1/2 a whole wheat English muffin, toastedPeanut ButterHoney1/2 a bananacinnamonPreheat oven broiler. Spread toasted muffin with peanut butter. Next,

GCC Shopping Round Up

2012-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

It seems that Sunday's are working for me as my new shopping day. Here's what I got this week.Win-co2 loaves of bread $3.162 whole chickens $8.86frozen chicken breasts $5.98ground turkey $4.982 tubs yogurt $3.96almond milk $3.24sour cream $1.98brown sugar $1.42cream of chicken soup $.88spinach $1.782 onions $1.02syrup $1.98tomatoes $1.28Dry onion soup mix $.794 avocados $3.12bulk baking powder $

Menu Monday

2012-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm planning a whole crockpot roasted chicken this week. It will not only become a main dish meal but will also be part of a salad with greens and chicken, and then boiled down into broth for future meals. I love when a recipe calls for chicken broth and I can pull out homemade broth from my freezer. It just has better flavor and a richer taste than the canned stuff. Here's what's cooking

GCC Recipe Swap - Healthy Breakfast

2012-01-06T07:17:00.000-08:00

We eat lots of muffins for breakfast because they are easy to make, the kids can just grab them, and I can make extra for the freezer to save time. But it would be easy to start their day with sugar filled "cake" muffins rather than something healthy. So these are a great nutritious alternative that tastes just as good. I hope you like them.Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins 3 1/2

Food as Comfort

2012-01-04T07:46:00.000-08:00