Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tuesday 3/26/2013

Good morning!!!
Today is back to business day around here. We had a no school day yesterday due to snow but today things are back on track!!

So far I've made the bed, packed the lunches, got Hubby and the boys off to work/school and then Little Miss and I are back home and I've called to check on Hubby's Gram.

Now I am enjoying a second cup of coffee and planning my day.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day, I did laundry most of the day, this is what my bed looked like when my husband got home from work, keep in mind that I still had a load in the washer, a load in the dryer and had already put away 2 loads...


Goodness and you just know that after baths were taken I have more laundry waiting on me today. I hoping with the weather warming up hopefully soon that I'll be able to do a load each morning and hang it out, then maybe my monday's won't be so laundry filled??

Yesterday I paid bills, and I also straightened up the bathroom, swished the toilet, watered my plants, cleaned out the refrigerator in anticipation of grocery shopping this week at some point, ran the dishwasher several times and prompted the boys to spend time cleaning their room, which produced a couple bags of garbage( school papers, broken toys, wrappers off of various things-where do they get all this mess?) and it also produced a garbage bag of clothes to donate that are too small for my yougest son and a basket of clothes too small for my oldest son that I'll pack up and save for my youngest son. So yeah it was a busy day. And that list didn't even include meals and butt changes, lol 

My list for today is shaping up to look like:

a couple loads of laundry
lay out something for dinner/meal preps
work on grocery list
clip coupons from the weekend and go over grocery ads
Work in my kitchen, it needs a good straightening and needs to be swept
Straighten up the living room and sweep/vacuum in there as well
I also need to make some Pizza rolls for lunches and possibly some cookies for lunches as well.
Bag and take away the trash

So again busy busy!!

Dinner tonight I think is going to be chicken alfredo and broccolli!!
Enjoy your day!!!



Saturday, March 23, 2013

TIRED!!!

Yep that about sums it up. I'm tired, plum tucked out!!! It's been a long but wonderful day!!

This morning EARLY we got up and roused everyone from their warm snuggly beds and got everyone ready, loaded the packed cooler into the car and we were off....

We met the Boy Scout Troop at our church and after all the last minute confusion settled we caravanned down to Monticello. The home built and owned by Thomas Jefferson.

It was a little over 2 hr drive, I think mainly because there were so many of us trying to get in and out of traffic and with pee breaks and such- I mean seriously if  anyone thought they were going to take children on a car ride and not have to stop at least once to potty they've flipped their lid, anway we got there, to the parking lot and set up lunch. Mostly everyone brought a bagged lunch or they just snacked a bit but after lunch we bought tickets and were shuttled up to the house and given a tour of the main floor of the house then left to our own to tour the grounds and outbuildings, and rooms on the lower level.

This was my second trip and it was amazing I loved it!!

We left Monticello and ate at Michie Tavern, expensive but delicious!!! We also toured there a bit too and ended up at the general store.

It was a long day, my dogs are howling barking  but the kids had a great time!!!

Now the great task will be to talk my children into getting ready for bed since they all slept part of the way home, we've got to get some sleep so we don't miss church in the morning.  Wouldn't it figure, they are wide awake and my butt is dragging!!!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Pizza Rolls and Life Lately

I really need to be more diligent on updating this blog.

First off Annie and Tiffani, the recipe I used for the pizza rolls can be found here:
PS I read this blog fairly regulary and have made several of her recipes all with great success!!

http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/in-pursuit-of-the-perfect-pepperoni-roll/

Changes I made/Things I did  were:

I did not cut up pepperoni to add into the dough
I did not add mozzarella cheese to the dough
I used Mozzarella string cheese inside the roll
I used sliced pepperoni inside the roll - like 6 slices per roll but you could certainly add more to make up for what you didn't put in the dough at the begining
I did not use hot pepper rings- I made these for the kids, although I think it would be tasty if I were making them for myself :)
I completely enclosed the roll, so that nothing could ooze out- no pepperoni grease or melty cheese could get out, these were for school lunches after all and needed to be as neat as possible. Well I mean as neat as possible concidering they were going to school with an 11 yr old boy and a 7 yr old boy who in all defense are messy by nature so I had to try something to keep them clean right??? I enclosed them because I envisioned if I didn't - pepperoni grease on the outside, thus on their hands and where do they wipe their hands? YEP on their clothes so really I did it for me, to save me time, and headache trying to get grease out of their clothes. But do what you like as far as rolling them up, its a personal preference really. Or a sanity saver move, you decide, lol

I baked them on a silpat type mat  on a baking sheet till they were lightly golden brown.

They were great room temperature, great out of the oven and great frozen and thawed  and then room temp in lunch boxes. They were delicious, the bread was soft and they reheated well ( the hubs prefers them warmed as opposed to  room temp) WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN.....you get the idea :)

You could buy jarred sauce to serve with them but I make my own out of a .44 cent can of tomato paste, minced garlic a pinch of sugar, sprinkle of salt and PLENTY of yummy herbs - basil, oregano, italian seasoning, what ever you like. infact I was a die-hard Ragu girl and I haven't bought any of that in FOREVER, because hm is cheaper and better.

So there ya go, make some, I hope you like them!!!

And as far as Life Lately????? Its been alot of the usual around here. Last week I had a birthday on Wednesday. I do have to admit it was one of the best birthdays in a long time.  Tuesday Tiffani and Phoebe came down for a play date and lunch out. We went for mexican, it was YUM, complete YUM  and then we went shopping at the garden center. Tiffani bought a tree to mark a memorial for her son, whose birthday would have been Thursday, and I bought some houseplants -Shhhhh don't tell the hubs, he hates them, says  he thinks its my goal to make our house look like a rain forrest/Jungle, probably shouldn't tell him that I bought 3 and then saw another I wanted and Tiffani said Oh oh I have a big one of those at home I'll start you some, lol so don't tell ok because now I have another one coming :)  -  The big funny is I brought those plants home after our day out and planted them lickety split and then discarded the evidence in the garage- I totally intend on reusing those pots the plants came in, and its been over a week and he hasn't noticed  I even have them or if he has he hasn't said a thing.......
Tuesday night my bestie suprised me and came over and brought me flowers and a card then we had dinner. Then I finally got to bed around 11:30ish, then at Midnight dh woke me up and wished me a Happy Birthday and told me how much he loved me, AWESOMESAUCE!!!
Wednesday my actual birthday day I got lots of calls and cards, hugs and kisses from my kids -MORE AWESOMESAUCE- and  had lunch with my grandparents, then when the hubs got home he brought me flowers!! Red and white carnations, I love them, I think they smell great and last longer than roses. Thye are still as beautiful when he brought them home and tomorrow will be a week and trust me they have been sniffed a million times by my 3 yr old, so they've been through the ringer.
All in all it was a great birthday.

I'm still working at the Michael's teaching the cake decorating classes, doing cakes on the side is either really busy or slow so it comes in waves.

And we're itching for it to warm up so we can get into the garden and get some veggies going. Soon we'll be busy busy but I love it...

So that's been life lately.









Thursday, March 7, 2013

Frugality...No one ever said it would be easy!!

I've made more work for myself , but I think in the long run it will be soooooo worth it!!!

So last week I posted that I had started bread dough to make my own Cinnamon Swirl bread to use in french toast I had planned for dinner. Well the verdict? WIN!!  Everyone loved it and agreed that no only would it be great in french toast but as regular toast as well!! Infact I plan on making some very soon again toasting it and smearing it with hm apple butter, oh man I can hardly wait!!

My other frugal accomplishment is hm lunchables!! I admit to buying them for my boys, when they are on sale, if I have a coupon or just out of time saving nessessity, but I haven't been able to afford them as of late. No sales and no coupons, make them out of my price range, and ya know even with sales and coupons they are still way too expensive and really not alot of food for my growing boys.  I've been packing their lunches and they were only getting the store bought lunchables maybe 2x a month anyway so I didn't think they missed having them as a treat but I was wrong. My oldest came home from school last week and said that one of his school mates had this pizza roll thing that kinda looked homemade but he wasn't sure if it really was but boy would it be great to have something like that in his lunch and could maybe I come up with something like that .... So..Yep you guessed it I did some internet searching and found a recipe and made up a batch. And they were so well recieved that I made up another batch yesterday. They haven't made it into lunch boxes yet, that test will come tomorrow but so far the ratings are good!!!

Regular lunchable that my boys like cost me something like 3.49-3.99 each, they come with a deep dish pizza, and do it your self toppings (approx. 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese, I think like 5 pepperonis, and approx. tablespoons of sauce) they also have 2 oreo cookies, a indv. pack of cheese nips type crackers and a small drink.

I was able to make 16  pizza rolls and it cost me 1 tablespoon of yeast, some granulated garlic, not quite a whole package of pepperonis and 8 cheese sticks, flour, salt, etc. I got 16 for less than I can buy 1 lunchable. For dipping sauce I use 1 can of tomato paste .44 and some seasonings, lets say a generous .75 total  but it has to be less than that. I also can purchase regular size boxes of  cheez it crackers at the discount store for 1.49 and then break them down into indv. size bags, I can make my own cookies, and the drink boxes I can get those at the discount store too and they are much healthier as they are the veggie/fruit fusion juices and they also cost me 1.49 for 8.

So lets do the math: if I assume the 16 pizza rolls cost me around 4.50 ( I paid 2.49 for a package of pepperoni but didnt' use it all, lets figure 1.00 for 8 cheese sticks and another 1.00 for yeast and flour I think I am being generous on numbers) The sauce cost me .75

Pizza rolls 4.50+.75= 5.25  assuming 2 rolls per serving 5.25/8= 0.66 per serving
Cheez its 1.49/8 = 0.19 per serving I can probably get way more than 8 baggies of cheezits out of a box so this would be cheaper too but just using 8 as a basis
I am going to say ..25 for cookies, I think this is very generous, but I have no idea as I've never priced them out but my recipe makes TONS so they gotta be a little bit of nothing once we've got a ton baked up.
Drink boxes 1.49/8= 0.19 per serving

Grand total .66+.19+.25+.19= 1.29 compared to 4.00 yeah I'll take it and its cheaper than even the icky school lunch which costs 2.20 and they come home starving because they won't eat most of it because they say its not any good. So score one for mom!!! Score big for the grocery budget!!! Not to mention my family LOVES homemade so TRIPLE Score!!!

So now that I've opened this "homemade" can of worms I've created more work for myself but both recipes were so stinking easy its not really all that much work and the benefits are MORE than worth a little of my time!!!