A List. And a dinner plan.

1.)  Forgive my absence since my last post; due to the nature of my last post, you might have guessed that I was trying to regain peace and balance and sanity.  If you guessed this, you were right!

2.)  I did a non-frugal thing and bought some Vibram FiveFingers.  They were more expensive than probably the past 3 pairs of shoes I've bought combined, but they are AWESOME!

3.)  Our garden is really flourishing and I love it.  We've already harvested lettuce, green beans, a few zucchini, basil, green onions, and spinach.  There are lots of little green tomatoes out there too!

4.)  In my last post I wrote about Liam now crawling and getting into EVERYTHING.  We went out and bought one of those baby gate play yards, and it's possibly one of the greatest inventions ever.

5.)  If you like to sew like me and have a little boy, check this out: 25 things to make for a baby boy.  It's refreshing to see this after seeing countless dress/frilly/girly tutorials on the web!

6.)  I've also written about doing the Supreme 90 Day workout before.  Overall, I'm very pleased with this system, and for only 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong.  I'm on day 21, and it really does produce results.  However, I'm looking to really lose weight, and thought I've lost inches, the scale hasn't budged. at. all.  Frustrating, given how hard I'm working, but I do feel stronger and more in shape.  So I decided to do another fairly non-frugal thing, and I ordered Insanity.  I actually did get a pretty good deal though...I bought it used on Amazon and had about $45 in Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I only paid about $40.  (Compared to almost $150 brand-new).  It's going to be hard, but I'm excited to put forth the effort to see results!

7.)  Is anyone else a little angry with Netflix for raising their prices?!?  We now pay $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming of TV shows/movies on the Wii and unlimited DVD rental (1 disc at a time).  In order to keep it that way, we'd now have to pay $15.98.  Still cheaper than cable, but irritating.

8.)  Happy Bastille Day!

9.)  Here's our dinner menu this week (week of 7/10):

Monday: Pasta with red sauce, steamed peas
Tuesday:  Beef with Peppers, rice
Wednesday:  BBQ chicken in the crock pot (easiest thing ever.  Put chicken in the crock pot, cover with BBQ sauce.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.), corn on the cob, baked potatoes
Thursday:  Swedish meatballs (from the freezer), mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini and onions
Friday:  Homemade pizza
Saturday:  leftovers
Sunday:  Shredded Chicken Sandwiches (a NW Ohio specialty!)

Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/27

Here's my grocery totals this week, followed by the meals planned.

Purchased with a Groupon at T-Bones

T-Bones: (A local, high-end grocery- I only went there because I had a groupon for $30 of groceries)
Whole wheat penne
Salsa
Milk
Turkey Italian Sausage
Beef stew meat
Chicken thighs & drumsticks
Mushrooms
Whole Wheat flatbread
Sour cream
Onion soup mix

Total spent: $15.98 ($15 for the groupon a couple months ago, $0.98 out of pocket)

Aldi: (not pictured, mainly because it was for last Sunday, and also because I forgot to take a picture)
Fresh mozzarella
Tomatoes
Chips
Hamburger/Hot Dog buns
Bowtie pasta

Total Spent: I lost the receipt, but under $10, because I used a $10 bill.  :) 
Grand Total: $25.98 (ish)
It was a light week grocery-wise.  Good for the wallet!


And here's the menu:

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff (recipe on this blog, under the 'recipe' label)

Wednesday:  Pinto Beans (recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook), rice, salad

Thursday:  Pollo Asado (looks delicious!), green beans/wax beans from the garden, flatbread and hummus

Friday:  Turkey Italian Sausages with peppers and onions


My garden is just starting to really produce lots and lots of stuff....it's exciting!  Can't wait to plan next week around what I'm able to harvest.

Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/20

Sorry this is so late--the week is almost over!  Yikes.  We had a great vacation, and though Rob came back last Sunday, I actually ended up staying in Ohio till Wednesday.  A couple of things came up, and it was nice to have an unexpected couple of days.  So, we didn't have much of a shopping trip/dinner menu this week.  Rob went to Aldi when he got back and proudly reported to me that he spent $26.36.  Love him!  I don't have the receipt to list all the items, but it was lots of basics like fruit, milk, cereal, etc.  The stuff we didn't buy for awhile before we left.  Then yesterday I spent $4.98 on a rotisserie chicken, and bought some baby food.  So we still came in under budget.  Anyway, here's this week's menu, Wednesday-Sunday.

Wednesday:  Taco Salad/Haystacks (I don't really know what to call this...you crunch up a bunch of tortilla chips and pile all the taco fillings on top)

Thursday:  Rotisserie chicken, wild rice, corn

Friday:  Skillet chicken, broccoli and penne  (this is one of our new favorite recipes!  I'm using leftover chicken from Thursday)

Saturday:  Leftovers or homemade waffles (Liam and I will be spending most of the day in the car attending a wedding while Rob's at work, so I doubt that we will even get to have a meal together)

Sunday:  I don't have a plan yet.  Hopefully some sort of a belated family dinner to celebrate my in-laws' anniversary.  Which I knew was this week, and even talked to them on that day, but didn't have my days of the week straight enough to put the date with the day.  Fail.  I'm losing my mind.  Happy anniversary anyway, Mom and Dad Barone, if you read this!!


I have lots of things to post this coming week--I went overboard in the sewing/crocheting/knitting categories while on vacation!

Dinner/Supper Menu: Week of 6/6

I feel like I just posted last week's menu....?  Well actually, I didn't get it posted until Wednesday but still--the weeks just seem to fly by.   I'm keeping grocery shopping to a BARE minimum this week because we're leaving for our vacation next Saturday (woohoo! we're going to Findlay again...maybe not the most tropical location to some folks but we're looking forward to alot of R & R!) so I don't want a lot of food laying around.  Every meal listed can be made from stuff we already have, so I only need to buy a few fresh fruit and veggies and possibly a little baby food.

Here goes:

Monday:  Grilled cheese and tomato soup (can you handle the exotic cuisine?!?)

Tuesday:  Grilled chicken sausage, veggie, and potato packets, also known as 'hobo packets'

Wednesday:  frozen pierogies, salad, and fruit

Thursday:  Roasted whole chicken, mashed potatoes (can you tell I have potatoes to use up?), broccoli

Friday:  BBQ Chicken Pizza (using leftover chicken from Thursday, and using my bread machine pizza dough recipe)

Saturday:  Leftovers for lunch, packing snacks/getting road trip food for dinner on the way to Findlay (probably from Sheetz, it's our favorite road trip fare!)

Sunday:  We'll be in Findlay--where the standard Sunday night meal is pizza (yes, again, we are pizza lovers after all) at Jac & Do's!

Dinner (Supper) Menu: week of 5/30

I am continually reminded (most recently, when we were in Ohio visiting my family for a long Memorial Day weekend-good times!) that I was raised in the land of 'breakfast, dinner, and supper.'  As in, breakfast is breakfast (I don't think that's ever anything else, anywhere) dinner is eaten around noon, and supper is eaten in the evening.  I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the way I conformed to the ways of the 'city people,' who eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Anyway, as a way to keep myself accountable to sticking to regular meal-planning, I'm going to post our dinner/supper menu for each week, because whenever I don't I end up going over budget at the store.  Breakfast around here is usually oatmeal, fruit and yogurt, cereal, toast, or muffins/waffles if I've had some extra time.  On the rare occasion when Rob and I are both at home for breakfast, I'll make eggs or omelets.  Regardless, I'm not including breakfast in the meal plans, nor lunch--which is usually leftovers or a sandwich for Rob, and leftovers, eggs, a sandwich, or a smoothie for me. 

So, here we go.  Whee.

Monday:  Last day of our long weekend at my parents'

Tuesday:  Cookout with our small group

Wednesday:  Lemon Pepper Chicken and Green Beans, cut-up oranges, salad (from our garden), and Strawberry Summer Cake (this is in the oven right now, and smells SO GOOD!)

Thursday:  Burritos (killing 2 birds with one stone--making some for the freezer), rice, frozen vegetables, fruit

Friday:  Homemade pizza

Saturday: Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Salad, veggies and flatbread with homemade hummus (this will probably be lunch since I'm working around dinnertime)

Sunday:  Meatballs from freezer and whole wheat penne with red sauce

Anybody else having something yummy this week?