Grocery Challenge Week 2

I know you are all dying to know how I did last week & what the plans are this week :)

Four of the recipes I did last week were new....that was a mistake on my part! The beef stir fry was good & very filling. The Italian Pasta Bake was great & I made two so there is one in the freezer. John was not a fan of the Spring & Summer soup....it wasn't bad. I had it for lunch the next day & I think it was better the second day. I think it would have been great in a bread bowl. I have some in the freezer so maybe I will make a bread bowl & try it again! Neither of us liked the pot pie. It just didn't seem to have much flavor. Maybe it is because I have a great chicken pot pie recipe that I got from a friend that we both love. We did do Milo's on Saturday for lunch but used a coupon so only paid for one meal. That didn't fit in the "healthy" category, but John needed a burger after all the other meals that week :) I also did a small trip to Whole Foods to get Joshua some Back to Nature crackers. I had read on a blog that they were on sale for $1.33 per box & had a store coupon for $1 off. Since Joshua goes through 2 boxes a week usually & I pay $2.99 at Publix, you know I ran out to get them. Of course, they weren't on sale at our Whole Foods. I did have the store coupon & manufacturer's coupon for $1 off, so I did get 2 boxes. I think my total for the week was around $66...don't have my receipts in front of me. Oh, I made 2 loaves of chocolate chip banana bread (1 already eaten & 1 frozen) & a loaf of zucchini bread (which Joshua ate!). I made homemade chicken stock....14 cups! I was in the kitchen a lot!

I will say that while trying to plan for this week I thought I would have to give up because it seemed hard to plan for the $75 budget! Anyway, here is the plan for this week for dinners. Breakfasts & lunches will be the same as last week.

Sunday - salmon patties, mac & cheese, green beans
Monday - chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, fruit
Tuesday - sweet shredded pork tacos
Wednesday - leftover pork tacos
Thursday - taco salad with the remaining pork
Friday - chicken fried rice
Saturday - possibly be with family for dinner so not sure yet

I bought almost everything we need for just under $60 I think....that also includes 12 containers of baby food for Timothy since he still gags on real food! The remaining items should cost less than $10 I think.

Recyclebank

Want an easy to get some great coupons? Register with Recyclebank! You take pledges to "be green" & take quizzes to earn points. Points can be redeemed for coupons or other things. I just started last week & have gotten 4 $1 off Back to Nature coupons (Joshua's favorite is Back to Nature Honey Graham sticks!). If you click on the above link & register, I will get 10 points :)

How I Work in the Kitchen

This is what I see when I look down while trying to work in the kitchen:

Or, he is hanging on the the back of my legs. When he does that, I tell John that I feel like a mommy elephant with a baby elephant hanging on to my tail. He really can't stand to be away from me. So, he walks around the kitchen holding on to my legs....and I remember to enjoy it because it won't be long until he doesn't want to be with me all of the time! (Clarification: no, he isn't walking on his own yet...only when he can hold onto something/someone.)

Joshua's Summer

This picture pretty much sums up Joshua:

He seems to be enjoying his summer. This is his first summer in 3 years to not have therapy most days. He is only doing one class once a week & will start his horseback riding again in a few weeks. I have some other things in mind for him but just haven't made the calls yet. Not sure what would keep me too busy to be on the phone :)

I think his favorite thing about summer is anything to do with water. We don't play outside tons since Timothy is still so little (& he hates the water) but Joshua loves it when we do. He doesn't care if it is the sprinkler, the splash pool, or just his sand & water table....he loves it all. The first time I took the splash pool out was quite an experience. I couldn't find the attachment for our air pump so I had to blow the thing up myself. I carried Timothy out with me to take it out back to fill it up so that the water could warm up a little. Joshua was sitting on the couch by the window most of the time watching me. After I finished filling the pool, I dropped the hose on the patio & the handle busted, sending water spraying everywhere. Water was spraying straight towards the gate on the fence, so I was going to get soaked going through the gate to turn the water off. I decided it was better to just walk through the house & go around from the front. That's when I discovered that Joshua had locked me out! After freaking out for a moment, I grabbed the hose to move it so that I could get out without getting soaked. Unfortunately, when I moved it, Timothy got sprayed in the face by a small stream of water (I was holding him, so I got sprayed too). I took him around to turn off the water & saw our neighbor's adult son in her yard. He let me use his phone to call John. Of course, John didn't answer the first time I called so I had to call again. After he stopped laughing at me, he left work to come let me in. The neighbor's son came to the back door & tried to use a credit card to get me in. Then we found out the dead bolt was locked. Joshua was sitting on the couch by the window smiling & watching tv the entire time! Timothy & I hung out in the one spot that actually had shade where I could still see Joshua too. Luckily John doesn't work too far from home! I take me keys with me now if I walk out without Joshua!

Ten Months Old!!

I know....two posts in one day!

He's excited about Miss Rachel on Signing Time.

His new funny face.

Precious Baby!

I took some pictures of Timothy this evening. He is so funny! Hard to believe we will be celebrating his birthday in two months! He is so expressive & has started making a funny face all the time. He loves everything that Joshua does. He has become a fan of Super Why & Signing Time. We have finally gotten to a point that he can eat puffs without gagging. Cheerios still make him gag though. But its progress! He is such a fun little boy & might be the biggest mommy's boy ever! He still crawls after me crying if I leave the room. He cries in the nursery at church; he cries if someone wants to hold him unless he has had at least 20 minutes to warm up; he even cries when I leave him with John sometimes. But, I enjoy being his favorite person :) I know it won't last....Joshua signs "Daddy" at least 100 times a day while John is at work, so I know daddy's day is coming with Timothy too!

Grocery Challenge

Sorry its been a while! I don't think we have taken any pictures lately, so not much to post! Thankfully things have been pretty uneventful around here. These two boys keep me busy though! I forgot how much babies can get into once they are mobile :) We have been having lots of fun the past several weeks since Timothy learned to crawl!

Anyway, I will post more on the boys later. This post is more of an accountability for me, but maybe it will be helpful to someone else. I entered the All You Grocery Challenge. I read about it on Southern Savers on Friday, which was the last day to enter. Basically, you have to prepare healthy meals for your family for $25/person (not including children under 1 year old) per week for 4 weeks. I had just been complaining to John about how much our groceries cost. I have even started couponing (though not as the Extreme Couponers do!) but I still haven't seen much difference. Now, a $75 budget per week for all meals (at home & eating out) seems impossible to me, so this will definitely be a challenge. I am going to post my meal plans weekly on here so that I can keep up with it. I may not make it beyond this week, but hopefully I will. If you can actually stick to that budget please feel free to share your strategies, recipes, etc! I didn't post this earlier because I went shopping yesterday & I wanted to make sure I didn't go over budget on the first shopping trip! One other thing about this challenge - you can use any food that you already have in your house.

So, here is what we are doing this week:

breakfasts: we can choose from cereals, oatmeal, bacon/egg/cheese muffins, fruit, cinnamon rolls
lunchs: Boar's Head sandwiches, PB&J, a few Lean Cuisine meals I already had, tuna salad, chicken salad, peanut butter & banana sandwiches, or maybe leftovers

dinners: Sunday - leftovers from Father's day lunch with family
Monday - broccoli & beef stir fry over brown rice
Tuesday - Spring and Summer Soup & rolls
Wednesday - roasted chicken & probably squash/zucchini ribbons & broccoli/raisin salad
Thursday - Piled High Veggie Pot Pie (using leftover chicken)
Friday - leftover pot pie
Saturday - not sure yet....probably a pasta dish

We will probably eat out once or twice (most likely using coupons from the coupon book we bought from Joshua's school).

I went to Aldi & Publix yesterday to buy everything I need for the week & spent about $55. I already had a lot of fruit that I had just bought the end of last week but I got a bag of apples & some blueberries. I bought a ton of veggies & my grandparents gave us several pounds of squash & zucchini on Saturday. I haven't shopped at Aldi in a while but I thought I would give it a try again since I needed to pick up some sugar, honey & eggs in addition to lots of produce. I know they have much lower prices & I think their veggies are usually pretty good (I haven't been a fan of their fruit though).

I plan to do some baking for snacks. My favorite lately is this Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I also plan to bake this Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread (thanks to all of the zucchini I have to use up!). For lunch today I made these Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries. To my delight (& huge surprise) Joshua liked them & asked for more!! We will be making these again. (click on the link & the recipe is at the bottom of the page...I substituted ground oats since I didn't have any ground flaxseed)

Again, please feel free to share any of your secrets with me!