Tasty Tuesday!: Poor Man's Lasagna

I found this recipe on Pinterest from http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/poor-mans-lasagna-recipe/#_a5y_p=1531113

This meal was super delicious! Not only that but you get TWO meals out of this recipe! One for dinner and one to freeze for another night.
I adapted the recipe to our family's liking but you can click on the link ^ for the original recipe. Below, is how I made the recipe.

Ingredients:




• 8-12 oz penne pasta
• 2lb ground meat
• 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
• 2 c shredded cheese
• 16 oz cottage cheese
• 1 can of pasta sauce
Directions:
• Boil the pasta according to what the package says.
• While the pasta is boiling, brown the ground meat.
• Drain meat. Set aside. Drain pasta. Return the pasta to original pot. (my pot was too small so I had to use a larger bowl).
• While pasta I still warm add the cottage cheese and cream cheese. Gently stir together until well combined.
• Heat up pasta sauce with the ground meat until warm.
• Layer two 8x8 pans with pasta mixture, meat and pasta sauce mixture, and shredded cheese. Repeat.
• Bake one pan at 300 degrees for 20-30 min.

To Freeze:
• Instead of baking cover pan with a few layers of plastic wrap then with some foil. Freeze.

To Cook Frozen Meal:
• Thaw for 24 hours, unwrap, and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

Whats On The Menu: Week of September 5-11

     I went grocery shopping yesterday. I made sure to try my best to stick to buying only what we needed for meals/snacks. I did buy some things that weren't on my list (books, yogurt) but over all I only bought what we needed. I spent $49.39.

     Want to know what I bought?

 

 

• store brand crackers (we like to eat these with salads)
• store brand pancake mix (for breakfasts)
• Doritos (my hubby takes these for his lunch)
• 6 small apples (for snacks and on sale 2/.88c)
• 2 Powerade (my stomach was a little queasy yesterday and drinking this helps)
• not pictured, a 20oz Diet Cola, store brand
• store brand eye drops (for the hubby)
• green leaf lettuce
• 1 potato
• Bananas (for snacks)
• 2 pouches of pizza crust mix
• 2 ground turkey
• bread
• 1 cake mix (hubby's bday is coming up!)
• 2 books (not on the list but the kids love books)
• mayo
• 4 yogurts (for my snacks)
• turkey sandwich meat (hubby takes sandwiches for lunch)
• spaghetti pasta
• spaghetti sauce
• tuna
• organic macaroni (the kids love this, for lunch)
• ranch dressing
• mozzarella cheese (for pizza)

 

 

 

What's On The Menu

 

 

   Friday (tonight): Chicken salad

   Saturday: Pizza

   Sunday: Hamburger helper

   Monday: Fideo (made with Mexican noodles, meat, potatos)

   Tuesday: Spaghetti and Texas toast

   Wednesday: Tuna salad sandwiches

   Thursday: Turkey salad 

Long post: Starting school, weekly menu, and green smothie recipe!

     Hey all!
     Once again, I've been neglecting this blog! So sorry.

     So, my daughter, who is 4, started PreK last week! She loves going but I think she is a little bored. When I ask her what she did in school she'll reply, "We ate, we played, we read, we watched a movie (?), we read again, we used the computer." All in monotone. Or, she'll sigh and say, "We JUST read." She loves reading, though! I don't know. I'm sure they haven't done much because they JUST (lol) started school and I'm sure they'll end up doing more later in the year. I don't know what she is expecting, though. I know she is disappointed because they haven't gone to the playground. I don't even know if they will at all. She only goes half day from 7:30am to 11:30am. She's making friends! Which is always good. Today she said, "My friends had lunchboxes today!" She said that because she wants to take her lunch box even though she doesn't eat lunch at school.


     Switching subjects here. :-)

   I've been wanting to try juicing. Mostly, because I'm curious. But, also because I think it would be a great way for me to incorporate enough fruits and vegetables in my diet. While googling juicing recipes I came across this blog post:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/06/20/why-i-dont-juice/

   I thought it totally made sense!
  
   Juice is not whole food: "Did you know that when you drink juiced vegetables and fruits you are not eating the whole food? The first time I saw a juicer in action I was actually a little surprised when I saw all this stuff being spit out the side. It turns out that stuff is the pulp (basically the fiber) and not included in the juice you are about to drink!"
  *Our family does not eat perfectly at all. But, I try my hardest to eat as close to "real food" as I can. I really like the 100 Days Of Real Food blog.

   Juice is expensive:  "If you aren’t careful, juicing could seriously blow the roof off your budget. The first day I shopped for juicing ingredients I spent $13 – on just 2 servings of organic juice!"
  *I try to save as much money as I can when I'm buying groceries so this was a big deal breaker to me.

   It takes time: "When you drink a daily green juice in addition to eating your regular meals it ends up taking extra time out of your day."
  *Apparently, a juicer has a lot of parts. So, this was also a deal breaker for me. I don't want to have extra dishes to wash.

   Then, the blogger writes why she likes smoothies instead and I totally agree!

  "

1. No special expensive equipment needed – any old blender will do!
2. When you blend fruits and vegetables together to make a smoothie you are consuming the whole food.
3. As a result, I find smoothies to be much more filling than juice.
4. My kids like smoothies (they gave the green juice a fair chance, but were not fans).
5. A little bit of veggies can go a long way in a smoothie – when I juiced a bunch of kale it seemed that only a couple tablespoons of juice came out."

   With that, I googled some green smoothie recipes. I found some I might like but not ones I knew I would like so I decided to put together my own recipe.
   In case you are interested here it is:

- 2cups kale greens
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 banana
- about 5 (small/medium) strawberries
-- Blend everything together and enjoy!
*If you want your smoothie cold, make sure to freeze the fruit beforehand.
     Best part is that the kids all liked the green smoothie as well!
  


     And before I forget. Here is this weeks menu:

Sunday (last night): Breakfast for dinner. Eggs and pancakes.
Monday: Pigs in a blanket, sweet potato fries
Tuesday: Chicken alfredo pasta, texas toast
Wednesday: Sandwiches, because we have church.
Thursday:  Pesto chicken (again, because we loved it), mashed potatoes, green beans

     I went grocery shopping yesterday and only spent $61.53! That is including snacks my daughter is taking for church and household items! I didn't need to get too much because we already had a lot of ingredients at home. :-)

  

Weekly Menu, deals, and clearance finds!

     Okay, so I am posting my weekly menu today instead of tomorrow.  Tomorrow evening is "Meet The Teacher" night at my daughter's school (she's starting PreK on Monday!!) and I'm going to be too busy to grocery shop.  There were some pretty good deals at HEB this week!  So, I'm excited about that!
     As I've mentioned before, I budget $100 weekly for groceries and household items.  The total cost of groceries ,plus a few household items, this week was $111.**.  After coupons and a $10 gift card I paid $76.**!
     So, we strayed away from our menu plan last week so some of the meals that we had planned for last week will be used for this week.

Here is what's planned:

Breakfast:
  Cereal, eggs, pancakes, toast...
Lunch:
  Sandwiches, leftovers...
Dinner:
  -(Tonight) Baked Basil/Pesto Chicken w/veggies, mashed potatoes, and Texas Toast

  -Burgers
  -Spaghetti and meatballs
  -Homemade pizza
  -Chalupas
  -Pigs In a Blanket
  -Pizza bites
  -Shrimp Alfredo Pasta


    And some good deals I found at HEB are:
-Buy HEB fully cooked burgers ($11.97) and get free
  Kettle chips
  2lr Soda
  Pickles
  ice cream
  cheese slices
-Buy Parmesan cheese ($1.98?) and get free
  Meatballs
-.50c off Betty Crocker mashed potatoes ($1.25) making it .75c per box
-Buy HEB Galore cookies (I think they are 2/$4) and get free
  HEB teddy grahams cookies


     Plus, I went to Walmart to get my daughter her school supplies and I also scored some shoes for her and my 2yo son on clearance! I got my daughter some pink sparkly shoes for $3 and for my son I got him some shoes that looked like fire trucks ($3!) and some tennis shoes ($5!). He is in love with his fire truck shoes!

 

Menu Plan Thursday!!

     I know a lot of people do "Menu Plan Monday" but mine will be on Thursday's because that is payday and I go grocery shopping on Thursday's. :-)
     So, I went grocery shopping earlier and I went waaaay over budget. I bought more snack-y stuff, than usual, for the hubby to take for his work lunches. Total was about $150. I budget $100 weekly. That budget includes groceries, household items, and eating out. I went over but some items I bought (like frozen chicken) we will use this week AND next week. So, next weeks groceries should be less.
     I also bought some makeup (for cheap!) and I found band-aids on clearance! I will be vlogging about that tonight which I will post a link to once its done!
    
     Ok, so here is this weeks menu:
 Breakfast- is usually fruit, cereal, or toast.
 Lunch- is usually peanut butter sandwiches with fruit.
 Snacks- fruit
 Dinner-
  Thursday: Pasta spirals with ground turkey and cheese (we ate this with corn tortillas)
  Friday: Homemade Pizza (pepperoni for the hubby and cheese and mushrooms for the kids and I)
  Saturday: Chicken Salad with homemade Cucumber dressing
  Sunday: Shrimp and feta salad with homemade Cucumber dressing
  Monday: Spaghetti with Texas Toast
  Tuesday: Baked Chicken Pesto with a side of green beans
  Wednesday: Tostadas (hard corn tortilla shells, refried beans, cheese, avocado, and tomatoes)

:-)

Link to first vlog (I hope it works):

http://youtu.be/hEeX4qwV_RU

Revamping the blog

Oh my!

     It seems I have neglected this blog!  Everyday I wake up and think to myself, "I WILL blog today!" and then life happens.
     Well, I decided to make it a goal to blog every week. If I blog more than once a week then great! I really do love blogging and writing and sharing recipes, ideas, and my life as a mommy to 3 kiddos. 
     I am hoping to revamp this blog and share themed posts.  I'm thinking of starting a vlog (video blog) on YouTube to compliment this blog.
     Hopefully, I'll post/vlog my weekly grocery hauls, weekly menus, yummy recipes, fitness ideas and workouts, and "day in the life" type posts/vlogs.
     I'm excited!
   
     I'll be back later to share my weekly grocery haul and weekly menu!

  Oh, I'd love to see comments of your favorite recipes and ideas for what I should blog or vlog about! ;-D

Dairy/Gluten Free Chocolate

   This recipe is super simple to make! All it is is 3 ingredients! Three! You wouldn't think to say that this chocolate is healthy but, actually, it is! Feel free to indulge ;-)

Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp. Honey
• 2 tbsp. Cocoa
• 2 tbsp. Coconut Oil

Directions:
   Mix all the ingredients well. Pour into cupcake liners or into a mold. Freeze to solidify. Then, enjoy!

Easy peasy and delicious!

Strawberry-Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

I was bored with my usual breakfast of Peanut Butter Toast and wasn't feeling any other breakfast foods. So, I thought I'd start making smoothies for breaskfast. I'm not a big fruit eater but I do love banana and strawberry banana snoothies! The banana smoothies I usually make are just bananas and milk. That's not filling at all. I've heard of people making oatmeal smoothies and I thought that sounded yummy! That's how this yummy, nutritious, and filling smoothie came together and here is the recipe for you to enjoy as well!

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup Oats

• 1 1/2 cup Coconut milk

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 4 large strawberries

• 1 banana

How to make it:

   First, using a blender, grind your oats until powdery.

   Second, add the rest of the ingredients until smooth.

   That's it!

   This recipe is a little thick but I like it because it fills me up!

  If you want it less thick I suggest you add less oats and more milk. The beauty of this recipe is you can change it to your liking. You don't have to follow the recipe exactly the way it is.

    It makes about 20-25 oz.

   Cheers! Enjoy! ;-D

Yummy!: Super Simple Cucumber Salad Dressing

   Inspired by the awesome Cucumber Onion dressing I love from a local restaurant called The Blue Onion I decided to try and create a salad dressing similar to it.
   And I think I did a pretty decent job! It came out sooo yummy!
   Want to learn how to make it?
   Of course you do! ;-D

Ingredients:
 • 1/2 cucumber
 • 3/4 cup plain yogurt
 • 3 or 4 stalks (?) green onion
 • and a pinch (or two) of salt
This makes about a full mason jar

Directions:
   Put all the ingredients in a Ninja blender(I'm sure a regular blender is fine too) then mix it all up until wrll blended.

   That's it! I told you it was simple!
The best part is is that the WHOLE jar is probably only 100 calories! The yogurt I bought is 100 calories per cup. I only use a 3/4 cup, making it 75 cal. Add the rest of the ingredients, which has very little calories and you have a jar of salad dressing that is only 100 calories, is super yummy, and is healthy!

If you make it, let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how delicious it was!

Not the best picture but it shows the ingredients I used.

Pour me a tall glass of patience, please.

   Today was rough. Motherhood is rough. It's not all rainbows and butterflies. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I wish I could just run away.  Or, at least hide in a closet behind the clothes with a pillow over my head. Anything to take me away from the here and now. From the noise. From sticky little hands tugging me this way and that way. But, who said motherhood would be easy anyways, right?

   My precious, precious two year old definitely keeps me on my toes. If patience was offered in a perscription pill form I'd ask for the highest dosage. Some days I feel like all I'm doing is trying to avoid explosions. I do whatever it takes to keep the "bomb" from exploding. 

   He doesn't understand the word, "wait." It's now or never.

   If you mess with his trucks. Oh, boy.

   If he can't have this or that the world must be ending.

   This little boy has always been my strong willed child. As a baby, he'd cry for hours and only wanted me to hold him. I had a long list of songs I sang to him as I rocked him to sleep for nap times and for bed time he'd only fall asleep if some part of his body was touching mine. 

   

   Now, I know what you're thinking. I must be a horrible mother who doesn't dicipline her child. 

   Well, I never said I was perfect. 

   I'll admit, some days I just do what it takes to get through the day. Even if it means bribing with snacks. Some days I dicipline with extra cuddles and attention. Some days I do the "Time out" approach. I know consistency is key when diciplining but I also believe that some days this works and some days that works. 

   All I know is that I'm still learning. Motherhood isn't easy in my opinion.

   As I lay in bed thinking about all that went on today I have to remind myself that, yes, motherhood is rough but I'm not on this road alone. I have my husband and I have God. Instead of thinking, "I need to get away!", I should praise God that I even have children to call my own. Instead of getting overwhelmed with all that I 'need' to do I should be asking for help from my husband. I am not in this alone. I just need to learn to ask.
   And, maybe, I should eat a chocolate bar or two as my "therapy." ;-D

   Oh, PS, my two year old is not some horrible wild child. He has his bad days but he truly is the most silliest, cutest, sweetest little boy ever! I couldn't ask for a better two year old. <3

Craft: Clothespin Airplanes

Inspired by this Pinterest image:

   I thought this craft would be the perfect craft to do on a cold, windy, rainy day like
today.
   Last night I went to the local Dollar
General and got my supplies.
   Unfortunately, there were no popsicle sticks. So, instead, I got some sticky foam sheets and clothespins for a total of $2!
 
Here's how to make them,
Supplies:
• Clothespins
• Sticky Foam Sheets
• Pen (to trace out the wings)
• Glue gun (I used this as a reinforcement so my 2yo wouldn't rip off the wings)
• Scissors (I couldn't find my scissors so I had to use, clean, kitchen scissors)

I drew, as best as I could, an airplane wing on the back of a foam sheet then traced the first wing to make the rest. I cut two "wings" per plane and stuck them back to back and glued them to the clothespin.

My 2yo didn't really have any interest in decorating the airplanes. He drew a few lines then just wanted to play with them.

 

   My 3yo, however, loves coloring and decorating things so she loved this craft and colored her planes in her favorite colors. Pink and purple.

 

Of course, I couldn't let the kids have all the fun!

So, I decorated a couple planes as well.

;-)

 

 

All in all the kiddos had a blast. It was such a simple craft that it held the attention of my 2yo without any meltdowns and, as I previously mentioned, this was the perfect craft for a day when staying indoors is a must.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Keep checking back for more posts in the near future!

Have a great evening!

:-D