Meatless Mondays

Lately we have started a trend of eating meatless meals on Mondays. It has been good to try some fun new recipes, not to mention the fact that its easy on the budget. Last Monday, I made these Super Bean Burritos and they were just that- SUPER!


They tasted great and we loved having them on hand in the freezer for easy to pack lunches and quick meals. We thought they were so good in fact, that I made a HUGE batch last night using brown rice and a bunch of pinto beans that I soaked and cooked this weekend. Our freezer is now stocked with 3 of these bags full of individually wrapped burritos.


Tonight I made Crustless Spinach, Onion and Feta Quiche from BakingBites.com. It was delicious...very quick, easy and tasty! I certainly recommend it. If you are looking for a quick meal idea than this a keeper. It took about 35 minutes and it's a great base recipe that could easily be altered to accommodate whatever "fillings" you have on hand.

Ronnie declared that it was most definitely a "make again" meal.

Have any other meatless meal ideas for me to try?

A Lesson Learned

About a year ago I was sitting in church and glanced down at my hands and stopped a moment to admire my engagement and wedding rings. The fact that I had them cleaned the day before at the jeweler's, combined with the church lights made it especially sparkly! Suddenly though, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. A tiny side diamond was missing! I quickly looked at my other rings and found that on my right hand I was missing a little sapphire. I was so disappointed and upset. Apparently the stones had become loose and then after the cleaning at some point the stones had fallen out. Both were replaced, but not without some waiting and funds.

I have learned my lesson: get the jeweler to examine those rings periodically to check for loose stones. I went last week and had mine looked at and sure enough there was a little diamond starting to get loose in my wedding band. I left it and now its as good as new- much simpler than getting the stone replaced.

So let this be a lesson to you as well- get your bling a check up...it only takes a few minutes, but it's worth it!

Decorations Done!

Well the decorations for the church Father/Daughter Banquet are finally done and in place. Now the lights just need to be dimmed and the candles lit and they can enjoy their little Cornish hens and dancing :)


Ronnie climbed an extremely tall ladder and hung things from the ceiling for me. He was a huge help! He also filled balloons which you can see in the background for the photo shoot area.

The serving line is ready for the food.

30 corsages await 30 little wrists

Hopefully a good time will be had by all. I hear the night will involve eating, a dance off, valentine card making, and finger nail painting. Too cute!

Posie Update!

The decorations for the church Father/Daughter Valentine's banquet are coming along- thanks to the help of so many friends and family! I couldn't be getting all this done without all the help and I am so grateful!!

Our living room has been turned into craft central, thanks to a card table set up in the middle of it.

About 200 posies are made! The corsages are halfway done and I still have 35 tissue paper puff balls to go but I am encouraged! I am enjoying it and hanging out with people while putting it all together has been the best part.

Coupon High- or low :)

It's been a while since I have updated about couponing. It's not because I have fallen off the bandwagon, I just haven't taken the time to take pics or document stuff, but after this weekend's trip I couldn't resist documenting this trip as I am on a coupon high from it, haha!

In planning my trip to Kroger, there were some items that we use frequently that were on sale so I planned to really stock up on stuff. This is a mega sale event week, I had a couple of coupons for free items, and I had a $5 off of a $75 purchase coupon from our Entertainment Book, so I decided that to maximize savings I would go in for a BIG shopping trip. We budget using the Dave Ramsey system to spend $34 a week on groceries and this has proven to work for us. I decided though to spend more this week and stock up on some stuff and then spend less in later weeks this month. I was quite happy with the results. A few friends have asked me what I buy, is it a lot of packaged food, etc. Stop reading now if you will be bored to tears with a recitation of my grocery list. Keep reading if your curious. I must admit that I enjoy seeing what other people are purchasing. Laugh, you feel a bit vulnerable though putting your grocery purchases out there for the world to see...no judging please :)!!

Here is the breakdown:

Mega Deal- buy 10 save $5
4 packages of Kraft cheese- 1.50 each
2 packages Mission Tortillas- Free!
1 Nature Valley Cashew Nut Clusters- .19
1 Chex Mix- Free
1 Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Apple Turnovers- .89 (a splurge, but worth it- yummy!)
1 Coffeemate Creamer (big bottle!)- 1.89

Coupons for Free Items
1 box of Tampax tampons- one week Aaron was went to the store to by one thing and it printed out this catalina, laugh. Not exactly sure how we earned this, but we'll take it.
1 Digorno 200 Calorie Pizza Portions

Items that I purchased without any coupons
2 cans of Kroger Pinto beans- .62 each
2 packages of pasta- .69 each
1 dozen large eggs- .88
1 two pound bag of Kroger honey nut cheerios- 2.99
1 Kroger creamy peanut butter 1.79 (this goes on sale much cheaper, but when you need it you need it!)
1 Kroger Flour 1.49
1 Kroger sandwich bags 1.55
1 jar minced garlic 1.50
1 can tomato paste .60
1 bottle Kroger contact solution 2.00
1 loaf Earthgrains Wheat Bread 2.50
3 bags of Kroger tortilla chips 1.00 each
3.5 pounds chicken breast- 7.07
2 pounds Anjou Pears- 1.98
1 bunch of bananas- 1.26
1 yellow onion- .42
2 green bell peppers- 1.58
1 bunch celery- 1.49
1 bunch romain lettuce- 1.99
1 bunch green onions- .63
1 jalapeno pepper- .23
1 tomato- .31
1/2 gallon Kroger skim milk- 1.99

Additional items purchased with coupons
3 packages Bumble Bee Tuna- 1 free, others .25 each
4 boxes Cascadian Farms Organic granola- .99 each
2 packages Wonka gummies- Free!
2 packages Martha White muffin mix- .45 each

Final Breakdown
kroger plus saving- 42.48
coupon savings- 29.58
total number of items- 51
total spent- 54.54
total savings- 72.06 or 59%

***That is a total of 126.60 worth of food for 54.54 (also it printed out one of those catalinas for another free box of tampons )

So you might look at this assortment and wonder what we are eating this week...here is the plan:

Breakfasts
weekday- whipped banana oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, eggs,
weekend- try this cinnamon roll recipe

Lunches
PBJ or PB and honey, tuna salad pitas, or leftover burritos
chips, chex mix, celery, carrot sticks
pears or bananas

Dinners
Burritos
Balsamic Thyme Chicken- i have made this twice now, the first time was fantastic, the second just so so, we'll see how it goes this time
Wednesday- eat at Church growth group
Homemade Pizza
Chicken Tortilla Soup- a repeat from last week but we love it, its nice and easy, and perfect for the cold weather.
Lasagna

sides- steamed broccoli, salad, peas, mashed potatoes, rolls, cornbread.

That is little glimpse into our cart/kitchen!

Part 2 of Emma tonight...YAY!!

A Pocketful of Posies!

Recently, when I saw this blog post over at GraceLaced I knew I wanted to make some of these cute little posies. Tonight I whipped up some and I am loving their possibilities!

I see flowers all over the place these days. On clothes, headbands, pillows; you name it they are putting a cute flower on it.

I jazzed up a plain Target cream sweater by pinning a few on. Ann Taylor Loft watch out, haha!


I am going to be making a lot more of these to incorporate in the decorations for the Father/Daughter Valentine's Banquet at church.

New Masterpiece Series!

Today I was so excited to see an ad for a new Public Television Masterpiece series. Starting January 24, on Sunday nights they will be showing a 3 part series of Jane Austin's Emma. This is one of my favorite Austin stories! I know many of you share my love for Jane Austin movies so you might want to mark your calendar :)

Go here to find out more info and watch a preview!