Menu Plan Monday - February 22

My menu plan is fairly simple this week.
I'm taking it one day at a time.
Last night we found ingredients to make quesadillas.
Tonight we had leftovers.
Tomorrow...well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I'm 37 weeks pregnant, ready to deliver any day now, and not really wanting to plan meals...
If it comes down to desperation, we live near stores and we have a freezer full of food.
What do you do when you have no motivation, or time, or when you have no idea what tomorrow actually holds?
For some great ideas for planning meals, head on over to Orgjunkie.

Ways we are saving money

Since March, my husband and I have really been trying to spend less/save more money. We have done the usual:

• coupons
• deals
• not eating out
• menu planning
• growing a garden
• and more...

But there are also some more "outside of the box" things we have been working on that have really helped. I know I am not the first to come up with these, but they are simple and small things that can easily be overlooked, but can make a big impact!

• homemade dish detergent
• using the dishwasher less. it has been easy in the past to just throw everything in. and it has been easy in the past to run 2 loads a day. with just 2 of us! that had to stop! we are better about washing bigger things and things that were hardly used, things that are just easier to wipe clean in the same amount of time as rinsing and loading.
  
• using washcloths instead of paper towels to clean messes
• recycling (this saves money because we do not have to take our trash to the curb as often)
• composting (same as above, as well as both being environmentally friendly)
• using a deep freezer to cook in bulk and stockpile foods when they are on special.
  
• reusing paper towels. we do still have them on hand, and I like to wash and dry fresh lettuce before making a salad. then I dry the towels and use them a few days later when I get more lettuce from the garden.
• reusing dryer sheets for dusting
• making my own baby food

Things I have thought about doing to save money, but am not totally convinced yet to do (I do believe that time and effort equal money too):

• cloth diapering
• drying clothes outside on lines
• making all my food from scratch
  

Bananas for Baby Food

Bananas are so cheap!
Especially when they are a little older at the store and they get marked down even more. That is a good time to buy them for baking. And for baby food.
Last time I saw some like this I bought a bunch, brought them home, and broke them up into smaller pieces and froze them on baking sheets before putting them in baggies to store in the freezer for future use.
Now all I have to do is pull out the amount I want, let them thaw a little or put them in a warmer, mash them and serve them.
Simple. Cheap. Good!

Gardening is Easy and Good!

This has been our first year trying to grow a garden. It has been a nice, rainy spring and summer, and this has helped our crop greatly! I have not been good about posting updates and pictures, partly because it is all so good that I eat it and then think "I should have taken a picture of that first!"

Here is a picture of some of the produce we are getting about weekly now. Our garden is not huge, so it is not a ton of crop, but it is a good amount for us to get fresh salads and sides a few days a week without having to buy the ingredients!

The crop has been good, it has been nice to save, and it has been a productive experiment! Can't wait to keep getting more great food to eat!

Homemade Baby Food is Cheaper!

I've been reminded again today why it is that I take a little extra time to make my own baby food for my infant. Not only do I know exactly what he is getting, but it is SO much cheaper!

I bought 2 lbs of carrots at Wal Mart for $1.66.

The whole process took me maybe 30 minutes (I don't count the time while the carrots were cooking and I could be doing other productive things).

I got about 40 oz of food out of this!

That is $.04 an oz! Can't buy pre-made food in the store at that price.

This is why I choose a little extra time in the kitchen. My son is worth it!

Lots and Lots of Chicken!!

A while back I found a good deal on chicken and I stocked up! I had just gotten my big freezer and needed to fill it up!!
I was slightly daunted by the fact that it was a lot of chicken, and I also wasn't used to buying chicken with the bone in, but I knew I wanted to make good use of it...eventually...
I used some of it to make some Raspberry Chicken, enough so that we had some the week I bought it, have had some since then, and there is still one more bag of it in the freezer. Very easy and great on the grill this time of year! Thanks OAMM!

In the mix of all the chicken I bought were 2 whole chickens! I have only bought chicken this way from the store...when it has already been roasted for me, and I want to shred it for something tasty on top of a salad or in a soup...I've never bought any meat whole before!

Well, after searching for a recipe (the easiest recipe I could possibly find) I landed back at my favorite crockpotting site for a simple-and what sounded like delicious-recipe!

So, I gave it a go last night. We have next to nothing in our fridge. I've been holding off for a new month, and some new motivation for planning and shopping. So, in the meantime, I decided it would be a good idea to have some chicken on hand for meals, and what better way than to let it cook itself all night long while I was in bed sleeping. Granted, it is a little weird to wake up and smell food cooking in the house, but I have used the crockpot before and gotten somewhat used to this.

When I came down in the morning, here is what I found.
MMMMM...smelled good...and even though it was only 7am I had to try a piece! Moist and delicious! It fell right off the bone, just like she had said it would! If It hadn't been 11 at night last night when I was putting it in to cook, I may have taken the skin off first since we don't normally eat it anyway (at least I try to not let my husband eat it!) and this would have put more flavor into the actual chicken. But I am very satisfied.

And. Even Better! I spent $3.02 on this chicken. Can't get a roasted chicken from any store at that price! Unless maybe it's been sitting out all day and it is cold and dry, but who wants a cold, dry chicken when you can have one that looks like this and tastes professionally done?! It really can't get much more simple than this!

WFMW - Thrifty Alternative

My son is a little young for this special edition of Works For Me Wednesday, but I still wanted to participate!! And I still think this is a great idea for keeping a young one occupied.

Ever keep old stuff lying around because there is an ever so slight possibility that you may one day use it? I do! And I love when I find new uses for things.

I saw someone else do this first, so I am not taking the creative credit for it, but I was very happy to have all materials on hand.

My son is 5 months. He loves grabbing at things. His coordination is not the best yet, but getting there. Because of this, he often grabs things and quickly loses them because he has not mastered the grip yet. Not so bad, but when he is playing in the car seat while in the back seat of the car, and I am driving, I cannot help him when he loses all his toys. And when we are out for a walk in the stroller, I don't want to stop every few seconds to pick up a toy. (I don't care that it falls, or that it might get dirty, or that he might put it back in his mouth. I just don't want to chase after a ball rolling down the hill, just to turn and see the stroller chasing me down the hill.)

So, GENIUS!



Took some old shower curtain holders, looped them together and added a toy (sometimes even two) to the end of it. Very easy to keep toys attached to car seat and stroller. PLUS, added benefit: he can now reach the toys SO much better!

I'm sure I could have found somewhere to buy something like this that would look much cooler, would have all the "stroller moms" jealous and would make my kid grow up to be an astronaut...but old shower curtain holders work just great for me!