A GREAT day!

Lets hope the rest of the week goes as well as the start!

Scored at Rite Aid on these items!!

1 Swiffer duster extender kit

1 Swiffer duster refill 10 pack

8 pack Dove soap

4 Nivea lipcare (only 2 pictured since the girls HAD to use them right away!)

1 Nice&Easy foam hair color kit

All for only $10.61 out of pocket & I came home with $4 in UP rewards to spend on the next trip!

BONUS!!!! I picked up my sewing machine today on our grocery run to Walmart!!! SO excited to go & play with it!!!!

Weekly Menu!

Meal #1 Ravioli Casserole , green beans & Olive Oil Bread
Meal #2 Chicken tacquitos w/ chips & salsa
Meal #3 Fajitas & tossed salad
Meal #4 Steaks (we are getting desperate for nicer weather, until then Dave will grill in the snow!), Caesar salad & roasted potatoes
Meal #5 Pizza roll (kinda like a giant calzone), tossed salad & grapes

PS - Have you all heard of this awesome site SuperCook?  You can put in whatever ingredients you have and it will give you recipe choices!  Great tool for those nights that you have chicken sitting in the fridge and no clue what to do with it :)

Things to try!

Cinnamon rolls - I have an amazing from scratch recipe I usually use but it takes HOURS of rising several times & makes a ton even if you 1/2 the recipe..this looks like a quick option when I crave cinnamon rolls but didn't prep it all the night before so they could rise!

Mini Donuts  - how fun are these?!?!

Girl Scout Cookies - Oh man, I have seen so many recipes for copycat girl scout recipes out there lately..gearing up for my deliveries next month since I ordered from 6 little scouts of my friends!  My FAVE are the thin mints so I think I MUST try out that recipe first!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread - we all LOVE banana bread around here & this looks so yummy with the chocolate chips added...this would count a serving of fruit right? I mean with 4 bananas in there it would TOTALLY qualify in my book ;)

PS - I am picking up my sewing machine TODAY! I am so excited so stay tuned for whatever I attempt to make and be ready for horrible failed projects! ha ha :)

Weekly Menu!

Meal #1 Skillet Lasagne, salad & breadsticks
Meal #2  Chili & honey corn bread
Meal #3  Stuffed Shells  (I use jumbo shells & cottage cheese), salad & garlic bread
Meal #4 Chicken stew w/ herbed dumplings
Meal #5 Beef stroganoff (we make this often, super easy & delish! I always add fresh chopped mushrooms & skip the microwave step since I never have frozen precooked hamburger on hand, I add garlic & onion powder, salt&pepper to season) & green beans
Meal #6 Chicken & green chili enchiladas & spanish rice w/ chips & salsa

New things to try:

Samoa bars - these are Dave's favorite Girl Scout cookie and since orders have been placed with all my girlfriend's kids but no cookies arrive till March we are desperate ;)  My friend Amy tested out some samoa cupcakes the other day & we were lucky enough to be on her taste testing team...they were Ahhhmazing!!!!!

Homemade Animal Crackers - I grabbed a bunch of kids cookbooks from the library and this was in one called Kids In the Kitchen- if its a winner I will post the recipe later to share!

Hot Chocolate Icecream - enough said!

Pretzel bites - these look so good & would make a great after school snack too!

Oh Brother!?!?!?

Super excited.......I just ordered a brand spankin new Brother sewing machine!!! No I do not know how to sew & the last thing I made was a pair of shorts for Home Economics class in, umm I think it was 6th grade!  BUT I am really excited to learn! I do not have grand plans but just simple things like pillows and curtains and fun little tidbits for the girls!!  I have been saving my pennies and selling items on ebay and craigslist to buy it, the bummer is that it was on rollback for $59 when I decided I wanted to go for it and then when I finally had all the money saved it was back up to $69! :(    Here it is, has really good reviews for a beginner machine and I don't see myself ever going much beyond that of beginner status!  It's pretty too huh?!?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Brother-LS2250PRW-Sewing-Machine/15126418

I had bought a sewing machine a couple years ago from Craigslist for $20 but it was a really old one and while it was nice and had tons of attachments (99% of which I had no clue what they were for!) it was too big, super heavy and the manual was so old school I did not have the patience to sit down and figure it out, I never once used it but my sister Paula, my neighbor Janine, and I think even my mother in law used it for various projects that I conned them into doing for me!  That was one of the items I sold to make the moola for this new bad boy!!! 

Wish me luck, cannot wait till it arrives & I can play with it!

Valentine's Day Snack & Teacher Gift!

Happy ♥ day everyone!!!!

Super easy and fun after school snack for Valentine's Day.  Marshmallow Pops!  I think we will using this for lots of holiday snacks, just switch to plain white marshmallows & any type of sprinkles!

Here is our teacher gift for Valentine's Day, I almost felt bad not giving some cute homemade treat like we normally do for holidays but with all the nasty germs and funk going on in that 1st grade class I figured this hand sanitizer would be a really useful gift & to my defense we did grab a box of chocolates to go with it of course!!!

Weekly Menu

Meal #1  Meatloaf , garlic&cheese biscuits, green beans (this is the best, super moist & easiest meatloaf!!)

Meal #2 Ungreasy tacos & Spanish rice chips w/ salsa

Meal #3 Chicken Salad croissant sammys, grapes, herb&garlic french fries

Meal #4 Pasta a la caprese, salad, & Macaroni grill bread

Meal #5 Ranch Chicken , cantaloupe, & pasta salad

Dave might complain quite a bit about all the blogs I read and constant internet junkie I am but he also seems quite pleased with most of the recipes I find to try out & the variety of menus we have!!

Some new things I want to try!

homemade poptarts  I've seen these all over food blogs lately & cant wait to try them!
marshmallow pops (how fun are these for an after school snack or a party @ school?

Daddy/Daughter Valentine Dance!

Happy Valentines Day!!

A BIG date night for Dave & Savannah!!! There was a Daddy & Daughter Dance in Manlius I heard about so several friends signed up their hubbies and daughters for it!!! Savannah has been excited for days and even with all the grumbling Dave has done I could see in his face how proud he was to take her out for the evening!  Emerson was bummed she didn't get to go to the party & had to settle for staying home playing my little pony with Mommy but next year Daddy will have a double date!  You are supposed to be at least 4 but she will be 3 1/2 (holy smokes how is that even possible?!?) so I think we will sneak her in for the fun!

Here is a picture of them all decked out and ready to go!

Emmie couldn't miss out on all the action so she took a quick picture with Daddy too!

Some photos from their evening, taken with cell phone so crappy images but better than nothing!

 One happy little gal to be on a date with dad!

Cinderella was there!!!

 

 Making a picture frame for their dance photo!



Weekly Menu!

Meal #1 Navajo Tacos, spanish rice, chips & salsa
Meal #2 Creamy Mac & Cheese,  grapes, carrots
Meal #3 Paninis & Olive Garden Salad (this is a FAV in our house, we have it often!!)
Meal #4 MYO (make your own) pizza, salad, mozzerella sticks
Meal #5 Kielbasa & applesauce, biscuits, cantaloupe, green beans

A few things on my "to try" list!  I dont' always get time to make all of them in 1 particular week but as I find recipes I write them down, grab any items on my grocery run so I know I have all the ingredients and keep an ongoing list to pick and choose from when we want a special snack!  My after school kiddos usually are my guinea pigs but they don't seem to mind as long as I have goldfish as a backup!

Chocolate croissants - WOWZER these look soooo good!

Breakfast cookies - always on the search for new quick & healthy breakfast foods for weekdays!

Snowcream - I have had this recipe for months now & trust me there has been NO shortage of fresh snow around here but we just have not gotten around to it yet so hoping to finally try it this week!

Frozen banana bites - I wont go the vegan route with these like it calls for but I do only use natural PB!

Tu Tu much fun!!!

A friend sent me this youtube tutorial a few weeks ago for no sew tutus!  Finally got to JoAnns last night and the girls picked their colors of tulle.  Of course the plain tulle was on sale for 89cents a yard but then Savannah spotted the shimmery tulle, which is course was not on sale and was $5.99 a yard?!?!  I had a 50% off coupon so we picked 1 color of the shimmery stuff & then 2 colors of the plain.  I totally could have made these for like $4 total but the fancy smancy fabric set us over $10!  Another word to the wise if you plan on making these for any little gal in your life, the shimmery stuff is WAY harder to work with since its thicker but it does make a super cute glittery tutu :)  I suggest asking what color/colors they want then go to the store yourself so temptation is avoided and you can stay on budget!

Here they are sporting their new ballerina looks!!! They were so happy and it actually was really easy, just time consuming!  Wish I could sell these at some local boutique or something, that would be a really FUN way to make some $$!!!!!

Here is the the link to the awesome tutorial for you all! 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7aSPMEn7S0

3 cheers for couponing!

Dave likes to say I am crazy when I go off like this about coupons and good deals....I prefer to say I am crazy alright, crazy awesome!! :)

Scored @ Rite Aid yesterday!!!!!!!! Between sales, coupons & up rewards I spent $17.51 & walked away with $7 in UP rewards to spend later!!

2 tubes Colgate $3.69 each regular price - FREE
1 Huggies little mover jumbo pack diapers $11.99 regular price - $4.99
2 Gillette Fusion Power razor refills $ 16.49 each regular price - $6.26 each

WAAAAHOOOOO for saving moola & freebies!!!!!!!!