Monday, March 23, 2009

Menu Plan Monday


My husband was traveling last week so I couldn't be bothered to cook for just me. Of course, my computer decided to crash again since he was gone - hence the infrequent postings. I ended up eating mostly leftovers out of the fridge - yay, the fridge is clean again! I cooked the honey pork tenderloin over the weekend and it was delicious. I will feature that on this week's recipe swap. Here is our menu for this week:

Eggplant parmesan
Chicken Caesar salad
Chicken sausage something
Potsticker salad

Orgjunkie.com hosts the Menu Plan Monday where you can always find all the other mom's wonderful weekly plans.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

IKEA Free breakfast this weekend


IKEA is once again offering a free breakfast and cup of coffee at its stores this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Check with your local IKEA store to make sure that they are participating. A yummy and frugal way to start the weekend!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Menu Plan Monday


We did alright last week - my husband even surprised me by making me a fantastic stir-fry one night (I won't mention how much his surprise trip to the store cost him!). He's traveling this week so I may not get to any of the things on the menu but then I'll also have reserves for next week. We also have a birthday this week - my little guy turns 5 tomorrow so we're going out for his free birthday meal at Red Robin!

Here is the rest of the plan:

Honey butter Pork tenderloin
Pizza night
Eggplant Parmesan
Grilled cheese/tomato sandwiches

Orgjunkie.com is the place to find all the great organizing tools you need to keep your house and life in order. But she's away this Monday and Erin from $5 Dinners has generously agreed to host - hooray! Check out her site this week for lots of great menu ideas.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Biscuit Egg Bake

After getting lots of Grands biscuits a few weeks ago at the great Albertson's sale, I started searching for some new and creative recipes to use these up. I found this one on the Pillsbury site, modified it for us and it turned out delicious! This would make a fabulous brunch dish or if you do breakfast for dinner, which we often do.

3 Grands biscuits
5 eggs
1/2 cup water or milk
1 cup Veggies of your choice: I had some collard greens that I chopped and sauteed with 1/2 an onion and 1/2 a red pepper, both chopped
3 sausage patties, chopped
1 tsp dry mustard powder
Salt. pepper to taste

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 8X8 square pan with cooking spray. Cut biscuits into wedges and sprinkle 2 of the cut up biscuits into the pan. I used precooked sausage patties so if yours aren't precooked, I'd cook them 1st and then saute veggies in the same pan until cooked but still firm. Let cool. Whisk the eggs until slightly beaten and then whisk in the water or milk, mustard powder, salt/pepper. Stir in veggies, meat and then pour over biscuits in pan. Top with remaining biscuit wedges. Bake for 30-40 minutes until eggs are firm and top is slightly browned.

You can double this and use all of the biscuits from the can but since it was just my husband and I, I made it on a smaller scale. I thought about freezing part of it, but wasn't sure if the biscuits would tolerate freezing. If you try it, let me know!

The Grocery Cart Challenge is the home of the Friday Recipe Swap for all your cooking ideas! She's got a great post about drying your own fruit this week - I can't wait to try that. Check it out and cook something new this week!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Walgreens Haul

Walgreens has a fantastic diaper deal this week: buy $25 worth and get a $10 Register Reward (good on your next purchase at Walgreens). Coupled with the high value Huggies coupons found here, diapers are cheap!

However, it took me three tries to find a Walgreens that had any of the Gentle Care diapers in stock! So here's my first trip:

3 Revlon Emery Boards
1 Right Guard deodorant
2 Advil PMs
2 Coffee Mate creamers (not shown - already in the fridge!)

Coupons used:
2 $1/1 Revlon Beauty tools
2 $2/1 Peelies on the Advils
1 $.55/1 Peelie on the deodorant
1 $1.50/2 Coffee Mate

Total OOP: $12.34
Got $4 in Register Rewards. I always forget to do the RR deals separately! UGH - should have done 2 transactions for the Advil. So I will be returning one of the Advil later. I also should have still used my internet coupons for it to make it free but I didn't have enough items in my order to make that work.

Trip #2:

3 Huggies Gentle Care Diapers
1 Johnson & Johnson body lotion
1 Right Guard deodorant
1 Gerber baby food

Coupons used:
3 $5/1 Huggies Gentle Care diaper products
1 $1/1 J&J body care product

Total OOP: $21.11.
Got $12 in RR.

My store said that they get another truck on Thursday so I'm hoping to try again on Friday to see if I can snag some more diapers!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Menu Plan Monday


Wow! I can't believe how busy I was last week at work. I mean I'm normally really busy every day but last week it was just one thing after another and I couldn't get even a teeny break with everything going on. These are the weeks where your menu plan really comes in handy! This week should be less hectic but with this whole Daylight Savings thing I know I'll be dragging so it's nice to have it planned in advance. Oh and hopefully I'll be back on my regular posting schedule.

Without further ado, the Menu:

Beef stew

Stuffed salmon

Pizza night

Taco salad

Pork tenderloin

Orgjunkie.com is the place to find all the great menus and organizing tips. I'm going to try a hoison sauce pork tenderloin recipes she had on there a couple of weeks ago - yummmy! Happy Monday!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

New posts coming soon! I hope...

Computer issues and a pink eye outbreak have occupied much of my time this week so I haven't been able to post the Budget Update and some other cool deals. I'm hoping my computer will last long enough for me to post this - I was at a Starbucks yesterday and they were handing out tons of the free samples of the new Via Instant coffee. I literally got 10 samples handed to me and the baristo told me that they had boxes to give away. I am still looking forward to my sample in the mail (no longer available unfortunately), but in the meantime, if you're dying to try it, I would just ask your local store if they have any samples.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

A busy week awaits us! Fortunately, I don't have to travel so we should be right on track with our plan. It must be getting close to spring because I'm really feeling a cleaning urge - trying to clean up and clear out our pantry. So I'm taking inventory and will probably make a food bank donation for those items that I know I won't use soon. Of course, I've also got a nice stockpile of Grands biscuits so I'm trying to be creative with those.

Grands egg bake
Enchiladas
Greek salad
Baked penne

Orgjunkie.com hosts the Menu Plan Monday - always fresh and fun organizing and planning ideas!
Gevalia

About Me

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Seattle Area, Washington - the state
I am an attorney, working mom of 3, who loves a bargain, a great deal and freebies. Who doesn't want the best, for less? Come here to see my triumphs and budget tribulations, good deals and my take on what the good life can mean...