This week I spent $61.78 – $22.86 (coupons) = $38.92 OOP

I will be spending a little bit more for some last minute items needed for this weekend.

Not pictured – Lots of things for the cats.  (food, etc…)  I picked up more fruit at another store.  Our local store had the Healthy Balance Juice on sale for $1.69 with $.55 peelies on them making them $.69 each.  I picked up a few more bottles for my stockpile.  The Dannon yogurt was also free.  The four pack is $1.00 with a peelie for $1.00 off any multi-pack.  Go figure?!

Menu

Breakfast -

Cereal, yogurt, fruit, cinnamon toast

I am going to try making homemade yogurt this week.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Lunches -

Leftovers, Eat out x 1, Sandwiches, Pasta

Dinner- even though I don’t post sides, we have fruit and/or veggies at every dinner

Chili

Homemade Pizza

Taco Salads

Eat at church

Chicken Alfredo / salad / bread

Eat out ( I hope.  The kids all received a free meal at Applebee’s for a good check up, so we just have to pay for mom and dad.)

Potluck dinner (I am in charge of hamburger buns, cheese, pickles)

Pizza Crust (1 large  Pizza)

1 Tbsp Yeast

1 cup Warm Water

1 tsp Sugar

1 Tbsp Veg. Oil

2 1/2 – 3 cups of flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Let it proof for 5 mins.  Add 2 cups of flour to begin with and add more until the dough forms a nice ball.  Knead for 5 mins on a floured surface.  Roll or press into the shape or your pan.  (Grease your pan well, I also sprinkle corn meal on the bottom to make sure nothing sticks.)

I bake my crust for 5 mins in a 400 degree oven before I add the toppings.  Then I bake the pizza until the crust is crispy, around 15 mins.  For the last 5 mins of cooking I flip the pizza out onto the rack in the oven.

Idea – I sometimes add garlic powder or Italian Seasonings to the dough.

This makes a great pizza for Family Night!

Have fun and be creative.

Carmel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls - from The Finer Things in Life

Creamy Garlic Alfredo – thanks to Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Crispy Chicken Tenders – thanks to Good and Cheap Eats

Beef Stew – thanks to $5 Dollar Dinners

Peanut Butter Brownies

OK, now that your really hungry go out there and try something new.  Surprise your family with something special!

Hey Savvy Friends!
I wanted to share with you all how I recently used 2 whole chickens to feed my family of six for five meals! Can you believe it? Me either!
After recently deciding to take up a food challenge that would require me to prepare most of our meals from food that we already had on hand in our freezer and pantry,I came up with five meals using two chickens.

Meal 1 consisted of me baking the chickens and serving them with scalloped potatoes and cream peas.
Meal 2 was a rustic soup with leftover chicken, baby red potatoes, carrots, yellow onions and various herbs and spices.
Meal 3 was leftover chicken with noodles, served over mashed potatoes and corn.
Meal 4 was a cheesy chicken pot pie.
Meal 5 was a BBQ chicken pizza.

We did not eat these meals 5 nights in a row but spread out between other meals so that my family would not be sick of chicken or potatoes!
By thinking  of what all I could make with these two birds I feel really good about the meals and my family liked all of the hot and hearty meals during this recent cold streak.

A few other things that might interest you as far as stretching your dollar and your leftovers.
After cooking the two chickens on the first night, I saved the all of the yucky, I mean lovely fat and bones and made my own chicken stock for the chicken and noodle meal. I also used the leftover cream peas from meal 1,  the left over red potatoes from meal 2, AND the leftover corn from meal 3 to make the cheesy chicken pot pie for meal 4!
I also used the leftover scalloped potatoes from meal 1 to make cheesy egg, potato, sausage breakfast burritos!
I did not have any waste from these 5 different chicken meals and feel most proud of myself for taking the time to make a plan and follow it!  )
I hope this was a helpful post for all of you and offered up some kitchen encouragement.
I also have challenged my self to make my entire, ENTIRE, January menu based off of what we have here or with only a couple of little trips to the store filling in with produce or dairy as needed.
Can you say creativity?
Can you say crazy?

Wish me luck!!

You can visit Kris’  blog at Sweet Country Life.

Thanks Shara!

The past couple of weeks I have been making my menu plan on Sundays.  I have searched the web to find low cost, healthy and tasty meals.  There is a great site call $5.00 Dinners. I hope it will insipre you to save money and also have some very tasty dinners to set on your dinner table.

Would you like to share a recipe with us?  If so, please email us.

She her site here.

Creamy Vegetable Soup

8 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen peas (must be frozen)

1 can sweet whole kernel corn

1 can green beans

1 cup of grated carrots

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup milk

Fully cook all vegetables and then grind into small pieces.  I use a blender with some of the chicken stock.  I can leave small chunks of vegetables in mine since my kids love veggies, but if your kids won’t eat anything that’s green – blend good.   Bring broth, seasoning and vegetables to a boil and then add the whipping cream.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tasty Tuesday will feature recipes, menu ideas, and all things YUMMY!  If you love food as much as Ginger and I do, we hope you will enjoy this.   My girls went back to school today, so my life must become more organized and prepared.  Summer has been great, but routine has been lacking, and quite honestly, missed around here.  Even our grocery budget has suffered as a result, as menu planning was sporadic at best, and shopping was more often just quick trips for a few items.  My girls attend a non-traditional Christian school three days a week, and must take their lunches, so I will be planning my menus based on three meals each and every day!  We’ll see how I do!   So, for a painless first post, I will share our menu plan for the next 7 days.

BREAKFAST:  Baked oatmeal with fruit; homemade english muffins with eggs and cheese; Big Breakfast cookies; homemade english muffins with jelly, and yogurt; cereal; pancakes and scrambled eggs

LUNCH:  Wendy’s (we have family lunch at school, and I have kid’s meal coupons from the dentist); Ranch Chicken sandwiches; homemade pizza twists; leftover enchiladas; KFC(after church on Sunday…we have coupons for the free grilled chicken meals); Chicken tenders

DINNER:  Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas; dinner out with Kevin (thanks to dear friends who will also keep and feed the kids ; Garden vegetable soup and homemade rolls (our garden is finally producing!); Chicken Divan; All-Church picnic (chicken tenders and oatmeal bars);  Grilled hamburgers and steamed potatoes