My First Attempt at OAMC - I LOVE IT!!!

So I mentioned about a week ago that I was going to try my hand at OAMC (Once a Month Cooking). I have to tell you, it was quite a lot of work over a couple of days but SO WORTH IT!!!! I didn't make as much as I originally had wanted to becuase I didn't get around to doing it until the second week of February, but I ended up with lots of goodies to put in the freezer for some simple breakfasts, easy weeknight meals and yummy afternoon snacks for the kids. Here is what I made:

Shepherd's Pie - 2 meals
Whole Wheat Waffles - 5 meals
Brown Rice - 2 meals
Banana/Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins - 4 batches
Apple/Cinnamon Mini Muffins - 3 batches
Homemade Refried Beans - 5 meals (These were REALLY yummy!)

Stay tuned for my OAMC plan for March! I have TONS of meals planned and can't wait to stock my freezer up again!

Meal Plan Monday - 2/15/10

Monday - Baked steak, green beans
Tuesday - Broccoli cheese soup (2 WW pts), sandwiches
Wednesday - Pasta bake and garlic toast
Thursday - Roasted vegetables (0 WW pts!), black bean wraps
Friday - Hamburgers, oven fries
Saturday - Steak dinner with friends
Sunday - Homemade whole wheat pizza

WAGS - 15% OFF, Tomorrow Only!

S-W-E-E-T!!! I just found out over at Hip 2 Save, that Walgreens has a special 15% off coupon out!!! The coupon is only good tomorrow, February 11th so hurry on over to your store to snag some super-dee-duper (yep, we watch lots of Barney here) deals! You can also go here to check out the deals that Hip 2 Save has put together for us! I see even more diapers in our future! Hooray!!!

In WAGS Heaven!!!

Some of you may have heard me talking about my glucose monitors last week. I acquired 20 coupons (on eBay) for glucose monitors that were on sale last week at Walgreens. I was able to get them for FREE after coupon and got a $10 RR for each one that I purchased. In total I ended up with $260 in RR to start off this week's Walgreens shopping. I knew that a diaper sale was coming up, so that is why I got in on as many of the meter deals that I could. Walgreens has their Huggies, Pull-Ups and GoodNites on sale for $8.99 this week and you get a $3 RR for each pack. Paired with a $2.00/1 MFC, that makes these packs just $3.99 each! Yippee! I had to do over 40 transactions in two different days, but check out what I was able to accomplish!!!!

Trip One:

Total purchased: $131.14
Paid out of pocket: $27.89
Coupons and RR used: $103.25
Register Rewards left to spend: $66.00
(I basically MADE $38.11 for buying all of this!)

Trip Two:

Total purchased: $471.70
Coupons and RR used: $356.00
Paid out of pocket: $115.70
Register Rewards left to spend: $111.00
(I will go back this week and buy another 12 pkg. of diapers with the $111 in RR)

After factoring in the $64 I spent on meter and diaper coupons, and accounting for the $111 in RR that I still have to spend, I will have spent about $208 out of pocket. The diapers alone would have cost me over $500 at $8.99 a piece. Check out everything that I got!!!!

56 packs Huggies
1 Pull Ups
1 Good Nites
5 Kleenex
6 Pudding
4 Valentine cups
2 Valentine day cards
3 Paper towels
2 bags of candy
15 body wash
7 dozen eggs
6 Valentine candy for kids
3 Mike & Ikes
3 Valentine pencils
1 make-up bronzer

I know that I spent a little out of pocket for all of this, but I shouldn't have to buy any diapers now for five or six months (or body wash for like the rest of my life)! That will really help me keep my weekly budget down! THANK YOU Walgreens!!!

Hump Day Hot Deals - 2/10/10

It looks like a rather slow week at the grocery stores. However, there are some great sales on bagged lettuce and some awesome produce prices at Aldi. Happy shopping everyone!
 

Hy-Vee - click here for weekly ad
Dole bagged lettuce, $.99
Betty Crocker cake mix, $.79
Hy-Vee applesauce, $1.76
Hy-Vee butter, $1.77 (with in-ad coupon)
Hunts Ketchup, $.99
Corn King bacon (3-day sale Th-Sat.), $1.77

Fareway - click here to view ad
Fareway ice cream, $1.49
Dole bagged lettuce, $.79 (GREAT Price!)
broccoli, $.99
cauliflower, $1.49
yellow onions, (3lb. bag) $.99
Hunts ketchup, $.99

Aldi - click here to view ad
navel oranges, (4lb. bag), $1.39 (GREAT price!)
cantaloupe, $.99
Apples, (3lb. bag) $1.69
Pears, (4 pack), $.99
Bacon wrapped beef filet, $1.79
one dozen roses, $16.99

Meal Plan Monday (a day late!) - 2/8/10

Okay, so I had a REALLY busy weekend and quite frankly, I just did not get much of anything accomplished yesterday and I'm okay with that. (After four long days of birthday party preparations I needed a little down time!) Seeing as how we are snowed in (AGAIN) I thought it would be a good idea to go through the pantry and come up with my meal plans for the rest of the month. Here is this week's plan of attack:

Monday- Veggie soup, grilled cheese
Tuesday - Scrambled eggs, whole wheat waffles (4 WW points each)
Wednesday - Enchilada pie (already in freezer - yay!), refried beans
Thursday - Stir-fry veggies and brown rice
Friday - Texas Chili (jar mix that we got at Christmas), cornbread
Saturday - Sloppy joes, oven-fried onion rings (our FAVE and only 2 WW points!)
Sunday - Black bean/green pepper/onion wraps, spanish rice

I'm also going to try and do some OAMC (Once a Month Cooking) today. Typically I'll try to do this the first week of every month but adding any more chaos to last week's schedule was out of the question! I'm sure all of you with little ones know that supper time is ALWAYS crazy! My kids are tired, I am tired, the baby is tired, I can't think of what to make, the kids all want something different (which I DO NOT do) and we are stuck running to the store for some last minute ingredients or putting a bowl full of sugary cereal in front of the kids and calling it good. In hopes that dinner time will run more smoothly, I plan on making and freezing lots of meals and snacks and at the beginning of each month. I can just pull them out as I need them and save myself lots of time and energy during the week. Today I plan on making:

whole wheat waffles- 4 batches
banana/choc. chip muffins - 2 batches
zucchini bread - 2 batches
brown rice - enough for 3 meals
shepherd's pie - 2 meals
cook and freeze black beans, garbanzo beans, red beans (for use in chili, wraps, etc.)

Wish me LUCK!!!!

Hump Day Again???

Could it really be Hump Day again? Already? Where is the time going? What have I been doing? Well, I'll tell you one thing that I have NOT been doing:

Cooking. Notice anything funny about this picture?

Yeppers, just in time for Macy's birthday on Thursday, Macy's friends party on Friday and Macy's family birthday party on Saturday. Yep. Who needs an oven to bake a mini cake, 3 dozen cupcakes, and one Taylor Swift cake anyways? Do you REALLY have to make macaroni and cheese corn in the oven? I know that in the good ole' college days I was able to MASTER macaroni and cheese in the microwave, but I'm pretty sure that it was barely edible and and only really tasted good at two in the morning. Let's hope that our good friend Carl at the fix-it shop can fix it - and FAST!!!!

So, after the oven broke yesterday just as I was trying to bake cakes and cupcakes, this is what I looked like for a while.

Then we went to McDonalds with grandpa and got free bologna at Hy-Vee and got the kids put to bed and the basement cleaned and now I feel like we just might make it through this crisis. And when I say crisis, I am TOTALLY exaggerating! We could have easily had our house burn down yesterday or had to fork out $$$ for a new stove or had this all happen on Saturday with a house full of people ready to eat! When I think about it that way, yesterday was really a blessing. Kind of like the "big guy" up there knew just what he was doing! So, in honor of the lesson that we taught the 3 year-olds in church Saturday night, I pray: "Thank you God for my friend Carl, the fix-it man. Amen."