Greetings from Alabama

We got to go on our first family vacation this year. It was so much fun. We stayed at a lovely resort off the beaten path, so we had to drive a bit to get to town, but we got the seclusion Justin and I long for when we get away. We have already begun the planning of next year's excursion.

We made a pit stop in Memphis to see my grandma. She was gracious to host us, we visited Mud Island, the Gibson Factory Tour and ate local Memphis BBQ. Such a joy to see her. It had been too long. 

Iced Coffee

Iced coffee is not difficult to make, so you  don't have to spend a weeks pay to make your own. I like coffee, a lot. My hubs and I have date nights based on trying new coffee houses. Here is my version of iced coffee...

1/2 cups of:

Pre- sweetened coffe drink (I use Bolthouse Salted Caramel)

Cold/old coffee (what is leftover from my 5:30 am brew)

Ice

You can simply mix everything and leave it "on the rocks" or you can blend it. I use my stick blender. I feel like it makes it frothier. Also sooo easy to clean up. I like mixing the brewed coffee and the premix because I am a tightwad and this makes the expensive drinks last through 4 iced drinks. I also have been known to freeze my coffee in an ice cube tray and then you don't need to water it down with regular ice. But you will need to add extra liquid, more coffee if you want or some milk. 

Drink up!!

Rosemary, brown sugar, cayenne pepper... Almonds.

My office recently went out to eat for a coworker's birthday to a local sweets shop called Cravings. They had some amazing desserts. One thing we tried and I instantly became obsessed with were these almonds. It was love at first bite. Soooo good.

I searched the internets for a recipe. I found several that seemed about right. I mixed and matched to find something that seemed right to me. You can't even imagine how happy I was. Immediately had to work almonds into my budget. I wanted to enjoy them again very badly. 

Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds- I used raw, some sites recommended unsalted but roasted. 

1 egg white

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp rosemary dried

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300. 

Beat egg white until frothy and no liquid egg whites remain but stop before you have meringue. 

Combine everything but the almonds into egg whites and mix thoroughly. 

Add almonds. 

Cover a baking sheet in foil. Spray with non stick spray.

Pour almonds onto sheet and smooth into a single layer. 

Bake 15 minutes. 

Stir almonds and smooth back into single layer. 

Bake 10 minutes. 

Let cool. Stirring on cookie sheet occasionally. 

Eat. Enjoy. 

Menu planning- budgeting

Menus! I have been using a meal plan for awhile now. I find it is always evolving. I haven't perfected it yet. I also go through some extremely lazy phases, but a New Year's Resolution for the Hubs and me was to save, save and save some more. SOOOO that means attempting to use a strict budget of $120 per week while grocery shopping. So far, we have had very few weeks go over budget. I am not making as much from scratch as I used to. I know, I know, not the best for us, but honestly, we are not on the super healthy-clean eating- bandwagon. We try to be as conscious as we can, but lets face it, that way of eating can be pretty costly at times. AND our daughter has the strangest food allergies in the universe, so we can't buy a lot of fresh produce, tree nuts, and soy. I can't base a meal plan on salads and snacking that is nut heavy. She can't eat it. So we do what works the best for us, and do the best that we can to provide nutritious and balanced meals to our kids, even if it does include chicken nuggets from the freezer department.

Some things we have cut out to save money:

1. Chips- my husband LOVES to snack, and he has a super human metabolism, PLUS he busts his butt all day for a living. We have gotten him down to ONE can of Pringles a week. It was hard on him at first to watch the amount he is eating, but he is done whining now. We used to buy two or three bags a week. NO joke!!

2. Individually packaged snacks- This is HUGE on saving money. Those little suckers are expensive. Buy in bulk and make your own snack packs. Plus I limit this to one item as needed. Right now it is pretzels. We have been working on the same $2 bag for a month now. Not buying anything else until they are gone. The kids dip them in peanut butter (daughter) and Nutella (little man). Nutella??? Yes, Nutella. We have had the same jar in the pantry for months, and I bought it before we started the budgeting.

3. Sweet treats- including ice cream, aka my weakness- This is where things get a little dicey... I am a dessert addict. I have something sweet every night. I have tried to do it the healthy ways... an apple and peanut butter, that frozen banana "ice cream", yogurt... The thing is, I always end up eating the ice cream anyway. I could just not buy it, but honestly, you have to live a little, even when using a budget. We have just scaled back. I don't go cheap either. I buy Blue Bunny from Walmart. It is the cheapest price for Blue Bunny. I buy the frozen yogurts, any of them, all are amazing. Even the Hubs likes them. We usually get two not-really-a-quart quarts at a time. One "lighter" and one with chocolate. I won't touch the one with chocolate. Not my go to craving. We no longer buy any of the gimicky frozen treats. We have to stick with this and deal. (Oh so sad, I know.) I also buy one store brand container of sandwich cookies and divide into the snack baggies. What can I say, we like sweets.

4. Meat- is expensive. Ground beef, forget it. I have almost entirely switched to ground turkey OR (this is huge) I go to Wally World on Saturday mornings some times just for this... The chicken breast packages will go on mark down for the sell buy date, I can get an enormous amount of chicken, approx 8 large breasts, for around $6. I then grind the chicken breast with my handy dandy meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. A huge budget saver is that marked down meat. I swipe it up whenever I can. We also always have hot dogs (gag me) and chicken nuggets.

These are some things I have found work for us. I don't buy a lot of fresh produce, It is a waste for us. It will go bad before I can use it all. I buy frozen onions, potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and fruit. I buy fresh apples and carrots, sometimes strawberries or grapes, and lettuce (heads of it.), oh and bananas. I prep my lettuce myself, I like to eat salad for lunch. Chop and wash, put into a gallon baggy with a paper towel, and I can get it to last almost two weeks.

Here is what our week will look like:

	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
Breakfast	Eggs, sausage and toast	Cinnamon Rolls	Cereal with milk	Yogurt and Granola Bar	Cereal with milk
Lunch	Hot Dogs with mac n cheese and applesauce (I might make a salad for myself or cottage cheese and fruit)	Frozen Pizza	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: "lunchable", gogurt, juice, cheese stick                                   Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple
Dinner	Baked Chicken with Broccoli and Rice	PBJ or turkey sammies, pretzels and raisins	Spaghetti and bread with butter	Chicken Nuggets, Pretzels, and Applesauce	Leftovers
	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Yogurt and Granola Bar	Cereal with milk
Lunch	Kids: "lunchable", gogurt, juice, cheese stick                                   Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple
Dinner	Hamburgers, French Fries and Broccoli	Ham Chowder (we have it in the Freezer already)

"Lunchables" for us are crackers and salami. Or English muffin pizzas that kiddos can assemble themselves at school. 

    I don't always eat what everyone else is eating. If I have just come from the gym or am going to the gym, I will have a protein shake with a banana. I have fish available to me to avoid the higher fat meats we sometimes have. I just wait for a sale and buy the big bag of frozen fish. We always have tuna on hand for a fast dinner. Let's face it sometime life happens, and I am not cooking. I eat a banana for breakfast everyday with some yogurt, not plain. (Ew, how do people eat that chalky mess?). If you are going to try PB2- I recommend the chocolate. I haven't tried plain, but hear it is gag worthy.

What are some ways you save moolah at the store??

Well now... It has been a hot minute!

I have been quite absent. I found that I was struggling with blog post ideas. I lacked the desire to write them, to be honest. I just wasn't that interested anymore. But I feel the need for a creative outlet again. Here are some things you have missed while I was gone... 

Bri-Bri (as she is called by her friends) attempted to start a duct tape card holder business. Ductastic. She is adorkable. 

Little man lost a tooth. And then another one. Way too big!!! 

I joined a gym!!! It has been fun learning new things and seeing my body make small changes over the last month. I almost have bicep muscles now. Not much, but the progress is there. 

Thanks for reading.