Holiday Hoopla

I've been so busy I never posted how well my budgeted meal week turned out. It was successful! We ended up mixing up a few of the days, so I'm going to have to try it again, more structured and with updates for my readers!

Everything before Thanksgiving is a blur...I hosted Mike's mom and stepdad, brother James, Uncle Rick, cousin Kim and her son Ricky. Our tiny house was FULL! I cooked the ham and Cindy made the Turkey. We had rolls, cream corn, green bean casserole, hashbrown potato casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, potato salad, cranberry sauce and cranberry Jell-O salad, stuffing, ham, and turkey. It was a feast! I couldn't help but share some of my favorites:

Creamed Corn:
1 package Philadephia cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 bag frozen corn
Cook in crockpot. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Hashbrown Casserole:
1 bag Ore Ida Hashbrowns
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can milk
8 oz sour cream
salt and pepper to season
10 can green chilies
2 cups Corn flakes cereal, plain and crushed
2 Tbls butter, melted
Mix all together and bake at 350 degrees for an hour and a half. Mix crushed corn flakes with melted butter and add to top of casserole. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Sweet Potato Casserole
2 lbs yams, cubed
8 oz evaporated milk
1 stick butter
1 cup walnuts (optional)
2 cups corn flakes cereal, plan and crushed
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbls cinnamon
2 Tbls nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 cups marshmallows
2 Tbls butter
*To cube yams, I zapped in microwave until soft and then split each one, scooped out the middle, and cubed the filling. You don't want the "skin" in this dish.
Mash the cubed yams and add the evaporated milk and beaten egg. Mix the white sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together then add to sweet potato mixture. Add in marshmallows. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Mix the brown sugar, walnuts, and crushed cornflakes together. Add in the butter. Top over casserole and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Serve.
Hope you all had a great holiday! I cleaned up the dinner dishes with some help from my mother-in-law and then hit the road for a shopping trip to Branson. Too much shopping in one weekend for me, but I had a great time. Next year, will definitely save the Branson outlets for another time of the month! Great friends, good food, fun times!

"I wanna be a baby!"

Sunday is my second favorite day of the week, with Saturday being my first.

I know I promised I would do my grocery shopping on Friday night, but my husband worked late so it didn't happen. I went today before church. Here's my menu for the week (let's see how I did $-wise):

Sunday lunch ($1.53 for the meat; had the tortillas, salsa, and cheese on hand): 

Tacos 

Sunday dinner ($4.13):

Spicy Corn Chowder and Salad

If you have ever tried Abuelo's Shrimp Chowder, this is a pretty close match for the recipe, minus the shrimp because my family wouldn't eat it...I would, but the world doesn't revolve around me all the time...just part of it :)

1/2 cup chopped onion

3 stalks celery, diced ($.99)

2 T butter

1 fresh poblano chile pepper ($1.85)

3/4 qt heavy cream

1 can cream of shrimp soup ($1.33)

1 qt milk

1 can jalapeños

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 t black pepper

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup flour

1 can cream corn

1 can whole kernel corm

*1/2 lb shrimp, optional

Saute onion and celery in 2 T butter until almost tender. Add in poblano petter. Mix in heavy cream, shrimp soup, and milk. Season with cayenne and black pepper. Bring to gently boil.

Meld 1/2 cup butter in another saucepan and add in flour, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gradually mix into cream mixture in large saucepan. cook and stir until well blended and thickened.

Add in corns and shrimp if desired. Add jalapenos and season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Monday will be crock-pot chicken and rice. Chicken was $4.13 and $1.08 for the season packet. ($5.21)

Tuesday: Enchiladas *Made with leftover beef from Sunday's tacos and corn tortillas and sauce already in pantry*

Wednesday: Tortilla soup *Made with chicken broth I made from scratch and leftovers from our Monday crock-pot meal*
Thursday: Meatloaf ($1.53 for the meat)

Friday: Leftovers or frozen pizza

I'll let you know if we're able to stick to it or not! So far, Skyler has argued that he doesn't like my choices. Granted, if he was picking the menu, we'd be eating "Chicken and Fries" from McDonald's!

Oh, and the reason why my heading is what it is....Little Man decided he wanted to sleep with Baby J for their nap time...in her crib. Needless to say, Little Man DIDN'T take a nap and Baby J got maybe half an hour before my son store her pillow and woke her up. I'm listening to them fight now. Guess I better go save the day!

Is it Bunko or Bunco?

Let me first say that I love, LOVE to play Bunco, Bunko, or however you spell it! One of my good friends introduced me to a group she plays with once a month on the second Tuesday. It's a great mix of ladies and although I am not very good and am still familiarizing myself with the group, it's good to get out of the house and socialize with other moms. I should also mention that when I say I'm not very good, I mean that I usually win the consolation prize for the most number of losses. Last night, however, I came in second-to-last place, and therefore did not get a prize. I guess that means my game is improving!

My theory in starting this blog was to create a grocery list and dinner menu for the week on a budget of $50 for our family of 4. When my husband lost his job after a knee injury in June, being frugal became even more important to us. We each allot $20 apiece for whatever we want for the week--lunches out, nasty cancer-causing cigarettes for my husband (bad, bad habit that I'm praying he will break someday), you get the picture. And because I lead such an exciting life, you'll get to read how my frugal meal experiment works out! I'm doing my shopping Friday night. Because I'm cool like that *wink*

I also must share--Skyler told me yesterday, in the sweetest voice ever, "Momma, I don't want to grow bigger. I want to stay little so you can carry me." I told him I don't want him to get bigger either. And I meant it. My guy will be four in a few short months (2 months and 3 days). He's the same boy that dragged his little red stool out of the bathroom to the kitchen and put it on top of a chair from the table and pushed both over to the cabinets so he could climb on top of the counter and reach the big bag of candy I had stashed on top of the fridge so he couldn't reach it. Guess I have to come up with a new place! I'm going to figure out how to upload photos, because the things my kids do are so much funnier when they're caught in action!

Wishing you all a happy Veteran's Day tomorrow! Our country is made up of some pretty awesome individuals...we need to recognize those who have dedicated their lives in the service of this great country. We are one nation, UNDER GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

HELLO WORLD

So this is my first attempt at blogging since reaching adulthood and becoming a parent. You know how much time you had before children? Well, between laundry, the never-ending pile of dishes in the right-hand side of the sink, toys that need to find their homes, kids that their noses wiped or face washed...there's just not much time!

We rolled the clocks back today and enjoyed getting that extra hour of sleep... the kids don't really understand Daylight Savings Time, although I know they will when they are older!

We're on a budget this week (as we are always, thank you soaring grocery prices and inflation). Dinner tonight was an easy casserole:
Chicken Pot Pie
1 can crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups frozen veggies
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups potatoes o'brien
remainder of a rotisserie chicken, which ended up being about 2 cups of meat
Mixed  last 5 ingredients together and baked in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Topped with crescent rolls and baked another 15 minutes. Everyone loved it! Which is saying a lot because I have a very picky 28-yr old husband, an even pickier 3 yr old son, and a 9 month old baby girl.

Well, that's my 20 minutes of peace. Back to folding laundry. Did I menioned our washing machine was broken and my husband fixed it yesterday? I probably didn't because I've been so busy playing catch up with the dirty clothes and my folding pile just keeps growing! Adios!