Safeway deal

Hurry run, gather up the children(or beg the husband to stay home with them), everyone in the van, and go swiftly-stealthly,screw it, GET THERE NOW! and don't forget your ad. It is time to stock up on goodies, snacks, nibblies, whatever you call those munchies that we gnaw on while we sit in front of the boob tube.

On the front of the ad is a coupon for 4 -12 pks of Pepsi, Coke, 7up products (a variety will work with this) for $7.98 -but you are limited to FOUR. I was so excited, and we really don't drink that much soda. I also loaded up on 2 liters of soda- same varieties- if you buy 4 they are $.99 each and apparently there is no limit. We'll be going back tomorrow for more of the 2 liters. Next on the list was Lay's potato chips. They are on sale for $1.69 ea. I also loaded up on these. The kids love chips in their lunches and I like to indulge (on an entire bag) of the Salt & Vinegar. I LOVE THESE CHIPS, when I was pregnant with N, I was so sick with everything else, but I could live on S&V chips and Peachio's.

I'm not big on processed foods anymore, but I am more than willing to have the occasional yummy batch of BBQ crockpot lil smokies. They were on sale for 2 for $5 and there was a coupon in the 1/11 ss for $1 off when you bought two. If we don't eat them all on Sunday (SUPERBOWL) then they freeze well for another time.

I also picked up green grapes, they were $.98 lb.

I can't think of what else at the moment. I am sort of torn from working on this while Pineapple Express is on the tv. Gotta go, I haven't seen it yet!

Sharing a favorite of mine

I have a favorite blog that I thought that I would share. Simple Mom She has had a giveaway going on this week - actually it's been daily and she has offered some awesome stuff. Go check her out!

this week's menu and planning for SUPERBOWL!

Real quick I'm going to post my week's menu. We changed up last weeks a bit by not having turkey on Sunday night. It was a good thing too, there was a bad accident on the way home from picking up the kids so J and the big kids were pretty late, the turkey would have been too much. I make taco soup this weekend for a soup swap today(monday), and I made extra for our freezer. So, J had some of the soup and the big kids had some leftover pasta from the other night.


Monday: Pizza - original plan was homemade, but costco had a deal and I picked it up
Tuesday- Tacos
Wednesday- it's J's birthday so we're either going out or having his choice
Thursday- Veggie night again! Potatoes/salad/or whatever veggies
Friday- Beef gravy over mashed potatoes & green beans
Saturday- Pork and yakisoba noodles w/ veggies
Sunday- SUPERBOWL and we're having turkey and lots of other apps(no special premade)

I will go to the store on Wednesday to hit the sale so I can stock up on a few items. Otherwise, I am determined to make all appetizers for Sunday with what we have on hand. We'll have meatballs, veggies(will need to pick these up), these neat little chicken tortilla roll-ups that I found a recipe for in one of the inserts, cinnamon rolls, brownies, and whatever else we can come up with. We usually don't have people over, but I may invite some random person over that we've have met a couple of times. J and I need to start mingling with the locals and this is a good opportunity.

J and I would like to go out more, but it's a bit difficult when we've got the four kids and we don't know anyone. So, if anyone knows any local babysitters that are willing to watch a houseful - send them my way!
I will update more later, and post the recipe for the roll-ups. Have a wonderful day!

walgreens and taco soup

One of these days I'll get around to figuring out how to add pictures correctly, for now enjoy this picture of something random. Okay, not so random, it's a pic of L and her "I didn't have a brownie" look.


I'm getting ready for a soup swap on monday - so here I am making a huge stock pot of taco soup. I need to bring 6 quarts of soup to trade and in return I get to bring home 6 quarts of others(hopefully) different soups. Now, 1 quart is not enough to feed my family, but it will make an interesting addition to what we would already be serving. I really am excited about this venture, it's going to be with people that I really don't know, okay, so far I only "know" one person and that is the person hosting and we've chatted once at play gym. So, I guess it's also an opportunity for me meet new people too. Yeah, me! New friends! If you'd like to get to the recipe it's at the bottom of the post.

Last night I ventured out with the girls and went to get in on a couple of Walgreens deals. I really wanted to see how much I could not spend and I think that I did pretty good. See if you can follow below.

First transaction
2 Kotex pads - 2 for $6 on sale
2 boxes of Kleenex tissue $1.99 ea
2 bottles of Dawn dish soap $1.99 ea
1 box of bottle inserts - we needed these $3.49
1 pkg of wipes (walgreens brand and basically a filler) on sale $1.99

I had:

2 mfg coupons for the kotex -$1.00 off of one
2 mfg coupons for the dawn -$.50 off of one
1 wags coupon for the kleenex $.99 ea (limit 2)

2 RR coupons for $5 (from previous trips)

total out-of-pocket (oop) $3.74 !!!!! and I got a $1 rr for the kotex

I saved $18.48

Second transaction:

3 pkg of 4 rolls Angel soft $1.59 ea
1 pkg of 12 rolls Charmin $6.99 ea on sale

I had:
1 wags cpn for the angel soft $1.29 (limit 3)
1 RR cpn for $5 (from previous trips)
1 RR cpn for $1 (from transaction #1)

.... and the cashier handed me another RR cpn from a previous customer who didn't want it ( I know... crazy!!!)

1 RR cpn for $3 (from said cashier)

total oop $2.77 and it wasn't even technically oop, I used my gc from a previous wags refund! I forgot that I even had this when I came through the first time it all could have been free if I had used that. I'm still kicking myself for not finding additional coupons for the toilet paper, oh well, another time.

So, yeah for me! I got $35.18 worth of stuff for $3.74 out-of-pocket!!!!

And now for the taco soup recipe:

taco soup - by Tory

(this is a doubled/tripled recipe for some)

2lbs browned crumbled ground beef (ground turkey, chicken, pork what have you)
w/chopped dried onions/salt & pepper
2 cans pinto beans -drained and rinsed
2 cans diced/chopped tomatoes -not drained
2 15oz cans of tomato sauce
4-6 cups water
2 pkgs of taco seasoning -to taste
1-2 T. of dry ranch seasoning (dip mix)\-to taste
1 T. cilantro (fresh or paste)
1/4 shredded carrot
1 cup or more of frozen/canned corn


Add browned meat to stock pot, followed by the rest. Simmer for approximately 1 hr.
serve w/ corn chips, tortilla chips or bread(corn bread would be delish!), cheese, and
sour cream

Freeze in quart sized freezer ziplocks flat (easier to stack) or other freezer container.

To reheat: defrost in refrigerator and heat and serve as stated above - YUM!

What an amazing week! I totally forgot to post my menu for the week so I'll do that right off the bat.

monday: Spaghetti w/ meatsauce & salad
tuesday: swedish meatballs, fried potatoes (leftover from sunday) salad
wednesday: Veggie nite! Baked potatoes, salad, miso soup
thursday: crockpot beef pot roast/rice/broccoli
friday: baked ziti/penne (using leftover meatsauce) salad
saturday: leftovers (if any) or breakfast for dinner night
sunday: turkey mashed potatoes (this may change - turkey didn't taken out on wednesday)

Well, Tuesday was an emotional, hopeful, crazy day! Along with the inauguration, my kids have been crazy! The heavy fog and cold weather is taking it's toll. They are climbing up the walls! L is literally CLIMBING the walls. She is finding anything and everything and trying to get as high as she can! Everytime I turn around this child is up on a table, chairs, the t.v. cabinet if there something above ground level she is running around, pushing things around, trying to get up on it. All the while N is trying to help her.

A phrase that is new in our house and is a total crack-up and it is one that falls from the lips of N. "Wooka my got"

weekend recap

Warning... no edits, pictures, or cussing

I took the weekend off to relax. HA! What a joke, there is no relaxing EVER in house with four kids.

Friday I made another batch of cinnamon rolls - these were a bit flat. They didn't rise vertically so much, but did horizonally. THEY WERE GINORMOUS!!! Notice I said "were" um... yeah. Did I mention they were big? Actually, I still have some left in the freezer, I packaged them up and froze to send to a friend, they will go out tomorrow(I hope), so we didn't exactly consume all of them. But, if they're here much longer they might not make it.

We took the girls out for a walk on Friday night. Yes, it was dark out and about 34 degrees outside. We bundled them up with tons of sweatshirts, coats, hats, and blankets. Tossed them in the jogger and walked all over downtown PA. Then as a treat to ourselves and to get out of the cold, we went for chinese. It was pretty good and they were fast. It was great 'cause the kids were going crazy and even their fishtanks weren't enough to entertain 1 & 2 yr girls. (m&z stayed with friends that night) so as soon as we were done we packed up the leftovers and piled the blankets back on the girls and walked back to the van. It was nice, chilly, but nice. My favorite saying of the night was n saying she wanted to hold the "rithss"- and it wasn't just once, it was many times.

Saturday night's dinner was taco salads- well, that was the plan but the kids had tacos on their mind so they heated up some tortillas and had those while j, l, and I had the salads. I also baked two loaves of bread on Saturday. One wheat, one white. The whole wheat is too dense for me, the white one was delish! It was perfect for butter and jam. The wheat I used up on Monday for filler in the meatballs.

Sunday, we picked a few things from the store. I didn't make it to Albertson's to do my stock up shopping- maybe by tuesday, as the sale ends then. We did however stop at our local Marketplace and picked up 20 lbs of fresh ground beef. So, Sunday was spent cooking up 5lbs ground beef to be packaged into 1 lb packages and frozen. I also packed up 12 1/2-1 lb loaves and froze those. I made two meatloaves (half ground turkey, half ground beef) for dinner and lunches. The remainder of the ground beef was made into meatballs and frozen. No baking on Sunday, but that was fine 'cause I was exhausted. Weekends are supposed to be relaxing, but I felt like I had no down time. Seriously, this mommy had to take a time out, to try and wind down. J was incredibly sweet and loaded up all the girls and took them to playland-yes, as in mcdonalds playland, and WORE them out!
Sunday night's dinner was meatloaf, boiled potatoes tossed in olive oil and herbs, and some of the sliced wheat bread-not bad with a meal.

Nothing too exciting today. J needed a serious haircut, and somehow I managed to convince him to cut it- well, at least the sides. Mission accomplished and the man cleans up pretty good. J and Z have a couple of projects planned so we did some running around to get a few supplies. They found a wood cigar box at an antique shop in PA and a couple of other things at a radioshack. They will be starting on their project this week, I can't wait to see how it turns out. Other than the usual crack-ups, temper tantrums, and hugs nothing out of the ordinary happened today. So, it was a good, no school day. Yes.

Tonight (monday) we had spaghetti with meatsauce and meatballs, salad, and toast. Pretty easy considering I already had the cooked ground beef in the freezer, and had just pulled the meatballs out of the oven. The leftover meatsauce will be used later in the week for baked ziti/penne. I was supposed to make a sheet of brownies today. The day got away from me, aka kids. And you know what it's okay. We had a great day.


As usual, the kids kept us on our toes, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Miso Yummy!

Last night's (thursday)dinner was delish! J made the Pork fried rice -and I made the miso soup. First off, I have to say it was a little more difficult to find miso paste than I thought. I knew when I thought about adding the soup to my dinner schedule that I was going to have to pick up a couple of things, but seriously didn't think that it would be that hard to find it. I mean, doesn't everyone like miso? Needless to say, we went to a couple of stores and finally a clerk at Safeway told me to check out this little mini mart - we pulled up and it's an old garage. I have seen it before, driven by it, but never stopped in. J and I walked in and were giddy- we were like kids in a candy store! Half of the store was asian foods, real asian foods: packaging and all! There was an aisle for hispanic foods, foods from the U.S., and russian foods. We found the miso paste right away, then saw other stuff that we only find at Uwajimaya's!!!! It's only 15 minutes from our house! YES!

Okay back to the dinner. We spent an extra six bucks and got the miso paste -which you only use about a teaspoon for the soup and you can throw it in the freezer and it never freezes solid, so it should last us .... oh a couple of months (tee hee), we also got a bag of noodles, and bag of shrimp chips for a snack -hey, half the bag is only 150 calories and it's a lot of chips.

The soup is absolutely gorgeous, but I was so wound up in the moment that I forgot to get a picture to share. So, when we make this again I'll definitely get one.

Without further adieu - the recipe:

Tory's Miso soup

2.5 cups of dashi broth (we used 2 cans of vegetable broth)
1 tsp of miso paste
1 bunch of green onions, sliced length wise or diced up
1/2 sheet of sushi nori (seaweed) sliced in short strips
1/2 cube of semi firm tofu, chopped into 1/4 in cubes

heat up in a saucepan and serve in little miso bowls. it is that easy and it so yummy-

what I'll do different next time:
-pick up the dashi broth from the market, I thought that it'd be fine to use the vege broth (which it is), but I like that clarity of the dashi broth, so the next time I'm at the market I'll fork out the $1.78 for the cubes.
-get the firm tofu. I bought what was on sale and I saw that they offered tofu just for soups-that's what I got. It was too soft, it didn't cube well and my kids thought that it looked and tasted gross. I promptly informed them that tofu has no flavor. They just looked at each other and then finished their soup. Ha HA! Victorious!
-There are different types of miso. We got the red miso - it was so good, but now I'm curious what the others taste like. Rather than pick up the others to try here and there, I'll just wait ('cause I'm frugal like that) until we polish off this paste and then we'll move from there.

chili a la me

Okay - so, I was tweaking the chili recipe I had found and ended up creating my own. Let's just say that J and I loved it. The kids, not so much. M claimed tummy ache upon seeing it in her bowl, she then piled on the sourcream, cheese, and chips. She ate it all but again claimed tummy ache and forgot to do her chores and retired to her room. Sometimes, I wish I could claim tummy ache and hide too. Oh, laundry - damn, I've got these cramps and I just think that you're going to have to go without underwear another day dear (runs and hides). Or, L has a dirty diaper.... hmmm... my hands just went numb and I think that I'm going to pass out, I'm going to bed - next? I also found myself not in the mood to sit there and wait for my bread to rise( for the bread bowls) so I baked mini corn muffins instead and EVERYONE loved them, well, except L- she just spat them everywhere. A little too crumbly for her liking. I then proclaimed that I had planned it from the get-go and all was well in the land. I will add my chili recipe at the end of this post if my "follower" is interested in giving her hubby some tummy love. Everything in my chili I had on hand already, so no trip to the store(yeah!).

Okay, really this is going to be a boring post so I'll just throw in some sales I spotted this week, that I will hit up this weekend. Albertson's is having another great 10 for $10 sale. Definitely a good week to stock up on Hunt's tomatoes, tomato sauces, spaghetti sauces, bone in chicken chicken breasts/whole fryers/drumsticks/thighs are 10 lbs for $10 (sometimes you can find these for less -but it's rare here in WA), Having pointed this out - you may want to check out that they also have frying chicken leg quarters on sale for $.59 lb. in the 10 lb bag,campbells condensed soups are 10 for $10 and their tomato/chicken noodle are 20 for $10; Also, SELECTED Kellogg's cereals are on sale for $1.25 ea. when you buy four boxes.
I like to hit up these sales and stock up. What's even better is there are quite a few different cambell's/Hunts/Kelloggs coupons floating around and you can match those up for an even better deal.

That's it for now, so now for the recipe (sorry no pictures, it really wasn't that pretty anyhow)

my basic chili recipe


approx. 2 lbs browned ground turkey (beef or other meat substitute)
1 T olive oil
3-4 T dried chopped onion
1 can kidney beans -drained and rinsed
1 can black beans -drained and rinsed
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes -entire contents, I use petite cause the kiddos aren't the biggest fans
1 packet of beefy onion soup mix
1 T paprika -more or less to taste
1 T cumin -more or less to taste
sprinkle of ground cayenne pepper -to taste
lots of pepper
a bit of cilantro (yum!)
a bit (maybe 1 T taco seasoning)
2 cups of frozen corn

prepare in above order, (except for the corn)I cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven- you can throw in anything you want with this more veggies would be delightful too- I waited to put the corn in until about 20 min before serving. Simmer as long as needed but at least 30-45 mins to get those flavors, I had it simmering for 4 hrs. This would be an awesome recipe in a crockpot too!

two words... CINNAMON ROLLS

Dinner tonight is soup/sand/salad - well, I'm making homemade chili and bread bowls. I'm trying a new recipe since it's just the kids and I tonight and I'm hoping it will be a hit - I LOVE CHILI!!!

In the meanwhile, I love cinnamon rolls. I used to love my grandma's rolls - then an evil new food entered our local mall. CINNABON. I would dream of having a roll and then would make it a point to visit everytime I could, I would even make up some reason to go shopping just so I could say "oh, I love cinnabon. We must have one before we leave." Um yeah, it was that evil. Now, I have that evil kept up in my recipe file for me to use whenever I damn well please. So, now I will share it with you. First off, thank you mrs.pinecone for posting them on hotcouponworld.com. Really, a general search on google and you too can claim your own possession story. BUT REALLY THEY ARE SO DROOL WORTHY... and so worth the extra bits of rolls on my hips.



*don't make fun of my photos -it was taken with my cell and I'm slowly learning to post pics - just feel blessed to have that to salivate to


Copycat Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

DOUGH:

2 pkg yeast (very fresh) or slightly less than 2 TB bulk yeast
1 t sugar
1 c warm water

1 c warm milk
2 tsp salt
2/3 c sugar
2/3 c butter (about 1 stick + 2 T)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
7-8 c flour

FILLING:

1 c melted butter, divided into 2 1/2 c portions
1 3/4 c sugar
3 T cinnamon

GLAZE:

2/3 c melted butter
2 t vanilla
4 c powdered sugar
4-6 T hot water

-In a cup, combine yeast, 1 t sugar and warm water, stir and set aside. In a large bowl (it fits in the KitchenAid, BTW) mix milk, remaining sugar, melted butter, salt & eggs.
-Stir well & add yeast mixture. Add half the flour and beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough slightly stiff-- it will be sticky!
-Turn out onto well-floured board. Knead 5-10 min. (I actually use the dough hook and knead in the mixer for 5 min.) Place in well-buttered glass or plastic bowl. Cover, let rise in a warm place until doubled: 45 min to 1 hour 15 min. When doubled, punch down and let rest 5 min. Roll out into 15 x 20 inch rectangle.

To prepare filling: -Mix together sugar and cinnamon. Prepare a 1/4 sheet restaurant pan OR a 9x13 AND an 8" square by spreading 1/2 c melted butter on the bottom. Sprinkle with 1/2 c of the cinn-sugar mix.
-Spread dough with 1/2 c melted butter. Add walnuts & raisins if you want to! -Sprinkle the rest of the cinn-sugar evenly over the surface.
-Roll up jelly-roll style and pinch edges to seal. Cut into 12-15 slices. (If using the commercial pan, all 15 will fit in 3 rows of 5.)

-Let rise in warm place until double-- about 45 min.
-Preheat over to 350, bake 25-30 min until nicely browned. Cool for 5 min.

To prepare glaze: -Mix melted butter, vanilla, powdered sugar; add hot water 1 T at a time until glaze is spreading consistency. (Usually 4-5 T) Spread over rolls.

I let them sit a bit to let the icing melt and get into every little crevice. In the meantime, go ahead and lick the icing bowl you totally deserve it! When you're done with the bowl, the rolls that you've slaved over all day are ready to be devoured. ENJOY!

This weeks dinner menu: subject to change without notice

Mon: Pork chops (or chicken breasts for me), noodles w/ cream cheese sauce, and salad
Tue: Chicken Rice-a-roni & salad - using leftover chicken from previous night -got a screaming deal on rice-a-roni sat. and stocked up, so I'll try the homemade recipe I have another night
Wed: Soup/Salad/Sandwich night
Thu: Chicken Fried rice w/ shrimp -may try homemade miso soup
Fri: Taco Salads
Sat: Teriyaki Chicken w/ rice and salad
Sun: Meatloaf, mashed baby reds, and green beans

that's it! The only things that I will "need" to get from the store are ground beef - need to find it on sale and salad fixins (I like to pick these up as fresh as possible -so I don't buy for a week, I buy in the hopes it will make a salad or two and then replenish as needed. I also only buy veggies/fruit from our local market as I know it's fresh and from WA)

Also check out how much rice we are eating this week! We love rice and really could probably have it with every meal of every day. I buy this in bulk from Costco or from Uwajimaya in Bellevue, WA (it's an asian specialty food market).

If your interested in any of these recipes just leave a comment and I'll post it!

deals and death

Last Saturday I ventured out to see if I could catch a deal or two at our local Albertson's. DID I EVER!!!!
First off - sorry to just now bring you these deals, they end on Tuesday.
Okay, the first deal was that Pampers were 2 jumbo pack of cruisers (I think that you can also get swaddlers & whatever their pullups are. I usually use cloth, but have been known to slip the babe in these for shits and giggles) for $20. That's $10 each - I bought 3 bags for $30. I received a catalina -$10 save on your next shopping trip for buying $30 worth of P&G stuff (I think I was supposed to get $15, but I didn't have anyone to argue with) and then for spending $25 in baby items I got a $5 catalina soynt. So, I got the $15 for my next trip.
Then I went back in and bought a bag of toilet paper (name escapes me,something soft 'cause I hate using sandpaper) $10, a bag of Bounty paper towels also $10, and then I bought four packages of GoGurt they were 2 for $5 - I had a couple of coupons to add to these and then I picked up a filler (in case it fell under $30) of yogurt. The preceding items and they were again P&G products so it qualified for the spend $30 get $15 on your next trip cat. So again, I had another $15.
Came back through, and picked up stuff on my list - Kraft mac & cheese 10 for $10, Rice-a-roni was 8 for $10 (not the best price, but I had 2 coupons for $1.00 off of four) and when you bought 8 Rice-a-Roni/Pasta Roni products you got $5 off of any beef, chicken, or pork from the meat section! So, of course I picked up two packages of pork chops and ended up paying only $2.48 for 3.5lbs of chops! Darigold - if you spent $10 you got $2 off instantly so of course I picked up 2 sour cream-2 for $3, 2 cottage cheese-2 for $4, and two pints of chocolate milk at $2 each (I had originally planned on getting their 16oz bottles-10for$10- of chocolate milk but they were completely out, some b.s about flooding and I5 closed- whatever). I was also able to get 10lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.88lb, a beef pot roast also for $1.88lb. I had a coupon for Albertsons butter $1.49 each limit 2 - so I got my limit. Hunts Tomato sauce was 10 for $10, so I picked up 5. Now - there was also 2 double coupons and you could get up to a dollar three times. It's my understanding that different stores had different policies -some only let you have the up to one dollar total all doubles. Mine let me have up to one dollar from three separate coupons for the one. Get it? Nah, me either. Anyhow, I think that I did pretty well.


Grand total out of pocket: First trip $30ish (plus tax)
Second trip $32.21 (with tax)
Third trip $26.58!

- I saved: first trip $6 ish (lost my receipt)
second trip $10 ish (again, where in the hell do they go? Must be with the socks)
third trip ......... $98.01 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After all of my coupons, and the $30 in soynt cats (catalinas) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was by far my best trip. Yes, I spent $85ish , but I saved 114 ish DOLLARS!!!!! and I got a shitload of food and diapers. Woo hoo!


On another note. We now know what brought our stereo to it's final demise. A wee little plastic spoon to the cd player-it was sooo deep. The one N used to feed her babies with. Oh the humanity!

the first - a purpose. What every blog needs.

I have to say that I am thrilled to get this started. I needed a way to vent. To shed my daily crusty, peanut butter covered, drooled on, the occasional potty miss skin. Okay, a shower would probably suffice, not to mention feel incredibly good,but I'm trying to get this going - so bear with me here.

I have to say a brief introduction and general purpose for this. I have been struggling to find some way to organize my life. I have four kids now and feel like some days are just lost. I also want to be able to track my spending habits - particularly groceries. I want to become more frugal with my time, money, and life in general. I have dreams of homesteading, coupons, and chickens! - crazy I know. I would love to farm - have chickens! and garden. I would love to learn how to live a more sustainable life. Now, I know I wouldn't be completely happy if I lost the modern day conveniences - like having a variety of stores to frequent -I've tried living in Bum Fu** Egypt it didn't work out between the two of us. I will be chronicling my attempts at couponing, stockpiling, homemade foods, hopefully gardening and chickens!, losing... eh hem..weight, and all the while looking good in a pair of heels.

seriously. Is this cool or what?

Probably just what. There are millions of active blogs out there and they all offer somebody something.

Self gratification.