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!

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!