Menu Planning (again)

I'm really bad at this whole menu planning thing. I manage it for a couple weeks, and then I fall behind again. Of course, I keep hoping that it will magically help save some money, and it doesn't seem to be helping much because I'm terrible at figuring out the whole coupon thing. My pantry staples are starting to run low, and I'm hesitating to stock up because I'm worried that the next week will be the week that everything goes on sale. Anybody want to help me figure out the whole coupon thing so I can start actually saving money? (No, the Grocery Game doesn't work for me, because it seems like everything it tells me to buy is stuff that I wouldn't normally buy, but I feel like I *have* to buy it because the Grocery Game told me to, lol).

Anyway, here's this week's menu plan a little late. I really like my crockpot this week. :)

Tuesday - Crockpot Spaghetti sauce with meatballs and angel hair pasta

Wednesday - Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken (still figuring out the veggies)

Thursday - Cheese-stuffed Hotdogs with sauteed onions (Rachael Ray recipe)

Friday - Hashbrown-topped Chili (Rachael Ray recipe - I thought it sounded kind of strange until I realized that I like baked potatoes with chili on top)

Saturday - Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

Sunday - Crockpot Pork Ribs (debating between barbecue or Asian)

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions on how to save money with menu planning AND/OR coupon shopping, I'm all ears. I can save a little money just by avoiding going to the store every day, but I seem to be struggling with snack/lunch items and cereal - it's frustrating how much more expensive groceries are out here.

Read more...

Sister Schuberts Giveaway

If you want to enter a yummy-sounding giveaway, visit www.5dollardinners.com.

Read more...

One Dancing Princess

The Princess was pretty jealous of all the grandparents raving on speaker phone about the cuteness of her baby sister's pictures. So I promised I would post her pictures tonight. I couldn't narrow them down, so I'm just warning you in advance - there are a lot of pictures.



















Grandma Clover, there are a few more images on my Facebook page, if you wanted any other choices for the storyboard.

Read more...

More Pictures

Here are more of the pictures of Miss Sparky. I'll post some of The Princess soon.

The big grin is because she's playing peekaboo with big sister. When she has the eyes-closed grin like this, she's usually making a high pitched squeal at the same time - kinda like a baby Godzilla. It's pretty cute.







Daddy was tossing her up in the air and making her laugh. She's *still* teething (no teeth yet - what has it been - 4 months of teething so far?), and she's constantly gnawing on her fingers right now.

Read more...

Sneak Peek

I had my lights set up to take some dance portraits of The Princess. Daddy came home from work, and Miss Sparky woke up right about the time I finished photographing The Princess. She was giggling and happy, and I decided to try capturing a few images of her before she knew what was happening. We got some great captures (both of her AND The Princess), and I'll share more of them soon, but I just wanted to post a couple of them tonight. Don't worry - she actually gave me some smiles and some eye contact, but I figured I'd save those for the real showcase. :)

This is her typical "just chillin'" expression.



And a modified version of the same expression.



And here we have the Amazing Levitating Baby...

Read more...

Best Fajitas EVER!!

I love fajitas. I don't like paying for them at restaurants. :) Since I made the mistake of leaving out the entire Costco-sized bag of chicken (after intending to only take out 3 pieces for dinner), I've had to get through a LOT of chicken this week. I decided to marinate a bunch of it in a chili lime sauce, and then pan seared it and we had fajitas tonight. They were so good I wanted to cry. Seriously - better than any restaurant fajitas I've ever eaten.

Here's the recipe for the Chili Lime Chicken - it's great by itself, but it's also good in fajitas, and I think it would be wonderful in a salad, as well. I have 3 more chicken breasts marinate that I have to cook up tonight, and I'll be freezing it to eat later.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons green onions, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a plastic bag. Seal the bag, and mush everything together to combine. Add chicken to the bag and toss to coat. Allow to marinate at least 3 hours.

The recipe says the chicken should be grilled, but we pan seared it, and it was really moist and yummy.

For the fajitas, I just cooked up some onions, mushrooms, and red peppers. We heated up the tortillas, added a little cheese, and had a really easy, delicious dinner.

Read more...

Updated Pictures of the Girls

Here are some recent pictures of the girls. I struggle to take their pictures these days. My camera doesn't handle indoor natural light very well, and I'm not always in the mood to bounce the flash. I seem to have misplaced the battery AND the memory card for my point and shoot camera.

Not to mention, neither of the girls is willing to give me a decent facial expression these days. The Princess is stuck in the five-year-old cheeser grin phase (or she resorts to the other extreme where she looks way too moody and depressed), and Miss Sparky insists on staring at me like I'm torturing her in the worst possible way - seriously, she refuses to smile when I have a camera in front of my face. I thought she was too young for that, but apparently she was born with it.

So here are the pictures - weird facial expressions and all...

Here's the typical cheeser grin.



And various other facial expressions. I was excited to finally use the pink chair I got from a yard sale a couple years ago.



Playing with textures... Not sure what I think of it.



And a couple of Miss Sparky. This is really the only expression she'll give me. And no, I don't pinch her to make her scowl like that.





At least she gave me some eye contact.



And I love this image of the two of them together. The Princess gets annoyed with her little sister at times (especially when she's screaming at the top of her lungs in the backseat of the car - which happens any time we go out), but she's seriously in love with her at the same time.

Read more...