Strawberry Shortcake: 10 minute dessert for less than $0.86 per serving and 150 calories using pantry ingredients you can keep on hand.

 

Hands down, this is my favorite dessert to make. Besides being ridiculously easy to make, it’s healthier than most desserts, low calorie, and can be made from ingredients in your pantry and freezer. It’s a fantastic recipe to keep around for unexpected guests or an alternative to late night binges on chocolate chip cookies.

 

 

Ingredients:

1 bag of frozen strawberries (I use whole, but you can also use sliced, chopped, or whatever you can find)- $2.99

1/2 container of light cool whip (I get the frozen tubs) $1.29

4 tablespoons of splenda or sugar – Pantry Item

1 Bavarian sponge cake crust (you can also use angel food cake, pound cake, or shortcake cups- I buy the Bavarian sponge cake crusts at Wegmans- they store for a few months before they expire, you can also purchase them online here).- $2.59

 

 

Directions:

Pour Strawberries into large microwave safe bowl. Follow directions on package for thawing in the microwave. I thaw mine at 30% power for 4 minutes. They should still be firm and a little cold.

 

 

Take them out of the microwave and add sugar, then toss. Pile strawberries onto crust (I leave them whole, but you can chop or slice them if you prefer). Spoon large dollops of frozen cool whip onto the strawberries. It will look a bit like ice cream. 

 

Serve immediately for a cold treat. Store leftovers in the fridge, it will be good for 2 additional days.

 

150 calories is calculating using Bavarian sponge cake, light whipped cream, splenda and frozen strawberries and cutting the whole pie into 8 equal pieces.

 

If you’re feeling creative, feel free to scatter chocolate chips or chocolate sauce on top.

 

Easily Calculate the Yearly Cost of Anything You Use Regularly. *Shop for 3 months of necessities at a time, saving time and money. *Know exactly how much to budget for household needs.

Do you want to almost eliminate errands from your life? Do you want to be able to accurately budget your financial needs? Do you want to save thousands this year? It’s easy. No seriously, it is. Much easier than losing 10 pounds, so make this your new years resolutionJ

Make a list of everything you need for the house. List everything from deodorant and trash bags, to tooth paste and shampoo. Log on to Walmart.com and find the cheapest unit price (read about how to calculate unit prices here). Your goal is to eventually keep a closet or corner of your house dedicated to 3 months worth of supplies for the house. It’s actually not as much stuff as your thinking in your head. Mine takes up a bathroom closet upstairs.

 

 

You can order from Walmart.com and pay the same (or better) price online as your do in your local store. I went through my entire list to ensure the prices were the same. Most home essentials ship for free as long as you spend more than $45. I order once every three months and replenish my supply closets.

You save time, reduce your errands, save your back from lugging 35 pound boxes of cat litter and money from buying the things you use the most at the cheapest prices (which can save you hundreds of dollars per year easily). You also save frustration of running out of something that you need and having to alter your schedule to pick it up.

Once you know how much you use of something in a year, it’s easy to calculate the costs of running the household for the entire year. Once that’s done, you can budget the correct amount accordingly and plan ahead.

 

When I first started calculating how much we used in year, I had charts and paper and routinely checked things off. Silly me J  You won’t waste your time like I did. Just use a sharpie (we keep one in my craft room and one attached to the fridge so they are easy to find) to date the item when you first start using it. When it’s done and you open up a new one- document the dates anywhere you would like (for me it’s the notes app in my iPhone). When you sit down to do your budgeting, add up the days it took for you to use that item up. Divide that number into 365 days.

 

For example:

It takes me 7 days to use up 1 pack of 90 count baby wipes.

365 (Days in a year) / 7 (Days it takes me to use up a 90 count pack of baby wipes)= 52.14 (How many packs of 90 count baby wipes I’ll need in a year)

 

The 90 count wipe pack was bought at Costco, but I want to purchase them off of Walmart.com to save myself errands. On Walmart.com, Parent’s Choice baby wipes are sold in boxes of 700 for $11.97 so I need to calculate the unit cost per wipe.

 

11.97 (cost of package) / 700 (wipes per package) = .017 per wipe.

 

I need 52.14 packages of 90 wipes. That’s a total of 4,692 wipes in a year. (Let’s not even discuss how many diaper changes that is!)

 

To calculate how many boxes of 700 wipes I need to buy from Walmart- I divide the number of wipes needed in a year by 700.

 

4,692 (wipes needed in a year) / 700 (wipes per package) = 6.7 packages of baby wipes. Since I can’t purchase .7 of a package, I round that up to 7 packages in a year.

 

To calculate the total cost of my wipes- I multiple the number of packages by the cost of the package.

7 (packages needed in a year) x 11.97 (cost per package) = $83.79 per year needed for baby wipes.

 

Once you get used to this, it takes about 2 minutes to calculate the yearly cost.

What have I saved in that 2 minutes?

 

If I just picked up baby wipes when I did my grocery shopping, and still bought the store brand to “save money”, I would spend $2.29 for 64 wipes. The total cost per year would be $167.89. In two minutes, I saved $84. You can multiply this savings by doing it with everything you purchase routinely. Your items are shipped directly to your house, with no cost for the shipping. You can really nail down your budget and keep it on track with no unexpected costs.

 

Read more about how to create your own home stock room here.

 

 

 

 

 

Local: Northern Virginia: Fairfax County “Unusual Splurges – Top Golf and Fish Pedicures” Review

I consider myself frugal, not cheap. I’ll happily spend a pretty penny if its something that I believe is worthwhile. My goal is not to eliminate all spending, it’s to reduce the amount I’m spending on things that aren’t important to me and replace it with things that are important to me. As far as entertainment goes, I’ll happily spend a small fortune at Walt Disney World because it really is the happiest place on earth, but I detest spending money on work lunches, and things that aren’t worth their price. You can see how we used this method to save $23,537.00 last year by clicking here. 

 

 

With that being said, I’ll let you in on my two favorite things in Northern Virginia. While neither are cheap, I think they’re frugal because they are well worth the cost to me. They’re unique, a ton of fun and a great experience.

 

 

1.                       Top Golf:

 

 

 

Top Golf is completely unique. There are two locations in the Unites States and there is no similar experience available. This is great for everyone from children to avid golfers. Each golf ball is chipped and assigned to you. There are several games to play and the computer registers where your ball lands giving you information such as targets hit and distance the ball traveled. My favorite game there combines darts and golf. The grounds have colored targets scattered around at different distances. Each target is sectioned into different zones. When you hit your ball, it measures where the ball hits the target and gives you a point value based on where you have hit. Jon’s a golfer and he can consistently hit the back targets, I’m more of a mini golfer. But the game is fun for both of us, because I can use a putter and hit the center of the closest target with consistency and beat Jon if he goes after the higher value targets and misses a few times.

 

                                                    Top Golf Injectable Donuts

 

Besides the fun of the actual game, they have a few bonus features. Their food is outstanding. It’s one of my favorite places to eat in Northern Virginia. They bring the food straight to the bays for you. They also have a selection of draft beers. The food they serve is far from the chicken finger type fare I was expecting. On my last visit, I had a buffalo chicken wrap with sweet potato fries and freshly made donut holes that came with injectable chocolate and raspberry filling. The filling came to the table in plungers that you could fill your own donuts. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

 

9 Months Pregnant and Kicking Jon's Butt with a Putter. 

(Okay, that was an exaggeration- I won by one point)

                                                   

They also have very high powered heaters that blow directly on you if you turn them on. They are open all winter and you can play in two feet of snow (the bays are covered) wearing a tee shirt, without feeling even a little bit chilly. They have mini golf at the facility if you would rather try that. They also have a night scene with a bar, patio tables, outdoor lighting, and free games of corn hole.

 

 

Each game costs about $4.80 depending on the time you play and if you’re eligible for discounts (military, ladies night).

 

 

2.                       Fish Pedicures at Yvonne’s Day Spa:

 

This is one of the neatest experiences I’ve ever had. When Yvonne’s started offering fish pedicures several years ago, they were completely unique. No one else in the United States offered that service. In fact, it was considered “weird or bizarre” according to most media reports at the time. It caught on quickly and a slew of them have opened up all over the United States. I think it’s kind of cool we can go to the original since we live in the area.

 

 

When you walk in, you are seated on a cushioned bench seat with long fish tanks at your feet. The tubs are filled with dr. fish of all sizes. You place your feet in the tanks and the fish attack you. There’s no other way to say it. The fish go nuts trying to eat the dead skin on your feet. The larger fish will actually muscle their way between your toes to get more dead skin. Gross, right? It doesn’t hurt, they don’t eat any healthy skin, just the dead skin. It’s a unique sensation that would be hard to describe to someone who hasn’t done it. I can’t really think of a time when I felt something similar. Everyone that I’ve ever went with for the first time has cried, but not because it hurts or because they’re upset. As I said, it’s hard to describe.

 

(yvonnesalon.com)

 

Once you’ve sat in the tanks for as long as you have purchased (normally 15 or 30 minutes), you get moved to a standard pedicure chair. At this point a very normal pedicure takes place complete with a hot water foot bath. Your feet will be baby smooth and your toes will look great. It’s pretty pricey at $65.00 for 30 minutes in the tanks and a standard pedicure.  However, I think it’s well worth the cost if your going infrequently to bring out of town friends or just to have the experience.

 

 

They do also have full body tank baths, but if you ask me there are some places that fish should never, ever be.

 

 

If you’re in the area, you should check these places out and let me know if I’m missing other unique area experiences.

Four Basic Tools Essential for Organization

Now that I’ve thoroughly explained that buying organizational tools is NOT the way to organize your life (you can find that post here). Let me tell you about the four organizational tools that are essential to my daily life. I would suggest completing your decluttering for a few weeks before you buy anything at all, to break you of the habit of associating buying with being organized.  

 

1. My schedule book: In an age of iPhones and ubiquitous technology (which I’m normally all about), my schedule book is bound paper. It goes everywhere with me and tracks my finances, my chores, my events, my work outs, memories, my menu plan, and helps me plan ahead so I’m never operating in “red zone”.

 

2. A laundry sorter: I got my laundry sorter here, at Target for 34.99, It keeps my laundry pile from being overwhelming. It holds four loads of laundry and I can sort as I go which helps make switching the laundry go quicker and encourages me to look forward to it.

 

 

3. Lunch bags and ice packs: In my opinion, barring any major expensive hobby, the biggest leak of your finances is most likely eating lunches out at work. You can read more on how much money you waste by eating lunches out here.

 

4. Financial Bag: This is an easy to carry bag (I’ve used both flyladys’ “office in a bag”, found here, and more recently Thirty One’s bag found here), that has checks, envelopes, stamps, and a copy of your budget outlook. I can throw in bills from my inbox and take this anywhere to balance my budget, pay bills (most are paid online, but having checks handy helps to pay infrequent bills.) Having the ability to handle the finances out of the house, gives me extra time at home to do the things I really want to do.

                                                             

 

                                                                                

 

12-1-12 This Weeks Meal Plan of Cheap 15 Minute Meals. *Shopping List Included* (Under $120.00 weekly for all food), New Meal Plans Post on Sunday.

This week, I’m back at work and surprisingly loving it. It’s less hectic than I remember it being. Of course, I’m only on day four of ten worked in a row, so perhaps we should revisit this idea in a few days. Meals have been going great, and while I could probably upgrade to 30 minute meals, I’ll spend a few more weeks on 15 minute meals to make sure I can keep this pace. 

Each Week, I sit down with my schedule book and plan out this week’s meals. Breakfasts are serve yourself from pre-made options, and snack bags for lunches are separated into snack baggies on shopping day (Sunday). I just grab 3 snack baggies for each of our lunches to toss in. We both pack our lunch every day, even being at home these last few months. I pack my lunch as well so I can grab it and go while running errands etc. Jon took over the shopping as one of his chores (You rock Jon!), He does that on Sunday and then I can do food prep that day for the week. I share our menu for the week for those that are new to menu planning. If you have no idea what to do for the week and would like to steal some or all of our plan... I promise not to prosecute:-)

As always, I feel it's important to note that this is not the healthiest plan to follow. It's a great plan for us, because it's breaking our addiction to fast food and other unhealthy habits, and its cut our food budget by about 50%. Slowly, we're making substitutions that will lead us to a healthy cheap meal plan. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.

 

"Recipes" for all menu items can be found here and here, unless they are noted below in the menu plan.

 

 

 



 

 

MENU:

 

 

 

 

Breakfast Options for the Week:

 

French Toast and Pancakes!! I’m making tons of these tomorrow from scratch and freezing them in groups of three. Add a little butter and strawberry preserves and I’m a happy girl.

Milk and Cereal: Self Explanatory.

 

 

Fruit Smoothies: We have frozen strawberries left over from last week’s Strawberry Shortcake so we can blend these with milk and ice (and chocolate if it’s going to be one of those days).

 

 

Lunch Options:

 

 

Jon may never get sick of Turkey and Muenster, but I certainly do. I’ll get a few options for the week and we can choose accordingly.

 

Frozen Healthy Choice Steamers- at 200 calories, these are great addition to lunch if I get sick of sandwiches.

 

Roast Beef and Cheddar

 

Oven Roasted Turkey and Muenster

 

Leftover TurkeyJ- Lots and Lots of Leftover Turkey, considering Mom and Dad brought down another turkey so we had two for Thanksgiving.

 

Snack Options for Lunches:

 

Pudding cups
Slim Jim's
Peanuts
Popcorn
Granola Bars
Fruit
Carrots

 

 

 

Reminders:

 

Gym all week right before lunch. Dinners must be stored for Jon and quick to both make and heat.

 

Make sure you have everything you need to pack two lunches from now on.

 

Plan for an insane Breakfast Burrito batch cooking session on your day off this week. We need 20 burritos to last until my next day off.

 

Pack extra easy snacks to store in car for unexpected late nights.

 

Weekday Lunches are now also being eaten on the weekends since one of us will almost always be working the weekend.




Monday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Broiled Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans. Served with A-1 Sauce and Garlic Parsley Butter.

(Broiled Steaks- Take 2 pieces of steak, preheat broiler to HI. Place steaks in oven on a broiler pan, leave the oven door open an inch. Broil on each side for about 5 minutes (could be less or more depending on steak thickness). Check the middle, if you want it more well done, close the oven door, bake at 375 for another 5 minutes.)

We use instant mashed potato flakes for quick mashed potatoes and frozen steamable green beans.


Tuesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks


Dinner: Taco Salad, Chips and Guacamole


Wednesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Grilled Chicken Salad on Pita’s

(Either use grilled chicken that you’ve made yourself and frozen, or you can use Tyson’s Frozen Grilled Chicken Breasts, or Wegmans Frozen grilled Chicken Breasts, or you can shred a rotisserie chicken.  Chop cucumbers, onion, olives, green pepper, romaine lettuce and mix with chopped chicken. Toss with greek dressing and pile on top of pita bread (or naan bread) that’s been warmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Salt and Pepper to taste.


Thursday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Homemade Sloppy Joes, Steamed Peas, Brown Rice


Friday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Sausage, Green Pepper, Onion and Pepperoni Pizza. Carrots and Blue Cheese Dressing


Saturday:

Breakfast: Tomato and Mozzarella Omlets.

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Broiled Steaks, Cauliflower and Cheese (frozen prepared), Egg Noodles.

 

Sunday:

Breakfast: French toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

 

Dinner: Chipotle Style Bowls

 

Shopping List: (All prices are approximate based off memory- If we shop before I post, I'll include total)

**This Post also serves as my husbands shopping list – you can ignore the descriptions meant for him.

 

2 Loaves of Giant Bread- $2.00

Gallon Fat Free Milk - $2.50

5 Healthy Choice Steamers - $9.00

Wegmans Muenster Cheese- $2.50

Wegmans Pudding Cups- $1.50

Slim Jim (Large Container)- $3.00

Wegmans Honey Roasted Peanuts- $2.00

Wegmans Applesauce Cups - $2.00

Wegmans Pear Cups (for lunches) - $2.00 (If Wemans doesn’t make these- just grab the cheapest national band)

3 Packs of Wegmans Burrito Tortillas- $6.00

3 Rolls of Frozen Sausage (like Jimmy Dean- but buy Wegmans if they have it)- $8.00

Huge Bag of Mozzarella Cheese- $14.00

Frozen Mixed Peppers (for burritos- if you can’t find them, just grab a club pack of green peppers for about $4.00)- $1.00

Frozen Onions (diced, chopped etc- doesn’t matter) - $1.00

Salsa- $2.00

4 thin personal size steaks (expiring after 11/30 if possible) - $11.00

1 Pound Wegmans Butter- $2.00

Steamable Green Beans- $2.00

Club Pack Ground Beef (when you get home, separate it into 1 pound packs and freeze with date and contents on label)- $13.00

Romaine Lettuce- $2.00

2 Small Packs of Cheddar Cheese - $4.00 (Don’t get a large one because once opened they expire in 3 days).

Large Wemans Sour Cream- $2.00

Taco Seasoning - $1.00 (these are kept with the seasoning packets- like beef gravy packets etc – If my memory serves it’s in the canned veggie aisle)

2 Avocados- $3.00

Wegmans Tortilla Chips- $2.00

Steamable Peas (with that french sauce- berganaise?- I’m sure I just butchered that)- $2.00

1 Green Pepper - $1.00

1 White Onion- $1.00

Pepperoni - $2.00

Pizza Crust- $2.00 (Any type- refrigerated, wegmans dough, or boboli type crust)

Baby Carrots- $2.00

Wegmans Blue Cheese (Not the light one)- $1.50

Wegmans Fozen Cauliflower and Cheese- $2.00

Egg Noodles- $2.00

1 Can of Black Beans- $1.00

Wegmans Frozen Grilled Chicken Breast- $6.00

Lime Juice- $1.00

 

 

Total: $ 120.00

 

Items already at Home:

 

Ketchup

Mayo

Strawberry Preserves

Brown Sugar

Diced Onion

Cilantro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Simple Way to Declutter Your Life and Live Stress Free: 5 Steps to Start Today

The fail proof way to declutter your home:

1.     Make a list of every room, and closet in your house.

2.    In your schedule book, dedicate 15 minutes for each day in a week per room.  

3.    Each day, spend 15 minutes (timed!) going through the room and making a pile of things that you can get rid of. Be brutal. If you don’t love it, wouldn’t wear it tonight, or haven’t used it in a year. Get rid of it. If you have a significant other, have them help you be honest about what you need.

4.   Determine what to do with your pile of clutter. If you don’t desperately need money right now, and you’re hopelessly disorganized, I honestly suggest throwing it out. If you attempt to sell it or donate it right now it will sit in a pile in the corner of your house for months, possibly years until you give upon it. If you’re starting to get on the right track, try donating it or selling it. If you sell it, try to pick out the items that will sell for the most to maximize return for your time.

5.    After you finish decluttering each of your rooms, you can go back to your schedule book and write in a new room per week Spend 15 minutes per day organizing what’s left. Once everything is gone, organizing will be very easy.

In my pre-flylady life, I probably donated 30% of my salary to organizational “stuff”. Every major cleaning project at my old house would start with a trip to Staples, Walmart, or Target. I would spend a fortune, convinced that the dividers, bins, and hooks would be the answer to my prayers. After several long years, I can tell you with certainty that organization does not come from Target, Walmart, Staples, or Bed Bath and Beyond.

Think of a simpler time in our history. If you lived in the past and you had a small one room house and your only possessions were things that you made or traded for, organization wouldn’t be a problem. Your cooking pot would go in the section of your table reserved for it. You would clean it after every use because you needed it for the next meal. You would only have the things that you needed to live comfortably. Possessions that weren't necessary to live, such as jewelry or trinkets were treasured. Fast forward to modern times- We've become so overwhelmed with stuff, that we can’t possibly use it all or take care of it appropriately.  My house has at different times contained: A craft room entirely devoted to an enormous amount of crafting supplies, ham radio equipment that has been used a handful of times (including putting a hole in the attic to get better reception), cross country ski equipment, fire torches to juggle, fly fishing equipment, camping equipment, three Xboxes, a Wii, bikes, two motorcycles, rollerblades, enough clothing to dress our entire community, soap making equipment, beer brewing equipment, lap tops, computers etc. How far we have strayed from when our possessions were well used and cherished.

Flylady taught me that you can’t possibly organize these things. More importantly, you don’t have enough time to devote adequately to use and take care of all of these things. To me, a happy life involves a few simple pursuits that I enjoy and can focus my time on. I no longer need a house filled with hundreds of distractions. I choose the hobbies that are important to me. Mine are crafts (thank you Pinterest!), reading (almost exclusively from the library), and this blog (which requires no “stuff” and actually makes me money instead of requiring money to start.)

Now Jon was a different story. Jon believes in perfecting as many hobbies as he can possibly cram into his life. It’s important to me that Jon isn’t forced to alter his beliefs to fit mine just because we’re married. Within reason, I want Jon to choose the path he feels most comfortable with. Does that mean I’ll empty my 401k to fund his home brewing projects? Absolutely not, but it does mean that I’ll do everything feasible to make it possible for him to accomplish his goals while I work on mine. When given a limit and options of how to spend his money, Jon chooses to invest in his current favorite hobbies by selling equipment from his previous favorite hobbies.

Let’s say you love brewing beer. If you buy all of your beer brewing equipment second hand and in a few months decide that you would rather build a motorcycle, you can sell your beer brewing equipment and begin to purchase motorcycle parts. You will have lost almost no money. If in a year, you change your mind and decide that you miss beer brewing, sell your motorcycle (probably at a profit) and buy secondhand beer equipment again.

The only way to organize your house is by decluttering and reducing the things in your life. There are a few ways to do this. You can do this “flylady” style by spending 15 minutes a day in different rooms and throwing out anything that you don’t love or that you haven’t used in a year. You can sell 10 things from your home on eBay each week (this requires a time dedication of it’s own, since you have to spend a significant amount of time packaging and shipping.), or you can make a huge pile of stuff you want to donate and make a free pile outside and list it on craigslist. We did this once and loved the results. I was excited that my stuff was going to people that would appreciate it and I firmly believe in karma, we’ve received so many needed freebies, or excellent deals on craigslist that I’m happy to list for free when I don’t have time to sell.

**Head over to flylady.org to learn more about combating clutter.**

11-24-12 This Weeks Meal Plan of Cheap 15 Minute Meals. *Shopping List Included*

 

Swedish meatballs and Egg Noodles

 

I’m back to work full time this week. I’m more than a little nervous about returning to my previously hectic life. Now made even more so by this adorable 17 pound Squishy-Face sleeping next to me.  But alas, we have a great five year plan and if I can pull through now, I know that this time will be worth it in the end to meet the family’s goals.

Each Week, I sit down with my schedule book and plan out this week’s meals. Breakfasts are serve yourself from pre-made options, and snack bags for lunches are separated into snack baggies on shopping day (Sunday). I just grab 3 snack baggies for each of our lunches to toss in. We both pack our lunch every day, even being at home these last few months. I pack my lunch as well so I can grab it and go while running errands etc. Jon took over the shopping as one of his chores (You rock Jon!), He does that on Sunday and then I can do food prep that day for the week. I share our menu for the week for those that are new to menu planning. If you have no idea what to do for the week and would like to steal some or all of our plan... I promise not to prosecute:-)

As always, I feel it's important to note that this is not the healthiest plan to follow. It's a great plan for us, because it's breaking our addiction to fast food and other unhealthy habits, and its cut our food budget by about 50%. Slowly, we're making substitutions that will lead us to a healthy cheap meal plan. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.

"Recipes" for all menu items can be found here and here.

 

 



 

MENU:

 

 

 

Breakfast Options for the Week:

French Toast and Pancakes!! I’m making tons of these tomorrow from scratch and freezing them in groups of three.

Milk and Cereal: Self Explanatory.

 

Fruit Smoothies.

 

Lunch Options:

 

Jon may never get sick of Turkey and Muenster, but I certainly do. I’ll get a few options for the week and we can choose accordingly.

Frozen Healthy Choice Steamers to keep in office in case I forget my lunch.

Ham and Swiss with Deli Mustard

Roast Beef and Cheddar

Oven Roasted Turkey and Muenster

Leftover TurkeyJ

Snack Options for Lunches:

Pudding cups
Slim Jim's
Peanuts
Popcorn
Granola Bars
Fruit
Carrots

Ice Cream- It’s not for lunch- But I’ve had a serious Ice Cream craving all week.

Reminders:

Insanity Week. Gym all week right before lunch. Dinners must be stored for Jon and quick to both make and heat.

Make sure you have everything you need to pack two lunches from now.

The Daly’s come in on Tuesday night and will be here for meals from Wednesday to Sunday. (So serving 5).

Pack extra easy snacks to store in car for unexpected late nights.

Weekday Lunches are now also being eaten on the weekends since One of us will almost always be working the weekend.




Monday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Chicken Quesadillas, Guacamole and Chips, Brown Rice


Tuesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks


Dinner:  Beef Tacos with shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and taco sauce.


Wednesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner:


Thursday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Thanksgiving Day – The Daly’s Cook (YES!!!!!! So excited about this!)


Friday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Bubbles and Squeek! Mom’s famous Thanksgiving leftover recipe which I’ll post late in the week. It’s kind of like a turkey potato stuffing pancake with gravy syrup.


Saturday:

Breakfast: French Toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Swedish meatballs with egg  noodles

Sunday:

Breakfast: French toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner:  Beef Ravioli and Pasta Sauce, side salad with Italian dressing, strawberry shortcakes for dessert.

Shopping List: (All prices are approximate based off memory- If we shop before I post, I'll include total)

Eggs- two 18 pcks (look for club pack of eggs near the center fridge aisle next to the lunch meat. $4.00

Wegmans Raisin Bran - $2.00

2 Healthy Choice Steamers (no seafood) - $6.00

Wegmans club pack ham in the lunch meats aisle (next to the cheese) – $8.99

Wegmans club pack turkey - $8.99

Wegmans Swiss Cheese $ 2.50

Wegmans Deli Mustard (course brown) - $1.50

Wegmans Sliced Cheddar- $2.50

Wegmans Roast Beef- $3.00 (smaller- not a club pack)

2 loaves Wegmans Giant bread with the lastest expiration you can find - $2.00

Wegmans Pudding Cups x2 = $4.00

Slim Jims- $5.00

Smart Food Popcorn (or Wegmans version if they have it)- $3.00

Wegmans Granola Bars x2 (Not Peanut Butter for mine) - $4.00

Wegmans Yogurts x6 (strawberry banana for me) - $3.00

Ice Cream- you pick – must have chocolate in it –( no mint or peanut butter) - $3.00

Wegmans Burrito Tortillas - $1.50

2 -  Tysons Frozen grilled Chicken Breast (use coupon) - $11.00

Wegmans Salsa- $2.00

Large Cheddar Cheese- $3.50

Avacado- $2.00

Wegmans Tortilla Chips- $2.00

2 - Sour Cream - $4.00

Hard Taco Shells- $2.00

Iceberg Lettuce - $2.00

Ready-made Meatballs- $6.00

Egg Noodles - $1.50

Jar of Beef Gravy - $1.50

Ranch Dressing - $1.50

Wegmans Beef Ravioli x2 - $4.00

Iceberg Salad Mix- $2.00

Frozen Strawberries- $5.00

Frozen Whipped Cream (like Cool Whip) - $2.00

Ready-made angel food cake or shortcake cups (often found in produce next to the strawberries) - $3.00

 

 

 

 

Total: $118.00 for this weeks groceries

Items already at Home:

Brown Rice

Mashed Potatoes

Butter

Taco Sauce

Ground Beef (6 packets of 1 pound left)

Pasta Sauce