Monday Menu

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Sliced pear, Raspberries, yogurt

Snack: Halloween trail mix

Lunch: Denver Breakfast Burritos, grapes

Dinner: Broccoli Cheese Soup, fresh bread, sliced pears

Halloween Trail Mix

Peanuts

Candy Corn

Denver Breakfast Burritos

eggs

canadian bacon

bell pepper, choppped

onion, chopped

cheese

tortillas

Sunday Menu

Breakfast: Cereal, milk, bananas

Lunch: leftover Chicken & Vegetables over Brown Rice

Dinner: Cashew Stir fried vegetables, Pot stickers, and Brown rice

Cashew Stir fried Vegetables

Carrots, julienned

Onion

Celery

Broccoli

Green Bell Pepper

Yoshidas Terikayi Sauce

Cashews

About 1-2 cups of the above vegetables stir fried in a small amount of oil. Remove from heat, add 1/2 sauce and 1 cup cashews.

Serve over brown rice. Yum!

She's back!!!!

I haven't posted in almost three years! yikes. Please know that in the last three years I have continued to feed my family, I just haven't had the time to blog about it. We have been hit by some tough financial times like many others and I have been so grateful for the planning and saving and storing away of food for my family. We really have to tighten our belts and delve into our food storage instead of going grocery shopping. I have about $20 a month to buy groceries and will supplement the rest from the food we get from the Women's, Infant's, and Children's Nutrition program. It allows for us to get milk, beans, fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole grains and cereal. This has been a lifesaver for us because with me being pregnant and having three growing girls we have to make sure the quality of what we are eating is not diminished by our need to watch the bottom line. Each week I will post my menus for the week and include and recipes that I find. I am also working on putting some quick heat and eat meals up in the freezer for when I get closer to delivery and also for after the baby's birth. I will have special entries just for those recipes. Here is to happy and healthy eating!

Grocery Shopping!

Are you looking for ways to save money like I am? Don't go shopping with kids, and don't shop on an empty stomach! I made my list and went shopping first thing this morning and got it all done in record time.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This was my first Thanksgiving dinner where basically everything was up to me. My S-I-L was awesome and so laid back, she just went with whatever and helped out a ton. Together we made a beautiful dinner and the gravy was even great. The pies were beautiful and the turkey fell of the bone. We ate dinner at 2pm, literally sat down at 2pm. It was so nice!

Frugal Shopping & Eating

We all feel it. The price of gas has skyrocketed, food prices are ridiculous, and the quest that I have been on my whole married life is finally paying off. Since Nathan and I were first married, I have made it my own personal game to see how cheap I can get my monthly grocery bill. I will admit that the years that I was working outside of the home were not my best frugal times, but I am back at it and better than ever. The rules of my game are simple:

1. Feed my family nutritious, filling, delicious meals
2. Spend as little as possible
3. Build up a storage of food in the pantry to build self-reliance in times of financial hardship, disaster, or food shortages. (This has saved us at least three times in our years of marriage.)
4. Use coupons, sales, discounts, anything legal to save money and stretch our food dollars
5. Share my good deals with other families so that they can play my little game too!

In moving I have had to buy all new condiments and other things that one takes for granted. I cannot tell you the eye-opening "sticker shock" that I experienced when I had to buy a big bottle of Ranch dressing recently. I remember going to Sam's and being able to buy that bottle for around $3 something. This last week I had to buy it at a local grocery store, Smith's, and it was $8.29. It just goes to show that when you purchase these items separately along with your normal groceries you don't watch as closely, but I have already began my quest to make that cheaper without sacrificing the taste and quality. I will keep you posted to the dressing challenge!

Now that the girls are getting older and taking more regular naps and I HAVE A DISHWASHER!! I will have more time to share on the blog the good deals and awesome finds that I am adding to the Clark Cupboard.

Deal-of-the Day!!!

Smith's has bottled 1 Gallon jugs on sale for $1.00 but if you buy 10, you get $5 back. That is is 50 cents! Now I am not a big bottled water fan, I think all that plastic is really crappy for the environment. However, I believe in having two weeks worth of water for every person in the family in case of water contamination, disaster, etc. Don't scoff, it happens a couple times a year in a community, you always hear about it on the news, "such-n-such community has detected blah-blah in the water, residents are being asked to boil", or "the ____ city water main broke today leaving the residents with no water for at least 3 days." Don't tell me that you would be able to find a drop of water in the stores after about 5 minutes of that news break. It saves money to be prepared. We should also have at least 1-2 gallons in the trunk of each of our cars for various reasons.

Mother's Day Brunch

Stuffed French Toast-(I will post the recipe later) I wanted to show you all the delicious meal that I was served on Mother's Day.