Triple Clicks

Friday, October 26, 2018

Snack Mix

We've been doing sandwiches for Sunday lunches for a few months now... We decided to do trail mix with the sandwiches.   

Right now I'm making two different trail mixes because mine has to be Elijah friendly... but I forgot to get a picture of mine... 

Raisins  3.98
reese's covered pretzels 3.24
hershey covered pretzels 3.24
almond m&ms 2 4.86
Protein Granola 2.99
sesame sticks  2.89
banana chips 2.19

We also had walnuts, but we bought those last month so I don't have the price. 

So here's everything all ready to go.. The only thing I measured was the walnuts because the rest just gets the entire bag dumped in.





We found this at Aldi.  It's pretty good. 

We usually get plain sesame sticks, but we saw these and said "yum" 


I have to mix stage by stage or I have problems... I just don't have anything big enough to mix it all at once.  


A few months ago we decided we wanted something different...but still sweet.. So upon looking at Aldi and then at Walmart, we found these yummy creations.



Just keep mixing, just keep mixing, just keep mixing, mixing, mixing..

Whew! Done.

All done and bagged... The kids get 1/4 cup each, Dennis gets a cup... and I get something minus the yummy pretzels.  But at least I can have almond m&ms again!

I was spotted by this little beauty.  For some reason, watching me making snack mix is fun?



So usually our snack mix changes from month to month.. but I think we've finally found a combo we like-at least for now...  Apparently I added too many walnuts (oops)..  Now, if you are keeping track of calories... well, this is definitely NOT low calorie friendly... BUT, for the most part,  the majority is actually healthy for you.  What I added:
6 cups of walnuts
12 oz (1 bag) banana chips
11 oz (1 bag) Protein Granola Oats & Honey
7.5 oz (1 bag) Honey Sesame Sticks
22 oz (1 small container) Sun Maid Raisins
2 bags 15.9 oz each almond m&m's 
8.5 oz Reese's Dipped Pretzels
8.5 oz Cookies N Creme Dipped Pretzels


That gave us 13 1 cup servings... Or for us, 6 weeks of Sunday snack mix.    As for the price.. 

Raisins  3.98

reese's covered pretzels 3.24
hershey covered pretzels 3.24
almond m&ms 2 4.86
Protein Granola 2.99
sesame sticks  2.89
banana chips 2.19

$23.39 for that much.. Plus less  than two dollars for the walnuts as the whole bag was only around $8.  

So.. $4.16 for 6 people for one week of snacks to go with our sandwiches...  Sure, chips are cheaper, but this has some healthy stuff to it instead of flavored potatoes and air fried in oil. 

That's it for now.

Have a great week!

~Tabitha

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning October November

Is it nap time yet?  


I have been trying to type this out for 4 days now, it's currently the 15th, we went shopping the 13th.. The baby is finally asleep for now so I'm taking advantage while I can.  Now, let me tell you... I've got AT LEAST 8 loads of laundry to do... I don't want to think about how many dishes are out there.... but I just want to sit for a bit.  My hubby is doing his school.. he's currently in an IT class and every sentence is WWAAAAYYY over my head.  So here I sit...  lol


Meal Planning.. Things are a bit different this month, because for some days I am planning more than one meal.. Because I can't eat cheese.  So not only do I have food I can eat, but I am also making some extra snacks or freezer meals for me that are healthy and packed with protein. 

We have a massive amount of apples we're trying to get through.

My plans for baking throughout the month... apple chips, granola, granola bars and lots of things for breakfast.  

The meal plan seems really simple to me... but hey, we need simple some months.  

Breakfast-eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, juice, coffee, breakfast burritos (from Plain and Not So Plain), waffles, monkey bread, apple crisp coffee cake.  

Dennis' work lunches haven't changed since last month-chicken sandwiches, pickle, nutty bars and avocado.  

The kids will rotate through mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly and pancakes.  

I'll rotate with breakfast burritos, tuna salad and salmon patties.

Saturday lunches we'll do hamburgers and tator tots.  
Sunday lunches are sandwiches and trail mix. 
Wednesdays are leftovers (maybe.. I do have a leftover day this months) or chicken strips and homemade fries.  

Dinners
Chili (my hubby is excited for chili season)
Pineapple chicken and mashed potatoes
Ham and Hashbrown Casserole 
Spasagna (a friend from church made this as an after baby meal-everybody loved it... but judging from the results of the ham casserole... they won't like it when I make it)
Chicken Fajitas
Pizza
Fish 
Grilled Fajita Boats
Crunch Wraps
Teriyaki chicken and potatoes
swedish meatballs


Ok so shopping. Now I have to confess. We were doing GREAT budget wise until we got to Walmart.  It's all Walmart's fault. 

Elijah is getting a little better with the shopping... But he ate through...all the stores I think lol.  Right now, mornings are his cluster feeding times lol, but thankfully he's light enough to feed and walk.  


So.  Sam's.  Chicken, tator tots, sub bread, taco shells, bacon... Pretty much the usual food. Nothing special.  We spent 219.57

Onto Aldi.  We did pick up an extra, a pedal exerciser.  When we were looking into exercise equipment last year, there wasn't anything in our price that could fit my husband's weight.. Ironic isn't it?   One thing we did see was a little pedal exerciser you can put on the floor and use like a bike, or put on a table and exercise your arms.  Most of what we were looking at was around $90... this one was $30.   And both of us can use it.  So we grabbed it...  We also picked up some fun things for the kids-Danimal smoothies and cookie dough. Total at Aldi was 203.31, minus the 30 for the exercise machine,  Makes food total 173.31.  

Now I told you Walmart was the problem.  But that's nothing new. We ggrabbed a few things to try since wehad a coupon...  Chocolate whipped cream was one of those.  We also had a coupon for free Raisin Bran with banana.. Sooo...non food items.. Hangars  $2.88, Diapers 24.27, a infant to toddler rocker for Elijah 37.87, batteries 6.24, benefiber 19.87.  $91.13 in non food.. There were some cleaning items in there-but I can't decipher the receipt.  Supper was an 8ish dollar pizza and two salad kits 7.66 so 15.66...SO total at Walmart was 319.71.  We had a gift card to help with that, coupons saved us 18.50 (that was before the 319)... Total out of pocket was 307.17. So after the non typical purchases, we spent 216.04

We also made a stop by Dollar Tree this month.. Mostly miscellaneous things.. Coloring books, the big kids needed new coloring pencils, kleenex, I grabbed some Mr Cleaning sponges while we were there..  Little containers for our dip for our chicken (we use a few different things every time.. the kids got some sectioned trays just for meals like that... because we thought they'd like them and lotion because we couldn't find it at Walmart... We spent 23.43 

Total for the month of food was $608.92. We're going to break that down by 7 people for the month because I'm eating more with the breastfeeding, that makes it $87 a person for the month...  not that bad.  We've certainly done worse.


Lots of cuddling going on today.  Elijah hasn't slept that much unless he's on me today.  So I'm slowing down and cuddling.  

Have a great week!...or however long it is until I get  another blog out lol.

~Tabitha