My mother in law was kind enough to make my cake, so I had to change my blog post for this week. :)
I've discovered more allergies in our family. Grace is having issues with eggs, so I'm looking at alternative recipes and egg substitutes.
With pancakes, I can just leave the egg out and they turn out perfectly fine.
I attempted waffles. That didn't work out so well. I tried again today and they turned out better, but the recipe still needs something. I have a friend who has offered recipes, so I'm messaging her today for help.
Not too much is going on around here. Going a little stir crazy in the house, but we are geting through it.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Triple Clicks
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Birthdays, Birthdays and More Birthdays!
The first four months are chock full birthdays around here. In January we have Eva's, my dad's, mine and my mom's. February we have Grace's and Dennis'. March has Adrianna's and April has Andrew's.
The kids get to tell me what kind of cake they want and what decoration they want. We also do their favorite food for lunch (that way they have time to run off the sugar of the cake before bed time).
For Eva's birthday, she wanted a Thomas the Train cake and pizza for her birthday. So we got frozen pizza to bake and the kids 'helped' with the cake. (Read as: they ate icing as I was trying to decorate.)
I was really excited to try out my new cake pans. I finally have round cake pans so I can do a little more with cakes rather than just rectangles. I wasn't able to get as fancy as I wanted because Grace was sick and getting very grumpy in the high chair. But Eva loved it, and that's the important part.
I did discover I needed more icing than I made. There just wasn't enough to my liking. :) But then, I do have a sweet tooth. I also didn't realize how little room there was on a round cake and should have put the train on before I wrote the letters, but oh well.
Hard to believe my little girl is 3 already. Goodness knows she has the attitude to go with it.
I have plans for my cake, just hope it turns out ok.. That will be next week as we are doing it early... Then the week after we'll do my parent's cake... As long as they let me make it at their house anyway. :) Just so many cakes going on! :)
There's my birthday girl. Complete with pizza sauce. 'Scuse the messy floor behind her.
The kids get to tell me what kind of cake they want and what decoration they want. We also do their favorite food for lunch (that way they have time to run off the sugar of the cake before bed time).
For Eva's birthday, she wanted a Thomas the Train cake and pizza for her birthday. So we got frozen pizza to bake and the kids 'helped' with the cake. (Read as: they ate icing as I was trying to decorate.)
I was really excited to try out my new cake pans. I finally have round cake pans so I can do a little more with cakes rather than just rectangles. I wasn't able to get as fancy as I wanted because Grace was sick and getting very grumpy in the high chair. But Eva loved it, and that's the important part.
I did discover I needed more icing than I made. There just wasn't enough to my liking. :) But then, I do have a sweet tooth. I also didn't realize how little room there was on a round cake and should have put the train on before I wrote the letters, but oh well.
Hard to believe my little girl is 3 already. Goodness knows she has the attitude to go with it.
I have plans for my cake, just hope it turns out ok.. That will be next week as we are doing it early... Then the week after we'll do my parent's cake... As long as they let me make it at their house anyway. :) Just so many cakes going on! :)
There's my birthday girl. Complete with pizza sauce. 'Scuse the messy floor behind her.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Shopping Trip January 17, 2015
Things continue to be crazy around our house. My husband went through a period where he didn't want me to meal plan, just use what we had.... I'm going a little crazy, so back to meal planning.
There seems to be a few good sales running around stores this week, so it looks like I'm going to be hitting a few more stores to get the sales. Hopefully Andrew holds up and doesn't go crazy on me. At least the weatherman says it will be a little warmer, hopefully it will. Then the kids can just bundle in sweatshirts and hats and we won't have to take coats on and off half a dozen times. :)
Well, As it is. Ads are out for this week. I don't have my meal plan made out.. but I do have a few meals in mind, so we'll see how they fit with the sales.
Here's your ad links
Happy Ad shopping. If you use HyVee, don't forget to check out the digital coupon section on the site. They download straight onto your fuel saver card, so when that gets scanned for fuel saver points, the coupons come off and you don't have to remember to give them to the cashier.
Stay Warm! Our 'high' is around 40 this weekend, hope it gets that warm lol.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Budget Saving Ideas
I'm sure it's no secret by now we try to save money wherever we can. One of the biggest things that always plague budgets is TV. Satellite or Cable? Well now there's new options.
A year ago we found a little box called a Google TV. Amazon has their name brand and Roku also has one. It basically allows you to get online through your TV and watch things, play music. I even got on Facebook a few times through it. It's come in handy. I think it cost us $100.
A few months ago, my husband found the Google Chromecast stick.. yet again Amazon and Roku also has their own, but Amazon videos don't work well unless you buy theirs, so if you watch a lot from Amazon Prime, keep that in mind. This handy little dude plugs into an HDMI port in your TV and you download an extension on your browser to cast or mirror (depending on the site) anything on your internet browser to your TV. It's pretty awesome. There's also an extra extension to put on your browser that casts things that would normally mirror (including Facebook videos), but make sure you put on the adblock plus extension before visiting the free movie sites or you'll go insane with the popups.
Just to be clear, "mirroring" means it still plays on your computer, but you can watch it-with the sound-coming through your TV. "Casting" means it sends whatever your watching to your TV and you just have to keep the browser up.
Hulu mirrors, while Netflix and YouTube cast. YouTube also lets you create a playlist to cast to your TV. This little stick cost us $30. Netflix and Hulu subscriptions are $8 each a month.
Now, we are weird people and listen to music at night, so that's been our major stumbling block here. We had found a surround sound speaker system we bought initially for the TV...but it didn't work like we thought it would and thought we had wasted $130.. But now that we have it figured out (we aren't exactly technically savvy around here), we have our night time music problem solved. It is a wireless system, we hook in the MP3 player or an old smart phone through our Wifi network on Pandora and let the music go. It will put music in both the kids' rooms, too, because we bought extra speakers.
We're all set now to give Dish Network the boot... we barely watch TV anyway, it's almost all Netflix or YouTube. We are just waiting for the power cords to come in to keep the smart phone with power all night.
There are cheaper speakers out there.. or you can just chromecast Pandora through your computer if you don't want it in your bedroom. Once we get rid of Dish, our monthly TV cost will be $16. It still remains to be seen if Dennis will want to pay to watch Football next season, but it's not a very big fee through ESPN.com.
The site we use that's free, has a HUGE database of movies and new shows is www.primewire.ag. You want to add the AdBlock Plus extension before you go there. Just do it. You can turn the extension off and on by clicking on it. In the Google Chrome browser, click on the three little bars in the upper right hand corner, go into 'settings', on the left hand side there is an option for 'extensions'. Click it then find Ad Block Plus.
The only show I haven't found through any of these ways is 19 Kids and Counting. That's because TLC is stingy :( So I'm impatiently waiting to be able to see the new episodes.
We're hoping we can get on the network web sites after we cancel Dish.. But as for now, it's blocking us out because we have to sign in through Dish... But I have friends telling me they can watch episodes on the sites.
Hope this helps somebody else.
Tabitha
A year ago we found a little box called a Google TV. Amazon has their name brand and Roku also has one. It basically allows you to get online through your TV and watch things, play music. I even got on Facebook a few times through it. It's come in handy. I think it cost us $100.
A few months ago, my husband found the Google Chromecast stick.. yet again Amazon and Roku also has their own, but Amazon videos don't work well unless you buy theirs, so if you watch a lot from Amazon Prime, keep that in mind. This handy little dude plugs into an HDMI port in your TV and you download an extension on your browser to cast or mirror (depending on the site) anything on your internet browser to your TV. It's pretty awesome. There's also an extra extension to put on your browser that casts things that would normally mirror (including Facebook videos), but make sure you put on the adblock plus extension before visiting the free movie sites or you'll go insane with the popups.
Just to be clear, "mirroring" means it still plays on your computer, but you can watch it-with the sound-coming through your TV. "Casting" means it sends whatever your watching to your TV and you just have to keep the browser up.
Hulu mirrors, while Netflix and YouTube cast. YouTube also lets you create a playlist to cast to your TV. This little stick cost us $30. Netflix and Hulu subscriptions are $8 each a month.
Now, we are weird people and listen to music at night, so that's been our major stumbling block here. We had found a surround sound speaker system we bought initially for the TV...but it didn't work like we thought it would and thought we had wasted $130.. But now that we have it figured out (we aren't exactly technically savvy around here), we have our night time music problem solved. It is a wireless system, we hook in the MP3 player or an old smart phone through our Wifi network on Pandora and let the music go. It will put music in both the kids' rooms, too, because we bought extra speakers.
We're all set now to give Dish Network the boot... we barely watch TV anyway, it's almost all Netflix or YouTube. We are just waiting for the power cords to come in to keep the smart phone with power all night.
There are cheaper speakers out there.. or you can just chromecast Pandora through your computer if you don't want it in your bedroom. Once we get rid of Dish, our monthly TV cost will be $16. It still remains to be seen if Dennis will want to pay to watch Football next season, but it's not a very big fee through ESPN.com.
The site we use that's free, has a HUGE database of movies and new shows is www.primewire.ag. You want to add the AdBlock Plus extension before you go there. Just do it. You can turn the extension off and on by clicking on it. In the Google Chrome browser, click on the three little bars in the upper right hand corner, go into 'settings', on the left hand side there is an option for 'extensions'. Click it then find Ad Block Plus.
The only show I haven't found through any of these ways is 19 Kids and Counting. That's because TLC is stingy :( So I'm impatiently waiting to be able to see the new episodes.
We're hoping we can get on the network web sites after we cancel Dish.. But as for now, it's blocking us out because we have to sign in through Dish... But I have friends telling me they can watch episodes on the sites.
Hope this helps somebody else.
Tabitha
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Happy New Year!!
I meant to get a post out last week with recipes I was cooking for Christmas, but things got a little crazy (ha! imagine that!)... So you're getting two in one. :)
Our Christmas dinner was really simple.. Ham, shrimp, mashed potatoes, rolls, broccoli and pie and cookies for dessert.
Ham- I put it in the crock pot with 1/4 cup vinegar and about a cup of brown sugar on Christmas Eve. Then all I had to do was pop it in the cooker portion as breakfast was baking and it was done by lunch time.. About five hours on high, but it could have easily been on low since it was falling off the bone by lunch.
Shrimp- tablespoon of coconut oil in the pan, coat shrimp with italian seasoning (equal parts of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, parsley), put shrimp in pan and sprinkle lemon juice on them. Cook until white, turn, cook until white (about five minutes on each side).
Mashed potatoes-peel, cut, boil, mash. I add salted butter and sour cream to ours because that's how we like it.
Broccoli-frozen broccoli, boiled in pan while potatoes cook. About ten minutes.
Rolls-I had bought crescent rolls on sale, but then my mother in law gave us some, so we used those instead
Pumpkin pie-I just followed the directions on the can and made my own pie crust.
Sugar Cookies-the kids and I made these Tuesday. I had planned on a cake, but Grace hasn't been feeling well so cookies were easier to do in parts. Just a basic sugar cookie recipe, with cream cheese frosting on the top. The kids got to decorate their own and then eat them of course!
For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls (remember those Pillsbury ones I got on sale?), eggs and bacon.. not like the kids ate many of those... I ended up eating them as the morning progressed...because who needs breakfast when you have presents?
Friday my husband was off so we made pigs in a blanket for lunch, Eva was the only one that ate them in the roll.. Adrianna and Andrew looked at me like I lost my mind. But Grace enjoyed the crescent roll they took off.
Today for New Year's Eve, I'm doing ham bone soup and a recipe for little smokies hubby found on Facebook...As long as I can find it, going to have to go searching on my Facebook page. We'll be in bed by 10, I guarantee it.
That's all that's going on here this week. Have a safe night tonight!
Our Christmas dinner was really simple.. Ham, shrimp, mashed potatoes, rolls, broccoli and pie and cookies for dessert.
Ham- I put it in the crock pot with 1/4 cup vinegar and about a cup of brown sugar on Christmas Eve. Then all I had to do was pop it in the cooker portion as breakfast was baking and it was done by lunch time.. About five hours on high, but it could have easily been on low since it was falling off the bone by lunch.
Shrimp- tablespoon of coconut oil in the pan, coat shrimp with italian seasoning (equal parts of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, parsley), put shrimp in pan and sprinkle lemon juice on them. Cook until white, turn, cook until white (about five minutes on each side).
Mashed potatoes-peel, cut, boil, mash. I add salted butter and sour cream to ours because that's how we like it.
Broccoli-frozen broccoli, boiled in pan while potatoes cook. About ten minutes.
Rolls-I had bought crescent rolls on sale, but then my mother in law gave us some, so we used those instead
Pumpkin pie-I just followed the directions on the can and made my own pie crust.
Sugar Cookies-the kids and I made these Tuesday. I had planned on a cake, but Grace hasn't been feeling well so cookies were easier to do in parts. Just a basic sugar cookie recipe, with cream cheese frosting on the top. The kids got to decorate their own and then eat them of course!
For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls (remember those Pillsbury ones I got on sale?), eggs and bacon.. not like the kids ate many of those... I ended up eating them as the morning progressed...because who needs breakfast when you have presents?
Friday my husband was off so we made pigs in a blanket for lunch, Eva was the only one that ate them in the roll.. Adrianna and Andrew looked at me like I lost my mind. But Grace enjoyed the crescent roll they took off.
Today for New Year's Eve, I'm doing ham bone soup and a recipe for little smokies hubby found on Facebook...As long as I can find it, going to have to go searching on my Facebook page. We'll be in bed by 10, I guarantee it.
That's all that's going on here this week. Have a safe night tonight!
Friday, December 19, 2014
Shopping Trip December 18
Hey, we had good sales, but of course we added a few things at the last minute and I found coconut sugar at Sam's. :D So I went over.
HyVee
Sour Cream 1.48
Sweet Cream Butter 4 at 2.68 each 10.72
Egg Nog 2 at 2.59 each 5.18
Cinnamon Rolls 2 at 2.00 each plus .02 gas reward 4.00
Crescet Rolls 2 at 2.00 ech plus .02 gas rewards 4.00
Macademia Nut Cookie dough (it's cheaper than making from scratch) 2.50
Cool Whip 2 at .68 each 1.36
Frozen Broccoli 2 at 1.28 each 2.56
Frozen Corn 2 at 1.09 each 2.18
Frozen Mixed Vegetables 1.09
Hashbrowns 2.99
Diapers 5.99
Pullups 7.99
Fruit Snacks 2.00
Charmin 2 at3.99 each 7.98
Dr. Pepper 2 at .99 each 1.98
Folgers 9.69
Baking Powder 1.29
Baking Soda 5 at .69 each 3.45
Snack size baggies 2 at 1.59 each 3.18
Italian Dressing 3 at 1.99 each 5.97
Powdered Sugar 1.69
Root Beer 2 at .99 each 1.98
Evaporated Milk 1.69
Vanilla 1.88
Shrimp 15.99
Lil Smokies 2 at 3.00 each 6.00
Cream Cheese 3 at 1.50 each 4.50
Sunflower Seeds 2 at 2.50 each 5.00
Yellow Onions 1.88 with .02 gas rewards
Total 135.23
Sam's Club
Digirnio 3 Meat 3 pack 13.98
Digiornio Pepperoni 3 pack 13.98
Vinegar 2 pack 3.88
Eggs 36 ct 2 at 4.72 each 9.44
American Cheese Sliced 13.52
Bacon bits 10.35
Flour 3.76
Chicken Breast 9.02
Shredded Cheddar Chese 14.98
Organic Coconut Sugar 12.98
Bacon 2 at 8.68 each 17.36
Strawberry Jam 2 pack 5.78
Croutons 5.38
Creamer 5.87
Tomato Sauce 7.68
Diced Tomatoes 6.28
Total 163.49
Walmart
Engine Cleaner for van 1.88
Twix .74
Ham 15.65
Tapatio Sauce 2.98
Bandaids 1.97 and 2 at 2.47 6.91
Cookies N Cream Candy Bar .74
Pringles 8 at 1.50 each 12.00
Total 43.35
Dollar General
Paper Towels 8 pack 5.00
Tortillas 3 at 2.00 each 6.00
Dish Soap 1.00
Total 12.72
Trip Total 354.79
As I look more closely at my receipts, I realize I was not careful and picked up the wrong containers with the shrimp and pringles as I had not planned on paying that much for things that were on sale-be careful when you pick things up!
Have a Merry Christmas!
HyVee
Sour Cream 1.48
Sweet Cream Butter 4 at 2.68 each 10.72
Egg Nog 2 at 2.59 each 5.18
Cinnamon Rolls 2 at 2.00 each plus .02 gas reward 4.00
Crescet Rolls 2 at 2.00 ech plus .02 gas rewards 4.00
Macademia Nut Cookie dough (it's cheaper than making from scratch) 2.50
Cool Whip 2 at .68 each 1.36
Frozen Broccoli 2 at 1.28 each 2.56
Frozen Corn 2 at 1.09 each 2.18
Frozen Mixed Vegetables 1.09
Hashbrowns 2.99
Diapers 5.99
Pullups 7.99
Fruit Snacks 2.00
Charmin 2 at3.99 each 7.98
Dr. Pepper 2 at .99 each 1.98
Folgers 9.69
Baking Powder 1.29
Baking Soda 5 at .69 each 3.45
Snack size baggies 2 at 1.59 each 3.18
Italian Dressing 3 at 1.99 each 5.97
Powdered Sugar 1.69
Root Beer 2 at .99 each 1.98
Evaporated Milk 1.69
Vanilla 1.88
Shrimp 15.99
Lil Smokies 2 at 3.00 each 6.00
Cream Cheese 3 at 1.50 each 4.50
Sunflower Seeds 2 at 2.50 each 5.00
Yellow Onions 1.88 with .02 gas rewards
Total 135.23
Sam's Club
Digirnio 3 Meat 3 pack 13.98
Digiornio Pepperoni 3 pack 13.98
Vinegar 2 pack 3.88
Eggs 36 ct 2 at 4.72 each 9.44
American Cheese Sliced 13.52
Bacon bits 10.35
Flour 3.76
Chicken Breast 9.02
Shredded Cheddar Chese 14.98
Organic Coconut Sugar 12.98
Bacon 2 at 8.68 each 17.36
Strawberry Jam 2 pack 5.78
Croutons 5.38
Creamer 5.87
Tomato Sauce 7.68
Diced Tomatoes 6.28
Total 163.49
Walmart
Engine Cleaner for van 1.88
Twix .74
Ham 15.65
Tapatio Sauce 2.98
Bandaids 1.97 and 2 at 2.47 6.91
Cookies N Cream Candy Bar .74
Pringles 8 at 1.50 each 12.00
Total 43.35
Dollar General
Paper Towels 8 pack 5.00
Tortillas 3 at 2.00 each 6.00
Dish Soap 1.00
Total 12.72
Trip Total 354.79
As I look more closely at my receipts, I realize I was not careful and picked up the wrong containers with the shrimp and pringles as I had not planned on paying that much for things that were on sale-be careful when you pick things up!
Have a Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Ads are Out! Shopping Trip December 17
It's been a month already, Ads are out for my shopping trip again.
If you like shellfish, within the next month, now is your time to fill your craving. While it's still expensive, it's a little cheaper than the rest of the year.
HyVee has special sales for crab, lobster and shrimp. Personally, we are taking advantage of the shrimp.
Here's the ad links. Have fun!
Wal-mart
Sunshine
Fareway, Fareway Online, Fareway Special Sale
Hy-Vee
Personally, I've been a little disappointed with Fareway. For quite awhile after they opened, they had the cheapest meat prices around. But now they don't, I haven't shopped there in quite awhile. It's just not conducive to our budget.
We have two special meals happening this coming month. Christmas and Eva's birthday. For Christmas I am planning ham, shrimp, potatoes, vegetables, pumpkin pie and cake (my Eva can't have cherries or pumpkins, so that's the alternative of choice this time). For Eva's birthday we're doing her favorite food, pizza, and the requested Thomas the train cake. I plan on finding a different train from Thomas to put on top since I made a Thomas cake for Andrew last year.
If you like shellfish, within the next month, now is your time to fill your craving. While it's still expensive, it's a little cheaper than the rest of the year.
HyVee has special sales for crab, lobster and shrimp. Personally, we are taking advantage of the shrimp.
Here's the ad links. Have fun!
Wal-mart
Sunshine
Fareway, Fareway Online, Fareway Special Sale
Hy-Vee
Personally, I've been a little disappointed with Fareway. For quite awhile after they opened, they had the cheapest meat prices around. But now they don't, I haven't shopped there in quite awhile. It's just not conducive to our budget.
We have two special meals happening this coming month. Christmas and Eva's birthday. For Christmas I am planning ham, shrimp, potatoes, vegetables, pumpkin pie and cake (my Eva can't have cherries or pumpkins, so that's the alternative of choice this time). For Eva's birthday we're doing her favorite food, pizza, and the requested Thomas the train cake. I plan on finding a different train from Thomas to put on top since I made a Thomas cake for Andrew last year.
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