Boy it's hot up here this year. Usually we don't get this hot and humid until July or August, but man it's coming early.
We are working on figuring out this new diet. I have figured out I need more protein and carbs, it's just not enough for nursing. But I'm starting to love salads.. And that broccoli salad? AMAZING!
So let me share some of the foods we've been eating that we are loving.
Broccoli Salad
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 red onion
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
cranberries
raisins
sunflower seeds
1/2 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
Chop everything into small bite size pieces-small, keep in mind what else is in the salad, I cut it too big the first time. Shred your cheese and throw in the bowl with the broccoli (the recipe I found said to chop in small bites, I decided to shred), cut your onion and put in the bowl. Put in the cranberries, raisins and sunflower seeds, I also substituted the cranberries and raisins for cherry tomatoes-good either way but the kids preferred the cranberries and raisins. Mix it all together and make sure the amounts are even (or at least as even as you want them). In a separate bowl whisk the mayo, vinegar and sugar (if you want it less sweet, use about 2 tablespoons honey), then pour over the salad. Now it's ready to eat. :D This amount fed us for meal with a bit of left over.
Grilled Chicken
Cut chicken breasts in half horizontal (you want two skinny breasts instead of one thick one). Then season-I put tenderizer, garlic, onion, paprika on it-both sides. You want to marinate for at least an hour. Obviously the longer it sits, the tastier it will be. Grill until done, about 20 minutes. Now you can do whatever, eat plain, cut up for salads.
Sriracha Lime Chicken
The link is what it's supposed to look like...
That's what is turned out like. But still good.
So here's what I did different. The chicken was marinated from the recipe above, it didn't fit on the grill over the weekend so needed cooked. I cut the pineapple up. Used the onion stems from home grown red onion instead of the bulbs. I also just made a pesto with olive oil, white vinegar and cilantro instead of the vinaigrette recipe it comes with. The kids got raspberry vinaigrette and no avocado with hers.
This is my other favorite. I have a strict coffee shop budget-sad but true... So when I want to go and have to stick to my budget, I make my own iced coffee. About 8 ice cubes in a 12 ounce cup (I think, the one that came with our Bullet blender), add the flavoring hazelnut (liquid stevia from Azure Standard) and chocolate syrup, add coffee until about 1/2 full, then half as much milk-gotta leave room for blending. Blend and enjoy.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
I was so excited for Aldi's open! SO excited. But clearly I need tips on what to buy to save money, whereas we did save a little, not near as much as what I know you can save... So I've been pinning some things to read later on.
In the meantime... Our meal plan this month is more than a little different. We started tracking calories with FitBit and we are eliminating as many carbs as we can.. which means no pasta, no taco shells, little bread. I have so many salad plans it's not even funny. I've also taken out the usual hamburger and fries we do on the weekends and replacing it with grilled chicken and a salad of some sort.
Aldi's, while I know we picked up some extras (cereal mostly), we spent $117, which wasn't too bad.
Sam's we spent $150.
HyVee we spent $70, and for being a Perks card member we won a $10 gift card for next time (I dunno, the receipt said it was a perk, that's all I can tell you).
We still have to pick up a few things at the local Dollar General because I couldn't deal with Andrew and Dollar Tree, but other than that we are done.
Pinterest was my best friend for meal plans... Completely going against what I usually do, almost everything we are eating this month is something new. So here's the links to what is on the plan and where I found it. Have fun. :D
Caprese Chicken I had originally seen this recipe on Facebook, which cooks everything in a pan on the stove, but I like this one better.
Southwestern Chopped Salad
Breaded Chicken Salad-breaded chicken strips, lettuce (mix of romaine and iceberg), croutons, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, choice of dressing
Chicken Shake n bake-chicken pieces coated in light breading with whatever seasonings I grab (usually a base of garlic, onion and paprika), side salad
Shrimp and Avocado salad
One pan chicken and brown rice
Chicken Salad-just simply grilled chicken cut up in a salad
Cherry Coffee Cake-this is for breakfast while we have company. It will be made ahead and warmed up when we eat it.
Grilled chicken and Broccoli salad-the chicken will be marinated in tenderizer, salt, pepper, garlic an onion for a day before.
Sriracha lime chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken-chicken pieces coated in lemon pepper and olive oil then baked and a side salad.
Honey mustard Chicken-chicken pieces coated in honey mustard and baked, side salad.
Garlic butter Shrimp and Rice-we've actually ate this before my husband says it reminds him of gumbo.
Chicken fajitas-chicken cooked in fajita seasoning, bell peppers and onions cooked in fajita seasoning and everything put in a tortilla with mozarella cheese and sour cream.
Do you have any tips for me for shopping at Aldi's?
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Dennis and I have decided we want to start May over again and do a redo. Anybody with us?
Our fridge has been going out for awhile. A friend suggest we defrost it, so tried that it helped for a few weeks... Then the freezer went out. I had forgotten I had cabbage in the freezer until I came out and smelled it rotting. I hate that smell.
Fortunately, it was Memorial Day weekend when it got bad, so we put it off for a few days and were able to take advantage of the sale. $1400 Kenmore side-by-side fridge for $800 plus tax, free delivery from the city (45 miles with where the store sits). Not too shabby.
Unfortunately, they can't deliver until the 6th. SO.... shopping every couple of days and using the cooler I use for grocery shopping trips in the meantime. The old fridge is still somewhat good, but it's a guess as to which day it's going to behave and which day it's going to freeze everything... So things like eggs and lettuce I have to be careful about leaving them in the fridge.
It also means I can't do a big shopping trip until the fridge comes...so it's gonna be a couple weeks before y'all get that. And it also means I most likely won't have the help to go through Aldis like I wanted. Oof, that's gonna hurt, but I'll make it (with or without all my hair is the question).
Our second car also bit the dust. We took it in for an oil change and a once over, they drained the oil and found metal shavings everywhere.... The same thing happened with our old Focus before it blew up... twice (long story involving an incompetent mechanic). So..... in the driveway it sits until we figure out what to do with it. But we really didn't do too bad with it. It's a 2003 Saturn Vue. We bought it used with around 105,000 miles on it in 2011 for $5,000. We've put just shy of 100,000 miles on it (seriously, like 200 miles just shy of) and it has only needed two major repairs since we bought it. Not too shabby I would say.
So we are down to one car.. Which is just perfectly fine, this month is just a little hairy with the going back and forth to be able to have my oldest with us... So when we have to go somewhere, we have to load all the kids up at 5 AM, take hubby to work then be back at 2 pm to pick him up. Oof and ugh. Coffee is my best friend this week.
On a happy note! I'm super excited about a new coffee shop opening in town! If you are in the area you should come check them out! The Homestead The link is for their Facebook page, great little family that's running it and they are local sourcing a lot (if not all) of their ingredients-which makes them even better. :)
Have a great week!!
~Tabitha
Our little one is five weeks old tomorrow. I'm amazed every week because she seems to have inherited my genes. She is bulking up a little bit, but nothing like the three middle siblings-they have definitely taken after their daddy. It's been awhile since I've had a baby stay in newborn clothes for more than a few weeks! For my arms, it's nice. She's a little cuddle bug and with all the storms we are getting lately she wants nothing more than to be held and rocked. I'm trying to write this post while she sleeps, but we had a low pressure system move in last night which means this momma needs lots and lots of coffee.
I'm working on getting us all back into a routine. Less TV time, playing learning games and the all important cleaning schedule. Along with that, I'm getting lesson plans ready and school things organized and rearranging the dining room to include room for the homeschool stuff and find a place for the baby swing, I'm missing that and it seems Hannah likes to rock so I'm hoping she'll like the swing.
One of the big things on my list this week was to clean the van. It gets too cold up here to do more than keep the trash picked up and the toys in their little toy baskets during the winter, so once we get the spring thaw I deep clean the van. Our van is designed so there's basically two carpets, the top carpet on the entire van floor comes off in pieces, the bottom carpet basically stays clean. So I'm loving cleaning the van when needed and I do better at keeping it clean in the summer. One of the things I still need to buy for the van is plastic sealable containers to keep blankets, extra clothes and diapers in that fit under the back seat. This will keep them handy when needed, but clean and out of the way until needed.
My meal planning is also getting revamped-I'm working on that this week and next as well. My shopping trip is getting postponed until next Saturday for two reasons.. Our new Aldi's opened up in the city and I want to go in the first time with as few as kids as possible. And the power company decided it needed to shut off the power for five hours next week... So we need to get away from the house anyway. As for the meal plan, we got Fitbits to help (more my husband, but I have one to help support him) us keep track of calories, exercise and such. I need a diet rich in protein to help my blood pressure and with nursing Hannah, I need the extra protein to keep going. My husband needs a diet lower in calories, which sounds simple, but he's a bigger guy so we have to balance it out so he's still getting what he needs, but lower than he's getting now.
That's what's happening this week.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Our School Curriculum arrived yesterday and I gotta say, it feels like Christmas. Charlie Brown's "Christmastime Is Here" was playing through my head yesterday.
For Andrew, we are starting with Abeka. After looking through their magazine I decided he would do best in K5. After getting the books and looking a bit, I do think I picked the right now. While age-wise most would say he's a little young, but that's a beauty of homeschooling, you can go at the individual child's pace. This is right where he should be. Yes, he'll have some easy days, but that's ok. I did decide to order the teacher's books along with the workbooks-especially for phonics-because I want the planning and the teaching tips and phonics is not one of my strong points so I need to make sure I'm teaching it right. Abeka has child kits and teacher kits, but I decided not to get the entire kit and just get the individual books-but that's a decision for each family, too. We also bought a Bible curriculum that all the kids will do together. I just bought the teacher's manual for this. It has Bible memory verses and a story to read then ask questions about to make sure they understand-and songs (some hymns, some kid's action songs). I figured I didn't need the separate workbooks for this as Bible stories are pretty straight forward and there are awesome resources on the internet that have free coloring pages. The plan for Andrew's workbooks is to make copies and to keep reusing... I am a little worried about that possibility with all the color in the worksheets, but I'm going to try.
For Eva, she is still learning the basics so she's still on the preschool book. We have one of those preschool books you can find at Walmart... It will be supplemented with other worksheets and counting, understand that numbers have a value (hello dinosaur counters-we thought they were bears, but they are not oh well!) and whatever else she needs extra help with.
For Grace, she's just getting busy work so I can help the big kids. Alphabet and Bible coloring pages. Sorting colors and an electronic Leap Frog toy she got for Christmas will be in her school box.
With the organizing stuff and miscellaneous school supplies, along with the curriculum, we have spent $200 on school stuff this year. A lot of that will be reused for many years to come so it was just a one time purchase. Some of it, I'm waiting until school things get in stores and I'll try to stock up on some it when it goes on sale after school starts.
Now comes the tedious part-the planning and making sure everything is ready to go. Because I know me. If I don't have it ready to go, we'll have issues. So I want to get the whole year ready to go. I'll do a post on how I'm going to do that later.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
I've been thinking of doing a blog like this for awhile, so now I finally am.
My husband gets up early. His alarm goes off at 4:15 AM, I make our breakfast and get his lunch together while he gets ready for work. The mornings go a lot smoother (and I burn the bacon less) when I have his lunch foods ready to go. So here's what I do on the weekends.
For lunches and snacks through the day, I pack a salad (with dressing, croutons, bacon bits and sunflower seeds), a whole pickle, a bowl of fruit, macaroni and cheese or garlic butter macaroni and nutty bars.
For the salad, I have a bowl that used to be a salad shaker (got it at Walmart years ago). The lid latches on great and portion is perfect. That's usually the only thing that has to be put together in the morning as I only have one bowl and it gets washed every night. But I make sure I have lettuce cut for the next day at least (I cut a head at a time) then all I have to do is fill the bowl and put it in his lunch box.
I fill up 5 dressing containers. We have these little containers from Dollar Tree-they usually don't leak as his lunch box stays upright-that fit about 3 tablespoons of dressing.. Yes, I know that's more than one serving, but in all fairness, his lettuce is more than one serving. It's the right amount of dressing for him for the amount of lettuce he gets and it's a vinaigrette so a little healthier than some dressings.
I also try to get five pickles in snack bags-but I gotta say, I don't always remember to do that... So I usually have a hand that smells like pickle juice for a few hours-cuz that smell doesn't come off.
For his fruit I only have 3 containers that don't leak. These are the only containers I have bought specifically for his lunch. We usually buy the canned fruit as we don't have to worry about it spoiling (the local selections aren't great for fresh) and can buy what we need for the month. So I fill up what I have and refill as they get washed.
The macaroni and cheese is part of his lunch. I make it from scratch and fill up 5 containers from one 16 oz bag of elbow macaroni.. If I'm out of cheese and make garlic noodles, it only lasts for three days, so I really prefer the mac and cheese on that count. These I use 8 ounce sour cream containers as they fit perfect in the top section of his lunch box.
For his salad toppings I use the 8 ounce sour cream containers that are flat (green lid). They fit awesome in his lunch box and fit a serving (according to the package) of each: croutons, sunflowers seeds and bacon bits.
The nutty bars come prepackaged so he just gets one package of those.
Everything that needs the fridge goes on a shelf so it's easy to grab in the mornings. That's my lunch prep for the week.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Well, hello there. You may have noticed the title of this post is a little different, that's because we had a few different shopping trips this week.
Yesterday we went and bought our school curricula for next year and did part of our grocery shopping.
Today we finished up our grocery shopping.
So let's start with our school shopping.
We have decided to use Abeka curriculum. For me, it gives me the lesson plans. I need that structure. We also liked it because it's a Christian curriculum and you have the option to start right off with cursive. While you can find used books through Ebay, Facebook groups and a few other sources, we are choosing to spend the money and buy new. The plan is to make copies of the workbooks and reuse them for all the kids... But once we get the books in we might decide to just reorder workbooks for the next child, that's something we will decide once we see what we have exactly. For this year, we just ordered K5 Cursive Edition for Andrew. I'll do a post just on this when we get our books in and what I'm doing for lesson plans. I also added the teachers books (it has lesson plans and how to teach the phonics-not my strong suit-along with other teaching tips), daily Bible lessons and beginner social studies lessons. We will get blank index cards for phonics flash cards, I'm told by other Abeka moms that these are an awesome resource but as the books have everything, to just buy the blank flashcards and make my own-so I'm taking their advice. We also need to buy math manipulatives, which we can find at garage sales or on Amazon. Along with buying a set of base 10 blocks, I'm going to buy some of those teddy bear counters, one set for Eva and one set for Grace (who will be sorting by color, but it's something that should help keep her little hands busy). On just the books, I spent $170. The rest will cost no more than $30 depending on where we find them at.
Now to move on to the grocery shopping. Aldi's opening missed this month's trip by 6 days. Boo! lol Next month. We'll hit them up next month. I've spent $360 this month, which is on the lower side thanks to finding meat in the freezer.
Dollar Tree I just needed tortillas and some moisturizing conditioner. I bought extra dish soap the past couple months to make sure there was enough when baby came, so I still have the extra. I also had laundry baskets on my list, but I guess they were out of stock, so onto Dollar General we go next week. I buy the cheap ones for the kids, get two for each and double them up to make them last longer... Not as big of a deal when they break that way.
At the bakery outlet we just bought bread. We have decided to spend a little more money on the better tasting hamburger buns and hot dog buns when needed from Sams or Hyvee.
We also picked up honey from Deep Creek Honey over by Wall Lake. Fresh honey is the best. :D
At Sam's I spent $230 on our usual stuff. You know you go around the same time every month when all the employees come say hi just to see the new baby.
At HyVee I spent $90.. Now wasn't that a fun trip. Our HyVee (Sioux Falls Marion Road) is under construction-they are redoing the ready to eat food section and reorganizing the rest of the store to be like the new ones. So everything is a mess, but once it dawned on me how they were organizing things, I could find about everything-but they had associates ready to help whomever needed help.
Our meal plan is using a lot of things we have in the freezer...because it's getting freezer burnt and needs to be used.. We are also doing a few new things... Gyros (sort of) and meatball subs. Now, I'm cheating on the gyros...because I didn't want to hunt down ground lamb.... I'm using a gyro seasoning recipe I found on Pinterest and just putting it on roast beef (days of working at Arby's)... Still gonna make me want to go to Nick's Gyros and get some REAL ones, but we'll see how it turns out-can't be TOO bad, can it? For the meatball subs, it's really pretty simple.. I bought meatballs-because buying that much meat to make the meatballs from scratch would make them really expensive-and they will be cooked in my homemade spaghetti sauce, stuck in sub buns that I bought, topped with mozzarella and toasted. Sounds yummy, right? My hubby has such good ideas. :D The rest of our meal plan is our usual meals.. Using up pork chops and chicken fried steaks from last month. Chicken Alfredo, spaghetti, smothered burritos, tacos and fish.
In other news, I still have to get the garden tilled. It should be warm enough... My mom planted tomatoes for me, hopefully I don't kill them when I transfer them. and I'm going to attempt onions and carrots again. It's worth a try, right?
Baby Hannah is growing-slowly it seems-but growing. My last three babies have been chubby and Hannah is very much a skinny little girl, I'm not quit sure what to do with this skinny little one! :) She wasn't too happy about being in the car seat so much this week, which made for frazzled nerves for me.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
