Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Friday, December 13, 2013
More Meals...
Do you ever feel like you spend all day in the kitchen? I do some days but I am very thankful for my new kitchen so at least it's beautiful and I love my kitchen. Well, I am not exactly sure how many meals I am going to remember but I will give it a shot. I guess I need to start writing down exactly what we eat so I am not racking my brain trying to remember.
Monday
We had a big Breakfast as Daddy was home in the morning.. That means Eggs, bacon and hashbrowns and I am made a healthy version of shamrock shakes (milk, honey, spinach, ice and mint extract, blend and serve)
Cost: we charge $4 a dozen eggs so I guess I can use that price as my egg price... $4.00
I cut the bacon in half then fry, Our two youngest get 1 piece, older 2 get 2 and we get 3... $3.00
Hash browns (I buy bulk dehydrated shredded potatoes at $40 for 10lbs. which lasts us 6 months)...$3.00
Shamrock Shakes: $2.00
total..$12.00 for 6 of us eat
Lunch: was most likely sandwiches, I think it was ham and cheese with applesauce on the side..
Cost: $3.00 and $1.00 applesauce.... $4.00
Dinner: it was penne pasta with homemade tomato sauce with a red wine vinegar reduction and home grown brussel sprouts sauteed in a piece of bacon... cost $2.00 (tomato sauce I canned this fall and froze the brussel sprouts)
Monday Total: $18.00
Tuesday:
Breakfast we had a new oatmeal (it was chopped apricots with vanilla powder) called Apricot and Cream Oatmeal...75c
Lunch we had pb & j sandwiches (homemade jelly)... $2.00
Dinner: it was store night so my business partner and I take turns making dinner and it was her turn so we potato soup
with cheesy garlic bread... Cost.$0.00
I did make a huge batch of homemade cookies so we had that for dessert.. $2.00
Tuesday Total: $4.75
Wednesday:
Breakfast: we had Apricots and Cream Oatmeal...75c
Lunch: Potatoes with s.cream with Kiwi on the side...$2.50
Dinner: I had made a huge Cobb salad but my husband wanted to get the kids a treat so we picked up 2 orders of
Drunken noodles at a local Thai driveup to go along with it.. $24.00 (including salad)
Wednesday Total: $27.25
Thursday:
Breakfast: Apricots and Cream Oatmeal... .75c
Lunch: PB & J sandwiches $2.00
Dinner: Baked Potatoes with S.Cream,butter, Bacon and Cheese....$5.00
Thursday Total $7.75
Friday:
Breakfast we ate Apricots and Cream oatmeal... .75c
Lunch we had fresh bread with honey butter and crackers and cheese and peanut butter... $2.50
Dinner is going to be PIZZA night but as we are having company we made a huge batch of dough and bought some more ingredients we don't usually have... $15.00 for 10 people
FridayTotal: for the whole week...$18.25
GRAND TOTAL FOR THE WEEK: $76.00 for 6 people and some company (family of 4) over on Friday..
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Weekends are budget busters..
It always seems to me that weekends break our budget! We get busy doing things and then its lunch or
dinner and everyone is hungry so out to dinner we go...
Friday night is homemade pizza night.. I make the dough while our 2 year sleeps.
By 5:30 I throw some cheese, onions, pepperoni, ham on it or whatever I have in the fridge that needs
used up. I have made up extra crusts and cooked them for 10 min so when I need dinner really fast I can
take a frozen crust out of the freezer and add the topping and bake at 350 til done. Or I make dough in
large batches and freeze, then let thaw all day in the fridge for dinner that night. I try to buy pepperoni
and Canadian bacon and freeze in baggies so I can just pull out enough for pizzas.
Cost for Pizza last night was $3.50 (.75c for crusts, .75c for toppings, 2.00 for cheese) I made the equivalent
of 2 Large pizzas and I had a few pieces left over (which was unusual).
Lunch was unusual as I made the boys baked potatoes but the girls and I went out to lunch. I haven't
taken the girls out on a date in a long time. We went to the Nutcracker than their favorite restaurant.
We splurged and had hot cocoa with our food and shared a big piece of chocolate cake. We budget $50 for
entertainment a month so we blew that whole month but it was fun and the girls loved it!
Cost for Boys: $1.50 (5 potatoes with s.cream and cottage cheese)
Breakfast: .75c as it was strawberry and cream oatmeal again (everyone loves this)
Friday's Total: $5.75 (not including the lunch out) for a family of 6 for 3 meals
Saturday..
We all slept in until 10 am!! I know crazy! We were very lazy and decided to just have brunch..we had
bacon cups..where you wrap a piece of bacon in a muffin cup then fill with eggs and bake for 30 min.
It was very yummy and super easy..
Cost.. $2.00 bacon (I used a half a slice per muffin)
0 eggs (we have our own chickens so I honestly don't know how much but I know not free :) )
$2.00 for a family of 6
Dinner:
I threw some chuck steak in the crock pot added some broth, spices and an onion and cooked while we
ran around and did our errands. Then when we got home I added a little sour cream and cooked some
noodles and threw a simple salad together. My family loves this simple Stroganof and salad for dinner!
Cost: 0 meat (a friend cleaned out their freezer and gave us some older meat but was still good)
0 broth was bones of various meat and I cooked down to make broth then frozen
.50c sour cream (I used about 1 cup)
2.00 noodles (I used 2 lbs. of egg noodles I buy these in 10# boxes)
1.00 lettuce (I used 1 head of romaine and 1 huge handful of spinach, I buy these organic at Sams)
.25 a carrot
.25 a little almonds, sesame sticks, sunflower seeds, sprouted pea sprouts
1.00 cottage cheese, homemade ranch dressing
Total $5.00 (I realize if you don't have free meat this will be more, but use the cheaper cuts of
meat and use it sparingly I used only 1/2 lb of chuck steak cut small)
Saturday's Total: $7.00
Sunday:
Breakfast:
We had a quick breakfast this morning of strawberry and cream oatmeal as we were running a little late to church.
.75c
Lunch:
Ham, cheese and lettuce sandwiches with potato chips and a sour cream dip
6.50 (meat, chips, cheese and s. cream add up :) )
Dinner:
Ham, Egg, Cheese Burritos
3.00 (3 slices of ham chopped up, 8 eggs, a handful of grated cheese and a package of ww wraps)
Sunday's Total: $10.25
Grand Total for Friday-Sunday: $22.75 for our family of 6
Not too bad and have to say as I type this I am shocked this is less than it would cost for 1 meal out eating Pizza or our family to go out to McD.
dinner and everyone is hungry so out to dinner we go...
Friday night is homemade pizza night.. I make the dough while our 2 year sleeps.
By 5:30 I throw some cheese, onions, pepperoni, ham on it or whatever I have in the fridge that needs
used up. I have made up extra crusts and cooked them for 10 min so when I need dinner really fast I can
take a frozen crust out of the freezer and add the topping and bake at 350 til done. Or I make dough in
large batches and freeze, then let thaw all day in the fridge for dinner that night. I try to buy pepperoni
and Canadian bacon and freeze in baggies so I can just pull out enough for pizzas.
Cost for Pizza last night was $3.50 (.75c for crusts, .75c for toppings, 2.00 for cheese) I made the equivalent
of 2 Large pizzas and I had a few pieces left over (which was unusual).
Lunch was unusual as I made the boys baked potatoes but the girls and I went out to lunch. I haven't
taken the girls out on a date in a long time. We went to the Nutcracker than their favorite restaurant.
We splurged and had hot cocoa with our food and shared a big piece of chocolate cake. We budget $50 for
entertainment a month so we blew that whole month but it was fun and the girls loved it!
Cost for Boys: $1.50 (5 potatoes with s.cream and cottage cheese)
Breakfast: .75c as it was strawberry and cream oatmeal again (everyone loves this)
Friday's Total: $5.75 (not including the lunch out) for a family of 6 for 3 meals
Saturday..
We all slept in until 10 am!! I know crazy! We were very lazy and decided to just have brunch..we had
bacon cups..where you wrap a piece of bacon in a muffin cup then fill with eggs and bake for 30 min.
It was very yummy and super easy..
Cost.. $2.00 bacon (I used a half a slice per muffin)
0 eggs (we have our own chickens so I honestly don't know how much but I know not free :) )
$2.00 for a family of 6
Dinner:
I threw some chuck steak in the crock pot added some broth, spices and an onion and cooked while we
ran around and did our errands. Then when we got home I added a little sour cream and cooked some
noodles and threw a simple salad together. My family loves this simple Stroganof and salad for dinner!
Cost: 0 meat (a friend cleaned out their freezer and gave us some older meat but was still good)
0 broth was bones of various meat and I cooked down to make broth then frozen
.50c sour cream (I used about 1 cup)
2.00 noodles (I used 2 lbs. of egg noodles I buy these in 10# boxes)
1.00 lettuce (I used 1 head of romaine and 1 huge handful of spinach, I buy these organic at Sams)
.25 a carrot
.25 a little almonds, sesame sticks, sunflower seeds, sprouted pea sprouts
1.00 cottage cheese, homemade ranch dressing
Total $5.00 (I realize if you don't have free meat this will be more, but use the cheaper cuts of
meat and use it sparingly I used only 1/2 lb of chuck steak cut small)
Saturday's Total: $7.00
Sunday:
Breakfast:
We had a quick breakfast this morning of strawberry and cream oatmeal as we were running a little late to church.
.75c
Lunch:
Ham, cheese and lettuce sandwiches with potato chips and a sour cream dip
6.50 (meat, chips, cheese and s. cream add up :) )
Dinner:
Ham, Egg, Cheese Burritos
3.00 (3 slices of ham chopped up, 8 eggs, a handful of grated cheese and a package of ww wraps)
Sunday's Total: $10.25
Grand Total for Friday-Sunday: $22.75 for our family of 6
Not too bad and have to say as I type this I am shocked this is less than it would cost for 1 meal out eating Pizza or our family to go out to McD.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Day 2 of under $250 a month
Today's meals and costs..
Breakfast:
Strawberry and cream oatmeal .75
Water
Lunch:
Sandwiches of pb and apple butter
(I used up some older buns) 1.50
Homemade yogurt 1.00
Homemade applesauce .50
Water and sweet tea
Dinner:
Homemade Korean Beef with brown rice 2.00
(I was given the 1 lb of caribou for letting a friend
borrow my meat grinder to cut up their meat) the cost was for the 3
cups of rice, Coconut aminos, sugar, onion and spices. I found the recipe on
Pinterest.
Green peas 1.00
(I used whole dried peas that were soaked overnight then pressure cooked for
5 min. I bought a 25# bag and use it also to make pea sprouts for
sandwiches and salads.)
Hot Chocolate with eggnog .50
(I use a pre-mixed non hydrogenated oil hot chocolate mix and I found some
eggnog on sale for 1.00 at the grocery store, I did not use all of it only
about a cup and only a heaping Tablespoon per glass of mix)
.JPG)
Dessert:
Yesterday's leftover apple pie egg rolls with vanilla ice cream
2.00
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Total cost: $9.25 for 3 meals and dessert for a family of 6
Breakfast:
Strawberry and cream oatmeal .75
Water
Lunch:
Sandwiches of pb and apple butter
(I used up some older buns) 1.50
Homemade yogurt 1.00
Homemade applesauce .50
Water and sweet tea
Dinner:
Homemade Korean Beef with brown rice 2.00
(I was given the 1 lb of caribou for letting a friend
borrow my meat grinder to cut up their meat) the cost was for the 3
cups of rice, Coconut aminos, sugar, onion and spices. I found the recipe on
Pinterest.
Green peas 1.00
(I used whole dried peas that were soaked overnight then pressure cooked for
5 min. I bought a 25# bag and use it also to make pea sprouts for
sandwiches and salads.)
Hot Chocolate with eggnog .50
(I use a pre-mixed non hydrogenated oil hot chocolate mix and I found some
eggnog on sale for 1.00 at the grocery store, I did not use all of it only
about a cup and only a heaping Tablespoon per glass of mix)
.JPG)
Dessert:
Yesterday's leftover apple pie egg rolls with vanilla ice cream
2.00
.JPG)
Total cost: $9.25 for 3 meals and dessert for a family of 6
Creativity in the Kitchen
So, I posted on my Facebook page once that I feed my family of 6 for $250 a month. I got quite a few responses from people who said how could I do that living in Fairbanks, Alaska. So, I am going to try and daily or at least every few days tell you what we eat so you can see how we eat cheaply. I will try to take pictures too, but I am not a photographer and really don't have a huge desire to become a great one. I am happy being a mediocre photographer :)
Today is just one way how I save money...
BREAKFAST
...my kids love those little packets of oatmeal with all the different flavors. I love them too but not how much they cost. So, I make up batches of Instant Oatmeal in gallon jars, old ice cream tubs, etc.. How I do it is.. I buy a 50# bag of rolled oats (organic or chemical free) and a #10 can of freeze dried strawberries (or blueberries) or use raisins, dried apricots, cranberries, etc.. (you get the idea), some powdered vanilla and organic evaporated sugar.
I mix up about 10 cups of oats with 2 cups of ground oats (just grind in coffee mill, blender, etc) and then add a few handfuls of pulverized strawberries (or chopped other fruits). I then add about 1/4 cup vanilla powder (this is not exact maybe a little less) and about 1 cup of sugar. Stir all together and your ready to dish out to your kids with some hot water. I figure this costs me about $5 For everything and it will last at least a week or more of breakfasts.
LUNCH
I make once a week usually Monday a batch of 7 loaves of bread so I use the 1 loaf and freeze the rest. Today I made peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches (homemade organic apple butter and organic peanut butter). Cost the loaf of bread is about $1.50 as I use all organic ingredients and grind my own flour. Peanut butter I buy in bulk (22 lbs) and apple butter was made with organic apples I paid $1.50 a pound. So I imagine this was about $3.00 for our family of 6 for lunch. I did serve sweet tea and water and a few slices of apples along with their sandwich.
DINNER
Thanksgiving was last week and my sister made a ham and didn't want the bones so I made a pot of beans this weekend with them. Today I stuck about 5 cups of those beans,some brown rice from this weekend and some cumin/chili pepper in the crock pot before we took the kids to swimming to heat up. When we got home, I heated up some oil (I do reuse my frying oil a few times) in our little fry daddy. I put a small cut slice of cheddar cheese on a soft taco wrap along with a heap of beans/rice and used a little flour/water mix to glue it so it would explode in the fry daddy. Then fried them up so we could have Chimichangas (Fried Burrito) for dinner along with some sour cream. I had some extra wonton wrappers from a week or so go and cut up some apples, added a bit of flour, sugar and cinnamon and rolled those up in the wrappers for Apple Pie Eggrolls. Cost: $6 for all the ingredients as the wonton wrappers were $1.50 and soft taco wraps were $2.50. The other ingredients with very cheap as they were dried beans, maybe 2oz. of cheese, a couple apples and some sour cream.
Today's total:
Breakfast .75c ($5 divided by 7 meals-approx. .75c)
Lunch: $3.00
Dinner: $6.00
Total: $9.75 for 3 meals for a family of 6
Not too bad :)
Sorry I didn't take any pictures but I do have leftovers of sandwiches for my husband's lunch tomorrow and extra oatmeal for breakfast and I have enough beans from the weekend that I froze two meals worth of filling for chimichangas later this winter..
Today is just one way how I save money...
BREAKFAST
...my kids love those little packets of oatmeal with all the different flavors. I love them too but not how much they cost. So, I make up batches of Instant Oatmeal in gallon jars, old ice cream tubs, etc.. How I do it is.. I buy a 50# bag of rolled oats (organic or chemical free) and a #10 can of freeze dried strawberries (or blueberries) or use raisins, dried apricots, cranberries, etc.. (you get the idea), some powdered vanilla and organic evaporated sugar.
I mix up about 10 cups of oats with 2 cups of ground oats (just grind in coffee mill, blender, etc) and then add a few handfuls of pulverized strawberries (or chopped other fruits). I then add about 1/4 cup vanilla powder (this is not exact maybe a little less) and about 1 cup of sugar. Stir all together and your ready to dish out to your kids with some hot water. I figure this costs me about $5 For everything and it will last at least a week or more of breakfasts.
LUNCH
I make once a week usually Monday a batch of 7 loaves of bread so I use the 1 loaf and freeze the rest. Today I made peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches (homemade organic apple butter and organic peanut butter). Cost the loaf of bread is about $1.50 as I use all organic ingredients and grind my own flour. Peanut butter I buy in bulk (22 lbs) and apple butter was made with organic apples I paid $1.50 a pound. So I imagine this was about $3.00 for our family of 6 for lunch. I did serve sweet tea and water and a few slices of apples along with their sandwich.
DINNER
Thanksgiving was last week and my sister made a ham and didn't want the bones so I made a pot of beans this weekend with them. Today I stuck about 5 cups of those beans,some brown rice from this weekend and some cumin/chili pepper in the crock pot before we took the kids to swimming to heat up. When we got home, I heated up some oil (I do reuse my frying oil a few times) in our little fry daddy. I put a small cut slice of cheddar cheese on a soft taco wrap along with a heap of beans/rice and used a little flour/water mix to glue it so it would explode in the fry daddy. Then fried them up so we could have Chimichangas (Fried Burrito) for dinner along with some sour cream. I had some extra wonton wrappers from a week or so go and cut up some apples, added a bit of flour, sugar and cinnamon and rolled those up in the wrappers for Apple Pie Eggrolls. Cost: $6 for all the ingredients as the wonton wrappers were $1.50 and soft taco wraps were $2.50. The other ingredients with very cheap as they were dried beans, maybe 2oz. of cheese, a couple apples and some sour cream.
Today's total:
Breakfast .75c ($5 divided by 7 meals-approx. .75c)
Lunch: $3.00
Dinner: $6.00
Total: $9.75 for 3 meals for a family of 6
Not too bad :)
Sorry I didn't take any pictures but I do have leftovers of sandwiches for my husband's lunch tomorrow and extra oatmeal for breakfast and I have enough beans from the weekend that I froze two meals worth of filling for chimichangas later this winter..
Friday, January 28, 2011
A Quilt and Cupcakes...
Well, I have been up to a couple things....I made our new baby boy (soon to arrive in 18 days) a John Deere Quilt/Blanket. I had purchased the quilt front a couple months ago and the back fabric, but didn't buy any batting so needless to say it was quite some time ie. 2-3 months til I got back to the store to pick up some batting, which was perfect timing as it was on sale for 50% off :) So at nap time yesterday I quickly sewed the quilt together and it is now resting on the crib waiting to meet its owner... I also had just enough fabric to also sew a case for the changing table pad to match, which is actually going to be our boy's bed in our bed....a good friend of ours told us about using their changing table pad as a bed on their bed for the first couple months then move it into the crib and it was a MUCH easier transition....We love that idea as it has always been a battle with our kids when we move them from our bed to the crib...
Also, I found a recipe for Boston Cream Cupcakes from the Beat until Fluffy blog and since my hubby LOVES boston cream cake, thought this would be a nice treat! :)
MY VERSION is basically the same EXCEPT I did not make the filling, I just used a package of vanilla pudding and put in 2 cups of milk vs. 3 to make it thicker and used 1 1/2 teas. of vanilla extract. I also did not use superfine sugar in the batter and in the chocolate glaze I did use whole milk instead of heavy cream and agave syrup instead of corn syrup.
If you want her recipe just click on the Beat until Fluffy blog/recipe link above and it will direct you to her website recipe!!
~Fawn
Also, I found a recipe for Boston Cream Cupcakes from the Beat until Fluffy blog and since my hubby LOVES boston cream cake, thought this would be a nice treat! :)
MY VERSION is basically the same EXCEPT I did not make the filling, I just used a package of vanilla pudding and put in 2 cups of milk vs. 3 to make it thicker and used 1 1/2 teas. of vanilla extract. I also did not use superfine sugar in the batter and in the chocolate glaze I did use whole milk instead of heavy cream and agave syrup instead of corn syrup.
If you want her recipe just click on the Beat until Fluffy blog/recipe link above and it will direct you to her website recipe!!
~Fawn
Friday, January 21, 2011
Yummies...
Well, I found a new food blog yesterday...its called Beat Until Fluffy and OH MY GOODNESS are the recipes yummy looking...
Well, on the home page were two pumpkin recipes I had to try, one is called Harvest cake (a pumpkin coffee cake)
and Pumpkin Cookies.
I tried those and they turned out delicious!!!
So, I am now onto the homemade Pretzels (these are just coming out of the oven so no pics yet.) I just had to tell you to check out her blog, you will definently be inspired to bake and she has very easy to follow directions!:)
~Fawn
PS. I also made my own Vanilla Extract in October and it is now ready to use!! (I honestly have been using a few teaspoons out the past month) It was only Vodka and 6 vanilla beans (split open) and stuffed into the vodka, set on the counter in a dark spot for 3 months and now look at the color....and it is YUMMY!!!
Well, on the home page were two pumpkin recipes I had to try, one is called Harvest cake (a pumpkin coffee cake)
and Pumpkin Cookies.
I tried those and they turned out delicious!!!
So, I am now onto the homemade Pretzels (these are just coming out of the oven so no pics yet.) I just had to tell you to check out her blog, you will definently be inspired to bake and she has very easy to follow directions!:)
~Fawn
PS. I also made my own Vanilla Extract in October and it is now ready to use!! (I honestly have been using a few teaspoons out the past month) It was only Vodka and 6 vanilla beans (split open) and stuffed into the vodka, set on the counter in a dark spot for 3 months and now look at the color....and it is YUMMY!!!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Ice Cream Cupcakes
Ok, this has been on blogs for years and in all kinds of cookbooks, but I have
never made them and have been wanting too. My little girl turned 4 on Sunday so it
was perfect excuse to make them for her Awana Cubbies class.... They turned out adorable and she LOVED them!!
Here is a while making them picture,
NOTE: do NOT fill them over 1/2 full other wise this will happen!!
Here they are finished in the bowl ready to take to her class... her class has up to 24 kids so I made 27 so the helper/teachers could have some too and of course had
to make a dozen more to leave at home to have with our family at her birthday dinner....
and here is my happy to be 4 year old daughter!! Hard to believe sometimes she is already 4 years old!! Love you baby!!
PS.
These cupcakes are sooo easy to make,
I used 2 boxes of white cake mix (made as directed)
2 boxes of 24 cake ice cream cones
filled each ice cream cone with about 1/4 c. cake mix baked in oven for 20-25 min. at 350 then let cool and frosted with The Pioneer Women's Best Frosting in the World and added sprinkles and a marachino cherry on top....
~Fawn
never made them and have been wanting too. My little girl turned 4 on Sunday so it
was perfect excuse to make them for her Awana Cubbies class.... They turned out adorable and she LOVED them!!
Here is a while making them picture,
NOTE: do NOT fill them over 1/2 full other wise this will happen!!
Here they are finished in the bowl ready to take to her class... her class has up to 24 kids so I made 27 so the helper/teachers could have some too and of course had
to make a dozen more to leave at home to have with our family at her birthday dinner....
and here is my happy to be 4 year old daughter!! Hard to believe sometimes she is already 4 years old!! Love you baby!!
PS.
These cupcakes are sooo easy to make,
I used 2 boxes of white cake mix (made as directed)
2 boxes of 24 cake ice cream cones
filled each ice cream cone with about 1/4 c. cake mix baked in oven for 20-25 min. at 350 then let cool and frosted with The Pioneer Women's Best Frosting in the World and added sprinkles and a marachino cherry on top....
~Fawn
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