Eat from the Pantry Challenge Update 1/25

I have a poll at the top of my blog. If you're reading my blog in a reader, please go check it out.

Just wanted to give a quick update on the Eat from the Pantry Challenge being hosted by moneysavingmom.com and lifeasmom.com. So far, I've spent $XX on food and $XX on non-food stuff. What a savings!

Monday, 1/18
Breakfast: sausage & egg bake, chunky monkey bread (chocolate chip banana bread)
Lunch: eat out at Chili's
Supper: leftover hot dogs

Tuesday, 1/19
Breakfast: cereal & banana bread for me; banana bread and yogurt for Emily
Lunch: leftover hamburgers for me and Phillip; yogurt for Emily
Supper: poached eggs and sausage balls

Wednesday, 1/20
Breakfast: cereal & zucchini bread for me; cereal for Phillip; craisins for Emily (having a rough day today)
Lunch: leftover party wienies & potato salad for me; craisins and crackers for Emily (still having a rough day)
Supper: Angel Hair Pasta Chicken, garlic bread

Thursday, 1/21
Breakfast: cereal for Phillip, cereal & zucchini bread for me, 2 NutriGrain bars for Emily
Lunch: hot dogs for Phillip; Scholotzsky's for me and Emily
Supper: leftovers

Friday, 1/22
Breakfast: cereal for Phillip, cereal and banana bread for me, 2 NutriGrain bars for Emily
Lunch: hamburgers & Cheetos (school lunch) for me and Phillip; crackers and scrambled egg for Emily
Supper: Angel food meal

Saturday, 1/23
Breakfast: cereal for Phillip, Cream of Wheat for me, yogurt for Emily
Lunch: chicken fried deer steak, leftover veggie mac & cheese
Supper: Chicken Risotto, blueberries/strawberries/pineapple, toast

Sunday, 1/24
Breakfast: eggs & sausage, banana bread
Lunch: Sonic
Supper: oatmeal for me and Emily, leftovers for Phillip

Goals

I've never made New Year's resolutions. Just didn't ever seem appropriate. But, this year, I decided to make some goals for myself. Not resolutions, but goals. They're all things I'm doing anyway, so I'm not resolving to do anything new, just actually setting goals. (By setting, I mean writing them down and making them measurable.) Here are my goals for the year.

Do my household cleaning chores each week, 80% of the year
Follow my to do list each week, 80% of the year
Exercise (walk or Wii Fit Plus) 4 days a week, 80% of the year
Meal plan each week, 80% of the year
Be under budget on groceries (food and household items) every month

Why 80%? Well, it allows for the funky weeks when I have to be gone more than I expect. And, 80% of the weeks is 42 weeks. Sounds reasonable to allow for almost 1 week per month to be funky.

I'm going to track my progress here to keep myself accountable. I hope by sharing my meal plans here, it will do several things: give you a peek into our house (and see that it's not all extravagant meals), encourage you to do the same, and give you ideas for your own meals. (If you ever want a recipe, let me know. I'm happy to share!)

Have you set goals for the year? What are they?

Garage Makeover

For Christmas, my dad asked for a garage makeover. He said he'd provide the funds if someone would provide the planning and labor. Phillip and I and my sister decided to go in together (thank goodness!) to do this. Jenni did all of the planning for us and Phillip and I just showed up and did the work.

The garage was in pretty good shape, considering they had all this stuff (see the before pictures) and their two cars! But, it just needed some tweaking. Enjoy the pictures! (Oh, and, no, we're not out for hire!)

BEFORE:

We had a little helper toward the end.

AFTER:

Eat from the Pantry Challenge Update 1/18

I have a poll at the top of my blog. If you're reading my blog in a reader, please go check it out.

Just wanted to give a quick update on the Eat from the Pantry Challenge being hosted by moneysavingmom.com and lifeasmom.com.

Monday, 1/11
Breakfast: cold cereal and banana bread for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: Arby's for me and Emily (in Abilene for MOPS); leftover steak fingers and salad for Phillip
Supper: chicken breast for Phillip; leftover Poppy Seed Chicken, black eyed peas for me and Emily

Tuesday, 1/12
Breakfast: cold cereal and banana bread for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: Frito Pie, pears (school lunch) for me and Phillip; party wienies, pears, crackers for Emily
Supper: leftover shrimp skewers, veggie mac & cheese for me; scrambled egg for Emily; Phillip ate out on the way to a basketball game

Wednesday, 1/13
Breakfast: cold cereal and banana bread for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: bean burritos and spanish rice for me and Phillip; spanish rice and cheese for Emily
Supper: Enchilada Stack, corn, purple juice salad and refried beans

Thursday, 1/14
Breakfast: cold cereal and banana bread for me; a few bites of yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily (this ended up not staying where she put it :-( )
Lunch: hamburgers for me and Phillip; a bite of scrambled egg for Emily
Supper: garlic shrimp, couscous, broccoli (Phillip), green beans (me) for me and Phillip; crackers for Emily

Friday, 1/15
Breakfast: cereal and cinnamon bread for me; a few bites of cinnamon bread for Emily
Lunch: brisket and sausage, beans, potato salad, bread for me and Phillip (community school at lunch due to stock show!); goldfish for Emily
Supper: chili with peas, corn, bread and apple casserole for me; bread, peas and corn for Emily

Saturday, 1/16 (we were in Abilene for a garage makeover...watch for the post tomorrow!)
Breakfast: biscuits and gravy (Thanks, Mom!)
Lunch: Taco Soup (Thanks, Mom!)
Supper: WACU chicken casserole, purple juice salad, french bread (Thanks, Mom!)

Sunday, 1/17
Breakfast: cereal, cinnamon bread
Lunch: Papa John's pizza (we sure miss pizza!)
Supper: Hawaiian ham & cheese sandwiches, leftover pizza

19 months

Emily wants no part of taking these pictures yesterday or today. So, here's the best I could get. She's playing with her purses she received for Christmas.
In other news, she got her toenails painted for the first time Sunday night. Here she is checking them out!

Eat from the Pantry Challenge Update 1/11

Just wanted to give a quick update on the Eat from the Pantry Challenge being hosted by moneysavingmom.com and lifeasmom.com. So far the only thing on my grocery list that is food is bananas, sugar (to restock my pantry), oil (desperately need!), Special K (have a coupon for a free box that expires at the end of January), Stacy's Pita Chips (coupon for a free bag) and Diet Coke (Phillip just can't live without them!). Pretty good, considering my goal was to spend as little on food as possible.

Monday, 1/4
Breakfast: cold cereal and cinnamon bread for me; NutriGrain bars for Emily
Lunch: fried steak patties, mashed potatoes, green beans (school lunch) for me and Emily; eggs and sausage for Phillip
Supper: Spinach Chicken and Cheese Calzones, mixed fruit

Tuesday, 1/5
Breakfast: cold cereal and banana bread for me; NutriGrain bars for Emily
Lunch: chili cheese dog and corn (school lunch) for me; eggs & sausage for Phillip; eggs, NutriGrain bar leftovers, beans (school lunch) for Emily
Supper: barbecue chicken, green beans (me and Emily), broccoli (Phillip) and french fries

Wednesday, 1/6
Breakfast: cold cereal and strawberry bread for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: spaghetti (school lunch) for me; eggs & sausage for Phillip; leftover corndog and some of Phillip's eggs for Emily
Supper: deer back strap, veggie mac & cheese, baked apple

Thursday, 1/7
Breakfast: cold cereal and strawberry bread with cream cheese for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: beef stew (school lunch) for me and Phillip; leftover steak patty for Emily
Supper: Poppy Seed Chicken, corn, cornbread

Friday, 1/8
Breakfast: cold cereal and strawberry bread with cream cheese for me; yogurt mixed with baby cereal for Emily
Lunch: pizza, baked beans (school lunch)
Supper: sweet and sour chicken and rice, snap peas, carrots, (Angel Food meal) toasted hamburger bun, oranges

Saturday, 1/9
Breakfast: cold cereal for me and Phillip; cinnamon bread for me; NutriGrain bars for Emily
Lunch: Big O's for lunch...yummy!
Supper: deer steak, veggie mac & cheese, sweet potatoes and broccoli for me and Phillip; broccoli for Emily (we offered her everything else, but all she would eat is broccoli!)

Sunday, 1/10
Breakfast: cold cereal and cinnamon bread for me and Phillip; yogurt mixed with baby cereal and cinnamon bread for Emily
Lunch: Sonic
Supper: leftover grilled cheese for Emily; The Grazin' Patch for me and Phillip (my parents come twice a month to babysit so we can have dates!)

How is yours going?

I'm published

Go check it out here.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge Meal Plan

Before you can plan to eat our of your pantry, you have to know what’s in there! I knew we had lots of deer meat. We just picked up the meat last week so I know we’ve got plenty of meat to make it through the month, even with Phillip going low-carb. I took inventory today and this is what I found. (Watch out! It’s a long list!) And, if you have any ideas about how I should use the pureed foods (previously meant for Emily) or the mushy roast veggies (also meant for Emily), let me know!

Deep Freeze:

• 1 bag wheat flour
• 1 gallon whole milk (for Emily)
• 3 ½ gallons 1% milk
• 1 pan brownies (that I won at the church fall festival!)
• chocolate cupcakes (I may be taking these to MOPS!)
• 6 freezer meals from Angel Food (great for when Phillip’s gone!)
• 1 ½ C applesauce
• strawberry bread-small loaf
• pinto beans (2 containers)
• Spinach, Chicken & Cheese Calzone filling (2 containers)
• Veggie Mac & Cheese (really more veggies than mac & cheese)
• Ham & Cheese Potato Casserole
• Poppy Seed Chicken
• Lotta Beans
• spaghetti sauce
• 4 lb chicken thighs
• 6 lb chicken breasts
• 16 lb breakfast sausage (includes 14 lb deer sausage)
• 14 lb ground deer
• 4 lb ground beef
• 3 sirloins
• 8 hot dogs
• 2 pc salmon
• 11 deer steaks
• 3 ribeyes
• french fries
• sweet potatoes
• corn (1 ½ lb + a 5 lb bag!)
• green beans
• mixed fruit
• strawberries
• blueberries
• 22 C cheddar
• 16 C Monterey Jack
• Swiss
• Mozzarella
• chocolate chips
• 1 loaf homemade bread

Inside freezer:

• cinnamon bread
• banana bread
• zucchini bread
• strawberry bread
• corn tortillas
• brown rice
• white rice
• hamburger buns
• 1 C applesauce
• ½ C diced ham
• 2 C shredded carrots
• lime sherbet (Phillip brought this home from the homecoming dance...back in October...but it still tastes good!)
• chicken flavored rice
• french fries
• gravy
• broccoli
• lima beans
• 1 lb shrimp
• mushy roast veggies (leftover from making a roast)
• hamburger dip
• pinto beans
• sweet potatoes
• green beans
• ham
• sausage balls
• Puppy Chow
• frosting
• 4 oz tomato sauce
• chicken broth/stock
• lemon juice
• evaporated milk
• cream cheese
• pizza sauce
• corn
• Parmesan cheese
• pureed veggies: broccoli, Brussel sprouts, mixed veggies, carrots
• pureed chicken
• pureed fruits: mixed fruit, blueberries

Refrigerator:

• 8 doz eggs
• 2 deer steaks
• ground deer
• deer sausage
• 2 pcs fried chicken
• 3 ½ C vanilla yogurt
• hamburger dip
• cheese dip
• party weinies
• black eyed peas
• refried beans
• summer sausage
• 4 carrots
• 3 apples
• Monterey Jack
• Provolone
• Cheddar
• Mozzarella
• French onion soft cheese
• cheesecake bars
• Missouri cookies
• tiger butter
• peppermint bark

Pantry (there’s obviously more in my pantry, but these are the things I’d like to use up):

• couscous
• oatmeal
• cream of wheat
• corn meal
• rotini-1 1/3 box
• macaroni-1/2 C
• angel hair 1/4 box
• egg noodles
• spaghetti (more than 4 lb!)
• penne-1/3 box
• pineapple
• cream of chicken soup

With the help of SuperCook.com, here is my meal plan for the month:

• Breakfasts: cold cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, fruit & cinnamon breads

• Lunches: school provided meals (Phillip can bring home lunch for free any day he wants to), leftovers, Christmas party leftovers

• Suppers:

4-Spinach, Chicken & Cheese Calzones
5-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
6-deer steaks, veggie mac & cheese, baked apple
7-poppy seed chicken (for me and Emily), chicken breast (for Phillip), broccoli, corn
8-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
9-deer burgers, leftover veggie mac & cheese, french fries
10-leftovers (my kitchen is closed on Sundays)
11-leftovers (MOPS day...we don’t get home until 5:30 and Phillip has a basketball game)
12-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
13-Enchilada Stack, purple juice salad, corn
14-Sauteed Shrimp and Couscous Dinner, green beans (me and Emily), broccoli (Phillip), baked apple
15-spaghetti with meat sauce (me and Emily), ground meat (Phillip)
16-in Abilene
17-in Abilene
18-leftovers
19-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
20-Angel Hair Pasta Chicken, garlic toast
21-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
22-Lotta Beans
23-Chicken Risotto, blueberries/strawberries/pineapple, toast
24-leftovers (my kitchen is closed on Sundays)
25-leftovers (MOPS day...we don’t get home until 5:30 and Phillip has a basketball game)
26-Angel Food meal (Phillip has a basketball game)
27-sirloin, Allie’s Delicious Macaroni & Cheese, blueberries/strawberries/pineapple, toast
28-Italian dressing chicken, sweet potatoes, corn
29-penne with spaghetti sauce (me and Emily), ground meat (Phillip)
30-poached eggs and sausage balls
31-leftovers (my kitchen is closed on Sundays)

Eat from the Pantry Challenge

FishMama and Money Saving Mom are hosting an Eat from the Pantry Challenge (here and here) during January. I tried to do this in December, but we didn't eat at home as much as I'd planned. So....we still have quite a bit in the freezer and pantry. I'm going to buy as little food as possible during January and we'll use the money we save out of our $350 grocery (food and household items) budget toward our family vacation to Ruidoso next summer.

For my birthday, I got Once a Month Cooking by Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson. Once we've eaten most of our pantry stock, I'm really excited to try this out!

One Size Cloth Diaper Event

When I started using cloth diapers, I didn't really know about one-size diapers or two-size covers. As I started winning diapers, though, I quickly found out the benefits of one-size diapers. I have one-size pocket diapers I'll be able to use on Emily until she's potty trained and on next baby (no, this isn't an announcement) from birth to potty training.

I can't remember how I found Take time to smell the rose, but I'm super excited about Chari's One Size Cloth Diaper Event! Take a moment to visit her site if you're interested!

Two Christmases down...one to go

As I sat in the quiet coldness of the house, I realized that it has been quite a while since I updated everyone on our family.

Yesterday, Emily started saying “dog.” Her version is “do” (just drop the “g”). It’s so cute! Still no other words to speak of. Right now her vocabulary consists of boo (boo), baba (balloon), do (dog) and ah duh (all done). One of these days, she’ll start saying sentences and surprise us all!

Yesterday, we also spent time with Phillip’s family.

Emily and her cousins

Emily and Great-Grandma Palma

Emily got loaded up on gifts...way more than Phillip or I imagined! We are so grateful to have so many people who love Emily.

Grandma & Grandpa have a Frosty that sings and dances when you push a button. I’m so glad it lives at their house because Emily loved it! She would just rather not push the button herself! (Sorry there's no sound...I didn't know the mic was turned off.)

She enjoyed “playing” Bingo with her cousins who are 6-8 years older than her.

Christmas Day was spent at home, just the 3 of us. Quite different from the way I grew up, always at grandparents' houses. We did enjoy the day, though!

Santa brought Emily a kitchen for Christmas and she loves it!

She’s poured herself tea from the kettle (and from the stuffed one that cousin Mia gave her!) and cooked things on the stove. But, mostly, she just likes making the stove make noise. The batteries may die a quick death. :-)

I cooked my first-ever Christmas lunch. It was so yummy! I bought a quarter spiral-sliced ham and we had corn casserole, Grandma’s broccoli & rice casserole, cranberries (for Phillip and Emily...not me!), honey-butter rolls and chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake. I’m pretty proud of the lunch and we have tons of leftovers!

On to Abilene for more Christmas!

Handiwork

Several years ago (perhaps before Phillip and I met), I bought a Christmas tree skirt kit. I've been working on it ever since. I originally planned to have it done last year, for Emily's first Christmas, but the move and just life in general prevented that. So, my goal was to get it done for this Christmas. And, finally, it's DONE! I just wanted to show off a bit. So, here it is!

And, here it is under the tree.

18 months

Emily is now 18 months. In the past week, she's been helping me bake for our Christmas party. She is always so excited to help!

No smiles for the picture today, though. It's been a rough morning, but, thankfully, she is now sleeping!

Snow & baking

I know it's been a while since I posted. I've been busy getting our house all Christmas-y. This morning, we woke up to snow on the ground and in the air! I took Emily outside for a few minutes (forgot the camera) and she enjoyed it, but really just wanted the pinecones!

Also today, Emily helped me make Strawberry bread & muffins.

I'd measure out the ingredients and she helped pour them in the mixing bowl.

She also put the muffin papers in the pans.

Such a good helper! So, if you're blessed to be a recipient of some of our muffins, know that Emily put some love into them too!

The Streak

Friday, during Emily's morning nap time (she doesn't ever sleep during this time any more, but she gets time in her crib anyway!), she got awfully quiet. When I went in to check on her, this is what I found.


No clothes, no socks, no diaper cover. Just the cloth diaper she couldn't get off because it was pinned on! Such cuteness!

17 months

She's just getting so big!! She ran up and sat down on Mr. Snuggles. (I did have to ask her to sit up after she laid down on him, but at least she can now sort of follow directions!)

Go Vote!

I entered Emily in the Safety 1st Halloween Photo Contest. You can vote once per day now through November 19. There's already on picture with 116 votes...Emily just has 1. Please go vote for her! I can't tell you which page she'll be on...it was different every time I clicked through. You'll just have to look for the picture above to find her.

Greener

In doing the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt (see my last post), I'm starting to think about using more cloth items around the house. I mean, yes, they may cost a bit now, but I won't have to keep buying paper stuff. For example, my friend Shandra has some reusable sandwich bags she got from MamaMade on Etsy. (For that matter, I could MAKE those!) And, I've found the "un-paper towel" and kitchen wet bags to keep them in. My parents have used cloth napkins for as long as I can remember.

So, what about you? What do you use that is reusable?

Free

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for free stuff. Recently, I've subscribed to quite a few emails that tell me about deals I can find online and in stores to get stuff free or cheap. Here are just a few:

Deal Seeking Mom
Money Saving Mom
Faithful Provisions
Freebies 4 Mom
The Freebie Blogger

I'm also always in search of sweepstakes I can enter and last May I found an online scavenger hunt sponsored by Diaper Decisions. It's happening again and I'm playing! Several of my diaper stores participate and I could always use the freebies I might win! Below are a few of the sponsors in the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt. (They're not all diaper sellers, either!) Play along if you'd like!! (I may be adding some if I find that I can get an extra entry into a contest for listing them!)

Mom's Milk Boutique
Cute Caboose
Bamboo Bums
Rocky Mountain Baby
Sippy Cup Corner
Scentsy
Two Little Whales

Pumpkin Patch

***Warning...lots of pics!***

Last year my mom and I took Emily to the DRI Pumpkin Patch in Abilene. We had planned to do this again a couple weeks ago, but timing just hadn't worked out. Finally, yesterday, we were able to make the trip. A willing subject was a little harder to find this year, but we still got some good pictures. Here are a few of my favorite pictures (out of the 89 that we took!).

Ready, set, go...

Emily loved picking up the little pumpkins and carrying them around. We had to remind her to put them back where she got them!
The itty, bitty pumpkins weren't quite where Emily wanted them, so she kept giving them to me and Pearlie!
Okay, everyone's watching!
One of the few times Emily was still. Okay, she wasn't still, but I snapped the picture at just the right time!
One of my favorite pictures!!
She really liked this pumpkin, for a few minutes at least. Then, she rolled it to the ground.
She found grass on the ground that she wanted to share.
I don't remember seeing these sunflowers last year, but they sure were cute for Emily this year!
Emily played in the sand and tasted it for the first time...like a whole handful!
One of the few shots of me and Emily that actually turned out good!
Toward the end of our time there, one of the DRI residents brought Emily this pumpkin. I had planned to buy a small one because she was loving them so much, but they just gave us one!
Emily couldn't quite figure out the corn. She was intrigued by it.

If you're still reading by now, you deserve a prize. That was a lot of pictures!