Sunday, March 16, 2014

Saturday's Freezer Cooking Results: Stocking up for Baby!

Since I've been pregnant, there are two pieces of advice that keep popping up.  Not only in everyday conversations, but all over the web as well.  #1 Sleep when the baby sleeps, and #2 Stock your freezer/stock-pile for after the baby comes.  Since these two have been repeated over and over again, I decided to take heart and tackle what I could before the baby arrived.  With a month to go, I think my nesting urges have finally kicked in, not that I feel amazing or anything, but I do have a drive to get things done.  Stocking the freezer was high on the list, because after all, you HAVE to eat!  This week at the store I stocked up on ground beef, day old rolls, and over-ripe bananas.  I also had 6 lbs of onions in the cupboard from a couple of weeks ago that needed to be used up.  Since I had just straightened the freezers last week, I decided this week was the time to refill them.  So I made up a plan, and here's how it went down...

First up on the freezer stocking 'challenge' was sweet breads.  I ended up with 3 large loaves to freeze, and 1 to slice for the week, plus 8 mini loaves to freeze.  I made 2 batches Butterscotch Chip Banana Bread (same recipe as link, but with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate), this made 2 large loaves and 4 minis.  Then I made a batch of White Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, which made 2 large loaves.  And lastly, 1 batch Banana Crumb Bread, which made 4 mini loaves.  Joe was very pleased to have so many breakfasts in the freezer, and so was I. 
Next up was processing the beef I bought earlier this week.  I had a little over 3 lbs to work with, so I first made up hamburger patties.  Two for dinner Sunday, and 4 for the freezer.  Then I took the rest (about a 1 and 1/2), and fried it up with onions, and was able to get 5 meals worth for the freezer.  This is what I use when I make Crock-pot Lasagna, or Spaghetti, or even Taco Meat.
Since I needed diced onions for the beef, I went ahead and diced or sliced the rest of the 6 lbs I had bought a couple weeks ago while I had the food processor out, and froze them for future use.  I got 7 meals worth of diced onions, and 8 of sliced to freeze.

Last, and most easiest on the agenda was making Garlic Bread for the freezer.  It's so easy to make, and is such a nice addition to so many meals.  I bought marked down rolls from Giant twice this week, so I made 3 meals worth (6 rolls) earlier in the week, and again Saturday.  Here they both are, ready for the freezer.
Overall I feel very accomplished.  Hopefully I can do another round next weekend.  I am praying my nesting drive keeps up and I can get some serious stuff done!

Anyone else stocking their freezers?  If so, what are your favorite items to stock?

4 Weeks to a More Organized Home: Day 7

Today's challenge involved a quick pick-up of the main living areas in your home, as well as wiping down all the baseboards in the house.  Since I just cleaned the house yesterday, the house was still picked-up, so I moved onto wiping baseboards.  Needless to say, this took me a while, probably would have even if I wasn't 8 months pregnant.  However, it is nice to have everything nice and dust-free. 

I also worked ahead on the dresser drawers, I checked all 20, but I only needed to clean out 2. I did one today, and I'll do the other tomorrow.  Today was my purse/scarf drawer.  I keep a minimal amount of both, only what fits in the drawer, but it still gets too full sometimes.  Here's the after...
I removed 8 items to get rid of as well...

Linked to Money Saving Mom!

40 bags in 40 days Update #2

I decided to join along in the 40 bags in 40 days challenge to help decrapify the house before baby Rogers arrives in April.  Here's how week #2 went...

Day #5: Quick house pick-up, and weekly house cleaning.  Items decluttered: 6 coupon inserts, 2 empty toiletry bottles.  Here's an after of the kitchen, so sparkly clean!

Day #6: Dusted the baseboards, and worked on cleaning out a dresser drawer.
 This is the after, plus the 22 items I got rid of.

Day # 7: Wiped down all of the door handles, and cleaned another dresser drawer.
 This is the after, now I can get the drawer shut again.  I also removed 8 items to get rid of.

Day #8: Wiped down the light switches, and did a quick pick up of the bathroom.  Here's the after of the bathroom, so nice and tidy.  I also ditched 7 misc toiletry/medical items.

Day #9: Dusted the Ceiling Fans and Lights.  Items Removed: 7 Misc coupon inserts/papers

Day #10: Did a HUGE freezer cooking session, so cleaning today for me.  Items Removed: Zero

4 Weeks to a More Organized Home: Day 9

Today's challenge involved a quick clean of the bathroom, and cleaning all of the switch plates in the house.
Here's the bathroom after a quick straighten...
 I love clean and shiny light-switch plates, even if they are brass.
I also found 7 misc medical/toiletry items in the bathroom to pitch, I don't how they accumulate so fast?!

Linked to Money Saving Mom!

4 Weeks to a More Organized Home: Day 8

Today's challenge involved wiping down all of the door handles, and cleaning out our dresser drawers.  Wiping down the door handles only took about 4 minutes since we only have 10 total. 

The dresser drawers on the other hand, took a little more time, I checked all 20, but I only needed to clean out 2. I did one yesterday, and the other today.
  Today was my make-up 'stock-pile' drawer.  This is the after...
 I also ended up with 22 items to get rid of. 

Linked to Money Saving Mom!

Weekly Spending Report: 03/08-15/2014

This week we did a LOT of shopping, or so it felt.  I spent more than usual, but we are still on track for the month, and we were able to stock-up on a LOT of great deals.  This included diapers, ground beef, and cans of cat food.  Overall, I'm very pleased with our haul.  Here's how this week went down...
  • Sunday's Petco Trip (no picture, just 1 can cat food, used a coupon): $1.01 oop
  • Sunday's ALDI Trip: $18.84 oop
  • Tuesday's CVS Trip: $3.14 oop, Earned $25 ECB's and$7.99 MIR
  • Tuesday's Petco Trip (no picture, just 1 can cat food, used a coupon): $1.01 oop
  • Tuesday's Giant Trip: $23.56 oop
  • Friday's Dollar Tree Trip: $14.48 oop
  • Friday's Giant Trip: $9.72 oop 
  • Saturday's Giant Trip (no pictures, just 2 newspapers, Dollar Tree was out): $5.30 oop
  • Earned $63.58 Wal-mart Gift card for a return
  • Earned $5 Amazon Gift Card from Swag Bucks
  • Earned $15.04 from Amazon
Total OOP: $77.06
Total Earned: $116.61
Total Remaining for March: $97.66

Linked to Couponaholic!