Target is the place to be!!!!!!

There are tons of coupons out right now on target.com to get some smashing deals at target!

$2 pillow coupon = .50

$.50 nail polish remover coupon= .49 nail polish remover

$1.00 bread AND eggs coupon= 1.39 for BOTH bread and eggs

$3.00 denim coupon= $1.98 jeans (when you buy the jeans marked down 75% off)

$1.00 off permanent markers= Free markers on the two pack on sale!

Start getting your B-Day and Christmas lists together, the BIG target toy clearance is just around the corner! Now is the time to stock up.

Also school supplies are going to be having some amazing deals. Don't put all your eggs in one basket....... hit up all the sales and save tons on your back to school needs! Right now Target has .20 glue and .25 crayons but the deals can get better $.1 school supplies and FREE!!!!!! Doesn't get better then free........ unless they pay you to take their items....... YUP YOU CAN FIND THOSE DEALS TOO, get ready!!!

Getting some ideas!

So I was searching through one of my favorite sites (have two of her cook books and they are by far my favorite) and I found some yummy recipes to try, along with them I found some recipes to help me stay away from the store buying staples, using some of the things we have on hand. Pretty handy, huh? Anyone know of a good deal on olive oil? We are running pretty low on that and it's a big time staple around here.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2011/02/mexican-bean-tostadas-tostadas.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/08/rice-milk.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/03/homemade-garlic-ranch-dressing-dairy-free.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/07/homemade-salad-dressings-with-ratios-instead-of-recipes.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/09/taco-macaroni-and-cheese.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/08/taco-soup-and-sweet-watermelon.html

What did you have tonight? Pantry challenge!!!

I'm not really hungry because I had a good hardy lunch today, but the boys sure are so we made pantry spaghetti. We had lots of spaghetti noodles and I set out our Italian turkey sausage last night. For the sauce I had tomatoes in the freezer, a great friend of mine told me they freeze well in the freezer and work perfectly in anything cooked, so we used those along with some Italian canned tomatoes, seasoned them up with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and used up the other half of our frozen garlic bread and we called it a meal. We also had some salad in the fridge so my husband is having that on the side.

What did you make tonight? I'm hoping for lots of left overs because I'll be gone for two days so daddy has to fend for dinner for the family. So I'm envisioning lots of left overs and hot dogs. ;)

What Did you have 4 din din? Pantry style!

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/10/poor-mans-stoup.html

So we decided on this recipe and it turned out great. This month we will be doing the pantry challenge so we had to improvise with things we had on hand, BUT I think it really did add to the flavor of our dish *and i'm sure the calories too. Below is the recipe with my pantry substitutes in bold.

Please come back and share your pantry challenge recipes so we can share ideas and encouragements. Good luck and happy Pantry month!!!

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef or chuck (sausage or chicken works well too) ($1.50) Had on hand from Albertsons quick sale: $1.03
Carrots (from the garden) Left over from the last Bountiful Basket and NEEDED to be used up.
Celery ($.20) In the freezer from Bountiful Baskets a few weeks ago
Onions (from the garden) In the freezer from Bountiful Baskets a few weeks ago

Beef stock (2 cans)/also works with chicken stock ($1.00 bought on sale for $.50 a can) chicken stock we made from the bones in the freezer from the roasted chicken we had last week
1 to 1 1/2 cups of rice ($.25) used knor chicken broccoli rice i had on hand from an Albertsons deal a few weeks ago, about $.50
Bay leaf, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper, terragon, sage ($.25) I knew that spice rack online deal would come in handy, and it has!
1 can of cream of mushroom/chicken ($1.00-unfortunately not on sale) one of those back of the pantry items, hubby hates cream of anything but it's well hidden in this soup!
dollop of sour cream ($.15) Luckly we had this on hand from our last shopping trip because it makes the soup.

parmesan: in the freezer from an albertsons clearance a while back.

Directions
1. Brown hamburger in a stock pot. Drain, rinse and return to pot.
2. Add grated carrots, chopped onions, and chopped celery and let them sweat out until tender.
3. Add beef stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add rice (not cooked); 1 bay leaf, couple shakes of thyme, parsley, terragon, sage and salt and pepper, then turn down heat to simmer and let it cook until dinner time.
5. 10 min. before you eat, add the cream of mushroom/chicken, and the sour cream and parmesan. Give it just enough time to heat through, about 3-5 minutes.

Cost $4.45 < dirt cheap ;)

Cheapest Eggs in town?

Albertsons typically run their eggs for under $1 every couple of weeks. When they have their sale i'll buy 2-3 dozen to last us until the sale comes around again. I try and buy eggs no more then $1 a dozen unless they are farm fresh *YuMM! Eggs also freeze well so if you want to get several and freeze them they would work well in baked goods, omelets, casseroles ect. Right now Albertsons is running their egg sale for .88 so now is the time to stock up!

Don't You JuSt Love FrEe?

I know I do! So when I found out about this amazing free site and app for helping you loose weight i was excited. I've never counted calories so I had no idea where to begin. This app/site does all the work for you, all you do is look up the items in their data base and enter them in each day. There are so many other neat features like the forums, you can even add your friends just like you do on facebook and you can update and add post feeds. It's great to have friends to help keep you accountable, and to help out in a recipe crunch.

Pantry Challenge Time!

So it's pantry challenge time. We are going to try to eat what we have on hand this month. We got lucky and got some great deals on ground beef at Albertsons in the reduced for quick sale section. They were a fatter percent of beef so my friend shared a great link to help reduce some of that fat, I'm counting calories right now so the less calories something has the more I can eat ;)..... what can I say I'm a fan of food. We are trying hard to make one of our new years goal of saving to a certain amount. After our trip in July and all of the eating out we did for that we are trying to watch our food budget this month. Bountiful Baskets will be our source of fresh produce. For only $15 you get laundry basket packed with fresh produce and that will last us a great part of the next two weeks.

Here are a couple things I'm thinking about making this week. They are not low cal meals so i'll probably start mine with a big salad and these main dishes will be more of a side.... but they look super yummy.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/10/poor-mans-stoup.html

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/10/tac-aroni.html

Chicken spaghetti

Our meats (if you have any recipes please share)

9lbs of ground beef

whole chicken (thanks dad)

itallian sausage

turkey breakfast sausage links

hot dogs

other items in the freezer

Chicken nuggets

corn dogs

frozen soup from angel food

Idea's for meals

Whole chicken made into several meals, roasted chicken the first night with sides, then maybe one of these ..... chicken quesadillas, taco's, chicken spaghetti, the bones to make stock, soup, ect.

itallian sausage in zuppa or spaghetti

turkey sausage in breakfast for dinner.

Frugal family events!

You don't have to break the bank to enjoy yourself. Here are some events cheap/free to enjoy around town.

Redbox is offering the .50 rentals today only with code THURSDAY . Check here to see what is offered in your Redbox.

From 4pm-10pm, Ihop is offering kids eat free the whole month of April.

The City of Midland is hosting Movie in the Park April 30th, go Here for all of the details.

Have you been to the new park, Hogan? It's a really great park, faux grass, great equipment, tons of fun for the family. Pack a lunch or dinner and make it a frugal family night out.

Every Wednesday evening TCBY had dollar frozen yogurt night.

Food Revolution!!!

What is your take!!!???

This is a touchy subject to many. With all these new shows and lots to talk about what is your take on it? What is your take on the food revolution vs. couponing? Can you use coupons/save money and still eat healthy?

I loved the show!!! I think my son's school serves some really crazy meals. I don't complain to much because I just send him with what I want him to have, but if they told me i couldn't then I would be upset and have something to say. What I send is healthier (most of the time) and cheaper (by quite a bit most of the time). Do we eat perfectly all of the time? NO! But I try my hardest to feed my boys a well balanced meal, I never slather their fruits and veggies in colored sugar!!!!! Oh that one drives me batty!

As far as coupons go, you can by all means save lots of money and eat healthy, even organic. There are coupon sites for people that eat only organic. Will this show change the way i do things and will i eat all organic? No, probably not! But it really did reinforce why I enjoy sending my son's lunch each day and will really make me think when I use my coupons, how much I REALLY want that, even if it's free.

So what is your take? Leave your comments below I would love to hear your view points!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/231711/jamie-olivers-food-revolution-maybe-la-was-a-big-mistake?c=

Just PIcs I TooK!!!

Taking a quick pause to share with you some pictures I took of a friend's sweet little man. We adore this sweet little boy, and might I say he may one day become a model, he was such an easy subject ;)!