Wow....Life Changing

Two pretty amazing things happened in our house last night that will change our family forever.

No, I am not pregnant!

#1 Both Ali & Matt got contact lenses. I brought them in to get a new eyeglass prescription, and when the question about contacts came up, I left it up to the kids. We had talked about them, I just thought we were going to try to wait until middle school (they are 4th & 5th grades right now). They both seemed excited to try them out, so we went for it. The very patient and nice Doctor put the first ones in their eyes, and they fell in love with them, smiling from ear to ear. They were both able to take two out and put two back in within just 5 or so minutes.

So it is official, my kids have grown up. They are both wearing contacts, and hopefully all will go well with them when they need to get them in before school.

#2 I learned how to make homemade bread. I have made bread from scratch before, but to be honest, it was never very good. I made it to Savers on Labor Day for their 50% off sale. After I was finished looking for clothes for the kids this blog I read at Leaving Excess popped into my head. She said that you should pick up a bread maker second hand. "I am at a thrift store" I thought, "let's see if they have any". Well they had one, it was marked $14.99 so I paid $7.50 for it. The best part is it was brand new. The outside was dirty from sitting on somebody counter top, but the inside had never been used.

I bought a box bread machine dough to try first, and it turned out pretty good. So I cleaned it up and tackled a real recipe for oat bread. It was wonderful! I could have eaten the whole loaf if nobody was around. Here is the recipe that I used.

So not major life shattering, but both were a big deal in our household last night. The kids look funny without their glasses, and I will be making homemade bread every other day now. Funny how life troughs little curve balls at you, but they are fun to catch.

Meal Plan for the Next Two Weeks

I am going to try something new here, I shopped at Aldi and stocked up on dinner items to try to pre-plan them out. Hopefully this will help with the "I forgot to thaw the meat out" and the kids always asking whats for dinner. This is the list of items I got at Aldi, and filled in with items I had in my pantry and freezer. It cost me $70.26 for the new ingredients, and I am happy to use up the older items in the freezer.

Lunches:

Ramen Noodles
Mac-n-cheese
Corn dogs
Sandwiches
Tuna helper
Left overs
Mashed potato bowls

Dinners:

Frozen Burritos w/ Mexican rice & Sour cream & salad
Tacos w/ (left over rice) &Sour cream
Spaghetti (left over taco meat) w/ Salad
General Tao Chicken w/Rice & Broccoli
Pork roast w/ Pasta side dish (w/ left over broccoli), Corn & Onion rings
Chicken Kiev w/ Stuffing & carrots
Bologna melts w/ Corn
Tuna Helper w/ Rolls
Fried Chicken w/ Green bean casserole
Brats w/ Pasta salad
Manicotti w/ Broccoli & Rolls
Corned beef w/ cabbage
Corned beef hash (w/ left over corned beef) w/Eggs
Stir fry w/Rice
Beef Roast w/Red potatoes & Mixed veggies
Turkey w/Stuffing & Baked potatoes & onions & Asparagus

I have two frozen turkeys in my freezer, and I need to use them pretty soon, so it will be Thanksgiving in August at our house this month. I also have multiple cookie mixes and cake mixes I would like to finally use up. When I can get them for practically free with coupons I tend to stock up. We need to eat more cake before it takes over the kitchen.

This two week plan should carry us through to the start of our family + kids friends camping trip at the end of the month. By then I will need to shop for camping friendly foods anyway. We'll see how my pre-planned list goes, hopefully it will work so good I will do it more often!

Craving for KFC

For those of you who know me, this might sound like a weird craving. As I do not eat any meat on a bone. I know I am weird, but this goes back to my childhood watching my parents gnaw on T-bone steak bones (It still grosses me out to this day). So the only thing that I do eat at KFC is their mashed potato bowls.

This afternoon I had a bad craving for one. But as I am not spending any money this week, I had to make due. I used a pouch of instant mashed potatoes, bag of frozen corn, package of chicken nuggets (would have been better with frozen popcorn chicken), package of brown gravy mix, and shredded cheese.

To my surprise it was actually pretty good! The chicken wasn't as crunchy, and the gravy wasn't the same, but that's why they have secret recipes. It made enough for two adult sized portions and two toddler sized portions. One portion for lunch today and one for DH's lunch tomorrow. The kids were separated and left out the gravy, but they liked them too. I still had left over corn and gravy for tonight's dinner too. This would be great for a smaller family for dinner. It ended up costing under $3.00 for all the ingredients I already had on hand. So for the price of one KFC Mashed Potato Bowl I made four bowls practically the same.

Free Gooseberry Patch Booklet

Get a free copy of a new recipe booklet from Gooseberry Patch: Fall Favorites with Sun-Maid Raisins & Dried Fruit. You can also request the Gooseberry Patch Family Favorite Recipes.

I'm not sure why this new recipe booklet is coming out in Spring rather than Fall, but I'll be happy to add it to my collection of free Sun-Maid recipe booklets.

I have loved Gooseberry Patches products in the past, and always like to look through their catalogs. It inspires me all the time, it is so "Grandmotherly".

Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom for this one!

McCormick Testers Wanted!

Click here to sign-up to be a Consumer Tester for McCormick.

Up to 4 times per year, you will receive an email inviting you to participate in a Consumer Test. If you participate in the test, you will receive monetary compensation!

For example, McCormick contacted will contact you to try a new seasoning for grilled chicken. They will send you a bottle of the product to try by a certain date. After completing an online questionnaire about the product, you will receive a $20 check!

General Mills Advisory Panel

The General Mills Advisory Panel is open for the first time in 2 years!!

Sign-up to complete surveys for General Mills products and receive points that you can redeem for prizes such as Amazon gift cards or cash via Paypal! You may also receive products to try in exchange for your review of the product. Most surveys take about 5 minutes to complete and you may choose which surveys you want to complete.

Click here to sign-up. Click here to learn more about the program.

Thanks to More Than Enough for finding this!

Free Home-Made Food Labels

You can print your own food labels thanks to Land 'O Lakes, for your home-made food gifts. There are labels for Valentine's Day, Winter Scenes, and plain for everyday items. These would work great for the dry ingredient mix recipes in a jar. Those make great end-of-the-year teacher gifts that don't cost alot. There are lots of recipes out there, just find a recipe that you already have the ingredients for, and go to town. It is a great craft project for the littler kids due to it being pretty much goof-proof.

The labels also are great for bringing cookies to the new neighbors that moved in this winter, but it has been to cold to go over and meet them yet.