thrifty thursday--too good to wait!

in honor of my sister's birthday, ihop has decided to give away FREE pancakes on tuesday, february 24th from 7AM to 10PM.  a short stack per person.  so happy birthday laura!  more details here.

and i MUST tell you about this new blog that i am currently amazed by... southernsavers.com.  i have been checking out the deals she posts, and tonight, i made a purchase that would even make becky k. proud.  all the groceries below for FREE.  that's right, folks.  i paid 44 cents in tax.  that's all.  and i got:

8 boxes of green giant frozen veggies

6 cans of organic tomato sauce

6 cans of progesso soup

1 bottle of motts for tots juice (it was the penny mystery coupon at publix)

yes, this took some work.  i had to go to my parents to use their computers to print out more coupons.  but an hour of work for over $40 of groceries isn't too shabby, if i do say so myself.  :)

so check it out, southernsavers.com.

no more campesinos...

i have a confession.  i am addicted to bean dip.  it is my comfort food of choice, and i know that it will be healthier and more abundant in heaven than it is here.  i mean, i really love this stuff.  my favorite version of it is from a mexican restaurant five minutes away called campesinos.  so good.  the last time i went in, they brought me my bean dip with jalapenos before i ordered.  yep, i'm addicted.  here is the sad news (but good news for our hurting budget!), campesinos is MOVING!  much cause for alarm when the news was first received.  after careful research, we have learned that they are moving across the street but would be closed for 2 whole months.  can you believe it?  devasting.  so what's your addiction?

oh, and this clip shows how like all good mothers, i am passing on my addiction to my children.  :)

from the GRE to frozen foods...

no posts lately because i have been B. U. S. Y.  jon is in the home stretch of preparing for the GRE (test date-this wednesday) and getting his portfolio ready to submit by march 2nd.  so, i have been pretty much doing it all while he studies, paints, studies, takes pictures, studies, goes to prep classes and studies some more.  

i would appreciate your prayers for my jon this wednesday.  we would love for him to score a 1030 on the GRE so that we could be done with this chapter of the journey--cue background music, whitney singing, "there can be miracles, if you believe...though hope is frail, it's hard to kill..."

in the meantime, we're still here.  i had a baking day yesterday at my parents house (they have a bigger kitchen and were willing to help with the girls!  thanks, mom and dad!!) and made oodles of breakfast hot pockets for jon to have a quick, high protein breakfast.  it was a new recipe for me, but i think they turned out fairly well.  i am trying to pack out my freezer with yummy things for days when i don't want to cook.  any suggestions??  what have you made that freezes well??

a new table

i have a camera with easily accessible pictures--which means greater ease in blogging and thus, more posts!

i thought i'd share this fun idea.  abby has room time every day where she plays quietly in her room.  she used to have a table in her room where she would sit and color, but alas, the table was needed in the playroom.  abby didn't have anywhere to put puzzles together or color.  jon has mentioned several times that he had a piece of plywood that went under his bed when he was little that had trains on it.  maybe it is because his bed is now abby's that this idea came to me.  a piece of plywood with wheels.  abby loves it.  julia loves it.  and i love that it keeps her occupied AND that it slides under her bed when not in use.  hip hip hooray for a husband who is able to build and scraps that made this project cost not a penny!

thrifty thursday-freezer edition

i am in the process of discovering a new way to be thrifty--utilizing my freezer to build in convenience without the price and preservatives of frozen foods.  let me explain.

one tip that i keep reading about on money saving blogs is to double or triple recipes and then freeze the extras.  i have seen this, but haven't quite figured out how to apply it.  so this month, i have been trying it out.  here's what i've done.

1.  i had a bag of potatoes on their way out.  i was trying a twice baked potato recipe and decided to make ALL of the potatoes.  we had some for dinner, and i froze the rest.  they were a fabulously easy addition to dinner later (and even my whole lunch one day) when i was tired and didn't feel like whipping up something amazing.

2.  i doubled a batch of homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  i made one tray full for immediate consumption-yum, and froze the rest.  we've been eating warm cookies fresh from the toaster oven for snacks.  not healthy, but oh so good.  :)

3.  i cut up some bananas that were going bad and froze them to use in smoothies later.

4.  my banana bread recipe makes two loaves.  i normally give one away and we eat the other, but this time i froze it.  it was just as good thawed as it is fresh baked.  

5.  this is a standard one for us, cook meat and chicken in bulk and freeze.  jon ever so graciously will brown 10+ lbs of ground beef at once and then we put it into freezer bags--dividing it into 1lb portions.  when i'm cooking anything with ground beef, i just pull out the bag the night before and it saves the hassle of browning.  i've started cooking several packages of chicken at the same time and chopping them up to use later in casseroles or chicken pot pies.  again, saves time and makes me more likely to cook.  it also saves money as i only buy meat and chicken when they are on sale.  

6. last night, i made a poppyseed chicken casserole.  normally, we would eat the leftovers, but our fridge is stocked full right now, so i only cooked half of the casserole and put the other half in the freezer to use later.

now, you might be wondering about HOW to do all of this.  if you have specific questions, let me know, and i'll detail the hows.  i have found that google is invaluable in figuring out how to reheat frozen foods--or if they will even freeze and reheat well.  so, use your freezer.  save money and time!

i love my abby

abby LOVES to celebrate.  anything, everything.  she is a true extrovert, and a lover of all things that relate to parties.  i saw this idea on my new favorite crafty website, little birdie secrets and thought abby would love it.  i was right. she loved it, so much so that we had to make one to share in addition to the one that we made for our house.  what i didn't realize was that this project was way beyond abby's skill level.  and that meant that i had to make two of these on my own.  i was done after spending 6 hours or so on the first, but pressed on to finish the second...because i love my abby.  and these things are important to her.

for becky

becky, i hope you like your monkey.  i love it.

while i was sleeping

jon very graciously allows me to sleep in on saturdays.  it is a gift that i am immensely thankful for.  so this morning, when i was taking some pictures with our new camera (thanks mom and dad!), i noticed this video clip from yesterday.  the girls are both in abby's pj pants, leotards and tutus.  hilarious!  jon said he didn't even notice julia crashing into the chair.