Playground in Cashmere

Swing love (can you see her new tooth?)
Whole family on the swings
Super fast slide
Gramie and Grampie Gregory

Daddy and M ...so fast!

Our new camera is on the way!

After looking for the exciting Black Friday deals in all the local ads, we finally decided the best deal to be had was on the web. After free shipping, signing up for a $30 discount when you sign up for Amazon's credit card that we will cancel afterward (which we always try to do right away for a deal like this!), the total was right at $100 for this and a 4 GB card:

Can't wait for it to get here (Thursday or Friday estimated:)

Menu Plan for the Week of December (!!) 1st, 2008

I've missed you blog! I didn't mean to be gone so long...we just had too much fun with our trip to Cashmere this past few days. But we're back! I am having trouble believing its December already. That means Christmas is right around the corner and I will be the mother of 2 in less than 6 months...yikes! Exciting, but wow will I be busy. Anyone want to pre-volunteer to babysit:)?!

Another exciting thing, although not as much so is that I am solidly in the 2nd trimester and have regained an appetite for certain healthy foods that thus far have sounded uber-yicky to me. Lentils were the worst offender, but we've also dropped our bean consumption quite a bit. But happy times are here again and those foods will be making a reappearance on our menu plans again.

Here's what's on the menu for this week:

Breakfasts: Yogurt, baked oatmeal, gingerbread pancakes, whole wheat orange bread (love this stuff!)

Lunches: leftovers as usual with snacky foods to supplement

Snacks: fruit, popcorn, chex mix, hummus on homemade tortillas

Dinner: I am primarily sticking with one cookbook this week for simplicity's sake: More with Less

Monday: Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole (from More with Less Cookbook)

Tuesday: Hamburger Gravy over Mashed Potatoes, green beans, salad

Wednesday: Caribbean Beans with Rice (more with less) with broccoli

Thursday: Chicken Cheese Casserole (More with Less) and peas

Friday: Homemade Turkey Pepperoni Pizza and veggie sticks with ranch dip


Saturday: Salsa Chicken and Black Beans Soup with a side of cornbread and maybe salad (meant to make this last week but company came instead)

Sunday: Easy Curry over Rice (More with Less) mmmmm...curry.

What's on your menu plan? Don't have one? Visit OrgJunkie for ideas!

Got it turned in...finally!

The last page of our Wycliffe application is finally done and turned in! We are finally on to the next stage of application...background checks, Bible assessment, phone interviews, etc. Yahoo! They still will need several weeks to review our application and make sure everything is kosher, but it is so nice to be heading...somewhere. For awhile we thought God must be leading eleswhere, but it seems that this door is still open for now.

Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.
Daniel and Rachael in Red
Eating a lemon...


~Have a wonderful day of thankfulness friends, and I will be back on Black Friday with (hopefully) some great deals and a new camera!~

Almost Free Pizza and Homemade Tortilla Issues

We were able to get the (almost) free pizza from Papa John's after all! Daniel will be picking it up after work and it cost $3.24 for the two toppings and tax, but I think that's still a great deal!





I made homemade tortillas again yesterday and while they tasted fine, they were SO hard to roll out and really dry after letting them rest for an hour like the recipe said. Not sure what I did wrong! I've used other recipes before, but haven't found one that is awesome. Instead of enchiladas for our guest (daniel's hungry guy friend from work) like I planned (which was not on our menu plan because our guest wasn't planned then either:) I made an enchilada casserole. If you've never tried enchiladas or tacos layered instead of baked the regular way, try it! I add more "creamy" ingredients than the regular recipe calls for, but can disguise ugly misshapen tortillas and such! I layered:



Mashed Beans (cooked and frozen previously)

Turkey, Beans (different variety), Onions and Cheddar

Enchilada sauce

Sour Cream

Tortillas

More cheese on top



And baked for 30 minutes on 350 degrees. You really can do this with a huge variety of ingredients. So easy and so very good! I have also used salsa mixed with cream soup or white sauce for the "creamy" or wet part of the layers.

Not so cuddly now, mom!

Not so much in the mood for picture taking...nope. Oh well:)


Pregnancy update (briefly): tomorrow is 15 weeks! We are hoping to find out baby's gender at the end of December or early January. Minus being tired all the time (and getting less sleep because of M's new 5am wake up!) I feel really good. Just trying to keep the weight gain to a minimum, which is no easy feat over the holiday season:) Speaking of weight gain, since I was a few pounds from my pre-preg. weight when we found out we were expecting I though I would calculate my weight gain from my previous pre-baby weight. Which means I've "gained" 10 pounds already...yikes! So, trying, trying to keep away from sweets/empty calories as much as possible. We decided to wait on looking for a baby name until we find out boy or girl.

Another picture of mom and the would-be escapee.

Coupon Funded Feast with Friends

Since I found a kindred frugal spirit earlier this year, we've traded coupon hints, refined our frugal skills, and have learned to be more creative in the kitchen. I think the biggest thing shopping with coupons rather than just buying in bulk, the sales, or off-brands (all of which I have tried in the past) has taught me is to be creative and use what you have. Rather than running out to get the ingredients I forgot or used up I have been trying more and more to improvise.

Well, in the spirit of creating a menu/meal using what we had, my frugal friend Marie and her family came over on Sunday and we shared a coupon-funded meal! I seriously considered running to the store after having a mental block on what to prepare. My friend's husband isn't a big fan of cheese and I realized most of the meals I like to prepare, especially for company contain cheese! Finally I settle on a dish that could be made both ways, with and without cheese and used ingredients from our good deal stash! At my request, Marie brought only food she got for free or super cheap from couponing:)


The results was a simple, but good meal of : italian pasta bake, homemade biscuits, broccoli (free with coupons!), fruit salad, cookies and candy we'd gotten with sales/coupons/register rewards from Walgreen's. We agreed to do it again, but with an even lower budget! I guess you have to be a certain kind of crazy to think this is fun, but that's us:)

So our "theme" was almost-free food and I guess that's a kitchen tip in itself...dont' be afraid to do something a little out-of-the-ordinary when having people over! Its better to spend time with people than to stress about things being perfect, right?


Here is M, fixing HER guests food, while talking on the phone, of course!