Airing our dirty laundry

Not really.

For those of you who know us in real life and need to call us, we have a new phone number! We switched to Vonage and got rid of our Verizon cell #'s. But of course I won't be giving out the new # here. If you know us and have our email, feel free to email us to get the #.

ALSO! We have a blog email address! BeansNRice@live.com

I only check it about once a week or so though. If you have our other one, that is a quicker way to contact us:)

We will be hiking in the Olympics (weather permitting...we weren't able to camp so this is the consolation prize;O) so next time you all see me I will be so buff. I wish.

Safeway, I didn't forget you...

Lest you think I totally forgot about Safeway this week, I wanted to mention some good super coupons that came out in the SUNDAY paper this week in my neck of the woods. I actually went to Safeway today and picked up some FREE yogurt (activa was marked down to $1.00 for quick sale and I had a $1.00 off coupon) and a few of the super coupon items and two cartons of Dreyers Icecream. Ahem. Gotta have something to put on the blackberry cobbler and it was BOGO, right?

Anyway, here are some deals of note:

~Wishbone Bountifuls are $0.99. Use coupon for $1/1 to make it free!

~Milk is $1.99 this weekend only! (1 gallon)

~Mission Tortillas (10 count) are on sale with super coupon for $0.89

~Cheetos/Fritos 2/$3

~Eating Right Carrots (1 lb) peeled, $0.99

~Pepsi/7up 2 liter $0.88

~80% lean ground beef $1.79/lb

Save $5 instantly when you buy $20 worth of P & G brand products with your club card. Now if I wasn't an avid Walgreen's shopper this might be worth something, but overall the prices don't seem so hot. If you do need a bunch of papertowels, tide or dawn, this might be the promo for you:)

Menu Plan for the Week of Sept 1st, 2008

Breakfasts: Carrot Zucchini Muffins, eggs, Waffles

Lunches: Leftovers

Snacks: fruit, granola, yogurt

Dinners:
My mom sends me cute emails saying she is "wannabe bloggin'" with beautiful pics attached. I am so jealous of all the fresh produce she gets from her neighbors (see pic)


Monday: Leftovers (Split Pea Dahl with brown Rice & Zucchini Skillet) and maybe fast food...we will be hiking all day:)

Tuesday: Twice Baked Potatoes with a side of stir fried zucchini and cabbage

Wednesday: Crockpot Indian Curry

Thursday: Curried Carrot Soup (thanks Michele!), Homemade Calico Baked Beans (More with Less cookbook) and Cheesy Biscuits
Friday: Whole Wheat Cheese(burger) Pizza Night! (our pretty much every Friday night tradition) with carrot sticks/dip

Saturday: Crockpot Potato Bean Casserole (minute meals vegetarian)

Sunday:

Visit Laura at Orgjunkie for more menu plan inspiration!

At the waterfront

Here we are at the local waterfront. Its been a blessing to enjoy the out-of-doors that is less than a mile from us!

I like this picture of us a lot, despite my bad hair day. Anyone have any hairstyle suggestions for me...I have a ton of nice styling products from Walgreens Free After Rebate program, but barely know what to do with them;)


We didn't take any pictures today, but we did go to the local berry festival. Since we are the frugalites that we are we came home and made our own berry cobbler though(no paying $4 for a slice of pie for us;)!

Wal-Mart Deals

Total of above=$ 10.81 after coupons!

Walgreen's Scenario for $10/$40

Writing this out in a neater format than my chicken scratch will help me stay organized I think:)

Peter Pan Peanut Butter on sale 3/$5
Using 2 $1/1 coupons
Total for 2=$1.34

M&M's (for Daniel of course:) 2/$6
Using $1/2 IVC
Buying 4 and submit for rebate $4
Total cost on receipt $10

Chemistry Shampoo (FAR Sept)
$7.99
Use $3 IVC
Total cost on receipt $4.99

Garnier Hair Care ($3.49-$3.99 each) (can submit this for Sept. $10 rebate)
Buy 6
Use 6 $1/1 coupons
Use 6 IVC (August)
Total on receipt around $9

Nivea Men's bodywash $4.99(FAR for Sept)
Use $1 manu coupon
Total on receipt $3.99

Revlon Nailcolor $4.79 (FAR)
Use $2 manu coupon
Total on Receipt $2.79

Loreal Revitalift (sale for $12.37 apparently) (FAR)
Use $3.00 manu coupon
Total on Receipt $9.37

If they have everything, this should total $41.48 plus tax
-$10 Walgreen's coupon = 33.--??
Rebates =
$4.00
$7.99
$10.00
$4.99
$4.79
$12.37
=44.14 back in rebates +10% bonus for giftcard!

Anythoughts....is my math etc. at least close? :)

Of course they are always out of many things so I will have to take that into consideration:)

WOOT for Walgreen's!

Did I just say "woot"? I must have lost my mind for a moment. Ahem.

So anyway, Walgreen's is way cooler than Safeway right now so it gets the priority of my time. Not only is there a $10 off any purchase over $40 this weekend, but there are some good "overlap" deals Friday and Saturday!

Hot Coupon World is to thank for these overlap deals found here

Chemistry Shampoo or Conditioner
Use August $3 off Instant Value Coupon
Turn in for Sept. Free After Rebate! (make three bucks:)

Garnier Hair Care$3.49
Use $1 off Instant Value coupon from Aug
Use $1 off manufacture coupons (from RP)
Buy $20 worth, get $10 back from Sept. rebate

M & M's 2/$6
Use Aug IVC for $1/2
Buy 4 for Sept. Buy 4 get $4 rebate

Those are the ones I see that would work easily, without needing to convice the cashier to take two month's IVC's.

FAR items are also great to use with this...along with stuff you really need of course (milk, eggs, pictures, and printer ink are always on my list:)

What else do you see?

Safeway NW Deals for August 26th, 2008

OOOoops, I totally forgot to post these! Sorry all. I will try to get some up later today as time permits. Feel free to comment with any you see in the meantime.

One I read about earlier this week is the Wishbone Bountifuls are on sale for $1.00. There are coupons for $0.50/1 and possible $1.00/1 coupons from another source!

Pics from Grampa and Gramie Gregory

A few pics from gramie and grampa Gregory and their recent suprise visit. Punker-noot (as gramie says) is very close to walking and has broken her 5th tooth! She has a cold right now, but is doing okay. Her favorite toys are her Mega-blocks and her baby doll.

GramieK and Baby M at the waterfront near our apt.

Mommy and M at the Patio, a cute new restaraunt near us. They apparently weren't expecting a crowd because they had one waitress working for about 20 customers! It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get our food, but it was fun and delish anyway:)

Week In Beans: Day 4 (Beans on...Pizza???)

On Friday I ran out of time in the quest to have beans every day for a week. Or so I thought. Our normal Friday night tradition of homemade pizza is quick and easy, so I decided to scrap the beans and just do the pizza.

But all hope was not lost! A tupperware container of black beans and corn from a previous meal provided an unusual but good topping for our pizza! I used BBQ sauce for the base and it turned into a southwestern type pizza that we both enjoyed. It provided good leftovers for our lunch while hiking the next day!

Day 3 can be found here

Day 2 is here

Day 1 here:)

And because Chickpeas are the rockstar of all legumes (Isa said that in Vegan with a Vengeance and I agree!), here is her Chickpea Broccoli Casserole..yum!

What a starchy meal. We don't typically eat this many high-carb foods together, but I ran out of time and the potatoes were a leftover than needed to be used up.

Seeking His Wisdom

From ESV Bible: Psalm 40 "but may all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation say continually, "Great is the Lord!"

In preparing for future missions work it is easy to lose sight of the fact that our end goal is not mission work per se, but rather to glorify God and honor Him in all that we do. Even so, we find it easy to lose sight of the every day seeking Him and His will. Even though we will never find a passage in His word that says "Daniel and Rachael, I want you to go to ______ on this date and do ______ kind of mission work, we can know His will as He reveals it.

In October when we travel to North Carolina we will know if working with the JAARS division of Wycliffe is God's next step for us in missions. If it is not with JAARS, we know His plan is good and that He does have a plan for us, even if all we know is that He desires us to worship and glorify Him (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28-29).

When He speaks, we desire to be servants who stop long enough to hear. "Speak Lord, for Your servant hears" (1 Samuel 3:9)

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole

This is the healthy, no cream soup, veggilicious way to do casserole. I must admit that I am one of the few that love to eat and make casseroles. I didn't like them much growing up (and I don't think we ate them often anyway) but once I discovered a few of the old standbys (like tuna casserole and hamburger tater-tot) I was hooked. There is just something that is so comforting about the warmth of a home-cooked casserole.

Since we've been reducing the amount of meat in our diet, casseroles have mostly fallen off our menu plan. Until I found this gem in my new favorite-at-the-moment cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance. After the chopping is done, you basically just mix it all up and cook it for an hour. Very easy and very healthy! The flavor is simple, but good. We are both hearty eaters though and we ate half the recipe plus cheese and crackers (we always save half our dinner meal for lunches the next day). This was a great meal for the baby by the way, nice and soft and not spicy.

Here is the link to the site from which the cookbook was born.



And since I am not sure if I can re-write the recipe here w/o violating some sort of sharing/copywrite law, here is a link to the recipe for Chickpea Broccoli Casserole.

Menu Plan for the Week of August 25th, 2008

Breakfasts: Pancakes, Carrot Raisin Muffins (Vegan with a Vengeance)


Lunches: Leftovers

Snacks: fruit, popcorn, carrot sticks

Dinners:

Monday: Chickpea Broccoli Casserole (Vegan with a Vengeance Cookbook)

Tuesday: Crockpot Tamale Pie (using leftover beans, corn and black-eyed peas and veggies topped with cornbread mix)

Wednesday: Eggplant Parmesan

Thursday: Slow Cooked Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Cheesy Potatoes and Salad

Friday: Whole Wheat Cheese(burger) Pizza Night! (our pretty much every Friday night tradition) with carrot sticks/dip

Saturday: Camping! Probably Some Hobo Stew (Foil Packets filled with Ground Beef, Carrots, onions and spices), hotdogs, and lots of smores! Does anyone have any good (and easy!) vegetarian camping recipes? We'll have a campfire and a propane one burner thingy to cook on.

Sunday: More of the above...still camping


Visit Laura at Orgjunkie for more menu plan inspiration!

Hiking Mt. Pilchuck

Because our time in the NW may be short (God-willing and dependent upon our acceptance into a mission org.), we are trying to make the most of the natural beauty surrounding us. We decided to make the trek to what is arguably one of the most beautiful hikes in WA, Mt. Pilchuck. It was about 3 miles up and 3 miles back, and took us about 5 hours total. The view was awesome.

A side benefit to hiking for 5 hours (almost) straight was that I got to eat like Michael Phelps for the day-whoohoo! Nursing and hiking make for a good amount of calories burned, which I certainly didn't mind;)

M was such a trooper! She loved seeing the nature and especially all the dogs other hikers brought with them. The last picture is a testimony to how worn out she was on the way down. She passed out cold while nursing and we couldn't wake her up for several minutes:) All in all, a fun day. I survived, but I realized that I need to step up my fitness level, 30 or so minutes of stroller walking every day isn't quite enough to keep up with my hubby on this sort of a trek.

Adventure girls at the top. We had to crawl/climb on our hands/feet to get to the tower. It was a bit treacherous (especially with a baby in tow:)

Views from the top of Mt. Pilchuck.

Snow! One of the gorgeous views from the tippy-top.

At the top, looking in to the fire-lookout.

You can see Daniel and M if you look hard. This was a super rocky trail.

It was chilly...you can see the snow in the background.

Worn out baby.

Deals, Freebies and Mark-Downs for the Week.

My freebies for this past week are pictured below. Most came in the mail, including the full sized can of formula (now that M is 10 months old we supplement nursing with forumla and lots of solids), a smaller formula sample, two baby mags from a garage sale free box, a book from Paperback (what to expect, but no we aren't expecting yet;), a cheerios sample and some ladies items. The other two books were $0.50 each from the g-sale, and I got them to list on Paperback swap. I would love more book recommendations... I have 3 unused credits!
We like to walk to any garage sales near our apt. on Fridays. I found one and we scored! The lady was very nice and gave us an amazing deal without even asking! All these mega blocks (to go with our last g-sale find of bagged mega blocks) plus these stacking toys and two baby Bible story books were all for $2!!
This was a safeway deal from a few weeks ago. The cheese, yogurt and eggs were dairy markdowns and I had a coupon on the cheese. The corn was 3/$1 and the Sprite was free!! I can't remember my total, but I believe it was about $6, and the cheese was most of that.


I will try to head to Walgreen's to use the sweet 5/$20 purchase coupon, but we are going to hike Mt. Pilchuck tomorrow so we'll have to see if there's time! What deals have you been getting lately?

Peek-A-Boo with GramieK

We don't live close enough to either of M's gramies to take advantage of their babysitting skillz very often, but this week GramieK (my mom) was able to come over and watch M while I did my last training for the school district I worked at for the past 4 years. M warmed up to gramie very quickly and enjoyed the extra attention so much!

No more snacks Gramie! I'm full!

Here she is playing a sort of "peek-a-boo" with Gramie.


You can't get me!

Week in Beans: Day 3

We had a tasty Southwest Salad that featured
black beans for our 3rd day of bean eating. It was so simple to prepare that I kept thinking I forgot something! We love Taco Salads, but for a yummy meatless salad this may be a new favorite.

Southwest Salad
2 heads shredded Romaine lettuce
2 cups thawed frozen corn (or canned is fine too)
2 cups black beans
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 cup crunched up chips
Dressing: Ranch, BBQ, or salsa to taste

Layer all ingredients on plates and enjoy!

Week in Beans: Day 2

I'm a little behind in posting our week in beans, so I am going to use some old pics. But this is indeed what we ate for dinner on Monday night. We used Pioneer Woman's Pinto Bean Recipe again, but used one package of dried beans and halved the pepper. We also omitted any meat, making this a nice vegan meal. We used this delicious recipe for cornbread, and used whole wheat flour. I love sweet cornbread though, so if you like less sweet cornbread, feel free to try the recipe on Pioneer Woman's website. Tonight I made black eyed peas for the first time, and in the crockpot at that. They turned out all right, but I think I should use a real recipe next time;) It was fantastic to come home to dinner already made though, so I can't knock that! Last night we had a southwest salad, and I will post pics of that soon. It was really good and easy (and healthy!).

It was fun to do beans all week while my mom was here since she is a vegetarian for the most part. And no, we aren't sick of beans yet! ;)

Devouring a Good Book

Pot Pie: Another way to use up leftovers

I made a recipe similar to this one (with whole wheat flour of course;) and filled it with lots of veggies, leftover rice and a basic white sauce. It is a delicious, simple way to use up leftovers. Since the crust should be made ahead anyway, this is a great way to get dinner done early in the day and not have to worry about it later!


It baked for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees and was perfect.


We served it with a garden salad for a complete meal.

Safeway NW deals for August 20th-27th, 2008

Visit BeCentsable for more grocery deals!

Good Deals (no coupon needed)

Tomatoes, Grapes, and Fresh Express Salads all 10/$10

Cereals (Corn Flakes, Cheerios, Rice Krispies, HBO's, and grapenuts) $2 when you buy 5)

50% off Rancher's Reserve Beef Chuck Steak

Super Coupons (must spend $10 to use)

Mrs Paul's Seafood Selections, 2/$6, Must buy 2

Klondike Novelties, $1.99,

Knorr Lipton Pasta Sides, selected varieties, 4 for $4, Must buy 4

Dove Skin Care, soap or body wash $4.99

Duncan Hines Brownie or Cake Mix, $0.79, limit 1

Snapple 12 pack 16oz bottles, selected varieties, $5.99, limit 1

Skippy Peanut Butter or Welch's Grape Squeeze, selected varieties, 2/$3 must buy 2

Dove or Degree hair care or deodorant, selected varieties, 2/$6, must buy 2

All Detergent, selected varieties, $2.99, limit 1 ($1 IP's are out there)

Free Cantaloupe with the purchase of Breyers Ice Cream, 1.5 qt or larger

Thanks to Hot Coupon World!

Coupon Deals

From CC
Kellogg's Cereal $1/2, insert 8/3/08

Post Honey Bunches of Oats $1/1, SS insert 7/27/08

General Mills Cereal $1/3, insert 8/10/08

L'Oreal Vive Shampoo or conditioner $1/1, SS 6/8/08
Freebies: there are several this week!

Sprite Buy 3 Get 3 Free
Use 3 BOGO Olympic coupon book coupons (found at Safeway)
Get all 6 free!

Loreal Vive Shampoo/Conditioner is BOGO
Use BOGO manufacture coupon from (??)
Get both free!

Tava (almost free)on sale for $3 each this week
Buy 3 get $4 back this week
Use 3 $1.50/1 coupons
Should be <$1 for all 3! Hallmark Cards are Buy 4/get $4 off/ Buy 5/get $5 off in some stores Find $0.99 cards (Expressions are not included) Free after instant $$ off!

Week In Beans Day 1

We had one of our all-time favorite healthy snacks for part of our dinner on Sunday night: Hummus. I made it without the more expensive ingredients (tahini or sesame oil) this last time and it turned out well, but it is definitely a little better with the above. Here is the recipe we typically use, which is easy, healthy, tastes great and is much less expensive than the store bought version.

Hummus
2 cups garbanzo beans (we use soaked cooked ones, but drained canned ones work too)
1/3 cups tahini or sesame oil( I prefer sesame oil)
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp parsley (I use dried just to save $$$)
1 pinch paprika (or more)
(**can add some marinated artichokes or sun dried tomatoes for variety**)

Puree in food processor until smooth. Serve with veggie chunks/sticks, pita wedges, tortilla chips, crackers or even as a sandwich spread.