Loves me some grocery bargains

Harris Teeter $14.xx

Not much excitement here this week folks. Just a few neccessities as we finish up our time at JAARS. I also picked up milk at Walgreens for $3.29 (ouch!). The good deals here: 2lbs of ground beef for $2 and spinach marked down to $0.75/tub (because I saw the crushed box and asked how much they would be marked down to!;). We are set for our green smoothies this week (spinach, a little pineapple and frozen bananas, water!).

Menu Plan for the last week at JAARS!

Cleaning out the cupboards and fridge/freezer this week...we're down to just a few days left here at JAARS!

Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, toast, green smoothies (for me with eggs on the side), turkey bacon

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, green smoothies, fruit, poptarts, crackers, yogurt (cleaning out the cupboards!

Dinners:

Sunday: stir fry over brown rice with meatballs

Monday: friends brought over shepherd's pie...whooo!

Tuesday: BBQ chicken in the crockpot over noodles, salad

Wednesday: Farmhouse chicken

Thursday: Beans & Rice or Spagetti and Meatballs, green beans

Friday: Tuna Noodle Casserole

Saturday: PB& J and Homemade Pizza on the road (along with random odds and ends!)

What's on your menu this week?

Blessings and the crazy week

We had a crazy week. I don't even know where to begin really, but this weekend involved a trip to the ER to get M's lips stiched up (4 stiches to be exact!) and a lot of praying as the car we borrowed broke down 20 minutes from home. Olivia must be teething because she cried intermittently all night long (and didn't stop all day today). We also hosted a class in our apartment that was packed out with 20 or so students...sitting room only (well not even that really!) That was just the weekend..you get the rest in another post!

But here is the blessing part...the Lord sent someone to help us in the parking lot where the car died and we got it running again! Then today some new friends from our ICC class brought us dinner and help us stamp and stuff our newsletter envelopes! It was an amazing blessing at the perfect time. Thank you Lord!

Lil' Rascals

Dancing together in the living room


Playing out back of our JAARS apartment

Menu Plan for the week of Aug 23rd, 2010

Here's what I bought for this week. We have a busy week at ICC...the homework is definitely intense some days! Trying to keep the meals easy or crockpot friendly most nights.

Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, toast, brown sugar oatmeal pancakes (to use up milk that is going sour), fruit

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, green smoothies
Dinners:

Sunday: Fried noodle Rice (a really yummy creation!)
with salad
Monday: Turkey Tetrazinni, homemade soup, salad, pineapple

Tuesday: Chicken Caccitore (sp!?)

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, pineapple

Thursday: Stir Fry over Brown Rice

Friday: Homemade Easy Pizza w/veggie sticks or bringing some dishes over to friends' house for dinner (if their kiddos get better)

Saturday: Tuna Noodle Casserole
What's on your menu this week?

Loves me some grocery bargains...

The 2 weeks left in Waxhaw, NC edition:)

Less than 2 weeks of ICC to go! And the girls are finally both healthy. So...today I picked up a few basics and used up my $5 catalina at Food Lion. I even got some free Food Lion reusable bags as a souvenir:) All in all I spent just under $14 this week, mostly because I am starting to clean out our pantry and freezer and this time we probably won't be back.

Here's what we bought:
Harris Teeter: $8.76
3 Smart Balance Milks $1 each after coupon
6 dozen eggs (to last 2 weeks!) $0.67 each after BOGO sale
M&M's free
Yo-Plus yogurt X3 $0.33 each after coupon
beef $0.36 after winetag

Food Lion $5.xx
Spinach $2.39
Onions 3lb $2.99
yeast (for pizza crust!) $1.49
bananas
2 cans green beans $0.67/each (one of the few veggies I can get my picky 1 year old to eat IF I serve them before other food is in sight and when she's hungry!)
2 Food Lion reusable bags (2/$1 and used one $1 off winetag)

Enjoying gifts from grandparents

The girls recently got a package from grandparents filled with goodies (under the guise of sending Daniel a bday gift...a giftcard that could've gone in an envelope-ha!:)

Above they are enjoying the popcorn from grandpa's special machine and their cute hats. Funny story: M spotted some other goodies from the box while in her highchair. She asked about them and I told her they were treats for when she went #2 in the potty. She asked to get down and ran to the potty right that second. Less than a minute later she was yelling for me and had indeed pooped in the potty! Apparently it was good timing all around, or the girl has a knack for going on demand;).

Goofy Goggles

M loves to dress up these days, so goggles were a hit with her recently. And because M loves dressing up, Liv does too. Did I mention that Liv thinks M is the center of the universe? She is truly the light of her life. Its really funny actually. I hope they love eachother as they grow and become best friends and not worst enemies! I know both happen with sisters close in age. They are 18 1/2 months apart:).

Loves me some grocery bargains!

Looking over my purchases I think I overbought this week! In light of the fact that we were gifted with 3 bags of food and I have a good amount in our cupboards I think I will have to put a halt on most shopping until we leave here. Hopefully eggs, milk and a few misc. veggies and fruits will be all I need from here on out!

Harris Teeter: $5.77

This trip was essentially free after all is said and done because the chocolate icecream I got for Daniel's birthday has a try me free rebate! The sale price was $5.35 (what!?) so I will get that back at some point.
Also bought:
Free: Terra Chips, whole wheat tortillas (2), yogurt and yogurt smoothies, Minute Brown Rice. Cheap: chicken legs ($0.25/lb after winetag!), BestLife Buttery Spread, Ragu Sauce, Turkey Hill Green Tea ($0.19/ea), and finally the necessity, milk. I used a $10 Kellogg Catalina and one of my $1 coupons did not double.

Aldis: $41

I bought frosting forgetting that I had some at home already (doh!), and probably should have only gotten one grape pack (great deal though...2lbs for $1.38!). The sugar was also probably not necessary...I found a little jar of it and we could've made due for the next three weeks. Ah well. The rest of the stuff is necessities or for Daniel's bday cake:
eggs (5 dozen...we eat lots of eggs these days with P90X!), tuna, cukes, carrots, jalapenos (for the hubby!), ground turkey, cottage cheese, bananas, grapes, pineapple ($0.99!), peanut butter, sugar, pie crust, pudding (both for bday), mixades, tea (no more soda for us so we drink these), choco chips, zucchini, paper towels, lettuce, 2 bags spinach, frosting, frozen apple juice concentrate for the sick girlie, baby shampoo, frosting. So...lots of necessities but I could've saved a few bucks by more careful planning.

What did you buy this week?

Menu Plan for the week of Aug 15th, 2010

By the time you read this it will be Daniel's birthday...happy birthday love! The little one and I are home while she heals up the last round of chicken pox. In addition to the shopping trips I will post after this, the food in the picture below was gifted to us from someone who is gluten intolerant. The second time this has happened! We were thinking it would be ironic if one of us found out we were gluten intolerant someday! Not fun or funny, but ironic.


Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, oatmeal, toast, french toast, yogurt

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, crackers & cheese, fruit

Dinners:

Sunday: Fried noodle Rice (a really yummy creation!)
with salad
Monday: Invited to someone's house

Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup with homemade broth, salad, biscuits

Wednesday: Invited to someone's house

Thursday: Polish Cabbage Noodles, BBQ chicken in the crockpot

Friday: Homemade Easy Pizza w/veggie sticks

Saturday: Baked Spaghetti in the crockpot(with zucchini layered in)

What's on your menu this week?

Sister Love

Of Chicken Pox, P90X and Super Doubles

Pictures of my sweet babies reading together, one of which is covered in red bumps these days.


My lack of blogging has lots of excuses and here are the top three:

1) My 14 month old has chicken pox.

2) Daniel is a mean mean boy and is still making me get up at 5am to workout to P90X with him every morning (okay I skipped the streching video yesterday..but that's it)

3) Super Doubles at Harris Teeter. I went for the first time yesterday. Had to...we rented a car for the express purpose of taking Liv to get diagnosed (with the pox) and there was a Harris Teeter nearby! Check out my deals below:)

Total about $10...notice the yummy turkey bacon and huge pack of chicken, chocolate, 2 packs of John Morrel lunch meat, seventh generation dish soap...good deals!

Other than that, we are alternating going to ICC classes (daniel's day to go is today) while the other stays with kiddo. And we're reading through Genesis as a family. That's all I got for now:)

Menu Plan for our first full week back at JAARS!

Here we are in NC again...whooo boy its muggy here!

Our grocery shopping was spendy this week--we were starting out with a couple boxes of nonperishable foodstuffs but that was it. So in addition to what's below I also bought about $8 in more milk, dishsoap, laundry soap and tortillas. I spent $64 at Harris teeter (received $10 cat back for next time)

Its difficult to see but there are two packages of Pampers, 7 packages of Morningstar veggie patties/crumbles, 6 lbs of ground beef, lots of produce 3 1/2 dozen eggs, 6 packages of cheese, 2 lbs coffee, 8 poptarts (better than free...otherwise these are not on my list!), 4 nutrigrains( better than free plus I got the coffee free by buying these!), and one fruit loops(also better than free with the Kelloggs catalina!). So...we are fairly well set up for the amount of money.
I also spent $7.50 at the flea market we had to go to for a cultural assignment. The produce prices were pretty good! I wish I'd have bought more, actually:).

Daniel's new obsession is jalapenos...he eats them raw for breakfast on eggs. Yes, he's crazy:) Must be all the exercise he's been doing (P90X!).

Here's what we'll be eating this week

Breakfasts: scrambled eggs, oatmeal, toast

Lunches/snacks: leftovers, cereal, crackers & cheese, fruit
Dinners:

Sunday: Spicy Tacos w/lots of guacamole, peppers

Monday: Beef & Cabbage stir fry over egg noodles, cheesy biscuits

Tuesday: Meatless meat crumbles in a creamy sauce over brown rice, zucchini

Wednesday: Spagetti with marinara, leftover cheesy biscuits

Thursday: Hamburgers, egg noodles, coleslaw

Friday: Homemade Easy Pizza w/veggie sticks

Saturday: Grilled Cheese and leftovers ...shopping today!

What's on your menu this week?

Goat

A recent roadside encounter between M and a goat.


Glad I wasn't there...goats creep me out:)

Camping and the Mouse House

A few pictures from our actual camping trip to Pacific City on the OR coast and then some from the pretend camp/hide-out in my parents' backyard.
The Mouse House:


Daddy and his girls reading together under their tent or hide-out

On the OR coast:

Heading back to JAARS!

(our trip to the Oregon coast last month)
We are embarking on another round of training (inter-cultural communication this time) at JAARS this month. We are heading to Seattle today and then flying to JAARS first thing tomorrow! I will be a bit spoaradic in posting until we get settled in. See you soon!