Lancaster Photo Book Shutterfly

Our favorite site to do a photobook gotta be shutterfly.

Here's our latest project. We did so many!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Freezer Cooking Day/s May 2010

My freezer at the end of the day. I think if I rearrange things well enough, I might still have space for another 2 or more casserole meals.

So we began. My first official "freezer cooking day". I've done bits and pieces of freezer cooking before, but this time it's alittle more intentional. Still I found that I might have done it quite differently than many others. I "stole" time to cook instead of allocating a whole chunk of time. That's in view of our circumstances. It worked this time! I still had quite some food frozen (not as much as most people) and I didn't have a massively dirty kitchen.

Here's how my two days of "freezer cooking day" went.

FRIDAY

Noon.
While preping for lunch and all, I cooked oatmeal cereal. (Rolled oats cooked in milk and water)


That's 6 meals for my 2 older kiddos (4yr and 2 yrs). We usually add steamed sweet potato or pumpkin or raisins to the oatmeal and they love them as lunches.

Afternoon.
I made the oat chocolate chip walnut cookie dough with the kids, as part of our day.
As per the reviews, some changes made to the recipe and here's my modified version.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (should cut this)
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I possibly added a little more)

Evening/night.
While my hubby played with the kids after dinner, I baked the chocolate chip cookies and made the banana bread.

After the kids slept and I cleaned the kitchen, I made the pizza dough. Wanted to double the recipe, but i realized that hubby (who was grocery shopping) will bring back A LOT of meat, so my freezer might be too full. So made one batch (that's for 2 pizzas, enough for 2 meals)

Here's how I make doughs. I used the plastic bags (you get from grocery stores to put in veg...which is not necessary)...cut it open and knead the dough IN IT. (put flour on it, and then the water etc). THEN I "closed" the bag up and put in the freezer. NO MESS on the table or my fingers!! This is the best tip my mom taught me.

SATURDAY
In the morning, halfway between breakfast and cleanup, I...

...cut up the HUMONGOUS sparerib that hubby got yesterday into pieces and froze them

...prep the ingredients for pasta sauce (cut up and remove sausage from casing, froze the rest)

...and I made my hubby's favorite black bean and rice burrito. (except I don't have pepper but I have corn!) I do everything the same, except it's not as an enchilada but burrito. (did 10 burritos)

Evening.

Hubby cooked up his famous pasta sauce. Me, the souz chef, has cut up the ingredients for him.

Ingredients for pasta sauce

*diced peppers

*mushroom

*onions

*sausage (remove from casing)

*diced tomatoes (can)

*tomato paste

*brown sugar

*spices (like basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary)
Simmer for an hour.

Freezing/Baking Day May 2010

This weekend I'll be attempting some kind/form of freezing/baking day. Moneysavingmom and Life as Mom are hosting a Freezing Day event.

However, I realized I do freeze cooking better in "batches"; that is, in different days...maybe not as daunting at first.

For eg, we cooked Japanese curry last week and I made more so that I can freeze some. We also made our own dumplings and I froze half of them and we ate the other half. These are the food already in the freezer.

This Sat (till next week), I'm intending to progressing cook/bake the following for freezing:

* Oatmeal Cereal (Rolled oats cooked in milk)
-These are lunches for my older kids. We add steamed sweet potatoes, or pumpkins or raisins to it.
* Pizza dough
- We like MSM's recipe
* Banana nut bread
* Pasta sauce
-Diced Tomatoes, tomato paste, sausage, diced green peppers, onions, mushroooms, brown sugar and spices. Simmer for at least an hour for the best taste. We LOVE our own recipe of pasta sauce!
* If I have time: maybe another batch of black beans and rice burritos
-this recipe is AMAZING. I use the filling and eat them as burritos instead of enchilada. We love it alot and we use brown rice for it

Doesn't seem like a lot at all, because I'm very new to this and also my freezer doesn't seem to be able to take in so much food

Stop and Shop Great Deals Week 4/30

Gotta love the deals this week at Stop and Shop!!



Ball Park Franks, Buy 1 Get 1 free, Use 2 $0.75 MQ (no longer available), Final Price: $1.60 for 2!

Keebler Sandies, Buy 1 Get 1 free, Use 2 $1 MQ here (If you use it as a dollar double, you get both free!)

Yoplait Greek Yogurt, $1, Use $0.45 MQ here
Final Price: $0.10 each!

Stop and Shop Big Daisy Bread, $1

Kraft Barbeque Sauce, $1 (stock up if you like the BBQ sauce!)

Bananas, $0.49/lb

If you haven't signed up for their Small Victories newsletter, make sure you do, cos they send you coupons (and often with FREE stuff!) This week I can get free Ben and Jerry ice-cream and baby carrots!


Also, it's Double Dollar (doubling $1 MQ up to 4 of them when you spend $15) Week.
I'm intending to use my precious 4 coupons on

Lysol Disinfectant wipes, $1 MQ (SS), Final Price: FREE
Keebler Sandies, Final Price: FREE
Possibly 2 cans of Campbells Cream of Chicken/Mushroom, Final Price: $0.67 for two

Giveaways Week Apr 9

Dealectible Mommies has a giveaway that's sweet. Britax umbrella stroller! Have you heard of them? I haven't but it looks great!

A great Stop and Shop trip!

A great trip!

All these for $31.69. That's including a big pack of chicken thighs and a whole chicken.

The best buys with coupons:
8 bottles of Wishbone for free (earned $4 out of them) - use them for salad or stir frys!!
8 packets of Wise potato chips ($0.50 each after deducting the $4 earned from Wishbone) these are going to last my hubby for a VERY LONG time
Philadelphia Cream Cheese, $0.50 per pack
Daisy Sour Cream, $0.30
Betty Crocker Mashed Potatoes, $0.20
Sargento Cheese, $1

Deal ideas here

Buy Wishbone free Wise

Things don't always make sense in the coupon/frugal world. This is one of them.

At Stop and Shop week starting Friday Apr 1, you buy...

2 wishbone dressings, $1 each, use 2 MQ $0.75 here

you earn $1

which you can also buy 1 pack of Wise potato chips at $2, $0.50 MQ here

for free.

(the coupons double)

While you're there, pick up

Daisy sour cream, $1.50, use $0.60 coupon from last week's Smartsource coupon.

Final Price: $0.30.

Also, Sargento cheese at $2.50, if the reduced sodium ones are on sale too, you can use a $0.75 coupon here to get them for $1 each.

Chi chi's tortilla at $1.67 (usual price $2).

Looks like a Mexican week for us.