Recipe for Cajun Seasoning

Here is a basic cajun seasoning with NO SALT. It's great to add to beans or any casserole that needs a little more "kick" but not more salt.

This makes a big batch. What I usually do is make it in my pyrex bowl (makes it easy to pour) and then fill up my pint jar that I keep of the stuff and then give the remaining mix to a friend. It's good stuff and cheap to make!

2T onion powder
2T garlic powder
2T oregano
2T basil
1T thyme
1T black pepper
1T white pepper
1T cayenne pepper
1 T celery seed
5T paprika

Grocery Results

Yesterday Abby and I went for our weekly shopping and errand trip. We first dropped off a jacket at the drycleaners, dropped off some paperwork to an office for Jason and then we went to the DAV (Disabled Veterans thrift store) to look around for anything that we might want or use. I picked up a canning tool for 29 cents. It would retail for probably 12-15 bucks. Abby found an absolutely essential ziploc bag full of My Little Ponies for a dollar. Something unusual that happened was when we were in line, a woman behind me asked, "now what is that thing that you have there?" I would have thought because of her age (60s?) she would have known. I realize that canning is something alot of people don't do anymore, but I would have thought that someone from my parents generation would have at least grown up around it.

Then we went to Walgreens to pick up their pepsi deal, total $16.06 and ($5.00) register reward=$11.06. Jason drinks at least two pepsi's while he's at work so instead of paying .50/ea from the machine, I paid $2/12pk. That makes them $.18/ea (inc. tax). Next we went to the discount bread store. I got two loaves of bread, some cereal and snack/lunch items for $11.29. Abby loves our grocery trips because I will always stop at McDonald's and let her have a happy meal and play on the playground. She gets her happy meal for less than $3 and I will get a large drink for a dollar more. I usually bring something to work on while she's playing with the other kids on the equipment, paperwork I need to fill out, an article I've intended to read but haven't gotten around to, etc. This week I finished cutting out the coupons from Sunday's paper and organizing them into my coupon binder.

After the lunch break, it was time for the serious shopping...Dillons. When I compared my coupons with store deals this week, I only ended up using one coupon. The .55 off Healthy Choice soup (Jason's lunch), it was doubled so I only paid .69. My grand total this week was $74.89 (Kroger savings $9.31). I also get .10 off my gas for each $100 I spend there. I haven't even tracked that savings at all. I should, after I get this coupon tracking down. After the boy helped me out with the groceries, we filled up our gas tank (saving .10/gallon) and headed home.

Totals to grocery budget:
(74.89) Dillons
(11.29) discount bread store
(16.06) Walgreens
5.00 Register Rewards
97.24 for trip 3



$450.00 Budgeted Amount
(115.16) trip 1
(126.00) trip 2
( 97.24) trip 3
$ 111.60 left to use for remainder of month

Menu Plan Monday

Ok, I'm going to try to post to Orgjunkie's menu list this week because I'm feeling REALLY brave. I think I even figured out how to put a button into my post! I'm so proud!!

Now for the menu. I'll shop for all the items needed later this morning and I will post the grocery results either later today or tomorrow.

As always it's breakfast choices from:
Cereal
Oatmeal
Muffins made over the weekend
Homeade granola bars made over the weekend

Lunches are leftovers or sandwiches

Dinners are:

Monday:
Cheeseburger Bake
Corn
Potato Bread

Tuesday:
Red Beans & Rice
salad
Cornbread

Wednesday:
Chicken Curry
rice
salad

Thursday:
Breakfast's for supper
Sausage
Biscuits and gravy
fried potatoes

Friday:
Homeade pizzas (sausage and hamburger)
salad

Saturday:
Chicken Bruschetta (I'll post this recipe on another entry)
Green Beans
Oatmeal Bread

Sunday
YOYO meal (Your On Your Own. I love this title for leftovers. I stole it from someone on one of the message boards that I frequent.)

I will shop for groceries later today and will report back with my results either later today or tomorrow. Have a great week!

Weekly Plan change and Driving to town AGAIN!

My husband and I bought a small car for me to drive. Vehicles for large families, like our suburban, are gas hogs. So we purchased this Buick Sable for $600 (PAID FOR!!) to attempt to save a little money on gas for when I make errands to town with only Abby, etc. My children, however, have seen this gas savings as an excuse to make MORE trips to town. Last night someone needed something for school today, so we drove to town. Tonight I'm driving Dillon and some of his friends to the movies. I have been to town every day this week but Monday. Oh well, at least it doesn't cost a fortune for the gas...I guess this is all part of having kids...but don't tell THEM I said that. I think I'm going to institute a new rule about "...X number of trips per week or you pay for the gas from your money". I wonder if that will fix it?

I'm also changing my weekly schedule AGAIN. I'm trying to acclimate to not working right now and making the schedule so that it will work well with when I start back to work. Here it is.

Sunday: Church, pick up paper(s), clip/organize coupons, make menu plan, grocery list
Monday: Errand/Grocery Day
Tuesday: Focused cleaning day
Wednesday: free day, reading, study, church
Thursday: Catch up/Antiprocrastination, Laundry focus
Friday: Desk Day/Pay bills/Work on debt snowball
Saturday: Family Fun, Cooking/Baking Focus

Grocery Day!

Well I went into town today with Abby while everyone else was at work and school. It's much easier to shop with just the two of us. We went to Wal-Mart, Target and the bread store. At Target I bought a new monitor for our computer...yes, it's not a necessity, but it was a really good deal and Jason and I didn't buy anything for each other for Christmas. Besides, our snowball towards debts this month is ENORMOUS because we were so frugal this Christmas. We were even able to pay off another debt this month, so I said what the heck!

Abby and I went to McDonald's for lunch while we were in town. I didn't eat, but I bought Abby a happy meal (around 2 dollars) and she got to play with the kids in the playplace. I had as much fun watching her as she did playing. It was cheap entertainment for us both!

After lunch we went to Dillons for the groceries we hadn't purchased yet. They had the best deals on the refrigerated stuff and I bought MORE of the 2.89 milk for the freezer.

All said and done (not counting the monitor...we're counting that as part of the Christmas budget that we didn't spend) I spent $126.00. I spent $115.16 last week. I budget $450 for the month, so that means that I am now $241.16. Ideally, I should be around $225.00 at the two week mark, but I'm not worried at all. I picked up some great sale items that I can use in the next couple of weeks and we are set on milk for the rest of the month at a lower price than normal.

Tomorrow I have to buy new tires for the pickup and restock our pellet supply (our heat source). That will be a pricey day, but we should be finished spending money (besides groceries and bills of course) for the rest of the month.

Menu Plan Monday

One of the blogs I follow has a menu plan Monday and other's will link their meal plans to her blog. I am going to start posting my meal plans on my blog, but I don't think I'll link to her's just yet. I'll get a bit more experience blogging first before I jump into something like that. If you are interested in looking at the other mealplans, go have a look here.

I've been planning meals a week at a time for ages, but I'm changing the day I do it now to Mondays because of this blog thing. What I usually do is get a piece of paper and pencil or pen and look at the sale flyers for good deals. I know when something is a good deal because I keep a price book. With this in mind, I take a walk to the freezer and the pantry to see what I have on hand. I have some meal ideas in mind while I'm looking around. Then I go sit down somewhere and plan it all out. After I've got my menu, then I shop my freezer first. I pull what I need for the first half of the week and put the 2nd half on top to get before the weekend. I make notes of whatever meats/freezer items I still need to buy for the mealplan. Then I shop my pantry. I list whatever I still need to buy and I look over my perpetual grocery list for items that we're running low on that I should pick up. I also look at the sale ads and compare with my price book to plan on purchasing things that I stock in the pantry or freezer that are on deep discount or that I might have coupons for.

All that said, here is my week of menu's:

Monday

Leftover stew from two weeks ago (I made a large batch, divided into thirds, used one then and froze two for other meals...saves from eating the same thing day after day)
Grilled cheese to accompany (Abby loves grilled cheese sandwiches)


Tuesday

Fettuccini Alfredo

boil 2lbs fettucinni, melt a stick of butter and then add 1/4 or so of flour. When your rue thickens up, add in about 2c cream, half and half or milk richened up with butter (whatever's on hand). Add a little garlic, salt, pepper and 1/2 c parmesan and pour over the noodles.
Serve with Broccolli and Oatmeal Bread. I make the dough in the bread machine and cook it in my oven especially in the winter.

Wednesday

Hash Brown Casserole I have some potatoes I need to use up that I bought on sale. Also, I use cottage cheese in place of the ricotta. It's on sale this week at my grocery store and it's always cheaper than ricotta.

I am serving this with Bacon as it is also on sale this week

Biscuits (I have a homemade version of Bisquick mix that I keep on-hand to make biscuits from. It's as easy as canned and much much cheaper to make)

Thursday

Chicken Lo Mein

boil box of spaghetti while you're cooking chicken (whatever cut is cheapest) in wok. Season with salt, pepper, garlic and ginger. When the chicken finishes take it out and add the veggies in. I use onion, garlic and a frozen oriental mix (or what I have on hand if I don't have that). When veggies start to get tender, make your sauce by combining 2 T sesame oil to 6T soy sauce (I usually double that amount to feed my crowd, but that ratio is probably for the normal serving size.) The sesame oil is the key ingredient to get that oriental taste...so I wouldn't substitute that.

I don't make anything to go with Lo Mein since it's pretty much an all in one meal, but I usually make some type of dessert for anyone with a sweet tooth after eating.


Friday

Pepperoni Pizza

Crust:
2T yeast dissolved in 2C warm water

Combine:
2t sugar
2t salt
4T oil
5 c flour

mix yeast mixture to dry mixture and knead for about 5 minutes or so and then roll and stretch to put into pizza pans. Bake 450 12-15 mins. This will make two pizzas, adjust recipe as needed. I find that even for all our kids, that two is usually enough if I will put out other things to nibble on, veggies with dip, etc. I will throw on another if they have friends over.

For the sauce, take 8oz tomato sauce, add pinch of italian seasoning, dash each of garlic powder, onion powder and pepper and a palmful of sugar. This will make 2-3 pizzas.

You will also need toppings. This week we're having pepperoni (purchased a bag for 1.00 and it will make about 4 pizzas or so.) You can also put ground beef, chicken, I've even used hotdogs...I know it sounds gross, but it's not as bad as it sounds...Abby loves it!



Saturday

Southwest Lasagna Rolls I bought lasagna noodles on sale some time ago and this looks good. I use homeade chili from my freezer (again, I use one, freeze two) and cottage cheese instead of ricotta for money saved.

I will serve with a large salad and potato rolls. I make the dough in my bread machine and make into rolls to cook in the oven.



Sunday

Red Beans & Rice (is a recipe really necessary for this?)
Salad
Cornbread


Monday (as I'm making my shopping days Tuesday now, I thought I would add on Mon/Tue for next week as well.)

Fried Venison
mashed potatoes and gravy
canned grean beans
freezer rolls



Tuesday

Cheeseburger Bake

Jar of Spaghetti Sauce plus enough water to cook pasta (3 cups or so)
noodles (elbow works best and is cheapest)
lb of beef or sausage, browned and crumbled
veggies as desired (I always use onion, add others that I need to use)

Dump it all in casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake 30-40 mins until pasta is done. Add cheese to top and put back into oven until melted and yummy.




Tomorrow I will go shopping for this menu. I already have everything I need for Monday. I will check back tomorrow (hopefully) with shopping lists. Then I will continue posting menu's on Monday's and maybe I'll have enough guts to post mine with Orgjunkie's next week.

New Year...New Goals

Happy 2009!

My ultimate goal is to finish the journey out of debt and to be in a place where we can begin to accumulate wealth and have the life we dream of when we retire.
That means that my New Year's resolutions should get me closer to that ultimate goal. I'm tempted, like many others, this year to make resolutions like "losing ten pounds" or "finally getting organized". These are good resolutions, but where I think they fall short, at least for me, is how they fit in with the big picture. For me, this year should bring us closer to the end goal and that means "frugal living" is the keyphrase for the year. I'm thinking if I expand on the habits I've already created and get a few new ones that we'll be that much closer to the end goal at the beginning of 2010.

I'm not knocking the "lose 10 pounds" or "get organized" resolutions either. God knows I could use two or THREE of each of those. Frugal living, I believe, would incorporate both of those resolutions and still. Being frugal, including my eating, should help me to lose a few pounds. And to get the most of our resources and budget, then being organized is a key component. Another key component to gaining on my resolution (and ultimately our goals) is accountability. I am accountable each month for our spending and saving by looking at how the budget went. That was a great motivator and worked wonders for us last year. That's another reason that I started this blog. To know that I am accountable each week, even if it's just on paper(or monitor? lol) for having done something to get us closer to our goals could be a big motivator for me.

Seeing patterns from week to week, month to month can be a key component to getting more organized and I guess I can also report pounds lost as I report on other tasks day to day as well.

Most of the blogs that I read day to day also blog day to day. I don't think I can do that. I do well on some days just to get my email read and read other people's blogs. I have to keep in mind that I can't do everything and a frugal use of computer time will allow me to be frugal elsewhere too! What I am sure I can do is an entry once a week. I may be able to blog more than once a week and I will shoot for three or four times a week. However, since this is really an experiment in accountability (and expression) I have to save some of my "free" time for projects to blog about! haha