family

9/26/2022 Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgI skipped meal planning last week. It was very busy, and there have been some kiddo-related issues that I’ve been dealing with, as well as working extra hours in the morning at my day job.

I hit up the grocery store on Sunday for milk, bread, and a couple things for school lunches. Again this week but we’re eating out of the pantry and our  Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box, which will be delivered this afternoon.

I did a mini bundle at Dream Dinners this month, and we’ll be enjoying a few of those meals as well.

We’ve been trying a lot of new foods lately, thanks to the really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods. I picked up 5 new products to try this week at Sprouts last night using my Social Nature coupons!

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. They are also into fruit and bagels for breakfast. Lately, the big kid has been digging protein shakes in the morning. This is his favorite kind. 

Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. These snacks make up most of the kid’s lunches during the school week. School lunches are still free, but on most days, they prefer to bring their lunches from home.

Dinner: Now that school is in session and our weekday schedule is cemented, I’m using one weekend morning to do some baking/side dish meal prep, and Monday afternoons after school/work to prep the CSA box goodies.  As the price of groceries goes up, I find myself buying less meat, relying more on sale/clearance prices, and repurposing leftovers.

  • Monday: Dream Dinners Jambalaya (no shrimp for me), roasted veggies

  • Tuesday:  Breakfast for dinner (bagels, fresh fruit salad, protein shakes)

  • Wednesday: Loaded Smashed Potatoes – we didn’t have them last week, Salad

  • Thursday:   Chef Salad, garlic cheese toast

  • Friday: Takeout night!
  • Saturday:  Leftovers
  • Sunday: Dream Dinners Central Park Chicken with Creamed Peas, fruit salad

The Best Potato Salad Recipe- PERIOD!

Abby H.

There are literally hundreds of ways to make Potato Salad. However, none of them should involve raisins (That’s an internet thing, I’ve never actually seen it in person).

This is my great grandmother Tootie’s Potato Salad Recipe, and I think it’s the best. Luckily for me, we’ve gotten all of the veggie ingredients in this week’s Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box.  And because they sell eggs too as an add-on, you can get most everything you need without leaving home.

This recipe is pretty simple.

Tootie’s Potato Salad

Ingredients

  • 4 cups peeled, cut-up potatoes (bite-size pieces)
  • 3 ribs of green celery, cut into bite-size pieces- I slice each rib in half and into small pieces.
  • 1/4 cup Italian Dressing- I like Wishbone
  • 1/2 cup Full Fat Mayo. I like Best Foods/Hellmans, but Dukes is good too
  • 3 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chives or parsley to garnish- optional

Directions

  1. Boil potatoes in water until they are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.
  2. Drain potatoes, do not rinse.
  3. Chill potatoes in the fridge (30 minutes to 1 hour-ish).
  4. In a bowl, combine the salad dressing and mayo, pour over cooled potatoes, and stir. You want to coat the potatoes in the mixture.
  5. Add in the celery and eggs. The egg yolks will break down and combine with the dressing/mayo mixture, turning light to medium yellow.
  6. Chill in the fridge at least overnight. If the salad is too dry, add a few more tablespoons of mayo and dressing (a 2-parts mayo to 1-part dressing mixture).
  7. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
  8. Prior to serving top with chives or parsley if desired.

If you like green onions (my mom doesn’t like raw onions so she doesn’t add them), you can add 1-2 sliced green onions to the salad during step 5.  I grew up without it, but they are really good in this salad.

This salad is good in the fridge for up to a week and is perfect for the 4th of July or other summer celebrations.

Dietary options: It’s already vegetarian, but I’m not sure it could be made vegan unless you use veganaise and omit the eggs (in my opinion it needs).

Amazing Deals at The Children’s Place In Store and Online!

Abby H.

Bitty Bird and I went to the mall after school on Thursday, and after a brief detour to the food court for a snack (Sbarro), we decided to check out The Children’s Place.

I haven’t been in there in a while, but they are having a really good sale right now, and that includes clearance.

Our local mall has a pretty small location, but we were still able to find a few dresses in her size on sale, in fact, this one was her favorite:

This dress is less than $10!

Such a great deal for a cute skater dress. This is her favorite style right now.

Their online clearance section is huge and as a bonus, The Children’s Place offers free ship to the store! Place your order online, once it’s ready, you’ll get an email once it’s ready to be picked up. It’s super quick and easy. And with ship to store, not only is the price of shipping waived, but you’ll also receive 10% off! That makes a sweet deal even sweeter!

 

$50 Eyewear Credit with Warby Parker!

Abby H.

Warby Parker makes incredibly tasteful and fashionable eyewear, they also sell contact lenses, and they’ve got a great deal!

Buy an annual supply of contact lenses, and receive a $50 eyewear bonus! No matter the brand or lens type, receive a $50 credit—good to use on any eyeglasses or sunglasses—when you buy an annual supply of contacts from Warby Parker.

The adults in our family wear Warby Parker glasses and Scout Contact Lenses (You can score a free sample of Scout contacts here).

Warby Parker has cool frames, regardless of your style or frame size requirements.

It’s almost that time for new glasses in our house, so I’ll definitely be checking out this deal myself!

Using CVS Offers to Your Advantage! How I Paid $5.47 for Over $50 in products!

Abby H.

I have posted about it before, and I am a huge fan of CVS. They have their CarePass, which is pretty inexpensive ($5-ish a month or $48/year if you pay for it all at once).  One of the perks is you get a $10 ExtraCare Bucks each month, for a total of $120 per year. I posted about it before but I got more information here, and overall I think it’s a pretty great deal.

You probably also remember one of the reasons that I love CVS is they have Pharmacy and Health Rewards. When you fill 10 prescriptions at their pharmacy you receive a $5.00 ExtraCare Bucks that you can spend any place in the store.

With the number of prescriptions my family has, we earn a $5.00 ExtraCare Bucks every two months. Which is pretty decent. Between the CarePass, and Pharmacy and Health Rewards, we usually have between 10 and $15 in “free“ money to spend at CVS at any given time.

I went in this morning to go pick up a prescription and noticed that they had a lot of snacks on sale/marked down, and with ExtraCare Bucks rewards. I quickly scrolled through my CVS app and noticed I had six dollars off any purchase of $30 or more and my $10 CarePass ExtraCare Bucks, and a $5.00 Pharmacy ExtraCare Bucks Reward.

Knowing that we needed both cereal and snacks and I walked up and down the snack/cereal aisle and quickly set upon a plan.

  • Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies are 2/$7 or 2/$8 (depending on the product) this week. When you buy two select, you’ll receive a $2 ExtraCare Bucks (limit one per person/account). My kids loved both Oreos and Chips Ahoy, so I picked two of each.
  • We were also out of Motts fruit snacks, and they are buy one get one free so I snagged two boxes as well.
  • Rice crispy treats are buy one get one free, so I grabbed two of those.
  • Cereal was on sale buy one box get one free with select Kellogg’s varieties, so I grabbed two boxes as well.

Now, this may look like a lot of junk food, but this is about three weeks’ worth of stuff to go in lunches (and about 2 weeks worth of cereal for me). The cereal is for me, but the rest is going to go in kid’s lunches or be available for snacks- I portion out the snacks and put them into the snack box in the cupboard. I will be hiding about half of it so that they don’t know we have tons of it and just mow through it.

As you can see by looking at the video about and all the stuff I got, it’s a pretty substantial amount. I ended up paying $9.47 out of pocket, and I received $4.00 back in ExtraCare Bucks.

$2.00 for purchasing to select Nabisco Oreo cookies, and a second $2 ExtraCare Bucks for purchasing two chocolate bars, cookies, select chips ahoy, or premium crackers.

Making my grand total after ExtraCare Bucks $5.47. That is one heck of a deal. I’ve also submitted my receipt to Fetch Rewards for points, and to Receipt Hog for points!

And I was in and out of the store in less than 20 minutes (including time to wait in line to pay). Doing drug store deals doesn’t have to be long and tedious. And sometimes it’s a small deal.

It’s worth the time to download the CVS app, join the ExtraCare club to save money, and join CarePass. You’ll find deals weekly (or monthly in my case when I go in). You’ll be saving money in no time!

Carter’s: Great Deals on Children’s Clothes of All Sizes!

Abby H.

Carter’s has a couple really great deals going on right now!

And before you point out that my kids are bigger, I’m here to tell you that Carter’s sells kids’ clothes up to size 14, and Littlest Bit and I were at our local Carter’s store a few weeks ago to do some back-to-school shopping. She picked out some cute pieces.

These cute overalls were her #1 pick. She is obsessed with overalls and jumpers/rompers right now, and luckily they were (and still are) on sale!

Right now, Carter’s is having a huge sale on Baby Clothes, up to 50% off.

If you have bigger/school-age kiddos, separates start at just $8! And Carter’s sells its other associated brands: Oshkosh B’Gosh, Skip Hop, and Little Planet as well!

In Addition to great sales, Carter’s has a great loyalty program called My Rewarding Moments. 

There are tons of great perks, and it’s free to join.

Lastly, and for me, most importantly- Carter’s offers in-store pick up and Curbside pick up. Shop online, and pick up in about an hour. For those of us who don’t have time to shop in-store, or if you’ve got littles that aren’t huge mall fans, this is a great option.

 

 

 

Penzeys Spices: $50 Gift Card $35 Ends Tomorrow

Abby H.

Through tomorrow, 9/18/2022, Penzeys is offering $50 gift cards for $35 each. The sale price is applied when added to the basket.

Gift cards ship for free. Cannot be purchased with previously purchased gift cards. Penzeys Gift Cards do not expire.

These Gift Cards make excellent gifts, or buy some for yourself and stock up on some new spices!

*Penzeys Choose Love Gift Card Offer Details
Limit TEN Penzeys Choose Love Gift Cards per household during run of promotion. Cannot be used on date of purchase. Cannot be used to purchase other gift cards. Not available for Curbside Pick-up. Not applicable to prior sales, not valid with other offers. Not for resale. While supplies last. Standard shipping rates apply. Offer ends midnight Sunday, September 18, 2022.

Two New Gabby’s Dollhouse TryaBox Opportunities!

Abby H.

We’ve been participating in Tryazon events for three+ years. We’ve gotten to try all sorts of fun toys, games, and food.  You can learn more about Tryazon here.

Discover magic and surprise in every adventure, with two purrfect Tryazon TryaBox opportunities inspired by the hit show now streaming on Netflix, Gabby’s Dollhouse!

The Gabby Girl Dress-Up Closet lets you take your play on the go! Dress Gabby in different outfits & accessories, then close it up and carry it with the handle, perfect for portability. And, standing at over 3’ tall, the Cook with Cakey Kitchen is the ultimate play kitchen! It comes with a stove, sink with a dish rack, refrigerator, and 23 pieces including a Cakey Cat figure!

Tryazon has 500 total participant spots open this time. 250 participants will receive a TryaBox with a Gabby Girl Dress-Up Closet to sample, enjoy and review at home; and 250 participants will receive a Tryabox with a Cook with Cakey Kitchen to sample, enjoy and review at home! No party is required! Two opportunities, one application!

Learn more and apply here.

 

Dream Dinners: 8 Meals in The September Mini Bundle

Abby H.

It’s that time again! La Mesa Dream Dinners mini order is perfect if 12 is too many meals this month. By Friday, September 16th at 9am, you can order this mini bundle for just $189 for 8 medium-size meals. You can cross grocery shopping and meal prep off your to-do list, giving you more time to savor time with your family and friends!

The September Dinner Bundle includes:

  1. Arroz con Pollo
  2. Outlaw Chicken Burgers with Crispy Shoestring Fries
  3. Chateau Chicken with Almond Butter Sauce
  4. Meatball Marinara Stuffed French Bread
  5. Creamy Pesto Tortellini
  6. New Orleans Jambalaya
  7. Central Park Garlic Chicken with Creamy Herbed Peas
  8. Lucky Dragon Pork Tenderloin with Jasmine Rice

This limited-time offer ends on Friday, September 16th at 9am! Call or Text 619-460-6800 or email lamesaca@dreamdinners.com to reserve yours.

9/13/2022 Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

0a5e9dab796cea8a07eabe4eb4795b9e.jpgI’m so tired of it being so humid. Last week we were inside a lot between the heat/humidity and the rain from Tropical Storm Kay. We ate a lot of fruit last week, and the CSA box came yesterday, so we’re going to do it again!

I hit up the grocery store on Sunday. Again this week but we’re eating out of the pantry and our  Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box, which was delivered yesterday afternoon. With the increased cost of groceries, I’m really leaning on cooking meals from our pantry stables and using fresh produce.

I did a bunch of meal prep yesterday afternoon to cut down on cooking time:

  • Marinated Salad (I’ve been using pre-made vinaigrette dressings instead of making my own)
  • Mixed Veggies to roast (I’ll do that later this week)
  • Sliced watermelon
  • Sliced strawberries

I’ll make a fruit salad later in the week when the stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines) ripen.

We’ve been trying a lot of new foods lately, thanks to the really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods. I picked up 5 new products to try this week at Sprouts last night using my Social Nature coupons!

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.

Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2  for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. They are also into fruit and bagels for breakfast. Lately, the big kid has been digging protein shakes in the morning. This is his favorite kind. 

Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. These snacks make up most of the kid’s lunches during the school week. School lunches are still free, but on most days, they prefer to bring their lunches from home.

Dinner: Now that school is in session and our weekday schedule is cemented, I’m using one weekend morning to do some baking/side dish meal prep, and Monday afternoons after school/work to prep the CSA box goodies.  As the price of groceries goes up, I find myself buying less meat, relying more on sale/clearance prices, and repurposing leftovers.

  • Monday: Home-Made Pizza, Fruit

  • Tuesday:  Mac n’ Cheese, Roasted Veggies

  • Wednesday: Loaded Smashed Potatoes (Recipe coming this week), Salad

  • Thursday:   Grilled Cheese or Quesadillas, Soup, & Salad

  • Friday: Takeout night!
  • Saturday:  Leftovers
  • Sunday: Fruit Salad, Funeral Potatoes, Toast