Oh man, I know a lot of people who will be excited about this deal!
If you use the Sonic App to order ahead, you can also score half-price drinks and slushes!
food
Weekly Meal Plan!
The kids and I are going camping this weekend, so I’m only meal planning through Thursday! We’ll be going to a Society for Creative Anachronism Event, Potrero War. The kids are looking forward to playing with friends, making s’mores, doing crafts, and the big kid is really looking forward to participating in Thrown Weapons with his Grandpa.
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.
This weeks meal planning goal is to eat up what we’ve got on hand that will spoil first. I’m not going to the grocery store to buy anything but milk and butter (oh no, we’re almost out!).
You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:
Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.
Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).
For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.
- Monday: Leftover homemade pizza and strawberries
- Tuesday: Spaghetti (I’ve been buying this kind because it’s high in protein) with red sauce loaded with veggies
- Wednesday: Madras Lentils, white rice, and steamed veggies
- Thursday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup (I’ve got a couple batches of soup in the freezer, so I’ll grab one and defrost it the night before. It’ll probably be Veggie Tuscan Soup).
Friday Freebies and Deals!
Free Samples, Food, and Events:
- Amazon Baby Welcome Box – $35 in Free Samples
- Free Sample of Second Wind Nutraceuticals hang/OVER
- Free Sample of Nicorette Nicotine-Free Mint Coated Lozenge
- Free UFC Gym Pass
- Free 24-Hour Fitness Gym Pass
- FREE Sample of Dermablend Smooth Liquid Camo Foundation
- Free Sample of Breathe Right Extra Clear Nasal Strips
- Free Forto Coffee Shots at Walmart
- Free Food – Big List of 100 Restaurants to Eat at for Free
- Amazon Summer Reading Challenge – Free Book
- Free Sample of Born Sweet Zing Organic Stevia Sweetener
- Free Signature Select Bread for Safeway & Affiliates
- Free Sample of Lancome Renergie Lift Multi-Action Day Cream
- Free Book with Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program
- Bitmo – Free $5 Gift Card ( I got this one last week!)
- Free Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins
- Free Enfamil Enspire Infant Formula Sample
- Free KIND Snack Bar
- Free CORE Hydration Drink for Kroger & Affiliates
Free Magazine Subscriptions:
Recipe: Veggie Tuscan Soup
This is my vegetarian version of the Zuppa Tuscana Recipe found here. This recipe is vegetarian, but not vegan.
Ingredients:
- 1 T. Olive Oil
- 1 medium onion, diced (about 10 ounces)
- 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups water
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and chopped
- 4 cups kale, cleaned and chopped
- 1 cup whole milk
- Salt and Pepper
Directions:
- In a large stock pot, heat olive oil.
- Add onions, carrots, and celery, cook on medium/low until onions are soft and clear.
- Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add water, broth, bay leaves, and potatoes.
- Cook on medium low for 45 minutes to an hour, or until potatoes are soft.
- Add Milk, Kale and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, until Kale is cooked, but not soggy.
Serve with breadsticks or cheese toast. This soup makes great leftovers and tastes even better the next day!
Weekly Meal Plan!
Bitty and I hit up grocery Outlet and Food4Less yesterday and picked up everything we might need for this week. Has anyone noticed how expensive celery is lately?
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.
You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:
Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.
Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).
For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.
- Monday: Cheese enchiladas, beans, steamed broccoli
- Tuesday: Kids had pizza- Their last two Book-it certificates expire tomorrow. I’ve got a pot of chicken soup on the stove. I’ll either toss in fusilli pasta or Rana cheese and uncured bacon ravioli.
- Wednesday: Rollup sandwiches and kale salad (Kale, apples, chopped almonds, and apple cider vinaigrette)
- Thursday: Leftovers
- Friday: Dinner out
- Saturday: Grilled Cheese and soup (It’s definitely soup weather!)
- Sunday: Meatless night! The kids will have Morningstar Farms nuggets, and the grownups will have black bean burgers. Sides will include fruit salad, carrot sticks and some sort of dip.
Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?
Family Recipe: Abasitas
I haven’t done a family recipe in a while. My mom made a batch of these recently and sent me home with a few.
na na na na na na na na na- Bat Plate!
Turnovers, hand pies, pasties, kolaches, whatever you call them, I love them. Eating with your hands is done in almost every other culture on earth, but us westerners tend to frown on it.
My mom invented these rich, savory turnovers based on the flavors that I loved as a kid (and still love). It’s a pastry or yeast dough exterior, filled with cheese, chicken, breakfast sausage, and green chilis.
The batch she made last week used crescent dough that was rolled out. You may be able to see the remaining perforation in one of the photos.
In the past, I’ve used my pizza crust recipe (found here). It’s really up to you what kind of dough you use for exterior. Crescent dough is rich and buttery, and I think it works well for this recipe, so it’s what I’m going with. You can get the crescent dough in one large sheet if you want and cut it up, or, we used the regular rolls, and just did 2 crescents per hand pie.
Abasitas
(Makes 16-20 depending on type of dough used)
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped up (You can also use 1.5 cups of chopped up rotisserie chicken meat)
- 1/2 lb of Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained of fat
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 4 oz. can Ortega Chilis, chopped
- 1 batch pizza dough (recipe linked above), or 4 tubes crescent roll dough
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Mix first five ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Roll out/unroll dough; Separate into 4 rectangles. Pinch together perforations to seal up. If you are using another type of dough, roll out on a floured surface and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into approx. 8×5 rectangles.
- Place approx. 1/4c of filling in the middle of each piece of dough. Fold over, and seal edges of the dough by pinching edges together, you can also crimp the edges with a fork.
- Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (I always use parchment paper– it makes clean up easier) for approx 12-15 minutes until the dough is golden brown.
- Remove cookie sheets from the oven and allow hand pies to rest for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to rest a few more minutes before devouring.
I serve these with a green salad. They are good cold the next day too. They make a great picnic addition.
After they have cooled completely, store them in the fridge or the freezer. You can reheat them in the toaster oven!
They are a great food to batch cook.
Weekly Meal Plan!
This week, again, we’re focusing on what we’ve got on hand. Last week I went over budget on groceries by about $20- I needed to stock up on some essentials that we had run out of, so I’m hoping we can keep the grocery budget really down this week.
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.
You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:
Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. I also keep sandwich ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.
Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).
For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.
- Monday: Chicken soup- Made from scratch. I made bone broth in the crockpot over the weekend.
- Tuesday: Pizza from scratch. The children have been begging for “big pizza”. I make it on a cookie sheet.
- Wednesday: Pulled pork in the crockpot.
- Thursday: Leftovers
- Friday: Dinner out- We’re going to see Endgame!!
- Saturday: Cheese enchiladas. We have tons of cheese sticks that the kids don’t seem interested in eating.
- Sunday: Chicken Chicken Schwarma, Rice, and steamed veggies.
Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?
April 11 is National Cheese Fondue Day!
Who doesn’t love cheese? Ok, so vegans and those who are lactose intolerant, but the rest of us LOVE cheese!
The Melting Pot is celebrating National Cheese Fondue Day April 8-11 with an awesome build your own fondue deal for just $12 per person.
Step 1 – Select Your Cheese Blend: Aged Cheddar and Emmenthaler or Gruyere, Raclette and Fontina or Butterkase and Fontina
Step 2 – Select Your Base: Lager Beer/Bouillon blend, White Wine, Vegetable Bouillon or Redbridge Gluten Free Beer
Step 3 – Select Up to 3 Add-Ins (additional items are $.50 per item): Brie, Feta, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Basil Pesto, Creole Mustard, Green Goddess, Salsa, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Garlic, Spinach, Artichoke Hearts, Bacon, Jalapeno, Almonds, Walnuts, Asparagus, Artichokes, Broccoli, Mushrooms, Potatoes, Scallions, Shallots, and Diced Tomatoes.
Step 4: Select Your Seasonings: Black Pepper, Garlic & Wine Seasoning, Mustard Powder, Nutmeg, Tabasco, Worcestershire
Step 5 – Select Premium Add-Ins (Optional – $1.50 each) Serves 1-2:
Andouille Sausage, Salami, Prosciutto, Apricot Almond Orange Crackers,
Grilled Vegetables – Bell Peppers, Asparagus, Fingerling Potatoes
Roasted Vegetables – Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Zucchini
$12.00 per person*
All cheeses are served with artisan breads, seasonal fruits and veggies.
Choose one per cooktop. Vegan cheese available. See server for details.
*Price includes: cheese fondue for 1 and artisan dippers. Tax, gratuity and surcharge not included in price. Must order per person. Valid only on April 11, 2019. A 4% surcharge will be added to all Guest checks to help cover increasing costs and in our support of the recent increases to minimum wage and benefits for our dedicated Team Members.
To find your local location and book a table, click here.
If you want to celebrate National Cheese Fondue Day at home, here is my favorite Fondue recipe.
Talk Back: What’s your favorite cheesy dish? Do you like Fondue?
Weekly Meal Plan!
Mondays are crazy around here, between my college classes, and Big Kid’s weekly social skills class, we don’t get home until late. So publishing our weekly meal plan is not a high priority after a busy day. I did write it out yesterday while I was at the Y!
This week we are focusing a lot of eating up what we’ve got on hand. There are a lot of changes afoot in my household (there will be an upcoming post, I promise). I’m focusing a lot on the kids, and trying to return to my frugal roots.
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.
You may notice a lot of plant based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:
Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. I also keep sandwich ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.
Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).
For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.
- Monday: Ramen- I’ll post pics on Instagram today. Our local Grocery Outlet had bone broth, and I used Brown Rice and Millet Ramen noodles. poached eggs, and spinach
- Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner- Waffles made with Kodiak Flapjack Mix and Fruit Salad
- Wednesday: I’m going to the grocery store, so I’ll probably pick up a rotisserie chicken and a salad
- Thursday: Leftovers
- Friday: I’m going out with the girls, so the kids will have Pizza!
- Saturday: Chicken enchiladas (made from the rotisserie chicken leftovers), beans, rice, and brocolli
- Sunday: Chicken Soup (made from the carcass of the rotisserie chicken and the remaining meat).
Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?
Host a Frontera Whole Foods Party!
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Houseparty by Ripplestreet has a great party coming up, and they are accepting applications right now!
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- Whole Foods Market® gift card
- Frontera discount coupons for your guests
- And more
If you’ve never heard of Houseparty by Ripplestreet, you can learn more here. I’ve already applied!
