pizza – Page 6 – Hewes Family Fun

Meal Plan Monday 7/16/18

July 16, 2018Abby H.

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The heat is finally starting to break around here, which is a good thing. I am looking forward to eating hot food again. Our bbq died (we can only have propane grills at our HOA, because of insurance purposes, and really, having a grill with a shut off is probably good thing here).

Breakfasts are usually the same for us: Protein shakes for grown ups, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids. We have plenty of protein shake fixins’- I buy the over ripe bananas, peel and slice them pop them into ziploc bags, and freeze them for smoothies and protein shakes. 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 a protein shake for me and the Mister, and The Big kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently). Bitty Bird eats whatever I’ll feed her.

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: Breakfast sandwiches on the homemade sourdough English Muffins my mom made over the weekend, and fruit salad.

Tuesday: Crockpot chili. We’ve got lots of beans in the cupboard, so I’m using them up!

Wednesday: Chicken Tetrazzini, asparagus, fruit

Thursday: Bean, rice, and cheese bowls

Friday: Pizza and salad

Saturday: Hamburgers, salad, and fruit

Sunday: Leftover night!

What are you having this week for dinner?

Weekly Meal Plan

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018Abby H.

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So, I know it’s Tuesday, but we were at Legoland yesterday for the opening of the Deep Sea Adventure. I need to get back to meal planning for the week because without it, I’m getting lazy!

For dinner, when we’ve got buy 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. This week, I plan on making a couple pizza crusts, and put them in the freezer in individual bags so we can have pizza whenever we want without having to call Dominos. I also plan on doing some meal prep this coming weekend for the coming week.

Monday: we had Jack in the Box on the way home from Legoland. We left later and got home even later.

Tuesday: The kids asked for Pancakes, so I whipped up a batch. For them, I just made regular pancakes, for Mister and myself, I made pancakes, but put a slice of bacon in batter after it’s poured onto the griddle. Yum.

Wednesday: BBQ at my parents house. It’s a potluck, and we’re bringing corn to grill, and a tasty green salad. There will be fried chicken, salads of all types, baked beans, and a brownie sundae bar!

Thursday: Pulled Pork. Onions, yellow bell peppers, carrots, celery, garlic, shallots, bay leaves, and about a cup of La Victoria Salsa Verde Pineapple Salsa, All cooked with a pork tenderloin roast. I’ll be starting it Wednesday night. In the morning I’ll shred the roast with two forks, and vent the lid to cook off the excess moisture. By 5 PM, the meat will melt in our mouths. I’ll be serving it with tortillas, rice, bans, and a green salad.

Friday: Leftovers, I’m guessing, or maybe quesadillas. Friday is usually date night, but it’s tech week for Mister’s play, and he opens Friday Night.

Saturday: Home Made Pizza- I’ll probably bust out a few extra crusts at the same time to freeze.

Sunday: Lemon Garlic Spaghetti Squash casserole– I’ve got 4 small spaghetti squash that need to be baked! I’m going to try cooking them in the crockpot- I saw a post on Facebook about it a few weeks ago and I saved the video.

What are you having this week for dinner?

2/5/18 Meal Plan Monday

February 5, 2018February 5, 2018Abby H.

The next few weeks will feature a lot of meals with chicken. Vons and Albertsons had Boneless, Skinless chicken breasts on sale for .99/lb (limit 10 lbs) on Friday. Of course, I picked up 10 lbs. I then spent an hour cutting up the meat, as it was whole breasts. I prepped 10 ziploc freezer bags, some with spices or marinade. We’ve now got 10 meals worth of meat prepped! Yes, I did use the kitchen scale to make sure that each bag was as close to 1 lb. as I could get.

I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos lately have been having protein pancakes (I like Kodiak Cakes mix- it’s yummy and very versatile) with butter and Peanut butter. Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes. We mix it up, and have different flavors and mix in all kinds of stuff into our shakes, so as not to get bored. Here area few of our favorite recipes.

Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.

Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!

Monday:

D: Salsa Chicken- It’ll be going into the crockpot in a bit!

Tuesday:

D: Cheese Enchiladas, Beans & Rice

Weds:

D: Chef Salad

Thursday:

D: Chicken Divan (recipe will be posted tomorrow)

Friday:

D: Leftovers (I will be at the Influential Summit for the day, so I’ll pull together some leftovers when I get home)

Saturday:

D: I’m not sure- We’ll be out of town for an event during the day, and I don’t know when we’ll be home.

Sunday:

D: Homemade Pizza!

The menu may change, as I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first). My birthday is this weekend, so we may be using up a lot of my birthday freebies as we are in the vicinity of deals.

Free Pizza at Round Table Pizza!

February 3, 2018February 3, 2018Abby H.1 Comment

Screen Shot 2018-02-03 at 8.00.23 AM.png We live pretty close to a Round Table Pizza, and I love their crust. It reminds me of sourdough bread.

When checking my spam folder for birthday freebies this morning, I came across this offer (which I double checked and is totally legit).

Screen Shot 2018-02-03 at 7.52.32 AM.png Check out this sweet deal: On February 9, 2018 enjoy a FREE original personal pizza (cheese or pepperoni) with the purchase of any Pepsi Product.
Available for dine-in only at participating locations from 2 – 5 PM. Offer valid with purchase of Pepsi fountain drink only. Limit one per guest. Customer must be present to redeem offer.

I checked and all of the locations in San Diego are participating. If you live outside San Diego, here is the list of locations that are participating in this awesome event.

This would be a great after school treat or early dinner. I know the kids and I will be going!

Freebies & Amazing Deals at Vons!

January 18, 2018January 18, 2018Abby H.

Vons has really been stepping up their game recently. Log on to your Vons account (either on vons.com or the Vons app), click the Just4U button, and search FREE in the search bar.

What you’ll get varies, but my free offers this week are:

A free Pizza and free yogurt! In addition to these great freebies I’ve also got a $5/$25!

Screen Shot 2018-01-18 at 9.46.43 AM.png This week Smart Ones Frozen Entrees are .99 when you buy four or more. I have a few buy 7, get 2 free peelie coupons from the last time I bought Smart Ones- I tend to buy the ones that have coupons on them, so I can save the extra coupons for future purchases.

We’ve been eating a lot at home lately, so we’ve pretty much emptied the freezer. I re-arranged some stuff, so I’ve got tons of room for an onslaught of entrees!

Here is my plan:

Buy 27 Smart Ones Entrees @ .99/each= $26.73

Redeem $5/$25 Coupon on Vons Club

Use 3 Buy 7, get 2 free Peelie coupons

Total OOP= $15.79

And as a double dip, I’ll submit my receipt to Fetch Rewards where I’ll earn points for my purchase.

Camping with Kiddos!

May 21, 2017May 21, 2017Abby H.2 Comments

As we prep for our annual family camping trip, I thought I’d share some of the fun things we do with the kids when we camp.

In addition to all of the usual camping stuff: Tent, blankets, pillows, air mattress, clothes, toiletries, Sunscreen, food, camp kitchen stuff…. You need stuff to do!

A friend and I made a huge batch of play dough last week, and we’re taking half of the batch, along with some cookie cutters, small rolling pins and other fun play dough stuff I got on my local Buy Nothing Group.

Games: High Ho Cherry-O, card games (like Uno, and a few regular decks of cards), lawn bowling.

We also have a craft box. It’s a large tote, like this one. I’ve filled it with all sorts of craft odds and ends. Mostly stuff leftover from other projects, as well as stuff I’ve gotten from Craigslist Curb alerts, and my local Buy Nothing group. There is paper, scissors, glue, beads, pipe cleaners, paint, and so much more! The kids rifle through it and come up with some of the most interesting projects. I really believe that kids need to have free reign over creative play, so as long as I am there to make sure they are safe, they are free to create and play how they wish.

Bubbles. I make about a gallon of bubble solution, and we have all kinds of wands and stuff (Dollar tree and Target’s Dollar spot are great places to find bubble toys). We also make some out of pipe cleaners.

We also cook a lot when we are camping. We use dutch ovens to make all kinds of baked goods, including our favorite: Beer Bread. My dad has a cool clay Pizza oven (it’s this one), and we make pizzas in the late afternoons to snack on. Our favorite pizza recipe is here.

Here are a few pictures of our adventure last year:

We also of course, play at the campground play ground, go on nature hikes (and do some fun nature scavenger hunts- check out Pinterest for a bunch). We spend time with family and friends, and of course, check out all of the events and fun at the big camping event in which we are participating.

Camping is a great family activity, and here in San Diego there are so many places to camp! From the beach, to the mountains, to the desert, there are campgrounds, both private and public for low prices!

If you are a camper, where is your favorite place to camp?

Earn Free Pizzas at Dominos!

December 20, 2016December 20, 2016Abby H.

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Woo Hoo! Check out what was in my inbox this morning!

Dominos started a new “Piece of the Pie Rewards” earlier this year. For every purchase of $10 or more you place, you’ll receive 10 points. Once you receive 60 points, you earn a free medium two topping pizza!

To learn more about the program, check out the Dominos website.

I love programs like this! It’s great to be rewarded for buying things that you are already buying

DIY Frozen Pizzas!

January 19, 2016Abby H.8 Comments

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A cheese pizza baking away (and a calzone)!

We love Pizza. Probably too much. About 6 months ago, hubs bought How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food,10th Anniversary Edition by Mark Bittman. It’s amazing. We’ve cooked a lot of stuff out of it, but the best is probably the pizza crust recipe.

It’s easy -only three ingredients, but I usually add a few extra! You can make a few batches, put a ball of dough in the freezer, and save it for when you want pizza, but are feeling lazy. OR- You can make a couple frozen pizzas (which I do once a month), and when you are feeling really lazy, you’ll have no need to call Noid or Cesar (wow, both of those totally date me, right?)

DIY Frozen Pizza

Makes 1 pizza

Crust (recipe adapted from Mark Bittman’s):

3 c flour, plus extra for kneading
2 t. yeast
1 c. very warm water (90-100 degrees)
2 T parmesan cheese (it’s ok to use the Kraft in a green canister stuff)-OMIT IF YOU ARE VEGAN!
1 T Olive Oil
dash salt
dash pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix all of the ingredients together until a soft sticky dough ball forms.
Turn out onto a floured board or counter top and knead briefly.
smooth a round ball of dough into a clean bowl. Cover bowl with a cool, damp cloth and allow to rise someplace undisturbed for 1 hour.
After an hour, punch the dough, and turn out onto a floured board or counter top and knead for 2-3 minutes. At this time, you can roll the dough out and move onto the next step, or you can do a secondary rise (makes the crust extra crispy and chewy). If you elect to do a second rise, repeat step 3 and 4.
After dough is rolled out to your preferred size and shape, lift into well greased cookie sheet or pizza pan. pierce the crust with a fork several times. This keeps the crust from getting weird bumps and lumps during the par-baking.
Par-bake crust for 3-5 minutes. Allow crust to cool completely.

Now that you have cooled par-baked crust, it’s time to get topping! Transfer the pizza to a large piece of aluminum foil.

1 cup or so of sauce, your choice
1-2 c. cheese
Assorted toppings (precooked meats, veggies, fruit, herbs, etc)

Top the pizza as you like,, wrap the foil around the pizza, loosely around the top of the pizza so you don’t squash the toppings. Place in a large freezer zip top bag (don’t forget to label what kind of pizza it is) and freeze. pizzas should freeze at least 24 hours before cooking.

To heat, bake pizzas at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Some of our favorite pizzas include:

Gyro (Sprouts sells it wit hthe pre-sliced deli meat!), feta, and spinach
Caramelized onions and peppers and sliced meatballs with cheese
whatever veggies we have in the house (broccoli, spinach, onions, peppers) topped with cheese
chicken, bacon, and pepper jack cheese

You can substitute in whatever your fav crust is, whatever sauce, cheese, and toppings you like! And because the pizzas are room temp/cooled when you top them, it’s a great opportunity for kids to help assemble pizzas. These pizzas are a frugal way to have a yummy dinner- Each pizza costs about $3.00 and feeds the three of us!

Summer Fun with Kids at Oggi’s Liberty Station!

July 8, 2015Abby H.

Got littles? Trying a fun way to keep them entertained this summer without breaking the banks? Check out these awesome deals from Oggi’s in Liberty Station.

1: Kids eat free all day Wednesday with the purchase of any adult entree.

2: Kids can make their own personal pizza starting at 11:00am. That’s what we did today, and Lil’ Man had a blast. I wish I had gotten photos of the pizza once it was baked, however, he inhaled it.

1 kidszza

The pizza dough is rolled out in the kitchen and brought out with sauce and cheese for the kids to add as much as they want. Then there is a table of toppings for the kids to choose from (By the time I got over there to take photos, most of the little bowls were empty because all of the kids were having a blast topping their pizzas!). Lil’ Man is a strictly cheese only pizza guy, so we just asked for a little extra cheese.

I sampled some really tasty grown up noms today too. Here were my top three favorites:

Marathon Flatbread
Brushed with garlic olive oil, topped with Mozzarella, zucchini, tomato, red onion, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic and drizzled with sweet balsamic glaze.

Mediterranean Delight Salad

Frugal Recipe: Home Made Pizza!

April 14, 2015Abby H.

Who doesn’t love pizza? Ok, I know 1 person, but other than that, everyone loves it! Lil’ Man is no exception. He requests, “Cheesy pizza dinner” at least once a day, but I only acquiesce to his request once a week.

I tend to stock up on the crust mix and cans of salt free tomato sauce, so it’s easy to throw together a pizza on those days when I don’t really feel like cooking, or pizza is requested. With the only limitations being your imagination (and what’s in your fridge and pantry) you never have to have the same pizza twice!

Henry’s Cheese Pizza
Ingredients:

1 Betty Crocker Pizza Crust Mix (All you add is a 1/2 cup of hot water)- available at 99 Cents Only OR most grocery stores for $1.00 or less
1/2 c hot (not boiling) water
1/2 c (more or less) all purpose flour (for rolling out the crust)
1 small can tomato Sauce
Spices to taste (I use 2 T. Italian seasoning, 1 t. each granulated garlic and onion)
3/4 c. Mozzarella
3/4 c. cheddar cheese
(feel free to add up to 1 cup in additional toppings, such as veggies, meat, or even fruit!)

Directions:

Prepare the crust as per the package directions. I set the dough to rest for about 10-15 minutes on the back of the stove. I do this as the stove pre-heats. The dough relaxes and rises just a little.
While the dough is relaxing, mix the tomato sauce and spices together, set aside.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface, and transfer to a well greased cookie sheet.
Top pizza dough with about 1/2 of the pizza sauce, and the cheese
Bake per the package directions
Slice and serve. I usually get 3 or 4 servings per pizza. We like thin crust, so I roll the dough out to fill a cookie sheet.

Variations: Use white sauce, bbq sauce, or even Robert Rothschild Farm Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Sauce (I usually buy it at Costco) in lieu of the tomato sauce, you can change up your base flavor.

This pizza costs us about $4.00 and serves 3-4 hungry people. And since I make it at home, I know exactly what goes into it!

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