We are home from getting groceries.   I did great on shopping, my budget for two weeks of groceries is $150.00 and I only spent $94.98.  I am a goof I get all excited about doing well on groceries. 

The key is making a menu of course.  Which I always grumble about doing while I am doing it, but it pays off.   I keep a freezer inventory and plan our meals around the meat we have on hand or have purchased on sale. 

Here is our menu......

Week 1:

Sunday - Turkey dinner and trimmings (make thanks in Pan with left overs)
Monday - Creamy Potatoes N Kielbasa (New Recipe)
Tuesday - Turkey Loaf and Veggie
Wed - Wild Rice Soup
THurs - Tater Tot Hotdish
Fri - Steak, Potatoes and Veggie
Sat - Pork Roast

Week 2:

Sun - Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes and Ham (crockpot)
Monday - Busy Day Chicken N rice (New Recipe)
Tues - Hamburgers with fixings and Fries
Wed - Potato SOup
THursday - Thanksgiving in a Pan
Friday - Meat Loaf
Sat - Creamy Italian Chicken (crockpot) over Egg Noddles (make Double Recipe to freeze)

I think I will make Choc. Chip Cookies for Snacks for the week as well.  Josh and Toms favorite snack is baby carrots and dip them in Ranch Dressing.  So I bought two bags of carrots this time.  I hope that will last for 2 weeks. 

I also need to make a big pot of soup.  I am running out of frozen soup for Wednesday nights.   I need to try a new recipe or two as well for soup.   I really helps to cook ahead and freeze meals.

I need to scoot and fold some laundry and do dishes.  Then we are going to see an attorney and have our will drawn up.   Tommy is watching Dora right now.......

I'm awake, but didn't sleep much last night.  Hubby snored and snored.  Tommy woke up and was crying so I put him in bed with me.  He headbutted me a couple of times in the face.  ARGH!!  Now we have to be at the grocery store at 9:00am to drop Erik off with his mother.  Don't ask me why hubby said 9:00am.  ARGH!!!

I suppose I should go shower and stuff.  Later!

Thanksgiving In A Pan

Source of Recipe

Michelle Marshall

List of Ingredients

Ingredients:
1 package (6 ounces) stuffing mix
2-1/2 Cups cubed cooked turkey
2 Cups frozen cut green beans, thawed
1 jar (12 ounces) turkey gravy
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Prepare stuffing mix according to package directions. Transfer to a greased 11 x 7 x 2inch baking dish. Top with turkey, beans, gravy and pepper. Cover and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until heated through.
Yield: 6 servings

Notes:
I made this recipe this week and it was a success. I got it from my Taste of Home Quick Cooking magazine and Lynne Hahn of Temecula, California was the lady who submitted it to the magazine. I used one can of green beans in mine, instead of the frozen cut beans.

Ostara's Addition to the recipe.  We make it like this, but substituted corn this time for the beans.  Also we top our with mashed potatoes as well.  Freezes well.

Hello...so I am posting this from my living room.  Those that know we have a computer room (with way too many computers), might be wondering how I could be doing that.  Well because I have a wonderful hubby.  He got me my own personal laptop with wireless internet for Valentine's Day!  he does spoil me!   I love it.  Now I can type from any room and don't have to share a computer with hubby.  He is always changing things on our computer and it drives me nuts.  I don't do well with change!  

So all my graphics and things will be moved to my laptop.   I will have all my recipes on here and I can have it in the kitchen.  This will be great!!  Plus I can type from bed...LOL!!  Well time to get busy later!! 

I need to make "Thanksgiving in a Pan" with our leftovers.  I made a turkey dinner with all the fixings.   Then we are going to watch the movie Radio.   Later!

Hello....Sunday...my favorite day of the week.  I love Sundays as hubby and I have a lovely time at church together.  He is a great guy.  And of course i love Sunday's as I get to take a nap.  I just woke up from my nap.  Wasn't the best nap.  I woke up to Tommy slamming his door.  I checked on him and I had forgotten to put the diaper wipes up and he emptied the entire container and was squishing them and biting them.  SOrry no pic, too tired.  He is a stinker sometimes.   Josh picked this up for me and I napped a bit more.  Then my neighbor called with questions about making baby food.  Her twins are just starting to eat solids.  We made all the food for Tommy and rarely bought baby food.  Great Money saving thing!

I am now awake, sort of.  Tommy is still napping.   Erik went to Alladin Castles with hubby.  Josh didn't want to go and stayed home with me.   He wants me to work some more on the basement so I guess I will get busy and do that a bit while the baby sleeps. 

Hubby rented two movies for us to watch, Radio and Under the Tuscan Sun.  We will watch one tonight and save one for Monday night.   We are making a huge Turkey dinner tonight.  I will use all the left overs and make Thanksgiving in a Pan, my family's favorite.  THanks to Midwestblahs for sharing that recipe with us.   I best get that turkey cooking, I almost forgot about it!  Later!

Enjoy your Sunday!@

I decided since I am always posting pictures of Tommy's room trashed, I should finally take a picture when I clean it up for the 100th time a day.  LOL!!  So this is his room before he was put to bed for the night.  He has a Winnie The Pooh Bedrom.  I absolutely love it.  The wall murals were a shower gift from our neighbor.  She painted the entire room free-hand.  She is very talented and a good friend. 

Honny tree in the corner....see you can even see the floor.  The books are on the shelf!  WOW!

Changing table and characters painted on the wall.

 

The whole Pooh family on the shelf. 

Tonight all the boys crawled in bed with me to watch a movie with Tommy before bed.  We are all watching Maisy.  LOL!!  They all love to crawl into Momma's big bed!

I am off to finish the last 4 boxes on the one side of the basement.  I will have to tell you all what hubby got me for Valentine's Day..  I am WAY, WAY too spoiled! 

Had to share...I decided to go downstairs to work some more since it was quiet in Tom's room.  I checked on him before going downstairs and what did I find?????

He trashed his room.  Does this kid every sleep in his bed??  I of course put him into his bed and heading downstairs to work on the basement while he sleeps.  Later! 

I might even take more pics of the basement if I make any noticable progress.  I have to do something for motivation!  Later!

Want to see my dirty little secret??  lOL!!  Yes, I do keep a fairly tidy house, but right now my basement is totally ripped apart.  I am working slowly to get it done, but it is an over whelming project. 

So I thought I would share.....

Boxes and Bins everywhere.  They used to be all stacked in the corner, but I wanted to put shelves in the corner so I have to move them all out.  Now what a mess!!

The toys area is stacked with toys now.  I am putting at least one more shelf in there and getting rid on many toys.  Hubby got a bit too excited about the baby and bought WAY too much junk!  But he sure loves his baby.

This will be my storage area.  We have bought two more shelves.  I am able to fit into my budget to buy about two shelves each pay period.  The ones there are from last time.  We have two more to put together that we bought last night.  The blue bins are full of clothes for Tommy and Erik. 

---

So now you know my little secret.  I have to have the basement entirely done by March 1st as the electrician is coming then.  My brother is coming on March 6th to stay with us a few days.  He is going to help get the old truck in our driveway running so we can get rid of it.  I have a roast in the crock pot so I guess I should get back to the basement.  I jsut put Tommy down for a nap and he seems to be settling down finally. 

Tommy totally surprised Josh and I today.  Josh was getting him dressed and changing him.  We count with him when he do this.  Tommy started counting....in SPanish???...I am not sure where he picked this up at.  Maybe they are learning it in daycare.  He could count to 6 in Spanish.  He counts to about 19 in English.  Very weird.   I called hubby at work to see if he taught him this.  Nope....hmmmm...very strange.

(borrowed from someones site, can't remember who now, SOrry!)

yep....got my Valentine's day shopping all done.  Yeah....luckily my office is very close to all the major shopping spots in W St Paul.  So I am able to get alot done on my lunch breaks.  

Back to work......

Off for Lunch....need to do a bit of V-day shopping for hubby.   I couldn't do it last night since he was with me at Target.   I struggle so much on what to get him.   One woman at work was making gift baskets for people.  They were nice...

He still has candy and stuff left from  Christmas so needed buy anymore of that.   Later!