What to do with those Envelopes

You know, those envelopes that come with each and every bill... and since I've given up on paying the bills, those envelopes are really starting to stack up.

JUST KIDDING! I pay my bills, I promise. I just pay them all online so I don't have to use the evelopes. Also don't have to spend $$$ on stamps. Cha-ching!

Every week I grab a few of those freebie envelopes and use the blank white side to write down my grocery list. (I use one envelope per store). Then you can slip the coupons into the correct envelope, and voila, you're organized! (And if you have some double-secret-probation* coupons that you don't want other nearby shoppers to see, you can use those security envelopes with the blue or black lining!)

Now if I could just stick to my lists and to my budget...

*Sorry for the Animal House reference. I have it on the brain right now because we were talking it about it yesterday at my friend's graduation party. Toga! Toga! Toga!

I'm BA-ACK

I finally did it tonight. I dragged the beast back out and did some sewing. The other day I thrifted a few things of clothing for Joel (the winter clothing), and one of the pieces I bought was a 3-6 month long sleeve onesie that I knew would fit him this summer. I figured it would be an easy fix to cut off the sleeves and make it a short sleeve onesie. Here it is:

Yes, it's the Cleveland Browns. Yes, I know they suck. But hey, how about those CAVS?! (Just a side note, my brother's girlfriend went to high school with LeBron James. He also lives a few minutes from my parents' house. That's my claim to fame. Okay it's my six-degrees-of-separation claim to fame).

After I finished the onesie I decided to get started on these undercover crates. Go check out Laura's blog. She's one heck of a crafter!

It was hard to get anything done because Joel didn't want to take a nap. I discovered that he is fascinated with long, skinny pieces of fabric when dangled in front of him. It gave him about twenty minutes of pleasure as I wore my arm out waving it around like a madwoman.



I've got two crate slipcovers done; one to go. I think I'm done for the night though. I'll probably work on it next week, possibly for "Tackle it Tuesday."

Here's some pics!


I really hate sewing sometimes.


The finished product. Toy storage for Joel! The orange fabric I acquired years ago when my then-boyfriend's uncle got sent to prison (true story). The sports fabric was a thrifted find. It's a jersey knit sheet and was in excellent condition!

Picnic Graduation Par-TAY

My friend is graduating from Columbus College of Art and Design this weekend. Woot, woot! Congrats T-3 :) In order to celebrate, we’ll be having a picnic at the park. I’m in charge of making egg salad and Watergate salad. I think I’ll also whip up some Special K cookies or some Chocolate Covered Corn Flakes to use up some of the twenty-five boxes of cereal we have in the cupboard. (okay, I’m exaggerating… we actually only have twenty boxes of cereal).

We actually do have twenty boxes of cereal… yikes! Someone needs to put the brakes on buying cereal, huh? Maybe there's a ten-step program I can enroll in or something.

Do you like deviled eggs? No? What about these deviled eggs? Even if you don’t click on a any other link on this post, you need to check out these deviled eggs. You won’t be sorry! You will feel complete after checking out these deviled eggs 

Slaving over a Hot Stove

Before I get into using up what's in my fridge, I have to share something I saw on tv with you. I was up with Joel, flipping through the channels (nothing good on HGTV or the food network) when I ran across a movie with "The Mac Guy" (Justin Long) in it. He was this loser high-school dropout with the mullet to end all mullets. He had this shirtless space-cadet-of-a-friend, and they were trying to figure out how to make money without getting a job. The friend recommended buying things at thrift stores, painting them white, calling it "shabby chic," and selling it on ebay just like his mom. YES! They should have went that direction with the movie. Instead they decided to come up with a Sasquatch plot. It would have been much better if they followed them around to thrift stores and watch them paint furniture, don't you think?

I really need to get out my sewing machine. It's still been put away since my friend's shower back in April. I just can't bring myself to drag it all out because I'm so happy with the cleanliness (I am not a clean seamstress. I make a terrible mess!)

So I guess I'll blog about some recipes that I've prepared lately. I have tons of BBQ sauce to use up (seven bottles I think). I actually even bought another bottle last night because I had a dollar off coupon, and the bottle was only eight cents after the coupon!

The other day my mom sent me home with some grilled chicken. I sliced it up, added some BBQ sauce, tossed it into a tortilla with some sauteed green and red peppers and onions, and some shredded cheese.... easy peasy meal, and it was delicious! I ended up making too much peppers and onions, so I had to come up with another recipe to use it up.

Next up: breakfast burritos. My mom also sent me home with some hashbrowns. I made some scrambled eggs and half a pound of sausage and mixed it with the hashbrowns and sauteed peppers and onions. We used the leftover tortillas, and it was fantastic :)

But alas I still had peppers and onions left, not to mention half a pound of sausage, so today I made up some meatloaf. The best part is- it used up the barbecue sauce too!

I also have a couple cucumbers to use up (and some sour cream), so I figured I'd also make gyros with that delicious cucumber sauce. I couldn't find lamb at the store (nor did I really want to pay for it), so I found a recipe that called for ground beef (I used ground turkey). It said to bake up a meatloaf, slice it thin and stuff it into a pita with the cucumber sauce.

And last but not least, I made some candied citron coffee cake to use up the rest of the sour cream. You know me- I can't follow a recipe to save my life! I didn't have enough butter, so I used more sour cream than it called for, 1/2 cup less flour, extra candied fruit, no nuts, and no almond extract (I couldn't find it... I wonder if I ran out). It's still in the oven, but it smells pretty tasty!

So what are y'all cooking? Do you have any good bbq sauce recipes (or Salsa recipes) for me to try? (I have just as many jars of salsa as I do bottle of bbq sauce). If so, leave me a comment with the recipe or a link. Thanks!

I Brake for Garage Sales and Thrift Stores

Since I spent the weekend at my parents' house, I got to do some out-of-town thrifting. It all started when I saw Rite Aid had a sale going on: 10 photos for 99c. I decided to get some of the pictures we took last weekend at Joel's baptism developed. On the way home, I ran across three garage sales. Yep, the first ones of the season for me! Nothing at the first or last ones tickled my fancy, however at the second one I picked up a thing of unused elastic and a frame for a quarter apiece. My dad had just said that he needed a frame so that he could take the pictures I was getting developed to work. Ask and ye shall receive!

I also saw the local thrift store has 50c sales every Monday. I told my husband we would just have to stay an extra day so I could check out the sale in the morning, so that's what we did. We slept in pretty late, and so we didn't get there until a little after noon and it was pretty picked over by then. All orange tags were 50c, and blue tags were 50% off. I got seven orange tags and one blue tag. All the summer clothes were nabbed by the early birds, so I had to settle for winter clothes. That's okay though because Joel will wear winter clothes too in about five months.

He's starting to fuss, so I better go and give him some milk!

Mother's Day Freebies

I am so glad I went through nine months of pregnancy hell followed by a torturous 23 hour labor complete with 2 hours of pushing, a vacuum extraction, and third degree tearing! Those battle scars have earned me the right to take advantage of several free offers these past few days! (Can I get a "Hell yeah!" ?)

On Wednesday, Walgreens gave free 8x10s to mommies. I got a pic of me holding my four-day-old Joel. Across the street at KFC, they were unveiling their new grilled chicken meals. I figured I would drop off the photo, grab some finger-licking goodness, and then go back for the photo. Little did I know that the entire east side of Columbus was gathering in that tiny KFC for some free food. I was in line for almost an hour. I can't believe I stayed in line that long for a measly meal. To top it off, I was supposed to get a thigh and drumstick or a breast and wing, but they gave me a drumstick (and a puny one at that) and a wing. Hmpf.

But just so you know, it was pretty tasty. I devoured it promptly.

Today I got myself a free Mother's Day meal from Captain D's, and what a meal it was. I got some kind of uber-sensational seafood platter. I have never felt so fat in my life. There was enough greasy fried food in that take-out container to feed an army. A fat army.

As for my eating from the pantry challenge... I didn't do so hot. To my credit, I began mid-week and so everything I spent before I decided to join the challenge doesn't count, right?

I spent about thirty dollars at Target today, but I got ten dollars in gift cards to use at a later date, so really it was like I spent twenty. I got six boxes of Fiber One bars and two more boxes of Fiber One cereal. If you like Fiber One bars (they're delicious) or have a hard time "staying regular" and need some extra fiber in your diet, then you should go to Target and stock up! There's coupons online that you can print off for the Fiber one items, but my Target gave me a hard time about using them. The cashier called over her boss who told me that they're not supposed to accept printed coupons but that since she had already rang them up, she would allow it this time. I am pretty pissed about this because everyone else in the other corners of the globe gets to use computer printed coupons. *throws temper tantrum, rolls on floor screaming and pounding fists in the ground*

Ok, I'm putting on my big girl panties now and moving on...

I got some other things at Target like Wet Ones, Ban deodorant, Kashi Waffles, Quaker True Delight granola bars... all with coupons, coupons, and more coupons :)

The night before I made a run out to Meijer. I miss having Meijer right down the street. I now have to drive 15 minutes and pass four other grocery stores on my way there, so I don't make the trek that often.

Last night I spent a little less than fifty bucks but got meat. Lots and lots of meat, my friends. I got several packs of pork chops, steak, a roast, some sausage... all for cheap, cheap cheap! I also got twenty containers of Yoplait yogurt because of the awesome deal going on. For every ten you buy, a catalina for one dollar prints at the check out. I also used three coupons.... one required you buy eight ($1 off), and the other two required you buy six (80c off). With the doubling, that's an extra $4.20 off! Couple that with the two dollars of catalinas and the fact that the yogurt was on sale for 50c each, and I am quite pleased with my haul.

Maybe next week I'll do a little better with the whole not shopping thing and using what I already have. Maybe. I wouldn't hold my breath though if I were you.

Menu Planning Monday, er Thursday

I’ve menu planned for a few years now. (*cough and sputter*) What I meant to say is that I’ve off and on menu planned for a few years now. Oh okay, I’ve more off than on menu planned for a few years now.

I always start out with good intentions. I use Microsoft Works Calendar and input recipes about every other day with the assumption that the in between days will be leftovers. (I just love leftovers, don’t you?) I try to plan it out for the whole month. I think this is my downfall.

You see, it’s hard to predict what you will have opened and needing to be used up when you’re trying to do it thirty days in advance. Every week I end up rearranging, pushing recipes back a week or two, and then coming up with new ones to use up what’s currently on hand. And then finally, enough is enough, and using my calendar goes by the wayside, and we fall back into our old habits.

I’m going to make more of a concerted effort to stick with it this time. Today and tomorrow what I currently have planned out is (1) stale bagel pancakes (doesn’t that just sound de-lic-ious?!) and (2) fish stick casserole. (I know, I know. I really know how to pick ‘em)

I think I picked the wrong time to start blogging about my menu planning since both of those things sound admittedly nasty. I have some items to use up though, and both of these recipes fit the bill.

For the pancakes, basically you grind them up, add milk, eggs, and spices, and fry like a regular pancake. As it turns out, they're pretty freakin' fantastic :) The only thing I would do differently is add a little more milk because the batter was pretty thick. If you click on the link above, you'll see he called for onion powder and sugar. Since I was using strawberry bagels, I figured the onion powder would be a no-no and left it out.

And as for the fish stick casserole… I don’t know why but awhile ago when I was at the grocery, fish sticks sounded good. Not surprisingly, they’ve sat in the freezer ever since. I found several recipes, and I liked portions of several of them, so I've combined them into my own concoction.

Basically what I'll do is crumble some hash browns into a 9x13 pan (actually I'll use chopped frozen French fries because that’s what I have). Pour over some milk (that about-to-expire half gallon should be gone after this recipe!), spices (whatever I feel like at the moment), and cheese (can use shredded or a can of Campbells cheese soup), maybe a can of cream of mushroom soup depending on the consistency thus far... perhaps throw in some veges from the freezer... and [in my best fake French accent] the piece de la resistance…. The ever-popular, four-star restaurant worthy fish sticks. Lots and lots of fish sticks. Pile 'em on top, bake, and voila, a not-so-nutritious but oh-so-delicious treat (hopefully).

These recipes are both great for the Eating from the pantry challenge that I’ve just begun. Hopefully they will not disappoint!