5 DOLLAR DINNER!!

Here is my $5 dinner idea for the week:

This is based from my local Pick 'n Save ad.

Summer Pasta Salad with Lettuce Wedges and Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad (Italian) $1.25 - .25c printable coupon
1/4 lb Colby Jack cheese cut into chunks or thin slices (from the deli) $1.00
1/2 pkg Bacon (cooked crisp and crumbled) $1.50 (reserve 4 T of crumbled bacon)
1 Lg or 2 small Dill Pickles $.30
1/2 Red Onion sliced small $.40
1/2 Head Lettuce $.87
Mini Garlic Bread $1.00

Total: $6.07

Directions:

Make Suddenly Salad according to package directions and let cool. Add cheese, crumbled bacon, diced pickles and onion to salad. Return to refridgerator. Cut a head of lettuce in half and then cut the half into 4 equal wedges, sprinkle with dressing of your choice and top with reserved bacon crumbles. Cook Mini Garlic Bread according to package directions, serve pasta and salad cool and bread hot!

SAUSAGE AND PEPPER PASTA

INGREDIENTS:
1 Pkg Roundy's Italian Sausage $2.00 (on sale for $3 but we only need 3 sausages)
1 Red Pepper (or green if it's on sale) $.79
1 Medium Onion $.50
1 Box Bow-tie pasta $1.24
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder
Olive Oil and Butter (or margarine)
Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Head of Lettuce $.49 (on sale)

DIRECTIONS:
Put some Olive oil in a skillet (about two times around) and add about a half inch of water to the pan. Heat the pan and add three of the Italian sausages. Cover and let cook until cooked almost all the way through. You may have to add more water. Remove lit and let the water evaporate and the sausages brown in the oil. Heat pasta water on the stove. Thinly slice the sausages and set aside. Slice the onion and red pepper into strips and saute in a little bit of butter until the peppers are soft and the onion translucent. Add pasta and a little salt to boiling pasta water. Drain pasta and return to pan. Drizzle pasta with a little Olive oil and add a couple tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle pasta (too taste) with salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Top pasta with sausage slices and pepper/onion mix. Cut a head of lettuce in half and slice one half into 4 wedges, drizzle with your favorite salad dressing (and a couple crumbles of blue cheese if you have it on hand).


TOTAL PRICE OF MEAL: $5.02

BARGAIN MEAL OF THE WEEK

Good morning! Wow, it is a beautiful day in Milwaukee, the sun is actually shining, I was starting to worry that I may never see it again.

I recently voluntered to be a contributor to the Bargain Meal of the Week. For anyone who may not know what that is, I will explain. There is a blog called 5 Dollar Dinners hosted by a really nice woman named Erin, who challenges herself and others to feed their family of 4, healthy dinners for $5 a day. Every week people (like me!) post a dinner idea/recipe that features items from their local grocery stores sale ad. The dinners need to be around $5 for 4 people. My goal will be to post recipes that are healthy, tasty, simple and hopefully give you (and myself) a variety. Taco's, spaghetti and hamburgers are great, but there has to be more to life then just those go-to recipes. My recipes will be centered around my local Pick 'n Save grocery store, I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and this is where I shop. If you shop at P 'n S then these recipes will hopefully give you something economical to try each week, if you do not shop at P 'n S then maybe you will just enjoy adding some new recipes to your weekly meals. I will usually do my own recipes, however, Erin allows recipes to be posted from anyone. Some of my favorite recipes come from Rachael Ray and Better Homes and Gardens, I may use some of their ideas. I will have a new recipe posted every Thursday.

MY HUBBY'S DINNER CHALLENGE

Well, let me tell you, my husband really stepped up to the challenge I gave him last night. He made something he called Monterrey Chicken. Here is his recipe:

Guacamole Sauce:
1 ripe avacado
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 small chopped tomato
1/2 small chopped onion
pepper
1/2 T lemon juice
1/8 c Mayo

Mash avacado and then stir in all ingredients.

Chicken:

Saute chicken in a little butter and put on plates. Top with crispy cooked bacon, Guacamole Sauce and Monterrey Jack cheese. Serve with Rice.


It was AWESOME!! I'm very proud of him!

CHALLENGING MY HUSBAND

I made Enchilada's last night. Probably not like Daisy Martinez would have made them, I created my own version (recipe to follow). They were FANTASTIC!! We had them with some spanish rice. They were spicy but not 'mouth on fire' spicy. I'm kind of a 'heat' whimp. Anyway, the recipe only needed one chicken breast and my husband had cooked three on the grill for me the other day. I didn't know how many it would take since I was making the recipe up as I went along. So not only was this delicious (hubby agreed) but it was pretty economical! So this is his challenge tonight: I have a doctors appointment after work and will not have time to make dinner, because I wasn't planning to cook I didn't defrost anything for dinner. I kind of forgot that we will eventually have to eat. So I called my husband and told him his challenge was to create something wonderful with the leftover chicken that I didn't use in the enchiladas. The chicken breasts are spiced with sweet paprika, garlic, a tiny bit of red pepper, salt and cumin. I'll let you know tomorrow how he does.

ENCHILADA RECIPE:

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 can enchilada sauce
1 small jalepeno pepper (seeds removed, diced)
8oz monterrey jack cheese, shredded
8oz cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
pkg tortilla shells (corn or flower)
1 small onion, cook until translucent
sour cream for garnish (optional)
** if you don't like spicy food you can either use 1/2 of the Jalepeno or cut it out completely

In a bowl mix together chicken, jalepeno pepper, half of each cheese, black beans, and onion. Spray a shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Fill tortillas with a generous amount of the chicken mixture and put the filled tortilla in the baking dish seam side down. Continue until all chicken mixture is gone. Cover tortilla's with enchilada sauce and remaining cheese. Bake at 400 until the cheese is melted and the meat mix is heated through. Garnish with sour cream and serve with spanish rice.

HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPTS!

I finally ordered my high school transcripts! For any of you who don't already know, I have decided to go back to college. I haven't talked to my husband about it yet. I know he will be supportive, but since I have thought about doing this on and off for years, I just don't want him to think I'm just bouncing the idea around again. I would rather surprise him when I get the acceptance letter. I received my college transcripts in the mail about two weeks ago but was having a hard time reaching someone in the registrars office at my high school to get those transcripts. Finally today, I went online, searched for my high schools web site and printed out a transcript request.

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

You can also sign up for a FREE purple paw pin (just pay $3.95 S&H)!

PICK 'N SAVE FLYER DAY

On Wednesday's I get my local grocery store sales fliers in the mail. I really look forward to it because then I can start planning my menu for the week. I do all my grocery shopping on Saturday mornings and my menu runs from Saturday to Friday. I visit a website called Metroplex Savers (there is a link to it on the right side of my page) every week because this site breaks down the sales fliers from Walgreens and CVS and tells it's viewers which coupons, either IP or Sunday paper coupons, to use with the sales to get the best prices. It's broken down in a way that is very easy to understand.

MY FIRST CVS/WALGREENS ECB/RR TRIP!

I went on Friday to 2 separate Walgreens and 2 separate CVS stores to take advantage of the Extra Care Bucks and Register Rewards programs. This is what I got...

2 Med Listerine
1 Lg Colgate
1 Soliel Razor
5 Jello's
1 Dry Idea Deodorant
2 rolls of TP
2 pkg's Peeps
2 pkg's of mini Hershey bars
2 Reach Toothbrushes
2 Btls of Peroxide
1 Axe Conditioner

All of this and I only spent OOP around $12.00 that was WELL worth the driving and time I spent. Plus, it was kind of fun to see what kinds of deals I could get. I would have spent $3.00 less but I forgot my coupon for $3/3 Listerine products. That's okay, it was still a great deal!

I will be going again this Saturday to take advantage of more deals, with my coupons I have begun stockpiling I should save even more this weekend!

A great great great (!!!) recipe to use the SF Jello with is:

mix 1 lg container of cool whip or store brand frozen whipped topping with 1 lg pkg (or 1 1/2 small pkg's) of orange jello. Mix in a can of crushed (drained) pineapple and 1 can of mandarin oranges (drained). Let set for a couple hours. This makes my very favorite fruit salad, everyone loves this one. It's a recipe that I got from my mother-in-law!

Dental Surgery

My husband had dental surgery today. He had to have his gums cut open, peeled back and the roots on his teeth scraped of the extra plaque buildup. And then he had his remaining 3 wisdom teeth pulled. OUCH! His dentist said this is a genetic condition. He looked terrible when I saw him, blood everywhere. He called me at work to tell me that he's making Fettucine Alfredo for dinner, he thinks that will be soft enough for him to eat. He's such a trooper, after all that, he's making ME dinner! My husbands specialty is Fettucine Alfredo, it's expensive to make, but OMG is it worth it!! My mother in law came from Madison (about an hour drive) to pick him up after the surgery so that I wouldn't have to miss any work. She's staying for dinner and then driving back.

DAY ONE - MARCH 12, 2009

Today is day one and here is what I did today. I got the phone numbers for both my high school and the University I attended so that I can request my transcripts be sent to me. I decided not to have them sent directly to WU because my maiden name is on my transcripts and my married name will be on my school application. I'm just a little leary of not sending all these things in together. Maybe I'm paranoid, but at this point, I'd rather be safe then sorry because I may never get the courage to apply again. I don't want to mess it up now. For some rediculous reason I have giant butterflies in my stomach right now because I am trying to get up the nerve to go make these phone calls. Why am I scared? I have no idea... I use the phone all the time, and I even talk to strangers... Maybe I'm not afraid... maybe I'm so excited that I can't contain myself... I doubt it, I think I'm just a chicken.

I called! I did it, I ordered my transcripts.. step one went very well. I know it was just a baby step, but at least it was in the right direction.

THE BEGINNING

I lay awake for hours last night, just thinking. I couldn't turn my brain off. My husband, my dog and my cat were all comfortably sleeping in our bed. The reasons for my thoughts began because my husband wasn't feeling well and wanted me to go to bed early with him... at 8pm! I started thinking about what a waste my night would be if I just crawled into bed... then I started thinking what a waste all my days seem to feel like lately. That started a mountain of ideas, decisions, commitments, plans and fears. I don't want to wake up one day and be eighty having accomplished no more then I have in life today. I'm comfortable in my life, things are easy and for the most part peaceful. But... are they really fullfilling? No... I don't think so. I wondered if I have been putting off all the things I want to do because I'm waiting for my husband to hop on board and join me. But, why should he have to share the same goals? Why can't I have my own goals, personal ones, and then if he chooses he can join in at any part of my journey. Maybe he feels fullfilled right now, who am I to assume just because I am wanting more from life, that this isn't exactly how he always pictured his life.

So, what all this really comes to is that I have a certain idea of what I want me life to be. I have set some short and long term goals and I am going to use this blog to keep track of my journey.

Here are my goals:

1. Regular excercise
2. Lose weight
3. Go back to school
4. Become more active in church
5. Join some kind of club/volunteer group (not relating to my other goals)

Here is how I will accomplish these goals:

1. I will do something every single day that helps me acheive my goals, even if only in a tiny way.
2. I will set realistic time frames on when I expect to acheive these goals.