elliek

2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month

elliek — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:02:34 +0000

I think I need this book…if you’re like me then you do too!

In the “2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month” the author outlines how and where to cut grocery expenses to get spending under control while opening the consumers eyes to little known dirty manipulation tactics employed by retailers to seduce unsuspecting customers into spending sprees.

For many people struggling to maintain a budget, the cost of groceries is the only major expense in their control that can be drastically reduced without feeling a negative impact on their lifestyle. Liss explains in detail how to make simple changes that will not only pinch pennies, but help pinch Benji’s too!

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

elliek — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:20:36 +0000

“What are you reading on Mondays” is a weekly event hosted by Sheila that lets you share books you’ve read over the past week and books you have coming up. I found it up on Alita’s blog and occasionally like to play along…

Finished: The Interior by Lisa See. I finally finished this book up. I read the first in the Red Princess series just before Capri was born. I really enjoyed the first one, but I have to say I didn’t like the 2nd one quite as much. I’m hoping the third is better since I already got that one from paperbackswap Still it was a fun crime novel to read. 3 out of 5 stars

Continued Reading: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I know I can’t believe we haven’t made any progress on this!

Started Reading: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. This is July’s book club book. I had to finish The Interior before I could get started on this one! Hopefully I will get it read before book club at the end of the month!

Up Next: Golden: An American Odyssey by Michael L. Hughes I received this book in the mail recently – It’s written by the man who married my Grandmother just a month or two after I got married myself. He has made my Grandma so happy and he has fit so well into our family. I didn’t even know he was writing a book and was pleasantly surprised when a copy arrived for us in the mail! So once I finish July’s book club book, this is the next on my list!

What are you reading?

Pizza Supreme

elliek — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:20:20 +0000

On Friday night I made Cooking Light’s Pizza Supreme. I thought this was pretty good. I liked the turkey sausage and all the veggies were tasty. I substituted a green bell pepper for the red to save a little money. I thought this was ok, but nothing mind blowing. I would recreate a similar version again.

Cost: $11.21, $1.87/serving

3 out of 5 stars.

Blackened Tilapia Baja Tacos

elliek — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:42:55 +0000

Last night I made Cooking Light’s Blackened Tilapia Baja Tacos. These were very fast and easy and I really liked them. I wish the fish was grilled or baked instead of pan-fried but it really is an easy way to cook tilapia. The rub was really great. The only thing I would change is I wouldn’t mix the jalapeno sauce with the onions, I would serve those separately.

Cost: $6.31, $3.15/serving

4 out of 5 stars.

Spicy Tortilla Soup with Shrimp and Avocado

elliek — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:21:16 +0000

Last night I made Cooking Light’s Spicy Tortilla Soup with Shrimp and Avocado. This was fast, fresh, and easy! It took hardly any time to put together and it was very flavorful. There were no medium shrimp that weren’t frozen at our grocery store this week so I just got what they had which was extra jumbo or something like that. I only used half a lb of shrimp which was really only enough for 3 people but I still have at least 3 more servings of the rest of the soup left.

A new thing I’m going to try to do is see how much I’m spending on my meals. So far it makes me feel good about eating at home instead of going out!

Cost: $10.51, $2.62/serving (4 servings – although only 3 with shrimp but another 3 without shrimp)

4 out of 5 stars.

Pea, Feta, and Crispy Prosciutto Salad

elliek — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:15:29 +0000

Last night I made Real Simple’s Pea, Feta, and Crispy Prosciutto Salad. Confession: I made this salad because I needed to bring a salad to our small group and we had two half used bags of frozen peas in our freezer and Jeremy and I don’t like peas so I thought this was a good way to get rid of them. Turns out this is a GREAT recipe! Jeremy and I both really liked it and I think our small group approved as well! I added a few baby lima beans as well because I doubled the recipe and didn’t have quite enough peas. The only change I would make is baking the proscuitto a only 8 or 9 minutes – 10 was a little too crispy in my oven.

5 out of 5 stars!

White Pizza with Tomato and Basil

elliek — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:39:07 +0000

I made Cooking Light’s White Pizza with Tomato and Basil for lunch today. Normally I would consider this a weekend meal and that’s what I had planned it for but we didn’t end up cooking it over the weekend so I made it today for lunch because I didn’t want my tomatoes to go bad! This was very easy to make and was a very pretty pizza! My crust was a little soggy though and I wish I had put it in the oven for a few minutes first (the instructions suggest putting it on a hot baking sheet but I used a pizza stone so that could have been why). I thought the tomatoes were great – first time I’d tried Campari tomatoes and I really liked them – so sweet! If I were to make this again I would double the pesto and halve the ricotta…

3 out of 5 stars.

Baked Ziti with Spinach and Tomatoes

elliek — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:15:55 +0000

Beth made this Baked Ziti with Spinach and Tomatoes for us soon after we had Capri. It was just perfect for us and I ate it for lunch for a couple of days! I signed up to bring a meal to a friend who recently had a little girl and thought what better to bring her than one of the meals that I enjoyed the most! So I made a double batch so that Jeremy and I could enjoy a pan of it too! I used a sweet Italian turkey sausage for the meat and I used half the cheese in ours but it was still really good! Easy to make, I had most of the ingredients on hand and so yummy – especially with some warm French bread smothered in butter!

5 out of 5 stars!

Green Chile Tamale Pie

elliek — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:31:50 +0000

I made Cooking Light’s Green Chile Tamale Pie for our small group last night. Now, it’s very possible this recipe is tainted for me because it took me longer to prep than I thought it would and so we were 30 minutes last to our small group…not great when you’re bringing a main course but it happens. So the whole thing feels a little flustered.

The masa topping did not go the way it was supposed to for me. I added more water which helped but I think I should have added even more water and I would have if I hadn’t been rushing. However I thought the filling was pretty good. Tomatillos bring in such great flavor. I didn’t buy any Mexican cheese, I just sprinkled some shredded cheddar on the top when it came out of the oven. I had some of this as leftovers today and even though the topping was a big dense, I thought it was pretty tasty – dishes like this tend to be good leftovers since the flavors have more time to blend.

3 out of 5 stars.

4th of July Wish List

elliek — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:05:17 +0000

Buying baby clothes is oh so much fun. It’s so hard to control myself sometimes! There are just so many cute clothes out there! I have been lucky in that one of my friends has a daughter just 4 months older than Capri and she has lots of cute clothes that she has let me borrow…but it still doesn’t make it easy not to buy things or at least want to buy things! One store that I really enjoy browsing is Gymboree. I don’t think I would ever buy anything there at full price but their clearance sales can be pretty great!

A couple of weeks ago I was checking out some of these clearance items and ran across their 4th of July collection – so adorable! So here is the outfit I would purchase for Capri if I was willing to spend over $50 on this outfit (and that’s on sale!). But I thought I would share it with you anyway! I am hoping that these will go on clearance after the 4th and that I will get to purchase her something for next year! Even though this was my favorite, there were several patriotic themed outfits that were so cute! And those little espadrille sandals…sigh!

Ok, I’m done lusting after 4th of July baby clothes!