Allie's Purple Shirt

I always thought it was fun dressing up Hayden..... until I had Allie. Don't get me wrong. Hayden wearing those tiny painter jeans and cowboy boots are about the cutest combination on a little boy, but seeing Allie dressed up in a fashionable tunic top and jean leggings pretty much makes for a must have photo shoot. Allie got this purple tunic from one of my best friends, Candice, for her 1st Birthday. I could just eat her up in these pics!

Black Bean Quesadilla

I called my mom shortly after making dinner tonight. Normally I don't call to say, "Mommy, I ate all my dinner!" but I felt the need to tonight. There's a (rather long) list of things I don't eat. Most of it I have never even tried, but I just know I wouldn't like it... pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, jelly, onions, green beans, & peas are just a few. I have a separate list of weird things, like sushi, that are on my "Won't Even Consider Every Trying Them" list.

Okay, so back to my story. I called my mom tonight to tell her that I, her daughter, ate a black bean quesadilla, and LIKED it! I may have even loved it. Kevin and the kids did for sure. It was the easiest recipe I think I've ever made in my life. Therefore, I must share.

Black Bean Quesadillas

30oz black beans, rinsed and drained
1C Salsa (I used Great Value Medium Chunky)
1/8 C Taco Seasoning
8 Quesadilla shells
Mexican Cheese


Preheat oven to 375*. Put the beans, salsa, & taco seasoning in the food processor. Process until it's a paste (see pic below). Lay 4 tortilla shells on a cookie sheet. Spread bean mix over the whole shell. Top with remaining tortillas. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake 10-15 mins.
We topped ours with sour cream and ortega taco sauce.

I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of them after they were done, but I had 2 hungry kids pulling on my legs and crying (no exaggeration) and it just didn't cross my mind till I had eaten most of mine! This is going to be a meal we have once a month at our house. Its a cheap/wonderful meatless meal! I may let Kevin make them next time.

p.s. I also used my leftover homemade quesadilla shells from our breakfast burritos for this recipe! I just love meal planning!

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

It's no secret I'm a picky eater. I don't want to be, but I really don't want to try new foods either... so I'm stuck. I told Kevin when I was planning our menu for the month I was going to try fish 2 times this month. Gulp. I'm gagging now thinking about fish. I'm the adult here, right? Okay, so after getting some feedback on facebook, I decided to prepare a baked tilapia. Here's how I did it (thanks Maria Thombleson):

Lemon Garlic Tilapia
Ingredients
4 tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 clove garlic, finely chopped (I used garlic salt)
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
pepper to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375*. Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Rinse tilapia fillets under cool water, and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Place fillets in baking dish. Pour lemon juice over fillets, then drizzle butter on top. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley, and pepper.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about 30 minutes.

This was so easy to prepare! Kevin tried the 1st bite. He went on and on about how it was the best baked fish he'd ever had in his life. I told him to get the camera and get a picture of me trying it b/c these big events don't happen every day!



Can you tell from the last pic what I thought of it? I swallowed the first bite. It wasn't as fishy as I was expecting. The consistency was different. I liked the flavor of the lemon and garlic though (I just wished it was on chicken!). Then I ate like 2 more bites. I didn't think the last bite was going to make it down, so I called it quits. I think next time I'll try something breaded. Maybe it will help hide that soft squishy consistency. Kevin raved about this recipe though. If you like fish, eat your heart out!

OMGosh!

Last month my favorite blogger (Angela Coffman @ The Grocery Shrink) put out a challenge in an email she sent out. It was a challenge to make a huge push with your frugal lifestyle. Just so happens, last month was our first month to get back on track. I knew our biggest area of savings was food. I was so excited to email her our results! (Let's be honest, it was a BIG motivator for me! Those Fudge Stripe cookies were calling my name every time I went to the darn store... but I told myself no every time I walked by! I didn't want to say I spent $3+ on cookies. You should have seen my reaction when Kevin came home with ice cream sandwiches [$3.98] when I sent him for sugar!)

So today, I did it. I emailed her what we spent our groceries in July (over $1000) and what we spent on groceries in August ($246.31). You know how you email/mail a famous person and you don't expect to ever really hear back from them? (Flashback to me writing Oprah when I was like 10 asking her for a pet monkey - true story!) Well, SHE emailed me back... the same day I emailed her!

Before closing her email, she said she was going to check my blog out. You know that feeling when someone calls to say they are going to stop by and you/your house isn't really ready for presentation? That's kinda how I felt! I was like "Oh no, I don't have enough creative, unique posts yet! Ahhh!" But I think it's so cool she looked at MY blog! Wow- little ol' me! I know my sis got to see the Judds at the airport a few days ago, but this is like major celebrity status in my book! :)

Veggie Plate

I'm trying to make some meatless meals this month. Here's what we had for lunch yesterday!

Steamed Carrots
Steamed Broccoli
Steamed Cauliflower
Roasted Potatoes
Toast
All Dipped in a Cheese Sauce

Everything came from Aldi, except the potatoes and Great Value cheese (from Walmart).

It was very filling! I want to start making this monthly. And I really liked having it for lunch instead of dinner!

Another Allie Photo Shoot

This was Allie's 1st time walking through the grass by herself. She's warming up to the idea of walking full time.

If you're wondering about this fun/funky picture, it's a setting I have on my camera! So neat! If you haven't done so already, click on it so you can see it full size. Her eyes look amazing! (And I love that little flip in her hair!)

Breakfast Burritos

I love breakfast. The idea off a breakfast burrito makes me excited. There are endless ways to prepare one, but let me tell you about the ones I made for breakfast this morning. These did take some time to prep, but you can do it the night before, or even a few days before (maybe even weeks before, but I'm just now experimenting with the freezing part, so I will let you know!)

Pick what kind of tortilla you want. Most of the recipes online call for white flour and some shortening. I want to try one of those recipes some time. I picked a whole wheat recipe for my first go around. Just know you'll need a pastry cloth if you want to try to make them yourself. Here are some pics from my experiment with them...

Has anyone else noticed the price of bacon and sausage skyrocketing? My all-time favorite frugal mom and blogger, Angela Coffman, posted this recipe for Mock Sausage Patties. It's a cheaper alternative and pretty tasty if I do say so! I prepared half the recipe as patties and the rest I just browned and crumbled. I used the crumbled sausage in our burritos this morning.

Last night I made the tortillas and sausage. It took about an hour, but I don't think that was all that bad considering I was trying lots of new things! I put what I needed for today's breakfast in the fridge and what I'd use later in the freezer. This morning I just had to make scrambled eggs and assemble. I tossed the sausage into the eggs while it was cooking. I topped it with cheese when it was done. Rolled it up and voila! A healthy breakfast that was ready in about 10 minutes!

Today's Finds

After talking non-stop about how much fun I had yard sale shopping, Kevin was really pumped about going with me today (although he wouldn't admit that if you asked him). I did some browsing last night on craigslist and the Courier's website to see which sales were the ones I wanted to go to. I made a list of 5 places and we packed the kids up early this morning and headed out!

When we pulled up to our first stop, I realized all those baby clothes I was hoping to find for Allie were all boys clothes, so we drove on by. The 2nd stop, was FILLED with clothes/toys/etc. I couldn't wait to start digging through those tables. Well, that was short lived. All the clothes stunk. Also this ladies kids came outside and they were practically teenagers. I start doing the math that these clothes were old (and stinky) so I let Hayden look through the toys. We found a Buzz Lightyear and Woody for $.50 each. He was like a kid in a candy store. He played with those toys the whole time we were out today! Definitely worth $1! When I laid him down for his afternoon nap he asked if he could take Buzz and Woody with him. It was so sweet. We even wrote "HAYDEN" on Woody's boot and Buzz's feet. (Awww)

We went to several sales. Lots of cute clothes, but they were all the wrong sizes. So we headed over to Cambridge b/c they were having a subdivision sale. Well, their subdivision sale was only 3 sales. I was hoping to shop there for hours haha. The first place I spotted a food processor. I told Kevin to let me run up and see what it costs. As I got closer I could tell it was a nice fancy one. Then I saw the price - $15. I knew I was buying it regardless. I looked at it for a minute and talked to the lady about it. She mentioned she bought it, but never cooks and doesn't even know how to work it. So I thought it was a perfect opportunity to ask if she would take less. I offered her $10 and she accepted. I practically skipped out of her driveway I was so excited. When I got in the car, Kevin kinda gave me this look like "did you really just buy that" - then I asked to borrow his phone. I got on the internet and found the exact model still for sale for $199! What a deal!! Then he told me he was eying this book shelf that I hadn't even noticed. I went back and asked her how much she wanted for it, then went back and told Kevin $10, then he got out and loaded it in our car! Now we're fighting over who gets it. I want it for the family room and he wants it for the "Man Cave". I think I'm gonna win this fight though!

Before we called it a day, we stopped by one more sale we'd seen signs for. It was off Boonville New Harmony. I saw some kid clothes, they weren't anything I was interested in, but kept browsing so I didn't look rude. Then I saw an Ugg purse and heard angels start singing. I have wanted an Ugg purse for literally years. They are several hundreds of dollars so I never bought one. It didn't have a price tag on it, so I knew it wasn't cheap, but I took it up to her and asked what she wanted for it. She gave me this story about them selling for $150 on ebay and she just got it this past Christmas and has never used it blah blah blah. I told Kevin to offer her $50 and if she said yes I'd take it! (I was thinking Birthday or Christmas gift from Kevin to me). They worked out the price. $65. I'm thrilled about carrying it! It's gonna look so cute with all my Ugg boots! Now, c'mon December~

Clothes Shopping Tip

I worked at Old Navy for 5 years. I bought Hayden the cutest pair of Old Navy jeans at a yard sale this morning (for $2 - can't beat that)! The little painter jeans have been around for years and years and years. I was wanting to make sure this pair was not one of the older pairs. Did you all know that inside the clothing item, it tells the year it was made? I'm not sure ALL the stores do this, but check it out. There's a little white tag on the inside that said "3/10" which meant it was shipped to the store in the 3rd quarter of 2010. The khaki capris I'm wearing now say "SUM 06" and I bought them in the summer of 2006. So, make sure you're getting a good deal on your yard sale clothes before you hand over the cash. If Hayden's pants would have said "03/05," I would have gone up to the lady and said, "Listen, these jeans are 6 years old, so how about a quarter!" Ok not really, I don't like confrontation, but I would have asked if she would take less.

Here he is modeling them :)

Here's a look at the tag inside!

Whew!

It's been a BUSY last two days! I was on a mission to get Allie's 1 year scrapbook up to date... which I did complete! I also got a lot of other things accomplished, which meant my poor blog got neglected. Here's what I did: worked a 3 1/2 hour shift at Mother's Morning Out at church, cooked 3 meals every day, made a grocery list for the week, did our budget for the week, went to a yard sale (and scored a cute pair of jeans for Hayden), did the grocery shopping (Aldi & Walmart), stayed up with all the dishes, AND completed 38 scrap book pages! I want a nap - but instead I'm blogging - and when I'm done I have to get our homemade pizza in the oven :) Maybe tomorrow will be a more relaxing day? I'm hoping to make it to Sweet CeCes tonight, then come home and crash.
Here's a peak at some of my favorite scrapbook pages. I need to buy some more stickers (especially Christmas ones) but I feel good about where I left it!