Restocked Coupons Today!

When I checked on http://www.couponmom.com/ a little while ago I noticed that they had restocked the dairy coupons! That includes the $1.00 off 2 pounds of cheese, $.75 off of any 1 (32 oz.) or 4 (any size) yogurt, and I was able to reprint the save $1.00 when you buy 2 packages of Kraft or Cracker Barrel natural cheese. Don't forget to print them each twice! Last time I used my Albertson's doublers with my cheese coupons and with the sale price of 2 pounds of cheese for $2.99 I ended up purchasing 6 pounds of cheese for $.49 a pound!

Handy Invalid Care Tips!

Just a couple quick tips today! I brought hubby home from the hospital today. He was desperately in need of a bath, but he can't get his cast wet for 21 days. Wrapping his leg in a garbage bag and having him stand in the shower with the injured leg away from the water took care of that (wrapping a towel around the top of the garbage bag and duct taping it in place helps absorb drips and keeps water from running under the bag). Unfortunately, he is taller than me so washing is hair and upper extremities was causing the soapy water from the shower to run down my arms and drench my shirt. I took a couple of old crew socks, and cut the stretchy top part off. I put those on each forearm, and viola, it absorbed the drips! The crew sock trick would work great with toddlers who want to feed themselves. Use a couple mismatched kids socks the same way to absorb food drips. Also, the hospital sent us home with a couple of ice bags to use. They are long and skinny with ties on the ends. Very handy, but a stinker to fill with crushed ice. After dumping more ice on my foot than in the ice bag, I wised up and used my canning funnel. A canning funnel is designed to fit into the opening of a regular mason jar, allowing the produce to be placed easily into the jar. Well, it also fit perfectly into the opening of the ice bag allowing the ice to slide in easily (and not all over the floor). If you need to make your own ice pack, fill a quart sized freezer bag with 1 part alcohol to 2 parts water. Make sure the bag is completely sealed and freeze flat in the freezer. The alcohol will keep it from freezing solid. Making it much easier to form around the injury (wrap a hand towel around the ice pack to avoid frost bite). They are reusable; just place in the freezer to refreeze. Hopefully, you won't have to use these handy ideas on any of your loved ones, but it's good to be prepared....just in case!

Dry Onion Soup Mix Recipe

My darling hubby had surgery this morning to repair a fractured knee cap (moral of the story: DO NOT STEP IN THE PUDDLE IN THE PARKING LOT, IT MIGHT BE ICE INSTEAD!) While I was in the waiting room during his surgery I thought I would do a little menu planning to get organized, since I will have an invalid on my hands for the next three weeks. I was looking through my copy of "What's For Dinner?" by Jana Schofield ( another Tightwad Mom's Frugal Book Pick, by the way) when I came across her recipe for making your own dry onion soup mix. I have a lot of recipes that call for this particular ingredient, but it's kind of pricey. Not to mention, that I have been out on more than one occasion (usually, right when I'm in the middle of throwing the recipe together). So, I thought I would share. I'm going to buy the ingredients in the bulk section at the grocery store, and mix up a triple batch, so I'll always have some on hand.

Dry Onion Soup Mix

3/4 cup beef bullion powder (or beef soup base powder)
1 cup minced dry onion
1/8 teaspoon onion salt (or plain salt)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup onion powder

Mix together and store in a jar (a clean empty peanut butter jar would work great). 1/4 cup mix = equals 1 package of onion soup mix. Note: I think I will add 1 tablespoon garlic powder into my mix.

Warm Banana Cobbler

Holy Moses! I have to share this recipe with all of you! I made Warm Banana Cobbler for dessert tonight. I had some bananas that were freckly (see I can turn this into a frugal post). I wanted to try something new, and my family is getting sick of banana muffins or pancakes every time the bananas get ugly (which seems like about every fourth day). I must also confess that I make the crappiest banana bread......EVER!! I was hankerin' to do a little baking, and I found this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks ("Better Homes and Garden's 9x13 The Pan That Can). If your a banana fan you have got to try it; it is FABULOUS! I made a few tweaks by adding some nutmeg, and cinnamon. I also added an egg into the batter to give it a richer flavor. I also omitted the nuts (they make my tongue break out). My dear hubby gave it a double thumbs up, so it must be a winner (he's picky and not afraid to voice his opinion). I'm telling you it tastes like heaven! Anyway, drum roll please.......

Warm Banana Cobbler

1 1/2 cups self rising flour, divided ( just mix 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon salt together in a small bowl. It is exactly the same thing)
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup butter melted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 ripe bananas
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 butter
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

In a medium bowl stir together 1 cup self rising flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. Add in milk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Slice bananas over the top of the batter in a single layer. In a large bowl combine butter, 1/2 cup self rising flour, oatmeal, and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Cut in the 1/2 cup of butter until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over bananas. Bake at 375 for 30 - 35 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes, and serve while it is still warm with ice cream.

The perfect treat for a cold winter night! Enjoy!

Yummy Fry Bread Recipe

Navajo Tacos are an easy and cheap dinner idea. Basically it's a scone or fry bread topped with chili, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes (in season), sour cream, and salsa. My hubby served a church mission on the Navajo Indian Reservation. A little Navajo grandma took a liking to him, and gave him her family recipe. Thought I'd share it. The trick to light fluffy fry bread is to let the dough rest for as long as possible. I like to whip a batch up before church and let it sit while we are gone ( I have let it set for up to four hours before). This recipe makes quite a few, but my family gobbles them up as fast as I can fry them!

Fry Bread

6 cups all purpose flour (or 4 cups all purpose flour and 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
2 - 2 1/4 cups water

Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together milk and water. Add to dry ingredients and mix together until a soft dough forms ( it will be sticky). Place in a greased bowl. Cover bowl and let rest for at least a half an hour. Pinch balls of dough the size of golf balls and stretch out flat. Fry in two inches of hot oil (if you strain the cooled oil through a mesh strainer and refrigerate, you can reuse it a second time) until light brown; turn over and fry the other side. Serve as a Navajo Taco or with jam or honey.

School Lunch Ideas

Yikes! They just announced in our newspaper that our school district is raising school lunch prices another nickel. That may not sound like much, but it is already $1.85 for elementary school and $1.95 for secondary school. Times that by 2 children @ $1.85 and 2 children @ $1.95 it comes to $7.60 a day or $38.00 a week. That's about half of my weekly grocery budget! Not to mention I question some of the "healthy" lunch items that they serve.

If you are like me I run out of creative lunch box ideas quite often. I have one child that ate a bagel with cream cheese, half an apple, and a granola bar every day for half of the school year, but the other three are all about variety. I picked up a lunch box for my Star War's fan for a $1.00 at Deseret Industries. My 14 and 10 year old's lunchboxes came from the clearance table at Fred Meyer's. One cost $3.00 and one cost $2.50. I also bought a refillable thermos on the same clearance table for $1.25, and a couple at Deseret Industries for $.25 each . It's not cool to pack a lunch box in High School so my oldest son brown bags it, literally. It was an initial investment, but I think I have recouped the cost. My only dilemma was how to send beverages in their lunches. None of the lunchboxes came with thermoses, and Capri Suns and juice boxes are to expensive to do all the time.
After much brain storming I came up with these (I had to show you the thermoses, too.):
The frozen juice container is the perfect size (about 12 oz.) to send milk or juice, and it has a screw top, which is perfect for my 10 and 8 year olds. Fewer leaky messes when the lunch boxes come home! Anyway, here I are a few ideas for filling up your kid's lunchboxes.

Main items:
1. sandwiches made with leftover chicken, turkey, or roast.
2. spread a tortilla with peanut butter, drizzle with little honey and roll around a banana
3. PB and J rolled up in a tortilla
4. a bagel spread with flavored cream cheese ( I buy plain whipped cream cheese and blend strawberry or raspberry freezer jam into it to make flavored cream cheese; much cheaper than buying it ready made at the store).
5. homemade lunchables made with cheese slices and canadian bacon, pepperoni, bologna, or lunchmeat (cut the meat and cheese into fun shapes with a small cookie cutter) with crackers
6. leftover fried chicken
7. peanut butter and apple slices ( they sell tiny storage containers at Dollar Tree that are the perfect size for sending condiments in lunch boxes)
8. yogurt and graham crackers (my kids like to scoop the yogurt with the graham crackers)
9. Spaghettios (warm up and placed in a thermos)
10. leftover chili or soup in a thermos
11. basically any leftover warmed up and put in a thermos (not such a big hit with the little boys, but my daughter loves it)
12. cubes of cheese and pretzel sticks (my kids like to spear the cheese with them)

Side items:
1. applesauce and graham crackers
2. pretzels
3. apple slices (dip in 7 up or lemon juice if you kids are weird about brown apples)
4. any fruit in season
5. carrot and celery sticks or pickle slices with ranch dip
6. homemade trail mix
7. canned fruit sent in a reusable container (pineapple and mandarin oranges are very popular at my house)
8. tortilla chips and salsa

Treats:
1. homemade muffins
2. homemade cookies, cake, or brownies
3. banana, applesauce, or pumpkin bread
4. jello or pudding (make your own and put in a washable container)
5. granola bars
6. flavored popcorn or carmel corn
7. yogurt covered pretzels
8. homemade fruit leather

Beverages (I always fill the containers 1/3 of the way full with milk or juice the night before and place in the freezer. In the morning I add more milk and the powder milk mix and shake it up good, or add more juice. By lunch time it has thawed enough to drink, but keeps the beverage cold:
1. chocolate milk
2. strawberry milk
3. orange or apple juice (made from concentrate, then you'll have the fabulous containers)
4. ice water
5. hot chocolate (fill the thermos with boiling water and send a cocoa packet. Add a leftover candy cane to stir it with)

Happy lunch packing everbody. Hopefully this post will save you a little money and give you some different ideas for lunchtime!

Hooray! It's Baking Day!

Today I decided to do a little baking. It all started with the bread. We are on our last loaf so I started a batch this morning. While it was rising I decided to make some brownies for lunches. Then I thought maybe I should make some muffins for snacks or breakfast for the next couple of days. While I was at it I might as well make a double batch of cookies, right? The oven was already heated up, so I might as well. When I was all done I ended up with:

1. Six loaves of whole wheat bread ( one loaf went home to Uncle Matt's house)
2. Two dozen Cranberry Almond Muffins (recipe is located in the older posts; if your interested)
3. One pan of Reese's Pieces Brownies (I had to use up all the extra Reese's Pieces from my race car making stint)
4. Ten dozen Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies ( if you have Shredded Wheat crumbs laying around replace some of the oatmeal in the recipe for an equal amount of crushed Shredded Wheat)

It took a total of five hours start to finish, but we have home baked treats for a few days ( I hope). Baking from scratch is so much cheaper, and healthier than buying them from the store. Now my kids (and the neighbor kids, and my brother in law, and my nephews) think I'm the coolest mom on the block (for a minute). Plus, I like to bake, so for me it's cheap therapy.