Monday, November 30, 2015

New twist to the Monday Menu

That's right, it's back and there is a twist. Instead of Menu being about the upcoming week it's going to be about last week. This gives me the time to put up the recipes and take pictures. This week I am going to go over Lunches and Dinner. It was the week of Thanksgiving so all the kids were home from school. It was a great week. I got to make sure everyone got warm lunches and dinners in their belly's.

Monday:

Lunch: Sausage and Pinto Beans.
This meal was part of Sunday's left overs (Pinto Beans) I took smoked sausage and just heated it up and mixed the beans and sausage together.

Dinner: Chicken Enchiladas Pasta.
http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/chicken-enchilada-pasta.html

This meal was a hit with everyone in the house, I even used all the left over pasta that I had open bags on.

Tuesday:

Lunch: Chicken Roll ups with Pinto Beans. ( yes the beans made it for another dish)
http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/crescent-chicken.html
This is a wonderful meal to make for lunch. It heats up great.

Dinner: Buffalo Chicken Soup with White Rice

http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/spicy-buffalo-chicken-soup.html
The step-sons loved this and went back for 2nd's I was shocked because they are picky eaters.

Wednesday:

Lunch: This is a Left over lunch

Dinner: Beef Tamale Casserole
Also The recipe did not call for re-fried beans, however, I took the pinto beans I had left over and mashed them up and added them to the dish.
http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/slow-cooker-beef-tamale-casserole.html

Thursday:

 Lunch and Dinner: THANKSGIVING
This will all be posted on tomorrow's blog

Friday:

Lunch: Ham Fried Rice (from the leftover ham from Thanksgiving and the leftover rice from the dinner on Tuesday)

http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/ham-fried-rice.html

Dinner: Turkey Sandwiches (from the left over turkey from Thanksgiving)

Saturday:

Lunch: It's that time of year, that's right Leftovers.

Dinner: It's was another Leftover night. Everyone had a choice of Beef Tamale Casserole or Buffalo Chicken Soup. To my surprise no one complained about having leftovers for 3 meals back to back.

Sunday:

Lunch: Southwest Egg rolls
http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/this-ia-great-meal-to-make-for-lunch.html
For this dish I did not use chicken, I used turkey from Thanksgiving. It was one of the ways I could used the leftovers.

Dinner: Crock Pot Green Beans, Potatoes and Sausage
http://neverinthekitchen.blogspot.com/p/crock-pot-sausage-green-beans-and.html




Friday, November 27, 2015

12 months of budgeting

I am super excited. I started a budget for my family in January of 2015 this budget was set into place to see where our money is going. How much we are spending yearly on bills and food. I have one more month to complete it and I am super excited!
As I have stated before I have been really focusing on our food budget, and it's coming along great. Although I stopped monthly grocery shopping and have been shopping weekly I am hoping to go back into the monthly grocery shopping again. over the month of December I'm going to do a 2 week grocery shopping haul and then in January start the monthly shopping haul.
I have been meal planning for a while and I love to sit down and write out my meals. There have been times when it was tough and finding the time was difficult but I stuck through it. My hubby tells me that he has never eaten so good since I started meal planning. The secret to meal planning is to make a plan and stick to it. Even when you cook something only half of your family likes stick to it. You cannot please everyone.

This is how I start my meal planning for my grocery hauls.


I start with writing out lunches and dinners for Saturday thru Friday.  I try to make easy lunches that can be made on a Sunday morning and heated up thru the week. I do use left-overs days in both the lunches and dinners.I have found that not having left-over days/nights is just throw money away. I hate wasting food.  I also write up 4 breakfast ideas to make thru the week along with different snacks. The fruit for our snack does depend on what fruit will be on sale.
These 2 pieces of paper is my rough draft of meals for the week to make it my final draft I add it to my day planner.
 Hubby and I have been trying to eat smaller portions and when it comes to snacking we have been eating healthier.
From there I go through each recipe and write down everything that is needed to cook this meal.

 After I finish writing everything down I go grocery shopping in my kitchen and mark off everything I have. If I am running low on something I keep it on my list.
I write up my final grocery list after I look at the sale ads.If I have coupons I attach them to my grocery list.
My grocery list has saved me so much money at the grocery store. This week I shopped at Aldi, Krogers and Sprouts. 
When it comes to meal planning start off slow. do one week at a time and if you like work your way up to bi-weekly and monthly. 


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

November Empties

Hello Darlings! I have some empties to share with you. All the empties this month I loved! They were wonderful products.
I got PARLOR Shampoo and Conditioner from October's Birchbox. The full size Shampoo retails for $22.00 and Conditioner for $ 22.00. I got 1 use out of each sample and I loved how my hair smelt after and how it didn't dry out my hair.


Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream was AWESOME! I got this in my September 2015 Birchbox and the full size retails for $18.00. If you love the smell of blueberries this product is for you. I loved how silky it went on my skin and how wonderful it smelled.
Temple Spa, LaLa Lagoon Aromatic Bath & Shower Gel was in my November 2015 Birchbox. The full sized bottle retails for $18.00. Talk about feeling like your in a spa. The smell was wonderful and relaxing,plus my skin was silky smooth after I used it.

Juara Skincare  Turmeric Antioxidant Radiance Facial Mask was in my August 2015 Ipsy bag.  The full size retails for $37.00. I loved how this brighten my complexion.
Dr. Brant Pores No More Cleanser was in my September 2015 Birchbox. The full size bottle retails for $15.00. I was super surprised at how well this cleaned my face, 
Beauti-Control Extra Help Concealer. I can not remember how long I've had this or for how much it was. I was super sad to see this empty. This product was awesome for the dark rings under my eyes.

Birchbox and Ipsy are monthly subscription boxes that cost $10.00 a box/bag. They send sample size products to try and I love getting the sample from them. Birchbox sometimes offer's a coupon code for $5.00 off for 1st time users. So google for the coupon code. 

I would love to hear what beauty products work for you? What products haven't?

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Weekend with family and friends

Hello everyone! This past weekend was wonderful! I spent time with family and friends and made some wonderful memories.
Friday night my wonderful hubby went to go pick up my step-son's, they are spending Thanksgiving week with us. I couldn't go with him I had to pick up my son from work so I stayed at home and worked on my calendar for the next week.

 Saturday started off with taking kids to work and I, myself headed to work for a few hours before I started my week long vacation. (I wanted to make sure all my ducks were in a roll for my team mates)
Due to the fact that I went into work I had to do my grocery shopping after work. I went to Sam's Club and Kroger's IT WAS A MAD HOUSE! It took me 3 hours to get in and get out from the stores. Lucky for me my daughter was with me to help navigate the aisles.
The hubby spent the day with his kids bonding with donuts and video games.
The wonderful hubby made dinner for the night. It's his take on Shepard's Pie and it was wonderful!
Hubby and I had plans for Drinksgiving with friends at The Londoner in Addison. We were both looking forward to it! It's my favorite pub to go to because of the atmosphere.
Plus they have one of my favorite drinks, a Cucumber Cup
We had so much fun Saturday night. It's always good to get out with my hubby and have adult time.
Sunday was basically and easy day.
The hubby and I went to Home Depot to price out some projects for the up coming year. I can't wait to share them with you!
 It was the last race for NASCAR. So we were going to camp out on the couch and watch it. I made sure to put Pinto Beans in the crockpot so dinner would be ready while the race was going on.

It's was a blessed weekend with family and friends! I can't wait for next weekend.





Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Planning of Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving! I love this time of year! I get to spend time with my family and re-charge myself from a week off from my 9-5 job. I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family I can't wait to share the Yummy's I've made.

I wrote a couple of months ago about how I was starting my Christmas planning. I have stuck to it and I have purchased a couple of gifts and I also purchased and started working on our Christmas letter. I found the perfect Christmas Letter on Esty.com
The shop I got my letter from the shop: The Fourth Bud.
She has many different letters to choose from. It was downloadable and easy to type in.
It cost $8.00. That is 8.00 of worry free Christmas planning and 1 more thing off my Christmas planning list.
It took me about 2 weeks to actually sit down and complete the letter. I was in no rush and wanted to get everything right. It was super easy super cute and a fun way to send Christmas Greetings to my friends and family.
I already have the envelopes addressed and the letter ready to go. GO ME!

Next up is I am finalizing my homemade gifts. Over the year I made a list of different homemade gifts I can make. Now that I have made a list of people to give gifts to I am finalizing what gifts I will be making. I can't wait to show you!

What are you planning for Christmas? What is going to be your themes for Christmas decorations? What traditions does your family have? I can't wait to hear about all of them!