And the summer comes to an end

So, just for a quick update about not eating out- we're doing AWESOME! We have been to chick-fil-a a couple of times on our way to the beach, but we have cooked every night since I started this whole business. My hubby is keeping me honest too...the other day I was REALLY wanting some zaxby's and he said "we're not eating out- fix yourself a sandwich". What a great husband.

On Thursday we will return to work! Yikes! I feel very much not ready to return, but it'll be fine. I'm going to need a LOT of prayer for my attitude. I got some MAJOR low blows this summer that were VERY unfair in my opinion. I'm trying VERY hard to get past them, but it's very hard when the negative things KEEP piling up.

I don't usually whine, but my husband has gotten a full dose of Negative Nancy these last few weeks. He's ready for Possitive Polly to come back. So, this will be a very different kind of year for me, but I'm hoping and praying for the best and for God to shine His light through me. He's only going to be able to do that if I adjust my attitude and stay possitive, so here's to that!

On another note- I rearranged my classroom this week. It works. Today we got some school supplies. This is the first year that I have bought the bare minimum, but let's be honest- there were NO back to school sales around here AND I don't have the money to buy everything I usually buy. No penny paper, no penny pencils, no penny anything! So, I spent a giftcard to target on some supplies a couple of weeks ago, and today I spent $20 on some other stuff.

It is going to be a fantastic year because I'm going to make it one :)

Operation don't eat out days 3,4, and 5

Day 3- Pork chops, grilled squash, potatoe casserole

Day 4- hamburger helper and cucumbers with ranch.

I have to admit that yesterday I did pick up chick fil a on the way to the beach for lunch. I didn't have anything in the house that I could throw together to tote to the beach, but we're good with dinners still. Thank goodness!

Day 5- Tonight we'll be having hamburgers and grilled corn :) Yummy!

We have even vowed to cook out for our friends on my birthday. Yeah!

Operation eat at home day 2

Deer spaghetti and garlic bread.

Brown your ground deer with half of a chopped onion and half of a green pepper (or not if you hate those things). FYI- using deer meat will save you half the calories.

I used smart pasta, because we like it, and because it is the pasta with the least amount of calories and the most amount of fiber. I think it's 170 calories per servings and 7 grams of fiber!

I just broiled 3 pieces of bread spread with butter and sprinkled with garlic salt in the oven. We never buy garlic bread...wast of money.

On spaghetti night we usually say no to veggies, but last night I was hungry before my hubby got home so I sliced a tomato from the garden and ate it.

Tonight we'll be grilling.

Night 1 operation don't eat out

Tonight we had baked chicken, garlic red potatoes, broccoli and rolls.

Baked chicken-

2 (or however many chicken breasts)

Light balsamic vinagrette poured over the breasts until they are well covered

Cook at 350 for 45 minutes (or until your breasts are done)

Garlic red potatoes-

Cubed red potatoes

Garlic salt

2 tbsp butter

*These are a favorite around here*

I have this nifty tupperware round thing that is meant for steaming veggies. I put the ingredients in, cook it for 12 minutes in the microwave and let the potatoes sit an extra 15 minutes- they will melt in your mouth.

Rolls and broccoli were found in the bottom of the freezer.

Operation don't eat out

Today my hubby and I are starting operation don't eat out in our household. I love to cook, but I also have a million excuses as to why I don't cook every day. Even when I go to the grocery store, buy everything for dinners for a week, and cook all of them, I end up eating out for lunch.

My husband and I spend roughly $300 a month (probably a lot more) on eating out. We also spend almost $100 a week at the grocery store (which is ridiculous). Today, not having a lot of money to get through the rest of the month, I went to the grocery store with $53 in cash, a short list, and without my precious husband (who likes to go to the grocery store when he is really hungry and buy on impulse without a grocery list).

Originally I was only going to pick up a few necessities to get through this week with my $20 left from vacation. However, we have 2 more weeks until pay day and I saw a TON of great sales at Kroger, so I decided to shop for 2 weeks with the other $33 I had from selling something on ebay.

We are extremely lucky to never have to buy red meats. We have a deep freezer full of yummy deer meat which we use for different things; steak, ground beef, roast, sausage, etc.

Basically I just have to be really creative and cook a lot. During the school year it is REALLY hard to work all day and have the desire to cook when I get home. I found this blog http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ that I hope will help me out. This past year I did a whole chicken in the crockpot several times and deer roast wrapped in bacon in the crockpot (really delicious) almost every week.

Brandon loves a good sandwich and chips for lunch, so I bought bread. We have 8 pounds of lunch meat left over from our wedding that is in the deep freezer ready to be pulled out. So no need to worry about lunches for a while...just need to buy bread and maybe cheese. I made a huge thing of pasta salad for me to eat for lunch, since I am not a sandwich eater.

Breakfast- well I love cereal and oatmeal and Brandon doesn't eat breakfast. That is not the meal we have trouble eating out for.

This week I bought all the necessities for the next 2 weeks for just under $40 ($39.96 to be exact). I'm not going to go out and cut a ton of coupons (because this leads to spending where we do not need to), but I'm going to stick to my list and leave my husband at home.

So this is what I got-

5 chicken breasts (we already had 3 at home and I seperated them into baggies w/ 2 each)
4 boneless pork chops (seperated into baggies w/ 2 each)
2 ears of corn
1 head of lettuce
1 bag of butter beans
1 jar of chicken bullion cubes
6 boxes or rice a roni long grain rice (which has no "roni" and is healthier than the regular and it was only 49 cents today at Kroger)
1 box of mac n' cheese
1 box of rotini pasta
4 large gatorades
1 box of active lifestyle granola bars
4 cans of pringles
1 loaf of bread
1 bag of hamburger buns
1 tub of butter
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 gallon of milk
(I'm sure I've forgotten something)

I know you are probably like- what about your fruits and veggies? In our refrigerator we already had 4 plums, a pound of fresh cherries and lots of apple sauce. We also have this wonderful garden with tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and squash. We also have a bag of potatoes and lots of cereal. So...hopefully we'll be good for the next couple of weeks. I have $13 left over that I'm planning to go buy the necessities for next week- more milk, bread and probably an onion, maybe another pound of cherries (I<3 fresh cherries)

We'll see how this goes, but I think we could probably save around $500 a month by doing this. So this month, we will not eat out any more. And next month, we will be eating out once, but someone else will be paying (I <3 my birthday). This is the goal for us! I'm excited!

You're the crust to my pizza

I've always really hated pizza. I couldn't really tell you why, other than I used to have some stomach issues that made digesting cheese difficult...However, I couldn't really tell you when I started hating pizza.

Over the years I have decided I like Papa John's pizza. Don't know why exactly, but I do. I have only had it once since my hubby and I have been together, but it's not my hubby's favorite, so that's fine by me. I have ALWAYS loved pizza crust. I know, I know- most people don't even eat the crust, but I LOVE it. I despise pizza with a horrible crust.

My hubby has pizza at least once a week. If it's from pizza hut (which happens to be the only big name pizza place in our small town) he's going to order a stuffed crust meat lover's pizza. I will not eat that, because there is WAY too much cheese for me. I order wings if we decide to order pizza. We have a little italian place in town that serves pizza, but the crust is terrbile, so he always gets a meat lovers calzone. Everything is either meat lovers or pepperoni if he's going to get pizza.

Today we were both REALLY hungry and needed to go to Macon (which has far more restaurants) anyways, so I told him he could pick where we ate lunch. He picked Mellow Mushroom, which is fine because they have some GREAT hoagies. I ordered half of a greek salad and half of a steak and veggie hoagie. Hubby ordered pepperoni pizza. My hubby's favorite pizza crust comes from Mellow Mushroom, and I think it could possibly be his favorite pizza place. Today I found myself craving for some pizza crust. I asked him if I could have a bite of his pizza and he said "yes. just not the crust"...I was so bumbed. I declined the offer because I despise hot pepperoni (love it cold though). On his last piece of pizza he gave me his crust, of course after he had explained how much he truly LOVES the crust. I love my man...he knew exactly what I wanted. That crust sprinkled with parmasean cheese....YUM!

Woah doggy!

My hubby had to work today for the first day since we got married... I can't complain one bit. 22 days of wedded bliss and neither of us has had to work. The next few weeks he just has to go to softball practice for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening...not too bad. And they didn't start until 9, so he still got to sleep in compared to when August hits us.

We happen to have the most wonderful puppy in the world. Her name is Ginny May Davis (Brandon named her before I met her)...we just call her Ginny. She is great about going out in the morning. She's never been on a leash before. We slightly considered it after she got hit by a car, but we moved to a neighborhood instead. We have this lovely yard and she usually does a couple of laps around the house in the morning, finds her a good spot, and takes care of business. Then, she usually comes back to bed if we decide to stay in bed.

This morning, my hubby took her out before he left, and OH MY GOODNESS...he must have not left her out long enough to finish all of her business. I stayed in bed because I don't have anything to do today, and this little munchkin would not stop pouncing on me. Ginny doesn't bark much, unless there is a knock at the door, but she was whining like a little baby this morning. So I put some decent clothes on (since my next door neighbors always want to conversate in the am) and took this girlie outside. I thought she was playing a joke on me at first like "haha mom I didn't want you to sleep in today"....but after exactly 8 minutes she found her a good little spot.

Gotta love this doggy. Now she's cuddled in my arms as I type. I LOVE cuddling her like a little baby. She weighs all of 15 pounds, and she will never get any bigger. What a sweet baby :)

Random things

A few other people have written some random thoughts this week...so I'm following the trend.

I have an obsession with frogs. I also have most of them hidden for my children later in life.

I LOVE swimming. I could stay in a pool all day long and never get tired of it...I would get tired of sun burn though.

I love to paint. I just painted our dining room a beautiful "marina" blue that matches my table cloth and my china.

I think puppies are so adorable, and if ours wasn't so darn expensive we would get another. However, she must be groomed every month and she always has ear infections or bladder infections...so she racks up the vet bill very well every month.

My mother in law is the BEST at taking lots of pictures. She always has that camera, and immediately goes to a photo printing place and makes a set for everyone that was there. It's GREAT! Brandon hates pictures, so he is not fond of it, but I sure do enjoy it.

This summer I can count on my hands how many times I have applied make up. My cheeks get all rosy in the summer time and I just love going make-up-less. Plus once August gets here and I have to work again, it'll be back to putting a little on each morning.

I aspire to be a stay at home mommy :)