Something I've Wanted To Try

I have always wanted to make a gnocchi dish. If you don't know, gnocchi are small dumplings made from potatoes. Maybe it's the Iowa in me, but I love potatoes. Fried, mashed, in a pierogie...they are extremely versatile.

Rachel Ray featured a recipe on her show once with gnocchi that made me want to try it. But when I went to the store, at that time I just couldn't justify spending $6 on a small package of gnocchi. And that was the price at Wal Mart. I love a challenge, so I thought I'd find a recipe to make it myself. Upon looking, though, I found the comments discouraged me from trying. It seriously takes a lot work, and with 3 kids that won't be happening!

In a post a couple of months ago, I told you All Recipes was a great website for recipes. I am not lying. I promise. I get a daily e-mail from them of featured recipes. Usually it's one recipe, but sometimes it's like an article with multiple recipes. Yesterday's e-mail was '5 Meals In 15 Minutes'. It featured a quick gnocchi recipe made with instant 'taters. Yes!!!

So I will most definitely be trying this one out. When Jon gets home of course. He'd really be sad if I made it, it was amazing, and did it while he was gone hehe. 

A quick tip, though. I like to try recipes like this one that have 4+ stars with many (read high hundreds or thousands) people rating it. If I have time I'll try one with less ratings, but I'd prefer a guaranteed winner. Of course, it could be fabulous and my kids end up not liking it...that's possible. But as long as Jon and I do, it's all good!

Check Me Out!

In an earlier post, I mentioned the website Crumbs and Chaos. They asked me to share a recipe with their readers, and I was so excited! I love their website and visit it often. Like pretty much every day. So head on over there today to view a family favorite recipe that I've shared.

*Warning* It's not budget! I know. We all have to get out of our comfort zone sometimes. Where it lacks in savings, it makes up for in taste. It's delish!

Snow Days and Disneyland

Pshew, Monday! And a happy day it is indeed! Except for my daughter that has to return to school today.

With all the snow here in Oklahoma, we had school one day last week, haven't had any mail since Monday and have sucked the grocery stores clean. I am in awe of people. I went grocery shopping last Monday before the first wave of snow hit and people were shopping like they were going to be confined all winter. Sheesh! Plan people, plan.

It will probably be the same today, considering we are supposed to get another 5-10 inches tomorrow. We'll see!

I, personally, had a fabulous time! I made snow ice cream with apple crisp (which was A-mazing!), brownies and sugar cookies. My waistline is not thanking me. Plus lots of comfort foods! Chili, Ham & Beans, Fireside Nachos...YUM! Here is the link to the recipe for Snow Ice Cream from Paula Deen, 3 ingredients and pure delish. Here is the link to the recipe for the apple crisp, one of the best I've had!

Snow Ice Cream
8 cups fresh snow
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together and serve immediately!

Apple Crisp
4 cups sliced apples
1/2 cups light brown sugar (pack it tightly)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
4 Tbsp cold butter (Half a stick)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Mix with the apples and set aside. In separate bowl mix flour, sugar and oats. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Pour apples into pan, pour crumble on top. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes, or until top is light brown.

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The complete opposite of cold is warm, and I was thinking about how nice it would be to visit somewhere warm. 3 years ago my parents took our entire family on a trip to Disneyland. It was their 30th Anniversary (which is the exact same day of Jon's 30th birthday!) and they wanted to celebrate! I, being the bargain hunter I am, wanted to try and save as much money as possible and ended up planning quite a bit of the trip. If you're planning a vacation to Disneyland, here are some things I learned:

**Disney Value Hotel vs. Non-Disney Hotel**
I was thinking I'd save us money by booking a hotel that has a shuttle multiple times a day to and from the parks. It was only about $20 cheaper, but with 2 rooms for 6 nights, that ends up being $240! Well, here's something you find out when you get there. You have to pay $15 a day per room for 'service charges'. There's no way out of it. There goes the big savings. The Disney shuttles came much more often, too. We'd see 2 or 3 shuttles come and go before we saw even 1 for our hotel.

**Dining Plan**
There's no doubt, it's hard to resist the temptation of buying food in the park. Disney offers dining plans when you purchase your tickets that can sometimes be bought at an extremely good rate. Unless you are very disciplined, buy the cheapest plan. We took our own food which worked out pretty great. BUT, there were a few meals that we ate in the park due to fatigue, or we were just plain hungry. What we spent in 2 or 3 meals could've bought a whole plan for half of us. If you have a stroller, it's not a big deal to take your food into the park. But if you don't, you keep the cooler in your car (if you drove) or in your hotel room. Sign up on Disney's website to get their monthly e-mails. In these e-mails you'll get information on the specials they are offering. When their meal plans are on sale, it's in this e-mail.

**Bibbity Bobbity Boutique**

Let me just say, I am frugal so this seemed like such a waste of money. But my mom wanted to do it for the girls, so I'm not going to protest! It is a fairy tale dream come true. From the moment the Fairy Godmother in Training takes your little princess to her makeover, until she leaves...it is an experience they won't forget. The bad? They are in hair, make up and dresses (optional) all day, and when it's hot that's not exactly ideal. The good? It's so amazing for a little girl. If you have $55 to completely blow, spend it on this. So. Fun. For little girls. You can bring your own princess attire so you don't spend an extra $100 on an outfit from the boutique.

**Airfare**
Make sure when you find a great price for a ticket (if you're flying) that the airport is close to you. We made the mistake of getting a great price on a ticket, but had to drive nearly 3 hours to get to the airport. Gas and parking extra cost $75. Unforseen expenses. Had we left from our home airport, we could've had a friend drop us off.

After re-hashing all of this, I want to go again!!!!! So if you're planning a trip to Disneyland, take some of these tips and have a great time!

Cheap Meals

Taking the long weekend off left me with a lot of time. Well, not really, because with children the time is constantly filled with something. But it felt like I had a lot of time!

So since I posted a couple of weeks ago about how our small grocery budget, I've been trying to research and come up with a similar menu to what we had 6 years ago. Food has gotten more expensive and so has my palette, so it was hard to think about what we actually ate. No fresh vegetables, a lot of processed or canned foods and lots of rice and beans. That diet is not for everyone. But I thought I would give it to you anyways. You do what you've got to do to make it through!

So here it goes. Keep in mind, this is bare bones budget meals, but a half step above ramen noodles every night. We had rice & beans at least 2 nights a week.



Meal list:
Macaroni & Cheese w/ vegetable (3 boxes for $1, Frozen broccoli 2lb bag $2)
Fried Egg Sandwich (Loaf of bread from $ Tree $1, Dozen eggs $1)
Rice and Beans (Bag of Black Beans $1, Bag of Rice $1)
Chili (Pound of Meat $2, Can Chili Beans $.60, Can Crushed Tomatoes $1, Onion $1)
Spaghetti (Box of 8 servings $1, Sauce $1, Frozen Green Beans $1)
Soup and Grilled Cheese (Can Soup $.50, Cheese $2)
Bean Burrito (Can Pinto Beans $.60, Tortilla $1)

Now we arrange the meals into 14 evenings of meals:
Night 1- Mac & Cheese     Night 8- Bean Burrito
Night 2- Rice & Beans       Night 9- Mac & Cheese
Night 3- Fried Egg Sand    Night 10- Rice & Beans
Night 4- Chili                    Night 11- Fried Egg Sand
Night 5- Spaghetti             Night 12- Spaghetti
Night 6- Rice & Beans      Night 13- Soup & Gr Cheese
Night 7- Soup & Gr Chs    Night 14- Rice & Beans

Next we make our grocery list according to our 2 lists above. You may need to go to different places. Because Wal Mart is raising the prices on their canned foods, Dollar Tree becomes the best place to buy a large can of crushed tomatoes, tortillas and even bread. Also keep in mind a dried bag of beans and rice lasts my family of 5(equal to 3 adults) for 4 dinners.

$.66 2 boxes of mac & cheese
$.75 Margarine                         
$2.00 Milk                               
$1.00 Bag of black beans            
$1.00 Bag of rice                
$.99  Dozen eggs                       
$1.00 Loaf of bread                  
$2.00 Pound of meat                 
$1.00 Can crushed tomatoes      
$1.00 Onion                             
$.60 Chili beans                        
$1.00 Box of pasta                    
$1.00 Can of spaghetti sauce      
$1.00 Bag of frozen green beans 
$2.00 Bag of frozen broccoli       
$1.00 2 cans condensed soup      
$2.00 Cheese                             
$.60 Can pinto beans                 

Total                                 $20.60

That leaves a little less than $5 for anything else you want for those of you that don't pay tax on food. For us here in OK, about 10% goes to tax leaving about $2 leftover. But that, my friends, is how it is done. Repeat the 14 days for nearly an entire month of eating on $50 for 2 people. If you would like, throw in a couple of nights of Ramen noodles. $1.98 for 12 at Wal-Mart!

What's your cheap go to meal? I need to expand!

Oatmeal Bread Recipe

I totally forgot to post the recipe I've used. I've been tweaking it here and there trying to figure out what I like best. It's still a work in progress in my kitchen, but hopefully I'll have my masterpiece soon! In the meantime, give the original a spin by clicking on the above link, or following it below.

Thank you CDKitchen.com!

Difficulty:   1 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)
Serves/Makes:   2 lb loaf

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups bread flour
1 cup oats
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:

Place ingredients in bread machine in order given. Set machine to "basic" setting.