magazine junkie...

I am a magazine junkie.

In 2008 I was receiving 6 different magazines at my door:

* Woman's Day

* Family Circle

* The Knot: newlyweds

* 5280 (denver's mag)

* Rachel Ray

* Real Simple

I was spending over 200.00 a year subscribing to these. WAY TO MUCH.

As Kevin and I were redoing our finances at the end of 2008; as we do every year when we go to do our taxes I discovered this expense. I allowed myself until January of 2009 to get my subscriptions in order and decided on the TWO I wanted to keep, at the time of renewal.

I decided on 5280. This is an awesome mag for people who live in Denver. It has fun and factual articles as well as sporting, cultural, and other events. Kevin even enjoys it most of the time!

I decided on Rachel Ray. Yes, she drives me crazy and not all of her recipes are good but overall I enjoy her and enjoy her magazine. I kept her and I'm glad.

THEN... for my birthday PEOPLE magazine got added. It was to much to keep up with at the library and even though it can be dramatic and trashy I enjoy it and it passes the time at work when my kids are napping and my other coworkers enjoy reading it when I am done. It gets lots of use and is well worth it. Although, the year has been fun... it might not get renewed. I will wait and see.

So the alternative to getting all of this in the mail was to find a place to read them each month. Kevin and I both love Tattered Cover Bookstore and the Library. We try to get there once a week just to relax and read.

Double WIN: time together, magazines for FREE

I love my once a week library date with my husband.

Now on to the good part:

I find so many things in magazines that I love. Websites. Clothing. Gadgets. Etc. I often want to share them so here they are.

Worth While Finds

* www.billshrink.com (shrink your cell phone and credit card bills, amazing!)

* www.meandgoji.com (make your own granola, GF options too!)

* www.3greenmoms.com (just check this out!)

* Old Navy has some really cute summer stuff, mostly all for under $20

* GF lasagna: sub the noodles for long thin slices of summer squash (can't wait to try this, looked so good in the picture... thanks Martha Stewart!)

Enjoy!

Friday: Day 8 and Reflections

Today is my day to finish up cleaning out the freezer and pantry.

I have three things going on:

1. making homemade croutons - we take the ends of bread and freeze it, when there is a bunch I pull it out and chop it up mix with olive oil and some seasonings and bake for 1 hour at 200 degrees in the oven. It saves for months in our pantry and we eat them on salads and soups.

Today I am making 2 batches --> a. olive oil with Tastefully Simple Onion Onion b. olive oil with Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Mix

2. Dried Apples - I use old apples that are sitting around and slice them and place in my dehydrator for 10 hours. Kevin's favorite snack!

3. Baked Beans - place dry beans in crockpot with twice as much broth (i used chicken) then I add cilantro, garlic, onions, cumin, and chili pepper. Let cook all day on LOW (about 8 hours). They will go great with our pulled pork sandwiches tonight!

Reflection:

Well it has been a good week and a whole lot easier than I ever imagined. First the struggles: Kevin drinks about a gallon of milk a week and we didn't have any all week, but as soon as I came home thursday night with a gallon he was happy again :) I struggled with it snowing outside and wanting to grill so much of the meat we had in our freezer. Thus I had to get a little more creative and make soup instead!

Our successes: everything we made we loved and would eat again. We had enough to cook in bulk so that we always had something for leftovers to eat in our lunches. Also I didn't throw anything out, we used enough to make lots of room to freeze our garden this summer and room in our pantry for more Tastefully Simple products! YAH

Now off to finish the laundry, check the croutons and play with Moose!

Thursday: Day 7

LAST DAY!

Today Kevin and I went through the pantry and freezer in hopes to throw together some trail mix for a mid day snack while we are at work. Here is what we came up with:

Gunn Trail Mix

* chocolate bar (chopped up)

* yogurt covered raisins

* whole almonds

* Tastefully Simple Twisty Grahams

* dried apples

* dried fruit mix - blueberries, cherries, strawberries

* cheerios (both apple cinnamon and banana)

It turned out really great and made a ton!

Breakfast: I had some cereal at work with my kids and Kevin ate some more banana muffins

Lunch: Kevin ate the final leftover Breakfast Pizza and I ate left over ham with grilled sweet potatoes.

Thursday evening is my shopping day for the week since I go right after work. So dinner is made from a mix of something we bought and items in our pantry.

Dinner: Grilled Salmon (fresh from whole foods) and Couscous with red onion and sweet red pepper.

Tomorrow my week comes to a close after I finish up some clearing out freezer and pantry baking!

Wednesday: Day 6

SNOW DAY SNOW DAY SNOW DAY !!!

It went from being 65 degrees this week to raining yesterday to a blizzard last night; welcome to spring in Colorado. Yes, we still went to get our free ice cream! It should have been a 30 min trip but instead took over 2 hours with the snow. That ice cream was SO GOOD though who doesn't want to run through a blizzard while eating ice cream :)

On to today... pretty much everything is closed around here so I have a snow day and Kevin still headed into the office, his work doesn't really shut down :(

Breakfast: We both ate some mini banana muffins (freezer)

Lunch: I decided to ignore the snow and venture out, the whole 3 blocks to the office to eat lunch with Kevin. We had leftover Crockpot Veggie Stew and some homemade bread that had just come out of the bread maker.

Dinner: We have a tradition to watch Survivor with the McCord family (daniel, nancy, bryan) so the three of us (yes, moose too!) went over there for dinner as well. We took some Tastefully Simple Beer Bread and homemade chocolate chip cookies with us to share.

The roads are clear and it is 40 degrees outside, back to work tomorrow for my Friday (aka thursday to the rest of the world!)

Tuesday: Day 5

Wow, five days in and still excited about what's for dinner! That is a good thing for sure.

Breakfast: Heidi had a sausage and egg breakfast burrito (found in the freezer, dated Dec. 09, score! still good!) Kevin had peanut butter toast, one of his favorites!

Lunch: left overs from monday dinner - Breaded Chicken Parm with Pasta Squash Surprise.

Dinner: Grilled Ham (frozen from Thanksgiving) grilled potatoes (slice long ways thin and shake in a bag with olive oil and garlic salt, place on grill with your meat - amazing!) Tastetfully Simple Beer Bread with Spinach and Herb dip (left over from our party on saturday night)

Now off to Ben and Jerry's! It is FREE cone day. Click on this for the link.

Monday: Day 4

Breakfast: Kevin enjoyed more cinnamon rolls! YUM Heidi took some granola and ate it with yogurt at work with her kids.

Lunch: both of us enjoyed left over Breakfast Pizza from Sunday night dinner, it was just as amazing fresh as it was leftover :)

Dinner: I got creative, that is the theme of the week you know! So I made a Breaded Chicken Parmesan (click on it for the recipe) that I found online with all the ingredients in our freezer/pantry. To go with it I used some squash that I had frozen last summer and mixed it with some left over noodles that were in the fridge. After I added a little extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and asiago cheese it turned out amazing! I called it Pasta Squash Surprise!

ohhhh I am already excited for the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Off to the library for our weekly library date! We go because we love to read and also because 8 months ago I realized I was spending over 150.00 a year on mag subscriptions, cause I am a mag junkie. So I canceled all but two of them and now I read them for free! YES PLEASE :)

Evening snack: garlic popcorn (homemade!)

Sunday: Day 3

Breakfast: egg sandwiches (egg, cheese, bagel)

Lunch: I had a Tuna Sandwich (tuna, mayo, cheese, bread) and Kevin had Tastefully Simple Corn and Black Bean Salsa with some tortilla chips. .... I had some of those too :)

Dinner: Breakfast Pizza (sausage, scrambled eggs, cheese, garlic and onions) and of course with Kevin's make from scratch homemade dough. SO GOOD!

side note - we had a LOT of eggs in our fridge when this week started, I think we have had enough eggs for a while!

Dessert: Smoothies (papaya, blackberries, limeaid... all from freezer)

Saturday: Day 2

Breakfast: I pulled out some Cinnamon Rolls that my mom made in Nov when they were here, they freeze so well and were very amazing for Kevin's breakfast! I had a conference for work this morning so I ate muffins and juice at the mtg.

Lunch: Kevin ate some Crockpot Veggie Stew that was made yesterday, said it turned out pretty good, I have yet to really sit down and have a bowl! I ate lunch with a friend as we made a trip to David's Bridal to try on dresses for a July wedding in Florida.

Dinner: Our "plans" again went out the window when I was not hungry (looks like I don't really eat... its a LIE!) but Kevin made an Egg Sandwich (bread, egg, cheese, mayo). Sounds good, wish I was hungry! :)

Evening: we are going out with friends for the evening for games and snacks. I am using the Tastefully Simple Beer Bread that I made for dinner last night and mixed up some Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Dip to serve with it. YUM, this will be great!

Friday: Day 1

here we go... starting out being creative with the menu!

BREAKFAST: nothing! ugh, not a good start, we have tons of options in the house but Fridays are an unusual day for us because we both sleep in. Kevin woke up late and rushed out the door (mind you we went from 65 degrees on thursday to this morning having 5 inches of snow). I slept in late with Moose because Friday is our day off together! So... on to lunch I guess :)

LUNCH: kevin comes home from work so we always eat together on Fridays we both had: chicken and cheese taquitos (freezer), and homemade salsa with tortilla chips

DINNER: Crockpot Veggie Stew (chicken broth w/cilantro, garlic, onion, chili powder and frozen corn, lima beans, eggplant, asparagus, squash, and some pinto beans mixed in) with Tastefully Simple Beer Bread! WELL, that was at least the "plan" instead we ended up babysitting and having a pizza party with the girls! Soup for tomorrow?

Not too bad for our first day!

cleaning out the freezer...

Well I have set myself up for a challenge this next week. I am actually pretty excited about it as I see it coming together.

BACKGROUND: I am a once a week shopper when it comes to feeding Kevin and I. We have found that this is the best way to save money and have fresh items on hand. Weekly we eat all three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks too of course) homemade. We seldom go out to eat and I more so than not make everything from scratch or it is a Tastefully Simple product, if I am needing something super quick. When things are on sale or I have an abundance in my garden (like last summer) I like to freeze for later use.

PROBLEM: the freezer is getting REALLY full AND it is springtime so that means time to start making room for this coming seasons on sale items and fresh garden vegetable and fruits!

THE CHALLENGE: to not enter the grocery store at all this week but to use up items in the pantry and freezer.

So... here it goes!!! (i'll post fridays menu tomorrow and go from there!)

a beautiful saturday

I can feel spring coming, hopefully sooner than later! Today it was only 52 degrees outside but it felt so warm and wonderful. We opened up a bunch of windows and sat out on the porch planting the starts for our garden. Our garden last year was so much fun and a great success. It added to our meal planning and allowed us to have weekly fresh flowers in the house. This year we hope to double that success. Here is our planting list so far:

sweet peppers

hot peppers

squash

eggplant

onions

zinnas

wildflowers

daisies

AND tomatoes

The tomatoes should be the exciting part. We ordered a sweet deal off of gardener's choice website (www.gardenerschoice.com) Two tomato trees for 6.98!!! They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee and are advertised as growing to be 8 ft tall with 2 lb tomatoes, that is about the size of a very large grapefruit! Can't wait to see these tomatoes!

We ended our beautiful saturday by going to the library and catching up on our magazine reading and eating Sushi for dinner. Now time for a movie and snuggle time with Moose.

Can't wait to post pictures of our garden!