Did you know???

I didn't know this until recently but someone (wish I could remember who) told me that Wegmans will fill your 90 day mail order prescriptions.  I wasn't sure if it was just that person's insurance that did it or what so a few months ago I tried it and OMG they do it!  PLUS it's cheaper!!!!!  Travis' meds were costing us $90 for a 90 day supply through mail order (which you of course have to wait for) and now we are paying $30 for a 90 prescription and we get it right away!  Now I don't know if every medication would be cheaper at Wegmans but this was sure was!  :)

WW Layered Mexican Lasagna--REVIEW

I made  this dish last week and in case you don't remember where I found it......you can find the recipe HERE.  I thought this dish was fabulous as did Evan and Jamey---a few others didn't voice their opinions though so I don't know what that means.  ;)  It didn't even seem like a WW type meal.  It was very filling and very tasty.  Did I tweak the recipe?  Yes I did--shocked?  lol  I had read in the comments that 3 cups of sour cream made the dish too watery---well 3 cups sounded like too much to me anyway and I love sour cream!  So I cut it to two cups and added a packet of taco seasoning.  This was a good addition for flavor if you ask me.  The only other real tweak was that I didn't add both cans of chilies--I used about 1.5 cans.  I was worried that 2 cans would be too spicy for Travis but it wasn't that spicy at all so next time I will add both cans in.  This is definitely a great recipe and it makes a ton of food---enough for 5 adults and 1 kid for dinner and for 3 adults to have leftovers for lunch!

I know it's raining out.........

but if you haven't been to Harris Teeter for their "super doubles" that end today.....GO NOW!  I got the following things for FREE:

These things I got super cheap.....After coupons the Hawaiian punch was .40, the Juicy Juice boxes were 1.29 per pack, all 3 shampoos/conditioners were .99 EACH (their combined full price value was MORE than my total), the butter was $1.39, the Danimals were $1 each, the YoCrunch greek yogurt pack was $1.29, the Oreos weer $1.19  and the pepperoni packages were $1.19 each!

Most of my coupons came from the Sunday paper or the Internet--and a few came from magazines.  :)

Menu February 25- March 3

Evan is gone until Friday so dinners here will be spaghetti squash for me and various things for the kids.  If I come up with any new and exciting ways to eat my spaghetti squash though I will definitely share it!  :)

Chicken and Broccoli Noodle Casserole-review

Last week I made this recipe by Skinnytaste.  You can find the recipe linked on her site right HERE.  I am going to start with the positives---this recipe was super tasty and everyone loved it.  Evan said "I don't know how this is supposed to be good for you---it tastes so good---what is the trick?"  The trick he is referring to is that some of the recipes I try add things like cauliflower or eggplant or something he wouldn't normally eat to make something more filling.  No trick here folks--just a lighted up dish of something super yummy.  The negatives with this recipe are that it was very labor intensive and dirtied up a lot of dishes for cooking, prepping etc.  I started preparing the meal at 6:15pm and we didn't eat until 7:30pm.  And that was with the chicken cooked already earlier in the afternoon! Now I know it takes forever and knowing is 1/2 the battle right?  :)

Travis vs. The New Lay's Flavors

If you want to watch something funny---watch Travis eat these chips for 2 minutes.  :) 

YouTube was acting funny when I posted this video so you will have to CLICK HERE to see it.  I promise it's worth the 2 minutes of your time.  I chuckle every time I watch it.  :)

Apple Pie Oatmeal--Review

This was a crock pot meal which is always a bonus.  I made it the other day for dinner--"breakfast for dinner" is popular around here.  You can find the recipe linked here.  I had never eaten or cooked with steel cut oats before--they look completely different and taste different but they are supposed to be a lot better for you than the regular oats.  I made the recipe as it's written but it's not very sweet.  Once I added some brown sugar before serving it up the taste was a lot better.  I have seen a similar recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of brown sugar---that is basically what I think this recipe needs.  Will I make it again?  Sure since I have more steel cut oats....BUT I will definitely make it a little less "good for you" and add at least a 1/2 cup of brown sugar to it.

Diet Soda Cupcakes--have you tried to make them?

For some reason I decided to try and make these low calorie/low point cupcakes yesterday.  The idea is very simple.....one box of cake mix mixed together with one can of diet soda.  Bake for about 18 minutes at 350 degrees.  That is IT!  You don't add water, oil, eggs or anything else the box tells you to do.  You are supposed to use light colored diet sodas (like diet 7up) for the lighter colored cake mixes and darker colored sodas for the chocolate flavored cake mixes.  I only had Diet Coke and a Funfetti cake mix (aka light colored)---other than the cupcakes having a little darker tint than normal you would never have known. Now for the taste......were they good?  UM YES!  And they were sooooo moist thanks I guess to the bubbles in the soda.  You can put some cool whip on them for frosting if you want or eat them as is like I did.  ;)  I need to do the math on the calories/points based on how many cupcakes I made but most sites say that 2 points is about right and less than 100 calories.  Don't be afraid and try to make them ASAP!

Baked Spaghetti Squash and Cheese Review!

I made this early last week and just hadn't gotten around to posting a review about it!  Sorry about that......  Anyway you can find the recipe by Skinnytaste linked HERE.  This dish wasn't difficult to make but it did take some time prepping all of the ingredients and I seemed to have a lot of dirty dishes in the end.  Now personally I loved this dish--Travis wouldn't take more than a bite and Evan originally said he didn't like it but then ended up eating two servings.  ;)  I did mess up and buy the wrong kind of cheese--the recipe calls for reduced fat cheddar--I got reduced fat Mexican for some reason so there wasn't a huge cheese taste since Mexican cheese tends to be a softer flavor.  Next time I will get sharp cheese since that gives the most cheese taste.  They are comparing this to a homemade mac and cheese---there are some components that lend themselves to this you still have spaghetti squash under it all.  I love spaghetti squash but when I have mac and cheese it isn't with a spaghetti noodle ever so it was hard to convince myself it was mac and cheese since the "noodle" wasn't right.  LOL  I will definitely make it again (with sharp cheese) and won't care if I am the only one eating it.  ;)

Menu February 18-24 WITH links

Monday-  Skinny Chicken Enchiladas
Tuesday-  Chicken and Broccoli Casserole by Skinnytaste
Wednesdays-  Leftovers
Thursday-  WW Layered Mexican Lasagna
Friday-  Leftovers
Saturday-  Mini make our own pizzas
Sunday-  Breakfast for dinner :)

We have two days for leftovers since the dishes the day before are larger and those nights we have other things going on.....birthday party, baseball tryouts and hockey practice!  Tuesday and Thursday's meals are new so I hope to get a review up soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The morning started out with me trying to make a Valentine's breakfast......I say trying because one of the items didn't turn out at all.  I was attempting to make heart shaped eggs and heart shaped bacon.  The eggs were easy since I just popped them into the pan that I made the crayons in.  The bacon on the other hand needed to be shaped into a heart before cooking.  I thought that sounded so easy but then I tried it.....maybe I had the wrong kind of bacon but none of them looked like hearts at all.  The bacon I used by the way is the bacon from Wegmans and it tends to be super fat on one end and very skinny on the other---I think for this you need bacon that is all on the skinny side.  So the plate looked like this (and yes I am showing you the one "OK heart" and what all of the others looked like-lol)

I guess I made one good heart and 5 broken hearts.  :(  I am a terrible mother apparently--lol.  I also did a "heart attack" wall again like I did last year.  Basically you put things you love about your kids, spouse etc and pop them on a wall or a door.  The ones I did last year stayed up all year and I smiled when I saw them every time---they are on the door to the mud room so we see them every single day, multiple times a day.

All of the hearts--the blank one is the one Evan forgot to fill out for me.  :)

A close up

I SCORE!---Video

Review of Hungry Girl's Big Apple French Toast Casserole

I made "breakfast for dinner" on Sunday and decided to try a new Hungry Girl recipe.  You can find the recipe linked here.  This was super easy to make and was SO GOOD!  Travis wasn't a fan but I think it was a texture thing since he normally doesn't eat French toast that way.  He loves French toast normally though so who knows.  I thought it was great and it didn't taste like it was good for you--lol.  I didn't use soymilk by the way--I used skim milk and I used granny smith apples instead of a Fuji.  It took a few minutes to put it together and the house smelled wonderful when it was cooking.  I had the last piece for breakfast the next day and it was just as good!  I need to try more of the breakfast recipes in the cookbook!

Crayon hearts for Brody's class

I pinned this almost a year ago as something I wanted to do for Brody's class in the future.  (I figure Travis is getting too old for this type of cutesy craft at school)  So about a week ago I ordered the silicone heart pan from Amazon since that was the 1st step!  (it was $8 when I bought it and $15 now-I guess it pays to shop early)  Here are my pictures showing the various steps:



Supplies are ready---crayons, pan and patience getting the paper off of the crayons!



Ready to go into the oven!  230 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Cooled hearts

 

Ready for names etc

 

 

In the end I learned that toddler crayons are MUCH easier to get the paper off of and some regular crayons have 2 layers of paper which is almost impossible to remove.  My hearts took about 20 minutes to bake and about 10 minute to cool.  They popped out of the mold very easily too!  It did take about 4 washings of the mold to get rid of the wax smell.  It seems like it's fine now.  ;)  I will definitely do this again for Brody's class the next few years.  :)

Hungry Girl's Perfect Pepperoni Pizzas--review

Let me start out by saying this recipe is super easy!  You can find the recipe here.  Honestly it's a stretch calling it a recipe but you will be glad to know that Evan and Travis both loved their pizzas and it took all of 10 minutes to make them.  We are having them again this week!  You can get creative with the ingredients--I added black olives and some Italian seasoning to ours.  Enjoy a filling and low point/calorie way to eat pizza!

Menu February 11-17

Monday- Baked Spaghetti Squash and Cheese by Skinnytaste
Tuesday-  Leftovers/ fend for yourself night
Wednesday-  English Muffin Pizzas
Thursday-  Red/Heart theme-  Heart shaped eggs and bacon for breakfast, Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert
Friday-  Apple Pie Oatmeal- crockpot
Saturday-  Thai Chicken and Pineapple Stir Fry by Skinnytaste
Sunday-  Skinny Chicken Enchiladas

This week Monday, Friday and Saturday are new recipes for us so I will be following up with reviews in the next week or so.  The recipe on Sunday I've made before and since it's way better than the last enchilada recipe I made I wanted to post the review again----you can find the review here. 

Weight Watchers Taco Casserole--review

My dish wasn't as pretty-lol

The other day I made this recipe that I had pinned on Pinterest a long time ago.  The recipe is easy to make you can find the link here.  I did substitute ground turkey for the chicken and I forgot to buy a green pepper so that was different too.  ;)  I was a little hesitant about the sour cream/cottage cheese combo but in the end it really worked.  It was definitely a tasty dish but very soupy---one person had mentioned in the comments to maybe add beans to thicken it up--that would probably help.  The recipe calls for 8oz taco sauce (which is a TON of sodium) so I think if I made it again I would put maybe 1oz of taco sauce in and a little water for the taco seasoning and add some beans.   Everyone ate it and went back for seconds but since it was soupy it was eaten by Evan and Travis like nachos with chips.  ;)

Oh the places you will go.......

I'm sure you have all read (at one time in your life) the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the places you will go".   I saw any idea on Pinterest to get all of your kids teachers from K-high school to sign the book and give it to them at high school graduation.  I wish I had seen this a few years ago since Travis' K and 1st grade teachers aren't at his school anymore but his 2nd grade teacher still is.  I ordered two copies of the book from Amazon and will have Travis and Brody's current teachers sign them/write a note at the end of the year.  I think this is a great idea and a wonderful memento.  You can probably recall a few of your teachers growing up but probably not all of them---this would give you that information and what they thought about you! I know when the boys get into middle school and high school this will be much harder to do but I will try to get it to at least a few of their teachers each year (maybe their favorite subjects or something).   The idea came from this site that I had pinned. awhile back.  I can't wait to see what their teachers write each year!  :)

Chicken and Black Bean Soup review

Let's start with the link....you can find the recipe by Skinnytaste here.  I am a huge sucker for a crock pot meal so I had to try this one.  Everything I have made from that site so far has been awesome and this was no exception!

It was super easy to put together (the hardest part was pureeing the beans in the blender-lol) and the end result was fantastic.  Everyone loved it but I will give out this word of caution.  This soup is very spicy--Travis really liked the taste but it was too spicy for him in the end.  When I make it next time I will put in 1/2 of the can of green chilis and save the other 1/2 for individual bowls (aka the parent portions-lol).  Sour cream is optional but I did put a small bit in mine to cut some of the heat.  I didn't get the avocado that it calls for since Evan doesn't generally eat it in non-guacamole form and Travis won't touch it.

We paired it with a warm loaf of "english muffin bread" right out of the bread maker.  If you have a crock pot I HIGHLY suggest trying this recipe!

Here is the nutritional information from the site (though the numbers for me would be different since I subbed guacamole for sour cream):  Servings: 7 • Size: 1 1/2 cups • Old Pts: 6 pts • Weight Watchers Points+: 6 pts Calories: 306 • Fat: 6 g • Protein: 28 g • Carb: 37.5 g • Fiber: 13.5 g • Sugar: 3 g Sodium: 698.4 mg (without the salt)

Hungry Girl's Pepperoni Spaghetti Squash

Last week I tried a new Hungry Girl recipe and it got "so so" reviews around here.  Travis tried one bite, I had one serving and Evan had two.  ;)  There isn't a link out on the web for it but it was basically cooked spaghetti squash, a can of tomato soup, onion, turkey pepperoni and some spices.  I didn't hate it but I don't usually eat red sauce with pasta and that is what this meal was trying to emulate.  I LOVE eating spaghetti squash with some laughing cow cheese melted in--it makes it seem like Alfredo sauce.  So I think that is why it wasn't my favorite dish---it made me wish I hadn't mixed it all together like the directions said-otherwise I would have eaten the spaghetti squash with Laughing Cow cheese.  lol 

I don't think I will make it again--I will be sticking to my version of things.  :)

Menu Feb 4-10

Monday-  Chicken and Black Bean Soup by Skinnytaste (crockpot)
Tuesday-  Turkey Zucchini Burgers by Skinnytaste
Wednesday-  Weight Watchers Taco Casserole
Thursday-  Chicken Taco Chili by Skinnytaste (crockpot)
Friday-  Leftovers
Saturday-  Perfect Pepperoni Pizzas by Hungry Girl
Sunday-  Apple French Toast Casserole by Hungry Girl  (breakfast for dinner night!)

The recipes on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are new so I will be reviewing them sometime in the next week.  The ones linked on Tuesday and Thursday are HUGE hits in this house--definitely worth trying!