recession renegade

Before this weekend I had never clipped a coupon in my life. Recently, though, I started following a blog about savings and coupons in Las Vegas, and I decided that I could apply a lot of the same tricks here in Idaho! For my first time, I think that I did a pretty good job! First I discovered that Albertsons is having a special until tax day: if you buy an Albertsons gift card for $250 you get $20 extra. I easily spend that much at Albertsons each month, so I used most of my grocery budget on the gift card, which I will use for the rest of my groceries this month. Then I scoped out the weekly Albertsons advertising paper, finding deals I was interested in. Things like buy 7 Kellogg's cereals and get 3 gallons of milk for free (cereal=great meal any time in my house!). Then I printed some coupons online, which only saved me a few bucks, but, hey, every little bit helps. Anyway, here's how it ended up:

I spent: $70.78

I saved: $75.69 - That's 106%!!

The most surprising part of all? I actually enjoyed myself. Who knew that finding bargains would actually be fun and fulfilling!!?

naan pizza

A whole wheat Naan Pizza was on the menu today, and I was super happy with how it turned out. Naan is an Indian flatbread (pretty much a big version pita bread). Try olive oil, salt, pepper, tomato slices, basil and mozarella on top in a 375 oven for 8 minutes... perfection. Check it out! PS I bought the Naan @ Albertsons. Served with sauteed spinach- yum my favorite!!

play time

I have been reading Avery a book from the library about colors a lot lately. One of the color pages (black) has a picture of a spider on it. "Black phone, black dog, black spider..." apparently when I get to this part of the book, I usually squeal or something, because yesterday Avery opened up the book by herself, and when she got to the black page, she said, "Spiders. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Klayton and I laughed so hard.
So here is some video of Avery's new bug discovery, as well as her love of being roared at, scared, and tickled. About half way through me asking her, "What do you say when you see a spider?" she got confused... or tired of screeching. Either way, she then starting doing her motions for the song The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She is a doll! Enjoy!

best day of the week

I love Sunday!! Klayton doesn't work, I love our Ward, Avery loves Nursery, and we all have lots of fun together. This Sunday we set up a bean bag toss game that my mom got Avery a while back. So much fun!

Look, Ma! No cavities!!

drop this

After a ton of trial and error, I believe that I have created a monster. Well, as far as my waist-line is concerned. Anyway- I think that I have the perfect drop cookie. This dough is versatile, delicious and easy. Try it out today!

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour (For the cookies pictured I used half white flour, half wheat flour. I also have done 2 c. Flour, 1 c. oatmeal before, which is good too.)

1 1/2 tsp. Course salt (trust me- don't use that crap iodized salt with the umbrella girl on the front- use good, grainy Kosher salt or something like it. When you get that teeny salty-meets-sweet bite in your cookies you'll thank me.)

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 c. Brown Sugar, packed

1/2 c. Sugar

1 c. (2 sticks) Butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla

2 cups Add-ins (I usually do 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts [pictured], but you can do anything- Craisins, raisins, other dried fruit, nuts, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium-sized bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda with a whisk. Set aside.

In mixer-bowl (with paddle attachment if you have it) combine butter and sugars until light in color and texture (1-2 minutes on medium speed). Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla. Be sure to keep the bowl scraped down.

On low speed, add flour mixture in three separate additions, mix until just combined after each addition. Mix in add-ins.

[Here's where I try to keep my cookie consumption in check] Prep two cookie sheets- one with wax paper, one with aluminum foil (for easy clean up). With a little scooper guy (yes, that is a technical term), on the aluminum foil sheet scoop out cookies and bake for 8-11 minutes (keep an eye on your cookies toward the end- I like mine super soft so I go 8 or 9, but if you like a little crunch... well, you get the idea).

On the wax paper lined sheet scoop out the rest of your dough. Put sheet in the freezer for at least an hour, then bag your cookie dough balls in a freezer bag and use at your will (this means you can have a cookie or two every day for a week with one batch of dough!). When baking frozen dough just add a minute or two to the cooking time.

Enjoy!

dancing fools

More videos. This time of Av jumping (she thinks it's really funny) and dancing with her cousins. Notice baby Milo and his awesome moves. Now that kid is a dancing fool.

horsing around

Here's some video from Avery's horsey ride. My favorite is the end- I caught the same view I get about 50 times a day with the whole "Mommy! Mommy! Up, please!" thing. She's so cute.

shenanigans

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend. Avery is a good little eater, and her favorite food lately is apples. I think she likes them because she can store them in her cheeks for hours of snacking fun (first picture). She also has a little bit too much fun feeding herself- Saturday we had an Ode to France dinner of cheese and ham and bread and Welch's Grape Juice and Avery had sweet potatoes and bread. It took 45 minutes to clean up, but it was worth it (pics 2 and 3). Sunday night Klayton gave Avery a horsey ride and she really liked that (4). The last pic is from yesterday- she has become such a baby doll girl and it is so bizarre to me! She's a baby! Anyway, she carries two dolls with her pretty much constantly- the creepy plastic one is "Baby" and the cloth one is "Dolly".