The muffin update

I made the Malt-O-Meal Muffins this morning. I omitted the sugar and instead used applesauce.  As a result, the muffins are not sweet- AT ALL!  I wasn't expecting them to be tooth achingly sweet, just a touch. Oh, well, live and learn!

To combat this, I am softening a stick of butter on the counter and I'll whip it up with some butter and serve it atop the muffins.

 

Malt-O-Meal Magic Muffins

So part of my goal during the duration of the AllYou Grocery Challenge is to use up a lot of the food that we already have. For a couple reasons:

1- When we move next month, I don't want to move a lot of extra stuff.

2-I want to WIN!!!  They judge partially on creativity of the dishes, so Iam going to more creative than I was last year.

One of the dishes I'll be making tomorrow is Malt-O-Meal Magic Muffins, with a few changes to make them a little healthier and to use what we have in the house. I plan on freezing half of the batch for next week or the week after.

Here is the recipe with my changes in bold:

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour


• ¾ cup Original Flavored Malt-O-Meal® hot wheat cereal, dry


• 1/4 cup sugar (or 1/8 cup brown sugar, packed)


• 1 cup milk


• 1/8 cup vegetable oil


• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or 1/4 c egg whites)


• 1 tablespoon baking powder


• 2 Tablespoons Flax seed meal


• 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)


• 3/4 cup mashed bananas or 3/4 cup blueberries (optional)

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F


2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients


3. stir together until ingredients are just moistened.


4. Spoon into a greased or paper-lined 12-cup muffin pan, filling cups ¾ full.


5. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

The original recipe can be seen here.

I'll post pictures tomorrow!

 

Now I have to go stir my tiny patch of strawberry jam!

 

2011 AllYou Grocery Challenge!

The AllYou Grocery Challenge starts tomorrow!  So to get ready, I am menu planning for the next 4 weeks and updating the cupboard and freezer inventories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty excited to stretch our savings and hopefully we'll win! We get $50 per week for all food and beverages (including eating out and entertaining).  I'll be sharing some savings tips and tricks over the next month to help anyone else who has entered!

 

Week 1: almost complete

Tomorrow marks the end of week 1 of the All you grocery challenge.

Our OOP (That's Out of Pocket) cost for Week 1:

99 Cents Only on 6/24/10 $17.65 (I bought 2 dozen eggs, 3 bunches of Asparagus, Whole Wheat Tortillas, 2 bags of salad, 2 packages of chopped onion, hazelnut Coffee creamer, 2 boxes of fiber 1 bars, bottle of vitamin water, and a large ham steak)

Pat & Oscar's on 6/26/10 (lunch with friends) our portion of the bill came to $17.95

Total: $35.60

We ate at home every night except Friday, when we went to a friends house for dinner (taco night).  I brought 3 bags of salad to contribute to the potluck.

We brought our lunches from home, except for the few days when he had business lunches (He was at a seminar one day and had lunch with a mentor another- so no OOP for us), and we had a vendor bring my office snackies, which I made into my lunch on Friday (a wholewheat bagel and fruit- NOM!), and Thursday, the Chik-fil-a near my office opened and I had a coupon for a free chicken sandwich- so my lunch was free! WOO HOO!

Breakfast each day was pretty much the same each day for us: iced coffee or vitamin water, a piece of fruit, and a protein bar.

Our kitchen is still well stocked.  Tomorrow for breakfast we are going to have:

Egg whites scrambled with carmelized onions, ham steak, Greek Yogurt with fruit, OJ and coffee.

Right now, I'm making FiberOne Blueberry Muffin mix with banana instead of applesauce (I do the low fat variant).  I am making it it into bread instead, I think it turns out better.

Day 1 of the All You Grocery Challenge!

Day One- WOO HOO!!

Here are pics of our Cupboard Stockpile, Fridge and freezer:

[caption id="attachment_496" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Our Cupboard/Stockpile"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_497" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Freezer is packed!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_498" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Noms- The Fridge is fulla Salad (and cheese!)"][/caption]

Breakfast was egg whites cooked with onions and bacon, topped with shredded cheese and salsa.  We also had Greek yogurt with sliced strawberries.  I made a French Press full of coffee (double strength), then mixed it with ice and Sugar Free Hazelnut Coffeemate for Hazelnut iced lattes. YUM!

Lunch was leftovers from the fridge for him, and I had a Digorno frozen pizza for one.

Dinner is going to be:

Iced Blueberry Green tea, bbq pulled beef roast, baked potato, green salad, corn on the cobbettes, and dessert is:

Frozen mangoes, frozen strawberries blended with milk and coconut sorbet and frozen in a 8x8 cake pan.

Everything came from our cupboard, except the potato, which I had to go buy.  But, that Vons trip is for the next blog entry...

All You Grocery Challenge starts Next Sunday 6/20/10!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

Are you ready?  I am.  I think!  I've been beefing up my stockpile for the past month or so, and I've been scouting out sale fliers ahead of time to plot out the best deals during the challenge.

We are starting with a full cupboard, unlike last year :(, and I've got a pretty full freezer too!

I also have $20 in ECB that expire throughout the Challenge that I'll be using, probably to buy milk and maybe eggs. I have menus planned out for the first two weeks as well.  These are the kind of things we'll be eating:

Dinners:

Roasted Veggie and Cheese Enchiladas, Vegetarian refried beans, Salad

Ratatouille, salad, gluten free bread

Roast Beef, herbed carrots, salad

King Ranch Chicken, Vegetarian refried beans, Salad

Stir Fry (probably with Chicken)

Teriyaki Chicken with veggies and quinoa

Lentil Soup and Quesadillas

Taco Salad

BBQ pork chops, salad, corn on the cob

Gluten Free pasta with home made Marinara, salad

Fire Roasted Veggie Pizza

Burger salad (it's a big green salad topped with a hamburger patty)

Steaks, baked sweet potatoes, salad, steamed veggies

Lunches:

Enchiladas

Salads with  tuna or salmon

Soup

Leftovers

All of our lunches have the "main dish", plus hummus (or tazaiki) and veggies, a piece of fruit and a Kashi bar or a fiber 1 bar. We usually drink water with our lunches.

Breakfast

Breakfasts on the weekdays usually consists of oatmeal, or greek yogurt and fruit, or a piece of fruit with nut butter.

On weekends, we tend to have scrambled egg white with bacon and veggies mixed in, served with bagel thins or Orowheat Sandwich Thins. And fruit salad- It's a family favorite.

This is how we usually eat. The challenge is going to be eating all of what we have in the cupboard and fridge, without running to the store when we get the urge for something that we don't have. We both work long hours, and our jobs are both stressful, so there is always the cop out to pick up dinner on the way home.

I hope that by planning out the meals and having most of the prep work done (I try to chop all the veggies when I come home from the store), and using the crock pot when we can for meals like the pot roast and the BBQ pork chops, it will cut down on the "drive thru" nights.

I pack our lunch either the night before when I am making dinner, or first thing in the morning.  It takes only a few minutes and it is saving us hundreds of dollars.

We'll also be using up our gift cards and free food coupons for restaurants as we are able to during the challenge.  We have about $100 in gift cards and coupons for various establishments all over town.

And don't think that during this challenge we won't have people over. We will probably have dinner guests 4-5 times during the challenge, I have made sure that in our budgeting to allow for extra portions for guests (and leftover s for lunches the next day).

I can't wait to start!

tags and some sad news!

I've been adding tags to the entries, so if you read this on LJ, you will be able to search this blog with the tags.


Sad news:  We didn't win the All you Grocery Challenge.  I just checked their blog and apparently they had chosen a winner over a month ago. It was nice of them not to email the rest of us and tell us we didn't win.  I'm sure someone who lives in a house with a large garden won. Not having to buy fruit  and veg must be nice.

Sorry to seem bitter, but that prize would have really helped us. 

Week 4: almost done!

Sunday night ends my participation in the All You Grocery Challenge.

It's been lots of fun, when the challenge concludes, the focus of the blog will return to savings and deals, of of course, Frugal Living.

One of the great fall/ back to school promos is the Kellogg's Fuel for School.  Purchase 10 participating Kellogg's products in 1 transaction and receive a $10 rebate and a $70 discount code on a Dell computer.  With the upcoming sales on breakfast food and lunch=y type food and the coupons Kellogg's has put out, this one is going to be a cinch.

FYI-  Kellogg's owns Morningstar Farms!  I'll be stocking up on the black bean burgers and the basil Moz. burgers!


Remember that your Entertainment book coupons expire in November- so use 'em up while you got them!  We'll be ordering our 2009-2010 book as soon as they are available and we'll be getting the second book for another city for only $5! THis is a perfect holiday gift for someone who enjoys going out, or if you travel to another city a lot.

I split the cost of a book with a friend and we each take the coupons we like.  We both WIN!

Week Three

Breakfasts still consist of oatmeal daily for the most part. Lucnhes are leftovers from dinner or whatever I throw together.

Monday:
B- oatmeal
lunch- taco salad (vendor lunch at work for me) DH-leftovers
Dinner- yummy soup

Tuesday:
B- the usual
L-I had another vendor lunch, so free lunch for me!! DH- spoinach, turkey and swiss roll ups, popchips, fruit
D- I went out with the girls for happy hour, but they screwed up our orders, so we ended up having dinner for free! DH had a bowl of cereal (long day!)

Weds:
B- dh had the usual, I had a whole wheat bagel and a cup of peppermint tea (hooray vendor treats!)
L- Lunch from home (soup and fruit)
D- hamburgers and spinach salad

Thursday:
B &L the usual
D- Ground beef and veggie enchiladas and salad

Friday:
B & L the usual
Dinner- Leftovers and salad

Saturday:
B- The usual
L- leftovers
D- taco salad

Sunday:
B- cereal
L- random snackies from the fridge
D- Italian squash casarole, mashed potatoes and salad

Week 3 total

$25.20 99 cents only
$7.87 CVS
.42 CVS (hooray for Extra care bucks!)

$33.49 total

99 cents only- great groceries!

99 Cent only Locations - They are only in the South West.


So here is what I bought:

 All of this great stuff for $25.20, including 3 packages of spring mix .
















Tonight for dinner, we are having the italian squash layered with marinara and moz as the main dish, the steam and mash potatoes topped with sliced onion baked with olive oil and italian seasoning and cheddar cheese, and a big ol' salad.

Tomorrow starts the 4th week of the Grocery challenge.  I'll be buying Fruit and Veg tomorrow night. We're reaching deep into the stockpile for the last week to stay under budget.

This weeks cheap stockpile meal!

Here is a really good soup I made last night with stuff from our stockpile


4-6 boneless skinless chicken tenders (breast pieces) grilled, cooled and chopped (I used our foreman grill) 
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups of navy beans cooked per package directions (navy beans are white in color!) I did not salt the boiling water.
1 can no salt added stewed tomatoes, chopped
1 large white onion
garlic (however much you like)
1 tsp. olive oil
1 can ortega green chiles

Cheese (Mexican cheese blend is great for this)
crushed tortilla chips (I like the flaxseed chips from trader joes!)


Saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil until translucent. add the chicken and chilis.  Once heated, add the tomatoes, broth and cooked beans.  simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.  Season with salt and pepper if desired.  Ladle into bowls and serve with cheese and crushed tortilla chips.

Shopping totals for the week- week 2.

$5.00 at .99 cents only
$33.86 at Albertsons.

Traded fruit and veg for a facial (hooray!)



Total OOP for the week $38.86.


This next week, we will be dipping even further into our cupboard/stockpile.  THe menu will continue to get a little wierder, but it'll stay healthy, and we'll stay under budget.