Meatloaf Vegetable Muffins!

Doing something a little different!

Meatloaf Vegetable Muffins
*Ingrediants*
1 lb. Ground Beef (extra lean)
1/2 c. Quarkers oatmeal (uncooked)
1 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped green or red pepper
1/2 c. chopped carrot
3 garlic cloves
1 can chopped mushrooms
1. c. canned diced tomatoes w/ juice
2 egg whites
*Directions*
Heat oven to 350.

Chop vegetables. Saute all but the tomatoes and garlic in a lightly oiled pan (olive oil) until done but not mushy. Cool vegetables.

Combine ground beef, oats, cooled cooked vegetables, chopped mushrooms and egg whites.

Spoon the meat mixture into a muffin tin sprayed w/ vegetable spray. Top each muffin w/ 1 T. Ketchup. Make 12 equal size "muffins.".

Number of Servings: 12

These turned out AWESOME! They were easy to portion out, easy to bag up and easy to reheat the next day!!
They were actually pretty cheap to make too. I did use mushrooms because I didnt have any but it was ok. I used some sun dried tomatoes just because we happened to have them. I also used frozen stir fry veggies(because we already had them!). I just picked out the red and green peppers and celery!

New Year!(2 parter)

Ive been slacking on blogging....

There has been so much going on(I should actually be doing something else right now!).

Lets do a little recap of the weeks leading up to this wonderful new year.

Beginning of December we had another couple over for dinner. I was so happy they agreed to share that day with us, why? They found out earlier that day that they will be welcoming a baby BOY into their family!!! They are an awesome couple and are so kind to our boys! I look forward to spending more time with them!

Lets see. We left here around the 18th of December to head home(hometown) for the Holidays. Just the week before Gabe started *trying* to walk. He would get a few steps in here and there but was mostly crawling. Then just before leaving he started standing up on his own from sitting!!!
We left there just yesterday and within that time he is now *almost* fully walking!! He can turn around, walk with confidence and crouch. Of course he still falls over some but hey he has a big head lol!!

While we were back home Jared and I enjoyed a few nights to our selves, which was much needed! We got to spend time with family and have a wonderful Christmas!

We even got to go out on New Years. In the 5yrs we have been together I think we have only ever spent one other together!
To our disappointment we yet again missed kissing each other at midnight! Last year because we were in separate cars, this year because he was(and had been for 20 min) up at the bar trying to get our drinks! What kind of bar only has 2 bar tenders on New Years Eve??? Jared theory is because he didn't have ta-tas they wouldn't help him lol!

We did some fun things like taking the boys to the train park to see all the lights. For those who dont know the train park is a park(obviously lol) down by the more industrial area of Lewiston, right by where part of the train tracks are. There is an old locomotive and 1(or 2) cars with it. There are tons of trees and a big(newish) fire place. During Christmas they string lights all threw the trees, put arches over the walk ways with trigger change lights, "dancing penguin" lights, an igloo and other things. The best part is a big pad on the ground that when you jump on it in different areas it lights up one of the trees!

Then something awesome. A man who works with my mom dresses up as Santa for their kids Christmas party. Well he also does this for anyone who wants him to visit their house!! He owns an amazing suit and does a very good Santa. How awesome is that he is willing to do this for others for free, when that sub par Santa at the mall charges $20++ for 3 pictures and a candy cane!
So seeing as we didn't get the boys pictures with Santa this year my mom thought it would be awesome to have the guy come over.
We left a present out on the deck for each of the boys so that Santa could grab them on his way in. Rylan opened the door having no idea what was going on. He was SO excited!! He got to talk to Santa and sit on his lap. We got some awesome pictures with Gabe and Rylan and Santa!

Yesterday we made our trip home. It seemed to take for ever! With our trunk packed FULL, our new bread machine riding between the boys and the floor boards and back window filled, our car was riding quite low.

So I lost track of what I was doing yesterday and never got back to writing this!

Well now that we are home, some laundry is done, house re cleaned and pantry re stocked. Its time to get back in to the swing of things.
Gabes 1st birthday is next Monday, the same day Jared goes back to work :( .

Diapers and Money

Sorry about so many posts about cloth diapers but this is really starting to become a reality for me and is directly related to our money!
So in my last post I was talking about how the I didnt like the liner in the Gdiaper. Well I was going threw some stuff and found DIFFERENT prefolds! I do not even remember having them lol. Well they were smaller so they fit better in the liner. I tried it on Gabe and it was awesome. He napped in it and had NO leak!! the outside of the Gpant was a little...damp I guess you could say. Not enough to be like OH NO hes wet though.
However, I do thing the medium is just to small for him, his fat little legs and round belly.
After much more research and price comparison I think I found what I want.
Diapers.com sells the flip diapers in packs of 6, for both boys I would need 2pks which would be about %100(like $99) which makes them about $8.33 a piece. That is the cheapest I have been able to find them new. The good things about the flip is they are one size so when Ry is finally potty trained I will have that many more for Gabe!
For Prefolds Im going with Little-Lion.com. They sell Unbleached Indian Prefolds for $23 a dozen. Im getting 2 dozen for now but may get another dozen later.
Im going the Wet Bag route, specifically a wet/dry bag that will hang in our laundry area. They run about $23 on average.

So our possible total to cloth diaper our kids should be around $169 which we will split up buying the stuff over a month or two.

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On to the money!

So for anyone one who had the "overdraft protection" before the new law was passed, you may know what Jared and I were going threw.
About a year and a half ago we were in a very bad rut of over drafting. We were terrible with money and once it started it was hard to fix. We would get paid on the first, the overdraft fees were taken out and we would have just enough money to pay a few bills but nothing left. Leaving us overdrawing again just to get groceries. This happened EVERY paycheck. So we were paying around $600-$800 every month in over draft!!
When the law was passed and you had to actually go in and sign a paper to get overdraft, we were here. Away from our bank. Which was a blessing. We never went in to sing that paper. Not doing so forced us to be more careful, knowing that we couldn't just keep going and pay back later. Now here we are NOT over drafting and SAVING $200 every paycheck. Its hard, we keep a budget but allow for a little spending room. We waste less food, and cut out some convenience things. We havent use paper towels in for ever lol!

Cloth Diaper Update

So I got 2 G diapers from a second hand store today. Remembered I had some prefolds my MIL gave me and decided to try them out. While they were washing I was doing more research. For us economically the best route would be to go with a diaper cover and a prefold. Further more we need one size diaper covers, preferably with snaps but Velcro is ok. That way between the boys the only thing that will need to be different is the prefold. While I like the G diapers, I dont like the liner, it didnt work well with the prefold.

So for covers Im going for either Flip diapers or Thirsties Snap Duo
Each are about $12-$13 when bought new but can be found for less on ebay.

For Prefolds I would like to find Chinese prefolds because they have the perfect range for both boys. They go from 15lbs to 40lbs. The are out of stock most often though.
My other choice would be for Green Mountians Cloth-eeze Pre Folds. I would have to buy 2 differnt sizes though for the boys, but rylan needs fewer than Gabe.

Cloth Diapers and Nicki's Diapers!!

So since before Gabe was born I was was looking into cloth diapering. I was really overwhelmed, one with what it was all about and two, the expense. Threw all my research there were a few front runners in who I wanted to try but I also realized from talking to some other moms that you have to try a few to find what works for you child. Ive gotten over the "but its poop in my washer" thing.
I recently found an amazing site called Nicki's Diapers
She does a lot of give aways for different cloth diaper brands!!
I would absolutely love to win some diapers to start trying on Gabe!
Nicki also has a blog which you can find here>> Nicki's Diapers

This week Nicki is giving away 2 Tot Bot Easy fit OS Diapers!
These diapers come with some great reviews!!


Most importantly I am excited to start reducing the amount of diapers we add to the land fill!!

Our first trip to Winco

Yesterday we made our first trip to Winco.
Before leaving Jared asked me if it was even worth driving 25min? I told him that from everything I had heard it was in fact really worth it. So we packed up the munchkins and our $150 spending limit, and headed to the Puyallup Winco, which was Jareds pick.

I'll get this out first. I don't know if this is one of their older stores or what but it seemed a little old and forgotten I guess you could say. It almost has that dirty feel but is not at all. It was actually quite clean. We might try the Lacey store next time just to compare(and compare the drive too).

So things I loved. The produce was AWESOME! I did not see 1 fruit fly, nor did I see an beyond purchasable item. I am always finding not good fruit/veggies in the commissary and Safeway. The Honey Crisp apples were how ever quite a bit more expensive, and they are my favorite. I loved their selection of vegetarian things but it could be improved, I was just surprised they had anything!
Jared and I noticed something that is quite possibly our favorite part of Winco. Fresh Almond Butter, Peanut Butter, Clover Honey, Blackberry Honey and Orange honey. You grab a tub and fill it up to how much you wish.
We chose Almond Butter and Orange Honey. Our only complaint is lack of directions. We were not quite sure what to do. Its all price per pound but you don't know how much the 1 size container holds. There are scales just behind you for measuring the contents of the self serve candies and such, but I was worried about cross contamination with the almonds. Jared took the leap and weighed each container. The good side though is that you cant beat $4.12 for a little over a pound of fresh almond butter!
Moving on, we stumble upon this area with things in bins and dispensers on the wall. Its my heaven. Chocolate chips; dark, semi sweet, butter scotch and melting chocolates. All in a row ready to be dispensed!! I look down and there are bins with hunks of chocolate in them! We move down to see sugar, pure cane sugar, and brown sugar! Flour, cake mix, butter milk pancake mix, biscuit mix and so much more!! There were even recipe cards for making biscuits and things with the products right there!
We unfortunately skipped getting any of this because our screaming 10 month old was getting some looks(or should I say we were!).
Next was the Meat and dairy. Jared concluded that the meat was comparable if not more expensive than the commissary, everything was of good quality though. We will have to do a little more comparison though next time just to make sure.
We did however get an AMAZING deal on our turkey. The deal for their turkey was that if you purchase $50 worth of stuff the price of the turkey will drop to .26 per lb.
We knew we would easily buy $50 worth of stuff so why not! We have only had 3 Thanksgivings together so we aren't really particular with turkey brands. Its just going to be us so we only needed a smaller one, we did how ever want enough for some left overs. So our turkey was 13.66lbs at .26 came to a total of $3.55. How can you beat that!
As we wandered threw the rest of the store we saw so many great deals. This wasn't a stalk the shelves kind of trip for us so some of the isles we didn't need anything in.
We did how ever find things we didn't know we needed or had not planned on getting this shopping trip. Like Ammonia, Hair dye, special french toast bread(a treat) and a new tooth brush because of the prices!
Im not going to list everything this time mostly because some of the names on the receipt are confusing and its just long! So I will just high light a few things.

Items bought- 76
Total spent- $113.01

Orange Honey 1.07lbs @ $3.51/lbs- $3.76
Almond Butter .98lb @ $.20/lbs - $4.12
Turkey 13.66lb @.26/lbs - $$3.55
Wheat bread 2 @ .86/loaf - $1.72
Kraft Mac n Cheese 4 @ .68/box - $2.72

Average amt spent per item at Winco- $1.49
Average at Safeway(using last weeks 35 items and $81.80 total)- $2.34


What Ive learned
*Have a list!! We were overwhelmed at first, lost direction and ended up back tracking threw the store once we got in the mode!
*DONT go when everyone else is off work/out of church/up for the day. Next time we will go early in the morning(if a weekend) or I will go while Jared(and the rest of the world) is at work!
*If at all possible leave the kids at home. Both Rylan and Gabe got restless because it was taking so long. We were making sure we were getting good deals so it was quite a process.
*Learn how to bag quick! You do have to bag your own stuff which is fine with me but that also plays into the previous advice.

Winco Here I Come!!!

That is if Jared ever gets out of bed(yes it is almost 2pm!)

Anyway, I recently started getting sales fliers for Winco. Ive heard of Winco before, that it was an amazing discount bulk grocery store. People in my home town would drive 2hrs away just to make their big shopping trip because Winco was just that good! Well I must say in my 22yrs of life I have never set foot in one.
As of late our main grocery stops have been the Commissary and Safeway, but Ive really been trying to get our food bill under control. Ive been to grocery outlet before, its quite good but I don't buy a whole lot of frozen meals, or pre made boxed things so I usually don't find much. Sometimes the quality isn't that great either.
I don't really do coupons because of this either.

So today we may make the only 25min trip to Winco and see what its all about. We are in need of quite a bit of the staple items. I think I will set our budget at $150 to get us to December 1st. We still have meals already for the next 4 days so $150 for 7 days seem totally do able!

When and if we go I will make sure to add an update!!