A guest... almost...

I opened the living room curtains this morning to find this guy standing at the bottom of the front steps looking at the door as if he was considering ringing the bell...

I guess he decided not too because he trotted off down the sidewalk, crossed the street, and disappeared.

Weeknight Italian Soup

I created this last night and it was a huge success.

4 Cups Chicken Broth/Stock
2 Cans Zucchini in Tomato Sauce
1 Can White Beans (Drained and Rinsed)
1 Can tomatoes with Italian Seasonings
1 Cup Macaroni (I used organic whole wheat, but use what you have)

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat until just boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the dried pasta, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until pasta is cooked.

I made this as a side to homemade chicken fingers, but hubby ended up eating only the soup. I just had the left overs for lunch. Yum!

Thanksgiving on the Cheap

On the news this morning there was a segment about how to host a "cheap" Thanksgiving and the best the reporter could come up with was to buy Wegman's Pre-made Thanksgiving dinner for $99.

Well, I don't cook Thanksgiving dinner, my mother-in-law does, so this really isn't a concern of mine, but that got me thinking. $99 does not seem that cheap to me. In fact, I am SURE that I could do better out of the supermarket flyers sitting on my kitchen counter.

So let's try, shall we?

Wegman's Premium Turkey Dinner contains:

1 turkey (12-14 pounds)
Traditional Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Turkey gravy
Broccoli and Cauliflower with pine nuts
Mashed potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry Relish

Ok, let's break it down (and we'll assume that the person doesn't like to cook since they are looking at buying a pre-made dinner)

Turkey -- for me it would be free, I qualify at my supermarket = $0
Stuffing -- Stove top is $.99 a Walmart x 2 boxes = $2
Green Bean Casserole -- Frozen green beans $1.00 a bag , cream of mushroom soup, $.79, French fried onions, $2.59 (couldn't find a sale) = $3.40
Turkey gravy -- $1 a can x 2 = $2
Broccoli & Cauliflower with pine nut -- $10 (pine nuts are expensive and $3.00 per lb. for fresh veg.)
Mashed potatoes -- $2.50 for 5 pounds = $2.50
Sweet potatoes -- $2.50 for 5 pounds $1.00 for mini marshmallows = $3.50
Cranberries -- $.88 a can at Walmart x 2 (1 jellied, 1 chunky) = $ 1.76

Ingredients you might not have on hand:

Butter -- $2.50 per pound
Heavy Cream -- $2.00 per pint


Total == $29.66

Now, I am assuming you already have spices, onions, milk, kitchen basics, etc. but... I think you see my point.

The "Cheap" dinner being hocked on my local news is $69.34 more expensive than what I could put together from sale circulars (and that isn't even using coupons!)

What will NOT be on My Wish List this Year...

An automatic doughnut maker.

And not because I think it is silly, or useless, or extravagant... it is because I would use it everyday and become one of those people who are so fat they have to have a side of their house cut away to get them out of bed.

All Gave Some, Some Gave All

Thank you, Veterans!

Caramelized Butternut Squash

Last night I cooked a real cold weather dinner. We had roast beef (from the crockpot), steamed broccoli, caramelized butternut squash, and homemade biscuits.

Here is the recipe for the squash. Even my mother, who does not like squash, will eat it when I make it like this.

1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded, and chopped.
Salt & Pepper
4 Tbs. Butter
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put the squash in a 11 x13 baking dish or a jelly roll pan.

Season with Salt and Pepper.

Melt the butter and combine with brown sugar.

Pour butter/sugar mix over seasoned squash and toss to coat.

Roast for 45 - 55 minutes or until nice and brown.

Enjoy!

Wet Bags

Nate is 9 months old now and we are still breastfeeding. I beleive in this... I REALLY believe in this and do not plan on weaning him until he is a year old. Since I work, this means that I do a lot of pumping and transporting of milk.

Every day when I go to work, I pack up pump pieces and containers to collect and store milk in. Everyday I come home from work with said paraphanalia in a plastic bag that needs to be washed. When I pick Nate up from my mom's house I get a plastic ziplock bag full of used spoons, bottles, bowls, milk containers, etc. This is leading to a lot of plastic bags. of course, I wash them and reuse them, but eventually they get holes in them and start to leak and then they have to go in to the trash... and then in to a landfill... and then 50 million years later they are still there. Oh my! There had to be a better way.

It dawned on me the other day that a wet bag (the kind used for cloth diapers) would be perfect. Not only would they keep the wet/dirty bottles, pump pieces, milk containers, spoons, etc contained, they can be machine washed and reused a bazillion times. When Nate is off bottles and I am no longer pumping at work they can be tucked into the diaper bag for soiled clothes. GREAT!

So I looked around a decided to get two medium Planet Wise wet bags because they come in really cute fabrics, they had a zipper not a draw string, and were made in the USA. I bought mine from Cotton Babies because I liked their color selection.

They came yesterday and I put them to use this morning. They are great! No leaks so far, and my office looks that much nicer having a fabric bag sitting on the cradenza next to my pump bag then the ratty plastic bag that was there before.

I am loving them!

A New Beginning

So we have a new president elect... one that I actually voted for this time, which is a nice change of pace. This got me thinking about what I would do if I were elected president...

1. I would want proof, I'm talking DATA here people, that daylight savings time actually saves energy. As far as I can tell all daylight savings time does is screw up an infant's schedule and make me depressed when I leave work in the dark. If someone, somewhere can't provide said data I would get rid of it ASAP. Arizona doesn't participate and they seem to be getting along fine.

2. I would mandate that certain business HAVE to have a drive through. These would include but may not be limited to: all banks (most do, so no big stretch there), all Starbucks, all Dunkin' Donuts, and all dry cleaners. I am up in the air about post offices. This would allow for baby's to nap in cars and parents to get errands run AT THE SAME TIME... novel concept.

3. I would bring etiquette training back to schools. Too many people are rude and ignorant (adults and children alike) and quite frankly I am TIRED of it! (Thanks, Antique Mommy)

I think that would be it. A platform of not screwing up a baby's schedule, drive throughs, and manners. Now all I have to do is find a running mate...

Vote Early, Vote Often!

It is important. It matters. It counts. Just do it!

Clean out your wallet!

No, Not of all the money... although that seems to happen no matter what I try, but of all the superfluous stuff that accumulates there. You will be amazed at what you find.

We had a sudden cold snap last week and that was when it dawned on me that Nate needed a winter coat. So, I trolled the Internet for deals and settled on a puffy jacket from Old Navy. It was $30, but it was the best deal I could find so I ordered it. It came, it fit, I was happy. Then I sat down and cleaned out my wallet. That was when I found my Kid to Kid frequent shopper card which was all filled up entitling me to $10.00 off my next purchase. So I headed to Kid to Kid today and found a a cute little Gap puffy jacket with a price tag of $10.99. Minus my $10.00 discount I had snagged Nate a winter coat for $.99.

The Old Navy Coat will be going back this afternoon and I will be cleaning out my wallet on a regular basis!

Happy Samhain & Happy Halloween

CRAZY Day!

My plan for the day was to run some errands with my mom and Nate this morning. Go home and give him time to crawl all over the place and burn off some energy before we took clothes down to Jon at work, so he could change before the Phillies game to which he had tickets.

Nate and I left the house early, picked up my mom and made it to the Christmas Tree shop without incident. I was able to find dryer balls to replace the ones the dog ate for $1.99, a cute doodad to hang on kitchen door (it was marked $5.99 but rang up at $3.99), and Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious for $6.99. It was a good trip.''

We went to Target next. I couldn't find half of the things I was looking for and Nate was fussy, so it was a semi-successful trip.

Nate was hungry so mom and I went to lunch so that we could eat and I could feed him. He was starving so lunch was crazy! I was trying to feed him and eat myself, he didn't want to sit, he kept grabbing thingg off the table... I was a little frazzeled... so we finished lunch and headed off to Carters. Nate fell asleep in the car, which he needed to do, so my mom waited with him and I ran in. I guess I was a little too frazzeled from lunch because half way home from Carters I stopped at a MAC machine and realized that I had left my credit card there. Now I live in PA and Carters is in Wilmington DE, so I had to turn around and drive all the way back down there to get my card, which they had, thank god!

After picking up the card, I headed home again only it was coming closer and closer to the time when I needed to go downtown. Poor Nate had spent the whole day in his car seat or a shopping cart!

My mom came to my rescue and took Nate for me so I could drive home, and then downtown to give Jon his clothes. This was a very good thing becuase there was construction and traffic and it took my almost 2 hours to get downtown and back!

All total I put what appears to be 150-200 miles on my car and spent 5 hours in the drivers seat!

Go Phils!

Although I am completely NOT a baseball person, I do root for the home team... especially when they are in the world series. So, to that I say...

Go PHILS!

Goodwill Finds

I stopped at Goodwill the other day on my lunch hour and was SHOCKED to see how picked over evreything was. There was literally nothing in the way of children's clothing or shoes and the housewares department which is usually overflowing with things was sparse to say the least. This is my indicator on how crappy our economy is. When Goodwill is full the economy is good, when Goodwill is empty the economy is in the crapper.

Anyway, I was able to scrounge up a few good deals for myself...


-- 1 pack of assorted greeting cards
-- 1 glass trifle dish
-- 3 2-packs of wooden hangers with monkey faces for children's clothes

My total was under $5.00.

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

I have actually been able to do a little baking recently. I don't know how it happened, but I have learned not to ask such questions. I made a German Chocolate Cake for Goodie day at work, I made Amy's Peanut Butter Cookies, I made waffles for breakfast yesterday, and I made these super easy yummy chocolate pumpkin muffins.

1 box devils food (or any chocolate) cake mix
1 15oz. can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

-- Combine the above two ingredients.

-- Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin

-- Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

These muffins are wonderfully moist and dense and I guarantee you cannot taste the pumpkin.

Help Ratchet (and Others) Come Home

Help a soldier who rescued a puppy in Iraq bring the little guy home with her. You can read the whole story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/iraq.puppy.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

And get more information here: http://www.baghdadpups.com/

Baby Bargains

Yesterday was Yom Kippur which usually means a day of fasting and atoning for one's sins. Since I am breastfeeding I do not fast, and instead on atoning for my sins, I decided to fix some of them.

I spent yesterday at the salon getting my hair colored and cut and my eyebrows waxed. it was my way of atoning for the sin of "letting one's appearance slip." (It's a sin, go look it up ;))

On the way home from the salon I stopped at Kid to Kid and found some great baby bargains. Why is it so much easier to spend money on your kids then it is to spend money on yourself?

Anyway I found this Build and Spill Turtle (retail $30, resale $12.00) for grandma's house:

This Melissa & Doug toy I had my eye on (retail $20, resale $7.50):

The cutest Robeez winter boots (retail $39.00, resale $9):


A new book (retail $7, resale $1):



And finally, Mini Boden pants to grow into (BNWT) (retail $30, resale $7):


What I would have spent (without tax): $ 126.00

What I actually spent (without tax): $36.50

Better than Baking Soda

As we all know, baking soda can do just about anything. I keep it in the house for baking, for cleaning, and of course there are boxes in my fridge and freezer for deodorizing.

That was until I saw Ted Allen's new show of the Food Network, Food Detectives. Ted was testing whether or not baking soda was the best deodorizer for the fridge. It turns out that although baking soda will absorb some odor, the best deodorizer out there is activated charcoal or activated carbon. Now, you can buy little balls of activated carbon to put in the freezer, but I thought I could make my own .

So, I thought I would do my own test. I bought some of this:


Activated charcoal/carbon can be found in pet stores, or the pet section of department stores because it is used in fish tank filters. it is a little more expensive than baking soda, but it works better for longer, and you only need a little bit so you get a lot of uses out of one container.


and found some old knee highs (I used black, but color really doesn't matter):

and proceeded to make my own deodorizing carbon balls.

Step 1: Cut the knee high in half

Step 2: Spoon approximately 3 Tbs. of activated charcoal into the toe of the knee high. (If you are using the non-toe end of the knee high, tie it off first before spooning in the charcoal)

Step 3: Tie off knee high

Step 4: Toss carbon ball in the fridge, freezer, diaper pail, trash can etc.


So far, so good. I threw one in the kitchen trash can and one in the trash can/diaper pail in the baby's room. Neither can has been very odoriferous of late, so I think they are working. I still have to make one for the fridge and one for the freezer.

Nursing Bras on the Cheap

I don't know if I will actually try this or not, but here are instructions on how to turn a regular bar into a nursing bra: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/braconvert.html

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

Love You!