Life is easier when...

 I love anything that makes my life easier, ideas that help me spend less money and are just plain convenient.  Here are a few ideas from our house from the last couple months.  

I am always looking for snack ideas for the kids for after school.  They love jello and I love how cheap it is.  You can buy a box of jello mix for cents at the store and buy a bunch of these little 4-6 oz cups for around $5.00.      

 Here is the final product.  A snack the kids can grab when they get home from school or I can throw in a cooler bag to take to the gym or wherever we are going.   

I tried something new this month when it comes to our meals.  If you follow my monthly post for meal plan you have noticed it.  I found it on pinterest and it worked awesome for our busy family.  We already use the crockpot many times during the month so I love this idea.  After I did my monthly grocery shopping for the month and came home, I fixed 9 crockpot meals (which took about 2 hours), put them in bags, labeled them and froze them.  So 2 times a week I already had food prepared.  In the mornings I got the meal out of the freezer, put it in the crockpot and turned it on.  I did not have one complaint!   

I posted the end results of these shelves on facebook and got so many compliments.  I have to say that it is as awesome as a looks thanks to my hubby.  It took a little while to build because he had no directions as to how to build it.  I just told him what I wanted and showed him a couple pictures and he went off of those.  Aidan joined in to help during those hot days.  This is how it came together...

The shelves are all filled with shoes, football pads and containers.

What are some ideas that make your life easier?  I love to learn what other people do.

September Meals

We are on to another month.  The freezer meals from last month turned out awesome.  It was incredibly convenient and I spent about 5 minutes preparing the meal instead of 30.  I will take any time saving ideas. 
I had some questions from some people about the recipes..
1.  We have pizza once a week.  Almost always on Friday.  Where we get the pizza depends on week to week.  If I have good coupons for pizza and it is on sale, the pizza comes from the store frozen.  If we are out and about, we pick up if we are on our way home or eat somewhere like Old Towne Pizza in downtown Dawsonville. 
2.  Almost every meal, we have fresh veggies.  (Cucumbers, carrots, celery, broccoli, etc)  If the recipe is for example Beef Stew, than we don't have veggies.  If the meal has pasta in it, we won't have bread...except when we have Spaghetti or Lasagna, I add garlic bread.  I buy frozen bread loafs or crescent rolls, once again depending on what kind of coupons I have.  If you don't know yet, I do not buy anything with out a coupon and/or it being on sale.  Other than that, sometimes I add rice or fresh fruit and a scoop of ice cream for desert or a homemade cookie.  I love making different deserts and that happens randomly. 
3.  I rarely do boxed meals, ie mac and cheese.  Maybe on weekends for a side.  I would grill chicken and then add mac and cheese for a side.  Mostly I use homemade.  May be a pain sometimes, but much cheaper and healthier in the long run.
4.  We eat lot of chicken.  Why?  One word, CHEAP!  I get it where I can find it the cheapest.  I don't do organic unless and I can get some tremendous deal.  I survived..and so will my children. 
5.  I get nearly all of my recipes from 1 of 3 places...1.  allrecipes.com     2.  pinterest   or 3.  My mom.

Hope that answers your questions.


Sat 1          college football kick off.  crockpot queso blanco with chips and chicken wings 
GO BLUE! GO BRONCOS!
Sun 2          bratts on the grill   
Mon 3         cookout and friends
Tues 4         healthy BBQ chicken crockpot
Wed 5         spaghetti and meatsauce
Thurs 6        crockpot chicken tacos
Fri 7            Pizza
Sat 8           sesame chicken strips
Sun 9          at lake-picnic dinner
Mon 10       BLT's
Tues 11       chicken and dumplings casserole
Wed 12       jambalaya
Thurs 13      crockpot chicken fajitas
Fri 14          Pizza
Sat 15         worlds best chicken
Sun 16        cheesy chicken ranch lasagna
Mon 17       loaded potato soup
Tues 18       chicken roll ups
Wed 19       tacos
Thur 20       chicken tetrazinni
Fri 21          Pizza
Sat 22          grilled pork loin
Sun 23          lasagna soup
Mon 24        grilled fish
Tues 25        chicken and dumpling bake
Wed 26       sour cream and bacon crockpot chicken
Thurs 27       crockpot mac and cheese
Fri 28           Pizza
Sat 29          hamburgers
Sun 30         porkchops