CAMPING!

OK, so I remember there was a post on Facebook from the Dave Ramsey group from someone who was planning an up coming camping trip with her family and in the comments I was giving tips as well as I talked about my totes to go camping. 

My family camps at a campground 3 weekends a month from June thru September, so I have to be organized. 
I remember the first time we went, it was awful. I forgot so many things, we ended up making repeated trips to the nearest store for several items I had at home and had forgotten! Never again, so I looked and learned and this is the way I do it now.

This is our tower of totes that goes camping with us, as well as those items stacked on top. I'll try to make a list and go thru each tote so you get a general idea of everything we pack.
On top are my dish pans, my dish rack, 2 buckets, my box of enameled camping dishes, and my charcoal chimney for my dutch ovens.
The tote on top is for dry/non refrigerated foods, like snacks, canned goods, etc. as well as any bread I pack for burgers, hot dogs, so on and so forth. We learned to lock up EVERYTHING because who knows what animals are lurking around. One time we lost 2 loaves of bread to thieves and had to eat hamburgers for an entire day breakfast, lunch and dinner! So, lock up your food in something, like a tote, or if you have room put it in the cooler.

The second tote holds our lanterns, wind up/solar flash lights, OFF bug spray, my first aid kit (One of the shoe boxes), all of our battery/phone chargers and cables (the other show box), as well as extra batteries, the air pump for our mattresses and pool inflatables, the girl's bug boxes, and the propane line for our grill. I bought a stacking pill holder, so those big pill bottles will be left at home in the future, I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet, but I will eventually LOL. There are other things that go in here, like my weather radio, but we also use them around the house so they are last minute items and not show in the pictures.
I keep neosporin , anti itch cream, multiple sizes of band aids, burn cream, tums, ibuprofen and Tylenol as well as hand sanitizing wipes, tissues, pads, etc. in our first aid kit.
We have young children, so we prefer battery operated lanterns vs. propane or kerosene. It's just safer, and we can take them right into the tent with us without a fear of fire.

The third tote is pretty much a catch all. It holds everything from our shower supplies to our girls coloring books and crayon bag. There are 4 shoe boxes in this tote, one has my clothesline rope and clothespins as well as extra para cord for our tarps and extra carabiner clips. Another box has all of our girls glow in the dark bracelets, rings, bracelets, etc.
Candy for my husband...he uses chew tobacco and I'm always on him about it, so candy LOL.
I also have plenty of sun block, aloe vera gel in case of sun burns and aloe vera lotion, bubble wands for our girls, pull ups and swimmers panties for our youngest daughter, Q tips box that has cotton balls, Q tips, cotton pads in it (Great for first aid), a bottle of peroxide, hand sanitizer, etc etc.
One box has all of our travel bottles and each one is clearly labeled with a sharpie. The pump bottles have little clips that lock them, so they don't spill everywhere when we are traveling to the campground or where ever it is we are going camping!

The last tote has all of our kitchen supplies, and there are 2 shoe boxes as well as 2 half boxes with connected flip lids.
I have my camp peculator and coffee maker, cooking spray, table cloth, all of our campfire forks and skewers, stick lighters, aluminum pans, aluminum foil, dish soap, napkins, paper towels, etc etc. in there.
One half box has all of my coffee stuff, the other has all my clips for the tablecloth, as well as anything else we that we can use to hold something down.

One shoe box has all of our cooking utensils, and the other is random kitchen items like my gloves, a roll of trash bags, throw away cutlery, and plastic salt and pepper shakers. I also have a paid of rubber gloves in there, because soot gets EVERYWHERE when your cleaning! If you do stain your hands with black soot, just scrub with some salt and hand soap, it'll clean right off.

I pack two smaller coolers rather than one big one, it saves space by stacking them on the back of the truck as well as prevents cross contamination of our drinks from our food. The last thing I want is our cold drinks swimming in bloody meat juices... that's a sure fire way to end up hugging porcelain later, so go with 2 smaller coolers! Also, it keeps your food colder, because your not constantly opening the lid and letting in hot air. Just a win win in my book.

Another thing we do is use cheap car visors with cable ties to wrap around our coolers as insulation and to reflect the hot sun. Combined with keeping our coolers in the shade, our ice survives much longer in the hot summer than it would without such measures. We usually camp Friday to Sunday, and I hate having to constantly go to the store to buy ice.
I also save ice at home all week in a clean trash bag in my chest freezer, then I dump it over into our coolers as I'm packing them the day we are leaving to camp. It saves money by not having to buy so many bags of ice, because let me tell you that adds up over the course of the summer! I freeze all the meats I can, which also helps to keep the freezer cold. I use locking gasket style containers from the Dollar tree to help eliminate cross contamination, and if I feel something might leak, or it's something really juicy that I'm worried about, I'll put it in a ziploc bag and make sure it's sealed up tight.
I use an old mayo jar for eggs, with a canning funnel so they drop right in the clean jar. That way, I don't have to be scared of busted eggs and salmonella all over everything...ewww no thank you!
There are extra items that are in stowed in my husband's truck tool box, so I'll take a picture the next time we go camping. I'll also take plenty of pictures of how we set up our campground site, so be sure to come back for the updated post!

Emergency $50 One Week Meal Plan

$5  Chicken Leg Quarters
$1  2 Boxes Jiffy Cornbread Mix
$1  2 Cans Green Beans
$1  Bag Of Carrots
$1  Bag Of Celery
$1  Several ears of fresh corn OR 1 bag frozen corn kernels
$2  Bag Of Onions
$3  Bag Of Potatoes
$3  Bag Of Apples
$2  2 Boxes Cornbread Stuffing, like Stove Top
$2  2 Bags Of Egg Noodles
$1  BBQ sauce
$1  Hamburger Buns
$1  Mac N Cheese
$2  All Purpose flour
$1  Yeast
$1  Blue bonnet Butter sticks
$2  Sugar
$1 Cinnamon
$1 Sour Cream

APPROXIMATE TOTAL COST --- $50

I rounded up to the next dollar on everything, so you should have a little leeway for regional cost differences, etc. Buy the cheapest store brand of each item you can find.

All drinks are water, unless you can spare $$ for tea or Kool aid.

Sweet oatmeal w/ chopped apples

APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS
2 Cups All Purpose Flour (If you have it, you can sub 1 cup of whole wheat flour, or 1 cup of oats well chopped in the blender)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup softened butter
2 large eggs
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir well with a fork and set aside. In another small bowl, add the eggs, butter, and sour cream. Whisk well, then using a spatula to scrape the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Stir with the spatula until just combined. Peel the apples, then cut out the core and chop. Add to the muffin batter, along with a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon.

CINNAMON SWIRL BREAD
In a large bowl, add a cup of hot water, then 2 cups of flour and a heaping tablespoon of sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a dough. Add a packet of yeast, then more flour until you have a good elastic bread dough. Knead by hand a good ten minutes, or in a kitchen aid for at least 5+ on speed 3. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise.

After it's risen, should take an hour or so, punch down. Roll the dough out on a clean counter top and spread half a softened stick of butter on top. Spread liberally with sugar and then heavily sprinkle on the cinnamon. Roll up into a loaf shape and Put the bread into a greased bread pan into a cold oven, turn on 300 and let bake about 45 to an hour. It should be nice and brown, and when you thump the bottom of the bread loaf, it should sound hollow. Toast sliced as needed for breakfast.

On CHICKEN AND DRESSING Sunday, cover 2 WHOLE chicken leg quarters with HOT water in your crock pot. Add a little salt and pepper, then boil on HIGH for several hours, giving you fall apart chicken and a great chicken broth. A couple of hours before dinner, pull the chicken meat from the bones, toss the bones in the trash. Use a permanent coffee filter, or whatever you have to strain the broth into a large bowl. Wash out your crock pot insert and return to the crock pot. Turn on HIGH.

Dump both boxes of stuffing mix into the crock pot, adding in enough of the broth you made to moisten it. Layer on the chicken, then make a simple gravy using the both, butter and flour in a small sauce pan. Chop an onion and spread out evenly over the stuffing. Pour the gravy onto the casserole and bake on high in crock pot until bubbly.
Open and drain the green beans, cook with a little more butter in a small sauce pan and serve. You should have enough leftover for Monday night.

On CHICKEN STEW OVER NOODLES Tuesday, cover 2 WHOLE chicken leg quarters with HOT water in your crock pot. Add a little salt and pepper, then boil on HIGH for several hours, giving you fall apart chicken and a great chicken broth. A couple of hours before dinner, pull the chicken meat from the bones, toss the bones in the trash. Use a permanent coffee filter, or whatever you have to strain the broth into a large bowl. Wash out your crock pot insert and return to the crock pot. Turn on HIGH.

Wash several celery stalks and carrots and slice or dice the way you like chicken stew. Also, dice an onion. Add the chicken meat, broth, and veggies to the crock pot, leaving about a cup of broth behind in your bowl. Use a whisk to combine several tablespoons of all purpose flour to the broth, making sure there are no lumps. Add to your soup in the crock and cook on high several hours until bubbly and thickened. About dinner time, boil the egg noodles and drain. Serve the stew over noodles. You should have enough leftovers for Wednesday.

On POTATO CORN CHOWDER Thursday, add the last 2 WHOLE chicken leg quarters with HOT water in your crock pot. Add a little salt and pepper, then boil on HIGH for several hours, giving you fall apart chicken and a great chicken broth. A couple of hours before dinner, pull the chicken meat from the bones, toss the bones in the trash. Use a permanent coffee filter, or whatever you have to strain the broth into a large bowl. Wash out your crock pot insert and return to the crock pot. Turn on HIGH.

Put the chicken meat in a container for another meal, then return the hot broth to the crock pot. Wash several potatoes and celery stalks. Peel and chop the potatoes, chop the celery. Shuck the corn and cut the kernels from the cob, making sure to milk the cobs with your knife into the crock pot.

Add some flour to the left in the bowl broth and whisk until no clumps. Add to the crock pot and stir well. Cook on HIGH until the potatoes are fork tender, serve with Jiffy cornbread. You should have enough leftovers for Friday.

On BBQ CHICKEN Saturday, put the chicken meat you saved into the crock pot with a couple sliced onions and the BBQ sauce. Cook on HIGH a few hours, until bubbly. Make mac & cheese by the box directions. Serve the shredded BBQ chicken with the buns.

Saving On Groceries

So a post I see frequently on some of my Facebook groups for budgeting concerns cheap meals, and or cutting back drastically on groceries. The most expensive expenses for most family are Mortgage/Rent, a car payment and/or the grocery budget! By cutting back on how much you spend in the grocery store, you can use your savings to pay off other bills or let it grow into a savings or rainy day fund!
One of the strategies I use to save money is to have several set meals I make every month without fail that my family loves that are extremely cheap to make! In the Fall/Winter I focus on large pots of tasty soups/stews, chilies, and one dish style crock pot meals which yield many servings, freeze well, and give us a healthy variety without breaking the bank! It's also great to have handy meals ready to go when it's the middle of the week and you just don't feel like cooking anything!
I freeze my soups in FREEZER SAFE mason jars, but you could also use plastic containers. I don't like to use plastic because tomato based soups tend to stain the plastic.
I rarely have issues with my glass jars, because I refrigerate my soups overnight in my crock pot BEFORE I ladle into my jars. The biggest causes of glass breaking would be either temperature shock or overfilling, so avoid that and you'll be good 9/10. The only other cause I can think of would be a defect or small crack in the glass that later breaks under the pressure of the expanding liquid as it freezes.
My family's top 3 freezer favorites are chicken chili, taco soup, and chicken broccoli and rice. Now, I don't really have recipes for these, I just know what I throw in to my crock pot and it turns out amazing so...I'll type a rough recipe for each.

Chicken Chili
1 bag Frozen Chicken breasts
2 small cans green chilies
1 large onion, chopped
1 bag frozen corn
6 to 8 cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained really well
Cumin, Garlic powder, Onion powder
Salt & Pepper
Put the chicken in the very bottom of the crock pot and dump everything else on top. Lock the lid and cook on low about 6 hours. When ready to serve, fish out chicken with a pair of tongs, chop or shred roughly and add back to the pot, stir well. Serve bowls of chili with shredded Mexican blend cheese, sour cream, chopped green onion and crushed tortilla chips.

Taco Soup
1 package ground turkey, browned and rinsed/drained
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 to 2 cans EACH Black beans, Light AND Dark Kidney beans, and Pinto beans, all rinsed and drained well
1 bag frozen corn
1 large onion, chopped
1 packet taco seasoning
Cumin, Garlic powder, Onion powder
Salt & Pepper
Dump everything into the crock pot and stir it around really well.  Lock the lid and cook on low about 6 hours. Serve bowls of chili with shredded Mexican blend cheese, sour cream, chopped green onion and crushed tortilla chips.

Chicken Broccoli and Rice
1 bag Frozen Chicken breasts
1 can cheese soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
Garlic powder, Onion powder
2 bags frozen broccoli florets
2 box instant brown rice
2 cans chicken broth
Dump the cheese and cream of chicken soup into the crock pot and stir it around really well. Add in the frozen chicken breasts and toss them around in the soup mixture to coat really well. Lock the lid and cook on low about 6 hours, until the chicken is falling apart tender. About 30 minutes before your ready to eat, add in the 2 bags of frozen broccoli.
In the microwave or on the stove, make the rice using chicken broth + water. When ready to serve, scoop a big spoonful of rice in a bowl and top with the chicken, broccoli and cheese sauce.

Each of these recipes fills my large crock pot almost to the rim, so we eat supper that night and I get about 8 to 10 pint jars to freeze for future meals. The rice and the beans make these meals really stretch, while at the same time still being reasonably healthy! Also note, I don't add water or broth to my crock pot soups, as the frozen chicken breasts cook, they release their own juices and by the time you're ready to serve, the soups are more than, I guess you'd say soupy, enough.

Mother's Day Tea!

So I know I'm a day late posting this...but better late than never right? I was with my family and I won't apologize for that!
Yesterday I enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day Afternoon tea party with my mom and daughters.

 We enjoyed tuna salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, bunches of cookies, a delicious lemon cake, strawberry lemonade slushies...mmm so much good food!
Everyone's favorite was my cucumber sandwiches so I thought I'd share the recipe with everyone! We won't mention my mom requested a post showing exactly how I made them =) 

First you need some good whole wheat bread or tortillas, I'm using tortillas today (no sandwiches were leftover and I was out of bread so) good cheddar cheese, some cucumber and tomato slices, deli turkey, and the star....my improvised ranch green goddess dressing!
To make the dressing, start by snipping some green onion from your prolific green onion planter...

Yes, that's an old 2 liter bottle cut to make a planter...and it works! Anywho, toss the green onions in a blender with a block of cream cheese, a packet of ranch dressing seasoning, a handful of fresh parsley, and a little milk to thin out the dressing. Blend until nice and smooth, adding more milk as needed until it coats a spoon but pours like a dressing.
Then to make a wrap, or sandwich, smear a good spoonful on...

Layer on some roasted turkey...

some fresh cucumber slices...

some tomatoes slices...

Sliced mild cheddar...

and wrap it up nice n tight! Add a handful of pretzels and your done. Quick and easy for lunch!

Saving With An Android Smart Phone

So I am part of the Dave Ramsey group on Facebook and someone posted about saving on things other than food, which is the majority of posts from that group. I had originally saw the post in my news feed, and when I circled back around I couldn't find it! But I thought it was a good idea, so I thought I would do a series of posts on how I save money on other things besides food. I thought a good place to start would be cell phones. Now, I know phones are a luxury, but I LOVE mine and I honestly don't see me going without one ever again.
My husband and I purchased 2 Nexus 4's from the Google Play Store over 2 years ago, and it was very pricey. I think the cost was something like $349 each, so $700 total! Can you say OUCH! The phones are unlocked and vanilla Android at it's finest, with no carrier bloatware!
We use Straight Talk by Walmart and love it! We have used Straight Talk with AT&T sim cards for as long as we have had our phones.
We save by paying for 1 year of service on both phones, which drops the monthly price to about $42 each for unlimited data, text, and nationwide talk, so $84 a month for both lines.
But if you look at the overall costs spread out over the number of years we've used the phones, and are continuing to use them I hope another couple of years, it's really worth it.
First and foremost invest in a good rugged case to protect your smartphone investment! My husband and I are currently using this case, and love it! It's two pieces, the first is a hard plastic that securely snaps around the phone and locks into place and the second is a type of rubber than grips around the plastic, to absorb hard shocks from falls. It completely protects, and I can firsthand tell you it works wonders. I have dropped my phone numerous times on accident, my girls have been fighting over my phone and dropped it, at one point a mad child whom will not be named threw my phone across the room, bounced off a wall and jumped across the floor and not a scratch on it, so I recommend a rugged case for any and all unavoidable accidents you might have!
Also, invest in a good screen cover, we use this screen protector, and it's really thick and protects from scratches and scraps to the screen. It's easy to install, and it doesn't effect the performance of the phone, I've had no trouble at all with it picking up finger swipes, so it's another one I recommend from my own personal experiences.
Now, you have your smart phone and you've protect your investment, you need some apps right?
Now a great thing about a vanilla Android device is you can do ANYTHING with your phone. One way my family saves money on apps is through the Amazon App store. They give away a FREE paid app every day, and often at holidays they give away over $100 worth of FREE paid apps! You just can't beat that! You can easily download and install the Amazon App Store to any unlocked Android smartphone by following the instructions here.
There are THOUSANDS of free apps on Google Play, and here is a short list of some of my favorites!
KIDOZ - I can't say enough good things about Kidoz! A safe kid mode for your phone with a parent lock, I've used this app on every android device we own for years now and have had very few issues with it. You set each child a profile and then add only the apps their are allowed access to. Also, Kidoz includes a kid safe browser, videos, and games from trusted sources on the web like PBS and NickJr. You can edit any of these simply by logging into the parent menu. The only time I've ever had trouble was in the first few weeks of the Android system updates, otherwise it work exactly as promised. I HIGHLY recommend it!
YouTube Kids - FREE, and great for the little ones.
GO SMS Pro, Keyboard & Locker - Personalize your phone's texting, keyboard and lock screen easily with minimal ads. I am currently using this FREE butterfly locker from developer ChickenAnt, I also like their under the sea locker, which is also FREE!
Now, even with all the free stuff out there, there are always apps out there I find that I want to buy, but you can really rack up the $$$ quickly buying lots of apps. One way I augment my Google Play Store purchases is by completing Google surveys from the Google Opinion Rewards app. Sometimes it's just $0.10 sometimes it's more, you never know and the surveys are random, so after you install the app, check your notifications pretty frequently. YES Google really pays for surveys, and here is the proof!

This is the reward history of my own completely surveys, so there's no reason to NOT have this app on your android devices!
So there you have it, all my little tips n tricks to save on the cost of smart phones and how to save money after you bite the bullet and invest in one. I truly believe that in the long run they are worth every penny and I hope my post has shown just how affordable they can be!

Tomato Chicken Soup

So I was looking on Pinterest (honestly...someone needs to stage an intervention...) and I came across this recipe for chicken tomato soup...and my creativity kicked in and I though I could easily make this using the leftover Italian chicken I made a few days ago!
So I grabbed a jar of tomato basil soup from the freezer and warmed it up in the microwave until I could easily pour it into my big soup pot.

I added in a BIG spoon full of the leftover Italian chicken...

and a can of chicken broth! 

I also added in some cream cheese from the fridge left over from bagels =) It was about 1/4 package, so roughly 2 oz.

I bought it up to a simmer, whisking here and there and while it was cooking I popped some garlic bread in the oven and chopped up some romaine lettuce. We're out of ranch =( so it's honey mustard tonight! Unfortunately, I had 2 bottles, one in the fridge and one in the pantry. Both were dates 02-2015 so I threw away the one opened in the fridge and used the one unopened in the pantry. I think it'll be OK, it smelled and tasted OK and I HATE to trash food -.-

After the soup was done, I added in the rest of the leftover pasta, ladled into bowls and topped with some mozzarella cheese.

This made plenty to feed my little family, and I still have a container of Italian chicken leftover! It's like it never ends LOL! I put it in the freezer, because after about the 3rd day of leftovers I get burned out. I'll pull it out in another week or two and make sandwiches out of it, there's just enough left for that.

Leftover Italian Chicken Tonight

Tonight was easy peasy, just leftovers from last night, this time around as sandwiches.