Cut the budget...

We've recently cut our grocery budget by half.  It's important to me to  try and still eat as healthy as possible on a much lower budget.  We do our best not to purchase any of the "staple" processed foods such as condensed soups, seasoning packets (think taco seasoning), pre-made meals, etc.  We DO however usually purchase store-made bread, dressing, etc.

Because of our newly reduced budget I have had the fun challenge of making as much as I can from home to save a buck or two.  Spencer wasn't "wild" about the idea at first but when he tasted a turkey hot dog on a homemade whole wheat hot dog bun, his mind was changed.  We've been eating homemade hot dog buns, hamburger buns, bread and rolls, pasta, taco seasoning, and even Italian dressing. 

We've gone back to the basics with our meals eating down-home staples like beef stew, hamburgers with homemade oven fries, and homemade sausage/egg/cheese breakfast sandwiches.

It's certainly been a challenge, but a fun one!  Can you imagine what it was like years ago when nothing came pre-made from the store?  Maybe I'll get to a place where I buy nothing but whole foods and make everything else myself... maybe.

Soup du jour

I love soup.  My husband... not a soup guy.  It's not that he doesn't like soup, he just feels like he needs more to chew, more substance I suppose.  He's kind enough to tolerate my love of soup in the fall and winter and I try not to cook it more than once every week and half or so.

I love trying new soup recipes and tweaking old ones to create new flavors.  Of my faves?  Chicken tortilla soup (I have the least authentic but easiest recipe known to man). 

My mom's Cheesy Potato Soup.  When I asked Spencer whether or not he liked this one he said, what's not to like?  Potatoes, cheese, creamy?  He's all in.

Then there's Taylor's mom's Texas Soup.  I've shared this recipe before.  We just call it chili but it's technical name is Texas Soup.  When I tell guests we're having chili they always look at me like I'm weird when I hand them a bowl with beans, tomatoes, meat, and .... corn.  No one's ever said a bad word about though!

Tortellini Soup!  YUM!  I love tortellini and paired with a tomato base, veggies, and meat.  Delish!

Minestrone is another good one.  I order that at Olive Garden with a side of 11 breadsticks please!

The latest soup craze I'm on is Taco Noodle soup.  Sound weird?  So good!  It's a delicious combo of black beans (one of my fave proteins), tomatoes, taco seasoning, and elbow macaroni.

Do you eat soup?  What are you favorites... recipes please!  Spencer will be so thrilled when I tell him that we're having soup every day so I can try all of your recipes. :)

I NEED YOUR HELP- well my kitchen does for sure!

Ok so my kitchen is tiny.  TINY.  tiny.  When we moved in my sweet friends Alyssa and Nicole helped me to unpack my boxes and put things away.  It's worked great... until lately.  So now I need your help.  There aren't many options of where to put things in my kitchen but any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.  There has GOT to be a better way to make this work!

 This is my "pantry".  Don't laugh.  It's relatively deep which is great, except for the part where I can't reach anything in the top cupboard that isn't located right at the front.  Currently I have cereal and crackers in the top cupboard.  The bottom cupboard has 3 sections.  On the top I have food items, in the middle I have cans, jars, bottles etc, and on the bottom I have all my pots and pans (which barely fit... I have to take them all out to get the one I want and then put them all back in and I don't have the patience time for that.

I have these tiny little "over the fridge" cupboards which I absolutely cannot reach without a stool or chair of some sort.  It's pretty much a necessity that things that go in this cupboard only get used once in a blue moon.  Right now I have surplus paper products and serving dishes that I only use for company or holidays.

Above the dishwasher is one larger cabinet.  It currently houses my dinner plate, salad plates, bowls, and mugs.

Above the sink is a mess.  Really it is.  On the left side I keep all of the hot drinks (coffee and tea which have to be accessible daily) as well as cocoa and cider.  To the right I keep... I really don't know, I just had to get up and go look.  PITCHERS.  Apparently I keep spare pitchers there.

To the right of those cupboards is a skinny little guy.  He houses the mugs that don't match my dish set and glasses.

I have one of those great big corner cabinets you can't put anything in.  Why?  Because the interior is shaped like the letter V!  I have 2 corner stacking shelves in there now but still feel like it's a mess.  This cupboard is where I keep all of my baking stuff from spices to mixing bowls.  I can only reach things on the top shelf that are near the front... again, I'm short.

Next to the corner cabinet is another skinny lil' guy.  This houses all of my round plastic containers and lids.  It's VERY organized- just not sure it's the best use of space.

Above the stove (again not a place I can reach well) I keep the square plastic containers and wine glasses.

To the right of the stove is a medium sized cabinet that has NOTHING in it.  Why?  Because my husband just cleaned it out and I can't decide what would be best to put in there, that's why!

Then there is the bottom cabinet, under the sink.  I just keep spare soap, trash sacks, the drying rack, dish soap that kind of stuff under there.  It's sort of a hot mess too!

 I have another corner cabinet on the bottom that is a lazy Susan.  I keep all of my baking dishes (I have tons!) under here as well as our water bottles and travel mugs.

Finally is my only set of drawers... all 4 of those puppies are filled.  I've got silverware in the top drawer.  Plastic wrap, wax paper, Ziplocs, and foil in the second drawer.  Hot pads, dish towels, and dish clothes are in the 3rd drawer, and the 4th drawer holds surplus baking items such as the flour that won't fit in my canister.

I do have this great little antique cupboard I got for $5 at a garage sale.  It's partly full (light bulbs in a drawer, an extra set of silverware and placemats in another drawer) but 2 drawers would be available for things I use sometimes but not always.

I KNOW this post is SUPER long, but can you help?  What are your suggestions for re-organizing my kitchen?

Evidence of a Snow Day

Yesterday morning I woke up to SNOW.  There wasn't much, maybe an inch or so.... maybe more.  I swept the snow off my car and slid all the way to church.

When I left church it had snowed more.  By the time I went back for the evening service there were an additional 2 inches on the ground.  After the severe blizzards last year we learned to stay ahead on our scooping and scooped the driveway twice.

This morning I crawled out of bed at 7, peeked outside and... IT WAS STILL SNOWING.  We had about 7 inches this morning and our neighborhood didn't get plowed until 10.  Needless to say... it's a snow day!

Here's the proof:

Sampson sits by the door crying to go out.  Then he's surprised each time I open the door that snow is still there.

The trees and backyard and completely covered in snow.

I get up and make homemade blueberry coffee cake for breakfast.  Oh, and I threw a little nutmeg in my coffee this morning.  Just for kicks!

This is my attire for today... sock monkeys.  A definite indicator of a snow day.

I intend to spend the rest of the day by watching wintery movies like New in Town or Little Woman (Spencer's throwing a fit about that one), making dinner in the crockpot, doing some laundry, and sitting around drinking cocoa.  

Did you get a snow day?

Because everyone else is doing it...

...I'm also going to recap my year.  I kind of wish I'd written this post before reading everyone else's recap so I could pretend like it was my good idea.  But, that's not actually the case.

January-

• We spent much of the first two weeks buried in snow!
• We started P90X and Spencer lost 40 lbs!

February-

• Spencer and I attended WinterJam, a 4th and 5th grade winter camp as sponsors and got very little sleep!
• We got a roommate!  Preston, Spencer's college roommate, got a job at StoneBridge and moved in with us until his wife could move to Omaha.

March-

• Spring Break!  Just kidding... we didn't have a spring break.... adults don't get spring break.  I don't know why.
• Got my hair cut for the last time this year... my hair lady, Markie, moved to Chicago!  And also because my husband asked me to grow it out.

April-

• Celebrated Spencer's 23rd birthday!
• Celebrated Caelan's 12th birthday!
• Hosted an Easter egg hunt at StoneBridge.  We had about 1200 in attendance.
• Got a new car.

May-

• Marah graduated college... we missed it.
• Flew to Denver to meet up with the fam and then flew to London for a 10 day UK vaca!
• Mar and Bo celebrated their 2nd anniversary
• Preston moved out.

June-

• Had the first 3 summer camps at StoneBridge.  They were largely successful, fun, and exhausting all at the same time.  I can't wait for camp this year!
• Mom and Dad celebrated their 28th anniversary!

July-

• Held our sports camp @ StoneBridge
• Held and attended the annual Fireworks Bonanza at StoneBridge... fun day!
• Felt like I needed another vacation
• My boss stepped down from her position at the church.

August-

• My family came to visit!
• I turned 24... yikes!
• Spencer and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary
• Held the first Back-to-School BBQ at StoneBridge served a lot more people than we thought we would!

September-

• Got back into the "school year swing of things".
• Spencer started his final college class... biology

October-

• Aunt Dona and Uncle Bob visited for awhile (I'm probably forgetting other times people visited.)
• Ran home real quickly for a weekend... just for a break!
• Was offered the position of Children's Ministries Pastor and accepted
• Held the biggest Trunk-or-Treat event to date at the church.  It was COLD!

November-

• Happy Thanksgiving!  This year I hosted!- my family came to visit

December-

• Merry Christmas!  We went home briefly for some time at Christmas
• Spencer's parents came and took us to the Colors of Christmas concert.
• Spencer's parents blessed us with a new washer!
• Our friends Brett and Nicole had their first baby!

It's been a fantastic year!  It's been exhausting, exciting, encouraging, trying, and wonderful!

We wish you a merry Christmas....

Can you believe Christmas is only days away?  It's hard for me to realize that sometimes.  My sister mocks me because I usually have most of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving... not this year.  This year I STILL have one more thing to get.  In my defense it's actually a gift I'm picking up for my mom, not something I'm buying, but still.  I feel like I'm not finished.

We've had fun enjoying Christmas parties for work and with our small group.  I've baked and baked until my oven told me to back off for awhile.  Spencer and I have exchanged gifts and we had an early Christmas dinner last night.

We've looked at Christmas lights a few different times, watched two Christmas programs, seen every Christmas DVD we own, and set up the trees, lights, and decor around the house.  It looks and feels like Christmas.

In the midst of all of these wonderful things though, I can't help to imagine what it would've been like as a teenager, pregnant and unmarried, riding for months on a donkey to a city you've likely never been to.  Arriving only to discover every single hotel is full.  To add to your already tricky predicament you're ready to give birth and there is no place to stay. 

New parents are used to a slew of people coming in to see their new baby, but angels?  Shepherds?  Kings?  I can't imagine what that would be like.  God's plan truly was one of a kind.  I'm so grateful for his gift to us.

Merry Christmas!

Tis the Season

Tis the Season to bake cookies fa la la la la, la la la la la.  So I've been making cookies and I decided to try a new kind of cookies (I tend to default to chocolate chip).  I found a recipe on P-Dubs website that she linked from another website: two peas and their pod.

They sounded irresistible so I figured I'd give them a try.  I am SO glad that I did.  These cookies are one of the best things I've ever had...ever.  They are the kind of cookie you would take with you if you had to pick just one to eat on a deserted island for the rest of your life.  This is the cookie that you want to eat alone so no one can watch you lick every ounce of caramel off of your fingers.  This is the "why are you talking to me while I'm eating my cookie" cookie.

Are you ready for this one?  Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Sea Salt.  Oh my goodness!

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

5 T butter

7 T unsweetened cocoa

2/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

1/3 c. plain yogurt (I didn't have any so I used low fat sour cream)

1 t. vanilla

Soft caramel rolled into little balls (I heated mine up in the microwave to make it more pliable)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly coat cookie sheets with non-stick spray.  Mix flour, soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Melt butter and combine with cocoa powder and sugars.  Mixture will resemble coarse sand.  Add yogurt (or sour cream) and vanilla, stirring to combine.  Add flour mixture, stirring until moist.  Wrap the chocolate dough around the caramel balls.  Place balls on cookie sheets and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until almost set.  Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm.  Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

I had to experiment with how to cover the caramel.  I found the best method was to flatten a ball of dough.  Put the caramel in the middle and then cover with another flattened ball of dough, pinching the sides closed.

These are.... oh so good!  Give them a try!