Spending Freeze February: Update

I really really didn't want to do a spending freeze this month, but we did it, and now we are oh-so-close to being able to buy things again.

Just like last year, we learned a few things about our spending habits by taking a month off and buying nothing that wasn't needed. Food, gas, bills. That's it.

We learned that we could stretch out groceries. We usually meal plan for a week, go shopping on a Sunday, and then meal plan for the next week. By adding three "stretch" days to the end and beginning of our meal plan, we found that we could essentially feed our family for two weeks on the groceries we buy for one week. By adding these stretch days to the beginning and the end, we like we weren't missing out on much. Taking the three days no only helps us save money, it also helps us really clean out our pantry before stocking up on more groceries.

We also learned what we really need vs. what we really want. I really really wanted a new water bottle. We have tons of sports bottles around the house, but I really really want a fancy one that won't leave water rings everywhere. They aren't too expensive, but it is more of a want than a need. However, Mr. Mouse really needed a new pair of running shoes, as we discovered when we ran the Virginia is for Lovers 6K this month. He's been putting it off, but after evaluating them after our race, it's clear he really needed new shoes. Especially with how active he our family is. I'm still not sure if he really needed new elastic band laces in addition the the shoes... but I guess I can't win them all (and he got me a pair too - so I guess I'll let it slide).

Yes - It was cold!

Now that February is essentially over, we will go back to our allowance system where we each get a set amount of money a pay period. We've done this in the past, but usually start dropping the habit in the middle of the year because keeping track of cash and online purchases was getting daunting. This year, I've set it up so we each have our own debit cards and our allowance is directly deposited into our accounts each pay period. Hopefully this will help us keep on track.

Foodie Friday

You're going to want to eat this. I promise.

The meal plan for this week looks like this:

Day	Lunch	Dinner
M	Sloppy Janes	Stir Fried Tofu (FF veg P.104) w/ rice
T	Pita Melt: Mushroom & Cheese	Baked Eggplant (V Slow Cook P. 117) w/ rice
W	Bake Eggplant w/ pita	Sloppy Janes
R	Pita Pizzas	Med. Veg Stew (V Slow Cook P. 64) w/ pita & hummus
F	Sloppy Janes	Portobello tacos (F/K P. 137) w/ salsa verde
S	Med Veg Stew	Spicy Asian Quinoa Salad (F/K P. 63)
S	left overs	New Night!

Instead of using recipes from online, we decided to find some yummy looking meals in our various Vegetarian Cookbooks. (Fast & Fresh Vegetarian, Everything Vegetarian Slow Cook Cookbook, Forks Over Knives)

The Mediterranean Vegetable Stew that we had last night and for lunch today was AHHHH-Mazing. So amazing, in fact, that after I ate it for lunch today, I had to jump on here and tell you about it... and then maybe go get another bowl. Yum.

It is literally as easy as chopping some things up and tossing them in the slow cooker. That's it!

Mediterranean Vegetable Stew (from The Everything Vegetarian Slow Cook Cookbook) - Serves 6

Ingredients
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
1 15oz can artichoke, drained and chopped
1/2/ cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes (we use low sodium)
4 cups (usually a whole box) Vegetable Broth (again, we use low sodium)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method
Toss all that yummy goodness in a 4-quart slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.

We served the stew over rice which was delicious and helped Big scoop it up better with his spanking-new spoon using skills.

It is seriously THAT easy. It's even easier if you meal plan and have a chop night like we do. However, this week we slacked and didn't have a chop night and guess what, I made dinner in no time while Big ate olives out of a measuring cup... Whatever keeps ya busy, kid!

I imagine it would also freeze well and then you could just add some broth and call it a day and do other fun things while your slow cooker makes dinner for you. Winning!


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Here's some nutritional information according to the cookbook:

Per Serving: Calories: 214 | Fat: 6 g | Protein: 6 g | Sodium: 522 mg (however, I'm unsure how this would change with no-salt and low sodium tomatoes and broth) | Fiber: 8 g | Carbohydrates: 31 g | Sugar: 12 g

SuperMom: Valentine's Edition

I've read all these blog posts recently about not being a supermom. About being anti-pinterest. About not having the pressure put on us to be perfect.

I agree, most days I wear the uniform of my people: yoga pants and a sweatshirt with some kind of encrusted cookie on a sleeve somewhere. Doing a craft or making a snack together is the last thing on my mind those days and the countdown to nap time and when Mr. M finally gets home from work is always ticking away in my head.

But sometimes it feels so dang good to be SuperMom. And you know what, I'm going to brag about it on the rare occasions that I actually get to wear the cape and be the coolest Mom on the planet.

This week was Valentine's week and I took the opportunity to do some fun things to keep Big busy. We made Valentine's day cards on Monday and I was only planning on doing things on days I didn't have to work (M-W-F). Instead, we ended up staying busy the whole week! We had a blast. Big kept busy and enjoyed doing something new each day and it was fun to fill our morning with something more than Elmo and Big Bird.

We crushed up some old crayons -- Okay, we used already crushed up crayons because Big has a crayon braking (and eating) habit - to make some fun cute heart crayons. We used a silicone IKEA heart ice cube tray and baked them at 150 degrees for about an hour. Plan on throwing out (or save it for other non-food crafts) your tray though. These were only a buck so I didn't mind. I imagine you could spend time figuring out a way to clean them, but it wasn't worth it to me. Then we colored Spiderman with heart crayons. Yup! 

We baked a super big heart cake by splitting a box cake mix into a round and square cake pan. Big's favorite part was adding the icing, licking the spatula, and adding more icing... Good thing it was just for us to eat. Then we covered it in sprinkles and surprised Dad when he got home! 

And we had a special peanut butter and sprinkle lunch on Valentine's Day! I even heart bombed Mr's car and the boys' doors after nap. I don't know why, but I was really feeling it this year for Valentine's Day. I took it as an opportunity to do something fun and out of the ordinary each day this week, and I think everyone really enjoyed it. 

Now back to my cookie encrusted sweats and Elmo. ;) 

I Love You ... To Pieces!

It's Valentine's Week and I'm excited that we get to do a little extra fun things to celebrate. I decided I'd spend some time with the boys today to make cards.

I saw this on Pinterest and decided to use my Silhouette Cameo to make it a little more fancy and easier for little fingers. Big can't quite glue things inside the lines and Little is just the best at crinkling paper, so it worked out better for us to do it my way (and hello - it's way cuter!).

I gave Big two pieces of tissue paper and thought he'd love going to town ripping them to shreds. Not so much. He wanted no part of my crafting. I was all, "This is why we don't do fun things" and then just started ripping the paper for him. He just sat there looking at me like I was bizarre. Then he wanted cheese, and that helped put him in the crafting mood.  

Big, Cheese, and Glue 

Happy with his cheese, he then got excited about glue. I kept ripping and he had a good ol' time smearing glue on the paper (and his fingers - Yay, Non Toxic!).

Then Big figured out that it was way more fun to just glue the actual tissue paper, so that's what he did for a bit while I assembled his card. 

I gave Little smaller pieces and let him crinkle them up to his hearts content then glued his bigger pieces down inside his card. See... He likes doing fun things!

Little loved making his card! 

With some help from Big (since he decided it was necessary to glue some more things), we glued down the edges of the card. I like this better. It's not like opening it up would add anything to it's "cardness" and there's no place inside to sign it anyway since it's covered in shredded tissue paper. Way to go Big, thanks for thinking on your toes ;) So, we glued the card shut around the edges and glued around the heart a bit. I like how it lifts a little to add depth to the words. 

I'm so happy that Big got into it. They turned out super adorable and add a little festivity to our home. I love YOU to pieces, boys. XOXO. 

Spending Freeze February

Last year, we started Spending Freeze February in the Mouse House. We decided that we would make a conscious effort not to buy anything extra for the whole month in an attempt to evaluate our spending habits and kick off the year with building our savings on our mind. Last year we did great! I originally saw this idea as a no-spend January to kick off the new year, but I knew that would be difficult since we have a birthday in January. February is also a short month, so it makes the goal seem more attainable. However, this year, I want to quit already.

It's not that I really want to go out and spend money, but I just feel like this year it's harder. We have friends who are about to move out of state and I don't want to not do things with them for the sake of meeting a goal of saving money. In fact, one of those friends had a birthday dinner last night, and of course we went. We knew this going into the month and decided to budget for the dinner, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I just feel that it started us out on the wrong 'saving' foot.

Mr and I also caught a nasty bug this past week also, making our ability to meal plan and grocery shop this weekend impossible, so there's that. I just don't feel like I have the time or energy (or stomach) to even think about food and that's a major way we plan out our spending. Sigh.

I shouldn't be jumping into the month already thinking we are 'failing' at our freeze, but I'm just trying to be practical here. Sometimes things just don't work out the way we plan, and that's fine. That being said, Mr is still on board with the spending freeze. It's great that whenever one of us is lacking in something, the other is there to pull up support for the situation.

We will get through this spending 'freeze' but I don't think we will be as strict as we were last year with it. I'm just being honest. But who knows, I'm sure by next week Mr will be wanting to buy things off EBay and I'll have to be the voice of 'freeze' reason.

One Little Word

Creative genius Ali Edwards created the One Little Word challenge where you chose a word to center your life. Last year, she urged her readers to make their word visible in their life. I was trying to decide on a word when I first heard of the challenge in December. The first word that came to mine was: survive, but I somehow doubted that this should be the "encouraging" word I should focus on for the next twelve months. With two itty-bitties under two, it is sometimes all I can do to just survive through the day, or until Mr. gets home from work, or until nap time. It can be rouuuugh. However, I decided for 2014 I didn't want to just survive. Things are getting way easier (in some ways), but things are still hard with two little boys running (or crawling) around and exploring every little thing they can get their itty-bitty fingers on. I decided that instead of surviving the now, I need to live in the now. I need to enjoy the now because before I know it, the now will be fleeting. I won't ever have a curious two-year-old Big with his little nine-month old exploring companion again. But I do have that now.

So I decided that that is my word: Now. I need to learn to focus on the now. Appreciate the now. Love the now. Even in those moments when I am just trying to survive, I am learning to take a breath and know that this is just for the now. One day, Big will stop throwing his food on the floor at every single meal, but he will also stop making silly faces when he tries something new. One day, Little will sleep without waking up in the middle of the night, but I will miss the quite moments rocking him back to sleep. One day, I will miss these little moments, but right now, right now these moments are mine to treasure.

Sunday Meal Plan

It's Sunday again, and time for us to do our weekly meal planning, shopping, and prepping for the coming week. We love how we are feeding our family wonderful, whole foods. We found a great four week meal plan on the Whole Foods website that we used to start out, but now we have fun choosing our own meals and mixing in some of our own favorite recipes.

Last week was the first time we created our own meal plan. We focus on lunch and dinner and no so much on breakfast. I made a batch of banana waffles and froze them for the week, and Mr. M made some Quinoa Breakfast Muffins. Those and Oatmeal are our go-to's for breakfast.

Last weeks meal plan looked like this:

Day	Lunch	Dinner
M	Black Bean Soup w/ Cornbread muffins	Stuffed Peppers w/ chorizo Cornbread muffins
T	Stuffed pepper	Pasta w/ Tomato and Veggies
W	Black Bean Soup	White Bean Spinach Salad
R	Pasta w/ Tomato and Veggies	Veggie Burgers w/ baked fries
F	Black Bean Soup	Millet Loaf (FORKS/KNIVES)  with Tahini Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Gravy
S	Veggie Burgers	Avocado and Kale Salad
S	Left Overs	*New Recipe Night*

Mr. M likes to try out new meals so we always save Sunday night for a new recipe. It works out well because it's the day do our shopping and can easily add things to our grocery trip for the meal. One of my favorite meal plan meals is Black Bean Soup. It is so easy to make and it makes a ton. It really is easy to keep it in the fridge for the week and spoon some out for lunch a few days a week.

Whole Foods' Black Bean Soup (see the original recipe here). 

Ingredients: 

• 1 pound dried black beans (about 2 1/2 cups), rinsed. (I'm not going to lie - We use two cans of black beans and call it a day). 
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped)1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ripe avocado, chopped

Method: 

Soak the beans overnight or 6 to 8 hours prior to cooking. Drain and rinse. (If you use cans, skip this step - Yay!)

In a large pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell pepper and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in cumin and chipotle and cook 1 minute, stirring. Add drained beans and 10 cups water. Bring soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until beans are tender. (Again, if you use cans, your beans are already 'tender.' I tend to just let the soup simmer for a bit, maybe 15 minutes, and call it good.) Remove 4 cups soup and carefully purée in a blender. Return purée to pot and stir in cilantro, nutritional yeast and lime juice. Spoon into bowls for serving and garnish with avocado.

Nutritional Info: 

PER SERVING:120 calories (25 from fat), 2.5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 15mg sodium, 20g carbohydrate (7g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 7g protein

We serve it up with a easy cornbread muffin (I buy the box mix... Shhh). We usually skip adding the avocado since it's a heat-and-serve dish for us, but when we have extra guacamole, I toss it in and it is delicious! 

Enjoy!