4 Miles

My post is not at all like Mary's. My boys are 4 & 2, so lunch is often PB&J for them, and leftovers or homemade burritos for my husband and myself. Breakfast is often frozen waffles, pancakes, or homemade granola (recipe below). Also, I was not organized enough to get together my best recipes, all the ingredients and then take a picture of them. BUT–I wanted to share some frugal recipes I've found…frugal for us. As I read more of the others, I'm seeing we're not the most frugal people–I'm looking forward to more ideas! Here are some easy recipes that our family likes.

AND–as I've been putting this together, I realized in a fit of spring cleaning I threw out all my receipts, so I can't even tell you how much this costs per serving. I'm sorry I'm not following any of the rules! But I'll give you lots of recipes in an attempt to make up for it!

Breakfast Granola (From my sister-in-law, who said she often triples the recipe and free subsitutes ingredients)

• 4 c. oats
• 1 c. almonds
• 1/2 c. sesame seeds
• 1/2 c. coconut
• 1 c. rice crispies
• 1/2 c maple syrup (I use 1/4 c. of pancake syrup and 1/4 c. corn syrup because I don't like the maple taste)
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/4-1/2 c oil

Bake at 300 for 35 minutes, stir after 20 minutes. After baking add dried fruit:

• 1 c raisins
• 1 c dried cranberries
• 1/2 c grapenuts

Tuna is such a low cost protein, yet my family is not a fan of it. I finally found a recipe that they will eat, from the Kraft Foods magazine.  These Tuna Cakes are tasty and not that expensive:

• 2 cans light tuna, drained, flaked 
• 1 pkg. Stuffing Mix
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 T Sweet pickle relish
• 3/4 water

I did have a problem with them staying together (they didn't look as round as the picture), but they were quite tasty.

Another food we like is smoked sausage. Often it goes on sale buy one get one free or even buy one get TWO free at our local store, so I'm often getting it for $1.33 or $2 a package.  I used to use 1/2 a package for these recipes, but my boys now love it so much I use an entire package.

Sausage Stir Fry
Prep Time: 15-20 min.

•  ½-1 pkg. Smoked sausage
• 2-3 T. oil
• 3 ¼ c. of fresh or frozen chopped vegetables (broccoli, carrots, onion, mushrooms, etc.) (Or one bag of stir-fry mix from the frozen food section, getting on sale for $1)
• ¾ c. parmesan cheese (powder or fresh, shreaded)
• 1 c. cooked rice
• Seasoning to taste (I do a quarter tsp of salt, pepper, garlic, oregano)

Cook rice.  Chop up sausage into bite sized pieces.  Sauté vegetables in oil until crisp and tender.  Add sausage and season to taste.  Heat thoroughly, mix in ½ c. parmesan cheese, and serve immediately over warm rice.  Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.

Sausage, Black Beans & Rice
Modified from a Bush's Beans wrapper, off a can of black beans.

• 1 T olive oil
• ¾ c onion, chopped fine
• ½ c green pepper, chopped fine
• 1 c diced tomatoes
• 1 can Black beans, drain & reserve juice
• ½ t thyme
• 1 t garlic salt
• ½ t hot pepper sauce
• 1 ½ to 3 T cider vinegar
• ½ package smoked sausage
• 2 cups cooked rice

In large skillet heat olive oil; cook onion and green pepper until crisp tender, stir in tomatoes, beans thyme and garlic salt.  Cook 3 minutes; add vinegar, pepper sauce, reserved juice and sausage.  Continue to cook 5 minutes.  Serve over rice.  Garnish with lime wedge (optional)

Chicken recently went on sale in the packages of 3 breasts. which all weighed about a pound and a half. I decided to split the packages up, and freeze 2 breats in a bag. The pieces of meat are so large, I figured 2 was enough for the 4 of us. Then when I'm cooking I cut them up into smaller pieces, so they cook faster and we don't over eat. I used two in all of these recipes and it was plenty. 

Sweet & Sour Chicken 
Modified from allrecipes.com

• 1 (20 oz) can of pineapple chunks, juice reserved
• 1/4 c soy sauce (we use low salt)
• 1/2 c vinegar
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c cornstarch
• 1 c carrots, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 onion
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and sliced (I only do this if I happen to have them on hand, which is not very often)
• 1 1/2 lb cooked chicken meat, cut into stripes (I do one pound and add more veggies)

1. In a large sauce pan, over medium-high heat, stir-fry chicken. After a few minutes, throw in all chopped vegetables (DON’T put in the pineapple). Remove from pan when chicken is no longer tender and vegetables are soft. 
2. Turn heat to medium-low heat, and in the same pan blend reserved pineapple juice, soy sauce, vinegar and brown sugar. Mix in corn starch and stir until thickened.
3. Stir in vegetables and chicken mix, cook until heated through. Stir in the pineapple chunks before serving.

This Chicken and Rice with Black Bean Salsa was wonderful the first time around and even better as leftovers in a burrito.  I love that it only calls for 4 ingredients!

• Chicken
• 1 jar salsa
• 1 can black beans
• Shredded cheese

I also like to buy pork loins when they're onsale for around $1.67/pound. Then I have the butcher slice them about 3/4 of an inch and we have a good stock of boneless pork chops. I freeze some in mairnaide to grill. Last week we had one pork chop left over and I chopped it up and used it in fried rice. This could also be done with leftover chicken. Again, I modified a recipe I found here, using leftover broccoli and rice we already had in the fridge. It was a fun way to use of leftovers and get a totally new meal–I want to be able to do that more!

Tonight we went to a baseball game at Victory Field, the home of our local AAA baseball team, the Indianapolis Indians. It was a work event, they got tickets for anyone who wanted them. We had debated about taking Alex (late night + how interesting would he find it?), but decided he wouldn't like being left behind, so we brought him as well. We figured we could spend the money we'd spend for a sitter on ballpark food!

The stadium is beautiful! And we were blessed with a beautiful night! It got up to the high 70s today, so it was a warm evening, but not too hot. We were comfortable in the shade as the sun went down.

We enjoyed hotdogs and cotton candy. Will was amazed that cotton could taste so good! Oh, and we did get some cracker jacks as well. The cotten candy was the favorite.

I was nice and didn't post the "after" pictures of the boys when they were done with their blue and green cotton candy (they were a mess).

Will enjoyed a game of Uno with the other kids. Alex had fun going up and down the stairs of our section. They both enjoyed the music being played, and cheering when the team scored (when we left, they were up 4-0).  We had great seats!

But the best part for them? Behind the stadium, in front of that brick building, was a train track and we saw at least 4 trains go by.

I'm so sorry I didn't keep you updated on the floor. I know you were ALL waiting in suspense!  For those of you who were on pins and needles, here we go:

In the dining room, after the carpet was pulled up, James had to really work to get the carpet adhesive off the tile that was under the carpet. (That took several attempts/products and part of the delay.) Then he had to patch up some spots and then put a leveling agent down–the grey looking stuff. (You can click on any picture to see it bigger, of course). 

Then he had to sand it down because the agent started drying faster then the guy at the store told him it would.  And so it started going down a bit, um, unlevel (for lack of a better word).  Finally, it was time to put down the new floor…we went with peel & stick tiles. We're trying to balance fixing up the house, but not putting in more than the house is worth. Ceramic tiles are out of our price range, and a bit silly for a house that most likely will get torn down if/when we sell the land.  

So, the tile is the one I liked best in our price range. I put in a picture of the process on the right, and then the finished product with the white table and chairs on the left, because I think it looks better next to the white than the brown cabinets. Since we're planning on painting the brown cabinets white, I know it'll look better.

Last night, while the boys and I were up north, James did the hardest part (I think ). He moved the fridge and the cabinets he put in last year and put the flooring down. He had just moved them all back when we got home! Those cabinets had just been placed on the floor, so they had to be moved (and cleaned behind, I haven't done that in a year!) 

I took some pictures tonight–they don't quite do it justice because of the lighting. But, on the left is a picture of the floor with the white cabinets. The right is a picture of the new floor with the old floor, just so you can see the difference. I'm not too sad to see the flowers go–I prefer real flowers to pink ones on my floor. But it could have been MUCH worse, I didn't mind that floor as much as I first thought I would. It worked well (and hid dirt well) for us for the last two years!  

Last week we were given a free bike trailer–quite exciting since Will has gotten pretty good on his bike and wanting to go on Family Bike Rides. Now that Alex has a trailer we can do that. On Saturday James got our bikes out of storage, pumped up some rather flat tires, put the trailer together and get everything ready for our family bike ride.  I realized I have not ridden my bike since before Will was born (4+ years). Thankfully, it WAS like riding a bike, you don't forget. (I remember I sprained my ankle really badly trying to get that bike down from a hook in our storage shed of our apartment and I didn't ride it the rest of the summer out of spite–I showed that bike–and because it took time for the ankle to heal. Then I got pregnant and the bike stayed in storage.)

The day was a cloudy, cooler day then we've had during the week. But, that worked out well because the trail wasn't that crowded. We discovered it's hard for Will and his tiny wheels/tiny legs to keep up with the bigger bikes. I felt I was spending most of the ride just trying to keep the bike upright. So we may do our next family bike ride with both boys in the trailer.

Here are the boys, trying to wait patiently for us to go. 

 Alex was quite sad he didn't have a bike helmet, so he pulled out his winter helmet and called that his helmet.

We rode out to a bike store and got Will a bigger helmet, and Alex (once again) got the hand me down. He's content with having one and wears it when he "rides" his tiny bike. The combination of his tiny body and the big helmet is so funny, I keep meaning to get a picture, but haven't.  I'll be sure to share it when I do get a picture!

Yesterday morning, at about 5:30 am, there was an earthquake about 125 miles south of us, just over the boarder in IL.

James was woken up by the rattling of the doors and thought one of the boys was making the noise, banging on our door. He got up (the shaking had stopped by then) and didn't see anyone and assumed, since we had our windows open, it was a wind gust. 

He said I said "What was that?" but I don't remember–I slept through the first quake in 40 years!  I did get up with the boys and when I turned on the radio found out about it. (I resisted the urge to wake James up to say "We had an earthquake!"). It was quite the topic of conversation all day–and with no one getting hurt, a fun topic.  It ended up being a 5.2 quake and appears to be on a small fault line that runs along the Wabash River valley, a branch of the the New Madrid Fault line. I discovered last night on the news NO ONE pronounces that like the city in Spain. We have to slaughter it, like all other names in Indiana–don't get me started on Galvaston or Alexandria! According to the paper, it is pronounced "New MAD rid following Midwesterner's penchant for borrowing European names and tweaking the pronunciation."  It was felt as far away as Chicago an Alanta! I've yet to hear from our family in the Chicago area to hear if they felt it, but my sister in St. Louis said she did.

James also felt the biggest aftershock. At about 11:15 there was a 4.6 one and he could feel it upstairs in his office. I was home with Alex and we didn't notice anything.  Dang it!

After a COLD weekend it has warmed up!

Monday we went back up for Week #9 of my teaching. I only have three more weeks of classes! (And the kids are doing class presentations the next three weeks! I knew I'd be glad I planned that–or copied it from my supervisor's syllabus.) I gave a test and spent the last few days grading that.

Tuesday was MOPS! I got a call Tuesday morning asking if I could prepare my talk for our Topic Tables. That's where several people talk about subjects they know and the women can go from table to table and learn things. I had said I'd do one if she really needed me. We were going to do it May 1st, but our speaker had something come up, so we moved the Tables up. I spoke on Blogging. Yeah, I know, blah. Or, no surprise. I actually do more than blog! And I'm FAR from an expert! But I shared simple tips on how to start one up.  But I spent most of Tuesday nap time figuring out how to make that last 20 minutes. It really wasn't a problem–I should have know I'd have no problem talking about SOMETHING! :-)  We did spend the afternoon making a big road on the deck in chalk and the boys had fun playing with that.

Wednesday is a blur! We played outside (Will rode his bike w/ training wheels! He just couldn't get that last summer, so we stuck it away in the garage. He pulled it out last week, hopped on and had no problems!), we made Rice Krispie Treats for Will to bring to Friends Club and I finally got the tests graded. James was feeling better and made some major progress on the dining room floor…I'll update those who'd like to see pictures of that later today.

Thursday we went on a LONG walk, Will riding his bike the whole way. The happy morning was spoiled when he discovered his sandals had given him blisters. He was pretty fussy about it. He ended up going to bed by 6:30 last night, so obviously being tired was part of it.  The other noteable thing about Thursday was the boys got out their shorts for the first time! YEA!!!

We actually hired someone to clean our windows.  The brother of one of James' bosses came to town with a crew of himself and two other men to do a number of people's houses, and we got a discount for it. We moved into the house 2 years ago and got new windows about then. I'm embarrassed to admit I've never washed the outside of the windows. And even most of the insides (only the big picture window in the living room).  They BADLY needed to be done and I was going to do it this spring.  Thursday was spent cleaning like crazy since we were having people come into our house–it was bad enough they were seeing filthy windows, no need to let them think I'm a slob everywhere else! My mother raised me better! (Nevermind that it was really messy and needed it–we'll blame it on the teaching! Or the kids! Nevermind that I always find other things to do then dusting the baseboards or behind the beds!) The boys were great in the morning, playing nicely while I got work done. The afternoon was a bit tougher (thus leading up to the situation where the crib broke).  That evening the guys called and asked if they could come to our place at 8 am. GLUP! Um, sure!

Friday we were up early (while the boy slept, the playing around and staying up to almost 10 wore them out!) so we could take down curtains and move all things away from the windows. The guys where in and out in less then 30 minutes–and did a GREAT job! Our windows look so clean and sparkly! REALLY brightened things up. I also took advantage of all the curtains being down to wash them and the house looked and smelled so pleasent and clean. And it was a warm day so we were outside most of the day–so each time I came home it was really nice and clean! Sadly, it didn't last. (Neither the clean nor the warmth.) No matter how hard I try, things happen (life happens!) and our house looks "lived in" = messy. And while I do try to clean up (and get the boys to help clean up) I don't spend all my time picking up after all of us.  Anyway, we'll do some tidy-up tomorrow before I leave for the day, and Tuesday will be another cleaning day.

Saturday we got to go to TWO birthday parties, both for kids named Sam. Samantha, the daughter of one of James' bosses, turned 3 and we were all invited to a party. Then we went to Samuel's First birthday party, a family from church. We all had a great time, but it sure made for a long day. How did we go from nothing for so long, to suddenly our calendar's filling up?!? Looking ahead (to a time when we could go visit my sister and get the other half of the bunkbed from her) we discovered we have ONE free weekend between now and June.  I feel like we're coming out of hibernation!

We've know Alex's days in the crib were numbered. We've been making plans to get a bed for him (well, bunk beds for the boys), but those plans were for AFTER I was done teaching–since they involve a trip to St. Louis to get the other 1/2 of the bunk beds my sister and & I had growing up (they became 2 nice twin beds that we've both gotten good use out of).  Alex had figured out how to get out, but could only do so when Will pushed the crib closer to the dresser (then he'd pull himself out and dance on the dresser, and slide off onto Will's bed.) We figured we had some time before he'd figure out how to get out on his own.

But…today the crib broke. Cribs are NOT designed to hold a 40 lb. preschooler and a 20 lb. toddler. Which is why Will is not supposed to be in the crib. But in the post-dinner clean up, we were both thankful the kids were playing nicely in another room (that should have been the clue to check on them!).

Now, it's 9:30 and both boys are still awake. Alex is loving his new found freedom. Will is just easily entertained.  Now Will has been moved to our room and Alex is on his bed–in hopes that being higher up (instead of on his mattress, on the floor) will make it less tempting to go to bed.  

While we knew it was going to happen, today was not the day we really wanted to do it.

The boys are playing "Race the Truck" while I've been folding laundry. One person races "big truck" while the other has the starting flag and tells the racer when to go. Alex keeps saying, "On mark, set, engine!" (I'm guessing it's a combination of "on your mark, get set, go" and "start your engines".)

Before:                      Now: 

Brown stained carpet: Gone! The stains don't show up too well in the picture, but trust me, it's really gross. And sad because the carpet was new when we moved in two years ago. But carpet in your only eating area with a toddler/preschooler and a new-born/toddler = MESS.

Current: Old, gray tile  (Picture #3 is a close up of the gray tile, the kitchen tile and the orange linoleum under the kitchen tile.)

Next: Cover this with new tile, along with the kitchen and bathroom!

(I'll let James discuss the details, if he cares to, at some other time.)