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Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins

August 22nd, 2006 at 11:16 pm

This was requested last week, and I'm just getting to it..SORRY!!! But, its good, so here goes!

Ingredients:

1 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 C. quick cooking oats
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 C. milk
1/2 C. peanut butter
1/2 C. mashed ripe banana
1 egg, beaten
2 T. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla extract

Topping:
1/4 C. all-purpose flour
2 T. butter, melted
2 T. packed brown sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper liners.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. In smaller bowl whisk together milk, peanut butter, banana, egg, oil and vanilla. Add mixture to dry ingredients, mixing until just moistened. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

In a small bowl, stir together topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over muffins.

Bake for 18 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm.

Thanks to allrecipes.com for this one!

PS....throw some strawberry jam on them and YUMMMYYYYYY!!!!!!!

A paid survey!

August 19th, 2006 at 03:36 am

I've signed up with MULTIPLE pay to survey sites in the last few months, and have been earning points, etc etc. Well, Greenfield Online has become notorious for doing mostly "one entry to win 10 million dollars types of things, but I read on someones blog that those surveys sometimes lead to ones that actually pay money. So I started filling them out instead of just deleting them like I had been lol.

Well, today in my box I got a survey to do with my son that paid $7! WOOHOO! So once received, that will go in my challenge as well!

Grocery minimizing/no spend

August 18th, 2006 at 02:34 am

Well, we decided until the wedding (October 7th) to cut out grocery spending to less than $20 a week. Now, to some that may seem crazy, but if you saw my cupboards, you'd understand why that is very doable.

My only concern is meat, we're running low at the moment, but I'm stretching as much as I can.

We have literally over 100 boxes of pasta, 15 jars of regular sauce, makings for other sauces, any rice or side you could want, tomatoes coming into the garden, milk in the freezer (although not enough to last the whole time), cheese, eggs, etc etc. Canned goods, pie, hygiene items, hot dogs, pizza rolls...

One of these day's I'll post pictures of my cabinets!

So anyway, our deal is that unless it's FREE completely, an absolute need (milk, bread, etc), or less than a quarter (and quantities in reason lol) it doesn't get purchased. I'll keep ya'll updated on how I do!

Shopping discouraged

August 18th, 2006 at 02:29 am

Well, the last two weeks have had awesome sales + coupons around here. First Kroger triples, then Meijer triples (still going on), and Kroger is having some good sales too. let alone the awesome Rite Aid coupons I need to use at Meijer, the $130 ECB I have to spend at CVS, and the 2 foot stack of coupons I have sittin gon my coffee table needing clipped.

It's GREAT, as we're on a no=spending grocery spree until after the wedding (will explain in another post), so I can still shop but not pay anything lol.

The problem is..I am SO unmotivated. saving money is my JOB now that I'm a stay at home mom, so I feel very guilty letting any deals pass me by because I'm tired, etc. And I really really enjoy couopning, its not just my job, its my hobby and I love it. Plus the DBF started 2nd shift this week so we're adjusting to that schedule change as well.

I guess tomorrow is a new day and I just need to suck it up, it's weeks like this I wish for when the sales are dry. I need to enjoy it while it lasts!

Dinner Tonight

August 13th, 2006 at 06:23 pm

I'm going to be adventerous yet again tonight. There are some things I realized I need to use.

I consistently get taco seasoning free after coupons, and we don't eat tacos very often, so it tends to stack up. Granted it has a long shelf life, but I hate even getting things free that don't get used. So tonight I'm going to use a packet of that.

I'm going to take a pound or so of already browned hamburger out of the freezer, mix up some taco seasoning with it, throw in a can of corn (also in the pantry for awhile), put it all in a baking dish and top it with cornbread mix I bought a few weeks ago. We'll see how it turns out!

Triple coupons are my favorite!

August 13th, 2006 at 06:08 pm

Kroger near my parents has been having triple coupons this weekend. So our weekend of NOT going to see my parents quickly turned into going to see my parents so they could watch the kids so we could go to Krogers lol.

All told, we did great, had a few MAJOR issues at checkout, but all in all we did pretty good. Over $500 worth of groceries for just under $80. That still puts us under grocery budget for the week (I budget $100 for our family of 5 for everything...diapers, meat, cleaning, everything). I took the additional $20 and put it aside, just had a feeling.

Opened up the paper this morning, and..could it be..YES...MEIJER is having triple coupons ALL WEEK. I am going to be SO tired lol. Good news is DBF starts second shift this week so he'll be around to go and help me! I have TONS of coupons to clip, and more on the way, so I need to get my rear in gear but gosh Im tired today!

Shopping triples always takes alot out of me, takes 2-3 hours plus checkout and it's lots of mental exercise. very well worth it, but still tiring. After this week I won't want to see coupons for awhile!!!!!

Banana Chip Muffins

August 11th, 2006 at 07:26 pm

Here's the recipe I made today, these are VERY good, moist and yummy! My kids Adore them!

Banana Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 C, sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1 egg
1/2 C. milk
1/3 C. vegetable oil
1/2 C. mashed banana
1/2 C. unsweetened applesauce (I use whatever I have on hand, which is regular and they turn out good)
1 C. miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk, oil, banana and applesauce; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I have doubled this recipe with no problems whatsoever, when doubled it makes almost 6 dozen muffins.

Loving being a SAHM!

August 11th, 2006 at 06:43 pm

So it's been almost a month since I became a SAHM again, and I'm loving it! I have time to work on our wedding stuff (although Im not nearly close enough to done on that one! lol), coupons, and selling on ebay. Let alone being able to have time to fix good stuff for my kids to for their lunches, be home with them after school, and potty training the 2 year old. But that's no fun really lol.

Today I've been a baking fool. I had 2 bunches of bananas I got for free with coupons that we 're starting to go, so instead of throw them out like the old me would have (because I wouldn't have time to do anything with them), I mashed them all up and made double batches of banana chocolate chip mini muffins that my kids love (they are VERY good and rather healthy, if anyone wants the recipe), and a double batch of oatmeal/peanut butter/banana muffins. That was a new recipe and is actually quite good. I love being able to take time to COOK! I've always loved to cook, in a past life I wanted to be a chef, alas that hasn't happened.

That being said....everyone needs a break sometimes, so I took a few sirloins out of the freezer (bought on sale for 2.99 a lb) for DBF to grill out tonight, I'm going to make mashed potatoes (bought 5 lb bags for 1.25./each on sale), and we have some green beans I cooked up the other night (free after coupons and FRESH! simmered with onions-bought for $1 for a large bag of prechopped and frozen ones). A very good dinner, cheap and I don't have to do much!! WOOHOOO!!!!

Ebay auctions

August 8th, 2006 at 06:42 pm

Since becoming a SAHM, my fiancee and I decided I need to throw some things at Ebay again like I used to. I do enjoy it, but it's rather time intensive. My first few auctions have done quite well, in fact have sold for more than I spent on coupons last week lol. That's always a good thing. I used to sell childrens clothing, but now I'm just doing whatever I have! Example, right now I have up some china (from my first marriage), some kids clothes, and I'm listing some gorgeous fabric today. All in all, the pennies add up, and fattening my bank account is always a good thing!

Overall my goal is to be able to help pay for wedding stuff, and then throw some towards the challenge as well.

Points programs and Paid to clicks

July 25th, 2006 at 08:26 pm

Making the dollar scream is my mission in life. I've accepted that fact. I've been farting around doing points programs and paid to clicks for awhile, but today I've been getting those organized, checking balances, etc. and making my notebook so I can make sure and optimize all those programs. Lots of time in front of the computer, but worth it in the end I think!