It's Caterday!

Fabulous Food Friday

What's for Lunch?

Part I

Ah, yes...the all important school lunch. I remember the days of bringing my lunch box to school, or working in the cafeteria so we could earn our hot lunches for free! It was a break from the academic day, a chance to hang out with friends...and to trade food whenever possible.

From what I remember, my mom seemed to pack one of the more healthier lunches. I was the one with the wheat bread sandwich in a sea of white bread. I don't remember what kind of snacks we had, but I do remember trading some of them to another girl for her Doritos (the prized chip of the day). I also remember I was still bringing a lunch box even long after it was "cool." When my other classmates brought their lunch in a nice brown paper lunch bag, I was still toting around my Garfield lunch box. Oh, well...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Supplies:

In preschool, Natalie had a vinyl princess lunch tote that I quickly discarded after finding out it was made with toxic materials. There was a big scare a few years ago, so paranoid mom that I am, I packed the rest of her lunches that year in paper bags (that I decorated with my rubber stamps!).

Last year in Kindergarten, she only had lunch at school every other Wednesday, so I just let her buy lunch at school. This year she is a full-time student in need of a lunch every day, so I tried to find the lunch box that would be the best fit for Natalie. I came across this princess lunchbox and it reminded me of mine growing up, so I just had to get it. Earlier in the summer, Target had these cute princess printed sandwich/snack bags (pkg of 30) in their dollar spot. Couldn't pass those up, then I found the other sandwich box at the Disney Store to use when the sandwich bags run out.

If paper bags are more your speed, here are a few cute ideas...(yea, yea, I know they are over the top, but sometimes going the extra mile is fun!)


Basic Lunch Ideas
Here are a few things I came up with for this weeks lunches.

(obviously she doesn't get all of this at once)
PB&J cut with heart-shaped sandwich cutter, apple, juice, carrots with dip, PB and honey tortilla roll up with granola to dip it in and a muffin.

Here are some more ideas:
Sandwiches:
lunch meat & cheese, ham and cheese wrap, chicken salad sandwich, pita pockets, bagel sandwich, egg salad sandwich

Sides:
fresh cut veggies & dip, fresh whole fruit, applesauce, pretzels, frozen yogurt, string cheese, box raisins, fruit salad, ants on a log (celery w/PB and raisins), crackers with cheese, pumpkin seeds, almonds, dried fruit, fruit leather, trail mix, cucumber slices, juice, fruit bowl, rice chips, baby carrots, grapes, rice krispies square, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, granola bars, homemade cookies!!!

Thanks to Google, I found a great link with many more ideas:

More lunch ideas

And let's not forget to pack a note for your kids. It's a great way to encourage early reading. Check out some lunchbox notes I made for Natalie. That's all for now...more to come!

Bountiful Harvest

So my mother-in-law was over and we were rummaging through the garden and found lots of goodies. Natalie had a lot of fun picking all the tomatoes and jalapenos...Salsa anyone? I think I planted cilantro, but I just have to find it!!

Then my friend Debbie came over and was able to reach quite a few pears from out of our trees (as she is a bit taller than me!) The grapes also came from our vines and are starting to sweeten up. Our concord grapes are starting to turn purple, but have a ways to go before they are ready to eat.

So you want to save some money?...a tutorial on coupons

<<------- That's my receipt Zander is holding!

Sit down, get comfy. You may even want to grab a snack, cause this is a tad lengthy! In response to a question about my previous post, I will share what I know about saving money at the grocery store. Sweetktea wrote:

"I wanna know how in the world you saved all that money on your groceries!!!!!"

Way back I wrote this post I LOVE my coupons ... about ways to cut down on the grocery bill. (Actually it was almost a year ago today that I wrote it. Anyone else think that is weird?) In that post, there is a link to a website called the Grocery Game.

For about 6 months after Hayden was born my neighbor Anne and I would faithfully clip coupons, get our list from the Grocery Game, then trek down to Alberson's and watch our hard work pay off. After a while of doing the grocery game we kinda got the hang of it, so now it's pretty easy to figure out how to out-smart the stores!

Here's the basic idea: The people at the Grocery Game study the grocery sales cycles, so they can determine which sales are the "rock bottom" prices and which ones are the "phantom sales" designed for you to think you are getting a really good deal when you really are not. An example of a phantom sale is when Safeway puts their cereal buy one get one free. Sure sounds like a deal until you realize they are charging $6.95 per box to begin with. (I can get cereals regular priced for $2.50-3.50 at other stores.)

The folks at the Grocery Game also compile a list of all the coupons that are printed in the Sunday paper as well as the coupons from the FoodDay (ours comes on Tuesday). Then they match the coupons up with the "rock bottom" sale prices so you get the absolute best price for that item. For a small monthly fee, you just print out the list, mark off what you are going to buy, pull those coupons and jet off to the store.

Here's the deal though...You must clip, clip, clip and sort your coupons. For a while to maximize my savings, I was clipping from 2 newspapers (which is a common practice of grocery gamers, especially if you have lots of mouths to feed.) The other side of this savings is acquiring a large enough "stock-pile" of grocery items that you a) don't run out in between sales cycles and b) aren't tempted to buy when the price isn't right (phantom sale). Buy only when the price is low, but buy more than you need, so you don't run out. Once you build up a big enough stock pile, you have more freedom to only shop for the sale items, which is when you see the biggest savings. I'm sure Anne is probably laughing at the thought of how big our stock-piles got!!! I am still using my shampoo stash I bought over 2 years ago when I got shampoo for 24 cents each! A lot of times you end up with FREE items. Which is great! Yesterday when I went shopping, I got eggs and hamburger patties for Free.

Although I am not a strict Grocery Gamer anymore, (and I have cut way down on which coupons I clip), I am still pretty good at combining sales with coupons. Even if you don't try out the GG, you can save a bundle just by only shopping the sales and using coupons for those sale items.

This week at Alberston's they are having a 10 for $15 sale. However, if you do buy 10 items from the sales flyer, you get save an additional $5 making your purchases 10 for $10. Among the list of items were selected General Mills cereal...well I happened to clip a coupon for $1 off 2 boxes of cereal, so now I am getting 10 for $9. Other things on the list were cake mixes. I also had a coupon for the mixes, so now I am getting 10 for $8.50. Frozen waffles were on the list and guess what? I had a coupon for those too. So I basically got 2 boxes of Kix cereal, 2 boxes of waffles, 4 boxes of cake mix and 2 pouches of cookie mix for $8...That's 80 cents per item. Do I need 4 boxes of cake mix right now? No, but in December when we have all our birthdays I won't have to pay full price. You do have to be real careful not to go crazy though. Most of the manufactured coupons are for processed foods (a little conspiracy theory about keeping Americans fat/unhealthy by getting them to eat too many processed foods. But that's another subject for another day!).

So that's kind of how it works. I also got lots of Buy One Get One Free items, so sitting in my freezer are 2 Foster Farms whole chickens, 2 pot roasts, 4 packages of ground turkey and a bunch of veggies.

Oh, another tip is to use the coupon to maximize the savings. For example, I had a coupon for 75 cents off 2 Tree Top Juice products. Now I could buy 2 large juice jugs, or I could buy 2 packages of juice boxes...Which do you think will cost less? The juice boxes, of course...they were already on sale 10 for $10 ($1 each) so with my coupon, I actually only paid 25 cents for a package of 4 juice boxes. Many of the 10 for $10 sales at Albertsons don't require that you purchase all 10 items in order to get the deal. You have to find out those details by reading the ad.

The best place to shop for sales, using coupons, in my opinion...is Albertson's. Not only will they take manufacturer's coupons, but they will also take up to 10 coupons from other grocery stores. When I went in yesterday I had a $10 off coupon from Safeway, plus their double coupons which is another $4 off, then I had a $5 off coupon from the Grocery Outlet. So before I even bothered with the other manufacturer's coupons I was already going to be saving $19.

Looking at the receipt, you can see that yesterday I spent $190.04 and bought 128 items. This averages out to $1.48 per item. I saved $9.95 with manufacturer's coupons, $25.48 with store coupons and $149.86 from Albertson's sales for a total savings of $185.29. The grocery clerk was impressed, doing the figures in his head "you saved about 50%." In the past when I was a hard-core coupon clipper, I saved between 60 and 70%.

So, now you know...are you sorry you asked...and do you think I'm a freak?

So now that the kids are back in school, what are you doing with all your time?

If you would have asked me this question last year, I would have just laughed. At best I had about an hour and a half of free time between drop offs and pick ups at the two schools.

This year however, I have a good solid block of time...and since Natalie is now riding the bus home, I don't have to load up the boys and haul them over to the school to pick up Natalie...It has been soooo heavenly!

Although this first week of school is starting to take it's toll on me in the evenings especially, I have to say that I'm better off than I was last year. Last year at this time I had the stress of learning the routine of 2 different schools, 2 different teachers, all just months after moving to our new home.


So that brings me to the question...what are you doing with all your free time? Well, this week has been fairly productive. I've managed to mop the kitchen, go grocery shopping (where I saved $185 with my coupons), clean out both the kitchen refrigerator and the garage refrigerator (to accommodate all the new groceries) and I've gone on a walk with the boys (which took twice as long as going solo, but it was good to get out!). I've also had the usual house work to do which may actually get done this year!!! It's amazing how much more you can do when you aren't interrupted all day long. Ahhh...just sitting here enjoying my last 30 minutes before the bus arrives.
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I just wanted to let everyone know that Natalie's school is offering Entertainment books for $20 this week (sorry I realize it's already Thursday). If you are interested I can get one for you.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Zander's first day of 3-day preschool. (Last year he only went 2 days a week). He was up and dressed with Natalie, but we had to revise his wardrobe. He decided to wear black warm up pants (w/ a red stripe down the leg) along with a white polo shirt he put on backwards. This was totally acceptable to him, but I convinced him to wear this outfit instead. "Just wear it for the first day of school, then you can pick the next outfit." This is Mommy code for my outfit makes a much better photo!!! (BTW, is it just me, or do the carvings in the door look like angel's wings?)

Zander knew right where his back pack went, then he walked into his class and started to play. He loved making color patterns and even after meeting some new kids, he went right back to this activity.

Here is my sweet Zander with his teachers.

Sometime after lunch, Zander came down stairs and showed me what he had been working on. (see picture of alphabet). After I told him how proud I was, I asked him how he did it and he said, "I just sang the song then wrote it down." I think it's interesting that he got the "Z" correct at the end of the alphabet, but at the beginning of his name it's backwards. He is a very quick learner and I can't wait to see all he does this year.

First Day of First Grade!

Today started off early for me. I had first day jitters and woke up at 5 am. I didn't actually get up until 5:45. Natalie woke up around 6:30 ready to go! Last year I had to drag her out of bed at 7 am and she was still so sleepy. Not today...she couldn't wait to put on her new school clothes and go to school. Here is her favorite back to school outfit. It has and attached belt that I don't care for, but Natalie really wanted to wear it...She did let me take a few pictures without it though! It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are little brown horses all over the shirt.

This is her first year having lunch every day, so we got her a special princess lunch box. I remember my school lunch boxes. I had a blue Holly Hobbie one and then I upgraded to Strawberry Shortcake.

When we arrived in her class, she put her things in her cubbie and got settled at her desk where there was a coloring project waiting for her. Meanwhile I am taking pictures to distract me from realizing that my little baby girl is becoming more and more independent each day. A few of the other moms and I lingered around the door watching our kids as their first day was under way. We were all feeling a little sentimental, but I'm sure the teacher is used to parents doing this on the first day!!!

Today also marks Natalie's first bus ride home. At the first grade orientation, I asked her if she wanted to ride the bus or have me pick her up on the first day. Without hesitation, she yells out "ride the bus!" I was surprised and a little sad, but also proud of her for not being afraid. This is going to be a big year. She will learn how to read, spell, tell time, count money...etc. I'm so very thankful she has the opportunity to go to such a great school.

Dan and Alyssa's Excellent Adventure

Cabin Fever

Saturday afternoon Dan and I, along with our friends Scott and Debbie dropped our kids off and drove up near Mt. Hood to a cabin near Cooper's Spur. This was our last ditch effort to have some enjoyable free time before the kids start school on Tuesday. We feasted on fondue w/ bread, fruit and veggies, then is was off to the hot tubs for a nice soak as the stars came out. Once we were completely relaxed we went back inside for some games where the girls dominated in a fine game of pictionary. Around 2 am we called it a night and crawled into bed.

Here is the inside of our cozy cabin retreat. There was a really quaint
"vintage" stove, refrigerator combo kitchen area, a living/dining area,
two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a loft with 4 beds.

Our Fearless Rafting Crew

Today, after packing up our stuff, we all drove to Hood River for lunch, then over the bridge to Washington where we planned to raft down the White Salmon River. Here are some pictures taken by the rafting outfit, Zoller's Outdoor Odysseys. I will get my waterproof camera developed some time this week.

Back Row: Our guide JD, in the yellow vest, Scott, Debbie, Me and Dan.

The front row was a nice couple from Seattle, Washington.

Here we are hunkered way down inside the raft as we prepare to get
swallowed up by Husum Falls.

This incredible trip was highlighted by a vertical plunge over the legendary 10' high Husum Falls. Here we are going down the class 5 waterfall. Debbie and I are in the back, while Scott and Dan and going head-first into the drink.

Going...going...

And we're gone! It all happened so fast...We were holding on to the raft for dear life...quick, hold your breath!

...and resurfacing! Notice we didn't actually fall out of the raft, but we got just as drenched as if we did.

We made it!!!

In case you are wondering what is going through our minds as we are going down this huge rapid, perhaps these next 4 pictures will help sum up the experience:

We had a great time. We lucked out and got a really great guide. He told us a lot about the local landscape as we paddled down the river and he also gave us several opportunities to surf against the rapids as well as spin 360's all the way down a few of them. It was a blast!

On the way home, we stopped in Hood River to watch the wind surfers and the kite surfers...

I've been blog-jacked!!!

Just returned home from a night away and found this cat "recipe" posted by world renowned cataphile, Chris "D." (See previous post) Posing as me, Chris has attempted to replicate my flair for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, but those who know better would know that I would never cook my cats on a George Foreman grill...much too messy.

Pay no attention to his sad cry for help, but do take pity on his children who must endure a life of torturing cats all in the guise of culinary delicacy. I've already alerted PITA with my concerns and they have been formulating a recovery effort to free all the poor kittens that are locked up in the basement. I will also be conducting a sting operation with Dateline NBC...to CATch a predator – Cataphile edition. Watch for it in the upcoming fall lineup.

Sorry to have to post such a depressing piece of information, but I felt I could no longer hide the truth. On a lighter note, we will be having a Labor Day BBQ tomorrow. Bogey Burgers will be served, so bring the whole family!

Cool Cuisine Caturday!

I've made this a few times near the end of the month, when the budget is tight. Luckily we live in the country, so there is a constant supply of fresh feline.

BEER ROASTED CAT

1 cat cut into roast
1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup
1 cube of beef bouillon
1 clove of garlic
1 Fine Irish Stout

Skin and prepare cat as you would any other rodent. Cover and soak cat roast in salt water for 24 hours. Drain water and then cover and soak in beer for 6 hours. Drain and place in crock pot with your cans of soup. Add a clove of garlic, and a cube of beef bouillon. If you start to slow cook your cat in the morning with your George Foreman Cooker (or it's ilk), you'll have finely cooked feline in time for supper.

If a slow cooker is not available, a cat can be baked at 350 degrees for 2-3 hours in a conventional oven and still come out pretty good. Beer Roasted Cat is fantastic served with mashed potatoes, collard greens, and fresh, homemade egg rolls. When planning a full meal just remember- cat is a course best served hot!

Cat may not be the most glamorous, or tastiest of game meats, but with a little thought and preparation, Baked Cat can make the belly of the persnicketiest diner glow with home baked goodness. Yumm!

It's Caterday

Happy Caterday Everyone!