A Reusable Lifestyle

My husband has to use ziploc bags for his food at work. When he goes in the gates his lunch pail is inspected so ziplocs make it easy for them to see what is in the bags. This of course is a downer for me as i was on a mission to eliminate all ziplocs from our home. My children and I already use reusable snack bags and we only use ziploc freezer bags to help us with our monthly meal planning. As i was putting away all of our reusable snack bags i decided to google "clear reusable snack bags" (yes i google random things). Google led me to Amazon which lead me to a listing for silicone reusable bags. The bags look super awesome! freeze, cook, store, you name it, they can do it...all for the price of $20+ per bag! Holy heck!!! That is way out of this frugal chicks price range! The ziploc bag issue may never be resolved in our house but at least we try, right?

I finally got my paper towel loving husband to use our unpaper towels (cloth napkins). He even helped me make a paper towel pole that i can snap my unpaper towels to, and now they hang conveniently in plain sight under one of our kitchen cabinets. We now have over 20 towels and wash two-three times a week for our family of five.

We use cloth diapers (which i make myself) for Tanner, best $250 investment we have ever made. Just thinking about all the money we wasted diapering our first two kids makes me sick. On top of cloth diapers we also use cloth wipes. Before Tanner was born i used coupons and sales to stock up on disposable wipes before making the decision to use cloth wipes. A couple days ago when i cleaned the boys room i noticed that i still have 5 packs of wipes that i got two years ago on black friday at babies r us!

I used reusable nursing pads when Tanner was born and it is no secret that i use lady cloth (sorry men folk that read this blog).

What items do you reuse in your own home??

Homemade Croutons

I love croutons. Ok , I'll be honest, I love all bread. Tonight while making a salad I realized I had a hankering for some croutons. Of course I stopped buying store bought croutons when I stopped buying bread so I decided to make my own. They were so easy to make I decided they were worth sharing!

2 pieces of bread (I only use homemade bread so my slices are taller, if using store bought you may want to use 3 slices)
3 tbsp olive oil
A few shakes Italian seasoning (I used my own mixture of seasonings)

Cut bread into one inch cubes, place on cookie sheet, coat with olive oil/seasoning mixture and bake @350 for 10 minutes. Easy peasy right??

Meal Plan July 8-13

Aright I'm a bit behind but here we go

Monday - We were invited to a friends house for dinner

Tuesday - Steak, potatoes, and corn. I bought a pack of new york steak at costco for $23 i had a $5 off meat coupon making this a super good deal as i split the steak strips in half and was able to make two meals using the meat. We made foil packs with our potatoes and they were seriously amazing. I added a little olive oil and garlic salt and put on the grill for 20 mins. I stocked up on frozen veggies a couple weeks back at Albertsons for $1 so our corn was the cheapest part of our meal

Wednesday - I had planned crock pot zesty chicken sandwiches (see previous post for recipe) but my hubby had surgery so he was only able to eat soup and my picky kids didn't like this meal so i was the only one that enjoyed it =( it was good and I'm stoked that there are plenty of left overs for lunches.

Thursday - Burritos, one of my kids favorites! I made beans last week and froze the extras into two separate containers. I love beans, make them every week! Do any of you make your own? I would love to know how other people make them! I throw mine in the crock pot all day on low with some pepper,salt, chili powder, and Crisco. We will also have home made tortillas, ground beef, and cheese.

Friday - My daughter chose tonight to be make it yourself night but she will be spending the night at her grandparents so i decided we will have mozzarella stuffed chicken, salad, and green beans. If you have never made mozzarella stuffed chicken its super easy. I found a recipe on pinterest and slightly modified it. I let the kids literally hit the chicken breasts to flatten them and then cut up small pieces of cheese, rolled them up inside the chicken, and kept them closed with a tooth pick. See, super easy!!

Saturday - Broccoli cheese soup! I haven't made this in years, not sure why as it was always a favorite in our house but oh well. Ill share this recipe because its yummy and easy! 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp chopped onion, 3 tbsp flour, 1 can chicken broth (or homemade chicken broth 14 oz), 1 cup milk, 8oz velveeta cut into cubes, 10 oz broccoli.

A little post while I'm in the waiting room

I'm sitting in the surgery center waiting while they prep Peter for his second hernia surgery I realized its been a while since I posted.

Im behind on this weeks meal plan but without looking I do remember tonights dinner. I prepped chicken last week and froze it in marinade so while we were fishing and playing in Morro Bay yesterday our dinner was defrosting at home. We are trying a super simple pinterest find, zesty chicken sandwiches. I'm all about simple and all about my crock pot so I have my fingers crossed hoping my family will love this meal.

I downsized the meal as we feed our family of 5 off two chicken breasts, the original recipe called for 6.

2 chicken breasts
1/2 bottle BBQ sauce (I used kraft)
1/2 bottle zesty Italian dressing
2tbs brown sugar
1tbs garlic (because I love garlic)

This is currently cooking in the crockpot on low at home. Emma and I also made buns last night using my homemade bun recipe. Can't wait to shred this chicken and bite into yummieness!!!

Food aside we had a great week. After today's surgery my husband will be home for four weeks. I'm praying for a speedy recovery so we can enjoy the summer. My birthday is in 10 days which also means my baby sisters birthday is also in 10 days. I will be 29 this year (getting closer to my senior discount lol) and my sister is exactly to the day 5 years younger. My mom had awesome planning, right???

Welp my post is cut short as they just called me back to sit with Peter before he goes under the knife....expect to see my weekly meal plan up tonight!!!

4th of July Fun

Today was such a beautiful day. The kids and I spent the day surrounded by love, friends, family, and food (all my favorite things).

I have been looking forward to today for a number of reasons, one being i miss my parents. I know i only live 30 minutes away from them but i enjoyed getting my weekly paper from my pop, and them just casually stopping by. The second reason was my aunt and her partner finally were able to get married *yay California*. Knowing that i am an ordained minister, they asked me to be a part of their special day and i was honored. The love flowing from the two of them really touched my heart...i even shed some tears! They exchanged beautiful vows in front of friends and family and it made me take a step back and realize what an amazing family i really have. I know sometimes i complain (what? Jasmine, a complainer???neeeever lol) but i really have an amazing family. I have a family that loves unconditionally, that opens their hearts and minds to accept everyone for who they are, that helps one another, that lifts you up when you need it, and a family that is always there for you. My parents raised some truly amazing people. I feel so blessed to be a member of such a large blended family. I always knew i was one lucky girl, but spending the day with my family today reminded me of why i am so lucky. 

After the wedding we began celebrating the 4th of July with a great bbq, pot luck sides, and awesome fireworks. Landon had such a blast playing with all the boys and watching the fireworks. In fact he had so much fun that he kept trying to convince me that i could leave him there over night! If any of you know Landon you would know that him saying that is HUGE! He hasn't left my side for more than a few hours since i brought him home at 3 weeks old from the hospital. I only stayed one day in the hospital after having Tanner because his (ok and my) separation anxiety was off the hook. So my boy is growing up =) 

Now we are home and two out of three of my babies are asleep...G'night all and Happy 4th of July!!

My New Found Love Of Morro Bay, C

I have seriously lived on the central coast my entire almost 29 years of life and have never loved Morro Bay as much as i do now! This past Saturday we took the kids down to walk around the town, just something quick to get us out of the house. We were in nature heaven! The wildlife there is totally amazing. Emma and Kailani also talked me into some salt water taffy, yum yum!

Today we decided to head back out, this time taking our kayak. We found the perfect launch site on our Saturday trip and today took advantage of the awesome weather and the kids being off for summer. We scored perfect parking, the perfect small section of beach, and scored on the 75-80 degree weather. We took turns taking the kayak out with the kids. There is something so magical about paddling out in the water while sea otters play and float on their backs near by.

Here are a few pictures from today's adventure.

My Week In A Nutshell

We had the pleasure of having our niece with us for the past week. I'm the cool aunt (sorry other aunts im claiming to be the cool aunt lol). D dropped the girls off after a Girl Scout camping trip Sunday the 23rd and the fun began the next day. With the help of my family members, friends, and my awesome sign shaking we sold 750 boxes of girl scout cookies for our troop. One of the incentives was a family four pack to the Ravine water park in Paso. We invited my mom, brothers, sister, and step dad to come up and spend the day with us and what an awesome day we had! The weather was so-so, around 73, which is in no means warm for north county. We spent the day hitting the slides, playing in the kiddie area, and being flushed down the toilet bowl! The rest of the week included a trip to Heilmann's Park where they have a super cool water feature that shoots up out of the ground, swimming in our pool, hide and seek, playing on our playset, apples to apples, a little bit of tv, grocery shopping a trip to Morro Bay, and on our last day together (Monday the 1st) a trip to Avila for

Joseline's 1st birthday party.

We are already planning our next week long visit! The kids and I have our fingers crossed that a bike and bike trailer will magically appear for my birthday this month so we can take some awesome bike rides....ok they want to bike to Sylvester's Burgers and Rite Aid for ice cream but whatever!

Uncle Chase and Landon enjoying the kiddie area

Sliding down the water slides!!!

Tan man 

Chey, Emma, and Kailani in the wave pool

Ravine Water Park 

Heilmann's Park