FFF- Feb. 15-22

Monday- Date night (gift card to Red Lobster)
Tuesday- bread machine bread and Soup from freezer
Wednesday- breakfast for supper (for sure doing it this time!)

Thursday- leftovers or frozen meal?

Friday- Friends over for supper: Chicken n peanut noodles, chipolte sweet potatoes

Saturday- leftovers
Sunday- Grilled Cheese and soup

Lunches- Random salads (above picture from last weeks leftover whole chicken meal) lots of random goodness on there :) Maybe I'll do a REALLY random meal like below. I was blending some black beans for Zander so thought I would spread some on some Leftover lasagna noodles, pesto sauce, and a little bit of shredded cheese. Ha! Weird! But surprisingly good. At least I thought so!

Fareway

grapefruit 3 for .88
tomatoes .88

pizza crust 3 for $5

shredded cheese

milk (skim and whole for homemade yogurt)

eggs

linguine

stir fry frozen veggies

Hyvee-

Dole salads .99

hyvee PB- 1.28

hyvee raisin bran

del-monte fruit in juice 1.19

yogurt for Z (I'm going to attempt to make my own!? We'll see!)

agave nectar?

8 months Zander-e-no

A few weeks ago, Zander turned 8 months. I felt bad because I didn't do a 7 month update either. Sorry sweet boy! But you have been doing and eating some cool stuff lately!


First with the eating:
You got your first 2 teeth (within a few days of each other) right before Christmas. Around that time you were only eating banana, avocado, and sweet potatoes! Your favorite were sweet potatoes, you ate them up right away without hesitation... ever! Avocado took you a few times. Mixed with rice cereal you finally ate it :) Bananas were a hit and miss day. Sometimes you loved them, other times they must have had poison on them because you didn't like em! But wow since then you have really expanded your tastes. You have had:
pears, peaches, kiwi, green beans, peas, black beans all that I have blended up with the ever so famous in our household "THE MAGIC BULLET!" Oh man, if anyone else is listening out there, we use ours at least EVERY day. Mainly for my afternoon Peanut Butter Iced Mocha! Anyway... I blend it using that then use the frozen ice cube method to have them in perfect serving size and ready to go! You have also tried some jarred baby food too. Squash, carrots, peaches, sweet potato. You don't seem to mind too much! A TRUE BISHOP IN THE MAKING!

We also started using one of the mesh baggie things to put fruit in. These are great! You got it right away! Sucked all the juice out! You can also play happily for at least 20 minutes with this baggie! Gerber Puffs! 3 for $5 at Target. Also, love these and can now feed yourself! Good job buddy!

Other Cool Stuff!

• I have loved the stage of not much movement. It selfishly makes things really easy for me! I go in the other room (maybe to refill my coffee) and come back a couple minutes later, and you have been right where I left you! Happy as can be. I have a feeling that stage is coming to a close. You are rolling around and can get on all fours but haven't "crawled" yet. You roll to get where you wanna, and can belly slide backwards. But I've been learning to keep a better eye on you!
• You do this SUPER cute thing when you get excited with your hands and feet. Your hands wiggle kinda like the wave Ms. America does (but you don't look feminine! :) and it's like TURBO speed! Then your feet go in and out like a frog. Hard to describe, I need to get it on video~
• As hard as I've tried to get you used to other people, there are still certain times you want your mama, which is ok by me :) Usually you always do great no matter whose with you!
• Takes 2 naps a day: 9 and 1
• We have our own little routine in the morning. Usually up at 7, I nurse you, put you in your jumparoo horsey gittyup machine, where you bounce contently for at least 20-30 mins! In the meantime, I'm making breakfast/coffee/cleaning dishes/etc in the kitchen. Then we move to our little quiet time spot, where you sit up and play with toys while I read (20-40 mins) Then I read a story to you, change your diaper, then down for a nap at 9! Wake up at 10. feed solids, nurse after. Then we are ready to party for the day. Either errands, playgroup, walking, etc. Back home at 1 for your nap!
• For some reason you haven't taken a bottle the last 4 or so times we have tried. Maybe you think only babies use that? Maybe it's way of saying I don't want you to even leave me. Ok.. that's a good reason!
• Transitions in and out of sitting.
• Size 3 diapers (target or Cliffords from Aldi's at .14ish each) 9-12 mo. clothes
• Approximately 22-23 lbs (according to our scale) No idea how long you are. You don't have another appointment until April!
• I don't love you any less but I let you cry if you wake up before 6:30 am
• babbles: baba, mama,dada, nana, tata...etc or lotsa squeals, and razberries
• I think you started figuring out how to give kisses. Not on demand, just when you feel like it!
• I started putting you in the shopping cart like a big boy! You LOVE this. You do your little excited motion and wrinkle your nose with enthusiasm
• Moved you to a convertible car seat because your infant one was only to 22 lbs and G'ma and G'pa Bishop got you one for Christmas!
• I think you will like to dance. Although it was about bedtime, Daddy was playing you his song he wrote for you when you were still in my tummy and I think you like it. Can you tell what you do when you start getting sleepy too?

I love you sweet boy!

xoxo

FFF- Feb. 8-14 Plan

Week one was great. Spent $35 in groceries compared to the $65 avg. I was spending!
This will be kinda an odd week because I'll need to do some extra cooking for Sunday for Perspectives and Super Bowl Party. So I'm shopping on Saturday this week:I think I'll take buffalo chicken dip and clementines to Perspectives and send White Chocolate Popcorn Snack with Andy to Super Bowl Party. Good news is, I don't need to buy any meat this week!

I loved both of these snack recipes and would recommend both of them. We had some leftover buffalo chicken dip so we topped a green salad with a couple tablespoons of it with some choppped carrots and celery! Awesome lunch!

I'm using 3 recipes this week from a blog I stumbled upon as I was looking for a snack for Perspectives. You Homebased Mom- Finding the pretty and delicious- I included the links. So I maybe splurged a bit this week with a couple extra items, but since 2 of the recipes are for "others" and not just serving us, I justified it :)

• Monday- Chicken Enchiladas with Leftover Chicken from last week with Mexican rice (although I'll do a modified version) These were also awesome! Using the leftover chicken made these recipes easy and delious! I will definately do the combo of the slow cooker chicken one night and these enchiladas the next! Yummo! The rice was modified, so can't give much of a review on that.
  
• Tuesday- Lasagna (I'll share recipe if it's good) with side salad and toasted bread sprinkled with garlic salt. It was Good, but not Amazing.
• Wednesday- leftovers from Kampmans- Chicken spagetti
• Thursday- Breakfast for supper - looks like we'll do breakfast for supper next week because tonight we had some more random leftovers again :)
• Friday- leftovers- clean out the fridge!
  
• Saturday- Ames (going to ISU game) and probably out for supper with them?
• Sunday-Valentine's day... we should do something special.. but for now...grilled cheese and tomato soup :) Hopefully we can have somewhat of an afternoon date? After church before Perspectives maybe?
  
• Lunches this week- Build my own random salad, Tuna sandwich, or Aldi fit-n-active sandwich (2 for 1.78) Love these!

Shopping List

Fareway-

Clementines- 4.88 5 lb box

Dole Salads- 2 for $3

Avocados- 4 pk

Braeburn Apples- 4 at .77 lb.

Tortillas- 8 chi chi's 1.50

Fastco PB- 1.28

Cottage Cheese- 2- 24 oz. .99

Bella Gardens Frozen Fruit- 1.88

green enchilada sauce

Aldi-

cream cheese x 4

2 limes

white chocolate chips

canned chix

ranch dressing

1- Cheddar cheese 1 Mexican Blend
Cheese

whole wheat bread. 1.69

FYI.

Price Comparisons of the Week.

Skim Milk. 1.99 Aldi, 2.69 Fareway, 2.74 Target, 2.69 Walmart

Popcorn. On sale at Fareway .99 for 3 bags. Aldi 1.49 for 6 bags.

Cottage Cheese. On sale at Fareway .99. Reg. price at Aldi 1.89

Muffin Mix- On sale at fareway. 2 for $4, Reg. price at Aldi 1.89

3 cups Shredded Cheese- On Sale at Fareway-2.99. Reg. price at Aldi 2.29

Salad Dressing- On Sale at Fareway-1.49 Reg. price at Aldi 1.19

Raisin Bran- Fareway 2.69. Hy-vee with coupon 1.99. Aldi 1.79

Generic Diapers 40 pk. Aldi 5.99, Target 6.50

Black beans- If on sale at Fareway same price. as Aldi .59

Other canned veggies- sale at Fareway .59. Aldi, .49

Chocolate Chips- Hyvee on sale 1.98.

So looks like if they sell it at Aldi, it's almost always cheaper! Sometimes just a .10 but other times almost a $1! I think that's pretty significant!

I'm going to take Kalona Trip- Going with a couple friends, Bridgete and Missy to the scratch and dent place for the first time, not sure what to expect, but I'm not going to spend more than $20. Hold me to it sisters!

PS- For those of you who think... "Dang, this lady has got way to much time on her hands, comparing prices, writing it all down... la da da...." One, what takes me an hour to organize this saves me $30 a week and that doesn't even count the $ it saves by not doing the "convenience" thing by saying "I'll just go out to eat!" I think I'll use one of Zanders nap times to save me $30-50 a week! Two, I enjoy a challenge! Three, if someone else can benefit from this as well, AWESOME... that's why I'm sharing!

FFF- Frugal Food Feburary :)

After hearing on the radio that this family paid off their $100,000 debt in 6 months, I was wondering if we could pay off Andy's PT debt. in 8 months. (28,000) After briefly thinking about it, probably not. Apart of me wants to make some radical changes to make it happen, but the other part of me doesn't want to become an obsessed, no fun, always worrying, crazy woman.
However, there is one thing that I've been feeling like I need to become a better steward with... FOOD. Most of you know how the Bishop's roll in this category! We be lov'n LOTSA food. So to think about cutting back in this area makes my eye brows crinkle! Those of you know me well, know I'm already getting my first wrinkle in this area!
I'm a planner, I usually plan out our meals on Sunday and make my grocery list for the week. I usually plan on one meal out a week (date night) and usually 2 nights of leftovers. (sometimes another if Kampmans give us theres!) So here's my goals this month...

1. Look at the grocery adds (Thanks Rachelle!)
   
2. Plan cheap meals (good bye bagged lettuce, unless on sale of course)
   
3. If we go out to eat for date night, we can only use gift cards that we have or that we can use our discover reward $ for.

So there's my plan... Will I stick to it? I hope so! That's part of the reason I'm writing it down!
I'm also going to use this as my planner and share if your interested in joining me on cutting your food bill. All you Iowa City folk, feel free to shop the deals along with me, or use the meals I plan. Maybe in the future we can work together you can shop the ads, plan the menu, and share it with me :)
after each day, I gave some comments in RED
Monday- Pork Roast Recipe- Hy-vee .99 lb. 3 day sale only through Sunday. So hurry! With bread and butter
ahhh, nothing special. I mean it was OK, but the Pork Roast was very fatty! Not impressed!
Tuesday- Leftovers Still have a lot of the pork leftover because we had lots of snacks at Dr. Wenzel's surprise birthday party. Andy had the pork but I ended up having a whole wheat tortilla with PB, honey, and banana after the party. Pork just didn't sound good.
Wednesday- Junior High Pizza Party-(Buying it for my 7 players) Which changes the budget a little. Bummer... oh well they deserve it. As long as they win on Monday and Tues!
Leftover Pizza from party.. add a side salad Guess what! The girls bought it for us :)
Thursday- Breakfast for supper! (pancakes and eggs) didn't have- leftovers again!
Friday- date night (gift card to.. Applebees)
Saturday- Kathy's Whole Chicken in slow-cooker Hy-vee .77 lb. Again only until Sunday.... add some veggies and rice (lostsa leftovers hopefully, freeze some for casseroles?) Awesome! I really liked this! I made it with steamed carrots and rice that I made with some of the marinade from the chicken. A little bit of a hassle with the whole chicken, but worth it for the cost and the leftovers! Will make again!
Sunday- grilled cheese and tomatoes soup- leftover Applebees :) for lunch and snacks at perspectives for supper!

Sunday- Hy-vee List
Whole Chicken
Pork Roast
5 for $1 Kiwi
Carrots 2 bags for 1.49
yogurt- 10 for $5 Yoplait
dishwand thing (here's a question for a comment... Do you use one of these, or are you old fashioned dish cloth, or ?) What's cleaner, seems nasty when I think about this? Anybody?

Farewary Monday morning
Cottage Cheese .88
broccoli .99
oranges- 4 for $1
potatoes- 5 lbs. $1.29
sweet potatoes
sugar
lemons (2)

There you have it! We'll see how well I stick to my list! I'll try to resist the snack mixes! Until next week... check out the good deals at fareway.... Mom; notice the wieners are only $.45! It's a sign!


Anybody know what pet milk is? weird!

Back in the blog world

Well after a month of not reading other peoples blogs and not updating ours, I think I'm ready to dive in again. So for today here's a random update of our last month! I know Christmas seems like so long ago!

Kriener Christmas

Got to St. Ansgar earlier than expected on the 23rd because of the projected snow storm that was supposed to be coming. It was a nice change of pace because so often we feel like we can't settle there because we are going to 4 different Christmas's in 2 days but it was so refreshing to sit and relax and have good quality time with my family for Zander's first Christmas! Our extended family was supposed to come on Christmas Eve, but with the projected storm we instead enjoyed a nice intimate meal with just us and instead of going to Christmas Eve service

we had our own house church as we read about Jesus birth, then finished the night watching The Nativity Story. This was so valuable and precious to me! The next morning was also a treat as we watched old home videos and attempted to start transfering them to DVD. (This will take a bit longer than originally expected!) But a good goal for the future! I love

Bishop Christmas

We celebrated the week after Christmas with Andy's side of the family. Even though it was a week later it still felt like our typical laid back Bishop Christmas that we have always loved and appreciated! Looks kinda like this... talk over 4 cups of coffee, stay in our PJ's until noon, eat breakfast, play games the rest of the day. (maybe watch a movie or do a p90x workout in there) But bottom line its always so relaxing!

Random January-

Andy and I started the year off by taking a little retreat as we spent some great time with God indivually and together seeking what He would have for 2010. It was reviving to the soul (Psalm 19:7) We are pursuing opportunites but take comfort in Proverbs 19:21- Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

On the 17th of this month we celebrated Andy's Birthday. Bishop style of course, ALL weekend! Started off on Friday going out in Cedar Rapids to the Piano Lounge listening to some live music with some great high school friends. Then on Saturday I surprised Andy by renting some snow shoes. A big bummer was I started to feel sick as I was running a fever. :( My parents and his both came to celebrate, and the next day I had a surprise party for him at the Pizza Ranch with some of our friends!

Hard to believe how fast January went!