I love Lowes!

I am a huge fan of Lowes!  Don't get me wrong, I like "The Depot" but Lowes is a little more girl friendly, in my opinion.  I absolutely love when they reset their lighting department.  My Lowes has quite a few clearance lights right now!

I have been wanting a particular sconce for a while but just didn't want to pay $50 for it.  So, I waited.  Today, I saw it was on clearance for $25!  Um, yes, I will buy it now!!!  So, I get the lighting guy & he says they have no more and none of the Lowes in our area has it either. I ask for the display & he says sure.  He takes it down & makes me ticket for the cashier & informs me he marked it down to $15 because it's the display.  Holy crap!  A $50 for $15!  Woohoo!  

                         

Last year, I bought my laundry room a super cute light the same way and paid $15 for it too!  

My mom rarely paid or pays full price for anything.  She's just smart about shopping!  I do my best to not pay full price.  I'm not as good as she is but I don't have her years of experience either!    Just keep your eyes open and be patient. There is money to be saved!  Happy hunting!

Advocare 24 Day Challenge - Oh My!

I'm not a big challenge or cleanse kind of girl but I agreed to do this one with a few friends.  I was somewhat leery because I didn't want to be hungry or have to make mad dashes to the bathroom 83 times a day.  I was reassured I wouldn't be hungry or sprinting so here we are!

Before we started the challenge, we went over the rules and such with two Advocare ladies.  One of them said the fiber drink was horrid & to take it with 4oz of OJ and chase it with water.  That stuck with me and I made dang sure I had plenty of OJ!  It made a huge difference!!!  It was down and done within seconds.  I didn't think it was "horrid" but I've never had it according to the directions.  I would call it rough even in the OJ.  Rough but easily doable.

We started Sunday and I had a bit of hard time figuring out what to eat because I'm limited to not eating my usual crap.  I did a little looking on Pinterest for inspiration and dug through some magazines.  I came up with a few ideas to at least get me through the week. 

Monday was easy.  I made my lunch for work & took plenty of healthy snacks.  I had plenty of energy from the Spark drink!  

           

Here's lunch!  Tasty & filling!  You can find the details below.

Tuesday was a little harder!  I was grumpy partly because my littler one kept me up & partly because REALLY want a big, fat, greasy bacon cheeseburger!  Anyway, my daughter turned 6 on Tuesday and we took her to eat at our favorite Mexican place.  It was so hard!!!  I ate bacon wrapped shrimp.  I didn't eat one chip!  No queso, Dr Pepper, refrained beans (didn't know if I could have them) & no birthday sopapillas!  Ugh.

Wednesday was better! More energy than yesterday but not up to normal.  I made a very tasty, and simple, dinner.  I made noodles with olive oil & sautéed shrimp.  My daughters even liked it!  I would have a picture of it too but the dogs ate it when I left the room!  I'll post details if it below too.  

Today, was much better!  I had my usual lunch but I upped my serving a little bit so I wouldn't be hangry (yeah, I mean hangry) later.  I had brisket without sauce & some potato salad for dinner.  I just couldn't help myself!  I had a rough day with my kids!  I REALLY wanted a Dr Pepper so bad.  

We were told at our pre-challenge meeting that we'd feel a little tired around days 3 & 4 and then it would get better.  I'm going to bed early tonight to kind of help it tomorrow.

My kids are huge supporters & harassers when they think I'm eating something I'm not suposses to have.  My husband is being such a sport and supporter by eating what I eat, except for when he's really hungry!  I'm having a little bit of a hard time sticking to this plan when I'm stressed & I'm super stressed lately - wish me luck & I'll keep you updated on my progress & what I'm eating while I try to survive!

Lunch:

1/4c black beans

1/4c corn

2-3oz roasted chicken

1/2 avacado

Lemon Basil Pasta:

~Whole wheat pasta

~Olive oil - how much is up to you, I like          just a little

~fresh basil leaf

~lemon slice

~salt & pepper

Cook your pasta, add a little oil, season, add basil leaf & lemon (while the pasta is still hot) & stir.  Turn it over a few times until the leaf is completely wilted.  It adds so much flavor to the pasta!  This is for an individual bowl.  Add several basil leaves , like 3-4, & 2 thinly sliced lemon slices for a larger pot.

Enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Muffins & a Super Tasty Slush!

I make these muffins & I love them!!!  They are very filling, not overly banana-ee, and super simple to make!  I found the recipe on Pinterest & it comes from Debbie Reichert. 

Pardon the chocolatey mess I made on the muffin tins.  I almost forgot to add them & made a huge mess trying to add them while 1/2 in the oven.  Because taking them out for 15 seconds would have been so much harder...

Ingredients:
2.5 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup plain low fat yogurt - I like to use Kefir plain yogurt.  It's meant for smoothies so it's a little like      thick milk & makes the muffin a little less dense.2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 TBSP ground flax seed
1 tsp vanilla
2 very ripe bananas 

 Optional:
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 mini chocolate morsels


Put your oats in the food processor & basically grind them into a flour.  Then you can add everything else & blend it well.  After it's all blended, I stir in the walnut pieces.  Scoop into your tins & bake.  I baked mine at 350 b/c I have the recipe scribbled on an index card with none of the actual instructions so I went with trusty 350.  Sprinkle a few morsels on top & bake.  

I love these for breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up.


I made a new little treat last night!  Again, I found this one on Pinterest.  It comes from Thistlewood Farms.  I didn't have pink lemonade but I had raspberry lemonade.  It's technically pink, so I went with it!

 

Please excuse the Pokey Puppy

 
I added about a 1/2c of the lemonade to about a cup of frozen strawberries & blended until it was smooth with the consistency much like an Icee .  I was also thinking it would be great with some coconut rum!  Enjoy!

I'm a Little OCD About Meal Planning

I used to go to the store everyday to get groceries for that night's dinner and the next day's lunch.  We lived in town and very close to a grocery store.  Then we moved.  There wasn't a grocery store in my town.  Not one.  At all.  I would still go everyday but usually after work.  Along with everybody else.  Did I mention I'm not a rushing crowd lover?  Then we moved again.  Farther from town.  And I now I had a toddler in tow.  While some days, going for groceries was my only time out of the house and my then toddler loved our outings, it got a little old.  Going 30 minutes, each way, everyday for bread.  Or milk.  Or chicken.  I decided start making a menu, a plan, and taking a list.

I'm a little OCD about my menu and list now.  I feel completely lost when I don't have a list.  It's just stressful.  Yes, I know it's just grocery shopping but if you're trying to stick to a budget, you gotta do what you gotta do!

I have a system that works so nicely for me.  It has really organized my meal planning, my kids school papers, coupons, and to-go menus.  So, I thought I'd share it.

 I use a binder to hold everything together and plenty of clear page protectors to stash everything in. 

I made these cards to help me remember ingredients and sides.  Each card is a meal and has everything that goes into that meal.  I'm a huge fan of quick and easy so some of them are super short!  I sit down with the previous menu, my cards, paper for my list, and any new recipes I'd like to try.  I plan my meals, being sure not to plan them to close to the last time they were on the menu, and make my list.  I also have a card with our staples, like bread, milk cheese, fruit, etc. so they're also added to the list.

I write out my menu in pencil to allow for changes or to move things from one night to another, if needed.  I keep this in the same page as the menu planning page.  Next to that is the menu for my girls school lunches so I can plan what days they'll be buying lunch and what days I actually have to make their lunches.

 I keep my coupon in this handy pouch and dig through them after them menu is made.  I keep a stash of restaurant coupons because who doesn't like to save a few bucks when you could and probably should be cooking.  Sometimes mama needs a night off too!

This has nothing to do with menu planning but it's super cute!  I carry crayons in my purse and have for years.  The kids can only color so much with 3 greens and a red that the restaurant gives them!  I had a prefect sized little pouch for them for quite a while but Mr Davis left it at the restaurant one night while I took the girls away from the table while he finished paying.  I blame him for leaving it & he blames me for not taking.  whatever.  He's wrong.  Anyway, I saw this cute little tin with crayons already inside.  It was on clearance at my Target for $1.24 so I couldn't NOT buy it!