• Spinach & Mushroom Alfredo Pizza

    Our family enjoys making homemade pizza.  One of our favorite recipes is the Spinach & Mushroom Alfredo Pizza recipe.  Instead of the marina sauce we use Alfredo sauce on the pizza with fresh spinach, mushrooms, black olives, and cheese.  The pizza is delicious!

    You can use your favorite pizza dough recipe.  If you are looking for a great one here’s our favorite pizza dough recipe!

    The next time you make pizza try using the white sauce and adding different toppings.  You might just be pleasantly surprised by the great combination.  We love it making white pies!

    The girls thought it was hilarious after we had eaten the pizza the remaining pieces formed a giant T shape!

  • Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    Groceries from Ingles and Save A Lot | RiteAid

    Last week we were in Charleston so this week were are back home and in the new summer routine.  The girls had a fun week at VBS and I was able to catch up on a few projects I needed to tackle.  Our family is juggling one car for awhile now so my grocery shopping may be a little higher one week and lower the next depending on when I get the vehicle.  Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.

    Ingles Groceries:

    • $17.96 at Ingles for 1 bag Mixed Fruit (5 lbs apples and oranges), 1 container of Mushrooms (clearance), 1 bag Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Carrots (clearance), 1 bag Oranges (clearance), 1 container Fresh sliced Pineapple (clearance), 1 container fresh Salsa (clearance), 2 bags Sorrento Mozzarella String Cheese (sale & used coupon), over 3 pounds Ground Beef (clearance), and 2 Sweet Yellow Onions. Everything was marked down, on sale, or on clearance (all produce was $0.99 or less) at Ingles.

    Save A Lot | RiteAid Groceries:

    • $22.05 at Save A Lot | RiteAid for 1 gallon Milk, 1 container of Whipped Topping, 1 bag English Muffins, 2 boxes Brownies, 3 cans sliced Pineapples, 3 cans Mandarin Oranges, 1 bag Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, 2 cans sliced Peaches, 1 bag Cheese Balls, 1 bag Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, 2 cans Fruit Cocktail, and 1 bag Corn Tortilla Chips.

    Groceries from Ingles

    Ingles Groceries:

    • $43.58 at Ingles for 1 container of Mushrooms (clearance), 1 loaf  Bread, 20 packs Kool Aid Pink Lemonade, 1 bag Spinach (clearance), 2 Orange Crush two liters (on sale for $0.88), 2 Mountain Dew two liters (on sale for $0.88), 1 can Heavy Whipping Cream, 2 bags Mozarella Cheese Sticks (12 count), 10 bags Kraft Shredded Cheese, 3 blocks Kraft Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 1 bag Bananas (clearance), 1 bag Potatoes (clearance), and 1 container Soy Beans (clearance). Everything was marked down, on sale, or on clearance at Ingles.

    This week I spent $83.59  on groceries.   I went way over budget this week, it’s embarrassing……!  Thankfully with us being in Charleston last week we didn’t spend any on groceries so in some ways this is like grocery shopping for two weeks instead of one (makes me feel a tiny bit better).  I was happy to find some cheese deals and some fresh produce on clearance that should last us for quite awhile, although I am not too thrilled about how much I went over this week.  We are still juggling around one car in our family so that makes schedules and grocery store shopping a little more challenging.  Next week it looks like I won’t have the car most days so it should be a lower week to help make up for this week.   Hopefully next week we can come under budget and July will be a better month for us!

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.

  • Fresh & Healthy: Our Garden – Fresh Lettuce, Spinach, & Strawberries

    Our first batch of Fresh Lettuce and Spinach from our garden!

    Recently we picked our first batch of fresh Lettuce and Spinach from our garden.  We had grilled steak, a fresh garden salad (with the lettuce & spinach picked fresh only moments before dinner), and pasta salad for dinner this past weekend.  The only other item we have picked from our garden is a handful of full size strawberries which the girls ate before I could take a picture of them.  The girls (and Mommy) are very excited that we can start eating delicious veggies and fruit from this years garden.  Thankful for a husband that took take of the garden while I was away.  The broccoli is already forming a head and several other plants look promising so hopefully we’ll have more goodies before long!

    Strainer full of several varieties of lettuce and spinach!

    I only picked a handful of the different varieties of lettuces and spinach from the garden and the strainer was overflowing.  It was enough for 2 to 3 meals for our family.  We have 4 to 5 varieties of lettuce and 1 variety of spinach.  All the leaf lettuce and spinach is ready to be picked.  Hope it continues to do well so we can share it with family and friends!

    Freshly Picked Wild Strawberries!

    Brina and Karlie have discovered our yard produces Fresh Wild Strawberries.  We never planted the strawberries they just grow in certain areas of our yard every year.  It must have been the perfect climate for them this year because we have more then usual.  The girls have been picking Wild Strawberries after school and even had the neighbor kid helping them one day.  These Wild Strawberries are tiny (about the size of a pencil eraser on average) and are pretty tart.  They are delicious to put on top of yogurt, ice cream or to mix in a fruit slushy.  It has been fun watching the girls collect them.  We’ve been enjoying them with our meals and sharing them with our neighbors!