Every time I’m shopping for a birthday present, I go through the same thought process-”What does this kid like? Will he use this? WHAT DID I GET THEM LAST YEAR?” I have instead planned out a system to avoid birthday gift confusion. I assigned each year a ‘type’ of present that I can then adapt for each kid-for example:

Age 1- an outfit and a simple toy
age 2-Crayola/ art supplies
age 3- Bath or pool toys
Age 4- Doll/action figures
Age 5- Books

No racking your brain and no repeats!

This month I made Macaroni and cheese, Broccoli, Salad and Chicken Sausages. Here is the recipe for the Macaroni and cheese (Or, as I secretly call it, Crack-aroni and cheese. Yeah, it’s that good.) This is an adaptation of the recipe in Sheila Lukins U.S.A. cookbook-

1 lb of ’round’ pasta (I used fusilli)

1 red Bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
6 T flour
1 t paprika, divided
1/2 t salt

8 oz Pepper Jack cheese (2 cups)
8 oz sharp Cheddar Cheese (2 cups)

1. Cook the pasta until just under Al Dente. Place in bowl
2. Sauté veggies in a bit of olive oil until just wilted, about 5 minutes. (I think I overcooked the veggies and the Green peppers were barely green by the time the dish was served. The Red held their color much better, might just do 2 red peppers next time) Stir veggies into pasta.
3. Heat the milk in a sauce pan until just under boiling.
4. Make the roux: Melt the butter in a new saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and 1/2 t paprika and whisk over medium low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
-Whisking constantly, slowly add the hot milk to the flour mixture. Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, 5-10 minutes. The roux should be pudding consistency. Season with salt.
5. Combine both of the grated cheeses and set aside 1 cup. Stir the remaining cheese into the hot roux. Toss the sauce with the pasta and veggies. Spread mixture into a 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 cup grated cheese and 1/2 t paprika. Bake until bubbly and golden 25-30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Each week I take out a pre-set amount and that is my budget for the week. A portion of it goes towards kids clothing budget, a portion toward ‘family incidentals’, and the rest is food, toiletries, diapers, cleaning supplies, etc. Well, between the rising cost of food and our chaotic home repairs this fall, I had fallen very behind on my budget and ‘backup’ food. Something had to be done!

I have always planned out a week’s worth of meals and sides, and shopped from that list. I have been a regular Safeway customer for years, occasionally going to Sprouts if I noticed I had a lot of produce on the list. At least once a month I’d go to Costco to get diapers, Toilet paper, milk and bread, etc. It wasn’t quite as chaotic as it sounds, but I was quickly realizing Safeway was getting too expensive. Costco almost always has the best deal, if you don’t let the food go to waste, and Sprouts has hands down the freshest and cheapest produce around. So, I hatched a plan…

I began planning out 2 weeks worth of meals. This was tricky! It’s hard to think of that much food in one sitting with out getting redundant or too exotic. I tried to create 2 separate weeks of ‘mirrored’ food-if I bought food from Costco for, say, fajitas the first week (each item about a dollar more than Safeway for 3x the amount of food), I would make sure to have Enchiladas on the menu for the second week to ‘re-use’ the tortillas, sour cream, salsa and cheese. I made a big batch of marinara for Spaghetti the first week, then I’d freeze the extra sauce, and make Eggplant parmesan the second week. I bought cheddar cheese and mozzarella at Costco (soooo much cheaper!) use them for what I needed the 1st 2 weeks, then shred the rest and freeze it for later. Buying a big package of pork chops from Costco doesn’t seem so intimidating when you know you are using it in 2 applications over the next 2 weeks! I would buy all the Costco items (including snacks) for the next 2 weeks, then I go to Sprouts 2 times for produce and smaller items.

So far, it is working. I feel the extra focus and care needed to plan out the meals has helped us eat BETTER. Matt and I have so much to be thankful for, and I acknowledge ‘tight’ is a relative term, but I want to honor my husband and be accountable to the responsibility and budget set before me. And, I like to eat! Every family and every personality is different, but I think each of us should push ourselves and rise to the challenges set before us! Below is a scan of my 1st 2 week menu plan. I have done this 4 times, so from this point on, i have the next 8 weeks of meals planned, if I want to repeat!

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Layer by layer….

1. This started as purely experimental, as I mentioned. The first thing I put on the page (hardly visible now) is…toothpaste! There is a big, white, chalky stripe down the right side and along the bottom of the page. The toothpaste is highlighted with gold Perfect Pearl luster dust.

2. Another huge inspiration for this page is the dress. The picture was in a magazine, the dress was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. I found it pretty, anyway, and saved the picture.

3. Embellishments include a page from an antique Girl Scout manual, a coffee sign and a coffee pot, then arms and legs from a very delicate figure. At this point, the collage started to take on a life of its own-it was becoming a study on Femininity, a blend of traditional and personal interpretations on that theme. I decided to complete the page as an homage to the women who have influenced me over the years.

4. Each of the pictures were cropped in a long, narrow shape, partly to mirror the flow of the arms and rulers, partly to crop out a lot of Men in my Life! (ha, ha.) The edges of each picture were sanded and scratched to age them. I also coated each picture with Matte accents to take away the shine, giving a more antique feel.

5. The title, ‘The Women in my Life- Loving, Supporting, Inspiring’ were both printed and stamped with a label maker. I inked the plastic from the label maker to tone down the yellow, then inked the words again with Pearl ink to highlight them.

1-Paint the house brown and use Distress Inks to age and warm the paint color.
2-the Roof-I painted the roof black, then used a crackle glaze. I accented the crackles with Pearl Distress Inks. I added a chimney made from a dice. I toyed with the idea of adding smoke I pulled from felt, but it looked stupid.
3-Accent pieces-I cut a heart to fit the house, inking the edges to accent the heart. For the chandelier, I used a pre-printed chandelier picture, cut out all the details with an X-acto knife, then painted the silhouette with metalic purple paint.
4-The windows. These are all recent pictures of my family encased under glass. I added a rub-on to accent each window. The window frames and shutters are made from Fimo dough, then inked and painted navy to age the clay.
5- The door is a logo from the top of an Altoids tin. (does the shape look familiar?) In person, you can still read the embossed ‘Altoids’ through the paint. The paint is a textured rust paint of my own design, red oxide colored paint with some black to darken it, mixed with Distressing powder to give it the texture of rust. The doorknob is an old bingo chip…N35?
6-The words were printed on the house in a OLD SCHOOL style, baby…Tole painting. I learned this technique when I was still in elementary school. I printed out the words on my computer, then carefully traced and colored the letter with a lead pencil on the back of the paper. After taping the paper into place, I re-traced the front of the letters. The lead was then tranfered onto the house. I inked in the words to finish the title. Halfway through, I realized I would have to transfer the words over the chandelier, which was tricky!
7-I glued the antique-style key to the side of the house, transfered ‘Kellso 2007′ on the side in the same font, and I was done!