I love you Betty Crocker!

As sort of a New Year's resolution, I am trying to be better about keeping a budget. I have definately found that food costs our family way too much money each month, so I am trying to find affordable, yet tasty meals. Luckily I ran in to bettycrocker.com. They had 5 meals all planned out that cost less than $50. Many of the items are already in my pantry, so it ends of being even less. The recipes look simple and yummy so I am excited to try them out next week. It even has a grocery list completely organized and ready for you to use. I printed the recipes and the grocer list out and put them on my fridge. My husbad took a look at them and got pretty excited, so that might be a nice way to get him home in time for a warm dinner! I will let you know how it goes! Here are some pictures of a few of the yummy looking meals.

New Recipe

I absolutely love finding new recipes to try. I guess you could call my looking for recipes a hobby. The internet is the best place to find great new things and it's free! My favorite site is kraftfoods.com, and I tried a new chicken recipe that the whole family absolutely loved! It's also fairly healthy. Only 340 calories per serving. So here it is:

What You Need:

2 tsp. oil
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (15 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained (I used italian style)
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing (I used fat free, and it still tasted great)
3 Tbsp. tomato paste (if you can, buy this in a tube and keep it in the fridge)
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
1 cup KRAFT Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese
2 slices OSCAR MAYER Fully Cooked Bacon, crumbled

Make It:

HEAT oil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and onions; cook 5 min., stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes, dressing and tomato paste.
ADD chicken; cover. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 12 min. or until chicken is cooked through.

(at this point I (Sherie) transferred the meal to a baking dish and then added the cheese and bacon. I baked at 475 for about 10 minutes or until it's bubbly and brown) or you can do the following:

SPRINKLE with cheese and bacon; simmer, uncovered, 5 min. or until cheese is melted.

First time Playdough!

Last week I found out the company I work for was laying off a few people and elimating many jobs. My job was one that got cut. I was only working from home 1 to 2 hrs a day though, so that wasn't a big deal to me. They did offer me another position, but I would basically be working full time, and that just wasn't an option for our family right now. So now I have a little extra time in the day, especially while Macy is napping. The other day I decided to try making some playdough. It was so easy and turned out great. Macy loves it and it keeps her busy for a while. All it took was equal parts of salt, flour, and water. I added food coloring for fun. So here are a few pictures of Macy's playdough time. The one picture looks like she's eating it, but she figured out quickly that it does not taste very good!