Family Brunch

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

Today was the last family brunch that we will be attending at Jackson’s school. They always have it the day the kids get out for Winter break. It’s always outside (it’s a small high school and there isn’t any other place to have it) and it’s always cold. There is always a huge variety of food always brought by the parents and it’s always good. I hadn’t eaten breakfast so I was starving and it didn’t disappoint.

The dessert table was also amazing. The kids and parents always have such a good time.

Jackson hanging out with his friends.

It always ends with the superintendent giving a little speech. He is such a great inspiration for the kids. I never seen a school where every member of the faculty genuinely care about the students. We will miss this place when Jackson graduates in May.

On the way home we stopped by La Michocana grocery because I was almost out of vanilla. If you have never tried the Mexican vanilla it is truly the best there is. It took me a couple of years to get through the bottle.

We also picked up this amazing treat. They are sooooo good.

I cannot tell you the relief I felt when we got home and this was waiting for us. It’s Hannah’s big gift that I thought wasn’t going to make it in time.

To top off the day, at 4 pm, Jackson came into the kitchen and told me that his computer chair had snapped. I have been after him for a few months to find a new one because his was getting so raggedy. He kept telling me that he liked it and it was broken in just right. We decided to try to find a new one after we dropped Hannah off at work. She works next door to Big Lots and all they had were gaming chairs. He didn’t want those so we went to Office Depot. Fun fact, it’s in the same strip as TJ Maxx, Michaels’ and Burlington so the parking lot was insane. There was ONE chair that he liked in the whole store. ONE. It happened to be $199. A little steep for less than a week before Christmas. I googled the brand and style of the chair and found it online for $89.99 with free shipping. I also found a coupon for $5 off. No wonder office Depot was completely empty. I’m glad we were able to get a deal even if it won’t be here until the 30th.

Juggling

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn JournalLeave a comment

All day today it has felt like I’ve been juggling balls and every now and then another one was added just to keep me on my toes. Donny was off so I let him sleep in while I fed the cats, let the chickens out of the coop, rolled the trash cans out and made sure Jackson made it to school an hour early to start finals.

Donny ran Hannah to work at noon while I got ready so we could go run errands. I had to go to Sally’s, then the Asian Market to pick up some sauces for dinner, then to Aldi to shop for the rest of the items we needed for Christmas dinner.

When I got home I needed to bake the cheese Krispie crackers I had made the dough for last night and that took a whole lot longer than expected. I still needed to color my hair, so I left the last tray in and let Donny get it out while I started on my roots.

Since I still needed to prep dinner, (the Asian chicken wasn’t going to happen tonight) I changed gears and chopped up leftover chicken, made some quesadillas and threw together a Caesar salad. Donny went to pick up Hannah while I quickly blow dried my hair. I made Hannah’s coffee, sweet tea and cleaned the extremely messy kitchen. In between that I also got the food outside for the skunks, raccoons and possum. I am just now sitting down.

As parents we learn to multi task and go with the flow when plans change. I was chatting with a life long friend today about this very subject. We know 2 woman, who are married, but chose not to have children, which is completely fine. However, both of these woman do not handle change well. They are both very rigid with their schedules. If you ask them, spur of the moment, to do something they just can’t. One of them cannot even have an impromptu call. She has to schedule them. She is semi retired, yet if I call her, she won’t answer but will text me back with a time she will call me back.

So even though today made me a bit harried and a little overwhelmed, I’m very glad that I AM able to roll with the punches and not take things so seriously.

And because there is no photo evidence of my day here is exactly where I am right now getting ready to watch the Survivor finale.

New Fave + Dollar Tree Find

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn product reviewsLeave a comment

Around here everyone has “their” breakfast that I make them. Hannah”s choice is two sunny side up eggs with a sausage patty. Jack has two, either a breakfast on a Bun with sausage or a breakfast taco with sausage, egg and cheese. Donny has two slices of bacon, 3 scrambled eggs with cheese and hot sauce. I have never really had a favorite, must eat this, breakfast until now.

On my last trip to Aldi I picked up the thick cut Appleton bacon that I always buy. When I pulled it out this morning to make Donny’s breakfast I noticed that I had picked up the maple bacon. I always either get the peppered kind of just the normal one. I didn’t even know that this company even made maple bacon.

After I made Donny’s breakfast our house smelled SO good. I love the smell of maple. It’s just that cold weather cozy smell. After I dropped Jackson at school and walked back into the house I could still smell it. It’s like we had a maple candle burning. This, of course, prompted me to want some of that bacon. I am not a huge breakfast eater. I love breakfast foods, but I normally don’t eat in the mornings. Not this morning though. I decided that nothing would go better with bacon than some sourdough french toast with maple syrup. I was not disappointed.

This is 100% my favorite breakfast. Thank you, Aldi because everything came from your store. I cannot wait to have it again tomorrow morning.

On another note, I was in Dollar tree last week. Our dollar tree does not have a lot of products that I’ve seen people showing online. I don’t know if everything just sells out and I miss something because I rarely go into that store. When I was there picking up candy for the stockings I happened to walk into the kitchen side of the store and found this product on one of the shelves, completely misplaced.

I am extremely leary of dollar store beauty products, but this one checked all of my boxes.

And one of the best things is that it’s…

I don’t know why the picture is blurry, but you get the idea.

Now, all of this doesn’t mean a hill of beans if it doesn’t work, but this stuff really works. I just spray it on my hair, especially the ends, and blow dry. It makes my hair soft and shiny. I don’t like to use heat on my hair, but during the colder months, I can’t have a damp head or else I’m freezing all day. If you find this at your Dollar Tree it’s definitely worth a try.

And just because, here’s Monkey napping. She won’t come inside during the hot months, but rarely leaves the kitchen during the colder ones. Such a strange little cat.

7 Brew Dupe

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn RecipeLeave a comment

My daughter loves iced coffee. Her favorite place to get a cup is 7 Brew. We have always bought the mocha coffee that comes in the cartons as a fill in, but she can drink that really quickly and it isn’t cheap. I decided to try and make it. Here’s what I used.

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup Hershey cocoa

1 cup water

6 cups brewed coffee

whole milk

Put the sugar, cocoa and water in a small pan and heat it up. Whisk, whisk, whisk until it’s all dissolved. You do not want to burn it.

Next I put the mixture into my blender and blend it up. I then add the coffee a little at a time.

I pour all of the coffee, cocoa mixture into a glass container and top it off with milk.

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This is actually the second batch i have made. My daughter said it better than 7 Brew and the carton coffee. I like it better because I know exactly what is in it and it’s much cheaper to make than when we buy it. So if anyone in your family likes mocha iced coffee, you should give it a try.

A little FYI: give it a little stir before you pour it. I use the handle of a wooden spoon.

If it’s too strong for you just add milk once you pour it.

Kevin’s Enchiladas

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn RecipeLeave a comment

If you have a TikTok account you must follow Kevin Ashton. He is a chef for a sorority house. He is the Bob Ross of cooking. You’ll know what I mean if you see his videos. His voice is so soothing and I just love to watch him make each magnificent dish. I saw a recent video of him making green Verde chicken enchiladas. Because he cooks for about 25 girls, you kind of have to guess the measurements, but it isn’t hard. I had leftover chicken in the fridge that I needed to use up so this is what I made.

shredded chicken

tomatillos

poblano peppers

jalepeno peppers

white onion

chicken broth

oregano

salt

cumin

cilantro

garlic cloves

shredded Monterey jack

shredded colby

tortillas

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the tomatillos, poblano peppers, onions and jalapenos. Just stir them around until they start getting soft.

Add the chicken broth and cook for about 30 minutes on a simmer.

After it has simmered add the oregano, cumin, salt and cilantro. I used a stick blender, but you can use a regular blender. Just blend it until smooth. Add a generous amount of sauce to your chicken. Next add a generous amount of Monterey Jack. Mix that all up.

Pour some sauce into your baking dish. Grab your tortilla and put the mixture in the middle and roll it up. After you’ve done all the tortillas, spoon the sauce over the enchiladas and add more Monterey jack and Colby. Pop it into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes. Y’all, it was so good. I should have added more peppers, but they were so hot that I was afraid it would make the sauce too hot. As for the spices, just add as much as you like. I used 1/2 of a large onion, 4 large garlic cloves and 10 tomatillos.

The Nest

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

A few years ago Donny and I had to be in Oklahoma City. It was just an overnight and I found the cutest Airbnb.

It was a four Plex and our space was the upper right unit.

Not only was it just so cute, but it had the MOST comfortable bed. We felt like we were in a nest. It was so hard to get up the next morning.

It doesn’t look like much, but oh how looks are deceiving.

After we left we couldn’t stop talking about this bed. I went so far as to message the host to find out what kind of mattress it was. Come to find out it was an iComfort Serta. That’s the exact mattress we have. Then he let me in on a little secret. He had a mattress topper on it. He couldn’t remember what brand it was. I looked around our town, but couldn’t find anything that matched what his topper felt like. I put it out of my mind until last week. I decided to look online to see what I could find on Cyber Monday. I found what I thought would be perfect. I found it on Amazon. It has 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of fluffy topper.

I couldn’t wait to open it.

It actually takes a full 48 hours before it’s fully fluffed up. Well, we needed to sleep on it so it only got about 14. Luckily the mail person delivered it at 6:30 in the morning. I didn’t tell Donny I ordered it. I wanted to see if he even noticed.

This was just after I put it on. I left the sheets off all day for maximum fluffing. Let me tell you, It was worth every penny. We finally have our own nest. Now if only the cat would stop waking me up by laying on my neck it would be perfect.

Accidental Black Friday

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

I am not a Black Friday shopper. I had no intention of going out and getting in the melee of crazy shoppers trying to run me over with their shopping carts. There was only one problem, I was almost out of cat food. Hannah had to be at work at 2. I figured by that time of day it would be safe to hit Walmart because the Black Friday shopping would be finished. As memory served all of the deals happened in the wee hours of the morning, right?

When Jackson and I pulled into the parking lot I knew I was wrong. After finding a parking lot in the nether regions of section 8, we got our steps in as we made it into the store. There were maybe 5 carts to choose from and I finally found one that didn’t have a wobbly wheel.

We headed to the Holiday shop because I needed ornament hangers. It was crazy in that department. Then as we were walking toward the pet food area I told Jackson that I remembered I needed something in housewares. I just needed to pick up some more glass food containers, but Jackson said, “are you going to get an air fryer?!?”. He has been hinting for me to get an air fryer for over a year. The thing is, we have a small kitchen with limited counter space and those things aren’t small. He found the display on a shelf and said, “look at this one”. Then he saw the $150 price tag and knew I wasn’t going to go for that. I told him that there could be some in the center isle on sale and if he found one at a good deal we could get it.

And look at what we came home with. We found it on sale for $50. Jackson was one happy camper. In fact he was so happy that Saturday morning he got up early, took a shower and, before I knew it, he had it out of the box setting it up.

He decided to christen it with pizza rolls.

The jury is still out on how much we will actually use it, but I do like the dehydrator feature. At least Jackson is now wanting to cook a little more so I’ll call it a win.

Lesson Learned

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

I sometimes, well most of time, have an event planned in my head. In my imagination I know exactly what I want to happen, when I want it to happen and everything is going to go perfectly as planned. Two years ago I planned what I thought was going to be the perfect Thanksgiving. It was a fiasco. Like a big, I never ever want to celebrate this holiday again, fiasco. So this year I decided to just roll with the flow. We had one goal: we were going to eat at our traditional Thanksgiving restaurant, Cracker Barrel.

We didn’t set a time the night before. In fact, I turned off both mine and Donny’s alarm. I had mentioned to the kids about going to the movies, but in truth, there was really nothing that anyone wanted to see.

I slept in until about 7. Took a shower. Kids still sleeping. Donny and I watched the parade. Jackson was actually up early. He thought we should leave by noon. I woke Hannah up at 10:30. Then we waited and waited and waited. Luckily for everyone in our home I had decided to not stress out. I knew we would have lunch maybe dinner at some point. I didn’t want to eat anything because it could be 30 minutes until we left. It could be 3 hours. No one knew. Well, one person knew, but she wasn’t spilling the beans.

I did slice up some fruitcake so that we wouldn’t go into a low blood sugar coma.

Don’t judge on the fruitcake. Donny and I both really love it.

Then we waited some more. I guess Donny pretended that he had already had a nice Thanksgiving meal because he fell into the obligatory after meal nap. Coping skills are necessary when waiting on a teenage daughter.

Finally, after almost 4 hours, we were on our way. There is no greater Thanksgiving joy than 4 hangry people, in a small car, anticipating the wait list and knowing it could be hours before we see food.

Don’t let the smiles fool you.

Admittedly, once we got inside and found out the wait was only going to be about 40 minutes and we were surrounded by all the Cracker Barrel extravaganda of Christmas we were all back on an even keel. Because we arrived between lunch and dinner (3:30) the crowd was actually not bad. We were able to move around the store part without knocking people over, unlike last year.

If you have never shopped Cracker Barrel they have some really good deals. It gets us into the Christmas spirit every year.

I don’t have words for this poor Santa. Donny said it was freeze dried candy. I think there are some things that should just be left alone.

As it turned out, we got the exact same table we had last year and everyone ordered the same meal as last year also. I got Chicken fried steak, Hannah got Chicken and dumplings and both Jackson and Donny got the grandma’s sampler. It was so good.

We don’t have phones at the table, but Jackson was trying to find out if a certain movie was still showing. It wasn’t. Then we discussed watching a Nicholas Cage movie he had wanted to see when we got home.

Actually smiles because we finally got food.

When we got home, fed all of the animals and settled down, the kids were already doing their own thing and didn’t want to watch the movie. Donny and I watched the end of the Cowboys game, the new episode of Survivor and the Packers game. All in all it was a very good Thanksgiving. I guess when I get rid of all of my expectations and just accept what happens, when it happens, it all turns out okay.

P.S.

If you have Drug Emporium near you, they have these cute Christmas candles that are made in the USA from soy and beeswax and scented with essential oils. They smell so good and burn clean.

Little Friend + Ragu

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn RecipeLeave a comment

Yesterday the wind picked up. Everything was blowing around. The cats didn’t want to be outside. The chickens stayed in their coop most of the day and even put themselves to bed early. All of the blustery weather was worth it because today was the perfect Fall day. It was a flannel shirt and boots kind of day.

Since I knew Donny was going to be off today and that we needed to get some errands run, I made tonight’s dinner yesterday. The recipe also said that it’s even better if you let it sit in the fridge overnight.

It’s called short rib ragu. Donny watches the Today show every morning and they had a chef on making it and it looked so good I just had to try it. It’s time consuming because you have to let it simmer for 3 1/2 hours, but I was in a cooking mood and had the time. I actually used a roast because it’s what we had in the freezer.

It calls for 1 1/2 pounds of short ribs or roast

3 T olive oil

3 large carrots, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups of beef broth

1 3/4 cups of red wine

fresh thyme, rosemary and basil (however much you like)

freshly grated parmesan

Heat olive oil in a heavy Dutch oven. Salt and pepper the meat. Sear the meat on all sides until nice and brown. Remove meat.

Add the carrots, celery and onions. Saute until fragrant (about 7 minutes). Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the broth, wine and fresh herbs. Add meat and bring to a boil for about 5 mins. Cover and cook on low for 3 1/2 hours.

After it has cooked, remove and shred the meat. The recipe said to remove half of the sauce and put it in a blender until smooth. I just used my stick blender and it worked just fine. Add the meat back in. I let mine cool and then put it in the fridge. If you don’t have time to do that, boil your pasta. While it’s boiling, add 1 cup (or more) of the cheese to the sauce.

It was SO good. You can use any type of pasta you prefer. I forgot to take a picture when it was finished, but I took one after everyone had eaten.

It looks a mess in this picture, but I promise you, it is so flavorful, hearty and stick to you ribs kind of meal. I served it with garlic bread. Does anyone else use a peeler to shave off butter for toasted bread. I haven’t owned a toaster in forever because I like to make mine under the broiler.

I can’t believe that November is almost over. I was outside getting the Christmas decorations out when I saw Queso playing with something in the grass. The cats are always finding lizards or bugs to chase around. This time it was neither of those, but this cute little guy that Queso would pick up, let go, chase and then repeat the whole process over again.

He snuggled right up in my hand. I took him into the backyard and let him go into the tree line. While I was back at the shed, about 20 minutes later, I saw something running toward me with Queso chasing it. It was the little mouse running to me. I scooped him up and put him inside the chicken coop where he seemed very happy. Some chickens will eat mice, but mine don’t seem to care. They have very different personalities than most chickens as they don’t like worms, but love tortillas, Mac ‘n cheese and french fries. Plus the little guy will be safe in there away from the owl that seems to like to hang out in the trees behind our house. Maybe I’ll see little mouse again soon.

New Favorites

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn product reviewsLeave a comment

I love citrus. I can’t drink iced tea without either lemon or lime in it. I don’t know how it changes the taste so much, but for me it does. I love lemon bars, lemon candy, basically anything lemon. When I was at Aldi a few weeks ago I went down the “weird” aisle. I call it that because it never fails to disappoint me with products from other countries that you just don’t see on standard grocery shelves. That’s where I spotted it. It’s now my go-to for my morning sourdough toast.

It is tart, sweet and heavenly. It’s made in Belgium and I highly recommend it. It’s my new favorite toast topping.

The other deliciousness that I found were these beauties.

I probably could have eaten the whole jar in one sitting. This plum little peppers aren’t terribly spicy but they have the most robust flavor. Add in the creamy cheese and they are the perfect little bite. They are packed in oil so I think that brings down the spiciness. The sad news is, is that Aldi has been out of them the last 3 times I’ve been back. I’m hoping they get more in. If they do I’ll buy several jars because they are that good. I only have one left and I’m going to be sad when it’s gone.

And just because Monkey loves any bags or boxes. Plus she’s really cute.

She doesn’t get along with the other cats, but the other day when Hannah was at work, I walked by her room and saw this.

There may be hope yet.