99 Cent Store Grocery Haul

I know that you read that title and either you 1) rolled your eyes or 2) sucked in by the fact that I shop at the 99 cent store for groceries. I don’t mess around when it comes to budgeting for food. I don’t want to waste anything in our home. I buy just enough food for us to have little to no extra food to ensure that everything truly gets eaten. The 99 cent store has a lot of good food if you just take the time to look around a little bit. I’ve gotten so many things from the store that I know what to get and what not to get there.  They never have the same type of foods there so it’s always hit or miss when I go, but this particular trip I found a lot of gems. Here is a list of some of our staples.

99 CENT STORE STAPLES

Applesauce

Crackers (varies)

Canned goods ( beans , enchilada sauces and etc )

Breads ( they have a wide range from Texas toast to English muffins )

Apples (for Rory)

Berries (strawberries, blueberries and etc.)

Carrots

Broccoli

Bacon

Potatoes / Sweet potatoes

Frozen Veggies

Beans

Mini Peppers

Haidyn's Moana Birthday

This is the first birthday of her's that we got to celebrate in our home. It was such a relief not to worry about booking a place in advance for her day. Though our space is small that didn't stop us from celebrating Haidyn's birthday Moana style-her recent obsession. This is the first year that she actually got to choose the theme of her birthday.  Btw, finding Moana anything was not as easy as you would think. We decorated our home luau like and our buffet was equipped with all the fixings of her favorite Filipino breakfast foods. Because let's be real who doesn't love breakfast? Big hit of the day was definitely the fruit pizza  that doubled as her birthday cake. 

Haidyn loved getting dressed up as Moana . We knew that it would be inevitable that she would assume that she was indeed Moana and no longer respond to Haidyn. She was not shy at all to pose with you for a quick selfie if you asked her ;)  She surrounded herself with her Maui, Pua and Moana dolls all while we watching Moana for everyone that hadn't seen the movie yet. Of course, most of our family had watched it and had no problem watching it yet again with the birthday girl. 

We packed our tiny home with as many people as we could and in turn our home was filled with nothing but love and joy for our girl.  I'm still in disbelief that our girl is three. She's definitely no longer my baby girl as she loves to remind me daily now.  I'm sure that her birthday requests and themes will be get crazier as she grows older, but this birthday was my favorite yet. 

Stretching Bulk Ground Turkey

Budgeting food means that you stretch your food further than you normally would. Its simple things like buying in bulk that allows me to budget for our family and to easily meal prep. Prior to our lifestyle change we were buying bulk ground beef (check out that post here). Nowadays it’s very rare for us to have ground beef in our home as we no longer eat it. We’ve switched gears and it’s all for the best! We don’t really notice the difference, so we’re definitely not missing our ground beef days.  I no longer buy our ground turkey at Costco as it is a little more expensive than if I buy it at my local Smiths (or Kroger’s). At Costco a 4 pack of 1lb of turkey averages at $20.00 vs Smith’s 3lbs of Jennie O’s Ground Lean turkey is $7.99. I can buy 3 packs at Smith’s to almost equal 1 Costco pack. Granted, I have to do a little work with repackaging but that’s a steal! Here is a little glimpse of how we stretch our ground turkey.

DIRECTIONS

1. Divide your ground turkey by eyeballing it into thirds.
   
   
   
   
2. Taking your food scale, weigh your ground turkey to roughly 1lb each. (Some will weigh more than the others.)
   
3. Once turkey is measured out to 1lb individually wrap your portions. (I double wrap mine with saran wrap.)
   
4. Place in your freezer laying the portions flat so that they stay flat when frozen.
5. Thaw out when ready to use.  
   

I love prepacking our meats so that they’re readily available for me during meal prep days or for dinners. You can easily measure your portions to be 2lbs if you needed. 1lb of ground turkey fits our family well and I never want to make more food if I don’t have.

"I Wanna be an Egg Roll" Bowl | 21 Day Fix Approved

If there is anything I miss eating from my childhood its lumpia or egg rolls. Growing up my Mom always had some premade and stocked in the freezer ready to fry up on a moment’s notice. As we’re trying to eat healthier and better, I can’t eat lumpia on a moment’s notice because I have no self-control around them. Instead of losing my mind over them and depriving myself, I whipped up this egg roll bowl to satisfy my cravings. It has everything in an egg roll without the fried wrapper! You won’t feel guilty eating this bowl up.  I separated my veggies and meat so that I could easily calculate my portions for 21DF.   Check out the 21DF portion down below. Also, is it just me or does eating food out of a bowl just make food better than eating it on a plate?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head of cabbage, chopped
• 2 1/2  cups shredded carrots
• 2 cups of thinly sliced green beans
• ½ medium onion, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce  ( you also add salt to taste if you don’t have this)
• Pepper to taste
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1lb cooked ground turkey ( any meat of your choice will do)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, heat 1 oil and add in onions.
2.  Sauté onions until translucent. Once translucent add in garlic to sauté until fragrant.
3. Add in green beans and carrots and cook until soft.
   
4.  Add in head of cabbage, combine with all other vegetables and add in water to the pot. Cover pot to steam cabbage for 10-15 min.
5. Once cabbage is cooked add in seasonings until well incorporated with vegetables.
   
6. Add in cooked meat to your mixture.
7. Serve with cooked rice or ramen rice noodles.
   

 

If you are on the 21DF like me, I would separate your veggies and cooked meat so that you can accurately calculate your food. One serving should be 1 Green (Vegetable Mix)  / 1 Red (Cooked Ground Turkey)  / 1 Yellow (Brown Rice/ Rice Noodles) / 1 Blye ( 12 almonds) * optional