How to survive....without the freezer meals.

Motherhood can be a tough balance between finding the time to have a great meal and sacrificing yourself to quick things on the go.  You can survive without eating only frozen meals, fast food, and mini snacks. My first recommendation? GET A SLOW COOKER! This will be your best friend. Not only does it do 95% of the work for you, but it also cooks all those things at the store that are really cheap but you don't have the time for (rice, beans, roasts.....). A slow cooker can cook just about anything- Whole chickens, casseroles, soups, stews, even CAKE. Yes, I said it....CAKE!  The best part about a slow cooker is that it requires no special skill, just moisture and time. One easy example-you ball up some tin foil on the bottom of the slow cooker, place a whole roaster chicken on the foil (please remove all the insides!), rub it with butter and season with your favorite spices. Let roast on low for 8 hours. You will come back to fall off the bone tender chicken and you didn't even have to mess up your oven.  All that's next is adding side dishes, and if there's anything left over then tomorrow you have chicken salad sandwiches. The best part about slow cooking as well is that most of the time it uses staples that you already have in your pantry. Think creamed soups, broths, noodles...You can stock up with coupons and have all the ingredients ready to roll.


Next familiarize yourself with quick meals that are healthy. Pork chops, chicken breasts, and cube steaks are all cuts of meat that take very little time to cook. Pair that with some par boiled brown rice and a steamed vegetable and you can have dinner in 15-20 minutes. Here is another quick favorite meal of mine:
Pesto Chicken-
Ingredients-
3-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (on the thin side! If not, pound them)
1 jar prepared pesto (you can use homemade or the refrigerated kind)
2 plum tomatoes
1 mozzarella ball
1 box of noodles (any shape you desire)

Preheat your oven to 400*. Line a 9 x 13 glass baking pan with foil. Next poor 1/4 cup of pesto into a bowl (more if you'd like) coat both sides of the chicken in the pesto. Place chicken on foil in baking pan. Cook for 20-25. Next slice the plum tomato and place 1-2 slices on each chicken breast. Cover with a slice of mozzarella. Bake for an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted and chicken has reached the proper internal temperature. While the chicken is baking cook your box of noodles to your desired texture. Use the remaining pesto as a sauce for the noodles. Serve with chicken.

There are plenty of similar meals out there that take less than 30 minutes and use FRESH ingredients. This meal can be made for just a few $ per person per serving. I will be posting more cost effective recipes. If anyone has any special requests let me know.

Diaper savings

Let's discuss diapers for a second. A lot of people have strong opinions of them. Some prefer the soft plush name brand kind, others can't afford them and if it's absorbent they'll take it. Then you have your 3rd class of people who prefer the environmentally friendly cloth version. Over here I am kind of a middle woman. I prefer the cushy name brand but I know that essentially they will all be thrown in the trash. My first rule of diapers is NEVER PAY MORE THAN 15 CENTS A DIAPER! You have to set a limit for yourself. Pick a number, mine is .15 because I know that the premium diapers tend to run about 25 cents a diaper so if i can take .10 off each diaper in a pack of 36 diapers I am saving $3.60. Premium diapers are NOT out of your reach, you just need to know how to shop for them. How do I get diapers so low you ask? COUPONS. If you don't have time to sit with the Sunday inserts then know what websites offer coupons. Coupons.com is a great place to go. You can look up the coupons by their categories. Store websites such as Target also offer printable coupons on their website. Still too much work to print and clip? Well then visit each diaper brand's website directly. Luvs will mail you a coupon, as does Pampers, Huggies, etc..... You should also familiarize yourself with your local bulk clubs. Costco, BJ's, and Sam's Club offer excellent diaper savings and usually provide coupons as well. A few more tips? More is not always cheaper, usually if you divide the number of diapers in a box by the cost vs. the number in a pack they will be the same price unless they are on sale. So keep that in mind. More can be better because it's less trips to the store but it is not always the cheapest option. Next- take advantage of stock up sales. Many stores offer "buy 2 and save $15" or "buy 2 and get a $10 gift card". These sales help significantly bring down the cost of the diapers. If all of this is still too much work for you then consider name store brand diapers. Usually they are pretty comparable. They tend to be less soft and have no "extras" (such as a handy strip that turns colors when the diaper is wet!) You can go out and get store brand diapers for as low as 5 cents a diaper sometimes depending on sales. Babies R Us tends to run good sales on their name brand diapers, and they also offer the VIB card which is a gift card that you fill with money and they match a contribution (FREE MONEY). Combine the sale price with the VIB extra cash for the best savings.  Just remember, having a baby can be expensive but if you know the tools to save the extra cash then you can live large without sacrifice.