Recipe Review

I found a great new way to cook a roast, the Mexican Pot Roast is the way to go! I'm usually not a fan of roast, they are palatable and an affordable cut of meat but don't care for the roast flavor, anyone with me on this one? I'm in love with this recipe, check out my modifications to transform this into a crockpot meal. It was so tender and the best part is my toddler also gobbled this up and he's not a big meat eater.

The Quick Crescent Bake was also yummy. I didn't add the chips and it tasted great, but I can see how the chips would give it a little more crunch. For all my friends abroad, this would be a great way to make a Mexican meal without going to the trouble of making tortillas. I think it would also be just as good use a thin layer of biscuits instead of crescent rolls. Two thumbs up from all members of our family for this recipe.

The Slow Cooker Ratoutille was a great way to use up some veggies and a great meatless summer meal. I did add more salt than recommended and I added dried herbs to the top of the veggies as I cooked it in the crockpot. We enjoyed this with some grated mozzarella cheese on the top and served it over some steamed brown rice. As expected my toddler wouldn't touch it. I think he has a veggie radar or something. He poked around at the rice and drank his milk, that was dinner.

The Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo was awesome. I added some spinach to sneak in some additional veggies and for the first time in a long time my toddler gobbled it up the spinach too. I took a chance and used reduced fat cream cheese and it turned out fine. Word to the wise wait until your noddles are just about finished to start your sauce, this recipe cooks fast. Loving adding this new quick meal to the the mix.

The Zucchini Crisp was better than I anticipated and my toddler actually ate a piece of zucchini, he was enticed to try it by the blueberries, but he the boy ate zucchini. Let me pause to remember such monumental moment. If I make it again I'd cut the zucchini into smaller pieces to resemble sliced apples and I'd use all the crisp topping for the top. I'm not a big fan of mushy crust and the juice made the crust very mushy. It was great with a little dollop of ice cream on top too.

Those are all the new recipes I got to this past week and I think I found some winners. Thanks for all the fabulous people who I've linked up to. Our family enjoyed your recipes. Thanks for sharing.

Erica

This Week's Menu

I'm loving 3 day weekends, which means a short work week too. Our week's kind of goofy but I'm excited for it none the less. I'll admit I've not put any thought into what we'll have for breakfasts or lunches. I guess I better get thinking, let me know if you have any good ideas.

Monday-Grilled Pizza! (Can't wait to try it!) w/corn and side salad and watermelon
Tuesday-Eggplant Parmesan, over spaghetti noodles, salad & watermelon

Wednesday-Dinner at church to kick off kids program

Thursday-Sausage Cheese Balls, Cooked Carrots, zucchini

Friday-Leftovers or breakfast for dinner

Saturday-Going to a dear friends wedding.

Sunday-Muffaletta (we usually toast ours and since we're not big olive eaters I use capers), chips, peas

For more great menus check out Org Junkie!

Weekly $ Report

No pictures again this week, I still haven't figured out what is going on with our photo program. I'm hoping to get it solved very soon.

I spent $47.99 between Target and Aldi this week and $10 at the farmer's market. Which brings my total to $57.99. I'll have to watch my budget a little closer the rest of the month.

Here's how I spent our grocery money this week:

Publish Post

Dillons $31.06
2 Green Peppers .71 each
Red Bell Pepper 1.42
Head of Lettuce .99
Tomatoes 2.25
Chicken Breasts 6.77
Angel Hair Pasta .97
Linguine 1.50
Penne Noodles 1.50
Organic Grape Juice 3.59
Bread .74
Cinnamon Toast Crunch .99
Trix Cereal .44
Spiderman Fruit Snacks .50
Fiber One Bars 1.29
Nature Valley Bars 1.19
YoPlus FREE
2 Boxes BC Brownies 2.23/2
Warm Delights FREE
Nature's Valley Clusters .49

Aldi $16.93
Zucchini 1.79
2 jars Spaghetti Sauce 1.09 each
Tomato Paste .39
Butter 1.89
Frozen Corn .95
2 bars of Cheese 1.49 each
Margarine .69
Grapes 1.58
Cantaloupe .99
Watermelon 2.49

Farmer's Market $10.00
2 eggplant 2.00
1 large zucchini 1.00
1 dozen eggs 2.00
1 small jar of honey 4.00
Cucumbers 3/1.00

Have A Great 3 day weekend!
Erica

Frugal Family Photography

A friend of mine recently pointed me in the direction of Masterpiece Studio & Gallery. If you are looking for some fun pictures of your kiddos here is a great way to do it. Every other Saturday he is running a special promotion on Children's photo sessions for $36. Your session will last about 10 minutes and a few days later you will receive a disk of touched up photos for TOTAL-FREEDOM usage. Which means you get to print the ones you love and have a variety, wherever you want. These photo shoots will take place in Yoder, Kansas, every 1st and 3rd Saturday from 9am to 1pm. You get the images burned to CD for TOTAL-

Here are the upcoming themes:

Sept. 5: Grandparents Day special - kids with grandparents

Sept. 19: Dough Boys & Girls - taken at the Yoder bakery. Lots of dough and flour to play with (and fly in the air!)

Oct. 3: Balloons galore - colorful balloons all around

Oct. 17: Boxcar Blues- On location in the boxcar at the end of Yoder main street... dress in hobo gear

Oct. 31: Monster Cuties - Halloween costumes

Early Dec. :Santa in the studio

Sounds fun and a great deal at that. If you decide to take advantage of this great deal make sure you tell them you heard about it from Effortless Savings!

Erica

Leeker's 12 Hour Meat Sale-Valley Center

I just found out about this amazing meat sale going on tomorrow at Leeker's in Valley Center.
801 S. Meridian

The sale starts at 8:00 am and ends at 8:00 pm and it looks like there are many great deals to be had.

Here are some of the ones I see:
Boneless Whole Pork Loin 1.49 lb.
80% Lean Fresh Ground Beef 1.59 lb.
Bone-In whole Pork Butts .99 lb.
Fresh Pork Spareribs 1.29 lb.
Whole Boneless Beef Brisket 1.79 lb.
Farmland Pork Sausage 1.09 each

I hope a few of you can catch some good deals on meat through this sale.

Happy Freezer Stocking!
Erica

Mexican Pot Roast-Crockpot Modifications

Oh my stars, this is a great recipe. I'm usually not a fan of pot roast, I have bad memories of the bland dry after church roast growing up. Mom I was thankful for it, and still am, but never really crave a roast.

Here is the original recipe. This is how I made it into a crockpot dish.

Crockpot Mexican Pot Roast

4 lb. lean, boneless chuck pot roast (mine had a bone and I trimmed off some of the fat)
1 large can stewed or whole tomatoes (I just pulled out 5 frozen whole tomatoes covered them with water and microwaved them for several minutes. I drained some of the water, but left enough to cover them and them mashed them.)
Jalapeno Peppers to your liking (I added 5 and you could hardly taste them)
3 T. dry taco seasoning mix
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 c. boiling water
2 T. tomato paste
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 t. Pepper

Wash your roast and add it to the bottom of the crockpot. Next heat your water and dissolve 1 bouillon cube, then add your 2 T. tomato paste and mix breaking up the paste. Pour this over your roast.

Add your can of stewed or whole tomatoes. I used frozen tomatoes so I had to heat those up so they could defrost. I poured off some of the water before I removed the skins. Then I smashed them. Pour this over the roast.

Add jalapenos, onion, taco seasoning and garlic powder and pepper to top of roast.

Add enough water to barely cover your roast then put the lid on. Cook on low for several hours. I cooked it on the low 10 hour setting. I served it with tortillas but it would be great over rice too.

Enjoy!
Erica

Dillons 9/2-9/8

I hope you were able to stock up during the Mega Event. This week looks like a good week to stock up on meat. Let me know if I missed anything.

Produce
Fresh Nebraska Sweet Corn 3/$1
Home Grown Seedless Watermelon 3.99 each
Ripe Sweet XL Cantaloupe 1.67 each

Meat
Ground Fresh Fresh Ground Chuck 1.99 lb.
Farmland Whole Boneless Ham 1.59 lb. sold in 5 lbs. 7.95 each
Fresh Tyson Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Fillets 1.99 lb.
Boneless Pork Loin Chops BIGI FREE regularly 5.49 lb.
Boneless Pork Tenderloin in Bag 1.99 lb.
Chicken Leg Quarters .55 lb.
Honeysuckle Fresh 85% Lean Ground Turkey 1.59 lb.

Ball Park Meat, Beef or Angus Franks BIGI Free Regularly 3.79-5.19
Use 1.00/2 MF
Total=$2.79-4.19/2

Other Grocery Items
Pepsi Cola 12 packs 2.40 wyb 4, get 1 free

Kellogg's Cereal 3/$9 & get gallon milk FREE wyb 3!
not sure if these are a part of the deal ??? Kellogg's Rice Krispies UseBIGI FREE & 1.00/1
Total=$5.00/3 & Gallon of Milk

Keebler Chips Deluxe or Sandies Cookies 3/$6 & get gallon milk FREE wyb 3!

Breyers or Kroger Deluxe Ice Cream 2.27
Use .25/1 Breyers unilever eQ
Total=$2.02

Kroger Vegetables 10/$10

Kroger Marinade 10/$10
Use .35/1 SC from Dillons mailer
Total=$0.65

Hunts Ketchup 10/$10

Simply Potatoes .99

Sunny Delight 1.00
Use .25/1
Total=$.50

Wonderful Pistachios (10 oz.), Walnuts or Almonds (1 lb.) 3.99

Household Products
Charmin Bath Tissue large roll 4 pack 1.88
Use .25/1 MF & .25/1 p&g esaver eQ
Total= $1.13

Kotex Pads, Liners or Tampons 3.00
Use B1G1 Kotex produce receive one Kotex Overnight Pads FREE or 1.00/1 MF
& 1.00/1 cellfire eQ
Total=$2.00/2 or $1.00/1

Happy Savings!
Erica