August Game Night

Emily here! My friends and I like to try and do a once a month game night. They moved away for a few years and we had a baby so it didn’t happen super consistently but they have moved back and we are back to doing game nights! We had our first one last night. I wanted to share how we do game nights.

What We Drank
Pisco Sours. This is my all time favorite drink and I like to make one for each person. Then we usually switch to a different drink. I used this recipe. A good tip I read online to make the drink really foamy is to do a “dry shake” which is where you shake the drink without ice and then add ice and shake again.
Peach and Apple Cider
Pub Beer

What We Ate
Jimmy John’s Sandwiches – I kept is low effort for me since I have a baby that needs to be entertained all day. And I didn’t really plan ahead too much. I ordered sandwiches from Jimmy John’s. I did the party box of 18 for 4 people and ordered them that morning to pick up in the evening. And we had sandwiches leftover that will be our lunch today! It cost $31. They were running a promo that was 20% your online order so we got a bit of a discount.
Individual Chips – We always have chips for lunches so I set out those for people to pick what they wanted.
Chips, Guacamole, and Grape Salsa – Our friends brought over some amazing guac that had corn and goat cheese added to it. She also made grape salsa which was so amazing and was a really great combo with the guac.
Sweet and Salty Popcorn – I had this on hand so I set it out as something sweet to snack on, which wasn’t totally necessary since a lot of the drinks we had were pretty sweet.

What We Played
Pantone The Game
This was our first time playing this game and we had so much fun. It is kind of like Pictionary but you only use colors. It was initially hard to get into the groove of the game but after a few rounds we were all really into it and got a lot better at guessing as we went along. I would for sure play this game again.

Total Cost: About $70. This seems like a lot to me but I knew I would be spending more for convenience. This is food and drink combine. The drinks cost a bit more because we picked up the pisco and to make it easy my husband also got the beer and cider at the liqueur store and we knew we would be paying a mark up for it. In the past I have done game nights for way cheaper and plan to do so in the future but like I said I was really going for convenience for this game night so that I wasn’t running around all day and stressing myself out.
Extra Tip: I keep trying to figure out how to do stuff with a baby. Seems simple but before having a baby I never thought about it. We hosted the game night at our house so I was able to have our friends come over an hour before Pal’s bed time. We ate and played with him and then once I put him down we started the game. He woke up 2 times while we were playing and my husband and I took turns helping him back to sleep. This allowed us to still have people over but we didn’t have to get a babysitter or disrupt his bedtime routine. This seems like a simple tip but like I said I never thought about this stuff so I am just sharing what I am learning along the way.

Homemade Pizza Night

Emily here! I love having a pizza night planned out each week. Sometimes we order pizza out or I will make it from scratch. Last night I made it from scratch and I think it’s my best one yet!

I use the pizza dough from the Food Nanny Cookbook/Blog. I love this cookbook. Everything I make from it turns out so well. I also love this pizza crust because it is so flexible. If you don’t have time to let it rise it is still so yummy. Here is what I made:

Hawaiian Pizza with Tomatoes

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough from Food Nanny Blog
Tomato Sauce
Italian Seasoning
Goat Cheese or Mozzarella
Ham or Canadian Bacon
Red Onion
Pineapple
Cherry Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Sweet Chili Sauce

1. Put pizza stone in oven and preheat oven to as hot as it goes (I’ve read this is how you get really good pizza). Mines goes to 550.
2. After you’ve made the dough stretch to form it into a circle on parchment paper.
3. Add tomato sauce and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
4. Add on cheese, ham, red onion, pineapple, and cherry tomatoes.
5. Brush crust with olive oil.
6. Place on pizza stone. I don’t time the pizza but it cooks pretty fast. I keep an eye on it and once the crust is brown I take it out.
7. Let cool and slice.
8. Add Sweet Chili Sauce! This is something I haven’t done before but I keep seeing it on the Food Network and oh man it was so good!
9. Add a side salad! This always make me feel like I’m in a restaurant.
   1. Salad Ingredients: Romaine Lettuce, Apple, Cucumber, Crumble Goat Cheese, Champagne Vinaigrette.

$50 Grocery Challenge

After getting settled into our new home, my husband and I have recommitted to finishing the year strong with our financial goals! Throughout the pandemic our grocery budget was more relaxed because for a while the pickings were very slim at our store and we would pretty much grab anything we could. As things returned to semi-normal, we continued that same mindset which led to going above our grocery budget. This month we are determined to stay in budget and set a $50 grocery challenge for ourselves! We literally added up everything on our phone calculator in the store and ended at $52.81- pretty good! We are #BlessebyLidl. Lidl is an amazing grocery store similar to Aldi that keeps their prices low by limiting options. Their slogan is high quality grocery at low prices and IT’S TRUE.

Here’s what we got for $52.81:

Produce
Pineapple…..$1.99
Peaches…..$2.99
Bananas…..$.87
Romaine Hearts…..$2.29
Cucumber…..$1.29
Zucchini…..$.86
Green Onions…..$.99
Russet Potatoes (3lb bag)…..$3.49
Frozen Mixed Vegetables…..$.75
Frozen Green Beans…..$.75

Dairy
Cheddar Block…..$1.01 (with discount)
½ Gallon 1% Milk…..$2.12
Gallon 2% Milk…..$3.58
4 Quart Pail of Ice Cream…..$3.99
Butter…..$2.25
18 Eggs…..$2.77

Meat
Whole Chicken 5.02 lbs…..$3.26 (with discount)
Ground Turkey…..$2.89

Pantry
Chunky Salsa…..$.89
Tortilla Chips (x2)…..$1.78
Brown Rice…..$1.29
Applesauce…..$1.99
Diced Tomatoes…..$.36
Nut Thin Chips…..$2.48
White Bread…..$.79
Popcorn Bag…..$1.59
2 Liter Cola…..$.59
12 Pack Sparkling Water…..$2.59

Here’s what we already had:

Note: This above was only for dinners. We had other misc. foods for bfast/lunch.

When meal planning, it is important to make meals based on what you already have! This seems like a fairly obvious tip, but I am constantly seeing it on other posts so there it is again. We then reviewed what was on sale (whole chicken!) using our Lidl app and filled out the meal plan. Here is what I already had and how it will be used:

Pizza…..Pizza/Salad Night
Burgers and Fries
Spaghetti, Sauce, and Parmesan Cheese…….Spaghetti Night
Onion, Heavy Whipping Cream, Turkey Bacon, Chicken Broth…….Potato Soup Night
Bell Pepper…..Chicken and Veggie Fried Rice
Frozen Mixed Veggies…..Side for Whole Chicken (Not Pictured)

Here’s The Meal Plan:

Potato Soup with Turkey Bacon
Instant Pot Chicken and Gravy with Frozen Mixed Veggies
Spaghetti with Ground Turkey, Frozen Green Beans , and Salad
Chicken and Veggie Fried Rice (rice, leftovers from whole chicken, scrambled eggs, frozen and fresh veggies with a splash of soy sauce)
Pizza and Salad
Burgers and Fries

This meal plan was very satisfying and generated a ton of leftovers!

Breakfasts/Lunches/Snacks:

For breakfast we had cereal with banana or eggs with toast. For lunches I either had a plate of hummus, almonds, and turkey (previously purchased) with the nut thins and fruit or I had the Chicken and Veggie Fried Rice. My husband had turkey sandwiches with tortilla chips. For snacks I made smoothies with frozen fruit that I had previously purchased and the bagged popcorn that I bought this week. I always make a batch of these protein cookies for my husband to take to work for a snack. We of course enjoyed the ice cream we purchased as a nightly treat!

August Book Picks

Emily’s Book Pick
American Royals by Katharine McGee

This has been a book that has been on my to read list for a while. I love the Royal family and the thought of an American one seemed like so much fun. I will say I did enjoy the book and it was really fun and enjoyable to read but…the ending drove me nuts. There was NO resolution! I am still mad about it. I probably think about it 3-4 times a week. I know there is a second book coming out (in September) but I almost don’t want to read it because I can’t go through a whole book again just to have no resolution. I don’t need everything wrapped up but one character would have been nice!

Maddie’s Book Pick
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Not since reading Circe has a book captivated me this much! Sue Monk Kidd imagines the story of Jesus’ wife and why she was not included in the bible. While the book touches on few historic events as we know them in the bible, it centers around the life of Ana, a rebellious and ambitious woman who falls in love with Jesus after a chance encounter. The story takes lots of twists and turns and has an incredible ending (unlike Emily’s read above). The historic detail in this book enabled me to really picture the time period in a way that I had not before and it was fascinating to read Sue Monk Kidd’s notes about the research that went into the book. I loved the story and would definitely recommend!

What We Have Been Up To

Emily’s Update

This past year has been so long and so short at the same time. It has been a big year of changes for me.

Home Owner: First last July my husband and I closed on our house! We got a semi custom home and we have been so happy with it. The whole process of saving for the house was difficult and stressful but so worth the sacrifice. We started the process of building the home in February 2019 and it was so fun to pick out the type of counter tops and cabinets (among other items) we wanted. There were a ton of additional items for the home that could have made it way out of our price range but we made sure to stay in our budget. We are so happy to not be living in an apartment anymore. It just feels different coming home to your own home. We have some other financial goals so we still are using all the furniture from our apartment but I look forward to the time when we can really decorate with furniture that is exactly what we want.

Baby Mom: That’s right! My husband and I welcomed a 10 pound baby boy this March who I will refer to as Pal on here. We found out I was pregnant a few weeks before we closed on our house. Owning our own home was a goal of ours before we started having kids and we were very focused on making that happen. I was extremely exhausted during my whole pregnancy and halfway though I started to be in a lot of pain because, like I said above, I was carrying a very large child and I’m just barely 5’3″. My pregnancy was generally good with no extreme symptoms (except the extreme fatigue for all 9 months). Adjusting to mom life during a pandemic is something I never even thought I would have to deal with and it has been far from easy. I was able to develop as a mother without any visitors or people coming into our home for 3 months and as hard as it was (and I mean it was really hard) it really help me feel confident in the choices I made for our baby and my mothering style.

New Job: In March I became a homemaker! I grew up with a mom who was home full time, as did my husband, so it was very important to us that we structured our life so that I could be home with Pal. When we purchased our home we made sure we could afford it with a single income for that reason. I am still working very part time at my families business training my replacement and doing small projects here and there. Being a homemaker is hard work and anyone who says it’s not isn’t doing it right (yeah I said it). I read In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms by Dr.Laura Schlessinger during my pregnancy and it has become a huge resource to me during these first few months. I also prefer the term homemaker as opposed to Stay-at-Home Mom because then you bring in the debate of Working Moms and we are all working weather it’s inside the home or not.

Me 7 Months Pregnant

Maddie’s Update

New Job: This past year was also year of big changes for me! At the start of July, I got a dream job as Executive Assistant at incredible theater in NJ. It was wonderful to finally align my passion for theater in a position that checks off everything that I love to do at work. It was an amazing season of shows until COVID-19 halted everything and I have been working from home since March. It has its challenges and I can’t wait to get back to the office full-time when it is safe, but I am so grateful to be employed at a place I love and I was actually promoted to Management and HR Associate this July. It has been a fantastic opportunity to learn and administrate HR, something that I have been interested in for a while and actually took an online course on with Emily last year!

Home Owner: My husband and I were in gazelle intense saving mode and purchased our home in the NJ suburbs in February of 2020 right before the COVID-craziness happened. Our home was a foreclosure that sat empty for two years because of various issues, but we powered through those issues (it took four months from offer accepted to closing), closed on the house, and found out that MORE issues awaited us inside. We were very grateful that we had had an extra cushion of money when we closed and have been working to build back up our emergency fund (baby step 3) for the past five months. We are determined to start saving 15% of our income before the end of 2020 (baby step 4)! We absolutely LOVE our new home and have several projects planned for the future. Stay tuned!

Dog Mom: My husband and I have been married for 8 years and all that time he has wanted a dog. With our small apartment living for the past 5 years we decided that we could get a dog when we had a backyard. Well…with our new home purchase we now have backyard and in June we set our sights on getting a dog. Like so many others, we thought that the increased time at home would be perfect for bonding with a rescue. We adopted our dog, Winter, through See Spot Rescued in Jersey City. She is a Great Pyrenees mix and my hubz had a Great Pyrenees growing up so it seemed perfect when she showed up on See Spot Rescued. We have been following See Spot Rescued for many years and always hoped to get a dog from them. Winter has been a part of our family for two months and she has added so much to our lives! It was a stressful first month because she had many anxieties from life before us and there was an adjustment period for our cat which is still ongoing…but we love to take her on walks (she has a TON of energy), hikes in our area, to the dog park, and spoil her with treats.

On a hike in Jersey!