Healthy Dessert

I love desserts. LOVE. It's by far my biggest weakness.  So trying to cut out sugars and extra calories isn't so easy for me, but I have found these delicious little treats and you only need a few to fill that "sugar void".  Bonus, they're super easy.

Chocolate Almond Bites

Melt 1/2 dark chocolate bar with a tablespoon of honey over low heat until smooth and melted.  Meanwhile place 3-4 almonds in each slot of a mini muffin pan.  Drizzle chocolate over each set of almonds (this is where the mini muffin pan comes in handy - it's the perfect size) place entire pan in freezer for about 20 minutes to harden. Pop each treat out and store in the fridge in an airtight container. Done!

So easy, so healthy and so delicious :)

My Favorite Hummus

Love this stuff. Love that you can add additional flavors and really make it your own! This recipe is adapted from The Barefooot Contessa's recipe. Make it, it's sooo good, and way better than the store bought stuff.  I make a batch and keep it in an airtight container in the fridge. Lasts about 7-10 days for me.

Hummus For Us

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained (reserve liquid)

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

6 tablespoons lemon juice (see my method for preserving fresh lemon juice)

1/3 cup tahini

1 teaspoon salt

Put all ingredients in a food processor, and blend to desired consistency.  If it looks (tastes) to think, add some of the reserved chickpea juice. All done!

So easy! You can add any other flavor you want, more garlic, roasted red peppers, sundries tomatoes, pesto....possibilities are endless.  Enjoy!

My Quest for Health

Primarily this blog is about money. But what I've come to realize is that when you don't have energy and feel like crap all the money in the world means noting.  Like having money and still feeling broke, it's a double edged sword.  Every January my husband and I do a 30 day detox with hig fiber foods, reduced sugars/ carbs/ etc and it makes us feel great and releases all the toxins from the holidays.  This year something different happened.  

We started the detox, everything was going great and yesterday and today I fell off the wagon.  I barely ate yesterday, then indulged in enchiladas, chips and 3 glasses of wine at my Bunco group, then started off this morning with a donut and a latte.  I. Feel. Like. Shit.  I cannot believe how much the last 48 hours have affected me, physically, emotionally, mentally and physiologically.  This is insane. So I am vowing to keep it clean, goo upside of the box in terms of typical mommy edit and routine and nourish my body - use food as fuel to go, go, go, because let's be realistic that's what we do as moms.  So not only will this blog be about saving money and putting benjis in the bank, but how to stay focused using food and lifestyle as the foundation of those $$ goals.  Who's with me? Time switch out those cookies and lattes for hummus and H2o!

Let's face it, I want to live a long healthy life - but being the hot healthy mom while doing it makes it a little bit sweeter ;) 

Zero Budget

We're getting close friends.  So close I can taste it.  Almost time to get prequalified and start submitting offers on new homes!! Woo-hoo!!!
Downside: no $$ to spend.  At all. We need to save every penny for this upcoming massive purchase and since we had the brilliant plan to buy a fixer - we need all those other pennies for small details like cabinetry, doors and exciting drywall repairs.  So.  Spending stops now.  Luckily I already finished my Christmas shopping (point!) Unluckily, I spent a little more than I wanted and now we are on sort of in a Ramen Noodle and Mac N Cheese situation.  So I try my best to take things one baby step at a time....ok that's a crock, I am 100% Type-A, OCD full throttle jumping in with both feet kind of girl - but without stripping my family of basic nutrition and heat this holiday season I vow to (aka "try") to take things one frivolous spend at a time.  Up first - no new clothing.  WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!! (that's me crying like a baby)
But seriously, I can do this.  I know how to sew, tailor and be creative.  Not as good as I can shop but I can make it work.  So rule #1 - no clothing purchases (except for dress shoes for my son because his gigantic feet have outgrown his old ones) and I better find a good sale...and a coupon...

So shop my own closet...sounds boring.  Mimosas and shop my own closet? Ahhh, now were getting warmer.  Lets see if I can do this. Stay tuned.

Thanksgiving Decor

I like to dress up the house for the holidays, I like the way it makes us feel "festive" and such. Especially since I always have tons of ideas to incorporate into each season or holiday and most of them never happen....sigh.  So I at least try to add a little flair so to speak.

This year I reused our Halloween pumpkins from the boy's preschool trip and plopped them on top of some faux wood candlesticks (target purchase circa 2006) kept our family sign up because I love the darn thing - and seriously what's more thanksgiving than family.  I had some old dried mini pumpkins from last year that I stuck into a glass candle holder, kept my lantern up - not too much going on huh.  I did want to do a thankful tree, and I've seen them online and on Pinterest and think they are so cute and a way to have everyone be involved with the season and decor.  I grabbed some branches from the backyard, cut out some leaf shapes onto card stock, punched holes and threaded them - presto instant tree. I'm in love, the kids love adding leaves, and we're meeting the "festive" goal. Cost = 0

No Spend Challenge Day 8 - Theme Park Day

So I'm a little behind on my posts but I have them all jotted down on post-its ready to upload - who doesn't love post-its?!?! "I invented post-its!!!" (name that movie...)
Ok anyway, so we had a trip to 6 Flags last Saturday and whatever it was to motivate me to cash in my coins I am thankful for!!! Why is everything so expensive there!!! So here are a few tips I want to share that made our trip less expensive and will make our next trip less expensive (live and learn right...)

1. Pack some snacks people.
Now I don't mean wheel in an ice chest with a full on picnic, because they do say you cannot bring outside food and drink.  BUT, if you have kids it's worth it.  And like I said we had snacks in our diaper bag and a small lunchbox with milk/ bottle inside to stay cool and no one said a word!!! Some snacks I would recommend; nothing that can melt!!! We brought crackers with cheese in the middle (ie; Ritz, Late July, etc), squeezable applesauces - you know the ones they look like baby food pouches, pretzel sticks, trail mix.  That's all we brought, nothing fancy, but enough to snack between lunch and keep our blood sugar up.

What I will do next time is bring some snacks for my husband and I.  I was so worried about the kids, I didn't bring anything for us! We starved!!

2. Bring Water.
One tiny bottle of Dasani water was $3.29 - enough said. And pack milk if you need it for babies/toddlers.  We brought some for the baby, but my 3 year old wanted some and we had a VERY hard time finding it.  Also it wasn't cheap - and he only drank half of it.

3. If you are going to eat a meal in the park - split it.
Ok so I was assuming it would be pricy for lunch.  $15.00 for a corndog & fries I was not expecting.   A lunch plate large enough for my husband to eat during superbowl - also not expecting.  Split a lunch plate (yes they all come as meals there - no a la carte) for 2 kids, especially little ones! And honestly my husband and I could've split his BBQ plate as well....especially if we had brought some snacks for ourselves...sigh

4. Carpool
Parking is $20 a car - enough said

So those are my tips, hope you have fun if you make a trip out there!

Trip to 6 Flags - $0 (Complements of my in-laws for tickets & parking)

No Spend Challenge - Day 7/ save those pennies!

So we save our change.  When we do pay in cash the change just gets thrown in our car console or to the bottom of the diaper bag, so we started collecting it into a container and we go cash it in at a coinstar now and then and reap the benefits. 
It usually works out to be a good amount of change!!
So we have a family day planned tomorrow to go to 6 Flags, which my in-laws have generously planned and purchased the tickets for us (seriously how nice is that - those suckers are expensive!) So I knew we would need some food, drink (hell yes they sell alcohol in the park there!!!!) whoops - sorry lost my train of thought, and snacks, etc. so I went to coinstar today and cashed in...$60 in 6 weeks. point!...double point.
So we will take that (minus $2.60 cause I promised the kids a redbox movie night) to use at the park tomorrow.  nice!!! AAAAAnnnnnddddddd, my husband's best client/partner said he wants to take us to Tahoe for the weekend on him!!!! WHAT! An actual perk of owning your own business! I must be dreaming!
SOLD!
Can't complain here :)
Hopefully I have some theme park tips to share after tomorrow's extravaganza. Oh plus a dress refashion.....lots of saving going on here!!!

Cashed in coin - +$60
work from home
cleaned the car
way too much laundry
Total Spent - $0