BBQ Pulled Pork

One of my favorite crock pot recipes is pulled pork, it is so versatile and it feeds so many people! I usually cook it with just a little salt and pepper and a can of beer but today I decided to jazz things up and add some good old fashioned BBQ sauce.

I also neglected to take a picture of all the ingredients... BUT I promise you will love this recipe even if it doesn't come with a step by step photo guide ;)

You will need:

• 2-3lb Pork Butt (I use bone in because it makes it even more juicy and yummy, but you can use boneless if you prefer)
• 12 oz Beer
• Bottle of your favorite sauce - I used the HEB Texas Flavor and let me just say, I did not regret it... just the right amount of tang and heat.

Rub the pork with salt and pepper, then combine all ingredients into a crock pot and cook on low for 8-12 hours, low and slow y'all... it's the only way to do pork. TRUST ME. 

Another tip... put that pork fatty side up so as the fat melts it runs through all the meat keeping it nice and juicy.

Once the pork is cooked, shred with a fork and remove any bones - they make a nice treat for puppies if you have one hanging around. 

After shredding, allow pork to cook in sauce/juices for another 30-60 min then serve anyway you choose. 

I made sliders this time around and served them with borracho beans and roasted sweet potatoes... but you can also use the pork to make enchiladas, nachos or whatever your little heart desires!

No Spend February - Lesson Learned

A lot of you have been very supportive and curious about our no spend February adventure and as much as I would like to be writing a post about how successful it was, I prefer to be honest. I didn't start writing this blog to tell you how awesome we are, but instead my intention is to be real. So, let me just say, "No Spend February" might be better phrased as a "Failure February". Here is my recap and lessons learned - hopefully they help you as you plan your adventure into not spending. I plan to take these lessons into our next attempt and hopefully do it better next time around.

Recap of the month...

Week One - WENT AWESOME! We stuck to the meal plan, we didn't spend an unplanned dime, we essentially rocked it. Week one gives me hope that it's actually possible to accomplish a no spend month.

Week Two - I ran out of lunch food and frozen homemade baby food (breastfeeding has given me the appetite of a teenage boy and the boys apparently hit a growth spurt) so we spent more than $20 on groceries... oops...

Week Three - The boys came down with RSV - we had to drop $200 on antibiotics and probiotics - and diapers because changing/washing 8 diarrhea cloth diapers a day is not something I wanted to do. Sick babies and very tired parents is not really an ideal environment for sticking to a plan, it did help having meals all ready to go but we strayed a bit from our no spend.

Week Four - four days in and the meal calendar on the fridge has not been updated - The boys and I spent a couple days in Austin for a change of scenery and we had an impromptu trip to Waco to visit and old friend. To say I gave up this week would be an understatement...

Lesson 1: Life with two infants is unpredictable

I sometimes think it is almost impossible to get anything done with 2 babies but then I step back and realize that somehow we do. We get stuff done, but it requires a lot of planning. We can't just drop everything and go anymore, we have to plan ahead. Don't get me wrong we still have spontaneity in our life but for example, today, one kid pooped and woke himself up, then spent and hour screaming at me and went back down just in time for his brother to wake up... then the brother who took a late nap wakes up just as it's time for other brother to go down... so the errands I had planned, the walk I had planned, they all wait, they wait until tomorrow because life with two infants is unpredictable. So while meal planning is wonderful and it does help us get things done and spend less money, some days I don't get to make myself lunch - some days I don't eat breakfast until morning nap starts, so some days driving through Starbucks is the only option because otherwise I won't eat.

Lesson 2: Be realistic about your needs

As mentioned above, I need to have flexible options. Meal planning is great but because of the unpredictability there needs to be at least a plan b & c, sometimes d. Also, making sure I account for the days where we just need to get out of the house because naps aren't happening. 

Lesson 3: Stock the pantry/fridge a little better before attempting "No Spend"

Next time we attempt this, I will make sure to stock up on lots of lunch and side dish options, or double the freezer recipes to make more left overs. I thought this was included in my original meal plan but somehow I miscalculated. So next time we try this - I will plan a little better. Instead of starting with an empty pantry I will do a stock up trip (more on that later) and then my meal plan trip. Hopefully this can help curb the days when I don't get dinner in the crock pot or forget to turn it on... or we run out of leftovers and there's nothing else to eat.

Lesson 4: If at first you don't succeed - try, try again!

SO try we will - probably in April - stay tuned for more... and on a positive note we still have a few freezer meals to start off March.

Friday Faves...

So I totally forgot to post on Friday because I was busy working on a few projects for some sweet baby girls and their mamas,  but alas here are my faves from the week... All about the apps today.

This online database of children's books speaks for itself. 

I might be late to the party on this one, but Pop Key Gif keyboard will take your texting game to the next level. You could have an entire conversation in gifs.

I've been using Unroll Me for awhile now - and it has cut down on my junk mail significantly. Basically it cleans up your inbox and rolls all of your subscriptions into one email that is delivered daily. If you are like me and sign up for every store email you see but hate when your inbox is cluttered by them - this is the app for you.

Brad's Deals is an awesome app - it is like groupon on steroids - it finds the best deals on the internet for you and you can even select to be alerted when certain brands go on sale. I scored a northface jacket for 80% off thanks to this app. I'm currently stalking Michael Kors wallets :)

Meal Planning

Meal Planning has never been an easy task for me - for someone who hates planning so much and loves food so much it always seemed so drab being stuck to a schedule, but I have to say, it's not all terrible.

First things first you will need some tools to get started - almost all of them can be made at home or purchased for cheaper than what I have but who doesn't love an excuse to shop? Am I right?

I use this magnet board, which I scored in the dollar spot at target for $3 (that place is so dangerous for my wallet and my marriage)... They have a few other color and design options or you could make your own very easily if you're crafty like that. I've already stocked up on them to give as gifts. This is where I track what we are eating for the week - it also helps answer the question of "what's for dinner?" while keeping me accountable/reminding me to take the food out of the freezer in the garage. If you are planning on doing freeze ahead meals regularly I recommend having a lot of freezer space... we have a deep freezer in the garage and it is perfect for meal storage - leaving our inside freezer open for more important things, like ice cream.

At the beginning of the month I sat down to make a list of some of our favorite meals that are fairly cheap and easy to make. We eat a lot of Chicken because it is cheap and fairly good for you. I subscribe to an email list from New Leaf Wellness and I find that her freeze ahead crock pot recipes are some of the best I have seen/used/tasted/tested. They are simple, easy to follow and she provides you with a grocery list of everything you need - taking at least one of the steps out of the whole planning process. She also has some pretty nifty downloadable labels that are PERFECT for organizing your meals. Half of our meals this month came from here.

So my list of meals consists of all dinner options, as well as lunch, breakfast and snack - I do enough dinners to cover 1/2 the month. This accounts for the few times we might eat out or when we will eat leftovers. Almost all of my meals make enough for 2 dinners or 1 dinner and 3 leftover lunches - so there is no need to make a new meal each night. We are also not home every night so on the nights one of us is eating alone we have leftovers and lean cuisines to supplement. For lunches we mostly eat leftovers, lean cuisines or sandwiches. I try to buy things that will last the whole month and that we don't have to replenish so all we are buying each week at the store is produce/milk and other perishables.

Once I have my list down I grab my calendar page (also from NLW) and I start filling it out. I usually have my planner right next to me as well so I can plan meals according to what we have going on that month. If we are going to be out of town, etc. I usually have Wed and Thur as leftover nights so that we can eat what is cooked before being away for the weekend. I hate to have things go bad just because we left town.

After filling in all the dinners I sometimes add in lunch - for instance if I know what I'm going to make on Monday will give leftovers for the week's lunches I write that in. That also helps me know if I should stick the sandwich bread in the fridge or wait to buy lunch meat. I keep breakfast pretty open because I like to have choices.

At the beginning of every week - on Sunday evenings, I fill out our fridge calendar and my weekly menu snap-in for my planner.

Hopefully this helps those of you who have no idea where to begin or gives some fresh ideas to those veteran meal planners. I personally am still learning what works for us but I am enjoying the system we have in place for now. I was pretty skeptical of planning meals out - thinking I wouldn't like always knowing what is to eat and the inevitable predictability of it all, but I am eating crow one week in, because I AM LOVING IT.  I think the key to that is picking food you know you will like, but also trying a few new things as well. I'll also be sharing the recipes this month* as I cook them, but until then see below for links to my planning supplies... 

Planner - Erin Condren

I have the notebook with a monthly calendar at the front, I uncoiled the planner and added a few pages behind each month from the notebook section

Meal Planner Snap In - Erin Condren

To get a $10 off your purchase from Erin Condren use this link:

https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/ellenburnett0807

New Leaf Wellness Calendar Printable

New Leaf Wellness Freezer Labels

*some of the recipes were purchased from New Leaf Wellness so I will share the ones I am able, and the ones that I cannot I will link to her cookbooks.

No Spend February

After the holidays and a very busy January our bank account is bleeding. Just like every other married couple I know, money is a huge source of tension in our household.  For us the tension mostly stems from the fact that my husband - he is a saver and me, well I am a spender.  Couple that with being on one income and you have a recipe for disaster.  I'm sure many of you can relate, and I'm sure many of you have also read about the idea behind "no spend" months. We decided to finally try it out this month because, one, it is the shortest of the months and, two, it seemed like a good time to stick some extra moolah back into savings. 

Because this is our first no spend month we are not being super strict, and we created our own rules to ease into the idea of not spending. We started by figuring out where our biggest budget bleeds were happening and we quickly realized that eating out is our kryptonite. No surprise there.

Before the boys were born I stocked our freezer with healthy crockpot dishes and it made meal planning/saving on groceries so much easier! Since they've been around however, it seems like a lot of things have been shoved aside for convenient alternatives... showers were traded for dry shampoo, pants swapped out for leggings, bras replaced by nursing tanks... so it is no big surprise that home cooked meals were replaced by fast easy take-out. 

Basically the entire purpose of this month is to kick our rears into gear and get us back on budget. Since we have been eating out so much lately and I never really restocked our pantry after the holidays I headed to the store the last week of January to restock the pantry, fridge and freezer.

Our normal food budget is $500 per month - so to help save this month we have allotted only $20 per week for fresh produce (if needed) and the rest of the food must come from what was purchased at the end of January. This $20 will be taken out of the bank in cash to help hold us more accountable. Since I like to have fresh produce to snack on and accompany dinner, this seemed like a fair compromise to not spending at all - and we will still be saving $420 on groceries. 

Rules for our no spend month include: 

1. Any extracurricular activities must come from excess funds (babysitting, refereeing, selling stuff on facebook/craigslist etc. - we currently have two events planned for February that were on the calendar before the no spend initiative so this should be interesting)
2. Any gifts must be purchased with previously held gift cards (since we don't celebrate Valentine's day this shouldn't be too hard)
3. No traveling outside of a 30 mile radius 
4. Clean out closets (sell/donate all unnecessary items)
5. NO EATING OUT (unless funded by the aforementioned extracurricular fund)
6. Anything we "need" gets put on a list for next month (to be re-evaluated the first week of March)

I'll be doing a whole post with my meal planning process later this week but as a sneak preview - here's everything we've got to work with based on my last big grocery trip... 

Dinner

Ginger Garlic Chicken

Pot Roast with Veggies

Sesame Corn Chicken

Balsamic Chicken with Brussel sprouts

Orange Chicken w/ Peppers

Roasted Squash & Chicken

Pulled Pork (for sliders & enchiladas)

Red Beans & Rice

Chili

Taco Soup

Buritto Bowls

Meatball Subs

Tacos

Penne & Red Sauce

*All the chicken dishes are served with Rice or noodles

Lunch 

Lean Cuisines 

Sandwiches 

Oatmeal

Waffles

Quesadillas

Hamburgers (I buy the frozen pre cooked patties from HEB - surprisingly delicious)

Fruit Smoothies

Breakfast

HEB Donuts

Frozen Waffles

Toaster Strudels

Instant Oatmeal

Frozen Pancakes (I pre made a bunch this weekend & froze them into individual servings)

Snacks

Cliff Bars

Smoothies

Fresh Fruit

Fruit Popsicles (no sugar added)

Chips

So there you have it - our start to a "No Spend Month..." wishes of luck and lots of prayers are always welcome... as are words of wisdom from any no spend veterans out there.

Why we cut the cord...

If you are thinking about getting rid of cable this post is for you!

image credit

After finding out we were having twins, it was pretty much a given that I would be quitting my job and staying home. We had always planned for me to stay home when we had a second kid, but we had no idea it would be happening simultaneously with the first. So, upon learning about the twins, my husband and I started looking for a way to make our lives work on one income. When we pulled up our budget we were looking for ways to cut extraneous costs and unnecessary expenses. I immediately suggested we get rid of cable.

Let me back track for a second, for those of you who don't know, I am practically addicted to network TV. Cutting cable was not something I suggested lightly, but I had grown very weary of my addiction. I felt like TV was becoming such a time suck - I would regularly prioritize my TV viewing schedule over pretty much about everything else. I honestly felt obligated to catch up on my shows whenever I got the chance. I would be late to things because I was just catching up on my shows and lost track of time. I fully recognize that this is ridiculous, that I am an adult and could very easily say no to TV, but at the same time... I'm almost positive I was by definition addicted to television. The TV literally controlled my time.  If television addicts anonymous existed I could be the president.

SO that brings me to my suggestion of "Let's get rid of cable". Surprisingly my budget savvy husband was not on board at first. Mainly because of College Football, how on earth would we survive football season without being able to watch every game? Then after some more research we realized by using a combination of amazon prime, netflix, hulu, and google chrome cast we could practically keep our cable and ditch the bill.

At first it was very strange, no TV... what do I do with all this free time?? I went through a withdrawl of sorts and binge watched a few shows on netflix but eventually I was able to cut the cord and Overall I'm very happy with our switch.

While all those options listed above do allow us to watch TV whenever we want, they are not as convenient as flipping on the DVR and they often include commercials (ahem...hulu) or charge per new episode (ahem... amazon). All of these options require a hook up to the TV and some sort of wireless set up or connection login. Sometimes I just don't want to work that hard to watch a show, so instead of watching TV I often find myself looking for other things to do at home - laundry, read, play outside with the dogs, blog, cook etc. I have found myself being much more productive since we got rid of cable. Honestly it's a really free feeling, I see updates for some of the shows I used to watch in Facebook and I can catch up on a whole season by reading an article. 

To Summarize - A few reasons why cutting the cable is a great idea:

1. SAVE MONEY - we were paying around $150 a month for our cable & internet service and it was about to double when the "promotional period" ran out. We now spend $50 for internet and roughly $12 a month for amazon prime. Not too shabby. That's equal to at least one or two pedicures and some extra Starbucks... Priorities ;)

2. FREE YOURSELF - from the grips of TV addiction. Seriously though, it will really free up your time and you might be surprised by how much time you actually spent watching TV in the first place.  Think about all the things you could do in that time besides hang out with fictional or even worse reality characters. 

3. ENCOURAGE AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE - If you aren't watching TV you might be more likely to go out and do something else. Or if you have a gym membership that you never use (guilty) you might be more likely to go so you can catch up on a show while running on the treadmill.

4. ENCOURAGES NEW HOBBIES - Again with all the time you aren't watching TV you can start a new hobby. For me it is reading and sewing, for you it might be ships in a bottle or robotics. Whatever it is - find something that is mentally stimulating and fulfilling. Anything is better than living through characters on television dramas (guilty).