THE PETERSENS

I’ve been slacking off with posting my grocery finds lately.  It’s not that there’s been a lack of good deals out there either.  So, here’s a couple of photos with what we’ve been collecting and eating lately.  On my next “Super Savings” post, I promise to include all of the details, with how much I spent versus how much I saved.  Not this time though.

$40 worth of groceries for the 1st week in March

$25 worth of groceries for the 2nd week in March

I also had to pick up $6 worth of groceries at SuperTarget, but didn’t take a picture of it.  So good, so far.  We still have $104 left in the grocery budget.

I am happy to say that our household is finally recovering from all the sickness we have been enduring for the past few weeks.  It has been hard, but the Lord has sustained us.

You will be hearing more from us now.  The absence of blog posts was due to my own coming down with the flu.  When I wasn’t resting or sleeping, I was still trying to keep up with taking care of my husband and kids and accomplishing a minimal amount of housework.  Hopefully you will be hearing more from me, but maybe not as much since I am trying to get caught up on everything else that fell by the wayside.

Thank you to those who were praying for us and loving on us by bringing us meals and just calling.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by people from our church who are so quick to serve.

Anyway, a few updates…

• February was a short month, so we were able to come in under our $175/month food budget.  I am hoping that this will the be first of many months we can do this!
• One of our new financial goals for this year was to aggressively pay off my student loans totaling $10,000.  We have been able to cut that in half!  Praise be to God who has blessed us with a hefty tax return and side-job opportunities for my hubby.  We’ve been able to throw that extra income toward our school debt.
• Our house is actually FOR REAL being built now, so we are looking to move into our first home in about 90 days.
• Ben has been juggling his many responsibilities well and even managed to get Google Analytics-certified amidst his crazy schedule.  Yay, husband!
• Homeschooling has been going well for Joshua Lee and I.  He is now able to read most of his board books out loud and is eager to tackle hard words like “extinguisher” and “xylophone.”  My oldest loves to read!
• Caleb is becoming more and more verbal.  A few new words he says are: “ight” for “light”, “moo” for “moon”, “nana” for “banana”, and  “di-pah” for “diaper”.  He is such a little ham and he loves to be funny.
• We have lots of visitors lined up who are flying in to visit with us starting in mid-March through the beginning of May.  The Mellings, my mom and my brother, my sister and then my dad…we love it!

That’s it for now.  Come back soon for more blog posts of my grocery shopping trips, meal plans, pictures of my coupon binder, etc.

I love making chicken pot pie and making the crust all fancy-shmancy with little heart cut-outs and whatnot.  Unfortunately, I have never taken a picture of my handiwork, so the recipe itself will have to suffice.  The recipe is actually from The Pillsbury Company and with a few additions, I’ve found it to be a wonderful “comfort food.”  Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts (I make mine from scratch because it’s so much cheaper and yummier that way)
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 and a 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 and a 1/2-3 cups chicken/turkey
• 2 cups frozen mixed veggies, thawed (I usually do a veggie medley of peas, corn, carrots and green beans)

Directons:

• Line pan with 1 pie crust.
• Melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion  and cook until tender.  Add flour, salt and pepper (sometimes I throw in some other type of chicken-y seasoning to spruce up the filling); stir until well-blended.
• Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened.
• Add chicken and mixed veggies; mix well.  Remove from heat.
• Spoon mixture into crust-lined pan and top with 2nd crust.  Seal the edges and flute.  Cut slits into top crust (and decorate with leftover crust, if you’d like…).
• Bake until golden brown in a 425 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes.