Sunday 8/9 Recap

Last Day of the Challenge!!! What a ride. I've learned a lot about how to value and run my stockpile and what we really need in life vs. what we don't. I'm excited to stop wearing pink (and so is Ryanne surprisingly). I'm excited to have a selection of shoes to choose from, although I reconfirmed I don't need an extensive selection, just well selected. Scott is excited to eat the snacks I have in stock but little does he know that this fresh food, healthier cooking and eating is continuing. I'd like to stay away from packaged snacks and also continue to reduce high fructose corn syrup in our diets. I know I see a change in the kids when they've eaten it. I think that will be our next challenge... Sept 1- Oct 1 we will eat no HFCS. So... if you're into the challenge mode now, join us (if you don't already do it) or follow our progress here, we'd love to have you!! Thanks everyone for reading and/or participating in the All You challenge and our modified fire version. I look forward to further challenges :)

Today I have 3 mystery shops at the local groceries. Not at the stores I usually shop but I got 3 in a close proximity so it makes it worthwhile. They reimburse $14 but you have to spend at least $9 after coupons. I use a mix of coupon shopping and get things we "need" but don't have coupons for. That way we can offset higher cost or no coupon items with the mystery shop. I have to buy a deli item (I usually buy a slice of cheese or meat) and an item that goes under the cart (I usually buy a gallon of milk). But we've got a lot of milk so I'll only get one more gallon and figure out something else to buy. Probably paper towels (we've been without them all week on the challenge) or something to donate. I'll post the mystery totals separate from the All You since I don't count mystery amounts above the reimbursement because like I've mentioned before, we count them separately when budgeting because they're reimbursed.

Menus:
Breakfast: Pancakes and homemade syrup. We ran out of syrup so we made some by melting 2T of butter and folding in brown sugar until syrup consistency. About the same calories as syrup but no HFCS and the kids ate it up!! Served with Raspberries and a strawberry/banana smoothie.
Snacks: Pineapples and raspberries. Granola bar and milk.
Lunch: Leftover Greek dinner (meat, salad and sauce). Made some toast with butter for the kids so they'd get a few carbs.
Snack: leftover pasta/veggie salad from last Sunday. Last of it. Served with Milk. Ryanne had the last of the raw broccoli with ranch too.
Dinner: Porkchops marinated in lite Zesty Italian dressing, then a crust of bread crumbs and mozzarella and italian seasoning (thank you Marcia for the Cuisinart!!!). Served with Mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed zucchini (in olive oil and garlic). One note, the porkchop looks huge but I didn't trim the fat first to keep in the moisture when I froze it. Two porkchops fed all 4 of us more than adequately but they're not as big as they looked after having the fat trimmed!!