My Personal Goals For 2016

I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions.  Mainly because they really never seem to work out for me.  I make goals instead.

As you all know I make goals and then I work my tail off to accomplish them.  I love the rush I get when I get to mark it off my list and declare it accomplished.

After much reflection I came up with several things that I feel are important to me and want to accomplish.  Here are the goals I've set for myself this year:

Personal Goals - 2016
1.		Eat Healthy
		a.		Reduce sugar and carbohydrates
		b.		Increase fresh fruit and vegetables
		c.		Reduce processed foods
		d.		Prepare most foods from scratch
2.		Exercise
		a.		Walk - 2 to 3 times per week
		b.		Yoga
		c.		Go hiking
		d.		Ride bicycles
		e.		Spend more time outdoors
		f.		Family outings
3.		Debt Reduction
		a.		Pay down final business debt
		b.		Spend less
		c.		Pay bills on time or early
		d.		Be diligent in seeking ways to reduce expenses
4.		Savings
		a.		Deposit tax refund into savings account
		b.		Add to savings monthly
		c.		Add to retirement accounts every pay day
		d.		Track all spending
		e.		Reduce waste

I think these goals are pretty attainable and if I stick with it all year I will be so much better off.  Just think, I'll be healthier, wealthier and most likely happier.  J  What do you think?

Do you set new goals with the new year?

Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls

We love homemade cinnamon rolls.  Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of time to make them so I was hoping to find a solution to cut down on the overall time required to make them.  Thanks to my pizza dough recipe I was able to cut that time from about 3 hours to around an hour and a half, not including the time it takes to bake them.  And guess what?  They are really, really good.

I tweaked my dough recipe a little by increasing the sugar to 3 Tbs. and adding 1 tsp. of cinnamon.  After mixing the dough in my bread machine I let it rest 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, I mixed 1/2 cup of sugar with 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg.

I rolled the dough out on a floured surface into a nice rectangle about 1/4" thick.  After sprinkling the sugar mixture onto the dough I rolled it up and used a length of unflavored dental floss to cut the roll into 1 inch slices.

I arranged the slices into a buttered 9" X 13" oblong baking dish, covered it with a tea towel and set it in a warm draft free place for 45 minutes.  Then I preheated the oven to 400° and baked the rolls for 30 minutes.

You can leave them plain or ice them with your favorite icing.  We like ours iced.

I take 1/4 cup of Neufchatel cheese (or cream cheese) set out so it is room temperature and mix it with 2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 Tbs. milk.  You can add more milk or sugar to get the thickness you like.

On Christmas I substituted eggnog for the milk and WOW!  It was so good!

So there you go.  Super easy and quite delicious.

My January Meal Plan

A brand new year and a plan filled with delicious dinner ideas to get us started.  I designed this month's plan based on the items I already have in our freezer and pantry.  I will shop a few times throughout the month for fresh produce and dairy to finish off and round out each meal.

Lots of healthy salads

As the budget allows I will plan to purchase loss leader items and take advantage of any good sales to further add to our supplies.  Whenever possible I hope to pair coupons with those items too.  My goal this year is to spend as little as I can on each item I buy.

Is there anything better than a fresh loaf of homemade bread?

This is what I plan to feed my family this month:

Chicken Tortilla Soup, Cornbread, Tossed Green Salad

Baked Ham, Baked Potatoes, Steamed Mixed Vegetables

Pork Fried Rice, Tossed Green Salad

Tomatoes & Basil Pasta, Tossed Green Salad

Ham & Cheese Quiche, Fruit Salad

Split Pea Soup, Whole Wheat Bread, Tossed Green Salad

Roasted Chicken & Vegetables, Pea Salad

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich, Potato Chips, Veggies & Dip

French Toast, Sausage Patties, Fresh Fruit

Pepperoni Pizza, Caesar Salad

Italian Black Bean Soup, French Bread, Tossed Green Salad

Meat Loaf, Scalloped Potatoes, Buttered Carrots

Linguine & Meat Sauce, Spinach Salad

Scrambled Eggs, Biscuits& Gravy, Orange Slices

Vegetable Beef Soup, Buttermilk Biscuits, Tossed Green Salad

Vegetable Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Caesar Salad

Chicken Tacos, Lettuce, Cheese, Salsa

Cheese Omelets w/ Onions & Peppers, Fruit

Sausage Pizza, Tossed Green Salad

Broccoli Cheese Soup, WholeWheat Dinner Rolls, Tossed Green Salad

Pork Verde, Steamed Rice, Garden Salad, Olives

French Toast
We love having breakfast for dinner.

There are a lot of salads on this plan and that is because we eat a lot of salad in this house.  We use a variety of vegetables and different salad dressings to keep them interesting so we aren't eating the same salad day in and day out.

For homemade pizza

My meal plan also includes that I make pretty much everything from scratch.  Knowing what ingredients are in our food is important to me.  It also makes a huge difference in the cost of each meal.

Split Pea Soup

Are you a meal planner?  Whether you are or not, what are some of your favorites dinners to prepare for your family?

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

On this final week of 2015 leading into 2016 I tried to make it as thrifty as possible.

Sunday morning I printed off 12 coupons online from Coupons.com using scrap paper I brought home from work that was destined for the trash.  After reading the Sunday ads online I went back and printed 2 more coupons so I could pair them with the Walgreens ad.  Then I checked out another site, Smartsource.com where I found 2 others to add to my stash.  Before my coupon organizer was pretty much empty.  Now it has coupons for meat, cheese, cereal, pasta, gum, candy, mints, dish soap and cat food.  Not a bad start.

After Christmas when I see coupons for gum, mints or candy I think Easter basket filler.  I can usually plan on Walgreen's ads and sales for super low prices on these items.  Monday I used four of the coupons I printed to purchase two packs of Orbit chewing gum for 19¢ each and two bottles of Dawn dish soap for 69¢ each.  I put the gum aside for Easter and added the dish soap to my household supplies.

I ordered the infrared heater (it had been out of stock for quite awhile) for the chicken coop since the temps are supposed to head down close to 0° on New Year's day.  It arrived on Wednesday.  The weather combined with a ton of moisture so far this year has made the coop and pen area a damp and mucky mess.  With the freezing temperatures now the mud is hard and the other day I noticed frost inside the coop.  We added the red heat lamp just before Christmas to keep them warm and dry, but I'm afraid it is keeping them awake at night.  The new heater has no light and I think they'll do much better with it.

I checked online and discovered I still had $8.80 left on an old gift card so I used it and a $1 OFF coupon to purchase 3 bags of kitty litter.  I had to pay 28¢ out of pocket for the remaining balance.  Not a bad deal

Fred Meyer had pork roasts on sale for $1.99 a pound.  I picked out a really nice, good sized one and had the butcher cut it in half for me.  At my daughter's suggestion I am going to turn one of them into pulled pork for sandwiches and the other into pork verde.

About a month ago I cut the bottom off my tube of facial moisturizer so I could get to a large amount that was trapped inside and I couldn’t get to squeeze out.  I used it up last week along with a tube of Chapstick (I dug the remnants out with a toothpick), a laundry detergent bottle I rinsed out to get a final load of laundry and a bottle of body lotion I had sitting upside down now for a couple of weeks.  I love it when I can use up all of something and have no waste.

I used up the leftover New York Strip and au jus we had on Christmas to make a delicious steak and potato soup.  We enjoyed it for supper with biscuits and finished it up on Saturday for lunch.

I started a purge box using a box some things I ordered from Amazon.  So far I stuck 3 glasses left from a set of 10, 3 jars someone gave us candy in one Christmas (I thought I'd reuse them, but after 3 Christmases I haven’t) and a shirt I don't like.  My oldest put a few things in it too.

I've decided to try to grocery shop more at the dollar store this year since I have had a lot of luck with the items I've bought in the last year.  I wanted to try out their frozen fruits and veggies as I've heard a lot of positive remarks about them.  I also bought 8 more pounds of rice to add to my stockpile in my pantry, another jar of banana pepper slices (I love them on salads), two large cans of Libby's pineapple, two packages of Hormel pepperoni slices for our homemade pizzas and two boxes of lasagna noodles.

On Friday, New Years Day, I worked.  It is one of those things people in my department do.  We prepare the operating systems for the entire corporation to begin a new business year.  It wasn't so bad to miss out on a holiday day off, we got lunch and the extra income will be very much appreciated.

When I got home we decided to enjoy a Pizza Nite with homemade pizzas and Netflix.  I sliced up a HUGE apple and served it with a little bit of caramel ice cream topping I had leftover in the refrigerator for our dessert.  Pretty darn good dinner if you ask me.

Saturday we ate up leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner which made for a simple day of meal prep.  All I had to do was make a fresh tossed green salad.  I also made a batch of Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies.

How was your thrifty week?

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2016!

Wishing you a year filled with many joyful blessings.