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Showing posts with label Lunches. Show all posts

Saving Money on Roadtrips

9:29 PM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

This past weekend - the family took a trip down to Kansas City to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge.

It's a water park.

A huge waterpark.

We've been there once before when Ashton was about 4 - and we all thought it was great.

At Great Wolf Lodge, your water park passes are included in the price of your room and we ended up getting an awesome deal (because I signed up for their newsletter) for their Wolf Den Suite for $233 (with taxes) - it's normally $260 to $360 depending on what night of the week you go.

Anyways...so the whole place is fun.

Kids swim, they have crafts, they get to go to a story time in their PJs.

They loved it.

(Check out later this week for some trip pictures!)

BTW, here's a picture of what our room looked like:

(The kids fell in LOVE with this room - now they want bunkbeds for home!)

.....

The problem with us going on any type of road trip, is that we end up spending a small fortune on food.

Stop for a drink here.

Kids are hungry.

I wanna snack.

Anyone that has kids knows exactly what I mean.

But, for this trip - other then the cost of our room - we budgeted only $120 for gas and any other misc items that come up.

(Our room cost is covered by a gift card that we got for Christmas...we had a little over $65 left on it, which covered our dinner cost.)

Anyways. so only having $130 to spend is not a lot considering how much gas costs.

(Around $3.30 a gallon here.)

Here's how I broke down the budget:

Gas: $90

Souvenirs: $10

Misc Activity: $20

Extra: $10

That was easy..right?

My plan was to spend no money out of pocket for food.

So, I packed a bag full of food to bring with us:

First, we needed some breakfast food for our morning....

The kids always just eat cereal, so I packed up enough for two large bowls. Then some chocolate cheerios for me. Chris isn't much a breakfast eater, so he'll have coffee and the pecan rolls. The pecan roll-ups I found for only $0.25. The Silk shelf stable milk is perfect for road trips - we had a fridge in our room, so we could keep it cold.

Next is all of our lunch supplies. Fruit punches, Lunchables and pretzels for the kids.

(I got the Lunchables on sale for a $1.00 each - kids love them, can't beat that!)

I made some PB&Js for Chris and I to eat and brought tortilla chips for me and another bag of pretzels for him. We ate all of this on the way there...instead of stopping at some fast food joint and spending an easy $25 on burgers and fries.

Plenty of water! This is essential for us! We were able to keep the bottles cold and just refilled them with tap water as needed.

Finally...our room snacks. This is our stash for those late night cravings that we all seem to get while we're on vacations. Other then the cherry pie, it's all pretty healthy stuff.

(P.S. Zone Bars - especially the peanut butter ones are the best thing in the entire world!)

And, since I am seriously the most forgetful person on the face of this planet...

this was my list to NOT forget our sandwiches and other items I stored in the freezer.

Ahhh....Chick-fil-a.

That was almost more exciting for me then Great Wolf Lodge.

A few months back, Chick-fil-a was having blog giveaways for their kids meals all over the place.

I ended up winning two different giveaways.

So I got six coupons for free kids meals.

(Each coupon was for a free chicken nuggets, fries and a drink.)

We have a Chick-fil-a in town.

But it's downtown...all the way on the other side of town and you have to park and walk for blocks to get there, so I never go.

And I miss it dearly.

(Side note: If you've never ate Chick-fil-a, you are missing out BIG TIME!)

Anyway...I looked up and less then 5 minutes from Great Wolf Lodge -

there was a Chick-fil-a!!!!

I was so, so, SO excited to be able to eat there!

The plan was for the kids to each eat a kids meal, and for Chris and I have to have two of them. It ended that Chris and I couldn't resist and ended up getting ourselves a chicken sandwich, so we will still have two free coupons left over.

That was a little over $6 for the sandwiches, it was SO worth it!

If you added it all up....that was

1 breakfast

2 lunches

1 dinner

plus snacks

for 4 people....for practically nothing.

I love it when I can do that.

Next week, I'm going to show you how to save money while camping!

Have a great week!

What are your tips for saving money on road trips?

I'm linking up to:

Labels:Lunches,Road Trip,Saving Money | 0 comments

PB and Jelly Muffins - Freezer Cooking

8:02 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

My oldest son, Ashton takes his lunch to school. I've found that it's much, much cheaper then buying him school lunches everyday and after reading about all the fat, sodium and preservatives in school lunches - I thought this would be much healthier for him.

The problem of course with packing lunches everyday is offering variety. I could pack sandwiches, chips and a drink everyday - but I have a feeling that Ashton would get burnt out pretty quickly. So, I've been coming up with some ideas to make ahead of time and freezer for his lunches.

These PB&J Muffins are so easy to make - all ingredients go straight into the food processor (one of my fave kitchen gadgets!)

For this recipe, I prefer to use whole wheat flour. The muffins would be a little more moist with regular white flour, but I think this is a great way to add whole wheat into Ashton's diet (and he doesn't even notice!)

Toss all ingredients into the food processor. If you're kids are cooking with you - this is a great job for them!

Pulse the processor until everything is mixed. This doesn't take long! Make sure and scrape down the sides at least once to get everything mixed well.

You can use cupcake liners...but I find it just as easy to spray the muffin tin down really good with cooking spray. I've also made a bite-sized version of this muffin by using mini muffin tins. Great for little hands!

Using a large spoon load the muffin cups up. This recipe could easily make 2 dozen muffins - I opted for 1 dozen larger muffins.

While the muffins are in the oven, I got started with my jelly. Since I have all of the Wilton bags and tips, I used those. I used one of the largest tips I have. If you want to use a plastic sandwich bag with the tip cut off - that might work too.

When filling my pastry bags, I like putting them upside down in a drinking up. Hands free work!

Any kind of jelly or jam will work for these muffins!

My muffins came out HUGE!!! They made the whole house smell SO GOOD!

Dump your muffins onto a cooling rack. Make sure your husband and kids stay clear....muffins always seem to disappear when they are near.

Don't let the muffins cool all the way, it makes piping the jelly in harder. I filled the muffins over and started filling them with jelly. (I used a glass just for a picture) You'll need to figure out for your muffin size how much jelly is needed. I just squeezed until I could almost feel it on the outside of the muffin.

Here's where this can get a bit tricky. Jelly is messy. I've found the best way to control the goo is to put the muffins upside down back in the muffin tins. Once you're finished filling all the muffins - put them (while still in the tray) straight into the freezer for at least an half hour. Note: The jelly won't freeze 100%.

Once the muffins are froze place them in a large freezer storage back. Store them in the freezer. I pack Ashton's lunch the night before and then leave his lunch in the fridge to give the muffins time to thaw out overnight.

When I make these muffins, my hubby always insists that I leave a few without jelly - his fave way to eat them is warm, sliced and spread with honey!

These muffins are a great way to change up lunches! You can add anything you like to these muffins - flax seeds, chocolate chips, or raisins!

Thanks for stopping by for my very first post! I hope these muffins will be a hit in your house like they are in mine!

PB&J Food Processor Muffins

adapted from The Clueless Baker: Baking from Scratch (The Clueless series)

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1 cup milk (soy milk works great too)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup jelly or jam (any flavor)

Combine all ingredients in the food processor. Pulse until mixed well. Scrap sides of bowl to ensure that everything is mixed. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray or use cupcake liners. Pour batter into muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Using a piping bag, add jelly. After the muffins have cooled slightly pipe the jelly in to the bottom of each muffin. Serve warm or freezer in gallon freezer bags.

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HOH Somewhat Simple Crafty Scrappy Happy

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