This week I've been faced with a HUGE grocery shopping challenge. Because of some unexpected expenses (my car broke down and we bought parts, Makayla had to go to the Dr so we had a co-pay and medicine, and my eye medicine's $50!) I had to spend $100 on groceries. I haven't spent $100 buying groceries since I only had 1 child. I also had to deduct $16.00 for a bag of goodnigts for one of the girls... that's $84.00 for food for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for Brad and Makayla's lunch boxes. My list consisted of 4 gallons of milk, bread, eggs, juice, potatoes, onions, lunch meat, apples, bananas, lettuce, flour, sugar and brown sugar. I carried my little calculator with me and had a very hard time subtracting $6.50 for a case of pop for Brads lunches, but if I didn't buy it he would get them out of the pop machine at work. I only strayed from the list 3 times. I bought the kids some budget-saver twin pops for $1.92, a few bags of frozen veggies that steam in the microwave for $1.38, and a package of popcorn shrimp for the kids lunches for $1.32. I will be using meat from the deep freeze this week and I will be making all of the cookies/bars/snacks for lunch boxes. I'm actually feeling really good about making all the snacks. I feel a lot better about giving my family snacks containing ingredients I recognize (butter, eggs, flour, sugar) than giving them prepackaged snacks containing things like sorbitan monostearate, polysorbate, or sodium propionate.These Chocolate Chip Blondies are out of this world. They're rich, gooey, and simple. Everyone loved them. See how much Chase enjoyed them? I had to chase him down to wipe his grubby little face and fingers!
CHOCOLATE CHIP BLONDIES
1-1/2 cups Dark Brown Sugar (I used light because that's all I had)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions: In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla just until blended. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to brown sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.
I also was very surprised today when Donna from My Tasty Treasures awarded me with not one, but THREE awards! Thank you so much Donna. I love visiting your blog everyday for a great dose of laughter and good food. It's an honor you thought of me for these awards. I'm feeling famous... well almost :). The awards she gave me are the Lemonade and Friends Award
The Friends Award
I have got to include this passage with the friends award..Along with this Friends award comes this message:"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."And the E for excellent award
I will be following Donna's example and passing all three awards along to 8 deserving blogs. I tried to pick blogs that I have never given awards to. And the winners are:
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