Eggs in a Cup

Breakfast is a struggle isn't it?  I know that there are some of you that cook full breakfast almost every day for your family and that's just amazing.  That's also just not our family.  My kids are not breakfast eaters - a bowl of cereal makes them happy and that's usually more at about 9:00 or 10:00.  I, on the other hand, like a breakfast that will last me throughout the morning yet I don't actually like cooking breakfast. 

One day when I was walking through the store I saw these:

They were on sale so I figured I try one.  I picked up the American Scramble which has Bacon, Cheese, and Potatoes.  Basically, you add an egg to the cup, mix in the items that come in the cup and cook it in the microwave.  It is perfect.  It tastes great and is simple to do plus there is no clean up since you throw the cup away.

A week or so later, these showed up in the store:

They were on sale so I picked one up to try.  The difference with the Jimmy Dean brand is that it includes 2 eggs in a small cup, sealed, ready to be poured into the container and heated.  This makes it even more convenient because you don't even need eggs in the fridge - just this cup of goodness.

The regular cost of each of these items in my Meijer runs about $2.89.  Periodically they are on sale for $2.50.  That adds up fast if you want to buy one for each morning!!  I've recently challenged myself to cut our grocery bill down so spending $15.00+ on these little egg cups a week seems excessive! 

I realized that I could probably do this same concept at home for less money and guess what?  I did.

Photo Credit

This seems like such a simple idea but I am true recipe follower (Nope, could never, ever do "Chopped" HA!) so it was a little bit of a light bulb moment when I decided to try this on my own.  So, simply, take a coffee mug and add two eggs.  Whip them with a fork until well scrambled.  I then put it in the microwave for 40 seconds.  Next, I added about 1-2 Tablespoons of shredded cheese and 1-2 Tablespoons of breakfast meat (I used leftover sliced sausage links because that is what I had on hand).  Mixed it well again and cooked it for 55 seconds more.  Next time I'll only cook it for about 45 seconds because it was a little dry.  BUT it was super easy and good.  Plus, on average, it is about $1.14 a cup.   That is a great savings!  

Summer Week 1

The other day I shared the idea behind our summer plans.  We've completed week one and here is what it looked like, what we actually did and a few photos along the way.

Here's what the plan looks like for this week and what we did in red!: 

Sunday - Church and a picnic!  Do you have any idea how hot it was last weekend?  We did go to church but we hung around home most of the day.  The boys and I did head to the pool after dinner to swim. 

Monday - Memorial Day!  It was so hot!!  We knew the pool would be emptier today so we headed to the pool around 1:00 and enjoyed swimming in the heat.  Then we had a cook out at our house (well, I cooked on the grill but we ate inside!!).  

Tuesday - The LAST day of school Whoo Whoo!  The boys finished up lessons. Tonight the boys and I headed to the pool.  We ended up with the pool to ourselves for a good hour which is one of my favorite times - we pretend like it is our own pool ! :-) 

Wednesday - The boys each have a live lesson today that they will attend and my goal is to take our "Last day of school" photos.  I decided to wait on the photos until after they get their haircut on Monday :-)  They look a little shaggy HA! 

Thursday - Cleaning day!  The boys room is first on the list and I hope we can get it all done today.  We usually do a big cleaning once a year where we pretty much empty everything out of their room, clean and try to organize things better in their room.  I want to get this done before the two extra friends are here all day, every day for the summer :-)  Well . . .Darryl was home.  Trying to clean the room with "fun dad" at home just doesn't work!  This might get pushed until the Munchkin and Princess are gone at some point this summer on vacation.  Josh also stayed at my mom's camper overnight. 

Friday - A trip to Mooville for Ice Cream after lunch :-) We also need to sign up for the Library summer reading program today too.  Josh chose to stay with my mom at the camper - since he is the one who really loves ice cream, we'll save this for another day.  (He got ice cream at the campground so does that count??) We will sign up for the Library program one day next week when we are out and about! Both boys ended up spending the night at the camper - a Friday night without kids! 

Saturday - There is a Classic Car Show in Ionia that is FREE.  I'm not really a car fan but the boys seem to like them.  The weather is suppose to cool off by this weekend so walking around downtown shouldn't be too bad. Now before you think we didn't almost nothing as planned - we DID go to the car show! 

 I want a pink car :-) (Darryl would say no HA!) 

I really am not a car enthusiast but it was cool to see the different cars.  The boys were most interested in looking at the dates of each one and found one that was manufactured in 1928.  They were also impressed that there was one from 2017 - a Ford Mustang - so I had to try to explain whey our 2006 Trailblaser did not count as a classic car 😁 I think thankful that our "little town" puts this event on - that small town feel is kind of nice sometimes. 

Our Week In photos #40 (or Not . . )

My camera has stayed in its case lately.  There really isn't a reason other than we haven't been doing a lot of photo worthy activities.  So what have we been doing?

 1) We wrapped up school.  In reality we could have been done 2-3 weeks ago but we had a few final things that just kept hanging on BUT we finished all the details on Tuesday of this past week.

2) We've been taking care of Darryl.  He has back issues and about a week and a half ago he had some major muscle spasms start and that caused horrible pain and made him pretty immobile for a few days.  We are thankful that he can start back to work and are praying that it continues to heal.  

3) We've been watching a lot of movies.  It's been ranging in the 90's this past week so no one wants to play outside.  Instead, we've streamed some movies and enjoyed them all.  

4) There are been some epic Pokemon battles (I really don't get it either HA) between the boys from across the street and Josh and Nate.  

5) And, of course, Swimming.  The boys seem to be more entertained in the pool this year.  Josh is a really strong swimmer and I've noticed tons of improvement in his strength level in the pool which is great.  That makes playing games more fun because he doesn't need me to help support him.  Nate is still working on his swimming strength but what he is great at is swimming on his back.  

So, yes we are enjoying our summer already! 

Weekly Menu

And just like that it's summer time.  Darryl's back is injured so I have been getting crash courses in grilling HA!  I actually enjoy it and the food always tastes good too.

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - I think the plan is to get KFC for dinner

Saturday - Stromboli, Salad and Chips

Sunday - Pulled Pork BBQ, Baked Beans, Mac and Cheese and Salad

Monday - Tacos!!!!

Tuesday - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Corn and Salad

Wednesday - Roasted Pork Loin, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Beans

Thursday - Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Our Week (or maybe month) in photos #39

It's been awhile!  It's time to do a little catch up before we get our full summer into swing!

 The last time I posted we had endured an April Ice Storm.  Well, one week later the boys got the hose out and played in the water because it was so warm! 

 On Wednesday, April 25th, the boys had their AWANA awards night.  They started with a pizza party and then a game. Josh is waiting to start.

 I never realize how tall my kids are until I notice that Nate is the tallest kid in line HA! 

 Nate receiving his special awards.  He finished his book, reviewed his book, finished another book and started the 3rd grade book for next year.  He has set a goal of completing 6 books in the next age group (over 4 years) in order to get the highest award. 

 Josh getting his awards.  He finished his book and also finished all of the silver sections in his book which was a pretty big deal.

 Next up came my birthday.  On April 27th we met my mom at my favorite Mexican Restaurant.  They do birthdays right - with a huge sombrero, whipped cream on the face and deep fired tortillas with cream HA! 

 The boys picked out some great gifts and got me balloons too. 

 Darryl and I spent Saturday out celebrating my day!  We started with a great Breakfast at a place called Wolfgangs.  Then went to a discount craft store.  We visited a great cupcake bakery and le bon Macaron for Macron's :-) Yummy!

 Finally we drove to the lakeshore because, well, I love it.  The wind was wicked!!  We sat in the truck because it was like getting sand blasted to step outside but it was still so beautiful.  We enjoyed our fabulous cupcakes while watching the waves. 

 And then. . . our well quit.  This happened on Tuesday, May 1st and it would take over a week to get it back on.  I have more photos somewhere but they aren't uploaded yet.  This was a true trial - not only did we have no water due to no well; we lost power on Friday of the same week due to a wind storm which delayed our well repair until the following week!  Thankfully our neighbors let us hook to their water AND their power so we weren't totally without!

 Hello kitty :-)  We love this cat!

 On Mother's day the boys made me breakfast all on their own.  It was fabulous.  They also got me some great gifts (Flowers and jewelry) before we headed to my mother-in-laws for the day.

 On Monday, May 21st we had a family day out.  We started with lunch at Pizza Ranch followed by the afternoon at Catch Air.  Nate had wanted to go to Catch Air for his birthday in December but he was fighting that awful cough and couldn't run around so we finally made it up! 

 Breakfast outside on the picnic table is always a good sign that summer is coming!

 We got to celebrate my mom's birthday with her with dinner, gifts and . . .the first swim in the pool of the summer!!!

My mom brought this chair to me and the cat claimed it HA!  He loves sitting on it and watching out the window!! 

I realized that I didn't take too many photos in May!  It was a pretty quiet month event wise - we were too busy with well problems and lost power I think! 

Summer Plans

A few weeks ago I took time to lay out a summer plan.  I went through all of the events I had saved on Facebook, searched some of our other favorite things, and used a list a friend made of ideas to come up with a tentative plan.

Using some printable calendars, I wrote done things that are for sure like camping dates and a trip for a wedding.  Throw in Vacation Bible School Dates, some crafts I'm hoping to include this summer and some other fun play things and the summer is full.  

Now, lets keep it real.  Not everything will happen - weather, time, and even interest may change some events but if you fail to plan guess what?  You plan to fail . . or at least you will miss things you had hoped to do!  I try to find as many free things as possible in order to make it easier to do things and the things that cost money, I try to keep as cheap as possible!  My big "splurge" of the summer (an Art Camp for the boys) has already been wiped off the calendar because she changed the times of the camp which no longer works for us.  In the end it's ok because I was sure I could pull that one off HA!  There is a kids Volleyball "camp" (1 1/2 hours a day for three days) that is a great price that I am hoping to send the boys too - Voleeyball is a great skill to learn since it's played at so many church camps and in youthgroups!  

Finally, I took my calender and I looked at week one (which is this week!) and made a daily plan.  This keeps me on track throughout the week of what I'd like to do.  I can always shift things if a certain day is going to be rainy and I can always call a "just stay home day" too.  What isn't always listed is swimming at the pool - the boys and I like to go almost every day but sometimes we will go in the evenings and some days we'll take our friends and go during the day. 

Hopefully I can share our plan, what we actually do, and, of course, some photos along the way. 

Weekly Menu and Summer Time

The unofficial start of summer hits this coming week with Memorial Day.  School will be done and it is time for the relaxing, fun days of summer time.  We are hoping to do a little more grilling now that the weather is nicer.   Last week we had some changes in plans so I have several carry over meals to use this week which is always a nice way to stretch the budget.

Friday - Today is my mom's birthday!  She has requested Hamburgers on the grill so that is what we are having!  I'll add a couple of salads and, of course, birthday cake!

Saturday - Lasagna Roll-ups, Salad and Garlic Bread

Sunday - As long as the weather is nice, we'll plan on having a campfire at my mom's and roasting Hot Dogs and Brats.  Add a few summer salads and stuff for Smore's and summer is officially here!

Monday - Memorial Day! BBQ Pork Chops on the grill, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Fruit Salad, and Strawberry Shortcake!

Tuesday - Broccoli Alfredo Stuffed Shells, Garlic Bread and Salad

Wednesday - Tacos!!!

Thursday - Stromboli, Chips and Salad

That's what's for dinner!