Mushroom Ravioli

So we got some mushroom ravioli from Costco that looked delicious, but I didn't want just marinara sauce on them. I've never made up my own sauce before, so I don't know what I was thinking this time. Fortunately it worked out. I heated up butter, almond milk (because that's all we use), minced garlic, Italian seasoning, and a little flour. The sauce was super thin, but it was perfect for these ravioli. I added some chopped up fresh tomatoes on top. All the flavors worked out great. I baked asparagus with olive oil and sea salt to go along with it. I've been craving this dish ever since! 

Easy Bruschetta

My Mother in law had planted a garden this year that produced an enormous amount of tomatoes. Fortunately I had also been craving bruschetta, but many recipes I found seemed so complex. So I just modified one and it tasted great. I probably ate this bruschetta almost everyday for an entire month.

My Easy Bruschetta:

• Fresh tomatoes (you can use store bought just wont taste as good)
• Basil (I just used the seasoning)
• Onion (optional)
• Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing 
• Mozzarella Cheese (optional)
• Olive Oil
• Bread (Any kind you prefer)

I spread some olive oil on my baguette and toast it. Mix chopped tomatoes, basil, onion, and balsamic vinaigrette together and put on top of sliced baguette.

 

Homemade Pizza!

We love homemade pizza at our house and we usually always have the ingredients on hand. As far as the crust we seem to forget which recipe we use and just Google one or use

 which tastes just as good!

As far as toppings go:

• Usually use left over spaghetti sauce
•  Mozzarella cheese
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Olives

This is something we have several times a month and gives us a break from eating meat.

Spending Fast

I found this Spending Fast idea from my Sister in law and find that it is a perfect thing for me to do as well. It will go along perfectly with our goal to stay out of debt. We still are out of debt, but we haven't been doing too good on saving money. We are also planning a Disneyland trip in September so this would be great to use the extra money we save each month for that. 

So on to the Spending Fast. My sister in law got the idea from This Girl's Blog. I think it is wonderful and I don't know why I didn't think of it first. JK. So this girl did it for a full year. I am going to be more realistic and make a shorter goal for my family of 3 months and then we will go from there. In her blog she paid off debt with her spending fast, but obviously as we have already gotten out of debt we will be saving all our money from our spending fast. 

So going off her list I can skip the first 2 steps of Listing Debt and Asking Creditors to lower rates. (I recommend looking at her site Here). I've done step 3, Picture the Life you Dream of Living, many times and of course we have already done step 4, Make the Commitment to Be Done with Debt. My husband, as usual, is all for it for step 5, Try to Get Them to do the Spending Fast with you. I've set the initial time frame, for step 6, for 3 months, but I may make it longer. I am doing step 7 now, Making a Public Declaration. Now on to step 8:

Needs List:

Rent
Utilities
Tithing
Internet Bill
Car Insurance
Medical Insurance
Dental Insurance
Cell Phone
WorldMark Maintenance Fee
Daughter's gymnastics
Groceries
Gas
Emergency Prep (we've budgeted out an amount each month to build up our 72 hour kits)


Wants List:

Eating Out
Gifts
Date Nights
Deals I see and usually buy
Misc Random Stuff
Clothing (I love to buy the girls clothes. It's usually on sale, but it always adds up)
Books (I've been really wanting to buy Nook books, but I will stick with the library-It's free!)
Netflix


Step 9 is to spend money on the Needs list only. Step 10 is to Think About what you can buy rather than what you can't, especially in discouraging times. Step 11 she suggests Becoming Immersed in a Community of Like-Minded People. On step 12 instead of Attacking My Debt I will be sending all my money into savings at the end of each month. Step 13 & 14 is to Be Committed and Continue to the end date. And of course step 15 is to Be Proud of yourself and what you've accomplished.

My family will be starting this February 1st and I am super excited. A few things that I've thought about are what about birthday gifts and dates? Well as she mentions that they will all be homemade or re-gifting gifts. I think for most it's important that people recognize it, so a card will just have to do this year. As for dates we still have numerous gift cards left over from our birthdays last year and Christmas, so we will be using those!

Wish us luck :)