Crying, Cooking and Cleaning

This weekend was filled with tears, money-saving shopping, yummy food, dust and mad-woman cleaning.

Let's start off with the tears...Princess Ivi and I had more heartfelt conversations and I think we both will work much harder to not take each other for granted. Nuff said 'bout that.

The money-saving shopping trip was great. Princess Ivi and I started at CVS where we saved $17.04 ($2 of which was because I bought Organix shampoo on sale for $4.99 and used a $2 coupon that came with my rebate that I got many moons ago) and earned $5 in Extra Care Bucks. Then we went over to Kmart and each of us got a new pillow (which were buy one, get one half off) and Princess Ivi got a new set of sheets that were $14.99 but we used the 25% off coupon that was in the sale flyer. We saved a total of $8.75. Then we went to Walmart and bought a replacement Ipod for Princess Ivi's birthday (to replace the Christmas Ipod since we learned that Ipods cannot swim in the toilet). We did not save any money at Walmart. Our last stop of the day was to Winn Dixie where we saved $85.07 (using $3.60 in coupons and the remainder in discounts). The total amount saved for the entire shopping trip was $110.87.

After we got home, Princess Ivi put her OCD to work and organized the freezer while I broke up the big packages of meat into smaller portions. Before putting everything back in the freezer, I made a list of what was in it for our meal planning. We have so much food in the freezer that we will have to "shop" from our freezer for at least three weeks. Yeah!!!!

Yummy food consisted of Butter Chicken on Saturday. All I can say about this is OMG!!! It was a big hit with mom and Princess Ivi too. (I love it when the reaction to my cooking is moans and groans and exclamations of "this is yummy".)

The Butter Chicken is great. The chicken was tender from cooking in the sauce (but next time I am going to flatten them a little), the sauce was creamy with a bit of a kick from the cayenne. Unfortunately, I didn't have any coriander or cilantro and I didn't marinate the chicken overnight. But it was still really yummy. When I put the marinade on, I just poked a bunch of holes in the chicken and smeared it all over each piece of chicken. I will definitely be making this again (and I will marinate the night before and I may even round up some coriander and cilantro).

Sunday morning Princess Ivi and I both woke up not feeling well. I had a headache and Princess Ivi had a sore mouth (actually half of her face) from a molar popping out. We skipped church. (Shame on us!!) After catching a little bit more sleep, I baked a Red Velvet Cake for Princess Ivi's birthday (although in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook it is called a "Red Waldorf Cake"). I had to use that recipe because I couldn't find the one I used last time I made it (which I think was for Princess Ivi's birthday). I need to hunt some more for the original recipe I made because it was much better than the BHG version.

While the cake cooled, I reorganized my room. Living with my mom makes it hard because I have about three rooms' worth of stuff shoved into one guest-size bedroom. I had to try to make it less cluttered and I think it worked. I still need to find (or make) a tall skinny bookcase and get get rid of the chair but I am pleased with it. While i was rearranging, I was also dusting which made a huge difference.

Princess Ivi went through her clothes and bagged up clothes that don't fit her anymore for donating.

For Sunday dinner and Princess Ivi's birthday dinner, I sauteed some onions, peppers (red, orange and yellow), garlic and shrimp in butter. I tossed the whole thing with a box of spaghetti and tossed in two handfuls of shredded Parmesan cheese. It was good. We all ate too much. Then we ate big slices of Tim Burton-ny birthday cake (red velvet cake with purple neon frosting and squiggly neon candles). It was nice.

Princess Ivi's 14th birthday is not until Wednesday but since it is the middle of the week, we decided to have her special dinner and cake last night. We will recognize her birthday on Wednesday and celebrate more on Saturday when we go to Tampa to see Breaking Benjamin, Flyleaf and Three Days Grace.

As for knitting and my Ravelympic project, I got some done but I am not even half finished with my project yet.

This post will be updated with pics this evening.