Walgreens 9/27

My net loss: $1.67.

I would have made a small profit had I not grabbed the wrong dental pick things. Argh. Walgreens had them mislabeled, and I did not double check my ad. See the shirt? One dollar. :-) I'm sending some Theraflu home with my sister-in-law. ha

Refried Beans

2 pounds dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed
2 yellow onions, cut in half
2 red onions, cut in half
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 stick of butter
4 t. cumin
2 t. coriander

Place the beans, onions, and garlic in a crockpot on low. Cover with water and add salt. Cook for 8-10 hours. Melt butter in a large pot. Add the beans, leaving the extra juice in the crockpot to add to the beans as needed. Cook and stir the beans for 5-10 minutes. Mash with a potato masher or use an immersion blender, adding the extra juice to reach the desired consistency.

I put measure out 2 cups of beans in freezer bags and freeze them. We love these refried beans, and I like knowing what all went in them! Some people skip the "frying" (butter) part altogether; but the butter makes for a much better consistency, in my humble opinion.

I made these this morning and used my nifty new immersion blender!! The beans were so smooth!! :-) Anyway, I now have five bags of frozen refried beans in my freezer. Yay!

The Countdown is over!!

I made it to 37 weeks and 1 day!! Noelle is here and healthy, and she is doing great. We had a little bit of a rocky road the first day because her blood sugar and temperature were low, but she stabilized quickly. I was glad that I got to breastfeed her for an hour after she was born since I didn't get to feed her again until almost twelve hours later. They gave her formula, and I wasn't sure she would go back to breastfeeding, but she did! I even got cleared to stop supplementing with formula before I left the hospital, and she is doing great. Praise God! He is good.
Now I am getting back into the swing of life and finding my new "normal" with two kids. Tomorrow will be the first official day of being alone with my two kids from the time Evan leaves until he gets home. :-) I am just having to readjust my ways for this season of life. I used to get most of my "chores" done during the week while Evan was at work; now I'll most likely be doing most of those things on the weekend when I have Evan around. Of course, I'll do my best to get things done during the week, but I'm just not setting my expectations that high for a while. ha If things get done, fine; if they don't get done, fine.
Yesterday I boiled eggs, made a ton of rice, made cookies, made a menu, grocery shopped, and did laundry. Today I made and froze waffles and black bean burritos. It's so nice to have things in the freezer to pull out on short notice. Plus, I think I am just happy with the fact that I'M BACK IN CONTROL OF MY KITCHEN!!!! Woo hoo! ;-) I love my job, and I'm happy to be back.
Oh, today I also ran to Walgreens and got two packages of True North pistachio chips, two boxes of Triaminic strips, two Cow Tails (interesting), and a bottle of olive oil. My net loss was about $1.50. The overage from the True North chips and the Triaminic almost covered the total amount of the olive oil (which I had just run out of). Yay!