Valentines Day is right around the corner and Walmart Challenged me to come up with some great Valentines cupcakes to share!

Lately on Pinterest I’ve seen a bunch of cool “oreo” desserts and I was just itching to try one in particular-Oreo cookies baked into cupcakes!

The ingredients are simple!  You just need a package of Oreos, a box of cake mix (with whatever oil, water & eggs necessary to mix them up), some frosting (I made my favorite no boil homemade icing) and some cute cupcake wrappers & picks!  All these ingredients & decorations cost me under $10 at my local Walmart.

To make your Hidden Oreo Cupcakes, just mix up your cake batter according to the directions on the package.  I chose to make strawberry supreme in honor of Valentines Day-but this would work with whatever cake flavor was your favorite.

Next get your cupcake tins ready.  Just pop your liner in and then set an Oreo cookie in the bottom of each one.

Pour your batter over each cookie filling the tins 2/3 full and pop them in your oven–again, just follow the directions on the back of the box for how long and what temperature.

The cake bakes right around the Oreo!  How cool is that?

Now there are many ways to decorate you cupcakes.  Let’s start with the basics.  You can go with what I like to call your basic “mom” frosting–ie just use a knife or spreader to get the icing on there.  The cupcake liners came with cute Valentines Day picks you can stick in-viola! Decorated!  Or you can buy some candy to stick on top-I bought these large conversation hearts at Walmart.  Simple, cute, festive and even the least talented decorator out there can make them.

Now lets move on to a slightly more advanced technique.  I promise you, this is one of those things that looks fabulous and difficult but really isn’t!  All you have to do is the basic 1M Swirl (click through to my Easy Elegant Cupcake Tutorial post to see how really super easy it is using the 1M start tip)

The 1M swirl looks fantastic on it’s own, but if you paint nice lines of food coloring on the inside of the bag before you put the icing in you get a really awesome variegated effect that will have your friends and family swearing you bought these cupcakes at a bakery!

As you pipe the food coloring gets used up and less vibrant, which is why the on the left looks different than the one in the back.  Of course you can dress them up even more with the picks or candy as well.

Another super easy but impressive technique is to use that huge 1M star tip and just to cover the top of the cupcakes with stars.

There you have it-gorgeous and easy.  And if you spring for this cute cupcake tree (I found it in the Valentines Day aisle at my Walmart) you’ll be able to display your creations in style!

So what do you think?  Have I inspired any of you to make cupcakes for Valentines day?

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in as one of the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

Welcome to a super quick menu plan!  This week I’ll be traveling down to Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville AR for 3 days-so Yankee Bill is in charge of the kiddos and mealtime from Tuesday through Thursday.  In an effort to make life easier for him (and because I bow to reality) I have purchased frozen “family” style meals for them to have the 3 nights I’m gone.  That only leaves tonight, Friday and the weekend for me to plan.

Here is where you put the considerations for the week

1.  As I said-frozen meals for 3 nights because I’m out of town.

2.  There is leftover venison steak in the fridge from last week, and my MIL was going out of town and so dropped off some of the veggies etc in her fridge-mostly salad makings.

3. I’d still like to work in a venison, a meatless, a bean, a fish and a soup meal-but not sure I can quite swing it with so few days to work with.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Venison Fried Rice

I’ll slice up and stirfry the leftover venison from last week.  While I normally wouldn’t consider it enough for a meal, if I mix it in with veggies, rice and such it should make a meal.

This is my venison meal.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

At Aldi I bought a frozen family sized Salisbury Steak, a Chicken Parmesan and a box of Peirogies.  I’ve got a couple of those “steam in the bag” frozen veggies down in the freezer as well as plenty of canned vegetables.  Yankee Bill should be able to whip up several meals from that.

Friday: Pizza

I’ll be back late on Thursday night, so it shouldn’t be any problem to get the pizza together for Friday night.  I’ve already got all the dry ingredients for my Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe measured out into a gallon zippered baggie (same method I use for my weekly bread baking)–so it’s just measuring the water, oil and yeast and then pouring the bag of ingredients in. Hit “start” on the breadmaker and I’m almost ready.

If you were going to cut me some slack we could probably consider this a meatless meal as the protien is mostly from the cheese-the pepperoni barely counts.

Saturday: Garlic Pork Balsamico with Scalloped Potatoes and Green Beans

The pork will be chops from the freezer–I’ve got a great recipe I haven’t made in a while that uses a ton of garlic and balsamic vinegar to finish them.  Mmmm.  Very good.  The scalloped potatoes will be made with the dehydrated potatoes that I did this week-I’m itching to try them out and see how they rehydrate and cook.  Green beans are canned from the garden.

Sunday: Baked Fish with Risotto and Steamed Carrots

I’ve got fish in the freezer from my brother in law. . . the one who loves to fish but hates to eat it.  I’ll make some risotto (I’ve got a bit of Arborio rice left for that) and dig some carrots from the garden to go along with it.

This is my fish meal for the week.

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

For more great menu plan ideas, head on over to Menu Plan Monday at the Organizing Junkie.

These days filling up the gas tank on my 2003 Chevy Blazer is rather painful.

Gas is currently running about $3.75 a gallon here in Upstate New York, and I’m doing what can be done in the winter months to save money by using less gas!

1.  Don’t make unnecessary trips.

There was a time (years back) where I’d run into Binghamton (30 minutes away) to hit the shops just because I was bored and hadn’t been out of the house for a couple of days.  Not any more!  If I don’t have a real reason that I have to head into town then I stay put!

2.  Organize your errands with a plan.

When I do head to town I save up all my errands for the same day.  Then I make a list of all the places I need to go and plan my route to have the least amount of backtracking or rushing.  Less miles driven means less gas used, and less rushing means driving slower (see #5 below)!

3.  Consolidate trips with others.

Carpooling and ride sharing are getting much more common place among my friends.  I frequently ask Yankee Bill to stop and run errands for me on his way home from work-after all, he drives right by the store anyway!  As an added bonus, I think it’s really sinking in with him how much the grocery prices are sneaking up now that he does some of the shopping for me.

4.  Skip the “warming up”.

In really cold weather if I’m making a drive that is going to last less than 10 minutes-say running something up to the school for the kids, or doing an errand here in the village I don’t bother warming up the car-why waste gas and run the car for longer than I’m even going to be in it just to have a bit of heat?  Instead I throw on a hat & gloves with my coat. I also keep a couple of old knit blankets in the back of the car.  If the kiddos complain about the cold, I tell them to wrap themselves up!

If you have to preheat the car, figure out the minimum time it takes to get it warm and only heat it for that long.

5.  Drive slower.

Yes, driving more slowly really does give you better gas mileage.  According to FuelEconomy.gov:  “You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.27 per gallon for gas.”

6.  Use alternate transportation.

Walking or riding my bike are my primary ways of reducing my gasoline usage in the temperate months of the year.  Of course I’m not going to walk or bike into Binghamton–but here around the village we can walk to the bank, to church, to the library, even to some friends houses.  We try to walk as much as possible. When it’s cold, well, comfort still trumps money at this point.

Hubs will be driving one of his motorcycles to work instead of the car much more frequently this spring and summer.  Great gas mileage and lots of fun–but you do need decent weather!

I’d also be a big advocate of public transportation as a way to save gas and money if there were any available!  My village does link into the county bus system-but it doesn’t connect in to Binghamton (which is just over the county line).  It runs in the other direction and does take us to a town with a Walmart, Weis Market etc. . . but the times are very very inconvenient.  One of these days I’ll take the bus just for the experience of it and to write a post, but suffice it to say that in my rural situation that it is just not an optimum alternative.

What methods do you use to try to keep your gas prices down?

Just because I don’t always post my menu plan on Monday doesn’t mean that I don’t have one. . . it usually just means I haven’t had time to write it all out

This week is pretty typical.

1.  We have our regular run of dance lessons, girl scouts, boy scouts, pool, American Legion Riders monthly meeting, church, etc.  That means Wed night I’ve got a lot of running around to do and Thursday I’m going to have a babysitter and a quick kiddo friendly meal on Thursday.

2. I’ve got appointments during the day on Wednesday and Friday, so those need to be meals that are ready quickly.

3.   I’ve got one cooked split chicken breast in the fridge and a 1/3 of a package of organic pork sausage (from the 1/2 pig I bought) in the fridge.  There are still carrots in the garden under a huge mulch of leaves.  I’ve got plenty of canned and frozen veggies down in the basement.

4.  My goals are 1 fish, 1 venison, 1 bean, 1 soup and 1 meatless meal each week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Lentil Stew over Rice

Not really a recipe-I cooked up lentils in chicken broth with the bit of leftover sausage and about half the chicken from the fridge.  Then I added in a can of stewed tomatoes & squash that I had canned this summer, onion, garlic, a dash of Tabasco, some pepper, some season salt. . . served it up over rice.  Everyone enjoyed it and everyone took it for lunch the next day as well

This is my bean meal for the week.  I’m also going to consider it my soup.

Tuesday:  Tuna Stuffed Shells and Carrots Braised in Chicken Broth

The entire family enjoys the tuna stuffed shells.  I love that it is such an elegant yet inexpensive meal.  I dug up some carrots from the garden, washed them well, cut them in chunks and then braised them on the stovetop in some chicken broth.  It was my first time trying this method and I thought it was very tasty!

This is my fish meal for the week.

Wednesday:  Breakfast for Supper

Pancakes for supper is always a hit, and it’s easy to whip up and eat before scouts.  I’m going to put some fruit on the side to up the nutritional content.  Heck, maybe I can convince them to spread some peanut butter on a couple to increase the protien.

This is my meatless meal for the week.

Thursday:  Venison Steaks with Onions and Gravy, Hashed Browned Potatoes and Broccoli

The venison steaks will just have a quick pan fry, followed by onions and gravy.  I’ll shred potatoes from the basement (store bought-my potatoes went in too late last year due to the very, very wet spring) and make homemade hash browns and use some frozen broccoli on the side.

This is my venison meal for the week.

Friday: Homemade Calzones and Salad

I’m getting a bit tired of pizza, so we’ll mix it up a bit and make Calzones instead.  I’ll add a salad on the side-the lettuce will be from the store but I’ll try to see what I can create for the rest of it using both canned & dehydrated items.

Saturday: Crockpot Pork Ribs with Butternut Squash Bake and Rice

I’ve got a good longtime bloggy friend who recommended a new way to fix ribs for me-so I want to try it.  The ribs themselves are again part of that 1/2 organic pig we bought.  The squash bake is a delicious new recipe-I’ve got to take some pictures so I can post that one as well.  The rice is from our latest 40lb bag we purchased at the Asian food store.

Sunday: Superbowl Sunday

I’m leaving this open-we’ll either get together with friends or do a sort of hamburger deal.  I’m not sure yet!  And of course there are always leftover as an option as well.

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

Having a frugal mindset isn’t just about clipping coupons or shopping sales, it’s about looking at the world a different way.

When you find this in your bag of onions what do you think?

“Dang, I better throw that out”

“Hmm, maybe I can still save some of the onion. . . ”

“Ohhh, now I can cut the leaves and use them like green onion!”

“Great!  Now I can cut the top off and plant it to grow more onion greens, I’ll save what I can of the onion itself and compost the rest.”

Guess which frugal option I’m choosing. . .

It’s been a weird week here at the Frugal Upstate village homestead. . . First Princess was home sick, now Buddy is home sick.  I’ve had to cancel and rearrange various appointments, errands and whatnot because I can’t seem to get everyone up, moving and well at the same time!

But things are looking up.  I woke up this morning without my back hurting for the first time in about 2 months-so I’m trying to stay off the computer (which I think is aggravating it) and avoid heavy lifting today to see if I can actually be better!

So to keep it easy today rather than researching and writing something new-I’m publishing what I’ve got so far for my big Frugal Skills List.  I know there are lots more ideas out there-s0 feel free to add your ideas in the comments!

Remember-the idea here is to take a more finalized version of the list and create an “index page” where it will live, then as topics are covered or great resources on the web are found I’ll link them-sort of a Frugal Skill table of contents if you will!

Frugal Skill List

Cooking from Scratch

1. baking, braising, roasting,
2. Make your own mixes (Pat from Kitchener)
3. slicing leftover meat/roast it very thin to make “Deli” meat for sandwiches (Pat from Kitchener)

Sewing and clothing care

1. Proper washing, drying & ironing to make clothes last (Pat in K)
2. Line drying laundry (Mary @ Mrs Redo Redo101.blogspot.com)
3. Cleaning “dry clean only” clothes at home (Melissa O from FB)
4. Fixing snags in sweaters
5. Stain removal
6. De-pilling a sweater
7. Mending, hems, replacing buttons, taking in or out a seam
8. Remaking/Repurposing clothing & linens (Pat from Kitchener)

Housekeeping

1. Washing Dishes by hand (Mary @ Mrs Redo Redo101.blogspot.com)
2. Homemade cleaning products
3. Homemade laundry soap

Home Decor (Pat from K)

1. simple upholstery tricks (Pat from K)
2. how to make a drape/curtain (Pat from K)
3. How to paint or paper a room, (Pat from K)
4. Rearrange furniture to best fit the room or mood you want.(Pat from K)
5. shop thrift stores, yard sales, roadside (Mary @ Mrs Redo Redo101.blogspot.com)

Knitting & Crocheting (Gwen via comments)

1. Hats/Scarves/Mittens
2. Dishcloths/Scrubbers
3. Baby Items
4. Blankets/Afghans

Gifts

1. make Christmas ornaments (Mary @ Mrs Redo)
2. Make Cards (Mary @ Mrs Redo)
3. Make Jewelry (Sueellen at  i-dont-think-so.com )

Gardening

1. Growing your own veggies
2. starting seeds (& sharing with others)
3. saving seeds
4. composting
5. planting perennials (Pat from K)
6. growing indoors (herbs, onion & garlic ends etc) (Pat from K)
7. re-purposing items for planters (Pat from K)

Mechanical Knowledge/Maintenance

1. Basic car upkeep (Pat from K)
2. changing wiper blades
3. checking oil & transmission fluid
4. checking tire pressure (Pat from K)
5. knowing your owners manual
6. knowing how to change a tire (Melissa O from FB)
7. Changing your oil
8. Basic Lawnmower/weedwacker/etc maintenance

Home Repairs/Skills

1. refurbishing/repurposing furniture (Joy @ ihavetriedit.wordpress.com)
2. Patching a hole/dent (Melissa B from FB)
3. caulking leaks/drafts
4. basic toilet repairs-new handle, replacing bobber, replacing seat etc (Michelle from FB)
5. Changing a water heater element (Pino from FB)
6. Screen Repair (Melissa O from FB)
7. Unclog a drain (Melissa B from FB)
8. Know where you main water shut off valve and your main power breaker are (Donna from FB)
9. Keeping/organizing/Using warranties on all items you purchase (Christine from FB)
10. Changing faucets (Christine from FB)
11. Installing low flow showerhead (Christine from FB)
12. Cleaning/clearing dishwasher filter (Christine from FB)

Energy Conservation

1. Keeping all north windows covered thruout the winter, blinds closed, curtains pull  (Mary Redo)

Preserving food

1. Canning
2. dehydrating
3. freezing

Fashion

1. Accessorizing on the cheap (Pat in K)
2. How to make/repair jewelry (Pat in K)

Entertainment

1. Use the library (Mary @ Mrs Redo Redo101.blogspot.com)
2. Vacationing on the cheap  (Mary @ Mrs Redo Redo101.blogspot.com)

stay home
day trips

Miscellaneous

1. Knowing how to research  (@superstarsaver)
2. A love of reading & Learning new skills (Gail)
3. Teaching others (Gwen)
4. Staying Healthy (Amyrlin)
5. Delayed Gratification-saying “no” to the “I wants” (Joy @ ihavetriedit.wordpress.com)

I woke up this morning to find out that Princess was sick.  She stayed home from school and, well, suffice it to say that after a while I decided that she needed to rehydrate!

Now I didn’t want her just to drink plain water because she needed to replace electrolytes as well as the actual fluid.  I also didn’t want to be gone for long since she wasn’t feeling well-so that meant a trip to the more expensive local “Great American” grocery store.  (It’s about 6 aisles-and each of them is only about 200 yards long. Really)

I bought this container of Gatorade powder for just over $5.  I’m sure you could get it for less at a bigger chain store.  It makes 8 quarts of Gatorade.

Now a 16 oz bottle of Gatorade costs at LEAST a $-so for less than the price of 5 small bottles of Gatorade I got the equivalent of 16!  Not only that, but I can make a cup (8oz) at a time, so really it’s about 32 servings.

And since it’s powder, it is shelf stable, so I can just use what I need now (which is hopefully not too many glasses!) and then stick the rest in the cupboard for any future needs!

I’d say that’s the frugal way to go.

It’s time for another Meal Plan!  Let’s plan ahead, cut our chaos and make sure there’s tasty meals on the table for the family!

This week is especially busy here at the Frugal Upstate “Village Homestead”

1.  There is some sort of big appointment every day this week.  I’ve got funeral luncheons to bake for, a social media club meeting to cook for and attend, a shift at the food pantry, a half day school for the kids (in the middle of the week. WTH?), a Dr. appt with a specialist an hour away, and a couple of client meetings.  There’s dance lessons, Odessy of the Mind rehearsal, chorus, Buddy’s first piano lesson, a potluck at church, and of course we also have our usual total chaos on Wednesday night with Hubs at pool and the kids at 2 different scout meetings.

I’m tired just typing all that.

2.  I bought 8 packages of split chicken breasts over the weekend because they were on sale for $.89 a lb.  I baked them this afternoon and pulled the meat off-that’s in the fridge.  Now I’ve got all the bones simmering in the large slow cooker to make stock.  I probably should use some stock and a bit of the chicken meat this week.

3.  I forgot that I canned a lot of green tomato–I need to start using that up!  I’ve also got canned carrots, green beans and zuchinni & tomato that I should start using.

4.  As always my goal is to have one venison, on fish, one meatless, one bean and one soup meal each week.

Taking all that into account here is my game plan:

Monday: Spicy Thai Noodles with Chicken and Green Beans

I made Spicy Thai Noodles to take to a potluck social media networking meeting today, so I just did a double batch, the added a bit of cooked chicken and mixed it in before supper.  I cracked open a can of green beans (from my garden) for a side.

Tuesday: Kids Choice

The kids only have a half day.  I didn’t plan this out well, but I think that I’m going to have Princess help me choose a meal and then have her help me cook the whole thing for supper.  She’s already scrambling eggs and making cheese tortillas, so I think we can step it up a bit and have her start learning more cooking. We will look through a few cookbooks and see what we come up with!

Wednesday: Chicken Soup with Biscuits

I’ll use the stock I made on Monday to make a huge batch of chicken soup.  I mean a REALLY huge batch.  I want to either can or freeze up some extra!  The biscuits will be from scratch to go on the side.  Since I can do the soup in the crockpot this will be a good meal for the very busy day full of driving I have on Wednesday.

This is my soup meal.

Thursday: Vension Steaks with Gravy and Onions, Butternut Squash Bake and Rice

Basic pan fried Venison steaks, homemade gravy, sauteed onions.  I’ll make the butternut squash bake I’ve been grooving on (once I take some pictures I can share it with you all.  Rice for the starch and something to soak up that extra gravy.

This is my Venison meal for the week.

Friday:  No Meal

Friday is the Pinewood Derby for the scouts-everyone is bringing snacky foods and fun stuff for the event.  We won’t have to make an actual meal

Saturday: Pizza!

I’ll make homemade pizza using the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe of course!

Sunday: Leftover Buffet

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Ok, so it wasn’t a great meal plan week when it comes to goals.  It’s late as I type this and I just can’t think of a good bean or fish meal.  Please, if you have a great frugal fish or bean meal let me know!

Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

I am a woman full of plans.  I have so many things that I want, need and would like to do every single day.

I want to be a good wife, a good mom and a good friend.  I want to grow more of my own food, cook from scratch and have a homey, attractive, organized and clean home.  I want to help more at church, be active in my community and learn new things.  I want to do crafts and projects just for the sheer joy of them.  I want to, I want to, I want to.

And yet some days I feel like I’m slogging through jello.  I get to the end of the day and think “Dang! I didn’t get anything accomplished today.” My massive mental to-do list sits there, mocking me.

I bet many of you out there feel this way too-wether it’s in relation to your journey to frugality, you attempts to be more sustainable, to get more prepared or to move ahead in whatever challenges you personally have.  It can be a very discouraging feeling.

Sometimes I just need to take a minute and remind myself (and all of you) that we can’t get there overnight.  Life is a journey, and we’ve all made progress in our own paths.

So what do you do when you have one of those days where you feel like you have accomplished nothing?  It’s always great if you have a friend or partner there who can support you and cheer you up-letting you know that you are doing a great job.

But it’s not always up to someone else to fix it for us, to make us better.

Sometimes we have to take responsibility for ourselves and how we feel.  We don’t have any control over what someone else feels-what we have control over is how WE feel. So change it!  Take a minute and make a list of everything you’ve done that day-no matter how small.  I guarantee-even though you might not have accomplished what you wanted, you’ve done a LOT.

When this feeling overwhelmed me last week that’s what I did.  I realized hey-I had made breakfast, lunches and dinner for 4 people.  Got kiddos and hubs out the door to start their day with all paperwork, bags, and outerwear (harder than it sounds with the kiddos!) Baked bread.  Done laundry.  Researched online. Written a post.  Taken the dog out 6 times.  Made several runs upstairs with various items.  Swept. . . well you get the idea.

Nothing huge.  Nothing earth shattering. Nothing that seemed important.

But you know what? It was all stuff that needed to be done.  Things that if left undone would have made life less pleasant and less effective for me and my family.

Looking at it that way, I had actually had a fairly successful day.

So cheer up and continue the journey!

Well despite the fact that I never published it last month I have still been tracking grocery prices for our Grocery Benchmark Report.  I’ve decided to improve my format a bit.

Each month I show the last two month’s prices on a set basket of “staple” grocery items.  I price all items at my local ALDI store to keep things simple.  These price columns are followed by a “Change, Year to Date” column (right now I’m just using my data from when I started recording in August.  Once we are a couple months into the year I’ll switch it over to a true YTD) and a “Change since last month” column.

Note:  If a price is shown in green, it’s gotten cheaper.  If it’s in red, it’s more expensive.

January Grocery Benchmark

My guess is that there have been price drops in baking essentials for the holidays-things like butter, flour and sugar are down overall from August.  I’m noticing several animal based products such as whole chicken, eggs and cheese are increasing in price. I’m suspicious that has to do with the huge increase in cost of feed corn-since it’s fed to both cattle and chickens.  (note: I think personally that they are trying to keep milk steady intentionally)   The drop in ground beef also makes sense as many ranchers who couldn’t afford to water their herds during the drought and can’t afford the increased feed costs have sent cattle to slaughter leading to a short term flooding of the market.  Eventually the rebound of that will be that beef prices will go way up.

Remember-prices can vary wildly by region. My desire here is to help us all notice and take action on price TRENDS so we can make decisions about how best to manage our budget for our own households.

Wondering why I’m so concerned about rising food costs?  Because the the price of food at home is projected to rise by 4 to 5 percent this year, and another 2 to 3 percent next year, according to the US Agriculture Department.

Thanks to Malloreigh for the photo that I found on Flickr to create the graphic from.