SodaStream Soda Maker {Menu Plan Monday}

My husband and I really like soda. I know, I know...it's horrible for you. That's why we no longer keep it in our house. We do, however, make excuses for buying a soda about once a week if not more. It's horrible on the wallet that way, but if we bought it by the case we'd drink way too much. Soda is my one consistent frugal failure. Thank goodness for the zero-based budget and envelope system that we learned about from Dave Ramsey (more on that on Frugal Friday), we now have a set limit for even sodas.

Now that you know our weakness, you can appreciate our excitement at winning a SodaStream soda-maker from Michelle at All Home Cooking All Year Long's giveaway! We've been having a blast with it this weekend!


Is it incredibly frugal? No. You do have to buy the flavors when you run out, and replace the bottles and carbonation eventually, but meanwhile you do still come out spending less.

Is it incredibly green? No. However, it will definitely decrease the amount of plastic bottles we would be throwing away. We still have to throw out flavoring bottles and eventually carbonating bottles (they expire every 2 years or so), but we'll be using significantly less than we would by buying sodas.

Is it healthy? Probably not. But the flavors do not use aspartame or high fructose corn syrup, but rather regular sugar and Splenda, and less of it at that. So it is healthier, if you would be drinking soda anyway.

Is it fun? YES! We have really enjoyed trying different favors and being able to make our own soda. I've already made some for guests!

Does it work? YES! The soda tastes great. It's much easier than I thought it would be. It only takes a few minutes to prepare.


So, regardless of frugal or not frugal, green or not green, healthy or not healthy- I STILL get to scratch yet another item off my shopping list! (Not that guilty pleasures actually get on the shopping list officially)...So scratch soda off my mental shopping list!

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Now for this weeks menu plan. We have lots of bean sprouts that grew successfully in the colander this week so I'll be using some recipes to incorporate those...

Monday: Kusherie (Egyptian Rice and Lentils) (More With Less, pg. 108)

Tuesday: Quick Chop Suey (More With Less, pg. 133)

Wednesday: Crusty Mexican Bean Bake (More With Less, pg. 101)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Easy Curry over rice (More With Less, pg. 136)

Saturday: Vietnam Fried Rice (with leftover rice from Friday) (More With Less, pg.130)

Sunday: Fellowship then off for Lydia's first visit to the beach! Bojangles or something extremely unhealthy and not frugal will probably be on the menu. :) I'll try to take some things to keep us from buying too much bad food though. :)