Apr

25

Brown Sugar Chewies

Filed Under my kitchen, recipes | Leave a Comment

A few nights ago, I had a sweet tooth….. I scanned my pantry, my freezer, my refrigerator and nothing was going to do it for me. I really have been avoiding buying “sweets” that appeal to me, in an effort to eat “healthier”. If it’s not here, I won’t eat it. But…. I needed something. I was about to open a bag of brown sugar and eat it by the spoonful. Then I sat down to my favorite search enginge Google and searched out brown sugar recipes, what I came up with was Brown Sugar Chewies. I got the base of the recipe from Food Network, and added a little twist, by throwing in about a 1/4 c. of chocolate chips and 1/4 c. of butterscotch chips. Apparently these are quite similar to “blonde brownies”? I’ve never had them before, but it sounds like a nice recipe that Grandma would have made… :)

Family reviews? Tanner, Ashlyn, and McKenzie loved them. David thought they were good, but not great. Bailey didn’t like them at all. They are gone though… I had a few the night I made them and a couple the next day (I cut them into little bars)… and the kids ate the rest for snack and dessert. This one is a keeper and is relatively inexpensive to make also!

Brown Sugar Chewies

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans (didn’t have them, so I left ‘em out but substituted the chips)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Turn off the heat, add the brown sugar and stir until smooth. Stir in the egg. Stir together the flour and baking powder and stir into the brown sugar mixture. Stir in the vanilla and pecans. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. When cool, dust the top with a sifting of confectioners’ sugar.

This recipe makes “9 servings”. I doubled it… and it made the plate shown in the picture. :)

Apr

23

Test Your Reflexes

Filed Under online fun | Leave a Comment

My MIL sent this to me (Thanks Lisa)…


Are your reflexes slowing down? The automobile driving manual says the average driver’s reaction time is .75 seconds or 1 car length for every 10 mph.


Test your reaction time with this test: Sheep Dash Test It’s quick and kind of fun :)

Apr

22

I paid $12.53 for all this!

Filed Under bargains, coupons | Leave a Comment

We are trying to cut back on groceries as much as we can. I would say we probably spent a minimum of $500/month at the grocery store, previously. We are trying to spend between $50 to $75/week now. I was able to buy all of the above for $12.53! This will be quick grab n go breakfasts and snacks for the coming weeks. It’s a very nice stockpile and I’m proud of it!
My first stop was Albertsons, and I got:
10 Gatorades (these will be for my son to take to his Track Meets and a few for the girls for softball - these ended up being TWENTY cents each… they are the big ones too… the small ones are $1.25 at the concessions stand!). (*see note below)
20 boxes of Quaker breakfast cookies, bars, and squares. (*see note below)
4 boxes of Pasta Roni (which you can’t see in the picture, they are right of the juice).
1 pkg Lays Stax
3 bottles of Langer’s Cran Raspberry juice

My second stop was Target, and I got:
4 packages of Lipton Tea On The Go. Regular price .99, Free after $1.00 printable Target coupon from here.
7 pkgs of Lay’s Cracker Stacks (*see note below)
1 Johnson’s Buddies Bar. Regular price .99, Free after this printable Johnson & Johnsons coupon.

What you don’t see pictured is some of the Gatorade bottles, they are in the back of my van for softball games. Also, I got free pizza hut express breadsticks at Target coupon here.

I also bought some fresh fruit, peanut butter, butter and a few other things that were full price. I spent under $25 on all of it though! Taking this and the $25 spent a few days ago on meat and other staples, we still have $25 left to spend for the week without breaking budget. Yay!
*Some notes:
I have been purchasing coupons on eBay. We do get the Sunday paper, but only one of them. I wish we had access to more coupon inserts, but we don’t. I have not yet gotten the hang of trading coupons on various coupon forums, but that is something I’ll look at in the future.

I do cut every coupon that comes in the Sunday paper now so I’ll have a pretty good supply before too long, but for deals like the above Quaker or Gatorade, I wanted to stockpile. There are no limits on how many coupons a person can use (in most cases), so I turned to eBay. For around $2 I was able to buy coupons in quantities of up to 20 for these products, $2 turned into a $20 savings, and I’ll take that any day! eBay is a great resource for frugal shopping and purchasing coupons!
When I get a store ad, I sit down and compare the ad specials to the coupons I know I have or that are out there. Albertsons has been having some amazing sales going on lately. I took advantage of 2 of them this week. One was the Quaker, buy 10 for $12, with $1 coupons on each item, that makes them each .20!! The other one was the Gatorade/Pasta Roni one, that one was buy 15 for $12 or .80 each. I purchased .50 off coupons from eBay which brought those .80 gatorades down to .30 each which is a nice savings. I’m not buying stuff we won’t use, I’m buying stuff we do use and at a fraction of a price.
I saved $9 at Target. My total out of pocket was only $4.00!!
I saved $106.85 at Albertsons. My total out of pocket (including some reg. priced groceries as well) was $24.68!! The cashier AND the lady behind me were both totally wow’ed and asked me how I did it. This is the first time I’ve saved that much, I was almost afraid the coupon police would jump out and arrest me LOL…. so I didn’t really say much other than I use lots of coupons and they had an excellent ad. :o)

I have one more stop to make this week at Walgreens to get dish soap and possibly some Aveeno products. If you are interested in reading more about saving money or getting items you use every day for FREE, these are my two absolute FAVORITE sites to check out daily: Money Saving Mom and Hot Coupon World

Apr

22

Free Webkinz!!!

Filed Under Freebies, Kidlets, bargains, online fun, webkinz | Leave a Comment

Webkinz Day Extravangza starts on Friday, April 25th! This is part of the celebration of Webkinz Day on April 29th. Select Webkinz retailers have agreed to give away one Webkinz pet to the first 500 customers who make a $10 purchase at their store. Some stores have games and contests going on as well. You can go here to find out if there is a participating retailer nearby. We have several in our area. From what I’ve read the stores can limit the selection of free animals, but probably aren’t going to. You know where we’ll be Friday after school :) My kids have birthday money left to spend still, and can get a couple of Webkinz clothes or a few packs of trading cards and a new pet all for $10!

Click here to search for a participating Webkinz retailer.

Apr

22

Softball Game Canceled

Filed Under ashlyn, sports | Leave a Comment

Awww bummer…. the game was a go until about 30 minutes before Ashlyn was supposed to be at the field. When I got home from picking up Tanner from Track, she was sitting on the couch with a pouty face as David says “the game was canceled”. Oh well, better to watch a softball game in the sunshine than with an umbrella, though Ashlyn would PLAY in the snow if she had to :)

Apr

21

Free 8×10 Print & House Party!

Filed Under Freebies | Leave a Comment

I’ve gotten two cool freebies recently. I’m so happy with them, they deserve their very own post :)

#1: A free Hershey’s Bliss House Party pack. Now I had no idea what I was signing up for when I signed up for this deal, but I am SO happy I did. I posted about this the other day, but look at the goodies I got! You can sign up for a house party here. They Hershey’s one is closed, but they have lots of good ones coming up soon!

#2: A free 8×10 print from Canon. I signed up for this on Thursday of last week and it arrived on Saturday. From what I can tell, this promotion is still going on. I remember having to select my printer from the list, and I do have a Canon printer (two of them actually!), but it doesn’t really matter what you pick from the list, because they print the photo for you from one of their own photo labs and send it to you for FREE! I picked an older picture, because I don’t save my ginormous picture files to my computer anymore. This is one of my favorite pictures anyway but I hadn’t had it printed yet. It’s from the Fall of 2004! You can request your free print here. Now to get a frame for it :)

Apr

20

Strawberry Shortcake

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David bought a bunch of strawberries on sale the other day. I’m really bad about letting strawberries go bad before we use them all, because they go bad so quickly. I made a big thing of strawberry topping and shortcake tonight. It was delish!



Strawberry Shortcake (courtesty allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 egg, beaten
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2) In a large bowl, mix flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and cream of tartar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives. Stir in cream and egg. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 2 minutes. Press into a half-inch thick sheet. Cut into squares. Place on baking sheets. 3) Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden.

Strawberry Topping

Mix 4 cups sliced strawberries and 1/2 c. sugar. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Apr

18

Mailbox Goodies

Filed Under Freebies, mailbox goodies | Leave a Comment

I’ve been signing up for all kinds of things online lately, from surveys that pay cash to free samples to coupons, etc. Anything is better than a mailbox full of bills! And everything I sign up for gets used be someone in our family, so it’s not to go to waste or anything. Here’s what I’ve been happy to find in my mailbox this week:

* Family Circle magazine (freebie)
* Parents magazine (freebie)
* Free Glade Scented Oil Refill coupon for sending a customer satisfaction email to their company. It pays to not only email companies when you are unhappy with a product, but also when you are happy!
* Maybelline Mineral Powder Liquid Foundation Freebie
* 9 bags of Hershey’s Bliss candy (3 different flavors) for volunteering to host a “House Party”. Now I didn’t really know what I was signing up for when I saw the post about this on Crystal’s website, but figured I’d give a try. I am hosting a “party” next weekend with my kids and anyone else that decides to stop in. They sent along 15 really nice white gift bags, they are plain and we’ll decorate the leftovers for future birthday gifts! They also sent a package of pens, magnets, notepads, napkins, and a photo album. This is by far the best freebie I have EVER gotten! Click here to read more about house parties. I just signed up for a barbecue sauce one that is coming out in May. I hope I get picked again! — I have not tried the Hershey’s Bliss candy yet but figured that deserves a post all of it’s own, so I will post about it after my “house party” :)
* Coupons from my friend Paula (thank you!)
* Coupons I bought from eBay to take advantage of some great store specials this weekend.

I think that about sums it up! Fun mailbox week for me!!

Apr

18

Homemade Maple Syrup

Filed Under homemade goodies, my kitchen, recipes | 1 Comment

We had BFD (Breakfast For Dinner) tonight - yum! This is one meal all the kids devour.

We are all out of real syrup… and being on a very tight food budget this week, I couldn’t buy any at the little store in town, so I google’d a few recipes and found one that I thought I’d try from allrecipes.com. It got rave reviews from my kids and even passed David’s taste test with flying colors. The only thing I’d change is maybe adding a bit more maple flavoring next time, I used 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 maple. This is what I came up with (a few tweaks from the original).

Homemade Maple Syrup
Ingredients:
1 cup Water
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup White Sugar
1/2 tsp maple extract (next time I’ll do 1 full teaspoon)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
About 1/4 c. corn syrup to thicken it up (this could easily be omitted I think)
Directions
Bring water to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars until dissolved. Add extracts and allow to boil for 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently. Then, slowly stir in Karo syrup, and let sit for a few minutes to thicken (mine sat the entire time I made the pancakes and it was still nice and warm!)

I’m not sure I will ever buy syrup in the store again. It’s not that authentic $8.00 per bottle maple syrup, but it’s better than Eggo and Aunt Jemima and much cheaper! Now I just need to look for the perfect little pitcher or container to keep it in, for my refrigerator!

Note: I am going to try to start being a better photo-gger… I don’t take very good pictures in the moment of things and I go back and wish I’d taken a closer picture of this or added that. There are so many wonderful blogs out there with great pics that I looove, especially when it comes to cooking/baking. So… I do aspire to be a better photo-gger :) But here it is anyway.

Apr

18

Pancakes From Scratch Mix

Filed Under homemade goodies, my kitchen, recipes | Leave a Comment

We normally make our pancakes from Bisquick when we have it. I noticed the box was pretty low and enough for only one batch so I dug out this recipe I got a couple of years ago and now I can’t even remember the source… I’m sorry! But, it’s a great substitution for boxed/bagged pancake mix and it makes delicious pancakes! My family loves them and they are easy to add chocolate chips or blueberries!

Pancakes From Scratch Recipe

Ingredients For Dry Mix
3 C flour
1/3 C Sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Store in airtight container in dry, cool place.

Directions For Preparing Pancakes
In a bowl, combine 1 egg and 1/4 cup milk. Whisk in 1 cup pancake mix. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle; turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes, flip and cook until golden brown.

Great for add ins like chocolate chips, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

Apr

17

Busy, Busy!

Filed Under Kidlets, kids activities, sports | 1 Comment

Quick update on the kiddos….
Tanner just finished up Knowledge Bowl (his school took 2 of the top 3 places in District) - woohoo! He had fun with this… They bought shirts that say “Beware Of The Nerd Herd”. My boy is proud to be a nerd, as he should be! Tanner was all giddy last night when he saw his “picture” on the View Ridge home page. That little striped kid on the left, with half a head is Tanner. :) LOL. Now it’s on to TRACK, which is the first school sport Tanner has participated in, and I’m excited to see how he does! David is a proud pop…
The 3 youngest girls are all in softball/tball and the season is in full swing. We have 5 practices a week on top of a minimum of 5 games a week. Our second home is the little league field, and it’s not all bad!
Bailey has Kindergarten Round Up next week. I can’t believe she is ready for school. Time flies. She is SO excited. Tomorrow will not be the most pleasant day, she has a doctor’s appointment to get her boosters for K… I dread this… she hasn’t had shots in over 3 years. Preschool graduation is just around the corner, as well as her Spring dance recital… she has had a blast this year with these activities and has really grown up and into a little lady since September.
That’s about it, I’ll leave you with some pictures and will be checking back in often as I’ve joined a community of bloggers and plan to blog about my frugal living habits we’ve had to recently strictly enforce on our lifestyle.
Happy Thursday!

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Apr

3

The Clark Brothers

Filed Under TV Faves, music | Leave a Comment

I had never heard of The Clark Brothers until tonight’s American Idol show… WOW! They were amazing… and I googled them and found some videos on YouTube.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and C-U-T-E… and their last name is pretty cool too ;) Check ‘em out! (Note: Mute my obnoxious music play list first.)

The Clark Brothers - Dead Man Walking

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