Sunday, January 30, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Leftovers....
My friend asked me for some advice on recycling leftovers. She and I both have men that wont eat them, so it takes some creativity. Here is the note that I sent her of some really simple things:
Leftovers Recycled
Oven Fried Chicken
One of the things that I do to make this dish easier is to mix up the coating mixture into a baggie to make clean up a breeze. You can even mix up several baggies full of the flour mixture at once to be a big time saver.
Chicken salad
Chicken Parmesan: chicken covered in spaghetti or pizza sauce with mozzarella or parmesan cheese on top
Chicken Quesadilla
Chicken Sandwich
Casserole that calls for a plain chicken (I haven't actually tried this yet because Jason wont eat casseroles)
Ground Beef
When I'm organized, I buy a 5lb. roll of beef. While 2 lbs of it are cooking in a skillet, I mix 1 lb of it in a bowl to make meatballs. Then I freeze them after I shape them. Then I use the same exact bowl and mix up meatloaf and freeze it in a bag. (After the meatballs are frozen, throw them in a bag). You can stick the baggie in the fridge the day before or that morning to defrost. You can also stick the meatballs frozen in the oven, but watch them closely so they wont burn. They will take about 35 minutes to cook. The 2 lbs of meat that I brown, I add 2 packets of taco seasoning to it and let it simmer, then let it cool and freeze. Ground beef can be refrozen and it refreezes well.
Meatballs and Meatloaf
Both recipes are similar. Both can be served with a brown gravy, ketchup, BBQ sauce or plain. I will usually have one the first week and the other the second week. Leftovers are good in a sandwich, beef stroganoff (if it doesn't have sauce on it), spaghetti (if it only had ketchup on it) or refrozen.
Taco Meat
I usually cook 2 lbs of taco meat at once and freeze it into two containers. Tacos are the one way that Jeffery will willingly eat meat. Taco meat can also be mixed with rice or refried beans if you don't want to consume so much meat at once or are looking for variety. Leftover taco meat is excellent in chili or can be used in a quesadilla. I buy those "taco bell" kits at Wal-Mart. They are $2.25 and come with 6 soft tacos, 6 cruchy tacos, salsa packet, seasoning and Kool-Aid. Buying the taco bell kit is cheaper than purchasing everything separately.
Leftovers Recycled
Oven Fried Chicken
One of the things that I do to make this dish easier is to mix up the coating mixture into a baggie to make clean up a breeze. You can even mix up several baggies full of the flour mixture at once to be a big time saver.
Chicken salad
Chicken Parmesan: chicken covered in spaghetti or pizza sauce with mozzarella or parmesan cheese on top
Chicken Quesadilla
Chicken Sandwich
Casserole that calls for a plain chicken (I haven't actually tried this yet because Jason wont eat casseroles)
Ground Beef
When I'm organized, I buy a 5lb. roll of beef. While 2 lbs of it are cooking in a skillet, I mix 1 lb of it in a bowl to make meatballs. Then I freeze them after I shape them. Then I use the same exact bowl and mix up meatloaf and freeze it in a bag. (After the meatballs are frozen, throw them in a bag). You can stick the baggie in the fridge the day before or that morning to defrost. You can also stick the meatballs frozen in the oven, but watch them closely so they wont burn. They will take about 35 minutes to cook. The 2 lbs of meat that I brown, I add 2 packets of taco seasoning to it and let it simmer, then let it cool and freeze. Ground beef can be refrozen and it refreezes well.
Meatballs and Meatloaf
Both recipes are similar. Both can be served with a brown gravy, ketchup, BBQ sauce or plain. I will usually have one the first week and the other the second week. Leftovers are good in a sandwich, beef stroganoff (if it doesn't have sauce on it), spaghetti (if it only had ketchup on it) or refrozen.
Taco Meat
I usually cook 2 lbs of taco meat at once and freeze it into two containers. Tacos are the one way that Jeffery will willingly eat meat. Taco meat can also be mixed with rice or refried beans if you don't want to consume so much meat at once or are looking for variety. Leftover taco meat is excellent in chili or can be used in a quesadilla. I buy those "taco bell" kits at Wal-Mart. They are $2.25 and come with 6 soft tacos, 6 cruchy tacos, salsa packet, seasoning and Kool-Aid. Buying the taco bell kit is cheaper than purchasing everything separately.
A Simple Invitation:)
This was cut with the cartridge "A Child's Year". One of the things I love about the full-content cartidges are all the "bonus" cuts: all the icons and tags, beyond the origional cut. This cute cupcake was cut at 4.5. The green layer was embossed with the "swiss dots" embossing folder, the cherry was embossed with "divine swir"l and the tag was cut with my sizzix scallop tag (red die) and embossed with "floral screen".
Monday, January 3, 2011
Couponing Tips
When I'm organized, I am a coupon shopper.
Here are the keys to being sucessful:
1) Think of it as a job.
a. Make time to do it.
b. have organization materials (binders, etc.)
2) You have to anticipate what you need. I know there are certain things I will always need to buy and use: deoderant, toothbrushes, femine supplies, toothpaste, paper towels, etc. Stock up when you can get a deal. The key to getting good deals is to be able to anticipate so you can buy it at the right time.
3) Buy only stuff that you will actually use. Getting something that doesn't apply to you or your family isn't a good deal if its just going to be clutter.
4) Read the ads and know store policies: which price match, which have store coupons that can coupon stack, price guarantees, double coupons, etc.
5) Find out it your favorite stores have a rewards program. Sometimes I stop in CVS just to scan my rewards card to get extra coupons. I get killer deals there when I'm organized.
6) Get online. www.pinchingyourpennies.com has tons of shopping lists that help you get started as well as links for coupons. This summer there were several coupons for a new razor, average retail price was around $9 and there were several manf. coupons for $4 off. Well, I found the razor at walgreens for $7, with a deal to get $4 off my next purchase and with my coupon, I made a dollar right then PLUS from the pinchingyourpennies.com, I found a rebate and got a check for $8 in the mail.
Here are the good things on this site:
a. shopping lists that help you match up current coupons with sales at chain stores and tell you how to get good deals, like getting store coupons from your purchase and making a second purchase right away.
b. rebates
c. coupons
7) CVS. Here are some of my CVS ways to get deals
a. They have store coupons- get them online and in the kiosk * use both
b. They have their register rewards programs to get dollars off your next purchase
c. Green Bag program* buy their green bag tag for $1, then bring in a reuable bag when you shop, get your tag scanned and every 4th scan gets you a CVS dollar.
d. Every $20 you spend on pictures gets you a free 8x10. If you pick up your pictures between 3-5 pm., its "happy hour" and you get 10% off pictures. When you order pictures on CVS online, get a minimum of $5 worth of prints or you get a $1.50 fee.
e. Match your coupons with their sales/deals/register reward items. They have deals on old spice body wash from time to time to get $4 in register rewards when you buy one. I get buy 1 get 1 free coupons for those, so I can make $4 off that when they have a limit of 2.
f. When you you use your extra care card, you get 2% back in store credit at the beginning of each quarter. Just today I printed off a certificate for $5.50.
8) Prescriptions: many stores have a deal where you get a gift card when you tranfer prescriptions. I got a $25 CVS one the other day for filling an $11 prescription. My sister buys prescriptions every month and circulates between walgreens, CVS and Target to get a gift card every month.
9) Look for deals like Angel Food Ministries where you are ordering with a mass amount of people privately to get wholesale prices. Google Angle Food Ministries and you will find a location, usually a church to get good deals. I haven't done this yet, but the deals are great.
10) Printing coupons online
a. Dont limit yourself to 1 website
b. you can recycle the backs of paper to save money
c. swich from every day printing to fast/economy printing
d. dont use color ink: which to black only
.
Here are the keys to being sucessful:
1) Think of it as a job.
a. Make time to do it.
b. have organization materials (binders, etc.)
2) You have to anticipate what you need. I know there are certain things I will always need to buy and use: deoderant, toothbrushes, femine supplies, toothpaste, paper towels, etc. Stock up when you can get a deal. The key to getting good deals is to be able to anticipate so you can buy it at the right time.
3) Buy only stuff that you will actually use. Getting something that doesn't apply to you or your family isn't a good deal if its just going to be clutter.
4) Read the ads and know store policies: which price match, which have store coupons that can coupon stack, price guarantees, double coupons, etc.
5) Find out it your favorite stores have a rewards program. Sometimes I stop in CVS just to scan my rewards card to get extra coupons. I get killer deals there when I'm organized.
6) Get online. www.pinchingyourpennies.com has tons of shopping lists that help you get started as well as links for coupons. This summer there were several coupons for a new razor, average retail price was around $9 and there were several manf. coupons for $4 off. Well, I found the razor at walgreens for $7, with a deal to get $4 off my next purchase and with my coupon, I made a dollar right then PLUS from the pinchingyourpennies.com, I found a rebate and got a check for $8 in the mail.
Here are the good things on this site:
a. shopping lists that help you match up current coupons with sales at chain stores and tell you how to get good deals, like getting store coupons from your purchase and making a second purchase right away.
b. rebates
c. coupons
7) CVS. Here are some of my CVS ways to get deals
a. They have store coupons- get them online and in the kiosk * use both
b. They have their register rewards programs to get dollars off your next purchase
c. Green Bag program* buy their green bag tag for $1, then bring in a reuable bag when you shop, get your tag scanned and every 4th scan gets you a CVS dollar.
d. Every $20 you spend on pictures gets you a free 8x10. If you pick up your pictures between 3-5 pm., its "happy hour" and you get 10% off pictures. When you order pictures on CVS online, get a minimum of $5 worth of prints or you get a $1.50 fee.
e. Match your coupons with their sales/deals/register reward items. They have deals on old spice body wash from time to time to get $4 in register rewards when you buy one. I get buy 1 get 1 free coupons for those, so I can make $4 off that when they have a limit of 2.
f. When you you use your extra care card, you get 2% back in store credit at the beginning of each quarter. Just today I printed off a certificate for $5.50.
8) Prescriptions: many stores have a deal where you get a gift card when you tranfer prescriptions. I got a $25 CVS one the other day for filling an $11 prescription. My sister buys prescriptions every month and circulates between walgreens, CVS and Target to get a gift card every month.
9) Look for deals like Angel Food Ministries where you are ordering with a mass amount of people privately to get wholesale prices. Google Angle Food Ministries and you will find a location, usually a church to get good deals. I haven't done this yet, but the deals are great.
10) Printing coupons online
a. Dont limit yourself to 1 website
b. you can recycle the backs of paper to save money
c. swich from every day printing to fast/economy printing
d. dont use color ink: which to black only
.
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