The house guard is fired!!

By guard I mean Simba. I mean really what good is he, lots of love, trying to trip you by saying good morning while wrapping around your feet. Hogging the heat in the living room and letting people use their keys to enter our house.

Greg & I were out & I heard my phone beep that I had missed a call. So I check and Baby Bear AJ called me (YIPPEE YIPPIE JOY JOY). So when I call back he said we left you some things on your cabinet. I asked what and he told me. I asked what would you guys like in return - nothing just post it on your blog (Yes Kelly Bear is a faithful follower).

We get home and sure enough the stuff is here and the cat is covering the heat vent (No he didn't bother getting up). I called AJ real quick and asked if the guard cat had at least moved when they came in. Yes he did get up and was talking to them.

So here it is on my blog and I guess I'll keep the cat but he is no longer the guard cat. I think I need a tiger for that!!!

Blessings

Recipe review

Chop Suey Veggies and Chicken

3 cups cooked cubed chicken
2 (10 oz) cans of cream of chicken soup
2 (14 oz) can chop suey vegetables, Drained but save liquid
1 (8 oz) can of sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 (16 oz) bag of frozen seasoning blend onions and bell peppers
½ tsp each of hot sauce and curry powder
2 cups chow mein noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl combine all ingredients but chow mein noodles. Spoon into greased 13 x 9 pan. Sprinkle chow mein noodles over top and bake uncovered for 30 minutes

Results: great meal with a few twists.

First I only used 1 can of cream of chicken soup. I only had 1 can and honestly it looked so gross I couldn’t do 2 cans. So instead I use 1 can of the liquid from chop suey vegetables. If you chose to follow the recipe either save the liquid in your vegetable broth can or drain down the sink drain.

Second I had some leftover green pepper and onion so I also added them. And the package that I found also had celery so that is what I used. I also sliced up a few baby carrots that I had.

I also did not have curry powder but this meal tasted great without it.

Then cause I stopped reading the directions I did not bake the mix, just cooked it on the stovetop.

I served over rice and use the noodles for crunchy topping.

This came from 1001 Fast Easy Recipes

Printed 2007 and 2008

Gift from Stepmom

She is enabling me!!! Blame Kelly Bear

Kelly Bear called me the other day to let me know that she was mailing me something.

She said I saw something that I had to buy for you. I'm putting it in the mail right now. Well she did and it came today - rubber duck stickers!!! Aren't these the cutest?!

Thank you baby bears, Momma loves them.

Lazy day

Didn't do much today - no way am I venturing out into that wind. We did not lose power last night - of course I was prepared for it. Greg thought I was nuts but we have lost power 4 times since last July. But I did bundle up and take one for the team (you guys) to get a couple pictures of the event last night. I had to stand in front of the mobile home or the wind would have about knocked me down.

This one is from my front steps - under the awning.

This one is from the front of the mobile home under the Pine tree. I was trying to show how the wind was blowing the snow in pretty designs on the driveway.

So after my internet time today I spent the afternoon scrapbooking. I did 4 pages of Christmas 2008. This first one I decided to save the cards - some I cut down just to keep the picture. The bear one is from my Baby bears.

This one is for Living Nativity at church you can see my brother Tom is the blue, Greg is in white/red and the picture of the 3 Wisemen includes both of them with my Dad (in the middle).

And you know all those little scraps of paper - some of which make fun little noises? Yeah (sign) right after I dumped the trash bowl on the floor I had help. Simba reached in and kept taking the wrappings from the glue dots out and chewing them.

Lovely day

We are having problems with our electric so I just wanted to post real quick.

I had a very fruitful day. I had to pay a couple bills (yuck but necessary). So while I had address labels and envelopes out I mailed in some rebates.

Then I added up the great week I had:
I received a $5 Amazon gift certificate from Swag Bucks.
I turned in points from freeride.com for another $10 Amazon gift certificate
Not to mention my freebies from Walgreen's and Rite Aid on Monday.
Received $3 for a Pinecone survey (that is in my savings account - $10 saved for a home improvement project this summer)
Mailed $15.48 in rebates today
Received the following coupons:
2 free packages of Golden Double stuff Oreo's
free bag of Kroger mini carrots
Also received coupons from ConAgra and more Kroger store coupons.
Oh and I sold a can of air freshener and put that dollar towards buying for my next yard sale. (Tentatively scheduled for June 1st)

Finished my day by making 2 loaves of bread and turning the old loaf into bread crumbs and croutons.

Blessings and thank you for reading, Laura

$16 a month meat challenge - Month 2

Honestly I was getting worried what would the "meat" of the month be? Well when we got the Sav-A-Lot ad this week that question was answered. Nothing to original just ground beef. So I arranged a ride over to this new store to take a look around. I've also read that they offer store coupons and accept (at face value only) manufacturer coupons. So I checked the website and did print some coupons that could come in handy.

Now just a bit about this chain. They are very similar to Aldi's, low cost no frill grocey store. Not to mention that Aldi's is Kelly Bear's employer. No frills means grab a box to carry your goodies out of the store. They do not stock the shelve more like open the box and let the folks get the stuff themselves. The produce looks good; I bought bananas 3 lbs for $1 (49 cents a pound at Kroger) & tomatoes 3 for 99 cents. I checked out the frozen foods - nice selection. The meat looks good I found the ground beef I was after in 2 different package selections. The first was a huge tube of meat and then the regular family size packs. I chose the family size packs since it was nicer looking than the huge tube.

I also checked out the baking aisle (to use the coupons I printed) flour was $1.49 for a 5 pound bag used a 50 cent coupon (cheapest is $1.70 at Kroger) and a 48oz bottle of vegetable oil was $1.49 with a $1 coupon.

Very interesting store that I most likely will visit again once it gets warmer and I won't mind waiting for the bus to come back around.

Back to the challenge I got 14.12 pounds of 73% ground beef for a total of $16.66. When I came home and broke it down I packaged 17 packets of meat for the freezer. (I do really need to get a kitchen scale). I haven't made plans for it its just sitting in the freezer.

Thank you for reading and blessings, Laura

Our shopping day

Walgreen;s
1 Blink tears $7.99 used a $2.00 manufacturer coupon = profit of $2 after the register rewards
1 Vitamin lip balm $1.99 FREE after the register rewards
2 Keebler Club crackers 2/$5 used 2 - $1.00 manufacturer coupons after the register rewards 2 for $1.00
3 Glade sprays 99 cents with Walgreen’s coupon. They also sell well at my yard sales.
2 Character Band Aids rain check 2/$2 used Walgreen’s coupon $2 (We got SpongeBob and Princess & the Frog)
1 Flashlight (Lost power last Friday/Saturday night and had to scramble to find the one flashlight we have) $2.00

Paid with $13.00 in register rewards and $5.04 cash. After paying we got the following register rewards: $8.00 for the Blink, $2.00 for the Club crackers, and $2.00 for the lip blam. I will also send in the final of 3 SC Johnson buy 3 items get $5.00 back refunds (the Glade Spray). The lip balm and one box of Band Aids will be put in my soldier/Christmas child/whoever needs it donation box.

Rite Aid
Blink gel tears $7.99 used a $2.00 manufacturer coupon again profit after the rebate. Blink is one of 2 brands of eye drops that I use on my very sensitive eyes.
Colgate toothpaste $2.99 - $1.00 manufacturer coupon = $1.99
Maxwell House coffee $2.50
Aero 3 insoles 3/$15 used the following coupons from the packages $2, another $2 and a $1.50 = 3/$9.50
Cottonelle toilet paper $6.49 (cheaper than the grocery store by 50 cents)
Tube of Cocoa Butter for the man of the house $1.99

I’ll submit on-line for the following rebates: Blink $7.99, Colgate $2.00, Insoles $10. I paid with my Holiday savings certificate $10, a refund check for $7.49, used the last of a gift card 46 cents and $12.16 cash. Since I found 3 other tubes of toothpaste in the basket 2 of these will be added to the donation box.