First of all...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Food Holidays - National Food Celebrations

Food Holidays - National Food Celebrations A food for everyday, A food holiday for everyday! It's the little things that make me happy. I'm looking forward to so many! Like April 17th, National Cheeseball Day, that is like a Tastefully Simple Holy Day of Obligation. LOL Oh and April 23rd, National Cherry Cheesecake Day, y-u-m, and let's not forget, May 6th, International NO DIET Day!

Speaking of diets, I received the latest Weight Watchers Magazine in the mail yesterday, lots of stories, not enough recipes, IMO. I guess I am expecting it to be more like the Food Network Magazine which is chockful of recipes, and really WW magazine is supposed to be more inspirational and motivational than a recipe magazine.

Today Anna wanted Cheese and Crackers for lunch, and I gave her crackers and Dubliner Cheddar Cheese which is white. She didn't want to eat it because it wasn't orange, so I told her it was from Ireland (which is true) and that Leprechauns make it (which is highly debatable) and she ate it up, literally and figuratively.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I made a recipe and pretty much substituted everything in it.

With the arrival of Lent, I'm keeping my eyes out for new meatless or seafood recipes. So I found this recipe in the March Food Network Magazine and made it for Ash Wednesday because Tom likes shrimp and I was thinking he would have leftovers to take to work on Friday. I went to the store to buy ingredients for this recipes of which the store didn't seem to stock several so I started substituting and the next thing I knew I'd pretty much substituted everything in the recipe.

GRILLED SHRIMP AND NOODLE SALAD
14 OZ flat rice noodles. I couldn't find any flat rice noodles so I bought an 8oz package of really long thin rice noodles.

1/2 cup fresh lime juice, well patrick had gotten into the little plastic green lime I had and there was only 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice.

1/3 cup of fish sauce, I didn't have any of that, so I used Tastefully Simple Sesame Teriyaki Sauce.

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, I had reg. brown sugar

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped. I used 2 tsp of Garlic Garlic

1-2 teaspoons Asian chili sauce, I didn't have that so I used 2 tsp of a ginger chili sauce I had from Aldi.

1 pound medium-large shrimp, peeled and deveined I had a bag of frozen shrimp I used that and left the tails on.

1 med. bunch of asparagus, trimmed I got this part right

5oz shiitake mushrooms, trimmed, I used sliced baby portabella mushrooms instead.

1 med carrot shredded, I thinly sliced some baby carrots.

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, I had this on hand, but Tom doesn't like cilantro, so I was going to put it on my plate, but I forgot.

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook as the label directs; drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic and chili sauce and 1/3 cup water in a medium bowl. Transfer 1/4 cup of the marinade to another bowl and toss with the shrimp. Toss another 1/4 cup marinade with the asparagus and mushrooms in a third bowl. Let the shrimp and vegetables marinate 10 minutes at room temperature. Toss the noodles with the remaining marinade.

Now at this point is where I realized that this recipe involved grilling. I know, I know, it is clearly stated in the title of the recipe GRILLED SHRIMP and Noodle Salad, but some how I missed that part! So I got out the wok pan and made it a stir fry.

Wubba's Nutty Rice Noodles on FoodistaWubba's Nutty Rice Noodles

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Golden Double Stuffed Oreos are soooooo Good!

It was an eventful day of little events. This morning we received no calls from the school district canceling school! So all the kids went to school! Yippee! Then I shoveled the driveway so I'd be able to back out of the driveway and go to the store.

I like shoveling, it's a good workout, burns lots of calories, you get to enjoy the results, the sun was shining I had my iphone it was all good. Then I had the car running, and I took out the scraper to scrap the windows, my purse and my 2 store returns were already in the car. I got the windows all cleared off and most of the top too so that the snow wouldn't slide down when I was driving. I grabbed the door handle and pulled.

And the car was locked! Running, my keys in the ignition and I was locked out! ARG! I called Tom to see if we had an extra key in the house and we don't. He suggested calling the local Hyundai dealership and I did, and the girl said to call the roadside assistance! I forgot we had roadside assistance from Hyundai. Call them, and they said it would be 3 hours because my area was so busy, will all the snow and all. But less than 45 minutes later and nice young fellow showed up and opened my car and told me that cars do that sometimes. Which was great because I was sure it wasn't me making the car lock...

I was finally off, I returned the stuff Tom bought for me last night to use for the Kindergarten Valentine's Day Ice Cream Social Craft. I got some better crafty stuff and got to use my FREE Golden Stuffed Oreo cookies coupon!!! The lady at WalMart cheerfully accepted it. Okay, well she wasn't cheery, but she took it w/o any problems and I got the $2.98 OREOs free. I noticed that their reg. price on Oreos was $1.00 cheaper than Jewel...

Then I had enough time to go to my new local grocery store Fairplay where I got 1 lb of Sara Lee Honey Turkey for about 1/2 of what it costs at Jewel which was nice. And a 1/2 lb of smoked Gouda YUM!

Tonight I made a recipe from my latest edition of Weight Watchers magazine. Either I added too much rosemary or it should be made w/o Rosemary in my opinion.

In any case, here is the recipe:
Filet Mignons with Creminis and Rosemary
4 1/4 lb Filets Mignons about 1/2 inch trimmed
1/4 tsp koser salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
12 small cremini mushrooms, quartered (i used an 8oz package of mushrooms which was 15 mushrooms
1 med. red onion quartered, when making this again I am going to use shallots vrs the red onion, the red onion was a bit too sour. IMO
1 cup dry white wine or low sodium beef broth. I used a cup of chardonnay that I didn't taste b/4 using or I wouldn't have used it, it was a bit sweet.
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, this IMO over powered the dish,
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat parsley.
and I used Tastefully Simple Everyday Grilling Seasoning on the filets.

Sprinkle steaks with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over med. high heat. Add steaks and cook until an instant-read thermometer insterted into side of each steak registers 135F for med. rare, about 2.5 min per side. Transfer to large plate; cover loosely with foil and keep warm.
2. Add onion to skillet and cook,stirring frequently, until browned, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and remaining 1/8 tsp salt and pepper; increase heat and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms release their liquid and begin soften about 3 minutes. Add wine and 1 tsp rosemary; bring to boil. Cook, scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet, until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are lightly browned about 3 minutes. To serve, stir in parsley and remaining 1 tsp rosemary; pour over steaks.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Deals and the straw that broke the camel's back.

First the deal:

80% off Restaurant.com Certificates
Posted on February 09 at 08:42 PST

Restaurant.com takes 80% off all their dining certificates via code HEART. This means that $10 certificates, which normally sell on Restaurant.com for $4 are now just $0.80 and $25 certificates, normally $10 are just $2. This is a great way to save at your favorite restaurant. Obviously, not all restaurants participate, but there is definitely a good selection to choose from. Just be careful to read the fine print as many restaurants exclude alcoholic beverages, weekends and other things.

Enter code: HEART (80% off)

AND

Okay that is it, I am officially not going to Jewel anymore. As you know a couple weeks ago I complained about how they said I couldn't use my $1.00 off coupon for Orville Redenbacher popcorn and they said I couldn't use it because they had a store deal and I couldn't have a store deal and use a coupon. Well this week I had a couple coupons for items that they also had in store coupons for, and I used both, to see if it would work, and it did. So I should have been able to use the $1 Popcorn coupon, just like I thought!

But that's not why I am going to make sure to head over to Fairplay & Aldi for all my grocery shopping from now on. Here is the straw that broke the camel's back. Oreo Cookies had a special where if you became their friend on Facebook you could be one of 150,000 people to get in the mail a coupon for a free package of Double Stuffed Golden Oreos. Yum. I like the golden ones better than the regular. And yes I was one of the lucky 150,000 people and I rec'd a coupon in the mail last week for free Oreos. Now this paper has a coupon at the bottom and up at the top you can see the Oreo mailing address (return address) and my mail to address and the back of the paper says verified and is printed all over the back, much like a check might be printed on the back to avoid counterfeiting.

I took my coupon and tried to use it to purchase 1 package of Double Stuffed Golden Oreos this afternoon. The price was $3.99 (overpriced if you ask me.) and the coupon said good for free package up to $4.19 so I was in the limit. The cashier said I couldn't use my coupon because it was an Interent coupon.
I said. It's not an internet coupon, I rec'd it in the mail from Oreo.

So she went to the manager on duty and the mgr said, We don't take Internet coupons.

I said this isnt an internet coupon, Oreo mailed it to me, and I used coupons I printed from coupons.com a couple of weeks ago.

She said, we take internet coupons for cents off, but not for free items or anything over $5.00.

I said. I.Didn't.Print.This.Coupon.I.rec'd.it.in.the.mail.from.Oreo.

She said, we won't take it.

I said, if that is your policy maybe you should post it somewhere so people would know about it.

I said to the cashier, I don't want the cookies then take them off my order.

And that is the story of my last trip to Jewel. Fairplay here I come. You would think that because Jewel charges hirer prices for their food than other grocery stores that they would have great flexible coupon programs. No.

Okay I am done complaining. I am off to write a complaint letter to Jewel.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Dealusional: I'm giving away a $50 Safeway giftcard! Enter now!

this is a link to my friend Amy's blog:

Dealusional: I'm giving away a $50 Safeway giftcard! Enter now!

I'm glad it is friday! We have a quiet weekend over here, which is good since I had a cold this week. Tonight will be a nice night to catch up on Burn Notice, The Real Housewives of the OC, Psych, and White Collar. :-D I am also going to be making sometime to work on getting our tax paper and info together so we can get our taxes done before the month is out.

Next Thursday is Anna's Valentine's Ice Cream Social, and I am still w/o a craft. Anyone know an easy craft for 26 kindergarteners to do? Then Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday, Tastefully Simple on Tour!!! Why is going to training exciting? Oh because that is where the spring/summer line is unveiled! I can't wait for Spring!!!