this and that

So on the Tastefully Simple front I have officially earned my place for a free all-inclusive trip to Cancun in April 2010, which will be perfect as by the time April rolls around I am at my tired of cold weather wits end. Now once I add 1 more person to my team then I'll also have Tom's spot reserved which is even more perfect as I am at my wits end having Tom point out to me that I get to go on all kinds of travels for free or almost free because of my Tastefully Simple business. So yippee!

On the home front, the children made a mess and this is what Bryce told his brother and sister:
"you should both be ashamed of yourselves, you think it's a garbage can in here."

tell em bryce!

But the really funny thing today is from Patrick. Earlier today he said that he was going to make a spongebob shrine. I didn't take him seriously, but then I came home tonight to this in his room.

Vacation Pics!!

oh light a candle and say some prayers to your favorite diety (tongue in cheek)

Summer Vacation is here! Ack! wish me luck! (and a busy Tastefully Simple party schedule so I can spend some time with adults this summer!)

Yesterday was the last day of school. To celebrate me and the kiddos walked over to Kokos for lunch. This was a big deal for them because A. they think walking is fun. :-) and B. the only time we go to Kokos is when my parents visit--so it's only for special occasions. Lunch went very well, Anna only climbed under the table twice...and Patrick only talked one of the waitresses ears off.



When we arrrived back home we received in the mail not one but two FREEBIES! First we have a coupon, which I was nice enough to give to Patrick, for a free chocolate bar from Mars (dove, milky way, snickers, 3 musketeers, m&m or twix) They are giving away free chocolate coupons every FRIDAY at:

http://realchocolate.com

And then just in time for Anna's upcoming birthday BBQ a coupon good for one free package of any Oscar Mayer Franks! I think you can go get your free coupon at:

http://oscarmayer.com

The kids will enjoy theirs w/ketchup--ugh! But mine will definitely be topped with Tastefully Simple Cherry Honey Mustard Sauce. Yum! I am going to have to order a bunch of it w/my 36% off because, it's only back for June and July!

http://tastefullysimple.com

Jogging with Anna

yesterday before I ran, Anna begged to come with, so I took her around the block with me one time and then she was very upset that I was going back out to run. Why couldn't she come with, ah well Anna
1. I run to get some quiet time away from you kids (that was just in my head, I didn't actually tell her that one)
2. I'm going to run 6 miles, your not ready for that.

So she says what do I have to do to go the whole way with you. And I agreed to take her around the block twice today.

Anna is quite disappointed that I will not let her run in her flip flops. She feels they are more than adequate for running. I tell her, no gym shoes no running. Then she looks for a compromise by putting on silver flats given to her by the Mighty Maggie--all clothes and shoes from Maggie are the best! ATA (According to Anna). I say fine.

We head out for our jog, Anna is next to me running along and she says:

Mama, I look so cute jogging with these shoes on, I like to look down at them!


She is such the fashionista!

For the love of Pete

Oh for the love of Pete, Patti blogovich (sp?) is going to do that reality show since her narcassistic criminal husband can't leave the country. Those poor kids of theirs!

From the Kids...

They keep calling the concession stand at Bryce's baseball games:
The confession stand.
Catholic Church take note, I bet if you served hot pretzels with cheese and Icee drinks more people would go to confession...

I am just devastated (tongue in cheek)

So I have been following my money saving guru, Rachel of mashupmom.com. And so I have been taking advantage of great deals at Jewel. Since Jewel is more pricey than other options in my area such as Aldi, Fairplay, and Tony's, I don't get to do all my shopping there I have to pick and choose.

And now I will definitely be shopping my closest and favorite grocery store far less often. Why you ask? In the past Jewel has had 'catalina' deals based on the shelf not sale price. So for example this is the deal I was trying to get this week.

Purchase $25.00 in select Kraft products and receive $8 off your Easter Ham. So I purchased over $25 shelf priced participating Kraft products that were $18.18 after the preferred card discounts.

When I got to the check out, the $8 wasn't taken off. I said hold on! wheres my $8 off (not in those words but you get it) so the cashier got the manager who told me, the discount was a coupon for your next purchase. I said:
Oh No. I called and they said it wasn't a catalina deal (that is the machine that dispenses coupons for next purchases based on your current purchases). I was told it was spend $25 on the participating products and buy your ham at the same time and get $8.00 off a ham.

the manager suspended the sale and went over to her desk. Then came back a while later. and said my Kraft Purchases added up to $18.18. I said hold the phone, the total of purchased items goes off the shelf price not the sale price. And then she said.

"that was a glitch in the system and there should have never been catalinas given out off the shelf price, it was always supposed to be the sale price and now that is fixed."

Grrrrr. So now I would like to know if this is true for all locations or what. In any case I will be much less likely to go out of my way to get the best deal I can at Jewel. It's easier to skip all that and go elsewhere--

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Unlike many people in the Chicagoland area, I do not like Corned Beef and Cabbage. Tom does and he made his own last night. I do however, greatly enjoy potatoes...so I am going to make this actually authentic Irish dish. I am going to really scale back on the butter the recipe calls for because 2 sticks is quite a lot!!! I'm using turkey bacon as well as that will cut out 45 minutes of cooking time for the ham. and for

From The Food Network:
Colcannon
Recipe courtesy Christabel Rossiter

Prep Time:
15 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
1 hr 45 min

Level:
Intermediate

Serves:
6 servings

Ingredients
3 pounds potatoes, scrubbed (I'm using red)
2 sticks butter (Im using lots less)
1 1/4 cups hot milk (I'm going w/skimmed milk)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 (1-pound) piece ham or bacon, cooked the day before (I'm using Turkey Bacon)
4 scallions, finely chopped
Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish (I'm using Tastefully Simple spinach & herb for the garnish, just a little sprinkling of the green!)
Directions
Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30
minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop with a knife before mashing.. Mash thoroughly to remove all the
lumps. Add 1 stick of butter in pieces. Gradually add hot milk, stirring all the time. Season with a few
grinds of black pepper.

Boil the cabbage in unsalted water until it turns a darker color. Add 2 tablespoons butter to tenderize it.
Cover with lid for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly before returning it to the pan. Chop into small pieces.

Put the ham in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until
tender. Drain. Remove any fat and chop into small pieces.

Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes, stirring them in gently.
Serve in individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top by swirling a wooden spoon. Put 1 tablespoon
of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.

Friday the 13th

At church they had Operation Rice Bowl calendars they were giving out ORB is a project run by Catholic Relief Services where people donate money and it is used to provide food and support food services in areas where people are hungry.

What I like about this calendar is that it focuses on a different country each week and there is a recipe representing the country you can make each week and it's either meatless or made w/fish as people in poorer countries don't eat meat very often.

The website is

Last week the focus was on the Philippines and the recipe was Hinurnong Isda. I was all set to make it,as directed I just needed to get ginger and scallions, but then the day got a bit away from me and before I had time to go to the store I had to go volunteer at the Spaghetti dinner. So I made it when I got home because:
1. tom was going to get fast food since he was unable to find anything to eat in our house. You'd think the pantry and fridge and freezer were empty--so I wanted to stop him from going to get Arbys at 8pm.
2. the tilapia was already defrosted. So I made the recipe but had to makes some changes so it wasn't really what it was supposed to be. And I served it w/mashed potatoes.


Hinurnong Isda

1 lb white fish--I used tilapia (sp?)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1 large tomato, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 scallions, chopped--didn't have any so I skipped
2 cloves garlic, minced I used 2 tsp of garlic garlic
1 tsp ginger--I didnt have any so I skipped this
1 tsp pepper--I used the new Tastefully Simple Green Tea and Peppercorn seasoning
2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375. Add lemon juice to fish, sprinkle with salt and let stand about 20 min. Combine tomato, yellow onion, scallions, garlic, ginger and pepper in pan and saute for 5 min. Set aside. Brush fish with melted butter, place in a baking pan and bake for 10 min. Add sauteed vegetables and bake for 5 more minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Serve w/hot rice.

Recipe from Food network magazine

I saved up my coke reward points and got a free subscription to the new Food Network Magazine--my first copy arrived on Friday and yesterday I noticed that I had all the ingredients on hand to make one of the recipes, so I gave it a go and it was very good. I lightened up the recipe as much as possible as the original recipe was def. not very healthy eating friendly. If you want to see the recipe from the website visit:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/croque-monsieur-mac-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

But here is what I did

Croque Monsieur Mac and Cheese
1/2 pound whole wheat rotini
2 cups skim milk
1 cup coarsely grated gruyere cheese
1 1/2 cups finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup egg substitute
3 slices 40 calorie Healthy Life w/flaxseed bread
1 med onoin diced
1 tsp Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic
3 tbsp all-purpose flouer
Pinch of Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Mix
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher Salt
Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
6 oz diced Canadian Bacon

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Boil water and make the rotini cooking until it is al dente about 8 min. Drain pasta and put in a bowl then pour 1/4 cup of milk over it.

2. While the pasta is cooking combine both cheese in a bowl. In another bowl beat 3/4 cup of milk and the eggs, then fold in the bread and 1/2 of the cheese mix.

3. Spray cooking spray in a saucepan, heat on high and add the onion and cook until just brown. Sprinkling in the flour, Fiesta Party Dip, nutmeg, 1 tsp Koser Salt and cook, stirring for about 2 minutes. Slowly add 3/4 cup water and the remaining 1 cup of milk, and the Garlic Garlic then bring to a boil , stirring until thickened (which to me took a while and I wasn't sure how thickened it should be ?) When it seems thickened remove it from the heat and whisk it a bit to cool slightly then whisk in the remaining cheese, add all the pasta and toss.

4. Spray Pam in a shallow casserole dish. Add 1/2 of the pasta, top w/1/2 of the ham, and cover w/the other 1/2 of the pasta then top w/the other 1/2 of the ham, then cover with the bread mixture. Bake until golden and bubbly, about 20 min. Let rest for 5 min b/4 serving. I wanted a little more flavor so before serving I sprinkled a bit of Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt on my portion

You can also skip the ham for a meatless dish.