A Special Day

I woke up this morning to hear the wind blowing and blowing (as it normally does out here). I peeked out the window and saw the snow that was coming with it and was less than thrilled.

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of winter. I think it's beautiful to have snow at Christmas but other than that I can do without it. I love spring and the rain that comes with it. I love summer and the warm temperatures and long days, and I love fall when the leaves change and there is just a little nip in the air. Winter....I can pretty much do without.

This time every year I am ready for winter to be over. I know we were very lucky the first few months and it was really mild. February has been fairly miserable and I'm pretty much done with it. Even my daughter, who loves playing in the snow, has commented about wanting it to be warmer.

Today I was really stuggling to figure out something fun to do with the kids. Since it's a holiday the library is closed (that was my first choice) and I don't have any grocery shopping or errands to do. I had originally thought about taking them out for lunch but all my outing ideas were canceled with the wind and snow.
Starting up the oven and doing some fun baking projects in the kitchen wasn't too exciting because we have some other treats laying around right now, but I still wanted to find something a little unique to do with the kids today...so we had a picnic.

We are very much a sit at the kitchen table and eat kind of family, so this is something fun and different for them. The "blanket" is some fabric I found on clearance at Jo-Ann's a while back. It's a vinyl material and I just sewed a hem around it. Perfect for an indoor/outdoor tablecloth (I made it so it fits on a 6' folding table)...or a picnic blanket.

We had sandwiches (they had butter and jelly and I made myself a BLT), chips, apples, hardboiled eggs and cheese (they like to eat sliced cheese). All finger food and easy clean up. The kids loved it and asked if we could do it again tomorrow. :)

It's the simple things sometimes...you don't have to do anything fancy to make your day special.

Love and indoor picnics,

Stephanie

Easy Peasy Treats!

I love Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. She's so down to earth and I love how easy her recipes are. She has a show on Food Network and I love watching it! On one of the episodes she made these easy, scrumptious, Strawberry Oatmeal Bars. I tried them out the other day and they are family approved. I really wanted to share the recipe because it is soooo easy and good. Plus, there is no online picture so I took one of my own!

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 sticks salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• One 10 to 12-ounce jar strawberry preserves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch rectangular pan.

Mix together the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with the strawberry preserves. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares.

**The other great thing, for variety, you can use any flavor jam you want!**

Love and yummy treats,

Stephanie

What a Heel!

If you are like me, the heel of your bread doesn't get a lot of love. I rarely eat it and, more often than not, it can get end up in the trash (or fed to the birds). Well, not anymore!

Want to know what I do with my bread heels? Make bread crumbs!

I haven't purchased bread crumbs in a very long time after I realized I was wasting money by A) throwing away part of my loaf of bread and B) paying money for bread crumbs!

Here's the process...

Take the heels of your bread and let them sit out for a couple days so they get stale/hard.

Break them up and little and put them in the food processor.

Pulse until your get the consistancy you want. You can make them really rough or very fine.

Put them in an airtight container (I loooove the OXO brand containers! I use them for quite a few things in my kitchen) and store!

It cannot be easier! If you like herb bread crumbs, just grab your dry seasoning of choice and mix it in (Italian bread crumbs are usually a favorite) when it's time to use it.
You can, obviously, do this with regular pieces of bread too but we usually don't have a problem eating a loaf of bread before it goes bad. It's just those heels that hang around and can get wasted at our house.

Love and using it ALL!

Stephanie

Give me a Quarter Back!

I just got back from my weekly King Soppers trip. There isn't much that's mind blowing this week but a few good deals so here's what I stocked up on...

Everything in the picture above cost me $21.70 plus I recieved $6.25 back from the King Soopers Quarter Back deal this week.
If you haven't checked it out, buy any of the participating items and recieve .25 back, on each item, in the form of a catalina. You must purchase at least 4 items to recieve the .25 back (guess they don't want to print out coupons under $1.) The nice thing is, unlike a Mega Event, you don't have to buy in multiples of 4, you just have to buy at least 4 items and you can rack up as many as you want after that. Also unlike a Mega Event, it doesn't come off your total at checkout, it's a coupon for next time. That doesn't bother me since I go to King Soopers every week.

Here are what my Quarter Back catalina's look like...

They don't expire until March 2nd so I have plenty of time to use them.



Hop over to Bargain Blessings to see the rundown on the sales and to find links to some of the coupons needed for some of the deals, and don't forget to read the comments! I found a couple good deals there (i.e. find the hang tags on certain A&W, 7-up, Sunkist products for $1 off the soda when you buy bananas...that makes the soda free!)

All in all I spent $58.18 and saved $47.84 plus I have $6.25 to use towards my next purchase. Not too shabby!

Love and Quarters,

Stephanie

Feeling Self Conscious

I think it's something that many of us battle but I wish I didn't care so much what other people think.

Yesterday, phase one of my tooth ordeal ended. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been dealing with an infected tooth for over 2 weeks now. After many dental visits (including one to an endodontist), and multiple conversations with my husband, we decided to have the tooth pulled. The only other option was a repeat root canal (which would have been tough because this tooth had a crown on it), or gum surgery. Either of those options did not seem ideal because they were afraid the tooth actually had a crack in it, which they couldn't see because of the crown. Plus, with being pregnant I would have been more limited to what medications they could use and sedation was not an option.

Now that you know more than you cared to know, the end of the story is that my tooth was pulled yesterday. When you look at me, it is the tooth just to the right of my 2 front teeth. Besides being one of my two front teeth, it's one of the most obvious teeth you'd notice if it was missing.

Now I'm hiding away.

I did take my kids to school this morning (and will be picking them up in a few hours) but other than that I have no plans to go anywhere until my flipper comes in.

If you've never heard of a dental flipper, you can check out some information here. Basically it's a small retainer that has a fake tooth attached to it. It can be taken in and out, like a regular orthodontic retainer, so I'll take it out at night but keep it in to eat and do my day to day activities. They are usually used as a temporary fix until the final dental work can be finished but some people wear them for a long time because they do look like your other teeth and they are more cost effective.

Eventually, after the baby comes, I'll be looking into getting a dental implant. I have one already so I know the process and I've had a flipper before, so that's nothing new either.

The whole point of the post is that I wish I didn't care so much about my vanity and what other people think. Unless my flipper appears at the dentist office today (which they don't expect) I will end up missing a MOPS meeting tomorrow morning. I just can't imagine going there with a missing tooth. Even though I know it's temporary and it doesn't change who I am as a person, I'm still too self-conscious. Do I think people will judge me? Think less of me? Probably...and that's sad. I guess that's the world we live in today. You can't deny that appearances are very important. It's all about that first impression, right? I'm sure that a lot of these ladies would not even think twice about my missing tooth, especially if I don't really talk about it. If I don't give an open mouthed smile you really can't even tell. And, hopefully, later that day no one would even know the difference because my replacement will be in...but I will still be staying home. Because of me...my own insecurities, my own vanity...

It's definatly not an easy fix, but something I am trying to work on within myself.

Love and wishing to be stronger,

Stephanie

Why Buy More Than One Newspaper?

This week, the Sunday paper contained 4 inserts. What a treat! The best part is that it contains a fair amount of really good coupons. Here's what you can go to the store today and pick up with a couple of these coupons.

Lady Speed Stick deoderant is on sale at King Soopers for .88 each. Use the BOGO free coupon from this week's paper and get them for .44 each!

Ragu Pasta sauce is a part of the Mega Event, also at King Soopers. Use the .50 off of one (which doubles to $1) and get pasta sauce for only .19 a jar!!

Take 2 of the $1 off Kettle chips coupon to Walgreens...pair it with the $1/2 coupon in their February coupon book (which is valid starting today) to go along with their 2/$4 sale and get 2 bags for .50 each!!


Hold on to the .50 off of Colgate coupon and get FREE toothpaste when a sale pops up (there was a $1 sale at Safeway but I'm not sure if it's still running.) $1 toothpaste sales come along frequently.

Also, check out the $1 off of 2 Mars Valentine's candy coupon. There are no size restrictions so you don't have to buy a big bag. Watch in the next week or so for those small Valentine's treats at the grocery or drug stores and get those for super cheap, or free.

That's just a sample of a few of the really great coupons that came out this week and there are a bunch more (and a few duds but that happens).  I did go to the store and pick up a few extra newspapers. When there is a week like this, it's the perfect time to spend that extra $1.50 (or $1 if you buy your paper at the Dollar Tree) and stock up so you can save a bundle!

**NOTE: When buying a newspaper, make sure to flip through to make sure it contains all the inserts it's should. I bought three at the store today and two of the newspapers were missing one of the four inserts. Thank goodness I checked before I left the store or I would have been pretty upset.

Now that the kids are asleep, I have a stack of coupons waiting to be clipped so it's a great time to turn on a mindless show on TV and clip away. :)


Love and one big stack of coupons,

Stephanie

Safeway Steals!

I was able to make a last minute trip to Safeway today to get in on some of the deals from their ad ending today. I was hoping to get there last week but I've been dealing with an infected tooth (soooooo not fun) so I'm just trying to chug along as best I can. Nothing helps make me feel better like saving a bundle of money. :)

Here's what I snagged....

How much would you imagine to pay for all of this?

$94.22?? (eek!!)

That's what it would cost at regular price.

How about $64.18? (blech!!)

That's what it would have been with just using my Safeway card.

My grand total, using my Safeway card, Safeway coupons from the weekly sale ad and my manufacterer coupons was...

$29.29! A savings of 69%

--- FREE gum, .46 boxes of Kleenex, .50 boxes of fruit snacks, .77 boxes of cereal, .79 cans of soup and .99 jars of pasta sauce. The Listerine was $2.99 after sale and coupons and the coffee k-cups were $3.74 after markdown and coupon.

Seriously ya'll! You can do this!!! Under $30 for 37 items! I know the cereal choices aren't the healthiest but a small bowl of cereal helps cure a sweet tooth when needed. :) We are now stocked up on good pasta sauce and soups (perfect since I can't bite into a sandwich right now) and since the kids have one package of fruit snacks about every day I am set for a little while (which I needed since we were out and I paid $2 for a store brand box just a few days ago).

I love stocking up and paying so little while doing it. I only wish that I would have gotten to the store earlier this week so I could have shared this with you sooner. If you can sneak out yet tonight...do it!

Just a note for upcoming weeks: You CAN pair the in-ad coupons with manufacturer coupons. So make sure to scan those ads and see what you can match up. Just note the limits on the coupons or the quantities needed to get the lower sale price.

Love and Stocking Up!!

Stephanie