Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday Morning Free Funnies
This morning I am sending you to a link that was forwarded to me named "21 Vintage Easter Cards That Will Totally Creep You O." Nuff said.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Frugally Fit: Mr. Helio
Happy Good Friday! Today's video is not for the faint of heart. It is not professionally made, but if you can handle wobbly cameras, it is a great video. The instructor is Mr. Helio. He doesn't speak English in the video, but he is so positive it makes exercising fun! This is a Zumba style video. I used to salsa in college, so this video was a blast. I was also appreciative of the relative conservative clothing choices. It seems like if you look up Latin style workouts it automatically equals revealing clothes.
Even if you have no dance experience at all, get off your butt today and have your own zumba party of one!
What videos or other fitness ideas did you find this week? I'd love to hear from you. Post your answers in the comments.
Friday Favorite Finds: Living it Up!
I am linking up with Finding Joy in My Kitchen for Friday Favorite Finds. This is Good Friday and although we should be mournful, I can only think of the joy of Easter! This will be the living it up version of Friday Favorite Finds.
First, to celebrate (in the perfect world) prime rib from Food and Wine!
My brother is actually an amazing chef and he made this at home for someone's birthday. According to him it is the easiest thing you can make as long as you get good meat. I don't know about that, but I do remember that it was melt in your mouth delicious!
As a side dish to your mouth watering meat you definitely have to have tasty potatoes! These potatoes (from All Recipes) were made in the crock pot. What a great way to free up the oven for the meat!
Now I know this is a little backwards, but that is how I think (mmmm.... meat and potatoes.... oh right.. we should probably have healthy sides with that), we need salad. A nice salad with some strawberries would be in order. My husband's aunt makes salads similar to this and they are delectable! Here is a link to a Strawberry- Cucumber- Spinach salad from Cafe Johnson.
To add even a bit more green and to help remind us spring is almost here (I saw a tree bud on my way out from school) maybe we could add in a bit of roasted asparagus. This one comes from Simply Recipes.
I always like a bit of homemade applesauce as well. It can't be from the store for this meal. It must be homemade. This one comes from Jungle Frog Cooking.
Now I think that the apple sauce is pretty much like dessert. However, it is hard for me to finish a meal without chocolate. I've got a major addiction, but I'm okay with it. At this point I would be bursting at the seams so a nice mini snickers cheesecake would be perfect. I found this one from Indulgy.
What a finale to a perfect Good Friday Finds imaginary meal!
First, to celebrate (in the perfect world) prime rib from Food and Wine!
My brother is actually an amazing chef and he made this at home for someone's birthday. According to him it is the easiest thing you can make as long as you get good meat. I don't know about that, but I do remember that it was melt in your mouth delicious!
As a side dish to your mouth watering meat you definitely have to have tasty potatoes! These potatoes (from All Recipes) were made in the crock pot. What a great way to free up the oven for the meat!
Now I know this is a little backwards, but that is how I think (mmmm.... meat and potatoes.... oh right.. we should probably have healthy sides with that), we need salad. A nice salad with some strawberries would be in order. My husband's aunt makes salads similar to this and they are delectable! Here is a link to a Strawberry- Cucumber- Spinach salad from Cafe Johnson.
To add even a bit more green and to help remind us spring is almost here (I saw a tree bud on my way out from school) maybe we could add in a bit of roasted asparagus. This one comes from Simply Recipes.
I always like a bit of homemade applesauce as well. It can't be from the store for this meal. It must be homemade. This one comes from Jungle Frog Cooking.
Now I think that the apple sauce is pretty much like dessert. However, it is hard for me to finish a meal without chocolate. I've got a major addiction, but I'm okay with it. At this point I would be bursting at the seams so a nice mini snickers cheesecake would be perfect. I found this one from Indulgy.
What a finale to a perfect Good Friday Finds imaginary meal!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Why My Students Will Be Reviewing Basic Multiplication Tomorrow
Tonight as we were leaving I remembered to pick up the mail. While my husband was driving I scanned through it all junk, junk, more junk. Then, I saw the a flyer for a furniture/electronics rental store. This, of course, was junk, but I was intrigued. We are currently working on an exponential growth unit and this might lead to some interesting discussions.
Here is a beautiful example of what I found in the flyer, an LG 60" Plasma TV:
It was on sale for $129.99 a month for 24 easy payments! What a steal! Gasp, laugh, gasp, laugh, okay I'm on the floor dying laughing now.
Tomorrow I will have my students do basic multiplication. How much does this TV really cost? Drum roll please........... $3119.76! Now I'm not into TV's, however I happen to know some about their pricing because I'm good friends with someone that loves them. I know the type of TV's that are over $3000, and this my dear friends, would be to those TV's, like a record player to an iPod.
I will have the students use their tablets/phones to search for similar items just in case they are not as knowledgeable about them. They will find that a reconditioned one of these is $575 or a new model is a little over $800. They will be surprised (that is my favorite part).
Basic math. If only people would use it.
I will then have them do a bit of basic division to figure out how many months the owner could have "paid themselves" to save for one of those TV's versus the "I must have it now" mentality. I might even put up a video like this to drive home how ridiculous the "I must have it now" thing is, although I don't think I could listen to it three periods in a row.
"But godliness with contentment is great gain" is what I'll want to say. This is public school though, so it will be disguised a bit.
In case the state standard police are out I might have the students figure out the APR for this TV loan, since that is actually our state standard (basic multiplication is somewhere back in elementary, so long ago that people forget to use on real life stuff like this). Somehow I think doing basic multiplication though will hit home more than APR.
Gosh I love my job:).
Here is a beautiful example of what I found in the flyer, an LG 60" Plasma TV:
Tomorrow I will have my students do basic multiplication. How much does this TV really cost? Drum roll please........... $3119.76! Now I'm not into TV's, however I happen to know some about their pricing because I'm good friends with someone that loves them. I know the type of TV's that are over $3000, and this my dear friends, would be to those TV's, like a record player to an iPod.
I will have the students use their tablets/phones to search for similar items just in case they are not as knowledgeable about them. They will find that a reconditioned one of these is $575 or a new model is a little over $800. They will be surprised (that is my favorite part).
Basic math. If only people would use it.
I will then have them do a bit of basic division to figure out how many months the owner could have "paid themselves" to save for one of those TV's versus the "I must have it now" mentality. I might even put up a video like this to drive home how ridiculous the "I must have it now" thing is, although I don't think I could listen to it three periods in a row.
"But godliness with contentment is great gain" is what I'll want to say. This is public school though, so it will be disguised a bit.
In case the state standard police are out I might have the students figure out the APR for this TV loan, since that is actually our state standard (basic multiplication is somewhere back in elementary, so long ago that people forget to use on real life stuff like this). Somehow I think doing basic multiplication though will hit home more than APR.
Gosh I love my job:).
How to Paint Your Ceiling Fan
My husband has saved us so much money by saving things from the dumpster at his work. The homeowners bought new fans and were going to throw three perfectly good fans away because they were white. Their loss was our gain. I'm going to show you how I have turned one of these white fans into a "Brazilian Cherry Wood Brushed Nickel" Beauty!
The fan originally started out looking something like this (I didn't actually take a picture of the fan that I have done, but it pretty much looked like this one):
It was in perfect condition, but it was white and didn't have a light. I wanted a fan for our bedroom that would like dark wood with brushed nickel metal to match our bedroom set. We set it off to the side for a while (we had bigger fish to fry, and in the late fall a fan is not as much a necessity).
One night at Lowe's we found this light kit on clearance for $10! It was originally about $25. You can find it online here. It even came with the CFL bulbs! What a steal!
We painted the lights separate from the main fan part, just because they were already apart. We took off the glass light covers and then used painter's tape to cover the insides of the lights (where the light bulbs go). We used Krylon Stainless Steel spray paint that we bought with an Ace gift card (from Discover card cash back bonus) over the black. It looked fantastic and was pretty much free!
Next we started on the engine part. We also unscrewed the fan blades and laid those to the side.
Note: we did not tape off anything inside the fan where the engine was. I read that some people online did that, but for this fan that would have been impossible to do, so we just left the black foamy stuff there. It would have taken an eternity to do as well. We have had the fan up for months and it still works great, so save yourself some work!
We kind of tested the stainless steel paint out and it looked different over the white than over the black. Luckily I had some black spray paint that we had bought for $0.50 at Menards on clearance. We used that to paint the engine part black.
After the black paint dried we painted the Stainless Steel over top. Now it looked just as great as the light kit did!
Another thing to note, the stainless steel actually sprays out with some flecks of stuff so it gets clogged easily. Make sure to keep the tip clean or else it sprays weird.
Finally I worked on the fan blades. I scuffed up the blades a bit with sandpaper (maybe 15-30 seconds a blade) and then wiped then down. I used a little cheapy foam brush (from Ace with the gift card) and Minwax Brazilian Rosewood Gel stain (had on hand from another project) to create the look of dark cherry wood.
If you have not worked with gel stains before they seem a bit weird, but can give amazing finishes. They are super thick and look like chocolate pudding. Make sure to stir it up well. You can kind of apply them like paint if it is on something that is already finished. The only draw back (because they are super de duper amazing) is that they can take hours or days to dry, depending on how moist the air is. If you have an area where they can dry in peace you're set.
All I did was use the foam brush to put on two coats. I left it streaky and it looks just like wood. I would have never believed it, but I read about it on Pinterest. It was soooo easy! It only took me a few minutes to do. You could get away with the tiniest can that they have (I think a 1/2 pint) to do a fan.
After the blades were dry my husband put it all back together and put it up in our bedroom. We have been enjoying this beauty ever since!
Overall this fan cost us only about $11 (because of our gift cards)! Most of the fans we had been looking at were close to $150! Woo hoo! Good luck painting and let me know if you have any questions.
The fan originally started out looking something like this (I didn't actually take a picture of the fan that I have done, but it pretty much looked like this one):
It was in perfect condition, but it was white and didn't have a light. I wanted a fan for our bedroom that would like dark wood with brushed nickel metal to match our bedroom set. We set it off to the side for a while (we had bigger fish to fry, and in the late fall a fan is not as much a necessity).
One night at Lowe's we found this light kit on clearance for $10! It was originally about $25. You can find it online here. It even came with the CFL bulbs! What a steal!
Next we started on the engine part. We also unscrewed the fan blades and laid those to the side.
Note: we did not tape off anything inside the fan where the engine was. I read that some people online did that, but for this fan that would have been impossible to do, so we just left the black foamy stuff there. It would have taken an eternity to do as well. We have had the fan up for months and it still works great, so save yourself some work!
We kind of tested the stainless steel paint out and it looked different over the white than over the black. Luckily I had some black spray paint that we had bought for $0.50 at Menards on clearance. We used that to paint the engine part black.
After the black paint dried we painted the Stainless Steel over top. Now it looked just as great as the light kit did!
Another thing to note, the stainless steel actually sprays out with some flecks of stuff so it gets clogged easily. Make sure to keep the tip clean or else it sprays weird.
Finally I worked on the fan blades. I scuffed up the blades a bit with sandpaper (maybe 15-30 seconds a blade) and then wiped then down. I used a little cheapy foam brush (from Ace with the gift card) and Minwax Brazilian Rosewood Gel stain (had on hand from another project) to create the look of dark cherry wood.
All I did was use the foam brush to put on two coats. I left it streaky and it looks just like wood. I would have never believed it, but I read about it on Pinterest. It was soooo easy! It only took me a few minutes to do. You could get away with the tiniest can that they have (I think a 1/2 pint) to do a fan.
After the blades were dry my husband put it all back together and put it up in our bedroom. We have been enjoying this beauty ever since!
Overall this fan cost us only about $11 (because of our gift cards)! Most of the fans we had been looking at were close to $150! Woo hoo! Good luck painting and let me know if you have any questions.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Frugal Newlyweds Financial Guide Part 4: Financial Checkups
If you are new to this series, welcome! This series provides engaged and newlywed couples a financial guide to the road bumps that happen when you get married. Here's a list of what you have missed.
Part 1: Gave information on learning about your own and your spouse's financial family tree.
Part 2: Use this spreadsheet or create your own to help you sort through each other's financial accounts. Determine which accounts to save, which to close, look at changing and adding names and beneficiaries. This is essentially the nuts and bolts of combining your finances.
Part 3: Plan your future. Look over your finances and determine your goals. I gave a list of goals from most important to least important that you can use.
Today we finish with Part 4: Financial Check ups. Just like it is important to regularly go see your dentist even if you brush your teeth every day, it is just as important to have regular financial check ups no matter how well you think you control your spending. My husband and I do brief checks on our finances each week and a slightly more in depth look each month and then normally around New Years we reflect over the year and determine our new goals. All in all it doesn't take that much time and by doing this we have been able to save about 50% of our income, while giving and living a great life. Remember, I'm just a teacher and he works construction, so it can be done.
Weekly Financial Check Up Basics:
Open up your Mint.com account. It should have all of your accounts linked to it. If it doesn't make sure to add them. If you don't like Mint then you should have some other program like Quicken or use a spreadsheet system. I have found that Mint has worked great for me for over six years, so I would recommend it to anyone.
Scan through all of your purchases for the week. Make sure they have been categorized correctly. Look at the trends section to see how your overall spending is looking for the month. If you spent a lot this week, you might want to tone it back some. Determine what areas you might cut back on.
That is all you really need to do each week. If you do this step, it will really simplify to the other check ups. I have to admit that sometimes we have gotten really busy and didn't check the categories in mint for a while. We ended up with a bunch of uncategorized transactions and we couldn't remember what we had bought (Wal-Mart can mean so many different categories for us). Make sure to stay on top of this!
Monthly Financial Check Up Basics:
This needs to completed with your spouse. As with any conversation that is important, make sure you have both eaten and are relatively well rested. It is amazing how much better it goes if you do those two things.
Open up Mint.com and get our your goal sheet. If you had debt, look at whether you are reaching your monthly goals toward paying it off. Celebrate if you actually were able to pay off an account entirely. I have vivid memories of when my parents paid off their mortgage. It was a big thing in our house and made a huge impression on me of what a positive feeling you get when you pay something off.
Check out your emergency fund. Did you need to use it this month? If so, you might want to plan on putting future savings towards building it back up.
If you don't have any debt and your emergency fund is in good shape, then look at how you are progressing towards your goals (future home, car, retirement). In Mint you can create goals and it shows you graphs of how you are doing. We currently have our early retirement goal in mint and it is fun to see how we are doing on the thermometer graph. As a math person, I can't get enough of graphs.
Finally, reflect on your purchases and your happiness. Were there any purchases that you made that were unnecessary and didn't really bring you much happiness? Companies spend billions of dollars to convince you that you are unhappy and that you will only be happy when you have their product. Be smart. Analyze. Are you really happier? The more often you do this happiness inventory to easier it will be for you to make smart purchases. Be careful before dissing a purchase that your significant other made before they analyze the happiness level it gave them. Never forget that your marriage should be priceless, so before getting into a discussion over something they bought determine if it is really worth it.
Yearly Financial Check Up Basics:
To be honest your yearly financial check up should just be a rerun of Part 3: Financial Goals. It is so important to make goals together, because either you are working together toward the same goal or else you are slowly splitting up. Make sure you can come up with things to work together towards. It will bring you so much closer and make your marriage much more fulfilling.
What do you do if you don't have the same goals? First, you should really pray about it if you have any faith at all. I am a very strong willed person so I will be convinced of one thing and my husband might quietly be pushing for something different. However, when I slow down, calm my brain and really think about it, many times I am surprised that I actually agree with him. If it is something that is extremely far away in the future, put of the debate for a while. Things might happen and your argument wouldn't even be needed. A good example of this is a couple to argued about where she would have a baby when they would have kids (he wanted hospital and she wanted home or a birth center), but it turned out they weren't able to have kids at all and ended up adopting.
Make sure to reflect on how last year's goals went. Maybe you had a certain savings goal and you didn't reach it. This is okay as long as you reflect on what happened that year to prevent it (maybe a health issue, etc.). If you are a compulsive shopper, find out what your trigger is for that behavior. Once you have identified the trigger (maybe driving by a certain store), avoid that trigger like the plague. What happens is when you go by that trigger your body pretty much goes into zombie habit mode and wants to finish the script that you have been doing every time that you go by that trigger. A good example of this would be a habit of buying coffee every morning (I drive McD's and it is always packed, so someone must have this habit). You need to start making the coffee yourself and maybe plan a different way to drive that avoids going right by your typical coffee place.
If you reached your goals you really need to celebrate. My husband and I saved for four years before we bought a house. At the beginning saving was really new and exciting as we kept track of it in mint and I created a graph in excel. In the middle though it started to lose that sparkle and we really had to create incentives to make it fun. I promise it will be worth it in the end.
Summary:
If you follow all four parts of the newlywed financial guide you should really have a rock solid financial marriage. However a word of caution: Make sure money is not the only focus in your marriage. Money is just a tool. You can just use it for yourself or I believe you can make the better choice which is sharing it. Find charities that you believe and donate not only your money, but your time as well. You will get much more out of giving than just hoarding. Good luck and let me know if you have any other ideas or tools that you would want added to improve this series!
Monday, March 25, 2013
Menu Plan Monday: Farewell March!
I'm back because it is Menu Plan Monday. I'm linking up with Organizing Junkie again this week.
Before I share my plan for the week I wanted to share something. I remember when I first got married I barely knew how to cook anything. I had helped my mom cook some when I was little, but pretty much from middle school on up I was so busy with school and other things that I really didn't help cook. When I was in college I ate all kinds of random things, which earned me the nick name "garbage disposal."
Yet, I was able to learn how to cook some basic healthy easy meals because of the love and nonjudgement of my easy online cooks, so I just wanted to thank you all. If you are like how I was I want to tell you that you can do it and not everyone has to be a master chef. If you are a newbie like I was, whatever you do, do not go to the crazy gourmet food recipe blogs. They will ruin you and make you feel your food is so tacky. Honestly it was just this year (yes four years later) that I actually started to enjoy cooking. What had been holding me back was inner judgement that what I was making wasn't that impressive. Somehow this year I just realized, who cares what these "perfect chefs" think! They aren't eating dinner with me, so who cares. Now I post my three dinner menu plan with pride. It works for us and that is what matters. There's only two of us, so there's normally 3 homemade dinner nights, one leftover night, and three eat out nights with people we love(sometimes it is home cooked food with family, sometimes we eat out with them).
No matter what though, I believe menu planning is one of the best habits that newlyweds can start. It takes so much stress out when you have a plan, even if that plan isn't gourmet. At the beginning I did not always plan and when I didn't we just ended up arguing over the most stupid stuff. Menu planning is great for your marriage, and it helps you keep your budget in check. Organizing Junkie is great because there are so many people that link up that you can find people with your level of cooking skills and your tastes and get inspired. There are lots of "normal" cooks out there and they have some great recipes.
My plan for this week:
Dinner #1: Veggie, Sausage, Rice Casserole
This is a staple and maybe this week I will post a pic and the recipe. It is super easy and you can change it up to your tastes. It also makes some really nice leftovers.
Dinner #2: Spaghetti
It is supposed to be really cold again this week, so I'm going to use up some of the extra sauce I made a few weeks back and froze. Here is the link (click the photo) from What's Cookin America.
Dinner #3: Cajun Tilapia
This was the only one that I could find that didn't say "Cajun seasoning." I don't have Cajun seasoning, so it was nice that this recipe had you make your own. Hopefully it is tasty! The last tilapia that I made was alright, but Tilapia just doesn't really do it for me, which is probably why I never buy it. It is just a bit too bland. I still have 2 or 3 fillets left so this will be the perfect way to use them up, and maybe it will even be a winner of a recipe!
Don't forget to always search for coupons before going grocery shopping at coupons.com!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Saturday Morning Free Funnies: Close to Home
Growing up my mom would always buy us daily comic calendars. One of my favorites was Close to Home. I found that you can now read them online or have them emailed to you for free! Just go here to see hundreds of your favorite Close to Home comics. Enjoy!
Friday, March 22, 2013
Friday Favorite Finds: Bring the Heat!
Anyway, this week I had several finds. The first find comes because it has been ridiculously cold here. I almost went out and started yelling at the sky when it snowed on the first day of spring. Really?! And it wasn't one of those silly spring snows where it randomly snows, but it is too warm to stick. Nope, it was a delightful 20 degrees. I decided to look on the bright side and I found these hilarious looking Santa Strawberries from Cafe Mom. Take that old man winter- I'm going to say that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, back to you!
From Keyingredient.com I found a delightful Cajun Shrimp Recipe. I would like to "bring the heat" even if the weather isn't!
If that doesn't heat things up enough we can have some Roasted Jalapeno Soup compliments of Foodgawker.
Finally, I have heard that Thai food is about the spiciest food you can eat. I have never tried it, but I really should because in general I really like spicy food. My husband says that is because my parents burnt off a few layers of my taste buds (my dad loved to grow his own peppers and through them in everything). I found this Thai Steak Noodles that looks pretty darn tasty from Camille Styles.
I can't leave a food post without at least one chocolate entry. I found this delicious looking Warm Chocolate Skillet Cake from Alaska from Scratch.
Enjoy more Friday Favorite Finds at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.
Frugal Fitness Friday: Bikini Body Ready Workout Video
Despite the cold I am looking forward to spring break. If you are going anywhere warm where you might be displaying more of your body than usual, this week's video is just perfect for you. It is called Bikini Body Ready Workout by Exercise TV. This video is only about 20 minutes, but it really works every part of your body. It has a lot of lunges, but the movie is short enough that they are bearable. The instructor is helpful, but not annoyingly perky. I like to mix it up with this quick video occasionally.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Before and After Kitchen Chairs and Table (Ice Day Fun!)
This morning I received a text that my school was closed today because of ice. I was completely surprised. I guess I hadn't been paying much attention to the weather because I thought that we were done with old man winter, but I guess not.
Surprisingly, Friday I stayed kind of late after school grading tests and I also graded all of my projects which meant that I didn't have any super important school stuff to get done. Normally I am just as bad as my students and I procrastinate and procrastinate so that on days off I have to go back in and work.
I had the whole day open so I decided to paint these two chairs that we found at the Salvation Army store that matched our previous chairs.
Since I hadn't known that we were going to have today off, I hadn't yet bought any dark colored primer, so I started by sanding them some and then painting them with white primer. Don't ever do that unless you are in a situation like mine, because it means that you will have to put three coats of black over it. I just really didn't want to go to Ace today because I kind of wanted a day off from my students.
If you are counting six chairs instead of two you are right. No, my chairs were not "fruitful and multiplied." The extra four chairs are from our breakfast area. Painting those first two went so well that I thought, what the heck, and decided to tackle our breakfast room table and chairs. They were my husband's from college. Here's a before pic on those.
After priming I painted two coats of black on the dining room chairs and then went back for a third coat of just touch ups. I painted two coats of white on top of the primer for the breakfast table/chairs and that seemed to be plenty. It is amazing how much better it goes when your primer is closer to you paint color.
Here are some nice after pictures for you.
Here's the breakfast table and chairs. They look so much better in white. If you are scratching your head, yes the seats are missing. I ran out of time to add new fabric to the seats. That will have to wait for another day.
What a great day and even better I didn't spend a cent! The paint I got from Ace the last few weekends with their free paint giveaway. Although I was annoyed at first when I received the text that school was closed (the days are now being added on the end of the school year), today was one of my most productive days yet due to some free paint and motivating music from Pandora!
Surprisingly, Friday I stayed kind of late after school grading tests and I also graded all of my projects which meant that I didn't have any super important school stuff to get done. Normally I am just as bad as my students and I procrastinate and procrastinate so that on days off I have to go back in and work.
I had the whole day open so I decided to paint these two chairs that we found at the Salvation Army store that matched our previous chairs.
Here are some nice after pictures for you.
The dining room with semi matching chairs! The black was a bit different, which I knew would happen because I lost the original black paint in the move. That is ok because the table and other chairs need a fresh coat because they have nicks in places (I painted those 4 years ago).
What a great day and even better I didn't spend a cent! The paint I got from Ace the last few weekends with their free paint giveaway. Although I was annoyed at first when I received the text that school was closed (the days are now being added on the end of the school year), today was one of my most productive days yet due to some free paint and motivating music from Pandora!
Menu Plan Monday: Eat from the freezer
I'm linking up with Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday. This week I am focusing on clearing some stuff out of our freezer. Here's the list of meals for the week.
Good luck on your menu planning adventures!
Monday: Ham and Broccoli Casserole from Recipe.com
This will use up the ancient ham leftovers in my freezer and some broccoli that I bought last week.Tuesday: Jamaican Jerk Chicken Legs Recipe from Food and Thrift Finds. This will use up some chicken that I had frozen a while back.
Thursday: Egg Casserole
I'm planning on cutting the recipe in half and then trying to bake it in a muffin tin. I have a half pound of ground sausage that I browned and then froze that I will use. We'll see how it goes!
Good luck on your menu planning adventures!
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Saturday Morning Free Funnies: Tundra
It's Saturday! Woo hoo! This week's featured funny comes from Tundra. I grew up on Far Side comics, but I have yet to see legitimate comics from them offered for free. I decided to surf the web to see if there were comics that were similar to them, but that were offered to the public for free. I found and fell in love with Tundra. They are pretty good. Laughter is good for you, so enjoy!
Here's another favorite from Tundra.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Frugal Fitness Friday: 8 Minute Workouts
This week I am going old school. 8 minute workouts were made in the 90's, so you can laugh and laugh at the fashion and music, however the actual exercises are fairly effective. My roommate in college and I used to try and squeeze these in between classes (we actually owned a DVD of these). We liked that you felt absolute ridiculous if you couldn't fit it into you schedule. The 8 minute fitness series consists of 8 minute abs, 8 minute arms, 8 minute legs, and 8 minute buns. They are strength building and difficult enough that if you work hard during them you will feel it the next day, yet short enough that you don't have to worry about getting super sweaty before your next event. Try one out this week!
What are some of the best videos or frugal fitness ideas you have found on the net this week? Link up below. (Please link directly to your fitness post and make sure to link back to Frugal Fitness Friday).
Friday Favorite Finds: Authentic Mexican.... and chocolate!
Wow, I have learned a lot writing this post. My goal was to find recipes to mimic my favorite dinners at a local authentic hole in the wall Mexican restaurant. I first searched for a copy cat recipe for el pastor tacos (my absolute fav at this restaurant). Apparently, these are made by roasting a huge piece of meat (the size of my entire torso size!) vertically and then seasoning it with pages and pages of spices that I have never heard of. Makes me appreciate San Marco's a little bit more. Since it is just my husband and I, we'd be eating these forever if I made them that way.
Here is a slightly more reasonable recipe for El Pastor Tacos from Authentic Mexican Recipes:
I also absolutely love the green salsa that they have there. Here is a copy cat recipe, but beware! It is hot, hot, hot!
This Salsa Picante Verde comes from Beyond Wonderful.
My second favorite entree that this restaurant offers is their tacos de bistec. My mouth is watering just thinking of them. Luckily, these looked much, much easier than even the easiest tacos el pastor. In fact, they actually sounded so simple that I might even get up the gumption to make them myself!
The recipe I found for Tacos De Bistec comes from Healthy Easy.
Now I have taken enough Spanish classes to know that the following recipe is not in the slightest Mexican or of Latin origins, but it looks so delicious that I had to add it. Seriously, how can you go wrong with Twix and brownies?
This Brownie infused with Twix recipe comes straight from Amandeleine.
Hope you enjoyed my Friday Finds! Find even more ideas at Finding Joy in My Kitchen's Friday Find page!
Here is a slightly more reasonable recipe for El Pastor Tacos from Authentic Mexican Recipes:
I also absolutely love the green salsa that they have there. Here is a copy cat recipe, but beware! It is hot, hot, hot!
This Salsa Picante Verde comes from Beyond Wonderful.
My second favorite entree that this restaurant offers is their tacos de bistec. My mouth is watering just thinking of them. Luckily, these looked much, much easier than even the easiest tacos el pastor. In fact, they actually sounded so simple that I might even get up the gumption to make them myself!
The recipe I found for Tacos De Bistec comes from Healthy Easy.
Now I have taken enough Spanish classes to know that the following recipe is not in the slightest Mexican or of Latin origins, but it looks so delicious that I had to add it. Seriously, how can you go wrong with Twix and brownies?
This Brownie infused with Twix recipe comes straight from Amandeleine.
Hope you enjoyed my Friday Finds! Find even more ideas at Finding Joy in My Kitchen's Friday Find page!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
My Favorite Hobby: Sleep!
I can feel the judging going on- sleep- a hobby? Yes, I consider sleep to be one of my favorite things to do. Everyone goes "ooooohhh, ahhhhhh" when people talk about exercise as a hobby. They all want to be that person who's hobby helps their health. Come to the dark side my friends, literally. Come to a lovely, comfortable, dark room and sleep!
Sleep has tons of health benefits and is always underrated. I get it a lot from my students where it is almost a competition how little sleep they are running on. That is ridiculous!
Anyway, in honor of my unexpected 2 hour delay this morning (where I did in fact sleep in), I thought I would post this infographic. Snooze on, my friends, snooze on!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Menu Plan Monday: Feeling Fishy!
I'm feeling adventurous this week. We don't have fish, ever. I'm pretty sure that I have only made it once or twice before because it stinks up the house so much. However, I have been craving it lately. It must be all of those ridiculous "Fishy, fishy" commercials for McD's that I hear on the radio all the time. Here's my plan for the week.
Monday: Grilled Talapia and Mango Salsa by Pleasant and Plump
Tuesday: Skinny Spaghetti by What's Cookin' America
Wednesday: Eat out (before youth- it is tradition!)
Thursday: Mexican Sausage Rice by Willow Bird Baking
Possible Dessert (splurge!): Mint oreos in honor of St. Patty's Day (and they were on sale at Aldi)! There are so many ideas for things to do with them!
Here's one idea:
Mint Oreo Brownies by Love Veggies and Yoga! Yummy!
For more Menu Plan ideas go to Orgjunkie!
This is also a part of Stone Gable Blog's On the Menu Monday!
Monday: Grilled Talapia and Mango Salsa by Pleasant and Plump
Tuesday: Skinny Spaghetti by What's Cookin' America
Wednesday: Eat out (before youth- it is tradition!)
Thursday: Mexican Sausage Rice by Willow Bird Baking
Possible Dessert (splurge!): Mint oreos in honor of St. Patty's Day (and they were on sale at Aldi)! There are so many ideas for things to do with them!
Here's one idea:
Mint Oreo Brownies by Love Veggies and Yoga! Yummy!
For more Menu Plan ideas go to Orgjunkie!
This is also a part of Stone Gable Blog's On the Menu Monday!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Saturday Morning Free Funnies: XKCD
This week for Saturday Morning Free Funnies I am featuring a favorite free comic of nerds, xkcd. Beware: this comic is not for everyone. This comic is most liked by the math/engineering type. Some of the jokes require quite the background in the sciences, to the point that there is another website called "explain xkcd". I have found some real gems though, like the above comic. So if you are among the more nerdy set, enjoy!
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