BOUNTIFUL BARGAINS

Howdy Doodie my little band of bloggies LOL! How are you doing this frostbitten morning!? I’m absolutely icy. Boy do I have some interesting reads for you today. First off, I gotta ask… who cashed in on the free food deals yesterday and if you did, what kind of an experience did you have? I started my day with hitting the Jack in the Box free grilled sandwich wyb a large drink. I tried the Turkey Bacon Cheddar and let me tell you- I was expecting not to like the taste, but it was pretty dang good!! LOL… I hit it again to try the other sandwich, the deli trio, on the way from leaving my mom’s to get my kids from school. I didn’t like that one as much.

As you know, I went to hang with my mom yesterday and we had a great time! I always have a blast when I’m with my mom. We chatted, washed laundry, reviewed recipes, and lots of other things. Thanks mom! I always feel so much better after hanging out with you!



Ok, so one of the things we did was to sort coupons. My grandma mails her a bunch of coupons and she cuts them and we share them. So she gave me a HUGE pile of coupons for all kinds of things. After I picked up the kids from school, I headed over to the store with those little beautiful pieces of paper and had a ball! Here are some of the great deals I got with the coupons she gave me:

White Cloud Toilet Tissue- $1 4pk.
Breathe Right Nasal Strips 12ct- $2.82
Febreze Air Effects- $1.50
Lactaid 12ct.- 97c
Cottonelle wipes- 47c
Blistex 2pk- 47c
Johnson’s Baby travel pack- $1.77
Angelsoft Toilet tissue- 50c 4pk.
Whiskas Dry cat food- $2.97 bag
Friskies Dry cat food- $2.97 bag
Friskies canned indoor cat food- 3 FREE cans
Gain Laundry soap- $5 for the 100oz. bottles
Fancy Feast dry cat food $1.12 bag
Fresh Step cat litter- FREE 20 lb. Box
Bandaid Brand fabric bandages- 88c each

Those were just some of the great deals I found… I bought other things too (generic) and I had coupons for some things that weren’t “impressive” (just like 50c off, etc) but all in all I saved $32.30 in coupons. Not too shabby! OK so THEN I went over to Lowe’s because I needed another bag of dirt. Well… the last time I was there, the cashier in the Garden center and I got to talking and she asked me for some “advice” on her plants and such. So I told her about my dirts, foods, and some good container plants, etc. Well I found some plants I decided I wanted to bring home with me… check these out!



So anyway, I get to the counter and she asked me if I was Renee and was the one who told her about the tomatoes and such last time I was there. After being spooked out that she actually remembered me, LOL… we started talking again and she said she wanted to thank me for all the “good advice”. She said she invested in some plants and has them indoors right now, but they have exploded! Well, one of the plants I got was a clearanced house plant (which didn’t look sick at all BTW), so when she rang it up she said “Oh you know this is on clearance right?” I said yes and she proceeded to ring up the rest of my order. Here I am expecting to pay about $60 for all the plants and the 2- 40lb. Bags of soil. NOPE! She said my total was $21.43 and I raised an eyebrow. I was like “Are they on sale or something?” and she was like “They are all clearanced”… She had discounted everything for me as a “thank you” for the gardening help I gave her I guess. I was excited and shocked! I walked out with 2- 40 pound bags of soil, 2 Husky Cherry tomato, 1 House greenery, 2 Italian parsley, 2 cilantro, 1 strawberry, 1 large and 1 small rosemary, and a 9pk of broccoli plants. Is that awesome or what? I was super stoked! Another step closer to a grand-e-ous green garden!

OK, so I went to Walgreens to pick up a couple of things as well. I found Midol Menstral on sale for $2.50 a bottle… well guess who had $2 off 1 coupons? YEP! So I had another great find! It was just a day of bountiful bargains!



Another thing my mom showed me was the March issue of Texas Monthly. The cover story is called “The Bucket List”. The story says 63 things Texans should do before they pass… so my mom and I sat and she read it to me. We have actually done a few things on there already and there are some more things we would like to do. Tomorrow I’ll go into further detail about what was on the bucket list…. It’s rather interesting!

And then we went over recipes. She is making a book of recipes from all the magazines, newspapers, etc. When she finds something she would like to try, she clips the recipe and pastes it on colored paper and puts it in a notebook. Pretty smart if you ask me! I just go look it up online LOL. So she had 5 that really struck my fancy and I would like to try. I’m gonna share a couple with you today. Keep in mind I have NOT tried these yet, so I am not sure on YUM-ability yet! But the picture looked yummy and that is part of the appeal…



Spanish Skillet Chicken

INGREDIENTS

5 each chicken thighs and drumsticks (about 4 1/4 lb), skin removed from thighs
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 medium onions, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 box (8 oz) yellow rice mix
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 3/4 cups water
1 cup frozen peas

PREPARATION

1. Sprinkle chicken with paprika and pepper. Cook chicken in a large, deep nonstick skillet over medium heat, about 5 minutes per side, until browned. Remove chicken to plate.

2. Remove all but 1 Tbsp drippings from skillet. Add onions and garlic; sauté 4 minutes until golden. Stir in yellow rice mix, tomatoes and water.

3. Place chicken pieces on rice. Bring liquid to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes.

4. Stir in peas, cover and simmer 3 minutes until rice is tender.



Tennessee Whiskey Cake

You can substitute 3 tablespoons water and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract for the whiskey.

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup 2% reduced-fat milk
½ cup sorghum or molasses
¼ cup Tennessee whiskey, such as Jack Daniel’s or George Dickel

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Beat butter using a mixer at medium speed; gradually add sugars and beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Add to egg mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Stop mixer and add sorghum. Restart mixer and slowly add whiskey. Mix until smooth, about 30 seconds. (Batter will be thin.)
4. Pour into a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm with Sorghum Frozen Yogurt. Serves 8.

Ok, so doesn’t that sound totally scrum-diddly-umptious?! OMG LMAO! MOM- LOOK! That cake calls for SORGHUM! OMG I just noticed that LMAO! (Inside joke peeps…) Anyway, I gotta get to the store to pick up some of the ingredients, so tonight for us, its taco salad! YAY! LOL… not only is it what we have, but I need quick and easy because my show comes on tonight… the new episode of Criminal Minds YAY! LOL… so I’m gonna hop off of here and get some things done, run a couple of errands, and get prepped for dinner so that once its done I can watch my show in peace LOL! Ya’ll take care and I will see you tomorrow… HUGS! (And to my mom… SORGHUM!)