And the Winner Is........

Congratulations to Stephanie!!!

Eating Healthy doesn't have to cost a fortune

You can do little things to add up to big savings. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Grow your own food:
Start small. Plant a tomato plant or cucumber in a pot on your porch. Grow some herbs like basil, chives or cilantro in the window. You can plant in raised beds too. I bought one piece of lumber, 16' x 2', and had the store cut it for me. Took it home nailed the pieces together. I filled it with a mix of soil from my garden and one bag of starting soil. Now I have a raised bed and it only cost me around $30. We now have carrots, basil and lettuce planted in it now. Once the lettuce is gone, we are going to plant cucumbers and let them grow on a trellis. I started this raised bed this year for my two nieces to teach them how to grow their own food. I believe teaching a child how to grow their own food teaches them knowledge of where their food comes from and hopefully will result in healthier eating habits. My best advice in gardening, is start small.

Sign up for Savings:

Go to your favorite companies websites and register for their emails. Most of them will send you coupons or specials savings on your birthday. They are pretty good with not sending you massive amounts of junk mail. They want your business after all. Sign up with your favorite restaurants to. Lots of them have birthday programs where they send you something free on your birthday.
Smoothie King is offering a great coupons when you sign up for their emails.
Trader Joe's gives you recipes, new items and grand opening news with their Fearless Flyer.
Whole Foods has great coupons. Check with your local store and see if they allow stacking coupons.
Earthbound Farms is one of my favorite companies to sign up with.

Don't forget to shop your local farmers markets. Buy Local :)

Eat at Home:
Eating out can be fun, relaxing and easy. Sometimes you've had a bad day at work, nothing is going right and you don't feel like cooking, so you run by that fast food restaurant  and pick up dinner.
Try planning out your meals. When those stressful days hit, don't panic you have a plan. Dinner is planned, served and money saved.
Plan your meals around sales. If chicken is on sale this week, pick some up and make meals that include chicken. Don't buy that big steak just because, wait until it's on sale and then stock up.
You can also do a freezer cooking day. Take one day that you have a few hours to spend in the kitchen and cook lots of meals to put in your freezer. You will be amazed at how much time it will save you later.

Make from Scratch:
Sometimes making your own food from scratch doesn't necessarily save you money but if you look at the ingredients, it's worth it for your health. Take a normal store bought loaf of bread verses a homemade loaf of bread. When that store bought bread from two weeks ago still is not green, that scares me. Food is suppose to go bad. If I can't read the ingredients, I don't want it in my body.

 

Earthbound Farms: $0.75 off Organic Blueberries Coupon

Earthbound Farms is offering a coupon for $0.75 off organic blueberries. Blueberries are so yummy and good for you too.

Egg Sale: $0.50 a dozen

Who could pass up $0.50 a dozen for eggs? Not me. Last week Food Lion had a dozen large eggs on sale for $0.50 each. The limit was 2, thankfully I work close by. I went everyday and even sent my daughter a few times when she was near by. Results= 168 eggs (14 dozen) for $7.00 ($0.04 an egg)

I know some might be thinking "what are you going to do with all those eggs?" The answer is = eat them. They don't expire until the end of May. Plenty of time to do some baking. We had a party to go to Sunday and I volunteered to bring deviled eggs, one dozen gone already.

We have been making omelets, scrambled eggs and hard boiled. You can also make egg salad sandwiches.

Or have an egg toss!

When there is a sale this good. I have to stock up. Only makes sense right? What would you do with 14 dozen eggs?

Whole Wheat Bread

This Easy Whole Wheat Bread recipe is so easy and so delicious. You don't need a bread machine to make this bread but bread machines do make life easier. I hate kneading dough :)

I used King Arthur's bread flour because I had no wheat flour. Turned out perfect. This recipe calls for coconut oil. Try and win your own jar. This recipe is defiantly going in the recipe box and will be a staple in our home.

 

Thank you FeelGoodAboutDinner

 

 

Happy Earth Day

 
Do you have any special plans for Earth Day? Maybe replace those old light bulbs with new l.e.d. lights? How about carpooling to work this week? Or eat two meatless meals this week?

There are lots of specials today in celebration of Earth Day. Here's a list of some I found:
Origins: FREE limited edition moisturizer plus free standard shipping on orders over $30 (while supplies last)
Recyclebank: Sign up for a FREE account and earn points towards coupons and great prizes.
Earthbound Farms: Great recipes, ideas on protecting the planet and coupons. Check them out.
Seventh Generation: Green living tip for Earth month.

Target: One FREE reusable bag per guest, while supplies last.

I would like to have everyone sign a pledge to do something to help the Earth this week. Leave a comment on what you'll be doing this week. What great ideas do you have to help our Earth?

My pledge: I pledge to take shorter showers, carpool with my daughter to work and use less plastic wrap.

Giveaway from Tropical Traditions

The moment we've been waiting for! My first giveaway!

Thanks to Tropical Traditions, they are offering one of my readers a chance to win a FREE quart jar of Gold label coconut oil .

Tropical Traditions recently sent me a jar to sample and let me give you some advice- enter this giveaway or just jump over and buy your own jar now. Quart size is on sale for $29.50 (reg. $40)

There are so many ways you can use coconut oil. I recently made my own homemade deodorant and love it. Tropical Traditions has tons of coconut oil recipes. I'm actually trying out a whole wheat bread that calls for coconut oil, I'll let you know how it turns out. I use coconut oil to fry potatoes, grease my muffin tins or where ever oil is needed. Really want to make some fudge soon too.

How to use coconut oil?
What is virgin coconut oil?

Coconut Oil will now be a staple in my cabinet.  Thank you Tropical Traditions!


Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

What to do with hard boiled Easter Eggs???

Eat them! As long as they have been refrigerated you can eat them. Make them into deviled eggs, add them to your salad or make egg salad sandwiches.



Egg Salad Sandwich:
3 hard boiled eggs
1 tbsp. honey mustard
3 tbsp. mayo
1 tbsp. diced onions
1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp flax seed
salt and pepper to taste

Crack and peel eggs. Cut in half, half again and chop. Chop onions and celery. Mix all ingredients together in small bowl. Smother the bread with egg salad and top with lettuce. Yum!!

Follow me on Pinterest

You can now follow me on Pinterest. This site is great for recipes and DIY ideas. Love to see all the different pics. Follow ya soon :)

Gratituesday: Thankful for Family

Easter is a day of celebration. Celebrating our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Celebrating our families. Thank you Lord for my wonderful family.

This Gratituesday I'm thankful for my family. Easter is one of those special days families get together to enjoy food, love, laughter and to make special memories.

Each year my sisters in-laws have an Easter lunch. They have egg toss, egg hunts, egg race, pinatas and lots of great food. My brother-in-law, James and his brother, David are the egg toss champs.

Winners of the egg toss!

Even the big kids love a good egg hunt.

My baby, she's growing up to fast.

Thanks Wanda and Roger for such a great time. We really enjoyed everything.

Thank you Jesus for such a wonderful family :)


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Happy Easter

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. God is good :)

Win a green your town makeover from Seventh Generation

Enter for a chance to win a green your town makeover from Lorax and Seventh Generation. You can enter daily. Ends July 31, 2012.

Homemade Deodorant: So Far So Good

Deodorants???? There are so many to choose from. Which ones work, which ones won't break the bank and which ones are "better" for you. That is the million dollar question.

I think every body's body is different. The deodorant that works for me might not work for you. I can work out in the yard all day and not sweat very much. I get very thirsty and my face gets really red, but I don't perspire that much at all. Don't get me wrong, I will smell like sweat, I just don't have beads of it dropping off my forehead.

About a year ago I switched my deodorant to Tom's of Maine. I've only tried the lavender deodorant, it works o.k., but on those busy Friday nights at work or those long days in the garden, it doesn't hold up. This is just my opinion, I love Tom's of Maine toothpaste and other products, the deodorant just didn't work for me.

For a while now I've been thinking of making my own deodorant. I've found different recipes and it seemed pretty easy. Here's what I came up with.

Homemade Deodorant:
8 Tbsp. Coconut oil (from Tropical Traditions)
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot
5 drops Lavender oil
5 drops Tea Tree oil

Mix the coconut oil with the baking soda and arrowroot until you get a nice deodorant consistency. Add in your oil and mix well. Spoon into an old deodorant container or a glass jar. I just really didn't want to have to apply it everyday with my hands.

The tea tree oil is a natural antibacterial and the lavender is just for smelling good. Next I'll try the Rose. That smells wonderful :)


Have been using it for about 3 weeks now and will never go back to the store bought brands. I worked out in the yard for 4 hours straight, two days this week and the homemade deodorant worked great. No smell, no clumps, no mess!!

Giveaway coming soon: Tropical Traditions

Do you love getting FREE stuff? I sure do. Stay tuned for a giveaway from Tropical Traditions.

If you can't wait or just want a really good deal, check out some of Tropical Traditions Sales:

One sale now is their pint size Gold label virgin coconut oil for Buy One Get One Free. $19.95 for TWO pints. Sale end April 12th.

Also on sale is their lip moisturizer, Buy One Get One Free. Retails for $7.00-sale price $3.50, hurry this one ends April 8th.

Kickin Black Bean Dip

This easy and delicious dip is a big hit at my house. Just a little kick of spice. Add your favorite veggies or even meat to make it your families favorite dip.

Ingredients:
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. cajun bayou
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 cup cooked black beans
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 cup shredded cheese (use your favorite)
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1 small tomato diced

In small bowl mix cream cheese, sour cream, garlic and cajun bayou. In another small bowl mash black beans with potato masher, just a few times to make them mushy, add cumin and mix. Spread black beans into small baking dish, approx. 3 x 5. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of beans. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Top with black olives and tomatoes.

My daughter is not a big fan of olives or tomatoes, so on her side I shred some lettuce. I like to serve with homemade guacamole and blue chips. Oh so yummy.

Spaghetti leftovers turned into Pizza snacks

Do you have leftovers after spaghetti night? If your family is like mine, we always have leftover bread and spaghetti sauce. You can only eat left over spaghetti so many times before enough is enough. Why not make french bread pizza?? Well, that's exactly what I did.

Slice your french bread in half, spoon on some sauce and top with cheese. Add your favorite toppings like olives, bacon or mushrooms. My daughter just likes cheese, so cheese it is.

Cook them in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. This is to help hold everything in place and makes for faster reheating. (Pre-baking). After they cool down, wrap them individually with saran wrap and put in freezer bag. To reheat pull out of freezer and cook at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

These are great for after school snacks. Add a salad or fresh fruit and bam, you now have lunch!