Cheap Weight Watchers Magazine Offer!!

Up until recently I didn't subscribe to any magazine just because I didn't want to spend the money. But, I really like WW Magazine (lots of great information) and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a year of it for $3.99!!! Follow this link to Common Sense With Money to learn the details. The coupon code she mentions really does work!

I've been really busy and not been posting as much but I'll be back in the groove soon. I do have pics and recipes from last week, just haven't had an opportunity to post in several days.

Preview for the Week of May 16, 2010

This feels like a "spend as little as you can this week" week to me. Sometimes I just get like this, it's not what you can save but how much you don't spend. But, there are lots of great deals out there so check out Common Sense With Money's CVS & Wags posts as well as the I Heart CVS and I Heart Wags blogs for the lowdown.

Also, The Hubby is "supposed" to be home every night this week so be on the lookout for a few couple of new recipes as well as pictures (hopefully) of some of the recipes already on here.

Hope you all have a blessed week!

Brown Rice Salad w/Black Beans & Corn

UPDATE: This "salad" is better warm in my opinion. I tried it cold but warmed it up in the micro for a bit and it was better. So next time I will wait until closer to eating time to make it.

OH....MY....GOODNESS!!! Did I ever happen across the BEST recipe evahhhhh!!! And, it is a Weight Watchers recipe to boot. Could it get any better than that? Tonight The Hubby, Little Bit and her 2 older sisters are having grilled burgers and I will have my Boca burger (I really do like them, though I hear that many don't). When I was doing my menu planning for May I ran across this recipe and it just sounded different so I thought we would try it.

Now, I don't know if you have ever been to a Chipotle but they have this thing called a Burrito Bowl and it is to die for. Here is a description of the Burrito Bowl which is served in a bowl not in a tortilla: Cilantro-lime rice, choice of pinto or vegetarian black beans, meat, salsa, cheese or sour cream, and romaine lettuce. It is really, REALLY good. My mom has mentioned that she made a rice similar to theirs but I hadn't tried her version yet. But when I made this salad today, I must say it tasted very much like the Burrito Bowl without the meat, cheese & sour cream which you could most certainly add making it a meal itself instead of a side. So, without further ado....

Brown Rice Salad w/Black Beans & Corn
Serves 4 @ 4 points each

1 c. instant brown rice
1 oz. canned black beans, rinsed & drained
1 c. frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/4 c. scallion, chopped
2 T. chilantro, chopped
2 t. jalapeno pepper, minced, or less to taste
1 T. fresh lime juice
1 t. lime zest
1/4 t. salt, or to taste
1/4 t. black pepper, or to taste

Cook rice according to package directions. While rice is still warm, stir in beans, corn, scallions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and zest; season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 1 heaping cup per serving.

NOTE: I just used a drained can of corn.

I didn't really read thru the recipe before preparing and assumed it was a cold salad and that is the way I will try to serve it but it was awesome warm. I will let you know how it was cold or if I re-heated it.

Summer Reading Program for Kids

School is almost out and I know that getting Little Bit to sit down and read right now is becoming a battle. But, maybe this will help her out. Borders and Barnes & Noble both are having summer reading programs for the kids and are each offering a FREE book for participating.

At Borders, children 12 & under read 10 books to get their free book during their Double Dog Dare program.

Barnes & Noble is offering a free book to children 12 & under when they read 8 books and fill out the passport here.

Special thanks to Mercedes at Common Sense With Money for the heads up on this one!

Free Suave Professionals Shampoo

ANOTHER UPDATE: If you are on Facebook try this link. I think you will probably need to "Like" Suave first. I just got one sent to my mom about 3 minutes ago.
UPDATE: It's only been about 10 minutes and the site is either bogged down or they are gone or they pulled the link because it wasn't supposed to go live until around 10AM when they announced it on Good Morning America. (I just happened to come across it and it worked for me so I thought I would let you all know.) I'll keep ya posted!!!

Click here, go to the bar at the top that says "Click here for your FREE bottle of Suave Professionals" and fill out the form to receive a coupon (by snail mail) for a FREE Suave Professional shampoo. But don't wait too long, they are only doing 100,000 and they will go fast.

My Garden & Yard

I just began my gardening endeavor last year. Behind what most people believe to be the back of our property, we own a triangular shape that is not in the boundaries of our fence. The entire time we've lived here, the people behind us kept it mowed and we didn't utilize it at all. That changed when I decided that I wanted a garden. It was the logical place to put it; full sun and not in an area that the kids play...perfect! So this year, I've been waiting for what seems like weeks for the weather to cooperate so I could plant my garden. It's been over a month since The Hubby tilled my garden for me.


When the weather finally broke (or so I thought, I ended up having to cover my babies with blankets last week when it frosted...gggrrr) I carefully planted my tomatoes (Big Boy & Roma, I'm still looking for a grape tomato plant)

Peppers-Green Bell, Yellow Bell, Red Bell & Jalapeno

Green Beans-a bush variety, though next year I may consider a pole bean

Radishes

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Last year from my garden I was able to can tomatoes, tomato juice & salsa. My green beans didn't do very well but I'm lucky because my dad has a friend who loves to garden and ALWAYS has plenty of green beans that he loves to share so I was able to can a bunch of those to. Here's a post on my family blog about my first canning experience if you are interested.

This past Saturday I went to Owen Nursery in Bloomington and bought some of the flowers for our yard. I have several areas that need attention but my focus was on the front yard this visit plus I bought this beautiful Zebrina Wandering Jew. I remember as a child my mom had one of these and it was HUGE!!! I wanted some life on my deck and will also be able to bring it in over the winter and hang it in the dining room window.

Here are the bedding plants I got for the front yard as well as a Sweet Basil.

And finally here are couple of pictures of perennials that I have already in the yard. It it my goal to eventually have perennials most everwhere but that is happening a little at a time due to cash flow. :o)

Free 1 yr. Subscription to Cooking Light Magazine

I just claimed my FREE 1 year subscription to Cooking Light magazine by going here. Fill out the form to see if you qualify. Hint: Did you know that I'm the CEO of The Sandage Household? hehehe You do not have to enter a credit card for this offer! ☺ Thanks to Merissa at Little House on the Prairie Living.

Deal Senarios

It is midweek now and I thought it would be helpful for me to give you some deal ideas that I plan to get this week "before" the deals are over. ☺

First, look at the CVS and Wags deal for the week here & here. Thanks Mercedes! You can also check out the full deals at I Heart CVS & I Heart Wags.

By looking at these posts and my local CVS & Wags flyers from Sunday's newspaper, I can see that there are a few items that I'm interested in and that I know I have coupons for also. (Stay tuned for a post on how to organize all those coupons!!!) The plan is to get the most stuff for the least out of pocket (OOP).

Here's my CVS senario for Transaction #1
NOTE: I'm starting out with $4 ECBs from last week
1 KotexU-$4.99 AND
2 CVS Tissues (99¢ each)-$1.98
Use: 1 KotexU printable from here
Use: 1 CVS coupon for $1.50 off any Kotex product (yes, you can use a store coupon with a MQ at MOST stores; just make sure to give them the MQ before the store coupon)-I got this coupon by scanning my CVS card at the red machine just inside the store (watch this video to see it in action!)
Use: $4 ECB from last week

This transaction should cost me 87¢ OOP and I will get $4.99 ECB back from the KotexU purchase. In most cirrcumstances, you will be charged tax on the amount of the purchase before the coupons. So in this case, my purchase was 47¢ and the tax is 40¢.

On to CVS Transaction #2
2 Clairol Root Touch Ups (on Sale for $4.97 each...a fabulous price by the way)
Use: 2 MQ found in the May 2010 P&Gbrand Saver coupons from the Sunday May 2nd newspaper.
Use: $4.99 ECB from trans. #1

This transaction will cost me $1.35 OOP and will have no ECBs for next week but using the ECBs from #1 gets me a great deal on some Root Touch up which is a necessity around here!! LOL

Now for Wags. I have $2 in RR from last week but I really don't have a laid out plan for this week. Mostly because I'm not sure about some prices. But here are some things I'm thinking about.

**If your store allows it, you may be able to score some free Soft Scrub cleanser this week. Right now it is on sale B1G1 (Buy one get one free) AND if you register on the Soft Scrub website, you will be able to print 2 (use your browser's back button after the first one prints) coupons. This worked at some of our Walgreens around here when I was able to get these 10 bottles of Purex for $2.07 TOTAL!

*I also want to check out the OB tampons that are on sale B1G1 50% off. I have a $5/1 coupon that I got by informing them of a problem on their Facebook page and a $1/1 MQ from the newspaper inserts a couple of weeks ago. So that will be $6 off 2 of them. Combining those with the sale could end up pretty sweet.

**There is a 2/$3 coupon in the Wags ad good on most of the Sugar Free candy in a bag. Not as good of a deal as a B1G1 but The Hubby would be most grateful.

So, this is my plan for the week. But you know what they say, "the best laid plans of mice & men often go astray"-Robert Burns.

Hope you all have a great week!

Scalloped Potatoes & Ham

Since it started out raining today and was a bit on the chilly side, I welcomed the opportunity to have the oven on to warm the house a bit. This is a new dish for me that I just happened across on the internet. It comes from About.com:Southern Food. I have my own Scalloped Potato recipe that I posted about last month but I was looking for something different for this month. Anyway, I actually took the time to calculate the points for this one for you Weight Watchers out there. :o)

The Hubby really liked this recipe and said that he would like it again. Just a couple of notes, I used the Cream of Celery soup, not the Cream of Mushroom (The Hubby was thrilled-he doesn't like mushrooms at all!) and it was 98% fat free soup. Also, the original recipe called for a full pound of ham but I only used 8 oz. ham not the full pound, that just seemed like a bit much to me. The recipe and points below reflect my changes. Overall, it was very good and will show up again in my menu but maybe not again until it cools off.

Scalloped Potatoes & Ham
Serves 6 @ 4 points each

8 oz. lean ham, cubed
5 cup thinly sliced potatoes
1 can 98% FF cream of mushroom soup or cream of celery soup
1/4 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
dash pepper
2 tablespoons light butter

Place half of the potatoes in a greased, shallow, 2-quart baking dish. Cover with ham pieces. Top with remaining potatoes. Combine soup with milk, onion, green bell pepper, and ground black pepper; pour over potatoes. Dot with butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 1 hour. Remove covering; bake 30 to 45 minutes longer, or until potatoes are done. If desired, sprinkle shredded Cheddar cheese over the top of scalloped potatoes the last 15 minutes of baking time. NOTE: Point value does not include any cheese.)

5/2-5/8/2010 Deals

Sunday after church is typically a shopping day for us since I don't ever go to the "big city" during the week. So if I want to get any deals anywhere other than CVS or Wags, it has to be done on Sundays. My deals at Kroger and Super Walmart were great but not if I would have had to make a special trip into town to get them.

Walmart
OOP: $7.65

2 Old ElPaso FF Refied Beans-90¢ for both after 60¢/2 MQ
4 Oscar Meyer lunch meats-$1.00 each after 4 $2.00/1 Facebook MQ
4 bottles of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce-67¢ each after 4 $1/1 MQ

Kroger
OOP: $4.30

4 McCormick Grill Mates-Sale 10/$10 less 4 $1/1 MQ
4 containers Blackberries-10/$10-yea, one didn't make it to the picture-snack on the way home :o)
2 Greek Yogurts-10/$10 less 2 45¢/1 MQ doubled

CVS
OOP-$10.96 (AND $4ECB for next week!)

Trans. #1
1 Gillette Venus Embrace razor-Sale $9.79 less $2 MQ from newspaper less $5 ECB from last weeks final transaction *Rec'd $6 ECB
Trans. #2
1 Lubriderm lotions-$7.49 each less 2 $2/1 internet printable from here when you sign up (print 2 by using your browser's
Trans. #3
2 Listerine mouthwashes-Sale $3.99 less 2 $2/1 printable from here when you sign up on their site less $5 ECB from Trans. 2 *Rec'd $4 ECB for next week

Wags
OOP-$3.19 (AND $2 in RR for next week)
It was a great week at Wags but only because I received a couple of coupons for a FREE Natural Instincts Hair color that I signed up for before starting this blog.

Trans. #1 & #2 (both the same)
1 box (2 total) of Clairol Natural Instincts hair color-$6.99 each less get one free MQ *Rec'd $2 RR for each box (you had to do the trans. separately in order to get a $2 RR on each box)
Trans. #3
1 Veet hair remover (I'm gonna have the smoothest legs evah!)-Sale $6.99 less $3/1 Wags monthly coupon book coupon less $3 printable from here
1 Wags wipes-Sale $1.99
1 M&Ms-Sale 49¢ (needed a filler to be able to use the $2 RR from Trans. #1)

Meijer
OOP-$12.77 SCORE!!!
This was by far the best grocery deal I've done in a while and it all started with this post here. Thanks Mercedes!!! NOTE: The Facebook coupon is still available but the deal at Meijer is not. :o(

Here's the breakdown of my 4 Transactions:
Trans. #1 & #2(both the same but have to be done separately to get the Catalinas)
Buy 4 100 Calorie boxes-Sale $2 each less 2 BOGO coupons mentioned above-Get 2 $3 catalinas for next visit. So, I spent $8.16 and got back $12 in catalinas!!!
Trans. #3-
2 Toaster Strudel-Sale $2.08 each less 55¢/2 MQ from newspaper less a $1/2 Meijer Mealbox printable (at Meijer, you an stack MQ with store coupons, just be sure to give the cashier the MQs first and then the store coupons)
2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal-Sale $1.49 each less 2 50¢/1 MQ that double (not all Meijers double but Bloomington does for you locals)
2 boxes Fiber One Oats & Carmel (my weakness)-Sale $1.49 each less 2 55¢/1 MQ
1 Hair Claw-I'm "trying" to let my hair grow out
Then I was able to use the 2 $3 catalinas from Trans. #1 also bringing this total to $4.16.
Trans. #4
2 gallons milk-Sale 2/$4
1 1/2 gallon buttermilk-$2.39
Less 2 $3 catalinas from Trans. #2 bringing this total to 45¢!!!!! Woohoo!!!

Preview for the week of May 9th, 2010

Hope you all had a great weekend and all you moms had a fantastic and relaxing Mother's Day! My week is changing already. Because of a generous friend and too much chicken cooked for our Mother's Day dinner, Monday night will be a leftover night instead of the Mexican casserole. I may still post the recipe but a photo will have to wait until I make it next time. Also, The Hubby is helping out at church Friday night and will mostly likely be eating supper there so the Grilled Pepperloin meal will be moved to next month also.

Also just a reminder to keep checking out Mercedes' posts at Common Sense With Money to keep up on the most recent coupon offers out there. I will be posting my FABULOUS deals from Meijer, CVS & Wags from my Saturday shopping trip to Bloomington with my mama. What bargains!!!

Easy Chicken & Noodles

Tonight I was soooo glad that I had already cooked my chicken in the crockpot on Wednesday! I so did NOT want to cook, even these easy peasy Chicken & Noodles. Sometimes a girl just doesn't wanna do it!!! OK whining is done... anyway, after I threw it all together (yea, it took all of about 10 minutes and that included chopping the chicken), I was glad I didn't succumb to going out to dinner and blowing the budget when I had food ready to be prepared in the fridge. GO ME!!! By cooking your own chicken, you also know what is in the resulting broth and you can control the sodium also.

Chicken & Noodles

10 oz. or so of chopped, cooked chicken
6 cups of chicken stock or canned broth
1 12 oz. bag of Reames No Yolk frozen noodles

Bring stock or broth to a boil, add noodles and cook for 20-30 minutes according to package directions. When noodles are cooked to your liking, add chopped chicken. Stir. Enjoy.

Seriously, that's it!!! Depending on the heat you are cooking your noodles at, you may need to add a bit more broth. These are great served over mashed potatoes. YUMMMMM Also you might want to serve them with these great biscuits.

In My Crockpot

I gotta tell you, my house smells FABULOUS right now and here is the reason why:

OK, so raw chicken and veggies in a crockpot don't look too appealing but give it a few hours and it smells awesome. On Sunday we were supposed to have baked chicken but we ended up eating leftovers after an afternoon of grocery shopping. This had nothing everything to do with the fact that I forgot to take the bird out of the freezer. Unfortunately, this one glitch affected two meals for the week. Obviously the baked chicken, but also the Chicken & Noodles for this Friday's meal. So to fix my error, I decided to crockpot the bird to get the chicken for the noodles as well as some extra chicken for the freezer and some great stock too.

For those who have never tried it, it couldn't be easier. Just place the cleaned bird in the crockpot, add 1 coarsely chopped onion, 2 coarsely chopped carrots and 2 coarsely chopped celery stalks. I also generously season with season salt, garlic, thyme, oregano, basil and a bit of poultry seasoning. Add water to cover, place the lid on, set it on high and leave it alone. You can also do this in a pot on the stove but last time I did that, I had a small fire so I'm using the crockpot from now on. ☺

In My Mailbox Today....

Today was a good mailbox day. All samples & coupons....ZERO bills! My Sample Showcase from the USPS that I told you about here arrived today and was chock full of samples and coupons. The offer is closed now but sign up to be notified of future offers.

This is a list of what I received:

*Full sized McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Marinade
*Bengay Moist Heat Therapy pad (4 x 5")
*0.5 oz. Secret Clinical Strength Waterproof deodorant
*0.3 oz. each Aveeno Active Naturals Shampoo & Conditioner samples
*1.5 oz. Aveeno Active Naturals Positively Ageless Firming Body Lotion
*0.3 oz. Aveeno Active Naturals Potitively Ageless Lifting & Firming Night Cream
*Nescafe' Taster's Choice Vanilla Gourmet Instant Coffee stick
*Nescafe' Taster's Choice Original Instant Coffee stick
*0.16 oz. Shower To Shower body powder-Sport scent
*0.16 oz. Shower To Shower body powder-Shimmer*Effects
*2 individual Splenda w/Fiber
*1.3 oz. Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Bar (YUMMO!!!)
*Coupons: $2/1 Aveeno Active Naturals product, $1/1 Splenda and $1/1 Aveeno Active Naturals Nourish+ Hair Care Collection

I also received another sample of the Aveeno Shampoo & Conditioner along with another $1/1 coupon.

Home Made Simple is still offering their "decor done right" coupon book here. I got it today and it is full of $30 worth of coupons for Cascade, Dawn, febreeze, Mr. Clean and Swiffer.


Finally I received a coupon for a FREE box of Clairol Natural Instinct hair color from an offer that I signed up for before starting this blog.

It was a good day...

4/25-5/1/10 Deals

Walgreens-Total OOP $13.91

2 Fiber One Cereals-Sale 2/$5 less MQ $1/2
2 3M Packing Tape-Sale w/Wags Q 99¢ each less 2-$1/1 printable (gone)-FREE!!!
1 Cover Girl powder & 1 Cover Girl blush-Sale B1G1 50% off-less 2 $1/1 MQ
1 Veet-$3.99 after Wags Monthly Coupon book coupon & less $3/1 printable (gone)
4 Russell Stover SF candies-Sale B1B1 Free-No coupon but The Hubby is worth it!
I also had a $2.50 RR from last week.


Walmart-Total OOP 52¢

2 Tucks Tag a Longs-$2.74 each less 2 $3/1 printable here (yea they paid me to take them!)
1 Crystal Light-$1.97 less $1/1 printable here


CVS-Total OOP $5.82 (BUT, I received a $5 ECB for my next visit!)

4 Fig Newtons-Sale 5/$5 less $1/1 Fig Newtons from the Nabisco Facebook page (No longer available but they have coupons on there often)
1 Weight Watcher SF candy-Sale $1.50 less 50¢ MQ from WW meeting :o)
2 CVS 30 SPF sunscreens-$2.19 each but qualified for $5 ECB when you buy 2 CVS skincare products--FREE!!!


My final deal of the week is courtesy of Pepperidge Farms and my friend Jessica who tipped me off on this one! One of our local liquor stores sells day old Pepperidge Farm products. The products sell for 99¢ each BUT the sandwich thins that The Hubby LOVES had a 75¢ peelie coupon on them!!! So, I got all 4 of these beauties for $1!

Near as I can tell, I saved about $48 on the products above and again they are all things I use. It is so important that you only buy things you use when you are couponing. It saves you NO money to buy things with coupons that you normally wouldn't use. With that said, would I buy little boxes of Fig Newtons normally? No, I would probably make cookies BUT both The Hubby and Little Bit like Fig Newtons and they were free after the coupon so I bought them.

I hope you all have a great week couponing and remember to check out Mercedes site Common Sense With Money frequently. By doing this, you are better able to score some of the awesome coupons that I do BEFORE they run out.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

Back before Little Bit was officially diagnosed with ADD, we tried altering her diet to see the difference in behavior by removing sugar, etc. During this time I also began working more with Whole Wheat flour in my recipes including pancakes, muffins and biscuits.

I also began using more buttermilk in these recipes instead of regular milk. I played with fermenting my own buttermilk and while the taste and texture were superior to store bought, I didn't think that the final baked/cooked products that I used the buttermilk in were as good. I got a better rise out of store bought buttermilk. I also found that freezing the buttermilk resulted in an inferior baked good. So, to fix this problem, I just use up my buttermilk all at once by making muffins, pancakes, etc. and freezing them to be used another day. This is a great option for mornings that are too busy to bust out all the items to make a batch of pancakes or whatever. I always batch cook pancakes and french toast for the freezer and Little Bit enjoys them for breakfast every week.

Sorry, got a bit off track there! Anywhoo, this recipe is from RelishMag.com. Go take a look at the site. There are some great recipes there including this one:

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups whole-wheat flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
¾ cup, plus 2 tablespoons, buttermilk, plus more if needed

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Combine 1 3⁄4 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk together. Add butter, toss with your fingers to coat with flour, and rapidly pinch and fluff butter into flour with your fingertips to make small flakes. Work quickly to keep butter firm.
2. Add buttermilk; stir well with a fork until the dough gathers into one large lump. Drizzle in additional droplets of buttermilk if necessary.
3. Scrape dough onto a flat surface sprinkled with remaining 1⁄4 cup flour. Roll dough to coat with flour, then pat out into a rough rectangle about 1⁄2-inch-thick and fold it in thirds. Repeat the patting and folding. Pat dough into a thickness of 1 inch. Dip a 2-inch round cutter into flour and stamp out biscuits, coating the cutter with flour before each stamping. Place biscuits, top sides up, on a heavy ungreased baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown. Makes 12 biscuits.

Polish Sausage w/Potatoes, Onions & Peppers

This is a super simple dish that The Hubby has been making for me since we got married nearly 12 years ago...OH MY! How time flies when you are married to the love of your life! Anyway, another recipe that I have not taken the time to calulate WW points for, but it is so good and hearty. As per tradition, The Hubby will be preparing this tonight for us since Little Bit has a ortho appointment at 5:30. I will have everything prepped so he can just throw it together when he gets home from work.

Polish Sausage w/Potatoes, Onions & Peppers

4 Polish sausages (or you could use a turkey sausage if you wish)
4 medium potatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 or 2 green peppers, sliced (of course mine are from the freezer!)
olive oil
season salt, to taste
garlic powder, to taste

Cut the sausages into bite sized pieces and warm in simmering water while you are preparing the rest of the meal. In a skillet or electric skillet, fry the potatoes in about 1 T. olive oil and covering with season salt & garlic powder to taste. When potatoes begin to get soft, add in onions & peppers. Season again with season salt & garlic powder. Cook until potatoes, onions & pepper are to the tenderness that you like. We like our potatoes soft but the onions & peppers to still have a bit of crispness to them. When everything is to your liking, add in the drained, warmed sausage bites. Stir to combine and ENJOY!!!