Green beans

One of my favorite home cooked meals would have to be green beans. It's something I grew up on and something so simple and good for you. Cook down an onion until its clear. Add your green beans, sausage and you can also add cubed potatoes. Cover beans with water season to taste and cook for a couple of hours until beans are tender. Excited because I was able to use a bag of fresh green beans. This year our garden didn't do too good. Bugs have been crazy and the bug spray hasn't been affecting them. I love the smell of fresh green beans it has the outside garden smell. We serve over rice and it makes a yummy meal. I have used frozen green beans before but you miss out on that garden fresh smell. They still taste awesome. I have also tried this with chicken but you may want to cook your chicken separate if your like me and hate cutting the fat off before you cook it. So much easier when you do it after. If you have the time then you could boil the chicken make a broth and then shred the chicken and drop it in the beans once they are cooked. 

Coupon folder

This is my coupon folder I take to the store with me. It's easy to carry and has pretty much everything I need in it. I bought it from target for only a dollar. The new one that is black and white was made cheaper then my old pink one but my old one was falling apart. I painted a heart coupons on the back of it and started labeling the inside. One of the most important things I do is make sure I put an address label on the inside with my cell phone number. To me that is money. I label the different store that I visit most often. CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Winn Dixie, Dollar store ( dollar tree, family dollar and dollar general), Kmart,Target, Expiring, File, Out. Expiring tab I use for of course ones that are expiring. If I am not going to use them, I put them in front of the products so others can. Like a coupon fairy. File I use for coupons that I pick up while shopping. I never seen so many coupons on products until I stopped shopping at Walmart. Out is for restaurants. I also keep a pair of small scissors, calculator, and pen. You never know and yes I have cut coupons in the store before to use them in that trip. In each slot I put either the small keychain rewards card or the big. Sometimes both just in case I stick my card in the bag with all the exciting deals. 

Secrets

I am so excited about next Wednesday. My oldest daughter was a fourth of a point from having the highest GPA out of first grade last year. This year she worked her butt off and will receive many awards. The principal wants to just keep her on the stage. One of the biggest awards will be the highest GPA in  second grade. Very proud of her but I was asked not to tell her. I am about to burst with excitement for her. So proud. 

Icecream pops

I am sure you have seen the many recipes on Pinterest for different pops. I purchased the jelly belly molds from winn dixie for $2.99. I love these because they are separated from one another. Makes it so easy for the girls to grab. We first made the chocolate pudding ones. I tried the vanilla but those didn't go as fast. I than tried banana pudding. I put a cherry at the bottom. It was pretty good. Then I found the daddy red cream soda at the dollar tree. Before you put it in the freezer let it sit. Or you will have a mess in your freezer. It tasted like a snowball. Will do those again. I would like to try the root beer. Thanks to Emma for being my model. Even with her bed head she does a great job.

Easy pork chops with black eye peas.

I am not really crazy about black eye peas. I eat them for New Years for luck. That use to be it. One day I decided to try some frozen ones from winn dixie. They were on sale for $1. I had 5 pork chops and my kids are meat eaters and I was try to figure out a way to stretch those pork chops. So I chopped up an onion started cooking it down in water and added the beans and then the pork chops all to one pot. I am sure someone has done this before but not I. I was just praying the family would like it. After cooking it down for a couple of hours. The pork chop broke up in the beans. It gave the beans this awesome flavor. It just went so well together. Now I do it this way often and tried different types of beans with it. This is how it looks all thrown into a pot. It's still cooking right now but will post a picture later.

My beautiful babies!!!

Here they are. I dressed them up this past Saturday and took them to a park. I did a little research before we went for a nice spot. It was suppose to be a waterfall but no water was running when we got there. The rocks were pretty nice. I let them sit how they wanted and told them if they think of any way let me know. I can always erase what I don't want. These are pictures of pictures so they won't look as great as they really do. I went to Walgreens.com and ordered the ultimate package is the best for your money with the amount of pictures I needed. For $10. You get 3- 8x10's 3- 5x7's 20- 4x6's and 20- wallets. I then used a coupon code to get $10.00 off. Total came out to be only $21. I picked them up at my favorite Walgreens. If I would have ordered exactly what I needed. I would of had to pay $3.99 for each 8x10 and I needed a total of 9.

Walgreens brag books only .99 cents

Mother's Day is coming up. My mom and mother in law buy what they want when they can so when it comes to buying gifts its always easier to just give them pictures of our girls. Yesterday we went to the park and took some amazing pictures with the girls. At Walgreens they have a good deal on brags books regular $6.99 for only .99 cents. You can pick backgrounds and different pictures. It came out so cute that. I ordered one for myself also. After all I am a mother and those beautiful kids are mine. I can't wait for it to come in. I also ordered some 8x10s for them and us. Once I pick those up. I can show you how easy it is to just go out and take pictures.

Swiffer duster

I purchased a sniffer wet jet years ago. I had a coupon and I wanted one. I ran out of the solution a long time ago. I still love the swifter. I never was crazy about the mops where you reuse the same mop that never is really washed over and over again. I found this towel at the dollar tree. My floor was very dirty. I wasn't feeling good for the past couple of days. If I don't do the floor it won't get done. Besides 10 feet running around here I can mop everyday and the floor would never be clean enough. So today I decided to test out the towel. As you can see it picked up a lot of hair, dust and dirt. I will purchase another one. My mom would say to my dirty floor you should be ashamed of yourself but I am not. I do what I can. If I lived my life feeling what she probably thinks of me because no my house is not spotless. I would be so depressed.
Eww. I really do clean my floors.

1 of the many reasons I shop at winn dixie.

My gas light came on in my car letting me know it was empty. After a month of shopping at winn dixie I take my rewards card to Shell station. This month I had $1.30 per gallon on my card. Gas being $3.17. Made my gas only $1.99 a gallon. Awesome price. Paid $34.00 to fill up my tank.

Awesome day.

Today my youngest had a doctors appointment and the girls were off of school so they had to come with me. I decided to surprise them with a day of fun. I didn't go prepared so I stopped at McDonald's picked up 4 burgers and 2 large fries. It came out to $8. And some change. We already had drinks. Cheaper then 3 kids meals and a value meal for myself. We went to a playground that a friend of mine was telling me about. We had a picnic and played for an hour and a half. Then we went for snowballs. When we got home I let them play outside for a while since dinner was already cooking in the crockpot. No my housework didn't get done but spending time with my girls was so worth it. Besides it will all still be there tomorrow but my girls will be in school. They were awesome today.

Baking bacon = more time for other things

I ran across this idea one day. It's one of those duh moments. Why didn't I think of that? We like to have a nice big breakfast at least once a week during the weekend. We would spend hours just on bacon. Some days we would finally finish breakfast at 11am. Save me from having to worry about lunch but that was a lot of wasted time on bacon. Now I put the oven on 350* and for 20 minutes. I leave it in the oven and turn it off. Keeping the bacon warm. While I cook everything else.

Get a free new app from amazon.

Everyday you can download a new app at amazon.com. Today's free app is to train you to run a 5k. Normally would cost $1.99. Today is free.  .Here

Corn on the cob

I found this tip on Pinterest for easy corn on the cob. It did make it a bit easier to peel the corn and a lot less time since it takes a while just for the water to boil. However the flavor wasn't as good as when you boil it. My 7 year old said it tasted like the hair found on the corn. My 2 year old was upset that I wasn't letting her help pull the husk off the corn. So we will stick to the old fashioned way.   Here

Mexican Pizza ( copycat Taco Bell)

I found this recipe on Pinterest. The girls love Taco Bell and we are always looking for healthier ways to eat. Yes fast food places are convent but what do they do to your food before it gets to you is so gross. Make sure before you put on the topping and filling the tortilla is very crunchy.

http://www.thecountrycook.net/2011/11/mexican-pizza.html?m=1

Christmas Advent Calendar

This year I wanted to do something a little different. I am trying to raise my kids to have big hearts and understand that its not always about receiving but also about giving. I also have to make it fun for them.
December 1- 1st day of Christmas. Santa Claus is coming to town. I purchased a pack of Christmas cards from the dollar tree and yes it took a lot of time but I wrote the words to Santa Claus is coming to town inside the card and signed it Love Mom and Dad. We watched the movie and I found white cotton candy at the dollar tree. Scratched off some of the label and wrote with a black paint pen. Santa's beard. They were scared to try it at first and even thought it was really his beard. lol. I also painted Santa Claus on their nails. Looked something like this. I didn't do the face. I put it all in a brown paper bag and made a colorful 1 on the front of it. I also put on the back of the bags what we will do that day and on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.We also made Santa Handprint ornaments. Recipe Here. I put the year and their name on it.

December 2- Snowflakes was our theme. We made snowflake ornaments with white playdough. They are still drying but says on the container will dry hard. I will put a coat of mod podge on them a ribbon and those will be given out. I wrote tho song Let It Snow on the card and we sing those songs all day long the kids love it. We cut out paper snowflakes and decorated the house with them. I even figured out how to get Mickey's face in one. We were suppose to make snowflake tortilla's but ran out of time. This will be done on the 3rd day of Christmas. Recipe can be found here.

December 3- Writing letters to Santa. On weekday we won't have as much time as on weekends to this one will be pretty fast. On the back I put on the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me a 3 french hens. Inside the bag I put 3 Santa sheets of paper my mom printed off the internet, envelopes, and a new pack of pens. Next year I want to add cute Christmas stamps to decorate the envelopes with. After they finish writing them we will bring them to Macy's to drop them off in the big red mailbox. Might not happen until this weekend.

December 4- Teaching my kids to feel good about giving not just receiving is important to me. Today we played wegivebooks.org. For every book you read they help out with giving books to those in need. Right now they are helping out those affected by hurricane Sandy.

December 5- We read the book I've Seen Santa. We actually already owned the book so I just wrapped it up and inside the bag I found some candy at the dollar tree. Pack of 6 I hid them around the house and they had to find them. 2 of them were Santa.

December 6- Dance to Christmas music. I let the girls pick some Christmas songs to dance to. I found cute little poprock candies at dollar tree that came with a sucker and had Christmas characters on it.

December 7- Have a sleepover under the Christmas tree. My girls always love sleeping in the living room. Hubby moves a mattress to the floor and we watched a Christmas movie on netflix. We actually fell asleep pretty soon. lol

December 8- Polar Express Day. We watched the movie and while watching I made some bell ornaments by tying a red ribbon to some cute bells I found at the dollar tree and made them each a necklace with the bell. After I wanted to do a hot chocolate tea party but our tea pot and cups are MIA. More then likely packed away. So we just had hot chocolate. Then we went to the mall and rode the little train that goes around in a circle. Waved to Santa who was next to the train. When they get older I would love to go ride the trolley car.

December 9- Was Ornament day but my mom wanted to do something with the girls so our stuff was pushed to the side. They did make some cute paintings at my moms. Next year I would like to try and cut out ornaments with them using cookie cuters and some foam paper.

December10- Nature Scavenger Hunt. I set up 2 a just in case it was raining outside and one for outside. It rained really hard that day so I am thankful for the inside one. I put things like Santa, snowman, red ornament, candy cane, gift, different Christmas stuff. The last one I put open your box and it was some bubble gum.

December 11- Nativity Story. I know I have this book around here. Must also be packed away. I printed the nativity story and wrapped up a small nativity set, I already had. I would like to look for a plastic one so they won't break it. That is on my list for after Christmas sale. Also I wanted to put the song Away in the Manger in the bag but ran out of time.

December 12- Read One Snowy Night. Also a book that we already had. I wrapped it up and inside the bag I put red felt that was cut in the shape of a hat with needles and thread. We will make ornaments out of them. Hopefully they come out cute and no one sticks themselves.







Hunger Games Movie

 This past weekend we decided to purchase The Hunger Games. I knew my oldest would like it. I would of loved to read the books but maybe when she gets a little older that will be one of our summer goals. I was worried once speaking to my mother about my 7 year old watching the movie since there is a lot of kids killing kids in the movie but then I thought about it. Harry Potter has alot of killing also and she was fine with that one.
  In the movie there is a lower class and if they get more food then they are given their names get put into the bowl. The rich pick 24 names. If you seen the previews the older sister volunteers once her younger sisters name gets pulled. They then train for the games over the next couple of days. Finding out the boy from district 12 has a crush on the girl from district 12. They use that to get sponsors. They need sponsors in order to get items in the game. Its pretty cruel how the kids get treated. It turns out good but I won't spoil it for anyone. Then again it left me wanting more.
Its a really good movie. If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

August 21, 2012 Free stuff

Free Finish PowerUp samples Here

Gymboree Class - FREE with Coupon Here

Volcanoes  activity book Here

Free Taylor Swift Fragrance sample on Facebook Here

Teachers - Free Copy of Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand Book Here

Free Purina Cat Chow Healthy Weight Sample Here

2 Free Admission Passes During Museum Day - September 29th Here
Free "I Love Vegetable Gardening" Bumper sticker Here



Get Your Free Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Kit Here

Free Mr. Food eCookbook ABC's of Back-to-School Here

Free Nordic Naturals Wellness, Sport or Pet Pack Sample Here

 

Freebies July 26, 2012

FREE Sample Depends Real Fit for Men and Silhouette for Women Briefs

FREE  Woolite Extra Dark sample (Facebook offer)

FREE Big Ben Tower as a Pencil Sharpener
FREE Sample: Nectresse Natural Sweetener

FREE Purina Cat Chow Healthy Weight
FREE Sample of St Ives Blemish Control Apricot Scrub

FREE Rosary Teach your Kid Christian Values
FREE 1 Issue of Bridal Guide Magazine

FREE Jelly-Kids Kids Vitamins
FREE iPad app: Jump Out

Dinner was very yummy..

 Every Friday Mo's Pizza in Westwego makes some awesome roast beef po boys.

Yes its messy and sloppy but so worth it. Don't get there too late b/c if they sell out you have to wait until next Friday to get one.

skin tags...

When I was pregnant with my girls I ended up getting some skin tags. One fell off on its own Sunday. It was hurting for a couple of days like it was irritated when I would rub my hand across it. It became a scab and just fell off. So I decided to try an idea I read somewhere on the internet about tying a string to cut off the circulation. On Monday 7/9/2012 I wore a string around it the whole day. Every now and then I pulled it a bit. Yes it did hurt alittle but not too much. The next day I cut the string really short. By day three when I woke up I noticed that the string was gone and the tag had become more brown. 7/12/2012 It was a hard scab and I just kept rolling it until it just fell off. One more skin tag down. My husband goes to the dr and pays to get them off. I get mine off for free. lol