Ebates: Earn Cash Back While You Shop!

I wanted to tell you about Ebates, a shopping site that gives you up to 26% Cash Back every time you shop online. You can shop at over 1000 stores including eBay, JCPenney, Macy's, Nordstrom, Overstock.com, Walmart, Kohl's and Home Depot. Plus you get additional savings with exclusive coupons, free shipping offers, and limited-time sales! Sign up with Ebates today and we'll each get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase! Simply use this referral link to get started: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=YZGzt3vqyVEi3tYp%2BJhiiQ%3D%3D
Happy shopping!

Create Memorable Holiday Cards with Shutterfly

It's that time of year again! Time to start thinking about what holiday cards you will be sending out to family and friends.

Instead of purchasing boxes of cards this year, I've decided to create personalized holiday photo cards with the help of Shutterfly .
In browsing their website, I am amazed by all the styles offered.
An added feature of many of these cards is the ability to add several photos to your card, and cards are available in flat and folded styles.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Many Memories Tree Christmas 5x7 folded card

Features 6 spaces to add photos, with a Christmas tree and “Merry Christmas” written in the center. I like the idea of this foldable photo greeting card, because I’ll have plenty of room to write personal messages to my family and friends.

Count Your Blessings Christmas 5x7 folded card

Features 3 spaces to add photos, and is also a foldable card. There is also a wonderful greeting on the front of this card which reads “We are counting our blessings and wish you a miraculous holiday season”. What a great reminder that the holidays are a time to be thankful and reflect on all that we’re blessed with!

Seasonal Chic 2010 Christmas 5x7 folded Card

Another great folded card which can hold 3 photos. The front of this card incorporates the year “2010”, the message “Warm Holiday Wishes” and a snowflake.

Whether you’re looking for personal holiday, business holiday, or thank you cards, check out all the great options that Shutterfly offers. Oh, and I almost forgot! They also offer the service of stamping and mailing your cards for you, how cool is that!?

Leslie Loves Veggies Keurig Giveaway!

Checkout this blog called "Leslie Loves Veggies". There are always great giveaways being offered!

The current giveaway is for a Keurig Special Edition Coffee Maker for one lucky winner!

Check it out HERE

Baklava

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. I must admit, although I've never had a problem sharing recipes, I've thought about keeping this one all to myself!

The main reason I struggled with sharing this is because I've never tasted baklava as good as this! Not that I've been all over the world or anything, but in my own little corner, this is the best!

I had to concede, however, because:

1. I didn't create this recipe, someone was nice enough to share it with me!

2. Although I love keeping this as a "special" treat I make for my family and friends at Christmas time, I realize I don't have the funds or the time to make it for everyone every year!

3. Greed is bad! :o\


I've read quite a few baklava recipes, and had lots of conversations with friends about it. Most people assume that I use honey in my baklava, but I don't. Not that there's anything wrong with using honey. Honey is a what is traditionally used in Greece and many areas of the Middle East.

This particular recipe came from a Lebanese cookbook and was given to me by a friend who married into a Lebanese family. It calls for a sugar syrup and what I've dubbed the "secret" ingredient: Rose Water. The rose water adds a subtle, yet delightful flavor to the baklava. This baklava comes out moist and sticky, which I prefer over a dry, crisp, baklava.

With all that said, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Baklava

Basic Sugar Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
couple drops fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon rose water

Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in saucepan. Boil over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until slightly sticky (225 degrees). Before removing from heat add rosewater and let come to a boil. remove from heat and cool. (I prefer this to be chilled several hours or overnight.)

Preparing the Baklava:
2 cups walnuts or pistachios, medium chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon rose water
1 lb. filo dough
1 lb. melted butter (I never use quite this much, just melt a couple sticks to start with)
Prepared sugar syrup

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Combine nuts, sugar, and rose water.

Take 2 or 3 filo dough and brush lightly with butter. Place 3 to 5 tablespoons of nut mixture along wide edge of dough.

Roll, like a jelly roll, brushing filo with butter as you roll. Cut roll in half, and place halves in a 10 x 13 inch baking pan. Continue with rolls until pan is full. Brush rolls with butter.

With a serrated knife, cut rolls diagonally, starting at one corner of pan, and working your way to the opposite corner, creating diamond-shaped pieces.

Bake until golden brown. Remove from oven; spoon sugar syrup over baklava until saturated.
(You may have syrup leftover)

Store baklava in an airtight container; eat within a few days.

The Pioneer Woman

Ree Drummond, a self-proclaimed former "food snob" left her Southern California lifestyle behind when she was swept off her feet by a cattle rancher whom she lovingly refers to as the "Marlboro Man".

In 2006 she started a blog and covered topics such as ranch life and homeschooling. She then began adding recipes with full color, step-by-step photographs. Her sense of humor and deliciously easy recipes using simple ingredients caught on and her blog has won many awards over the past 3 years.

In addition to recipes,the site includes personal stories, amazing photography, including a "how-to" section for budding photographers, and prize giveaways. This is my type of blog!

So, take a few minutes and check out her site at www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking
You're sure to find a recipe (or ten) that you and your family will love, as well as have a few laughs along the way.

This site offers a ton of great recipes, so far I've loved every one I've tried.
Here are a few to look for...

- The Best Lasagna. Ever.
- Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs
- Pioneer Woman’s Favorite Sandwich
- My Most Favorite Salad Ever. Ever, Ever, Ever!
- My Most Favorite Burger Ever. (For Now.)
- Creamed Spinach to Die For
- The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

Save BIG on with Coupons!

I've used grocery coupons on and off over the years. You can really save big bucks if you do a little homework. I used to use a paid online service that did all the research, told you which coupons to use at various stores to get the most savings. After a while, I found that paying for a service that was geared towards saving money just didn't make sense to me, so I cancelled it, and did the research myself during times when I needed to stretch our grocery money a little further. But now, there are many free blogs popping up all over the internet that do all the hard work and provide you the shopping lists for free! Below is one that I heard about recently, I'll share links to other good sites as I try them out...

A friend on Facebook shared this blog link . (THANK YOU Jennifer T.! ) http://30dollarweeklygrocerychallenge.blogspot.com/search/label/Grocery%20Challenge

I hope some of you will find this information useful. I was really blessed by it and only paid $4.40 a couple of weeks ago for $33.86 worth of groceries! The blog is called “The $30 Weekly Grocery Challenge”. There are lots of great ideas for saving money on your grocery shopping and more. They even give you a list of sales at certain stores and which coupons to use from the newspaper and ones you can print online to save a bundle.

I read through the Harris Teeter list , which was offering their SUPER DOUBLE COUPONS that week so they doubled coupons up to 1.98. (a $1.98 coupon would become a $3.96 coupon!!) I then printed a bunch of online coupons using the links provided, and went out this morning and did my shopping. I didn’t have any coupons from Sunday’s paper so I missed out on a lot of deals, but I was amazed at what I was able to purchase just using the online coupons.

Here is what I got:

Coffee-mate Creamer 16 oz, $2 $1/1 printableFinal Cost: Free

Ore Ida Easy Fries $1.45 (buy 2)$1.50/2 printable Final Cost: Free

Wholly Guacamole $1.99 $1/1 printable Final Cost: Free

Yoplait Fiber One $2.95 $1/1 printable (this coupon said “do not double” so they wouldn’t double it) Final Cost: $1.95

Egg Beaters, select varieties, $2.99 $1/1 printable Final Cost: $0.99

Organic Valley Cream Cheese $2.59 $1/1 printable Final Cost: $0.59

Organic Valley Heavy Cream $2.19 $1/1 printableFinal Cost: $0.19

Weight Watchers Snack Cakes $1.99 (reflects BOGO price, only buy 1) $1/1 printable Final Cost: Free

Lip Smackers $1.99 $1/1 printable Final Cost: Free

Wet Ones $2.89 $1.50/1 printable Final Cost: Free

Stayfree Pads $2.50$1/1 printable Final Cost: $0.50

Subtotal Before Coupons: $ 33.86

Total after coupons, including tax $ 4.40

Total Savings: $ 29.46

Catch-up Time!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I started this blog. I intended to add to it at least once a month, but didn't even touch it in 2009. I think I actually forgot about it. I've been posting various things on my facebook page over the last year, so I think I'll take some time and update this blog with some of what I've shared on Facebook. Hope you find some of it helpful. :o)

Save on Groceries with Angel Food Ministries...

I saw this story on our local news about Angel Food Ministries.

They offer a way to purchase a box of groceries ($60-$75 value) which will feed a family of four for a week for only $30. This ministry does not have any income restrictions, it is open to anyone. It can be very helpful for either your own family or any family you may know who needs to stretch their food dollar a little further.

Here is a link to the news story http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/troubleshooter&id=6691676

and a link to the Angel Food Ministries website to learn more or find a distribution site in your area. http://www.angelfoodministries.com/about/