Tuesday Treats: Chicken Alfredo Pot Pie

I've been looking for new dinner recipes lately, and this one I found on another blog hit the spot a few weeks ago at dinner (and again at dinner the next night - yea for leftovers!). Not only did I already have the ingredients in my pantry/fridge, but it was super easy to throw together. You can't go wrong with that kind of luck!

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped cooked chicken
4 cups Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers (from two 12 oz. bags)
1 jar (16 oz) Alfredo pasta sauce
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated garlic butter crescent rolls

Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat cooked chicken, thawed vegetables, pasta sauce and milk over medium heat. Stir occasionally until thoroughly heated. Pour into a 9 X 13 Pyrex and cover the top with crescent triangles and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until rolls are golden brown.

I think I may try it again with plain crescent rolls and see how the flavor changes. But, my family loved it as the recipe calls it. Enjoy!

Deal Day

I promise I am not becoming a coupon blog, but I must share this week's deals. It's just too fun not too! I've had quite a few people ask me how to ultra-coupon, and I hope I've convinced other people that this is the way to shop. If not, you're crazy. Seriously, people, you're just throwing money away if you pass up on the chance to purchase at a discount. And, it doesn't have to end at groceries and toiletries. I had some Kohl's coupons that I put to use Sunday afternoon and ended up spending less than $9 and saving $193.86. Last week, I was able to get a KitchenAid mixmaster for $191. That's just nuts because it was regularly priced at $499! I can't tell you how excited I am to get into my holiday season baking with my new mixer. Woo-hoo! Bath & Body Works was another retail outlet where I spent just $3, and left with three anti-bacterial soaps yesterday.

Here's my Walgreens deals this week. I don't go there every week because they don't always have the best deals, but I did okay this week. This cost me $9.12, and was a savings of $27.07.

CVS had some awesome deals this week. After adding on all the Extra Bucks (rewards that you use as cash for the next 30 days at CVS) and scanning my coupons, my receipt was so long that I HAD to measure it. It's 5 feet long! All of this cost me $37.32 and was a savings of $119.49.

My favorite place to shop, Target, is always my best savings place. I got all of this for just $36.83 and saved $86.44. That was a fun trip: 12 bags of Chex Mix, 3 small Renu bottles, 3 4-packs of Activia, 3 4-packs of Danimals, 2 Gillete razors with cartridges, 6 Jimmy Dean scramble bowls, 8 Quaker granola bars, 2 Aveeno baby lotions (for charity), 4 jars of Skippy peanut butter, Stuart Little 2 DVD, and 3 California Pizza Kitchen pizzas.

I went to Randalls last night for some other groceries, and had a 67% savings. I usually do better, but they didn't have everything that would have helped give me overage (more savings than the item costs, giving you money to pay for other items on your receipt), but I'll go back tomorrow and probably be able to pick up those items and get that savings. My favorite item was the Surf detergent boxes that are 120 loads and only cost $7. Needless to say, we are definitely set for laundry detergent. That's a great deal, so I picked up two boxes!

I still have to go to Wal-Mart, but wanted to get this out to you and hopefully inspire you to check out some of the websites I mentioned last week. You'll find all the same deals I did and can get these deals through Saturday. Happy shopping!

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Wordless Wednesday - Swim Lessons

Who am I kidding?! Seriously?! I thought I could be wordless! That's a joke.

Abigail is still going strong in swimming lessons every week. She tried out for the swim team on Saturday, but was sent back to work on her breast stroke. I don't think any of us were surprised, as the breast stroke has been a tough one for her for months and months. She'll be back in the pool Thursday and will go back for another try-out in a few weeks.

(That was at least fewer words than usual. But, somehow Fewer Words Than Usual Wednesday doesn't have the same ring to it as Wordless Wednesday.)

Tuesday Treats - French Toast Casserole

This is one of my favorite breakfast recipes I was reminded of when my turn to provide Sunday School breakfast came around last week. It's so simple, but so tasty! My mother found the recipe several years ago and it has since become our Thanksgiving morning breakfast tradition.

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

12 slices of bread

9 eggs

pinch of salt

2 cups milk

Directions

Melt margarine in 9x13 pan. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Layer bread on butter mixture. Beat eggs and salt together, then add milk. Pour over bread. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. Following morning, uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cut into squares and place upside down on place so melted sugar/cinnamon is on top.

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Shopper Gone Crazy

This is a safe place, right? I can come to you, my three readers, and confess my inadequacies and ask forgiveness for my inconsistent blogging, right? Ahh..., good. Please forgive me for not being here for you. I meant well, but just couldn't get my intentions and actions on the same page.


I've found a new hobby, and can't seem to pry myself from what has now become an obsession. I'm not sure if I should apologize or just offer to share my secrets in the hopes that you can benefit from my craziness. I've told you before about my Craigslist Crazy persona, and now I've added to the craziness. I'm now Coupon Crazy!


You may remember months ago when I set out to shrink my grocery budget. After awesome tips and insights from you, I came away with a smaller budget, a great spreadsheet to use for sales/coupon comparisons and confidence in my shopping! However, I recently discovered that I wasn't even coming close to the savings potential out there. I stumbled across a few blogs that I'm now using to aid me in my couponing, and my shopping habits have now changed AGAIN!


I have a few favorite blogs that I check on a daily basis starting with athriftymom.com. This site is great because she shares great deals (especially if you are an Albertson's shopper), but also links to other blogs that share the weekly deals at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Safeway (Von's, Kroger, and Randall's in other areas), and a plethora of other stores. Believe me, she covers it all.


I love CouponGal.net for the same reasons. The gives the run-down for awesome Target, Walgreen's and CVS deals. Plus, she throws in hints for great deals. Today, I grabbed three new Conair blow dryers for $5 each! Last week she showed me how to get a new KitchenAid mixmaster for $190 (regularly priced $500)!


DealSeekingMom.com is one of them that (I think) Amanda pointed me to. She's awesome at highlighting great retail deals at all the stores - Yankee Candle, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Wal-Mart, and anywhere else you can think to shop!


CouponMom.com is a bit different than these previously mentioned blogs, because it is a more in-depth site. I love to use her site because it is more like a spreadsheet and shows me which coupons to get along with the percentage I am saving. Plus, I can check off which deals I want to get and then print off a great spreadsheet that I take to the store for my list.


I've used a lot of other sites that I find through links on these sites, and I know there are many more out there. They all do the same thing in showing me where the best sales are and how to maximize my coupons, from newspaper inserts, magazines, manufacturer websites, online coupon sites, etc. I start off with four copies of the Sunday newspaper. I file away the coupon inserts, labeling them with the date they were distributed. I also print off the online coupon databases when they update at the beginning of each month. And, each day, I print off the max number of manufacturer coupons that are featured on each of the blogs previously mentioned.


Believe me, my shopping habits have changed dramatically. But, so has my budget! I still get a few deals at Sam's and Wal-Mart, but it's rare for me to go to each of those places. I did go to Wal-Mart last week to pick up a few bags of AirWick scented oil starter kits and motion detector fragrance kits for the house. Yes, my house smells awesome now! And, it will for a long time because I got 12 of these kits since they were on a great sale for $5 each. And, I paid $12 total for all of them! You may be laughing at me, because my family was laughing at me, too. But, then Daniel came to Target with me one day and saw me leave with 3 full bags of groceries and pay just 99 cents! He's so much on board that he made my weekly Target run for me last week. With an envelope of coupons in hand, he made my day by spending $30 and saving $84 for me! Now, that's a devoted husband who will even do my coupon shopping for me!


I think Target has become my favorite place for deals. Here's some of my sample purchases in the past month. On this Target run, I got these 20 cereal cups, a mini loaf of bakery bread and 6 bars of soap for the kids for free! I must tell you, that's not the only trip I took advantage of the cereal sale. Before the sale was over, I think I picked up about 60 of those cereal cups. (For the past few weeks, they've had cheesesticks on sale, and I think we have about 50 cheesesticks in our fridge - cheddar, swiss and pepperjack).

On another trip to Target, you'll see I got 1 gallon of milk, 3 pounds of bananas, 6 ears of corn, 1 loaf of bakery bread, 2 boxes of 12 Pop Tarts, toothbrushes, and a bunch of other stuff. You won't believe it, but I paid $6 for all of this. I'm serious!

This was a trip to CVS. There's the new Bounce dryer bars, 3 Dawn dish detergents, 1 Glade reed diffuser, 3 Downy fabric softeners, and 3 Softsoap body washes (their new Nutri-Serum is great!) all for $12. I'm not kidding!

To show that it's not just groceries I'm buying, here's my bounty from a recent trip to Victoria's Secret. I got a travel kit (priced at $25), a bar of (awesome) Pink soap ($5), tin of mints ($3.50), lip gloss ($7.50), and two pairs of VS panties ($17) and I only paid $9 in total! Now, that's retail therapy!

As you can see, I'm starting to get the hang of this coupon game and I hope I can put more attention back on my blogging now.

UPDATE: I used http://hip2save.blogspot.com/ for a slew of Wal-Mart deals tonight. Saved about $60 and spent just $31. Woo-hoo!

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Fierce Pierce

Almost a month ago, we finally granted a wish of Abigail's by taking her to get her ears pierced. Really, we've been planning to do this since early in the year but just never got around to it.

She was a bit scared, but that's probably my fault. I made sure to warn her that it was going to hurt. (She decided that it was going to feel like getting a shot.) I also made sure to guarantee her that if the first hole hurt so bad that she didn't want to get the other one, she still had to get it. Ha! I'm a mean mom and don't want my child going around with one ear pierced.

We lucked out and there were two piercers on hand the night we were there. Thank goodness, because the once they got her...

She wasn't too happy about it.

Fortunately, these tears are long gone, and she is very proud of her studs. She just can't wait to be able to take them out and wear different earrings.

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School Days, School Days...

I don't know who is more excited that school is back, Abigail or me. Ha! The kids have been with me at work since March, and, needless to say, we are all glad to get some time apart from each other.

Unfortunately, the first day of school wasn't one of Cooper's days, so the big day was all Abigail's, and it couldn't have been more wonderful.

Abigail's teacher is absolutely wonderful. She has her M.A. in reading and has been teaching for 15 years, and I'm already seeing evidence of her work in Abigail. They are working on vowels right now, and Abigail was so excited to take an insect to class on Friday for her "i" sound. I think she just wanted to prove to me that she is officially a nerdy Hardy instead of taking something like a picture of ice cream that I suggested.

They have a Bible verse to memorize each week, and last week were studying Genesis and what God created each day. She cracked us up when she was telling us about it. "Can you believe He just had to say something and poof, it was there? He didn't even do any magic tricks." Too funny. We start AWANA this week and I'm hoping the memory verse and lesson from that doesn't start to confuse her with what she's working on at school. No matter what, I can't tell you what a relief it is to not worry about the lessons she is learning in between the usual academic lessons. Knowing that her teachers pray for her and with her, and are working with us to raise a loving, kind, Christlike child, is priceless.

Aside from Bible and vowels, they are working on patterns, which is old hat for her so I think she's a bit bored with that, but she'll get over that. I've been trying to get out of her what they are studying for science, but haven't gotten there. We can review the teacher's weekly lesson plans online, so I need to start checking that out and having more targeted questions ready for her.

Overall, she is loving it and hasn't had a complaint. They have chapel once a week and she would probably be happier if they went every day. She says chapel is the "best thing ever in the world". And, after our experience with public school last year, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to hear her singing "I get down, but He lifts me up" when she comes home from school instead of "I shake my booty".

Mr. Cooper got his chance just a day after Abigail, and is enjoying his class as well. We're already hearing a bigger vocabulary from him, and aside from the first day when he was apparantly testing his teacher, we've heard nothing but good reports from her. I can't tell you how much of a relief that is. After the report I got on the first day of school, I was a bit frightened when he didn't dismiss with the rest of his class on the second day of school. I gasped a bit, and said "Oh, no, he must be in the principal's office." Ha! He was just in the bathroom. I'm sure we have plenty of those days ahead of us, but for now he and his teacher and classmates are getting along well.

As for the whole school experience for our family, I can't say enough good things about it. The schedule has been wonderful. Last year was rough on all of us, since we had to be in the car by 7:15 to make it to school on time. This year, there is enough time in the morning for the kids to have baths, breakfast at the kitchen table, they make their beds, Mommy gets a work-out in and still is ready with hair and make-up and out the door by 8 a.m. We're (or maybe just me) routine kind of people, so this school schedule, a new chore chart, and more structure was just what we needed!

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