January – 2011 – Frugal Novice

Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Recipe

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your week gets off to a great start today. Did you have a good weekend? We worked on clearing out our master bathroom (well, Brian worked on it; I was great moral support, though, ha) quite a bit. The demo stage is always the least fun part of home projects, but it’s nice seeing a clean slate. I’ll be taking photos so once we’re done I can show you the before and after shots.

Weight Watchers is still going well, although I’ve used more of the flex points this week than I would’ve liked. Sometimes a piece of apple pie is just worth it, though. :) The chicken with 40 cloves of garlic was SO good, and we discovered that leftovers make wonderful paninis. I liked the chicken with honey balsamic glaze okay, but it’s not a favorite.

On to meals for this week… I’m going to try a few new things, and I’m planning to make something special for Saturday for my mom’s birthday.

Monday: Grilled chicken with lemon pepper seasoning, with baked potato cubes (I’ll be sharing the recipe for this later this week along with a review of the Bean Pot from Celebrating Home).

Tuesday: We’ll be eating out at one of the restaurants doing free kids’ meals, but I’m not sure which yet.

Wednesday: Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken – this is a new recipe for us. I’m always looking for new ways to make chicken since that’s pretty much a staple in our house; I’m planning to serve it over salad for me and Brian, and will have green beans for the boys. Here’s the recipe in case you want to try it:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

Preheat the grill for medium heat (we’re using our indoor grill).
In a shallow bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayonnaise, and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside a small amount of the honey mustard sauce for basting, and dip the chicken into the remaining sauce to coat; I’m going to try letting the chicken marinate for an hour or so.
Grill chicken, turning occasionally, until juices run clear. Baste occasionally with the reserved sauce during the last few minutes.

Thursday: Turkey paninis & tomato basil soup – I’m going to make it with reduced fat half & half to make it a healthier dinner option for us.

Friday: Chicken fajita nachos. I’m going to cook chicken on our indoor grill and have black beans, salsa, cilantro, onions and other toppings to go with it. I love queso but am not sure if I’ll be able to find a healthy-ish version to include. If you have a recipe you make, please share!

Saturday: Well, that’s a surprise, because my mom reads this blog. :) I’m planning to make dinner & a cake, and will tell you all about it on next week’s MPM.

Have a great week, everyone! We’ve had weather in the 70’s over the weekend, but it’s about to get crazy – the high today is supposed to be in the lower 70’s, but then the low will be in the 20’s and we have a 90% chance of snow tomorrow! Texas weather drives me nuts sometimes, but I do hope we get some snow because J has been asking about it since before Christmas!

CSN Stores Review – LEGO Set

I’ve done several reviews for CSN Stores and I figured this time I would pick something that the whole family could enjoy. I don’t know if I’ve written about Brian’s love of LEGOs before, but he loves building with them just as much now as he did when he was our boys’ age. He’s definitely passed that love on, and my three guys love to build pretty much every day together.

One of my favorite things about LEGO is how it fosters creativity, so I decided to try a scenery set. Some sets have instructions with 2-3 certain things to build (and I think those are fun too) but this one leaves it a little more open as to what you can create.

The bricks came well-packed, and this set lived up to our expectations. The boys & Brian spent hours building all sorts of different things. Brian was even nice enough to take some photos for me to include in my post! I love these pics – all the colors are so bright and cheery!

CSN Stores has quite a few LEGO sets available that I hadn’t really seen elsewhere. There are a couple of others I have my eye on for birthdays coming up this year!

Note: CSN Stores provided me with the LEGO set for review. Any opinions in this post are honest and are my own.

Friendly Friday January 28

Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog too! Just click “Get the code here…” at the bottom of the list. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way for everyone to get even more traffic to their blog.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your family-friendly link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!

Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers! We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight some of those each week. Say hello to the lucky chosen 3 for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):

If you are a SoCal resident, you’ll definitely want to check out Just Another Hat! Filled with thorough details of all kinds of family-friendly events throughout the area, you’ll never be at a loss for where to go and what to do. Plus, for those who aren’t local, you’ll still enjoy deals, activities, blog hops and product reviews that everyone can take advantage of for themselves and their kids!

Brooke at Girl Boy Girl Inspired is a stay at home mom who somehow finds the time to run an adorable hair bow and accessories business on Etsy, Bella Boo’s Bowtique, while taking care of her three children and four-legged family members. Her blog is bright, colorful, upbeat and filled with all sorts of great crafts, personal posts and photographs that will definitely make you smile.

If you’ve ever wondered what a busy Canadian life with beautiful twin boys would be like, look no further than Double Tha Love. Kaylah writes about how hectic and challenging things can get but how she wouldn’t change it for the world – and one look at those gorgeous little faces and it’s not hard to see why! Visit her new blog to find out about this busy mommy’s daily musings and then visit her Etsy shop to see her crafty side as well!

Now that you know about these 3 wonderful blogs, it’s time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can grab the code to share the link list on your blog too.

All three hostesses appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – be sure to leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

RedEnvelope.com Valentine’s Review & Giveaway

What would be your idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day gift? Would you pick flowers?

Jewelry?

Chocolate?

Well, I recently got the chance to look through an amazing selection of Valentine’s gifts at RedEnvelope.com, and let me tell you – it was hard to decide! There were several items I thought about choosing to review, but I finally settled on something – the Sculpted Jewelry Tree.

Isn’t the silhouette of it so pretty? The tree is finished in satin nickel with a solid mango-wood base. Even with nothing on it, it would be a nice piece to have out.

The branches are perfect for holding bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings:

And the base works wonderfully for watches and bracelets:

I seriously can’t say enough how much I love the tree. It’s a great addition to our bedroom, and it’s nice having my day-to-day jewelry out and easily accessible like that.

I have to admit, I am hoping Brian will see this post and go check out Red Envelope if he needs ideas for Valentine’s Day, because there are still several things from there I’d love!

What would you pick from Red Envelope? Well, you’d better start planning because I have a giveaway!

RedEnvelope.com is providing me with the chance to do a giveaway for a gift of the winner’s choice up to $70! (You’ll be able to pick your gift from any of the following pages: Valentine’s Day bestsellers, Valentine’s Day gifts for him, Valentine’s Day gifts for her, Valentine’s Day gifts under $50, or Valentine’s Day jewelry.) This contest is open to US residents. Entries will be accepted until midnight CST on Friday, February 4.

Mandatory Entry: “Like” RedEnvelope on Facebook and write this on their wall: “FrugalNovice.com sent me!” Then comment on this post letting me know you’ve done so.

(Only valid after the required entry has been completed)

Please leave a comment for each extra entry – if you blog about this giveaway and get 3 entries, for example, comment 3 times.

Comment telling me what your worst or best Valentine’s gift has been {1 extra entry}
Share a link to this giveaway on your Facebook wall {2 extra entries}
Follow Red Envelope on Twitter {1 extra entry}
Blog about this giveaway and link it back here {3 extra entries}
Subscribe to my RSS feed {2 extra entries}
Follow me on Twitter {1 extra entry}
“Like” Frugal Novice on Facebook {1 extra entry}
Follow me via Google Friend Connect (look over in my sidebar to find it!) {2 extra entries}
Tweet about this giveaway {1 extra entry per tweet; 2 tweets (not back-to-back) per day}

Note: RedEnvelope provided me with the jewelry tree for review and is providing the giveaway. All opinions included in this post are honest and remain my own.

Baby Bullet Review & Giveaway

When J was a few months old, I decided I wanted to make his baby food. Then I decided it was too complicated, I got too busy, and I never did. When C was little, I decided to give it a try, but a frustrating experience and disastrous results convinced me I just wasn’t cut out for this.

The Baby Bullet didn’t exist then, but for new parents this is a solution to make homemade babyfood, quick, convenient, and easy. I got a chance to review the Baby Bullet; take a look and find out more about how the Baby Bullet works, and what the pros and cons are of this system.

In this next video you’ll see how the system works with creating a basic baby food – banana puree.

Next, I decided to try one of the recipes for older children – pancake batter:

Final thoughts on the Baby Bullet, including both pros & cons:

If you have any questions about the Baby Bullet, just use the “contact me” form at the top of the page & I’ll be happy to answer them for you!

Note: Please note that the giveaway has ended.

I get to give away one Baby Bullet System (which sells for $79.96)! This contest is open to US residents. Entries will be accepted until midnight CST on Wednesday, February 16. One lucky winner will win:

This giveaway has closed.

Note: I was provided with a Baby Bullet system for review, and one will be provided for the giveaway. All opinions included in this post are honest and remain my own.

Menu Plan Monday – 1/24-1/29

Whew, I’m tired from our weekend! Friday night we babysat for our friends’ daughters. They’re great kids, but being outnumbered 4 to 2 keeps you on your toes! Saturday we ran some errands (we’re finally starting to remodel our master bathroom… I’m so excited!). Sunday morning J was sick. I knew something wasn’t right when he woke up fussy, because he is the lone morning person of our family. He and Brian stayed home yesterday morning while C and I went to church, and even after taking it easy all day he was still running a fever and feeling pretty crummy. Poor little guy! We’re taking him to the doctor this morning. I’m hoping this is short lived and that C doesn’t get it too.

This was my first full week back on Weight Watchers and I am loving it! For me it’s easy to fit into my day-to-day life. I did splurge Thursday night when Brian and I had a date night at our favorite hibachi grill, but still only used 18 of my 49 extra points for the week. This week I’m trying several of their official recipes, including one for chocolate chip cookies that use part whole wheat flour.

Monday: Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. This sounds SO good and I’m really hoping it lives up to my expectations. We’re having it with a baguette and a salad of baby greens with cucumber and carrots.

Tuesday: The plan is to go out for dinner with friends, but we’ll have to see if J is feeling better by then. If we can’t go out we’ll probably have leftovers from Monday.

Wednesday: Chicken with Honey Balsamic Glaze. I’m going to do some cooked carrots and rice to go with this chicken – it sounds like the glaze would be great soaked into the rice. Yum!

Thursday: Tostadas with refried black beans; I haven’t figured out what sides to serve with this yet!

Friday: Assuming everyone’s healthy, we’re supposed to have some friends over for dinner. I’m going to make chicken taco soup, and Brian will be in charge of guacamole & salsa (we love The Pioneer Woman’s recipe). I’m also going to make an apple pie and our favorite cinnamon ice cream (I’ll be saving ALL my extra points this week for Friday – thankfully the soup is really healthy).

I’ve made pie crust quite a bit, but I’m trying a new recipe this week… you’ll never guess what the secret ingredient is: VODKA. I don’t know a lot of the science behind cooking, but when water mixes with the flour it forms gluten. When vodka, which is 50% alcohol, mixes, it doesn’t form as much gluten so you get a flakier, moist crust (and the alcohol cooks off). I’ll let you know how it goes!

Saturday: Leftovers, which seems to have become our Saturday night tradition. I’m hoping we’ll get a lot done on our bathroom, so we will probably be too tired to cook dinner anyway. I might try to make these chocolate chip cookies, though.

So, there’s our week in food. I’m really excited to try some new twists on chicken, and I’m looking forward to having an excuse to bake!

Oh, and speaking of food, I’ll be posting a new food-related giveaway later today! Have a great week, everyone!

Friendly Friday January 21

Welcome to Friendly Friday!

As you probably figured out, Elle @ Midwest Elle lives in the Midwest. She and her husband have a precious daughter who is 1 1/2 years old and was born with a congenital heart defect. Elle loves dance but her new goal in life is to work with children who have heart defects and their families. On her blog, she features crafts, recipes, reviews, and her experiences with potty training.

I know you’re not surprised that Mrs. Marine @ Novel Bloggers is married to a Marine. She stays at home with their two children and blogs about her life, her husband’s deployment, and cute things her kids might do. Books she is currently reading happens to be a frequently mentioned topic on her “Online Book Club.” If you’re a reader, too, check out her blog and compare notes on books you’re reading.

TerriAnn @ Cookies & Clogs has been a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom for their daughter the past four years. She started blogging because her friends are always asking her where she gets all her good deals. This way, they can just go to her blog and find out. TerriAnn writes about her good deals, reviews of products, and also special deals for those in the San Francisco Bay area.

All three hostesses appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – be sure to leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Luggage & CSN Review

Seven years ago, when Brian and I first got married, I bought a little set of purple luggage, and I still use that same luggage now. I have thought, though, about getting something new and a little bigger. I’m going to get a chance to do another review for CSN Stores, and I just went to take a look at suitcase options. The Delsey luggage pieces are really nice. I might end up getting something for the kitchen instead, though – that always seems to be what I gravitate toward! Any suggestions on what I should get to review?

Car Refinancing

I have heard a lot of people talk about refinancing their mortgage lately, I guess because of interest rates being lower. I don’t think we’ll be at our current house long enough to make that a smart choice for us. I had never heard of car refinance before, though. We typically buy cars that are fairly inexpensive and try to get the best interest rate possible, but I could see how if I had gotten a really bad interest rate it might be worth it to refinance my car and try to end up paying less interest overall.

Betty Crocker Winner!

The winner is…..

Tina M! Congratulations, Tina – and thanks to everyone who entered!

Fandango Ticket Winners!

Thanks to Offermatic.com for the great giveaway, and thanks to everyone who entered! The following people will receive a pair of Fandango tickets (valued at $12 each):

Tina M.
Megan
Dee
Christin
Leah
Holle
Heather Ratliff
Jennifer
Marci
Cara Lee
Laurie G
Michelle Chaney
Shaley Lucas
Allison
Arun
Leah
Alan
Heidi
Hillary
Chemese

If you won, please take a moment to go post on Offermatic’s Facebook wall: “Thanks for hosting the giveaway at FrugalNovice.com!” You will be contacted via email about receiving your tickets.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

ETA 1/23: Offermatic’s PR Firm will be emailing codes to me that I will then email out to all of the winners sometime this week.

Fandango Giveaway #4

Here is the last of FOUR posts today where you have the chance to win a pair of tickets to Fandango, courtesy of Offermatic.com. It’s been a fun day giving away all these tickets!

The first 5 people to do the following will win a pair of tickets:

“Like” Offermatic on Facebook
Write on Offermatic’s wall: “FrugalNovice.com sent me!”
Comment here letting me know you’ve done so.

Easy, right? I’ll be checking each winner to make sure you’ve completed all three steps.

Note: I have comment moderation on my blog to avoid spam comments. If you post your comment and it doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry – once I approve your comment it appears in the order it was received once it is moderated (which I will try to do as quickly as possible with each post)!