Frugal Novice

Friendly Friday – July 16

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Hi, and 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 to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday even more beneficial for everyone.

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 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 visit Moogie & Pap on an empty stomach, you may end up making an impromptu trip to the grocery store! Joann (aka Moogie) painted murals and designed landscapes professionally for years, and now enjoys baking for her blog. Filled with creative and mouth-watering recipes plus really beautiful photos, this blog is a delight to the senses. From Cloud Souffle (how could that not be something good?) to “Magically Delicious Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars”, there are a ton of new recipes for you to try!

Really in the mood for a party? Nicole at 2 Savvy Sisters has a boatload of ideas to inspire your next soiree – there are ideas for themes, including great decor and invitation examples. Nicole also runs an Etsy shop with the same name, where she sells home decor and party items. She describes herself as loving all things crafty, party, and paper-related. She’s a part-time instructor for the University of Phoenix, and a mom to two adorable little boys, too – but still manages to find time to make her custom creations!

Adventures of Wee Mason Man is the story of two newbie parents, two dogs, two cats, and one little boy. Frankly and humorously written, it’s a blog filled with absolutely adorable photos of their little boy, Mason. Need something to make you smile? Just take one look at him and it’ll brighten your day! The first post of this blog is their ultrasound photos, so it really does chronicle Mason from the very start!

Now that you know about these 3 wonderful blogs, it’s time for you to join in! Add your 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 – just leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Still Here! :)

Hi everyone! I haven’t posted as much this week because it’s been a little chaotic around here. I haven’t written about it on here yet, but today was my last day at a job I’ve been at for 7 years. I’ve loved the job and the people I’ve worked with, but I’ve taken a new job that I’ll start Monday, and I’m really excited about it. Needless to say, though, there’ve been a lot of loose ends to tie up. Thanks for being patient with me – I’ll get the giveaways posted soon… I have several great ones I think you’ll be excited about! Also, don’t forget to come back tonight at 10pm CST to join in for Friendly Friday – it’s a great way to get visitors and followers for your blog, and to find new blogs to read!

V Tech V.Reader Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to…

Laura!

Thanks to everyone for entering!

Menu Plan Monday July 12-17

We stayed around the house a lot this weekend and it was really nice! We had some good friends over for dinner, caught up on laundry (well, almost!) and got in a lot of time playing with LEGOs. We waited to try making gnocchi until Saturday, so that we could work on it together. It was SOOOO good! We’ll definitely have it again, although we might try a different sauce just for fun (we did end up making our version of the sauce suggested with the gnocchi recipe – side rant: we could not find prosciutto ANYWHERE so we had to settle for bacon. Frustrating!). It’s a fun team project, too – it’s messy, though, so be forewarned. J wanted to be “silly” and had me put some flour on his face. I wasn’t trying to be silly, but I had flour pretty much everywhere! It takes some prep time – you have to bake the potatoes first, which takes 45-60 minutes, and then you have to rice them. We don’t own a ricer, so we used a garlic press as a substitute. It took FOR.EV.ER. We will be buying a ricer before the next time we make this! Anyway, if you’re looking for a new recipe to try I’d highly recommend this. One note – we did a lot of testing to figure out exactly how long we needed to boil them. That helped us a lot. Plus, then we got to snack while we cooked.

On to the meal plan for the week – we’re actually traveling a bit this week (I’ll write about that next week) – but I’m still going to list out meal options for each day because, if you’re like me and are always looking for ideas, you’d probably appreciate a few extra options. Continue Reading…

Upcoming CSN Stores Review

I’ve written about CSN Stores before, when they let me host a giveaway for a $60 gift card to one of their 200 stores. It’s amazing to me the huge variety of items they offer, everything from a bedroom vanity to Rachael Ray cookware to toys like this adorable kids’ scooter! Continue Reading…

Brugo Mug Review & Giveaway

I recently got the opportunity to review a Brugo Travel Mug. Well, I say I reviewed it, but Brian got to review it too since he is the coffee drinker of the house. We received one of the Executive Mugs in Seagrass (a light sage green color). I liked the look of the mug right away. The color has a translucent look to it, making it subtle and giving it a modern feel.

Hasbro Game Winner

Congratulations to… Kelly!

Friendly Friday – July 9

Hi, and welcome to Friendly Friday!

EatSmart Digital Scale Winner

Congratulations to Carmen, the winner of the EatSmart Digital Scale!

Wordless Wednesday: Chocolate Milk

One chocolate milk, and two little boys? Just add straws:

Menu Plan Monday July 5-10

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great 4th of July! The holiday has gotten me in the mood for grilling, so I’ve got a little of that on the menu for this week. I’m also planning to attempt a new recipe that I’ve wanted to try forever – I recently saw a Food Network show highlighting how easy it is to make this dish, so I am going to get brave enough to give it a try! What dish, you ask? Gnocchi. Have you ever tried making this before?

Monday Burgers! We are pretty basic when it comes to burgers. We usually put in some seasoned salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. This time we want to try some steak/burger seasoning we bought. We will have baked onion rings and some fruit with it. I bought a watermelon at the farmer’s market last week that is one of the best we have ever had! I am sold on buying fruit locally when we have the opportunity.

Tuesday Chick Fil A Night! I really think this will be a weekly staple for us until we get tired of it. I love that you can get fresh fruit as a side option to provide a little healthier aspect to the meal. It is a fun time for our family each week.

Wednesday More grilling! This time it will be chicken for fajitas – one of our favorites! We like to do sauteed onions and peppers, and have homemade guacamole. Yum!! Whenever we have fajitas I also like to get fresh tortillas. HEB makes them, or sometimes we buy them at Rosa’s (which is like a Taco Cabana, if you haven’t heard of it before).

Thursday Gnocchi! I am going to use the recipe I found on Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. I don’t plan to make her sauce, but I haven’t figured out what I want to do instead. Any ideas?

Friday Grilled chicken, sauteed squash/zucchini mix, and brown rice. This is a really simple meal, but we like it a lot. You could also serve the chicken on a bed of lettuce to make it into a mini-salad. We are hooked on using baby greens when we have salad now!

Saturday Creamed chicken pasta. This is a super-easy recipe, which is nice to have at the end of a week!

Ingredients
Cream of mushroom soup (I get the 98% fat free)
Large can of chicken
One onion
One cup of sour cream (we use reduced fat here, too, and can’t tell a difference at all!
Egg noodles

Directions
1. Cook the egg noodles according to package directions. In the meantime, sauté chopped onion in a large skillet until it is tender and translucent.
2. Add the drained chicken to the skillet, breaking up any large pieces. Add in the can of soup and cook until heated through, then do the same with the sour cream.
3. Voilà! You’re done. Just serve the sauce on top of the egg noodles, and if you want to make it a little prettier you could sprinkle some fresh parsley over the top.

Have a great week! Don’t forget to check out the giveaways I have going on – a stay at the Hotel Valencia, an EatSmart digital scale, and a V.Reader from VTech! I will be posting at least one more giveaway this week, too, so stay tuned for that. :) Take care, everyone!

Honest Tea Winners

Remember, there were THREE winners for this giveaway! As always, I used random.org to select the winners. Drumroll, please….. The winners of the Honest Tea giveaway are: