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Frugal Novice

Yoplait Winner

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Congratulations to…

Yoplait Lactose Free Prize Pack {Giveaway!}

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I love yogurt, milk, and ice cream but they can really bother Brian’s stomach if he consumes too much. There are a lot of people who are lactose intolerant and have to miss out on dairy. Now Yoplait has a solution for those people:

Yoplait has announced its new Yoplait Lactose Free yogurt! Inspired by the Yoplait yogurt we know and love, Lactose Free comes in four delicious flavors – Strawberry, Peach, French Vanilla and Cherry – and contains 50% of the recommended Daily Value of calcium, with vitamins A and D in every cup. Lactose Free contains no artificial sweeteners and can be used in some of your favorite recipes – like chocolate crème brulee and strawberry cheesecake. What does it feel like to say YES after saying NO for so long? Find out by saying YES to Yoplait Lactose Free. It’s a little taste of freedom. Be one of the first to try new Yoplait Lactose Free. Click here to enjoy a coupon for $0.30 off Yoplait Lactose Free!

One lucky reader will win a Yoplait Prize Pack:

  • A VIP coupon to purchase Yoplait Lactose Free yogurt
  • Lunch tote
  • 2 Gel packs
  • Individual bowl
  • Spoon

This contest is open to all US residents 18+. Entries will be accepted until the end of the day (midnight Central) Friday, March 16. By entering this giveaway, you agree to the Official Rules.

Mandatory Entry: Comment on this post answering this question: What flavor of Yoplait Lactose Free yogurt are you most excited to try?

(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 2 entries, for example, comment 2 times.

Disclosure:  Prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark.

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies Recipe {Yum!}

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As a child (oh, and let’s be honest – even well into adulthood) I was a big fan of Little Debbie’s oatmeal cream pies. They can be a little too sweet for me sometimes, and when I came across a recipe on Pinterest it really appealed to me to try a recipe that’d be fresh and have a little more depth of flavor. These are great! The cookies have a little spice to them from cinnamon and molasses, which balances out the sweetness of the filling perfectly. The only challenge is making sure you get them baked just enough. Too much, and you’ll have crispy wafers; too little, and you get doughy cookies that won’t hold up.

Cream Filling Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups quick oats

Cream Filling Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons very hot water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow cream
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

  1. In large bowl, cream butter, sugars, molasses, vanilla, and eggs.
  2. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
  3. Add to the creamed mixture; mix in the oats.
  4. Drop dough by the tablespoon on ungreased sheets.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes,or until just starting to brown around the edges.
  6. They will look moist; don’t overcook.
  7. While the cookies bake prepare the filling.
  8. In small bowl, dissolve the salt in the hot water, then set aside and allow to cool.
  9. Combine marshmallow cream, shortning, powdered sugar, and vanilla in med bowl; mix on hi until fluffy.
  10. Add the cooled salt water and mix well.
  11. Spread filling on flat side of one cookie, and press second cookie on top.

PS~These cookies are REALLY good on their own, too – you could add in chocolate chips, raisins, or any other favorite if you’d like.

Chef Boyardee-licious & Easy Recipes

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We love to cook, and if we had all the time in the world we’d do a lot of from-scratch cooking. Unfortunately with work, soccer, and other mid-week happenings, we’re often too strapped for time (and energy!) to spend hours cooking.

I recently got the chance to host a Chef Boyardee party and showed friends how quick and simple recipes using Chef Boyardee can be. My husband has fond memories of eating Chef Boyardee growing up, but he said he remembers eating it as it was, so trying it in a recipe added a new dimension.

I’ve been excited to have our Chef Boyardee party ever since getting our party kit filled with aprons (big and little) a chef’s hat, coupons, recipes, bakeware, {absolutely adorable, colorful} mixing bowls, measuring cups and notepads!

We tried two of the recipes – Chili-roni and Ravioli Lasagna (by the way, be sure and go here to see a ton of great recipe ideas!), both of which seemed really easy and like something the kids in the bunch would like, too.

Right off the bat I loved that I didn’t have to buy much. Some cheese, some beans & tomatoes, and of course the Chef Boyardee items! Each recipe called for some spices too, but I had them on hand.

We used two cans of Beef Ravioli for the lasagna, and two cans of Beefaroni for the chili. Both were incredibly easy! For the lasagna, it was just a matter of layering the ravioli mixed with tomatoes and Italian seasoning, ricotta (or, as they suggested, cottage cheese mixed with spinach), and shredded Italian-blend cheese. Voila! It took about 5 minutes to assemble and then I think 20 minutes in the oven. Super easy!

As easy as the lasagna was, the chili was even easier! We just opened cans, put them in the pot and let them cook away – Beefaroni, fire-roasted tomatoes, pinto beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce, cumin and chili powder. This would be something you could throw on the stove as soon as you get home and let it simmer until you’re ready to get to the table! And both recipes are perfect for little chefs to help with.

I really liked both dishes. I think I’d like adding some sauteed onions and fresh parsley to the lasagna to add in more flavors to it, but even as it was we all enjoyed it. The chili was the favorite of the night for the adults, though. The flavors were great and had a little bit of a kick. What I love about the chili is that you can keep the ingredients on hand to make in a pinch.

Don’t forget, you can get Chef Boyardee recipe ideas to try! Click here to get started.

If you’re like me and love to cook, you’ll also want to know about a fun recipe contest through Chef Boyardee:

  • Enter the Make it Boyardeelicious Recipe Contest on the Chef Boyardee Facebook page for a chance to win a grand prize of free groceries for a year. The Facebook Contest page is here.
  • Now through March 11, 2012 (you still have four more days to enter!), you can submit an original recipe that uses Chef Boyardee as an ingredient. Just upload a photo of the recipe, and share why your family loves it.
  • Each week, a winner will be chosen based on creativity, all-family appeal, ease of preparation, and palatable appeal by an expert panel of judges.
  • The weekly winner receives a $500 prize as well as $75 in Chef coupons.
  • Each of the top ten finalists from all the accumulated weeks will have the chance to win the grand prize of free groceries for a year. The winner will be chosen based on a combined score of taste points and voting.
  • The voting period lasts March 26-April 8, 2012. Voters get entered into a daily sweepstakes for the chance to win $100. Share it on Facebook and get an extra sweepstakes entry!

Note: I wrote this review while participating in a In Home Party campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Chef Boyardee and received product samples to facilitate my party and review, and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

 

{Giveaway!} Going Bananas for Bananagrams Games

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Brian and I LOVE playing games – we have a whole armoire filled with them, and started our collection back in college. At Christmas, we both got each other Bananagrams for a stocking gift, because my friend Amber and her husband introduced us to it a while back and we loved it! It’s a great game for two or more players, and we actually rang in the New Year playing Bananagrams!

So, of course I was really excited when I got the chance to review the whole slew of games from Bananagrams! We decided to have a game night with our friends and try out the Pairs in Pears & Appletters games since we hadn’t tried them before.

PAIRSinPEARS  is a word construction game for ages six and up where players race to make pairs of connecting words in matching patterns.  PAIRSinPEARS comes in a pear-shaped cloth pouch, containing four full alphabet sets in four beautiful distinct patterns.  The game provides educational fun for children learning vowels and consonants, alphabetical order, word construction and pattern recognition.

At first it sounded like this would be too easy to me, but once we started playing and I realized how quickly you had to work to complete your pairs, we had a lot of fun with it. It did take us a little while to figure out the rules…

But then we realized Bananagrams has videos for each of their games explaining how to play. I really love that feature! I think it’d be great if they included QR codes on instructions so people could go straight to the videos with their smart phones.

From a design perspective, I think the tiles for this game are pretty! Love the different patterns:

We also played Appletters:

APPLETTERS is a domino-like game for ages six and up where players connect letters in lieu of dots.  The game comes in an apple-shaped cloth pouch containing 110 ivory-like tiles.  In addition to the version for a younger audience, the game also includes instructions for more adult play – APPLE TURNOVER™ for an extra challenge and APPLESCORE™ for word lovers who like to keep score.

We liked this game, but it did seem a little similar to Bananagrams with some extra features (like the turnover option). There was also the added challenge of only being able to build your word on the last tile played. Overall we enjoyed it!

We also got to review Zip It! I love that this game is for two players, because it’s something Brian and I can play on our own. And it is QUICK, so you can fit in a game quickly and easily! Since the games are packaged in little pouches, they’re all easy to bring along with you.

The last game we got was Fruitominoes, which is a twist on classic dominoes by adding fruits to the design.  The boys think this is SO fun, and it’s especially great for little ones like C – they’re too young to do a whole lot of counting, but it’s easy to see that pears match up with pairs, for example.

Guess what?! You can win your own set of delicious fun…

One lucky reader will win an entire set of Banagrams games, which includes Bananagrams, Pairs in Pears, Appletters, Zip It, and Fruitominoes! This giveaway is open to all US residents aged 18+. Entries will be accepted until the end of the day (midnight Central) Wednesday, March 28. By entering this giveaway you agree to the Official Rules.

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment below letting me know what your favorite fruit is and which game you’re most excited to try!

(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 2 entries, for example, comment 2 times.

Note: Bananagrams provided the games for us to review and is providing games for the giveaway. All opinions in this post are honest and are those of me, my friends and family. I was not compensated monetarily for this post.

It Turns Out Falling Asleep at 8 Every Night Isn’t Great for My Blog

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And WHY am I falling asleep at 8:00 all the time?

I’m PREGNANT! Baby 3 is due in September. We are all really excited, especially J who has temporarily (probably permanently in his mind) named the baby Ninja. I’m 12 weeks today, so hopefully the tiredness will get a little better soon. I’m actually still up after 9:00 tonight because my sweet husband let me nap for FOUR hours this afternoon.

Aside from that, we’re on the roller coaster ride of selling our house. We’re feeling cautiously optimistic right now but I’ll wait to update until things are certain. Regardless, the task of keeping the house clean and showing-ready is no easy task, especially with two little boys who seem programmed for scattering toys as quickly and broadly as possible.

Between that, a huge project at work, and prepping for Brian’s 30th birthday this weekend (the boys decided he should have a Star Wars party), I’ve totally fallen behind on blogging. I’m glad to be back! I have a couple of fun giveaways to post this week along with an Easter craft idea.

I’m trying a Pinterest recipe idea this week – pepperoni pizza monkey bread. I think it sounds like a fun take on pizza that the boys will really like.

I packed away our bundt pan in an attempt to declutter the kitchen cabinets, so I’m going to be a little creative with execution and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Somehow I think it’ll be hard to go wrong with bread, cheese, pepperoni and garlic butter.

I’m also participating in a campaign to try out Chef Boyardee products in recipes, so watch for a post later in the week sharing our thoughts on that! We’ll have some friends over and let the kids help us cook, so I think that will be fun for everyone.

See you soon – hope you all have a great start to your week!

Sam’s Club Giveaway Winner

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Congratulations Renee!!

Buying a House

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Right now, this is definitely something we’re thinking about a LOT. We put our house on the market a couple of weeks ago, and we’re so ready to be able to move on to something else! As a result, House Hunters on HGTV has become even more of a favorite of mine (and Brian likes it too, whether he’ll admit it or not).

When I watch that show, though, the different scenarios people are buying in sometimes amaze me. I’ll see 20-year-olds buying a $500,000 house, or people dropping more than we would on a permanent home for their vacation properties. Some people are just looking for economical property investments, so they’re thinking more about spending just a little bit with the potential for flipping it and making money on it later. That would be completely intimidating to me! I’d need a property investment guide or mentor, because I don’t approach houses thinking about their investment value as much as I do how it’d work for our family to live in. I try to remain practical, but emotions definitely come in to play!

I know when we bought our house that we live in now (our first house), it just felt like home. Of course, we waited for an inspection to confirm it was in good shape, but it was definitely the emotional draw that pulled us to the house to begin with.

How do you approach home buying? Are you all about the numbers, or are you emotional? Or a mix of both? What drew you to your house?

Note: http://cmp.ly/3

 

World Book Day

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We’re huge fans of books in our house. Brian and I both grew up loving to read, and we’ve virtually run out of space for books on our shelves. It was important to us to instill a love of books in our children, and it’s always one of my favorite times of the day when we’re all four settled in to hear a good story.

It makes sense, then, that I was really excited when I heard about World Book Day. World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world. It’s most dominant in the UK and Ireland, and is not currently in the US.

How fun does that sound, though?! Kids can wear World Book Day fancy dress up clothes like the Very Hungry Caterpillar (from Fancy Dress Ball) to participate, and can get free books. I love this, and hope one day it comes to the US too! For one thing, it promotes books, and for another, it gives kids another excuse for dressing up (my boys have been ready for Halloween since, well, November 1).

I do know some schools have celebrations – for instance, my boys’ day care is celebrating Dr. Seuss week and is having parents come in and read. Have you or your kids participated in any sort of book events? I’d love to hear about them!

Note: http://cmp.ly/3

Keeping things Natural with Johnson’s

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Before having kids, I don’t remember really ever paying attention to ingredients in products too much. Wow, did that ever change once our babies entered the picture! BPA in plastics, corn syrups in food, chemicals in toiletries – you name it, it seemed like there was something to worry about. It’s become really important to us to have our kids eat naturally, and for us to use natural products with them whenever we can.

If you’re like me, you probably remember using Johnson’s baby shampoo when you were younger. That yellow bottle was a staple in our house when I was young, and then again when my brother was born. Well, Johnson’s has a line called Johnson’s Natural, which I’m really excited about. It’s the same brand I know and love, with 98% natural ingredients.

Some facts to know about the Johnson’s Natural Baby Products:

  • 98%  (99% for the lotion) natural from plant and fruit-derived ingredients
  • ALLERFREE allergen-free fragrance with a clean natural scent
  • Paraben-free, dye-free, and allergen-free
  • No essential oils
  • Dermatologist tested
  • Designed to be gentle enough for newborns
  • Up to 60% post-consumer recycled packaging

I love that the baby wash is foaming, and the scent of all three products is great; it’s awesome to me that you don’t have to sacrifice anything by using a natural product. How does your family go natural? Share below in the comments – I’d  love to hear!

Note: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Johnson’s Natural and received a product sample to facilitate my review, and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Neosporin Eczema Essentials Review

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When I first heard about the opportunity to review the Neosporin Eczema Essentials kit, I had the boys in mind. In the fall and winter, the backs of their arms and legs can have mild eczema flare-ups, which in themselves can be annoying – I mean, who likes to be itchy? Well, it turns out their skin is pretty clear right now (wahoo!) but as I’ve gotten older I’ve started getting some patches of eczema on my legs, arms, and even the top of my right foot. It’s really irritating, so this kit couldn’t have arrived at a better time for me to try it.

In the past I’ve tried several different lotions, all of which provide temporary relief but don’t get rid of the dry patches, so I was really curious to see how the Neosporin products would work. First, I have to say I love that it has three parts. The body wash is great, because it’s somewhat preventative. Some soaps I’ve used seem to cause drying, but the Neosporin body wash is gentle and not irritating at all. The daily cream is a good maintenance tool for keeping skin healthy, and the anti-itch cream is absolutely AWESOME for when you do get a flare-up that’s just driving you nuts. The spot on my foot can make me bonkers, but the cream was a lifesaver for that.

I thought about taking a photo of my leg, but, um, ew. I don’t really want to broadcast a rashy spot on my shin for everyone to analyze. Just trust me when I say that these dry patches were there, and the Neosporin truly has made a difference in the quality of my skin. I’m even more excited to have this for the boys to use, because they have a little less willpower than I do when it comes to scratching itchy spots (and that’s not saying much!) so I love the idea of stopping the itchiness before it gets annoying to them. I also, having used Neosporin since I was a child, feel really good about its reputation and products. My faith in the brand continues after trying their Eczema Essentials line – yet another quality, effective product! I’d definitely recommend giving it a try if you or anyone in your family deals with eczema. Your skin will thank you.

PS – Their site even has printable coupons up right now!

Note: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Neosporin Essentials and received a product sample to facilitate my review, and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Menu Plan Monday

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Wow, it’s been months since I’ve participated in this. Can we say scattered, much? That’s not to say I haven’t been doing some planning here and there, but not as organized as I’d like to be. My two-year-old is sick today, which is awful (seriously, sick kids are so pitiful!) but I did take advantage of time sitting with him this morning to plan out meals for the week. Now, grocery shopping still has to take place today because of how crazy our weekend ended up being, but at least I’ve got some sort of plan in place!

Monday: Leftover shredded chicken enchiladas. We tried a new recipe I found via Pinterest. Ours didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as the example (how on earth do you keep corn tortillas from cracking?) but they tasted good and we enjoyed trying something new. If we make them again I’ll add minced jalapeno for some heat, and a little sour cream for some tang.

Tuesday: Chicken Parmesan & Easy Parmesan Risotto. Yup, that’s the upside to working from home with a sick child – Food Network is inspiring. The Barefoot Contessa featured a “risotto” that you bake in the oven, taking away the need to stand at the stove stirring for 45 minutes. I’m so curious if this will live up to our standard risotto recipe.  Now, my “chicken parmesan” will really be chicken breaded with Italian breadcrumbs, seasoning and parmesan, baked in the oven. I figure it can’t mess up too badly, right? We’ll have salad with it, pulling out some veggies for the kids to have on their own.

Wednesday: Leftover chicken & risotto. Trying to be SO much better about using up our leftovers and not letting them go to waste! We’ll have it with some cooked green beans this time.

Thursday: Chicken stir fry – it’s been a while since we’ve done this! We’ll add in zucchini, onion, carrots, and broccoli. YUM! I love that it’s an easy dinner, too.

Friday: Hamburgers & french fries. It may be nice enough to use our awesome Weber grill outside, but if not we’ll use our indoor grill that does a pretty great job itself. I also want to roast some garlic in the oven – it is SOOO good smeared on a burger!

Saturday: We’ll probably go out for dinner, although I have no clue where. I’ve found that Friday nights we almost always want to stay in because we’re just so tired from the week, but then Saturday we’re often at home so much that getting out for dinner is really nice.

What are you eating this week? Any new recipes I should try?