New Month, New Coupons!

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

• Coupons.com (printable an e-coupons),
• Redplum (printable),
• SmartSource (Printable),
• SavingStar (E-Coupons)

One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

Recipe: Maple Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies!

DUDE!! These cookies were specially requested and made for a potluck and man, did they evaporate.

Now, these cookies didn’t get really brown, but I think that may be because of the maple syrup used instead of white sugar, which causes cookies to brown while baking.

Maple Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4C. Coconut oil
• 1/4C. Peanut Butter
• 1/4c. Brown Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 T. Maple extract
• 1.5 C Kodiak Flapjack Mix
• 1 C. Oats
• 8 pieces of bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped

 

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
3. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with wet ingredients until incorporated.
4. Add chopped bacon pieces, and stir to combine.
5. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (or use silicone baking pad.)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
7. Allow to rest on the cookie sheets for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

 

 

 

 

Recipe: Veggie Tuscan Soup

It’s not a filter, it’s steam!

This is my vegetarian version of the Zuppa Tuscana Recipe found here. This recipe is vegetarian, but not vegan.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 T. Olive Oil
• 1 medium onion, diced (about 10 ounces)
• 1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups water
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and chopped
• 4 cups kale, cleaned and chopped
• 1 cup whole milk
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot, heat olive oil.
2. Add onions, carrots, and celery, cook on medium/low until onions are soft and clear.
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add water, broth, bay leaves, and potatoes.
5. Cook on medium low for 45 minutes to an hour, or until potatoes are soft.
6. Add Milk, Kale and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, until Kale is cooked, but not soggy.

Serve with breadsticks or cheese toast. This soup makes great leftovers and tastes even better the next day!

 

New Month, New Coupons!

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

• Coupons.com (printable an e-coupons),
• Redplum (printable),
• SmartSource (Printable),
• SavingStar (E-Coupons)

One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

 

Weekly Meal Plan!

Bitty and I hit up grocery Outlet and Food4Less yesterday and picked up everything we might need for this week. Has anyone noticed how expensive celery is lately?

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

• Monday: Cheese enchiladas, beans, steamed broccoli
• Tuesday: Kids had pizza- Their last two Book-it certificates expire tomorrow. I’ve got a pot of chicken soup on the stove. I’ll either toss in fusilli pasta or Rana cheese and uncured bacon ravioli.
• Wednesday: Rollup sandwiches and kale salad (Kale, apples, chopped almonds, and apple cider vinaigrette)
• Thursday: Leftovers
• Friday:  Dinner out
• Saturday:  Grilled Cheese and soup (It’s definitely soup weather!)
• Sunday:  Meatless night! The kids will have Morningstar Farms nuggets, and the grownups will have black bean burgers. Sides will include fruit salad, carrot sticks and some sort of dip.

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?

New Month, New Coupons (No Joke!)

Today may be April Fools Day, but these coupons are no joke!

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

• Coupons.com (printable an e-coupons),
• Redplum (printable),
• SmartSource (Printable),
• SavingStar (E-Coupons)

One of my favorite website is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

Oh, and don’t forget about MooMoney from the CA Dairy Board! You can learn more here about to score cash back on your fluid dairy purchases through 4/28/19.

Hearty French Beef Stew Recipe!

Who needs a filter when you’ve got steam?

Earlier in the week I made beef stew. It was so good that I had a hard time waiting the full 10 hours until dinner  to dish myself up a bowl! I cooked it on the stove, but it can definitely  be cooked in a crockpot after the initial browning of the meat.

I based my recipe on my mom’s boeuf bourguignon recipe, but I omitted the bacon, as we didn’t have any in the house.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups white onions, diced
• 3/4 cup each carrots and celery, diced
• 1 cup white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (tops only, stems may be discarded or saved for a later use)
• 2 T. Air Dried Shallots
• 1 T. Minced Garlic
• 4 T. Butter or Olive Oil (your choice), divided
• 2 lbs. Stew Beef, cut into bite sized pieces (chuck roast works great)
• 1/2 c. AP Flour
• 6 cups beef stock
• 1 Bottle Red Wine (approx. 4 cups), your choice.
• Spices: 1 Bay leaf, 1 T. French Tarragon, Pinch Rubbed Sage, 1 T. Thyme, Salt, Pepper

Directions:

1. In a Large Stock pot, melt 2 T. butter/heat olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Cook on medium/low heat, stirring occasionally until onions are clear and veggies have sweated.
3. While veggies are cooking, rinse meat and toss gently in AP Flour to coat.
4. After veggies are cooked, scoop out of pot and set aside, add remaining butter/oil, and brown beef over medium heat.
5. Add cooked veggies back in and stir/scrape browned bits off the bottom and sides of pot.
6. Turn heat up to medium/high and add in about half the wine. Scrape off as much of the browned bits off the bottom and sides as you can as the wine cooks.
7. Add remaining wine, stock, and herbs. Cover pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. If you wish, you can transfer everything to a crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
8. Serve with hot, buttered bread, and a green salad. It is soooooo good. If you have leftovers (hahahaha), it is great re-heated and served over rice or buttered noodles.