Have you ever been watching a TV show and something that was said resonated so deeply that you had a profound epiphany at that moment?
I was watching a talk show and the guest and the host were discussing health issues and why the woman hadn't changed her life-style habits. The host made a point to say that she needed to love herself enough to make the changes.
In that moment I realized that I need to love myself enough to make the changes in my life to lose some more weight. I've made a lot of changes over the last couple years. I am healthier and feel much better then I did a few years back. My blood pressure is better. I even managed to lose about 10 lbs and right now I've kept it off for 2 years. But it's time to step it up. 10 pounds is good but to really be healthy I need to lose about 70 lbs all together.
So, I need to make some more changes. I am not sure what my next steps will be, but I am going to keep changing for the better.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Crock Pot Potato Soup
Since some friends have requested my recipe I decided to go ahead and type it up. I don't often use recipes so my dishes come out different every time. This time the soup was awesome and I don't know that I would have changed one thing about it so I will share it with you.
This recipe is for a large 6 quart crockpot since I have a family of 5 including 3 teenagers (which often means extra visitors in the house too) so you will have to cut it down if your family is smaller.
I started the soup just before noon figuring that dinner would be served around 7 or so. Schedules around here are chaotic on Sundays because my daughter is a worship leader for her youth group and my husband works the lights during church services. That made this meal perfect since it could sit in the crock pot until everyone was home.
Start by putting your base ingredients in the pot.
1 standard carton of swansons chicken broth
1 3lb bag of potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tablespoons of green onions or scallions diced (optional yellow or white onions chopped work as well )
1 tablespoon of chicken base (bouillon cubes would work too)
4 cups of water (or just enough to fill about 2/3 of the pot)
At this point I did some seasoning with garlic powder and onion salt, salt and pepper. Just remember that potatoes absorb all the salt in a dish so don't salt to much at this point. You WILL have to salt again. I set my crock pot on high for 6 hours.
At the last 30-45 minutes I reset the crock pot on high again. I used my blender to make my thickening mix.
Thickening mix:
1 1/2 cups of milk,
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of the potatoes from the soup
1 tub of Philladelphia Cooking Creme in the Savory Garlic flavor
1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I used a taco blend)
I blended the mix until smooth and then poured it in the crockpot with the soup. This pretty much filled my crock pot almost to the top. I mixed the soup until it started to thicken. Let it continue to cook for the last 30 or so minutes until it is the thickness you desire. At this point I salt and peppered one last time. Then I turned off the crock pot and it is ready to serve. I served with shredded cheese and oyster crackers on the side.
One note: don't add any dairy products too early in the cooking process; milk, cooking creme, sour cream etc. If added too early they will curdle in your pot.
It was a big hit with my family and our guest and my husband will be taking some for lunch tomorrow too. It's a great winter crock pot recipe!
This recipe is for a large 6 quart crockpot since I have a family of 5 including 3 teenagers (which often means extra visitors in the house too) so you will have to cut it down if your family is smaller.
I started the soup just before noon figuring that dinner would be served around 7 or so. Schedules around here are chaotic on Sundays because my daughter is a worship leader for her youth group and my husband works the lights during church services. That made this meal perfect since it could sit in the crock pot until everyone was home.
Start by putting your base ingredients in the pot.
1 standard carton of swansons chicken broth
1 3lb bag of potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tablespoons of green onions or scallions diced (optional yellow or white onions chopped work as well )
1 tablespoon of chicken base (bouillon cubes would work too)
4 cups of water (or just enough to fill about 2/3 of the pot)
At this point I did some seasoning with garlic powder and onion salt, salt and pepper. Just remember that potatoes absorb all the salt in a dish so don't salt to much at this point. You WILL have to salt again. I set my crock pot on high for 6 hours.
At the last 30-45 minutes I reset the crock pot on high again. I used my blender to make my thickening mix.
Thickening mix:
1 1/2 cups of milk,
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of the potatoes from the soup
1 tub of Philladelphia Cooking Creme in the Savory Garlic flavor
1/2 cup of shredded cheese (I used a taco blend)
I blended the mix until smooth and then poured it in the crockpot with the soup. This pretty much filled my crock pot almost to the top. I mixed the soup until it started to thicken. Let it continue to cook for the last 30 or so minutes until it is the thickness you desire. At this point I salt and peppered one last time. Then I turned off the crock pot and it is ready to serve. I served with shredded cheese and oyster crackers on the side.
One note: don't add any dairy products too early in the cooking process; milk, cooking creme, sour cream etc. If added too early they will curdle in your pot.
It was a big hit with my family and our guest and my husband will be taking some for lunch tomorrow too. It's a great winter crock pot recipe!
Friday, November 4, 2011
How much did I actually spend on Halloween candy?
I want to follow-up on my Halloween candy scores. Usually, before I started couponing, I would run out the day before or day of and buy it last minute. That would usually mean I spent about $20-25 on the cheapest candy I could find at Walmart which includes the pixie sticks, smarties, etc. If you have kids, or even if you don't then you probably know that is the undesirable candy and that most of us prefer the chocolate candy bars. If you are in the minority that doesn't like chocolate, I feel sorry for you. :)
So this year I started early in the month watching for good deals on fun size or snack size candy bars. Boy did I score!
My first deal was good. I ended up paying about $1.50 a bag for 3 large bags of fun size M &Ms and Snickers. These are the large 19 to 22 oz bags that usually run an average of $5 or more a bag. Then over the course of the next couple weeks I picked up 6 more small bags of candy. These were the 10 to 11.18 oz bags of candy that average $3.50 or more and occasionally are on sale for $2.50 a bag. My final price per bag for these was $0.50-0.99 a bag.
Here's my final score list:
11.18 oz bag of Snickers $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Hershey's Cookies and Creme bars $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars $0.99
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds $0.49
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds $0.49
11.23 oz bag of Peanut M&Ms $1.50
19.07 oz bag of M&Ms $1.50
22.55 oz bag of Snickers $1.50
Total Price $9.44
So to recap I bought 9 bags of candy for under $10. That means I cut my normal candy cost more than in half and it was all the good stuff. There was enough for me to fill my candy bowl for Trick or Treaters and still have some left over to go in the candy jar for my husband and older teenagers.
This is just one of many examples of ways to save money with a little preparation and planning.
So this year I started early in the month watching for good deals on fun size or snack size candy bars. Boy did I score!
My first deal was good. I ended up paying about $1.50 a bag for 3 large bags of fun size M &Ms and Snickers. These are the large 19 to 22 oz bags that usually run an average of $5 or more a bag. Then over the course of the next couple weeks I picked up 6 more small bags of candy. These were the 10 to 11.18 oz bags of candy that average $3.50 or more and occasionally are on sale for $2.50 a bag. My final price per bag for these was $0.50-0.99 a bag.
Here's my final score list:
11.18 oz bag of Snickers $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Hershey's Cookies and Creme bars $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars $0.99
10.78 oz bag of Kit Kat bars $0.99
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds $0.49
10.23 oz bag of Snickers with Almonds $0.49
11.23 oz bag of Peanut M&Ms $1.50
19.07 oz bag of M&Ms $1.50
22.55 oz bag of Snickers $1.50
Total Price $9.44
So to recap I bought 9 bags of candy for under $10. That means I cut my normal candy cost more than in half and it was all the good stuff. There was enough for me to fill my candy bowl for Trick or Treaters and still have some left over to go in the candy jar for my husband and older teenagers.
This is just one of many examples of ways to save money with a little preparation and planning.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
It's Super Doubles at Harris Teeter!!
It's Super Doubles at Harris Teeter. That means stock up time on a lot of products. Today was my big shopping day, where I spend a couple hours going through the store combing the isles for deals and freebies. Wednesday I work out of the home at a job and so I only had about 30 minutes in the store to grab a few must have items and deals. Here is the run down of my scores from those two trips.
2 Tabasco pepper sauces
3 cans of Furmans crushed tomatoes
4 Martha White Muffin mixes
1 Lysol disinfectant wipes
2 Morton season salts
1 Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 San Pelegrino Sparkling water
4 cans Blue Diamond flavored Almonds
2 boxes Celestial flavored teas
1 Hidden Valley Salad Mix
1 Buitonni 4 cheese and spinach ravioli meal
1 box of New York Texas Toast
1 tub of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream
2 tubs of Philadelphia Cooking Creme
1 tub of HT Ricotta Cheese
2 doz HT large eggs
2 packages of Mission Artisan Multi grain Tortillas
4 bags of Krunchers Potato Chips
4 Boxes of Nut Thins
1 Carpet Fresh
1 A1 Steak Sauce
2 Dr Pepper 2L
2 pkgs Dentek Easy Interdental Brush Cleaners
1 Country Crock tub of butter
2 Best Life tubs of margarine
Spent Total OOP $26.30
received one catalina for $4 on next purchase
Retail Value $177.28.
Just a note on some of my tips and tricks of the trade.
Take advantage of catalina deals: I used one $4 catalina "on your next purchase" yesterday that I received last week from the purchase of 4 boxes of Blue Diamond Nut Thins. Received another catalina yesterday from the purchase of 4 more boxes of Nut Thins. Rolled that one today and received another catalina from the purchase of 4 cans of Blue Diamond flavored almonds. Since the Blue Diamond products are on sale B1G1 free, that is a great deal even without the coupons, but since I had $1 coupon on 2 (that doubles to $2 off) this deal makes me $2 each time I roll the catalina. Great way to decrease my OOP (out of pocket)!!
Check out other sites that offer coupons:
I also had a coupon for $10 off $50 spent from Recycle Bank. It's a great way to go green and earn points towards purchasing other savings coupons and prizes. Check them out here.
One additional note here....I also use Swagbucks. They have a coupon section that is the same coupons on coupons.com and I receive 10 swagbucks for every coupon redeemed. The swagbucks are awarded to my account a couple weeks after I use the coupon and then I redeem all my swagbucks for Amazon gift cards to purchase books for the kids' homeschooling or books for my Kindle. Check out swagbucks here.
Take advantage of rebate offers and combine coupons when possible: There is a rebate for the Lysol wipes that will refund me $3 (the retail purchase price of the wipes was $2.99, but I had a $1 off coupon that doubled to $2 off making the wipes only $0.99). That means I will make an additional $2 off this shopping trip when my rebate arrives.
Take advantage of your grocery store ad deals such as meal deals and make sure to check your member cards and receipts for additional savings: HT had a meal deal this week where when you purchase the Buittoni meal for two, then you also get the San Pellegrino sparkling water, the New York Texas Toast, and the Haagen-Dazs ice cream all for free. The meals were priced $9.99 but I had a evic offer last week on my receipt saying I would get $2 off if I purchased a Buittoni meal by 11/15. Then I also had a coupon ( I believe it may have came from the November All You magazine) for $1.50 off that doubled to $3 off the meal. That brings my total spent for all 4 items down to $4.99.
One final note: Make sure to watch the cashier ring up your coupons and double check your receipts. They will often miss coupons and things don't always ring up correctly. These mistakes could cost you a lot of money over time. Just today I found that my Texas Toast didn't come off my bill and the full price of the San Pellegrino didn't either. I will have to make a trip to customer service tomorrow to take care of those charges. Also today I went to CVS and the cashier missed one of my ECB coupons. Luckily she realized it and handed it back to me. That's about $10 in mistakes all in one day!
At the end of the day it was a great day couponing. I even got to be the coupon fairy while I was in the store. I had an odd number of coupons for the blue diamond deal and I shared the last coupon I had with a nice gentleman who was doing his grocery shopping and purchasing 2 cans of the Blue Diamond almonds. Great feeling when you can pass the savings on to someone!
How did you do with Super Doubles!???!!
2 Tabasco pepper sauces
3 cans of Furmans crushed tomatoes
4 Martha White Muffin mixes
1 Lysol disinfectant wipes
2 Morton season salts
1 Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1 San Pelegrino Sparkling water
4 cans Blue Diamond flavored Almonds
2 boxes Celestial flavored teas
1 Hidden Valley Salad Mix
1 Buitonni 4 cheese and spinach ravioli meal
1 box of New York Texas Toast
1 tub of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream
2 tubs of Philadelphia Cooking Creme
1 tub of HT Ricotta Cheese
2 doz HT large eggs
2 packages of Mission Artisan Multi grain Tortillas
4 bags of Krunchers Potato Chips
4 Boxes of Nut Thins
1 Carpet Fresh
1 A1 Steak Sauce
2 Dr Pepper 2L
2 pkgs Dentek Easy Interdental Brush Cleaners
1 Country Crock tub of butter
2 Best Life tubs of margarine
Spent Total OOP $26.30
received one catalina for $4 on next purchase
Retail Value $177.28.
Just a note on some of my tips and tricks of the trade.
Take advantage of catalina deals: I used one $4 catalina "on your next purchase" yesterday that I received last week from the purchase of 4 boxes of Blue Diamond Nut Thins. Received another catalina yesterday from the purchase of 4 more boxes of Nut Thins. Rolled that one today and received another catalina from the purchase of 4 cans of Blue Diamond flavored almonds. Since the Blue Diamond products are on sale B1G1 free, that is a great deal even without the coupons, but since I had $1 coupon on 2 (that doubles to $2 off) this deal makes me $2 each time I roll the catalina. Great way to decrease my OOP (out of pocket)!!
Check out other sites that offer coupons:
I also had a coupon for $10 off $50 spent from Recycle Bank. It's a great way to go green and earn points towards purchasing other savings coupons and prizes. Check them out here.
One additional note here....I also use Swagbucks. They have a coupon section that is the same coupons on coupons.com and I receive 10 swagbucks for every coupon redeemed. The swagbucks are awarded to my account a couple weeks after I use the coupon and then I redeem all my swagbucks for Amazon gift cards to purchase books for the kids' homeschooling or books for my Kindle. Check out swagbucks here.
Take advantage of rebate offers and combine coupons when possible: There is a rebate for the Lysol wipes that will refund me $3 (the retail purchase price of the wipes was $2.99, but I had a $1 off coupon that doubled to $2 off making the wipes only $0.99). That means I will make an additional $2 off this shopping trip when my rebate arrives.
Take advantage of your grocery store ad deals such as meal deals and make sure to check your member cards and receipts for additional savings: HT had a meal deal this week where when you purchase the Buittoni meal for two, then you also get the San Pellegrino sparkling water, the New York Texas Toast, and the Haagen-Dazs ice cream all for free. The meals were priced $9.99 but I had a evic offer last week on my receipt saying I would get $2 off if I purchased a Buittoni meal by 11/15. Then I also had a coupon ( I believe it may have came from the November All You magazine) for $1.50 off that doubled to $3 off the meal. That brings my total spent for all 4 items down to $4.99.
One final note: Make sure to watch the cashier ring up your coupons and double check your receipts. They will often miss coupons and things don't always ring up correctly. These mistakes could cost you a lot of money over time. Just today I found that my Texas Toast didn't come off my bill and the full price of the San Pellegrino didn't either. I will have to make a trip to customer service tomorrow to take care of those charges. Also today I went to CVS and the cashier missed one of my ECB coupons. Luckily she realized it and handed it back to me. That's about $10 in mistakes all in one day!
At the end of the day it was a great day couponing. I even got to be the coupon fairy while I was in the store. I had an odd number of coupons for the blue diamond deal and I shared the last coupon I had with a nice gentleman who was doing his grocery shopping and purchasing 2 cans of the Blue Diamond almonds. Great feeling when you can pass the savings on to someone!
How did you do with Super Doubles!???!!
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