home cooking

Meal Plan for Christmas Week

Meal Planning & Recipes

I haven’t ever shared any of my meal plans here before, but I thought it might be a nice to thing to do. We’re simple eaters, so I don’t usually cook anything too fancy. We are also happy eating leftovers, so I save time and money in the kitchen by cooking bigger meals less often [...]

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Product Review: PAM Cooking Spray – making clean up a breeze

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About two weeks ago I shared some pictures on the Coupon Snob Tumblr page of a package that Smiley360 sent me. They put me on a mission to use the new, improved PAM Cooking Spray and see how the clean up went. I posted some new pictures this morning of my cooking adventure, so click [...]

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A Lesson from Extreme Couponing: Making Jelly out of 100% Fruit Juice Concentrate!

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I don’t like the TLC show Extreme Couponing. I’ve written about why I think it’s unrealistic and gives ethical coupon users a bad name. In fact, I dislike the show so much I can barely stand to watch it, but I do…because I want to be “in the know”. I did actually learn something from [...]

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Recipe: Brownie Cupcakes (cheap, fast and TASTY)

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I am all about the quick, cheap dessert options. Actually, we don’t usually eat dessert, but when we have company I try to make something. I like to bake and cook desserts from scratch, but sometimes I just don’t have time! This year on the Fourth of July, I found myself in that exact predicament. [...]

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Review of Home-Ec 101: Skills for Everyday Living by Heather Solos

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I was invited to review Home-Ec 101: Skills for Everyday Living by Heather Solos for the One2One Network, but I have been so engrossed in the book that I keep running out of time to tell you about it! I am also a fan and reader of the Home-Ec 101 website and love her little [...]

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Homemade Gifts Save Big Bucks! Holiday Savings Tip #8

12 Days of Christmas Tips to Help You Save! Meal Planning & Recipes

On the eighth day of Christmas… This year, and last, we made all of the gifts that we gave family and friends. In college I often made gifts out of necessity, and now that we’re pinching pennies as hard as we can, homemade gifts make perfect sense again. Give Homemade Gifts and you can save [...]

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Cranberries – Seasonal Fruit for the Holidays: Holiday Savings Tip #5

12 Days of Christmas Tips to Help You Save! Food Storage

On the fifth day of Christmas… The best time to buy produce is when it is in season or soon after it is harvested. Cranberries are harvested in the late fall, making them perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas side dishes! Buy Fresh Cranberries during the Holidays for best price and availability. I’m not really sure [...]

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Cooking From Your Pantry Saves Money & Time

Food Storage

Part of my success with using coupons comes from the fact that I also plan my meals each week and maintain a well-stocked pantry. I use my coupons when stores have sales to maximize my savings, which allows me to buy extra of some items to stockpile in my pantry. The catch to all this [...]

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JIFFY mixes FREE Recipe Book by Mail – U.S. Only

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I like to make my cornbread muffins from scratch, but sometimes I also like the ease of grabbing a pre-packaged cornbread mix. JIFFY makes my favorite pre-mix cornbread, and I try to keep a couple boxes in my pantry, especially for making quick and easy meals like my Grandpa’s Cornbread Casserole. I’ll post that recipe [...]

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Barilla PLUS Steps Up to the Plate – Vocalpoint Product Test & Review

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I am a member of Vocalpoint, a community of Moms who have the opportunity to give their opinions on a variety of topics and issues. Sometimes we’re given the opportunity to try and review products from companies, and I recently received some coupons from Barilla for a new product line: Barilla PLUS. Along with the [...]

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Still need a Turkey for Thanksgiving? Butterball has rebates & coupons!

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A couple of years ago I wrote about how I have used the Butterball Open-Pan Roasting Method for my turkeys since I cooked my first turkey in graduate school. That was a big 26 pound-er! Now I tend to keep my birds in the 12 – 14 pound range. I find it feeds our small [...]

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Home for the Holidays

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Hubby and I had a great time today. We’re home for the holidays, which is something we only get to do once every three years, and it’s been really nice so far. Of course we both miss our families, but being able to rest and relax in your own home is nice once in a [...]

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Happy Almost Turkey Day

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am actually quite excited and looking forward to it. The tradition for us over the last few years has become one of hosting at our home, usually with my Mom and stepfather and almost always with our elderly neighbor lady from next door. I enjoy cooking a traditional meal and always [...]

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The internet is a great teacher — Homemade Pumpkin Pie

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I love how instantly available the internet makes information. All sorts of information. If you need to know something…anything…you can find it with a few clicks of a mouse button. Today I used it to find a recipe for making pumpkin pie from scratch using real pumpkin. It was so much fun! I took pictures [...]

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Amish Friendship Bread

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I don’t really know if the friendship bread that I have baking in the oven right now is really Amish or not, but that’s what the recipe said, so I’m going with it! I got a starter of this friendship bread a few weeks ago from a friend at church, and tonight my starter was [...]

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Enjoy my Extras

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I always get excited when the new Kraft Food & Family magazine arrives. It comes several times a year, and the holiday edition is always one of my favorites. I got an issue this week and saw a number of new recipes I wanted to try! Earlier this evening I made tuna patties, but I [...]

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Got Turkey?

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Thanksgiving is almost here! I really enjoy this holiday, especially since we have been cooking and hosting dinner at our house for the last few years. This weekend we went out and got our turkey and everything we need for the dinner, so we are almost ready! I had hoped to get a farm turkey [...]

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Real Cranberries – not as hard as you think!

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For me, growing up, cranberries were always something that came out of a can, usually as semi-solid jelly in the shape of the can itself. Don’t get me wrong, those cranberries are just fine and are super easy to make - open, dump, slice, serve! However, when I got married, my mother-in-law taught me how to [...]

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Too lazy for stuffed cabbage rolls?

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One of the things that I learned this summer was how to get creative cooking with all of the veggies that I got from my CSA vegetable club each week. Using up and cooking with fresh, local produce for 25 weeks out of the year can be a challenge, but is worth it! Cabbage was [...]

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We got a cow, Pa!

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A few months back I wrote a post about how we tried some grass-fed beef from a farm near here and loved it. Since then we have chosen to only eat grass-fed beef from local farms except when we travel and are eating with family, or we go out to eat and choose an item [...]

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To brew or not to brew?

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My husband hates that I like frou-frou (is that the proper spelling?) coffee from the local coffee shop. Namely fat-free, sugar-free, half-caf mocha. Yes, I know. That’s a long name for a simple drink. But I love them. I won’t touch a cup of plain black coffee, even with sweetener and cream in it, but [...]

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Black Raspberry Crisp Bliss

Meal Planning & Recipes

Today I made a masterpiece! Hubby went down the Heritage Trail that runs near here and picked a berry basket full of fresh black raspberries. I did some quick Googling on what I could make out of them and settled on a crisp recipe. I combined elements from several recipes and made my own. Here [...]

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A sign of the times?

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So it’s the holidays, right? And with the holiday season comes holiday parties. And with holiday parties comes cooking and baking and the bringing of food from people’s homes to share with one another. I’m cool with that. I participate in that. In fact, this week, I have been doing a LOT of that. This [...]

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