Ice Coffee

Anyone else drinking ice coffee this summer?

I had cut down on my caffine, drinking one, maybe two cups of coffee a day, and then switching to decaf green tea. And then it got hot.

In Havasu, with our hellish summers, I can only handle about one cup of hot coffee in the morning.

And then I remembered ice coffee......fill a glass with ice, pour in some hot coffee, add more ice and top with milk.

Mmmmmmmm......kinda sorta reminds me of coffee ice cream, without the calories (and without the ice cream). But very refreshing.

Once again...hooked on a caffine product....

eHow Recipes

A while back I opened a new account at eHow to post recipes. I've been so busy with other projects that I've only been able to post five recipes in the account. If you scroll down, along the right menu bar, you will come to the eHow widget to view the recipes.

I hope to add more in the near future.

Couponsense withdrawals

We are going to some friends this evening and Don wanted to get some beer. So he asked me to check the couponsense website, to see who had the best prices in town. I needed strawberries to make a fruit salad, so I figured I'd check that too.

But, when I went to the site....it would not let me log in!

Things started running through my mind, like did I forget to renew?

I tried on both computers, and used Firefox and Explorer. Nothing worked. I then emailed my couponsense instructor, and before she replied I received an email stating the site was down.

I began going through withdrawals...how was I going to buy my groceries...what if I pay too much for milk? Will I miss the best price in town for ground beef?

Within an hour the site was up and running again.

And all was well with the world.

Coffee anyone?

I love my morning coffee. And while I no longer drink coffee after mid-morning, and my two or three cups, the thought of waking up to a house without coffee...well....it just isn't right!

I've really been getting into the couponing, and a week or so ago I got such a terrific price on Folgers - less than $5 each for a can of Folgers that normally cost more than twice that.

Shopping for groceries is kind of fun these days. No longer am I depressed over a single bag of groceries that cost a fortune.

Let's see....about a week ago I got 2 gallons of milk, and 6 boxes of cereal (Kellogg's) for $3. that was cool. And 4 bottles of Kraft salad dressing for $1. I could have gotten them all for free, but then I would have had to make two trips to the store. I got a bottle of Excedrin for free, and Pringle chips for 35 cents each.

That is just a sampling of the savings. If you want any info on how to do it, drop me a line.
:-)

Saving with Coupons

A little over a month ago I decided to try saving with coupons. Oh, not the regular clip and cut version of coupons. I joined a website called couponsense. And so far, I love it, and the savings.

It is changing how I cook, and how I prepare my menus. The theory is that you shop to fill the pantry, you do not shop according the week's menu. You plan menus around what is in your pantry.

The extra savings come by pairing coupons with current sales, and buying the maxiumn allowed (and depending on the coupons). For example, the other day we paired coupons with a sale and got shampoo for less than 20 cents a bottle. The first week I started, I got 5 tubes of Colgate toothpaste...13 cents a tube.

The website does all the work of figuring out what is on sale, and what coupons to pull. You don't cut the coupons out when you get them, you file them away by the week, and pull the ones you need, when you plan to use them.

Check out the site. I do have a referral number, but I would NOT be recommending it if I didn't really like it. The cost is $15 a month, but they offer the first month for $4.

Just go have a look, and read some of the letters.


Referral number: 1714074
http://couponsense.com/

Quick and Easy Chicken

Even people who like to cook appreciate a quick and easy recipe. For those times you want a tasty home cooked meal, without a great deal of work or thought. One of my favorites is a no-brainer chicken dinner that I used to make when our kids were little.

I stopped making the dish, one reason is that it required “processed food” – Chicken flavored Rice-A-Roni. But I noticed it was on sale ($1 a box), so I picked up some, to revisit one of my favorite easy meals.

Mom (who is a compulsive package reader) immediately grabbed the box when I got home and started to read the ingredients. I didn’t want to hear the bad news. As it turned out, mom informed me that it didn’t seem to contain anything ominous - not even its sodium content bothered her.

The meal goes like this – cook up the Rice-A-Roni (chicken flavored) according to the package instructions. Then pour the cooked rice into a casserole pan. You don’t have to worry about cooking all the liquid off, as that will be done in the oven. But, the rice should be tender, not hard.

On top of the rice, add chicken breasts, that have been rinsed. Lay them (one layer) across the top of the rice. I use boneless, skinless breast. I pour a little butter over each breast, and sprinkle with seasoning. You could brush olive oil over the breast, instead of using butter.

Pop it into the oven and bake, until the chicken is cooked. To brown the chicken, I sometimes turn the broiler on for a few minutes at the end of the cooking time.

While it only takes a few minutes to initially prepare the rice, it does take about 20 minutes for it to simmer on the stove, until you can add it to the casserole dish. I use that 20 minutes to prepare the rest of the meal. Such as washing the chicken, preparing a salad or vegetable. I then set the table.

Twenty minutes later, after the rice is cooked, I put the casserole together and put it in the oven at 350 degrees. It takes about 45-60 minutes to cook (check the chicken breasts for doneness - it should be white inside, not pink). The chicken greatly enhances the flavor of the rice. And yes, it will add more calories.

While the chicken and rice bakes in the oven, off to enjoy a glass of wine and watch the evening news.

Poor Man’s Spaghetti

I will confess a fear….an empty pantry. I get a little nervous when there is nothing in the house to eat, especially when basic staples (milk, butter, flour) have also vanished. Maybe it is these troubled economic times, and if money is low, I want to know there is something in the house to eat.

And then I feel a little guilty, because there are many people out there who don’t have a pantry to fill, and being uncertain about their next meal is part of their everyday life.

Payday came, and off to the grocery store – three actually – to take advantage of the meat sales and stock up the freezer. We now have food in the house, and I’ve restocked the pantry.

Before the restocking, I discovered you can make a meal with one pound of ground beef, one package of spaghetti and a can of tomato sauce. Obviously I made spaghetti, yet with just one small can of tomato sauce, throwing together tasty spaghetti sauce was a challenge.

Growing on my kitchen widow sill are several potted herbs, one being basil. I had no fresh garlic, but I did have some powdered garlic in the spice cabinet. I first fried up the ground beef, breaking it into pieces - after it was brown and crisp I added the tomato sauce, water (equal to half the amount of tomato sauce) and seasoned it with garlic powder and basil. I let it simmer, to cook off some of the added water and blend the favors.

Poor man’s spaghetti I called it. And it was pretty good!