Pot Pies, Casseroles, and Comfort Foods

MyBlogSpark just sent me an interesting survey to select covers for their upcoming release of the Pillsbury Pot Pies & Casserole issue due to hit shelves August 25th; as well as, the Betty Croker Fall Baking issue expected September 15th.

The Pillsbury Pot Pie & Casserole issue features 68 tear out recipe cards for slow-cooker meals, appetizers, main dishes and desserts.  I have to admit that the Herbed Chicken Lattice Pot Pie featured on the first two covers looks really good.  But for some reason the individual Alfredo Primavera Pot Pies spoke to me more, so that is the cover that I selected.

After staring at these covers for the last few minutes, guess what the Mr. will be having for dinner tonight! 

 

Cover 1                            Cover 2

Cover 3

The second cover selection was for the Betty Crocker Fall baking issue.  This magazine will feature 75 perforated recipe cards that can easily be detached and added to your recipe box.  

Some of the recipes included:

• Caramel Apple Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce
• Cookies and bars recipes perfect to include in back-to-school lunches
• Comfort dessers like cobblers, pies, cakes and crisps
• New recipes for Butternut Squash Cake with Maple-Nut Frosting, Ginger Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chunky Apple Cakle with Brown Butter Frosting, & Football Cupcake Pull-Aparts
  

 

Cover A                        Cover B

 

Cover C                          Cover D

Cover A just looked like yummy mouth-watering goodness, so that is the one I picked.  What about you?  Which covers would you select?

I'll update you on the ones that are picked to grace your grocery store checkout stand.


I am also posting a family favorite cobbler recipe that is so easy and tasty you will be putting one together tonight.  That and I am not sharing the peach one I just made last night.

 

Fruit Cobbler

1 stick of butter

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup sugar

pinch of cinnamon if using apple or peach pie filling

 1 cup milk

1 can of fruit pie filling of your choice

 

1. Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the stick of butter into a deep casserole dish and put into the oven.
3. While butter is melting, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, and milk in a mixing bowl.
4. Once butter is melted and bubbling, pour flour mixture into casserole.
5. Spread can of fruit over the flour and milk mixture.
6. Bake until golden brown and crusty.
7. Serve with a scoop of ice cream for a decadent treat.
   

More Coupon Savings...87 cents net oop

The sales have been a lot harder to work lately, so I haven't been doing as much coupon shopping. But I do have a recent trip to share with you.

 Savings of $90.53

Here is what I purchased in 4 transactions:

2 Suavitel fabric softeners (B1G1F) $2.79

2 Right Guard Extreme $5.98

1 BIC lighter $2.99

1 Benefiber Stick pack $4.99

1 Bayer Crystals 4 pk $2.49

1 Colgate Visible White $4.49

1 Neosporin to go $5.00

1 Neosporin cream $5.00

1 Skintimate $1.99

1 OFF clip-on $8.99

1 OFF clip-on refill $4.99

1 Starbucks drink $1.99

2 Clearance post-it notes $1

2 Snapple $2.58

1 Skintimate Shave Gel $1.99

1 Post-it notes $.50

1 Disney erasers $.49

1 Oral B toothbrush $6.49 

1 Nivea Bodywash $6.99

1 Nivea Sun Kissed Legs $9.99

3 Aveeno Lotions 3 x $2.39 = $7.17

1 Aveeno Essential Kit $7.99

2 Nabisco Oreos 2 x $3.50 = $7.00

Q’s used:

-(2) $5/$25

-$1 Suavitel

-$2 Right Guard

-$1 BIC lighter

-$2 Benefiber

-$2 Neosporin (two $1 coupons)

-$1.50 Skintimate

-$3 OFF (bzzagent coupon)

-$4.99 OFF B1G1F

-$1 Starbucks

 -$1.29 Snapple B1G1F

-$6.99 B1G1F Nivea

-$1 Nivea

-$2 Aveeno

-$7.99 Aveeno Sale

Total purchases was $103.88 - $39.77 Manufacturers Coupons - $7.99 Store Sale - $28 Register Rewards = $33.13 Cash ($28.12 + tax)

RR’s received:

(2)$5 Right Guard, $1 BIC, $2 Benefiber, $2.50 Bayer, $4.50 Colgate, $4 Neosporin, (2)$1 Skintimate, $3 OFF, $3 Oreo & $2 Nivea

$34.00 Register Rewards Received - $33.13 Cash = $.87 net oop

 

My attempt at Project 365

Project 365 has taken over the net for the last week and everybody is jumping on the bandwagon--yours truly included. I just got a Canon Rebel XTi as an anniversary present, so I saw this as a perfect opportunity to sharpen my picture taking skills. Let's hope that I can stick with it and complete the entire year.

I didn't think to post the pictures daily with the story behind them, so I will catch up tonight with both pictures.

I decided to start my album on January 1 which as everyone knows is a US holiday. My husband was home from work for the day and the kids decided to take advantage of this and climbed into bed with him. I thought it was too sweet not to click a photo.

My picture for Day 2 represents our anniversary trip to Walt Disney World. Pulling out our "disney clothes" and starting to pack them makes the trip seem real. This is when I finally start getting excited that we are going to my favorite place and staying at my favorite resort.

We had originally planned to go on this trip in December, but because of budget constraints we pushed it back several week. The budget is still out of balance and yet we are still going. Sitting in the room at Disney broke is a whole lot better than sitting at home broke!

Coupon Savings

I have been asked several times by friends and family alike how we can afford to go to Disney each year with only one income. The not so simple answer is that I do almost every reward program that I know to be legitimate and I clip coupons. The money that I save buying stuff with coupons helps to pay for our trip each year.

Years ago I did coupon shopping with my MIL, but not to the extent that I recently started doing it. Let me just say that I am having a blast!

I have some pictures to show you just how much money I have saved on items that my family will use or I will share with my parents, siblings, and inlaws.

These pictures represent a total savings of $964.75.

After coupons, rebates, and register rewards, I paid less than $5 out of my pocket. I apply the same principles to shopping when I go to the grocery store. Right now we have so many bags of veggies in the freezer that I got for free that I can't fit another bag in.

For more information on how to match your coupons to the sales check out the forum at A Full Cup. But be warned that it becomes addictive!


Get your daily dose of winnable online sweepstakes, contest, and blog giveaways from Sweeties Sweeps.

Sunesgrl

Day 1 of Our Disney trip continued

One of the nice things about this anniversary vacation was that I got to spend most of my time behind the camera. Normally when the kids are with us, I don't have a free hand for the camera or the time and attention to taking pictures. Since it was just the four of us, I had a blast snapping to my hearts content.





Once we left visiting our CM friend at the Boardwalk we headed for Epcot for the rest of the day. LJ and Sonny were so excited to be in Disney World that they decided to do a dance. This would have been a perfect time to film them for blackmailing later.

More to come...

Day 1 continued of Jan 08 WDW trip

It took a sec to get LJ to register what Sonny told him and I don’t think he every got to a point where he understood my need to take pictures of everything that we eat. At this point Sonny just takes it in stride. It is the least of my addictions and quirks.

My corn chowder

Sonny's philly cheesesteak & fries
My side salad

LJ and Brianne’s Food

We enjoyed our lunches and moved back to the room.

After checking our keys again to see if they actually worked we decided to exchange anniversary gifts with LJ and Brianne. Our personal couple gifts were going to be exchanged later in the week.

Our gift from LJ and Brianne:

I love the way that they wrapped our gift. She kept apologizing and we kept laughing. Inside was Yankee Candles, Godiva hot chocolate, peppermints, Dove chocolates, two coffee mugs, and a big fat Visa gift card!

The card they got us was too cute.

LJ and Brianne’s gift from us:

I posted most of the stuff that was in their gift bag, but I will do a quick recap. There were pajamas for LJ, a robe for Brianne, wine, chocolates, a calendar, aromatherapy candles, a set of personalized Minnie mouse gloves and hat for Brianne, and anniversary pins that we picked up on our last trip.

After the gifts were opened and thank you's were exchanged we plotted out our next course of action. We originally had planned to go to Downtown Disney, but the plans were further changed when Brianne suggested that we go to Epcot and start our tour of the World Showcase. Epcot is my favorite park, so it didn’t take long to convince me. The guys wanted to do whatever was necessary to make us happy, so they went along with no complaints.

So this is an example of things changing minute by minute. We were in the truck headed toward Epcot when Sonny suggests that we head to the Boardwalk to visit with a CM friend. Then we could go into Epcot through the International Gateway.

Up next: The Boardwalk & Epcot through another’s eyes.

Jan 08 WDW Trip Re-visited/ Day 1 continued

This trip report of our Jan 08 Walt Disney World trip has been written since we came home, but I have just been too lazy to update my blog. Since we have a new trip coming up in December, I thought it would be fun to look back at our last anniversary trip.

First some more pictures from the All-Star Movies Resort.

If you revisit the itinerary I posted months ago you will note that we were planning to check in and then head to Downtown Disney to have lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We didn’t follow today’s plan at all. I should know by now that the itinerary is just a loose plan -- subject to change at any moment. This trip the plans sometimes seem to change minute by minute, but we still had a great time.

Everyone agreed that the best thing to do was to just head to the food court and eat quickly.



I don’t know about you but I actually like the hustle and bustle of the All-Star Movies food court. I don’t always like their prices, but I know what to expect. Brianne and LJ on the other hand got sticker shock. Even after months of reading, planning, and chatting the reality of the prices were completely different. They were also surprised by the generous portions. No surprises on either front for me and yet I still ordered too much food.

The crowds in the food court were sparse, so we had no problem finding a table. As we approached the table I saw Brianne open her camera case. LJ reached for his food. Brianne had already been briefed about my addiction to food porn, so she knew the drill. LJ was totally in the dark and was a bit befuddled when his hand got slapped for starting to eat.

“I said my prayer!” he exclaimed as he nursed the effected hand.

Sonny laughed at the newbie mistake and calmly told him the offense he had committed. “You can’t eat anything without taking a picture first.”

Picture taking freak say what?

Be back with another update tomorrow!