Ham & cheese corn muffins

My daughter is starting Kindergarten this year, and we need to pack her lunches. Big changes for everybody!  Today, I decided to bake and freeze corn muffins, and mini brownies so we could have a stash in the freezer for those days when you just don't feel like cooking.

The brownies were a Girardhelli mix, nothing exciting here, but I didn't have coupons with me, and they were cheaper than Betty Crocker mixes. I use coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil it called for.

For the meal muffins I used a basic corn muffin recipe, and added cubed ham and shredded cheese. Yum!

Ham & cheese corn muffins, brownie bites

Ham & cheese corn muffns
Makes 13+

1 cup flour
1 cup corn meal
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 cup cubed ham
1 cup shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and line a muffin pan with paper liners (or grease the pan).

 In a large bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir until just mixed. I eyeballed the ham and cheese measurements, added a little extra milk and cornmeal, and a little less oil.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

If you're going to freeze them, wait until they're completely cooled before putting them in a Ziploc bag.

St Patrick's Day fun!

My daughter is anxiously awaiting the arrival of "our" leprechaun, Angus. This morning, she asked if Angus was friends with Santa. Err... yes, yes, of course he is!!

She made pictures for Angus today, and her little brother did too. Well, as much as an 18 month old can! I saw this idea on a great blog, and the kids loved making a "shamrock field of fingerprints". We already had all the supplies in our big art box, so it was a matter of making sure the little one was wearing his diaper only. We only needed green paint, paper, and a green crayon.

We had a fun time!


Thanks, In Lieu of Preschool!

Nutella party!!

Recently, I was lucky enough to have been selected to host a Mommy Party sponsored by Nutella. When I saw the email about the party, I was sooo excited! And when I was selected, you would have thought I'd won the lottery!

I grew up in Europe, and Nutella is to me what peanut butter is to my American husband. Our daughter is also a very big "Tella" fan, and enjoys some whole wheat toast with Nutella and a big glass of milk for breakfast every now and then. You could say that we have a slight addiction. My daughter and I recently made banana muffins "stuffed" with a peanut butter cup, and topped with Nutella buttercream. I used the extra buttercream as a topping for my morning toast. Mmmmmm!!!

We invited a few friends over, and had a great time! We had various ways to enjoy our Nutella: crumpets from Trader Joe's (yum!), strawberies, honey whole-wheat bread, white bread, etc... While all those were good, I still think that the best way to enjoy Nutella is straight out of the jar, with a spoon if you want to be fancy!

Our guests went home with a bag filled with goodies provided by Nutella: a neat tumbler/travel coffee mug, a small Nutella sample size pack (I wonder how long those lasted. Probably not very long! When we fly to Europe, we usually find those small packs at the hotel breakfast buffet, and stash a couple in our bags...), a very ingenious spreader that is shaped to fit the Nutella jar, therefore wasting no delicious chocolate/hazelnut spread, and a few recipe cards.

I'll try and find the photos I took, but my phone hasn't been cooperating very well lately...


Disclaimer: I did not receive any kind of financial compensation for this post/review, and Nutella provide me with the samples and gifts for my guests.

Kids eat free at Chili's today!

Kid's Eat Freebruary!



Chili's is offering a FREE kids meal with adult meal purchase on February 8, 15, 21 & 22. Up to 2 free kids meals per 1 adult meal purchase. That's pretty cool deal! We don't celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th, because being packed up with a gazillion other people isn't our idea of a nice night out, and with 2 kids, fancy shmancy restaurants are not an option right now. So we'll probably go out tonight, and have a fun dinner as a family!

Cheap organic pumpkin puree

Amazon has a pack of 12 15-oz cans of Farmer's Market Foods organic pumpkin on sale for $20.40 right now. Select Subscribe & Save to get a 15% discount, making them only $17.34, or $1.44/can, which is pretty good for organic pumpkin, delivered to your door! I had a $5 giftcard from Swagbucks that I used to bring my total down. And as usual, you can cancel the Subscribe & Save option as soon as your items have shipped.

What are you going to make with so much pumpkin, you ask? What about pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin cheesecake... so many yummy options!

Creamy salsa chicken

I've made this a few times this fall, and it's been a big success, even with the toddler! With a new baby in the house, I've become a fan of crockpot cooking. Just dump everything in the slow-cooker in the morning, and forget it until it's time for dinner.

We usually eat it as burritos the first night, and eat the leftovers over brown rice. Make sure you check the meat case when you're at the store: my SuperTarget almost always has coupons ($1.50 to $3 off) on meat that has a sell-by date a couple days away. This is when I stock up and freeze almost everything, I just keep some in the fridge to cook that night/the next day. You can keep the flavors interesting by using different salsas. I picked up a jar of peach salsa, and another one with artichoke. Can't wait to try them!

- 2-4 chicken breasts (could use another cut, it's just what I have in the freezer)
- 1/2 bag of frozen corn (about 2-3 cups I guess?)
- 1 jar of salsa
- 1 can black beans
- 1/2 to 1 brick cream cheese (I use either full fat or 1/3 less fat, it just depends on what I have in the fridge)

Put everyhing in the crockpot, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Ta-da! Easy peasy! I've made it with the cream cheese added at the beginning, and added towards the end, and it tastes just the same.

Need labels? Check this out!

Who doesn't need labels, right? Maybe you need them for this coming holiday season? Or for daycare, be it for clothes/shoes or sippy cups/bottles? Maybe some cool photo stickers to show off your new baby? Return address labels, spice labels..  Man, I love labels... Check out this Plum District deal! You pay $25, and get a $50 credit at Label Daddy. Pretty neat!

Now... what combination of labels do I want to get...

Veggie Tales

Right now, you can get the Veggie Tales Deluxe DVD collection for $40 at Family Christian Stores! That's a fantastic deal! I missed the online deal, but it's still available in stores.

It comes with 10 DVD/stories, a plush Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato, a soft carrying case to keep all the DVDs together, and a cute Bob/Larry tin to hold all those goodies!

My toddler is now watching the Little Joe DVD, and she's really enjoying it!

Better Oats

We saw this new kind of oatmeal at the grocery store the other day, and thought we'd try it. The box includes 5 individual pouches, and you can use the pouch to measure the water, so it's easy to use for a quick breakfast at the office, no measuring cup needed! We got the maple and brown sugar variety, and my toddler is now addicted to the oatmeal! But that's an addiction we're fine with. The oats are whole grain oats, and there's extra antioxidants and flax seed. I don't know about you, but I loooooove flax seeds!

The box of 5 pouches retails for about $1.25/$1.50, so it's not that expensive when compared to good old Quaker oats, and I'm pretty sure it's much healthier. Head on over there to get a free coupon (thanks Money Saving Mom and EEEndeavers!), or "fan" them on Facebook and get a BOGO coupon!

Let me know what variety you tried, and how much you enjoyed it!

Coupon organization

Several people have asked me how they should organize their coupons. There are so many ways you could organize them, but I'll share the way that works for me.

I get several Sunday papers in order to get more than 1 set of inserts. Around here, the Sunday paper is $2, I believe. However, you can get it for $1.39 at Walgreens. We used to have 1 issue delivered through our subscription, then I'd buy 3 or 4 extra copies at Walgreens. But I recently discovered that the paper now offers extra Sunday issues for just $1 each, so I'm now receiving 5 issues of the paper (=5 sets of inserts) directly at my house, which makes it easier if you're having a lazy Sunday and don't feel like going shopping. So check with your paper's subscription department to see if they offer a similar deal!

Step 1
I start by writing the date on the front of the insert.

 
Step 2
I go through the whole insert, and then write the date of the last expiring coupon on the front page. In this case, we're looking at the 7/11 Smart Source insert The last coupon to expire in this insert will expire on 11/30. I go through the inserts every week or 2 to get rid of coupons that expired. And on 11/30, I'll just throw the whole insert out.

Step 3
I put the insert inside my coupon binder. I think I paid about $7 for this one at Walmart or Target. I have one tab per month, then one tab for last year's inserts with non-expired coupons, and tabs for some stores where I shop on a regular basis (Walgreens, Target, CVS…). As you can see from the water bottle sitting next to it, it's not a coupon binder that can fit in my purse. A couple friends refer to it as "the coupon suitcase"…

Step 4
Keep the binder in your car, and take it with you when you go shopping!
This system works really well for me. It allows me to keep the inserts whole, which makes using coupon databases much easier.

What about you? How do YOU organize your coupons?