Birthday Deals from Favorite Companies!

When you register with a company, either to receive their online newsletters, to get a coupon, or to be able to buy from their website, always be sure to put your birthday in there. Or if you haven't already signed up on some of your favorite brands' websites, get busy :) My birthday was yesterday and I received several birthdya emails from companies I love! Some were for free products when I purchased so much in their online store. One was a coupon for $3 off any purchase at a major drug store chain. Another email held $10 off any $50 clothing purchase (which I will get use out of this weekend, Im sure as kids are needing clothes for summer!). In the past, I have usually gotten emails for free food from restaurants....which is nice as well :) But, this year, Im loving the deals that popped up! So, don't miss out. Think about your favorite restaurants, clothing store, drug stores, etc and get signed up!!

A couple recipes to pass along!

We have tried a couple of new recipes this month. They have both turned out nicely and both are made in the crock pot!!! I love throwing things in the crock pot and forgetting about them!

The first recipe was so easy it is almost sad-well, not really, because it actually made me very happy :)
Take a 25 oz bag of frozen ravioli, dump it in your crock pot, pour a jar of your favorite sauce over top, stir it a bit to coat the ravioli (I rinsed my jar out with a bit of water and poured that into the crock as well), put lid on top. I cooked mine for 3 hours on high. The last 20 mins of cooking, I put some shredded cheese on top. Easy-peasy!!!!

The second recipe I found here.... Chef in Training Ranch House Pork Chops. Also super easy and very good! I doubled the cream soup (and we used cream of mushroom soup instead of the cream of chicken). I also mixed the ranch in with the soup. And, to flavor the pork chops a lil, we sprinkled them with a tad of onion and garlic powder :)

This experiment of trying a new recipe each paycheck is really paying off! I have quite a few new recipes to add to our collection that everyone in the house loves! Even my picky husband (shhhhhh--don't tell him I said that :) And, I have a new way of making a meal (the ravioli) that I would only make in cooler months so I wouldn't have to heat up my kitchen with the stove and oven!!

Hopefully this series is giving you a couple of good ideas to try for your family too!!

******************edited add on***************
I forgot I try to add in the cost to each new meal we try. For the ravioli, I used two packages of frozen cheese ravioli from Aldi with was $2.29 a bag. The sauce was just Best Choice from Reasor's and I used two of those-they cost 89 cents a can. I used about a cup of shredded cheese--I bought a 12 oz bag from Aldi for $2.99 (that same bag is on sale this week for $2.79) so the amount of cheese cost me about $1 for this recipe. So, altogether, this meal cost me about $8 (I also made garlic bread-$1 and salad --free since I had a ton of lettuce and carrots that needed to be used from last paycheck-lol! I call it free because if I didn't use it soon, it would go bad ;) This meal also gave me quite a bit of leftovers, so for us, this made about 2 meals worth of food.

For the pork chops, they were on sale for $1.69/lb. I tried to find a package that had 7 chops in it (so each person in the family could have one)-my package cost $6.51. The dry ranch was about $1.25 and the cream of mushroom soup was 59 cents/can. That adds up to about $9. The mashed potatoes will be right around $1 since I bought the bag on sale (making regular mashed tators not the ones in the recipe). So, for about $10, I will have a yummy b-day meal. Not something we will eat often, but on special occassions :)

$1 off Country Crock Printable!!!

Head on over to coupons.com (or use the coupon section in your swagbucks to earn points when you redeem this coupon) and print off a coupon for $1 off any size Country Crock (excludes flavored spreads). I used zip code 77477. Also, don't forget, you can print this one off twice!!!!

Free Sample of Quaker Oatmeal Squares

Like Quaker Oatmeal Squares on FB and get your free sample box of Quaker Oatmeal Squares :)

New Recipe and Homerun :)

I told you last month that I planned to make a new recipe every two weeks (I plan our menus out for two weeks since that is how often I do my grocery shopping). Since then, we have found out we love tetrazzini, with chicken, ground beef, turkey, and ham :) Next, we will try it with tuna ;) But, yesterday, I made Chicken Noodle Casserole. I found the recipe on Pinterest (yes, I am on Pinterest if you would like to follow me) and I really did not think everyone in my family would love it as much as they did!!! Even my picky husband (love you, Hunny :) It's so simple to throw together. I left out the bread crumbs and because I didn't re-read the recipe while makin my shopping list, I left out the sour cream (cuz I didn't buy any---oops!). I doubled the recipe as far as the noodles go-actually, I probably tripled the noodle part. When you do this, I highly recommend using one more can of one of the cream soups. Like I said, this was a hit!

Chicken Noodle Casserole