RECIPE OF THE WEEK:

SKIRT STEAK SANDWICHES ON BACON WAFFLE BREAD!


Ingredients:

* 6 tablespoons mayonnaise
* 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
* 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
* Salt and pepper
* 1 1/2 pounds skirt steak, cut into 6 pieces
* Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
* 6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
* 3 cups pancake mix (gluten-free, if desired), prepared according to package directions
* Cooking spray
* 6 leaves iceberg lettuce
* 3 tomatoes, thinly sliced

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, lemon juice and 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard. Season with salt; refrigerate.
2.Preheat a grill or grill pan to high. Brush the skirt steak with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill, turning once, for about 8 minutes for medium-rare; let sit. Thinly slice against the grain.
3.Meanwhile, preheat a waffle iron to medium-high. In a large bowl, stir the bacon and the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard into the prepared pancake batter.
4.Grease the waffle iron with cooking spray and, working in batches, pour in enough batter to barely fill each square; close and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions until golden. Spread each waffle with some of the lemon mayonnaise. Top with a lettuce leaf, tomato slices, steak slices and another waffle bread slice, mayo side down.

This one I have not actually tried yet!!! This is on my list next of things to try!!! How fun does the bacon waffle bread sound! :) SO Excited to try this!
If you try this be sure to comment on how you and your family liked it! :)

Splurging Everyone Once in a While!!!

Okay, so this post is for you mom's who don't take the time out for yourself, but do everything for the kiddo's!!!

For those of you who knew me pre-kids, you know I definitely enjoyed my expensive shampoo', conditioners, highlighting my hair, getting my nails done, getting pedicure's frequently, and basically spending money on crazy things.

Since having kids, I have given up my nails, pedicures, expensive shampoo's, and I rarely get my hair highlighted anymore. For that matter haircuts are few and far between. Can't that money be better spent on the kiddo's???

Well, I have a story for you! I was out grocery shopping last night and going though to check out some shampoo and conditioner with my awesome coupons! I ran across the fact that there is Biologe at Walmart!!!!! I could not help myself, I just did it!! I spend $35 on shampoo and conditioner just for myself!!!!

Of course, I felt guilty the WHOLE way home! Jeff never said a work when he saw it. Last night while washing my hair I was in complete bliss!!! I cannot stop smelling my hair and playing with it!!

The point to my story??? Sometimes splurging on little things such as shampoo is worth it for you! You don't have to be frugal all the time. You just choose the things you want to splurge on. You don't need to splurge on everything at once and completely throw your budget out the window, but I thought it was time to get my old shampoo back! :)

SWAG BUCKS!!! Earn FREE prizes!

You know how I love a good deal. Free deals are even better. Have you heard about SwagBucks?

If you’re new to SwagBucks, it’s a search engine that awards you points randomly and in varying denominations. SwagBucks can then be redeemed for a variety of prizes, including great gift cards, as I already described.

A few months ago I heard about this online search engine that awarded you points randomly when you searched the web. I was a little skeptical at first. It sounded too good to be true that you could really accrue enough points to redeem them for much of anything.

Well, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Not only have I won multiple free Amazon gift cards, but we’ve also redeemed points for Restaurant.com gift cards which we traded in for Christmas presents, and iTunes gift cards! You can also guarantee that if we had a Starbucks around here I would be cashin' in some of those babies too!

When you search using SwagBucks, you are randomly awarded points. Sometimes you have to type in a code, so pay attention. Sometimes, you just win the bucks without having to do anything. I set Swagbucks as the homepage to our computer. I just automatically uses this search engine for online searches. You can also download the SwagBucks toolbar which makes for easier searching. However, I didn't do that.

But there are even more ways to earn SwagBucks besides internet searches:

* Do your online shopping through the SwagBucks portal and you will earn 2 SwagBucks for every dollar you spend. They even provide online coupons to redeem to get your purchase for a lower price. There are lots of stores to choose from like Dell, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City.
* SwagBucks posts “special offers” that award you points for participating or even just browsing. I don’t have a lot of experience with this aspect of it, so please read the fine print. One example: New subscribers to Netflix can earn 850 SwagBucks when they sign up with SwagBucks. I just did this one, and signed up for the free trial, in the next week I will go on and cancel, that way it's free! If you do it before 3 days your swagbucks can be taken away!!!
* Trade in old cell phones, MP3 players, video games, and consoles for points.
* Win points when you vote in SwagBucks’ daily polls. It's only 1 a day, but hey at least your earning points!
* Simply tell your friends and family about SwagBucks and receive referall points when they sign up.

Now, the last thing I will say is that when you first get started it may seem frustrating to be earning so little points! However, I am on there every day doing random searches and have my bucks built up to over 2,500!!! I have also cashed some in for some restaurant gift cards, and amazon gift cards!!!
I have over $30 dollars of those saved up for Christmas presents, and the restaurant gift cards are awesome for my in laws who live far away in big places!!!

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?! SIGN UP!!! ALSO, IF YOU GO THROUGH THE LINK ON MY PAGE AT THE RIGHT WE WILL BOTH RECEIVE EXTRA BUCKS! :)

Cell Fire!

So what exactly is Cellfire?

Cellfire offers ecoupons that can be downloaded directly to your store loyalty card. The ecoupons are deducted automatically from your grocery total at checkout when you buy a qualifying item and swipe your loyalty card. This will be of particular interest to my readers that shop at Kroger, as they are one of the participating stores in this program. Hopefully they will be rolling it out to many more stores in the future!

What other stores utilize the Cellfire program?

The only store in our area that accept these are Safeway. You just go on and load them up onto your card. However, they MUST swipe your card for the discounts to come off, you can't just give them your phone number!


How do I use Cellfire?

Using Cellfire is easy! Just register your store loyalty card on the Cellfire site. You don't need to have a cell phone to participate in the program. Simply use your home phone number if this is the case. Then you simply save the coupons that interest you to your card. I generally just go ahead and save them all unless I absolutely know I will not use a particular coupon.

This is something that I was hesitant at first with. Why would I want to go online and give my number out?! However, this has saved me a TON of money! This is the reason I usually end up making money on a product! You are able to stack these with your regular coupons. So if you have an awesome sale, a coupon, and a coupon on cellfire you are a sure bet!!!
Next week I will talk about eshortcuts!!!

DIAPER DEALS!!!

Who doesn't love a good diaper deal!?! A lot of people I know are getting into doing cloth diapering, but for those of you who are to grossed out by poop to do so, here are some deals from the thrifty couple!

Each week they lay out the best deals! This week the best deal is at Rite-Aide which we don't have in our town, but there are plenty more amazing deals! So be sure to check them out HERE!

RECIPE OF THE WEEK!!

This week I'm featuring a recipe from Laura!!! She is part of our meal swap and made this soup that was so fabulous I have already made 3 more batches and have them in the freezer for this winter!!!
Thanks Laura!


Ingredients

* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 5 cups beef broth
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/2 cup red wine
* 4 large tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
* 1 cup thinly sliced carrots
* 1/2 tablespoon packed fresh basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
* 8 ounces fresh tortellini pasta
* 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. In a 5 quart Dutch oven, brown sausage. Remove sausage and drain, reserving 1 tablespoon of the drippings.
2. Saute onions and garlic in drippings. Stir in beef broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano, tomato sauce, and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
3. Skim fat from the soup. Stir in zucchini and parsley. Simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add tortellini during the last 10 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese on top of each serving.


Amount Per Serving Calories: 324 | Total Fat: 20.2g | Cholesterol: 50mg

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