We Will Return...

Sorry for the absence the last two nights. I have a recipe from Wednesday night to share with and I will share recipes for Thursday and Friday even though we had subway last night and pizza tonight. It's been a busy few days :)

I will update again tomorrow! I Promise!

$avings - SuperPoints

I found a site that allows you to earn "points" to cash in for rewards. One category of rewards is cash deposited into a paypal account. I believe this is a referral only website.
Each day you get an email with free points. And 5-100 chances on the superlucky button to earn even more free points. There are also simple surveys that you can complete as well. Today during one of my spins I got a referral bonus link. Anyone that signs up with this link will automatically get 25 point bonus! You'll get points for completing your profile, as well as inviting friends. Anytime a referral earns a point through the superlucky button, you earn the same amount.

Use this link for the bonus points
http://superpoints.com/bonus/a5ajf4

This one is an easy site to use. You can get points for nothing (it just takes longer to get to redeemable level).

If you have questions let me know!

Slow Cooker Angel Chicken

What you Need

About 1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast
About 12-14 oz of mushrooms (fresh or canned, your choice!)
1/4 cup butter
1 pkg. Italian dry salad dressing mix
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1/2 of an 8-oz. tub cream cheese spread with chives and onion
Hot cooked rice or angel hair pasta

Ingredients (minus butter)

Melt the Butter and Add in your seasoning packet

My Beautiful Little Kitchen Assistant (Who kept running in to me while I was cooking)

Add your Soup, Cream Cheese & Cooking Wine (I forgot the wine and got a thicker sauce at the end - It tastes better with the wine, but not bad without)

The finished sauce!

 

While your sauce is mixed and melted dice up your mushrooms and add to the bottom of your slow cooker

Add your chicken to your slow cooker on top of the mushrooms

Poor your Sauce over the chicken and mushrooms (I had to mix everything up because of the thicker sauce - but with the cooking wine added it thins out and is somewhat soup like)

The Finished Producte over  angel hair pasta!

Weekly Schedule

If there's one thing I've learned with having a seven month old it is to plan ahead. On Sundays I sit down with my Sunday papers, laptop and cookbooks. I plan out our meals for a week to two weeks at a time. This is my busiest day at home. Trying to clip coupons, print coupons, make my grocery lists and keep Ava out of trouble is challenging! I need a routine here as well. Here's what you can expect! (I do my grocery shopping every other weekend - So I try to plan two weeks in advance and I will try to post in advance my meal plans)

 -- Casserole Mondays

-- Slow Cooker Tuesdays

-- Soups & Salads Wednesdays

-- Thirsty Thursdays -- Look for Juicer and Smoothie recipes along with a random additional dinner meal.

-- Friday ends our busy work week with my Weekend Weigh-In and a quick 30 minute meal to jump start your weekend

--  Italian Favorites Saturday

-- Sugar Sunday -- Deserts and Sugary Sweet Treats! (Along with your desert you'll get your dinner recipe as well)


I rarely eat Red Meat. I never eat Fish. Most of these recipes will include Chicken. I'm not going to designate any special day for certain meats. Any of these days could be a chicken or beef day.  Once a week I'll post a breakfast recipe. This will fall on my husbands day off. His schedule rotates 4 & 2 so his days off are not set. I won't replace anything that is expected that day, it will just be an additional recipe. At some point in the future I may include additional desert days. I can easily post recipes without photos, but I am a photographer at heart and enjoy adding the photos to the recipes "how to".

My "routine" will begin next Monday as I already have a few meals already planned this week.

Things Just Got SERIOUS!

My Good Cook Club shipment arrived today!

Now I need to get the babycakes cake pop maker. I'll use my first reward deposit from superpoints (info to come soon) to order my babycakes!

Ava helping me open everything up!

She'll be my researcher! Ignore my messy living room. I've given up on cleaning up Ava's toys. 

Cheesy Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

What you'll need:
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic
2 Cups shredded, cooked chicken breast
2 Cups steamed white rice
2 Cups prepared wild rice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Cheese Sauce:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 Cups chicken broth
3 1/2 – 4 Cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat oil into a medium pot over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in chicken and rice. Reduce heat to low.

To prepare cheese sauce melt butter into a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour, salt and pepper then slowly pour in chicken broth whisking continuously.  Whisk until thick and nearly boiling then stir in 2 cups cheese until melted.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture then transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish. Top with additional cheddar cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted through.  Serve hot.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Some tips - my veggies were still crunchy because we were in a hurry to eat. Definitely wait until the veggies are soft to add the chicken. I used a box of Uncle Ben's 5 minute wild rice. A package of chicken breast tenderloins and instead of measuring out the garlic I just sprinkled from spice container over the veggies until I thought I had enough.

This is my first recipe and it's not being posted in the exact way that I wanted to. We have a teething 7 1/2 month little girl and our night was spent driving around country roads trying to get her to calm down a little. I learned tonight that she actually has two teeth coming in. Poor thing is miserable and moody.

Tomorrow's Recipe: Slow Cooker Angel Chicken (You will see a lot of chicken and Italian recipes. Once a week I would expect a red meat recipe and a desert!)

$avings - InboxDollars

Have you heard of those sites where you can earn money for taking surveys & reading emails??

Always been skeptical of those sites?
WELL - I found one that works, and pays!

I'll be getting a check for $40.32 and as soon as I requested my check I got another $5.00 ($3.00 for payment and $2.00 for completing a satisfaction survey!)

This site sends you emails daily (if you subscribe to them) with a link to confirm you read the email. You're paid for confirming. Completing surveys offers payment, watching videos, playing games online, completing tasks for companies, doing web searches and completing any sponsor offers (If you choose to). I signed up on May 3rd and 10 ten days later I made $40. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's still $40. To the stay at home Mom's looking for a little pocket cash, or saving for a trip, it's savings. I also didn't do as much as I could to earn more. If you have the time to be consistent on the site the potential is there for more =)

If you want a referral to sign up (if you refer friends you also earn 10% of what they did. My referrer earned $4.00 for nothing today!)

You'll also get $5.00 just for signing up!
CLICK HERE FOR REFERRAL

I have a few other sites that have paid me as well that I will share with you soon :)
I'm off to my Zumba class tonight. When I get home I will post our dinner from this evening!

Introduction

My first post is going to serve as an introduction. Some big things happened in my life recently. I had a baby, got married and moved across the country. I left my full time job to be a stay home wife and mother. I love what I do. Once we moved I started cooking dinner on a regular basis. When we first brought our daughter home I was living on oatmeal and lunchables! I started researching recipes, joined a cooking community, bought my own cook book to save my favorites, and joined a cook book club! My plan is to bring you our favorite dinner recipes. I love to BAKE so I'll bring some cupcake, cookies and goodies recipes as well.

I'm currently researching healthier lifestyle recipes. My husband and I are ready to add another baby to our family. We decided that we want to start trying next summer. Before I can do this I need to get into a healthier lifestyle. I still have 8lbs of baby weight to lose from my first pregnancy and ideally I would like to be a little bit lighter than that before I start over with another baby. I'm very proud that since I gave birth to my daughter I've lost a total of 38lbs! Another 25lbs would be wonderful!


As a stay at home Mom I do my part to try to save us money. I coupon, and try to find cash back, discounts and other savings. I'll do my best to share with you what I can. I'm not a crazy couponer that will itemize all the coupons against the weekly circulars.


I look forward to cooking with everyone! I welcome your feedback, suggestions, requests and positive encouragement! My next post will be my first dinner recipe with pictures and cooking instructions! Look for Cheesey Chicken & Rice Caserole later tonight!