Hillbilly Cheesy Rice

My neighbor gave me this recipe and it is really good. Its an easy way to sneak in some veggies.

Ingredients
1 block of Velveeta, cubed
1/4 cup milk
1 can Rotel or Diced Tomatoes and chilies
3-4 sliced zucchini
1 tbls olive oil
1 pkg Taco Rice by Knorr

Directions
Put olive oil in skillet. Add zucchini and cook on medium heat until soft. Add cubed Velveeta and 1/4 cup milk. Melt cheese on low until all the chunks are gone. Add Rotel or Diced Tomatoes and chilies and the package of Taco Rice. Cover with lid and cook on low heat for 10 minutes or until rice is soft. Stir often or else the Velveeta will burn.

Creamy Chicken Soup

Ingredients
3 cans condensed cream soups
5 cans water
2 cans Veg-All or Vegetable Medley
garlic powder
pepper
2 lbs chicken (shredded or cubed)
2 pkg Frozen Egg noodles or 1 1/2 c dry egg noodles

In a large crockpot, add everything except noodles. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8. Add noodles and cook for another 20-30 minutes or until tender.

Best Hamburger Ever

I got this recipe from Hell's Kitchen. Well, he didn't use a recipe exactly. He just rattled off ingredients.

Ingredients:
Chopped Beef
Salt
Pepper
Dijon Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Ketchup
Finely Chopped Red Onion
Three Egg Yolks


Mix it all up and grill.

Christmas Crack

I may have posted this one before.

Ingredients
1 lb (2 sticks) unsalted sweet butter
1/2 c light brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 sleeve saltine crackers

Preheat oven to 350.
Line cookie sheet with foil and spray with Pam.
Lay out crackers in a single layer and set aside.
Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add in both sugars and stir until dissolved. Let this cook, stirring often until bubbling.
Let it bubble for 5 minutes. Pour over crackers and spread as evenly as possible.
Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
Put in refrigerator to cool.
After hardened, break into pieces.

Variation:
After baking for 5 minutes, add 1 bag chocolate (or any flavor) chips and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Pizza Soup

Sounds gross. Stevie insisted on having this for dinner so we will see how good it is.

Ingredients:
2 14oz can Italian Style Tomatoes
2 cups beef broth
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 pkg pepperoni
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine everything except the cheese in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Serve in bowls and top with cheese.
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Edited to say--It was actually pretty good! Thin and not filling, but tasted good. I served it with garlic/Parmesan bread. But even with the bread, it seemed like it needed something else to make it great. Like noodles of some kind. I might try it again and add some kind of fun shaped noodles.

Recipes

I am posting recipes today.

I have quite a few of them to post so check back later!

Laundry Detergent

Now for a different kind of recipe.

I have a huge stockpile of Laundry Detergent. I have not bought any since last August or so and still have 8 bottles left. As soon as it is all used up, I am going to try my hand at Homemade Laundry Soap. These were borrowed from Babycenter and soapsgonebuy.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Powder Detergent-Safe for HE/front loader machines

Ingredients
1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap
1/2 cup washing soda (make sure it isn't BAKING soda)
1/2 cup 20 mule team borax

Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light or small loads, use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons. Cost per load .15.

To make a large batch - grate 6 bars of Fels Naptha Soap and then add 3 cups of Washing Soda and 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Mix well and store in covered container.
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Liquid Detergent 1-Also safe for HE/Front loader machines

Ingredients
3 Pints Water
1/3 bar Fels Naptha Soap, grated
1/2 cup Washing Soda (Arm and Hammer, NOT baking soda though!!)
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
2 Gallon bucket to mix it in
1 Quart hot water Hot Water

Mix Fels Naptha soap in a saucepan with 3 pints hot water and heat on low until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat. Add 1 Quart Hot Water to 2 gallon Bucket. Add soap mixture, and mix well. Fill bucket completely with additional hot water, and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours, or until mixture thickens. You may add additional HOT water if the mixture becomes too thick. Mix Well before each use. Use 1/2 cup of mixture per load. Makes 64 loads. Cost per load .03.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liquid Detergent 2

Ingredients
1 bar grated Fels Naptha soap
5 gallon bucket
1 cup washing soda (Again, Arm and Hammer)
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
4 1/2 gallons water

Put grated Fels Naptha in saucepan and cover with water. Heat on low until dissolved. Fill bucket with hot water and add soap. Stir to combine. Add 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax and mix well. As it cools, it will thicken. If mixture becomes too thick, add hot water to thin it to desired consistency. May be used immediately. Mix well before each use. Use 1/2(normal) to 1 cup per load (heavy). Cost per load .04.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have read that you can substitute Ivory Soap (or any other bar soap except for the ones with lotion or beads) for the Fels Naptha soap.

Rain

Holy Crap! It is really raining hard. Thundering and lightninging too.

I really hope that this isn't our Monsoon Season though. Monsoons make an otherwise unbearable July or August better.

BzzAgent Game Wave Campaign

Here is my review on the Game Wave.

The first Game Wave system I received was broken! It looked like UPS had dropped and squashed the box. So it wasn't Bzz's fault nor was it the manufacturer's fault.

I had plugged all the wires in to the TV and got everything set up before I realized it wouldn't work. Everything was plugged in correctly, I double checked and had Hubbs triple check it. So I called the call center. It turns out that the call center is located somewhere in Canada and it was 11 p.m. I felt kind of bad for calling so late but it was only 8 p.m. here. The man I talked to was very nice and pleasant, even though it was late in the evening. He took down my information and promised to send me out one in the morning. The instructions were to open the box at the warehouse and testing it to make sure it worked before sending it to me. He did warn me that it was coming from the warehouse in New York so it was likely that I wouldn't see it until Monday.

The customer service man explained that sometimes when the console is dropped, the disc tray gets knocked off the track. He walked me through the steps to diagnose it and was very patient while I asked questions or got confused and needed more information. I didn't even have to send the broken console back.

The customer service that Game Wave provided was excellent! I will defiantly do business with them again.

I got my BzzBox

Actually, 2 BzzBoxes.

I got my razors and stuff in the mailbox and then UPS brought the Game Wave stuff.

I have yet to try out the razors. Honestly, I haven't had a chance to take a shower alone in about a week. I can't shave with the kids in there with me, they just move around too much and our shower is too small for the 3 of us.

I did open the Game Wave box. I unboxed everything and put batteries in the remotes. I plugged it in and.....NOTHING. Yep, the damn thing was broken. So I got to call their tech people in Canada. Poor guy. It was 11 p.m. wherever he was. I am sure I was the last person he wanted to deal with too. It wasn't his fault it came broken so I was nice.

I should have a new one on Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, I will try out my razor and post a few recipes.

Emailing Companies

I am going to start emailing companies again to get coupons.

This time, I will post here with links so YOU can email them as well. I will also post the results, whether they ignored me, sent me stuff or sent me coupons.

If I can find my camera cable (yes it is still missing) I will post some pictures.

This weekend I will make a list of brands and products we use and match them up with either websites or email addresses. Hopefully I will get around to posting something about it next week.

Bubble Pizza

I made this tonight and am VERY impressed with it. Someone posted the recipe on the Coupon Board from BBC. It is really easy.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 jar Spaghetti sauce or 2 jars pizza sauce
1 can of Grands biscuits
Pizza toppings
8 oz shredded cheese

Directions:
Brown ground beef.
Cut Grands up into about 60 pieces(cut each biscuit into about 6-8 chunks) and put them in the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish.
Drain beef and spread it out across the biscuits.
Pour spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce into a bowl. Add any pizza toppings you enjoy such as black olives, onions, green pepper, pineapple, etc etc. Stir all of this together until everything is coated in the the sauce.
Pour this on meat.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-18 minutes(biscuits will bubble up and be slightly brown on top).
Remove from oven and add shredded pizza cheese(mozz or mozz/cheddar blend).
Put back in oven until cheese is melted(about 3-5 minutes), removed from oven and cut into squares.

Kids and Yards

There was a post on the bargain hunters board today asking if you let your 4 year old child play in the front yard with a dog. Lots of answers ranging from Oh Hell no to Sure, why not.

I am a big ole chicken and can't bring myself to post on the bargain hunters board very often. I must have lost my big girl panties somewhere along the way. LoL

You all know I am as paranoid and semi-crazy as they come, but, I used to let Monk Man play in the front yard alone.

That all changed when our across the street neighbors moved in. The guy is a major jerk. He beats his wife and his kids. And as soon as I catch any of it on video I will have him arrested. Hubbs and I can sit on our back porch and hear them screaming at each other from inside their house. It is pathetic and I don't feel sorry for the wife at all but I do feel sorry for the kids. I think they have 5 little ones and they all look like they are still too young for school.

Anyway, Monk Man isn't allowed in the front yard alone anymore. Even though the yard is completely fenced in, the dogs were usually out with him and I can see everything through the front door I still don't feel safe with that guy living there. There is just something about him that pisses me off. I felt like that even before I knew he was an abuser.

They ARE allowed to play in the back yard alone though. Their kiddie pool is set up and all their toys are scattered everywhere. If I sit at the kitchen table I can see the whole back yard. The dogs come in and out of the house all day so they aren't really alone. Those kids would stay outside day and night if I would let them.

I have no problem with letting the boys play outside without me hovering over them. The sunshine and fresh air is good for them. Plus I can get so much more done inside the house without them under-foot and trying to help.

On top of that, we have a doggie door. There would be no way to keep the kids inside without closing off the doggie door. But then the dogs would be stuck inside, in the way and trying to help too. That would be a disaster.

I do have to admit that they have gotten a little better at picking up their inside toys. I was at Walmart on Mother's Day buying flowers and I happened to run across the coolest buckets ever! They have wheels and they are just the right size for the boys to pull around the house. I make them bring out their buckets from their office/playroom and all their junk in the rest of the house gets put into them and rolled back into the office/playroom. It was the best $20 I have spent in a loooonnnggg time.

They lost it

Oh no! The dealership I blogged about on Friday got their letter from GM. By October 2010, they will have no more GM stuff.

This makes me want to puke.

That means no Chevys, no Buicks, no Pontiacs, no Hummers, no GMCs, or Cadillacs will be sold locally. Our local economy is going to suck even more that it already does.

And I think that it is bullshit that GM is keeping their list private. Chrysler made theirs public, what is GM trying to hide?

It is Gloom and Doom for the dealerships

I am going to guess that you have heard about Chrysler taking away dealership franchises yesterday.

Well, now GM has decided to do the same.

I am pretty deep into the car biz. I ran the office at a GM/Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler/Nissan dealership for years. That is where I met Hubbs.

In my current job at the BodyShop, I deal with dealerships on a daily basis.

I found out that our local dealership was allowed to keep their Chrysler franchise but are still waiting to hear if they get to keep their GM franchise.

This is pretty bad news. The majority of the people at the dealership have been doing the car thing for their ENTIRE life. This is a family owned business. The current owners were raised in the dealership because their parents owned it and their parents' parents opened it almost 80 years ago.

I am a little upset about it. Cant you tell? LoL The owner of the dealership is a pretty good friend of mine and I can't imagine how much anxiety he is having. Every time the phone rings I hold my breath, hoping it is him with news. Hopefully good news but even if it is bad news, it will at least ease my mind a bit.

In case you want to know if YOUR local dealership(s) are affected by the Chrysler mess, you can find the entire list of taken away franchises HERE.

Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards Program

In case you haven't heard, Huggies has introduced a rewards program. I hear it is similar to the Pampers rewards program.

They send you codes to redeem for points to redeem for stuff.

You just sign in to the website, click on the Earn Points tab at the top, enter your code, hit submit and fill in a security box. You get between 1-5 points for each code. Plus you earn points for watching the videos and taking polls. When the new Huggies packaging comes out, there are supposed to be codes on the packages as well.

Its easy. I will even post codes to start you out with. Just copy and paste!
All codes taken from the Coupon Deals group. Thanks girls!
1 POINT
RRPXJ-PSDRZ-PGPGB
BBWBH-SDHFQ-CJPGB
XGQTZ-JNLGX-SLPGB
BBMRG-BFQGS-FBPGB

2 POINTS
WPBXZ-RDDNS-PPPGB
RZMRR-QFZNP-WGPGB

5 POINTS
RSZNG-TJNPH-DHPGB
BBRJH-WHDPT-JZPGB
LNXBX-DXTSH-BSPGB
ZQQGS-FLRLM-XBPGB
TKHNF-RLPLS-TRPGB ($2 COUPON LINK ALSO)
TXZKZ-JNRJQ-DDPGB
BGZQZ-JCXFC-HZPGB
QKKZJ-MTZRZ-HPPGB
STLPM-MBQPZ-RLPGB
KDBDC-NJGCF-SLPGB

So if you want to sign up, shoot me an email me at mommycrisp at yahoo dot com with the subject Huggies ETR referral.

Hey, Write Down Your Blog Address For Me

Uuuhhhh, no?

Ok, so I wore my wonderful Blogger shirt today to work. One of our Tool Truck (and what a tool he is) guys stopped in for a check. This is how the conversation went:

Tool Guy: Hey, neat shirt! Are you a blogger?
Me: Thanks. Yep.
Tool Guy: So will you write down your blog name so I can sheckitout? (Yes, he really did say sheckitout)
Me: Uhhh, no.
Tool Guy: Huh?
Me: I don't think you would like it. Its really only for people that don't know me in real life. I wouldn't be comfortable with you reading it.
Tool Guy: (creepily wiggling his eyebrows)Soooo its one of "those kind" of blogs!
Me: .........
Tool Guy: No?
Me: No. Here's your check, buhbye.

I think that if someone that knows me in real life actually came across my blog I would freak. To be honest, Hubbs hasn't even been allowed to read it. It would be different if I lived in a bigger town where there were a few people that didn't know me. But my town has maybe 6,000 people and EVERYBODY knows who I am. Either through my job or Hubbs or someone in my huge family or we went to school together or something.

I think that when (or if) I ever finish my book, I will have to use a pen name as well. I have a fear of conversations going like this:
(disgusted)YOU wrote that book?
instead of going like this:
You wrote (amazed) THAT book?

LoL Its kind of hard to get what I mean actually typed out into something that makes sense.

Mother's Day

was awesome!

I got to sleep in until 7:30. After I made my coffee and sat down at the computer desk I found a card from Hubbs and the boys. The card had an actual hand written note! And there was a stack of cash in it too. The note said "I was going to buy you some flowers but here is the cash instead. I will keep both the kids so you can go shopping alone".

So when Hubbs got out of bed I took Bobblehead with me to look at plants at Walmart. Bobblehead came with me because Monk Man kicked him. Nice, I know. Sometimes I feel like I am trying to raise the spawn of Satan.

Anyway, I found some of the prettiest flowers at Walmart. I almost didn't even bother stopping because of the shitty selection they had when I went last weekend to look for veggies. I ended up spending too much money (as always) but I got 7 different types of flowers, 8 bags of potting soil and 2 of the coolest rolling buckets I have ever seen.

I spent almost all afternoon in the yard. Now I just have to figure out where to put all those pots full of flowers.

More BzzAgent Campaigns

So I joined 2 more BzzAgent Campaigns.

I opened my email this morning and found the invite to the Bic Soleil Bella. There was talk yesterday on the coupon board that this campaign was already full but I tried anyway and got in! I am not picky about razors at all. I can use just about anything.

Then I bit the bullet and joined the Game Wave Campaign too. I was torn between joining now or waiting and possibly not getting in. I mean, $29.99 could go a long way at the grocery store! But the gamer in my won and I joined. From the things I have read online, this game system runs about $300 normally and the games and extra controllers are pretty pricey too. It sounds like fun though. Even if we only get a few game nights out of it, it would totally be worth it just for the adult interaction.

I should be getting my packages within 21 days so I will post more when they arrive!

Oh, and if you have any dealings with either the razor or the game system, please leave me a review to submit! It would be appreciated since I have a tough time talking to people face to face sometimes. I will repay you with some reports of my own that you can submit.

Safeway Haul

I am pooped! I hit Safeway hard today. I made 2 trips and did 3 transactions.


My out of pocket was higher than I liked but overall, I am pretty satisfied. It would have been much lower if Hubbs hadn't decided he wanted to make Chinese Food tomorrow as I was walking out the door.


First, this is what I got
18 Bertolli Pasta Sauces
1 Oreo Fun Stix
6 6-packs of Arrowhead waters
1 Gallon of Milk
1 big bottle of French Vanilla Creamer
3 black Safeway totes
3 18-packs of Coors Light
1 BBQ Sauce
1 Tartar Sauce
2 Quaker Rice Cakes
2 cans of Ortega Green Chilies
2 packages of Fish Fry Batter
1 package of Egg Drop Soup mix
1 package of Hot and Sour Soup mix
2 Sweet and Sour Sauce
17 Capri Sun Sunrise
2 Ziploc Gallon freezer bags
2 All Small and Mighty
2 Daisy Cottage Cheese
1 Round Steak
and 1 Ham


Total before coupons: $387.32
Total out of pocket: $107.95
Total saved with coupons and club card: $279.37


My Safeway has refused to take my IP (printed from online) coupons in the past but I took them with me today to try my luck yet again. On my first trip, I managed to get in at the register the Assistant Manager was at and he took the IPs without bating an eye. So the other cashiers that have refused them and their bullshit excuse of "Safeway doesn't take printed coupons" has been proven wrong.


On my second trip, I divided my stuff into 2 transactions to save a trip. I felt kind of bad for holding up the line for that long but the dude behind me was cool with it, plus the kids were at my Mom's house so I HAD to maximise my trip. When the cashier saw me unloading my cart she got really pissy but when she saw my total drop, so did her jaw. She was super nice from then on.

I ended up giving away a bit of my haul and some of my stockpile today too. My dad hurt his shoulder a few months ago and hasn't worked in a while. Plus they watch Bobblehead most days during the week so I gave them a bag of Bertolli sauce and a stack of Capri Suns. My neighbors (the big bad biker dude, his girlfriend and her son) are struggling too. She drives a school bus and he has been laid off for as long as Hubbs has but without unemployment so I gave them some Capri Suns when I was unloading the car and I have a bag of stuff (more Bertolli sauce, some pasta, salad dressing, and some of my left over coupons) sitting by my door that I need to take over tonight. I also took some Bertolli sauce, salad dressing and Arrowhead water over to my grandma.

I know it isn't much but it is something. We are lucky that I am working full time again, that unemployment is still going strong, that I know how to coupon and meal plan, that I started my stockpile when times were good, and we had the foresight to sock every extra penny into our savings account. Stupid economy. Our friends and family are a close knit group and I know that they would give me and my family ANYTHING if we asked for it and we would give them ANYTHING as well. I also 100% believe in what goes around, comes around. A few bucks here gives back a whole lot of good karma. Ok, that's enough of my rambling about karma.

Next weeks flier looks pretty tame and the next promo doesn't interest me too much so I probably won't go grocery shopping for a while except for milk and some veggies.