YAHOO! It’s Friday! The best thing abo=”ut today is it’s time to do my favorite meme, Four Foods on Friday. Here are this week’s questions and my answers:
1. Chicken soup. Regular or creamy? I prefer regular, but I have had some creamy chicken soups that were very tasty.
2. Do you have a stew recipe? Yes!
3. What’s your favorite hot comfort food? Funny you should ask! My favorite comfort food is beef stew and I especially love it when my mom makes it!
4. Do you like chicken fried steak? Well, I live in Texas, need I say more? Isn’t chicken fried steak the official food of Texas?
Now, for my stew recipe:
1 lb of lean beef stew meat
4-6 medium potatoes peeled and cut into large cubes
1 onion, cut into pieces
3-4 carrots peeled and cut into pieces
1 can green beans (can also use frozen or fresh)
salt & pepper to taste
flour
2 c beef broth
Place 1/2-1 c. flour in a ziploc bag with salt and pepper. Add stew meat and shake to coat the meat. You can also had a shake or two of seasoned salt if you like.
Brown meet in olive oil in dutch oven. Add all other ingredients and stir. If necessary, add additional water and/or beef broth so that all vegetables are covered by liquid. Simmer for 1 1/2 -2 hours. Serve over cooked rice.
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alice.com. All opinions are 100% mine.
My work hours were cut today so I made good use of my time off and headed out to run a few errands. I don’t know about you, but I hate running errands and I detest grocery shopping. I feel like it’s such a waste of time and it takes me so long because I am a price shopper. I stand in the aisle comparing ingredients, sizes, coupons and, most importantly, prices. In these times of household budget cuts, price comparison are so important to me.
In the end, I did get my shopping done this morning, even managed to pick up a couple of Christmas presents. After getting home and putting my purchases away, I sat down for some personal time on my computer and I discovered Alice.com, a super convenient way to get my weekly and monthly household shopping done while saving me money.
I signed up for a free account at Alice.com today and started putting items I normally purchase at the store into my online cart. The coolest thing is that I don’t have to print/clip coupons because Alice.com has that all taken care of and applies coupons to my purchase for me. AND, they ship my order to me free (as long as I order a minimum of 6 items). They will even keep track of what I purchase and remind me to reorder so I don’t run out of things in my pantry, whether it’s coffee or toilet paper. Plus, their prices are better than what I just found at the discount store today. I compared prices at Alice.com to my receipt for what I purchased today and I could have saved even more than I did by purchasing online because they would have given me coupons that I didn’t have with me today.
I have such a difficult time staying on a budget and this is a great way for me to be more successful because I can track my purchases. This is the perfect way for us to manage our household purchases because they carry everything I need outside of fresh food. I can save money purchasing everything from granola bars, to shower cleaner and they carry name brand products, the ones I usually buy. I even found a few items that I ordered today because I didn’t care for the prices at the store, even though I needed the products. Now I’ve ordered them from Alice.com, saved money, time and gasoline.
I highly suggest you check this site out for yourself. Click here to sign up and start saving and you’ll receive $10 off once you’ve spent $50. Plus, for anyone you refer, you’ll receive 3% of their purchases back for one year.
There are 14 shops involved in this open house (mine is not one of them because I haven’t had time to update my shop!), my sister’s included. Each shop has unique, hand crafted items and each shop is sponsoring some sort of giveaway, so check each one out and I’m sure you’ll find something (or two or three) that you just must have for yourself or need to give as a gift this holiday season.
Please also be sure to visit my sister’s shop, Keated by Karen and you may even find a couple of my own hand crafted bags there!
This was such a wonderful weekend, our first in quite some time that we had absolutely no softball games or practices! Don’t get me wrong, we all love softball, but it was nice to have a weekend to get caught up around the house a bit and still have time to sit back and relax. I was able to get some much needed cleaning done and even rediscovered my kitchen island underneath all the stack of mail and magazines that had accumulated over the past couple of months. I got to spend time working on my other computer, finally getting it reconnected and up & running so my daughter and I no longer have to fight over my laptop! It was such a beautiful day too, a high of 78 yesterday! I went outside a couple of times and looked longingly at our backyard which I’m beginning to think needs some landscaping updates.
Of course, the nice weather ended and today is super windy and cold, so I now have time to sit indoors and plan my strategy for my yard. I’m not very good at yard work and planting, I definitely can use help, but it can be very expensive hiring people to do landscape work. I’m really thinking of starting with a smaller project in one corner of our yard where I believe a small tree has died. Weekend Project is a software program that can help me plot and plan exactly what I want to do with PlantFinder™ which suggests plants automatically based on where I live. It focuses on smaller household projects that can be completed in a weekend rather than something as big as a whole house remodel.
The Weekend Projectsoftware features tips from TV personality and interior designer Kristan Cunningham from HGTV and The Rachel Ray show as well as more in-depth how to information from other home professionals. What I find really cool is that, while planning bushes, trees and plants, I can include a picture of my home in my design plan to see how the end result will actually look! That can save me from making an expensive landscaping mistake!
Wanted to post this earlier, but time got away from me. I ran a couple of errands this morning after dropping my daughter off at school and before working my morning shift. When I got off work at noon I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few items and just got home and ate some lunch. So, I’m finally sitting down to write my favorite post of the week, Four Foods on Friday.
Without further ado, here are this weeks questions and my answers:
1. How do you make mashed potatoes? I peel and cut up potatoes and boil them until they are soft. I add milk, butter and salt and beat with my mixer until all the lumps are gone and they are creamy in texture.
2. What do you wash pots and pans with? Some pots I put in the dishwasher, others I was in hot water with Palmolive dish soap and a soft dishrag.
3. Name something red in your refrigerator right now. Strawberry jam.
4. Do you prefer to use boullion cubes or the boullion powder mix? I prefer powder, I can never seem to get the cubes to dissolve all the way!
