Fans and Fandom

Good Morning all,  I noticed everyone is sharing their favorite shows and anticipating new ones.  Do you ever notice how certain shows effect us or how we effect certain shows.  The world of the fans is powerful.  Fans are phenomenal and we can effect change.  I wanted to give you several examples of this effect.  Did you know that during the so called Luke and Laura phenomena colleges could not schedule classes during that hour because no one would show up.  I will give you more current examples.  The character of coulson was killed off in avengers.  The fans rebelled and asked for him back and now he's in agents of shield.  Another favorite N.C.I.S. lost a  recent character Ziva

Davide.  When the fans found out they sent hundreds of paper clips to her to show their support.  The paper clips refer to the first episode where ziva meets tony and threatens him with a paper clip. Why not use all this zeal to help other people.  Get your fellow fans together and plan something.  Do a food drive for a local food bank.  If your favorite show is military based like N.C.I.S. help support military families.  You can pick a theme based upon your favorite show. Just a thought for the holidays.

Note to my readers Frankie's post will be up Wednesday this week and Food will on Friday. Have a great day.

Picasso Frankie

Frankie decide he had to help Conor with his art poster.

I'm making colors

                                                       Art is hard work
                                                                                             

Colors smell funny

Perfect Fall Chili Recipe

Good Evening all,  It's that time of year where you want comfort food.  A good family fun recipe that warms the soul.  It's a combination of heat with the sweet when it comes to spices.  But its not overpowering and believe me your kids are gonna love it.  In fact Conor, my youngest calls it a traditional family recipe to be handed down to his children and their children. So here you go.

                                                      Italian Chili Recipe

2 lb ground beef--this is interchangeable you can use ground turkey or go vegetarian

3 (15 oz) cans of red kidney beans undrained

2 (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

2 tsp. Chopped Dried Onion

1 tsp. Oregano

1 tbs  Chili Powder

1 tbs  Butter

Brown meat in large soup pot or dutch oven.  Drain when no longer pink. Add kidney beans and sauce and stir.  Add spices and butter to pot.  Stir and heat until boiling.  Turn down and simmer for 10 minutes.  Enjoy 

 

Paid $1.52 for Frankie's Food at CVS

Good Morning,  I made a run to CVS yesterday because Frankie was having an issue with the Cat Chow.  I did two transactions.  I took advantage of the coke/gold emblem deal.  I wanted to get the $10/$30 deal.  So here's what I got.

4 cases of coke product

3 circus peanuts

1 can cashews

1 4lb bag sugar

1 bag french roast coffee

with sales/coupons/25% off     Saved total of  $22.05               O.O.P.  $30.45  received $10 ecb

2nd transaction

1 Friskies bag 3.15 lb 

1 Kit-n-Kaboodle bag 3.15 lb

6 can friskies rise and shine

with sales/coupons/ecb            Saved total of $14.82                  O.O.P.   $1.52

When I go back later this week and spend another $2.08 I'll get $3 in ecb's on pet products

The Power of Color--How It Effects Our Moods

Good Morning, It's fall and what comes across your mind when you think of fall?  The red and gold colors of the leaves falling from the trees invokes a sense of moment's in front of a fireplace sipping hot cocoa. It's the way you feel wearing a certain dress in a particular color because it your power color. It makes you look good and feel good.  Colors can have a positive as well as a negative effect on your daily life.  Ever wonder what certain colors cause you to feel.  Here's a fun list of what colors are said to invoke in people.

Red-It's said to cause strong emotions or ever notice restaurants use this color maybe to make you eat more.

Blue-It's the color that's said to calm you down and relax you, might want to paint your bedroom this color to help you fall asleep. I need this color.

Green-It's the color of nature makes you think of a tranquil forest. When you see green you think of healthy plants.

Yellow-It's the color that signifies cheerfulness and warmth.  I think of yellow I see kitchens?  What do you see?

Purple-It's the color that's said to signify royalty and wealth.  This is my favorite color.  I have clothes that make me feel good because they are in this color.

Orange-It's said to invoke excitement and warmth.  Can anyone say Halloween?  I associate it with Halloween.  

Black-It's the bad mood color.  Enough said on that one.

So when you go out today, notice the colors around you and how they make you feel.  What is your favorite color and how does it make you feel?  Maybe we should bring the 70's back and start wearing mood rings, so we'll know what emotions we are experiencing. Have a good day and have fun with it.

                                       
                                              Some colors to think about orange, green, blue and black

                                           My favorite purple dress.

Frankie's Crazy Week in Pictures

Frankie's Crazy Week in Pictures

                                             But I want to take a shower

                                            I don't care what you say I am going to Wal-Mart

I'm helping mom write her blog and its about me

Saved 54% on meat at Savemart

Good Morning all,  I did a small meat and snack run to save mart yesterday.  I are having their $8 roast sale this week and the Nabisco teddy grahams are on sale. So if you have the $1/1 on teddy grahams, you can make a killings. It brings the boxes down to .99 a box.  So here's what I got.

3 roast for $8 each

1 package steaks reduced for quick sale

1 package pork chops reduced for quick sale

4 packages of teddy grahams 

total before coupons/sales and discounts  $72.60        OOP after coupons/sales and discounts $33.63

I saved a total of  $38.97  that's a savings of 54%   

Note:  Make sure you check sale flyer's I forgot and could have gotten free Q-tips from coupon

It smells like Olive Garden

Good Evening all,  Well the boys wanted to do the restaurant recipe this week.  You are going to love this and even your kids will eat it too.  This actually looks, tastes and smells like your at Olive Garden.  It is that good.  It is also very easy to make.  I found it on the Internet being cooked in a crock pot. I adapted this recipe from 365 days of slow cooking.  I had to cook it in a soup pot because I still have not replaced the old one that got a giant crack in it.  So I think it made it even better so here we go.  Enjoy the recipe.

Here's what your going to need:

1 lb ground beef (you can even use turkey)

1 small onion,  dice it up real good

1 cup shredded carrots (I  buy the bag)

1 cup finely chopped celery

3 gloves garlic, minced (I used one teaspoon of jarred minced garlic)

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I used 1/2 diced tomatoes)

2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce

1 (15 oz) can of red kidney beans do not drain

1 (15 oz) can of great northern beans do not drain

1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup apple juice

8 oz Dry Ditalini pasta

Parmesan or mozzarella cheese, for serving (we don't use this item)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Garlic powder, oregano and basil to taste 

An extra 2 cans of broth because the noodles will soak it up

1. Brown the meat. I browned it in the soup pot and drained after no longer pink.  Then I added the veggies,  sauces, broths and spices and beans.  Stir until well mixed up.  Put on burner on simmer for an hour frequently stirring.

2.  Pour in apple juice and taste and if needed add seasoning to taste

3.  Cook pasta according to directions but not all the way because you don't want the soup to be mushy. So when noodles have 3 minutes left drain them and put in soup. Cook soup another 20 to 30 minutes.

4. If soup does get to thick you can add extra broth to it.

5. Taste to see if more seasoning is required I added  another 1 teaspoon of garlic and sprinkled oregano to taste.

6.  When every things just right put into bowls and serve.

Don't forget to follow along at my www.facebook.com/lorraine2448 for halloween candy treat recipe.

Small trip to Walgreens

Good Evening all,  I made a quick trip for breakfast items for the boys today.  I'm not a big fan of Walgreen's, because I've had issues with cashiers not taking coupons right. So I had hopes today of doing a piggy back with the coupons and they had totally different people in the store today.  So I told cashier off the bat I was doing a piggy back and she said she'd do her best.  For those of you who don't know what a piggyback is, its where  you use a coupon to say buy 3 pop tarts get $1 off milk and then turn around and use $1 off 3 pop tarts, which is what I had available today.  It didn't go through so she called her manager and her manager said okay. So here's what I got today.

4 Boxes of Kellogg's cereal

3 Boxes of pop tarts

1 gallon milk

1 Box sweet-n-low

Before coupons/sales    $34.71                     Out Of Pocket  $12.57  I saved  64%

Birthdays How Did The Celebration Get Started?

Happy Birthday to you,  Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Kyle, Happy Birthday to you and many more. Obviously today is my son Kyle's birthday.  It's his 18th birthday.  A milestone in a kids life where they are officially adults.  We have a quiet celebration with family only.  We have the traditional cake, ice cream and we like sparkling apple cider as our go to holiday drink.  How do you celebrate birthdays in your house? Is it a quiet celebration or a big party with all the trimmings?  Ever wonder where it all began.  This big shebang of parties celebrating birthdays.

The  Germans are given credit for having started what they called kinder fest or birthday parties.  I like the fact it's called celebrating your name day.  The day you got your name.  Because if you think about it birthdays also help us celebrate rites of passages as we are growing up.  We go through phases of school as we age.  We learn to drive a car when we're 16.  We graduate from high school into adulthood.  We go off to college and start our own lives.  It's our own personal calender of our events that no one else experiences.  It helps keep the journal of our lives intact and we can pass it on.  Do we still celebrate when we've been through it all or is it a quiet experience?  What do you do when the the family is all grown?  Do you still celebrate your birthday?

check out my face book page for upcoming goodies http://www.facebook.com/lorraine2448

Frankies Feline Crazies

Here's some more photos of Frankies antics this week

                                             What do these cords do wonder if she'd get off the box if I mess with these?

                                                   Get that thing out of my face

                                                     What are you looking at bud?

Take that you ghostie.

Savings at CVS and Savemart

Good Afternoon all, I've been running around like a chicken without a head today trying to get some good deals on toiletries and meat.  I did two different transactions at CVS to get my toiletries almost free. So here it goes.

2 Oreo cookies at $3 each used 2 $1 off coupons

1 skinny cow candy $3 used $1 off coupon

3 packages of Hershey 6pk candy

1 Coffee mate creamer

3 Kellogg's pop tarts  

1 gallon milk used $1 milk when you buy 3 pop tarts

4 small Digiorno pizzas used 2 $1/2

2 bags circus peanuts

used $9 in coupons, manufacturers and $3/15 trip coupon.  Saved a total of $28.71   Out of pocket $27.56

I got $6 in ECB's

Second Transaction

4-VO 5 Shampoo on sale .77 used $1/4

2-Palmolive Dish soap  .99

CVS Toilet paper CRT coupon $1/1  $2.50 package

saved a total of  $11.36  out of pocket expense $.15

Small meat shopping trip to Save mart no 5/25 this week but $1.49 lb pork roast and b1g1f on chicken. I found the chicken to be a little pricey.  So I went for reduced for quick sale chicken and came out pretty good

1 banquet sausage links

3-Foster Farms chicken 

1-Boston Butt Boneless Pork Roast

Saved $6.40 with coupons                              Out of Pocket  $14.79

Homemade Greek Gyros-Better then Restaurants

Good Afternoon all,  I starting a little early for Wednesday's post.  I've decided to which around every once in awhile on the food recipes.  I love the murder mystery stuff but I wanted to share some my families favorites with you (accept the chili my son is adamant that's a family secret recipe).  I have been on a food quest so to speak.  I have been looking for recipes that match my favorite restaurant recipes i.e. Mongolian beef, gyros, pot stickers and pasta fagioli.  So far I've found the first two still working on the pot stickers and the pasta fagioli.  The gyro recipe came from Taste of Home which I altered because it had some things I did not like in my gyro.  This version is very healthy no lamb just ground turkey.  It is very yummy.  So here are the ingredients you'll need to make it.

1 lb. ground turkey

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cups sour cream

3 Tbsp mayonnaise

2 Tbsp prepared ranch salad dressing

1 small tomato chopped (notice I didn't use tomato boys will not eat it)

1/3 cup chopped cucumber (you can slice them and not put them in the sauce but put them in the pita instead)

4 pita breads (6 in) halved and warmed

Shredded lettuce ( I use preshredded in a bag because can't stand for lone periods of time).

Now your ready to cook your gyro.  Get a nice large pot, I like my dutch oven.  Brown meat, onions and salt together in pot.  Cook until no longer pink and drain.  Note you don't have to add any oil to the pot.

Next you can mix your wet ingredients together, the mayonnaise, sour cream and salad dressing.  This is up to you.  You can place the cucumbers and tomatoes in the sauce or hold off and put in the pita pocket after you put your lettuce in the gyro.  Layer your gyro with lettuce, cucumber, meat mixture and sauce and your done.  It tastes just like the Greek restaurant down the street.

Ode to Coffee Plus Savings

Coffee, the magic elixir that awakens millions of people everyday. It's a ritual that began decades ago that coffee was the go to drink for breakfast.  Because let's face it where do you go when your in a rush in the morning to get something to eat--McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts and what do you buy with the food-- Coffee. Coffee that magic legal elixir that helps wake us up.  How many people wake up without the help of coffee.   I would say not many can wake up without assistance.  I look forward to my first cup in the morning especially when Frankie as  3am yowl fest.  Some researchers out there suggest coffee can help prevent heart disease, cancer and even depression.  But they still suggest you drink it in moderation.  Because to much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.  So kick back and enjoy your coffee.  I especially like the different flavors of coffee.  I look forward to hearing Conor say, Mom it smells like Christmas in here. Because of the Dunkin Donuts Coffee Mocha Mint flavor only available for the holidays.  Oh yummy nothing better then chocolate and coffee combined.


Here's some extra goodies for you.

Seattle's Best Coffee like their FB  page and get a $1 off coupon
A lot of k-cup coupons are available on coupons.com
Starbucks has new reward program buy bags with codes and be able to get a free bag--Pumpkin Spice is now available.

Want to win coffee for a year check out Greenmountaincoffee.com you can win coffee and other prizes.

Rebel Keep All Humans On Leashes

Meowy morning all,  I'm taking over the post this morning.  I'm so mad at mom.  She left me alone for hours again.  Yes, she did leave the radio on and put my blankie and pillow in my favorite chair in the living room, but I don't like being left alone.  I knew it was coming she said she had to go to the VA.  Every time she goes to that place she's gone all day.  I think its some kind of Human Vet.  She was happy the Human Vet said she could have the new pills no more of those thorns in her thighs.  She calls them needles they look like giant thorns to me. Why do our humans do these things to themselves?  I say we should rebel against being left alone all day.  Unite and keep our humans on leashes.

I can't sleep without my blankie  

Does this picture make my feet look to big

Hide and Go Seek she'll never find me in here.

Okay here are some tips and contest I found for the week.  Check all your friskies can's they are recyclable aluminum.  So don't throw them away.

Attention all DIYer's Dollar Tree is having a sweepstakes for Best Video Tutorial on Craft Project top prize $300 gift card go check it out www.dollartree.com.

Please check out our other social media http://www.facebook.com/lorraine2448
                                                            http://www.twitter.com/#lorraine2448

Thrifty Halloween Finds

Good Morning all,  I finally got to go check out the Halloween things at the local thrift shop.  You don't have to blow up the bank account to get really cute Halloween decorations.  I now have a lovely centerpiece on my dining room table much to Frankie's horror.  He kept knocking it down.  Here's what I got.

A cornucopia basket--$2.50

2 poison Halloween bottles--$1 each at dollar tree

1 stuffed Halloween cat--$1

3 pumpkins--$.50 each

6 Halloween figurines--$1 for the entire bag

Here's a picture of it all put together.

Please check out our other social media pages www.facebook.com/lorraine2448 and www.twitter.com/#lorraine2448

I got to play with my rolling pin today-easy sour cream biscuits

Good Afternoon all,  Its been a busy day today.  We have another recipe from the novels of Laura Child's. This is called "Eggs In Purgatory".  The stories revolve around the women of the Cackle berry Club.  A type of diner and place where the townsfolk meet up at least once a day.  It's the place to get the latest gossip as well as a good breakfast. Beside murder the books have a lot of breakfast recipes.  Today's recipe can be eaten any time of day.  We are cooking southern style easy sour cream biscuits. So here we go.

You will need 2 cups self rising flour

                      1/2 teaspoon salt

                      12 ounces of sour cream I added a little more in mine

Mix all your ingredients together I used a large spoon to help the process

Form the dough into a large ball.

You can put on a floured cutting board or do what I did and lay out wax paper with flour on it.

Before using the rolling pin rub flour on it makes it less likely to stick.

Roll out the dough to 1 inch thickness.

Cut out biscuits using 2 inch cutter or if you don't have one use a small cup to cut them out.

Place on a greased cookie sheet.  I used joy baking spray.

Set your oven to 425 and cook for 12 minutes or until brown (mine took a little longer then 12 minutes plus I put butter on the tops to help brown them).