Green Smoothies

We were talking about weight loss in The Thrifty Mama's chat room earlier, and the topic of green smoothies came up. I love love love my green smoothies! Its super easy to make, and I swear you don't taste the spinach!

Here's what I do:

Pack a magic bullet cup with washed spinach leaves and add a Tbsp of water (or juice). Blend. Then add in as much frozen fruit as you can fit, and top off with yogurt or milk or more juice. I personally add milled flax seeds, too, but that's totally not necessary.

Shaws 3 day Sale- July 3-5

Here's the lowdown on the 3 day sale at Shaw's!

Ground beef 80/20- $1.59 per lb
Shoulder Steak for London Broil- $1.59/lb
Southern Style Spare Ribs (bone-in) 99¢/lb
Boneless Southern Style Spare Ribs- $1.49/lb
Boneless Chicken Breasts- $1.99/lb

Whole Seedless Watermelon- $3.99
Cut seedless watermelon- 49¢/lb

12 pk Coke, Diet Coke, or Sprite 5/$10 (must buy 5)

In ad coupon: Get 2 Free 8-ct Shaw's brand hot dog or hamburger rolls WYB 5-12pks of Coke products.


There's a few good deals in the rest of the ad- coming soon!

Cook It Wednesdays!

The Thrifty Mama is hosting "Cook It Wednesdays" over in her chat room this week. I'll be participating this week, and here's my list of what I'm doing:

3lbs ground beef ($5 at Walmart for a tube)- cook and package for the freezer
5lbs fruit (50¢ per lb off the reduced rack)- dehydrate
2- 2L bottles Iced tea (testing)
1- 2L bottle Ninja-ade
1- 1lb package spinach (1.79)- wash, blend, and freeze in ice cube trays for green smoothies
1 batch bread (trying out a new recipe! Thanks, Grizz!)

"Ninja-ade"

This time of year, many households go through a TON of Gatorade. And wow, that stuff gets EXPENSIVE!

Here's a knock-your-socks-off knockoff: I bring you Ninja-ade!

1 packet unsweetened Koolaid
2 quarts water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup orange juice

No, it doesn't matter what flavor Koolaid (YOU have to like the flavor, though!). Yes, you can use whatever OJ you have. Yes, it tastes the same!

Free AntiBacterial at Bath and Body Works!

Hot off the press! New Bath and Body Works Coupon Here! Free AntiBacterial Foaming Hand Santizer with ANY purchase!

Expires July 5th.

One thing I do with these is print out a couple extras- and give them to people at random. Very, very fun to give away a freebie coupon!

By request- Homemade yogurt

I'm making yogurt today, and I thought I'd post about it since I had a request for it! It is really, really easy, I promise!I'm making 2 batches, one 1/2 gallon batch of skim milk yogurt, and a quart of whole milk yogurt. I have a one year old that needs the fat!

Here's what you'll need for a basic batch:

1 4-8oz container of ACTIVE CULTURE yogurt (henceforth- starter yogurt)

1/2 gallon milk

1/2 cup powdered milk (optional)

No, I didn't take a picture of the storebought starter- DH wasn't home yet!

Heat the milk to 180 degrees. While it is heating up, pull the starter yogurt out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Let the milk cool down to 115 (120 if you're adding powdered milk, the powdered milk will lower the temperature). Add powdered milk now if you want (will result in a thicker yogurt). Temper the starter yogurt by adding about a cup of the warm milk mixture to the starter. This will "wake up" the cultures in your starter, and reduce incubation time. Add starter/milk mixture to the rest of the warm milk, then stick in your incubation area.

Incubation can be done in a gas oven as long as it has a pilot light. Or, wrap your container of yogurt in a heating pad and then cover that with a bath towel. Basically, you're aiming for about 110-115 degrees- optimum for the culture to grow!

Incubation time will vary, depending on how "awake" your cultures are. I usually start checking at about 4-5 hours, but it may take as long as 10-12. The longer you incubate the yogurt, the thicker and tarter it will be.

Cheater Pumpkin Muffins

Today is Everett's birthday- so I had to make him birthday "cake". Cake is in quotes because, well, it is not really cake. He's getting cheater pumpkin muffins! Here's the recipe:

Cheater Pumpkin Muffins

single batch:
1 box cake mix
1 can (15oz) pumpkin
double batch:
2 boxes Spice Cake mix
1 28oz can Pumpkin

Mix pumpkin and cake mix. Spoon into greased muffin tins.
I added a bit of applesauce to thin out the batter a tiny bit this time.Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, turning once (if you have a well behaved oven, you won't have to do this... my oven doesn't behave) Muffins are done when a knife comes out clean!
Ok, so I didn't get the picture done before the mini muffins got sampled. I think its safe to say he enjoyed his birthday "cake"!