Happy New Year to everyone! Thank you for reading and supporting my blog over the last few months! I will be busy spending New Year’s Day making a Greek feast with my family for the last part of my visit, and there will be some things that I haven’t posted here yet! On the menu, I have Spanakopita, Tiropita, Dolmathes, and Pastitsio. I have some family that is eager to learn and others that love to help, so it will be a great day of cooking to bring in the new year!
Looking for something to do with all those Christmas cards you got this year? This is a great way to re-use them, plus it’s an activity you can get your kids to help you with. I remember making these quite often as a kid, in all different sizes. Smaller ones you can hang on the tree, larger ones you can hang from a light, fireplace, entryway, or anywhere you want to decorate. I did these with my kids on New Year’s Eve and once we hung it, it reminded me of the ball that drops in New York each year. We used a can as our template for the circles, then I cut a triangle from a piece of cardboard. I did find a great template online for this activity that could be used as well. My 5-year-old helped with the cutting, and my 2-year-old helped a little too. We also assembled them using staples to save some time and mess, and both of them helped with the stapling.
Christmas Card Ornament Ball
What you need:
Decorated half of Christmas cards
Scissors
Circle and triangle template
Glue, tape, or staples
How to make it:
Trace and cut 20 circles from the Christmas cards.
Put triangle in middle of circle and fold the circle over the edges of the triangle.
Glue, tape, or staple 5 circles together at the folded sides, all with a point of the triangle pointing up, to form the top. Repeat with 5 more for the bottom. Glue, tape, or staple the remaining 10 circles to form a line of the folded circles, alternating point up, point down.
Attach the top to the folded edges along the top side of the line of circles. Attach the bottom to the folded edges along the bottom side of the line of circles. You should now have a complete ball.
Punch a hole through one of the folded sides and put a string or thread through, then tie so you can hang it up.
Like I had said in a previous post, I started couponing in April 2010. At the beginning of 2011, I decided that I would start tracking my spending and savings on grocery and health/beauty (including diapers). One of the savings blogs I follow, The Cents’Able Shoppin, had posted a savings spreadsheet she created. I started using that one, then started making modifications to it because I wanted to see the savings by store, and also to get a full breakdown of manufacturer coupon savings, bonus/store coupon savings, and store sale savings. I also included rewards I’d earned on the Rebate tracking page. These rewards included things like the gas rewards earned while shopping at Fry’s and rewards earned on my credit card from using it for purchases. I also wanted to add in the amount I spent on getting produce through Bountiful Baskets. I did start pricing out my produce received at the grocery store to get a comparison, but it was too time-consuming. I did find it was about a 50% cost savings, but for calculations, I decided it would be better to estimate it to be about 40% savings overall for the year. I unfortunately did not track how much I spent on getting coupons, and since I changed the number of newspapers I would get from 4 to 3 to 2, and I don’t know at what point I did that, it’s hard to even get a good estimate. For what I did keep track of, it breaks down like this:
Manufacturer Coupon Savings: $2,052.80
Bonus Coupon Savings: $258.18
Total Coupon Savings: $2,310.98
Total Store Savings: $4,694.07
Total Savings: $7,005.05
Total Out of Pocket (OOP): $7,412.69
Avg. Monthly OOP: $615
Percent Saved: 48.59%
Rebates & Rewards Total: $766.75
So, the amount I received back on Rebates & Rewards of $766.75, I would say that is probably about the amount I spent on getting coupons, so what I spent on coupons, I got back in Rebates & Rewards, leaving my coupon savings at $2,310.98. I was a little surprised that amount was so high, considering I wasn’t using as many coupons for the last half of the year. My monthly spending is still higher than I would like it to be, but is lower than it was for 2010. Additionally, by buying health and beauty items at the grocery stores and drug stores during good sales, I didn’t fall victim to what I refer to as “The Wal-Mart or Target Trap”. No matter how hard I try to make a list and stick to it at those 2 stores, I almost always end up with more than I want or need, so I am glad to have eliminated that spending.
For 2012, I am hoping to get the spending amount even lower, although it gets tougher with the ever rising food prices. I am also hoping that my younger daughter will be potty trained soon, so that I can eliminate a majority of the diaper expense each month. I also have added a new tab on my spreadsheet to better track what I spend on getting coupons from the newspaper. The spreadsheet I will be using for 2012 can be found here:
You should be able to download the original and modify for your own use, if needed. For the spreadsheet, you will only enter in data in the blue shaded areas, unless you need to make modifications to store names. If you need help making modifications or would like to see something added, please contact me.
I hope that for 2012 I can continue the savings with coupons and will be able to share some good results next year as well!
You may remember a while back that I posted the recipe for Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread, using Grands biscuits. Well, tonight I wanted the bread, but didn’t have any Grands biscuits. I found a great substitute – Bisquick biscuits. You just make the dough according to the directions on the box, 2 1/4 cups Biquick mixed wtih 2/3 cup milk, then roll the dough into balls to drop in the pan for the pull apart bread. Yum!
While I have plenty of old favorites to bake at the holidays, I am always happy to find new ones. And I think this is definitely a new favorite. My mom got my sister and me a book from Hallmark this year called Very Merry Cookie Party. I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet, but my sister did and found this recipe. I think it will be making it into my yearly baking.
Toffee Squares
What you need:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 cup flour
1 bag milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted almonds or 1 cup toffee baking bits
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 13 x 9 pan.
In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg yolk, vanilla, and salt. Gradually beat in the flour, just until mixed. Pat the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan.
Bake in center of oven until pale gold on top, about 20 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and scatter the chocolate chips evenly over crust. Return to oven for 1 minute. Remove pan and spread the chocolate evenly over the crust. Sprinkle evenly with the almonds or toffee baking bits.
Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
This was our final Christmas dinner side. My mom got this recipe from my Aunt Paula, who has also given us the Wild Rice & Sausage Stuffing and Bread & Celery Dressing. I liked having this as our vegetable casserole instead of Green Bean Casserole for our Christmas dinner, just to have something different. This recipe calls for Chicken in a Bisket crackers, but you could probably substitute Ritz crackers in their place.
Corn and Broccoli Casserole
What you need:
1 pound frozen broccoli, thawed and drained OR 1 pound chopped fresh broccoli
1 15 oz can whole kernel corn, drained OR 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn
1 14.75 oz can creamed corn OR 1 10.75oz can cream of chicken soup plus 1 cup milk
1 8 oz box Chicken in a Bisket crackers OR 8 oz Ritz Crackers (2 sleeves of crackers)
1 stick butter or margarine, melted
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Crush crackers; stir into melted butter. Combine remaining ingredients and all but 1/2 cup of the cracker crumbs into a greased 2 qt casserole dish. Top with the reserved 1/2 cup cracker crumbs.
Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
I LOVE this casserole. I don’t make it very often because it makes so much and I don’t want to feel like I have to eat it all. It is definitely a family favorite, and has become a favorite of friends that I have made it for as well. My college friends refer to it as Corn Flake Surprise, referring the to crushed corn flake topping. This was another of our Christmas dinner sides this year and I was so happy my mom made it.
Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole
What you need:
1 32-oz frozen Southern style hash brown potatoes, thawed
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can (10 3/4-oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 cups corn flakes, slightly crushed
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, combine hash browns, cheese, soup, sour cream, and 1/2 cup melted butter. Spread into a greased 13in x 9in baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Combine corn flakes and remaining butter, sprinkle on top.
Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until heated through.
This side was part of the Christmas feast my mom cooked for us this year. It’s a favorite of my brother-in-law, and is now a favorite of my older daughter as well. It’s a lot easier than I thought it was to make too!
Pistachio Salad
What you need:
1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip
1 pkg pistachio instant pudding
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup mini marshmallows
How to make it:
Mix all ingredients and chill.
Some may know this as another name, Puppy Chow for People, but more recently I’ve seen it as Muddy Buddies. It is another yummy way to use Chex cereal, or there are a variety of cereals you can use for this. For the batch my mom made pictured above, she used Rice Chex, Cheerios, pretzels, and peanuts. You could use just Chex cereals, some cereal with peanuts and pretzels, or another combination you come up with.
Muddy Buddies
What you need:
8 cups of a combination of your choice, using Rice or Corn Chex, Crispix, Raisin Squares, Cheerios, pretzels, peanuts
1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
How to make it:
Melt together the butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter. Stir in the cereal combination until evenly coated.
Place the chocolate covered combination in a large resealable or paper bag. Add the powdered sugar, and shake until evenly coated.
Spread out onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper to dry. Store in an airtight container.
I had wanted to make these before our trip, but didn’t get around to it. But, of course, my mom made them. It’s another yummy marshmallow treat!
Cheerios Treats
What you need:
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
1 10-1/2 oz package mini marshmallows (6 cups)
1/2 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
5 cups Cheerios cereal
How to make it:
Grease a 13 x 9 pan. Melt margarine or butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until melted. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Immediately add cereal and mix lightly until well coated. Using a greased spatula or wax paper, press mixture into the prepared pan. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.
My Gems of Parenting 