If you have any type of business or service, it’s great to have colorful printing such as brochure printing done to help advertise what you are offering.    I’m blessed because I have a very talented daughter who developed a colorful open-brochure type ad for me last year, actually I guess you would call it a flyer.    I know I pay more attention to a colorful brochure or flyer than I do a business card and probably most people do.

I use tote bags a lot when we travel.  For those with young children, they also make a good toy bag for outings.  And they make a good church bag for toddlers to hold special quiet toys that can only be played with at church.

I’ve never had any custom tote bags. I do have a colorful one from Hawaii that has been one of my favorites along with a solid black one that has pictures of my grandbabies. They come in very handy!

I’m totally new to doing Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday, but I’m determined to start today.  I actually know what we’re having today and tomorrow so that will be easy.  We were in Walmart yesterday and I noticed this cute pasta.  Yes, pasta can be cute!  I have grown to love using Farfalle Pasta in soups because if I let it cook longer in the soup, it enlarges and is kinda like dumplings.  Well, I saw MINI Farfalle in Walmart and thought they were adorable.  My husband picked out a new pasta sauce that sounds very yummy.  And I stopped at Albertson’s to get chicken tenders on sale in the meat market section.   So…here’s my first “Menu Monday”:

Monday:  Barilla’s MINI Farfalle (bowtie) Pasta with Bertolli’s Portobello Mushroom Sauce, bite-sized chicken breast tenders cooked in EVOO to top the pasta & sauce, &  salad

Tuesday:  Left-overs from last night

Wednesday:  Mediterranean Tuna and Spinach with Green Olives :

INGREDIENTS:

• 16 ounces frozen chopped spinach
• 1-2 cans Albacore Tuna
• 1 cup cooked pasta  (Barilla Plus Multigrain Pasta is great)
  
• 1 tablespoon Evoo
• 1-2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• Green olives
• Dill weed
  
• Fresh ground pepper
• Salt

Cook the spinach according to directions.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Add dill weed, peppper and salt to taste.

Thursday:  I just realized I can’t complete the rest of this because our son is coming home from college for a long weekend, and I want to ask him what he has a taste for.

So many people are looking for jobs, and it seems there just aren’t that many jobs out there.  I’ve been looking for a teaching job the past year and found out, much to my surprise, that there is no longer a teacher shortage.  In fact, there is a teacher surplus!  So,  I have been doing substitute teaching.  I have been blessed to sub for 73 days so far this school year, and I’m thankful for that!

Val says, “Hi all!  Let’s try something different.   One question.  What can YOU make with

*chicken
*bacon
*cheese
*tomatoes

Val’s answer:  One delicious sandwich!”

My answer would be a salad with those ingredients in it along with green olives, diced cucumbers, sliced ripe avocado and sliced mushrooms.  I wondered what AllRecipes.com would come up with if I put those ingredients in the Ingredients Search.  It came up with 22 recipes, and I chose four that sounded especially good to me:

• Chicken and Bacon Florentine
• Chicken Texas Style
• Cobb Breakfast Casserole
• Creamy Tuscan Bean and Chicken Soup

The Kimbell Art Museum Restaurant is known for having great food.  This is one of their older recipes.  It makes 8 cups which serves 12-16 people:

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 cups chopped cabbage or packaged slaw mix
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup white raisins
• 1/2 cup white raisins
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
• 1/4 cup sliced green onion
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup seedless grapes (red or green) sliced lengthwise
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise (not fat-free)
• 1/2 cup light sour cream (not fat-free)
• 3 tablespoons raspberry or cider vinegar
• salt, pepper, & sugar to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all of the ingredients together.  Sometimes cabbage is a little bitter.  If so, use a little sugar to take away the bitterness.

When I leave for work in the morning, I take my lunch with me.  I’ve usually eaten a good breakfast of homemade instant oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and a little brown sugar plus a whey-protein chocolate-flavored drink for good quality protein.  And tea! (good for losing weight, besides it’s my favorite drink)  That gets me through until lunch.

This week, lunch has consisted of an organic apple, a South Beach Protein Bar, and peanuts for some healthy fat.  And tea!    I don’t need diet pills with that kind of breakfast and lunch.  Then I have a snack when I first get home, which might even include a little dark chocolate, and then later have a healthy supper of my choice.  I’m not on a “diet” but am just very slowly losing some of the weight I gained during the Christmas holidays.  My pants aren’t tight in the waist anymore, and that’s a wonderful feeling!

If you’ve never eaten at Abuelos, this is a great Mexican food restaurant that our whole family really likes.  We don’t eat there very often, but we always enjoy it when we do.

My husband and I went there to celebrate our anniversary, and the great thing is that we had a coupon for “Buy an entree and two drinks and receive a free entree.”   I joined Abuelo’s eClub last year and received a coupon like the one mentioned just for joining.   The timing wasn’t right so we weren’t able to use the coupon.  So what we did this year was to wait to have my husband sign up for their eClub until the week before our anniversary.  That way, we were able to use the coupon for joining  on our actual anniversary date.

Not only were we able to get a free entree, but we had enough food left over for a meal at home the next day.  We both really like their enchiladas.  I usually barely eat two enchiladas by the time I’ve eaten a lot of chips and salsa.  My husband wanted three enchiladas.  So…we each ordered the four enchilada plate which was only $1 more than the three enchilada plate (and remember one plate was free).   There was so much food that we only ate half of our refried beans and “Papas Con Chili” (their signature dish of whipped red potatoes, four cheeses, red & green peppers, sour cream, garlic, and  jalapeno – yummy!).  We both got take-out boxes for our leftovers plus took our refill of chips and salsa that we had barely touched.  Like I mentioned, we had enough food for another meal at home.  The Frugal Novice would think that this was very frugal!

(I was not compensated in any way for this review.  It is strictly my opinion.)

If you’ve never been to Central Market which is one of the freshest grocery markets in the country (Texas locations in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, Houston, & San Antonio areas), then I recommend going at least once. Try to go close to lunch time because they have delicious samples of food throughout the store.  And they have printed recipe cards to give their customers for the foods they are sampling.  Here is one recipe that is good to serve guests:

SMOKED SALMON DIP

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound Smoked Salmon
• 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (try reduced fat)
• 2 green onions
• 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Put all ingredients in food processor (or blender) and blend to desired consistency.  Serve with crackers or baguettes.  (Central Market has fresh-made baguettes in their bakery department, and they’re reasonably priced.)