Well, I weighed this morning, and I’ve gained a couple of pounds. I’m not going to be looking for the most effective diet pills but I do plan to cut back a little on snacking and make sure I always buy Yogurt Blends instead of real ice cream. There’s a lot less fat and calories in the yogurt versus the ice cream, and it tastes great. And I try to drink water and tea sweetened with Stevia, plus I want to walk more for exercise. So that’s my plan!
I’ve always heard that June is the most popular month for weddings, but recently I read, according to the American National Center for Health Statistics, that July and August have actually had more weddings than June for three years in a row now. Summertime is still the busiest season for weddings. All the details from the location, bakery, and florist to wedding favors and whether to use rice or bird seed must be planned ahead of time. To ensure a well planned wedding & reception and to reduce the amount of stress, it is wise to follow a wedding planning guide with time frames for each detail of the wedding.
(picture of Rings by Alena Kratochvilova)
We’ve been in the mood for a lot of spicy foods recently because of allergies. There’s just something about the warmth of the spice that is soothing to a scratchy or sore throat. So you will notice a couple of Mexican dishes.
By the way, I want to mention two great giveaways that are going on for gift cards. My daughter, Christi, from Frugal Novice has a $25 gift card for groceries at your favorite grocery store, and Healthy Home Blog (that’s me) has a giveaway for a $50 gift card to Family Dollar which can be used on anything in the store. (ideas: children’s clothes, groceries, gift for a recent graduate, etc.)
OK, now on with this week’s menu:
Monday Chicken Tortilla Soup
Tuesday Easy Cheesy Beef Enchilada, black beans, guacamole
Wednesday Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli (This is a favorite of my husband’s and our son’s. It’s quick & easy and also inexpensive to make! It’s also lower cholesterol than the made from scratch version which is good for my husband. Note the ratio of butter to olive oil.)
INGREDIENTS:
Melt butter. Add olive oil and chicken in a skillet, cutting up the chicken into smaller pieces. Add the water, milk and chicken helper. Mix according to directions on the box, adding in the Parmesan Cheese and parsley. Bring to a boil. Top with the frozen broccoli. Reduce heat, cover and cook for 12 minutes, stirring every 3 or 4 minutes, until the broccoli is tender.
Here it is before I cover with the lid to cook:
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Thursday Homemade Pizza & salad
Friday Leftovers
This is a great giveaway at The Frugal Novice because it’s a $25 gift card for groceries, and you get to choose where you want to buy your groceries! All you have to do is sign up for a free trial at “Food on the Table,” but you are not committed in any way nor do you give any credit card info. So it’s totally risk free!
The cool thing is that you have 30 days of using “Food on the Table” for free. That’s one whole month free!
It’s so easy! Here’s what you do:
Then, “Food on the Table” suggests recipes. You choose which ones. They tell you what ingredients are on sale at the grocery store you chose. And they even tell you how much money you will save by buying the sale items! Then they organize your shopping list by categories. Wow! It sounds like a lot of fun! Remember, it’s free for one month, and you get to be in the drawing for a $25 gift card to the grocery store of your choosing.
This giveaway ends at The Frugal Novice midnight on 6/17/2010.
GIVEAWAY OVER: Winner is Stephanie Grant (by Random.org)Before I tell you about this awesome $50 gift card giveaway here at Healthy Home Blog, let me tell you this. Now that I’m “grandma” and have two precious little grandsons, I find myself looking at baby’s and little boy’s clothes if I happen to be passing by them in a store. The younger grandson is nearly 14 months and the older one is two (nearly three), so I look in the baby’s section and the toddler boy’s section. I love looking at clothes for them!
Speaking of children’s clothing, have you seen the new line of adorable and affordable kid’s clothes called “Kidgets” at Family Dollar? I hadn’t seen them until recently when I was given the opportunity to review one of their Kidgets outfits for my grandson as seen below.
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I must say that I’m impressed with how stylish the three-piece outfit is. It is really cute! And the saying on the T-shirt is perfect for a two year old. (If you’ve ever been shopping with a two year old who is having a “terrible twos” experience in the store, you know exactly what that means!)
Family Dollar’s “The Affordable Turns Adorable” Kidgets line of clothing for newborns through toddlers is perfect for this economy. Many people have a tight budget but yet they still want to have cute clothes for their kids. Look at what all Family Dollar’s Kidgets offers:
If you visit Family Dollar’s website, you can even print a coupon for $1 Off a Kidgets set of clothes for a boy or girl. I use coupons whenever I can, so I think this is great! And Family Dollar has a money back guarantee, promising a full refund to anyone who is not satisfied with items in the new Kidgets line. This is a win/win situation! Maybe that’s why it’s said that Family Dollar is one of the fastest-growing discount retail chains in the US.
Also, Family Dollar is hosting the Cute as a Kidget Photo Contest with a $5,000 cash grand prize and other great prizes. Families can upload their cutest “Kidget” photos. Family and friends will then have a chance to vote, and the winner will be announced on July 16, 2010. Family Dollar is also hosting a “Cute as a Kidget Sweepstakes” for more fun prizes, and they’re having daily drawings for gift card giveaways.
Now, on to the $50 Gift Card Giveway.
WIN IT:
This giveaway is open to all US readers.
Family Dollar has provided one $50 gift card for giveaway. Entries for this giveaway will be accepted until midnight CST on Sunday, June 27, 2010. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced the following day in a post.
HOW TO WIN IT:
Mandatory entry: Visit Family Dollar’s site and then leave me a comment below letting me know what you would get with the gift card if you win it. In your comment info where you leave your name and URL, be sure to leave your email address (which will be private). I must have a way to contact the winner by email. The winner will be announced here on June 28th and notified by email.
BONUS ENTRIES:
(Mandatory entry must be completed first!)
Please leave a separate comment for each entry:
Note: This was not a paid post, and my honest opinions were provided. Family Dollar provided the Kidgets outfit for review and is providing the gift card for the giveaway, but I was not paid monetarily.
Welcome to Friendly Friday! Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog too! Just click “Get the code here…” at the bottom of the list. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday even more beneficial for everyone.
Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.
To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other!
When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!
Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers!
We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select three blogs at random and will feature links and a write-up for those blogs in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight some of those each week. Say hello to the lucky chosen 3 for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):
Jen at Piney Flats Style likes to write about everything she loves and doesn’t love, her home (which is really charming by the way), decorating on a budget, and “plain old casual country living.” She has a lot of great photos in every post. Jen’s projects have included her awesome Office Nook and Wraparound Porch and so much more. It would be easy to spend a long time looking at all of her interesting projects and photos of her house.
At They Call Me Old Fashioned, Diana writes about their two children whom they consider their greatest blessing. Recipes are also on her site with mouth-watering photos, plus her sewing category features the cutest felt play food for kids which she sells at a farmer’s market (what about the internet?). She tells about using fitted cloth diapers and reusable cotton cloth wipes which she says work better than commercial ones and can be washed with the diapers. Sounds like a great idea!
Heather & Amy at All Ruby Cakes, where it’s “all about the rubies and cakes,” are not only sisters but best friends. And they love to shop! They have a lot of great giveaways and freebies on their site as well as a lot of info about the latest fashion, products, gadgets, movies, books, and other things. The Mineral Makeup sounds great! If anyone is interested in having Heather and Amy do a product review or have them host a giveaway, just contact them. They would love to do it!
I take vitamins and supplements every day. Sometimes our son will laugh because I take several, but I can definitely tell a difference when I don’t take them. From time to time, I will read multivitamin reviews to find out more about vitamins and what each separate vitamin does, what foods have certain vitamins in them, and what vitamins work best together. It’s really best to take vitamins together or take a multivitamin because vitamins interact with one another and act as catalysts. They also need micronutrients to help absorption by the body.
Christian PF is celebrating their third year anniversary by giving away an Apple iPad and five $20 Amazon gift cards.
Here’s some info about this awesome giveaway:
Happy Three Year Anniversary to Christian Personal Finance. Their site has done awesome in three years with over 3 million unique visitors.
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Val says, “This week I have some random questions.”
1. What kind of olive oil do you use?
2.Do you prefer salted or unsalted butter?
3. What size eggs do you usually buy?
4. What’s in the bottom drawer of your fridge?
I have my answers below. Share your answers, leave them in a comment below and I will add them to this post.
1. Extra virgin olive oil (We buy it at Sam’s. Their brand is just as good as Bertolli’s.)
2. Salted butter
3. Large eggs by the dozen
4. I have two drawers. One has romaine lettuce, carrots, avocados, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, and a green bell pepper. The other drawer has apples, oranges and lemons.
I’ll add your answers here:
Karen says, ” Our drawers contain nearly the same things. I guess that is because they are supposed to be crispers.”
NEWS FROM THE HOME SITE:
This has been a good week filled with many blessings. There have been many spiritual blessings every day that assures me (us) that God is taking care of us and loves us unfailingly!
I was invited to an end-of-school party the last day of school in one of the special ed classes I have subbed in many times this school year. I love those kids!
And this has also been a week of freebies and winning items for our family:
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Sorry I didn’t get this posted sooner. I really meant to post this Thursday.
First Freebie – Buy two pounds marinated chicken breast and get both of these items free ($6.99 value):
Second Freebie – Buy two Italian Chef Crafted Bowls and get both of these items free ($9.28 value):