Great finds at Target!

First, let me start with saying I am soo glad I got one of these P&G Coupon books!


It says $110 in savings, and I may save close to that with it! So far my total is $37 and I have only had it for just over a week and there are lots more coupons to use! :) I will definately be keeping my eye out for offers for this book again!

Now, on to Target. After getting so much for free or almost free at HT last week I got to thinking what else could I maybe get super cheap or free with this book?? The greatst thing about this book, other than I didn't have to spend any $$ to get it and it is chalk full of savings, is there is no restrictions on almost all the coupons!! NO size or amount requirements! Which means....they are good on the smallest items, including TRAVEL size which most are under $1! And almost all the coupons are $1 off the product, which means free products! :) So I hit up Target's Travel section the other day and it was success, plus they had large bottles of Pantene marked down to $1.98 each, which were one of the items I had coupons for so they ended up only being .98 each :)


I ended up with:
2 large Pantene(1 shampoo, 1 conditioner)
1 2-pk travel size panetene
3 single use Tide(great for travel!)
3 travel size Head and Shoulders
1 travel size Herbal Ess.
2 travel size Secret deoderant

All for $2.72! That is less than one of the lg Pantene usually are! I was pretty happy with myself for thinking to look in the travel section. I am going to try to hit Wal-mart tomorrow to see if they have some of the things in their travel section that Target didn't have, different brands of lotion and body washes...

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! It is beautiful and sunny here :)

Feeling the love for HT :)

SO this past week HT had Super Doubles, when they double coupons up to $1.98, I don't always shop this sale but I am glad I did this time around. Before I get to my purchases let me just mention a couple weeks ago I signed up on P&G's FB page to receive a coupon book and conveniently it came in the middle of this promotion and most of the coupons where $1 off of any size of different products, which all doubled to $2 off! Anyways, on to the goodies.

Trip 1:


This trip included:
2 boxes Hefty one zip bags-$1 total
1 small Dawn dish liquid-free
1 lg Gain dish liquid-free
3 wishbone dressings-free
1 bag dried pineapples-free
1 old spice deodorant-free
1 secret deodorant-.49
1 always maxi pads-$.99
1 oral-b toothbrush-free
2 Herbal esse-$1 total
2 bags rhodes dinner rolls-.50 total
1 Pillsbury french bread-.69
2 philly cooking creams-free

My total ended up being $5.82 and my savings were $50.87!!

Trip 2:


This trip I was alittle disappointed I actually went to 2 HT in search of the rhodes rolls and toothbrushes and both were sold out, but I did pick up a few things at the first store I stopped at. This trip included:
2 Dawn dish liquid-free
2 Gain dish liquid-free
2 old spice deodorant-free
2 snickers peanut butter bars-.89 total (these were pretty good, I'll buy them again but I still prefer the almond ones better)

Total= $1.42 and savings was $14.23 :)

Overall it was a pretty successful sale, and I know have close to a year's worth of dish soap for free, since I still had 2 full bottles from the last time I got it free :)

Not good and Not Bad

So I am waaaayyyy behind on my blogging again, I just can't seem to shake this funk and stay in a good rhythm. I attempted to concoct a new chicken a dish and it just didn't turn out how I envisioned it. But I must say I did try to rush it and that probably didn't help the situation. I made a ricotta and herb stuffed chicken, but the edge didn't seal the way I thought it would when I was searing it and most of the cheese filling oozed out and it took longer than I thought it would to cook through so I ended up putting it in the microwave to cook it faster which of course dried it out! UGGG, like I said I was rushing and it just didn't come together the way I thought it would. I made broiled asparagus w/ olive oil, lemon zest, and mozzarella cheese and roasted cherry tomatoes which were very good, but not hard at all.



The other was Pork Tenderloin medallions w/ Marsala sauce & pasta. This one was pretty good, but next time I think I will double the amount of sauce, that was really the only complaint we had about it. This one was another RR from the Look and Cook cookbook.

Robert LOVED this one...

Sliced Chicken w/ apples, pears & Boursin mashed potatoes.
*the recipe is actually for camembert potatoes, but I couldn't find it, turns out I could have just bought a brie, and I had the Boursin for another recipe but was missing a major ingrident, so I just switched it and it was fine.

When I say Robert loved this, I mean LOVED...he ate 3 of the 4 servings! 2 at lunch when I made it, and then after his nap before work he finished it off!

My baby boy is 5!

Then...10 lbs 10 oz, 21 inches

My sweet baby is now 5 years old! I can't believe it! Soon he will be starting school, which is both sad and exciting at the same time. He is very into the movie How to Train Your Dragon right now so he requested a cake based on the movie. It is a very cute movie if you haven't seen it.




One of Christopher's presents (from Grandma) was to go bowling, which he has been asking to do for awhile now. We all had a great time, Robert was actually able to go with us, as was my Dad and sister :) Even Hailey bowled and loved it!

Christopher's first roll




Hailey's turn




None, 5 yrs old and so grown up!

New recipes!

So, as I said before, I got RR's new cookbook and I LOVE it! I have already made several recipes out of it and they have all been very good. So far only one Robert didn't really care for. I took pics of several of the recipes, but not all, here is what we have tried so far:

Spinach & Artichoke mac'n'cheeseThis is the one thing I have made that Robert wasn't fond of, but he doesn't like artichokes. I thought it was good, but I didn't chop the artichokes because I was in a rush and I think that would have made a difference. I just did a simple panko coated chicken breast to go with the mac'n'cheese, which was supper yummy :)


Sirloin burgers w/ garlic-black pepper-Parmesan sauce & roasted tomatoes w/ basil & balsamic glaze served with seasoned fries.
This one was SOOOO EXCELLENT!! It will definitely be made again and again and as you can see literally came out picture perfect :) And on a side note, my Dad got me a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aide, so I actually ground the sirloin to make these burgers :) Which made them more affordable, because I found the steaks marked down.


Lemon Risotto and Orange balsamic glazed chicken. These are actually 2 different recipes in the book that I did together and they were perfect for each other. We both really enjoyed it and it was 2 first for us, we had never had risotto or arugula.


Pancetta-wrapped shrimp all'amatriciana. This one again was very yummy, we had fresh baked french bread with it. The only thing about this one was that it was a little salty for me. I am not big on salt most of the time, and pancetta is VERY salty I discovered. I think I may try regular bacon next time, but it is on the make again list.


Chinese Orange-barbecue cashew chicken served over yellow rice. This one was excellent as well! My mom was here the night I made this one and we all loved it, it came out perfect.


Here are a few more that I have made, but didn't get pictures of:

Steakhouse chili pot. We really enjoyed this one. I usually make chili using beans, and this is bean free, so it was a nice change from what we usually have.

Bocconcini stuffed meatballs w/ tomato-pesto sauce. So,I didn't exactly follow the recipe on this one, for lack of ingredients, but they still came out really good. Instead of a combo of beef, pork, and veal, I just used beef and turkey. And for whatever reason I didn't buy pesto or the basil to make pesto so I just made the tomato sauce which was fine with us.

Well, I think that is all for now, stay tuned I have several more recipes on the next 2 weeks menu that come from this book as well:)

Christmas snow!

Just a few pics of the snow, I didn't believe we were going to get so I was NOT prepared for, luckily it was pretty but went away quickly and we didn't actually run out of anything :)