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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Menu Plan Monday- with a giveaway!!

After another busy and hectic week, going back to work, adding a holiday in there, the baby being sick, only two days of school... I'm ready for some sort of normalcy. Although I'm not quite sure anymore what normalcy is!!This MPM is a special one, because I'm adding in a super cool giveaway along with it, so make sure you follow the entry instructions and get your name in there!!

When Knock-Knock made an opportunity available to review one of their recipe/meal-planning products I knew how perfect it would be to hold the review and giveaway during Menu Plan Monday. I mean, honestly, the "What To Eat" illustrates the point of MPM perfectly! With spaces Sunday through Saturday to write in what's for dinner, as well as a whole column dedicated to "not dinner" with the categories, breakfasts, lunches and grab bag. It makes menu planning an easy task.

I'm loving that I can use the magnetic backing to just pop it on the fridge, instead of all the little scrap pieces of paper that I usually have lying around with the menu plan on it. And it makes it super easy for those just starting to menu plan, my own mother is always saying how great it is to be disciplined enough to menu plan, but even she hasn't started it. This would be such a great gift for even her!!

Knock-Knock doesn't offer only menu planning pads, they have so many others that are everything from silly to witty, from ingenious to practical. They carry sticky notes, books, kits, pads, calendars, and even bundles. I also adore the "blah blah blah" sticky notes, and also the "note to self" pad!!

Want to win a "What to Eat" meal planner pad from Knock-Knock?? Browse their site and leave a comment here with another one of their items you like!

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Recipes are below!!

Monday: Grilled Cheese & Soup

Tuesday:
Bacon Wrapped BBQ Apple Chicken (carryover from last week)

Wednesday: Beef Roast (carryover from last week)

Thursday: Crockpot Philly Cheesesteaks

Friday: Pasta with Pesto

Saturday: Hot Ham Sandwiches

Sunday: Corn & Spinach Crockpot Enchiladas

Once again, breakfasts are usually cold cereal, oatmeal and sometimes Boug just wants toast and a banana! Lunches usually are leftovers or sandwiches paired with yogurt or fruit generally. My meals are usually a bit heavier in meats and chickens as hub is a butcher and brings so much home for free or next to nothing!! Check out more Menu Plan Monday entries at orgjunkie!!

Recipes:::

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Apple Chicken (all you magazine??)
1/2 c barbecue sauce
2 apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and grated
juice of 1 lemon
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
8 slices bacon
salt and pepper

In a small bowl, combine bbq sauce, grated apple and lemon juice. Wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast half. Place wrapped chicken in slow cooker and top with bbq-sauce mixture.
Set slow cooker to low and cook for 8 hours.

Beef Roast
I'll just combine a beef roast in the crockpot with dry brown gravy mix, 1/2 cup water, ranch dressing mix and italian dressing mix. I'll toss some veggies in like potatoes, carrots, maybe celery and onion. Not my usual way of making a roast, but figured I'd try it out!!

Crockpot Philly Cheese Steaks (from Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
1 lb. beef
1/2 sliced onion
1 green pepper, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1 C beef broth
1/8 C soy sauce
garlic, salt and pepper if desired

Place beef in the bottom of the crockpot. Pour broth and soy sauce over the beef. Layer the onion and peppers over the beef and sprinkle with seasonings, if desired. Cook on low for 8-9 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours. Top with choice of cheese (we'll be using provolone!)

Hot Ham Sandwiches
3 lbs. thin sliced deli ham
2 c. apple juice
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. sweet pickle relish
2 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. paprika

Separate ham and put into crockpot, combine apple juice, brown sugar, relish, mustard & paprika in a bowl to pour over ham. Cover, cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve on hard rolls or preferred bread.

Corn & Spinach Enchiladas (A Year of Slow Cooking)
1 c. creamed corn
1 c. shredded pre-cooked meat
1 c. baby spinach leaves
1/4 c. fine chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp. chopped jalepenos
1.5 c. shredded cheese of choice
1 can green enchilada sauce (28 oz. size)
2/3 c. sour cream
corn tortillas
extra shredded cheese

Combine meat, corn, spinach, cilantro, jalepenos and shredded cheese. Mix together to create your enchilada filling. Combine your enchilada sauce with the sour cream in a separate bowl. Fill corn tortillas with enchilada filling and place into crockpot seam side down. Stack to fit as many as need be. After all filling is put into the torts, and they are stacked, pour your sauce over top, top with shredded cheese. Cook on low for 5-7 hours.

**This giveaway will accept entries until 11:59 pm on December 14th. Winner will be drawn with random.org and emailed. Winner must reply within 48 hours to winning email or a new winner will be drawn. Please make sure that your email is accessible, whether in the comment or a blogger profile, cause if I cant contact you, how can you win??


Opinions are my own, I was provided items free of charge to review (by Knock-Knock), which in no way changed the way I feel about the product!

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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Have a family movie night with Imagine That!



Family movie night is one of the most fun things that we do all together as a family, curling up on the couches or the floor with blankets and snacks and a great movie. Imagine That with Eddie Murphy and Yara Shahidi is one of those fun family movies we can all enjoy on family movie night!

The story is simple, what if your childs imagination held the secrets to your success? To find the solutions to your problems in an imaginary world seems odd, but that's what goes down in Imagine That. A successful financial executive, with little time for his kiddo, has a breakdown in confidence and gets lost into his daughters imaginary world, which leads to all his solutions! It really is a sweet movie that reminds us all what's important, keeping in touch with your inner child and always remembering to take time for your family, as they will always be the key to your happiness!!

With bonus features like a set tour, behind the scenes featurettes, director commentaries, outtakes and deleted scenes, there's something for everyone to get into! I love the outtakes and deleted scenes myself!!


You can order your DVD copy of Imagine That or your Blu-Ray copy of Imagine That at amazon.com.

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Putting the right foot forward with Teva!

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Stepping into the cooler weather with the right footwear is always important, its generally too cold for flip flops anymore (unless you live in Hawaii or something) and you want to look good and stylish at the same time. That's where Teva comes into play. Yes, they provide some of the best sandals for the warmer weather, but their boots and shoes for the cooler weather are equally as awesome!!

To look good, while keeping your toes warm is huge, because who wants to sacrifice style just because its cold outside? The Teva Kiru boot is perfect, being stylish, while being waterproof, as well as keeping your toes so warm with the faux fur lining. I have to admit that I don't have the thinnest calves and their lace up front, along with the zipper makes wearing these so much better than some of the other boots around that don't have those features. The Teva Kiru boot is also available in kids sizes, a great pair for the little ones to keep their feet warm and dry as well!

Of course there's Teva shoes and boots for men, infants, toddlers as well, so that everyone in the family can make sure they get the comfort and warmth from their boots this season!! You can get FREE domestic ground shipping with all of your Teva orders from their website!! Don't forget to check out their "deal of the weekend" from now til December 21st, they'll be listing a hot new deal every weekend. This weekend you can get 10% off of orders $50+ with code TevaHS1, 15% off of orders $75+ with code TevaHS2 or 20% off of orders $100+ with code TevaHS3! See their site for all the details!!

Opinions are my own, I was provided items free of charge to review which in no way changed the way I feel about the product!

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Monday Mingle... err... Late Friday Night Mingle??

We're soooo late this week with our Monday Mingle! But even though we're late, this Thanksgiving week, we give thanks to Speedy, my pal JenReg, whom I adore, for hosting the Monday Mingle!! Want to participate, head over to Eighty MPH Mom to grab the questions and link up!!

MM-11/28 from CaseyDeuce on Vimeo.



Please pardon my fatass neck and double chin, my bad hair and the poor lighting... Or do you want to post about me because I'm fat?

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Send yummy gifts with Hickory Farms!

I know I've said it before, but I love when companies can ship gifts directly to the recipient. I love the companies that do this, that I trust and know that the items will arrive perfectly. Hickory Farms has been one of those companies that I've trusted for a long time now to provide great gifts, shipped directly to the friends and family that I send them to. And I'll admit, even last year I had ordered some stuff for lil' ole me, I've been a recipient as well from others too. My wonderful uncle who lives many many many states away has sent me some really great Hickory Farms sets in the past and they're always a big hit!

Recently being the recipient of the Family Gathering Gift Basket from Hickory Farms, my husband was stoked. He didn't even know it was coming so it was a nice surprise for him, as he's a cheese-a-holic. The Family Gathering Gift Basket is filled with their summer sausages, cheeses, crackers and the sweetest cheese cutting board, which will always come in handy for the future as well! I love gifts that last past the holidays!! Of course, their sweet-hot mustard is always one of my favorites, and I've added it to so much since getting the gift basket!!
Hickory Farms is so convenient to me because they accept paypal- I love that!! I usually have some money sitting in my paypal account, so its nice being able to use it instead of pulling everything from my bank account. Also, they offer FREE SHIPPING to all APO/FPO addresses, which is wonderful. Its nice to have a free shipping offer special for those who serve our country!

Being around since 1951, I love Hickory Farms and I love that I'm able to ship direct and trust the products will arrive exactly as I expect them to. I love that they set up in the mall around the holidays and I'm even able to grab some great items in person, even if it is only once a year!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review.

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Friday, November 27, 2009

Another Thanksgiving means another Black Friday

I'm one of these people who are always broke on Black Friday, which may be a blessing in disguise, because I wouldn't dare brave the lines and chaos that ensues on this date...

I generally do most of my shopping here at home, online and Black Friday is no different!! I've been stocking my amazon.com codes all year and now their Black Friday deals are available!!



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Make Reading Fun with MJM Books!!

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We read so much in our house, and although Boug's on her way to learning to read herself, Bud loves books read to him as well. And with him being the second child, lots of his books are hand-me-downs from Miss Boug. I loved having the opportunity to get him a special book of his own from MJM Books!!

MJM Books are different, they're special, and they're all about the little one that you'd like them to be about!! You can customize your MJM book for your son, daughter, neice, nephew or whoever else is going to be the lucky recipient!! We got "If I Were Big" for Lil' Buddy and its stunning! I was thrilled to be able to choose the gender, name, hair color, skin tone and eye color for the book, to make it so perfect for my little man.


Sample page from "If I Were Big"

Also, a huge perk for me is how responsible MJM Books are. All of their books are printed on recycled paper, and they strive to leave the teeneyest tiniest carbon footprint that they can. Books by MJM are printed to order, they're one of a kind, so its nice to know that there aren't a whole bunch of wasted books, being unused, lying around. Their books are even printed with solid ink, vs laser cartridges, which is much better for the environment. There's no quality lost with the solid ink either, but at the same time, a solid ink printer will only produce 23 lbs of waste over a 4 year period, whereas a cartridge based toner printer will create about 450 lbs!!

Make sure to check out whats going on at Melissa's Holiday Gift Guide today!!

Opinions are my own, I was provided items free of charge to review which in no way changed the way I feel about the product!

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Goodies for boys & girls from HasbroToyShop.com!

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I love the holidays this year, Lil' Buddy is a bit bigger, and will be 16 months old by the time Christmas rolls around. Its nice because he's so much more "into it" this year then he was last year. But being the mom of a girl first left me thinking if I really know what little boys like and/or want for gifts! I know what Boug loves, and I've never really had a problem shopping for her... but Bud... he's a whole 'nother story!!

I'm loving the selections at HasbroToyShop.com, they're making everything so easy for me!! Being easy to search by price, gender or age, being able to narrow it down by the type of toy even is a huge asset!! Their shipping is cheap too, at only $4.99 standard flat rate shipping!!

Bud will be finding a Playskool Kota & Pals Stompers Triceratops to love under the tree this year, and I know he's just going to love it! Its too cool because when you pet his back, he wakes up and comes to life! He'll stomp around and roar, moving his head and mouth, which I know the kids will get such a kick out of!! You can pick up Kota & Pals Stompers Triceratops at HasbroToyShop.com or Amazon.com, as well as other major retailers.

I also can't wait to tuck Strawberry Shortcake into Boug's stocking this year! The Strawberry Shortcake that comes in her own little purse is too cute, and yes, I remember playing with Strawberry Shortcake when I was a kid. I love being able to share that with Boug!! This one is of course, sweet smelling as Strawberry Shortcake should be, comes with her own little brush too! I know that she'll be a huge hit Christmas morning, being dug out of the stocking!! You can pick yours up at HasbroToyShop.com or Amazon.com, as well as other major retailers.



Opinions are my own, I was provided items free of charge to review which in no way changed the way I feel about the product!

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