Friday Four

What I Watched: Veronica Mars finished up its run on SOAP net this week. I really wish that show had lasted longer. But it was fun watching Kristen Bell on Heroes (although I hated her character!).
Anyway, I watched a bunch of movies this week, since most of our shows have ended. The two best ones were Inglorious Basterds and The Lincoln Lawyer. I'd never seen a Quentin Tarantino film, and I'm glad I saw this one (IB) on TV, as it spared me a lot of the language and probably some of the gore. TLL was good too, although I got confused at times, as Josh Lucas plays the DA in this movie (but is a laywer in the tv series The Firm). I would recommend them both!

What I Listened to: I was lucky enough to get the new Jon Mclaughlin CD for my birthday. If you haven't heard him before, you are really missing out! I think he has one of the most gorgeous voices in music. This album is more like his first one, in the style and tempo, which is a slight disappointment, as I really enjoyed his second, more upbeat album. He has a duet with Sara Barielles, which I previously wrote about here, as well as Xenia, who was on the first season of The Voice.

 

What I Read: I fnished up The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold this week. Haven't yet decided what to read next.

Where I Ate: I think the only time we ate out this week was Moe's after church. Oh, and we had McDonald's last Friday night... don't judge ;-)

Thrifty Thursday - May 31

I'm going to change up the format for Thrifty Thursday for a while, to more of a narrative, rather than a breakdown. I'll tell you about any super deals I got, as well as still spell out the totals.

This week wasn't a really big shopping week for us. Publix didn't have a whole lot on sale that we like, but I did get FREE Cool Whip and stocked up on Mott's 100% Natural Apple Juice, which is absolutely delicious! We also had to get a few "needs" at Wal Mart though, so that cut into our savings a bit. So here's the final:

TOTAL SPENT: $34.60
TOTAL SAVED: $19.50

 

We Joined a Co-Op

If you've looked at my Thrifty Thursday blogs in the past month, you may have noticed a sudden lack of produce. Well, that is thanks to the fact that Jamie and I have joined a co-op. We pay $20, once a month, for a ton of food! It has helped us with our goal of eating healthier, eating foods we probably wouldn't normally buy AND forcing us to learn how to cook some things.

We forgot to take a picture of the first batch of produce we got, so here's a list: red apples, oranges, strawberries, bananas, kiwi, beans, cabbage, carrots, corn, cucumbers, cilantro, greens, lettuce, yellow onions, spring onions, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, tomatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms.

Now, if you know me, you know how much I loathe cooking. I will 'Pin' food and recipes all day long, but when it comes to actually making it... that's a different story. So, I'm proud of us for buckling down and making stuff. Granted, it's all pretty easy, if I can do it :-)

Besides the requisite salads, here are some of the other things we made.

These are greens that Jamie cooked.
I'm not a big fan of them, but Jamie loves them.
You'll have to ask him for the recipe!

Here's the recipe for our homemade salsa: From our produce stock, we used fresh cilantro, yellow onion and spring onion. We didn't have enough fresh tomatoes, so we drained a can of Hunt's diced tomatoes and a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilies. We chopped up the onions and cilantro, then added them with the tomatoes into the blender and made it smoother. "(The picture is before it was blended) For a final touch of flavor, we seasoned with garlic salt and oregano. It was delicious!

These are baked zucchini chips. Although they look rather large, they're actually very tiny. I used this recipe, with a couple of alterations: Baked Zucchini Chips. I would recommend using a slicer b/c I had a mix of crispy and soft due to the fact that I sliced them by hand. I also ended up baking them for an hour and a half. As far as seasoning, I would use a grinder. That was the only thing I could figure out that would not put too much. Let me know if you figure something else out. In any case, these were really good. Hopefully next time I can more to be crispy!

I got the recipe for this roasted squash from my friend Mamie's blog. I used spring onion instead of red onion, and I didn't have any fresh spices, so I used dried basil and dried minced garlic. I actually made this twice, once using coconut oil and once with canola. The coconut was better because somehow it didn't seem as greasy, plus it just gave it a little bit of added flavor. Also, make sure to cut the squash into bigger pieces than normal, since they will get much smaller when cooked!

I'm one of those people that like to put all kinds of things in my salads: veggies, fruit and nuts. One of my favorites to make is a strawberry salad. In this particular one, I used lettuce, tomato, mushroom, mandarin oranges, strawberries, sliced almonds and pistachios. Top with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette or some type of asian dressing, like sesame ginger. Yum, yum!

In addition to this, we made Baked Sweet Potatoes, had sliced cucumbers with soy sauce, cooked Corn on the Cob, made a strawberry kiwi salad, taco salad and cooked carrots.

Here is our new batch of produce we got yesterday. Leave any recipe ideas for these new veggies in the comment section!!

Friday Four

What I Watched: Duets premiered last night, and thanks to DVR, I am currently enjoying it. I can't say that I've seen the best singers on this show. However, I like watching Kelly Clarkson and John Legend, soooo that's all that matters :-)

I watched three movies this week: It's Complicated, Just my Luck and Click. They were good movies for helping me pass some time as I was organizing. I liked Click the best of the three (which isn't saying much!)

What I Listened to: I was really looking forward to listening to some things on my new Spotify IPad app, but streaming is only available to paying customers-- LAME! I'll try to find something interesting for next week.

What I Read: I finished 13 Little Blue Envelopes and started The Lovely Bones... two very different reads!!

Where I Ate: Mikino's (teriyaki chicken) after the cornhole tournament, Beezer's (t-bird) after church, and California Dreaming (chicken strips platter) for my birthday... and I was given a cupcake from Cupcake!

Thrifty Thursday - May 24

OP: Original price (individual)        SP: Sale price (individual)    Blue font: coupon


TARGET

(1) Mott's Apple Juice, OP: $2.69, SP: $2.25

(1) Reynold's Aluminum Foil, 85 ft, OP: $3.99, SP: $3.49

-$.75 off (1) Reynold's Aluminum Foil

Total Spent: $4.23 (plus $1 on GC)
Total Saved: $1.69  


PUBLIX

(2) Welch's Island Fruit Snacks, 10 ct, OP: $2.79, SP: $2.00

- $.50 off (1) Welch's Fruit Snacks (doubled to $1.00)

- $.50 off (1) Welch's Fruit Snacks (doubled to $1.00)

(2) Welch's Strawberry Fruit & Yogurt Snacks, 8 ct, OP: $2.79, SP: $2.00

- $.50 off (1) Welch's Fruit & Yogurt Snacks (doubled to $1.00)

- $.50 off (1) Welch's Fruit & Yogurt Snacks (doubled to $1.00)

(1) Dentyne Ice Spearmint, 60 pc, OP: $3.29

-$1.00 off (1) Dentyne Ice bottle

(4) Mott's Healthy Harvest Applesauce, 6 pk, OP: $2.39, SP: $1.67

(1) Filippo Berio Olive Oil, OP: $5.99, SP: $3.99

- $1.50 off (1) Filippo Berio Olive Oil

(1) Quaker Oatmeal Squares, OP: $4.89, SP: $2.45

- $1.00 off (1) Quaker Oatmeal Cereal

(3) V8 Splash, OP: $3.39, SP: $1.70

- $1.00 off (3) V8 Splash

(2) Premium Tomatoes, .97 lb, OP: $1.64, SP: $1.45

(1) Smithfield Low Sodium Hickory Smoked Bacon, OP: $5.49, SP: $3.34

(2) Kotex Natural Balance Pads, OP: $2.93

- $1.50 off (2) Natural Balance products

- $1.00 off (1) Kotex Pads (Publix coupon)

Total Spent: $29.55
Total Saved: $28.89


CVS

(1) Kotex U Liners, 60 ct, OP: $4.79, SP: $4.00

- $1.00 off (1) U by Kotex liners

- $3.00 off ECB

Total Spent: $0.00
Total Saved: $4.79
 

WALMART

(1) Loofah, OP: $2.00

(1) Wholly Guacamole, OP: $2.74

- $1.00 off (1) Wholly product

(2) Great Value Instant Grits, OP: $1.92

(1) Coffeemate Liquid Coffee Creamer, 15 oz, OP: $1.98

- $.55 off (1) Coffeemate Creamer

(1) Butterball Turkey Bacon, OP: $2.48

- $.35 off (1) Butterball Turkey Bacon

(1) Santitas Tortilla Chips, OP: $2.00

Total Spent: $13.28
Total Saved: $1.90

TOTAL SPENDING: $47.06
TOTAL SAVINGS: $37.27

Friday Four

What I Watched: One of my guilty pleasures, Sister Wives, started back this week, and it did not disappoint! I don't know why I find this family so fascinating, but I really do!
On the movie front, I watched The Help and North by Northwest. I think I need to stop watching movies so soon after reading the books though because I am analyzing them WAY too much. With that said, I did enjoy The Help and it touched me in all the right places. N by N is a classic Hitchcock film that I've never seen (I love Hitchcock movies) and I really liked it-- well worth my time.

What I Read: I started a new book this week called 13 Little Blue Envelopes and am already almost halfway through. It's very suspenseful, and so easy to read compared to what I was previously slugging through!

What I Listened to: I've had a very diverse mix this week, from Kelly Clarkson to Toby Lightman to Hanson to Adele. I've had music ADD :-)

What I Ate: Let's see, we went out three times last weekend since there was lots to celebrate. We went to Antai, with my mom, for some delicious sushi and spring rolls. On Sunday we went to Rockaway's after church (delicious fried zucchini and okra!), and then Fatz with Jamie's parents that night. 

Save "The Sing-Off!"

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably know two things by now:

1. I was in a college a cappella group and love the musical form.
2. I love television.

3 years ago NBC put those two loves together and created "The Sing-Off," which I have also blogged about here numerous times.

Well, if you haven't heard by now, NBC has decided not to air the show again next year. It's stupid and understandable at the same time. Even if they didn't pick it back up for a full season like they did this year, then they should at least put it back in its three week miniseries form.

Anyway, here's where you come in. A petition has been started to save the show. There are currently over 12,000 signatures, but we need so many more! Even if you've only seen the show once or twice, if you enjoyed it, please sign! This series has been SO important to the spread and awareness of a cappella and they just produced their most marketable winner yet!

Here is the link to the petition: Save the Sing Off!

And if you are not yet a fan of a cappella, watch this video of this season's winners, Pentatonix. It is epic.

Here are some more reasons to celebrate "The Sing Off"-- Celebrating The Sing Off

What are you waiting for? Go sign!