If it's good enough for Jacquie O...

GIFFORD'S GIVES WASHINGTONIANS ANOTHER REASON TO VOTE: free hot chocolate on election day!!
"– Gifford's Ice Cream& Candy Co announces they are giving out a free cup of Hot Chocolate toVoters on Election Day. Anyone who enters a Gifford's location on November 4th 2008 wearing their "I Voted" sticker will receive a free 12 oz cup of Gifford's Signature HotChocolate.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and actress Goldie Hawn are counted among a long list of loyal Gifford's fans...Gifford's offers factory tours" (anyone want up for a field trip with me??) "ice cream socials, birthday parties, giftbaskets, ice cream cakes, and corporate gifts. Gifford's products are also available at the manufacturing facility in Silver Spring, MD and online at *www.giffords.com.*"

The new University Town Center location will be where I turn up next Tuesday to sip away my chocolate indulgence. Giffords has another great ongoing promotion called Sundae Mondays, where ice cream sundaes are just $3. This is actually a good price for Giffords. Really.

Menu Planning Monday: Week of Oct 26

Sunday: Spaghetti w/ apple chicken sausage (thank you, Jerry!)
Monday: Broccoli Soup and cornbread muffins
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza, using this crust I froze last month
Wednesday: Tuna Carrot salad (recipe from my childhood!)
Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas (anyone have a good recipe??)
Friday: Spooky Eyeball Tacos- Happy Halloween!
Saturday: Out to Cafe Azul with my mama (thanks to Restaurant.com)

I HEART MY KITCHENAID
I just wanted to pay tribute to the other chef in our home. My husband can really cook, and I am the "pampered chef" when he does it (and I do something else). We've agreed that he does the cooking on Thursday nights himself, but he is always willing to chop or give me a hand while I'm cooking too. I never knew cooking could be so fun until he joined me in the kitchen.

Menu Planning Monday: Week of Oct. 19

Sunday: Roasted Pepper Risotto (saturday's risotto never happened with all the goings on- I revised to this recipe)
Monday: Baked Salmon, potato wedges and green beans
Tuesday: Clam Chowder, zucchini
Wednesday: Veggie Omelets
Thursday: Pesto Pasta w/ Chicken Sausage
Friday: Bean Burgers (frozen from 10/10- we always double recipe and freeze half)
Saturday: parties, meetings, conference- forget cooking!

Maren commented last week wondering if we ever eat leftovers- and we surely do! We are big believers in BYO lunches, and my husband is, gratefully, unopposed to eating leftovers for lunch every day. We have our "lunch" tupperware containers, and when we clean up after dinner, we pack our "lunches" for the next day(s). This makes it easy to grab in the morning when we're running late, and saves $ by not eating lunch out.

What goes in must come out!

If there's one thing we are good at in our household, it is frugal shopping. This can cause issues when you live in a one bedroom apartment and have a toddler. So when I get a chance to clear out things we don't need, I seize the day. The Hyattsville City-Wide Yard Sale is Saturday October 18th. Please come out and support it- I'll have plenty to sell, and if you don't need any of my junk (or drugstore extras), how about a zucchini bread muffin with chocolate chips on top? :)

Rite Aid rules

If you have a young child, are pregnant or nursing, or have any other issues that would preclude you from using run-of the mill medications, Rite Aid has a sale for you this week!
There is a whole DPS (double page spread- my old publishing lingo coming out) of mostly "natural" and "safe" treatments for colds and flu symptoms. For example, I tend to get a sinus infection after I have a cold, and last winter while I was nursing, I couldn't take much to clear out my sinuses. My doctor suggested nasal irrigation. Ew, I thought, but as my friend Denise can attest, it works really well! And what do you know- Rite Aid has 3 or 4 brands of nasal irrigation systems for FREE (after rebate) this week. There are also homeopathic children's remedies, vapor rubs, chap stick and organic cough drops. All free, after rebate.
Now don't let the rebate thing set you off- you can do it online! I entered my receipt as soon as I got home, and now I just wait for the check to come in the mail. Not hard at all.
Maybe I went a little overboard (when does my new drugstore open, you ask?) but I will get all $130 back in a matter of weeks. And if you get sick in the mean time, and haven't stocked up at Rite Aid, give me a call. I'll send that irrigation system over.

Menu Planning Monday: Week of Oct 12

We enjoyed our weekend in Pennsylvania with family, and I'll be back to the kitchen on Tuesday. All the easier to plan my "week" of meals when there's a couple days fewer to plan. :)

Here's how the chili looked as it cooked:

Tuesday: Chili, cornbread muffins
Wednesday: Crockpot Shredded Chicken Tacos
Thursday: Taco Salad (another recurring item on our menus)
Friday: Stuffed Rigatoni
Saturday: Slow Cooker Risotto - we'll try something new to do with food storage wheat!

Shopping in a recession

What would you do with 24 cents? This is why I HEART CVS! I handed over my quarter and got all this, and a penny in return! This is a great week for free stuff at CVS, after ECB (ExtraCare Bucks). If you aren't familiar with my coupon clipping, cheap drugstore buying antics, or want to know how, check out cvs for newbies. If you are so unfortunate as to live where there are no CVS stores, you might find solace in iheartriteaid.com (Rite Aid), or iheartwags.com (Walgreens).

Repurposing- kittly litter buckets to diaper pails!

This is another Freecycle success story for me. Having switched to all cloth diapers recently, we needed something to keep the soiled diapers in with a good lid. :) We're trying to save money on this, so it didn't make sense to buy another diaper pail (we've got a Diaper Genie II up for grabs now- anyone??). So I went to the local Freecycle community, and received these buckets for free! They would work just fine as they were but I am slightly picky about things looking nice, so I picked up a can of plastic spray paint for $5 and voila! I've got nice white diaper pails.
Have you repurposed something instead of throwing it away? I'd love to hear about it!

Menu Planning Monday (er Tuesday)

I always knew I wanted to plan my meals better. I am finally in the groove of making weekly plans, and that works for me (better than monthly plans or the daily "plan")!
Posting my plan here will give me extra incentive and accountability for getting it done each week; I really don't expect y'all to care that much about what we're eating Thursday night.

• Sunday: Clam Chowder
• Monday: Spaghetti w/Chicken Sausage, zuchinni
• Tuesday: Taco Ring (pampered chef)
• Wednesday: Chef Salads
• Thursday: Pierogies
• Friday: Bean burgers (a big fave at our house)
• Saturday: on the road (traveling)

Too many gadgets

I will never actually get anything written on here if I don't stop looking for gadgets and filling out my sidebars. But that's whats so fun about blogs. What I have to say isn't nearly as cool as that new Jason Mraz song, eh?