Basil Burger Awesomeness

I must confess: I love a good burger. Duh, who doesn't, I know. I found this recipe on the food network and HAD to try it! Having a fresh basil plant around doesn't hurt either.

The recipe can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/perfect-summer-basil-burger-recipe/index.html

What I did was the following:

First I threw two burgers on the grill. I didn't add my usual onion powder soup mix or ranch mix, because I wanted the basil sauce to stand on its own and see how much flavor it really had.

But I did add some mozzarella cheese on top once I flipped them.

In the meantime, I mixed: mayo, sour cream, garlic, basil, Worcester and salt and pepper and put them in my mini-processor, which I didn't even know I had until the other day! Yay!

While the burgers were cooking I mixed this all up. Until creamy. 

I toasted English muffins for burger buns, because they have less bread and you get more of the burger taste instead of a mouth full of bread. 

They turned out AMAZING!!! Hubby loved them and I will be making this again! Another thought I had was to freeze whatever was left over, then I could make in batches and use when needed.

Happy Cooking!

Wendy

The $5 Savings Plan

I must confess: I love saving money. Not much of a big confession, but still. A few years ago I read about a woman who saved all of her $5 bills. Over the course of so many years she had accrued a nice tidy sum of over $10, 000. WHAT?!?! So I decided to give it a try and see what I could do. So any time I received change back that included a $5 bill. I tucked it away. Even if I gave someone a $20 for something that was only $4 and received $15 in fives, I put them a side.

After about a month I had about $100, I was surprised at how quickly it adds up, but its not so big that you would miss, it like a $20 or so small that it would take forever to add up, like spare change. The first thing I did with what I call my '$5 money' is I went Christmas shopping with it last year. It paid for my lunch, shopping and even an afternoon pick me up snack. And I still had $5 left over to put right back into my savings plan. You'd be surprised how quickly it adds up and even my hubby gives me any $5 bills he has. It has given us the opportunity to do something when it might not have been in the budget that week. It was the best thing I had read about saving money in a long time. And I will continue to do so!

Happy Saving!

Wendy

Birthday Blessings

I must confess: I tried something new for my birthday this year. I have everything I need in life so this year for my birthday I decided to do something different. I wanted to give back. Our local food bank was low on food, as in 3 jars of peanut butter and 1 box of cereal. With over 500 families (not people, families) asking for assistance every month, feeding them gets difficult. So I took my $5 savings plan money (about $100) and went to Aldi. Best prices in town! With everything on their list that they were desperate for, I could have easily spent $1000. But I too, am on a budget. We filled up the cart before even leaving the first aisle. Then we took it all over to the local church for donating.

 

It doesn't look like much but there is $100 worth of food there. I hope it helped them out and made a difference in many lives. I will continue to help the food bank and when I find a good sale I always pick up extra because I know that someone somewhere needs it. And that feels pretty good. 

Happy Giving!

Wendy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I must confess: I love my birthday! I mean really who doesn't? But what I love is the emails and mailings I get because it's my birthday.
Not just the birthday and well wishes from Family and friends, but the coupons and freebies from stores, restaurants and businesses. I LOVE a deal!


And birthday month is the best time to get them!

I've already received a coupon for 20% off at Stein Mart, $5 off at DSW  (yippee!)
and a free movie ticket from Movie Tavern. It's just the beginning! I cannot wait to see what else I get!

What discounts & freebies do you like to get?

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Wendy

She's Crafty!

I must confess: I have the need to change things up every now and then. I had two framed pictures from our honeymoon that were getting a little old looking. So I freshened them up by making a new mattes. All I needed was scrapbook paper, scissors and tape and viola! New pictures. The possibilities are endless! Most picture frames come with a standard white matte, so dress it up!

 Start with a piece of scrapbook paper, scissors and tape.

 

Original matte. BORING!

Add tape to the front of the matte in each corner. 

Turn it over and face it down on the paper, preferably in the corner so you don't have too much to cut off. 

Cut a hole in the middle of the paper and cut to each corner. 

Fold each side back and tape down. This is where cutting to the corner is important. 

Your matte should look like this from the back side.

And should look like this from the front. 

Refreshed and revived!

Happy Crafting!

Wendy

Saving money at its best!

I must confess: it's no secret that I'm a bargain hunter. It's hobby really and I love doing it. I wanted to share some websites for finding good deals on restaurants, entertainment, etc. I have used all of these personally and I'm not getting anything for it, just wanted to share what I know.

Websites for 'flash sales' – you've probably heard of many of these, and some you probably haven't, but these are the sites that put deals on sales for a few days such as $10 for a $25 coupon for a local restaurant. I like these better than restaurant.com because there is no minimum spending to use the coupon, but they do have expiration dates. And they aren't coupon sites where you have to download a coupon printer to your computer and then search for coupons that you don't use anyway.

Deal Sites for restaurants and services:

www.groupon.com

www.halfoffdepot.com

www.tippr.com

www.loclly.com

www.dealchicken.com

www.livingsocial.com

www.scoutmob.com

www.sweetjack.com

www.kudzu.com/deals

www.dealfind.com

www.kgbdeals.com

www.local.amazon.com

www.google.com/offers

Deal sites for products:

www.groopdealz.com (personal favorite!)

www.saveology.com

www.bradsdeals.com (another personal favorite!)

www.5stardeal.com

www.tanga.com

Happy Saving!

Wendy

Is it really August?!

I must confess: I wish I had more time to blog right now. I've been working full time, but it's a temp position, thank God! Can't wait for it to be over! I'm getting way behind on so many things, and I don't like it. So, I'm always looking for shortcuts. The ones I want to share today are to make my life easier. The first one is about ironing. One of my least favorite chores, but in my opinion, has to be done so we don't look like ragamuffins. I read this years ago and it really works. Line your ironing board with tin foil, then put the cover on. It reflects heat from both sides to help cut down ironing time. Whoo-hoo!

My ironing board and my dog Lola!

The second is making a big binder for all those manuals and instructions, that you might need for that random appliance some day. I used to keep them in a filing cabinet, but damn, they took up a lot of room! And if you give an appliance away or sell it in a yard sale, you have the manual right there! Now when hubby says 'have you seen the manual for xyz?' I tell him to check the big binder. What I don't keep in there is any manual that stays with the house, stove, microwave, etc. Nothing worse than taking those with you if you move!

I made mine with a 3 inch binder and page protectors. And, of course, 

I had to make it pretty because I'm anal like that.

Regular page protectors.  I put everything for that appliance in the same sheet, manual, warranty, etc. 

And you can use both sides for easy viewing!

Ah, summer is almost over, and so is the job. Looking forward to fall and freedom! LOL!!!

Wendy