Slim Fast. Really?

Ok, so I have to do it. I have to do it, but I hate to do it. And drum roll please......... get in shape. Awwwwwwwwwwww! I hate cardio. It's no fun. It hurts and I don't get results for like a month. Soooooooo I have decided to keep myself modivated. I have gained WAAAAAAYYYYYY too much weight from being married ot a skinny buff guy. Arg! So I have registered with Slimfast to do my own pan. I'll have to say I'm pretty impressed with their layout and options.


You can get a perosnal meal planner, workout log, and many other features. Go check it out adn have a little fun. And for those of you little subscribers Wal-Mart is running a special on the Slim Fast Shakes (which are tasting much better than I remember) 8 for 6. So here's to loosing weight and being healthy.

There are so many mroe important things in life than feeling crummy for being chubby!

Coupons, Coupons Everywhere!

I remember when I was a little one and I saw my mom go through the Sunday paper and get useful, money saving coupons out.

I really like coupons but as it were, I don't use them. I don't use them hardly ever because I don't get a Sunday paper in order to clip those little boogers and have major savings. That was, until NOW! I found a site that show all the weekly ads for national chain places such as Publix, Wal-Mart, World Market, and many others. The link is below and I hope this little tip will save you some dough! I'm sure I'll be browsing this site much, much more now when I know there's a little item I need. It never hurts to see if there's savings out there thanks to the crazy internet.

Sunday Saver

Kraft Foods to the Rescue!!!

Ok, so I realized after talking with a friend that I had not posted about my favorite place to get recipes. I guess I forgot because I use it so much and it has really become second nature to just jump online and grab what I need. You guessed it (ok it was in the subject line...don't get too excited) it's Kraft Foods Recipe Site.

Here are a few reasons why I use this site time and time again:

• They allow you to put ingredients in and vualah! You have dinner. I really like this feature and it helps when I have potatoes that will go bad it I don't use them and onions and then.... abra cadabra I get great recipes to chose from.
• Simplicity. Ok I love to cook but I'm no Martha Stewart. I don't have time to make my own pasta for crying out load. Most meals take 30 minutes or less which makes it great for my family and for actually having time to hang out with them.
• Food & Family Magazine. Ok, I adore this magazine , which is FREE by the way, so much that I cut out the recipes that I like from them and have put them in my own self made recipe book. Pretty impressive, right? To do it I got a folder and colored paper to tape the recipes and separated it by paper color. Very easy but sometimes you just want the recipe in paper form in stead of on a computer in your kitchen. Not to mention those who don't have room in your kitchen the homemade Kraft Recipe book is a winner.
  
• Photos. I am such a visual person and almost all their recipes you can get a picture of it by rolling your mouse over top the recipe name. Well done Kraft!
• Sorting. Once you have a list of the recipes you can sort your results by a myriad of categories. I love to sort by number of ingredients because it helps with the amount of time I will actually spend on the meal. Woo hoo for features.
  
• Healthy Living Section. This is the only portion of the site I think Kraft could really work on. They've got great tools but not as many recipes as I would like to see. They have an online meal planner and workout planner to help motivate healthy eating and meal planning. It's fun to play with these tools. I wish the meal planner were more customizable but hey that's what feedback is for.
  

So needless to say I REALLY enjoy this site. I love that you can go to any grocery store and you can actually find what you're looking for. Now I know Kraft Foods is no Food Network but hey. I'm looking for easy and quick most of the time. While I love to cook I want to actually enjoy the time I have away from the office not dread it. So I hope you found this little ditty helpful and if you ever want to "talk kraft" you know where to find me.

Yay for Kraft!

Cook Book that Rocks My Face Off

Ok, So I just had to share this with you! While perusing the All Recipes site. I found it..... the jewel hidden by layers and layers of tasty recipes. Know what it is? Your own customizable, full color cook book. It starts out at $29.99 with 50 recipes inside and you can add 50 more for $5! You can add recipes at any time too!

You can add recipes, take them away, even put your favorite picture on the flippin cover.

Pretty sweet huh? Now technically you could just look at the recipes online but sometimes I want to have a good old fashioned notebook in front of me or it makes a wonderful gift for a new wife or a mature one. :0)

So here's the link and a pic. Enjoy! The Best Customizable Recipe Book Ever!

The Best Form of Flattery

So I heard somewhere that the best form of flattery is to copy. If that's true then here's a website for you. I know I love the restaurant style foods but I HATE to spend $20 on pasta at Cheesecake Factory when i can make it for like 6 people. Ergo....... copycat. Just click on the highlighted link for the site. It's pretty good. I have not tried any of the recipes yet but the ones I looked at sounded pretty good. Here are a few:

California Pizza Kitchen`s Tuscan Hummus Recipe

A&W Clone Cream Soda Recipe

Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken

Bonefish Grill's Bang Bang Shrimp

Chili's Salsa (I'm trying this one tonight now that they raised their prices to $4 for chips and salsa!)

Hope you enjoy these and find some to tell me about! Here's the main site and you can make your own recipe box and everything. It's a pretty neat site now that I have played with it a bit.

CDKitchen

The Best Tool Ever!

Ok, so I am slightly addicted to hand tools. We live in an age where it isn't unheard of for a woman to know more about hand tools than her husband. That may very well be me. My husband knows lots about hand tools, don't get me wrong, but I use them on every day things while he uses them for one time projects. So the greatest tool I use (drum roll please!).........

THE STAPLE GUN!!!!!!!
I must admit there is wide array of projects you can do with a staple gun (not including hushing a overactive mouth). Here are a few websites I found that have simple projects (yay for simple) that you can do at home.

Tu Tu Frame
Upholstery Project
Bulletin Board
Staple Gun Bow
Lattice Projects



If there were only a few more hours in the day..... I would certainly do a few more projects. I found so many different ways to use my staple gun that I can't tell them all to you so come up with some of your own!

Happy Stapling!

I LOVE neat things

I suppose the term they used in the 1940's was 'swell' and boy do I have a dandy for you. I found this on the site Organizing Junkie which is one of my favorites.

It is a menu helper and if you know me. Menu building is one of my hobbies (I know, I know the exciting life I live). I think it's the planning you get to do beforehand or spending less money at the grocery store or some strange cosmic force within me drawing me to it. Either way I thought I would share the little wonder. Now I have not tried any of the recipes but it's certainly a good idea even if you make your own. I love finding something and then making my own thing to suit my needs.

Check it out.
lily on the fly