Whipped Cream Frosting

One of my favorite types of recipes are the kinds you can tweek over and over to come up with new and delicious varieties. This recipe for whipped cream frosting is definitely one of them.

All you need is a box of instant pudding, any flavor, any size. Use half the amount of milk the box calls for, mix it up and fold in a tub of whipped cream, that's it! I used vanilla for the cupcakes below and added some red food coloring to get the pink color and added pearl sprinkles.

The possibilities of cake/frosting combos are endless with all the pudding flavors that are available. I think a pistachio flavored frosting would extremely yummy!

Enjoy!

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Pie

A couple weeks ago we had Cheeseburger Pie for dinner.  It wasn't bad, but we found it a little bland.   I decided to try it again with some additions after my husband suggested we add real bacon bits to dish.

You'll need:


1 lb lean meat (we used ground turkey)
1 large onion (I used onion flakes because I hate the texture of onions)
salt
pepper
4 TBS A1 Steak sauce
4 slices pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup baking mix (like Bisquick)
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup real bacon bits
3 TBS BBQ sauce
French's french fried onions

Brown your meat with the onion, when it's finished add the A1 sauce, salt and pepper (to taste).  Put the meat into a greased pie plate and top with cheese.  In a separate bowl mix Bisquick, milk and eggs, pour over meat and cheese.  Top with BBQ sauce, bacon bits and fried onions.  Bake at 400* for 25 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Stromboli

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of this meal, I dove right into when I got home and totally forgot.  Last night we had a "left over" dish.  When I made my Buffalo Chick Jalapeno Poppers I actually used 3 cans of chunked chicken so we had a good amount left.

To make a buffalo chicken stromboli I needed crust, so I made this crust that does not use yeast.  I'm not going to lie, I have NEVER made anything that requires yeast and rising.  When I see recipes that require yeast I normally look the other way because it just seems too time consuming for me.  Maybe someday I will change my mind.

Crust:  2 cups flour
           1 tsp. salt
           2 tsp. baking powder
           2/3 cup water

I actually doubled this recipe to make a stromboli for each us.  You combine all of the ingredients and knead them for about two minutes.  I spread a little olive oil over the crust to prevent the sauce from seeping into the crust, then I put some Ranch dressing and hot sauce on, followed by the buffalo chicken and cheese mixture.
Bake at 425* for 20 minutes.

This dinner had some of my favorite components:  easy, quick and inexpensive!

Enjoy!

My Couponing Story

I started cutting out coupons when we lived in Pittsburgh and I sucked at it, for a couple of reasons that I will go into here.  I am by no means a pro right now or an "extreme couponer" like that shown on TLC, but I sure am working my way there!  I'm becoming more and more a coupon snob though and thinking "I'm not going to buy that because it'll probably go on sale next week and I have a coupon that can make it really cheap" Probably not a bad thing, but here are some tips I have come across.

#1:  Don't buy it just because you have a coupon -- In Pittsburgh this is what I did, I clipped my coupons then went to the store and bought pretty much everything I had a coupon for.

#2:  Match coupons with sales -- A lot of times the coupon in this weeks insert won't match up with sales this week, but it will in the weeks to follow.  A lot of the Red Plum and Smart Source coupons that came out in January that are set to expire April 30 are being paired with deals right now to be close to next to nothing

#3:  Get more than one insert -- I currently get four inserts, some come to me whole and some come picked over slightly, everything helps though.  This is really bad on my part but I actually don't buy any of the papers those four come from, they're all given to me.  Maybe this is somewhere I could step my game up.

#4:  Utilize coupon sites -- coupons.com is a great one, if you have an iPhone use the GroceryIQ App which allows you to "clip" the coupon, send it to your email and then print from a printer (to continue saving print in grayscale on the economic setting)

#5:  Utilize match-up sites:  The Krazy Coupon Lady was featured on TLC's hit "Extreme Couponing" and lets you in on great information like what store you can match certain coupons with the get items dirt cheap.  Mom's Need To Know I also really like because it offers specific deals for Martin's (Giant) which is where I like to shop.  Also, some of the stores mentioned on The Krazy Coupon Lady are not applicable to where I live.

I went to Wal-Mart to score my haul below for $5.26

4 Nivea Body Washes = $3/each ($12) used 4 $3/1 coupons so all the body wash =
FREE
2 Degree Women's deoderant = $.97/each ($1.94) used 2 $1/1 coupons so they paid me $.06
4  Olay soap 2 packs =$2.48/each ($9.92) used 4 $2/1 coupons so all the soaps = $1.92  ($.48/each)
2 Gain Fabric sheets =$1.87/each ($3.74) used 2 $1/1 coupons so sheets =$1.74 ($.87/each)
Febreeze with Gain = $2.66 used $1/1 coupon so Febreeze = $1.66

Retail total = $29.26
My total = -$.06+$1.92+$1.74+$1.66= $5.26
$24 savings

I think the craziest thing is realizing you can get things for free!  When I saw the price on the shelf was $3 and I had a coupon for $3 I thought there is no way possible, only the crazy ladies on the shows find deals like this, but you can too.  Just keep your eyes open for a sale!

Happy clipping!