What's Cooking?

I was asked to teach a few classes on frugal food for the ACE program in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club and our local ISD.

My aim was to have reasonably inexpensive, healthy, and most importantly tasty recipes to share.

Each class I would provide the recipes and demonstrate them.
And let me tell you, being a cooking show host is harder than it looks.

This recipe for black bean salad is a favorite in our house and was the run away hit in the class.

Black Bean Salad

2 cans Black Beans, rinsed and drained

¼ of a Red Onion, chopped

Mango, cubed

½ of a Colored Bell Pepper, diced

1 Jalapeno (fresh or pickled) sliced

½ c. Cilantro, chopped

½ tsp. Granulated Garlic

Juice of a Lime

3 Tbs. Oil

Salt, to taste

Mix oil, lime juice, garlic granules, and salt together.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  

Mix all remaining ingredients in a big bowl and pour dressing over top.   Mix well.

Serve room temperature or cold.

This is part of Full Plate Thursday.

Brookshire's Coupon Matchups 5/22 - 5/28

These are the best deals this week for the North East Texas area Brookshire’s. The Anna, Canton, Forney, Longview, Paris, Seagoville, and Weatherford, TX Brookshire's double one coupon per item up to $.50 and triple one coupon per item up to $.39. For example, if you buy 2 products and have 2 of the same coupons, they will double/triple the first but take the second at face value.

The Marshall & Longview Brookshire's now doubles/triples up to FOUR like coupons!

Check out the Brookshire's E-Deal pages for the latest offers.

For every reusable bag you bring to use, you will receive $.05 off of your total bill.

Don't forget to load your UPromise & SavingStar eSavings.

Please be respectful of copyright. You may use this list for your personal use. Please do not republish it as your own or print copies for non-personal use without permission. If you would like to include these match-ups on your blog, please contact me. This post may contain affiliate links.  Thank you.

The Real Big Deal
Buy 3lb. bag Pilgrim's Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Fillets or Tenderloins get:
FREE Fresh Express Iceberg Garden Salad
FREE Kraft Dressing
FREE Knorr Lipton Side
FREE Pillsbury Brownie Mix
FREE Dr. Pepper or Diet Dr. Pepper

Country Time Drink Mix $2
Buy 2 use $1/2 from 4/21 SS
$1.50 after coupon

Philadelphia Cream Cheese $1.50

Jell-O Pudding or Gelatin $.60

Velveeta Cheesy Skillets $2
Use $.50 printable
$1 after coupon

Planter's Nuts $2.69
Use $.75 printable on Honey BBQ Flavor (if included)
$1.94 after coupon

Cool Whip $1

Sweet Corn $.25 an ear

Fresh Express Cole Slaw $1.50
Use $.55/1 from 3/10 SS
$.95 after coupon

Large Mango $.99

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts $1.99lb.

C&H Sugar 4lb. $2
Buy 2 use $.75/2 from 3/17 RP
$1.63 each after coupon

Brawny Paper Towels $5.49
Buy 2 use $1/2 from 4/28 RP (exp 5/27)
$4.99 each after coupon

Cherries $3.99lb.

Boneless Rib Eye Steak $5.99lb.

Edwards Pie $5
Use $.75/1 from 3/10 SS
$4.25 after coupon

Kraft Shredded Cheese $2.50
Buy 2 use $1 loadable
$2 each after ecoupon

Ore-Ida Potatoes $2.79
Buy 2 use $1.50/2 from 5/5 SS
$2.04 each after coupon

PictSweet Frozen Vegetables $1

Louisiana Fish Fry $1.19
Use $1/2 from 3/10 RP
$.69 each after coupon

Fresh Catfish Fillets $3.99lb.

French's Mustard $1.50
Use $.50/1 Yellow Mustard from 5/12 SS
Or $1/1 Honey Mustard from 3/10 SS
$.50 after coupon

$2 off wyb Hershey's Chocolate 6pk, Honey Maid Grahams, & Jet-Puffed Marshmallows @ $7.50
Buy all three use $1/3 from 5/12 SS
$1.50 each after coupon and deal

Hefty Trash Bags $5.49
Use $.55/1 from 5/5 RP
$4.94 after coupon

Buy 2 Hidden Valley Dressings @$6 get FREE KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce
$2 each after deal

Buy Kingsford Charcoal Briquets get FREE Kingsford Lighter Fluid
Buy both AND a KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce use FREE sauce w/charcoal from 3/3 SS (exp 5/26)

Buy 2 Clorox Cleaning Products get FREE Clorox Bleach
$1.34 - $1.67 each after deal

Buy Food Club Foam Plates 150ct. get FREE Food Club Supreme Elegance Napkins 40ct + 25 Bonus YourPoints

Buy Palmolive Ultra Dishwashing Liquid 25oz get FREE Scotch Brite No-Scratch Scrub Sponge + 25 Bonus YourPoints

Buy Brookshire's Tortilla Chips get FREE Brookshire's Salsa or Queso + 25 Bonus YourPoints

Pin It Tuesday

Welcome to Pin It Tuesday!!

A huge congrats to our top 5 pins from last week! Grab a featured button!  

Quick Pickles

Source: parymoppins.net via Powerful Mothering on Pinterest

Simple Kitchen Tips

Source: familyhomeandlife.com via Powerful Mothering on Pinterest

Fathers Day Craft- Walking In My Fathers Shoes

Source: jdaniel4smom.com via Powerful Mothering on Pinterest

Caramel Mocha Coffee Ice Pops

Source: flouronmyface.com via Powerful Mothering on Pinterest

DIY Kid’s Paint

Source: xoxorebecca.com via Powerful Mothering on Pinterest

Here's how it works.

We open on Tuesdays and close on Fridays.
On the weekend the top 5 are pinned into a Special Pinterest Board for repinning. :)
On Tuesday the same top 5 will be featured in the link up for the new week!

What are you allowed to pin?

Anything worthy of Pinning! Recipes, Crafts, DIY, Kids Activities

Please link your post and not your blog homepage. Grab our button and spread the word to help the pinnable post link up grow!

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Perfectly Practical #159 - PaperDirect #sponsored

The following is a sponsored post.  All opinions and odd wedding gift standards are my own.

June is almost upon us and you know what that means right?

Here come the brides!

This year we have already had two cousins' to wed plus a dear friend's wedding and still have Engineer's sister's nuptials to come.

Since we love weddings, it is not at all a burden but a joy to celebrate with our family and friends.

June is traditionally the favored month of brides for their weddings and as such, I thought I would mention a great supplier of wedding paper from PaperDirect.

For the happy couple, they have a beautiful selection of invitations, place cards, thank you notes and all of the necessary stationery in between.

For the wedding party, there are the accompanying shower invitations and napkins.

For the wedding guests, why not consider gifting the couple with new his and hers letterhead or an envelope stamper?

PaperDirect falls in line with our household gift-giving ways.

Our gifts tend to be utilitarian perfectly practical and less frivolous.  It is not unheard of for us to fill a large box, basket, or bag, to the brim with useful items like first aid kits, a set of Dave Ramsey CDs, and post-y notes (which I can also get from PaperDirect.)  It is doubtful that we would bring a fruit bowl or bread warmer with us.*  How many of those does one couple need anyway?

I love the thought of giving the newlyweds personalized paper products.
And just think, you'll be ahead of the game since paper is the 1 year anniversary's theme.    

*Fruit bowls and bread warmers are kind of a standing joke in our family since my parents were given 7 bread warmers when they got married and we were given about the same quantity in fruit bowls.  

Madly In Love

This weekend we had parties on top of parties and none were small feats.

No matter how much planning or preparation you do ahead of time, there are just some things that have to happen just beforehand.

Many, many times we have been very close to not finishing before guests arrived but this time we found ourselves down to the wire.

Engineer was a rock star!
He worked so hard to get as much done as possible in the short amount of time that we had available between the two gatherings.

Every time he finished one task he would say, "Okay, what's next?"
Music to my ears.

I would have never been able to pull off that evening's event without his stellar help.

Thank you Engineer for making the impossible possible.

1-4-3 EM!

Menu Plan Week 21

This past weekend was full of parties.  Apparently we are gluttons for punishment stress entertaining.

I hosted a ladies brunch on Saturday morning.

Menu:

Pecan Praline Coffee

Tomato & Bacon Pie

Creamy Lemon Asparagus Salad

Green Salad w/Cinnamon Basil and Rose Petal Vinaigrette

Fruit Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

Praline Crusted Cheesecake

After a super sonic clean-up/set-up session, we hosted a casual outdoor cocktail party Saturday night.

Menu:

Mix Your Own Cocktails

Hot Dogs & Fixin's

Tabbouleh

Black Bean Salad

Caesar Salad

Sunday was Diva's class' party at a friend's house; Engineer and I chaperoned.  

I love parties but I am thankful that today I can just sit, drink my coffee, and do paperwork...oh and all those dishes... 

This week is going to be nuts but lucky for us, we have tons of leftovers from this weekend.  

We will be eating:

Sunday - 6th Grade Party

Monday - Chicken Caesar Salad (leftover)

Tuesday - Hot Dogs & Salads (leftover)

Wednesday - Black Eyed Peas, Kale, & Cornbread (leftover)

Thursday - Pizza & Salad

Friday - Date Night

Saturday - Dinner with Friends

This is part of Menu Plan Monday.

Cafepress.com #Sponsored

Cafepress.com provided me with a gift certificate for a giveaway.  All opinions and shameless evidence of nerdiness are my own.

There is no shortage of proof of the nerdiness of our Little Pink House tribe.

• We have weird issues with numbers - as in we feel rather strongly about the superiority of some numbers over others.  No, that's not a religious or mystic thing, it's a I like numbers divisible by three, Engineer likes prime numbers, and Diva likes numbers because of their shape thing.  Maybe it's not our issues that are weird...
• Before starting a project, Engineer must research every aspect of said project before he can even contemplate starting it (he would argue that research is starting the project.)
• Engineer is, well, an engineer.
• Somebody in the household is a Mensan.  
• We all have certain patterns/routines that must be adhered to or else the wheels totally come off the wagon.
• I have a book on napkin folding...and actually use it.
• Instead of playing video games, eleven year old Diva writes books or knits in her down time.

So what does airing our geeky laundry have to do with cafepress.com?

I'm so glad you asked!

They have a fabulous selection of geeky themed items (including a whole section on "The Big Bang Theory") that frankly, we didn't know we couldn't live without until we saw them.
And now we want one of everything.
Thanks a lot cafepress...

Cafepress.com is an online store that sells novelty and personalized items.  You don't have to be a geek to appreciate their merchandise; they have stuff for perfectly normal people too.

You can order anything from shower curtains with fabric printed with a funny saying like this one I'm sure Engineer and Diva would love:

Or you could order 2013 calendars that start when you want them to start and then go 12 months out from there.  For instance you could order one now with a start date of June 2013 and it would go through to May 2014.  These are perfect for people who work to a different type of calendar year like a fiscal year, a school year, a liturgical year, etc. 

They even have items like personalized baby blankets, tees, and hats for the tiny tots in your life. 

Now's the time to grab those graduation and Father's Day gifts and cafepress.com is a great place to get all of your gifts in one place.

The beauty of cafepress is the products can directly reflect your personality or the personality of the recipient.  You can even produce your own design!

If you would like to give cafepress.com a whirl now's your chance!  Those good folks have offered a $25 gift certificate to cafepress.com to one of my readers.  Enter by the rafflecopter below.  The winner will have three days after being contacted before a new name is drawn.  Good luck!

The winner has been contacted.  Thanks to all who participated.

a Rafflecopter giveaway