Recipe: Johnsonville Three Cheese Italian Style Chicken Sausage Oven-Roasted Pasta Primavera

Whew! That's a long name for a such a simple meal. I decided to give this one a try even though I have a veggie-hater in my household. But he loves meat, so it's the best of both worlds. Here's the recipe for one of the best meals I've had recently:

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 medium onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, quartered (optional...not my fav & I did not use)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 pkg (12 oz.) Johnsonville Three Cheese Italian Style Chicken Sausage, sliced
12 oz. uncooked linguine
grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a large bowl, combine the zucchini, mushrooms (optional), tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper. Add the oil, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat.
3. Transfer to a greased shallow baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
4. Sprinkle sausage over vegetables. Bake 5 minutes longer or until sausage is heated through.
5. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain and place in a large bowl.
6. Add sausage mixture and toss. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

*I used the Ronzoni Garden Delight Fettucini instead of linguine and I was all out of parmesan cheese, so I used 1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. 

My Simple Saving Shopping: Publix

For someone who hasn't done couponing since May, I was very happy with my deals at Publix tonight! These deals are good until Saturday, Christmas Eve. So you have plenty of time to go out and grab more and also to let me know of any really great deals that I may have missed. :-)


Total before sales and coupons = $51.19
Total after sales and coupons = $18.51




Smart Balance 1/2 gallon milk on sale = $7.50 for 3
- (3) $1.50/1 coupons from 11/20 SmartSource insert
= $3 for 3
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter on sale B1G1 free = $3.39 for 2
- (2) $1/1 coupons
= $1.39 for 2
Quaker Chewy Granola Bars on sale B1G1 free = $5.58 for 4
- (2) $1/2 coupons
= $4.58 for 4
Hamburger Helper = $1.93
- coupon for free product (received via mail for e-mailing them my compliments)
= FREE
Yoplait Yogurt = $0.67
- free cup of Yoplait from Facebook offer (no longer available)
= FREE
All the other products I did not have coupons for but they were on sale.

Cupcakes in a Jar

I found this idea on Pinterest and decided it was a great idea for the ladies in my Bible study! It's called a cupcake in a jar and all I needed was half-pint sized mason jars, cupcake mix, and frosting. But I decided to take it a step further and bought decorative paper and gift tags to make them special. The total cost for 12 jars was only $11 (of course I got the mix and frosting when it was on sale and I had coupons) making it a little less than $1 per person. They're so cute and everyone loved them! Here's how I did it:
First, make sure to wash the mason jars. I soaked them in hot water and soap then thoroughly rinsed and dried. While those were soaking, I made the cupcakes according to the directions on the box. While they were baking, I took one of the seals and made circles on the decorative paper and cutout each circle. Then I attached a gift tags to each seal before placing the paper on top. Make sure to let the cupcakes completely cool before you use them. Once they've cooled, cut each cupcake in half and place the bottom of the cupcake in the bottom of the mason jar. Then I used my handy-dandy Pampered Chef icing decorator to add the frosting. You can do as little or as much frosting as you want. Then place the top half of the cupcake on top of the frosting. This is the trickiest part because the tops kept went sideways and did not sit evenly and pretty on top. Add your final layer of frosting on the very top and seal the jar. Viola! Cupcake in a jar! I used the box the jars came in to keep them together and easily carry them. These are great gifts for anyone!

Christmas Budget: Final Update

I’m finally finished shopping for Christmas! It feels GREAT! We purchased a gift for everyone on our list and actually bought a little too much, but decided to keep it. We’re so excited about all the gifts we purchased! I definitely think everyone is going to be super excited and that’s the best part of Christmas – seeing the look on their faces when they open the gift. In the end, we actually went over out budget by $43.86 but there was good reason for it (which I cannot go into detail about right now) so I am not worried about it. Here is my break down of totals:

Before sales and coupons = $2,341.84
After sales and coupons = $643.86 (73% savings)

My favorite part of shopping for Christmas was definitely my Black Friday adventure, but I enjoyed all the shopping and I can’t wait until Christmas!

$1.99 for Holiday Lattes at Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts is offering their holiday inspired lattes for only $1.99 right now! As far as I know, this is for the Greenville stores only, but it's worth asking at others. You can choose from Gingerbread, Peppermint, or Cinnamon Swirl. Check their website for the closest DD to you! 

Christmas Budget Update

(This is a picture of my three favorite ornaments hanging on our tree. The crystal snowflake was a gift from my husband a few years ago. It’s a Swarovski crystal and absolutely beautiful with the lights behind it.)

You would think I would be done shopping after all that Black Friday shopping, but I am not! There are a still a few people on my list and that means more fun shopping! I headed back to Lifeway for a few gifts, Books-a-Million, and did some online shopping. I love taking advantage of daily online deals that save me more money! Here is a breakdown of my savings per store:

Books-a-Million:
Before sales and coupons = $106.86
After sales and coupons = $43.83

LifeWay:
Before sales and coupons = $28.98
After sales and coupons = $12.49

Online:
Before sale = $132.99
After = $55.65

It’s so funny to come home with a bunch of shopping bags and make my husband think I spent a lot more than I really did! After adding all those items, I’m getting a little too close to my budget than I’d like. I’m a little nervous we may go over, but since we added more people this year, I'm okay with that.

Total before sales and coupons = $1,211.32
Total after sales and coupons = $411.27 (66% savings)

Home Improvements: Cute Shelving

My dilemma: I wanted somewhere to throw my purse, iPod, phone, etc. that didn’t take up too much space or that could be tipped over by the kiddos.

My fix: Painted magazine holders from Ikea screwed to the wall.

Ikea has two packs of wooden magazine holders for only $10. I already had a bunch of paints from other projects, meaning the purchase of the magazine holders was my only expense. This project took me about two hours from start to finish because of drying time. But really only took about 30 minutes to actually paint and hang.

I started by laying down newspaper on my porch and then spray painting the magazine holders.

After both were dry, I painted a “W” on one for our last name. :-) I know it looks upside down, but once it’s hung, it will look right. I used white trim paint since it was all I had in white.

I couldn’t decide what to paint on the top shelf. Then my daughter came and asked if she could help and that gave me an idea! Her precious little hand prints became the focal point of the top shelf! The easiest way to do this is to actually paint the child’s hand and then place it on top. She loved it!

Make sure to let them dry completely before hanging on the wall!

My sweet dad found black drywall screws for me so they blended in perfectly and you can’t see them unless you look very closely. It’s now a perfect place to throw the mail, phones, etc. without taking up much space!

Home Improvements: Mirror Re-do

This is a very simple and effective improvement for a basic builder’s mirror! We started by replacing the faucet because it was just a horrible eye-sore. I found it on clearance in the bath aisle for only $19.99 (originally $50). It’s very easy to replace too. Then I found backsplash tile that went with our green/flower theme. I wanted something neutral to allow me to change the colors if I want. I bought two sheets of backsplash, liquid nails glue, and blue painter’s tape all for about $15. I decided the pattern I wanted to follow and place the bottom row across the edge to see what it would look like before gluing (when using liquid nails, once you place it, it’s stuck, so be careful). It fit perfectly and I got really excited!

First thing to do is remove the tile from the backing and place in the order you want.

  

Then glue the liquid nails in the very center (I did a little square pattern). Make sure to stay in the center and you only need a thin layer because it will spread easily and you don’t want it to smear too far. (Picture courtesy of my three-year old daughter – pretty good, huh?)

This is the longest step – start placing the tiles! I started in the bottom right corner and worked my way left, then up and across, and finally back down the right side. In retrospect, I probably should have worked left and up and then gone back to the bottom corner and worked my way up. When I was placing the tiles coming down the right side, they kept sliding down because there were no tiles to hold it up. Plus, you have more room to work with at the top right than at the bottom. See the extra space I had at the top? I had to use the painter’s tape to hold them on the top until it dried. 

It took me about an hour and I love it! It brings the bathroom to life and makes it feel warm and inviting. This is my daughter’s bathroom and she kept saying, “Oh that’s so pretty Mommy.” :-) I’m glad she likes it too!

Black Friday Shopping Adventure

My friend and I got this crazy idea that we were going to go all out on Black Friday and hit every store possible ALL NIGHT! We started at 9 PM by heading over to Walmart and didn’t stop until 11 AM the next morning after Michael’s. We had one break from 5 AM – 7 AM while we waited for the next stores to open. So I managed to sleep for about an hour. When we were done and I got home, I knew my body was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but I didn’t want to miss out on family time, so I managed to stick it out until we got home at 10:30 PM and slept a full 9 hours! This is a picture of just my stuff (not my friends or my mom’s that I picked up for her). We may seem crazy, but let me just say it was one of the best times I’ve had! We laughed A LOT and got to know each other better and met a lot of new people that stood in line with us. :-)

I’m not completely crazy – I did have a detailed list of items I needed at each store and who the gift was for. We had a great system of grabbing items for each other if we saw it first. We have many stories about thinking we missed out on the item, but later found it! My favorite story is from Target. We were unable to find the Mr. Coffee Keurig my friend wanted and eventually gave up and headed to the line. She left her stuff with me and headed to the bathroom while I kept our place in line. While she was gone, a Target employee walked past me with a cart full of random items. Guess what was right on top? Yep – her Keurig! I immediately stopped the lady and asked if those were going on the shelf, when she said yes, I grabbed it up and put it in the cart. I was SO excited to tell her what I found when she came back and she was very excited too!

I ended up with 16 Christmas gifts! Here are my Christmas totals for Black Friday:

Total before sales and coupons = $376.39
Total after sales and coupons = $151.97 (64% savings)

I was able to cross off  7 people! I’m super excited! My new overall totals for Christmas are:

Total before sales and coupons = $942.49
Total after sales and coupons = $299.30

I have $300.70 left in my budget and I think that’s pretty good considering my list is almost done. Today we’ll be decorating for Christmas and then it will be time to start wrapping the presents! :-)

Free Kids Bible Songs CD Download

Bible Truth Music is offering a free cd download of kids’ Bible songs. Each song comes from a specific verse that you can teach your child. The cd includes:

1. John 3:16 - "God So Loved"
   I Sam 12:24 - "Only Fear the Lord"
   Matt 28:6 - "He Is Risen As He Said"
   Prov 3:5-6 - "Trust In the Lord"
   Luke 2:20 - "Glorifying and Praising God"
   Ps 119:105 - "Thy Word Is A Lamp"
   Gen 1:1-2 - "In the Beginning"
   Gal 6:9 - "Let Us Not Be Weary"
   Ps 92:1-2 - "It Is A Good Thing"
   II Tim 3:16-17 - "Inspiration of God"
   Rom 12:1 - "A Living Sacrifice"
   Gal 2:20 - "I Am Crucified With Christ"