Olive Garden Recipes

I am absolutely amazed!  Olive Garden shares over 100 of its recipes on their website!!!

What would you try to create today? 

 I love to attempt copycat recipes to save the money instead of going out and while some are successful, some aren't even close.  But these are not copycats, they are from Olive Garden on their website. 

Chicken Gnocchi Veronese

I think this one is going on next weeks Menu!!

There are 13 appetizers like this

Bruschetta Cannelini

 

36 Main Dishes

 

 



Venetian Apricot Chicken



6 Sauces including....

 

Sambucca Chocolate Fudge Sauce



and Pizzas, Desserts, Vegetables, Soups, Side Dishes and Beverages

Go check them out and tell me what your favorite is!




Saving Money on Jewelry!!!

I went to a jewelry party at a friends house earlier this year and ended up making that obligatory purchase of this necklace for $68.00!!!  Wow, what was I thinking, so I went home kicking myself for stupid spending!!!

So the next thing I did was go to Michaels and get a kit to make my own Jewelry. For less than $10 after the forty percent off coupon, the kit made two necklaces, two bracelets and two pairs of earrings. The best bargain by far, but very time consuming to make!

My latest Solution?!?

These awesome designs from JGOOD.  Everything they sell is 70% off of retail price, ALL THE TIME!

JGOOD: Quality at Incredible Value…join today!

Get the hottest jewelry styles for spring at JGOOD

As a very special offer for all my readers, JGOOD is offering an additional 10% off their already reduced prices!  All you have to do is enter coupon code MYFRUGALFAMILY at checkout!

I have been so blessed!!

I  told y'all how I got laid off last week.  Well 1 week to the day from my layoff I was offered a new job.  A few less hours, but still will be able to make our budget.  And I am blessed to have AWESOME Coworkers... They gave me some of their call for the week and I will end up starting the new job on Monday without a loss of income at all!!!!  To top it off, I got three other leads this week and two want to interview me.  I cannot believe what LUCK I have had!!!

So in honor of my good luck and blessings, I am gonna share some more St Patricks Day finds.

                                         This cute Leprechaun Hat from BHG.com

This fun mobile that is easy enough for the kids to make!

A fun little Leprechaun Hunt for the Kids!

Some Cute Cupcake Wrappers

And My Wishes to all my friends and followers!

A Frugal Lunch and some Angry Bird Mommy School!!

Since I am staying home, I have re instituted more Mommy School with Lil Princess.  She loves this quality time and has a ravenous thirst for learning.  I am always on the lookout for free printable lesson plans that I can do with her!  So today I had an interview this morning, did a little shop kicking on the way home ( because it was Black Friday 2- made $10 just on the way home from the interview) and then picked her up from Mema's and came home and made lunch.  Since nothing was planned, I had to think outside the box!

I took:

 a frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 package of chicken ramen noodles

1/4 c of frozen veggies

a little extra chicken bouillon powder

3 cups of water

Boil the chicken breast in the water, remove about half way through fully cooked.  Set aside.  Put the ramen noodles and veggies in the boiling water along with the bouillon and seasoning packet.  While that is boiling, slice the chicken breast into desired pieces.  Add back into the pot, continue boiling until the chicken is done and veggies are to the desired tenderness.  Lil Princess loved this, she is addicted to chicken noodle soup anyway, so this was right up her alley.  It fed me, Lil Princess and the pictured bowl left over for DS after school, for about $1.13.  It was a little salty for my taste, so do not add extra seasoning without trying first.

Angry Bird Mommy School

Carisa over at 1+1+1=1 has the most awesome sets of toddler through middle school age printables and lessons, I have found anywhere.  She also keeps a lot of ideas stored on Pinterest.  Go over and check her out, while you are there, follow me as well.

For the Angry Birds, I used this printable pack as well as a few others that I have found on Pinterest.

This lesson plan is designed for a week, but we usually finish them in a day or two and repeat for another day or two, along with additional activities I can find!

This is a packet designed I believe for PreK and Kindergarten age.  This is Lil Princess working on her money identification and values.  Prior to this week she called everything pennies or quarters and now she can tell you what each coin is worth, can pick it out of a pile and separate into values.  Now we are working on additional info such as how many pennies makes a nickel, etc.

There is also fractions and basic reading in this pack! 

Stop by and give Carisa some love and check out her great stuff!

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Personalized Products at 50% Off!

This is your last Chance to get 50% off on great personalized products for your business...




Just $25 for $50.00 worth of free products. 

I think these are really cool, I have never seen a flash drive in a wristband before.  Great even for your kids that lose their jump drives.  You could personalize it with their name!

Looking for an AWESOME deal on Boots???

It is coming up on Winter in Australia, so that means that their new winter boots are just coming out!!!
This is a fantastic deal to get $100 Boots for just 26.00.  Even the best clearance sales around here aren't running that low!!



Just check out the link and buy your promo code before they are all gone.  In just the time it took me to type this, 32 have sold!  Don't Miss Out!

FREE Pain Relief!!!

First, I just want to say a quick thank you for all the well wishes.  I am having a little signs of promise for quickly finding a new job.  I even got a call back today for an interview ( on a holiday!)  So keep the prayers coming they are working!

On to the free pain relief...

I have not been couponing too much lately, but there some deals that are just to good to pass up!

This week at Walgreens, they have Tylenol Precise Pain Relief (cream and pads) on sale for $5. 

This past Sunday there was a coupon in the Red Plum insert for $5 off one.  That makes it FREE without the hassles of Register Rewards to deal with.  I love the pads for my lower back when I have had a rough day, they ease it right up so I can sleep easily at night.  And you can't beat the price, these normally run between $8-10.  So that is a savings worth shouting about.

Didn't get a Sunday Paper?  You can still get a great deal on these with the $2 Printable Coupon.

Thinking ahead for great gifts for a Mother or Daughter or....

I was cruising the internet and came across this awesome deal on Social Spark. 

You can create your own recipe book!  Save cherished family recipes in a beautiful color cookbook. 

What about all the recipes that you have posted to your blog, a wedding gift, there are so many great ideas this could be used for.

Here is what the website says!

02.28.12  Deal Expires

About Family CookBook Project

It’s easy, fun and affordable to create and print your own family cookbook. Family cookbooks are an important way to preserve our mealtime traditions for future generations. With the passing of our loved ones comes the loss of treasured food traditions. Once the recipes are preserved online, they can be shared with other family members by email, individual printed recipes or your own professionally printed cookbook.

highlights

• Create a full color family cookbook – it’s easy and fun!
• Invite family and friends to enter recipes and stories (you don’t have to do all the work!)
• It’s a family heirloom that will be treasured for generations
• Great for family reunions, wedding gifts and groups
• Works great on PCs, Macs and iPads
• Choose recipe layouts, covers, dividers and more (1000s of combinations)
• Upload your own photos for recipes, covers & dividers, too
• Print to your PC, a local printer like Kinko’s or have our professional team print for you
• Have a Kindle or iPad? You can put your cookbook on that, too!

---

the fine print

Promo Codes Expire 6 Months after Purchase
1 Promo code can be used per Family Cookbook account


Just thought of another cool idea, what about a great gift for a nursery school or kindergarten teacher, take all the recipes for the cool playdoughs, gaks, foams, etc that are floating around the web and pinterest.  Put them in a gorgeous color book and present it to them!  The possibilities are endless!

Hurry, this offer expires in just 16 days, to get the promo code...You will have 6 months after purchase to create your cookbook, so you could even get a headstart on Christmas!

I did it!!! I made a Captains Bed!!!

Wow, what a day we have had...

I was given the day off work because it was slow, so I decided to make a bed that I have been planning since we moved to Nevada.  It all started with this plan from Ana-white.com.  If you have never checked out her site, go see it.  It is awesome!!!  This was what I wanted to build when we moved here.

But, DH and I decided to get a new mattress and gave our queen size memory foam to our son, so my plans got put on hold.  Well now he is in love with the memory foam and wanted me to cut the mattress to make the above bed or buy at least one memory foam for his new bed when I made it. 

He was not really wanting to downsize back to a twin even though he loved the plan and the idea of the two beds. So while I was out shopping the other day I saw this...

It has a double size bed in it and I said wow that would work, still giving us the under bed storage and shelves that I was wanting.  BUT, they only make it in twin or double. :(  So I go home and look online for plans...nothing!  So we sat down and brainstormed.  This is what we came up with.

Yup, that is our entire plan!  We very luckily made no cutting errors and even had extra wood to return.  Yes, we had to make some adjustments to what we were thinking would work as we went, but I think we had an EXTREMELY successful day.  By the time we drew up our plans and got moving this morning, and got back from Home Depot it was after 1.  We finished at 8 so 7 hours.  Not bad for people who have never built anything before.

I was too busy to take pictures, sorry!  But this is after we had painted and were getting ready to carry it up to the bedroom to finish.  DH is using the hairdryer to try and get the paint dry enough to not bleed onto my beige carpets. 

So we carried it up and put the finishing touches on it and DS is sleeping in it tonight.  We didn't get the headboard made, didn't plan on it for today.  We will get that made soon. The bed that was being sold at the store was priced at $799 for a double.  This queen one has cost us $155 today, $60 for the drawers ( had bought before when planning on making the other plan) and still have the cost of the headboard, but I can't see it going over $300.  So at least a $500 savings and some wonderful memories of building something for my child, with my husband!

Thanks for stopping by...Back to the Valentine's decorating now!

Sorry for the picture quality, there is a LOT of dust floating around here!

Cheap Valentine's Gift for Loved Ones

When I was at Michael’s, I found these cute heart frames for $1.  I love inexpensive projects like these, because I can let the kids go to town and do it all by themselves and if it doesn’t turn out, I am not out a fortune. 

So I let 4 year old Lil Princess loose with a Sample size Glidden Paint, with the brush in the lid (for more about this check out her painting here. 

When that was dry I took the Cricut and cut out the letters for Be My Valentine.  After I had adhered them to the board, I gave it a shot of Red Glitter paint and it was all done. 

Now to make it a gift, I photographed Lil Princess holding the heart from this project .  We are still trying to get the size right and whether I want it in Sepia, Black and White or Color, but, I threw this one in to show you! 

Hope you like it, Lil Princess is a regular assembly line, she has painted two already so we could get them ready to mail back to the east coast.  I had to physically force her to stop, so we can do the next two this weekend.  I think she loves to paint.  After she had finished these two, was when she tried to paint the hearts for the wall art and those broke her of her desire to paint anymore today…LOL!  Almost ready to see it all together???  Make sure you come back this weekend!!

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Thrift Shop Upcycled Valentine's Day Vase

I went looking for Valentine's Day inspiration in our local Savers. I like to find other peoples cast offs and create something beautiful and uniquely my own. Since I have been playing with my new friend Cricut, we worked together on this cute vase.

I started by washing this clear glass vase. Cut out the letters l-o-v-e and then, yup you guessed it, gave them a shot of my other favorite, red glitter spray! I placed the letters an little catywhompus (sp? Or even a real word?), because that is how I was feeling! Still a little plain so I cut some hearts out of the pink glitter tape left over from my poster board. Simple 15 minutes =beautiful valentines decoration.

Once again, this will be part of my Valentine's Decorating Reveal this Weekend!  So come on back! 1.