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Family Photo Project

Plans, plans, plans.  Who doesn't make plans?  I tend to make too many.  Like today for instance: I had a whole list of plans and guess what happened?  One item on the list ended up taking a lot more time than expected?  That mystery task, what was it you ask? It was that adorable family photo project I started.  Oh sure, it sounds adorable.  That is until you end up sitting on the ground sorting photos for over 4 hours, only to have finished 1 photo box.  Yes, you read right.  It took over 4 hours to sort through one photo box.  I may need to amp up my schedule if I plan to finish this in a year.  All of you know that I have many more boxes to sort through.  Some of them aren't even photo-box-sized, they're huge!  Anyway, that's enough of my rant.  So here a couple of pictures that demonstrate my progress.

The first family photo box
sorted.

  

Who doesn't love floral?

 

All of the duplicate photos in the box.

Sidenote: I spent all of this time between the years 1985-2002, the majority were in 1994-1997.  It's funny to look back on old fashion trends, I especially love the huge hair in the '80s, as well as the huge shirts and leggings in the '90s; but my favorite were scrunchies.  However, sometimes fashion can haunt you when you look back on old photos.  For example:  I think I saw one too many pictures of my father wearing '80s short shorts today.  Some fashions should just be buried and forgotten.

The mystery dish was: mashed purple cauliflower!
From: my local CSA 

Praise for Biscotti: The Twice-Baked Cookie

Chocolate biscotti.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't like biscotti.  How could you not?  It's just a cookie that's extra crispy and meant for dipping.  So, why don't more people make them?  I'm sure everyone reading this has made chocolate cookies at some point.  Why not chocolate chip biscotti?  You see these fancy looking biscotti at Starbucks or your local coffee shop and sometimes can't resist buying one.  But, the prices on biscotti at these stores are crazy!  I make biscotti from most of the same basic ingredients you need for cookies.  The only difference between biscotti and a regular old cookie?  Biscotti have to bake for much, much longer.  If you're having a nice long day at home, why not mix up a batch and pop it in the oven?  It's really only a short preparation time and a long waiting period in which your house smells heavenly.

Vanilla biscotti.

I have two favorite biscotti recipes.  One takes around 40 minutes of total baking time for chocolate biscotti with chocolate chips.  I picked up this recipe from searching through cookbooks at a friend's house.  My other favorite is a vanilla biscotti.  This recipe takes around 1 1/2 hours of total baking time.  I found this one in the Pure Vanilla cookbook by: Shauna Sever, where I also found my coffee creamer recipe.

So, the

next time you think about making cookies, choose biscotti instead!

The Perfect Strawberry Smoothie

I know, I know.  The title seems pretty dramatic: The Perfect Strawberry Smoothie.  You may ask yourself, how could she possibly know how to make the perfect strawberry smoothie?  Well, let me tell you.  I've been making smoothies on a regular basis for around 3 years now.  Of all the smoothies I've made (apple cinnamon, blueberry, pumpkin pie, etc.) strawberry is by far my favorite.  I've looked at many recipes on Pinterest with varying ingredient amounts and I've been playing around with the ratios of different ingredients ever since.  I usually just eyeball the amount I put in the smoothie, but today I measured it out so that everyone can enjoy the perfect fluffy strawberry smoothie that I've discovered.

The Perfect Strawberry Smoothie

makes ~3 servings

You'll need:
2 cups frozen strawberries
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 Tbsp. plain yogurt
1 Tbsp. huckleberry honey

These are the ingredients I use.

The Perfect Strawberry Smoothie.

Get out a food processor or high power blender.  Put all of the ingredients in, in the order they are listed.  (It's important to put the honey in last, if you don't it will stick to the bottom of the processor and not mix in.)  Cover the processor (if your lid doesn't seal tightly I highly suggest covering it with a small towel as the milk is sure to spray everywhere).  Blend on high for 1 minute.  You'll want to do the full minute so that it blends some air in and gives it that extra fluffiness.  Pour into a glass and enjoy immediately.

I usually make too much of this recipe, since only Ethan and I are around to have some, that leaves 1 extra serving.  I store mine in a jar in the fridge; it'll be good for 2-3 days.  Make sure you shake it up before you drink it though because the fruit juices tend to separate out into a bottom layer.

Note: If you like denser smoothies then use less milk; if you like liquid-ier smoothies then use more milk.  Just figure out what ratio is your favorite.

Who can guess what this is?

Couponing at King Soopers

Today is a glimpse into my weekly shopping at King Soopers. I love this store because of the sales they have such as 'Buy 5 Save $5' or 'Buy 6 Save $3.' King Soopers (and all other Kroger affiliates) have sales like this frequently and they always last for two weeks starting on a Wednesday. The sale consists of buying 5 or 6 (depending on the sale) participating items, mixing and matching however you wish, and saving $5 or $3 (depending on the sale) on these items instantly at checkout.  Combine this with a coupon (and a cashback app!) and just think of the possibilities...This is the best place for me to stock up on food deals. Another great thing about King Soopers is the 'manager's discount' you can find marked on several items throughout the store. Most of these locations have a clearance section that is full of these items. However, sometimes you can also find shopping carts of these items throughout the store. These clearance items can also be found on the shelves where they're normally stocked with these lovely little 'manager's discount' stickers. You will particularly find them in their normal spots if it's a cold food item that needs to remain frozen or refrigerated.

Clearance Bakery Items.

Clearance Floral Items.

Freebie with coupon and cashback app (Shopmium).

These are a few items I picked up on my weekly trip to King Soopers.  YMMV is something people in the coupon world use a lot.  It means: Your Miles May Vary.  This is very true.  At the King Soopers where I live you can find many bakery items on clearance as well as floral items.  However, at the Kroger back where I used to live in Ohio this was not the case.  Occasionally I found some  bakery items on clearance there; although, they almost never had any nice floral items on clearance.  However, there was almost always a great selection of makeup on clearance at that location.  This is not the case where I live in Colorado.  Now start searching for those stickers and keep an eye out for the next Buy 5 Save $5 sale!  Also, if you're interested in more extensive lists of Kroger (and affiliates) deals check out this blog: this woman does all Kroger deals all the time.

Family Photo Project

Today's post is about a project I have in the works.  I'm sure every one of you has multiple family photo albums and scrapbooks around your home.  Well, I happen to have 47.  That wasn't a typo, I really do have forty-seven photo albums, scrapbooks, and memory books in my home.  My grandmother was a huge packrat when it came to photographs, and she always had them printed in triplicate.  So, between my parents albums and hers I have accumulated 47.  I don't know if any of you have ever done this or your parents did.  But, my grandmother and mother had a tendency to not finish filling in the scrapbooks or photo albums once they started.  So, many of the ones I have are only halfway full or less.  I also accumulated 9 photo boxes full of pictures as well as 3 large moving boxes full of guess what?  Yes, more photographs.  Going through my loved one's belongings and finding all of these keepsakes made me come up with an idea.  I call it my 'Family Photo Project.'   I'm attempting to weed out the extra copies of all photos as well as finish the unfinished albums (or add them to other albums) and keep it all in chronological order.  The only way to fully illustrate this undertaking is for you to see it.  So, here are some photos to illustrate the largeness of this project.  You can't tell just by looking, but so far what I've done is organize the photo albums and scrapbooks in chronological order.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me.  I have a one year timeline to finish this project, I'll be posting updates every so often...Once I make visible progress that is.

Walgreens Couponing

Here is a continuation on extreme couponing.  Since moving to Colorado, I haven't been going on as many coupon trips.  However, this week I got a few things from Walgreens.  Walgreens is a great place for couponing because of their store rewards program.  Unfortunately, they have one of the slightly more complicated programs.  There are two types of money back rewards that you can get with your purchases.  First there are points that are basically stored on your account (just bring your Walgreens card or use your phone number to access in store) that you can use on a future purchase.  They have long expiration dates usually.  The other one is called 'register rewards.'  These print out like coupons when you buy the products that are part of the deal.  These do not last as long as the points.  They last between 1-2 weeks usually.  But, if you coupon every week then they're handy to have.  Also, you can't use more coupons than items you are buying.  For example: you can't use 1 register reward and 1 manufacturer coupon on one item.  You have to buy at least two items to do that.  See how it can get a little complicated?  Once you go on a few trips there, you'll get the hang of it though.  Something else I love about Walgreens is that they frequently have deals on printing 4 x 6 photos.  I like to scrapbook and make photo albums, so this is perfect for me.  And it's a good way to use up those extra points you have on your account!  This is by no means a complete explanation of the coupon policy at Walgreens, check out the website for more information on that.  Or, better yet just ask an employee that works at your local Walgreens. Here is a link to their points program.

Clearance, coupon, and register rewards deals.