Ways to Save on the Web

I recently read a magazine article that listed tons of great web sites that can save you money. I haven't had time to look at all of them yet, but I want to sometime. I decided to post them here in case anyone else could use the info (and then I can recycle the magazine but still have the web sites). I have italicized the sites I have tried and enjoyed:

• annualcreditreport.com (get a free credit report from each of the three main bureaus)
• upromise.com (earn rewards to pay for school)
• mint.com (track and manage your spending, saving, and budgeting for free)
• walletpop.com and getrichslowly.org (practical financial advice)
• lowcards.com, cardfusion.com, and cardratings.com (find low interest rate or better reward credit cards)
• comparisonshop.com (searches comparison shopping sites to help you find best price)
• Yokel.com and shoplocal.com (evaluate prices at brick-and-mortar stores in your area)
• couponcabin.com (coupons)
• retailmenot.com (promotional codes)
• priceprotectr.com (tell you how to get money back if price has fallen on item you recently bought)
• swapagift.com (buy, sell, or exchange gift cards)
• groceryguide.com (weekly specials and coupons for grocery stores near you)
• restaurant.com (discounts at local restaurants)
• kidsmealdeals.com (find local kids-eat-free deals)
• myrecipes.com and allrecipes.com (free recipes)
• theultimates.com (look up phone numbers)
• skype.com (web cam/ web phone)
• billshrink.com (analyze your cell phone usage and hunt for a cheaper plan)
• cellforcash.com (sell your old cell phones)
• techbargains.com and shopper.com (tech deals and coupon codes)
• openoffice.org and docs.google.com (free open source computer programs comprable to Microsoft Office)
• avg.com (free anti-virus software)
• safer-networking.org and lavasoft.com (free anti-spyware protection)
• zonealarm.com (free Internet firewall)
• modernfeed.com and hulu.com (free online TV shows - the same ones you watch on regular TV)
• pandora.com (free streaming music site)
• swaptree.com and swapthing.com (trade or barter for CDs/DVD and other items)
• cars.com, edmunds.com, and cartango.com (compare local prices, get info on rebates and incentives)
• pumpandsave.com (find best cash-back fuel cards)
• gasbuddy.com (find cheapest gas stations in your area)
• Erideshare.com, carpoolworld.com, and goloco.org (find a carpool)
• insurance.com (compare rates and quotes)
• happymedian.com (computes equidistant meeting spots between two locations)
• kayak.com and bookingbuddy.com (searches multiple sites to find best plane fare)
• airfarewatchdog.com (low-fare alerts)
• farecast.com (advice on when to buy tickets)
• hotels.com (htoel deals and bargains)
• Mousesavers.com (deep discounts on family vacations)

S'More Brownies

S'More Brownies

10 graham crackers, broken in half, divided
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
12 tablespoons baking cocoa + 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (or 4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
2 1/2 cups mini-marshmallows
1 cup semi-sweet chunk (or Hershey's special dark chocolate chips)

Heat oven to 350. Line 9X13 pan with foil, grease foil. Place 15 grahams in pan, overlapping slightly. Break remaing grahams into pieces; set aside.

Mix baking cocoa and vegetable oil until smooth. Put in large bowl with butter and microwave on High for 1 minute or until butter is melted. (If using baking squares just melt squares and butter in microwave) Stir until melted. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in flour. Pour over grahams in pan.

Bake 30-32 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. Do not overbake. Sprinkle with marshmallows and chocolate chunks. Bake 3-5 minutes or until marshmallows begin to puff. Press reserved grahams gently into marshmallows. Cool. Use foil to remove brownies from pan before cutting to serve.

-- The original recipe used baking squares. I never have those on had so I used the baking cocoa as a substitue. It works exactly the same and is much cheaper. 1 baking square = 3 tablespoons cocao + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil.

Caramel-Apple Squares

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold margarine

20 caramels, unwrapped

1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (20-oz) can apple pie filling

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in margarine until crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture - press remainder in bottom of 9x13 pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350.

In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt caramel and milk, stirring constantly until smooth. Spoon apple filling over prepared crust; top with caramel mixture, then reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You can warm with ice-cream or cold.

Best Rolls Ever

My mom won the Idaho state fair with this roll recipe. This is the roll recipe of choice in our family.

2 cups milk
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp salt
6 1/2 cups flour

Scald milk, butter, and sugar. Let cool. Mix yeast in warm water. Pour yeast mixture into milk mixture. Make sure the mixture is completely cool, and then add 2 beaten eggs and vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients. Raise for at least 20 minutes (I usually let it rise 1 hour). Knead for 3 minutes. Roll out the rolls and let raise at least 10 minutes (I usually let it rise for another hour). Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Rub butter across the tops right when you take them out of the oven to make them look golden brown.

Lydia's Jello-Salad

Ricky and I never eat jello. However, my family serves this jello salad every year at Thanksgiving and I LOVE it. We decided to make it this year, and I think we'll make it from every year now on too. The topping is so delicious.

1 large pkg lemon or lime jello
20 oz can crushed pineapple (save juice)
12 oz bottle 7-Up
3 cubed bananas
2 cups mini-marshmallows

Dissolve jello in 2 cups boiling water. Add the drained pineapple. Let the mixture sit until it gets syrupy (about 15 minutes). Then add 7-UP, bananas, and marshmallows. Pour into a 9x13-inch casserole dish and let the jello set.

2 beaten eggs
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup pineapple juice
2 cups whipped cream (Cool-whip works great)

Beat eggs. Add flour and sugar. Add hot melted butter. Add pineapple juice (left over from draining your 20 oz can earlier). Boil until thick, stirring constantly. Let cool completely. Add whipped cream and spread over set jello.

Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease

Our poor little Finlay is sporting this face right now? What are these little dots you may ask? Sadly, it's hand-foot-mouth disease; a highly contagious virus common among infants and young children. Here is some information about the virus in case you happen to get it in your family. I found a lot of great information on the CDC's web site (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm). Go there if you want more detailed information.
Basically the virus causes fevers, mild diarrhea, and little bumps/eruptions/rashes all over the body. The most painful eruptions are in the mouth and make it difficult for some children to eat and/or drink. My boys had the bumps all over their chins, knees, elbows, hands, feet, and diaper area. Their bums looked they had been dragged over the pavement. It was scary the first time I saw it. They also had the eruptions in their mouths, but it didn't seem to affect their appetites.

The illness begins with a high fever. Children are usually pretty lethargic during the fever. This is Finlay when he had the fever, but we didn't know he had the virus. This is the point at which children are the most contagious. A few days later the eruptions start to appear. I took the boys to the doctor and she told me there isn't really anything that can be done. The virus just has to run its course. Since it is highly contagious, the main way to deal with the disease and keep it from spreading is to keep the babes at home.

My boys had colds the week before they got sick, so they had already been home bound. I wasn't sure how they got the virus. However, it has a germination period of 3-6 days so they probably had the virus at the same time they had their colds.


Tips on Preventing the virus:
- Just use common sense good hygiene techniques. Wash your hands before and after meals, after using the bathroom or changing diapers, after playing with toys or playground equipment, etc.
- Don't let children give other children kisses during this season. Don't let them share cups or eating utensils with other kids.
- Even if you do everything possible to keep them from getting the virus, they can still get it. Just let it run its course.

Tips of dealing with home bound children who are going stir crazy:
- Read lots and lots of books.
- Dance and sing to as much Christmas music as possible.
- Let them jump on your bed, or inflate an air mattress and let them jump to their hearts content.
- Let them play your keyboard or make homemade drums.
- Check out lots of Elmo, Thomas the Train, and Little Einstein DVDs from the library and let them watch the movies throughout the day. They think this is a treat (at least our boys do who aren't usually allowed to watch more than 15 minutes of TV a day and none on the weekends).
- Have them "help" you make banana bread (I let them put their hands on the measuring cup while I pour the ingredient into the bowl). Don't feed the bread to anyone who doesn't live in your house.
- Let them color.
- Watch birds through the window.
- Let them take every book in the house off every bookcase.
- Let them take lots of baths with lots of bubbles and bath toys.
- Have Dad come home early from school/work to rough-house with them.
- Grin and bear it!

How to Use a Pumpkin

I love fall and the fun and flavors that come with it. I especially love pumpkins. Here are some ways to get the most use out of your pumpkins. First - use them as chairs for your children. My boys loved to sit on their pumpkins while they read books or played. They sat on the pumpkins for weeks before we actually used them
Second - make dinner in a pumpkin. This is a fun Halloween or fall recipe to try.

Dinner in a Pumpkin
1 small to medium pumpkin (we used a large pumpkin and just increased the cooking time)
1 small onion, chopped
1 lb ground turkey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 (4-0z) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 (10 3/4-oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 (8-oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Cut off the top of the pumpkin and throughly clean out seeds and pulp. Save the seeds for later. Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, saute onions in oil until tender. Add meat and brown. Drain fat. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 1o minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into the cleaned pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin on baking sheet. Bake 1 hour or until pumpkin meat is tender. Remove pumpkin lid and serve meal.

Third - roast the seeds. Even the little boys liked to snack on these.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
seeds from 1 pumpkin
1 Tbsp butter per cup of seeds
salt to taste

Wash seeds thoroughly in a colander and put on paper towels to dry. Place them in a skillet with butter and salt. Cook and stir until all seeds are well coated with butter. Bake in a shallow pan for 30-45 minutes in a 250 degree oven.

Fourth - Make pumpkin doughnuts using the cooked pumpkin flesh (puree it first). These doughnuts are easier to make and we think tastier than regular doughnuts.

Pumpkin Doughnuts
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
vegetable oil for frying

Combine the eggs and sugar. Beat until fluffy. Combine the pumpkin, buttermilk, and oil. Beat into the egg mixture. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. When well mixed, refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. The dough will be very soft and wet. Turn the dough onto a WELL-floured sufate, roll to a thickness of 1/2-inch, and cut with a doughnut or cookie cutter into rings. Pour the vegetable oil into a heavy skillet to a depth of about 4 inches. Heat the oil until it reaches 375. Use a candy thermometer. Using a spatula, ease the doughnuts two at a time into the hot oil. When one side is golden and the doughnuts float to the surface, turn with a spatula. When golden on both sides, take the doughnuts out of oil and place on paper towels. Coat with cinnamon and sugar or powdered sugar.


Fifth - puree the rest of the cooked pumpkin and freeze to use later on. We look forward to using the rest of our pumpkin in breads, cookies, and pies!