Merry Christmas to all my wonderful readers! I hope each and every one of you have a fantastic day! Here in Georgia, it’s pouring down rain, but I’ve had a great day so far. Opened presents with the kids, went to church, lunch with my husband during his break, and now back at home to let the kids play. I plan on taking the rest of the day off, but my assistant may post a little. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my blog and Merry Christmas!
Tasty Tuesday: Make Muddy Buddy Mix!
One of my favorite things to make when it starts to get cold is Muddy Buddy Mix! If you haven’t tried it, you’ll want to give it a whirl! It’s easy to do and you may already have the ingredients on hand.
Ingredients:
9 cups Chex Cereal
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Add the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter together in a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 1 minute, stir, and again for 30 seconds. Stir. Add in the vanilla and stir again!
Pour over your chex cereal and gently stir to coat.
Put a lid on the bowl and hand it to a kid to shake until their little heart is content!
Then enjoy! Make sure you store it in the fridge. Give it a good shake every 30 minutes or so while it chills to make sure the pieces don’t clump together. Although it’s so yummy, it may not make it to the fridge!
What’s your favorite thing to do with Chex?
Ebates Explained – Sign Up And Earn Cashback On Online Purchases
This is a re-post, but with the holiday shopping in full swing, anyone who shops online will love to save even more with Ebates cashback!
I’ve received emails lately asking about Ebates and how to earn money back for shopping, so I figured a post about Ebates was in order.
First, go HERE to sign up for Ebates. You’ll earn a $5 credit just for signing up!
The next time you want to shop online, login to your Ebates account. For example, if I want to place an order for Christmas cards at the Kodak Gallery website, I just login to my Ebates account. In the search field at the top, I would type in Kodak Gallery. I find the right website and click SHOP NOW. It then takes me to the Kodak Gallery website. You’ll see a “tracking ticket” screen pop up before you go to the other website.
Now that I’m at the Kodak Gallery website, I go through and place my order as normal. Within a few days, I’ll get an email from Ebates telling me how much cashback I’ll be receiveing into my account. Kodak Gallery gives you 15% cashback right now, so if I made a $100 purchase, I’ll get $15 put into my Ebates account.
The money sits in your Ebates account and every quarter you’ll get a “Big Fat Check” or a paypal payment of your accumulated amount.
The key to Ebates is to remember to sign into Ebates before you checkout at other sites, so you get your cashback. There are TONS of sites that offer cashback through Ebates, so I’m sure if you shop online, you’ll find a site that you can get cashback on. Some of the sites are Walmart.com, Target.com, Sears.com, Gap.com, Vistaprint.com, Ebay.com, and many MANY others.
If you have any more questions, please let me know and I’ll answer them as best as I can. You won’t regret signing up, you’ll just wish you had signed up earlier!
Review: VTech Innotab
VTech’s Innotab is supposed to be one of the HOT items of the year. Already, they are starting to sell out online. I was recently asked to review this product for you all. I had my kiddos put it to the test and they all really like it. My 8 year old is impressed with the calendar feature. You can add your birthdays to the calendar and decorate it to remind your kids of important events.
The Innotab come pre-loaded with several apps including an interactive, animated e-book, motion games, creative activities, music player, photo viewer, video player and more. This tablet comes geared toward children age 4-9. My 2 year old absolutely LOVED it though, but then again, it was pink 😉 You can also choose a blue tablet for the boys. There are lots of games that you can purchase to add to the tablet and some that you can download as well.
The tablet comes with a stylus that slides in the tablet for storage. This concerned me a little since children are likely to lose things. I would have been a little happier if it was attached somehow. The other thing I didn’t like is that it seemed big for little hands.
Other than those 2 things, it was pretty good. My kids all loved it.
If you’re interested in finding out more, check the Vtech website or watch this short video on youtube. The Tablet sells for $79 on Amazon.
Disclaimer: I received the VTech Innotab with hopes that I would try it out with my children and provide a review. All opinions are my own.
What’s Up With Me?
I got a couple emails today wondering about Meal Plan Monday and other normal blog posts. And why the heck am I so behind? The answer? I’m losing my mind! Okay, not quite, but we’re preparing for a cross country road trip, leaving at 3am Friday morning! I’ve been scrambling to pack for 6 people, make sure we’ve got our house and pet sitter ready with instructions, moving everything back in from storage (house didn’t sell, so staying put right now), and everything else.
So the answer? There is no meal plan! Eating leftovers, stuff from our bountiful basket, and anything else that may go bad while we’re gone. Although, I suppose I could leave some of that for our house sitter….
Anyways, we’re gearing up to spend 2 days in Hershey and Lancaster, PA. Then on to Buffalo New York! Any readers out that way?
Never fear though, I have a great assistant who is going to be doing some blogging for me and I’ll try to blog some as well when I’m not trapped in the van with 4 kids and a hubby. Pray for my sanity on our adventure… and that I don’t freeze going from the warmth of the south (70s here today!) to the north. I shiver just thinking about it. I will be back in a week or 2 to defrost and then we’ll be back to business as usual. Or not so usual since it will be crazy until after Christmas. Nevertheless, I shall return!
Let Swagbucks Pay For Your Holidays!
Swagbucks has a new promotion! If you complete a wish list, you’ll be entered to win $2,500 in Amazon giftcards!
Here’s how to enter:
LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet and Tag System Review!
This morning I hosted a toy testing party with a few friends and their children. We received a LeapFrog Tag Reading System, books, and map to try out along with the new Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet.
LeapFrog Tag Reading System:
First off, I was very impressed with this product. I had seen the Tag Reading System before but had never played with it. It was very easy for the kids to use and they all were really surprised that it could read the books to them and also the maps. I was super excited about the map and think it will come in handy with our homeschool lessons. It was a hit with all of the kids and the moms as well. I love LeapFrog products since I know my kids are learning when they are using them. I plan to use the LeapFrog Tag Reading System frequently with my almost 5 year old as he starts learning to read.
LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet
The LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet was by far a HUGE hit with the kids. Think of it as an iPad for kids! The setup is great, having the games loaded on the tablet so that you can select which game/application to play. It has a built in camera to take photos and record video. The kids had a blast with that along with editing the photos and making silly pictures. The LeapPad allows kids to take more than 30,000 photos or shoot 120 minutes of video! Not only was the Learning Tablet extremely fun for the kids, with so many endless possibilities, it was also educational. When you sign onto the LeapPad, you select your child’s grade and then it will adjust the games to be more on your child’s level. The LeapPad is geared toward age 4-9, but I think out of all the kids at the party, my friend’s 3 year old had the most fun with it. Every single one of the kids that left the party were asking for their own LeapPad Learning Tablet, so I’m pretty sure this is going to be one of the hot ticket items this Christmas.
What great products these were and we had such a blast trying them out. I would definitely recommend both as you start trying to figure out what Christmas presents to get this upcoming holiday season. I know I will be getting a few to give as gifts!
Disclaimer: I received these products in exchange for my unbiased review.
Tasty Tuesday: Make An Apple Ring Cake!
Yes, I know it’s not really Tuesday. However, I was really sick on Tuesday and whenever I’m sick, it seems like that day is just erased from memory. So for my sake, let’s pretend it’s Tuesday. For Tasty Tuesday this week, we’re going to make an Apple Ring Cake! We went to the apple orchard this past weekend and had a blast picking fresh apples from the trees.
Some apples were too high up so we had to use double the effort….
Even the baby thought they were great to gnaw on….
Nevertheless, we left there with an enormous bag of apples. It was fun to pick, but now what should I do with all of these apples?
I dug up my recipe books and nothing sounded perfect. Then I remembered a recipe that a friend of mine had sent me a while back. Of course, I had to do my own tweaking to the recipe, so here goes:
Ingredients:
- 5 Apples
- 3 Sticks Butter
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- 2 Large Eggs
- 2/3 Cup Sour Cream
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Melt 2 sticks of butter in a 9 inch cast iron skillet over medium heat.
While it’s melting, whip out your apple corer/slicer/peeler. Core, slice, and peel your apples.
Once the butter is melted, stir in 3/4 cup sugar to the pan and stir. Place rings of 4 apples into the sugary butter, overlaying as necessary. Save 1 peeled/cored/sliced apple for later.
Let the apple rings cook while you make the cake.
Mix 1 stick of softened butter, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla together with a hand mixer. Add in the 2 eggs and sour cream. When it’s well mixed, add in your flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix well until dough is formed. Chop the remaining apple into small pieces and add to the mixture.
When your apples are nice and tender in the pan, remove from heat and gently cover them with your dough mixture. Place your cast iron skillet right into the oven.
Bake for 25 minutes or until cake is golden brown.
Allow the cake to cool for 5-10 minutes and then flip it over onto a sheet pan or other solid dish. Best served with homemade ice cream 🙂
Sorry for the bad pic – I messed it up a little when I flipped it. This cake was so good it didn’t even last 24 hours in our house. Hubby is already demanding another! The kids loved it and I can’t wait to make it again.
Saving For Christmas, One Survey At A Time!
Last year, we paid for our entire Christmas by using money earned online from survey sites. I’m sure you’ve all seen the different ads where you can earn money by doing online surveys. I was always very skeptical, but on a recommendation from a good friend, I got started.
Using surveys, you won’t “get rich quick”, but it will be a nice extra that builds slowly over time. I do the surveys that I’m sent and then slowly, bit by bit, it ads up over the year into something that I can cash out for a great Christmas present. Maybe of the survey sites allow you to redeem for Amazon giftcards, Paypal, Check, or other various giftcards. I’m going to highlight a few of my favorite survey sites below.
Already, I have over $100 in our Christmas fund from just Opinion Outpost. Opinion Outpost pays cash for surveys that you complete. The money adds up quickly and painlessly! I can usually do the surveys during naptime or in the evening after I’ve put the kids to bed. Some of the surveys even ask for my kids input! There are many as well that offer in home product testing and that is always a blast! We’ve tested things from baby wipes and diapers, to food products, toothpaste, dog treats, and more!
Here are some survey sites that I recommend joining. You don’t have to join all of them, but the more you join, the more surveys you receive and the more cash adds up!
I am also huge on Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a fantastic program. You earn swagbucks from searches that you do using Swagbucks as a search engine. I’ve earned countless Amazon giftcards, iTunes Giftcards, Starbucks Giftcards, and more, with little effort! Then, I wait until Amazon has something fantastic on sale. You can earn more swagbucks, too, by referring your friends. When you refer someone, each swagbuck that they earn, you also earn, so your points will accumulate very fast!
When you save all year on your survey sites, buy giftcards with your swagbucks, and wait for great sales, you’ll find yourself being able to afford a lot more than you thought was possible. There’s still several months, so start today and see if you can afford a great Christmas without paying anything!
Tasty Tuesday: Freezer Biscuits!
I love making homemade biscuits, however with as busy as I am, I don’t have time to make fresh biscuits every morning. To solve this problem, I’ll make a big batch of biscuits, freeze them, and then pull out what I need. It helps prevent waste and overeating as well by just pulling out the number I need. Here’s how to make your own freezer biscuits:
First, gather the following ingredients:
- 5 cups self rising flour
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 1 cup butter or shortening
- 1 3/4 cup buttermilk or milk
Add everything into the bowl and stir well until the dough has formed. If it seems too sticky, add in a little extra flour as needed.
Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch and use a cup or a cookie cutter to form the biscuits.
Place the biscuits on a pan. It’s okay to have them super close together since they will not be rising. If you have more than one layer, be sure and place wax paper in between the layers so they do not stick together.
Immediately put the biscuits into the freezer, making sure that they stay flat.
After a few hours when they are frozen, remove them from the pan and place in a freezer safe bag and return the bag of biscuits to the freezer.
Pull biscuits from bag as needed and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top. Yum! Give it a try and see what you think!