Swagcode until 1:30 pdt

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Barnes & Noble online clearance sale

Some start as low as .99, 1.99 and up. Can you say Christmas shopping? I have snagged a few for my girls to put away for gifts. If you are member, that shipping is free.

$5/$25 Walgreens coupon for signing up for e-mail

Monday when I was in Wags I was asked if I wanted to sign up for e-mail updates and coupons so I said sure. Today in my e-mail was a newsletter very much like CVS's and with it a coupon for $5 off of a $25 purchase. Make sure to sign up to start receiving these coupons. I use an extra e-mail address that I set up for these types of mailings and for when I sign up for free samples and they request an e-mail.

Easy Asian Noodle Salad

Haven't been shopping much as I have been busy with summer activities with my kiddos but one thing I can't avoid is cooking dinner. I has been so hot here the last couple of days so I always cook my dinner early to avoid heating up the kitchen in the afternoon. Thought I'd share some of our favorite summer dinners. Easy and usually cold salads and such but we tend to eat lighter when it is hot. One thing is I usually add some sort of meat to the salad for my hubby.

I came up with this recipe when I wanted to make a salad with chicken I needed to use up. You can omit or add as you like as I don't cook with garlic but it would be a nice addition to this recipe.
One package of linguine
2 cups cooked chicken diced
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/4 c. chopped cilantro (my salad above is missing the cilantro as my store was out)
1-2 green onions
dash red pepper flakes ( I add these after the kids are served or just to my hubby's)
1-2 cups of sweet peas (I like a lot in mine but you could add less)

now I am guessing on the rest as I usually add to taste:
Soy sauce 1/4 cup
Seasoned Rice wine vinegar 1/2 cup
Sesame Oil 2 TSP
Canola Oil 3-4 TB spoons
Sugar 3-4 TB spoons (or more if you like it sweeter)
mix all together then toss with salad.

Refrigerate until dinner time at least 3-4 hours more preferably.
Serve with sliced cantaloupe and maybe some crunchy bread.
Enjoy

Easy Freezer Cooking

I love the idea of freezer cooking. You prepare all these different meals and then freeze them so you don't have to be in the kitchen cookin every night. Well, like a lot of other things, the the thought of one day in the kitchen cooking for a month is absolutely overwhelming to me. Plus, I only have a small freezer in the house and in the garage so with all the other things I freeze, I would never have enough room. So  I came up with a way for me to make ahead and freeze meals that is so easy. In fact everyone is probably doing this too so I am wasting my typing here but I thought I'd share.

Whenever I cook a meal that is freezable I make at least two and sometimes three meals so I can cook one that night and freeze the others. Tonight it is lasagna.

I just set up an assembly line and make everything twice. As for the recipe I just use the one on the box of noodles.
I boil the noodles and cook the meat so all the dish requires is heating in the oven.
One box of lasagna noodles perfectly makes two pans of lasagna.

After I'm done I just cover with a layer of plastic wrap and then foil and write the date and what it is on the top and send one of the kids out to the garage to pop it in the freezer. I use these dishes on nights we are busy and I know I won't have time to cook.

Any casserole type dish will work well for freezing and soups are great too. If you don't want to put the grated cheese on something you can just grate that and place in a small ziploc and tape to the foil and freeze it along with the dish. It is nice to have dishes made for last minute pot lucks or to give someone that you want to make a dish for. Now it is already in your freezer to just grab and go.

$15 MM from my couch-Neutrogena deal

I just did the Neutrogena deal while sipping coffee and sitting on my couch.
First I went to Walmart.com and purchased the Neutrogena Clinical Eye Lift Contouring Treatment.  They have a $15 e-gift card promo plus free shipping right now so in the end all I have to pay for is the  sales tax. I will submit for the Neutrogena rebate http://www.neutrogenaclinical.com/tryitfree for the full price and minus 2.04 I will have a pro fit of $12.96. Not bad from my couch in my PJs.

Good Old Jello Poke Cake

Made a jello poke cake for Memorial Day and again at the request of my daughter, for her birthday. My kids love it. I hadn't had one in years and was looking for a different dessert for our BBQ. This is such an easy recipe and perfect summer-time cake.

All you have to do is bake a cake as usual and let cool. You can do a sheet cake or two rounds like I did. Once cooled, poke holes all over the cake and dissolve one 3oz. box of jello into 2 cups of boiling water and pour over the cake. Refrigerate at least three hours and place the bottom of the cake pan in warm water before you flip the cake out of the pan. Then frost with whipped cream. I used real whipping cream but you could use Cool Whip if you would prefer. I put sliced strawberries between the layers and garnished with berries on top.

Sunday Favorites

Organizing the Spice Cabinet

A few weeks back I was feeling a little overwhelmed with chasing those deals so I took a week off and spent some time reorganizing a few things. This was a much needed spruce up of my spice cabinet. All those little bottles were always falling all over and spilling so I decided to purge some of the really old stuff and contain all the rest in white plastic bins. I picked up the bins at the 99cents store and got out my label maker which I love to find reasons to use and went to work scrubbing and organizing. I am happy with how it came out and it is working fine so far. Let me know what you think.

Hey I made some money with surveys!

I can't believe it but I actually made $28 in June doing surveys. I wasn't sure if I would actually ever receive my money but I did. I recently joined Pinecone Research and was so surprised to receive my $3 check within days. Now that is fast. The other $25 came from Surveyhead. They take a little longer to pay but it was deposited right into my account using Paypal. While watching TV in the evenings I usually try to do one survey a night. This is all extra money to go into our vacation fund.