Author: Abby H.

Family Recipe: Easy Chicken Parm Meatloaf!

Abby H.

046I found a cache of yummy, frugal family recipes, so I’ll be posting them over the next few weeks.

Most of these were formulated by my relatives to feed a hungry, hard-working family with kids. Everyone in my family is frugal, so these recipes won’t contain any expensive or strange ingredients in small quantities- There is nothing worse than trying a new recipe only to find you only need 2 Tablespoons of an ingredient that you’ve never used before, or worse yet, only comes in a HUGE container/package.

I will try to include the sides that we’ve traditionally served with the main dish to round out the meal.

Chicken Parm Meatloaf (serves 6)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use Italian seasoned)
  • 1 tablespoons Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 3 Tablespoons onions, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup fresh white mushrooms, stems removed, cleaned and chopped into bite-size pieces
  • 1 t. Salt and pepper (each)
  • 1/2 c. Your favorite red pasta sauce

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Grease a loaf pan
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except for pasta sauce.  Mix well until all ingredients are well combined and mixture resembles a meaty paste (about 3-5 minutes of mixing)
  4. Pour into a greased loaf pan, shape into a tidy loaf.
  5. Pour pasta sauce over the top of the loaf.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until meat is cooked through. If you are using a meat thermometer, it should read 165 Degrees. I use this one.

I serve this dish with a green salad and Riced Caulifower with Italian Cheese.

 

8/30/19- Weekly Freebies and Deals!

Abby H.

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This week there are some good ones!

Samples

 

Events/In-Store

Magazines

Deals

 

Be a Taste Tester for Jack in the Box!

Abby H.

DSC00593.jpgIf you live in the San Diego, CA area and like to eat and earn money, this is an awesome way to earn a little extra scratch.

I’ve been doing it for 10+ years, as have several of my friends and family members.

And I know they are recruiting because a friend got a sticker on his Jumbo Jack last week with a link to a taste tester sign up.

Visit the website here and sign up. Please don’t comment or email me to sign up- I don’t work for Jack in the Box, I am just passing on a great opportunity.

Cents of Style: The Perfect Boyfriend Tee- $7.95 & FREE SHIPPING

Abby H.

Now this is a sale I can get behind!

I love Cents of Style, they have great sales, but this sale is the best one I’ve seen in a while.

Jagger Boyfriend Tee Promo- ONLY $7.95 Shipped w/code JAGGER Through 9/8/19, you can save $17 on the Jagger Boyfriend Tees. These super soft tees come in 24 COLORS! WHAT?? Crazy, right? Favorite TopsBut wait, they come in sizes s-3xl, so there is a shirt for almost everyone out there!

I can’t wait for mine to come in the mail! What color(s) are you ordering?

Boyfriend Tee

 

 

Gazelle: Lock-in Your Trade-In Price Before the New iPhone Arrives

Abby H.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.


Right now, Gazelle has a great deal going on…Check Out Gazelle‘s Secret Discounts for an EXTRA 10% Off Select Devices with code SECRET10

And if you are looking to upgrade or sell your phone…

With the anticipation around the new iPhone launch in early September, now is the time to trade-in their old phone at Gazelle. Offer values decline quickly when new phones are released. You can say goodbye to your old phones and lock-in their trade-in offer before it’s too late. Between September 3rd and September 17th with Gazelle‘s offer lock feature, customers can lock-in a great trade-in price and they don’t have to send their phone to Gazelle until October 18th allowing enough time for them to receive their new phones first.  Pretty cool, right??

The process is simple:

  1. Get a free trade-in quote: Go to Gazelle.com, find the gadget you want to sell and answer a few easy questions.
  2. Ship it to Gazelle: After you receive your new phone, ship your old phone to Gazelle by October 18th.
  3. Get paid! You can choose the payment method—check, Amazon.com Gift Card, or PayPal.

Oat Flour Banana Bread Recipe

Abby H.3 Comments

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The big kid LOVES banana bread, so I am always looking out for new recipes, especially those that are higher in protein or lower in added sugar.

Recently we found ourselves with an overabundance of oatmeal, so I looked online for recipes to use it up and I discovered Oat Flour. You basically grind up oatmeal in your blender or food processor. Because it doesn’t contain any natural gluten, you have to use another flour with it otherwise your bread just… falls apart. It also doesn’t rise, so you will need to add leavening (baking soda in this recipe).

I also had received 30 bananas the next day, so I knew the time had come… TO MAKE BANANA BREAD!!

After looking through several recipes, I cobbled together a recipe that incorporated what I had on hand, and had all of the appropriate chemicals via ingredients to form quick bread. If you are interested in learning about baking and cooking ratios to form new recipes, check out Ratio by Michael Ruhlman– It’s great!

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

  • 1 c. Oat Flour
  • 1 3/4 c. AP Flour
  • 2 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. salt
  • 1/2 c. melted butter or melted coconut oil
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar, not packed
  • 2 ripe banans, mashed up
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 ounces plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 T. Vanilla
  • 1/2c chopped nuts (I like pecans, but walnuts work too) OPTIONAL

Directions:

  1. Grease a loaf pan and set aside Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a small bowl mix flours, soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar until well mixed.
  4. Add bananas and continue to mix until incorporated.
  5. Add eggs one at a time. Once they are blended, add yogurt and vanilla.
  6. Combine dry ingredients into wet, and add nuts (if desired). This batter is very wet!!
  7. Pour into greased pan and bake for 45-55 minutes.
  8. Once the bread is cooled, remove from loaf pan and serve with butter or cream cheese.

Options:

  • To make the recipe Gluten-free, use gluten-free oats, and a 1 for 1 Gluten-free flour.
  • To make the recipe vegan, use coconut oil in place of butter, substitute a flax egg, and use dairy-free Greek-style yogurt.

8/27/19- Weekly Meal Plan

Abby H.

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Our out of town guests left this morning, so we are back to meal planning! And school starts on Wednesday for the big kid, so I’ll be doing shopping for school lunches this week with part of the grocery budget.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done, so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix).  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and Bitty. The big kid takes his lunch to school, but once in a while, I can convince him to buy his lunch.

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot (I am picking up my new crockpot this week) in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit salad. With so much great fruit available right now, I’ve been making a big batch of it weekly to go with most of our meals.
  • Tuesday:  Spaghetti with veggie sauce (I took a jar of sugar-free store-bought pasta sauce and added onions, shallots, garlic, sliced sweet bell peppers, and spinach). I tossed the spaghetti in the finished sauce and topped it with freshly grated parm.
  • Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner-Scrambled Eggs with cheese, flaxseed waffles, fruit salad
  • Thursday: Smoothies and Dave’s Killer Bagels
  • Friday:  Date Night
  • Saturday: Homemade Pizza Night
  • Sunday: Leftover night

 

Talk Back: What are you planning to cook this week?

9/14/19 Come Out and Play at the YMCA- Free for Everyone!

Abby H.
Open House September 14

 Open House September 14

COME OUT AND PLAY AT THE Y OPEN HOUSE IS SEPTEMBER 14
Sports, swim, gymnastics, camps, dance, martial arts, fitness — the Y is your No. 1 spot for active and healthy kids. Check out everything the Y has to offer at our Open House, Saturday, September 14, 2019.

All 18 YMCA locations will be open all day to the community, with special events from 9:00am to 12:00pm, including fun activities and program previews, with plenty of coaches and staff on hand to answer your questions.

As part of the 5-2-1-0 Childhood Obesity Initiative, the Y is here to ensure your children get 1 hour (or more!) of physical activity every day.

They are all about making it fun. Find your family’s next favorite activity at the Y! The kids and I go to our local Y 4-6 times a week. Exercise, swim, play at Open Gym- There are all so many different things to do included in your monthly membership!

AND IT GETS BETTER- THEY ARE WAIVING THE JOIN FEE!
New members pay no join fee on September 14 — save up to $60! All locations are free and open to the community all day!

Earn Amazon Gift Cards with Up Voice!

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2019-08-26 at 8.06.04 AM.pngDo you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, and Amazon? If you do, consider joining UpVoice! UpVoice is BrandTotal’s user panel. We use the data that we collect from the UpVoice panel to build special insights for brands on their advertising activities and the ad campaigns of their competitors.

How does it work?

Screen Shot 2019-08-26 at 8.06.11 AM.pngAs you visit Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, or any other of the participating sites on your desktop computer, they anonymously collect the ads that you see and give you daily tokens that can later be redeemed for Amazon Gift Cards. Once you visit one of the participating sites, it may take a few minutes for your token balance to be updated.

They are a market research firm and therefore the data we collect is only used for providing brand marketers with advertising campaign insights.

If you’re qualified to become an UpVoice panelist, you will get a link to install the UpVoice Chrome extension. The UpVoice Chrome extension can only work on a Chrome browser (or other Chromium-based browsers) on your computer (and not your mobile device).

Screen Shot 2019-08-26 at 5.03.11 PM.pngI’ve been a member for a little over a month, and I cashed out for my first $10 Amazon Gift Card today!

To get started, click here.

NYC Area Moms- Baby Gear Reviewer Wanted!

Abby H.

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I received this in my email this morning and I thought I’d share! Please pass along to any moms you may know in the area!

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No Experience Necessary- You Just Have to Be a Mom!

Are you the next Baby Gear Reviewer for Toys, Tots, Pets, & More?

  • Do you (or someone you know) live in the New York City metropolitan area?
  • Are you looking to make some extra $$?
  • Would you like some free baby gear?
  • Be available for 2-5 reviews a week?

If you answered YES to all of the above then send an email to BrilliantMinds@BrilliantPRM.com and include 2-3 recent photos of yourself and if you have any videos of you reviewing/talking about products we would love to see those as well!

Want more info? Check out the video review below or check out even more reviews at TTPM.com. While you’re there join their website so you can be in the know about all the hottest products!

Applicants must live in the greater NYC area as filming is in the city. Each Review takes approximately 1 hour. Weekly quantity of reviews typically done at the same time.