My mom makes these awesome cookies that we referred to as Poop Cookies as kids. But they are really called Chocolate Yum Yum’s. And Oh, Lord are they delicious…..
They are delicious, chewy and chocolately. You’ll have a hard time keeping them around.
Once you make them, you’ll see why we called them Poop Cookies.
Chocolate Yum Yum’s (aka Poop Cookies)
Ingredients:
1 c. chocolate chips (your fav. variety- Vegan, GF)
1/3 c butter (You can use coconut oil if you are vegan, don’t use spread)
16 large marshmallows (You can use vegan marshmallows)
1 t. vanilla
1c. coconut
2 c. oatmeal (GF oats are a great substitute. Don’t use Steel cut oats)
Directions:
Over medium heat, combine chips, butter, and marshmallows. The mixture may separate when melting, but that’s ok. Stir frequently to prevent chocolate seizing.
Once the mixture is melted and smooth, remove from heat and add remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls onto waxed paper on a cookie sheet.
Refrigerate for about an hour or until firm.
Serve with cold glasses of milk
Mom has made them with lemon marshmallows and white chocolate chips. With all of the marshmallow and chip flavors, the combinations available are endless!
If you are looking for another Poop Cookie Recipe, Check out Seraphina’s Unicorn Poop Cookie recipe here. They are really good!
Most kids are on Fall break right now and school starts back up on Monday, but this post comes from my heart. I can’t tell you how many times I opened my lunch bag as a child, only to be disappointed by a limp, sweaty bologna sandwich, a warm juice box and a bag of chips. My mom is an awesome cook, but lunches as a kid were always uninspired. She packed us the same lunch that our friends had.
Kids now have a lot more choices when it comes to lunches. Cooler bags/soft sided insulated bags are now chic, and many schools have restrictions on what kids can bring to school (mostly due to common food allergies).
Here are some tips that can help you pack a yummy, nutritious, frugal lunch for your kids (or heck, even for you if you pack your lunch for work):
Plan ahead. Take an inventory of your pantry, fridge and freezer. Make a list of lunches you can make with what you’ve got on hand.
Eat what’s on sale! You’ll save more if you eat what’s in season.
Involve the eater of the lunch: if you involve the kids, they’ll be more apt to eat what’s packed.
Keep Lunch fun! Use cookie cutters (like this one– I love it for sliced cheese) to make sandwiches, fruit, and cheese into fun shapes.
Set aside time for prep: When you get home from the store, set aside some time to chop veggies, fruit, and cheese and place single servings in baggies. Store the baggies in a drawer in the fridge. Resist the urge to snack on them!
Resist the urge to buy individual packages of snacks. They are usually not the best value for your dollar. Set aside some time after your shopping trip to portion out cookies, crackers, snacks and even yogurt.
Along the same lines: Resist the urge to buy pre-made sandwiches, like UnCrustables. Many schools don’t allow Peanut Butter (or other nut butters) in school lunches. If your kids love those sandwiches, make your own. All you need in an empanada press (like this one) or a Wonder Bread Sandwich Sealer and D-Cruster a loaf of bread, your fav. peanut or other nut/seed butter, and some jam or jelly. Make about 12 sandwiches for less than $10. The average price for a box of 4 UnCrustables is around $3.50! You can use whatever type of sliced bread you like too!
Sandwiches need not be an everyday food! Make wraps with tortillas, sliced cheese, deli meats, and flavored cream cheese. Send sliced cheese, sandwich meat, and crackers (think a homemade Lunchable!) in a plastic box in separate muffin papers. Cold Pizza, salads that include a protein, soup in a thermos, heck, even cereal in a plastic container and a thermos of cold milk.
Re-use your empty Mio containers to send condiments or salad dressing to keep sandwiches and salads from getting icky and soggy. Simply remove the wrapper from the empty bottle, pop the top off and clean out the bottle and lid. Once they are dry, fill 1/2 to 3/4 full and write on the front of the bottle with a sharpie.
Don’t just stick to Major Grocery Store chains! I love shopping for lunch yummies at Grocery Outlet. They have a wide variety of crackers, cookies, lunch meat, and a killer cheese section! Now that we have a Grocery Outlet and a 99 Cents Only in the same shopping center, I can get most of my school lunch shopping done in one trip!
Oh, and most importantly- Don’t forget the note. My mom always put a note in our lunch each day. It made my day, especially when I was having a hard morning!
Looking for more ideas on keeping school lunches fun? Here are a few books I found on Amazon:
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I’ll be posting a review in the next few weeks! I can’t wait to share these yummy candies with my friends and family!
Right now Schoola has two ways for you to save big!
Now through 11/22/15, save30% off sitewide with code COZY30.
This code can be used as many times as you’d like up until 11/22. You can combine it with referral credit, but not with other coupon codes!
Looking for another way to save? Sign up for their email newsletter to hear about Black Friday deals and holiday steals. You’ll get a $5 coupon code to use right away. Already get our newsletter? No worries, you can still sign up to get the deal.
Wanna spread the love of Schoola? The Give $20, Get $20 deal is back!
When you share your unique Schoola referral link with a friend, they get $20 to spend on their first order. As soon as they make their first purchase, you get $20 in credit.
We’re doing our next batch of tie dying on Thursday morning, and thanks to Schoola’s amazing sales and prices, I’ve been able to amass 16 shirts and onsies in various sizes and styles to tie dye!
Well, they’ve merged withNews America Marketing, the brand behind SmartSource, and according to their press release email, “we’ve been working on some big things for your offer list.” What does that mean, exactly? I’m not too sure, but I’ll keep my eyes open and we’ll see.
Hopefully it means better offers, or an option for paypal as a pay out. Right now you have to cash out and wait for a check.
It’s finally here! Coupons.com is offering printing from your Smartphones! It’s easy!
You can print directly from your Android and iOS devices to a WiFi connected printer. Coupons.com will automatically detect a user on their mobile device and guide you through printing. Users will be texted an authentication code before they can print and must be connected to a wireless network with an AirPrint or Wireless enabled printer. Click here to get started!
Recently, our bed frame broke. Our bed is nine years old, and our bed frame was the cheap-y one that came free when we bought our mattress and box springs. I shouldn’t really be surprised that it broke, but it did and it was no longer comfortable to sleep in our bed. It’s sagged in the middle because the part of the bed frame that broke was the center slat that provided the support for the mid section of the mattress.
I began my search online for a new bed frame. I checked all of the usual suspects: JCPenney, Sears, as well as trusty old Craigslist. All I wanted was a sturdy metal bed frame. No headboard, no foot board, just a bed frame.
Finally I found one that fit the bill. It was this one here from Sears. It was sturdy, as it had extra supports in the middle (which is very important when you have a small child likes to bounce on the bed like we do), and it fit my budget. So I set upon trying to get it for cheaply is possible.
First, I checked to see if there’s any place I could get a free Sears gift card with points from various rewards programs I use. I checked my Mypoints account, and I checked my SwagBucks account, and finally I checked my RecycleBank account. Turns out I had enough RecycleBank points to get a $10 gift card from Sears. I cashed out my points and a few days later I have received via email a $10 gift card from Sears.
Second, I logged onto my Shop Your Way Rewards Account (through Sears.com). If you haven’t signed up for Sears Shop Your Way Rewards, it’s easy! You can do it at any Sears, Sears Outlet, or Kmart location. It’s like any other store club card. Scan your key fob or enter your phone number when you check out and earn points. Points can be redeemed for cash off purchases. Also- Shop Your Way Rewards members get access to great coupons, and sometimes even surprise points (Frequently they send out $5 in points- just for being a member!). I had a $10 off of $50 or more purchase good for anything in the home department, which happens to include bed frames.
Third, I logged on to all of my survey websites: PaidViewPoint, and PineCone Research to see if I had points I could cash out for a PayPal payment. It turns out I had over $25 that I could cash out at PaidViewPoint. I requested a PayPal pay out and within six hours I had $27 and change in my PayPal account. I also discovered that I had enough points to cash out for a $15 payment via PayPal through PineCone Research. I requested that as well. I had $42 and change to use!
Fourth (And Finally), I also logged on to Top Cashback as well to see if I can earn any cash back for this shopping trip. Turns out I was going to earn a cool 3% cashback on my purchase.
So here’s how I got it for free:
Bed Frame $54.98 + $3.60 Tax
-$10/$50 Coupon
-$10 Sears Gift Card
-$38.58 from Paypal. (Money was earned doing surveys online as I outlined above. It took me less than two hours combined to do all of the surveys and earn this money. This time with spread over about a months time.)
Plus I qualified for free shipping because the original price was over $49.99
The best part is, I earned 3% of my post coupon amount ($38.58) because I shopped through Top Cashback. That’s more free money to use in the future! So I got paid .30 to buy something we really needed!
Freshly made bed (and laundry- It is Monday, after all!)
The bed frame was delivered on Friday and I just set it up this morning. And we did give it a good test bounce after the bed with put back together. It’s very sturdy I’m proud to announce.
The point of this post isn’t to show off, “Look what I can do isn’t this cool?!?”, but it’s meant to inspire you and show you that you can-do these things as well. You can get stuff for free. And not just little samples of this and that, but you can actually get things that you need for your home for free.
Taking surveys does take time however with PaidViewPoint, and PineCone Research. The surveys that you will do you’ve been pre-selected for, and take less than 10 minutes each. So you’re not wasting time doing surveys you don’t end up qualifying for and the payout for both of those companies is so low you’ll be able to reach a payout in less than a month even if you only do a few surveys for them each week.
So there it is. That’s how we got a brand-new bed delivered to our house for free. No smoke, no mirrors, no hocus-pocus, or anything shifty or questionable. Just a brand-new bed frame delivered free.
I’d love to hear about the kinds of things that you have gotten for free or really cheap using the profits from surveys or even secret shopping. So leave me a comment and let me know what kind of awesome things you’ve gotten for free!
ME: “Henry, what do you want to be for Halloween?”
HENRY: “A Pirate Penguin!”
ME: 0_0
Henry: “You know, Mommy a Penguin that’s a pirate! Like Pingu! NUG NUG!!”
FIN
Yeah, so I set out to create a Pirate Penguin Costume. First I was going to make a penguin costume from scratch, but after pricing out fabric and questioning whether or not I’d be sane at the end of the process, I bought this penguin hoodie and a pair of black pants. He will wear both of these items again and again until they no longer fit, whereas, he’d probably only wear the costume I had originally designed and sketched just once.
Modeling the jacket Miami Vice Style
Next came the question of the pirate part. I scoured thrift stores for two months looking for the PERFECT coat to pirate-ize. Luckily for me (and Henry), I found this amazing dark teal velvet ladies jacket at AmVets for only $4.95. It’s a size 6 Petite, which is perfect. In it’s original life, it had a short Mandarin collar and single breast front with 5 large buttons.
To fully embrace the pirate-ness of this jacket, we first had to take it in so it fit. We lopped off 4 inches of sleeve length from each arm, and then put a dart in the back.
Working with velvet and satin lining isn’t easy, but I used these awesome Wonder Clips and the fabric stayed in place without a problem. These clips are perfect for taking in or up garments. They have built in seam allowance marking, and they can clamp together large or bulky fabrics (and in my case, slippery ones too).
I like these clips much better than my usual sewing pins- The bottom of the clip is flat, so I don’t worry about the bottom of the fabric scrunching up, and I didn’t stab my self while sewing (something that occurs every time I sew a garment that is pinned together and I’ve been sewing for 20 years)! After we had taken in the back and the sleeves it was time to crank up the pirate-ness of this jacket.
We spray painted rayon lace with antique gold spray paint. We pinned the lace pieces to foam core board, sprayed the lace, and once it was dry sewed it on the cuffs. For the lace on the front, we applied it using fusible web. We did this instead of sewing it down because the jacket has pockets in the front that could not be accessed if the trim was sewn on.
I hot glued acrylic gems over top of the existing buttons. And there you have it- A Pirate coat, fit for a penguin!
NUG NUG! (Pirate hat not shown in photo)
We used additional accessories that we had laying around the house: Pirate Hat, sash belt, velvet pouch, and no pirate kit is complete without a telescoping spyglass (it was a birthday gift).
There you go! A complete costume for less than $40.00
Hoodie: $16.24
Pants: $6.00
Coat: $4.95
All of the additional supplies (lace, spray paint, acrylic jewels, sewing notions) we already had on-hand.
I’d love to hear about and see your DIY Halloween creations! Leave me a comment (and a photo)!
I received the Wonder Clips free to facilitate a review. All Opinions are my own. I received no finanacial compensation to review them.
October marks the return of an IHOP® favorite that makes everyone smile, but now with
even more fun: Scary Face Pancakes are back! Bring the kids to create their own legend—scary or silly—with strawberries, whipped topping, Mini Oreo® cookies and candy corn.
And your kids can enjoy a FREE Scary Face Pancake at your local IHOP on 10/30/15! All kids 12 & under get a Scary Face Pancake between 7am and 10pm Friday, October 30th at participating locations. One per child. Dine in only.
I’ll be taking Lil’ Man and we’ll be meeting friends for a fun, frugal breakfast!
alphs.com, log onto your account, click on Savings, then digital coupons, sort by category (baby).
FREE KINDLE VERSION
Lovely candies are all natural, certified gluten free, tested non-GMO, certified kosher and contain no high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients. They have Chewy Caramels, Fudgee Rolls(think a better Tootsie Roll), Fruit Chews with real fruit pieces, and Gluten-Free Licorice. A great treat for you and a fantastic treat for the whole family.
Hewes Family Fun 