World's Cutest Cookies!

Last week my daughter made these melted snowmen cookies and I think they are absolutely adorable!! I just ate the last one and they are also pretty yummy!!You can make some, too, if you want. There is a great step-by-step tutorial at Stacey's Sweet Shop - step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4.

Fun Family Christmas Day

Yesterday, we spent a nice day together as a family doing some Christmas things. First, we went to brunch at a buffet that is running a discounted price for the holidays. Then we went to a Christmas Arts Festival and browsed all the fantastic arts and crafts. They even had live artisan demos like blacksmithing and pottery. After that, we went to see A Christmas Carol in 3D - wow, 3D sure has advanced since the last time I saw one!! A little later, we went to a couple of train displays. These are permanent G gauge trains displays in people's yards!! Some of them have spent years and thousands of dollars on these displays! And during the Christmas season, they open their yards to the public to come and see (and collect donations for Children's Hospital). Some are just a normal size yard, but one that we went to was at a multi-million dollar home and must have cost ten of thousands of dollars!! The amount of trains he had filled 1/2 of a 4 car garage on racks stacked to the ceiling!

All in all, it was a nice family day! My kiddos aren't small anymore, so it isn't easy to find Christmas activities that they will enjoy. But they are good sports and we had a great time together!

Fantastic Cracker Deal!!

I don't usually buy too many boxes of crackers because they are so expensive. But this deal I just had to share!!

Yesterday, I collected all my Nabisco coupons (Smartsource 11/8 $1 off 1, Smartsource online $1 off 2) and went to Safeway. They are running a promo where if you buy 5 boxes of Nabisco crackers, you get $5 off, and they are on sale, too! So this makes them between $0.99 and $1.99 per box for Ritz, Wheat Thins, Triscuits and more. I bought 10 boxes, used 2 $1 off 1 and 4 $1 off 2 coupons and paid $10.40!! Then I mailed in my rebate form (click on link on the right side that says "Coupons") and will get $10 back! That makes a total cost for 10 boxes of crackers exactly $0.40 plus the postage stamp!!! OK, can you beat that deal????

Breakfast Burritos

I spent two hours this evening making breakfast burritos to put in the freezer for the mornings I just don't feel like making breakfast this month. I made whole wheat tortillas from freshly ground wheat while the potatoes (5 lbs for $0.58) were baking in the oven. Then I cut up two packages of bacon ($1 each) and cooked in a skillet while I peeled the skin off the potatoes and cut them into cubes. When the bacon was cooked, I quickly sauteed the potatoes in the same skillet, then tossed into a large bowl with the bacon. Then I scrambled and cooked 2 dozen eggs ($1/dozen) which I then added to the bowl along with a can of diced jalapenos ($0.25). I tossed with an 8 oz. bag of shredded Habanero Cheddar cheese ($0.99). Then I place a scoop of the mixture into each tortilla and rolled up, wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a large ziploc bag.

Total cost for 25 burritos = less than $6.00!!! That comes out to less than $0.24 each!! And when we want to eat them, we just warm them in the microwave for about 2 minutes and voila!! Fresh, wholesome, homemade breakfast burritos! And if I didn't make the tortillas, it would have only taken about 45 minutes.

I think this will be something I will try to do once a month or so. I am going to also try to find some other ideas like this that can be made ahead and put into the freezer. If you have any suggestions, let me know!!