My New Thing: Coupons!

My new thing: couponing. I think I am in love!  Today I purchased $68.57 worth of merchandise (pre-tax)

Between sales and coupons, I saved: $38.70

Out of pocket I spent $29.87 (pre-tax)....That is a savings of over 50% Not bad, huh? Not to mention I also have a $4 Walgreens Register Rewards Coupon (use like cash at Walgreens) left over to use on my next purchase. I am not even an expert coupon person and I think I did pretty well! I think I am going to keep at this!

Some of my favorite coupon blogs so far:

http://coupondivas.com/

http://www.bargainstobounty.com/

http://www.centsablemomma.com/

Places to get printable coupons:

http://www.coupons.com

http://www.redplum.com

http://www.smartsource.com

Sunday paper is the best place to find coupons!

Genealogy

I love genealogy! I know it can sound like it wouldn't be that exciting, but it can be really fascinating. I have been working on my own family tree since I was in High School.  It is a labor of love.  Finding out more about who my ancestors were and putting faces to those stories through old photographs can be very fulfilling.

I have recently found out that I find it fascinating no matter whose family it is! I have helped two other people research their family trees and it is amazing how much I feel like I know their families now. From time to time, I am sure I will post something about genealogy here but, for the most part, my ramblings about genealogy will be on my genealogy blog: Jungle Genealogy. Check it out if you are interested!

Dinner...ummm Meat and Biscuit Cassarole?

Not really sure what to call this, but this is what I made for dinner...

Ingredients:

Filling:
Olive oil
1 Medium Onion
4 garlic cloves
2 large carrots
1 lb ground beef or turkey (I used turkey)
1 can of corn
1 can of sweet peas (or you can replace the carrots, corn and peas with frozen mixed veggies)
2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup

Biscuit Topping
4 c. of flour
6 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt (I found it a bit salty, so I would half this personally)
4 tbs butter
(or 4 c. of  Bisquick in place of above ingredients)
1 c of shredded cheddar cheese
2 c of water (approx)


butter
parsely
garlic powder

Preheat oven 435 degrees Fahrenheit.

Saute onion, garlic and carrots. Add ground beef or turkey and brown. Add cans of corn and peas or mixed frozen veggies. Mix in cans of cream of mushroom soup. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Use hands to break butter into flour until it is thoroughly incorporated.  Mix in cheese. Add water and mix in.

Put filling mixture into baking pan and spread dough mixture over the top. Put in oven and cook until lightly browned.  Just before it is done, melt some butter and add parsley and garlic powder (or fresh garlic).  Spread on top of biscuit topping immediately after taking it off of the oven.

EDIT: It was still good but, I wouldn't use this whole recipe on top..the ratio of filling to biscuit wasn't quite right. Maybe use have or 3/4 or this to top the filling.  You can spoon the rest of the dough on a baking sheet and make yummy cheesy biscuits! :)

It is currently cooking...hope it tastes good! :)

Google+

Well, I have been using Google+ for a couple weeks now.  I think it has real potential. I wish that more people were on it.  That is the only current downside...not enough people have migrated. Of course there is room for improvement, but I really like it so far.  I like the ability to sort my contacts into circles and share content specific to those groups. I think the hangouts have a lot of potential and could really eat into Skype's users.

I see a lot of potential for Google to integrate a lot of their other products...a possible feature like Facebook Events could integrate your Google Calendar for instance.  I am really looking forward to seeing what is coming next and I hope more people log on soon!

What do you think of Google+ and what features would you like to see developed?