Apple Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Apple Juice
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 6 small Sweet Potatoes, cooked and sliced

How To Prepare

• Pour apple juice in frying pan over low heat and stir in cinnamon and salt
• Add sweet potatoes
• Cook over low hear, turning sweet potatoes several times until they are well coated and most of the juice is absorbed.

Shrimp & Corn Chowder with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Now that fall is in the air I like to include soup on our weekly menu. Not only is it nice comfort food, but let's face it, its quick and easy! I am all about that these days. This is a meal you can whip up in just a matter of minutes but it taste so delicious.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of your favorite Potato Soup
• 2 cups Milk or for a richer soup Half and Half
• 3 cups Whole Kernel Corn (can or frozen)
• 4 tbsp Sun-Dried Tomatoes (strips)
• 3 tbsp Fresh Chives (chopped)
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• 2 cups small or medium peeled and deveined cooked shrimp

How To Prepare

• Heat soup, half & half, corn, chives, seasonings and tomatoes over medium heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes.
• Stir in the shrimp and cook until mixture is hot and bubbling. Season with black pepper.

Serve With

• Garlic Bread or Grilled Cheese

Deal of the Day @ Wal-Mart

Going shopping at Wal-Mart is not my favorite thing to do especially after a long day, but Dad needed a few items and medication so I ventured into the store. I was surprised to see many of the items I normally purchase went up in price again. As I was getting Dad's items I started looking for good deals for our family too. I am working on a few plans one being Kyles upcoming birthday and the second is stocking our Christmas pantry. Kyle LOVES these Oatmeal Cookies and I had coupons for them as well as the cake mix and frosting! I had coupons for the frosting and on the package it had another $.25 cent coupon making it a great deal.

These items would have cost us $87.32

Coupons & Sales $65.32

Total Spent Out of Pocket $22.00

When I print coupons here I always print the available amount. Sometimes the coupons reload and you can print several copies. That is the case with these Crystal Light drinks. We have enjoyed Crystal Light all summer long thanks to some great coupons, but no deal was better then getting nine containers FREE!!! I had coupons that were getting ready to expire so when

I saw Wal-Mart had these marked down to just $1.00 I looked in my binder and had some

coupons $1.00 off one and others were buy 2 and save $2!

Original Price $9.00

Coupons $9.00

Total Out Of Pocket - $0

This evening these Air Wick Freshmatics were on clearance!
As you can see in the photo Wal-Mart had these marked from $11.94 to just $6 a good deal,

but when you add $4 off coupons an even better deal!!!
I had three coupons from here and made a good deal a great deal!

Original Price $35.82
Sale Price with Coupon $6.00

Total Savings $29.82

Deals like this are why I purchase more then one Sunday paper. I had $2 off coupons that were about to expire so I used them on these little tubes that were $1.96. I love keeping in my purse or giving in a gift basket for a sick friend. Add some chicken noodle soup, a box of tissues, a container of Crystal Light, a good magazine and you have a nice gift basket!

Original Price $5.88
Coupon Savings $6.00

They paid me .12 to take them home!

Christmas Countdown!

My sisters and I love planning for a great family Christmas. We start talking about it and planning for it December 26!!! Over the years we have created a unique Christmas that our family really enjoys. One thing we have learned over the years is to PLAN EARLY and SHOP EARLY!!! Many of the items I purchase on clearance go into the Christmas pantry so when the holiday pops up, we are ahead of the game. Since we celebrate Christmas for a whole week, we plan a family menu and start buying non perishables grocery items early. I also like to shop early. My goal is to have the family gifts purchased by October and the kids finished up by November. Last year we did this with success and it was wonderful! It allowed time to enjoy the holiday and not be stressed out.

How do we go about doing this? One thing I do is keep my eye open for a great sale. When you see a great deal stop and ask, "Would this make a great gift for anyone?" Recently I found a Nine West purse on clearance for $4.50, I loved it but knew it would make a great gift. The original price was $89.00! Its going to make a great gift for that special person on my list!

Another thing I do is keep a small Christmas Notebook. In this notebook I keep our menu, gorcery list, card list as well as addressed and I make a list of people we are purchasing gifts for and when I purchase a gift I write the gift down next to their name. I don't know about you but I forget I purchased 10 girl gifts and have no guy gifts!

Click here to see a fun site, they post a 1 Day Sale each dat at midnight. Often they are great deals, they go fast so if you like it, you better get it. I have noticed most items have a shipping of only $4.99 and I have seen several items pop up for free! Like the Wii Sports Pack! Missed that one! Let me know if you find some great deals for Christmas, its just a few short months away!

Stuffed Baked Sweet Potato

Stuffed Baked Sweet Potato

Ingredients

• 6 medium Sweet Potatoes
• 1/2 cup Orange Juice
• 4 tbsp Butter
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 1-8oz can Crushed Pineapple, drained

How To Prepare

• Bake sweet potatoes at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until tender.
• Cut a 1-inch strip from the side of each sweet potato. Carefully scoop 1/2 of the pulp from in shell.
• Combine sweet potato pulp, orange juice, butter and salt
• Beat until fluffy
• Stir in pineapple
• Stuff shells with sweet potato mixture
• Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes

Apple Cabbage Slaw

Apple Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients

• 3 cups Cabbage, shredded
• 2 cups Red Delicious Apples, diced (I like to soak mine in Sprite/7-up to keep them from turning brown, lemon juice makes them tart but the soda keeps them nice and sweet)
• 1/2 cup Celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup Carrots, slivers
• 1/2 cup Purple Onion, rings
• 1/2 cup Almonds
• Pineapple Yogurt Dressing

Pineapple Yogurt Dressing

• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 2 tbsp pineapple juice
• 1/4 tsp mustard

How To Prepare

• Combine all salad ingredients together set to side
• In small bowl add dressing ingredients and whisk together
• Add dressing to cabbage mixture, mix well and serve

Thankful For My Stock Pile

I had no idea when I purchased on clearance several boxes of Kleenex, Advil, Tylenol, Lotion, Lysol and even toilet paper and crackers that they would ever come in so handy as they have the past two weeks. When we were hit with the flu it was a comfort knowing the pantry was stocked and the only things we needed from the store were perishables items like milk and eggs. I craved raw vegetables and we could not get enough cold drinks. For some reason water tasted really bad to all of us, we brought in a small cooler and kept it filled with juice, sprite, water bottle (which we had drink mixes to add so we could handle the taste). We love the new ice machine right up the road, for $1.50 you can get 20lb of ice which filled our cooler and lasted a few days. Although we are not over this horrible bug, we are into day 16 and happy that today everyone is out of bed and two of us are actually dressed in clothing rather then PJ's. I am rejoicing that my husband and Dad were able to avoid getting sick and are still on the healthy side. A special thank you to them for taking care of us when I became ill. Mark even went so far as sleeping on an air mattress in the living room to avoid me sneezing and coughing on him in the night! He cooked, cleaned, shopped for supplies, went to work, called to check on us, kept our medication straight and even did laundry. Thank you honey for stepping in and taking care of us for the past week. Grandpa is happy everyone is feeling better too, he has missed the boys coming out to visit with him and yesterday was happy Caleb was able to come visit him in his house. Caleb was so happy to go visit Grandpa he did not come in until Grandpa said he wanted to go to bed! LOL! So much for being lonely! Grandpa said, "That boy talked and talked!" We thought Caleb went to bed but at 10:30 PM he came walking in the house just a talkin! Yep, he is feeling better! Thank you for your prayers! We are on our way back!

Kyle & Caleb Update

What a whirl wind the past week has been for our family! We want to thank you for your prayers and concern for the boys, its truly been a blessing. We did receive an update on their health yesterday that we wanted to share with you.

To recap, Kyle went to a camp 8 days ago and was there for one day when he called home crying asking us to come get him. When we arrived he was emotional and not feeling well, we thought he was just overly tired from a week at another camp, then a busy week home with his aunts and cousin in town. He slept on and off for two days, then on day three woke up with a high fever and flu type symptoms. We took him to the doctor where he tested negative for flu, negative for strep. They put him on an antibiotic and sent him home. After a few days was not getting any better so we call the camp and asked if any other kids were ill. The camp director said they had been going down the list calling parents letting them know they had children at the camp who were infected with swine flu and by Thursday of camp they were running a clinic waiting on parents to arrive Friday. The director informed us the children who were infected came from another camp where they had to shut down for two weeks due to a swine flu outbreak. The next day our youngest (Caleb) started running high fever of 103.6 and very ill. We took him to the doctor, explained the situation, and were told Kyle must have had a false negative reading on his flu test because Caleb had a positive reading. They started him on medication for the flu but told us it was to late to give it to Kyle. We asked if it was swine flu and were told since they were exposed and since they had all the symptoms, flu is put into different groups and it sounded as if they fit the swine flu group. We were asked to stay in for 7-10 days and were all given Tama Flu prescriptions.

The next day (yesterday) Mark had to call into work and explain the situation, he was asked not to come in and he would need to have a flu test given in order to return. When he went the doctor he was asked all kinds of questions and was told if they did not send the test to DHEC then it was not a positive swine flu reading. Mark was negative for the flu and after much to do he was able to get the 7-10 day restriction lifted so he can return to work.

Kyle was still very sick so we took him back to the doctor yesterday, where he again tested negative for the flu. The doctor increased his medication and said since Caleb had a positive reading and Kyle was negative she was concerned Kyle could still get it so she started him on more medication and increased his asthma meds since his oxygen stats were a little low.

After going to 5 doctors and getting 5 different answers about the flu we were very confused and not sure who to believe! We decided to research ourselves at the CDC. This is nothing to play around with, the boys have run high fevers, sweating, severe muscle aches and headaches, runny nose, sore throat, sensitive to light, diarrhea and extremely tired. If you have these symptoms stay home and call your health care provider. On the news this morning they said that 353 people have died from the Swine flu and over 5500 have been hospitalized. This is just the swine flu report, its nothing to play around with. The camp director where Kyle attended said in 25 years of running the camp he has never seen a illness take over rapidly as this flu did.
We went here to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention web page to research for ourselves.

I have seen those comercials where they say be prepared for an emergency or a natural disaster, have a plan, know what you will do. I used to ask what does that mean? What do you need to plan for? I know about planning for a hurricanes or something like that but I was not sure what they were refering to in those comercials. Now I know! If we were really quarantined in our home for two weeks it was a comfort knowing I had a stock pile of items and did not feel I needed to get groceries. Because I have been stocking up, when we got the news to stay in 7-10 days I did not feel I needed to go to the store and stock up. We were able to just come home. Ask yourself this question. Would you be prepared if you got the unexpected news you were quarintend for 10 days? What if there were and outbreak in your town and you were given a warning to stay home. I know its scarry to think about but going through this has really opened my eyes and I am now heading the warning of the congressmen on those comercials. Not panicing, just preparing.

Thank you again for your prayers for the boys and our family. Please continue to pray for their recovery and that the rest of us do not get it, whatever it is!

Busy Busy

The past two weeks have been so busy with family coming to visit and us getting our new business started. The Linens & More business is off and running! Its been a good week for selling but boy am I tired! Once I get myself organized things will be better. Since we sell during the week then run the flea market booth during the weekend I have had to come up with a plan on how to run our lives as well as run a business. I have decided to take Tuesdays off so now I am looking forward to Tuesday! Since I had a good stock pile I have not been shopping in some time so this week is about restocking and getting the house cleaned. I am also excited that I found a camera on HSN and I am looking forward to it arriving this week! Stay tuned for more details and for some deal of the day!

Mark starts his new job this week and we are really excited about that! God has been so good to us providing our every need. When I made the mortgage payment this week I wanted to shout for joy! He is faithful to provide and we continue to trust in Him.

Meat Loaf Recipe

Meat Loaf Recipe

2lb Lean Ground Beef
1 cup Cooked & Cooled Rice

2 large Eggs
2pkg Onion Soup Mix
1tsp Seasoning Salt
1tsp Garlic Garlic
1tsp Onion Onion
above three spices found here

In a small mixing bowl combine eggs and seasonings. I like to do this to rehydrate the seasonings. Whip for 15 seconds, let sit for 5 minutes then whip again. Next add to meat and rice mixture. Combine ingredients together form into one large loaf or two small loaves. Bake 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Garnish the top with ketchup or your favorite topping. I have uses anything from Catalina Salad Dressing to left over sauce from Chinese take-out.