Easy (healthy) pancakes

My husband loves his bread.  He has a special love of eating carbs for breakfast.  I have altered some recipes to make what we believe to be a wonderful and pretty healthy pancake.  It uses soy milk but you can also use regular dairy milk. 

Pancakes
3/4 Cup milk (we like vanilla soy)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 T white sugar (some people like them a little sweeter but that is what I generally put in
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 C flour (we use whole wheat)

I throw all this in a bowl and whisk it together.  (actually I usually triple or quadruple the recipe and store the leftovers in the fridge for breakfast all week).

Heat frying pan with a little oil or cooking spray on medium heat until water sizzles when you drizzle it on.  I like big pancakes so I use a soup ladle and spoon a ladle full in the middle of the pan.  Cook on first side until most of the bubbles have popped and then flip it over and cook on the other side. 

Serve with fruit or syrup. 

Save Money on Cell Phones - Ting

With a husband in school, a child, and my teaching salary, I have worked hard to find places to save money on things we need and use regularly.  Recently I have found a new cell phone service that will save us close to $50 a month.  That is $600 a year or  more than half a house payment.  It runs off the Sprint network so if you have sprint in your area this is something you should look into.

But saving money is not the only thing that impresses me about this company.  They have a no holds policy.  Which means during the day if you call them the phone rings until they pick up.  I had a question for them so I called.  The phone rang 3 times and a person (AN ACTUAL PERSON) picked up the phone, competently answered my question, asked if he could help anymore and wished me a good day.  It took me less than two answers and was a pleasant experience.

Now lets say you sign up for the service and you hate it, guess what you can cancel online easily.  There is a button that says cancel my account.  IT is as easy as that. 

Before you sign up you can find out how much you are likely to save a month.  There is a calculator and you sit down with your last three months of cell phone bills, enter the minutes etc. you have used and it will show you your savings. 

You can have as many cell phones as you want associated with your plans.  This could be good for small businesses etc.  As someone who grew up in a big family, I like this feature!  No more limits of five phones on your plan!

If you currently have a Sprint phone you may be able to use it on this new network.  Check into it!

Now there are people who may not like this service

1.  people who want the newest cell phone at all times (you buy your own cell phone so you would end up spending more, I think)

2. I am told if you use a lot of data this service may not be good for you (but look into it).

3. People who like spending lots of money.

Now if you are interested in signing up for this service here is the information you need.  The service is Ting and you can find it at www.ting.com BUT WAIT!!!  When you are convinced this is a great deal and you are ready to sign up, I have a referral link.  IF you use my referral link you can get $25 off your first phone purchase or off your monthly service (and I a get a referral bonus as well).

A penny earned is a penny saved

Last week I shared with you about Swagbucks.  This week I want to share with you about Inbox Dollars.  Inbox Dollars sends emails to your email account and for reading the email (clicking the link) you earn 2 cents.  If you choose to complete the offer you earn more (sometimes several dollars).  In addition just like with Swagbucks you can earn money for using coupons you print off the sight.  Now I know I am not going to get rich off of this sight.  But I spend less than five minutes a week on the sight and am earning money.  This money we plan to add to our gift giving fund for holidays and birthdays because every little bit helps!

Yaksaba

Figuring out recipes that my husband could eat and that were still good was difficult for this midwestern dairy loving girl.  But we both like to eat good food.  So I worked on it!  This is one of our favorites.  I have adapted it from a few different recipes to make it just the way we like it.  As with any stir fry you can add vegetables for your taste.

1 C noodles (could be spaghetti noodles) cooked and drained

1/2 - 3/4 Lb round steak sliced thin

  2 medium onions cut in thin wedges

2 green peppers

 2 medium carrots sliced thin (I just sliced 15 baby carrots)

  1/4 head cabbage slice in thin strips

  1 can bean sprouts or 2 C fresh

salt

pepper

soysauce

Directions  

Heat 2 T oil in skillet

 Brown meat

  Add vegetables in order given stir frying each for a few minutes and adding salt, pepper, and soy sauce

  veggies should be crisp tender when done.

  add noodles in for the last minute of cooking.

 serve over rice (my husband loves it when I do fried rice!

A penny earned is a penny saved

Today I want to share with you one sight I am using to earn money.  This sight is one that many of you may have heard about, but perhaps never tried.  If you use a search engine, play games online, shop online, or watch online video clips you can earn money on this sight.  Through playing games, searching the internet, and watching videos I am averaging $25 in Amazon gift cards a month.  I introduced my husband to swagbucks and he is now addicted.  My favorite part about this is I am earning money for things I would be doing anyway.  So if you use the internet, check it out!  You might be able to earn enough for Christmas presents this year (that is our goal :)).

Cinnamon Rolls

I am married to a man with allergies.  Unfortunately some of these are food allergies.  He is allergic to dairy, nuts, and chocolate (I know right!!!).  When we met I had to begin to change how I made food.  Some foods I just can't make anymore (seriously I have yet to be convinced that lasagna can be made without some good real cheese!).  But many other recipes I have found work just fine through the use of soy milk.  Well other than the chocolate thing.  Really I just sometimes have to make my own chocolate delicacies (and I will share some of my favorites!!).

Today I want to share with you one of my favorite recipes that adds a little pizzaz to morning breakfasts.  My husband LOVES cinnamon rolls.  I have always found them to be time consuming, but no longer.  This recipe is quick, easy, no need to kneed kind of recipe.  

First we make our dough.

You will need

1 egg beaten

1/2 C sugar

1 T salt

1 C water

1 C (soy) milk (I use vanilla soy milk)

6 C flour

2 T yeast

1. Mix milk and water.  Warm to 110 C

2.  Add egg, sugar, and salt. (I use my dough beaters on my mixer to mix all this together)

3. Combine bread flour and yeast.  Add to liquid mixture slowly.  Mix well.

4. Let rise covered for about 30 minutes.

5. Punch down and roll out into a rectangle.  (I make mine about 12 inches by 18 inches).

Now we spread on top of the rectangle of dough

1/4 C butter (or margarine since we are dairy free over here :))

1 C brown sugar

2 -3 T Cinnamon (I think 3 tablespoons is a little much)

roll the dough so now you have an 18 inch roll of dough.  Slice into 9 2 inch thick rolls.  Put in a greased 9 X 13 pan.

I usually make these the night before and let the rolls rise in the refrigerator overnight.  If you are baking them now let them rise for 30 minutes in the pan.  When ready to bake put them in the oven at 325 for 35 minutes.  

Now my husband thinks this next part is completely unnecessary but I like mine frosted.  (I usually frost about half of them and leave half unfrosted).

1/2 C butter (or margarine)

1/3 C milk

1 C brown sugar

3 C powdered sugar

mix frosting together and spread over warm rolls. 

Educents

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Ways we save money

Hello all,

I thought I would first begin by sharing some ways we save money.  Many of these are things that you are probably already doing, but these are some things that are helping us make ends meet!

For online purchases shop through ebates, topcash back, or swagbucks.  Each of these sites gives me a percentage of my spending back.  I decide which one to use based on how much they will give me back at a particular store.  For example, ebates doesn't give me much for amazon.com but swagbucks gives me some.

We love food and like to eat good food.  I love to cook.  So this all should work out well, but I HATE deciding what we are going to eat.  If I don't have a plan, we end up running out to Subway for dinner or eating something not particularly good.  So I PLAN.  I will share some of the ways I plan (including my brains a four week menu plan with weekly shopping lists that I use during the school year so I don't have to think).

I shop craigslist.  Our baby was a surprise and when I found out I was pregnant, I wasn't sure how we were going to afford all the things we needed (maternity wardrobe, baby clothes, baby equipment etc.).  On a whim I began looking on Craigslist.  For about $100, I had more maternity clothes than I needed.  My maternity wardrobe may just be better than my regular wardrobe :).  For a little over $100 more I had clothes for baby for the first two years of his life.

I shop garage sales.  Now I rarely have time to go to garage sales, but when there is something specific we need, I find neighborhood garage sales and go.  When I was looking for baby equipment, the items I found on craigslist were a little more than I wanted to spend, so off to garage sales I went.  I scored big time on my first time out.  There had been a garage sale with baby items advertised and I was able to buy a swing, bouncer, activity table, baby monitor, and a few smaller toys for around $25.

Buy clearance.  For big ticket items like coats and shoes I tend to buy towards the end of the season for the next year.

Saving money without losing my mind

I always am trying to find ways to save money, but lose my mind trying to coupon constantly!  I do use coupons, but rarely.  I never seem to get the great deals that the women on Extreme Couponing find.  But I love finding great deals, cooking and baking our favorite meals, and planning to make sure our ends meet each month.

I also LOVE to cook, read, and do crafts.

Join me and let's share money saving tips, recipes, and craft ideas.