Recipes — Page 14

Wake ’em Up Coffee Smoothie and More!

Summer Smoothies!

Smooth Banana Smoothie

Preparation Time: 5 min

Ingredients

2 cups lowfat milk
2 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
¹/3 cup chocolate-flavored syrup
2 large scoops frozen vanilla yogurt

Instructions

In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend on medium speed until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve.

Or, try this one:

Wake ’em Up Coffee Smoothie!

Preperation Time: 5 min.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
¹/4 cup instant coffee granules
¹/3 cup sugar
1 envelope (1-1/4-ounces) chocolate or vanilla instant breakfast drink mix
3 cups ice cubes

Instructions

In a blender, blend all ingredients except the ice until well combined.
Add ice and blend until well combined and slushy. Serve immediately.

Yields about 1 quart, or 3 to 4 servings each.

They sound super yummy right? And super easy. That’s my favorite combination in the kitchen.

To get more simple recipes like this from Mr. Food, get some of his FREE e-books filled with recipes. I love ’em.

The Let’s Get Grilling guide has tons of great easy recipes and tips to help you plan some pretty awesome summer BBQ’s.

The Decadent Desserts free cookbook is filled with yummy goodies that are simple enough that you can try a new one each night. Seriously, super quick and easy.

Blue Ribbon Casseroles is honestly one of my favorites. I love being able to throw a bunch of good stuff into one big pan, bake, and serve. That’s my type of cookin’.

The Mr. Food Best Brunch recipes book is a really good one too. Find some really good make-ahead dishes, some super yummy sticky buns, and more!

What I do:

I went through all of these ebooks, printed off all of the recipes that I liked, and put them all in a big 3-ring binder, to have a new cookbook. I VERY seldom buy cookbooks anymore, since there are so many great recipes to be found online, and lots of great ebooks like this!

Another option is to just download the ebooks, and then check ’em out once a week and print out just a couple new recipes to try. These are such timesavers, and they’re great budget recipes too. They all use simple, but good, ingredients.

Which one is YOUR favorite??

Posted by Meagan Paullin on June 13, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies, Fun Stuff | No Comments

A Girls Guide to Grilling!

One of my favorite sites, Learnvest, has another great daily tip today!

Wanna taste?

Tossing a low-carb spinach salad? Sure.
Preparing a healthy chicken meal? Sounds good.
Grilling meat out on an open fire? We’ll leave that to the men—or will we?

Let’s be frank: Cookouts are delicious. And grilling just so happens to be healthy and inexpensive. But almost 70% of grill buyers are male—and that’s not OK in our book.

We’re pretty confident that not all women are afraid of fire (or unable to flip items on a grill), so we’re chalking this phenomenon up to social stigmas.

HOW TO LOOK HOT WHILE SIZZLING YOUR STEAK. READ ON….

Yep, just a taste. A little tease of how great the daily tips at Learvest are. So go on over and check out the rest of the article!

It has some great tips:

How to save money by getting only what you really need.
How to cook safer by using your microwave. {Who knew?}
How to properly use heat and oil.
And more!

If you’re not signed up for Learnvest daily emails, sign up today!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on June 10, 2011 Filed Under: Fun Stuff | No Comments

It’s FAN-tastic Freebie Friday time!

I have a SUPER DUPER busy day planned, but I pulled together a round up of freebies for you, my FAN-tastic Fans! Why? Because you rock.

And.. If you’re a fan of Sunshine and Sippy Cups, make sure to click the link above to give me a vote on Picket Fence Blogs! {the button will be on the left side bar from now on too, so you can vote each day you visit, and I’d sure as heck appreciate it!}

Here are my freebies yesterday:

FREE Hair Color Refresher Coupon: I found this fun freebie in the daily email from Women Freebies a couple weeks ago- Women Freebies. I’m not sure if it’s still available, but you can check their site to see if it’s still there!
FREE Mascara: Got this Lash Blast Length full size mascara in a product test from MySurvey-Take Surveys, Earn Rewards, It’s Easy & Free! Click Here.
Huggies Coupon Book: I got this big book full of coupons by signing up for the mailing list- Huggies.
Free Magazines: I get most of my free mag’s by being on the email update list at TradePub- Click Here.

If you want to find a mailbox stuffed full of freebies each day too, check out todays goodies…

Check out the NEW freebies for you guys today:

Beech Nut Starter Kit: Get this kit full of amazing products FREE! Click Here.
Baby stuff: Win prizes and get FREE baby stuff! Click Here.
Free Donuts: Participating U.S. Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants are celebrating National Donut Day by offering you a DONUT of your choice with any beverage purchase. Mmmmm :)
Free Seasoning: Get a free sample of McHardys seasonings. Click Here.
Kung Fu Panda: A bunch of contests to enter, free games, and printables. Kung Fu Panda.
Free Printable Coupons: See seven full pages of new printable coupons for groceries.Free Savings.
Vanilla sample: Get a free sample of Pure Vanilla Extract. Find the form here to sign up.
FREE $35 Coupon Book: Get this new book filled with $35 worth of coupons from Febreeze, Mr. Clean, and Swiffer. Click Here.
Daily {almost free!} deals: Amazing Daily Deals 50-90% Off Restaurants, Spas, Events and More! Click Here.
Free Yummy-ness: Get a free recipe for S’mores Poppers that looks uh-MAY-zing, from one of my favorite sites, Celebrations.com. Make sure to check out their free party planning tools too!
Free Money: Yep, that’s right, get some free cash! Toluna has been sending out TONS of big money surveys lately. I had two $10 ones last night, and another $9 one today. Lovin’ it. Toluna sign up.
Monetize Your Blog: Learn how to monetize your blog today. This looks pretty cool, I’m going to check it out myself! Click Here.
Crowdtap: Have you heard of this one yet? I’m so loving it! You earn free money for collaborating with brands, get free products to test, product parties like the Old Navy Shorts party I just got, and more! Sign up with my invite-Join Me!
FREE stuff for MOM: Join MomConnection to be a part of a great community, test new products, get samples and coupons, and give your feedback. Join here, today!Free Coupons.
Free Coupons: More coupons, for diapers, pets, restaurants, and more!
FREE Travel Eye Set: Get a free make-up set from Smashbox with any $50 purchase! The free gift is a $22 value, enter code EYESET at checkout to get it free! I reccommend getting the Try It Kit {reg $52, now $19} if you’re shopping. Love it. Ends 6/5, Smashbox.
Samples: Find freebies from Krispy Kreme, L’Occitane, Iman, and more! MySavings.
Woman Freebies: Get the newest free samples, coupons, and giveaways, picked just for women! Click Here to check out todays new updates, and sign up for their daily email if you want it!
JewelMint: Get a FREE subscription, and check out designers jewelry picks at up to 70% off. Great selection. Click Here.
Freebies: Free Downloads {including Roboform, which is awesome if you enter a lot of giveaways!}, samples, and events! Click Here to check them out!
Samples and Giveaways: More samples from MySavings, plus giveaways links and more! Click Here to see more!
L’Oreal: Get a free sample of Youth Code {this stuff rocks, I love it} by clicking the offers and samples box in the bottom left, then find it on the next screen. Sample.
Sunday Coupons: Click here to get a sneak peek at which coupons and deals will be in this Sundays paper, Click Here.

Awesome stuff, right?

This is the best list of freebies I’ve had in a long time… I’m excited to have found so many good ones today!! Some of the posted links will take you to MORE sites filled with freebies! So you can seriously get a heck of a lot of stuff today.

Share it, you’re friends will love you!

If you love these freebies, make sure to use the share buttons below, or the Tweet button up top, to share them with your friends so they can get them too!

Giveaway!

And don’t forget to enter to win the HUGE giveaway from me and the Lean Green Mama: Mama Mojo Giveaway Package, this package is worth $497!! Wow, right? Share it with your friends too, since there is another way to win, maybe you can both join!

Have a great weekend guys… Thanks for reading!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on June 3, 2011 Filed Under: Deals and Coupon Codes, Freebies, Product Testing, Shopping, Contests | No Comments

Memorial Day: Foods that are easy, yummy, and guilt free!

LearnVest has some super amazing recipes today for you weekend BBQ plans!

Here is one of my favorites:

PITA CHIPS

Makes: 96 chips

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp coarse salt
½ cup olive oil
6 round whole wheat pita pockets

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine sesame seeds, salt, and olive oil. Cut the pitas in half and then cut each half into four triangles. Tear each triangle at the seam. Place pitas rough side up on a baking sheet, and brush each piece with oil mixture. Bake until brown, about 10 minutes.

Super yummy, super easy. Love it.

Find the rest of the recipes at LearnVest! And sign up for their daily emails to get tons of other great tips each day. They’re all about living life to the fullest, while living on a budget.

Posted by Meagan Paullin on May 26, 2011 Filed Under: Fun Stuff | No Comments

{FREE} Food Journal and Guide

Read more about what you get when you sign up for this really great FREE program:

Free Guide: 21 Days To Better Diabetes Control. Simple daily tips created by a Certified Diabetes Educator. Systematically helps you establish healthy habits.
Glucose log and food journal help you track progress.
Low-carb recipes help you create a healthier meal plan. Free guide provided by Diabetic Connect.
Diabetic Connect is a social network that empowers people living with diabetes. They make it easy to start conversations, meet others, share treatments, read and post product recommendations, and much more.

You can sign up for yourself, or a loved one, right here: Diabetes Connect.

Posted by Meagan Paullin on May 19, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies | No Comments

White Cake Mix Makeover!

I’m a big fan of the “Semi-Homemade” type of cooking and baking. You know, where you use ready made products like cake mix, boxed dinners, frozen or canned goods, and then fancy ’em up, and make them better.

So I really liked this little post today, with some ways to jazz up a boxed white cake mix into some pretty awesome cupcakes. The kind of cupcake where you could put on an apron, and tell the family that you baked them from scratch, and they would believe you. Yes, sometimes it is ok to lie to your family.

To check out the easy peasy recipes, go on over to Home Made Simple. While you’re there, you can also request a big coupon book with over $35 bucks in savings. Better yet, join the site and get on their mailing list, so you get the coupon books automatically!

They have a lot of pretty helpful stuff on their site… It’s sponsored by P & G, so you get offers and coupons for their products sometimes too. But I do find the posts helpful and fun.

If you’ve taken my advice, and are signing up for more newsletters and mailing lists as a way to get high-value coupons and free samples, then here are a couple more for ya too that you might like:

Right @ Home: “Get money-saving offers and more in the free homecare e-newsletter from the makers of Pledge®.” Click Here.
Vocalpoint.com “Gets you free samples, coupons, recipes, DIY ideas, beauty tips—endless gifts of knowledge to make you smile every day! Sign up today.” Click Here.
Kraft Foods: “Rush me delicious easy-to-prepare recipes, money-saving coupons and tips for living well with diabetes in my weekly Kraft Foods Good Eating Good Living e-newsletter!” Click Here.

Have a great day!