Frugal In Florida

Over Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year, I discovered my love for apple pie! At 53, apple pie entered my life. I was the one saying "ooohhhhh, apple pie!" A little embarrassing, I might add! And not so great for the waistline! So when I came across this recipe in Pretty Intense , I bookmarked it and said I'm going to make that one day in the near future. It happened much sooner than most of my bookmarked recipes! It's an easy recipe and ended with great results. My pictures are horrible, only because I still have not gotten around to perfecting my picture taking skills, but I promise, it's on my list of things to do! ahem, I didn't use the cinnamon STICKS Oh ... do you know the differences between a Crumble and a Crisp? I would have called this a Crisp, but NOPE, it's a Crumble ... I much rather say crisp, but that would be incorrect! The Kitchn shares the differences in case you are wondering! So ... a few notes:   ...

I'm sure everyone has seen this recipe out there ... but when one of the attorney's gave me the recipe to try I decided to do it.  Because, hey, we had that boat parade party and I was trying to do it within the budget this year. So I made it with modifications. OF COURSE I had everything on hand EXCEPT the crackers. I mean, who has saltines readily available? Oh. Apparently a lot of people do. I didn't.  I planned to head over to Aldi to pick up a box for what I'm sure would only be around 79 cents or so. But that trip never happened, so instead, Publix it was.  This box cost me $2.09 if you can believe that. Whatever, I was on a mission here ... Let's get crackin, shall we?? 1 sleeve of saltine crackers which equals about 35 to 40 2 sticks of unsalted butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips sprinkles galore Crank up the oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking tray with some parchment paper and give it a good spray...

*This is a repost from last Valentine's Day and I'm so excited to be making this AGAIN this week!* I've been working out this week and hope to God I can stand and stir for as long as I need to when making this as my arms are like JELLY ... 9 Rounds is the place I've been after work. 30 minutes, full on cardio/muscle confusion with bags, dumbbells, kettlebells and medicine balls. I have a love hate relationship with the place but for 30 minutes I am huffing, puffing, sweating and hyperventilating ... and I feel great! It's actually motivating me to be more conscientious in EVERYTHING I do, from my water intake to food intake to what I'm doing during my "down time".  I boxed about 5, 6 years ago and loved it then and was in the best shape of my life and have not been able to find another place that had a great workout like that ... this place is FINALLY it! For those of you who are giving reasons for NOT working out (I'm one of them), just go. Do ...

*This is a repost and since Hubby's traveling this week, I want to make him something sweet to eat when he comes home on Monday. Since I have everything on hand, I'm making this and wanted to share the recipe again!* We usually watch FoodTV in the morning both Saturday and Sunday as we putz around getting the bedroom cleaned up and in the kitchen doing stuff ... sometimes I get a little inspiration and other times I get a complete recipe ;-) Another keeper that I picked up from  FoodTV's Trisha Yearwood show  ... most of her recipes are super simple to make and use everyday ingredients that you probably already have in stock!  That's what makes this one another winner! I'm trying really hard to NOT buy premade sweet stuff for the house as I have a HARD time saying no ... but if I have to mix up a bunch of ingredients and PREPARE the sweet treat, I'm ok with that ... at least I know exactly whats in there! This recipe is really simple, and chances are,  yo...

*Hubby's traveling this week so I want to make him something sweet to eat when he comes home on Friday. Since I have everything on hand, I'm making this and wanted to share the recipe again!* We usually watch FoodTV in the morning both Saturday and Sunday as we putz around getting the bedroom cleaned up and in the kitchen doing stuff ... sometimes I get a little inspiration and other times I get a complete recipe ;-) Another keeper that I picked up from  FoodTV's Trisha Yearwood show  ... most of her recipes are super simple to make and use everyday ingredients that you probably already have in stock!  That's what makes this one another winner! I'm trying really hard to NOT buy premade sweet stuff for the house as I have a HARD time saying no ... but if I have to mix up a bunch of ingredients and PREPARE the sweet treat, I'm ok with that ... at least I know exactly whats in there! This recipe is really simple, and chances are,  you have everything t...

Ummm, hello ... Both of the kids had birthdays in December ... the Boy's turned 22nd and then the Princess turned 24. How on earth have they gotten so old??? Needless to say, we were pretty slammed from mid November up until Thursday, January 1st. I've never been so dang happy for that day to roll around, honestly. This has been one LONG and TOUGH holiday season! Since I was home on Friday (yeah for me!) and the Princess was home sick (still, boo for her!) I could not do my usual jammin the Pandora stations I like ... so I had to keep it low key and stay the responsible adult. Ugh. So, I took down all the Christmas decorations from the kitchen and living room ... I still have the Florida room and the bar/guest kitchen to tackle but that's for this weekend. Then I cleaned out ONE shelf in the pantry. I think I tackled the ugliest one first and was surprised at what I tossed (um, Ritz crackers, you are so on my sh*t list now ... the sleeves were all opened at th...

We usually watch FoodTV in the morning both Saturday and Sunday as we putz around getting the bedroom cleaned up and in the kitchen doing stuff ... sometimes I get a little inspiration and other times I get a complete recipe ;-) Another keeper that I picked up from FoodTV's Trisha Yearwood show ... most of her recipes are super simple to make and use everyday ingredients that you probably already have in stock!  That's what makes this one another winner! I'm trying really hard to NOT buy premade sweet stuff for the house as I have a HARD time saying no ... but if I have to mix up a bunch of ingredients and PREPARE the sweet treat, I'm ok with that ... at least I know exactly whats in there! This recipe is really simple, and chances are,  you have everything to whip up a batch right this second 1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted 2 cups of pretzel sticks, crushed (um, I tossed mine in the Vitamix and gave it a quick whirl) 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 cup plus ...