Frugal In Florida

Anyone who has read this blog for a little time KNOWS that I'm not a huge fan of veggies. I know. BUT on Thanksgiving, my lovely sister-in-law made some green beans that were sitting on the counter to be reheated and I snagged one to try because they looked good. Strange behavior, I know. And man, oh man they were good! Sue told me how she makes them and here's how I made them: 1 can of french cut green beans ... she used fresh, but I only had canned garlic, Hubbys special minced stuff a sprinkle of dried onion flakes a dash of red pepper flakes olive oil salt and pepper Heat olive oil in frying pan. Add all ingredients and saute til beans are tender. There you have it. Easy. Quick. Amazing.

After being away from the castle for 6 days, I'm glad to be home again. Princess flies out again in the morning back to the midwest to see some friends in from overseas on leave. It's kind of cool as it's a few people that she trained with in Arizona ... Should have made life easier for her and changed her ticket to just fly straight to where she's going instead of Florida then back up ... oh well. So of course, I'm SO very motivated to get back in the kitchen and cook, cook, COOK. Plus getting ready for the holidays and the BIG EVENT (no, that link is not for Christmas!) ... apprehensive? Anxiety? Excitement. All of those emotions! I'm still trying to avoid any major grocery shops, trying to clear stuff out and bring in new, fresh stuff that is more health-minded and less processed. So here's what we have planned for the week ... Sunday - ummm, hmmm. Left over Giordanos pizza that we took on the plane with us from Chicago. Seriously ... yummy. ...

The long holiday weekend is coming to an end and I am sitting here, being thankful. Thankful for many things. And not so thankful for others. But the key is to remember those things that I do give thanks for. Thankful that we were able to feed a houseful of teen boys this morning even though we've been gone for 6 days. Thankful for my friends who teamed up and worked out a schedule (without me knowing) to play with the cats, check the mail and garden and such. Thankful for my Hubby who made our trip completely possible with as little fuss as possible. Thankful for the love his family shows ME. Thankful that I have a job to look forward to tomorrow (and a paycheck is waiting). Thankful that I have clothes to wear this week without necessarily HAVING to do laundry today if I choose not to. See. There are plenty of things to be thankful for, things that you just take for granted. Because it's so easy to say "woe is me" and feel sorry and discontentment....

Hoping everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving with food to grace your table, and family and friends to share with.

Heh. Yeah. I went for it. Regardless of the WTF factor, I'm gonna do this . Listerine. Shaving Cream Warm water and towels. 30 minutes of my valuable, precious time. Yeah. I did it. Can't be any worse than the last manicure/pedicure I had. The outcome? Not so bad. Shaving cream was the Schick Hydro stuff and I probably was not generous enough with it. I measured 1 cup of listerine and 1 cup of warm water and mixed in a medium size bowl. Then used two washcloths. Sat and read magazines for 30 minutes. Gave gentle scrub then rinsed well in tub. Dried and then applied coconut oil. Put on socks and still pretty hours later. I will do it again next Sunday as I still have lots of listerine/water mix going on. But here's what I'll do different: Use lots and lots of shaving cream. Toss the washcloths in the microwave to warm them up after I wring them out. My feet got pretty chilly sitting there. Did it 'cure' the cracked heels? No. It ...

Apparently, this is compatible to Outback's potato soup, but I wouldn't know because I haven't been to an Outback in years, seriously, like 8, maybe even 10?? But with a blog named Pearls, Handcuffs and Happy Hour , you have to trust the girl, nod your head, and say Amen Sister =D. But all kidding aside ... it's fast approaching December, the most magical time of the year and well, them damn Target employees were wearing Santa Hats on November 19th ... so I felt the need to bookmark the recipe and make it as soon as December rolled around. December 1st, to be exact. Yes, that would be Thursday coming up. No, no, NOT Thanksgiving, but the following Thursday. Geesh. The original recipe is  here . This is how I'm planning to do mine ... 1 large bag of frozen, shredded hash browns. I will have to hide as Hubby will automatically assume that is breakfast food. 2 cartons (32 oz each) of chicken stock (pantry, Costco buy) 1 can cream o' chicken soup (real d...

This is Hubby's favorite salad that he will almost be guaranteed to order if we meet for lunch during the week for about the price of oh ... say, $8.99 plus tax and tip (and the ice tea)  ... so I need to make it more often at home for a fraction of the price! It's pretty easy to do too, just a little bit of chopping and lining up and you are D. O. N. E. Head of romaine lettuce, chopped 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped Cooked chicken, turkey or ham, chopped bacon bits cheddar cheese, shredded olives, chopped (for Hubby's) Additional items that you like (avocado, onion, etc., just chop) Lay lettuce out in the bottom of a shallow, smaller dish. Then simply make a row down the middle with the meat, then cheese on one side and eggs on the other. Then bacon bits on one side and olives on the other side. Serve with either ranch or honey mustard dressing and be happy! Linking up to Frugal Fridays  and GCC and wishing we were going to have leftover t...