Free Package of Oscar Meyer Beef Franks

Get a package of Oscar Meyer Jumbo Beef Franks for free. Just go to this website and enter your email and they will send you the coupon.

Arm and Hammer $10.50 Coupons

The Arm and Hammer website is offering $10.50 worth of coupons on there products. Go check it out and see if you use any of them.

Easy Pizza Sauce

Easy Pizza Sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water
Combine tomato paste, garlic, parsley flakes, onion, oregano, basil and water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until mixture boils. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Cool a little and spread on your pizza crust and proceed with remainder of your toppings.
Makes 4 servings
Calories 80 Fat 0.5 Fiber 4.5
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This was really good on the pizza. I don't know about the serving size, but I can get at least 2 pizzas out of this one batch of sauce and maybe a third one.
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Note: This pizza sauce freezes really well too.

Easy Pizza Dough

Cooking from scratch is a great way to save money. Here's a pizza dough recipe that is so easy. I found this recipe on Mom Advice.

Basic Pizza Dough (from"How to Cook Everything,")

1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed

2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea slat, plus extra for sprinkling

1 to 1 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

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To make this dough in food processor: Combine the yeast, flour, and 2 teaspoons salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons of oil through the feed tube. Process for 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm draft-free area until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. You can cut this rising time short if you are in a hurry or you can let the dough rise more slowly in the refrigerator for six to eight hours.

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To make this dough by hand: Combine half the flour with the salt and yeast and stir to blend. Add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons olive oil; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining flour a bit at a time; when the mixture becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, begin kneading, adding as little flour as possible- just enough to keep the dough from being a sticky mess. Knead until smooth but still quite moist, about ten minutes. Proceed as above.

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To make this dough with a standing mixer: The machine must be fairly powerful or it will stall. Combine half the flour with the salt, yeast, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1 cup water; blend with the machines paddle. With the machine on slow speed, add flour a little at a time until the mix has become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (switch to the dough hook if necessary). Knead for a minute by hand, adding as little flour as possible, then proceed as above.

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To make this dough with the bread machine: Add ingredients as follows- warm water, olive oil, flour, salt, and then add yeast at the top. Turn machine on and select the dough setting. When the machine beeps, you can roll out the dough onto your pizza stone/pan.

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I made this dough in my bread machine. I watched it and it seemed really wet so I added some more flour to it. It was still a little sticky when I took it out of the machine so I added some more flour. This was really good and once I took care of the stickiness, it was easy. I added a sauce, cheese and other toppings and cooked for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Some people like to pre-bake there crust before putting on toppings and you can do that too.

Mom Advice Experiements- Homemade Laundry Detergent

Experiment: Can I make a powder laundry detergent that will clean well, not break out my family, and be cheaper?

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Experiment Taken From: Notebook 03.08.2007

Materials Needed: (See Instructables for their directions)

1 cup Borax

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda Powder (not baking soda)

1 bar Fels Naptha soap (you can use other soaps like Zote used by instructables, but I could not find that soap, others also use Ivory, Pure & Natural etc)

Food Processor or cheese grater

Use the cheese grater on your food processor and put your soap in to grate. Then take out the grated soap and put in the chopping blade on your food processor add the grated soap and the rest of the ingredients and process until powdery. I like to put a wet dish towel on top of my processor during the chopping stage. Add to container and use 1 tablespoon for small loads and 2 tablespoons for large loads.

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Note: You can use a grater instead of a food processor and mix all the ingredients with your hands, but I find that harder to dissolve in the washer if it is not more of a powder like substance.

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I put my washing powder in a 5 gallon bucket that I got at Walmart for about $5. I also tied a long string to the bucket with my tablespoon attached, so I would never lose it. (see above picture)

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Results: I was worried about whether this powder form would dissolve as I had read others having this problem. I just turned on the hot water and swished the soap around before putting in my clothes and I have not had any problems with my powder soap dissolving. I made 10 batches of the laundry powder to save more time later and it really did not take that long to finish all of the batches. My clothes seem clean. One big difference is that this soap does not make bubbles and people worry that it will not work, but it does work fine. Nobody seemed to break out from the detergent and several in my family have broken out when I have changed detergents. I figured out that this soap cost about 5 cents a load. I was using Sun detergent and it was about 8-10 cents a load depending on where I got it from. So, while the powder detergent does not save as much as the liquid homemade laundry detergent, which is more like 1 cents a load. I am still saving money. Most tide detergents are about 20 cents a load. Personally, I was really happy with the results. I would like to mention that you really do not want to wash your food processor in the dishwasher after you have made your detergent because it will leave a soapy residue on your dishes. Instead hand wash it. Also, I have read a lot of articles saying that this type of detergent is harder on your washing machine. I read that adding some vinegar to your fabric softener dispenser every now and then will help with this problem, so I plan to do that. I also learned that vinegar works really well as a fabric softener, so I may be switching for fabric softener sheets to a homemade fabric softener soon.

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Conclusion: This homemade powder laundry detergent is easy to make, if you have a food processor, and cleans well. It also did not break anyone out in my family. So, I think it is a keeper for my house.

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For more experiments go to Mom Advice.

Family Easter Picture

Planning My Menu

One of my favorite quotes is, "Fail to Pan, Plan to Fail." I really think that is true in so many things in life. It also fits really well in trying to save money at the grocery store. If you take some time to plan, you can save money at the grocery store. If you have a guide for what you are going to eat, then you will be more likely to be successful in saving money at the grocery store. That's where menu planning can help you. I like to plan my menu's for 1 week at a time, but I know others who like to plan a month in advance, so do what ever works for you and your family best.

Here are some steps I follow when planning my menu.

1. Take an invetory of existing foods- This is really important because sometimes I get really good deals and already have items on hand. Some people call this pantry shopping. I like to know at all times exactly what I have in my pantry so I keep a list on the fridge and add and take away. This prevents me from having to go digging in my cabnits and deep freezer. I also like to double my recipes as I cook and so I keep a list of the extra freezer meals I have on hand and I make note if I want to use some of those that week.

2. Check and compare sale ads and coupons- This can seem time consuming, but it helps me save the most money. I also know that Walmart price matches so sometimes this helps me not have to go to several stores. I also like to match coupons to get the best deals. I will stockpile items that I plan to use later, if I find a really good deal. I also like to make note of recipes that work best with the items that are on sale that week.

3. Decide on your meals for the week- You can find lots of menu planning worksheets online, but I just use paper and pecil for mine and then type it on the computer. I have a notebook that I use for meal planning. It is a three ring binder and I use the following tabs: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Fish, Desserts, Breakfast, Beverages, Soups, Salads, Muffins. I keep my recipes behind the tabs and then I can just go looking for recipes that match what I need. For example, if chicken is on sale, I go looking in the chicken tab for a chicken recipe my family likes. I also have a tab for untried recipe that I want to try. I try to make at least one new recipe a week. The very first tab is where I put my menu plans. I like to keep old ones just to see what we ate later, it helps me make new menus. This took a little while to make, but now that it is made, it saves me so much time! I put my recipes in plastic sleeves so that they are protected and I can feel save to use them as I cook.

4. Make a grocery list- After I have my recipes, I make a list of the things I need to make each recipe and then I go pantry shopping and mark those items off of the list since I have those on hand.

5. Match coupons - I like to make sure I have all my coupons ready that I plan to use before going to the store. Get those ready and have those ready with your list so you can go shopping.

6. Go Shopping- If I plan my menus, I am so much more likely to not have to go back during the week and this not only saves me money, but time.
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That is pretty much what I do as I plan my meals. I hope you will take some time to plan your meals, it really does save money and time.

Here's my dinner menu for this week:
Dinners
Monday- Corndog Casserole, salad
Tuesday- Crockpot Taco Junk, tortilla chips, salad
Wednesday- Crockpot Brown Sugar Chili (I'll make a double batch to freeze for another meal), Cornbread
Thursday- Spaghetti Casserole, garlic toast, salad
Friday- General Tso's Chicken, Baked Egg Rolls
Saturday- Eat out for my birthday!!!
Sunday- Homemade Pizza, here's the dough I use