Bonus Friday Favorite: Recipe

While we are on the subject of Hallee the Homemaker, I wanted to share one of her awesome recipes. This recipe is for white chicken chili. I'm not a big chili fan, but I loved this chili. It had just the right amount of spice for me. It's not really chili season right now, but soon enough it will be!

Photo Credit: Hallee the Homemaker

She has a ton of great recipes especially for homemade (healthy!) breads. If you haven't checked out her site, it really is worth it!

Friday Favorites- Website!

I recently discovered this wonderful website called Parenting. Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. I find t to be a really entertaining look at parenting. The writer illustrates common parenting moments through funny stories and pictures that could easily been drawn on MS paint. For parents out there, it will make you feel like you are not alone in the weird things you go through.

This is one of my personal favorites.

If anything, the site will give you a good laugh. Enjoy!

Friday Favorites- Harry Potter

I figured since the last movie premieres tonight, it would be appropriate to make Harry Potter my Friday Favorite for the week.

I must admit when the Harry Potter craze first started, I was very not interested. I had seen a couple of the movies, and they were good movies, but I hadn't read the books, or even cared. Then I took a religion class that covered 4 different series: Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, His Dark Materials, and you guessed it, Harry Potter. I had to read the series for the class, and I found myself unable to put them down. Luckily, by time I took the class all of the books were out, so there was no waiting a long time for the next one. I've seen all the movies, and I am eagerly awaiting seeing this last one. I don't know if I'll see it tonight, or in a few weeks, but I am excited.

Anyone else as excited as me?

(On a side note, I'm dying to go to the Harry Potter world at Universal Studios as well...)

Friday Favorites- Giveaway!

I was really excited when I received this "spark" from MyBlogSpark. I've always wanted to try Seventh Generation Diapers, but they just were never in my price range at the time. I try to be quite green where I can, so I was very excited about this. Seventh Generation has redesigned their diapers and they wanted you guys to have a sneak peak at what you can expect.

Their Free & Clear diapers do not include chlorine processing, fragrances, latex and petroleum based lotions. With processed chlorine-free wood pulp in Free & Clear diapers, Seventh Generation also makes certain that no chlorine is released into the environment during the Totally Chlorine Free whitening process of the diapers and training pants.

What is equally exciting is Seventh Generation has also reduced the size of the plastic packaging, meaning less landfill waste. In fact, the packaging can now be recycled at local supermarkets where plastic bag recycling collection boxes are available. (Publix has plastic bag recycling at their stores).

These diapers feel and work like any other diaper, just without all the yucky stuff! If you would like to try them, they are offering my readers a $2/1 Seventh Generation Product that can be found here. They're also giving onne lucky reader a prize pack that contains one package of diapers (Choice of size 2, 4, or 5)!

To Enter:

Required Entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite "green" tip or a diapering/baby tip.

Bonus Entries:

1. Subscribe to the Frugal and Provident feed or email, and leave a comment saying that you did.
2. Follow Frugal and Provident via Google Friend Connect (found in the right side-bar), and leaving a comment saying that you did.
3. "Like" Frugal and Provident on Facebook, and leave a comment saying that you did.
4. Share this giveaway somewhere, and leave a comment saying where.
5. "Like" Seventh Generation of Facebook or Follow them on Twitter and leave a comment saying which you did.

This means you can enter up to 6 times! Please be sure to leave a comment for each  form of entry! The winner will be chosen using random.org on 7/8/11 around 10pm. Emailed comments and those left on Facebook will not be counted.

Disclosure: Seventh Generation and MyBlogSpark provided me with info and a prize pack for me and my winner. All comments and opinions are my own.

Friday Favorites- Recipe

Lately I have been trying to cut out white processed flour from my diet and replace it with whole grains. I checked out this wonderful book from the library called King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. It quickly has been added to my Amazon wishlist. I recently made some blueberry muffins from one of the recipes in the book, and they were delicious and you could never tell it wasn't white flour. I hope you'll try it out and enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins (as adapted from King Arthur Flour)
Ingredients
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Flour for berries

Directions
1. Lightly grease muffin tin, or line with paper and coat paper with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy and almost white in color. Scrape down bowl and turn mixer back on and add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg.
4. Add vanilla and sour cream, and mix until incorporated.
5. Add dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until batter is smooth. Scrape down sides and bottom to make sure everything is combined.
6. In a small bowl, mix blueberries with enough flour to coat their surface. (I've found this keeps the blueberries from sinking in the batter and from turning the whole thing purple).
7. Gently fold blueberries into batter, and refridgerate for at least an hour.
8. Preheat oven to 400F.
9. Scoop batter by the 1/4 cup into the prepared pan and sprinkle with sugar.
10. Bake muffins until a toothpick comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites- Vocalpoint and Mott's for Tots

Vocalpoint is a great site that offers tons of great samples, which usually come with high value coupons. If you haven't signed up, you really should.

Today they have a special promotion to sign-up for a free sample and savings from Mott's for Tots. Mott's coupons are fairly rare, so I would definitely sign-up. To get this offer, click on the Mott's for Tots photo above.
Enjoy!

Friday Favorites- Birthday!

Last Friday marked the 1 year birthday of Frugal and Provident! Boy what a year it has been! I feel like I just started this yesterday! In this short year, the blog has changed a lot with a new look and some new features. I hope to be able to bring you many more years of blogging!



Also, please share anything you'd love to see or anything you'd like to see changed! I love hearing from you! Stories, questions, or comments, I'd love to hear them. What's your favorite part of the blog? What's your least favorite part? What do you want to see more of? Have you learned anything? Is there something you'd like to learn more about? Let me know in the comments below or you can email me. For my email address check-out the disclosure policy tab above.

And also, a big thank you to all of my readers!

Friday Favorites- Recipe

I made these delicious pumpkin muffins a week or so ago, and I just had to share them with you.

Photo Credit: thepioneerwoman.com

Don't they look yummy? They were sooo yummy, and made the house smell great.

You can find the recipe for them here. This is also a great website for a lot of recipes.

Friday Favorites- This One is for Girls Only!

One of the best things I ever did as a woman is start tracking my fertility. What does that mean exactly? Well for one it is keeping track of when your period happens, but it can be sooo much more than that. If you are trying to conceive, there are tons of things you could be looking for to improve your chances. Also, tracking can help you to realize if something is wrong with your menstrual cycle.

I've found the best online tracker for me is fertilityfriend.com. I track pretty much everything, and it keeps it all in one neat place for me. I have the VIP version, as I need some of the more advanced stuff due to some infertility issues, but the basic is suitable for someone just trying to know more about how their body works. They also have courses for you to learn how to chart. Once you do it for a little bit, it becomes really simple. Honestly I was surprised by how much our body tells us, and how it tells us.

I really found it all empowering, and I hope you do too.

On a side note, if anyone would like me to send them an email invite for the website, it would be helpful. Each invite accepted gets me a few days of vip service added on to my account, and for each person who purchases the vip I get 30 days, as do you. :-)

Friday Favorites- Recipe

I made this recipe for Nutella Cheesecake Brownies the other day, and they were soooooo yummy.
The only thing I would change is for the cheesecake layer, cream the cream cheese and sugar first, then add the Nutella, then each of the eggs one at a time.

They were really simple to make, but oh so yummy. Definitely on my favorites list.

Friday Favorites- Freecyle



Freecycle is an idea that you can recycle your unwanted goods to someone who might want them. They have a national website, where you can find your local chapter. It's usually run through yahoo groups. 

How it works:

1. A person lists an item they don't want anymore (examples might be a bike with a flat tire, tvs, newspapers, coupons, etc.)
2. You want it so you contact them via the email they registered with.
3. If your first, or the person they pick, they'll let you know and you can arrange pick-up.
4. If you don't get it first, the person will either email you back or list it as "Taken"

You can also list wanted, but this is discouraged.

What freecycle is not:

A place to get everything you need for free. Yes occasionally really nice things come through, but you shouldn't be posting "wanted Nintendo Wii" or anything like that.

What is it's purpose:

It's really meant for things that would otherwise end up in a landfill. So it may be items that are fixable (like the bike with a flat tire) or are just random like empty wine bottles, but the point is that one man's junk is another's treasure. People also post things that they could donate. Sometimes people just post "bag of clothes this size, one person takes all." You may not want everything in the bag, but that's ok, you can freecycle what you don't want. Sometimes it's a box of misc. homewares. You just never know. Nicer things go quicker, so you'll have to respond right away.

And it's all free. No fee to join, no fee to get anything. So get to freecycling.

Friday Favorites- Recipe

I really, really love baking, so I just thought I'd share one of my favorite roll recipes. It's a recipe by King Authur Flour, one of my favorite kinds of flour (yes I have favorites).

I often make it for Thanksgiving, but they can work for all sorts of meals. They are soo yummy.

Check out these yummy Honey Wheat Rolls here.

Friday Favorites- Cake!

Ok, so really I just wanted to show you the cake I made for my daughter's birthday.

The writing isn't the best, but the cake was from scratch. This is really also a lesson in frugality. If I bought this cake it would have easily been over $20 (especially with Elmo on it!), but it cost about $10 to make the cake. But really less because a lot of it you probably already have on hand (I did!) and some you could even stock pile at cheap prices. This was a 13 x 9 cake, which would be similar to a quarter sheet cake.

Also by making it from scratch, I know what went in it, which is something I always like to know.

Just some food for thought. ;-)

Friday Favorites- Bzz Agent

A couple months ago I came upon a site called BzzAgent. They have campaigns where you get to try free stuff and the only catch is you have to share your thoughts with others.

This past month I got a fun pack from SC Johnson for Spring Cleaning. It came with Pledge, a Glade Candle, Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Spray, Scrubbing Bubbles toilet gel and a refill for a plugin oil warmer. It also came with tons of coupons. I was excited. I really love the smell of the Sparkle of Spring candle. I've been a fan of the toilet gel in the past, and was excited to see it in there too. I like how it extends the time between deep cleanings.
I encourage you to check out the Spring collection by Glade because they smell really great, and also check-out (and sign-up for) BzzAgent for your own opportunities for free stuff.

Friday Favorites- Website!

A friend on facebook posted this website the other day, and it has given me a bunch of good laughs. It is called {Bleep} My Kids Ruined. It's so funny because if you have kids you've been there, and sometimes you just sit there and go "if I didn't see this with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it." So go check it out and have a laugh. I also enjoy their sister site {Bleep} My Pets Ruined. *Warning* There are times that there may be questionable material on these sites, as they are user submitted. Also, while they bleep out the name on the website, the address contains a less than favorable word. Just a word of caution because I always like a warning.

In other news, you might have noticed the lack of posts this week. It's been pretty hectic here. I promise next week will be better. :-)

Friday Favorites- My Faith

As I've mentioned before, my faith is an important part of me, and an important reason for my blog. Unfortunately, my faith is also one that isn't understood very well by many, and often the target of rumors and sometimes even persecution. My church has recently rolled out a new program allowing everyday people of our church to create profiles about who they are, and why they follow this faith. I hope you will check it out, and check out some others while you are there. (Sorry for any grammar issues, it takes a few days between updating something and it being published that way on the website.)

Friday Favorites- Website.

With the price of gas the way it is, one of the best ways to save money is to plan your errands. The best thing is to do as many as you can in one stretch, and plan the most effective route. That way you aren't driving to one side of town and back, or to home and back out several times.

So here is a handy website to plan your route.

Of course you can always use websites like google maps and add multiple stops as well.

Friday Favorites- Giveaway!

With a new year comes a new you, and Green Giant^® is here to cheer you on! Whether you’re already following a weight management plan or looking to start a new one, sometimes it’s the small changes that can make a huge difference.

Green Giant Boxed Vegetables can help you stay on track to achieve your weight management goals in 2011. Twenty-nine delicious varieties are now endorsed by Weight Watchers®, and most have only a 1 or 2 PointsPlus^® value per serving! Packed with flavor and ready in minutes, Green Giant Boxed Vegetables are available in a wide variety of flavors, many featuring mouthwatering sauces and seasonings. They’re a terrific addition to any meal and a delicious way to achieve better health in 2011.

I'm not currently on Weight Watchers, but I'm looking to join in the near future. I'm so excited by the number of things that now work well with Weight Watchers. I especially love cheese covered Broccoli for only 2 points!

I was equally excited when Green Giant and MyBlogSpark wanted to send me a prize pack to try out their veggies because I love getting produce for free/cheap. I'm also excited to say that Green Giant and MyBlogSpark have offered a prize pack for one of my readers as well! The prize pack includes an insulated tote bag (it's the size of the reusable store bags), great for keeping your frozen food frozen on the way back from the store, a serving bowl (it's a nice size one big enough for a bowl of popcorn), silicone spoon,  a pedometer, and a special VIP coupon for Green Giant Boxed Vegetables.

To Enter:

Required Entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite veggie or favorite way to prepare veggies.

Bonus Entries:

1. Subscribe to the Frugal and Provident feed or email, and leave a comment saying that you did.
2. Follow Frugal and Provident via Google Friend Connect (found in the right side-bar), and leaving a comment saying that you did.
3. "Like" Frugal and Provident on Facebook, and leave a comment saying that you did.
4. Share this giveaway somewhere, and leave a comment saying where.

This means you can enter up to 5 times! Please be sure to leave a comment for each form of entry! The winner will be chosen on 3/2/11 around 10pm. Emailed comments and those left on Facebook will not be counted.

Disclosure: Green Giant Boxed Vegetables and MyBlogSpark provided me with info and a prize pack for me and my winner. All comments and opinions are my own.

Good Luck!

Edit: Sorry to anyone who saw this when it first posted and didn't know how to enter, somehow blogger lost half the post. :-( 

Edit 2: Due to a family emergency I've extended the ending time for this giveaway to 3/3/11

Friday Favorites- Recipe!

A few weeks ago, I decided to make some individual cheesecakes for an activity at church. I had made full cheesecakes before, but hadn't made individual ones before. I wanted ones that were more like cheesecake, and not the ones with the nilla wafer in the bottom. So, in typical me fashion I searched the internet, and here is what I found. And I must say they turned out amazingly good.

So check-it out here.

It comes with tips on how to do it at the top, and the recipe is at the bottom.

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites- Giveaway!

Edit: This giveaway is now over!

Each year many people make resolutions to lose weight and/or get more active, but come February (or earlier!) we find that we have already fallen back into old habits.

It can be a challenge, but this year MultiGrain Cheerios® cereal and The Biggest Loser Club® can help you get started on your weight management goals with a free 7-day plan. 

You can also find tons of great stuff on the MultiGrain Cheerios website that can help you start your weight management journey. After entering the code found inside specially marked boxes of MultiGrain Cheerios cereal, you can access some great tools, including:

• A Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator to gauge how much weight you may need to lose or gain to be considered healthy and not at risk for serious health problems
• A 7 Day Plan that pairs daily meal plans with cardio and strength-training routines
• 15 tasty recipes that will give your body the fuel it needs to get through the day
• Daily workouts that couple cardio with mobility and resistance exercises to hit major muscle groups

MultiGrain Cheerios is actually one of my favorite cereals out there. It tastes great and is only 110 calories a serving. It also has 16g of whole grain. Eating MultiGrain Cheerios can easily be a part of your weight loss goals. It's great plain or you can add some fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or bananas. I also sometimes eat it as a healthy snack before bed. I was very excited when MyBlogSpark and MultiGrain Cheerios provided me with a great prize pack because I really do love this cereal!

If you need a little more inspiration, you can join MultiGrain Cheerios on Twitter™ during each episode of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser: Couples” Tuesday nights at 8PM EST through May 24, to connect with past contestants, share weight loss tips and discuss how to become your own Biggest Loser. Be sure to follow @MGCheerios and use the hashtag #mgcheerios to keep up with the conversation! 

And what's more is MyBlogSpark and MultiGrain Cheerios have given me another prize pack just for one of my readers. The prize pack contains a box of MultiGrain Cheerios with a code to access the online tools, a gym bag, a water bottle (BPA-free), and an on-the-go cereal container. 

To Enter:

1. Comment on this post on how you are going to be The Biggest Loser at Home, or one healthy living tip.
2. Subscribe to the Frugal and Provident feed or email.
3. Follow Frugal and Provident via Google Friend Connect (found in the right side-bar).
4. "Like" Frugal and Provident on Facebook.

This means you can enter up to 4 times! Please remember to leave a comment for each form of entry (up to 4 comments total)! The winner will be chosen on 2/4/11 around 9pm. Emailed comments and those left on Facebook will not be counted. Please be sure to share this giveaway with your friends as well!

Disclosure: MultiGrain Cheerios and MyBlogSpark provided me with info and a prize pack for me and my winner. All comments and opinions are my own.