Homecoming Kickback

My kids wanted to have a "kickback" (get-together) after their Homecoming dance last night because nobody usually go straight home afterwards. While most people wait for a table at Applebees or Aurellio's Pizza Parlor, their friends had an open door to come to our house and "kickback".

I prepared some snack food; mostly store bought, so it was no time to pull together, I just had to prepare the buffalo wings. The menu consisted of: assorted soda and bottled water, cupcakes, a variety of cookies, Flammin' Hot Cheetos, Tostado Tortilla Bowl chips, 7 Layer dip, buffalo wings with ranch dipping sauce and celery sticks. The recipe for my well-loved buffalo wings is:

My Buffalo Wings
a bag of chicken fryers
flour
egg
Lawry's seasoning salt
black pepper
Adobo
Garlic Powder
Red Hot Louisiana Hot Sauce
butter
lemon juice
Ranch dressing
grease

I heated the frying pan of grease on medium heat. I then cleaned the chicken fryers then seasoned them with Lawry's,pepper, Adobo and garlic powder. Then dipped the seasoned chicken fryers in egg then in flour. I placed the chicken fryers in the hot grease for about 6 minutes on each side or until golden brown. When done, I took the fryers out and placed them in a strainer that was on top of a paper towel covered plate.

I used a sauce pan for the buffalo sauce. I took about 2 tbsps of butter and melted it in the sauce pan. Once melted I added about 2 cups of hot sauce and a teaspoon of lemon juice. I stirred consistently and cooked on low heat for about 5 minutes.

I placed the chicken fryers in a big stainless mixing bowl and poured the buffalo sauce in. I made sure that every chicken fryer was covered with sauce then I plated the buffalo wings on a plate. I poured Ranch dressing in a small bowl and placed it on the plate as well. There you have it, my buffalo chicken recipe! I wish that you can taste it but maybe one day you will!

September Length Check

Do you see how much this chik's hair is growing and how fast? I'm starting to regret cutting off her blonde ends before taking this picture though. We cut the remaining of the blonde hair over a week ago, if we would have left it then her fro would have been even bigger. We weren't thinking about these length checks at the time though. Oh well, there is still a difference in length nonetheless.

How to Significantly Increase Your Income Without Working Harder (Part 1)

Many times, I’ll receive emails from people saying how they wish they could be in the financial position we’re in but it’s just not possible because they only make $20,000 per year. Not too long ago, making $20,000 per year would have been a significant pay increase for us as we were barely eeking by making $600 to $1,000 per month.

We knew that we needed to increase our income if we were ever going to get financial traction, but we decided to go about it in non-traditional way: instead of focusing all of our time and energies on getting a better job with better pay, we looked for ways to build additional income streams outside the 8 to 5 traditional job. This has been the key to our financial success. The 8 to 5 jobs have helped to pay the bills, but the nontraditional income streams have allowed us to save aggressively and give generously.

In this series, I’m going to share some things we’ve learned over our eight and half year journey of entreprenuerial endeavors and failures. My hope is to help you see that you’re not stuck, no matter how bad of a financial situation you may feel like you’re in right now. There is always hope–especially if you’re willing to think outside the box.

READ MORE. Also, be sure to check out Part 2 and Part 3.

I don't know why I didn't think to price match fruit at Wal-Mart.

I am so going to do this on my next grocery shopping trip (Tuesday).

Tip on the Cheapest Rate to Buying an Airline Ticket

I just saw an expert on the Nate Burkus Show saying that if you want to pay the lowest price for an airline ticket you won't find it online and you definitely won't find it over the weekend. Airline tickets are at their highest over the weekend.

The best time to buy is at 12:01 AM on Wednesday morning in your time zone. The airlines lower their ticket prices at 11:59 PM Tuesday night and will be available to us at 12:01 AM.

Also, for the best rate, pick up the phone and call the airline to speak directly with an agent. They only release the prices that they want you to see on the web. They have so many more choices over the phone and you will be surprise how much you save by doing so.

The Real on Couponing

The new show "Extreme Couponing" on TLC has shocked everyone with the incredible potential of coupon savings. It has also exposed the dark side of couponing.

I think the people on that show are likely not as extreme as they were portrayed (it is television after all), however the show has given people unrealistic expectations for couponing and given couponers unfair representation.

If you want to learn to coupon and save 50% or more on your grocery bill, then I can certainly help – and you won't need to spend 70+ hours a week on couponing!

Realistic Time

Realistically I spend 30-45 minutes a week clipping coupons and putting together a shopping list. This is typically for shopping at 2 stores – 1 grocery store and 1 drug store. How long you spend on this depends on how many stores you shop at and how long you have been couponing. My couponing grocery trips rarely take longer than a trip where I don't use coupons (scanning coupons really only takes a few minutes in a normal shopping trip).

After you set up a coupon system like a coupon binder, there really isn't that much to it! Coupon sites like mine even match up coupons for you which saves you a ton of time! Just pull the coupons you need, print your list and go!

Realistic Spending

Sure the people on that show save a ton of money, but how much are they spending to get that savings? I also consider my time valuable. If I'm taking away time from my family then the cost is too high, regardless of the savings.

I think it is entirely possible to save 50% or more on your grocery bill. The savings will vary depending on your family size and eating habits. I do think that everyone can use coupons though. There is a myth that there are no coupons for healthy foods and it is simply not true. They are not quite as common, but nutritious deals are definitely available.

Realistic Stockpile

Okay, 1500 sticks of deodorant? 40 years worth of toilet paper? That is just not realistic to me. Sales come in cycles and you should definitely buy a few months worth of the items your family will use or eat, but there’s no need to buy more than that. A good rule of thumb is to buy one newspaper per family member. Then when your favorite pasta goes on sale, you buy more than one box because you have multiple coupons.

For our family of three I used to buy three newspapers per week. Now that I've been couponing for a while (and the cost of newspapers has gone up), I have cut back to just two newspapers per week. This really is plenty for our family! We have an extra shelf in the garage to store our stockpile (I could probably eliminate this too if I were more organized), but everything else is just stored regularly in the pantry or cabinets. I am also able to donate on a regular basis, even with my relatively small stockpile.

Realistic Expectations

Please don't expect to save 98% on your very first coupon shopping trip. Yes, it can happen, but it takes some time and work. You have to collect coupons every week and build up your stockpile. Once you've done that, you have the freedom to "cherry pick". That means you only go to the store to buy the freebies and cheapies.

I am not trying to discourage you at all, I just want to make sure you have realistic expectations. Couponing really is a blast, so I completely understand how some people can become addicted to it!

Couponing can be a great way to save your family money, and it doesn't have to be an obsessive hobby!

What's For Dinner? Italian Sausage and Eggplant Parmesan

It was a big hit, "Go Nik! Go Nik!"

Ingredients

Not pictured:Italian Bread Crumbs, olive oil, white wine, eggs, seasoning and other misc. little things that I used to complete this meal. Charge it to my head and not to my heart but these are the items that I bought from the store today for tonight's dinner.

Pan seared Italian Sausage

I cut them in halves, put a little olive oil in the bottom of the pan and seared them for about 8 minutes on each side. I cut up some red peppers, green peppers and onions for added flavor. I deglazed the pan with a little white wine and poured it over the Italian Sausage when I put them in the glass dish. I then added marinara on top and threw the peppers and onions on top then boom! We like to use white bread or buns for Italian sausage.

Eggplant Parmesan with Mostaciolli

Eggplant is very absorbent so after I peeled and sliced the eggplant, I sat it in ice water for about an hour to keep it from soaking up all the grease when I fried it. I then dumped out the ice water and seasoned the eggplant, dipped it in egg then covered the slices in Italian Styled bread crumbs. I fried it for about 3-4 minutes.

I made the mostaccioli with red marinara (pasta sauce), green and red peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic and seasoning. I mixed the egglant in while the mostaccioli was still on the stove top. I poured half of the pot in the foil pan and topped it off with a 6 cheese blend of Italian cheese. I poured the other half of the pot in the pan then put the other half of my cheese blend on top. I popped that baby in the over for about 30 minutes in 350 (or until golden brown) then bang!

I think I just made my son's day today. It feels darn good too! :-D

Chicken Florentine with Spinach and Bowtie Pasta

Sorry for the lack of flash, I took this photo from my lap in a low lighted room. I was about to eat and I was like "Oh wait, I need to get a picture of this!". LOL

I used Jessica's Recipe . The only thing I did differently was use an Italian Blend of 6 Cheeses (she used straight Parmesan) and I seasoned with my staples in addition to the Italian seasoning, I also used Lawry's, garlic powder and Adobo. I can't seem to cook without those three, especially Adobo.

Bowtie Chicken Pasta Florentine

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, trimmed of fat and sliced into 1/2 inch strips
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 pound bowtie pasta
2 cups half and half
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add a teaspoon of salt and then add the bowtie pasta. Cook according to package directions (about 10 minutes).

In the meantime, pour 2 teaspoons of olive oil into a saute pan heated to medium high. Add chicken and cook until slightly golden brown. Sprinkle on garlic salt, black pepper, and Italian seasoning. Remove from pan and set on a plate. In the same saute pan, add half and half and spinach. Stir to combine. By now the pasta should be cooked. Drain water from pasta and pour into the saute pan with the spinach. Return chicken to pan, add Parmesan cheese and stir.
Put on plates and sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.

Okay, So My life isn't that Interesting and I Might as Well Call This a Food Blog. LOL

Ever since starting the new job all I do is go to work, go to the grocery store, cook, work from home on my other gig, watch TV with the kids and do it all again the next day. LOL Nothing really exciting going on and yes, the highlight of my day is cooking dinner. It is how I relax and I love to see my kids grub. That's how I can tell that they really like it. If they pick over it then I know not to make that dish again or at least do something different with it.

I don't even take pictures of every meal but I have several meals on my phone that I took on reserve in case I have nothing really to blog about. I also wanted to spread some meals out because they are too similar (like pasta for instance, I've made several different pasta meals especially lately because that's what my family likes). I didn't want this blog to be all about food, especially pasta.

About 5 minutes ago, I said forget it, and I will unload a few meals that are on my phone. Forget the order and variety of the posts. It's not that serious anyway. Today I made Eggplant Parmesan and Italian Sausage. I will post about it in a few minutes but first I want to rid my phone of the Chicken Florentine picture that has been sitting there for almost 3 weeks. LOL

Chicken Quesadillas

Okay, so "Plating and Presentation" is not my strong suit, but I sure know how to make tasty food. Lol My preference is quick meals because time is not my best friend.

My kids had a half-day of school today therefore I knew that it meant that they would be eating lunch at home. By using:
left over baked chicken
Mild Cheddar cheese
Monterey Jack cheese
flour tortillas
butter
green salsa (for dipping)
that I had in the fridge, I was able to whip up a 10 minute lunch for them as soon as they came home.

There are no rules to quesadillas, you can put whatever you want in it, onions, jalapenos, black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, any and everything. As long as you use flour tortillas and cheese, which "queso" means in Spanish. I do know that it tastes better in a cast iron pan. Some may use olive oil but I used butter in the pan. The kids loved it. I ended up having to make them more. LOL

What's for Dinner? Shrimp and Broccoli Pasta Bowl in Alfredo Sauce

My family loves pasta. Not the gluten-free or wheat pasta, the bad for you kind. I balanced it off with healthy veggies and shrimp though and it turned out great. Fettuccine was my first choice in pasta but I didn't have any so I used Spaghetti. It really doesn't matter what kind of pasta you use though, it will work with any.

Ingredients
1 package of fettuccine (I used spaghetti)
1 pound peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
1 bag of thawed frozen broccoli
2 green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/3 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Preparation

1. Bring Pasta to boil. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Combine shrimp, broccoli, onions, and garlic in a small bowl. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil; swirl to coat. Add shrimp mixture, and sauté for 4 minutes or until shrimp are done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

2. To make the Alfredo Sauce; reduce heat to medium. Add reserved cooking liquid, Parmigiano-Reggiano, half-and-half, cream cheese, and pepper to pan. Cook 2 minutes or until cheeses melt. Combine pasta, Alfredo sauce and shrimp mixture.


I love to eat my pasta with some buttery bread and so I made little Pillsbury Crescents and boom! A quick, easy, fun, delicious and balanced one course meal.

Oooh! I LOVE!!!!

Antonio isn't my favorite designer but her threw down on this project!

What's for Dinner? Labor Day Edition

I had to work earlier in the day, so I only grilled three things: steak, asparagus and corn on the cob. I don't need to put a step by step tutorial on how to grill steak and asparagus because it's pretty self-explanatory but you're probably wondering "why does her corn on the cob looks that way?"



The reason why my corn looks that way is because after grilling it I made ELOTE. Elote is Mexican Corn and Chicago street vendors usually sell them. It is so yummy. I always wondered if Mexicans outside of Chicago really eat their corn this way (because Tex-Mex cuisine is so Americanized)but in Chicago I know that they do. Elote is really easy to make. Here is how:

Ingredients

4 ears corn, shucked (I cut each cob in 3 portions)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated cotija cheese
a pinch of chili powder
12 wedges lime (optional)


Directions

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
Grill corn until hot and lightly charred all over, 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of the grill. Roll the ears in melted butter, then spread evenly with mayonnaise. Sprinkle with cotija cheese then chili powder. You can serve with a lime wedge if you like a little lime juice on it, but it is just as great without it.

Super easy, super quick and super delicious!

Would I be vain to have a big ole wall mural of my face? Lol

I think that this is pretty cool. If you could get a wall mural of any photograph what would you have on your wall?

Update: It's been less than a month

Great results so far, don't you think?

When God's Timing Is Taking Too Long

by Joyce Meyer

We all want good things to happen in our lives, but too often we want it now...not later. When it doesn't happen that way, we are tempted to ask, "When, God, when?" Most of us need to grow in the area of trusting God instead of focusing on the "when" question. If you're missing joy and peace, you're not trusting God. If your mind feels worn out all the time, you're not trusting God.

The tendency to want to know about everything that's going on can be detrimental to your Christian walk. Sometimes knowing everything can be uncomfortable and can even hurt you. I spent a large part of my life being impatient, frustrated and disappointed because there were things I didn't know. God had to teach me to leave things alone and quit feeling that I needed to know everything. I finally learned to trust the One who knows all things and accept that some questions may never be answered. We prove that we trust God when we refuse to worry.

Read More

Fat Post of the Week: How to Eat a Cupcake

Jorge Garcia (Hurley from "Lost") posted a brilliant way to eat a cupcake on his blog many moons ago. Since then I have been eating it this way and it truly does taste better, here is how:

You start with the cup cake.


First you peel away the paper. (Trust me it gets better.)


Then tear off the bottom portion of the cupcake.


Place the torn-off portion on top where the frosting is.


Give it a little squeeze.


And there you have it. Eat it like a cream-filled cake sandwich.


Brilliant? I know!

SOURCE: JORGE GARCIA

What's for Dinner?

Today I made Butter Crusted Tilapia, Broccoli & Cauliflower Medley and Macaroni & Cheese (Well, I prefer to use mostaccioli pasta as opposed to elbow macaroni pasta. It tastes the same but the texture is a little different).

I could have used a prettier piece of tilapia, I didn't noticed how flawed this was until I uploaded the picture. It's torn and the edges are a little dark. It shole tasted great though! Here is what I did:

Butter Crusted Tilapia Ingredients

Tilapia Filets
1/2 Stick of Butter
Bread Crumbs
Lemon Pepper
Garlic Powder
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Adobo
Olive Oil
Fresh Lemon Wedges

Preparation:

I cleaned the Tilapia filets and then laid them on a plate. I then melted the butter in a pot on the stove as I prepared my crust.

For the crust, I mixed bread crumbs,lemon pepper, garlic powder, seasoning salt and adobo in a bowl.

I heated up a frying pan with a little olive oil in it

Took a few tablespoons of the butter,poured them over a few pieces of tilapia, rubbed it, dipped it in crust mix, fully coated it on both sides, then put it in the frying pan. I cooked it for 3-4 minutes on both sides in medium heat.

For eating, I like to squeeze a few wedges of lemon over my fish. It makes it a little more yummy.

Macaroni and Cheese Ingredients

Box of Mostaccioli
8 oz of evaporated milk (or 8 oz of white milk)
4 eggs
stick of butter
mild cheddar cheese
Monterey jack cheese
Colby Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Adobo
Garlic Powder
Black Pepper
Paprika

I pre-heated the over to 375, boiled hot water then added mostaccioli to the boiling hot water.

While the mostaccioli is boiling, I pulled out a sauce pan to make my bechamel (white sauce): I melted the butter, then added the milk, 4 eggs, and seasoning then set the pan to the side until I'm ready for it.

When the mostaccioli is al dente, I drained the water out then put the pot back on the stove. I poured the bechamel from the sauce pan into the pot of mostaccioli and mixed it. I them proceded to add half of my four cheese mixture until it melts.

I pulled out a long lasagna pan, sprayed it with non stick spray and poured some of the contents into the lasagna pan. I spreaded it out with a spoon them covered it up with more cheese. I poured the rest in the pan making another layer, spreaded it out, then covered that with cheese.

I sprinkled paprika on top, popped it in the oven and baked it for about 40 minutes.

I let it cool for about 15-20 minutes making sure that the bechamel geled good.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Medley

It's just frozen Broccoli and Cauliflower added to boiled water and a little seasoning. It was simple and good. LOL

ABG | The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl

I love this web show. This seriously need to be on television. Thanks Sandria for putting me up on this. All of the episodes can be seen here.

My Punchbowl Cake

My punchbowl cake is a highly requested dessert from my family especially on holidays. I put a twist on the traditional punchbowl cake where they use pineapples and cherries. I use fruit that my family prefer; strawberries and bananas. I also use banana cake in my recipe so it's safe to say that this is an original recipe to a classic dessert.

For my punchbowl cake you will need:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box banana cake mix
4 reg size boxes of instant vanilla pudding
1 package of fresh strawberries
6-8 bananas
2 lg. packages of Cool Whip
1 c. chopped pecans
6 large eggs
1 gal of 2% milk
Large punch bowl

Preparation:

Prepare yellow cake mix according to directions on package, separate the batter in two round 8 in pans, bake and cool.

While the yellow cake is baking,prepare banana cake mix according to directions on package, separate the batter in two round 8 in pans, bake and cool.

While the banana cake is baking, the yellow cake can be cool enough to cut in squares or break apart with your hands and stack them in a bowl that you will put aside for now.

After the banana cake is done and cooled, you can cut the cake in squares or break it apart with your hands then put them in a separate bowl from the yellow cake.

Now it's time to prepare the pudding. Follow the directions (most brands would recommend 2 cups of milk per box) and mix it up with the mixer until all of the powder is dissolved and the pudding gels.

Cut up the bananas and add them into the pudding mixture then stir it up.

Clean and cut your strawberries, adding them into a bowl of its own.

Now it's time to layer it!

Put some banana pudding on the very bottom of the bowl first. Take some pieces of the yellow cake and banana cake then put them on top of the banana pudding layer until you don't see what's underneath. Cover the cake layer with half of the whip cream and top the whip cream with your strawberries. Sprinkle half of your cup of pecans on top of the strawberries. Now repeat the layers in that order. Your layers should look something like what I did here:


Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 18 to 20. It's great for parties. It's messy and good, it's fun to scoop it out with a punch scoop or a big serving spoon and dump it right on your plate. If you try it, let me know. I'd love to know how it turned out! :-)

An added tip: If you have any leftover cake pieces, put them in a ziplock, label them (i.e. yellow cake 7-30-11) then freeze them for a later project...cake pops! Next time I make cake pops, I will post it here!

My daughter did the BC (BIG CHOP) on 7-25-11!

My daughter has always had gusto so I wasn't too surprised when she decided to chop off her hair. She's been wearing extensions with her hair braided underneath until she was happy with a length to cut the relaxed hair off (she still have color in her hair but that's on purpose. She wanted to cut off her permed hair so that's what she did). I will blog her hair journey leading up to her first anniversary at the same time I will share our hair care tips and product reviews. Our goal for July 25, 2012 is for her hair to be bra length.

Here are photos right after we did the big chop (7-25-11):



Here are photos taken the next day (7-26-2011) when we returned from the Egyptian Salon called Mena's. They gave her a deep conditioner, straightened her hair with the round brush blow dryer technique and cut her hair in layers since it needed to be shaped.



It turned out longer than we thought after it was straightened. They cut about an inch off the back too! She now has virgin hair and feel sooooo free. It's going to be fun growing it out. It's so thick, full and has a lot of body after being blow dried. Some days she's going to wear it like the first set of pictures and some days, she's going to wear it straight. Right now, she's feeling the straight look.