Freebies arrived!!!

We got all of this stuff in the mail late last week.

The P+G Brandsaver sample pack mentioned previously and a Kashi bar sample which came with a coupon for a free box of bars!

Jon, Alice and I shared the bar. Jon didn't like it but I thought it was pretty good, comparable to Nutrigrain bars. I'll probably use the coupon to get the same flavor (blackberry). It will be a good snack to keep in the stroller that Alice and I can share after baby time at the library when we get home a bit late for lunch or when we're out getting groceries.

I also had enough Swagbucks to get a $25 PayPal giftcard which I used to order one of Jon's Christmas presents from Etsy. My points are nearly high enough to order another card soon. I'll probably use it on Etsy as well.

I also cashed in my Huggies points to order a $15 Starbucks gift card. I rarely ever buy Huggies anymore since they never send out coupons, have very little points per package, I find the diapers stiff feeling and leaky and they rarely go on sale for a decent price. So I definitely wasn't going to be adding any more points to my account and was just waiting for a reward to be posted that would use up my meager 375 points.

Pizza Dough Breadsticks

So a while ago we somehow ended up with absolutely nothing that we could have for lunch. We were busy working and cleaning and hadn't planned on doing groceries until the next day. We did have food but it consisted of mostly frozen meat, cereal and a couple of apples. There was no cheese, bread, deli meat or pasta. No potatoes for a quick batch of fries. What we did have was baking supplies, a bit of butter, garlic, a teeny bit of Italian seasoning and about a tablespoon of Parmesan stuck to the bottom of the tub.

We were pretty hungry (and also busy) so I didn't take any photos of the process and as you can see we already ate a bunch of what was there on the pan! These were easy to make, not much work at all, just a bit of waiting so we had some apples with almond butter while we waited and cleaned.

Just start by mixing up a batch of pizza dough. No need to let it sit and rise before you work with it this time though. I did mine 2 different ways. Jon wanted breadsticks and I wanted garlic bread so I cut the dough into 2 pieces, I half I flattened into a pie plate, the other half I rolled into sticks. Then I covered them with a clean tea towel and let them sit to rise for about 45 minutes or so.
When the time was up I turned my oven on to 400 and made my garlic butter. I just finely chopped a large garlic clove and microwaved it in about 2 tablespoons of butter. I brushed a bit over the breadsticks and then cut some grooves into the loaf of garlic bread and poured the rest over the top. Then everything got a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, Parmesan and sea salt. I popped them into the oven for about 20 minutes, the garlic bread needed an additional 5 due to the thickness.

These were sooo good even though we didn't have anything to use for a dipping sauce. We ate all of the garlic bread right away since it was so moist and garlicky, the breadsticks went with chili that we had for dinner.

I can't wait to try making these again, I'll probably just use a half batch of dough to do the garlic bread and add some cheddar on top to make garlic cheese bread.

Free Coffee at McDonald's in Canada Oct.31-Nov.6

Free small coffee all this week from McDonalds! 

No purchase or coupon necessary,  just go up and ask for a small coffee however you happen to take it.

We'll probably go every day this week since we have a McD's just a block away instead of making coffee at home in the afternoon, it will also be a nice treat when we go to pick up groceries tomorrow. Their coffee is surprisingly decent and you can't beat free!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

Lady LaLa (Alice) just turned a year old. Of course I made her a cake, I wasn't about to go out and buy her something from the store. I find that store bought cakes tend to have a way too sweet, greasy feeling frosting that seems like it's made with lard instead of real butter and usually only come in 2 flavors: white or brown. Not to mention the preservatives and whatnot they may contain, not something I want to give to a one year old. I could have made her a cake from a box but I wanted something with real veggies in it.

Baked Mac and Cheese

Baked mac and cheese is something we have for dinner fairly often, it's quick, easy, filling and an ultimate comfort food. It's also a pretty cheap meal. You can add leftover ham, bacon or veggies to it and it makes enough for leftovers for lunch the next day.

Here's what you need:

• 2 cups of milk
• 1 cup of grated cheese (whatever kind you like, I usually use cheddar)
• 1 bag of pasta (my bag is 500g)
• about a quarter of a regular sized onion (or half of a small onion)
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons flour
• a handful of crackers, whatever kind you like ( I stole some of Alice's Goldfish crackers), you can also use breadcrumbs 
• salt and pepper 
• 1 tablespoon oil

Start by getting the pasta on to cook, the sauce part won't take very long at all and it's easier if everything is ready at the same time.  You want the pasta a bit firm because it's going into the oven covered in sauce and it will finish cooking in there.

Ingredients

Finely dice the garlic and onion and fry in the oil until golden. Just a minute on medium heat should do it.

Onion and garlic frying up

Pour in the milk and continue cooking on medium.  I go ahead and give it a generous salt and peppering at this point, not sure why. Most people would wait until the sauce was done but I would probably forget if I waited I guess.

Add zee malk

When the milk is hot and starting to bubble mix the flour with about a quarter cup of water and stir it really well. This is used to thicken the sauce and you don't want chunks of flour. Blech. I realize that most people prefer to mix flour right into butter to make a roux but I find this way easier. Plus I don't want to fry the onion and garlic in a separate pan, the less dishes the better.  I've tried adding the flour first but it sticks to the onions and makes them weird and clumpy.

Flour and water

Dump the flour mix into the hot milk and get stirring! You will need to whisk constantly because this stuff thickens up super fast! When it seems like it's as thick as it's going to get turn the burner off and add all but a handful of cheese.

Creamy cheese sauce

So at this point my camera battery dies and needs to be charged.

Pretend you see me stirring the sauce into the drained mostly cooked pasta, pouring it into a baking dish, crumbling some crackers over the top and sprinkling the last of the cheese on. Also pretend you see the dish going into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

This was the aftermath of dinner when the battery was just charged enough to get a photo. It's supposed to be 6 servings but we were pretty hungry.

Mostly eated

Freebies: P&G Brand Sampler Oct 2011

A new P&G Brand Sampler promotion was launched today. Usually you can get some good stuff for filling out a short survey.

Today we ordered Pantene shampoo, Dawn dish soap, Gain laundry detergent, Crest mouthwash, and Gilette Proglide Razor. All free!
A sample size shampoo is like hotel-size, you can get 3-4 uses out of them usually. The razor lasts me about 4 months, I've got 2 of them in the past year already and just threw the last one out on Monday.

Go here: https://www.pgbrandsampler.ca