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Thanks to Jenny @ Southern Savers for the heads up on this Facebook goodie!!

Congratulations to Jackie for being chosen by Random.org as the winner!  Your coupons are on their way.

Typical mornings at my house are a greeted with the alarm going off and a rush to get dressed and out the door.  Rarely do we have time to stop and have a healthy breakfast.

Recently I was given an opportunity from MyBlogSpark & General Mills to review and blog about GM Cereals.  I received 4 VIP coupons in the mail and promptly went to the store I used 2 of them.  I chose Honey Nut Cheerios & Multi Grain Cheerios because these seemed to be the healthier options for my family.   One of the things my diet seems to lack is fiber.  If my diet is lacking then I am positive my other family members aren’t getting enough either.  Cheerios contains soluble fiber and Whole Grain Oats so it is also heart healthy which is a good thing for maintaining good cholesterol levels.   I also worry about the amount of sugar in the foods I and was pleased to learn that General Mills is reducing the amount of sugar in some of their cereals, especially those geared towards children.  As for the Cheerios, I found that they only have 1 gram of sugar per serving which was amazing since they taste so good!  My kids love the Honey Nut Cheerios and the Multigrain Cheerios and that pleased me since they contain less sugar per serving than their normal cereal choices.

General Mills & MyBlogSpark have helped me realize that there are quick and NUTRITIONAL alternatives to starting the day off in a rush!  Rather than sending my kids out the door with a potential 24 grams of sugar in hand, they can have a bowl or baggie of Honey Nut Cheerios with only 9 grams of sugar and many more vitamins & minerals that they need to get through the day!  We have taken this opportunity to change some not so good habits to some great lifelong great choices.  Cheerios are a great way to start  or even end the day .

I’m off to go grab some more GM cereals for us to try next week.  I’m thinking I will grab a box of Wheaties for my hubby…he will need them for that list of “honey do’s” I will be giving him this weekend.

If  you would like to win 2 free boxes of General Mills cereals for your family to try as well, just leave me a comment with some of your favorite quick & healthy alternatives to breakfast for your family. This is a mandatory entry.  You can also earn extra entries by following me on Facebook or Twitter or by blogging or tweeting about this giveaway and commenting me with a link for a total of 5 entries.  Giveaway will end on Friday, January 29th at 11:59pm.

Good luck to you and thank you to MyBlogSpark and General Mills!

Access Swag Bucks from your website, blog and social network with the Swag Bucks widget.

If you aren’t a member of Swag Bucks yet, be sure and get signed up! With as little as 45 points you can earn a $5.00 Amazon gift card. Points are easy to get when you do searches with the Swagbucks toolbar and even easier when you grab your SWiDget! Get yours now!

I would recommend adding the toolbar too so you can get codes delivered right to you!

Earlier this week Philadelphia Cream Cheese tweeted me and asked if I would be interested in trying out a new recipe for them.  For my participation I would receive coupons and a cookbook – what a deal – two things I love!!  So here I am tonight preparing “Spaghetti a la Philly” for my family.   The recipe appears to be simple and frugal so if it tastes good, it will be added to our menu!  Okay,  here is the recipe:

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Makes: 4 servings (about 1 1/2 cups each)

1 pound lean ground beef
1 jar (24 ounces) Prego® Traditional Italian Sauce
1/2 package (4 ounces) Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 package (8 ounces) spaghetti, cooked and drained
2 tablespoons Kraft grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cook the beef in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, stirring
often to separate meat.  Pour off any fat.
2. Stir the sauce and cream cheese in the skillet.  Reduce the heat to low.  Cook for 3
minutes or until the cream cheese is melted, stirring often.
3. Place the spaghetti into a large bowl.  Add the beef mixture and toss to coat.
Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Simple enough right? They even provided us with a link to a “How to” video.  You can see it by clicking here!

Okay, so here is my finished product – the only thing I didn’t have was fresh herbs to top it with so it looks a little bland.

All in all I found this recipe to be very easy to prepare and I had fun making it.  I like the creaminess of the sauce and the flavor reminded me of Lasagna.  I am thinking I may try a little Cream Cheese in place of Cottage Cheese next time I make Lasagna!
This recipe is very similar to how we make regular Spaghetti in our home so basically the only difference was adding the Philly Cream Cheese.  Now I know the recipe only called for half of the package of Cream Cheese but since I love it so much, I put the whole thing in!  I did try the sauce with only half first but felt that it needed more for my liking.  It was a personal preference so I would suggest that if you are going to try this recipe, try it with half first and then go from there.
I hope you try this out and enjoy it as much as our family did!  This could easily be a meal for 4 for under $5.00 if you find the ingredients on sale or use a coupon!

Tastes great & frugal too!  What more could we ask for!  Two thumbs up from me!

**Hello**

I am so very busy right now with work that I just haven’t had much time to blog.  I get home in the evenings and spend time with my family and before I know it, it’s bed time!  I promise to try and do better soon!

I have several reviews I am working on as well as a new recipe I have been asked to try and share.  I will at least get that recipe posted this evening!  It sounds yummy! 

Okay, back to work I go…

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

I have to say the best thing I have found on the Internet at this point in my life is CVSing and just how to get the most out of the Extra Care Bucks program!  I look forward to the weekends even more now because that is when I get to see what I can get for literally nothing at CVS!  So far my spending for 2010 looks like this:

That breaks down to over $71.00 in merchandise for a profit of .40 currently!

I stopped by my favorite store today to pick up a few items before they went off sale and here is what I got today:

SoyJoy Strawberry 6pk (I am beginning to like these!) 6.00
Crave NX Diet Spray (hoping this really works!) 7.99
Nalene French Tip nails 2.99
Cherry Coke Zero 20 oz. 1.49
PowerAde Fruit Punch 1.69
Glade Fragrance Collection Candle 3.29
Sunday paper 3.00

used the following coupons:

1.50 off Nalene French Tip nails (printed on my CRT last month)
.50 off single serve Coke product from CVS website
.50 off single serve Coke product from CVS website
3.00 off any Glade Fragrance Collection (printed when I scanned my card today at the price check machine in my store)
5.00 off 20.00 Fresno Bee cpn. thanks iheartcvs! (Expires 1/16)

used $14.00 in ecbs from last week
earned $14.00 in ecbs today
6.00 from SoyJoy
8.00 from Crave NX
used $2.00 from my CVS gift card

Grand total for 2010 so far:

ECB Balance: $24.00
CVS GC Balance: $69.40
Merchandise Value: $71.85
Total OOP: -.40 – yay!  A profit!!

I am headed to plan out my trip for tomorrow now.  I need to increase that profit a little bit more!

Oh yeah, I stopped at Kroger & Sack ‘n Save and picked up my groceries for the week for 87.00!  Not too bad for what I got!  Meals for 4 for the week, food for 2 dogs and 1 cat…and snacks & lunches for the week.  Sure beats the $130 plus I had been spending at the last part of 2009 which just proves that a little bit of time planning pays off!