TNT Recipe Tuesday - Chocolate Chip Sensation

Happy Tuesday everyone! Long holiday weekend is over and time to get back to the normal daily grind! Time to kick off our TNT Recipe Tuesdays with a dessert item. For those not familiar - TNT on this site means "Tried N' True" Recipe - basically a recipe that I have made for my family that they repeatedly ask for time and again. Today's recipe is a dessert recipe that I actually received from The Pampered Chef YEARS ago. I have not made it in several years and decided on a whim last weekend to make it for some company I was having over for dinner. Well - needless to say, it was gobbled up and 2 days later my family asked me to make it again! So.....thought I would share it with all of you here.


It is called Chocolate Chip Sensation. My husband likes it because although it is dessert - it is not that "Too sweet" taste. Here it is:

Ingredients include:

16 oz roll package choclate chip cookie dough (Such as Pillsbury, found in the dairy section)

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 pint half and half

1/3 cup sugar

3.9 oz pkg. instant choclate pudding

Pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take the cookie dough and smoosh it into a large ball of dough. Place it on your pan (I use a large pizza stone) and flatten it out to a 13" circle. Bake it for 12-15 minutes until browned.

Mix cream cheese and sugar and set aside.

Mix half and half and pudding mix, set aside for minutes or until "set".

Once cookie is completely cool, spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie, just like icing a cake. Once that layer is complete, pour the pudding on top and spread it over the cream cheese mixture and then sprinkle with nuts.

Chill until ready to serve. To make it easy to cut into serving size pieces, I simply use a pizza cutter and cut in to squares.

Yummy!

I hope you enjoy!

Tina

Menu Mondays - None for me this week!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Years and that you are now ready to kick off this New Year as an organized, frugal friendly fun, recipe cooking, money saving Woman of 2012! Woo Hoo!!!

My goal this year is on Mondays, to post my "Menus for the Week". I have found in the past that if I sit down for just a few minutes over the weekend and plan out my meals for the week and have a plan in place, weeknights go much smoother around here. Thought if I shared my menu plans with you, that might encourage you and help you put together your own menus for the week. As I start to add recipes here on the blog, if I am cooking I recipe that I have already shared, I will link that night's meal to the recipe in case you want to try it to.

This week - however - no Menu Monday. One reason, with having such a long holiday weekend from work, I really didn't realize it was even Monday until just moments ago! Has that happened to you over the holidays - where you lose track of time? Another reason is half of my family is going to be missing in action this week due to their going to a particular Bowl Game for their favorite college team. Lastly, in looking at my own calendar this week, I have meetings just about every night this week after work....so since it is just two of us and half the time I wont even be here - I think it will be a "fend for yourself or famine" week unfortunately!

Stay tuned next Monday thought when hopefully I will be here to share next's week Menu Mondays! If you come up with a menu plan this week, please feel free to share below!

Happy New Year!

Tina

FREE Photo Prints at Walgreens - Hurry!

Thru December 31 ONLY - - You can obtain 25 FREE 4x6 photos at Walgreens Photo Lab. Simply go to their website, upload your photos to their photolab. When you checkout use the code PRINTNOW and select "in-store pickup", otherwise you will have to pay the shipping charge and it won't technically be FREE! This should help some of you get those digital photos actually off of your camera, printed, and into a scrapbook!

Enjoy!
Tina

Product Review: Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Dog Food

As a Bzzagent, I am provided with various products/services throughout the year to try out and use in my home and then give honest feedback (good or bad!) on what I thought about the products. In return for the product, I not only provide them with my feedback but I also spread the word (bzzzzzz) to friends, families and others regarding information on the product so they can decide whether it may be something for them to use or give a try as well.

Several weeks ago, I was offerred the chance to try out Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Dog Food. Well....when I say I was given the chance to try it - I mean actually that my three dogs Karma, Juliet and Romeo were given the chance to try it and all I had to do was sit back and watch. To give a little background of my choosey canines, Karma (Standard Poodle) is 9 and usually barely eats her food unless she decides she is hungry that day; Romeo, a toy breed, is almost 5 and also usually only eats about half of his daily intake. Then there is Juliet, our almost 3 year old Golden Retriever who will eat anything and everything you put it on front of her, whether it be edible or not! Well - - being as I dont just give my dogs a bowl full of "new food" to try I have been gradually mixing the Ideal Balance Dog food in with their regular food for a while now and do you know - when I do that - all 3 of their bowls are licked clean to the bottom?! I thought it may have been a fluke (when it came to Romeo and Karma) so I have only been mixing their food up every few days. On the days I dont mix it, sure enough, half their food is left in the bowl....but on the days I mix in the Ideal Balance food, the bowls are completely emptied! Goes without saying, Juliet's is always empty!

You may be wondering what is so special about this Ideal Balance Dog food produced by Hill's Science Diet....Well.....it is a high grade brand of food that is not only tasty (apparently), but also nutrionally balanced for your best friend's well being. The first ingredient listed in this food is FRESH CHICKEN!!! That's right Chicken, not chicken meal, not chicken parts....but FRESH WHOLE CHICKEN. It also is chocked full of fruits and vegetables including cranberries. There is also no corn or artificial flavors. So when you pour the food into their bowls, it is all the same brown color, not red, greens and oranges from articifical coloring. (And a bonus for the humans, because there is no corn or other "fillers" in the food, the size of the "poo" is much smaller as well! Very handy when you have 3 dogs!)

If you have dogs and think this may be something you would like to try, I urge you to check out Hills' Pet website by clicking here. There you can not only view the various products available, but you can download a form to get a rebate on a bag of Ideal Balance so you can literally try it for FREE! While you are there, I would urge you to check out the "MyBowl" app where it tells you what ingredients you should be looking for no matter the dog food you choose for your four legged best friends.

Go ahead - give it a try! Let me know what you think!

Bi-Lo Deals 12/28 - 1/4

Bi-Lo's new sales paper starts today. Always remember, at Bi-Lo:
* Coupons with a face value of .55 or less will DOUBLE;
* When something BOGO, you can just purchase ONE of the items and get it at half-price;
*Don't forget to use your Bi-Lo card to earn fuel perks!

Some of the deals that I saw this week that seemed pretty good are:

The "Clean Deal" - whre you buy 2 packs of either Charmin Tissue and/or Bounty Paper Towels and you will receive FREE Puffs Facial Tissue, Bounty Napkins, and Febreze Air Effects!

(Be careful when looking at the various "Meal Deals", etc. that Bi-Lo offers each week. Some of them are GREAT deals, and some of them are not so great. Depending on what you use your family will depend on if you think a great deal or not)

Healthy Choice Steamers Entrees are $1.98 this week - click here and get $1.00 off coupon which makes them only $.98!

Tennessee Pride Roll Sausage only $2.29 and there is a .55 cent coupon in RP 11/13 - so you only pay $1.19 for a $4.59 worth of sausage!

Carolina Pride Hot Dogs and Cocktail Smokies are BOGO and matching coupons are available if you have them!

Marzetti Dressing which is normally $3.99 you can get for only 99 cents when you have the $1 off coupon from the SS 11/13 circular.

Ruffles Potato Chips are BOGO - if your family uses chips frequently, make sure and stock up when they go on sale. Did you know you can place your chips in your freezer and take them out and they are fresh as new??? and they don't actually "freeze"

As always, if you would like a list of all great sale items with matching coupons, check out Southern Savers website!

Happy Saving!

Tina

Publix Coupon Booklet! Get yours today!

Publix is currently offering a NEW coupon booklet, Simply Delicious Inspirations, but you must request your copy by mail. You simply fill out a form here and they will mail the coupon booklet to you.

This booklet is available only to residences in TN, AL, GA, SC and FL and you must get your request submitted before February 1, 2012.

The booklet has over $25.00 worth of Nestle product coupons in it, so be sure and request yours today!

Happy Clipping!

Tina

Frugal Family Fun Friday! - Christmas Season

At this time of the year, everything seems so rushed with things to do, things to buy, places to go, people to see, it is still important to fit in those "Family Fun" moments. Especially good if you can find "frugal" things to do without sucking more money out of your ever shrinking wallets.

One thing I started YEARS ago and still enjoy doing (when I make the time to do it with teenagers in tow) is to drive around and look at Christmas lights. I don't mean just look at lights as you drive through your neighborhood on the way to shopping or somewhere else either.

What I like to do is for everyone to get dressed in their pj's (hubby doesn't agree to do that part - bah humbug!).....but anyhoo, the rest of us dress up in our pjs, make some hot cocoa, jump in the car and just drive. We drive through our neighborhood and look at all the lights and then go on to other neighborhoods in the area that are known for lots of decorating as well. We vote on what ones we like, what ones we think are tacky, etc, etc. Of course, the ones mom likes (the simply white lights, wreaths and red bows) no one else likes. But we have fun just looking at them together.

Best part is - doesn't cost anything. Well....of course it costs gas to drive around, which certainly is not cheap these days, but other than that it cost nothing and "kids" of all ages, from 1 to 100, like to do it!

Happy Light Hunting!
Tina