Penny Pinching Peach

For the semi crunchy, homeschool friendly and totally frugal!


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Easy Cake Mix Cookies

Easy Cake Mix Cookies

Easy Cake Mix Cookies

My family loves super soft cookies, and I love simple and inexpensive treats. While I don’t always keep cookies around, sometimes nothing else will do. I usually have some cake mixes stashed in ym cabinets, so I decided to try out this easy cake mix cookies recipe, shared at the bottom of this post.

The beauty of this recipe is it’s versatility. You can literally do pretty much any flavors you can get in a cake mix and throw in whatever mix-in tickles your fancy. My husband is a fiend for chocolate and peanut butter together, so this time I went with devil’s food cake and peanut butter chips. It was the bomb diggety!

This recipe is a terrific choice for cooking with kids, because it’s pure simplicity and no fuss to make, and what kid doesn’t like cookies? 😉 My five and two year olds had a good ol’ time dumping in the ingredients, doing quality control taste tests on the peanut butter chips, dumping spoonfuls of batter on the cookie sheet, and eating the results of their labor.

Some other flavor combinations I think would be yummy? Lemon cake with vanilla chips, almonds or coconut. Chocolate cake with white chocolate, coconut, raisins or nuts. Vanilla cake with chocolate chips, dried cranberries or nuts. Peanut butter cake with chocolate chips, Reese’s cups diced up or nuts. Orange cake with dark chocolate chips or dried cranberries. Strawberry cake with dark or white chocolate chips. I’ll stop now, but you get the picture. There are TONS of possibilities!

What flavor combinations can you come up with?

Here is the link to the simply sweet recipe I used as my base.

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-cake-mix-cookies-5287


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Spicy to Sweet: Dinner & Dessert Discounted with Coupons!

Penny Pinching Peach

Penny Pinching Peach

I love the kind of meal you can throw together all in one dish. It means less clean-up and it’s easier to keep an eye on one dish while watching my munchkins destroy the housecleaning I just finished than it is to babysit multiple fancy dishes. I can do it, but the headache is sometimes not worth it or I just plain don’t have time to do that and everything else I’ve got going on. With a nice coupon available right now for sausage, and taters always being cheap, this Sausage Potato Dinner in a Dish fits right in with my laidback frugal mommy vibe. My family also has a super duper sweet tooth, so if I find a simple dessert that uses ingredients I usually have on hand, I’m tickled pink. With strawberries being in season right now, they are always in my fridge, so the Strawberry Yogurt Pastries were perfect for this time of year!

I’m putting the savings information after the recipes. There are double savings this time, which makes this a really sweet deal! 😉

Sausage Potato Dinner in a Dish

4 small red potatoes, cubed
2 small zucchinis, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound Hillshire Farms smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon pepper

*Place potatoes in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
*Meanwhile, sprinkle zucchini & onion with garlic salt. In a small skillet, stir-fry zucchini in butter until crisp-tender. Add sausage; cook until browned.
*Drain potatoes; add to skillet. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and pepper; heat through. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
*Yield: 4 servings.

Strawberry Yogurt Pastries

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) Yoplait strawberry yogurt
1 1/3 cups strawberries, halved

*On a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, separate crescent dough into 4 rectangles; seal perforations.

*Bake at 375° for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.

*Cool on a wire rack. Spread yogurt on each pastry; top with strawberries. Serve immediately.

*Yield: 4 servings.

Now for the savings part of the menu! 🙂

Got to http://www.coupons.com

Select and print Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and Yoplait Yogurt coupons.

If you have joined SavingStar, Pillsbury and Yoplait also have coupons available with that program right now, which will double stack your savings together on those two items. If you haven’t joined, please check out my blog on SavingStar under Sites for Savings to learn more. It’s a great program! 🙂


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Pudding and Printable Coupons

Penny Pinching Peach

Penny Pinching Peach

This week I thought I’d go for a recipe that is both quick & simple, all while being light on the tummy and the pockets.

Refreshing Rice Pudding

1 cup cooked (Uncle Ben’s) white rice (approximately 1/3 cup uncooked)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup (Dixie Crystals or Imperial Sugars) white sugar
1 cup (Dole) crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 cup shredded coconut

*Be sure to rinse, drain, and chill the cooked rice.
*In a small glass or metal mixing bowl, whip the cream, adding sugar gradually until cream becomes fluffy.
*Next, fold the whipped cream, drained pineapple and coconut into the chilled, cooked rice.
*Spoon the mixture into dessert dishes, serve and yum it up! 🙂

Coupons for: Uncle Ben’s Rice http://www.coupons.com/coupons/Food-Coupons-107/ and
Dole Canned Fruit and Dixie Crystals/Imperial Sugar http://www.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=MKRU3JAAR6CCY
Total Value of Coupons: $3.50

Savor the savings! 🙂