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Slow cooker Northern Beans & Ham Soup #Recipe

December 27, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



 

Do you have leftover Christmas ham and not sure what to do with it?  This Northern Beans & Ham soup is super easy and even more delicious – and a great way to use up that leftover ham.  This is my go-to recipe after Christmas every year.  It is so flavorful, and uses very few ingredients.   This is definitely one of my favorite & easiest comfort food dishes.

You will need:

  • 1 lb bag of dried northern beans
  • Cut up chunks of ham (I also had a frozen ham bone in the freezer and added that)
  • 6 cups of water
  • 2 Tablespoons of onion powder
  • salt/pepper to taste

Some recipes will tell you to always soak Northern Beans before you cook them, but you do not need to soak the beans beforehand if you use the slow cooker.  Just give them a good rinse and then throw all the ingredients in your slow cooker, give it a stir, and let it cook on low for 8 hours.  That is seriously all there is to it.   By the end of the day, you’ll have a delicious, hearty soup, and your house will smell like you’ve been cooking a delicious meal all day.

 


Filed Under: Recipes

Italian Chocolate Pepper Cookies #Recipe

December 23, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



Yes, you read that right!  Chocolate pepper cookies!  My Italian grandma used to make these and I found her recipe for them not that long ago and I was SO excited to find it after all these years!  In our house we just called them “pepper cookies”.  I think they were named pepper cookies because ground black pepper is the most unusual ingredient in them, but you can’t even taste the pepper.  You can, however, taste the cloves and cinnamon in them though.  They are an unusual sounding cookie, but oh-so-delicious!

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup Crisco shortening
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 Cups milk (can add a little more if needed)

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients well (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, cocoa powder).   Then add your Crisco and milk.  Mix until blended.  If the mixture is very dry, add a little more milk.

Roll into small balls, and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 350º for 20 minutes.

Once they are cooled, make your icing.  I just use about 1.5 cups of powdered sugar with about 2 tablespoons of water for my icing.

Drop a spoonful of icing on the cookies and let the icing drizzle down the sides.  If you’d like to add sprinkles, add them right after you put the icing on.  Otherwise, the icing will harden and the sprinkles will not stick.

Once the icing hardens, enjoy!


Filed Under: Recipes

Soft Italian Biscotti cookies #Recipe

December 23, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



Biscotti cookies are typically crispy, twice-baked Italian cookies.  But I grew up enjoying my grandma’s soft Italian Biscotti cookies, which are definitely not crispy or twice-baked.   So these are definitely not your average Biscotti cookies, but try them once, and they will definitely become a family favorite.

My grandma used to slightly twist them into “S” shaped cookies, but you can twist them or make them into any shape you want.  Either way, they will be delicious.  And they are very easy to make.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 8 tablespoons shortening (Crisco)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:

Combine your dry ingredients in a bowl and sift (flour, salt, baking powder, sugar).  In a separate bowl, mi your shortening, eggs, milk and vanilla.   Then add your dry ingredient mixture.  The dough mixture will be VERY sticky.  Flour your workspace and hands well so you can handle the dough.  Take small pieces of the dough and shape into any shape you want – curls, twists, crescents, etc.   Place on greased cookie sheet or parchment paper (I prefer parchment paper).

Bake in preheated 400º oven for about 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool, and then add icing.  For the icing, just mix about 1.5 cups of powdered (confectioner’s) sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of water.  You want the icing to be thinner and easily spreadable, not thick.   Pour the icing over the cookies, add sprinkles if you’d like, and set them aside until the icing hardens, about 15 minutes.   If making these for a specific holiday or occasion, add a few drops of food coloring to the icing!

Enjoy!

 


Filed Under: Recipes

Christmas Crackle Cookies #Recipe

December 22, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



crackles

Christmas Crackle Cookies

I haven’t made these in a while, and I always get requests for the same ol’ same ol’ cookies at the holidays, and it just gets so boring!  So, I decided this year, I’m making some new recipes, and trying out a few new ones.   This one isn’t new, but it’s a great recipe, and these cookies are always a big hit.  As they bake, they crack open, which is why they are called crackles.

To make these, you will need:

  • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/3 cups light-brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • Granulated sugar and Confectioners’ sugar, for rolling

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop chocolate into small bits, and melt over medium heat in a heatproof bowl or in the top of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
  2. Cream butter and light-brown sugar in the bowl of a mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add cooled melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Divide dough into quarters, wrap with plastic, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours. I usually make the dough a day ahead and leave them in the fridge overnight.
  3. Using your hands, roll a small scoop of dough into a ball and roll in granulated sugar, and then confectioners’ sugar to coat heavily and completely. (You may just want to cut the dough into small squares first, so you don’t have to handle them very much. The chocolate melts in your hands VERY quickly and these become messy). Place cookies 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until cookies have flattened and sugar splits, 11 to 13 minutes.
  4. Slide parchment onto wire rack to let cookies cool completely.

As always, these were a huge hit for Christmas! And these cookies are SO delicious! And did I mention how pretty and festive they look?


Filed Under: Recipes

DIY: EASY ~ Make a serving plate out of hard candy!

December 21, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



CLICK HERE for lots more of my DIY tutorials!!

This is one the best ideas I’ve seen in a while!

How many times do you have to attend parties – like work Christmas parties, family parties, etc – and you have to bring a baked good, but you don’t want to bring one of your good plates, because you’ll never get it back? But you don’t want to show up with a lame paper plate, either? And you don’t want to spend the money on one just to bring to the party?

Well fear no more, my friends! I have the perfect solution!

Buy a big bag of hard candies, like peppermint candies (but you can use any kind).

Spread them out on a cookie sheet that is lined with Parchment paper. You can form them into a shape, or just as a square..

Bake them in the oven at 350 º for about 10 minutes, or until they are melted.

Take them out, and voila! As soon as it cools and hardens, (which only takes about 5-10 minutes), you have an EDIBLE serving plate! If you’d like to make it into a bowl, then shape it into a bowl as soon as you take it out of the oven. (I recommend placing a bowl upside down and placing the sheet of hard candy over it and let it harden that way).

Now you have a cute, unique, edible serving plate, and you don’t have to worry about getting it back!

Here’s a step-by-step video:


Filed Under: DIY

DIY recipe for Home Made After-Dinner Butter Mints! So easy!

December 20, 2016 by bargainhound Leave a Comment



butter-mints1

I absolutely love after-dinner butter mints.  There’s a restaurant in my home town that has a big jar of them on the hostess stand, with a scoop so you can scoop some out on your way out. It takes all my will power not to just empty the entire jar into my handbag 😀

If you love Richardson’s after-dinner mints, you are going to go crazy over these, because they taste exactly the same!  And the best part is, they are so easy, and take very few ingredients.  And they are no-bake!

All you need is:

  • 2 cups powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
  • 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 1/16 tsp salt
  • 2 to 4 tsp water
  • Food coloring, optional

butter-mints2

First, put your salt and powdered sugar in your food processor, and pulse a few times to make sure there’s no lumps.  Then add your butter.  I sliced my butter into thin slices, so it would disperse evenly.  Pulse again, until it’s all mixed in.  Add your water, start with 2 tsp, and keep pulsing until it turns into a dough like texture.  Add water by the 1/2 tsp until you have the correct consistency.  You won’t want it too wet!  You can add your food coloring now if you’d like, too.  If you are doing multiple colors though, wait until the next step.

butter-mints3

When it’s at the right consistency (like play doh), dump the mixture onto some parchment paper.

butter-mints4

Split the dough into 4 sections.  If you did not add food coloring yet, you can do so now. You can put a few drops of your coloring in each section, and knead the dough until it’s all colored through.

butter-mints5

Start with one section, take a chunk off and roll it out into a thin strip.   Set aside.

butter-mints6

Roll out all your dough into strips.

butter-mints7

Using a pizza cutter, cut through all the strips to make about 1/2″ pieces.

butter-mints8

The BF came in to sneak a few pieces!

butter-mints9

When you are done, you’ll have a big pile of after dinner mints pieces!   It would be best to let them sit out for a couple of days, so they can harden, but I have yet to see a batch make it to 2 days.

butter-mints10

These taste exactly like Richardson’s mints.  They are creamy, buttery, and oh so delicious!

These can be made for any occasion.  Just adding different food coloring, you can have red & green for Christmas, blue or pink for baby shower, green for St. Patty’s Day, pastel colors for Easter, and so on!  Everyone will be so impressed with these mints, they will think these took you hours to make!

butter-mints11

Use red & green coloring for Christmas colored mints, red or pink for Valentine’s Day, green for St. Patrick’s day and so on!

They are great for any occasion!

Enjoy!

 


Filed Under: DIY, Recipes

Enter to win a $25 Visa Gift Card & a variety of SmartBones dog chews! Ends 12/9/16

November 21, 2016 by bargainhound 76 Comments



smartbones16

Have I mentioned that we have the most spoiled dogs ever?  The UPS man delivered some awesome goodies for our little canine tribe a couple of weeks ago!  We received these five bags of dog chews from SmartBones!

In this delivery there were:

  • Stuffed Twists
  • Smart Chews
  • Smart Sticks
  • Beef flavored Smart Naturals Meaty Treats
  • Lamb flavored Smart Naturals Meaty Treats

It’s kind of funny how they just sense that these things are for them.  I laid the unopened packages on the floor to take a photo, and Molly had already claimed them all as her own.

smartbones1

And she kept a very close eye on any of the other dogs who got a little too close to her goodies.  Or so she thought.

smartbones3

If you know anything about Chihuahuas, you know they can be seriously finicky.   They will snub their noses at treats and foods you would think they would love.   They can be a strange breed, but we love them just the same!

Now, we are no strangers to the SmartBones brand.  Our dogs already LOVE SmartBones products.  And before we got these new chews & treats for them to try, their favorite SmartBone products were their Chicken Classic Bone Chews.  They just love these things.  And we love feeding them to them, because they are made with NO rawhide!  They are made with real chicken & vegetables and are easy for them to digest.

So here’s how they liked the new SmartBones products:

Day #1 we tried the Lamb & Beef flavored Smart Naturals Meaty Treats.  They are:

  • 100% Natural
  • Made with Real Beef, Chicken and Vegetables
  • Rawhide-Free
  • Easy to Digest
  • Vitamin & Mineral Enriched
  • Chewing Helps Maintain Healthy Teeth

smartbones4

They are small, bite-sized pieces of lamb treats.  They are not only great for just treats for any time, but also would be great for training.

Do you think Noah liked them?

smartbones5

Day #2 they tried the Beef SmartSticks.

  • Made with Real Beef, Chicken and Vegetables
  • Rawhide-Free
  • Easy to Digest
  • Vitamin & Mineral Enriched
  • Chewing Helps Maintain Healthy Teeth

smartbones10

Chihuahuas are known for having dental problems, so I love feeding them chews & treats that benefit their dental health.

Even our little 5-lb Cody loved them.

smartbones11

No surprise here, but Molly loved them.

smartbones12

And then there’s our little 6-lb Maxi, who went off to a corner so he wouldn’t be bothered, and he enjoyed his chew.

smartbones13

Here’s a short video showing you how much they truly love their Smart Sticks!

Day #3 they got to try the Stuffed Twistz – pork flavored chews.

• With Pork Flavor Chew Surprise Center
• Made with Real Pork, Chicken and Vegetables
• Rawhide-Free
• Easy to Digest
• Vitamin & Mineral Enriched
• Chewing Helps Maintain Healthy Teeth & Gums

Molly’s face says it all here.  She’s thinking, “get in my belly!”

smartbones14

I really loved these because they took longer for the dogs to enjoy.  Molly is a little mischief-maker, and I love treats that keep her very naughty jaws busy.   When she’s chewing on something like this, she’s staying out of trouble.

smartbones15

Day #4 they got to try the Smart Chews.

• Fun Animal-Shape Chews
• Grain-Free Formula
• No Artificial Colors
• Made with Real Chicken and Vegetables
• Rawhide-Free
• Easy to Digest
• Vitamin & Mineral Enriched
• Chewing Helps Maintain Healthy Teeth & Gums

smartbones9

And I’m pretty certain that if they could talk, they would tell you that these things were the bomb!  They went CRAZY over these Smart Chews.  They may be their new favorite chews.

smartbones6

They come in different animal shapes.  I was concerned at first that they might have been too large for our two really tiny Chihuahuas (Cody & Maxi, 5 & 6 lbs) – but to my surprise, they ate them up like there was no tomorrow.

smartbones8

And of course, Noah was totally loving them as well.  At one point, they were all in different areas of the room, just gnawing on their Smart Chews by themselves. Usually they walk around, checking what everyone else is eating, but they were really into these chews, and didn’t care about anything else.

smartbones7

I love when our dogs get to try new products, and I love blogging about them, because dogs just can’t lie.  If they love something, you know it, and if they don’t, they show it.   And there is absolutely no mistaking how much our dogs love SmartBones products.  We also received a gift card so we can purchase them some more SmartBones products.

Be sure  to check out the SmartBones website, and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

SmartBones is also giving away a variety of dog chews and a $25 Visa Gift card to one of my readers!  Just fill out the form below to enter to win!   Giveaway ends 12/5 and a winner will be announced on 12/6/16!  Good luck to everyone!

Entry-Form
Disclaimer:  We received samples of SmartBones dog chews and a gift card in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions and comments are my own.  I only recommend products I believe would be beneficial to my readers.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Pets, Product Reviews

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About Me…

As a young girl, I would help my mom cut and organize coupons, and help her shop. As a kid, it was like a game. I watched her organize and mail in tons of rebates and watched her stockpiles grow.
Now as an adult, I follow in her footsteps. I love to coupon, save money, mail in rebates, and find deals wherever I can! And sometimes, the best money saving deals are in the form of DIY projects that you can do with your own two hands!
I hope to inspire my readers to help them stretch their own pennies into dollars using all sorts of money saving tips and tricks! I have lots to share, including recipes, giveaways, sweepstakes, product reviews and more!
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