Support Your Schools One Code At A Time

I wanted to share with you how easy it is to make a difference in your community and show support for your local schools...with the help of a program called My Coke Rewards. I'm sure many of you have noticed on coke products there are codes on either the packaging or in the lids. Those codes can be collected and redeemed for school supplies or athletic equipment for the registered school of your choice. If your school isn't already registered, sign up to be a coordinator! I did!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that my mind is always goin' a 100mph...always thinkin' of ways to save $, always thinkin' of ways to reuse/recycle/donate, and always tryin' to find ways to help others by whatever means I can, most times for little or no cost. Thinking outside the box, turning nothing into something...it's an entertaining challenge sometimes!

My latest venture, was finding a way for our local Little League to give back to the community by showing support to the families that help support us. I came across the My Coke Rewards for Schools program and a light bulb turned on...I thought to myself, I'm in charge of Concessions this year for North Mason Little League and we're gonna be selling ALOT of coke products in there! I can collect all the codes and redeem them for one of our local schools...so that's what I did. I chose the school my sons go to, contacted the principal, and asked for permission to sign up as the coordinator. This year I only collected codes from our Concessions and our home, but for next year, the principal has asked me to get our student's parents involved too and really see what kind of reward pts we can rack up!

Our active baseball season came to a close last night with the ending of All Stars, and our grand total Coke Reward pts was 797! At the request of our principal, I redeemed the pts for school supplies for the classrooms....and to benefit the most students, I opted to redeem the pts for pencils. Lots of pencils...132 to be exact, 11 (12 ct) pks of HB #2 pencils will be arriving at our school in 2-4 weeks!

It didn't cost our league any $ to benefit/donate to a school in our area, we were going to be selling the coke products anyways...but now, one of our schools will benefit from it and COMMUNITY SUPPORT COMES FULL CIRCLE. If you're interested in doing something similar for your kids' school or local community check out this website below and it'll explain everything you need to know on how to get started. It doesn't have to cost you a thing to make a difference!!

http://www.mycokerewards.com/mcrSchools.do?tab=1

Turkey & Broccoli Filled Lasagna Rolls

Turkey and Broccoli Filled Lasagna Rolls

4 dried lasagna noodles

½ pkg ground turkey (approx. ½ lb)

¼ cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped broccoli

¼ cup water

1 beaten egg

1 cup (8 oz) low fat cottage cheese

½ tsp dried thyme

1 ½ cups meatless spaghetti sauce

¼ cup shredded cheese (parmesan or mozzarella)

Cook lasagna noodles according to pkg instructions until tender but still firm. Drain noodles; rinse with cold water. Drain again.

For filling, in a large skillet cook ground turkey and onions until turkey is no longer pink. Drain fat. Stir in broccoli and water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 5 min.; drain.

In a mixing bowl, stir together egg, cottage cheese and thyme. Add in turkey mixture. Lay out all 4 lasagna noodles on a cutting board or clean counter, divide up filling mixture evenly among the noodles and spread it out on top of the noodle. Roll up each noodle, jelly roll style and place in a 2 qt square baking dish. Spoon spaghetti sauce over lasagna rolls.

Bake, covered, @ 375 for about 30 min. or until heated through. Uncover and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Makes 4 main dish servings.

Turkey & Broccoli Lasagna Rolls

When you roll up the noodles, just know that it's a messy task! Excess that falls out when rolling, I just toss back in to the baking dish in the empty spaces so it's not wasted. My kids pick out the broccoli, but they're missing out! It's a delicious combination! Hope you like it.



A Menu in Motion

2 Week Meal Plan (Dinners):

Saturday – Burritos

Sunday – Meatloaf, Pan Fried Potatoes, Side Salad

Monday – Meatballs in Spaghetti Sauce, Cheesy Focaccia, Side Salad

Tuesday – Hamburger Stroganoff, Side Salad

Wednesday – Turkey Pasta Soup, Homemade Biscuits

Thursday – BBQ Hot Dogs, Cheesy Broccoli Macaroni

Friday – Grilled Pork Loin Chops, Pasta Side Dish, Carrot Sticks

Saturday – Canadian Bacon Cheeseburgers, Chips, Corn on Cob

Sunday – Mosh Posh Night

Monday – Homemade Pepperoni Pizza

Tuesday – Turkey & Broccoli Filled Lasagna Rolls, Side Salad

Wednesday – Taco Salad

Thursday – Grilled Chicken, Asian Linguine Salad

Friday – Loaded Baked Potatoes

Nothing like finishing the meal plan partway through the week...Sat-Mon have already been made, consumed and checked off the list. In case you're wondering, Mosh Posh Night is my way to use up random leftovers.

Creamy Apple Crumb Pie

Creamy Apple Crumb Pie

1 pastry for single-crust pie (9 in.)

6 cups cubed peeled tart apples (about 6 medium)

1/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground allspice

1 cup (8 oz) reduced-fat sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

Topping:

          ½ cup all purpose flour

          ¼ cup packed brown sugar

          ½ tsp ground cinnamon

          2 tbsp cold butter

Line a 9 in. deep dish pie plate with pastry; flute edges. In a large bowl, combine the apples, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and allspice. Combine sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl; stir into apple mixture. Spoon into pastry shell.

For topping, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbles. Sprinkle over pie filling.

Bake @ 400 for 25 min. Reduce heat to 350; bake 25-30 min. longer or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Store in fridge. Yield: 8 servings

Pastry for Single-Crust Pie

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening

4 to 5 tbsp cold water

Stir together flour and salt. Using a fork or pastry blender; cut in shortening until pieces are pea size. Gradually add water a tbsp at a time, mixing pastry as you go until all the dough is moistened. Form dough into a ball.

Lightly flour a flat surface such as your table or countertop; slightly flatten dough with your hands. Using a rolling pin, continue to roll out the dough into a circle (about 12 in diameter).  Transfer to 9 in. pie plate. Turn excess edges underneath and use your fingers to flute the edges.

Creamy Apple Crumb Pie

Our oldest son, Kody, and I made this for a special dessert tonight...Happy Father's Day!!

Savings at Safeway!!

In case you haven't signed up yet, you should see what you're missing out on! Safeway has added even more features and great savings to their e-coupons you can upload to your Safeway Club Card. E-coupons are just paperless coupons...it's easy peasy, and savings you'll get without doing much at all.

http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Offers-Landing-IMG

Right now, if you sign up you get a free dozen eggs...just for signing up. I was already signed up for their e-coupons before, so that didn't apply to me...but I did notice that some things in their coupon center such as "personalized coupons" you can add and "club specials" and it'll show how long the sale is running for each item and how much of a savings it is from their regular price. These are one time coupons, the registers are programmed to accept these first before paper coupons...BUT, in theory, I also read before that they're supposed to accept the higher value coupon regardless. What it does do, is basically give you an extra chance to get a great deal when your paper coupon has item quantity limitations on them. You cannot use the e-coupon and a paper coupon for the same item, but it doesn't stop you from buying multiple identical items using multiple coupons, with the exception of when it says limit one coupon per customer. In which case, that's when doing a separate transaction comes into play. A new transaction, the register doesn't know it's not a new customer and you can continue to receive great savings.

Give it a try! It's worth the time to upload coupons to your Club Card!

Teriyaki Turkey Burritos

Teriyaki Turkey Burritos

(1) 10 ct pkg regular tortillas (soft taco size) – (original recipe calls for fat-free tortillas but they don’t wrap well so I use regular)

(1) 1.25 lb pkg lean ground turkey

½ cup chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

(1) 12 oz pkg broccoli coleslaw mix

1 tbsp canola oil

1/3 cup reduced sodium teriyaki sauce

½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend

Warm tortillas in microwave. In a large skillet, cook the turkey, onion and garlic over medium heat until turkey is no longer pink; drain. Place turkey mixture in a bowl and set aside.

In the same skillet, stir-fry the broccoli coleslaw mix in oil for 2 min. Add teriyaki sauce, five spice powder, garlic powder and pepper; cook and stir for 1 min. Stir in turkey mixture and cheese; heat through.

Lightly grease 13x9x2 baking dish with cooking oil spray. Spoon ½ cup filling onto center of each tortilla. Roll into burritos and place side by side in baking dish. Cover dish with foil and bake at 350 for 20 min. or until heated through. Yield: 5 servings (2 burritos = 1 serving)

Teriyaki Turkey Burritos with Side Salad

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

The Importance of Family Time

I wanted to share a little story with you that I'm sure you'll get a kick outta, but I'm hoping you'll also take with you a lesson learned about the importance of spending time together as a family.

In my many things I do on a day to day basis being a stay at home mom to 3 kids (ages 10, 7 and 2)...I also volunteer my time for our local Little League and have done so for years. This year I've taken on the task of being in charge of Concessions as well as being Treasurer. Unbeknownst to me, neither of my boys wanted to play baseball this year...but I'd already signed on for another year 4 months prior to registration.  I'd taken on a pretty big job and was not willing to back out and leave the league hanging just because my boys decided not to play. So, as you can imagine...balancing my obligations to my family as well as the league has been quite a daunting task, but one I signed up for voluntarily and truth be told...I truly ENJOY being a part of BOTH!

Running Concessions is nearly an every day event, whether it be shopping for food/supplies or actually physically being in there working a shift, or two or more...of this, trust me I was forewarned that it'd be this way...but still I wanted to face the challenge and see how good a job I could do and try to make it as big of a success for the league as could.

Our family is used to eating dinner together nearly every night and is something that I didn't realize we ALL look forward to each night until we suddenly no longer had that luxury with me being gone nearly every night down at the fields for one reason or another. I used to take pride in the meals I'd make, many of which took quite a bit of time and effort to prepare...now to be substituted with quick and easy meals that either my husband can prepare for the kids or something I could just slap together for them before I left the house. Quickly I've come to realize that I took for granted the simple joy of sitting around the dinner table and listening to the stories of everyone's day and the sibling bickering that also always seem to happen in between bites.

Early this week I'd promised our middle child, Tommy, that I'd keep Concessions closed for the night so we could all eat dinner together and have family time afterwards...he wanted us to play a game of H-O-R-S-E. However, the next day I realized that I'd have to break my promise because I'd forgotten I had a volunteer coming for a shift and I'd have to be there to open Concessions and train him because he was a newbie...I had to think of a plan to blend both worlds and not let Tommy down. So, I explained that I'd made a mistake and asked what he thought about having a picnic at the fields instead...to this he replied, "Sure, that'd be ok." I asked what we should have..."ham and cheese sandwiches and water" he replied. I thought that was a bit odd, but agreed. Of course, the weather did not cooperate that day and began to rain...so not wanting to cancel our plans yet again, I decided we could just bring a couple blankets to sit on and eat inside Concessions...just the 5 of us. My husband joined us at the fields when he got off work and I locked us inside so no one would disturb our family dinner. Ham & cheese sandwhiches, trail mix, carrot sticks, bottled water and little chocolate chip cookies for dessert.....we laughed, we talked, we engaged in m&m catching contests.....and then it was time for my family to go home and my newbie volunteer arrived for his shift.

My family got their smiles back, Tommy was satisfied with the change in plans and we got to spend some much needed family time together.

SO...I leave you with this...never take for granted the little things, the simple joys in life AND remember that if you want something bad enough, you CAN find ways to make it all work...even if it is found by sitting on a concrete floor eating ham sandwiches, IT WORKS.