Its cold and we all need to warm up! Winter makes us think hot chocolate and a roaring hot fire. I also tend to want hot soups, chili, and stews. Those are my comfort foods. I really enjoy a big pot of homemade vegetable soup and some good old southern cornbread. The cornbread is my grandmother’s recipe. The soup is my mother’s. Both of these are quick and easy to make. The soup can be simmered for as many hours as you would like or stuck in the crock pot for the day if you want. The longer it cooks the better it tastes.

Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup

1 pound Ground Chuck

1 48 ounce Can Tomato Juice

1 Small Can Tomato Sauce

2 Cans Mixed Vegetables

4 Medium Sized Potatoes Peeled, Cut into Bite sized chunks or slices

1/2 tsp Minced Onions

Dash of garlic

Brown ground chuck, drain.  Place all other ingredients in large stock pot or crock pot. Add ground chuck and bring to boil, Reduce heat to Medium. Simmer for at least one hour or until potatoes are tender.  Stir occasionally. Makes 4-6 servings.

Nana’s Cornbread

2-3 cups white cornmeal

1/4 cup self rising flour

Buttermilk

Bacon grease or drippings

Cast Iron Skillet

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Place 2 TBSP bacon grease or drippings into a cast iron skillet and place in oven. Mix together cornmeal and flour. Add in enough buttermilk until it is a medium consistency.  Allow drippings to heat until they start sizzling in the oven. Remove skillet and add hot drippings to the cornmeal mixture and then mix well. Place mixture in hot skillet. Bake in oven for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Most women think working from home is the epitomy of the holy grail! It is an excellent solution for many women today but it is not a quick or easy solution to bringing in a second income for a family. It takes research, planning, organization and a LOT of hard work to make it work long term. Many women and even men now look at this with stars in their eyes and do not stop to think about the sacrifices they are going to have to make in order to make this work for their family.

I do not say this to make you turn away from working at home as an option. Rather, I say this to make you really take this seriously and think things through before you leave your brick and mortar job to make your career at home in your pajamas. There are several factors to consider before deciding whether a work at home position will work for you.

First you need to look at your experience and qualifications. This is key to either making or breaking a successful work at home experience. There are wonderful work at home careers that can make anyone really happy and give their family a viable choice when considering working at home.  A career in creative writing is one that is easily attainable in the work at home market if a person has the skills and experience to do this.

There are many customer service positions that are available for work at home moms as well. Many require that you use a telephone in order to work for the company and that you have a landline phone to do so. Most of these positions require that you do some sort of selling as well. This can be as simple as doing an upsell which is trying to get the customer to take a product that is related to the product they called in to purchase. Other companies require that you offer the customer clubs or warranties on the products they purchase. If you are not keen on sales, then you need to really rethink customer service and sales for these companies. There are very few positions that allow you to do true customer service and no sales.

Get a piece of paper and write down your past experiences. Write down your strengths and your weaknesses. If you have problems with this, and it is a common problem when it comes to assessing our own value ask your spouse or your best friend to help you do this. You will be surprised to find out what others see in you. Use these abilities to see if you have what it takes to enter the work at home field.

Look for part three of work at home tips next week!

In today’s economy, I am sure everyone is looking for nutritious meals that do not cost a fortune! I know that lately it has become very hard to not break the bank when I go to the grocery store when trying to feed my family. I am including another frugal recipe here for a one pot meal! It is very easy to make and my family really loves it.

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

4-6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 8 ounce Canister of Stuffing Mix

1 Can Campbells Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp Butter or margarine

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp sage

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat water to boiling and add margarine, add stuffing and mix well. Place chicken breasts in a large broiling pan that has been prepared with Pam and aluminum foil first. The chicken breasts should be placed on the sides of the pan and the stuffing in the middle.  Sprinkle the stuffing with the poultry seasoning and sage. Then spoon the creme of chicken soup over the stuffing and a small amount over the chicken breasts. Cook for 30-40 minutes until chicken is done.

Serve with french bread and some raw veggies, green beans or a salad and you have a quick, easy meal!

Enjoy this frugal recipe!

Many people actually lust for a work at home job without even thinking about all the work and preparation it takes to make a career at this successful. I see women daily on a very popular message board jumping into work at home jobs without stopping to think 2 seconds to see if that job would possibly work out for them. Then you see them come back to the forum a few days later saying they have left the job due to it not working out.

This does not leave a good impression on potential employers or even other coworkers. First the work at home position that was taken could have been given to someone who would have actually enjoyed it and stayed there. Second the employer will get very disgusted with hiring people who flake on them and get a bad impression of work at home contractors period if this goes on and on.

So rule number one of working at home is take the time to make sure the opportunity will work out for you! Not every work at home position will work for everyone. Women with small children may not be suited to take phone work or may need late night hours when their children are in bed. They may need more flexible hours to work when their children are napping. If you are in this type of situation, please do not jump into a rigid scheduled job before you really think it through!

Second, get a decent set up for your work at home. Have a designated area or room for your work where you can have quiet or peace to do your work. Talk to your family about this and even put a sign on the door to remind children that Mom is at work! One of the hardest things a work at home mom faces is her children realizing that Mom has put on her work hat and is not Mom first for those moments!

Third, do a lot of mental preparation and scheduling ahead of time! Make meals and snacks that will tide your children over if working through meals or snack time. Get a dry erase board and put instructions for the kids on the board as to what they are supposed to do while you are working if they are old enough to read and follow them. This helps them to keep organized while you are working.

Crafts, books and games are great attention getters for kids when its a rainy day or you are trying to work. I have sat my children at my feet and let them work on a craft while I am writing or have them in another room working on crafts while I am finishing articles. This has saved me many times! I look for discounted crafts and other kits that have gone on clearance. I pick them up and put them away until we need them! Then I always have something new to get their attention if they get bored!

That is enough for today. I will continue this series as I feel there is a lot to say there that women are not looking at! Working at home can work but it takes a lot of time and hard work to manage. It can be harder than working away from home at times!

I know that I posted on checking on your utilities before to save money but it is a good idea to check these every three to four months to see if these companes are offering any new bundles, savings or services that might save you money on your bills.

Case in point, I have been paying a high phone bill with AT&T due to the fact that my DSL is through them as well. I found out recently that I can go online and change my services without going through a representative and dealing with all the “sales” garbage you have to deal with every time you call and ask for changes or new deals with them. So I decided to check and see if I could save money on my bill.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to save over $20 a month on my local phone bill service and $5.00 on my long distance service each month! I was ecstatic! I could not wait to get here and tell all my readers about this so you can check and see if you can save as well! It was a very simple and easy process to do online and no sales pitch!

So check it out! It only takes a few minutes and it might save you big $$$ like it did me! Saving money is so much fun!!!!

Well hopefully this finds you basking in the glow of the recent holidays! Either that or you are like me and pretty much exhausted due to all the activities! What I have found that is very fun and frugal as well is to look out for the best after Christmas sales! I save back some money each year to get things that either we did not get for Christmas that we wanted and needed or to find excellent sales on clothing and other items that I have been holding off on until now.

Case in point, my daughter has really been wanting an Aeropostale hoodie. They have been retailing for around $40-$50 each. I just found an excellent after Christmas sale and bought 3 hoodies for $12-$15 each. This way she gets 2 hoodies and I found one for myself that I could not resist buying. They have their T shirts on sale for $5 right now and jeans for $19.98! They also have a coupon you can get $10 off a $40 purchase in their stores at the present time.

Bath and Body Works is one of the only places I buy shower gel or bubble bath. I love their scents and after learning how to make my own bath products I am very picky on what I use here which is purchased retail. Right now they have their shower gel/body wash and other products in their Signature Collection on sale for $6.00 each or 3 for $15.00. Their tubes of lotions are $3.00 right now. You cannot beat that deal! I have a $25.00 gift certificate and I am definitely going to take advantage of that one! Join thier email list and you can be in the know as to when they have these great sales as well!

Those are two examples of ways that you can make your bucks go further! The key here is to not spend them all before Christmas so you can have some extra goodies in your hands by the time the New Year roles around! So check these out and I bet that you will agree they are two of the best Christmas sales around!

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I know that it has been a while since I put out any menus. I have been recuperating from some health concerns and surgery. I have been fixing a lot of one pot meals or casseroles since I have been busy with all the Christmas preparations. This is a great recipe that can be made easily and is a good hearty meal as well.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

2-3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (cooked and chopped)

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup milk

1 box Minute Rice

1 8 ounce box Velveeta Cheese

2 small bags frozen broccoli

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook chicken breasts in the microwave, chop into chunks and set aside. Prepare Minute Rice according to directions on the box. Pour rice into a large casserole dish. I use a 9×13 pan. Mix Cream of Chicken soup and the cup of milk. Add chicken and broccoli to the casserole dish. Pour soup mixture over it. Chop the Velveeta cheese into chunks, add to the casserole dish and stir to mix well. Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees until the cheese is nice an bubbly.

Serve with a nice loaf of french bread and you have a meal. This can be made and frozen for up to two weeks.

Enjoy!!

With the economy being sketchy and budgets being tight for most of us, it is important to be able to save money every place that we can. I have found a great way to save money on the purchases that I was going to make anyway! I found Ebates which offers shoppers a certain percentage of their purchases back for using their site.

They are offering some great deals right now. I bought some great Christmas gifts on Old Navy online. They have some fantastic sales going on now.  By using Ebates I was able to save another 6% on my purchases! This does add up! I have racked up over $20 on Ebates just on my Christmas purchases alone!  Ebates also gives you $5.00 right now for making your first purchase through them. They send you out a check when you request it!  You cannot go wrong doing this!

We all are having to tighten our belts this Christmas season. I think everyone is looking for ways to save money on gifts this year.  What I did was sit down and think about what I could do or make that would be needed or appreciated by my friends and loved ones.

When I worked in the massage industry, I became very interested in learning about natural bath and body products. What I found was that I could make my own product for a fraction of the cost of those fancy mall “high end retail” store cremes and have much better quality products. I also found that many other people loved my products when they tried them. This found its way into me making gift baskets for special occasions for sale. I also made custom baskets for people.

So I have pulled out my recipes and made batches of items that I want to use this Christmas. I have put some of those recipes on Ehow and have shared how I make different baskets there as well. There is no reason that anyone cannot make these with a little ingenuity, some insider secrets, and a little knowledge!

I have always gotten raves on products I have sold and given away in the past and have had many people come back for more. I am sure if you decide to make gifts for your family and friends they will be very happy that you did! Your wallet will thank you too!

How To Make Spa Baskets

How To Make Chocolate Lovers Baskets

How To Make Smelly Jellies

How To Make Reed Diffusers

How To Make Fragrant Pine Cones

How To Make All Natural Body Butter

How To Make All Natural Lip Balm

How To Dip Your Own Incense Sticks Or Cones

There are enough ideas there to get you started. The main thing to remember is to be creative! You can make gift baskets out of just about anything. Figure out what the person you are giving the gift to enjoys. Then purchase or make items that incorporate that theme and make up a basket. They will love you for it!

Hello Everyone!

So sorry its been some time since I posted. I have had some health issues that have kept me down. I hope to have things resolved soon so until then I hope my readers will bear with me. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet just the immediate family but very nice. My adult son deep friend our turkey for us. He bought a new fryer and had to try it out! I did the rest of the meal. It turned out great. I had done the baking over the past few days a bit at a time as my health problems would not allow me to do much at a time.

All my crew went to Grandma’s Friday to visit with my husband’s family. I had two new litters of puppies to tend to so I had to stay here and puppy sit. Yes, Virginia when it rains it does pour, water and puppies! I was expecting one litter but one of my other females who is tall decided to ahem slip a litter in on me.

So I have five new little ones who are keeping me and their mom’s hopping! Need I say anymore! OK well in the very few moments of peace and quiet I have found in the past few days, I have found some great deals for Christmas gifts. I am going to put some links here to the Cyber Monday deals. I saw some excellent bargains here for today I took advantage of some of the weekend sales and got some gifts purchased. I hope you are doing well on your gift giving as well.

I am going to do my next posting on making inexpensive gifts that come from the heart. In today’s economy none of us have a lot of extra cash to spend on extravagant gifts this year. I know I will be making several of my own gifts. I have already made soap and smelly jellies to go in some of my gift baskets and purchased a few small things to round out the baskets I want to make.

These are great fun and believe me they are very well accepted by the people that you give them to! I will have links to my Ehow articles on how to make the products and baskets up too! So enjoy!

Cyber Monday Deals:

Walmart Cyber Monday Deals

Links to Kmart Cyber Monday Deals

Classic Closeouts Cyber Monday Coupon

Link to Sears Cyber Monday Deals

Best Buy Cyber Monday Deals

Circuit City

Kohl’s Cyber Monday Deals

Macy’s Thanksgiving Sales

Toys R Us Sales