Lipstick to Crayons » Cooking and Recipes

Freschetta Pizza Giveaway and Sweepstakes for a Ford Hybrid – CLOSED

lipsticktocrayons — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:57:29 +0000

My family absolutely LOVES good pizza, which is why I typically make my own. But when time is short, we pull something form the freezer just like almost every other family. Now, there’s a new option at the grocery store: Freschetta® California-Style Pizza. Freschetta’s newest pizzas takes fresh taste to new heights, fusing together creative combinations of flavorful vegetables and signatures sauces to create the four varieties: Mediterranean Garlic & Veggie, Spicy Chicken & Feta, Bacon, Spinach & Artichoke and Sundried Tomato & Cheese.

To celebrate the new flavors, Freschetta is hosting the Freschetta “Fresh Ride” Sweepstakes. You can enter by visiting www.freshridesweepstakes.com for the chance to win a 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid* car and other great prizes, including Fresh Flower of the Month Club memberships and a year’s supply of Freschetta® Pizza. Simply enter your information on the site for a chance to win these fresh and exciting prizes! You can get additional entries by sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and email, too!

Here are more details on these new California-style pizzas.

Available in delicious varieties, including:

Mediterranean Garlic & Veggie: Blends vibrant, flavorful vegetables and garlic with a garlic- and white wine-flavored sauce,feta and mozzarella cheeses.
Spicy Chicken & Feta: Grilled chicken, red onion, feta, provolone and mozzarella cheese on a spicy buffalo ranch-style sauce for a hint of heat.
Bacon Spinach & Artichoke: Combines fire-roasted artichoke hearts, spinach,bacon and mozzarella cheese with a garlic- and white wine-flavored sauce.
Sundried Tomato & Cheese: Tomatoes, marinara and cheese fused together for a tangy, sweet and salty flavor.

For more information on Freschetta^® California-Style Pizza, visit www.freschetta.com.

Here on Lipstick to Crayons, Freschetta is offering four of my readers a chance to win a coupon for a free pizza and a eco-friendly canteen-style water bottle. To enter, leave a comment below.

Giveaway guidelines

To win, let me know in the comments section below what your favorite pizza is.

Receive additional entries by doing any/all of the following, but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:

Blog about this contest
Subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed
Tweet this giveaway on Twitter
Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati
Stumble this post
Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time Dec. 7, 2010. Be sure to include a valid email address. Winners will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If a winner does not claim prize by Dec. 9, 2010, she/he will forfeit the prize to alternate winner who will be drawn at random.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED.

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Turkey Trivia and Southwestern Turkey Chili Recipe

lipsticktocrayons — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:17:59 +0000

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Share this turkey trivia with your little turkeys while you whip up your family’s Thanksgiving feast!

Did you know?:

Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.
Domesticated turkeys can’t fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.
Turkeys are first documented over two thousand years ago in Central America and Mexico.
In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations.

And while there’s nothing better than turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce the first time around, the real turkey trivia is what to do with those pesky Thanksgiving leftovers.

Here’s an answer: spice ‘em up Southwestern style with this Southwestern Turkey Chili recipe from Del Monte.

Prep Time: 3 Minutes
Cooking Time: 20 Minutes

Ingredients

3/4 lb. turkey
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) DEL MONTE® Diced Tomatoes (No Salt Added)
1 can (8 oz.) DEL MONTE® Tomato Sauce (No Salt Added)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 can (l5-1/4 oz.) DEL MONTE® Whole Kernel Golden Sweet Corn (No Salt Added) (optional)
1 can (l5 oz.) low-salt kidney beans, drained

Directions

1. In a large skillet, cook turkey with onion 5 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, corn and beans. Cover and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Serve with lime wedges and top with light sour cream and chopped cilantro, if desired

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Alternative Recipe for Green Bean Casserole

lipsticktocrayons — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:34:41 +0000

Looking for a healthy alternative to the classic green bean casserole this Thanksgiving?

Then Del Monte’s yummy Italian Green Bean Sauté is the recipe for you! You and your family will get your Thanksgiving green bean fix with half of the calories, a third of the fat, and one eighth of the sodium that you find in a traditional green bean casserole!!

Italian Green Bean Sauté

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cooking Time: 10 Minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

1/2 small onion, cut into thin wedges
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cans (14-1/2 oz. each) DEL MONTE® Cut Green Beans, No Salt Added, drained
1 cans (14-1/2 oz) DEL MONTE® Diced Tomatoes, drained

Directions

Cook onion, garlic and basil in oil in medium saucepan over medium heat, 5 minutes or until onion is tender.
Add green beans and tomatoes; heat through.

And check out solutions.delmonte.com for more deliciously simple holiday recipes!

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Cool Touch Griddle Giveaway — Make Breakfast!! CLOSED

lipsticktocrayons — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:28:38 +0000

Knowing that school days can be a hectic time for families, I wanted to pass along some tips from the Midwest Dairy Council designed not only to save time, but also help that ensure kids take on the day with a healthy and balanced breakfast:

o Set out cereal boxes and bowls the night before, add milk in the morning, and enjoy

o Divide mini pretzels, nuts, and dried fruit into baggies the night before to sprinkle over yogurt

o Bake a fresh batch of muffins with your kids over the weekend to grab on the way to school

o Stock up on self-serve options such as individual flavored milks and granola bars

o Heat nutrient-rich leftovers for a quick, non-traditional breakfast

o If kids don’t have time to eat at home, take advantage of school breakfast programs

We’ve all heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” but did you know that skipping breakfast can mean going a total of 15-17 hours without food? In fact, children who skip breakfast don’t typically make up the nutrients they miss at other meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast has also been linked to sustained energy levels throughout the school day, improved attendance, higher math and reading scores, increased creativity and an improved memory.

Giveaway

To help get families get off to a good start each morning, Midwest Dairy Council would like to provide a giveaway that will help make the routine quick, easy and tasty! The giveaway bundle includes:

o A Cool Touch Griddle (valued at $30.00), plus handy kitchen tools

o Dairy Makes Sense recipe cards, including a fall favorite, Pumpkin Pancakes.

o Reusable Dairy Makes Sense insulated grocery bag — perfect for stocking up on milk, cheese and yogurt at the grocery store.

Giveaway Guidelines:

To enter the contest, you MUST become an email subscriber to Lipstick to Crayons. The subscribe button is in the upper right corner of the site. Once you subscribe (or if you are already a subscriber), leave a comment below telling me you did so, and make sure the email address you provide is the one you used to subscribe. After completing this mandatory first entry method, you can gain additional entries by doing any or all of the following (but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do):

Blog about this contest
Tweet this giveaway on Twitter (you can do daily tweets, but leave a comment each time you do)
Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati
Stumble this post
Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar
Become a fan of Lipstick to Crayons on Facebook.
Post a link to this contest on your Facebook page.

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time November 5, 2010. Be sure to include a valid email address with each of your entries. Winners will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If any winner does not claim the prize by November 8, 2010, she will forfeit the prize to an alternate winner who will be drawn at random.

USA residents only please!

For information about the importance of breaking for breakfast and 12 quick breakfast tips, please visit the newly updated www.dairymakessense.com.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO GERI, COMMENT #29.

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Tyson Grilled & Ready Whole Breast Fillets Giveaway & Recipes – CLOSED

lipsticktocrayons — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:21:18 +0000

I’m not one for using a lot of convenience foods because they tend to be expensive. But, they’re certainly less expensive than feeding a family at a restaurant, so it’s a good idea to keep a few convenience items around to avoid the temptation to eat out just because you’re short on time.

Tyson® Grilled & Ready^™ Whole Breast Fillets are one of my favorite new finds in the convenience item category. Available in the grocer’s freezer section, the new Tyson® Grilled & Ready^™ Whole Breast Fillets are fully-cooked, lean, boneless, skinless recipe-ready chicken breasts. The perfect protein for any entrée, salad or sandwich, they make creating delicious, nourishing meals a snap. Plus, they are 98% fat free and contain no preservatives, and I found them to be very tender.

I used the fillets recently to make chicken quesadillas and to make a chicken pizza. Here is a recipe from culinary expert and cookbook author, Holly Clegg:

Grilled Chicken with Watermelon Salsa

Recipe serves 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 6-7 minutes

Ingredients

4 Tyson® Grilled & ReadyTM Whole Breast Fillets

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) Hoisin sauce

2 cups chopped watermelon

1/2 cup chopped red onion

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup reduced fat feta cheese

1 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

1 teaspoon olive oil

Preparation Instructions

1. Coat each chicken breast with Hoisin sauce and place in microwave safe dish. Follow microwave directions on Grilled & Ready packaging to heat.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with corn on the cob or quick couscous cooked in orange juice and tossed with green onions.

2. In small bowl mix together watermelon, red onion, mint, feta, seasoned rice vinegar and

olive oil. Place salsa on top of chicken breast and serve.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with corn on the cob or quick couscous cooked in orange juice and tossed with green onions.

For more recipes, go here. If you’d like to win a coupon for a free bag of Tyson® Grilled & Ready^™ Whole Breast Fillets, leave a comment below. Contest closes August 3, 2010. I will randomly pick two winners and notify them via email.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO MAUREEN, COMMENT #4 AND FELICIA, COMMENT #21.

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T.G.I. Friday’s Giving Away $10 Gift Cards

lipsticktocrayons — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:47:25 +0000

T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants recently announced it will treat guests to a free $10 Gift Card for a limited time at participating restaurants in the U.S. when they purchase two entrees from Friday’s® new Caribbean-inspired Summer menu featuring fourteen new appetizer, salad, sandwich, entree and combo dishes starting at $8.99 including selections that are glazed with Friday’s new Captain Morgan(TM) Original Spiced Rum sauce.
ess than two weeks ago, T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants introduced its new Caribbean-inspired Summer menu.

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My Journey In Frugality

lipsticktocrayons — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:34:35 +0000

When I started thinking last year about how I was going to significantly reduce our monthly expenses, I was a little overwhelmed. It is an overwhelming task, to be sure. But, as I began to put my plan into action over the last six weeks, I’ve realized that small steps are starting to make a big difference. So, for anyone who wants or needs to reduce the monthly cash output but doesn’t know where to start, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been doing and learning early in this journey toward frugality.

Penny-Pinching Processes (not necessarily in order)

Process 1

As I mentioned, I started following several blogs toward the end of last year as part of my learning process. While I wish I could, I cannot reinvent what these amazing and smart women have created. So, if you’d like to reduce what you spend on groceries, personal care products and household supplies, I highly suggest you subscribe to these blogs:

Money Saving Mom
Deal Seeking Mom
The Coupon High
The Coupon Project
Attention Target Shoppers (even if you don’t have a Target, this blog provides lots of great tips and ideas for thriftiness)

Process 2

I started clipping coupons in January and I made my coupon binder. You can find examples of coupon-organizing systems at several of the blogs mentioned above. I like the binder system best because I “love me a three ring binder.” I made mine from one of my daughter’s old middle-school zippered binders. It’s complete with her middle school doodling on the cover. Maybe I’ll graduate to something more “grown up” eventually, but this one was free and saving money is the whole point of the exercise, so it made sense.

Process 3

I participated in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. If you want to save some money on groceries right away, I suggest you give this a try for a week or longer. There may be lots of complaining from your kids, but it’ll be worth it on the money front! (Be sure to check out Eat from the Pantry Challenge Part 2 and Part 3). Doing this challenge also made it easier for me to get a handle on what I have in my fridge, freezer and pantry.

Process 4

This one is simple: When making dinner, I double or triple the entree (if it’s something that will freeze well). And don’t say you don’t have enough freezer room. As I learned from the book Miserly Moms, you don’t even need two freezers, but rather, a bunch of gallon-sized freezer bags that can be filled and frozen flat.

Process 5

I started buying whole chickens, cooking them and pulling the meat off the bones, then freezing the meat in freezer bags for use in chicken quesadillas, chicken tetrazinni, chicken strombolis, home-made chicken pizza, etc. It’s a lot cheaper than buying the boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

Process 5

I clip my coupons from the paper on Saturday morning, and I file them in my binder on Sunday so the task is done by the time the grocery ads arrive in the paper/mail on Monday.

Process 6

I read the blogs mentioned above and make a list for the Walgreens and CVS deals I will take advantage of that week to stock up on groceries and personal care items that are free, almost free or significantly discounted. Doing these Walgreens and CVS deals is a learning process, and you should start small. I think Money Saving Mom has the best tutorials on how to get started doing this. I usually hit Walgreens and/or CVS on Monday or Tuesday, with my list of deals for each store written out and the coupons to make the deals even sweeter paper-clipped to the lists.

Process 7

I look through the grocery ads that arrive on Monday and make a list of the items I will buy from each store on a separate sheet of paper, also paper-clipping to each list any coupons that coincide with the sales. Remember that the front and back pages of the ads tend to be the “loss leaders,” so these are the best deals. I no longer make a grocery list based on what I want to cook that week — I make a list based on the sales, and build our meals around those items.

Here’s an example: Last week, our local grocer, Schnucks, had pasta on sale 10/$10, pasta sauce on sale 10/$10, 4-pack baked potatoes 10/$10, etc. I went to Schnucks and bought ONLY the 10/$10 items, stocking up on pasta, sauce, etc. Then I built our meals last week around those sales. We had a baked-potato night, and a spaghetti pie night (and I doubled the spaghetti pie recipe, so there’s now one in the freezer). I had already stocked up on frozen ground turkey, shredded cheese and sour cream, all of which had been on sale the previous week, so I had the ingredients for some very inexpensive meals.

How much have I saved so far? That’s hard to answer for a couple of reasons: 1) I saved a ton of money on groceries in Janaury because of the Eat from the Pantry Challenge, but that won’t happen on a regular basis; and, 2) I’m also building quite a stock pile of food and personal care items as I find things on sale, so there are weeks when my grocery expenditures include this stockpiling effort, but I’m getting items cheaper than normal, which will save me money down the road.

I can say this: I have not had one single week since I started in which my total groceries (from the grocery store and Walgreens, Target and CVS) cost me $300, which was a number I often hit prior to my “journey toward frugality.” And, as I mentioned above, I’m stock piling quite a bit of stuff as things go on sale. Plus, I haven’t had to run out and buy diapers or juice or milk at the last minute, paying the highest price for said items because I had to have them at that moment. My shopping is more carefully planned, and therefore more thrifty in nature now. And, I’ve got a number of meals accumulating in the freezer for nights when things get “hairy,” which has cut down on last-minute take-out.

It’s a learning process, but I’m glad I’m doing it. The grocery budget is one of the few line items we can affect (there’s never a sale or coupons for the mortgage payment or the phone bill), so I’m trying to approach this as an exercise in “financial empowerment.” It sounds more fun that way, don’t you think? And I will admit to getting a little bit of a buzz when I manage to cut my “out of pocket” costs for a load of groceries by $20 or $30 at one time by using coupons!

Try a random post.

Tyson’s Any’tizers Giveaway

lipsticktocrayons — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:33:59 +0000

Tyson recently added some outstanding new varieties to the Any’tizers product line, two of which have made stir fry night around here a lot more interesting. Now, they’re offering a few of my readers the chance to try them for free.

The newest sauce and stir varieties are:

· Chicken Breast Chunks with General Tso Sauce (my favorite)
· Chicken Breast Chunks with Spicy Sweet & Sour Sauce (my second favorite)
· Crispy Breaded Wings with Citrus Fire Sauce
· Crispy Breaded Wings with General Tso Sauce

I’ve tried all four varieties and enjoyed them all but loved the Chicken Breast Chunks with General Tso Sauce. They are made with the highest quality chicken and are an easy snack option for those starving kiddos after school, but also a great compliment to stir fry or fried rice to make a complete meal. And with the Superbowl just around the corner, they’d make a yummy no-hassle offering for entertaining.

If you’d like to receive two coupons to try Any’tizers for free, enter the contest below:

Giveaway Guidelines:

Leave a comment below about your favorite snacking time.

Receive additional entries by doing any/all of the following, but be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do:

Blog about this contest
Subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed
Tweet this giveaway on Twitter (you can tweet daily if you want, but make sure you leave a comment each time you do).
Favorite Lipstick to Crayons on Technorati
Stumble this post
Add Lipstick to Crayons to your blogroll or my button to your sidebar
Become a fan of Lipstick to Crayons on Facebook

This giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. Central time Feb. 1, 2010. Be sure to include a valid email address with each of your entries. Contest open to United States residents only. Winner will be randomly chosen via random.org and will be notified via email and announced on this post.

If winner does not claim prize by Feb. 3, 2009, he/she will forfeit the prize to an alternate winner.

THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO JESSI, COMMENT #71.

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Part 3 – Eat from the Pantry Challenge

lipsticktocrayons — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:15:00 +0000

Just a quick update — we’re down to our last three dinners from my “Eat from the Pantry Challenge.” (Can you hear my teen cheering loudly!? She even went so far as to ask her Nana NOT to ask us over for dinner anymore so that we can ‘get this thing over already!’)

The dinners have lasted longer than I predicted here for a number of reasons. My in-laws had us over for dinner a few times during the first few days of the challenge before they headed back to Florida for the winter (no, I don’t hate them because they’re warm). We also had a few unexpected events that resulted in my family members being fed outside our home. And, with a few trips to the grocery store for staples, I managed to secure the ingredients for a few more meals.

So, by my calculations, I saved about $150 the first week of the challenge, and I’ve saved about $50 the second week. I have restocked the pantry a little bit (to the biggest sigh of relief by my teen), but I still haven’t purchased any ingredients for additional dinners yet. That will happen in a few more days.

I’m also continuing to learn the ropes of couponing, and today I got $78 worth of stuff at Walgreens for $37.10 with the help of Money Saving Mom and a few other couponing divas! I hope to post more about that later, so be sure to subscribe to my feed!

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Time to Check Out Market Day Offerings

lipsticktocrayons — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:57:37 +0000

If you want to pack something other thank the standard PB&J in your kids’ lunches, Market Day has some great alternatives. And if you like to cook and/or if you’re looking for easy ways to create delicious affordable meals, you need to check out a new collection of herbs, rubs and seasonings from Market Day Gourmet.

In case you didn’t know, Market Day is the nation’s largest food fundraising company. Market Day provides schools and other organizations across the country the opportunity to raise money by selling a monthly food program as well as a gift brochure and restaurant-quality desserts and cookie dough, as well as a gourmet food catalogue.

To be honest, I never paid a lot of attention to the Market Day catalogues that came home with my kids until recently when I was trying to find ideas for something different to pack in their lunches. School lunches are just too expensive and unhealthy, but a soul can tire of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite new finds:

Turkey & Cheese Pretzel Sandwiches - these sandwiches have slices of turkey and American cheese on a pretzel bun. They’re frozen, so they can be packed in a lunch in the morning and then thaw throughout the day until lunch time. My kids loved them, but my husband loved them even more, so they didn’t last long in my freezer. There are six sandwiches in each $15.29 box from Market Day. That’s about $2.50 a sandwich, but remember, it raises money for your school, too.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Grahamwiches — these treats are a new twist on the old PB&J because the standard ingredients are layered between two graham cracker wafers. Frozen, they make a nice cold snack, or they can be packed in a lunch and thaw throughout the day. You get 12 bars for $10.49, making them pretty economical, too.

Fruit Singles – in the dead of winter, it gets pretty expensive to keep my kids in fresh fruit, but I like the idea of them getting at least one serving of fruit during their school day. These frozen Fruit Singles thaw to a slushy consistency by the time lunch rolls around for my kids, and are a nice alternative to buying small and sometimes sour grapes or over-priced “winter” strawberries each week. They sell for $10.89 for 12 cups.

Among Market Day’s most exciting new offerings are the new collection of herbs, rubs and seasonings from Market Day Gourmet. Each of these spices can be quickly combined with a few ingredients to create delicious, affordable meals that have “gourmet” flavors and aromas complimenting the dish. I’ve made chicken breasts and fish fillets coated with the Carolina Coast Sweet Mustard and shrimp and pepper kabobs marinated in the St. Louis Better Than Caesar spice and a few teaspoons of oil. I’ve also used the Santa Fe Chipotle combined with low-fat sour cream to make a savory topping for baked potatoes.

The spices, which come with recipe ideas for marinades, rubs, dressings and other methods for use, are perfect for use with slow-cookers and make-ahead meals for freezing. The selections include: A Salt for All Seasonings, Carolina Coast Sweet Mustard, Key West Citrus Herb, St. Louis Better than Caesar, Santa Fe Chipotle and Sonoma Summer Herb Blend and they cost $7.99 for a 5.6 ounce container.