Double Chocolate Mud Bars (Yummy Gooey Bars)

15 Min prep, 35 min baking.

Makes 36 bars

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (I omit the nuts)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I increase to 1 cup)
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 pan.
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold into butter mixture.
4. Press into prepared pan. Pack down firmly. Sprinkle nuts, chips, and marshmallows over the top. (Add more if it looks too sparse.)
5. Beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in brown sugar. Spread over mixture in pan.
6. Bake for 35 min.
7. Devour

Jell-O Rainbow Ribbon

Prep Time: 3 hours, Chill time: 4 hours or overnight
5 small packages of jell-o, any flavor
6 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup sour cream, plain yogurt, or vanilla ice cream

1. Dissolve 1 pkg Jell-o in 1 1/4 cups boiling water.
2. pour 3/4 cup of the jell-o into jell-o mold. Chill about 15 minutes (or put into the freezer to chill faster.)
3. Chill remaining jell-o in a bowl until slightly thickened; blend in 3 TBSP of the sour cream. Spoon over jell-o in mold. Chill about 20 min.
4. Repeat with remaining flavors.
5. I let each flavor cool a few minutes befor pouring it onto the previous layer, otherwise the hot jell-o will disolve some of the set jell-o.

Burgess Beef Stew and 45 Minute Rolls

As promised, I am posting the recipes I shared for our food storage gift exchange. Don't forget to post yours!

Burgess Beef Stew
A Slow Cooker Recipe

Ingredients:
2 pounds beef stew meat
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf (remove after cooking)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 can each of:
beef broth
green beans
corn
potatoes
carrots
16 ounces tomato sauce (the plain 8 oz. cans, not spaghetti sauce)
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream

Directions:
In a large crock pot, stir together flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Add beef stew meat and toss to coat meat well. Drain vegetables, reserving the liquid for later. Add remaining spices, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, drained vegetables, and tomato sauce. Add enough of the reserved liquid to cover the contents of the slower cooker, or more or less to your own liking. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Salt and pepper as needed. Top each bowl with cheddar cheese and sour cream. Enjoy!

45 Minute Rolls

Mix and rest 10 minutes:
3 ½ cups warm water
¾ cup sugar (or 1/2 cup honey)
1 cup oil
6 T. yeast

Add:
1 T. Salt
3 eggs
10 ½ cups flour (I really like half white flour and half white-wheat flour)

Mix in mixer or knead until smooth and combined. Shape into rolls and place on a greased cookie sheet or baking pan. Raise 20 minutes or longer. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until done.

Recipes

We have lots of recipes from the past few months to get on the blog. We'll get them posted as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons

Harris Teeter will be doing Triple Coupons this week starting Wednesday, November 4th running until Tuesday November 10th. If you aren't familiar with Triple Coupons... Harris Teeter will triple up to 20 coupons with a face value of $.99 or less. For example: if you have a coupon for $.50 off ketchup and the ketchup costs $1.89, then after coupon it would only cost you $.39!

There will be a click-able list of coupon match-ups at www.SouthernSavers.com by tomorrow morning.

If you have any questions, please email me!

Julie

Hi Ladies: Here are two of my most favorite and easy recipes:

EASY CAKE MIX COOKIES

Mix together: 1 cake mix, 1/3 c oil, 3 eggs (beaten) and optional 6 oz chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coconut, etc. Drop by scoops onto cookie sheet. Bake at 370 till slightly soft. Cool and enjoy.'

MICROWAVE CAKE:

1 cake mix (any kind), 3 eggs, 1/2 c oil and 1 1/2 c water Mix as usual and pour into a prepared Angel Food or Bundt microwavable bowl that has been frosted on the inside with 1/2 or more of a carton of frosting mix. Bake in microwave for 14 to 15 minutes. Check for doneness with a skewer. Let rest for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a large platter. (I microwave the remainder of the frosting and drizzle over the top. ) Cut and enjoy. This can be made and served in less that 1/2 hour.

Lots of free stuff at Wal-Greens

I love free stuff, and there's lots of it at Wal-Greens this week! I spent $13.50 for all these, and walked out with $21 in Register Rewards for next week. I could have spent less, but I miscalculated. Go to moneysavingmom.com to find coupon match-ups.

Here's what I bought:

Transaction #1

Vasiline hand lotion, Robitussin, Halls, Herbal Essence shampoo, Floss picks, 3 tomato sauce: spent $1.18 before tax (I used $10 in Register Rewards that I earned last week.)

Trasnactin #2

Gillette razor, Herbal Essence, ponds cream x2, 3 hunts sauce. (Messed this one up a bit. Should have been $1.5 useing RR from hand lotion.) Paid $4.74

Transaction #3

Chapstick, Hand lotion, Emergen -C, 3 tomato sauce. Have to take this receipt back because they didn't get the tomato sauce coupon. Spent $7.11

Transaction #4

Floss, Oral B tooth brush, Halls, 3 tomato sauce. Spent $.94

Rite Aid has some good deals too. I'm going to get 24 count Zanatac and 2x 24 count Tylenol for $3 after coupons and rebates.

c

Harris Teeter Tripple Coupons

Harris Teeter is trippling Coupons this week. http://couponteacher.blogspot.com has coupon match ups for lots of free, less than $1 and less than $2 items.

Oatmeal

This is the oatmeal packets that my brother used when we went hiking in Utah. He had them in ziploc baggies, then poured the ingredients into a styrofoam cup and added hot water. It would be perfect for a 72 hour kit. Here are the proportions:1 cup oats, 1 T powdered milk, 1/2 T sugar, 1/2 t. salt, and then add 2 and 1/2 cups of boiling water. The powdered milk should not be the instant kind, otherwise it doesn't mix well with the water. He also said that he sometimes he will add dried apples (also food storage item!)

Homemade Laundry Detergent & Fabric Softener

At our meeting on Tuesday night the topic of Homemade Landry Detergent came up. Anita Daines has experimented with both the poweder and liquid form and shared her recipe with us.

This recipe is for a smaller quantity than we talked about which might be better for some people.

Homemade Laundry Soap

*The ingredients can be found at Walmart, Harris Teeter & Renfrow Hardware

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap such as Ivory or Zote

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax powder

2 gallon bucket

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the Borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. Stir mixture well.

It will look like this:

Fill an empty liquid detergent container or other container half full with warm water. Fill the rest of the container with your homemade detergent. You can add 10-20 drops of essential oils if desired. Shake container before using each time. Use ½ cup per load.

Homemade Fabric Softener

1 cup baking soda
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 cups water
10-15 drops orange essential oils (optional) or lemon essential oils (optional) or essential oils, of choice (optional)

Directions
1. You will need a one gallon container.
2. First add the baking soda to the plastic container.
3. Next add 1 cup of water to start with.
4. Slowly add the vinegar to the bottle as the vinegar and baking soda will start to fizz.
5. Then add the rest of the water swirling around & cover venting the top a few times.
6. Last add the essential oil.
7. Add 1 cup in your final rinse cycle for each load.

Recipes from Enrichment Night

Here's the Chicken Salad from the Neely's Food Network stars of Down Home with the Neely's:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/neelys-chicken-salad-in-tomato-cups-recipe/index.html

If anyone liked the Strawberry Trifle it's Super Easy:

1 Angel Food cake, chopped in squares(You can get from most grocery store bakeries already baked)
1 Lg. box vanilla instant pudding
1 container of fresh strawberries sliced vertically
1 pkg. strawberry glaze
1 small tub cool whip

Topping:
1 container of frozen strawberries in syrup

In Trifle bowl or other large glass bowl. Fill bottom of bowl with 1/2 of chopped Angel Food cake. Line bottom sides of bowl with one layer of sliced strawberries. Then layer 1/2 vanilla pudding, 1/2 of glaze. Repeat all of the layers above then top with cool whip. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. To serve, spoon onto plates and top with thawed strawberries in syrup.

Any questions about these recipes just call me. I have now posted my first blog! Looks like I'm joining the 21st century!

Becky

Wal-Mart School Supplies Sale!

On an impromptu trip to Wal-Mart this morning I happened upon their huge display of school supplies that are (for a limited time) RIDICULOUSLY cheap to kick off the upcoming school year.  If you have any need for school supplies now is the time to stock up!  There were many supplies I didn't get simply because Jackson has no need for them just yet (i.e. post-its, 3x5 cards, white-out, etc.), but I did get a nice supply of the basics!  Here's what I got:

24 ct. Crayola Crayons:  Bought 4 boxes @ 25 cents ea. = $1.00 total

12 ct. Crayola Colored Pencils:  Bought 1 box = $1.00 total

Pencil Box:  Bought 1 box = $1.00 total

8 ct. Washable Crayola Markers:  Bought 1 box = $2.00 total (the non-washable are only $1.00 a box for those of you with older children!)

2 pack Elmer's Glue Sticks:  Bought 2 packages (so four sticks total) @ 25 cents per package = .50 cents total!

TOTAL:  $5.50 

I am probably going to go back and take advantage of these prices while they last!  Like I mentioned previously, there are MANY other supplies at seriously discounted prices.. Some more that I just thought of were:  Scissors, pencil-top erasers, hand sanitizer, one subject notebooks for 15 cents a piece!, book covers, and MORE!  Happy Shopping! :)

Sweet Wheat Chili

2 cups wheat berries, cooked*
1 pound Ground Beef or Turkey
1 green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 package Chili Seasoning
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 to 1 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen corn

Brown and cook ground beef or turkey, seasoning as desired. Drain any fat. Add cooked wheat berries, browned meat and remaining ingredients to a crock pot or stock pot. Stir everything together and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or simmer on the stove for 1 to 2 hours on low heat. Serve with sour cream, cheese and honey cornbread. Enjoy!


*To cook wheat berries on the stove, place desired amount of wheat berries into a pot and cover with 4 times the amount of water (ie. 1 cup wheat berries + 4 cups water). Add a pinch of salt. Boil for 60-70 minutes or until wheat is tender. Add more water if needed.

*To cook wheat berries in a slow cooker, place 1 cup wheat berries and 3 cups of water in slow cooker. Add a pinch of salt. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Add water if needed.

*Freeze any unused portions for later use. Its a good idea to cook a large batch of wheat berries and freeze them for quick additions to any meal.


Food Storage Groups: Wheat and Beans

Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

If you are thinking "What in the world are Super Doubles?". Please, let me help you. It is wonderful. During a normal week at Harris Teeter they offer Double Coupons (up to $.99). This means that any coupon that you have for $.99 or less will automatically be doubled. For example a coupon for $.50 off Colgate Toothpaste would ring as $1.00 off. During Super Doubles Week, Harris Teeter will double any coupons up to $1.98. So, if you have a coupon for $1.50 off of a box of Cheerios, it would ring up as $3.00 off. There is a limit of 20 coupons per customer, per day. They do track this, so stick to the rules. Now all you need are your coupons and you're ready to hit the aisles.

There is a great list of coupon match-ups at Coupon Kim. This list will show you where/when the coupon can be found and the final price of the item after coupon. Remember, the best grocery deals can be found when matching a great coupon with a great sale.

Happy couponing!

How much does this hold?

Here is a handy list from allaboutfoodstorage.com. If you ever need to know how much food storage will fit into a particular container. This is the list for you! Print it out and slip it into your hand dandy food storage binder and you will always be prepared.


1 gallon container = 7 lbs. wheat, rice or sugar

1 gallon container = 5 lbs. flour or powdered milk

1 gallon container = 4 lbs. dry macaroni

1 gallon container = 3 lbs. potato flakes, oatmeal or instant milk

5 gallon bucket = 35 lbs. wheat, beans, rice or sugar

5 gallon bucket = 25 lbs. powdered milk or flour

5 gallon bucket = 20 lbs. dry macaroni

5 gallon bucket = 15 lbs. potato flakes, oatmeal, or instant milk

55 gallon drum = 400 lbs. wheat, beans, rice, or sugar

55 gallon drum = 275 lbs. powdered milk or flour

55 gallon drum = 225 lbs. dry macaroni

55 gallon drum = 160 lbs. potato flakes, oatmeal, or instant milk

June Meeting Notes

We had a wonderful meeting this month. We will post the the agenda each month so that those who could not attend can see what we talked about!

1. TRAINING: Marianne brought her food storage binder and motivated us all to get organized. She provided a list of the tabs she uses in her binder. They are:

• FSG Agendas (the agenda from our meeting)
• One Month
• Year Supply
• Price Lists (Cannery, Walton Feed, etc.)
  
• Beyond Food
• 72 Hour Kits
• Storage Guidelines
• Recipes
• Household Tips
• Quotes
• Newsletters
• Resources
• Ways to Get There (Calendars for purchasing items, etc.)
• Websites
• Orders
• Three Month
• Menus/Meals
• Master Checklist

2. DISCUSSION TOPICS:
A. Julie promised to post a tutorial on the blog to teach everyone how to submit a post. Here is the link to the tutorial if you missed it:

Blog Post Tutorial

B. Kris B. shared a website with directions for how to build your own food rotation shelves! They are amazing. One of the shelves is less than a foot deep and can be installed right onto your garage well. Here is the link to the website:

Food Storage Shelf Plans

3. ASSIGNMENT: Post a message on this blog. Simple enough. We can't wait to hear from you! Not sure what to post? Here are a few ides:

• Recipes
• Local Sales (for example, Bi-Lo has peaches for $.69/lb this week)
  
• Online Sales
• Household Tips
• Food Storage Ideas
• Just say hello and tell us about where you are in your food storage progress!

4. Next Month's Meeting: Our next meeting is July 7th at 6:30pm at Kris Baker's home. We will be celebrating Christmas in July with a Food Storage Gift Exchange. Please bring a favorite recipe and all of the non-perishable ingredients for the recipe. You may also include an unique perishable items, for example fresh produce. Wrap your recipe and all of the ingredients in a gift bag and come prepared to have some fun!

5. Other Tidbits: Sister Rust is said to be organizing a Cannery Trip for July. Please contact her at dayledkr2@aol.com if you would like to attend or place an order. Click HERE for a Cannery Order Form. Kris B. noticed that the price of powdered milk, hot cocoa, carrots and a few other items have been reduced since the last time we went to the Cannery.

How to Post a Message on the Blog

Step 1: You should have received an email entitled "You have been invited to contribute to Julie's Blog". If you have not, please email me at JulieMarieBurgess@gmail.com and I will send you an invitation for the blog.

Step 2: Open the email invitation and click on the link as directed. It will tell you how to create a Google Account. You must create a Google Account to be able to post a message on the blog.



Step 3: Once you have created a Google Account. Log in to Blogger if you are not already logged in.



Step 4: After logging in you should be on a page called the Dashboard. Our blog should be listed on this page. Below or next to the name of our blog there is a button called "New Post". Click on it.



Step 5: This will bring you to the "Posting Page". Posting on the blog is very similar to writing an email. You create a title for your post and enter into the "Title" box. The large white box below that is for entering in your post. At the top of the text box there are editing options and you can add pictures from your computer, as well as videos.


Step 6: Once you have finished typing in your post, all you need to do is click the orange "Publish Post" button directly below the text box and VOILA! your post will not be found on the blog.

If you have any questions are if this does not make sense to you please email me!!

Julie Burgess
JulieMarieBurgess@gmail.com

Step 6: Once you have typed in your post and added any pictures or videos

6 Gallon Water Jugs - $5 @ Walmart

As I was perusing the clearance racks at Walmart in Matthews today, I came across an end-cap in the camping section full of 6 Gallon Water Jugs clearance priced at $5 down from $9.98. There were 4 left this morning. I don't know if they have more than this, but they are a great deal!

Free or Nearly Free After Coupon

Hello!

Just wanted to let you know about a few items that would be great for food storage that are free or nearly free after coupons from the newspaper.

Target

Vitamin Water is 10/$10. There was a coupon in the 4/05/09 Smart Source for $1 off Vitamin Water = FREE!

Walmart

Olay 2-Pack of soap is priced at $1.97. In the 4/5/09 P&G coupon insert, there was a coupon for $2 off of any bar pack of Olay soap = FREE!

No Nonsense Ultra Sheer Pantyhose (1 pair) are $1. In the 3/29/09 Smart Source there was a coupon for $1.00 off = FREE!

Kraft Salad Dressing is $1.58 on sale. In the 3/29/09 Smart Source there is a coupon for $1.50 off one bottle of Kraft Dressing = $.08 Salad Dressing!

Welcome!

It seems like everyone is getting the hang of posting on our new blog! This can be a fabulous place for us to get information to one another about sales, homemaking tips, recipes, and anything else we come across as we work to build our home storage. If you have any questions or would like to add something to blog. Please let me know!

Triple coupons at Harris Teeter

Yeah! Harris Teeter is finally affordable! You can actually find some really good deals there and they are offering triple coupons all week. (thur mar31)

Also, I am having a garage sale this Sat. mar 28th from 9-1 at 3011 Laurelwood Drive in Matthews in the Southwoods developmt. I have lots of household items, some baby items, small tables. Some things are brand new or barely used. The sale will be rain or shine, since it is the last day my mom is here to help with Maggie. :)
Love to all!

Cool!

I've never been part of a blog before. This will be a great place to share information. I'm so excited!

I made it!

So excited to have finally joined the blogging world! So excited about this site! Thanks for setting it up, Julie and Erin!