Dinner Tonight: Valentine's Day Steak Special

I had originally planned to make fondue for Valentine's Day, but we got off schedule this week and decided to move Saturday night's steak dinner to tonight. It's probably for the best as it really is one of hubby's favorites anyway, and he would have probably just been humoring me eating fondue. 

I season the steaks very simply with my favorite seasoning, garlic powder, kosher salt & fresh-cracked black pepper.  Then, because it was a special occasion, I went all out and sauteed them in a mixture of butter and olive oil.  I even warmed up the oil with a clove of garlic in it to turn it into garlic oil, but I don't know if I could really taste a difference from that. 

The steaks were served with canned corn (one of the two veggies hubby will agree to eat), sauteed mushrooms for me (also canned, I can't justify paying for fresh when I eat them alone and I put them in butter, lemon and garlic so anything would probably taste good that way), garlic cheese bread and sauteed potatoes. 

I posted the recipe for these potatoes in my New Year's entry, but I think it is worth doing again.  They are pretty much the best potatoes ever.  I might like them more than I do French fries.  Nah, probably not.  I know it sounds really simple and straight-forward, and it is, but the result is so delicious.  It's not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but I find that acceptable on holidays.  There are only three ingredients, potatoes peanut oil and salt. 

Peel 2 small yellow potatoes (i.e. Yukon Gold) per person. Cut into uniform chunks or wedges. Place in pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and cook until tender but not yet falling apart. Heat quarter-inch of peanut oil in large skillet over high heat. Add potatoes to oil and cook until brown on one side, turn and cook until brown on all remaining sides. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with salt while still hot.

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Estimated cost of meal

Steaks: $5

Potatoes: Free - leftover from Christmas & bought by my mom

Corn: $.50

Mushrooms: $.80

Bread: $1.10

Total: $7.40

Former life total: Dinner @ Pierpont's (maybe next year, one of the best meals I've ever had, steak or otherwise): $100

Leaner Life Savings: $92.60 or 93%!!!

Dinner Tonight: Weekend Update

For some reason the term "when it rains it pours" seems to be echoing in my head right now.  It was a really bad week for cheating on our home-cooked meals.  We went out once during the week and then again Friday and Saturday!  Plus we went to lunch today.  Bad Laura! 
My hubby can take part of the blame since he didn't feel like doing dishes on Saturday.  I came home feeling guilty after spending way too much money at Kohl's (but I saved $195!!!) and I asked if he was upset and he said he would be less upset if we could go out to dinner.  Counterintuitive but I agreed nonetheless.
On Friday we went to Sweet Tomatoes and had soup and salad buffet.  Friday nights they always have hubby's favorite - clam chowder.  It was pretty yummy and after our coupon wasn't all that expensive, though still $10 or so more than what we would have made at home.
Saturday we went to Jose Pepper's, our favorite Mexican place.  We even splurged on dessert, a Valentine's themed strawberry shortcake dish that I thought was pretty much a disaster, but hubby liked it.  Good thing too, since it could have probably fed about 6 people and he's still working on the leftovers.
Of all nights we didn't cheat and go out, I actually cooked our Valentine's dinner!  I'll post that separately since it's probably worthy of its own entry.

Friday Follow

I'm excited to be participating in my first Friday Follow, hosted by Midday Escapades, One 2 Try and Hearts Make Families.  Hopefully this will result in at least a few more followers, and perhaps some entries into my very first giveaway!

I stumbled upon Midday Escapades because she hosts great giveaways.  I will be looking around at the other two hosts sites later today, plus trying to follow a few more on the list and hope to find some great new blogs to add to my ever-growing list.

Happy Friday everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!

Dinner Tonight: Beef and Noodles

This meal is based on something that hubby's mom used to make for him when he was a kid.  He remembers it very fondly but she passed away when he was a teenager and no one had ever learned her recipes.  When we got married, he asked me to try to re-create the dish.  Since I never had hers, I don't know exactly how it compares but I think mine ended up okay.  The first time I made it he actually stopped in the middle of dinner to call his sister and tell her what we were eating! 
Tonight's attempt turned out pretty well.  For some reason I ended up with a really good piece of sirloin that cut really well and tasted even better. 
The meat was really flavorful and tender.  I think this due to the fact that it was a good cut of meat but also because I seasoned more than usual and I didn't cook it quite as much so it wasn't as well done and chewy.
I decided to use only half a bag of noodles since we usually have way too many leftovers, but it turned out I didn't use enough and it was a little too meaty.  Since he wanted more noodles, hubby ended up eating more than he usually does and there wasn't enough for leftovers.  Hopefully next time I can find a happy medium.
I served with green beans and biscuits, as I thought those would be good accompaniments to a nice old-fashioned comfort meal.

Beef and Noodles

1 lb beef sirloin, cut into bite-size cubes
1 Tbsp flour
Garlic Powder, Seasoning Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tsp olive oil
1 package (12 oz) Reames frozen egg noodles
2-3 cups beef stock

Coat beef in flour and season with garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper.  Add 1 tsp olive oil to 3-quart stock pot over high heat.  Sear half of meat mixture in pan until browned on all sides.  Remove meat from pan, add remaining 1 tsp olive oil, brown remaining meat and remove from pan.  Whisk 1 cup beef stock into pan and stir to incorporate the bits of flour and meat from the bottom of the pan.  Add noodles and enough beef stock to cover.  Simmer about 20 minutes, adding additional stock as necessary to keep noodles covered. Add meat back to pan and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

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Estimated cost of meal

Beef: $2.50
Seasoning: $.20
Noodles: $.25 (on sale for $1/bag, used $.50 coupon)
Beef stock: $.75
Green Beans: $.75
Biscuits: $1

Total: $5.45

Former life total: Dinner @ Waid's: $28

Leaner Life Savings: $22.55 or 81%!!!

**CLOSED** My First Giveaway: Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars Gift Pack

The time has come for my very first giveaway!  I am so excited to share the opportunity to try these Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars with my readers!
I received my gift pack over the weekend and it took me a few days to get around to trying the bars.  This morning I had one for breakfast and I thought it was pretty tasty!  I was expecting it to be a granola bar, but it was more like puffed rice drizzled with and dipped in chocolate.  My favorite part were the mini chocolate chips on top.  They added a nice texture and an added boost of chocolate, because you can never really have too much chocolate!

Here is the information that Fiber One shared about this product:

With a busy schedule that always keeps you on your toes, it’s not always easy to find a quick snack that helps you feel full and isn’t loaded with calories but still tastes great.

Luckily, there’s a new solution for you! New Fiber One® 90 Calorie Chewy Bars can help you satisfy your sweet tooth without sabotaging your diet or your daily routine.

Available in flavors you’ll love, including chocolate and chocolate peanut butter, Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars contain 2.5 grams of fat. In addition, each serving is packed with five grams of fiber (20 percent of the daily recommended fiber intake, according to the Institute of Medicine), which can help keep you full, making sticking to a diet easier.

Now, on to the giveaway!  One lucky reader will win the Fiber One gift pack pictured above.  It includes a box of Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars, a water bottle, a pedometer, a reflective bracelet and a booklet for tracking calories and exercise.

Main entry: Leave a comment about your favorite guilt-free snack.  Please leave your email address if it's not in your blogger profile.

Extra entries (please leave a separate comment for each):

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  Subscribe to my blog updates via email (top right of my sidebar)
• 
  
  Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect
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  Follow me on Twitter
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  Tweet about this giveaway (can be done once daily, leave a link in your comment).  Sample tweet: "Enter to win a Fiber One gift pack from @llsleanerlife: http://goo.gl/fb/FIOe"
• 
  
  Blog about this giveaway (3 entries, leave separate comments & a link back to your blog)
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  Leave a comment on one of my other blog posts

Thanks for stopping by and good luck to all of you!  Giveaway ends Feb. 19 at 11:59pm CST.  Open to residents of the US & Canada.  Winner will be randomly selected using random.org.

Disclosure:  Fiber One® provided me with information and a free gift pack through MyBlogSpark.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Dinner Tonight: Turkey Burgers

Sometimes I can be a bit of a food snob.  One of those times is when it comes to pre-made hamburger patties.  Seriously, how lazy do you have to be to not make your own hamburger patties?  It's really not that hard, especially if you have one of these nifty (and cheap) little gadgets I got for Christmas.  I think that frozen, pre-made patties taste just like frozen, pre-made patties.  Blech. 
So, it was a little out of character for me last month when I bought some pre-made patties!  In my defense, they were fresh, not frozen, turkey patties from Jennie-O.  They were on clearance at Target since they were approaching their "use or freeze by" date.  They only cost $2/lb for four quarter-pound burgers, exactly what I would have made had I used my own turkey that costs around $1.50-$2/lb.  They were pre-seasoned with onion and garlic flavor, which sounded right up my alley, so I decided to give them a try.  I figured they would be a great, quick meal for a basketball practice night (these were originally scheduled for Tuesday but got pushed back due to my Smokestack daliance).
The good part?  Hubby said he was okay with chips instead of fries (which would have taken about 30 minutes for oven-heating and baking time), so dinner was ready in about 10 minutes!  As the burgers cooked I got out the toppings and decided to jazz mine up a little with roasted red pepper, feta cheese, and the basil mayo dressing leftover from the BLT salad I attempted a while back.  Hubby had his with some chipotle cheddar.  He didn't comment on what he thought of the patties, but I thought they were just okay.  The texture was a little strange, kind of rubbery.  I don't think we'll be trying the pre-made patties again, but they weren't bad and it was really cool to have things ready so fast!

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Estimated cost of meal

Turkey patties: $2
Buns: $.90
Cheese: $.40
Veggies: $.50
Condiments: $.30
Chips: $.70

Total: $4.80

Former life total: Dinner at In-N-Out Burger: $11 (a girl can dream right?  actually, add about $400 for airfare to that)

Leaner Life Savings: $6.20 or 56%!!!

My New Obsession: Blog Giveaways

Back towards the beginning of my blogging adventure, I wrote about my addiction to free samples.  This is still going strong, as you can see here and here from all of the loot I've received.  Now I have moved up to a new addiction, blog giveaways!  To think that just a few months ago I had no idea they even existed. 
Basically (for those uninitiated like I was) there are bloggers that are given free items to review, then they are asked to blog about them and host a giveaway to offer the same item free to one or more of their readers.  Some of these giveaways get thousands of entries, while some have only a handful.  I think it all depends on how many readers the blog has, how they promote the giveaway and how desirable the free item is.  The more expensive an item, the more entries it tends to have. 
Each blogger has different requirements for how to enter their giveaway, sometimes you just have to leave a comment and other times you have to follow their blog, subscribe to their blog, become their Twitter follower, become their Facebook fan, blog about their giveaway...  The list goes on and on.  From time to time you might even see me post about one of the giveaways since blogging usually counts for multiple entries!
I am excited that I will soon be hosting my own giveaway for the first time!  In preparation for that I have added icons on the right side of my blog to follow me on Twitter, through Google or via email.  Sadly my followers list is still empty, but hopefully that will change soon!
Most of the giveaways I enter are found through linked giveaway posts, such as the Giveaway Gathering hosted every week by Deal Seeking Mom.
I have been entering giveaways since around the first of the year, and so far I have won 5 of them, which is an average of about one per week.  I'm not sure how many I have entered - probably more than I care to admit!  I was so surprised when I won my first one, but it spurred me to enter more and more and thereby fed my new addiction.  Here is a rundown of what I have won so far:

• My first win came from Sacramento Green Deals, where I won this nifty lunch tote:

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  My second win was from Jolly Mom, where I won a Musicolor toy (there were over 300 entries in this one - which made me realize I needed to keep entering no matter how many other entries there were, I still had a good chance to win!)

• My third win was a $50 Godiva card, courtesy of Shop at Home, won from Frugal Fritzie

• My fourth win was a Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters gift pack of coffee and chocolate, from Jolon at SavvyChicSavings, who was even kind of enough to visit and mention my blog on her post! 

• My fifth win, just received this morning, was from the Money Crashers New Years Giveaway Bash - they gave away over $9,000 in prizes and someone didn't claim their's so it fell to me, a 30-minute conversation with a personal finance consultant.  Of course I had hoped for one of the cash prizes, or one of the nifty tech gadgets they gave away (an Amazon Kindle is surely in my future someday), but I will try to make the most of this prize!  Maybe they will have even more ideas to help me live a leaner life.

Needless to say, I get so excited every time I win something!  I'm like a kid at Christmas, except now Christmas can last year-round!