Mouthwatering Monday - 6 Week Raisin Bran Muffins

For some reason, I pull this recipe out every holiday season. I guess it's because there are more opportunities during the holidays for breakfast to become an "event," so it's nice to have something on hand to add to the menu that doesn't require any additional prep. I made the batter & first batch of these on Christmas Eve, and finally used it up last week by taking breakfast to both of my local BB&T branch meetings. This recipe makes approximately 4 dozen muffins - store the batter in a tight container up to 6 weeks. You could also bake the entire recipe & freeze the muffins in a Ziplock bag for breakfast-on-the-run.


Ingredients
1 package (15 ounces) raisin bran cereal
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
5 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs, beaten
4 cups buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil


Directions
In a large bowl, combine the raisin bran, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Combine the eggs, buttermilk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 400° for 12-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Fairest of them all

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Wordless Wednesday: Genetics

Mouthwatering Monday - FREE LUNCH

Whoever said "there's no such thing as 'free' lunch" doesn't shop with me! This week Kroger has select varieties of Healthy Choice meals on sale for $1.99 each. You can get a digital coupon for $5 off 5 along with the printable coupon for $5 off 5. That's not just one free lunch - that's free lunch for a week! Happy shopping!

Super Sunday - Jump into the Light!

Wow - What a day! We had an amazing day of worship at Northridge today. It was "Youth Vision" Sunday & Craig's message was from my life verse, I Timothy 4:12 which says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young; but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." I will post the link to the sermon on Wednesday when it goes live. Everything in it was so relevant for not only our young people today, but for all of us who are called according to His purpose.


We found out a few weeks ago that the Pre-school choir would be performing during the worship service; and since I got in trouble for not alerting Abi's "fan club" the last time she performed, I invited our family to come to the service. Mama, OE & Jama came as well as one of my favorite JM's Jamie Lynn (aka "My Jay-muh-leen-uhn" according to Abi). We have been planning to partner with the church for some time now, but the holidays just seemed to overtake us; so we thought today would be the perfect time since we'd have family in town. Terry talked to Mike & set things up for Sunday, and also arranged to be baptized since his first baptism as a child was before his full understanding of what it meant to be saved. This was such a special day for our family, and we know that "greater things are yet to come..."

You can click here to view the video of the kids singing/dancing. As you can see, Abi's "performer genes" are in high gear!

We topped our "Super Sunday" off with what was almost an understood tradition growing up of Sunday Night Breakfast - pancakes, bacon & cream cheese grits! YUM! I even attemped chocolate chip smiley faces for the kids, but have found out that they both prefer them plain!

Frugal Friday - *updated*

I have several older posts waiting to be published, but I guess I'll just have to backdate those & complete when I get them done. This is too exciting to hold back. I've been couponing for a while now, but have recently buckled down. I had been using the Coupon Mom method, but never felt completely sure what links were actual links in her posts or what was advertisement. My friend Hollie told me about Southern Savers & I am on my way to some substantial savings this year. I had already done my weekly grocery shopping for the week when I saw the P&G spend $25 get $5 promotion at Kroger. Since we can always use diapers & wipes, the $25 was easy to spend AND both were on sale this week AND I had printed & e-coupons for both.

See this...

I got all of it for $25.81! 41% savings!!!

My next stop was CVS to get my free light bulb which they were out of, but I had $2 expiring Extra Care Bucks burning a hole in my pocket. As I was walking out, I spotted a twin pack of Fiber One Chocolate & Oats bars which I LOVE. The price was $6.99 for both with $3 ECB's back, which made them $3.99-minus the $2.00 ECB's I had received from just scanning my card at the "coupon-spitter-outer thing" on my last visit- minus the $1.00 off printable coupon...grand total 99 cents! Simply unbelievable.

I can't wait to put my list together this weekend for next week's shopping adventures...

*UPDATE* Friday after work I went to the CVS on the Southside of town after work to see if I could find the lightbulb & TOTALLY racked up. I got all this for $12.87 AND I even scored a hard-to-find Blue's Clues toy for Abi & Drew for Valentine's Day - operation SUCCESS!