It’s been a while

Hey y’all! 

I know it’s been a while since the last post. We’ve had quite almost year and half with our family. We’ve had some medical diagnosis’ with both mom and I, we’ll get into that later. 

I just wanted to hop on and say we’re back and we’re not just blogging, we’re making homemade crafts that we can’t wait to show everyone. 

Samantha

Is Blue Apron Really Worth It?

Hello Again,

I know that some people don't like to go grocery shopping or make menus.  I love to grocery shop and really don't mind making menus.  I do hate when I make menus and then when it comes time to cook it, I really don't want it as much as I wanted it the day I wrote it down.  lol

I am always looking for new recipes that John and Samantha will eat.  Ibotta had a rebate and sale for Blue Apron, so I thought that I would give it a try.  I looked on their site and found 2 meals that John would eat, so ordered them.

I ordered One-Pan Chicken & Gnocchi and Steaks & Cheesy Sweet Potato Mash (The steak one was a MasterChef selection)

When it came it was all in a box with a frozen gel pack that kept the cold stuff cold.  I opened the box and this is what was in it.

When I unloaded the box, this is the ingredients for 2 meals looks like.

 The steak was the first meal that I made.

I think mine looked a lot like the picture they provided.  It was an easy recipe to follow.  It had boxes to check as you completed the steps.  The only complaints were, John did not have enough meat, so I gave him mine and it kept throwing me off having cheesy sweet potato. Sam wasn't home for this meal. If she was then there really wouldn't have been enough food. 

The second meal was the Chicken Gnocchi

Again, I think mine turned out just like the picture they provided.  This one was really good and there was so much left after John and I ate it that I had lunch the next day.

I feel like if you or your family like to eat new things and can not decide what to try, you don't like to grocery shop or don't have the time, then this would be a great thing to try.  For us, it really did not work.  Also, I like looking up new receips and I love grocery shopping.  


Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

Coupon apps I use.

I may be one of the few people that loves to grocery shop.  I know that you can now order and have them delivered or pull up and have them put them in your car for you.  I don't think I can ever do that because I love shopping so much.  My other love is to save money.  You may think that these two things don't go together, but they do.  

A couple of years ago, you had to get the coupons from the Sunday paper, cut them out and carry them everywhere you went just in case you needed to run into the grocery store.  It seemed the one time that I would take them out of my purse, I would stop at the store and not have them. Sometimes I would leave them in my car while I was shopping and forget about them and then they would expire.  I do have to say that I have saved a lot of money over the years using coupons.

Well, it's 2018 and we have a new way to save money while buying groceries and other items. One of the ways to save is with apps on your phone.  One of my favorites is called Ibotta.  You can download it on you phone, pick your stores, then pick the items that you want to save money on.  Here is what it looks like.

I will show you how I save and I will pick Walmart for the example. I picked Sparkling Ice beverage.  If you want to buy it, you touch the plus sign and it puts a green check mark on it and it will be saved on your My Offers. Some offers have numbers by them.  If it has x4, that means you have to buy 4 to get the rebate.  There are also others that have little squares with $ on them, that means that you can buy more than one at a time and get the rebate on all of them. That is a new feature which saves time and helps you get more money.

In order to get $1.00 back, you have to buy 4.  I love Sparkling Ice, so if I can buy it and get money back its a win, win!  This only works if you buy something that you or your family will use.

Sometimes you will get a rebate for something new and that is when I love to try new things and get money back.  Sometimes they get us hooked on something new and I keep buying it even without a rebate.

One trick we have learned is check the app before you go to the store. Depending on how much we need we'll go ahead and add the ibotta stuff to our grocery list to save time in the store. Sometimes trips are longer because you're constantly looking at your phone.  

After I bought the Sparkling Ice, I got home and submitted my receipt.  You have to make sure that all of the items that you bought show up on you rebate page before you submit it.

A Walmart receipt usually will scan the QR code which makes it easy.  Double check all rebates, then submit.  All other receipts you will scan the whole receipt.  

Ibotta will work with the cartwheel app at the same time if you're shopping at Target.

This is what I have made from this account to date.

This is real cash!  Once you have at least $20.00, then you can transfer. You can see I have $4.67 saved in the blue, the pink is pending savings. Once the blue has $20.00 I will transfer to PayPal.   We have used some of this money for vacations. It can be kinda tricky at first you just have to play around with it. 

There are other apps that I use, Receipt Hog, Checkout 51 and Fetch Rewards.  Receipt Hog is an app that you upload all of your receipts to and it will give you coins, which can be converted to cash to a Paypal account. I have saved a total of $60.00 cash.  Checkout 51 is an app that you have to go in and pick your rebates and then submit your receipt and they will send you a check when you reach $20.00 in rebates. I have saved $101.50 cash. Fetch Rewards is an app that you go in and pick brands that you normally buy and after you buy them, you scan your receipt and it will give you points that can be redeemed for several rewards. I have just started using this app, so I don't have anything to tell you that I have received yet.

Here is my code you can put in if you decide to try Ibotta, dsyxouv.  Fetch Rewards has a referral code, mine is V9TYP. With this one, you get points that you redeem for gift cards like Sephora, AMC Theaters, Chili's, and a bunch of other restaurants.  For Ibotta, you need to be on a team to reach levels and get extra bonuses to get more money back. For this you need a Facebook that is hooked up to your Ibotta app. Sam set up a separate one just to add people who use Ibotta. She added Ibotta to the name of her page so she knows which is which. Once you get a good number of people on your team you don't have to check it. I use my personal account.  

Once you start saving money with these apps it can become addicting! 

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

cupping

Everyone had some body part that they wish they could change.  Me, I have two, my neck and my ankle.  I have lymphedema on the whole left side of my body.  Lymphedema is when your lymph nods swell because the blood is not flowing like it is suppose to. About 30 years ago I had a lymph nod removed that they thought was cancer, but it was cat scratch fever. I went to a Lymphedema Clinic and they wanted to have me come in 3-4 days a week for 3-4 hours at almost $1000.00 a week that is not covered by my insurance.  I don't have that kind of money or that kind of time.

I went to google and looked up how to treat lymphedema.  I found some supplements and this is what I take:

Turmeric Curcumin - for anti-inflammatory (it also has ginger in it)
Butcher's Broom - blood circulation
Bromelain - swelling (it's the center of pineapple)


I started taking the supplements and massaging my neck and this is the results.

I was happy with the results, but I could see that I might be able to do even more.  So, I went back to google and saw something called cupping.  I went to Amazon and ordered 3 sets of cupping therapy cups.

One set of cups that came with a gun type of things also came with instructions in Chinese, so those stay in the box.  I got 2 others that are like a suction cup and I use those every other day for 20 minutes at a time and I massage after. This is what they look like.

This is what it looks like when I cup.

I don't know if you can see, but it pulls my skin inside of the cup.  I have used it on my face, but the last time it bruised my face, so I'm going to hold off on my face for awhile.  

This is the results of what I am currently doing.  Cupping, supplements and massaging.

I don't know if you can tell, but I have gotten the swelling down and you can see where it is white from not seeing the sun.  Here is a better picture of what I am talking about.

This makes me so happy!  I know I still have a ways to go, but at least I can see progress.

I'm not a medical professional. I've googled these treatments and talked to my doctor to make sure they were ok for me to do. Do not try anything without talking to your doctor first.    

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

Sonic Pickle Slush

Well, I have tried the new Pickle Slush from Sonic.  I have also had the pickle juice snow cone from Bahama Buck's and a pickle juice snow cone from a vender in front of the Alamo in San Antonio.

First I had a pickle juice snow cone from Bahama Bucks.  It isn't overly sweet and it has a pickle after taste.  It is not exactly what I though it would be, but will try again.

The next was a Sonic Pickle Slush. It was too sweet and barely had a pickle after taste. Yuck!!

The last I have had was a pickle snow cone at the Alamo. I did not take a picture of that one. It was a true pickle juice snow cone that I had strawberry added to it and it was great.

The Sonic and the Bahama Bucks were too sweet and not in a good way.  It was sweet with a hint of pickle after taste.  I know that the sonic slush depends on the person that makes them because you can get the same slush flavor from the same Sonic location, and they don't always taste the same.  I will not be having another Sonic pickle slush, but I will give Bahama Bucks another chance and have strawberry added and see how that one is.

I had to pour the Sonic slush down the drain!

Pickle Rating:

Sonic

Bahama Bucks

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

 

Is Egglettes worth it?

I have a boiled egg for breakfast every day along with pickles, jalapenos, yogurt or cottage cheese.  I hate peeling boiled eggs and the mess they make. It seems if you're in a hurry, they do not want to peel right and you lose a lot of the white with the peel.

When Sam and I saw Egglettes, I thought that it would be the answer to the peeling mess that boiled eggs make. So, I bought them to try.

The first ones I made were just plain hard boiled eggs.  You put the egg in the Egglette and close the lid and drop them into a pan of boiling water.  They have a little hole in the top and if you drop them too fast, they turn over and some of the egg comes out of the whole and cooks the white a little.  Note to self, don't do that again.

 I boiled them for 16 minutes and then let them cool.  This is how they came out of the cups.

The second ones I made are with just egg whites that I had left over from making a banana pudding.  I put salt, pepper, a little milk and cheddar cheese in them.  I put the cheese in first, then put the seasonings in the whites, whisked them up and poured them over the cheese.  I boiled them for 16 minutes and this is what they looked like.

They are delicious!

I think Egglettes are worth the money if you eat boiled eggs.  In fact, I will be buying another package or two of them!

Pickle Rating:

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna

"That Dip"

Do you know someone that makes that dip that everyone wants? It’s usually the first thing to go when it’s at a party and then all you can think and talk about for the following week! Well, I'm going to give you "that dip" recipe and you can and will be the hit of parties from now on.

That Dip in our family is called Terry’s Dip.  My brother Terry mades it and the whole family loves it.  It is so good and easy to make that you really don’t have to plan a party to have it. This is all it takes to make.  The recipe is at the bottom of this post. You can make it as spicy as you or your family will like.

The recipe calls for lime, but I ran out of limes and had lemons, so I used lemon and it was just as good. This summer I have planted some cilantro so that I will have it when I need it.

Samantha can not eat anything hot with Jalapenos, so I deseed 2 fresh jalapenos that I cut them into chunks and it is just right for Sam.  If your family like hot foods, then adjust the jalapenos to your family’s taste. I have not made it with pickled jalapenos yet, but I think I will some time in the future. For the cilantro I  just take it in both hands and twist off the leaves and put them in the food processor, then the mayo, sour cream, hidden valley mix along with the jalapenos and let it whirl. I then taste it and add a squeeze of lime (lemon) and whirl again.

If your family can leave it alone long enough, then it goes in a bowl. We like it best when it sets for awhile or over night, but sometimes it doesn’t make it that long.

The only real requirement is that you and your family like cilantro. If  y'all don't care for it I will be posting another dip soon that may be "that dip" for your family.

"That Dip" aka Terry's Dip

1 Cup Real Mayo

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 pkg Ranch Dressing Mix

1 Bunch Cilantro

3 Deseeded Jalapenos

2 Whole Jalapenos (with seeds)

Mix in a food processor with a squeeze of lime.

(I only us 2 total Jalapenos and they are deseeded total)

Enjoy

Pickle Rating:

Love-Craft-Pickles

La Donna