Monday, January 2, 2012

1-2-12

7:15am

Sucks getting up so early. At least I get
to sleep til 6:30 until Wednesday then
it's back to getting up at 6:00am to get
kids off to school. At least I had last
week to sleep in.

Oh...my...goodness, I can't wait to be
able to take some ibuprofen for the muscle pains.
This tylenol ain't doing hardly anything.
My legs have been hurting so much. Feels
like I've been doing squats and the back
of my legs are aching to no end.

One more day to be able to eat solid foods
then tomorrow I can't have anything but
liquids. Tomorrow evening 5:00pm starts
the bowel prep for my colonoscopy.
I can only drink things like broth,
gatorade (with no red, blue or purple dies),
plain jello, apple juice, clear pop & water.
I won't see solid foods again til
Wednesday afternoon. I'm going to be starving.

I've been watching videos on YouTube about colonoscopies.
From funny jokes to drinking the nasty liquids to
clean out your bowels to the aftermath of
being drugged up. I think it would be funny
to do videos of me going through the process
from drinking the nasty diarrhea meds to
the after the colonoscopy with drugs
and having to fart out extra air. Wonder if mom,
who is going with me Wednesday, would
do an after video. I think it would be hilarious
after watching others on YouTube.




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12:35pm

I was able to send away for another $25 gift card
to Game Stop for doing surveys, woo hoo.
I collect these gift cards throughout the year
to be able to buy free things at Gamestop
for Christmas. This past year I had $100 worth!

Christopher's birthday is coming up soon.
I had signed up for lots of birthday clubs
and I got an email from Kmart that had
a printable coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase.
That will be great to get him a new pair of shoes!
Plus the coupon says he gets a free birthday pack.
Not sure what that is just yet.


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1:25pm

Oh the joys of paying bills at the beginning of the month.
I don't know how we are scraping by at the moment
but I am managing to pay the regular bills.
I even paid three small doctor bills but that's
only because two were under $10 and one was $31.
I still have some much larger ones that will
have to wait til we get our tax refund to be paid.

This colonoscopy won't be coming cheap WITH insurance.
After my deductible is met and the insurance
paying 80% of the bill I will still owe $688!!!!
That doesn't include the prescription for
the bowel prep which cost $17 and that was
with my insurance AND using a $10 off coupon.
So this colonoscopy will be costing me over $700!!!!
They better find out what is wrong with me
at this price!! One of my bigger bills that
I still owe is for a cat scan that nothing
showed up on. What a waste of money!

Tony has a doctor's appointment on the 10th of this month.
He has to go in for a check up in order to get
his prescriptions refilled. That visit to walk
through the door will cost $25. And usually
when they do blood work to check his sugars
and such I'll get another bill in the mail for that.
Just never ends. They'll nickle and dime you to
death with doctor bills.
And of course I am waiting for a bill from
Urgent Care where Christopher went right
before Christmas. How do people manage to pay
all their doctor bills??? I try but it has
put us almost broke.


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3:10pm

I got all my homemade detergent bottled up.
I find it easier to put it in recycled bottles
than to try and carry a huge bucket full
of liquid laundry detergent to the basement.


I use about a 1/2 cup in each load even though
the recipe calls for much less. I just feel
comfortable using a 1/2 cup.
This should last me about 3-4 months at only $1.00 to make.


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3:45pm

I found a recipe on the back of a packet of
Pioneer Brand Country Sausage Flavor gravy mix
that sounded good and I might try.

Skillet Breakfast Casserole
serves 4-6

1 pkg. Pioneer sausage gravy mix
4 cups tater tots
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup sausage cooked and crumbled
1 1/2 cups water
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp. chives, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat oil in a 1-12 inch oven skillet (iron skillet?
or I'd use a casserole dish)
Brown tater tots 3-4 minutes, remove from heat.
Evenly sprinkle on sausage. Whisk gravy
mix into water. Beat eggs into gravy mix.
Pour evenly over tater tots.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until filling
is set in center.
Sprinkle on cheese and bake another 3 minutes or
until melted.
Cut into wedges .
Garnish with chives.

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Here is a couple other recipes I found on Pioneer Brand's
website that sounded good-


Broccoli Cheese Soup


Number of servings 4

Preparation Time 5 minutes

Cooking Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

Measure Ingredient
2 cups Pioneer Country Gravy Mix, prepared
1 package Frozen chopped broccoli, thawed (10 oz. package)
2 cups Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp Onion, minced

Preparation Instructions


1 Combine all ingredients. Blend well.
2 Simmer until thoroughly heated. Add milk or water for thinner soup.

Cooking Tips

For a thinner soup, add additional milk or water.

------------------------


Chicken-a-la-King

Number of servings 6

Preparation Time 15 minutes

Cooking Time 5 minutes

Ingredients


2 cups Pioneer Country Gravy Mix, prepared
1/2 cup Celery, chopped
2 tbsp Onion, chopped
2 tbsp Butter or margarine
3 tbsp Cooking sherry
1 pound Chicken, cooked and chopped
1 package Frozen peas, thawed (10 oz. package)
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced, canned, drained
3 tbsp Fresh parsley, chopped
2 ounces Pimento, chopped
1 tsp Soy sauce


1 Sauté celery and onion in butter until soft. Add to gravy.
2 Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer until hot.
3 Serve warm over toast points, noodles, or rice.


-------------------------------

Country Chicken Fried Steak


Number of servings 4

Preparation Time 5 minutes

Cooking Time 10 minutes

Ingredients


2 packages Pioneer Country Gravy Mix (2.75 ounces)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large cube steaks

1 In a pie plate combine 1 package of Pioneer Country Gravy Mix, salt, paprika, onion and garlic powder. Mix well.
2 In a separate pie plate, beat together eggs and milk.
3 In heavy skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.
4 Coat cube steaks first in dry gravy mix, dip in egg, then again in dry gravy mix. Fry steaks 2-3 minutes each side, or until desired doneness.
5 While steaks are frying, prepare second package of Pioneer Country Gravy Mix according to package directions.
6 When steaks are done, remove to platter. Serve hot ladled with gravy.


-------------------


Green Bean Casserole

Number of servings 6

Preparation Time 5 minutes

Cooking Time 20 minutes


2 cups Pioneer Chicken Gravy, prepared
2 cans Green beans, drained (16 oz. can)
1 can Canned french fried onions
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced, canned, drained


1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil an 8x8-inch pan.
2 Add green beans, half of onions, and mushrooms to prepared gravy. Pour into pan.
3 Bake 20 minutes. Top with remaining onions.


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You can check out all the recipes HERE.



Printable Pioneer brand coupon $1.00 off 2 packets.

Expires 2-28-12


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5:15pm

Got supper done. I made up a large pot of
goulash, cheeseburger macaroni, whatever you
want to call it. I used the leftover
meat, cheese & salsa from yesterday's
taco salad along with a 1/2 of a large can
of diced tomatoes and macaroni.
Simple, easy, cheap and filling.

It made 4 servings for supper tonight,
2 servings to put in the freezer for Tony's lunches,
and another large bowl for another meal.

And yupper I am still cooking with only
three burners on my stove top ever since
Tony turned on the wrong burner and it
had a plastic bowl on it which melted
and ruined it.





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5:30pm

I just saw on Family Dollar's Facebook page
that they are having 50% off of many toys in their store.
This would be a good time to stock up
for birthdays and Christmas. I've got a kids
birthday coming up in 4 days so may have to
check this out if I get the chance. Wouldn't
be til Thursday so stuff might be gone by then.
That's what is great about having Christopher's
birthday at the beginning of January, we usually
find toys marked 50% off at stores like Walmart
where they are clearing out their Christmas stock.


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9:55am

First day into hubby being on call and he's going
on 5.5 hours overtime already. He just got paged out
again for partial electric loss in an apartment.
We went on a call with him earlier for
a no heat and while there he spread some salt
with the plow truck down the main entrance area.
Boss man also said he had to be at work tomorrow
morning an hour early at 7am to salt some more.
So that would give him 6.5 hours so far overtime.
The more the merrier. Any little bit helps to pay bills.
Plus they give all maintenance guys on call
$25 on their paycheck for gas the whole week
of on call. Sure do miss the old company that used
to own the place. They paid employees mileage
every day at work whether they were on call or not.
Oh well beggers can't be choosers and you take
what you can get now a days. Some people are still
looking for jobs and we're lucky to have one.

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