Cranberry Almond Couscous

Cranberry almond couscous

Delicious creation from last night's mediterranean family night night dinner (:

Couponing 101

Ok so some people have asked how we do this thing called couponing...and because we love it so much we will let you in our our little secrets. For the next month or so we'll guide you through how to coupon, where to coupon and how we basically have learned to get paid to take things out of stores. All of this info is going to be based for the Atlanta area, so if you live outside that radius or even in another state, we can't guarantee these deals will work at your stores.

So to start this off we'll teach you all about Publix. Publix's sales start Thursdays in Atlanta. They are by far the best place to shop because they have about 20 items BOGO (buy one get one free) every week, they accept competitor coupons (ie, target, walmart, kroger) and they double any coupon that is $.50 or less (so if your coupon is for $.40 off it will actually count as $.80).

***When printing coupons, once you hit print, hit the back button and it will reprint, giving you 2 coupons!

So this Thursday here is what you can get for free or nearly free and how you can accomplish that:

Wishbone Dressing, BOGO, $2.73
- Use 2 Publix $1/1 coupons
(you can print them or get them at the front of the store)
- Cost: $.73 or $.36 each

Ronzoni Pasta, BOGO, $1.39 (excluding wheat, garden delight)
- Go to Ronzoni.com and print off any coupons $.50/1
- Use 2 $.50/1 per BOGO (2 boxes)
- Cost: -$.61 (yes they owe YOU)

***I have (6) $.55 off coupons to whoever wants them...The pasta won't be free but it will only be $.14 a box...First come first serve!!

Propel Zero, 6pk, BOGO, $3.99
- Use 2 $1/1 coupons from 5/1 newspaper
- Cost: $.99/6pk

***I have a bunch of these coupons and don't like Propel

Tostitos Salsa, BOGO, $2.89
- Use 2 $1/1 from 5/1 newspaper
- Cost: $.44 each

Chinet Napkins, BOGO, $2.15
- Use 2 $1/1 coupons from Chinet.com
- Cost: $.07 a pack

Pedigree Denta Stix for Dogs, BOGO, $3.00
- Use 2 $1/1 Publix Coupons
- Use 2 $1/1 from 5/1 newspaper
- Cost: -$1.00 (they pay you $1)

***I don't have dogs but I have a bunch of these coupons!!

YoPlait, YoPlus Yogurt, $1.50
- Use $2/2 Publix coupon
- Use (2) $1/1 yoplait.com printable coupon
- Cost: -$1.00 (they pay you $1)

Now there's some other deals as well, but you would have to have coupons stored up from months past to have them. These are all deals you can get by going to Publix and picking up their coupons in the front of the store and then combining them with ones you can print at home.

Ideal Scenario:

You buy -

(2) Wishbone Dressing, $.73

(6) Ronzoni Pasta, -$1.83

(2) Propel Zero, 6pk, $1.99 (12 bottles total)

(2) Tostitos Salsa, $.88

(2) Chinet Napkins, 40-90ct, $.14 (180 napkins)

(6) Pedigree Denta Stix for Dogs, -$3.00

(2) YoPlait, YoPlus Yogurt, -$1.00

Should Cost: $27.93 before tax

You'll Pay: -$2.09...yep, they will owe you $2.09

...and that's how it's done folks
-------------------------
***UPDATE:

So here's what we went and picked up. It was $65.01 and we paid $7.87. The DentaStix paid for a chunk of the other things. Pretty good!

extreme couponing - may 14th edition

Did a little extreme couponing today. Needed some staple (expensive) items such as truvia and fiber one bars so we decided to let the free items practically pay for them. It's a good week for cheap-o stuff at publix!

- 15 Fuze drinks: normally $1.29, paid $.33 (Total: $5)
- 9 Mahatma rices: $.89, was paid $.11 per bag (Total: -$.99)
- 5 packs of Bandaids: $.79, was paid $.21 per container (Total: -$1.05)
- 6 Stride gums: normally $1.49, paid $.34 (Total: $2.04)
- 4 homestyle Mac & Cheeses: normally $2.59, paid $.30 (Total: $1.20)
- 2 FiberOne yogurts: normally $2.50, paid $1 (Total: $2.00)
- 2 FiberOne bars +free Publix brand bars: normally $3.69, paid $1.13 (Total: $3.38)
- 40 ct Truvia packets: normally $3.99, paid $2.99
- Mentos gum: normally $1.50, paid $.25

Would have cost: $72.99
Paid: $16.23

HobNob

1551 piedmont ave - atlanta, ga 30324

So we discovered a thing called ScoutMob. It's like Groupon, but it's free. They give you 50% off food, salons, stores...and you pay nothing...It's awesome. So we went on there and picked a random restaurant to try and figured we couldn't lose because if the food sucked we would have paid a minimal amount.

hob-nob:
1. to drink sociably
2. to toast one another

HobNob is a delightful little gastropub located on the corner of Piedmont and Monroe. They offer complimentary valet parking and even stay open until 2am mon-sat. They have a large patio/deck area and have event nights such as all you can eat sliders and trivia night.

The food anything but sucked. HobNob offers so many different, crazy menu options and then pair them with beers and wines that they would go best with. Here you see their shrimp and grits. It was a harvarti cheese grit cake smothered in cajun andouille butter sauce and shrimp.

We also tried the braised short rib tacos. They had shredded tender meat topped with roasted fennel, spinach, fontina cheese and a tomato horseradish relish. We squeezed the lime juice on top and went to town!

Lastly, on recommendation of our waitress, we ordered the piedmont burger which came with amazingly good shoe string french fries. The burger is huge and is beer basted and topped with baby bella mushrooms and swiss cheese. They grill their burger buns too which make them toasty and crispy.

The meal was awesome, our waitress was really cool and the best part of it was that the whole meal only cost a total of $13 with the ScoutMob! If you have an iPhone you can access any past deals if they haven't expired yet! Head on over to HobNob and download the ScoutMob app asap!

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

A coworker always talks about this specific cheesecake his wife always makes. It comes from sweet potato and is a combination of sweet potato pie, pecan pie and cheesecake. We had to make it!

She actually got her recipe from AllRecipes. This is the base recipe we also followed. We scaled it down to "4" and made 4 individual sized cheesecakes in 8oz ramekins.

First you chop up or crush enough graham crackers to make a little more than 1/3 cup of crumbs.

You then need to line your pan/ramekins with wax paper if you are using anything besides a spring form pan. This deterred us a bit, since it seemed a little labor intensive to line four baby ramekins individually, but it ended up taking us less than 5 minutes! We found the most awesome tips on a YouTube Video! Be sure to baste each one in melted butter before lining. This is key.

You then mix the melted butter, graham crumbs, sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg (we added this).

Evenly divide the crumb mixture between your containers, or if you are using one just spread it evenly in that pan. Use a shot class or glass cup to pound down the crumbs. Then place the ramekins in the oven for 10 minutes (see recipe).

After the sweet potatoes have baked for an hour in foil (see allrecipes) let them sit until you can handle them. The peels will then just slide off. Use a knife to help you if they don't come of easily. We used 3 small potatoes which was way two much. One large one would have been fine.

We then pureed the sweet potato with our immersion blender. If you don't own one of these you should. It can mix/blend/chop/puree anything and you can use it with any bowl/cup you want to!

It is extremely important to blend the potato until it is no longer lumpy.

Make sure your cream cheese is room temperature. If it is cold, your cheesecake will be lumpy and not mixed properly. Add that into the sweet potatoes and mix for about 15-30 seconds. Then add in the white sugar, sour cream, heavy cream and cinnamon/nutmeg/vanilla (we added these). After you mix for one minute add in your egg. Beat until smooth, but don't overbeat. As soon as there are no lumps stop beating.

Pour mixture into ramekins evenly. To do this, we used our handy dandy 3 tbsp scoop.

We shook them a little to get them to even out flat.

Place them in a water bath. Next time, we will use individual pans for each ramekin. Bake for 45-60 minutes. It ended up being 60 for us because it wasn't until then that the tester came out clean. Let stand in the opened oven for one more hour.

Two were beautiful and two cracked a bit. As they cooled the cracks closed up though so it was ok. If you are using one pan you should put the cheesecake in the fridge over night before trying to get it out of the pan and making the topping. These, however, popped right out when we pulled the wax paper up.

To make the topping, chop up the pecans and follow the recipe instructions for the brown sugar and butter. Stay with the stove at all times because our heated up too quickly and we ruined the topping our first try. After we added the cream we also added some cinnamon and nutmeg. Our finished product:

After you put the topping on, let it stay in the fridge at least 6 hours. It tasted 10 times better once it was completely chilled. Yum Yum Yum!

Varasano's

2171 peachtree road ne - atlanta, ga 30309

Flat, crispy pizza, flash baked for 3 minutes with a delicious sourdough crust that needs no dipping sauce to eat. That's the bottom line at Varasano's. We also just found out they started Sunday brunch, so we'll have to go back to review that as well. We decided to go around noon on a Sunday. We got seated immediately at a nice table on the patio.

We each started with their Spinach salad which has a raspberry balsamic dressing, candied pecans and gorgonzola cheese. All fresh and a perfectly balance of salty and sweet.

We decided to try two pizzas. This first one is their Nucci. It has Garlic, Olives & Emmenthaler finished with Arugula, Capicola & Herbs on top. Now it doesn't have any red sauce, but olive oil instead. It had great flavor and was easiest to eat once we folded in in half like the restaurant suggests.

And here is the Salumi. An assortment of Thinly Sliced Italian Cured Meats with Mozzarella, Tomato Sauce & Spiced Olives. Truly a man's pizza, so sinful but sooooo good.

We finished up with a mug of tiramisu. It was so rich and delicious. Just be careful! We both inhaled the cocoa powder on top and had coughing attacks!

This is a great spot to meet up with friends for a salad, sandwich, pizza or brunch. The atmosphere is relaxed and classy and the prices are very affordable. They have excellent thin oven fired pizza. Salute!

Desi Spice

931 monroe drive ne - atlanta, ga 30308

Indian food is amazing...especially when it's authentic and priced fairly. Enter, Desi Spice. This little hole in the wall is located behind the Trader Joes on Monroe. We were on the hunt for traditional Indian cuisine and are thrilled to announce we found some!

We started off with Samosas. They served them with the most amazing chutney (on the far left). They were good sized and crispy on the outside.

Vegetables and lentils make up the filling. They were really tasty!

Then we got several pieces of Pappadum. If you don't know what this is, it's basically a paper thin piece of crispy bread made from lentils and spices. It melts in your mouth. The sauce is cilantro.

We also got two pieces of garlic Naan. We usually just get plain Naan, but this was ten times better. Definitely recommend.

We ended up getting three different mains and two types of rice.

This is just the plain basmati rice. It was made perfectly so that its not sticky and doesn't clump.

Here is Rice Pallao. It contains peas, almonds, raisins and traditional spices. We were really glad we tried this. Our go to rice from now on.

Lamb vindaloo. Classic. Amazing. Period. Best thing we ordered. The great thing about this restaurant is that you can order each dish with either chicken, beef or lamb and you control how spicy it is!

This is Tarka Daal. It's made from lentils and is a vegetarian dish. We ordered in "medium" but it still wasn't spicy. Good pick for people who can't stand spicy curry or meat.

Lastly, this was Chicken Dhansak. It's cooked with lentils, sweet, sour and hot spices. This is considered Persian style and is also medium. The chicken just fell apart. It was more of a tomato base than cream.

This restaurant turned out to be a great find. All of the food was terrific and the manager comes to each table and takes the time to chat and visit. We definitely recommend this spot if you love Indian...and if you've never tried it, here's a great place to start!

$169.75...

We have officially mastered extreme couponing. We're not sure you're quite comprehending this picture, so we'll break it down for you:
- 48 rolls of Cottonelle toilet paper
- 10 Right Guard body washes
- 4 Crest ProHealth Whitening toothpastes
- 2 92-count GUM flossers
- 2 Schick Hydro shaving creams
- 8 BIC Soleil shavers
- 12 Noxema shavers
- 20 boxes/bags of pasta

The total of all of this came to $169.75.

The store paid us $2.29 to take it...Yes, we paid nothing and they paid us.

best.day.ever.

Parish

240 n. highland ave - atlanta, ga 30307

Saturday brunch is our new favorite pastime...especially when the weather is as lovely as it was this weekend. We discovered Inman Park a few weeks back and vowed we would go back and hit up as many of the brunch spots as we could in the near future. So this Saturday we settled on Parish. Parish offers delicious southern traditional foods with a modern twist. Very New Orleans type foods.

Their menus are printed on paper bags which is awesome. We sat on the patio, which is also covered, so you aren't forced to sit in the blaring sunlight. Their brunch menu covers the thicker menu, with specialty drinks listed on the back. The skinny menu is also dedicated entirely to beverages.

We ordered an English Breakfast tea and a Bloody Mary. Both had really great flavor...and look how cute the tea bag is! It has a little leaf on the end of the string.

With the drinks they bring out fresh, hot beignets.

Warm and crispy on the outside, moist and gooey on the inside. perfect.

Now onto the food. There were three of us on this visit. First up, the shrimp and grits. This consists of local shrimp, tomato and andouille gravy, logan turnpike grits, and a poached egg. Verrryyyy southern and a little spicy with a kick. Filling, but it doesn't leave you in a food coma.

Next, here is the fried green tomato benedict. What you see is an open faced buttermilk biscuit, poached eggs, smoked ham, fried green tomato, bernaise, and grits (which we substituted for their usual side of hash browns). Now this was our first encounter with fried green tomatoes, a southern staple...this was just fantastic! The perfect choice if you're craving something savory.

Lastly, you can tell we had a good ole american boy with us...not too adventurous (and possessing a massive appetite) he went with the American Breakfast: two eggs any style, housemade-ginger sage sausage or applewood smoked bacon (he took the bacon), hash browns or logan turnpike grits (obviously he picked the grits!). He also took the extra beignet!


We all left happy and full. The service was excellent and everyone was extremely friendly and accommodating. Our waiter kindly informed us that if we ever plan to come back on a Sunday we should definitely call ahead because it gets a little crazy. Parish is definitely on our list of places for brunch and if you get a chance you should definitely stop on by!