Frozen Red grapes

Dear Internet,

Thank you thank you for this recipe.

Red grapes
Sugar free jello mix (watermelon tastes like sour patch kids, but I got raspberry.)

Wash grapes. Place in bag. Add jello mix. Place in freezer. Wait many hours. Nom nom nom.

SOOOOO good and great for the summer heat.

And apparently green grapes don't freeze well.

Dinner on the cheap

Yesterday, I was at Lowes Foods picking up a couple things when I passed by the new Velveeta Helper display. $1.50. Add 1 lb of ground beef.  "Hmm. I have ground beef. Thawed. But Jake and I aren't big on boxed dinners."
Then I saw the attached coupon.  $0.55 off. "Ok. For $0.95, I will try this."
At the self checkout, I got flagged and the shopper assistant had to come over. "They're scared of coupon fraud." He said apologizing.
I checked my receipt afterwards. They doubled it, that's why it got flagged!  This box dinner was only $0.40!
Was it amazing? No. But was it cheap and easy and pretty darn good? Indeed.

Ninja Challenge

The Ninja Challenge 5k.  The name alone should make you want to do this.

I really thought about it this year, but chickened out due to the price ($65!!) and the fact that it looked hard.  But some people I know did it, and shared this video on facebook of the obstacles...


Hmmm... Maybe next year....

Southwestern Couscous!

I've been trying to bring my lunch more, and I found this great recipe for a couscous salad.  Couscous is yummy and can be served cold.  I made four portions and took them on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... and then not again until Monday.  The first three were AWESOME, but by the second Monday, the couscous had gotten mushy. Not so good.


My sister in law, Melissa, tells me I could substitute quinoa for the couscous and get more protein, so I may try that for the next batch!

It's so nice to finally have something *work* in the kitchen!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-bean-and-couscous-salad/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=southwest%20cous%20cous&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe

Being a Grownup

Dear 15 year old MB,

Know how you cannot wait to be a grownup out of school and able to do whatever you want? Yeah, you are right. It IS totally awesome.

You have a car, money, free time ... and you are the boss of you. You CAN have ice cream when ever you want. You can go to any social event you want. You can throw parties. Even on a weeknight. You can have that expensive makeup AND that shirt.

Now, it's not totally for free. You do have these nasty responsibilities ... you will get a migraine if you stay up past 3am, they will kick you out of your house if you don't save enough money to pay your bills and you have to go to work every morning. Oh. And ice cream for breakfast makes you fat now. Stupid slowing metabolism. And you have to make good decisions cause its way more embarrassing to call Mom and Dad when you were supposed to be being a grownup.

But all in all, being a grownup is pretty cool. You can pretty much do whatever you want. And responsibility isn't so bad. I even put on sunscreen without being forced to and now I don't feel like a cranky lobster.  You should try it.

Love,
25 year old MB