And the winners are.....

Thanks to those who entered the Tyson Grilled Chicken Giveaway. The winners, picked at random, are

1. Joanna
2. Sheila 
3. legendswife
4. SB
5. ~Lori~
6. Sarah 
7. Renee G
8. Mary mdhils(at)gmail(dot)com
9. Amy amadajo30 at yahoo.com
10. Carrie

I will be contacting you soon, or you can simply email me your address at stkappleto at hotmail.com

Make it from Scratch #159

Welcome to this week's edition of the Make it from Scratch carnival. Beginning in April the carnival will be changing from the rotating format to a permanent location at Make it from Scratch. It will also transition to using the McLinky link up. I hope you join us there in April.

For now, though, enjoy this week's fabulous submissions!


Food

There are always so many wonderful food ideas in this carnival. This week the food category is bursting at the seams. My pants might be too if I try all the recipes here I'd like to.

Kristia presents Chicken Parmesan with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce posted at Family Balance Sheet.

Kristia presents Ham and Asparagus Frittata posted at Family Balance Sheet.

Laura presents Gluten Free Quick Pizza posted at Living Our Way.

Cori presents Starting the farm - sourdough recipe posted at Starting the Farm.

SimplyForties presents Braised Pork with Orange Sauce posted at SimplyForties.

Kris presents Salsa Couscous Chicken OR Moroccan Chicken: One Award Winning Recipe, Many Names posted at Cheap Healthy Good.

David Cox presents DIY Ingredients: Homemade Butter (And Buttermilk) posted at Cook on a Shoestring.

Lindsey presents Apple Berry Crisp. posted at Hot Polka Dot.

kristan roland presents German Chocolate Cupcakes posted at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

Lori Vaughn presents Apple Cobbler Cake posted at Two Southern Girls.

Erin aka Conscius Shopper presents Great Snack Experiment: Non-Animal Crackers and Granola Bars posted at The Conscious Shopper.

So Crafty! 
I always enjoy the sewing, crocheting and art and craft submissions. I think I may just be a wee bit jealous of the talent shown here.  

Lori Vaughn presents Chocolate Easter Egg Basket posted at Two Southern Girls.

RecycleCindy presents Plastic Plarn Scrubbie Dots posted at My Recycled Bags.com.

Jessica presents Handmade Tulle Tutu Tutorial posted at Factory Direct Craft Blog.

Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads presents Awana: 50s Night & Poodle Skirt posted at Marine Corps Nomads.

Cyndi L presents Lampwork basics posted at Beading Arts.

Karen Bastille presents Celebrate March! Tuesday is Barbie?s Birthday! posted at Grandmother Wren.  

Darcy presents Family Memory Game posted at Smart-Bottom Enterprises.


Health and Beauty
Summer is just around the corner. Why does that always make us think a little more about health and beauty?

Digerati Life presents How To Look Good On A Budget: The Business of Beauty posted at The Digerati Life.

NHE presents 4 Steps on How to Detox Your Body Naturally posted at Natural Health Ezine.

abi presents Homemade skin cream posted at lighter side -.


Other D-I-Y
How to posts and links to helpful sites for the do it yourself person.

Heather Mann presents Make a Scarf Organizer posted at Dollar Store Crafts.

Isabella Smith presents Top 100 Online Tools for the DIY Homeowner posted at Construction Management Degrees.

Wallet Blogger presents 5 Free Online Calendars and Personal Planners To Organize Your Life posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Wise_Bread presents Precision Plastic Reduction Part 3 posted at Wisebread.

nissim ziv presents How to Change Your Career Goals posted at Job Interview & Career Guide.



Thank you for joining us this week. Next week the carnival will be found at Simply Beck's Bounty.

Sweet and Spicy Jerky

Jerky is a favorite snack around this house. It is perfect for hikes and outings, and the whole family loves it.

Jerky.com is a source for a huge variety of jerky including  Beef Jerky and  Turkey Jerky. Tomorrow they will officially be launching a new product, Spencer's Jerky. They sent me complimentary packages of the new Orange Jerky and Mango Jerky to review for you.

The jerky are advertised as "sweet and spicy" with a "wow" factor. They deliver on their promise. Both of these varieties have a lot of flavor. The flavor is a little bit sweet, but with a good kick of spice. The spice isn't too hot though, as evidenced by the fact that the children and adults in this family found the jerky quite delicious. We enjoyed both of these flavors, but the Mango is especially outstanding!  

For all you jerky lovers out there, I highly recommend this jerky. You'll find it an unique and delicious snacking experience. 

MIFS Call for Submissions

The Make it from Scratch carnival will be hosted right here on Tuesday! Share your cooking, crafting, gardening, and other made from scratch posts by using the form here. Entries need to be in today!

Don't forget to enter to win a free bag of Tyson Ready Grilled Chicken! 

Tyson Grilled Chicken Strips Review and Giveaway

Recently Collective Bias and Tyson provided me with a $50 gift card to try Tyson's Grilled Chicken Breast Strips and to tell you about them. They also provided 10 free product coupons for me to give to you. Look for those details at the bottom of this post. All opinions are mine.

I found this product in the frozen foods section of my local Kroger. The 1.37 pound bag cost $8.49. The chicken strips are fully cooked and 100% breast fillet with no preservatives.

I had many ideas of how to use these strips. They only need to be heated up for a few minutes in the microwave or on the stove, and they are ready to serve. They could be served alone as the main dish. I thought about using them to make a grilled chicken salad, chicken BLT sandwiches, or chicken wraps. But I decided that fajitas sounded really good. Below is the recipe.





These fajitas were quite delicious, and extremely quick and easy to make. The chicken had a good flavor and was very tender.

The trade off for the wonderful convenience of this product is the cost. Time versus money is the perpetual choice that we face when trying to make frugal decisions. Although I enjoyed this product, I have to say that this would not be something I would buy for myself. We very rarely buy convenience foods such as this because of their cost.

A more frugal alternative would be to buy chicken breast to grill and freeze the strips for later use. Making your own convenience food would obviously involve more of your time, but it would be significantly less expensive.

I was very pleased with the taste and convenience of this product. There is only one thing that stops me from giving it a whole-hearted positive endorsement. That one thing is the price.


Would you like to try this product yourself for free? I'll be picking at random 10 people to send a free product coupon for Tyson Grilled Chicken. Entering is easy.


1) Leave a comment here with an idea of how you would use your ready grilled chicken.

and/or

2) Tweet, link here on Facebook or from your blog for an additional entry in the drawing. Leave a comment here saying where you've linked. Leave a separate comment for each link to get multiple entries.

You can get a maximum of four entries into the drawing. One for your initial comment, one for tweeting, one for linking on Facebook, and one for linking from your blog. Ten winners will be drawn randomly next Wednesday, March 17th. Good luck!

Weather for Every Season

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

How about this weather? It is a classic conversation starter, isn't it? But the weather is really far more important than a small talk topic. The weather affects so much we do here. I find myself checking the weather daily, and often several times during the day, no matter the season.

In the winter we are checking for snow and freezing temperatures. Are our plans going to get snowed out? Do we have to keep water thawed for the animals? Do we need some heat in the animal sheds to keep the pipes from freezing?

In the spring, my weather watch revolves around the garden. When will it be dry enough to till the garden? Is going to warm up enough to plant? And of course we are still watching for freezing temperatures.

In the summer I'm looking for rain. Can I dry clothes on the line? Will the garden need watering? Can we take the kids swimming?

Then fall comes, and we complete the cycle. I'm still checking for rain for the garden, and starting to once again look for freezing temperatures.

Sometimes I feel like an old man checking the weather all the time, but the weather really has a huge impact on the things we do, regardless of the season. I love that I can just click on a site like AccuWeather and in a matter of seconds get an update forecast for the day or more. Today's forecast for sun with temps in the low forties means I am hanging clothes on the line, and our afternoon play date is a go. Yeah!

What are you watching the weather for?

Deal Alert - Huntington Aldi

I went grocery shopping today. One of our stops was to Aldi, and we found a deal there that my kids were thrilled with. Chocolate milk 1/2 gallons were market down to $0.75! This price was good on all 1/2 gallons with March 8 dates. Get them while they last! Chocolate milk is a treat here. At that price, it is a treat I am happy to provide!

Photo credit: anthimeria