Suzie Homemaker in Training

Often we like to make quiche for lunch because it will feed us for a few days. Normally we make our quiche with no crust just to be healthier but because of the longer hours I am working we find there are longer waits in between meals and the carbs help the meal go a bit farther. These two quiches from start to finish cost about $8 to make and will feed both of us for at least four lunches which is $1 for each lunch. In our quiche we have: Zucchini Red pepper Spinach Ham Mozza cheese Salt & Pepper And the obvious egg What I like most about this is it is quick and we can make it on a Sunday night and then have lunches for the rest of the week. Otherwise I end up being too tired to make a lunch at night and I never have enough time in the morning. This means I end up spending unnecessary money on lunch.

I may be showing my age here but most of the time Chad and I like to spend Friday nights at home. We make a homemade pizza get a bottle of wine (or two) and maybe fire up the wii. This is a Hungarian salami and shrimp pizza with caramelized onions and peppers. It cost us less that $10 to make this pizza and about 30 minutes start to finish. Plus homemade pizza is twice as filling as delivery so we usually have lunch for the next day too. I highly recommend switching from delivery to homemade. The quality is worth the extra effort. **UPDATE**   I have started making my pizza dough a bit healthier as that seems to be our trend, but we still like to have some indulgences on the weekend. I found this recipe on Pinterest (where else) but I am sorry, I didn’t pin it and can’t remember which of the 100 different posts it was from. This is beyond easy, anyone can make this. Ingredients: 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1...

So this cheesecake was one I made for Chad 's birthday because he is a Toblerone lover. It actually turned out really well and not as sweet as I thought. Here is the link to the recipe As far as cheesecake goes this is a really easy one to make and you don’t need a lot of ingredients. One thing I did notice is that it didn’t come out quite as tall as the picture makes it look, but I think that helps with cutting down the sweetness. You could easily change out the cheesecake recipe for one that you have in your repertoire and just use the toppings. Overall it was a crowd pleaser and it was put my back pocket for an easy go to dessert that I can make the day before if I need to.

Today my friend Katlyn came over and we made Sesame Street cupcakes. We used the #233 Wilton tip for the fur, marshmallows for the eyes and cookies for the mouths. The cake mixes were still $2.98 and the icing sugar, butter and vanilla were just in the cupboard so I can't really say how much they were. Plus Katlyn brought the goodies for decorating. I find that the food colouring ruins the consistency of the icing because you need so much to get the right colour. The gel you can get at Michaels is better for keeping the consistency but is more expensive. But I did learn that if you make the icing the day before the colour becomes more saturated and will look red rather than the pink you see here.

It was a pretty good mail day today... Overall I think there is $39.40 worth of savings just in one day. If you are thinking of becoming a couponer too here are a few websites that have helped me out: http://www.savealoonie.com/ https://www.websaver.ca/en_ca/ https://www.brandsaver.ca/en_ca/ Another new site I have been trying is Superpoints, you do small tasks or watch videos to earn points. Each point you earn equals 1 penny. Once you have enough points you can redeem for PayPal cash, Amazon gift cards and more. It is an invite only site but if you like you can use this link to sign up... http://superpoints.com/refer/karlielalonde

More on Valentines day... My BF has been picking up all the slack that I have been leaving behind with my work and school schedule so I thought I would make him an awesome V-Day dinner. I don't know what this cost me but it was so worth it. We sat in our PJ's drank wine and champagne and ate the awesome meal. One thing I will say is making your own pasta from scratch is a little bit time consuming but you feel good for doing it and it costs pennies. I also made chocolate souffle from the Kraft website, but I forgot to take pictures of it. It was so tasty I will be making it again for sure, so next time.

The boys I work with are always requesting treats and baking so I thought I would pull out all the stops for Valentines Day. These are cake balls or cake pops, the powder on top is ground cinnamon hearts and red swirl is just candy melts from Michaels. Cost breakdown: Cake Mix $2.98 from Walmart Icing $2.99 Save on Foods Chocolate melts bulk foods $0.53/lb Save on Foods Cinnamon hearts $0.43/lb from Save on Foods Red candy melts $3.49 less 40% off coupon Michaels This made about 36 cake pops for an approximate cost of $0.25 each. I have to say everyone who tasted them thought they were store bought.

So a little about me and what you'll be seeing on this blog. Ok, I'll be honest I created this blog because I wanted to make some extra money. But at the same time, I do get asked for my recipes and tips on different things. I am an accountant by day and a student by night but when I have some spare time I enjoy baking, cooking and recently I have gotten into couponing. I'm no extreme couponer but I am learning more and more about how to my couponing experience. These are the two loves of my life, my boyfriend Chad and my puppy Rypien. They are a handful, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) I hope I can help other Suzie Homemakers in training, and we can share tips and recipes too. I will try to break down my projects by cost so you can see how easy it is to be thrifty and still have it look like you spent a bundle of time and money on it.