I will admit that I am a little late to the whole Swagbucks thing. I really thought it was too good to be true that I would get paid for searching the Internet, so I put off signing up. Then once I signed up, I was unsure if it was going to really be worth it, but after using it now for quite some time I love it.

I really does pay you to search the Internet. Now, you are not going to get rich of Swagbucks, but it will make you a little here and there.  As your points add up you can cash them in for prizes and gift cards.

My favorite prize is the Amazon gift card one. This has been a fun way for me to save for cookbooks and kitchen gadgets that I have been wanting to buy. Yes, Swagbucks is helping fund my cookbook collection. Who wouldn’t love free cookbooks?

I do have a few tips for using Swagbucks.

1. Download and use the toolbar. It makes it so much easier. I also have it set as my default search. There are directions on the Swagbucks website on how to do those things. It is really easy.

2. The first few results for each search are paid advertisements. So scroll down a few to get the best results.

3. Not every search earns you points. Some searches have a few points and others have larger amounts, so be patient.

If you are like me and do a lot of searching on the internet, especially for things like recipes, I think you will be surprised at how easy this is and how quickly your points add up.

It is free to sign up and you are not out anything if you do not like it. Give it a try.

What are your thoughts on Swagbucks?

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I am so excited about this new feature on my site.

I have wanted a recipe index for a long time. I have my category buttons in my sidebar, and an archive page, but I wanted a list of all my recipes in one place. Thanks to my great web designer, I now have my recipes listed all in one place, on a recipe index page.

We listed the recipes in the index under categories such as breakfast, then all the recipes in that category are listed below it.

I hope you enjoy this feature and that it makes navigating my site a little easier.

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I often talk about quick and easy frugal meals. For most meals that is truly what I cook, however I do occasionally splurge and cook something a little fancier.

I know many people love to go out to eat, my husband and I are not those people. We never have been ones that love eating out. Yes, we do enjoy an occasional meal out, but not often.

I am one of those people that will eat out, and then figure out how I can make it at home for much cheaper and healthier. To me eating out is just not worth it most of the time, but this does not mean that I do not enjoy good food.

I have found that I would much rather splurge on an occasional really nice meal at home, than spend the money eating out. This is something that we enjoy and in the end saves us money. Even if I buy a really expensive cut of meat, I spend less than half of what it would cost to take my whole family out.

One of my splurges is salmon. I love salmon. My husband’s splurge would be a really good, high quality steak.

So, what is your preference? Would you rather spend money eating out? Or do you splurge occasionally and buy something special to cook at home.

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I have a large space above my kitchen cabinets. Ever since we moved into our house five years ago, I have struggled with what to do with this space. In my dream kitchen my cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling, so that I have more storage space, but for now I have to work with what I have.

I did not like this space blank, with nothing on it. I tried a few old jars and antique items, but that ended up feeling a bit flea market like for me.

So, for the last few years this is what the space above my kitchen cabinets have looked like.

It was not my favorite, it looked a bit dated, but it worked.

However, last week I decided that I had to do something. I was tired of looking at it, and wanted to update it without spending money buying a lot of new stuff.

I decided to take everything down and clean the space.

Note to self: You must clean the area above the kitchen cabinets more often. It was nasty up there.

Then I had to decide what I wanted to put up there.

I have mentioned before how much I love dishes and collecting them. I have a lot of different styles and colors of dishes, so I decided to try decorating this space with dishes.

After looking at what I had, and trying a few things out, I decided to use my white and ivory dishes to decorate the space.

I love the new look.

It has a much cleaner and updated look. I am really happy with it. Not only that if I get tired of it looking exactly like this, I can easily switch it out with other dishes.

This was such an easy and inexpensive way to change the look of my kitchen.

This post linked to DIY Day.

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It seems that many of you enjoyed my vlog on organizing cookbooks. In fact, quite a few of you have commented and emailed asking for more vlogs.

I would love to do more, but I need help knowing what you would like to see. I am having trouble coming up with ideas that I think you will like.

I think it would be quite boring to watch me cook dried beans, or even make cookies, however I know many of you are curious.

I also know many of you are new to cooking. I am sure there are things that you would love to know how to do or at least how I do them.

I would like to do vlogs that you will find useful and helpful. So, if you have any idea or suggestions, please leave me a comment letting me know what you would like to see.

Now, no guarantees that I will do everything that is suggested, but I am definitely looking for ideas.

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Here are the winners of the Tyson chicken coupons. If you won I will contact you so that you can send me your information. Thank you for entering.

Here are your random numbers:

4
28
61
71
88
36
95
41
90
52

Timestamp: 2010-04-21 23:58:32 UTC

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The winner for the Everyday Food Fast Cookbook is comment 123.

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It has been a long week. My site has been having issues since last Friday. I think we now have them all resolved, and I hope everything is working fine.

I am planning on getting back to regular posting. However, we are in the middle of a severe ice storm and I doubt I will have power much longer. I hope to get a post up before that happens, but with weather you never know. So, if I disappear for a few days, you will now know why. I hope your weather is better than mine right now because I am really not enjoying the freezing rain and ice we are having.

Thanks for being patient with my site this week!

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Yesterday I cleaned some things out of my refrigerator. Hiding in the back of my refrigerator I found this.

Read it carefully, what is wrong with this whipping cream?

Does it have something to do with the fact that yesterday was January 4, 2010?

Yes, I will admit, that on January 4, 2010, I found this dairy product, that expired on September 19, 2009, in the back of my fridge.

Yes, this is an unopened whipping cream that is 3 1/2 months past the expiration date!

I do not know how I missed this. I really have cleaned out my fridge since September.

Please tell me I am not the only one that finds strange things hidden in the back of the refrigerator. Please, tell me this happens to some of you.

This post linked to Friday Fails.

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A few weeks ago I posted about some great magazine deals on Amazon. Well, if you need some last minute gift ideas Amazon has some more great magazine deals going on right now. Any of these would make a great gift for someone else or even your self.

I love to give magazines as gifts. Magazines are easy to send. These $5 subscriptions are cheaper than I would spend just for shipping on a package to my family in Oregon. So, if you have friends or family out of state or even close by you might want to consider one of these deals. Not only are these great gifts, but if you shop at Amazon you can avoid all the holiday traffic.

Southern Living (1-year) for $5 ( I love Southern Living and this is a great deal)

This Old House (1-year) for $5

Sunset (1-year) for $5

Coastal Living (1-year) for $5

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