First, we have some awesome friends. We took a long weekend and headed to the Bahamas. The cruise was nothing spectacular, but there were some good memories made.

First, this will be cooked again at our house. It was very good. I came across this recipe on A Soft Place to Land. It was a 5 star for taste, prep, leftovers in our opinion.

Here is what you need:

4-5lb brisket (not corned beef brisket) Do NOT trim the fat off. You want it to soak up the flavor.
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon salt (all this salt makes it good. Not salty)
1.5 oz bottle of liquid smoke
BBQ sauce

1. Sprinkle seasonings over your brisket.
2. Pour liquid smoke over seasoned brisket.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours
4. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
5. Place brisket in covered pan and place in oven.
6. Cook for 3-4 hours or until fork tender.
7. Slice thinly, across the grain.

Earlier this week, I came across this blog. I spent a good hour today going through coupons trying to find my way to saving on groceries the way the blog explains.

Publix has a promotion with BP right now. Spend $25 in groceries and get $10 off a $50 gas gift card.

Deals this week:
Boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.79 a pound.
Cheez-its were BOGO
Bananas were on sale for .39 a pound, compared to .69 a pound.
Alexia crunchy snacks BOGO. I also had 2 coupons for $1 off, so for both packages I paid 89 cents!
YoPlait FiberOne yogurt BOGO. I had one coupon for $1.25 off and one for $1 off, so I paid 25 cents for 2 packages of 4.

I spent $190.29
I saved $87.41

I also walked out of the store with $150 in BP gas gift cards.

P.S. and I added to the stock in the freezer. I bought 14 packages of chicken :)

I found this recipe on Big Red Kitchen. The picture of it fooled me. It was a little to sweet for us. I may try it again, but with half of the brown sugar that is called for.

The worst part, I tried this new recipe when we were having friends over for dinner. Thankfully we had dessert left over from Thanksgiving, so everyone filled up on that.

Monday: Ham with crockpot green beans
Tuesday: Baked Chicken with corn on the cob
Wednesday: Quick Beef Casserole from Keep the Beat cookbook
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday: Grilled chicken or shrimp if I can make it by the market

Today marks four weeks since we brought Toby home. I saw a raised dog feeder at PetsMart and knew I wanted one for Toby. I did not like the look of that one though. I came across a blog and she had recently made on for her dog!

Before polyurethane was applied:

After polyurethane was applied:

Wood wine box $4.99

Polyurethane $6 at AC Moore after coupon

Dog Bowls $8

(The ugly PetsMart one was $29.99)

I feel so bad for him. He has only been home 5 hours and I am honestly dreading the next few days.

P.S. He doesn't have any odd growths on his right side. He is walking like a drunk ;)