Cheddar Cheese Rosemary Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose

1 cup whole wheat

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp fat

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 tbsp rosemary (or less to taste)

3/4 cup milk

This year for thanksgiving I decided to try serving biscuits instead of the traditional dinner buns our family serves most years.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit first.

1.  Add together the dry ingredients, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix together.  *You can use all white or whole wheat flour if you prefer*

2.  Add in fat (in this case I used margarine), cut.  If you don't have a pastry blender you can also use two knifes to literally "cut in" the fat. Blend or cut until it starts to look like large crumbs.

3. Add in the rosemary and cheddar cheese.  I used a coffee grinder to make the dried rosemary finer, then added it and the shredded cheese and mixed. I used about 1 tbsp rosemary and found it on the stronger side, use less if you don't want it to have such a herby taste. 

*Note this step is optional - if you want regular biscuits, don't add rosemary and cheddar, or add different things to make different types of biscuits*

4. Slowly add the milk.  You want to add the milk a little at a time so that you form a dough.  Just use as much as you need.

5. Form the dough into a ball.  Place on floured surfaced and kneed a few times.  You want the dough to stick together but you don't want to over work it.

6.  Gently roll the dough out to about a half inch thick and cut using a biscuit cutter or a slim glass, cut the biscuits and gently move them onto a greased cookie sheet. (Repeat until the dough is used up but remember the more times you work with it, the less delicate the end product will be)

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy! I like to serve these warm out of the oven or make them the day before and pop them in the oven or microwave to warm them up.  Great with butter!  Makes 12-15 biscuits.

Have You Joined Swagbucks Yet?

If you do daily searches, which most of us do anyway, why not earn gift cards for it?

What is Swagbucks?  Simply put, Swagbucks is a search engine where you earn points while you search.  These points can be redeemed for various gift cards such as Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Home Depot and Paypal.  You can also redeem for various products like video games, movies, collectible cards or you can donate your points to charity.

While it takes time to earn enough points to earn these prizes, it's still nice to earn these things while you day your fay to day activities.

How do you earn points?

Sign up for a free Swagbucks again and simply use Swagbucks instead of your normal search engine.  There are also many other ways to collect points, there is a daily poll, games and surveys.

Why does it work:?

Companies pay search engines when you click on their links.  Large search engines make a lot of money from this.  Swagbucks works the same way, however they are giving you a portion of this for using their search engine.

Does it work?

Yes, if you just do the searches you can earn several gift cards a year.  If you are really dedicated to this program you can earn a couple of hundred dollars with of gift cards and products.

Is it for international users?

Yes, Swagbucks is available in the US, Canada and the UK.

Pros:

-Earn for Searching

-Easy ways to get points from swagcodes, games, polls

-Can get points quickly from surveys

Cons:

-Searches aren't as convenient as google

-Can take a long time to receive rewards

-Some of their special offers seem more like spam 

It won't make you a millionaire but it will give you a few extra rewards with not a lot of work.

Why not try it out?  Click here to join Swagbucks.

Sale Items to Watch for: October

Its October and where I live that means the first snow fall, Canadian Thanksgiving, and, of course, Halloween! With these come an opportunity to find some awesome sale prices and to stock on up things. So what things should you look for this month?

1.  Yams

Yams are a traditional thanksgiving food so naturally they are on sale in time for Thanksgiving.  Usually they can be found for good prices 2 weeks before to 1 week after Thanksgiving.  Yams are one of my favourite foods so I like to use this opportunity to buy them and freeze enough to last through the next several months.

2. Turkey

Another Thanksgiving favourite, turkeys are on sale.  If you have room in your freezer grab an extra one.  They are great for making tons of dinners you can freeze, such as Turkey Pot Pie and Turkey Soup.  Don't have extra room?  Don't worry - they will be on sale again around Christmas.

3. Pumpkin

Doesn't matter if you buy it fresh or canned, both are usually on sale. I like to use canned pumpkin in pies, cheese cake and muffins.  The canned variety last a long time so you can buy what you would use in the next year or so.  One word of advice (from experience) is label your containers in your fridge - otherwise another family member could mistake it for sweet potatoes!

4. Cranberries

What is turkey without cranberries?  Whether you buy fresh cranberries or canned, both are on sale.  Fresh cranberries can be dried or used in many recipes.  I love cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches.

5. Stuffing

If you like stove top stuffing, this is another thing to pick up. It makes an easy side any time of the year.  

These are several items to consider stocking up on now.  Remember little savings add up - 50 cents off a pound of turkey is 10 dollars off a 20 pound turkey! Make sure not to buy more than you can use before it goes bad.  Spend some time planning what you are going to use each thing for and when you are going to use them.  No sense buying 20 pounds of yams if they are going to sit and go bad in your fridge.

Watch for other sale items as well - apples are commonly on sale this time of year but that depends where you live. Try your local farmers market.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Who are you twenties girl?

This blog was inspired by me – a girl in my twenties.  Seems pretty straight forward right?  My goal here is to share the knowledge I am gaining as I find myself.  I want to share my ideas, my tips and tricks and my recommendations.  Hopefully it will be useful to others who are going through similar times – you’re never alone!  It will also show me the path I am on and the growth I have taken.

Here is a little bit about me – I love to save money!  I want to go to school and travel and have nice things so I am frugal with my money, and as everyone I do have my pitfalls which  I will talk about as I find ways around them and ways to improve them.

I have a goal to be healthy inside and out – meaning being a healthy weight, eating healthy, exercising, feeling good about myself and my body, having self confidence and self esteem – feeling good about myself!

I want to learn skills and tips and tricks that is going to help me in my everyday life and I want to share them to help others.

I love reading books and hope to post reviews of my favourite books and my favourite authors including fiction and nonfiction.

My goal is to share this all and my life lessons I learn along the way.  I hope you enjoy this blog!