U-Pick Apples!

My family has really enjoyed all of the seasonal produce that we've been able to pick this year. We've picked strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, and this past weekend we went apple-picking (and raspberries!)! We went back to Chestertown, Maryland, where both of us went to college, to visit Lockbriar Farms again.

If you live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland or the nearby Delaware area like we do, this is a great spot to visit! The drive is beautiful, and the farm is family owned:

(And if you are not local to Lockbriar Farm, be sure to check out PickYourOwn.org to find local U-Pick in your area!)

We planned on just picking apples, but found out when we arrived at Lockbriar that there were strawberries and raspberries available as well! We finished off our pint of raspberries quickly, and have really been enjoying the apples. Lockbriar provided us with a great apple picking basket to use while we walked through the orchard, and our daughter loved helping put apples in the basket!

Lockbriar's apples are $.99/pound. Location, hours, and other information can be easily found on their Facebook page! And remember, Thrifty Living is on Facebook too!

Do you have apple-picking plans for the weekend now? You should!

Free Avocado Coupon on Facebook - today!

We love avocados! Here's a great freebie on Facebook. Like The Amazing Avocado on Facebook, and this afternoon you will be able to print a coupon for a free avocado. The coupon is redeemable at any grocery store that sells Mexican Hass Avocados (which is most!).

Visit the Amazing Avocado on Facebook!

And while you are on Facebook, why not become a fan of Thrifty Living too!

Stocking up this week: Gold Medal Flour

Gold Medal flour is on sale at Acme this week for $1.49 per 5 pound bag. This in itself is a great price, but to make it even better, if you buy 6, you save $.50 per item, making them just $1 a bag! I do a good bit of baking, so I will be stocking up on some flour this week!

The flour is included with several other items that you can mix and match to buy 6 and get the discount. Read more about Acme this week at Moms Need to Know.

Food Waste Friday

I've been participating in Food Waste Friday with The Frugal Girl for a while now; I go through our fridge (and freezer) on Friday and toss anything that has gone bad. I also take a look at what needs to be used up so that it does not go bad and try to work that into our meals over the next few days. This has really helped us to throw out less food (and so we're actually buying less because we're using what we've already bought!).

Our food waste this week is pretty minimal! There's a bit of cream cheese dip from several weeks ago and a handful of raspberries that went bad before I noticed them. We've been cleaning up some leftovers, so I think we are in good shape for next week too!

How does your fridge look this week?

We are planning to go apple picking this weekend! Do you have any fun plans?

Online Survey Update: Opinion Outpost

I've mentioned before that I enjoy having a little extra spending money by taking part in online surveys. I just got a check from one of my favorite companies, Opinion Outpost, this past week. I like to wait until I have $20 saved up in my account before requesting a check, and I am usually able to make the $20 in 2 months or less.

I've been doing a lot less with online surveys this summer because I've been so busy, so this one took me a little longer to accumulate. I really enjoy that I get to give my opinion on new products that are not out on the market yet! I don't know how many times I've seen a commercial for a new product that I heard about months ago because of a survey. Opinion Outpost has also given me the opportunity for a few in-home product tests, which I love!

Read more about the other survey companies that I use in this post!

Amazon Fall Blowout Sale

Now through September 24th, Amazon is holding a Fall Blowout Sale. To see all of the things that are on sale right now, click here. If you've been redeeming your Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards, you might be able to find a really great deal!

Amazon has another great deal for parents and caregivers of children, called Amazon Mom. As a member of Amazon Mom, you will get a free trial of Amazon Prime (free 2-day shipping) for 3 months, as well as 30% off select diapers and wipes (using subscribe & save). You'll also be able to personalize your account with details about your children, which will allow Amazon to send you emails with deals that will fit your needs. Read the complete FAQs here.

Recipe Flop

One of the biggest ways that our family saves money is by making our own meals instead of buying ready to eat meals or going out to eat. I post a lot of recipes that we use and enjoy on a regular basis, and usually they turn out great and look appealing. But it doesn't always happen this way.

If you make the majority of your own meals, you've probably seen a recipe that looked great and then tasted "blah" or just didn't look like the picture. I found a recipe for Goat Cheese Empanadas in my August issue of Real Simple. It looked really easy, and I thought I could modify it slightly for my family.

Instead of using goat cheese, I filled half of the empanadas with mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, and the other half with Velveeta cheese, black beans, and salsa. My problems first started because I overfilled the crust, which made them really hard to seal. Since they did not seal very well, the empanadas came out of the oven looking like this:

and this:

Really, from these pictures they don't look too terrible, but I thought they looked horrible when I pulled them out, and of course were nothing like the picture in the magazine! We went ahead and ate them anyway, and they actually tasted really good. Now, if I make these again I have a better idea about how much (or really, how little) I can put in each empanada to make them come out a little prettier. And really, how they look doesn't matter as much as how they taste!

So the next time you end up with a recipe flop, I hope you'll see it as a learning experience instead of a failure! I know I needed this reminder that what I cook doesn't have to be perfect to be right for my family!