North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission is holding a sweet potato recipe contest.  I’ve made sweet potato fries before, but mostly I just bake them and eat them. Don’t think I’ll the contest with that idea though!

Has anyone else noticed the Oscar Mayer “Blogworthy” ads?  I admit to liking the fact that “blogworthy” is a positive attribute. But I can’t quite think about blogging about prefab food.

Of course I’m biased because they have my blog listed, but there are some other great blogs here as well. Go explore these frugal food blogs!

When the girls were little, we tried to make something each Valentine’s Day. But it’s a challenge to not spend too much money, have something they can make, and have it be something everyone enjoys. We made airplanes out of chewing gum sticks one year (wrapped so the recipient could chew the gum!), various pretzel things, cookies, and so forth. But the favorite was red play dough hearts!  You’ll want to double this for about 24 hearts.

Play Dough

1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 cup water
food coloring

Put everything in a heavy saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. Remove from heat. Put the dough onto a board and let it cool a few minutes, then knead for 5 minutes or so.

Roll the dough out and cut into heart shapes with cookie cutters, put them in sandwich bags, and either write directly on the sandwich bag or slip in a paper heart with the recipeient’s name.

Enjoy!

Since I got so many comments I decided to give away FIVE sets of my eBooks instead of just 1.  The lucky winners are:

• Leanna
  
• Jackie
• Lydia
• Karla
• Mindy

I’ll be emailing the winners with copies of the eBooks. Thanks to all who entered. I hope you’ll come back around as there are lots of good cheap recipes on here!

It must be karma. In December I got to give away some chocolates. Now I just won a budget oriented cookbook from Cook Something – Even If It’s Wrong.

I decided I should give something away too! So I’ll give my 4 eBook bundle away as part of the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. Go check out the post there because there are LOTS of other blogs giving away cool stuff!

My ebook bundle, selling for $21 here, consists of:

• Getting Started with CheapCooking
• 29 Ways to Slash Your Food Bill
• CheapCooking with Chicken
• CheapCooking Side Dishes

So write a comment to enter the contest. I’ll draw a winner on Friday January 30.

They are in PDF format. They will be emailed to the winner. You can then print them for easy reference in your kitchen.

NOTE: Entries are closed. Winners are posted here.

We have two winners! Courtney and Ann. Please email your addresses to me at ellen at cheapcooking.com and I’ll have them sent out!  Thanks for all the responses! I hope I can do another giveaway soon!

Ann, maybe you’ll share your chocolate pudding with us too!

It’s a bit last minute so I’ll have to make this short—but also very sweet! I’ve got two Ferrero Chocolate Christmas Tree gift boxes filled with Ferrero chocolates to give away. Add a comment below with something about chocolate, a favorite recipe or your favorite treat, by Saturday 5pm PST. I’ll use a random number generator to pick two winners!

Ferrero has donated these to bring awareness to the Share Our Strength program. They have donated $150,000 to Share Our Strength and are giving others a chance to add to that donation. Right now, if you log on to Share Something Sweet and use it to “send something sweet” (that is, a customizable e-card), Ferrero will donate another $1 per e-card sent, up to $10,000. And for every person that joins the Ferrero Facebook page, “Ferrero Lovers Unite,” Ferrero will donate another $1 to Share Our Strength (up to $1,000).

Check back on Sunday and I’ll announce the winners!

I haven’t seen the KFC ad about this but really liked this post on Grist. Nice cost breakdown of a meal duplicating the KFC dinner. Add a pound of greens and you could still get under $10.