Do any of you have any protein bars that you just can’t live without? The only ones I’ve felt good about buying so far have been the Larabar ones because they have all natural ingredients in them like fruits and I can pronounce everything on the label. My favorite? The coconut one. So good!

Since I saw Hungry Girl has new ones that sound delicious, I thought I’d give them a try though while they’re free. If you want to try them out, you can too! Request two free Hungry Girls Quest Protein Bars. I hope they taste as good as they sound!

BIRMINGHAM, listen up! We’re getting a Nordstrom’s Rack! I first fell in love with Nordstrom’s Rack over a year ago in Tampa when we visited my sister-in-law in Tampa. Every time we made a trip to Tampa, I coerced Janelle into going with me and every time but once I’ve found something I couldn’t walk out of the store without. So, when we got invited to the pre-opening bash for our local Nordstom’s Rack, I was beyond excited.

Nordstrom’s Rack is a store with a men’s, women’s, baby, makeup, shoes, and accessories section. There is something there for everyone!

Katie, Erin, & I when we first got to Nordstom’s Rack

 I’m her blog momma, she’s my decorating momma.

 This hot little number was originally $50…marked down and clearanced to $19.97! Score. Thanks to Jess for finding it!

 We may have both bought this shirt…and for $18.97, who can say no?!

 One of Jess’ finds.

Strike a pose!

 Clearly I didn’t find too many items like this in my dressing room

Done and done. Bag ‘em up.

Shopping and sipping on sparkling wine…what else could we have wanted?

I saved $105.15 on this shopping trip! You guys have to go check out your nearest Nordstom’s Rack! For Birmingham folks, this store opens THURSDAY, May 16 and is by the Target on 280. To see more details and photos from our fun shopping adventure, check out Katie’s blog post about it!

I know you’re probably thinking “Woah, that’s a lot of guacamole!” and, yes, my friends it is! I love some guac and when it goes BOGO with a $1.50/1 & $1/1 coupons available on it, you best believe I’m stocking up on it. I got each package for around $.50 after BOGO sale and coupon! They were out of it at my 2 Publix stores last week so I had to get rain checks on that and my 4 pack of tuna.

I had 8 printable coupons in tow with me for this trip including guacamole coupons, a coupon for $1.50/2 Oreos (that were already on sale) and a $1.50/1 gallon of milk when you buy 2 Oreos….holla!, a $1.50/1 Weight Watchers ice cream coupon, as well as a coupon for $1/1 Alexia frozen item.

I only bought 1 item this week that wasn’t on sale or I didn’t have a coupon for: bananas! And I’m pretty happy about that. I got pre-sliced deli turkey, salmon, tuna, and ground turkey, toilet paper, and produce. The hubs is working the first half of the week during dinner time and we have two events (First time to the Birmingham Barons new baseball stadium & a pre-grand-opening party at Nordstrom’s Rack!) this week so I’m not cooking too much. All I’m making is this No Fail Salmon and our Asian Turkey Slaw Wraps.

How are you all doing on your grocery budget?

Summer Niiiiiights!!!! (Note you should be singing the song from Grease out loud right now.) Sonic is offering Half-Priced Shakes after 8 p.m. now through the end of summer. YES!!!! Sounds like the perfect chilly treat for our hot & humid summer nights in the South.

Thanks, My Frugal Adventures!

I am blessed to call this woman of God my mother. My momma gave me a love for all things Southern…sweet tea, being a Godly lady, church on Sundays and always offering a helping hand. My mom is the most selfless person I know when it comes to helping others. If I call her and tell her I’m hosting a little get together she offers to bake something for it, she’ll drop everything at the drop of a hat to bring me a key when I’ve locked myself out of my car & condo (what? that doesn’t happen to you?), she prays for me, she listens, and she loves me much more than I deserve.

Even though we can be very different, I know that she’s always one of my biggest fans and she has fiercely taught me the love of family. I am so blessed by my parents and sister and from the bottom of my heart want to wish my mom a very HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

And, a very special first Mother’s Day for my blogging partner Jessica! See her and her precious one below. I love these two and am so thankful to have them in my life. I hope all of our fabulous readers out there enjoy Mother’s Day and time with family. xoxoxo

As you guys know I am really shooting for doing Clean Eating about 80% of the time. In a flurry of wild pinning, I found this awesome Thai Lime Chicken recipe from Clean Eating Magazine. For all the Birmingham locals, if you’ve been to Surin West, you also think that anything THAI means DELICIOUS! Surin is one of the hubs’ and I’s favorite date night spots. If you have any to-die for and still moderately easy at east Thai recipes, please post them in the comments below. I’m always looking to try something new!

I put this recipe on Instagram weeks ago and promised to share it and I’m finally getting around to it. (If you aren’t following me on Instagram yet, what are you waiting for?) This is an extremely busy season in life for us here on the blog right now as you may realize from following us there and here on the blog. Jessica’s hubs is graduating from medical school, they bought a new house, my hubs is still getting his master’s and working full time, my sister graduates on Saturday and is getting married this year, and there’s a few work transitions going on for me as well. So….that explains a little bit about where our heads have been the past few weeks.

But….enough about us, let’s get you what you want. This AWESOME Thai Lime Chicken. This chicken really soaks up the flavor and has a great crunch to it from the ground up peanuts. I just used my new Ninja (which I LOVE for smoothies and such) to chop up the peanuts and it worked like a charm. This recipe is only 4 ingredients so it’s super simple to prep and get on the table in a hurry.

Clean Eating Thai Lime Chicken

Print recipe

• Print with main photo
• Print text only

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted dry roast peanuts
• 1.5 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1.5 teaspoons ginger
• .75lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 lime

Directions

Step 1

Preheat over to 375.

Step 2

In a blender or food processor, grind peanuts until fine.

Step 3

Combine peanuts, garlic powder and ginger in a small bowl.

Step 4

Place chicken on a cookie sheet and squeeze juice from lime all over chicken.

Step 5

Roll chicken in peanut mixture until well coated.

Step 6

Bake chicken in oven for 25 minutes or until no longer pink in center.

I’m linking up with Sparkly & Sweet & Let’s Get Bananas for a blog sale! You can visit lots of bloggers with their items for sale for a great deal. Shop below and then click on over here to join in on the fun and have a little retail therapy. Come on, you’ve earned it–it’s Wednesday and it’s hump day!

$35 Serving Ware OBO

7.5 comfy heels, worn once. Just Fab brand. $20 OBO

Badgley Mischka sunglasses. Never worn. $90 OBO

$15 leather cross bracelet

Let me know you’re interested by leaving a comment and/or emailing savingmoneylivinglife@gmail.com. I will add on $5 via Paypal for shipping. Happy shopping!

This week, I’m doing a different cleanse recommended to me by my friend, Katie. Part of this cleanse was this yummy Southwestern Quinoa that I’ve had a few of you ask me about.

After a Derby viewing party and enjoying Cinco de Mayo, it was time to cleanse my body of all the yummy margaritas and awesome food I inhaled this weekend! Which does lead me to my next point that if you are a Birmingham local, you must sign up for the Pure Pinches 5K next year! It was a blast and there are great discounts on Pure Barre, delicious food from Pinches, and of course fun times with friends!

Here’s some of my favorite photos from the 5k:

Ahhhh, yes….so as you can see–a good time was had by all! Now, on to this recipe. I really like this recipe for something different because you serve it chilled…which makes it a great light, fresh and hearty dinner for the warmer months of spring and summer. I’m a big fan of this recipe, however, the hubs didn’t love it. I think it maybe tastes too healthy to him?

Chilled Southwestern Quinoa Salad
via Love, Laurie

Ingredients:

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
1 (15 oz.) can black beans
1 (15 oz.) can reduced sodium whole kernel corn
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 c scallions, sliced
1 c fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 large lime (2 T “Real Lime”)
1 t pepper
2 t garlic powder
1 T chili powder

Directions:

Cook quinoa as directed on package.  Once the quinoa is completely cooked, fluff the quinoa with a fork and set it aside to cool.

Drain the black beans and the corn in a colander and rinse thoroughly with cold water.  Pat dry with a paper towel, and pour the beans and corn into a large bowl.  Add chopped red bell pepper, sliced scallions, and chopped cilantro.  In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, black pepper, garlic powder, and chili powder.  Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss well.  Add the cooled quinoa to the salad and toss well, making sure that the salad is evenly coated with the dressing.  Season to taste with additional black pepper, garlic powder, or chili powder.  Refrigerate and serve cold.

This week’s grocery runs were a little wonky. I ran to the store Sunday night with the hubs really quickly to grab a few things that were on sale with no coupons in tow. We picked up the Triple Play in the deli for $9.99 which he loves! It’s 1/2 lb of cheese, 1/2 lb ham, & a 1/2 lb of turkey I believe. The best deal we got was BOGO boneless, skinless chicken breast-what a deal!!!! I hope Publix keeps bringing that deal back over and over again!

The main reason I went to Publix though was to load up on Wholly Guacamole while it was BOGO and there’s a printable coupon out for it and for Transocean imitation crab which was also BOGO and both were sold out…dang it!!

So…I journeyed back to Publix to stock up on Wholly Guacamole, the crab and some more fruits/veggies and items to make Southwestern Quinoa and a few other cleanse-friendly foods and spent another $20 something dollars on that stuff. My only coupons this week were the mentioned guac coups and 1 coupon for $.50/1 crab which made for a decent deal when doubled.

Next week is going to have to be a slim grocery budget week as I definitely went over this week…both trips totaled to a little over $60.

I made a delicious Srirachi Lime Salmon for dinner this week (recipe coming soon) and had some leftover lime & cilantro that I wasn’t sure what to do with. So, of course, I started searching Pinterest. I stumbled upon this recipe from Skinny Taste and hopped to the kitchen to get started. I used brown rice though to keep it clean! I paired this rice dish with Holy Yum Chicken which was also a new Pinterest find for me. I really liked it together because the rice soaked up some of the sauce from the chicken adding even more so to the flavor!

Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 3 Tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

Directions:

• Cook rice as directed.
• In a medium bowl, combine chopped cilantro, lime juice, and rice – toss until completely mixed. Season through with salt & pepper as necessary.