Cats And Coupons

I read today on CNN about the largest ever beef recall in the United States. 143 million pounds of frozen beef have been ordered to be recalled by the US Department of Agriculture. The frozen beef all came from the Westland Hallmark Meat Company slaughterhouse in Southern California that mistreated the cattle. Video was taken undercover showing the abuse of downed (sick and crippled) cattle. By law, downed cattle are not to be allowed into the food supply because they have a higher risk of being contaminated by E. coli, salmonella and mad cow disease because they have weak immune systems and are unable to get out of their own waste. When cattle can no longer move around on their own the vet is supposed to be called to inspect them. As these cows were not properly inspected, they were declared not fit for human consumption. Fedeeral authorities have suspended operations at the slaughterhouse while the investigation goes on. The article includes some of the undercover video footage, which I watched part of and found so very disturbing and cruel that I had to stop it. This is the list of products in the recall of beef products from the Westland Hallmark Meat Company.

Many people know that chocolate is not safe for pets. I was explaining this to my older son today and he asked what other foods weren’t safe for pets. I promised him I’d look it up and let him know. I decided it would be good info to share with my pet loving readers.

Foods that can make your pet sick or even cause death include chocolate, coffee, tea, grapes, raisins, avocadoes, mushrooms, the leaves and stems of potatoes and tomatoes, onions, onion powder, salt, garlic, yeast dough, walnuts, macadamia nuts,  alcoholic drinks, apple seeds, apricot pits, cherry pits, peach pits, chewing gum and any candy or breath mint that contains xylitol. Pet owners should also take care not to leave foods around because food that is rotting contains molds and bacterias that is poisonous to animals.

I hope you find this helpful. I didn’t know that more than half of the list wasn’t safe for animals. Did you learn anything?

Rennie, our female cat, is feeling a bit thin for the past two weeks. It reminded us of a time when a cat we used to have had anemia. Hubby suggested I handle it now as I had then and maybe we could head off a bigger problem at the pass. So off to Petsmart I went. Our Petsmart has all of the fish stuff in the front, then you pass the dog stuff, then the bird and reptile stuff and finally in the back is the cat stuff. I didn’t remember which aisle the item I was looking for was in so I had to tour the whole cat section. If I’d needed a cat bed I would’ve found what I needed right away. But instead I went through seven aisles until I found what I needed. Cat vitamins. It was not with cat food but instead was with the cat grooming products, which I thought to be an odd place for it. From there I went to the last three aisles which have cat food. I sought out and found the wet foods with the highest levels of taurine (science diet kitten, fyi) and bought a bunch of those. Now each morning, we’re giving Rennie a bowl of her own with just that can with the vitamins mixed in. After she’s had a chance to eat that alone, we let her out of the bathroom and she can go into the other bathroom and have more wet food, or dry food if she wants it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it helps her put some weight back on.

Want to save yourself some money in 2008? Of course you do. You can, if you win the contest that Elizabeth over at Table for Five is running. The winner will save themselves some money because they’ll be the recipient of a year’s supply of Orville Redenbacher’s Natural Popcorn AND a one year subscription to Netflix. We boy a box or two of microwave popcorn every week, so this would save us a bunch of money. If you want to enter the contest just write about it and then comment on her blog. That the short versions of the instructions of course, check her site for the full set. The winner will be selected on 01/05/08. I’m in. See you there!

I was in the Stop & Shop, which I hate, as opposed to the Shop Rite that I regularly go to, recently and needed to buy some breakfast sausage. I found the area of the freezer section that I needed, which was emptying quickly because of the senior citizens panicing that it might snow. I saw there were only a couple of boxes left, so I stuck my hand in prepared to grab them all. I usually pay $1 a box at Shop Rite. These were on sale for $1.50. It wasn’t until I had actually put them in the cart that I realized they were not what I usually get. I usually get the Banquet sausages, shown on the right of the picture. Apparently Armour is now selling breakfast sausages, shown with the word NEW in the left of the picture. Do you suppose it’s by any accident that their box consists of similar coloring and layout as the Banquet? I think not. I think it’s a marketing strategy. I bet that Armour wants people to do exactly what I did. Grab it while on auto pilot and buy it. Any thoughts? For what it’s worth, I made them this morning and I thought they didn’t taste as good as the Banquet.

Want to save some money? Have you checked out my site Fun, Crafts and Recipes? It offers a free recipe every day. The recipes are mostly for food, but also occasionally include a craft or activity, or a review. Need more recipes? I have a contest going on on that site right now, and the prize is a new cookbook. And if you want to have a little fun, there’s a weekly food meme called Four Foods on Friday. Come on over! There’s something for everyone at the site because after all, everyone eats don’t they?

This suggestions comes from years of experience. Where I used to work we had numerous vending machines in the lunch room. The items in the machines were changed daily, and we had many hot and cold selections. Bagels, burgers, subs, chicken, muffins, ice cream, salad to name a few. You name it and it was probably in there. It was at that time I discovered how much items bought at Costco or Sams can be marked up. I buy trays of muffins at Costco. There are twelve huge muffins for less than $6. I have seen these same muffins selling for $1-$2 each in all sorts of places. Same thing for Cup of Noodles. I buy them for 3-4 for $1 at the grocery store. Typically these sell for $1 each. A lunchtruck comes to the building where I work now. Every once in a while I don’t have any lunch. I don’t mean that I’m taking diet pills or anything, I just mean I didn’t bring lunch with me for one reason or another that day. So the first time I bought off of the truck I was reminded again about the cheap food markup. Anyway, the point is this. If you want to save money, stop buying off the truck and bring it yourself.

My oven broke quite some time ago. It’s been many months since I was able to bake. Last week I went to the Sears part store to buy the $85 part they told me they always had in stock. They didn’t have it in stock. They told me to come back the next day, as one was expected in. I went in the next day only to be told it hadn’t come in. I called a parts store in the next town. They had the part in stock, and for $15 less. I asked my father to install it, so I didn’t spend a lot of money getting a repair man in here. He got it in and it’s working fine, which is a good thing because if he couldn’t fix it we’d need a Miracle burn to cook the dinner.

We always serve turkey on Thanksgiving. Most years I get my turkey for free from the grocery store. I do most of my grocery shopping at Shop Rite, but other grocery stores in the area offer similar promotions. Usually the offer is something like spend $150 in about a six week period and you get a small turkey or spend $300 or you get a large one. We always get the large. I’ve always spent more than enough to qualify. It works out well for me because the big birds I get easily cost $20 minimum. So if you’re looking for a way to save a little bit on Thanksgiving dinner, see if a grocery store in your area has a similar offer.

Last night I attended the NJ PTA awards dinner at the Sheraton in Atlantic City because I was receiving an award. As an award winner I did not have to pay for my meal, but my parents dinners were just under $60 each.

I get up at 4am most mornings and go to work for 6am. Yesterday the last thing I ate was a donut at about 9am. By the time I got hungry for lunch it was about 2pm and I decided not to eat because I didn’t want to ruin my appetite for the dinner. I arrived in AC and we went to the banquet hall. We were served a tiny plate of salad. One slice of rolled ham, some lettuce, two grapes, all smothered in oil. It gave the area that armpitty odor everyone loves so much.

Finally I saw trays coming out. Dinner! We were served overdone beef that was seasoned. I prefer my beef medium rare, but this was actually well done, and on the tough side. There were two pieces of asparagus. There was one scoop of mashed potatoes, which were so dry and thick that I was able to slice them with a knife.  I was still hungry, as were many of us. We’d been given rather small portions. But I had a glimmer of hope because on the way in we’d seen cheesecake on the table for the US Army, who was having an event in the next room. Out came dessert. No cheesecake for us. We were served a very heavy piece of chocolate cake. The only way I can describe it’s taste is to tell you to open any can of chocolate icing and you’ll know. When I got up to get my award, my Dad came with me to take pictures. During that time they cleared my coffee and his iced tea, glasses not to be seen again. It was a very disappointing meal. And definitely not worth what they charged for it.