Here’s a budget friendly recipe for a roast beef with winter vegetables. Recipe serves 3-4 people. Total cost = $18

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. eye of round roast, antibiotic and hormone free
- 1 organic beet
- 1 organic sweet potato
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 tsp.
- 1/2 cup red wine (I used a favorite Pinot noir)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp cornstarch

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Rub roast with thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, and 2 tbsp olive oil well. Place in the bottom of a baking dish. I line mine with foil for easy cleanup

3. Cube beet and sweet potato into bite sized pieces. Toss with 2 tsp olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put in baking dish around the roast.

4. Pour wine evenly in pan.

5. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Average of 20 minutes per pound for medium well.

6. When finished baking, place meat on cutting board and let rest for 15-20 minutes.

7. For gravy: Pour drippings into small saucepan and whisk with cornstarch. Let boil for 1 minutes until thick and coats the back of a spoon.

8. Serve and enjoy!

Whoever said you couldn’t decorate an entire living room to look more expensive than it is has clearly never been to IKEA.  IKEA is a swedish-based home furnishing store that has taken the US by storm over the last 10 years.  It’s known for it’s affordable, DIY, and space saving pieces that are fairly high quality I think, in my opinion.  

Pictured above is my very own living room. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve picked up as an avid IKEA shopper that can help you conquer this massive store.

First, peruse the website.  I will warn that not everything available on the store is available online, and vice versa.  But it’s good to familiarize with what’s available and make yourself a list so you are not overwhelmed.  The website also has a “check store inventory” widget that is fairly accurate.  

Next, upon arriving at the store, grab a map.  This will help you navigate all the sections in the winding warehouse.  On the back of the map is space for you to write down all the items you want.  You’ll need to use that later to pick them up in the self-service area.

Finally, at the end of your shopping trip, check out the “As-Is” area.  Here, you’ll find a treasure trove of returned, or lightly damaged items, or floor samples.  You can save up to 80% in some cases – all it takes is a little bit of time to hunker through.

When putting together your IKEA bought furniture, make sure to read the directions first.  Mainly because everything is in pictures – you want to make sure you really understand the steps before doing.  Learn from my mistakes – there were many times I put chairs together backwards or had to start over because I missed a step.

And with that – here’s my living room cost = $404.90

• KIVIK sofa from the “As-Is” section $260 + Blekinge White sofa cover $49 = $309 (reg $449)
• LACK coffee table in black-brown $19.99
• LACK side table in black-brown $9.99
• ORGEL table lamp $9.99
• HOLMO floor lamp $9.99 x2 (not pictured)
• GRANAT cushion in black and red $3.99 x4
• GISLEV rug in red $19.99 

Fresh is always better.  And I don’t mean one of those brown ones at the grocery store.  The best place to find one is at your nearest international food market.  You want to find one that is green or what – often it’s had the shell already removed.   Give it a good shake and sniff.  Medium amount of water and just a slight whiff of coconut scent is what will yield just ripe enough fruit and slightly sweet coconut water.

You can cook anything using coconuts.  Really, no joke.  Any dish can have a coconut ingredient to it.  You can replace milk with coconut milk.  You can replace water with coconut water.  You can replace oil with coconut oil.  And the benefit?  Chances are, most of the time it’s a little bit better for you.  Less fat, no added sugars, and it adds a whole new dimension of flavor to your recipes.

Coconut water is a-mah-zing. I drink it on a daily basis – probably about 1-2 glasses a day.  I would be lying if I said it  was inexpensive – but I have found that the added electrolytes and sweetness in the water have changed my life.  I don’t crave sweets like I normally would after a splurge meal.  I also have this unexplained energy coming from somewhere.  I would guess these are the electrolytes working their magic.  Here’s a decent article talking about the health benefits.

I would encourage you to try coconuts if you haven’t yet.  And if you have, try something new with coconuts.  And if you just don’t like them at all – at least you can watch this video and appreciate what coconuts have given to our society.

One place that I like to look for off the beat savings is a fashion and beauty blog called Refinery29.  This site is broken down by metropolitan area and allows you to subscribe to each, or the online version.  I personally subscribe to a couple of the cities that I frequent so I can see trends across the US.  Here’s your fair warning: not everything on this blog is truly affordable for the normal person, but there are plenty of style ideas and lists of places of where to find them that fit any point on the money spectrum.

Finding colorful apparel and accessories can also be as easy as hitting your local shopping mall.  Forever21 and Old Navy offer great bargains on current trends.  I bought these colored skinny jeans on sale the other week for only $19.  I also purchased this great sun dress for a mere $13.

The best part about finding deals like this? Knowing that I did not spend a fortune on them, so parting with them after the season is over does not cause any heartache.

What most people don’t realize is that socially connected brands want you to talk to them. They want you to tell the work about your likes and dislikes. Research shows that 85% of marketers believe that consumer insight is a top reason to be socially active. Businesses both large and small are monitoring their industries and brand to find their brand advocates (both positive and negative). By using the feedback they receive in social media, they are able to make improvements to their business and learn how to crisis manage in a faster timeframe. They can also use the information to solicit their fans to help create buzz around product launches and other events.

How do I get noticed by these companies? Start talking about them! For me, it’s easiest to do @mention shout outs and use hash tags on Twitter. See my two examples below:

Facebook is a little more difficult to get the attention of a company when you just post a status message. To really get the attention, comment on the fan page or checkin through Facebook Places. One local place that does this well is Junebug’s Cupcakes. I recently posted a brief review of some cupcake bakeries in Dayton and my sister shared my blog post on their wall. My blog post probably sent a good amount of traffic over to their website and by sharing, we let them know that we like their food. In return, I get some referrals back from fans on their page and an increased chance that next time I visit their bakery, they might recognize me which may result in some fantastic cupcake deals.

The important thing to remember is not every company will respond to your shout outs – and that’s okay. I would never encourage anyone to start talking about certain brands just because they give freebies. I would encourage others to talk about or endorse certain brands because of their responses on social media. I think that shows that a company understands its audience and really listens to them. It allows customer service to be at a whole new personal level. And in the end – isn’t that what we all really want – to be known as a face with a name and not just a number?

I have an unhealthy obsession with cupcakes.  Not that I necessarily eat them all the time, but if I had to choose one cake-like dessert, the cupcake would be it.  I also have a strange fascination with all foods that are miniature and abnormally large – and cupcakes can fall into either of those categories.  I have been on the hunt for the best cupcakery in town and will offer you in this post my honest less than 20 word review on each that I have been to.

Grocery/Specialty Food Stores

• Dorothy Lane Market – Home of the baby cakes.  Moist cake with rich icing.  Not a huge selection of flavors to choose from.
• Walmart/Sam’s Club – Same company.  Buy in bulk or not.  Best whipped icing in town.  Great value for your money.
• Kroger – If you need last minute cupcakes, go here.  Features mass-produced two-bite cupcakes.  Small selection at Marketplace or FreshFare locations.

Cake Bakeries

• ele Cake Company – The obvious choice for South Dayton residents.  Delicious desserts in a fancy cafe setting. 
• The Cakery –  Classic cakes and cupcakes.  Great service.  Decent selection and pricing.

Cupcakeries

• Gigi’s Cupcakes – A cupcake variety lover’s paradise.  Creative and out-of-the-box decor on top, unthinkable flavor creations on the bottom.
• Cake, Hope, & Love – The Social bakery.  Great for tech nerds.  Simple cupcake recipes but made with love.
• Frost Cupcake Bar – Best themed cupcakes.  Great for the icing lover.  Also provides custom iced cupcakes daily.
• Junebug’s Cupcakes – Best fun cupcakes in a variety of sizes.  All you need = Girl’s Night Out cupcake (on Fridays).

A couple other cupcakeries that I would like to mention are Sprinkles and Crumbs Bake Shop.  Both have locations across the US.  

What other yummy places have you tried out there?

Tip #1: Clean your closet.  What makes for a good shopping experience is that you don’t come home with 5 t-shirts similar to what you already own.  Get rid of items you haven’t touched for the last 12 months.  Take note of what items you might be missing or need an update.

Tip #2:  Do your homework.  Check store’s online web sites before hitting the store to get a better idea of some of the sales you may see and some key items that you may want to purchase.  Keep in mind that a good chunk of what will be deeply discounted will not be shown online.

Tip#3: Start in the back of the store.  This is where you’ll find all of the major sales and clearances.  Stores tend to put the new items in the front, so upon entering, just beeline it to the back unless you have good willpower to keep from picking up the newer items.

Tip #4: Take a break every now and then.  It will you from getting worn out with all the holiday crowds and bargain hunting.  This is probably the best tip to tackle an all day (or all weekend, anyone?) shopping extravaganza.

Tip #5: Have fun! Shopping should be a FUN experience and not something you dread to get done.  It does take time to work your way through each store and each rack, but if you go with a strategy in mind, you will no doubt come out a winner!

I encourage everyone to try this recipe and I know I’ll try it again – perhaps with a bit of a variation for Christmastime.

Thanks to KraftFoods for a wonderful dessert!

I want to share with you our presentation from today and see if you’ve got any other helpful tools to add to our list, or to hear about your experiences with these tools.  And as always, I’m happy to help if you’ve got any questions!

 I don’t care about social, so why should I learn about the tools?  For starters, social media is about more than just logging into Facebook or Twitter and checking out what your friends have to say.  For the individual, social is about helping you find new interests through your peers and reconnecting with old friends.  For the business owner, it’s about discovering new insights about your customers and ways in which you can provide the best service to them.

One tool that I would like to share ahead of the meeting is called TweetChat.  This site allows Twitter users to track and follow hashtags.  By following a hashtag, you can see all the activity produced by a particular event.  Tweetchat lets you respond and contribute to the conversation in an easier way than using Twitter.com.

I would encourage all of you to follow along next Friday (11/11) at 9:30am to the #NMDayton meeting and see what other tools we are going to share, and if you can stop by the meeting, we’d love to meet you!