Hi, guys! Happy Saturday!
After sleeping in this morning, Mal and I headed to Starbucks. We were out of iced coffee, which was, of course, no way to start our day, so we threw on some sneakers and headed straight there””no need to change out of our sweatpants!
Of course, Murphy wanted to come along for the ride. He didn’t bother with “real” pants either.
While Mal and Murphy waited in the car, I went inside to buy us a couple of coffees. I considered getting a Hazelnut Macchiato, but opted for just a regular iced latte since I was planning a sugary breakfast later on. Next time though”” the Hazelnut Macchiato looks so delicious! Has anyone tried it yet?
I ordered Mal a sweetened iced coffee, and I went with a decaf iced latte.
Back at home, Mal offered to take Murphy for a walk while I made us breakfast. But, first, we needed to “wrangle” the pug.
Almost every day, either Mal or I play the “pug wrangle” game with Murphy, which basically involves us chasing him around the house with his harness. Murphy obviously thinks it’s a hilarious game because he runs away from us until we manage to corner him and “wrangle” him with his harness, so then we can go outside.
Murphy’s little game sometimes gets annoying, but it’s mostly fun. He really loves it when we chase him.
Breakfast
Once Mal and Murphy headed outside for a walk, I started making breakfast, which was suppose to be Carrot Cake Soufflé Pancakes (I got the recipe from Twin Farms), but, sadly, I failed miserably at cooking them. The recipe called for all-purpose flour, but I used almond flour instead, which was a terrible decision. My pancakes weren’t at all light and fluffy like the ones we ate last weekend. Whomp whomp.
The executive chef at Twin Farms said I could share his recipe on CNC, so I’ll post it for you guys this afternoon. Tip: Don’t sub almond flour for the all-purpose flour. Bad idea.
After multiple failed attempts at pancakes, I eventually poured the remaining batter into a baking dish and cooked it in the oven for about 35 minutes. I didn’t want to waste the ingredients, but I also wasn’t having any luck with the pancakes, so this ended up being a great solution. The batter firmed right up, so now we have a Carrot Cake Soufflé Bake for breakfast tomorrow morning. Sweet!
Even though the pancakes didn’t look pretty, they tasted really good, and I ended up eating multiple servings with maple syrup.
When Mal realized our pancake breakfast wasn’t going to happen, he made himself a couple of egg sandwiches instead, which he ate with a pug close by on his lap.
I love Murphy’s face in the photo below. We should have a caption contest for this one! Haha!
While we ate breakfast, the mail was delivered.
My mom sent us a St. Patty’s Day card”¦
And a copy of Taste of Home arrived.
Guess who is in this month’s issue!?!
Taste of Home did a short Q&A with me. So cool!
The intro before my interview described Murphy as “part pug, part food vacuum.” Haha!
In the mail, I also stumbled upon a few flyers for sales on refrigerators.
For the past several months, our fridge hasn’t worked properly. We’ve had a repairman come out two different times now to fix it, but the freezer keeps backing up and leaking water into the refrigerator. It’s super annoying and costs us $200 every time we have someone come out to fix it, so we decided to look at some refrigerators today.
Lowe’s was having some pretty good sales, so we headed there first.
I immediately fell in love with a French door refrigerator. I love how they look, and it makes seeing everything inside so much easier. I’ll have to do some research to see if these French door setups can be outfitted with refrigerator filters. I know we could have saved money and bought a regular fridge, but I just really wanted a fancy one. (Thankfully, Mal was on board with this idea too!)
Lowe’s was offering 10% off all major appliances over $399 and we have a Lowe’s credit card, which saves us an additional 5% off our purchases, so we just bit the bullet and bought a new fridge.
Mal and I usually do a ton of research before making such a big purchase, but we totally didn’t today. (Who are we!?!) I think we ended up getting a good deal in the end, and I’m happy with our purchase, but, whoa, definitely wasn’t planning to buy a new fridge today. But, hey, now we have a new fridge that doesn’t leak!
Since we were on a little bit of a spending spree already, Mal suggested that I finally buy my new iPhone. I’ve been putting it off for a few of months now, so Mal pushed me to get it. (I did my research and made up my mind and all that, I just needed a little encouragement to finally pull the trigger.)
The iPhone 5 is amazing! It’s SO FAST! And light! And pretty! Ha! I love it already.
Question of the Day
Do you consider yourself an impulse shopper?
Have you ever made a major purchase on a whim? What’d you buy?
89 Comments
I impulse shop on food and smaller purchase but spending money normally makes me feel a bit nauseas! My husband researches EVERYTHING before we buy…I doubt it would ever happen in our house…unfortunately. I think impulse buys are sometimes your best purchases!
With big purchases, I am not an impulse buyer. I will do research for weeks before making a decision. With smaller stuff, I am all over the place.
I am about to make some major appliance purchases so I may have to check out Lowes and see if it compares with some deals I get through my employer. Thanks for the tip!
The Kidless Kronicles
I really don’t buy things like that myself, I usually think a bit. But if I’m with my husband, we end up getting excited and many times left the store with a big OOPS
always on impulse!! Last one was a new Louis V! You only live once! Nice fridge by the way!! 🙂
Hi Tina,
I’m a big fan of your blog, both your posts and your recipes. My husband and I have a boxer, and she does the same thing with the harness. She immediately runs away, too funny. In the pic, you are standing in front of Burton’s grill, must be the Hingham one. I work at the one in North Andover. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
I tried the Hazelnut Macchiato, it was great! Very similar to the caramel verson but the Hazelnut syrup has a really nice nutty almost smokey flavor. You should give it a try! 🙂
Hi Tina – I’ve tried the hazelnut maachiato with skim milk twice already! I’m addicted. I love hazelnut flavor and there’s enough flavor in there so you know it’s hazelnut but not enough to overpower. I highly recommend it!
Congrats on the feature in Taste of Home!! very cool.
That is really funny! We did the same thing too! My husband saw the sale and we reprioritized some house projects and bought a new fridge! We missed out on the giftcard from Lowes, because we saw that the night we made the decision to purchase a fridge, but we still got a great deal.
The Hazelnut Macchiato is yummy but I still prefer the Caramel! Still worth a try though!
I have been wanting to try the hazlenut macchiato! Congrats on the new fridge! I want one of those so much! They seem way more roomy. I always plan on buying things. If i was an impulse buyer, i would be so broke 24/7
Looks like we have the same phone with the same color cover. I don’t know if my phone was an impulse buy or not. My Android was about to kick the bucket, so we headed for the Verizon store and I looked at the Galaxy 3 and iPhone 5 and walked out with the iPhone. Love it.
I tried the hazelnut macchiato (double tall nonfat) and honestly, I could not taste the hazelnut. I don’t know if it was because I asked for a double or because they were light handed on the hazelnut so I was disappointed.
I do some research on items but if it’s a big household item I leave it to my husband. BUT, if it’s vacations I do all the planning, researching, and booking.
We just bought a new oven, microwave and dishwasher. We had been talking about it for a while (ours are from 1989 and we bought the house over a year ago so it was on our ‘to do’ list from day 1). I saw great sale at Best Buy (of all places) then heard that Sears will match competitor prices and take 10% off the difference. We ended up saving several hundred dollars on the entire purchase!! Just to give you an example, we got our Whirlpool SS Dishwasher for $400 and the regular price is $599 – $674!!! 🙂 Enjoy the new fridge!
My condo was an impluse buy of sorts. I had verbally committed to renting a one bedroom on a Thursday. Then saw a listing for a condo in the same neighborhood, after some quick number crunching I determined that my mortage wouldn’t be much more than the rent I had just committed to paying. I called the realtor to see the place, fell in love and by Sunday my offer was accepted.
Congrats on the new fridge! You are going to LOVE the french doors. Soooo much room!!! I bought mine a year ago and still get excited everytime I walk into the kitchen and see it. Who knew a fridge could bring so much happiness?
Haha! I hear ya! I can’t wait for our new fridge to be delivered! I know it’s going to make me happy every time I see it! 🙂
Back in 2010, I bit the bullet and traded up my cute but problem prone Jetta for a brand new Hyundai Elantra. I knew that would be the replacement but I didn’t expect it to happen as fast as it did. I didn’t shop around because I had taken my Jetta in for work to the tune of $3000! Well, f that! Poor Jetta wasn’t all that safe to drive so my Dad followed me to a dealership I had talked to about an Elantra I had my eye on. 2+ hours later I drove off the lot with my brand new, reliable Elantra. I love it so much and I’m really happy I didn’t stress over buying it because I know me, and I know in most cases I would have been super stressed!
I am not an impulse buyer when it comes to big purchases. Clothing on the other hand…lol
The Hazelnut Macchiato is really good. The only difference between that and a Caramel one is the drizzle on the top. Everything else is the same….I only know this because I asked my poor barista to explain the whole drink to me. 😉
We have that same fridge and I absolutely love it! Room for EVERYTHING and the adjustable shelves are the bomb, especially when you have a bunch of people coming over that you have to cook for! And I’m totally an impulse shopper. My hubs is a planner so we tend to even each other out, though he’s been fairly impulsive lately! We just got a new grill and I had to talk him into spending more than $200 – I told him I planned on about $400, which is what we ended up spending in the end, but it will last MUCH longer than the cheaper one!
Hi Tina!
I thought the same about the hazelnut macchiato..that it sounded so so good! finally tried it last week, and was sadly SO disappointed. I got it sugar-free with soy, with the hazelnut and the taste of hazelnut was barely there. It more just tasted kinda like vanilla with a hint and in that case, I should’ve just gone with the sugar-free hazelnut latte, for that good nutty taste. If you end up giving it a shot, I’d love to hear what you thought!
You and Mal sound so much like my husband and I when it comes to making big purchases and decision-making. And, Murphy looks so much like our little 4 pound fur-baby when we’re eating in front of her. Except, she can’t sit still. She does these adorable twirls in the air that steal my heart and make it really, really hard for me to resist giving her a bite. Somehow, I muster up every last ounce of cuteness-repellant in me (and there’s not a lot) and resist, but it’s hard. 😉 Hehe.
We went to Home Depot the weekend before Thanksgiving 1 1/2 years ago to look for a piece to do a bed repair…they did not have what we were needing but left the store with an entire kitchen package. No we are not ever impulse shoppers and were not even in the market for appliances but they were having super package deals as a pre Black Friday type of sale. My husband was the one who stopped to look at the refrigerators and that is how it got started. We have the french door style too except we have 2 freezer drawers.
Tina,
What was wrong with your freezer. Mine is doing the eact same thing?
It backs up and leaks into the refrigerator, so everything gets soaking wet.
Ooh! A Lake Monsters sweatshirt! Hehe I’m from Vermont 🙂