First let me just say: Spring decided to visit today. Monday it was 17 degrees when I woke up. Today the high was over 60. No wonder my sinuses are all funky...

Nothing much to report from the great upstate region. I'm test-driving some open source finance programs to see if I can review one here. I've only found one so far that specifically lets you assign one entry (say a credit card payment) to multiple categories and specific dollar amount (i.e. paid $200 to Visa, $50 for groceries, $100 for electric bill, $50 for debt payment). Cool function, but the rest of that program bites so I can't recommend it. I'll find one that's nifty and get something posted in the next few days.

And now, for frugal fixin's. Lunch was leftover salad from last night's dinner. Place here has an $8 salad but it comes with about 12 oz of salad greens, currents, walnuts, bacon, sliced turkey and ham, and provolone cheese. Easily 2 meals, and pretty AOK on the healthy scale.

Tonight: grilled the chicken tenders and boneless thighs I got on sale 50% off this weekend. I always try to grill extra and keep it in the freezer, since it makes things like chicken alfredo much easier on lazy days. We had stir fry green beans (freezer shopping) and rice (from the 15 lb bag we bought 2 years ago).

And then the coup de gras (sp?): homemade rice pudding. OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS was it good!!! And super easy, so I'm going to share:

1 1/2 cup cooked rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tblsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

cook this over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until it starts to get thick and creamy. add half a cup of milk and a beaten egg and cook for another 2 minutes (mine wasn't thickening, so I cooked for 5-7 minutes rather than 2). remove from heat, stir in the butter and vanilla. add cinnamon/raisins if you like and server warm.

YUM YUM YUM! I'd have made another batch, but I ran out of milk as it is and had to use watered down half&half to finish the recipe.

No worries, though: I always make a bunch of rice when I cook it, so I've got 2 cups just waiting to become rice pudding this weekend