35+ Pie Recipes Perfect For The Holidays

Justin loves pie. If you had to ask him what some of my biggest short comings were, I am guessing he would mention my lack of pie making abilities. (Not sure what that implies about our marriage...)

With the holiday season upon us, Justin's pie obsession has gone from bad to worse. So to compensate for my lack of pie recipes, I have put together for you a collection of some of the most mouth watering pies from my blogging friends just in time to plan your holiday meals.

Many of these photos are not mine but I have rounded them up for you to enjoy. If you want to pin an individual recipe or specific photo please click through to the original post and share from there. If you want to pin this post and the entire collection just pin the collage above!

Looking for even more pie recipes? Check out my Pie In The Sky Pinterest board! 

More Holiday Meal Inspiration:

40+ Pumpkin Dessert Recipes

15 Breads & Muffins That Are Perfect For Fall

Happy 25th Birthday Energizer Bunny! {Energizer Batteries .37 Cents A Pack @ Walmart With Coupon & $10 Rebate}

 I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.

  

Growing up birthdays meant two things: presents and cake. Even as an adult, it's not my birthday until I have unwrapped something and eaten a piece of sugary goodness. So it only makes sense that the Energizer Bunny would need cake and presents to celebrate his 25th birthday too.

So what do you get a hot pink, drum banging, sunglasses wearing bunny? Don't worry! He is actually the one giving out presents. To celebrate his birthday, Energizer is running a promotion where whey you buy two packs of specially marked batteries at Walmart you can apply for a $10 Walmart Gift Card rebate. And if that wasn't enough of a deal, right now there are some great coupons that mean you can get a pack of select Energizer batteries for as low as .37 cents a pack after coupons and the gift card promotion.

Here's how:

• Buy two packages of specially marked AA or AAA 8ct. Energizer batteries at Walmart for $6.37 each
• Used two $1 off printable coupons (look under the household category)
• Pay $10.74 at the store
• Submit for the $10 Walmart Gift Card rebate
• Final price for two packages: .74 cents or .37 cents per package!

With the holidays coming up, I know that all of us could use some extra batteries around. Between holiday decorations, kitchen appliances (holidays = excessive baking), and presents, I have a feeling I will go through both packages and more. There are many different batteries included in the promo so depending on what you need you can adjust your purchases accordingly.

 

If nothing else, you need to make sure that you have batteries on hand for all those gifts that say "batteries not included". There was nothing worse as a child then getting an awesome gift only to realize that you had to wait to play with it until your mom could run to the store and get batteries. So take advantage of this deal and avoid sad Christmas faces this year.

Now that I have covered the Energizer Bunny's present, it's time for some cake. And what better way to celebrate 25 years then with these adorable Birthday Bunny Cake Bites. They are based off of my Homemade Peep Cakes I made this Easter. I followed the same directions except these got a little something extra with hot pink food coloring and sparkly sunglasses.

Thanks to Energizer and Walmart, you can earn up to four $10 Walmart Gift Cards.  I’ll be heading back for more batteries for sure in the next few weeks so I can do the deal at least one more time.  I don't know about you but during this time of year we could definitely use those gift cards to put towards Christmas presents or food for our holiday parties and events.

What will you use your $10 Walmart Gift Card from the Energizer Max rebate for?

Couponing 101: Where To Find Coupons

 

Don't miss the first post of this series: Five Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Start Couponing

I would have to say that the one question I get asked in grocery store check out lines the most is, "Where do you get all those coupons?" And the answer is technically simple: from the newspaper, online and in stores. Of course, when you break it down it is not so simple so today I am going to try and clarify what those places for coupons really mean. 

Newspapers

The Sunday paper is where most people start their search for coupons. Some weekends are better than others so before you run out and buy ten copies of the paper you should always check and see what will be featured that weekend. Sunday Coupon Preview is a great website to check to see what will be in your paper each weekend.

There are three main kinds of newspaper coupon inserts.

• Red Plum: 
• often abbreviated as RP
• usually one a week
• contains a wide variety of manufacturer coupons and occasionally store coupons too
• Smart Source: 
• often abbreviated as SS
• usually one a week
• contains a wide variety of manufacturer coupons and occasionally store coupons too
• Proctor & Gamble: 
• often abbreviated as P&G
• one a month, usually the first or last Sunday of the month
• contains all manufacturer coupons for Proctor & Gamble brands (think Crest, Charmin, Bounty, Pampers and many more)

Occasionally there will be an insert from General Mills or a second Red Plum or Smart Source. When coupon bloggers write about where they got coupons they will usually reference the newspaper insert by abbreviation and date. For example a coupon from the 11/3 SS would be from the Smart Source insert on November 3rd. I date all my inserts before storing them for easy reference (more on this later).

Online

Online coupons can come from a variety of places. The main ones would be printable coupon websites, Facebook and manufacturer/company websites. Here are the basics on each one.

Printable Coupon Websites

There are a few main coupon websites that each have a wide variety of printable coupons available each day. Many times their selections change daily so if you see a coupon for something you normally buy you should print it. If you wait, it may not be available later. These websites will allow you to print each coupon twice per printer. I always try to print both copies especially since I do most of my savings with BOGO’s and Publix will allow you to use a coupon for each of the items in buy one get one free.

My favorite websites to print coupons from are:

• Coupons.com 

• SmartSource.com 

• Target.com 

• CouponNetwork.com 

• RedPlum.com 

• Pillsbury.com/

Facebook and Manufacturer’s Websites

This is where you can get really high value coupons for products that you buy on a regular basis.

Many companies have great coupons available only to people who “like” their product on Facebook. Manufacturer websites also can have lots of fun coupons or even reward programs that can earn you coupons. If there are products you buy on a regular basis, you should definitely check out their website and see what they offer. If you are afraid of spam or cluttering up your inbox you can always create a free email account to use just for couponing. 

In Stores

While manufacturer coupons are much more readily available and accepted everywhere, the real deals come when you can stack a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon.

A store coupon refers to a coupon issued by a specific store such as Publix, Target or CVS. Store coupons can be found in a variety of places.

The first place to check for store coupons is in the store itself. For example, in the front of every Publix there is a round display rack. This always contains the current Green and Purple Advantage Flyers as well as any promotional coupon booklets being offered at the time.These can contains lots of high value or rarely found store coupons that can be combined with manufacturer coupons for great deals.

The second place to find store coupons is on that store’s website. Target.com has tons of printable coupons, most of which are store coupons that can be stacked with manufacturer coupons. Publix also offers digital coupons that are used by putting in your phone number at checkout. You can sign up for these and load coupons to your account on Publix's website. These are manufacturer coupons but they can still really come in handy.

New here? Just getting started couponing? Stay tuned for next week's Couponing 101 post. While you're waiting be sure to check out my Learn To Coupon page for more info on getting started and sneak a peak at my weekly shopping trips to see what I save each week and how.

What do you want to know about couponing? Comment with your questions, suggestions or post ideas!

Peppermint Bark Donuts

 These light and fluffy chocolate donuts are made from boxed muffin mix topped with white chocolate candy coating and crushed candy canes for an easy and beautiful holiday breakfast treat. It's like having peppermint bark for breakfast!

You know what drives me nuts? Frosting/glazing homemade donuts. They always look beautiful for about an hour and then the icing starts to melt or gets messed up and it ends up looking like a first grader made them (nothing against first graders...).

And don't get me started on try to store homemade donuts. You can't stack them because they icing will stick. If they are glazed and they aren't stored at exactly the right temperature the glaze turns to liquid over night and you wake up with mushy donuts in a puddle of sticky goo at the bottom of the Tupperware.

This really poses a problem for our two person household. Most homemade donut recipes make twelve so even if we both have two each that leaves us with eight donuts to save for later. Every time we make them I store them extra carefully only to wake up the next day and be disappointed.

So I decided to solve my donuts lasting more than twelve hours dilemma but skipping the icing and glaze on these Peppermint Bark Donuts and opting for a Candiquik topping that looks and tastes exactly like a white chocolate icing but dries hard and stores really well.

These baked donuts couldn't get any easier if they tried. I made them using boxed muffin mix, dipped them in melted Candiquik and then pressed the tops into crushed candy cane. Wait five minutes for the topping to dry and viola! adorably festive donuts. The crunchy top tastes just like my favorite homemade peppermint bark except on top of a light and fluffy chocolate donut instead of a bottom layer of hard chocolate.

Hopefully my mom isn't reading this far down in the post because she threatened to write me out of the will if I didn't share the leftovers with her. Apparently Justin didn't get that memo because he definitely hid one or two for himself and I am happy to report that two days later they were just as yummy and beautifully topped as they were the day I made them.

Peppermint Bark Donuts

• 1 box of double chocolate muffin mix and the ingrediants needed to make it
• 1 tray of Candiquik (or other white melting chocolate)
• Crushed candy canes

1.) Following the instructions on the box, prepare the muffin mix batter.

2.) Using a pastry bag without a tip or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off and fill a donut pan with the muffin batter.

3.) Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

4.) Melt Candiquik according to the directions on package and dip the top of each donut into the melted topping.

5.) Crush candy canes and put them on a plate. Press freshly dipped donuts into the crushed candy canes and place on a cooling rack to dry.

6.) Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

Gingerbread M&M Dessert Cheeseball

 A gingerbread twist on the traditional dessert cheeseball topped with Gingerbread M&M's makes for the perfect holiday party dessert that guests of all ages will love.

 

I grew up in the kind of neighborhood you see on tv. Everyone knew each other. We had Halloween Parades and Easter Egg Hunts. We were friends with everyone. When I was in elementary school, there were close to twenty kids on our three streets within the same age group. We use to play outside after school until Mrs. D rang her dinner bell (yes, someone really had one of those). It was childhood heaven.

Of all the traditions and annual events our neighborhood had, my favorite had to be gingerbread men decorating. On the back street, there was an amazing woman , Mrs. C, who lived in a really cool house with a kitchen I can still picture to this day. Every holiday season she would have all the kids in the neighborhood over to house for a day of cookie decorating.

I don't think she ever had any children of her own but she knew exactly what a kid would want when it came to decorating cookies. She would let us go nuts with thick, sugary, bright colored icings, dumping on chocolate chips, silver balls, and sprinkles. She had candy canes, red hots, Hershey's Kisses and M&M's. We would load those gingerbread men up with toppings until they no longer resembled anything close to a human form. They were basically reduced to a vehicle for processed sugar and food coloring but ,wow, were they good.

I don't ever remember her telling us to slow down with the frosting or to maybe not dump quite so many sprinkles on our gingerpeople. All I can remember is her packing up our creations on big white paper plates and writing our names on them with a marker so we could be sure to point out to our parents exactly which ones were ours once we carried them home across her backyard and onto our street.

I haven't ever made my own gingerbread men and I am not sure that I want to. I don't think I could ever recreate the feeling I had when I was ten years old and decorating with abandon in Mrs. C's kitchen. But I still love the taste of gingerbread so I decided to create a fun twist on my nostalgic favorite.

This Gingerbread M&M Dessert Cheeseball was inspired by one created by Will Cook For Smiles. I love how pretty the cheeseball looked all rolled in M&M's and when I stalked the holiday baking section discovered these Gingerbread M&M's at Walmart this weekend, I knew exactly what I would do with them.

I wanted to spice up (no pun intended) my basic dessert cheeseball recipe and in my continued effort to buy every limited edition flavor in Walmart I found out that Duncan Hines Frostings Creations just released a limited edition gingerbread flavor. It was like divine intervention from the holiday baking gods. I served mine with graham crackers and it was the perfect dessert for our game watch over the weekend- spicy, sweet, cream cheesy goodness interspersed with a crunch of chocolaty M&M's.

So if you don't feel like baking cookies and going for broke in the topping sections, this Gingerbread M&M Dessert Cheeseball is the perfect dessert option for your next holiday party. Or Thursday afternoon snack. I'll leave that decision up to you.

Gingerbread M&M Dessert Cheeseball

• 8oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup of butter (one stick), softened
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Gingerbread Flavor
• Gingerbread M&M's

1.) Beat together all ingredients except for the M&M's.

2.) Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for an hour.

3.) Remove from the fridge and use clean hands to shape the mixture into a ball. Roll the ball as best you can in the Gingerbread M&M's. I had to use my hands after I plated it to fill in some of the holes with more M&M's.

4.) Refrigerate for at least another hour before serving with graham crackers.

 Enjoy!

Now you can save $1 a bag on Gingerbread M&M's with the coupon below! #HolidayMM #Shop #Cbias

Looking for more dessert recipes with Holiday M&M's?

UltiMINT Christmas Candy Cookies

 

White Chocolate Peppermint M&M Sugar Cookies

 

Want even more Gingerbread recipes? Make sure to check out my Gingerbread Treats Pinterest board!

Weekly Shopping Totals Link Up: Saved 63% at Publix

 

After almost two weeks of not shopping I made it to Publix twice this week. I am really going to try and get back on my regular Thursday shopping schedule if I can. Yesterday's trip was pretty big but relatively painless which was nice.

I am loving all the deals in the Advantage Flyers right now and I grabbed a bunch of them on Monday and a few more yesterday. I have enough coupons to grab another round of most of the deals next week too.

I am excited to start seeing all of the holiday sales/deals showing up already and we will be attempting to clean out our pantry, fridge and freezer over the next coupon of weeks in an effort to make some room for my typical holiday stock up on flour, sugar, chocolate chips, baking supplies, and more.

Monday's Shopping Trip

Thanks to a gift card, I only spent $3 out of pocket on Monday so the higher than usual cost yesterday's trip didn't hurt too bad. I was looking at it all as I took a photo yesterday and I realized that had I bought meat, it almost looks like a "normal" person's weekly grocery trip. As always I used two $5/$30 Winn Dixie coupons.

Breakdown of yesterday's Publix trip:
Total retail value: $140.06
Total spent: $51.57
Total saved: $88.49
Percent saved: 63%

What I got with sale/coupon match ups:

• 3 boxes of Kashi Cereal, retails for $3.99 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• Used two $1 off printable coupons (from a man. email) available to print for some varieties HERE (use zip code 18051)
• Used a $1 off Publix digital coupon
• Made them $1.50 a box
• 1 box of Kashi Granola Bars, $3.99
• Used a Publix Ad. Flyer coupon for FREE granola bars WYB any 3 Kashi cereals
• Made them FREE
• 1 bag of baby carrots, retails for $1.79, on sale for $1.25
• 2 boxes of thirty count Emergen-C, retails for $8.99, on sale for $6.74 a box
• Used two $2.50 off Facebook coupons
• Made them $4.24 a box (more than 50% off!)
• 3 Oral-B Toothbrushes, retails for $3.49 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• Used a $2/3 coupon from the 10/27 P&G insert
• Made them $1.83 each
• 1 bag of Birdseye Recipe Ready Frozen Veggies, retails for $2.59, on sale for $1.29
• Used a .55 off Publix digital coupon
• Made it .74 cents
• 4 cans of Campbell's Homestyle Soup, retails for $2.65 each, on sale BOGO ($1.32 each)
• Used two .50 cents off coupons from the 10/13 SS
• Used one .75/2 printable coupon
• Made them .88 cents each
• 1 dozen Publix eggs, $1.69
• 2 bags of Publix shredded cheese, retails for $3.69 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• 1 bag of Publix Romaine Lettuce, retails for $3.09, on sale for $2.50
• 1 carton of Grape Tomatoes, retails for $2.60, on sale for $2.00
• 1 Yoplait Greek Yogurt, retails for $1.25
• Used a FREE product coupon from a My Blog Spark promotion
• Made it FREE
• 2 Muller Greek Yogurts, retails for $1.25 each, on sale for $1.00 each
• Used a $1/2 Publix digital coupon
• Made them .50 cents each
• 2 :Lindt Chocolate Bars, retails for $2.59 each
• Used two $2 off printables
• Made them .59 cents each
• 2 boxes of Mott's Fruit Snacks, retails for $3.09 each, on sale BOGO ($1.54 each)
• Used a .50/2 printable coupon
• Made them $1.04 a box
• 3 Philadelphia Cream Cheeses, retails for $2.75 each, on sale for $1.67 each
• Used a $1/3 Publix Grocery Ad. Flyer coupon
• Made them $1.34 each
• 2 packages of Pillsbury Ready To Bake Cookies, retails for $3.45 a package, on sale for $2.00 each
• Used a $1.50/2 printable coupon
• Made them .25 cents each
• 2 Bolthouse Farms Smoothies, retails for $2.89 each, on sale BOGO ($1.44 each)
• Used a .75 cents off Facebook coupon (limit one per person)
• Made them $1.07 each
• 4 Fage Greek Yogurts, retails for $1.39 each, on sale for $1 each
• Used a $1/4 printable coupon (use zip 30187)
• Made them .75 cents each
• 1 Pompeian OlivExtra Oil, retails for $4.99, on sale for $2.48
• Used a $1 off coupon
• made it $1.48
• 4 Ken's Dressing Marinades, retails for $2.99 each, on sale BOGO ($1.49 each)
• Used two $1/2 coupons
• Made them .99 cents each
• 1 package of Olay Face Wipes, retails for $6.99, on sale for $5.49
• Used a $3 off coupon from the 9/15 SS
• Made them $2.49

How did you do this week? Inspire me (and everyone else) with your amazing savings and deals this week. Please link up directly to your specific post. Do not link up to your blog's home page, giveaways, or etsy shops please. You can also "like" Couponing & Cooking on Facebook too! I would love it if you would link back to this post or grab my button from the sidebar : )

Saved 74% at Publix- Spent $28 for $108 Worth

 

Well it had been twelve days since we had been to the grocery store but it wasn't until we ran out of Greek yogurt on Monday that I finally forced myself back to the store on Tuesday. After a whirlwind long weekend bouncing from a wedding on the southwest coast to camping with friends in the center of the state and back again, we were ready to fill the fridge and make some homemade meals.

We actually skipped our produce share last week since we knew we wouldn't be home much last week or the whole weekend so it felt weird to grab a little bit of produce after over a month of needing next to nothing in that department.

I had a huge trip planned for yesterday but after leaving a stack of coupons on the counter my trip got cut down quite a bit. Thankfully most of the coupons were for sales in the Advantage Flyers not the weekly ad so I will be able to still do the deals tomorrow when I go for my normal weekly Thursday shopping trip.

I used two $5/$30 Winn Dixie coupons and had a $25 gift card from a blog promotion so even though yesterday's trip cost about $28 I actually spent less than $3 of our grocery cash.

New to couponing? Check out the first post in my newest series- Couponing 101: Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Start Couponing. And be sure to enter to win a $25 Publix gift card while you are here too!

Breakdown of yesterday's Publix trip:
Total retail value: $107.81
Total spent: $27.88 (before $25 gc)
Total saved: $79.99
Percent saved: 74%

What I got with sale/coupon match ups:

• 1 Dove Shampoo & 1 Dove Conditioner, retails for $3.79 each on sale for $2.99 each plus 2 Dove Styling Products for $4.79 each
• Used a coupon for free conditioner WYB a shampoo from the 10/27 SS (minus $2.99)
• Used two Publix coupons for FREE Dove Styling Produce WYB a shampoo or conditioner from the in store Publix Ad Flyer (minus $9.58)
• Used two $1.50 off man. coupons from the 9/29 RP (applied to the styling products)
• Earn a $1 ibotta deposit for the shampoo and a $1 ibotta deposit for the conditioner
• Made all four products FREE plus a $2 MONEYMAKER
•  2 Right Guard Deodorants, retails for $3.83 each
• Used two $1.50 off coupons from the 10/6 RP
• Stacked with two $1.50 off Publix coupons from the Green Ad. Flyer
• Made them .83 cents each
•  2 Lindt Chocolate Bars, retails for $2.59 each
• Used two $2 off printable coupons 
• Made them .59 cents each
• 1 half gallon Silk Almond Milk, retails for $3.35
• Used a $1 off printable coupon
• Stacked with a .75 cents off Publix Ad. Flyer coupon
• Made it $1.59
• 2 Marzetti Dressings, retails for $3.69 each, on sale BOGO ( $1.84 each)
• Used two $1 off coupons
• Made them .84 cents each
•  2 Dannon Okios Greek Yogurt Dips, retails for $3.00 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• Used a $2/2 printable coupon (zip 30003)
• Made them $1.50 each
•  2 boxes of Mott's Fruit Snacks, retails for $3.09 each on sale BOGO ($1.54 each)
• Used a .50/2 coupon
• Made them $1.29 each
•  1 half gallon of Almond Breeze Almond Milk, retails for $3.35, on sale for $2.50
• Used a .55 cents off blinkie coupon
• Made it $1.95
• 1 box of Lance Xtra Fulls Crackers, retails for $3.09 each, on sale for $2.34
• Used a $1 off Publix digital coupon
• Made them $1.34 for the package
•  2 boxes of Duncan Hines brownie mix, retails for $2.19 each
• Used two .75 cents off Publix coupons from the Green Ad. Flyer
• Stacked with two .35 cents off man. coupons
• Made them $1.09 each
•  4 Fage Greek Yogurts, retails for $1.39 each, on sale for $1 each
• Used a $1/4 printable coupon (zip 30187)
• Made them .75 cents each
•  5 Yoplait Greek Yogurts, retails for $1.25 each, on sale for $1 each
• Used a $1/5 coupon
• Made them .80 cents each
• 2 boxes of Nabisco Crackers, retails for $3.69 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• Used a $1/2 coupon from Facebook
• Made them $2.00 each
• 2 Haas Avocados, retails for $3.38 total, on sale for $2.00 total
•  2 bags of Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips, retails for $2.89 each, on sale for $2.50 each
• Used a $1.50/2 coupon from the 9/8 SS
• Made them $1.75 a bag
•  1 Frozen El Paso Dinner, retails for $7.99, on sale for $5.99
• Used a Free product coupon from My Blog Spark
• Made it FREE
•  1 tub of Fresh Attitudes Salad, retails for $3.09, on sale for $2.50
• Fuji apples, retails for $2.64, on sale for $1.63