Chicken Alfredo Dinner

Chicken alfredo served on one of the kids IKEA plates.

To help out from time to time I will prepare a meal for our family. It is a job I should take on more often but then we'd be eating chicken and rice all the time.

I decided to make a simple pasta dish for the four of us as my most recent contribution.

Ingredients used:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 green onion
• Alfredo sauce mix or from a jar
• Skim milk
• Olive oil
• Pasta noodles

Preparation:

Scissors made quick work of the onions.

The chicken was slightly frozen which I find easier for chopping despite the cold hands. I cut them into small pieces in the hopes that they might go unnoticed by my youngest daughter who takes the prize when it comes to being a picky-eater. (She comes by it naturally.)

Follow the instructions on your pasta noodles and start boiling the water. We used penne instead of fettuccine noodles since it is easier for the girls to pick up on their forks.

Tomatoes and green onions

Add some olive oil to a skillet or frying pan and cook the cubed chicken on medium heat. While the chicken is going it is time to start cutting up the vegetables. I used kitchen scissors to cut up the onions and a paring knife to dice up the tomatoes. Place in a container while you wait for the chicken to finish up.

Once the chicken is no longer pink I added the veggies into the frying pan to help soften them up. Turn down the heat at this point.

The result of not stirring.

Now it is time to start the sauce. It is very important that you follow the instructions on the packaging. I didn't faithfully stir it continually and had to scrub the pot for close to an hour afterwards to get it clean.

Once the sauce is done, the pasta has been drained and rinsed, you're ready to mix it all together and share with your family.

What I found was that I should have used less chicken, even though that goes against my general thinking. I enjoyed the meal as well as my wife, the kids weren't as enthused. It did little to impress my picky-eater, she was happy to have her noodles plain.

Does anyone have a suggestion to improve my pasta dish?

Send me a tweet @steveccoleman

Other photos:

The house smelt great while cooking.

Multitasking on the cook-top. Notice I'm not stirring.

My Online Marketing Resources - Twitter

A coworker's daughter recently started a new job in online marketing. Some of our responsibilities overlapped so I decided that I would share some of the online resources that I occasionally use for ideas and inspiration. I'm going to break it out into sections based on the medium the information comes from to help keep it organized.

Twitter Resources I Follow

You don't need Twitter to visit these resources but it doesn't hurt. Make sure others at work understand that you're on there for business reasons and not reading about celebrity gossip.

Webdesign @codrops Marketing Automation @Eloqua @marketo

Online Marketing @b2bsalesandmrkt @EmailDirect @BtoBSocialMedia @KISSmetrics @EmailonAcid

When setting up your Twitter account or editing your existing one, it helps to mention your interest in online marketing in your description. That way others can see your shared interest and potentially follow you as well.

Who else is a great resource on Twitter for Online Marketing information?

For all that money just lying around

I had previously written about how I'm saving money in the short term by shaving my head in the new year. But I am also thinking about how I can save some money in the long term as well, one of those ways is making additional payments to the principle of my mortgage. It is really scary how much money we're all paying in interest charges to own our homes, so anything we can do to reduce that amount of interest is welcome advice.

Here is an example. Let say the mortgage is $250,000 and the interest rate is at 5% on a 25 year term. Your monthly payment towards the principal and interest is around $1462. Over the life of the mortgage, you'll be paying $188,443 in interest. Yikes!!!

Now here is the awesome part, if you make just one additional payment of $1462 at the beginning of each year you have the mortgage, you will save yourself $29,590.26 in interest charges. Plus you'll have it all paid off over 3 years earlier.

Alternatively if you make a monthly payment of $122 ($1462/12), you can save $30,021.21 and have it paid off 3 and a half years earlier.

Note: I do not work for a bank nor do I have a degree in accounting, I just know how to do math and fill out a spreadsheet.
Another thing to keep in mind that some banks might charge you for making extra payments and that there is usually a limit of how much you can pay straight to the principal. But I am willing to bet that even if you have to pay a bank fee, that you'll be saving thousands of dollars in the long term.

Don't believe me. Let your numbers and the math do the talking!!

"Cutting" back on spending

In a moment of cheapness, I drove out of the hair salon parking lot refusing to pay $30 dollars for a haircut. Instead I make a short journey and found myself in the men's hair care product aisle in Wal-Mart.

For the same price as the haircut I purchased a hair-clipper set and after setting myself up in the garage I proceeded to shave my head. It felt like such a victory; I was still out $30, but it was on my terms.

I share this memory as it relates to one of my New Year’s resolutions - to save and make some extra money in 2012. If a hair cut costs between $25-30 dollars and I get one every two months, that adds up to saving $150-180 dollars on the haircuts alone.

There are also the residual savings as well. I won't be needing to purchase any hair products like gel or hair spray. My usage of shampoo and conditioner will been reduced so we won't be replacing those items as quickly.

Plus the best part, since I'm Canadian, it works like Velcro and helps keep my winter hat on.

What are your new year’s resolutions?
Have you done anything strange to save a few dollars?

The Facebook Break-up

It has been a few weeks since I decided to deactivate my Facebook account and I don’t find myself missing it all too much. Or at least I don’t know what I am missing and I am OK with that. I wondered how I would react to deactivating the account having read articles about the addictive nature of the social media site. The only behavioral thing I observed was that my use had become habitual. We had the Facebook app on the iPod Touch, and each morning as I was making breakfast I would see what was new with people. Or if I had posted something the night before, I would see if anyone had responded to it. I remember feeling let down if I didn’t receive any recognition via a ‘Like’ or a comment. This is sad that I was using the site as some form of validation for who I was. That is exactly why I felt the need to break-up with Facebook. I just have to be careful not to repeat the same sins on this Blog.

Some interesting InfoGraphics:

Are We Too Obsessed With Facebook?

Facebook versus Twitter

Television Options in the Digital Age

A while back I wrote about my homemade television antenna and how I had given up on it. Well it has made a comeback. Across Canada recently, television signals switched from analog to digital to free up bandwidth across the airwaves. When that happened, the local station that used to come in slightly snowy stopped coming in at all.

I initially tried the store bought antenna that was supposed to be able to pick up the new digital signals with no luck. Then I decided to try the homemade antenna (pictured to the right) and was happily surprised when it worked like a charm. The local channel come in with 95% signal strength much better than it did when the signal was analog. Plus I was able to get another channel come in crystal clear which was TVO. (Which by the way has some pretty cool programming, check it out.)

This inexpensive solution helps support our decision a long time ago to cut the cord on our cable service. Of late a lot of people I know have also cut the cord on their traditional television subscription. Often the argument is "Why am I paying for all these channels that I don't even watch?"

Now with more TV programming services showing up on the internet and television sets becoming smarter and able to able to access that content, I am not surprised by the trends we're all seeing. This infographic at http://dailyinfographic.com/cutting-the-cable illustrates what I'm talking about.

Personally, I am waiting until Netflix offers Canadians more current programming but the price point is exactly the amount I want to pay. Plus I just learned that I can now get AirMiles through that service. I would need to upgrade some hardware to connect the internet to my TV, but I never find that task a hardship. (This is what I would buy.)

Until then I will continue to enjoy my two channels; CKCO and TVO. You won't hear me complaining about how much I've spent since it was very minimal and it was a one time expense.

How do current Netflix users find the service? What will the cable and satellite TV companies have to do to compete with online services? Do you want instructions on how to make your own antenna?

Three reasons why I deleted my Facebook account

I have done what might be considered social media suicide; I have deactivated my Facebook account. If you're looking for the steps to delete your account, this isn't the place to find answers. Instead I want to list the three main reasons why I decided to part ways with the popular site. Please leave me a comment if you can relate or think I'm out to lunch.

Why I deleted my Facebook account?

1. What I don't know can't hurt me - Too many times I would come across a posting from someone I knew that makes mention of some event or upcoming opportunity that I was not included in or not even considered as a participant. It left me feeling depressed and sad and that isn't how I like to feel. So I figure ignorance will be bliss.
   
   
2. Active versus Passive - I don't want to just be reading about what others are doing, I want to be a part of it. Participation is much more satisfying and it actually nurtures the relationship. It isn't always possible but it is a better option. Plus when I feel the need to share something, I want a response. I don't need someone to 'Like' a post on Facebook, I'd rather have someone ask me a follow up question or have actually been there as well.
   
   
3. Setting a good example - I don't want my two kids to see their dad sitting at the computer reading about his friends and family. I want them to see how relationships get strengthened by actually being face to face with someone. I don't want them to feel the need to be plugged into a social network. I don't want the stories of how I used to get together with friends by actually picking up the phone and planning something to sound foreign to them.

Are these the only reasons, maybe, maybe not. They are the first three I thought of. We'll see if there is any fallout from this. I suspect not. I hope that no one takes my actions personally. I am simply cancelling an online service, not cancelling any friendships.

Besides, I am going to try and increase the frequency of this blog if someone wants to read about me online. There is always Twitter, a service I actually prefer to Facebook. But best of all, if anyone wants to get a hold of me, give me a phone call or show up at my doorstep. I will never turn you away and you'll always be greeted with a smile.

Has anyone else made the same choice? Or has someone else quit Facebook and regretted it? Let me know.