Canadian Mark posted this wonderful article on his blog as well as SmartCanucks’ forum. Thanks Mark!

You can visit Canadian Mark’s blog here for many interesting articles 🙂

Mark also earns 7 candies for posting a blog-worthy topic on SmartCanucks’ forum.

If you’ve been into (mostly) any major Canadian fast food establishment – or even greasy spoons for that matter, you’ll have discovered that a meal size plate of nearly anything goes for between $7 and $12 after tax.

Comparatively, a home-cooked meal worth the same amount will often provide 4 or 5 portions. What I’m suggesting here, is a good old fashioned recipe swap of frugal Canuckian cuisine – tried and true recipes from those college days, when Mr. Noodles was the main component of 90% of your recipe repertoire. You can mix up anything with those noodles, I swear.

I’m going for interestingly creative and fun here, but nonetheless practical – and certainly not limited to Mr. Noodles. Quick, cheap, inexpensive, obscure, yet gourmet recipes.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what this thread is all about. I hope.

I’ll even go first:

Andre’s End of the Month Spicy Fiesta

Ingredients:

2 packages of instant oriental beef noodles
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 White onion
1 – 3 of the hottest peppers your local grocer happens to sell. Ask if you’re unsure – I’ve never met a produce manager that didn’t love talking about food.
1 Package of fast-fry steak (thin cut)

You should be paying less than 5 dollars at the checkout for this 2 plate meal.

Preparation:

Prepare noodles as directed, meanwhile, slice the steak, onions, and peppers into strips. Saute the onion and peppers in a heavy skillet (or preferably a wok) over medium heat (using the vegetable oil, of course). Once the vegetables become translucent, add the fast fry steak.

At about this time, and depending on the peppers you chose, eye protection might be necessary, due to the possibility of mustard-gas-like fumes.

Toss this mess about for close to two minutes, then add the prepared noodles. Now is a good time to see if there’s any soy sauce packages laying about from the last time you got Chinese take-out. It’s not necessary, but it does add a little something extra. Toss constantly for about a minute, remove from heat, and serve immediately. Although the spicy-heat remains constant, this dish tends to lose its temperature-heat rather quickly.

Serve with bread or crackers – You’re going to need it – and much cold beverage of your choice, let’s not forget about that.

Free book offer within Canada only: Understanding Prostate Cancer by Dr. Michael McCormack and Dr. Fred Saad.

Understanding Prostate Cancer is a comprehensive and compassionate guide written by Dr. Michael McCormack and Dr. Fred Saad of Centre hospitalier universitaire de Montréal (CHUM). The book introduces and explains the many issues surrounding risk factors and prevention of prostate cancer and provides answers to questions for those who have a diagnosis of prostate cancer, their families and loved ones

Get your free Understanding Prostate Cancer book here.

Future Shop is having its best Mp3 Deal ever. And its ONLY 1 DAY! The sale ENDS TODAY. The Mp3 Player  has 1GB space. SanDisk 1GB MP3 Player (E100) – Web Only. Unfortunately you have to buy this online. The regular price of this is $159.99  but today only it’s $69.99

	Â
Mfr. Part Number:	SDMX2-1024-A18
AM/FM Tuner	Yes
Battery Life	Up to 17 Hours
Battery Type	1 x “AAA”
Computer Interface	USB
Connection Transfer Rate	Up To 480 Mb/Sec
Cradle	No
Digital Audio Format Upgradeable	No
External Memory	Up To 2GB
External Memory Format	SD
ID3 Tag Display	Yes
Impact-Resistant Case	Yes
Included Headphone Type	Earbuds
Included In Box	See The Features Section
Internal Memory	1GB
Internal Memory Format	Flash
Media Compatibility	SD
Operating System Compatibility	Windows 2000, XP
Product Dimensions	5.4(W) x 7.6(H) x 1.5(D) cm
Product Warranty	1 Year Limited Parts and Labour
Product Weight	110 g
Remote Control	No
SDMI-Compliant	No
Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N Ratio)	>90 db
Software Supplied	Real Rhapsody/Audible Manager/AudioFeast
Station Presets	Yes
System Requirements	Windows 2000, XP
Total Memory	Up to 3GB
Track Search	Yes
Voice Recorder	No
Water-Resistant Case	No

Sale Ends: 6/23/2006

Get this SanDisk 1GB mp3 player from FutureShop here

After I posted about Dior’s free mini pouch and 3 make-up set I went to pick it up from Dior at The Bay (Kingston, Ontario) yesterday. I printed out the coupon which clearly stated “Bring in your coupon and receive a Mini Pouch with 3 make-up brushes” and it even had a photo of the set.

I went to Dior’s counter but there was no cosmetics representative there so I asked the Clarins rep. She said Dior’s rep is on vacation and that she (Clarins rep) is handling Dior until the Dior rep comes back in a few days. I inquired about Dior Fahrenheit and if they had any promos etc. and she was very friendly.

I then gave her the coupon and when she saw it she says “you have to enter the contest and then you might win the pouch and 3 makeup brushes” <– she is clearly lying

I reply very politely “I believe the contest is on a Dior Couture set which is worth $250 but the mini pouch is a gift as it clearly states on the coupon”

She then takes the coupon and reads it out:  “Bring in your coupon and receive a Mini Pouch with 3 make-up brushes” and then she suddenly changes her argument (which shows that she was lying in the first place); she says “Another customer brought in this coupon a couple of days ago before the Dior rep left and we discussed it and found out it is redeemable at large stores only.”

I reply “well it says Dior counters at The Bay which is where we are right now” (and this is the only The Bay in Kingston)

She replies very rudely “yes, but only in large cities like Toronto”

The argument was going no where and it was obvious that she wasn’t going to honour the coupon so I just left.

I feel very disappointed with the way this rep spoke and reacted. She was by all means rude and her words were deceitful and dishonest. I’m a huge fan of Dior products; I buy Dior Fahrenheit very frequently and always tryout any of their new fragrances. I’ve always had respect for their style and their line of products. What I don’t understand is why they launch a marketing campaign or why they offer a free set and then disappoint their customers! If Dior can’t honour the coupon why offer it in the first place? If this coupon hadn’t existed I wouldn’t have been pleased nor disappointed; but now  🙁

For your info this happened at The Bay, Cataraqui Town Centre, Kingston, Ontario yesterday (Wednesday, June 21st, 2006)  at about 6:00pm.

If you’re going to visit any attractions in Ontario you can get loads of coupons from the Attractions Ontario magazine. This magazine is available at most Pizza Pizza branches. You can also access the magazine online and print out the coupons.

Attractions Ontario magazine has loads of coupons for Ontario attrations like the 1000 Islands Cruises, Casa Loma, Skylon Tower, Ontario Science Centre, Hockey Hall of Fame, Discovery Harbour, The Haunted Walk of Ottawa, etc.

Either get your Attractions Ontario magazine from Pizza Pizza or online here.

Just in case you forgot, IKEA’s moonlight sale is tomorrow at some IKEA stores. More details in my post here

FeatherSpring is sending out a free foot imprint kit. Hopefully they’ll send to Canada too.

Get your free foot imprint kit here.

It’s about time you clean your dirty, dusty computer screen! Get a free wipe (looks like high quality wipes) and do us all a favour 😉

Get your free wipes here.

I love Christian Dior’s products and therefore this freebie is very interesting. Receive a mini pouch with 3 makeup brushes when you fill out and redeem a coupon at The Bay.

You’ll need to fill out this Dior form and then click on submit. You’ll get a new page with a “Coupon” button at the top left. Click on this button and the coupon with your name and more info will appear. Print it out and redeem at the Bay 🙂

I’ll let you know when I redeem my coupon. Keep us updated too.

This is not a pure freebie since you have to mail in the form along with 2 postage stamps.

To receive your free 3 gram sample packet of Intimé Personal Lubricant complete the form here and mail it back to them along with two postage stamps.

I don’t think it’s worth the hassle but I thought that I’d post it anyway just incase someone’s desperate to try out the lubricant.

Update: this only applies to members who registered before September 10th, 2006

If you registered after September 10th, 2006 Candies will only be for fun

I’m very excited to announce that SmartCanucks.ca forum is back with some interesting additions. I’m also giving away the iPod Nano I got from TD bank 🙂

I’ve been working on this idea for a couple of days and hopefully you’ll like it. Remember when I mentioned last month that I would share my ad revenue with my visitors? I’ve been thinking of a way of rewarding visitors who post more and help out and therefore I came up with an idea…

Whenever you post a new topic on SmartCanucks.ca’s forum you get 2 candies (not real candies, just points). When you reply to any topic you get quarter of a candy. When you have specific number of candies you can redeem them for actual gifts from me. Here is what you can redeem your Candies for:

500 candies: a small surprise gift chosen by me (Boo Radley) or one of my friends
900 candies: skincare cream (Vichy, RoC, etc.) or $15 gift card
1800 candies: an elegant bag or purse or $35 gift card
50000 candies: the iPod Nano I won from TD (first person only)

I’ll also have candy events every now and then where many candies can be won. You can see the amount of candies you have under your name in the forum:

Note that this is not a means of paying you for helping out… this is just a way of having fun on SmartCanucks.ca and making use of the little revenue I make. Hopefully I’ll get more sponsors soon and add more items to the above candy list 😉

What is your opinion of this idea? Do you have any ideas or suggestions?
This will not affect my blog posts which I will continue as usual.
oh, one more thing…

I’d like to thank all of you who have been helping out, suggesting deals and providing feedback. Special thanks go to:

Thilipan and nolookingca for their contributions.
David Peralty for his constant support and advice.
Intelmic for constantly and frequently providing feedback and commenting on the deals I post. Thank you Intelmic… & btw do you play UT?
vangirl, Joel, Mithel, Bobo, dawn maher, Tammy, ceci and Christina for their regular feedback
Kelly, John and Sara for mentioning my blog on their blog. There might be other blogs that I don’t know of that mentioned my blog. If you did please let me know.
Canadian Mark and special k at work for their encouragement.

… and all of my visitors who pop in every now and then 🙂

This free sample and contest are from HBC… get a free sample of Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Skin Perfecting Primer and also enter the contest for a chance to win a Napoleon Perdis makeover in Sydney Australia.

I wouldn’t put too much hope in winning that contest but hopefully the free Napoleon sample arrives.

Get your free sample of Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Skin here.

NHL2K6 for the XBOX 360 is on sale for $29.97 (regular price $39.99) at Toys R Us.

More details about this NHL 2K6 deal here.

The Window and Door Replacement Guide is a free DVD featuring Lou Manfredini, also known as “Mr. Fix It”—the home improvement editor of NBC’s morning show, Today. On the DVD, Mr. Fix It offers seasoned advice on how to add real value to your home.

Get your free Window and Door Replacement DVD here.

Get a 3 for $30 Anniversary Admission Offer from the CN Tower on June 26th 2006 only. This is a very good admission price. This offer is valid for the Look Out and Glass Floor package only.

I might visit Toronto this or next week so this could be the right coupon at the right time. A more flexible date range would have been way better though.

Get and print CN Tower’s $30 Anniversary Admission coupon here.