This state, man

In February I got a letter from Masshealth saying they needed me to reapply. I did that, it said I was approved, and I got a paper letter saying I'm approved, because that's an efficient use of resources.

Today I got a robocall saying it's very important I go online and apply for Masshealth, otherwise my coverage will end at the end of this month. I went on the website, logged back in, and it says I'm eligible for Masshealth. There doesn't seem to be any way to contact a person on the website other than the general "contact us" e-mail address. I guess I'm going to have to call and be on hold for an hour to figure out why I got approved but apparently didn't.

What the hell do I do with this vegetable: spinach edition

I still have about 3.999 pounds left of the four pounds of spinach from Fair Foods. Did you know that spinach is mostly water and shrinks like crazy? I wilted some (dig my fancy cooking term there) by putting it in the microwave for one minute, then chopped it up with scissors. I ended up doing this about five times, because I'd put a huge bowl full of it in there, then take it out and it was like a tablespoon worth. I added the spinach to a batch of latke mix from a box, along with some cumin, and baked them in the oven. They're gone now, so I think that means they turned out well.

What the hell do I do with this vegetable: avocados and spinach edition

I got 15 avocados and four pounds of spinach from Fair Foods yesterday. I don't really need to make a WTHDIDWTV for avocados, right? They're easy to use for guacamole, sandwiches, or dumping some adobo on them and eating them. The four pounds of spinach though is requiring some creativity, and tonight's dinner involved both, so there.

I had some Vietnamese rice paper spring roll wrappers and some Vietnamese vermicelli, both bought from as Asian market for a dollar or so each. (Note to self: write blog post on things one can find in Asian markets). I made spring rolls with vermicelli, avocado with adobo on it, and raw spinach leaves:

Authentic spring rolls would generally have more flavor to them by way of cilanto, mint, and/or basil. I didn't have any of that stuff, and it's usually expensive. So the rolls were a little bland, but the texture was perfect, and it was nothing some condiments didn't take care of. (If you do the coupon thang, you have a whole stash of condiments that were free or near free, right? We poured some Lawry's teriyaki sauce and sesame-ginger sauce up in these, and they were perfect.)

Fair Foods Haul

$6 for all this from the Fair Foods truck today. Not pictured: entire box of spinach

Free IMAX films at Museum of Science during March

I just found out about this, but there are still two Fridays left. The films look pretty good -- Galapagos, Humpback Whales, and Mystery of the Maya.

Couponing has been a little lame lately...

This stuff was $14.25, which is clearly a good deal, but it's a small haul. There just aren't many deals this time of year. However, I did sign up for yet another e-coupon thing, which got me a lot of the free/cheap stuff included in this haul.

The new app I'm trying is Snap by Groupon. It requires you to upload a receipt just like iBotta and Checkout 51, but there's no need to scan the bar code like iBotta requires. Unlike most of the other apps, it allows you to use many of the deals multiple or even unlimited times, so if you have a stack of coupons for an item that's on sale and is listed on Snap, you could get several of them for the lowest possible price. I claimed $5.50 the first time I used it, though I suspect that it gives you better deals at first to get you to start using it; there was $1 off any toilet paper (that 99-cent roll was free), $1 off any toothpaste (free 99-cent tube of Aim), $1 off any pasta (free 99-cent box). It currently has several Coke deals, as does iBotta right now, so you can double these up on a product that's on sale at your store and get Coke for a really low price. If you want to check it out, please click on my link above.