Birthday Freebies: Friendly's

Friendly's is one of those places I grew up with and associate with ice cream sundaes. Their email club provides a free sundae for a birthday. 

Delicious and glorious! And free!

Birthday Freebies: Einstein Bagels

Bagels are a great way to start the day! This freebie is courtesy of Einstein Bros. Bagels' email club. 

This year's freebie is an egg sandwich with the purchase of a drink. 

I chose the Applewood Bacon and Cheddar on a Hashbrown bagel accompanied by a large coffee. 

I love it when food is delicious and free!

Birthday Freebies: Ikea

Ikea is one of my favorite places for home goods. I have some furniture from Ikea as well because they are modern and affordable. 

I love shopping in the marketplace for kitchen gadgets and other items to organize our home. 

Their restaurant is quite good. For a store, you may not be expecting gourmet food. They have wonderful dishes and it is served cafeteria style. 

If you are a member of the Ikea Family you're entitled to discounts and free coffee in the restaurant. A birthday freebie comes along as well. 

This year's birthday meal is the Swedish meatball entrée with the daim cake (think nutella). 

The two of us had dinner for under $10. Our choices were Swedish meatball dish, grilled salmon dish, garlic bread for each of us, hot drink, and cold drink. 

Delicious and affordable. 

Birthday Freebies: Chili's

Chili's has a great reward program which is paired up with Plenti. Regularly, I find coupons in my inbox for various deals at Chili's. 

Birthdays are included in their emailed deals. Free dessert is the treat this year which is good because it is "stressed" spelled backwards. 

A colleague (and friend) of mine also has a July birthday. We decided to do lunch and take advantage of this dessert deal. 

Here is all that was left of this rich skillet chocolate chip cookie. 

It tasted better with a friend celebrating her birthday, too. 

Birthday Freebies: Pizza Hut

I have always loved Pizza Hut. It is the first pizza place I remember going to as a kid because of their Book It program. Fortunately, I don't have an urge for pizza when I read. 

This delicious birthday freebie provides cinnamon sticks or breadsticks with no purchase necessary. 

Ordering is made simple through the birthday email with the promotion code. Follow the link and it will add the sticks of your choice to your cart. 

Because they were also having a 50% off pizza deal, I decided dinner and dessert would come from the Hut!

$8 later we had a large pizza and an order of breadsticks. It is sometimes hard to buy $8 worth of groceries for 1 meal for 2 adults. This satisfies both the budget and deliciousness factor!

Birthday Freebies: Redbox

Gone are the days of going to the video store to get the latest movies. 

In this day in age, purchasing DVDs and streaming are more common practices. 

I was first introduced to a DVD dispensing machine when I was in France in 2007. It was the neatest thing I had ever seen!

Shortly thereafter in the US, I started seeing the same type of machines crop up in various locations. 

Redbox is the most common and are virtually everywhere. Renting DVDs is easily done at the box or reservations made online. 

With an account, comes a birthday freebie! I received a free rental via email and reserved a film on the Redbox app. 

Quick and easy! Oh, and free!

Birthday Freebies: Tijuana Flats

If you want a delicious birthday freebie and you're in Florida, go to Tijuana Flats! The name of this freebie game is churros! 

The great thing about this freebie is that it is truly free! No purchase necessary. 

I would, however, recommend going on Tuesday for their taco lunch special and pairing it with churros. 

Birthday Freebies: Dunkin' Donuts

Attention coffee lovers! This freebie is for you!

Dunkin' Donuts has a free beverage as a birthday freebie! Although I did not receive an email, this freebie appeared on the DD App. 

So many choices at Dunkin' Donuts! I ordered a large latte (sans sugar) to get me going on a weekday morning. 

Birthday Freebies: Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday has an email club called "So Connected." You'll receive promotions, coupons, and freebies. 

The birthday freebie is a free burger (includes most sandwiches) or a garden bar entrée. No purchase is necessary which makes this freebie a true freebie!

This year I opted for the Avocado Turkey Burger which comes with fries. 

The full meal was even more delicious since it was free! (Is there such a thing as tasting free?)

Birthday Freebies: DSW

Shoes are typically near and dear to a girl's heart. This birthday freebie adds to the joy of the previous shoe birthday freebie (read more here). 

This birthday freebie is from DSW which entails $5 off any purchase. In the past, I have opted for earrings or shoes whatever strikes my fancy.  

A few years ago, I picked out a pair of wedges that were Italian Shoemakers brand with my birthday coupon. They have been such a great pair of shoes! I decided on these cute wedges also made by Italian Shoemakers. 

This time there were sales on top of sales! They were priced at $39.94 marked down by 50%. Then, an additional $5 off with the birthday coupon. The subtotal was $14.97 which means there was $34 savings!

It is a great time of year to shop with all the sales stacked with birthday coupons!

Birthday Freebies: Medieval Times

Medieval Times is truly a unique experience fit for a king. It takes an evening out to a whole new level. How often does one go out to dine and watch jousting? 

This birthday freebie is not only a large value of saving but a large value of fun! The birthday bargain is a buy one get one free (BOGO)! 

My husband and I both have birthdays in July. Many of the freebies we've enjoyed together. This is no exception. We purchased 1 ticket and got the other one free. 

The dinner choices are limited to a standard chicken dinner and a vegetarian dinner. We got 1 of each. the chicken dinner is shown below. The vegetarian option was a bowl of rice, beans, corn seasoned like chili; hummus with veggies to dip; then the same corn, potato, tomato soup, and garlic bread listed on the menu. 

Really a great evening! Dinner was delicious and the show was entertaining. 

Birthday Freebies: Moe's Southwest Grill

WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!

If you've been to Moe's you know that this is the loud and enthusiastic greeting when you walk through the door. 

For this edition of the birthday freebies, a free burrito is presented via email or mobile app. 

I ordered the Earmuffs burrito bowl with tofu so we could share it. I like my burrito bowl with pico de gallo, cucumbers, cilantro, black beans, pinto beans, lettuce, rice, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. 

Bonus: a plentiful amount of tortilla chips are served as a side. This freebie is delicious and full of fresh ingredients. 

Birthday Freebies: Firehouse Subs

Being a member of the Firehouse Subs Rewards means a free sub on your birthday! This is a new addition to my birthday repertoire this year. 

Not knowing what to get, I thought I'd try the Smokehouse Beef and Cheddar Brisket sub. 

We doubled up the freebies by giving my husband the Jersey Mike's sub. 

Dinner is served!

Birthday Freebies: Jersey Mike's

One of the privileges of being a member of Jersey Mike's email club is a free sub and drink for your birthday. 

My husband has discovered his love for the Grilled Veggie sub. That is what I ordered for him as I chose to get another birthday freebie for myself. Sharing is caring!

Birthday Freebies: Denny's

Free breakfast at Denny's on your birthday! 

The free breakfast is the Build Your Own Grand Slam! Pick 4 items on the list and put together the tastiest grand slam. I chose pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns. 

Arrive at Denny's on your birthday and let the server know it is your birthday. 

My server was kind enough to mention that she wasn't into singing. I thanked her because I was looking forward to a quiet breakfast with a girlfriend. 

Birthday Freebies: Starbucks

Starbucks participates in the birthday freebie craze. A free beverage or food item is the gift to Starbucks account holders. 

I received an email announcing this fantastic freebie. It also appeared in my Starbucks app.  

I opted for the Cascara Latte which is relatively new. 

Birthday Freebies: Red Robin

Free burger and fries at Red Robin? Yes, please! Become a member of the email club and a free burger for your birthday is yours!

I went with my friend whose daughter will turn 10 the day after my birthday. 

We had free dinners for the birthday girls and a girls night out! You can't beat that!

Birthday Freebies: Sephora

Sephora has a birthday gift as part of their email club. This year there are 2 choices: face care or cosmetics. 

Simply walk into the store and let an employee know there's a birthday. The employee will look up your email address and locate your account with your birthday indicated on it. 

Voilà! Free make up for my birthday!

Birthday Freebies: Panera

Panera has a birthday pastry for the birthday celebrant.

All you have to do is subscribe to the email club. It is automatically added to the account and can be accessed by the key ring card. It is also accessible by the app. 

This year my pastry choice is an orange scone. Loaded with citrus flavor (and calories). I decided to pair this decadent scone with dark roast coffee. Birthdays taste great!

Hello Fresh: Potato Pan Rösti

For the final edition of the Hello Fresh delivery service trial (see previous posts here), I tried the Potato Pan Rösti. 

This Swiss dish is a hashbrown base topped with tomato, prosciutto, sour cream and a squeeze of lemon. The recipe also involved an arugula salad.  

Grate the potatoes and chop the scallion, onion and tomato. Sauté the onion and white part of the scallion in butter. Save the green part of the scallion for later. 

Toss the sautéed onion with the grated potato. Spread evenly into a heated skillet coated in olive oil and butter. Cook until brown on the bottom. Flip the potato onto a platter or cookie sheet. Slide the uncooked side back into the pan until brown. 

While the potato is cooking, toss the arugula salad. I added chayote, avocado, and green onion with olive oil and lemon juice. 

Slice the potato cake and top with prosciutto, sour cream, and a squeeze of lemon. Serve with the arugula salad on the side. 

These meals have proved to be delicious, easy, and quick to prepare. All of them have been delicious, easy, and quick to eat, too!

Birthday Freebies: TGI Fridays

TGI Fridays is one of those chains I never really frequented. It wasn't until my singles group from church in Detroit started going on regular intervals that I kept it on my radar. 

Now, I love Fridays!

Since we are rewards members, we also get a basket of chips and salsa at each visit. Reward points rack up pretty quickly with their program. 

We had enough for a free entrée in addition to chips and salsa. Having a birthday coupon for a free dessert is all the more incentive to go to Fridays. No one was going to leave hungry this time around!

We ordered the Grilled Salmon and the Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Pasta for dinner (one of them is free). For dessert, we ordered the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. 

Somehow the dessert isn't featured on our receipt. Either way, we paid under $18 for an appetizer, 2 seafood entrées, and a dessert! 

Birthday Freebies: Cold Stone Creamery

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!

This birthday freebie will have you screaming! Cold Stone Creamery sent a buy one get one coupon for my birthday. That suits my hubby just fine since ice cream is his gig. 

 For this special occasion, I opted for a waffle cone as a birthday extra! 

Hello Fresh: Cheesy Chorizo Orzo

For the latest edition of the Hello Fresh meal service trial, we have the cheesy chorizo orzo dish.

This dish has chorizo (pork sausage) along with orzo pasta and roasted tomatoes seasoned with garlic and thyme. 

The refrigerated ingredients came packaged in a labeled brown bag. The sausage was in a chilled section of the box. 

Unwrapping the contents of the brown bag revealed all the ingredients necessary in the portion needed for the recipe. 

The only exception is the can of tomato paste. Luckily, we use tomato paste as a base to many stews so I had the few spoonfuls needed already. 

Since my husband is not a meat eater and I am on occasion, I separated the chorizo sausage from the rest. Following the directions to a point, I then separated the pot of orzo goodness into another pot that had the cooked sausage. 

My husband likes everything hot and spicy which is customary in Africa. I cooked my portion with the sausage. I cooked his portion with a Scotch bonnet pepper. 

The finished product was delicious! Fairly easy to prepare. Exceptionally easy to eat!