Waffles, Anyone?

Waffles, anyone? Here what works for us...


I took my favorite waffle mix, mixed up a 6-batch bulk mix of the dry ingredients, and put it inside of a large storage container. Nothing new. I'm sure you can find something similar in a lot of kitchens.

But taking it one step further, I used my handy-dandy Dymo machine, the one I have to keep hidden from fascinated small children, to print out strips with the rest of the ingredients...egg, oil, etc...along with how much of the mix needed in order to whip up a batch of waffles. Kinda like my own personalized waffle mix. I keep referring to it as waffles because that is what we prepare mainly, but it would work just as simply for your pancake recipe. As far as that goes, the same concept would apply for any dry mix that you might keep on hand.

 

And if you're curious, here's the bulk recipe I use along with the individual batch guidelines:

Bulk Batch Waffle Mix

6 cups flour (I use 3 cups whole-wheat pastry flour and 3 cups unbleached white flour)
6 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3 tablespoons baking powder

To make a single batch of the waffles use:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons waffle mix
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons oil, or melted butter if you prefer

Put together in your mixing bowl and whisk until just combined. A few small lumps are just fine.


It works for me. It might work for you. The ticket to waffles that anyone can prepare.

I'm wondering if you keep homemade baking mixes of different types on hand. If so what unique storage and preparation ideas do you use?

Homemade Popsicles

Did you lick them frantically to keep up with the drips? Or did you chomp your way through them? Everyone seems to have their own way to gobble up popsicles, kids and adults alike. They all seem to have their favorites too. At our elementary school, they would sell popsicles during lunch recess...who would ever hear of THAT now? To this day some of my favorites...when I do indulge...are those that we had back then.

The Big Stick.



Root Beer Twin Pops.



Orange Creamsicles.



But today I try to stay away from such syrupy sweet confections and all the garish food colors. But I do fancy ice cold things. So the answer is a homemade popsicle with only what I want in it.

I scoured the web the other day for recipes and came to the conclusion that a basic fruit popsicle is the easiest and healthiest. No recipe needed. Although this concoction sure looks good:

Source: smilemonsters.blogspot.com via Connie on Pinterest

Put your selected fruit in the bowl of a food processor. Whir it up until it is pureed. Add a little sweetener. Some is good in that it softens up the texture of the finished popsicle so that you are not sucking on an ice cube. Some berries benefit from the tang of a little lemon so squeeze some in as well. And the last ingredient which I think makes all the difference is to add some dairy. It too keeps the finished popsicle from being too hard and just plain MAKES it if you ask me.

I have some ancient Tupperware popsicle holders which are nice in that you pour in your puree, cap them, pop them in the freezer, and walk away for four hours.



If you use Dixie cups on a tray, you will need to let them solidify somewhat before you stick in your popsicle sticks...although now they're just called craft sticks.



There are some pretty cool molds out there, but the Dixie cup version just looks classic.



A friend mentioned that leftover smoothies would be great to freeze as popsicles. I couldn't agree more.

So since the ice cream man does not make the rounds out in the boonies where we live, and I hate to pay the pretty penny for store-bought popsicles with all their fillers, we will be making plenty of homemade ones this summer. And filled with fruit, who can complain.

What was your favorite popsicle as a kid, or what IS your favorite one now? Or have you given them up as an adult. It will be fun to compare answers.

Iron Chef Kitchen and a Full Pantry

I suppose there is a chance that you have never heard of the Iron Chef food contest on Food Network. If so the short explanation of this program is the specialty ingredient that is revealed at the beginning of each contest to three chefs who then have to create several courses using this item and a fully stocked pantry.  They come up with some pretty stunning pieces I tell you.  And to be sure, many of them I would never touch, much less my family.  So what's the parallel here?

Our kitchen doesn't usually feature a stunning surprise ingredient too regularly, but it usually does offer up extras of several ingredients or containers of leftovers that don't seem to appeal to anyone the second time around. So my own personal Iron Chef dilemma is to simply turn those items into our next meal or face the fact that they need to go to the chickens before they spoil.  I do keep a pretty well-stocked pantry which might rival those of the TV studios. It's just one of my priorities to be sure I have on hand what I might possibly need just so I can run my own personal Iron Chef dinner any night of the week.

So here's an example of how it went this evening:

There were bowls full of spring greens from the garden needing to be used up...romaine, kale, radicchio, mache, endive, spinach. Good healthy stuff. So a main course salad was where I was headed. I mixed up some of my Honey Mustard Vinaigrette, grabbed some frozen chicken breasts out of the freezer (a branch of my well-stocked pantry) and threw them on the Foreman grill, still frozen, with a little seasoning salt.  There were snap peas from the garden and a red onion as well. In they went.  Main course was finished after the chicken slightly cooled and was sliced to top the salad.



I had some smokey paprika goat cheese that I had made, but then of course needed something to go with it. So using my recipe for Parmesan Flaxseed Crackers, I popped them into the oven...once again thanks to my pantry and my lovely Parmesan producing goats.  Since we were fresh out of croutons, the crackers would also double as 'crunch' in the salad for those who just had to have a crouton substitute. As far as goat cheese goes, some of the plain chevre would have been pretty good in the salad too, but that would have been too exotic for probably everyone.



The mystery ingredient of the week would have to be strawberries from our patch.  I had just finished reading Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees's recipe for Strawberry Pie, so I put that together as well with only a few modifications based on what I had on hand.



Another dinner down the hatch thanks to inspiration from the Iron Chef and my pantry. But in reality the majority of a lot of our work in the kitchen is probably Iron Chef based. What was on sale this week at the grocery store? What do we have too much of that we'd like to use up? What produce is overly abundant thanks to our gardens? It's a tough job sometimes, creating something from the situation we're currently handed versus what we otherwise might plan out in advance. But that's the beauty of a culinary challenge...keeps us on our toes, keeps a little extra change in the pocketbook, and keeps the dining interesting. Bon appetit!

Growing Your Own Sprouts

They say that if you can remember wearing a certain fashion growing up, you shouldn't repeat it as an adult when it recirculates again...a sign you're a bit too old to pull it off perhaps. What happens though when you remember certain food items coming into vogue...things like granola, bagels, and sprouts. Granola and bagels are pretty mainstream nowadays, but how about sprouts? And what if you're not only still eating them, but now growing them yourself?

Tidbits like that I usually don't make a fuss over with my kids. I usually get the, "Mom! What next!" look. I have always loved adding sprouts to salads and sandwiches, but you get out of the habit of purchasing them, they don't last long in the refrigerator, and the somewhat recent contamination scare tends to keep you from buying them.  So it has always been in the back of my mind to look into growing them myself.

I had accumulated enough Swagbucks at Amazon.com to go on a small online shopping trip, so I ordered the SproutHouse Easy Sprout Sprouter and a bag of seeds. They are a mixture of clover, alfalfa, radish, and broccoli. Doesn't that just sound healthy? They say that as seeds are the energy storehouse for the plant to come, sprouting them unleashes many, many times more nutrients and antioxidants than you could ever get by eating the equivalent sized serving. One mouthful of sprouts could have maybe 30 or 40 sprouted seeds. Try eating that many broccoli or radish plants.

After doing my research online I see that a lot of people sprout in a glass jar, but I needed something foolproof so I opted for a plastic growing container with an insert making for easy rinsing of the seeds.  The whole process was really simple.  Soak the seeds overnight then put them into the growing container. Wait 24 hours then rinse again morning and night for four or five days.  Watching the seeds begin to fuzz up and then sprout was half the fun. Instant gardening of a sort. The usual sprout time can be somewhere around six days, but I cheated and started munching on them before they were full sized. They are so very addictive, you could just eat and eat them straight out of the container. The radish seeds in this mixture had just the right amount of bite to make them over-the-top tasty. With the next batch I will be a little more patient perhaps.

If you're interested yourself, there were some great videos on YouTube put out by SproutPeople and resources abound online.   Once this batch of seeds is done, I'd like to venture out and try some other varieties. I had no idea that you were able to sprout so many different seeds.  Do you sprout seeds, and if so, what are your favorite types?  I'd love to get some suggestions.  And now the timer has gone off, so I need to head downstairs.  My granola has finished baking. But, shh! Don't tell the kids.

Goat's Milk Ricotta Cheese at Home

Do you ever wonder what can be done with goat's milk other than drinking it? Well baking and cheese making ranking pretty high around here as well. The simplest cheese on the face of the planet to make has to be ricotta. In fact I had no idea that I could have been making my own ricotta even from grocery store milk all along. It was one of those revelation moments such as I had when I started preparing my own buttermilk.

Here's how I go about making our own fresh, creamy ricotta cheese. Heat two quarts goat's milk to 180 degrees on the stove top stirring frequently but gently to distribute the heat. As it nears the 180 degree mark, stir in two tablespoons of either apple cider or white vinegar. As you continue to heat the milk, you will notice that the acid in the vinegar will begin to coagulate the milk and the yellowish whey will begin to separate. You may have to raise the temperature up to 200 degrees to achieve separate of curds and whey but do not let it go any further than that. If you have reached 195 degrees and there is no separation, add an additional tablespoon of vinegar and that should do the trick as it continues to climb to the 200 degree mark. Once you see the curds really begin to form, remove from the heat and allow to cool. The curds should float on the whey and form a semi-solid mass. For the creamiest ricotta, allow to cool undisturbed for a half of an hour. You can then gently lift the curds off of the whey with a slotted spoon and place them into a container. You may occasionally need to drain extra whey from your container as you fill it with the warm curds. Refrigerate and use within the week.



That's all there is to it. Once you're comfortable with making your own ricotta, next thing you know you'll be hankering for some semi-soft cheese as well. It's easier than you think and more rewarding as well. Enjoy!

Garlic as a remedy

Although we have a fully stocked medicine cabinet at home and dip into it quite frequently, I am all for natural remedies that have worked throughout the world for centuries. Garlic is one of those. Research has found garlic to have anti-viral and antibiotic properties. The catch is it must be crushed and consumed raw and within a few minutes so that its allicin and sulfur compounds are preserved. So based on this information, I have recently started to dose up my kids with raw garlic at the first sign of a head cold or the flu of which we seem to have had plenty this year.

Raw garlic? And kids will eat it? Not exactly…but they have started even asking for it. Here’s the trick. Even I wouldn’t chomp down raw garlic. I am sure it would burn my tastebuds for a week, and I’d imagine as well leave a nasty taste in my mouth. At our local store’s nutrition center, I purchased a bag of clear gel pill capsules…the kind that separate so that they can be filled and closed again. I peel a clove of garlic and with a sharp paring knife, slice it vertically, turn it over 90 degrees and slice it again vertically making sure the cell walls are being crushed. I’m left with thin, match stick size pieces just about the length of the pill capsules. I begin to slide them down into the long half the capsule and layering them in until no more will fit. Usually a small length will be hanging out the top which will be enclosed once the cap is placed back on.



Voila! Enclosed raw garlic with no taste. Down the hatch it goes! One clove will usually fill about three of the capsules. I will tell you to not let them set long as the moisture from the garlic will begin to soften the gel capules and make them soggy. Not what you want to attempt to swallow. And as well, the garlic will coat your fingers as you handle it and impart a slight garlicky flavor to the capsules as you are working with them. No one has experienced much in the way of after taste or burping garlic afterwards, so we’re all happy.

I can’t scientifically prove that the garlic is making a difference. but it certainly can’t hurt. The more I read about natural health remedies, the more I’m convinced that as a parent I can give our family even a slight edge over the ills that face us in life. Once we have implemented garlic as a basic arsenal in our medicine cabinet, it will be time to move on a try another remedy. Have you had success with something in particular? Please share. We can all learn a little something new.

May Coupon Savings

I must say I'm pretty excited this morning. I finished entering my grocery store receipts for the month of May, breaking them down in order to determine how much I am saving on our monthly grocery bill by shopping sale items, by using store and manufacturer coupons, and by stacking these savings together for maximum benefit. We shaved a whopping 38% off of our bill last month or a total of about $400. Now I am sure there are others who are way more successful, but for just starting off with a concentrated effort to produce savings, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Coupon savings for May were about $20 greater than they were for April. Considering that I had probably only saved about $50 at best in prior months, the most important factors would have to be purchasing when items are on sale not when you need them and by stacking coupons with advertised savings. My previous post talked about the strategies I have learned, and they do work! In order to get started by purchasing more on-sale items than items I would have typically needed for a week's menu, I employed a tactic from the Hillbilly Housewife by using her $45 per week Menu Planner for one week to cut down on meal expenses a bit while starting to stock up on sale items. Within a week or two of filling pantry shelves with sale items, I didn't find this necessary and could go back to my normal shopping habits.

To be honest, we haven't been tracking our monthly grocery expenses, and the total spent even with coupon savings struck me as high. A little background information might be helpful to determine what we actually purchase during a month. We eat mainly unprocessed foods, do have game such as venison and elk in our freezer, eat most of our meals at home including our four children, but I wouldn't consider our diet limited in any way. A typical receipt at the grocery store might include household cleaners, health and first aid, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics - for four females which can add up fast - miscellaneous office supplies, and the like. I've considering purchasing those items on a separate receipt just so I can see what our true grocery costs are. Our after savings receipts total $670 which works out to about $165 per week including our other non-grocery items. It will definitely be interesting to track just food purchases and see where we come out at. I would love to connect with other similar families and compare grocery costs. I would imagine there is more I could learn about reducing our grocery expenses even further.

Enough for today. I hope you've started the couponing habit. You can follow links here, here, and here to my original posts explaining how I got started. In the meantime...time to head downstairs and start my shopping list from the grocery ad flyers that just arrived yesterday. Happy clipping!

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 3

I stepped into the store and glanced around. It looked like it would be a good day. As I reached into my purse, I found the envelope I was looking for. I carefully opened the flap and extracted the tri-fold sheet of paper. Here were my instructions. Could I follow them through? Could I achieve maximum savings? Yes. I had done my homework. Our weekly grocery bill was about to be slashed!



Okay...that might have been over the top. But if couponing is going to be your game, then why not approach it as a challenge. After all, how would you like to save $340 on grocery and household items? How about $380 the following month? And the results aren't even in yet for May.

On to the coupon strategy that I'm currently following. I haven't been at this for all that long and am confident that with a little planning anyone else can do this too.

When you get your Sunday newspaper, pull out the sales flyers put out by your major box stores and pharmacy stores as well as any grocery ads. In my town that would be KMart, Target, Walgreens, Albertsons and Fred Meyers. At the same time, pull out the Red Plum, Proctor and Gamble, and Smart Source coupon inserts as well. You can link here to my previous posts on where to locate coupons online as well.

Using one sheet of paper for each major store as well as a business envelope with the store's name labeled on the front, go through the store circular and list any items that you come across that are on sale and would be items that you would normally purchase. If the store has printed coupons, clip and file those as well. If you're lucky enough to live in a region where your stores offer double coupons, then you can really score. I'm not familiar with how that process works specifically as it is not available in our area. Now if you're like me, I'm not necessarily brand loyal. I buy generic whenever the unit pricing is less. That in part keeps my grocery costs down to begin with. With that said, I love to try new brands when I've got the ability to stack a manufacturer coupon with a local store sale. Remember the key here is that you may not be out of that item yet, but if it's on sale now and there is a matching coupon to boot, it's time to stock up. You can shop from your own closet later and not have to pay the full price when you do run out. If there are coupons in the store's ad, cut them out and slip them into the envelope for that store.

Once you have been through the sales flyers, I then take my lists to the computer. I log in to either CouponTom.com or AFullCup.com and enter the brand name of the items on sale to see if there is a coupon listed for that item. If there is, I make note of where I can go to find the coupon in the weekly coupon inserts, or if it is online, I print it off. Those coupons are collected and put into the envelope for that store so that they will be readily available once I go to that store. There are a few great blog sites out there where the sales flyers have already been matched up with the coupons by bloggers who are experts in this field. HipToSave.com is a great resource for Walgreens. MoneySavingMom.com also has some great insider tips at shopping Walgreens. If you take a look at the site, you will see how easy it is to maximize your savings by purchasing an item on sale, adding a coupon from a weekly insert, and then perhaps receiving a rebate back. Quite often your items will cost less than half of the face value or come out free. That's how you slash your grocery costs. But remember, you have to buy when the item is on sale not when you need it.

As a quick side note, you should mark the newspaper coupon inserts with the date of the paper they were in and keep them in a folder as you will be referring back to them every week to clip more coupons as those items appear on sale at the various stores. I will admit though, that I deviate from most couponers in that if there is a coupon for an item that I absolutely know we purchase all the time, I will go ahead and clip it in advance. I want to be sure I use it up before it expires. These are the coupons that I file by category in my envelope coupon organizer. I just keep these items in mind and know where to locate them if I see that they are on special that week. As I go through the different categories of coupons in my envelope organizer every week, I make note of any that are about to expire and choose whether to redeem them or not on a product that is still full-priced at the store.

And that's just about it. I combine my errands into town with my coupon shopping to save time and gas money. But does all this effort really save money? Well, if you're anything like me you'd be skeptical and want to see the facts. To be honest, those numbers I posted above don't mean much. They simply reflect how much our family of six has saved monthly on grocery and pharmacy costs since I've started using my newspaper insert coupons as well as on-line coupons in a manner that maximizes their potential. The figures look great but should really be expressed as a percent of the total amount we spent...it would be a more effective means. Perhaps starting in June I'll keep a tally of the total spent as well. It certainly will be interesting to compare to regardless.

I hope this information will spark your desire to get out there and start clipping. Utilizing those coupons with your grocery store weekly specials and buying when the cost is right will save you in the end. I certainly don't think I've "arrived" at maximum savings yet either. I'd like to put together a list tracking the lowest prices available on frequently purchased items so I'll know when a good deal really is a steal. Anyone else like to share their couponing experiences? I'd like to hear.

Related posts:

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Part 1

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Part 2

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 2

I think I might have put the cart before the horse in that I did not address where all the coupons that I stash in my envelope organizer come from. Well never fear...here we go.



Our family has always subscribed to at least the Sunday newspaper. And as long as I can remember, they have always been full of inserts which are actually my favorite part. Part of those inserts come from Red Plum and Smart Source, two companies that publish coupons for consumer use. In my prior couponing days, I would casually thumb through these inserts looking for high dollar coupons that grabbed my attention or maybe something new I would like to try. Sad to say, I missed the whole point of couponing. More to come on that later.

With my new interest in couponing which came from more time being online, I also discovered that there is a very large mom-blogger community on the web with wonderful women who are sharing their successes and strategies. Here are four that I will post links to:

Save With Louise

This blog is produced by a woman living in my home town who focuses on the grocery stores that I tend to shop at the most - Fred Meyers, Albertsons, and Walgreens.

Consumer Queen
Coupon Princess
Coupon Coup

These three blogs were my very first ones to read on the process of couponing and are very well done. There is so much information here. They have many wonderful links to follow to even more online information about couponing.

Lastly, I have discovered that there are coupons published online that you can print on your home computer that work just like those you would normally clip and cut. Surprisingly, the values of these can sometimes be higher than the newspaper inserts. I am listing several sites below that I routinely use. You will usually be asked to install a coupon printing program - easy and painless - that allows you to print the coupons. As well, many brands such as Kraft and Betty Crocker will reward customers for signing up for their online newsletters with access to coupons for their products. Just search for a favorite product brand and see what you come up with. As a word of note, I set up a separate email address just for this type of occasion just to be sure that I'm not inviting any spam into my home email inbox...just in case. Included in the list are also some sites that let you search for specific coupons and have searchable coupon databases.

A Full Cup
Coupon Tom
Hot Coupon World
Cool Savings
Smart Source

It goes almost without saying that you also need to obtain the sales flyers for the grocery stores in your area. Some of ours appear in the Sunday paper and others appear in our Tuesday paper as an insert with our local Food section. They will be full of coupons for additional savings for that specific store. And don't forget to check the online sites for your favorite grocery stores. Many of them offer features that allow you to access additional coupons as well.

Homework assignment for today is to start saving those coupons inserts and grocery sale ads. Strategies on how to use them will be forthcoming. Check out some of the coupon bloggers online and read up on how they use couponing to reduce their overall grocery costs. And thirdly, poke around a bit and bookmark some of the sites that offer online coupons.

My next post will outline how I pull everything together and start stacking coupons and grocery store deals in order to make the best deals. Until then...happy clipping!

Related posts:

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 1

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 3

My Quest for Eating Healthy & Economically

We all want to eat healthy. We want variety. We want convenience. We want to eat locally. We want to eat what is economical to purchase at the grocery store. We tend to want a lot of things.



There’s a good chance that all of our wants are actually thwarted by choice…too many choices. Books to educate us on the art of eating healthy are everywhere. Recipes are even more abundant. Manufacturers produce just about every kind of food possible. Most everything is on sale at some point in time. So I’ll come right out and say it…I’ve come to believe that we are overwhelmed by our choices in today’s world.

There are times when I just want a few bags of groceries to show up on my doorstep. They would have a variety of fresh foods in them already chosen for me and all perfectly balanced to give my family the correct proportion of fiber, carbohydrates, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. They would be purchased at the lowest price point possible, and there would be just the right amount of calories for us to consume and not a drop more. Yes, I could live with that. And I think we could all Iron-Chef it up a bit and cook with what we were given and become more creative than we ever thought possible.

But since the reality is that will never happen, here’s my proposal based on all the insane amount of information that I have taken in over my many, many years here on earth deciding on what I should be eating and what I should be feeding my family.



* Make an effort to eat whole foods that are produced locally and eaten in season. The less processed they are (whole and in their natural state) and the less distance they have to travel (produced locally) means better nutrition for me and my family. After all is said and done, making economical food purchases does matter as well.

* Decide what a healthy ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats should be. I think we all realize that a carb-junkie will never be healthy unfortunately. On the other hand, as afraid of fat as we’ve become as a society, research tells us that some fats are healthy and essential for our well-being. So balance is vitally important.

* If maintaining or losing weight is a concern then realizing how many calories are being consumed a day is equally important. A little here and a little there can add up especially once we hit that magic age of 40 when weight tends to start creeping up on us.

* In order to keep eating habits simple but yet accountable, establish some type of a food-journal to track how much and of what type of foods are eaten daily. Nothing brings about accountability better than knowing exactly how many calories you are consuming.

In my next post I will go into detail about some of these areas and share resources where I have found support and information including my personal food journaling system and calorie charts. Stay tuned.

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 1

I'll admit to being a little more frugal in the first years of our marriage...probably about up until the time of our first child when working full time and being a first time mom became too overwhelming. Then 'time is money, and money is time' came into play according to dear husband. Throughout raising four children I've returned to clipping coupons, watching sales, and the like, but it hasn't been until just recently that I've again realized the need to watch our spending.

What's different about my couponing strategy this time around? A lot. After being exposed to other moms embracing a more frugal lifestyle, my approach has taken on that of a challenge to myself. If they can do it, so can I. This doesn't have to be about how much I don't have but of how much I can do with what I have. How much can I save this month? How creative can I get in layering my coupons with in-store savings? Can I really purchase items in advance at lower prices to create a stockpile-of-sorts to work off of while waiting for deals and coupons to surface again?



Here's how I've jumped back into couponing again. My first and immediate need was a way to contain and keep the coupons that I planned on clipping from the Sunday paper. There are different methods out there, but I wanted something right now and easily put together. My answer was to take a stack of business sized envelopes, stack them evenly by their bottoms, and staple through the layers in about three spots.



I left the envelope flaps facing up and labeled them according to the categories I thought would be most useful:

pantry items
refrigerator and freezer items
health and beauty products
household cleaning products
pharmaceutical products

Now my clipped coupons could be slipped into the open envelopes and easily found according to their categories. Of course, loose coupons in an envelope have to be shuffled through, so I subdivided some envelopes accordingly:

cereal and staples for the pantry items
refrigerator case and freezer case items
hair products, feminine care, cosmetics, guy products

I also started to stack them in order of expiration date so that I would be sure to not miss any before they expired.

Now my clipped coupons were organized and easy to transport to each of the stores I planned on shopping at.

This was my first phase of putting together my coupon arsenal. Little did I know that there were more ways to fine tune this process which I will continue in a separate post. I'm pretty sure there are other ways to organize clipped coupons and will perhaps come across a method that fit my needs a little better, but I've been completely satisfied with this to date. More uses for those business sized envelopes will surface again later I promise.

Related posts:

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 2

My Coupon Strategy and Being Frugal - Phase 3

Frugal and Healthy Kitchen Tips

In my search to bring a frugal approach to my kitchen, I've started a few practices that I find most helpful. Not only do these little tasks save money at the grocery store, they save me time and just so happen encourage healthier eating habits. Here's how:



We all like to grab those little bags of carrots on the produce shelves because they've convenient. Let's face it, you normally don't wash them, they're bite sized, they're prepackaged and ready to take out the door. What's not to like? As I stood looking at them one day, I realized how much more expensive those bags were compared to a 5 pounder of carrots straight from the field with minimal processing. Price per pound, a 5 lb bag of carrots works out to .60 per pound while the prepacked minis are $2.72 per pound. I just couldn't do it any more. So with that in mind, my carrots come home with me and are peeled and cut up into sticks the same day. I store them with cut up celery in a gallon zip lock where they keep for the week. Few minutes trouble, but great savings. Bonus is that it is so easy to reach in there for a few when you get the munchies but don't really want to invest your daily calories in something non nutritious.



Along those lines, I've also started washing and cutting up broccoli, green onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and the like when I get the produce home, so that they are ready to throw into just about anything in order to up my vegetable consumption every day. Bonus is that the veggies you buy at the store are actually being used by the end of the week, and you're not throwing away expensive produce. I have a covered party tray that I use that truthfully is a little large for the refrigerator but is convenient for me. Baggies or symmetrical food storage containers would work just as well too.



Wondering what bacon is doing here when I'm referring to healthy foods? Well, I've been known to purchase the precooked bacon on the deli aisle because it is ready to throw into a sandwich for the kids lunch or garnish a soup. The mess of cleaning up a frying pan and finding a container for the fat was a pain. Of course, super healthy eating would dictate not even bringing the bacon home. However, all things in moderation are OK, right? Once again, the precooked bacon runs anywhere from $18-26 per pound. You only pay $2.50 or so but are just getting 2 or 3 ounces of finished product. Bacon on sale usually doesn't cost more the $2.50 a pound. Tell me, that's the more frugal way. But how to make it easy on the cook?



Take a microwave safe plate and two paper towels. Stack the paper towels and then fold them in half and lay across the plate. Place your bacon strips quite close to each other on the towel. Cover with another single paper towel that has been folded in half. I microwave these 6 or so pieces of bacon for about 4 minutes. The fat is absorbed by the towels, the bacon comes out nice and flat, and they slide right into a zip lock bag for what you might need them that week. Not a bad idea.



So there you have it. Cut up veggies. Precooked bacon. A few ways that I find helpful to save money and time in the kitchen. What simple ideas do you find helpful to trim a few dollars off your grocery bill in the way of preparation secrets? Do you have ideas that not only help save money but also time? Leave me a note. I'd love to hear what you've found helpful.

Pinto Bean and Ham Bone Soup

Week number three of our commitment to include a weekly dinner based on good ol' frugal and healthy beans focuses on pinto beans. As I had a lovely ham bone with trimmings still hanging on it from Easter dinner, this was the perfect marriage of extracting that ham flavor and infusing it into this lovely bean dish.



soaking pinto beans

Pinto Bean and Ham Bone Soup
1 ham bone with some meat left on
2 cups dried pinto beans
8 cups water to soak dried beans in overnight
6-8 cups water for cooking beans in; alternatively use chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup green enchilada sauce
cilantro

Using overnight soak method, place dried beans and 8 cups water in large stockpot to soak over night. Drain beans in the morning and prepare to cook them either on stove top or in a crock pot.


soaked and drained pinto beans

If using a crock pot, place ham bone, beans, 6 cups water, garlic, and onion in crock pot. Cover and let the crock pot do its magic. If cooking on the stove top, add ham bone, beans, garlic, and onion to 8 cups of water. (Crock pot method uses slightly less water as there is no steam evaporation during cooking.)



pinto beans with ham bone in crock pot

Check after three to four hours if using the crock pot or after two hours on the stove top to determine tenderness of beans. Also, add additional water if beans begin to dry out. Once they have softened and are finally cooked through, remove ham bone. Carefully cut off any ham remaining on the bone. Finely chop the ham and return it to the soup. Stir in green enchilada sauce and top with chopped cilantro. Check for taste and add salt and pepper if needed.



cooked pinto beans

Add some vegetable sticks or a salad along with some cornbread, and dinner is served.



finished pinto beans and ham bone soup (without cilantro)

This was especially good served over tortilla chips. You could also mash the leftovers and reheat them in a skillet to make awesome re fried beans.

Basic Frugal Black Beans and Rice

So far so good, as this is week number two and our second 'beans and rice' dinner. Tonight I decided to experiment with black beans. As per recommendations, the beans were placed in my stock pot with about 4" of water to cover them. Lid was put on top and they were left to sit all night. Once I got around to it in the morning, I rinsed them thoroughly and then put them back into the pot with another 3 to 4 inches of water and set them to boil. Once they were boiling, I reduced the heat, covered the pot, and let them simmer for the next couple of hours until they seemed almost tender. At this point I drained the excess liquid from the beans and let them set until the rest of the ingredients were ready.

This is the point where your customization can take place. I morphed several recipes I had lying around into one based on the ingredients I had on hand. Remember, beans and rice are supposed to be easy on your budget and flexible. Once the beans have nearly cooked, you simmer together a few ingredients, stir them back into the beans to simmer together until beans are thoroughly cooked and you're ready to eat.



Basic Frugal Black Beans and Rice

3 cups dry-packaged black beans, cooked

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups sliced bell peppers - I had green peppers on hand
1 diced onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 can diced stewed tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth

Precooked rice - preferably brown rice

After preparing the black beans by soaking overnight, rinsing, and simmering for several hours, let excess liquid drain off by placing beans in colander.

In same stockpot, heat olive oil and add sliced peppers, onions, and garlic. Saute for several minutes until peppers begin to soften being careful not to burn garlic. Stir in canned tomatoes and chicken broth and let everything return to a simmer. Return beans to pot and simmer until beans are thoroughly cooked through. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

At this point you can top your beans with chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, or red pepper flakes depending on your taste. Serve up your rice in bowls, and top with the savory beans. Beans and rice at their best.

If you wished to amp up the flavor and you had any of the following on hand, any of these would be nice additions to the bell pepper slices:

corn kernels
finely chopped carrots
diced polish sausage (as you will note, I added sausage in the batch photographed above)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin or 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

When Frugal Minded Meets the Kitchen: Cooking with Dried Beans

In taking a closer look at paring down my weekly grocery bill, I decided that perhaps having one dinner per week based on beans might be prudent. I grabbed a couple bags of dried beans off the grocery shelves and started researching a few recipes. Now I routinely purchase canned beans all the time, but I was also interested in cooking my own beans to see how much extra work it would involve, if there was a taste difference, and to see if there would be a cost savings. And to top it all off, I know that including more beans in one's diet is a healthy way to go.

There are many tasty recipes out there. At the end of this post is the recipe for Tuscan White Beans recently published in the FoodDay section of our local newspaper, The Oregonian. The recipe was easy and tasted fantastic. A definite keeper.

How about cost savings on purchasing dried beans? Safeway.com prices their store brand of dried bean varieties at about .09 to .10 per ounce. Similar types of beans of their store brand canned variety price out at .06 to .07 per ounce. But that cannot be taken as a true comparison as the canned beans have already been cooked. Dry beans will triple their volume once cooked, so a more accurate comparison could be made by using .03 to .04 per ounce per final cooked weight of the dried beans. That's basically half the cost of the canned variety.

Everyone has heard about the health benefits of beans, but what specifically are they? Fiber is one of the number one benefits. They contain both insoluble and soluble fiber which contribute towards a healthy digestive tract by moving along digested food and absorbing fats, cholesterol and carbohydrates. In other words, a healthy gut equals lower risk of cancer and lower cholesterol levels.

Beans are a great source of non-fat protein. There are 16 grams of protein in just one cup. That's impressive.

Another benefit of beans is that they are a complex carbohydrate. These are the carbs that are considered to have a low or moderate glycemic index which help provide energy over a longer period of time by being slowly released into your bloodstream as opposed to a sudden rush of carbs.

And the USDA recommends that adults eat more than three cups of beans each week for maximum health benefits. That's three times more than the current average American currently eats. I'm all for upping those figures in our family.

By now you're also thinking that beans are healthy, and oh yes, the magical fruit. You know ... the more you eat the more you ... Well, here's some surprising news. Research shows that cooking your own beans and following the soaking/rinsing practice will greatly reduce the occurrence of intestinal gas. Cooking the beans slowly will also lessen any undesirable after affects of eating beans.

By following these simple soaking methods - I prefer the overnight method - cooking your own beans becomes easy and lessens worries you might have about eating them.

Soaking Dry-Packaged Beans

Before cooking, soak dry-packaged beans to help soften and return moisture to the beans and reduce cooking time. Most beans will rehydrate to triple their dry size, so be sure to start with a large enough pot.

•Preferred Hot Soak and Quick Soak Methods — Hot soaking helps dissolve some of the gas-causing substances, making the beans easier to digest. For each pound beans, add 10 cups hot water; heat to boiling and let boil 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for at least one hour (Quick Soak), or up to 4 hours (Hot Soak).

•Traditional Overnight Soak — For each pound (2 cups) dry-packaged beans, add 10 cups cold water and let soak overnight, or at least 8 hours.



This info alone was enough for me to decide that beans are cheap but extremely healthy eats. Here are some tidbits that will help you convert your existing canned bean recipes to one using dried beans.

15 oz can beans = 1-1/2 cups cooked beans, drained

16 oz or 1 pound dry beans = 2 cups dry beans = 6 cups cooked beans
8 oz or 1/2 lb dry beans = 1 cup dry beans = 3 cups cooked beans
4 oz or 1/4 lb dry beans = 1/2 cup dry beans = 1-1/2 cups cooked beans

Here's also a helpful calorie/fiber conversion:

2 oz or 1/8 lb dry beans = 1/4 cup dry beans = 3/4 cup cooked beans = 90 to 100 calories = 5-9g fiber

Not sure what variety of bean to start experimenting with? Here's a list of the beans I'm more familiar with and have the most experience cooking with:

Black
Medium-sized, black-skinned ovals
Also called Turtle bean
A favorite in South and Central American and Caribbean cuisine
Cooking Time: 1 to 1-1/2 hours

Dark Red Kidney
Large, deep reddish-brown and kidney-shaped
Famous in Red Beans and Rice
Popular in chili, soups and salads
Cooking Time: 1-1/2 to 2 hours

Light Red Kidney
Large, light red and kidney-shaped
Famous in Red Beans and Rice
Popular in chili, soups and salads
Cooking Time: 1-1/2 to 2 hours

Navy
Small white ovals
Belongs to the White bean or Haricot bean family
Often used in baked beans, soups and salads
Cooking Time: 1-1/2 to 2 hours

Great Northern
Medium-sized, white oval
Belongs with the White bean or Haricot bean family
Often used in soups, stews and Cassoulet
Cooking Time: 45 to 60 minutes

Pinto
Medium-sized, mottled beige and brown ovals
When cooked, loses mottling and turns brown
Staple in Latino cooking
Often found, whole or refried, in favorites like burritos and tacos
Cooking Time: 1-1/2 to 2 hours

Most, but not all recipes, will include instructions for soaking and cooking dried beans. But if you're substituting your own dried beans for the canned variety, here are basic directions for cooking your own beans.

Cooking Dry-Packaged Beans
•Drain soaking water and rinse beans; cook in fresh water. In general, beans take 30 minutes to 2 hours to cook depending on variety. Check bean packaging for specific cooking times and instructions.
•Spice up beans while they cook. Seasonings such as garlic, onion, oregano, parsley or thyme can be added to the pot while beans are cooking. Add acidic ingredients, such as tomatoes, vinegar, or citrus juices, only at end of cooking, when the beans are tender.
•Add salt only after beans are cooked to tender. If added before, salt may cause bean skins to become impermeable, halting the tenderizing process.
•To test for doneness, bite-taste a few beans. They should be tender, but not overcooked. When cooling, keep beans in cooking liquid to prevent them from drying out.

Okay, and now for the promised recipe:

Tuscan White Beans

2 to 3 ounces bacon, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced fine
1 large carrot, diced fine
1 stalk celery, diced fine
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
pinch fennel seeds (these really give the beans their fantastic taste!)
salt
1 pound Great Northern beans, sorted and soaked in water overnight
1 head garlic, top 1/8 cut off to expose cloves
1 bay leaf
6 cups chicken broth and/or water

Combine bacon and oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot set over medium-high heat and cook until bacon has rendered its fat, 3 to 5 minutes. Add onion, carrot, celery, red pepper flakes, fennel seeds and large pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown and sticking to bottom of pot, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in beans, garlic head, bay leaf, and broth and/or water; bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until beans are soft and tender (adding additional liquid as necessary to cover), 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

Remove garlic and bay leaf from pot. Discard bay leaf. When cool enough to handle, squeeze garlic cloves from paper skins, mash to paste with back of knife, and stir into beans. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and a pinch of sugar, if needed.

Serve with a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese or garlicy bread sticks and a large green salad. Mmm good.

Do you love or hate beans? Have you tried cooking them from scratch? I'd love to hear your experiences and what you have learned.

If you're interested in doing some more research on your own, here are some sites I found helpful:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/beans-without-flatulence.php
http://www.recipenet.org/health/articles/beans_chart.htm
http://www.johnrussell.name/recipes/beans.htm
http://americanbean.org/

Coupon Savings

Due to my recent interest in clipping coupons and inspiration from some mom blog sites such as Consumer Queen and tidbits of information I've run across on Twitter, I decided to track my savings through couponing both store and manufacturer, watching for store discounts, and checking into free offers. I have always been careful of spending as I am a stay at home mom, but to be truthful I would not always remember to take the coupons or to even clip them. In an effort to prove or disprove to myself whether it is worth the time and effort to look for the coupons, to be sure to use them before the expiration date, and to even remember to give them to the cashier, I decided to track savings. Have I ever been surprised.

It has not been quite 30 days, and I can track savings of $233.41 to date. The breakdown is as follows:

Store coupons $43
Store discounts $94
Manufacturer coupons $58
Value of free items $26
Miscellaneous $12

I have only followed the receipts from my purchases and haven't include any of my husband's, as he is not specifically targeting sales and coupons but in general purchases items as he needs them. On the other hand, I have been thoroughly reviewing the sale ads for Fred Meyers, our main grocery store chain that we purchase at. We also shop at Target, K Mart, Costco occasionally, and eat out as infrequently as possible. I utilized online coupons found through Consumer Queen and free offers that show up through Twitter. Sure it has taken a little more planning than just running out to the store and getting what you need when you need it. My husband preaches "time is money, and money is time", but in today's economy I can see that my time is worth the savings that we are incurring.

I plan on continuing to track our savings and am hoping to do a better job of matching up manufacturer coupons with local store offers. We do not have double coupons in our area so what you see is what you get in terms of coupons. I also generally purchase generic over store brands as Fred Meyers is part of the Kroger chain and carries their own high level line of products under the label of Private Selection. With the exception of Q-Tips - which generic just do not cut it in terms of quality - their store label brands beat out the unit cost pricing of major brands unless there is a fantastic store sale/coupon match up.

Time will tell if a little more planning will bump up our savings, but it will be interesting to watch nevertheless.

Homemade Pudding Cups

Perusing the grocery store aisles the other day, my youngest child, H-Bob, decided that she would like me to purchase a box of flashy looking pudding cups hanging in the deli case. No, no, no was my standard answer. Not because I'm against pudding, but more along the lines of wondering what really was in the cups and knowing the extra expense associated with throw away packaging and the like. Why not make our own I thought?

So off to the baking aisle we went and picked our own instant pudding mixes. They were on sale to boot as well. I fished out a coupon for storage containers and headed over to that aisle and picked up a set of small lidded containers. We were set and ready to make our own pudding cups.

Of course if you have the time, homemade pudding would work equally as well.

















This is a case of where no additional instructions are really needed. Mix up pudding mix as directed using your favorite % milk. We happen to have fresh raw goat's milk on hand from Goat Princess' 4H project animals, so we're fortunate to have some pretty rich milk on hand. We also used just a tad less milk for a firmer set. Just a personal preference of mine. After whisking for two minutes, we poured the pudding into the cups, lidded them up carefully, and then popped them into the refrigerator. Based on the size of your mix and the size of your containers, you should end up with four 1/2 cup servings of pudding. We actually prepared two batches at once just to be on the efficient side of things. Now they're ready to grab in the refrigerator for quick snacks and lunches. If I could only convince my high school son to pack one in his lunch and remember to bring back the container, I would share them with him too!

So have your pudding cups and eat them too.

Homemade Play Clay

Who doesn't remember that lovely tactile feeling of squishing something warm through their fingers as a child? Some of us have more than likely never outgrown it. Enter homemade play clay for your children. Here in the Northwest the kids don't even consider playing outside during our wet and cold winters much. In fact caring for the outside animals is just about all they can take. So we look for plenty of indoor activities to fill the time once 'official' school is done. This play clay recipe lasts an incredibly long time and is truly best enjoyed right after it is finished. It will slowly dry to a hard consistency if you care to air dry it, but keeping it tightly sealed while not using it is best. I've extended its shelf-life by keeping it in the refrig, but it's really not necessary. The original recipe gave it a life of two to four weeks, but I've never really tracked it. Here goes:

Homemade Play Clay

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
food coloring

Mix together all ingredients except for the food coloring over medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Stir together as thoroughly as you can at this point. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly. It will begin to thicken, and then get thicker, and then so thick that it is pulling off of the sides of the pan and you just can't stir anymore ... really! Just be sure to try and get down to the bottom of the pan while you're stirring. Your pan is going to look like it has crusties all over the sides, but don't panic. You'll just let it soak in water for awhile and it will all loosen up. Once the dough has come together into a fairly well-formed ball, the cooking stage is done.

Take the pan off of the heat and turn the dough out onto a heat-safe surface. Let it cool slightly, but half of the fun is kneading it while it's still warm.

Once you're safely able to handle the dough, call the kids and start kneading it as if you were working with bread dough. Never kneaded bread dough before? Then just push your palm into the dough to flatten, then fold it over on itself and repeat. It will go from hot and sticky to warm, smooth, and pliable before you know it.






If you want color in your dough, now is the time to dribble a few drops onto the dough and knead the color it. Now here's the caution: wet food coloring drops will stain whatever they come into contact with such as your hands, your kids hands, and even the counter before it has been mixed in. So think ahead. Work on a baking sheet and put your hands inside baggies if you're worrried.

That's it. Be sure to enjoy it while it's still warm and get creative.