500 Uses for Baking Soda
I picked this up at the library and have to say that a lot of these are wonderful tips that I've never come across (in a very frugal and thrifty upbringing!) It's amazing. There's a method to get rid of anthills by baking soda and vinegar- as soon as I can get outside to locate an anthill I'm going to try this one. If it cuts down on the Sugar Ants, I'm going to be the happiest wife on the block.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Baked Ham with Apples:
1 smallish ham (I opted for the smoked, fully cooked ham. No risk for possible undercooking in crockpot).
5 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced. I didn't bother making them all neat and pretty- they are cooking down in any case.
3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to taste -try a handful of cinnamon candy hearts, if you have them. These are great to find on sale after valentine's day, and they keep. They also turn applesauce pink when cooked in!
Throw in crockpot. Cook on low. Eat.
Honestly, I don't think a recipe can get much easier than this. The hardest part was chopping apples. Especially since my apple corer/slicer broke shortly after we moved into this place. Not fun- the Toddler loves apples. Especially fresh apples. Tonight she'll be introduced to baked apples and ham. I suspect this will be another case of love at first bite.
1 smallish ham (I opted for the smoked, fully cooked ham. No risk for possible undercooking in crockpot).
5 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced. I didn't bother making them all neat and pretty- they are cooking down in any case.
3 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to taste -try a handful of cinnamon candy hearts, if you have them. These are great to find on sale after valentine's day, and they keep. They also turn applesauce pink when cooked in!
Throw in crockpot. Cook on low. Eat.
Honestly, I don't think a recipe can get much easier than this. The hardest part was chopping apples. Especially since my apple corer/slicer broke shortly after we moved into this place. Not fun- the Toddler loves apples. Especially fresh apples. Tonight she'll be introduced to baked apples and ham. I suspect this will be another case of love at first bite.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Vegetarian Lasagna
about 46oz of your favorite spaghetti sauce
4oz can mushrooms
a handful of frozen chopped onion
10oz brick of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
between 5 and 6oz firm silken tofu
1 tsp powdered garlic
8oz shredded mozzarella
lasagna noodles, uncooked
Start by sauteeing the onions and mushrooms until they're nice and warm and sizzly. Add the spaghetti sauce and remove from heat. In another bowl mix the spinach, garlic, and tofu together. In a large baking dish layer: sauce, noodles, spinach/tofu, sauce, noodles, spinach/tofu, sauce. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45min. Remove foil, cover the lasagna with cheese, bake another 15min.
Let set for about 10 before eating. I made this during the post lunch nap, let it sit on the stove all afternoon (hey, not that long, just around 90minutes or so) until the family started needing dinner. Then we cut and ate it with a salad and bread&butter. Some chose to reheat it, some ate it cold with great enjoyment.
This was my first experience ever with cooking tofu. I expected to be able to tell it was there; when I went to eat it I could not detect anything other than cheesy lasagna goodness. The Boy bitched about the inclusion of mushrooms. He doesn't like them, but I put them in for added nutritive value. He survived.
about 46oz of your favorite spaghetti sauce
4oz can mushrooms
a handful of frozen chopped onion
10oz brick of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
between 5 and 6oz firm silken tofu
1 tsp powdered garlic
8oz shredded mozzarella
lasagna noodles, uncooked
Start by sauteeing the onions and mushrooms until they're nice and warm and sizzly. Add the spaghetti sauce and remove from heat. In another bowl mix the spinach, garlic, and tofu together. In a large baking dish layer: sauce, noodles, spinach/tofu, sauce, noodles, spinach/tofu, sauce. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45min. Remove foil, cover the lasagna with cheese, bake another 15min.
Let set for about 10 before eating. I made this during the post lunch nap, let it sit on the stove all afternoon (hey, not that long, just around 90minutes or so) until the family started needing dinner. Then we cut and ate it with a salad and bread&butter. Some chose to reheat it, some ate it cold with great enjoyment.
This was my first experience ever with cooking tofu. I expected to be able to tell it was there; when I went to eat it I could not detect anything other than cheesy lasagna goodness. The Boy bitched about the inclusion of mushrooms. He doesn't like them, but I put them in for added nutritive value. He survived.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
I was looking through this month's issue of Leadership in Action (the monthly magazine from Melaleuca, whose products I am seriously hooked on) and came across the cost comparison table for household cleaners. These are things we all use every day/week, are buying every month, and which for some of us are a pretty big deal. Now, I used to be a Lysol Girl- all the time, that was the best thing since sliced bread, the ultimate product for my home. Then I had a preemie, and by the time Tiff started creeping around and putting everything in her mouth (including the desk chair, the sides of my cabinets, and shoes. What was that about???) I started taking the fine print on my lysol bottle a bit more seriously.
I'm a grownup. I know not to put the stuff in my mouth, not to lick a surface that I've just cleaned, I even know how to wash my hands when I'm through scrubbing the floor. Tiff didn't. Which is why when I talked to a friend of mine who had just been introduced to these products, I jumped at it. Is it a cost every month? Yes. Would I be spending this kind of money anyway? Yes. And I'd be spending more of it to get a house this clean. By comparison, costs are per fluid oz.
laundry detergent
tide: .31
melapower: .16
fabric softener
Downy: .26
Melasoft: .08
Whitener/brightener
ultra clorox 2: .29
melabrite: .16
dishwasher:
cascade: .42
diamond brite: .28
all purpose cleaner
409: .11
tough and tender: .05
bathroom cleaner
limeaway: .22
tub n tile: .05
window cleaner
windex: .15
clear power: .05
After you get done looking at that, look at how much you use per job. Instead of filling the dishwasher cup, I use maybe a third as much detergent to get perfect results. So the cost comes down more and I don't feel stingy with cleaning products. I look at all the stuff they make, the phosphate-free formulas, the non-toxic ingredients, the part about how it's cost-efficient and eco-friendly. I see that I don't have to have every door and window open if I need to deep-clean my bathroom- it's fume-free too. Which gets rid of my excuse for not cleaning the bathroom as much as I should, but that's no reason to trash the product, right?
A completely unexpected benefit of buying through Melaleuca is that they send me a check each month. It's only a small itty percentage of what everyone else who enrolled through my friend makes... Instead of the company going out and spending millions on advertising, they send a percentage of revenue back to the people who use and buy the products. My friend signed up 8 people in her first month; as long as they are customers she sees about 7% of their orders come back to her. Plus there was a bonus for enrolling a total of 8 people that month. About $500 worth. I often wish for the kind of people-skill that would let me talk to the people I know in real life about this. Darn the shyness, the non-outgoing person I am, and most of all the stomach-paralyzing fear of public speaking. It's hard enough to make small talk while hanging out with the other mothers at my daughter's weekly school/therapy session. Unfortunately, I can't seem to do it. Which is why I've got to rely on online surveys, paid blogging on my main blog site, and advertising on my blogs in order to bring in a few extra bucks every month. Right now I get about $15 a month in my Melaleuca check. It pays for the shipping of my order. If only... I could pay the rent on our house. Maybe I'm just not really motivated enough yet to get past the anxieties.
Now if I could just talk to enough people online and do my enrollments over the Net and through the mail? I'd be set.
I'm a grownup. I know not to put the stuff in my mouth, not to lick a surface that I've just cleaned, I even know how to wash my hands when I'm through scrubbing the floor. Tiff didn't. Which is why when I talked to a friend of mine who had just been introduced to these products, I jumped at it. Is it a cost every month? Yes. Would I be spending this kind of money anyway? Yes. And I'd be spending more of it to get a house this clean. By comparison, costs are per fluid oz.
laundry detergent
tide: .31
melapower: .16
fabric softener
Downy: .26
Melasoft: .08
Whitener/brightener
ultra clorox 2: .29
melabrite: .16
dishwasher:
cascade: .42
diamond brite: .28
all purpose cleaner
409: .11
tough and tender: .05
bathroom cleaner
limeaway: .22
tub n tile: .05
window cleaner
windex: .15
clear power: .05
After you get done looking at that, look at how much you use per job. Instead of filling the dishwasher cup, I use maybe a third as much detergent to get perfect results. So the cost comes down more and I don't feel stingy with cleaning products. I look at all the stuff they make, the phosphate-free formulas, the non-toxic ingredients, the part about how it's cost-efficient and eco-friendly. I see that I don't have to have every door and window open if I need to deep-clean my bathroom- it's fume-free too. Which gets rid of my excuse for not cleaning the bathroom as much as I should, but that's no reason to trash the product, right?
A completely unexpected benefit of buying through Melaleuca is that they send me a check each month. It's only a small itty percentage of what everyone else who enrolled through my friend makes... Instead of the company going out and spending millions on advertising, they send a percentage of revenue back to the people who use and buy the products. My friend signed up 8 people in her first month; as long as they are customers she sees about 7% of their orders come back to her. Plus there was a bonus for enrolling a total of 8 people that month. About $500 worth. I often wish for the kind of people-skill that would let me talk to the people I know in real life about this. Darn the shyness, the non-outgoing person I am, and most of all the stomach-paralyzing fear of public speaking. It's hard enough to make small talk while hanging out with the other mothers at my daughter's weekly school/therapy session. Unfortunately, I can't seem to do it. Which is why I've got to rely on online surveys, paid blogging on my main blog site, and advertising on my blogs in order to bring in a few extra bucks every month. Right now I get about $15 a month in my Melaleuca check. It pays for the shipping of my order. If only... I could pay the rent on our house. Maybe I'm just not really motivated enough yet to get past the anxieties.
Now if I could just talk to enough people online and do my enrollments over the Net and through the mail? I'd be set.
Something I find myself taking for granted is that Stay-At-Home-Moms have all the time in the world. We don't work, right? How can we not find the time for gourmet meals or spotless homes? An hour or so for one, same for the other. Day in and day out. If only it were that simple. It takes time to learn any job. How do we juggle dishes and diapers- one can wait and the other sometimes can't. More resources are out there than before to help us learn our ways around. FlyLady offered me hope for housework. Saving Dinner is going to help me put nutritious meals on the table every night- we're still in the honeymoon phase, but the optimism inspired by these sites gives me warm fuzzies.
More efficient use of my time, available these days only in small chunks of uninterrupted status, lets me spend more happy time with the kid. Time not spent feeling guilty over an unmade bed or a sink full of dishes. Perfection is not found on earth. Happiness is what you make of it.
More efficient use of my time, available these days only in small chunks of uninterrupted status, lets me spend more happy time with the kid. Time not spent feeling guilty over an unmade bed or a sink full of dishes. Perfection is not found on earth. Happiness is what you make of it.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Yesterday I was catching up on my FlyLady.net mail and came across one of their featured summer recipes. It looked tasty, but I know I couldn't get my family to eat it so I just scrolled through, skimming to see if there was any further content I could use. And then I learned that the recipe was credited to the fine ladies at savingdinner.com (Note: this is not one of those paid/sponsored blog posts. This is an actual kudo from my life to yours) Well, checking into the site further I found I could afford to subscribe to a three month package of weekly menus/shopping lists mailed to me. I can also go online to download it.
The first choice I had was which plan to sign up for: they run them by the standard year, but can break down quarterly for those of us who hesitate to commit to a full year. The second choice was which specialty I wanted to choose. They feature plans for weight watchers, health restrictions, seafood/meat/vegetarian only options. The choice I went with was frugality. I signed up, paid them, and a few minutes later I had the introductory menu in my inbox.
The first page of the pdf file is the grocery list. It gives you a brief synopsis of the 6 planned meals for the week, with suggested sides, and breaks down the necessary ingrediants into grocery-store sections. Meat, produce, condiments, dry grocery, etc. After each ingrediant is a parenthetical notation that tells you which meal it goes to- in case you need/want to alter their plans in any way. Cross off the list anything you already have, and off to the store you go. I crossed off about half the meat section, half the spices/condiments, and a few other things. My grocery bill this morning at Food Co came to $68.56 which included several little extras that we eat regularly and were out of. Each recipe serves 6-8, and I'm thinking that the way we eat/stretch certain things out that this shopping/menu plan will last more to 10 days rather than the 7 it's designed to cover. Assuming a couple of leftover nights and the weekly pizza delivery, I'm thinking that my three month subscription could be stretched out to cover 6 months of real-time. I'll let you know how it goes.
The first choice I had was which plan to sign up for: they run them by the standard year, but can break down quarterly for those of us who hesitate to commit to a full year. The second choice was which specialty I wanted to choose. They feature plans for weight watchers, health restrictions, seafood/meat/vegetarian only options. The choice I went with was frugality. I signed up, paid them, and a few minutes later I had the introductory menu in my inbox.
The first page of the pdf file is the grocery list. It gives you a brief synopsis of the 6 planned meals for the week, with suggested sides, and breaks down the necessary ingrediants into grocery-store sections. Meat, produce, condiments, dry grocery, etc. After each ingrediant is a parenthetical notation that tells you which meal it goes to- in case you need/want to alter their plans in any way. Cross off the list anything you already have, and off to the store you go. I crossed off about half the meat section, half the spices/condiments, and a few other things. My grocery bill this morning at Food Co came to $68.56 which included several little extras that we eat regularly and were out of. Each recipe serves 6-8, and I'm thinking that the way we eat/stretch certain things out that this shopping/menu plan will last more to 10 days rather than the 7 it's designed to cover. Assuming a couple of leftover nights and the weekly pizza delivery, I'm thinking that my three month subscription could be stretched out to cover 6 months of real-time. I'll let you know how it goes.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
update/family review on the beef barley.
Overall this was a winner. I was generous with the barley and it plumped right up to make the whole thing less stew-like and more main-dish like. Overnight in the fridge the stew solidified, and when reheated did not provide extra broth... so if you like having the brothy-goodness you should be gentle on the barley and maybe add some extra broth to the pot.
The picky Toddler liked it. Or didn't like it. She couldn't make up her mind what extreme to follow, and so I can't give a true opinion on her behalf. Broadly I'd say that she accepted it, loved the big chunks of soft meat, especially liked being able to pull it apart with her fingers and get messy with it.
Overall this was a winner. I was generous with the barley and it plumped right up to make the whole thing less stew-like and more main-dish like. Overnight in the fridge the stew solidified, and when reheated did not provide extra broth... so if you like having the brothy-goodness you should be gentle on the barley and maybe add some extra broth to the pot.
The picky Toddler liked it. Or didn't like it. She couldn't make up her mind what extreme to follow, and so I can't give a true opinion on her behalf. Broadly I'd say that she accepted it, loved the big chunks of soft meat, especially liked being able to pull it apart with her fingers and get messy with it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)