Beans

Dried beans are an excellent source of protein, and are way cheaper than meat.  Unfortunately, they are pretty boring by themselves.  So, you have to be creative about how you spruce them up.  Things that I have found to work the best are chicken/beef/ham stock for both the soaking and the cooking liquid, plus I add salt to the cooking water.  This improves their flavor significantly.  Then, I also add them to other dishes instead of just having them as their own dish (except baked beans at a barbecue - love those).  For cooking tips and recipes on beans, check out The Family Homestead and click on her kitchen link and she gives you several tutorials on bean cooking.  Then you can also visit sites like all recipes, cooks.com, simply recips, etc and check out their bean recipes too.

Link

I peruse websites from time to time, and there are always a few that I go back to time and again.  The Family Homestead is one such site.  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ it provides a plethora of information as well as meal planning ideas, cooking tutorials, craft ideas, all done from within a budget (one income family homeschooling 8 kids).  She also does this while slowing incorporating more organic and natural food choices for the conventional ones.  You go girl!

Chicken Chili

Chicken Chili

1 leftover chicken carcass
3 quarts of water
*Boil these 2 for about 45 minutes until the water has become a broth and the meat begins to fall off. Remove the chicken from the pot to cool, continue to boil the chicken broth

1/2 pound pinto beans
1 tbsp salt
1 quart water
*add these to the chicken stock and boil about an hour and a half (until beans are tender and done)

chicken meat from cooled chicken
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 diced onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp chili seasoning (purchased or homemade)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1 tsp cumin
*add these to the pot and simmer for about a hour


Get creative and modify this to your taste - enjoy!

top with sour cream, cheddar and fresh cilanto

Home Decorating and Organization

I am not the most well organized and managed woman on the block - not by a long shot.  Of course I also don't claim to be.  However, there comes a time in every person's life when they realize that they need to be more organized and more managed because they need to be more responsible with their time and energy.  So I have been perusing the websites to look for good ideas, great pictures of ideas and of course, cheap ideas.  So, I have added a new link box to the right for Home Organizing/Management.  Enjoy the links, and if one doesn't work, let me know so I can fix it.

Harris Teeter is back to triples!

From November 4-10, Harris Teeter is offering triple coupons again - face value up to .99 which means your highest possible total value of the coupon is 2.97. ***However, make sure you look at your coupon closely and make sure your coupon does not say 'do not double or triple' or 'face value only'

Happy Shopping.

'Tis the Season

This is a wonderful season with Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching.  However, there are many who are strapped because of job loss, etc.  Please consider adding an extra bag of rice or beans, mac & cheese, canned goods, etc to your cart with every trip to the grocery store and donate it to a food pantry or local family.  If you attend church, you can organize a group to bring foods together to donate to needy families. 

Please remember those in need  - most of the grocery store chains will be running wonderful sales in time for Thanksgiving, so please consider buying a bit extra to share.  You never know when your turn to be in need will come.

Chicken Breasts

I like to use chicken breasts in recipes, but I hate the 2.99/lb price tag for the boneless variety, so I don't buy them often.  Right now, Food Lion has split chicken breasts for .77/lb which is DIRT CHEAP!!!  And it is not that difficult to cut the hunk of breast meat out.  It may take you a couple of minutes of time, but when your done 'processing' your chicken, save the bone and skin portions (in the freezer) to make broth later.  Double whammy savings!

Phonics Tiles

I found these at my local dollar tree for (of course) $1 and they sell online for $5-$12 a pop - so if you are a homeschooler or just interested in teaching your young child reading skills, go pick some up. *Steph - if they don't have these in your area, let me know and I'll ship you some!

http://www.abcstuff.com/items/LT032.html

Old Socks

We often have 2 problems related to socks - #1 - the mismatch with no clue where the other one is; or #2 - the elastic stretches out (especially on hubby's socks - hmmmm, bet there's a link there). So my dilemma is what to do with old socks and I have a couple of ideas

1 - sock puppets - a good and time consuming craft idea for children which can followed by puppet shows for hours of free entertainment

2 - dusting - slip the old (clean) sock on your hand and it becomes a mitt without the $5 price tag of buying the name brand mitts, plus you have reduced, reused and recycled some old thing that could have been useless trash into something useful once again.

What other good uses do you have for old socks?

The Olive Oil Thing....

Okay, a few weeks ago I posted this about olive oil for moisturizer. So, I've been doing it since then and have noticed a few things:

• My towels are not spotty (question I received)
• My bathtub is not slippery (You only use a tad)
• If I miss a day, I'm still not ashy
• I use it on my face (a single drop on wet hands spread onto a wet face, the pat dry with a towel), and while I have seen no increase or decrease in acne (I still have the occasional small breakout), I have a noticeable difference in the smoothness of my skin and my normally very oily skin is less oily (that was a suprise to me - I was truly expecting the opposite effect).
• My skin does not feel oily, but moisturized
• My clothing is not spotty either

If you have not tried it, you're not going to hurt anything, just remember do it after you shower when your skin is still wet and don't use very much, or you will feel like a McD's french fry.

Heat wave

We recently had some super hot, sunshiney weather. While this was great for hitting the pool, or beaching it, my AC unit was struggling to keep up in the afternoons! In order to keep the heat to a minimum, and to save some energy dollars...I closed the curtains. I love to let light in, but with light comes heat. So after lunchtime each day, I closed all the curtains & blinds on the sunny side of the house. I also made a temporary curtain for a full glass door out of a dark fitted sheet. This made it shady...perfect for the napping children. I also noticed my AC did not have to run as continuously!

The County Dump

Check your county central recycling center for free items. For instance, today I got 2 desk/chair combo units with NO RUST, NO DENTS, and NO CHIPs for free - and there were several more, plus highback computer/desk chairs and other odd and end furnishings. I was told they were happy to pass the items on to those that would find them useful instead of having to destroy them -

Happy Hunting!

Pesto on the Cheap

If you buy all of your pesto ingredients at the grocery store to make homemade pesto, then you are going to pay premium price, but there is another way.

1 - grow the basil yourself. It costs $1 to buy a pack of basil seeds, and you can just put it in your flower bed and take care of it with the rest of your flowers, and you end up with way more basil than you and your neighborhood could ever use

2 - grow your own garlic. Buy a bulb from the grocery store, and plant a couple of the cloves (again, in your flowerbed) - look up specifics on drying and storage for your area so you don't get rotten garlic. One bulb produces roughly 15 cloves and each clove produces another bulb, so you may never have to actually purchase garlic again

3 - pine nuts. This is the toughy - you can do one of 2 things - buy them in bulk to save the moolah over time, or go find some pine cones and harvest them yourself. This can be done, but it is a little labor intensive. However if you have the time, go for it - make it a job for kids looking for something to do.

4 - Olive oil - unless you know how to press it yourself, just buy it, and get a good quality.



Put basil leaves (4 cups unshredded is a good place to start), 2 garlic cloves, and 2 tbsp pine nuts in a blender and blend for 20 seconds on pulse. Then, drizzle in the oil from the top of the blender (through the hole made for that purpose, not with the lid completely off) and pulse the blender at the same time until you reach the desired consistency. Easy smeasy - and you can vary it how you like: add in another herb, use a different nut, salt, pepper or cayenne for flavor, add parmesan cheese, etc, etc - have fun with it.

Guest Post - Soap Non-Slip

Hey, ladies. I'm going to share a totally stupid and purely accidental tip.

You know how, in the bathtub/shower, you always have a hard time keeping the soap in place? Well, I do. So you buy those stupid metal holders that rust or the plastic holders that get all gross and mildewy ...right?

All of you have long hair, I know because I know you :). So, spend $3.00, get yourself a dozen ponytail holders with the elastic no-slip grip on them, and put one on the shelf of your tub. Sit your soap on top of that...no-slip soap, no mildew, no rust.

Works like a charm. :)

Courtesy of Jodi

Thanks Jodi - MommyB

Shred cheese

My family loves shredded cheese. We use cheddar & mozzarella mostly. I usually buy the bag kind when it is on sale. But sometimes, the bag stuff will start getting moldy before we can use it all. It is nearly impossible to seperate it to be used. I recently found block cheese cheaper than the pre-shredded cheese. So, I broke out the cheese grater and got to work. I shredded into a large bowl, then divided the cheese into smaller portions to freeze. This way I can not waste cheese, and I don't eat the added cellulose- whatever that comes in the pre-shredded kind to keep it from sticking. I find that my frozen doesn't stick together, even without additives!

Homemade Febreeze

Homemade Febreeze

1 - spray bottle (usually about 22oz)
water to fill bottle to about 90% capacity
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 oz liquid poppouri (sp?)

Mix in spray bottle and enjoy!


**You may be able to add more baking soda, but I haven't tried this yet and I want to make sure it doesn't leave a powdery residue. 1 tbsp won't, but I'll try 2 next time. I want the additional odor absorbing power but not the residue. You could also use less or even no fragrance if you wish, depending on your preference. let me know how it goes


****Don't forget to write on your bottle what it contains******

Nutmeg

I'm going to assume that we are all familiar with the distinctive taste and smell of nutmeg. In the winter it reminds us of pumpkin pie, sweet potatoe pie (in the south anyway) and cinnamon buns. I personally don't use it very often, but I've found other wonderful uses for it such as homemade cake doughnuts, cream sauces, spice cakes and fruit based breads (ie banana, zucchini, etc) and muffins.

Ground nutmeg can be purchased at the dollar tree for $1, and it's fine for awhile, then you have to replace it because it does lose it's flavor. Well, I do something a little different that is worth it in both taste and money.

First of all, I have a nutmeg grater - these tools can be purchased anywhere from $1 to $40 depending on how fancy you want to get. I personally have a Microplane nutmeg grater that I got for about $5. And I buy whole nutmeg. Whole nutmeg is literally the whole nut - dried. You get about 10 in a little glass jar for about $3.50.

I have had my nutmeg for 2 years now and I'm still grating on the first nut (I'm about halfway through it). You see, when you grind your own nutmeg, you don't get the flavor loss issue because your whole nuts don't expire and each time you use it it's a fresh grate. It also takes less because fresh grated has more explosive flavor than powdered. The smell is also phenomenal, and has a subtle sweetness to it.

Come to think of it, I bet if most of you checked your kitchens, you probably have a nutmeg grater, or some variation of it in your home already, maybe as just a plain old box grater - one side of it has very tiny compacted protrusions that most people don't have a clue what to use it for - so use it for nutmeg.

But please don't tell me you've paid $40 for a nutmeg grater - that's just not a 'money saving mommies' thing to do :)

Homemade Pancake Syrup

A few months ago I posted "Homemade Pancakes", well, now I'm posting the syrup recipe to go along with it. I actually just finished making this for my family and they gobbled it up.

1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

optional:
1 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp maple syrup or 1/8 tsp maple extract
other flavoring as desired

Put the water, sugar and vanilla (and any other additive you chose) in a pot and boil rapidly while you make your pancakes. When your pancakes are done, so is the syrup (about 5 minutes of rapid boiling). It will be a little thin while hot, but will thicken when cooled. We actually prefer it hot though since the butter on the pancakes tends to cool them down. If you want it cooled - do the syrup before you do the pancakes so it has a couple of minutes to cool down before using.

Makes about a 1 1/2 cups syrup

Enjoy!

Make your own deodorant

This is taken from an online article in Health in High Heels.

I've been looking for good, healthy deodorant for a while now, but came to the conclusion I wasn't going to find one that I like for a good price and with a great smell that didn't let me smell...lol!

I have to say I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I definitely will be.

Here is what the woman wrote:

"Ok, the super simple recipe: Get out a little container. Mix in equal parts (I use about 1/3 cup each) cornstarch, baking soda, and coconut oil. Drop in two drops essential oil. Let it sit outside in the sun, on your heater, or melt it on the stove (gasp) by placing the container in a little hot water.

Stir it up, and if your coconut oil was solid at your room temperature, let it harden up and just scoop a little out to use it. If your coconut oil was liquid at your room temperature, you can put it in the frig and try to scoop a little out each day. If refrigerated, it tends to get too hard for my liking so I devised a Dixie cup applicator. Go to your mother's house and borrow a little Dixie cup from her bathroom dispenser. Then fill it with the mixed up liquid deodorant and let it harden in the frig. Tear the paper down and apply just like your stick deodorant. You'll likely have to store it in the frig during the summer. Play around with it to see what works best. If it melts and separates, just stir it up and refrigerate again."

If you try this please post a comment and let us know how it turned out and if you have any tips or hints for the everyone else. Can't wait to hear! Have fun & happy "cooking"!

Homemade Bagels

This is one of my very favorite recipes, and if you're really crafty, you can also make your own pizza bagel bites out of these (just make them much smaller). You could also wrap the dough around a hotdog prior to boiling for bagel dogs.


Bagels: Boil:
6 ½ cups bread flour 2 tablespoons baking soda
2 cups water 1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons yeast Topping:
2 tablespoons oil (I use olive) 1 egg
2 tablespoons sugar (I use honey) Other: poppy seed, sesame seed, salt
1 tablespoon salt (I use kosher)

*Combine bagel ingredients but only 4 cups of the flour in a bowl and stir until well combined
*Add in another cup of flour and stir (this should get pretty difficult, that’s normal)
*Turn dough out onto kneading surface (table, cutting board, etc)
*Knead dough while adding the last flour about ¼ cup at the time until the dough feels “as soft as a baby’s bottom” and is not sticky at all (it may take a little more or a little less flour, that’s okay)
*Oil a large bowl and put dough ball into it and roll it around to coat it. Cover with a warm damp towel and put in a corner to rise until doubled (about an hour). Then punch down
*Knead dough ball for just a couple of minutes to get the air bubbles out
*Cut or pull apart into 4oz sections (about the size of a small yellow onion)
*Working quickly, and doing one section to completion at a time . . . . .
*Roll under your palm on a kneading surface until the ball is smooth, then Poke a hole in the middle with your thumb and work the dough from the hole until it is the size of a small bagel with a slightly large hole then immediately place on a cookie sheet
*Boil Water in a pot with 2 tablespoons baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt
*Boil each bagel for 30 seconds on each side then remove promptly
*When all bagels are done boiling, brush them lightly (starting with the coldest first) with a raw egg that has been beaten in a bowl. (This will help the bagel get a brown chewy crust)
*If you care to add toppings such as kosher salt, poppy seed or sesame seed, do it now
*Bake at 400F until done (about 15-20 minutes)
*Allow to cool before cutting into