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Saving Money Feels Fantastic: Apologies and Food or Fluff

4 Oct

Hellooo again!! 

First off, i want to apologize for not posting when i said i would. I had a ‘whopper’ of a migraine on Tuesday and have been recuperating.  Thank goodness for wonderful people in my life who, at the drop of a hat, came and took care of me all day. I’m blessed despite my health issues.

So, back to the Challenge! The next one is Meal Planning. Now, this just so happens to be one of those things that i would absolutely love to do each week – but it’s also one of those things that don’t happen (like grooming my dog each week).  Reading through her article :  http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/05/25/meal-planner/ inspires me to try. But with my lack of energy and everything, i’m going to skip it and go on to the next item on the LIST : What’s your fluff factor? but i like the phrase – Food or Fluff??

Now, we all know what Fluff is, but for those of you who want to pretend you don’t know. I’ll enlighten you : cheetos – nut clusters – that chocolate peanut butter spread (what is that called??) – tater tots (these are up there on the list with french fries. i love them but know i shouldn’t eat them) – ice cream ….. notice any common factors with these items? They are all processed. I.E. – not fresh. not real. But get this percentage  – we throw away about 25% of our grocery ‘haul’ each year. TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT. Ouch. That’s a lot of waste . And i love what she says (paraphrasing here) – ‘fluff doesn’t bring happiness. It costs you money’. 

You have got to read her article on this, she has a great mathematical problem on how to calculate your ‘fluff factor’. And after that, she gets me for skipping the meal planning part. For how do you keep from buying ‘fluff’? Have a meal plan – make a grocery list  – calculate fluff factor. Well, I might have to start trying to plan meals weekly. I will say this, with my diet, it’s harder to buy such ‘fluff’ and with my bank account (which is painful to look at) it makes it easier to buy essentials and essentials only. 

They do know how to market those items though. Sadly. We are fed information that we neeeed it, we just won’t be as happy as we could be if we bought it. And sure, it’s true. For a few minutes. And then it’s gone. 

Oops, sorry. I’ll get back on track here: Honestly, there isn’t much fluff in my basket when i go shopping. How about you? How do you avoid grabbing that tantalizing item? Share!

And next up is Freezer Tactics. 

On other topics. I am currently trying a new Challah bread recipe. I will share with you how it goes. It’s looking a little iffy right now =( Plus i’m going to throw together a spicy root and lentil soup for dinner. YUM! 

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Saving Money Feels Fantastic: Defrosting the Freezer

30 Sep

Hello again hello again!

Today was defrosting the freezer day. I remembered to read through her whole article this time before i started. 

http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/05/19/defrost-freezer/ – now, my freezer wasn’t filled with ice like the one in her article! It was actually completely clear of any ice which made me happy! Go freezer! Save money! so, I pulled everything out and got to scrubbing. 

scrub scrub scrub- my arms are now sore. 

It wasn’t that dirty but any dirt in a food storage area is too much in my book! I didn’t unplug it like she suggested – since that would be unplugging my fridge too. Undoes the smarts of it all. So i cleaned fast. Organized everything back in the freezer. Then, I pulled the fridge/freezer out from against the wall to clean from behind and under. whew. Now, we have a golden retriever (read: lots of hair) and tile (read: no carpet). So when you put those two together it means that we have dog hair skittering around the floor of our house, no matter how often i sweep, it is there 10 minutes later (Thanks Lady!) . So, as you can imagine, there was dog hair under the fridge. yuck. I refrained from taking any pictures of that! I’m so nice, aren’t I?

 I wiped the wall behind, back of the fridge and anywhere else that looked dusty. Then i started scrubbing the sides of the fridge and freezer. And, I got clever. I grabbed the Scrubbing Bubbles can and used it on the whole outside! It worked like a charm. The fridge is now sparkling clean. And that makes me happy.

And I’m happy to say, the only food I threw out was some old bread, got a little freezer burnt. Sad. But that’s the first food we’ve thrown out since Saturday’s fridge cleaning! I am rather proud of us. 

Until next time – Meal Planning (yipes!) – start scrubbing those freezers!

~Laura

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Saving Money Feels Fantastic : Fridge Raid

28 Sep

hello again, dear friends! 

Well, today i cleaned out the refrigerator – day 3 of the Food Waste Challenge that i’m doing on http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/05/07/organized-fridge/ . I started out feeling pretty good. I have been keeping up on what all is in my fridge. Or so I thought. I found more than I thought I would. Food gone bad and a fridge that wasn’t near as clean as I thought it was. =( So, out came every single item and scrubby-dub-dub. (enter a bit of a cinderella song).

I found 1 eggplant, a bit of green salad, 1/2 tomato, 1 avocado and 1/4 jar of tahini all gone bad. sigh. So, I have added that to the fairly empty diary for today. And now the refrigerator  is sparkling clean ( and finally figured out why nothing stands up right on a shelf in the door, it’s all bulgy-weird! haha, it’s not ME!) which is a very good feeling. 

You have got to check out the link above, she has step by step of cleaning out the fridge and putting it back together. Go ahead and read the whole thing, some of it you will shake your head and say ‘of course, i know this’ but who doesn’t need a nice reminder sometimes? One thing i don’t do, (and will go do if i can claw my way off this comfy bed  that i’m currently reclining on) is the vegetables in the ziploc bags. Hmm, might have to give it a shot. Now, we have a nice, friendly old fridge. Which means our crisper drawers are now ,well,  just drawers.  At least it doesn’t freeze our milk anymore. 

One thing i did not do with the fridge cleaning adventure, was pull it out and vacuum the back of it, but that is on my list for next week, when i’m in my cleaning clothes and my OH is at work. 

So, all in all, it is a very good endeavor, this emptying out the fridge. For intstance, who knew we had two partially empty jars of salsa? or 3 different hot sauces ( not mine!) ? Not only do you get out that which is nasty and organize that which isn’t, but you find items you didn’t know you had =)

Until next time – (cleaning the freezer!) – have a great weekend. 

~Laura

 

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Saving Money Feels Fantastic

26 Sep

hello again friends! 

I have recently stumbled across a great blog  (that i have been devouring the last day and a half) – and the writer has inspired me to do a week long Food Diary of what is wasted. yipes. I’m not sure this will be too pretty. Because I know, let me resay that –  I KNOW that we waste food way more than we should. See, my dad was one of many in that generation who repetitively  taught his kids to not waste any, and i mean ANY, food. if it went on our plate. we ate it. if it was in the fridge – we made something with it. food waste was throwing out $money$. 

Let me say – Thank you Dad for that lesson. I learned it. REAlly. I DID. 

it just….. slips the older you get i guess. So, i’m going on a mission to save more food, $money$, and to get my dad’s voice out of my head about how much $money$ i’m throwing in that garbage can (or the chicken bucket, thanks mom). 

And yes, i’m being brave and sharing it with all of you. (of course, if i didn’t tell anyone, i could mid-week give up. now i can’t. If anyone wants to join me, please do! i figure it can only help, right??? 

so, the facts: 

the page is http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/04/18/food-waste/   (i apologize for one of the ads on the side. i pretty much skim read until i can scroll down far enough on the page to not see it. dumb movie ads. ) She even has a printable  food diary. I will post every few days how it’s going and another link to that days’ blog page. =) 

How i am trying to reuse food items:

Today i am going to make a soup from chicken stock my mom froze for me, lentil beans i soaked myself, garbanzo beans my OH soaked and sweet potatoes and a whole lot of spices ( recipe: http://www.acouplecooks.com/2013/01/moroccan-chickpea-and-sweet-potato-stew/) i can’t eat tomatoes or onions, so i am omitting those from the recipe. I’m feeling rather proud of myself at the moment. so much savings! 

So, dear friends, i hope you go on this journey with me, or at least read along as i brave this possibly-tear-inducing-journey. But, the enticement? She says $1500 a year can be saved on groceries. I have a hard time believing that considering that implies that you are spending a whole lot more on groceries than we are. . . but. any $money$ saved is great! 

Until next time, 

Laura

What can i eat??

8 Sep

I originally wrote this post back in 2013, and while I now am eating nightshades again, the struggle is still on to eat healthy and still have variety. It is so very easy to get stuck in a food rut! foodallergiesmojo

My food options are shrinking…. About a year and a half ago I went Gluten, Dairy and Egg free, just to try and see if it helped with my digestion and my migraines. Let me tell you how hard this was for me to commit to : I am a culinary graduate who has learned to love aged cheeses, eggplant, ethnic foods, and the list goes on and who has always always always loved baking. Get some  flour, butter, sugar and more butter and it’s fantastic. Baking was, and is something that is calming to me.

Enter my naturopaths’s suggestion of going off all three of the major food areas and I balked. For about 4 months actually. I decided to wait until aaafter the holiday (cuz who wants to give up creamy mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and ice cream?)

By that time, my stomach was a wreck. It didn’t matter what i ate, it didn’t like it. So, i committed. I would try it for a month. I really didn’t expect it to work, but it did! It took a few weeks and all of a sudden, my stomach wasn’t screaming at me all day, every day.

Fast forward to a month or so ago – i decided that i couldn’t take the fact that my stomach was not completely happy. I talked to my naturopath again and she suggested taking out nightshades. That’s right. everything that makes up a great stirfry :

Break my heart. So i cut out bell peppers. Then tomatoes. Then onions. . . Oy. I have not been able to cut potatoes out all the way though. I ignored forgot that they were…

So, please, if you can, go make some bread, a pie, stirfry and eat some french fries for me =D  just kidding.

If you’d like more information on the nightshades, this is a great article :

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62

It’s kind of a lot to take in, when you are realizing your diet is shrinking once again! I miss me some tomatoes sliced with salt on top. just eat them with a fork. mmmm.

So Pinterest has become my close friend, not only because of the fabulous wardrobe that i dream that I now have, but because of the great recipes i have found. Here are some items that have become staples for me with this ‘diet’:

quinoa – hadn’t had this for years! it’s so delicous!

chicken – any which way i can make it

turkey  – ground, not ground, i’ll eat it

*did i mention i can’t really eat beef anymore either???

avocado – great source of protein. i buy a few each week to indulge in

zucchini – alone or on top of pasta. mmmm

Raw Meal protein shake – breakfast every day. it’s whey free and gluten free. vegan. delicous

almond milk – i just can’t stomach rice milk (too thin) or coconut milk (too thick) . almond does it for me!

fruits , fruits, fruits!

well, those are the most common. as you can see, not too much variety! If anyone has ideas, please share them! I am up for great dishes that I can eat!

~~~~~

I now frequently make granola, almond milk and almond butter from scratch and have started incorporating vegan recipes. What with finding out I have strains of ecoli and strep in my gut, along with being diagnosed with Lyme disease, I am trying to be gentle on this poor gut of mine. I don’t do near as well I should, but any step forward is in the right direction!

~La

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Pretzel Rolls to Die For!

7 Sep

the title says it all. i’m not kidding. these rolls are delicious. i have been craving bread (of any kind, really) for about a week now, so was perusing Pinterest (love it!) and saw this recipe for these killer rolls. Mine didn’t come out as gorgeous as the original bloggers’ , but i’m still proud of them! Next time, i’m doubling the recipe, 6 is not enough. 

I was so excited when i found this blog, she has a ton of recipes i want to try, but here’s the link for this one.  – http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/pretzel-rolls/

this time i’ll let you go over to her site for the recipe, she’s got great pictures to go with it. i’ll throw  my pictures of my adventure down below, but i will say this is one of the first gluten free recipes i’ve had turn out great the first time i’ve tried it!!!! the only problem i had was because my oven bakes hotter than it says, so they browned quickly. I had to leave them in about 30 minutes longer than called for on low temp to get the middle fully cooked.  Oh, and I, of course, used duck eggs instead of evil chicken eggs =) 

Hope this inspires you to try baking! 

 

Image

 

very wet dough….

 

Imagein the baking soda bath (had never done this before!!!)

 

Imageet voila!!! the finished product. and yes, i had to cut into one to eat it right away! YUM

Happy Baking friends!

 

 

 

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Chance Encounters

24 Aug

A while ago my mom and I were meandering through downtown (one of my favorite things to do!) and ended up in a cute used bookshop. They had a piano right in the middle of the room, with books stacked all on top of it. Now, if I could have that in my house….

Sorry, slight sidetrack. So, in that pile of books I found a book that I decided was worth the effort to buy get from the library. Luckily, I found it!  It is now one of my favorite books and eventually I will buy it! but for now, we are thankful for the library.

So, if you are interested in a biography wonderfully written, I suggest Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson –

 http://www.threecupsoftea.com/greg-mortenson-bio-and-professional-photo/

I am now reading a biography on Mother Teresa, (due to the Mortenson book….)  , this is a genre that I’ve never gotten into before, so I would love to hear any suggestions of further biographies. 

Happy Reading!!!

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The yes-it’s-actually-working-for-me- skin treatment

26 Jul

I have had, what i call, ‘skin issues’ (i absolutely hate the other words used for it ‘acn–‘ ‘pimp—‘ look , i can’t even type them. that’s how much i really do not use those words…) since a very early age. I can still remember my mom , bless her heart, telling me that since i started getting it so early, it would clear up sooner than most girls. . . . well, here i am 28 years old and still fighting it!
and losing to it mostly.
But recently i have found some things that have helped. and how overly glad that makes me!!!
So, i thought i would share them with you, in the chance that it might help you with your battle of the dreaded ‘issues’
step 1:
in the beginning of this year i splurged (well, that’s not entirely accurate, my OH did..) and bought Bare Minerals makeup. i had friends who used it and loved it and plus, I hated how my combination of Covergirl, Maybelline and Mary Kay didn’t stay on my face all day. i was constantly reapplying it. So, i had a trial run put on of the Bare Minerals and loved it all day. simply fantastic, my pores look smaller, my skin is one even tone and it does last all day!!

Image

step 2:
Then, i read on Pinterest how doing a oil cleanse is really good to get the gunk out of your skin and hydrates it all at the same time. so i thought, what the heck? i’ve got castor oil and olive oil here, i’ll mix up a batch and try it. it’s so nice. when i don’t do it in the evenings, my skin is drier the next day and i tend to have more little breakout issues than i do when i remember. here’s the link to how  to make your own oil concoction : http://simplemom.net/oil-cleansing-method/
step 3:
my mom bought me some facial cleanser that is gluten free, vegan. and everything else free, it’s fantastic. the brand is Acure. so i use that in the mornings in the shower.
step 4:
In the fall last year, when i was really frustrated with how horrible my skin was, my OH bought me some lotion that is fantastic. i mean really, it’s called Lotion with Potion for a reason. ( i got a sunburn last week, put it on it before i went to bed, especially the edges. and by the next morning, the burn was practically gone!) i love that the list of ingredients isn’t as long as my arm and i can pronounce everything. sigh. wonderful. It’s by Herb’s Daughter Custom soaps     

Imagehttp://herbsdaughter.net/

step 5:
this one might be a little weird. i don’t know of anyone else who does this. but for an ‘issue’ that is big and hurts and horrible, i pull out my spoon (that i always have in there )from the freezer and hold it on it. sounds strange. but it helps the irritation go down and it dims the bright horrid red-ness. brilliant.
So, there you go. ever since i started using the oil at night, lightly smooth on the lotion right after and use the face scrub in the morning, my issues aren’t nearly as bad. yes, i still get them and hate them, but i’m able to look at myself in the mirror and see something besides those spots. i’m able to see smooth skin and all one tone, thanks to the brilliance of Bare Minerals makeup.
Sigh. self – confidence is on the rise.

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Link

Delicious GF Chocolate Cookies

20 Jun

Delicious GF Chocolate Cookies

SO. i got an urge to bake for a friend today….

 and after about 20 minutes of internet recipe searching i found this delightfulness on glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com 

Chocolate cookies. with chocolate chips. that i can eat. sigh. glorious. But since this baking spree could only include that which i had in my cupboards, i tweaked the recipe. i melted bakers chocolate instead of using cocoa powder, didn’t have sorghum flour so i doubled the oat flour amount. oh, and i ground my own oat flour from our oameal! felt quite industrious. 

continuing – i don’t have any brown sugar so i just poured a touch more white sugar into the bowl. i do think that i will use less xantham gum and olive oil next time. and i didn’t have chocolate chips, and i baked them maybe 12 minutes instead of the full 15. But man do these cookies hold their shape and come out soft and chewy , the way a cookie should be. 

 so grab a mixing bowl, turn that oven on and make some delicious cookies. i’d advise turning on some blues while you bake. =) 

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper or an Exopat liner.

Ingredients:

Whisk together:

1/2 cup GF buckwheat flour or certified gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup sorghum (jowar) flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)
1/3 cup organic cocoa
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar

Add in:

1/2 cup light olive oil or Spectrum Organic Shortening
1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla rice milk, coconut milk, or almond milk- more as needed

As you beat the dough pay close attention to the consistency. Add more rice milk a tablespoon at a time, and beat to combine, until you achieve a smooth but sturdy cookie dough. I added two more tablespoons of rice milk to my dough.

Add in:

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:

Stir in the chocolate chips as best you can (the dough is stiff).

Roll a golf ball sized wad of dough between your palms, and place the ball on the lined baking sheet about two inches apart. Repeat this process to make 18 balls. Use your palm to press down on the dough and flatten slightly- not too much- unless you like your cookies thin. Press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies, if you like.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 15 minutes until the cookies are set. They will still be slightly soft in the center. If you bake two pans at once, rotate the pans half way through baking.

Remove the pans from the oven, and allow the cookies to cool and “set” for a few minutes; then use a thin spatula to move the cookies to a wire rack. The cookies will get crisper as they cool.

Cook time: 15 min

Yield: 24 cookies

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/04/gluten-free-chocolate-cookies-with.html#ixzz2WitnKwju

 

let me know if you make these!! or share your favorite cookie recipe with me! 

Thanks for stopping by

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Wal-Mart causes me stress

18 Jun

I have to share this frustration of mine – and see if anyone else shares it.

now, i haven’t ‘liked’ wal-mart for years but since meeting my OH i have conceded my ban on it and now go periodically because of how cheap everything is there. they even have gluten free items, now that’s just rude. and frustrating. don’t seduce me with gf items that are dollars cheaper than anywhere else! oy! 

anyway – i got sidetracked. the last few times i have been there not only is the place so huge and hard to find what you’re looking for , but there are birds flying around. 

um, really?

I asked my mom if i’m the only one that this bothers. . . 

am I?

now, I would love to have a garden and farm that fully sustains me – and then, of course, birds will be flying around and over my food. that doesn’t bother me in the least. it’s outside. nature. love it. but inside a store? shudder. 

well, now that i’ve gotten my rant out, i can focus on other things. like deep cleaning my house and taking care of my OH who is just getting back from the dentist, poor guy. 

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