Image

Fall means Soup

12 Oct

Fall means Soup

Now, i realize that i’m not exactly sticking to the challenge (the next step is the pantry!) but i wanted to share this delicious recipe that i tried this past week with you. I had some lentils in my fridge from a previous stew. So I went on to Pinterest (!) and searched for soups that I had most of the ingredients to already. I found some yummy soups but I decided this one looked delicious and worth trying. It’s Spicy Root & Lentil Soup from Wallflower Girl (a new blog that I can’t wait to spend some time reading through!)
It’s a delightful soup of parsnip, carrot, sweet potato and lentils. YUM. need i say more?
here is the link to her recipe of the soup : http://wallflowergirl.co.uk/spicy-root-lentil-soup/

But i will say that i only used 3 carrots. 1 parsnip. and didn’t have any vegetable stock so I used water. I also didn’t have any coriander – somehow, when I wrote down the ingredients I needed to buy, I didn’t even see those two! oy vay. and of course, I didn’t top it off with yogurt. But I can see that it would absolutely make it that much more delicous. My soup ended up much thicker than her photos of it – I think that’s because I let it simmer a mite too long which boiled the water right down. shrug. It was still super good. I’m not sure my OH was too fond of it – doesn’t bother me though! I’ll eat the whole batch. I’m fine with that.
Sorry I’m not putting the recipe directly on here, but I don’t want to take from the original blogger. Trying to be respectful, and since I didn’t really change the recipe all that much…. You get my drift.

Tags: , ,

A little bit of Venting and Upholstery

10 Oct

 Do you know what I really don’t like? What keeps me squirming and moving and mentally sighing?

 

Metal Chairs.

 

You know the ones I’m talking about. Those horrid folding metal torture devices that they insist you sit on for an indefinite period of time. There is no back support. For anyone over 5 foot 3 inches (sorry mom) there is no leg support. and they are seriously cold. freezing torture devices. 

Image

 

(just in case you weren’t sure…. see above photo) 

 

A crime against humanity. 

Now, if you think i’m overreacting to something so slight. I could normally  agree with you. After all, aren’t I glad that we at least have chairs? Most of the time, I would readily say ‘yes!’. But considering these chairs are the equivalent to sitting on the floor –  but somehow worse –  I can’t. 

Take this evening for instance. I sat in one for 1 1/2 hours – and had to force my back to straighten. I am now having shoots of pain straight down my legs. Not only does my…uhmm, derriere hurt, my hips ache.  And, honey, when my hips ache, I’m not a happy person.

 I’m not even 30 yet, how are these women in their 50s and up handling this? 

I want to know who invented such a thing. 

REally, how hard IS it to staple some cushion and fabric on a wood chair? Not that hard, I’ve done it before. Hmmm, maybe that’s what I should do – go ‘upcycle’ their chairs. . . . . 

Image 

Tags: ,

Link

Make your home a Warm Hug

7 Oct

Make your home a Warm Hug

 http://womenlivingwell.org/2013/09/making-your-home-a-haven-fall-challenge-is-back-with-an-ipad-mini-giveaway/

I love reading the posts on http://womenlivingwell.org/  – but i was so excited when i read that she is doing a monthly challenge on ‘making your home a haven’. i love this idea. So, although this will be hard with my OH only being home on weekends or random weekday nights, i aim to do this. Each weekly challenge seems to be easy and worth doing! i invite you all to follow the link and do this challenge with countless other women!

( and if anyone can tell me how to do an image as a link to a site, that’d be fantastic!)

Saving Money Feels Fantastic : On To the Freezer (Again)

7 Oct

Hello! I really hope you all are clicking the links and reading her full article on squawkfox. I love her sense of humor that she throws in. Take this next one – Freezer Tactics.

http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/06/20/zombies/

I enjoyed reading this, although my freezer doesn’t need organized – I did that when I defrosted it!! (pat on the back for me inserted here) But I had never heard of OAMC – Once A Month Cooking. Interesting. I can  see how one could want to do this with working full time and whatever else fills up your schedule (a little one, like she says). But, for me, I prefer to have a few backups in the freezer for those random times. Not as a  regular thing. But, I am also blessed with the fact that I am home often enough to make dinner for my OH and I . She also has links for freezing  items from your garden – yay! 

Next on the list was freezer inventory – with templates for a freezer map and inventory list. I can see the super organized type A types, liking both of those. Sadly, i’m not either. So, i won’t be using those (check back when we have kids and i’ll probably sheepishly admit to using both). 

http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/07/05/freezer-organization/

Next up is the Organized Pantry, which i really, really need to go through anyway. I’ll describe our pantry situation to you in the next post. =) 

Thank you for joining me on this journey – let me know if you’re enjoying my blog posts 

Happy Fall,

Laura

Tags:

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! 

Tags: , ,

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

Tags: ,

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

 

Tags: ,

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

Tags: , ,

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!

 

 

 

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →