Photo by jameelwinter I’m excited to be participating in the Go Green & Save Green Series with several other green bloggers this week! We’ll be talking about different areas of green and natural living, showing you how to go green while saving money at the same time! Be sure to check out the great links at the end of this post! After posting my chicken salad recipe a while ago, I was thinking that I should share my method behind the madness for cooking a whole chicken, and making … [Read more...]
Preserving Summer’s Bounty – Freezing Berries
I'm pretty new to the whole preserving foods thing. I've made freezer jam the last few years, frozen strawberries, blueberries, peaches and asparagus to use throughout the year, and canned applesauce, but that's about the extent of my preserving experience. But, I have learned from my experience every year, and plan to do more and more preserving each year. I have hopeful plans and expectations for the amount and kinds of food that I want to put up this year, and just wanted to share some … [Read more...]
Homemade Vanilla Coffee Creamer
My cup (or two) of coffee is my favorite thing about waking up in the morning. I actually kind of look forward to it each night when I'm going to bed. Especially if I can get up and drink it in peace and quiet, before my little ones wake up, looking forward to what the day will bring. I like my coffee with a good amount of creamer, specifically vanilla flavored creamer. Awhile ago though, I decided that I really needed to ditch my addiction to store-bought French Vanilla coffee creamer. If … [Read more...]
How to Make Homemade Yogurt
Photo by hollygon21 My kids and I eat homemade yogurt on almost a daily basis, and I am still here to tell you about it!Homemade yogurt might seem overwhelming, or a little scary - you are culturing bacteria after all, but it really couldn't be easier. Plus it's good for your wallet, it will definitely save you money, especially over buying the individual fruit flavored cups, and good for the earth because it saves on the processing and packaging of conventional yogurt. I made my first … [Read more...]
Cooking from Scratch
Photo by nc_hiker I have been cooking more and more from scratch at home then ever before. Partly I'm trying to be frugal and save money by buying basic baking and cooking supplies in bulk and then using them to make stuff at home.Also, I really like being able to control the ingredients and what goes into the food we eat. After reading Real Food and watching Food, Inc. (more to come on that soon), I'm convinced that there's a lot of "food" out there that isn't really food, and that … [Read more...]
Baking Day Bonanza!
So, I started my first attempt at baking/freezer cooking days yesterday. Things went pretty well. Not as great as I had planned, but I was trying not to set my expectations too high since this was my first time attempting something like this.The one picture I managed to take yesterday - yummy pumpkin muffins!A few thoughts from the day:It is WAY easier to have one child then two, why did I ever think that having one child was so hard? Grammie came and picked up Kaelyn for the … [Read more...]
Mexican Chicken Pasta Skillet: Quick and Easy Recipe
I was already planning to make this Mexican Chicken Pasta Skillet and post the recipe this week, and then Katie announced that she was hosting a skillet recipe "The Meals that Hamburger Helper was Trying to Imitate" carnival and I knew that this fit in perfectly. I really like that this recipe has a Mexican twist on what is traditionally an Italian type meal. Mexican Chicken Pasta Skillet Ingredients: 2 cups penne or rotini pasta (we've been using brown rice pasta) 1 lb. chicken … [Read more...]
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Last week for lunch I made Kaelyn and myself some Homemade Macaroni and Cheese. I was desperate for something to eat for lunch, having not been to the grocery in almost 2 weeks. I kind of just made it up, but also know that it's something so simple and basic as far as cooking goes that it's probably the way that macaroni and cheese used to be made before the boxed neon fake cheese stuff took over.It was really good, much better than the box, creamy and rich, and Kaelyn ate it up! It wasn't … [Read more...]
Homemade Fruit Snack Bars
As I said in my meal plan post this week, I am on a quest to find frugal homemade alternatives to convenience food items. And, one of the results of my garbage inventory was that I want to try to reduce our waste from food packaging.Snack bars, like granola bars or Nutrigrain bars, are so convenient to pack as snacks or to take for lunches. But, they are full of high fructose corn syrup, enriched (white) flour, white sugar, and lots of other things that really aren't good for you. Also, … [Read more...]
Going Green Smoothies!
We have been making fruit smoothies for breakfast for a while now. I go in phases of making them a lot and then not making them for a few weeks or even months. I am determined now, though, to make them more often for breakfast. They are such a great way to get lots of healthy stuff into your diet, just by drinking a glassful. Lately, I have come across the idea of green smoothies - as in putting green things (leafy green veggies!) into your smoothies to give it even more nutritional value. … [Read more...]
