Saturday Shopping

I prefer to do my shopping on Friday mornings, it's the best time for mark down food at the local market (and I did get some), but today was the only day for the $5 coupon at the $GM.  On top of that the store was packed as there was mention of possible snow flurries tonight (oh my).  So braved the hordes and loaded up a cart for me and a cart for hubby (don't tell).  We were able to use two of the $5 coupons and I also had two 1cent egg coupons to redeem : )    I prefer farm eggs but these are good for making hard boiled eggs (farm eggs are not).

First week total for Jan. ended up being $78 as of last Thursday the 6th.  Second weeks total started Friday the 7th and is currently at $145.  I would like to do better than this, but it does include pet food.  I am also proud to say that all food choices and purchases were with high protein/low carb in mind and was successful.  I almost caved yesterday as I had been battling a flu bug and didn't feel like cooking but decided the cost of prepared food/frozen for all of us was not much cheaper than a nice piece of corn beef I found and plopped into my slow cooker with a bunch of veggies.  Much more satisfying and tasted delish!  Today sees a nice roast with low starch veggies in my crock pot and a wonderful smell in my kitchen.  I also whipped up a batch of bread machine hot dog buns made with spelt flour (have you seen what is in the commercial pack). 

I do have a couple of recipes to share but want to point out that sometimes there are other benefits besides financial.  I will share a recipe for toothpaste and deodorant.  Besides being cost effective they are extremely earth and health friendly.  There is no fluoride, and you don't need it, in the toothpaste and  no aluminum (why do they put it in there) in the deodorant.    Just trying to be the best me I can be.  If you would like the book info on where I get my information just drop me a line.

Toothpaste:
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon salt.

Mix and store in an air tight container.  You may also add a couple drops of any natural oil you prefer for taste.



Deodorant:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch

Mix it up.  Store in air tight container.  Use powder puff to apply.



Whats next for us?  Well I am officially giving up soda.  Eventually coffee too I hope, but baby steps for now.  I will drink ice tea and half/calf Folgers.  When my tea bags run out I will then switch to decaf. green tea.  I am also only buying brown sugar and using local honey to sweeten.  Eventually only the honey .  Just some small steps for us to look forward to : )  Will keep you posted as the month progresses and so does our money spent on groceries.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Fooling around

Here I am back in the saddle again.  Took a small break and a long holiday week-end, camping with friends.  We had more fun than should be legal : )  Any who . . . When we got back I received an early b-day gift from hubby.  Yea, he was surprised too - LOL  I got this nifty little camera from my Avon lady.

So I have been playing around with it and seeing if I liked it better than my other one (notice red color - me like red).  I do believe the picture quality is better, what do you think?

Here is our old cat Pumpkin and my old doxie, Howard, sharing the sun on the sofa.

I wasn't going to include this pic, just seems indecent, but I thought Mary Pearl (one of the two pups we have left - hey 2 out of 9 ain't bad) just looked adorable and Levi is sleeping behind her.

Here is a better shot of Howard snoozing in the sun.

And a closer look at Pumpkin Kitty.  So what do you think?  Clearer pix's?  I think so too.  I will probably end up keeping the camera, even though I am still getting the hang of the soft wear and all that jazz.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Knit and run

Ok, so how did you spend your week-end? I taught myself to knit! I have been thinking about this for about a year, and really contemplating it for the past 3-4 months. I kept flapping my mouth at church and telling the ladies, "wouldn't it be nice if we had a knitting group an made items to donate?". Yea, sounds like me doesn't it - LOL Finely someone took me up on it and then they made the time for it and the next thing I knew people were looking at me for guidance! Yikes. So Thursday I headed over to the trusty neighborhood library to beg someone there to help. I found not only a lady who said she could help, if we managed to coordinate our schedules, but a great learners book as well. Then on Friday a friend stopped by and was able to get me started, who knew she had this hidden talent and why did she not tell me like, oh I don't know, 3-4 months ago! LOL So anyway, yesterday I learned to cast on and knit. Today I perfected the knitting thing and figured out the purl thing as well. Now I am working on the knit one, purl two thing. I want to have a nice piece to show on Wed. night to the church ladies when we get this puppy rolling. Good thing I figured it out too, one of the ladies cornered me in the Dollar General Market this morning and grilled me on if I knew what I was doing or not and if I would be able to help her. Seems she picked up some nice yarn while she was in Mexico last year, in Christmas colors, and wants me to help her transform it into a great gift. Whew! Glad I can help : ) On top of this, all week-end each one of the kids has come up to me, independently, to tell me what they would now like me to knit for them - ha! Shaking my head here, gotta love them.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Who knew?

COFFEE FILTERS Not just for making Coffee....

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.

2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China . Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter bet ween each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter..

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.

11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows?? Use strips of coffee filters.

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, french fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks out all the grease.

14. Keep in the bathroom.They make Great Razor Nick fixers

Wow, coffee filters! Who knew? My friends D & S did! Thanks guys.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Nuts

And double nuts, I'm still sick! Last week I was sick, as of last night . . . sick as a dog. Been a week, when will it shake? Went from sinus crud to sinus infection, soar thought, cough, leaky eyes and fluid in ears. Grrrrr.

After getting home from shopping with bff, thought I might pass out. Last leg of journey was just mandatory shopping for food. I just wanted to be home in bed. Did have fun in the morning though, just the longer the day went on, the sicker I got. We checked out the new Trader Joe's in Nashville, what a disappointment. After hearing about the one in Seattle (where DH is from) and reading the raves on various blogs about their wonderful offerings, guess I expected more. It had a tiny, hard to maneuver parking lot and a crowded store with limited choices. I much more prefer Wild Oats/Whole Foods. Guess bff has spoiled me - LOL We did go to Whole foods too, so a great outing. Trader Joe's did have some good looking produce and I scored a nice package of white,red and gold pearl onions, enough for about two recipes. Think I will makes some creamed onions and some thyme glazed onions and carrots. Kind of wishing I had also bought my turkey there, but hind sight is 20/20. They had a good deal on antibiotic free, brine young turkeys. Sigh, wish it wasn't so far (about an hour). Hey Lois, want to grab me a turkey and head over here for some so-so coffee? LOL I can't really afford the "good" coffee, let alone that turkey, but still . . . Just think about it Lois, OK? :)

Speaking about prices. After stumbling on those two sites I mentioned last week, www.5dollardinners.com and www.crockpot365.blogspot.com , I have been doing some serious thinking and reconfiguring. I know I can't do $5 dinners, but around $7 seems good for our family of 6 (two adults, two teens and two 4 year olds). I am also trying to use my crocks more. Today I dragged my sick butt out of bed, told everyone I was not going to church as I could barley speak and went to start my crock and bread machine. I figured if I died or passed out before dinner at least I would be covered with a meal. When I am sick I seem to have no energy left by 3 or 4, let alone be able to whip up a great meal. So I started a loaf of bread - only 69 cents- and a pot of sirloin chili - $4.24- add some veggie sticks - 15 cents - and some home made ranch dip - 30 cents- for a full dinner at a total cost of $5.38! I know! Better than I even guessed. I had estimated the chili at $6 and with the sides a dinner total of around $7, when planning this on paper. So I am now thinking of starting a food journal and a dinner journal. The food journal, so I can better keep track of how healthy I am eating (want to make a better effort on this. Maybe now that DH has two jobs we can afford some better quality food) and the dinner journal so that I can keep a running account of not only what I spend on one meal but also per an item. I don't know about you, but the food prices here seem to jump about every two weeks. Not just food either, don't get me started on toilet paper and garbage bags!

Anyway, on my last stop yesterday I picked up some nuts, no not my friends - LOL, the lose kind. There was a post on this a couple months ago over at www.lowdownfromlois.blogspot.com and how we all seem to have a nut tradition around the holidays. So it seems to be that time of year again. I thought I would post the picture up at the top before all my nuts were gone. With in ten minutes of these being unpacked, put in a bowl and put on the sideboard, the kids started decimating it! They acted like they hadn't seen a nut in like nine months! That is pretty much all they had for dinner, which is good since I went to bed and huddled under a Grandpa Bob quilt and all DH cooked was some boxed mac. & cheese!

So share your nut stories here and let me know if you think the food/dinner journals would be a good idea.

Blessings, Beth Ann (this blog has been disinfected with Lysol for your protection)

Another cool site

Guess I have been a busy girl this afternoon - LOL Mostly in the cooking dept. While prepping my dinner and waiting for it to bake, I took time to surf a few sites on cooking. We shop every two weeks, and this coming week is one of them. So busy finalizing menus and planning ahead. Always looking for a way to save time and money in the kitchen. We are a family of 6 and in a perfect world would like our dinners to cost no more than $5. Which leads me to the site I found, $5 dollar meals, visit www.5dollardinners.com or see the link at the right. It has great recipes, healthy food and money saving tips. Unfortunately her site feeds a family of 4, two adults and two small children. Won't work for us, two adults, two teenagers and two small children. My soon to be 16 year old son eats about every two hours and is soooooooo skinny it makes me sick! LOL Her site recommends about $7 a dinner for a family our size. Big sigh, still hopping to do $5, looks like alot more noodles for us. Either way, I will continue to check it out for some great ideas.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Look what I found . . .

I was surfing around today and came across two new blogs that are so cook I want to share them with you. The first one is a christian mom who has alot of cool ideas for Christmas, check out www.smellingcoffeetoday.blogspot.com or check out my links at the right.

The second one is a cooking site where a lady made a new years resolution back in January of this year to use her crock pot every day! How cool is that? I have no idea how I missed this before, but check her out at www.crockpot365.blogspot.com or my links at the right. She even made it on to the Rachael Ray show back in July. Now this blog has really got my wheels turning and making me wonder what I can do with this info? I just got gifted a (new to me) bread machine. That makes two, and I usually go through about two a year. I also have my eye on one at the local consignment shop. Wouldn't it be a thing of beauty to have all three on my kitchen counter going at once? Or maybe a crock pot, got 3 of those too, and a bread machine going together everyday on my kitchen counter? Hmmmmmmmm . . . .

Blessings, Beth Ann

Eggplant bacon

Okay, here is that yummy recipe I promised last week and it is 100% vegetarian and 100% nitrate free! I decided to include photos for you so you would know if your on the right track or not. I personally prefer to know what something is "suppose" to look like when I am done! LOL



Start with a good size, firm eggplant. No green and no soft spots. I know you think it is silly for me to include a photo of what one looks like, but I can't tell you how many times I have been at the checkout and the cashier has no idea what she is holding and has to ask me what it is! LOL

Wash the skin and then peel it off, discard or save for compost pile. Then I continue to use my peeler to get thin "bacon" type slices off the plant. I do this until I reach the seeds in the middle. Discard middle section or save for compost.

Here is the slices in the marinade. Put a lid on it and save up to two days in fridge. Also shown are the slices placed on the dehydrator pan. The one shown here is an old Nesco from Wal-mart. Mine broke and I won't buy one from there again as the new ones have no temp control, cooks at a flat 135. You can however go to Nesco website and order their "deluxe" model that has a temp control, it is about $30 more than the regular version. I think I am going to keep checking my local Craigslist and see if I can pick up a nice one there.

Here is the eggplant on a sprayed cookie sheet ready for the oven. Since my dehydrator broke I developed this oven method. It is no longer considered a
"raw" food, but is still meat and nitrate free.

Here is the end product, and is it ever yummy! It comes out crunchy and slightly sweet, just don't over cook. I like to make this part of my breakfast about once every other week or so. Hope you enjoy it too.

Eggplant Bacon

In a bowl, marinate:
1 large eggplant, thinly sliced length wise
1/2 cup extra virgin cold first pressed olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unheated honey
4 tablespoons Plum vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Marinate for 2 hours or up to 2 days, place on teflex (roll-up) sheets and dehydrate for 12 hours. Turn "bacon" over and dehydrate for another 12 hours without the teflex sheets. Bacon should be crispy.

OVEN METHOD: After marinating, place "bacon"stripes on sprayed cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes. Don't over cook! Bacon will get crisper as it cools down. Repeat with remaining eggplant "bacon" stripes.

Great with eggs and toast for breakfast or for a "BLT" !


Last week-end our church had a car wash/bake sale/garage sale to raise money for the youth trip this week-end. My son who LOVES to bake was thrilled to go over to my friend Amy's house and cook with the girls, he was the only guy! To see a couple pictures of Z and his harem check out Amy's blog at www.thisthatandlifesjoys.blogspot.com .


Blessings, Beth Ann

The Meme thing

Hi ya'll. Wasn't going to post today, but got tagged by Amy for this Meme thing. Here is how it works. 1. The rules get posted at the beginning. 2. Each player answers the questions about themselves. 3. At the end of the post, the player ten tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog. 4. Let the person who tagged you know you've posted your answer.


What were you doing 5 years ago? I had just gotten remarried 4 weeks earlier, and returned from our honeymoon in the Smokey Mt's.


What are 5 things (that were) on your to-do list for today? Hmmm lets see, taking it easy today. Laundry,clean up after twins b-day party yesterday, work on oldest dd gift, work in garden, make dinner.


What are 5 snacks you enjoy? Hummus w/wheat crackers, salsa and tortilla chips, hot buttered popcorn, extreme tots from Sonic, and .... hmmm chocolate in any shape or form~ LOL


What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire? Buy an ocean front home on Edisto Island. Establish college funds for all 5 children and my grandson. Go full time in our RV. Establish scholarships for home schoolers. Give to God through several different venues.


What are 5 of your bad habits? Saying whats on my mind, before editing. Poor self discipline. Worrying. Sarcasm. Thin skinned.


What are 5 places you have lived? I have only lived three places my entire life.. Gaylord MI, Mesick MI and now in middle TN.


What are 5 jobs you have had? Book keeper at bank, nurse aid, Deli worker, Bulk Food manager and radio D.J.


What 5 people do you want to tag? The mad Cuisineart, Hansen Hootenanny, No place like home, Felicia's life happens and D's weight loss journey.

Books

Greetings all. Just sitting here having a cup of coffee before getting ready for church, and feeling extremely glad that the day is almost over! I'm sure we have all had days like that!

I recently finished reading two books, back to back, that were well enough done that I thought I would suggest them to others. I read many books, but brag about few. Our local library is starting a book club the first of next month and asking everyone to bring a list of five books to share with others. These two will be on my list.

How Starbucks saved my life: by Michael Gates Gill

The first book, lets just call it Starbucks, is a wonderful true story about a gentleman in the Autumn of his life, learning to start over and that money isn't everything. I feel most will get something out of this book ~ a peek at the inside world of the coffee capital, a look at how rich people view the little people, identify with working retail or how sometimes your priorities change and a light goes off. This book left we happy, hopeful, feeling like I wanted to write my own book and oh yea... craving coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans! It was truly refreshing to read a book were the main character/author took full responsibility for his poor choices and learned to live with the repercussions.

Playing for pizza: by John Grisham

The second book , lets just call it pizza, is a great down on your luck turned good story. I usually don't enjoy Grisham books. Matter fact the only one of his I ever read all the way through and though was good was "Skipping Christmas". Later it was made into a Tim Allen movie called "Christmas with the Kranks". If you enjoyed that book, Christmas, than you most likely enjoy this book. Both escape his usual genre and have a fanciful air about it with enough humanism for us all to identify with. A down and out football player can only get hired in Italy and all the culture shock is grand fun. The in depth food descriptions left me drooling and looking for affair on Orbitz. As with the previous book, by the end our hero's life has been reprioaratized, but this book leaves plenty of questions for there to be a sequel if the author wishes. Also leaves alot of room for interpitation, a book clubs dream! This book left me feeling upbeat, hungry, wanting to visit Italy, and hoping the author keeps up the good work by breaking from his publicists mold every now and then.

There you have it two great books I recommend. My next big find is "Swine not: by Jimmy Buffett", yep - the singer. It is based on a true story. I think I will add that to my book club list. That will give me three out of five, I am torn over the rest. I am a huge fan of Donna Andrews, I always laugh out load at all her books and find myself wanting to read snatches of them out load to share with others. I also extremely enjoy Lillian Jackson Bruan, the wonderful lady that brings us the "Cat who........." series. Of course Robin Jones Gunn and Karen Kingsbury always deliver a great Christian based story with right on target life questions and group discussions. I also try to keep up with the Yada Yada Prayer group, book series as well as the Maggie Sefton knitting mysteries...................... Oh my, this could go on forever as I haven't even brought up my favorite caterer - Goldie, by Diane Mott Davidson.......................

Just visit your local library and share your finds with me and a friend, pass it along.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Out and about town

Yesterday was a very blustery day here in middle TN. Still it didn't stop me and DH from spending the day checking out new places while we hit the town to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. The first place we went to was a Gorden Foods Marketplace. Wow. I haven't been to one of those since leaving MI. This is only the 3rd one to open in TN. We also managed to hit there, totally unplanned, on there grand opening while they were having a food tasting tent. My DH was sooooooo excited. He had missed there large pans of nitrate filled meatballs. So we had a brunch there and checked out some old and new favorites. I did a lot of price comparison. We have a Dollar General Market in our town. NOT a Dollar General, but a Dollar General Market. The difference is that the Market has a real grocery store with produce included. I found most times that the $GM prices were cheaper than GFMP. For there grand opening they had some good deals, but other than that ~ buyer be wear. Then we headed over to the new World Market. Never even heard of this place until I read about it on a friends blog. She worked their briefly. Kind of like a Pier1 on steroids. I did enjoy their kitchen gadgets (my passion) and a few interesting things in the gourmet food section. But mostly I was disappointed that so many of the so called gourmet foods I have seen at "regular" grocery stores. My DH feel in love with a little terracotta pig grill that he found at the grilling kiosk. He said it would be perfect for just two steaks. I found that hysterical since there are 6 of us in our house. He said he wanted to get it and keep it for when it was just the two of us full timing it in our RV. Aweeeeeeeeee! How sweet. We are planning on getting some new living room furniture in a couple months and saw some possibilities there. So we have to check back on that. The other noteworthy excitement of the day came when we ducted into a local pet store, not one of the 3 major chains in town. We were also out pricing ferrets, but that is another blog. So there we are, ewwwing and awwwwing over the puppies. I see they have a squirrel for sale in a cage. How interesting. Then I see a sign saying the small animals are downstairs. Hmmmmm, thought puppies and squirrels were small. Shrug. Ferrets must be down there as I haven't seen any signs of rodent life whatsoever up here. Down we go. Bingo. There are the ferret cages. So DH and I gawk at them and check prices on them for a couple minutes. Then I am on the hunt for the actual animal. If they have the cages they must have the ............. GINKYS!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a flipping KANGAROO!!! DH almost had to catch me, thought I was going to pass out. I did not expect that! Then DH says, "actually the sign says it's a Wallaby". Zoinks! $2000 and he is all mine. Then I notice a Kinkajew next to him in the next cage. But he is not for sale. He is just there for .....? Well we did have a great anniversary, even though there were tornado's going on around us. But grandma S and grandpa D held down the fort and even picked Z up from standardized testing in town. So nice to be able to get out and look at stuff with out the kids jumping up and down begging for stuff. That was my job yesterday ~ LOL I did manage to snag a couple more Baby Einstein DVDS for my grandson, at the consignment shop that I get the twins cloths from. And as I was drifting off to sleep last night...... was I dreaming of hubby another 20, 30, years with him? NO! I couldn't stop thinking about that kangaroo! I felt the urge to set him free. On our way home we passed an Ostrich farm. So I tried to convince hubby we could pull off a covert mission to free the roo and leave him at the ostrich farm. But hubby was already snoring........ Blessings, Beth Ann