Here in Portland spring is well on it's way. The cherry trees are in bloom, a couple of flowering bushes are blooming, and daffodils are all up and the tulips are on their way.
The big planter I have outside the door of our apartment did hold fuschias. The last cold air/gorge wind blast we had killed them so I need to figure out what to put in them for this summer. Maybe pansys.
Barbara
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Friday, March 10, 2006
Food experiments
The last two days I've been trying new recipes.
First up was black bean soup. Not sure where I got the recipe from. It's supposed to be spicy, chili-like. It was pretty good, but my partner would have liked more spice and less water. Not sure if I'll make that again.
I made whole wheat muffins with brown sugar on top. They came out great. I also over the last week made 2 cornbreads. First one was a recipe from Bob's Red Mill off their cornmeal package. It was okay, but dry and crumbly. Next I tried a vegan cornbread recipe from Jennifer at veganlunchbox. It was a hit! Tasty and it held together much better.
Off a great recomendation from Katie at frugalveggiemamma, I made seitan from Vegan with a Vengance, which I had recently picked up. It was pretty good. Of course I'd never had seitan before, so hard to tell exactly.
Last night I tried making Breaded Seitan Nuggets, from Jo Stepaniak's book, Table for Two. It came out fine. You need to eat them hot (I used BBQ sauce to dip them in.) I need to make them crispier though. Otherwise, I liked them.
Barbara
First up was black bean soup. Not sure where I got the recipe from. It's supposed to be spicy, chili-like. It was pretty good, but my partner would have liked more spice and less water. Not sure if I'll make that again.
I made whole wheat muffins with brown sugar on top. They came out great. I also over the last week made 2 cornbreads. First one was a recipe from Bob's Red Mill off their cornmeal package. It was okay, but dry and crumbly. Next I tried a vegan cornbread recipe from Jennifer at veganlunchbox. It was a hit! Tasty and it held together much better.
Off a great recomendation from Katie at frugalveggiemamma, I made seitan from Vegan with a Vengance, which I had recently picked up. It was pretty good. Of course I'd never had seitan before, so hard to tell exactly.
Last night I tried making Breaded Seitan Nuggets, from Jo Stepaniak's book, Table for Two. It came out fine. You need to eat them hot (I used BBQ sauce to dip them in.) I need to make them crispier though. Otherwise, I liked them.
Barbara
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Going along
I've just been busy searching for bargains, finding ways to stretch what we have and planning for spring. We can't grown vegetables here, so I am looking into a CSA. There are several around here.
However, while we both like veggies, we don't like all of them and we are afraid a lot of what we get won't be used and thus waste our money. So we're still thinking about it.
Tried a couple of recipes, for wholewheat pancakes and bread. Both worked well. I still have a biscuit and a muffin recipe to try out.
Barbara
However, while we both like veggies, we don't like all of them and we are afraid a lot of what we get won't be used and thus waste our money. So we're still thinking about it.
Tried a couple of recipes, for wholewheat pancakes and bread. Both worked well. I still have a biscuit and a muffin recipe to try out.
Barbara
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
High gear
I'm going to have to shift into high gear on being frugal. Our money flow is reducing, so we need to make our money count.
I'm lucky to live about 2 miles from Bob's Red Mill, a wonderful source of whole grains and lots of other useful stuff. I got 8 ou of active yeast for $3.19, Fleishmann's 4 oz at the grocery store was $7.99. They have packaged flours of all kinds, beans, rice, and everything is also available in bulk. I did check and bulk is only cheaper if you only need a little bit. If you buy boxes of 4, you get an additional 10% off, and about 10 items are on sale each month. And it's kinda cool to be able to say hi to Bob, as in the owner. They also have a great, healthy restaurant there, with lots of vegan choices. They also have flaxseed, gluten free things, it's great.
I went there because we were running low on Bisquick. I saw the price and said no. We don't use it that much. Instead I bought Bob's whole wheat pastry flour, to make pancakes and biscuits and so on. Their stone ground ww flour is great in my breads.
I've kept up my price book and know just where to go to find the best daily prices. And I use cairo.com and my links to all the local stores online ads to see what might be worth buying.
We do have a lot of food in the house, so we will start using that up first, to limit the funds we need to spend on groceries.
Thanks to frugalveggiemama and others, I have a lot of great ideas and recipes to use.
Have a great rest of the week!
Barbara
I'm lucky to live about 2 miles from Bob's Red Mill, a wonderful source of whole grains and lots of other useful stuff. I got 8 ou of active yeast for $3.19, Fleishmann's 4 oz at the grocery store was $7.99. They have packaged flours of all kinds, beans, rice, and everything is also available in bulk. I did check and bulk is only cheaper if you only need a little bit. If you buy boxes of 4, you get an additional 10% off, and about 10 items are on sale each month. And it's kinda cool to be able to say hi to Bob, as in the owner. They also have a great, healthy restaurant there, with lots of vegan choices. They also have flaxseed, gluten free things, it's great.
I went there because we were running low on Bisquick. I saw the price and said no. We don't use it that much. Instead I bought Bob's whole wheat pastry flour, to make pancakes and biscuits and so on. Their stone ground ww flour is great in my breads.
I've kept up my price book and know just where to go to find the best daily prices. And I use cairo.com and my links to all the local stores online ads to see what might be worth buying.
We do have a lot of food in the house, so we will start using that up first, to limit the funds we need to spend on groceries.
Thanks to frugalveggiemama and others, I have a lot of great ideas and recipes to use.
Have a great rest of the week!
Barbara
Saturday, February 11, 2006
I'm going to Iwerk World!
Okay, you're wondering about the title of this post. It has nothing to do with frugality, but it is funny.
The funniest headline I've ever seen, that was absolutely true: "Al Michaels traded by Disney to NBC for a rabbit". This article on Salon.com explains it, but the gist of it is:
Disney owns ESPN and ABC. They released Al Michaels from his contract with them (for baseball and football) so he can do football for NBC. ESPN get the rights to do some rebroadcasts of golf from NBC, as well as extended highlights from other NBC sports events. In return, Disney gets the rights to 26 shorts featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, created for Universal in 1927. The next year, the Disney company was started and Mickey Mouse was created.
And the title of the post? Well, Oswald and Mickey were created by Walt Disney, and his partner, whose name was... Ub Iwerks. I'm just glad they named everything after Walt!!
Barbara
The funniest headline I've ever seen, that was absolutely true: "Al Michaels traded by Disney to NBC for a rabbit". This article on Salon.com explains it, but the gist of it is:
Disney owns ESPN and ABC. They released Al Michaels from his contract with them (for baseball and football) so he can do football for NBC. ESPN get the rights to do some rebroadcasts of golf from NBC, as well as extended highlights from other NBC sports events. In return, Disney gets the rights to 26 shorts featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, created for Universal in 1927. The next year, the Disney company was started and Mickey Mouse was created.
And the title of the post? Well, Oswald and Mickey were created by Walt Disney, and his partner, whose name was... Ub Iwerks. I'm just glad they named everything after Walt!!
Barbara
What I've Learned
I've been working on trying to be more frugal for a while now and so though I'd post some things that I've learned.
I keep a price book and update it regularly. I use cairo.com to find what's on sale at all the stores in my area. I visit several thrift stores monthly as I happen to go past them, to see what sales are upcoming.
I buy in bulk when I can. This is limited by the amount of storage we have in an apartment. I cook ahead of time when I can, use what needs to be used up or what's getting old, not wasting food.
Most importantly, I've learned to say no when shopping, to things we don't really need, or that are not healthy for us.
Barbara
I keep a price book and update it regularly. I use cairo.com to find what's on sale at all the stores in my area. I visit several thrift stores monthly as I happen to go past them, to see what sales are upcoming.
I buy in bulk when I can. This is limited by the amount of storage we have in an apartment. I cook ahead of time when I can, use what needs to be used up or what's getting old, not wasting food.
Most importantly, I've learned to say no when shopping, to things we don't really need, or that are not healthy for us.
Barbara
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Deals
I usually buy brown rice in bulk from Fred Meyer's. It's .99 a pound, everyday. However, it does pay to read the ads. I found Fred Meyer had 2 pound bags of brown rice for .99. I bought 2 of them.
Across the street from Freddies is a thrift shop I go to. Their sign read 50% off Mon Feb 20. So I've got that down on my calendar. I need a few things that I can look for there.
Barbara
Across the street from Freddies is a thrift shop I go to. Their sign read 50% off Mon Feb 20. So I've got that down on my calendar. I need a few things that I can look for there.
Barbara
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Free is good!
Free is good and frugal right? And being organized is good too. I tended to have papers strewn about my desk, with little bits and pieces written on them. I don't do that anymore.
I found a site called Peanut Butter Wiki. It's free. Now, in case you don't know what a wiki is, it's web pages, which are very easy to edit. You can easily link pages. I use mine for two things. One is writing resources and ideas. The other is for frugal and veggie information. I have pages just for recipes, one that's a listing of meal ideas I've collected from Vegsource and others. Everything is there, and if I need a paper copy of a recipe, for instance, I just print that out. It's easy to setup and like I said, free.
You can keep it private, (which is what I've done) or you can allow selected people to view it and/or edit it. Give them a try, it's easy. They have a tour available as well.
Barbara
I found a site called Peanut Butter Wiki. It's free. Now, in case you don't know what a wiki is, it's web pages, which are very easy to edit. You can easily link pages. I use mine for two things. One is writing resources and ideas. The other is for frugal and veggie information. I have pages just for recipes, one that's a listing of meal ideas I've collected from Vegsource and others. Everything is there, and if I need a paper copy of a recipe, for instance, I just print that out. It's easy to setup and like I said, free.
You can keep it private, (which is what I've done) or you can allow selected people to view it and/or edit it. Give them a try, it's easy. They have a tour available as well.
Barbara
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
