Getting Ready

I've been getting ready for Thanksgiving here. Luckily both myself and my partner are off on Thursday. I've been cleaning out the refrigerator of leftovers so we'll have room for more leftovers!

I had some pasta sauce sitting there and I had bought several boxes of Golden Grain multi-grain spaghetti at 50% off, so I made a nice baked spaghetti with parmesan puffs. They didn't puff all that well, but they tasted okay.

I'm going to try some different things with the stuffing. Definitely add some pine nuts. My partner also loves those toasted, just to munch on.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Barbara

Tasty Eating

My body has been rebelling lately at all the junky food I've been feeding it. So I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. I went to Dr McDougalls Free program and printed up some recipes. Today I'm trying the day one recipes. I made the savory chickpeas and put them on some whole wheat bread (after letting it sit overnight to blend the flavors). I also made my version of black bean soup and also made up some baked corn chips to put in the soup.

For breakfast, I made steel cut oats, a new favorite. I had only eaten quick cooking oats before and no matter how thick I made them, they were never thick enough. The steel cut are chewier and just what I like. I soak them overnight then just heat them up for about 10 minutes in the morning. I put in a little bit of maple syrup and some cinnamon.

Barbara

Busy, busy

I've been quite busy recently. Working full time of course, taking care of the apartment and yes, doing some cooking. I've made a couple of recipes from Isa's Veganomicon. The chickpea cutlets were quite tasty. The creamy tomato soup came out all right, but I didn't have enough tomatoes to make it correctly.

I needed a new non stick skillet, as my previous one had the coating starting to peel. I had a $35 gift card from Sears from work, so I bought a T-fal 9 inch skillet, (made in France). Didn't cost me anything due to the gift card. It has a black enamel on the outside and a neat red spot in the middle that changes when the pan is preheated.

Barbara

Thursday cooking

I was home so I did some cooking on Thursday.

First up is some skillet cornbread, using Ruthie's recipe. It came out fine, but a bit dry for my taste.

Here is it, fresh out of the cast iron skillet:


And here is the first slice:



I also made a new recipe, Potato soup with whole-wheat dumplings. It made a mess of my stove, but it tasted good.



This last one is homemade biscuits. I followed a recipe from Hillbilly Housewife. I did sub Earth balance for shortening. This is the first time my biscuits came out high and fluffy. I was so happy!



Barbara

Change Begins at Home Award

Wow! My friend Katie has nominated me for the Change Begins at Home Award. This award come from Melanie at Bean Sprouts:One Family's Search for the Good Life.Melanie states that the award is for bloggers who live what they preach, who try to make the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world.

I've had fun sharing what I learn on my frugal journey here. And along the way, I hope I've given ideas to those who have stopped by to read. My main contribution so far has been a really tasty, soft crust, whole wheat bread recipe that lots of bloggers have tried and loved. And that is very gratifying.

So thanks Katie and Melanie!

The rules for the award are:

1. Nominate three bloggers who epitomise "Change begins at home"

2. Link back to the person who nominated you, and link back to this post

3. When you receive the award, you may display the "Change begins at home" button on your blog.

The three bloggers I want to nominate are:

1. Johanna3 at Tropical Vegetarian Family

2. A Frugal Living Blog by a Frugal Guy

3. Frugal Homemaker Plus

Barbara

The Rains

It's 2am and I am sitting here listening to the rain. The rains (fall, winter,spring) have come to Portland. Forecast for the next week is rain, or showers and highs 58-60. A lot of people around here don't like the rain, which is hard to avoid, since it rains mostly all the time from now till about April. I'm different, I love the rain. It's great to sleep when it rains, everything gets green here. And the constant overcast gray days don't depress me.

On frugal notes, all the stores here are starting to sell reuseable shopping bags. Our local Fred Meyer is selling them for 99 cents. This week they are on sale for 79 cents. I didn't pay for mine, I got a coupon in the mail from them to get 3 for free, which of course I took advantage of. My only problem with them is remembering to take them with me. I have to get into the habit of putting them in the back seat of the car.

I also took advantage of a sale at Fred Meyer's to get a good deal on a Rival Crockpot, six quart.Since my partner and I now have quite different schedules most days, she tends not to cook much so I'm stuck with trying to make something for myself late at night. Plus she doesn't eat as much as she should either. The crockpot, which I've never had one before, once I get used to it, will help with that. I can start a meal before I leave and have tasty food when I get home.

Barbara

Cooking frugally

I've been finding some good deals at the store. I had a $10 off coupon at Safeway. I picked up some chicken breasts that were 50% off, and a whole cut up chicken, also half off. I froze the breasts and made chicken soup and then chicken salad for sandwiches out of the whole chicken. Safeway is not the cheapest store, but they have some good deals and I really like their meat.

Barbara

Good numbers

I recently got health insurance, so I went for a physical and some blood tests. I am very happy to report that my numbers are the best they have been in ten years (which is when I started keeping copies of tests). I mostly very proud of my blood sugar, which was 82. And my cholesterol, which at 167 and 47 HDL, is at it's best level ever. I've always been around 200 before.

Eating healthy has really paid off. I am also seeing a naturapath, since I don't like taking drugs.

Barbara