Naturally Frugal Mom

Update on Homemade Soap

2010-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell you, I am loving the homemade soap that I made with my friend, Kristi. It really has made a difference in my skin! I can definitely tell that its improving the texture, look, and even clearing it up my skin a bit! I dont need to use anything else on my face, no moisturizer, nothing. I also ran out of soap the other day,while I was in the shower , I grabbed the baby's "natural" baby wash instead to use on my face, and it made my skin tight, itchy and red. Needless to say, I am using homemade soap on all the kids now, instead ;)

Gonna be making some more today and I am sooo excited!
Have a great day :)

Low Carb Noodless Lasagna

2010-09-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

I tweaked a few recipes I found online and came up with this. Its really good. You dont even notice the noodles are missing. I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce last week as part of a bulk cooking session because I knew I wanted to make this. I also made one pan with noodles for my family the same night. Add a salad on the side and you have a great low carb meal!

So these pics were taken AFTER I dug into it, so not the best but I wanted you to see what it looks like as opposed to NOT having a picture LOL I made it into layers, just as I would regular lasagna. One layer of meat sauce, one of ricotta mixture.

Recipe: (makes an 8x8 pan)

Ricotta mixture:

15 oz carton of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
approx 4 oz of mozzarella cheese

Mix all together and set aside.

Meat Sauce:

1lb of ground beef (I use grass fed sirloin)
whatever spaghetti sauce you use and however much you want LOL
Mix those together and put a layer on the bottom of your pan

Next layer with some of the ricotta mixture
and repeatt again with the meat sauce
Add the final layer of ricota and then add about 4 more oz of mozzerella and a bit of parmesan cheese to top it off.

Bake at 350 for about 40-50 mins and let cool a bit before serving. (I let mine overcook a little hence the reason the cheese is a bit dark, but that doesnt bother me.)

This makes generous portions, so can even be frozen in individual servings for meals later. I decided that since I had some busy days ahead of me that I would just leave it out in the fridge to eat for several meals.

Enjoy!

Almond Power Bars

2010-09-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

So I found this recipe online the other day and was stokedddd! I haven't shared this here, but I am on a low carb diet, well most of the time, and need to eat in a way that keeps my blood sugar steady. I do fail quite often with this way of eating, but have been trying for the last couple of months to stay on it for the health benefits as well as the obvious- losing weight (lost almost 20 lbs so far!).

One thing that always causes me to slip up is my sweets. Gotta love em', but they don't love me ;) I almost have to have something sweet everyday or its torture. Not really, but close. I am leary of artificial sweetners, but will drink a diet Dr. Pepper if I am so inclined (and the headache that comes after is pretty crucial). I really prefer to eat a natural diet from things that God has made, since I know that is probably the best for me..I mean duh, He is the one who knit me so wonderfully in my mother's womb, so why would I listen to some ~~moron~~ person who tells me to eat foods low in fat, laced in chemicals over a yummy steak? Crazy!

Oh the Almond Power Bars!! YES! They are YUMMY and easy to make! I found the recipe HERE!

So of course, I tweaked the recipe a little, but not really alot...dont think it needed it at all..but I only had butter (*used all my coconut oil on my granola) and used all honey instead of the maple syrup since its lower in carbs per tablespoon.

Here's what mine looked like.....ahhh so good! I am going to cut them in little, tiny pieces and savor one each time I get a craving for something bad. I havent figured the carb content yet, but will update this post when I do. I am also thinking of trying this with peanuts next time because peanut butter and chocolate rocks!

Enjoy!!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

2010-08-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

Can you say that title really fast?

So I am in love with this recipe. I found a couple of baked French Toast recipes online last week after trying to find a solution to my busy Sunday mornings. I cook a big breakfast, since our church service runs into lunch time, but it can be overwhelming to do that plus get 4 kids ready...not to mention that I try to at least shower before church ;)

Anyways, all the recipes sounded good, but some seemed to have too much sugar, some not enough flavor...some too many eggs..you get the idea. So anyways, I concocted something pretty darn good and thought I would share it. This will be made the night before and baked in the morning or you could totally assemble this early on in the day and have for dinner. I'd do it.

So first I made an "Egg Bread" in my bread machine...any kind of bread will do. Just make sure its a heartier type bread. If you want the recipe, leave me a comment and I'll post it for ya.

So take your bread, cut it into cubes and put it into a well oiled or sprayed 13x9 pan like this (just put about half of it in there, your gonna make two layers):

Once you've done that, you add whatever fruit/s you happen to have on hand. My local Sprouts had an awesome deal on blueberries last week, so I stocked up! So after you add the fruit, you just strategically or not so strategically place dollops of cream cheese around. Then put another layer of your bread and then more fruit and cream cheese till your out of both. I used a pound of blueberries and 8 ounces of cream cheese in mine. You don't have to be that drastic, if you dont wanna :p

So after you've done that, take 6 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of milk, some vanilla extract we like alot) and a 1/2 cup of maple syrup (not that yucky high fructose stuff either...reallllll maple syrup or use the other stuff at your own risk ;p) Mix it all up and pour evenly over the bread/ fruit mixture. Smoosh it all down really good into the pan so everything fits.

Stick this in the fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours or so for all the liquids to be sucked up by the bread. Then when you are ready to eat it, stick it into a 350 degree oven covered until the last 10 minutes or so (mine baked for 30-40 mins) so that the maple syrup in the recipe can get the bread sorta carmelized. I sprinkled mine with a bit of cinnamon when I pulled it out of the oven to rest for about 10 mins too.

Pour on a little more syrup and you are ready to go!

Enjoy!!!

And she finally sews something useful....

2010-07-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, I did it. Finally. My machine cooperated and I was actually able to whip something up in a couple of hours today.
I have issues. I get bored and impatient very quickly...especially with crafts but this one was instant gratification. It was very easy to put together, and it helped that I found an excellent tutorial for beginners....this blog really had great step by step directions.

For those of you who dont know what its called, its a Taggie blanket. This site sells them for a small fortune. I have lots of flannel on hand (for those diapers I am supposed to be sewing) and bought a few yards of coordinating ribbon. The total for this blanket was under $3.00 for me. Seems like a good deal, eh?

And here is the finished product!

Is this for me?

Oh, straight to the mouth, just like everything else when you are 7 months old :)

Now that is what its for! Thanks, Mom.

Just another thing crossed off my list of to do's for July, but this one was far more rewarding than the rest. The closet just doesnt smile at me the way she does :)

Until next time..

Projects completed so far....

2010-07-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

So if you remember, I posted this list in the beginning of July of projects I wanted to complete. I am still working through my list, and actually had another added that I forgot to list-- SOAP MAKING! I have been wanting to do this for a long time now, and just recently got the nerve to do it, thanks to having another friend that is like minded in these sort of endeavors. We had a great time making it today, and I will show the finished product as soon as its cut...but for now, here it is in it's current state...the gel stage:

I can't wait to use it. It contains lots of great oils- olive, coconut, palm and shea butter. There are NO chemicals or anything else added. The next batch we are going to add some essential oils...

Ok, so with only about a week and a half left in the month, here's my updated to do list...the things I have done are crossed off....and a few things were actually added in that will push a couple of my projects over to the next month's to do's...

*Get that garden planted! I dont know exactly how much time we have left to plant anything (as I am not green thumb inclined LOL) but we need to plant something this summer...going to do some searching on this but if anyone who reads this knows if I still have some time or a link to a schedule of things that can be planted in my zone and the dates that plant up until...leave me a comment! (finally got cool enough to plant the garden this past Sunday (the 18th) I am working on getting our projected harvest dates on the calendar also)

*Clean out school room closet- This has been a thorn in my side for a while and I am really looking forward to getting this done.**IN PROCESS I actually went ahead and started cleaning out the WHOLE school room instead..the closet will be done AFTER since moving things around seemed like a better idea :P I am creating a "teaching wall" where our maps, white board, and reference charts will go, as well as a place for a table and our bulletin boards. I'll share pics when I am finished with it.

*Clean out hall closet- I am hoping to convert this from a coat/storage closet to a toy closet. I plan on putting in some shelves and whatever fits in there stays, whatever doesn't, goes!

*Organize toys- see above- This was actually a great project for me...now all the toys are neat and orderly and ready to play with, without being in our school room or in the kids rooms only to be left out and readily accessible. With them put away in the closet, I can easily regulate them ;) This closet goes 3 feet back..so it holds a lot of stuff , and I havent gotten everything in it yet. The board games will all be out of reach of the 2 and 5 yr olds...I am really not liking stepping on monopoly houses ;p

*Sew fitted/pre-fold diapers for baby- she is growing out of her prefolds fast and I NEED to get these done this month. I will hopefully have my 2 yr old completely potty trained this month, and with that means saving money since I dont use cloth on him anymore.

**Paint Little Kids room. I have my youngest son moved in with his sister in her cotton candy pink room..nuff said ;)

** Sew Taggie Blanket for Baby A

So as of today, I need to finish up the school room...or at least put a big dent in the work in there....organizing books and getting things where I want them in there, and sewing is a big to do. Problem is, I am NOT an experienced seamstress and that will take me a while to figure out...but I have been practicing off and on and think I can get some of it done with no problem...we'll see. Will post pics of any of those completed projects as well!

Have a great day!

Update on Garden Plans!

2010-07-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

I just found out that the septic system is on the other side of the house and that its safe to plant in the ground! It was going to be almost impossible for hubby to have time to make planter boxes for me, so I am sooo glad I can go ahead and start working the land to get it ready! We live on an acre and a half, so the septic is a good distance away from where our garden will be :)

Now, to figure out where to put this little precious thing while I do that work?

Any ideas? LOL

Menu Plan Monday

2010-07-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's what we are having for dinner this week (I am going to put what *I* am eating in parentheses since I am ditching carbs for a while.

Monday- Leftover BBQ Ribs/Chicken, Potato Salad, Baked Beans (Grilled chicken salad)

Tuesday- Shredded Beef Burritos, (Taco Salad)

Wed- Crockpot chicken, Rice, Zucchini w/cheese

Thurs- Chinese Chicken and Fried Rice (mine will be fried cauliflower and veggies w/chicken)

Fri- Pizza Night! (Mom salad and hot wings)

Sat- Cheddar Burgers, Salad, Veggies

Sun- Chicken Soup, Salad, Sandwiches

Hope to see some other great menus this week!

Add another to the list..

2010-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

See all those toys next to Baby A? See what she's playing with INSTEAD of those cute, colorful toys?

A Tag.

Yup, she'd rather play with, suck on, bite on that interesting little tag. Isn't that the case with every baby?

Guess I'll add this project to my list of to do's this month ; )

First Project for the Month of July

2010-07-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

This month I plan to work on several projects, and planting a garden is the first on my list. Last year around this time things were much to hectic to get a garden growing (I was just getting over having morning sickness and hubs was trying to hold down the housework for me) but this year we are looking forward to getting something planted!

We actually have waited till now because there has been some apprehension in planting in our ground again. We have a septic system and were not sure of how that works with contamination as far as the leach lines, so we've just been searching into alternative methods instead of taking the chance of having our food be contaminated. We've planted on the land before, so not completely concerned, but thought we'd just use a different method this year while I still look into it.

Thanks to Kristi at Let This Mind Be in You, I learned yesterday that its not too late to plant a garden and now know WHAT we can plant and WHEN! I am hoping to get something in the ground this weekend and then again in Aug for cool weather veggies. Thanks for that info Kristi!

So the goal is to plant these things in July(and I am using SEED not plants, so we'll see if they produce in time!):

   ~Tomatoes (3 kinds- Roma, Beefsteak, and endless summer (cherry).

~ Eggplant

   ~Zucchini

   ~Peas

   ~Lima Beans (my hubs fav- yuck!)

   ~Watermelon (this surprised me, I thought it was way too late..but I guess not!)
Now whether I use an above ground square foot garden or pots is still undecided. I may just throw the seeds in the air and let them land and plant at will! LOL! THAT would be a real experiment!

Our Fall garden will be much larger (and better planned) and the kids and I will be starting some of the seeds indoors now as an experiment for fun : )

I am hoping we'll have some success, but if not, it won't be too much of a loss since I have some great info now to get us started for many gardens to come :)

Projects for the month of July

2010-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

(picture of our garden the summer before last)

Wow, June flew by for us here! We had a birthday (my oldest turned 11), our annual vacation to "The River", and other family happenings. Thankfully, it doesn't seem that July will be as busy as June, so I have scheduled in some projects that I would like to be completed before I start with school things again in August.

Here is my list of things to do/complete in July:

*Get that garden planted! I dont know exactly how much time we have left to plant anything (as I am not green thumb inclined LOL) but we need to plant something this summer...going to do some searching on this but if anyone who reads this knows if I still have some time or a link to a schedule of things that can be planted in my zone and the dates that plant up until...leave me a comment!

*Clean out school room closet- This has been a thorn in my side for a while and I am really looking forward to getting this done.

*Clean out hall closet- I am hoping to convert this from a coat/storage closet to a toy closet. I plan on putting in some shelves and whatever fits in there stays, whatever doesn't, goes!

*Organize toys- see above

*Sew fitted/pre-fold diapers for baby- she is growing out of her prefolds fast and I NEED to get these done this month. I will hopefully have my 2 yr old completely potty trained this month, and with that means saving money since I dont use cloth on him anymore.

**Paint Little Kids room. I have my youngest son moved in with his sister in her cotton candy pink room..nuff said ;)

I really hope to accomplish these things this month so that I can effectively complete the goals and projects I have set for August. As a homeschooling family, the summer months are at a premium when it comes to having extra time to do these sort of things, so I plan to take full advantage of that!

Monthly Cleaning Schedule

2010-06-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

So I have been working on our summer schedule, and of course, starting getting ADHD and am revamping our cleaning schedule a bit. I am still having a "room a day" of sorts, but am breaking down what is done in those rooms each week in addition to just basic daily cleaning. Here's what I have done so far (of course if we have something come up I will swap one day for another..but you get the idea) Everything is done in order to be useful for the following week as much as possible..so the deep cleaning will happen before I cook, declutter before I deep clean etc) I will be posting these in more detail through out the month and keeping them on my sidebar (just as soon as I reconfigure my template).

(If there is a week 5 in any month I will spend it doing a project/decorating that room)

Monday- Kitchen Day
1st week- Deep Clean (wash outside of cabinets, wipe out insides, clean oven, stovetop, bleach counters, wash floors on hands and knees, etc etc)
2nd week- Bulk cooking
3rd week- Declutter drawers/cabinets
4th week- Organize Fridge/pantry

Tues- Office Day

1st week- Menu Plan/Grocery List for the MONTH (divided by week, store etc)
2nd week- Organize personal files in filing cabinet
3rd week-Organize top of desk/clean out computer inside and out
4th week-Organize school files in filing cabinets/get things ready for the following month

Wed- Laundry/Catch up day/Health Food Store (this day is double ad day so I can get 2 weeks of deals..will go twice a month)
1st week- Kids Sheets/Organize closet and drawers/put away things outgrown into closet tub/inventory any clothes needed for following season, make laundry detergent, fabric softener
2nd week-Our sheets/straighten drawers and closet/put away things seasonally/make a list of things needed for next season.
3rd week- Kids sheets, sewing projects for kids, store to buy clothes for kids if needed
4th week- our sheets, sewing project for us, store to buy clothes for us if needed

Thurs- Errand Day This will be divided by week as well with activities, appts and such.

Fri- Cleaning Day (this day is for deep cleaning rotating rooms in the house as well as a general cleaning of the whole house like vacuuming etc but that is on my daily schedule)

1st week- Bathroom(we do a daily wipe down as well as a weekly cleaning of floors and tub) this includes walls being cleaned, floors on hands and knees, wash shower curtains, rugs, windows, decluttering cabinets, linen closet in hall
2nd week- All Bedrooms Dust, wipe walls, etc etc..basic deep cleaning of rooms
3rd week- Family Room/Dining room/living room Deep clean all surfaces, vacuum couches, dust walls, wash windows, de clutter any surfaces, put things back where they belong
4th week- School room/entry way/porch /dust, sanitize surfaces/bookshelves, vacuum cobwebs/corners, clean windows, prepare new bulletin board for following month, put away supplies for next month, organize work done for month, sweep entry, wash door in entry and floors, sweep porch, cut any plants overgrowing.
Saturday- School Planning/Garden day/Misc

1st week- (depending on pay period)Yard sales, Big Grocery Shopping, ,Car clean out (inside), weed garden, plant new seed or plants, sewing projects..
2nd week- Big Grocery shopping Or Car Wash (outside), weed garden, sewing projects..
3rd week- Clean out car inside, Baking Day
4th week- Car washed outside, School planning, school room decorating (adding bulletin boards, new art projects done and hung)

So this is just a rough draft of how I would like things to go, will get more detailed as I figure it out. I am needing to have things a bit more orderly with my time out of the house for errands and within the house for our new school year.

2010-06-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

It's getting hot outside, so my menu will now start reflecting that. Long gone are the days where soups and stew sounds good...bring on the salads, BBQ, and sandwiches!

Here's what we are having this week:
Monday- Pizza, Hot Wings, Breadsticks, Salad

Tuesday- Taco Salads w/shredded beef, HM refried beans

Wednesday- Grilled Chicken over linguine w/ olive oil, parmesan, broccoli, salad

Thursday- Chili (made in the crockpot) w/ homemade cornbread

Friday- Grilled Cheeseburgers, potato wedges

For more menu planning ideas, visit Organized Junkie here.

Happy Menu Planning!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

2010-06-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

My kids are chocolate milk freaks..they love the stuff! I like to buy the Trader Joe's brand because it doesnt have any questionable ingredients, but its expensive and its far from my house. One day we ran out, so I made some homemade and it is really good! Once its sat in the refrigerator overnight the consistency is really close to store bought...here are the ingredients:

Just mix the first first 4 ingredients in a saucepan till its bubbly and starts getting thicker, like a syrup...but do it on low or that stuff will burn you and make a mess on your stove! Once its done, add your vanilla and put it into a container of some sort. I used a jar from some jam that I recycled.

Put into the fridge over night and mix into your milk, pour over ice cream...or however you like to eat chocolate syrup.

Enjoy!

Bulk cooking day...

2010-05-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

So much for blogging every day in May..lol...however, I have been very productive outside of this blog. One thing that I have been doing is planning a bulk cooking day. I am learning to eat a more balanced diet, also known as the Insulin Resistance Diet, but its hard when I am in a hurry to make sure that I have a fast protein on hand to eat along with some fruit or whatever carb I happen to grab, so freezer cooking seems to be the answer for me at this time. Today, I started doing some of my cooking, but since I have a pretty full plate during the day as it is with homeschooling and 4 children, I decided to break down my cooking into chunks. I also have a friend that will be joining me at the end of the month (hopefully!) to share meals with and ideas!

This is what I have done so far this morning:

*Stuck 2 lbs of beans into the crockpot this a.m to freeze into 2 cup portions for lunches and to add to dinners.

*Baked 10 lbs of potatoes to shred and dice and stick into freezer bags for those big Sunday morning breakfasts, middle of the week days that Daddy's off work and wants food ;p, and stews, soups, and whatever I might need. Just saves me a lot of time when things are already busy.

*Baked chicken breasts. These will be chopped up and used in things like chicken fried rice, salads, and chicken tacos during the week for lunches for the kids and I.

*Boiled a dozen eggs. Used a few for egg salad sandwiches for lunch today, but the rest will go into the fridge for myself when I need a quick source of protein when I am hungry or needing some for a snack that contains carbs. Also, will be handy when out and about.

Still have left to do:

*Brown Rice. Going to cook a whole bag (think its a lb?) and freeze into half cup portions for individual servings.

* Yogurt- need to make a half gallon today to strain into greek yogurt and will make another half gallon on Wed for more. We go through a lot of yogurt when its strained so I am up to making about a gallon a week. Its really good for a mid day snack when you I am starved and has lots of needed protein.

*Chop up veggies for salads for half the week. I will probably need to go out and buy more produce and milk soon, so will just chop up what I have here now.

All of that is being done in the middle of school, baby nursing, phone calls from hubby etc, so you can tell its simple and easy and isnt taking me a ton of time. I will say that just having these things done will definitely SAVE me more time than it did to make it and that is going to be great.

Have a great Monday!

Eating healthy takes effort.

2010-05-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

So to challenge myself even further in the month of May, I decided to give up fast food for the month. Of course, if my hubby wants to stop and grab something, I wont disagree with him, BUT that is such a rare occurrence since he prefers to eat at home that I am not even going to think twice about it. The problem I have is when I am out running errands or have to go to a function like a homeschool group park day. We are starved by the time we leave, so we often pick something up afterwards. Again, this is only an occasional thing, but i have been finding myself doing less planning lately and that means more convenience (and less healthy) foods creep in. I will be allowing for special occasions and such at restaurants...just gonna avoid drive thrus as much as possible ;)

Still havent decided if that will include Starbucks tho. That may be taking it too far. I'll update later on that one ;)

So what do I plan to do to replace this habit? Get into a NEW habit, of course. I am hoping that with a little planning and some ideas I have for a bulk cooking day, this will be a successful goal to meet and something we'll stick to for the long run!

What do you do to avoid eating out? Any good snack ideas that will be quick to grab on a busy day of running errands?

Hope your day is blessed!

Menu Planning

2010-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the May challenge that I have given myself.

In order to continue feeding my family good, healthy food- on a budget, I have to menu plan. If I dont menu plan, I run into several problems.

I dont have all the ingredients on hand for meals. I end up with pasta, but no tomato sauce. Salad, but no dressing...you get the idea. I do have a pretty basic list that I work off of for groceries, but since I dont buy a lot of canned things or boxed food, its harder to keep things on hand for later without planning.
I'm making less than healthy foods, like hot dogs and fries for dinner, because I am rushing to find something to make that is quick and easy. Not completely unhealthy since we eat only all beef, kosher hot dogs and the fries are homemade, fried in coconut oil, HOWEVER when I make these kinds of foods, my children are less than willing to eat the broccoli I set before them the next night. Nothing wrong with these foods occasionally, but I'd much rather have a roasted organic chicken in my crockpot and some sweet potatoes ready to go...just takes a little planning ahead
A lot of food goes to waste. We end up with wilted lettuce because I forgot it was in the fridge, for example. This is one of my main problems and the way I try to remedy it is by cutting (that wont get strange on me) and getting them ready for dinner ahead of time. I have found that cutting up my romaine and spinning it in the salad spinner and then tossing in a ziploc with a paper towel is very time saving on me when I just need to grab a salad for lunch or dinner.

Those are just a few examples off the top of my head of problems that a lack of menu planning have caused here (and recently LOL!) so I am making sure from now on that I stay on top of my menu planning, even if I have to resort to eating the same thing every week to retrain myself back into that habit. Something tells me that my family will help me with this one ;)

So with that said, here's next weeks dinner menu:

~Monday- Chili and cornbread
~Tuesday- Roasted Chicken, Brown Rice, and Green Beans (Make stock on Wed for Thurs dinner)
~Wednesday (Cinco De Mayo)- Cheese Enchiladas, homemade refried beans, Pan Dulce
~Thursday- Crock pot Chicken Noodle Soup, hm dinner rolls, salad
~Friday- Homemade Pizza Night, salad, cookies (we try to bake something on Friday afternoons together)

I will plug this into my Microsoft Works Calendar (been doing this for a few years now) and just keep adding each week's menu to it. After a month, I have a full 30 days worth of menu ideas and just rotate them the following month...the planning is done for me for the most part, and if I decide to do some bulk cooking, It makes it just that much easier.

Have a blessed Monday!

May- A Challenge for myself.

2010-05-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to challenge myself this month. I have gotten into the trap of easy and convenient lately. Of course, I have a new baby, but feeling back into the groove of things and honestly, when you stop doing something (like sticking to a cleaning schedule, or cooking from scratch) its easy to fall into new habits. Unfortunately for me, those haven't been GOOD habits. So I decided to challenge myself. Each day in May, except Sundays, post something (which in my case since I am posting, I must "do" something) that is going to be money saving or healthy for my family. For me, those two things go hand in hand.

So for today's post...

Use Homemade Detergent.

I made some last week after not using it for at least a year and its working great. Here's the recipe I used: (Its powdered, I prefer it to the gel kind):

Powdered Laundry Detergent (adapted from this recipe)

Use 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup per load (I use 2 TBSPs usually).

Equipment:
Food processor (optional — you can use a cheese grater)
Large plastic tub or bucket (preferably with a lid — you could also recycle an old cardboard box of detergent)

Ingredients:
2 cups Borax
2 cups washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 bar soap (I used an Oatmeal soap that smells yummy!)
Essential oil (optional — if the soap is scented, you may not want to add this)

1. Cut the soap up into large chunks with a knife.

2. Throw the chunks into the food processor and blend into a powder (or as close to a powder as possible).

3. In a large plastic tub or bucket, stir together the Borax, washing soda, and baking soda. Be careful not to breathe in the powder while you mix. Let it settle first and then continue stirring.

4. Stir in the grated soap.

5. Stir in drops of essential oil if you like.

I have been using this on our clothes and the baby's cloth diapers(prefolds). I do an extra rinse with vinegar on my diapers, so not worried about build up or anything. I am going to experiment a bit with this recipe and use a different soap such as Dr Bronners and if you have allergies to soaps you can definitely use something better like a homemade soap.

Have a blessed Sunday!

One room down, a few more to go...

2010-04-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

{picture I took of the irises on our walkway}

On Saturday, I was able to accomplish a lot in my family room with my spring cleaning and want to continue in each room of my house until I have covered them all. Nine months of pregnancy and having a newborn is just a season of my life right now, but I am not about excuses. I want my home to be comfortable and as clutter free as possible. The only way to have that accomplished it to get up and do it. So off to do it. Again.

My plans for Monday are to:

**Go through my children's clothes. I am often drowning in laundry and it's often the reason I cannot get to other things that I would like. So the plan is to only take 5-7 outfits per child and leave those out for them to wear during the week. The other clothes that they have will be sorted and divided. They will either go into a donate bin, trash/recycled rags bin, or a bin for future use in their closets (that way they are still accessible but away from the general use stuff...just makes it easier). I will also have clothes that are to be passed down in other containers put up else where, but for now, this is my plan.

**Clean my Kitchen. It wont be a super deep clean, but surface deep clean. Just like my family room, there are drawers and cabinets that need to be decluttered, but I dont have the time for that right now. That will have to wait for summer break when I can devote the time to sit down and really go through things.

::Other kitchen duties today- Make beans in the crockpot to freeze and for dinner (chili), menu plan for the week , plan a freezer cooking session soon, make yogurt and cashew butter. I also need to make some laundry detergent.

**Pull out bookshelves that need to be in the family room and decide what books will be there. Now that I have things where I need them and its deep cleaned, I ca do this. Currently, all of our schoolish books are in our school room, but I am going to move some of them into our family room 1) its easier for me to plan our weeks with the books near my computer 2) We never use the school room for "school" 3) I am going to drag out my exercise bike and Elliptical machine out of my garage and make a workout area for myself. I'm sure there are more reasons but these are what come to mind right now.

Have a great Monday and Happy Spring cleaning!

Creating a restful home

2010-04-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

These past few days I have been wondering if my home is as restful as it could be for our family. The answer was pretty easy..um, no. With four children, 3 of which are 5 and under, there's lots of noise and activity happening all the time. When my hubby gets home, I am usually in the process of making dinner, or we've already eaten and the kids have a second wind before they are ready to get to bed. The noise level is pretty much at its peak and I would like to change that. I read this post today today on Passionate Homemaking (BTW love the bread recipe there, been using it a while now!) and was inspired not only to look around and de-clutter what needs decluttering, but to search the scripture and see how my home measures up. Let's just say there is a lot of work to do. Of course, our homes here will never be perfect, and I don't expect that, but I do intend to try my best at making it close to somewhere that anyone can come at visit at anytime and I dont have to worry about toys everywhere, or dishes in the sink waiting to be washed. I was blessed and encouraged by Psalms 126:6 this morning:

He who goes out weeping,bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy,bringing his sheaves with him.

Today, I will work hard at making this a reality for my husband as he comes home from his battlefield. It may not happen the way I would like to see it in my mind...but I will always remember that my actions as wife and mother set the tone of our household.

Be blessed today!

Recipe-Bean night

2010-03-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

We have bean night once a week here to cut costs to afford other things like free range chicken, not to mention we also like them, a lot. As a matter of fact, they were my favorite childhood food. I'll warn you though, this is MY rendition of them, I dont have a lot of the authentic ingredients available to me, and my husband and I LOVE cilantro so this recipe is chock full of it.

Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (Arroz con Habichuelas):

So with these ingredients, I just sorta throw them in, but I can tell you amounts...somewhat ;)

First you start with some partially (Mostly) cooked beans (that are soaked overnight) or you can use canned. I have nothing against them. Then get the rest of your ingredients together:

*Cilantro- a whole bunch (literally- a whole "bunch")
*Garlic- however much you like, I use the equivalent of about 4-5 cloves
*Green bell pepper- I use a whole one, you can use less if you want (not shown since it was in the food processor)
*Onion- half of a yellow/white onion
*olive oil..just a tbsp or so.
(If you have capers and oregano on hand, they are good in here also, I just never have them)

Add all those ingredients to your food processor or better yet, your blender. My blender is having issues, so food processor will do. This is called "sofrito"..yum, smells very fresh...its my favorite part.

Get yourself about 3, 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce ready

And dump both of those into your cooked beans (We use pink or pinto..these are pinto)

Add some salt to taste and any other seasonings you have on hand. I need to pick up some adobo, but they are fine without it.

Stir it all up and let simmer for a while to cook the rawness of the vegetables out and serve over rice.

This is really good over brown or white rice..whatever you are used to. I also like to serve this with fried plantains, although I haven't made them in a long time.

I'm back :)

2010-03-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

I decided to bring this blog back for many reasons...I love all things natural and frugal and just didn't feel like my homeschool blog was the right place to share all of my projects, recipes etc that are going on. I also am no longer suffering from morning sickness and can handle having two blogs again because my baby is now 3 months old and doing great :)

I am looking forward to posting again here....look for something really soon!

No (sham) poo update..

2009-05-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

OK I am having a love/hate relationship right now with shampoo.

I was no poo for about 2-3 months. Once I started getting cheap/free shampoo and conditioner from CVS using coupons, I slowly but surely stopped using vinegar rinses and baking soda and started back to using regular shampoos and conditioner. The result? My hair is gross!! I had so much buildup from the hairspray I have been using and my itchy/flaky/oily scalp started back up with a vengeance. I know part of it is the pregnancy hormones but golly....ugh.

So today I washed my hair and used a vinegar/lavendar/tea tree oil rinse today, and my scalp feels sooooo good. Why did I go back to shampoo you ask? Because I never did get past that greasy hair phase with no poo :( So What to do? I am looking into making my own shampoo sans parabens and sulfates but need to get the ingredients first. Should I just wash like once a week and start all over again? If I use baking soda too much I have very dry and frizzy hair, so I have to be careful. Any experience with this anyone? Point me in the right direction! Are you no-poo and made it through that yucky greasy hair stage? Its summer so I am thinking now is the time to try this again!! This is an ongoing experiment..funny thing is, some older gentlemen stopped me in the grocery store to compliment me on my hair...seriously? LOL

I WON!! I WON!!

2009-05-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

LOL Another giveaway!!!! With the last giveaway I won from WastedTextbooks (thanks LauraLee!) and this one...oh my...I don't need to buy anything new for my preschooler and toddler next year! I am going to be implementing the "workbox" method of organization in our school and these Preschool Activity Bags (I won Book 1) are going to be an awesome addition!! Thanks to Heart at Home for having this giveaway!
What a blessing the Spring Giveaway Blog Carnival was to me this year!! I can't wait till the next one! God is good!

2009-05-11T21:57:00.001-07:00

My meals are going to be extremely easy for these next few weeks. I am buying a lot more convenience food these days, but will get back to making those yummy, healthier meals soon enough.

Monday(tonight): Grilled burgers with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. BBQ'd corn, chips.
Tuesday: Fettuccine Alfredo, Green Beans, garlic toast
Wednesday: Turkey Soup, salad, dinner rolls
Thursday: Chicken Tenders, fries, corn
Friday: Taquitos, spanish rice, refried beans
Saturday: Leftovers (or whatever is easiest!)
Sunday: Crockpot Chili, cornbread

What are you having this week? Head over to Org Junkie to get some ideas or just peek at what others are having this week.

Bulk cooking day -Part 2

2009-05-09T08:04:00.001-07:00

Today is the day I am going to put my plans to work. Yesterday I was only able to get all of our fruit for the week washed, cut and put into easy to grab bags and containers. I doubt this fruit is going to last us all week, so I am saying that loosely. I didn't however, get any of my other prep work done that I had hoped. I felt well enough to clean, so that took priority over chopping veggies and it really doesn't take much time so I am going to worry about that this morning.

I actually am only going to cook a few things today, due to not feeling that great this morning, but what I am making is going to go a long way this week and the next few.

So far I am making the following:

Roasting a Turkey (this may go into the crockpot if it'll fit because of the heat we are having). This will be for the next week. I am making turkey, spinach, swiss wraps, turkey sandwiches aand turkey soup. We are also going to have a small turkey dinner tonight with HM mac and cheese and veggies.
Boil a bag of chicken breasts. I like to boil these ahead of time and chop them into cubes and freeze into individual meal sized bags. I make lots of things out of chicken breast and having them already cooked gives me the option to throw a quick pasta meal together or some chicken enchiladas , pot pies, or a casserole together during the week...very simple.
Beans- I had planned to have these cooking in the crockpot all day today, but forgot to soak them last night AND I am thinking I want to cook my turkey in there....so those will be done next week ...maybe on Monday? They are very simple to make and I am planning on doubling some of my meals for the next few months to get a nice stash of meals put away. This was done with my last pregnancy and really helped on those days that I just wanted a nap! LOL

So far that is all I am making today....I am kind of playing it by ear today because of my morning sickness, but want to get some things done nonetheless.

Once a Month Cooking Plans Part 1

2009-05-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend I am going to cook a few meals for my freezer to make my week go smoother. Having severe morning sickness(actually all day) has made my days much harder than I expected. I've decided to take one day (sick or not) to prepare some meals ahead of time for my family. My hubby has taken on a lot of the cooking duties and I want to bless him with having things already done....that way he can come home from a hard days work and relax!
Here are my plans so far (I'll share more as I make them later)

**Wednesday- I have my ultrasound this day , so not much will happen except I will bake some muffins for Thurs and Friday's breakfasts. I like to start early and making a mess before I even really start cooking is just counter-productive for me..lol. Muffins, fruit and yogurt will be our breakfast for a few days :)

**Thursday is my day one- shopping day. I go to Trader Joes and grab my meats, organics that can't be found at Walmart and produce. There are a few treats I like there also that I grab...but am going in with a list and sticking to it!! LOL NOW THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Pick up something easy for Dinner this day...we'll do Pizza (store bought, frozen) or TJ's Orange Chicken, YUM!

**Friday- Walmart in the morning, Prepping in the afternoon. I will be chopping all veggies that are needed for my recipes and putting them in the fridge for the next day. I am also going to stick something in the crockpot this day (I think beans) to be prepared and frozen on Saturday. I also am living on fruit, so will cut up my fruit and such and stick into easily accessible containers for me to nosh on throughout the day : )**Another important day to eat something for dinner that is easy, I think we'll do Kosher Hot Dogs and Oven Fries...

**Saturday: Cooking and freezing day! This day I will be making several different meals and sticking them into the freezer, keeping the changing season in mind. Here in So California it heats up really quick and suddenly soup and stews don't sound so good. So I am trying to re-do my menu and think up some good, freezer quality meals. ** This day we will eat something easy also, probably one of the meals already prepared :)

So that is the plan so far. I am looking forward to getting this done so I can relax the rest of my first trimester. Any ideas for meals? They don't even have to be fully cooked...something that is pre-marinated and ready for the grill is always easy also! Anyone wanna join me this weekend? We'll have a blog party and post real-time on Saturday!

And the winner is.....

2009-05-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

The winner of the T-tapp exercise DVD was generated by Random.org :)
And the winner said:

April 28, 2009 7:23 AM
K,J,C,and L said...: Count me in too!
pilgrim
CONGRATS!! I'll be contacting you to get this out soon :) I would have loved to have more to giveaway!!

Blessings to you all for making this such a fun giveaway!

My first Giveaway!!! April 27th- April 30th (closed)

2009-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

(Enter between April 27th- April 3oth, Winner announced on Friday May 1st- Did anyone else notice I put April 31st? LOL )

I have been doing this workout for a few months off and on and love it! It takes some getting used to , as far as the moves, but is well worth it once you get it all figured out. This workout is safe for all types of conditions and limitations, and being newly pregnant again, safety in a workout is a priority for me. So in honor of the Springtime Giveaway Carnival, I am giving away a Basic Workout Plus DVD to one BLESSED reader of mine (because I don't believe in luck ;p)

What you are getting:

This is from the T-Tapp Website:

Great as a warm up or as a stand alone workout, Basic Workout Plus delivers inch loss as well as improved health/wellness. Basic Workout Plus is the first half of the Total Workout plus the exercise Hoe Downs, which is the 3-minute sugar blasting move that drops glucose 62-85 points. Basic Workout Plus proves that less is more with T-Tapp. Learn the basic T-Tapp techniques that make any workout more effective!

Also included with the Basic Workout plus CD:
**Instructional Workout #1: teaches how to do each exercise step by step with detailed instruction.
**Yes You Can With T-Tapp Seminar: a 90-minute seminar explaining how and why the T-Tapp program works, includes several exercises to target different areas of concern (arms, torso, back fat, stomach, thighs, knees, inner core balance) and how to apply T-Tapp techniques with daily activity.

What do I have to do to win, you ask?

Leave me a comment for one entry (make sure if you don't have a blog I know who you are by leaving your email)
For another entry follow me ;)
For another entry you can post a short blog post about my giveaway, make sure and leave the link of your entry in your comment.
And yet for another, Post on facebook about my giveaway, or tweet it

Click on the link above for the Giveaway Carnival Hosted by HeavenlyHomemakers.com this spring or better yet, host one yourself and link up there also !! I am off to enter some myself!

It's Spring.....time for a giveaway!

2009-04-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned on Monday! I will be hosting my very first giveaway while participting in the Springtime Giveaway Carnival at Heavenly Homemakers!
See you then!

Giveaway!

2009-04-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

My very good friend Daisy is having her first giveaway on her blog right now...Hurry, Go check it out!

Free Ice Cream !

2009-04-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know about this you still have time! Get yourself over to your nearest Ben and Jerry's for free cone day today, April 21st!
You can find out if your nearest shop is participating here. I don't know about you, but I could go for some cookie dough right about now ;)

Menu for this week

2009-04-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

With the heat starting to set in here in Southern Ca, my menus are going to start changing. Adding in more fresh veggies and fruits are going to make much more sense than soups and stews, so I need to get on the ball and get more creative. Just today, I have been discussing Once- A-Month- Cooking on my discussion board and am planning on a session sometime in May. I will be sharing my plans as they come about and any ideas you have are welcomed as well. I know that I like having a theme for each night and will more than likely stick to that, but being pregnant with baby #4 is causing my brain to scream simplicity so I am going to listen..lol.

Anyways, here's what we are having for dinner this week (subject to change to mama's exaggerated 5 senses this week ;P )

Monday: Grilled NY Steak, Baked Potatoes, sweet Corn
Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas, re-fried beans
Wednesday: Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches, HM fries (to do: Soak beans and rice overnight for Thurs)
Thursday: Beans, Rice, Cornbread
Friday: Dinner out , Pizza at a Friends
Saturday: HM Cheeseburgers, Green Salad

What are you having this week? Do you find yourself cooking differently as the seasons change? I can't wait for our garden to produce lots of veggies this year!!

Question and Answer Post:

2009-04-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

I had a question with the last post I did regarding CVS from Laura Lou and since thought It was a great question, I wanted to answer it in a post for anyone else who may be curious :)

Laura Lou said... Not too familiar with this thread since we don't have CVS here, but tell me this: are these all products you used before you starting using the ECB program, or do you now use these products because you can basically get them for free? So curious I am...

There are a few different answers to this question, so I am going to answer them in order of priority :)

I first look up the items I am going to get on the skindeep site to make sure I am not buying anything that is not within my comfort zone as far as chemicals and ingredients. I am ok with using some things that are on a moderate risk level and most on a low risk level. High risk products usually don't get in my cart usually- free or not.
I did use SOME of the products before that I now am fortunate enough to get with coupons ie; diapers, wipes, and certain baby products (had to stop using cloth because of washer machine/dryer issues..sigh). I also use some cleaning products for real messes that my natural cleaners just don't work for. I am a recovering bleach-a-holic though and am slowly weaning myself from commercial cleaners. Also, there are some things that were a luxury to me that I never really bought for myself that I am able to get now for free without feeling guilty for buying!
There are some things I do get just because they are free. I know a few single mothers, single older women, and homeless in my area that could use the products I won't use. Since I am getting them free, or really cheap, and even though I may not use them, I still get them for others. I took a bag full of stuff over to a young, single mom in my family last week that really could use some of the things I had....felt wonderful to provide for her and take the burden of buying some of the things she needed and can now put her money elsewhere, like some extra food or gas.
Getting some of these products for free or close to free is freeing up my budget more for other things, ie; organic foods, free-range meats and the gas it takes me to travel to get those things in another city. I can't afford to buy totally organically for my family in terms of body care or cleaners etc , so this is a good compromise for me. I would love to just afford all things organic, but not an option at this point for us. I DO, however, still make some of our body stuff. Deodorant for myself, which is wayyy better than commercial deodorant (doesnt work for the men in my house though) , baby rash stuff, hair lotion for my children, cleaners and more! I LOVE making my own products and will continue to do so.

I hope that answers your question Laura Lou and if anyone else has any questions regarding couponing or anything else, please feel free to ask!

See you next week.

2009-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am going to be absent from blogging (along with other things) to observe the Passion Week. Have a great Passover, Good Friday and Resurrection Day!

See you all when I get back next Monday!

CVS Trip

2009-04-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

This is my run from CVS earlier this week...I got a ton of stuff for a small amount of OOP in my opinion (compared to what wouls have been spent normally)

This is the breakdown:

Scrubbing Bubbles:
$2.99 x 2 = $5.98
- 2.75x2 MFQ printable= $5.50 off
Total oop: $.48 for 2

Mentos gum: (buy 3 get $1.00 ECB)
$1.69 x 3= $5.07
-1.00 (2) MFQ= $2.00 off
-.55 (1)
Total OOP- $1.52 for 3

Clean and Clear Scrubs and cream cleanser:(get $5 ECB when you spend $15)
$5.49 x 3 = $16.49
-2.00 off MFQ x 3 printables= $6.00
Total OOP= $5.49 for three

Fantastic Spray cleaner- (buy 2 get $1.00 ECB)
$2/$6.00
-1.00 x 2 MFQ= $2.00
Total OOP= 2/$3

Pond's microdermabrasion wipes ( Spend $10.00 get $5.00 ECBs)
$3.99 x 3 = $11.97
-$1.50 x 2 MFQ's =$3.00
-$1.00 x 1 MFQ
Total OOP= $2.97 for 3!

Suave Hairspray
$1.99 for one
-3.00 MFQ (free product Q)
Total OOP- $1.01 overage!

Veet Hair removal (spend $10 get $5.00 ECBs)
$5.49 x 2 = $10.98
- 2.00 off printable x 2= $4.00
Total OOP= $1.98 for two!

Natural Dentist Mouth Wash (Buy 1 get 4 ECBS. I got $8.00 for 2!)
$6.99 x 2 = $13.98
-2.00 off x 2 printable MFQ's
I will also be sending in a mail in rebate for a $10 gift card when you buy 2
Total OOP- OVERAGE $8.02!!

I used about $20 in ECB's and some cash to pay for all of this and walked out of the store with $13 in ECB's to use on my trip next week. Awesome!

Love CVS!

WalgreensTrip..

2009-04-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

I have been sharing a car with my hubby for the last week due to the brakes on my car going crazy (dont know whats wrong with them!) and haven't been to CVS or Walgreens for about 2 weeks! Boy did I make up for it today ;)

I had a plan. IN and OUT in 20 mins...each store. I also wanted to hit up Target.
I had 3 and 1/2 hours before I had to get to an appointment...so I was on a mission! Not only did I have 3 children with me, we went during the littlest ones nap time. I filled them up on non-healthy, but yummy Jack in The Box and ~~bribed~~ told them that if they were good, Mommy would get them a treat (I knew I was getting Mentos Gum for cheap, and gum is a luxury my children don't get to indulge in often ;) Thankfully, my toddler was not too cranky in the first two stores and slept in his stroller the whole time in Target.

Today I am going to share my trip to Walgreens. This is only my second or third run to Walgreens and I am VERY pleased with how things work there. Especially since they seem to have lots of store coupons.

Scott Tissue:
In ad coupon was 2/$5
- $1.00 (2)
total OOP- 2/$3.00

Comet:
In ad Q for 2/$1
total OOP- $1.00

Reynolds wrap:
In ad Q for .89 (bought 3)
-1.00 MFQ (had 3)
Total OOP- OVERAGE .33

Halls:
in ad Q for 1.39
-1.00 MFQ off 1
Total OOP- .39

Listerine:
Buy 2 for $11 (get back $5.50 in register rewards for your next purchase)
-2.00 MFQ's (had 2)
Total OOP- $7.00 (got back $5.50..so only $1.50 for both)

Oust:
$4.49 each ( 1.00 ESR rebate each back by mail also)
- B1G1 free MFQ
- (2) $2.00 off MFQ's
Total oop- $.49 for two however these will be overage with my ESR)
**(I didn't know with Walgreens that you can only have one Q per item..so they had to manually put through the b1g1 coupon. Next time I will give them the b1g1 first and then one other MFQ so there is no confusion. The manager was very nice though :D)

Finally were some hair ties for my dd on clearance for .40!

Total OOP was about $10.00 for everything(including tax). I would have spent that the Listerine! Whats great is that I have $5.50 in RR to spend next week along with $2.00 in rebates coming :)

Oh and to top it off, I had these awaiting me in my garden....I decided to cut a few and enjoy them inside the house :)

Healthy Breakfast Part 4...

2009-03-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was a weird night and unfortunately I wasn't able to make muffins. I did have some Fiber One cereal, milk, and tangelos on hand so that is what the kids had. Me? On the way to Park day I had Starbucks and a donut...I was running on very little sleep so that seemed the most logical thing for me to do ;) Ok..so not so healthy for me....but good for them right?

Hopefully tomorrow will be business as usual around here......

Healthy Breakfasts Part 3

2009-03-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

Glazed Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls....anyone? Um, yeah. VERY Healthy right? THEY are!! I used this recipe from my good friend Laura Lee over at Wasted Textbooks and boy oh boy! Were they sooo yummy. I have to admit, I was startled by the first bite. The outer edge was a little too whole-wheaty for me (I usually bake with unbleached all purpose flour) but after I took another bite (and another) and got to the cinnamon and brown-sugary butterness of the roll...to.die.for. J/K ;) But yeah, so good. My little ones devoured theirs and are asking that I put them away so ~~Mom~~ Dad, doesn't eat them all up (I made a dozen)....

I did tweak the recipe a bit since I am using things up and not going to grocery store....
One being I replaced the milk with kefir (was gonna soak them overnight but decided that the dough just wasn't moist enough without the eggs) and replaced the butter in the dough with coconut oil. I DID use butter for the filling of course though!
I also didn't have any cream cheese on hand, so I just made a glaze with a little lemon juice, powdered sugar and milk. I BET the cream cheese would have thrown these over the edge in goodness , so the next time I make them we'll be sure to use it! Here's the final product, healthy (in my book) and yummy......

Now I had a nice tall glass of Cold Brewed Iced Coffee with this and it was just like I had a small bit of heaven this morning...well add to the fact that the new HOD Creation to Christ samples came out today!! It was almost enough to through me into taking a day off of school...um...not!
Oh and we always have some kind of protein with our breakfast, so we had some hard boiled eggs while these were baking.....

Tomorrow we have park day, so I am thinking of baking some muffins to grab on the run. I received a huge box of home-grown tangelos and am seeing what I can throw together..see ya then!

Healthy Breakfasts - Parts 1&2

2009-03-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

I am going to do a series of posts all week(Mon-Sat) on healthy breakfasts . This post contains Monday and Tuesday (since I wasn't able to post yesterday).....

Lately my middle child, whom I call Middle A, has been an extremely picky eater. She is refusing a lot of foods that used to be her favorites. She is wanting to eat the same things over and over. My 1 year old is also pretty finicky, but his issue is mainly with texture. My 9 yr old, well, he'll eat anything and is not a problem. So as you can imagine, I am either finding myself making different things for each child, or they are just not eating what I make. I prefer my children to have a good start with a healthy breakfast, so I have been opting to make them what they want. Now I am not saying that they are getting "junk"...lol...we are slowly switching to a more whole foods approach but variety is more of the issue. My Middle A will eat Oatmeal EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. which is a GOOD thing, however I know that oatmeal can cause some digestion issues and decided to look into a different method of making them. Along came the idea of soaking them. Wow! Weird? Really? That's what I thought when I first read about it, but as I started doing more research about soaking grains it started to make a lot of sense. This Monday was the first time I made oats that were soaked and they were AWESOME. I used the recipe from this site and added some chopped apple, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter. Everyone loved it, except little A...he took one bite and the texture was just not happening for him...2 outta 3 children happy is great, so its a keeper.

We also had a GREEN SMOOTHIE. Yes, a green smoothie. LOL. Don't knock it till you try it ;)

Here's what I put in ours (just add it all to the blender):

About 8 ounces plain Kefir
5 oz of frozen organic Strawberries
Honey to taste (maybe a tbsp)
about 1/2 cup apple juice
And topped it all off with ....*drumroll please* BABY SPINACH! Yup, baby spinach leaves. I just added enough to fill the blender. If it gets too thick just add some more apple juice to thin it out a little.

The result:

Haha...No pics of Middle A, her hair wasn't done yet ;) BUT she LOVED it and was so eager to drink it because it was GREEN. We drank this smoothie as a mid-morning snack after our Soaked Oatmeal breakfast. I will share some different recipe as we try them. I have lots of collard greens in the garden and am going to try to use them this way as well.

Part 2 (Tuesday's breakfast)

I think I have shared a soaked bread recipe before but if you haven't tried this bread recipe, I highly recommend it. I didn't want to make 4 loaves this time so I quartered the recipe. I had it soak over night in my bread machine pan, that way I could just add the rest of the ingredients and stick it on my bread machine's dough cycle ;) Even with tweaking the recipe a bit, it still came out woderfully! Next time, I won't be so lazy and will make all 4 loaves, but instead of baking them all at once, I will just freeze the dough and bake fresh as Laura Lee suggested to me my last baking day :D Anyways, we had this bread toasted with some scrambled eggs and apple slices on the side. I try to alternate our breakfasts throughout the week and provide lots of variety wherever I can. This week is a little different as I am trying to NOT go to the grocery store and just use up what we have...so far so good!

Tomorrow, I will share Part 3, Wednesdays Breakfast and here's a hint....I'm using up some pumpkin that I had in the freezer from a huge one we received this past summer.

Blueberry/Lemon Struesel Muffins

2009-03-21T10:26:00.001-07:00

I made some muffins this morning and let me tell you, they were so good! I used this recipe on Joy of Baking but tweaked it to death by adding virgin coconut oil in place of the butter in the muffin mix for the added health benefits. The coconut oil gave these muffins a really nice texture and a wonderful flavor! I also decided to make a crumb topping separate from the mix (it calls for using some of the flour mixture from the muffin mix) and just added in more milk and some lemon juice for moisture. The crumb topping was made the same as the recipe called for, I just used a third of the ingredients. I was able to get a dozen muffins and a small loaf of muffin bread from this one recipe for a friend :) The best thing about these muffins is that even though I just had oral surgery on Thursday, I was able to actually eat them! God is so awesome...I haven't had anywhere near the amount of pain that I thought I would have!

I think I'll add these to our Saturday tradition of muffins for breakfast, what do you think? Let me know if you try them or want the exact tweaked recipe :)

Coupon Organizer

2009-03-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

I have been collecting coupons since the beginning of the year and have used a few different things to organize them. At first, I had a small accordion type holder that was see through. It worked fine, but only had room to separate them by category. I soon found that some categories needed to be divided up even more and quickly grew out of that one (I still use it for my small amount of food coupons though). Next, was the index card file box. What a disaster! I couldn't find ANY of the coupons I was looking for at the store, and with that ended up leaving the store empty handed one day from my frustration. It was then that I came across a site( i can't remember where!) that showed how to put your coupons into baseball card holders, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (a type A personalities dream come true..lol) and even have room for everything else that goes with couponing..all in one neat and tidy spot! Needless to say, my hubby is very happy to have my stuff all contained in one area..paper clutter is my arch nemesis and this has helped me A LOT!

This binder was from Freecycle...so even though its not the cutest one I could have, its frugal and that's more important right?
This is the front. There's a pocket on there that I keep for food coupons and things I need to see.

This is the inside of my binder. I hold all of my internet printable coupons as well as the coupons I am using on that particular shopping trip. They are easily accessible and I don't have to go searching which is always nice.

Here's my little zipper pouch ..lol. It holds important things I don't want lost like my CVS extra care bucks or Walgreens register rewards. I also put my pen and a few other things in there i may need. You may also see peeking out behind that pocket some coupons that are NOT in alphabetical order, right? Those are what I call "filler" coupons. I always need a small item to "fill" my order to get my total close to the amount of ECB's I have. Also, these items are usually near the register

And here is a page of my coupons. I have them all alphabetized for the most part, but they do get out of order as I add more and use them up. As you can see, the coupons are separated into baseball card sheets. They were about $7.00 for a pack of 65 at Walmart. Well worth it!

I still have lots of extras left and keep them in the back.

And this is the back of my binder where I keep my ads for the current week and month. There is also another hidden pocket where I keep coupon inserts that I haven't cut yet.

I'm sure that there are others that have better ways for organizing their coupons and would love to see how! For now though, I am very happy with my new system and I look like I know what I am doing when I walk into the store now instead of an organizational nightmare! LOL

CVS Trip...

2009-03-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

I am a little disappointed in myself right now, but I'll get over it. I let the cashier hand me back a coupon that I should have used! As I was going to post this I went over my receipts because I knew that my total was more than I had figured out at home, but in the midst of my transaction I let myself be confused..lol. I am a newbie at this CVS game so I will allow it this time ;p

Ok so besides that I really came home with a lot and only spent a little cash along with my extra care bucks. This is what I got:

1st Transaction:
2 boxes of Fiber one cereal and nature valley granola bars- 3/$10 (limit 1)
coupons :
- 1.00/1 Fiber one cereal
- .50/1 Fiber one cereal
Get back $5.00 in ECB's
= 3 boxes for $3.50

(this would have been better if I would have had another 1.00 off Q but about a 1.16 per box is great.)

2nd transaction:

(there is a better deal going on at Walgreens, and I will hit that later this week, but I needed diapers now and was going to CVS anyways...but $3.99 for diapers is still crazy cheap!)
1 pk Huggies diapers @ 8.99 (limit 3)
- 5.00 internet printable found here (you should be able to print these twice per computer)
= $3.99 oop

Crest prohealth mouth wash @ 2.99 (get back $2.00 in ECB's) (limit 1)
- .75 cent coupon
= .24 cent total

Palmolive Dishsoap @1.49 (get back $1.00 in ECB's) (limit 2)
= .49 total

Herbal Essences hydralicious shampoo & cond @ 2.88 (get back $1 ECB's per bottle) (limit 5)

I bought 4 @ 2.88 = $11.52
- $3 off 2 (I had 2 coupons but she gave me one back and said I didnt buy that many, but I did...grrrr)
get back $4.00 in ECB's
= 4 bottles for $4.52 (should have been $1.52)

Vaseline body lotion @ 3.69 (get back $2.00 in ECB's)
- 1.oo off coupon
= .69 for one

Garnier Fructis @ 3/$10 (I bought mousse, 2 hairsprays) (get back $5.00 ECB's)
- 3 (1.00 off Q's)
= $2.00 for 3 bottles or about .67 cents each

Lumene Face wipes: 2 @ 2.99 each BUT they are buy one get 1 50% off this week so it was really $4.50 for both (spend $20 get back $5.00 ECB)
I had 2 $4.00 off Q's (these are printables)- cashier adjusted them both down and only took off $6.00. I ended up with $1.50 overage on this anyways!

My total out of pocket was:
$17 in ECB's
$6.98 in cash
and I brought home $14 in ECB's to roll over in my next shopping trip! (so total out of pocket was $9.98 for everything!) Not bad for my second major trip but I will make sure I am less careless with the coupons!!

Lemonade on a bright sunny day...

2009-03-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Thats the only way I can describe my friend Daisy, and it seems she thinks I am pretty ok myself, because she gave me this award. I am with you on the lemon bars thing, Daisy.lol!
I have always been the one person who didn't want to have a lemonade stand because "I probably wouldn't sell anything anyways"..lol...but thankfully God has really changed my worldview and I am happy that someone is able to see some fruit from that..

Here are some blogs that I have enjoyed throughout the year and have been a true blessing to me!

Gina at Beandip Blog
Kysha at Loves School
Michelle at At Home with Jesus
Laura Lee at Wasted Textbooks
Christy at Simplyblessed and fruitful

Each one of these ladies has put up blog post after blog post that have inspired me in some way!Thanks girls!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-03-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Monday- HM Chili beans, rice, cornbread
Tuesday- Taco night, HM refried beans
Wed- Roasted Chicken, Green Beans, Brown rice
Thurs- Stuffed Bell Peppers , Salad
Fri- Homemade Pizza, Salad
Sat- Chicken N Dumplings
Sun- Middle A's Bday Party!

Happy Menu Planning!

Handmade Diaper Rash Cream.

2009-02-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

I have used all kinds of different rash treatments on my children over the years and they work ok, but I have noticed that most of them have undesirable ingredients and can often sting a red bottom. I also needed to find an alternative to those ointments and creams when I started using cloth diapers on my littlest son because they can cause issues with build up and repelling. I used cornstarch a lot, just the regular stuff you buy in the baking isle, but that was messy and hard to deal with. I also started using straight organic coconut oil, and wow, it works better than any diaper rash product out there! I got to thinking about it and decided to combine the two with a couple other natural ingredients to make a cream.

Here's what you'll need:

A jar or something to hold your cream (this is a freezer jam jar),cornstarch, a caplet of vit E (optional), some coconut oil, tea tree oil (a couple of drops), and a container to mix it in. I use a hand blender but you can use a wisk or something else.

First, you melt some coconut oil(you can add some olive oil as well..but only a little)...I used about a 1/2 cup or so of the coconut oil...melt it in the micro for a little until its melted....doesnt take long at all. Add a tablepoon at a time of cornstarch until you reach something that looks like a glaze or frosting(i think I ended up using 4-5 Tbsps)..YUM! But don't eat it....wont taste that good..although it IS edible. Whip it up really good...and then let cool...whip some more until is totally cooled down, you can add your vitamin E and tea tree oil now (tea tree oil is a great addition for rashes and helps to preserve your cream). If you dont use tea tree oil, use your cream up quickly.

Add it to your container of choice and leave it alone. The coconut oil will reharden and make your cream thicker. Mine sat for a few hours before I tested it. Coconut oil's melting point is at 76 degrees..anything under that and it starts to harden. This will need to be in a cool place during the summer time especially.

This is the lid. It shows you how thick mine has gotten after while:

Have a great weekend!

Homemade Body Care- In the Kitchen today...

2009-02-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

I am in the kitchen this morning whipping up some more homemade bodycare items. It started out with just baby rash cream but ended up being a morning of experimenting with some ingredients I already have on hand (and need to use up!)...on the list are:

~~Baby rash cream~~ (will post tutorial of this later today)
~~Hair lotion for my dd's hair~~- (will post this soon...)
~~Moisturizing cream for the face~~ -the dry winter air is really giving me problems! (if I can get to this today before lunchtime)

Do you make anything homemade? I love being able to just put these things together as I need them!

On the sewing table this week.....

2009-02-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

We've been sick this past week so not much has been getting done besides school but I did want to share that I am going to be sewing some curtains for our school room from some sheets I got in a bag full of freecycle stuff. Its a cute pattern and I think their going to look great in our newly organized school room! I don't have any extra money to decorate around here, but I love trying to figure out how to take what I have sitting around and putting it to good use instead! I also will have some extra material left over to cover a little bench in there that is used to house our dress up clothes and possible some big throw pillows to relax on while we are reading. Hubby also brought home 2 very much needed bookshelves and a little cabinet that will hold more stuff!! LOL I love his job sometimes...he comes home with useful things all the time (now that he calls and asks if I could use or want them I LOVE it!).

I will post pics as soon as I am done with the curtains!

CVS trip

2009-02-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Today was my second trip to CVS doing the coupon, extra care bucks thing and let me tell you, it was a rush! LOL I LOVE a good deal!! I had already done one deal where I spent some money out of pocket. ( a lot because I didn't really pay attention closely to what I was doing) Anyways, I went today with no children in tow and a very detailed plan of action. I had a few different scenarios that I was holding to and it took me about an hour at the actual store but I walked out with a hefty amount of stuff and it took VERY LITTLE out of my pocket this time.
So I started with $10 of extra care bucks from a deal a couple of weeks ago and all that is what I got.
All of this cost me $4.72 out of pocket. Crazy. (I did about 4 transactions, if anyone is interested I can list them out in another post.)

You can go here to find out how to do the CVS coupon thing. (where i first learned about this).

Please excuse my absense

2009-02-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

I have been working on household projects this past week. My brain has been focused on this one are of my house and its finally done! I still have some cosmetic things to take care of but so far I am happy to have my school room back! You can see it over at our homeschool blog.

I am hitting CVS today for some deals (I hope!), I will report back later what I scored!

Baking Day

2009-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

I have done once a month cooking before but had yet to do a baking day, so today was the day! I had company over so I got a late start, but it still turned out to be a very fruitful day and I am happy to have planned this! I had to do some prep work the night before (last night) but it was simple enough and only needed if you want to soak your grains to get the maximum benefits from there as described here.

Here are the things I made:

~1 dozen of blender waffles. I made these and then froze them and put them into a ziploc but separated them in wax paper The recipe can be found here.

~1 loaf of white bread for hubby in the bread machine (usually make 4 at a time)

~1 dozen Whole wheat blueberry muffins(i used a new recipe and lets just say these came
out U.G.L.Y..lol...but they taste yummy!) Next time, I will make my trusty ~~fattening~~ blueberry streusel muffins ;)

~4 loaves of Whole Wheat bread that you can find here. (3 of these will go straight into the freezer after they are baked for later). I am excited about how these are going to turn out because I really put some muscle into kneading all that dough by hand!

Next time I do a bake day, I will have dinner in the crock pot though! LOL I was in the kitchen most of the day and by the time dinner came around I was spent. I still actually have the 4 loaves of Wheat bread on their 2nd rise and am going to stick them in the oven shortly. We had beef and broccoli tonight and it was VERY good....gonna make it again sometime....just not on a bake day ;)

Tomorrow I have laundry day (need to get caught up!) and school planning. Then later tommorow night hubby and I will have a special dinner and watch a movie.

What are you doing this weekend?

Spring Garden Planning

2009-02-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

Pic from our garden last summer

We have been freezing here in So Cal this last week, but I have gardening on the brain and I wanted to post some helpful things I found to get my planning underway. I already own "The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening",and let me tell you, that book has my brain on information overload! LOL. It's really good for finding specific types and varieties of veggies and such , but doesn't have much in terms of helping me to plan (at least from what I have gathered from it so far). I am also pretty visual and charts work well for me.

I found this little printable garden planner here , and thought I would share it. I have yet to print it out (waiting on much needed ink!) but it looks like something that would really help me in the beginning stages of my planting this year. Last year, we sort of had to wing it. We just planted seed and prayed that we would have something to harvest....And boy did we! This year we hope to have an even bigger garden and can a lot of it. Anyways, back to the planning ;) This site has a planting guide and a chart that tells you when your last/first frost will be.

I am hoping to get a good start on the planning so if you have any tips, sites, or anything else to share, please do!

Using a Whole Organic Chicken for 3 Meals- Part 2

2009-02-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

In my last post about using a whole organic chicken for 3 meals I made Roasted Chicken with gravy, chicken tacos and chicken soup. This time I am going to make 3 totally different meals using one chicken that cost around $12.00 (So about $4.00 per meal) but with other inexpensive, from scratch ingredients to make the cost over all quite doable.

Here are the meals I am going to make:

Sticky Chicken :

Mix together in saucepan:

1/2 c. sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. pepper
3/4 c. water
1/3 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. soy sauce

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 3 minutes. Mixture should be very thick. Brush on the chicken; bake for about 1 hour and 15 min (for a 5 lb bird).

Serve with homemade fried rice and veggies.

(We will have lots of meat leftover from this for dinner #2)

2. Chicken and Dumplings:

Boil the chicken carcass from the previous nights dinner to make your stock. I also add in whatever veggie scraps I have accumulated over the week. Boil hard for about 20 mins then reduce to a simmer. I like to cook this all day long...it makes for a really rich stock.
Then let it cool and strain it. I like to make mine the day before so I can stick it in the fridge overnight, this makes it easier to take the fat off the top.

Bring your stock back up to a boil and add some of your chicken from the night before along with any other veggies you want or none..whatever you prefer. Then make the dumplings and add into the boiling stock.

I've never made these but here's a dumpling recipe I tried and it worked great.

1 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter

Drop those in and let them cook! I may make some mashed potatoes and green beans to go with this as well.

3. Chicken salad stuffed pitas for my hubby's lunch.

I hope my posts in this series have been helpful to see the bigger picture when buying an expensive ingredient like Organic Chicken, yet still being able to make a frugal menu from it. I understand there are some families have more children or eat more meat in one meal, you can adapt your menu to that as well. Maybe you can only make 2 meals from it? That's still cost-effective and smart planning . What if you can't buy organic? Then you buy a grocery store chicken and make do with the resources you have. Its all about being a good steward and trying to do the best for our families with what God blesses us with. The idea is to stretch what you have, use better ingredients (if not organic, then at least from scratch so you know what is going in your food!), and taking the time to plan ahead so that you can bless your family with healthy things to eat instead of fast food or other fast processed foods.

Have a blessed day in the Lord!

Frugal Friday.....Tips on Buying Organics Part 2

2009-02-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

I don't have alot of time to blog today because I am in the middle of throwing out everything in my cabinet and fridge that contains anything gross..lol.including high fructose corn syrup (some products have recently been tested positive for mercury), trans fats, peanut butter (not taking any chances) except for the Laura scudders one we have been eating, and anything that is just plain not healthy. I am also menu planning and getting my grocery list together for tomorrow. I am planning on on cooking/making food from organic, local and all natural ingredients next week....but the catch is that I have to do it on a budget. Thank goodness I have Trader Joes and an awesome Walmart that carries lots of organics! I also have about $20.00 worth of organic coupons I will be using for various things and will base my menu off whatever I can find frugally and made- from -scratch.

I do want to share part 2 of my series on Buying Organics quickly though. If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

There are some things that I consider a must when buying organic and don't compromise. If I can't get them organically, then I just don't buy them.

Here are the veggies I buy on a regular basis:

Russet Potatoes- I hope to start growing these, but for now I can get a 5lb bag of them and make them stretch for about a week. We LOVE potatoes so this is one of my more expensive purchases, but since we eat the skin, I choose organic. (not to mention the ones grown in soil with pesticides will have them inside as well as on the skin)

Sweet Potatoes- I just started buying these recently more often. They are a great low-glycemic choice for dinners and are just plain yummy. I buy organic for the same reason I do above with regular potatoes.

Salad greens- I have notived a big taste difference between organic and non-organic and let me tell you its VERY noticable when you have had one over the other. I can usually get coupons for Organic Romaine and it comes out MUCH cheaper than conventional salad mixes/romaine hearts. If I dont have coupons the cost is only about $2.00 for a bag of 3 romaine hearts, which last us about 3 meals (for small dinner salads, or a large lunch salads for me and my children during the week)

Some other veggies that I buy that I like to be organic are tomatoes (although thanks to my garden I haven't bought these since this past summer! We just finished the last of them last week), celery, onions, garlic, bell peppers, and carrots. I don't buy these all at once and some are bought occasionally because we dont use much of it(onions and garlic are cheap..1.69 for 3 at Trader Joes and i only need one package a month). I also buy whatever organic veggies I can, frozen. Some I buy often are corn, green beans and broccoli.

I do still have to buy some things that are non-organic due to budget, but I just wash them in an apple cider vinegar wash and then peel the skin. That isnt very often but whenever I need to buy them I just do all that I can to make them healthier. I also don't like canned veggies, but do try and keep a good stock of them in my cabinet for leaner times or emergencies. I have yet to buy organic canned veggies though and will be looking into the cost of them. I prefer though that my budget be used for fresh.

Next time I will share my tips on buying organic fruit......Do you have any good tips for buying organic? Please share your experience!

Morning Routine Revisited

2009-02-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

I took this picture of the view from my back window this morning.

Romans 13:11-12 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

A couple of weeks ago I joined a lot of other ladies here in setting a morning routine. I have been sticking to mine for the most part and am seeing the benefits from it. But for me its more than just getting up early to see the beautiful sunrise...its about being ready. Ready to take on the day that God has given me.

Another day to make things right.

Another day to get to know my God, through His word.

Another day to form meaningful and bonded relationships.

Another day to be in His will.

Another day to tell the world about Him.

Another day to take care of those around me and give God the glory for the ability to do so.

Another day to............

I could go on....on and on.....God is so gracious to give me another day to serve him. I won't let it go to waste.

Re-using old jeans in your wardrobe to save money!

2009-02-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

Using Jeans to make a skirt- Part 1

I have been doing a personal challenge this week and let's just say wearing skirts is the main concept. I don't have that many of them, so I am finding it challenging to have variety of different outfits for the whole week. I remember seeing someone take a pair of old jeans and turn then into a skirt. I decided to try it and hope that I inspire another beginning seamstress to jump right in and not be afraid of her sewing machine! I have only a project or two under my belt (and really simple ones at that) so the sewing part will be the most difficult for me. I will put the next part up in the coming days as I get the skirt done...but give me some time k? LOL

First you need to find yourself a pair of old jeans, make sure they still fit you on the waist, but too short (can anyone say THATS what I can do with those highwaters!) or too tight in the thighs is fine too ;) You'll be making the skirt wider so it'll fit! The waist NEEDS to fit because we are not going to alter it.

I then measured where I wanted to cut them and tried to cut both sides the same..lol.

Keep those bottoms of the pants...your gonna need them:

Then take your seam ripper (happens to be my bff) and rip the seams of the inside legs of both sides of the jeans...almost to the zipper, but not quite. If you are working on a pair of levi's like I was, know that ~~you'll be doing this all day~~ it'll take some time...this is what you end up with...the jeans/skirt now should lay flat.

Then take those legs that you cut off and try to fit them to fill in the gaps, if they don't you can grab another old pair of jeans or some fabric and make a triangle (I may have to acutally do this as mine seem to be too short for the back of my skirt now that I am trying to sew it) This is how it will look:

You'll need to pin the triangle in place.....I will post pics of this in the second part of this tutorial when I have the finished product!

Let me know if you are going to make one and if you have any helpful tips!

Menu for this week..

2009-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to post the past few days, my dd was sick and running a fever since Friday. All seems to be well now....pray the other 2 don't get sick. We usually go in sequence around here with sickness which is much better than them all sick at the same time! LOL
Now for my menu. I am making a menu out of what I have already in my freezer and pantry but I have lots of food on hand for the most part. I have only $6.00 left in my budget for the month until I go shopping on Sat and I will need to get some potatoes and a few other little things ;)

Monday- BBQ Tri-tip (crockpot), oven sweet potato fries, baked beans
Tuesday- Chicken Pot Pie, green salad
Wednesday- Spaghetti, green salad, garlic bread
Thursday- Taco night
Friday- Crockpot chicken, HM mac and cheese, carrots
Saturday- Chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, green beans
Sunday- Chili beans, rice, and cornbread,

I had to switch my meals around to accommodate what I need to use up (salad greens, sweet potatoes) and what I have/dont have. I normally have a certain day for a certain kind of meal but this will work for now.
I'm going to just list out our breakfasts and lunches because I am running short on time this a.m.

Breakfasts:
Pancakes w/butter and maple syrup, bananas, milk
Hard Boiled eggs, toast, juice
Oatmeal, fruit, milk
Scrambled eggs w/ cheese, toast, juice
smoothies, muffins
Bacon, eggs, grits, toast, fried potatoes
cereal, milk, fruit

Lunches:
leftovers (Chicken pot pie (making an extra one for lunch) , Lentils from Sunday night)
Taco Salad
Grilled Cheese
Egg Salad Sandwiches
Spaghetti Macaroni

Look for a "Baking day" this week sometime! Happy Menu Planning!

Cloth for Mom?

2009-01-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Using Cloth diapers is something I thought I would never be interested in. That is until I was on a homeschool board where a lot of moms were discussing it, and of course, the researcher in me started looking into it. I found many reasons to use cloth, and cost effectiveness was one of the main ones. Needless to say, after my 3rd child I decided to give it a try.

Website after website had these cute, colorful fluffy diapers. I was intrigued by the way that they worked and glad to know that they weren't really that gross to deal with. The frugal mom in me wanted to use cloth simply because it was cost-effective and the natural appeal of cloth drew me to using it as well . The patterns and colors of some were nice but I opted to just get the plain prefolds and white covers. Now if I start making my own, we'll talk about fabrics and cuteness ;)

Now in the midst of all the cloth diaper talk, I found out that there was such a thing as "Mama Cloth" or cloth menstrual pads. I won't go into too much details with the care of them here, you can do you own research, but the benefits from using them are supposed to be much better than commercially made products. I made my first one today and it was very easy. Its not the prettiest thing, but I am new to sewing so I was practicing before I really get to making a large amount of them on good fabric. Think my husband will miss his flannel jammie bottoms? LOL

If you want more info on how to make your own check out this site here or these are the ones I made today ;) I hope to make the ones here though,just as soon as I get some cute fabric ;) This site has a WEALTH of knowledge and patterns also.

Even if you are in no way going to switch over to using mama cloth, I hope I was able to spark some kind of interest in you to look at those things you use over and over again in your household, and to find ways to be both natural and frugal.

More alternatives to deodorant and coming soon....

2009-01-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

Just a tip I thought I would share for those of you without the ingredients I posted for deodorant:

If you are unable to make the deodorant recipes I posted here or here , you can use baby powder, cornstarch or just plain baking soda as an alternative to deodorant! Some days I prefer the powders over the cream deodorants, especially when I am going out and will sweat more. The powder seems to control perspiration much better.

Some other projects I am working on:
I am going to make some hair lotion today for my daughter, will post the recipe later today or tomorrow along with pics of her hair :) She is a true curly girl! I stopped using shampoo on her as well and her hair is doing great :) I do still use conditioner for now, but only about once a week. Her hair is really dry and needs something until I make up her hair lotion.

I am also sewing together some canvas storage boxes for our school room. I am a beginner in the sewing department, so these will not be posted for some time, but wanted to share some of the other things I am working on besides health and beauty stuff...there is more to my frugality than that! LOL

What else? Oh I am going to cut out ALL high fructose Corn syrup out of our diets! This article really made me realize how we should become more self-sufficient with growing our own foods and making things from those foods. Soon I will be sharing frugal recipes, our garden plans, plans for chickens, and my canning skills...or lack there of...all in the next few weeks :)

Ok gotta run and get my day started! Have a blessed day!

Week 3- No poo update

2009-01-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

I am just starting my 3rd week of going no-poo and a lot has changed since last week. My hair is no longer as greasy at the scalp or dry on the ends. It seems to finally be settling down a bit. Last week I told you all that I started using conditioner...well I quickly dropped it after noticing an increase in oils again and itchiness. I am beginning to think I am allergic to one or more of the chemicals in shampoo and conditioner and if going no-poo doesn't work out for me, I'm gonna have to figure something else out. BUT for now, it seems to be going great! Got past what I think is the "icky" stage of no-poo (from what I have read anyways) and just used up my first 21 oz bottle of vinegar/lavender/tea tree oil rinse today (so that cost me maybe $0.50 for 2 weeks worth?)

One thing that I tried this week that is ABSOLUTELY wonderful is a brown sugar scalp scrub. Oh my....that was awesome. It took care of some flakiness and just felt great. All you do is get a tablespoon or two of honey and add about 2 tbsps or so of brown sugar on top of the honey. DON'T mix it until you are going to use it though, the brown sugar will dissengrate and not be much of a scrub. I washed my hair with baking soda as usual, flipped my head over and applied the honey/brown sugar mixture to my scalp. I have a lot of hair and its heavy....so this way I was really able to get it worked in there. After I was done I let it sit on there while i used the rest of the scrub for my face and body...talk about a great exfoliater! I think this will be a wonderful once a week treatment for the hair! The brown sugar is the exfoliant and the honey is a humectant. I really noticed the difference in my hair after I used it.

OH and btw, I CUT my own hair. Am I crazy, probably, but it was WAY too long and a friend of mine does her own and her hair is beautiful, so I went for it. I MAY be brave enough to show pics tomorrow....we'll see ;)

Whats for Dinner?

2009-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

Monday:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs w/ cheese, WW english muffin, grape juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: leftover Beans and Rice, cornbread
Dinner: Fettuccine Alfredo w/ chicken, green beans, garlic bread

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Cereal, bananas, juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: Chopped salad w/chicken, veggies
Dinner: Shredded beef burritos w/ refried beans (from Sun) and spanish rice

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftover burritos
Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken w/ stir fry veggies, brown Rice

Thursday:
Breakfast: Hard boiled eggs, toast, juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: Leftover Chicken Teriyaki
Dinner: Crockpot- BBqTri tip, HM mac n cheese, corn

Friday:
Breakfast: Buttermilk pancakes
Lunch: BBQ beef sandwiches (using tri-tip from last night)
Dinner: Homemade Pizza & hotwings

Saturday:
Breakfast: Blueberry Struesel Muffins, Strawberry smoothies
Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches, carrots w/ranch
Dinner: Steak, Baked potato, salad

Sunday:
Breakfast:Grits, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, toast
Lunch: Daddys choice (he cooks this)
Dinner: Lentils (thanks Daisy!), HM dinner rolls

Snacks for this week: HM pretzels, HM rice krispy squares, yogurt, string cheese, applesauce

Becoming a Sunday Tradition.

2009-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday night is fast becoming a favorite around here. After church, Daddy always makes up some lunch while I gather up our school books and work on lesson and menu planning for the week. I also recently added coupon clipping to the day, which takes a good deal of time, so am thinking that I need to drop one of those and add it to Saturday night instead. While I am doing that, hubby and the children sit and watch movies all day. I really enjoy the one day off my hubby has (well the half day..lol...he works early in the morning before church) and so do they, so we try to just have it as relaxing as can be. One of the great things about Sunday is that its designated as Bean night! I almost always cook them in the crockpot(which means the work is already done for me)and we never get tired of them . I wanted to share some of the dinners we alternate using beans and the BEST recipe for cornbread. My hubby likes his cornbread sweet with lots of butter, and this recipe has won him over every time! I stopped buying Jiffy a while ago..lol!

Here are some of the dinners I alternate on Bean Night:

Pinto Beans cooked w/a smoked turkey leg,rice, cornbread (we don't like pork so this is a great, cheap alternative)
Puerto Rican Rice and beans , fried plantains
Chili Beans (most of the time this is meatless), rice, cornbread
Louisiana style Red Beans and Rice w/smoked turkey keilbasa, cornbread
Black eyed peas w/ smoked turkey leg, rice, cornbread

I use dried beans for these recipes and soak them overnight. In the morning I just throw all of the ingredients into the crock pot and let them cook all day on low. Something I really want to try is lentils. I have a bag of them in my cabinet and just don't know what to do with them! If you have a good recipe or want to share one of your bean recipes leave me a comment or post about it and link me to it.

I also make a lot of cornbread and this is by far the best cornbread recipe I have made. I'm thinking of having a baking day soon and just making a few pans of this and freezing some cooked rice to have for Sunday dinners. That would save me having to cook at all that day at all besides our big breakfast before church!

Sweet Cornbread:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil (we use coconut oil melted, if you want another oil just use the same amount)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a square 8x8 pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Beans are a really inexpensive way to have a healthy dinner. Having a bean night has also helped me to allow more in my budget for more natural and organic meat. Saving money is my first priority to my family and we are thankful for whatever God puts on our plates! If its organic or not, I am thankful he has given me the ability to budget them in where ever I get a chance :)

Have a blessed Lords day!

Switching to Organics Part 1

2009-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

I'm going to do a series of posts over the next few weeks about switching over to organic produce, natural meats, and other items that you can buy organically. This is something I have slowly been doing over the last year, and in the process have learned a few things that I wanted to share with you. These posts are for those who don't think they can afford them (If I can so can you!) and for those who already buy organically but want to trim their budget even more!

For this first post, I am going to start with some tips on buying organic produce because I think it's the easiest to switch over. My budget doesn't always allow for me to buy organics exclusively, so I will share which produce I buy that is not as well. My hope is that if you cannot afford to switch then maybe you can take away some knowledge about choosing the best non-organic for your family. I do think that with careful menu planning, smart shopping, and planning a bigger spring garden, I can eventually stop buying non-organics altogether! This is something that has become important to me and my husband as I learn more and more about nutrition and how it affects my family, in addition to being a good steward to what God blesses us with.

#1 - Buy frozen organics whenever possible. I buy corn, green beans, broccoli, strawberries, bell peppers for stir fries, and peas. If you have a Trader Joe's stop in and take a look at their prices on these items. They are very comparable to national brand prices and in a lot of cases, they are cheaper.

#2 - If you have an organic co-op in your area then you are blessed! Take advantage of it, if you can afford it! Daisy gets a box every week and I try not to covet it every time I hear about it LOL (not really..lol)

#3- Try and search out coupon deals on the internet for widely available organics. Most stores that I go to have Earthbound Farms Organics . I try and go to their site OFTEN to see if they are offering coupons and if they aren't then I email them and ask to get on their mailing list to receive future offers! Next time you are at your local store check and see if there are organics available jot down the name and do some price comparing!

#4- Buy only what you will eat in a few days to a week if possible. There's nothing worse than wasting good food, especially good organic food. We have yet to have something go bad on us that is organic though. When I would buy cheaper produce from another local store it must have been way far from fresh because we had to eat it up fast! Lately I have noticed I get more bang for my buck because its lasting longer, so you know its fresher!

#5- Check out your local farmer's markets for fresh produce. Don't be afraid to ask questions about pesticides and freshness. Most produce at a Farmer's Market are much better and cheaper than what you will get in your local store!

Next time, I will share some some of my must-haves when buying organic fruits and veggies and what to do when you can't.

Update on being Shampoo-less

2009-01-23T08:40:00.001-08:00

So I am ok with it so far. Just ok. I have being using Conditioner every other day though. I have VERY wavy and long hair in lots of layers and my hair was and is still get knotted up. I'm not sure if its just because I need a cut (its been at least 6 months since my last hair cut) or if its the vinegar rinse? This week I am going to try and remember to brush my hair before I take a shower also....I think that makes a big difference. I am usually rushing to GET a shower..lol...so its been hard to remember that little detail.

This is an on-going experiment..so I'll update every so often.

Who else is going no-poo with me? Leave me a comment so I am not alone in this adventure..lol.

Using 1 Organic Chicken for 3 meals. Part 1

2009-01-21T23:25:00.000-08:00

I just recently started buying free range/organic chickens and at almost $10-$13 dollars for one whole chicken. I had to figure out a way to justify the cost and get more bang for my buck, so I had to get creative with my menu planning, which is always fun! I have always used whole chickens for more than one meal, but now I have figured out a way to use one small chicken in 3 meals that cost less than $3.00 -$5.00 per meal. Everything else I use with these meals is very inexpensive and items I usually have on hand, so the cost is very minimal.

If you seen my menu plan earlier this week, you would have noticed that I had chicken for a few meals. I only buy 2 whole organic chickens a month, so it works out to having one every other week. The other weeks I cook beef in a similar way, but that will be another post. Other meals using chicken in my meal plan that aren't mentioned in this post are using frozen chicken breasts. I use Trader Joe's and buy them because they are hormone/anti biotic free.

This is what I plan on doing with one of the 5lb Organic Whole Chickens:(This weeks menu)

1st meal:

Dinner for Thursday: Roasted chicken w/HM gravy, brown rice,& organic frozen green beans:
Put whole chicken, seasoned with Sea Salt, Black Pepper, poultry seasoning, onion, and garlic in the oven and roast. (Do not add liquid, it will make its own.) When its done, remove the whole chicken from the pan, strain the juices and put to the side. Slice off some of the meat for my family tonight(we are really good about portion control and making sure that everyone gets enough but without waste) , and put the rest in the fridge, divided into two portions (I have a family of 5 and there is always enough leftover). Make a roux with butter and flour and add the chicken broth from the pan and make a gravy. Serve with the brown rice and green beans.

2nd Meal:

Lunch for Friday: Chicken Tacos/Fajitas:
This meal is really simple. All I do is take some salsa or taco seasoning and warm up the chicken with a little but of water. Add to corn or flour tortillas and serve with sour cream and cheese. This meal uses less chicken because its only for me, my 9 yr old, a preschooler and a toddler.

3rd Meal:

Dinner for Saturday: HM Chicken Soup, HM dinner rolls.
We prefer to have our soup with more veggies and broth than meat, so the rest of the chicken is just enough for an easy meal on Saturday night! Just what I am looking forward to after a long week. So what I have done that I didn't mention before is to boil the chicken carcass on Friday. I boil mine almost all day to make a very rich stock. If you save your veggie scraps all week in a freezer bag in the freezer, you can add them in to make a richer stock also. Once your stock has cooked for a long time and is finally done, stick it in the fridge(after straining) and leave overnight so you can just take off the fat on the top that has risen and hardened. You can just add your leftover stock, chicken and whatever else you have on hand. I usually add some organic carrots and noodles (which are really inexpensive btw) but you can also add potatoes, peas, rice or whatever you have! The best part? Your crock pot! Use it for this! What's better than having your dinner cooking already on a lazy Saturday afternoon??

Each of these meals was made with minimal ingredients and made from scratch. They each were around $5.00 to make for a family of 5. So for around a $1.00 per person or less, I am able to feed my family healthy meals from one chicken :) I will make my other chicken in 2 weeks and will use the chicken in a different way, but for 3 meals again.

What do you do with a whole chicken and are you using it for more than one meal? Do you buy organic meat?

Rite Aid Deals.

2009-01-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

I am new to doing the drugstore coupon-ing deals but have been watching several blogs and forums on the how-to's of all this coupon business. Way back, when I only had 1 kid and less than $40 a week for grocery shopping, I used to do the double coupon thing at my local grocery store. I used to come home with a cart full and spent way less than the average person on grocery and beauty products. I eventually realized the food I was buying was not-so-good for us and changed our eating to mostly from scratch. Now I am re-visiting the coupon world but in a different way!
My first trip to Rite Aid..check out what I got!

My first transaction:

Huggies: 2 @ 12.49 =$24.98
minus 2 manufacturers coupons for $1.50 each (-$3.00)
minus $2.00 Rite Aid Rebate for one of the diapers

Total: $ 19.98

Huggies Wipes: 1 @ $2.50
minus 1 manufacturers coupon for $.50 off
minus $2.00 Rite Aid rebate on 1 wipes

Total: FREE

Kleenex tissue: $.99 cents minus a $.40 manufac coupon
Total: $.59

I also had two other incentives to make this order much cheaper. A $5 off of $25 purchase that they emailed me for signing up for an online acct AND right now (through the 22nd) you get a $10 gift card for purchasing $25 worth of Kimberly Clark products (which is what these are)

So after I gave all my coupons and when I get my $14.00 in rebates back (which is only about 2 weeks) My total (plus tax) cost for the diapers, wipes and tissue was only $7.31!!! Not bad eh?

2nd Transaction (and totally not planned..but since i had my coupons with me.....)

They were having buy 1 get 1 50% off of their Sally Hanson nail stuff. There were $1.00 off peelies on the packages..The first one cost $2.60, the second @ 50% off was only $1.30. Add those together = $3.90 minus the two dollar off coupons....they both were only $1.90!

The mascara was on clearance for $2.23. I had a $2.00 off coupon....it was $.23!

The liquid bronzer stuff (never used it before...lol) was $1.98. I had a $3.00 off coupon...I MADE $1.02 on it!! LOL. They gave me the full coupon price which took away from the cost of the first items (nail polish). I also added in a $1.00 roll of TP because we needed it and I didn't want to pay full price for a whole package..lol

My total cost for that transaction (inclu tax) $3.02!!

I wanted to also add that I use cloth diapers for my 15 month old son, but since he has gotten older he has been more prone to rashes with the cloth..not to mention my washing machine only works with a cold wash...so we use cloth during the day while at home and sposies at night and while we are out. I really like the savings I get with cloth and was feeling guilty about wasting money on sposies...now I can have the best of both worlds and use both and still be frugal!

I am looking forward to sharing more deals as I come across them!

Frugal Menu Planning- Breakfasts.

2009-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Breakfast is always the cheapest meal around here. We usually have the same thing depending on the day of the week, which makes it really easy for menu planning, but I also love a variety of foods in my childrens diets so I try and change it up often. I thought I would share how I do this in this post.

This is how I plan our breakfasts:

What are we doing that day?

I look ahead at my calender to see what we are doing that day and plan accordingly. There's nothing worse than having a mid-morning park-day and starving kids ...lol... Ask me how I know that ;P I try to plan a breakfast with protein that morning to hold them over until the park-day is over along with some snacks added into my plans.

What we are having for Lunch?

I plan my meals *down*, if that makes sense. I do dinners first, then lunches and finally breakfasts. I do this because dinners are always based on our availability that day (if we have to go out- crockpot, if its a heavy cleaning day etc) . Then I plan lunches based on dinner and possible leftovers. Finally breakfast is based on Lunches and whether or not we are having a good hardy lunch. If so, I will plan for something easy like cereal or oatmeal.

What is my diet looking like?

I am following The Lord's Table currently and the last thing I want to do to myself is plan to make pancakes on a fast day (happen to LOVE pancakes..lol)...so I look ahead to see which day I should be eating light etc and go with that. Then I am not obsessing over what my kids are eating and what I am NOT. LOL.

What I can use up?

Did I buy a whole bunch of bananas that were over ripe and waiting to be mixed into pancakes or banana bread? Do I have boxes upon boxes of cereal that I scored cheap with coupons? Do I have a gazillion eggs that need to be eaten? Well, you get it.

And finally, try to stick with the same meals all month but add variety (includes above).

I try to plan certain "types" of meals for certain days. For instance, Mondays may be cereal but they can choose from a couple if we have it. Tuesdays may be pancakes, but since I got blueberries for a good deal we'll have some blueberry pancakes.

What does your breakfast menu look like? How do you plan yours?

Monday Menu Plan

2009-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

I am trying to get back into the habit of planning my menus better since the Holidays got me off track....with that said, Here is our menu for the week:

Monday:

Breakfast:Cereal, bananas, juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: PB & J on HM bread, baby carrots w/ranch, juice or milk
Dinner:Spaghetti, Salad, HM Garlic Bread(was going to be a southern meal in honor of MLK Jr, but we ended up having that last night at dh's request)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: hard boiled eggs & toast, juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: Leftover Spaghetti, bread
Dinner: Taco night (make enough for lunch on Wed)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Strawberry Smoothies, toast, coffee for mom
Lunch: Tostadas (with leftovers)
Dinner: Fried Fish, HM Mac n Cheese, Veggies

Thursday:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs w/cheese, toast, juice, coffee for mom
Lunch: Out with friends
Dinner:Crock-pot Chicken, Brown Rice, Green Beans

Friday:

Breakfast: Pancakes, milk, coffee for mom
Lunch: Chicken tacos (with some of the leftover chicken)
Dinner:Pizza night at friends house

Saturday:

Breakfast: Muffins, Smoothies, coffee for mom
Lunch: PB&J, chips, juice
Dinner: Crockpot- Chicken Soup, HM dinner rolls (use leftover chicken from Thurs, make broth from bones on Friday)

Sunday:

Breakfast- Fried potatoes, Eggs, Grits, toast, bacon
Lunch- (whatever Dh wants to cook )
Dinner- Crockpot- Beans, Rice, Cornbread

**Snacks are usually once a day (mid afternoon) and always whatever fruit we have, applesauce, yogurt, HM cookies w/ milk or cheese sticks.**

"No-poo" or for some of my dear readers "Shampoo-less"

2009-01-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

I recently gave up using Shampoo after finding out how to do it on this site.
This past Sunday was my last day of Shampoo, and so far, I haven't had any major issues. I *will* use Shampoo sometime or another (because I really like my hair to *feel* squeeky clean) but hope that my scalp's natural state can be returned somewhat after trying this. I think years and years of prolonged use of cheap shampoos have caused my scalp to produce much more oil than needing and thus causing me to wash my hair more....its a vicious cycle! Not to mention, there are ALOT of chemicals in some shampoos and I really don't want those on mine or my childrens hair or skin anymore!
So far so good after 5 days of no-poo so I thought I would share what I have been using/doing:

What you'll need:

Apple Cider Vinegar
2 empty bottles (one that holds about 3 cups of water or less if you have shorter hair) I used empty shampoo bottles that are about 21 0z each. One I fill with vinegar and leave in the shower.
Essential oils (optional) I use Tea tree and Lavender. They are both medicinal and help to clarify the hair/scalp. Add a few drops to the filled bottle of vinegar.
Baking Soda
Small container that has a lid to hold the baking soda

The first step is to COMB your hair through BEFORE you even get in the shower! I made the mistake of skipping this step and my hair was hard to comb out.
The next step is to make a solution of baking soda mixed with water (i use a small bottle for this as well) and wash with it as you would with regular shampoo....taking more attention with your scalp than your ends, and then rinse.
The next step is the vinegar rinse. I re-used two old shampoo bottles (saved them because I knew i would be doing this) and filled one bottle with 3 Tbsps of water to make a line to know where to fill my vinegar to. You are supposed to use 1 Tbsp of vinegar per cup of water. I use 3 to 3 ratio because I have lots of hair and its long. Anyways, enough vinegar solution to your empty bottle with the pre-measured line and pour all over your hair. I leave it in for a few minutes and then rinse.

The smell of vinegar is very faint and once your hair dries its gone! I'm enjoying the "clean" feeling my hair has and the extra oil in my hair seems to be diminishing daily. I did mix a little baking soda with baby shampoo 2 days this week just to tolerate the change a little but it wasn't that necessary :)

Leave me a comment if you are going "no-poo" as well..I'd love to hear your experiences!
I'll update in another week!

My Morning Routine.

2009-01-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

1 Peter 1:13
So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ.

For me exercising self-control includes doing things I may not want to do, like getting up early and starting my day with a chore I like the least. Crystal at Biblical Womanhood just posted about this and it's something I have been thinking and praying about. My morning routine has been less than routine lately and I need to change that in order to get our days back on track after a pretty relaxed schedule during the holidays. I don't know about you, but what I do in the morning really sets the stage for the rest of the day. If I am up and about before every one else, that day ends up being very productive and I tend to be in generally a better mood! I spend time in prayer and also get in those things I tend to miss later in the day when I am exhausted, like exercising or taking my vitamins.
Most days, lately, I have been dragging out of bed when the baby gets me up and my other two children are either up and ready to go or still asleep, which can be another obstacle in getting school started on time etc. So I am going to work on my morning routine every day for the next three weeks, God willing, to make it a habit.

Here's what my planned morning routine looks like:
1. Get up at 6 and read my daily scheduled Bible readings from my Motivated Moms planner and pray.
2. Weigh and exercise.
3. Shower, dress, and make bed.
4. Take vitamins and start coffee.
5. Unload dishwasher and start load of laundry.

I plan on starting tomorrow, no need to wait any longer! Do you have a morning routine that you would like to share? Or are you in a rut like I am and want to join me these next three weeks in creating a habit! I'll share next Thurs how I do this week and if anything needs to be added or changed.

Homemade Deodorant #2

2009-01-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe for homemade deodorant and made it yesterday. It was super easy and I am actually wearing it today! I'm not sure if it's going to work when I'm working out or really active, but hey, its natural and doesn't contain harsh chemicals! I took pics of how I made it of course:

Here's what the recipe called for:

You mix all of the ingredients(except essential oils, I used Lavender) , throw it in the micro to melt and mix till nice and smooth.

Pour into a jar and stick in the fridge till the oils firm back up.

You use your fingers to scoop some out of the jar and apply under your arms. Thats it!

If you have any good recipes for natural body care, leave me a comment!

Links for childrens coupons.

2009-01-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

I am still working on taking inventory of everything I have and buy...may take longer than I expected but that's ok...it'll be the only time I have to go through my cabinets and then I can just use my grocery receipts after to add the new things to my inventory. I'm also in the process of doing my monthly menu for January and trying to see if its possible to eat mostly organic/whole foods this month using coupons and strategically using certain cuts of expensive meat for more than one meal. Here are some more coupons I have found while doing a search for the basic things I buy but trying to change to organic/natural instead.

Sign up here for Coupons on Apple and Eve juices.

Sign up here for Earth's best organics baby and toddler foods.

Here's a link for Knudsens sensible sippers.

You need to check the websites to see if the stores carry these products. Our super Walmart and Super Targets seem to carry alot of organics now and I will let you know if I am able to find the ones I mentioned here. (I know earth's best will be available, not sure of the others). I also shop at another store for my meats and they have a variety of different brands as well.

Have you all seen this? Better get your used toys today.

2009-01-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

This article explains what is to come.
You can go here to send a message to the CPSC. (this is the last day).
Instead of penalizing our small businesses , why not just ban importers that use lead.

Taking inventory to save on your budget.

2009-01-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

For those who would like to join, I'm issuing a challenge for January but there will be a few parts. The first part is to take an inventory of everything you normally buy in your home, food or other products, and have it either in a spreadsheet or print out inventory sheets from somewhere like here. I'd like to have mine finished by next Saturday but you can go at your own pace. Try and use grocery receipts, look directly in your pantry and fridge, or just from memory. Get all your things down on paper so you can physically see what you are purchasing for you home. Try including things like soap, shampoo, toilet paper, etc. You do not need to post your list, this is just for your own record , but please let me know if you are participating.
I think by doing this first, it will help you to see a broader view of your budget. You will be able to see what coupons can save you money, which products you can switch to organically but also inexpensively, which things you can cut back on, and eventually make your shopping lists and trips alot faster but yet save money!

That's it for this part but in the meantime start collecting coupons for everything for the next part of this challenge.

Coupon Crazy.

2009-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Back in the days I was a dedicated coupon-er. I used to subscribe to the newspaper and hit up any machine I could find that was filled with Sunday papers. It was like a sport to me and the adrenaline rush I would get after finding deals was so un-natural. LOL. I looked forward to Sundays and that was my thing. I would race out in the a.m, get my paper and get to clipping. I used to spend VERY little money on groceries (like $30-40 a week) but most of the time those meals consisted up lots of processed foods and other than the occasional veggie, very unhealthy. At that time, I only had one child and we were on a serious budget, and that much hasn't changed, We are still on a serious budget....just not quite as small. Things got busy and suddenly I had more important things to do on Sunday(like um church) and just slowly drifted away from it.

I now have 3 children and feeding them healthy foods has been a priority since learning of my oldest son's adhd. I chose not to medicate and began researching natural approaches to taking care of some of the symptoms. I have concluded that with the help of diet and training him, we can manage the things that we once a disruption to him. I also don't see Adhd as a hinderance but rather a gift, but that's another post ;) With all that said, I have gone back to collecting coupons and look forward to getting back to some great deals. For the past month I have collected newspaper coupons, coupons online, basically wherever I can get my hands on them. I have been reading MoneysavingMom and finally understand the whole CVS deals thing. I can't WAIT to start...but I still am in the "collecting" phase. You see you really should have a good stash..that way you can take advantage of the best deals..and less money out of pocket. So not only will I be saving on our food budget, I will be able to save on everything else!

So, if you are looking forward to saving money on anything from organic foods, shampoo, to olive oil..stay on the look out for your coupons and start collecting them! Cut out EVERYTHING. Even things you may think you will never buy...some things come out free and you may be able to bless someone with something you may not use..like denture adhesive for an elderly neighbor or even diapers that a single mom would appreciate!

Since I am just starting back with using coupons you are not far behind me...so join me! I will be posting the deals I find and you can leave me a comment with the ones you have found. Let's try and make January a huge saving month! Keep track of what coupons have saved you and let me know at the end of the month by either leaving me a comment or blogging about it!

Oh and for those of you who want to buy as many things organically as possible, there ARE coupons for organics out there....here are a few sites to start with. Alot of these will send them to you through the mail, but if not check with your local store about using coupons that are printed out. Just start to accumulate these and I'll show you how to use them later ;) Feel free to link me to your finds as well!

Organic Valley

Stonyfield Farms

Earthbound Farm

This link has links to MANY organic coupons. Just try and sign up for whatever ones look familiar and if none of them do, sign up anyways (it helps to have a hotmail or gmail acct seperate from your regular email for these kinds of things, but I use my regular one and havent had any issue with spam yet.)

Horizon Organic

That should get you started. I will be sharing whatever I find and just posting them as I come across them.

Happy Frugal Friday!

Motivating this Mom.

2009-01-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

I signed up for Motivated Moms a couple of weeks ago and it was the best $8.00 I have spent lately. If we really want to be accountable for spending money on yourself it really amounts to only about .02 cents a day. Since having my last baby, I have been feeling very disorganized and it has shown in my household. I decided to not let another year go by without a good cleaning schedule/plan in place, so I went for it and ordered. I had been working on my own, but with daily life getting in the way I never could get a working schedule in order. This is where Motivated Moms came in..I heard about it a few years ago and every year I would glaze over when I looked at it. I didn't realize that a list someone else has made could actually work in my own house!

If you are interested in ordering Click here to view more details.

I have devised a system that works for my house using the full page planner with daily Bible readings. What I do is print out the daily pages (one day on one side, the next on the other to save paper) and hang the current day on my fridge. Before I do that, I take a look at the planner the night before and highlight the chores I want my oldest child to do with one color, and another color for the little jobs my 3 yr old can help with(we use the colors according to our MOTH schedule). I then add in any appointments for that day, dinner for that night, and any other chores that we need to do that were skipped the previous day. As we go on with our day I check off what has been done! Simple and just my style ;) Another thing, and probably the best thing, that I like about MM is the little deep cleaning tasks are getting done now whereas I would forget to do those little jobs before.

I highly recommend getting this planner (there are other sizes etc on the site if you don't want to full day planner) to anyone but especially to my fellow homeschool moms. It has been a definite adjustment for me having more children and having them around 24/7 makes for a much messier house. I chose to blog about this because I think its a very frugal way to organize your daily tasks and if your house is cleaner and more organized, you'll save money in the long run.

Colossians 2:5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order andthe firmness of your faith in Christ.

Have a Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

I always welcome a New Year and the new beginnings that come with it. In my house, it means starting the year off right with new habits wanting to be met, or breaking old habits that need to be left in the prior year. One thing I love with each New Year is tradition. Since my hubby is from the south and loves to eat, traditions centered around food are are of the upmost importance here in this house..lol.

On New Years day we ALWAYS have a Turkey dinner. It never fails. My hubby wants to have his last "Thanksgiving dinner" hoorah and I am happy to oblige so long as I don't have to cook another turkey for a while (at least until next Nov. LOL).

There are many frugal advantages to having turkey today and here are a few that I like to take advantage of:

Sales on Turkeys during Thanksgiving. I always buy an extra one for New Years day and sometimes another depending on my freezer space. This year I only bought one extra but that is because they were both over 20 lbs each (24lbs to be exact!) and I am trying to keep my freezer space available for any deals I come across. Each turkey cost approx only $6.00 a peice and will last for SEVERAL meals this week and all I needed to do was spend $50 at the grocery store to get that price.
Dieting. I know I am always going to be one of those "New Years dieters" so what is better than turkey while you are dieting? There's turkey salads, soups, turkey wraps..do I need to go on? It makes my first few days a no-brainer when dieting and I can concentrate on making sure I exercise...um yeah ;)
Leftovers. Hubby is happily fed for a few days and I don't have to cook ..nuff said.

I'll be posting some of my frugal recipes this week to show what we do with the Turkey after the first day. Have a Happy New Year!
Amber

2008-12-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about re-opening this blog! When I first started posting here the posts were about natural recipes to use around the house and on your body, and I will still post those from time to time, but it got too time consuming to try and have two blogs. I put this one on hold for a while and focused on my homeschooling blog but now that I am doing well and we are well into our year of school I wanted to start blogging about things that have become extremely important to our house...things that are natural and frugal.

My plan for this blog is to post something everyday that will bless whoever reads this blog with a frugal and/or natural tip or useful idea. I have had lots of different ideas for posts floating around my head lately but more importantly I want to share my knowledge and research with others around me. For instance, I have been able to feed a family of 5 a good variety of organic and natural foods for about $16 a day...that equals to about $5.00 per meal or $1.00 per person per meal! Now not everything we use is organic..but I do have things that I really like to buy organically and just try and make sure its in the budget. I have even just recently discovered that there are actually coupons out there for organic products including veggies! I used to be an avid couponer but in recent years have stopped using them as we cut back the processed foods from our diets so I am excited to get back into collecting them. The coupons all seemed to be for things we don't eat but now I see that I can do a little research and find some that I will use with the help of some great web resources. I also have been checking out various other websites that do couponing and am missing out on some great deals! I also hope to share ideas for inexpensive crafts and field trips that are on the cheap or better yet free for your homeschool!

I pray this blog glorifies God and with that I love this scripture, "Whatever you do whether you eat or drink, do unto the glory of God" 1 Corinthians 10:31". I also want to mention that I am sure that my God is sovereign, so I will depend on Him first and foremost for healing, health and anything else we need, not the food we eat etc. There are times when I will have to buy whatever will feed my family for cheap (which is ok also!) and we have those times more often than not.....so even if you don't buy organically etc this blog is still for you!

Tomorrow is a post about something that is helping me get my house together and only costs me literally .02 cents a day ;) What a deal eh?

All Purpose Disinfecting Spray Cleaner

2008-06-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

I make my own all purpose cleaner and have tried a few recipes online but this is one is a keeper :)

All purpose Spray Cleaner:

1 cup of HOT water
2 tsps of Borax
1 cup white vinegar
10 drops of lemon Essential Oil
10-15 drops orange Essential Oil

First you add the hot water to a spray bottle and then add the Borax to it. Shake it up to dissolve the borax, Add the vinegar and Essential oils. You will need to shake it up with each use as the oils separate from the water. Add more water to fill the bottle.

I use this on my kitchen counters daily....You get used to the vinegar smell eventually but the more oils you add the better :) They each have their own cleaning properties also :) Lemon is a disinfectant and orange a degreaser.
Enjoy!

Melt and Pour Soap- Lavender- Orange

2008-04-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

I made my first batch of soap last week. Rather than making it from scratch using oils and lye, I used a melt and pour base..the ingredients were safe and I added my own twist to it :-)
Here's what a pound of melt and pour looks like..it's solid, but you melt it down to make your soap..

Here's unrefined, unprocessed cocoa and shea butters:

I also added some Vit E from these caplets:

I used Orange Essential Oil but added a little Lavender at the last minute:
This is what I used as a mold for the soap...it didn't make a very pretty soap...but was functional ;)
So the first steps are melting your melt and pour base and your butters (I used a few tbsps for a 1LB of melt and pour..which wayyy too much :-D Use 1tbsp of any extra oil or butters for 1lb of melt and pour:

Add the melted butters to the melt and pour and combine..then let cool a bit before adding in your EO's....
Then pour into your mold...
This is the end result after it had cooled for a couple of hours...You can use it instantly..no curing involved :-)

I can't wait to try lye soap making...it seems to produce a creamier soap..this is more of a clear, glyceriny type of soap...I have been using it on my body and face all week and enjoy having one more thing that I can make myself :)
Happy Soap making!

Lotion Making- Calendula Citrus Lotion

2008-04-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

This lotion was extremely easy to make and made about 6 oz or so...

I first started with 1/4 cup of calendula infused olive oil (I added about 1/4 cup dried calendula leaves to about 1/2 cup of olive oil and kept in a dark jar in a cabinet for about 2 weeks) and to that I added 1/4 cup of apricot kernel oil.

I then measured out 2 teaspoons of beeswax granules..

You then add the beeswax to the oils and melt at 30 sec intervals in the microwave or over a double broiler.

Now you need 1/8 of a teaspoon of Borax..yes....borax

And then you need 1/4 cup of distilled water.

Add those two together..

And bring just to a boil..

Once your oils and wax are melted together and your water and borax and just at a boil you add the water mixture slowly to the oil mixture using a hand blender or whatever you have on hand ;-)

It should look well blended and a lotion-like consistency but still thin..

Once it cools some you add your essential oils....make sure to look up their usage info as some EO's are not good directly on skin for children, pregnant women, or nursing moms :-) I added Lemon and Orange because I LOVE the smell of citrus. I also added a little Tea Tree for it's medicinal properties and supposedly it prolongs the shelf-life of the lotion. (I am not that fond of the smell tho and will probably omit it with the next batch...we go through lotion fairly quickly here)

Now for a quick pic of my adorable helper who has been so good while mommy is engaged in her new found hobby :-D OK..back to the lotion..

Now one important thing is to make sure you have a funnel and a clean, sterilized container to put your lotion in...you can use anything from a mason jar to a bay food jar..I picked up this plastic bottle from the place I bought all of my supplies from..here
Here's my finished product..Calendula citrus lotion...It will thicken as it cools but will genrally be thinner than commercial lotions. You can use any type of oil...my next lotion will be made with coconut oil and grapeseed.

Homemade deodorant

2008-04-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from Clean, Naturally by Sandy Maine..except I tweaked it to death and added what I have on hand

Ingredients: (This recipe was tripled to make 3 deodorant bars and I got all my ingredients from brambleberry.com)
1 ounce of beeswax
1 ounce of cocoabutter
1/4 cup of organic olive oil
10 drops of apricot kernel oil (it calls for castor oil if you want to use that)
1 tsp lemon juice
3 drops teatree oil (it calls for coriander EO in the book)
Directions:
Melt waxes and oils in double boiler or over a very low flame (this is what I did and it was fine)Stir until warm and add lemon juice and tea tree oil (or coriander oil)...Pour into an old deodorant-stick container (i bought new ones for 1.00 from the site above)and allow to harden. (make sure you do this quickly as the liquid hardens very quickly..lol..ask me how i know!)

I have had to apply this twice on some days (as I have cleaned or been really active), hubby has been wearing it to work and so far so good! The next time I do make it I will add some lavender EO to mine and some kinda manly scent to Dh...but this works great (other than needing re-application once in a while) and is very easy to make...

Naturally Frugal Mom

Update on Homemade Soap

Low Carb Noodless Lasagna

Almond Power Bars

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

And she finally sews something useful....

Projects completed so far....

Update on Garden Plans!

Menu Plan Monday

Add another to the list..

First Project for the Month of July

Projects for the month of July

Monthly Cleaning Schedule

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Bulk cooking day...

Eating healthy takes effort.

Menu Planning

May- A Challenge for myself.

One room down, a few more to go...

Creating a restful home

Recipe-Bean night

I'm back :)

No (sham) poo update..

I WON!! I WON!!

Bulk cooking day -Part 2

Once a Month Cooking Plans Part 1

And the winner is.....

My first Giveaway!!! April 27th- April 30th (closed)

It's Spring.....time for a giveaway!

Giveaway!

Free Ice Cream !

Menu for this week

Question and Answer Post:

See you next week.

CVS Trip

WalgreensTrip..

Healthy Breakfast Part 4...

Healthy Breakfasts Part 3

Healthy Breakfasts - Parts 1&2

Blueberry/Lemon Struesel Muffins

Coupon Organizer

CVS Trip...

Lemonade on a bright sunny day...

Menu Plan Monday

Handmade Diaper Rash Cream.

Homemade Body Care- In the Kitchen today...

On the sewing table this week.....

CVS trip

Please excuse my absense

Baking Day

Spring Garden Planning

Using a Whole Organic Chicken for 3 Meals- Part 2

Frugal Friday.....Tips on Buying Organics Part 2

Morning Routine Revisited

Re-using old jeans in your wardrobe to save money!

Menu for this week..

Cloth for Mom?

More alternatives to deodorant and coming soon....

Week 3- No poo update

Whats for Dinner?

Becoming a Sunday Tradition.

Switching to Organics Part 1

Update on being Shampoo-less

Using 1 Organic Chicken for 3 meals. Part 1

Rite Aid Deals.

Frugal Menu Planning- Breakfasts.

Monday Menu Plan

"No-poo" or for some of my dear readers "Shampoo-less"

My Morning Routine.

1 Peter 1:13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ.

Homemade Deodorant #2

Links for childrens coupons.

Have you all seen this? Better get your used toys today.

Taking inventory to save on your budget.

Coupon Crazy.

Motivating this Mom.

Happy New Year 2009!

All Purpose Disinfecting Spray Cleaner

Melt and Pour Soap- Lavender- Orange

Lotion Making- Calendula Citrus Lotion

1 Peter 1:13
So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ.