GCC Recipe Swap

Before I do anything else I just want to pat myself on the back for getting this post up on time. I've been having a hard time over the past weeks sticking to my own schedule so "pat, pat".

Ok....moving on.

I pulled this recipe out of the "when I used to be young and had little babies" archive. We used to puree and freeze our own baby food out of fresh produce when we were young parents. It was nothing but veggies or fruits and water, pureed and froze in ice cube trays for easy storage. When it was meal time we just reheated the food and the kiddos slurped it down. It felt good to know what they were eating. But even before that we made our own first baby cereal out of un-chemically-treated ingredients. So for those of you still sportin' a baby on your hip (I really do miss those days) here's a very simple way to insure that you know exactly what you're feeding your baby.

Homemade Baby Cereal

Use an electric coffee or spice grinder and grind up a bit of organic brown rice, lentils, oats or other grains of your choice until powdered. Cook in a little water and serve. Nothing you can't pronounce in THOSE ingredients!

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

GCC Shopping Round Up

I have to admit, being self employed (both my husband and I) has it's perks. I love going to work in my jammies at 10pm. I love that my hubby has a schedule flexible enough to help me get kids to practices, lessons and classes and he gets to be at every meeting, game, and recital. I love that if we get a bee in our bonnet and decide to load up the car and head to the beach for a few days we don't have to ask our boss for time off.

But what I dislike the most is the fact that, for my kind of self employment, I have to wait for the people that hired me to actually pay me. I don't get to count on getting paid every Friday or that on the 1st and 15th of every month my paycheck will magically appear. I miss that part just a little bit. Especially this week. Which is why I had to grocery shop on a different day. But the good news is I finally got to shop. So here's what I gathered this week.

Dollar Tree

3 boxes of freezer bags
tin foil
2 liquid soaps
3 packs of toothbrushes
bleach
shampoo

Total $11.00

Win-co

Bananas $2.16
Apples $2.59
Parsley $.48
3 cans tomato soup $1.50
Tangerines $2.98
red onion $.56
Green enchilada sauce $1.78
celery $1.26
mayo $2.68
tomato juice $2.28
salsa $3.98
refried beans $.88
1lb ground turkey $2.38
diced tomatoes $.58
4 cans tuna $1.92
bulk navy beans $1.64
2 gallons milk $4.76
bulk garlic salt $.95
honey $7.55
soymilk $2.28
TP $5.48

Grand Total $61.67

Would you like to share your shopping trip? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Monday

Baseball equals crock pot. The only way I can keep up with the home cooked meals during sports seasons is to use my slow cooker. I actually have two, so one is usually holding leftovers in the fridge to be used for lunches or midnight snacks and the other is on the counter making me look good. My favorite crock pot cookbook is the classic Fix it and Forget It Lightly. It's so dog eared and marked up but it's definitely worth purchasing. So here's what's cooking this week.

Breakfasts: choice of...

Pumpkin bran muffins, yogurt and fruit smoothies, or eggs

Dinners:

Hamburger Rice Skillet
Bean and Ham Soup (from Fix it and Forget It), bread machine rolls
Burrito Casserole
Egg Salad Sandwiches and veggie plate
Turkey and Rice Slow Cooker Casserole (from Fix it and Forget It)
Baked Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, Garlicky Potatoes (F & F)
Leftover Buffet

Slim-Fast $100 Gift Pack Giveaway!

Head on over to my Giveaway page for the newest freebie! It's a good one!

GCC Recipe Swap

It's a busy day today so I did a quick search for a fast and kid-appealing lunch recipe and this is what I came up with. Pizza on the menu today! So here's the link to a french bread pizza recipe that will use up what you've got in your fridge.

French Bread Pizzas

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Frugal Medicine Cabinet

A visit to the doctor’s office nowadays can put a fair size dent in your monthly budget. With co-pays at record highs, huge deductibles and even more astronomical premiums our family has used medical visits more as a last resort rather than the first line of defense. We still know when it’s time to go visit our favorite family doctor or the local emergency room but when it comes to the run of the mill colds, illnesses, or symptoms we visit our kitchen instead. Our frugal medicine cabinet isn’t full of over the counter pills and cough medicines. It has just a few ingredients, purchased from the grocery store to see us through a sick spell. Here are a few things to keep on hand when you start to feel an illness coming on.

Fresh Garlic contains sulphur properties that act as an antibiotic, anti-viral and a fungicide. It’s been known to lower cholesterol, act as an expectorant and help with digestion among other things.

Raw Unpasteurized Honey has antibacterial and antiseptic properties. It’s great for coating throats to get rid of germs and to soothe sore throats. It should be unpasteurized since the heat can remove some of its healing properties. Children under the age of one shouldn’t be given honey.

Lemons are a super food that contains loads of Vitamin C which helps in the growth and repair of body tissues. It can be used as an astringent as well as an anti-inflammatory.

Apple Cider Vinegar was probably in your grandmother’s medicine cabinet. It’s been around for ages and my own grandmother took it daily and attributed it to her own 98 years of active life. It’s been known to ease heartburn, aid in digestion, relieve rashes and sunburns, to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and aid in ear or yeast infections. You’ll want to make sure you get apple cider vinegar that is organic, unpasteurized and contains the cloudy “mother” in the bottom.

With these simple ingredients you can treat all kinds of common ailments for minimal cost and maximum health benefits. The next time you start to feel ill try a few of these natural recipes to relieve your symptoms and speed up your recovery all while keeping your budget on track.

Garlic Tea

(For cough, colds and as an antibiotic to kill bacteria and fungus)

3 cups water

3 cloves garlic peeled and crushed or cut into pieces

½ cup raw unpasteurized honey

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Bring water and garlic to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in honey and lemon juice. Drink ½ cup warm tea 2-3 times per day until symptoms are gone. Store extra in refrigerator. Courtesy of earthclinic.com

Cough Controller

(not for infants under the age of 12 months)

1 teaspoon of honey
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
Stir mixture in a little bit of drinking water and drink immediately.
Take this 2-3 times a day.

Courtesy of parentingtoddlers.com

Sore Throat Relief

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

6 -8 ounces water

Add vinegar to water. Take a tablespoon of the mixture and gargle with it, spitting it out. Immediately take another tablespoon of the mixture, gargle and swallow it.

Courtesy of Vermont Folk Medicine by D.C. Jarvis

GCC Shopping Round Up

I made a library run today and stumbled upon all kinds of composting and gardening books. I checked out seeds at the store too and that's when I caught it...garden fever. I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt and get the beds ready to plant. I've got a good pile of compost that is ready to spread out and a few weeds to pull. I'm getting my sunny window seat ready for some seedlings and in the next few weeks the kids and I will get the garden started inside. My intention is to plant only three crops but lots of them so I can get some canning done. But the siren song of a variety of veggies has got me thinking I might start a small salad garden outside my back door. I'm trying to control myself but in my head my garden keeps getting bigger and bigger. sigh.

In between a head spinning number of activities today (curses on baseball season) I made a quick dash to the grocery store stock up for the week.

Win-co

Vegetable Oil $2.44
Bulk flax seed meal $1.47
mushrooms $1.88
Soymilk $2.28
Bulk wheat bran $.13
Apples $2.36
lemons $1.92
10 lbs carrots $4.48
bananas $1.26
garlic $.88
ketchup $1.98
cheddar $4.48
yogurt $1.68
frozen strawberries $6.08
ground beef $7.59
10 lbs potatoes $2.68
5 dozen eggs $6.12
Grand Total $53.46 and I forgot my darn grocery bags again!

Would you like to tell us about your shopping trip? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Monday

Better late than never, right? Here's this weeks menu. Completely uninspired as I threw it together in between writing deadlines, scheduling fiasco's, dinner with in laws and school with the kids. But the plan is in place. That's all that counts.
Breakfasts: choice of....

Oatmeal, farina, fruit and yogurt smoothies, pancakes

Dinners:

Dinner with in laws
Crock Pot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Spaghetti
Tacos
Ham Bone Soup with rolls
Party
Leftover Buffet

Homeschooling on the Cheap!

I know that not all of you are homeschoolers but for the few that are, here is a great article on how to keep it cheap. Even if you public/private school your kids but love to do educational activities when you're having family time this is full of great ideas. So go on over and check it out.



***My menu plan will be up sometime today. Still searching for good recipes.

GCC Recipe Swap

This week is the recipe that saves me the most money. Being self employed means that going to the doctor is full price. It's something we avoid if we can, and there are times where we just have to do it and worry about the cost later. But before we bite the bullet we have a few tricks up our sleeve that we try first. I'm not a big fan of antibiotics. In my experience with my own kids and working in the medical field for several years, I've found that doctors tend to use antibiotics to rule things out just as much as they use them to treat something they've diagnosed. That means there are a whole lot of antibiotics going into peoples systems just to "see" if it works. I don't like that. When we overuse antibiotics our bodies get used to them and they start to not work when we really need them. Plus, sure it kills the bad stuff, but it also wipes out most of the good stuff that we need to balance out our systems. Then we're left with yeast infections, imbalanced intestinal tracts and host of other uncomfortable and inconvenient stuff. But garlic is a great first try when you feel a cold or infection coming on. It's a natural antibiotic and has all kinds of health benefits while killing bacteria and building your immune system. So here's is our first step in the fights against sickness. I hope it helps you too.

Garlic Tea

3 cups water
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup raw unpasteurized honey
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)

Put water in a pan. Cut garlic in half and add to water. Bring to a boil. When water is boiling turn off heat and add honey (use raw because once it's pasteurized it loses much of it's health benefits) and fresh lemon juice. Stir until honey is dissolved and then strain out the chunks of garlic. Drink 1/2 cup of warm tea 3 times a day until feeling better or symptoms are gone. Store extra in fridge for later use. The garlic fights germs and bacteria and also builds immunity, the honey helps with cough and the the lemon juice adds to immune system functions.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Grand Opening and Prizes!

There's a great event happening in the Seattle area this Saturday, March 19th at the Seattle Grand Opening of Famous Footwear at the South Sound Center in Lacey.

You can download an exclusive discount coupon to bring with you to the Grand Opening Event online at www.famousfootweargrandopenings.com. The first 100 shoppers to present this coupon in the store will also receive a handbag that’s stuffed with fun goodies. There will also be tons of fun activities on-site for moms and kids alike, and multiple chances to win prizes - including FREE SHOES! If you're in the area, go check it out!

Famous Footwear Grand Opening

South Sound Center – 711 Sleater Kinney Rd SE – Lacey, WA 98503

10am – 4pm March 19th

GCC Shopping Round Up

I hit the store today and I'm so proud of myself. I remembered my reusable shopping bags! It seems I always forget but today I packed them all into the car, got my discount at check out and boy, are they so much easier to carry with those handles. I'm hoping I can get into the habit. Since we have the unused ham leftover from last week and some frozen turkey meat leftover from a few weeks ago, I based our menu around that. Which means we really didn't need much this week. Here's what we got.

Win-co

2 cans kidney beans $1.16
2 organic veggie broth $4.08
1 gallon milk $2.28
tomatoes $1.70
bulk chocolate chips $2.12
bulk popcorn $2.35
can olives $.98
butte $2.98
bananas $1.54
soft taco shells $4.62
frozen green beans $.98
2 tubs yogurt $3.36
cheddar cheese $4.48
peppermint extract $4.00
Bulk white chocolate chips $2.25
bulk pasta shells $.34

Grand Total $38.24 (-.24 for BYOBags)

The money that we saved this week will get tacked on to the budget for next week.

Would you like to show and tell about your shopping trip? Please link directly to your own post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Plan Monday

This is St. Patrick's week and we have some green goodies planned. We'll be having green eggs and ham, green milkshakes and green cookies throughout the day. This is my first foray into green food but the kids convinced me to try. We see if they actually eat it when they are staring at Shrek-colored eggs on their plate. Baseball season is in full swing for two of my boys so it's time to dust off the crockpots (yes, I have two) and gear up for some easy dinners as we race from one event to the other. Here's what's cooking this week.

Breakfasts:

Oatmeal, farina, smoothies, or eggs

Dinners:

Olive Garden Minestrone, Homemade Focaccia Bread
Turkey Quesadillas with guacamole and sour cream
Spaghetti
Green eggs and ham, Shamrock Shakes, Mint Shortbread Cookies
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham, green salad
Leftover Buffet
Party with friends

GCC Recipe Swap

I admit it. I'm a sneaky Mom and proud of it. You see, my kids hate green veggies and one day I decided to just quit fighting about it and slip it to them while they weren't looking. My secret weapon? Smoothies. I've been doing smoothies so long that the kids think of them as milkshakes but little do they know, I've snuck a powerhouse of nutrition inside their cleverly disguised "milkshakes". So here's our basic recipe. You don't need any fancy tools, just a regular blender and some distracted kids so they don't see what you're tossing in there. Also, strawberries hide a multitude of ingredients. The seeds disguise any other textures that might be in the drink. And frozen strawberries make it thick and creamy.....not runny. So here's our basic recipe. Smoothies are very forgiving so play around and have fun coming up with your own version.

Basic Smoothie Recipe

1 cup orange juice/milk/or soymilk
1 cup frozen strawberries (vitamin C)
1 cup spinach (iron, omega's)
2 tablespoons of oat bran (Fiber, omega's, protein)
2 tablespoons of ground flax seed (omega 3 fatty acids)

Optional Add Ins:

over ripe banana (potassium)
other fruits or melon
leafy kale (antioxidants)

If too runny add a few more pieces of frozen fruit. If too thick add bit more liquid.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Where's The Food?

I went grocery shopping last week with one of my children in tow and while I was stopped in an aisle crossing items off my list and adding up my total, my child was doing something I haven’t done in a long time. He was reading the ingredients off the back of a bottle. Pretty soon he started asking me what some of those words meant and really, they sounded like something out of my high school chemistry class. When I took a look at the bottle myself I realized that only two of the listed ingredients were actually food, you know, something beneficial to my body. The rest was unpronounceable, laboratory created additives of some sort. I started to sweat a little as I tried to rationalize our diet. I assumed we were healthy eaters since we make most of our meals from scratch and eat a generous amount of fruits and vegetables. But as I walked down the aisles full of bleached flour, pesticide treated fruits and vegetables, and packages full of ingredients I could barely pronounce I had an epiphany: There wasn’t much left in the store that was actually good fuel for my body.

Now, it’s pretty unrealistic to think I could easily switch to organic gardening and raising my own hormone free livestock by the next time I need to grocery shop. In fact, a drastic switch to more expensive albeit more natural foods just isn’t in my budget. But I can start small and work on eliminating some of the worst offenders from my family’s diet as we slowly transition to more natural grocery items. So here are some ideas to make some changes in your diet and work towards having more natural foods on your plate.

• Pick the five most frequently bought items on your grocery list and start researching what their healthier alternatives might be. Produce is a simple place to start and then work your way up to milk and meats. Don’t try to change everything at once or you run the risk of getting overwhelmed and giving up.

• Make sure you understand what organic means or doesn’t mean. Organic foods aren’t foods that are just grown on a farm. Foods that have an organic label are grown without toxic chemicals or synthetic hormones. Look for the USDA organic seal which means that at least 95% of the product is organic.

• Remember that foods with less chemicals and preservatives don’t have as long of a shelf life so make sure that you are buying the right amount for your family. It would be a shame for it all to spoil before you get a chance to eat it.

• Read the labels. The smaller the ingredient list, the more likely that it is a healthier form of food. If you can’t pronounce the names or they sound like a chemistry assignment put it back on the shelf and keep on looking.

• Be willing to do some research. One of my biggest processed-food weaknesses are artificial sweeteners. I prefer to chew my calories so I try to make sure that all my drinks have no calories in them. Water is a no brainer but my coffee, tea and sodas all have chemical sweeteners. My first goal is to experiment with my options and switch to honey, raw sugar, pure maple syrup or agave syrup.

• Food closest to its natural form is always a healthier option.

Switching to real foods and a healthier less-processed diet doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. Making small changes each time you shop will set you well on your way to a grocery cart full of nutrition for you and your entire family.

GCC Shopping Round Up

Back from our spontaneous getaway and into reality. (sigh) I hit the grocery store today to stock up for the week. I have no menu plan so I'm winging it for the next few days. And I'm finding it increasingly frustrating to go shopping lately. I'm seeing a huge increase in prices and frankly it's ticking me off. Here's what I got.

Win-Co

TP $5.48
Sugar $4.64
2 cream of mushroom soup $1.00
2 cans green beans $1.16
2 cans chili $1.88
1 gallon milk $2.28
frozen blueberries $5.48
2 soymilk $2.56
ham $18.58
2 margarine $1.54
10 lbs carrots $4.48
cabbage $1.46
apples $2.31
parsley $.48
sour cream $1.18
bulk oats $1.22
bulk sesame seeds $.39
tomatoes $2.16
spinach $1.48
beets $2.68
cucumber $.88
bulk onion soup mix $.41
celery $2.19

Grand Total $69.90

Would you like to share what it takes to feed your family? Please post about your shopping trip, link directly to your post, not your homepage. And please include a link back here to the grocery cart challenge.

A Few Questions Answered....

Got lot's of questions off the last post....

1. We love staying at the Tolovana Inn in Cannon Beach , Oregon. It has suites for a large family, kitchens so you don't have the cost of eating out all the time, they are pet friendly (cuz with our dogs we make 8) and right on the beach. Plus they are condo's that are rented out when their owners aren't using them so they all have a personal touch and feel like home....well nicer than our home actually. Oh and they have a salt water pool, hot tub, gym and game room so even if it's rainy there is still something fun to do.

2. I have a list of favorite hotels in places that we like to visit. If you're flexible on your travel dates (off season, week days) then you can usually find current deals on their websites. We just happened to stumble across a 50% off promo that they were having if your stay occurred sometime between Sunday and Thursday of this week. But always check website for current promotions that's how we can even afford to get away.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Progamming.....

Good morning! This is birthday week for me (39) and the minute I found the 50% off coupon for our favorite beach motel, I knew what I wanted to do. So within hours we had packed and drove away. Right now I'm staring out my window, watching the Pacific Ocean tide come in and the sun shine on the beach. Ahhh.

Which means....

No menu plan this week. I'll just be winging it when we get back home. We'll still have the weekly grocery round up sometime tomorrow and blog life will get back to normal in a few days.

In the meantime, I'm going to soak up the sun, sit in the hot tub, and nibble on my leftover fish and chips.


I'll leave you with a link that a friend sent to me. It will show you how to make mini-outdoor green houses for your garden starts. I love this idea!

GCC Recipe Swap

We've been cooking like crazy this week. I think I'm averaging about three dishwasher loads a day between all the cooks in this house. One of our favorite recipes this week was this one for Chewy Ginger Cookies. They are like a moist molasses ginger snap and we just had to share.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup raisins (optional)

2 tablespoons white sugar

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the molasses. Mix the water and baking soda and stir. Sift together the flour, salt, and dry spices; add gradually to the sugar-margarine mixture. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients, along with the ginger and raisins, into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. (The dough may be too soft to handle at this point- I suggest either adding a bit of flour, or refrigerating for 20 minutes[or even overnight]). Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.

GCC Shopping Round Up

Boy oh boy did I need to shop today. I skipped last week, ended up getting snowed in for several days and looked forward to stocking up today in between doctors appointments and drivers ed classes and homeschooling. My head is still spinning from today. But I did manage to get some groceries. I'm also trying a new vegetable. Squash makes us gag around here but my friend made it sound so good that I thought I'd try some butternut this week. My fingers are crossed. And is it just me or are prices REALLY climbing? Sheesh!

Win-co

Flour $3.10
Sugar $2.18
bleach $.99
yogurt $1.88
Mayo $1.89
stir fry veggies $1.38
soy sauce $1.79
celery $1.94
frozen peas $.78
2 gallons milk $4.36
sour cream $1.18
guacamole $3.98
butternut squash $3.71
green onions $.78
bananas $1.55
2 cans mushrooms $.96
green chilies $1.45
brown sugar $1.36
Cheddar $4.48
vanilla $1.24
cilantro $.58
onions $.85
5 dozen eggs $6.59
margarine $1.68
2 cans white beans $1.28

Grand Total $ 51.96

Would you like to tell us what it takes to feed your family? Post your own shopping trip on your blog and then link back up here. Please make sure to link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back here to the Grocery Cart Challenge.