Sparkly!

My dishes are sparkling, y'all!  Seriously!  These are the little things in my life that make me smile.  Look!

Nary a spot to be found!

And LOOK at how clean my dishwasher is!!

it's GLEAMING!!

Why is this so wonderful to me?  We have hard water.  I mean HARD water.  We don't have a softener (probably because we're too cheap, and to lazy to lug those salt pellets or salt blocks back home all the time), so we live with it.  For years we have been trying to come up with ways to have spotless glasses, get the calcium and lime deposits off our shower doors - mostly unsuccessfully.  Most recently we were using a product called Lemishine that you (until this past Christmas) could only find at Target, and it only comes in a tiny bottle, lasts about a week - smells like lemonade mix...but it's expensive when you consider how much we need to use.  We are, after all, a family of five, we entertain fairly frequently on the weekends ("Game Day" my house!)...so we use our dishwasher a lot.

Well, you may or may not have noticed, but I'm kinda cheap.  I like to save whenever possible - and going green is a goal of mine.  More to save money, a lot to get rid of the caustic chemicals (especially when they don't work all that well!), and to save the planet of course.

So when I saw this little trick, I couldn't imagine that it would work - it was too easy! Too cheap!  And without chemicals too? Crazy!  You want to know the secret?  Here it is!

It's not even raw!  My secret came from another secret of mine...I secretly like Gypsy Sisters (the TV show)

Yes (hangs head in shame!), I'm addicted to this show...as well as the other cultural studies (My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding).  I can't help myself. :)

So, I saw Kayla (last on the right) instruct her daughter to dump this stuff directly into the dishwasher.  Crazy!  Wouldn't it be sticky or something?  I've seen (and tried) plain vinegar in the Jet Dry section of my dishwasher before - without success. I even went so far as to research this on Pinterest (if it's on Pinterest it must be "tried and true" - right?).  So I tried it.  Even using the ultra cheapest dish washing powder (this stuff used to work really well on it's own before we dug new wells in our town, and before we started dumping more chemicals into our water), my silverware gleams! My glassware is sparkly! Spot free!  And as an added bonus, my dishwasher is clean too!

Huh!

Cheap. Green. Effective. Easy.  Available pretty much anywhere!  I've started using ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) in other areas of my life too, but it's generally suggested that you use raw ACV for beauty and food purposes.  I didn't have any on hand (plus it costs more), so I tried what I had.  I've only been doing the ACV in the dishwasher for 3 days, but I am wowed.  Really.

What more could a girl ask for?

Happy Sunday y'all - stay warm! (We're going to be getting record lows here in Chicagoland, so much so that the governor closed schools for tomorrow!)

Happy New Year! Let's Resolve to be Thrifty!

Happy New Year to everyone who has so kindly stopped by to read my blog!
 
Today I want to talk about learning a hobby that can help you stretch your dollars: Crochet.  My poor grandma tried for YEARS to teach me.  When I got married (possibly even before the wedding) my   husband's step-grandma tried teaching me too.  Poor, sweet thing.  I tried with all my might - too much might probably!  My stitches were tight. Very tight.  Tighter with each new stitch.  This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby!  The tight stitches made me less relaxed - with Each. New. Stitch. I was less and less relaxed.  Tense even.  So I gave it up. Every time.

Well, just before Christmas I decided that I was going to learn to crochet. And that it would be a relaxing hobby, darn it.  It turns out, that if you relax your stitches you have more success.  And concentrating on relaxing my stitches made me more relaxed.  Cool!

Well now I can't seem to stop myself.  I've made headbands (the ear-warming variety), pot holders, coasters, granny squares (to create a blanket down the line), a hat, flowers (to adorn the hat and headbands), and my latest: fingerless gloves.  They are so cute!  I also added some flowers to those.  I'm also working on another blanket - because it's been COLD here and I thought it would be nice to work on something that would help me out before I gift it (I can't tell you who it's for though!).

There are so many cute items to crochet - and all I need is yarn and a crochet hook!  How cool is this?  I can make items that help me out too.  My hands were cold - it's winter in Chicago-land.  But I don't like gloves (they separate my fingers and my fingers get colder), and mittens are just impractical.  I saw these cuties on Pinterest and knew they had to be on my project list.  They were actually really simple and took me about an hour to make.  I had the flowers left over from the day I learned how to make them (I needed to practice) so I put those guys on there - and buttons are the thing to add to projects these days.  They were also here in my stash.

I neglected to mention earlier, that this was a "free" hobby for me to start.  My daughter's friend found some knitting and crochet supplies when cleaning out an apartment he was renovating and gave them to her.  She likes to knit, but the crochet hook was useless to her.  That's what sparked my determination.

I have noticed, however, that yarn is not free.  Far from it.  Well, not all that far.  It's not terribly expensive.  I have seen some cheapskate and thrifty sites suggest using old sweaters for yarn sources as well.  A cheap sweater at Goodwill or a yard sale would be around a buck (if you're a good shopper) or two, while yarn (not even fancy yarn) could start at around $5 for a decent amount.

I suppose it depends on how much time you have on your hands.  If you're a stay-at-home-mom with teenagers who don't depend on you for everything, you have time to unravel sweaters to support your habit.  Otherwise, I suggest Freecycle, and coupons for your new hobby.

Patterns are so easy to get for free, so I don't recommend paying for them for quite a while.  Pinterest is a great source, of course, as are friends and family.

So - even if you don't want to try crochet (although it's pretty nifty!), find a hobby that will help you out somehow.  Beekeeping (for the honey and beeswax - stay tuned for more on this!), knitting, sewing, making your own cleaners and beauty products - all fun hobbies that can help you out in the end, and could even be a home-based business to generate extra income (along with saving you some green!).

This was my first piece...it was supposed to be a dishrag.  Notice the TIGHT stitches!

My coaster! Pretty cute, eh?

My pot holder - also doubles as a dish rag.

My UBER cute hat!  I'm pretty proud of this guy.

Look how cute my fingerless gloves are! 

Beauty at Home

On today's episode I'm going to talk about beauty.  I know, I know.  It's expensive!  Make up, shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, nail salons - it all adds up!

But Heather (you say), how can we make this stuff from nothing?  This is something I'm looking in to.  With my recent foray into the Homemade Beauty Products arena, my girls and I have found some winners I'd like to share.

Today, it's going to be shaving cream.  Shaving Cream?  Yes.  It's true! I made shaving cream at home (that doesn't give our sensitive skin a rash!) and we're in LOVE with this stuff!  All three of my girls (I haven't convinced my hubby to try it yet) are addicted - and so am I.

Can it be made with "nothing?"  Why yes, yes it can!  Here is the recipe I used:

1/3 c shea butter (you could also use cocoa butter)
1/3 c virgin coconut oil
1/4 c jojoba or sweet almond oil (I used canola or olive oil)
10 drops rosemary essential oil
3-5 drops peppermint essential oil

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the shea butter and coconut oil, stirring until just melted.  Remove from the heat and transfer to a heat safe bowl (I actually just left it in the same pan).  Add in the jojoba oil and the essential oils.  Stir to mix.

Place in refrigerator and chill until solid (a couple of hours).  Remove from the fridge and whip using a hand beater or stand mixer until light and fluffy.  Spoon into a jar and put the lid on.  Keep in a cool, dry place (I've been keeping it in my bathroom on the sink with no adverse effects). Yield: 8 oz

Now I know what you're thinking: who keeps this stuff around the house?  I do.  I admit I changed out a few ingredients, and some I ordered for another purpose.  Essential oils are something I just started keeping around since I'm making some spa products for gifting purposes - as well as for us to keep and use.  Coconut oil is something you can cook with - some people (not me) use it exclusively. I don't have the jojoba or almond oil at my house either - I used canola oil in one batch and olive oil in another batch with fabulous results.  Shea butter I do keep around.  It's AMAZING stuff and I'm pretty excited that I found it in bulk at Bulkapothecary.com for SO MUCH LESS than I've been paying at a local shop.  I use it on my skin as a moisturizer - exclusively.  Your body actually adjusts the amount of oil it secretes as you use it over time.  It's really awesome stuff.  You could try switching out the coconut oil for another solid oil, but I like the fragrance it lends.

It's SO EASY to make.  I quadruple this recipe and it's shelf-stable.  I also use this as a moisturizer after my shower on my legs and arms - I have really dry skin.

Once you're done with your shower though, soak your razor in warm water to get the shaving cream off - and you're all set!  Any razor will do too - you don't need a really expensive one.


I did not, however, come up with this on my own.  Nope, here is the link I discovered on Pinterest that lead us to making our own shaving cream forever!  http://foodformyfamily.com/manic-organic/rosemary-mint-shaving-cream-homemade-gift-ideas

Another Successful Something From Nothing

I've tried embracing a Vegan lifestyle.  And Vegetarian.  And dieting.  All the diets.  Yes. All.  My poor family has tried many of my diets.  Sigh.

Pinterest is my friend.  My cookbook collection (Yes, I know it's ironic that I have a cookbook collection and my cooking skills are so lacking.)  originally consisted of pre-1940s cookbooks.  My particular area of interest was Depression-Era.  These people knew how to cook whole foods, organic (because it was grown at home!).  I wanted to know what on earth they ate to make it through one of the worst economic downturns our country has ever witnessed.  And then there was WWII.  People were gardening again (Victory Gardens), food was scarce again.

One of the keys to success in the kitchen, I've always thought, is the ability to make something from nothing.  This came to me many moons ago, I was newly married, back in my grandma's kitchen.  She had a large group of people over.  We'd had a feast with these same people the day before, but there was no real plan for this meal - lunch I think.  But we had some left overs - not enough for everyone to have the same thing, though.  I thought it would be rude to feed all these people left overs - my grandma was, after all, a fine Southern Belle (born and raised in West Virginia).  So, all of the other fine Southern Belles in our family went into the kitchen and came out with another feast!  How did they do it?  I was dumbfounded!

They took nothing, in my young, humble opinion, and came out with something!  When I could do this amazing magic trick, I too would be a "Good Cook!"

This has been my mission in the kitchen since that day.  It's been no less than 20 years, and I'm hardly an expert (my family will attest to this,) but I've had some successes lately and I thought I'd share. If I can do it, literally, anyone can.

Last night (Tuesday) we had an assortment of left overs from the freezer.  Nothing exciting, but nutritious: slow cooker ribs (that didn't have 5 servings in it,) with kluski noodles that originally was served with beef tips.  This made a great "base" to put the BBQ ribs over - with the BBQ gravy to moisten up the noodles.  I also had a bag of cheesy mixed vegetables.  Done.

Tonight was a particular success, however.  The shelves are getting bare in the fridge/freezer.  

Pinterest to the rescue!  I wasn't even looking for a dinner idea yet!  What luck!

Wild Rice and Chicken Soup

I checked out the recipe and I had most of the ingredients...how lucky can a girl be?  

Author: Pinch of Yum, from Cambridge Medical Center cookbook

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  1 hour

Total time:  1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 3 (10¾ oz) cans chicken broth ( I happened to have an almost-full box in the fridge!)
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed (I had 1/2-ish cup of brown rice left in the bag)
• ½ cup finely chopped green onions (I had a half a red onion in the fridge)
• ½ cup margarine or butter
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon poultry seasoning
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups half and half (I used rice milk and it was just fine)
• 1½ cup cubed or shredded cooked chicken or turkey (I had 1-1/2 chicken breast all by itself in the freezer)
• 8 slices bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (I had 9 slices in the freezer - what are the odds!)
• 
  
• Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, combine chicken broth and water. Add wild rice and onions. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-45 minutes (or until rice is tender). Once the rice is cooked, there will be some additional broth – do not drain.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt margarine, stir in flour, salt, seasoning, and pepper. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly.
3. Gradually stir in half and half with the butter/flour mixture and cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Add this creamy mixture back into the saucepan with the rice/broth. Add remaining ingredients (chicken & bacon). Heat on low, stirring every once in a while, for at least a half an hour. Do not boil. The mixture will look thin, but the longer you heat the soup, the more the flavors merry and the more it will thicken. This soup is best served after gently heating for an extended period of time (even a few hours) or the next day! For extra flavor, add more poultry seasoning and/or bacon.

Easy peasy!  I also made my family eat up the left over bread on the counter - 2 hamburger buns and 2 end pieces (including the heel) of a loaf of bread (ordinarily I would have gotten a French bread baguette).

Done!  It was tasty, everyone ate it (minus the bacon for my number 2 daughter - no she's not a Vegan/Vegetarian, that's my number 1 daughter).  What more could a girl ask for?

Another successful "something from nothing!"

Dinner: The Original Something From Nothing

Dinner.

"What's for dinner?"

We've all heard it.  This can strike fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned cooks.

I like to try new recipes - especially if they're good for you...and CHEAP.  However, I'm not much of a cook.  I used to blame it on my heritage: Irish and German.  If I can boil it, or it's potatoes, I'm your girl.  Otherwise, sample at your own risk.

It got so bad at one point, that Mondays used to be referred to as "Fear Factor Night" at my house.  My youngest used to love that TV show and, apparently, that was my favorite night to try new recipes.  Recently, I've discovered Pinterst.  The cool thing about Pinterest, is that I can find recipes that have been pinned by many people.  This is a fantastic feature!

I also like to save money.  So, I try to combine the two (cooking and saving money) whenever I can.  Sometimes I'm successful, other times not so much. Sometimes, I'm left with ingredients that I don't like and will not eat again ( I have a bottle of capers, for example, that could be as old as 10 years...)  Other times, I'm left with A LOT of leftovers - that nobody will eat.  This happens often.

So - when I stumble on a recipe that everyone in my house will eat (currently me, my husband and 3 teenage daughters) it's like striking gold!  And if it's cheap or made with ingredients that I usually keep in stock - so much the better.

In addition, in my quest to save money - or refrain from throwing it out - I've learned about a "fiscal fast" from a variety of sources (including the TLC show Extreme Cheapskates).  This is when you just don't spend money.  It's harder than it seems.  The place where I see my family (and others) is in the refrigerator and freezer.  Leftovers.  Old food that we bought for a recipe or that seemed like a good purchase at the time.  It goes directly into the garbage.  It's sad.  We wouldn't throw dollar bills into the trash, would we?  Heck NO!

So, in the spirit of making "something from nothing" (do you see a trend here?) I decided to go on a fiscal fast this week.  So, I had to look deep into the freezer, refrigerator and cabinets to see what I could come up with.

Monday night this week, I happened upon two bags of shrimp.  I'm not sure how old they were.  But they were sealed and not freezer burned.  It was a good find!  The first thing that came to mind is Shrimp Scampi.  Did I have pasta? Check.  Did I have garlic? Check.  How about butter?  Check.  I was in business!  I went to Pinterest and found a recipe for scampi that used ingredients I already had and got to work.  This is the one I used.  But you could add variations.  For example, I used peas for color and to get that vegetable in there.

In the future I'll be sure to snap pics of my ingredients and my actual dish.  But for today (and since I'm a newbie blogger) here is a link (click the pic!) to the recipe from Pinterst.

This recipe has always been met with cheers from my crew.  My oldest (Vegan/Vegetarian, who recently started eating meat again), my middle (not a really picky eater, my youngest (it's shrimp, what's not to like?) and my husband (he will eat a lot and loves seafood).  I did actually add some flour to the butter to make a gravy of sorts, since I served it with pasta.  This was a prior suggestion from my husband.  The pasta I used was orzo (it had been in the pantry a while, but again, it was sealed and tasted fine...I have no idea what recipe it was originally purchased for!) - this was a nice change up and everyone loved it.

Enjoy!
Shrimp Scampi

Christmas Time 2013

Welcome!

So, today is my first BLOG!  I'm here because it's been my mission to learn from those who came before us.  Those from the Depression Era, who made something out of nothing.  Something to eat. Something to wear.  A holiday.  All when they didn't have anything.

Those of you who know me (you know who you are!) KNOW that I'm not much of a cook.  So it would be unusual for me to have a cooking blog.  There will be recipes.  But I'm also thrifty in nature - well, I try at least (I'm a Starbucks addict...)  I've always liked learning how to save money - often out of necessity.

I don't think anyone would disagree that times are tight these days.  If you do disagree, well, maybe this isn't the blog for you! :)

I've read books on tightwaddery, frugalness, cheapskate-ism, and budgeting.  I'm not much good at budgeting, but I keep reading and trying!

I've been fascinated by Extreme Couponning and Extreme Cheapskates, both on TLC.  I'm not going to claim that I have any expertise in these areas!

Currently I'm working on Christmas.  I've hated Christmas for a long time.  I did not come from affluence (could you tell?), so Christmas wasn't a fun time for me.  I did get some things on my list from year to year.  I won't pretend that I grew up in the projects of Chicago, because I didn't.  My mom tried to make Christmas special for me and I do have some fond memories.  She LOVED Christmas.  As I got older, married, and had kids of my own, I started to dislike Christmas for a different reason: Jesus is the REASON for the SEASON!  And Christmas has to be the most commercial holiday there is.  I wanted my kids to look past the gifts, Santa, and the "gimmes" that are so prevalent this time of year.  I wanted them to know Jesus, the giving, and what we are supposed to be thinking about this time of year. (I have failed miserably...)

Fast forward a few years (OK, a lot of years!): it's 2013.  Here we are again, it's Christmas time.  My kids WANT EVERYTHING (usually the really expensive stuff!).  And we have a lot of people to give gifts to - although the list has been dwindling over the years.  But I don't want to go out and buy a lot of stuff people don't want.  Couldn't we all just save ourselves the time and effort and just trade money?

My next blog will talk about making Something From Nothing for a special Christmas!

Thanks for reading!