Homemade Convenience

I am constantly trying to phase packaged convenience foods out of our home. Let me tell you it is HARD to do. The boys need snacks for school. Brad needs lunches for work. Sometimes I need something to munch that doesn't require cooking or creating dishes to wash. Sometimes dinner time sneaks up on me and I haven't given it the slightest bit of thought earlier in the day. Convenience foods are, well, convenient. So as I go about my journey to get the junk out of our diets, I've had some success in finding homemade versions of some of our favorites that have the benefits of not only being free from chemicals, preservatives, and excess packaging, but also much, much cheaper. Today I'm going to share with you 3 of our favorites: Fruit leather, cheese crackers, and mini fritattas.

Fruit Leather:
My boys love the apricot Stretch Island fruit leather. But at $1 a pop, those things are crazy expensive! We would get them occasionally as a treat in the checkout line at Whole Foods for being helpful shoppers. But now that I have an Excalibur Food Dehydrator, making our own is a snap. Since the boys love the apricot flavor, I start with dried apricots. You can use any type of fresh or dried fruit. If starting with fresh, just omit the soaking step.

Cover dried apricots in water, and leave to rehydrate for several hours. Cover the bowl so nasties don't fall in.

Once the apricots are nice and juicy again, pour your apricots and a good bit of soaking water into your blender. I love my Blendtec , it makes short work of just about anything. Use just enough water to get things blending smoothly.

Next, spread apricot goop in a thin even layer on a piece of parchment paper on your dehydrator tray. The Excalibur comes with some teflex sheets, but I prefer the parchment paper because when it's dry I can roll the whole thing up and cut into strips so the boys have fruit roll-ups.

This batch made four trays worth of fruit leather. I put it in the dehydrator at about 145* for around 6 hours. See how easily the fruit leather lifts off the parchment paper? It's done when the thickest spots are dry to the touch.

Cheese Crackers:
These cheese crackers are the closest to Cheez-Its I've found. They are really yummy, and since I do the whole process in my food processor it's super easy and they come together lickety split. I have made the recipe with whole wheat flour before and they turn out ok, but they really just taste better with white. Since these are a once in a while treat, it doesn't bother me too much.

1/2 lb grated extra sharp cheddar
1/4 C butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Cream together first 4 ingredients. Slowly add flour to make a stiff dough. It's important to use sharp cheddar in these, even if it's not the kind you like for eating. I like to use extra sharp. Otherwise the crackers don't have a lot of cheese flavor. Also, you can decrease or omit the cayenne pepper if you think your kids won't like it. With the full 1/8 tsp the crackers have a little bit of a kick. My kids don't seem to mind, and I like it that way. 1/16 would probably be fine if you have kids with a picky palette. If you leave it out completely the crackers will be kind of bland, but hey, some kids like it that way.

Divide the dough int 3 portions and roll into logs. Wrap the logs in waxed paper and place in the fridge overnight, or the freezer for 1 hour. I'm always in a hurry so I always use the freezer method and it works great. The idea is just to get the dough chilled enough that you can slice it with out smushing it.

Slice thinly and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. These do not expand very much when baked so you can place them fairly close together, but not touching. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.

Bake at 350* for about 12 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. Once completely cool you can store them in a ziplock baggie or a glass jar. I really have no idea how long these keep, even if I make a double batch they are gone in less than a week.

Mini Fritattas:
Here's my newest toy; a 24 ct mini muffin pan. Oh the possibilities! Today it was fritattas.

Bacon, spinach, cheese into every muffin cup. Then I mixed 6 eggs with 1/2 cup of cream, and topped off the fritattas. This made just enough egg mixture to do all 24, not a drop left over.

After 30 minutes in the oven at 350*, I had cheesey, bacon-y, egg-y goodness.
Yum! I meant to put half into the freezer for later, but for some reason they mysteriously disappeared before I got around to it.

Finding homemade versions of some of your favorite packaged foods is a great first step in the direction of phasing junk out of your diet and home. The kids love these snacks, and I feel good about feeding them something healthier than what comes out of a box. What are some of your favorite homemade convenience recipes?

Did I Just Do That?

Yes, I did. I signed up for the Hang 'em Dry challenge over on Crunchy Chicken.



I'm a little scared. With three kids, the youngest wearing cloth diapers, I do a lot of laundry. However, I'm luckier than many in that I have ample space in my basement for line drying even though I can't hang things outside our rented town house. Here's the laundry corner in my basement. It's not fancy, but it get's our clothes clean.
Yes, that's a wine rack beside the utility sink. It was a wedding present. We have a very small town house and there was no room in the dining room. Here's my dryer.

It's 22 years old, at least. In fact, I think it may have been 22 years old when we inherited it, so that would make it closer to 25 years old now. When my grandmothers washer kicked the bucket, they replaced the set. We became the grateful owners of a very free, very old dryer. I know it uses a ton of electricity, and it takes forever to dry a load of clothes. Don't get me started on the diapers.

Here's what I've got set up for line drying. I've got a folding drying rack, and a very long, sturdy pipe with hangers.

The few times I have done line drying this has proved to be ample space for a single load of laundry. We'll see if I need to update my system as we go. I have a load of diapers in the washer as we speak, so they'll be first up on the drying rack tomorrow morning.

Meal Plan 9/27-10/3

Time for another meal plan. Seems like I have to do this every week. It's amazing how much I dislike a task that makes the rest of the week so much easier, but there you have it.

Leftovers to use: I did a pretty good job using up leftovers last week, and we ate most of what we made, so very little needs used up this week. Meat in the fridge/freezer = 1 5lb package of chicken breasts, 2 pot roasts, 1 pkg tillapia.

Monday: We had pasta and shrimp. The shrimp had been in the freezer and needed using, and I always have tons of pasta and sauce because I buy it when it's on sale.

Tuesday: Fish Tacos using the tillapia, salad

Wednesday: Pot Roast with onions and potatos, salad

Thursday: Crock Pot Chicken, rice, stir fry veggies

Friday: Stew w/left over pot roast, potatoes, barley

Saturday: Pulled chicken sandwiches, chips

Sunday: Chicken and rice casserole

The Power of the Meal Plan

Ah, meal planning. Something we all aspire to and yet rarely get around to doing. And it's too bad, because for such a short time investment you reap huge benefits. Meal planing saves time, money, and a great deal of sanity. For those who have never meal planned before and may be a bit daunted by the prospect of coming up with a weeks worth of meals RIGHT NOW, I'll break down my process for you. It's not nearly as huge a beast to tackle as you might think.

First things first, take a quick look in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. If you can plan your meals around things you already have on hand then your shopping list is that much shorter, and you've already saved money.

In my fridge I have 1-2 meals worth of turkey (depends on what I decide to do with it), lots of eggs, bacon, cheese, carrots, celery, and homemade yogurt, among other things. In my freezer I notice a surplus of green beans, and a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs. We'll definitely be seeing those on the meal plan this week. And I always keep a fairly well stocked pantry of dry goods such as rice, beans, flour, onions, potatoes, sugar, spices, etc.

Once you have determined which leftovers from the week before need used up, and what ingredients you have on hand already, it's time to start thinking about the meals themselves. I typically try to do my meal planning on Sunday so that I'm ready for the week, but I was working Sunday night/Monday and so I'm doing it today. I also try to plan meals for early in the week that I have all the ingredients on hand for, so I have a little flexibility in my grocery shopping. Nothing kills a grocery budget like running to the store at the last minute for the one thing you need for dinner and coming home $50 later with a bunch of stuff you don't really need.

Any time you can cook once and eat twice you should. Baked chicken thighs for dinner one night can become the basis for soup, stew, sandwiches or casserole later in the week. I can stretch that turkey for two meals if I do one soup and one casserole. I also try to plan one meatless (or at least less meat) meal based around beans and rice.

Now it's time to start planning those menus. If you have something to use up but don't know how, I like www.food.com (was recipezaar) for finding new recipes. Just make a basic plan of what to serve and when. We'll look at our recipes in a bit to decide our shopping lists. There are several tools you can use to organize your meal plans. Here are two that I've used that are working for me.
I found this nifty note pad at Target. It gives you space to write in your meal plans with your shopping list underneath. I like that it doesn't take up much room, and is always visible on the fridge so I can add to the list as I discover things we need.



This is the menu section of my Home Management Binder. I don't use my binder nearly as much as I wish I did, but I'm trying to make it a part of my daily life again. The pages are in page protectors, and you can write with a dry erase marker. I have two menu pages so I can start planning next week without having to erase the week that's not quite over yet.

Here's how my weeks meals are shaping up:

Monday (yesterday): We ordered wings. Yum!
Tuesday: Turkey Stew
Wednesday: Turkey and Rice Casserole
Thursday: Baked Chicken Thighs, Roasted Green Beans
Friday: Bean Soup with Bacon
Saturday: Dinner w/Grandparents
Sunday: Chicken Sandwiches, salad

I'm using up my turkey first since it's been in the fridge for a few days. Also, I need to get the chicken thighs out of the freezer and into the fridge so they'll be thawed for Thursday. I love meals that can be made all in one dish, so I haven't listed a side dish for things that include plenty of vegetables. Both my husband and I are watching our weight, so we're trying to stay away from starchy sides and focus more on veggies and salads.

Now is the time go go through your recipes and make sure you have all the ingredients you need and make out your shopping list. Looking at my list, the only thing I need to pick up is salad greens. This is mostly because I shop according to sales and keep my fridge, freezer and pantry well stocked with things we use often. It's partly because I get in ruts and we tend to eat the same several things over and over. Now make up that shopping list, and sit back and relax knowing you've avoided the "What's for dinner" panic for the rest of the week!

Menu Planning 12/21/2008

Menu planning is one of the areas of homemaking that I really struggle to keep up with, but it makes such a difference when I take the time to do it. Menu planning serves so many purposes. It saves a lot of money by utilizing what you already have on hand and reducing the amount of waste. It saves time spent trying to decide what to have for dinner and being prepared with things that need done ahead of time. It saves frustration of not having advanced steps ready (ever forget to soak the beans or pull the chicken out of the freezer to defrost?) and it makes scratch cooking so much easier.

I always plan my weeks meals around what I already have in the pantry. First I check the upstairs freezer for any leftovers that need used up. Right now I have pork roast, chicken breast, turkey, and pinto beans in the freezer already cooked and just needing thawed and thrown into a recipe. If there is nothing suitable in the kitchen freezer, I check the downstairs freezer. It has whole chickens, one turkey, a few potroast cuts of beef, a little ground beef, and several packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts. I also plan for leftovers to be rolled into other meals. If I roast a chicken at the begining of the week, I plan at least two other meals that week that use cooked chicken such as soup or cassarole. AllRecipes and RecipeZaar are great websites for finding recipes to use what you already have in the house. Durring my weekly grocery shop, I shop to stock the pantry and freezer, not for specific meals. If there are a few ingredients or spices that I need for something specific I'll go ahead and pick those up, but I don't buy a whole meals worth of ingredients in the week that I make that meal. This saves a lot of money because I try to plan meals that use spices I typically have on hand, or just buy small amounts of spices/ingredients if it's something i don't use often. Also, say I was planning a chicken meal that needs boneless, skinless chicken breasts. These are usually $4.50/lb making them a fairly expensive (to our family anyway) cut of meat. But several weeks ago they were on sale for $1.88/lb, and I got 6 packages. So now I already have chicken in the freezer and don't need to pay full price. So I plan all of my shopping trips around what's on sale, and I plan my menus around what's in the freezer.

This weeks menu:
I have pork roast, cooked diced chicken breast, and pinto beans in the freezer that I pulled into the fridge to defrost.

Sunday: Pork roast with gravy, sweet potatoes, peas
Monday: Crockpot pork and beans, popcorn cauliflower, applesauce
Tuesday: Chicken noodle soup, bread, kale
Wednesday: Christmas Eve dinner with family
Thursday: Christmas Day dinner with family
Friday: BBQ chicke pizza
Saturday: we leave on vacation. Cancun here we come!!

Thrift store adoration

I love thrift stores. Thrift shopping is one of my favorite things to do. And thankfully, the boys seem to enjoy it too. It doesn't hurt that we usually cruise the toy section first so they each have something to hold and keep them entertained while I peruse the aisles. Thrift store shopping is like a game, or a treasure hunt. Discovering the diamond amongst the lumps of coal. For best results, go often. Inventory is turning over every day so there's always something new. I've been on days were I toured the whole store and left empty handed, and I've gone on days where I filled my cart with treasures. It's hit or miss, but it's worth going often. My favorite thrift store has a half off day on the last Tuesday of every month, so I'm there at least monthly. I find like new items, new-with-tags clothing for the kids, and really cool vintage items on a regular basis.

In addition to finding cool stuff, it can't be denied that thrift shopping is a very frugal endeavor. I buy about 99% of clothes for myself and the boys at thrift stores. I rarely spend over $1.99 for a shirt or pants. If you know what to look for you can often find designer clothes for pennies on the dollar. I routinely find Gymboree and Children's Place for a dollar or so, and have even found boutique clothing like Hanna Anderson. In years that I don't have the time or inspiration to make them, I can find great Halloween costumes there. And as I mentioned in Sweater: Deconstructed I never try clothes on at the store, but for $.50 I can afford to make a few mistakes. In general about 75% of what I bring home works really well for me.

I also look at items in the thrift store as raw material for crafting. I get wool sweaters and felt them for longies and diaper covers, I use vintage or jersey sheets for fabric to make clothing and hand bags, I refashion clothing items into something new and different. And if I find something that just doesn't fit and isn't worth my time to alter, it goes right back into the donation box and I take it back to the thrift store next time I go.

Thrift shopping is not only good for my personal pocket book though. It is environmentally friendly and good for the community as well. Buying used not only saves me money, but it keeps things out of the landfills, and it decreases the demand for new manufactured goods helping to limit factory emissions. When I declutter I have little time to take pictures and list things on craigslist or deal with a garage sale, so any usable items I'm getting rid of go to the thrift store. I probably could make a little money trying to sell some things, but it saves so much time and headache to donate, and I feel good about giving. A lot of thrift stores support charity causes, so the money I spend there goes back into the community. Proceeds from Good Will go toward education, training, and career services for people with disadvantages, such as welfare dependency, homelessness, and lack of education or work experience, as well as those with physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Last year, local Good Wills collectively provided employment and training services to more than 1.1 million individuals. Salvation Army provides toys for kids at Christmas, coats for the homeless, food for the hungry, help for abused women and children, care for the elderly, and many other social services. Volunteers of America (my favorite thrift store here) provides services for children and families, developmental disabilities, elderly, emergency services, employment training, health care, homeless, housing, and much more. Be sure to check into the thrift stores in your area to see how they give back to the community.

Some of my best finds at thrift stores include a Thomas the Train play mat for my 3yo, a like new pressure cooker, some terrific clothes including an emerald green cotton/lambswool sweater and an 8 gore long skirt that fits perfectly and is very flattering, a spider costume for my 1yo for Halloween that was like new, some great vintage sheets, and every year I stock up on cookie tins for giving home made candy in.

If you've never stepped into a thrift store, I strongly encourage you to give it a try, you never know what you might find. And if you already shop at thrift stores you can feel good knowing that you are not only saving money, but are doing a good thing for the environment and the community.

Sweater: Deconstructed

And then reconstructed to fit much better.

I get 99% of clothes for myself and the boys at the thrift store. I love my thrift store. I have so many good things to say about thrift shopping that it deserves it's own post. Soon. But today we're talking about a sweater.

It's a beautiful sweater. The colors are so earthy and warm, perfect for fall. I love the rolled neck line. I hate the fit. I can never try things on at thrift stores because I always have a baby on my back and a preschooler in the cart and honestly, for $.50 I can afford for a few things to not fit quite right. Usually things that don't fit get turned around and immediately re-donated, but I thought this sweater deserved one last chance. It's a size Large, and I need it to be about a medium. I had already taken in the side seams by about two inches, but it fit very poorly in the shoulders. It really needed to be taken apart and overhauled. So here is what I did:

First I took out the serging from the previous attempt at taking in the sweater. Then I created a new arm scye about an inch inside the old one.

Next I trimmed the excess from the sleeve. Here are all my pieces once they've been cut down to size:

I also opened the sleeve about half way down the arm. The sweater was baggy under the arm too so I made the new arm scye a little smaller. When this is sewn up it will blend gently into the rest of the arm. Then I opened the sweater flat, and pinned the sleeve to the shoulder, right sides together.

For most projects that use the serger, I don't bother to sew before I serge. It's an extra step and I have very little patients. But for a project like this I do sew first. That way I can try it on before I serge. A single sewing machine seam is a lot easier to rip out then a serged seam if for some reason it's not quite right.



I tried it on at this point, to make sure the shoulder seams were in the right place. You want this seam serged before you sew up the side seam and underarm, so better to make sure it fits now. Once you're sure the seams fall nicely, go ahead and serge or zigzag stitch this seam.

Next you'll sew and then serge the side seams. Start at the hem and sew toward the armpit. Once to the point where the body meets the sleeve, line up your seams and sew on into the arm seam. Side seam and under arm seam are done in one long seam. Again you may want to try it on before you go back and serge this seam.

To finish your seams, thread all of your loose threads through a large eye needle and thread back through the first half inch of serging.

And you're done!!

Keeping Warm

Brrrr! The weather here has taken a sudden turn for frigid, and my hands are cold. I hate cold hands. What to do? Ah yes, make mittens! But I hate mittens. And I don't have the confidence in my knitting yet to attempt honest to goodness gloves, plus all I have in my yarn stash is worsted, and that would make a pretty bulky glove. The solution? Fingerless mittens!

I used the Evangeline pattern available on Ravelry. I love the cables in this pattern. Since my baby has the chicken pox and I can't really leave the house, I raided my yarn stash for some suitable wool. This is either Payton's or Lion brand wool, I don't remember. It was almost a soaker, but got frogged due to being short a few yards to finish the project. And yes, I discovered this when I was just a few rows away from being done. Since the yarn came from my stash, I am considering these gloves essentially free. I love free stuff. So now it's fingerless mittens for me. This project knitted up in just two days, which is pretty fast for me. Winter, here I come!