Coconut Oil

I admit it, I'm confused about coconuts. At first I heard - don't eat them, you're going to die because of all of the fat in them.

Now I hear that they are one of the best foods we can eat because they are medium chain fatty acids or something like that.

Right now, I don't care about the pros and cons that coconut has for my body. All I care about is that my table is shiny and PRETTY again!

What?!? Change of subject.

The finish on my dining room table has been dull for months. Previously I used olive oil on it. However, since I now buy very expensive (aka healthy) olive oil, I didn't want to waste my oil on the table. I knew I didn't want to buy and bring more chemicals into my home as well.

I brought out the coconut oil and OH MY! I rubbed the oil in and then let it sit for hours. You could see it being absorbed into the table. Well, you couldn't really see that part, you could see where some oil was gone and the table was shiny.

My house is getting in much better shape now that I'm attempting the 15 minutes a day Flylady way!

Coconut oil can be used on your hair (just a little!), your face, your body, your table and your food. Don't buy the cheap-o brand and expect it to be as good as the more expensive organic extra virgin coconut oil!

This tip has been brought to you by one quirky girl :-)

Head on over to Life as Mom for more Frugal Friday tips!

Frugal - Random Thoughts

During the summer we are busy almost every weekend. Between softball, baseball, camping and visiting family, I had not been out garage-saling at all. Years ago, I'd go every Friday. EVERY.SINGLE.FRIDAY.

Back in the day, I had never gone to a garage sale. I thought it would be strange going through someone else's stuff. Not that I cared if I had new or used things, I just thought it'd be uncomfortable.

When we moved to Montana and I was still working part time, I'd go to garage sales by myself on Fridays. When my husband would get home from work, I'd pop open my trunk and exclaim, "Look, I got all of this for $5.00." As my husband looked at my trunk stuffed full of treasures, he'd look at me and say (lovingly I'm sure) "where in the world are we going to put all of this junk?"

Oops - good question. Just because it was cheap, didn't make it a bargain! Anyway, fast forward to today. Here in my town, it's rare if there is a garage sale on a Friday. Last Saturday we were home for a change so I decided to go hit the town's garage sales. I was completely and utterly disappointed. I didn't have any fun at all. In fact, I didn't buy one "treasure". I realized as I was driving home the issues that I have with garage sales.

1. I'm now extremely picky about what comes into my home. I don't buy something just because it's cheap and then try to find a place for it to go.
2. My kids are older. It's rare for me to find anything for them to wear. When we were in Montana, it was very rare that I had to buy them any clothes for school because I could find them all at garage sales.
3. I do NOT like leaving my family on Saturdays. I have plenty of "me" time and I don't need that time like I used to when my kids were younger.

I think I had a little panic attack...Am I not frugal any more? How will I claim that I'm frugal if I don't go to garage sales? Goofy girl...who cares????

I have a friend that I describe as "wise with her money." I wouldn't call her frugal. Hmmmmm would I rather be wise or frugal? Can I be both? Why do I care so much if I'm frugal?

I've always claimed that because I'm frugal I can be a homemaker. If I wasn't frugal then I couldn't stay home. REALLY? My husband realizes the value of me staying home whether I go to garage sales or not. Yes, I need to be WISE with my money. I need to make good choices. I don't have to have the newest, latest and greatest stuff. I don't have to have NEW things. I want to have the right things that will bless my home or my family.

I think I need to let go of the "frugal identity" and just be myself....one goofy chick. As one of my friends would call me, one quirky girl. I like that!

These random thoughts have been brought to you by one quirky girl who is frugal, wise and not shopping at garage sales. Thrift stores are still my friend though.

Recipe - Pork Chop Marinade

I am allergic to soy and corn. Do you have any idea how many products contain those two ingredients? A LOT!

Part of the reason I started making everything from scratch was because of my allergies. I am fine if I eat a little bit of either one of them, but why push my luck? After a lot of research, I don't think soy or high fructose corn syrup are healthy things to eat either.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I'm cheap/frugal/thrifty as well. I hate to pay good money for marinades. You throw them out when you are done with them!

I decided to experiment on pork chops from the 1/2 of a pig we bought.

Test 1: No marinade, just BBQ them until done.
Result: Ummmm YUCK!

Test 2:  Use a marinade made out of the following:

• a lot of water
• splash of lime juice
• several splashes of olive oil
• about 1 T Italian seasoning
• 1 t or T Salt (I can't remember now, I think it was 1T and 4 pork chops) Helpful isn't it?
• Garlic powder (real garlic would have been better)
• Pepper

 I let the pork chops marinate for 2 days and then BBQ'd them after dumping out the marinade. I didn't add anything else to the chops. Definitely NO MORE SALT!

Result: OH MY GOODNESS. They were absolutely delicious! We all really liked them. Now, it was 9:00 at night by the time we got home from camping and got to eat. We could have been really hungry or they could have been really good. We'll find out soon since we have a freezer filled with pork chops. I haven't successfully made a marinade without soy or wo sauce so this is quite the feat!

This recipe has been shared at:

Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Grocery Cart Challenge

Giveaway Winner!

Random.org chose the winner of the $30 giveaway to CSN Stores.

Congrats Jb at Homemakers Pensieve.

Email me your email address so I can give you the information!

Grocery Shopping

Check out my other blog Grocery Store Plan for my recent horse trailer experience!

Homemaker: To Be or NOT TO BE????

About seven years ago I started my job as a full time homemaker. People often think I've given up a lot to be a homemaker.

Status, $60,000 salary (7 years ago - how much would I be making today?), recognition, independence...

In my mind, I haven't given up a thing. It is such a gift to stay home. Many people will say I'm blessed to be able to stay home. I wouldn't call it being blessed. We spent nine months working our tails off getting out of debt, I worked part time for a year and a half so we had some money in savings, we moved from Colorado to Montana where the cost of living was cheaper and my husband could make just a bit more money. We (well, maybe I) were absolutely determined to make this work.

I always thought it was ironic that the government thought we were poor so we'd get the earned income credit when we did our taxes. I felt RICH! I got to spend all of this time at home with my kids.

It's definitely not easy.

It's the hardest job I've ever had.

It's the most satisfying job I've ever had!

Now that my kids are in school it's the easiest job I've ever had. I feel like it's a calling - to stay home. To be different. To take a stand to let people know that homemaking is important!

My husband went back to school in 2005 to become a Physician Assistant. I am certain that if I were working full time that we would not have even considered this life changing experience. I would not have prayed for him and his career, I would not have wanted to move, I would not have had the time to fill out the eight million forms and research everything that I did in order to encourage him in this life change.

Today if I left home to go to a job, my life would be filled with stress. I know this from experience. I know this because my husband works at a job 50 minutes away. I would be the one kid taxi (like I am now) because his hours vary.

All this to say, I have no intention of getting a "real job" (as some put it). I have a real job. My job is taking care of my family.

This post is NOT about us versus them. It's not about working outside the home or being a homemaker. I know several people who work outside the home and it works well for their lives. This post is totally about me because I'm humble that way :-) Just rambling homemaking thoughts.

Recipe - Skillet Cooking

I used to call a recipe like this a casserole because I'd add pasta, but since I changed the way we eat we'll go with a skillet dish!

It's a pretty fancy recipe....

1. Fry up a couple kinds of meat. I used 2 pounds of hamburger and 2 German sausage links.
2. When the meat was cooked I used my blender to puree some diced tomatoes and 3 garlic cloves.
3. Add some seasonings. If my husband would have cooked this it would have had a lot more flavor! I added salt and pepper.
4. Add some veggies. I added frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I should have thawed them out first, but I'll know to do that next time.

That's it! My son ate this for dinner, breakfast and lunch - I think he liked it!

Previously, in order to make this frugal, I would have made a cream sauce without much meat and a whole lot of pasta. That's the frugal, but bad for me, way to make it.

Note to self, try a cream sauce with some butter and whipping cream in addition to everything else. Yes, I talk to myself often and some times I even answer.

This post is linked to:
Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Grocery Cart Challenge

Veggie Update

The night after we got back from our vacation I made a skillet dish with broccoli and cauliflower, roasted zucchini, onions and mushrooms, made a salad and had strawberries for dessert.

While we were on vacation we ate fairly healthy, but obviously I was craving veggies! Usually when I would get home from vacation I would be having sugar cravings constantly. Do you think that it could have been all the sugar I ate on the trip? I would pick up candy for the way, and then grab laffy taffy's at the gas station. I'd constantly have suckers on the trip as well.

I have gotten a lot better about adding more vegetables to our meals, but I find that it takes a long time to prepare dinner. We've been eating much later than we used to eat because of this.

While watching my sister-in-law cook, I found it interesting that she prepared the salad and then told her boyfriend to start dinner. It was almost as if the salad was MORE IMPORTANT than the dinner. She focused on veggies and then the meat. What a concept! She makes the best salad ever! So here is your healthy tip for the day:

Focus on the vegetable first and then the rest of your meal.

P.S. It helps to keep a lot of carrots in your house as well as frozen vegetables. I'm still working on adding different things to our diet. The farmer's market is just starting to get more veggies in so I'm excited to see what they have to offer.

This post is linked to:
11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven
Works for me Wednesday at We are THAT Family

Frugal Vacation & Giveaway!

How to Have a FRUGAL VACATION

1. Make sure you know someone who knows someone that owes them a favor or two. This will get you a free rafting trip down the Blackfoot River and an AMAZING salmon dinner.
2. Make sure you have a generous family member who will put you up at a cute little cottage in a small town. While the bed may have been old and lumpy, the cottage was sooooo cute! I expect live in something small like that when my kids move out.
3. Make sure you have a husband who doesn't want you to cook when you get home so you go out to eat. Okay, that's not frugal, but it was wonderful that I didn't have to worry about dinner that night.
4. Make sure you stock a cooler full of meat and veggies before you leave so you have plenty on hand to eat without stopping for fast food. Instead of buying chips and junk food this time, I bought sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes and grapes.

Oh how I love vacations. I had a wonderful friend take care of my garden while I was gone and I swear my tomato plants got bigger! I'm still hoping for a LOT more hot weather - it was a looooong winter.

Giveaway!  Please note that this giveaway is now closed June 23, 2010.

The folks over at CSN Store have generously offered to give my readers a $30 gift certificate to any of their online stores. To enter this giveaway leave your name and email address in the comments. This giveaway closes on July 23rd at noon MDT.

Please note - the $30 gift certificate does NOT apply to shipping charges. You may have to pay international  fees for certain products. Please see my privacy policy for further details.

Check out Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom for more frugal ideas.
Check out Money Saving Mom for more giveaways.

Buying In Bulk - Kiddos

On my other blog, Grocery Store Plan, I talk about how buying in bulk for your pantry can save money. I'm trying to teach my kids this concept as well. Last year I offered to buy a box of ice cream treats and they could buy a treat from me at cost instead of paying three times more elsewhere.

This year, I have had a change of heart. I feel like I'm encouraging them to eat junk food so I tried to find a "healthy ice cream treat". HA HA HA! I really just wanted to be able to pronounce all of the ingredients. HA HA HA! I wanted to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. HA HA HA!

Rant Over.

Anyway, I buy a box of ice cream sandwiches and they pay me $.35 for each one instead of paying $1.00 at the pool or $1.50 from the ice cream truck.

This is teaching them that sometimes buying in bulk pays off.

It is teaching them that $.35 makes a difference.

A small amount of money can make a difference!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal

I don't eat many grains anymore, but this recipe is so very good. 3 out of 4 people really like this (my son doesn't like peanut butter at all!). When I eat it, I dump a LOT of whipping cream over it.

Here's the original recipe from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.

Here are my changes:

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

• 3 cups quick cooking oats (I use rolled oats)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (I use 1/4 cup - I tried 2 T last time and it wasn't enough. I will try it with raw honey next time)
• 1 cup milk (I use whole milk)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted (I'm going to make it with 1/4 c next time)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix all ingredients together and stir well. Spread in a buttered 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Check out other frugal recipes at Grocery Cart Challenge and Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Menu Plan Program

Hop on over to Grocery Store Plan for help in menu planning.

Healthy Ice Cream

Recipe 1

1. Buy bananas.
2. Chop bananas into small pieces.
3. Freeze pieces overnight.
4. Use a food processor (pick this up at a thrift store if you don't have one) to chop bananas really really small. Have you ever had Dippin' Dots ice cream? It looks like that. Don't do this if you have a sleeping baby - this is really really loud!
5. Eat and Enjoy!
6. Note: You can add any other fruit to this and it makes it delicious too!

Recipe 2

1. Buy bananas, blueberries, raw honey and cream. Look for cream that has just cream as the ingredient (ie. not ultra pasteurized, Land O' Lakes makes two different kinds of cream). Raw honey is way better tasting...get the locally made honey and it's supposed to help with allergies.
2. Chop bananas into small pieces.
3. Freeze pieces overnight.
4. Dump ingredients into a food processor. Start your food processor, then let it sit a bit, start it, stop it, start it, stop it...etc. I don't want you to burn your motor up! It might seem like a pain, but believe me, it's worth it! Creamy, yummy, healthy!

My notes:
Amounts of each ingredient...you'll have to decide. I tried a bunch of strawberries (bought frozen, then thawed them), few bananas, few blueberries, little cream and honey and we didn't like it nearly as much as our favorite way.

Our favorite way is to fill the food processor bowl almost full of chopped frozen bananas, add a hand full of blueberries, 4 thawed strawberries and about 1/4 cup of cream. When you use that many bananas you don't have to use honey!

My daughter doesn't like strawberry or banana flavor so to make her "ice cream" we whirl up honey, cream and frozen blueberries.

I buy blueberries in bulk from Azure Standard. Every week I buy two big bunches of bananas. One to eat and one to freeze. We always keep frozen chunks of bananas around. Peaches would be wonderful in this too!

It's all good.

Believe me.

No, try it, you'll see!

Check out other Family Favorite Summer Recipes at WFMW!

Shortcomings

Sometimes I read people's blogs, I think they must be Super Woman (note - I couldn't find a picture of Super Woman, perhaps she doesn't exist).

I think those bloggers are perfect and have 82 hours in a day instead of 24 like me.

I can see how it happens though, we blog about what works for us. Is it really encouraging someone if you blog about all of your failures? Well, maybe...so here's where I'm falling short right now:

• Patience with my kids
• Keeping up with my house AND spending time with my kids...not sure how to balance that
• I'm addicted to the computer
• My husband often times can't do anything right
• Some times I forget my kids are older and I'm trying to parent them like they are five years old.
• I complain too much/ not grateful enough

So how do I change my behavior? I believe that the first step is to be aware of the issue. Then tackle each one...one at a time. The best way for me to do this is walk along the creek by myself so I have time to think. The sound of the running water soothes my soul, the exercise clears my brain...Yep, I need to take time out for me!



P.S. Now this is weird. I started this post on June 18th, but didn't ever finish it. Maybe I should add "starting a project and not finishing it" to my list...here's another post about this same topic!

Can You Tell How Old I Am?

You've got to love them. Seriously. Right? Or at least someone once told me I should. Hmmmm....I wonder who did this?

The PROOF!

Paybacks people...paybacks...

Impromptu Picnic at the Park

Saving Your Change

I use the Dave Ramsey cash envelope system for grocery shopping.

Therefore, I always come home from the grocery stores with a bunch of change. All month long, I save my grocery store change so when it comes time to place an Azure Standard order, I can pull out my change and use that to make a big purchase.
It helps me budget a little bit better and remember that pennies turn into dollars when there is enough of them!

Note: My local credit union will cash in my coins for free. When I bring my kids with me, we have a contest to see who can guess the correct amount of money that I have. Whoever wins gets to keep a $1.00.

Activities for Older Kiddos - The Treasure Hunt

1. You often play this at home and get hurt. (Tether Ball)
2. If you go on a picnic, you usually sit on one of these. (Picnic Table)
3. Take a walk on the path towards Taco Johns. Go on a grassy path. Find a cool, soothing place to sit and listen to the creek. (Rock by the Creek)
4.  What is green and clean and runs all over? (My Tahoe!!! They had just washed it)
5. Hangman! Clue - You like to go here! Yeah! You Won! (Culvers for ice cream.)

At the beginning of the summer, I planned to go on a field trip/planned activity every week during the summer. My kids are 11 and 13...it's a little different now than it used to be! While they still enjoy playing at a park, it doesn't have quite the excitement that it used to.

My daughter came up with this idea. A Treasure Hunt! She wanted me to hide a bunch of food all over the park, then we'd eat the food on our picnic. I couldn't quite figure out how to do that with so many people that use the park as well as the dogs that pee all over the park :-)

Instead of hiding food, I wrote up clues on an index note card. This was a HUGE hit! I dropped them off at one park and had them walk to the other park that is nearby giving me time to hide the clues.

This week we're heading to the "city", 50,000 people, but it's a big city for us now that we live in a town of 10,000 people. We're going to Dinosaur Park as well as going on a jewelry tour. I have to go to the mall (which they are excited about - not sure why they have NO money!) and then I will be going to a food co-op and Sam's Club.  It'll be a nice day to hang out together. We don't have to be home by any certain time so hopefully it'll be a relaxing day as well.

It doesn't take a lot of money to excite my kids, just a little bit of planning. I could have packed some strawberries and blueberries instead of going out for ice cream. Our frugal fun cost $4.00 plus we got 3 tokens for free ice cream cones (they were having an open house).

Check out Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom for more frugal tips! We are THAT Family has wonderful tips too!