Tips

I thought I would share some of my tips on shopping / eating healthier / making foods from scratch / using the internet / budgeting... and things like that.

At random...

• The most important thing I do before I head to the grocery store is to check my cabinets.  See what you have and what you do not have (even down to the spices) for a recipe.  Write a list of the things you need.  Only buy those things.
• Make a menu for the week (or month).  Write down all the things you need to make your favorite recipes and keep them on a main shopping list.  Before you head to the grocery store, check your cabinets and cross off things you already have.
• Make foods that don't require weird ingredients you will only use for that one recipe.
• Write a list of your family's favorites.  Make sure those things are on the menu.
• Make food that only use five to six ingredients.  This will radically cut the cost of meals.
• FREEZE FREEZE FREEZE leftovers!!!  Michael and I love meatloaf (our girls do not).  We cannot eat a whole meatloaf at one meal.  We sometimes like to have leftovers the next day.  If we do not eat it the next day, I wrap it up and stick it in the freezer.  The next time 'meatloaf' is on the menu, I do not have to buy or cook anything.  I just thaw the already prepared meatloaf and heat it up in a cast iron skillet in the oven.
• Buy real food.  By this, I mean, fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, cheese.  Stay away from pre-packaged food as much as possible.
• I search the internet to find made from scratch recipes for my favorite things.  I have already replaced my 'Hidden Valley Ranch' packets (used for making dip and salad dressing).  I can make it myself.  I have found a recipe to make my favorite french vanilla creamer for my coffee.  I am planning to try that soon.
• In the recipe I found to make the french vanilla creamer.  The recipe only calls for three ingredients.  Read the label on your coffee creamer.  Are there more than three ingredients?  Okay, Okay, I'm cheating a little.  The recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk.  I'm going to make that too.  But with honey instead of sugar.  All together, I will use, honey, water, powdered milk, milk and vanilla extract.
• Buy frozen foods instead of canned.  Canned food is usually LOADED with salt.  Frozen foods are usually fresh frozen.  That means it is freshly picked and flash frozen quickly to maintain as much nutrients as possible.
• Keep extra staple ingredients on hand.  You may run out of biscuits and NEED some more.
• Start serving meat in half the portion you normally eat.  I know in my own family, meat is served at almost every single meal of the day.  Meat is expensive.
• Eat your fruit first.  Fruit digests quickly.  Eat it on an empty stomach.  Eat if before your meal not after.
• Serve a side salad at home.  This will help to fill you up some before cutting into that steak.  Why is it when you go to a restaurant, you almost always get a tiny side salad before your meal is served?  The raw vegetables are easily digested on an empty stomach. 
• Have a fruit smoothie for breakfast (with some added spinach or kale) instead of your Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit.
• Add some oats to your diet.  Cheap and easy to prepare.
• Add some dry beans to your diet.  Oh, you like canned better because they are quicker?  Why not make a HUGE pot full and ladle them into containers and freeze them.  You can thaw them in a pot on the stove in about 20 minutes.  (About the same amount of time it will take you to prepare the other food that is being served with the beans.)

Hope this helps a little. 

If you have any questions or tips to share with all of us, please leave it in the comments section or feel free to email me.

Guatemala Frijoles Volteados

Before heading to Guatemala to help work on the Word Of Life camp there, someone informed me they would be serving something that looked like a ‘big black goo ball’. He said, “Eat it.”

When I saw it being served up, I already knew I was going to at least try it.

It was Y.U.M.M.Y.!!!

The ‘goo ball’ was refried black beans. Anything that has ‘fried’ in the title of the food sounds good to me!

On our first trip, I asked how they made them. They spoke back to me in Spanish and all I could understand was black beans, onions and garlic.

On our second trip, Marcela Martinez showed me how they fry them.

Still no measurements. I am a measurement kind of girl. I MUST have measurements!!

You know I tried this out first. Within about 4 days, the whole crock pot was eaten by my husband and I. (Well, just a tiny bit was eaten by my snow party buddies… you know who you are.)  They must have been good.

In my humble opinion, these are WAY better than canned and are comparable to the ones I had in Guatemala. I can’t remember exactly the way they tasted.... it has been two years since I had them.

Measurements of ingredients:

2 cups of dry black beans

5 cups of water

½ cup of chopped onion

2 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon

(this is not a cube - it is a smooth paste - I found it at the Whole Food store - the name brand I bought was "Better Than Bouillon".)

1 teaspoon of salt

1 bay leaf

Put all the ingredients in your crock pot.  Cook on low for at least 8 hours – or until the beans are soft).

Or you could cook it while you sleep... night night crockpot.

When they are finished cooking, remove the bay leaf.

Pour everything else into your blender and liquify.

True refried beans are made with LOTS of lard. I am planning to make my own lard soon. I have everything except the cheesecloth. I’ll save that for another post.

You can use Crisco or better yet, if you have some bacon – fry it and save the fat. You can use this to refry your beans in. Also, I do not use a LOT. Most recipes recommend ½ cup of lard for 2 cups of cooked beans – gross… that is TOO much lard. I used about 1 tablespoon and it was enough.

The beans will be VERY runny when you first pour them into your skillet. 

I fried them on medium heat and stirred them around until most of the water cooked out of them and they thicken up to about the consistency of ketchup. 

These beans are kinda like gravy - once they begin to cool down, the really start to thicken up.

They are done and ready to eat.

You may serve them with scrambled eggs for breakfast. 

Or, you can eat them whatever way you like them.

Or - if you want a really yummy treat, sprinkle some sugar on top.

HEY… don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

These beans freeze perfectly.  I pour about 1/3 into my skillet to fry right then for breakfast - they smell TOO yummy to wait.  Then I freeze two more containers for future breakfasts.

ENJOY!

Just say 'YES'.

Say yes when they want to play in the mud.

Say yes when they want to wear clothes that do not match.

Say yes when they want to get out all their play-doh on my freshly mopped kitchen floor.

Say yes when they want to make their own smoothies.

Say yes when they want to have pancakes again for breakfast.

Say yes when they want to flip them all by themselves.

Say yes when they want to play in the bathtub in the middle of the day with ALL their toys in there with them.

Say yes when they want to make me a ‘surprise’ lunch.

Say yes if they want to keep a pet grasshopper in their room.

Just say 'YES'.