Mid-Week Check In

School was called off for Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather. I was able to work Monday & Tuesday and will also work Thursday & Friday. 
Dinner on Tuesday was homemade veggie burgers using this recipe.  I served them with diced onions, red peppers & tomatoes, corn, beets, and steamed broccoli. 

I found some marked down pork sausage at Food City this week for $1.10. 

Found some ground chuck marked down to $2.40. It was in the shape of four patties, but I crumbled them up and made some cheesy hamburger potatoes using this recipe. 

I found this package of bananas marked down to $1.01.

We had banana pancakes on the menu after that and I made extras for breakfasts this week. 

Found these apples marked at 3 for $1.00, so I picked up nine. 

Found these delicious heirloom oranges for $2.99 and there were nine in the package, so about 35¢ each.  

Bailey & I went shopping over the weekend at Forever 21 where they had 65% off their clearance section and found her this dress for under $3.00. 

And finally, here is a photo of our camellia bush. The winter was very mild here, so it is already loaded with blooms. 

I wanted to congratulate Carol over at CT on a Budget for buying a house this week. She has accomplished so many things over the years and her detailed blog posts about how she saves money and meets her goals is an inspiration to many people. I wish her many happy years in her new home. 
I hope you all are having a great week!
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Sunday ~ 8-31-2014

Good Sunday morning everyone. It's a rainy day here in southern Tennessee. I woke up early and headed to the walk in clinic. The doctor says it is the ragweed/allergies causing me to be sick right now. She ran a strep test but it came back negative, but she prescribed antibiotics anyway. So, I'll be going to town later to pick those up today. 

The family who wanted our trampoline came Saturday evening to pick it up. They have 5 grandchildren who will use and love it just like my daughter did for so long when she was younger. It really made me feel good to know someone will enjoy it once again. :)

When it comes to our finances we need to get the most out of our money. We do this when we buy second hand items, go to yard sales, thrift stores, accept hand me downs, Freecycle/Craigslist, barter and swap. We don't go into debt to buy things to keep up with people (and with a teenager in high school, I can attest to the fact that they really feel the pressure to keep up). We simply do without those things that are beyond our financial reach. I would rather do without those things than have the added stress of paying for them later. 

I am fortunate to have learned/taught myself more skills over the last few years, so that we've been able to stretch our resources as far as possible even as we continue to hone our budgeting skills further.   We should never stop learning or trying how to do things better and more inexpensively. 

We make our own fabric softener, make do and mend clothing, grow some of our vegetables, preserve food, cook from scratch to sufficiently meet our needs. Whatever money I can save by making or doing it myself is money I can spend on necessities like food, insurance, car repairs, etc.  

We need to teach others these things as well and make sure no one is left behind. We especially need to teach these things to our children, so they don't make the same mistakes we made. My daughter experiences some of the same sticker shock that Amy D. wrote about her children experiencing. She helps me in so many ways with couponing, looking for bargains at yard sales, and she isn't even afraid to ask if the seller will take less for an item either.  I just love that about her. :)

Dinner tonight will be Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream and cheese if desired. I'll serve steamed Broccoli as a side dish or topping for anyone who wants that. 

This is one of our favorite meals here at the Frugal Workshop and one we serve regularly. It cost me less than $5.00 for this meal and fits well in our budget. 

What's for dinner at your house tonight? 

Belinda

Meatless Meals Series ~ Chef AJ's Red Lentil Chili

Image Credit

Dinner tonight was Chef AJ's Red Lentil Chili over baked Yukon Gold Potatoes. 

Chef AJ is one of my favorite plant based chefs and this recipe is definitely a keeper.

You can see her make this recipe on her You Tube Channel:

Chef AJ's Red Lentil Chili

Here is the recipe, my changes are in red.

Chef AJ's Red Lentil Chili

Makes 14 cups

Ingredients:

1 pound of red lentils (I used green since that is what I had on hand)
7 cups of water
2 (14.5 ounce) cans of salt-free tomatoes, fire roasted preferred
1 (6 ounce) can of salt-free tomato paste
10 ounces of chopped onion (approximately one large)
One pound of red bell pepper, (approximately 2 large) VERY finely chopped
3 ounces of dates (approximately 12 Deglet Noor) (I had/used 5 dates)
8 cloves of garlic, finely minced
4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (omitted since I was out)
1.5 Tablespoons Parsley Flakes (omitted)
1.5 Tablespoons Oregano
1.5 Tablespoons Salt-free Chili Powder
2 teaspoons SMOKED paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder (or more to taste) (omitted)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or more to taste) (omitted)

Directions:

Blend the dates, tomatoes, red bell peppers and garlic in a blender and blend until smooth.
(I didn't blend anything, I just put them all in the pressure cooker as is)
Place all remaining ingredients in an electric pressure cooker and cook on high for 10 minutes.
Alternatively, place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

Meatless Meals Series ~ Veggie Burgers

Last year I made the decision, for mostly health reasons, to begin to eat a mostly plant based diet. During the school year this spring it was hard to stay on track with that decision, but I am back on track now that school is out for the summer. 

During the Great Depression many families only had meat if they hunted for it or caught them with simple box traps. Otherwise they simply did without. Only since WWII have people started thinking they needed meat with every meal. 

With the price of meat nowadays though, it can be hard for some families to afford meat at every meal. I know in my own home meat is not served as often as it was the past.  

I've been experimenting with a new vegetable burger recipe this month that was shared on the Whole Foods website. 

Here is recipe with some tweaks made by me: 

Veggie  Burgers

Ingredients:

1/4 cup carrot, shredded
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup cooked sweet potato
1 cup black beans, drained
1/4 cup tomato, chopped
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Directions:

Water sauté the first four ingredients for 5 minutes and then combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. 

 The first time I made these the recipe said it makes four burgers, which was too big for my taste. So, the next time I made them I used a 1/4 cup measuring spoon to make uniform patties. 

With this smaller patty, I was able to make 11 patties out of the recipe. 

I then placed the patties on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked at 400 degrees for a total of 45 minutes, flipping half way through the cooking time. 

These are good right out of the oven and even cold from the refrigerator. You can eat them with or without buns. 

They freeze well and are definitely cheaper than buying store bought veggie burgers. 

You could even experiment and add or omit any ingredients. I think black olives would make a great addition to this recipe. 

Have you made your own veggie burgers? I would love to hear about your experiments in the comment section. 

Belinda

Plant Based Diet

Recently I have switched our diet to mostly a plant based diet this year. I have spent the last six months or so researching this topic. 

Reasons for switching to a plant based diet include, disappointment over the rising cost of meat, wanting to lose weight and get better control over my blood sugar. As a result, I have lost weight and my blood pressure, cholesterol and A1C numbers are all down and my doctor is thrilled with my progress as am I.

What does our diet mostly consist of now? We eat a lot of vegetables and beans nowadays. I try to include vegetables for every meal including breakfast. 

In July I participated in an Unprocessed Challenge where we ate no processed food for 30 days. For breakfast I would eat steamed Kale to make sure I got my vegetable servings in for the day.

It has been an adventure to say the least and my family isn't always thrilled with the choices I've made. Like with anything else there is a period of trial and error. 

One of the things I've done is to remove as much oil as possible from our diet and I did it for health reasons, but this step has also saved money. One tablespoon of oil has 120 calories and I do not want the calories from the oil in my diet on a regular basis. I still have oil on hand for some things such as frying tortillas for the Tacos I made for a birthday celebration last week, but the majority of time I now cook without oil.  

You do not need oil to sauté food. You can water sauté your food and it is much healthier for you. Go ahead and Google "water sautéing"  and read about the topic. You will not only save money, but you are doing something healthy for yourself as well. Now I will be the first to admit that at least one person in my family complained about the lack of oil, used for seasoning, in dried beans when I made them without oil. But the savings and healthy benefits have been worth it to me. 

Another thing I've done is to eliminate meat from our diet as much as possible. Articles I've read over the last year state that people can expect to pay more for meat this year. According to an article on NPR.org, multiple droughts in beef producing states have driven the cost of beef to historic highs. I had stopped buying beef roasts even before this year, except for a special occasion or holiday dinner, because the cost had skyrocketed to a price that I felt was out of my budget. 

We hadn't bought steaks or pork chops for several years prior to that because I felt the cost of these items were out of my price range. We don't have to pay more for meat if we don't want to or are unable to afford meat, but we have other options too. We can simply decide to do without meat and find other, more affordable, options to feed our families, which is what I've done.

I did buy ground beef last week, as a special request from a family member, who asked for Tacos for a birthday celebration. It was the first time I have bought meat to prepare at home since April 1, 2013.  So, we do still eat meat on occasion, but we have greatly reduced our consumption of it and have saved money as a result. 

In the weeks to come I will be sharing some of the things I've done this year and the changes I've made in our efforts to save money. 

Until then, 

Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”