Tomato and Basil Pasta

This is a yummy recipe that I’ve adapted from something my mom used to make. It’s a quick, hearty meal that’s great for a busy weeknight!  I always keep the ingredients on hand for a quick go-to meal.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 lb box pasta (penne or rigatoni work best)
• 1 t olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground beef
• 6 fresh basil leaves or 1 T dried basil
• 1 t salt
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

Boil water for noodles. In a large skillet or dutch oven, heat olive oil.  Add the chopped onion and garlic; saute until transluscent. Add ground beef and cook until done. Add basil, tomatoes, and salt. Cover and simmer, about twenty minutes. Add cooked noodles and combine. Yummy!

This post is being linked to Tasty Tuesday! and the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap!

How the library helps me simplify

I love the library. Head over heels love the library!  The library and I experienced a separation of sorts between my teen years and about two years ago. I am glad to have rediscovered it!

As I continue on this journey to simplify life, accumulate fewer posessions and give away even more of what I already have, the library has been a blessing over and over again. Below are the reasons I love the library, and why you might want to check one out (hehe. that pun was NOT intended. I only caught it when proofreading).

• As mentioned above, I accumulate less when using the library. When I finish a book, I give it back! I don’t have to find a place for it to collect dust on my shelves!  I love to read but I never read anything twice. Just sayin’.
• I am a cookbook addict. In my old life, I wasted a lot of money on cookbooks that turned out not to be worth the paper they were printed on. Now, I check them out from the library and see if I really want to purchase it, can get away with renting it every now and again, or breath a sigh of relief that I didn’t waste any money on it!
• The library is cheap entertainment. Both for my husband and me and our daughter. Our library is within walking distance of our home and we love taking Saturday afternoon walks there. Best of all, it’s free!
• Not only is simply going to the library a fun family activity, they also host many events that are free to attend as a family. Our local library has puzzle swaps once a month, PJ Movie night, book discussions, and many other fun things to do as a family!
• I save on magazine subscriptions now. Instead of purchasing a subscription, I check out the older issues from the library. Magazines used to be a nemesis of mine. I have piles and piles that I need to sort through. 
• I never pay to rent a movie or buy any new ones. We request all our movies through the library-even new releases. And, we get to keep them for a whole week. Even better?  If we forget and take it back a day late, the fine is only twenty cents!  Even Redbox doesn’t compare! 
• I mentioned in this post about the cake pans available for rent at our library. They also have a HUGE assortment of puppets, puzzles, and various learning activities to rent or play with on site. They have live animals to interact with, huge stuffed animals to cuddle up with, and a wooden train set to climb. Really, I do hope your local library is just as awesome. 

On the fly pork chops

I made these pork chops on the fly the other evening when I realized I forgot a major ingredient for the recipe I had planned to make. I already had the pork chops defrosted but it was too cold to grill them, so I had to come up with a way to bake them.  This was not only a really easy fix in a pinch, it was also a very frugal meal. This is what I did:

1)     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2)     Grease pie plate. (Yes, I used a pie plate. I didn’t feel like getting out the step stool to reach my 9×13!  The whole evening was full of improvisations).  When I make these again, I will probably use about 1 T of olive oil in place of the shortening. The taste was great, I’d just like to make it a little more healthy.

3)     Beat an egg in a small bowl. Dip both sides of the pork chop in the bowl and place in baking dish.

4)     Sprinkle one packet of dry onion soup mix all over the pork chops. 

5)     Bake for 20 minutes and remove from oven. Flip pork chops and drag them through the extra soup mix.  Return to oven. Bake an extra 10-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pork chops.

While they were baking, I steamed some veggies and prepared some rice. Yummy!

To make this recipe even more frugal, you can use the recipe I found here  for dry onion soup mix.

I have two excuses for not taking a picture of this meal to post. 1) It was an accident that I made these.  2) I’m new to the blogging scene and am therefore not accustomed to taking pictures of my food!  I’ll try to do better next time. )

Food Waste

For a year or so now, I’ve been working very hard to reduce the amount of food I throw away. I grocery shop once every two weeks and clean out my fridge when I come home from the store and put my groceries away.  I used to waste a ridiculous amount of food (and therefore money!) by not using what I had. The worst area of waste was produce.

I have been reading the Frugal Girl’s blog for some time now and just love it!  Every Friday she posts her food waste for the world to see. I’ve decided to join her this week (though I’m late since I shop on Saturdays!)  Below is my food waste:

I’m really not sure what happened to the orange or the broccoli!  I went to cook the broccoli for dinner one evening and it was yellow. I almost put my finger through the orange when I grabbed it for lunch one day.  The dips are two that have been hiding in the fridge since fall, so I decided they were long overdue to be pitched.  Sigh.

Here is my estimated cost of the food I wasted:

Orange: 20 cents

Broccoli: 75 cents

Caramel dip: 25 cents (we came very close to finishing it!)

Veggie Dip: 75 cents

Total food waste cost this week: $1.95

Birthday Parties on Less

We recently celebrated my daughter’s second birthday party. She is our first child, making it a great temptation to go “all-out” for her birthday party.  However, in true frugal form, we resisted the temptation and found ways to make the birthday party simple AND affordable.
My daughter loves Barney and I wanted to have a Barney-themed party for her. However, the cost of the supplies on the party-supplies sites was not something I could justify ($8 for 10 plates? Plus shipping? Really?!)  I was able to find bright green and purple plates, cups, tablecloths, and napkins at Wal-Mart for a fraction of the cost.  These colors left no doubt what the theme of the party was!

Another tempting place to spend a lot of money is the cake. My daughter has several food allergies, so a store-bought cake is out of the question for her, which automatically saved some money. However, I could have bought a Barney-shaped cake pan that I would have likely only used once for $20.  Frugal? Notsomuch. Another item to store that I don’t really need? No thanks. I found other great alternatives, though. Our local library has a huge collection of cake pans for rent. Every character, shape and letter possible. What a great, frugal way to pull off the fancy cake!  Because my daughter can’t eat wheat, though, I was concerned about how the cake would come out of the pan. Instead, I opted to print an image of Barney and trace it in frosting on the cake myself. It wasn’t perfect (I don’t by any means have cake-decorating abilities!) but my daughter was thrilled with it and it only cost a few drops of food coloring to make.

Another tip for birthdays is to keep the menu simple and the guest list small. I didn’t want to spend my daughter’s birthday away from her, slaving away in the kitchen. My goal was to celebrate her and her entry into my life and savor every minute with her!  Keeping my focus on this idea helped me not to go overboard with appetizers, desserts, and fancy decorations. Limiting the guest list also helps keep food costs down, as well as ensure that you have time with your birthday girl (or boy) and don’t have to share too much!

A few simple and frugal party theme ideas:

1)      Crayons- If your child is a little artist, this is very simple theme. Get a paper tablecloth and allow the children to color it. A box of crayons make the perfect party favor-if you plan ahead, you can pick them up at back-to-school sales for about 10-25 cents each!  Decorations can be basic primary colors, and for an extra touch, you can cut out crayon shapes from construction paper (super easy!)

2)      Summer birthdays-If your child has a summer birthday, take advantage of the outdoors! Doing so can lead to a very low-maintenance party. Water balloons are a great, frugal activity that kids love. The sprinkler is also a fun idea that doesn’t require any cleanup!

3)      Cookie Decorating- This requires a little courage because of the mess it can make, but kids love to help in the kitchen!  Bake sugar cookies in basic shapes ahead of time and provide different colored frosting, sprinkles and candies to decorate with.

4)      World’s Largest Popcorn Bowl-This works great for a smaller party where the kids might enjoy watching a movie together.  Have a kiddie-pool?  Fill it up with popcorn and place it in the middle of the room for the kids to dig in!  Air-popped popcorn is definitely the cheap way to go.

5)      Beauty Parlor-For little girls, this is a hit!  We all have nail polish we’re not crazy about. Why not use it to paint nails? A tube of lip gloss makes a simple fuss-free party favor. Add some baskets of dress-up clothes for easy entertainment!

Setting Some Goals

Looking at my basement and all its contents caused me to take a greater look around our home. What did I see? Abundance of stuff. Stuff we don’t use, stuff we don’t remember we own, stuff that can be donated or thrown away. This reality motivated my desire to change our home into a simpler environment. Besides, we are frugal people. Part of being frugal means not buying any more unnecessary stuff!

I realized, though, in order to get anywhere, I would have to create a list of immediate goals. I am easily distracted and didn’t want to lose sight of my early excitement and motivation!  Here is the list I developed. I’ll be adding/changing/crossing off as I go!

1. Fill two trash bags to donate to Goodwill (again, starting small…)
2. Fill two trash bags of items to sell in a Spring garage sale
3. Find 5 items to sell on eBay or Craigslist
4. Fine 5 items to list on Freecycle
5. List 3 of my beloved cookbooks on Half.com
6. List 5 books on Paperbackswap.com
7. List 5 DVDs on Swapadvd.com
8. Sort/throw away/donate magazines
9. Sort/display Meredith’s artwork
10. Sort/divide Meredith’s clothing
11. Make a clear walking path in the basement!
12. Use up all personal hygiene items before buying more (Seriously? We own.a.ton.)
13. Give one used/rehabbed gift in 2010
14. Give one handmade gift in 2010 (Own. So.many.craft supplies!)
15. Throw away one full bag of trash (Again, starting small!)

Managing Baby Clothes

Another item I placed on my mission list is sorting baby clothes. We are blessed to have been the recipients of many, many hand-me-downs for our daughter. Clothes and toys continue to come in as she grows. Meredith also has many aunts and uncles and is the first granddaughter in 13 years on one side and the first grandchild at all on the other side. Needless to say, she is often spoiled with new outfits.

As Meredith has changed sizes, I’ve tried to carefully box away the former size and put it in the basement. I never put much thought into the clothes I was packing away, though. When my basement horror took place, I saw the boxes and boxes of baby clothes peeking from behind the junk. I decided I need to sort through them now, both to make room and bless others.  There is no reason for me to have two full containers of every size!  After all, my goal is to simplify our home!

I sorted the clothes into four piles:

1) Clothes I couldn’t bear to part with (yes, you will learn I am very sentimental!)

2) Clothes I could let other people use and wouldn’t be brokenhearted if they weren’t to be returned

3) Clothes that needed thrown away (stained, too well-worn, etc)

4) Things I probably won’t use again (because of taste, style, etc) to be added to the garage sale pile.

I sorted two bins of clothes and was able to give one bag of clothes away, threw away about fifteen items, and set aside about fifteen items for a garage sale!

Another step in the right direction…more bulk removed!