How To

Nourishing Homemade Sugar Scrub

April 19, 2012 By Adrienne 95 Comments

Today I’ve got a great DIY beauty care recipe to share with you–Homemade Sugar Scrub!

If you’re anything like me, dry hands and feet (and dry skin in general) is a problem for you.

I never tried anything like a scrub until one evening at an antique car show where a woman was selling beauty products and offering free hand scrub demonstrations.

Hesitatingly, I tried the scrub, feeling skeptical (I’m pretty skeptical about a lot of things….see my post on Are Essential Oils a Scam? ~ A Skeptic Looks at Thieves Oil).

Well, I just loved how my hands felt and looked after rubbing that scrub all over my hands and rinsing it off. Smooth and revitalized and younger-looking.

However, I didn’t like the price or the ingredients.

The Easiest Way to Preserve Tomatoes

August 23, 2011 By Adrienne 89 Comments

Got a lot of tomatoes coming in from your garden and wondering how to preserve them?

We had that problem just this past weekend.

We got a LOAD of tomatoes from our CSA and well, a lot of them needed to be processed right away or we were going to lose them to the compost pile.

I will be writing a post in the near future on homemade sun dried tomatoes, but today I am going to share with you the absolute easiest way to preserve tomatoes that I didn’t even know you could do until a few years ago.

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Filed Under: Budget Help, How To, Recipes, Time Saving Tips

The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs

August 1, 2011 By Adrienne 70 Comments

It’s summer. That means gardens and CSAs.

And for us, right now, that means lots of fresh herbs. Basil. Parsley. Dill…

Are you wondering what to do with all of it?

Actually, for that reason, I almost never bought fresh herbs, mostly because I didn’t know what to do with the leftovers!

Two years ago when we got a whole bunch of parsley and basil, I just dried everything and it worked great. But this year, I thought that I sure would like to have some fresh-tasting herbs throughout the year, so I got down to figuring out how to preserve them without drying. And what I found was remarkably easy and worked out great!

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Filed Under: Budget Help, How To, Recipes, Time Saving Tips

The Easiest Way to Peel Garlic

July 26, 2011 By Adrienne 84 Comments

Garlic, garlic and more garlic...

I love the flavor of garlic and of course, everyone’s read about all of the great health benefits that garlic has.

What a great thing to be able to add something that tastes great and is great for you to your everyday meals!

But the peels – now that’s another thing.

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Filed Under: How To, Recipes, Time Saving Tips

How to De-Gas Beans

July 4, 2011 By Adrienne 73 Comments

Beans, beans, the magical fruit….

It’s a funny little ditty, but a not so funny reality.

Some people try to just eat fewer beans, and some avoid them completely, while others buy things like Bean-o and dump it on their food while eating.

Well, here is a better, and I must say, more effective solution to your bean-eating problems.

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Filed Under: Budget Help, How To, Recipes

How to Save Time and Money Cooking Pasta

June 20, 2011 By Adrienne 28 Comments

One of my favorite kitchen memories as a child was my mother’s spaghetti and meatballs.

My mother worked full-time following my parents’ unfortunate divorce, and so convenience foods and fast food were not entirely unknown around our dinner table.

However, there were some classic home-cooked meals that my mom turned out for us — one of them being her spaghetti.

She would let the sauce simmer all day and then would let us kids test it. We would get a slice of bread (sadly, it was white and store-bought) with a ladle-full of homemade sauce on it. Mmmm–mmmmm.

Now, I still love pasta, but one thing that I have never liked is the amount of time it takes to wait for that huge pot of water to boil.

So when I found this tip for cooking pasta I was thrilled.

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Filed Under: Budget Help, How To, Time Saving Tips

Homemade Taco Seasoning Recipe

May 2, 2011 By Adrienne 144 Comments

Ever have a craving for something but you don’t have the necessary ingredients on hand? Like homemade tacos?

Just the other day, I had a craving for taco salad, but hadn’t made taco meat in years! And on our budget (and with our food sensitivities and life-threatening food allergies), eating out is not a viable option.

It’s frustrating to find yourself excited to cook something only to find yourself missing what you need. Sometimes you can find an easy substitute, but other times, like in the case of taco seasoning, you just need to have exactly what the recipe calls for.

So I got to work in the kitchen and tried out a few recipes and came up with one that fits the bill.

Frugal Pantry Storage Tips – {Guest Post at Kitchen Stewardship}

April 8, 2011 By Adrienne 11 Comments

Do you find yourself wondering how you are going to feed your family healthy, real food while staying on a budget?

Well, gas prices are climbing and food prices are following and…guess what?! Things probably aren’t going to get much better anytime soon!

As the manager of your home, you have a big job ahead of you, but I have some tools that are sure to help.

I was honored to be asked by local West Michigan blogger, Katie of Kitchen Stewardship, to write a guest post on Bulk Food Storage. Today, on her site, I am sharing tips for saving money with your whole food pantry.

Click here to read the full post…

(Photo Credit)

Shared at This Chick Cooks.

Filed Under: Budget Help, How To

How and Why to Dehydrate – Part Two (Saving Time and Space with a Dehydrator)

April 7, 2011 By Adrienne 12 Comments

In yesterday’s post, I outlined how a dehydrator can save you money — LOTS of money.

And as if that weren’t enough to get you to add one of these to your list of “kitchen must haves,” as promised, I will continue by explaining how this great black box can: