Summer Parties on a Budget!

I love that I have been blessed with two wonderful children. But when we were "surprised" with Nick, and he was born in mid-July (in fact, the bank clock was the only thing I could see from my hospital room window, blinking 100 F all afternoon), I swore up and down that I would NEVER have another July baby. Fast forward two years. We were expecting a girl...due on Nick's birthday...July 16. UGH! Seriously?? Okay, so God has a sense of humor. Unfortunately, that left us with a little dilemma. Two birthdays, mid-summer, a week apart. Last year, Olivia was only 10 days old when we had Nick's party, and we scheduled a pool party. Perfect for late July, right? NOPE! It was 70 degrees and the water was freezing.

So, with all the mishaps and hooplah surrounding multiple summer birthdays, we devised a plan to not break our budget, make everyone happy, and not have to skimp on the food.

We decided on a joint birthday party for the family to attend. One advantage of summer parties? Almost every produce imaginable is in season and inexpensive, as well as super tasty.

Here's how the lineup looked:
Veggie and chicken kebabs (veggies from our garden-tomatoes, bell peppers, and zucchini; mushrooms and onions from the supermarket...using more veggies, allows for less meat and thus, a cheaper entree)
Fresh fruit and dip
Corn dip (made with fresh corn at just $.25/ear!)
Veggie/ranch bars
Pasta salad

For dessert, we opted to make cupcakes instead of ordering a sheet cake from a local bakery. At $15-20 a pop, it's just not worth it. I was able to make 48 cucakes for under $5. And, I let the kids help decorate, so they were just as excited about them. I did order some cupcake rings for Nick's bowling party from eBay for just a few dollars too. Still much cheaper than store-bought.

It was a really fun time, the kids enjoyed it, and everyone was well fed. So, I guess, although I would never WANT to have another summer baby, there are some advantages.

Pickles Pickles Pickles!!

Our garden has exploded, and thus left us with an overabundance of cucumbers. Dont' get me wrong, I enjoy the OCCASIONAL cucumber, but much rather prefer the pickled variety. Unfortunately, making pickles is a very delicate and time consuming process. Enter-my wonderful Grandma Rhew. I don't have a lot of memories of her, but these pickles are something I do remember. I remember her having them in her refrigerator in the summer-and also my mom making them every year. I haven't made them in years, but it's exciting. I can almost taste them now...but I must wait for 2 days!!

They are super easy, quick, and cheap to make. So I thought it only appropriate to share it on here. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. :)

Refrigerator Pickles
Slice 4-5 small/medium cucumbers thinly and fill a large, clean glass jar. Add one peeled garlic clove, whole.
In a separate bowl, mix the following:
2 cups cold water, 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp dill, and 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns. Pour liquid over sliced cucumbers. Seal jar and refrigerate for 2 days.

June Meals and the summer harvest!

So sorry it has been a few weeks since I blogged last. It has been BUSY BUSY BUSY as most summers are. I realize that I never posted the June meals list. This will be a two-part post because during the summer it just isn't practical for us to do a month of meals at a time. We do a significant amount of traveling and entertaining so it's a little unpredictable, and for us, can be more costly if we try to plan too far in advance. We're also getting the first items from our garden, which is also unpredictable, and will dictate much of what we cook later in the summer. It's so refreshing to walk out to the yard and pick what you need for a meal!

Alright, on to the list! As always, I'm happy to share recipes if you want them.

Italian marinated grilled chicken/baked sweet potatoes/salad
Dijon chicken/roasted garlic potatoes/green peas
Homemade sloppy joes/roasted potato fries
Broccoli chicken alfredo pasta/garlic toast/salad
Teriyaki flat iron steak/baked potatoes/salad/homemade yeast rolls
Honey Mustard pork chops/stove top stuffing/green beans
BBQ ribs/grilled corn/baked beans
Tomato soup and grilled cheese
Cincinnati chili/hot dogs/
Chicken parmesan/spaghetti/garlic toast/salad
Breakfast casserole/fresh fruit/yogurt
Lemon pepper grilled chicken/rice-a-roni/grilled veggies
Stuffed shells/3 cheese bread
Tacos/refried beans/homemade salsa and chips

*New Recipe* Sausage and Pepper Subs!

We are busy. Simply put. So I LOVE quick and simple recipes! Some of them seem so easy that I have a brief moment of "why didn't I think of that before?" This is sort of one of those moments. But, the result was delicious, inexpensive, and quick!

Sausage and Pepper Subs

1 lb smoked sausage, sliced
1 green or red bell pepper, sliced thinly
1/2 onion sliced thinly
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp steak/all purpose seasoning
*optional* 1/4 cup chicken stock or water

Put olive oil in a large nonstick skillet and turn on medium heat. When oil is hot, add sausage. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until sausage reaches desired doneness (we like ours on the crispy side). Once sausage is done, remove from pan, but leave any oil or rendered fat in the skillet. Add in pepper, onion and steak seasoning. Sautee the veggies until they reach desired doneness (about 4-5 minutes). When veggies are done, add sausage back in, and ketchup. Stir to combine. *Note: if you like this to be "saucier" then you can add 1/4 cup of chicken stock or water at this point). Once everything is combined, it is ready to serve! We like ours on split, buttered, toasted sub rolls and sprinkled with mozzerella cheese.

**For a quick side dish! Dice 4 Idaho potatoes (skin on, washed). Place on a cookie sheet that has been covered in aluminum foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray). Drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of canola or vegetable oil. Sprinkle on 1 tbsp favorite steak/mixed seasoning (Mrs. Dash works great, as does Italian bread dipping seasoning mixes). Mix up potatoes so that all are coated with oil and seasoning. Put in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. If you like them crispy, turn on the broiler for five minutes once the potatoes are cooked through. Enjoy!

"Trail-Mix Mom"

My loving husband has officially dubbed me with the title "Trail Mix Mom." He says I'm not hippie enough to be full "granola" but I have enough tendencies to warrant some kind of title. Haha! I guess that makes me a little fruity, a little nutty, and a little granola. Perfect.

I blogged a few days ago about my experiences reading the book "Organic Housekeeping" by Ellen Sandbeck. I haven't quite finished the book yet, but I'm getting close. I will say this. The author is much more extreme in her natural housekeeping than I will ever be, BUT, she has armed me with a lot of general knowledge. She challenges the question "Why do we clean the house?" My first thought was...to impress company. Not really, but then she goes on to explain that we clean as a means of keeping our families happy and healthy. Whether you do the minimum or maximum, that's the goal. So I've been trying to look at things from that perspective for the past week or so.

My first goal has been to make my time useful. With two kids, life is super busy. I ususally have a list of forty things to get done and I get so overwhelmed that none of it gets done. So, I am attempting to make the most of my time. If I have a five or ten minute chunk of time that isn't specifically designated for something, I use it. Empty the dishwasher. Sort the laundry. Fold the towels. Shred junk mail. Make a batch of baby food. Sweep the kitchen floor. I'm really finding that doing these little things (rather than assuming I need to block off a couple hours to clean) REALLY REALLY make a big difference in my week. I feel like I've accomplished something, I haven't wasted time with my kids on a cleaning marathon, and it gets checked off the list (I personally benefit from being able to cross something off a list as DONE!).

My next goal was to find a couple of ways to limit our household waste and use of harsh chemicals that I can't begin to pronounce. I've already blogged about the use of old t-shirts in place of paper towels. It's been a great resource for us (we haven't even used up a roll of paper towels yet.). In the book, she talks a lot about cleaning with everyday products: vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and the like. So, I thought I would give one of her ideas a try. Our coffee pot was in desperate need of cleaning (I usually buy those $7 cleaning solution packets!) so I used her method. Pour one cup of white vinegar in the coffee pot tank and fill the rest with water. Turn on the coffee pot, let one cup run, turn it off. Let it sit for half an hour, then turn it on and finish brewing. Then run two pots of plain water through afterwards.

But, she's a frugal person and nothing goes to waste. SO her suggestion was to pour one cup of baking soda in each side of the kitchen sink, and then pour the hot vinegar/water mix in over it. Cleans and disinfects the sink all in one process! It's amazing. I've never seen my sink so clean and shiny-not even with regular bleach. Another awesome addition to our cleaning routine!

Another simple, but perfect addition to the the house. Baskets for the bathroom sinks. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to do this previously, but just putting a basket on the sink to put toothbrushes, medicines, deoderant, and the like in makes wiping down the sink a MUCH easier task! Just remove the basket (instead of all the little individual items) and wipe. Crazy that it's new to me, but I'm very happy about it!

So far, so good. I feel much less daunted by the cleaning tasks. It's really been a struggle since having kids to balance everything, but I'm glad to be finding some sort of happy medium. Hopefully later this week, I'll get the June menu posted to the blog. I'll back-track and post May's too (since it never made it on here!)

A Recycling Challenge

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm attempting to be a little "greener" and I've been reading the book "Organic Housekeeping." After reading a particular chapter in the book, I made a challenge to myself and my family. A suggestion in the book recommends using clean cotton cloths instead of paper towels. Hmmm...She suggests using other "unusable" items (old t-shirts, socks, towels, burp rags, etc...). Cut them up, wash them in hot water, and voila! So, I cleaned through Walt's undershirts (I'm not sure how he can completely rip the underarm out of an undershirt in just a couple of months, but he does). I grabbed a few of the ripped up ones, cut them into rags, and instantly had a stash of about 50 clean cotton rags to use. I put them in a basket on the kitchen table and made it our challenge to use those for anything we could (wiping counters, high chair, runny noses, swiffer covers, etc...). I also used them to clean the bathroom yesterday. Each time I moved to a new surface, I got a new rag out (one for the counter, toilet, shower ,etc...). Amazing.

I counted up the dirty ones as I put them in the wash last night. 35. That's how many paper towels I would have wasted yesterday cleaning. I couldn't believe it! So we've made it our challenge to use them when we can (obviously, some jobs are better left to disposable towels). I'll let you know how it goes as we continue our challenge!

$1 Dinner!

So we had the cheapest meal of the month last night...*drumroll please*...BREAKFAST! Okay, so we occasionally like to shake things up so we decided to have scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, biscuits, and fruit. And the grand total per person was just under $1. ($.92 to be exact). Multiply that times 3 and you can't beat it!! That's when it occurred to me. Eggs are super cheap. We don't eat them that much, but I'm thinking we should...At just $.88 a dozen, that makes each egg about $.07 each. When you consider scrambling one, hard-boiling one, frying one, poaching one, deviling one, making an omelet out of one...the possibilites are endless and SO INEXPENSIVE! You certainly can't buy any other proteins that cheap...not even cheese! Eggs are a great way to use up leftovers too...you can throw any sort of veggies and meats you have leftover into scrambled eggs or omelets. It's a great source of protein, and there are lots of cooking options so you never get bored.

Here's how last night's meal breakdown looked:
Eggs ($.88/dozen) $.07 each x2 per person= $.14
Cheese ($.10/slice, added to eggs while cooking)=$.10
Grand's biscuit ($1.00/8 biscuits) $.22 per biscuit=$.22
Tyson Center cut bacon ($2.00/14 slices) $.13 per slice x2 per person= $.26
Store brand mandarin orange ($.80/one can/4 servings) $.20
GRAND TOTAL: $.92 per person!