Frugal Upstate

The Great Oatmeal Experiment-Results!

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:06:18 +0000

So, a while back I posted my Overnight Crockpot Oatmeal recipe. To my embarrassment a bunch of readers had absolutely horrible results.

Oops.

So I decided to figure out what was going on. I enlisted the help of some erstwhile volunteers-Daniel, Candi and Allison*. We all started out with the original recipe:

1 cup steel cut or regular oats (NOT Quick Oats!)
4 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBS butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all in crockpot and cook on low for 8hrs. Serve with milk & cinnamon sugar.

There is a big difference between steel cut oats:

Steel Cut Oats

And regular (old fashioned, not quick) oats:

Regular Oats, sometimes called "Old Fashioned" Oats

Version 1: As written with steel cut oats

Here is V1 in the Crockpot

V1-Looks good to me!

The results on this were unanimous. When cooked with Steel Cut Oats this produced great oatmeal. Well, Allison & I thought it was great, Daniel (who’s blog isn’t named “fussy” for nuthin) said it was acceptable. Candi did not have steel cut oats, so she skipped this one.

Version 2: As written with regular oats

V2-Pretty Runny

V2-Blech.

Yeah, we all got goop on this one.

Version 3: Decreased water to 3C instead of 4C, used steel cut oats.

Daniel did this variation. He felt it was slightly more watery than his usual method of making steel cut oats, but acceptable.

Version 4: Decreased the water to 3C instead of 4, used regular oats.

Candi tried this and still felt that hers was soup. I did the same and felt it was too runny, but still edible-and it firmed up in the fridge overnight so when I reheated it in the microwave it was an acceptable, if not great, texture. I buy

my regular oats at the bulk food store-I wonder if there is a quality difference between the regular oats that you buy in a canister at the store and the bulk food ones. If the bulk food ones are even less processed, they may have retained more fiber, thereby providing more ability to absorb water. But that is just a guess-no data to back that up folks!

Version 5: Increased regular oats to 2C, left everything else as written.

V5-Reduced water & used regular oats.

V5 Looks like Oatmeal to me.

Allison and I both tried this variation. This produced a nice pot of moist and flavorful oatmeal.

Conclusions:

If you are using regular oats, the 2C of oats to 4C water & 1/2C milk seems to be the best proportions. Both Allison and I felt that it was a great quick breakfast, especially useful for schoolday mornings or feeding a house full of guests. I will go back to the original recipe and edit it to include that information.

If you are using steel cut oats, the recipe as written works well if you prefer a moist oatmeal. If you prefer a bit dryer oatmeal then you should use Daniel’s recommendation and reduce the water by a cup.

Candi was happy to have helped out, but probably won’t make the recipe again: “I will not try again and here is why: If I increase the oats it will make WAY to much to feed two people (even keeping it in the fridge). If I decrease the water any more, it will scorch due to a lack of liquid in the crock pot total and I used my smallest crock pot. I do not see a way to fix this recipe and make it work in my home.”

Thanks to Candi, Daniel & Allison for being willing to eat WAY too much oatmeal in order to help me with this project. You can see the full details of Allison’s experiment on her post “Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal” at Alli ‘n Son, and Daniel’s experiment, as well as a tasty variation where you toast the oats, on his post “Soothing Irish Oats” at Fussy Little Blog.

Want some more great ways to prepare oatmeal? How about these!

Baked Oatmeal
Oatmeal Fruit Bars
Banana Oatmeal Drop Cookies
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets

Note: A few more volunteered as well-lets hope they post their results in comments

Tropicana Juicy Rewards Program!

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:49:02 +0000

One of the cool things about being a blogger is all the programs I find out about that I must have missed otherwise. The Tropicana Juicy Rewards Program is like that-if I hadn’t been approached by Tropicana to be one of their “Juicy Insiders” I might have missed it!

So what is the Juicy Rewards Program, and what is this whole “Juicy Insider” thing about?

Well, if you buy Tropicana orange juice you may have noticed details about the new Tropicana Juicy Rewards Program on the containers recently. Tropicana wanted to help families out in these uncertain economic times, so they created a program offering easy and significant savings on things families already do and buy. One carton of juice is worth up to $15 in savings.

Now you know me, I’m not brand loyal about many things, and to be honest I rarely buy orange juice. But I know orange juice is one of those things that some people are very very particular about. If you are already a Tropicana customer, then you really shouldn’t miss out on this program. If you aren’t, then keep your eyes out for coupons and sales! Even without purchasing a single container of juice you can use the special code at the bottom of this post for 1 free point. That is worth about $5

So as a Juicy Insider I get to be sort of a beta tester and ambassador for the program. Tropicana and The Motherhood provided me with some points and a Visa giftcard to use for the outings. My first task was to register for my juicy rewards, search the offers and then take the family out using 3pts or so.

Registering was easy-just some basic data entered in at the Juicy Rewards website and I was good to go. Once I was in the system I could search the database by zipcode, distance and then further narrow it down by other critera such as type of activity or point range. I chose to check out everything within 50 miles that was in the 1-3 point range.

Most of the activities offers were of the “buy one admission get one free” variety. I was looking for a fun Sunday afternoon family outing that I didn’t have to drive to far for, and settled on one of the two local roller skating rinks that were listed. After visiting the website of “The Skate Estate” in Vestal, NY I chose it over the other option~mostly because I was curious to see their waterslide & mini golf facilities for possible future outings (those are currently closed for the winter).

I printed out two coupons for “1 free admission with an admission at regular price” using a total of 2 Juicy Rewards points. Once you print the first coupon it has you give a second name of an adult over 18 for the second coupon. Of course I used Yankee Bill’s name:)

My Visa giftcard & coupons for the "Skate Estate"

Then we headed into town! We didn’t tell the kids what we were doing, just that we were going to do something fun as a family. You should have heard the wheedling from the back of the car. . . “Come on Mama, tell us!”. The guess varied from Chuck-e-Cheese’s to bowling. When we turned onto the road that the rink was on Princess saw a sign and finally correctly guessed where we were going.

Yeah-it looks pretty 80's

Heading in. Is Princess a goofball or what?

Once we got inside I presented my tickets to the teen at the register. They looked completely confused and told me that they didn’t know what to do with a coupon, but wait, they’d get the manager. The manager looked over the coupons carefully “I didn’t know we were doing this.” he said with a bit of confusion, but then rushed to assure me that they would take them.

He also said that technically they were only supposed to redeem one, but that he’d redeem both. If he had been a stickler about it I would simply have redeemed one for myself & Buddy, then had Yankee Bill as a completely separate transaction with a different credit card (or cash) redeem the other for himself & Princess.

This rink charges $5 per admission during family skate hours, and $3 per person for skates (which were not included in the coupon) So we spent $22 and saved $10 on our outing. If any of us had owned our own skates or rollerblades we could have brought those and saved a bit more. Also if we had timed our outing to fall on one of their special deal times we could have gotten a free fountain drink & popcorn with our admissions.

Skating was, well, interesting. I haven’t been on skates in close to 20 years, and I think it’s probably been almost 30 years for Yankee Bill. Luckily it’s like riding a bike-you pick it back up in a flash.

What I wasn’t prepared for was how difficult the kids would find it. I don’t remember learning how to rollerskate-so it must not have been a traumatic experience. I knew the kiddos would have a bit of a hard time, but I thought after a few minutes they would pick it up.

uh. no.

See the cool plastic "walker" thing?

The skating rink did have these cool plastic things you could hold onto for balance & skate around with, and we all rented the old fashioned style skates (which feel more stable tome) as opposed to the blades. Still-there was much falling over, crying and frustration. Buddy had it after about 20 minutes, even with me pushing him around so all he had to do was hold onto the plastic thing. That really started working my back after a while, let me tell you!

Princess really had a meltdown after falling and hitting her head. She was convinced that “everyone” was looking at her. (trust me, noone cared). So I took her hand and we skated some more-I was giving her tips like “keep your feet no wider than your shoulders” “this isn’t like walking-your feet go ahead of you when you walk, they push behind you and to the side to skate” “remember how hard balancing to ride your bike was at first? But then once your body finally figured it out you didn’t have to think about it any more. Skating is like that-it will get easier” . As we worked our way around, and I physically hauled her up a couple times to keep her from falling, her confidence grew.

She kept falling, but she kept on getting back up!

Near the end she was doing pretty well, although Buddy was done for & Yankee Bill had already taken his skates off & was sitting waiting. I finally had the chance to whip around the rink a couple of times on my own at speed. It was pretty fun! When I told Princess it was time to leave she was disappointed~she wanted to stay!

Buddy has had it! He laid face down while Yankee Bill pulled off his skates.

Despite the unexpected difficulties with skating, we had a good time! Because of the points we got out for a family activity that we might not have tried otherwise, and now the kids are asking for roller skates to use in the driveway. Wait, does that mean this actually wound up costing me? I’ll have to keep my eyes open at the thrift stores for skates

To use your own Juicy Rewards just keep your eyes out for the info on the Tropicana containers! You can also use the code MOTHE-RHOOD within 6 hours of registering for Juicy Rewards (even if you don’t have any other points to register yet) and you’ll get one extra bonus point worth $5 in savings immediately! This code is valid for new accounts only. You can only use it once, and it must be entered within 6 hours of creating your account.

For more information about Tropicana you can:

Become a FAN of Tropicana on Facebook
Follow Tropicana on Twitter
Follow the hashtag #TropicanaOJ on Twitter for all the latest happenings with Juicy Rewards.
Check out the Tropicana Website and of course sign up to start tracking your Juicy Rewards.

If you’ve had any experience using the Tropicana Juicy Rewards program I’d love to hear about it!

Disclosure: I am a Juicy Insider with The Motherhood on behalf of Tropicana. I was given free Juicy Rewards points and a giftcard to cover my reward redemption costs while participating in the program. While I have been compensated for my time and efforts in this project, my opinions are 100% my own.

Kiwi Winter Shoe Protection Kit Winner

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:16:03 +0000

Congratulations to Julie for winning the Kiwi Shoe Protection Kit!

For those of you who didn’t win, don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway for a copy of $3 Low Calorie Meals~a cookbook by Ellen Brown!

Review & Giveaway: $3 Low Calorie Meals Cookbook by Ellen Brown

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:33:38 +0000

One of the biggest ways that I save money for my family-other than just NOT giving in to impulses and buying a lot of “stuff” is by cooking. It’s a natural fit for me. I really enjoy both cooking and eating, and good food doesn’t have to be costly. I also like the fact that with home cooked food I know exactly what is going into my food-no hidden fats, sugars or preservatives!

On the other hand loving food has it’s downside, which is I tend to forget to *stop* eating As my activity level has decreased my food intake has not, and I’ve gained a few pounds. I try to be more active-but there always seem to be a million excuses. That’s why one of my new years resolutions was to exercise more and be more healthy!

This week’s giveaway can help with all that! I am giving away a copy of $3 Low Calorie Meals cookbook! This book is 256 pages long, is divided into 9 Chapters and 2 appendix and costs $14.95.

Just like the original $3 Meals cookbook that I reviewed/gave away a few months ago, this book is simply written with clear directions. Many of the recipes contain notes with possible variations and information on whether the dish can be prepared ahead. The author uses call out boxes at the end of recipes to give the reader additional information such as pronunciations, interesting history, and offering relevant tips and techniques for the recipes.

The chapters inside were:

Chapter 1: Saving Money at the Supermarket

Chapter 2: Taking the Low (calorie) Road to Health

Chapter 3: Super Sauces, Divine Dressings & Stocks for all Occasions

Chapter 4: “Little Dishes” for Less than $1

Chapter 5: “One If By Land” . . . Part I Chicken and Turkey Entrees

Chapter 6: “One If By Land”. . . .Part II Pork and Beef Entrees

Chapter 7: “Two If By Sea”. . . . Fish Entrees

Chapter 8: Vibrant and Vegetarian Entrees

Chapter 9: (Almost) Guilt-Free Goodies

Globe Pequot Press was kind enough to not only provide me with a copy of the book to review, but also with a copy to give away! One readers will win a great frugal cookbook this week.

This giveaway will run from Tuesday, March 16 to Monday March 22nd.

To Enter:

Leave a comment telling me what your family’s favorite inexpensive meal is.

Want extra entries? Here you go! EACH MUST BE A SEPARATE COMMENT!

1. Subscribe to Frugal Upstate (or tell me you already have)

2. Tweet about the giveaway.

3. Post on Facebook about the giveaway.

Good Luck!

Menu Plan 3/15

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:43:46 +0000

Things seem to be settling down a bit schedule wise so it’s time to shake up my menu a bit and go a bit international.

Monday: Shrimp Stirfry with Rice

I’ve had a package of shrimp sitting in the deep freeze for quite a while. ..I’ll quickly marinate them in soy and then mix them in with a package of frozen stir fry style veggies. This is my “fish” meal for the week.

Tuesday: Pastisio, Stewed Eggplant and Green Beans

This Greek “lasagna” isn’t difficult, but it does take a little bit to put together. I love the taste of the cinammon in the meat sauce. Since we are going Greek I thought I’d go with it and do an eggplant side dish. I don’t have a recipe in mind, I’m going to get creative.

Wednesday: Corned Beef, Potatoes & Carrots

It’s Saint Patricks Day. What can I say.

Thursday: Lentil Casserole, Homemade Bread and Salad

OK, I have to admit-this recipe was on last weeks recipe, but the day I was supposed to make it I realized that I was out of Lentils. DOH! That pretty much tubed my plans to make it. I substituted in spaghetti carbonara instead last week, so here I am trying again. This is my meat free meal for the week.

Friday: Homemade Pizza and Roasted Broccoli

Using the Pizza Hut Crust Clone recipe.

Saturday: Homemade Sushi

I haven’t made my own sushi in a couple of YEARS-which is a shame since we all love it. Last time I was at the Asian food store I made sure to pick up some Nori sheets (ie seaweed) and some mirin (a sweet rice wine which I need for flavoring the sushi rice)

Sunday: Leftover Buffet

I have to use them all up somehow!

For more great menu plans head on over to the Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday

From the Frugal Upstate Vault

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:39:09 +0000

Photo by Jason Bechtel

Here are some interesting little gems from this week in previ0us years here at Frugal Upstate

In 2009 I wrote a review of 24C Water, made by the Jones Soda Company. I seem to have had drinks on the brain, as I also gave our experiences with making A Cheaper Chelada (Clamato Juice & Beer-it’s better than it sounds). Not to ruin my streak, my post on Airport Frugality also has a drink related bent-but you’ll have to read it to see!

In 2008 I reminded everyone about how you can save money on insurance by taking a Drivers Safety class. I also had a great list of ideas for Ways to Use Water Bottles that goes way beyond “fill them up with your own filtered water”. And how about this cute idea for an Easter Wheat Grass Centerpiece. Last year I found it too late to try for Easter, but there is still time to try it this year!

In 2007 I covered a series of sewing tips, including this on on How to Repair a Hem.

And finally in 2006 I shared my recipe for Homemade Season Salt that we use instead of buying “Lawry’s Seasoned Salt”. We use this at our house in place of table salt. Mmmm!

So how are you all liking these “Vault” entries?

Fantastic Frugal DIY Ribbon Washer Necklace

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:18:12 +0000

I am big on statement jewelery-pieces that just jump out at you and say “look at me!”. Big dangly earrings, unusual necklaces or bracelets. I love them all!

But of course although I love big pieces, I don’t love big price tags. I love things I can pick up at a pittance at the dollar store, thrift store etc, or even make myself.

When I saw this tutorial for a modern looking necklace made from washers and ribbon at The Small Object I knew I had to try it. I went to Lowes and picked up twenty 5/8″ washers for $.10 each. I had a roll of lime green satin ribbon that I had picked up at Walmart’s for $2 that was about the right width. So following the tutorial on The Small Object and for the low price of $4 I was able to make this necklace:

This is a great, modern piece.

I love how the washers lay next to each other.

Here it is on. You can change the legnth by adjusting where you tie the ribbon on the back.

My husband pointed out that galvanized washers should be used for this, otherwise the salt and moisture from your skin will cause the metal to tarnish. Honestly I’m not sure if the ones I bought were galvanized or not. . .

I found a washer choker selling on Etsy for $10 that you could make using the same directions and just 4 washers (so $.40 plus ribbon cost). I know several teens who would love one of those!

Another thought I had was that you could buy a single large washer-say 1 1/2″ or so across-and use that as a pendant by itself.

So what do you think of my hardware fashion statement?

Recipe: Banana Squares

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:21:40 +0000

Photo by CAS

I am frequently overly optimistic when I purchase Bananas. They look so golden & delicious. . .the kids love them. . . they are only $.44 a lb. . . we’ll go through a dozen in no time right?

Wrong.

Sometimes we do-I swear Princess would eat 3 a day if I would let her. My mom & mother-in-law, nurses both, do not recommend that for a daily intake unless you want to serve prune juice alongside!

But other times, many other times, we have bananas that start to go brown.

Banana bread is a classic-but sometimes you get tired of it and want something different. Need a new way to use up Bananas going brown? Try Banana Squares! These delicious treats are similar to a blonde banana brownie. Think of it as a cookie alternative.

Banana Squares

1C Sugar
1C Mashed Banana
1/3C oil
2 eggs
1C Flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

-Mix sugar, mashed bananas, oil eggs.
-Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
-Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till thoroughly combined.
-Spread into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 min.

Variations:
Sprinkle top with powdered sugar when cool.
Frost with cream cheese frosting.
Add chocolate chips (1/4 to 1/2 C).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sotto1/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Using Homemade Laundry Detergent in an HE Washing Machine

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:52:14 +0000

The most frequent question I get about my homemade laundry soap recipe-both here on the blog and over on my YouTube video for making laundry soap is “Can I use homemade laundry soap/ laundry detergent in an HE washing machine?”

Photo by r4n

The next most common question is “Really? Only one TBS for a load?”. . . but I digress.

HE stands for “High Efficiency” -HE washers are typically front loading washers specifically created to use less water than a standard washing machine. Because less water is used, laundry detergent must be low sudsing and disperse quickly. About.com has a great article explaining HE Clothes Washers that you can read for more information.

Unfortunately I do not have an HE washer, and I can not offer solid advice or personal experience on this question. What I can say is this. Homemade laundry soap has almost no suds-that is actually one of the complaints you hear from first time users. “There were no suds and the water looked gray? Is that right?”*

If I were the person with an HE washer, I would personally feel comfortable trying the homemade laundry detergent in the machine. However I am not an expert-each of you faced with this decision will have to make your own choice based on the facts you have available.

I did look around to see what some of my favorite sources had to say about using homemade laundry detergent/soap in an HE machine. The fabulous Tipnut addresses this about 2 pages down in her “Homemade Laundry Detergent FAQ“, and Thrifty Fun had this exact question about HE washers & soap asked-you can go read all the answers from their readers.

Do any of you use homemade detergent in an HE machine? What are your feelings on the matter?

*note: Yes, it is normal for there to be little or no suds. Yes, it is normal for the water to look gray-that’s the dirt coming out of the clothes. You just don’t notice it with your store bought detergent because the suds keep you from seeing the water.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r4n/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer Winner

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:16:12 +0000

Congratulations to Tammy, the winner of the Rubbermaid Drawer Organizer set!

For all those who didn’t win, don’t despair! I have a Kiwi Shoe Protection Product kit giveaway running right now, and coming soon I have a cookbook. There is even a pair of prescription eyeglasses and frames that I’ll be giving away soon