Life On The Central Coast

Week 7: A Valentine's Pie To Remember!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 22:53:00 +0000

Back with Week #7 of my 52 weeks of pie! Like most of us, I wanted to create a really beautiful pie, well actually a tart, especially for my Valentine, Wes. It had to be chocolate, decadent and beautiful all at the same time. After looking high and low on the internet for something good, I decided on THIS wonderful Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart featured on the Frayed Apron Blog. I mean, look at her picture! Who wouldn't want to make and eat this??!!

(From the Frayed Apron Blog)

Now, you may say a Tart isn't a Pie but it actually is. It has a crust and a filling so in my book, its a VARIETY of pie. Over the course of my "52 Weeks of Pie," you will see tarts, pies and galettes, a free form type of pie. So keep checking back, you'll be glad you did!

The first different thing for me was the crust. It's put together much like the others with just the addition of cocoa powder. I did use the vodka again instead of the water or milk as suggested because I wanted to keep the dough really cold. These crusts go together quicker using the food processor to make them and I wanted to keep all that frozen butter as chill as possible.

Yes Ma'am that's a LOT of butter, and it's going to make the crust flakey and buttery so it stays! Once that is all pulsed in it looks a lot like sand.

Next, come the egg yolk and the 3 Tbsp of vodka (milk or water).

See that rich color? Yes, I have chickens and they lay the most beautiful eggs with dark yellow egg yolks!

In it goes...

Next comes the vodka in all its glory...

You'll have to take my word for it, that is vodka... The recipe called for 3 Tbsp but I have to tell you, it seemed really dry to me at that stage so I added in another lid full of vodka. Now don't be thinking those thoughts!!! I could squeeze this dough and it would hold the shape as you can see from the top of the picture. And since I had already added in another lid full already, I turned it out and attempted to form into the disc.

Which it did do but let me tell you, that was a bunch of work. I do think it's going to be really dry when I get to the rolling out stage and I may have to wet my hands to work the dough and get it a bit more pliable and flexible.

It does look dry doesn't it? So into the refrigerator it went for the two-hour rest. Maybe some magic will happen in there when I have my back turned making the caramel for the tart.

Oh, and let me say really quickly here, this makes 6 - 4-inch tarts or 1 9-inch tart and I'm going for the larger one because I had the pan!

Tart pans have the "floating" bottom crust pan that can be removed when serving. The crust is baked in the pan and then filled with the caramel and ganache topping and when serving you can push the bottom pan out of the sided pan and serve your tart that way. In to bake the crust goes full of my pie weights and parchment paper.

I'm not going to lie you guys. There were problems with the crust, small ones and I rolled with it. The next time I will do better about the pressing into the pan. It's not the end of the world, it's covered up by loads of caramel and chocolate and no one is ever going to know unless I say something! Don't stop your passion just because there are a few flaws along the way. I can't wait to look back at the end of the year and see my progress!

While that is baking up, its time to make the caramel. I don't know about you, but this was the first time for me. I added the sugar, water, salt and cream of tarter and let them "gel" together in the pan. NO STIRRING! You can swirl the pan to mix things a bit but no stirring. Once the sugar mixture begins to turn amber-colored, it is removed and butter and cream are added in...now you can stir! It smells and looks so good. This mixture is put into a measuring cup to cool.

Next is the ganache filling. This is the Bittersweet Chocolate I used.

Yum, YUM!! There is just something about chocolate of any kind! It looks so good!

Using a knife or metal bowl scraper to cut the chocolate finely.

A little cream and a little sugar and voila! Beautiful Ganache!

That's the pie by the way. Yes, it turned out REALLY good. The sweet chocolate, crunchy chocolate pie crust, chewy caramel filling, and the sprinkle of salty salt.... oh my GOSH!! The perfect Valentine's Dessert.

I was very intimidated when I saw the picture of this on the internet and didn't feel like my skills were up to baking a wonderful dessert like this. I was even thinking I would do it over a few days so I wouldn't rush anything and ruin it. But you guys, it was easy! Easy and a very flashy dessert that will have your family or guests coming back for more AND going to bed dreaming those sweet, salty, "caramelly" dreams for more.

I hoped you enjoyed this weeks' pie making as much as I did. And let me tell you, don't be afraid of doing things that seem hard. Bite them off little by little if you have to. Imagine your success and be sure to fill your pie and your lives with love. Thanks for joining me this week and come back next week for another pie.

Karen

Week 6: A Pie Fit For George Washington

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:03:00 +0000

Let's start off February with a tip of the tri-corn hat to President George Washington and the little fable of him chopping down the cherry tree. Honesty IS the best policy. I love the part in the story where he tells his father the truth about his participation in the "crime". Even though he is afraid of his punishment, he tells the truth.

"Run to my arms, you dearest boy, cried his father in transports, run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son, is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold.

Last year, my husband and I decided to buy a couple of cherry trees in hopes that one day we will have a wonderful supply of the juicy fruit that we can make homemade pie filling from. They are still young but the blooms in the spring... beautiful!! For the time being though, I think I will have to be satisfied with some canned filling. The recipe I chose this week incorporates pie filling along with almond flavoring and a crispy pie crust to make a Cherry Almond Hand Pie. Thanks, Aimee from the Blog "Shurgary Sweets" for the recipe and guys, you can go HERE and find the recipe yourselves.

I'm going to use the Fool-Proof Pie Crust recipe from last week because it worked fabulously! And a can of Country Cherry Pie filling from Walmart.

This crust recipe... Man, the way the butter goes throughout the dough and the ease of rolling it out... It has quickly become my favorite!

Another little gizmo I'm going to try for the first time is a dough press I found at Ross last month.

The way they are used is one side cuts the dough the perfect size. The other side makes the cute crimping around the edge. Be careful how full you fill it or it won't close! The recipe suggests using a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop to fill each hand pie but I only had a one that was a Tbsp and a half so some of mine were overflowing!

Cut with this side down on the dough...

Fill them with the filling...

Crimp the dough closed...

And voile! A beautiful little hand pie!

You don't need to have the hand pie dough press to make these. You could always use a fork to crimp or even some fancy hand crimping that gives the same effect. But it was so easy to make them this way and the set I found was less than $4 to buy, well worth it to me.

I used 1 recipe of the Fool-Proof Pie dough which made 2 homemade crusts and got 28 little pies from it. They were cooked on parchment paper 8 to a tray for 15 min. at 425 degrees. Did my house ever smell good!!!

As soon as they came out of the oven, they were brushed with the glaze from the recipe. For added flavor, I put in about 1/2 tsp of almond flavor to keep that goodness going. Immediately I added on the sliced almonds and they were left to cool. Less than 15 min. later the glaze had hardened up and I was able to see how they tasted. Wow! So good!

They lost some of that cute little edge detail as they baked but came out cute just the same!

Thank goodness I have some grandkids to share these with and a hungry hubby! I was also surprised that they weren't over the top sweet. You'd think that with a sugary filling and sugar glaze on the top that they would just be over the top but it was fresh and fruity and just the right amount of sugar. If you can eat them right away nice and warm that would be great. If not, warm them just a bit in the microwave for about 15 seconds and serve with a teeny tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Now, I'm thinking of all the other ways I can use the other 2 sizes of little dough presses and what kind of goodness I can tuck inside. This will NOT be the last time you see these little dough shapers at work! I love them.

How about you guys? Do you just LOVE picking things up at the discount stores and trying them out? Gosh, I'm a gismo girl!! I like to do things fast too and I think it would have taken a LOT more time making all of those little pies by hand.

Anyway, much love to you guys and hope you come back next week for more pie!!

Karen

Week 5: A Calendar Inspired Pie!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 01:53:00 +0000

Each year in December, I choose my large calendar of the year. This year it is from the Lang Company and its called American Kitchen with artwork by Susan Winget.

Can I just say this calendar had me at ROLLING PINS!!??? This is the cutest "Americana" type calendar ever! I'm in love and as a cook, I love that each month features a yummy recipe for something good to eat. Flipping the calendar to February I see that this month's recipe is...

EGG CUSTARD PIE! One of my all-time favorites! I love how homey, warm and full of vanilla bean flavor this pie is. It said to use "1 unbaked deep-dish pie shell" so guess what... another pie crust recipe to share with you. About a year ago I started taking public cooking classes with Grandma Ingrid. It was one of the BEST and most fun things I have ever done! If you live in the San Luis Obispo County area, check her out HERE. She has classes practically every weekend of the year and you will not go away hungry! They feed you until you POP plus you learn skills to improve your cooking! This crust recipe is from her pie class that I took about a year ago and is called:

Foolproof Pie Dough (This is JUST what I need to improve my crust making capability! )

(Makes one 9 inch double crust pie)

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 1/2 Sticks of cold butter cut into 1/4 inch slices. FROZEN
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening cut into 4 pieces FROZEN
1/4 cup cold water, ice cold
1/4 cup vodka, ice-cold (Yes! Vodka, because it can be at freezing and not become solid so you get a really, REALLY cold liquid for your pie.)

1.Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds. (Dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour) Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around the food processor blade.

⥤⥤⥤ ADD REMAINING CUP FLOUR AND PULSE UNTIL MIXTURE IS EVENLY DISTRIBUTED AROUND BOWL AND MASS OF DOUGH HAS BEEN BROKEN UP, 4 TO 6 QUICK PULSES ⥢⥢⥢

(Its too easy to forget this part so I made it bold!)

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. Mix until just forming dough or with rubber spatula, use folding motions to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days. Roll out crust to a couple of inches larger than the exterior edge of your pie plate so you can crimp the edges.

3. Place bottom crust in pie plate and leave 1/2 inch over-hang. Fill with apples (or whatever fruit or custard you are using). Plast top crust on if using and crimp.

For best results, put your pan with crust onto a cookie sheet for stabilization in the oven. For this pie, I brushed the crust with some egg white in the bottom, sides and over the fancy edged crust. That will help to prevent "soggy bottoms" with the wet filling.

** I HAVE TO SAY IT WAS THE EASIEST PIE CRUST TO THIS POINT OF MY 52 WEEKS OF PIE! IT ROLLED OUT EASY, FIT THE PAN NICELY AND SEEMS TO BE VERY BUTTERY AND NICE. I DO FEEL LIKE IT WAS A NO FAIL CRUST!!**

Now onto the pie filling!

The recipe on the calendar says to heat the oven to 400 degrees but I waited just a bit because the crust had to be in the refrigerator for 45 min. So at about the 1/2 hour mark on my crust, I started the preheat business.

Next, it says to warm the milk to just under a boil. I like to do this in a double boiler because you can step away to finish the other part of the pie without worrying so much if your milk is going to burn on the bottom unattended.

While the milk was heating, I mixed up the other filling ingredients. Into my bowl went the 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk (the egg yolk of another egg that I was going to use the white to brush my crust) the 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, salt and vanilla extract. I mixed those together really well and then added in my milk little by little so I wouldn't cook the eggs in the bowl. That is pretty much it for the filling. Easy peasy!

Then into the oven for a bake of 40 to 50 min. I'm playing it safe by shooting for 45 min. and then checking every 5 min. until done. If the crust appears to be getting too dark too fast, I will put on my pie crust shield to protect it from burning.

At 40 min into the bake, I put on the pie shield to keep the crust from burning. And I noticed that the insides were still very wet and runny. I'll have to adjust the baking time, checking it every five minutes until it is complete.

Next comes cooling until warm, or chilling until cold which is the way I like it and having a nice little sweet treat!

A perfect crust is RIGHT!

Wow, no soggy bottoms here! And it is flakey and crumbly... very reliable and easy.

By the way, did your parents ever take the pie crust dough, coat it with a little butter and put cinnamon sugar on it and bake it as the pie was cooking? My Dad loved doing this with the leftover pie crust and we loved it as kids too. So of course, I had to make some of my own.

It was good and brought back a bunch of memories! My Dad was the "pieman" of the family. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas he would make his pumpkin pies for us all to devour. He was really good with shaped sugar cookies too. I think baking brings my family that's gone on to heaven back to me and I get to cherish them in my heart and remember all the recipes and good times we shared.

Week 4: A Simple Apple Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:48:00 +0000

This week really got away from me! I did make a pie but I haven't had time to write the blog.

For this week's pie, I decided to try a different crust. Making a good crust is the biggest problem for me when it comes to piemaking. I can't seem to get it to the perfect wetness/ dryness and have it roll out nice. The crust for this week comes from the King Arthur website for a two-crust pie. It made two crusts and I used the food processor to make it up. I like that it was mostly butter but had just a bit of vegetable shortening and I think that helped it have that perfect moistness. Once I rolled it out I used a stainless steel ring to cut the size I needed. You can find these pie cutting rings HERE. And for my pie dish, I used a little pie dish I found at Aldi's last Fall. I only picked up two but wished I had gotten more like 4 or 6. How fun to have a party and have individual pie for each guest! I hope they bring them back sometime this year!

I wasn't going to prebake the pie today so I sprayed these little dishes with a non-stick spray and once the piecrust was formed, it was put in the freezer to firm up.

Yes, that's my secret ingredient this week. Hey, it's ok to buy your pie filling. This was also from Aldi and was very well flavored, had a good quantity of apples and one can filled my two little baby pies. The filling costs right around $1.75 so the price was right!

Here are the little pies filled to the brim with the pie filling.

It was at this point I put them in the freezer while I worked on the latice top. I wanted the pie dough to stay really cold until I could get it topped and put into the oven.

Its a little messy but it worked. My husband wanted a full top but here wasn't enough dough left to do that and I wanted to use up the scraps. The lattice top was brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with some sprinkling sugar, a larger grain sugar usually found in the cookie decorating area of the store.

Yum, YUM!! It baked for half an hour and then we took them out and let them cool just a bit before having it with a bit of vanilla bean ice cream. You guys... so good!!!

I took some shortcuts this week, it's true, but another week of yummy pie that I would call a success. To eat these, we divided it into quarters so out of 2 pies, we actually got 8 small slices of pie. And because I made a double crust pie crust, I have the crust already made up for next week's pie.

We are getting close to all the President's birthdays in February and of course, the famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree. You KNOW that cherry pie will be featured at some point.

I hope you return to follow my successes and failures. I'm feeling very optimistic about where this year of pie is going!

Week 3 Pie: Savory Quiche Lorraine

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:49:00 +0000

For this week's pie, we are going SAVORY!

Probably the most well known savory pie is the Quiche Lorraine. Named for the Lorraine region of France, the Quiche Lorraine features a crispy crust filled with Swiss cheese, onions, "lardon" or strips of bacon all covered in a creamy eggy base. IT IS DELICIOUS!!

Today's recipe comes from the Simply Recipes website. The crust will be made in a tart pan this time, a Pate Brisee crust, and blind baked before filling it using this Quiche recipe.

It also is giving us a chance to cook our bacon using the oven method. Have you heard of this? It's supposed to make the easiest, most perfect bacon EVER!

The recipe begins with lining a tart pan. I used parchment rounds for this and tried to downsize them just a bit. Notice the flowery petal shapes... but it did work! I sprayed the parchment with a bit of non-stick spray. This is blind baking the pie crust. I took my wonderful crust out of the refrigerator for about 15 min. before I was ready to roll it out. Have you ever used a pastry mat? They are great! I've had this one for so many years I don't even know where I bought it at. Put down a little All-Purpose flour, then the crust dough and then a bit more flour sprinkled on top of that.

This crust rolled out so EASY!! What a great recipe! Nice and smooth while still being elastic! It was quick and easy to roll out. I made this crust in my food processor using the Pate Brisee recipe above.

Next comes the filling process. Bacon was cooked in the oven, rested on a paper towel to remove the grease and trimmed into pieces the width of the bacon by about 1/3 of an inch.

Next, I put on a layer of shredded cheese, a few green onions and a bit of smokey ham.

And finally, the egg/cream/milk liquid that included salt, pepper and some dried chives along with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

That's when I had just a bit of a problem. Even though I blind baked the crust with pie beads in the bottom, my crust shrunk up a bit and possibly developed holes around the removable tin piece. It didn't leak much, but it did leak and I was glad I had a Silpat mat under it that could be easily cleaned.

It cooked in a 350-degree oven for 50 min. and was perfect!

We had the quiche with a hash brown patty that we heated using the toaster. No that wasn't the recommended cooking method but it worked. And we put a little cinnamon applesauce on the side. You guys!! Delicious and easy!

And there you have it. Pie week 3, a savory Quiche Lorraine.

Pie crusts were the most difficult thing for me to make before setting myself this challenge. Week 3 and I can already tell a difference. They are really getting flaky and very easy to roll out. I loved this week's crust and can't wait for next week's pie!! I don't know yet what it will be but I'm really looking forward to making another pie.

2020 Motto Of The Year: ADAPT TO CHANGE

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 18:41:00 +0000

Every year I try to choose a word or theme to base my year on. This year it took a bit longer to settle on words but finally, they have arrived. The words for the year are...

ADAPT TO CHANGE

How did I come by this word? My husband and I are over 60 now. We've been together since I was 15 years old. We've grown up together and fell into a happy routine with our lives. BUT, we are noticing more and more that our beliefs and the way we've done things all those years aren't necessarily working for us anymore. So we will need to analyze and change what isn't working. You know the saying,

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

It's time for some changes in our lives that will help us live happy, more satisfying lives.

I don't know about you but sometimes my husband and I feed off of each other's negativity. And let's face it, there is a LOT going on in the world right now to be negative about. But instead of letting that change our day and our lives, we are going to focus more on good things; random acts of kindness, doing volunteer work, keeping a clean home, getting enough exercise and healthy food to eat, writing and doing our respective crafts. We don't have to buy into what social media is putting out there for us. It is creating a world full of hate and derision!

We are challenging ourselves with learning new things; Gardening, learning a foreign language (I recommend Duolingo!), sewing, knitting, playing the ukulele, 52 weeks of pie-making (wink, wink). That should keep us busy and away from the TV and the Internet. Don't get me wrong, we aren't hiding our heads in the sand and failing to see what is going on around us. Rather we are replacing in our lives those negative FEELINGS that incessant bombardment by the media was giving us. If not replacing, then really shortening the time spent on listening and watching media.

I know it's going to be a long year full of politics, again, very negative if you listen to what each side has to say about the other. We can choose to listen to all the mudslinging, or we can find something else to do with our time and our ears. Listening to Sirius Radio with no commercials on my favorite channels is on my list of things to do.

Have you chosen a word or words to live your year by? If so, what did you decide?

2020 Goals: Pie For Week 2 - Grandma Rosella's Vanilla Custard Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 15:05:00 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is pick a topic, run to the library and check out tons of books on that topic and if I really like a particular book, I'll try to find them at my local Goodwill or on Thriftbooks to save some money.

Last year, knowing I wanted to challenge myself with making a pie a week for a year, I bought up several books and they will be featured on the blog as I make the pie recipes from them.

This week's recipe is taken from a book I found on Thriftbooks. Well, of course you know there is a story here! I chose a used book on Amazon from a Thriftbooks location and when it got here, I realized the entire section for making the pie crusts had been torn out so carefully you couldn't tell it was missing until you went looking for them. Luckily for me, when I wrote this company they sent me out another copy that is GLORIOUS, even featuring an errata section in the front! They are one of the BEST used book dealers out there you guys! If you want to do 2nd hand shopping please check them out! You'll be glad you did! And the cookbook itself is full of stories, adorable pictures and unique tasty pie recipes full of fruit, custards, crumbles and even savory pies. I highly recommend it!

Anyway, my recipe this week comes from the book, Sweetie-Licious Pies Eat Pie, Love Life.

The Pie is called "Grandma Rosella's Vanilla Custard Pie" and it is on page 188. I'm not going to write the recipe here but I'll tell you it is full of milk, cream, eggs and egg yolks sugar and cornstarch flavored with both vanilla and almond extracts. The crust I used is also in the book and it is called the Sweetie-Licious Cream Cheese Crust. You can make the crusts up ahead of time and freeze them in the freezer until you intend to use them but I made it up fresh today. There is just a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg on the top. Once cooled, we'll chill it for a minimum of 3 hours before tasting.

Here is the Vanilla Custard Pie straight out of the oven. It turned out nice. Here is a word of advice; DO NOT LET YOUR CUSTARD OVERCOOK BECAUSE IT "LOOKS JIGGLY". Take a knife and run it in carefully at the center of your pie and pull it out. If the pie is done, there won't be any residue on your knife that looks like raw filling. If there is raw filling residue, cook your pie in 5 min. increments, testing each time for doneness. You could also turn your oven off and leave in the oven testing every 5 min. until done. Your pie will be a bit jiggly and that is a good thing. Once the pie cools on the countertop, we will put it into the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours and probably have it for dessert tonight.

My husband and I LOVE custard pies and this one is one of the best we've ever had! Definitely a two thumbs up from us! We ate it with some homemade whipped cream chilled to perfection and had trouble not going back for another piece! Yes, it was THAT GOOD!

That's it for this week. Come on back for more pie recipes and we'll share some more tips, tricks, tools and pie recipes.

My pie next week will feature some California Citrus. We are so lucky here on the Central Coast of California to have warmer winters than most people. Local Citrus is in season here and can be found at the Farmers Markets and at Cal Poly's "You Pick" orchards. With that in mind, I think next week's pie will be a lemon meringue or something with citrus in it.

Maybe you've always wanted to do something baking wise. This is a good little challenge to kind of push you out of your comfort zone. Make something for 52 weeks and take some pictures of your progress. You'd be amazed how practice makes perfect!!

2020 Goals: 52 Weeks of Pie!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:55:00 +0000

Hi All!

I know, it's been a LONG time since you heard from me but I'm not dead! I've been busy with home and family and thinking about my 2020 goals. How about you? Have you been doing the same?

One of the things on my 2020 Bucket List of Goals was going to be making a pie once a week for the entire year based on things that are plentiful in my garden, local Farmer's Markets and what's on sale at the market.

For week one, a Pantry Challenge month, I decided to make a French Coconut Custard Pie with a flaky self-rising pie crust. This week's recipe was based on a YouTube video by one of my FAVORITE southern Cooks, Tammy from Collard Valley Cooks. Her Video Recipe is HERE

Things I used from the pantry were; self-rising flour, Butter Flavored Crisco, shredded sweetened coconut, vanilla extract, and eggs from my backyard flock of hens. I made the buttermilk from milk and vinegar the way my mom showed me years ago.

This Pie went together really easy just like Tammy says. I like it but for me, it was a bit too dry and that is NOT Tammy's fault or her recipe's. I wanted to use things from the pantry and I had a small bag of coconut and rather than sprinkling in just a bit as she advises, I put in the entire bag. That stuff sucked up the custard-like none other and there wasn't that nice layer of soft creamy custard I was expecting. It was good though, super good! I would definitely recommend her recipe but follow her directions to the T!

Historically, I'm not that great when it comes to making my own crust so that was the challenge for me and as you can see, I did get it a bit thick! I liked using the self-rising flour recipe though. It was very easy and quick to come together. My suggestion would be to add a bit of whipped topping to the top too. That helped quite a bit with the dryness of my pie.

If you like pies, stay tuned for next week's pie... I'll give you a hint... lots of eggs in this one!

Thanks for stopping by,

Karen

What's For Dinner? March 23 - March 30

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 15:17:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

HAPPY FIRST WEEK OF SPRING!

Are you meal planners or wondering each and every night what you will make your family for dinner? We try to meal plan because it saves us so much money! We shop only for those items we will be using in the upcoming week. We have cold cereal, oatmeal with yogurt, eggs and toast for most breakfasts. Our lunches are mostly the previous night's leftovers and we really try to use up everything during the week in some form. We have one Date Night per week, and we also allow ourselves one lunch out during the week. Here's how a typical week looks.

SUNDAY

Beef Barley Soup With Homemade Sourdough Bread & Butter

1 1/2 lb Leftover Cooked Pot Roast
1 32 oz. Carton Beef Broth
1 Pkg. Au Jus Gravy mix
1 Pkg. Beef Gravy Mix
1 10 oz. Can or Jar of Mushroom Stems & Pieces (and the liquid)
1/2 Cup 10 min Barley from Trader Joes
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tbsp. Parsley Flakes
1/2 Tsp Celery Salt
1 tsp Paprika
2 Bay Leaves
Salt To Taste
Pepper To Taste
Put all ingredients into a crockpot and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours and on high for about half that time.

MONDAY

BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs, Air Fried Baby Potato Mix, Coleslaw

Slather those ribs up with some dry seasoning mix and let them sit for about an hour. We LOVE this homemade seasoning mix recipe found at the Simply Happy Foodie website. Go check her out and make some up yourself! Tonight we are using country pork ribs from Aldi and smoking them on our Traegar Grill over applewood chips. Our mixed baby potatoes are from Aldi too, just halved, sprinkled with salt, pepper, olive oil, Dollar Tree French Fry Seasoning and McCormick All Purpose Garlic Herb, Black Pepper and Sea Salt seasoning. Then to keep things nice and fresh, a store bought coleslaw salad mix with shelled raw sunflower seeds for crunch and homemade Coleslaw dressing.

Coleslaw Dressing

1 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 cup Honey
2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper to taste

TUESDAY

Carnitas Taco Salad made with leftover BBQ pork ribs, Mexican Rice, Black Beans, Romaine Lettuce, Tomatoes, Black Olives, Salsa, Jalapenos, and chips

Mexican Rice: We like THIS ONE because its quick and easily made in the instant pot!

It's Taco Tuesday at the house! We decided to keep it simple and use some things that were already in the refrigerator and in the pantry. Started with those yummy leftover BBQ boneless country ribs from last night. A little frying in a pan with some vegetable oil left the meat nice and crunchy. We usually have salad makings like romaine lettuce, cheese, olives, salsa, jalapenos, black beans and corn from our pantry.The chips were actually saved from a lunch out last week and were just enough for the two of us to share. I used the salsa as a salad dressing and hubby had ranch dressing. And the black beans were actually canned by me! The rice turned out perfect in the Instant Pot and even left us with a bit to put in lunch time burritos this week.

WEDNESDAY

DATE NIGHT. We've been doing Date Night on Wednesday nights for YEARS now! Next week is my Birthday on Monday, so next week's Date Night will be a more expensive night out. My guess we will probably grab something economical this week since its just a few days before payday and we are trying to stay in our budget. There is $30 left in our monthly Date Night fund and I think we can eat out for a LOT less than that!

THURSDAY

I'm going to share a little dinner secret with you. It's called Emeals! It's a subscription meal PLAN that gives you 7 delicious meal ideas every week along with a shopping list that you can take with you to the store. You can try it free for 14 days and see if you like it too! After your trial, you can select 3 months for $29.99 or an entire year for $59.99 (as of this writing). There are also several different plans you can get to fit your lifestyle and family size. We love the Budget Friendly Plan for 2 but you could also try Clean Eating, Paleo, Heart Healthy, Low Carb, Kid Friendly and Gluten Free to name a few of their meal plans. You can switch back and forth between meals until you figure out what serves you and your family the best. And the meals are sized for a family of 2 up to a family of 6. We love saving money on our Budget Meal Plan and there is no lack of variety, ingredients or healthy choices. It's also SO easy to follow the included grocery list in the store or if you have the Emeals App on your phone and a grocery service, you could send in your grocery list to a store like Walmart, Instacart, Amazon Fresh or Kroger and drop by and pick them up or have them delivered. Why don't you head on over and take a look. It might be just what you are looking for to bring the zing back into your dinners! Remember you can try for free for 2 weeks. So without further ado.... One of the meals this weeks is...

Herb Sautéed Vegetable Pasta & Classic Salad

Doesn't that look DELICIOUS!!

Herb Sautéed Vegetable Pasta

1 (4.8 oz) box angel hair pasta with herbs mix (I found mine at Walmart, a Pasta Roni, Rice a Roni item for $1 a box!)

1 Zucchini

1 Yellow Squash

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Butter

(You will also need 2/3 c. milk and 2 Tbsp of butter to make the pasta mix)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut zucchini and squash into 1/4 inch slices. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add to pasta when done, toss.

Classic Salad

1 head Romaine Lettuce divided in half for 2 servings

1 Roma Tomato, cut in half and chopped, 1/2 going to each plate

We added in a bit of coleslaw mix, grated carrots, shredded parmesan cheese and topped it with Olive Garden Italian Dressing.

You guys! This dinner is SOOO good! Light but satisfying. Quick and economical. We are gardeners and save a LOT of money when it comes to fresh produce. So this meal probably is less than $5 for us to make if that.

FRIDAY

CREAMY CHICKEN AND STUFFING SKILLET WITH SAUTÉED BROCCOLI

For dinner on Friday we did a 2nd meal from Emeals this week. It is called Chicken and Stuffing Skillet. A simple dish of chicken chunks with onions and green beans in a creamy mushroom soup gravy topped with a Cornbread stuffing and grated cheese. It was served along side some sautéed broccoli crowns and slivered garlic. SO GOOD YOU GUYS! And the recipe made so much we are having it for dinner tomorrow as well, only we will probably have salad on the side. HERE is a similar recipe you can try.

SATURDAY

LEFTOVERS WITH SALAD

On the weekend we like to keep things easy. We spent some time in our garden planting out some zucchini and green beans and were so tired when we were done. Thankfully we had our little leftover dinner waiting for us. I whipped up a an easy Coleslaw salad and a few orange wedges and voilá, a quick weekend dinner.

*A QUICK NOTE*

Just a quick note on leftovers. We don't mind them. Sometimes we have them the very next day. Sometimes we make them the day after the next one. We will have them for lunches instead of soups, sandwiches and salads. BUT... once a week we do purge our refrigerator of items and Saturday night is our favorite night for that. What isn't eaten up by Saturday night is given to the hens, composted if we can (no meat or citrus items) and the refrigerator is given a thorough cleaning.

That's our Dinners this week. Before you say that you don't see much fruit in our diet, we do eat it for breakfast and snacks. We try to stay with what is growing in season in our area or what we actually grow here at our home. We grow a lot of our own berries; blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and olallieberries. As the season progresses, we also have lemons, apples, figs, cherries, persimmons and kiwi.

Norwegian Pancakes (Norska Pannekaken)

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:20:00 +0000

Every culture has its pancake and this is the Norwegian version, a very light, crepe-like pancake that goes with just about anything. These "pancakes" are light and eggy and go with both sweet and savory fillings. When my chickens start up laying eggs in the Spring, we LOVE to make these pancakes, freezing the excess for another day. Yes, they freeze and thaw perfectly! Most people have the simple ingredients on their shelves and in their refrigerators SO LET'S GO!

Original Recipe Can Be Found on the Outside Oslo Website Here.

Norska Pannekaken

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Scandinavian vanilla sugar*
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan

Mix all ingredients except butter in a medium-sized bowl using a whisk or fork until the batter is smooth and you have no lumps. Stir in butter. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to let the batter rest.

Meanwhile, warm a pan over medium heat. I prefer a well-seasoned cast-iron pan, which minimizes the need for additional butter to keep the pancakes from sticking. Melt a little butter in the pan and make a small test pancake like Signe Johansen recommends–this will help you gauge the heat and adjust the flavors if necessary–giving it a minute or so on each side to cook.

To get started on your first pancake, pour in enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan–I find that a 1/3-cup measure is just right for my 10-inch pan. Twirl the pan around to coat the bottom, and when the top starts to set and the edges begin to color slightly, carefully but confidently and swiftly slide a heat-safe silicone spatula under the pancake, jiggling it slightly as you do, and flip the pancake. It will probably need about 2 minutes on the first side and a minute or so on the second. When done, use the spatula to roll the pancake in the pan and transfer to a plate.

Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter, adding a little butter to the pan between pancakes if necessary. Cover the pancakes with a tent of foil paper as you go to keep them warm. You may even wish to place them, covered, in a warm oven, but I find that if I’m going to serve them as soon as they’re ready, they retain heat well enough that keeping them tented near the ambient heat of the stove keeps them hot enough.

Serves 2-3.

Garden Spotlight: Swiss Chard

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 02:55:00 +0000

This year we decided to grow Swiss Chard over the cold winter season in our area. (Zone 10a, The Central Coast of California) Temperatures in our area seldom drop below freezing but they have been in the mid 30's and low 40's. We've also had an above average rainy Winter after several years of drought. We direct sowed the chard seeds right before our first frost date, around the middle of December, knowing that as the weather progressed, they would be one of the first things up in the January / February garden. This year our greens progression started with arugula followed by our spinach and now the beautiful chard and kale. We are so lucky to live where gardening can happen nearly all year round.

This year we tried a Chard Variety called Bright Lights; beautiful yellows, reds and a beet colored pink. They are so beautiful in the garden with their celery type stalks and dark green tops. From its name, Swiss Chard, you would think it began its life in Switzerland but it was named SWISS chard because the botanist that discovered it was from Switzerland. Swiss chard is an excellent source of Vitamins A, C, K as well as iron, magnesium, potassium, and dietary fiber. But be careful if you're prone to kidney stones because it is also contains between 200 and 640 oxalates. Remember your Mom telling you to be sure to "Eat The Rainbow" when it comes to vegetables? That's because coloration of fruits and vegetables are caused by specific phytonutrients, which are natural chemicals that help protect plants from germs, bugs, the sun’s harmful rays, and other threats. In addition, each color indicates an abundance of specific nutrients. Today I pulled a purple carrot and was surprised to find bright orange insides and the most wonderful taste! But let's hold that veggie for another time.

So what does chard taste like? Chard tastes "earthy", something like beets or spinach depending on if you are eating the stem or the leaves. It is a distant relative of the beet so it should come as no surprise. You will find it served in many Mediterranean Dishes because it blends well with white beans, polenta, chickpeas, lentils, eggs and much more. At the end of this article, I'm going to be including ways to incorporate Chard into your diet.

Both the stems and leaves can be eaten and cooked separately or together. Allow for the stems to have a head start in the cooking process and toss the green leaves in at the end. I like to do a frittata with diced stems, onions, garlic, bacon bits, cut up chard leaves and scrambled eggs with a sharp feta cheese mixed in with it. So GOOD!!

Chard is an extremely versatile kitchen garden veggie and can be boiled, sauteed, roasted in the oven mixed in with other veggies, pastas and beans. And as you can see from the list below, it can even be served up in a dessert tart!

To grow chard in your garden you will need a spot featuring full sun to partial shade. Plants can be spaced 12" to 18" apart in a row and love a soil PH between 6.0 to 6.8 with organic material mixed in. They require 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week and adding a mulch layer keeps the stems clean when they are watered.

Here are a few ways you can begin enjoying your chard. Whether from your own garden or eaten in season from the local Farmers Market, I think you will find Chard to be a tasty and healthy addition to your diet.

Fermented Rainbow Chard Stems
Simple Swiss Chard Pasta
Braised White Beans with Chard
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup With Swiss Chard
Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup
Swiss Chard Hazelnut Dessert Tart
31 Creative Swiss Chard Recipes

Sourdough Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 14:59:00 +0000

A few of you have been asking about the recipe for Sourdough Bread that I use and I figured this would be the easiest way to give it out. This recipe makes 2 loaves.

MIX TOGETHER:
260 g. of actively fed sourdough starter (about 1 cup)
460 g. water (about 2 cups)
90 g. Canned milk or milk that has been scalded and cooled. Can use water or plant milk instead (About 6 Tbsp)

20 g. Kosher Salt (1/8 cup)
900 g. flour (all purpose or white bread flour, don't use whole grain, to heavy to rise well) 7 1/2 Cups

Mix the starter, water, milk (or the substitute) together thoroughly. Then add in the salt and flour.
Put the dough in a covered container and let it ferment at room temperature.
After 2 hours fold the dough. How To Fold The Dough
After an additional 2 hours, fold the dough again.
When the dough is is finished fermenting (after a total of 5-6 hours - when dough is bubbly, soft and will pull a windowpane) divide dough into two pieces around 855 g. each.
Do a first shaping of the dough and let rest 20 minutes. How to Shape Sourdough Bread (This is called the Bench Rest)
Do a final shaping after the rest and place the dough into lined or floured baskets or bannetons. Cover with a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight
Next morning take out first loaf, remove plastic bag and place it somewhere war around 80 degrees F
After 20 min take out your second loaf and proof in a warm place
keep an eye on the loaves, they will take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to proof (average around 2 hours)
When your dough looks half proofed or after about an hour, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F / 260 C with baking stone placed on middle rack in oven (you might have to adjust the rack for your oven).
When the dough is about ready to bake, place the roasting pan lid in oven to heat for about 5 minutes or if using a dutch oven or cast iron pan, place it in the oven for about 20 min and let it get nice and hot. This is the cast iron pan I use
Turn out the first loaf onto a floured peel or into pan. Slash loaf with a lame or a very sharp knife. I like to make 1 to 2 slashes in mine. You can find all kinds of ways on youtube to slash your loaves.
This is one great way to do it
If adding a glaze, add it now (recipe will follow) I use a silicone basting brush to lightly and evenly coat the entire top surface of the bread
Take our hot pan, place bread dough into the pan, spray lightly with water, cover with lid, close the oven and turn the oven down to 450 degrees / 232 celsius for the bake.
Set your timer for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, take off the lid, be careful the steam can be very hot. Turn loaf pan around in the oven for even heating.
Bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until nice dark color, hollow sounding when you knock it on the bottom or it measures at least 200 degrees on your instant read thermometer
Remove bread from pan using mitts, a heavy duty spatula or a pizza peel and place it on a cooling rack.
Place your pans lid back on, put it back in the oven and preheat again to 500 degrees for your 2nd loaf. Let that heat up for about 5 to 10 minutes and bake your next loaf.

GLAZE
1/2 cup cold water
Mix in 3/4 tsp of cornstarch and bring to a simmer in a saucepan then cool. Use the mixture for glazing your bread crust before baking

Hope this helps everyone. I look forward to seeing the breads you have made and also, I'm looking into using a printable recipe card here so you may be able to print it out soon.

LINK TO PRINTABLE

Thanks,

Karen

Valentino!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 21:33:00 +0000

As last year drew to a close, so did the life of my most cherished chihuahua, Rico. I'd had him for almost 16 years and over the past 3 or 4, I watched as he went mostly blind and began suffering with trachea collapse. After 4 visits to the doggie hospital for oxygen in December, he finally had his final ER visit on New Year's Eve and we made sad decision to have him put down. What a way for a year to end. By this time, I had already chosen my "Word of the Year" for 2018 which was Joy and was having trouble figuring out just what was joyful about little Rico's passing. I also decided that he was going to be my last dog because my husband and I are getting older and I didn't want to have a dog that would need to be "passed down" in the event of our deaths. But, every day, I found myself cruising the online breeders for another chihuahua. I visited the local pet shops with their super high priced dogs looking for a replacement for Rico, and had nearly given up when in my local Craigslist, I found this little guy!

He is in fantastic health, smart, small, quick to learn and I'm in love! And his price was very affordable for a retired couple. Of course there will be shots and licensing and maintenance but he is going to be a small dog and we are hoping he fits into the budget as much as we think he will. I never thought in a million years that I would be able to get over my loss but hearts are resilient I think. Rico will NEVER be forgotten as well as all my other dogs, but for this moment in time, I feel so much joy and thankfulness. We named him Valentino because hey, he's a lady's man and hard to resist isn't he? And because its so close to Valentine's Day and because my husband agreed another dog would be ok. Happy Valentine's Day to US!

I took a walk this morning and saw a sign about the Chinese New Year and guess what year it is? That's right.... The Year of the Dog!! I would wholeheartedly agree! I'll be sharing his stories along with ours on here and you can watch him grow!

Oui Yogurt by Yoplait. Simply DELICIOUS!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 19:47:00 +0000

Have you guys tried OUI yogurt yet?

OH MY GOSH YOU HAVE TO!! It is DELICIOUS!

This isn't the first jar I've had. Last month we discovered this yogurt at our .99 Store in San Luis Obispo and they were selling it 2 for $1. Yes, you read that right and I'm almost scared to state that on here for fear it will cause a run on the store! I know you guys think that if it's in a .99 Store, something must be wrong with it, but that isn't so. These are in date, sealed properly and absolutely perfect.

Oui yogurt, made by General Mills and Yoplait, currently comes in comes in eight flavors: strawberry, blueberry, black cherry, vanilla, coconut, lemon, peach, and plain. The yogurt is also non-gmo, gluten free and lightly sweetened with cane sugar in the fruited varieties. It is made using whole milk rather than reduced or no fat, a long culturing time and two kinds of fermenting cultures; L. Bulgaricus and S. Thermophilus. I've tried all of the flavors over the last couple of months and my favorites are the lemon, coconut and blueberry. And today, for the first time, I tried Plain. Now that is scary business for me because I've had a lot of plain yogurt and some yogurt is just way to tart for me. I used half of the jar in a banana bread recipe to replace the sour cream and then ate the other half.... plain. It was so good I practically licked out the jar!

Here is a link to the nutrition information on a jar of the plain yogurt. Since we are watching our carbs, I like that it only has 8 in the entire jar. The fat content is also not a problem on our Keto diet. AND it has 15% of daily calcium needs, which becomes more important as we age.

So if you're looking for a good little snack, breakfast item with fresh fruit, yes, even a dessert that is on the healthier side, look no more. Go pick up a few jars of your favorite flavors and give it a try. You will NOT be disappointed!

Living on Less.....WEIGHT, PART 2

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 21:03:00 +0000

How does your morning start? A cup of coffee at home or grabbed from a coffee shop on your way to work? Are you a cereal eater, bagel with cream cheese, yogurt with fruit? Do you skip breakfast? Have you given it any thought at all, or are you a creature of habit? OK, here's a good one... do you look at the box, cup or bag that you took that cereal, yogurt, bagel out of for nutritional information? Now THAT'S an eye opener.

Suddenly, the pounds start creeping up and you are wondering why. You've always eaten like this and never had to cut back to lose weight. The older you get, the less active you get for the most part, and the more those pounds creep in.

Then there's the hormonal changes, the crazy hectic lifestyle that comes along with kids and teenagers. And before you know it, it's more than just 10 pounds you have to lose. It's more like 20 to 40 pounds!

Today I'm going to give you a few more dieting ideas to mull around in your head and maybe try.

PORTION CONTROL I had coffee with a friend this morning and the words, "portion control" popped into my head. First you have to know what a portion size is for what it is that you are eating. You can look on the bag or box and see. You can also use several phone apps that will look up the information for you. Check it out. You just might be overeating the portion size. My husband likes cereal for breakfast and pours a huge bowl to overflowing. His cereal portion size is 3/4 cup of cereal. His portion size is probably 3 times that. That means 3 times all the figures on the side of that box! So know your portion size and limit yourself to having A PORTION of the item you are eating.
IS IT A WANT OR A NEED Let's say you have made up your plan for the day for meals. You have calculated out the calories and have taken them right up to the daily limit. Along comes a craving for something. Is it a need or a want? In most cases, its a want. If you are getting sufficient and balanced calories throughout the day, you really don't need the food you are craving, you are wanting it. Too many fulfilled "wants" and you will not lose weight. You can work some of the wants into your daily diet and allotted calories if you want, but not on top of what you've already decided to eat for the day. Instead trying drinking some lemon or no calorie no carb flavored water. I make up sugar free Jello gummy bears that are FREE to eat. When I'm feeling like I need a little something sweet, I'll have a few of those. If you really want candy, cookies or sweets, put them in your diet and move other parts of the daily calories around. What you will find out is that you won't have enough HEALTHY food for the day and that thing you THOUGHT you needed was just a craving that could have been ignored.
FIND WAYS TO PUT IN A LITTLE EXTRA EFFORT, MONEY OR TIME Dieting can be expensive. You may find yourself having to buy things you wouldn't ordinarily buy. Maybe you even want to get a good set of measuring cups, spoons and a food scale. You could also find it efficient to have sectioned lunch containers to put in pre-made items for the upcoming week. They make great quick "grab and go" packages. With a little extra effort you could get all the fresh items and meat from the store and on a Sunday afternoon plan your menu for the week and do some cooking to fill those containers, all weighed and measured and ready to go. You can divvy out those 1 oz. size packages of jerky, nuts, veggies, etc. and keep them in the refrigerator all nice and cleaned. Knowing what you are having will make it less possible to make dieting errors during the week. With the time you save doing it in advance, you can now go for a nice long walk, hit the gym or do a little home workout section. To save money when you're dieting, use coupons and money saving apps on your phone. Buy things in season and on sale in bulk and freeze in personal sizes to be thawed at a later date. Try finding containers at Goodwill, church bazaars or garage sales. Ask around to your friends to see if anyone has special equipment like a juicer or blender they might not be using right now that you could make use of. Have a garage sale yourself and sell items you don't need, turn around and buy things you do.
LEARN WHILE YOU GO, EDUCATE YOURSELF There are so many diets out there. Each of them says it is the end all diet but you will have to discover what works for you and keep at it. Some people go vegetarian or plant based. Some people find great success with a KETO diet. Others count calories... well the list goes on and on. There are programs that you have to pay for such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig to name a couple. Take some time and make that plan as to what you are going to do. For myself, a type 2 diabetic, I decided to do the Ketogenic diet. You eat a very small amount of carbs because they are mostly sugar, a decent amount of protein and believe it or not, the largest category you eat is fat. Doesn't that sound contrary to everything you ever heard? But its working and the best thing about it is my blood sugar numbers. I did a LOT of research before I tried it ad listened to both the positives and the negatives right from the mouths of others trying and Doctors who were suggesting it to their patients. So decide what works for you and stick to it. I also like to think of the "learn as you go" category as relearning how to eat, make healthy satisfying meals and low cal or carb treats and desserts that fit into your program rather than denying yourself. And allowing time for the emotional side of ourselves to catch up to the physical side. The fat we put on while we are dealing with life can have emotional "triggers" attached and you will need to discover what those are in your life and begin working on them while you lose.

It's important to take a look at our lives and acknowledge those areas that aren't working and strive to understand, take steps to fix and then live a less complicated and crazy life. Living on less, less weight that is, is going to be so freeing. I'll share with you that I have given myself 3 years to lose the weight. I hope it doesn't take that long but then I have a plan. 33 lbs. a year, a little under a pound a week. If it get there faster, YAHOO! And hopefully it won't take longer. I've made it a little spread out because I know I may have stalls and plateau's along the way and I wanted to be realistic. It gives me a good long time to learn some new ways to eat, cope with feelings, get used to exercising regularly, preparing healthy snacks and meals in advance and more.

I still have a few more tips that I will share in one last post and then I'll choose a different focus for a few weeks. Once a week or so, probably on Fridays, I will share my progress with you here. So keep your eyes out for KETO Fridays. I'll try and post different things like what I eat in a day, what kind of exercises I'm doing and how to pre-plan and pre-cook some items for weekly lunches and meals. Hope you'll come back again.

Living on Less.....WEIGHT, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 02:00:00 +0000

It's not just about the money. Living on Less can also mean having less "stuff" cluttering up our homes, less stress and drama, and dragging around a whole lot less weight.

The topic of the day... What are YOU "Weighting" for?

I think I've always had a weight problem. I was active enough as a teen and young adult to keep the pounds in range. But when I started having kids, I put on weight with each one. In 2001, and 230 lbs., I'd finally had enough and opted for Gastric Bypass Surgery so I would never have to think about being fat ever again and yes, I'm using the word FAT. I like to eat though, and only ended up losing a total of 35 lbs. with gastric bypass. Don't get me wrong, if you do it right, you MIGHT not have the same results I had, but a little dixie cup size meal was just not enough food for me. I would cry and be angry at every gathering of people and food. Let's just say eating was a big part of my life, so much so that it had intertwined into every facet of my life and giving up food felt like giving up myself somehow.

Then, at the beginning of this year, I found myself in a new category of FAT people. The Type II Diabetics with insulin resistance. Luckily I found a terrific Doc who prescribed a couple of really good medications that my body HATED with a passion. Metformin gave me the worst headaches EVER and Farxiga made my kidneys ache for days. And on top of that, my husband retired and chose a medical plan that no longer covered the cost of prescriptions. I knew I was going to have to do something about these medications or my diet. Oh, did I mention that Farxiga is about $400 a month. Yeah, I think you'd do something about your diet too!

That's when I found the Ketogenic diet, much like the old Adkins diet where the focus is on a very small amount of carbohydrates, a medium amount of proteins and a large amount of fats each day. How could this ever work? But work it does! My blood sugar was balanced in a short two weeks WITHOUT BEING ON ANY MEDICATION WHATSOEVER. And one of the best things is the effortless weight loss and increased energy. I'm walking all over the place! The meals are plentiful, I don't feel hungry or have cravings and using the SparkPeople.com website, I'm able to hone in my macros everyday and get support from other keto-ers.

Confession: I started my plan on June 13, 2017, and each month, I will be letting you know of my progress. I started at almost 220 and today my weight is 201. Not bad for just a couple of weeks. Now the weight is coming off much slower but it is still going down. I didn't like the way I looked or felt but I knew it was necessary to document this loss with pictures, and I do use a scale and yes, I measure my body once a month.

After a couple of weeks of being on the program, I started thinking how much dieting, cleaning the clutter and budgeting are really all alike. And maybe people who have difficulty in one of those areas, would also be susceptible to having difficulty in the others because they are very similar. I'm speaking for myself here. I tend to be a bit of a hoarder. So you see, EXCESS clutter is in my life. EXCESS weight is in my life. As I'm losing weight, I also feel the need to address and cut out those things that are preventing me from living the carefree life I was meant to live. This sorting out and shedding things and weight, spreads out and you feel lighter and lighter as the process goes forward.

Over the next few days, I will be covering 10 ideas to help you focus on Living On Less.... weight that is. And as you lose weight, maybe you will do a refining of other things in your life as I am.

HAVE A PLAN To reach any destination, there has to be a starting point and an ending point. You have to know the Where's, Why's, What's, and How's. How much weight do you want to lose? How long are you giving yourself to lose it? What are you going to do to have a successful journey with the fewest mess ups? What diet plan do you want to use to lose the weight? Look up how to set SMART goals with this link and it will help you refine your plan with very specific steps.
YOU HAVE TO STICK TO THE PLAN OVER TIME If you are like me and have a lot of weight to lose, you will need to recognize this isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to take weeks, months, maybe even years to achieve those goals. Dieting is not just done for a period of time and then you are free to eat whatever you want. For most of those that are as obese as I am, it is going to have to be a total change to the way I eat... forever. And during this extended time, you will need to be 100%, seriously committed to the plan you made in step 1.
DON'T GIVE UP I see more people who think one little mess up is worth throwing in the towel. Own it, count those calories and MOVE ON. Keep a journal and come up with ways so that doesn't happen again. Pre-package snacks that are grab and go. First thing in the morning, pack your lunch and have your dinner ready to go. Don't fall into the "poor me, I messed up again, I'm just going to give up mode." DON'T GIVE UP! It's much easier to fix things when you only messed up a snack or meal than when you have gone weeks with no correction to your diet. You don't remember this but you used to fall down a LOT.... when you were a baby. What if at that stage you just gave up and never tried to walk again? Or maybe it was riding a bike those first times. But the more times you did it, the better you got at it. Same with dieting, budgeting and cleaning out your house. Own up to what you did wrong, what caused the slip and what you could have done differently. Then the next time you find yourself in that same situation, you can use your own advice to sail right through the temptation.

Come on back tomorrow and I'll be posting a few more of my ideas for you think on and use.

Hey Retirement! Don't take OUR Date Night Away!!

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Wed, 10 May 2017 23:38:00 +0000

"Wait! Did we budget for Date Night??"

Wednesday night is Date Night at our house. It's been that way for a LONG time! And we didn't want retirement to do away with our weekly fun. So today, I'm going to cover some good ways to keep that fun coming and be able to pay for it with slightly reduced funds.

Put some money in the budget. Analyze what you can afford and how many times you will be going out during the month. If you get paid twice a month, budget for two date nights. If you get paid weekly, you only need to budget it in for the week. For us, we are getting paid once a month so we will budget for 4 to 5 nights out. We set aside about $20 to $25 per week for date night
Remember, it's about spending time together not how fancy the dining is. You can make a picnic one week and then spend double the following week at a nice place. You can make dinner at home and go to see a play or movie. In our case we could go to the beach with some hot dogs, potato chips and soda and make a nice bonfire
Use gift cards to supplement. We get them for different occasions and kind of "hoard" them until needed. If there is a Birthday or Anniversary, we actually tell our kids that we would like gift cards. In this way we have been able to go to eat and the movies for free that week. You can also buy discounted gift cards online at Giftcard Zen, or use part of your budget to buy cards when the stores offer deals such as buy 4 cards and get 1 for free
Use coupons that have been mailed to your house. Many of them will have reduced prices on certain meals, two for one combo prices or free desserts or appetizers
Go to dinner on nights or to places that offer Senior Citizen discounts, Veterans discounts, AARP discounts, etc.
Pay for just the meal and ask for water rather than a fountain or alcoholic drink
Use the receipts to file surveys online and get a discount on your next food purchase
Have a meal out and come home for the entertainment. Rent a move online or at Redbox. Watch something on Hulu or Netflix or a movie you haven't seen for a while that's in your collection.
Dine out during "early bird" dining times and save money
Eat meals off the 55 and over menu. These meals can be slightly smaller and a lot more economical
Use online sources such as Groupon.com to buy two for one price deals
Make a special meal at home complete with fine china, candle light and restaurant style food. Soft music in the background. You may think you are actually dining out!

We've done dates watching our local baseball team with dogs and cokes, biked for a picnic style dinner to local parks and had some really nice meals out. Date night is about the relationship not the money. It's about making special time to be together and nurture your relationship. I'd love to hear all the ways you go about making Date Night special. Leave a comment and give us some good ideas!

How Buying Bulk Saves Us Money

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 07 May 2017 16:33:00 +0000

We are great fans of Costco and have been for years. We have 4 children and cooked at home most meals so we got used to buying bulk. But as newly retired people, we had to ask ourselves if buying bulk was still the most money saving way to buy. And simple answer is yes!

The thing to know about bulk shopping is to only get those things you are use frequently. Most of the canned and frozen foods have a shelf life of about a year. And if you bulk shop, you really need to get used to finding that date. Our favorite list of canned items include: olives, diced tomatoes, corn, beans, refried beans, tomato sauce, the canned chicken, beef and tuna. I noticed that Costco doesn't break down their food prices so you can see how much per can, but that is NOT difficult to do. You take the total price for the bulk pack, divide it by the number of cans and that is your per can price. Why do you need to know that? So you can compare prices with what the similar item costs in your local grocery store. When the price drops below what Costco offers per can, you can stock up at your local grocery store instead. This is where a price book comes in handy... but that is for another blog post. Now the reason we get the "pure" item instead of let's say, canned chili or a pasta in sauce is so that we can make a variety of meals using the item rather than just the one type of meal. We also buy olive oil, spaghetti sauce, pasta, paper products, cleaning supplies and just recently had our printer ink refilled. Below is an example of the Costco product sign. 12 cans of green beans for $7.79 total. That would be .65 per can using the formula above.

In addition, we usually pick up some frozen chicken breast, thighs, drumsticks, ground beef, stew meat, etc. About two years ago, we decided to purchase a freezer so we could "stock up" when things went on sale, and for us, it's mostly meat in our freezer. Again, we like to have the ability to make several different meals from what we buy rather than the breaded chicken breast, meat in sauce or with pasta, etc.

Here are just a few examples of things we have gotten at a deep discount. Shortly after Christmas and Easter, we visited our local bulk store, Smart & Final, and found spiral sliced hams more than half off! We brought them home, cut the meat off the bone, packaged it into 1 lb. vacuum sealed packages and restocked our freezer for at least 6 months to a year of ham! You can do the same around Thanksgiving when you buy a turkey and get a turkey. Either keep it frozen for the next holiday, or go ahead and cook it up, take the pieces off the bones and make bags of cooked meat and turkey broth. Earlier this year, we also bought 50 lbs. of carrots and 50 lbs. of potatoes and canned them in our pressure canner. Because it is just my husband and I now, we used pint jars and have an entire years supply of both canned potatoes and carrots for under $20. Canning is NOT difficult. Most cities offer classes at the county extension offices and supplies can be picked up at thrift shops, garage sales and from friends who no longer want to do it. Jars can also be picked up for cheap or free off Craigslist. I would highly recommend learning this skill. It can save you BIG time!

We also buy rice and beans in the giant bags and store them in heavy duty food grade pails. Some of the beans get processed in pint jars in the pressure cooker so we can have them on hand for weeknight meals and the rest will get us through an entire year at a time. Again, these are the 25 to 50 lb. bags of rice and beans. And since we make our own bread and baked items, we will buy the flour, sugar, spices, bread flour, yeast, butter, chocolate chips and nuts in bulk. You can usually find really good prices on baking items around the Holidays if you don't want to get a membership to a "club" store like Costco and still want to buy bulk.

Now how do we budget for bulk shopping? The easiest way is to make it part of your monthly food budget that you set aside rather than spend. We do our big shopping maybe 3 to 4 times a year and it seldom goes over $300. So we put away $75 to $100 a month towards the big trips. Another good way to save up is to wait for a tax return or work bonus and use that money.

You can drop a lot of cash at a store like Costco so you really have to watch out and think before you buy and do some research. And for us, we never, EVER charge anything we buy there. It's too easy to buy with a credit card thinking you will pay the food off as you eat it. But most of the time, that never happens, and I'm speaking from past experience,
So BE CAREFUL.

The High Cost of Eating Out

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 01:21:00 +0000

Do you guys make a budget every month? We started doing it a couple of years ago knowing that our retirement would be coming soon and we would have to know how to live within a budget.

We use the Quicken for Mac program and is it ever insightful!! You set your budget and tailer it to meet your own personal needs. As you spend money and assign the money into your categories, the program keeps track of how you are doing within that budget. You can select monthly and by the entire year. One of these days I'll have to make a video explaining how it works for us. Anyway, for us, food kept coming up on our budget overages, meaning, we set the budget for a certain amount and each month, we were going over. Now in the "olden days" we had really gotten used to dining out at night, having several lunches out a week and those luscious coffee creations 4 out of 7 mornings!! No wonder it wasn't balancing. But we had the money then and we didn't even LOOK at what we were doing. Now that we have a reduced income, we are "revisiting" that food topic all over again.

First I will say there are only two of us on this budget of ours. Then I will say that we were spending more on food than on our house payment! Terrible to admit but true! And I will also admit that both of us could stand to loose a few pounds!

One of my favorite things to do is find a way to make home cooked food taste as good as dining out. There are tons of recipes all over the internet that can help with that. But lately, my husband has been telling me that he likes my food better than any of the places we have been eating out!! SCORE!! And as I "practice" more and more, I am getting better and better. I've made some things for the freezer that we can whip out on those nights when we just don't feel like cooking. I also will intentionally buy a few simple frozen things TO EAT AT HOME instead of going out. Yes, we probably pay more for those convenience than making it from scratch, but it will be far less than going out.

I hope you like the video and while you are over there on YouTube, please subscribe to our channel, like our subject matter and set up notifications so you don't miss anything. We have LOTS of ideas on how to save money and live within your means and still feel like your are having a happy, fulfilled life.

https://youtu.be/C0v8yCTUXog

The Leftovers - POTATO CORN CHOWDER

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 02:57:00 +0000

A great way to minimize your grocery budget is to have leftovers. I know, I KNOW... that doesn't sound very appetizing... but it CAN be!

Last night we had "Breakfast For Dinner" which was corn on the cob, bacon, hash browns and an omelet made with eggs, roasted asparagus, spring onions and cheddar cheese. It was great last night and too much for two people to eat in one night. I've been working my way through my Friday CSA box and decided to work the asparagus and spring onions into the meal. Even while I was making this meal, I was thinking, "How can I use leftovers for this meal to make something totally yummy, inexpensive and make it seem like it WASN'T leftovers. You guys have that problem too? "We don't want to eat that AGAIN...!"

Our Friday CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) Box From Rutiz Farm.

Now it's Tuesday and I'll let you in on what I came up with from last nights dinner. We ate up the omelet and gave the few bits of those leftovers back to our hens. I put the leftover hashbrowns, corn OFF the cob, leftover cooked bacon and the remaining two spring onions chopped up into a container. Potato Corn Chowder! I started the crockpot around 12 PM on low setting with a quart of chicken broth. (Dollar Tree has it for $1!!) In went the dinner leftovers along with a can of corn and two quarts of my home canned russet potatoes. That cooked most of the day on low and towards 5:30, I added in about 3/4 cup of cream, a little garlic powder and dried chives and a little mixture in a bowl to thicken.

This was an AWESOME dinner, making so much I know we will be having it again this week paired with a sandwich for lunch. We topped ours with bacon bits and grated cheddar cheese.
BAM!

POTATO CORN CHOWDER

Into the crockpot put the leftover hash brown potatoes, corn OFF the 2 cobs, 8 pieces of bacon, crumbled, can of corn, 2 quarts of canned potatoes (of fresh peeled and cubed about 4 to 5) 2 scallions chopped and container of chicken broth. Cook on low for 5 hours. Turn to high and cook for another 1/2 hour. Add heavy whipping cream, herbs and spices and thickening mixture and cook another 1/2 hour on high.

Ladle into bowls and top with a heaping spoon full of grated cheddar cheese and some bacon bits. ENJOY!

In case you were wondering, this Crockpot is my FAVORITE!

LEFTOVERS

2 Cups hash brown potatoes
2 Cobs corn
8 pcs Bacon (About half of a package)

COMMUNITY GARDEN / FARM CSA / FARMERS MKT.

1- 15.5 oz can Canned Corn (bought at Costco in bulk, could be bought and Canned in season)
2- QTS Potatoes (We bought 50 lbs and canned them in quarts. You could use fresh peeled and cubed and add at beginning of cook time)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Chives, dehydrated, fresh
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Garlic, dehydrated and powdered, or garlic powder

ON THE CHEAP

1 Qt. Chicken Broth (Dollar Tree for $1)
Cheddar Cheese (Bulk, Broken down and vacuum sealed)
Flour (Bought Bulk)

FROM STORE, UNLESS YOU HAVE A COW (wink, wink)

3/4 C. Heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter

SUGGESTED HERBS

1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp dried chives

THICKENER

2 TBSP AP Flour
2 TBSP Unsalted Butter

Mix together in a separate bowl until almost powdery appearance. Add a ladle to a ladle and a half of hot soup and mix until thickened. Add this mixture back into the crockpot.

*COULD ALSO MAKE UP MAGIC MIX AND USE THAT TO THICKEN SOUP*

Thankful Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 23:22:00 +0000

What are you thankful for this week? Oh my GOSH, there are so many things to be thankful for I hope you at least can find a hand full!

We are having the BEST weather here on the beach, lots of sunshine and gentle sea breezes. We made it over to our community garden to take out the old and put in the new. Out came the winter kale, collards, turnips, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and spinach. We replaced it with 2 kinds of baby potatoes, tomatoes, shelling peas, scallions, radishes, carrots, strawberries and leeks. We have a few empty spaces that will be planted over the next couple of weeks.

And everything is in bloom! Lilacs, Lavender, Wisteria, our berries, Daylilies, fruit trees and more!

One of the most interesting things that happened this week was a "magical" call from my oral surgeon Dr. Janette in San Luis Obispo that I HIGHLY recommend if you are looking for someone. I had a tooth removed last October and it was going to be replaced with an implant. Only thing was, he didn't want to see me for 6 months after the extraction to allow the gum and bone to heal. That would end up being the middle of April, after our official retirement date of April 1, 2017. We tried to talk him into it sooner telling him our insurance was going to run out but he said we didn't want to rush this and indeed, that is true. For the best outcome we decided to do what he said and come back on our appointment date. Meanwhile, I had another appointment with my regular dentist in February and he said he thought everything was healed fine and I should call the oral surgeon and set something up earlier. Again I decided to do as I were told. With our dental insurance changing April 1, we would be having to pay more of the deductible amounts making this "fix" pretty expensive. Then my oral surgeons office called out of the blue on March 28th asking if I could make a consult appointment on the 29th. Of course! I'm thinking maybe, just maybe he could get this part completed while we are still on our old, and good insurance! So he said my gum was ready and he could squeeze me in on Friday the 31st! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!! I sat in that chair more thankful than you can ever imagine! I paid that day for my portion of the work and the implant was completed perfectly on March 31. I can only believe that things happen for a reason in God's perfect timing.

No, its not a painting, its the view out his patient waiting room!! Gorgeous and relaxing huh?

My Birthday is April 1st. Yes, I could have the implant or I could eat a big dinner out followed by cake and the works. It was worth it to me to just wait on the Birthday part a bit longer. I am thankful he got me in before the new insurance and whether that was really accidental or not, I don't care! Today I'm sporting a pretty good bruise on my cheek and one on my arm from the general anesthesia and I don't care about that either. I am one thankful girl!! I feel like I got the biggest Birthday present EVER by being able to save so much money.

For my Birthday this year I didn't request a bunch of "stuff". I wanted a sweet little bedroom put back together again in my home. This little bedroom has been in storage now for maybe 5 or 6 years. We move the furniture so my daughter and her little family could come home for a while and when they moved, we just took our darn sweet time to get everything back over here. Now that we are retired, we have more time and less money so we're hoping to downsize the storage shed enough to get a smaller one or maybe eventually, none at all. This little bedroom was the start. So bright and early on Saturday morning, my kids and their spouses came over to haul things to and from our storage shed and brought over all the pieces so we could put the room back together once again. I am overjoyed!! That little room made me so happy! I'll be sharing some pictures when I get it just right.

I think I'm even thankful for being able to eat all things cold and soft like yogurt, popsicles, smoothies and fruit. My family is taking good care of me and allowing me to rest and recover and it won't be long before I'm able to eat like normal. Then I'm really going to celebrate!!

Sunday is a good day to reflect on your week, looking for those times you were blessed. Saying thank you to our Creator for all that is going on in our lives, both good and even the things we think are bad. Be thankful everyday!!

What's For Dinner This Week... March 17-23

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 15:31:00 +0000

Friday 3/17
Winner, Winner Taco Dinner

This is a good little meal for two. The quantity of taco meat will actually make several meals for us. I had 1 taco and Wes had 3 tonight so 4 tacos total. We like coming up with meals that we will be able to make in the future with our own garden produce. Grow what you eat!! Tonight, 2 tomatoes and 1 head of lettuce was $1.35. And we have enough left over to do a nice salad in the upcoming week. The chicken came from Costco in 2 breast packages which is perfect for the two of us. The taco shells were a pack of 10! Very economical and tasty!

You will need:

1/2 Cup Shredded Mild Cheddar cheese
1 Cup Shredded Lettuce
1 Roma Tomato Cut up
4 Stand & Stuff Taco Shells (Old El Paso)
Chicken Taco Filling (recipe follows)
Other ideas for toppings: sliced avocado, sour cream, hot sauce or ranch dressing, olives, rice, beans, corn, the sky's the limit!

Chicken Taco Filling

2 chicken breasts
1 jar (15.5 oz) Tostitos Mild Chunky Salsa
1/2 packet of McCormick Original Taco Seasoning
Pour Salsa in to bottom of small crockpot. Add 1/2 packet of Original Taco Seasoning from McCormick and stir together with salsa. Put the raw chicken breasts on top of salsa mixture and use a spoon to spoon a bit of the sauce over the breasts while they are cooking to keep them moist. Cook on High for 3 hours, low for 6. Shred with a couple of forks. We like to have our chicken a little chunky rather than totally shredded.

Saturday 3/18

Using our leftovers in a NEW way.... Chicken Taco Salad

What it includes... our chicken taco meat from yesterday, sliced black olives, cilantro lime rice, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, hominy and shredded cheese and just a few salty chips. YUM! You could also add guacamole, sour cream and salsa if you wanted.

Sunday 3/19

St. Patty's Two Days Late

You will need:

3-5 lb. corned beef brisket (flat cut if they have it)
1 head cabbage, cut in wedges
2 cups baby carrots
2 cups chicken stock
1 (12 oz) bottle dark beer
1 stick butter, cut in slices
1/4 tsp garlic salt
2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
3 lbs baby red potatoes, BOILED
(please visit site below to see how it is made)

We wanted to devote some time to making the corned beef since it is the first time making it on the Traeger Grill. The recipe is HERE, and if you want to see the video, it is HERE and YES, ours turned out just like that!! So good you guys. Remember if you make it this way, the red potatoes need to be boiled BEFORE you put them in with the brisket.

We LOVE making sandwiches with the leftovers and even breakfast hash if there is enough. Yum, Yum!

MONDAY 3/20

We went out for a quick dinner with our daughter tonight. I had the soup of the day, Pasta Fagioli and an iced tea. (I like soup but this one missed the mark quite a bit. Way too much broth and not nearly enough "stuff" in it. It had little bits of Italian sausage, carrots, onion, garlic, macaroni noodles, a LOT of broth and I think that was it. Price? $4.39 for that little bowl! I'm feeling bad now because I could have literally made enough for 6 to 8 people with that money. Live and learn people, live and learn.....

TUESDAY 3/21

Leftover Corned Beef. This will be the last meal of this. Today its being sliced sliver thin for sandwiches for the week. I made a few new carrots and we had leftover boiled potatoes, corned beef and a toasted Dill Rye bread with butter.

WEDNESDAY 3/22

Wednesday is our "Date Night" for the week, usually involving dinner of some kind and entertainment. But tonight, we are going to our grandsons school choir presentation. After the presentation, he was asked where he wanted to go for dinner. "Red Lobster!" His parents reined him in because Red Lobster is 1/2 away. So we got to eat at his 2nd favorite restaurant.... McDonalds! Oh Gosh, I'm not one to rock the boat especially when he was the start of the evening but wow, it was difficult finding something on the menu that I really wanted. So I just followed my husbands lead and got a #1... Big Mac with fries and a drink.

Appetizing OUI? NO! I'm not a big fan of McDonalds even though I think they have made more changes to their menu to keep it healthy than most of the fast food chains. I didn't finish my food and we didn't do date night.

THURSDAY

We decided to see Beauty and The Beast for Date Night this week,(So GOOD you guys!!) so on Thursday night, I just whipped up a quickie smoked sausage on a bagel and macaroni and cheese. We had homemade vegetable beef soup for lunch with a TON of veggies so I didn't feel bad leaving out the veggies for dinner. Plus, Popcorn is a veggie right??!! (wink, wink)

That was our week. Thanks for joining us on this first ever, "What We Ate For Dinner This Week."

We are getting our YouTube channel up and running so you might want to hop over there and subscribe so you won't miss any of our fun ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoz-hWPUztXybFxf_PhutkQ

Something For Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 15:27:00 +0000

This past weekend, our local Master Gardeners put on a clinic all about propagating plants and how best to grow tomatoes. For us, that's fun!

Propagation sounds like a big word, but I bet most of you have done something along the lines without even knowing it. If you've ever taken a fallen leaf off an African violet and put it in dirt and watched it grow into a brand new plant, that's propagation! It can be done in different ways for different plants and with different words; grafting, cuttings, layerings, plant division and others.

We have several fruit trees, some grapes, 4 types of berries and lavender on our property and to be able to make more plants FROM them without any added expense is perfect when you are watching your budget.

Yesterday we went over to my daughter's house and took 8 cuttings off her Meyer lemon tree and I'm hoping they take. She is going to be moving soon and the lemons off this tree are DIVINE!! And you know.... it only takes 5 years until the cuttings produce fruit of their own. We are willing to wait!

Growing some or all of the fruit and vegetables you want to eat after you retire is thrifty and healthy. Fresh fruit and vegetables are probably one of the most expensive parts of a grocery trip and it doesn't matter where you live, you can grow something. Whether its in a pot by the front door, your patio, actual raised beds in your backyard, mixed in among your flowers or even on your windowsill indoors, growing food or herbs will save you money. Additionally, you can duplicate house plants, succulents and many bedding flowers FOR FREE!

We decided last year that it was worth it to pay a small fee to have a space in our local Community Garden two blocks away. In California, you can literally grow year round if you choose what you grow by its hardiness. Right now we have shelling peas, garlic, beets, spinach, brussels sprouts, kale, cilantro, carrots, turnips, potatoes, radishes and scallions there. And that is on a space about 15 ft by 30 ft. We lovingly call it our little Produce Stand. We are passionate about eating healthy food and we know how our food is grown.

If you are looking for ways to reduce your spending on groceries, give vegetable and fruit gardening a try. Your local community extension offices probably have Master Gardeners and programs too that can help you with anything from pests, to soil testing to what to grow in your area. And most of what you will learn is completely free. I made a little VIDEO about our trip so you can see just how many people of all ages came to our propagation clinic.

Here are also some books if you are interested in getting started with propagating your own plants.

Copycat Vanilla Soy Chai

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 22:49:00 +0000

One of my favorite drinks at Starbucks is the Grande size, Vanilla Soy Chai. But, wow, has it ever gotten expensive! I want to say when I started drinking this drink about 10 years ago it was $3.75, which was expensive but now it is $4.75! Probably a lot like you, I don't always think about the cost when I go in. I have a Starbucks card, I faithfully reload my card about twice a month and I spend what's on there and reload again.

Now that we are trying to live on quite a bit less but not give up the "good life", I was determined to make the drink at home and make it taste like my favorite coffeehouse drink. To my surprise, it was very simple and economical!

HERE'S the Video where I show you how simple it is to make!

I'll give you a little breakdown of the expense.

Soymilk is $2.98 for a half gallon and I use 1/8 of the gallon for the drink, so .37 in milk
Vanilla syrup is 12.2 oz for $3.98 and I use a little under 1 oz. for a drink, .33 in syrup
Tazo Chai tea mix is $3.28 for 32 oz. and I use 1/4 in my drink, .90 for Chai mix

That is a whopping $1.60 for a Grande size drink! Compare that to $4.75 for the same thing at Starbucks! A savings of $3.15 for doing it myself and it is a drink you can drink hot or over ice.

YOU can do this YOURSELF with whatever drink you like. And if you don't get it right the first time, keep trying! Pretty soon you will and you'll be saving money just like us.

Thanks for visiting today and come back soon!

Preservation Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Life Is A Journey) — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 00:45:00 +0000

You'll never guess what we did this week! Went to our local supermarket and bought 50 lbs. of russet potatoes. Yup, the REALLY big bag. I have been getting the canning bug and wanted to make some canned potatoes for my pantry.

Canning is a really good way to save money if your already own your equipment. I've been doing this since 2010 and slowly building up my supplies over the years. Now my canning costs are mainly for jars, rings and lids. I keep the rings and use them over and over but the lids need to be replaced after each use. And the jars I can still pick up on Craigslist pretty cheaply. I also shop the "end of season" sales every year.

So, I bet you are wondering just how many quart jars of potatoes you can get from 50 lbs of potatoes and the answer would be.... about 18 to 20 quarts. We're halfway through the bag and have done up 14 quarts leading me to believe it will be more like 28 quarts of potatoes in the end. That works out to .35 per jar. Now you are probably saying to yourself, "Why would I go through all that trouble to can potatoes when I could just buy them?" and that may be true for you. But... there are more potatoes in a quart jar than in a can that you buy at the store by double. Those cans are typically 16 oz. cans and a quartt jar is 32 oz. Again, a money savings. In addition, jars are reusable so less trash to put at the curb and landfills. And imagine how wonderful your pantry will look! Having preserved food available makes for meals in minutes. Imagine a stew with home canned meat, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion. All done up in less than half an hour and fork tender! Or maybe a great little chicken vegetable soup ready to come directly out of the jar into the pan. If you grow vegetables or fruits, you can pick the produce at the peak of their ripeness and make a lovely jar of jelly or jam, applesauce, dill pickles and even beans to put into chili.

The skills are not difficult to learn and most counties have an agricultural extension that offers lessons to the public. As a matter of fact, I went to one at my local county extension office on Introduction to Canning. The demo was on making a very simple applesauce that was water bath canned and was it ever delicious! We have a little apple tree in our backyard and when the apples come this year, I want to try out a BUNCH of apple things in my canner. ( And make some vinegar, but that's for another day!)

Needless to say, I was so excited I came home and decided to put some corned beef into jars and give it a try. We needed to make room in our freezer for the new corned beef as it goes on sale this upcoming week. I cube up the corned beef, give it a quick little fry in some olive oil mainly so the cubes don't stick to each other in the jar, put them in the jar with some hot water and a little salt and seal them up. Process for 75 minutes under 10 pounds of pressure and voila! We will have something for our lunch and for quick dinners. It ended up making 5 pints from a pretty large brisket round. Cannot wait to eat it! It will be so tender after its little cook up!

Why not think about getting together some supplies and developing a new skill. You can start with fruit. The tools required are pretty economical and you may even get lucky and find some of the canning items at garage sales or thrift shops. These are some of the items I would recommend a brand new canner to get:

Water Bath Canner
Ball Utensil Set for Preserving Now this is great because you get all the most common tools, a jar lifter, bubble remover / headspace tool, magnetic lid lifter and a jar funnel
The Ball Preserving Book. Pretty much the "Bible" of how to can complete with recipes, time tables, tips
Big Pots, Canning jars, lids, rings, wooden spoons and a good supply of fruit along with the recipes.

Canning is a great thing to learn and fun! There are many "How-To" videos on YouTube as well.

My process....

Buy the potatoes of course...

Wash, peel, cube the potatoes

The Potato Washing Area

A place to peel the 'taters.... no not into the garbage disposal.... you will regret it. Of course our compost LOVED the addition!

Put cubed potatoes in a large roaster of boiling water to boil for 10 min. This helps to reduce the starchy water.

Put cubed potatoes into jars using a slotted spoon so you leave the starchy water behind. Here is my stainless canning funnel.

I will top the quart jars with 1 tsp of salt now while I can still see it. Take it from me, you don't want to make a mistake here! Add boiling water to prescribed headspace, non-chlorinated is best. We pick up a couple bottles of drinking or spring water from the store. Wipe the rims clean with a towel that has been wetted with white vinegar and place lid and ring. Pop the completed jar into the canner. When the canner is full, in my case, 7 quarts, we put the lid on and wait for the canner to vent for 10 minutes before putting the weight on the top. Then it processes for 40 minutes under pressure and is allowed to come down to pressure with the lid on. You will more than likely hear the pressure pin drop. Remove the lid and let them sit for another 10 minutes or so to acclimate to to the temperature of the room some. Remove the jars to a towel without tipping them from side to side at all. You will probably see boiling continuing in the jars and that is normal and you will hear the POP of the lids as they cool, proof that the vacuum sealing has occurred. Allow the jars to sit for 24 hours undisturbed. Then you can remove the rings and label and put on the shelf for up to 1 year safely and nutritiously.

Voila!! Beautiful jars of canned potatoes! I hope you will give it a try and let me know how it works for you. Thanks for joining me today in my little preserving venture.

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