Making Spaghetti Sauce

I have a fairly large garden and I grew quite a few tomatoes. I started these from seed inside my house in a little greenhouse I have. (It is about 3x4 feet and tall with a number of shelves.) I usually buy seeds on clearance for .10 a packet and freeze them until the next year, so my starts cost me next to nothing. I did buy some special greenhouse starter soil this year for starting some other vegetables with no luck. Putting seeds right in the ground, except for tomatoes I have found usually works best.

Here are some of my tomatoes from the garden. I don't peel my tomatoes before cooking them down. That's too much like work! I wash them and cut them into chunks and put them into a large pot. I have a metal processor that is hand worked to squeeze out the pulp.

Here is my makeshift summer kitchen. I can cook the tomatoes or whatever else I have down without heating up the kitchen. This small cooker cost about $40.00 and my husband bought the propane tank on Craigslist used but I am not sure what he paid for it. It cost me $17.00 to fill it up with propane.

 Here is a good shot of the tomatoes. I added olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic, dried celery and Parmesan. I added what looked like the right amounts. Sorry, no recipe! My daughter asked me to also add some store bought sauce to stretch this since homegrown tomatoes taste SO much better than store bought. I bought this lovely pot at a garage sale for .50. It radiates heat evenly so no burning!

Out of this pot, I got these four packages. These are about equivalent to a little more than a jar of store bought sauce each. It takes a LOT of tomatoes to make a little sauce.

Growing your own doesn't always save much money, but the quality and taste is very good and it is a very satisfying process if you like this as a hobby.

Happy Savings!

Dehydrating Foods

When we were camping, I found these amazing Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms! (Take care if you don't know anything about mushrooms! Some are poisonous!) Chicken of the Woods mushrooms are very good so I put these into a few baggies and took them home. A few years ago, I bought this dehydrator at a garage sale and just now got around to trying it out. So, after eating fresh mushrooms to our hearts content, I dehydrated the rest. 

It took a lot of mushrooms to make this pint jar! However, now, all winter when I want some mushrooms to put in soups or casseroles, I can grab this jar!

Since the mushroom project was so successful, I decided to dehydrate some raspberries this year. I usually freeze all the raspberries and make jam or juice them. My husband loves raspberries so he is using these on cereal and ice cream. 

I was concerned about any moisture left in the berries and mushrooms and so I dug some moisture "soakers" out of some supplements I had and put them into the jars. I'm sure a few grains of rice would work just as well but you would want to be careful not to get them into your cereal and break a tooth! THAT wouldn't be frugal. ;)

A dehydrator is not needed for dehydrating. Some people dehydrate in the sun or in their ovens. Here is an article on dehydrating: http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/dehydrate-food-without-dehydrator-0161531/

 Happy Savings! 

Venison Stew with Cheese and Buns, Pickles and Caramel Brownies for About .45 a Serving

Sometimes I feel kind of bad making blog posts about these extremely frugal meals because I know not everyone has the resources I have. I hope though, that it can inspire frugal meals that you can do within your own resources. 

Tonight I made Venison Stew with buns, pickles and caramel brownies for about .45 a serving! This is not unusual for me because of the way we choose to live and the resources around me. 

First of all, a couple of nights ago I made a 3 lb venison roast. We harvest and butcher our own venison, so the venison cost was negligible. With this roast, I made potatoes that we harvest from a field in this area after they get done harvesting. We get enough for all winter every year and so I have more potatoes than I can use! In addition, my Dad gave me some garden carrots that I also made in this roast. The only things I paid for were the minced garlic and the green onion. So, we ate that for two meals. There was plenty of roast left, so I decided to make a stew with it. 

With the roast, I served these marked down buns from Wal-Mart. I heated them up and slathered butter on them and heated them some more until the butter looked good and slightly bubbly. The buns were .09 a serving.

In this stew, besides the venison, potatoes and carrots, which I paid nothing for, I added some fiddleheads that I foraged last spring. I also added some garlic, barley, wild rice, dried mushrooms, celery flakes and a few other spices which I guess to have added up to make the stew about .06 a serving. There are about 10 servings so we ate well tonight and will also eat well tomorrow.

 I bought shredded cheese on ad match at Wal-mart for .99 for 8 oz. This made each serving of cheese .12.

 I served the stew and buns with garden pickles and the cost of those is negligible.

For dessert, I made caramel brownies. I paid .99 for the box of brownies on sale and when I added up the rest of the ingredients and added homemade caramel topping, the cost per serving for the brownies is about .17 a serving. 

I also have a bit of roast left which will be enough to make roast beef sandwiches for about two days of eating plus scraps for the cat, who loves venison scraps, especially in the winter!

Any situation we find ourselves in, we can be creative with our resources. It's fun and it saves $$$!

Happy Savings! 

Using Corn Cobs after Freezing Corn: Corn Cob Jelly

 Today, I froze corn. It always bothered me to just throw out the corncobs because it seems like there is so much good stuff still there. I have always just thrown them out though, until this year! I decided to do a web search and came up with a site that talked about making corn cob jelly! I was intrigued so I went ahead and tried it. I like the idea our ancestors had of using everything possible.

 Here are the corn cobs boiling. The corn cobs have to be boiled for 30 minutes.

And here is the final product! The article said it tasted like honey and it really does, surprisingly so!

Here is the article and it contains the recipe I used. http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/how-to-make-corn-cob-jelly/ It's fun to try something new and to know I finally found a use for those old corn cobs!

Happy Savings!

Reminder! Time to Buy Strawberries and Freeze!

In my area of the country, it's strawberry season! This means buying strawberries on sale in bulk, hulling them and freezing them! I just paid $1.29 a pound, soaked them in a vinegar/water mix (takes out some of the pesticides), hulled them and froze them (after they are hulled I just put them right in baggies and freeze!). I just did 5 pounds and will do more later when they go on sale again. Strawberries frozen were about $9.00 for four pounds last I checked so this saves some more pennies to add up to dollars to save or purchase items on sale!

Happy Savings!

Pennies Pennies Everywhere! Save Money on Milk!

A number of years back, I stopped using cow's milk. Before I did, I added water to every gallon to stretch it. I saved a lot of money that way. You can hardly tell the difference if you get the ratio right and it tastes just fine! (I would wait until the gallon was down maybe four inches and then fill it back up and shake it.)

In recent years, for health reasons, I switched to almond milk. I also added water to that and saved money there as well.

Recently, I needed to change for health reasons again! I was a bit stumped until I remembered that you can make oatmeal milk!

Since the only thing I really use milk in is smoothies, instead of almond milk, I just put some water and a small handful of quick oats in the blender with the other ingredients, blend and voila! It works perfectly and amazingly it is MUCH cheaper than almond milk!

If you want to make oatmeal milk that is strained, you can follow this recipe or the many other variations of recipes online:

http://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/oat-milk-recipe-vegan

There are so many ways to save money. There are pennies, pennies everywhere!

Happy Savings!

Making Maple Syrup

A few years ago, I started making maple syrup from my own back acres. We have a very rudimentary system, but it works for simple home use. Here in the photo below, I am starting to trek out.

Inside this sled, I have what I need. Drill, containers, hoses and rubber mallet. I pull the sled along as I go.

Here's the trail.

Last fall, I looked for maple tress and put small orange flags by the maples so I knew where to find them.

7/16th's drill bit fit the hose ends I bought on ebay so I drill a hole low on the tree.

After the hole is drilled, I whack the hose end in with a rubber mallet.

Then I attach a container to the other end for sap collection.

The trial left by the sled is great for remembering where to go next time I come out!

 After all the collecting, we have to boil it down. Every year, we never know how much sap we are going to get but you have to collect 40 gallons of sap that boil down to 1 gallon of syrup. Yes, you read that right! We do the boiling outside on a barrel stove my husband made. I don't have a picture of that right now.

We had so much syrup a couple years ago, I didn't collect last year and we still have some left! I have more than what is below, but took this as a sample picture. I found a lot of prices for maple syrup online but it's safe to say $20.00-$25.00 for a quart.

I use maple syrup in smoothies and on pancakes and I make berry syrup with the berries on our property.

Happy savings!

Freezing Strawberries

I have a strawberry patch, if you can call it that. It doesn't produce hardly anything and I have not treated it well. I get so much going on. Too many irons in the fire and so some things get neglected. The strawberry patch is one of them. I may just till it under next year.

So, since I am a strawberry patch keeping failure, I look for strawberries when they are on sale and I freeze them. Yes, I am too cheap to get the wonderful strawberry patch ones, the ones that taste superb. But, at $15.00-$18.00 for a gallon, I just can't see fit to cough that up. That is on the bucket list for someday. :) Every year strawberries go on sale, usually for .99 for 1 lb. At that time, I buy a lot and freeze them. But, alas, this year they never were at .99 that I saw. Everything just keeps going up. So, while I was waiting for the .99 sale, I passed on the $1.19 sale. Finally, here we are in Aug and I bought these for $1.29 lb before I lose out altogether.

While I was at Aldi, I did some price checking. Right now while supplies last, you can buy 1 lb of frozen strawberries for $2.19, marked down from $2.29. I have a feeling this means they will go up come winter. So 6 lbs of frozen strawberries right now would cost $13.14. I paid $7.74 for 6 lbs. of the fresh ones. If we do this type of comparison, I saved $5.40. But what if I waited until winter? Fresh strawberries cost quite a bit in the winter, let's just say $2.49 lb for a rough estimate. That's $14.94 for 6 lbs. for a difference of $7.20 for the ones I bought today. So, I saved between $5.40 and $7.20 for what took me a half an hour of labor today. Let's multiply that and we get between $10.80 and $14.40/hour, tax free. Not too bad. Give yourself a raise with your labor today. :)

Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Do you have a garden or a neighbor who gives you zucchini or yellow squash? Do you wonder what to do with it all? Do they rot in your refrigerator and end up in the trash?

These yellow squash I grew in my garden. (I bought special seeds for this as most zucchini and squash is genetically modified nowadays. I try to stay away from GMO and I do pay more for that and think it's a good idea if you can afford it.) Squash and zucchini grow like crazy and there is always more than enough, it seems. Fortunately, these can be used for making breads, muffins, and cakes. So, I washed them off and grated them and put them into reused freezer bags (these have been washed out for reuse as you can see by the scribbled out words. It is not recommended that you reuse bags that have had meat in them. Do so at your own risk.) I just put some hot water in the bags and a squirt of soap, squeeze and rub them and rinse them out and hang upside down to dry.

Here are some recipes. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx?evt19=1

So here are two money saving tips today. Use up your yellow squash and zucchini by grating them and making baked goods and reuse your plastic bags. :)