Homemade doggy treats

I thought this was a great idea, and perfect for a homemade gift this year: Bake your own doggy treats!  Very simple recipe, and a healthy, tasty treat for your loyal companion!  Check out the blog at pawluxury!

Frugal Holiday Tips on oprah.com

Since I don’t have cable I didn’t get to see it, but my Mom pointed me towards Oprah’s website today.  It is filled with great tips on how to “have the thriftiest Holiday ever.”  They even have free music downloads for holiday favourites! 

A new life

Some big changes ahead for the Saver Queen.

Last Friday was the last day on the job for me as a Fundraiser.  I really enjoyed certain aspects of the job (I worked in the area of personal giving, also called planned giving, in the nonprofit sector, that deals with stocks & securities, gifts in wills, life insurance, and so on).  Unfortunately, the organization was just not utilizing me to my full potential.  I am the kind of person who has a passion for innovation. I get excited about change.  I love finding new and better ways to do things.  The charitable sector is changing - we are on the crest of a new wave of philanthropy - and I want to work at an organization that is willing to ride that wave, that supports change, recognizes talent, encourages innovation, and shares a vision with its employees.  Unfortunately, the organization that I worked for did not do any of those things.

I had contemplated a change for a while, half-hazardly working towards my own business ideas and goals, but the decision was made more easily when Josh got a new job out of town.  We have both actually been looking at new opportunities months now.  A good thing, as all our preparation enabled us to change gears swiftly when the company he was working for started to crumble.

With interviews in San Francisco, Austin Texas, and Montreal, and no real outcome for either of us, Josh was made an offer and we will be moving to the small town of Guelph, Ontario, in early January.

I have mentioned on the site (and on Gail’s site) very briefly that I will be starting my own business.  Well, I will save a more detailed explanation for another day.  Essentially I am giving myself one year to develop a couple of exciting web businesses I have in mind.  It’s very scary and the prospect of “falling behind” my peers is one that I find threatening to my identity.  But on the other hand, I’m thrilled.  I look forward to taking full advantage of my creativity and resourcefulness and putting it into action.  I’ve always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur.  It’s a dream I’ve had for more than 10 years. Whatever happens, it will be an adventure.

Does anyone else have exciting changes or plans for the New Year?

My day in the kitchen

Yesterday I made a delicious chicken stock, salmon chowder and cheddar biscuits using only what we had in the house.  Even though our kitchen is pretty sparse these days (we haven’t gone for a full cart of groceries for about a month now) I managed to pull together a really satisfying meal and use up what could otherwise be left behind when we move in January.

My homemade chicken stock

First I made homemade chicken stock.  I used a carcass from a small chicken that we roasted about 6 weeks ago.  It was a small carcass, but it made enough for my chowder.

I sliced some carrots and onions and then added the frozen carcass, with a couple of bay leaves, and then poured enough water over it to barely cover it.  Normally I guess you’re supposed to let it reduce with a low-boil for about 4-5 hours, but mine was done after just over an hour.  Typically you would also add a celery stock but I didn’t have any and it didn’t seem to make a difference.

When it was done, I strained it through a fine mesh strainer - but you could also use a cheesecloth. The stock was flavourful, but only yeilded about 1.5 cups of stock.  It was enough for my chowder.

My salmon chowder

When making a chowder, you can use vegetable stock or even water, but chicken works fine too.  Actually, I think it gave my chowder a rich flavour.  It didn’t overpower the salmon taste at all.

The main point of making the chowder was to use up the frozen salmon fillets I had bought on sale.  You can find Highliner packs of 4 or 5 fillets for $3.99 - even cheaper if you have a coupon!  I had purchased mine for $2.99, working out to 60-75¢ a fillet - and a great way to get a healthy protein!

I used three fillets and baked them for 20 minutes at 450, along with some butter and garlic. After, I let them cool and then put in them in the fridge.

Next, I browned three diced onions and added one large diced carrot and two diced potatoes with some of the chicken stock. I covered the pot and let it simmer for approximately 20 minutes.  After letting the vegetables soften, I added the rest of the stock and some garlic.  Next I added about a 1/2 cup of cream and another cup of milk.

Then I flaked up the salmon in a bowl and added it to the soup along with some parsley.

Finally, I added some frozen corn, after defrosting it in a bowl of water in the microwave for about 2 minutes (following the package directions.)

I let it simmer for a little longer and that was it!  An easy, delicious and healthful way of using up what was in the house.  I’ve seen many other recipes that call for evaporated milk, but I thought my chowder was thick enough using a milk and cream combo.

My cheese biscuits

The biscuits were adapted from the Canadian Living recipe here.  But I should preface this by telling you that I failed once before making them right.  Not because the recipe was tough but because I easily mix up letters, numbers and all instructions in general.

I started with this recipe. The dough seemed really sticky and upon closer inspection I realized I had forgotten the baking soda.  I tried mixing it with a little extra milk and lemon juice and then adding it to the mix, knowing full well that improvisation and baking rarely works.

But the dough just got stickier and stickier and even with extra flour it wouldn’t ease up.  Upon closer inspection of the recipe yet again, I realized I had put in 3 tbs of baking powder instead of 3 tsp.

So, I started over, with the Canadian Living recipe.  I followed it to a T except I replaced the butter with shortening, since I used up all my butter in my previous failed attempt.  I also cheated by using a muffin tray.

For all my mini-foibles, the cheddar biscuits turned out amazing!

In fact, the stock, chowder and biscuits turned out great.  When Josh got home from work tonight he was thrilled to find a warm, hearty meal waiting for him (it rarely happens around here!) He gave a little head roll when he bit into the cheese biscuit - something that I only see him do when he’s eating something he really, really loves!

Best of all, I created this meal using only what we had at home - didn’t buy a single thing!

Chicken salad from heaven

As promised, I thought I’d follow up with recipes from my previous post - Making the most of what you’ve got.

We made the best chicken salad from a roast chicken that was on sale for $6.  We followed the recipe from this gorgeous food blog, Bread & Honey.

• 1 roast chicken (the B&H blog calls for 1 breast, but we used the entire chicken)
• 2 large carrots (use just one if you are only using a single breast)
• 1 large celery stalk (I omitted this because it was missing from my fridge)
• 2 green onions (original recipe calls for 1/2 a yellow or white onion but I really like the green onion in it)
• several large dollops of mayonnaise, enough to coat the mixture
• a few squirts of brown mustard
• a good splash of apple cider vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste

Dice everything, shred the chicken, mix in a large bowl with condiments until everything is evenly coated.

Enjoy!

Baking coupons

Coupons from the Nestle Toll House are here:

Nestle Toll House morsels - 50¢ off 

Carnation Evaporated Milk - Buy 3 save $1.00

Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough - $1.00 off

Making the most of what you’ve got

Use up your baking supplies!

We are moving on January 2nd - and we will be spending about 4 days out of the house for Christmas holidays with my parents out of town.  With that in mind, Josh and I are determined to eat up what we have around the house and buy as few groceries as possible. 

Yesterday we dropped by Loblaws to pick up a few staples and I couldn’t believe how much food prices have risen.  We have not gone grocery shopping for nearly a month now (just relying on a few mini-trips here or there for one or two items) and I was frankly shocked that prices have gone up within weeks.  A head of romaine lettuce for $2?  Basic brown Wonderbread for $2.79?

So now I have another reason to eat-in - the high cost of food!

Right now the cupboard, fridge and freezer are looking a little sparse.  And by a little, I mean a lot! We don’t have much, but here’s how we are making it last. (I will follow up this post with recipes!)

1. Lentils. The other day I made a tremendous soup using dried lentils, carrots, and canned tomatoes. This made sooo much soup - I had about a million bowls of it and there’s still some in the freezer! 

2. Baking our own bread.  That’s right, we’re giving it another go.  We have all the ingredients so why not? 

3. Roast chicken. I had a chicken in the freezer that I bought on sale for $6.  We roasted it last night, and I can’t believe how much chicken that bird yielded!  

4. Pasta. Remember those Europe’s Best frozen veggies that were on sale for 99¢ after the coupon? We defrosted them in a frying pan and added them to whole wheat pasta, along with olive oil, garlic and some goat cheese.  Deliciously simple!  We still have more of all of the above ingredients so I’ll definitely make this one again.

5. Salmon cakes.  We actually have a ton of HighLiner frozen salmon in our freezer, purchased on sale.  We have some potatoes and green onions and josh is going to make salmon cakes.  I am also going to use what’s left of the salmon, frozen corn, potatoes, cream and milk, to make a salmon chowder.  All I really need is some fresh dill.

6. Everything but the kitchen sink soup. I don’t know what’s going in this soup, but I know that I have beans, lentils, garlic & onions, macaroni, rice, cabbage, carrots, corn, tomato paste, and some frozen chicken bones - and somehow I get the sense that out of those ingredients I could probably figure out a soup to make (any suggestions, btw?)

7. Baked goods.  I have tons of baking supplies and I have a feeling that some muffins or scones will be in order.

8. Hummus. “God bless the chickpea.” It’s just one of those things you can make when your fridge is nearly bare.

9. Broccoli salad.  This morning my Mom sent me a recipe for this and I had to laugh - I had everything I needed to make it except the broccoli - including sunflower seeds, raisins, yogurt and feta cheese.  

10. Tuna casserole - another frugal stand-in when you’re cupboards are getting bare. I do not have mushroom soup but I have a recipe that calls for sour cream and mayo instead, and I have both of these ingredients. 

My shopping list for these meals will include:

1. Fresh herbs - parsley and dill

2. Celery

3. Broccoli

That’s it! (Shall we take bets on if I’ll succeed in coming out of the store with just those three items?)

Cottonelle coupon

Play the game and get a coupon for Cottonelle toilet paper.  Unfortunately, the site has a few problems and it didn’t really work for me. Anyway, maybe it will work for you! Give ‘er a try and report back! Thanks!

Use eBay and Craiglist to your advantage this Christmas

Thinking of shopping online to get Christmas gifts at a discount?  Craigslist and eBay offer exciting deals.  We bought a Kitchenaid mixer at 1/3rd the cost - literally saving us at least a couple of hundred dollars.  We have also made money by buying stuff on eBay.  About 6 years ago, Josh bought a Fender Rhodes keyboard and then resold it recently at a $600 profit.  How? The keyboard was underpriced because the brand name was misspelled.  Buyers didn’t recognize it as what they were looking for and didn’t bid on it.  You can learn from our strategy: misspell the brand name you’re looking for - you just might find a brand name product drastically underpriced.

Frugal hot chocolate mix

Why buy hot chocolate mix when you can make it yourself? Yesterday, we whipped up a batch following Alton Brown’s recipe.

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
• 2 1/2 cups powdered milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• Hot water

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly. We actually used a food processor - trying to mix it in a bowl was just too messy and too difficult with this much powder!

We also cut up some marshmallows we had and put them in too.  However the key is to add the marshmallows at the end.  They nearly exploded in the food processor!

In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.

Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk.

It’s tasty and much cheaper than buying pre-packaged hot chocolate in the store.  You can make this recipe even cheaper by buying some of your ingredients at the Bulk Barn or other bulk foods or baking stores.