Dried flowers: a frugal, forgotten fall craft

I bought these flowers (shown above in my James Sadler vase)  from some mennonites at the St. Jacob’s farmer’s market at the beginning of the month. They were $4 for the bunch, which I thought was quite reasonable.  I only kept them in water for a few days, because my main goal was to dry them and I needed them to be in excellent condition.

I’ve never dried flowers before, but I think it’s one of those old country crafts that is really sweet.  Here’s how to do it (it’s easy!)

Lay the flowers out on newspaper and arrange them in bunches.  Next, take string or twine - I had neither and used ribbons made out of fabric instead - and tie around the end of the stems.  Make sure to tie it tight enough so that the flowers are held together, but loose enough that the flowers are not tightly pressed up against each other.  

Hang them in a warm, dry place for 30 days. I tied mine to the racks in my pantry and it worked perfectly!

After 30 days, remove them from the pantry and take all the ribbons off.  You can rub the stems to make any excess leaves fall off.

They still look vibrant and beautiful in the vase - and now they will last for a long time! (That is, as long as I can keep Butternut from attacking these crumply, rustly, crunchy items which awaken a hunting instinct in cats!) 

I also put some of the flowers in a milk glass vase in the living room, a few others in rustic looking tin box in the bedroom, and I saved a few other loose pieces for crafts. I actually have no idea what I would use them for, but I know that I will think of something. 

Now that fall is fast approaching, beautiful fall wildflowers are out in full force.  I think I might spend some time this weekend picking some for drying.

Do you dry flowers? Anyone know any crafts that involve dried flowers?

Four weeks of frugality: Eating great, spending less

This month I have been on my strictest grocery budget ever.  In fact I’ve actually gone the last four weeks spending a total of $142 on food and personal care - that’s just over $35 per week.  If we subtract personal care items out of there (cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc) I actually spent just under $122 or around $30 a week on food.  Admittedly, there were several days when I ate at my parents’ place, so I did not eat at home for every meal.  But what I did do was eliminate fast food altogether.  Actually, I did splurge once when I was traveling to a wedding, but apart from that one occasion, I did not buy so much as a cup of coffee.  So suffice it to say, there were  a lot of meals that I prepared and consumed at home.

Although I admit it was difficult, I have been eating very healthy food. I don’t think I’ve ever been so creative with my meal planning in my life.  I pushed myself to come up with dishes using the ingredients I had.  In this respect, the frugal budget has probably pushed me to eat better and learn to be a better cook. Here are some of the tasty dishes I enjoyed on a strict grocery budget:

Breakfast items:

Plain yogurt with wildflower honey and chopped walnuts

Fruit shake with frozen fruit, yogurt, soymilk, and ground flax seed 

Oatmeal

Main courses - Lunches & Dinners

Spinach and lentil soup

Stuffed peppers with rice, kale & spinach

Corn & jalapeno soup

Homemade pizza with summer squash, roasted garlic, goat cheese and olive oil, served with corn on the cob 

Similar ingredients, different style - a whole wheat pasta with summer squash, roasted garlic, goat cheese and parsley, with garlic toast

Curried chick peas and tomatoes

Warm spinach and chick pea salad with sundried tomatoes and green onions

Warm mushroom salad on a toasted baguette

Black bean burritos with chopped peppers, green onions, fresh herbs and homemade salsa

Greek salad w/ homemade vinaigrette

Hamburgers (store bought) w/ caramelized onions and my own secret sauce, served w/ homemade potato chips

Spinach salad with homemade dressing

Rice & bean salad with sundried tomatoes, feta cheese and scallions

Madras root vegetable curry with rutabaga, sweet potato, carrots and potatoes - with freshly ground & toasted spices

Snacks

Sliced apples w/ wildflower honey

Herbed cream cheese using fresh herbs and garlic on rye crisp bread

Fresh salsa and homemade tortilla chips

Homemade chip dip with chips

Fresh spinach dip and rye crisp bread

Silky smooth roasted red pepper hummus topped with roasted red peppers

Drinks

Iced green tea with freshly squeezed lemon and honey

Mojitos with simple syrup using fresh mint

Hot mint tea with fresh mint leaves

Water flavoured with cucumbers or limes

This, of course, is not an exhaustive list, but it provides some examples of meals I’ve made while eating a pretty extreme food budget.  I will be supplying some of the recipes to my favourite dishes, but please let me know if there is something in particular you would like the recipe for!

Do you track how many coffees or meals you consume outside the home? What’s the longest you’ve ever gone with eating only home cooked meals and beverages? 

A new career, a new office

Last weekend, I cleaned out my office.  

Wait, I should back up. Many of you know that when I moved, I had plans of starting my own business. This did not come to fruition for a few reasons, and I ended up looking for full-time work instead. Although I am armed with a great education and experience in my field, finding work was not so easy. I felt the impact of the recession first hand and have spent the last 7 months unemployed.  But I was the busiest unemployed person you could find, constantly applying for jobs, meeting with everyone in my field I could, and often working pro-bono for them, just to get a foot in the door. All the networking and volunteering I’ve done has actually led to something new.  Bit by bit, I am starting my own business - beginning with freelance consulting work. I know there is potential on the horizon for a new small business idea to turn into a reality as I’m already seeing a lot of interest from people in the community.  Actually, lots of communities. I will be vague about it for now, but I am excited about the plethora of opportunities that I think this fall and winter will bring. 

So, I need to make some changes. Changes to the way I budget, changes to my financial plans in general, and changes to my financial record keeping. I have to think a lot about how to budget and make spending/saving plans without a consistent income. I have to keep careful records for tax purposes. I have to find a good way of organizing my time.  And I have to budget my time, and keep track of my time so I know what projects are paying me a good return on my investment, and also so that I know when I deserve to have a break (when I manage my own time I tend to feel as though I should always be working, and I want to be able to say - “I’ve worked X hours this week, so I deserve to take Sunday off”.)

First things first, I reorganized my office. Er, that is, I organized my office.

Here’s the before picture - how embarrassing! The entire desk had turned into a “do it later” dumping ground over the last couple of months.

After: Much better! And I’ve managed to keep it perfectly organized all week. 

(Can you spot Gail?)

By the way, cats *love* it when you do this kind of reorganizing. Everything is a game.

I’d also been keeping some packaging materials around thinking that they would come in handy for reorganizing, and they did! For example, I discovered that boxes containing cotton swabs are actually perfect for storing delicate paint brushes.

Do you work from home? Are you self-employed? How do you keep organized?

The basic necessities

Something about Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s blog post yesterday, Our Love Affair with Stuff, prompted me to share something that’s been on my mind for a while now.

I’ve been volunteering at a local AIDS Service Organization (ASO), interviewing clients (recipients of care) and writing their stories. All of the clients, who are PLHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS) have contracted the disease in different ways, shattering the myths that unfortunately still proliferate about how the virus is transmitted.  One of the clients I met had been raped. One was infected by her abusive, cheating husband. Others had been chronically homeless and addicted to crack cocaine, which put them in precarious positions. Others suffered terrible tragedies and loss, and temporarily lost the will to protect themselves.  

But the client who had the biggest impact on me goes by the name Alex*. Alex has suffered through a very traumatic upbringing, and he was diagnosed with HIV when he was just 17 years old.  Although he is only 31 - just a few years older than I - he looks about 10 or 15 years his senior.  He was homeless for years and addicted to drugs. But thanks to the ASO, his life has changed dramatically - primarily because he now has a roof over his head.  The Executive Director helped him find subsidized housing, which is something that has impacted every area of his life. The ASO has also provided him with some clothing, food, and counseling, and helped him to learn how to make his doctor’s appointments. (Meeting appointments is not something that comes naturally to someone who has lived on the street for many years.)  With the assistance of the ASO, Alex has been drug-free for over 1 year.  When I asked Alex if he is happy, he looked at me as though the answer was obvious:

“Well I have a roof over my head and food in my belly, so hell yeah, I’m happy!”

What a difference the basic necessities in life can make.

*name has been changed.

Corn & jalapeno soup - SQ’s own recipe!

I discovered four cobs of sweet corn in my Garden Fresh Box on Wednesday.  I happily ate one with a generous squeeze of lime, kosher salt and some of my hot smoked paprika that is part of my huge collection of spices from The Spice House.  It was very tasty indeed, but I decided to use up the rest in a corn and jalapeno soup.  

I decided to be brave and work without a recipe for this soup.  I figured I knew what flavours worked together - corn, jalapeno, cilantro and lime.  And, it turned out, I was right.  My only mistake was that I added a little bit too much water, but this problem was solved by reducing the soup down by simmering for a few hours.  If I were to do it again, I would use four cobs of corn rather than three, but hey, that’s what I had to work with.

This soup is incredibly easy to make and it is very flavourful. Perfect for people who enjoy lots of spice and also for those on a frugal budget - the soup required very few ingredients.  And it’s a great way to use up extra cobs of corn.

Ingredients:

4 cobs of corn (although 3 will suffice)

1 yellow onion, diced

1 jalapeno, diced and seeded (or partly seeded)

1 clove garlic, minced

6 cups water (approx)

1 lime

olive oil

s&p

1 tbsp tumeric (approx) for colouring; curry powder would also work

dash cayenne pepper

handful cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup sour cream (optional)

Directions

Boil the corn in water until tender, about 5-6 minutes.  Remove corn and reserve the water.  If you reserve the water, it will eliminate your need to use a stock. When cool enough, cut the kernels off the cobs, reserving the corn cobs.  Make sure to cut in half before attempting to cut the kernels; this reduces the risk of hurting yourself.  Warm the olive oil in a large pot and add the diced onion, stirring until softened.  Add the diced jalapeno (seeded if desired - I included a few seeds for extra heat) along with the minced garlic, salt and black pepper and a tablespoon of tumeric and a dash or two of cayenne pepper. After one or two minutes, add the corn kernals, breaking them up gently with a wooden spoon if stuck together, and stir.  You may also add a little fresh lime juice at this time. After a few minutes, strain the water that you used to boil the corn in and add the water to the pot.  Straining is important because it allows you catch any of the little hairs that may have stuck to the corn when you first boiled it. Bring up to a boil and then reduce the heat to let it simmer for at least 30 minutes.  Make sure to taste the soup along the way, adding more tumeric if the soup looks a little grey and adding more spice to taste. Remove from heat, remove the cobs, and let the soup cool slightly. Then puree in a blender.  Once smooth, return to the pot, straining if necessary, and warm again, adding a bit of sour cream near the end, if desired.

The trick to making this soup really tasty is adding a very generous squeeze of fresh lime juice at the end, along with a little chopped cilantro.  If added towards the end, the lime juice will give the soup lots of flavour and will not curdle the sour cream.

I hope you enjoy trying this one. Please let me know if you have any questions.

What’s your favourite thing to make with corn in the summer?

Help me eat up my veggies!

I picked up another Garden Fresh Box from the Guelph Community Health Centre yesterday - check out these delicious looking vegetables! All this for only $10.  What you see above is a “small” size. It looks like it will be more than enough produce for the rest of the month.  

Meal planning is very different when you are handed a big box of vegetables.  You need to come up with meal ideas based on what’s in the box.  I like the challenge, and I like knowing that my meals are based around fresh, local, seasonal vegetables.  Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with so far, based on these ingredients:

• Corn and jalapeno soup
• Curried root vegetable soup (using the potatoes and carrots in the picture, as well as the sweet potatoes and summer squash I have in the fridge)
• Warm spinach and chickpea salad with sundried tomatoes
• Kebabs with homemade tzatziki sauce (using the garlic and cucumber)
• Salad of cucumber, green pepper, tomato and green onion with tzatziki
• Potato salad with dill
• Corn on the cob with lime and hot paprika
• Rutabaga and apple casserole

If you have any ideas of other food items I can make with the ingredients you see here, feel free to share! In particular, I am interested to know what I could make with the rutabaga.  Other than the casserole, I’m pretty much clueless. My only other idea is to make English Brown Pickle (Branston Pickle) which I used to eat adoringly in Somerfield’s “cheese plougman’s” sandwiches when I lived in England.  But these require quite a bit of work in addition to several ingredients I don’t have.  So any ideas you have are more than welcome.

In addition, I have no idea what to do with the red kale.  Normally I would put it in a stir-fry, but after all my soups and salads are made, I won’t have many other ingredients left over for a big stir-fry.  What are your favourite recipes using kale?

If I can’t figure out a way to eat the kale quickly, I will likely freeze it, along with some of the spinach. Although it’s difficult to tell from the photo, that is one massive bag of spinach!   There is a good description of how to freeze greens at pickyourown.org. 

Finally, the little ziplock bag you see is full of chickpeas and what I believe are mixed beans. They are beans with little sprouts attached.  Apart from soaking and then cooking these beans and mixing them with some kind of rice dish, I’m clueless.  Do these beans all require the same amount of cooking time?

I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!

The Cereal Box Organizer

I know many of you must be wondering where Saver Queen went! I didn’t intend to go so long without blogging, but this summer has been a busy one! As a result I have a huge stack of blog posts written in my head, full of interesting crafts, recipes and frugal and fun activities.  So I thought I’d start by sharing a little frugal craft I tried a while ago, courtesy of Martha Stewart and her post on the “cereal box organizer”.

Her site contains clear directions, so feel free to head over there if you need a better tutorial.  But the idea is pretty simple.  You take an empty cereal box (the jumbo size works best for magazines!) and cut it diagonally across the top so that it fits your magazines or papers. Cover with scrapbook paper, contact paper, wrapping paper, or make a collage like the one I made here with the tea box. Trim and secure using double sided glue or a glue stick.

After making these, the idea of actually paying money for those flimsy magazine holders seems ludicrous.  The cereal boxes are actually strong enough to hold even the heaviest of magazines, such as my collection of Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living magazines shown here. 

I love finding new ways that repurpose junk.  Environmentally sound, frugal crafts that actually help you to organize your home while adding charm and aesthetic appeal are really the best!

What junk have you repurposed lately?

Birthday

My birthday is this Tuesday. It won’t be extravagant but I think it will be meaningful and special, mainly because I’m in a place where I’m able to slow down and enjoy simple pleasures and frugal luxuries, and be present in the abundance in my life.  Being able to reflect on who you are and feel grateful for the gifts we have in our lives are really some of the best ways to celebrate being alive.

That being said, I do think that one of the nicest ways a single gal can celebrate her birthday is to spoil herself, and luckily for me, this doesn’t need to mean spending money. I have managed to save up some credit notes and gift cards to afford myself a neat little shopping spree without spending a dime. This includes a $40 gift card at the Bookshelf (Guelph’s nicest book store), courtesy of their newspaper, Off the Shelf, for which I’ve written a couple of reviews.  I also have a $20 credit note at Winners, a $5 credit note at a local art supply store, and a free piece of cake at Williams.  So I look forward to enjoying a few treats before heading out to my parent’s place to celebrate with a nice dinner out.

What do you like to do for yourself on your birthday?  Any suggestions?

How the “reduced to clear cart” creates a lovely lunch: mushrooms on toast

When shopping at the supermarket, I make a point of checking out the “reduced to clear” cart. It frequently has some good items for 50% off or more.  I’ve mention before that I buy ripe bananas at 50% off, which I use to freeze for baking and fruit shakes. Sometimes they have other decent produce there as well. On the weekend, I found a mini baguette that was still quite soft and was reduced to clear. It originally had a price tag of 79¢, and with 50¢ off, it was only 29¢! I used the baguette to make crispy chips (see instructions here) to serve with a whole roasted head of fresh garlic from the market. Very luxurious indeed. I only used half the baguette, giving the chips a total cost of 10¢ - much less than the cost to purchase a bag of pita or a box of melbas, my other options for serving with a garlic spread.  Homemade baguette chips are tasty, crunchy, and you can save any extras for later snacks with cheese, or with soup.

What did I do with the last half of my bread? I turned it - along with some of my leftover mushrooms - into mushrooms on toast. Served with a side salad (recipe coming later for that one - it’s a gem) it made a perfect light, vegetarian lunch.

Mushrooms on toast (inspired by a recipe by Gordon Ramsey in Fast Food.)

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to drizzle on bread

1 small onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, smashed

5-6 cremini mushrooms 

s&p 

pinch of sugar

splash of apple cider vinegar

fresh parsley, chopped

Sauteé sliced onions at medium heat in a pan along with a little olive oil. Add a sprinkling of salt, freshly ground pepper, and thyme if you have it. Add the smashed garlic. Sautee for about 3-4 minutes, decreasing the heat if the onions are browning too quickly.  Add a pinch of sugar and stir.   Then add sliced cremini or portabello mushrooms, along with a tablespoon or two of butter. Stir and add a splash of apple cider vinegar or sherry vinegar. Sautee for a few more minutes. 

Remove the garlic clove. Then remove the mixture from heat and place in a bowl with fresh chopped parsley. Toss to cover.

Meanwhile, slice a small baguette or crusty loaf in half, drizzle with olive oil, and place under the broiler until crispy.  Top with mushroom-onion mixture and add an extra drizzle of olive oil.

Served with soup or salad, this makes a complete lunch! Served alone, it would be a tasty snack. 

Serves one.

Lentil Walnut Burgers: Your frugal vegetarian alternative

For the last several weeks the meals I have cooked for myself have mostly consisted of sandwiches and spaghetti with sauce from a can.  Being busy is one reason for my culinary lapse, and frankly I’m proud of having (mostly) abstained from resorting to fast food. Traveling is another reason. And so is being newly single. I’m not sure why, but cooking for someone else tends to provide the incentive I need to put effort into trying different meal options and calling upon my inner culinary goddess. Before I met Josh I admit I relied on store-bought curry sauce and prepared hummus and I ate a lot of cheese and crackers, gatorade, and you guessed it, sandwiches. But a woman cannot live on sandwiches alone, and I’m determined to continue to try new recipes, make wholesome meals and improve my cooking skills, while living frugally.  I also want to make sure that I have easy, healthful and delicious meal options around the house for when I’m busy, so that I don’t end up living off of grilled cheese.  I believe there is great joy to be had in good food, and the only way for me to take part in that pleasure is to cook quality meals for myself.

I tend to cook mostly vegetarian, although I haven’t been a full vegetarian for nearly 10 years.  I enjoy vegetarian food, find it takes less work to prepare, and it is cheaper. I also do not know of a place in Guelph or surrounding area that provides good quality, fresh meat or fish without charging a fortune. (If you have any suggestions, I’d gladly hear them.)

I love veggie burgers but like all processed foods, they are expensive. And besides, cooking inspires some ancient DIY drive in me.  I love trying out homemade replicas of items most people are accustomed to buying at the store. I’d love it if I could empty my home of anything processed and rely only on wholesome basics.

That’s why I jumped at the chance to try making my own veggie burgers. I found this recipe in the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine (summer, 2009). I enjoy the LCBO’s magazines because they have a nice variety of fresh, healthy, easy recipes, and best of all, the magazines are free!

These burgers are incredibly healthy, packed with protein as well as fiber, and you are free to up the vegetable content by adding any variety of toppings and side dishes.

The burgers were tasty, and held together reasonably well (although like all lentil burgers, some crumbling is inevitable.) I did find them a little dry, and I think this could be amended by upping the mushrooms and slightly decreasing the amount of lentils. I would also consider adding cheddar cheese right into mix for added flavour, and more fresh herbs.  

For toppings, you are free to be creative! But choose something moist and flavourful, to help balance out the dryness of the burgers.  The recipe called for tzatziki sauce, but I did things a little differently. The first time I ate one of the burgers I added lettuce and cucumber, warmed feta cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions, tomato relish and a homemade sauce made of mayonnaise, lemon and chopped garlic.  The second time I ate one of the burgers, I added all of the above, but substituted the sauce with another homemade concoction made with mayonnaise, chopped green onion, and tomato relish. I also added a couple slices of tomato.

For sides, you could try sweet potato fries or zucchini fries (which I was going to try but decided homemade veggie burgers involved quite enough effort for one evening) and any variety of summer salads, such as the one I suggested here. I just had mine with potato chips for a quick lunch. (I know I’ve boasted before about how I normally skip out on processed snacks, but when you’re grocery shopping while famished, your cravings are bound to prevail, hence the chips.)

The recipe says to grill the burgers on a barbeque. I do have a barbeque patio but just decided to fry them in a pan instead, and that worked fine. The best way, I think, is it fry them at a fairly high temperature in oil, to get a nice crispy coating. My second burger had been refrigerated over night, so after searing it on both sides, I covered the pan and cooked it on low to make sure it was heated throughout. This worked out well.

I froze two of the veggie burgers, placed in between wax paper and inside plastic bags. I’m guessing that if I thaw them out, they can be grilled as normal. Since the veggie burgers were pretty dry, I didn’t see any problem in freezing them. If they work out, I will likely do up a big batch to have an easy to prepare meal waiting for me on any busy or late night.

Here’s the recipe:

Lentil Walnut Burgers

1 cup red lentils

2 cups water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ground cumin (freshly ground is best)

1/2 tsp each s&p

1  cup finely chopped walnuts

1 cup finely chopped cremini mushrooms

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

1 . In a small saucepan, bring lentils and water to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook until all the water has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.  Saver Queen’s note - you could also use canned.

2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; cook onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, cumin, s&p; cook 1 minute. Stir in walnuts and mushrooms; cook until mushrooms are completely tender and no liquid remains, about 5 minutes. Let cool slightly. Stir in cilantro, bread crumbs and lentils to combine. Form into patties.

3. Grill over medium heat on greased grill, turning once until crisp and golden on each side, about 12 minutes.

4. Serve on grilled whole grain buns with grilled onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and tzatziki.

Makes 4 burgers.

These burgers are a also a great frugal alternative to store bought veggie burgers. If you or a family member wants to join in on BBQ fun but is a vegetarian, then you will find these burgers an affordable option. Your most expensive part of the burgers will be the walnuts, which can be purchased in a bulk food store, and since the walnuts need to be chopped, you can opt for pre-chopped walnuts or walnut pieces, which are less expensive than their whole counterparts. Mushrooms and lentils are cheap, and you can even make your own buns if you so desire, or serve in homemade pita bread!

***

Saver Queen’s update: I made these again for my Mom and Dad.  Instead of just one cup of chopped mushrooms I added about 2.5 cups and reduced the amount of walnuts. I also slightly upped the cumin and added extra cilantro. Bingo! They were very moist and delicious. My parents loved them! I served them after a busy day and my dad, a runner, had just returned from a high powered workout, so these healthy, high-protein burgers hit the spot.