Newest Column Out and A Super Frugal Recipe

My newest newspaper article came out today and you can check it out here. There's a recipe for using vegetable peelings that you might have originally thrown away to make a rich nutritious vegetable broth. Make sure to go check it out.

Gayle, Gayle, How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's time to put my garden to bed for the winter. I took a walk through the damp withering plants and found a handful of green beans.



Not enough to make a side dish but definitely enough to put in one of my soups this week.


I also found that I had several green cherry tomatoes and at least 6 romas left on the vines. I pulled up the root ball and hung them upside down in my garage to ripen. The nutrients from the roots goes back down to the tips of the plant and turns the green tomatoes red. So we'll be eating a few more garden fresh tomatoes by next week.



Next I'll be using the Lasagna garden method to build up my soil and get it all healthy and nourished during the winter. It also provides amazing weed control so next year I basically just walk into my garden space and begin planting again. No digging, no tilling, no weeding.


I've already starting making a list of new veggies I'd like to add and expansion ideas for next year. I'd like to grow fresh lavender, more fresh herbs to dry and store, more leafy greens, and maybe grow just one crop in each raised bed so I can have plenty to can next year. One bed of tomatoes, one bed of green beans, one bed full of cucumbers for pickling and then one experimental bed for new or smaller crops.


Good news. My transplanted artichoke plant that spent the whole spring and summer recuperating from it's move from my mothers garden to mine, is sprouting beautiful new shoots and I'm looking forward to fresh artichokes on my dinner table.


How does YOUR garden grow?

GCC Shopping Round Up

It was a rainy blustery Washington day today. I started out with freshly washed curls and by the time I got home I had an afro.

But I found some good deals.

Franz Discount Bread

4 loaves of bread and 1 bag of blueberry bagels $4.70
2 bags of (10 each) english muffins $3.00
1 bag of everything bagels FREE

S & S Liquidators

2 bags whole bean coffee $5.00
dijon mustard $.49
8 cans vegetables $3.12
2 family size cans soup $.99
2 cans mandarin oranges $.78

Grocery Outlet

Frozen hashbrowns $2.99
TP $6.99
frozen mixed berries $1.99
frozen blackberries $1.99
canadian bacon $2.99

Winco

Gallon milk $1.98
margarine tub $.68
soy milk $1.87
margarine sticks $.65
butter sticks $1.98
6 dozen large eggs $5.88
Sugar $2.18
.40 lbs bulk pearl barley $.16
2 cans mushrooms $.96
3 lbs pears $2.03
1 lb bulk cornmeal $.51
40 bulk Equal packages $1.20
1.32 lbs bulk seashell pasta $1.11
1.86 lbs bulk macaroni $1.47
1.24 lbs bulk navy beans $.94
whipping cream $1.28
3.15 lbs bananas $1.83
3 lbs tangerines $1.98

Grand Total $63.72

Would you like to tell us about your shopping trip? Please include a link to your post, not your homepage, and please link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Plan Monday

Our state requires once a year standardized tests for homeschoolers and with four kids, it takes us a few weeks to get everyone taken care of. This week is our last week of testing. I think one of the main concerns homeschoolers have, regardless of whether they should or not, is whether their kids are keeping up with their public school counterparts and whether they are covering all their bases. It can be a nail biting experience as you await the test results so I'm relieved and happy to report that as anxious as I was, the kids that are finished, exceeded my testing expectations.

Whew! It's like getting my own report card.

So on to frugal stuff.

I found a ham bone tucked away in the back of my freezer from a September birthday. It will be making an appearance in our dinner menu this week. I also have my last craft bazaar on Friday. If you're local, come say Hi. I'll be at the Canterbury Inn. Since I'll be gone from the wee hours of the morning until dinner time I'm letting the family fend for itself for breakfast and I'll slip a yummy stew in the crock pot for dinner.

So here's what's cooking...

Breakfasts

Oats with fruit, cream and brown sugar

Fruit, yogurt and protein powder smoothies

Best Blueberry Muffins

Fruit cups and bagels

on their own for breakfast

German pancake with lemon and powdered sugar

Leftover muffins

Dinners

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and rolls

Broccoli Rice Quiche and sliced pears

Skillet Taco Macaroni and corn

Eggs Benedict Casserole with easy Hollandaise Sauce

Hamburger Barley Stew and Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Ham and Beans with Sweet Cornbread and honey

Leftover Buffet

Check back tomorrow to see how much this weeks groceries cost and for more great menu plan ideas go HERE.

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap- Another Homemade Fabric Softener

I had a perfectly good recipe on here for a homemade dryer sheet that made my clothes smell good, took out the static and softened the fabric. It worked just great as a sheet. But when I got my new front loader machine and dryer, and the dryer ended up with a stainless steel tub with directions NOT to use dryer sheets (probably because of the wax in the commercial sheets but I wasn't taking any chances) I was in need of a liquid fabric softener. I tried the homemade recipe I had been using and just poured it into the dispenser but I didn't like it as well.

So the hunt for a new cost efficient liquid fabric softener was on. Plus it had to work just as good.

I came across this, gave it a try and now I'm in frugal love. We're talking super cheap and scented just the way I like. Plus it's environmentally friendly it that's something you're concerned about. So now you have two options to choose from.

Homemade Liquid Fabric Softener

1 cup baking soda
6 cups distilled white vinegar
8 cups water
10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil scent. (check my left sidebar under "laundry supplies" for some great essential oils.) I like to use lime, orange, or lavender

You will need a one gallon container. First add the baking soda to the container. Next add 1 cup of water. Slowly add the vinegar to the bottle as the vinegar and baking soda will start to fizz. Don't be worried. Then add the rest of the water swirling around & cover venting the top a few times. Last add the essential oil.
Add 1/2 cup in your final rinse cycle for each load but give the bottle a good shake to stir up the essential oil if using.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share this week? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Reality Check

Just thought I'd pop in real quick. I wish I had some great frugal idea to give you today but I pretty much avoided the kitchen except for necessities like say breakfast...lunch...and dinner. I've been getting my crafty on for a bazaar that my family and I do every year. So all day I've been down in the basement which houses my bedroom and sewing area, and I only emerged long enough to feed the masses. Well, I did also assign all of the daily housework to the kids (hee hee) and then a few independent school assignments so they wouldn't kill each other with idleness.

To those of you who have emailed me about sponsoring giveaways, I WILL get back to you.

I've got some plans in the works for some Christmas Gift Idea posts like I did last year. I've got some new ideas up my sleeve that might help you with your gift giving.

And I seriously get at least two e-mails a week asking me what I do for lunches so to answer you...

Monday...I can't even remember. But...

Tuesday we created a grilled cheese, bacon and tomato sandwich that was SO very good. It tasted like the grilled sourdough sandwiches that you can get at Jack in the Box.

Today we liked it so much we tried grilled tuna and cheese.

Tomorrows lunch is still a mystery.

And a confession? I was so busy today that I wore my pajamas until 5 pm when I had to take a shower to be able to go to church tonight. And I think it wasn't until about 2 pm before I realized I hadn't brushed my teeth.

How's THAT for a little dose of reality?

GCC Shopping Round Up

My friend Sarah was gifted with some meet and shared the luv, so I am now the proud owner of 7lbs of ground beef. I also took stock of my freezer and found bacon and ground turkey in there so my meat purchases were low this week. Here's how it went.

Franz Discount Bread

3 loaves and 2 bags of English Muffins $4.70

S & S Liquidators

Aussie hair spray $1.99

Spaghetti sauce $.69

green beans $.39

tomato sauce $.39

green chilies $.69

2 indoor floodlights $1.98

Electrasol $1.99

Grocery Outlet

Tortillas $3.99

Frozen Berries $1.99

Whole 5lb Chicken $5.05

Romano Cheese $1.99

Win-Co Foods

Dish soap $.88

.04lbs bulk ground ginger $.22

.95 lbs bulk old fashioned oats $.40

1.34 lbs broccoli 1.85

2 lbs cheddar $4.78

frozen blueberries $1.78

1.28 lbs bulk quick oats $.54

1.54 lbs bulk angel hair pasta $1.29

1.67 lbs bulk macaroni $1.32

28 oz can hominy $1.37

.76 lbs bulk granola $1.20

3.32 lbs apples $2.92

2 lbs raspberry yogurt $1.78

3.86 lbs bananas $2.24

Grand Total $48.41

Now, yeah, I'm pleased with that total but I have to admit that I'm also a little freaked out that maybe I forgot something. Hoping I didn't.

Do you have a grocery trip you'd like to tell us about? Please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please provide a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.