I love oatmeal. It's nutritious, with plenty of fiber and minerals and Vitamin B1, and has many health benefits. It's filling. It can be seasoned any way you like. Quick-cooking oats are really easy to make--I don't even bother cooking them in a pot, just mix them with boiling water in a bowl--and very low-priced, … Continue reading DIY Instant Oatmeal: Ditch the Packets!
thriftiness
Roasted Tomatoes
Late last summer, we took a tip from our CSA farm's newsletter and converted some of our surplus tomatoes into roasted tomatoes, which we froze and later used in a spaghetti sauce. This year, when I'm not pregnant and feeling weird about food, I am even more excited about delicious roasted tomatoes, and some experimentation … Continue reading Roasted Tomatoes
Why I’m Sleeping in the Dining Room
Welcome to the September 2014 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Home Tour This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have opened up their doors and given us a photo-rich glimpse into how they arrange their living spaces. *** … Continue reading Why I’m Sleeping in the Dining Room
This regular bra works as a nursing bra!
I bought all my nursing bras from Target, and I hate them all. Target makes great nursing camisoles (with shelf bra) which I was wearing all the time on maternity leave earlier this summer and will wear as undershirts when the weather gets colder; if you are small-busted, they have adequate support and are very … Continue reading This regular bra works as a nursing bra!
Green Ribbon Lentils
Almost two years ago, I saw this recipe for Garlicky Lentils and Tomatoes, which is very flexible. We have tried it several different ways, and this variation has become a favorite. This recipe is easy, cheap, and pretty quick! It is vegan and gluten-free. It has lots of fiber, vitamins, protein, and iron. It can … Continue reading Green Ribbon Lentils
5 Tips for Green Lunch Packing
It's back-to-school season! If your child brings a lunch to school, now is the time to think about how to pack that lunch. If you bring your lunch to work, this is a great time of year to rethink what you're packing, too. Choosing the right lunch-packing habits can make a big difference in how … Continue reading 5 Tips for Green Lunch Packing
Why I Spent My Birthday Money on Socks
My partner's grandfather, Herschel, has a tradition of giving everyone a birthday gift of the number of dollars that matches her age, so he gave me $41 last month. I used it to order 8 pairs of socks from Maggie's Organics. What a boring gift! It brings to mind the 1980s "Saturday Night Live" skit … Continue reading Why I Spent My Birthday Money on Socks
Saving Money on Sports Fan Gear
We aren't sports fans in our family. Exercise is good, but we're not much interested in playing sports and even less interested in watching sports. But we live in Pittsburgh, a city with three professional sports teams that are a major focus of the local culture. We can't help noticing when one of the teams … Continue reading Saving Money on Sports Fan Gear
Fishgiving: A Feast from the Freezer!
Last weekend, my family enjoyed a spontaneous and somewhat silly holiday feast. A few days earlier, we had finally gotten around to baking an acorn squash and two butternut squashes we'd received in our CSA farm share back in November. Each of the three of us ate a big chunk of squash as a side … Continue reading Fishgiving: A Feast from the Freezer!
How to use long-frozen cookie dough
When my parents visited us the Christmas before last, my mother made her grandmother's traditional animal cookies: a buttery dough that you roll out and cut with cookie cutters (they don't have to be animal shapes, of course) and bake and frost. The recipe makes a huge batch, so she divided it and froze two … Continue reading How to use long-frozen cookie dough
Four Weeks of Mostly Meatless Dinners (February)
I'm not using the term "pesco-vegetarian" in the title like I have for many of my other multi-week meal plans because I think "meatless" is the more common word people are searching for in Lent. My family eats no meat at home except occasional fish--which does not count as "meat" in many fasting plans, for … Continue reading Four Weeks of Mostly Meatless Dinners (February)
Humidify Your Home the Cheap and Easy Way!
Our house has forced-air heat: The furnace blows warm air through the ducts and out through vents in most of the rooms. Our vents are in the baseboards, so they push out the air horizontally at floor level. This tip also would work with a wall vent that is just above a shelf or table, … Continue reading Humidify Your Home the Cheap and Easy Way!
My Top 3 Kitchen Time-Saving Tips
Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is asking everyone to share our top 3 kitchen time-savers this week! I work full-time outside the home, and although my partner Daniel has been doing more than half the cooking in the past few years, I do most of the planning, shopping, and preliminary preparations. He works from home and … Continue reading My Top 3 Kitchen Time-Saving Tips
GAME SHOW!! with math practice
My third-grade son and I came up with a game that was a lot of fun and valuable math practice and physical exercise for him, while being very easy for me and using only a few basic supplies that were easy to set up and clean up. This is a perfect activity for families in … Continue reading GAME SHOW!! with math practice
Wearing a stretchy tummy band instead of maternity pants: A review
Soon after my first pregnancy, it became fashionable to wear a top over another top that is longer and sticks out at the bottom. Soon after that, I heard about a garment called the Bella Band that is simply a wide band of stretchy fabric worn around the abdominal area, such that it looks like … Continue reading Wearing a stretchy tummy band instead of maternity pants: A review
Use those last drops of cooking oil!
One of the annoying things about recycling food containers is that you're supposed to get them relatively clean and rinsed-out before you put them in the recycling bin. This is particularly difficult with cooking oil because it clings to the inside of the bottle, and it doesn't mix with water to rinse out, and if … Continue reading Use those last drops of cooking oil!
A Laundry Line-Drying System that Will Work for YOU!
Have you been wishing you could save money, conserve resources, and make your clothes last longer by line-drying your laundry instead of machine-drying it--but you just can't figure out how to fit a clothesline into your home configuration and weekly routine? I am here to help! My new guest post at Live Renewed gives you … Continue reading A Laundry Line-Drying System that Will Work for YOU!
No-Bake Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie for Summer
This is not so much a recipe as an example of how to work with the food, and the weather, that you happen to have. Last weekend was very hot and humid, and we had some ingredients that needed to be used, including just two potatoes from our farm share--not enough to make a baked … Continue reading No-Bake Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie for Summer
An Abundance of Apples
Here's what we did when we saw a bunch of ripe apples dropping into a neglected parking lot near our home.
Can you scramble frozen eggs?
Apparently, yeah, if you let the eggs thaw a little, you can make totally normal scrambled eggs out of them. At least, I did. I guess I'd better clarify that I'm talking about chicken eggs. In our scary high-tech world, "frozen eggs" often means human egg cells that have been frozen for later attempts at … Continue reading Can you scramble frozen eggs?
The Earthling's Handbook 