We love cheese! However, with only three of us in the family, a block of cheese in the refrigerator can get moldy before we finish eating it. We came up with a cheese storage method that reduces the risk of mold, but it wasn't good enough for those times when we have either a large … Continue reading Freezing Cheese
time-savers
My Coupon Organizer
This is a project similar to our recipe binder, using reused materials to make something that does not look perfectly polished but is cheerful and works well for our household's specific needs. One difference is that this project started with a purchase of something specifically for the project: I bought this nylon thingy (specifically marketed … Continue reading My Coupon Organizer
Shovel snow with a broom!
This is a simple tip that I can see is familiar to a lot of the natives here in Pittsburgh, but it took me many years to catch on. I grew up in Oklahoma, where winter precipitation tends to involve freezing rain, so a lot of what you have to clear from your sidewalk is … Continue reading Shovel snow with a broom!
Multiple Shopping Lists: Key to Grocery-Shopping Sanity!
My grocery-shopping strategy attempts to maximize the quality of food we get for our money, and one key tactic is shopping at multiple stores. Since I have limited time and don't like to waste gasoline, I want to make sure that in each shopping trip I get all the things we need that are best-priced … Continue reading Multiple Shopping Lists: Key to Grocery-Shopping Sanity!
EASY Homemade Baby Food!
This is NOT a paid endorsement. This is my unsolicited review of a product I liked. This is an idea that's been around a while (both my mother and Daniel's say they had something like this when we were babies in the early 1970s) but I hardly ever see today's parents doing it or talking … Continue reading EASY Homemade Baby Food!
I don’t wear makeup.
I used to wear makeup. From age 12 to 16, I added more types of makeup to my daily routine each year, and I went through that daily routine even if I wasn't planning to leave the house. I continued for a while into college before I realized that the insanely stressful life I was … Continue reading I don’t wear makeup.
How our thrifty, green lifestyle makes it easier to cut ourselves some slack
Longtime readers may have noticed that I haven't written much lately and didn't write an article about what I learned during Lent like I have most years. Well, that's because this year, I was pregnant for Lent. No, of course that wasn't the Lenten discipline I planned! It was a surprise (not a mistake--we all … Continue reading How our thrifty, green lifestyle makes it easier to cut ourselves some slack
How the Dishwasher Changed Our Lives
A little over a year ago, we got a new dishwasher and became (for the first time in my life) a household that uses a dishwasher routinely. Read my previous article for lots of information on how dishwashers actually use less water and energy than washing dishes by hand, and read the comments for important … Continue reading How the Dishwasher Changed Our Lives
Granulated Garlic
Daniel and I love garlic and use it in many of our recipes. Usually we prefer to use fresh garlic, crushed in a garlic press. Every once in a while, though, we'll run out of garlic or find that our last few cloves have gotten squishy--and also, there are a few recipes like Honey Baked … Continue reading Granulated Garlic
Instant hummus and falafels!
My mostly-vegetarian family likes to eat hummus (garbanzo bean and sesame seed dip) and falafels (garbanzo bean and pea fritters) but both of these foods take a while to make from scratch. Practically every grocery store sells ready-to-serve hummus these days, but it is pricey and gets moldy quickly. A few stores and restaurants sell … Continue reading Instant hummus and falafels!
Meal Planning When I’m Not the Cook
For a few years now, I've been seeing lots of blog posts about the advantages of meal planning, i.e. figuring out what you are going to eat days or weeks in advance so you can make optimal use of your groceries and get meals on the table on time. Fine, sounds good, but everyone writing … Continue reading Meal Planning When I’m Not the Cook
How a kid can cook burgers indoors on a hot day
Last month, my brother commented on my article about the Grildebeest that a George Foreman grill is a handy way to cook things with minimal supervision and better energy efficiency than a stove. I hadn't considered buying one of those grills before. (We have a small kitchen, so we try to avoid owning a lot … Continue reading How a kid can cook burgers indoors on a hot day
Homemade Frozen Shredded Vegetables
Like reusing glass jars, this is an idea I've mentioned before that has increased its importance in my day-to-day life to the point that it deserves its own article! When you have more of a vegetable than you can eat before it goes bad, clean and shred the extra all at once, put measured portions … Continue reading Homemade Frozen Shredded Vegetables
7 Things You Oughta Be Able to Do at Your Age
The idea for this article came from a friend of ours who is fifty-one years old and is becoming increasingly disgusted with twentysomething guys who are in worse physical condition than he is and, when he comments on it, mumble about how they can't afford to join a gym. They seem to be totally blind … Continue reading 7 Things You Oughta Be Able to Do at Your Age
Easy, Earth-Friendly Way to Clean a Microwave Oven!
Today is the Spring Cleaning Tips edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, and I'm hardly an expert cleaner . . . but I actually went on a little kitchen-cleaning binge last night and utilized a tip that I want to share! I believe I originally saw this in "Hints from Heloise." When the interior of your microwave … Continue reading Easy, Earth-Friendly Way to Clean a Microwave Oven!
Zippered Mesh Bags for Laundering
You can, in fact, machine-wash most "hand wash only" clothing in cold water with one of these bags to protect it from the washing machine agitator and your other garments' zippers! Being able to machine-wash nearly all of my laundry saves me a lot of time and aggravation. It also saves water because I can just toss the bag in with a regular load of laundry instead of filling my sink. Also, I've found some other uses for these nifty bags.
Arithmetricks
For this back-to-school edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, I'd like to share some strategies for learning and doing arithmetic. Some of these I learned in elementary school, and others I picked up later but wish I had known in elementary school! I'm now the data manager of a large social science research study, so I use … Continue reading Arithmetricks
Balancing on the Ball
We've had an exercise ball for a couple of years now--one of those large, inflatable balls strong enough to hold an adult's weight, which can be used for lots of exercises. Daniel and I both love it. (Our five-year-old son loves it, too, but less for exercising than for rolling recklessly around the room and … Continue reading Balancing on the Ball
Lentil Rice
This is a recipe that really works for me! I developed it when I was on maternity leave and wanted hot lunches and needed plenty of nutritious calories for breastfeeding, but I was distracted by the baby and often literally had my hands full. It takes a while to cook, but it can be left … Continue reading Lentil Rice
Diminishing Dishwashing Drudgery
I'm the dishwasher in our household. We have a mechanical dishwasher, but it's about 50 years old. It looks really neat--straight out of The Kitchen of Tomorrow, Yesterday!--but we're afraid to use it because the rubber gasket around the door is hard as a rock, so probably the water would pour out onto the floor. … Continue reading Diminishing Dishwashing Drudgery
The Earthling's Handbook 