Busy Morning

Already made 4 quarts of yogurt, a big batch of granola and now it’s time to start on the bread. I love a good lazy Saturday morning.

Hope You Have A Great Day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five & What’s Cooking 4/8/16?

My hours at work changed this week, which means I go in earlier and get out later. It also means I work six days a week from now until the end of September. It doesn’t leave me a lot of time to get all the things done that I “want” to do, but I do look forward to the over time income. However, I’ve learned that if I don’t plan well and stay organized it’s easy for the extra income to get sucked up into little emergencies like what’s for dinner and such. Gotta have a plan!

Friday’s Frugal Five:

I purchased a new router for our internet service so the provider we use would stop charging me $10 a month to rent theirs. Got my first invoice after installing the router, and the $10 charge was still on the bill. So annoying! But, I called and had the charge removed. I swear I think they do this on purpose in hopes that we wont notice it or they know some people wont take the time to call and have it removed. Either way it’s frustrating…. I’m guilty of getting so annoyed with all the questions when I’m just trying to speak to a customer service person that I hit the “0” button on my phone like 1,000,000,000 times. It seems to work after about the first 5 questions and you’ve reached a moderate level of frustration.
I’ve set up my direct deposit savings for my overtime income to be automatically deposited. If I don’t see it I wont miss it and won’t be tempted to spend it.
Checked out 2 books of interest from the library prior to purchasing them to make sure they are what I wanted. I did buy the books as they are cook books geared toward the direction we want to go in changing our diet. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Nourishing Broth by Sally Fallon. Both very good books that I’ll use for years. Yes, I could’ve continued to check them out of the library, but I’m sure over time these books will show much use with many food spots and dog eared pages, not something I would want to do to a library book.
I’ve been saving my used deodorant containers waiting to make my own deodorant. I’ll be making it this weekend, so I’ll let you know how it turns out. The true test of how well it works will be when I’m lifting 50lb bags and buckets at work this spring. I’m going to use a recipe of coconut oil and baking soda. I’ll keep an open mind because the goal is to get away from all the chemicals I’ve been putting in and on my body as much as possible. The recipe looks easy to just mix coconut oil and baking soda together well and put it in a used deodorant container. I may need to put it in the fridge to get it to set up quicker, and then of course store it in a cool spot.
Eat Dirt by Dr Josh Axe is another book I checked out from the library. It is a good book with a lot of valuable information in it about gut health. It is his opinion that we have become a germaphobe clean freak anti bacterial nation which has done us no favors for our overall health. And like the title says, he mildly suggest that we should “Eat Dirt” meaning for example don’t be afraid of the vegetables at the farm stand that still have dirt on them, because those are the ones that will provide us much more nutrition than those that have traveled thousands of miles. It’s a good read, and I suggest it to anyone interested in getting (back) to real food and good health. It also gave me fond memories of working in the garden with my Dad and remembering how he sometimes would pick a vegetable and take a bite out of it right there on the spot, then convince me to do it too. Dirt don’t’ hurt 🙂

As always, meals came from the freezer and pantry, except for those hamburger buns on Wednesday night. There were no meals eaten out or taken out this week, lunches were from leftovers, bills are paid, money is in the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air and loving it.

What’s Cooking 4/8/16?

Breakfast: overnight oats with dried cranberries, walnuts, sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup
Lunch: the last of the stir fry veggies with jasmine rice
Dinner: homemade pizza night

Here is a picture of yesterday’s (and today’s) lunch.

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How about you, what frugal fun things did you do this week.

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

I was craving a good hamburger yesterday, so instead of chili last night I fried up some grass fed hamburgers in the cast iron skillet and made some fried potatoes to go with. I did stop at the store on the way home from work and picked up a pack of hamburger buns, which was the first pack of bread I’ve bought in over a month. Mainly because I’ve been wanting to make my own because what’s on the shelf at the store isn’t actually bread, it’s a bunch of ingredients that we can’t pronounce or digest. But, I have to say that those burgers were the best burgers ever! Maybe it’s because it’s not something we eat often or maybe it’s because I wanted one so bad. Don’t you love it when you have a craving for something and it turns out to be really really good, especially when you made it yourself. 🙂

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

Breakfast: leftover fried potatoes with leftover sausage gravy on top

Lunch: leftover veggie stir fry with jasmine rice

Dinner: I made the chili last night and put it in the crock pot for the Z Man to put on today. Chili and cornbread for dinner.

I’m glad dinner is already made because I want to get my yoga in and I’ll be making yogurt tonight too.

Now, if I only had some interesting pictures for you to see! Here I’ll show you a picture of the squirrel in our yard.

You thought it was going to be a real one didn’t you? Nope 🙂

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/6/16?

It’s been a little over a week now I’ve been weaning off the Omeprazole and honestly the first few days I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. I even mentioned to the Z Man that I wasn’t having any problems and I wanted to “hurry up” the weaning process. Patience is not one of my strong points. I’m glad I didn’t rush it because I began to feel the effects of lowering the Omeprazole dosage after about 4 days into the process. It makes sense that while lowering the dosage, the first few days would have remnants of the higher dosage still in my system. It was on Wednesday of last week when I began to feel a little burning and a little reflux, but it wasn’t too bad at all and it wasn’t continuous.

When I felt a little discomfort I chewed one of my Slippery Elm lozenges which made it very manageable.

Here is a little information on Slippery Elm…

What is Slippery Elm?
The slippery elm tree is native to eastern Canada and eastern and central US, where it is found most commonly in the Appalachian mountains. The trunk is reddish brown with gray-white bark on the branches. In the spring, dark brown floral buds appear and open into small, clustered flowers at the branch tips. White elm (U. americana) is a related species used in a similar manner.

What is it used for?

North American Indians and early settlers used the inner bark of the slippery elm not only to build canoes, shelter, and baskets, but as a poultice or as a soothing drink. Upon contact with water, the inner bark, collected in spring, yields a thick mucilage or demulcent that was used as an ointment or salve to treat urinary tract inflammation and was applied topically for cold sores and boils. A decoction of the leaves was used as a poultice to remove discoloration around blackened or bruised eyes. Surgeons during the American Revolution treated gun-shot wounds in this manner. Early settlers boiled bear fat with the bark to prevent rancidity. Late in the 19th century, a preparation of elm mucilage was officially recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

Slippery elm prepared as a poultice coats and protects irritated tissues such as skin or intestinal membranes. The powdered bark has been used in this manner for local application to treat gout, rheumatism, cold sores, wounds, abscesses, ulcers, and toothaches. The tannins present are known to possess astringent actions. It also has been known to “draw out” toxins, boils, splinters, or other irritants.
Powdered bark is incorporated into lozenges to provide demulcent action (soothing to mucous membranes) in the treatment of throat irritation. It also is used for its emollient and antitussive actions, to treat bronchitis and other lung afflictions, and to relieve thirst.

When slippery elm preparations are taken internally, they cause reflex stimulation of nerve endings in the GI tract, leading to mucus secretion. This may be the reason they are effective for protection against stomach ulcers, colitis, diverticulitis, gut inflammation, and acidity. Slippery elm also is useful for diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, and to expel tapeworms. It also has been used to treat cystitis and urinary inflammations.

I have noticed some foods that triggered some discomfort. Raw onions, cooked and raw cabbage, bananas, and raw green peppers. No big deal, as these foods, for me won’t be difficult to manage. Actually, it gives me a reason to not feel guilty about really not liking bananas. Hand count, who out there honestly really likes bananas?

This week I begin a week of a little lower dosage, and it will be very important to maintain a meal plan, and portion control, otherwise I know I’ll have some discomfort. I do expect some discomfort, but what I don’t want to do is to cause more damage to my esophagus and stomach lining in the process.

During the summer months I work longer hours and six days a week at my “job” which makes it difficult to get a lot of other stuff done. I get especially busy when it’s time to harvest and “put up” the gardens. I’m hoping to use the blog as a tool for meal planning, a food diary, and hopefully a tool for my grocery budget. We’ll see how it all plays out as it goes along. That’s the idea behind “What’s Cooking”

So, What’s Cooking 4/6/16?

Breakfast: overnight oats – oats soaked in milk with a few walnuts, dried cranberries, drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon.