S&%$ my Toddler Actually Eats: Quinoa Salad

It's hot out, I'm pregnant, I'm tired, and this little bugger in my belly has flipped itself into a breech position. I was going to title this post something cute about "Treats for Toddlers" or some crap like that but I just thought I would call it like it is: S#$% my toddler will actually eat. She has been really "picky" lately....
Made this for lunch today and it was a big hit with both Little Bean and I. It was easy to make too, and made with fairly inexpensive ingredients. Truthfully there was a recipe on the back of the bag of Quinoa, but I didn't have 80% of the ingredients that it called for. I just adapted it with what I had on hand and it was amazing. About 20 minutes from start to finish, accounting for a crying toddler :)

Cristina's Quinoa Salad

INGREDIENTS (all preferably organic)
1 cup Quinoa
1/2 cup dried cherries or dried cranberries
1/3 cup sliced almonds
4-5 Tbsp lemon juice (juice of about 1 really juicy lemon or 2 not really juicy lemons)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 Tbsp of honey, depending on tartness of lemons (add more if dressing is too tarte)
Zest of one lemon
1/2 Tbsp of fresh chopped Thyme or 1/2 Tsp of dried Thyme
1/4 Tsp of salt
Crumbled soft goat cheese for garnish

Cook quinoa according to package directions. I just added a cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water, let it come to a boil, then put it on low and covered it for 15 mins. This allowed me the time to get the dressing made and deal with a crying child. After 15 minutes, fluff it with a fork and let it cool slightly before combining everything.










For the dressing I just threw the lemon juice, olive oil, honey, zest, thyme and salt in small mason jar and shook away. I tend towards the "mason jar" style of making dressings instead of a whisk and bowl because I need to be able to do things while holding a child.

After the quinoa cooled down for a couple of minutes I just combined it in a bowl with the dried cherries and almonds and the dressing. Toss together and sprinkle over some crumbled soft goat cheese before serving. This was a big, big hit. Plus, quinoa is super good for you and pretty cheap. Bonus!

Budget Savers - French Toast Casserole

So I have been trying diligently to stay on budget this month..... lol....

I have to confess I am having a hard time because I must be nesting or something. I just want to stockpile diapers, wipes, toilet paper, etc.... I have about 6 weeks to go if I go the full 40, and all I can think about is how hectic everything was when Little Bean first came home... now I get to do it all over again with a toddler!

One thing that has been helpful is trying to find good recipes that are not only delicious, but easy to make, use up leftovers, and don't break the bank... not too much to ask right!? But, I have managed to find one that fits the bill! French Toast Casserole! My favorite one is from Ree Drummond of course, and I absolutely love it! (click here for the recipe). If I was a good blogger, I would have made sure to take a photo for you to see this delectable treat, but instead.... I ate it all.....

Now there are a few reasons why I love this recipe, the first being that I can easily tweak it. The original recipe calls for a loaf of sourdough bread, but of course I don't have that hanging around. What I do find is that no one in my house eats the ends of the bread, and, no one finishes off the bread when it starts to go stale. If I can catch it before the green fuzzies start to grow, I have the perfect base for this recipe. I just save up all my bread odds and ends in the freezer and then take them all out a few hours before I want to assemble this thing. 

Did I mention that you can also assemble it at night and then just pop it in the fridge overnight? Then you can just wake up and throw it in the oven, looking incredibly capable like the domestic goddess you are :)

The recipe calls for 8 eggs and 2 cups of milk, which some of you may find crazy. However, if you are like me, every so often you have a bunch of eggs in the fridge that you forgot about and your milk is about to turn. Instead of making your husband chug a huge glass of milk after downing an 8-egg omelet, you can just make this :) So much better than letting stuff go to waste!

The other thing I like is that I substituted all of the sugar in the recipe for Coconut Palm Sugar and it tasted perfect. Not too sweet. Able to double as Breakfast/Brunch or even a dessert. Hubby and Little Bean gladly ate it all up!

So that's my one big find for a budget saving recipe. Something to do with all those odds and ends of bread instead of throwing them away, and a way to use up any milk or eggs before they turn. Hopefully I can find some more and pass them along! Happy Tuesday everyone :)

Budget Tweaking

So my Hubby left at the end of last month for an annual week-long fishing trip with my brothers and my cousin. He seems to wait until I am about halfway through the third-trimester of a pregnancy and then takes off for a week... coincidence?
Needless to say, Little Bean and I missed him and were very glad to see him come home. While he was gone I went a little crazy with reading about budgeting, saving money, etc.... His first day back I made him a coffee and we went over our financial plans for the next few years..................... :)

Much like our financial plans, my grocery budget seems to be ever-evolving, which I suppose is a good thing. The more I learn, the more things get tweaked, and it always seems to be a work in progress. My July grocery budget was no different. Though I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, things were better and I came in under the $600 mark (though just barely!). In June I spent about 630$ out of pocket... waaaaayyyy off my $500 goal. July saw me spend $595 out of pocket, a long way off my goal but $35 better than I was. Here's the details of how it shaped up:

Projected Budget                                                              Actual Budget
Cleaning Products: $10                                                       Cleaning Products: $11.78
Paper/Household Products: $10                                    Paper/Household Products: $14.33
Toiletries: $10                                                                         Toiletries: $14.69
Freezer Items: $10                                                                 Freezer Items: $0
Bulk/Dry Goods: $25                                                           Bulk/Dry Goods: $47.35
Produce: $85                                                                            Produce: $111.74
Center Isles: $50                                                                    Center Isles: $114.88
Baby/Kids: $50                                                                       Baby/Kids: $99.73
Dairy: $100                                                                               Dairy: $117.06
Meat: $75                                                                                   Meat: $20.08
Pets: $100                                                                                  Pets: $69.27

Total: $525                                                                       Total: $620.91
(less 25$ GC = $500)                                                        (less 25$ GC = $595.91)

As you can see I did a little better this last month, not a lot better but a little. As long as I am moving in the direction that I want to be going I am trying not to be too hard on myself. The great thing about seeing where all my money is going is that I am able to tweak and evolve my grocery budget. In preparation for the newest little Stewart's arrival in September I have now added another $50 to the budget, obviously under the Baby/Kids category. I was going to start doing this in the fall but I decided to start now so I could start buying some diapers with my August P&G coupons. I also fiddled around with some allotments and changed how I view the items that get categorized in the Center Isles budget. I realized that anything I cannot make myself should really be categorized under Bulk/Dry goods, even if I find them in the center isles of the store. This would include things like honey and rice cereal. Things like granola or lemon juice I could easily make, so items like that would stay categorized as they were. All in all, here is my new, revised, shiny, wonderful budget:

Cleaning Products: $10
Paper/Household Products: $15
Toiletries: $10
Freezer Items: $10
Bulk/Dry Goods: $50
Produce: $85
Center Isles: $30
Baby/Kids: $100
Dairy: $115
Meat: $50
Pets: $100

Total: 575$
(less 25$ GC = $550 out of pocket)

So there it is folks, my budget for August. Wish me luck!

Cooking for Vegetarians and Carnivores.... and Toddlers....

Probably the greatest challenge to my cooking and baking, asides from the fact that it seems like I have to make almost everything from scratch, is the fact that I am working with more than one dietary preference. While I am a vegetarian (lacto/ovo) my husband and daughter are both complete carnivores. I had hopes that I could maybe raise my daughter to be vegetarian at first, but when she tried to eat the family cat I figured she was trying to tell me something. At any rate, we have yet to find an animal, vegetable or mineral that she won't eat.... I lucked out really, because I refuse to make separate meals for kids and adults.  

But, our varied preferences do make dinner time difficult, even without adding the whole "organic/real food" factor in the mix. Add a toddler in and you have my nightly "oh god I have to start dinner now" routine. One recipe that has never failed me is this one from Ree Drummond. I love it because I can easily adapt it for my family's needs. That and my daughter devours it every time. Obviously I use organic ingredients, hormone-free chicken, blah blah blah... you get the idea. In the episode that aired where she made this, she was able to cook it from start to finish in about 16 minutes. If you have no children... go ahead and follow the recipe as is. If you have kids and varied dietary needs, continue reading for a more "accurate" recipe. 

Step 1. 

Look at the clock, realize it is 4:15 pm, and curse yourself for forgetting to take chicken out of the freezer for dinner. Look up on google to see if you can cook chicken from frozen. Fight with toddler for control of the ipad so you can just look up this one friggin thing.... 

Step 2.

Put frozen chicken breasts on a foil lined baking tray and pre-heat oven to 375. Deal with crying child by attempting to distract her with Disney Junior. 

Step 3. 

Season chicken with salt and pepper and place in oven at 4:30pm. Set timer on oven for 45 minutes. Turn around in time to see that child is squatting in the corner, filling her diaper.....

Step 4. 

Change diaper, wash hands, and then curse yourself when you realize that you forgot to get the cute, little cherry tomatoes at the store. Check outside to see if any of your tomato plants have been fruitful, realize that you really need to water all your plants before they die. Begin cutting up regular, non-cute tomatoes.

Step 5. 

Cut up tomatoes and decide to add some kalamata olives as well just because you like them and think that they will taste good in the dish. Feel like ultimate domestic goddess. 

Step 6. 

Look at clock to see that it is now almost 5 and decide that you can start the sauce recipe. Turn around to see that your child has not only taken all the magnets off the fridge and pulled all the pots and pans out of the drawer, but she has also gotten into the drawer with the Ziploc bags and has pulled each and every one of them out of their boxes. Contemplate drinking the wine that is supposed to go in the recipe.... 

 Step 7.
Decide that, because of current pregnancy, drinking a bottle of wine is probably not advisable. Crack open a non-alcoholic beer and will yourself into believing that it is the real thing.

Step 8.
Begin making sauce at 5:15, just in time for oven timer to go off. Hold crying child while taking hot pan out of oven with one hand. Set chicken aside to cool and attempt to finish making sauce as well as fill pasta pot with water while still holding child.

Step 9.
Convince child that you only need to put her down for a moment so you can carry a heavy pot full of water to the stove with both hands. Set child down and carry heavy pasta pot to stove with crying child clinging to legs.

Step 10.
Put water on to boil, turn sauce down to low, and sit down on floor. Let now happy child crawl all over you and use your growing belly as a jungle gym. Enjoy sitting on the floor with a laughing child because you know she won't be little forever...

Step 11.
Poor pasta in pot while holding child. Set table with one hand while pasta cooks.

Step 12.
Successfully distract child with Disney Junior.

Step 13.
Drain pasta, and add to sauce along with Parmesan cheese and spinach. Then, separate most of the mixture to a separate bowl to which you will add the cut up chicken. Dish up a plateful for your toddler and place it in the fridge to cool off.

 Step 14.
Convince toddler to leave TV and come to the table for dinner. Briefly forget that you cannot reason with a toddler.

Step 15.
Turn off TV. Dish up plateful for yourself and wrap up extras for Hubby to eat when he gets home from work. Sit down to eat with child, at about 6pm.... almost 2 hours after you started trying to make dinner. Watch happily as child shovels food into her mouth.

 

Step 16.

Congratulate self on awesome domestic goddess skills.

*Note: never forget the last step. No matter the recipe, it is vitally important!

How to Save on Baby Items

All the flyers came in the mail this last week, wrapped up like presents on my doorstep on Thursday and Friday. I love it when I see a new Brandsaver flyer. To me, Brandsaver = diaper coupons, and diaper coupons make this lady happy.... dear god I am getting old.... I have gone from XTina to coupon lady... I digress...

I have learned that the biggest part of saving on baby items has been to combine sales with coupons. If I can hit a sale at Save On or Sobeys on 15% off Tuesdays AND use my coupons, all the better. Also, don't be afraid to ask for rain checks when you go to a store and they are out of what you need. I have found that, unless it is posted otherwise in their flyer, most stores are more than happy to do this (However, I have to be honest and say that I have only done this at Sobeys and Save on Foods, both places were more than happy to give me rain checks when the diaper size I needed was sold out). Other than that the big thing is to stock up on items when they are on sale. If you wait until you are out of baby lotion to buy some, then you are usually in a situation where you are just desperate to buy some and get home, and usually end up paying full price. Here are the 3 that I buy most often and how I save on them:

Diapers:
My preference for little bean is Pampers Cruisers. I used to shop around for the best deal on diapers, but then I discovered that Superstore's price matching really cannot be beat. I aim to get my diapers for around 20 cents per diaper, and using coupons with Superstore's sale prices I am able to do just that. This month I got two big boxes of size 4 Pampers Cruisers (with 148 in a box) for 31$ each. The exception is that once in a while I can hit a sale at Save On or Sobey's on 15% off Tuesdays when I have coupons. Either way, I stock up whenever I can get them for around 20 cents or less per diaper.


Burt's Baby Bee Products:
I love Burt's Bees products. I especially love the Baby Bee line, something about how it smells... It is expensive however, and I have found that their price is consistent, no matter where you go (and they don't have coupons!). Be it Save On, Walmart or Superstore, their bubble bath always seems to be about $9.99. The only thing you can do is pay attention to the flyers, as stores will sometimes have a special on like 20% off Burt's Bees products. Other than that it's 15% off Tuesdays all the way...




Wipes:
By far the best deal I have found on these have been the Kirkland brand at Costco. I love the quality of them as well, and sometimes they even go on sale or Costco puts out coupons for them in their mail out flyer :) Big box of 900 wipes for about 21$, that works out to about 2 cents per wipe! If u can find them cheaper than that, let me know!

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

Now, my next post was going to be about how I save on commercial cleaning products, and I will post that in a few days, but something happened yesterday that lead me to write this post. I have found a recipe for a great all purpose cleaner, one that I really, really like and has now been thoroughly tested!

A while ago I got a nice big jug of Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Soap in Peppermint for about 18$ at Superstore. I bought it because I had seen the same soap in the showers at a trendy yoga studio here in town and thought that it must be awesome (though I had not actually tried it). It uses all organic and fair-trade ingredients, yadda yadda yadda.... I bought it. However, when I came home and actually used it in the shower, it was, um.... refreshing... a little too refreshing... on my lady bits.... I'm sure you get what I mean. Henceforth, it has sat in my shower virtually unused. (I was a nice wife and warned my hubby about its "refreshing" qualities before he was tempted to try it).

Then I was reading a book about cleaning that I had checked out of the library that specifically mentioned the use of Peppermint-Castile soap in homemade cleaning products and bug spray. Bonus! I mixed up a batch and tweaked it a bit, here is what I put in an empty spray bottle:

1 cup white Vinegar
2-3 TBSP Peppermint-Castile soap
20 drops Tea Tree Oil
Fill up with warm water.

I just shake it up and use it, and it works great! How do I know it works great? Well.... yesterday when I went in to wake up little bean, I discovered that she had taken off her diaper at some point in the night.... Ya... Granted, she had not pooped, so it could have been sooooooo much worse! but she had curled up in the corner and peed so much that it went down the side of the mattress, onto the crib, and then pooled on the carpet below. I have no idea how so much pee came from such a tiny body, at least I know I keep her well hydrated!

Needless to say, the cleaner was thoroughly tested yesterday. Not only did it get everything clean, but it deodorized the carpet as well! I was a happy Mama! Works well on kitchen and bathroom counters as well, but the fact that it completely got rid of the pee smell out of the carpet is what really impressed me the most.
Happy cleaning everyone, here's hoping that you don't have to clean up what I did yesterday!

How to Save on Cleaning Products - Part I

So I have a confession, I both love and hate cleaning at the same time. I love cleaning products and gadgets, I love reading about different cleaning tips, tricks, even schedules, I love watching shows about cleaning and de-cluttering, I love having a clean house.... I love everything about cleaning except for, well, actually cleaning! Is anyone else like this?

I used to love going to Walmart and buying all of the latest and greatest cleaning products that came out. The Swiffer, the Swiffer Wet Jet, the Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Cleaner that sprays down your shower every time you get out with the simple push of a button.... you name it, I've had them all. I've probably tried every brand of cleaning product over the years, I've even tried certain cleaning products simply because I liked their smell! I have literally bought it all over the years.... and spent a pretty penny doing so.

As I've gotten older and (hopefully) a little wiser, I've learned something to be true..... the simpler, the better. It seems funny to me that the way my grandmother and great-grandmother probably cleaned their homes is now "in Vogue" at the moment. Its now trendy to have a clothesline and hang your sheets out to dry in the sun. It seems that more and more people are going back to the old school ways of doing things, for a variety of reasons. For me, I have slowly been moving away from a lot of commercial cleaning products to simply making my own. I do this for 4 main reasons:

1. Less chemicals and less packaging = better for the environment
2. Less chemicals in the home is safer for my little bean (kids seem to lick random things!)
3. The less money I give big companies like Proctor and Gamble who I know utilize animal testing, the happier I am (its the tree-hugging hippie in me)
4. ITS WAAAAYYYYY CHEAPER!

For real, its crazy how much money you can waste on cleaning products. I know I should be more about saving the environment and all but really, the big draw for me was saving money. However, one of the first things I should mention, one that was difficult for me, was the scent issue. I think we have been programmed over the years to believe that clean should have a smell, like pine or orange..... In reality, clean really shouldn't have a smell, it should just be clean. Once I weaned myself off the highly scented products, it made life a lot easier. Sure when I use vinegar to clean my floors there might be a faint vinegar smell, but it goes away after about 10 mins and I am left with just nice clean floors that are not toxic to my kids, fur and flesh alike. I've also heard that adding essential oils to cleaning mixtures negates the scent issue, and also adds some cleaning benefits! Something that I will be trying in the future. Doesn't mean that I don't still buy the odd commercial cleaning product, but the more time goes on the more I find myself asking "couldn't I just make my own?"

When you decide to start making your own cleaners, vinegar becomes your new best friend, same with Pinterest. *Disclaimer: if you don't know what Pinterest is.... just leave it that way... seriously... just don't even go there...unless you don't mind losing your soul for a little while.... The two main money savers that I make myself are:

1. Tub and Shower Cleaner - 1 cup of vinegar microwaved for one minute combined with 1 cup of blue dawn in a spray bottle. Shake, spray on and let sit for at least 10 minutes, then wipe with a damp sponge and watch the soap scum melt away! I would love to take credit for this but it was definitely a Pinterest find!

2. Floor Cleaner - My own recipe: about a cup of vinegar mixed with about a half tablespoon of dish soap, combined with warm water (to fill your container of choice). For me the Rubbermaid Reveal mop has been a godsend. You can fill it up with whatever you want, then just peel the mat off the Velcro on the bottom and toss it in the washer when you're done. So, so much cheaper than the Swiffer Wet Jet, and so much less waste created. I got mine at Walmart.

The vinegar is super cheap when bought in bulk at Costco. Two huge jugs that will last you forever. The Dawn dish soap can also be bought super cheap at the dollar store... for literally a dollar.

I am still experimenting with a good all purpose cleaner that I like (one that can do kitchen counters, high chairs, bathroom counters, etc...) and a good glass cleaner. When I have perfected those recipes I will update. A few more that I am going to try in the future are homemade laundry detergent and homemade dishwasher detergent. I have a stockpile of laundry soap and dishwasher tabs to use up first, so those last two will be a little while yet.

Other than that my biggest tip is to invest in some microfiber cleaning cloths and some sponges, which can be bought for super cheap at the Dollar Store. I recommend using microfiber cloths on your swiffer instead of buying swiffer cloths, again, sooooo much cheaper and better for the environment. Also, if you take the two middle parts out of your swiffer, your toddler can help you clean! (again... can't take credit for this idea... saw it on Pinterest!)

Microfiber cloths help you limit your use of paper towels as well, as you can waste a lot of $ every month if all of your cleaning is done with paper towels. My exception is cleaning the toilet. I have to be able to clean it and then throw that sh%& away (literally!). I just can't wrap my head around cleaning the toilet with anything that I can't throw away after... there just isn't enough bleach in the world...

Since this post is already hella long I will be back in a few days with another to tell you the commercial products that I think are worth the money and how I save on those. Happy Cleaning!