Farmer’s Market Fresh Salad

This is a great idea for when you get to the Farmer’s Market at the end of the day. I have noticed that, here in Maine, the farmer’s sell their goods cheaper toward the end of the day. You could take advantage of this twice a week here, getting fresh salad fixings each time. Evening salads are great!

Framer’s Market Fresh Salad

(use enough to feed your family)

shredded lettuce

shredded carrot. leave skin on

shredded zucchini, leave skin on

Shredded spinach

cucumber cut small, leave skin on

cauliflower cut small

 

You can eat it all mixed up like this, or top with cheese and/or a meat topping such as chicken. I sometimes like to eat vegetable salads, instead of ones with cheeses and meats. This would be good for a snack or at lunch or dinner.

Almost Free Chicken Salad for Dinner

Today I was the lucky recipient of some food from Crossroads Ministries. (Why I had to go to Crossroads, and my experience there)

Three of the items that I was lucky enough to come home with were salad mix, Romaine mix, and baby spinach. This was very helpful to us, and will make us at least three meals of salad, if not more.

Chicken Salad

Chicken, at least a few pieces per person (use leftovers if you have any to make this just about free) ( our cost: about $1.00)

Romaine lettuce mix (our cost: Free)

Salad Mix (our cost: Free)

Baby Spinach (our cost: Free)

Pickles (our cost: minimal) (we buy huge gallon jars)

Shredded Carrot (our cost: about 19 cents)

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (our cost: minimal) (we sprinkle on just a little)

Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese (our cost: minimal) (same as above)

Grated Parmesan Cheese (our cost: minimal) (same as above)

 

Just grill or fry the chicken before putting it on the tossed salad greens, pickles and carrots. Then top everything with a sprinkling of each cheese.

Soda Mixers

We do not drink a lot of soda here but, on occasion, we do like to go to Mobil and get a fountain drink. My daughter and her friend mix their drinks. They will do something like half Dr. Pepper and half cola. This does not sound appatizing to me, but they love it.

Fountain drinks are ninety-nine cents, which is not a lot of money for a treat once-in-a-great-while. I will usually purchase a bag of chips (usually sune chips) for the same price, and we will sit in the park and drink our sodas and share the bag of chips. Other times, we will each get a twenty-five cent granola bar instead of chips.

Happy Spring!

Shannon

Crystal Light Mixers and Popsicles

Crystal Lite actually costs too much for my families budget, so I purchase store brands here. Wal*Mart has the most reasonable prices that I can find. I do not care much for water, and am on a diet. I do drink most of my water a day, but then I simply need something else to drink. The drinks have 0-5 calories per serving, so I drink these.

I do not personally mix mine, but my neighbor does. My daughter will likely also be experimenting with this idea.

I have decided to make posicles from these drinks as well. Each time I make a jug, I will make a few popsicles. This will be a nice, cool, low-calorie treat for me on hot days.

Good day!

Shannon

Kool-Aid Mixers and Popsicles

This is yet another area where my daughter experiments. She mixes Kool-Aids. This should be done in a gallon size jug for best results. Mix 2 packets, 2 cups of sugar, ice and water to make a gallon. Here are some interesting combinations:

strawberry-orange

grape-strawberry/kiwi

cherry-orange

pink lemonade-starwberry

 

To save money, let them have 8 ounces a day. It will keep well in the refrigerator. I know that we have one store where we have to pay $1.00 for three, and another where we pay the same for four packets.

Kool-Aid does make great, cheap posicles whether you are mixing them or not. Do this instead of giving your children the drinks, and it won’t hurt them to have one on a hot day.

Have a nice day!

Shannon

My Cucumber Salad, Made from Leftovers

I had about 1/3 of a cucumber leftover from salads earlier in the week, so I decided to create a new salad with it.

I always leave the peel on the cucumber, cutting off the ends. I sliced what was left with it, and put it on my plate. Then I added some sweet pickles from the gallon size jar I had purchased a few months ago. I topped these with a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese.

While helping the neighbor pack last week, she gave me a balsamic vinaigrette spritzer bottle, so I decided to give the salad a few sprays. The result was very pleasing.

Hope you enjoy the salad. It was all made from leftovers, so it was essentially free.

Shannon

Freezer: Using up the Winter Stocks

Since it is the time of the year when we spring clean, I thought that it would be nice if we all considered our freezers for a few minutes. Do you have any leftover produce in the freezer? I know that I still have some eggs and grated zucchini in the freezer that needs to be used. Here are some pointers for using up your winter stores:

* The eggs that you purchased on sale and froze will need to be used up. Since the yolks had to be broken to freeze, you can not make boiled or fried eggs with them. You could make other things, though:

scrambled eggs

french toast

use them when baking

I tend to freeze mine in snack size baggies, which I later wash out and reuse to pinch pennies. I freeze them one egg to a baggie, then I put all of the baggies into a quart or gallon size freezer baggie until I want to bake something. The eggs I will need can be taken out the night before I need them, or the morning that I will spend the evening baking. (I wash and reuse the freezer bag when I am done with it.)

 

* Grated zucchini can be used to make:

muffins

breads

omelets

cookies

brownies

cakes

This site may be helpful: http://basic-recipes.com/veget/zucchini.htm

 

* Diced apples are great for breads and muffins, brownies, cookies and cakes.

* Sliced apples make great crisps, pies and cobblers.

* You can make a great soup from (saved) leftover vegetables, meats and liquids from cooking the veggies.

Happy eating!

Shannon

Trail Mix from Leftovers

What with feeling the money pinch here, I have had to make do with little food in the house on a number of occasions. One thing that I have learned to do is to create trail mixes for snacks.

The first thing I do is to get out a  mixing bowl. Then I get out the plastic snack size baggies that I wash and reuse.

I then go through the cupboards. I throw whatever leftovers I can into the bowl:

a snack size box or two of raisins

the sunflowers seeds that are at the bottom of the jar

the remainder of the nuts from their containers

whatever cereals are left in the boxes

any leftover dried fruit

leftover crackers

what few candies are lying around

 

Pretty much whatever I can find.  The trail mix is then mixed up by hand and spooned into the baggies to be used as snacks. Sometimes, I will air pop corn and divide it between bowls, pouring a bag of trail mix over the popped corn in each bowl.

Very yummy.

Shannon

An Apology, Been Gone too Long

I am sorry that I have been gone so long. We have been dealing with health issues concerning my daughter, and I have been working a lot lately. I have also just begun my spring cleaning and yard work.

I helped my neighbors to clean out and pack up their home so that they could move. They moved yesterday morning. Before moving, we went through her cupboards and refrigerator, and she sent me home with many different food items. They are a big help to us right now.

Unfortunately, we are going to be losing some of our food money. We already do not have enough, and money has to be taken from other areas to make up for the loss. Those other areas are generally bills, and we have lowered household cleaner and personal hygiene money as well. We are doing what we can.

I know that others are feeling the pinch as well. Food prices, and the prices of everything else, are going up. My income is not. I have to make do with what we have right now, and hope the way is clear for me to take in other children to care for. Until then, we will have to make do.

Today, I am writing a few posts for this blog. A few recipes that may be helpful to others. I will post one today, and then post the rest one at a time as I have a chance.

I hope you are all doing well.

Shannon