Random Bits

If you read my other blog you'll know that it's Spring Fashion week. Landon's going to be showcasing his spring fashions over here since most of his stuff is thrifty yet stylish. Check out how cute he looked today:

Shirt: Old Navy, hand-me-down

Pants: Arizona, h-m-d

Shoes: Ralph Lauren, sale at Ross for  $3

He had just discovered that his hard-soled shoes made noise when he stomped his feet. What fun!

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Also, I wanted to start talking about Pantry Staples. Each family's "must-have" items will vary, but I'll start highlighting the things we almost always have on-hand. It might help you discover your own Pantry Staples. Once you figure them out it makes grocery shopping easier and often less expensive (you buy stuff you actually use). 

Pantry Staple: Frozen Strawberries

Landon and I have started drinking smoothies almost daily. He loves them and they're healthy! I want to start hiding veggies in them to increase the nutritional value even more. 

If you have frozen strawberries you can almost always make a smoothie. Since we had no juice I used yogurt and milk which not only made a creamy treat but helped both of us get our calcium in. Today's smoothie included the following:

frozen strawberries

half a banana

milk

whole milk plain yogurt

1/3 can of pineapple

a sprinkling of brown sugar (I would use honey but the baby can't have it)

That's quite a few ingredients. You could easily make one with less. I love smoothies because they're like salads - you can throw together just about anything.

Frozen strawberries from the grocery store are inexpensive, but it's also easy to freeze your own. During strawberry season I often buy a big flat at farmers market. If we don't eat them up fast enough, or some of them start looking mushy, I just cut the tops off and pop them in the freezer in a bag.

Inspiration Friday

I am in LOVE with this. 

And I really want to do it to our family desk. But, since I can't paint flowers like that I wonder if I could adhere wallpaper print instead?

What do you think?

Frozen Waffles and 20 Bucks

I love morning carbs - waffles, pancakes, french toast, donuts, coffee cake, etc. If its sweet and full of flour I probably want to eat it in the morning. RJ on the other hand prefers toast, eggs, granola or yogurt for his first meal. (I know he sounds so much healthier than me, but in my defense I don't make rounds through the office after lunch every day collecting mini candy bars.) So I make my own frozen waffles in individual serving sizes. That way I can cook him up some eggs and still have my morning "cake." (Because let's face it - most of those items are just cake.)

Frozen waffles from the grocery story are full of nasty ingredients that I can't pronounce and are much more expensive than the homemade version. About once a month I make a double batch of whole grain waffles. I eat a good sized serving and then let the rest of the waffles cool. I package them up in pairs, throw them in a zip-loc and toss them in the freezer. Whenever I want morning waffle all I have to do is grab one baggie and throw them in the freezer. 

And they're a quick and easy breakfast for Landon sometimes too. He has just one spread with sugar-free or low-sugar apricot preserves. Yummy! 

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Also, I am so excited to share with you my big score at Old Navy. I felt like toddling around the mall the other day and looking at the new spring stuff. (side-note: I was too excited to discover that little old Ventura mall is getting an H&M in the fall!) Now I know myself and I can't go window shopping without wanting to purchase something. Therefore, I gave myself a $30 limit. I had the cash in my pocket and I wasn't allowed to spend any more than that no matter what I found. I first wandered around f21 and found a cute hat but I wasn't in love with anything so I moved on. 

I'm so glad I did. Old Navy was having a 50% off of clearance items sale and it was the first day. I scored. I got all of the below (2 tanks, 1 short sleeve, 1 long sleeve, 1 button up cardigan, and a pair of shorts) for $22! I'm sure you'll be seeing some of this during Spring Fashion Week! 

My attempt at stylizing. 

My "helper"

What We're Eating

Spaghetti With Sweet Potatoes and Ricotta Recipe | Real Simple Recipes

Photo by Josh Picayo

Why this recipe? At first glance it's probably not something I would have chosen, but it turned out fabulous and I will be making it again.  

I have a process when choosing our meals. It's been evolving over time, but here's what I tend to do when the cupboards are looking bare but it's not time to go to the grocery store (one of the ways we save money is sticking to our weekly grocery trips and trying to avoid spontaneous trips and purchases.)

First, I almost always know what's in our cupboards at any time. If you don't know what you have then you have too much stuff. It's time to starting Eating Out The Pantry/Freeze until you have a more manageable stock. 

Next, I chose one or two ingredients to start with. Maybe I have ground beef and leeks or barley and mushrooms; in this situation I knew I had a near full container of ricotta cheese that I had no idea what to do with. 

Then I hit up one of my favorite websites and use the Search box. Here's a list of my favorite online "cookbooks" (thanks to Jessica for suppling many of them.) 

Simply Recipes

Real Simple

Cooking Light

Smitten Kitchen

Rachel Ray

Google

Finally, I browse through the generated recipes that contain ricotta cheese until I find something that looks a) appealing and b) doable with my limited ingredients. Often this calls for a little experimentation - swapping out an ingredient or two but you always end up with something much more satisfying than pasta with jarred sauce. Sorry jarred sauce but you just aren't good enough for us. 

Last night I got lucky and had all the necessary ingredients on-hand. If we like the finished product I scribble notes all over the printed recipe (use more sweet potatoes) and store it in plastic sleeve in a binder.

What do you do when the cupboards looking slim?

Broke and Barefoot

There is a time to spend and a time to thrift. 

As learn how to budget our tight monthly allowance I am discovering that there are certain things that deserve/require the "splurge." Today I splurged on a pair of Riley Roos shoes from my son. (How far we've come from the double income days when a $30 purchase now qualifies as a splurge!) 

Nearly all of Landon's clothes are thrifted. Or they are hand-me-downs. I rarely, if ever, buy him anything new. Particularly now that I am used to thrift store prices. I just can't image spending $40 on a pair of Baby Gap jeans when I just bought the exact same pair for $3. And kids grow so fast it's easy to find quality clothes at the Salvation Army, thrift store, or a consignment shop. I think the last new outfit I bought Landon was his Christmas pajamas; and before that it was a $5 pair of pants from Target.  Oh, and I need to mention, we never sacrifice style for expense. My boy is always looking stylish. Particularly since I heard from a friend once: "If your baby is looking good than you don't have to!"

However, shoes are very difficult to find second-hand. The ones I have found are in terrible shape or they aren't the correct size. We have some great hand-me-down pairs but b/c Landon isn't walking yet its best if he doesn't wear hard soled shoes, and the one lovely pair of soft leather soled shoes he owns cuts into his fat little ankles. So my son has been barefoot for more than a month. His socks are destroyed from playing outside unprotected. I finally bucked up and realized it was time to spend some money on the poor boy. 

I was hoping the local children's consignment shop would have some used pairs but they didn't have anything with soft soles. So I bought the boy his new blue and orange kicks and he looks adorable in them. Not to mention how much more comfortable he must be toddling behind his push cart. But, I couldn't completely help myself, and I bought them a good size too large. 

Since time is money it's important to realize then its worth your time to bargain shop and when you should just head out and get what you need. In the case of children's shoes (and adult shoes for that matter) you need to just bite the bullet and spend full price. 

Visually Distressed

After watching Food, Inc. RJ and I made a commitment to choose locally grown fruits and vegetables as much as possible (we also have big plans for locally raised, range-free meat -but more on that later). It's been about 6 weeks since our family pledge and I am happy to report not only have been been extremely successful but I feel as though we're eating better than ever. 

I would say that we're probably getting 85% of our fruits/veggies from either the Farmer's Market or our backyard garden. The remaining 15% include the blueberries and bananas I buy for Landon at Trader Joes, and a few miscellaneous items needed for last minute recipes. 

However, while the payoffs are huge, there are a few costs. We've had to learn how to eat seasonally. No peaches or goat cheese and heirloom tomato sandwiches for now. And, until a few weeks ago, we were also sacrificing one of our favorite fruits: apples.

Apples are currently in season, but at $3 a pound at the Farmer's Market more than one or two was out of our budget. Every week I would take my apple slice sample and then hurry on to pick-up some more cost friendly grapefruits. Until the other week - when I noticed a big box tucked behind the apple stand. A small sign read: Visually Distressed Apples/$1 a pound.

At $1 a pound I was able to pick up 4 pounds of organically grown apples in a wide array of varieties. And "visually distressed" translates to a maybe a bruise or two or a tiny worm hole. How spoiled are we in this country that we won't cut a bruise off of an apple before eating it? I can guarantee that 100 years ago people we not eating shiny Granny Smiths the size of baseballs.

Not only have we been eating the least damaged of the "visually distressed" fruits, but the reject apples are fantastic for baking. I've been making homemade applesauce (applesauce is terrible unless it's homemade), apple pie and apple crisp. Since we entertain quite often apple crisp has been a fantastic dessert. It's quick and easy to make, inexpensive if you choose visually distressed fruit, and everyone likes it. 

Do you have any great Farmer's Market tips?