Frugal Fridays

I want to share a soup recipe that I use as an appetizer. I've found by serving an appetizer with meals has advantages. For one it helps me to control my hunger and not over eat at meals which is always a good thing if you are trying to lose weight, also there isn't the need for as large servings of the main dish if we start with an appetizer. My kids were always more receptive to new foods or veggies if served as an appetizer so it is a good way to get more vegetables into kids.

A very easy soup that I make takes only minutes to prepare and can cook while you finish the last minute dinner preparations. I start with enough chicken or beef stock for about a 1 1/2 cup serving per person. I grate a carrot, chop some onion and add to the stock and bring to a boil. I throw in what ever leftover veggies I have that will go well together, if I have fresh spinach I might use that. Any veggies you like, maybe some leftover noodles if you have them, whatever you think would be good. I might add a couple of sliced mushrooms if I have them. Season with some garlic, salt and pepper. I let it cook on medium for about 10-15 minutes and serve up with a few sprinkles of grated cheese.

Fast, easy and inexpensive if you use mostly leftovers.

What I Saw ....

Little wooden chairs at Soco Crafts in Maggie Valley

I love Mountains

We crossed over Newfound Gap today into North Carolina on a business trip. There was still frost on the top, about 5000 ft elevation. The wind was blowing and it was cold up there. We even saw a few icicles on the sides of the road. I love it. When I stand and look out over the mountains I can feel my whole body relax. For some weird reason it just centers me.

What I Saw ...

Iris from my neighbor's yard

These Women ROCK!

These girls rocked the house last night and won the National Women's Basketball Championship! We saw them play a few weeks ago and they are awesome! Their coach, Pat Summitt, is a person I greatly admire. She is a great motivator and a real inspiration to young women everywhere.

She requires a great deal from her players on the court and off. She expects every player to attend all their classes AND sit in the first 3 rows. They behave themselves and act responsibly. The averaged GPA of the team is 3.2. I don't think I've ever heard any of the girls getting in any trouble. You can tell the team has enormous respect and affection for her. The University of Tennessee has even named its basketball court at the Thompson-Boling Arena, "The Summitt," What I enjoy is going to a game and looking around at all the little girls in there in their orange and white. Pat is always so nice to the little girls that come up for her autograph. They just beam at her. She spends time meeting with local youth and does motivational speaking. You can ask almost any little girl in Knoxville and they will say they want to be a Lady Vol.

In a day and age where the media is teaching our young girls that being some sort of sex object is where it is at, where we have people like Paris Hilton in every magazine, Pat Summitt is showing them there is something better in life to shoot for. She teaches them to work hard to reach whatever their goals are. Some of the players go on to play on pro teams. Most of them go on to other careers and ventures so being a professional athlete isn't what she is all about. She is about building character. Pat Summitt ROCKS!

Works For Me Wednesday

OK. I'm not too good with car tips. I've warned you. Here are the few tips that I can think of we do. We have an Astro van that has a good deal of space between the front seats. We keep one of those plastic milk crates between the seats. It fits tightly enough it won't slide. I mostly use it to keep smaller items in, the kind of things that come sliding out of nowhere under your foot when you least need it to. I also keep my traveling essentials there: Baby Wipes, Tissues, Small First Aid kit which includes Tylenol, cough drops and antacid, a pencil bag with pens, pencils, post it notes, tape and a pair of scissors , a few snacks like dried fruit or granola bars and bottled water, a few small lunch size paper bags and plastic zip lock bags. The zip lock bags are essential and a life saver if you have a child prone to carsickness. I also keep 3 or 4 medium size boxes in the trunk area. These come in handy to keep shopping bags in when grocery shopping. Cans and bottles can't roll out of the bags and around in the back of the van. Pretty basic stuff. For more tips check out Rocks in My Dryer.

What I Saw ...

Changes

I've been making quite a few changes to the blog. I finally figured out how to make my own header. That is my backyard btw. I am wondering if the changes are slowing down the blog for others. If you don't mind leaving a comment, especially if you are having trouble loading the page, I would really appreciate it. Thanks. Edit: I changed the header to a smaller version of the same pic. It should load a little faster. I am interested in knowing if the music slows the loading down too much.

What I Saw ...

Plum good

I bought a bag of plums at Sam's Club last week . They turned out to be more ripe than I thought. I realized that they were going to go bad and as part of my new effort to find a ways to avoid waste in our food budget I realized that I needed to do something with them. I decided to cook them into a sauce. I don't have any Sure-Jel on hand so I couldn't make jelly. I used : 2 1/2 c. sliced plums, 1 Tab lemon juice, 1/2 cup water ( I think grape or apple juice would be good) and 3/4 cup sugar. I brought them to a boil, lowered heat to medium and cooked until the fruit was cooked through and the liquid thickened. I ended up with a great sauce that we used over French toast. It thickened after it was refrigerated and works great on toast. I can't wait to try it on some hot buttered biscuits. Oh, and if your not from the South, you might not get the title. Plum is used sometimes as a adjective that means really or completely. It's not bad grammar, I promise.

What I Saw ...

Sunday Musings

I've decided that one really bad financial habit of mine it being too wasteful with the food we bring into our home. After my previous post about the book, Your Money or Your Life, I decided it was time to reevaluate my part of the financial accountability in our home and realized that I have been slipping big time on taking care of our meals economically. We run a business in our home and our busy season is starting so I've been slacking off on cooking. I'm really good at the shopping just not always at the actual preparation. So my current goal is to see is I can cut down the waste in our meals and find more creative ways to use what we have on hand.