Today I thought I would give a brief update on my goals for the month. I was also going to post about my kombucha, but alas, that will have to come another day!
Eat Better
So far we've done well. I used up the last of my failed yogurt batch and I am ready to try again, this time I think I'll follow the directions. :) I had a nice chat with DH about sugar and how I'm trying to reduce and it felt good to get on the same page about a topic pertaining to food (for once!). But then at my family's superbowl party we both got sick from eating so much sugary food. Goes to show us, I guess. DH said "Never let me eat like that ever again" while we laid awake in bed wondering what we did to ourselves.
Finances
We still haven't gotten our dirt yet, blargh. This past weekend was busy, but we could have made time for it. I'm still working on sticking to our new budget. I think we're doing well so far. And as part of that, I've been using Mint.com more than I was before to keep myself in line with our budget. We've been very meticulous this week in recording every dollar we spend on groceries so we can better evaluate our spending. I even figured out on Mint.com how to enter a manual cash transaction which means we can also track our spending at the farmer's market with ease, now. Love it.
Personal Goals
Clean out closet -- DONE. Eat it. I organized my way down to the very carpet and up to the ceiling. And I also just last night took pics of the last few holdout items I'm going to try and sell on craigslist. I'll post those later today.
Recyclables -- DONE. I recycled the box from our aquarium into a nifty recycling receptacle. Say that 3 times fast.
Driving -- Fail. Once again, stupid weekend. I think I'm going to ask DH take me on Wednesday this week instead of / possibly in addition to the weekend. I must get this going.
Posture -- Meh, so so. I'm doing better but I'm not where I need to be.
Simpler meals to free up time -- Ha. Hah, ha. Ha, I say. Hasn't happened yet.
House
Indecision is killing us, here. I keep trying to talk to my wonderful hubby but he's been a man of fewer than normal words lately, it seems (or maybe I've been on overdrive?? Hmm..).
Weight Loss for DH
I haven't talked to him yet. I will though. All in due time.
Showing posts with label Tuesday Trimmings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tuesday Trimmings. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tuesday Trimmings
I'm starting to like this catch-all post I started doing on Tuesdays. It's a nice way to write about all the random crap I've been up to without have to try and be organized about it. haha.
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My jars came yesterday! So last night I started my first batch of kombucha. I'm so excited I can hardly wait. Once we started drinking it a while ago, we realized it was too expensive to keep buying, but because of the health benefits (and because it's downright tasty!), we decided it was worthwhile to invest in making our own. My SCOBY is doing really well (yay) so I'm optimistic that this will be a success.
So far, I've spent
$2 on generic green tea
$3.50 on a bottle of starter kombucha
and $25.98 on two 1-gallon glass jars.
I'm starting off with making just one gallon to see how it goes and to see how fast we drink it.
1 gallon filtered water -- $15 / 100 = $0.15 ($15 is how much each filter costs)
4 tea bags -- $2 / 40 * 10 = $0.50
1 cup of sugar -- $2 / 12 = $0.18 (aprox)
So total cost for one gallon of kombucha, will be less than $1.00. Compared to a 16oz bottle for $3.50, I'd say that's quite a deal. Especially since it takes eight 16oz bottle to equal one gallon. 8 * $3.50 = $28.
Which means with my first gallon, I will just about break even with my start up costs.
After that, it's all gravy (erm, kombucha!).
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In other news, my fermented orange marmalade is done! It's pretty good, but not at all like what normal marmalade is like. It's kind of watery and not syrupy. It's vaguely sweet and orange-y at first, and then it's slightly salty, and then it's pretty bitter. But for some reason I think I really like it, even though it's definitely really bitter. The rinds have softened up so they're much more chew-able now, which is good.
I'm thinking about adding either maple syrup or more sugar to sweeten it up so my DH will also eat it. I think if I can balance the bitter / slightly salty flavor with a bit more sweetness, it will help him enjoy it. I want him to eat it because it's good for him, but let's be honest, if he doesn't eat it, I won't be that sad--more for me!
And, contrary to my belief, adding whey did not ruin it. I thought for sure, once I added the whey, that it would be awful and just taste like whey and nastiness, but I can't taste the whey at all! How cool is that? (you saw this coming) Whey cool.
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Oh, and I had another dinner success last night. Wild-caught salmon fried in a skillet with butter, topped with homemade BBQ sauce and served with green beans covered with butter. Yum! DH really enjoyed it and so did I.
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Other than adding more fermented foods to our diet, I'm sucking at my goals. I still have 6 days to get them done, so I might eek by, but... yeah, not holding my breath at this point. Aand, school is kicking my butt. And I don't really like work that much... And I don't even want to think about my grocery bill lately.
...But I made kombucha! and I guess for now, that's enough.
What about you? How are you doing with your New Year's goals?
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My jars came yesterday! So last night I started my first batch of kombucha. I'm so excited I can hardly wait. Once we started drinking it a while ago, we realized it was too expensive to keep buying, but because of the health benefits (and because it's downright tasty!), we decided it was worthwhile to invest in making our own. My SCOBY is doing really well (yay) so I'm optimistic that this will be a success.
So far, I've spent
$2 on generic green tea
$3.50 on a bottle of starter kombucha
and $25.98 on two 1-gallon glass jars.
I'm starting off with making just one gallon to see how it goes and to see how fast we drink it.
1 gallon filtered water -- $15 / 100 = $0.15 ($15 is how much each filter costs)
4 tea bags -- $2 / 40 * 10 = $0.50
1 cup of sugar -- $2 / 12 = $0.18 (aprox)
So total cost for one gallon of kombucha, will be less than $1.00. Compared to a 16oz bottle for $3.50, I'd say that's quite a deal. Especially since it takes eight 16oz bottle to equal one gallon. 8 * $3.50 = $28.
Which means with my first gallon, I will just about break even with my start up costs.
After that, it's all gravy (erm, kombucha!).
-------
In other news, my fermented orange marmalade is done! It's pretty good, but not at all like what normal marmalade is like. It's kind of watery and not syrupy. It's vaguely sweet and orange-y at first, and then it's slightly salty, and then it's pretty bitter. But for some reason I think I really like it, even though it's definitely really bitter. The rinds have softened up so they're much more chew-able now, which is good.
I'm thinking about adding either maple syrup or more sugar to sweeten it up so my DH will also eat it. I think if I can balance the bitter / slightly salty flavor with a bit more sweetness, it will help him enjoy it. I want him to eat it because it's good for him, but let's be honest, if he doesn't eat it, I won't be that sad--more for me!
And, contrary to my belief, adding whey did not ruin it. I thought for sure, once I added the whey, that it would be awful and just taste like whey and nastiness, but I can't taste the whey at all! How cool is that? (you saw this coming) Whey cool.
-------
Oh, and I had another dinner success last night. Wild-caught salmon fried in a skillet with butter, topped with homemade BBQ sauce and served with green beans covered with butter. Yum! DH really enjoyed it and so did I.
-------
Other than adding more fermented foods to our diet, I'm sucking at my goals. I still have 6 days to get them done, so I might eek by, but... yeah, not holding my breath at this point. Aand, school is kicking my butt. And I don't really like work that much... And I don't even want to think about my grocery bill lately.
...But I made kombucha! and I guess for now, that's enough.
What about you? How are you doing with your New Year's goals?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday Trimmings
Well, today is another sort of "catch-all" day for what I've been thinking "I should post about that," but haven't made time for.
One of those things is a quick update on my goals.
My SCOBY is growing nicely and should be ready to start culturing its first batch of kombucha by the weekend! I'm so excited. If this works I'll be saving us a lot of money. As soon we tried it we became hooked, but at $3.50 per 16oz bottle, it's been one of my budget-busters for several weeks.
I've been taking my cod liver oil daily, but DH still won't touch the stuff. Silly man.
We finally, last night, decided that my scheduled driving lesson time is going to be after church on Sunday afternoons. Yippee! First lesson is this weekend.
We haven't talked about our budget yet because our budget meeting was cancelled due to respectively crappy days had by both committee members. Boo. We're rescheduling and will still get it done within January.
I have completely failed at getting anything crafty done. Of my lofty goal I set for this month, I have accomplished about 4%. Yay me.
We have not gotten a realtor yet. I think I'm going to start asking around to see if I can find a friend of a friend or at least someone who one of my friends used and had a good experience with. Also, I saw a house I *loved* online but when I called about they said it was already under contract. Sad.
I did finalize my plans for my balcony garden this weekend! And my seeds came on Friday. I still need a few basic gardening supplies like bone meal and probably clippers and gloves, but my plan is ready. Oh, I also still need dirt. Detail, details.
I have sold 2 books on Amazon so far, and hopefully tonight after work I can post the rest of the stuff I'm going sell on Craigslist and hopefully I will get some of this crap out of here. I am still determined to get rid of all of this crap on February 1st regardless so, I really need to get moving if I want to make a few bucks instead of just pitching it.
I have started on my posture, but not full-on yet. I'm more aware of it now that I've listed it as one of the things I'd like to resume, but I haven't resumed my mini goals with it. Maybe that will be for tomorrow as well.
Also, I've been toying with the idea of posting my meal plans to help keep me on track. For those of you who post your meal plans, do you think it's a useful reminder or is it just a nuisance?
I've also been thinking I need to get back to posting about my groceries. Like I said I've been awful lately and kind of ashamed at the amount I've been spending (hence the lack of grocery posts). I've been kind of putting it off until we have our budget meeting to figure out where we actually should be with groceries.
PS, our Christmas tree is still up. This needs to happen by the end of January. Seriously.
One of those things is a quick update on my goals.
My SCOBY is growing nicely and should be ready to start culturing its first batch of kombucha by the weekend! I'm so excited. If this works I'll be saving us a lot of money. As soon we tried it we became hooked, but at $3.50 per 16oz bottle, it's been one of my budget-busters for several weeks.
I've been taking my cod liver oil daily, but DH still won't touch the stuff. Silly man.
We finally, last night, decided that my scheduled driving lesson time is going to be after church on Sunday afternoons. Yippee! First lesson is this weekend.
We haven't talked about our budget yet because our budget meeting was cancelled due to respectively crappy days had by both committee members. Boo. We're rescheduling and will still get it done within January.
I have completely failed at getting anything crafty done. Of my lofty goal I set for this month, I have accomplished about 4%. Yay me.
We have not gotten a realtor yet. I think I'm going to start asking around to see if I can find a friend of a friend or at least someone who one of my friends used and had a good experience with. Also, I saw a house I *loved* online but when I called about they said it was already under contract. Sad.
I did finalize my plans for my balcony garden this weekend! And my seeds came on Friday. I still need a few basic gardening supplies like bone meal and probably clippers and gloves, but my plan is ready. Oh, I also still need dirt. Detail, details.
I have sold 2 books on Amazon so far, and hopefully tonight after work I can post the rest of the stuff I'm going sell on Craigslist and hopefully I will get some of this crap out of here. I am still determined to get rid of all of this crap on February 1st regardless so, I really need to get moving if I want to make a few bucks instead of just pitching it.
I have started on my posture, but not full-on yet. I'm more aware of it now that I've listed it as one of the things I'd like to resume, but I haven't resumed my mini goals with it. Maybe that will be for tomorrow as well.
Also, I've been toying with the idea of posting my meal plans to help keep me on track. For those of you who post your meal plans, do you think it's a useful reminder or is it just a nuisance?
I've also been thinking I need to get back to posting about my groceries. Like I said I've been awful lately and kind of ashamed at the amount I've been spending (hence the lack of grocery posts). I've been kind of putting it off until we have our budget meeting to figure out where we actually should be with groceries.
PS, our Christmas tree is still up. This needs to happen by the end of January. Seriously.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tuesday Trimmings
Well, I have no particular agenda today, so I thought I'd give you random updates about what I have been cooking and scheming. I don't really know where else this stuff would go, hence the "trimmings." Lame, I know. Deal with it.
Cooking
I've actually started a number of cooking projects lately. :)
Sometime in the last week or so I turned almost 6 lbs of cabbage into sauerkraut. It's "sauering" on my counter as I write this. I love love love sauerkraut now, which is crazy because I used to think it terrible. The first time I made sauerkraut, I wasn't that crazy about it, so it languished in the back of my fridge for months until December when I pulled it out again and tried it and "yum" was the only word-sounding noise I could get out in between mouthfuls. So I now I am making a big batch and I am excited. I'm also a lot less paranoid about leaving food out on the counter this time around. (Eating fermented food cures you of some paranoia, apparently).
I also bought a bottle of kombucha and started growing my own SCOBY so I can make my own. If you don't know, kombucha is basically a superfood. It's filled with good bacteria for digestion (like yogurt) along with all kind of other stuff for energy, etc. It's really good for your liver. It's slightly carbonated and my husband says it tastes like beer (what? he's weird). Read more about this good stuff, here. Or you can google it and come up with hundreds of other sites. Unfortunately it takes like 3 weeks to grow a SCOBY so it will be at least that long before I can make my own. *Sad*
Just this weekend I made a huge pot of homemade chicken noodle soup with real bone broth that I left to simmer overnight on Saturday. The soup is delicious and hopefully just what the doctor ordered to help us sickies get over the rest of this annoying cold... Hmm, I should post a recipe.
A week or two ago I made pasta which turned out better than ever before. This is ironic since 2 things happened differently: for one, I set out to follow the directions, for two, life got in the way and I left it abandoned in the "resting" stage for about 6 times as long as the directions say to. Haha, I love irony. Seriously, best pasta I've made. So much flavor and it kept its shape really well even when being cooked extensively in soup. I'll be making more soon, I bet.
This weekend I made 2 casseroles and froze them for those "menu plan, menu shman." nights. It's a recipe I adapted from my mom--who knows where she got it. It's basically an egg and bread casserole, but with yummy things like mushrooms, cheese, and onions (and for me, spinach). I love it. I had a hard time not chowing on the filling when I was layering the casserole because it tastes sooo good. It turned out really well this time. (another recipe? ... Hmm)
This weekend I also made another loaf of sourdough bread, as well as quasi-sourdough sweet potato "quick-bread." It tastes amazing. This all started because I had half a sweet potato from like, 3 months ago that I put in the freezer with the intention of "getting around to it." Ha! Success.
Finally, this weekend, I made a half-batch of yogurt--Much more manageable. I'm doing it this way from now on. I also used the whisk attachment on my blender to mix in my yogurt starter and it was convenient. Good trick for next time.
^Most of the above things fall into my "continue eating better" annual goal DH and I set a week or two ago. A "sub-goal" beneath that was to eat more fermented foods--both sauerkraut and kombucha fall into that category, yeah! We noticed a huge difference in our digestion and general well-being when I bought several bottles of it from the store and were drinking it everyday. At a little over $3 per 16oz bottle though, it's definitely not in the budget. This was also one of my January goals. So far I think breaking down goals into "baby steps" to do each month is going to be great. Sauerkraut is great for you and it's also got good bacteria for digestion. It's also stupidly high in vitamin C, yay. And yogurt, well, that's another healthy food, especially since it's just milk, bacteria, and a little sugar.
Ah well, I was going to post about other stuff, but it looks like I've got more than enough random stuff to talk about just with food so I'll save the others for another day...
(This post wound up being much more focused and much longer than I was expecting...)
What about you? What cooking have you done?
Cooking
I've actually started a number of cooking projects lately. :)
Sometime in the last week or so I turned almost 6 lbs of cabbage into sauerkraut. It's "sauering" on my counter as I write this. I love love love sauerkraut now, which is crazy because I used to think it terrible. The first time I made sauerkraut, I wasn't that crazy about it, so it languished in the back of my fridge for months until December when I pulled it out again and tried it and "yum" was the only word-sounding noise I could get out in between mouthfuls. So I now I am making a big batch and I am excited. I'm also a lot less paranoid about leaving food out on the counter this time around. (Eating fermented food cures you of some paranoia, apparently).
I also bought a bottle of kombucha and started growing my own SCOBY so I can make my own. If you don't know, kombucha is basically a superfood. It's filled with good bacteria for digestion (like yogurt) along with all kind of other stuff for energy, etc. It's really good for your liver. It's slightly carbonated and my husband says it tastes like beer (what? he's weird). Read more about this good stuff, here. Or you can google it and come up with hundreds of other sites. Unfortunately it takes like 3 weeks to grow a SCOBY so it will be at least that long before I can make my own. *Sad*
Just this weekend I made a huge pot of homemade chicken noodle soup with real bone broth that I left to simmer overnight on Saturday. The soup is delicious and hopefully just what the doctor ordered to help us sickies get over the rest of this annoying cold... Hmm, I should post a recipe.
A week or two ago I made pasta which turned out better than ever before. This is ironic since 2 things happened differently: for one, I set out to follow the directions, for two, life got in the way and I left it abandoned in the "resting" stage for about 6 times as long as the directions say to. Haha, I love irony. Seriously, best pasta I've made. So much flavor and it kept its shape really well even when being cooked extensively in soup. I'll be making more soon, I bet.
This weekend I made 2 casseroles and froze them for those "menu plan, menu shman." nights. It's a recipe I adapted from my mom--who knows where she got it. It's basically an egg and bread casserole, but with yummy things like mushrooms, cheese, and onions (and for me, spinach). I love it. I had a hard time not chowing on the filling when I was layering the casserole because it tastes sooo good. It turned out really well this time. (another recipe? ... Hmm)
This weekend I also made another loaf of sourdough bread, as well as quasi-sourdough sweet potato "quick-bread." It tastes amazing. This all started because I had half a sweet potato from like, 3 months ago that I put in the freezer with the intention of "getting around to it." Ha! Success.
Finally, this weekend, I made a half-batch of yogurt--Much more manageable. I'm doing it this way from now on. I also used the whisk attachment on my blender to mix in my yogurt starter and it was convenient. Good trick for next time.
^Most of the above things fall into my "continue eating better" annual goal DH and I set a week or two ago. A "sub-goal" beneath that was to eat more fermented foods--both sauerkraut and kombucha fall into that category, yeah! We noticed a huge difference in our digestion and general well-being when I bought several bottles of it from the store and were drinking it everyday. At a little over $3 per 16oz bottle though, it's definitely not in the budget. This was also one of my January goals. So far I think breaking down goals into "baby steps" to do each month is going to be great. Sauerkraut is great for you and it's also got good bacteria for digestion. It's also stupidly high in vitamin C, yay. And yogurt, well, that's another healthy food, especially since it's just milk, bacteria, and a little sugar.
Ah well, I was going to post about other stuff, but it looks like I've got more than enough random stuff to talk about just with food so I'll save the others for another day...
(This post wound up being much more focused and much longer than I was expecting...)
What about you? What cooking have you done?
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