My meatless meal staple is broccoli and macaroni. Usually with garlic & onion but with dried minced garlic in a pinch. And the guys love a ton of broccoli in that. Always in the cupboard/freezer and a quick meal.
You're so right about the condiments! Salad dressing keeps getting more synthetic and expensive. After making it a few times it gets easy to balance different ingredients. Recently I was forced to make homemade Manwich (sloppy joe). The only extra step was cutting up a bit of peppers and onions. Made it from Chef John's recipe. Better taste. Bye bye canned Now I'm wondering how to make my own chop meat without a grinder. At $6/lb for either ground beef or steak, I'd rather buy the steak and chop it myself. I'm tempted to throw a steak in the Ninja blender, lol.
Old cloth diapers make great dust clothes.
Now I'm wondering how to make my own chop meat without a grinder. At $6/lb for either ground beef or steak, I'd rather buy the steak and chop it myself.
For bacon I have found it helps to keep a jar to pour the grease into before I put the bacon on the paper towel, then I'm only soaking up whatever grease is actually ON the bacon strips.If I didnt fry french fries at home or make bacon, i think i could too. I just havent found any good alternatives for grease! (Looking for suggestions if anyone has found a solution that doesnt just eliminate greasy food from my diet ) But it takes me forever to go through a roll.
Oh, i have a special container for this purpose, i save it to cook withFor bacon I have found it helps to keep a jar to pour the grease into before I put the bacon on the paper towel.
In my former apartment I kept a mini fridge on it's freezer setting and stored a veritable "ossuary" of animal bones and "pieces" for stocks and fats. No space for the mini fridge here though so I make stocks and such more frequently. Save less fats too.Oh, i have a special container for this purpose, i save it to cook with
I don't disagree, but I have two thoughts on the subject:Anyone else discover far more efficient ways to live life since this pause?
I love this list! I'm thinking I may cave and order some of that mix...We have found that some gadgets we rarely use during in the past are really appreciated now.
Bread machine - bakes wonderful bread for about 5 cents per loaf (using coconut oil is the key to great bread) (bought 50 lbs of bread flour and yeast from Gordon Foods)
Soda Stream - husband loves his soda water
Air fryer - restaurant quality food super fast
Vitamix - mix frozen berries from Costco with yogurt, spinach, banana and apple is a real treat (makes great java chip frappachinos also)
Waterpik style water flosser - keeps our gums super clean so we don’t have to worry about going to the dentist
Fireplace - getting rid of downed wood from our forest and saving on heating bills
Ice cream maker - our dole whip mix just arrived from Amazon
Bidet - the Luxe Neo bidet we bought for about $60 from Amazon saves us a bundle on TP
Garden supplies - have over a thousand little vegetable plants that are an inch tall so far. This new hobby will replace traveling as a hobby for us this summer.
Our new motto is “Embrace the change!”
Thanks for this tip...I had bought some stew meat a while back that proved to be very tough no matter how I prepared it.... I got like 4 packs at the time...I'm going to buttermilk marinate the next batch before cooking!Remember when a specific ingredient is missing for a recipe that there are many substitutes available again by using your favorite search engine. Earlier this week I found I was almost finished my powdered buttermilk so added a TB of vinegar to a scant cup of milk and had the same product with all it's meat tenderizing tendencies and tangy taste at a much lower cost.
So many possiblities to save money on budget websites w/o giving up on quality.
I've found a touch of deep sweet in the base always works.... my fave is a bit of molasses believe it or not. Balsamic vinegar is sweet also... my basic is always 1/3 vinegar,1/3 oil,1/3 water...some sweet base, dried spices and salt..... any combo basically works.Salad dressing is the one thing I simply can’t get right - maybe a collection of ones people like on the dis would be nice. I know people will say go look, I know there are tons on the internet but finding them and liking one are very different things.
Salad dressing is the one thing I simply can’t get right - maybe a collection of ones people like on the dis would be nice. I know people will say go look, I know there are tons on the internet but finding them and liking one are very different things.
I go through tea towels and dish cloths daily, but I use them in the kitchen. My bathroom has its own set of cleaning items. At the end of the day, they go into the laundry for an eventual bleach load. I can't imaging going through 50 washcloths in a week let alone in a day.....I don't make that big a mess. Then again, my kids are older and I have 2 dogs that catch any edible pieces that hit the floor.Nope, I have been using MORE paper towels than I used to. Reusing cloth or towels is NOT sanitary at all (if you wipe more than one surface with them) and I cannot imagine daily laundering of like 50 washcloths. Nope.
This. My youngest is 14, so maybe I'd feel differently if I had little kids. But, my teens both like to cook and bake, so there are more kitchen messes due to that--I applaud their efforts, even if there's more to clean up.I go through tea towels and dish cloths daily, but I use them in the kitchen. My bathroom has its own set of cleaning items. At the end of the day, they go into the laundry for an eventual bleach load. I can't imaging going through 50 washcloths in a week let alone in a day.....I don't make that big a mess. Then again, my kids are older and I have 2 dogs that catch any edible pieces that hit the floor.
Anyone else discover far more efficient ways to live life since this pause?
I discovered that I don't need paper towels, like at all...
I wondered where gas was below $1/gallon. I'm in Florida, and it's hovering around $1.69/gallon, $1.56 if you belong to BJs. I looked at our budget spreadsheet for April, and we didn't buy any gas for our 3 cars. We just went to the grocery store and back once a week. I just dipped below a half tank, and I thought about filling up but didn't because I didn't have a wipe for the gas pump.I am probably getting 3 weeks for a gallon of gas. Don’t have to drive to work or anywhere else. I did fill up for .97 on Wednesday. Good thing I did, Wisconsin jumped to 1.45 on Friday, but I saw today, it dropped back down to &1.33. Sorry, sarcasm. We put almost 1500 miles a week on our vehicles. Sort of nice not going anywhere.