Getting Pickier Eaters to Eat Legumes and Cheaper Foods

Lentil beef bolognese

I used to be able to say that my kids were not picky and would eat anything I put in front of them. That really helped financially, because I could make what my finances allowed, and all would be well and good.

Well, yea. All good things come to an end. My kids definitely developed their food preferences and let me know, sometimes quite vocally, that they "hate that food" and "never ever make that again, Mommy!"

Too many times, supper was a battle, my making a food and the kids flat out refusing to eat it, and my getting frustrated, and sometimes making a second supper, one they'd be willing to actually eat... 

Endless frustration.

My older son, Lee, drew me a picture the other day of the foods he was "always willing to eat" and "whenever you don't know what to serve us, just make us that, Mommy!" It was mashed potatoes, hot dogs, and scrambled eggs.

I don't know about the prices where you live, but I can't afford to feed my family mashed potatoes, hot dogs, and scrambled eggs daily, or even every other day. Eggs and hot dogs are expensive here... and hot dogs not exactly prime nutrition. I buy hot dogs that aren't filled with all sorts of garbage, but they still are far from a health food.

I want my kids to be healthy. I want them to have good nutrition. And I don't want our grocery bills to be sky high because of their being picky.

So- how do you balance frugality, healthy eating, and kids who are picky about what they want to eat and what they won't?

Keep in mind that my kids are now just garden variety picky, not super picky eaters who would rather starve than eat anything other than the 10 foods they are willing to eat. And its not sensory issues with them, just a matter of personal preference... This won't apply to kids who have real eating issues, just the average kid who "doesn't like that"....

Free Educational Material Download

I am totally not into sharing deals and such on my blog, because these deals usually cost money, and even cheap stuff is more expensive than free. And on top of that, even when an item is free, just the thought of chasing after deals to get more and more "free stuff" is still buying into the whole consumerism culture that is so prevalent today, the whole "you need STUFF to make you happy" mindset that I so strongly am opposed to. (And that is why I don't have post after post on Christmas deals, Christmas presents on a budget, etc.... as I wrote about before.)

However, every once in a while, I will share a deal because it isn't encouraging consumerism and the lust for stuff, but because it's things that people do need, or will help them save money. (I shared a deal where you could get a free crock pot on my Facebook page, for example.)

I saw this posted online on another frugal homeschooling blog and wanted to share the "wealth" with you-

Whether you're a homeschooling parent, or just like to supplement your child's education at home, you may spend money on educational material for your kids.

Until December 20, 2013, you can download an early math and early reading program for your kids to use on the computer. I haven't finished downloading it yet, and my kids are currently in school, so they haven't tried it out yet, so I can't tell you their reaction or what I think of it. However, since it's free, it's worth downloading it and seeing how you and your kids like it. This is appropriate for ages 4-7.

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

Russian Vinegret Recipe- Vegan, Sugar Free, Cheap

Time is short, but I wanted to leave you this recipe for Russian vinegret. It sounds like it should be a salad dressing, like a vinaigrette, but it is something completely different- it is a salad made with cooked potatoes, beets, carrots, mayonnaise and often pickles. I had heard about it for a while but made it for the first time today. Delicious. It's vegan if you use a vegan mayonnaise, and pretty cheap and easy to make in the winter/fall when all these root veggies are in season.

Russian Vinegret Recipe- Vegan, Sugar Free, Cheap

Vegan Tomato Cobbler Recipe- With Gluten Free Option

All day I've been trying to write a blog post. But so many things came up, requiring my attention, so that I couldn't even sit down to type up a hand written blog post, or even a more complex recipe requiring a long introduction.
On top of that, my 2 year old daughter, Anneliese, has decided that her bed time is after midnight... and 3 out of the past 4 nights has actually gone to sleep after I do! I am not sure how she's functioning on so little sleep, but she is- and seems to have more energy than I do! So right now, though it's really late,  she's playing with blocks near my feet, making it quite difficult to write a post that requires any concentration. Actually, she just climbed on my lap and is begging me to sing "Waa waa waa" (The Wheels on the Bus) and doesn't understand that I'm trying to write....
But at the same time, I've been trying hard to keep up the posting rate on the blog, and it's quite hard to do with all that's going on...
However, I have managed to do some cooking lately, great recipes that aren't hard to make, and taste terrific- so I can share those recipes.
This recipe came about because a friend posted on facebook that she was making tomato cobbler. I had never heard of such a thing before, but it sounded intriguing, especially since I had just bought a bunch of cheap tomatoes from the reduced rack. So I googled it, and found some recipes for tomato cobbler- basically tomatoes and spices, topped by biscuit dough. Though most biscuit dough is with gluten and eggs and dairy, I found a biscuit dough recipe that wasn't with those, and ended up mashing up these two recipes, plus making even more changes, to make this great tomato cobbler.
I had one issue with it- I think the ratio of tomatoes to topping wasn't high enough- so next time I make it, I'll probably double the tomato part.
You can make this either with gluten or without- it works both ways.
If you're grain free, you can replace the biscuit topping with a recipe for gluten free biscuits, such as this.
If you have a favorite biscuit recipe, feel free to use that, also, instead of the topping recipe I included.

Vegan Tomato Cobbler Recipe- With Gluten Free Option

Homemade Applesauce Recipe- How to Make it Frugally and Healthy

Someone asked on a cooking group I'm in for a recipe to make applesauce. I never thought applesauce really needed a recipe, but assumed I had one on my site anyhow. I didn't.
There really are two ways to make applesauce- one is raw and one is cooked, but since most people associate applesauce with the cooked variety, that's what I'm posting. The raw stuff is just apples processed in the food processor until you have a sauce, perhaps with a dash of cinnamon. That's even less of a recipe than this...

There are two basic types of applesauce- sweetened, and unsweetened. Sweetened is made just like the unsweetened, with the addition of sweetener added at the very end. This recipe is acidic enough to be able to be canned via water bath canning, which is a good idea if you like to serve applesauce for your family when they have stomach bugs, and you want to avoid paying a lot for store bought applesauce, like I did last month.
To keep down the cost of my homemade applesauce, I buy apples from the reduced rack at a fraction of the price of regular apples. I don't toss the cores- I freeze them for use in another recipe which I'll share at another point.
Because applesauce will be cooked and blended, I don't remove any bruised areas from the apple- I just cut out spoiled or rotten parts (it happens when apples are on the reduced rack) but bruises and apple skin are fair game. (You can remove skin if you want to, but I don't since I don't need a fully smooth applesauce- I don't mind tiny pieces of skin in mine.)

My Instructions for Applesauce Making

Making Homemade Soap From Scratch- Cold Process and Hot Process in the Crockpot Options

My homemade, all natural, and cheap soap!

On Thanksgiving weekend, my husband had off, and I decided to take advantage of his being home to finally make homemade soap, which I had put off for a while. This is the third time I've made soap, but only the first time I made hot process soap, and I think I'll be making hot process soap (in the crockpot) from now on.

The reason my husband needed to be home when I was making soap is because soap making involves lye, which is very caustic and can be dangerous if any spills or splashes, and for a few minutes, it lets off toxic fumes. Adults, with caution, can make homemade soap with lye easily, but kids around are a distraction, and can cause you to splash yourself or them, and they may breath in the toxic fumes, which is why I will only make soap when my kids are out of the house. I wanted to make soap now, enough to last a while, because once I have a baby, I won't feel comfortable making soap until my kid is old enough to leave the house for an hour without me, something that doesn't usually happen until my kids are over a year old. So now was my chance to make the soap.

Before I get into the instructions for soap making, I wanted to explain a little bit of the science behind it- why it's perfectly safe to use homemade soap, despite it being made with a dangerous chemical such as caustic soda/lye, and how exactly soap making works. (In laymen's terms. I'm not a scientist...)

Homemade Vegan Omelet Recipe From Red Lentils and How to Make a Sneaky Cheap Omelet

Vegan zucchini omelet. I'm a terribly impatient
 omelet flipper, vegan omelet or not.

Ever since posting why it's generally cheaper to use egg replacements, even for egg heavy dishes like quiches, I was hoping we'd lower our egg usage in our house, but to be honest, our egg usage didn't go down tremendously. Last month alone, we spent $29 just on eggs, but mostly just for omelets. Reason being- omelets are a quick meal for when I haven't gotten anything ready, and it's something my kids will agree to eat without a fuss. But I'm usually in a lurch then, because I don't feel like cooking up another protein just for me, but I don't do well with eggs....

I played around with making vegan omelets with chickpea flour, but I wasn't in love with the results, mostly because of how they made me feel afterwards. Just using plain old chickpea flour gave me a stomach ache after- because, like all beans, chickpeas should be soaked before using to reduce stomach discomfort. I mean, if I soak the chickpea flour with water and something lightly acidic for 12 hours before using, I don't get the same stomach ache... but that takes advanced preparation, and the whole reason for omelets is because I hadn't thought in advance about supper and need something I can get on the stove and out to the family in less than 10 minutes...

People I'm Thankful For on Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to post something to show my gratitude towards the people in my life that have been most effective in helping me live the frugal lifestyle I do, which allows our family the ability to survive on our really small income, in addition to being able to blog about it on this site.

First off, I have to thank my husband Mike. My husband and I certainly have our disagreements when it comes to money and how we spend it, like any couple, but on a whole, he is the person I really have to thank the most. Not only is he on board with cutting back our expenses, he even goes without some things he really likes, because he understands how important it is to live within our means, and is a good sport about it. He is willing to try new and frugal foods, doesn't make demands about what I need to serve, what we need to buy, etc...
In addition to that, Mike is very handy and inventive, so he is always coming up with new money and time and space saving solutions around the house, as well as being able to fix anything that breaks.

Renting or Buying? Which is More Frugal?

Have you ever wondered whether home ownership is for you? Perhaps renting is better? What makes most sense from a financial perspective? The answer to all those questions is not simple, as there are many factors that it entails, and it'll differ from person to person and in each situation.
In some locations and circumstances, renting is a financially sound option, better even than buying. In other locations and circumstances, buying will be the better bet.

Here are some factors that you must consider:

Pricing. Compare the cost of renting and buying in the area where you want to live. Compare the monthly fee for mortgage payments versus the monthly rental payments. Consider also the cumulative cost of renting versus buying- after 30 years, how much will you have paid in rent? How much in mortgage, including all purchasing fees? Consider that after a mortgage is paid off, there will be no more monthly housing fees, but when renting, you never finish paying for housing. In some cases, rental prices are much higher monthly than mortgage payments. In other places, rental fees are much cheaper than mortgage payments would be.

Thanksgiving Menu for 2013

I wasn't going to do a Thanksgiving dinner this year, as my husband is not American, and we don't live in the US... but after deciding that, I realized that I actually had everything in the house that I would need to make a Thanksgiving dinner, so I figured- why on earth not?

Here's my menu, attempting to make our Thanksgiving dinner as frugal as possible:

Ground turkey and wild greens roll up. I made this last year for our Thanksgiving dinner and it was such a hit that I will be making it again, and this time, actually writing down the recipe so I can share it. I am cooking with ground turkey instead of making a whole turkey since whole turkeys are very difficult to get here, and ground turkey is not expensive.