Great Frugal Shopping Today

Today, I had to take the kids with me to the city to go to the dentist, and I figured that while I was already there, I'd take care of errands that needed getting done. Fortunately, every single errand I got done managed to be a frugal one, so I wanted to share them with you.

First, I was passing by one of the scratch and dent stores that I like to frequent, and wanted to see if they had any great prices. And oh boy, I was astounded at how wonderful the prices were. The most awesome were boxes of white chocolate Reese's cups, 2 boxes filled with 24 packs for $4.28, working out to just 9 cents per package of Reese's cups. So I bought 4.
My kids have an event coming up where we need to make these goody bags, and I knew the Reese's cups would be a boon there.
They also had white chunky Kit Kat bats for 29 cents each, and these chocolate bonbons so we bought 10 of those as well for the goody bags.
They also had these giant multipacks of sucking candies, 57 cents a package, so I got 5 of them.
Then there were these gluten free wafers that I got in the past and my family really enjoyed- if you bought 9 packages you paid $5.71, so I bought 18 for $11.43, for a total of 63 cents a package.

I think we're pretty set with the goody bags.

Oh, and while I'm photographing these, I threw in also these artificial coloring and flavoring free sprinkles in all sorts of cool colors that I found at a different scratch and dent stores I was at, for 95 cents each, which I'm really excited about.

After that, it was time to go shoe shopping.

Is Cbd Cream A Good Alternative To Cbd Oil?

As someone dealing with regular pain issues in my body, I am very curious to learn about different things that can help the pain, with minimal or no side effects ideally. Therefore, this post sent by a reader about CBD creams was very timely and really makes me want to look into it as an option for myself. 

CBD has been rising up the popularity ladder especially in the world of social media. But it still suffers from a major lacuna and that is lack of adequate research about its effectiveness on human anatomy. A lot of confusion still persists regarding its chemical abilities as well as working mechanism. Today we are going to try out and lessen your confusion by talking about the two most important forms of CBD which gets rampantly used by people across the globe.

Gluten Free Vegan Char Chai Tow Kway, Singaporean and Malaysian Stir Fried Carrot Cake Recipe with Daikon Radish, and Homemade Chye Poh, Chinese Dried Daikon Radish

First time I heard about Cantonese turnip cakes, lo bak go, made with daikon radish, I was a little hesitant, because it sounded strange, but it is such a popular dish that I said I'd give it a go, and I was very pleasantly surprised, to put it mildly. They were such delightful little dim sum, that when I heard that they were often served as a stir fry, in Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine I knew I wanted to try it. Oddly, in Singapore these "turnip cakes" made with daikon radishes, are actually called carrot cake. So since this stir fry is from there, its called stir fried carrot cake.

But first, I needed to figure out what they were called.

Because I saw it sometimes written as char tow kway, other times I saw it written as chai tow kway, and I wasn't sure how there were so many people misspelling it. So I posted asking for clarification in an Asian food forum, and found out that char means to stir fry, chai tow means vegetable head, referring to daikon, and kway means cake. So Char chai tow kway is its official name, and there's two official ways to make it, dark and light. I made it dark, with soy sauce.

Char chai tow kway is traditionally made with egg, but since I wanted to make mine egg free, I used mashed tofu instead (since I knew tofu scramble was a common vegan replacement for scrambled eggs) and it tasted like it had eggs in it.

A standard ingredient in this is chye poh, Chinese pickled radish. There are so many ways to make chye poh, but I was told by Sinaporeans that though it is generally bought, you can make it from scratch this way, so I did a short cut and made mine just by grating daikon and salting it, and letting it sit out. It is a very salty item, but chopped small it is used to add saltiness to your dish instead of adding plain salt. I've included instructions on how to make the chye poh as well.

I made this recipe when a friend was over, and told her that I would be making stir fried radish cake, and she said that sounds weird, she thinks she'll pass. But then once I made it, I convinced her to try it, and upon tasting and she tasted it, she was in shock at how amazing it was, and wanted more and more.

So even if the recipe sounds strange to you, its definitely worth trying, because it is unbelievably delicious.

And of course, if you do eat eggs, feel free to use scrambled eggs here instead of the tofu.

My char chai tow kway ended up a little more crumbly than it usually is, because I didn't let my lo bak go cool off all the way and solidify first, but it didn't affect it's taste at all, just its looks. But if you want firmer, just make sure your radish/turnip/carrot (aka DAIKON) cake cools off first before you fry it up.

Gluten Free Vegan Char Chai Tow Kway, Singaporean and Malaysian Stir Fried Carrot Cake Recipe with Daikon Radish, and Homemade Chye Poh, Chinese Dried Daikon Radish

Ingredients for Stir Fried Carrot Cake:
Oil (as needed)
1 recipe Cantonese turnip cake, lo bak go (use my recipe if you want to keep it vegan)
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tablespoon salted turnip, chye poh (see below)
1/2 block tofu
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon molasses
3/4 pack bean sprouts
Salt (to taste)
3 scallions
Sriracha (optional)

Ingredients for Chye Poh
2/3 cups daikon radish
3 teaspoons salt (divided)

Instructions for Chye Poh
1. Grate your daikon radish.

2. Mix with 2 teaspoons salt.

3. Let sit for an hour. Pour off any liquid that accumulates.

4. Add another teaspoon salt and let sit overnight.

Instructions for Stir Fried Carrot Cake
1. Cube your lo bak go cake.

2. Fry your cake in oil until browned on all sides, mixing periodically. Add more oil as needed.

3. Dice your garlic. Add it to the cakes.

4. Mash your tofu with a fork until its in crumbles, then add it to the pan.

5. Chop up your chye poh and add it to the pan.

6. Add soy sauce, molasses, and bean sprouts to the pan and mix.

7. Add salt as needed.

8. Chop up scallions and add to the pan.

9. Serve hot, with sriracha on top if you want.

Enjoy!

Have you ever heard of or had stir fried carrot cake before? What country did you have it in? What immediately comes to mind when you hear of stir fried carrot cake? Probably something that is nothing like this, right? Does this look like a recipe that you might try?

Five Reasons To Cook Together As A Family

I love cooking together with my kids. Ok, sometimes it is annoying because kids take longer to do the same thing that a more experienced person can do, and they make bigger messes. But I still love to do it because its a great bonding experience, and it teaches them important kitchen skills. Here's some more reasons why you might want to cook together as a family.

We know that cooking dinner every evening isn’t always a fun activity — in fact, for many people cooking just feels like a chore. This is a real shame, given that cooking can actually be a fun and fulfilling task — especially if done with the entire family. Whether you prepare every ingredient from scratch or use one of the prepackaged meal kits, cooking together creates a close bond between family members that’s worthwhile trying whenever you can. Need a bit more convincing? Here are five reasons why you should take the time to cook together as a family.

Another Solution to our Bedtime Woes

I knew that I wrote a post before about the bedtime situation in our home, how bedtime was hell and drove me up the wall and was the worst part of my day, and how following the family therapist's advice finally gave me some breathing room and turned it from a horrible time to something much more pleasant. But I didn't check the date that I wrote it until now when I wanted to link to it, and I see that it was a year ago to the day, exactly. So that's amusing for me.

And that did help, and it did work, and I say that a year later we no longer have those issues.

However, to say there were no issues at bedtime from there on out would be a fallacy. But you know how it is, when a problem is so enormous, you can only really focus on that, and the smaller issues, even if they are big issues in their own right, get pushed to the wayside. And once my kids were actually going to sleep when I put them to bed, and bedtime no longer took three hours and lots of fighting, I was able to pinpoint another issue that really bothered me- the fact that my nearly 6 year old daughter Rose kept coming into my bed in the middle of the night.

The Best Natural Skincare Brands

If you're careful not just about what you put into your body, but also what you put on your body, you may want to stick to more natural skincare brands. But how do you even know where to start looking? How do you even know what is good? This post sent in by a reader covers some of the best natural skincare brands.

All-natural. Organic. 100% sustainable.

More and more people are becoming conscious of what they put into and onto their bodies these days. The beauty industry has definitely taken notice of this trend, resulting in an explosion of all-natural skincare products on the market. That means the health-conscious beauty gurus among us have more to choose from than ever before.

Why Natural Skincare?

How to Make Yee Sang Recipe, Chinese New Year Prosperity Tossed Salad, Lo Hei, Gluten Free and Vegan Option

When I finally figured out how to make my own homemade gluten free vegan hoisin sauce, my friend Juli of Pandemonium Noshery suggested that I use it to make Yee Sang, a Cantonese salad, sometimes pronounced yusheng, also known as Lo Hei, served as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, because each of the parts of the salad symbolize different wishes for the new year, specifically prosperity.

It is popular among the Chinese community in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. This recipe generally has raw fish in it- yee sang means fish but is also a homophone for an increase abundance- but it can also be served without fish to keep it vegan.

There is a ritual with which this salad is served, which you can see here.

Once the dish is served with each of the parts separately, there is the custom to toss it with chopsticks high in the air, to mix it together, while giving each other warm wishes for the coming year.

The dish usually is made with deep fried wheat "pillows", making it gluten, but I replaced that in this recipe with deep fried gluten free noodles, but you can also use deep fried wonton wrappers if you have those.

How to Make Yee Sang Recipe, Chinese New Year Prosperity Tossed Salad, Lo Hei, Gluten Free and Vegan Option

Is Life Insurance Worth The Investment For Your Kids?

Life insurance. Its something many responsible people think about. Is it worth it to get? And more specifically, is it worth getting life insurance for your kids? This post sent in from a reader explores that.

Raising a child is not an easy task. It requires a lot of time, patience, attention, and of course, money. Not all parents have abundant resources to spend, and even those who have abundant resources do not wish to waste a single dollar. Especially because this is money that could have been put to better use elsewhere.

Life insurance is an investment that many people can easily misunderstand. In order to be able to determine whether or not you should get life insurance for your children, you first have to understand what exactly life insurance is and what is its purpose.

Ginataang Tilapia Recipe, Filipino Fish with Coconut Milk and Greens, Paleo, Delicious, and Easy

I love recipes from around the world, but haven't had the fortune to taste too many different Filipino recipes. One of them, pancit bihon, is a stir fry that my friend Juli taught me, but beyond that, I wasn't really familiar with their dishes. However, on a quest to learn more about dishes from around the world, I learned about ginataang tilapia, something that really appealed both to my taste buds and my budget.

Ginataan is a Filipino term for food cooked in coconut milk (and when its followed by another word it becomes ginataang, hence the g in the name) and often served with rice. While I used tilapia for this (specifically St Peter's fish), you can feel free to use any fish that you like for this recipe. Not all ginataan fish recipes have greens in them, but this one that I loosely based mine on does, and so do many recipes, and I figured it would be the perfect recipe to use the abundant wild greens that are growing in my backyard at the moment. I used wild swiss chard, also known as sea beet, for mine, but you can use any that you have on hand that aren't bitter. Spinach and kale and bok choy are common store bought greens used for this, but mallow, milk thistle, amaranth, and lambsquarters would be great in this as well.

As written, the recipe is gluten free and paleo (assuming you use non soy sauce alternatives), and to keep it paleo serve it plain, without rice. It is relatively allergy friendly as well, not to mention easy to make. I really enjoyed it, as did my fish loving kid. And if you use home grown greens for this, its a pretty cheap dish to make as well.

Ginataang Tilapia Recipe, Filipino Fish with Coconut Milk and Greens, Paleo, Delicious, and Easy

Treating Autism Spectrum Disorder on a Budget

As a mother of two kids on the autism spectrum, I know that the various ways people use to help their kids with autism often end up costing a pretty penny. Fortunately I have schools for my kids that help them that aren't too expensive and give them their necessary therapies. But there's more that parents can do, because a lot of times, certain issues can be helped with supplementation. Read more below.

Although people with ASD aren’t in need of a cure, they often require treatment for some of the symptoms associated with autism. As any parent knows, accessing medical treatment can stretch your budget, particularly for long-term or lifelong issues.

However, there are a range of budget-friendly ways to reduce the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. Using supplements for autism can be a great way to target specific symptoms, including sleep problems and gastrointestinal disturbances.

What’s more, many parents favor natural supplements for autism spectrum disorder as they can be more gentle than pharmaceutical options – not to mention cheaper!