Past weekend wrapup

This past weekend we have been pretty busy.
On Saturday we went to Picture People. This was our first experience there, and I actually really liked it. This location has pretty bad reviews on Yelp, and we were a bit wary of it. I purchased a Groupon deal for 13 something dollars worth 16 dollars otherwise of 8 sheets of prints of one pose, and I thought it would be a good deal to use up. When we got there the girl attendant taking pictures was very nice, and tried to accommodate us as best she could granted we had a crying baby. Finally, we got some pictures of the baby done, and had to wait a bit to choose. When we started deciding we were offered a deal to become members of their Picture People club and t worked out quite well in terms of the pricing, as we were able to get one more pose printed just for 8 dollars extra on 2 sheets. In the end I paid 53 dollars for the membership and now we can have more seatings with pictures done next month.

Then in the afternoon after lunch we went to a pick your own farm. We got a lot of veggies for eating and canning. We got lots of beets, kale, Swiss chard, cucumbers, dill, potatoes, zucchinis and beans. We paid only 23 dollars for big 6 bags of stuff. It was a really nice experience, and took us about 1.5 hours of picking. It is a great way to eat better food, save money on food, work out and exercise in fresh air outside, and enjoy a cheap activity with the family.

Plans for the coming week

Friday - volunteering at my daughter's school
Saturday - pictures and farm pick-your own food
Sunday - canning
Monday - cleaning, teaching
Tuesday - dance studio
Wednesday - dance studio, teaching
Thursday - medical appointment, watchdog pizza for dad and kids
Friday - running, volunteering at my daughter's school

Still working on my knitting project - I think it will take me about 1 more month to do it. I am making a 12-month knitted onesie for my new baby.

Planning to can and make jams over the weekend. I have nectarines, peaches and pears left from my deliveries that I should make into a jam of some sort.

Free products and plans for the weekend

This was a busy week - the kids started their school. We are full into canning, and got a pressure canner now. My husband made chili - about 8 cans - and we are planning to go to a farm on the weekend. Purchasing food on a farm is much cheaper than in a store, or even at the market. You-pick farms are very conveniently closely located to where we live, so hopefully this weekend we will be working on perfecting canning techniques and checking out new recipes.
I think we will pick out recipes on Saturday depending on the veggies we find at the farm.

As for my signups, I am waiting for several bzzagent deliveries that I have signed up for. These are campaigns that you have to qualify for, get an invite, and then participate by trying out products for free. The coming up campaigns that I am waiting for are -
Private Selection by QFC products that include

• A bag of Private Selection Tortilla Chips
• A jar of Private Selection Salsa
• A can of Private Selection Snack Nuts
• A FREE coupon for Private Selection Frozen Fruit (12–16 oz., any variety)
• A FREE coupon for Private Selection Bacon (12–20 oz., any variety)
• A FREE coupon for a Private Selection 9” Fruit or Crème Pie (any variety, from the Bakery department)
• Tons of pass-along coupons for fellow QFC shoppers

Arla Dofino cheeses is another campaign I am waiting for - I should be getting free cheese!

iRobot Roomba 870 - I am supposed to be getting a 30% discount coupon soon. 

Another campaign is for Paula's Choice Resist C15 Super Booster -   

Samples of Paula’s Choice Resist C15 Super Booster

Pass along coupons for 20% off Paula’s Choice Products

20 Beauty Myths Busted books to share with friends and family

Paula’s Choice catalog

Yesterday's dinner and what I have left to do this week - the plan - Cornbread and chutney

Yesterday was a good day, I got a lot done and I managed to make cornbread and chutney as planned. Here are the recipes I have used (I liked them so I want to save them for when I need them again)
Cornbread  -
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homesteader-cornbread/

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal 2 1/2 cups milk 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2.	In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3.	Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean. Chutney - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mango-pineapple-chutney/ INGREDIENTS: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 large sweet onion, minced 4 inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and minced 1 large yellow bell pepper, diced 3 large ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted, and diced 1 small pineapple, peeled and diced 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar DIRECTIONS: 1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the red pepper flakes and cook until they begin to sizzle, then stir in the minced onion. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions have softened, about 20 minutes. 2. Remove the lid, increase the heat to medium, and stir in the ginger and yellow bell pepper. Cook and stir until the ginger is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the mangoes, pineapple, brown sugar, curry powder, and vinegar. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool the chutney completely when done and store in airtight containers in the refrigerator. In the end, I loved the flavors of both of these dishes and I will definitely make them again! I used self-rising flour for the cornbread, as I didn't have any all-purpose flour available, and I skipped salt and baking powder as they are already in self-rising flour - it turned out really well.

Meal plan for the coming week, plus freebies received

I would like to start planning out our meals for the week based on what we receive in our vegetable delivery. Planning out meals has been a bit difficult for me because I am not very disciplined, very forgetful, and end up not doing a lot of things I tend to plan. I will try again. Our road to homesteading is definitely going through savings and trying to spend less on food.
Here are the contents of my vegetable delivery basket -
1.5 lbs of yellow gold potatoes - Dinner Tuesday
1 apple - lunch bags
4 corn - dinner Wednesday
4 pears - pie or jam - TO CAN
1 cucumber - salads - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
2 avocados - salads - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
1 lb of green beans - dinner Tuesday, Wednesday
2 peaches - pie or can
1/2 a pack of cherry tomatoes - salads Tuesday
1 bunch green kale - dinner Thursday
1 bunch fennel - dinner Thursday

As for the freebies I have received a box of Beechnut baby food to try with my group of mothers as a sample product. I think this is one of the better options for babies on the go as they claim it is inspired by homemade food. Sometimes when you are in the middle of a mall, it is much easier to open a can of jarred food than reheat homemade though it is also doable. My baby is still a couple months away from eating solid food so we'll wait with her on that.

Halloween costumes

This year is the year after Frozen so having two daughters with one called Anna and the other calling herself a.k.a. Elsa, it is clear that our costumes are decided at least in terms of Elsa. I purchased one dress on ebay, it is a great place to find costumes that are otherwise hard to find. I have tried going to Disney store we have here in Bellevue, because the closest Disney store to where we live (Lynnwood) closed down for some reason, and there were no Elsa costumes there, of course. Then I saw Anna costumes at Costco the other day, but no Elsa. So, I bought it on ebay with some of the money I had on paypal. I like buying on ebay, because it is often cheaper than buying in stores, and sometimes cheaper than on amazon.
The other daughter is going for another ebay purchased costume from Ever After high, but that hasn't arrived yet in mail.
What are the costumes your kids are picking for this year?

First attempt at canning

Don't remember if I have mentioned but we have decided that our next try at becoming debt-free, self-sufficient is to try to develop homesteading. We need to acquire some skills before we dive into it like canning, making yarn, preserving food, learning to cut up animals, learning to try to conserve resources and food to be more off the grid.
Today we have attempted canning.
We have a new plantation of home-grown habanero peppers on our window, and that is where the habanero ingredient came from. Then I had some nectarines and peaches leftover from my weekly organic delivery that started to sort of go bad a bit in the fridge and were too old to eat raw. Two other ingredients for the jam were sugar and lemon juice.
According to the recipe I have macerated about 4-5 cups of stone fruit overnight with 1 cup of sugar.
In the afternoon we started figuring out the canning technique.
First we washed all the lids and jars in soapy hot water. Then worked on making the jam. The jam boiled for about 20 minutes until the fruits softened. Then I added 2 tbsps of lemon juice and a habanero pepper. Then I left the jam to boil for another 30 minutes or so and added a bit of water as well. I also added a bit more sugar as it seemed too hot.
While the jam was getting ready we sterilized the cans and the lids. Then turned out that it was only enough for 1 can, which we filled, leaving 1/4 of an inch empty in the can. Then we put the jar in the canner for 10 minutes. After taking the jar out of the canner and leaving it for about 1 hour we noticed that the lid had some give, tried to open it and found that the lid did not seal properly. As there was only one can to start with anyways we just left it in the fridge to eat.
I had it on a small Melba toast from Trader Joe's with Daiya cream cheese and it was amazing. A real treat, you can't get that in stores anywhere ever. The only trouble is that the canning didn't work for now, but we'll try again, maybe tomorrow. I think that we didn't keep the jars in the water enough. You need to make sure there is enough space left in the jar. Put the jar in the water and wait for it to start boiling then start counting 10 minutes. When 10 minutes pass, turn off the heat, leave the jars in for another 5 minutes. Once the jars are out of the canner, leave them untouched for about 24 hours, and only then check the lid. I think we'll try to do that next time and I will try to report to say whether it worked or not. Canning is easy and not easy, I think there are a lot of steps and sometimes when people explain the steps they don't explain every little detail and then people who are inexperienced get confused and can't find answers to questions.
So, canning - still to learn; yarn weaving - check, but needs to be improved, jam making - check - easy.

Shopping trips yesterday and today

We are trying our hand at thoughtful shopping, trying to shop for specific cooking challenges, kids baking projects, and overall saving money challenge.
Here are our trips to Safeway and QFC yesterday and today
2 Fudge brownie mixes - $3.98
Sugar-free caramel syrup - $4.49
Reese's peanut butter cups - $4.49
Bergamot tea - $3.19
Darigold butter - $4.49
2 Eggo waffles - $3.58
Drumstick ice-cream - $5.99
Daisy sour cream - $2.19
Bacon - $4.99
4 Kerrygold butter - $13.96 (definitely worth it)
Barber chicken stuffed - $3.99
Swift beef choice - $12.38
Pork ribs $12.40
Chicken thighs - $8.43
Beer batter fish - $5.00
Pineapples - $3.99
Mangos - $3.99
Cherry tomatoes - $3.99
Yellow onions - $2.99
some other produce for $5.00 - not sure
total - $113.51
Almost everything is still not eaten

QFC today's trip - the goal was to take advantage of some savings coupons that I have accumulated
Adkins sausage meal - $2.49 * 9 of them
Pearls olives - $3.39
Tea - $2.99
Frozen fish - $3.49
Ham, crackers and cheese platter - $10.99
Nabisco wheat thins - FREE
2 Purells - $1.98
Pie crusts - $2.69
Kroger cold cereal - $1.99
Baby toothpaste - $4.39
Curry sauce - $5.29
Colgate toothpaste - $3.99
Renu solution - $8.99
Salad mix - $1.39
Nutella - $2.99
Coconut milk - $2.59
Chicken whole - $8.15
Broccoli - $1.10
Kale - 2 for $3.00
Gilette razor cartridge - $19.49
Franz bread - $1.99
Englsh muffins - $1.99
Total came to $118.47 with 35% savings - not bad

I am also expecting several new Bzzagent campaigns coming up - a coupon for Roomba, products and coupons for Private Selection Kroger brands, and some vitamin cream to try - can't wait!

The Happy Eggs

One of the samples that I have received lately from Bzzagent are some great eggs that we have already eaten. I have also received coupons for $1 off eggs and they are good till 2015, so if anyone would like them, just let me know, and I can send you some.
The eggs were great. For one, they were brown, which is sort of different from what I usually get, and then they tasted really good. They are free range eggs and they taste great. Much better that our regular store brand, and I'd say as good or better than the organic eggs I usually receive from a farm.
We have made some great deserts and scrambled eggs from these eggs and I can't wait to get more at QFC next time I make a trip there.

September check-in - I am spinning

Hello, back to my blogging. Really trying this time. I have so much to share.

First, we have decided to work on homesteading. I have to learn the skills that are generally used by people who are self-sufficient. There are a lot of thngs I already know how to do, now I have very little left to learn, but it will still be taking up most of my days.
Lately I have started learning how to make my own yarn. This is the process that I have never even thought of in the past but now I am quite into it actually.  have purchased my own Ashford spinning wheel on craigslist and am now practicing and honing my spinning skills. I have also purchased a lot of practice roving.
Making yarn is the step before knitting. I know what to do with the yarn that you can buy all colored and ready to knit in stores, and now I am going one step backwards to learn how to actually produce yarn.
There is not that much to learn but this step basically has two parts - learning spinning and learning how to color your yarn.
I am working on the spinning technique for now. You can spin with a hand-held spindle or with a spinning wheel. The spinning wheel technique is much faster than a spindle, and it is recommended by those who know how to do it.
I will be postng some pictures online of my crafts into this blog so tune in