I do my best to plan our meals ahead of time so there is no real thought process involved on a day-to-day basis. That being said there are days that my plans fall apart because I didn't take a chicken out in time or I was just busy and didn't stop to look at my plan. Last night for instance - I planned to cook a whole chicken in the crockpot. The plan was to put it in around noon. Well, 2 o'clock rolled around and it wasn't in yet. I rushed to get it in only to discover it was still frozen. ARGH! It wouldn't be done in time for dinner so I put it back in the fridge for tonight and did a quick inventory to see what I could pull off easily here at home. I found plain bagels in the freezer - perfect! We had bagel pizzas and fruit for dinner. The best part? I didn't spend anything extra to make it and even better was that we didn't go out to eat!
What are some of your "always have on hand" back ups for planning failures? Ours tend to be breakfast for dinner, grilled cheese and soup or everyone fend for yourself. I need to have more on hand in the coming weeks as our schedules gets a bit hectic with dance and brownies. I'd love to hear your ideas!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Electricity usage revisited
I have been watching all of our electricity usage and trying out the whole drying rack concept for clothes drying (instead of my dryer). I am happy to report that out of 12 loads of laundry this week, I have "line-dryed" 7 loads. I am still using the dryer for our towels and sheets since I can't have an outside clothes line. I am actually enjoying not using my dryer :) It takes a bit longer to the laundry, but I for some reason putting it all away takes less time.
We have had so many nice days here in the last few weeks. My windows have been open and the air conditioning off. It has been wonderful! Not only do we have fresh air circulating in the house, but my electricity usage is down... bonus!
However, in the midst of all this saving on my end - my dear, sweet husband has been hard at work in the basement painting, doing trim work and everything else. Great, right?! Except when I walked down on Saturday to every single light on... including the 500 watt halogen. All this and my husband working in a small corner of the basement nowhere near most of the lights - ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH! I'm thinking all of his lights have canceled out my "line-drying" this week... sigh :)
On the girls' lunch menu today:
J - turkey lunch meat, cheese stick, cut up nectarines, home made granola bar and cheese crackers with a full bottle of water.
A - 1/2 a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, cheese stick, cut up nectarines, home made granola bar and cheese crackers with 1/2 a bottle of water.
We have had so many nice days here in the last few weeks. My windows have been open and the air conditioning off. It has been wonderful! Not only do we have fresh air circulating in the house, but my electricity usage is down... bonus!
However, in the midst of all this saving on my end - my dear, sweet husband has been hard at work in the basement painting, doing trim work and everything else. Great, right?! Except when I walked down on Saturday to every single light on... including the 500 watt halogen. All this and my husband working in a small corner of the basement nowhere near most of the lights - ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH! I'm thinking all of his lights have canceled out my "line-drying" this week... sigh :)
On the girls' lunch menu today:
J - turkey lunch meat, cheese stick, cut up nectarines, home made granola bar and cheese crackers with a full bottle of water.
A - 1/2 a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, cheese stick, cut up nectarines, home made granola bar and cheese crackers with 1/2 a bottle of water.
Monday, August 25, 2008
It's the most wonderful day.... of the year :)
Yes, it is the first day of school here... did you hear that?! It was a huge ~sigh~ escaping my lips! My two older girls were so excited to get out the door with their new laptop lunchboxes full of fun food to eat. Actually it was normal food, but they declared it fun food since it was all placed in the cute containers that came with their lunchbox. I filled their lunch bottles halfway with water, added an icepack to their bag and they were ready to go! Today's menu was:
J - turkey and cheese wrap, Banilla yogurt with mini chocolate chips on the side, home made granola bar, pita chips and water
A - peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Banilla yogurt with mini chocolate chips on the side, home made granola bar, pita chips and water
I need to run to the store today to stock up on some fruit... we're out which is why the girls didn't take any today. I think I'll make up a little fruit salad for tomorrow's lunch and today's afternoon snack!
It's the most wonderful time... of the year :)
Friday, August 15, 2008
Back to school breakfast
I was reading my newest Family Fun magazine yesterday (this get past around and recycled - not too mention it was a free subscription) and stumbled on a great back to school idea (well, I think it is!). Basically, I'm inviting our neighbors to join us the last day of summer vacation at 8am for a small outside breakfast. I'll have bagels, muffins, coffee and juice for everyone to share while we remind our kids what it is like to get up and out the door for the bus :)
I'm keeping it simple and figure at the very least it will give our newest bus riders (those incoming kindergartners) a chance to meet the older kids and see familiar faces on the bus their first day. Of course my girls are so excited... I think I have 3 little party planners in the making!
Thank you Family Fun for a great idea!
I'm keeping it simple and figure at the very least it will give our newest bus riders (those incoming kindergartners) a chance to meet the older kids and see familiar faces on the bus their first day. Of course my girls are so excited... I think I have 3 little party planners in the making!
Thank you Family Fun for a great idea!
We use what?!
In my house our financial month is the 15th to the 15th. So, I've decided to run my energy challenge the same way. I am hoping to reduce our average daily kilowatt usage by 3 kilowatts. This may not seem like much but I honestly don't have a clear picture of our daily usage. Our power company estimates our bills every other month (sometimes more) and it is never close to being right! So... I'm starting with our last "actual" read where they estimated our average daily usage at 55 kilowatts which cost us $4.86/day. I read my meter at 4pm yesterday and we are starting at 85955.
Things I plan on doing to reduce our usage:
1. Only run air conditioning when necessary. We live in a new development so there are NO shade trees around my house... pity because I could definitely get away with running my air less if we had them. I should be able to turn the air off overnight through mid-morning/lunch for the coming week if the weather holds.
2. We still do not use the heated dry on the dishwasher... I don't even miss it!
3. We are using a caraffe for our coffee in the morning. I do have our coffee pot on a timer so my husband has coffee when he leaves for work (which is earlier than I get up). He transfers the coffee to the caraffe at that point, turns off the pot and unplugs it. My coffee is still burning hot hours later... love it!
4. I will not be using my dryer for our clothes. I found a folding drying rack to use for items that won't hang easily, everything else will be hung in the bathrooms to dry. I may try drying our towels with the rack outside... can't hurt to try :)
5. I am making sure everyone turns out lights when they are not in the room and we aren't using lights during the day. My girls are getting better about this! Now, if only I could convince DH to turn off the tv when he leaves the room... since that may never happen I'll focus on other things!!
This is our starting point. I'll share other things as we go through the month.
On to food... the girls and I went peach and nectarine picking yesterday. The farm that we go to uses integrated pest management which is a practice that we are comfortable with even though the fruit isn't organic. We've been going to this farm for years and there have been quite a few (this year included) that they haven't used any chemicals or pesticides to control problems with their crops. We picked 10 pounds of peaches and close to 10 pounds of nectarines. We're all looking forward to freshly picked fruit, some cobblers and some muffins!
We also hit the barn and picked up 3 of the biggest cucumbers I've ever seen. We should get a large batch of pickles from them! I'm going to play with canning some of the pickles to use as treats over the winter. I think I'll hit the farmers market next week to pick up more if all goes well - I don't think I can have too many of these pickles on hand!
Tomorrow is owner appreciation day at my market. 10% off everything in the store. I'll be there before they open waiting in line... but it will be worth it. I plan to only shop for normal items and won't stock up on much since I do a lot of our shopping at Trader Joes (even with 10% TJs is still cheaper). I do need to pick up 3 kleen kanteen water bottles for the girls to use at school, some 7th Generation pull-ups for my youngest to use at night and some other odds and ends. With any luck I'll spend under $200 when all is said and done. All I should need after that for the month is veges and occasionally some fresh fruit.
Now... on to the laundry :)
Things I plan on doing to reduce our usage:
1. Only run air conditioning when necessary. We live in a new development so there are NO shade trees around my house... pity because I could definitely get away with running my air less if we had them. I should be able to turn the air off overnight through mid-morning/lunch for the coming week if the weather holds.
2. We still do not use the heated dry on the dishwasher... I don't even miss it!
3. We are using a caraffe for our coffee in the morning. I do have our coffee pot on a timer so my husband has coffee when he leaves for work (which is earlier than I get up). He transfers the coffee to the caraffe at that point, turns off the pot and unplugs it. My coffee is still burning hot hours later... love it!
4. I will not be using my dryer for our clothes. I found a folding drying rack to use for items that won't hang easily, everything else will be hung in the bathrooms to dry. I may try drying our towels with the rack outside... can't hurt to try :)
5. I am making sure everyone turns out lights when they are not in the room and we aren't using lights during the day. My girls are getting better about this! Now, if only I could convince DH to turn off the tv when he leaves the room... since that may never happen I'll focus on other things!!
This is our starting point. I'll share other things as we go through the month.
On to food... the girls and I went peach and nectarine picking yesterday. The farm that we go to uses integrated pest management which is a practice that we are comfortable with even though the fruit isn't organic. We've been going to this farm for years and there have been quite a few (this year included) that they haven't used any chemicals or pesticides to control problems with their crops. We picked 10 pounds of peaches and close to 10 pounds of nectarines. We're all looking forward to freshly picked fruit, some cobblers and some muffins!
We also hit the barn and picked up 3 of the biggest cucumbers I've ever seen. We should get a large batch of pickles from them! I'm going to play with canning some of the pickles to use as treats over the winter. I think I'll hit the farmers market next week to pick up more if all goes well - I don't think I can have too many of these pickles on hand!
Tomorrow is owner appreciation day at my market. 10% off everything in the store. I'll be there before they open waiting in line... but it will be worth it. I plan to only shop for normal items and won't stock up on much since I do a lot of our shopping at Trader Joes (even with 10% TJs is still cheaper). I do need to pick up 3 kleen kanteen water bottles for the girls to use at school, some 7th Generation pull-ups for my youngest to use at night and some other odds and ends. With any luck I'll spend under $200 when all is said and done. All I should need after that for the month is veges and occasionally some fresh fruit.
Now... on to the laundry :)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Is it organic?
I found an article at Amy's Kitchen that explains how to tell if your produce is really organic when you are shopping at a conventional store - Is It Organic? I have written the tricks of the trade in my handy, dandy notebook (too much Dora lately!) so I will always have the answer with me when I'm not sure if I am picking the correct apples. Why does shopping have to be so difficult anyway?!
And if you are suddenly wondering about genetically modified foods (gm) here are a few links for you to ponder:
Prince Charles says to count him out of the GM process.
All about GM food.
50 Harmful Effects of GM food. (You need to scroll down past a lot of industry-speak type information to get to the 50 effects).
There are so many articles (just google it), but I didn't find a single article that was in favor of GM food. Maybe I just didn't wade through enough of the google hits? Regardless, I will not buy GM food for my family. I always get a bit nervous when my food's DNA is so blatantly tweaked.
I am counting down to next spring when I can plant my garden - that will take a huge chunk of worry (not to mention help my budget significantly) out of my menus. We're off to the farmer's market today... rest assured I will be on the lookout for fresh, locally grown (organic is a bonus, but integrated pest management will work too) produce!
And if you are suddenly wondering about genetically modified foods (gm) here are a few links for you to ponder:
Prince Charles says to count him out of the GM process.
All about GM food.
50 Harmful Effects of GM food. (You need to scroll down past a lot of industry-speak type information to get to the 50 effects).
There are so many articles (just google it), but I didn't find a single article that was in favor of GM food. Maybe I just didn't wade through enough of the google hits? Regardless, I will not buy GM food for my family. I always get a bit nervous when my food's DNA is so blatantly tweaked.
I am counting down to next spring when I can plant my garden - that will take a huge chunk of worry (not to mention help my budget significantly) out of my menus. We're off to the farmer's market today... rest assured I will be on the lookout for fresh, locally grown (organic is a bonus, but integrated pest management will work too) produce!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Things that make me go "hmmmmmm"...
I've been away over the last two weekends. We traveled to Chicago and then I traveled with a friend to NYC to visit another friend of ours. Maybe I just had too much time on my hands to think, but I found myself really thinking of ways to tweak our very new environmentally-friendly, organic lifestyle. Each city presented me with different thoughts.
In the Chicago-area I was surprised by the number of above-ground pools (my husband and I went for a 4 mile walk one morning through a large, maybe 10-15 year old neighborhood). We saw maybe 2 or 3 in-ground pools and the rest were above-ground. My husband and I were discussing how much use a pool would actually get in that area. We guessed maybe 2-3 months tops which could explain the above-ground v. in-ground (not too mention price being a factor), but after seeing at least 50 of these on our walk I started to wonder how much it costs to keep a pool running. And what happens to the above-ground pools when they deteriorate or the family is simply done with it and trashes it. Does it just go to the landfill to never biodegrade? That being said, I was happy about all the big, shady trees along the sidewalk :)
NYC always creates awe in me. I absolutely love the lights, the hustle and bustle and well... everything about it (maybe because I only visit?!). But then I noticed that all the beautiful lights are ALWAYS on! All day long the lights along Broadway and in Times Square are on... why exactly? I'm guessing that it isn't cheap to have those lights on at all times... couldn't businesses use a time or a solar indicator thingy? I just can't imagine how many kilowatts are used to keep lights on all the time. Granted, I have no clue what the lights are getting their energy from and I will hope that it is from solar panels atop one of the many, many huge buildings, but it definitely made me wonder. I will say that Central Park is absolutely beautiful when you have a 75 degree day to explore it... I absolutely loved the Library walk... one day I want my driveway to look just like that with huge, mature trees lining it and providing such wonderful shade! Granted I have to find just the right old house with a wrap-around porch to go with it... I can dream :)
So, all of these ponderings got me thinking about our own energy consumption. I'm ashamed to admit that it is more than it should be. So, I am not going to use my dryer on our clothes this week and see how I manage to dry everything. I'm also going to start keeping track of our kilowatt usage (our energy company estimates for a few months before doing an actual reading... pain in my butt!) so I can see where I can really make a difference. I'm going to do my first reading today and mark my calendar for future reads. I am sure I'll see a huge difference as I work hard to change our habits, but for now it will just be one baby step at a time.
Finally, I wanted to share this recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (best website ever, imo!) for sweet pickles. These are easy and a yummy way to use up cucumbers... mmmmmmmmmm... so good!
In the Chicago-area I was surprised by the number of above-ground pools (my husband and I went for a 4 mile walk one morning through a large, maybe 10-15 year old neighborhood). We saw maybe 2 or 3 in-ground pools and the rest were above-ground. My husband and I were discussing how much use a pool would actually get in that area. We guessed maybe 2-3 months tops which could explain the above-ground v. in-ground (not too mention price being a factor), but after seeing at least 50 of these on our walk I started to wonder how much it costs to keep a pool running. And what happens to the above-ground pools when they deteriorate or the family is simply done with it and trashes it. Does it just go to the landfill to never biodegrade? That being said, I was happy about all the big, shady trees along the sidewalk :)
NYC always creates awe in me. I absolutely love the lights, the hustle and bustle and well... everything about it (maybe because I only visit?!). But then I noticed that all the beautiful lights are ALWAYS on! All day long the lights along Broadway and in Times Square are on... why exactly? I'm guessing that it isn't cheap to have those lights on at all times... couldn't businesses use a time or a solar indicator thingy? I just can't imagine how many kilowatts are used to keep lights on all the time. Granted, I have no clue what the lights are getting their energy from and I will hope that it is from solar panels atop one of the many, many huge buildings, but it definitely made me wonder. I will say that Central Park is absolutely beautiful when you have a 75 degree day to explore it... I absolutely loved the Library walk... one day I want my driveway to look just like that with huge, mature trees lining it and providing such wonderful shade! Granted I have to find just the right old house with a wrap-around porch to go with it... I can dream :)
So, all of these ponderings got me thinking about our own energy consumption. I'm ashamed to admit that it is more than it should be. So, I am not going to use my dryer on our clothes this week and see how I manage to dry everything. I'm also going to start keeping track of our kilowatt usage (our energy company estimates for a few months before doing an actual reading... pain in my butt!) so I can see where I can really make a difference. I'm going to do my first reading today and mark my calendar for future reads. I am sure I'll see a huge difference as I work hard to change our habits, but for now it will just be one baby step at a time.
Finally, I wanted to share this recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (best website ever, imo!) for sweet pickles. These are easy and a yummy way to use up cucumbers... mmmmmmmmmm... so good!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Potty training, carcinogens and whatnot
First I need a moment to celebrate our mostly successful potty training adventures! My youngest is well on her way - I just need to convince her that she can indeed use a big potty instead of her little one and we'll be golden! I am thankful that this is the last time I will be solely responsible for potty training a child :)
Carcinogens in potato chips and fries... wow! I found this article over at MSNBC about reducing cancer chemicals in chips and fries. It is kind of scary when I really think about it... I'll have to forward this one to my husband who likes to roll his eyes at me when I get on his case about chips!
On that note, I need to sit down and work out my menus for the next couple of weeks so we can go shopping. We're low on food after a trip to Chicago!
Carcinogens in potato chips and fries... wow! I found this article over at MSNBC about reducing cancer chemicals in chips and fries. It is kind of scary when I really think about it... I'll have to forward this one to my husband who likes to roll his eyes at me when I get on his case about chips!
On that note, I need to sit down and work out my menus for the next couple of weeks so we can go shopping. We're low on food after a trip to Chicago!
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