My Garden Project 2012 Part 2

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As a single mom, the budget bottom line dictates a lot in my home, including my ability to garden.  For the first time I actually have some space to garden, but not so much financing to start a garden.  Part of the process of my garden project this year is to do it as close to free as I can.  To that end I am using, reusing, recycling, repurposing whatever I can to make my garden dream a reality.

Here are some regular household items I am using to help realize my garden dream.

1.  Egg shells-I have been saving all my eggshells for a few months in preparation for starting my seedlings.  The trick is to just tap the top of the small end of your egg when cracking to save the most of the bottom of the egg to be a seed cup.  Plus, these are FREE seed starters.  You are already buying eggs, right?

2.  Seeds-I am using seeds from a seed saving workshop my CSA held last year.  These are organic seeds that were harvested and saved appropriately to use for planting this year.  This is another ‘freebie’ since it was just an added bonus to my CSA membership.

3.  Containers-I am using all sorts of containers I already have on hand to repurpose for seed starting and gardening.  Some I am using are juice bottles, two liter bottles, Styrofoam containers, reusable shopping bags and whatever else I come up with this season.

4.  Compost-Some items you normally compost like pineapple tops, avocado pits, green onion bottoms, or celery root cores, can be planted to produce more pineapples and celery.  So even though you bought this produce from the store, there is value in what you normally discard.  Essentially you can grow some more for free.

I have purchased a few seeds and organic seed starting soil so far.  I am going to keep a tally so I know what the bottom line is when all is said and done.  But for right now my total spent so far is approximately $28.

Enjoy the experiment with me as I attempt to grow a low cost, almost zero waste, and organic garden.

Anyone else starting seeds indoors yet?


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Greek Salad

February 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I wanted to share this recipe with you quickly this morning because of how fabulous it turned out to be.  Do you ever just go to the kitchen to fix something for lunch but really don’t want the same old thing?  I do that sometimes.  The  other day when I made this up was one of those days.  I had some red potatoes and feta cheese that needed to be used so I thought let’s make some sort of Greek salad.  It ended up being a ‘kitchen sink’ Greek salad.  I used drained, diced tomatoes, green beans, grilled chicken chunks, Almond Accents almond slivers, and Greek vinaigrette.  I put some extra oregano in, because that’s a typical Greek ingredient.  And it ended up delicious!

What’s your favorite spur of the moment salad recipe?


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Turkey Meatball Bake

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Most of you know I am on a mission to eat healthy AND affordably.  This dish did not disappoint.  I was excited when Armor meatballs were on the mega event a few weeks ago at Kroger and got 6 bags of them.  We were wanting something Italian one day and this is what I threw together.  The meatballs were .99, carrots were .25, onions were .22, tomatoes were .90, pasta was free, cheese was $1.90, and the kale (not shown below) was .30.

All the ingredients made three casserole dishes full!  I cut the meatballs in half to make the go further.

Here is a pretty up close shot.  Doesn’t it look delicious and juicy?!?!  I chopped the mozzarella in small cubes instead of shredding it, and then mixed the cubes in so you would get gooey cheesy bites throughout as we ate the pasta.

As a final touch, I added what was left in the bottom of a garlic & butter crouton bag to the top as a bread crumb topping.  Then I baked it on 350 until hot and bubbly.

The total cost for this dish is approximately $4.56 for 12 servings or .38/serving.  After we ate dinner I portioned up all the leftovers into appropriate containers to freeze for another day.  I froze six servings and left four in the refrigerator for the next few days to have for quick meals.  We just loved it and didn’t get tired of it before it was all gone!

Do you have any good meatball recipes?

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Cooking with Compost: Split Pea Soup

February 1, 2012 By 4 Comments

Raise your hand if you are an absolute NUT over soup.  Yeah, me too!  I regularly eat soup for breakfast I love it so much.  When I make a pot, I have it three times a day the first day and sometimes the second day, too.  After that I will freeze what’s left in individual servings to enjoy later.

This is my split pea and lentil soup.  Most split pea soup is a little bit thinner than I like.  So I put less broth and add lentils to make it more hearty and thick.  A friend of mine invited us over for a family dinner and the main dish was a baked ham.  When we were cleaning up for the night, she took all the meat off the ham bone and was going to toss the bone.  I politely interjected and asked if she minded if I take it home.  There was still a TON of meat on the bone and I knew that if I made stock with the bone, the rest of that meat would tenderize and fall off plus flavor the stock.

I used my regular bowl of vegetable trimmings in the bottom of the fridge and the ham bone to make a very rich homemade stock.  I drained the stock and let it set overnight in the fridge to skim and defat the pot.  I used my hands to go through and pull out all the largest ham chunks that were cooked off the bone.  Then I put a half a bag of dried split peas and a half a bag of lentils in the stock.  I check for the salt and pepper to make sure it’s seasoned well.

My favorite way to eat split pea soup is to add a teaspoon of sour cream and some fried onion pieces to the bowl.  But I am trying to behave and keep it as  healthy as I can so I kept my craving in check.  The great thing about split pea soup is it’s a wonder food on the glycemic food index.

What is your favorite soup recipe?

Shared on Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.


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Food Prep Day

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I know you are thinking, “What in the world is all that mess?!?”  Sometimes I do, too.  This is a little mini kitchen prep session I did last weekend.  Tasks included:

  • peel and cut in half ten pounds of browned bananas
  • break up and freeze several cheese packages
  • veggie compost bowl and bones to make stock with
  • chicken stock and chicken to make into soup
  • a ham bone to make split pea soup
  • pork chops to cook and freeze
  • bbq sauce to reduce and freeze

All of this was accomplished in about two hours while I was getting ready to hang out with a friend, shower and at the end, my friend helped finish the bananas.  All in all a productive day.  I just wanted to show you some typical cooking “to do’s” in my fridge as it relates to my compost cooking and other frugal foodie tasks.  It really doesn’t take much planning or creativity to get to this point.  Just be willing to try and think about what you have and how to get the most from it.

What do you do to save time and money in the kitchen?

Shared on Heath and Soul Blog Hop.

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Filed Under: Better Home Management, Cooking With Compost, Food & Fitness, Recipes, Time Saving Food Prep Ideas Tagged With: , ,
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