Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit, The More You Eat The More You... SAVE!

Okay, okay that is a little corny and we are dealing with beans here.  I've been busy today.  (Actually by the time this post is done it will probably be tomorrow.)  Last night before I went to bed I decided I would actually finally do something with the almost ten pounds of beans in my pantry.  I pulled out pound bags of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), pinto beans, black beans and light red kidney beans.  I poured each bag in it's own bowl and filled the bowls with water.  WHY??  Well, I can easily go to the store and buy canned beans.  You can find the generic brands fairly cheap and if you catch a sale even cheaper.  Ever taken a look at the dried beans though?  For dried they are less than $1 a pound.  You can buy them bulk through Winco or other stores for cheap.  You can even find them online through organic companies like Azure Standard.  (That link goes directly to beans.)

Beans provide a great deal of nutrition.  My kids love to snack on whole beans and my husband loved hummus and baked chickpea snacks- which I will post recipes for.  They have a great amount of fiber and protein and are low in fat.  They are one of the easiest things to incorporate in to your diet without making huge changes and can lower your cholesterol, lower your risk of breast or prostate cancer, and lower the risk for heart disease among much more!  You can easily toss a handful of beans in to a salad to add protein, have baked chickpeas for a snack instead of chips, swap out meat for black beans in a dish or add them to soups.  The list is endless.

So back to today.  When I woke up I pulled all of the floating material off the beans- skins and pieces that had come loose- and I threw it away.  Then I dumped the beans in to a colander and rinsed them really well. That is where the photo above comes in.  I had to decide if I wanted to freeze the soaked beans, cook them and freeze them, can them or EAT THEM ALL!  Just kidding that would be way too much to eat!

So here are your options and pros and cons:

Freeze Soaked Beans

• Easily accessed beans that are ready to cook that you just pull out of the freezer with no need to soak.
• Frozen pre-soaked beans cook faster than regularly soaked beans.
• Very convenient if you are like me and forget to soak beans the night before or the morning of a meal.
• CON- You still have to cook them so not as convenient as canned beans.

Freeze Cooked Beans:

• Easily frozen with cooking liquid to add to dishes.
• Quick thawing by placing container in microwave or sink.
• You decide how and what you want in each batch of beans you freeze. 
• Beans are pre-cooked so they are fully ready to go when you need them.
• You can use a pressure cooker to cook them cutting the time dramatically. 
• CON- You have to cook them and let them cool in order to freeze them.

Can Soaked Beans:

• When you can your own beans the canning process and cooking process are the same.  
• You decide what you want in your beans.
• Beans are cooked and shelf stable and can be stored in the pantry like store bought beans.
• Cost is still low.
• CON- Canning takes a little longer and requires a pressure cooker.
• You MUST use a pressure cooker in order to kill off bacteria inside the beans and cook properly.

I chose to freeze some soaked beans, cook some soaked beans and can some soaked beans today depending on how often I use them and for what.  This is my first batch that I actually cooked to eat.  They are garbanzo beans and they are in the pressure cooker ready to be cooked.  I add 1/2 tsp of oil to the water to keep them from foaming up in to my lid because I read that was a good idea.  Having no experience otherwise I do not know if it is true or not but it won't hurt your beans a bit so I did.

Freezing Soaked Beans

• Put a layer of beans on cookie sheets and freeze them for 1 hour then transfer them in to freezer storage bags.  No need to freeze the beans with fluid.
• Store beans in the freezer until ready to use.
• Thaw beans when ready to use and cook normally.  The beans should cook a little faster.  

Pressure Cooking

Time Table:  Bean/Legume Cooking Times for Pressure Cookers

(Bean pressure-cooking instructions are below the time table.)

Bean/Legume	Soaked Natural Release [4] (minutes)	Soaked Quick Release [2] (minutes):	Unsoaked Quick Release [2] (minutes)	Pressure Level
Adzuki	2 to 3	5 to 9	14 to 20	High
Anasazi	1 to 2	4 to 7	20 to 22	High
Beans, black	3 to 6	5 to 9	8 to 25	High
Beans, garbanzo (chickpeas)	9 to 14	13 to 18	30 to 40	High
Beans, great northern	4 to 8	8 to 12	25 to 30	High
Beans, lima, baby	2 to 3	5 to 7	12 to 15	High
Beans, lima, large	1 to 3	4 to 7	12 to 16	High
Beans, navy or pea or white (haricot)	3 to 4	6 to 8	16 to 25	High
Beans, pinto	1 to 3	4 to 6	22 to 25	High
See our pressure cooker Bean and Chickpea Recipes
Beans, red kidney	5 to 8	10 to 12	20 to 25	High
Beans, soy (beige)	5 to 8	9 to 12	28 to 35	High
Beans, soy (black)	16 to 18	20 to 22	35 to 40	High
Beans, white kidney (cannellini)	6 to 8		30 to 40	High
Chickpeas (chick peas, garbanzo bean or kabuli)	9 to 14	13 to 18	30 to 40	High
Cranberry (romano or borlotti)	5 to 8	9 to 12	30 to 34	High
Gandules (pigeon peas)	2 to 5	6 to 9	20 to 25	High
Lentils, French green	-	-	10 to 12	High
Lentils, green, mini (brown)	-	-	8 to 10	High
Lentils, red, split	-	-	4 to 6	High
Lentils, yellow, split (moong dal)	-	-	4 to 6	High
Peas, split, green or yellow	-	-	6 to 10	High
Peas, dried, whole	4 to 6	8 to 10	16 to 18	High
Peas, black eyed	-	-	10 to 11	High
Scarlet runner	8 to 10	12 to 14	17 to 20	High

Pressure-cooking time chart Fagor, Presto, Kuhn Rikon, Magefesa, Fissler, Lagostina pressure cooker

NOTE:  For T-Fal, WMF, Chef's Design, electronic pressure cookers, the 8 psi pressure Lagostina Endura, low cost “no name” pressure cookers and other pressure cookers that are less than 15 pounds (psi) pressure, add additional time to the cooking times in the charts below (check the pressure of your pressure cooker).  For a 12 psi pressure cooker, add about 20% more time to the 15 psi pressure cooker cooking times.

Bean Pressure-Cooking Instructions:

	For the most efficient cooking method, use the natural release method [4] rather than the quick release method [2] for pressure-cooking soaked beans.  As this method is not wasteful, it will lower your electricity or gas bills.  The natural release method of pressure-cooking soaked beans reduces the amount of time the stove is on and is using electricity or gas.  When the stove is on for less time, less heat is given off by the stove.  This will also give you the most comfortable room temperature in your kitchen as the room will not heat up as much.  If you use air conditioning, the natural release method will reduce how hard your air conditioner needs to work in order to remove the heat generated by your stove.  The cooking times for this method are shown in the natural release column in the table above.
	Do not soak lentils or dried split peas.  Before pressure-cooking, soak dry beans in four times their volume of water for four to six hours (don't exceed 12 hours—beans that are soaked for long periods are best for soups or purées as they easily break up).  You can start soaking the beans before leaving for work so they will be conveniently ready for pressure-cooking in the evening.  Do not add salt to soaking water as it will cause the beans to toughen and inhibit hydration (water absorption).
	If you have forgotten to soak the beans, no problem.  The pressure cooker can still cook beans that have not been soaked!  The trade-off is that it is not as quick and increases the energy used (makes your kitchen hotter) due to the longer cooking times of unsoaked beans.  Speed-soaking (also know as quick-soaking) beans is a faster method than pressure-cooking unsoaked beans.  You can speed-soak beans by cooking them on high pressure for one minute and then reducing the pressure by the quick release method [2].  Compared to using the automatic release method [3], using the quick release method reduces the chance that the beans skins will separate from the beans.  Drain the water, rinse beans and soak in fresh water for one hour.  Then pressure-cook the beans normally using the standard “soaked” cooking times.
	Place beans/legumes in the pressure cooker.  Add 3 cups (750 ml) of water for each 1 cup (250 ml) of beans/legumes.  If you have an old-fashion jiggler valve pressure cooker such as a Presto, add 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) of vegetable oil to the water in the pressure cooker.  The oil reduces foaming and the possibility of clogging the vent tube on these old pressure cookers.  Do not add salt until after cooking.  Watch the cooking time of whole lentils carefully.  Whole lentils will turn to mush if cooked too long. We have found that it is better to bring the pressure cooker to pressure by using medium heat rather than full heat.  This reduces the chances that the skins of beans will split and come off the beans.
	Pressure-cooking times vary according to the quality and age of the beans, legumes or other pulses.  If the pulses are still hard after pressure-cooking for the recommended cooking time, return to high pressure over high heat and then immediately reduce the heat to the lowest possible level in order to maintain pressure.  Cook for a few more minutes.  Alternatively, you can continue cooking the pulses uncovered.  Add additional water, if necessary. *This information is from Fast Cooking

Freezing Cooked Beans:

• Retain some of the liquid when the beans are finished cooking.  
• Use containers or freezer bags to store the beans.
• Fill containers/ bags about 75% with beans covered in liquid to allow for expansion during freezing.
• Pull from freezer and thaw when ready to use.  You can thaw in the sink or microwave to make the process faster.  

Because I chose to can some of my beans I selected the pint jars I wanted to use.  I typically only use one can of beans at a time so pints worked best for me.  You can just as easily can quarts just increase the cook time to 90 minutes and put 1.5 cups of beans in each jar.

Canning Beans:

• Sterilize your canning jars and equipment and get your lids in a boiling water bath.
• Once jars are sterilized fill with 3/4- 1 c soaked beans and fill the jars with water to 1" above beans.
• Gently add a lid to the jar and screw on lid making sure the lid isn't too tight or too loose.
  You will know if it is too loose if it bubbles when you put it in the water bath.
• Put the jars inside of the pressure cooker and cover with water until there is 1-1.5 inches of water over the jars.
• Put the lid on the pressure cooker and get it started.  Use 5 lbs of pressure on the pressure regulator and cook for 75 minutes for pint sized jars. 

Sterilize lids and prepare them by boiling them.

Sit jars inside of pressure cooker with enough water to cover them with 1-1.5 inches above.

Put beans in jars and fill with water.

Put on pressure regulator with 5 pounds of pressure.  

I am sure I will likely add more to this later.  For now though I am finishing up for the day happy that I have plenty of beans canned, cooked or just soaked and frozen.  I won't be running out too soon but I still have another six pounds of beans in the pantry to add to my soaked collection.  From now on this is how I plan to keep my beans and I won't be buying another can of beans from the store again!

Vegetarian Vindaloo Curry (Gluten Free)- Using a Crockpot!

Lots of people love the ease and convenience of the crockpot to get healthy low fuss meals on the table especially when you know you are going to have a long day.  I love using my crockpot when I have big projects planned, we have a day full of doctor appointments- or late appointments, or when we are planning a fun day out and I want to have a good dinner waiting for me instead of hitting a fast food place before coming home.

I am picky.  Very picky.  You won't see any "add cream of blah blah blah" recipes or anything that ends up muck at the end.  A few days ago I knew I would not be home from a doctor appointment until close to five and I have been trying to have dinner served before six every night.  It has been a while and my husband and I have been craving curry so I decided on chicken.  Looking at it sitting on the counter I changed my mind and decided to add some veggies.  Then I changed my mind again and decided to do only veggies.  It is the first vegetarian curry I've made so this was an experiment of sorts.

This is a "15 minute meal" Curry Sauce packet that I am using.  I doubled the water it called for because I planned on it cooking for so long.  You can use 2 packets of sauce and no additional curry powder or corn starch and water.  Depending on the amount of sauce you want and how strong you like it you can adjust it to your taste.  Like a little more heat?  Add a little more curry powder to your serving or the entire pot.

Time for the recipe:

Vegetarian Gluten Free Vindaloo Curry 

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time:  Crockpot- High for 6 Hours

Ingredients:
1 or 2 Pkg Sukhi's Vindaloo Curry Sauce (Available in some stores or here on Amazon)
2 Cups water
1 Tbs Curry powder
1 Head of cauliflower
7 Medium carrots
3 Medium potatoes
1/2 Onion chopped
2 Tbs corn starch
1/4 C cool water

• Prep your Crockpot- I use a Reynolds Crockpot liner.

• Mix together curry sauce, powder and water in a bowl or right in your Crockpot.

• Chop cauliflower, carrots and cube potatoes keeping fairly uniform sized pieces.

• Add vegetables and sauce to the Crockpot and turn on high for 6 hours.  Stir occasionally to incorporate the sauce in to the veggies well.

• At the end of the cooking cycle mix the corn starch and water.  Stir it in to the sauce well avoiding any lumps.

• Serve over rice, quinoa etc. and pair with chutney or naan bread.

We have naan bread with our curry.  I buy multiple packs at a time and freeze them and pull them out as needed and toss them in the oven to warm.  I should start baking my own and will likely include a recipe in the near future.  

Bonjour Jolie~ January Box

It came!  It came!  I am so excited that my first Bonjour Jolie box has arrived!  

I know why so much excitement right?  Time to turn your period upside down.  No more awkward standing in front of a gigantic selection of every known pad, tons of tampons, the who knows boxes that you try not to stop to read in fear someone may think you are trying to buy them.  You can have your supplies delivered right to your mailbox without ever having to leave your house.  PLUS included with your monthly supplies you get goodies.  Lots of goodies.  Stuff to take care of yourself during your time of the month and stuff to pamper yourself and extras like jewelry, beauty items etc!  
So that is a little about Bonjour Jolie.  If you would like more information you can go to their site here.  

Back to my box!  

This is the grand opening!  Inside the box when you open it you are greeted with cheeky pink tissue that is wrapped around all of your goodies and held together with a Bonjour Jolie sticker.  (I managed to open mine without ripping it!)

Once inside there is a card explaining all of your items.  Your road map per se.  I made the image extra large so it is easy to read.  I have allergies so my contents are slightly varied.  I did not receive the Lorna Doone cookies for example (which I don't mind at all).  Instead I received a small package of 3 Lindt Truffles which I love and my son spirited away before I could get a photo. 

The take care of yourself goods- a heat pad for on the go comfort, Advil and Playtex wipes.  I will put the Advil in our guest basket in our bathroom as I don't use it but I am sure one of my guests will.  My husband gets a lot of use out of the heat pads so I am very thankful for it.  As for the wipes I've never used them so I guess it is time to test them out huh?  

 The pampering stuff.  In my box I received 100% Argon oil which I hear is supposed to be bliss!  I also received Brown Sugar & Fig bath salts which will be amazing for a sweet soak- or to get high as a kite and turn in to a zombie.  Just kidding, just kidding.  Do not use bath salts as a drug.  Ever.  I have had some experience with it (not personal use of course) and it is a terrible idea and in pretty much every instance it leads to death- whether it is the user, a poor bystander or a furry little deer that once lived in the forest areas aboard Camp Lejeune.  Not kidding- leave the bath salts where they belong- in baths.

I was really excited about the Seattle Chocolates this month!  I was totally right to be excited too!  They are AMAZING!  I really loved the Toffee flavor.  You see I used past tense.  That is right they are gone.  Don't judge me!

The TEAS!  I am not a huge coffee or tea drinker.  I guess I am a bit of a liar.  I enjoy both but not often.  I especially love green tea and peach teas and it is hard to find peach that is not sweetened.  I'm sorry to all of those sweet tea drinkers but I just can't do it.  After living in North Carolina for three years I still order my tea "unsweetened please" here in California which confuses the heck out of people!  

The pretties!  These are special hair pins imported from Japan!  I think they are really pretty and I am excited to add them to my daughter's collection!  The roses are soap!!  No really!  They are Moroccan Soap Petals.  I plan on putting these in our guest bathroom.  They smell really good and are really pretty.

 This is my Lavender & Vanilla Sachet.  I really love the purple.  I haven't opened it yet but I definitely have a place for it!  

 The "supplies" come in their own little supply bag.  I love the zebra print.  It is fun and chic.  I order Instead Softcups so it is hugely convenient to get them through my TOM box.  They can be hard to find sometimes and considering I have used them ten years now I don't plan on switching anytime soon.  Questions about Softcups?  I don't mind doing a post on them if anyone is interested.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my box.  I was very excited to get it and it turned out I had a really great reason to be excited.  I really look forward to my February box!  The one thing I really like about it is that I get to try out different items I wouldn't normally buy on my own or small shops I have never heard of.  Let me tell you I am waiting on Leccare Lollipops to open their shop back up.  I'm stalking them after seeing their lollipops in a YouTube unboxing video I watched!  (Yes you can be an adult and be excited about lollipops.  These are grown up lollipops with some amazing flavors!)

This is a subscription service and each box mails out before your personal time of the month so that it arrives in time.  You can subscribe here if you want to get this awesome box delivered to your door too!  The cost is actually very reasonable.  If you are a military family let them know and you can get free shipping to military addresses!  

Tortilla Pie?

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be no frills.  We were trying to relax and prepare for the week ahead and I had just cleaned the kitchen.  I picked a pin from my husband's Pinterest account and decided that is what we were having for dinner.  You can probably see a pattern here with these last minute dinner choices.  Rest assured this is not always the case.  I actually have a cute menu board to plan out our meals for the week (another Pinterest idea) but I just unpacked it yesterday and the new pens are in the garage so it has not been put to use.  I will however write a blog about preparing a weekly menu and I will include a photo of it.  Maybe that will encourage me to upgrade too!

So here is dinner straight out of the oven.  Tortilla pie.  Pinterest failed to actually send me to the direct link to the recipe but after a little digging I found it- and found some issues with it.  It is a Martha Stewart recipe from her website and you can find the original here.  I will post my version down the page a little.  The first issue I had was it calls for beer and well, we don't keep alcohol in our house so it is never something I have on hand.  Come on, Martha!  The second issue I ran in to was my lack of black beans which was a total shock!  I forgot to restock!  I do however have dried black beans so that means this week I need to start preparing my own beans for the freezer so they are easily on hand for times like this.  I substituted with Reduced Sodium Pintos.  

Now this looks a lot more appetizing than the original photo.  I know the photography could use some work but with two little ones around my feet and growling bellies all around getting food to the table was a little more important than setting up a good shot.  Sorry.  Plus- no frills dinner tonight remember?

On with the recipe.

Tortilla Pie

Prep Time:  Less than 30 mins
Cook Time: 10 Mins for filling; 20 Mins in the oven
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

4 Flour tortillas 

2 Tbs Oil

1/2 Lg Onion

1 Sm can Diced Chiles or 1 jalapeno pepper diced (optional)

2 Cloves Garlic minced

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning (Optional)

2 (15 oz) cans beans rinsed and drained (I used pinto original recipe calls for black)
1/2 c Water

1 can reduced sodium corn

8 oz Shredded cheese

Salt & Pepper
Your choice of garnishes.  I used Pace Picante sauce, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado and cilantro cream sauce which I will include the recipe for.

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Trim tortillas to fit inside of a springform pan.  If you grab the tortillas from the fridge and they are smaller than your pan no biggie.  Just continue on.  If they are 6" sized you may want to make 2 pies.
• Heat oil in a medium skillet and add onion, garlic, cumin, Southwest Chipotle Seasoning and salt and pepper over medium heat.  Cook until soft, stirring often.
• Add beans, corn, and water to the skillet.  Simmer the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated. (About 10  mins.)  Remove it from heat and taste it and adjust the seasoning as needed.
• Lay a tortilla in the bottom of the springform pan and put a layer of the bean mixture on top.  If your tortillas are not as big as the pan keep your filing about 1/2 an inch away from the edge of the tortilla so it doesn't all scatter out.  Add a layer of cheese.  Repeat these steps until you have 1 tortilla left.  Lay the last tortilla on the top of the stack and cover liberally with cheese. (You can include beans in your top layer as well.  I chose not to.)
• Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes until the cheese has fully melted.  

To serve cut pie in to slices.  Top with your choice of garnishes.

Avocado Cream Sauce1/2 Avocado
1/4 c Plain Greek Yogurt
1/4 bunch cilantro
1 pkg True Lemon or 1 tsp lemon juice

• Combine ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

• Adjust the amount of avocado or yogurt to suit your taste. 

• Add more lemon for more tang.  

Teriyaki Salmon with Siracha Cream Sauce

I thought I would start off with a recipe from our dinner last night that got a lot of interest on my Facebook page.  It is healthy, delicious and surprisingly easy and quick to make.  I am typically very last minute so for all those other people out there that can relate my recipes will be user friendly!  Just a heads up also- most of the time I reserve a portion of what I cook for my kids because they don't eat spicy foods.  My son is also very picky and is not a fan of anything squishy or possibly slimy.  If anyone is ever interested with how I tailor their meals just let me know.  (This was my husband's plate hence the abundance of the cream sauce.  He is a huge fan of sriracha so I gave him extra without dousing the salmon in it.)

So to the meal plan!
Teriyaki salmon with sriracha cream sauce served over rice
Green Salad
(Steamed veggies for the kids)

Remember I said I am usually pulling stuff together last minute?  Last night was no different.  I tried to finish unpacking our kitchen and looked up and it was already four in the afternoon.  I pulled a frozen salmon top loin filet out of the freezer and tossed it in a sink of COLD water.  You can thaw meat really fast that way but remember always COLD never warm.  If you use warm water it can make you incredibly sick.  Don't risk it.  The salmon was thawed in 30 minutes- by the time the marinade was made and cooled.  For those that actually think ahead- you can prep this the night before and marinate the salmon overnight and it will be oven ready and cut your before dinner prep.

2 Servings
Total Prep Time: 45 Mins
Total Cook Time: 25 Mins
(I marinated for 30 mins)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 clove of garlic finely minced
• 2 salmon steaks or 1 salmon top loin filet (the really long piece) *BONELESS SKINLESS 
FOR THE SRIRACHA CREAM SAUCE
• 1/2 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2-3 tablespoons Sriracha

INSTRUCTIONS

• To make the Sriracha cream sauce, whisk together plain Greek yogurt and Sriracha in a small bowl; set aside.
• In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 1/4 cup water; set aside.
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, add soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and 1 cup water; bring to a simmer. Stir in cornstarch mixture until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes; let cool to room temperature.
• In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine teriyaki marinade and salmon filets; marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight, turning the bag occasionally.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
• Place salmon filets along with the marinade onto prepared baking dish and bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.
• Serve salmon with Sriracha cream sauce.
  
  NOTES
• To quickly cool marinade: fill a large bowl half way with water and ice.  Fill a smaller bowl that will fit inside the large bowl without tipping easily with the marinade.  Sit the smaller bowl in the ice bath.  Stir the bowl regularly while you are prepping everything else for dinner or stir it continuously to cool the mixture quicker.
• Use a baking dish lined with Reynolds Non-Stick Pan Lining Paper for a quick and easy mess free clean up.  
• I let my salmon rest for five minutes after removing it from the oven so that the sauce doesn't just melt everywhere.  I prefer to let any meat I cook rest as I believe it improves the flavor.

For the rice I have a small rice cooker and I use 1 cup of Jasmine rice and 2 cups of water.  It is set to cook itself and shut off when it is done.  You can use any variety of rice you would like or change it up and use quinoa.

I try and include green salad with every dinner we have.  Typically it is romaine lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, carrots, and tomatoes diced and tossed together.

For the kids:
Dinner tonight was a little different.  They had tilapia instead of salmon with veggies.  I have a three year old and an eleven month old so dinner options for both are usually a challenge.  As I said before my son is very picky.  Last night my son had cucumber and carrot sticks and rice with his fish.  The baby had steamed broccoli, carrots, and zucchini cubes with her fish.  You will notice a lot of these sides for both kids- these are their favorites.


* Adapted from Damn Delicious

I'm baaaack! Just revamped!

I know it has been quite some time since my last blog post.  I took a very lengthy hiatus.  In the mean time my son's health has greatly improved and I had a daughter to add to our crazy madness.  My family is living in the middle of nowhere California and we listen to jets all day and night.

That is the reason for the new path of the blog.  I am continuing to coupon.  Not nearly as regularly as I would like but it is still happening.  Our new location presents it's own challenges so I thought this would be a perfect time to strike the blog back up.  I know a lot of other people/ families are in our same situation and I thought it would be nice to share to help give some ideas to keep it creative and fun in the kitchen, with the kids, keep the grocery bill down and keep the crazy OUT!

We live in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest actual city is Fresno which is almost an hour away.  There is a commissary on base that we can shop at although it is very small and has a limited selection.  We are lucky though because there are two small towns not far from us.

The blog will now be focused more on saving outside of the city, economical healthy meal ideas and recipes, and art of course.

I really enjoy all of those things immensely.  I love to save money.  I love to cook and cooking things that taste great and are healthy are my favorite.  I also love art.  Many, many forms of art.  I have always loved photography (so expect some photo hacks).  I learned crochet a few years ago and now work as a tester for an amazing pattern designer and I have my own shop on Etsy to sell my handmade items.  I learned how to knit during the holidays- or I should say I am LEARNING.  :)  With life, and especially art, you are always learning.  A wise man once told me that when you feel you know it all then you have closed your mind. There was a lot more to it but I won't get in to that today.