Book Review: Eco-Friendly Families

Recently I was asked to review a book called Eco-Friendly Families. It was written by Helen Coronato and will be released on August 5th. This book is an activity guide to help families gently move toward greener living.

This was written in a nice easy-read format, with many suggestions that even young children might be able to do with the help of their parents. I especially liked the chapter checklists at the end of each chapter– they are basically a list of action points that people can implement.

The book contained a lot of things that I’m already doing, along with a smattering of ideas that I didn’t know. Frankly, I haven’t done huge amounts of thinking about my own ‘green’-ness, but as I read, I found my own ‘green’ policy solidifying in my mind.

It’s a simple one: basically I am for eco-friendly living up to the point where it might cost me extra money. Ask me to shell out extra bucks and I probably won’t buy it. Fortunately a huge portion of green living is actually frugal living as well.

Hang drying clothes? Check.
Using vinegar and baking soda as cleansers? Check.
Walking places instead of driving whenever you can? Check.
Storing leftovers in margarine containers instead of expenive ziplocks? Check.

Certainly there are some places where a larger investment up front will save your resources in the long run. A good example of that is flourescent light bulbs, which we have in a good portion of our home.

Where eco-living kind of loses me is in the organic foods department. Granted, we grow a ton of our own produce and I cook the vast majority of our food from scratch, so we have an advantage there. But in the grocery store when I’m looking at a rack of apples, I’m afraid my criteria is simple: what’s cheapest and isn’t a Red Delicious?

I probably won’t get around to implementing everything in this book, but it was a good reminder to me of all the small things we can do to live a little more lightly. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool tightwad like me, you might want to check this book out at your library. But if your family is just beginning to wonder what you could do to lessen your impact on the earth, this book might be a good way to jump in.

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Works for Me: Thai Beef Chard Wraps

This week Shannon’s Works for Me is featuring easy recipes. Actually, recipes that take 5 ingredients or less. This recipe can have more than that, but it is a fun way to get kids to eat their greens and so I am sharing it anyway.

Thai Chard Wraps
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves:6 or more

Ingredients
a big bunch of chard (or spinach, or lettuce)- probably a pound or so
2 carrots
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 lb lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
Slosh of fish sauce (or soy sauce is OK if you don’t have fish sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: any other veggie, minced
Can also add a cup or two of rice, which is how I made it in the above picture.

Preparation
Wash chard or lettuce leaves, shake off, and set aside in a bowl. Shred carrot, onion, garlic, and any other veggie that you desire using a food processor. Cook ground meat in a large skillet with a little slosh of sesame oil, if you have it. If you are using ground turkey, you will probably need a tablespoon or two of oil as you cook it.

Once meat is cooked, remove from pan and cook chopped veggies in the remaining oil until soft. Return hamburger to pan and mix with veggies and a good slosh of fish sauce or soy sauce (probably around 1/4 cup). Add a cup or two of cooked rice, if desired. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat for a few more minutes, til ingredients are well mixed and heated.

Serve by wrapping leaves of chard or lettuce around several tablespoons of meat. Let people take their own lettuce and their own serving of meat/veggies and wrap right on their plate. If your family is like mine, you will be amazed at the amount of chard/spinach/lettuce they will consume at one meal.

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Of root vegetables and root cellars –oh, and a grill recipe.

Usually by this time of year we are DONE planting. But the other day I bought half a dozen more seed packets and this morning the big boys and I were moving compost while my husband set up new sprinkler lines in preparation for just a bit more garden space.

The seeds I bought? Parsnips. Turnips. Kohlrabi. Salsify. I’ll be honest: we’ve never even tried some of these foods. But this summer I happened upon a book called Root Cellaring and got inspired. For years John has talked about digging a root cellar to store some of our garden produce a little longer. I wasn’t sold on the idea til I bought the book. Now he and I are both looking at various areas of our property with a critical eye, trying to figure out where the best place would be for a nice cool hole in the ground.

We may not love every veggie we try. But I figure I can use most of it in a nice winter soup, and with a little experimentation we can find other ways to do different veggies too. We are really hoping to discover some good new veggies that will be happy in a root cellar for a couple months, thus decreasing our dependence on grocery store food.

In the book ‘Farmer Boy’ there’s some great description of their family’s root cellar. It was quite inspirational to read how the family with careful management was able to save all sorts of food through the winter using only the natural cooling powers of underground storage.

We could definitely use more ‘fridge’ space. In good years we harvest 12-15 bushels of apples. We routinely get bushels of onions for free. The cabbage tends to come on all at once, leaving us trying to use it all up fast, to regain fridge space. We always have lots of pumpkins. And there are lots of other winter-keeper type veggies that we haven’t even tried.

The other day I grabbed a couple of unusual things from the grocery store to try: a long white daikon radish and 3 ‘bulbs’ (??) of kohlrabi. When I grabbed the radish, a lady next to me asked me what I was going to do with it. “I dunno,” I said. “I’m experimenting. I’ll probably put it in a stirfry.”

“Me too,” she said, holding up her bag of kohlrabi with a smile. “I’m growing this for the first time in my garden and I wanted to taste it.”

At home with my vegetable bounty, I contemplated what to do. Google a recipe? Nah, too easy. Besides, I was starting to envision some kind of veggie/skewer/beef recipe on the grill. I peeled and cubed the radish. Then I chopped the long leafy ‘legs’ (tops?) off the kohlrabi. (My hubby looked suspicious and said it looked like Martian vegetables.) While trimming the kohlrabi, I discovered that the outside of it seemed woody. I trimmed all the skin off which revealed a greenish white interior that seemed much more tender. I cubed it like the radish, and then got out some brussel sprouts and cubed some carrots and potatoes so my brave food explorers poor children would have something familiar at dinner. I already had some cubed stew beef that I cut into fairly small pieces just in case it was tough.

My skewered-food-on-the-grill idea went out the window when I discovered I only had one skewer and it had last been used to unclog a bathroom sink drain. Hmm… Since it was hot outside and I wasn’t anxious to heat my house, I still wanted to try the grill. But i wasn’t sure if I could get the veggies to cook evenly. I put a pot of water on to boil and added the veggies in gradually. First the hardest veggies: radish and carrots, then kohlrabi and brussel sprouts, and finally the potatoes. Ten minutes for the firmer stuff and only 5 for the potatoes. I just wanted them to be partly cooked. The grill would finish the rest.

I tossed the meat with a little steak sauce and garlic salt, then spread it on an oiled cookie sheet which covered half my grill. Then I tossed the remaining veggies with a bit more steak sauce and salt and put it on a second oiled cookie sheet on the other side of the grill. The oil on this sheet was fairly generous– about 1/4 a cup, since I didn’t want the veggies to stick.

The veggie pan was very full– I’d put too many veggies on to cook well, and I had to stir gingerly so as not to lose anything into the fire (medium heat, btw). But the 2-1/2 lbs of beef was spread in single layer on the pan, and was soon cooking merrily. I stirred it a couple times. It browned nicely, smelled great, and was cooked through in 10 minutes. At that point I took it off with a slotted spoon into a bowl, leaving some good meat juice and a little oil on the pan. Then I was able to put half my cooking veggies onto the cookie sheet from which I’d just removed the meat.

The veggies cooked my more efficiently spread out like that, and soon all the veggies had some nicely browned surfaces. Once everything was cooked, I mixed the meat and vegetables together and served it all over rice.

The radish turned out to be rather sharp-tasting; none of us liked it that much and I don’t think we’ll be growing radishes any time soon. The familiar veggies: potatoes, carrots, and brussel sprouts were happily eaten, though next time I’ll add the brussel sprouts to the boiling water sooner. They would have benefitted from a bit more cooking. The surprise hit was the kohlrabi. It had a mild sweet flavor that reminded me somewhat of a squash, but with a firmer texture than squash. It was very nice and we are definitely adding it to our garden line-up.

The whole meal was gobbled quite happily with people coming back for more. My hubby said, “I would never have guessed that kohlrabi is that good.”

Hmmm….what to try next? Anyone know what to do with salsify?

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Our garden in June

I thought you might like a look at our garden this year. It is about 50 feet wide and 120 feet long. Things are growing pretty well. Here you can see the whole garden with a couple of the kids hard at work. We have a 30-minute weeding ‘party’ every morning Monday through Friday to keep things in line. It really helps to get out there on a regular basis– and to have a lot of people to help with the work.

You can see cabbage on the left. The two rows of tiny plants are peppers, both sweet and hot. Then there are our obligatory 100 tomato plants, and a good sized corn patch. The corn is almost too tall to step over, which is good because that also means it is getting close to the stage where it is obviously winning over the weeds, and we can content ourselves with weeding only the edges of the patch where we can get to them.

Here is a picture of one of our grape vines. It is a Concord grape that is growing at one end of the garden and stretches further down the fence every year. That one plant is probably covering 30 feet of fence this year. Good thing– we ran out of jelly this winter, and I am hoping to make a LOT more this year.

The apples (above) and the plums (below) are looking wonderful this year. I sprayed the apples a couple weeks ago and need to do it again soon. I try to spray about every 3 weeks during the summer. Most of our garden is organic, but there’s no such thing as a good organic apple. Plums, on the other hand, are fine without spray.

Below is one of the two volunteer zucchinis. It has a couple of zucchinis on already, tiny 3 inch long babies that will probably be perfect by the end of the week.

The cabbage is looking wonderful. Probably within a week I’ll be picking the first one.

I didn’t get pictures of our strawberries or our chard, both of which we’ve already been eating. Later this week I’ll be sharing a recipe using that chard. But for now I am headed off to bed!

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Works for me: selective frugality

Today I was reading a post by a careful spender who called herself a frugal traitor after she and her husband decided to once again subscribe to satellite TV. She went on to describe how she resolved those feelings. Her post hit upon an important part of my frugal life philosophy.

Deciding to be frugal does not mean you never buy non-essentials. Sure, I watch prices and buy food where it’s cheapest and buy in bulk and cook from scratch. I buy clothes at yard sale and thrift shops and cheerfully accept hand-me-downs. Our garage freezer came from a yard sale and our garage fridge came from Freecycle.com and we bought our pool used on craigslist.com.

But not everything in our lives is bare-bones. The TV in our living room is (ahem) a wee bit bigger than strictly necessary. There are vacations and trips to the movies and a netflicks.com subscription and a small array of other niceties that we could live without. But we choose not to.

I do not believe that these extras spoil my frugality record. We carefully choose which ‘extravagances’ are most worthwhile, and we don’t feel guilty for thoughtfully deviating from deep frugality in those instances. And here’s the truth: not only does frugality enable us to afford those small splurges, it also lets us enjoy those extra goodies in our life with a thankful heart.
Selective frugality: it works for me!

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Saving Money on Meat/ Hamburger Stroganoff Recipe

Today’s NYT article Putting Meat in its Place captured my philosophy on meat perfectly. We don’t NEED huge slabs of meat on our dinner plates every day!

In that spirit, here’s a recipe several people have requested. We only make this a couple times a month– it is NOT low fat– but everyone loves it when we do!

Affordable Hamburger Stroganoff

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles
3/4 pound lean ground beef
2 cups milk
2 T. flour
2 T. butter
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 of an 8 oz package of cream cheese
1/2 of an 8 ounce container of sour cream
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms, optional (or canned, if you must)

DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until no pink shows; drain and set aside. If you are using fresh mushrooms, fry for 1-2 min in same skillet that you used for the hamburger. Set aside.

Again in the same skillet, melt butter on medium high heat. Add minced garlic and cook for a minute. Then add flour. Whisk well to break up any clumps of flour. Add milk and heat till bubbly and starting to thicken.

Add cream cheese, ketchup, and sour cream. Whisk til smooth and heated through. Add hamburger and mushrooms back into skillet. Blend hamburger mixture with pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Once you’ve made this recipe a few times, you’ll probably be able to get the whole thing on the table in 30 minutes. It is a quick, easy and very delicious meal. We serve the mushrooms on the side, since not all our kids like mushrooms.

(Note that this recipe does not call for canned soup, which helps make the recipe more affordable. If you want to save a few calories and even more money, you can also delete the cream cheese. It is not essential, but it sure is yummy.)

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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Our strawberries are in full swing and we have a pretty decent patch of them== probably about 50 plants. But we’ve been eating them so quickly (and happily) that I was starting to wonder if I’d ever have enough to make jam. So this morning I made a pre-emptive strike (meaning I got there before any kids did) and picked as many as I could. Then I picked some rhubarb and by combining the two items, I was able to get 9 jars of jam. Here’s the recipe in case you are interested.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients:
4 cups rhubarb, thinly sliced
2 T. lemon juice
4 cups of fresh strawberries, sliced
10 cups of sugar
2 packages of fruit pectin
1/2 t. butter (keeps jam from getting too foamy)

In large kettle combine all ingredients except sugar. Bring mixture to a full boil. Add sugar and keep stirring till sugar is fully dissolved. Return to boil and boil for one minute. Keep stirring. Remove from the burner and skim off the foam with a spoon.

Spoon the hot jam into hot pint or half-pint canning jars. I like to pour the jam into a glass 4-cup glass measuring cup first, then pour into jars, as this makes jam easier to pour into jars. Leave 1/4 inch of space at the top. Wipe jar rims clean and screw lids on firmly. Place the jars in boiling-water canner on high. When water begins to boil, set timer and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from canner and cool on racks. Try not to disturb jam til it is cool. It may take several hours to set.

This should make about 12 half-pint jars.

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Fun links (updated)

Because I am about to fall over from exhaustion, I’m linking instead of writing tonight.
Yummy-looking green bean recipe
Adorable EASY market bags
Marian finally started a blog! You go, Girl!
To my surprise a CNN story quoting me. (Thanks to Melanie and others for the heads up!)
And for any new readers who’ve strolled over from CNN- some of my frugal recipes

Oh, and a question. I’m planning to move my blog to my own domain one of these days, and am looking for a webbie person who can do that for me. I’ll be using the installed wordpress, and would like someone able to do a few tweaks to customize my site. Any recommendations?

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Doesn’t work for me: Walgreen’s

When Shannon turned Works for Me Wednesday on its head this week, asking us instead to tell about something that doesn’t work, I instantly knew my topic.

Walgreen’s.

More specifically the deal-hunting at Walgreens that involves many flapping coupons, spending much good money on fancy name brands, and waiting for rebates that come many weeks later and sometimes are disallowed entirely.

I know that many frugal blogs talk about the wonderful deals that are to be had at Walgreens. But after trying this for three months in a row, I have to admit that this particular money saving strategy is doing nothing but frustrating me.

Yes, I’ve saved some money. But I’ve also been coaxed to buy name brand products that I would never waste spend my money on otherwise. I’ve spent literally hours cruising the aisles with fists full of coupons. My little girls are starting to whimper when we even drive past Walgreens. And the stuff I end up buying is so….small. Call me strange, but when I walk out of a store having just spent $50, I want to be holding more than one bag. I hate the sinking feeling that I would have been much much better off having bought my Colgate, Prell, and toothbrushes at the dollar store, coupons be hanged. And I would have gotten done much sooner.

I WANT Walgreens coupon-stacking/rebates to work for me, I really do.

But after my latest shopping fiasco, I’ve got to face the facts.

It all started last week when I realized the soccer field was only two blocks from Walgreens. I decided that my little girls would be much happier playing on the swings and watching big sister’s soccer practice than cruising endless aisles at Walgreens. So I handed my teenaged sons a cell phone and asked them to play with the little girls while I zipped over to make the most of the May rebates at Walgreens.

Around and around I went, matching coupons and reading fine print and trying to make sure I got the maximum money back. Besides about $10 worth of rebate items, I was also hoping to get a $10 ‘register reward’ for buying 4 Colgate products. I was especially pleased about this deal because I also had coupons for Colgate to jack up my savings. I only had a few more things to find when my cell rang. It was my son.

“Hey!” he said. And then he called the name of my 3 year old and I heard odd screaming fading in and out. He called her again, sounding distracted. More odd wavery screaming.

I called his name, starting to panic, trying to get him to talk to me. But he didn’t seem to be listening to me. I called his name louder. Panic was rising in my throat. Was she hurt? I knew it wasn’t irresponsible to leave my 3 and 5 year olds at the park with their 13 and 16 year old brothers, but the mom guilt kicked in…

When still he didn’t answer me, I left my cart in the corner and jetted out of the store and hopped into the van, trying to fight back the fear that the three year old was really seriously hurt. A minute later I was pulling into the parking lot. To see my little girls swinging, screaming happily as they went back and forth. The big boys were protectively in position behind them.

Augh.

I called out to my son to hang up the phone. He looked at me, puzzled, utterly oblivious to the fact that he’d called me.

Relieved but still rattled, I jetted back to the store to gather up my coupons and my last couple items. At the checkout, the cash register accepted all my coupons (yeah!) but then refused to spit out my coveted $10 register reward. ?? The teenaged clerk sighed and called his boss, who arrive by turtle 20 years 6 minutes later. It was then that I learned you aren’t allowed to combine coupons and register rewards. I’d saved $3 with coupons only to lose my $10 reward. Not only that, but on closer examination, it turned out I’d bought the wrong Colgate products, so wasn’t eligible for the reward anyway.

I was now 10 minutes late to pick up the kids, so instead of arguing, I scooped my bounty one teeny $40 bag up and hurried off to get the kids, who were thankfully still happy and well.

On the way home I consoled myself with the fact that at least I still had about $10 of rebate money coming …eventually.

Except when I got home, I discovered that somewhere in all of that hassle, I’d lost my receipt.

Bye-bye rebates.

I am, however, the proud owner of a bottle of plaque-revealing mouth rinse, which I never in a million years would have bought without the promise of a rebate. Oh, and some lightbulbs–only a buck, and yes, we do use those. And more toothpaste. Toothpaste that cost 3x as much as I would have spent at the dollar store.

Yes, I realize that with a little better concentration and a firm grip on my receipt, I would have saved a bit of money. But I am left with the overwhelming feeling that really, sadly, Walgreens rebate/couponing does not work for me.

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Sweet, sweet deal on cereal at Albertson’s

For those of you who live near an Albertson’s, this week is a great week to stock up on cereal. If you have a preferred customer card, you can buy 10 boxes of General Mills cereal for $10. If you have coupons, the deal gets even sweeter. I happened to have a fistful of coupons and today I bought TWENTY boxes of cereal for– get this– $11.50. Awesome. Talk about having fun shopping– that was definitely it.

Oh, and for the curious, we eat cereal two mornings a week (about two boxes per meal) which means that the cereal I bought today will last about 5 weeks.

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