Walking for a Cause

I did two 5k walks this weekend. The ARC of Schuyler on Saturday, and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday. In past years I have also walked and raised money for our local SPCA and a walk in memory of two local police officers that were killed in the line of duty. Now that I think about it, I have been doing them for almost ten years now. I strongly encourage people to get out and participate in walks like this. It's a great way to get involved in your local community, meet new people, raise money for good causes and in doing so make a difference, and get some fresh air and exercise at the same time. If you don't want to or can't walk you can also look into volunteering at them.

Yes, those are boobies on my friend Shelly's hat. She wears them for breast cancer walks. That is her friend Judy in the wheelchair, and my daughter Sarah in the middle. Sarah ran the whole 5k this year. A piece of cake for her since she is a cross country runner, but I'm still very proud of her! Yay Sarah!

Healthy = Frugal = Green

I think the single most important thing an individual can do to be frugal and/or green is to be healthy. Healthy food doesn't come with over packaging that ends up in landfills, and contrary to what the media tries to tell folks, it is cheaper to eat healthy. Ever check out the price of a pound of dried beans? Brown rice? How about raw veggies like carrots, onions, and broccoli. I'm not just talking about vegetarian food either. Lean meats like turkey and chicken often go on sale for a dollar a pound or less, and one pound will feed more than one person. I can sure buy a lot of these healthy items for the cost of one fast food meal for my family, even if we only ordered off the dollar menu.

Another great benefit to being healthy is cost of health care and medications. My children and I have each gone years without having to go to the doctor due to illness. My children also rarely miss school. It is not uncommon for them to go the entire year without missing a day and one child went the entire time she went back to public school, eighth grade and all of high school, without missing a day. Now don't get me wrong, we do eat far too much crap, but I believe we are still overall pretty healthy due to some basic rules I have always stuck to - but those are for another post. Here is the biggy in regards to the environment when it comes to medications. Did you know that when you take meds they pass through your system and into the water supply. (The same, of course, goes for flushing them down the drain.) Water treatment plants cannot removed all those meds from the water. Here is one of many articles about this issue. I urge you to at least glace at it.

So here is where I tell you what a hypocrite I am. I quit smoking a few years ago. Actually, I quit smoking many times, sometimes many times in one year, over the past 20 something years. I hate to even say it - hate to admit I ever smoked! I never enjoyed it and quitting was the hardest thing I ever did. The result of finally quitting is that I let myself gain weight - a lot of weight! I have lost weight before and I knew that if I could beat nicotine addiction I could most certainly drop the weight. Well, it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. "They" say (I have no idea who - just go with it) that your metabolism drops after you quit smoking and takes about a year to get back to normal. I really have no idea if that's true but it sure seemed that way. Fortunately for me I don't take medication for anything - yet, even though due to genetics, I am at risk for type II diabetes and high blood pressure.

So here we are, the entire point of this post - well, most of it anyway - it to say this out loud to the world. I have joined in on a weight loss competition with some of the folks I work with, and I'm going to try like crazy to win! I know I rambled all over the place with this post - let's just blame it on lack of fructose and leave it at that!

Ugly Dolls and Craftster

If you are remotely crafty and have never visited, Craftster, I highly recommend checking it out. It's a melting pot of every thing creative, including cooking, sewing, knitting, and crocheting, which are my personal favorites, although I have definitely been inspired to try new things that I didn't even know about until I saw them there. Members share their creations and you can even get into doing swaps if that's your thing. I found this pattern for Wayuki's interpretation of an Ugly Doll, and (as you can see) just couldn't stop making them. It was so fun putting my own twist on her pattern. I do think it's a bit hard navigating around the site for the first time, so I recommend starting with "Recent With Pictures." You will find it on the front page, right side. I like scanning through the pictures for inspiration as well as new patterns and techniques to try. I, unfortunately, do not recommend Craftster for children. Although rare, there are some "mature content" type crafts on the site. Why someone would want a tea towel, with x-rated material embroidered on it, hanging in their home is beyond me. Any who, I still strongly recommend the site, especially if you are looking for something outside the mainstream style of crafts.

One Month Shopping Challenge - Week 3 & 4

Well, I have to confess I blew it, I went shopping Saturday. It started out harmless enough, I had some basics (milk, eggs, etc) to pick up. But the weather has been unseasonably warm so I broke the challenge and picked up a few pairs of capri pants, hanging flowers baskets to plant fuchsias in for my front porch, and some other miscellaneous items, some of which are for some craft projects I have been wanting to make. All in all I spent about $100, and since I know I won't be doing any shopping for the rest of this week (week 4), that puts my total for the month (including gas) at a little over $150. An average of less than $40 a week for all out of pocket moneys spent this month really isn't too bad.

My purpose for the whole thing was really only to break a bad spending cycle I had got myself into. This usually happens at the beginning of every year when I am doing a large chunk of my Christmas, birthday, and clothing shopping for the up coming year. I just need to know when to say, "enough!" My focus now is to clean out and use up anything and everything I can. We are still trying to decided on having a yard sale verses hauling it all to the Salvation Army. Guess I'll have to wait and see how much stuff we want to get ride of! ;-)

One Month Shopping Challenge - Week 2

Well, this second week of my month of no shopping went ok, unfortunately I did end up having to shop. It was brought to my attention that we were in desperate need of cat litter. Turns out the two plastic totes in the garage I thought were full, instead were very empty. My job is just to buy the stuff - the deal has always been I don't feed or clean up after any animal in the house. Four kids is enough for me to deal with in those regards. I knew I wasn't going to get through the entire month without shopping at all, especially since milk doesn't last very long around here. I also had some coupons for free stuff I didn't want to expire so I just combined it all into one trip. After 20 minutes at the checkout at Target, and talking to three different employees explaining the difference between one coupon per purchase verses one per transaction, I finally made it out with $60 worth of goods for $25.10 and a $5 Target gift card. Not too bad considering that is the only money I have spent in the past two weeks. I haven't even had to put gas in my car - I love that little Versa! So here it is - my menu for the past week.

Sunday
Was my daughters birthday - ate out. This was planned from the get go.

Monday
Chicken Cacciatore with Whole Wheat Linguine
Mixed Greens Salad
Rocky Road Brownies

Tuesday
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Peas

Wednesday
Shrimp Vegetable Rice Medley

Thursday
Buttered Pasta with Parmesan Cheese
Mixed Veggies

Friday
Meatloaf
Garlic Smashed Taters
Green Beans Almondine
Rocky Road Brownies (My daughter requested them again because she had a friend over for dinner.)

Saturday
Poached Salmon or Tilapia (I let everybody pick their favorite.)
Potato Galette
Left over Green Beans Almondine
Pizza Cookie

Buttered Pasta - Kids Choice

There was a time when my kids didn't get much say at all in what we had for dinner, but I have gotten older, tireder, and sometimes I just don't want to decide. So it happened tonight that thee kids and I were standing in the pantry staring at food. My first thought when someone blurted out, "Buttered pasta with Parmesan cheese," was, "No, that's a side dish." Then I reached out a grabbed a box of Barilla Plus Elbows and read the nutrition label. A 2oz serving (1/7 of a 14.5 oz box) has 10 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber. I had no idea the protein was that high. So paired with mixed veggies on the side, tonight we had another quick and easy dinner. Lucky me!

Shrimp Veggie Rice Medley

So part of reason for this one month challenge from shopping is to use up some food stuff that has been hanging around. Although I do like frozen veggies, I don't ever recall buying them with sauce on them until the Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers came out, and the only reason I did buy them is because they were super cheap with a coupon. So there they sat and sat in my freezer. Well as it happens there were only three of us for dinner tonight, and therefore I put off what to make until the last minute. I was going to go with leftovers, but to my surprise there aren't any! They have actually been listening and taking them for lunch, and not eating out - yay!! So here is what I came up.

14oz Bag cooked shrimp
12oz bag Valley Fresh Steamers Buttery Rice and Vegetables
12oz bag Valley Fresh steamers Basil Vegetable Medley

I cooked the bags for half of the recommended time in the microwave. While they were going I got the shrimp started in a covered skillet. I just dumped them in on med high heat and covered until they were thawed and just starting to warm. Finally I combined everything in the skillet and cooked until heated through. This would be a great dish for someone living in a dorm because the whole thing could be done in the microwave. The kids liked it fine, but I probably wouldn't purchase these items specifically to make this dish again. At least not without some great coupons! ;-) Oh, and FYI each serving came out to only about 275 calories.