Feelin' Scrappy

Two weeks from now is a big day for our family. On November 7th, it will be a year since our three oldest kids joined our family. What a whirlwind of a year it's been! It's really hard to believe a year has passed. In order to celebrate, I've been working more on the kids' lifebook (which I've talked about on here before) that celebrates their first year in our family. My hope is that I can have it done by the anniversary on the 7th. So, I've been scrapping my little heart out lately! :) I don't think I'll print out the book at this time. One of the nice things about the scrapbooking software that I use is that it can be saved as an interactive scrapbook that can be viewed on the computer or TV. That's what I'm trying to do.

In honor of such a beautiful fall day today, I thought I'd post the layouts that I made for Thanksgiving last year. The pages were made with the Autumn Allure pack by Dana Zarling.

Recipes

So...I've decided that consistent blogging really isn't my thing. :)

How's everyone doing with the Matthew 25:35 challenge? Next week is our final week, and I'd love to hear what you have learned through this challenge. I know there are a few of you following along with me, and I'd love to hear from you. Also, I've heard from several of you who are actually on food stamps, and I would love to hear about the recipes you use! Let's all share and help each other out! This week, I came across some fantastic, frugal recipes that I want to share with you.

The first is for goulash, which might as well be called a "dump-it-all-together" meal. It's super easy to put together, and tastes fabulous. Even my picky little daughter ate it! So here's the recipe:

Goulash (this makes 6-8 servings)

Brown 1 lb. ground beef. Add chopped onion and minced garlic (or just use dried). Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill crockpot with 1 can tomato sauce, 2 cubes beef bouillon (try to get one that doesn't have MSG in it if possible), and 6-8 cups water (depending on how soupy you want it). Stir to dissolve everything.

Add ground beef, 1 cup frozen corn, 1 cup frozen peas (you can add more if you wish), and brown rice or elbow macaroni (however much you want to use.) I personally like the brown rice. See...there's a reason I said that this should be called "dump-it-all-together"!

Let it all cook until the liquid has been reduced and the rice or pasta is tender. And there you have it...a super easy dinner (and it makes fabulous leftovers, too!)

The other recipe I want to share comes from my friend Emily. I made a big batch of these earlier this week, and they are almost gone. My family loves them and my kids even beg for them for breakfast! They're easy, cheap, and quite nutritious as well.

Freezer Bean Burritos

1 onion, diced (or you could use dried)
1 bell pepper, diced (I left this out since my family doesn't really like peppers)
1.5 c. quinoa + 3 c. water OR 2 c. Rice + 4 c. water (I used brown rice and made it however the bag says for 2 c. rice)
4 cans black beans
3 cans pinto beans
2 c. frozen corn
1 can rotel or diced tomatoes (I used 2 cans of the mild rotel...it added just enough flavor, but not too much that the kids couldn't eat it.)
20-30 tortillas (I used the burrito size)
4 c. cheese, shredded

Cook quinoa or rice. Saute onion and pepper, add corn and let thaw. Mix rice, pepper, onion and corn with beans, rotel and cheese. Put about 1/4 c. mixture in center of tortilla, roll up. Wrap each burrito in saran wrap or foil and put in freezer bag. Freeze and reheat as needed. Microwave 1 burrito 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Also good to put in baking dish and cover with enchilada sauce and cheese and bake.

These burritos are loaded with fiber (especially if you get a whole grain tortilla, too!) My family finds that one burrito is more than sufficient for a meal because they are very filling.

I hope you enjoy these recipes!

This week's update

Sorry to my readers for getting so behind on blogging!! My son is doing fine now after his surgery, but I just got so behind on housework, schooling my kids and everything else that I just haven't had much time to blog this week. I promise I didn't really fall off the face of the earth. :)

This week, we have been following our food stamp budget, and we did quite nicely with it. In fact, I still had a lot of pantry staples like beans and rice and flour that I was able to use in meals. I actually didn't have to go to the grocery store until last night. This week has been a little chilly, so we have enjoyed soups and stews this week, as well as baked chicken.

If you've joined me on this challenge, I'd love to hear what you've been cooking for your family! And next week, I try to post the menu for the week early on, so you can see what we're eating!

~Beth

Off This Week

Blog Friends,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be taking this week off from my Matthew 25:35 challenge. My son had surgery today, and we've had to eat out today since we're up at the hospital, and he will require a special diet this week, too. Mainly, though, I just need to focus on him instead of menu planning and grocery shopping and blogging. So, join me back here next week for Week #2 of the challenge!

~Beth

Matthew 25:35 Challenge, Menu Plan

I wanted to post my menu plan for our first week trying to live on a Food Stamp Allotment. Since the challenge was to go the whole month of October on a food stamp budget, I went ahead and started this week, since there are few days of October this week. Before I share my menu plan, I just wanted to say that it's not too late to join me. I know I have talked to several of you readers in person or on facebook. If you decide that you will join our family this month, please leave a comment on this blog so I will know for sure! Thanks!

First of all, I have to say that this has been a real challenge for me already. I have a hard time trying to think of a good variety of recipes that would meet my family's varied dietary needs (my kids cannot have anything with any form of milk in it) as well as palates. I have found the web to be an invaluable resource as I planned this menu. However, I don't think that many people who are truly destitute have access to the internet whenever they wish. That's why I think it would be so wonderful to accumulate a bunch of very frugal, yet nourishing recipes to make into a cookbook of sorts that can be distributed at food banks and church food pantries. That said, if you encounter a great, cheap recipe that you would like to share for my "cookbook" project, please post it in the comments section.

And now to the menu:

I am going to need to make homemade bread and several quarts of homemade chicken stock (which will also leave me with a lot of shredded, cooked chicken) this weekend.

Monday: Carrot, lentil and rice soup with homemade bread (I may end up adding other veggies to the soup as well.)

Tuesday: Tuesdays are always rushed around dinner time, so something in the crockpot is always in order. We're going to have goulash.

Wednesday: 1/2 sandwiches with a veggie salad

Thursday: Chicken and rice casserole (with homemade cream of chicken soup)

Friday: Warm red potato salad and sandwiches

Saturday: Chicken and black bean enchiladas (I will be doubling the recipe so we can have a freezer meal for next week after my son has surgery.)

Sunday: Veggie omelets and shredded potatoes

For breakfasts, we'll be doing things like eggs, oatmeal and fruit.

For lunches, we'll have simple sandwiches, fruits, veggies and leftovers.

So, what is your family going to eat this week? Please remember to sign up if you wish to join me in the challenge, and also remember to post frugal, nourishing recipes--whether or not you will be joining me! Thanks!

Edit: I went grocery shopping and I think I did a good job. My goal was to spend only $104 to feed my family of 6 for one week. I ended up being a dollar over, which was my fault since I added one impulse buy to the cart (cider! Seriously, it's not fall unless you've had real apple cider!). I didn't buy anything processed--I stuck to whole foods, and I was able to get some good whole grains like brown rice and stone ground whole wheat flour for my bread. I bought lots of veggies and fruits--both fresh and frozen. And I was able to get 1 lb. of lean ground beef and 2 whole free range chickens, plus several other things. So, overall, it wasn't that bad. I usually try to buy a lot more organic and local things, and I wasn't able to do it on my budget, but I think I came out with a good amount of high quality food. Here's the receipt from my trip to Wal Mart (you should be able to click on it to make it bigger):

Okay, so there you have it. Week one's shopping trip was a success. Stay tuned for more throughout the week. And remember, you have a few days left to sign up to take part in this challenge with me. Would you consider joining my family in blessing needy people this month?

Matthew 25:35 Challenge

I have to admit it, I'm a sucker for helping the hurting. When I see a hurt or scared dog, I want to bring it home and feed it. I have even been known to cry when I saw a bird with a broken wing try to get off of a fence, with no success. (Just ask my husband about that incident!) But don't get me wrong...when it comes to helping the hurting people of this world, I am no sucker. Yes, when I see a person hurting for whatever reason, it does pull at my heartstrings. But it is far more than that since people are created in the image of God. It is a calling that I have on my life--a calling to comfort those who are hurting, a calling to feed the poor, a calling to bandage the wounds of the brokenhearted.

Guess what?! It's your calling, too, if you are a believer. We are supposed to all take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans. You don't need a special calling on your life to do it. Matthew 25:35 says that when we serve the poor, or take care of those who need help, we are actually serving Jesus with our labors. "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." So, while I believe that God does call certain people to serving the poor and needy, the widows, and the orphans at a different level (I think my husband and I have this calling on our lives), we don't need a special calling to help others out. As believers, it just comes out of our love for Jesus.

I was recently reading an article about people who live on food stamps. When I saw the chart that highlighted the allotments per family member, I was shocked. Basically, it comes down to somewhere around $15 per person per week. I had no idea it was that low! Now, I am not saying this to start a political argument about whether we should have welfare or anything like that. What I am saying is that there are some genuinely suffering, hungry people out there. They need help, and they need the love and compassion of Jesus shared with them.

Could your family live on a food stamp allotment? When I saw the maximum allotment for a family of 6 (my family's size), my first thought was "there's no way...my kids have food allergies and we try to eat as little processed food as possible." But I'm always up for a good challenge.

So, here's my challenge! I am challenging myself and all of you readers to live on a food stamp budget for 1 month. Try to be as creative with your recipes as possible, and try to eat as healthy as possible. You could even blog about your journey. I will be blogging on this site regularly about our journey. And then, at the end of the month, consider donating the extra money from your grocery budget that you didn't use to a local food bank or church food pantry. While you're at it, consider printing up the recipes from the inexpensive but healthy meals you made, and give them to the food bank so they can pass them along to others. I think this would be a wonderful way to be able to empathize with the plight of the poor while still making a difference in others' lives.

So, would you consider joining me for a month (or longer as you feel led)? Would you join me for the month of October in spending only a food stamp allotment on groceries and then donating the rest of your grocery budget to feed the poor? I know it's a big decision, but if you wish to join me, please leave a comment on this post so I can know who is joining me!

I'm excited! To figure out your food stamp allotment for your family size, please click here. It will walk you through the instructions on finding how much money you would receive if you were on food stamps. If your income exceeds a certain amount, then you will find that you would actually get a negative number when figuring your allotment. So, our family used a fake income of $36,000 to figure it. So, we will be living in October with a grocery budget of $412. If you have questions about figuring your allotment, you can just leave a comment.

Keep checking back on this blog regularly, as I will post at least weekly on the progress my family is making, and I will also post some recipes.

Sam-e Keeps Me Smiling

Whenever I discover a product that really makes a true difference in my life, I'm eager to tell everyone about it. My newest "discovery" is a product called Sam-e. I have seen commercials around advertising for a certain brand of Sam-e for a while, and when I saw a video put out by Above Rubies that praised Sam-e, I thought it was time to look into what all the buzz was about.

Sam-e is a nickname of sorts for a naturally occurring molecule found in all living things called S-Adenosylmethionine. (It sure is easier to say Sam-e!) This molecule has been shown to be quite useful in helping to ease depression and joint pain. And it appears to be promising in some other areas of treatment as well. Basically, it is supposed to help lift your mood, and it has the added benefit of relieving aches and pains as well as Tylenol or Motrin. Since I'm not a doctor or biochemist, I have a link here to read more about Sam-e.

I have personally found Sam-e to be very useful in helping me with my mood. I am often very stressed out and worn down due to a variety of things such as children with special emotional needs and a very hectic schedule. I find that often it causes me to have a grumpy mood. I started using Sam-e to see if it would help to regulate my mood better. And I was very surprised to find that it, indeed, did work! My husband noticed my mood was better in the evenings, and he has even taken it a couple of times.

I have also taken Sam-e to regulate my mood when I have PMS. I am a complete emotional wreck the week before my cycle, and it really helps me out a lot. It even has the added benefit of pain relief, and it gets rid of my cramps as well. I also have pretty severe joint pain. I have multiple food allergies that went undiagnosed for quite some time, and the doctors think that the inflammation from the allergies is what has torn up my joints. When I am taking Sam-e, I feel so much better. The only thing I don't really like about it is that you have to take it on an empty stomach. I have a hard time remembering to take pills between meals, so it is hard to keep up with sometimes.

So, if you are looking for a natural option for pain relief or mood support, Sam-e could be worth it. I have to end with the disclaimer that I am not a physician, and obviously, you'll want to talk to your doctor before using it if you're on other meds or if you have medical conditions.

Tell me... have any of you used Sam-e, and if so, did it help you?