Dirt in my fingernails...

I've been in the garden! Check out my lettuce and how big they are!! Some nasty slugs got he best of a few heads of lettuce but I've learned a few things about organic gardening:
1. If you want to be rid of pests, you will have to pick them off by hand
2. You have to check your garden 3x a day, everyday
3. You must keep up on your research. There are things I would have never known about such as using grass clippings as mulch, that was SO easy!
4. Marigolds do nothing to protect my garden in particular, they've just provided an appetizer for the slugs on a rainy day before they continue on to my beloved lettuce!!
I've been reading Time Life's Organic Vegetable Gardening which you can find here and I've found it invaluble.
Check the gardening section of this site to see what kind of goodies you might just find...

New Pages Added!

Check out the different pages added to Living Budget Wise!
Now, you'll be able to surf this blog based on what YOU want to read about!

Grow - is going to cover my adventures in organic edible gardening to save me from spending money on poduce I can grow for a fraction of the cost!

Eat - shows new recipies, methods and discussions about how we can chop our food bills every week

Kids - is well, about kids and all things pertaining to how our children can be stimulated, loved and nutured using little or virtually no money

Articles - is an archive of past articles I've contributed to KV Style's "Budget Wise" column. If you missed a past publication, this is the place to find it :)

Space - is all about our living space where we can frugally create a place that suits our families best and contributes to simplifying our daily lives




I've recently added a new post under "EAT" for a fantastic Budget Wise Vegan Chili that is sure to become a new fav! I used Azuki Beans, my new favourite bean instead of ground beef. It  tastes different but if you would like to reduce some of your grocery bill, replacing meat dishes with those that contain beans and legumes instead will do JUST that!Try it today, and if you have a hard time finding Azuki beans, try the bulk barn! They sell them dried but they only need an overnight soak and 45 minutes in a pot with water to be ready for this recipe!

Yogurt Cheese

I love eating clean (aside from when I secretly gorge on the salt and pepper organic chips in the drivers seat of the car on my way home from grocery shopping)

And I love stuff that spreads onto other stuff. With so many 'spreads' options at the grocery store and even more freaky chemicals added to them to give them a longer shelf life, I resolved to take the matter of an over-priced tiny tub of spreadiliciousness into my own hands and make my own.
Here's how I made some yogurt cheese recently:

You need:
medium glass bowl
a strainer that fits in it but leave room in the bottom
cheese cloth
plain balkan yogurt that contain no gelatain

Dump your yogurt into the strainer which has been lined with cheesecloth.

Leave it in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours. To get a thicker, cream cheese like consistency, leave it to drain for a full 24 hours. You can see in the pictures above that the liquid has drained and there's quite a bit of it, once removed from the cheese cloth, it should look like what's in the bowl picture.

A friend of mine uses this as a base for icing! Yes ICING! her blog is http://www.laundryontheline.wordpress.com check it out! She rocks!

On it's own, yogurt cheese can be kinda bland, but with only a few things added, I was hooked. slurp, yum.

For a savory variety, add dried herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, garlic powder, sea salt and pepper. The longer it sits, the better it's been infused with flavor.

For a sweeter variety, try pure maple syrup or agave nectar (will make it a bit thinner in texture), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pure vanilla bean guts :D

 So delicious, I leave you to salivate while I go make a bagel....mmmmmm :)

Simple

When I'm not cleaning paint and dirt from underneath my fingernails or making a new iTunes list for my next spin class, I'm doing either one of three things.
1. Cleaning the kitchen after yet another meal/snack
2. Laundry
3. Desperately seeking time alone to pray/read/just "be".
On one of those rare occasions, I picked up a book at the Library called "By the Rivers of Brooklyn" by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole
It's a fiction transformed from some fact of how 75,000 first and second generation Newfoundlanders lived in Brooklyn, New York-did you know that happened? me neither.
Aside from the rich history in the book, the novel chronicles all female characters from the 1920's, through to 2004 describing their lives in the times we so often hear as 'a simpler time'. I couldn't help but feel comfortable reading and imagining the years in which the pages took place, knowing full well that as much as it's fiction, it's fact too. Visceral images of hanging wet laundry on a line, stirring a tea cake batter up, poking coals to heat a small kitchen or the reference to how far a few pennies went in the 1930's; it's impossible to not have a warm feeling associated with all those things. One of my favorite passages in the book, I felt, related so much to partly why I write 'Budget Wise' or even have this blog to begin with. Ethel, of the original head of the Evan's family, has been responsible for her house hold for the seven years since she married Jim. This passage takes place during the depression when Jim, a steelworker who helped to build the Empire State Building, hasn't had work for 3 months...

For nearly seven years Jim had been working to support her and their children. Now it was her time, her moment. She stood up and crossed the room, dragging her chair with her, climbing up to stand tip-toe on it and reach up to the top of the cupboard over the counter, reaching way in back for the biscuit tin. She had been putting money into the biscuit tin ever since they got married, always keeping it a secret from Jim and even in a way, from herself, for no matter how badly she wanted to she had never opened it up and counted the money inside. It was mostly coins but quite a few bills too,  especially from the first years when Jim's pay was steady. "For a rainy day, " her mother had told her. "You puts aside a little, whenever you can.".....
"Wherd'd you get this?" Jim said, as if she'd robbed a bank and asked for it all in small change. "I've been saving it," Ethel said. "Ever since we were married. Saving it for a rainy day. "

How amazing would it be for all of us to have a 'biscuit tin' for each of our households. Where now, a few coppers doesn't count, but instead replacing them with a few toonies or some five and twenty dollar bills, just collecting over time, for one of our rainy days.
A biscuit tin now is often referred to as an emergency fund. Something as small as $1000 to give you a cushion in the event something arises. The idea of putting money aside seems impossible to me at times, especially $1000!!?? , but ya know, if Ethel (as in any women in the depression who could save enough to cover three months wages) could do it? So can we!

Potato Stamps

There's alot of things I remember about primary school,and potato stamps was one of them...I think I'm onto a 'retro craft' binge for the next few posts!

You'll need some liquid tempra paint

a few large potatoes

newspaper

a plate to hold your paint and dip your potatoes in

Cut your potato to desired thickness. It doesn't need to be too thick, you can make three stamps out of one average sized potato (and not a lot of wasting)

Design your shape, like a heart, stars, basic shapes or if you had your afternoon coffee, a more intricate design like a happy face

...and then, let 'er rip!

And once the potato stamps lose their charm...Get messy, really, really messy :D

Dont' stand up too quickly now...

 

On this particularly snowy day, besides going outside to bash our partially melted colored ice blocks into sparkly ice confetti, we weren't feeling all too keen to create anything new.So many valentines have been handed out, a few too many chocolate kisses have been consumed, so with all that unfortunate-sugar-induced winding, we had to spin back out!

Items required: 

One large steel bowl

hard flat surface

a cute bum(s)

Instructions: Place bum in bowl...spin fast...really, really fast! Hilarious, so much fun. Beware, the bowl used for kid bums will NOT fit a mommy bum ;)

Table Top Shuffle Board

After experiencing how much the kids liked air hockey over Christmas break (and how much money those smarty pants movie folk make on arcade games in the movie theater), I though we'd try a different game at home, trying their hand at pace, prescion and adding up numbers by 5, 10 and 15 (for Kalea anyhow)

Lay out tape on your table. Painters tape or a lower adhesive tape leaves less residue. We, being a family of builders and renovators, have many things such as the tuck tape used here, but any thin tape will do (duct tape will not allow your markers to slid across)

Mark out 4 lines, with the highest number in the middle, which ends up being the hardest to achieve.

I cushioned the end with a few books, as our markers kept falling of the end of the table due to high powered slides.

Using bottle caps or in this case, some think wooden hearts, it took a few tries to get  the feeling for how much force is needed, but it was fun. Kalea really enjoyed this, Sam (4) was frustrated as he always pushed it a little too far :(
(nothing a few secret cookies couldn't cure)

Colored Ice Blocks

 

It all starts with some empty yogurt containers, water and various food coloring. I didn't really like the type of colored we had on hand for this project, which was the gel food coloring. It doesn't completely dissolve like a liquid coloring. But, the colors were vibrant in the end and so very cheerful! 

Mix your colors as best as you can, Sam and Kalea had a great time picking out the colors they wanted and mixing colors to create new ones! Our activity of mixing and pour lasted about 45 minutes from start to finish and the clean up was easy with just bits of water puddles here and there.

 

Take outside to freeze. I wasn't willing to give up my freezer space for all of these so chanced some different frozen shapes to emerge. To my surprise, it they were all frozen solid and took on the shape of each container :)

 

Dip in warm water to free the shape....

  

Start to build!

 

Us a small dribble of water (your glue) to adhere to each block, it quickly freezes...um...if it's -14 like it was the day we did this 

 

Everyone, myself included ,was thrilled with how beautiful our ice blocks turned out!

 

We eat alot of eggs...

....so, in turn need to use up our egg cartons. No step by step pictures here. Just the finished product but it's as simple as anything. Cut out two side by side egg holders-you will need to cut them fairly shallow so they sit close to the face and are comfortable. Use pipe cleaners to make antenna and to arms to hold onto little ears. Decorate and go buggy!

L.A.Z.Y - Lazy Art "zy" You

I recently found out that the last week of January is the most depressing-huh...maybe that's why I have no creative powers left to think of something fun to do today. Guess we'll make....um...a hat.

Popcorn Snow'people'

Who can resist sticky, gooey popcorn balls...especially when they are rolled into cute snowmen complete with carrot noses? Kalea and Sam loved this activity but true to the children they are, thought the concept of putting margarine on their hands to roll their balls was the most exciting!

All you need:

4 cups popped popping corn

1 cup mini marshmallows

1tbsp margarine

carrots cut lenthwise about 3/4 of an inch long

raisins

pretzels or candy canes for arms

fruit leather for a scarf

Melt the margarine and marshmallows together in a large pot over medium heat. Add the popped corn and mix thoroughly. Wait a few moments once removed from heat. Slather a bit of margarine on hands and roll three balls from biggest to smallest to form the shape of a snowman. Decorate with whatever you have around the house, all that was missing I think was some fruit leather scarves which we will try next time for sure!

Elephant Valentines

Adorable doesn't fully encompass these sweet little heart elephants, but being true to my pledge last year of being on top of Valentines day preparations starts not in February, but the month before! Easy cut out hearts, hand traced by Kalea (6) and assembled by both Sam and Kalea were simple and made for little preparation on my part.

 Every good paper elephant needs a few flea market button eyes...

And a few dedicated kids to assemble. Easy, cost nothing using everything we had in our craft box. Now I can safely say we are beginning to be ready, just 33 more to go! :)