A simple life give away

It's action stations here in my kitchen with Mr. GW doing a little reno and installing a 15 draw stainless steel cabinet with a wooden bench top.  I'm so excited!!  Nothing like stainless steel and draws to get a girl pumping! Did I mention it's anti-fingerprint proof - there is a cleaning OCD god!

I'll post some pics another time but I'm in the mist of a huge declutter.  I've got 5 big bags for good will (how good is purging!!) but I thought I'd see if anyone would like this litte book "The Simple Life" written by Rhonda Hetzel from one of my fav blogs down to earth.  Just leave me a comment on why you would like it and I'll pick a winner in a few days.  It's a shame I couldn't give away the armful's of Delicious mags and cookbooks that have been untouched for years...

bean poached eggs ~ it doesn't get more frugal than this!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm very lucky to have fellow foodies as friends and we love sharing recipes, home grown produce and little things we find on our travels.  We can talk endless about food and are always dreaming up the next meal while still consuming the current one.  I'm lucky that my husband and daughter love doing this too. One of my treasures I was given awhile ago, where these chilpotle peppers.  They come in a  100g tin and are easily added to lots of dishes, giving a smoking kick, but this dish I'm sharing really has to be the simplest yet one of the yummiest frugal meals we have been eating lately.  It's perfect for a Friday night nosh up or when you really, really need to go to the supermarket but just aren't up to it.  These ingredients are a must to keep in your pantry and fridge just for moments like these.

Empty 1-2 tins of good quality baked beans into a fry pan and bring up to a simmer. 

We always have rocket growing so I added a good handful of that to the pan along with 4 eggs or you can add more.

Pop on a lid or wrap in foil if you don't have one to fit and let the eggs poach in the beans until just still runny.

I also added some chopped up feta and fresh basil and a chopped up chilpotle peppers, but it's just as delicious without them.

I toasted some of our crusty homemade bread with a good spread of avocado.

Being a tight arse never tasted so good!

I'm finally getting to one of my bucket list for 2014 and that was to learn to crochet a granny square and hopefully a granny square blanket.  Let me tell you, I need a swear jar.  Goddang it ~ it's frustrating!!! But, surprisingly has me engrossed.  I've been scouring youtube and video based tutorials as I learn best watching.  I'm really enjoying it but haven't mastered it yet, all my attempts have been unstitched and I've still got just a ball of wool....after many trials but practice makes perfect, right?

Now...here's a test...who's still doing the 52 week money challenge?? It's week 22 for those that are :)

Ciao, Jan x

Lushious leftovers lamb pie

Living frugally is getting the most out of your shopping dollars and the most from the food you need to eat.  It also helps to make them as tasty and delicious as you can so you don't feel deprived.  The easiest way I know to save on meals is by making the most of your leftovers.  Australians  reportedly waste over $1,000 per household per year on food.  That's 8 BILLION DOLLARS (gulp) worth of food that gets thrown out each year.....I know.....ok now I've taken a big breath and swallowed that bitter pill, I'm here to tell you that it's easy and actually time saving to use up this waste.  You can watch a fab little doco that I saw first on Jo's blog Down to earth Mother here, it's only 20 minutes, please for our planet's sake, take the time to watch it.  It's about waste in general and certainly got my attention.

Why do many of us live so unconsciously? 

Back to the issue at hand, lushious leftfovers.  Take them to work for lunch the next day instead of spending $15 on a brought lunch.  That's $780 you could save just by taking leftovers for your lunch one day a week, only one!  It's alarmingly (are you ready....) a saving of $3,900 if you bothered to take your lunch everyday to forgo your need for buying lunch/coffee/water/soft drink from the cafe down the road. How good are those leftovers tasting now? Imagine that money payed down on some of your debt or it's the holiday you don't think you can afford.

Freeze portions of the leftovers for dinner another night when you know you might reach for the phone to order take away.  

Or Compost it 

(as long as it's not meat or anything else you shouldn't be composting!).  

Give it to your dog to bulk out his dog food, we all know the cat's way to much of a princess to eat it though.

I love leftovers as it means its either dinner sorted the following night, or for the freezer, if it's like bolognaise sauce or cold roast meat or pasta or salad or rice, I can make another meal out of it.

For this recipe of lamb pie, it does need some love and time but nothing too 

stressful ~ 15 minutes max.  It can make 2 dinners for you too, eat one serve and freeze another.  If you really think you are too busy, the night you make the roast, peel the extra vegies required for this then and leave them in the fridge ready for when you need them.

All up this $13 piece of roast leg of lamb fed our family of 3 (with 1 very hungry man) for 3 nights for less than $6 a night when you also factor in the vegetables from the garden and gravy, so less than $2 a head, bloody bargain!

 I've been abound with gorgeous produce from our garden.  Bright orange carrots, pearly white parsnips, onions, and herbs a plenty.  

We have roast lamb at least once a fortnight, we love it.  From a leftovers perspective, there is so many things you can do with those delicious cuts closer to the bone, and for that matter the bone and this pie from my coveted Christmas pressie  Save with Jamie are a perfect family fodder.  

*A bouquet garni of sorts...celeriac leaves, thyme, rosemary are all tied together to be taken out of the pie at the end.

Lovely Lamb pie    Serves 8  taken from straight from Save with Jamie.  My additions are in brackets 

2 red onions (I used brown onions)

2 carrots

1 small celeriac  (I used parsnip)

250g lamb kidneys (I didn't use)

optional: 1 tablespoon leftover lamb dripping (to make this, drain any juices off your roast dish, I cook my lamb over a wire rack with water in the bottom to make gravy, put drain delicious juices into a jug and pop in the freezer.  The fat will rise to the top and once it has solidified it can be spooned off and used like oil ~ heaven)

olive oil

1 bunch of fresh thyme (I used the bouquet garni listed above *)

optional: I fresh bay leaf (I used dried)

1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour

2 teaspoons English mustard

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

optional: leftover lamb gravy and bones

250g leftover cooked lamb

1 x 400g tin of lentils (I have a child so no chance of adding)

300g of puff pastry (1 sheet of pre-made of the frozen variety)

1 large egg

• Peel the onions, carrots and celeriac and trim the kidneys, then chop everything into 1cm dice and put into ta large casserole pan on a medium-low heat with the lamb dripping if you have it, or a lug of oil, a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper.  Strip in the thyme leaves (or add your bouquet garni) and bay leaf if you've got one, then cook for 30 minutes, stirring regularly.  Cooking it slowly like this will create the most amazing depth of flavour for the pie filling.

• Stir the flour and mustard into the pan then add the Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 litres of boiling water and any leftover gravy and lamb bones from the mothership lamb recipe (also in Jamies book), if you have them.  Reduce to a low heat, cover and cook gently for 1 hour, or until thickened and reduced, stirring occasionally.  Remove any bones, season to perfection, then remover from the heat and leave to cool.  Preheat the oven to 180c/350F/gas 4.

• Once the pie filling is cool, shred the lamb into the ban then drain and add the lentils and mix well.  Tip into a pie dish (roughly 25cm x 30cm) (I used 2 smaller dishes to freeze one for another day as it was only feeding 3 of us.) On a flour-dusted surface, roll out the pastry so its slightly bigger than your dish and the thickness of a pound coin, (or use frozen ready rolled puff).  then score very lightly in a criss-cross fashion.  Beat the egg and brush around the rim of the dish.  Roll the pastry around your rolling pin and unroll over the dish.  Press to stick, then brush the pastry with more eggwash and bake for 30-40 minutes as the bottom of the oven, or until the filling is piping hot and the pastry is golden brown.  Delicious served with seasonal greens and an extra dollop of mustard.

this dodgy looking leftover roast lamb will be transformed from the dog bone, to lushious lamb pie!

I mixed the mustard together with the flour to form a paste

leftover carrot and parsnip mash from a previous night will help thicken this pie sauce.

One I did with a criss cross pattern, then other with some cut out stars.

We had the pie with a rocket and parmesan salad.

Both leftover roast Pork and Chicken will work just as well in this dish too.

Do you make the most of your leftovers or do you bin food even when it's good or leave it in the back of the fridge to grow legs?  I hope I can inspire just one person to make a change and save some of your hard earned cash.

Oh, I almost forgot, it's week 14 of the 52 week money challenge, and if you ditch your lunches for the weeks until the end of the year that will be over $5,000 saved!!!!!

Ciao, Jan.

Little changes to life

This is very much not unlike the list you might write at the beginning of the year, but I thought it might be nice to actually write down what I've changed over this past 7 months of slipping into this simple life.  

I didn't start out with my blog to head in this direction, but that's the thing about life, you never know where you may end up.  Trying to live more mindfully and simply is both a challenge but so rewarding, I have to remind myself I'm doing the best I can.  It can be harder to do when you are pushed for time and energy as it isn't always the easy route.  

I'm still trying to CTFD but if I'm honest, I'm a control freak, but I still quietly repeat this mantra!  Letting go is difficult but I'm finding more genuine happiness with what we are doing as a family and with the dear people I am surrounding myself with.

1. Make my own bread from scratch and have unearthed a new love and hobby, dangerous for the waistline.
2. Make all lunchbox goodies from scratch.
3. Have my own 14 year old sour dough that I am loving experimenting with.
4. Make my own chemical free household cleaner and air freshener.
5. Make my own laundry powder.
6. Cook almost all meals from scratch.
7. Make my own pizza dough and tortilla dough.
8. Have taught myself how to confidently bake cakes and muffins.
9. Recycle and reuse as much as we can.
10. Compost all vegetable trimmings.
11. Grow as much as we can in our garden.
12. Started a stockpile.
13. Started a budget.

My goals for 2014

1. Help make a chook house.
2. Have our own chooks in said house.
3. Get better at sour dough and find a simpler recipe.
4. Make pasta from scratch.
5. Change as much as we can afford to organic and/or Australian made.
6. Actually save some money instead of relying on credit.
7. Learn a new craft or skill.
8. Challenge my baking skills ~ making a lemon meringue pie and macarons are high on my list!
9. Read more books.

Do you make lists of your goals or do you just sail along on this life hoping for the best?

"If you cannot keep pace with your companions,

perhaps it is because you hear a different drummer.

Step to the music you hear however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau

Ciao, Jan.

this simple life - Part 5 lunchbox dazzlers

How many of you are dreading school going back next week? Or is this your first school year? If so, good luck!! Or it could be going to work and wanting to take your own lunch and snacks.  I know I've loved these long school holidays of lazy mornings and no rushing or thinking about being organised for school lunches.  Party is over, lets get on it.  This is the perfect week to start your stockpile in the freezer for real savings with school lunchbox dazzlers, or work lunches.

When I was working I would eat out for lunch one or two of the days when I worked full time, then when I went part time I ate out more as I saw it as a treat.  It was easily $20 a day, more if I brought a bottle of water, a few coffee's and then went to buy lunch.  Some people I know buy their lunch everyday, opting to spend over $100 a week just on lunch, coffee & water/fizzy crap.  That's where being organised and more mindful can really help with your budget.   $100 a week translates to $5,200 a year.  A quick google search of an accelerated mortgage payoff calculator showed that on a loan of $300,000 over 30 years, this $5,200 could save you $131,985 in interest and have you debt free 10 years and 8 months earlier.  That's quite sobering isn't it, still need your pad thai and double shot latte?

So now I have your attention, lets get down to it. 

School lunches are a no brainer as most primary schools, kinders and some daycare centres don't have canteens/tuck shops so you need to pack their snacks and lunches for them.  High school is different and when you work it's easy to just duck down the street and grab something quick.  I guarantee you that if you just allow a bit of thought on the weekend as to what's coming up, and turning the oven on to do the work for you, you will save real money.

Firstly lets tackle school lunches.  Small labelled containers and some old cutlery are you're friend when it comes to packing any lunches and snacks so go and stock up at the reject shop and get labelling.  When I'm packing my daughters lunch I always have a wrap/sandwich/roll, 2 pieces of fruit (or 1 fresh fruit and one container of tinned fruit), cheese and bikkies, dip and a muffin or biscuit.  The fruit is dictated by what's in season as it's always cheapest.  I looked at the pre-packaged bikkies & cheese slices at Aldi yesterday, 1 box of 6 packets of 3 dry biscuits and 3 slices of cheese for $5, I could buy 500g of cheese for $5.99 and a box of dry biscuits for $1.50 and make a few weeks worth.  It's these little things that will make the difference.

Here's a list of lunchbox ideas we use that are all homemade.

• wraps/sandwich/roll with your favourite filling.  We do ham/chicken/tuna with grated cheese, mayonnaise/avocado/hummus, curried egg.
• fruit, fresh, tinned or dried
• rice crackers with cheese or cream cheese
• sweet and savoury muffins
• biscuits and slices
• muesli bars 
• hard boiled egg
• left overs from dinner like chicken drumstick, meatballs with dip & flatbread, fried rice, noodles, pasta, homemade chicken nuggets
• pasta or rice salad using left over roast chicken, bacon, peas, and fried egg
• mini frittata
• apple pancakes 
• yoghurt

You get the drift.  Also have a look at the label lunchbox dazzlers and you can also read this article here on nude food and the impact on your kids lunchbox packaging and some other filling ideas.

You need to rethink muffins, frittatas and main meals.  They are a great way to use up some cheap fruit or vegies or whatevers in your cupboard or freezer without forking out for expensive pre-packaged muffins or muesli bars.  I brought a 6 pkt of apples from aldi for a few $'s this week which will all become cooked treats.  I think this batch of a dozen cost less than $3 and will last over 2 weeks allowing one each weekday, pretty good I'd say, oh and one or two as tasters just out of the oven.  Freeze them to add to the lunchbox and they will be defrosted in time for morning tea, your kids will love you for them.

I personally go for a thermal lunchbox and a freezer brick/ice pack to keep the inner goodies cold.  Frozen muffins, cakes and yoghurt can also be pulled out in the morning and popped in to help the thermal crunch.  

The trick to turning these kiddy lunches into adult ones, is become a double batch queen or king.  Taking last nights dinner for your lunch will make you the envy of every lunch room as who doesn't want to chow down on something scrummy like spag bol over a vegemite and cheese sanga?

Also, make friends with salads and your nuts and seeds store.  Wash all your veg on Sunday and have it prepped, cut and ready to go for the next few days to throw together lunch in seconds.  Buy some tinned salmon and tuna to take to protein up at lunch.  Lettuce mixed with walnuts, some feta and a tomato with a side of last nights frittata will be a gorgeous lunch anyone would be pleased to have and at a fraction of the takeaway price.  Making stirfry, then make extra.  Have a look at the links to my labels down the right hand side of the blog for categories by ingredient for more simple, easy and quick ideas.  It's not rocket science, it's just some thought and thriftyness that will help save you those rainy day pennies.  

I hope some of these things help lessen your load for the coming school year and leave you less frazzled and more calm and organised, and save you a penny or a thousand :)

Ciao, Jan.

this simple way of life~ Part 4 Thrifty green cleaning.

I really do think that we are a marketing persons wet dream of germ phobes.  We as a consumer driven society have gone anti-bacterial mad and the supermarkets are rubbing their hands with glee all the way to the bank.  My reasons for going green and thrify with my household cleaners was a desire to stop coughing up a lung of fumes each time I cleaned the shower, and of course to save money on these high priced antibacterial supermarket varieties.  I knew from reading many blogs on eco-friendly cleaners and making your own was and option, so I decided months ago now to just give it one try and if I didn't like it, I could always go back to buying the over priced stinkers.

You might be surprised to learn that good old vinegar could be the answer to our money saving prayers.  It has all the properties you need to kill off mould, bacteria and germs due to its acidity levels.  It is also easy on our environment and as cheap as chips. Cheaper even.   This, some bi carb and a frugal objective will give you all that you need for a basic cleaner and at a fraction of the price.  You can get the easy peasy recipe here for the citrus vinegar that I use.  This link has 1001 uses for vinegar that will make your head spin.  Why have we given good old vinegar the flick? If you really are pushed for time and/or cash and you don't have a lemon tree to pillage, just use the vinegar as is, in the raw.

I now use this citrus vinegar diluted with a ration of 50/50 water to vinegar in a spray bottle as our antibacterial spray, as a floor cleaner, straight as a room deodoriser, window/mirrow cleaner with newspaper, or mixed with borax or bi-carb soda as a heavy duty cleaner in the shower, kitchen stove, and sinks with a bit of elbow grease and a scrubbing brush.  You can also read here how to clean your oven using this vinegar, some napisan and bicarb too.  This citrus vinegar I make for next to nicks.  A 2 litre white vinegar from Aldi is $1.09 and made into my citrus vinegar will last for months and months with this one product replacing at least 3 or 4 cleaners that I use to buy for approximately $25 every few months.  The lemons I get for free off friends trees or I use the skins off the oranges we eat as fruit.  I store the skins in an airtight container in the fridge until I have 3-4 oranges worth of skins and put them into a jar and top up with vinegar.  Leave for 3 weeks and Bob's your uncle. To make it even better it's as green as green can be.  Our environment will certainly thank you.

I thought it would be interesting to show you in cold hard numbers how much moolah we are really talking.  So I did a comparison with Woolies online on the price of their cleaners, keeping in mind it's costing me one dollar approximately to make the citrus vinegar.  They had over 1,000 products listed under household cleaners, what are we a bunch of micro-organism freaks!? Next time you are in the supermarket, just consciously have a look at the cleaning aisles, they are mind boggling.

Heres just some of their list

• Airwick automatic spray $21.92 
• Orange power manual spray air freshener $4.25 (FYI~I am using an empty bottle of this that I use to use to put my citrus vinegar in to spray in the toilet and other rooms)
• Orange power bathroom cleaner, shower & tile 750ml $5.26
• Pine-o-clean disinfectant 1.25 litre $5.34
• Windex glass cleaner trigger 500ml $4.48
• Ducks Fresh discs toilet cleaner 2x36ml $10.74
• Earth choice floor cleaner wooden surface $5.36

Ok you get the drift.....so thats a total of around $65 and I could buy 4 litres of vinegar and a bag of lemons for under $10, under $2.50 that will probably last me 6 months, if I got the lemons off a friends tree.  Thats $60 every 3 months I could be either paying down credit card debt, mortgage or other debt. Thats an extra $240 a year to use for something other that cleaning products.  I know to some out there they will be thinking whats $240, well its better in my pocket than in the supermarkets and that's all that matters to me!

Do you spend a fortune on cleaning products or are you open to changing to vinegar?  I dare you to give it a try and tell me honestly what you think  I know what I'm sticking with and that $240 will help with my 52 week money challenge!

Ciao, Jan.

this simple life ~ Part 3 My top 17 reasons to shop at Aldi

One of my darling nephews has a bit of a silver spoon in his mouth and won't go into Aldi and will hide slouched down if his parents dare to take him in to the car park for fear of being seen.  For Christmas one year I got him an Aldi shopping token and wrapped all his presents in their plastic bags, I don't think he thought it was very funny. Hehehehe I obviously did.

Firstly, let me just say, this is not a sponsored post.  I am posting of my own free will and am unfortunately not receiving any money or free products off Aldi for this post. I am a self confessed Aldi lover and have been since it graced our town many years ago.  

You don't have to be Einstein to realise you can save some good money shopping there.  Here are my top 17 reasons to shop at Aldi apart from saving money.

1. They have a green conscience  and proudly support environmental sustainability with a no bags given policy, you take or buy your own and they have in place a green action plan which includes being the only Australian supermarket to stock only Australian made and phosphate free laundry products and using environmentally friendly packaging.  
2. It saves on brain power as there is only one or two choices of any one product and they are always in the same spot.
3. They have a growing range of gluten free products without a hefty price tag.  
4. They offer a double-back guarantee on most food items.  If a product isn't up to scratch, they'll replace it AND refund your money.
5. The shopping trolleys are free and take a token or 1 or 2 dollar coins.  This also makes everyone take their trolley back to its rightful place.
6. Aldi have won a host of awards for many of their products mainly their dairy and olive oils.  
7. They have big aisles of fuss free shelves and not a multi-buy in sight.   
8. They have consistent quality, in my opinion.
9. They don't rob Peter to pay Paul and so have genuine low prices each week.
10. Their growing Organic product range is great and at an affordable price.
11. Aldi have a committment to supporting Australian suppliers.  One example is they have supported SPC Ardmona by making their entire range of 825g tinned fruit to Australian made.  There are other examples you can read about here,
12. No artificial colours for the vast majority of products, except pet food and some non-food items.
13. They have a product range of MSC certified labelled fish to support sustainably caught varieties.
14. Aldi have a partnership with Planet Ark to recycle batteries.  They are the first supermarket in Australia to offer free recycling of batteries in every store.  Batteries are toxic monsters and need to be disposed off properly and not thrown in the bin.
15. They have reduced their own energy consumption throughout existing and future stores by fitting them out with eco friendly lighting, refridgeration, air conditioning, heating and freezers.
16. Its quick and easy to get out of! Their checkout operators are like speedy gonzales.
17. Their carpark is big, free and in my experience a road rage free zone.

I read a great article by Jo at Down to earth mother about the eco buys from Aldi with a smile on my face.  They have a very good growing 'Just Organic' range that I add to my shopping and stockpile each week.  

Organic produce comes at a high price but I understand why.  What I do think now is I try my best to make my shopping dollars count.  When I can I buy as much Organic as we can afford.  I started by just switching to a couple of items each shopping trip where I could.  Below is an idea of what I've been buying on the organic front.

I've  struggled with the whole to go organic or not go organic guilt trip.  Give me another spoonful would you!  The answer for me, at this stage is this.  On one wage, I'm  incorporating organic into my shopping trolley as often as I can. Organic and Australian made is the bee's knees for me.  If I can't afford organic then the next best option for me is Australian made.  I don't compromise on eggs or chicken~they are always freerange and/or organic. If I can I get my eggs direct from a local farmer I'm happiest, until that special day when I will have my own girls clucking away in my yard.

What I have been trying to do is when I run out of something, say extra virgin olive oil, I will pay that bit more that week for the organic version or at the very least Australian made.   Slow and steady will win my race.  Knowledge is key, but you have to be realistic too if you are trying to be frugal and get the most from your shopping dollars.  Do what works best for you and your family, don't worry about anyone else as you really could go crazy worrying about it all.

Here are some price's for any of you non-Aldi shoppers to think about. Aldi prices
Vinegar 2 L $1.09 (product of Australia)
Organic butter  (made in New Zealand) $2.89
Freerange whole chicken 1.870 kilo $10.63 (product of Australia)
Organic pasta  $1.65 (made in Italy)
Organic tomato paste 140g $0.99  (made in Italy)
Organic diced Italian tomatoes  $0.99 (made in Italy)
Organic fair trade milk chocolate 100g $1.99 (made in Germany) 
Organic extra virgin olive oil (made in Australia!! Yay!!!) around $6 
Organic soy milk 1 Litre (made in Australia!! double Yay!!) $1.79
Organic natural yoghurt $5 per kilo (yep made in Australia)
so 5 out of 10 are Aussie made.

I have to admit to shopping at my local independant or one of the other big boys to do about 5% of our top up groceries and luxury items, but it's becoming more and more less frequent.  It's usually for cold meat like a hunk of ham or sliced freerange chicken breast as I don't like the cold meat of Aldi's nor do I like any supermarket chicken 'meat' as I hate to think of whats in it.  

So what are my favourite items from Aldi? Here is an idea.

• dippits, wholegrain rice crackers, rice cakes, sao's and cruskits
• all their nuts
• tinned peaches and pineapple
• gluten free almond crunch cereal
• all of their organic range
• their hommus is the best apart from yummi's but at half the price
• greek honeyed yoghurt and squeezy yoghurts for lunchboxes
• free range whole chicken
• 1kg raw frozen prawns at $10 are a bargain
• organic butter
• bags of 5 or 6 avocados, bananas, truss tomatoes, bags of carrots, sweet potatoes, purple garlic and zucchini's
• wholegrain wraps
• face wash and moisturiser
• glad wrap, foil, baking paper, garbage bags, freezer bags
• toilet cleaner, vinegar, baby wipes

So tell me my dear readers, do you shop at Aldi? Or are you a duopoly big boy supermarket only shopper?

Ciao, Jan.

this simple life ~ Part 2 The beautiful benefits of baking

It isn't any secret that cooking and baking from scratch will save you money and give you a new world of pleasure.  Making your own bread alone can save you $10 a week, then add to that making your own cakes, muffins, lunchbox snacks and you are probably up around $20 a week, if not more.  I know some of you out there will be thinking who has the time? Seriously, I challenge you to put aside 2 minutes at night to get your bread mixed, less than 5 minutes in the morning to get it in the oven, 20 minutes on the weekend to get a banana loaf or 2 while you are at it,  mixed and into bake and some cookies or muffins made and you are done.  Two trays of muffins (if they are 12 capacity) will give you a muffin a day for nearly a month.  Not only will your family love you for it, it will be healthier for them as they will be preservative and additive free.  There are many easy recipes on my blog, look under lunchbox dazzlers or sweet treats and go your hardest.  I promise you the recipes are so super easy and quick, you will never buy a $5 muffin again.  

Baking snacks for your child's lunchbox instead of buying pre-packaged ones, making one large slab of cake cut up into portions and frozen or a few dozen muffins or biscuits will surely save you money.  Not to mention, they are just as convenient in the freezer as they can be grabbed at a moments notice at the shops or supermarket and can be defrosted in time for snack/recess or lunchtime at work or school and act as a freezer brick to help keep other things cold in the lunch box.  

I bake bread every other day, something that is now a lovely ritual that never ceases to thrill me each time a gorgeous loaf comes out of the oven.  

I love that going from this 

to this

to this

becomes this

or this

or this! Just remarkable.

I really have fallen in love with baking.  The gentle act of measuring, mixing and then baking I'm finding addictive.  I think too, not working for money or a boss, baking provides me with an outcome of the day, a sense of completion and purpose that goes with paid work.  

Until my introduction to the simple life, I rarely baked sweet treats.  I never dreamed I'd be making breads or even pizza dough for that matter.  A voice in my head had convinced myself that I couldn't do it or it was too hard.  But that story wasn't true.  To this day since I took those first steps at getting out of my comfort zone, I've baked most days of the week and I've only had one failure.  My first step was bread.  Bread is one of those things that provides us with breakfast, lunch and dinner if we want it too.  

It is the cornerstone of our lives really isn't it.  It was the thing that got me started on this simple life (you can read more about that in Part 1 of this series here) as I'd wanted to try it but was stopped by fear of failure.  It seems silly now, who cares if we waste a bit of flour and water in the name of trying something new?   After many trials I've settled on the Laucke Multigrain 10kg bread mix.  It contains the yeast as well (with enough over to make my pizza bases too! as its right purpose is for bread machines and recipes that call for more yeast then I need for my recipe :)) to make around 10 loaves of my double batch or 20 loaves of the original  no knead bread recipe.  

I double this recipe now, as making a bigger loaf works better for hubbies beloved toasted sandwiches.  So its 6 cups of flour, 1/2 tspn of dry yeast and almost 4-5 cups of water. (the salt is already in the bread mix, I learnt that quickly :)) It works out to being $2.30 a loaf, so around a dollar for the single recipe which I think is a bargain for bread that has no preservatives  and is a pleasure to make.  I can tell you I genuinely smile every time I get that bread out of the oven and I must have made dozens and dozens by now.  At the risk of sounding like a preacher, it is so simple I feel a bit of a fraud when friends and family ooowww and ahhh over it.  I can make a white version using organic flour for less than $5 a loaf which isn't bad considering I've seen them fetch up to $8 or $10 in speciality stores. 

Baking is also a way of sneaking in some fruit to your blissfully unaware cherubs.  I micro-plane, blitz or chop apples, bananas, pears, frozen berries, rhubarb, oranges, lemons or whatever is in season into as many sweet goodies as I can.  I do try and buy organic as much as I can but, if I'm honest, its hard justifying spending big $$'s on a box of organic fruit that will only last a short amount of time as much as I'd love too.  I know the obvious benefits health wise but, but, but....if you are like us and on one income, you understand my dilemma.  What I try and do, is when I get my organic produce I make the most of it by eating some raw and baking cakes and muffins with some for the freezer...but its hard to go past a big bag of over ripe banana's for $2 at the fruitier that I can turn into a banana and chocolate loaf, muffins or smoothies to feed us in snacks for a week.  i just try and do my best, thats all I can do.

Baking from scratch will provide not only a monetary winfall but also the aromas, sense of pride and satisfaction on feeding your family will linger as long as the smells from the oven.  They will be preservative and additive free and thats certainly a huge incentive to crank the oven up and get baking!
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It's also week 3 of our money challenge so get too and plonk you're $3 in the money bank.  I've added an extra $20 this week to it and marked it off one of the later weeks in the year.  It's not too late to start if you haven't already, you can read about it here.

Ciao, Jan.