Saving for Family Fun, and Giving My Children the Responsibility

I must say that this is unusual, probably border lining on bribing my children, but I am exhausted and I can use every little bit of help I can get with anticipating a baby this winter.  Not to mention, I cannot figure out how this is, but my husband's clothes seem the leak change constantly to the floor, the couch, the laundry... you name it and I will find a few cents there.  Anyhow, yesterday I came up with this simple idea to keep the change picked up, keep the kids engaged in school and chores, and teach our children about money and how saving the little pieces adds up.

So it started with a small bowl of change that I had collected that day and change from my purse.  Anytime the kids complete a large task like rotating laundry, doing a load of dishes, completing their homework, or any worthy random act of kindness they get to close their eyes and choose a piece of change from the bowl and choose whether they want to pocket it for themselves or place it in a tupperware container that goes towards a family activity.

So far it has become a competition in this house to see how many pieces of change they can earn, and to my surprise only my 4-year-old has decided to keep the quarter he drew "because I wanted to buy gum for everyone" while my 8-year-old, 6-year-old, and 2-year-old have all thought it was much neater to watch the money grow faster towards a family activity!  In two days they have already managed to earn and save $5.48 for our family activity of their choice!

I have already noticed the two little ones realizing the difference between the different pieces of money and hoping to pull out the pieces with the larger value :)

What I really like about this is the idea of using change that frequently is overlooked and just given to the kids and letting them earn it.  We did a similar program awhile ago where they could earn things like lipgloss, earrings, matchbox cars, and super heroes; but that got expensive and did not seem to keep them engaged for very long.  With this idea I have heard the kids brainstorming about what they might save the money for and what we could do as a family.  I think they are really interested in the unknown and this just might keep them going for awhile!

Quick and Healthy Apple Preservation

I love to have lunches pre made to where I can just pull them out and put them on the table.  I have seen many tricks to keeping your apples nice and fresh after cutting them from putting them back together and tying them with a rubber band to soaking them in lemon-lime soda.  Honestly I think tying them back together would be time consuming and leave very little you could have pre made and I really don't like the idea of taking something nice and healthy and covering it in artificial ingredients to preserve it :(  

So, for years now I have been using a technique that one of my aunts uses and it is super simple, healthy, and gives NO waste :)  Pineapple juice!  Simply wash your apples (by the way remember apples are on the list of the dirty 12 so try to purchase them organic), slice them to your specifications, and pour pineapple juice over them.  When your done it is super easy to pop the pineapple juice in the blender with some other fruits and veggies and make smoothie pops for later! 

Apple Sandwich

I love to have lunches pre made to where I can just pull them out and put them on the table.  I have seen many tricks to keeping your apples nice and fresh after cutting them from putting them back together and tying them with a rubber band to soaking them in lemon-lime soda.  Honestly I think tying them back together would be time consuming and leave very little you could have pre made and I really don't like the idea of taking something nice and healthy and covering it in artificial ingredients to preserve it :(

So, for years now I have been using a technique that one of my aunts uses and it is super simple, healthy, and gives NO waste :)  Pineapple juice!  Simply wash your apples (by the way remember apples are on the list of the dirty 12 so try to purchase them organic), slice them to your specifications, and pour pineapple juice over them.  When your done it is super easy to pop the pineapple juice in the blender with some other fruits and veggies and make smoothie pops for later!

Back to the topic at hand though, apple sandwiches.  I actually saw got this idea off of interest; but they were made using peanut butter and oatmeal :(  I swapped that peanut butter out with some almond butter and the oatmeal with some flax seed.  I had also considered using sunflower seeds and raisins, but I decided to stick with what I had on hand, chocolate chips.  Anyway, these were certainly loved!

Above are the apples after I finished creating the sandwiches, and below are the sandwiches two days later when I served them for lunch, nice and crispy cold :)  They were a huge hit and really kept the kids full until dinner!

Sweetetti

So, this is going to be pretty short and to the point.  The local Natural Foods had organic sweet potatoes super cheap the other day and my family just loves sweet potatoes.  Ever since about 2 months ago I have been craving everything with tomato sauce on it, ew... I know.  Anyway, I came across the idea of making sweet potato noodles and using with spaghetti sauce.  These sweet potatoes I bought were HUGE by the way.  They were MONSTERS.  I shredded one-third of the sweet potato (using my handy dandy KitchenAid shredder) and called it good.  Then I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top with some garlic and onion powder and covered my nice pyrex container with a lid.  I microwaved them to steam them for about 5 minutes and viola, sweet potato noodles.  We topped them with spaghetti sauce and a pinch of parmesan cheese.
 

Remember how I said that the sweet potatoes were HUGE?  That one-third of the sweet potato was enough for dinner last night and tonight.

So, I topped the leftovers of the sauce and cheese on the shredded potatoes for a fast and easy lasagna inspired dish!

Squashetti

Oh the lengths we go to to make sure that we are staying primal and still fulfilling our love of food.  When we first began the primal lifestyle the cost of food was scary and at times felt boring.  The food made us feel trapped and tied down, but if there is one thing we learned fast it was the more creative you are the more money you can save while still eating healthy.

The love of noodles and breads that were a fundamental part of our childhoods make us think of comfortable and fun times in life.  They are greatly missed so one of the most important things for us was to find ways to continue eating some of our favorites... though they are still a little different, they are some of our children's favorite, and ours too.

Zucchini noodles are super easy to make and when you top them with delicious spaghetti or alfredo sauce, they are certainly delicious!

Zucchini:

1 medium zucchini serves three of my kiddos.  All you have to do is julienne the outsides of the zucchini, not the seeded part (it doesn't cook to the same consistency so I throw it in some smoothies :) ).  Boil some water and toss in the zucchini noodles for about 5 to 10 seconds (blanch).  They should be al dente.


Sauce:

1.  1 jar of italian juice
2.  About 1/4 cup of dried squash (you could add almond meal instead)
3.  2 tablespoons of flax seeds (can omit)
4.  1/2 pound of burger (browned)
5.  2 cans of tomato paste


All you do warm the sauce, place the zucchini on plates, and top with the sauce.  We also like to top with asiago or parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Good Morning Biscuits

Alright, in our house eggs are used a lot... and then forgotten for awhile and gone back to.  I really think that our least favorite thing about eggs has to do with the cleanup.  It seems like no matter what eggs make a skillet unhappy.  The first few come out well and then the pan starts getting egg stuck to it and before you know it I don't want eggs used... period.  

Firstly, we do not buy eggs at the store.  Farm fresh eggs at the store tend to run close to $5 per dozen.  When we started to purchase them I was disgusted; and I am allergic to them so not having them around was A-OK.  Anyhow, now that I have been on the primal diet for long enough, my allergies to eggs and many other primal foods should be cleared up!!! :)  So, my SIL, Anna, lives in a small town and started bringing us eggs (she stays with us two to three nights a week when she comes here for her job).  She even found a second egg farmer this winter as the farmer she was using couldn't keep up :)  


Farm fresh organic eggs now run here just $1.50 a dozen, a huge savings.  If you ask around you probably have local connections to an egg farmer too :)

Anyway, tonight I was going to make a sweet potato and zucchini noodle dish; however, I got exhausted and decided to whip up this simple, quick, minimal cleanup dish instead.


Ingredients -
12 strips of bacon
12 eggs
12 cubes of cheese


Kitchen Supplies - 
1 muffin pan
whisk
mixing bowl
oven


First you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Then, put the bacon in the muffin pan in little circles of the muffin pan.  My muffin pan is pretty shallow but it shouldn't make a big difference.  After all 12 holes are filled by circling one strip of bacon per muffin cup, place it in the oven.  I did this so that the grease could line the bottom of the cups and the bacon would get more crisp (which always makes me feel like it is more done).  While the bacon is beginning to bake, I crack and whisk 12 eggs in a mixing bowl.  Once the eggs are whisked I cut the cubes of cheese (about 1/4 inch cubes but you can adjust for how much you like).  Then, I pull out the muffin pan, pour in the eggs, drop in the cheese, and bake at 400 degrees for another 25 minutes.  


You may want to adjust your cook times a little depending on how you like your eggs, and keep in mind that eggs continue to cook for about 2 minutes or so after you pull them out, if you leave them in too long they may get too dry! Sometimes we add spinach or green onions, peppers, etc. 


The best part about these eggs are they just fall right out of the pan... look how clean it was after dumping them out!  

This is what the pan looked like right after rinsing!  No scrubbing at all.  I call that primally perfect!

The boys call these Good Morning Biscuits :)