One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1474 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

The Origin of Baby Carrots

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 3, 2013 · 12 Comments

I was thinning carrots this morning and pulled out a couple of little guys. They kind of looked like baby carrots–which made me think, I can’t remember the last time I saw someone pull out a full sized carrot and munch on it. Everyone eats bagged baby carrots. I started to wonder where did the idea for baby carrots start?

Apparently, the whole bagged baby carrot game started when a California farmer named Mark Yurosek wanted to find a way to salvage all of the twisted ugly carrots that were edible, but that grocery stores would not accept. He decided to cut, peel, and trim carrots down to 2″ inches long–shaving off the undesirable and keeping only cute little uniform carrots. {He actually started with 1″ pieces that he called “bunny balls”, but they never really caught on, so he moved to the 2″.} Obviously the 2″ caught on, though, because “baby carrots” pretty much transformed the carrot industry and significantly cut down on carrots that would have been otherwise tossed or fed to animals.

You probably already know this, but I can’t stand wasted food. It bugs me. It really makes me like baby carrots even more. Waste not, want not. Way to go Mr. Yurosek. Way to go.

~Mavis

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Food Waste In America – Does One Bad Apple Really Spoil the Whole Bunch?

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 3, 2013 · 4 Comments

One bad apple spoils the whole bunch, right?

What do you think, does all this food look like trash to you?

Now I’m all for reclaiming free food, but there were multiple moldy strawberries in this 1 pound container of berries, and picking out the one or two good strawberries just wasn’t worth it to me. Mold on food is a bad thing, {unless we’re talking about cheese, which we’re not} and I certainly don’t want to get anyone in my family sick. So I decided to toss all the free strawberries this week on to the compost heap rather than picking through them.

But tossing one tomato to save 3 others, well, that seemed totally acceptable to me.

I’m not sure if there are rules within grocery stores prohibiting them from removing damaged produce from packaged items and reselling them by the pound, {rather than by the container} but I’m guessing there is.

I can totally understand how doing so would mess with inventory controls, but still, tossing out 3 good tomatoes just because one of them is bad, seems like such a waste.

And the bigger crime?

Tossing out perfectly good food that is one date past its so called “expiration date.”

Food waste in America totally stinks. So if you get the change to save just a little bit of it, go for it.

~Mavis

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past year?

Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.

If you have just stumbled upon this series and are wondering how I got all this food for free, you’ll want to read this story first.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Zucchini Pizza Bites

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 2, 2013 · Leave a Comment

If you’re like me you probably have a few baseball bat sized zucchinis sitting on your kitchen counter just starring back at you right now. If you’re drawing a blank on what to use them for {because you’ve cooked so many loaves of zucchini bread or you’ve run out of neighbors to force them on}, you must try this recipe. It’s so easy and healthy too. It’s the bomb.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini {cut into 1/4 inch slices}
olive oil or olive oil spray
1/4 cups of your favorite pasta sauce {I used heirloom tomato sauce}
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions

Slice the zucchini about 1/4 inch thick {I used a mandolin slicer}. Toss slices in olive oil or spray both sides of the zucchini with olive oil spray. Salt and pepper to taste. Broil the zucchini for about 2 minute on each side {you can also grill them if you’d prefer}. Add a teaspoon of sauce to each zucchini and sprinkle with cheese. Broil for an additional minute or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

Need a slicer? Amazon has the Progressive International HGT-11 Folding Mandolin Slicer on sale right now.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Call the Midwife

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 2, 2013 · 26 Comments

Okay, so I know it’s totally not Friday, but have you seen Call the Midwife? While I was recovering from dental surgery I finished the first 2 seasons. They. Were. Awesome. Like, Downton Abbey awesome. The first season is FREE if you have Amazon Prime, and I dare you not to be willing to pay for the second season once you have seen it!
It’s about midwives in East London in the 1960’s. East London was notoriously poor, women had no access to birth control, lived in pretty meager conditions, etc. The show follows these women as they give birth–all through the eyes of the midwives who help them.

Let me tell you, Bob, the British have done it again. It is totally worth sitting down to watch if you haven’t already.

Season 3 won’t come out until some time in 2014, so you have plenty of time to catch up.

Let me know what you think,

Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.