One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1534 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.

Food Waste In America – Would You Throw This Away?

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 9, 2013 · 7 Comments

Well it was another awesome possum week in the reclaimed food department. We were able to pick up 4 boxes for fruits and vegetables from Mr. Produce Guy. All of which was headed for the dumpster.

Spotted bananas, heck yeah I’ll take those. I can turn them in to Banana Bread, Banana Fudgesicles, Banana Cake, or Banana Pudding, thank you very much! 😉

Free carrots? Yup, we’ll eat those too. Do you think people really choose The Biggest Loser carrots over different brands?

Asparagus with wilted, slimy tops? No thanks, but the chickens like to peck at them.

Hmmm. Peppers with a wee be of decay on the bottom, what do you think?

I’m keeping them! Why? Because I have this handy thing called a knife and I know how to cut out the bad parts! Weeeeeee, snagging reclaimed food to stretch my grocery dollars is fun!

So what do you think? Am I crazy, or would you have thrown all this away too?

Mavis wants to know!

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.

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Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 8, 2013 · 12 Comments

My online buddy Heather from Massachusetts whipped up a batch of no-sugar blueberry vanilla chia jam and it turned out oh so good she wanted me to share the recipe with you. And who can blame her, chia seeds are just plain cool. In fact Chia Seeds are so cool right now, that if they get anymore mainstream she may just have to stop using them. She’s a hipster that one!

No pectin? No sugar? Yep, it turns out the the natural fiber found in blueberries and these seeds act like pectin. So pectin needed. Chia seeds {which have the texture of strawberry seeds and swell a little} create the right jam texture. The honey and vanilla highlight the blueberry flavor…. OOoohh so yummy.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup honey {Great Lakes is my favorite brand}
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup + 2 tsp Chia Seeds {buy Chia Seeds online}
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Blend all ingredients and pour into a bowl to gel {about 15 minutes}. Stir, then pack into containers and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator {up to 1 week}.

Heather also says you can freeze this jam {up to 1 year} or follow the directions below and can your jam. It’s up to you. She did it all! 🙂

Canning Directions

Bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

Blend all ingredients and pour into a bowl to gel {about 15 minutes}. Stir, then ladle immediately into 1/2 pint jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in a canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After the jars have cooled, check the seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.

See More of my Canning Recipes HERE

Looking for a few more awesome canning recipes? Check out Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Amazon has it currently in stock and ready to ship.

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

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.

Beach Scavenger Hunt

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 8, 2013 · 2 Comments

Do you plan on heading to the beach this summer? How do you typically spend your day at the beach? We have always just soaked up the sun, splashed in the water, and maybe thrown a Frisbee. This year, though, I think we are going to get a little more creative and try a scavenger hunt. {As an added bonus, a couple of the things on the list I actually have plans to use later.}

Here’s our list, in case you want to try a beach scavenger hunt yourself:

A whole sand dollar {I am going to gently poke a hole in the top of the ones we find and tie a ribbon through it for a Christmas ornament. That way, every year when I hang it up, I’ll think about time spent on the beach with my family. Ah, isn’t that sweet?}
A feather {given the constant threat of the birds pooping on our heads every time we go to the beach, this should be an easy find}
A piece of sea glass {You can keep your collected sea glass and put them into a pretty bowl, in the middle of the bowl, put a candle. So pretty.}
3 pieces of trash {Unfortunately, this one is pretty easy to do too}
A seashell {This is pretty much a must on any beach scavenger hunt}
A piece of seaweed {I usually go ahead and store these in my hair when I swim. Ha.}
Something red {I don’t recommend lugging someone else’s cooler to your towels. I don’t know if they would understand it was in the name of a scavenger hunt.}
Something made of wood {Think: a stick, driftwood,etc.}
Someone in a yellow swimsuit
A Sand Castle
Someone Fishing
A rock {sometimes finding one in an ocean of sand is more difficult than you think}
A popsicle stick {and hand sanitizer for afterwards, ha!}
A dog {you can make this one trickier by adding that it has to be a wet dog}
A beach ball

For some of these, you may have to use the scout’s honor principle or a camera. I think I am going to bring some plastic grocery bags to give everyone for the rest of the items.

Is there anything else you would add to the list?

~Mavis

Don’t forget to check out my post on Top 10 Things to Bring to the Beach.

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.

Square Foot Gardening

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 8, 2013 · 3 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve given an update on my square foot garden, so this morning Lucy the puggle dog and I snapped a few pictures for you.

I forgot to pull the broccoli plant up before we left. Technically we could chop up the broccoli stalk and eat it, but Lucy and I decided to just harvest the few remaining florets and compost the rest {the chickens got the leaves}.

Our two potato plants were starting to take over the garden and with all the tiny holes in the leaves, I was afraid some sort of bug was going to infest the rest of the square foot garden so we went ahead and pulled up the plants.

Digging is one of Lucy’s favorite garden chores.

Wowza! Check out the kohlrabi. We harvested those too. They were the size of softballs!

We also have a few green tomatoes growing in the square foot garden as well.

The green beans should be ready towards the end of next week.

This is what our square foot garden looked like after the big harvest. All those squares that are marked with stars are where we planted summer squash seeds. With a little bit of luck we should be harvesting squash by around mid September. We’ll see.

Are you doing any square foot gardening this summer? If so, how’s it going?

~Mavis

2013 Total Square Foot Garden Harvest: 9 pounds 2 ounces

Broccoli 13 ounces
Kale 13 ounces
Kolhrabi 2pounds 8 ounces
Lettuce 6 ounces
Onions 4 ounces
Peas 9 ounces
Potatoes 3 pounds 3 oz
Radishes 10 ounces
Strawberries 2 ounces

Read more about my adventures in Square Foot Gardening.

Are you thinking about putting together a Square foot garden? See the how I built a square foot garden grid HERE.

For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author, Mel Bartholomew is basically the king of square foot gardening.

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.