One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1578 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.

Spinach Basil Pesto

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By Mavis Butterfield on May 28, 2013 · 8 Comments

Have you ever tried making pesto with spinach and basil before? How about red pepper flakes? Holy cannolis people if you like to mix things up a bit you’ve got to try this awesome combination. It will knock your socks off.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh spinach leaves, well-washed and stemmed
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
3 garlic cloves
¼ – ½ cup extra virgin olive oil {depends on preference}
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon red crushed pepper flakes {totally optional}
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions

Toss the spinach, basil, garlic, salt, pepper, Parmesan, red crushed pepper and pine nuts into a food processor and pulse, slowly adding oil until the mixture is nice and smooth.

I know it’s hard to imagine, but if you make more pesto than you can eat, try freezing it. I like to freeze my extra pesto in my mini muffin tin. I use a 2 tablespoon scoop so the portions are all the same. Then I simply pop the filled muffin tin in the freezer for a few hours until the pesto is frozen, then pop the cubes of pesto in a zip baggie to use later.

The next time you need a little pesto, simply pop a cube in the microwave for a few seconds to thaw, then mix in to your favorite recipe.

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Looking for more recipes? Be sure and check out the book Pestos, Tapenades, and Spreads. Amazon currently has it in stock and it has awesome reviews. Yummalicious!

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Growing Vegetables in a Greenhouse

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By Mavis Butterfield on May 28, 2013 · 4 Comments

Growing food in a greenhouse is cool!

I thought I would give you a quick tour and show you all the goodness we have growing in our greenhouse. I was able to snag a few free containers over the weekend so I’ll be planting those and lining the sides of the greenhouse this week.

Gnome Lady has been doing a fantastic job taking care of the raised garden beds alongside the greenhouse. The chives, lilies and potatoes all seem to be growing well together.

Over the weekend I was able to replant the gutters on the left side of the greenhouse. We now have cucumbers, basil {just planted seeds last night} Swiss chard and hot peppers growing.

The cucumber seeds we started a few weeks ago and I forgot to label them. I have no idea what variety I planted in the gutters but it’s either Marketmore, Lemon, or Burpless. I’m hoping they are the burpless ones because the vines are nice and long.

Swiss chard. Yipee! Are you as excited as I am? Ha! I planted the extra starts in the bed next to the greenhouse along with the cabbage. Hopefully they are good companion vegetables.

Although I grew peppers last summer in the greenhouse, they were planted in pots. I think it will be interesting to see how they do in the gutters. I noticed last summer their root systems were not especially long so we’ll see. I’ll also growing some pepper plants in pots as well.

Strawberries LOVE growing in gutters. If this idea is new to you, read — How to grow strawberries in gutters. It will tell you how I planted mine.

So far there are 2 red ones! Wahoooo! Strawberry Bruschetta can’t be too far behind.

And last but not least, here is a look at the green zebra tomatoes that were transplanted to the old chicken brooder a few weeks ago. Tomatoes, carrots. onions and basil have been planted.

Yee-Haw! Now we’re farming!

~Mavis

You can see more pictures of our greenhouse and the progress we are making, in my Growing Vegetables in a Greenhouse Series.

Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion

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What Should America Do with Their Food Waste?

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By Mavis Butterfield on May 28, 2013 · 15 Comments

A big thanks to One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Em who sent me an article from the L.A. Times, with this description,

“Mavis, I thought you’d be interested in this article on how a grocery store chain is using unsold produce.”

Umm, yes, yes, I am interested. We’ve been collecting “unsold produce” for just over a year now. Each week my daughter and I sort through the fruits and vegetables, keeping some for ourselves and feeding the rest of the quality produce to our chickens. When we come across something that’s past it’s prime, we simply compost it in our backyard. We then work the compost into our soil in late fall after all our crops have been harvested.

But the article Em sent me describes how one store is taking care of their food waste differently.

Ralph’s Food Stores are using their unsold leftovers to convert them into a methane producing sludge that generates power to their 359 stores in Southern California.

There is a lot of detail to the how, but the basic idea is that they take the food they cannot sell {wrappers and all} and put it into a huge composting facility, which turns it into liquid sludge and deprives the sludge of oxygen. Without oxygen, the sludge produces methane gas, which in turn powers the stores.

The whole process appears to have very little waste, because they use the leftover sludge as fertilizer.

What do you think? It is a responsible way to manage food waste?

Do you think there is really one simple solution to food waste in America?

~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.

Mavis Mail – Vasi From Romania Sends in Her Garden Photos

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By Mavis Butterfield on May 27, 2013 · Leave a Comment

How to Start Seeds in Eggshells

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Check out these beautiful pictures reader Vasi sent in from Romania!!!

Vasi is an amateur gardener but has become addicted to growing. She likes to start her crops from the seed and she advocates everyday for organic gardening through her blog Vasi-Gioni.

Here is what Vasi had to say:

This year I have grown 15 varieties of tomatoes, 5 varieties of capsicum and, in addition to the last years, Kiwano, american cucumbers, pak choi, red giant mustard and white cucumbers.

I discovered your blog last year and I learned a lot of things from you, everyday I take an impulse for organizing my garden as good as possible.

The photos represent the beginning of the 2013 gardening season.

~Mavis

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go HERE for the official rules.

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.