One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1660 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.

Fitness Friday – 7 Weeks to go Until the Tacoma City Marathon

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 15, 2013 · 13 Comments

Have you ever planned on doing something only to put it off until the last possible minute?

Nah, I’m sure you are totally perfect, and totally follow through with every crazy thing you set your mind to do. Right?

Oh.My.Word.

Remember how I said I was going to run/walk/jog the Tacoma City Marathon on May, 5th 2013? Sure I signed up, and Jen from Clif Bar even sent me a giant care package of clif bars so I’d have some fuel for all my training. Well guess what?

I kind of ate {most} of the Clif Bars, but kind of sort of forgot {?} about the whole training part.

Okay, so many I didn’t exactly forget about the training part. Maybe it’s been nagging at me every single day since I signed up. Maybe, just maybe with every single bite of one of those magical Clif Bars I totally felt guilty I was sitting at home on my keester eating instead of outdoors exercising.

Perhaps I woke up every morning with the intentions of exercising, but after a long day of blogging, gardening, cooking, and taking care of pets, maybe I sort of ran out of TIME TO EXERCISE.

Yes, I know, it’s the oldest excuse in the book.

Seriously it is.

So what am I going to do about it? What is my plan B?

So a few days ago I did the only thing I could think of {besides actually exercising}.

I called my friend and casually said, “Hey, you want do the Tacoma St. Patrick’s day run with me on Saturday?”

How far is it?

Well, there is a 1/2 marathon, 10K, and a 5 K.

I’ll do the 5k.

Maybe we should just do the 1/2 marathon? I mean, we’ve done half marathons before with only 2 weeks of training. How hard could it be? We just have to keep moving. Plus I still have some Panera Gift cards left from Christmas, we can go to lunch afterwards. It will be fun.

Are you on soccer mom crack again? I’m not doing no ***** half marathon this Saturday. You are out of your mind.

You’re no fun. How about the 10K then?

On the website it says NO WALKERS. I can’t even run a half mile, how am I suppose to run 6.2?

Look closer, it says there is a 13:00 pace time limit. We can do that. We can fast walk and move our arms a lot so it looks like we are running slowly. We can totally beat those stroller moms!

How much training have you done.

Umm, in the last 6 weeks? None.

You’re nuts.

Yes, but you are still talking to me, so clearly you are considering it.

Fine. Sign me up. But I’m not running.

Don’t worry, we will be fine. All we have to do is finish at a 13:00 minute per mile pace. We can totally do that.

I need caller id. {sound of the phone hanging up}.

I picked up our race packets last night. Wahoooo!

I know I’m totally crazy to think I can still pull this off, but I’m in it to ~~win~~ finish it, and you can’t finish if you don’t start. Right?

Peace Out,

~Mavis

A word of caution – Get medical advise before starting any sort of strenuous exercise. Know your limits.

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Grilled Asparagus With Pine Nuts Recipe

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 14, 2013 · 5 Comments

I’m sure you’ve noticed all the deals on asparagus in the stores lately, and I’m not sure how you prepare asparagus, but my family likes their little greens trees grilled. If it’s a wee bit chilly at your place to fire up the barbie, you can also grill these bad boys in the oven.

Ingredients

1 pound asparagus, trimmed
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Fire up the bbq to medium heat or the oven to 425 degrees. Place the asparagus on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, give it a shake and cook for 7-10 minutes in the oven or place the asparagus in a grill pan and cook on the bbq until tender {about 5 minutes}.

Place the asparagus on a plate and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

How to YOU like your asparagus? Steamed, grilled, raw?

~Mavis

Looking for more awesome vegetable recipes? Check out the book Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch by Nigel Slater. It rocks!

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Seattle Tilth March Edible Plant Sale March 16th, 2013

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 14, 2013 · 1 Comment

This Saturday, March 16th I’ll be attending the Seattle Tilth’s March Edible Plant Sale. If it’s anything like the one I went to last May I know I’ll find some awesome plants for my garden.

So if you are a local, and looking for something fun to do this weekend, here’s the scoop:

The Seattle Tilth March Plant Sale will have a wide selection of organically, sustainably and locally grown veggies, herbs, edible flowers, fruit shrubs, fruit trees, seeds, supplies and unlimited knowledge galore. All of the plants for sale are perfect for planting in March,so you plant them as soon as you get home.

What you’ll find:

Easy-to-grow plants for beginners like lettuce, greens and peas.
Collards, kale, Swiss chard, rhubarb and strawberries.
Exotic, rare and heirloom plants plus asparagus, horseradish, artichokes, onions, broccoli and blueberries.
Edible flowers, bulbing fennel, red scallions, Romanesco broccoli and culinary herbs.
Fruiting shrubs and fruit bearing trees.

Gardening Presentations

11 a.m. – Warm Up the Garden with Cloches, with Sue Hartman, Garden Hotline
12 p.m. – Growing Onions, with Lisa Taylor, author of “Your Farm in the City”
1 p.m. – Grow Veggies in Containers, with Falaah Jones, garden educator

Here are links exactly what they will be selling

Plant Lists

Vegetable Plant List
Herb & Flower Plant List
Fruiting Tree & Shrub Plant List
Seed List

I hope I’ll see you there!

~Mavis

Seattle Tilth Plant Sale

Mar 16, 2013 from 09:00 am to 03:00 pm
Pacific Market Center Parking Garage, 6100 4th Ave S (enter on 5th Ave S), Seattle WA 98108

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How to Grow Radishes {Start to Finish}

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By Mavis Butterfield on March 14, 2013 · 8 Comments

This morning Lucy and I went out to the garden and planted 5 different kinds of radishes. Last year was my first year growing the French Breakfast Radish and it was so good, I decided to expand my radish crop this year and plant some unusual varieties.

Here are the 5 different kinds of radishes I am planting this year:

Round Black Spanish {looked exotic}
French Breakfast {my favorite}
Crimson Giant {these are nice, fat and crunchy}
Watermelon {cool factor}
Easter Egg {because the are pretty}

If you have never grown radishes before, I promise you, they are super easy to grow.

Brief description: Radishes are a quick-growing hardy vegetable with a crisp mild flavor.

Where to Plant Radish: Radishes can be planted in raised beds, garden beds and containers.

Planting Seeds: Sow seeds 1/2″ deep. When foliage appears, thin to 1″ apart. Radishes are best planted with cucumbers, spinach and squash to repel as they repel unwanted insects.

Growing Tips: Radishes prefer cooler weather. You can sow them outside 4-6 weeks before the last frost, and sow more every 5-10 days for a continuous crop. You can sow them again in the late summer for a fall crop. Water regularly.

How to Harvest: Harvest radishes when they are small {1-1/2 to 2″}. If you let them get much larger, they start to split and taste a wee bit tough.

Radishes’ Literary Debut: In the novel, Gone with the Wind, it was a radish that starving Scarlett O’Hara eats {the only food she can get}, and then declares, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

Are you ready to start your garden but you’re not sure when you should plant your seeds or set out your transplants? Head on over HERE and you’ll be taken to a handy dandy chart that is broken down into what vegetables should be planted {or transplanted} each month in your area.

Anyone can do this. Dirt + Seeds+ Water = Food!

~Mavis

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