One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1853 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.

Mavis Garden Blog – Getting the Greenhouse Ready for Fall

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 23, 2012 · 3 Comments

Yesterday I played hooky from the blog and worked all day in the backyard. I have a ton of backyard projects I want to tackle this fall, and since yesterday was the first day of fall, I decided it was the perfect time to get a move on.

The first project I tackled was cleaning out the greenhouse. I pulled all the pepper plants, picked all the remaining green tomatoes from the tomato plants I had in pots, and heaved everything on to the compost pile {not the green tomatoes of course}.

The green zebra and stupice tomatoes were still thriving, so I trimmed those back as best I could and pick all the ripe fruit.

The burpless cucumbers were still alive and kicking as well, so I simply trimmed any ugly leaves from their vines and picked a few for an afternoon salad.

This is a picture of my Rainbow Swiss Chard in waiting. As soon as the tomatoes in the garden boxes outside die, this Swiss chard will take their spot in the garden.

I also removed the strawberry plants from 3 of the 4 gutters we planted back in early Spring, and replanted them with spinach and more Swiss chard. Right now all the strawberry plants are sitting in a wheelbarrow out back. So today, I’ll have to figure where the heck I’m going to put them.

The sugar snap peas that were planted in a pallet a few weeks ago, are not behaving at all. For some reason they are not yet climbing up the poles. Hopefully they will soon, If they don’t do it on their own, I’ll just hang some string from the greenhouse ceiling and tie it around the plants to get them going.

And last but not least, I filled 2 pots with 1 tomato plant and 4 Swiss chard starts each. I’m pretty confident the tomato plants will die, but I still want to give it a try. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and we will have a warm winter with lot’s of sunlight.

So how did you spend YOUR first day of fall? Did you do anything exciting? Sleep in? Get up at the crack of dawn to shuttle your kids to an early morning soccer game?

Peace Out Girl Scouts, I’m headed back outside. Have a great day!

♥ Mavis

Thinking about building your own greenhouse? Check out The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Greenhouse By Craig Baird. Amazon currently has it in stock and ready to ship.

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Sunday Brunch Recipes – Baked French Toast

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 23, 2012 · 9 Comments

We have a new favorite Sunday breakfast dish, The Pioneer Woman’s baked french toast. Holy moley is it good. I took one bite, then sat there and shoveled the rest of it in, I could.not.stop. Everyone in our family gave it a thumbs up {even the Handsome Husband}. If you haven’t made this recipe before, you seriously need to.

Here is my version of the recipe. {I halved the ingredients, used Italian bread and 2% milk}

French Toast Ingredients
8 slices french or Italian bread {I used Italian bread}
4 eggs
1 cup milk {I used 2%}
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/3 + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar Topping
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick cold butter, cut into small cubes

Directions

Generously butter an 8×8 round baking dish. Cut bread into 2″ cubes and toss into the buttered dish. In a small bowl, combined the eggs, milk, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over bread. Cover with saran wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

For the topping, combined the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter together in a bowl. Use the tips of your fingers {or a pastry blender} and mix until everything is combined and you have nice, fat, spiced butter crumbles. Place the topping in a zip baggie and place in the refrigerator.

The next morning, preheat the oven to 350. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar topping over french toast mixture and bake for 50 minutes.

Serve with maple syrup and powered sugar.

For more Pioneer Woman recipes, check out her latest book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontie r. Amazon currently has it in stock and ready to ship.

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.

One Hundred Dollars a Month – Mavis’ Weekly Highlights

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 22, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Books, Books and More Books from Amazon.com

Coupons, Freebies, and Online Deals

Garden Updates and Chickens Too!

Recipes

Weekly Shopping Trips and Stories

Shopping with Mavis | Albertsons – Free Yogurt, Free Pasta, Free Tissue + Cheap Tillamook Cheese!

Peace Out Girl Scouts, stay out of trouble, and have a great weekend!

♥ 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.

Canning 101 – Heirloom Tomato Salsa Recipe

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 21, 2012 · 20 Comments

This afternoon I made our first batch of homemade salsa using a rather large variety of our heirloom tomatoes. The house smells like a Mexican restaurant right now, and tonight I will be serving homemade refried beans, homemade tortillas, rice and lots and lots of yummy homemade salsa. I found this recipe for salsa over at CDKitchen and it rocks. The reviews were awesome and it tastes awesome too.

If you make this salsa, remember not to mess with the amounts of vinegar or lime juice. You need to follow the directions to a “T” if you plan on using the water bath method to can your salsa. Tomatoes need extra acidity.

Okay, go have fun. I’m off to serve dinner!

Ingredients
8 cups peeled, cored, chopped fresh heirloom tomatoes
2 cups seeded and chopped fresh peppers {I used green peppers and a few jalapenos}
2 cups chopped onion
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice {I used bottled}

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.

Combine all ingredients in a large heavy pot. Bring ingredients to a boil over medium high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes {at this point my salsa was a tiny bit foamy on top. But once I turned off the heat, the foam dissolved}.

Ladle hot salsa immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in 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 15 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. Yields 5 pints.

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.

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.