One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1859 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.

Easy Crock Pot Meals – Vegetarian Chili Recipe

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 17, 2012 · 5 Comments

Since the kids have been back in school, my crock pot and I have been practically been joined at the hip.

Call me a total nerd, but I love crock pot recipes! They are such a time saver. Especially if you have to drive your kids all over timbuck2 and back for sports practice and games everyday after school. Seriously, being able to make dinner ahead of time is awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Dried pinto beans.

Why? Because they are cheap, cheap, cheap. Generally I pick up a 25 pound bag from Costco once every 18 months just so I can make homemade chili and refried beans. This recipe for crock pot chili is just about as easy as it gets.

Here is how to make it.

Ingredients

3 cups dried pinto beans
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
{2} 9 oz cans tomato puree
{1} 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Soak the pinto beans over night in your slow cooker over night on low. In the morning, rinse off the beans and place the back in the slow cook with all the remaining ingredients. Stir, and turn on low for 8 to 10 hours or until the beans have softened. Be sure and stir the chili everyone in a while.

* If you like ground beef or chicken in your chili, cook it ahead of time and just toss it in the crock pot when you mix all the ingredients together.
Serve with cornbread or warm rolls. Easiest dinner ever!

Looking for more slow cooker recipes? Check out Crock-Pot Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes. Amazon has it currently in stock.

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Mavis Garden Blog – Storing Onions in Mesh Bags and Pantyhose

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 17, 2012 · 22 Comments

God Bless the woman who googles “How to Store Onions in your Pantyhose,” because honey, you’re the only one who wants to know.

In fact if you landed on this story you were probably trying to google “How to Store Onions in your Pantry… not Pantyhose. Yeah, auto correct. It awesome. We’ve all been there.

A few weeks ago Mrs. Hillbilly let me know that Grandma Hillbilly used to store onions in her old pantyhose way back when, and it I sparked my interest. Did I mention how boring it is here in suburbia sometimes?

I actually went to Target and purchased a pair of pantyhose because I don’t own a pair {in fact I don’t think I have ever owned a pair} and the thought of sending out a mass email to my neighbors asking if they had any old pantyhose I could have just seem really, really weird.

The directions for storing onions in your pantyhose are really simple.

Cut off the legs at the top of the hose
Push onion to the bottom of the hose {toe}
Tie a knot
Add another onion
Tie a knot {continue until you have a about 6 inches of stocking left, tie one last knot, and then hang the onions in your pantry.

Apparently when onions are stored properly {40 – 45 degrees} , then can last up to 6- 8 month in the pantyhose.

Who knew?

How do you get the onions out? Just cut below the lowest knot and you will get one onion off the string.

*Thanks Chrissy.

Oh and hey, if you are thinking about storing your onions in a little more traditional way…

After you have harvested your onions, move your them to a warm, ventilated area {out of the sun} for a few weeks so they can cure.

You’ll know the onions are done drying when they look like the regular onions you see in the grocery store. The outer skins will be paper like and brittle, the roots will be dry, and the tops will be completely dried out.

Then all you need to do is store the in some mesh {ventilated} bags and store them in a cool dark place.

~Mavis

P.S. What do YOU store your onions in?

Learn how to braid onions HERE.

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.

{Giveaway} Enter to Win 1 of 2 Autographed Barefoot Contessa Books

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 17, 2012 ·

This week I’m giving away 2 Autographed Barefoot Contessa Books

{click on the links above and they will take you to the book descriptions on Amazon.com}

The Girl and I heard Ina Garten was coming to town and decided to buy a pair of tickets at the last minute. Full price tickets were $54 each, but we were able to find half price tickets on GoldStarEvents.com. Ina and local chef Greg Atkinson sat in over-sized chairs on stage and chatted for over an hour before taking questions from the audience members.

My favorite part about the whole event {besides the part where I made an idiot of myself and said “I think you’re awesome” as she signed my books} was when a lady asked Ina what were some of the crazy things companies tried to get her to sell over the years.

Ina laughed, and said someone wanted her to sell a line of Barefoot Contessa clothing.

Her response?

“I wear the same outfit everyday,” she said as she starting laughing again.

It was awesome. Her response to that comment made my day.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment on this post letting me know which book you would prefer to win. And if you have a favorite Barefoot Contessa recipe, please share that too.

My daughter loves to make Ina’s Brownie Pudding every year on Christmas Eve for dessert. Have you tried it? It is da’ bomb.

This giveaway ends on Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 10pm PST.

2 Comments will be randomly selected via the random generator on random.org. The winners will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond to claim the prize.

Good Luck! I hope you win!

♥ Mavis

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Mondays with Mavis – How to Feed Your Family for $100 a Month

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 17, 2012 · 12 Comments

The Handsome Husband was off from work last week.

We spent our days gardening, playing with chickens, skipping rocks in the lake, and singing kumbaya.*

In between all the singing and dancing we made two trips to Costco to buy their hot dog and soda deal. What is it with men and the hot dog and soda deal?

Costco $1.63 x 2 = $3.26

Am I the only one who thinks Costco weenies are gross?

They totally smell awful, but the HH and Monkey Boy sure like them. Blech.

I’m happy smiling at the old ladies in hair-nets and thanking them for their free samples.

Costco $16.38

I usually don’t grab a cart when I go into Costco because I’m always afraid I’ll fill it with a bunch of things I don’t need. But this time around I grabbed a cart knowing I’d have a hard time balancing a 25 pound sack of flour and an enormous tub of Crisco all the way to the check stand. I walked in, got what I needed, and checkout out. Easy peasy. Okay, so maybe I did stop to look at a new set of pots and pans. But I didn’t buy them. Yay!

Albertsons $5.18

As of this morning, we are officially out of milk.

I didn’t bother with Albertsons doublers this week. I didn’t need any free tissue or carefree, and a couple of containers of yogurt just wasn’t worth getting out of bed for. Some weeks are crazy good, and others not so much.

Beecher’s Cheese Shop $10.05

After picking up our tickets at the Benaroya Hall will call, we had about 40 minutes before we had to be in our seats to hear The Barefoot Contessa {Ina Garten} speak. So The Girl and I headed over to the Pike Place Market to snap a few pictures. We saw a huge line forming out the door for Beecher’s Cheese shop and decided hey, why not, and decided to hop in line and wait 10 minutes for the best mac and cheese on the planet.

Obviously I went totally overboard this week, but it was worth it. After all, a girls got to have her Crisco and macaroni and cheese.

How did YOU do this week?

Did you go over or under your budget?

Total Spent This Week $34.87
Total Spent This Year $964.73
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $516.21
Total “Seed Money” donations received $51.00

*My husband does not garden, like chickens, skip rocks or sing. If you believed that you are totally on crack.

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.