One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1978 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.

Recipe: How to Make Meatballs

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 20, 2012 · 10 Comments

Okay, first of all I owe a huge thank you to JJ and Leanna who told me I should turn some of the ground pork that has been sitting in my freezer {totally ignored} for the last 6 months into meatballs. Because I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

You two are a bunch of geniuses!

However, I didn’t have what each recipe called for exactly, so I ended up meshing both JJ’s and Leanna’s recipes together to make my own unique meatball recipe. Apparently it’s true, it is possible to make do with what you already have on hand.

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
2 lbs ground buffalo
12 oz dried bread crumbs {I used Stove Top Stuffing}
2 onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 Cup Lawry’s Steak & Chop marinade
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Saute onions and garlic. Then toss everything {including the onions and garlic} in a large mixing bowl and combine well. Shape into {48} 2″ balls by using a 2″ cookie scoop. If you don’t already own a cookie scoop you seriously need to get off your duff and order one. All the cool people have them. Place meatballs on a Silpat lined baking sheet {again, all the cool people have them} and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until browned.

Text your Handsome Husband at work and tell him you just made the best meatballs on the planet. If he’s a stud like mine he’ll text you back something real clever like… “I like meatballs.”

Mavis’ Most Favorite Kitchen Tools in the Whole Wide World:

Amazon: Silpats {starting at $9.75}

Amazon: Cookie Scoops {starting at $8.36}

Amazon: Kitchen Aid Glass Mixing Bowl {$69}

Amazon prices are subject to change at anytime. You snooze, you loose.

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How to Grow Your Own Food: How to Grow Carrots

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 20, 2012 · 10 Comments

Although I don’t think growing carrots is rocket science, I thought I would talk about them today. After all, they are one of my favorite “set it and forget it” vegetables to plant. I usually plant carrots twice a year. Once in early spring, and again around the fourth of July.

This morning I will be planting round #1 in my garden. Using a grid pattern like I did when I planted radishes, I’ll do it again with carrots and tomatoes to maximize my growing space. Once the tomatoes get going, they will keep the carrots shaded during the summer. Carrots and tomatoes are companion planting at it’s finest if you ask me.

About a month after planting the carrot seeds, I will go back and thin once, maybe twice, water when needed and then walk away until it’s time to harvest. I love carrots because they are so low maintenance and easy to grow.

Simply plant your carrot seeds in good soil in late spring and come back again in late fall to pull them up. Sounds like a pretty easy peasy vegetable to grow is you ask me.

This year I am planting the following varieties:

Parisian Market {Botanical Interests}
Solar Yellow {Ed Hume}
Rainbow Blend {Ed Hume}
Dragon {Seed Savers}
Scarlet Nantes {Seed Savers}
Danver’s {Seed Savers}

If you are wondering how in the world I am going to store all these carrots once I harvest them, Mr. H and his lovely assistant Mrs. H posted this “How to Store Carrots & Beets” tutorial a while back, and I think I’m up to the challenge this year. I’ll just have to remember to pace myself so I don’t eat them all at once, and turn a shade of Oompa loompa orange.

Here is a video about growing carrots from my new boyfriend {yes, I have many} Soil Man.

Looking for Rainbow, Parisian, Danver, or another kind of specialty carrot to grow this year? Check out Botanical Interests seed company and Amazon.com for the best selection.

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Recipe: How to Make a Pizza From Scratch

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 19, 2012 · 11 Comments

For lunch today I whipped up a couple of homemade pizzas. The pickins’ in the freezer are looking rather slim {well, I suppose that’s all in my head. There is stuff in the freezer, just nothing I really care to eat. Especially the ground pork {yuck} that I don’t want to have anything with} and so that is how I came about making pizzas for lunch. If you have never made a pizza before you need to give it a go. Trust me, if this desperate housewife can make one, so can you.

Make dough.

Brush olive oil on the pizza pan and sprinkle a little corn meal over it.

Roll out the dough.

Pizza #1 Sliced tomato, fresh basil and mozzarella cheese.

Pizza #2 Crushed pineapple, ham and mozzarella cheese.

Bake according to the directions below. Cool 5 minutes, slice and serve.

If you have a favorite vegetarian pizza I’d love to hear about it. Something tells me we are going to be eating a lot of homemade pizza from here on out. After all, I’m going to have to do something with all those vegetables I’ll be growing this summer.

Ingredients
1 {.25 ounce} package active dry yeast or 2.5 teaspoons if you are using bulk yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Cornmeal

Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the oil, sugar, salt and 1-1/2 cups flour. Mix until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. Turn onto a floured surface; cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Roll into a 13-in. circle. Brush a 12-in. pizza pan with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Transfer dough to prepared pan, building up edges slightly. Do not let rise. Bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until browned. Add toppings; bake 10-15 minutes longer.

*I’ve been using this standard pizza dough recipe from Allrecipes.com for years now and I love it.

Here are a few of my pizza night favorites:

Amazon:Pizza: More than 60 Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pizza $12.45
Amazon: Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Nonstick Bakeware 14-Inch Pizza Pan $13.95
Amazon: OXO SteeL Pizza Wheel $11.99
Amazon: That’s Amore $.99

Amazon’s pricing can change without notice, so if you see something you like, snatch it up! The prices listed are accurate at time of posting.

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.

How to Introduce New Chickens into Your Existing Flock

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By Mavis Butterfield on April 19, 2012 · 8 Comments

This morning after I put the tomato incident behind me, The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird and I introduced all of baby chicks to the older chickens. Introducing new chickens into your existing flock can be kind of tricky. So I thought I would tell you how we have handled it each spring.

When the chicks are a few weeks old we take them out one by one for introduce them to the older chickens for a minute or two so they can get a good look at them. When the chicks have reached 8-10 weeks we then set up a sort of “chicken meet and greet.” This year we attached a 4 foot by 10 chicken run right up against the older chickens yard. We let the younger chickens play next to the older ones for a few hours each day.

By introducing the younger chicks sort of half-way, it helps to alleviate the older chickens from pecking the younger ones. By the time we place the younger ones in with the older hens {at about 12 weeks old} the novelty of them has pretty much worn off and they don’t get pecked at nearly as much. I think going nice and slow is the way to do it if you have the space.

Do you have chickens? What has your experience with introducing new chickens into you existing flock been?

~Mavis

If you are thinking about raising chickens, Amazon currently has The Joy of Keeping Chickens on sale for $10.17 and it is packed with all sorts of great information.

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.