A Little Bit of Everything

Did I ever mention that I'm a messy packrat at heart? Well its true, I am. I tend to have lots of projects going at one time and I tend to spread those projects out around the house. Jim's a neatnick and spends a great deal of time beating my projects back into a retreat, ie. getting them out of the living room. Ah, the perils of a frugal, what if I can use it again later, lifestyle.

This time of year is especially bad, second only to Christmas, because of the end of year festivities at the schools. There's a whole lot of crafting going on. Sshh, can't tell what I'm making because some of the recipients read this blog!

In the great outdoors, things are going well. The potatoes are growing nicely. We added another layer of leaves and a bit of worm castings to the containers. My other container plants are doing well also. We got our first strawberry off my strawberry plant. I'm anxious to get the plants up to their summer home in the Adirondacks. The currants are getting big and so are the Jerusalem artichokes. I find this all very exciting.

There's still a lot more to be done around here before I can switch into summer mode. I like to leave things super organized so when I return in September I don't feel like hanging myself. I also need to start getting Jim's bachelor meals made, labeled and in the freezer for the three days a week he'll be eating alone. That was a disorganized point of stress last year that I don't intend to repeat.

Jim and I have decided to cut way back on our food coop orders for the summer months. Our pantry (closet) is really full and since I don't work during the summer (in other words, I don't get paid during the summer) it seems like an ideal time to deplete some of the stock around here. Now that the CSA is having weekly pickups, our main food expense will be soymilk, which brings me to an interesting tale.

I'll title this portion of the post:
Why I Never Grocery Shop With My Children
We were running out of soymilk last week so on my way home from an appointment with my 7yr old, I stopped at the grocery store. I had been wanting to check out other nondairy beverage options, just for the sake of having more variety in our diet. Why I decided that this would be a good time to do this, I'll never know. I thought I bought rice milk and almond milk. I also thought I was pretty smart because there was a coupon on the box that the store doubled.

When I got home, Jim discovered that I bought rice milk and almond flavored soymilk! I was so aggravated but it was my own fault. I know that I am far too distracted to read labels adequately and correctly when my kids are along. BTW, everyone liked the rice milk.

Frugal Thrift Store/Tag Sale Finds
We went to an indoor tag sale that was at a local church. The same church has a thrift store that was having 50% off all its clothing that same day. Here are some of the highlights of what we found; some beautiful shirts (Gap and Old Navy), a cast iron frying pan (the best nonstick surface you'll ever use), and a brand new, sealed in the box ceiling fan!

A New Vegan Breakfast Option
I can't say how much I love the recipes from Vegan With a Vengeance, especially the seitan recipes. I made Jerk Seitan again this weekend and it was delicious. Check out Isa's website and cookbook, you won't be sorry.

I took some of Isa's basic seitan and marinated it in:

1/2 cup of the cooking broth
1 Tbs maple syrup
1 Tbs nutritional yeast

Longtime readers might rcognize this as the marinade from the Veggie Bacon recipe. I cooked this on my cast iron griddle and everyone agreed, the result was even more delicious than the Veggie Bacon, which had previously been their favorite.