Avivah Werner

Category: Intentional Spending

  • How to render animal fat

    >>How do you render animal fat?<<

    Sometimes I forget that many things I do that have become second nature to me need explanation!   Rendering fat is very, very easy, and it’s a frugal thing to do since most people tend to throw away the skin and fat; you can save money while simultaneously benefiting your health.

    Take the fat of your choice (chicken, duck, beef), and cut it into chunks if it’s large.  It doesn’t need to be ground or minced, but if you have big pieces from beef, cutting it into 2 inch chunks will help it melt faster.  I don’t usually have any pieces big enough to cut.  You can separate any flesh from it, but I don’t bother since that’s more easily done at the end.  Put the chunks of fat into a pot on the very lowest flame/heat setting on your stovetop so that it will very slowly melt – if you put it too high, it will burn.  As the fat melts, it becomes clear.  Keep the pot covered to keep the heat in, and after a few hours (sometimes significantly less) on low, the fat will be totally liquified.  Be sure to take a look at it every once in a while to be sure it’s not cooking too fast.

    Once it’s fully melted, you can do one of three things, depending on how you’re planning to use and store the fat once it’s rendered.  1) Carefully pour the liquified fat through a fine mesh strainer/cheesecloth to catch the little drippings.  This will give you the best result in terms of asthetics; additionally, by straining out all of the protein sediment, it will stay good for a very long time.  2) Use a slotted spoon to take the cracklings out, saving them to use in a savory dish.  3) Don’t bother straining it because you’ll be using the rendered fat in cooking (vs baking) and you don’t care about if there are a few little pieces. Whatever you choose, store it in a container with a tight fitting lid.

    I tend to go with option 2 or 3, since I only use animal fat for sauteeing, not baking (coconut oil is my ‘go to’ fat for baking).  And I use it so quickly that it doesn’t matter to me if it will only stay good for a few weeks vs a few months.  If I’m doing a huge batch, though, I’ll take the extra few minutes to strain it out.

    I also reserve the liquid that is left at the bottom of the pan after roasting poultry or meat.  When it’s refrigerated, it naturally separates, with the fat rising to the top and the gravy sinking to the bottom.  I scrape off the fat layer to saute with and add the congealed broth that is left to  a stew or casserole – it packs in a lot of flavor.  When I make broth and refrigerate it overnight, the fat will congeal on top.  If it’s a very concentrated pot of broth (ie large amount of bones to water), then I skim the fat or the broth tastes too greasy.  This is particularly important when I do lamb broth, since it tastes like drinking oil if you don’t skim it first.

    Is anyone familiar with gribenes? My mother used to make these on Pesach (Passover).  Gribenes are a traditional Jewish food, the kind of things people now consider a heart attack waiting to happen, but if you know about saturated fats and why they’re so important to your body, you can enjoy them with a clear mind.  🙂

    Gribenes are basically just crispy fried chicken skins.  To make them, you take some unrendered fat and chicken skin (cut it in strips).  Chop up an onion, and put it together in the pot with the fat and chicken skins.  Keep the flame on low until the fat has melted, then turn it up to medium and keep cooking until the onions and skins are golden. Sprinkle with a little salt, and enjoy!  My kids like these hot from the pan as is, but it’s a nice addition to chopped liver or any mashed potato dish (on Pesach, you know that means you can put it into everything :lol:).

    Note: kosher supermarkets sell chicken fat around Pesach (Passover) time, not so much the rest of the year.  Our local store sells schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) throughout the year, but it’s way more expensive than making your own (I haven’t checked for a long time, but I think it was over $5 lb).

    (This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday.)

    Avivah

    (My apologies for mentioning Pesach when Purim is still over two weeks away; everyone who felt anxious at the mention can now stop hyperventilating. :))

  • Grass fed beef at a great price!

    Back in December, I shared my thoughts about the King Corn documentary, and in the comments section (where lots of good information is shared but most people miss seeing it!), Miriam shared about a source for kosher grass-fed beef (Golden West Glatt – where it says ‘source’ in red letters in the sentence right before this is a link to their site).  When I checked out the prices, they looked pretty good!  Until that point, I had only been aware of one kosher source in the country and at almost $10 a pound for ground beef (the cheapest cut), it was simply out of our budget.

    Years ago I spoke with an Amish farmer who agreed to sell me the whole cow, but it was such a complicated and expensive process to arrange for everything (couldn’t use his facilities, would have had to truck the cow somewhere, rent processing space from a kosher butcher and hire a private slaughterer!) so I gave up on the idea.  When I heard about an affordable option that didn’t require me to do anything but pull out a credit card, I was excited that grass-fed beef might finally be on the horizon for us.  🙂

    I contacted the company to find out about how the animals were raised, and here’s the response I got:  ”They are grass-fed and then grain finished which means they are given corn and alfalfa. They are also very humanely raised, meaning that the animals are grass-fed and bedded down at night as well as shielded from inclement weather.”  They aren’t organic, which to me is less important than being grass-fed.  (A little peeve of mine are organic chickens that are marketed as exclusively grain fed.sigh.gif)

    At that point they didn’t have ground beef in stock (I was looking for the least expensive cut I could get:)), but they soon added it and I placed an order for 40 pounds last week.  The price for ground beef (family packs) is just $3.49 lb!  That price is cheaper than even the the regular kosher ground beef at the supermarket – and after reading Wardeh’s poll on grass-fed beef prices, it seems it’s a pretty good deal for non-kosher buyers, too!  And with shipping at just $9.95 for any size order, it’s an incredible deal – my order of 40 lb was just $150 including shipping – yes, it’s a big chunk of change at one time, but that’s a lot of meat!  (Edited to add – it seems this shipping special just ended. 🙁 )

    In case you’re wondering about the family packs, you get a large box of individually wrapped 1 lb packages. Very compact and easy to store.  (Usually at the store I buy family packs, which are about 3 – 4 lb, and I have to separate it and repackage it into 1 lb chunks before freezing.)  I like buying in bulk so this works well for me, though the minimum size is about twenty pounds, so that might be a bit much for smaller families.  (I think you can buy in smaller amounts for about 3.79 lb.)  The order came today in a large box packed on all sides with thick styrofoam, like a makeshift cooler.  It was in transit for three days, but was still frozen solid when we got it.

    I’m not a discerning connoisseur of meat – to me everything tastes fine, and I’m buying this because I care more about how it’s raised and having the right balance of Omega 3 fats – but  several of you have told me you’re very happy with the flavor and I’m expecting it to be very good!

    (This post is part of Fight Back Fridays.)

    Avivah

    Disclaimer- in case you’re wondering, I don’t make any money off of my recommendations on this blog; I’m just sharing an affordable source for meat that is often hard to find at a decent price.

  • Transform your soup chicken!

    All broth makers share the same experience: they make a fantastic broth, packed with nutrients, and then are left with the meat that has fallen off the bones – tasteless, unappetizing, and uninspiring.  Is there something to do besides choke it down or feed it to your cat? (We don’t feed our cat commercial pet food, so it’s not a waste, but still…)  🙂

    Being the frugalest of the frugal, I’m not about to waste any food that comes into the house if I can help it!  But I’m also not about to torture my family and leave them with bad memories of unpleasant food I forced them to eat so it didn’t go to waste.   Bland soup chicken is easily transformed and made into a really tasty dish.  Here’s what I do:

    Revamped Soup Chicken

    First I shred the chicken.  Then, using chicken or lamb fat that I’ve rendered, I heat the fat and saute the chicken in the fat – this gives it a rich and delicious flavor.  (If you don’t have rendered animal fat, you can use expeller pressed coconut oil, but it’s not going to be nearly as good.)  Then I generously season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and anything else that appeals to me that day.  After it’s been sauteed and seasoned, I add it to stir fries, pot pies, tacos/burritos, chimichangas – lots of possibilities!

    Because I tend to think of this as a humble thrifty supper, when we recently had a couple for dinner mid week, I wanted to serve something nicer.  I had a different main dish planned, but something happened and I ended up having to serve this.  I was a little embarrassed when the husband asked me how I cooked it (I thought he was thinking it looked wimpy or not up to their standards – they live on a much higher income than we do), so I gave him a brief answer.  Turned out he really wanted to know because he was trying to figure out why it tasted so good and wanted his wife to make it the same way; he’s a good friend of my husband and kept raving about how good it the next couple of times they spoke!

    Simple, frugal, and good for you, too – can’t beat that combination!

    Do you have tips on how to use your leftover soup chicken?  Share them below in the comments section!

    (This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursdays.)

    Avivah

  • Couldn’t breakfast be cheaper?

    >>Maybe it’s because by 7 -7:30 every one but me has to be out of the house, but our breakfast is always fresh bread and spreads, and you have what I’d call “fancy” and varied breakfast every day. Why? Wouldn’t you save time (and maybe expenses) by having only bread and bits for this meal?<<

    I responded to this question in brief in the comments section, but wanted to bring it back up here since there are a couple of other issues that I didn’t respond to there.

    It’s true that if saving time and money was my highest priority for breakfast, I could  cook differently.  For example, I can buy 50 lb of oats for under $25, and at that price I could easily serve oatmeal every day and spend less than $1 total for the entire family for breakfast!   It doesn’t get much cheaper than that!  And as I’ve written in the past, oatmeal can be a fast meal to prepare.

    However, I see mealtimes in a slightly different way than just a time to fuel everyone as fast and cheaply as I can.  Food has emotional power in addition to providing physical nourishment.  When you eat foods that taste good, you tend to have positive associations surrounding the food.  Making different foods that our children enjoy is an easy way to use the emotions associated with food to connect our children with us and one another when we sit down to eat.

    Also, I’m sure everyone has noticed that there’s a widespread belief that healthy food isn’t appealing and the ‘good stuff’ is the typical fare that most Americans are eating.  Along with that belief is the idea that having less to spend on food means being deprived.  My kids don’t see other people eating or shopping like us.  We rarely buy processed foods, and when we do, it’s the kind of processed food that most people consider wildly healthy, we integrate traditional principles of food preparation into all of our meals as a matter of course, and our food budget of $600 monthly (family of 11) is less than anyone I know.

    Every time I serve a meal I have the opportunity to show my kids that healthy foods are delicious and not a reason to feel deprived; that’s daily mental programming towards their attitudes and outlook on food!   And it’s working!  Despite the fact that when kids feel different there’s a tendency to feel like the mainstream view is better and resent being put in the position of not being like everyone else, my kids feel happy to eat the way we do.  They’ve told me (kids ages 10 and up) that when they were younger they thought their friends who could have frozen pizza three times a day were lucky, but now they see it differently.

    Lastly, though I’ve often thought how much simpler my weekly menu planning would be if I just made the same things week in and week out, I enjoy the variety!

    Avivah

  • Too Good to be Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

    The inspiration for these incredibly yummy and good for you treats came from the plastic tray that the all natural falafel patties I bought came in.  I rarely buy processed foods, even natural processed foods, so these trays were an unusual bonus!  The tray had eight round molded spaces where each patty was and looked so nice that I started thinking about what I could use them for.  A couple of days later I had this burst of inspiration!  The final result tasted decadent and looked beautiful, since the molding on the bottom gave it the look of fancy chocolates (I served mine upside down so that the molding was on top).  They looked so good I was tempted to take a picture to show you, but of course I didn’t because that would have meant figuring out how to post them. 🙄

    If you don’t have any creative molds that you rescued from recycling :), don’t despair!  You can use a pan or other flat container and cut them into bars, or you can pour them into metallic mini muffin cups.  They’ll taste good either way.

    Too Good to Be Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

    Chocolate layer: (some of you will recognize this as my healthy chocolate recipe)

    • 1/2 c. cocoa powder
    • 1/4 c. coconut oil
    • 1 t. vanilla
    • 1/8 – 1/4 c. honey

    Melt the coconut oil and stir the other ingredients in; mix until smooth.  Pour the chocolate into the bottom of the pan or fill the molds with a thin layer, leaving half of the chocolate for the topping.  Let cool while you prepare the peanut butter filling.  (The chocolate will have the taste of semi sweet dark chocolate, not milk chocolate. I experimented using coconut milk to see if I could make it more similar to milk chocolate, but wasn’t satisfied with the consistency.)

    filling:

    • 3/4 c. creamy peanut butter (I use organic, with only sea salt added)
    • 2 T. honey
    • 1 t. vanilla
    • 1/4 c. coconut oil
    • 1/3 c. ground nuts (I used pecan meal)

    Melt the coconut oil, stir in honey, vanilla, and then the peanut butter.  When smooth, stir in the ground nuts.  Spread the peanut butter filling on top of the chocolate, whether it’s in a mold or a pan.  Finally, take the remaining chocolate mixture (if it’s started to solidify, heat it gently for a couple of minutes until it’s liquidy and easy to pour) and pour it on top of the peanut butter layer, smoothing it so that the top is even. Refrigerate or freeze.

    Healthy chocolates are super expensive, and these are a fraction of the price!  Not only that, they’re packed with healthy fats and are very satisfying; two make a nice dessert that you don’t have to feel guilty about.  And they are so good you can serve them to your junk food loving friends, too!

    (This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays,  Pennywise Platter Thursdays and Fight Back Fridays.)

    Avivah

  • Saving money on deodorant

    For years, the idea of anti-perspirant has bugged me.  It’s always seemed counter intuitive to health to keep perspiration from being released (one way the body releases toxins).  And I’ve also always wondered about if there’s a connection between breast cancer and anti-perspirant, since the lymph nodes are right under the armpit and if they get blocked up, it makes sense that a person will get sick.

    Well, regardless of my mental cogitating on all of this, I like looking and smelling socially acceptable and this wasn’t something I was going to give up.   I had tried a crystal but it didn’t work at all, and the healthy deodorant alternative in the store was mucho money and I didn’t want to spend that without knowing it would work really well.

    But about a year ago in the winter, I decided it was a good time for an experiment in this area, since if it wasn’t working no one but me would know. 🙂 I started applying a sprinkle of baking soda in place of deodorant, and I found that it worked great!  I stayed fresher than I ever did with deodorant!  Because I prefer to try things for a while before sharing them to make sure they really work, I didn’t want to post about it here until I had gone through all the seasons.  So it’s been over a year now and I can say with confidence it’s worked great though all kinds of weather, hot and cold.

    However, there were two downsides to my solution.  One – it was slightly messy, since a sprinkling of baking soda would fall on my bathroom counter. That’s easily enough taken care of by a daily wipe down, but still it was a down side.  And it is kind of wasteful.   Two – my teenagers had no interest in trying my solution, even though they tend to be open to my ideas.

    So, I decided it was time to find a solution that would work for them, and we did!  I saved a few empty deodorant containers, and made an effective, healthy, and inexpensive alternative to deodorant.  And it took all of five minutes to make a few bars worth. (The recipe below will make one or two bars, depending on the size you make it.)

    Homemade Deodorant

    • 1/4 c. baking soda
    • 1/4 c. cornstarch
    • 2 T. coconut oil (expeller pressed)
    • optional – ten drops of essential oil

    Melt the coconut oil in a small pot.  Stir in the baking soda and cornstarch until smooth.  If you want to add a scent to it, add ten drops of essential oil now.  I didn’t, because all I had on hand was tea tree oil and my kids hate the smell of it.

    You’re going to have a soft white paste.  Take out the empty deodorant containers, and turn them so the little thing in the middle is down as low as it can go.  Then fill the containers, and let them sit on the counter until they harden.  Once it’s firm, use like any regular anti-perspirant – it will look just like what you buy in the stores, and my kids have said it works great and are happy to use it.

    If you don’t have an empty deodorant container and don’t feel like waiting to have one to try this, find a couple of empty toilet paper tubes.  It seems to me that if you stand the empty tube on top of a wax paper or pan and then pour the mixture in, you can let it harden in place.  Then once it’s firm you can cut down the side that has the paper tube sticking up, leaving enough over so that you can fold the sides of it down over the bottom like you would wrap a present.  Then turn it right side up and just push it up from the bottom as you want to use it.

    How does this work?  Baking soda is known to be an absorber of smell, and the cornstarch wicks away moisture.  I’m sure the coconut oil is beneficial as an antibacterial factor as well.  If you add the essential oils, it mostly just makes it smell nice.

    The cost for this is very, very low.  I pay under .50 lb for baking soda (.06 for 1/4 cup), and around a dollar for a cup of expeller pressed coconut oil (.13 cents for 2 T.).  I haven’t bought corn starch in ages so I have no idea how much I paid, but it wasn’t a lot.  So for under .25 cents, I’ve been able to make a generous sized deodorant that works great, without any of the negative side effects!

    (This post is part of Fight Back Fridays and Frugal Fridays.)

    Avivah

  • Making homemade buckwheat noodles (gluten free)

    I’ve had this noodle recipe in my file for months, waiting to make it, and I finally got around to it this week!  Flours and grains need to be soaked to neutralize the phytic acid, but when you buy whole grain pasta at the store, it generally hasn’t been soaked or sprouted.  That means that even though you think you’re buying something really good for you, your body isn’t able to absorb most of the additional nutrients. So the health benefit isn’t very substantial.

    Until now, my solution has been to cut our consumption of store bought whole grain pasta so that having it is a rare occasion; I treat it as a semi-junk food.  However, by making it myself I can soak the flour so that the phytic acid issue is no longer a concern.  So these noodles really are good for you!

    Homemade Buckwheat Noodles (gluten free)

    • 2 c. buckwheat flour
    • 1/2 – 2/3 c. water
    • 1/2 T. raw apple cider vinegar (we use Bragg’s)

    Mix the water and apple cider vinegar together, and then stir together with the flour.  It’s going to seem like you don’t have enough water when you add a 1/2 cup; add some more a little bit at a time since you don’t want it to become too sticky to work with.  You’ll need to work it with your hands for a few minutes until the moisture is all worked through the flour.  Let this sit overnight (this step is the one that reduces the phytic acid, so don’t skip it.)

    When you’re ready to roll it out, sprinkle some kind of flour (gluten free, if that’s a concern for you) on the work surface, then a little on top of the dough.  Roll out the dough to be about 1/8″ thick.  Using a sharp knife, cut the noodles into thin slices (you can be creative with shapes if you like).  Then add them to a pot of salted boiling water and let cook for several minutes.  How long you cook them will depend on the thickness of the dough and the size of your noodles.  You’ll know they’re done when they are tender but still a little chewy.

    You can substitute wheat flour if you want to make regular noodles.  Experiment with different kinds of flour, using this same basic recipe, and see what kind of combinations you can come up with!  Be sure to soak it overnight, though.  It would be a shame to spend the time making these and not end up with the good nutrition that your time warrants.  I’m planning to try dehydrating some next time we make them so I can make these in advance and then store them like store bought pasta.

    I made four times this amount for our family for dinner, so I used about two pounds of buckwheat flour.  Generally I buy buckwheat and grind it myself but I got some buckwheat flour at a super cheap price, less than buying it whole (I paid .99 for the 2 lb. box; generally I pay about 1.60 lb).   This made a very abundant amount of noodles for dinner tonight, that we served together with a meat sauce (slight change in menu), carrot fries, lacto fermented green beans and ginger carrots.

    Avivah

  • Weekly menu plan

    Sorry that the menu plan is late this week – I was feeling totally uninspired on Saturday night and then again Sunday night when I sat down to write it. But I know when I don’t make a menu plan for the week, we end up having unnecessary pressure around mealtimes, meals don’t get served on time, and the food isn’t as nice as when I plan it in advance.  Somehow after coming home from doing my monthly shopping today it seemed much easier!

    Shabbos – d – challah, chicken soup, meatballs and sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetable kugel, power bars, chocolate chip cookie bars; l – cholent, roast turkey, kishke, green bean mango salad, tomato olive salad, fresh coconut, dried fruit, nuts, power bars

    Sunday – breakfast – pizza; l – chicken vegetable soup; d – beef stew, salads

    Monday – b – banana bread; l – out doing monthly shopping, had snacks; d – falafel patties, carrot sticks, sour cream, milk

    Tuesday – b – blueberry muffins (w/ coconut flour); l – cheesy cauliflower soup; d – vegetarian meatloaf, carrot fries

    Wednesday- b – pecan burgers, eggs; l – vegetable lentil soup; d – baked fish, yams, salad

    Thursday – b – raisin scones; l – leftovers; d – homemade buckwheat noodles, sauce, cottage cheese

    Friday – b – quinoa pudding

    In order to prepare for today’s shopping trip, I defrosted and then dehydrated all of the frozen vegetables in my full size freezer yesterday (except for the whole green beans).  I always marvel at how small the quantities look once they’re dehydrated!  It’s a good thing that last week I took out all the prepared food I had frozen and used them, as well as freeing up the space from the vegetables and some soft cheeses, since today I found a great buy on berries, and was able to buy 20 packages of blueberries (10 oz each) and eight packages of mixed berries (3 lb each).  Oh, and six or eight pounds of frozen sliced peaches.  And 12 lb of whiting fillets.  🙂  It was good I had room for them – last month I didn’t take the precautions before I went shopping and bought way more than I had room to store.  Fortunately it was freezing outside so I was able to use my outdoor ‘stair pantry’ to keep things cold.

    I found a new source to order my bulk food that I’m very happy about, since it’s making my shopping even less expensive!  As I’ve said before, don’t be shy to ask store managers to work with you; just because they have never done it before for anyone else doesn’t mean they won’t do it for you!  This is the second store that has gladly tacked my bulk order on top of theirs and put it to the side for me when it comes in.

    So I bought another 25 lb of pecan meal, 30 lb of quinoa, and 25 lb of raisins – I’ve been using lots more nut and coconut flours for baking and have significantly cut down on oats and grains.  Though grain flours tend to be cheap and nuts tend to be expensive, buying nuts/nut meals in bulk has made using them often workable within my budget – I pay between 1/2 – 1/4 of what the exact same items cost in the same store when sold in small packages.  I also have been using raisins and dates to decrease the amount of sucanat or honey I use in baked goods.   Quinoa is officially a seed and I think it’s more digestible than other grains, and that’s why I got more of that rather than a less expensive grain.  But I’m not cutting out grains altogether since they are a frugal cook’s friend. 🙂

    In addition to that, I got the usual 50 lb potatoes, a case of eggs (30 dozen), 80 lb yams (instead of  my usual 40 – the baby loves them and eats our supply down quickly!); 50 lb onions, 27 lb carrots (peeled and packaged as carrot sticks- they were outrageously cheap; I should have gotten more but didn’t realize how few pounds were in each case until I got home), 10 gallons of raw milk (I knew I wouldn’t be able to find fridge space for more), 12 lb honey, and a bunch of canned goods.  And all the other miscellany that aren’t worth mentioning.  So I’m pretty well set for the coming month, except for the meat/poultry and cheese, which I’ll buy tomorrow, and vegetables, which I’ll shop for again in another couple of weeks.  Nice to have it mostly out of the way and done for a while – who wants to be spending time in the store every few days if you don’t have to?!

    Last month I bought 25 lb of raw sunflower seeds, and yesterday I finally took some out to soak overnight; they’re in the dehydrator right now and will be ready by morning.  Sunflower seeds are the least expensive of the nuts/seeds, and they are a nice addition to various dishes, like salads and grainless granolas.

    Avivah

  • Free group violin lessons

    Music lessons are so pricey that I mentally categorize them as  ‘nice but luxury’, and as such, aren’t in my budget.  But H-shem has been very good to us and provided the means for three children to take piano and now another two to experience violin!

    Today I took my ds3 and ds7 to a group violin lesson for children ages 4 – 7.  The teacher gives private lessons but very generously is providing this as a free service.  I thought ds7 would especially appreciate the opportunity, but took ds3 (he’ll be four in three months) along after speaking to a friend who has several kids who have played string instruments to get her opinion about if that was too young.

    Violins come in lots of sizes, some very tiny, so they can be appropriately sized for young children.  I’m not a parent who is driven to get my kids to perform at a young age in any way, but this seemed like a fun opportunity and I was glad to access this for them.  We joined a number of children and their parents today at the home of the very nice teacher, who lives locally. In the 45 minute lesson, they were fitted with the right size violin (ds3 – 1/10, ds7 – 1/4), learned the names of all the parts, how to hold it at rest, how to hold it to play, how to take a bow, the names of the four notes, and learned two short and simple songs.  It was a lot!

    Ds3 was tired (today it took place in the early afternoon, when he usually is napping) and I’m not going to predict if he’ll maintain ongoing interest, but I’ll keep taking him as long as he’s interested.  Ds7 is ready for something like this and I think it will be a great opportunity for him especially.

    The teacher would like to start with a large number of children, knowing that many will lose interest and drop out within a short time. That way, she’ll be left with enough children who are interested to continue the group.  I received an email from her after the lesson saying that since a couple of people who had reserved spots didn’t come, she has space for two more kids.  I wanted to share this with those of you in my area who might be interested.

    Before you email me for info, here are the conditions to participate: you have to come promptly on time – 5 pm on Sunday. You need to come every week; if you can’t make it, you need to notify her in advance.  You can miss one lesson, but if you miss more than that, you’ll need to pay her to give your child a private lesson so he can be at the same level at the rest of the class.  An adult needs to stay with the child during the lesson, and it needs to be the same parent every week (ie no switching off).  You have to either buy or rent an instrument for your child to use (rental price is $20 a month).  The group is geared for kids ages 4 – 7 (my ds7 is the oldest).  If after reading all of that you’re interested, either email me at the address above shown in the ‘Contact Me’ section or use my personal email address if you already have it, and I’ll send you the contact information so you can be in touch with the teacher directly.

    People have sometimes expressed to me the feeling that I have some kind of ‘luck’ in finding great prices or opportunities, but good things are waiting for every one of us every day; the challenge is in recognizing them and taking action!

    Avivah

  • Saving scraps for vegetable broth

    >>hi avivah! do you save vegetable scraps- peels, etc- for making soup stock? why or why not? thanks!<<

    Since I’m a long term frugalista, I suppose I should tell you that not only do I make stock with vegetable scraps, but so should you!  Actually, this has never been something that I’ve chosen to do.  I have several reasons.

    Firstly,  I prefer to use bone broths as my stock of choice for flavor and nutritional value.  I’ve cultivated a free source of bones for broth making, so bone broths literally cost me nothing to make, plus I get the meat from the bones to use in other dishes and the fat that I skim from the top to cook with as a nice side benefit.

    There’s also a limit to how much broth I can make and use in the course of a week – I generally make between 1 – 2 pots of broth each week in a sixteen quart pot (generally two in the winter, one in the summer).  So let’s say each pot amounts to about ten or twelve quarts.  That’s between 40-96 cups of broth a week, which is a lot, even for a family of eleven!  I like that bone broths have a protein sparing effect and can be used in inexpensive vegetarian dishes to significantly increase the nutrient value of a dish.  I think they taste amazing, too! (We recently sent several meals to neighbors/friends, and they kept commenting on how delicious the soups were – the only secret was that I use broth instead of water. 🙂 )  So if I have to choose between vegetable broths or bone broths, bone broths are hands down more worthwhile in every way for me.

    Next, what kind of vegetables are you getting the scraps from and why?  If the veggies are in good condition, then I don’t peel them so there aren’t many scraps; I include them with the peels in the dish I’m making.  I don’t like to sound finicky or spoiled, because I’m really not, but if the peels are from produce that is starting to spoil, then I have no desire to eat them in any form.  You might wonder about  the tops or bottoms of different vegetables that are cut off, but since  I would only use vegetable scraps if they had been washed and cleaned as well as any of the other vegetables I eat, I’m not willing to do the extra work necessary.  Call me lazy, but washing onion onion skins, beet peels, potato peels, rutabaga peels, etc isn’t where I want to spend my time.  And I’d rather save my onion bottoms to plant in the spring than put them into my stock pot.

    Also, I don’t generally buy organic produce, except when I can buy it at a competitive price.  So if the vegetable is fresh and the peel is clean, but I’m still choosing to peel them, it’s often because it’s my little effort in reducing some of the pesticide consumption for our family, since the pesticides generally are most highly concentrated in the outer layers.  I acknowledge that it would be better if all my produce were organic but it’s not in the budget right now, and concentrating those pesticides further by making stock with the scraps doesn’t bring me closer to my goal of better health for my family.

    However, that doesn’t mean that my vegetable scraps go to waste!  I compost a huge percentage of our vegetable scraps so they end up benefiting us by boosting our soil quality.  I don’t use pesticides when I garden, and strong soil health is very important in preventing insect infestations and having high quality vegetables.  We don’t buy organic fertilizers or compost; our compost all comes from our kitchen food scraps!  So they don’t go to waste and end up saving us money in a different way.

    For those who enjoy transforming their vegetable scraps into broth, terrific!  So much of frugality is personal preference; there are things that I do that would be out of someone else’s comfort zone, and things they do that are outside of mine.  The main thing is to find ways that we can each work within our budgets in a way that is satisfying and productive.

    Avivah