Tightwad Tuesday: Boiling Water

I was reading All You Magazine this weekend and came across a "green" tip I've never heard before but plan on trying out. It said when boiling water for things like pasta, boil it in the teapot first and then transfer to your cooking pot. Teapots boil water quicker. I think this is a great idea and will be easy to implement since our teapot is always sitting on the stove.

Food Friday: Baked Spaghetti

This has been a crazy week and next week won't be much better so today's recipe is actually a link. I tried this baked spaghetti recipe this week and it is delicous. My picky husband even liked it. I made it the night before and had my husband stick it in the oven when he got home from work so that it was ready by the time I made it home from work. It was wonderful to come home to a homecooked meal. Money Saving Mom has several of these in the freezer for when her baby comes. Since I know my husband approves of this recipe and it is freezable, I plan on making it again this summer before baby comes and keeping it in the freezer. I love finding new freezer recipes because they take the guesswork out of dinner.

Ask the Readers: Make Ahead Recipes

As many of you know, I am the Creative Activities Leader for our MOPS group. Last year, we did two food activities and they were hugely popular. We've decided to add one in last minute this year and I'm planning for next year also, so I need some ideas on what to do. Our budget is $2-3 per person and there are approximately 45 people. Last year we did apple crisp (they could freeze it if not using it that day) and soup in a jar. I'm looking for just about any kind of recipe that can be made cheap and fairly easy. Things we can layer in a jar or a cellophane bag would be perfect for this year. For next year, I'm open to anything.

Feel free to leave a comment or a blog link to any tried and true recipes you have. Thanks!

What Is A Party Without Cake?

I've had fun discovering so many blogs this week through the Ultimate Blog Party. I feel a party is never complete though unless there is cake. For those new to this blog, my toddler turned 3 at the end of February. The above picture is my attempt at making him a cow cake. The idea came from Family Fun. The cake itself can be any recipe so I choose to use my favorite chocolate cake recipe.

This recipe from Hershey's is delicious and very easy to make. Warning, the batter is extremely runny but it comes out perfect once it is cooked. Pretty much any time I want a chocolate cake, this is the recipe I use. I've never made the icing that comes with it but I've had it at a friend's house and it is very good.

Tightwad Tuesday: Cooking for a Small Family

Last week I talked about how to reinvent leftovers. This week, I'm going to focus on how to prevent some of those leftovers in the first place. Most days there are just my husband, me, and a toddler eating dinner. If I make a casserole, I have a ton leftover and I get sick of eating it before it goes bad. My husband isn't a huge fan of leftovers so I'm stuck with the same thing for lunch for days. I've solved this problem using one of the following methods:

Cut the recipe in half: Some recipes easily cut in half, some do not, so this takes a little trial and error. I find the hardest ones to cut in half are those that use whole cans of food. I try to make another recipe within the same week using the other half of the can so that I'm not wasting food.

Split the recipe into two dishes: I usually use this method for items that freeze easily. Whenever I make a lasagna, I usually make it in a loaf pan. One gets eaten for dinner and the other goes straight to the freezer. It is the same amount of work to make both as it is to make one. I do this with meatloaf too. I love having a few meals in the freezer so that I don't have to think about dinner on busy nights.

Food Friday: Peking Pork Chops

This is one of our go to recipes as it is simple, quick, and healthy to make. It cooks in the crockpot so you have a wonderful dinner ready when you get home. I usually prepare the sauce the night before and then just dump everything in the crockpot of a morning. This is an easy recipe to cut in half too. For sides, I usually make baked potatoes and green beans flavored with a little soy sauce and garlic. I'm weird and like to put the extra sauce from the pork chops on my potato - my husband thinks I'm crazy.

Peking Pork Chops

6 pork chops
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 cloves garlic, mashed

Trim excess fat from 6 pork chops. Place pork chops in crockpot. Combine brown sugar, ground ginger, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic (mashed), salt and pepper, to taste. Pour mixture over meat in crockpot. Cook, covered, on low for 4-6 hours or until tender (if I'm going to be gone all day, I use frozen pork chops and cook for 8 hours).

If using 4 oz chops, this is 5 Weight Watchers points per serving.

This post is part of Smockity Frocks What's In Your Crockpot? link up.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Today kicks off the Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. Head over there to find tons of great blogs and prizes.

For those of you new to this blog, let me introduce myself. My husband and I have been married for close to five years. We have one very active 3 year old and another boy on the way - due in mid-July. I've always been frugal and my husband has somewhat led that lifestyle but not to the extent I have. In Oct. 2007 he learned that his job was being cut to part time. He has not been able to find full time work since then so I took my frugal skills to a whole new level to make ends meet. I work part time at a real job and then run a Tupperware business part time. The rest of the time, I'm a SAHM. Many of our friends asked us how we do it and so I started this blog to let others in on our frugal lifestyle. We truly are Living on Less.

I look forward to meeting more of you over the next week as we celebrate The Ultimate Blog Party 2009.