Found on the Internet: Easy Cheap Meals

All You Magazine is releasing a collection of 148 thrifty meal suggestions called ALL YOU Eat Well, Save Big.  

 

Each menu in this publication is designed to be made for less than $2.50 per person.  In my house that sort of saving can go pretty far.  You can preview 10 suggestions from this book by clicking here.

Bad Days are OK!

     I have fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in your muscles, ligaments and tendons, as well as fatigue and multiple tender points — places on your body where slight pressure causes pain. ---MayoClinic.com

    Having fibromyalgia and kids at the same time is... well, "interesting" is the first word that comes to mind.  "Pain-filled" is a close second, though.  It's interesting because you never know, upon waking, what kind of day you will have.  And, to be completely honest, with small children in the house, it's completely irrelevant how YOUR day is going.  You have to keep pushing so that THEY can make it through the day with a good day.  Pain-filled is pretty self-explanatory.  I'm a hugger.  I hug my kids all the time... and it hurts to hug them most the time.

     I wake up each morning when my husband leaves the house.  As he pointed out, I've always been a bit of a morning person.  I listen to the kids playing in their room as I try to get my muscles moving.  Some mornings this might take two minutes; other mornings might take an hour or longer.  I systematically stretch each part of my body while I'm lying down- toes up to ankles, knees, back, neck, even my ears get some kind of movement applied to them.  Skipping even one part will result in a crash later in the day.  Sadly, this delay in my schedule makes my morning personality a lot less obvious. 

    My days run pretty smoothly for the most part.  It'll become obvious within the first hour I'm up as to how active I can be for the day.  For the most part, if it's a good day, I can function normally- even if a bit slower than I'd like.  If it's a bad day, it's like swimming upstream against a heavy current while yelling "OW!" under my breath the entire time.  I actually hobble when I walk.  I have to pick and choose what I spend my energy on.  If I'm going to make peanut butter sandwiches on the kids for lunch, I'll have to forgo loading a second load of laundry into the washer today.  If I'm going to pop a frozen casserole into the oven, I might as well not make the beds.  It's an exchange that I've learned to live with- even if I'm not entirely loving it.

     Then there are the children.  My kids know that "Mommy hurts".  They're pretty gentle when they hug me or lean against me.  They don't really understand why we can't go to the park every sunny day or don't understand why I can't play catch with them in the yard- but they do know that it's because "Mommy hurts."

     And the acceptance from my kids that I'm not going to be one of those Moms- you know, the "Super Moms" hurts more than the muscle pain does.  I really want to be a "Super Mom."

     But, more than anything, I want to be able to say, "It's ok that I've had a bad day today.  Tomorrow will be better."

Household Hint Wednesday: Opening Plastic Cases

Imagine it, you've just bought the cutest new toy for your child, a nifty kitchen gadget, or a new bottle of perfume.  But, before you can have fun with your new purchase, you've got to fight it out of it's hard plastic clam shell casing.

In the old days, I would have just grabbed a sharp knife or a heavy pair of scissors, but then I found a quicker way: my manual can opener.

photo courtesy of istock/Sean Locke

Slide the manual can opener over the edge of the clam shell, close tightly, and begin to turn the handle.  Depending on the thickness of the plastic, you should be open in one or two rounds. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Crack in a Jar

     Almost everyone has bought that chocolately, hazel-nutty goodness in a jar.  Admit it, you know the one I'm talking about.  You might be like I was, with bottles of the stuff hoarded in an upper cabinet (the cabinet the kids can't reach...) just waiting for a midnight snack for a well-deserving Mom.

     It's a rare treat for me, true, but then I made the mistake of putting some in my son's bento on graham crackers.  Sadly, my days of solo Nutella snacking were over- my small jar no longer lasts more than a week.  At over five bucks a pop, it was one of my more expensive treats.  So, I had to find a way to make my own. 

Sadly, I have no photos of my homemade goodness.  It really doesn't last long enough to be photographed.

Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

1 cup hazelnuts, shelled and cleaned

4 ounces milk chocolate chips, melted

2 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

a few drops vegetable oil 

pinch of salt

To clean the hazelnuts, shell them and wrap in a towel.  Rub briskly until all skins are removed.  Toast nuts either in a pan on the stove or under the broiler until just fragrant and lightly golden.

Using a smaller food processor (I prefer a mini-prep) or nut butter grinder, pulse the nuts until it begins to form a paste-like consistency. 

Add the melted chocolate, cocoa, sugar and vanilla. Continue to process until smooth and well-mixed.

Add vegetable oil, slowly, one drop at a time, and pulse to a smooth, spreadable consistency.  

Store in a tightly sealed glass jar in the fridge.  Will last approximately 3 weeks refrigerated (if it doesn't get eaten first!)

Tip: Hazelnuts can be pricey.  I typically pick mine up around the holidays from the bulk bins at the market.  Otherwise, you can order them from bulk food suppliers or find them in the bulk bins at some health food stores.

Delayed Again

There's not going to be a Tutorial Tuesday today.

What can I say?  Life intervened again and in the few spare moments I had to take photos, it was too dreary to get any light.  (And in this old cottage, the lights are just too dim for good photos.)

I am still gathering topic ideas for tutorials everyone would like to see.  I'm hoping for a break from this snowy weather to get one day of sunshine and photograph several tutorials at once.

And now to go pry the peanut butter jar out of my toddler's mouth.