Thank you to everyone who entered in the giveaway from More Than Alive this week!

The 3 winners chosen using random.org are:

Heather Lynn (mhsnoe@)

Kimberly (knchock@)

Barbara (callaghan1812@)

I'll be sending you each an email with instructions for choosing your herbal tea blend or Cane Creek coffee!

The 10% discount on any order from More Than Alive (includes the Berkey water filters!) is still valid through the end of today, December 1, 2011. Discount code: 00009

Full disclosure, as always: When we purchased our Berkey water filter from More Than Alive several years ago, we were so thrilled with it that I signed up as an affiliate with More Than Alive. Purchasing through my links helps support this website. (Thank you!!) The discount code is valid with or without using my links. :)

Giveaway details are at the bottom of this post!

The Money Saving Mom's Budget is a fresh, inspirational book to help you take charge of your finances and get more for less! From "cut the clutter" to "never pay retail", Crystal outlines simple budgeting guidelines and practical ways to make the most of what you have, whether it's time, money, or possessions.

I've been friends with Crystal for many years and, naturally, have read her blogs from the start. I admit to wondering how much new content would be presented in her book The Money Saving Mom's Budget.

I was delighted to find that her book does not read like a compilation of blog posts. ;) It's more "meaty", covers some things in-depth that are not really discussed on her blog, and is just plain encouraging! I also love the real-book format (rather than an ebook) so I think it's definitely worth the $11 to get the book!

One of the more radical stances presented:

"I believe everyone should use coupons. There. I said it. Wait. I take my statement back. If you are one of the .0002 people in America who has never touched food unless it was grown in your own yard, you make toothpaste out of tree bark, and use cloth toilet paper, then I'll exempt you. But the rest of you? You're nonexempt." (p. 86, The Money Saving Mom's Budget)

Ouch. Okay, so I do use a few coupons. At Costco. ::cough, cough:: And when I make my semi-annual trip to a store like Wal-Mart or Target, I usually have a few coupons in hand.

But how realistic is big coupon savings regularly for a larger family that buys little processed food or toiletries? The one-time frozen vegetable deal at Target is just not enough to convince me that with coupons, I can regularly get 10+ pounds of organic frozen veggies for less than $11/month, which is what I pay at Costco. (I share more reasons for doing most of our grocery shopping at Costco in this post.)

I'm probably just coupon-impaired, because Crystal says on page 87, "...you can save at least $25 to $50 for every hour you invest in strategic shopping." About 20 percent of the book discusses couponing and "the drugstore game".

I especially enjoyed the chapter "25 ways to lower your grocery bill without using coupons". Some great, practical tips like "shop every other week" (YES!) and buy in bulk (YES!). :)

Toward the end of The Money Saving Mom's Budget, Crystal reminds us to look at the return on our investment when trying to find ways to save money.

"Personally, if I'm not saving at least $20 per hour by implementing a particular frugal practice, then I'd rather invest my time elsewhere. Of course, this rule doesn't apply if it's something I really enjoy doing." (p. 143, The Money Saving Mom's Budget)

While $20 per hour sounds rather high to me (we don't earn $20/hr. in our household), it's definitely worth considering whether it's better to do something ourselves or to pay for convenience. :)

Perhaps a good exercise would be to list things that can be done "more frugally" in order of greatest ROI to least ROI, to help figure out what should be top priority.

Buying ketchup? Sure. Throwing a load of laundry in the dryer? Okay. Cooking dinner? Not optional. ;)

The Giveaway (5 winners!):

In exchange for honestly reviewing this book, I received a pre-release copy of The Money Saving Mom's Budget. I'll also get one of the final copies after it's released in January.

I'm giving away that copy here! Update: Crystal just emailed and said I can give away 5 copies here! Yay! So there will be FIVE WINNERS instead of just one!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post with one of your favorite money-saving tips, and (if you're not logged in) be sure to include a way for me to contact you if you win! :)

Giveaway is open through midnight (PST) December 31, 2011. Canada and U.S. only, please. Five winners will be chosen using random.org and The Money Saving Mom's Budget book will be shipped to the winners in January, 2012.

Links in this post are my Amazon.com affiliate links, of course. ;)

Canned refried beans from the store are tasteless and pasty. These fresh, homemade refried beans are delicious enough to eat plain, right off the spoon!

When we were first married, Joshua asked me to use very, very little refried beans in his burritos or tacos. Now that I cook fresh beans in the slow cooker and make my own refried beans, he'll eat a big heap of them!

I've heard lots of people say "You can make refried beans just by mashing up your cooked pinto beans... don't bother with re-cooking them."

Now, I am sure that is a good substitute for refried beans. But it is not refried beans. And in my opinion, the flavor of mashed beans doesn't hold a candle to refried beans. ;)

But, refried beans don't have to be complicated or difficult. When I cook a big batch of pinto beans in my slow cooker, I freeze or refrigerate the leftovers. Then, when I need refried beans for the next day (or another meal), I fry the beans. Another option is to make a large batch of refried beans and freeze in 2-cup containers.

Beans in the slow cooker are easy enough for my 7-year-old to make by himself! And thanks in part to having freshly cooked beans, all of our children love it when I serve beans. That makes me (and our food budget) happy! :)

Have I convinced you to try cooking dry beans in your slow cooker yet? If so... homemade refried beans is the next logical step! ;)

Visit Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom for more frugal tips! :)

My friend Lindsey sent me these homemade cookie jar mixes after the birth of Moshe almost 2 (!) years ago. What a beautiful and yummy treat! :) These were some of the oldest photos in my folder of things to blog about. "Better late than never!" is my mantra. ;)

I love bean soups and hopefully some day will find the time to experiment with making some pretty soup-in-a-jar mixes!  Not only are jar mixes fun to make, they're a practical gift and fun to use! I mean, dinner is always more fun when it starts out looking beautiful and involves something already mixed for me. ;)

When making mixes in jars, sometimes the mix doesn't quite reach the top. You'll want to keep those pretty layers in the jar, but many recipes need to use exact measurements and you can't just throw in something extra to fill the jar. ;)

Lindsey gave me this tip for keeping mixes in place and pretty:

Place a layer of plastic wrap over the top of the ingredients in the jar, and then use cotton balls to fill in the space between the ingredients and the lid of the jar. Your ingredients will stay in place and you'll have that perfect-looking gift to give! :)

Here are the two recipes Lindsey used to make cookie mixes for us. Both recipes are from the book "Gifts in a Jar".

Tip: You can find quite a few cookie recipes that would adapt to being made into a jar mix. Just look for recipes with only a couple "wet" ingredients like eggs, butter, or vanilla. That means you'll be able to pre-mix most of the recipe! :) Muffins, cakes, waffles, and corn bread are all good mix-in-a-jar candidates. ;)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 C. brown sugar
1 C. chocolate chips
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1 C. all-purpose flour

Layer all the ingredients in the order given into a wide-mouth 1-quart canning jar. Pack each layer in place before adding the next ingredient.

Tag to attach to jar of cookie mix:
 
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies

1 jar Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
3/4 C. butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375*. In a large bowl, cream the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add the Chocolate Chip Cookie mix and stir until the mixture is well blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Trail Cookie Mix

1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. sugar
3/4 C. wheat germ
1/3 C. quick oats
1 C. raisins
1/3 C. flaked coconut
1/2 C. chopped pecans
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Layer the ingredients in the order given into a wide-mouth 1-quart canning jar. Pack each layer in place before adding the next ingredient.

Tag to attach to jar of cookie mix:
 
Trail Cookies

Makes 3 to 4 dozen

1 jar Trail Cookie Mix
1/2 C, butter or  margarine, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350*. In a large bowl, cream the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add the Trail Cookie Mix and stir until the mixture is well blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Homemade stuffing tips (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. 6 ways to use broccoli stems (Katy at Purposely Frugal)
3. Liquid amounts when pressure cooking (The Local Cook)
4. Using old bananas for baking (Cheryl at The Bz House That Love Built)
5. Less dish washing (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Free bulk goods storage (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
7. Kitchen sanitation tips (Anna at Kolfinna's Korner)
8. All-purpose kitchen spray (Newlyweds Blog)
9. Homemade yogurt tips (Lea at Nourishing Treasures)
10. How to open persnickety pomegranates (Jessica at Delicious Obsessions)
11. Make ahead foods for a feast (Living So Abundantly)

I've been a fan of More Than Alive ever since we purchased our Berkey water filter from them a few years ago. They carry some of my favorite things, have good prices, and ship my orders super quick. (I've written a lot more about our Berkey water filter here. In fact, I have trouble stopping once I get started about how much we love our Berkey!)

And this week I get to give away some of their goodies here! Plus, if you've been waiting to order a Berkey water filter, you can do so this week with 10% off! (See bottom of post for details on the discount.) We bought our Berkey using a 10% off code and we LOVE our Berkey.

I'll tell you what I like to order from More Than Alive, but do check out their website because they carry a lot more than just my favorites. ;)

Herbal tea blends

I love tea -- both "real" tea and herbal teas. I've been drinking lots of herbal tea from More Than Alive this Fall. I have Spring Sensations and Lemon Lover's, and I just ordered more of The Blues Brew, which is my no-sunshine-in-Seattle Winter tea. ;)

The children all love drinking my herbal teas, so I often make an extra cup to share. They're all safe for kids, and I like that they are willing to try new things and explore lots of tastes! And a pound of herbal tea makes a LOT of tea!!

With my last order, I got some chamomile flowers to use for tea for the children. And, some dandelion root (which I haven't used yet). I may experiment with adding a little of both of those to my pregnancy tea blend, too. :)

In the past few years, I've drank tons of pregnancy tea and not much SOS for PMS but some day I'll get back to that one. ;) I'm getting ready to mix up another batch of pregnancy tea this week, actually. I ordered some oatstraw to add in with my blend this time, too.

Pregnancy Tea Blend

My current pregnancy tea blend is:

8 parts red raspberry leaf
3 parts alfalfa
3 parts peppermint
3 parts oatstraw
2 parts nettles

("Part" can be whatever measurement you wish to use... a teaspoon or a cup or anything in between!)

I mix the dried herbs together in a big bowl with a whisk, and then put into containers or bags.

To brew, use very hot or boiling water and 1-2 teaspoons of pregnancy tea per cup of water. Brew for 10+ minutes. Drink hot or cold.

I use my IngenuiTEA to brew my loose herbal teas, because it is so easy to make a couple cups at a time, and doesn't make a mess. Plus, it filters really well so the tea is completely clear. You can see a video of me using the IngenuiTEA back when I got mine about 5 years ago. At the time, I had no idea just how much I would end up using it!! :)

Cane Creek Coffee

More Than Alive also sells coffee, which I reviewed earlier this year. Unfortunately, morning sickness made coffee really unpalatable to me and I haven't dared to drink any since summer! (I've also struggled to enjoy salmon during this pregnancy. Weird!) So for now, I'm just enjoying my selection of herbal teas. :)

Vitamins

I'm still taking my Super Mom vitamins (same as the NOW Special Two with Green Superfoods vitamins), and I also got some mint-flavored chlorophyll to take in the next few months. Nothing like a great-tasting natural supplement to keep my iron levels up! ;)

The Giveaway:

More Than Alive said I could choose what to give away this week, and so I'm going to let YOU choose what you would like to win! Three winners will receive a pound of Cane Creek Coffee or an herbal tea blend of their choice (or two 8-ounce selections).

This giveaway is open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, November 28-30, 2011. Three winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday, December 1, 2011.

How to enter the giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post, telling me what your favorite product is from More Than Alive! If you aren't logged in, make sure you comment includes a way to contact you if you win.

The Discount:

More Than Alive sells quality bulk herbs, bulk foods, and more -- including our favorite household necessity, the Berkey Water Filter. If you've been waiting to order a Berkey water filter, this discount will give you $20+ off your order!

Use this discount code to receive 10% off your order from More Than Alive Monday-Thursday of this week, November 28 - December 1, 2011.

Code: 00009

Full disclosure, as always: When we purchased our Berkey water filter from More Than Alive several years ago, we were so thrilled with it that I signed up as an affiliate with More Than Alive. Purchasing through my links helps support this website! The discount code is valid with or without using my links. :)

I don't review something unless we would spend our own hard-earned money on it, and such is the case with the things we have purchased from More Than Alive. I'm delighted to be able to offer giveaways and discount codes for More Than Alive! :)

Here's my menu for the week ahead!

Monday

Chicken a la King (using leftover turkey), steamed broccoli, maple rosemary bean salad (leftover from Saturday)

Tuesday

Smoky Salmon Chowder (leftover from Sunday -- Joshua made this and it's delicious!), green beans, mixed fruit

Wednesday

Mexican Black Bean Burgers, seasoned baked potato wedges, cooked peas and carrots

Thursday

Turkey Sausage Kale Soup, homemade kefir biscuits, cooked carrots

Friday

Biscuit Crust Pizza, green beans

Saturday

Cooked pinto beans (in slow cooker), served with cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce

Sunday

Not sure yet, but I'd like to try a new recipe for something! :) I printed most of my bookmarked recipes last week, so I have lots to choose from... on a day when I'm feeling more motivated. (Right now I'm tired!)

This week's breakfasts:

Oatmeal and scrambled eggs (x2)
Cold cereal (x2)
Fruit smoothies (homemade kefir, bananas, and frozen fruit) (x3)

This week's lunches:

Leftovers or peanut butter and honey sandwiches (I'll pack leftovers or cooked pinto beans in Joshua's lunches)

On Saturday, we had some friends over for dinner and then I had a little card-making party in the kitchen with the girls. I love making (and sending!) homemade cards. It's so relaxing. :)

I've also taken the approach of trying to make several similar cards at the same time, since it takes me a while to figure out a good design. I wrote more about that here, along with a quick tutorial of one of my simplest thank-you card designs. Winter is the perfect time for me to enjoy this indoor hobby, and with a new baby due next Spring, I'm hoping to replenish my stack of homemade cards before then. :)

Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu plans! :)

My mom made this Chicken a la King during my growing-up years. It's easy, simple, and yet very tasty!

Chicken a la King was one of the meals I requested when we were in Ohio visiting my family back in May. I hadn't eaten it in years, but it was just as good as I remembered.

It seems impossible that so few ingredients could produce such a perfect, warm, comfort food!! This is definitely one of the easiest and fastest from-scratch recipes in my box.

(On a humorous note, my brothers would call this "Chicken a la Cat-food"...)

Chicken a la King is a great use for leftover oven-roasted chicken, and because I freeze bell pepper halves, it's easy to slice off a little red bell pepper for this recipe and return the rest to the freezer. (If you don't have bell pepper halves in your freezer, you should! They're so handy for topping homemade pizza, or recipes like this that just call for a little.)

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! We spent the day with family and friends, and today we're hanging out at home. :) The sun is shining, which might be it's first appearance here this month! ;) I just pulled lunch out of the oven... time to go eat! :)

While waiting at the orthodontist's office, Joshua flipped through a cook book especially for braces-wearers. The pizza recipe they suggested had a biscuit-like crust rather than a yeast-based crust. Of course! A biscuit pizza crust would be much more tender and easier to chew.

I rarely make anything but yeast-based pizza crusts. My Matza Pizza has no yeast and the crust is not what I would consider "easy to chew". ;) Oh, and I did try making "kefir bread" for pizza crust, which is basically kefir and flour made into a dough. It "rose" about as much as my Matza Pizza, which is to say not at all. :)

My yeast pizza crusts are easy and delicious so that's remained my go-to for pizza... until now.

For this Biscuit Crust Pizza, I used my mom's biscuit recipe which is from a Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Breads cook book. It's a really good staple biscuit recipe!

Ruth (3) got to help make the biscuit dough. It came together so fast. I use my bread machine for yeast pizza crusts and always considered it to be fairly quick, but this biscuit crust seemed really quick.

I wasn't sure how well the crust would do without being pre-baked a little before the toppings were added. But biscuits do bake quickly, and I didn't want a too-dark crust. So, I layered the toppings right over the flat biscuit dough and popped it in the oven.

Seventeen minutes later, the crust was perfect and the top looked pretty good too! We all really enjoyed the biscuit crust. I expected it to fall short of my normal pizza crusts, but it was very good!

I can foresee a lot of Biscuit Crust Pizza in our future. Joshua's teeth haven't really hurt, but they also don't come together right for chewing. Even foods that can be cut small and are soft aren't easy to chew when... you can't really chew. And it probably won't improve for 6 months or so. (We'll see! There's a lot of moving for his teeth to do, but they said we'll start seeing big changes in 6 months.)

Me? I'm just glad we won't have to give up pizza. I probably miss it the most in our family. Not only do I love pizza (I do have 20 different pizza recipes on here, after all!) but it's an easy no-brainer meal to add to the week's menu plan! :)

Have you ever made pizza with a non-yeast crust?

Even though I'm picky about which foods I like from a slow cooker, I really do love the crock pot I have and use it at least once a week (for beans).

I wash the crock pot with hot soapy water and a plastic brush. When I'm finished scrubbing and washing, it looks like this. All shiny and clean, right?

Wrong. When it dries, it looks cloudy and doesn't feel smooth on the cloudy parts. (I find this especially after cooking beef stew or beans.)

I've tried re-washing with the hottest water possible, and scrubbing lots with my plastic brush. It still looks cloudy when it dries.

Not only that, but the cloudy parts have a smell, like herbs (from my roast beef) and beans. The smell is all right if I'm only going to cook beef or beans in it. I've told myself that it's basically clean despite looking cloudy!

But last week I wanted to cook apples in my crock pot, and I didn't want the apples to smell like beef or beans. My solution for getting the smell off of my crock pot?

With a wet washcloth, gently rub the spots with baking soda (I used about 1/4 cup). It washed away the smell and the "clouds"!

...and my apples didn't taste like beans. :)

See also: Heather's tip about removing stains from her white crock pot!

Because I never get around to doing a separate post about this stuff, here is some off-topic cuteness from my kitchen helpers:

I asked Eliyahu (5) to fill the pepper grinder for me. Moshe (1) "helped" him and they were so cute together as they intently worked on the special task! And yes, Eliyahu does have more than 1 shirt; that one happens to be his favorite right now and he tries to wear it as often as possible! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Freezing homemade stock (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
2. Pressure cooker info (The Local Cook)
3. Stocking up on Thanksgiving specials (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
4. Recipe book tips (Christy at One Little Word She Knew)
5. Tip for using whole cloves (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Making sweet potato puree (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
7.
8.

I know I've said in the past that I am not an egg nog fan, because I think it just tastes like uncooked pumpkin pie filling. But this recipe has completely changed my mind!

I've made this homemade egg nog several times over the past month, and everyone who has tried it is amazed by the creaminess and delicious flavor!

This recipe should earn me a few points with "real foodies", too. ;) The ingredients are all natural, "real" foods. Of course, this egg nog is a sweet dessert beverage... but it's sweetened with maple syrup! Does that sound odd to you? Well, it tastes amazing! Erica was my recipe inspiration.

Since I was never an egg nog fan (until now), I have to rely on input from others. My friend Jamie came over last week and I served her some of my homemade egg nog. Jamie has been to chef school, worked at restaurants, and loves to experiment in the kitchen. I like to ask her for ideas and help when I'm doing something new, since she's worked with a lot of different foods and ingredients.

I poured a large glass of egg nog for Jamie and when I handed it to her she said, "Wow, is this all for me?!"

Okay, so 2 cups is a huge serving. But when she tried it, she exclaimed about how good it was... and didn't have a problem drinking the whole glass full! (Her 2-year-old son had seconds and asked for thirds!)

Jamie said that when I told her how I made the egg nog, she thought maple syrup in egg nog sounded a little odd. But, she agreed that it did give a great flavor! The homemade egg nog isn't as yellow as egg nog from the store (though that could be fixed with food coloring if desired). It's also not quite as thick.

I do recommend using a thermometer when making this egg nog. A candy thermometer or meat thermometer should work fine; you just need to get the milk and egg mixture heated up to about 160-165 degrees.

Eggs boil at 180 degrees, so you want to stay below that at all costs or your egg nog will be chunky, no matter how much you whisk it, both during and after heating. I've tried to make my recipe instructions really clear so you can get the perfect homemade egg nog on your first try! :)

Despite needing to accurately gauge the temperature when heating, this egg nog really is an easy recipe and will have your family and friends raving about it! :)

See also: Eggless "egg nog", a blended drink that uses an instant vanilla pudding mix for additional flavor and thickening. Joshua really liked that recipe too, but I prefer the simpler flavors of the 100% homemade recipe I've been making.