About 15 months ago now, we embarked on a new "make our own" adventure: Vanilla Extract!

Making homemade vanilla extract is simple, and can save significant money long-term, especially if you do a lot of baking!

(Read more for the recipe and pictures...)

Last fall, Joshua surprised me by ordering an EatSmart Precision Pro kitchen scale! I had been wanting a kitchen scale for various reasons, but hadn't taken the time to research and figure out which scale would work best for us. What a fun surprise to have a kitchen scale! And I have indeed been using it regularly since.

Between shopping at Costco, bulk food stores, and co-ops, many of our groceries come in bulk quantities. While it's quite possible to just take wild guesses when making a recipe, it's been extremely handy to have a scale for measuring things. And I've found it's much easier to create a new recipe with exact measurements now that I can weigh how much I'm using!

Some of my favorite items to weigh:

Dry pasta
Dried beans (knowing how much to use from the 25# bag!)
Flour (for exacting bread making)
Fresh fruits
Fresh veggies (especially potatoes in recipes)
Cooked meats (beef or chicken) for the freezer
Shredded cheese (especially when adding to a salad!)
Cheese chunks
Cream cheese (for cheesecakes)

...and anything for which I need to know a calorie count!

This food scale came with a calorie factor booklet, which is a guide to figuring out how many calories are in anything from a banana to watermelon to lettuce to chicken breast to oats.

The "calorie factor" is how may calories are in each gram of food. Pineapple, for example, has a calorie factor of .50 which means that there is half a calorie in each gram of fresh pineapple. I weighed my bowl of pineapple (290 grams) and was able to quickly figure the calories: 145.

This has made it very easy to keep track of calories while eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies!

I also find it's easier to weigh a serving of cheese, chips, nuts, etc. than to measure or try to count (chips).

Features I like about the EatSmart food scale:

Weighs up to 11 pounds
Has a TARE feature, allowing me zero the scale with weight on it
Easy to use
Seems accurate, even for fairly small measurements (I use grams a lot)

Dislikes:

Made in China
The pretty, shiny scale is actually rather plastic-y
The buttons are click-y

Before I started keeping track of calories, I used this scale a few times a week. After starting to use it for food portion sizes and calorie counting, I found myself reaching for the scale many times each day!

Do you have a kitchen scale? I'd love to hear your favorite uses for it, as well as what kind of scale you own!

One of the meals on last week's menu was this delicious recipe for Three-Cheese Stuffed Peppers! We had gotten bell peppers on sale last week, and we all really enjoyed them stuffed with yummy cheeses and spinach. It had been quite a while since I made stuffed peppers so they were a special treat!

My boys thought the stuffed peppers looked a little strange, but after tasting the small portion we put on their plates, they were begging for seconds! It was a good opportunity to remind them that "Mommy always makes delicious food" (well, aside from a few disasters...) and that it's good to try new things!

We had a busy week, making a total of 4 delicious cheesecakes! Two were for a friend's party, and two were in celebration of our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a blessed weekend with company to help us celebrate! Praise God for His sustaining grace and love towards us!

When we made the cheesecakes for our friend, I used a tip someone posted here a couple years ago, about transporting cheesecakes.

I cut a circle of cardboard to fit in the springform pan, and then wrapped it in foil.

I pressed the crust onto the foil-wrapped cardboard (in the pan) and made the cheesecake as usual.

The bottom of a measuring cup works perfectly to press the crust into the pan! Joshua discovered this trick and now we always use it.

When the cheesecake was chilled, we cut it and placed it (still on the foil-wrapped cardboard, but out of the springform pan) on some sticky tape in a flat box, and wrapped the whole box in plastic wrap.

Eliyahu was up at 5am as I was finishing wrapping the cheesecakes, so I took a picture of him with them before Joshua headed out the door to work (they were for a co-worker).

Check out this post for the best way to slice a cheesecake! This is how we sliced all of our cheesecakes, and they were picture-perfect.

More cheesecake tips can be found here.

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. Menu planning w/Google calendar (Tara)
2. Freezing unbaked scones
3. Using up lots of bananas (Erin)
4. Tips for deviled eggs (Cheryl)
5. Using parchment paper (Alyssa)
6. Graham cracker crust tip (Kolfinna)
7. Freezing fragile foods
8. Magnet tips (Trixie)
9. Egg salad tip (Rachel)
10. Storing kitchen gadgets (Linda)
11. Easy avocado dicing (Rachel)
12. Fluffier and lighter brown rice (Kristin)
13. Drying dishes (Mary Jo)

Raised by frugal parents, it's easy for me to put finances into a budget plan. I've found I need to think of my daily food intake as a budget as well, measured in calories.

When I had no idea how many calories I was consuming in a day, it was easy to just keep eating (and gaining). I didn't know how many calories I even needed per day, so if I was hungry, I ate. And I even ate when I wasn't hungry. (Cheesecake beckons at all hours!)

I had to ask myself, "Am I eating right now simply because I enjoy the taste of this food, or am I enjoying delicious food while satisfying hunger and nourishing my body?" There's nothing wrong with thoroughly enjoying every bite, but that enjoyment needs to be coupled with meeting my body's needs, not burdening it with excess.

Quick steps to a calorie budget:

1. Figure out your daily calorie needs. I used an online calorie calculator using my weight, height, gender, and activity level. Since I'm breastfeeding, I added an additional 300-500 calories to my "budget".

2. Keep track of your spending. I always cringe at the words "counting calories" but I've found again and again that keeping track of the calories I consume is the only way for me to maintain a healthy weight loss. I wrote more about calorie counting in this post, including a calorie-breakdown of our homemade pizza.

When I only have ~2,000 calories to spend each day, I start thinking of some "frugal foods" to eat!

Bananas, at about 100 calories each, remain one of my favorite breakfast foods. They're also a quick snack, and seem to give a lot of energy from those calories! Apples are another favorite.

In-the-shell peanuts are one of my favorite protein snacks. I know peanuts are very high-calorie, so we buy the ones in the shell. Shelling them takes time, so I get to enjoy them more! A half-cup of peanuts (in the shell) is 170 calories. And not surprisingly, those 170 calories really fill me up! (For an hour or so...)

I also love roasted almonds. You may laugh, but I have figured out that our almonds (from Costco) have an average of 7 calories in each. Sometimes I finish the day with  ~50 calories left over, and I "spend" the rest on almonds! Other days, I end up going to bed a little hungry, but I know it's okay since I know how much food I consumed that day.

Shredded cheese on my salads is another way to make a salad seem more like a full meal. I usually opt for mozzarella cheese rather than cheddar, since it's only 80 calories per ounce rather than 110!

What are your favorite foods that give "bang for the buck"? :)

Crystal has a guest post with frugal weight loss ideas on her blog, Money Saving Mom.

I especially resonate with "Go Outside"! As a mom of energetic, growing children, I know they need the fresh air and exercise just as much as I do! As I ease back into "everyday life" (yes... the babymoon has to end at some point, right?) it's my goal once more to take the children outside every single day.

A couple of my favorite "free" weight loss tips:

Drink plenty of water!

Get enough sleep!

And on that note, it is time for me to feed a little boy and head to bed myself! :)

P.S. My original weight-loss post, which I still re-read for inspiration can be found here!

After the birth of our baby Moshe 6 weeks ago, both Joshua and I got really motivated to start eating more healthy foods and less not-so-healthy foods. After giving birth, I finally got back on talking terms with our bathroom scale and faced the reality that my nursing baby needed me to be eating lots and lots of nutritious foods and my body needed me to seriously cut back on the desserts!

One of the ways we have incorporated more fresh veggies into our daily diet has been through lunchtime salads. Joshua takes a big salad to work for his lunch ("If that's all I have to eat, well, I'll eat it!"). I eat a big salad here at home for my lunch, taking bites in between changing diapers, washing little hands, nursing my baby, and rescuing children from disasters and emergencies.

If I had to do up salads daily, or even a couple times a week, there's just no way I'd find the time for it. I mean really, a granola bar (or even a big bowl of homemade granola with milk!) is just a whole lot easier.

So to make salads easier, Joshua and I have been making up a week's supply on Sunday evenings. This has worked wonderfully! I have no excuse to not enjoy a big salad every day, and it's just so handy!

This week, Ruth (2) helped me in the kitchen as I made salads. Joshua had been to Costco earlier in the day, so we had plenty to work with!

We recently got a salad spinner, and I must say it is a nice tool to have! The lettuce and spinach leaves get nice and dry and the lettuce keeps a lot longer in the fridge. In the past, our salads were always turning brown after 2-3 days. Now, I can keep a container of salad for 5 days without it turning brown, and even longer some times! Oxidized lettuce isn't harmful to eat, but it's not fit to serve to company, and it's just not as pleasant or enjoyable. (We have this salad spinner, only in white, and we got it at Costco.)

I love the carrots from Costco: $5.29 for a ten-pound bag! Since they're organic, I usually just scrub the carrots rather than peeling them, so there is very little waste from this big bag. I shredded some for salads and cut some into sticks for the children. I also went ahead and diced some to cook later this week (along with peas) for the evening's cooked vegetable side dish.

Here is Ruth with all the finished salads! Yum!

Now... is there really room in the fridge for that many pounds of salad?!

Yes! There was just enough room. This very, very full fridge will be mostly emptied by next week's Costco trip!

Joshua likes ranch salad dressing. We mix it with an equal part water, to make it easier to coat the lettuce (and cut down on calories!). These are the little containers of dressing he takes to work for his salad.

A colorful container of salad for Joshua's lunch! If he's adding chicken or boiled eggs, I send those along in a separate baggie.

If anyone has tips for making salads easier, I'd love to hear! I'll be sharing more healthy eating and menu tips as time allows! :)

For longer shelf life, store celery in vegetable drawer, wrapped snugly in aluminum foil.

I like to save the celery hearts for soup. (Hearts from two bunches of celery are shown above.)

After we use the green stalks for salads or celery sticks, the light inside stalks, along with all of the leaves, are perfect for adding to vegetable soup or chicken soup! Just wrap in foil and save until you're ready to make soup.

More of my favorite foil tips:

Use foil to keep bread from browning too quickly in the oven

How to keep foil from sticking to the casserole it covers

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. Keeping flour fresh (Katie)
2. Food Saver tips (Donna)
3. Choosing asparagus (Alea)
4. Baking soda in the kitchen (Cherity)
5. Stretching soup (Rachel)
6. Grinding flax tip
7. Clumpy brown sugar (Christy)
8. Avocado tips (Loretta)
9. Freshness of food when shopping (Kolfinna)
10. Chicken stock tips
11. Uses for egg shells (Aimee)
12. Saving a burnt cake (Toni)
13. Grated cheese tips (Annie)
14. Keep eggs from expiring (Rena)
15. Measurement conversions (Mary Ann)

While I never seem to be doing everything I wish to accomplish, there's usually a few things that are going smoothly at any given time. Right now, one of the "smooth" things has been meal planning.

For the past few months, I've actually been successfully planning a weekly menu every week! We're focusing on extra fresh fruits and veggies, as both Joshua and I want to be healthier -- and I must say, I do feel better with how we've been eating lately!

Here's the menu plan I just made out for this coming week:

Breakfasts:

Homemade Mocha Frappuccinos (for Joshua only; 2 cups per day)

Lots of fruit -- fresh bananas, apples, and pears; frozen blueberries

Toasted and buttered homemade wheat bread OR homemade granola with milk (I've been keeping 2 kinds of homemade granola on hand -- my mom's granola recipe and my favorite Cinnamon Crunch Granola)

Lunches:

Salad (with Romaine lettuce, spinach, carrots, celery, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, shredded cheese, and leftover chicken breast) -- I prepare a huge amount Sunday evening and then Joshua and I eat salad Monday-Friday for lunch

Fresh veggie sticks (carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers) -- for the kids only

Cheddar cheese slices, mixed nuts, in-shell peanuts, milk -- for the kids only

Snacks: Roasted almonds, bananas, frozen peas (kids)

Dinners:

Sunday -- Oven-roasted chicken, baked potatoes, green beans

Monday -- Salmon Potato Casserole, peas, corn

Tuesday --Three-cheese stuffed peppers, garlic bread, green beans

Wednesday -- My Mom's Meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans

Thursday -- Leftover meatloaf, leftover salmon potato casserole, green beans

Friday -- Easy homemade pizza (x2), cooked carrots, cooked peas, and cheesecake*

Saturday -- Leftover pizza; something from the freezer (burritos, perhaps?); veggies; fresh fruit

*Friday is our 8th anniversary; I'm angling for this chocolate caramel almond cheesecake that Joshua created for our 5th anniversary!

One of Joshua's coworkers gave us this pumpkin last fall. I love using fresh pumpkin, and finally -- the very day I went into labor with Moshe! -- I found a quick moment to use it! (Good thing fresh pumpkins store well!)

Eliyahu (4, above) had a great time helping me scoop out the seeds. Standing on a stool next to the counter, the task kept him busy for quite a while!

I contemplated baking the pumpkin, since readers here have told me how easy that method is. But in the end I decided to stick with the familiar: cut the pumpkin into fourths and cook in a large pan (covered) with a couple inches of water until tender. I drain the water, remove pumpkin from the rind, and mash with a potato masher to make my "puree".

That same day, I made two pumpkin sheet cakes for Ruth's 2nd birthday. These cakes are really easy to make and always bring rave reviews!

I froze the extra pumpkin puree in Ziplock bags for future cakes and cookies. I never did get around to roasting the pumpkin seeds, but I figured that having a new baby excused me from trying to do "everything". :)

We love fresh pears -- when they're ripe. I rarely bought pears because all too often they would remain green and hard and hardly sweet... until they started going bad.

Joshua found a solution that has worked well for ripening pears. We place a ripe banana in the bag of pears and leave it with them for a couple days. The pears turn soft and sweet and absolutely delicious!

When the pears are ripe, we take out the banana. Joshua prefers his pears cold, so we usually put them in the fridge at that point. Yum!

The pears pictured above are Red D'Anjou pears from Costco. Very delicious and with very little waste (just the small core), $3.79 for 6 lbs. is fruit we can afford! :)

Does anyone have any other fruit-ripening tips?

We have had similar trouble with buying green bananas; they would spoil without ripening. Placing them near some already-ripe bananas helps them to ripen nicely!

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. Cooking with pears vs. apples (Rachel)
2. Bread-baking tips (Christy)
3. Absorbing excess grease (Heather)
4. Toast without a toaster (Kolfinna)
5. Space-efficient freezing and thawing ground beef (Laura)
6. Kitchen/dish soap (Aimee)
7. Easily remove egg shells (Annie)
8. Pan cleaning tip (Lindsey)
9. Cooking with herbs tips (Sherrie)
10. Buying/using bargain candy
11.
12.