How to Save $1000 Dollars this Year

So how do you save $1000 in a year? Simply by doing 10 things that will save you 2 dollars a week each. Easy right?  Here's my list, I'd love to hear any of your suggestions as well.

1) Make my own Gluten free bread, my recipe costs less than a $1 a loaf (really good by gf standards).  GF bread at our supermarket costs $4 so this will save me $3 a week or $156 a year saved!

2)Use my cloth diapers, I may wait to start this one until after my family get's moved, I haven't been using them much lately because having 2 under 2 and trying to move has been needless to say, tricky.  But, let's say I even use cloth diapers half the time so I'd save $4 a week, or $208 a year! (Alright just typing that number makes me want to use them now, I think I will.....)

3) Dry my laundry outside, this one will have to wait until we move.  I've not run the numbers myself but supposedly this will save, $100 dollars a year easily.

4) Have leftover night once a week instead of making a new meal, or stretch protein by using more rice or beans (just try to eliminate food waste in general).  I'll figure conservatively this one will save my family $5 a week, or $260 a year.

5) Plan better for snacks on the road, no more dollar menu stops!  I confess this takes at least $3 a week from our income, if not more.  Figuring conservatively this will save $156 a year.

6) Use my Swagbucks gift certificates to buy GF flour from amazon. For this I would need to buy 8 packs of flour for $30 so I don't have to pay shipping.  This works out to be a two month supply in that time I typically earn $10 worth of gift certificates from Swagbucks, making each bag $2.50 a piece or $1.50 cheaper than buying it from my grocery store.  This will be a savings of $78 a year.

7) Stop buying a new Goodwill toy for my kids every week : ) They certainly have enough already and extended family tend to spoil them as much as I do.  This will save at least $52 a year.

If I implement these seven simple things my family will have save $1002 in just one year!!


I think I'll be copying the list and hanging it on my refrigerator to keep me motivated.  Any other ideas for this penny pinching Mamma?

By the way if you haven't tried Swagbucks yet, I've seriously made over $25 in gift cards this year without much effort.

Fabulous Mexican Dip

This is not necessarily the healthiest side dish, but it is oh so good.  Check all labels!

1 Box Cream Cheese (I use the kind with the lowest fat so I feel slightly less guilty)
1 Can Gluten Free Chili (I use with turkey meat or vegetarian so I feel slightly less guilty)
Enough Cheddar Cheese to top Everything

Salsa
Fresh Veggies of Choice

Layer the first 3 ingredients on a plate in that order, and microwave, until heated through and cheese is melted.  Top with green bell pepper, onions, salsa, avocado, or whatever else you like.  Serve as a spread for warm corn tortillas or with corn chips.

This is great for parties!  People won't even know they're eating something gluten free.

Gluten Free Stuffing

Being gluten free is made a little easier by having recipes like this one, and for that I am thankful.

As Everyone is planning their menus for thanksgiving I submit to you my cornbread stuffing recipe I found a few years ago.  If made with a gluten free corn bread recipe, it's also naturally gluten free.  Your celiac family will love you for it.  Stuffing was the one Thanksgiving thing I really missed when switching to a gluten free diet.  I make a huge batch so I can freeze a left-over casserole.  Seriously, this is way better than Stoffers and not that hard to make.

You Will Need
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 2 Cups of onion chopped
- 1 Cup of celery
- 2 Cups of Chicken Broth
- 1 16 oz can of corn (drained)
- 2 4 oz can of chilies (optional but very good)
- 3 tbs of fresh parsley (dried is OK, fresh is better)
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp of oregano
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- 6 cups of crumbled corn bread
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Saute the onion and celery with the butter, then combine all the remaining ingredients in a large enough casserole (I generally use 2) and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Feel free to add any other goodies like browned sausage.  I wouldn't recommend cooking this in the bird because by the time the stuffing would be done the turkey would be very dry and over-cooked.

I generally cook this the night before then reheat in the oven while the turkey is resting. 
This Recipe Serves 8 I generally double for my group of 15, we still have mounds left over.

Bread Maker Bread

Nothing smells or tastes better than freshly baked bread, but let's face it Gluten Free bread mixes are quite expensive.  They range anywhere between 5 and 8 dollars just for one loaf.  The following recipe is gluten free and works out to be less than $1 a loaf, that's right less than a $1.  I realize you can make bread for less than $.25 a loaf if you use traditional flour, but less than a $1 is doing really well for gluten free. Not only that but this recipe is designed for the bread maker, making it even easier!  It's the recipe I've been using since I've gotten married and it turns out quite well every time.

Dry Ingredients
2 Cups Brown or White Rice Flour*
1 Cup Soy Flour
1/3 Cup Corn starch
1 packet of unflavored Gelatin (or 1 tbs xanthan gum or guar gum)
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs of Sugar, Honey or Molasses (If using Honey or Molasses combine with wet ingredients)


Wet Ingredients
4 egg Whites
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Cider Vinegar
1 1/4 Cups Warm Water

1 tbs Yeast

Combine the dry and wet ingredients separately, mix well in respective bowls.  Add wet to dry, barely combining.  Add yeast to bread maker, cook on Quick Cycle,  enjoy bread in 3 hours.

The cheapest flour combination is the one I have listed above because I grind my own rice flour in a coffee mill.  I run the rice 2 times through.  It's a little too course to use on it's own in a recipe but it works beautifully when combined with soy flour and cornstarch at the ratios listed in the recipe.  I've also found a 2:1:1/3 combination works very well as a cup for cup replacement in most recipes.  (Make sure to add unflavored gelatin) Investing in a $20 coffee grinder just for my rice has saved us a lot of money in the long run.

If you are allergic to soy flour, it can be replaced with one cup of buckwheat flour, or 1/2 a cup potato starch and 1/2 a cup of tapioca starch.  Both of these alternatives would make the recipe slightly more expensive.

Slow Cooker Yogurt

My oldest has an allergy to mold.  She is so sensitive to mold that she can not eat anything remotely close to it's expiration date, and store-bought dairy products with the exception of Milk are out of the question.  Unfortunately my daughter is also a picky eater, and getting protein down her is like trying to give a cat a pill.  She used to love yogurt, cottage cheese, and hard cheeses but the store bought versions of these all contain mold spores because quite frankly they're too old once they're made, shipped, and stocked.  I've been praying about my daughters diet because her doctor was worried she was too thin.

 To make a long story short I was able to find a fabulous EASY yogurt recipe, at Alicia's Homemaking.  I've tried making homemade yogurt once before and it FAILED miserably but I've been making this recipe several times a week for over a month now and it has not failed once.   The following recipe is a somewhat simplified version of Alicia's.  This year on my Father's side of the family we're doing a White Elephant gift exchange, I'm planning on making some yogurt, dressing up the jar, and including smoothie recipes with it. (I'll be sure to share my smoothie recipes as I compile them.)

No Fail Crock Pot Yogurt

-1/2 a Gallon of Milk (I've used skim, 2% and whole all worked for me)
-1/2 a cup of Starter Yogurt (Can be store bought, just buy a small cup of plain or vanilla yogurt, I used yoplait)
-1/2 a cup of Sweetener (Optional, I've used splenda and honey in the past, both work well)
- 1 tbs of vanilla extract (Optional)

-Heat the milk in a crock pot on LOW for 2 1/2 hours
-Unplug your crock pot and let the warm milk rest for 2 1/2 to 3 hours
- After the milk has rested whisk in your starter yogurt, sweetener (if using), and vanilla (if using) If  you like sweetened yogurt now is the time to sweeten it, if you wait until the process is complete it will not blend as well
- Insulate the crock pot in a bath towel or several dish towels and allow it to incubate for 8+ hours, over night is fine.
-At this point you have a very thin yogurt, I strain mine using cheese cloth or a coffee filter.

This will stay good for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, however if I'm giving it to my daughter I use it within a week, we've never even made it that long in my house.  Whenever I start to run low on yogurt I start a new batch and use the last 1/2 cup as my starter.

By the way, since I hand wash and reuse my cheese cloth, this recipe only costs $1 to make and turns out fabulous yogurt EVERY time!

Enjoy!
Kasey

Teething Biscuits

No teeth have made their appearance but my littlest is drooling by the bucket and chewing anything she can get her hands on.  She turns up her nose, however, to the teething toys in favor of sister's books.  Today she got a hold of Ivy's precious Elmo bath book, gasp! Needless to say I needed to find something else for this dear little one to gnaw upon.

I found the basic recipe on cooks.com and it worked very well with my gluten free flour mix.  My mix  had xanthan gum added in it, if your flour does not be sure to add at least a tbs of some sort of binding agent (xanthan gum, guar gum, or gelatin) to your recipe.

If you don't have a store bought mix on hand my go-to-flour mix is 2 parts rice flour to 1 part soy flour and 1/3 part  corn starch with added binding agent.

  (My little one gnawing on a  homemade biscuit)

 Teething Biscuits

1 1/2 c. flour (white, whole wheat or gluten free flour mix)
  1/4 c. oil (or butter)
   1/2 c. infant cereal
     1/2 c. water

Sift the flour and cereal together.  Combine the remaining ingredients, adjust the amount of water so your dough has a pie crust consistency.  Roll the dough out and cut into crackers.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until crispy.

Gluten free mixes don't always work the best in recipes like this, but the rice cereal really helped bind things together.

Naturally Gluten Free Mexican Casserole

I'm sure plenty of people have a recipe like this in their arsenal but this is my twist on it.  It's actually fairly healthy if you don't use too much cheese : ) and you serve it in lettuce wraps rather than tortillas.  It's also a naturally gluten free dish.  I was going for speed last night, I had an incredibly dirty kitchen (please don't judge me) and only half an hour of T.V. time left.  (I tend to be the television police in my house, the girls are very lucky if they watch much more than an hour a day.) Based on the random Mexican type things I had in my pantry I made this casserole, which I cooked in a foil lined pan so hopefully I don't let my dishes pile up quite so high this week.

All I did was start with a layer of cooked rice, then piled everything else on top.  I cooked it at 300 degrees for an hour and a half.  I tend to base my cooking times on when I get a chance to make dinner and when my husband is getting home.  I typically only have one shot in the kitchen while the girls are occupied sometimes two hours before my husband get's home sometimes half an hour sometimes 10 minutes.  Needless to say my food never cooks at the same temperature from one night to the next.

These were the layers I used, but feel free to omit or add anything you'd like I'm pretty convinced this is a fool proof recipe. I did season half way through, then I seasoned the top layer with pepper, paprika, cumin, garlic, paprika, and very light chili powder (I was hoping my toddler might try some ha ha ha...) Serve by itself, in lettuce wraps, corn tortillas wraps, wheat tortillas, (if you're not on the gluten free band wagon.) or over corn chips.

If you have a gluten intolerance double and triple check canned ingredients, sometimes companies will change their recipes and start adding wheat starch.  This is uncommon for the ingredients used in this recipe but it has been known to happen.
Layers

• Cooked Rice (can be leftovers)
• Can of Drained Tomatoes (I used no salt added)
• Can of Corn ( I did not add any additional salt to my recipe because the corn had plenty)
• Can of Drained and Rinsed Kidney Beans
• Cook and Seasoned Ground Beef ( I purchased  Gluten Free ready made taco mix because with 2 little ones I know there are nights when this will make my life infinitely easier, I also generally keep freezer bags of browned ground beef around so I can make quick meals like this.)
• Frozen Bagged Pepper and Onion Blend.  (This is my favorite Kroger brand discovery, it has red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, and onions.  I buy it when it's on sale for a $1 making it so much cheaper than it's fresh counter part! I use these veggies in a ton of different recipes especially because the prep work is already done)
• Cheddar Cheese (Added during the last 10 minutes of cooking, feel free to add it sooner if you know you'll be busy towards the end of your cooking process but it does change the taste of the cheese when you do things this way.)

Making it Healthier (In general this is a very healthy dish, but here's some more ideas if you're trying to loose weight or watch your sodium intake)

• Omit the beef for a vegetarian dish.
• Make sure your canned food is "no salt added."
• Serve in lettuce Wraps or Low fat No salt added Tortilla Chips
• Warm corn tortillas in the microwave rather than frying.
• Omit or use light cheese

Hope you enjoy, we sure did!

Mini Microwave Cakes

This recipe is for when you don't want to make a huge cake (maybe because you'll eat it all........) or when you just want something sweet in a hurry.  It's a great starter recipe too for our burgeoning little homemakers and a great recipe to use for those little chocolates we get on Valentines day.  It works well with Gluten Free Cake mix or the regular flour varieties.

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs of cake mix any flavor (I use Pamela's gluten free chocolate cake, by far the best Gluten Free mix in my opinion)
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs oil or melted butter

Combine ingredients and divide batter between 3 teacups, 2 regular sized coffee cups, or just put it all in one over sized coffee mug and microwave for 3 minutes.  My preference is 3 teacups (I put them all in the microwave together) the first time I made this recipe I put it all in one mug.  It turned out well, but was a HUGE portion of cake.

Fast and Fun, feel free to try these variations:

• Swirl some peanut butter in with the batter
• Throw some nuts in
• Throw some m&m's or baking chocolate in
• Throw a piece of valentine's chocolate in
• Add some fresh or frozen fruit
• Add some Jelly or Jam

I love this recipe because my cake mix is lasting a lot longer than if I just made one cake or cupcakes at the beginning of the week.  (you'll understand why this is great if you've ever bought a bag of Gluten free cake mix and nearly passed out when you looked at the price)   Hope you enjoy!

Naturally Sugar Free Butter Cake

I'm not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners, but lately I've been trying to cut down on the amount of refined sugar my family consumes.  This recipe is great because it uses the natural sweetness of fruit juice to sweeten the cake and nothing else.  Little ones love it and their none the wiser.  I believe I originally got the recipe from http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/ of course I tweaked it so it would be gluten free, but feel free to use your old fashioned white flour if you don't have any wheat limitations.

* 1/2 cup butter melted or Margarine
*12 oz frozen juice concentrate (any apple is by far my favorite)
*2 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 2 cups flour (gluten free flour mix or 1 cup rice : 2/3 soy : 1/3 cornstarch)
* 1 packet unflavored gelatin (omit if using traditional flour)
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking soda

Melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly.  I'm never very patient and don't let it wait more than a few minutes, this doesn't seem to affect the recipe. Combine the butter and fruit juice concentrate in a large bowl.  Beat in eggs until smooth and add extract (I also add in a tsp of cinnamon if making an apple cake).  Add in the remaining ingredients and whisk until batter is smooth and fluffy.  Do not over beat or the cake will become stiff.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, spring test for doneness.

I've also made cupcakes with this recipe to good success.  Hope you enjoy.

Pancake Mix Muffins

I love this recipe! It's fabulous and can easily be made gluten free! It's a great one for little helpers in the kitchen too.  My mother promised my daughter one afternoon they would make muffins but she didn't have any gluten free flour, she only had pancake mix. With a little internet digging I came across this recipe from cooks.com.  The first batch of batter was  a little watery, but we're pretty sure that was because of a suprise toddler addition to the recipe not the recipe itself because every other batch turned out perfectly.

1 Egg
2 Cups Pancake Mix (Gluten Free Works well too!)
1/3 cup sugar (splenda also works)
2/3 cup milk
2 tbs vegtable oil

Stir In Fruit of your choice (we used bananas, apples, and strawberries all to great sucess) Bake at 400 between 15 and 18 minutes.