How to Get Dinner on the Table … Even On the Crazy Days

January 23, 2012 By 2 Comments

Whether you’re dealing with a fussy newborn or a cranky toddler,  there are days when it can seem impossible to get dinner on the table.

Mama, meet your new best friend.

My slow cooker and I are in love.

Okay, maybe the feeling’s not mutual.  My slow cooker has never actually professed its feelings for me.

But at any rate, I am in love with my slow cooker.  In fact, I use it so often that my dear husband has been known to light up like the 4th of July over a humble grilled cheese sandwich, just because it didn’t come out of the slow cooker.

Yeah, I use it that much.

So mama, if your slow cooker is collecting dust in the back of your pantry, if it’s in the section of the basement dedicated to unused wedding gifts, or if you {gasp} don’t own one …

It’s time to bust it out and get your slow cook on.  This little guy will help you feed your family, even on the crazy days, without turning to frozen pizza or Burger King.  Not that I’ve ever done that.  {Ahem}

Here are just a few of the reasons I love my slow cooker:

  • It’s forgiving.  If you’re tossing ingredients into the slow cooker and you have to step away to change a diaper, then soothe a boo-boo, then rescue a beloved fire truck that got stuck under the couch, no harm done.  The slow cooker will be there when you get back, and your meal will taste just as yummy.

  • It’s easy.  Literally, anyone can cook with one.  Most recipes just require you to put ingredients into the pot and stir.
  • It’s flexible.  Slow cooker meals leave a lot of wiggle room as far as when they’re “done” cooking.  So if your husband gets home from work late, the meal will still be hot and ready for him.  It’s not like it’s a chicken cordon bleu fresh from the oven that will be cold and rubbery if it’s not eaten immediately.
  • It frees up your time.  I don’t know about you, but 4pm – 6pm is the most stressful time of day for me.  (There’s a reason they call it “the witching hour.”)  Little Man is cranky because he’s hungry and tired, my husband isn’t home yet, and I’m usually exhausted by then.  The last thing I want to be doing at that time is standing over the stove tending some high-maintenance dish.  On slow cooker days (which is just about every day, if we’re being honest), I just toss in all the ingredients in the morning and I can spend the rest of the day getting other stuff done.
  • It saves money.  Slow cooking tenderizes even the toughest of meats, so you can get away with buying cheaper cuts of meat.
  • It’s cool.  I don’t mean “cool” as in “hip” or “sexy,” although I suppose that point could be argued.  :)   I mean it doesn’t generate a lot of heat.  I hate, hate, hate to be hot — which is why I eschew the stove from June to August and cook with my slow cooker all summer long.
  • It’s versatile.  I’ve whipped up everything from pot roast to banana bread in my trusty o’le slow cooker.

The slow cooker works around your schedule, which is why it’s so great for busy stay-at-home moms.  Later this week, I’ll share a super-easy weekly meal plan that even the busiest mama can handle, with plenty of slow cooker recipes.  Stay tuned!

God bless,
Megan

 

Filed Under: Homemaking

10 Easy Ways to Save Money on Laundry

December 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Having a baby added a lot more of everything to my life.

A lot more laughter.  A lot more love.

A lot more laundry.  (How can such a tiny little person produce such copious amounts of laundry?)

Here are 10 easy ways to clean your clothes without breaking the bank:

  1. Use less detergent.  I used to fill the detergent cap all the way up.  The more, the better … or so I thought.  And then my mother-in-law clued me in to this groundbreaking idea — you don’t need to use that much detergent!  Now I use about 1/4 cup of detergent for moderately soiled loads, and the clothes come out just as clean.
  2. Cut dryer sheets in half.  That’s right.  Just bust out the scissors and cut all the dryer sheets in half.  Then use a half sheet per load.  Your dryer sheets will last twice as long, and your clothes will be just as soft.  I promise.
  3. Stop using dryer sheets altogether.  I know, this is a bit extreme for some of you.  A couple of years ago I would never have considered this.  But after Little Man’s bout with eczema last winter, I stopped using dryer sheets on his clothes because the fragrance chemicals can irritate sensitive skin.  And we’ve never looked back.  His clothes are plenty soft and smell just fine.  In fact, they smell … like nothing at all.  Which, when it comes to baby clothes, is the best smell of all, if you ask me.
  4. Wash with cold water.  We wash all of our loads, except for sheets and towels, with cold water.  Why?  Since most of the energy used to wash a load goes toward heating the water, you’ll save $60 – $100 a year if you wash 80% of your loads with cold water.
  5. Play the drugstore game to get detergent for cheap … or possibly for free.  Never heard of the drugstore game?  It’s a savings strategy that combines sales, coupons and store rebates to score smokin’ deals at CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.  By playing the drugstore game, I’m able to get laundry detergent for $2 or less.  (Hint: If you’re interested in trying this out, I highly recommend exploring Money Saving Mom.  That’s how I learned how to “play the game.”)
  6. Make your own homemade laundry detergent.  I haven’t tried this yet.  But I’m on quite the crunchy kick as of late, and in my quest to eliminate toxic chemicals from our home, I’m planning to try this recipe for homemade detergent once our current supply runs out.  It’s ultra cheap, easy to make, toxin-free, and from what I hear … it works.  (I’ll update with a review once I’ve tried it myself!)
  7. Grease stain?  Don’t throw it out until you try this.  Time was, if a grease stain was found on one of my shirts, that shirt was headed for the trash can.  See, I thought that grease stains were the terminal illness of the laundry world.  That for which there is no cure.  And then, one fateful day, I had this “a-ha!” moment.  If Dawn dish soap cuts grease on dishes, will it also cut grease on clothes?  Now, when I spot a grease stain, I wet a dish cloth with warm water, add a dollop of Dawn, and scrub the heck out the stain.   Then I toss it in the hamper and wash as usual.  This has worked for me almost every time I’ve tried it, the exception being a very sad orange t-shirt that no amount of Dawn could save.
  8. Don’t toss it … fix it.  Mister will laugh when he reads this.  One of his shirts lost a button a few months ago, and it’s been sitting there in the closet ever since, patiently waiting for some sweet li’l housewife to come along and reattach its button.  Poor shirt.  The sweet li’l housewife is on her way.  She’s just been wrapped up in toddler-wrangling lately.
  9. Air dry what you can.  Clotheslines make me happy.  The sight of crisp, clean clothes soaking up the sunshine and blowing in the breeze is truly divine.  Alas, I don’t have a clothesline, so I use the old throw-it-over-the-chair-to-dry method for my delicates and anything I don’t want to shrink.  Turns out, the dryer is actually quite damaging to clothes.  They are much, much happier air drying, the way nature intended.
  10. When clothes shopping, avoid anything with a “dry clean only” label.  In my working girl days, I used to spend about $20 a month on dry cleaning.  I now find this to be incredibly amusing.  $20?  On dry cleaning?  The very thought!  Now that my “work clothes” consist of jeans and t-shirts, that’s money in the bank.  Or money in the diaper fund, if we’re being honest.

What are some of the ways you save money on laundry?  I’m always open to new money-saving ideas!

God bless,
Megan

Hop on over!  I’m linked up at Time-Warp Wife, Far Above Rubies and Growing Home!


Filed Under: Green living, Homemaking, How To's for Tired Mamas

Going Green vs. Saving Green — Do You Have to Choose? (Part 1)

October 27, 2011 By 17 Comments

There’s a difference between the me that I want to be (that girl I think of as my best self) and the me that I actually am (we’ll call her my real self).

My best self is one green mama.  She can be found at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, carefully selecting only the healthiest, most delicious and (obviously) organic food for her family.  She doesn’t taint her body with scary-sounding chemicals like sulfates and parabens.  Her home is kept scrupulously clean using all-natural cleaning products, with nary a Scrubbing Bubbles can or Clorox wipe in sight.

Yeah…

My real self is not quite there yet.  I do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi and Wal-Mart.  Some of my beauty products fall into the green category, sure, but open my bathroom closet and you’ll also find decidedly un-green products like Pantene Pro-V shampoo, Secret deodorant and Dial soap.  And my house?  If it’s ever scrupulously clean, it’s likely that bleach had something to do with it.

So why the disparity between the kind of mama I want to be and the kind of mama I actually am?

In a word, money.

In my experience, being green and being frugal don’t usually go hand in hand.

And when forced to choose between saving money and sparing my family from potentially harmful chemicals, I’m not exactly proud to admit that saving money usually wins out.  We are a single-income family, after all.

In this series, I’m going to explore the true cost of the food we put in our bodies, the health and beauty products we put on our bodies, and the cleaning products we use in our homes.

Is it possible to be green and frugal at the same time?

Stick with me to find out.  In part 2 of this series, I’ll be looking at food.

Filed Under: Feeding Your Family, Green living, Health and Beauty, Homemaking