Cinnamon Apple Cornmeal Waffles

This morning we made breakfast at home. Sometimes we go out but we're trying to continue to save and work towards a healthier spending vs saving ratio. We went out last night for sushi so breakfast in it was. While laying in bed and discussing what to make I suddenly got a craving for cinnamon apple waffles. One of my favorite quick tricks is to use a box of Jiffy Corn bread mix for waffles. It gives you a crispy but slightly salty sweet dough. Its the only way I really like waffles now. First, I chopped up two small apples. I chopped 1/2 of one of the apples into small pieces and mixed those in with the batter.

The rest I put in a small saute pan with some butter and olive oil ( for some reason this is a good combo for sauteing/browning fruit) along with some cinnamon and brown sugar.
They smell fantastic while cooking and tasted equally as good! The only advice I'd offer is that the apples make the batter a little bit wetter. To remedy this you could cut back on the liquid a bit or leave the apples out of the batter. We cooked a few eggs to go with the waffles. I like sunny side up with the runny yokes and surprisingly a little bit of yoke with the waffles was really good combination.
We put on a Regina Spektor and Ray LaMontagne record while eating breakfast and sipped on giant mugs of hot coffee.

Hi There

Apparently August slipped away with me barely even popping in to say hi! I spent my August working long hour with few days off in between so I apologize for not stopping in more often.

The bright side of working lots is that we were able to completely save to the high end of our savings goal for our Fall Trip. Yippeeee!! You might remember these posts . We leave in less than 2 months for our trip and I'm extremely excited.



I can't believe its less than 2 months till we will be there! Are you looking forward to any big trips in the near future?

Cheers-

Raechel

I'm getting to be an old lady

and I'm getting really predictable. I really like oatmeal, like every morning.


This is my usual breakfast. Cut up banana, strawberries and blueberries with a splash of milk over oatmeal. Yum.

Saving is boring

sometimes......I know its the grown up thing to do and can get you what you want in the end by saving your pennies but its still boring. This weekend we went to a movie and had about 45 minutes to kill till the movie started. We wandered into GAP and I saw these amazing sunhats. I tried one on and fell in love. Knowing my track history, I would buy it and it would sit in my closet with the tag on it unworn. So, the hat remained at GAP and I remain boring.

Floppy Straw Hat from GAP

The link to buy that hat from GAP is under the pic in case you're interested! They don't have the black and white one online but they have a chocolate brown and a natural one.

Sephora Coupon -15% off

Also, forgot to mention in my post below! I just received a coupon code from sephora in my email.

15% off your order just enter code madness in the discount section from 4/12-4/19. I just placed a huge order last week to refill some of my necessities and now this comes to me 3 days later. Grumble. argh. I hope you can enjoy it!

Cheers-

Raechel

Get your list on!

As much as it annoys me to admit this. Mom was/is right. Making lists do help to keep you organized and on track. I was reading Pancake and French Fries blog today and she mentioned this amazing new online list program- TuexDuex. Its free for this version, in the near future they might create a slicker version that costs but this one is pretty awesome. I do have to say that I do quite enjoy buying pretty paper and making lists on that but this also appeals to me in the modern approach where I want to be able to have nothing but a computer on my desk feel.
Pro's

Online list that can be accessed anywhere
Sleek, Minimal Design
Free!


Con's

You have to have internet access to access it
Wish it would automatically organize by time
Wish I could have it run on my desktop and access it from there or my iphone ( in the future!)



Here's a snapshot of my screen with my new list! There's not too much on it yet. Click on the image to make it larger.

Cheers-

Raechel

Run, dont' walk...

to your nearest Trader Joes. I've found the most amazing snack. Freeze Dried Blueberries or Strawberries. They come in at around $3 a bag and make for the most excellent crunchy sweet snack. I've been looking online for a pic but can't find one!

Berries are hella expensive. Hello, $11 for a pack of 3 raspberries this weekend but these are affordable and last a lot longer! In the bag you get an insane amount of fruit. It will tell you but almost like a 1/2 pound before freeze drying. I ended up taking these to the movie theater on Friday and they solved my munchies. Also, if you don't have a TJ's near by you can get the "Just Veggies" brand of freeze dried fruits/vegetables but they are nearly double the cost. Le Sigh. I've been looking on Amazon to see if I can buy them in bulk to save some $$. Also, some info on dried vs. fresh berries here. Just make sure when you're buying these that you look at the back and make sure no added sugar is involved and you're good to go!

Cheers-

Raech

Free Shipping!

Free shipping on any purchases from 3/15-3/21 at M.A.C. Sounds like a good idea to stock up on the basics and get any essentials without having to go to a store!



This is from one of their older collections but loved the images of the raspberries with contrast of the makeup! They've just launched some new collections for summer and as usual they are fabulous! Also, Viva Glam is a great way to try out a new color and support the research of AIDS. Also, if you love the collections but your store is often sold out sometimes the online store has them available!

Cheers-

Raechel

Groove Shark

A friend turned me on to this awesome new music player. Its similar to Pandora but you can create and save playlists (like mixpod) and you can actually type in a song you want to hear and it usually has that song. Plus they have a lot of indie artists that I like to listen to. So its a win for everyone!Listen to Groove Shark Also, its a fun flash website ( if you're a nerd and enjoy that kind of stuff.)

Happy Friday! What are your plans my lovies?

Cheers-

Raech

Fresh Salmon Mango Tacos with Black Bean Soup

Black Bean Soup
makes 6 side dishes

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
2 tsps chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
14 oz veggie broth
1 c water
Shredded Cheese for sprinkling
Evoo for sauteeing
S&P

1.) Heat Evoo in 3qt sauce pan, add onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 mins. Next stir in chili powder, cumin and red pepper with a splash of broth and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in beans and the rest of the liquids. Heat mixture to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until beans are tender.

2. ) Pour mixture into a blender or a food processor and blend until smoooth. If the soup has lost some of its heat you can put back into saucepan and cook until warm again.

3.) Sprinkle with cilantro, s&p if you desire and a bit of shredded cheese and serve.

Salmon Mango Tacos
serves 2

1 small salmon filled ( mine was about 4 to 6 oz), cubed
1 mango, cut in 1/2. ( 1/2 diced and 1/2 cut into thin slices)
1 small onion
1/4 red bell pepper
Cumin to taste
1 green onion, chopped
Evoo
S&P
Smokey Tabasco Sauce
2 Tortillas
Shredded Cheese for Sprinkling
1/8 c Salsa Verde
1/2 c. cherry tomatos, quartered
Cilantro - generous handful chopped ( 1/4-1/2c)


First - Prepare Mango Salsa
1.) Combine the following - 1/2 of the mango ( diced), 1/8th cup onion (chopped), cherry tomatoes ( quartered), green onion ( chopped) , cilantro ( chopped) and the salsa Verde.

Second - Prepare Salmon and Veggies/Fruit
1.) In a sautee pan, heat evoo and add the cubed salmon, mango slices, red bell pepper ( sliced lengthwise) , and the onion ( in long slivers) and sprinkle with a bit of cumin and sautee until the salmon is heated and the vegetables are slightly soft but still a bit crisp.

2.) Heat the tortillas. Then, sprinkle with a bit of cheese and fresh chopped cilantro and fill with salmon and veggies and top with mango salsa. I also like to add a bit of Smokey Tabasco on the top and enjoy.




This was something I just threw together with the ingredients I had at home and it ended up being amazingly delish!

Cheers-

Raech

D.I.Y. Black Table

When I first moved to California ( 4 years ago) I had a zenish/rustic feel for my house. Now my tastes have changed and I wanted to spice things up. This side board was acctually the first piece of furniture I bought in California and it works pretty great for what it is and I need a little table in my dining room to store mail/lamp/keys/phones/etc so rather than purchase a new one and get rid of this one I decided to spruce it up a bit.

Before picture of the table



The hideous fruit pattern on top that was always covered up with crap because I hated the pattern:



Now the final piece refinished in black medium gloss paint :



Also my boy dog decided he wanted to help model in the pic. Its kind of a bad picture but you get the idea of what it looks like now. On the wall to the left of the table I have a giant black ikea cube cabinet that houses all of my crap that I have no where to put because of lack of closets / basements in these houses out here!



Now I believe my little black side table will fit in much better with the whole dining room area. Phew that only took 10 months to get around to doing!

Cost -

Black Table - Free
Black Paint - Free ( leftover from J&T project)
Paint Brushes - $10 ( for a 2 pack)
-------------------------------------------------
Total - $10 plus maybe an hour of time total over 3 days

Way cheaper than buying a new side table for $50-100 from Ikea/WorldMarket/Pier1/etc..

Cheers-

Raech

Best Investments of 2009

Ok. I know that January is almost over and I'm still talking about 2009 but today as I was washing stuff to be put in the dishwasher I glanced at my rice maker that was dirty from dinner last night. I thought in my head " oh rice maker you've made my life so different". Then I realized that I should really blog about my favorite investments of 2009.

First up, is my little 3 cup rice cooker. Before this I was making rubbery/crunchy/failed rice. I could never figure out what I was doing wrong. You boil water, add rice/oil, cook until done. What could go wrong? I think its the steaming that you get with a rice cooker that turns out perfectly steamed yummy rice everytime.



I picked up this one at CVS for $15. It literally has saved me from throwing away tons of batches of ruined rice. I :heart: you rice maker ( and so does the doggies..b'c now they get yummy brown rice added to their kibbies)

Next is my espresso machine. I know you're probably like "enough already! we are soo sick of hearing about your espresso machine!" but truth be told every morning when I walk in the kitchen I am so happy to see my little machine ready to use.



This bad boy I picked up for around $100 with tax and a 20% off coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond. The stupid part was I had to buy a milk frothing pitcher and a little stamper to push the grounds down. Why not just include those and sell the coffee maker for $110?

I'm looking for some tools that I can add to my kitchen for 2010. So far we bought an electric knife.


Its awesome for slicing homemade bread into normal slices instead of having big old hunks of bread ( which are good but makes the bread go away sooo fast!!) .

One of our big Christmas presents was a kitchen aid food processor.

Which I adore. This weekend I made 2 large batches of homemade soup base ( A potato soup and a broccoli soup) and was able to get 8 pints ( i think..they're about 2 cups worth of soup each). The basic recipe I use involved boiling the veggies and then processing it until its smooth and adding about 1-2c of chunked boiled veggies. At this part I can can them and when we are ready to eat them take them out and thin them with a little bit of milk and cheese. I was really frustrated after going to the grocery store and looking for some canned soups to have on hand and they were $2.50 and up for 2 people. I knew I could make something with way less sodium and tastes better! My other project this weekend was buying a few blocks of cheese and shredding them in the processor. Now I have shredded mozzarella, colby cheese, and cheddar.

Anything else that I should add to my kitchen repertoire?

Cheers-

Raech

Its amazing

how much money you can save when you concentrate on doing it. A big goal of mine is to pay down a lot of debt this year. I'll admit when I had a job I used my credit card more than I should with the intention that I can always pay it off next month when I decide I'm ready to stop living a luxurious lifestyle. FYI. This never happened until I was laid off..EEK. Now what? Well, we've figured out how much we need to spend each month on necessities and bills and what we have left. Being laid off did a lot of positive things for me.

1.) I started to save more $$ ( go figure.)
2.) I ate out less
3.) I shopped less
4.) I bought coffee shop drinks less ( The latte's I make at home cost us $.50 a piece vs. $3.95 Starbucks price tag)
5.) I started to cook at home more

A few unexpected expenses came up this month and luckily we've been frugal for the past few months and managed to continue to stick to our plan, even go out to dinner a few times/dates and still have some money left over until our next pay period.

So in my frugality I've been cooking at home more. Which I should do. I'm a great cook and this way I can control what goes into my food. We had 2 slices of leftover potpie so that became the main component for our lunch. Since its a veggie pot pie I felt like it needed some protein. I decided to experiment and make homeade quickcook baked beans. So the recipe is below. You might want to adjust it to your personal taste.

Raech's BBQ Beans in a Jiffy
Serves 2-4

• 1 can of beans ( I used white kidney beans), drained
• 1-2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• A few nice squirts of BBQ Sauce ( p.s. I think baby ray's is the best)
• 2 Slices of Vegetarian Bacon
• A few nice squirts of Ketchup
• A little bit of vinegar depending on what type of bbq sauce you have

Mix all ingredients together in a little saucepan (so that the beans are sitting in enough sauce you might have to play with the amount of bbq/ketchup you add). I added the veggie bacon frozen and let it cook in with the sauce. I would probably recommend cooking the bacon separately so it gets that crispy flavor and add it to the sauce/bean mixture. Cook until the sauce/beans are hot and serve.

via we heart it
For me it was about convenience. I had all of these ingredients at home and I didn't need to make a trip to the store. I'm pretty sure that this was a lot cheaper than what I pay for at the store. I think a small can of bush's baked beans is around $1.99-2.50. I think I paid $.79 for the can of white kidney beans and the rest of the ingredients are things I already have. If you wanted to get fancy you could chop up onion and add that. In the past, I would have said "oh eff it. Lets just go somewhere for lunch"( and end up spending $30.00.) Don't get me wrong. I still love trying new restaurants in my area but its amazing how creative you can be when you're forced to use what you have. This ends up saving you more too because you're not throwing out spoiled food which I am hella guilty of doing.

Cheers and Happy Weekending!

Raech

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