Inexpensive #DairyFree #GlutenFree Dinners

While I am a big couponer, I often find the most inexpensive meals come from whole foods. Here is a week of budget friendly menus that are both friendly to Gluten & Dairy Free diets.

Be sure to buy your veggies at a vegetable stand to save money. And remember make your meal plan for the week based on the sales that week;-).

1. Baked Tilapia, Yellow Grits in Rice Cooker , Roast vegetables. Cucumber salad. (Tilapia frequently goes BOGO).
Note: Simple homemade cucumber dressing is quick. Vinegar, Sugar, Oil, Salt, Pepper.

2. Salmon Patties (using canned salmon), Coleslaw with homemade dressing, Corn on the Cob.
Note: Throw oatmeal in your bullet blender for quick budget friendly yet Gluten-free bread crumb substitute. ( I personally can not bring myself to buy expensive Gluten-free flours.)
Note: Publix frequently has coupons for canned salmon.

3. Ham and bean soup. Cornbread. (Soup can be served over rice).
Note: An instapot pressure cooker allows me to cook with inexpensive dry beans that come out perfect everytime.
Note: Smithfield ham steaks are frequently BOGO, which work great in this recipe.
Note: Cornbread mixes often go BOGO. If you have an actual gluten allergy, there are Gluten free corn bread mixes too.

4. Venison or 1/2 lb Ground Meat Burritos/Tacos (Corn Tortillas) with leftover beans and leftover coleslaw.
Note: Pick up peppers for cheap at a Mexican grocery or Veggie stand. Sautee peppers and onions to add to ground meat to stretch half a pound for a full meal.
Note:  For big families, add potatoes to meat mixture to stretch it further. Potatoes are actually really good in burritos.
Note: I don't use taco seasoning packets but you can. But DIY Taco seasoning is very simple to make a big batch of. 

5. Spaghetti with 1/2 lb meat. I usually add veggies  to jarred sauce.
Note: Ground Breakfast sausage also works great in Spaghetti sauce for tight budgets.
Note: I fix gluten-free noodles only for myself if I have them.  In a pinch, I just eat the sauce over rice while my family eats regular noodles. Or I eat the sauce over Zucchini if I'm being xtra good).

Buy First Day Back to School Outfit while sales are on this week! Then wait till September for the rest!

It is always tempting to make a one stop shopping trip during the first week in August to get the back to school clothes shopping knocked out.

But for most kids, it makes more sense to get one new outfit, then let kids wear their summer clothes for the first few warm weeks of school. By the time the weather cools down, the prices will have cooled down as well.

Plus by waiting, you will know what other kids are wearing or if any knew trends come up in the fall.

The same goes for school supplies. Send your student to school with a pencil and paper the first day, then see what the teacher sends home for school supplies.  This is especially true for Middle School and High School where supplies will change from teacher to teacher.

Below my youngest daughter's first day of First Grade outfit. (Obviously I don't get to plan the high school student's outfits anymore!).

Bonnie Jean 6X purchased for $22 on sale.

Chill-icious Lunch Box from Thirty-One Gifts on sale for $9.

I am going to make one hair clip myself and let her wear some aqua leggings that we already have from the spring. After that, we will be getting some more wear out of those summer shorts outfits!

Side Table Caddy.

Keep a few DVDs and your remote controls handy with a small bin like this one from Thirty-one Gifts.

Make your Own Chemical Free Detergent Laundry Detergent & Save Money!

I see a lot of posts about making your own laundry detergent. Unfortunately, most of these posts seem to be written by people who are making the detergent for the first time.  Know that laundry detergent is a "chemical" process in that you are mixing different ingredients together like a recipe. Therefore, your liquid detergent is never going to be as clear and smooth as commercially made detergents that are full of chemicals. But your detergent will clean your clothes just great.

As a cost saving measure, I have been making my own laundry detergent for about four years.

1. Yes, you do save a lot of money!
2. I make my detergent about once every 3 months.
3. This is an unscented recipe. But if you want to add some scent, you can add a few drops of essential oils to each load of laundry. You can, of course, also add the commercial scents currently being sold in the laundry aisle (but that adds chemicals).
4. I like to do this after dinner while I am watching TV, then I leave the soap to gel overnight. In the morning, I mix it and dispense it into old detergent bottles.

Ingredients:

2 Bars of Ivory (1 if it is a big bar)
1/2 Bar of Laundry Soap

1/2 cup Liquid Castile (Or another 1/2 bar of Castile soap)

1 cup of Washing Soda

4 tbs Glycerin

4 tbs salt (canning salt recommended).

Herbs from Garden (Thyme, Mint)

Steps.
1. Make an herbal tea as your base. Optionally put 1 cup of chopped fresh herbs into your stockpot that you have filled 2/3rds full of water. Let this simmer for about an hour to create an herbal tea - then remove the herbs. You can either put the herbs in cheesecloth, a teabag, or just strain them out. I recommend only doing this if you actually grow herbs because if you buy the herbs at the store, then the detergent will be too expensive.

2. Put your grated soap into the hot tea water. Keep the burner on low until all the soap has dissolved.

3. After grated soap has dissolved, add all other ingredients. If you have soft water, reduce the salt to 2 tbs. If you have hard water, you may want to add an extra salt.

4. Allow the detergent to sit until it has gelled (become solid on top). You can just leave it over night.

5. Blend the gelled detergent using a stick blender. Then dispense the detergent into old laundry detergent bottles (than have been cleaned).  Fill the bottles but leave a few inches so that you can add water to the bottles that you use last because they will thicken up over time.

6. Add 1 - 2 laundry cap-fuls of detergent per load (before loading clothes). You can add extra detergent for very dirty man clothes;-). The measure is approximately one third cup per load. You can also add your essential oil such as Sweet Orange.

7. To further boost cleaning, you can add 1/4 cup of additional washing soda per load. So for example, if your husband is a construction worker, he may have very dirty clothes. Be sure to start the cylce before you begin adding his clothes.

8. For very smelly clothes, for example if you have a teen athlete, you can also add 1/4 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle.


You can also make body wash with this recipe by just leaving out the washing soda and adding more glycerin (and don't use laundry soap, use body soap - but you knew that).

Teenagers ate my House!

Okay, so they didn't eat the actual house. But where you find one teenager, you will generally find ten! It seems like we have had a wonderful flow of kids in and out of our house all summer, but I have to admit is daunting to feed the crew without breaking the bank!

[Note: This post is still being updated and completed]

So here are my top suggestions!
1. Teach your teens to make quick meals because they (and maybe, you) might be making 3 to 4 of them a day in the summer time.
2. Skip fancy ingredients because they add up (Capers - Really - I don't think so).
3. Skip salt filled pre-made items that are easy to make anyway. (Boxed Mac N' Cheese - No!)

Organization:
1. Make a list of Recipes that can be made from the standard contents of your Fridge/Freezer/Pantry. Post this on the front of the refrigerator, preferably with color pictures. I suggest you laminate this sheet, because well, teenagers!
2. Put the recipes in sheet protectors in a small binder. Keep this in the kitchen.
3. And while you are at, go ahead and buy some reusable plastic cups and plates because you know there are going to be broken dishes when teens are involved. (And you might want to buy some plastic forks because your silverware has been known to end up in the trashcan).
4. Keep a large pitcher of sweet ice tea in your fridge (to encourage them to NOT drink an entire gallon of milk everyday!)
5. Buy some snack size containers for portioned snacks like Terrific Trifles, Berry Good Parfaits, Hippy Humus, Cheese Dip, and other quick grabs that you can stock your fridge with.
6. Take 1-2 hours every weekend and make somethings to Stock the Freezer with. Make the teenagers help you do this! They are going to college soon, they need this skill!


Funny Story:  So my husband and his younger brother are both over six feet tall, as they were when they were teenagers. Their Mom worked as a nurse, and she became very frustrated that every time she bought groceries, her boys would eat ALL the groceries in one day. So she put a LOCK on her pantry and refrigerator! Now today, they would be calling DSS. But I feel her pain!

Go ahead and understand that teenagers, especially boys, need a lot of calories to grow. Your tall teen athlete may need up to 5,000 calories a day. OMG!!!! Yes, and probably at least 3,000 calories for a regular teen.

Easy Lunches / Dinners (Most they can Learn to Make)
Macaroni Noodles with melted Velveeta (and Ground Beef and a few Veggies)
Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Pasta Salad (with Green Peppers/ Cucumbers)
Hotdogs with Chilli and Baked beans
Tuna Melts with French Fries and Cucumber Salad
German Sausages with Sauerkraut. French fries.
Chilli
Homemade pizza (keep frozen pizza crusts, English muffins, or pita bread)
Quesadillas (Velveeta, Leftover meat, Tortilla)
Sweet Sausage and beans (10 minute recipe)
Tuna Casserole (keep Bechemel sauce portioned in your freezer)
Turkey Burgers
Club Sandwiches with Turkey, Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato.
Ruban Sandwiches


Make Ahead Items to Freeze:

Potato & Sausage Casserole. http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Potato-Sausage-Casserole
Spaghetti Sauce in individual portions
Bechemel Sauce (white sauce) in individual portions
Chilli
Pizza Crusts
Cooked Beans
Portioned Cooked Bacon
Biscuits
Sausage Gravy
Pancakes
Muffins (Savory and sweet)


Items to Stock in Your Freezer:
1. Turkey Burger Patties
2. Hamburger Buns
3. Hot Dog Buns
4. Corn (Buy a Bag from your Local Farmer. Shuck the outer Husk, cut off the ends, then Freeze).
5. French Fries
6. Fish Sticks
7. Chicken Breasts (See if there is a whole sale meat distributor in your area or use Sam's)
8. Portioned frozen vegetables (split the frozen veggies into individual bags).


Snacks:
Homemade Rice Krispy Treats
Popcorn
Cinnamon Baked Popcorn from Taste of Home
Popsicles made with real fruit
Muffins (Like Cheddar Sausage!)
Nachos (made with Velveeta)
Hippy Humus
Terrific Trifle
Berry Good Granola Parfait
Ranch Yoghurt Dip with Carrots