Thanks Edi

Thanks to the awesome Edi at Exotic Eating Experiment, I have my very own copy of Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market!

I am so excited because this is one of the giveaways I really wanted to win. It arrived in the mail this weekend and I have already used it. I bought a mango at the store and was unsure how to prepare it for eating, so I looked it up in my new Field Guide.

You see, I've never had a mango before, but it was so cheap, I thought I'd give it a try. This little book sure came in handy, providing instructions on the best way to peel and serve the mango. I can now say that there will be many more mangoes in my future!

Thanks Edi!

Non-food Stash

I mentioned my non-food stash at the very beginning of this blog and made the decision that it wouldn't be part of my experiment here. Instead, it has become its own game, a whole other creature. I thought it might be fun for some of you to see what I did at CVS this week to build my non-food stash, and to see pictures of where it is currently organized.

First, here is a picture of what I bought today. I spent $5.12 for everything you see in the first picture. I did this by rolling my ECBs and using CVS coupons that I either got at the store or in the mail. In exchange for my time and diligence, CVS gave me another $78.04 to spend next time I am in their store. To make it easier to spend, that amount is spread out over several ECB coupons though.

(2 blood sugar monitors, 3 boxes allergy tablets, 5 toothbrushes, 3 tubes of toothpste, 3 dental picks, 2 boxes of Tums, and a pop-up tape dispenser with 2 refills)

I have 6 shelves to hold my non-food stash. This is pretty much everything that I have, except for a few items that I know we will use in the very near future. Those are stored in our master bathroom. Here are the top two shelves. They hold cleaning supplies, some office supplies, and, on the bottom left, lotions. Some of the lotions were in gift packs, but most of them came to me free. As a matter of fact, everything in my stash was free or nearly free (less than $0.50).

On the middle two shelves, I have health and beauty aid heaven! More than 12 bottles of body wash, 20 tubes of toothpaste, several deodorants, toothbrushes, various hair care products and lots of sponges.


Finally, the bottom of this pantry is pretty random. I have smelly things (like the kind you plug in, spray, or leave on the counter), various medicinal items, and women's razors (mostly Intuition).

As I look at my well-organized pantry, I do see that I am very blessed to have discovered CVS and ECBs. If I can keep this up, I will never have to pay for toothpaste, tooth brushes, body wash, deodorant, or lotion again!

New Design

I changed the template on my blog... what do you think?

The background is courtesy of Cutest Blog on the Block. I will just say it was the easiest thing to install too! If you want to add some pizazz to your Blogger blog, I suggest you head over and snag one of her many free backgrounds!

Free Coffee

Who doesn't like free coffee? Hey, if it's good enough for Rachel Ray, it's good enough for me!

RSS Day

I was all set to give my readers a different kind of recipe... one that provided all the ingredients and how to for utilizing RSS feeds to their best advantage. Then, I woke up today and read Abraham Piper's easy-peasy explanation in my Google Reader account. I really can't say it any better than he does. Go check it out then come back and subscribe to my feed in your new Reader account!

Cross posted at Family Musings.

E is for Egg

I must admit that coming up with my E foods list was a little tougher than expected. Let's just say the cows ought to be happy this week because I'm pickin' on the chickens!

1. Eggs - fried, poached, scrambled, over-easy, sunny-side-up, hard-boiled, soft-boiled. Can you think of any more?
2. Elephant Ears - One of the ultimate fair foods ever! I remember thinking this was the bet way to spend my food money at the fair because they are so big and relatively cheap. As a little kid, anything bigger than my head was sure to fill me up.
3. Egg Salad Sandwich - This is one of my favorite comfort foods. I ate these a lot in college, and prefer them on the Publix White Mountain Bread. Mmmm...
4. Egg nog - I only buy this once, maybe twice a year. And then, just the small container. My husband liked it so much and knows he can only have it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He doesn't want to waste it so he only has a little bit at a time. We usually end up throwing half of the first container because it expired before he finished it.
5. Eel - the only way I like to eat eel is on my sushi, teriyaki style. As a matter of fact, I think eel is my favorite kind of sushi.
6. Edible Paper - I had some of this recently. It was wrapped around a Japanese candy. Edi and her kids ate something like this last December.
7. Energy Drinks - Given my need for sleep you'd think I'd know all about these. But I don't. I've seen people drink them and practically jump out of their skin. These drinks scare me.
8. Eggplant - I've successfully eaten this in restaurants. I remember a napoleon made with eggplant once that was divine. My attempts at cooking this deep-purple vegetable at home have been less so.
9. Endive - This has to be one of the most elegant vegetables ever. Once, at a fancy restaurant, I had an endive salad. It was 3 single leafs of endive, drizzled with a bacon vinaigrette with crumbled goat cheese. Yummy!
10. Eggo Waffles - Lego my eggo! My brother and I used to reenact the the commercials in our kitchen. Pretty dorky, isn't it?
11. Earth's Best Baby Food - except for food that I have made myself, the only food my daughter has eaten is Earth's Best. It is all organic and comes in cute little glass jars I can reuse for canning.
12. Earl Grey Tea - This is my mom's favorite tea. I don't drink tea as often as I would like.
13. Extract - My favorites are vanilla and almond. I've even used them to make homemade coffee creamer.

On a side note, while I did not use it for this list, I found a neat food encyclopedia online.

Check out more Thursday Thirteen fun here.

Shredded Beef Tacos

Dinner tonight was yummy! And, I got to turn a doubting husband into a believer. A believer in the idea that is is indeed OK to use chicken stock in a beef dish.

I made shredded beef in my crockpot. And I know you are just dieing to read how I completed this culinary feat, given my recent crockpot failures. It was quite simple really. So simple, I'm surprised I made it up all by myself. Or at least I think I did. I don't remember reading this recipe any where.

I started by remembering to defrost the meat. That is the most important step in making a meat dish. Don't forget that girls... Actually, to confess, I only partially defrosted the meat. It was a big 3 lb. slab of chuck roast and
it was still a little frozen when it hit my chopping block. I cut the roast up into 2" cubes and tossed them in the crockpot. I added 1 can of organic diced tomatoes (purchased for just $0.16 at Wal-Mart), 1 can of chicken broth, lots of pepper, and a good bit of salt.

Setting it on low, I came back about 10 hours later. Because I had added enough broth to cover the meat, I now had a huge soupy mess. Or so I thought. Hidden in that mess was chunks of delicious beef. I used a slotted spoon and transferred the beef and diced tomatoes into another bowl. Then, I attacked it with 2 forks until I had tender, shredded goodness.

I had thought I would use this to make quesadillas, but as the beef began to pile up on my flour tortilla, I knew it was destined to become a soft taco.

A yummy soft taco. This was restaurant quality folks. No joke. Bruce ate 4 of them. I had considerable restraint and only ate 2. I think we'll be repeating this one tomorrow night.

From my stash I used the bee and the chicken stock. The tomatoes were only purchased this past weekend, so I don't think they count as stash quite yet. I try to keep cheese and tortillas in the house because they can be used for so many different recipes.