First off, I’d like to thank all of you for the love and support I’ve received lately, due to my last post. I’m working on those things personally now, and I’ll update you at a later point.  If you emailed me, and I haven’t emailed you back yet, please know I really do appreciate your email, I just haven’t found the time to reply yet. :)   

Also, I apologize for the lack of posts.  School and things have been pretty crazy here lately. I have a ton of recipes to post for you! It’s just finding the time to post them. :( Any volunteers? lol.  Thanks for your patience! They’ll be up as soon as I can get to them! :)       

               Tonight I made homemade goulash. This was quite a staple in our house at home. I’m testing tomatoes, so I figured this would be a great dish to try it with.

             Goulash is just like spaghetti except you use macaroni noodles and mix it all together instead of just topping the pasta with the sauce. Or you could serve it like spaghetti and just pour the sauce over. Another great way to serve it without meat, is to just use a fried egg.

              I can’t have beef right now so I made “ground chicken” with my free range, no hormones/antibiotics/etc chicken. It’s really simple and easy….and very frugal. To learn how to make your own, simply read my post on it here. :) Plus, this way, you control the fat content in your meat (ie. really low fat if you cut the fat off the meat and use the white meat.)

Side note: I apologize that the pictures aren’t the best quality. My camera broke and I had to purchase a really old second hand one to get me through until I can afford a better one. Also, apparently the date got screwed up on these too. :)

 My homemade ground chicken

        I boiled the noodles and made the sauce. I usually follow more of my mom’s recipe for sauce, but just made it simple and used a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes with basil. I added garlic and parsley to it.

My sauce (with the “ground chicken” in it)

 

Bon Appétit! (Pictures of it mixed in or just served over the top)

 

Ready for the recipe? Yeah? Me too. :)

Homemade Goulash or Spaghetti 

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts (to become “ground chicken”- my recipe makes  approximately 1-1/3 c. cooked ground chicken and I used a little over half of it…but you can use as much as you want) OR sub up to 1-1/3 c. ground meat
• approximately 1/2 of a 16 oz bag of pasta (I used Tinkayda brown rice elbows) –You can use spaghetti, elbows, or any other kind. :)
• 1-28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (I used Natural Directions Organic Crushed Tomatoes with Basil)
• minced garlic
• parsley

Directions:

Boil pasta. While pasta is boiling, prepare ground chicken.  To the cooked ground chicken, add your sauce. Sprinkle with desired amount of garlic and parsley. Warm. Serve over noodles or combine with noodles for goulash.

Enjoy! This would be great along with garlic bread and green salad.

Serves: 4-5 people

• Need another, quick and easy, healthy dinner? Try my Sloppy Joes. You could use the same method you learned about making your own ground chicken and use it to make the Sloppy Joes. I may just have to do that myself soon! Or try: Chicken Noodle Soup (in the Crockpot even!), Fish Sticks, Chicken Nuggets,
• Looking for a fun way to encourage your kids to eat salad with this or other dinners? Try my Funny Face Salad.

Falling, falling, falling….help!

I have felt like I am falling down a downwards spiral. I can’t get out. I try but there is no willpower left. The stress  (I suppose? I don’t know what else to call it?)  has overcome me. So much so, I don’t even know why or what the stress is for. School? I started 3 weeks ago…why am I already feeling behind? I can’t stay on top of things. I don’t get enough sleep. I barely get any exercise. I’m too tired too…I don’t have time. I was doing so well with my elimination diet…I was slowly adding in things one at a time. Then all of a sudden…or maybe it just gradually crept upon me, I started overeating…first, moderately.  Just to the point where I thought that I just must have took a little too much (“My eye’s are bigger than my stomach.”) Then, gradually, but rapidly, I started just binging. Gorging myself on food. Healthy food to start. And when I needed a sweet treat? I’d just eat a ton…just gorge myself…full of applesauce or bananas or some other fruit that I’m allowed right now…but then I still wouldn’t feel satisfied. So I’d try some gum…Extra Just Dessert’s Version…or any kind. That wouldn’t last long. Soon I’d be back in the food again. I’d feel guilty for overeating it so I’d try and eat something more healthy…cooked carrots for example. And then I’d find myself gorging the entire container. I’d feel stuffed and confused and upset. More gum but that wouldn’t stop there.. there would be more food as soon as there was a tiny bit of room, more food.  Then  Saturday night, we planned on surprising my roommate with treats. I volunteered to make the cookies. No problem I thought. This will be fun. I haven’t gotten to cook or bake much since I started the diet. I was fine at home this summer when I made cookies with my brother. I just enjoyed making them with him, and not eating them. Well, this time I couldn’t do it. I ate the batter. I ate the cookies. I didn’t just have a taste of either… I ate so much I felt physically sick. Never mind that this amount would make a “normal” person feel sick, but for me, one who doesn’t eat sugar, or gluten, or dairy, or such unhealthy things like margarine, I felt terrible. But I couldn’t stop. Even when I started to feel sick. Finally, I stopped. I felt sick the next day. I thought that would cure me. Nope…while I didn’t indulge in any other forbidden, I still overate and mindlessly ate. I felt like I wasn’t enjoying my food, I was stuffing it in my face.  I tried to satisfy my cravings  and justify my overeating, by the fatigue I was feeling. I needed the extra fuel I thought. It just got worse and worse. I couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop eating. I soon was eating because it was comforting…because somehow it must make me better. Lately, I have been dealing with lots of constipation…even taking a new natural product called Natural Calm, I still was, and still am experiencing severe constipation. I reasoned, hmm…maybe brown rice will help. So I wasn’t hungry….but I stuffed my face with the warm comforting, freshly made batch of brown rice. Even these healthy foods are becoming my enemy. Thinking I’d be totally fine now, since I was full, really full, I told my roommate it’d be fine to start frosting the cupcakes I made for our other room mate for tomorrow since it’s her birthday.  I couldn’t resist. I tasted my mom’s frosting…the frosting I haven’t had in years. I kept trying it. So sweet…so good. Then I had one cupcake….One cupcake won’t hurt I said. And another…More frosting. Starting to feel really sick. Brown rice will make me better. Down some rice went. Not satisfied. More frosting. Still need more. I started gorging on the leftover cookie dough from Saturday night. Then I made a bunch of cookies from it. I ate almost all of them. I could feel myself getting sicker (and fatter) by the minute. Faster and faster down they went. I couldn’t even sit down. I wanted milk with them. I didn’t have any. Finally, so disgusted with myself, I started talking to a room mate and was able to throw the last cookie or two away. But, meanwhile, my stomach (which was already upset pre-cookies and pre-cake---guess, I figured, it’s already a mess---can’t get too much worse!) was complaining even more. My room mate complained because of the embarrassing smells that my body was frequently emitting. I am embarrassed. Can’t sleep. So exhausted, but I can’t sleep. I’ve had problems with binging before, but I thought I was through. I thought I could just eat healthy and find out what bothers me and stay on this healthy way of life. I’d even begun to exercise more frequently…but now? I feel awful. What is wrong with me? Why can’t I stop myself? Why do I let myself eat the foods that I know are “poison” to my body? Why can’t I enjoy my food mindfully, even when it’s healthy? Why can’t I eat normal? Why do I feel so strange? I don’t feel like myself. I feel like someone else has taken over my body.  Not only is this going on, but I feel a lack of motivation for a lot of things. I don’t want to go to class….I feel behind. I miss class due to exhaustion and not feeling well. I push through the exhaustion and go to class and stay up to do homework and clean the apartment etc just to have the cycle repeat again. Help. What is wrong with me’? Why can’t I just be me again?

The case of the $7 loaf of bread – or the high-cost of going gluten-free (really?)

The case of the $7 loaf of bread – or the high-cost of going gluten-free (really?)

This awesome post is my first-ever guest post on my site. I hope it will be the first of many to come. If you would like to do a guest post on my site, please contact me via email (thefrugallyrichlife AT gmail DOT com). Consequently, it is my first day of school today...starting another year at college. :) I'll let Jen Saunders take it from here. Jen Saunders and I met and started chatting through twitter. I was impressed that she was also gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free! That was amazing to me! Not many people are all three--and I can definitely empathize with her post here. So go on, read on, and check out her brand new blog, Brilliant Well-being, while you're at it. She already has some good articles up, like this one, "Chasing Skinny".

The case of the $7 loaf of bread – or the high-cost of going gluten-free (really?)

The first time I went to see my family physician after having experienced two nasty allergic reactions to eating wheat, I explained in great detail what I had had to eat and what/when my symptoms were. She agreed that I very likely had a wheat allergy, arranged for allergy testing and then said, “well, eating gluten-free is really expensive – are you okay with that?”

I told her I’d have to be because I was not going to keep eating foods (dairy and refined sugar had already been eliminated from my diet) that made me sick.  So, off I went, with no books, blogs, friends or family to guide me – I was on my own in this dairy, refined sugar, and gluten-free lifestyle.  And in hindsight I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let me explain…

When you eat gluten-free it eliminates everything with gluten in it – bread, crackers, cookies, pasta, desserts, etc.  I have, somewhat recently, come to learn that there are gluten-free substitutes for all of your favorite gluten food. Most grocery stores have a gluten-free section, health food stores carry a lot and so does my local bulk food store.  But I am not just avoiding gluten – I also avoid dairy and refined sugar. This eliminates most processed, packaged foods. And those little gems add up!

I have spent the last 18 months truly changing my lifestyle. I now eat primarily vegetables, fruits and lean meats. I have rice somewhat frequently as well as vermicelli and brown rice pasta. My dear Mother occasionally makes me homemade dairy/sugar/gluten-free banana biscuits (oh so good – recipe to be posted soon to my website).  Up until last weekend I had not spent one pretty penny on “gluten-free” anything. So, you ask, what changed?

Well, my family and I were enjoying a beautiful weekend at the beach when we decided to hit up the local Farmer’s Market. It was one of the loveliest Farmer’s Markets I have been to – small but a variety of vendors. We had breakfast, enjoyed the live music and browsed the vendors’ stands – fresh produce, baked goods, homemade crafts, art – then I saw it – a sign for homemade gluten-free bread. $7. I about near choked! $7?!? Who spends $7 on a small, loaf of bread?

Well, me.

I asked the vendor what the ingredients were – no dairy and sweetened with honey. Somewhat risk averse and a hater of money wasting, my initial reaction was to keep walking, which I did. I told my Mom about it.  We talked about it. As we talked, I realized that $7 for a loaf of gluten-free bread is a lot.  But I used to spend $3.55 every morning at work on a muffin and large chocolate milk. A box of “healthy” crackers? Minimum $2.99. I used to buy these things regularly.

I added up how much money that is per week on the foods I used to eat. Times the weeks per month. Times 18 months. Suddenly $7 on a loaf of gluten-free bread doesn’t seem so extravagant. It was a treat, sure. It was delicious. First time I have had toast and (natural, organic) peanut butter in a long, long time. But what treats have we given up in our quest to honor our bodies?

The next time you scoff at the high price of a quality, homemade gluten-free product (or the ingredients to make yourself something) remember how much you spent before the allergy or disease diagnosis or lifestyle change. And ask yourself this – is eating the foods my body tolerates and honoring my health a curse or a privilege?

Last time I checked, chronic diseases were very expensive to manage.

Saving Money and Heading Back to School

I'm headed back to school. Most college kids have already started (my sister included) but we start late...it's nice because then I get to work longer and enjoy the summer more.

But as I head back to school, I'm even more focused on saving money.

For example, I posted messages online on my schools "Bulletin Board" and ended up saving myself 50% of the cost to go from the airport to school (a 4-5 hour drive) by taking a ride from some other students versus paying a shuttle company.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't give me my money back since I'd already booked but I can use it another time in the next 6 months...and I'm sure I'll need it. So I'll just save now and use it when I need a stress-free easy option in the future.

I'm also trying to save money in as many other ways I can. I'm thinking about setting a cash amount to spend at the grocery store and only bringing that cash so I can't spend more than I have....only hopefully less.

While waiting around the airport, I found an article in Shop Smart Magazine, a magazine I've never seen before but I enjoyed browsing. I jotted down some notes I found helpful about saving paper and especially ink when you are printing. Who couldn't use some help with that? Seriously, ink's expensive! :) And if you're like me, you probably go through a bunch. Whether you're printing tons of papers for school as a college student, or just print a lot of recipes, or information in general, here are some tips for you extracted from the Shop Smart Magazine September 2010 issue. Some of this is quoted and some is paraphrased. I'm not sure which are which since I just rushed to write this down but hopefully you'll understand this is from them, and not my own ideas. :)

1. Try a different font! Engineers discovered in testing that they were able to print 27% more pages with Times New Roman than with Arial in the same size 12 font.

Here's a list of a few of the major fonts and how many pages (and how much longer your ink would last---more pages of text, not just paper)

Font:                      Pages per cartidge

Times New Roman             419

Calibri                               395

Arial                                  305

Tahoma                             291

Fraklin Gothic Medium        286

Verdana                             276

2. Print in draft mode if you don't need graphics. Thought there will be slightly less quality, it will still be readable. And you will use about 50% less ink!

3. Ever have a web page with a bunch of extra info or images etc you don't want? Or you end up with a blank page with just the web address on it? There are options to help (besides cut and paste). Try GreenPrint (printgreener.com). Or look for the free add on's for internet explorer and firefox from hp and canon. To get to HP's add on, go to www.hp.com and search "web page printing".  For canon, go to www.canoneasywebprint.com/en/index.html

4. To save on paper, print double sided

I hope this helps! I certainly helped me.

More to come!

Ari