The Frugal Girl — cheerfully living on less

How to Whip Cream

by Kristen on February 1, 2012 · 33 comments

(This will be sort of a quick read, and I’ll be back at noon today with one more post!)

When I posted about my whipped-cream-is-healthier-than-butter-and-syrup revelation recently, I got some questions about how to whip cream.

It’s actually really easy and doesn’t require a lot of sugar. Plus, it’s cheaper than whipped cream in a spray can, more real than Cool Whip, and less trash-producing than either of those.

My method is nothing fantastic…it’s just the basic whipped cream recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

(incidentally, I highly recommend having one of those in your kitchen. It’s not full of fancy food, but it’s really, really great to have around for solid, basic recipes.)

So. To make enough to top two recipe’s worth of pancakes, you need 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (light cream or half and half will NOT whip), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Why yes, my cream is from Aldi.

I know some of you will wonder about the vanilla…I didn’t actually make that myself. My sister-in-law, (you would know her as Adriana’s mom), made a bunch of jars and gave them to family members at Christmastime. I’m definitely going to give it a try myself, though, because the vanilla is really good.

Just dump all those ingredients together in a mixer bowl and fit your mixer with a wire whisk attachment. If you have time, you can stick your bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, as cool temperatures help cream to whip better.

Mix on low speed for a minute or so, just to combine the ingredients, then mix on high until the cream is fluffy, like so.

If you don’t beat it enough, it’ll be a little soft. It should have a pleasant firmness in your mouth.

If you beat it too long, though, it’ll start to separate a bit. And if you beat it WAY too long, it’ll turn into butter (That takes a really long time. Trust me.)

I promise it’s not rocket science, though…just keep an eye on the cream as it whips. It should only take a couple of minutes. And really, the degree of firmness is up to you, especially if you’re just putting dollops on top of waffles or pancakes!

Do you need something to top with whipped cream? Here are a few recipes for you.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk Waffles

Buttermilk Pancakes

When I’ve got fresh fruit, I like to pair that with the whipped cream, but I’ve also used frozen fruit successfully (the peaches up there on the whole wheat pancakes are local peaches that I sliced and froze this summer). The key is not to thaw it to death…you want it to still be a little bit on the firm side.

Go make some breakfast food and whip up some cream for a change of pace from the usual syrup! It’ll be delightful, I promise.

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Today’s 365 post: A page of awesome

Joshua’s 365 post: Movie Time!

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Our Monticello Trip

by Kristen on January 31, 2012 · 30 comments

in Homeschooling,Photos

I’m a little slow at getting these up, I know!

We’ve been studying the U.S. Presidents this year, and when we read about Thomas Jefferson, the kids became really fascinated with his Virgina home, Monticello. Since we live not terribly far from there, I thought it would be fun to go take a tour and make an overnight trip of it.

And the kids thought so too…they were all very excited when we told them about our trip plans.

So, we drove to Charlottesville one Sunday after church.

These are the requisite though-the-van-windshield pictures.

I really like the challenge of trying to produce a passable photo while riding in a moving vehicle.

We stayed in a hotel that belongs to the chain where my brother works. They offer a really great friends and family discount, which means we can usually snag a hotel room for $39.

The kids felt the most important hotel feature was the pool. We went swimming that night.

And after breakfast the next morning.

And then we cleaned ourselves up and headed off to see what we had come to see.

Don’t you just love brick? It’s so classic and timeless.

Monticello has so much detail…this is the underside of the roof overhang. Can you imagine how long it took to make those designs back in the days before power tools?

We took a tour of the inside of Monticello but sadly, photos are not allowed inside the house. Boo.

However, outdoors and all the out-buildings/under-buildings are fair game.

The kitchen was really interesting. This was a fancy stove set-up back then…each of those basins is for a small fire, which gave the cooks the ability to have different heat levels for each pot.

Do you ever wonder how anyone turned out a decent meal when fire was the only way to cook things?

This is the back side of Monticello.

I made the kids sit there for a photo, even though the light was terrible.

Hmm. I just now noticed that Lisey chose a pair of jeans with holes in both knees. This is what happens when you let your children pack for themselves…they leave the non-holey jeans at home.

Oh well.

Joshua took one of Mr. FG and me.

This is what you see from that seat. Not too shabby, huh? Even in January it’s pretty breathtaking.

Sonia says when she grows up, she’s going to rent Monticello for 100 years.

If only.

It’s pretty cool that you can walk around in Thomas Jefferson’s yard. I’m sure his granddaughters ran around just like Zoe did.

When we had seen all there was to see, we hopped back on the shuttle that takes you up and down the mountain.

I did sneak in one last picture.

Down at the visitor’s center, they have a great exhibit for kids. It’s a space with replicas of a lot of the neat features of Monticello, but since they’re replicas, you can touch them and play with them (whereas in the real house, everything is off-limits).

We tried out his polygraph machine.

See the copy of his bed there?

There are Jefferson quotes on the wall, and I thought any of you gardeners out there would like this one.

This was the most interesting quote of the bunch, I thought. I wonder what Jefferson would think if he could see the lack of vacant land in our country.

Oh, I and I loved this list of his:

Though his counsel about money is wise, unfortunately he was no good at following it. He was always in terrible financial shape!

Monticello isn’t a particularly cheap attraction (I think we paid $67 or so altogether), although it is less expensive if you go off-season. And since we squeezed in our trip before Zoe’s birthday, she was free (5 and under get in at no cost).

I think it was worth it, though. Making it an overnight trip seriously upped the fun factor for the kids, and I think that seeing Monticello in person will definitely help them to remember what we’ve learned about Thomas Jefferson. Visiting his home and taking the tour really makes him seem more like a real person than just a figure in a history book.

Plus, Mr. FG and I have never been to Monticello before, and we both thought it was really interesting. I was particularly inspired by Jefferson’s habit of placing mirrors opposite windows so as to maximize the natural light, and I’ve been thinking about how I can do that ever since we got home.

If you happen to find yourself in the Charlottesville area, I definitely recommend making room for Monticello on your itinerary, especially if you love early American history.

Gorgeous.
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Today’s 365 post: A sure sign of a good educational book.

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Monday Q&A | Bread Bags, Vacuums, Dough Hooks, and Skin Care

by Kristen on January 30, 2012 · 78 comments

in Q&A

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

I had a question on how you store your bread. I have been making more bread in an attempt to transition to 100% homemade bread, I am inspired by you! But I was wondering how you store your bread when you bake 2-3 loaves at a time. Do you freeze one or two, if you do, what type of bag or container do you freeze it in?

Kristen B.

Yep, that’s exactly what I do…I bake three loaves at a time and freeze two.

Since most plastic storage bags aren’t long enough for bread loaves, I typically reuse commercial bread bags for freezing. I just shake them out after I use them and stuff them in a drawer to be used again. They can last a long time that way. I also sometimes use old cereal bags…I just squeeeze the air out, roll the end up tight, and secure it with a chip clip or clothespin.

Cereal bags probably wouldn’t be great for long term storage since it’s harder to get all the air out of them, but my loaves of bread are usually only in the freezer for a few days, so it works fine for me.

I was wondering if you could share some experience of vacuum cleaners with me, I have had a cheap bagged one that my neighbor gave me when they emigrated for around 9 years and its started to smell and lose suction quite a lot.

Seeing as though you have children and such I was wondering what your vacuum of choice is?

- L.H.

I wish I had something really helpful to say, but I don’t. I currently have a Kenmore vacuum, but I’ve owned probably at least 4 vacuums before this one (including a bagless type). I’ve had a hard time finding one that lasts for a long time, and that frustrates me.

I have had some success at making my vacuums live longer by cleaning the belt and filters, and by clearing clogs from the hoses (one time I found a glue stick in there, and boy, my vacuum worked a lot better after I pulled that out!) But I wouldn’t say I’ve found a vacuum I would heartily recommend.

I was blessed to receive a KitchenAid mixer from my husband for Christmas (second hand – even better!), and have begun baking bread regularly. Early success, followed by a few failures, but I’m back on track. You seem to use your mixer to mix the dough, but then knead by hand. I’ve been using the dough hook to do the kneading for me – am I missing out on something great by not kneading by hand?

-S.S.

I do this mostly because my mom did it that way. She tried the dough hook a few times, decided she ended up adding too much flour that way, and switched to finishing up the kneading by hand.

So honestly, I’ve never really even tried using the dough hook! I’m so used to kneading this way (my mom taught me when I was in my early teens), I’m kind of stuck in my ways now.

I’d say if the dough hook is working well for you, then by all means stick with that method. Just be sure not to add too much flour (that’s the most common error new bakers make.)

I have noticed your pictures of you and your skin looks so good and I was wondering if you use sunscreen. If so what kind? I was told to use sunscreen but they all break my face out.

-Julie

Oh, my skin is definitely not perfect…I’ve got moles, zits, and scars.

And I’m starting to get some wrinkles too. Fortunately, I do have somewhat oily skin, so hopefully the wrinkles won’t take over too soon.

The makeup I use has a built-in sunscreen, I believe. Maybe you could find a hypo-allergenic, unscented sort?

Hopefully my readers will have some good advice for you. My skin doesn’t seem to be terribly sensitive, so I don’t really have the voice of experience that you need.

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Ok, people. Share your vacuum-cleaner and sunscreen advice!

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Grocery Report/Menu Plan | I went shopping. And how.

by Kristen on January 28, 2012 · 25 comments

in Grocery Reports,Menu Plans

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

The Shopping

I spent $17.67 at a local grocery store for a few things to help me squeak by until grocery shopping day. And then I went shopping for real.

Some of you have asked for more detailed shopping list breakdowns, and while I don’t have time to type up everything I bought and the price I paid, I did take the time to break up my groceries into several pictures so you can better see what I bought.

Here’s my refrigerated stuff. The yogurt container is there because I accidentally used up all my homemade yogurt and so I didn’t have any starter. Whoops. The red gallon of milk is for making yogurt.

Here are my non-food purchases. I buy my toilet paper at Aldi because it’s a good everyday price and I don’t have to watch sales or use coupons. Easy-peasy.

I don’t usually buy that much shampoo or conditioner, but we were just about out. The cheap shampoo doubles as body wash. The container on the right is Aldi conditioner, which I’ve never bought before. So far I like it a lot…it feels a lot like the expensive name brand conditioners.

These are my fruits and vegetables…they’re pretty self-explanatory.

And here’s the least virtuous part of my haul…the shelf-stable items. The Mini-Wheats were on a good sale, so I decided to be nice and buy them for my kids. And I’ve since been reminded why I don’t buy new and exciting cereals every week…they eat way more cereal when I do that!

I spent $65.16 at Weis and $71.53 at Aldi.

And while I didn’t buy any meat at Aldi or Weis, I did stop at our local organic store to buy some packaging-free local chicken. It’s $6.49/pound, but you guys, it’s so good, I’m pretty much spoiled rotten. Most normal chicken just doesn’t taste as good to me anymore. This chicken has so much more flavor and is crazy tender.

Anyway, I dropped $28.23 there.

That means I’ve spent $182.29 on groceries this week, but that’s actually not a big deal because I didn’t really go shopping last week. Phew!

Zee Menu

Just so you know, since Mr. FG works second shift, we eat our dinner meal at noon during the week, and at night on the weekends. And our lunch meal happens at night during the week and at noon on the weekends.

We do eat breakfast in the morning, though, all week long!

Breakfast options are homemade yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and cereal.

Lunches will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.

Here’s the dinner meal plan:

Saturday

I just found out that our usual takeout plans are getting bumped, so I’m not sure yet what we’re eating for dinner!

Sunday (I try to pick something super easy on Sundays)

Chicken Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
fruit

Monday

Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids

Tuesday

Bacon/Chicken Wraps
Spinach Salad

Wednesday

Shrimp and Fish Creole
Garlic Breadsticks
steamed broccoli

Thursday

Friday

Pizza. Probably just a regular sort this week.

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Today’s 365 post: Melted Chocolate.

Joshua’s 365 post: More Books! (hint: He’s not reading Organized Simplicity. Surprising, I know.)

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Food Waste Friday | New! Improved! With a FWF Button! (plus, Liseys’ new project!)

by Kristen on January 27, 2012 · 41 comments

in Food Waste Friday

Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born. You should join in!

I think I just might have broken my exclamation point button with that title.

!!!!!

Nope, it still works.

Ok. So, the first marvy-fab thing for today is that those of you who participate in Food Waste Friday can now grab a fancy-schmancy button to perk up your posts. If you copy and paste the following code into your Food Waste Friday post, this little graphic will appear.

If you blog on WordPress, just make sure you’re in html mode when you copy and paste the code, or it won’t work properly.

A thousand thanks to reader Jen from Dear Mommy Brain for gently nudging me to get this done and for sending me the code pattern.

The second newsy bit I have for you is that Lisey and I have been working on a baking blog. It’s called Baking With Lisey because Lisey loves to bake/cook and I’m a disaster at making time to help her with it. So, I’m taking an approach similar to the one I’m using with my crafting negligence, except Lisey and I started a whole new blog, and we’ll be posting recipes once a week.

Hopefully this will help me make time to bake/cook with Lisey, and hopefully you’ll have fun watching us! Since we’ll only be posting once a week or so, I highly recommend subscribing via email…that way you’ll always know when we’ve got something new up. Go on over and check it all out!

Alrighty! On to food waste.

I have some grape tomatoes that went bad (not dry, just bad…you know the way they get thin-skinned and really mushy?), and part of a lemon that got moldy.

And I think I might have a few spinach leaves that are slimy, but I’m feeling too lazy to go check right now.
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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.

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Today’s 365 post: Dental Office Reading

Joshua’s 365 post: The Answer!

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How about some goals?

by Kristen on January 26, 2012 · 14 comments

in Goals

It’s been a little while since we had one of these, so here are 10 things I’d like to get accomplished (I’ll probably give myself 1.5 weeks to get these done.)

1. Write up a master account/password financial list.

Not to be all morbid and whatnot, but if something bad ever happens to me, I want Mr. FG to be able to access all of our accounts. I’m the one that takes care of bill-paying right now, so I need to compile all that information in one place.

2. Sell my broken camera lens on Ebay.

My beloved 50mm 1.4 lens gave up the ghost, and repair was going to be slow and expensive (it wasn’t going to be back from the shop in time for Miss Callie’s birth, and I really, really, REALLY wanted it for that! Taking pictures in dark hospital rooms is nigh onto impossible with my one other lens.)

I had some money that I was saving up for a new lens (I wanted a 35mm or 85mm), but I decided to just use that money to buy a new 50mm (this time I purchased a Canon Lens Hood to help protect the focus mechanism, since it seems to be a fairly common problem with this lens.) The good news is that even broken 50mm lenses do sell on Ebay (sometimes for a surprising amount!), so I’m going to list mine to recoup some of the cost of the new one.

3. Update Quicken.

Yeah. Still don’t trust myself to do that without a list!

4. Start on our tax return.

As I shared with you, I use Turbo Tax for this (love it!), and even though we don’t have all of our tax papers yet, I can at least start on my small business taxes, since I own all of those records.

5. Combine two credit card accounts for easier online access.

See that first goal up there? As a part of that project, I’ve been trying to simplify my financial work (it’s not going to hurt me to have simpler tasks either!). Anyway, there are two credit cards I want to keep, but one is under Mr. FG’s name and one is under mine (though we both have access to both accounts). This means there are separate logins for each card. I want to simplify and end up with just one log-in, but that means we both need to get on the phone to make this happen.

6. Finish editing a photo session, burn the CD, and deliver it.

They’re first birthday pictures for this little one. Isn’t she adorable??

7. Plan and schedule music and musicians for February

Organizing all of that is my job at church, and I want to get it done soon.

8. Launch Lisey’s secret project (which will then not be a secret)

We just need to do a few other things, and then we’ll be ready to share it with you!

9. Plan my 14 Days of Valentines for this year.

I’ve shared about this tradition of mine before. It’s really fun if you’ve got a spouse who likes to get gifts, but it does require some advance planning. And since I’ve only got a week before February hits, I need to get on this!