Let's pretend I'm responding to comments

Oh boy, you guys. Sometimes, when I am in the midst of some work shifts, I feel so bad that I am not doing a good job of responding to comments.

I have the WordPress app on my phone, so I see comments coming through, like when I'm on my lunch break. But it's kinda hard to respond to them on my phone, and I only have a half hour to begin with.

So, I am reading, but not responding. And then I truly mean to come back and respond, but by the time I am done with work a few days later, I'm not even sure it's still useful to respond.

And when I get home from work, I have so little time to even eat and shower before I have to go to bed, so that's not a good time either.

ANYWAY. I went back through the comments from the last week or so and grabbed out some questions I never responded to.

Howdy! In the food process pic you mentioned cottage cheese, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries…I'm curious what you make with that, and do you have a recipe? I'm not a fan of the texture of cottage cheese but I know it's supposed to be super healthy…so I'm trying to find a way to eat it that's more tolerable lol The pic makes it looking nice and smooth and creamy…Thanks in advance! : )

Cottage cheese does pack a nice punch of protein (26 grams in a cup!) but lots of people have issues with the texture.

If you hate the lumps, then yes, puree it! To use it in the banana "ice cream", put some cottage cheese in the food processor, puree it, and then add the frozen bananas and strawberries. You can pour in more milk if necessary to get it all to blend up.

Also, you can puree cottage cheese and use it in things like the cilantro sauce I shared recently.

You can puree it in a smoothie too; again, I'd just start with the cottage cheese first so you can get it nice and smooth.

What is ATK?

America's Test Kitchen! They're also the same people who publish Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country.

I learned so much about cooking from their magazines and cookbooks; I now know lots of useful principles that I employ when I'm making one of my wing-it meals. 😉

Here's a whole post I wrote about the Cook's Country magazine.

How long would you say the cilantro sauce is good for in the fridge? I am about to warm up a leftover lunch (taco bowl) for which this would be the perfect addition!

I've used mine for a week with no ill effects. I wouldn't keep it much longer than that because there's fresh cilantro in it, and that will not keep forever.

And as always, it's wise to use your senses; if something smells weird or looks weird, err on the side of caution.

Would love to hear more about grain mill. Thought you bought flour?

I wrote a whole post about my grain grinder, and I did put a link in the kitchen appliance post, but sometimes it seems like people are missing the links I add in. I wonder if they are not obvious enough? Input welcomed!

If you are one of the ones who missed it, click here for the dedicated grain grinder post.

I do still buy white flour, yes. I just use the grain grinder when I want whole wheat flour.

To make white flour at home, you'd have to have a way to remove the germ and the bran from the ground whole wheat flour and woo, that sounds like a lotta work and mess. 😉

Do you prefer the dishwasher powder for a specific reason? I do not like the pods at all but have been using the dishwasher liquid. I'm interested in your thoughts.

Yes! According to what I've read, the powder works better than the liquid, and my own experience bears this out as well.

(See this article from Bosch, and this appliance article.)

I have read that the powder works best with hard water, so if you have softened water, the powder might not be great.

Everything I've read says that the new dishwasher pods work super well, but I'm loathe to buy them because of the cost difference. So, powder is a nice medium ground for me.

Hi all, I have a few questions about selling on EBay. It looks as if I need to attach my account to a checking account. Do you all use a separate account for selling or just link your regular checking account? Has anyone had any issues with that? I’m a little apprehensive of attaching to my regular account and I’m not sure if that is valid or not.
Also, from what I believe I have read, can you pause your listings if you need to travel etc? Does anyone know if you can also pause Facebook Marketplace listings?
Any advice would be appreciated!

I do have my eBay account set to send payouts to my checking account, and I don't feel nervous about this at all. eBay is an enormous company, and has online security systems in place much like other large corporations do.

Also, your eBay buyers do not pay you directly; they pay eBay, and then eBay sends you the funds. Your customers never get your bank information. 🙂

And yep, you can pause your eBay listings while you are away!

There is a vacation mode on Facebook Marketplace as well, although I have not tried using that feature.

Do you work that many days in a certain period of time so that you have larger chunks of days off, or is that what you have to do?

I think this was in response to me working six 12-hour shifts in eight days. It's not always like that, but sometimes I end up with a lot in very short succession, when the end of one week runs closely into the next. For instance, at the beginning of April, I work Thursday and Friday, I'm off Saturday, and then I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. So that's five shifts in six days. (Yikes.)

Sometimes I have a much bigger gap, though; at one point in April, I will have a whole week off with no PTO required.

Basically, my shifts are inconsistent because I have to work a certain number of weekend days, and also a certain number of Mondays and Fridays (otherwise everyone would want their three days to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!).

So, nothing is the same from week to week, since we are all rotating around to share coverage for the least desirable days to work.

I don't mind the wonky schedule too much; the wild schedule in nursing school prepared me for it, and the variety keeps things interesting.

I will say that living this way requires flexibility and a willingness to give up any sense of routine!

Forgive me for asking a stupid question because I've just never seen you mention it, but how do you calculate your fun money? Is it a number you allocate at the beginning of the month and just make sure you don't spend it if you don't have to and therefore roll it over to she next month? I always love the way you refer to your fun money and just would like to know how you do that? I know you work really, really hard to be frugal so, having that extra money specified is just kind of interesting.

Not a dumb question at all! I started this whole fun money thing pretty recently and I rather randomly decided to give myself $100/month to play with.

If I spend less than $100, I roll the extra over into the next month, and that's how I end up with some odd amounts.

Ok, I feel a little more caught up with questions now! But if you have a question you'd like me to address in a future post, feel free to include it in a comment on this post. 🙂

And of course, any topic here is open for discussion!