Product Review: Reynolds Handi Vac

Ok, if there is one thing frugal people do, it's freeze things!

I love to buy stuff on sale and freeze it for later use. I love freezing leftovers and surplus garden produce. I love whipping out my farmers market fresh blueberries in the depths of winter when blueberries are $4 a cup at Wegmans!

I used to have a Vacuum sealer (one of those long ones with the plastic rolls) You would think I would love it! Well I did not. It was messy to use, there was a lot of wasted plastic, and it was a pain to operate. It's a good thing It was free from someone because I tossed it.

Last week at Garden Club the Reynolds Handi-Vac came up in conversation. No one had tried it. A lot of people were wondering about it. The very next day, I got a request to review it. Bingo!

I have to say, I LOVE this thing!!! It came with 3 bags to start. I sealed a steak in one and used 2 bags for diced apples. It was very easy to use, not messy at all, and used far less plastic than the old type sealer. The seal is tight!! It was so tight actually that I needed to back off a little on the apples because I could see it was squeezing some of the juice right out of the apples. (I got the hang of it after a minute.)

I checked at the store. It was $9.99! Compared to whatever that old one was (I know they were A LOT more than $9.99) that is a bargain! (even if you don't compare it, I still think it's pretty reasonable and it comes with the batteries!) Bags were a bit pricier than regular freezer bags. (about $0.22 for the quart size and $.33 for the gallon) this is about double the price. It says not to re-use them. (which I don't for any meat based product anyway) but I don't see how there would be any harm in re-using the fruit and veggie ones.

I already bought another box of bags today at the store anticipating Thanksgiving leftovers.

Crock Pot Hot Cereal

If you know me at all, then you know I'm not a morning person. The funny thing about kids, well, they all seem like morning people. (My girl is anyway) and also, kids tend to want breakfast. And like most people, don't want the same breakfast every day. So, in my attempt to provide nutritious, EASY, cheap, EASY and different meals, I stumbled upon this great crock pot hot cereal recipe:

Crock-Pot Cereal
1 c. Oatmeal
1 c. Barley
1/4 c. unflavored tvp (tvp is available in the health food section at the grocery store and is sold as texturized protein granules.) It's a pretty cheap protein and you won't even taste it.
2+ tsp. cinnamon (more or less)

In the evening, stir together dry ingredients in your crock-pot.
add:
8 cups cold water
3+ tsp. vanilla

Stir gently, set slow-cooker to just under 3, or low on a crockpot. In the morning, stir and serve.

I usually half this recipe as it's usually just my daughter and I eating this. It's enough for 2 with a good bit leftover if you half it. This recipe is great because you can substitute any grain you have, it sneaks a great bit of protein into your breakfast, it's ready when you get up and you can serve it with any number of toppings. A few days ago I topped it with some applesauce I made and milk. It's also great with maple syrup.

Take a Look at My Knobs!

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the title!

When we moved into our house last year I made a slide show of about 100 pictures of the house (I only sent it to people who would appreciate that kind of detail or at least not tell me I was boring them to death!) When Deanna's husband saw it he said something like "Please tell Chrissy I loved looking at all of the pictures of her knobs!"

Anyway, here is another picture of my knobs. These are not the knobs from last year though-These are my new improved knobs! These are knobs that I trash picked today! (Can you even stand it!)

While Michael was over today cutting a piece of wood to fit the seat of a bench that I trash picked last week, I noticed a huge pile of stuff over at my neighbors house. On closer inspection I found 2 1/2 antique beds and a mirror and while I was making Michael help cart those over to the house my neighbor brought out a door with these beautiful knobs attached to it! Micheal pulled out a screwdriver and popped these babies off the door for me! (and then very nicely installed them on my closet and bathroom doors in the front foyer)

So now, not only do I have my own husband doing my dirty work and carting things off the street, I also have my friend's husband helping as well. I'm sure he's sorry he stopped by!

Holiday Spud Gift Tags

Last night at Garden Club we made these adorable holiday gift tags. If you live with a child who does arts and crafts at your house and plan on making mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, then you probably have everything you need to make these cards.

All we did was take a potato, carve a shape into it (or whittle one out of it.) spread some paint onto it and then stamp it onto card stock. We cut the cards out with scrapbooking type scissors, punched a hole in them and then tied with a bit of raffia.

They are actually pretty cute and now I don't have to buy gift tags!

Apples, Apples, Apples!!!

Oh boy!

Today we took a drive along the lake to one of our favorite nearby small towns on the water. Once there, we stopped in an adorable little coffee/sandwich place that we love and had coffee and muffins. I mentioned that I would like to stop and get some apples on the way home as I had used all of the remaining apples we had to make applesauce!

Did I ever get apples!

We came upon a farm market that had bushels of apples for $10! What a deal. We even got to make our own bushel (which turned out to be a huge box) so we picked only nice apples and have a great mixed variety as well. When we got home I weighed them. We have 56 LBS OF APPLES! (for those of you not sitting next to your calculator that is $0.18 LB!!!) When was the last time I paid that much for apples. I'll tell you-NEVER!

Now, you have to make sure when you get a deal like this that you actually USE all of the apples so you realize your savings and don't waste food. I am planning on A LOT more applesauce, will give some apples to my parents, and will try and whip up some apple liqueur. I may also get out the dehydrator and make some apple chips. We will eat a lot of these and I plan to make some pies! Any other ideas would be well appreciated!

Homemade Applesauce

The other night Kristin and Michael had a dinner party with an apple theme. As a favor, Kristin made homemade applesauce. When my daughter got a hold of it, she ate the entire 6oz jar in one sitting! While she was eating it she kept saying "mmmmmmm...." and "mommy have some of this yummy applesauce."

So time to make applesauce I think!

I have an abundance of apples from Kelly's, so all I needed to do was go to the garage and get them! 9 apples and some water and I was good to go. I peeled the apples and took out the seeds. I cooked it until it was very mushy. While I was cooking it I added some cinnamon. Kristin had pureed it as well because her baby was going to eat it and I think that is why my girl liked it so much so I whirred it around with the hand blender for a minute or so.

It is so so good! I used about $2 worth of apples and go double what you would normally get for $2 of the Wegman's brand so this was not a huge savings. However, when I buy applesauce I always buy the natural to avoid the sugar( corn syrup) , and of course, the natural does not come with cinnamon or the smoother texture of the homemade! So I got exactly want I wanted which was also a better product for very little effort. (and less cash)

Kristin told me that you could also make applesauce in the microwave but I wanted to have all that apple cinnamon goodness bubbling away in the kitchen. It smelled heavenly as it was cooking!

Effortlessly Saving Money-Wash in Clold!

Well it's Friday again, and time for another edition of Effortlessly Saving Money.

Consider washing your clothes in cold water. Yes, they get clean! (I do wash all towels as well as undies in hot water and my girl's clothes in hot because she gets so much FOOD on them)

Sometimes I purchase the Tide Cold Water version and sometimes I don't (I think it's time for me to check out Consumer Reports and do another detergent comparison.) Depends on how much cash I feel like spending on the wash when I'm at the grocery store. Anyway, our clothes look fine and I believe conventional wisdom is that they last longer in cold.

At the very least, rinse in cold. Your clothes are already clean, they don't need additional hot water to finish the job. I have the wonderful Whirlpool front loader pictured at the top. (And I will wax poetic about front loaders in another post-17 gal of water vs 40 for a traditional machine for starters!) Anyway, that washer ONLY rinses in cold. You don't even get a choice. I figure all of Whirlpool can't be wrong. And if you are using a traditional washer the savings is even bigger!

Another tip that I would also like to add is good for the planet as well as your wallet!