Is a Dehydrator Worth It?

A dehydrator takes the water out of food, creating a way to lighten your load or space. It helps spices to remain almost forever, backpackers to carry weeks worth of waterless meals in their backpacks, and water out of fruit and meat for snacks.

An average dehydrator costs around $30. Is it really worth it? Well, let's look at the cost of spices at the grocery store. Let's take basil for example. I bought a fresh basil plant in early March. We're halfway through April and it's still producing leaves. We bought a sweet basil plant at a local nursery for $2.50.

Granted, the pot, soil, and water costs money, but its a small enough amount that it really doesn't add to much since the plant is so small. It's not like we're using enough water to fill a bathtub or anything. I'm a huge fan of gardening and when you plant even just one plant, like spices, it's well worth the money.

Any old dehydrator will get the job done :)

After cutting off the leaves, you should wash them (and make sure there are no bugs or insects on them).

Put a plastic tray (usually for fruit leather) on the bottom tray. This will catch all the crumbs when they are dehydrated

Place the leaves in an even layer on your dehydrator tray.

Wait 3-4 hours, but check them once in awhile. I tried dehydrating fresh strawberries one time and I actually burned them! So keep an eye on your special leaves.

When will they be done? I don't have fancy buttons on my dehydrator, but when they crumple when you touch them, they're done. Kind of like bacon.  Place them in a ziploc and have a kid crumple them to the size you want them.

Fresh organic basil

Back to the original question: is a dehydrator worth it? A regular container spice container of basil is minimum $3.00 around here. I bought the basil plant for $1.99 and have gotten at least 2 spice containers full from just one basil plant without adding any miracle grow or anything.

So the answer is yes. Over time, you can dehydrate many things...for mucho cheaper than the grocery store. Plus, who needs to keep buying the same spice container? Although they are handy...

Other uses for a regular $30 dehydrator:

Sunflower or Pumpkin Seeds
Dried Fruit (Grapes-Raisins)
Meat Jerky
Spices (Basil, Parsley, etc)
Flowers (who knew?)
Chips

A great website for more dehydrator uses: http://www.stacymakescents.com/40-uses-for-a-dehydrator 

Definitely a kitchen investment! You can use all that extra money towards your debt and create some kitchen or craft experiments :)

Birthday Girl Turns 6...on a budget

This month our daughter is celebrating her 6th birthday. Granted, birthdays are a huge deal for kids and some parents. For us, we really cannot afford to celebrate it at Chuck E Cheese, Pump it Up, or any party planning place. So what does our family do? We went to the park.

Have to have cupcakes to celebrate!

Not only did the kids get a workout on the playground equipment, I brought along Capri Suns (back of the pantry), bottled water, goldfish, snap peas, carrots, and craisins.

Does anyone look like they are having a horrible time? Not after homemade cupcakes ;)

Not only does this help your local park, but it helps your local economy too. What a way to celebrate a kid's birthday! Even the parents were excited about the beautiful weather and getting their kids outdoors to run around. The girls ran around playing freeze tag while the boys played on the equipment.

The only downside is parents want to drop off their kids...with only two adults there. Watching them is okay, it's the getting hurt part I worried about. Most parents were okay with this. Or maybe they can trust me since I volunteer in my daughter's classroom.

Financially, how did we do? The only thing I bought extra were the things I did not have which was... surprisingly nothing. I could have sent party favors home, but you know what? We didn't have the extra money. So I used what I had and there were no sad kids there. They got veggies and crackers, a small drink, and a cupcake. See- no big, lavish, expensive party for 2 hours. $10 to rent the shelter (I think) and basic snack foods with cupcakes. Win-win for everyone!

I put "Gifts Optional" on her birthday invites- she got so many gifts!

First Week of April with $200 out of $400

$400 per month on groceries. Yes ma'am. Or sir. Whichever you prefer. $400 to shop for all natural/organic products.

Right now, we really cannot afford to buy a whole cow or poultry straight from the farm. It's literally hundreds of dollars. Well, maybe not for 1-2 whole chickens.

Vons, Albertsons, Save Mart, Wal-Mart, and other big chains are starting to carry all natural meats, eggs, and dairy along with their organic produce. Granted organic produce is absolutely not the best quality (its still in the grocery store nevertheless), but you still have to look around. Yes, you can drop $100 per week at a health food store like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. But really, where do we shop to find the best deal?

It depends on what your plan is. Yes, that nasty P word. You must meal plan before you buy anything. Otherwise you will drop that $100 and try to figure out what you're going to make each day. Who wants that stress?

Meal planning usually takes place on Sundays. It doesn't matter what time, but this gives me time to figure out how much and what I need to get me through the week.

It's quite easy and if you have a hard time meal planning, check out plantoeat.com (I am not an affiliate). I did use their free trial, and you know what? It's simply amazing. If we weren't on such a tight budget, I would definitely use them. If you are trying out a new diet, you can search Pinterest, other blogs and websites and actually bookmark the recipe. The best part about plantoeat.com? It even makes a shopping list for you!

After you get your meal plan written out, find a store you like best and watch their sales. I know there aren't a ton of organic produce, meat, or dairy on sale every week, but when there is, pick up a couple extra items if you can freeze them for later. If not, then don't worry about wasting your money.

I personally hate shopping at Wal-Mart, Albertsons, and all those big national chains. I dread giving them such big portions of my husband's hard earned paycheck. So what store <i>do </i>I shop at?

I love Fresh and Easy for their organic, reasonably priced, smaller sized stores. I can get in and get out rather quickly. They always have a large selection of almost everything organic in their store. Some items are priced higher than others, but hey, I'm not buying everything that says organic. If I'm in a quick pinch, they do have organic-not raw- milk. They have organic honey, organic syrup, along with non-organic foods (for when hubby goes with me-bad idea).

As for flour, I purchase sprouted flour at a local health store. We have a Lassen's that carries their whole wheat sprouted flour in the bulk section. I love bulk bins! Especially when this particular flour costs $4.19 per pound (don't tell hubby). My body cannot tolerate white flour (no gluten allergy), so I buy this when I know I will be baking something (tortillas, bread, etc.). I still am working on learning how to bake with this flour, so bear with me!

We also did try drinking the grass-fed milk. My son loved the cow on the front and how can I tell him no to milk? The only weird thing about it was the lumps in your glass (cream tidbits). Other than that, we loved the flavor! Cost: $5.69 for half gallon.

Another awesome find at Lassen's was their selection of One Degree sprouted grains cereals. They had four or five to choose from! :) My tummy was so happy! Add this to the grass-fed milk and my body loved me. Now since this cereal is a little expensive, only I eat maybe 1/2 a cup of cereal. Not kids. I'm not big into sugary cereal and cannot stand the taste of cornflakes, so this was perfect for me. Cost: $5.69 for a 12 oz box.

Early this month, I ran out of laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent! Agh! Not a good thing when your brother is coming from Washington! So for these items, I get my washing soda, borax, and lemi-shine from Winco. They do have organic dairy, but I have yet to see any organic produce besides lettuce. I will write another post on household cleaners on here soon!

What has Jenn bought so far?
Lassen's: Ancient Sprouted Maize Flakes Cereal  $5.69
          Grassmilk, Whole, Half Gallon                   $5.69
Fresh N Easy: Eggs, Brown, Cage Free Dozen     $3.99
          Bananas (Not Organic)       6 bananas         $1.14
          Organic Mini Cucumbers                            $2.99
          Organic Carrots                                           $1.69
          Organic Kale (won't buy again)                  $2.99
          Organic Apples                                           $1.99
Winco: Washing Soda            3 boxes @ $3.15    $9.45 (seems really high compared to the last time I bought it)
       Borax                                                              $3.97
       Fels Naptha                6 @ $.97                      $5.82
       Spicy Tuna Roll    tsk tsk tsk                          $4.98 (how did that sneak in there?)
       Lemi-Shine                 2 @ $3.97                   $7.94 (ouch)
       Cream Cheese (school snack)2 @ $1.78       $3.56
       Non-Organic Baby Carrots (school snack)    $ .98
       Whole Olives (school snack)     3 @ $.98      $2.94
       Sliced Olives                   2 @ $.58                 $1.16
                           Bring your own bag                  -$ .06

                              Grand Total:                            $71.94

                                                 $200.00 (first half of month)
                                               - $71.94

                                                127.00 left for groceries until next week. I always put all my change into the piggy bank to go towards debt at the end of the year (hubby doesn't know this).

That's not too terrible is it? Other than the household cleaning supplies and school snack- I'll have to show you what I made with these three items. Big hit with 5 year olds!

Although my brother is coming into town this week, we also have a 5 year old turning 6 that I have to buy groceries for... all for $127.00 Can we manage feeding three adults and two young kids until the 15th?


Even if you don't have these stores or enjoy swiping your rewards card at other stores, you can always shop for the conventional clean 15 at regular grocery stores. <a href="http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php">Here </a>is the full list of the EWG's clean list. The numbers with the lower number have the most pesticides. Yuck! Eating organic should not be considered a trend.

Clean 15:
andpoint of pesticide contamination:

    Onions
    Sweet corn
    Pineapples
    Avocado
    Cabbage
    Sweet peas
    Asparagus
    Mangoes
    Eggplant
    Kiwi
    Cantaloupe (domestic)
    Sweet potatoes
    Grapefruit
    Papayas
    Mushrooms

Not a lot of these are on our weekly shopping list :( Sad.

March 30-April 5 Menu Plan

Hubby is gone until Friday night, so I created a menu plan that will feed the three of us. I'm not going to worry about a sparkling house today, although I have family coming to visit! Maybe tomorrow...

Sunday: Egg Burritos
              Wings, Sugar Snap Peas, Carrots
              Steak, Zuchinni with onions and garlic, mac-n-cheese
Monday-Friday: Oatmeal or Toast
              Leftovers or PB &J
              Leftovers or Freezer Meal made in crockpot (pretty big meals)
Saturday: Soft Boiled Eggs and Toast
             Quesadillas (usually with leftover meat and veggies)
              Baked Chicken, Green Beans, cooked Carrots

A no hassle week with lots of veggies shoved in there! ;)  Shouldn't cost a lot

New Plant-Based Cookbooks

Cookbooks. You don't really need them, but they sure are handy to have. I have two. Sad, I know. Most people I know have ten or more. Time to get some more cookbooks. Before buying anything, I wanted to make sure the recipes were good. So I headed to the Beale library (great library system). They have almost every book you can think of and after looking online for books, I decided to check out three particular books. Notice I check out books. Not e-books. There's a major difference between the two (anyone can publish an e-book, not everyone can publish an actual book).


"Forks Over Knives" by Del Sroufe: I had to wait after 40+ people to get it, but once I did, I cooked a few of the recipes and I have to say: yes! This book is a must buy. It doesn't have every plant based recipe known to man, but it's much better than it's competitors I found. This is my number one buy.

"Skinny Bitch" by Kim Barnouin had very few good recipes. At first she describes why people should eat healthier, but instead of using vegetable oil or canola oil, she uses other various oils such as olive and grapeseed. Doesn't help if you are trying to stay away from all forms of oil. I am steering clear of this book.

"Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay Nixon. Seriously? She had a lot of specialty items such as agave nectar. What the heck is that? I know its a sweetener, but I don't think its something I can grow in my backyard. She also uses kelp powder and (whole wheat) bread in her recipes. This is my number 2 cookbook choice. I just wouldn't use those recipes with the specialty items. I should have got a picture of this book to show you, but you can look it up on Amazon.com.

I'm trying to grow our own produce so cookbooks using oil and kelp powder make no sense to me. There are a few recipes I can use out of the "Happy Herbivore", but "Forks Over Knives" has been the best cookbook so far.

Since trying these recipes, we (as a family) feel better, have less trash, and are able to figure out what's for dinner quicker. There's no waiting to defrost meat or leaking bags in the fridge of meat juice. Happy, healthy Bako Depot residents! Great way to treat yourself and lose that weight!

I am not advertising this books for any money. I'm just excited these cookbooks follow my new eating/cooking guidelines.