Creativity in the Kitchen

So, I posted on my Facebook page once that I feed my family of 6 for $250 a month. I got quite a few responses from people who said how could I do that living in Fairbanks, Alaska. So, I am going to try and daily or at least every few days tell you what we eat so you can see how we eat cheaply. I will try to take pictures too, but I am not a photographer and really don't have a huge desire to become a great one. I am happy being a mediocre photographer :)

Today is just one way how I save money...

BREAKFAST
...my kids love those little packets of oatmeal with all the different flavors. I love them too but not how much they cost. So, I make up batches of Instant Oatmeal in gallon jars, old ice cream tubs, etc.. How I do it is.. I buy a 50# bag of rolled oats (organic or chemical free) and a #10 can of freeze dried strawberries (or blueberries) or use raisins, dried apricots, cranberries, etc.. (you get the idea), some powdered vanilla and organic evaporated sugar.

I mix up about 10 cups of oats with 2 cups of ground oats (just grind in coffee mill, blender, etc) and then add a few handfuls of pulverized strawberries (or chopped other fruits). I then add about 1/4 cup vanilla powder (this is not exact maybe a little less) and about 1 cup of sugar. Stir all together and your ready to dish out to your kids with some hot water. I figure this costs me about $5 For everything and it will last at least a week or more of breakfasts.

LUNCH
I make once a week usually Monday a batch of 7 loaves of bread so I use the 1 loaf and freeze the rest. Today I made peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches (homemade organic apple butter and organic peanut butter). Cost the loaf of bread is about $1.50 as I use all organic ingredients and grind my own flour. Peanut butter I buy in bulk (22 lbs) and apple butter was made with organic apples I paid $1.50 a pound. So I imagine this was about $3.00 for our family of 6 for lunch. I did serve sweet tea and water and a few slices of apples along with their sandwich.

DINNER
Thanksgiving was last week and my sister made a ham and didn't want the bones so I made a pot of beans this weekend with them. Today I stuck about 5 cups of those beans,some brown rice from this weekend and some cumin/chili pepper in the crock pot before we took the kids to swimming to heat up. When we got home, I heated up some oil (I do reuse my frying oil a few times) in our little fry daddy. I put a small cut slice of cheddar cheese on a soft taco wrap along with a heap of beans/rice and used a little flour/water mix to glue it so it would explode in the fry daddy. Then fried them up so we could have Chimichangas (Fried Burrito) for dinner along with some sour cream. I had some extra wonton wrappers from a week or so go and cut up some apples, added a bit of flour, sugar and cinnamon and rolled those up in the wrappers for Apple Pie Eggrolls. Cost: $6 for all the ingredients as the wonton wrappers were $1.50 and soft taco wraps were $2.50. The other ingredients with very cheap as they were dried beans, maybe 2oz. of cheese, a couple apples and some sour cream.

Today's total:
Breakfast .75c ($5 divided by 7 meals-approx. .75c)
Lunch: $3.00
Dinner: $6.00
Total: $9.75 for 3 meals for a family of 6
Not too bad :)

Sorry I didn't take any pictures but I do have leftovers of sandwiches for my husband's lunch tomorrow and extra oatmeal for breakfast and I have enough beans from the weekend that I froze two meals worth of filling for chimichangas later this winter..

Kitchen Before and After

Wow, didn't realize I had taken a year off blogging I guess life gets busy :) Well, things have progressed in our home...we remodeled our kitchen!!! Here is our BEFORE: (I know UGLY!!)

Here are our AFTER:

What we did... 1.Removed old tile and replaced with Vinyl planks. 2.Patched floor since it was uneven. 3.Fixed sink drain and plumbing issues. 4.Updated Electrical. 5.Painted walls. 6.Put Beadboard Paneling around and painted. 7.Made countertops from laminate sheets/plywood. 8.Used stock hickory cabinets to build a 7 ft long island with seating for 7 and storage!! LOVE IT!! 9.Used craigslist black cabinets for upper cabinets. 10.Bought new stock hickory cabinets for lowers and pantry. 11.Trimmed cabinets, and beadboarded backs. 12.Raised all lower cabinets to our height..4 inches higher than standard. 13.Built shelf over door frame to put my cookbooks and such. 14.Build box to house vent hood. 15.Beadboarded the sides of upper cabinets. 16.Beadboard the backsplash and paint white. 17.Paint back door with spray paint...NEVER DO THIS IN THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!! 18.Replaced countertops, sink, faucet. 19.Put new knobs/handles on cabinets 20. Clean clean clean Total cost $3500 and still need to put kick plate in and beadboard ceiling and replace lights with more farmhouse look lights... We (my husband and good friend, Nathan did the work, I helped as much as possible) I absolutely Love my kitchen!! I am in it what seems like from morning to night and still love it when I turn off the light..

Kitchen remodel sneak peak!!

Yes, after 3 years of talking about redoing our kitchen we are finally doing it!!! So, we are knee deep in the remodel and my "kitchen" is still on tables in my entry way!! But after 3 weeks dealing with it, our dishwasher is now working and we have running water with new countertops and new base cabinets!! I want to do the whole before and after so I am showing you a sneak peak at the inside of a kitchen cabinet :) AFTER: BEFORE: Hopefully soon the flooring with go in, along with the beadboard and then paint!! :) ~Fawn

Airplane Cockpit Room

An airplane cockpit...... I had been wanting to fix up my son's bedroom!! So, I had all kinds of ideas, but thought I should check with our soon to be 8 year old son.. so when I asked him he as for an airplane cockpit room!! WOW! Not at all what I was thinking but thought that is a great idea!! So we took apart his bunkbed and I called my sister who has a TON more painting talent then me and asked her to come by sometime and help me :) So we have basically finished the painting but still have to put the bed together and lego table but we are 4 steps done about 3 more steps!! but here is the start of the transformation!! SORRY for the pics they were on my phone! Part ONE make the windows..

Part Two add some sky/horizons and black details:

Part Three add the airplane:

Part 4 Add the airplanes and runway:

Will post soon all the pics of the room redo!! :) Enjoy ~Fawn

A story of a chair...

I was given this chair this summer when a friend moved to another state... It is not my style in color but OH MY is it comfortable!!! So it sat used everyday in the living room...but that color...I just knew I needed to do something....... 1st Attempt: I thought first to recover it but then thought that would take forever!! So, I planned on doing the Paint the fabric treatment... found some Fabric paint that says it will stay Soft (it was called Soft Fabric Paint) and tried that (it took 3 containers and the pink was still showing through) on one side of the seat cushion. It also took overnight to dry and was NOT soft!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2nd Attempt: So, tried a spray fabric paint which was $4 a can (with a 40% off coupon) and after using the whole can on one side of the seat cushion, it was Soft but you couldn't even tell I painted!!!! 3rd Attempt: Decided maybe recovering it with fabric wouldn't be too hard and in 2 hours I had it recovered and done!!! (with fabric I had on hand!! so FREE) Should of just done that to begin with!! I am going to get some buttons and put that through the seat back..but I think it looks a ton better and I did rip off the skirt on the bottom of the chair.. I am thinking this summer of painting it white...What do you think? Leave it or paint?? ~Fawn BEFORE:

AFTER:

Crab o beautiful crab!!

We spent the weekend in Ninilchik outside of Homer, Alaska and had a wonderful weekend! We ate yummy food saw bald eagles, lighthouses, walked the beach, spent time with the family and even took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. BUT we had the best King Crab Po'boy at the Ak Crab Shack on the Homer Spit, it was super simple but so delicious!! Hope you had a great weekend too!!

Changes....

It has been awhile since I have posted and mainly that is because my best friend and I have started a new business together(sourdoughgirlscreate.blogspot.com) We have taken over a friends food co-op and have started teaching classes and will soon have a mini-store in one of the basement bedrooms. So it has been busy at my home and my hubby has started a new career/business too as a realtor... so needless to say changes are in the air for our family!!
House projects are coming but really slowed down, mainly just garden hot wire fence (pesky moose)so hopefully will post some changes soon real soon....
~Fawn