Yellow cake mix turned chocolate cookies

On Sunday I had a serious craving for chocolate. I scoured my (almost barren) pantry and all I came up with was a yellow cake mix. That definitely would not help my craving for chocolate. So I scoured the internet for inspiration and came up with the idea to turn my yellow cake mix into a chocolate cake mix, and then turn the cake mix into cookies. Perfectly logical steps right?

I got the recipe from this blog, which I just found. I suggest checking it out. It has some amazing recipes!

To turn my cake mix from yellow to chocolate I added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. Then I added 2 eggs, 1/4 cup of oil, and about 3 tablespoons of water. The original recipe from the blog above calls for 1/3 cup of oil but I used 1/4 cup and they turned out really good!


The batter kind of looks like ground meat which was gross. Luckily it smelled like chocolate!

I then rolled the batter into calls and placed them onto a cookie sheet (which I lined with foil for easy clean up, because I'm lazy like that)

Next I flattened them out and baked them at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.


I bet you're all wondering what professional kitchen gadget I used to flatten out all of the balls and keep them looking so uniform. Was it pampered chef? Kitchen Aid? An antique cookie press handed down for generations?

Nope... it was happy harvest tomato sauce. Which it a very useful kitchen gadget! It serves so many functions! It can be used as a rolling pin, cookie press, meat tenderizer, and when combined with white wine, onions, and cream it makes a delicious cream sauce!

These cookies came out so so sooooo good! They are going to be my new default cookie. You can use different cake mixes for different flavors too. I can't wait to try a carrot cake and top the cookies with cream cheese icing. Yum!

my $5 a week grocery budget is working out really well! I didn't originally plan for it to include cookies but thanks to my pantry and the eggs that I bought last week I could get my chocolate fix and stick to the budget!

$5 a Week on Groceries

So the past few days/week has been pretty crazy. I have a cold and have been feeling really yucky for the past few days, which is never fun. Jason left for a work trip on Monday, which he will be on for 2 weeks. Then today I found out that I over drafted my checking account, which I haven't done in at least 5+ years. On the bright side, thing can only get better from here! Ah the glamourous, under paid, life of a social worker. I remember watching movies or TV shows and seeing social worker and thinking wow that would be an awesome job. And it is, most of the time. But what the TV shows and movies don't portray is that most social workers make next to nothing. I'm not complaining though. I am thankful just to have a job in an economy where so many do not.

I had fully planned on grocery shopping this week and then being sick threw me off schedule. Thankfully I didn't go or I would have over drafted my account even more. So I went shopping today after work and budgeted $10 which I plan to last me until next Friday. Meaning I spent on avergae $5 for this week and $5 for next week. The menu I made is for lunches and dinners. Lukily I have somethings in the freezer and pantry. Unfortunately I didn't go grocery shopping last week, and just picked up a few things. So this is really going to depleat what is in my panrty but I am glad that I am semi prepared and able to make 2 weeks of lunches and dinners for $10.

Here is what I bought...

A bag of potatoes, A can of corn, sour cream, 1 dozen eggs, cheese, a bag of onions, 1 container of cream, a bag of carrots, english muffins, and hummus.

Here is what I'll be eating...

Lunches: PB&J, english muffin pizza's, hummus on tortilla, left over soup, pasta, hard boiled eggs, and left overs from dinner

Dinners:

Thursday- Vegetarian chili using tomato soup and beans from the pantry, peppers and TVP from the freezer, and onions which I just bought

Friday- Ravioli with tomato cream sauce using ravioli from the freezer, sauce from my pantry, and cream which I just bought

Saturday- Corn chowder using a can of corn, potatoes, carrots, onions, and cream that I just bought.

Sunday- Crock pot curry using potatoes onions and carrots that I just bought and tomato paste, peppers, curry powder, and pea which I had already

Monday- Taco's using TVP, peppers, and tomatoes from the freezer, tortilla that I already had, sour cream that I just bought.

Tuesday- Mac and Cheese using noodles from my pantry and cheese and cream that I just bought

Wednesday- Potato soup using potatoes, onions, and cream that I just bought and faux chicken boullion that I had on hand

Thursday- Rice pilaf using rice and pea's that I have on hand and onions and carrots that I just bought

Friday- Spaghetti using noodles I had on hand and left over sauce from the ravioli.

I hope this didn't bore you too much. I just wanted to show that even when money is very tight you can still throw together tasty meals. The other life saver for me was definately shopping at aldi's. If I would have shopped anywhere else I probably would have spent 15-20 dollars for the same things. If you have an Aldi's near you and have never gone try it out!

Lunch

When I started working at my current job I was so devoted to taking my lunch. Every night I would pack up left overs, sandwiches, fruit, granola, etc. Well a year later and that habit is falling by the wayside more and more. I am a social worker and I have to visit people in their homes. Meaning I am in the office only about 25% of the time. This makes it difficult to pack lunches and plan on being in the office to actually sit down and eat. But starting next week I am going to try and make an effort to be in the office to eat a lunch that I packed.

When I packed my lunch everyday I did several things to pique my interest and make me look forward to lunch.

1. Packing my lunch in a cute bag or container always made it feel more special and appealing than just taking an old brown bag. I also discovered bento boxes and tiffins which are really popular in Japan and are becoming widely available in the US. I bought mine from a store called Ichiban Khan which is sadly no longer selling online but ebay, amazon, and tons of independent online store sells bento's. Here is a cute one from amazon:

Tiffins, which is basically the bento's cousin, are also great for packing lunches. The only downside to most tiffins is that they are made from metal and cannot be heated in the microwave. But if you are packing pasta salad, dip, or anything that doesn't need to be heated they are great. (Note: they also make plastic tiffins, however they are hard to find!) Here is an awesome tiffin from to go ware

I could go on and on about lunch boxes, tiffins, and bento's, and maybe I will in a following post!

2. The second thing that helped me to enjoy my lunches was to pack things I enjoyed! A novel concept right? At first I found myself packing the typical "lunch box" food of yogurt, fruit, sandwich, and crackers. That got old FAST! So I started packing things I liked. In the beginning of the week I would make a big bowl of pasta salad and pack it every day with some fresh bread, fruit, and a homemade cookie. Or I would cook something for dinner with the intention of leftovers. For instance I would make fried rice for dinner but make extra rice for leftovers and combine it with some parm cheese, fake chicken, and vegetables for a different rice dish from the night before. Lunch box food is okay every now and then but if I had to eat it every day packing my lunch would be depressing!

3. The last thing that I do to enjoy packing my lunch is to go out for lunch! I work in downtown Pittsburgh and I am surrounded by amazing places to eat. I also work with people who go out for lunch A LOT! Sitting in your office watching people go out to lunch is not fun. It can also make you resent packing your lunch. When I was really into packing my lunch everyday I would still allow myself to go out once every 2 weeks or so. Sometimes, especially when you are having a hard day, its nice just to get out of the office for an hour and have somebody serve you for a change. It also keeps people from perceiving you as the bump on a log that never does anything with your co-workers!

These are just a few of the things that helped me pack my lunch for about 5 months straight. Like I said though I WILL be packing again! Maybe I will even post some pics and ideas of my favorite lunches!

What Jason and I really seem to be struggling with now though is keeping snacks in the house. Buying processed food and prepackaged snacks is really starting to break the budget! Some of the things we have been making is popcorn (with the air popper), tortilla chips and salsa, and homemade cookies. I am just at a loss though when it comes to thinking of more frugal snacks! If you have any idea's I would love to hear them!!

This post is linked to The Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom

Complicated math solutions!

So I've been on this frugal kick for awhile now. Growing our own vegetable in the garden, finding some sweet clothes at goodwill, canceling cable, you get the idea. However what I never really posted about was why I do it. On most blogs you read about women who have a dozen or so kids and need to save money for barbie birthday parties and new school clothes. In my case I save money so I can spend it on stuff I love. Stuff I love does not include barbie birthday parties. Fuck barbie and her size negative 4 waist. Things I love are sushi, awesome furniture, hammocks, vintage jewelry, traveling, massages, and clothes. As it turns out, if you are cheap about buying things that you don't love then you can spend more money on thing you do love. I devised this complicated math solution which thoroughly explains my theory. If I have 200 dollars to spend on groceries and I only spend $25 then I am left with $175 to spend on really cool stuff! Here it is laid out for you..

$200- $25= $175 to buy some sweet shit!

Also, since I plan on having kids never I have no reason to plan ahead and "make a little nest egg" I poached that egg long ago and had a ridiculously fun time doing it! Bottles of gin and high heel's don't wake you up at 3am crying. Unless said bottle of gin is consumed by ex boyfriend, in which case said situation is possible, and likely. But I digress, money is so trivial and if I had a ton of it I would pay off all of my bills, buy some expensive laundry detergent, AND a new outfit. However, I am a social worker and have no hope of making millions. So instead, I pay my bills, make my own laundry detergent, AND buy a new outfit.

I hope this post clears up any misconceptions of me ever wanting children, being frugal in order to better myself or the environment, or enjoying budgeting my life. I am selfish, love to shop, wish I had ton of money to blow, and want exactly 0 kids.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday (if there is such a thing).

Homemade laundry detergent and frugal fashion finds

Yesterday on my way home from work I was going through the list of thing I needed to accomplish when I actually made it home from my 1 hour commute… 1. devour the first food item I see. 2. make sure my DVR recorded the newest episode of The Real Housewives of NY 3. Attempt to throw random foods together to pass as dinner 4. do laundry. Then it occurred to me that I was out of my beloved drops. This normally wouldnt be a big deal, I would just stop by walmart and get some. But Walmart has apparently decided to punish me for budgeting my grocery bill by refusing to sell drops. So I decided to man up and make my own laundry detergent to save money and have a ton of it on hand. So here is the "recipe",

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Water

1 cup Borax

2/3 bar of Fells Napa Soap

1 cup Washing soda (which I couldnt find so I used generic Oxy Clean)

Bring 12 cups of water to boil. While water is boiling shred the fells napa soup (I used my cheese grater) and dump it in your bucket. Pour the boiling water in your bucket over the fells napa. Once the soap is disolved add the boraz and washing soda (or generic oxy clean, or if your RICH real oxy clean). Once all of the ingrediants are disolved add 44 (yes 44) cups of water to your bucket and voila laundry soap! After it sits for a day or so it congeals on top but word on the street it that its all the same and you can use the congealed parts or the liguid without mixing the 2 every time you do laundry.

Speak of me being a tightwad... While i was at walmart picking up the supplies I took a detour through the clothes on my way to the checkout. What I found both shocked and alarmed me.

* Warning: if you are adverse to buying clothes at walmart don't read any further because the stylishness of these clothes will compell you to buy them.

I found some really cute and stylish clothes. I was shocked because in the past when I think of walmart clothes I think of graphic tee's with phrases like Baby girl and sweet thang. But these clothes were very trendy and good looking.

I didn't buy anything yesterday because it was still full price and like all thing at walmart, if you give it 2 weeks it will be cheaper. But these cute walmart clothes has opened by eye to a whole new world of clothing!

Commitment Issues

So I have basically not blogged for about 2 months. I really need to work on my comitment issues. But as you can see from these photo's I've been busy...

Cuddling with Heidi

Recovering this chair... ugh if only I had a before picture of the nasty fabric, think wet beige dog.

Taking walks with Paco!

And making the best ever vegan cauliflower soup!

(it doesn't have a recipe but basically I boiled cauliflower, onion, and a turnip in vegetable stock until it was a very soft then blended it in a blender. Then I added it back to the pot and added a little more vegetable stock to thin it out.. It was AMAZING!

So my new resolve it to try and post something every day! I have also decided to go on a hard core saving spree. Similar to my old spending spree's except instead of getting things in exchange for money I will be getting money and then getting more money and then eventually I hope to get this...

And then turn it into something like this...

And then rent it out in order to make a profit... and never have to work again!

Dream big, it's free!