Frugal Cherries!

Cherries are only frugal in the Summer, so at other times of the year, these recipes would be pretty expensive! I buy my cherries from sams club for about $2.30 a pound and they are totally worth it! Cherries are not only delicious, they are versatile. The only drawback is you have to pit them, but that can easily be accomplished with an inexpensive cherry pitter. Here are some of my favorite cherry based recipes.

Cherry Focaccia
3/4C plus 2Tbsp warm water
2 1/4tsp yeast
2 1/4C unbleached flour
1/4C brown sugar
1 1/4tsp salt
3/4C dried cherries
1C fresh cherries, rinsed, pitted and halved
1Tbsp sugar
Place the water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Add the flour, 1/4C sugar, salt and dried cherries. Knead on medium speed with the dough hook for about 7 minutes. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow to sit for 2-3 hours, or until doubled in bulk. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a 10x10 rectangle. Transfer the rolled dough to a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with a dry towel and let sit for about 45 minutes.
preheat oven to 400 degrees
Gently dimple the top of the dough with your fingertips. Place the cherry halves on top of the dough, pressing them in slightly. Sprinkle the 1Tbsp of sugar over the dough. Bake on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes.

Cherry Tart
(For the tart dough)
12Tbsp softened butter
1C powdered sugar
1/2C almonds, finely ground in a food processor
1 egg at room temperature
1/2tsp vanilla extract
2C unbleached flour
1/4tsp salt
Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Add the almonds, egg and vanilla and then the flour and salt. Mix until just combined. Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
(For the cherry filling)
1 pound fresh cherries, rinsed and pitted
2/3C heavy cream
1/3C sugar
2 eggs
1/3C sliced almonds, toasted
Heat the oven to 400 degrees
Remove one disk of dough from the fridge and roll out into a round 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a 9 inch tart pan that is at least 1 inch deep and has a removable bottom. Gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan.Remove excess dough and discard or save for cookies. Put the pan on a baking sheet and line the dough with parchment. Fill the parchment lined dough with dry rice or beans and bake it until the sides are set, 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the rice or beans and the parchment and return the pan to the oven. Bake another 7 minutes, or until the bottom is set and lightly browned.
Spread the cherries over the bottom crust in a single layer. Whisk together the cream, eggs and sugar and carefully pour the mixture over the cherries. You may have a little extra. Sprinkle the almonds on top and bake until the top is brown and the cherries are bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let the tart cool until it can be removed from the pan.

Cherry smoothie
1C orange juice
1C soy milk, almond milk or cows milk
1C pineapple
1C cherries
1-2 frozen bananas
Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth and creamy. My 3 year old calls this her "Red shake".:P

Poached cherries
1 3/4C water
2/3C sugar
3 strips lemon zest
3 strips orange zest
1/4 vanilla bean, split, or 1tsp vanilla extract
15 peppercorns
1 pound cherries, rinsed and pitted
In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar, lemon and orange zest, peppercorns and vanilla to a boil. Add the cherries and simmer for 10 minutes, skimming off any foam. Let cool and then refrigerate. Strain off cooking liquid before serving.

Cherry mousse
1 pound cherries, rinsed and pitted
3Tbsp powdered sugar
2C heavy cream, preferably not ultra-pasteurized
Combine cherries and 1Tbsp sugar in a food processor and puree. Whip the cream with the remaining sugar until medium peaks form. Fold in the cherry puree. For a fun dessert, layer this mousse with the poached cherries in clear wine glasses for a stunning effect!

Saving change

Two years ago my husband and I started paying for all of our weekly expenses (food, gas, fun stuff, miscellaneous expenses) with cash. We just budget a certain amount every week and take it out of the bank. This cash system has really helped us to stay within our budget and it also has the added bonus of generating a lot of change for us to save. We used to just save the change in a jar, but now we have a piggy bank.:P I keep the pennies separate from the other coins in the old jar, because it makes it easier when it comes time to roll everything up.
Change really adds up fast in a surprisingly short amount of time. My husband and I roll ours up every 4 months or so and we have ended up with between $85-$115 every time. After we roll it all up, we take it to the bank and exchange it for paper money. Then we use the money for fun! I know a lot of finance bloggers use their change to pay down debt or to pad their emergency fund and those are great ways to use the money as well. We don't have any debt (except for mortgage debt) and while every emergency fund could use some padding, I think you need to have some money for fun sometimes. Even when my husband were so poor we couldn't afford a car, we still had some money in our budget for fun.
Saving our change has been an easy and painless way for my husband and I to save some money. even if you only save $5 a week in change, that's still $260 a year you'll never even feel yourself saving!

Cooling drinks that battle the Summer heat

I hate to be hot, so it's too bad I live in Georgia. The Summers here are extremely hot and humid, so I'm always looking for ways to stay cool and comfortable. One of the best ways (besides setting the AC at 70 degrees and having a fan on at all times!:P) is to drink a lot of cold beverages and to eat as light as possible. Nothing makes me feel hot like a heavy meal! Here are some of my favorite Summer drinks and light meals!

Cantaloupe milk
(I got this recipe from the book "Fit For Life".)
1 cantaloupe, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2C soy milk, almond milk or cows milk
Place ingredients in a blender and process until a smooth, pale orange "milk" forms. Pour into 2 glasses and serve. You can also add a frozen banana for a more substantial meal. I would have this for breakfast or a light lunch.

Honeydew milk
Make the same way as cantaloupe milk, but substitute a honeydew instead. Or you can use half honeydew half cantaloupe!

Watermelon juice
(To make this, you need a juicer)
1/4 large SEEDLESS watermelon, preferably chilled
Remove rind and run watermelon through a juicer (I have a champion). Pour into a large pitcher and store in the fridge for up to 2 days. Watermelon juice is extremely refreshing and delicious!

Mango parfait
1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
2C plain yogurt
4Tbsp maple syrup (divided)
Place 1/2C yogurt in a bowl. Top with 1/4 of the mango chunks and drizzle with 1Tbsp maple syrup. Repeat with remaining yogurt, mango and maple syrup to create 4 servings. Enjoy! You can also use fresh peaches, strawberries, blackberries or cherries in place of the mango. My kids go crazy over this!

IRA

Back in 2004, when I was 24 years old, my husband and I came into some money from my husband going TDY and then from the military giving us some money for moving expenses. We ended up saving about $10,000 all together and since at that point our emergency fund was in pretty good shape, we were looking for something else to do with the money. I ended up talking to the financial advisor at the bank and he told me I should start an IRA for my retirement. At first I thought he was crazy...I mean I was 24 after all! Then I started doing some research and I found out that if I contributed $4,000 a year for 10 years and then just left the IRA alone, that when I was 59 years old the $40,000 I had put in would have grown to about 1.5 million dollars! There is some risk involved, because the money is in the stock market, but the risk is pretty minimal because I have the money in a balanced fund. A balanced fund is a mixture of stocks and bonds, which makes it less risky...But you also don't have as much potential for a big return.
Since 2004, my husband and I have contributed $4,000 a year to our Roth IRA and now we have $20,000 invested. Some years it's been pretty hard to save the money to contribute, but we've always made it a high priority. It scares me to think about being old and poverty stricken...Unable to even afford air conditioning or medicine, which is what happens to a lot of people once they are too old to work. Also if we had to we could take out any of the money we've contributed without incurring a penalty, because we have a Roth IRA. That would of course be a last resort, but in a pinch, $20,000 would go a long way towards getting us back on our feet!
So once you have a fairly large emergency fund and you're looking for another way to save, I would recommend looking into a retirement account. We have ours with The Vanguard Group and so far I've been very happy with them.

My $665 car repair

Today I took my car to the local auto repair shop, because the brakes were making a weird sound and the steering wheel would shake whenever I tried to stop the car or even just slow down. It turned out that all four rotors needed to be replaced along with the brake shoes and pads. With parts and labor it came to $665...Ouch. Luckily, my husband and I have some savings, so we could afford a car repair, but it still hurts.
Last October we started saving to go on an awesome family vacation to Disney world this October. Our goal is to save $3000 and so far we have $2500. This vacation fund is separate from our long term savings, so only "extra" money can go in there. I was hoping that this month we could get the rest of the way there, but I guess it will have to wait...Especially since the car needs a tune up and the roof on my house needs to be replaced! These things always seem to happen all at once, don't they?

Frugal Pizza!

Pizza is one of my favorite foods, but ordering it is so expensive. My family would spend anywhere between $15 and $22 for one pizza meal, back when we used to get our pizza from a restaurant. I started making my own pizza about a year ago and I never looked back. Here is my recipe!

Perfecto Pizza
5 tsp yeast
2C warm water
5-6C bread flour
1Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
About 1C pizza sauce
4C shredded cheese
Toppings of choice
Dissolve yeast in the warm water for 5 minutes in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add salt, oil and 5C of flour and mix on low for about 1 minute. If the dough is too wet, mix in more flour 1/2C at a time until the dough comes together in a smooth ball and cleans the sides of the mixer bowl. Knead the dough for about 2 minutes longer. Place dough in a greased bowl and spray cooking spray over the top. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rise until doubled (about an hour).
Punch dough down.
Preheat oven to 450
Cut dough into 2 equal pieces and roll each piece into a round about 10-12 inches in diameter. Place rounds on 2 greased cooking sheets, rolling the edges slightly to create a crust. Spread about 1/2C sauce over top of the pizza and sprinkle 2C shredded cheese over the sauce. Top with desired toppings and bake for about 20 minutes, switching the pans around halfway through.
My favorite pizza toppings:
Chicken, pineapple bacon, or just chicken and pineapple!
Mushroom and green pepper
Ham and pineapple
Pepperoni bacon (my husband's favorite!)

The way I keep this pizza easy and frugal is I buy bread flour in bulk from Sams club at $7 for 25 pounds and I buy shredded cheese from Sams club at $6.75 for 8 pounds. I know that's a lot of cheese, but it lasts for a long time in the fridge and I use it for other recipes, like lasagna and baked ziti.

Kitchen appliances it's worth it to pay more for

For anyone who reads my blog, I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. I went on vacation in early April and then right afterwards I got terribly sick for literally 3 weeks! Then I had a TON of catch up work and I'm still not 100% back on my feet, so it's been tough. Anyway, on to my post!
I'm always looking to save money, but sometimes you really do have to spend some or you'll end up with useless junk. My first food processor is a good example. I paid $35 for it and it was broken within about 2 months. My first blender was a cheap, $25 model that burned out after 1 month of use. Since then I've been amassing an arsenal of sturdy, built to last appliances that cost more, but are well worth the extra money. Here are the ones I've gotten so far.

Black and Decker food processor: $250
After my crappy $35 food processor broke, I went ahead and bought a decent one for $250. That was 6 years ago and since then I've used it almost every day for chopping and grating vegetables, mixing dough, making hummus, pureeing soups and making sauces. A good food processor is an extremely handy tool for any cook. I would say it's been my most useful appliance.
Champion juicer: $220
I know this isn't a practical appliance for everyone, but I thought I'd include it just the same. My juicer is a wonderful tool in my quest for more healthy living for my family. I use it to make all kinds of juice combinations for just drinking straight, or for smoothies or for raw soups and even for Popsicles. If you like fresh juice, go ahead and buy a juicer. I've had mine for 7 years and it's been great. Nothing makes me feel better as a mother than to serve my kids a tall glass of freshly made juice, or a Popsicle that contains no sugar or additives or a frosty vegetable/fruit smoothie that they scarf down with delight.
Black and Decker blender: $150
A good blender is essential for me, because I make so many smoothies and I also make my own almond milk. My goal is to eventually buy a Vitamix, which is a kind of super blender. It costs about $450, though, so I'm still saving up. A good blender really does make life easier.