Condo Blues: food and drink
Showing posts with label food and drink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food and drink. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2016

12 Things I Do Not Buy and What I Use Instead

 Like most of you, I buy things on sale to save money where I can. Unfortunately, I’m just as guilty as anyone else who ran to the store to buy two things and came out with a buggy of stuff because I found a sale or a deal.

Sometimes I saved money and often times I didn't. The light bulb went off when I decluttered and organized the basement of our old place. Most of the Donate Pile was stuff I bought on sale because I thought I was saving money at the time.
  


 The easiest way to stop those intermittent money leaks disguised as saving was to stop buying things I didn't need even if they were on sale. I either gave up using it, found a reusable for a disposable, or repurposed something to take its place - all are extremely green, painless, and low cost options!

 So scoot over to my food blog Lazy Budget Chef to read my  post:

12 Things I Do Buy


Make sure you read the comments. A bunch of super smart folks shared their money saving tips there too!


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Monday, January 18, 2016

Even Organics Can Make You Sick – the EOS Lip Balm Lawsuit is Wrong

Today’s Baseless Internet Outrage of the Day is brought to you by people who don’t realize lip balm made from organic and natural ingredients can cause allergic reactions because – new flash!most allergies are caused by things found in nature.

Hay fever anyone?

What we commonly call hay fever is an allergic reaction to some form of pollen. Or if you are me, tree, grass, and weed pollen – including the pollen of many plants and flowers we plant inside and out of our homes. So I have first hand experience of having surprise allergic reactions, succeeding - and failing - at avoiding allergic reactions, and how much it sucks sometimes because I have allergic reactions.



The thing is, I don’t think that just because a product uses natural or organic ingredients it is automatically perfect and will not cause heath issues in some people even though products made with organic and natural ingredients are the type of products I buy and use as much as I can.

According to the New York Times article Allergies Can Be Natural, Too:
“While most skincare and hair care is filled with potential allergy triggers, it turns out that organic versions are, to green parents’ dismay, among the worst offenders. “Generally the more expensive organic products have more allergens; they’re in their purest form,” said Lisa Borden, 39, a Toronto-based mother whose 8-year-old daughter is allergic to peanuts, nuts and kiwi.”

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

How to Make Wine Cork Napkin Rings

I want to switch up my dining room decor for Thanksgiving. One of the easiest and cheapest way to do that is to decorate with fall colored napkins and napkin rings. The cloth napkins I have. The cute fall napkin rings I do not.

I have a TON of wine corks in my craft room, just waiting for a crafty wine cork project. Time to get my upcycling on and recycle some of the corks into handmade napkin rings!


Recycled Copper Beaded Wine Cork Napkin Rings

This is a quick little project you can do for yourself or make and give them to someone as a homemade gift. Christmas is just around the corner you know!


Pin this post for later!

For each napkin ring you will need:

Sunday, October 11, 2015

What Are Your Favorite Sore Throat and Ear Ache Home Remedies?

Hi gang. I'm under the weather and singing the blues. I need a little help from you.


I have another ear infection. Well, actually, it is the same ear infection I had two weeks ago. I thought it went away but it got worse instead of better.

I shouldn't be surprised. I spent last Saturday practicing and performing with my high school alumni marching band in a bone chilling cold and drizzling rain. Sunday afternoon I felt a familiar pop! pop! pop! in my ear and couldn't balance during yoga for neither love nor money.


I'm spending quality time with hot tea with lemon and honey in ol' Snoop dog more often than I'd like. It helps some but most of the time my throat feels like I swallowed a fistful of straight pins. Ouch.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Quick Craft: Make a Portable Phone Charger Case

I  love photography. My phone has a good camera and I’m not shy about whipping it out to document the beautiful, fun, or surprising things that cross my path in any given monument. Unfortunately, using the camera so often kills my phone battery. I started carrying a portable phone charger or two in my bag or backpack when Husband and I go on one of our adventures.

My quick phone charger holder makes a great gift. 
You should pin this post for gift giving season!


I quickly realized I need some sort of phone charger holder or case to store the charger and the cord together.  Why are the things you need to grab quickly always in the deepest darkest corners of your bag or purse and take ages of rooting around to find? It’s some sort of purse conspiracy I tell ya.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

15 Non Alcoholic Cocktails for Summer

After the gray winter days, I dance with joy when the sun shines bright in summer.

Except  this summer. We had 19 straight days of rain in June.

We are following that trend this July. We're lucky if we get one day a week that it isn't raining. When that happens, it is more likely to be overcast rather than sunny.


As a treat, I mix up a pitcher of liquid sunshine - a fancy pants juice drink that's alcohol free. A mocktail! It's the perfect refreshing drink when you want something a little more than water and not as sweet as pop.

 

I'm sharing 15 of my favorite mocktail recipes on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef. Click here to read:

15 Summer Mocktail Recipes That Will Make You the Queen of the Cookout on Lazy Budget Chef!


What is your favorite summer drink?


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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

How to get Rid of Ants in a Pet and Kid Safe Natural Way

After nine days of consecutive rain my yard is waterlogged. A bunch of ants decided to seek higher ground and wanted to use my kitchen as a summer vacation spot.

Pin this post for later!



I wanted to kill the ants but I am leery of using borax, conventional ant bait traps, and sprays because I don’t want to kill my dog along with the ants. Death by shoe is more natural and personally satisfying but it not a good long term solution.

Five Things You Absolutely Must Do to Get Rid of Ants

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

25 of the Best Ways to Reuse Old Pill Bottles

Husband and I are relatively healthy people but every once and awhile we get sick enough to require prescription medicine. More often than not the medicine comes comes in a plastic bottle that aren’t always recyclable.

I really hate tossing something like that into the trash and sending it to a landfill to sit on a mountain of garbage for a thousand years.



Pin this post to get organized!


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

How to Make Aluminum Can Coasters

I have another aluminum can craft for you today! Today’s tutorial is for round soda pop can coasters.

diy beer can coasters
 Aluminum can coasters a fun handmade gift!

Husband and I often work at our computer desks with a coffee mugs or water glasses in front of us. Anything on the desk is fair game to be used as a coaster because we don’t want to ruin our wood desktops. As you can imagine, that doesn't always work well because spilling things is my superpower. Paper envelopes pulled from the recycling bin make lackluster and sometimes soggy coasters.

Let’s fix that.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Our Wedding Story

Once upon a time, because that’s how stories start, a dashing man and lovely lady were married 18 years ago on this very day.

bridal party
This is my favorite picture of our Elizabethan bridal party because is was impromptu. We were walking to the cars after the photo session and the photographer yelled “STOP!” and took this photo. A copy hung in his shop. I should also mention that the gazebo in on the grounds of a mental hospital. Somehow that seems fitting!
 
The man is still dashing. I call him Husband. He says the lady is still lovely. He calls her Lisa.
Husband and I met as new performers at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. I can still show you the spot on the grounds when the thought flashed through my head that I was going to marry him. I quickly pushed it out of my head thinking it was a result of being a single Maid of Honor in a recent family wedding.

I was wrong.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Small Space Industrial Open Pantry Yay or Nay?

A worn valve on our water heater flooded the utility, laundry, and kitchen after Husband started the dishwasher on Christmas Eve Eve morning.

Husband shut the water heater off while I called plumbers. Apparently plumbers are crazy busy with smart people who have plumbers do pre-emptive work on their pipes before overloading their plumbing with guests, cooking, and cold weather. It was a Festivus miracle I found a plumber during regular business hours that day!

That didn’t make my cranky feeling go way as I mopped the rest of the water, hoped we didn’t need to buy a replacement water heater (fortunately we just needed to replace a valve – whew!), and pulled a mountain of chaos out of the utility room so the plumber could find the water heater had room to work.

how to find organize pantry space in a condo kitchen


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Behind the Scenes of My Good Day Columbus TV Cooking Segment


Last Sunday, Good Day Columbus asked me to do a Lazy Budget Chef five minute crock pot cooking segment on their TV show.  I thought I’d give you a peek on some of the things that happen and what you should be aware of when you present a tutorial or recipe on TV.

When I worked in TV, I was on the other side of the camera. This felt weird.
All photos in this post are courtesy of my food blog Lazy Budget Chef.

First, before I commented to anything, I ask the producer a bunch of questions. They wanted me to teach the show anchors how to cook a comfort food slow cooker meal viewers can make later in the week during the upcoming Arctic cold front.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

How to Decorate a Cooler with Mod Podge

I wrote our name on the lid in marker on the lid of our cooler when I first bought it. After many adventures, the name faded and needs a redo. 




I want to decorate and personalize our cooler with some personality. Decorative painting is out. The texture on the big cooler will make stenciling and painting it a nightmare.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

DIY Personalized Insulated Wine Glass Tumblers

Husband’s family likes to get together in the summer for a family reunion. Grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles gather for good times and good food. Every night the adults open a bottle of wine start a round of Euchre. Playing cards is our excuse to stay up way too late telling stories and busting a gut laughing at each other’s jokes. I’m so glad I married into this family.

I bought a reusable BPA free insulated wine glass tumbler to use instead of a disposable cup for the reunion. I want to personalize my insulated tumbler so I know which one is mine at the party.

DIYinsulatedwineglasstumbler
Decorated insulated wine glass tumblers: Mommy’s Special Lemonade, Oh No! My glass is empty! It’s an Emergency! Quick, call WINE-ONE-ONE!, Mommy’s Sippy Cup, and If you met my family you’d understand.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

A Fun and Frugal Summer Table with Dollar Tree #DTSummerFun #ad

 I’m thrilled to be partnering with Dollar Tree to share their Summer Fun products with you. This did not influence my opinion in any way because all opinions are 100% my own. 

Summer is my favorite season of the year. We have lots of impromptu gatherings with friends and family. The warm weather and sunny days allow Husband and I to host some of the events with his large family because we can move the party outside. To make sure our guests can tell which house is ours in a neighborhood of small lookalike houses, I hang something cute, like paper lanterns, on the front porch.


 Striped LED hanging paper lanterns? Yes Please! 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Anthropologie Crock Pot Makeover

January's Eat from the Pantry Month (aka Eat This and Give Me Back Cabinet Space/No Way I'm Driving To the Store in Sub Zero Cold and Snow Month) was a success! I reclaimed some shelf space, rediscovered my tea collection, and fell back in love with the slow cooker by creating new recipes like my Slow Cooker Mexican Beans and Beef recipe (you can read about it on Lazy Budget Chef.)

Aaaaaand the loose handle finally snapped off the lid of the crock pot.

Because we are not allowed to have nice things.

An futile attempt was made to glue the plastic handle to the screw in the lid. FAIL.




Buying a new crock pot was silly because it works fine otherwise. We muddled through by popping the back of a serving spoon under the lid to remove it. It was kludgy but it worked, sorta.

I found the answer to my crockpot problems when Husband kicked me out of the house because a recent cold and Cabin Fever was making a less than pleasant person to be around. He said I needed Me Time to become human again. I ended up at Anthropologie (no big surprise) where I found the fix for my broken crock pot - an Anthropologie cabinet knob.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

10 Holiday Gift Guides including Food Gifts, Homemade Gifts, and Meaningful Gifts to Give Everyone on Your Shopping List

One of the things I enjoy about the holidays is selecting the perfect gift for my friends and family. I need a few ideas for my hard to shop for people on my gift list and figure since I'm combing through Christmas gift guides for ideas, you might be interested in what I found too.


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Homemade Pumpkin Jerky Dog Treats

Lacey was glued to my side all weekend.

I know it is because she loves me.

It has nothing to my cutting, gutting, and drying pumpkins into treats for her on Lazy Budget Chef.

This is a great time to get a deal on discounted Halloween pumpkins and make them into dried pumpkin dog treats to give as Christmas gifts.

Yes, dogs get Christmas gifts in this house. Always!

You can make my pumpkin jerky treats in the oven if you do not have a dehydrator.

Learn how I make allergy free dried pumpkin dog treats on Lazy Budget Chef.

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Have You Tried Slow Cooking without Electricity?

For the most part my emergency storm blackout supplies include a bottle of red wine,a manual corkscrew, (you will understand why if you read what happened during our last multiday blackout) and a whole bunch of candles.

We got a grill shortly after that so at least we could cook something that is melting in the freezer and avoid standing in very long lines at area restaurants with all of our neighbors who can’t cook in their all-electric kitchens either.

While I appreciate being able to cook on a grill on my patio during a summer blackout, standing knee-deep in snow is something I’d like to avoid during a winter blackout if I can. And I will with my new eco non-electric slow cooker the Wonderbag.


How can this big pillow cook food without fire or electricity?