Dairy Free Dark Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

For us, 15 bean soup is a quick, easy, and cheap dinner even though we cook it slow. “Slow cook a quick meal? What are you talking about? Have you been sniffing low VOC glue again?” You say.

No, I’m not crazy or damaged (much.) I say that 15 bean soup is quick because it’s a low effort meal – perfect for those nights when you can’t cook a huge dinner due to prior commitments but don’t want to feed the family junky fast food.

I say that 15 bean soup is slow because we use the crock pot to cook the 15 bean soup mix. 15 bean soup is one of the few meals that we buy in premix form. It’s one of the few things we eat that it’s cheaper to go with the mix than with buying bags of all the different types of beans that are typically in this soup and most of the dried bean soup mixes sold in our area are pretty healthy.

 

Husband tosses the beans, water, spice mix, and whatever meat we have on hand in the slow cooker) in the morning and by the time he comes home from work, we have a very tasty soup ready for dinner. If you’re a vegetarian, I’m told that beets make a tasty substitute for using meat to flavor this soup although we haven’t tried it because Husband doesn’t like beets.

Insulate a Hot Water Heater the Easy Way

While on the hunt for ways to reduce The Condo’s energy use, I did some poking around in my utility room. I found a big energy hog – my hot water heater.

Sure, I keep my hot water heater set at 120 degrees (F.) Set any higher and a hot water heater uses a lot more energy to heat water than I care to pay for and is a scalding risk. Set any lower and harmful bacteria can grow inside the hot water tank. That’s something you do not want.

 

 As like everything else that came with The Condo, the hot water heater was new but it is not Energy Star rated. I did some research and found that if I replaced my current practically new and working hot water heater with a comparable Energy Star model, I would only reduce its natural gas consumption by about $5-10 a year.

How to Make a Braided Fleece Pet Toy

I had some scrap fleece leftover from a sewing project. I also had a friend whose Boston Terrier puppy was still going through that Chew And Disembowel Every Toy I Have phase – did I mention his name is Chopper? Yeah, the little guy is living up to his name.

I put that scrap fleece to good use and made Chopper and Blitzkrieg some braided dog toys. These homemade braided chew toys will work well for a dog or a cat. Cats like to play with the longer braided toys, though.

How to Make and Keep New Year's Resolutions on Your Time, Not New Year's Day

I’ve been hesitant and dragging my feet about writing, a post about my New Year’s Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t make them. I do . I don’t usually make my New Years Resolutions on or around New Years Eve because I end up making and ultimately breaking those hastily made resolutions.

I find that I’m better at keeping my New Years Resolutions if I make them when I need them. Usually several months before or after January first. Sometimes I even make them in the middle of the year. For example, my 2008 New Year’s Resolution was to reduce The Condo’s natural gas and electricity usage by 20% because of a big utility bill that we received in the fall of 2007. Well things really didn’t get rolling with the savings until March of 2008 because I had to examine and change some habits and do some small upgrades to The Condo but for the most part, I ended up meeting my goal and thereby keeping my 2008 New Years Resolution that I made in November of 2007.