Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Make Your Own Pasta

Make Your Own Pasta!

People often go on about making your pasta like its rocket science or something, but -- if you can make a pie crust--- pasta is easy! Making your own is cheap, controls ingredients and makes a "filler" into a healthful addition to any meal.

Basic Pasta

1 cup flour for each portion
2 egg, or 4T. water, or 4T silken tofu for each portion

This is an art rather than a science. On a piece of waxed paper (we frugal use recycled cereal box liners) place enough flour for each portion. Make a hollow in the middle, and add the liquid. Mix until the ball forms a firm ball. You may need to add a bit more liquid. The dough should be stiff. If you have time let it rest for a half hour, but if you don't just proceed. Knead for five minutes. Roll out on a floured surface (just add more flour) with rolling pin (a jar if you don't have rolling pin) to 1/8th to 1/16 inch thick. Add more flour to dust it. Cut into noodle strips, or squares if you want to make filled shells.

Meanwhile boil a big pot of salted water with a dab of oil tosed in to keep the noodles from sticking.

Toss the finshed pasta into the pot and cook five minutes. It will rise to the surface when done.

Add sauce --and EAT!!!


Filled Shells

You can make filled raviolis or filled shells by simply adding the ricotta from the Make your own Cheese article. Simply spoon the soft cheese into the middle and fold and seal the edges with a fork for raviolis or fill and pinch the shell top together for filled shells. Heat in sauce to cook the pasta.

Colored or Vegetable Pasta

Pasta comes in colors and is even more healthful. The colors came from the addition of pureed vegetables for 2/3 of the egg. To get certain colors follow below:

red:pureed cooked beets
orange: pureed cooked carrots
red/orange: tomato sauce
green: pureed cooked spinach (or other greens)
yellow: pureed yellow squash

Mix same as above. My kid who would die before he would eat spinach --loves green pasta! This is great way to add extra veggies to your diet!

Potato Pasta

Another veggie filler for some of the eggs is to add mashed potatoes for a large part of the eggs. This makes gnocchi or potato pasta.

Pasta goes well with many ethnic cuisines. The most common are Italian, Thai, and Chinese.

Check out the sites below for more ideas on what to put ON your pasta.

Bella Italian Cooking

http://www.bellaonline.com/site/italianfood


Bella Chinese Cooking
http://www.bellaonline.com/site/chinesefood

Bella Thai Cooking
http://www.bellaonline.com/Site/ThaiFood

Make your Own Tofu
Make Your Own Soymilk and Tofu

For more ideas Check out these Frugal Living Books!
Complete Tightwad Gazette
The Complete Tightwad Gazette

Declare Your Financial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence

Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate

Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms

You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home With your Kids



Lili Pintea-Reed
All Right belong to the author



Make Your Own Soymilk and Tofu

With so many women rejecting Hormone therapy for Pre-Menopause and Menopause due to the obvious health dangers, many women are turinng to soy products for the phyto-estrogens in them. Also many people seeking to live more frugally have turned to vegetarianism and part vegetarian meals. Lets face it, Meat in large quantities is not just bad for you (sorry Dr. Atkins) but Really Expensive. If you want to lower your food budget cut down on meat.

So one way for the Frugal Cook to add protein to the family diet is to use soy products. If you live in a large urban area its easy enough to buy soymilk and tofu (also called dofu) cheaply on sale at many places as a loss leader. In many rural and suburban environments it might simply be easier and cheaper to make your own. I think making stuff from scratch is lots of fun as you may have gathered from my articles, so here are recipes to make soy milk and tofu in your kitchen. Then I list ways to stretch your budget by adding these cheap high protein products to your regular cooking. Like many traditional foods they are blessedly easy to make.

Soy Milk
3 cups of dry soy beans
3 times their volume in water
A grinding device
Fine straining cloth
Colander
A deep pot to boil the soymilk in

Soak the beans over night until soft. Grind them to a pulp. This can be done several ways. Long ago in the 1970's when a friend and I first tried this, we used a mortar, and a potato masher. Lots of fun, good exercise, and lots of work!. The easy way is to grind small batches with twice the volume in hot water in the blender or food processor. Pour the resulting mush into the cloth lined colander. When you have ground them all, let the liquid strain off through the cloth. This liquid is soymik. Give the cloth a good twist and squeeze to get the last of the liquid.

Pour the strained soymilk into a deep pot and bring to a foaming boil several times. The cooking is absolutely necessary. This inactivates an enzyme in the soy that would bind up the proteins (the reason you don't eat soy raw.) Cool. Sweeten to taste if you like.

Don't throw away the strained soy fiber solids. Use in any Zucchini bread/or cake/or muffin recipe to replace the zucchini. Tastes great. The muffins it makes are super.

Korean Recipe Soymilk
I found a different recipe for soymilk that is from Korea. Try both.

1 cup dry soy beans
 3 times their volume in water
A grinding device
Fine straining cloth
Colander

Soak beans in water overnight. The next day, put the soaked beans in a stove ready pot and add enough water so that you can bring them to a boil. Bring pot to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes. No longer. Strain off water for watering plants. Let the beans cool and then rub off the skins. Wash skins away with cool water. Grind beans in hot water three times their volume. If your blender is small like mine do it in thirds. Strain off the solids with a cloth. Squeeze to remove all liquid. If the milk seems to thick ad water to taste. Add sweetener and vanilla if desired. This is already cooked, so no boiling is necessary.

Tofu
Soymilk from above recipe
3 tablespoons of epsom salts
or
2 tablespoons of nigari (Oriental coagulant)
or
a half cup of lemon juice
or
a quarter cup of vinegar
Used butter tub with drain holes punched in bottom.

In separate cup dissolve the Epsom salts or nigari (do I really need to say you don't have to do this to the vinegar or lemon juice?) Add the dissolved coagulant to the soymilk. Mix well. Solids Will start to curdle. When well mixed, let it sit for a few hours. Then re-line your trusty colander with more fine cloth and strain. Place the curds and liquid in the colander. Let drain. You now have soft tofu. To get firmer tofu for frying, you need to press it. Take the mass in the cloth and press overnight between two tipped plates with a weight on it (soup cans work well), or --if you live in a house with cats, dogs, or small children -- put in the butter tub and place weights on it to force out the liquid. The resulting mass will be much more solid. If its hot do all this in the refrigerator.

While all this sounds time consuming you work around the other events of your day and make nice soymilk and tofu.

Or you can get a Soymilk maker. Many places sell them. Two places are listed below.

Amazon.com
Yep they sell them too! The cheapest ones I found were listed there.
SOYMILK MAKER

Soyloveusa.com
Also sells soybeans, and authentic oriental coagulant.
www.soyloversusa.com

USES for SOYMILK and TOFU:
1) Substitute Soymilk for regular milk in cooking and drinking. If your family objects, use half soy and half milk. In cooking people hardly ever notice.

2) Substitute Tofu for cream cheese, ricotta, cottage cheese, or part of the cheese in most recipes. Half cheese and half tofu will lower fat in most cheese recipies without compromising flavor.

For More Soy Recipes and Ideas of all sorts (tempa, miso, etc.) Go to:
http://soyfoods.com/SimplySoy/

Ten Tempting Ideas for Tofu
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/food/414


Here are some more Recommended Soy Reading for you.

The Book of Tofu
"The Book" on how to make any sort of Tofu.
The Book of Tofu

Laurel's Kitchen
A wonderful family cookbook with lots of toothsome family type recipes that kids and Husbands love --completely unaware of how healthy they are. Very Subversive!
Laurel's Kitchen Cookbook

For more ideas Check out these Frugal Living Books!
Complete Tightwad Gazette
The Complete Tightwad Gazette

Declare Your Financial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence

Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate

Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms

You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home With your Kids

by
Lili Pintea-Reed
All Rights belong to the author

Make Your Own Cheese


Some of the easiest things you can do in the kitchen is make simple cheeses like yogurt, ricotta, and farm cheese -- both soft and firm. They take no special equipment and if you buy milk when it is on sale as the grocery store loss leader (sold below cost to bring in customers) you can really save money on cheese!

RICOTTA CHEESE

Materials:
1 and a Half gallon pot
1 gallon whole milk
1/4 cup of vinegar
colander
Fine cotton cloth (well washed old pillow case)

Directions:
The easiest cheese of all to make is a ricotta. Take one gallon of whole milk and heat to 200 degrees F. If you don't have the thermometer, just wait until the first few bubbles that indicate boiling (212F) is starting. The stir in 1/4 cup of vinegar. Stir briskly to mix and then remove from heat. Cover and let sit 15 minutes or so. A thick curd should have risen from the milk. It will float to the top. Line a colander with a piece of well washed old sheeting or other fine cotton yard goods. Pour the "ricotta in process" into the colander saving the whey --the clearish left over liquid. If the whey is still cloudy return it to the cook pot and add another 1/4 cup of vinegar. Heat to 200 degrees and wait for more curd to form. Let site 15 minute covered and pour this into the colander.

You now have ricotta cheese at half the price! Use in any recipe that calls for ricotta or cottage cheese.

What could be easier!

YOGURT

A slightly harder cheese to make is home made yogurt. You have to add active cultures and wait overnight, but this is still easy!

Materials:
1 gallon skim milk
Cup of yogurt with ACTIVE CULTURES
several sterilized jars

Sterile mixing spoon and jars by immersing them in boiling water.

Bring milk to 110 degrees F and add the cup of yogurt WITH ACTIVE CULTURES. Please read the label and make sure this is active yogurt. It will say on the label. Mix well with sterilized stirring spoon. Pour into sterilized jars and cap loosely. Hold at 100-110 degrees over night. Stoves with pilot lights hold this temperature. Other people put the jars in a warm water bath removed from heat and cover overnight.

But remember 100-110 Degrees are the magic numbers. Over 110 and the yogurt culture dies. Under this and it "sleeps." By morning you should have nice yogurt for breakfast!

SOFT FARM CHEESE

Materials:
home made yogurt
colander
fine straining cloth

Directions:
Take the home made yogurt and pour into cloth lined colander. Let the water like stuff (whey) drain out. Now you have a nice soft cheese to use in any recipe that calls for cream cheese --at half the price and half the calories!

FARM CHEESE

Materials:
Home made ricotta
colander
fine straining cloth

Directions:
Pour the ricootta into the colander as in recipe above. While still hot pull up the sides of the cloth and wring until the cheese is a firm ball. Press it between two tipped plates to let any further whey drip off. You now have nice feta like cheese for salads, and tacos, etc.

For more cheese ideas see:

Fias Company Farm
Super home cheese making site.
http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/index.html

Yogurt Recipes
http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/yogurt.html

For more advanced Hobby Cheese making:
http://www.dairyconnection.com/hobbyiest.html

For more ideas Check out these Frugal Living Books!
Complete Tightwad Gazette
The Complete Tightwad Gazette

Declare Your Financial Independence
Declare Your Financial Independence

Complete Cheapskate
Mary Hunt's Complete Cheapskate

Miserly Moms
Miserly Moms

You Can Afford to Stay Home With your Kids
You can Afford to stay Home With your Kids

By
Lili Pintea-Reed
All rights belong to the author

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Earn Money Mystery Shopping

Unlike those scams you see on the Internet there are real mystery shopping companies that pay you to see if various companies employees are doing their jobs. I use these shops when I go to stores I normally shop,  and thus get paid to shop and reimbursed for part of my purchase. You can mystery shop retail stores, banks, gas stations, fast food, fine dining, etc.
The way it works is you go to a store, walk around and generally assess the cleanliness of the unit. You then will have to interact with a sales associate to see if they are aware of a certain product. Every month companies feature certain products and want the employee selling them. Then you have to make a small purchase for which you are reimbursed. So you get the shop pay plus reimbursement. Then you go home and put the report up on the mystery shop online and upload a picture of the receipt. Some shops like banks or car dealerships, don't even require a purchase You just need to get a business card.  
There used to be a lot more of these jobs and they used to pay a lot better in the past. Before the economic down turn almost every national company was mystery shopping their employees.On my best month as a mystery shopper I made over $1500. Then it became obvious the reason for falling national sales wasn't bad employees. Companies cut way back on mystery shopping, but jobs are still there to help supplement your income.And I noticed if you live in urban areas there are still lots of shops. No so here in rural America!
To check and see what jobs are available It is best to go to the Official Mystery Shoppers Providers Association site. This site shows only registered legitimate companies. Most pay monthly are are reputable.
Another site of one of the oldest mystery shopping companies is:
Bestmark
https://apply.bestmark.com/?r=NY3517

Here's another  couple for you to check out!

Marketforce

Corporate Research

And please, please, please avoid those scam site which say they will pay you to cash a check. These scams are rampant and have nothing to do with legitimate mystery shopping. here is a great article on this:
So give mystery shopping a try to see if it will help you add to your family income.