Ice Cream Cake Tips

I made an Ice Cream Cake on Monday. I followed this recipe from my sister's blog: My Beautiful Bubble Ice Cream Cake Recipe. 

I have a few tips and ideas to add.

#1. Definitely start by making the fudge sauce. (I prefer to use Chocolate Gravy instead of the fudge sauce in my sister's recipe.)  It takes a long time to cool adequately. So, make it first and get it cooling down in a water bath as soon as possible.

#2. This is a dish saving tip. Once the fudge sauce is finished cooking scrape it from the pan into a glass measuring cup with a spatula and then use the pan to melt the butter you will need for the crust. You don't have to wash the pan between using it for fudge and using it to melt butter and you will only have one pan to wash instead of two. The glass measuring cup was already out from measuring the milk for the chocolate gravy recipe. I still didn't have to dirty a new dish.

#3. Save money by using off brand sandwich cookies. These off brand sandwich cookies don't taste as good as Oreos but in an ice cream cake I don't think you can tell the difference. 

#4. Also, I couldn't find a whole package of the chocolate flavor sandwich cookies so I bought two packages of the assorted varieties and cobbled together a whole package's worth of chocolate sandwich cookies.

#5. Save back a cup of cookie crumbs to decorate the top of your cake. These packages of cookies were larger than a package of Oreos so I had plenty of extra crumbs.

#6. Here is another dish saving tip. Mix the cookie crumbs and melted butter together right in the cake pan. You don't need a mixing bowl to do that step.

#7. Try adding extra flavors. I add dollops of peanut butter.

#8. If you want a less homogeneous cake use a spoon to put the ice cream in the cake as little chunks instead of a solid slab of ice cream. When you pour over the fudge sauce it can work it's way into the crevices.

And that concludes my tips. I hope you get to try this cake. It is a favorite in our family. 

Tightwad Tip: Lemon Zest

I read this tip a few days ago and thought it was brilliant! I was reading reviews on a recipe that I wanted to try when I came across this advice. A reviewer mentioned that she never likes to let anything go to waste (I am with ya there, Sister!) and so anytime she has fresh lemons on hand she zests the lemons and save the zest in the freezer to add to baked goods later.

I like that idea. I enjoy the flavor that lemon zest adds to various foods. 
This time I zested all the lemons, even though I only needed the zest of two or three lemons in the recipe. The rest of the zest is now waiting in the freezer to add fresh flavor to a recipe at a time in the future when I don't have any fresh lemons at hand.

Don't you think that is a smart idea?

More Tightwad Tips:

https://simplyinspirations101.blogspot.com/2023/05/tightwad-tip-lids-instead-of-foil.html

https://simplyinspirations101.blogspot.com/2022/01/tightwad-tip-save-onion-skins.html

https://simplyinspirations101.blogspot.com/2022/06/reuse-cereal-bagstightwad-tip.html

Tightwad Tip | Lids Instead Of Foil

 

Lids for baking. Save foil. No waste!
In this post I am sharing some of my ideas for how to save aluminum foil and use lids instead of foil.

For a conservative on the political scale I sure live a "green" life. Haha! From cloth pads, to cloth diapers, to cloth wipes, to flannel "Kleenex," to fabric napkins, to using rags instead of paper towels I am pretty waste free. I recycle and upcycle at every opportunity. 

Frugal people hate to spend money on stuff that is going to be thrown away after one use. This applies to aluminum foil, too. I have reused sheets of aluminum foil several times over by wiping them clean and folding them up neatly after each use.

Having a few nice, oven safe, lidded, casserole type, cookware pieces are a valuable addition to your kitchen. By keeping your eye out at thrift stores and garage sales for pieces like this you can find some nice lidded casserole dishes. 

I recently found two smaller corning wear dishes that are good size for leftovers. By storing leftovers in containers like this you can save yourself dishes later by being able heat the leftover's in the same container that they were stored. I also have a few larger lidded casseroles. One large size and one medium size. I use them when I am baking potatoes, heating up leftovers, bringing dishes to fellowship meals. Dishes like mashed potatoes, baked beans, stuffing, or macaroni and cheese are good candidates.

Having lidded casserole dishes helps cut down on the need to use aluminum foil, but sometimes I have to get a little more creative to avoid aluminum foil.

I can use sheet pans to cover 9×13 pans and even my really large roaster.

Using sheet pans as covers can be very handy when I am short of space. The rigidity of the sheet pans allows me to stack the different pans of food on top of one another. This is helpful in the refrigerator where space is limited, as well as counter tops in a small kitchen.

Covering pans with rimmed sheet pans can be really useful when transporting food to fellowship meals. The sheet pans don't slide off during the drive and they can survive being stepped on, which may happen by accident in our van.

When it comes to rising dough, I have used a bowl turned upside down to give the dough plenty of room to rise while blocking any drafts, and keeping the dough from drying out. These bowls are oven proof and I have used them in this configuration to cook a ham. Hams come in such awkward shapes. It is really difficult to cover them without using foil. 

For smaller batches of dough I just use a plate over my kitchen aid mixer bowl.

Iron skillets are a versatile solution for cooking on a grill. Sometimes the cleanliness of grill grates can be questionable and lead one to cover the grates with aluminum foil. We recently faced this situation. Mr. In The Mid-west wanted some aluminum foil for the grill, but  we were out of aluminium foil. I brought him an iron skillet. Problem solved! Iron skillets can handle open flames. It takes a little scrubbing afterwards to get the smoke and soot off the the outside of the skillet, but I love to use my skillets to cook over a campfire. 

These are my ideas. Do you use any of these strategies? Please share your ideas in the comments! 

Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine

 Two ways to eat fresh onions and garlic

Why eat fresh garlic and onions? These bulbs contain a component called Allicin among other health promoting components. Allicin inhibits the reproduction of bacteria and viruses. I don't know all the science, but you can read more HERE on Herbazest.com.

Whenever I am fighting a bacterial or viral infection I try to consume as much garlic as possible.

Most of the time I straight up eat garlic cloves. But, eating garlic can be way more pleasurable.

For onions try this Tomato Onion Salad.

Dice half an onion and a medium tomato.

Mix together with salt, pepper, basil, a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise and as much apple cider vinegar as you like (2ish Tbsp. for me).

This salad was so delicious that last time I was sick I was eating this salad twice a day. That makes 1 whole onion a day! I think that it did me a lot of good and it was real food as medicine.

I love garlic! There are many ways that I get fresh garlic into my diet. I've made a garlic and oil emulsion as a salad dressing. That is a good way to get a few fresh garlic cloves with a meal. My family has a tradition of making what we call Garlic Salad, which is a garlic spread made from cooked eggplant pulp, bread crumbs, olive oil, vinegar, and salt. It is similar to the Lebanese dish; Baba Ganu. I quit adding the bread crumbs and I like it much better that way. (I never told my Grandma.Shhh)

One of my favorite ways to eat fresh garlic in a meal is a variation of Huevos Rancheros.

I mix 3-4 cloves of minced garlic with a couple ounces of cream cheese.

Spread the cream cheese mixture onto toasted corn tortillas.

Top with a fried eggs and chopped cilantro.

And, for a added boost for flavor and health promoting capsaicin, add Tabasco sauce or your favorite hot pepper sauce. 

There you have it! Two ways to make food your medicine by utilizing the flavors of fresh onions and garlic!

I hope you enjoy!

Let me know if you have tried any of these before or how you use food as your medicine!

Psalms 104:14 

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,

 and herb for the service of man:

 that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

Skin Salve

In this blog post, I tell the story of my first experience making herbal oil infusions and how I used the infusions to make a healing salve.
Come along to hear all about it!

 I am using these jars of calendula infused oil and plantain infused oil to make a skin salve.

I hope it will be a good recipe for diaper rash and minor skin problems like bites and scrapes.

Calendula has antibiotic properties and promotes healing of the skin. It is real good for cold sores and chicken pox lesions.

Plantain is one of the best herbs for stings. Anytime I am stung by a bee I pick the closest plantain leaf, chew it quickly, and smear the crushed leaf onto the sting area. It relives the pain immediately and keeps the tissue from swelling. It really works! Without the plantain I swell up for two days and itch really bad after the swelling has gone down.

Here is the story of these herbal infusions that I have:

Three years ago, back in 2019, during the summer I grew calendula. I picked the flower heads to dry. By the end of summer I had a good quantity of flower heads. I learned about using the calendula to make an oil infusion to be used in an ointment. I decided to try this technique. I, also, wanted to make a plantain oil infusion because I knew plantain's properties would compliment those of calendula flowers.

I bought some organic cold pressed extra virgin oil especially for this purpose. I dried a bunch of plantain leafs and packed them into a quart jar. I packed my calendula flowers into a pint jar. Then I poured the oil over the herbs.

I remember thinking about how long I would have to wait for the infusions to complete. It would 8 weeks before I could use them. So long!

But, the time flew by. I had other projects to be working on and a baby to get ready for. One thing led to the next. The baby was born, a few months later we moved, that whole year (2020) we were traveling for work, once we got back home we settled into life. I was busy. There was another baby to get ready for, a 1st grader to homeschool, dresses to sew,.......

The oil infusions got pushed to the back of the cabinet and we're forgotten.

Three years later I am finally pulling them out and putting them to use. I am so excited to be making my first ointment with home grown herbs!

This is my recipe:

2 1/2 cups of Plantain Infused Oil

1 1/2 cup Calendula Infused Oil

1 cup Raw Bee's Wax

1 T. Shea Butter*

*The Shea butter was sent to me as a sample when I ordered my bee's wax. I didn't have a use for it and threw it in with the melting oils just to put it to good use.

Melt the oils and wax together, gently.

Pour the hot mixture into clean jar or containers.

You can see my messy work station:

I plan on using this ointment for a lip balm, chapped skin, bug bites, minor cuts and scrapes, razor burn, and diaper rashes. I got some of this ointment on my hands while I was working with it and I can tell you that it is definitely moisturizing!

Initially, I thought the extra time would make these infusions more potent, but the more I think about it, I wonder if they lose thier efficacy over time. I guess I will just have to experiment. At any rate this ointment is going to be a great lip balm and moisturizer.

Can you relate with how time marches on? I can hardly believe that three years have gone by!

Onion Pack For Congestion

 

I had to make onion packs this week for my sick baby. This is an old home remedy for congestion. It helps break up the congestion and get the phlegm moving.

When I was a new mom I was at a loss for coming up with a way to put this on a person. I tried putting the onion on the skin and wrapping a scarf around the chest. It didn't work.

This works:

Dice about a 1/4 cup onion and place in the middle of a flannel rag or cloth napkin. Sprinkle with ground mustard. 

Go easy with the mustard it can be irritating on the skin. Ask me how I know....

Fold the napkin strategically encasing the onions.

I fold it so that one side of the pocket is only one layer of fabric thick. You can see how the onion juice easily soaks through on that side. 

I place the thin side against the skin and then safety pin the pack to the inside of the patient's shirt.

Make sure when you safety pin the pack on, that you go through all the layers of the pack that way it will stay neatly folded and doesn't spill onions everywhere.

I also had to mix up some garlic infused oil for earaches. This is my favorite remedy for earaches.

I mix about 1 TBS. Olive Oil with 1 freshly grated garlic clove. I put one to two drops of this garlic infused oil down the ear 4-6 times a day. Wiggle the ear a little to make sure the oil goes all the way down. You can use a small piece of a cotton ball or wadded up bath tissue to plug the ear and keep the oil from running out and staining pillow cases.

Lavender essential oil (diluted in a carrier) wiped on the outside of the ear hole has been very soothing, in my experience. I don't recommend that essential oils be put into the ear canal. Keep the essential oils on the outside!

I like to use a blend of Laurel Leaf, Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Lemon, Cardamom Seed, Ravintsara, and Ravensara essential oils, also, wiped on the outside of the ear hole. This helps take the edge off of the pain. I use the dōTERRA Breath® blend (diluted in a carrier). 

There is a cool company that sells knock off Young Living and dōTERRA blends. HERE IS A LINK. I have never tried them or done a side by side comparisons. But, I am sharing their site because they are much cheaper. And, I am not an essential oil cult member, even if I am a dōTERRA consultant. ;)

I hope you are all staying well! Let me know if you have any tried and true congestion and earache home remedies! :)

Reuse Cereal Bags|Tightwad Tip

Tightwad Tip

Reuse Cereal Bags

Tightwad Tip Number One should be: don't buy cereal.

But, if you buy cereal, reuse the bags. They are heavy weight, thick plastic, and don't get holes poked in them very easily.

My favorite use for cereal bags is filling them with chicken backs for freezer storage. There are a lot of sharp boney edges on chicken backs. They inevitably poke holes in zip top bags.

To close the cereal bags use one of the twist ties that, of course, you save from every bread bag. (Wink)

That is my tip for the day!

And before I go, if you are a true Tightwad who doesn't buy cereal, you can always ask your neighbors and friends to save their cereal bags for you. I am not joking! I have a Tightwad friend who actually does this! (And she never buys zip top bags.)

Menu Inspiration!

Here are five budget meals that we have been enjoying at our house this week.

Everyone knows that Ramen noodles are a budget meal. When you fix them like this, though, they feel gourmet!

I cook the noodles. I pull them out of the cooking liquid while they are still bouncy and put them in a lidded pot to keep warm while I fix the veggies and eggs.

If I have vegetable or meat toppings that need to be heated I toss them into the cooking liquid. They pick up some flavor and get hot. Then I remove them to the holding pot with the noodles.

For the eggs: I bring the cooking broth to a nice boil, and crack the eggs into the boiling liquid (about 6 eggs). I put the lid on and cook them for 3 minutes. When the timer goes off I add a bag of frozen spinach. The spinach cools the water off enough to stop the eggs from cooking hard. And the spinach gets thawed and warm. Kill two birds with one stone! 

To make the Ramen Bowls even fancier, I will sometimes use a vegetable peeler to make carrot ribbons. Scallions are always a visually appealing topping, too.

For a real authentic Japanese topping and a boost of bone-building vitamin K2; add a spoonful of natto! :) 

Ham was on sale this week for 87¢ per pound. Ham can make a lot of great breakfast-for-dinner meals. 

We really like this Egg Casserole. I swapped the sausage out for ham this week. It was originally a Crock-Pot recipe, but this time I baked it in the oven at 350° F. for 1 hour.

We also had Ham and Egg sandwiches this week.

I make biscuits for breakfast sandwiches and sometimes I make English Muffins.

English Muffins get dipped in cornmeal before setting aside to rise.

If you didn't know already, English Muffins are cooked on the stovetop. It is handy to know some recipes like this that don't require an oven. If you are ever in a situation where you don't have an oven, remember you can still make English Muffins! Here is my RECIPE.

A menu in my house wouldn't be complete without a chicken leg or thigh meal. :) I have mentioned before that I buy the 10 pound bags of chicken quarters for 59¢ a pound and cut them up myself. Even if you don't cut the meat up yourself chicken thighs or legs are pretty affordable.

Our chicken meal this week was Chicken Armenian. Chicken Armenian is a gratifying meal with a small price tag.

The chicken pieces get browned on the stovetop before going on the sheet pan to bake. The onions add some interest to the dish because they are sliced as opposed to diced. A tomato based sauce gets poured over the chicken pieces along with the sauted onions and garlic. As the chicken cooks in the oven the sauce accumulates flavor and depth. The onions sweeten, the paprika permeates, and the chicken drippings mingle. Chicken Armenian is always a satisfying supper!

Another easy dinner with ham is Ham and Cheese Melt-y Sandwiches. We had ours on homemade croissants. Recipe coming soon! :) Croissants are not the cheapest bread that you can make, seeing as how the recipe calls for 3 sticks of butter. This could be a cheaper meal if you use a less expensive bread choice.

I laid the split rolls on a sheet pan and put a layer of sliced ham on the rolls and then covered the ham with sliced Colby Jack cheese. I put the sheet pan under the broiler for 3 minutes, until the cheese was Melt-y. 

Speaking of cheese, Kroger had a sale on 2 pound blocks of cheese for $4.97 with a digital coupon this past week. Gotta keep an eye out for sales and know what a good price is in your area. I don't keep an actual Price Book, but if you are just starting out on your journey to Thrift, keeping a price log for 6 months for your grocery staples can be a very useful tool. For instance I stock up on butter any time I find it for $2.50 a pound or less. That way I rarely ever spend more than $2.50 a pound for butter. $2.50 is a good price for butter in my area. Butter keeps great in the freezer, and is one of those things that you can stock up on.

And let me tell you God provides for His own! I want to acknowledge His hand in us being able to eat affordably. I'll share a story about a grocery blessing. Back in February Mr. In the Mid-west was in the grocery store and saw half gallons of milk marked down to 49¢ a piece. The Best By date was the following day, so the manager had marked them down significantly. Mr. In The Mid-west bought all he could. We froze the milk and have pulled it out of the freezer as we need it. Our family can polish off a half gallon of milk quickly enough, once it is thawed, that none has spoiled. Now isn't that a blessing, milk prices being what they are?

And the last meal for this post is Pizza!

The pizza in the picture is a little fancier than the one we had for dinner tonight. Our toppings this time were just cheese and pepperoni. The crust we like is this RECIPE. It comes out with a chewy texture and great yeast-y flavor every time.

Share your meals in the comments! Help us all with menu planning inspiration! :)

Psalms 37:25 

I have been young, and now am old; 

yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, 

nor his seed begging bread.