Tightwad Tuna Casserole

From the famous Tightwad Gazette, this is the tuna casserole that my mom made while I was growing up. I have found a few ways to make it even more tightwad-y.

Instead of using a canned cream soup I make a mock cream soup using the tuna juice from the drained tuna.

A note on using tuna juice for cream soup:

If I am using tuna canned in water, I will make a roux with butter and flour to thicken the soup. 

If I am using tuna canned in oil, I will thicken the soup with a flour and milk slurry. 

  For the topping the original recipe calls for soft bread crumbs and butter. I found these herbed stuffing mixtures on sale after the holidays for 69¢ a bag. I crumble this dry mix over the top for the topping. I don't feel the need to add butter. They have enough flavor and crunch without the butter.

  I learned from my mom to add frozen peas. My mom has never thought a meal is complete with out a vegetable. That is a good lesson. 

I always add the peas after the casserole is cooked to each plate. Some people like the peas mixed in and some like them to the side. Okay, the truth is that most the people in my family don't like peas period, so I serve them on the side and mix them in to my serving because that is the way I like them.

My Tuna Casserole Recipe 

7 oz. Pasta 

1/2 c. Milk or Broth

1/2 c. Mayonnaise 

1 c. 4oz. Melty Cheese, chunked 

1 10oz. Can Condensed Cream Soup -OR-

(Mock Cream Soup: 2 T. butter browned, add 2 T. flour cook for a minute add tuna juice and enough broth or milk to equal 2/3 c. of liquid. Season with 1/2 tsp. onion powder, salt, pepper, and 1tsp. each of lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.)

1/2 tsp. Dill weed

6-8oz. canned Tuna, drained

Topping

Prepare pasta, follow package directions; drain set aside.

 Make mock cream soup, add milk or broth, mayonnaise, cheese, dill and tuna. Heat and stir until cheese is melted.

 Mix sauce into the cooked pasta. Pour into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle topping over and bake at 350° F. for 30 minutes. 6 servings.

Amy Dacyczyn uses this recipe to give a lesson on Tightwad cooking. The lesson can be found on pgs. 209+210 of The Tightwad Gazette copyright 1992. The original recipe is designed to be a time saving recipe. Amy altered it to make it more frugal, in so doing the results cost more time. I have found this to be true in many, many cases. You either pay with money or time. It's a trade off.

Amy's prices are lower than you can find today, of course. I find it interesting to see what prices used to be for pantry staples. I, also, find it fun to see how close I can get to the old prices.  

For cheese now days I like to buy it for $3/lb. It is hard to find it for that price where I live, but it is possible. In this recipe, though, I always use the melty processed cheese. I don't buy it often. Usually, it goes on sale around Superbowl Sunday and I buy a few blocks.

Back in Amy's day powered milk was cheaper than regular milk so she uses it for everything. I don't think powdered milk is cheaper than regular milk nowadays, thankfully, because I don't like the powdered stuff.

Amy always uses margarine. I won't buy margarine. If our finances are too tight for butter I will use chicken fat that I save in a jar in the fridge.

Original Recipe:

Mix and Match Seafood Casserole 

4-5 oz. Pasta

1/2 c. Dry White Wine or Milk

1/2 c. Mayonnaise  or Salad dressing 

1 c. Shredded American Cheese 

1 10 3/4 oz. can Condensed Cream of Celery, Shrimp, or Mushroom Soup 

1/2 tsp. Dill Weed

6-8 oz. Canned Seafood (tuna, salmon, crab, or shrimp), drained

Topping (below)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare the pasta, following the directions on the package; drain and set aside. Mix white wine with mayonnaise. Add cheese, soup, and dill. Gently combine the noodles and the seafood with the most ingredients. Pour the mixture into a1 2/2 quart casserole dish. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover, top with Topping, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Serve hot. 

Topping: Stir 2 TBS. melted butter into 1 cup of soft bread crumbs. You can also try 1 cup of crushed corn chips, cow meeting noodles, or french-fry onions, or 1/2 cup sliced almonds.

How Amy Dacyczyn changed it: 

Pasta: We use any pasta purchased on sale. We get it for 33¢/lb. I increase it by 2 oz. because the recipe makes too much sauce. 

Milk or Wine: Wine is more expense, but I like the flavor .

Mayonnaise or Salad dressing: Buy store brand for 99¢ per quart. You can make your own mayonnaise but the savings is marginal, and depends on the price of eggs. 

Cheese: Use any mild cheese purchases on sale. We always buy it for less than $2/lb. Shredded is usually more expensive, but not always. 

Condensed Cream Soup: costs 69¢ to $1.11 depending on type. Instead I make a mock cream of celery soup that costs 15¢. Melt 2 TBS. of margarine in sauce pan. Saute 2 TBS. chopped celery. Blend in 2 TBS. flour. Add 1/3 cup dry milk powder and 2/3 cup vegetable broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until smooth. 

Seafood: Tuna is the obvious choice. We stock up when it goes on sale for 44¢ per can.

Topping: Make your own bread crumbs. Save all your crusts, cereal, and cracker crumbs. Store in a bag in the freezer. Process in a blender or food processor. 

And that concludes our lesson on tightwad-ary for today. Go forth and save money while you feed your family!

New Sewing Projects!

 March and April Sewing Report 

I have been making these over the shoulder sling bags. I have made a couple for other people. Right now I am finishing my own sling bag for myself. I am really eager to get it done and start using it!

I have been making my own iron on interfacing for these bags because I had a bunch of heavy grade iron on adhesive. I iron the adhesive onto the interface material (flannel in this picture), then I peel the paper backing off and iron the flannel interfacing to the outer bag material. The only problem that I have run into by doing this is that my sewing machine won't stitch through the fabric with the adhesive. I have had to do most of the sewing by hand, which is kind of a pain, but it has been nice to have a portable handiwork project to take on car trips, or to the park, or just to have something to work on while I sit at the table helping my boys with homeschool.

The instructions call for finishing all the seams on the inside of the bag with a seam tape. I used bias tape because that is what I have on hand.

I really like how the interior of the bags turn out so trim and orderly due to the seam tape.

I am following a bag tutorial on a YouTube video to make these sling bags.

I looked for a long time trying to find the right pattern for what I wanted to make. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest. Finally I came across this video tutorial. The finished product was exactly what I was going for. I am grateful for this free tutorial.

This is the first bag that I made. It was a birthday present for one of my sons. I have to finish another one this month for my son who has a birthday in May.

I have this wildlife print that is perfect for the boys' sling bags. These bags would make excellent 'snack and tract' bags for door to door soul winning. 

Last summer we did go out door to door soul winning with our church on Saturday mornings. Since we moved it is going to be hard to do that with the church group this year. But when I was doing soul winning with my boys last year I got the idea to make these pouches for them. And now it is coming to fruition. 

"New" Glider For Our Living Room!

 

A few weeks ago we drove through our old neighborhood. We were just sight seeing; looking around to see what was new. Sitting on the curb was a glider chair and foot stool. I signaled for Mr. In the Mid-west to stop. I jumped out to check the glider over. It was in perfect working condition, in fact, it was in better condition than the one we currently had in the living room. The cushions were laying in wet leaves and, what appeared to be, fuzzy white mold had started growing on the fabric. We loaded the whole lot into the back of the van. I waved a friendly, "Thank you!" wave towards the house. I suspected that we were being watched through the curtains and, sure enough, a hand slipped past the side of the curtain and waved back at me. :)

The cushions needed considerable cleaning but they did come clean in the end. I didn't have to recover or replace any of the upholstery or cushions.

I am very grateful for my "new" glider! What a blessing!

I am very grateful for all the good stuff we found on the curb at that neighborhood. I found two different vacuum cleaners, a stroller, a nice rotary cutting mat, and other things that you can read about in the blog post that I wrote a couple years ago- Finds This Week. 

1 Timothy 6:6 

 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

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

Tortilla Recipe!

 

I like having a tortilla recipe. It comes in handy sometimes. I don't always make my own tortillas. Most of the time I buy them at the grocery store. Occasionally, I am out of tortillas, and need tortillas for a meal. If I have flour, oil (or rendered fat), salt, and water, I can make homemade tortillas.

Tortilla Recipe 

1 3/4 cups flour 

1 tsp. salt

1/4 cup oil or shortening (I use fat from my jar in the fridge.)

1/2 cup warm water

In a mixing bowl combine flour and salt.

Rub in the shortening OR stir in the oil until distributed evenly.

Add the warm water, and stir to form a dough.

Knead 3-4 minutes.

Optional: Rest dough 4-24 hours in the refrigerator to make the dough easier to work with.

Divide dough into even portions: 10 portions for small tortillas, 8 portions for medium tortillas, or 6 portions for burrito size tortillas.

Form the portions into neat balls and flatten into discs. 

Use a rolling pin to roll the disc thin making tortillas.

Cook the tortillas on a hot ungreased skillet or griddle, turning the tortillas halfway through the cooking. It takes 30-60 seconds per side.

Keep the tortillas warm in a clean towel while you finish cooking the batch.

To store: allow the tortillas to cool, and put in an air tight container or bag, and place in the fridge. Rewarm in a skillet to use later.

Enjoy!

I am going to do the math for a double batch below. I need to make a double batch if I want enough tortillas for two meals. This math will help me in the future. :)

Amounts for a double batch:

3 1/2 cups Flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shortening or oil

1 cup of warm water

 

Yarn Dolls

My children and I had fun with this craft recently.

I got the idea from a website called The Craft Train: LINK

We made a whole bunch of yarn dolls. 

We made girl dolls and boy dolls. 

We made mama dolls and papa dolls. 

We made tiny baby dolls. 

We made tall dolls and short dolls and skinny dolls and thick dolls. 

We made whole families! 

This activity kept us busy for hours! Then we had fun staging photos with our yarn dolls.

Here's how you can make your own yarn dolls:

Wrap yarn around a book or stiff piece of cardboard. The taller the board the taller your doll will be. Wrap yarn until you have the desired thickness. 

You will have created a loop of yarn.

Cut the loop at one end. Now you will have a bundle of yarn string all the same length.

Twist the bundle at the center and bend it in half at the twist. This is called a bite. Use another piece of yarn to tie the bite in place, forming the dolls head.

Separate the tassel into three portions; two for the arms and 1 for the body.

Braid the arms, tie the ends with extra yarn, and trim them to the right length. The tighter the braid the more it will hold it's shape when maneuvered.

Use extra strands of yarn to tie around the body, making a waist and hips.

Trim the ends to even up the skirt and give it a finished look.

If you are making a boy doll divide the skirt into two legs, and braid the legs, tying off with extra lengths of yarn.

I hope you have as much fun with this project as we did!

Selling My Hair Again

Here's an unusual way to make a few dollars.

I grow my hair out really long and then cut it once every few years and sell the growth. 

When I first started doing this I could wait 3 years between hair cuts. As I have gotten older my rate of growth has started to slow. My hair is thinner than it used to be, too. 

(There are other factors besides age, though; diet, hormones, multiple pregnancies, treating my hair a little rough,...) 

Honestly, my hair growth has not slacked off that drastically. I used to get 6 inches in a year and now I get 5 inches in a year.

June was the month I wanted to cut my hair. 

The buyer who bought the last hair that I sold commented that he would be interested in buying again. I told him that it was going to be 4 years before I cut my hair again, but I would let him know when the time came.

Having saved his shipping address from 2019, I wrote him a letter and told him my asking price and that I had some pictures and videos of my hair that I could share via email in order that he could see the product.

He was happy that I had remembered to contact him and he said he would buy my hair again.

Score for me! $150 without having to pay any ebay fees.

Ways to get a high price for hair:

These factors can help your hair be the best quality possible and, therefore, fetch a premium price.

Keep your hair in good condition. I like to wear my hair in a bun all the time. Other protective styles include braids, French braids, French knot, Chignon bun, and Heidi braids to name a few. 

Hair is weaker when it is wet. Waiting to brush and detangle your hair until it is dry can help you avoid unnecessary breakage.

Keep your hair away from heat. Curlers, straighteners, and blow-dryers can all weaken your hair.

Minimize the use of chemicals on your hair. Things like dyes, bleaches, and perms can negatively effect the strength and texture of your hair.

Take good care of your health. Nonsmokers and non-drinkers are able to get a higher price for their hair.

I hope these tips help, if you're interested in trying this with your hair.

Lambsquarters | Wild Edibles

 

Lambsquarters is a common weed that is usually very easy to grow. For some reason there was no established presence of lambsquarters in our yard when we moved here a few years ago. Disturbed soil is all the invitation that Lambsquarters needs to come take up residence. True to form Lambsquarters seeds have found their way to my garden beds, finally. I am sure to never have a shortage of lambsquarters from now on. Lambsquarters self sow prolifically, and you know that I going to be letting my lambsquarters go to seed. :-)

Lambsquarters is a very easy to identify wild edible. The leaves are triangular in shape with rough toothed edges. The underside of the leaves have a powdery white coating this coating is on the topside of young leaf clusters. The stems can have purple streaks. Sometimes this purple color is a feature of the young baby leaves at the tips of branches.

I found this highly accurate while also humorous quote on Sam Sycamore's web page about Wild Spinach:

"Lambsquarters is yet another example of an extraordinarily common and nutritious edible wild plant that most farmers and gardeners exterminate in order to make room for their inferior lettuces and wimpy salad greens." 

I couldn't agree more. Lambsquarters is easy to grow, easy to harvest, and easy to prepare. And it has a mild flavor. You can use lambsquarters in any application that you would use spinach. And that is simply because Lambsquarters is wild spinach! 

I like to eat lambsquarters raw in salads, and in sandwiches. I use lambsquarters in cooked dishes like pasta, egg casserole, potato hash, and soup.

The tender stems can be eaten raw like broccoli stalks dipped in ranch dressing. 

Lambsquarters leaves can be harvested by picking them individually or (what I prefer) by snapping off the young few inches of leafy stems at the ends of branches. By continuously clipping back new growth you cause the plant to branch out and turn into a shrub like shape. This gives you much more area to harvest from.

When I harvest lambsquarters I like to pop it into a bowlful of water. The leaves with retain their crispness if they are in water which is nice if you are eating them raw. Even if the lambsquarters has been picked for a while and gone limp it will perk right up if you pop it into a bowl of water.

Have you tried Lambsquarters? Do you have a favorite way to eat it? Please let us know in the comment section!

Hamburger Bun Recipe

 

This recipe is a good one to know. I have wanted to make hamburgers for a meal but had no buns on hand. Did I want to go to the store to pick up buns? The answer is always, "No." That is when I pull this recipe out and make a batch of hamburger buns.

These buns don't stay fresh as long as store bought buns. They are best when used the same day they are baked or the next day. After two days these buns are little too dry for sandwiches, but really good for garlic toast. 

Hamburger Bun Recipe

3 1/2 to 4 cups Flour

2 1/4 tsp. Yeast

1 cup Warm Water

1/3 cup Oil

1/4 cup Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

1 egg

Combine 2 cups of flour and the yeast. 

Blend the water, oil, sugar, and salt; add to flour mixture. Add egg. Beat at low for 1/2 minute.

Beat 3 minutes on high.

Stir in as much flour as you can with a spoon. (Unless you're using a stand mixer. Then you can stir the flour in by machine, as well as do the kneading.)

On floured surface knead in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth.

Place in greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down. Divide in thirds. Rest 5 minutes Divide each third in the four balls.

Roll each ball until smooth and press flat between hands to make 3 1/2 inch circles.

Place on greased baking sheet. (I use saved chicken fat to grease my pans. You can read about that HERE.)

Let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375°F. for 13 -15 minutes.

Cool on wire racks.

Gardening 2023 The Beginning

 

This is sometimes called, "Winter Sowing." The ideal is to make miniature greenhouses out of milk jugs. 

I used 1 gallon water bottles.

I cut the tops off of the water bottles, poked drainage holes in the bottom, and put 3 inches of steriled soil in the bottles. I then planted seeds and put the tops back onto the bottles.

I left the bottles outside. This was back on March 25th. It was still too cold to plant most seeds in the garden, but the water bottle greenhouses gave these seeds a headstart. 

This method worked out very well for me this year. I was able to keep more seedlings alive and to the point of being transplanted than some years that I start seeds indoors. Having little ones inside that want to play in my potting soil makes it difficult to keep seedlings alive.

My tomatoes are doing very well now that they are transplanted into the garden. The tomato seeds are the ones that I saved from last year's tomato fruits.

How are your gardens growing? Have you heard of, "Winter Sowing," before. Have you tried, "Winter Sowing?" I look forward to reading about it in the comments section.