Recently, after a hiatus from making Kombucha due to being preoccupied with other life happenings, I went through the process of making my usual gallon batch. I set it on the shelf to ferment, came back a week or so later to check on it and...nothing.
I had left several scoby's tucked safely away in my fridge hibernating, or so I thought, for the day I would inevitably be ready to make a batch. Well, I don't know if I just left them in there too long or what but one day, I decided I would try buying a bottle of kombucha at the store and attempt to grow a scoby from it. After a couple of stores that I knew I had seen carry it with no luck in finding any, the helpful worker at the health food store told me that it had been pulled off the shelves for some reason. The FDA would be stepping in because of it. Oh, great. So, I went home and "Swagbucked" the situation (Swagbucks is my friend...yeah buddy! Don't know about Swagbucks yet? Click on the button on the right under my etsy shop listings-it's FREE & painless to use & they have lotsa cool stuff you can earn!). Yep, for sure what he told me was true. I then began my search for another scoby. And I found one for free (but I did have to pay shipping & handling-totally understandable.) So in honor of that, and paying it forward, and the fact that I am beginning to now have a surplus of scoby's that I'm almost sure my hubby doesn't want taking over our home (again...don't ask!). I am offering a free scoby (with starter) to anyone willing to pay the s&h, which I am setting at $10 since I send via priority mail so it gets to you quickly and for the time, materials and gas associated with sending it off to it's new owner.
Do you, or someone you know, need a SCOBY?
Now if I could just find some free kefir starter!
Thanks for stopping by!
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Now for the update on my first week of challenging myself to see if I could get by without paying full price on items we need/want:
I did extremely well but didn't wuite hit my target. I had a birthday that I needed to buy a card for and since it was last minute, I grabbed the card while I was at the grocery store...and paid full price. The only other item I had to buy that wasn't on sale and I didn't have a coupon for was cat food. And I did pay full price for a few tacos at Jack in the Box when my mom was visiting and she and my DD were having cravings for them (their favorite!). But all in all, I feel I did pretty well for my first week trying this experiment.
The highlights of my shopping week:
*I got several items free when I bought the Lean Cuisine meals I was going to buy anyway at HEB. They usually offer several deals like this each week. Some of the free items were: a bag of prewashed spinach, a pound of bananas, a theatre box of Butterfinger candy, and a six pack of bottled water.
*I had coupons for free eggs & a free Tony's frozen pizza at Kroger.
*I had a $3 off $10 worth of produce coupon which I was going to buy anyway and all of which was on sale!
*I got 10 pounds of shrimp for $20. We love shrimp!
Besides the coupons I have already mentioned, I had an additional coupon savings of
$6.99 for the week!
In total, I spent $91.24 for grocery and non grocery items this week. (Not including the Jack in the Box tacos!) I would like to lower that total and will work on doing so in the upcoming weeks. I'm not quite sure what a good average for three adults (I'm counting my fifteen year old as an adult here!) grocery bill should be but I will keep tweaking as time goes by.
Thanks for all the encouragement everyone!
1 comment:
Hello- This is Rachel from over at the Cupcake Sprinkles In Life...
Here is the recipe for the Puppy Pumpkin Stew:
{Makes One Weeks worth for a small dog}
-1 basic can of pumpkin
-1 can of chicken broth
-1 lg. can of chicken pieces {you could also used home cooked but since I am a vegetarian and don't have that around, I use canned}
-1 finely diced carrot
-1 cup of frozen peas
-1 TBspoon of olive oil
Directions:
In a saucepot, saute the carrots in olive oil until they are softened.
Add broth and pumpkin, stirring to combine.
Add canned chicken.
Let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.
Add in the frozen peas and cook for one more minute.
Measure 1/2cup serving sizes and pour into greased muffin tins. {I use silicon muffin tins- which makes life so easy}
Freeze the stew and pop the portions out, storing them in a ziploc bag. Pull out a serving as needed and microwave until thawed. Serve warm not HOT! With a smaller portion of the regularly used kibble. :)
This recipe is based on the Proprortions stew component. Which is an amazing dog food option... we just can't always afford it!! :)
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