Taco Thursday

So I can get pretty cheap. Just recently I was too cheap to buy a package of taco seasoning because when I read the ingredients it was all things we already have in the kitchen. Boyfriend was slightly disappointed when I came home without the taco kit I promised and only the shells. But he rose to the occasion and created this delightful mix for 1 pound of ground beef (I found on sale this week):

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
pinch cheyenne pepper
pinch salt
pinch onion powder
pinch garlic salt
pinch red pepper
3 ounces tomato sauce
1 clove of garlic
1/2 medium onion
1/2 green pepper
Beef bouillon cube

First he heated the onion and garlic until the onion was clear. Then browned the meat. While the meat was browning he made his spice mix by combining all the spices. After the meat had browned he added the bouillon cube, green pepper and spice mix. Let this cook on low for a few minutes to allow the flavors to marry and deglazed the pan with water and tomato sauce. This may not be the most chef way of doing this, but it tasted pretty darn good.

By using what we had on hand we ended up spending less per plate than we would at Taco Bell. And we had leftovers. This makes me very happy!

 ***He didn't add a whole clove of garlic and it could have used more onion and green pepper but that's what we had available.***

What do you do to cut the cost of your meals?

Spring Cleaning

I know I'm a week early, but I've had the itch to spring clean my laundry room for months!

Let me start by saying, my mother is a fabulous house keeper. She has been living on a budget and was feeding 5 (often 6) hungry mouths on a budget before we even knew what blogging was. My father is a very neat man, but he's not compulsive about cleaning in the same way my mother is (but trust me, he has his habits). So I was raised by two highly organized individuals.

In general when it comes to cleaning I get the job done but I don't typically fret over the details. Things like mopping, vacuuming and dusting gets done every Saturday, so if I miss a few spots I can get it next time. I actually have a crazy little schedule I got from Good Housekeeping but that's info for another blog.

My two least favorite spots to clean are in this order: 1. the LAUNDRY room and 2. the bathroom. When it comes it laundry it's a burden. I don't have time to wait around and sync the washer and dryer. Then fold and put up? psshh.

In college we had 10 or 12 washers and dryers. I would wait until I ran out of underwear or clean towels then do it all at once (literally) on a Tuesday night. Then, the machines would text me when they were finished with my clothes! I swear, if I could convince my machines at home to do that I would be one happy girl.

Finally, my laundry room is small. So small these pictures were very difficult to obtain. Today is the very first day I've seen the dern thing clean. But for the past 8 months it's looked like some variation of this:

 Organizing this room was like playing that game where you move the little man with the boxes. The pictures do not do this room justice.

I removed the winter coats, put away clothes, moved some baskets back into their spots in the house, and wiped down anything that would sit still (including the dogs paws). 

Since this pic, I've even gone out and sorted laundry: colors, towels, whites, and B's work clothes. It still doesn't look half bad if I do say so myself. Now I have to actually wash clothes.