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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

How to Compost Kitchen Scraps

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how to compost kitchen scraps

This year, I’ve decided to crank it up a notch in the composting department.  Growing 4000 lbs of fresh produce is going to require that I really think about my soil.  In the words of the movie Uncle Buck, I am going to start “cooking our garbage”–all of those wasted food scraps {that are too rotten for the chickens} are going right back into the wood pallet compost bin, to cook into glorious FREE compost.  {I’m also totally curious to see how much less garbage and recycling I have each week as a result.}

I’m going to use a counter-top compost bin for all of my compostable kitchen scraps–that way, I only have to run it out to the compost bin when it gets full.  I found this one on Amazon.com and loved it because it claims to trap odors inside, instead of making your kitchen smell like, um, well, rotting food.  The reviews were awesome as well, so it must do as promised.

composter

If you are interested in composting your kitchen scraps, here a few guidelines of what IS and IS NOT compostable:

Compostable Items:

  1. Peels, rinds and clippings from fruits and vegetables {if it was once alive, you can most likely compost it}
  2. Coffee grounds, old coffee and coffee filters
  3. Tea bags, old tea and tea grounds
  4. Paper towels and napkins
  5. Cardboard – inside pizza boxes, cereal boxes, cardboard food packaging and other thin cardboard {Make sure the pizza boxes are not caked with cheese and oil, though}
  6. Brown paper bags
  7. Receipts
  8. Old cotton dishtowels or clothing {100% cotton is a must}
  9. Stale bread
  10. Flour, oatmeal, or cornmeal
  11. Nutshells except walnut shells which are bad for compost
  12. Freezer-burned vegetables and fruit
  13. Old spices
  14. Paper or wood matches
  15. Molasses residue
  16. Potato peel
  17. Egg shells
  18. Old pasta
  19. Stale potato chips
  20. Apple cores
  21. Shrimp, crab and lobster shells
  22. Pie crusts
  23. Melon rinds
  24. Seeds
  25. Date and olive pits
  26. Bread crusts
  27. Rice
  28. Spoiled wine
  29. Old beer
  30. Fish bones
  31. Wooden toothpicks
  32. Stale breakfast cereal
  33. Dust clumps from under the refrigerator
  34. Coconut hulls
  35. Dead flies and bugs from the windowsill {gross!}
  36. Peanut butter sandwiches
  37. Old Newspapers
  38. Egg Cartons {Not the Styrofoam kind}

NOT Compostable:

  1. Metal
  2. Plastic
  3. Man-Made Substances or Fabrics

Somewhere In-Betweeners {These have a tendency to ROT FAST, so they stink, I mean, REALLY stink.  It is up to you whether you would like to avoid the hassle or not}:

  1. Meat Scraps
  2. Dairy
  3. Cheese
  4. Yogurt
  5. Oil

The rest is easy-peasy.  Just throw all of your scraps into your countertop kitchen compost bin or bucket and empty into the compost pile once it is full.  If you don’t plan on starting an outdoor compost bin, that’s okay too.  Just make sure to “stir” your kitchen compost frequently while it “cooks” to give it a little air–you can also add a little dirt to the mix to speed up the process and minimize smell.

Is there anything on this list that I missed?  Do tell!

~ Mavis

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DIY {Copy Cat} Old Bay Seasoning Recipe

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Copy Cat Old Bay Seasoning Recipe

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted one of my DIY Spice Mixes, but after finding some halibut in the freezer, I decided to whip up a batch of my copy cat version of Old Bay Seasoning.

This spice mix is perfect with pretty much any kind of seafood and is a must have around here when we have salmon or crab.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground celery seed
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg {I like to buy mine whole and grate it as needed}
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until well-combined. Store in an airtight container in a cool dark place.

Be sure and check out my recipes for Allspice, Ranch Dressing,  Pumpkin Pie Spice, Hot Chocolate Mix, Italian Seasoning, Taco Seasoning as well.

Looking for a way to store your spices? Amazon has plenty of spice racks in stock.

 

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

15 Cool Uses for Olive Oil

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olive oil being poured from glass bottle

When I was in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, we stopped into an Olive Fusion in Breckenridge.  Inside, they handed us locally made artisan bread and told us to go nuts trying different varieties of olive oils.  They even had a grocery store brand sitting in the center of the room so that we could compare flavors.  Holy canolies people!  This olive oil was soooo tasty.  I had no idea what a difference there could be in flavor!

olive fusion Breckenridge colorado

I went home with olive oil on the brain.  I guess I didn’t realize its uh-mazing health benefits.  I mean, I knew it was a healthy fat, yada, yada, yada, but did you know it also has been shown to improve memory, decrease risk of breast cancer, reduce risk of stroke and heart disease, and improve texture and appearance of skin?  If we are what we eat, then olive oil is where it’s at!

olive fusion

Plus, it turns out, there’s tons of cool uses for olive oil, besides tasting awesome.  Here’s a couple for you to try:

  1. Use as a moisturizer for your skin.
  2. Use as a deep conditioner for your hair.  Massage into hair and scalp, leave on for 20 minutes, and wash.
  3. Clean greasy hands.  Wash hands with olive oil after working on a greasy car {can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that–ha!} or painting.
  4. Unstick a zipper.  Use a little bit of olive oil to free a stubborn zipper.
  5. Shine stainless steel.  Forget the expensive toxic appliance cleaners.  Just dab a little olive oil on a cloth and wipe clean.
  6. Condition leather.  Use olive oil to recondition leather shoes all the way to baseball mitts.
  7. Prevent diaper rash.  Use in place of harsher ointments.
  8. Cure an earache.  Using a cotton swab, gently dab olive oil in the ear.  It helps to breakdown waxy build-up.
  9. Prevent mosquitoes from invading your rainwater barrels.  Pour a little olive oil in the barrel, it will settle on the top, deterring the mosquitoes.
  10. Use for squeaky doors in place of WD-40.
  11. Use in place of mascara.  Dab some olive oil on lashes to darken and condition them.
  12. Use as a shaving cream.
  13. Use to treat lice.  Coat hair and scalp in olive oil and allow to sit for 30 minutes.  Repeat daily.
  14. Keep the cat healthy.  Add a teaspoon of olive oil to cat food to prevent hairballs and keep their coat shiny.
  15. Use to remove stickers.  Apply a thick coat of olive oil to sticker, let sit, and wipe off.

Do YOU use olive oil for anything besides eating?

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Easy Kitchen Tips – How to Care for a Cast Iron Skillet

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How to Care for a Cast Iron Skillet

Do you cook with cast iron?  I know people that have their grandmother’s cast iron skillet.  They say it’s been seasoned by years of use, nothing sticks to it, and it looks brand new.  I love the whole idea of something that lasts.  I have several myself, and though it’s not my grandma’s, I hope one day my grandchildren use it because it has stood the test of time.  With a little TLC {and I mean, a little}, I think it will.

Here’s 3 easy steps to make sure your cast iron lasts for generations:

1.  Wash in hot water, immediately after using.  For stubborn, stuck-on food you can use kosher salt and a sponge or you can boil water in the pan, using a wooden/plastic spatula to loosen any remaining food.  Camps are split as to whether or not to use soap.  Some say it ruins the seasoning, others say it is necessary due to bacteria.  I personally don’t use soap on mine.  My grandmother didn’t, so I don’t.  It’s that kind of logic that gets me through each day.

2.  Dry immediately and thoroughly.  Cast iron rusts if it is left to air dry.

3.  Store with the lid off.  I like to place a dish towel on top of it to protect it and absorb any moisture {a paper towel would work too}.

I’ve heard about people who have never washed their cast iron pans before. But I’m too much of a neat freak for that. I don’t know, maybe I’m weird.

Do you wash your cast iron, and if so, what method do you use?

~Mavis

cast iron cookbook recipes

Looking for some awesome cast iron cooking recipes? Check out The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen. The reviews are fantastic!

 

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy