Sloppy Joes

The Ultimate Recipe Swap this week is birthday dinners. I decided to combine it with the Frugal Friday post because one of our the kids most requested meals for birthdays also happens to be a frugal meal. Sloppy Joes are one of Ian's favorites, and when he was younger he had a lot of allergies. There were no mixes for sloppy joes that he could eat.
Fortunately, we had a homemade mix that we liked better than the store bought ones anyway. We use ground turkey because Ian couldn't eat beef at first. Now we are just all used to ground turkey. The added benefits are that I can make it with ingredients that I always have on hand, and it is cheaper than buying Manwhich or whatever.

The recipe is adapted from Desperation Dinners
2 pounds ground turkey
1 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
6 ounces tomato sauce
6 ounces tomato paste

Cook ground turkey. Add the brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and garlic, then stir in tomato sauce and paste and cook 5 minutes more.

I have also added lentils, either pureed or whole with varying levels of success. The kids aren't too thrilled with them, but I try to sneak them in.

For more Birthday Recipies see the Ultimate Recipe Swap.
For more Frugal Ideas see Frugal Fridays.

Easy Birthday gift

We had a birthday party this past Saturday, for one of our neighbors who was turning 10. I wasn't really sure what to give for a present. I didn't have the time to go out and look for a present, and I really wasn't sure what to buy for a 10 year old girl.
I decided to make something. I had this box for several years. It originally came with a punch and some stamps. I saved the box knowing that "someday" I would alter it. "Someday" finally arrived. I pulled out some patterned paper and scrapbooking tools. I was able to complete the project with things that I had on hand-- no money spent, and no time consuming trip to the store.

I used the paper and the red sticky tape to cover the inside and outside of the box. The turquoise part of the lid had a white swirled design, so I left that plain. Then I filled the inside with various blank cards, envelopes, patterned paper, images, stickers, and ribbon. Isabelle insisted on making a birthday card. (You can see it on top of the box.) We decided that the box was too pretty to wrap, so I just used a ribbon and tag.

Here is the birthday girl opening her present.

She came our house yesterday and brought some of the cards she has been making this week to show me. (She also received some other scrapbooking supplies for her birthday.) Another young crafter in the making!

You can find more frugal ideas at Life as Mom.

It Must Be Spring

Clothes hanging outside to dry, kids playing with no jackets, deer in the backyard.... it must be spring! I'm so excited. I have been waiting for warmer weather, and it seemed like it would never come. But the last few days here have been beautiful.

Part of the reason that I wanted warm weather to come was so that I could pack away all of the coats, snow pants, boots, hats, mittens, scarfs, etc. I want to start getting things more organized for our move this summer. I was going to try to do it last weekend because we had a few days off school for Easter. However, since it kept SNOWING, I couldn't.

At the beginning of this week, I saw a series on Restoring Order. Two women Monica and Rebecca are hosting it on their blogs. I thought that would be a good way to have a system to tackle some of the projects I want to get done. Yesterday, after catching up on some of our laundry. I washed all of the winter things and hung them out (the first load was dry by that point.) Today, I just have to sort through them to decide which to get rid of and which to pack away for the future.

Of course, I had to take a picture of the clothes hanging up outside. For some reason I just really like the way they look. It has the advantage of saving money for us. Since we share a washer and dryer with our apartment building, we pay per load. Yesterday, I hung a total of four loads on the clothesline and our indoor drying racks. (For more frugal tips see Frugal Fridays.)