Here we are in the start of a brand new year! A fresh start is always a wonderful feeling, and the start of a new year is a great time to evaluate our lives and our habits and ask ourselves if we need to change anything that we are doing perhaps without even thinking about it. Little tiny things done regularly can add up to great big changes!
For instance--I have been carrying around some not needed extra weight on my body. Last year I felt like I really needed to place my health as a priority. There were no huge, drastic changes--but the consistent small changes that I put into practice ended up resulting in a weight loss of 24 pounds over the calendar year. Only two pounds a month--not exactly anything that gets "noticed" or that you announce to your friends on Facebook! Yet, over the course of a year, those little two pounds a month added up and I am much healthier at this point--one year later--for having taken those small changes. And being healthier, I am sure, will result in at least a few less doctor visits, so will be helping out in a frugal way as well! In addition to health care costs, I am making some better purchasing decisions when I am at the grocery store--sure, I am buying LOTS of fresh fruit and veggies and whole grains, but the cost of those things is being offset by the unhealthy foods that I am NOT purchasing. Anyway, so I just want to encourage you to not be afraid of taking tiny, baby steps towards your goal!
But on to this week! So what did you do to live in a frugal way and bless your family this week?
With Christmas spending behind us, this is a great time to evaluate budgets and get yourself back on track with where you want to be! One frugal thing that I did this week did involve spending some money up front--but knowing the regular price on something can help you to know if you are REALLY getting a good deal when you see it on sale.
So, keeping that in mind, one frugal thing that I did this week to bless my family was I purchased this:
Yes, that really IS a case of fresh cranberries! I don't know about where YOU live, but around here fresh cranberries are usually around $2.00 a bag. At Thanksgiving time I saw them go on sale for $1.00 a bag, and a lady in the grocery store commented to me about what a good price that was! So you can imagine how I felt when I went to my local Aldi's store and found them for .49 cents a bag!!! Be still my beating heart!!! And cranberries freeze really well, so many of these bags will find themselves in my freezer real soon. And--I admit--I bought fresh cranberries at this price three different times! So WHY do I want to eat fresh cranberries, and HOW in the world do I eat them since they are so very sour? I'm glad you asked that! ;)
Why: Because cranberries--fresh cranberries to be specific--are SO very very healthy for us! I am not a medical doctor, so cannot give any medical advice. But I do read a LOT and research into different areas of health, and here is a short video that IS done by a medical doctor, explaining a bit about the health benefits of eating fresh cranberries:
In addition to the health benefits, I must include in the "Why" that I LIKE them! Actually, I LOVE them! No, really! When I used to eat junk food, one of my favorite candies was the sour lemon drops! I also grew up eating yummy grapefruit--that's my parent's fault--so I developed a taste for sour things. . .
However, even I will admit that straight, fresh cranberries are a bit TOO sour even for me. Which brings me to the HOW part:
How: I eat them in THIS Cranberry Salad recipe. Most fresh cranberries are eaten with loads of sugar to sweeten them up. But this recipe uses the sweetness of fruit, which is not robbed of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Add in the zest from two oranges. Then peel the oranges, and add in the orange sections as well.
After you have your dates, zest, and oranges into the food processor, pulse them a couple of times just to mix them all up. Then it is time to add one package of rinsed, fresh cranberries.
Pulse the mixture after the cranberries are added in, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed. You will be left with something that looks like this:
Remember, you want to pulse the mixture, not blend it all up. One of our favorite ways to eat this Cranberry Salad is on top of oatmeal for breakfast. It adds just enough sweet--and tart--to make plain, boring oatmeal kind of interesting! ;) And remember, I DID warn you--it IS sour! But with the dates in it, there are also pockets of sweet, and I love the combination! In addition to topping oatmeal with it, our family will also simply eat a serving of it as a dessert after a meal. Yes--even my hubby who is normally a very picky eater now loves it. In fact, he finished up the last of it this morning at breakfast, which forced me to make up another batch so my daughter and I could also eat some for breakfast. . . .I remember the days when my hubby thought he didn't like grapefruit, so I got to eat ALL of them myself. . . it took several years, but he now eats just as many grapefruit as I do. Which, I suppose, IS a good thing since I do want him to be healthy as well. . . .
I hope you enjoy this Cranberry Salad as much as we do! Please share with me one frugal thing that you did this week. I love to get new ideas!
~Susan
1 comment:
Since you like cranberries so much, that was an amazing find! 49c each in unbelievable around here. We don't have Aldi stores, so never get the deals from there I read about on the internet. (Like our eggs never came down to the super low prices I read about) We do, however, have some stores that run specials, so that's nice. I guess they all have to make money somehow, so it makes sense that in some places this or that is on sale, and in others, something else.
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