How I Keep My Spices Organized for $1

Im a sucker for Dollar Tree because everything is legitimately $1! This is the place I go to for almost all my organizational things. Below is a purple bin I got at the dollar tree. I store all my spices in the bin and when I need them I just slide the bin out. Easy peezy. Now they even have ones with handles so checkout your local dollar tree and see all the goodies they have.

Saving money by giving your family a haircut

One day I was tired of spending money on my husband and my child's haircut so I said what the hey I'll give it a try and they haven't gone to a barber since. Now it's not perfect but it looks good. I use a wahl clipper and trimmer in one and I love it. Below is my son and husbands haircut I did.

Review for Garlic Spicy Lime Chicken

I followed the Recipe for Garlic Spicy Lime Chicken for dinner at our bible study today. I knew I was doing chicken tonight but didnt know what to season it with so I looked at allrecipes.com and Bam! This creation was made. If you like spicy you will love this. I give this recipe a 4 out of 5. The link is below if you would like to make it.
http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/44868/spicy-garlic-lime-chicken/

The No No meal but almost everyone is guilty of.

Today I decided to do a NO NO meal. Yup I put the hotdog on a slice of bread and made Home Fries and dont regret a thing. Why you say? Well because sometimes it feels good to break the food rules and it reminded me of when I was a kid and my brother use to fry the potatoes and put Sazon on it after we got out of school and he was in charge of cooking. So tonight I have cooked this with bringing back the good childhood memories of my big brother Vinny.

Breakfast prep for those on the morning RUN

Alot of times before heading to work your on the run. Instead of waking up early you decide to sleep for a little while more and then find yourself running out with no breakfast. Well heres a quick fix to get something in that belly. First prepare your coffee the night before and the morning of just press the power button. Then if you like milk with your coffee, microwave the milk for 30 seconds in the coffee cup you will use. Pour coffee and add sugar. The night before also bake the muffin of your choice, let them cool and put in a ziplock bag for the next few days for breakfast. Done and Done.

Seasoning chicken for chicken Alfredo (my way)

I don't like tasteless meat in my Alfredo so below I have incorporated my recipe for seasoning the meat part for chicken Alfredo.

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts (diced into squares)
4 cloves of garlic (love garlic!)
1/4 t spoon of garlic powder
1/4 t spoon black pepper
1/2 t spoon of salt
1/2 t spoon rosemary dried
1/2 t spoon thyme dried
1 Red or yellow onion
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil (evoo)for sautéing garlic and onions
2 tablespoon evoo for marinating.

1.Mix all the spices on top of the chicken breasts in a bowl.
2. Add two tablespoons of evoo into the meat and mix with hands. Let it sit while your sautéing the garlic and onions for 2-3 minutes on medium heat with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When they are translucent (not burnt...I've done this) then add your meat into the pan.
3. Cook the meat for 15-20 minutes on medium high heat until juices run clear.
4. Then you steam your broccoli, drain, then add jarred Alfredo sauce, your pasta of preference, and the chicken mix and boom. Done. Here's a pic.

Quick Lunch-Dinner Meal:Tuna Casserole

The Tuna Casserole is one of my favorite dishes because it requires minimal cooking and the vegetables are in an uncook state meaning more nutrients because the enzymes in the vegetables are not damage like in the cooking process. All this recipe requires is rotini noodles, tuna, mayonaise, green pepper, red onions,garlic powder, pepper, and corn (a friend added this and I always put corn in it now, frozen corn that is). You can also add celery but I seem to always waste it after doing this dish so I have omitted it. Boil the noodles, drain, and then add the rest of the ingredients to your liking. You can eat it warm or eat it cold after being in the refrigerator for an hour. I eat it both ways.

No More Wet Salad and How to Save the Lettuce.

Have you ever prepared a homemade salad and it just went limp. Well here's a solution. Ikea has this salad spinner for $4. Clean the lettuce leaves and put it in the spinner. The spinner drains the excess water out from the leaves and Voila!, you got some nice crunchy lettuce you can use and store leftovers in a ziplock bag for later. One of the things I recommend is if you go grocery shopping, chop the lettuce once you get home and store it all in one day so you have it readily available throughout the week. The rating I give the ikea salad spinner is a 10 out of 10.

DIY Pot and Pan Hanger

My favorite things to do are DIY projects. In the pic below, this simple project cost me about $12 including tax for both. The tension rod cost $6.99 from Target and the S hooks were bought for $3.99 at The Container Store (An organizers dream world). You can totally get this stuff for cheaper at Walmart or Home Depot but these two stores were conveniently close to me. All you have to do is take the measurement how long you need the tension rod to be and go buy. My rod can hold up to a combination of four pots and pans. I like how my oven mitt is easily accessible too. I found this idea somewhere on pinterest.

How To Cut A Pineapple

You will be surprised on how many people buy a pineapple and let it sit on top of their counter to find out later on it has spoiled. I usually wait to cut mine until my pineapple shows some yellowing and browning. Okay so lets get to our topic. The first thing you want to do is use a bread knife and cut off the ponytail of the pineapple. Next you want to cut the pineapple from top to bottom to get the skin off. Do this until you see all the yellow and try your best not to take off too much of the fruit along with the skin. Next you want to cut them in quarters. It will look like a wedged triangle. The pointy end is usually the hard part you want to discard. Cut this off from top to bottom. You Will then have a naked (bare) pineapplr and cut it to your likeing. I like to keep them in wedges to freeze and then eat them after dinner to kill the sweet tooth. Pineapple is high in vitamin c and a great immunity booster. Below I have some pics of the process

Investing In A Dyson Vacuum and Review

I hate to purchase anything full price but the purchase of my Dyson Vacuum was one of the three best investments I made in my life. This was the absolute exception because this vacuum exceeds my expectation. The first time I used it, I vacuumed every room in the house and I was shockingly disgusted of the dust that had accumulated 6 months living in our new apartment. We have hard wood  floors so one of the benefits of the Dyson is adjusts to the level of the flooring you are vacuuming. In addition it is also easy to maneuver across the room, easy to disassemble for cleaning the filter, and it comes with a suction with numerous nozzles to vacuum different things (ex. The couch). Oh did I mention the release button to empty the contents into the trash without a mess (yes big WOW). I bought the Dyson at ~$300 plus tax at Best Buy and I saved up for it by putting 10 here, 40 there, etc every month as much as I could. In this case I got my money's worth, we paid cash, and I know we will get much needed use of this with two little boys. My review of the Dyson is 10/10 and highly recommended. More pics of the Dyson can be found on my Facebook page (look for Melissa Feliz).

Saving the beans and learning how to cook them

Okay so coming from a Puerto Rican family and having my mom be the "go to" person for cooking in every family event, you would think by now I would know how to make some really good beans. Truthfully my mom eyeballs everything and it comes out so delicious. Like the cartoons, you literally float towards the smell of her food. Unfortunately I haven't mastered that, especially with beans. However internet recipes never fail me and one that I found for black beans was on www.spicyspoonful.com/Mexicanrestaurantstyleblackbeans. FYI I doubled the recipe.I soaked my black beans overnight and boiled them for two and a half hours (till soft). I also kept adding chicken broth occasionally so the beans would not dry out. I used low sodium chicken broth so to have the taste to my liking I added 1/2 a teaspoon of sea salt and 1/4 of a chicken bouillon cube. To not waste beans as I am guilty in the past of doing, I freeze half in a freezer bag (freeze for up to 6 months) and use the other half for a three days span. Below are the ingredients. They came out good (8/10).

Ingredients
1 12 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
½ red onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce (I use Chalula)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon light olive oil or butter
¼ cup chicken broth (use vegetable broth to keep this vegetarian)

Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil or butter on medium heat in a saucepan. Add onion, garlic and cumin and sauté until fragrant and soft.
2. Add black beans, hot sauce, chicken broth, and salt and bring to a rapid simmer.
3. Reduce the heat so that the pot comes to a simmer, cover and let it cook for about 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
4. Serve topped with fresh cilantro, onion, tomato, and maybe even cheese.

How to grocery shop Frugally

Im sure you have had a moment in your life when you go to checkout with a few groceries and tell yourself how in the world did those groceries cost that much? We'll this girl went through those moments plenty of times and was fed up. Fed up of spending so much money on groceries and then to have them spoil within a weeks time. After reading a book called Cut your Grocery Bill in Half with Americas Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides, I utilized their way of grocery shopping with a twist. So let's get to it and stop being wasteful. ;)

Step One: Get a pen and paper and write down categories of the following:

What you have

What you need

Recipes for the week

Websites of recipes you will use for the week

Below is an example of the semi grocery shopping I did yesterday

What you have:

Peas

Recipe Ready fajita stir fry

Meatballs

Broccoli 

Kraft recipe makers three cheese florentine

Ziti

Spaghetti

What you need:

Chicken breasts (2 frozen packages)

Pasta sauce

Spinach leaves

Mozzarella cheese

Eggs (4 dozen)

Avocado

Garlic

Corn

milk 

2 bags of potatoes

White rice package

Red onions

Scallions

Carrots

Mixed vegetables

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Bread (2 loaves)

Etc....

Meal Plan

1. Chicken fajita 2. Spaghetti and meatballs 3. Chicken fried rice 4. Three cheese chicken florentine

5. Chicken Parmesan 6. Rice, Beans, Chicken 7. Chicken Quesadillas 8. Turkey Chili 9. Tuna Casserole.

Website for recipe: www.spicyspoonful.com/mexican-restaurant-style-black-beans

Turkey Chili for Dinner and Review

Tonight for Dinner I made Turkey Chili from www.eat-yourself-skinny.com and I must say it came out really good. I added corn to give it a nice sweet crunch. I give this recipe a 9/10.

Making Homemade Pancakes with 7 common ingredients

Today (9/13/2014) we made homemade pancakes. It is the easiest thing to make at home with only 7 common ingredients that most people have at home. I found this recipe at Laurainthekitchen.com. The texture is similar to that of a crepe and I added vanilla extract to it to add an extra kick. Below is the following recipe enjoy!

1 cup of All Purpose Flour
1 cup of Milk
1 Egg
1 Tbsp of Sugar
1 pinch of Salt
1 tsp of Baking powder
Butter to cook them in