By Cara Mirabella

First introduced in 1971, the Crock-Pot revolutionized the way we cook meals. The word Crock-Pot is actually trademarked by Rival Industries, but is used in every day conversations instead of the term slow cooker. Many recipes for the crock-pot require little preparation. The slow cooker can then safely be left to run unattended, making it a convenient cooking method.

Crock-pot meals can not only save you time in the kitchen, but they can also save you money as well. The reasons are as follows:

1. It keeps you out of the fast food line. If you had not loading up the crock-pot with the ingredients this morning you’d likely be in the drive through line at the local fast food restaurant this afternoon after work, grabbing a meal for your family. The average fast food meal for a family of four rings up over $20.

2. Stretches your dollar. Most crock-pot recipes and meals can truly stretch your food dollar. Because you can put a whole chicken in the crock-pot to cook then cut it up for several meals, you can stretch your budget with the use your leftovers.

3. Cuts your grocery budget. You can save money at the butcher since the slow cooking process is especially useful to tenderize cheaper cuts of meat.

4. Saves on your energy bill. Instead of running a larger appliance like the stove you are running one small energy conservative appliance, the crock-pot, saving on your energy costs.

The convenience of the slow cooker not only saves you time, but will also save you money. Don’t you think it’s time to take it out of your closet (or wherever you have it packed away collecting dust) and make a Crock-Pot meal today?

Cara Mirabella is a WAHM with one toddler from New Jersey. She owns and manages TheHouseholdHelper.com - a site dedicated to saving your time, money and sanity when managing your household. Her site offers tons of information as well as e-books including http://thehouseholdhelper.com/ebooks/CrockPotCooking.html

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By Cyndi Roberts

It seems that school starts earlier every year. So it’s time to start thinking about what to put in those school lunches every morning.

My children always wanted to bring their own lunches because they didn’t really like what was offered in the school lunchroom. But it was sometimes a little difficult to make their lunches nutritious and tasty and also to put a little variety in their lunchboxes without spending a small fortune.

If we let ourselves, we can spend a “lot” on individual servings, lunchables, and treats for lunches. Here are a few ideas to help you meet the “Frugal Lunchbox Challenge”.

Go to the Dollar Store and buy a few of those individual serving-size storage containers. These are very inexpensive and they are worth every penny.

You can use them for any number of things–like making your own fruit cups and pudding cups.

And they can also be used to hold dip for carrot or celery sticks or fill with peanut butter and pack a zipper bag of pretzels for dipping.

Also at the Dollar Store or discount store, you can pick up one or two of the small “blue ice” cold packs. They will help keep lunchbox items cold and safe. Sandwiches such as egg salad or tuna salad need to have a cold pack. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on the other hand, can be packed without one.

Those zipper bags we all love come into their own when packing lunches! They can hold vegetable sticks, popcorn, crackers, homemade cookies, etc.

Muffins hold up well in a zipper-top bag, as do slices of banana nut bread, or most any other quick bread.

When the weather turns cool, a small thermos will come in handy for homemade soup or chili. I see lots of these for sale at garage and yard sales, sometimes for as little as 25 cents.

A thermos is also handy to hold whatever drink your child likes to take.

Try to put some fun in the lunchbox: keep a stash of small, inexpensive toys, cut sandwich bread into cool shapes with cookie cutters, write little notes to your child, cut out funny cartoons. Children love surprises.

A good routine to get into is while you are cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, put leftovers in the storage containers, or make sandwiches and place in the fridge in a designated area for lunch items. Get your kids to help–the more they are involved, the better!

Put napkins, etc. in lunch boxes or bags and place them where all anyone has to do in the morning is fill with the prepared items. Now you can all be out the door in minutes!

Here are a few recipes that will help get you started this school year:

Apple Surprise

• 1 apple

• Raisins

• Peanut butter

Cut apple in half. Carefully, cut out the core of the apple. Spread peanut butter where the core used to be and over surface of apple. Sprinkle raisins over the peanut butter.

Trail Mix

• 2 cups granola cereal

• 1 cup peanuts

• 1 cup dried apple bits

• 1 1/2 cups yogurt-covered raisins

• 2/3 cup chopped dates

• 1 cup dried banana bits

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

A small serving of this goes a long way!

Peanut Butter Balls

• 1/2 c. peanut butter

• 2 1/2 tbsp. nonfat dry milk

• 2 tbsp. raisins

• 2 tbsp. honey

• 1/4 c. coconut

• Sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients and form into balls. Roll in sesame seeds.

This is a good recipe for the kids to help with– they love to roll the dough into balls.

NOTE: sesame seeds are cheaper in bulk at a health food store. You can get unsweetened coconut there, also.

About The Author

Cyndi Roberts is the editor of the “1 Frugal Friend 2 Another” bi-weekly newsletter and founder of the website of the same name. Visit http://www.cynroberts.com to find creative tips, articles, and a free e-cooking book. Subscribe to the newsletter and receive the free e-course “Taming the Monster Grocery Bill”; editor@cynroberts.com

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By Susan Godfrey

I am always trying to cut down my grocery bill and Breakfast can be one of the most expensive meals of the day…depending on what you serve. Here you will find some inexpensive breakfast ideas that are good and healthy for your family.

1. Cut out all prepared, cold breakfast cereals. Instead use Oatmeal, grits or other hot cereals. These are better for us and are really easy to fix. Your family can “decorate” them to their tastes and your family’s budget. My family loves oatmeal with butter and jelly or grits with butter and a bit of grated cheese.

2. We don’t use expensive juices. We use frozen juice concentrates. This saves a lot of money for us every month. I also only allow juices to be drunk at breakfast and 1 serving per person. This way the juice will last 2-3 days for my family of four.

3. Plan a menu with the same few breakfasts repeated through out the week. You can then stock up on ingredients when they are on sale or buy in bulk.

4. If you can buy some chickens and have some homegrown eggs! We have an abundance of eggs most of the time so we eat a lot of egg based meals. Eggs are high in protein and most kids love them. We mostly eat them for breakfast scrambled or hard-boiled.

5. We buy our bread at the day old bread store. We get 3 loaves for $1.00 that way. We use the bread to make toast for breakfast, topped with butter, jelly or peanut butter and sometimes cheese.

6. Grow a garden, plant fruit trees, or gather what you can from your property. Pretty much anyone can grow a garden. I have a friend who lives in an apartment, and she grows container gardens on her balcony. We have wild mustang grapes that can be made into raisins and jelly, prickly pear cactus (we make jelly out of the cactus pears), mesquite beans (we make a jelly out of them), 2 peach trees (for fresh peaches in season and jelly), and wild pecans. I’m sure there are more items around our property that can be used, but this is what we’ve found so far. We’re also continually adding fruits, berries and nuts to our place. Use fresh when you can or freeze and can for when you can’t use fresh.

7. We make breakfast from left over rice. Whenever I fix rice for dinner, I make enough for breakfast the next morning and put in the refrigerator or freezer. I warm up the rice and add butter, sugar and cinnamon. This is one of my husband’s favorites. Rice is really inexpensive. I don’t use instant rice, but I use long grain brown rice. It has to cook for around 20 minutes.

8. I make milk from powdered milk. My family hasn’t noticed the difference since I did it gradually. I did it like this…I at first made 1/2 whole milk, 1/2 prepared powdered milk, and then kept watering down the whole milk with prepared powdered milk. By doing this, my family has gradually gotten use to powdered milk and now will drink it without any problems. We’re planning on getting a milk cow some day soon, so then we’ll be drinking raw cow milk and also using it to make butter and cheese.

Well, I hope you have found these tips helpful! These have been things that I have done to help trim my grocery bill down and I hope you can use them to help lower your grocery bill too!

~ Susan Godfrey is a Christian wife, mom and homemaker. She is also the owner of Homekeeper’s Heart, http://www.freewebtown.com/homekeepersheart, a Titus 2 Ministry to encourage Christian women to be the wives, mothers and homemakers that God wants them to be! She has her own blog at http://www.susangodfrey.blogspot.com and also is the owner of the Homesteader’s Heart Blog at http://www.homesteadersheart.blogspot.com where she shares homesteading, gardening and country living articles.

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Tips, suggestions, and recipes for healthy cooking in cast iron skillets.

Remember the wonderful smells of onions frying, eggs cooking, and gravy on the stove along with biscuts in the oven coming from Grandma’s kitchen? What wonderful childhood memories… those heavy black iron skillets that Grandma used to cook in — how was she ever able to lift them?

Today we live in the land of expensive, brightly colored telfon coating, non-stick skillets, and shiny stainless steel pans. Does anyone use cast iron anymore? Old-timers haven’t given them up! And the younger generations should consider what makes these skillets so loved.

Cast iron skillets are a economical and heathly way to cook.

I recently purchased three cast iron skillets for under $15 at KMart! Try finding shiny, color new fangled pans at such a bargain! Many newer style sets of skillets cost $50 and more!

Cast iron lasts for years when cared for properly. It never warps or dents and cooks well at a wide range of temperatures. It can be use to fry foods on top of the stove or to bake in the oven. Its uniform conductivity makes cast iron the ideal choice for slow-cooking desserts, as well as for frying and sautees.

Cast iron skillets also add iron to our food, which many Americans lack in their diets today. Doctors often recommend cast iron skillets for patients who are anemic or borderline anemic (low iron levels in the blood).

Seasoning Your Cast Iron: Raw cast iron is a porous material which needs to be “seasoned” before use. Seasoning your cast iron will create a non-stick surface, prevent the food from acquiring a metallic favor as it cooks, and help the pan to resist rust and corrosion. The non-stick surface will improve over time. To season your new pans, preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Wash each pan in hot, soapy water and hand-dry immediately. Using a paper towel or cloth, coat the pan with a thin layer of olive (or vegetable) oil or melted shortening. Be sure to coat all surfaces, including the handle. Place the pan in the oven for one hour. Remove while hot and let cool to room temperature. When cooled, hang your pan to store. If stacking, place a paper towel between your pans.

Cooking With Cast Iron: Once your pans are properly seasoned, they should be fairly non-stick. This quality will improve the longer you use the pan. For the first little while, you may need to add a bit of oil each time you cook in the pan. Never forget your potholders! Cast iron pan handles get HOT when cooking!

Cleaning & Caring For Cast Iron: You need not wash your pans with soap and water. After use simply rub them clean with oil and a paper towel or dishcloth. To remove stuck-on residues, place salt and vinegar or oil in your pan and heat in on low heat for a few minutes, then rub clean. Alternatively you may scrub it clean with coarse salt and water. Be sure to always dry your pans throughly immediately after use. Never place cast iron in the dishwasher — this will cause them to rust.

Now that your pans are seasoned and your ready to cook, here are two of my favorite recipes to get you started.

Skillet Corn Bread

You Will Need:
- 2 cups Corn Meal
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar

To Prepare:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease the inside of your 8-inch cast iron skillet and place it in the oven. In a medium or large bowl, beat your egg and add milk and oil. Stir in sugar, then cornmeal, just until moistened. The batter should be lumpy - do not overmix. Carefully remove your skillet from the oven and pour in the batter. Return to oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes. The top of your cornbread should be golden-brown and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean when the bread is done. Serve warm.

Cream Breakfast Gravy

You Will Need:
- 1 cup Self-rising Flour
- 1/2 small can of Canned Evaporated Milk
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Grease or shortening
To Prepare:
This recipe works well cooked in a skillet after frying bacon or sausage. Leave the bacon or sausage grease, as well as any small bits of meat, in the skillet. You may also use cooking oil or shortening in place of the bacon or sausage grease. In a large bowl measure out 1 cup of self-rising flour. Add the milk. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes, then slowly add to the heated skillet, mixing well as you add it. Heat to boiling. If the gravy is too thick, add a bit of water. If too thin, add a bit more flour. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy cooking with your cast iron! Care for them properly and they will be one of the best (and smallest) investments in your kitchen. Frugal and healthy - what better way to cook?