The Thrifty Lady

Hungry for a baked potato but not ready to heat the oven to make it?

A cost effect way to bake a potato in the heat of the summer is to use your crock pot.

Start by carefully washing each potato and pricking them with a knife. Then wrap each potato in aluminum foil. (This is important to direct the heat right to each spud.)

Then put the potatoes in your crock pot and cook it on high for 4-6 hours.

The potatoes will come out tender and delicious!

I love to do this on Sunday mornings. I’ll prepare the potatoes before church and let them cook all morning in one crock pot with a chicken or roast in another. When we get home from church, hungry and tired, lunch is ready without using the stove!

At a recent Youth Group camping trip, my oldest children were quite impressed with the shoes one of their buddies was wearing.

At least, I think you could call them shoes.

He had taken a pair of ankle socks, turned them inside out and covered the inside with duct tape. Then he turned them right side out and covered the outside with duck tape.

He claims they are water proof and very comfortable, but did admit they didn’t work well on gravel. (It ripped up the tape.)

I’m afraid the mother in me thinks they don’t have much support or traction.

But, I will admit that I think they are pretty cool looking and will definitely attract attention.

And yes, I let my kids make a pair, too.

Why? Because around here we all know that,” Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.”

Isn’t it frustrating to run out of an ingredient when you’re in the middle of baking? Especially when your 15 miles from the nearest grocery store!

Here’s a thrifty substitute for sweetened condensed milk that will work in a pinch.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Substitute

Combine in a blender:

1/2 cup warm water
1 cup and 2 Tablespoons non-fat dry milk
3/4 cup sugar

Process in the blender until smooth. It will thicken as it cools. Refrigerate if not using immediately.

This equals one 14 oz. can.

“Oddly, it is not real cooks who insist that the finest ingredients are necessary to produce a delicious something…Real cooks take stale bread and aging onions and make you happy.”

~ Susan Wiegand, Cooking as Courtship

Waste in the kitchen is an easy way to throw money away. It happens to everybody. We over buy, or we don’t pay attention to what’s in the fridge and it gets wasted.

With my oldest daughter selling at the local farmer’s market, we have lots of leftovers coming home. If we don’t push hard and take care of them right away, they spoil in the heat and humidity of summer.

I missed one plate of cinnamon rolls last week. Things got busy and I didn’t notice them on the counter for 2 days. (I blush to confess this, but it really was a busy week!) They hadn’t spoiled, but they had gotten quite dry.

I didn’t want to throw them away, so I experimented! I cut each roll in half, soaked it in my favorite French Toast batter and fried them up. I served them for breakfast with butter and syrup.

The family loved them!

The Thrifty Idea for today is to be creative and turn those left-overs into something new and delicious!