Furry Friday

We had a nice rain last night, and the weather is much cooler today.  The skies are overcast as more rain is expected.  For that reason everyone here is feeling a bit lazy.  All four were a bit annoyed to have their naps interrupted by a camera flash but quickly went back to sleep.

 

 

 

 

Homemade Yogurt to Sour Cream Substitute

I prefer to make ranch dressing but have been looking for a way to make it slightly healthier.  I normally use a combination of mayonnaise, sour cream, and buttermilk along with some seasonings.  Now I am using a small amount of mayonnaise, buttermilk, and Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and part of the mayonnaise.  Greek yogurt can be expensive to buy.  Since I already make my own yogurt, I decided to use that to get Greek yogurt.

 

I needed a simple frugal way to turn drain out the whey from my yogurt.  I decided to use my canning funnel and a coffee filter.  I needed a way to keep the coffee filter from sliding through the funnel – two clothespins did the trick.

 

 

I poured some yogurt into the top and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.  At the end I had nice thick yogurt that had the consistency of sour cream and made a great substitution for it as well as most of the mayonnaise in my original recipe. 

Weekly Savings

I am a day late with this after a long weekend.  I am only going through Sunday with my savings and will save the stuff I did yesterday for next week's post.


We ate all of our meals at home last week.  We ate from the garden quite a few times including a tomato tart, green beans, and potatoes, and a pizza with fresh peppers, squash, and sliced tomato.  This time of year we eat what we harvest.  Unfortunately it is too hot for lettuce for the next two months.  Now is the time to start planning my fall garden. 


I never drink much soda, but I am cutting back even more.  I am drinking a flavored water instead (tap water, lemon juice, lime juice, and just a couple of teaspoons of sugar). Bottled lemon and lime juices are much cheaper than soda, and a bottle of each lasts a long time.


W and I combined our errands into one trip into town.  I stayed within my grocery budget.  That included purchasing a five gallon bucket of tomatoes to can.  I am hoping to spend even less this week.


For the holiday weekend I went to a three day family reunion.  It was just minutes from my house so I was able to be at home each evening.  I took something for each day's meal.  Friday night I made a double batch of breadsticks.  Bulk yeast and flour made this a frugal food.  Saturday I took some mini cupcakes.  The cake mix was purchased on sale with a coupon.  I used birthday cake frosting that I had frozen when I decorated giant chocolate chip cookies last month.  I only baked half of the cake mix and froze the other half for later.  Sunday I took nearly 4 dozen dinner rolls that I baked that morning.  I used the sandwich bread recipe (very frugal) and just shaped it into small rolls. 


Overall it was a quiet week.  I hope everyone else had a successful, money saving week!