Thriftism

With colder weather upon us once again, we are turning to hearty favorites like soups and stews. We especially like easy to cook recipes that are hearty, healthy, and save us some money in the process. One recipe that fits this bill perfectly is a black bean posole. This can be made in a crockpot or slow cooker and is packed with flavor. Posole or Pozole can be made as a vegan/vegetarian option or you have the option of adding meat to fill out your meal as desired. Posole cooks easily in this dump and go recipe saving you time and money by using pantry staples.  Watch the recipe in action: printable to letter size paper Embed

Buttermilk can bring a lot of great flavor to recipes from pancakes to dumplings to desserts, but for those of us who can't have dairy, it can pose a roadblock in cooking or baking. Whether you choose to be vegan or simply can't digest dairy, it can be hard to find substitutes sometimes. We found a super simple way to recreate buttermilk for baking/cooking needs. All you need is two ingredients. Watch how we make it or scroll down for a recipe.  Embed

Whether you are looking for ways to use up small onions or bulbils from walking onions, or you want to bring a fresh taste to your appetizers/cocktail hour, this simple recipe for pickled onions is for you. We used bulbils from our walking onions (green onions), but pearl onions are easily purchased from the store as well. One benefits of using store bought is that they will already be peeled, but will also be much more expensive than homegrown. While there are many flavor varieties to choose from with pickled onions, we went with a fennel and coriander theme with this batch.  Watch and learn or scroll down for a printable recipe. printable to letter size paper Learn to Plant Onions for Pickling Embed

Zucchini can grow like a weed for most of the summer, making it a great garden plant. Most people I know only think about zucchini bread as a use for zucchini and then get sick of it. The uses for zucchini are nearly endless and here is just another quick and simple recipe to use up your zucchinis.  Another great reason to enjoy zoodles (zucchini noodles)? They are keto friendly and low carb making them a great substitution for diabetics or others looking to cut down calories and carbs. They also don't seem too noticeably different to me from regular noodles.  We use a handheld spiralizer. You can get electric ones that are much fancier, but we found the simple and cheap LHS spiralizer does the trick just fine. In fact, feel free to simply cut thin strips of zucchini if you don't want to invest in the spiralizer. I'm a bit too lazy to do the extra cutting, but we have used a peeler to make lasagna style noodles with great results so I imagine you could cut or grate small n