Having Food Security in Our Modern World

baskets of fresh garden harvest of cucumbers, squash, and herbs

I’ve been thinking a lot about food security lately and what that truly means in our modern world. Up until very recently, people HAD to think ahead and make a plan for eating year round regardless of their climate. Now we can just pop into the grocery store and buy anything we want, in or … Read more

How to Meal Plan on a Budget

image of bowl of vegetable soup

I think most people instinctively know how to plan meals, but we’ve got so many apps and systems available to us that we assume it can’t really be as easy as writing down what meals we want to eat for the week or month and then making sure we have the food to cook those … Read more

Tips for filling your freezer with make ahead meals

You don't have to spend all day in the kitchen to prepare make ahead meals for the freezer. Learn how to make freezer meals with recipes you already use and love.

I love my freezer. I know that sounds a bit odd but I don’t know how I would consistently feed my family from scratch, healthy meals without a freezer. I use the freezer to preserve fruits and vegetables, store bulk foods, and store make ahead meals for those times when I don’t have time to … Read more

Reduce your grocery budget with zero waste kitchen tips

The grocery budget is won or lost in the little day to day activities. Learn how to reduce your grocery budget with these zero waste kitchen tips.

I’ve always believed that that of all our budget categories, the grocery budget is the easiest to save on from month to month. For the most part, there’s very little you can do about your mortgage, there’s only so much you can do to reduce energy costs, and I don’t know about you but our … Read more

How to Make Homemade Soup ~ with links to over 70 recipes

When it comes to soup, you can skip the can. Learn how to easily make delicious homemade soup using whatever you have on hand.

Homemade soup is very easy to make using ingredients that you already have on hand. Soup recipes are great but they don’t have to be followed to make a great soup. Use this process to learn what makes a great soup so you can create your own family favorite, from scratch, soups and stews. Don’t … Read more

Tips for Decorating Cookies With Children

pile of cookie cutters

I love decorating cookies with my children. In fact, our oldest son was probably just 2 years old when I decided we’d decorate cookies together every year. So, for more than 20 years we set aside a day in December to make cookies and decorate them. Now that my kids are older, not everyone participates … Read more

9 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Freeze

Basket of eggs, quart of milk, block of cheese, and basket of potatoes on wooden table.

After hurricane Harvey we were without power for eight days. We didn’t stay in our home during that time but did come daily to work on starting the clean up and to check on things. We were totally fine but one thing I was mourning was losing everything in my freezers. You see I have … Read more

Sauteed Broccoli and Cauliflower Leaves – a simple, no waste recipe

Many vegetables have secondary edible parts - edible parts that they aren't normally grown for. Learn how to cook broccoli and cauliflower leaves to reduce waste and your grocery budget.

Can you eat cauliflower leaves? Are broccoli leaves edible? These are questions I found myself asking a friend. I knew you *could* eat a cauliflower leaf but did it really taste good? I’m sure I’m not the only one who wonders these things. Whenever my friend from Kenya comes over she reminds me of how many … Read more

Care Packages for College Students

A care package for a college student includes a box, a bowl of apples, homemade bars, and small bottles. The text reads: "Care Packages crafted especially for your favorite college student - SchneiderPeeps.

Josiah has been gone for almost two months…how can that be? Almost daily, Esther asks if it’s been almost four months yet. Apparently time doesn’t fly as quickly when you are six as when you are….much older than six.  We’ve been Skyping with Josiah on the weekends and it’s been really fun. We’re all curious … Read more

Frugal Hospitality

home coffee bar set up

We love having people over to our home. Often my kids will ask if they can have a game night or dance with their friends. We also have things to celebrate with a lot of friends and family, like birthdays, graduations, Eagle Scouts and holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will also often have just a … Read more

Six Tips For a No Waste kitchen

The average person throws away 244 pounds of food a year! Let's be below average! Here are six super easy ways to have a no waste kitchen.

Because of having several family celebrations recently, I’ve become very aware of our grocery budget. And Carl has become very aware of how often the “chicken bucket” has been full lately. It certainly isn’t out of control but it could use a little more planning, executing and attention.  During our season of unemployment I was keenly … Read more

grapefruit tip

Note: Once a week I share a popular post from the archives. This post was originally published in January 2013. Although we have quite a few citrus trees all but one lemon tree are very young and did not produce this year. Thank goodness we have friends who have the most amazing grapefruit and lots of … Read more

How to Freeze Cookie Dough

chocolate chip cookie scoops on baking sheet for freezing

With the holidays approaching you might be wondering if you can freeze cookie dough and bake the cookies later? Yes, you can! There are several ways to freeze cookie dough so that you can quickly have fresh baked cookies whenever you want them. Let’s chat about the different ways, what cookie dough freezes best, and … Read more

Wild Game Without Gamey Flavor

  {update: Stacy’s books are on sale for $14.94 with free shipping right now! You can click here to order – and this is not an affiliate link)  Last week when I reviewed Stacy Harris’ books and dvd, I asked readers what their biggest struggle cooking wild foods was. The vast majority mentioned the gamey … Read more

Sustainable Living {review and giveaway}

Sustainable Living with Stacy Harris

I did not grow up in a family that hunted, gathered or even had a garden. In fact, I was an adult before I had ever tasted wild game. My dad loved to fish and shrimp and since we grew up on the beach, I never thought twice about eating fish or sea food. But … Read more

5 MORE tips to save you time and money in the kitchen

SchneiderPeeps 5 more kitchen tips to save time and money

  Sometimes it really is the little things that can make all the difference in our schedules and in our budget. A couple of months ago I shared 5 things I regularly do that help me save time and money in the kitchen. I’ve been doing these things for a long time and don’t necessarily … Read more

What is raw honey? {plus how to use it}

crystallized raw honey on spoon

Throughout history honey has been used as a sweetener and medicinally and for good reasons, it tastes delicious and has many antimicrobial and healing properties. Over time we’ve figured out ways to alter and standardize it for the for purpose of making the processing faster and increase profits. This has lead to some confusion over … Read more

In the kitchen…

I’ve been able to spend some extra time in the kitchen this week and here’s some of what I’ve done….   We pulled up the basil that is flowering for the second time and I decided to just go ahead and make some frugal pesto even though I’ve heard that basil goes bitter after flowering. Let me … Read more