How Very Pinteresting!

Volume 1

This weekend I tried out several things that I had pinned on Pinterest, and I thought it would be fun to share my results with you fine folks! Also, I am hoping that making this into a new segment will encourage me to stop procrastinating on other pins that I have been wanting to try and not getting around to. So, here goes!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes - Win!

Not too bad for my first try, huh?

www.recipegirl.com

This woman is a pancake genius. If you like cinnamon rolls and pancakes, make these. You won't be sorry. 

I had planned to halve the recipe, since there are only two of us and it says it will make 8 pancakes. However, after halving the cinnamon filling and the cream cheese glaze, I realized that it is difficult to halve an egg... so I made the full amount of pancake batter. It worked out. I guess my pancakes came out a little bigger than hers, even though I used the recommend 1/3rd measuring cup. It probably would have made 6 pancakes for me, but I did four 1/3rd cup and one larger one with the leftover batter. I had to skimp a little with the cinnamon filling on the last big pancake, and there turned out to be extra cream cheese glaze. I may have added a little too much powdered sugar to it, because I had to thin it a little bit with milk to get it to drizzle. Amazing. My favorite fella says these may be the best pancakes he's ever had.

Mom's Super Laundry Sauce - Win! (so far)

Maybe I should call it Laundry Butter, instead?

www.Budget101.com

 

Fairly easy to put together, even though the dust from grating the Fels Naptha made me sneeze. The initial cost was about as much as buying laundry detergent, but the box of borax and washing soda will last through many batches, so it will be very inexpensive from here on out. 
I didn't have anything really grubby to test it out on, but our clothes smell fresh, and I don't see any residue. The reviews were very good, so I have high hopes that we will continue to love this!

Tub Scrub - Win!

Tub Scrubs Scrub Tubs!

 www.marthastewart.com

Our bathtub is terrible. It might be the original from when our house was built in 1950. In any case, it is in dire need of a reglaze. Just days after a good scrub it looks like it hasn't been cleaned in months, since stepping into it with any dirt on your feet guarantees stuck on foot prints. I have tried Comet, scouring pads, Barkeeper's Friend (liquid and powder), various combinations of bleach, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and dish soap recommended by the Internet, and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Some worked better than others, but all required excessive elbow grease to get the tub white again each week. This cheap, non-toxic cleaner blows them all away.

Well, the first round came out better than I expected! Not all of the links I have found through Pinterest have worked out so well for me. Do you have any Pinterest gems or flops to share?  

Milk Jug Watering Can

What a wonderful idea from A Journey to Dream! I had thought to turn an empty milk carton into a watering can by cutting the top. Before getting started, I did a quick search to see if someone had come up with a better method than what I had in mind, and look what I found!

Please visit her blog for instructions on making this very simple recycled milk jug watering can. 

I made my own using a pin, but I think I'll have to dig up a nail or a larger needle to make the holes wider, because I'm not getting water flow as good as hers is in the picture.

What are some creative ways you have recycled common household items in the garden? 

Cleaning A (Really Yucky) Stove Top

This one's a mini post. I wanted to get some pictures to add to my hamburger post, and realized that my stove top was pretty gross! I'll save you from a picture, but just know it had a few layers of stuff baked on around each burner.

I got started on it with my favorite cleaning method, and thought I'd share. This is a very simple technique I ran across a couple of years back using household items (table salt, white vinegar, and baking soda). Take a look! There really isn't anything that I need to add to this video. Thanks so much for sharing, autonomess!

How To Make Regular Ground Beef Leaner

The last three months have been full of celebrations and travel. It's been so fun, but I still haven't quite got the hang of budgeting for special occasions. So, now we're going into frugal mode while our finances recover. That means lots of Googling for money-saving DIYs and freezer food recipes, so I can take full advantage of the small deep freezer I bought a few months ago.

I rarely buy ground meat since it costs so much more per pound to get lean ground beef or turkey than it does to get (unground) chicken. Plus, I assumed the high fat content of regular ground beef outweighed the lower price tag. 

Google to the rescue!

I found two great articles on lowering the fat content of regular ground beef on Hillbilly Housewife and Democratic Underground. The first article is cool because Mrs. Housewife posted a chart that shows how much weight each type of ground beef loses while cooking (regular to super lean). It turns out that even though regular ground beef (30% fat and 70% lean) costs less than half as much as super lean (7% fat and 93% lean), you lose less than 2 oz. more per pound while cooking (12 2/3 oz remaining versus 11 oz). Half the price for 90% of the meat? Sold!

Stock pot filled with regular ground beef

Hillbilly Housewife Method

Her method is to brown the meat, drain the fat, then put it in a colander and run hot water over it to get even more fat out. You could then season it or put it back in the pan to cook with your favorite aromatics (garlic and onions <3) and/or freeze for later use.

I was also impressed by the comment left by Damie about running the cooked beef crumbles through a food processor along with your favorite meatball ingredients, forming the resulting mixture into balls, and browning them in a pan. I am planning on trying this out on freezer meatballs for lazy dinner nights.

Boiled hamburger spread out on a cookie sheet to cool

Democratic Underground Method

I liked lildreamer316's method on Democratic Underground for defatting ground meat even more for its frugal creativity. She (had to guess on the pronoun here) puts about an inch of water in the bottom of a pan, adds 5-6 lbs of ground beef, brings it to a boil, and stirs it around until it is no longer pink. 

Less work and clean up is good. But I liked even more that she reserved the broth. I make soup stock pretty regularly, and will likely post about it another time. In case you haven't done this before, when you cool the broth in the refrigerator, the fat floats to the top and will form a solid layer that you can easily lift off and throw away.

Look at the amount of fat I lifted off the reserved beef broth the next morning!

Your Method

Do you have a favorite method to make your ground meat healthier? What other frugal food tips do you have to share? I love hearing about this stuff!