Reducipe - Honey Roasted Root Veggies

Reducipe
Pronunciation: ri-doos-uh-pee
Function: noun
1 : a recipe that can help lower your food costs in a variety of ways
     a : by scaling back an expensive recipe to be less pricey but still just as tasty
     b : by turning an already inexpensive meal into something special
     c : by using leftovers in creative ways to stretch their use

So sweet and festive!Since Thanksgiving is fast approaching I thought I’d put up a reducipe that would fit in nicely at the holiday dinner table. I started making this recipe a few years ago and now it has become a staple at our thanksgiving dinner.

This is a great replacement for the traditional candied yams or sweet potato casserole and it’s better for you, too. They are sweet and salty; a combo I like very much. The slight caramelization of the honey adds a bit of complexity and richness. And unlike sweet potato casserole, this recipe gets requested throughout the year, not just at the holidays.

Honey Roasted Root Veggies

2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3-4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled seeded and chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup canola oil
Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix the honey and oil in a bowl with a whisk until it is completely blended. Coat a large jelly-roll style pan with cooking spray. Pour the honey mixture over the veggies and toss to coat thoroughly. Spread out the veggies in the pan and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until tender and beginning to caramelize, stirring every 15 minutes. Serves 6.

You can add any root veggies you want in this, really. I like using a variety of orange veggies because the sweetness of the honey really compliments them.

Honey Roasted Root Veggies Ingredients

Tips: Over the years I have found that it is easier to thoroughly coat the veggies by getting your hands dirty. I take glops of the honey mixture and smear it all over handfuls of veggies then put it in the pan. That way I can make sure every piece gets coated, although it gets pretty messy. I bet kids would have a great time doing that.

Also, be sure to spray the pan with non-stick spray. Without it the pan can become pretty tough to clean.

Ingredient Cost Ingredient Cost
Sweet Potatoes $0.98 Honey $0.60
Carrots $0.48 Canola Oil $0.22
Butternut Squash $3.24 Salt N/A
Onion $0.82 Total $6.34 or $1.05 a serving

This side dish would be really inexpensive if we omitted the butternut squash but it is a really nice addition. Using canola oil instead of olive oil also helps keep the price low. Enjoy!

Ahh, How I’ve Missed Consumerism…

A new religion, you say?One of the ways we’ve managed to keep to our budget so well was that we steered clear of temptation. The last couple of months we didn’t go out to eat often to avoid spending too much there, and we didn’t go shopping anywhere except the grocery store (and then, with a specific list). We also just about stopped watching TV entirely so we didn’t see commercials for products.

Well, now that we are getting ever closer to moving in, we’ve had to go shopping. I have to say, it was pretty damn shocking! Having avoided shopping successfully for about the last 6 months, we hit several electronic stores, appliance stores, and the mall today in one fell swoop.

I had forgotten how overstimulating the stores were. The loud music, large numbers of people, bright lights, obnoxious signage, and just all around too much!

To make it that much worse, it’s less than a week until the busiest shopping day of the year. Black Friday. I went shopping on Black Friday once. Once. It was an absolutely awful experience. It was nothing like today, but I can see the beginning of the buildup.

The Christmas decorations are everywhere. Don’t get me wrong - I like Christmas just fine. But it’s just so overdone at the stores. Lights, displays, animated talking Santas, you name it!

There was a Sony PS3 truck playing very loud rap music in front of Fry’s Electronics. It was crazy! This huge semi trailer had big screen TVs and PS3 boxes all over it. I used to be a big gamer, so it was pretty tempting for me, but the way too loud rap music kept me away. The only thing that could have made this more obnoxious would be a group of bikini clad women shooting t-shirts at people with air guns (this isn’t a too uncommon tactic at big gaming conventions).

Luckily, we went in with a mission and avoided most of the temptations at the stores. We didn’t buy a single thing. We stuck to our commitment just to price the things we knew we wanted, and to compare the models that we were considering. We’ve done most of our comparison online, and have checked things out with Consumer Reports, but you really have to go in and see these things in person. Or at least we do. We measured, poked, prodded, flipped switches, and compared colors in person on refrigerators and washer/dryer combinations.

After all the insanity of today, I think I just need to sit back, relax, and enjoy the silence. I’ll finish my comparisons tomorrow after I get my chance to decompress.

Image Source: roland

Pay For Professionals Or D-I-Y?

We’re gonna need a lot of sealant!This week we are getting bids on work that we want done for the new house before we move in.  After receiving a handful of quotes (many of which are higher than expected) we are starting to run into a dilemma. 

Do we pay someone to do the work or do we try to do it ourselves?

We are finding that the answer to this question is that it “depends”.  Most of the stuff we are doing to the home is somewhat specialized.  Although we would love to leave it to the professionals we are finding that the money we saved up by test-driving the new mortgage might not be enough to cover all these things unless we cut back.  So do we save the time or do we save the money? 

This is how we are breaking down some of our labor needs:

Professionals Only

Do It Ourselves

Still Not Sure

If money gets too tight we may just drop out landscaping until later, but most of the other things we are pretty set on.  If you have any suggestions or install know-how please speak up and let us know ways to save money!  We could certainly use the help!

The Carnival Review #11

I wanna ride!The carnivals are back in town!  Again, I only participated in a select few.  I think that will be standard for the next few weeks as the moving process intensifies.  No worries though, after the move I’ll be back to my usual carnival-going self again.

Here are some of my favorite posts from the carnivals this week:

Ten Great Reasons To Have Frugal Friends @ Saving Advice - I love having frugal friends! We can learn so much from each other and there is never any pressure to spend.  We both understand what our common goals are about.  My favorite frugal friends will be paying off their mortgage this year and I’m so proud of them.

In Defense of Home Ownership @ Two Wise Acres - I’m totally with them.  Lately there has been a slew of “renting is better” articles on the web.  In my neck of the woods that is absolutely NOT the case.  This article is a very good read.

Do You Pay People For Things You Could Do Yourself? @ One Frugal Girl - I am having this dilemma right now.  We have a lot tile in the new home so a lot of grout will need to be sealed before we can move in.  We will be rushing after we close to get things done so paying someone to do this tedious job is tempting.  But with the cheapest quote being $1400 I’m thinking that it is better for us to do it.  I think we should try to stick to paying for tasks that require skills we don’t have, not for tasks that just require time and effort.

Carnivals from around the web:

Carnival of Money Stories - International Phone Dictionary Day Edition @ Being Frugal - Woohoo!  My article about our anniversary indulgence was an editor’s pick! 

Carnival of Personal Finance #126 @ Million Dollar Journey

Festival of Frugality #100 @ Frugal For Life

Make It From Scratch #39 @ Laura Williams’ Musings

All Women Blogging Carnival @ RedSultana

Image Source: Jef Poskanzer

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Tightwad Wednesday - Stuck Envelopes & Old Deodorizers

Each week, I will test out two tips from the The Complete Tightwad Gazette, and on the following Wednesday I’ll review how they went and evaluate if it is worth my time/effort/money to continue with it.

Thank goodness this week was a relatively easy tightwad challenge week. With all the packing/cleaning and meetings/calls with contractors I feel like I’m running behind on everything - even life in general, if that makes any sense. Well, let’s see how they went!

Stuck Envelopes

While going through my office stuff I was thrilled to discover some new-in-the-box envelopes. I’m always running short on these because I use them for all sorts of things like organizing coupons, etc. For some reason half of the envelopes were sealed shut already. I was dismayed, not knowing what to do with them other than use them for scrap paper. When I saw this trick in the Tightwad I thought it was definitely worth a try.

This idea for “unsticking” stuck envelopes was found on p. 378 of the Tightwad Gazette:

When new envelopes have sealed closed due to moisture, heat in the microwave for 20 seconds. This will open them all or partway.

I placed the sealed envelope in the microwave and zapped it for 20 seconds, like it recommended. Sure enough, when I pulled it out all it took was a little gentle nudge and the envelope was unsealed. Awesome!

To be sure these were still mail-worthy I licked the glue and resealed it. The glue still worked! I was afraid the glue wouldn’t reseal it again but it did, and securely. Using this trick will restore useable envelopes out of what was once destined for scrap paper duty.

Old Room Deodorizers

Tightwad On Reusing Old Room DeodorizersOnce upon a time Eric had placed one of those “stick-up” air fresheners underneath a cabinet in his master bathroom. About 6 years later I found it. It was completely useless by this point and seemed permanently affixed to the wood. I just left it there, thinking we would remove it eventually. Out of sight, out of mind. This tip in the tightwad reminded me of that little air freshener and I loved the idea of being able to make it useful again.

The instructions recommend using pine cleaner to re-fragrance the pad but I’m sure any fragrant cleaner would work. I personally hate the pine smell so I have orange and lemon scented floor cleaners. By using scented cleaners instead of oils you can make your cleaner multitask as an air freshener and keep the cost down.

Opening up the air freshenerI used an old straw to dribble the cleaner on the pad so I didn’t over soak it. It smelled nice so I figured it would work well. I reassembled the unit and set it on my counter to dry a little. I didn’t want it to be wet when I put it back under the cabinet.

I would recommend doing this if you already have those stick-up style air fresheners. These styles of deodorizers seem to lose fragrance really fast and then they just sit there, stuck to whatever you slapped it on.

Just be careful not to over soak the pad because it might drip if it is too wet. Un-diluted cleaning solution is strong smelling stuff. Also, use mild cleaning solutions (I used lemon scented pine-sol) that don’t use harsh chemicals or bleach. Cleaning solutions with lavender or fresh scents would be lovely.

UPDATE: PaidTwice mentioned that I didn’t make it clear whether or not the refurbished deodorizer actually worked. It did work and it smelled good. I recommend reusing your current stick-ups with this method so they are useful again. But because there are so many better deodorizer styles out there don’t buy this style just so you can re-use them. I find stick-up style air fresheners aren’t very effective in the first place and they muck up whatever you stick them on with adhesives.

Stay tuned for next week’s Tightwad Wednesday challenge when I will be testing out:

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