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This is another family favorite that my guys gobble up. We always have leftovers with this meal that we can eat the next day for lunch. This is a simple and easy dish, which contains easy to find things for the most part. I’ve added quinoa to this recipe because we like it, but the stew is just as good without it.
Susan’s Ground Turkey Stew
1 lb. ground turkey ($1.59)
2 Sweet potatoes ($1.00)
4 carrots ($0.50)
4 ribs celery ($0.46)
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce ($0.25)
1 can rotel syle tomatoes ($0.55)
1 cup barbecue sauce ($0.40)
1/2 cup quinoa ($0.22)
Salt & Pepper
5 cups water (or chicken or beef stock)
Brown the ground turkey and then place in a stock pot. Dice the sweet potatoes into 1 inch chunks. Cut the carrots into 1 inch chunks and chop the celery. Add them to the stock pot with the ground turkey. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and let simmer for 1 hour. Serve.
All together, this meal costs $4.97 to make. It easily serves 4 people with left overs for the next day. I’d estimate that the recipe makes 6 servings and cost approximately $0.83 per serving. That’s a pretty good deal! This recipe can easily be adapted and ingredients substituded, but the prices will change. You can substitue ground beef for the ground turkey. Sweet potatoes can be replaced with white potatoes. The quinoa can be replaced with brown rice. I’ve done this recipes with all of these at one time or another and it’s always good. We often like to serve it with biskets or cornbread. Add a salad to this meal and you’ve got a really healthy and filling meal!
Here are some of my most favorite ways to organize my kitchen and keep it that way.
- Store things that you use everyday in an accessible area. Don’t’ store them up in the high cabinets where you can’t reach them.
- Save your high cabinets for things that you only use rarely. This especially goes for those cabinets above the refrigerator.
- Store only what you have to on your countertops. I don’t have a lot of counter space, so I’ve eliminated all by the necessities from my counter. I keep my Bosche mixer and coffee maker there and that’s about it.
- Use lazy Susans (no not me! lol!) in cabinets to help you find things quickly. These work great for spices
- Hang cup hooks under your cabinet above where you keep your coffee maker to hand coffee/tea cups, this takes up no cabinet space and your favorite coffee/tea cups are all ready for you to use.
- If you can, install some plugs inside some cabinets. This allows you to store some things like breadmakers and use them right where they are stored.
1. Pray that the Lord provides you with the things that you need at a price you can afford, before you leave.
2. Make a list of things that you need and your family’s sizes. Review it before you go out garage sale-ing to remind yourself of the things you need. Also, if you’re looking for a particular piece of furniture or curtains or something like that, be sure to write down the measurements you need. There’s nothing as frustrating as finding something at a good price and then to bring it home and find it doesn’t fit. That’s just wasting your money and adding more clutter.
3. Carry with you a tape measure. I carry one of those retractable cloth measuring tapes that’s used for sewing or quilting. This makes it really simple to measure items quickly. I’ve even been known to measure the waistline of a pair of pants with out a tag to see if it will fit one of my guys.
4. Don’t buy stuff on impulse. Buy only what you can use.
5. The one exception only what you can use. If you find something REALLY cheap that you know you can sell on Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. Grab it up, but be sure to get it listed quickly so it’s out of your house. I once found a complete copy of Volume 1 of the Weaver Curriculum for $1, so I snapped it up and sold it on Ebay for considerable more. I’ve also done really well selling name brand children’s clothing on Ebay (Hillfiger, Carters, Osh-kosh, The Children’s place, Gap & Old Navy). I purchase clean, gently used clothing for $.25 or less and sell online for $2-$5 a piece or up to $50 for a box with 10-15 pieces. This is a pretty good moneymaker and it’s easy, because we have an outlet mall near here and so even new, some of these brands are available cheap anyway. BTW, when I mention Etsy here, I’m strictly talking about handmade items and pattern books that are it great condition. I occasionally find things such as afghans and hand made children’s clothing that have either never been used or gently used and if I do sell them on Etsy, I am sure to mark that they are gently used.
6. If you can, go without the kids, but if you need to take them, give them each $1 to spend and once that’s gone, they can’t buy anything else. Also make sure to take some things to keep them busy in the car and a few snacks/drinks. This will save you money from having to stop to buy them at convience stores and save you a lot of headaches.
7. Take a cell phone and have it on you as you shop. There has been many times I’ve run across something I know someone else needs and I’ll call them then and there and ask if they’d like me to grab it for them.
8. Don’t be afraid to buy clothing that ‘s too big yet for your kids. This is especially true for toddler, preschool and elementary age kids. They grow out of things fast, so if you find something in great shape that’s a size or two too big, go ahead and snap it up if you have room to store it. I just keep a couple of plastic tubs that I store clothes that won’t fit the kids and when they start needing new sizes, it’s the first place I look before I even attempt to purchase clothing.
9. If you have a hobby such as sewing, quilting, crochet, knitting, etc. Keep you eyes open for supplies. I often find fabric, thread, zippers, binding tape, buttons, yarn, needles, etc. This can really save you money! Stock up if you know you’ll use it!
10. There are some things that I will always purchase if they are cheap enough. Any books or supplies that I can use homeschooling. If I can’t use them, I can sell them or give them away. Also infant clothing, which I can sell or give to the women’s shelter or to the hospital (they give them out to families with newborns that are in need). If you find something cheap enough that you can donate to help others, it’s always a good purchase. I’ve even bought unopened canned goods, soap, etc. to take to the food bank if I can get it cheap.
We haven’t had trash service for a long time. Since we live in the country (way in the boonies!), we would have to pay for it and it’s rather expensive. So instead we reuse what we can, recycle (glass/plastic/metal/aluminum), burn (in a burn barrel) and compost. I save all glass jars with lids because I use them to water bath can (mayonnaise jars, jelly, etc.) If a canning lid & ring will fit on them, I save them! They work well for me! We’ve even started saving toilet paper tubes to use for starting our seeds! I also rinse out our cans and use some of them to make emergency candles…they work GREAT for that! I keep a stack of them in the pantry (I use used wax I buy at garage sales, via old used candles). We have a big covered cage in the back yard that we put all our aluminum in. Then when it’s full, we haul it off to sell…last time we made over $100 that way! I take the paper we receive and roll it up into a tight twist and then dip them in wax…fire starters! Any plastic tubs with lids get saved for storing leftovers, especially those that go to work with my husband, as they often never make it back home. I even reuse old worn out clothing! Most of them have buttons, zippers, etc that can be saved. You can also usually get some usable fabric from them. I cut out what I can save and smaller pieces get cut into 3 inch quilt squares…when I have enough I’ll make a quilt! There are so many ways you can use up your trash to make useful things. Before I throw anything away I consider it and see if it has another use. We burn our trash as needed, compost all food and paper scraps (what can compost), and recycle once a month.
This week’s challenge was to create a Dramatic black & white photo. This was a real challenge for me because I’ve never been real good at black and white. This is a picture of my niece, Grace, which I totally fell in love with. I loved the focus on her eyes and face and really liked the fact that her oldest and youngest sisters are off in the background like they are. I think that it turned out really well overall and I’m pleased with it.
Aperature Priority
F-Stop: f/5.5
Max Aperature Value: f/3.5
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 40.0 mm
Edited in PSE7
It’s time once again for another Fixt It Friday over at
i heart faces! This week’s photo comes from Natalie P who blogs at
And Then There Were Three …although we’ve heard that soon there will be four!
This photo is of her adorable little gal, Abigail.
This is a cute picture and sweet little girl, but the photo is a bit dark and lacks that “zing” that would make it great. Here are the steps I took to correct this photo:
- duplicated the background and set new layer to “screen” at 100% opacity
- ran the Pioneer Woman (PW) “Boost” action twice.
- duplicated the background and fixed dark circles under eyes with the clone stamp tool. I then set this layer to 74% opacity.
- ran PW “Soft Faded” action and set the “zip” layer to 100% opacity and the “Zing” layer to 100% opacity
- ran Coffee Shop’s (CW) “Vivid 2″ action. I left all of the options turned off EXCEPT the “Original + Levels Adjusted”, “Lighten/Darken” and “Vignette”
- ran PW “Sharpen This” action twice.
- ran PW “Bring Out the Eyes” action, setting that level to 25% Opacity
- cropped the photo
- ran Mamaziggy’s (MZ) “Sharpen for the Web” action and set to 25% Opacity.
- Resized and prepared for the web.
Here’s my edited version:
I think my edits really brightened up the photo and brought those gorgeous eyes into focus. Below is a side-by-side comparison:
Aperature Priority
F-Stop: f/5.6
Max Aperature Value: f/3.5
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 42.0 mm
Edited in PSE7
This is a cute picture of my son, Riley that I decided to play around with in PSE. Here are the steps I took to create this picture:
- duplicated the background and set the new layer to “screen” at 80% opacity
- removed Cheeto residue from face with the spot healing brush
- Used Mamaziggy’s (MZ) “Sharpen for the Web” action to sharpen the photo.
- Used Pioneer Woman’s (PW) “Colorized” action
- Used Coffee Shop’s (CW) “Little Perk” action
- applied Shadowhouse Creations (SHC) “Heartless” texture set to “overlay” at 50% opacity
- applied SHC “SoftSick” texture set to “soft light” at 100% opacity
- Erased the area with the face and hair from the “SoftSick” layer.
- applied SHC “Chaos1″ texture set to “soft light” at 40% opacity
- Erased the area with the face and hair from the “Chaos1″ layer.
- I duplicated the background layer and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. I set the duplicate layer to “soft light” at 40% opacity.
- Erased the area with the face and hair from the duplicate layer.
- applied SHC “3182010-4″ texture set to “lighten” at 20% opacity
- applied SHC “Viewfinder” texture set to “soft light” at 50% opacity
- Ran MZ “Sharpen for the Web” action again
- Resized and prepared for the web.
Aperature Priority
F-Stop: f/5.6
Max Aperature Value: f/3.5
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 42.0 mm
Edited in PSE7
This was an “okay” picture of a sun set I took last month. It was pretty, but just didn’t have that “zing” that would make it fantastic. The first thing I did was to duplicate the background layer. I set the duplicate to “screen” at 100% opacity. I then ran the Pioneer Woman “Boost” and “Cooler” actions. I then ran Mamaziggy’s “Sharpen For the Web” action. I then applied several Shadowhouse Creations textures:
- “CoverTexture”, set to overlay at 80% opacity
- “Ghost4″, set to soft light at 100% opacity
- “Chaos2″, set to soft light at 50% opacity
I then duplicated the background layer and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. I set this duplicate layer to soft light at 67% opacity. I then applied a couple more Shadowhouse Creation textures:
- “DifferenceMaker”, set to soft light at 60% opacity
- “GrungeBox9″, set to screen at 50% opacity.
I finally ran Mamaziggy’s “Sharpen for the Web” action and then prepared the photo for the web. Overall, I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Aperature Priority
F-Stop: f/5.6
Max Aperature Value: f/3.5
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 42.0 mm
Edited in PSE7
Pioneer Woman (PW) finally released her free action sets in PSE format and of course I had to play with them a bit. I also was following a tutorial from Shadowhouse Creations (SHC) which I had also been wanting to try. So I combined the two and threw in some stuff of my own
Here is what I did to this cute picture of my niece Abby. The first thing I did was run PSE’s quick fix to improve the colors. I then ran the PW “Colorized” action. After that, I felt that it needed cropping a bit to bring her face into focus and get rid of a busy background. To sharpen the photo I ran Mamaziggy’s “Sharpen for the Web” action. I then applied several textures to the photo, all from SHC. I erased some of the texture around the face and hair on all the texture layers. Here are the textures I used and the settings I used:
- “Viewfinder” texture from SHC set to “soft light” at 50% opacity.
- “T16″ texture from SHC set to “soft light” at 50% opacity
- “Cover Texture” from SHC set to “overlay” at 100% opacity
- “Ghost 4″ texture from SHC set to “overlay” at 100% opacity
- “Chaos 2″ texture from SHC set to “soft light” at 72% opacity
I then duplicated the background layer (CNTL+J) and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. I set it to “Hard Light” at 67% opacity, erasing some of the texture around the face and hair. I then added the “Difference Maker” texture from SHC and set it to “soft light” at 81% opacity, again erasing some of the texture around the face and hair. I then ran PW “Bring Out the Eyes” action to make the eyes pop. I finally ran Mamaziggy’s “Sharpen for the Web” action and then Coffee Shop’s “Color Block It Action” to prepare it for the web.
Last summer we began dehydrating food for future use. We’re doing not only for our stock up supplies, but it’s also a great way to preserve food when you can get it at an abundance inexpensively. It lasts forever nearly (lol!). We dried blueberries, bananas, celery, apples and even made some apple leather with applesauce. We lay the food out on the dehydrator and it does the rest. We have 3 dehydrators, 2 are Excalabur and the other one is made my Mr. Coffee. They all work well, although I like the Excalaburs best. We bought one at a garage sale for $0.25 and the other one we bought from Marty’s boss for $50. They work like a dream! The Mr. Coffee one, we bought years ago to make venison jerky with. The reason I like the Excalabur best is because of the square trays and each tray is lined with a small weave plastic mesh, so food doesn’t fall through as it gets smaller from the drying. The Mr. Coffee one, has that problem. Most of the celery we dried this time fell through and so I had celery on nearly every tray. Not that big of a deal, but it creates more work.
After the foods are dry, we put them into canning jars and the jars using our Food Saver. We have a Wide-Mouth Jar Sealer and a Small-Mouth Jar Sealer that we use. You simply put this on over the jar ring and lid and attach the plastic tubing to the Food Saver. They you push a button and all the air is sucked out of the jar. Works great and helps to further preserve the food. Then all you have to do it just open the jar when you need the items and you can vacuum seal it again and again. This works great on things that you don’t use often…keeps them nice and fresh. If you have a vacuum sealer that will use the jar sealers, I can highly recommend them! They are easy to use and there are SO many uses. We use them for storage of course, but we also use them to marinate meats (works GREAT for marinating meat to make into jerky!), storing other items like sewing trims, etc. Here’s a fun thing to do with the kids. Put a large marshmallow in the jar and suck out all the air…see what happens!
After I seal the jars, I just put them on shelves out direct light (a pantry or cabinet). We use them by adding them to food we’re cooking. For example, the kids love the apples in their oatmeal. So, I just throw a handful in while the oatmeal’s cooking and they reconstitute in the oatmeal. We just add a bit of cinnamon and stevia or agave and we have a healthy breakfast!
