Handy Dandy Kitchen Tools

Over the past year I have developed a passion for cooking! Growing up in Belarus we didn’t have the option of grabbing fast food or going out to eat to a nice restaurant, thus I always enjoyed my mama’s homemade cooking. Every single meal that she cooked always turned out delicious and recently I began to desire my mama’s talent for cooking. I am a true believer that some people are just gifted (like my mama) at making a perfect meal the first time they try a recipe, but for me it sometimes takes several attempts before it comes close to looking like the recipe picture.

But with my picky eater husband, cooking is not always easy. Sometimes my meals are a hit to him and sometimes they are a flop (he is always nice about my flops). So to make my cooking time less stressful especially since I work full time and go to school full time (1 more week left of classes…woot…woot), I rely on handy dandy tools.

I make pizza pretty often around our house, because I found the best recipe and my husband loves it. I make the dough for several batches and freeze it, just as I freeze shredded cooked chicken. So to make meal preparation quick, I let all my ingredients to unthaw and use my handy dandy pizza roller that prevents formation of bubbles on the dough. I used to rely on fork to get the job done and now I roll the pizza dough with holes poking roller and never have to worry about bubble!

My next favorite item is a meat tenderizer. Growing up my mama would make the world’s best pork chops (she still makes yummy ones) and her secret was always to tenderize the meat first. So when I came across this lovely tool several year ago, I had to purchase it and have been happy with my pork chop results every since. By the way, it is an amazing stress reliever also!

Finally I have to let you in on Misto. Because my “too healthy for his own good” husband does not like too much oil in his dishes, I bought an empty spray bottle to fill up with oil. I was very disappointed with the results, because my bottle didn’t spray it right. Then I read a review on Misto about a year ago and decided to try one for myself. My Misto came from Bed Bath and Beyond, because I had 20% coupon. And can I tell you that I love it! I never have to worry about pouring too much oil on a frying pan anymore.

Do you have a favorite kitchen tool?

Did you know?

GUEST POST by Jennifer Iseli
Fall is probably one of my favorite times. The air is crisp and the deciduous trees are in the height of their splendor! How I love spring and the promise of new life, but it is this time that I feel the glory of God and all of His majesty.

Did you ever wonder why the leaves change colors?
Leaves are like little food factories for plants. Through a process called Photosynthesis, they take water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make Glucose, a sugar that the plant uses for food and energy to grow. A chemical called Chlorophyll helps photosynthesis to take place.
There are always three pigments present in a plant’s leaves; Carotene, Anthocyanin, and Chlorophyll (the photosynthetic pigment). Carotene appears as yellow and orange, Anthocyanin as red and burgundy and Chlorophyll as green.
As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is a signal to the trees that they need to begin getting ready for winter. During winter, there is not enough light for photosynthesis to take place efficiently, so deciduous trees will drop their leaves and rest as they live off of the food that they have stored during the summer.
As they begin to shut down their ‘food factories’ and less photosynthesis takes place, the green chlorophyll starts to fade away. As it fades away, we begin to see the yellow, orange, red and burgundy colors which were covered up by the chlorophyll during the spring and summer!
Isn’t God’s creation AMAZING!

Thrifty Tip:

Use “found” objects as containers. An old boot, a broken wheelbarrow, baskets, anything that will hold soil will work. Just be sure the water can drain out. If you can’t drill a hole in something, try fitting it with a plastic pot. If you find something that has large holes (so big they won’t hold the soil, or soil washes out when you water) line it with a pressed coco fiber mat, or for odd shaped things, line it with bird netting or screen, then sphagnum moss. Soak the moss in water for about an hour, and then you can form it to almost anything.

Watch out for coupons...

Coupons, coupons, coupons! Oh how I love coupons. Before too long you maybe listening to me singing about coupons, but I must caution you first…I am not a singer! Now that we established that I was not blessed with beautiful singing voice, lets move on to my favorite topic about coupons. When I first discovered coupons, I was amazed at how much money one can save by simply matching coupons with sales. In no time I became addicted to the world of couponing. On Sunday morning I would drive to Walgreens before church to pick up “freebies” along with 5 newspapers and there have been times when I bought 8-10 newspapers. See, I wasn’t kidding you when I told you that I was addicted.

Although I was saving money, my addiction was not healthy. I was thinking about coupons nonstop and running to the store at lunch break to check out the latest deal. Then I found myself buying anything and everything that had a word “free” attached to it. What I didn’t realize is that even “free” items sometimes require out of pocket expense. Let me explain. When my mom was visiting us a year ago, she and I took at trip to Kmart to participate in double coupon promotion. I noticed that a certain brand of shampoo was on clearance and I had a coupon that after doubling would allow me to acquire a bottle of shampoo for $0.25. My mom stopped me from buying and our conversation went something like this…

Mom: Why do you need another bottle of shampoo? You already have 20 bottles at home.

Me: But mom, it is only $0.25! It is practically free!

Mom: It is not free if you have to pay money for it. Therefore you need to put it back and stop paying for items you don’t even need.

Me: Fine…I will put it back.

My mom was right, I didn’t need another bottle of shampoo even if it only cost me $0.25. Thankfully my mom was able to open my eyes that I was spending money on “free” items that weren’t really free. At Walgreens I would easily spend $10 on items just to generate 10 bucks in Walgreens money. Before my mom’s visit I considered all these items to be free, but after my mom’s visit I realized that I had to invest money in items that I considered “free” because they generated store money back.

Now, don’t get me wrong…I am a big advocate of anyone and everyone using coupons. It just my coupon strategy has changed since my mom’s trip. Now I only buy items that we actually need and I no longer buy items that cost pennies but I have no use for them. I no longer shop at Walgreens, because I found myself spending way too much money there just to acquire ”free” products. Instead I prefer shopping at CVS where the expiration date of ECB (extra care bucks) is much longer and my out of pocket expense for items that we need is very little. Some weeks I am even ok to skip shopping all together and eat from our pantry where as before I was addicted to driving to Target (1 hour away) just to pick up 3 items.
Even though I scaled back on hard core coupon shopping, I still get the thrill of watching my total go down thanks to coupons. I still giggle when my husband asks if I have a coupon for an item that he wants to buy. And I am grateful for friendships that I have created with cashiers because of coupons.

Share your couponing experience with us!

Lead Me to the Cross

In the fall I stay very busy by traveling mostly throughout the state of South Carolina sharing my testimony about the Operation Christmas Child. One particular weekend I was invited to speak in Georgia at 3 different events. I was so thrilled and humbled that God would choose someone like me, a girl who falls short of His glory daily, to share a story that He has written for me with others.

On Saturday night I had the privilege of sharing my story with OCC volunteers and was blessed with meeting people who have the desire to serve the Lord through this ministry. Also I must say the food that we ate that night was delicious. On Sunday morning I had an honor of sharing my testimony with a church who participates in collecting shoe boxes. Afterwards I enjoyed speaking to people and must say I loved also receiving hugs from them! Before you know it was evening time and I was getting physically tired. I prayed that the Lord would hide me once again behind the cross that He would receive all the glory, honor and praise as I speak to a different congregation about the Operation Christmas Child.

People were very receptive of the message and once again I was blessed beyond my imagination by speaking to men and women after the service. Because my husband and I worked with youth at our church, these groups of young people have a very special place in my heart. So you can only imaging how blessed one can be, when a teenager comes up to you and ask names of your parents so he can continue to pray for them. Yep, that was my blessing when a young man came up to me with his grandmother after the service and asked for my parents’ names.

Just when I thought I have spoken to everyone, I noticed a shy young man (high school age) standing waiting to speak to me. We shook hands and briefly spoke to each other. When the young man walked away, I was told that he probably could relate to my story because his mother suffers with alcoholism (where as in my family it is my dad) and the young man always prays for his mom. The moment I sat in the car, I was burdened for the young man, whose name I later found out is Mark.

Perhaps because I know that as a teenager it is unbelievably hard to carry this burden what feels like alone. But it is unbelievably comforting to know that God promises in His word that, “My burden is light and my yoke is easy” (Matt 11:30). And the truth is that it doesn’t get easier as an adult to watch your parent suffer with substance abuse. But I continuously have to remind myself of God’s promises that He has given us in His Word.

God is faithful in hearing our cries and as soon as I had the opportunity to speak to my husband, I shared with him about Mark and asked Daniel to pray for him and his mom. Today I would like to ask you to pray for Mark’s peace and his mom’s alcoholism recovery.

How can we pray for you today?

"It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four solders each (that’s 16 soldiers for one person…crazy!!!! ~my comment). Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him". Acts 12:1-5

Tightwad's Savings

This week was fantastic in terms of grocery shopping! During the week I stopped by Ingles and picked up Chef’s Requested meat for $5.99 a pack. I had several $5 off coupons along with $3 off coupons, thus it made my meat super cheap. Bananas were on manager’s special, so I picked up a basket to make more muffins for Daniel and to freeze the rest for smoothies.

This weekend I traveled to Rock Hill to speak about the OCC, so I spent Saturday with my in-laws. On my way to Rock Hill I stopped by CVS, where I was thrilled to receive from the coupon machine $5 dollars off any Halloween item (X2). I picked up two candles ($4.99 each) and the sales associate told me that they qualify, since they were on Halloween decoration isle. I chose pumpkin scent! J


My mother in law and I stopped by Target, where I picked up 10 bottle of apple juice for Daniel. I divided my purchase in two transactions. I paid $8 + for first 5 bottle and received $5 gift card, then I paid $3+ for second transaction that included 5 more bottle of apple juice. I ended up paying $11+ for 10 bottles and still have $5 gift card to spend at a later time.

Since we don’t have Harris Teeter near my house, I stopped by the store and was thrilled to buy yogurt coated raisins for $0.60+ because Daniel loves to eat them. For some odd reason they are qualified healthy on his “no junk food” list.


At Bi-Lo I stocked up on Baby Ray BBQ sauce because it was on sale B1G1. I didn’t have a coupon but was happy to pay only $1+ for a bottle of our favorite sauce. I went a little overboard and picked up 10 bottles, because we will probably go through 10 bottles in several months.


On Sunday I made a stop again by CVS for free toothpaste and candy bars.

At Publix I snagged 2 packages of Burtolli pasta for $0.11 each!

Total spent: $70.05 (I felt good spending that much this week, because I haven’t been spending much in previous weeks J)

Total saved: $119.85

Will you help me?

At the beginning of the year I was asked to teach a class at the church on frugality. Every Wednesday night I would meet with a group of women and together we learned how to be good stewards of God’s riches. I was so passionate and excited to share everything that I have learned during my short tightwad journey. The Lord was so good to me and I always left the class feeling beyond blessed, because we were growing together in being responsible with what God has blessed us with.

Throughout the week I would send out an e-mail sharing a devotional as the Lord lead me. And after receiving positive comments (God gets all the glory for that) the idea of staring a blog was born. I had no idea how I was going to manage all the posts, since we do not have internet at home (and I learned this month that it would be another 3 years before we will get the service). But my passion of sharing all the tips and tricks along with sharing Lead Me to the Cross devotional kept me going as I drove to a fast food restaurant to use free internet connection.

It has been my deepest desire to serve you and to share with you all that I have learned. I would love to continue to do just that, but need your help. Would you be so kind and share with me what topics interest you and I would gladly research and write future post about it? I would be forever grateful for your comments!

No more clogged drain

Our bathroom sink was not draining properly so my loving husband spent some time cleaning out the tubes. Unfortunately our sink tubes needed more in depth cleaning and my husband was waiting for a free moment to tackle this task. But before my husband had to unscrew one billion bolts, I remembered about an e-mail that I received from my church friend months ago. I was unbelievably happy that I saved her e-mail just in case.

She suggested using the following ingredients instead of Drano or any other commercial unclogging liquids.

1 cup baking soda - pour down clogged drain

Follow with 1 cup distilled white vinegar

Wait 20 minutes

Pour a pan of boiling water down the drain (I used a 2 qt sauce pan)



At first I was skeptical that it would unclog the drain, but decided to try anyways. After consulting with my father in law to insure that I won’t mess up the tubes, my hubby and I began our mission to unclog our sink. I followed my friend’s recipe and in about 30 minutes the sink was operating like brand new…no joke. I was so excited and proud of myself and I could have issued a money saving/time saving medal to a creator of this brilliant recipe! Seriously, I couldn’t stop smiling the night we unclogged the drain in less than 30 minutes and very little effort, that I was wondering if other sinks around the house were showing the sings of clogging (unfortunately I found none).