Green and Frugal: Fall Gardening

Are you planning on planting a fall garden this year?

Fall gardens are an excellent way to continue to grow homegrown goodness even when the weather starts to turn chilly.

I’m not going to show you what has happened to my summer garden. It’s just…sad. I’ve learned over the past few months that I have much more talent for growing flowers than I do growing vegetables, and the few puny tomatoes I managed to produce didn’t even taste that good. My squash simply never happened and my beans…

Well, you get the picture.

That being said, however, I’m determined to try again. So, I’m going to plant a fall garden! I’m now dreaming of snipping Swiss Chard on chilly mornings, and pulling up bright orange fingers of carrots on crisp fall afternoons.

Fall Crops to Grow

So what kind of crops can you grow in your garden? Oh boy, lots of good stuff!

There are different varieties of crops you can grow. And you have to consider which ones will work for you based on your area, and the timing of your first frost. There are cool-weather crops, and cold-weather crops.

Cold-hardy vegetables include the following (maturity is in parenthesis):

Brussels sprouts (90 days)
Cabbage (70 days)
Collards (75 days)
Kale (55 days)
Parsnips (100-130 days)
Spinach (45 days)
Garlic (best planted when winter is really close)

Cool-weather hardy vegetables include:

Lettuce (45-60 days, depending on variety)
Mustard greens (45 days)
Radishes (25-50 days)
Rutabaga (90 days)
Snap peas (50-60 days)
Turnips (60 days)
Carrots (50-70 days, depending on variety)
Broccoli (70 days)
Cauliflower (60 days)
Green onions (50-60 days)
Beets (55-60 days)
Swiss chard (30-50 days)

How to Plant a Fall Garden

If you’re going to start your fall garden from seeds then you need to start them now (it might even be too late for seed-starting in many areas). Mother Earth News suggests counting back 12-14 weeks from your average first frost date, and choosing that week to start seeds.

P. Allen Smith also has a great bit of advice on this. He says:

The average date of the first killing frost in your area is the most important thing to know when it comes to fall vegetable gardening. Your local garden center is a good source of information for this date. To determine when to start planting, find out the number of days to maturity for the vegetable. Next, count back the number of days from the first average frost date. Some people add a week or so to allow for a few extra days to harvest the produce once it’s mature. You will find maturity information on seed packets and some plant labels.

If you’re already past this date, as I probably am, then you might want to start buying crops that have already been started. Farmers’ Markets are a great place to get veggies for fall planting. This is what I’m going to do, and then save my seeds for next year’s spring planting.

If you do start seeds, then it’s vital you know which seeds you absolutely must start indoors. Some plants, like various cabbages and salad greens, simply won’t grow if the soil is warmer than 85 degrees. This handy guide from Mother Earth News will teach you more about what crops you can grow, and how to find your average first frost date.

The key to successful fall planting is to get the plants growing to catch the last wave of summer heat AND allow them to mature before the first frost hits. You have to know how long each plant takes to mature so you know when to plant.

You also have to keep seedlings wet; drought stresses young plants, especially fall veggies, so it’s important they not dry out.

Mother Earth News suggests starting fall seeds in the shade outdoors. The shade will enable you to water just once per day, rather than 3-4. Here in Michigan we have had incredibly hot, dry conditions all through August.

Where to Plant

In most cases, you can use the same gardens you used for your spring/summer veggies. You can help your fall veggies along by mulching heavily; this will help protect the roots from hot late summer sun, and keep them moist.

You can extend the life of your growing season by using row covers to protect plants from frost, raised beds, and cold frames. Spinach and other lettuces do especially well in cold frames.

Last Word…

Are any of you planting a fall garden this year? If so, any tips? I’d love to hear them!

What to Do With Imperfect Produce

Here's another great post from our friends at The Greenest Dollar:

I have a confession to make.

One of my biggest weaknesses, when it comes to being frugal and environmentally conscious, is using up every last thing I buy at the grocery store. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown out lettuce (that’s gotten too soggy), celery (that’s gotten too wilty) or carrots (that have dried out to resemble whitish fingers).

I loathe wasting food, and money. But this is an area that I just haven’t mastered yet. Yes I make weekly menus, and I do a fair job of sticking too them. Often, however, because of our schedules or my unwillingness to be in the house when it’s nice out, the menu gets derailed.

Thankfully my vermicompost bin is helping with some of this waste. But I still need to get better at using this produce.

So, all this is why I decided to write a post on what to do with imperfect produce. My fridge is often full of imperfect produce, and I have a hunch you might be in the same boat, at least sometimes! I needed some ideas to stop this spiral and as usual,  a blog post is born!

Idea #1: Make Soup

Wilted celery can flavor a soup just as much as its brand-new, crispy counterpart. And, so will carrots and potatoes. I actually have all three, in various stages of wilti-ness, sitting in my kitchen right now. Which means soup’s on tonight!

Idea #2: Dry It

If you’re lucky enough to own a food dehydrator, then popping those brown bananas and shrinking strawberries in there is a great way to give them a new life. Dehydrating food is a great way to extend its shelf-life. The personal finance blog Wisebread has a great article on extending the life of your food. Their favorites for dehydration? Chili peppers and apple rings. Yum!

Idea #3: Revive Your Wilting Lettuce and Herbs

I had no idea you could revive wilting lettuce until I started writing this article. But apparent, you can.
I found a very interesting thread on Chowhound with instructions on how to do this.

1. Pull apart the lettuce leaves and soak them in ice water for 15-30 minutes. The lettuce will begin to absorb the water through the stem ends.

2. After 15-30 minutes, once the leaves are crisp again, pull them out of the water, dry them thoroughly, and put them back in the fridge.

Further down in the thread a produce manager at a grocery store wrote in and said he does this nightly for his produce. It should work with any leafy vegetable, including herbs like cilantro and basil. Simply trim the ends, and then stick them in cold water for a spell.

Tips:

Here are some awesome tips I found online for keeping our food fresher for longer…

• Many fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be stored together. The reason is because they put off ethylene gas, which will make surrounding produce rot. The list of vegetables producing ethylene gas (and those that are damaged by ethylene gas) is long. You can see a list of both here.

• To keep your fruits and veggies fresh, don’t damage them in any way (like de-stemming strawberries or cutting up mangoes days in advance). The moment you begin to tear apart fruits and vegetables, micro-organisms can get in and start the decomposition process. Keep them whole until you’re ready to use them.

• Don’t store potatoes and onions together, ever (I didn’t know this one either…right now mine are in the very same bin, on my fridge!). Apparently both will rot much faster when they’re stored together.

• According to FitSugar, cold will actually damage some veggies and cause them to rot faster. Produce like tomatoes, oranges, and squash.

• You can keep bananas around for longer by letting them ripen on the counter top and then putting them in the fridge. The outside skin may still turn brown or spotty, but the inside will stay fresh for much longer.

• Divine Caroline, blogger over at The Weather Channel, says that storing produce in plastic bags, or any kind of “sealed” container (like a styrofoam tray with plastic wrap) is a bad idea. Food needs to breathe.

• The crisper drawer in your fridge is a great place for vegetables. The reason it’s designed to be humid, and veggies love the humidity. If you can, set the humidity level here at 95%, and store lettuce, herbs and celery in here.

Last Word…

I learned so much when doing research for this post! I really think that these tips will help me stop wasting so much food. It’s obvious that I was doing a ton of things wrong when it came to storing what I brought home, and perhaps that’s most of the trouble.

Do you have any tips for storing food, or for using up food that’s on its way out? If so, I’d love to hear them!

Frugal Tip Tuesday: Plan Ahead

If you want to be successful at anything, a little planning is always required. Being green and frugal is no different.

Photo Courtesy Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey

This weekend, the hubby and I took the kids to the Ringling Bros. Circus. How could I resist when I got $20 tickets? Following our Disney on Ice visit to the Rutherford, NJ Izod Center, I made sure to feed the kids a big breakfast and promised them a very fun lunch at Sonic after the circus. (Okay, my husband and I are the ones who really love Sonic and the one in Rutherford is the only one remotely near us. And that's still a 20-mile ride.)

I mentally prepared both kids for all of the toys, candy, food, light-up made-in-China gadgets, programs, balloons, pennant and every other ridiculous object that was for sale. To make matters worse, the vending stands were located every couple of feet. It was ridiculous!!!!

Once we were seated, I desperately needed another cup of coffee and my husband wanted a Powerade. "Great, he could share his drink with the kids," I thought to myself. $8 later, we had one small Powerade and one medium Dunkin Donuts coffee. For $8, I could have bought a pound of ground Dunkin Donuts coffee and made coffees for the next month. I also could buy an entire case of Powerade.

Frugal tip: plan ahead. I should have thought to bring two bottles of water with me and some snacks just in case. Since both kids are out of diapers and don't use bottles, I like to travel light. But it would've saved me $8 in the long run. Don't get me started on the $15 parking fee...

Any tips you'd like to share on how you plan ahead to save money or be more green? I'd love to hear them (and add them to my arsenal)!

TGIF: Get Cookin' With Some Frugal Recipes

If you're anywhere near the Northeast, chances are you're snowed in. What better way to pass than time than with some frugal cooking? Here are some recipes I found:

• How to Make Homemade Rolled Biscuits 
• Salsa Couscous Chicken 
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake Roll 
• Angel Hair Pasta and Chicken 

Let me know what your favorite snowy day recipe or meal is -- I'd love to hear from you!

Frugal Tip Tuesday -- Create a Price Book

This week's tip is one I've been meaning to do since 2010 kicked off. And now I'm finally going to start it.

The best way to know whether or not you're getting a good deal is through a price book. What's a price book? Essentially, you track your most purchased grocery items and see what is the best price that you can get the item. When you see it at that price, you know to stock up.

It can seem overwhelming at first (hence the reason that I've waited so long.) To get started, pick your top five most purchases groceries. Then, create a column for the store name, price and weight. Tracking the cost per unit will enable you to get a more accurate view of the cost.

As you get more comfortable with your price book system, you can gradually add more grocery items. The best part of your price book is always knowing when you'll pay the lowest price.

Do you currently use a price book? How does it work? Any tips you'd like to share?

Frugal Tip Tuesday: Learn to Love Cooking

When I saw this article on The Greenest Dollar, I felt like it was written for me. As you know fast food and prepared food is much more expensive than making food from scratch. Here are some ways to get into cooking....

How to Love Cooking

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: you’ve worked all day and just walked in the door. You’re tired, and you’ve love nothing more than to collapse on the couch for an hour with a glass of wine and just chill.

But, you’re hungry. Which means you’ve got to drag yourself into the kitchen and actually cook something. This requires finding a recipe, assembling the ingredients (if you have all of them on-hand), prep time, and then cook time.

Gack.

What do you do? You drag yourself out the door and hit Wendy’s/Jimmy Johns/Taco Bell to save yourself the trouble. Which means you’ve spent money on something that’s completely unhealthy.

Is your hand raised? Mine sure is. I can’t tell you how many meals I’ve eaten standing up, in my kitchen, eating odds and ends (like olives, leftover noodles, and cheese) simply because I couldn’t muster up the panache to cook something I actually wanted.

So why the heck am I writing an article about how to love cooking? Because I’ve been experiencing a change of heart lately. And I realized last night that I’ve taken a few subconscious actions that have led to this change of heart.

And there it was: a blog post was born.

How To Love Cooking

So what have I been doing lately to put cooking in a new light?

Image courtesy of seller "stilettoheights" on Etsy.com

1. Make your kitchen a place you want to be.

Over the past few months I’ve made some changes to my kitchen. The first thing I did was paint it a very cheerful, bright orange.

This might not sound like it’d do anything for my cooking, but the truth is that it did. I really like being in my kitchen now. That orange just brightens up my day.

You know what else I did? I bought some really cool artwork off of Etsy, and hung it right where I do most of my chopping. An example of the art I bought is on the right, from StilettoHeights. For $18 I got two completely unique prints.

I also hung up a ton of pictures from our Barcelona trip on another wall.

These small changes (the color, the artwork, and the pictures) have completely changed the personality of my kitchen. I used to see this space as a place to do stuff I wasn’t crazy about doing. Now, it’s turning into a room of mystery and character. It’s a room I really love hanging out in.

The Lesson: If your kitchen is actually a place where you like spending time, then you’re more apt to want to go in there to cook something.

To Do: If you’re not crazy about your kitchen, then find out why. Do you hate the paint? Is it too dark? Is it lacking some character?

Make some effort to turn your kitchen into a place where you really feel comfortable. If you want to hang up some crazy artwork, do it! Etsy.com is a wonderful place to find some really amazing artwork for bargain prices. And, you can feel good about supporting artists directly.

Add light. Add plants. Add color. Add some of yourself. And I guarantee you’ll be drawn to this room more than you were before.

2. Clear some space.

You might be surprised to find out I used to be a professional organizer. And you know what? Hands down, kitchens were always the most cluttered rooms in the house.

So who were the culprits?

Pampered Chef tools. The Magic Bullet. The Williams-Sonoma avocado slicer. The Black and Decker chicken rotisserie. The Kitchen Aid monster mixer. The towering pile of plastic and paper shopping bags.

You know what I’m talking about here. Many people have their kitchens stuffed with more appliances and cooking tools than they know what to do with. These appliances take up a ton of space, and probably only get used a few times per year, if that.

As a result, a lot of clutter ends up on the counters because there’s simply nowhere else for it to go. And, this can make cooking a stressful and frustrating experience.

I’ve been going through my own kitchen the past few months, donating and organizing, and I now have a lot more space than I used to. And you know what? I haven’t yet missed anything I’ve gotten rid of, and my kitchen feels much more open and inviting.

The Lesson: The less cluttered and more organized your kitchen is, the more you’re going to want to go in there to cook and have fun.

To Do: If your kitchen is overflowing with plastic bags, old appliances, faded Tupperware, and defunct Magic Bullet accessories, then it might be time to go an organizing binge. Donate whatever you can that still works, and find a local recycling facility (use Earth911.com) for everything that’s broken.

Photo courtesy Erika Rudolph

3. Cook to music.

I find that if I’m listening to music that I really love when I’m cooking, it’s much more enjoyable. I have a funky old radio that stays in there, but I also have a little boombox for my iPod that I bring in when I’m cooking.

And you know what?

I have a blast.

Lesson: Music makes anything funner.

To Do: Find a way to get music into your kitchen. Whether you click on NPR to catch up on the news or jam out to Elton John, cooking is more enjoyable when you’ve got something to listen to.

4. Change your mindset.

My biggest hangup with cooking was my mindset. I always approached cooking as the necessary evil I had to go through in order to get the prize (ie: something tasty).

But, cooking is an experience. Every step, from measuring out flour to pulling cupcakes out of the oven, is something I should pay attention to and enjoy. If I can have the mindset that cooking is just as relaxing as other things I enjoy, like running or gardening, then I can fully put myself into the experience.

The Lesson: If you can look at cooking as a journey, not a destination, you might find you enjoy the process more.

To Do: The next meal you cook, really pay attention to what you’re doing. Don’t look at those vegetables that need chopping as just something you’ve got to get done before you can proceed to step two. Really focus on chopping them up. Relax while you’re doing it. Let your mind wander and daydream.

I’m here to tell you cooking really can be relaxing. But, it takes the right mindset. I’m still working on this myself, but it’s getting easier!

5. Don’t forget the wine…

Cooking is way, way more enjoyable if I’ve got a glass of wine in my hand. Yes, I buy the cheap stuff (eco-friendly Corbet Canyon: it’s tasty, frugal, and every part of the box and bladder can be recycled…), it’s a great way to relax as I get going.

Lesson: Wine or other drinks can be a great addition to the cooking process. After all, even cleaning toilets would be enjoyable after a couple of glasses…

To Do: Buy a bottle or box of wine for your next meal. But, don’t save it for the meal itself. Celebrate the act of cooking with a glass while you cook.

6. Experiment!

I’ve been getting bolder in the kitchen. Sometimes my experiments turn out great. Sometimes, they bomb (like the vegetarian crock pot stew I made last week. I was going to write a whole post about that frugal recipe if it turned out. But, it didn’t turn out…we ended up eating pizza…)

The point here is that I’ve learned to let go of the expectation that each meal needs to be perfect. And letting that go has been really liberating. I’ve been trying more recipes as a result because I’m not afraid to try them. Cooking has actually gotten a bit, dare I say it, fun.

I’m still not into long, drawn out recipes. I don’t know if I’ll ever be. But I have gotten a bit more adventurous.

Lesson: You don’t have to perfect, can you believe it? Every meal isn’t going to turn out with Martha Stewart perfection. I know, I was shocked too.

To Do: Embrace the inherent fun of cooking. Experiment with different styles and flavors. For instance, A and I made tapas for the first time on Halloween. Did we know what we were doing? Not really. But they turned out really great! And we had just as much fun making them as we did eating them.

Last Word…

You don’t need me to tell you that cooking at home saves far more money than going out to eat. I’ve had my digressions, but I really am trying to cook at home more lately. I need to save that money, and it really is healthier. But, I think I’m doing good so far!

How about you? Do you have any tips to help me and other readers enjoy the cooking process? Any tips you have to keep yourself motivated? Please share!

Website Review: RelishRelish.com

One area that I continue to struggle with when it comes to cutting costs is grocery shopping and meal planning. Clearly the two go hand-in-hand. It probably doesn't help that I don't do much (if any) of the cooking in our household. I swore that if I had to be a cooking wife, I'd never get married. My husband is a fabulous cook. I try to do my part on the weekends by whipping up a crockpot meal or baking some cookies.

I opened my e-mail this week and was delighted to find an e-mail from Relish!, a site that not only plans weekly menus for you and your family, it also generates food shopping lists. Does it get any better? Of course it does. RelishRelish.com is also a mom-run website. Giddyup!

How It Works
Pick your meals and a shopping list is generated for you. It's that simple.

Plus, there are great feature articles, party/theme menus and loads of creative but realistic recipes. You can also add your own meals and recipes to the mix.

Recipes
All I have to say is YUM! The recipes look fabulous, are easy to put together and fairly quick to make. Plus, there are kid-friendly options, vegetarian alternatives and low-calorie meals.

Shopping Lists
Once you pick your meals, the site generates a shopping list. The best part is that the shopping list is put together according to most grocery store layouts. There's even a column with items that are commonly found in most kitchens (spices, condiments, etc.)

The system is great! They even offer an option to add your own recipes and meals. There are many nights when the last thing my husband and I feel like doing is testing a new recipe. Now we can get shopping lists for our own recipes.

Have you used Relish!? Let me know what you think.

TGIF: Recipe Round-up

It's official -- fall is here. At least in NJ it's definitely arrived -- leaves falling, cool weather, lots of Halloween decorations. To wrap up this week, I've listed some of the best fall recipes I've found. I love anything pumpkin-flavored so you may notice a lot of those. Just think, it's the best way to recycle your pumpkin -- use the pulp, toast the seeds.

• Squash-Apple Bake (I plan on testing this recipe this weekend. I somehow ended up with lots of squash and apples.)
  
  
• Pumpkin Gingerbread (doesn't it just sound heavenly?)
  
  
• Aunt Mary's Eggplant Balls (got a bunch of eggplant from the farm and eggplant parmesan is getting old)
  
  
• Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore (all I have to say is yum! Anyone else breaking out the crock pot? Best way to cook during those cold winter months.)
  

Feel free to add your own recipes. I'm in a cooking mood! (My husband will be happy to hear that since he's the main cook in our house.) I think I may have to test all of these recipes this weekend. I'll keep you posted...

Frugal Tip Tuesday -- Create a Weekly Spending Budget

How often do you get spending money out of the ATM each week? I try to limit myself to once a week (unless something unexpected comes up, like one of the kids has a class trip and I need to use cash). Usually I'll take $40 out and try to get that to last the whole week (Sunday through Saturday). I use this cash mainly for breakfast and lunch. However, if I make or bring breakfast and lunch to work each day, I can basically 'save' that spending money towards something else.

That's my incentive, saving that money that I've budgeted each week for something bigger, like a massage or some new clothes. When I know I'm saving towards something that's a treat, it makes bringing in my own food each day (which can be really inconvenient) less painful.

So that's this week's tip -- save towards something more meaningful and it'll be less painful to save!

TGIF: Round-up of Top Blog Posts

Where did the summer go? It's hard to believe that this is the last Friday of August. Next week the kids are off to school. With rainy weather we had in June, summer got a late start, which is probably why it went by so quickly.

Here's this week's best blog posts:

• Cut your grocery bill (great suggestions in here, from stockpiling to price books)
  
  
• Slow cooker garlic chicken potatoes (this sounds so good and it's nearly crock pot season)
  
  
• Make it from scratch carnival
  
  
• Lunch box tips from Economical Mom (start preparing for back to school)
  

Have a fabulous, rain-free weekend!

Stay-cations Aren't Always Cheaper

A Not-So-Frugal Family Vacation to Hershey Park
The weather was not our friend this past weekend as we packed up the kids and headed to Hershey, PA for a long weekend. We met my brother, his girlfriend and her two kids for what was supposed to be three fun-filled days at Hershey Park. It turned out to be one and half days of rain and one and half days of fun.

Hotel = $298 (includes a $30 credit)
After much research and asking around, I made reservations at the Mainstay Suites, a Comfort Inn property. The main reason was because we needed three beds as well as a efficiency-type room with a kitchen and eating area. It helps to have some extra room for my 2-year-old and 5-year-old to run around.

Plus, the hotel boasted an indoor mini golf course, basketball court, arcade and swimming pool with a giant slide. A hot breakfast was also included each morning.

Curious about the credit? The hotel was fairly new, so there were a few quirks, one of which included our door lock not working properly. We realized this when my son showed us his new trick -- how to open the door without the key. The hotel manager was very apologetic and credited our account. Needless to say, while we weren't thrilled about compromising our security, we were very happy that they were so accommodating.

Food = $200
If I had more foresight and ambition, I would've packed lunch meat, bread and lunch fixings like my brother's girlfriend did. But the vacation sneaked up on me and I was completely unprepared. We packed snacks and drinks for the 3-hour ride. But we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast ($18), at lunch at Red Robin once we arrived at Hershey Park ($42) and then treated for dinner that evening ($38). (My brother treated the following night.) Then there was lunch the second day ($38) and snacks for the ride home ($11).

Park tickets = $270
The most economical way to get tickets for three days was with a 3-day flex pass. We purchased two adult and one junior 3-day flex pass. My daughter was free since she was under 3 years old. (Amen for that!!) Unfortunately, it began to rain one hour into our first day. As we left, we got three vouchers that were good for 30 days. Plus, you could come back to the park after 7:30pm to get a free preview with the purchase of tickets for the next day. Once the rain stopped, we returned to the park and stayed until it closed (11pm).

The second day we hit the water park, went back to the hotel in the late afternoon, ate dinner and then went back for the evening. The third day was severe rain and thunder, making it impossible to even go to the park.

Essentially, we have three 2-day passes to Hershey. We plan to put these on eBay to see if we can recoup some of our ticket costs. Looking back, we should've bought tickets each day, but we really didn't think the weather would be such an issue.

Misc. (e.g., gas, parking, etc.) = $100
Then there were all of the other incidentals that come with a road trip. We filled the tank before we headed out ($30) and when we headed home ($30). Parking was $10 per day ($20), but you could leave and re-enter as many times as you wanted. I bought my son ice cream one night ($5) and we rented a locker when we hit the water park ($15).
TOTAL = $860

Whew! That's pretty steep for a 3-day vacation! We used coupons whenever possible. But for the most part, it was hard to save money on this trip.

Any frugal vacation stories you'd like to share?

Go Frugal with Snacks

The Greenest Dollar has yet another great post that I'd like to share with you. I'm all about snacks, and when they're healthy and frugal -- what more could you ask for?


Healthy, Frugal Travel Snacks

If you’ve ever taken a road trip, you know how it is when it comes to meal and snack options. Greasy fast food, chips, candy bars, soda…

After a few hours you’re bloated, dehydrated, and yearning for something healthy. Plus, all that convenience food really gets expensive after a while.

Eating well (and frugal) on the road takes some planning, and I learned that the hard way last time A and I took a long trip. We’re both vegetarians, and didn’t plan our food out in advance before we left.

We were hungry, to say the least. And it wasn’t pretty.

We’re leaving for vacation this week, and this time I resolved not to make the same mistake twice. So I decided to write a post about healthy travel foods while I researched options for our own trip.

Health Travel Snacks
I’m going to start out with some of the basics here…

• Vegetable sticks, cherry tomatoes
• Peanut butter and crackers
• GORP (peanuts, raisons, dried fruit, Cheerios, almonds, chocolate chips, or whatever else you want to throw in there)
• Granola
• Fruit (apples, oranges, grapes, pears, and bananas travel well)
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Edmame
• Popcorn
• Pita chips
• Pickles and olives
• Hummus (goes great with celery, carrots, and pita chips)

A Note on Hard-Boiled Eggs...
I’m thinking about boiling us some eggs the night before we leave (super YUM with Tony Chachere cajun seasoning!). As far as I’m able to tell from researching online, hard boiled eggs are fine for a few hours out of the fridge. If left in the fridge, they’ll last a week.

I remember boiling and coloring eggs as a child; we’d leave them out for days sometimes, eating them as we went along, and I never got sick. But, I probably wouldn’t do that now! I’m sure they’ll be fine for a few hours in the car, though.

Out of the Box Ideas

Travel EnchiladasI

I found this intriguing idea at Road Trip America.

Take a whole grain tortilla and spread it with reduced fat cream cheese. Sprinkle the cream cheese with nuts and dried fruit (dried pineapple bits are a favorite), and then roll it up like an enchilada. These are surprisingly good!

Wow, I might have to try that one…

Cheese Crisps

This recipe came from a Facebook friend (thanks Heather!). She makes them all the time for her family when they’re traveling, and swears she’s can’t make them fast enough! Here’s her recipe:

Use several cups Shredded Cheese (hard type works better) (Sharp Cheddar &/or Parm)
Italian Seasoning or Mexican Seasoning or your favorite flavors to taste
Mix thoroughly. Next:

• Line cookie sheet w/ parchement paper
  

• Place 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp scoops of cheese mixture on cookie sheet

• Bake @ 350 for approx 10 min. or til golden brown & bubbly

When the cheese cools it will crispy & delicious! Also, Lowfat cheese is less greasy; harder cheeses crisp better & don’t spread as much. You can also play around w/ the mixture to your liking!

Banana Split PB & J

Image courtesy of Cooking Light

I love peanut butter. I eat it everyday, and I’ll spread it on anything.

So you can imagine my sheer delight when I came across The Banana Split Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich in Cooking Light last December.

I have made this luscious sandwich several times now, and let me tell you: IT IS YUM.

I’m definitely making one for the trip, but obviously I won’t be able to grill it. Here’s the original recipe, from Cooking Light:

Ingredients

• 2 (1-ounce) slices firm white sandwich bread, divided
• 1 teaspoon butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon semisweet chocolate minichips
• 1 large strawberry, thinly sliced
• 1/2 small banana, cut lengthwise into 3 slices (about 2 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon pineapple jam

Preparation

Spread one side of each white bread slice with 1/2 teaspoon butter. Combine peanut butter and honey; spread over plain side of 1 bread slice. Sprinkle with chocolate chips; top evenly with strawberry slices and banana slices.

Spread pineapple jam over plain side of remaining bread slice. Carefully assemble sandwich.

Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sandwich; cook 2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.

What I’ll Do…

I’ll probably just end up toasting the bread, and leaving off the pineapple jam (which is what I usually do because to me, the pineapple makes it too sweet with everything else).

Strawberry Sandwich

I found this yummy looking sandwich over at Reader’s Digest. And boy, the picture makes it look really, really good, so give that link a click if you want to check it out. I’m drooling as we speak…

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

1⁄2 slice Mestemacher or other dense 3-grain bread (equal to 65 calories)
2 teaspoons farmer cheese
3 strawberries, sliced
1⁄2 teaspoon honey
Coarsely ground black pepper (optional)

Prep
Place the bread on a plate and spread with the farmer cheese. Top evenly with the strawberries and drizzle with the honey. Add black pepper, if desired. Cut in half and eat.

Any frugal, healthy snacks that you'd like to add? Let me know!