REAL Food Recipe - Granola

 

This granola is delicious, wholesome, nutritious and easy to make.  It makes the perfect companion for homemade greek style yogurt too.

 

Granola 

4 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup nuts or combination of nuts & seeds

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup avocado or coconut oil

1/2 cup pure maple syrup or honey

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

1 cup dried fruit 

Preheat oven to 300°.  Oil a large baking sheet, set aside.  In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine oatmeal, nuts, coconut, oil and syrup or honey.  Spread mixture evenly on baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Stir granola and return to oven for 15 minutes more.  Remove granola from oven, sprinkle with dried fruit and stir again.  Allow to cool completely.  Store in airtight container. 

Nuts – use slivered or sliced almonds, peanuts, chopped pecans or walnuts. 

Seeds – pumpkin, pepitas, sunflower, sesame, etc.  If you use chia or flax seeds add after baking so they don’t burn. 

Dried fruit – use raisins, cranberries, chopped cherries or apricots, blueberries, banana chips, apples, etc.

With various combinations of fruits, nuts and seeds and alternating the maple syrup with honey you can change up this granola recipe several ways always keeping it interesting.  Enjoy alone, with milk or alongside a serving of yogurt.  Garnish with fresh fruit or berries if you like.  I’m sure you will enjoy this recipe a lot.

Saving My Nonfood $$ - Hair Care

 

Over the years I’ve simplified my hair care routines to downright minimal.  The years of perms, highlights, hair dye and yearning for Farah hair are long behind me.  At some point you come to accept what you were born with and learn to just go with it and as I’ve aged I’m embracing the fact that gray hair is inevitable.

 

In my home I keep inexpensive shampoo and conditioner, a couple brushes, one for dry hair and one for wet, a comb and a flat iron.  No leave in conditioners, gels or mousses, dry shampoo, hot oil treatments, not even a bottle of hairspray.  When my youngest left home she took the hair dryer with her and I have yet to buy a replacement.  I wasn’t using it anyway so I don’t really miss it.

 

About once a year I get a good haircut at a simple chain salon and then I maintain it myself with a trim about every four to six weeks.  My style is simple, cut just below the shoulder with bangs.  Not much has changed lately and I’m fine with that.  I’m not out to impress anyone but myself so it really doesn’t take much.  And that is it.  I don’t spend much money and to be quite honest, I feel I’ve had better results in recent years.  I think I do better now that I don’t try so hard.  Or maybe I just care a whole lot less.  Who’s to say?

 

One More Super Thrifty Year!

 

I had always planned to retire early.  Originally I had planned to retire at the age of 58, however after a few heart attacks, you tend to reevaluate things in your life a bit.  I worked one more year after that and during that time I got all my ducks lined up in a row and did some major planning and financial calculating.

 

If I had stuck to my original plan I knew I’d be able to do it if I was super thrifty those first two years.  For me that was entirely worth it to be able to retire early.  After all the health issues I had in 2021 I quickly realized that if I didn’t do something different I may not make it to my retirement date.  Instead I decided to be super, super thrifty for three years and I retired on April 1, 2022.  Looking back I can tell you it was the best decision I could’ve made.

 

Prior to retirement I filled up my pantry and deep freezer, stockpiled my LTFS and stocked my linen closet with toilet paper, tissues, toiletries, housekeeping supplies and laundry products.  During the year leading up to my retirement I lived very frugally and put away as much as I possibly could into savings.  I set budgets and set aside money for things I knew I’d need to take care of or projects I had planned to finish in that first year.  I did everything I could to prepare and be ready.

 

This year I will turn 60 in September and I celebrated my 59½ years this past March which means I have full access to any of my retirement accounts without penalties for early withdrawal.  My plan for the next year is to continue to live as I’ve been doing for the previous two and not touch any of those accounts.  Instead I am using those funds to invest and grow my wealth.  The current rate of inflation (the cost of goods and services) has impacted all of us.  It has meant more belt tightening and making any necessary changes to stay within those budgets I set for myself before I signed my papers at work and left my job.  I need to protect my wealth and make sure my retirement plans continue.

 

Let's see where this takes us!

Now I am embarking on my final year of super, super thrifty living and I’m really happy to have all of you along with me on this journey.  It really helps to have the support of friends and other likeminded individuals.  I know I am not alone.  We can totally do this!

 

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 105

 

Hello everyone!  I tell you what, I’m all about celebrating milestones.  This past week I celebrated my 2 year anniversary on my retirement, but even more important, on April 5^th & 6^th I celebrated three years post heart attack.  And!  The fact that I feel better and am doing better than I ever have since going through all of that gives me great hope as I head on into the future.  Go me!

 

Easter weekend was very nice and rather relaxing.  I had an entirely different menu planned out for that Sunday, however after the BFF came up with a ham and a request for my potato salad I quickly changed things up and I was glad I did.  Menu planning works best when you are flexible.  Our dinner was amazingly good.  I even baked a Dutch apple pie for dessert.

 

With it being registration time for summer activities it ended being a rather busy work week for me.  In fact, all of April is looking to be busy for me as certain programs are gearing up and they are shuffling employees around to meet the need.  They’ve got me well scheduled this month to help them out while they interview new employees in hopes of getting someone hired soon for the additional help they need.  In May I actually plan to take some time off just to be home and to do my own thing for a bit.  I love, love, love my “job”, but I also love my time not working as well.

 

After we finished up with the bulk of registration on Wednesday we were provided with lunch from a nearby restaurant as a thank you for all of our hard work.  We completed over 10,000 registrations, approximately 7,000 were done online and the rest were made in person or over the phone.  I think that was pretty impressive.  Along with registration I also finished up my work on the city’s property tax rebate program where I personally processed over 1300 applications.  I love the positive interactions with people the most, either on the phone or in person, so regardless of what I’m doing I do find the work rewarding.  Plus, it is ever changing so it doesn’t become tedious or boring.

 

Things I Did To Save $$: 

I did not do any shopping, go out to eat or go to the movies last week.  I was able to keep the main heat turned off and only used the fireplace for a few hours each morning, two days I didn’t need to use it at all. 

As I’ve been going through items I already have in my freezers and pantry I’ve been washing out the Ziploc and vacuum seal bags to be reused.  I was able to use the vacuum bags I’d washed and saved to put away the majority of the Easter ham I cut up and divided for future meals.  I used one of the gallon size Ziploc bags to place those vacuum sealed portions of ham into simply to help me keep them together and organized in my deep freezer. 

Last month I had purchased a two pound bag of frozen mixed veggies even though my plan was to only buy a single one pound bag.  Because it was much less expensive than the price to buy two one pound bags it just made more sense to do that at the time.  I took half of the veggies from that two pound bag and vacuum sealed them in one of the washed out bags for the deep freezer so I will have that for future recipes, mainly soups or a casserole of some sort.

 

Things I Used Up: 

As I’m making my grocery shopping lists this year, last year too, I’ve been using a pad of pretty floral stationary I’ve had laying around for nearly twenty five years.  Why I’ve been holding onto these pads of stationary for so long?  I could not tell you.  Yes, they are very pretty papers, but I don’t need to hold onto them and never use them.  I finished up one pad and will be starting in on another one soon.  I have to say it is kind of nice to use these papers for my lists. 

Condiments!  Oh my holy cow, did I ever have a lot of condiments in this house.  I’ve been making a concerted effort this year to use up a bunch of these items and not buy any more new ones until I’ve made a considerable dent in what I already have.  I have bought ketchup this year, but other than that I’ve not bought anything new.  Last week I was able to finish up a bunch of odds and ends of stuff in the refrigerator and add those empty bottles to my recycle bin.  Progress is being made!

 

Delicious Easter leftovers

Meals I Prepared: 

The first half of my week I reheated and ate leftovers, mostly meals I had prepared and frozen.  I made a delicious Easter Sunday dinner using up quite a bit of fresh produce I had in the refrigerator.  I made a small batch of potato salad, a pan of roasted vegetables and an apple pie.  I also baked a ten pound ham and put away most of it into vacuum sealed bags and into my deep freezer.  I had plenty of Easter leftovers to cover the remainder of the week.

 

Thursday was a gloomy, wet and rainy day so I holed up indoors and enjoyed myself being home all day.  I watched a miniseries documentary on the war of 1812.  I love all things historical and I was particularly interested in knowing more about this particular war as it isn’t as well known as some of the others.  Plus I had ancestors that fought in this war so I had felt the pull to learn more about it.

 

I hope you enjoyed a lovely Easter and a lovely week following the holiday.  Is spring springing where you live?  My tulips are about to bloom and I have blossoms on my fruit trees now.  It is still pretty chilly most days, but no freezing temperatures overnight, which has been nice.  Enjoy your week ahead my friends!

 

Chicken Update

 

I love my chickens.  My original goal this spring was to get a couple of baby peeps to raise and keep my flock going.  Well, after a lot of thinking I decided not to do that this year.  Right now I’m super busy and I don’t really have the extra time available to devote to more pets.  But, the real thing that has impacted my decision the most is the cost of feed right now.  Chicken feed, all pet foods and supplies truly, has gone up so much in price that it makes it cost prohibitive to have pets.

 

I still miss my Edith

Currently I have three senior girls that lay sporadically and I’m okay with that.  I don’t just keep chickens for the eggs that they produce.  They are my girls and they will get to live out their lives being spoiled and loved, that is just how I am.  Perhaps next year I’ll be ready to acquire a couple of peeps, but for now I’m putting all future chicken plans on hold.

 

Retirement Means Different Things To Different People

 

How we choose to live our lives in retirement differs greatly.  Retirement means different things to different people.  Some choose to travel the world and see the sights while others simply want to be at home, watching TV and crocheting afghans.  Others do a lot of socializing with friends, visit their relatives, eat out at restaurants and have a lot of get-togethers.  Some retirees want to remain active, climb mountains, go skiing, kayak lakes and rivers.  A lot of them like to volunteer and may have a part time job, or even two.  I know a gentleman that recently took a full time job simply because he was bored and wanted a change of pace.  He still considers himself retired.

 

I have a lot of different interests, probably too many of them to be honest, but that’s okay.  We can do whatever we want.  We’ve worked hard and earned that place in our lives.  We can also change our minds, anytime we want, and that is completely okay too.  What I want to do today may not interest me tomorrow or I may just want to do something else entirely.  The important thing is that we do what we want and we make our retirement life our own regardless of what others may think.

 

It is funny because I have a relative who thinks I do way too much stuff and tries to tell me on pretty regular basis how she thinks I should be doing things.  Yeah, that isn’t happening.  I’m just not wired to be content living like a couch potato.  Someone else told me I’m not retired since I have a job, I’m actually semi retired.  Really?  I just laughed.

 

If you are retired, or planning to retire soon, my advice to you is to create the best and most fulfilling life you can and to do it your way.  Don’t allow others to define what retirement is or how you should live your retired life.  Do it your way and enjoy every moment of it you can.  I’m here to tell you, retirement is pretty awesome.

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 104 - Happy Anniversary!!!

 

It seems a bit hard to believe, but today marks my two year anniversary as a retired person!  It just keeps getting better and better too!  Did you have a nice Easter yesterday?  I sure hope so.

 

Do you ever have one of those weeks where odd little things keep happening and as a result your emotions end up all over the place?  That is how the majority the past week was for me and then I managed to pull myself out of it.  If it wasn’t for my friends I don’t know where I’d be.  I had a great visit with one of my friends I hadn’t seen in a while and then another one contacted me the following day.  Then I met a third friend for lunch on Wednesday.  I’m so blessed and fortunate to still have so many wonderful people in my life.

 

Tuesday evening my BFF took me to see the latest Jason Statham movie at the cheap seat theater.  While Jason Statham doesn’t necessarily do it for him he knows it does it for me, ha, ha, ha.  I’m only one Jason Statham movie away from a really good mood and I thought this one was pretty dang awesome.  When we left the theater I was definitely a happy camper.  Now you know, this girl loves her kick butt action flicks.  Yep, it’s true.

 

Full disclosure – The BFF did some grocery shopping for Easter and he laughed at me for setting it all out and taking a picture.  I told him he was messing with my grocery budget challenge and he told me to get over it, which I happily did.  In my opinion, his best buy was the three pounds of butter he picked up for $2.19 each (haven’t seen it that low in a very long time) and the ham for 77¢ a pound, which was a lower sales price than it has been in years.  Usually we’re doing good at 88¢ a pound at the holidays.

 

I held out hoping potatoes would be on sale for Easter and they were.  Not at the prices I’m used to seeing but much lower than the regular prices they’ve been charging.  The last time I bought potatoes was just before Thanksgiving and I got ten pounds (two 5# bags for $1.29 each).  I used up the last four from that lot when I made a potato salad for Easter so the timing was perfect.  Last week I picked up a 5# bag of russets at Fred Meyer for $1.99 and then a 5# bag of red potatoes at Albertson’s for $1.99 so I should be set with potatoes for a good long while.  I also picked up another two pound block of cheddar cheese at Albertson’s for $5.99.

 

Ways I Saved $$ 

I graciously allowed someone else to do the holiday grocery shopping and most of the cooking.  I baked a pie and used up some granny smith apples I had in the refrigerator.  I have to admit it was kind of nice to be treated as a guest in your own home.

Gas prices jumped up again last week.  I only drove a couple of times, grouped my errands to maximize my trips and rode the bus the rest of the time to get me where I needed to go.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I pulled frozen leftover dinners and homemade burritos from the freezer to thaw and reheat.  I also made soups from items I already had.  I found a package of Chinese noodles in the pantry and tried my hand at making homemade ramen and it was pretty darn good.  I used home canned turkey vegetable soup as the base and dressed it up with minced garlic and soy sauce.  I added a drizzle of sesame oil and some Thai chili sauce to mine to give it a punch.  I’ll definitely make this again.

 

By Thursday things were leveling off and pretty much back to normal.  Sometimes you just have bumps in your road, but we persevere and continue on.  NO bad days!

  

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.