Author: wideeyedwanderingspoonie

Monday Musings – Healing Words

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” ~Albus Dumbledore

Consider a moment the human tongue
it’s charm and power go unsung
it can hold a secret or reveal
words that hurt or words that heal
let me say this quite precisely
use your words, but use them wisely

I have received my share of cruel words in my life and uttered them myself on more than one occasion. The bad thing about words, especially cruel, wounding words, is that once said they can’t be taken back. You can’t unhear them and sometimes that changes everything. I have been mindful of my words for many years now and I can say it has made my life brighter and happier. I wish the same for all humanity.

~Always speak in kindness ~JP

Frugal Friday – The Trash Bag Conundrum

So recently I was considering one of those “waste conundrums” that my mind often wanders to when I’m besieged by ads for, of all things, trash bags. When did trash bags become a major commodity? Does it seem a bit weird to be spending money to wrap trash, I mean, seriously, it’s … trash. Wow, OK then, moving right along. I’ve been dusting off some of my old habits and tricks learned from my Earth Child years. One of those habits was nobody PURCHASED trash bags. My Grandma Cope would roll over in her grave at the very thought. *shudder* Now granted back in the 1970’s my tiny subsistence lot had a burn barrel. Food scraps (what didn’t go into soup) went to the compost bin. Burnable stuff went directly into the burn barrel and bones etc. went into either a repurposed cereal box, old flour bag of other burnable container then to the burn barrel. Fast forward 50 or so years and I’m living in a suburban townhome with garbage pick up included in my HOA fees. That’s great but I’m still NOT spending my hard earned retirement income on trash bags, naha, nope, not gonna happen. I’m using reusable bags for shopping and just dumping garbage direct into the kitchen bin. I have a little 4 gallon bin under the kitchen sink and really tiny 1 gallon bins in the bathrooms all of which I just empty into the roll out bin. I keep used plastic shopping bags, bread bags and the like for really smelly stuff (bones, fish, etc.) Yeah, I have to hose the small bin (and roll out) out every now and then but I dump the water on the grass or garden and count it as part of my watering 🙂

NaNa over at Na Na Pinches Her Pennies has a great take on it here

How do you handle your “trash bag conundrums?”

~Welcome to the resistance ~JP

Cooking Adventures – Peach Coolers

I buy most of my fruit frozen, except for apples and bananas which are still at an acceptable price for my budget. I have a friend who utilizes the SNAP program (food stamps). As a single older woman she doesn’t get much but she’s also eligible for food bank distributions which helps a good deal. To further complicate matters, she’s diabetic. She often winds up with canned fruit (usually in juice) as does anyone who has an extended pantry, aka prepper pantry. Draining and rinsing will remove most of the excess sugar and there’s so much you can do with them.

This is one of my favorite uses for canned peaches. I’ve always saved the juice for baking and such, heck I’ve even cooked oatmeal in it (yummmm). For the original recipe, I used reconstituted dry milk but these days I use unsweetened almond milk with a tiny dollop of yogurt for creaminess.

Peach Coolers – serves 2

Ingredients
2 cups milk
1 cup canned peaches drained (DO NOT THROW OUT THE JUICE)
½ tsp lemon juice
1 dash nutmeg (optional but tasty)
Directions
Put the ingredient in a blender, blend well
sprinkle with nutmeg if you like
serve cold – I like to freeze the drained peaches for an hour before making

Tips for the leftover juice – pour it into a pitcher of iced tea for sweetener – use as part of the liquid in any baking recipe adds nutrition and flavor – whirl in blender with any leftover peaches and freeze into peach pops

~Be Kind to Each Other ~JP