Reads of the Week: 2/20/12

February 20th, 2012 Andi B. 2 Comments »
Brussels Sprouts

Image via Wikipedia

Recipe of the Week: Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry

From Meal Plan Rescue:

Food Connections: How Kosher Connects Me to the World (A guest post from Eric at Narrowbridge)

Your Receipt Lies to You

From our food friends:

Valentine’s Day Slutty Brownies from Simple Island Living

Are Sugar and Flour Slowly Killing Me? from Married Food

Fish Tacos with Guacamole from Hazel Street Eats

From our finance

friends:

5 Ways to Save Money at Starbucks from Personal Finance Journey

Frugal Uses for Used Candle and Food Jars from Frugal Confessions

Thinking About Money While Sitting on the Toilet from RamblingFever Money

How to Get a $2,000,000 Home for a Song from Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

A Little Bit of Geopolitics, A Little Bit of Potash from 101 Centavos

Food Insurance, 2 Weeks of Emergency Food from Married with Debt

What Not to Do: Live Above Your Means from The Debt Princess

 

 

From our food friends:

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Food Connections: How Kosher Connects Me to the World

February 17th, 2012 Andi B. 3 Comments »
Kosher for Passover Coke

Kosher for Passover Coke (Photo credit: mhaithaca)

Welcome to our Food Connections Series. This is a guest post from Eric at Narrow Bridge Finance, a blog that focuses on tips to save you time,
money, and headache while getting the most out of your money. Be sure to check out his finance eBooks on automation and entrepreneurship.

I grew up in a Jewish home, but Judaism was always a cultural part of my life, not a religious one. As I grew older and explored my heritage, I found that keeping my religion in my life day to day was very important to me. The most logical place to start was my diet.

The Road to Kosher

We believe that Kashrut, the practice of keeping Kosher, began when we received the Torah 3500 years ago. Modern Kosher laws are derived from the Talmud. Those laws date from around 1500-1800 years ago. Either way, we have been doing it for a long time.

I knew that my grandparents kept Kosher until after my Mother was born. Before them, every generation I can trace was very religious. After doing this for thousands of years, who am I to stop? So one day in college, I decided I didn’t need to have bacon with my breakfast at the dorm dining hall. That was 9 years ago and I have not eaten a non-Kosher animal since.

From there, I started to slowly add more observance to my life. The last time I mixed meat with dairy was at Chipotle about a year later. The next year I ate only Kosher meat for five months while living in Israel, a tradition I did not give up when I returned home to Denver.

A Meaningful Life

Many people try to explain Kosher laws using logic and health benefits, many of which no longer exist. For example, at the time Kosher laws rose to prominence, eating shellfish would likely cause toxic shellfish poisoning. Pork was a common source of digestive parasites. But Kashrut is much more important than a primitive USDA.

There is no reason given in the Torah to why we keep Kosher, we do it because we believe the Torah came from God. We do it because God said so.

When I follow these laws, I feel a connection to both God, my family, and Jewish people all over the world. In travels around places like London, Prague, Budapest, Kiev, Costa Rica, New York, and Israel, I have found an instant community by seeking out the local Kosher restaurants. It is amazing to see how quickly someone embraces a fellow Kosher keeper like family.

Not Always Easy

Just because it is a tradition that goes back thousands of years does not mean all Jews view it the same way. In some communities, a Jew that does not keep Kosher would be quickly shunned as a heathen. Where I grew up, it is the opposite.

When I started keeping Kosher, my parents hoped it was a phase. My Jewish friends wondered what was wrong with me. Finding a girlfriend that eats the same way as me is virtually impossible in Colorado. While I can usually find something vegetarian (sort of Kosher by default), I have to be incredibly careful when I choose what goes in my stomach.

It does not stop there. I have separate dishes for meat and dairy products. I can’t take leftovers from my parents’ house (my Mom was offended the first time). I can only buy products with a Hechsher, a logo signifying that the product was created under religious supervision, for my home.

In some ways, keeping Kosher keeps me disconnected from my family and friends. However, it feels like the right thing to do and I feel satisfied every day when I know that I am eating the same way as my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather, Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov. I am eating the same way as my cousins in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Belgium.

Just like the song from Fiddler on the Roof, I do it because it is Tradition, I do it because it feels right, and I do it to live a more meaningful life.

Your Questions

I know there are a lot of misconceptions about Kosher practices. I am happy to answer any of them in the comments below.

Editor’s Note: It is not always easy for writers to put themselves out there with controversial subjects, and I am grateful to my readers for the respect that they will show Eric in any questions they may have.

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Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry

February 16th, 2012 Andi B. 1 Comment »

Boke Bowl Brussels Sprouts Salad

My husband took me to a restaurant called Boke Bowl where one of his friends is a chef and another works on the line. They sent over a salad that was incredible. I, of course, ran home to make my own version. I knew certain things weren’t going to be identical; I didn’t have blood orange, and I had no idea how to crisp my tofu into croutons like they did. However, my version turned out to be pretty good, and other people who tried it would eat it again, so…. here it is as a full meal instead of a side dish.

In Season: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower
Prep Time: 15 Minutes; Cook Time: 25 Minutes

  • 8-10 oz. Tofu
  • 1 Crown Broccoli
  • 2 Cup Brussels Sprouts
  • 1 Small Crown Cauliflower
  • ½ Cup Flour
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1-2 Tbsp. Miso
  • ½ Cup Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 1 Orange
  • Vegetable Oil
  1. Rinse and drain tofu.
  2. Cube the tofu into ¾” pieces, dredge in flour, salt, and pepper and set aside.
  3. Quarter Brussels sprouts and chop broccoli and cauliflower florets.
  4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  5. Pan fry tofu until golden brown. Set aside.
  6. Pan fry vegetables in vegetable oil. Once they start to turn brown and crisp, pop them in the oven for about ten minutes or until tender.
  7. Juice half of orange.
  8. Mix miso, rice wine vinegar, ¼ Cup Vegetable Oil, and orange juice into a vinaigrette.
  9. Chop remaining orange and toss all items into a salad and serve.
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Your Receipt LIES To You

February 15th, 2012 Andi B. 5 Comments »
A Safeway before opening time. (This is NOT a ...

Image via Wikipedia

Every time I go to the grocery store and when they hand me my receipt they say, “Thank you Mrs. B. Congratulations, you saved yada, yada percent today.” I smile, nod, walk out the door and whisper to myself, “Lies, I saved more than that!”  But sure enough when I look at the receipt, there’s only yada yada percent listed. Now according to my local Safeway, I usually save around 30%, but I put time and effort into making sure we save as much as possible, without ending up on a TLC reality series. After thinking about my shopping habits, I came to a comforting realization. The receipt lies!

Your grocery receipt only tells you how much you saved by taking advantage of store rewards deals and coupons. That is NOT how much you save on your groceries. The real amount can be much higher. How can you save money on groceries?

  1. Buy Private Label. I save approximately 30% by not purchasing brand name goods. In most cases, the private label is identical to, and even made by the brand name company. It just resides in different packaging.
  2. Purchase based on the per weight price. I once saw two sizes of barbecue sauce. The 8 oz. sauce cost $1.50. The 16 oz. sauce cost $3.25…for the exact same sauce. It was cheaper to buy two of the smaller bottles because the cost per ounce was less.
  3. Don’t buy something just because it’s on sale. Buying something because it’s on sale doesn’t mean you’ll use it, and spending extra money on something you’re going to throw out or forget about isn’t saving any money. Have you seen the pantries of the Extreme Couponers? Half of the stuff I can’t eat, and I don’t believe the average family could eat all of that before it expired.
  4. Eat seasonally. As we discussed earlier, eating seasonally can save you 66% on your produce alone. Out of season produce isn’t readily available and is sold at a premium.
  5. Use a meal plan. Going to the grocery store with no idea is a recipe for a full refrigerator that still manages to provide “nothing to eat.” You can make a plan yourself by picking out a few recipes, converting those into a grocery list, checking it against your pantry, and going shopping. You could, of course, have us plan your meals for you.

If I didn’t use these methods and buy the way that I do, I’d easily double my grocery bill. Do you have any other ways you think your receipt lies to you?

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Dah! You got me!

February 13th, 2012 Andi B. 8 Comments »

So I was recently “tagged” by John at Married with Debt.

To play, I have to:

  1. Post these rules.
  2. Answer the 11 questions from the person who tagged you.
  3. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag.
  4. Tag 11 people and link them to your post.
  5. Let them know that you tagged them.

Below are John’s questions to me, and my answers.

  1. What is your money philosophy in one sentence? Don’t spend money you don’t have to.
  2. Have you ever had a crazy adventure? If so, describe. Every day is a crazy adventure. I’ve been on road trips to the middle of nowhere, traveled across the country to stay with a friend of a friend of a friend because it was a new place, traveled to Hawaii by myself, ended up on the wrong side of a town in Mexico with my family when I was little, and more. If you’re life isn’t a crazy adventure, you may not be living it fully.
  3. Did you get an allowance as a child? I cut coupons from the newspaper and my mom would have them convert the savings to cash. It was my job to make sure we remembered the coupons and that my mother used them whenever possible because that’s where my spending cash came from.
  4. What is the biggest personal finance problem facing America (or your country) today? Lack of education. We focus so much on college skills that we don’t think about life skills for teens anymore, and that doesn’t seem to do anything except increase student loan debt. When I meet kids that think meal planning and grocery shopping are mystical arts, we have a problem.
  5. Name the most famous person you’ve ever met. I can’t say because it happened in the course of my job which requires confidentiality. But every famous person I’ve met has been very kind.
  6. What did you most want to be when you grow up? A mother. With super strength. Sort of like Donna Reed with super powers.
  7. What is your most embarrassing guilty pleasure? Older TV shows. Matlock, Murder, She Wrote, Six Million Dollar Man. I’m an addict. Except The Incredible Hulk. The last scenes where Bill Bixby walks alone on the highway just kill me.
  8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Hawaii, maybe somewhere in Central America. I’d like to be someplace more temperate, just inside of the middle of nowhere.
  9. What’s your biggest financial pet peeve? Interest that borders on usury.
  10. What do you think the biggest news story of 2012 will be? The crackdown on drugs and alcohol. Too many celebrities dying. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re on our way to another Prohibition, yet another reason to move to the middle of nowhere. I need my vodka, right Daisy?
  11. If you found out you had 6 months to live, what would you do with your life? I would live my life exactly as I do now. When I was seventeen my father was given six months to live when they found Stage IV Lung Cancer. By the time he passed away six months later, he had taught me that living a life that is true to who you are, means news like that doesn’t really change much, it just gives you time to make sure you’ve said the important things to the important people.
So I know I’m supposed to come up with eleven more questions and tag eleven people, but unfortunately, I can’t find people who haven’t been tagged yet. So I’m calling it the recess bell, but reserve the right to tag later.
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