Not every dish on this list will make a well-rounded, nutritionally balanced meal. Not everything on this list is something that you might want to serve to company.  But, they are filling and tasty and can be made for very little.

1. Pasta with butter – simply boil your favorite pasta, drain, and  return to the pot.  Immediately add a few pats of unsalted butter, stirring well to coat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
2. Pasta with broth – heat a couple of cans of broth on the stove until hot.  Ladle over cold pre-cooked pasta and serve.  In a pinch you can make “broth” with water a few bouillon cubes
3. Pasta with garlic and oil (Aglio E Olio) – saute 3 or 4 garlic cloves (chopped) in about 1/2 cup of oil until beginning to brown, add 1 lb of drained cooked pasta to pan (along with 2 Tbsp of reserved cooking water), and toss to coat
4. Pasta Asian Style – in 2 or 3 Tbsp of oil, saute a couple of chopped garlic cloves and some thinly sliced onion until soft,  add some shredded carrots and zucchini, cook until soft.  Add a pound of precooked cold spaghetti to pan, toss to coat, adding a few splashes of soy sauce.  Cook until beginning to brown on edges.
5. Pasta with peas – boil 1 lb. of shell shaped pasta, drain, and return to pot.  Immediately add 8 oz of frozen peas and a couple of pats of butter.  Stir well to coat and then mix in 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese.
6. Pasta with marinara sauce – in a Tbsp or two of oil, saute 3 or 4 cloves of garlic (chopped) until tender.  Add 2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes and allow to simmer for at least 1 hour. Season to taste with salt pepper and any herbs you desire.
7. Pasta with lentil sauce – a marinara sauce enhanced with lentils as a vegan protein source (link is to our recipe)
8. Mexican style pasta – saute a chopped onion and a diced bell pepper  in about 1 Tbsp oil until soft, add a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, cook for about an hour.  Pour over 1 lb of pre-cooked pasta, mix well, and stir in 8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese
9. Linguine with clam sauce – use the marinara sauce as a guide.  Drain 2 6.5 oz canned of chopped clams, adding liquid when you add the crushed tomatoes and the clams only during the last 15 minutes
10. Pasta with Pink sauce – make basic marinara sauce, at end of cooking time add 1/2-1 cup heavy cream and cook for an additional 10 minutes
11. Pasta with Chili – make a batch of our vegetarian chili and serve on a bed of shells, wagon wheels, or any smallish pasta shape to stretch it further

Enjoy!

Jia

Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Like many American families health care costs are of great concern for us. Not only are our premiums extremely high, but co-pays for doctor visits and medications eat up more than $200 of our monthly budget, just for maintenance – when illness or injury occurs those costs are even higher. While copays for Doctor visits are non-negotiable, there are ways to safely save money on medication costs.

Here are some tips to help your family trim some cost and hopefully help you afford the medicine you need.

On Prescription Medications:

1. Talk to your Doctor – be honest about your ability to afford your medications. Oftentimes, your physician will be willing to assist you by switching you to a less expensive medication or even by making free samples and money saving coupons available
2. Know your coverage – get in the habit of looking up medications on your insurance company’s website before dropping it off at the pharmacy to avoid “sticker shock” when the time comes to pay.  Furthermore, if you are on any kind of maintenance medication consider filling 90-day supplies through your insurance’s mail-in program which (generally) can get you 3 months worth of medication for only 2 month’s copay.
3. Be willing to try generics – even with insurance, using a generic can save $10 or more on each prescription filled. If you are paying for your meds out of pocket, switching to a generic drug can save you even more.
4. Shop around – the full charge price of a medication can vary from pharmacy to pharmacy. Taking a few minutes and making a few phone calls can easily save you more than a few dollars.
5. Make use of prescription programs at stores like Walmart, Target and Walgreens. Programs like these can give you access to medication for at little as $10 for a 90-day supply. Walmart’s and Target’s programs are free. The Walgreen’s program costs $35 a year for the whole family, but gives access to discounts on a wider selection of medications (including for your pets).
6. Try over the counter versions - even if you wind up having to take 2 pills to equal the prescription dosage it may still be much cheaper. Both of my daughters take Prevacid.   Since it is available as an OTC drug, most insurances will charge the highest tier copay. By buying it at my local Sam’s Club I easily save $25 a month over going to the pharmacy for the “prescription strength” dosage.

On Over-the-Counter Medications

1. Try a warehouse store – While you may find yourself buying more at one time than you might be used to, the savings can really add up on medication you take frequently for heartburn, headaches, or allergies.
2. Use store brands – Buying the store brand of your usual go-to medication for allergies, headache, or diarrhea can easily save a few dollars on every purchase. Be sure to check the active ingredients on the label to make sure you’re buying the same medication.
3. Sales and coupons – buy one get one free sales, especially when combined with cents off coupons can allow you to stock up on pain relievers and cold & flu remedies for a fraction of full price. But, please keep an eye on expiration dates. It’s better to throw away a medication and “waste” the money spent than to risk taking an expired drug.

And remember, never skip pills or discontinue a medication without consulting your physician.

Blessings

Jia

Image: Mantas Ruzveltas / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While most of the goals I had in mind at the dawn of 2011 have yet to be made manifest, I have managed to get back into the rhythm of once a week cooking.

In the past couple of weeks I have managed to make both dishes that are already familiar to us as well as some foods that were totally new to us. Luckily, my family is pretty good about being willing to try unfamiliar foods. Additionally, Accolan and the girls like a wide variety of dishes from various ethnic backgrounds and so it’s a lot of fun to find new meals to make them.

The past weeks have found me making Thai dishes from a book I received as a Yule gift, Real Thai: The Best of Thailand’s Regional Cooking. My first attempt was a batch of Paht Heht (sauteed mushrooms and pork) which was a huge hit. Last week I made it again, though with a lot of extra vegetables. Unfortunately, while it was enjoyed for the most part, the first version was deemed much better. And so I have to give a third batch a try soon and hope that I find the right balance so I can have a version to post here. I have, however, come up with really good versions of Gaeng Peht Neua (Red Curry Beef with Sweet Potatoes) and Gaeng Kiow Wahn Gai (Green Curry Chicken with Eggplant) which, while not low fat by any stretch of the imagination, are rich, fragrant, savory and very satisfying.

Other recent dishes include:

Hunter’s Stew. A filling blend of 4 kinds of meat, a wealth of vegetables, and a rich gravy. It was equally delicious served over egg noodle or sliced white bread. However, the parsnips, which were wonderful the first night, quickly overpowered the dish. Between that and the fact that Sephoni found the addition of lamb (which is cost prohibitive anyway) to be repugnant I will be reworking the recipe and uploading a new version the next time we make it.

Bengan Bhartha. One of our favorite dishes on the rare occassions that we eat out at an Indian restaurant. This is a wonderful mix of roasted eggplant, diced tomatoes, peas, and rich curry powder. I’ve made it before, but I paid close attention this time to amounts and ratios (as I was transcribing it as I cooked) and it was deemed not only delicious, but my best version yet.

African Golden Chicken Soup. This recipe is one of those rare occasions when making a dish up as I went actually worked out even better than I hoped. I was so happy to have been jotting down notes as I cooked. It is thick, filling, and fragrant and, while inspired by the foods of a different culture, didn’t require any ingredients I didn’t already have on hand.

Blessings

Jia

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am trying to get myself back on track in terms of time utilization as it relates to blogging and other blogging related tasks. I am also trying to find the bloody wagon that I swear was right in the driveway one minute, and down the road without me the next. I’ve been stressed about a lot of things lately.  And, among other things, stress generally means two things for me …. inertia and emotional eating.

It’s not a pretty picture.

One of the things that has me tied up in knots is Sephoni’s lack of improvement since her injury at Tae Kwon Do several weeks ago.

Our visit with her orthopedist on Monday was less than satisfying. We went in nervous about hearing the results of her spinal MRI, but hopeful that we would finally be able to put a “name to her pain” and be that much closer to finding a way to relieve it.

We found out very little actually:

• we learned that the MRI didn’t show any signs of spinal cord injury (thank the Gods)
• we learned that Sephoni, like Reya, has a Chiari 1 malformation
• we learned that we need to take her to a neurologist
• we learned that we need to find a replacement for our orthopedist

The deciding factor isn’t just that he has failed to take this all that seriously from the get-go.  It’s more that he has proved himself to be not only unconcerned about her pain levels (which are still significant) but unsympathetic as well.  When he told us that there was nothing more he could do and that our next step is to go see a neurologist I asked what should or could I be doing to help Sephoni with her pain levels.  Currently we are dosing her with Advil and Tylenol with Codeine.  Currently she’s been living on a heating pad, and more recently has become permanently attached to a Total Pillow I picked up (originally thinking of Accolan) at our local Walgreen’s.  These tools manage her pain, so long as she remains relatively immobile.  But, what 11 year old wants to be immobile?

It hurts to play with her friends.  It hurts to hold her flute or to try and learn to play the guitar she got for Yule.  It hurts to lie in bed, and many nights have found her tossing and turning, still up at 11:30 when I go to bed, and up every couple of hours until morning.  It hurts to bend down to put on her shoes.  It hurts to sit in the hard plastic chairs at school.  She hurts every waking moment of every day.

So I asked what more we could or should be doing to manage her pain.  And I was told nothing and beyond that I was told that “she’s put up with the pain for 6 weeks now, she can put up with it for a while longer.”

At this point I also learned that what I lack in self control in terms of emotional eating I have in spades in terms of not smacking this man. Seriously!

When I was in grade school, I remember having a teacher that has a chart with our names on it, the goal being to earn gold stars. I no longer remember how I earned those gold stars, but I remember how much I wanted them. I think I deserve a few for this.

At this point our next step is to take Sephoni to a pediatric neurologist (who scheduled us for May … yes you read that right MAY with the hope that a cancellation will come up – or a call from her former orthopedist calls to stress that it is more urgent that she be seen) and a pediatric sports medicine doctor who luckily can see her much sooner than that.

We’ll keep you posted

Jia

image thanks to : mrfi2010

Last night was a rough night here at Blade & Cauldron.

We left the house at around 5:30 for a spelling bee that Sephoni was participating in. A spelling bee let me add that she was well prepared for. Not only does she consistently score high A’s on all of nearly all of her spelling tests, but she took loads of online quizzes. She walked in nervous, but confident.

The bee itself had its comical moments. Every word called in the bee was given with a sentence. I am not sure who wrote these sentences as they painted quite the odd picture of childhood.

In one example, for the word raisin.

“The boy choked on the raisin, as it got stuck in his throat.”

In another example …

“The boy felt guilty after punching his classmate in the face.”

It was almost as if the night were part spelling bee and part dire warnings.

Unfortunately, Sephoni didn’t do all that well. She was dismissed much earlier than any of us would’ve expected. Even worse, she misspelled a word she knew, a word that she has gotten right on tests. She left crushed, and cried on the drive home.

We came home and we gave her the space she wanted to sulk. Not long after she went to her room I heard shrieks and wails coming from upstairs.

Unfortunately, our sweet bird Maya, has crossed the rainbow bridge.

Maya started out as my bird. A bird purchased because I’d always wanted a parakeet and she was so pretty. Mostly white with some blue accents. She quickly became a family pet and more recently, when the girls each got their own room, became Sephoni’s.

Under Sephoni’s gentle touch, our once “psychotic” bird was learning to accept being handled. She was enjoying being surround by music and singing, often bopping her head to the beat. She was a well loved friend.

There were many tears, from Reya as well. But, it was Sephoni who took it the hardest. We laid Maya to rest in a scrap of soft fabric in the patch of daffodils we planted in the Fall, and we will remember her every time they bloom.

Wishing you blessings.

Jia

Image: Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net