Homemade ricemilk

In my never-ending quest to trim our food budget, I've turned my attention to ricemilk. We spend $5 per week on rice or almond milk, due to my younger daughter's dairy allergies. It adds up.

I came across a recipe for homemade ricemilk and thought, "I can do that!"

I used this recipe. I do not necessarily agree with the political sentiment of the blog, but I like how easy the recipe is.

I mixed two cups of brown rice and sixteen cups of water in a large pot. After bringing it to a boil, I let it simmer for three hours. For taste, I added 5 teaspoons-ish of salt and 1/2 cup of maple syrup. I ladled the mixture, spoonful by spoonful into a blender and cut it 50:50 with water. The ricemilk is stored in large mason jars.

My daughters don't like the milk as much as they like store-bought milk, but they will drink it and eat it in cereal. I could add more syrup, but I'd like to wean them off the sweet taste. I like it because we've saved a ton of money this way.

My next experiment will be making ricemilk in the crockpot, so I don't have to babysit the stove. Stay tuned!

Grown-up fish sticks

I just love Budget Bytes's blog. Her recipes are solid, delicious, nutritious and cheap. Fits all my criteria for a perfect meal.

Tonight we made grown-up fish sticks.

[Edited to add: I linked to the original recipe, but I wanted to make sure it was clear. This is Budget Bytes's recipe and I did not modify it at all.]

It was easy! In 30 minutes, I microwaved potatoes, made fresh bread, heated baked beans and fried the fish sticks. Here's what happened:

• Defrosted a package of frozen tilapia fish sticks in the fridge during the day
• Chopped the fish into halves and then thirds
• Dipped the fish into a flour/cajun pepper mixture, then into egg, then into panko, then into a hot, oiled pan
• Fried until golden. Flip and repeat. 

We tried this dairy-free tartar sauce. Essentially, I mixed mayonnaise, frozen dill, mustard and lemon juice and omitted the yogurt. It tasted like mayonnaise but was a good side.

Delicious!

Making your lemonade POP with a fruit infusion

This post is inspired by recipe hoarders original fruity lemonade. Thanks recipe hoarder! :)

This was a super-easy, kid approved drink!

I mixed lemonade from lemon juice as directed by the package. I poured a little lemonade into my mini Cuisinart and blended ~2 cups of frozen blueberries. Mix the pureed berries back with the lemonade.

The kids loved the sugar high. I loved adding whole berries to their sugary drink. This will be an excellent treat come summer.

Dairy and soy-free chocolate marshmallow pops

For Valentine's Day, E and I surfed Foodgawker and this recipe caught her eye. It was easy to make, kid friendly and tasted like chocolate peeps on a stick. Definitely sugar overload for me, but I think E could have eaten the whole plate.

 

Recipe: 

6 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate

1 TB lard or other approved baking oil

4-6 TB powdered sugar

1 container of sprinkles

1 bag of marshmallows

1 bag of popsicle sticks. 

Melt the chocolate and oil/lard over a double broiler. I used a pan in a pan. When melted, add chocolate to taste.

 

Remove the sweet chocolate from the pan and place in a shallow dish. Place the sprinkles in a separate dish.

Stick the marshmallow on a stick and roll in the chocolate, then roll in the sprinkles.

Run around like a maniac when on a sugar high. Regret giving your young children 5 pops to eat. Enjoy!