21st Century Home Economics

 There are loads and loads of information available on the internet regarding health insurance. So I'm not going to get into that discussion.  Here’s something that no home economics class will teach. I’ve had to find out through countless phone calls and time on the phone. Don’t get me started on the elevator music I’ve had to listen to. And this is not limited to just one insurance company. I know of several that do this. When you get your list of doctors that are approved for a specific copay and there are several doctors in that practice. You need to check to see that the doctor you want is a preferred physician.  Never fall for the standard line: “ Doctor X is on the list, so everyone should be on the list” I just had my health insurer tell me this is not true. I’m not blaming them because they just don’t know. This insurer judges each individual according to what ever standards they set and decides if that Doctor is a preferred doc or not.  Finally someone open...

 Another time saving money hack. We use spam as a dinner meat about once a month. I have never been able to get my slices even. Until I tried a mandolin. Hello, where has this bin all my adult life. You only need to be careful at the very end. Make same size slice every time. I started pairing these with slider buns and cheese. I also use this mandoline when Hen I cut potato’s for potato chips.I have also used it for cheese. My home economics teacher would hit the roof, if she saw some of the choices I make for dinner. 

I discover this at the grocery store and it is a game changer. I normally make pizza once a week , in some form or another. I have been buying Walmart brand great value pizza sauce  for $1.20 for 14 oz and I never , ever use a whole jar and it gets wasted. Now a month or so ago I found this Hunts tomato sauce in an 8 oz can for .60 cents. Whattttttttt.  Get out of town. I used it instead of the pizza sauce I normally buy and no one in the family has noticed the difference. Yeah, yeah I could do the same thing by adding the spices my self to tomato sauce. Well that ain’t gonna happen and this is the best alternative.  But it only works because our family doesn’t a sauce heavy pizza. It’s all about saving money. Our favorite form of pizza is made with a roll of canned biscuits, sauce, cheese and pepperoni. An 8 count of biscuit yields 16 pizza cups. I use a muffin pan and make individual pizzas. I got the recipe here off Pinterest.  

 My home was built in the 1980’s and so it has this tiny little medicine cabinet in bathroom. I added baskets and file holders to my cabinet to make it easier to store stuff and to be able to store more. Think outside the box because that what home economists do. FYI - it really is not a good idea to store meds in the bathroom because of the heat and humidity. But this is an en suite bath, so the door never gets shut. 

Granted this kit is from my Etsy store but the principle is the same. Needle, thread, needle threader, tiny pair of scissors. Tape measure and a thimble if you are so inclined. This is a small enough kit that you can take it everywhere. My kid takes one of these on vacay with her.  If you need to know how to sew, YouTube is a wonderful thing.  

 I am the least mathematical person you will ever know. In order to get my degree I had to work an I internship. The owner  of the furniture store , I worked for taught me this simple trick. Because we sold furniture and it was always on sale. Remember, there were no cell phones back in the early eighties, so unless you wanted to carry a calculator around, you found ways to think on your feet.  He just shortened the whole process. Maybe we should be teaching these kids today, basic math skills they can use in todays world. Like discounts and making change. Seriously!

  Middle school Home Economics taught me to never crack an egg directly into your mix. Always, always crack each egg in a small bowl first. And then dump that egg into bowl.Why you ask? Because if you end up with a bloody egg or anything else gross, then you don’t ruin your batch of what ever you were cooking. My home economics teacher was a stickler for this rule. To this day some 50 years later, I still dirty up an extra bowl.  Sorry about the Easter eggs. It was the only picture of eggs I had.

  This how I do corn on the cob. Since only 2 out of four in this family  eat corn on the cob, while waste a gallon of water and the steam it creates on the stove top.  Instead I use the Tupperware steamer. I put 1/4 cup water into bottom pan and then steamer insert and then cover. Stick it in microwave for 8 min. Nice and steaming hot.  This steamer is widely available on the secondary market. Tupperware’s  newest version is like $129.00. Sorry I’m not spending that kind of money on something I use only during the spring and summer months.   I use to use the round steamer as well , I just prefer this long one because it lets me do more ears at a time , if I need to. Check all your online sellers. I’d recommend checking Poshmark because their shipping is gonna be more reasonable for this piece. 

 I use ground beef in a lot of my dinners. I try to buy the leanest cut to make it a healthier choice. So when I put the ground beef into skillet to brown it up, I hate sitting with a spatula and chopping meat up, so I let it fry up some and then use my potato masher to separate the ground beef into crumbles. It works better if your ground beef is partially cooked before you start with the masher. But now I’ve got a new non stick pan, I’m on the look out for a plastic one of these masher.  FYI I have been using a masher in my kitchen for 30 years.