Fruit Trees

If you have the opportunity to plant fruit trees (or any kind of food producing plant), you should. Not only do you get wonderful fresh food, but you also get to experience getting back to nature. Plus, it’s an excellent way of teaching children about the amount of work that goes into farming. Not to mention the benefits of sharing your crop with friends and neighbors, or those in need.

Keep in mind you don’t necessarily need a large amount of space to do some gardening, either. Some vegetables can be grown in containers on a patio and there are often miniature versions of fruit trees.

Denture Tablets

I always keep a box of cheap denture tablets on hand.

Not only do I use them to periodically clean my mouth guard, I toss them into pots and pans with stuck-on food. Often, the tablets will help loosen the gunk.

Plus, they smell good, so sometimes I use them just to freshen up plastic ware.

One box lasts for years, so it’s a cheap cleaning investment.

For Poetry Lovers

If you love poetry, keep an eye out for used college literature text books. They often have entire sections devoted to poetry throughout the ages. You can read a wide variety of authors, and the work is often accompanied by textbook explanations of the material. Often, there is an introduction to the author’s work which explains the context within which the poetry was written.

Another benefit to using old textbooks for poetry reading is you can annotate guilt free. You aren’t marking up a brand new (and often pricey) collection of poetry.

Cookie Cutter Fun

To add a quick hit of fun to children’s packed lunches, once in a while use cookie cutters on their sandwiches. My mom used to do this with peanut butter sandwiches, and my brother and I swear they tasted better!

Also, my Ron has shared stories of making sandwiches out of various mixtures of jelly, peanut butter, Nutella, marshmallow cream, etc and then cutting them in half into bizarre haphazard shapes (including taking a circle out of the middle). I’m not entirely sure his boys enjoyed this practice, but it seems to have greatly amused Ron.

Stickers on sandwich baggies are also a nice midday touch.

And as long as we’re on the subject of school lunches, sometimes if we were out of bread, mom would use biscuits instead, and they were pretty good!

Maps

Do you know those free maps you can pick up at rest stops? They are great for kids’ art projects! Paint the tread on some of their toy cars and let them drive over it for cool track marks. Or, they can practice their pencil/crayon control by trying to trace over the lines. Not to mention, all of this gets children thinking about maps and how to read them.

To include adults, those maps also make cool artwork to hang on a wall. Especially if it is a place you’ve visited. You can jot a few notes on the map before hanging or include pics of you and your friends.

Coconut Oil

Do you ever pick up a list of ingredients for a recipe and end up with one of them you never use again? ((I’m lookin’ at you lemon curd!))

My mom and I were talking on the phone the other day and I realized she had one of those ingredients on her hands. Coconut oil.

The thing is…I use massive amounts of coconut oil, ‘cause I like popcorn. So here’s my quick tip I shared with her, and now I’m sharing it with you… if you’ve never tried coconut oil for popcorn, give it a whirl. Especially if you have it sitting around from another recipe. It adds a little something to the flavor. Once I tried it, I never went back. Plus, a quick internet search shows it has tons of other uses.

(Oh, and if you couldn’t tell, this tip is for the folks who like to make popcorn on the stove top or with some device that requires oil.)

Frozen Veggies

I love frozen veggies! My freezer is full of them. Besides eating them on their own, I also toss them into canned soups to give them more bulk and flavor. I do the same for salads. Often, I’ll cook more than I need so I have leftovers for quick add-ins to other meals.

You get it. I throw veggies into everything! This one is simple.

For folks who garden, I’ve watched one or two neat videos on how to freeze your own stuff, particularly corn. Look for videos on how to handle/process your vegetables and fruit. Most importantly, read the comments to find out if what is suggested actually works. Sometimes the people in the comments come up with improvements on the methods which are genuinely useful.

Take note that what I’ve said here has two layers. I’ve talked about how to use store bought frozen vegetables and how to look into making use of what you might have grown. I did that on purpose. Often, I feel like people think if they don’t do something from scratch, then it isn’t authentic. Phooey on that!!! If tossing in a handful of veggies into a pre-made mix makes you feel like a champion chef, then go for it! Life is about what works for you and makes you feel good about who you are, not anyone else. Jump in and enjoy yourself at any level!