Pumpkin Whip Pie

I recently had a huge taste for pumpkin, but wanted a light low fat recipe that would leave little guilt about what I ate. 

Here's my recipe for Pumpkin Whip Pie:

2 containers of fat free cool whip.
2 large boxes of fat free, sugar free instant vanilla pudding
1 can of pumpkin
1tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ginger
dash nutmeg
2 Tbl Sugar
Graham cracker crust

Whip up everything but the crust, spread in crust, refridgerate for 2 hours, enjoy! 

Simple, fast, easy, delightful!

What Soup Was Made For

Somewhere in the last 20 years, with the advent of the Food Network, I think I stopped thinking about food in my pantry as a cumulative to be used together, but as a series of ingredients to fit whatever recipe I had.  If I didn't have what was in the recipe, I either went to the store to get the ingredients, or I didn't make the recipe.  But now that Greg and I are grocery shopping once a week, and not going out to eat, it's forcing me to look at the items in my pantry differently.  Now I look at items to see what recipes I can create.  So here's to the leftover ingredients that I had and the delicious Black Bean Soup that I made. 

(We've been keeping a bag or two of beans in the house, and then we soak them overnight, boil them, and use them for various things all week.  Black Beans were what we used this week.  The baby loves to eat beans which provide him with protein, and we love having more protein in our meals too!  We're also doing this with pasta too!)

Black Bean Soup-- From leftovers.

1 onion sliced (not left over)

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (not left over)

2 cups of black beans ready to use

1 cup of peas

2 cups of pasta

3 strips of leftover bacon

2tsp of Italian Seasoning

1/8 tsp of cumin powder

add pepper to taste

2 chicken bullion cubes

Saute onion, and add tomatoes stir add chicken bullion cubes, then add 2 cups of black beans, and peas and 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Add cooked pasta, bacon and spices. let simmer for 10-20 min.  And Voila!    A simple soup made from leftovers, and the flavors were wonderful! 

I'm finding that I'm absolutely enjoying trying to stretch every penny out of my pantry!  :) 

Time is money

If time is money, that means that when we chose to spend our money on things/people/stuff/food/ fill-in-the-blank-here that means we're also choosing to spend time away from what we love in order to pay for what we chose to spend our money on.  So if we manage our money poorly, we're managing time poorly.

Thanks to TheSimpleDollar.com for pointing this out to me. 

I've also learned that if you don't value your time, you don't value your money or your stuff.  I never thought the two were so closely related. 

If time is money, and I have exchange my time for money, then a penny saved is a penny earned-- and probably a couple of minutes too.  This perspective on time and money management is making me rethink everything I choose to spend my time-- money on.  I'm thinking that I need to make sure that I spend both time and money wisely and focused around what I love instead of frivolous things I think I need.

Here's an example:  Starbucks.  One grande per week.  $4.55 for 52 weeks is literally a day and half of work for me.  I don't want to work a day and a half to drink Starbucks.  I'd rather work a day and a half to go on a great date with my husband or save for a vacation.  Starbucks out.  A penny saved is a penny earned.  Well, $236. 60 worth of pennies!  :)  I've been going through my head and thinking of all the ridiculous stuff that I spend-- waste-- my money on, and those things are out too.

I broke down my entire budget by how many days I have to work in order to pay for certain things-- like the mortgage, electricity, etc.  It's making me rethink how I spend all of my money.  I'd like to be able to spend my money on what I chose to spend it on.  I'll get there.  Baby Steps.  Realization is the biggest part of the battle. 

At this point, I'd like to give a shout out to my Creator for helping me to see all of this and answering my prayers.  You're an Amazing God.  Thank you for caring for me!