spices. they dont have to be expensive.

spices. theyre pretty dang important if you want your food to not taste like crap. i mean really, have you ever tried cooking without spices (or eaten dinner at someones house that for some reason doesnt season anything)? without spices, EVERYTHING tastes like sadness and disappointment. this gets even worse when, like us, youre really poor and basically just eating rice and beans and eggs and potatoes all the time. thanks to the magic of spices, its actually pretty easy to take simple ingredients and turn them into a delicious meal. 

but heres the problem: if youve ever been down the spice aisle of the grocery store, you know that for some stupid, stupid reason, spices cost millions of dollars (ok, like, 4-6 dollars for each little bottle). any time one of my friends is getting ready to get married/move out i ALWAYS tell them "get ready for those first few grocery trips to be CRAZY expensive, because until you collect ALL THE SPICES, every new recipe is an automatic $20". 

but really, it doesnt have to be like that. there are actually quite a few ways that you can get around spending all your money on spices (while still, you know, having them so your food isnt terrible). basically, stay as far away from the spice aisle at the grocery store as you possibly can. but more specifically:

1. invest in an already-filled spice rack. 

heres a good one from target. now i know what youre thinking, its almost $50, and do you really need all of those spices. the answer is yes, eventually you probably will (though i think there are a couple of weird ones on our spice rack that i havent opened yet), and $50 for 20 bottles really isnt that bad when you consider that the average grocery store price is $5 each and buying each one individually would cost about $100. plus, now you have a handy little storage solution for all your little spice bottles. now, even the best spice rack wont have everything and you will have to buy spices sometimes, BUT its a good starting point. 

2. dollar stores. 

dollar stores really have a lot more to offer than we usually give them credit for, and most of them have a fairly decent selection of spices. theyre not always the best quality, but they work. since we have a dollar tree within walking distance of our apartment, a lot of our spices come from there. 

3. the bulk bins at sprouts. 

this is something i just found out about. im really not a big fan of buying new containers of things that im just going to use to refill the containers i already have (it just feels way too wasteful), so when our pepper mill ran out, i was really happy to find that at sprouts i could get just a bag of enough peppercorns to refill my grinder instead of buying a whole new grinder. also, since youre buying by the ounce, you only have to pay for what youre actually going to use. 

4. ethnic grocery stores.

if you live in an area that has them, and you have a little extra time on your hands, this is SO worth it. right after james and i got married i found out that the only curry powder available was $5 for a small jar that made lentil stew exactly twice. on our first visit back to california i made sure we went to the local indian grocery store by my old house and we got a HALF POUND bag of curry powder for $3.50. we still havent used it up. 

5. trader joes. 

ok, so trader joes doesnt have everything (actually their selection of spices is pretty small), BUT everything they do have is $1.99. which, yeah, its twice as much as the dollar store, but the quality is fantastic (and its still less than half of what youd pay at the "regular" store)

and last but not least, 

6. the "ethnic aisle" of the regular grocery store. 

I'm sure youve seen those little baggies of spices hanging on the wall over by the tortillas and stuff, right? well those are the exact same spices that are over in the spice aisle and there usually about $1 or so each (and usually theres more in the bag than in the little jars). the only thing though is that once the bags are open, theyre open. and you need to have some kind of container to offload them into (like, the empty spice jars youre replacing or baby food jars or small tupperware or really anything you can imagine so really there isnt much of a problem. 

so thats all i have to say about spices today. is there anything i missed? do you have any super secret tips for getting cheap spices? if so, id love to hear them!

gluten free mac and cheese recipe.

so a few months ago i wrote this post about finally getting to make a decent gluten free mac and cheese, and since its now become a staple meal in our rotation ive figured out a few little tweaks to make the gluten free version as delicious as possible. also i found these at the 99 cent store:

so now i can make it with a bread crumb topping:

but seriously, i am SO excited to share this recipe with you, because being gluten free is terrible, but this macaroni and cheese will make you forget about that. at least, until its gone and you think about how nice it would be to have a sandwich...

anyway, heres the gluten free version of my worlds best mac and cheese recipe (which btw, is probably my most popular recipe on pinterest)

mac and cheese
ingredients:
1/2 pound of gluten free noodles in the shape of your choice (im a big fan of brown rice noodles because theyre cheapest and im allergic to corn)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sweet rice flour (NOT white rice flour, you can get it here for a pretty decent price)
1 cup milk
approx. 2 cups shredded cheese, cheddar or jack work best (this is totally a guess, i never measure how much cheese i use and its really up to your preference)
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
gluten free seasoned breadcrumbs (optional, i used ians gluten free panko, you can get them here)
truffle oil (entirely optional)

start by preparing your noodles according to the package directions, drain and put them in a large casserole dish (note: watch your noodles VERY closely and drain them while theyre still a bit firm, gluten free noodles get mushy FAST). next, melt the butter in a small pot over medium/high heat, once its melted add the rice flour and stir until a smooth paste is formed, this will only take a minute or so as the rice flour is VERY absorbent. now slowly whisk in the milk, and stir in some salt, black pepper, and garlic powder to your preference (i like a pinch of salt, and kind of a lot of pepper and garlic, but thats just me). keep stirring the sauce until it thickens and starts to boil (again, watch it carefully as the rice flour thickens the sauce much faster than wheat flour), then remove from heat and stir in your shredded cheese until it stops melting and what you have looks like nacho cheese (actually, if you take this sauce and add some salsa it makes a GREAT healthy nacho dip). 
now that your sauce is done, pour it over the noodles and mix until everythings evenly coated. next, lightly sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the saucy noodles in the casserole dish, and top the breadcrumbs with a thin layer of shredded cheese, and add a drizzle of truffle oil if youre feeling fancy. bake at 350 until the cheese on top browns. 

and thats it! this is one of very, very few recipes that leaves me actually feeling full and satisfied for more than half an hour, i hope you like it as much as we do!

six things i bet you didnt know you could get from dollar stores.

dollar stores. until very recently i wasnt a big fan. if youve been following me for a long time you may remember this post where i unpack exactly why i tended to stay away. but since june (which feels like it was years ago), ive worked very hard at uber-streamlining my shopping habits so as to have more free time. and seeing that nowadays i basically dont have a job anymore, ive had a LOT more time (and a lot less money) to learn to appreciate the finer things that dollar stores have to offer. 

yes. i said finer things. at dollar stores. and im not kidding. in fact, ive complied a list of SIX totally unexpected things you can find at dollar stores, if you take the time to look. 

1. fresh produce. 99 cent stores typically have a pretty decent selection of fresh produce. its not always the most attractive produce, and you cant always count on them having exactly what you want all the time, but i regularly find fantastic deals on (normally super expensive) things like artichokes, asparagus, and strawberries. 

2. organic produce. yeah, that produce, sometimes its organic. not always, but ive gotten organic salad mixes and canned beans multiple times. 

3. wild-caught salmon filets. i knew you werent going to believe me about this one, so i took a picture:

these are 4 ounce salmon filets (actual filets, not leftover bits pressed into rectangles), and i got them at dollar tree. obviously, this salmon is frozen, and its not the best ive ever had, but its wild. and $4 a pound. which as far as i can remember is cheaper than i can usually get crappy salmon for at vons when its on clearance. 

4. booze. i think i mentioned in my other post that the 99 cent store has beer. well, recently theyve started carrying wine and even gluten free ciders. unfortunately neither of those is actually 99 cents (2.99 a bottle and 1.99 a four-pack, respectively), but still. 

5. free stuff. dollar tree takes manufacturers coupons. and they carry a surprising amount of brand-name items that you can get coupons for. and since everythings only $1, if you have a $1 off coupon, its free. this happens way more often than youd think, too. 

6. gluten free goods. ok, maybe this is only a big deal to me, because ive had this whole gluten free thing forced upon me and i literally can not afford $6 crackers. but heres a short list of gluten free things that i (or my mom) have gotten at the 99: bagels, pie crust, crackers, bread, pizza dough, cookie dough, panko crumbs and a bunch of stuff that i dont even remember. 

so thats what ive learned about dollar stores recently. 

whats the best thing youve ever found at a dollar store?

dollar stores.

generally speaking, i avoid dollar stores like the plague. i realize this is the exact opposite of whats expected of a poor person, but hear me out for a minute. first of all, ideologically speaking, id rather have fewer, higher quality items in our home and do my best to avoid spending our sparse resources on cheaply made disposable junk. second, practically speaking, id rather not add another store into my weekly shopping routing just in case i might save a couple bucks on some things that may or may not even be in stock (and is probably some weird smaller dollar store size). and lastly, speaking from experience, james and i are incapable of behaving like adults in a dollar store and a "quick trip" to grab a calculator and bug spray inevitably turns into wandering the store for an hour and spending $20 on beer (the 99 cent store near us has cans of sapporro for 59 cents), candy, cat toys, baby forks (even though we know we have enough baby forks) and a whole bunch of the exact kind of unneeded crap i spend most of the time trying not to buy (yes, this is a real thing that happened).

so i just stay away from dollar stores. and despite everyone telling me all the time about all the awesome stuff at the dollar store, i dont really miss it. one of the first important financial lessons i ever learned was that the cheapest thing isnt always actually the cheapest thing. i realize that doesnt really make much sense so heres an example: when james and i first got married i figured the cheapest place to get dish soap was the dollar store, well the thing was, the dollar store dish soap was terrible and only lasted like two weeks. so the next time i made the trek to target (which at the time was kind of far away) and spent $3.50 on a bottle of "real" dish soap. it lasted like four months. so if i had been using the dollar store soap that whole time, i would have spent $8 on soap, meaning that the "more expensive" soap was actually cheaper. and this doesnt just apply to dish soap, ive found its also true with toilet paper, pantyhose, printer ink, lipstick, and, well, almost everything. 

but sometimes we still really need some cheap, low quality dollar store things. like this week, when we decided that alice needed a clipboard to better facilitate on-the-go coloring, and even though i swear we have one somewhere, we couldnt find it. so when thursday turned out to be a gloomy morning with nothing to do, alice and i took a walk over to our local dollar tree. this is how she dressed herself for the outing (i feel i should add that the bag is FULL of stuff):

i like dollar tree because i recently found out they take manufacturers coupons, and most of the time theres at least a couple of items that are completely free (lots of coupon blogs will post the dollar tree coupon deals, but since every store is different, theyre not actually all that helpful). so in addition to the clipboard we needed (and the parmesan cheese i impulsively got to go with that nights dinner), i also got some free pretzels and taquitos. two bags of stuff for just $2 and tax? not bad, not bad at all. 

stay tuned for next week cause ive got lots of fun things planned!