Low Budget Healthy Family Meals

Easy homemade soups . Cream soup recipe here. Beef, chicken, and vegetable stocks.
Bouillon, Broth, and Stock on a budget. I've not tried this, but Living a Better Life mentions that using a pressure cooker can save money on utilities when cooking broths, stocks or other foods which require longer cook times.

More helpful budget recipe tips here. Explains how to cut corners on staples and save money.

Better Times living, cooking and recipes - encouraging slow food, frugal recipes and slow living. Lots to read.

Cooking the whole chicken recipes.

USDA Food Stamp Nutrition Connection Recipe Finder. Includes nutrition facts, cost per serving/recipe, and lets you add recipes to a printable shopping list. Here is an example of a recipe: Master Baking Mix from an Oregon Extension Service which is .21 cents per serving. Depending on where you live, some of the estimated prices per serving may be a little inflated. I think I could purchase these items at my Save-A-Lot grocery store for less than .21 cents per serving.

Free Primary Grade Lesson Plan and Printables for Each Month of the Year

This primary school teacher's periodical for January - December 1905 had some really cute monthly ideas for the lower grades. There are stories, blackboard suggestions(printable blackline pictures), poems, cutting and pasting activities, nature and drawing lessons, games, and much more. The month of March can be found on pages (111- 154)

To print page by page, simply right click on the image of the page and "save picture" or "print picture". You can also download the entire periodical to a PDF file(see top of sidebar at link).

To browse some of the pages, click here and then click on more for Selected pages. There are some super pictures for blackboard drawings done on a grid for easy copying. I'd use these for drawing lessons, coloring, or for a month by month notebook or lapbook. Look at this pretty one for May:

Free Kindergarten Printables and Lesson Plans for March

The Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents(1899), DRAWING, CUTTING, PAPER FOLDING AND PAPER TEARING FOR MARCH, pages 263-267, includes a winter story. The entire book is downloadable as well. This is a vintage book in public domain. Click here. To print after you click through to the book, just right click on the picture of the page, and "print picture".

I used Google Picassa to edit these blackline pictures. By cropping select pictures and printing with the Picassa print button, I was able to get enlarged copies of these images. I'm sure there are other ways to do this...I just couldn't find it using my printer. These blackline pictures are cute for coloring and cutting out. Browse through the table of contents; there are blacklines and activities for other months during the school year.

The Official Ramen Homepage(Ramen Recipes)

Click on title.

Tasty Variations of Rice and Bean Recipes

Click on title.

Six Days of Economical Chicken Recipes

Click on title.

Miserly Moms Frugal Recipes

Some of these recipes could be made even more cheaply by making your own ingredients instead of buying store bought items. For instance, cream of(insert)soup is easily made at home. To make cream of(insert)soup simply make a white sauce and add the main ingredient. Add some mushrooms for cream of mushroom, or a chicken bouillon cube for cream of chicken. You could extend this to any type of vegetable soup.

Recipes from Ladies on the Blogroll

Some really yummy looking recipes from ladies on my blogroll this week:

Spicy Chickpea Soup

Chicken Croquettes with homemade mushroom soup.

Mrs B's Chicken for Soft Tacos

Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

A Little Snow Shoveling Angel...

for my friends and readers in the colder latitudes. Feel free to pass this along...just leave a link back. :)

Daffodil(AKA: Lent Lily) Stories, Poems and Activities by Grade, Some Lesson Plans

Free printable stories, poems, (some with comprehension questions), games, and activities from vintage readers in public domain at Google Books. To print stories, follow link, right click on image of page and print image, not page.

Flower Children picture book.

Illustrated kindergarten Poem: Spring's Call to the Garden

Kindergarten verse, learning the months: The Garden Year

Second grade: A Daffodil Story

Second grade Christian reader: Spring with spelling

Third grade English: Poem, with questions and written exercise

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth(Poem only) Elementary and up.

Early Elementary game: Buttercups and Daffodils,and here as well in Ring Games and Frolics: The Game of Flowers. Similar to London Bridge.

Teacher curricular and activity suggestions for Wordsworth's poem, The Daffodils.

Early elementary: Teacher's manual for spring bulbs(plant section)

Lesson plan: Flowers for children over six.

Kindergarten: Children's embroidery pattern.

Kindergarten: Nature's Awakening. Bible study and lessons-John 12:24 and Cor. 15:55-57 with daffodil bulb.

Art, fourth grade: Drawing a daffodil

Prang's elementary teacher's manual for spring flowers. Third grade.

Fourth grade Catholic reader: Daffodils with questions and spelling.

Fifth grade reader: spring poem with comprehension questions.

Middle School: March, a poem

Seventh grade reader: The Daffodils by Wordsworth with questions.

Eighth grade reader: Persephone

High school: Of Gardens, by Francis Bacon(flowers, not specifically daffodils) no questions, just vocabulary.

Middle school - high school: Comstock's cultivated plant study, The Daffodils and Their Relatives.(Charlotte Mason)

Middle school - high school: Daffodils in March by R. Macaulay Stevenson and an Irish Poem, one by Robert Herrick, and here The First Daffodil, The Lent Lily or Lent Pitcher of Devonshire.(poetry only)

Middle school: Flower names

Middle school: Botany for Children: The Daffodil

Simple music sheets: Call of the March Wind

Free Printable Short Stories, Audio Read-Along Option with Mini-Worksheets

3/3/08 Update: Sites were down over the weekend, but they are up again. Also I found another site which offers Lit2go audio files - Learn Out Loud.com, but no printouts.

Lit2Go has reformatted short vintage stories from public domain texts in a printable PDF along with a human read optional audiobook. There are short lessons as well. I make my own story sheets by copying and pasting vintage texts or portions of texts(see my library ) into Google Documents, but the audio reading is a great bonus! The reader is very clear and pleasant.

This is a great literature supplement source for preschool - early elementary(K- grade 3). The data base is searchable by grade, title, key words and author. There are a few stories/poems for other grades as well, all the way through grade 12.

I'm working on making my own book(binder) with these free print outs; I'll burn the audio onto a CD to make it a read-along. I'm putting together a read-along preschool- K book with nursery rhymes for my daughter. A very neat resource.


This site also offers free clipart for school children. Basically they have collected and reformatted vintage online public domain book images(black and white) and categorized them. I recognized quite a few of these. It's a handy resource for everything related to learning. I love their categories. If you want to retrieve the original public domain images(not copyrighted), go to Google Books and try searching for it. Lit2Go indicated that the images are copyrighted because they cleaned them up a bit, therefore making them original work. I think they look the same(!), but the site does offer the convenience of not having to search for images yourself.

Up to fifty images are free without a license.

Reusing Vintage Calendars

Here's a handy chart for determining which calendar years repeat each other. For 2008, the following calendar years are the same: 1924, 1952, and 1980. A nice way to recycle and enjoy a vintage calendar. If I find any vintage calendars matching 2008 that are free and in public domain, I'll post them.Here is another site, the perpetual calendar which indicates that the years: 1828, 1856 and 1884 are also the same as 2008.

1884: Kate Greenaway Calendar

1950 Calendar










There are few matching years for sale on ebay, Ruby Lane and Wagglepop.

Also search for calendar towels...Vera made some pretty ones in the 1980's. They can be easily hung on a wooden dowel. Here is a 1980 linen one at Ruby Lane of a Kitchen Prayer. I also saw one there with owls.

Couch Recover Finished

We purchased a long thin drop cloth to cover the cushions, thereby finishing off our couch makeover. We laid the drop cloth underneath,







placed the cushions on top, folded over and tucked in the excess. It fit very well. I have two throw pillows which match the original couch. I'd like to cover them with a heavy vintage 1970's green table cloth. That earthy green rough cotton will look great with this couch. That's a project for another week.

Free Printable Children's Short Story: The Little Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson

Entire text on one page here. I like this because it's much easier to right click, "select all" and paste it into a word processor for editing out non-story elements(site headings, etc.) before printing.

At Google Books:
Pages 102-111 of The Pink Fairy Book here at Google Books. Three printing options at the site: right click and save each page, revert to plain test(top sidebar) and then copy and paste, or download the entire book.

Homemade Shell Christmas Ornaments

We live near the beach and I like to gather shells as we walk along the beach. I have jars and jars of them, so for the last few years we've been making shell ornaments. This is an easy children's craft.

Materials:
Shells(found or store bought)
Glue
Clear spray
Glitter
Paint(any) and small paint brush
Drill with thin bit
Ornament hanger or ribbon

We try to select shells which have natural holes so we don't need to use a drill. The large oyster shells rarely have natural holes, so we use a very thin bit and drill a hole through the top. Then it's just a matter of watering down some glue, painting the shell with it, and rolling it in glitter. Sometimes we also use some children's paint in the glue to add a little highlight to the glitter. To finish it off, spray with a clear spray paint, let it dry and thread some string or a hanger through the hole.

These shells really look glittery on the tree with the lights. We plan to add long pieces of coral next year, like icicles. I also see a lot of sea glass, but I've not tried to drill a hole through it yet - too afraid of broken glass.


See more craft ideas at:

Also visit Works-For-Me-Wednesday Carnie.

Frugal Couch Makeover: Easy Slip Cover

One of our couches is at least twelve years old. It is a Klausner which is good quality, so it's held up well. The couch is now in the children's den, and the cat likes to scratch it. Our slip cover was ten years old, and had to go. The elastic was shot and the fabric thin and stained. It never quite fit the couch even though it was the largest size that I could find. The cat managed to take advantage of this and scratch the heck out of the back and sides.

We solved the problem this week by staple-gunning a huge drop cloth over it. We did not cover the seat cushions. My husband stapled the front first by turning the couch up on it's back. He stapled under about five inches of fabric to the wood frame, and then brought it up and over the back. We folded fabric artistically around the arms and stapled the sides and back into the wood frame. The staples on the sides are hidden under folds of fabric.

We'll purchase a smaller drop cloth to cover the two big seat cushions. I'll be tucking these under for easy removal and washing.

It looks like duck cloth, and it stays in place. We tested the couch cover by having the children jump all over it, and it's staying in place. The drop cloth cost under $25.00. It's strong and durable fabric which should wear well. I also think the cat will be less likely to scratch it. He never scratched the slip cover, but he loves nubby couch fabric.

Note: We don't have big stains on the carpet. Not sure why but the camera made it look as if we have black mold in the corner.

See more ideas at Make It From Scratch #42

Update: Finished couch here.

More Free Printable Vintage Christmas E-Texts

Christmas Potpourri: Holiday Etexts:

"Join the Cratchits and Ebenezer Scrooge in Victorian London, or the March family in Civil War-era New England. Share in the celebrations of the Peppers or the Peterkins, the Bobbseys or the Birds. Take another look at Francis Pharcellus Church's stirring defense of Santa Claus's existence, then enjoy L. Frank Baum's biography of Santa and Clement Clarke Moore's classic poem about Santa's nocturnal visit.

Try to solve a Christmas-themed Sherlock Holmes mystery, or shed a tear or two over Hans Christian Andersen's pathos-filled tale of the poor little match girl. Read about Christmas with the Pilgrims, or with the Teddy Roosevelts in White House."

Note: Some of the links to Black Mask are not working because Black Mask has been resurrected as Munseys.

Also check here and here.

Feel free to visit my other blog for free texts as well: Happy Hearts Free Homeschooling Library.