It’s Wednesday night (hump day) and you don’t have a frozen pizza or lasagna for your Easy Day dinner. Instead of ordering out, take a quick assessment of your current pantry and fridge. Can you whip up a meal with what you have?
Many of us are stuck in the traditional “meat and potatoes with a salad” rut. Think outside the (pizza) box! If you make do with what you have, you can put the $20 for pizza in your Wish Jar. Here are a couple of our ideas for Waste-Not, Want-Not Meals.
What you have: canned tomatoes, canned corn, rice and shredded cheese What to make: Bake them together in a melty, vegetarian casserole.
Now that Spring Cleaning has rolled around, I REALLY miss my housecleaner. The level of cleanliness in my house leaves much to be desired and would be a challenge for any Mom: three soccer-playing boys (turf, grass and mud) and a super-shedding Shepherd (dirt, hair and torn-up stuffed animals). I fear have a monumental task ahead of me to get to the bottom of the dirt. But maybe if I enlist some “free” help, I’ll be able to get it done.
Free help? Yes, most of us have free help. Mine are lying on the sofa watching “24” as I write this blog. But what can my 9-, 11- and 40-year old boys do to help me out?
Cleaning Out the Refrigerator – A pair of kids, one young and one old can handle this. Talk to them about expiration dates and have them empty out the entire fridge. If you need to, you can do the wiping out but you’d be surprised what they can do if left to their own devices.
Washing the Windows, Inside and Out – This is a great father-son or father-daughter job. The little one can perch on the shoulders of the big person for the tops of those windows.
Late winter is the perfect time to start seeds indoor. You don’t need to have a greenhouse or green thumb: starting seeds are easy, fun and an economical way to get the plants you desire for your home garden. If you don’t have any experience, chances are your child has done this in school! All you need to start this project is good potting soil, containers and a spray bottle for watering and seeds!
Seed Starting Basics
To start your seeds indoors, you’ll need a potting soil mix (preferably a seed starting mix), containers for the seeds and whatever seeds you want to grow. Some seeds are best sowed directly in the ground in spring (sunflowers, for example) and others do better if just broadcast into the soil like California Poppies or wildflowers. Ideal seeds to start indoors are those hardy sun lovers like cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, corn or beans. Just about anything can serve as a container from egg cartons, plastic or clay pots just as long as it has drainage holes. Be “eco-thrifty” and creative!
Sometimes I think I started my own business, just so I wouldn’t have to create a new resume. How would I explain my outdated work experience? I barely even remember how to describe my former profession, and I certainly don’t have an old resume sitting around the house.
If you are in the same boat, help is on the way! We have done some online research for you and found that there is a whole new online world of resume creation with many alternatives for low-cost resume building assistance and free resume examples. The sites below will help you create the best resume for you and for the job you are interested in. You’ll be able to build a functional resume that focuses on your skills and experience, rather than a chronological resume, which is not putting your best foot forward if you have been out of the workforce for a time.
Our Cottage Industry tab features small business opportunities and budding entrepreneurs. This week, we’re talking to Catherine Lieber Shimony and Joan Shifrin about the Non-Profit Organization that they have started to help alleviate poverty and promote social justice by strengthening women-led development initiatives for marginalized communities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Tell us about your business: Global Goods Partners (GGP) is a nonprofit, fair trade, international development and education organization all tied into one. Essentially, we create opportunities to generate income for our global partners and help fuel our partners’ community development goals. The first step is identifying effective women-led community organizations (CBOs) with a strong development focus. These groups are at the forefront of creating positive social change within their communities. Once we have decided to partner with a CBO, then we provide technical assistance to both strengthen their community development programs and their micro-enterprise in craft development. GGP brings handcrafted products from the CBOs to the US marketplace which translates into income-generation for the women and their families as well as income for the CBO to support their community development/social change programs.
Why did you start this business? During our careers, my partner and I saw the real benefits to family and community that result when poor women are empowered by earning an income. We saw an opportunity to contribute to local organizations that support women’s empowerment and economic independence. We wanted to contribute to the sustainability of the important social change work being implemented by the women-led CBO’s while at the same time develop a sustainable livelihoods program for the women artisans who wanted to to continue with their traditional crafts.
What is your background? Catherine and Joan, the two co-founders, attended the same graduate school program in international affairs, JHU SAIS and pursued careers in international development mainly in the nonprofit sector but also with experience in the private sector.
What skills did you need to acquire for your new endeavor? Analytical skills, to think innovatively and creatively, management skills, cultural awareness and understanding, respect for your colleagues everywhere, and the confidence that your work makes a difference in people’s lives.
Biggest challenges? Growing our market share in this challenging economy.
What have you learned and advice to others? Trust your instincts. Try not to take on too much. It’s important to start small.
If you’d like to find out more about Global Goods Partners, visit their website at www.globalgoodspartners.org.
If you “Like to Cook”, you can make your own meatballs with our Italian-style Meatball recipe. If you’re in a hurry, use the store-bought ones we suggest.
1 32-oz. container chicken stock
1 ½ cups marinara sauce (Bertoli has great flavor)
1 12-oz. package frozen meatballs (Aidell’s has some great flavors)
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup chopped carrots
1 tsp. basil
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Bring stock and marinara to a slow boil. Reduce heat to low, add meatballs, onion, carrots and basil and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. Garnish with grated Parmesan and serve with garlic bread. Fast and easy!
My business partner, Julie, has been asking me to blog about Groupon and Snaglo for a couple of months. I have resisted because I knew that I was going to have to go online and spend some time poking around the sites before I would have anything helpful to say. In the end, they are both good ways to save, but they both, especially Snaglo, require you to spend quite a bit of time to save money.
For the month of March, Rubbingnickels.com is having a Newsletter Sign-up Sweepstakes. Sign up for our newsletter this month and we’ll put you in a drawing for the cookbook that was rated “Best Overall” on the Epicurious website for 2009. It is called New American Table and was written by Marcus Samuelsson, who is the star chef at Aquavit restaurant in New York City. If you are already signed up for our newsletter, get a friend to sign up and then send us an email to info at rubbingnickels.com to let us know who you referred. Winners will be notified by email on the 1st of April, 2010. Join up and we hope you win!
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