Sunflowers!

They can be tall, short, or in between, yellow, orange or red, ornamental or edible. It’s a summer favorite of young and old alike and hopefully there’s room in your garden for at least one helianthus annuus, more commonly known as the sunflower.

Sunflowers are easy to grow to from seed. Simply sow them directly into the soil where you want them to grow. Give them rich soil, ample water and with plenty of sunshine, they’ll do the rest. If you don’t want to go the seed route, many nurseries offer sunflower seedlings, some already in bud.

Sunflowers can be categorized by ornamental types or those with edible seeds. Ornamentals, those best suited for cutting, are generally more compact and branching with a wide range of colors and names: Lemon Eclair, Prado Red, Velvet Queen and Cinnamon are just a few available for the home garden.

When selecting flowers for cutting, choose blooms that are barely showing any color as these will last longer. Cut the stem at a 45 degree angle anywhere between 1 and 1 1/2 feet from under the flower head. Immediately place in a vase of water. Once cut, sunflowers can last in water from 6 to 12 days providing the water is replaced every 3 days and the water level kept full.

The giant sunflowers, aptly named Mammoth, grow from a single stalk with big faces of golden yellow petals, brown centers and gray and white striped seeds. To harvest the seeds, wait until the petals drop and the seed kernels swell. Preserving the flower head is crucial: provide some kind of covering around the head such as a mesh or paper bag so the birds and squirrels don’t make off with the seeds! Cut the stalk at the base when the seeds have a hard shell. Let the seeds completely dry before eating or using in a bird feeder.

Debra Togliatti has her own gardening business: Weed It and Reap: Garden Restoration and Design and is a teacher who gets young children involved in gardening and nature experiences. She lives in the Bay Area of Northern California.

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Last week, our Co-founder, Julie, was interviewed by Lisa Kanarek, author and founder of workingnaked.com about how to market your home-based business on a shoestring. Here is an excerpt from Lisa’s insightful blog:

Marketing your home-based business can be challenging and frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. In (this) Working Naked post, a few entrepreneurs shared their low-cost, highly effective ways to market their businesses on a budget. A few more entrepreneurs share their marketing secrets.

“Unpaid public speaking is a fantastic way to drum up new business. Associations and Chambers of Commerce are always looking for free speakers educate and entertain at meetings. You’ll make your money from the “back of the room” after the event selling products/services, getting referrals and booking more gigs.”

—Leslie Guria, SpeakingBonanza.com

Read the rest of this entry »

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If you keep the right ingredients on hand, grilled cheese sandwiches are the perfect solution to the “what’s for dinner” dilemma. I recently purchased a Panini press from William Sonoma (yes, big splurge for Mrs. Cheap). It has turned out to be a GREAT investment and has paid for itself many times over by decreasing the number of times we order out for dinner and I go out for lunch at my favorite sandwich shop. In my mind, nothing tastes better and a grilled, melty sandwich and I’ve found some great recipes on the internet for you yo use to expand your grilled cheese repertoire.

To start, our Co-founder, Julie, sent me this link because she knows I love grilled cheese. It’s called the Grilled Cheese Academy and is sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Board. Their sandwich called The Pilgrim is pictured in this article. It is a slice of heaven and health with cranberry sauce, dijon mustard, sage, turkey and spinach on wheat bread.

Next, I found that the Tillamook website also has some great takes on the grilled sandwich. Their traditional recipe called Centennial Grilled Cheese is the perfect “plain” grilled cheese while their Gourmet Grilled Cheese, sounds satisfying and yummy with olive tapenade, basil, roasted red peppers and bacon.

I’m not normally a huge fan of Kraft cheese (especially those plastic wrapped little slices of heart disease) but Kraft has a terrific looking recipe for a Grilled Mozzarella Sandwich on their site. They also have a rib-sticking good ham and cheese recipe with spicy pepperjack that you should try.

Enjoy our recipes and remember that every time you cook at home you increase your chances of decreasing the bottom-line on your family food budget.

Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
Rubbingnickels.com

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Did you know that Americans spend roughly 12% of their income on food?

According to Gary Foreman, who writes a blog called Financially Fit, a “great place to reduce our spending is in feeding ourselves” because you “buy food every day, and you can make small changes that won’t seriously affect your lifestyle”. Our website has been emphasizing this concept since our inception through our meal plans, coupons and recipes that encourage home cooking, but it’s nice to know that these kind of changes CAN make a big difference in your bottom line.

Mr. Foreman has two pieces of advice for those looking to save money on family meals. His first is to USE YOUR FREEZER. It seems like a “no-brainer” but his point is that if you cook multiple batches of meals (and freeze half) when you DO cook (i.e. a double batch of spaghetti and meatballs), it doesn’t take that much more effort. And in the end, you’ll have a simple and easy meal on another night that will keep you from busting your budget by ordering out.

Mr. Foreman’s other piece of advice regarding food also utilizes the freezer. He claims that each time you cook a meal, you should PACKAGE YOUR LEFTOVERS IN MEAL-READY SERVINGS on paper plates covered with zip-lock bags. Because we’re “eco” as well as “thrifty”, we’d suggest a freezable, microwavable plate and a gallon-sized zip-lock bag that could be reused, if rinsed. This gives you individual frozen dinners for when members of your family straggle in at different times from all their events. This is an idea that truly rubs nickels and should help keep you and your family members out of the drive-thru or take-out line.

Let’s hope these strategies can get your 12% down to 10%…

Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
Founders, Rubbingnickels.com

Reference: G. Foreman, “Financially Fit”, a Yahoo Finance Blog, May 13, 2010.

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