Last year my boys and I came up with this simple and frugal teacher gift idea. We wanted to give nice gifts that were still affordable. Since we have multiple school age children, often with more than one teacher, this can add up quickly. And we can't forget our Sunday school teachers!
To start, I bought lots of Christmas coffee mugs from my favorite local thrift store. I think I paid around 10 cents a mug. You can find really cute mugs in thrift stores for a fraction of the retail price and they wash up just fine. In fact my favorite mug (I always use it if it is clean) is a Christmas mug I bought at the thrift store.
Here's a glimpse at our real-life crazy looking house that day. All you need is some goodies for your mugs like cocoa packets, candy canes, chocolate mints, tea bags, etc. You can even add small bags of homemade candy if you like and if it fits your budget you can add $5 gift cards for your local coffee, donut, or pastry shop.
Tie gift tags on with ribbon and use some filler or put in gift bags for easy wrapping and a nice presentation.
What are your favorite simple and frugal teacher gift ideas?
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I love to eat healthy fresh foods like salads, but as the temperature drops, I find myself craving warm comfort foods like soups, casseroles, and breads. While these can be healthy, I notice a decreasing amount of fresh vegetables grace our table this time of year.
The key for me is finding fresh vegetables that I love to cook and eat. Some of my favorites this time of year are carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, cabbage, acorn squash, butternut squash, and sugar snap peas. Sugar snap peas are pretty much my favorite all year long, but they can be a bit pricier so I keep my eye out for the marked down packages. I never pay full price for sugar snap peas because in my local stores, they run $5 to $6 a pound, but when they mark them down 50% or more, I snatch them up. They are usually packaged in the produce section with a sale by or use by date so when they get close to that date, the store marks them down. I use within a day or two of purchase and they are always fresh and delicious.
Since shrimp are on the pricier side too, when I see a deal I buy a pound or two for the freezer. Some of my favorite shrimp recipes are Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo and Shrimp and Grits. I like to buy raw shrimp for recipes so there is less chance I will overcook them. I am almost always multi-tasking in the kitchen since I have four kiddos so any help in the "not overcooking department" is always appreciated.
Slightly sweet and savory with just a little kick, you will love these honey lime shrimp with sugar snap peas. So much flavor in the sauce...pour it over the rice to soak into every delicious bite!
Honey Lime Shrimp with Sugar Snap Peas
1 pound medium or large raw shrimp 1/2 cup olive oil ¼ cup honey Juice and zest of 2 limes 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp salt ¼ to ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper ¼ to ½ tsp red pepper flakes 1 pound fresh sugar snap peas Hot cooked rice for serving 1. Thaw shrimp in a colander under running water. Then peel off shells. Most shrimp is deveined when processed, if not, remove veins. Set shrimp aside. 2. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a Zipper seal bag or plastic container. Add the shrimp. Refrigerate for ½ an hour or more. 3. Heat a large skillet or wok to medium high. Then add the shrimp, marinade and sugar snap peas. Cook until the shrimp turns a creamy pink color. Serve over rice.
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If you have paid any attention to the news, you have probably heard that egg prices are expected to go up in the near future due to the avian flu outbreak that has been spreading through the US and really hitting the midwest. Reports are in that 44 million chickens and other birds have already been culled.
This is starting to impact food companies who buy wholesale "breaker" eggs and whole eggs which could raise prices on anything from mayonnaise to baked goods. I read that some restaurants have even cut the hours they serve breakfast because of the higher egg prices. I expect prices for whole eggs to increase at the retail level too. Eggs are a big part of our diet, but they have been so inexpensive that they haven't taken a very big chunk of our grocery budget. With the news of prices going up in the near future, I decided to take advantage of the current low prices and stock up and freeze eggs for future use. I stopped in ALDI today and was pleased to see that eggs are still just $0.28 a dozen. You read that correctly, $0.28 a dozen!!! There is a limit of 6 dozen, so I bought 6.
What can consumers do to offset the increasing costs of eggs?
I hope egg prices don't sky rocket in the near future, but if they do, I'll be prepared (at least for a short term price hike). Have you seen increases yet?
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Enchiladas are a hit in our house. They are one of my go-to meals when I have leftover shredded meat and rice to use up. My husband and I are pretty good about eating leftovers, but it is a lot easier to sit down as family when there is a hot meal on the table. The kids aren't as good about leftovers so whenever I can turn the leftovers into something new, I do it.
Easter Sunday we had a fresh ham roast (uncured) that was rather large so we had lots of leftover pork roast. I made "new meals" throughout the week using the leftover pork. We had pork fajitas, pork carnitas, and pork enchiladas all from the same leftover ham roast. This easy enchilada recipe has actually been on the blog for a while, so you may have seen it before. Most of these old posts need some updating so I decided to do just that.
I made pork fajitas just like my chicken fajitas recipe, I just added chopped cooked pork to the vegetable saute after the vegetables had mostly cooked. To make pork carnitas, I just put the leftover pork in the crockpot with 2 cans of real sugar soda on high all afternoon then shredded it to make pork carnitas. Inspired by this recipe. I then used the leftover shredded pork from the pork carnitas and leftover rice that I served with pork fajitas to make easy enchiladas.
We enjoyed our Easter fresh ham roast, then had three new meals from the leftover pork roast throughout week. We had four different meals from the same pork roast for a family of six.
For convenience I use canned refried beans or black beans when making enchiladas. They work well in this recipe, just make sure to rinse the black beans first. It's super easy to make your own shredded chicken too. Just put a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts in a small crockpot on low all day (covered in water) then take them out and shred them for this recipe. Add your favorite seasonings to the chicken after shredding if you like.
Actually this is a great use for leftover chicken or beef too. Leftover shredded meat = easy enchiladas.
Ingredients:
(Pick and choose the filling ingredients you like) Shredded chicken, beef, or pork (leftover meat works great) Refried beans Black beans Cooked rice Shredded or crumbling (queso) cheese 6 to 8 large flour tortillas (burrito size works well) Salsa and/or Enchilada sauce 1. Prepare a 9 X 13 pan by spreading a thin layer of salsa or enchilada sauce in the pan. 2. Fill tortillas with shredded chicken, refried or black beans, rice, shredded cheese, etc. and roll them up placing them seam side down in the baking pan. Sometimes I fold two sides in a little before rolling up to help keep everything inside. Sometimes I just roll them up so whatever suits you. Six to eight should fit nicely in the pan. 3. Drizzle more salsa or enchilada sauce over the prepared tortillas. Then sprinkle more shredded cheese on top. 4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.
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Welcome to Home Ec @ HomeHi, I'm Faith, a former Family and Consumer Science teacher turned food blogger. I love God, my family, and food. You can usually find me in the kitchen preparing family friendly, homemade recipes and taking lots of pictures. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesFan Favorites
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