We have so been enjoying our JuiceMan juicer that we just got recently! Our old juicer had been so well-used that finally a part came off of it. We tried in vain to fix or replace this part–to no avail. We ended up deciding to retire it.
I'd been missing fresh juice ever since but we didn't have any extra in any of the appropriate budget categories to buy a new one. Well, guess what? Thanks to patiently waiting, I earned enough Swagbucks gift cards to be able to buy the JuiceMan juicer. But combining the Swagbucks gift cards with a deal and an online code, we got the above-pictured juicer without paying a penny out of pocket! I love it when I find a way to practice "creative frugality" like that.
This morning, I made apple/orange juice this morning using free organic oranges someone had given us and some of the bag of organic apples I picked up at the health food store yesterday for $0.99! Yum!
After I'd cleaned the juicer up and passed out the fresh juice, it was on to the next thing on my Baking Day list: cooking up the brown rice and wild rice. My uncle and aunt gave us a rice cooker for Christmas so I enjoyed trying that out this morning. I filled it to the max and am anxious to see how the rice turns out.
Once it's cooked, I'll use some of it in the spinach, brown rice, and cheese casserole and then freeze the rest in 2-cup portions. I use these to include in quick casseroles or crock pot meals or to serve as a side with dinner. Since brown rice takes fairly long to cook, having it pre-cooked and ready to thaw, heat, and eat is much easier for me.
Now I'm off to cook up sweet potatoes and make a big batch of waffles. Are you doing any baking today? If so, what are you making?
I thought I would sign up for Swagbucks. If you will send me a referral, I will use it. 🙂 sheila at sheiladoherty dot com.
Do you have a specific way to thaw & reheat the rice? It seems like it would get mushy or stick together.
Thanks,
Krista
I have never juiced anything but I am curious as to how many apples/oranges you have to juice for say an 8 oz glass?
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Money Saving Mom here:
I’d say about three–give or take depending upon the size. I usually juice approx. 3-4 oranges and 3-4 apples and it makes enough for all four of us–8 oz. servings for my husband and I and little 2-3 oz. servings for the girls.
Love, love, love my rice cooker!!! Did you know you can cook lentils or split peas in it? They use the same ratio of water to dry ingredient, and they take the same amount of time. Sometimes, I will measure out half lentils and half brown rice, throw in a can of diced tomatoes, and some seasoning, and have a dish that just needs some bread and salad. Or sometimes I put some broccolli or diced carrots in w/ the rice and then just stir in a little cheese when it comes out. The veggies just cook along w/ the rice.
More cooking than baking today:
Pumpkin Pudding in the crockpot
Whole chicken in the stockpot
Loaf of bread
Hard boiled eggs for egg salad
Actually…yes I am cooking today. I’m boiling and freezing sweet potatoes. My 19 month old loves canned sweet potatoes, but I hate paying the price for them. They are one of the more expensive canned veggies. We had a sale on fresh sweet potatoes 5 lbs for a $1. So I stocked up and am trying my hand at freezing them. I heard it’s not great to can them at home due to ickies that can grow due to their lack of acid…so freezing it is.
I *love* that you got the juicer using Swagbucks.
Truly awesome;)
I love brown rice, but have never cooked and frozen it. That would definitely be very helpful because there are times when I resort to white rice due to time limitations. My question is, “What do you do to reheat it after freezing it?” Thank you! Dixie
All this sounds so yummy. I work part time and on my work days I have to be constantly vigilant about prepping for dinner. Could someone please post a site of two that they love/use for freezer prep? I learn so much from this site. Thanks so much.
You’ll love your rice cooker – brown rice…perfect every time. Just pulled out my quadrupled batch of apple muffins, off to make something with my peaches that I froze this summer.
Dinners done in five minutes based on the food I had already bulk cooked….barley, beans, hamburger, onions and Italian Motzerella seasoning mixed together…sounds gross, but YUMMY. All this kids loved it.
Today I have made: Apple Cinnamon Bread in the bread maker (recipe will be posted on my site); Bread makers are SO easy!~ And Hearty Beef Soup out of some steaks that were in the freezer that I needed to use up! (recipe also will be posted ASAP)…I love home made food and was brought up on it; I am happy that I can offer my children the same:)
Oh I can’t wait to try your waffles!!!
And yes, sweet taters are YUMMY w/ brown sugar and butter! 🙂
You will love that rice cooker!!! I could never make brown rice until I got one. I love that I can start mine on Sun morn and it will be sitting there all ready to eat when coming in the door from church-great to go with a meat dish left cooking in the crockpot. Now if I could only get my family to love brown rice like I do!!
hi there,
Just wondering if you peel the fruit before juicing?
thanks!
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Money Saving Mom here: With the JuiceMan juicer, you don’t have to peel anything. In fact, you can just stick the fruit in whole. However, I do peel the oranges because orange peel makes it taste really bitter otherwise.
I’m making chocolate playdough for my homework club tomorrow! Im interested to see how it turns out!
I’m looking forward to seeing how the rice cooker works for you. I don’t have one always wondered if they were worth the $$.
I never have luck cooking brown rice, so it is just sitting there in it’s air tight storage container. Could you give me a hint as to how long to cook it? Or perhaps you have a post about this? I’m great a the white rices, it is just the brown that gets me. Thanks.
I signed up for Swagbucks and have accumulated some points, but now every time I try to use it, my computer flashes up this warning that the site is a Phishing scam site. Has this ever happened to you? Have you heard or experienced anything bad with them?
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Money Saving Mom here: No, I’ve never had a problem and I know for a fact that the site is not a phishing scam site. I’ve only experienced very positive things and have even had the opportunity to interact with some of the execs of Swagbucks and have been nothing but impressed.
Perhaps it’s an overly-zealous virus software on your computer? Did you download the search bar? That’s what’s worked best for me.
My apologies on the difficulties and wish I knew how to fix it for you. Unfortunately, I’m no techno-geek!
I had my baking day yesterday. Challah, cinnamon-raisin bread, chiffon cake, split pea soup, and mexican casserole. I’m still catching up on all the dishes I dirtied!
Is that the Juiceman Jr? Is it big enough for your family? These are pricy, we are a family of 8 and would love to buy a juicer!
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Money Saving Mom here: It actually wasn’t that expensive–I think it was $57 on sale and then I used an online coupon code, too. It was an after-Christmas sale, though, so it might be more now. Gotta love Swagbucks, though. I would have never bought it, otherwise!
It would definitely work for a family of eight. You’d just dump the juice container (when it got full) into a pitcher and then keep going. Since the pulp container can hold quite a bit, I think you could fill up the juice container three times before you’d filled up the pulp container. And that should make close to a pitcher full of juice.
eBay has some fairly good prices on starter juicers (that’s where we got our last one from), but I don’t think they are really that practical for larger families.
I’m in the middle of making French bread. I’ve never tried the recipe before, but it seems to be coming out well. It uses 10 cups of flour and makes 8 loaves! It’s Anna’s recipe from Pleasant View Schoolhouse. Here’s the recipe link: http://pleasantviewschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2009/01/day-for-french-bread.html
I LOVE my rice cooker. I lived in Asia for two years. There, it’s the one appliance you can’t live without. I use it a lot! Just dump it in, and it will cook it perfectly and keep it warm until you need it. I make jambalaya in it and it’s one of our favorite meals! Perfect when you need to be out in the hours before dinnertime, but don’t want to end up going through a drive through.
Great idea on the rice. Does it ever get mushy?
We had roast for lunch so now I am making vegetable soup with the left overs. It will make at least 4 meals that I will freeze. My baking day was Saturday. I made up a bunch of buttermilk whole wheat waffles and 6 loaves of bread. I would love to try some juice from a juicer. It sounds great! Will you post your spinach, rice casserole recipe?
I have a Jack LaLane juicer and believe me, it is worth every penny! I make fresh carrot juice every morning. If you can’t get your kids to eat veggies, juice up some carrots and ad an apple. They will drink it faster than you can make it!
Could you post the recipe for the casserole you mentioned?
Thanks for the encouragement! (And I earned 3 swag bucks when I searched for “MoneySavingMom.com” :o)
Do all you folks have extra freezers? I have a measly little one with the frig! Barely room for anything
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Money Saving Mom here: For a long time (make that 5 1/2 years) we only had the freezer above the fridge and I still had Baking Days. I just had to get really creative and utilize the space. We now have two refrigerators (one came with our rental and we already owned one) so I have a lot more freezer/refrigerator space–and I hardly know what to do with it all!
Sausage Quiche
Meatloaf
Chicken Pot Pie (w/leftover turkey in freezer from Thanksgiving)
Pumpkin Bread
Poppyseed Bread
Banana Bread
Banana Muffins
Oatmeal Muffins
Apricotties
Chocolate Chip cookie dough to have in freezer, ready to bake
My husband is really trying to only eat out for lunch 1x per week, so I’m working extra hard to make sure there’s extra stuff for him to take! 🙂
My 4 year old and I are baking a pumpkin pie for when Daddy comes home from work.
I saw your post about baking/prepping today and decided to join. On my list is freezer stuffed shells, banana muffins, bread and twice baked potatoes. Oh ya and I need to figure out a recipe that will use the 3 cans of pillsbury biscuits I got for .75 on managers special from Kroger on Monday. I will be blogging about it so whenever mr. linky gets up I will add a link. Thanks for the great idea!
No baking today…sick day at home. But your fresh juice sounds so good.
No baking today, but I put a roast in the slow cooker and my house smells amazing!. I was thinking about making up cookie dough, and freezing in balls, so I can take out 2 or 3 at a time and bake. Nothing like warm cookies!
I’ve made some breakfast bars and right now am making bread….hoping to get some other stuff made too but we’ll have to wait and see.
that sounds awesome! yesterday i made several batches of muffins: pumpkin-apple, winter wake up muffins and banana-chocolate chip! yum! today after my daughter’s nap we’re making graham crackers
i’m glad to see someone else cooks then freezers their rice…i have the VERY old fashioned rice that you have to soak overnight then cook a couple of hours…so i bake that in batches and then freeze to use later!
I can’t wait to hear the results on the rice! 2 Days ago I cooked up 2 enchilada meals for us, 2 for people who just had babies, 2 for my in-laws, 3 chili meals for us and 2 for my in-laws, and one meal of sloppy joes for us and for my in-laws (they are old 🙂 I also made a loaf of whole wheat bread and a banana bread. I love cooking in bulk days!