This time of year, we do our best to take advantage of all our garden produce.  Last night I tried a new recipe with zucchini. Our plants were prolific this year, so I have lots to experiment with.  This was so easy and so tasty if you can get your hands on a couple zucchini you should try it.  Very inexpensive too.  I just cut a couple zucchinis into julienne strips, chopped up a couple cloves of garlic, toasted some pine nuts, shredded a cup of parmesan cheese, and chopped fresh basil.  Then, I started a pot of pasta.  Any kind would probably work, but I used  a combination of mafaldi and fuslli  because I had a little of each left in a package.  While the pasta was cooking, I put a little olive oil and a little butter in a hot skillet and tossed in the zucchini and fried it up until it started getting slightly caramelized.  I  removed it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set it aside.  OK… I added a bit more butter and olive oil to the pan then tossed in the garlic and the toasted pine nuts and stirred them around just until the garlic started to smell good… less than a minute.  I added the zucchini back into the pan and stirred.  When the pasta was done, I drained it, then added the zucchini mixture, the shredded cheese and the basil to the pasta.  Toss it all well and serve.  Salt and pepper to taste.  6 ingredients, 2 pans, and it was absolutely delicious.  It cost us under $2 too, since the zucchini, basil, and garlic came straight from the garden.  Oh, and it only took me about 15 minutes to make, and that included picking the zucchini and  basil.  You could serve this with a good artisan bread if you wanted, but it wasn’t necessary. 

I simply can’t resist sharing good recipes with you when I find them, because if you can serve a family of 4 a great meal that they will all love and only spend a few dollars (and a few minutes) you are going to save so much money.  For those of you that are saying, “I cant stand zucchini”, in this recipe you’ll hardly even notice it.  The other flavors are so intense and the textures all blend to make this a fantastic pasta dish.  Even the kids will like it and won’t even realize they are eating the dreaded zucchini unless you tell them.

Find those colored egg shells you saved from Easter, and sit down today with the kids and a bottle of glue and begin making mosaic “anythings” for Christmas gifts.  If you didn’t save any egg shells, you can just use white shells from breakfast and paint them with acrylic craft paint, finger nail polish, or even house paint leftovers.  You can do a search for free clip art online, trace patterns from color books, or just make free form designs.  A cute idea for grandparents is to trace around children’s hands and use that design on a plaque, on the lid of a photo box, even on an old plate.  Almost any useful item can be made special with mosaic.  Paint the item first with a dark color of paint (I prefer black) then just glue on the pieces. 

Yesterday I talked a bit about our ministry, and today I want to talk a bit about our business and things that are going on there.  We work really hard to find good quality merchandise at super low prices. If you have never been to our store and looked around, you need to pop over and do so.  We have a variety of useful items in the strangest combination of categories, from tools to teapots… greeting cards to dog leashes.  We have also finished and are about to send out our first newsletter.  I’d like you to have an opportunity to sign up for our newsletter.  We hope to offer useful information every month along with discounts and free items with purchase.  We are going to send one a month, so you won’t be bombarded with emails, and we never sell your name or email to other companies.  So, if you are looking for a small store with low prices and would like to be notified of specials come check us out:  http://bobbibopstuff.com/  Register as a new customer, and check the newsletter box.

I’m getting ready for a small family get-together, and today will be spent pre-cooking many of the meals. 

I talk so often about saving a few pennies here, a few dollars there, and I know that a lot of you pretty much dismiss it.  You don’t need a few pennies or a few dollars… You need a bunch of money.  Guess what?  You aren’t likely to win the lottery, some unknown rich aunt isn’t likely to die and leave you her fortune,  and money doesn’t just fall out of the sky.  The only way you are going to get a bunch of money is by saving it.  And the only way you will be able to save it is to stop spending it.  I’ve said many times that almost everyone, regardless of debt to income ratio could be debt free in 2 to 5 years and have a very healthy savings and investment account in another 2 to 5 years.  It all starts with determination and saving pennies and dollars. 

Every day, write down what you spend.  Include EVERYTHING.  Even the change you put in the vending machine at work.  If you spend it…. Write it down.  Then, in the evening… go on line to this nifty little calculator and type in what you bought and how much it cost you.  Write down the numbers and prepare to be surprised.  You’ll see your bunch of money.    http://sheltertools.com/wd/calculators/cruncher.html