The "Junk in my Trunk" Contest

All right, here's the deal. I am in the process of redecorating my room. I have found so much random stuff. But alas, I'd like to make my random stuff YOUR random stuff.

I was going to start with just sending out an extra Hellogoodbye album that I found in my sock drawer. I purchased a bunch of them when they were on sale for times like these. (It's an awesome summer album! I love them!) But Thing 1 mentioned last night that Justin Halpern of @shitmydadsays recently did a giveaway since he has a new book out, I Suck at Girls. He gave away something like a box of condoms and his new book. Genius.

Now, I'm not promising any prophylactics, but we're turning it into more of a grab bag situation. The Hellogoodbye CD may or not be in this lovely package. We'll value it at $20, I guess.

THE RULES OF THE GAME: 

(will run for two weeks: starting NOW until June 27, 2012 at 11:59 pm)

Un. To become eligible:

- Follow us on Blogger. Comment on any or all posts.

- Share a link to a post on Facebook (tag one of us so we can see it)

- Follow us on twitter and hashtag #thefrugalasians or @thefrugalasians when you link a post.

- Email us at thing1@thefrugalasians.com or thing2@thefrugalasians.com and give us a money-saving tip or your favorite budget-friendly recipe, we'll feature it if we feel like it!

- Pin one or more of our posts. 

- Follow one of our other blogs: Beyondtheballs (Thing 1) and @212degrees (Thing 2)

Deux. Don't be a jerk and email us if you haven't done any of these things. It's just not nice, and I will find out and send you a lump of coal. (HOW'S THAT FOR A GRAB BAG?!?) Friends, relatives, randoms are eligible to play along (mainly because I hate not being eligible to win cool shit just because I'm related to someone…and don't worry, we don't play favorites). Make sure we have a way of contacting you! At the end of your comment, leave your email, twitter, etc.

Trois. Have fun with it! Basically, pimp us out somehow and you could win something fun AND FREE! Pick your fav (if you have one), and let us know what you're up to! I know we're going to have a blast with these grab bags. If this goes well, we'll do another one, and another one…BONUS: Become eligible more than once by posting on multiple platforms, we'll give you double entries. Because we can.

Winner will be picked by opening up the following windows: twitter, pinterest, blogger, email, closing our eyes, and picking a platform first. Then, spinning around ten times then pointing at the screen thus deeming the winner. 

Hey, this is serious business and fair is fair.

 We will be in touch with the winner shortly after the deadline. I'm sure there's legal mumbo-jumbo that's suppose to go here, but we'll keep it light and fluffy for now. Oh, no purchase necessary. (Right? That's always at the beginning of the fine print!)

Happy cooking/shopping/pinning/tweeting whatever you're doing today!

(May the odds be ever in your favor.)

(Yeah, I just quoted The Hunger Games.)

Sincerely,

Thing 1 in the hizzzouse! Holla!

Wuzzzup? Wuzzzup? Wuzzzzzzzzup!

Let me take the time to introduce myself. I am Thing 1: the older, louder, embarrassing Frugal Asian. I have 3 children with my husband of almost 10 years, 2 sisters, and a brother. We all live together! One BIG happy family! As Thing 2 has already said, we feed hella folks, but don't like to skip out on taste and quality. Same goes for what I will be posting: I like to have fun and have fairly nice things, but I don't skip out on quality of items/activities.

 I just don't want pay FULL price.

 I will be posting random tidbits of money saving tips. Some of them you may already know from just talking to me or following me on twitter, but bear with me, we have some newbies and I want them to save some dollars, too. :)  Let the money saving commence!

Tip # 1: Read EVERY post of this blog. Follow us on twitter @thefrugalasians!

I don't make dollars. I just make sense,

Best Summer Purchase EVERRRR

Popsicle molds!!

 My niece, Camryn, helped make watermelon popsicles a while back. It's so fun to do family projects, insanely cheaper than the boxed ones...AND BETTER FOR YA! Plus, the popsicle molds were really cheap (less than $8/pack of 6 and 4) and they're reusable.

Watermelon Popsicles

1/2 medium sized watermelon (like the size of your head), diced

1 lemon, juiced

2 tsp. sugar to taste, optional

Popsicle molds

Patience

Now, I'll tell you, this could've been a lot easier to do. Like, a lot freakin easier than I made it. I could've pulled out the blender and thrown all the stuff in and hit the puree button. But guess what?

THAT'S A WHOLE BUNCH OF NO FUN.

Camryn wanted to help, and in omitting the blender altogether, we made that possible. Our friend, Monica, was over and helped her "juice" the watermelon (pressed it through a collander into a bowl).

They had a lot of fun doing this, but I'm pretty sure they were incredibly unsanitary…I saw them sneaking bites. Brats.

As they pressed the watermelon (like you would grapes for wine), I added lemon juice. I ended up adding two lemons, but I went overboard. I should've tasted after the first one. Rookie mistake. (Sidenote: here's where you add the sugar if you want.)

Throw the tops on…(Goofballs)

Important things to remember:

Tip: Use a funnel and ladle to fill the popsicle molds. No one likes a messy and sticky kitchen. Also, make sure the lids are on tight and pour slowly!

Et voila!

Here are the molds we used: Rockets and the other ones were ice cream cones! SO. FRIGGIN. CUTE. Toss them in the freezer for at least 4 hours, but overnight would be better to ensure they're firm enough to stand on their own.

The half watermelon had tons of juice so we saved some for the next batch. (If I had to guess, it was about a quart and a half)

So, I'd love to show you a picture of the finished product, but wouldn't you know it- our damn refrigerator broke that same night! They never froze! So bummed. In other news, I'm pretty sure my little brother drank the juice even though the bag said not to. Cool.

We're gonna make them again once we get a new fridge this weekend. It's so hot outside, these things are necessary! 

Total for 25ish popsicles (that we would've made with the extra juice): $2.50! If we would've used the whole watermelon, we definitely could've made at least a million. Just saying. 

Enjoy your weekend, all! We are up in the few hundreds in views- so awesome, thanks! 

Sincerely,

Thing 2

P.S. Don't ever leave Mon alone with my phone again.

P.P.S Don't worry, Thing 1 is working on her posts…I think.

P.P.P.S Maybe this was a bad idea…Should've made it thefrugalasian.com lol 

Chicken Adobo & a Rant on Food Waste

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is wastefulness. More specifically, food waste. It's a waste of time (usually my time) and money, among other things. I come from the culinary world, and food waste meant time and hard earned money down the drain. Hard work should never go wasted.

One of the most crucial parts of cooking for so many people (8-12) at least 3 times a week is keeping food waste as low as possible. My main asset to the family is turning nothing into something. Majority of meals include a protein, a starch, and a vegetable. Luckily, we live in a straight farm town, and veggies are readily available. 

The day I came up with this blog, I was making Chicken Adobo in a crock-pot. My mom used to make this Filipino dish, and my Grandma before her. Everyone in our family has their own versions: chicken only, chicken/potatoes, adding hard-boiled eggs. All different, all great in their own right. You can do that, too! Change it up to make it yours. 

Chicken Adobo 

(can be substituted with beef*, pork**, etc.) 

-yields 20 servings (divide into 4 for a 5 person dinner)

My weapons of choice: 1 crock-pot, 1 cutting board (or two), 1 chefs knife, 1 really good peeler.

4 lbs. chicken thighs (boneless, skinless…will fit in the crock-pot better and faster cooking time!)

20 garlic cloves, crushed

1 yellow onion, chopped

1-2 c. vinegar (Heinz white distilled, not apple cider)

2-3 c. soy sauce (Kikkoman, the best and only brand I ever use. You can use their low-sodium if you want to cut down on salt)

5-7 bay leaves

5-7 medium Russet potatoes, peeled medium diced (smaller you cut 'em, shorter the cooking time) Pictured: Russets and reds. I had a few leftover so I decided to use them.

4-6 c. white or brown rice, cooked
Steamed vegetable of your choice, I chose broccoli!

Set your crock-pot to 6 hours on HIGH. Throw the garlic cloves and onion in. 

Add vinegar and let it warm up (about 7 minutes). Prep your chicken in the meantime; trim off all extra fat.

Add soy sauce and bay leaves. Taste. 

Sidenote: If it makes your eyes water, and clears your sinuses, you're going the right direction. (My family likes tart and tangy Adobo, so 1-2 c. is good for them. It may not be for you, so start with 1 cup. Go from there). 

Add chicken, stir it up, and make sure the liquid covers as much as it can. 
If it doesn't immediately, don't worry. It will. 

Add potatoes on the outside ring of the crock-pot. Cover and let it ride.

 About 3 1/2 hours in, give it one full stir. Serve with some rice and veg (suggestion: we are big broccoli eaters). 

* Cook on low for 8 hours, use stew meat if it's available ($15 per 4 lb. package)

** Cook on low for 8 hours

Important things to remember:

- Do not stir frequently while using a crock-pot. Doing so depletes the temperature by 25 degrees each time. Ever heard the saying, "A watched pot never boils"? YEAH. 

- Tip: Vinegar mellows out as it cooks. So, even though it's super eye-watering at first taste, it will turn out to be way smoother at the end of cooking time. You can always adjust at the end, too. That's the beauty of cooking! You can change things and make it seem like you did it on purpose :P

And hey man, clean up is easy. Remember you're working with poultry, so make sure your work area stays tidy and sanitary. Cross-contamination is not the business.

Total for this meal: $21.66 for 20 servings including starch and vegetable. That's two dinners for 8 people, which comes out to less than $1.50/person per night.


Print this recipe

Want the breakdown? I will post it if you want! Let me know in the comments :)

Hope you try this one out, it's forrealzies bomb. Let me know if you do!

Happy Cooking! (Sorry, Julia! Still working on it)

Sincerely,

We've only just begun...

Hello! Hello!

How do people come up with blogs? There's literally millions out there. This one in particular is fun because it's "A Tale of Two Sisters". The idea popped into my head while making dinner for my family of  8.  In so many words, one will handle all of the money-saving tips (you know those commercials where "______ is my anti-drug"? Hers is saving money. We'll call her Thing 1.)  What's mine, you ask?:

I'll be dishin' out budget-friendly meals for you folks. Extra pun intended. Yup. I went there.

So, stay tuned! Like I said, we come from a big mixed-up (not to be confused with, messed up...although sometimes we're that, too) group, and we feed, clothe, and house them all. It's a family affair. 

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to email us at thing1@thefrugalasians.com or thing2@thefrugalasians.com. 

Happy Cooking!

Wait, no, that's Julia Child. Crap.

(Note to self and sister: We gotta come up with something better.)


Uh bye...Uh, til next time?…Sincerely,