I, for one, am really excited about Memorial Day weekend this year. For once, me and Sexy will both be in town at the same time, and we won’t be traveling. We also have redone the backyard a bit, and I’m determined to grill and go back there more than just when company’s coming. One of the things I’ve learned about summer BBQs and parties, the more you make yourself, the more money you’ll save. Here’s some of the things I look forward to doing/making this summer.

• Green/Frugal BBQ – check out this post I did last year about how to save money and stay green for your BBQ.

 

• Homemade Lemonade and Iced Tea – What’s summer without lemonade and iced tea? Ever since I figured out how to make them on my own, I’ve stopped buying the store bought stuff, especially those godawful cans of iced tea mix. It’s too simple and too cheap to do myself!

Homemade Lemonade Recipe

Easy Iced Tea Recipe

• DIY Chips and Dip – What’s a BBQ without

It seems like every week I’m buying salsa, either to add to a recipe, or to have with some chips, and the other day, when I looked in the cabinets, I suddenly realized that I was out. But, I had a can of organic chopped tomatoes, a can of pineapple, some cilantro….and the internets!!! Here’s what I cobbled together from a few recipes I found. I think it turned out great. (Next time I gonna try it with fresh organic tomatoes!)

Easy Tomato-Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients:

• 1/2 med onion (chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves (pressed*)
• 14.5oz can organic diced tomatoes drained (or about 4 or 5 plum tomatoes chopped)

I live in Brooklyn, NY so I when I get the time I love dropping by Karen’s Body Beautiful. I’ve been lucky enough a couple of times to actually see Karen, (apron and all) mixing up a batch of her wonderful products. A couple of weeks ago I dropped by and picked up a sample size of Creamylicious and decided to share the results.

Karen’s Body Beautiful Creamylicious $8.00 (1oz)/$18.00(7oz)

Ingredients: Shea Butter, Rosehip Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Essential and/or Fragrance Oils, Vitamin E & Carrot Seed Oil

I love the fact that this product has all recognizable ingredients. It has a thick, creamy, cake-batter-like consistency, which at first I thought might not be moisturizing enough, but when I rubbed it between my fingers I could really feel the emollience of the shea butter and the oils in the product.

Since spring has hit, I’ve been bitten by the DIY bug. My goal this year is organization and simplification. That’s how this jewelry organizer came about. I was perusing the “Jewelry Organizer” boards on pinterest and found a few people who had created some for themselves. This one seemed really simple, so I patterned mine in a similiar way. Here’s what I did…

DIY Wall Jewelry Organizer

What you’ll need

• Cork bulletin board with wooden frame (mine’s about 15.5” x 23.5”)
• About a yard of medium weight fabric* (or at least enough to cover the board with)
• Heavy duty stapler or staple gun
• Push pins
• Picture hanging kit (including eye screws)
• pencil

Directions

1. Place the fabric over the front of the board on a flat surface, and adjust the pattern, (if there is one), to your liking.

It’s not often that I can find a conditioner for less that $10 that can multitask well, so I was pleasantly surprised when I tried Desert Organics Red Grape Conditioner. First, the important stuff:

Desert Organics Red Grape Conditioner $8.99 (on sale NOW for $5.40!)

Ingredients:

Aqueous Infusion of Certified Organic Extracts:, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) (Grape), Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil (Olive), Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil (Grape), Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (Sunflower), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Oil (Shea Butter), Emulsifying Wax (vegetable derived), Resveratrol, Red Wine Extract, Panthenol, Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E), Prunus Amygdalus Protein (Almond), Polyquaternium 7 (coconut derived), Proprietary Blend of Natural Essential Oils, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Glutamate, Potassium Sorbate

This product has no parabens, sulfates, cones, or other icky stuff, and it worked

I love spa anything, and these gifts are truly easy, and can be given individually, or as a complete set for Mom on her special day. The following recipes are some of my favorites!

My father-in-law brought back soya chunks* from his home of Jamaica a couple of years ago, and I remember staring at the package trying to figure out how to cook the things. I’ve come along way since then and recently after I bought a bag of Imitation Chicken Chunks, I found this recipe on VegWeb and adapted it a bit. It came out so well, that I thought I would post it in honor of Meatless Monday. This takes a while to prepare, but the results are definitely worth it. And the best part? All of the ingredients cost me less than $15!

Vegetarian Caribbean Chicken Curry Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chicken flavored soy protein chunks
• 2 carrots
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 medium-large onion
• 4 cloves garlic,chopped
• 1/2 medium red pepper
• 1/2 medium green pepper
• 2 medium tomatoes