I drink coffee every day, as much for the warm and cozy factor as the caffeine, so whenever I try to switch to something more healthy like juice for my morning drink, it never lasts long. I love wrapping my hands around a mug and staring off into space (or attempting to get work done). But coffee isn’t all that great for you. It’s not the worst thing I could drink, but sometimes I need to switch it up a bit.

I first heard about Choffy from Simple Mom. I love chocolate, but ground cacao beans made like coffee sounded a bit gross. But then I remembered that coffee is just a different kind of ground bean, right? So I ordered up a bag of Ecuadarian cacao.

Choffy is coarse ground, which makes it perfect for use in a French press. The aroma is amazing - it smells just like a bittersweet chocolate bar. It tastes a lot like it too. Honestly, the taste of Choffy is hard to describe. It’s not like hot chocolate, because it isn’t full of sugar, but it doesn’t have the same bitterness of coffee. I do like to add a tiny bit of sugar and some half-and-half to my Choffy, but that’s more of a personal preference because it’s how I drink coffee. I suspect the more I drink it the less I will add.

The cool thing about Choffy is that it has less caffeine than coffee. As in, almost none, depending on the sample of cacao beans. Apparently in cacao is a chemical called theobromine that is similar in effect (and structure) to caffeine, but it is much more gentle as a stimulant.

One problem I noticed is that brewed Choffy gets cold pretty fast, no matter what kind of cup I use for drinking. That’s annoying, but nothing a trip to the microwave can’t fix.

It’s also too bad that the only place to get Choffy is on the company website. I don’t expect to see it on the huge supermarket shelves any time soon, but it seems like something that Whole Foods would be interested in carrying, and that would certainly make it easier for me to recommend to others!

For me, Choffy is a treat. I don’t know that it will completely take the place of my morning coffee, but I love having the option.

I’m currently thinking of some recipes to use brewed Choffy in. Banana-Choffy muffins? Oh! I wonder how it could work as a mole sauce for chicken. Has anyone out there tried cooking with Choffy?

I can’t believe it is August already. Where does the time go? I’m happy though, because it means cooler weather will be on its way. Of course, living in Central Texas means the cooler weather won’t actually arrive until October, and by “cooler” I mean “days where it doesn’t hit 90″. Tuesday marks four years of living in Texas, and I’m still not used to the heat. From what I can tell, you never really get used to it and just put up with it instead. I’ve been broken for cold weather though. Whenever we go back to Minnesota in the winter my body stages a protest.

This week is going to be a bit busy. Thursday I have my annual doctor’s appointment, so I decided to take the day off work and get some other things done. After my appointment there will be my less-than-annual hair cut, and then I have the rest of the afternoon to cook. My local moms group sets up food trees for the moms that have just given birth (or otherwise need some help), and I foolishly decided to volunteer for two meals on Thursday. Plus there is my own family to cook for. Thankfully I’ve got it worked out so that there is overlap in the meals, so it shouldn’t be too hard!

On the weekend we’ve got cookouts to attend each day, so it will be nice to have a break from making dinner!

Monday: Creamy Shrimp Pasta

Tuesday: Black Beans and Cornbread

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese

Thursday: eating and cooking for others: Salsa Dump Chicken, Eggplant and Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream (from Veganomicon), Israeli Salad, Herbed Couscous, Fruit Salad

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Cookout @ friends’ house

Sunday: Cookout @ another friend’s house

Wow. I think I am the worst book club leader in the world. Yesterday we were scheduled to start The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and I was only on page 17 of the previous book, The Robber Bride!

If you’re in the book club, please go to the new forum here for discussions. Hopefully this will work out better than using the GoodReads site. Please feel free to give suggestions on how we can make the group better and create more discussion! It’s no fun if no one else is talking about the book we’re reading.

(Pardon the ugliness of the forum for now; I hope to get things tweaked tonight to make it look nicer.)

I’m really sick of it being hot here. I actually don’t mind using the oven in summer, since the AC is on anyway, but I’d love to be able to open the windows once in a while.

On Saturday we went to Central Market to get the fish for tonight (ended up with salmon cakes that were really salty, ugh!) and found boneless Berkshire pork chops for 99 cents a pound. Normally they are $5 or $6 a pound! We got 2 lbs (the limit) and it ended up being six chops, so three meals’ worth. Great deal! We also splurged on a rack of ribs because they were half price ($4/lb instead of $8/lb).

Monday: Cheese Enchiladas

Tuesday: Pork Medallions, veggies

Wednesday: Potato-Onion Casserole

Thursday: Chicken Popovers

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Ribs

Sunday: Freebird’s (we have a BOGO coupon!)

Friday and Saturday might be switched. We’ve invited some friends to have the ribs with us but we don’t know yet when/if they will be able to come.

I’m trying to figure out what to add to my site to create more traffic. Tips, tricks?

Almost a year ago we started in on paying down our debts using the debt snowball method. I’m happy to say that so far we have paid down $22,000.

This is amazing to me. We have been paying on our debt ever since we got married (and before that, separately, of course), but we never saw any kind of traction. A year ago we had six credit cards. Now we’re down to two, and by the end of the year those will both be gone as well.

Thing is, I know we could be doing even better. We’re not really on the full-speed-ahead intensive plan. We are still spending money on going out to eat and random things we “need”. But we’re working on it. A lot of the extra stuff we might buy comes from my husband’s second job money, which isn’t factored into our monthly budget.

Thankfully it appears we are saving a good amount of money on our groceries, even without clipping coupons or stockpiling. According to the USDA the “thrifty” budget for a family of two adults and one child under five is somewhere between $361 (two adults no kids) and $524 (two adults two kids). In June we spent just about $325 on groceries. This is actually more than I would like to be spending, but I’m still amazed that what we spend is considered a very small amount. After all, we’re spending $82 a month on our CSA share and I try to buy high-quality whole foods.

But I’m also cooking a lot from scratch and not buying prepackaged convenience foods. OK, we do have chicken nuggets and toaster waffles (I have a toddler after all) and my husband keeps buying ramen noodles, but dinner these days is almost always from scratch. And you know what? Macaroni and cheese is just as easy to make from scratch as it is to buy a box of Kraft. You’ll get one more pan dirty but the trade off is worth it. Plus, for the same price you get twice as much pasta. And, you know, it actually tastes like cheese on there.

I do get frustrated with it sometimes. I’d love to be able to buy the stuff I want, especially camera gear or kitchen gadgets. But it feels good to laugh at CapitalOne when they let me know they sent the new card “I requested”. Little do they know it was cut up immediately after it arrived.

We have a spreadsheet that tracks all of our bills and I love putting the new balances in. Honestly, I will spend hours calculating the budget and trying to project when each thing will be paid off. I’m a dork that way. But it gives me something to look forward to. I already feel like our lives have changed, not using the credit cards. I wonder how different life will be once we are debt free?

I’ve been so caught up in watching True Blood episodes that I almost forgot to post this!

Last week went kind of screwy. On Tuesday a friend from out of town was staying over, so we went out to the Salt Lick for barbecue. Wednesday I was going with some friends to check out a new natural foods store in town, so the boys had leftovers. Thursday we ended up having the pancakes (that were meant for Tuesday), and Saturday we had the pasta salad that was meant for Wednesday. Finally, tonight we had macaroni and cheese from a free box we got after buying salad at the store. Whew! Hope we stay on better this week.

Monday: Green Eggs and Ham (from Nigella Express)

Tuesday: Falafel

Wednesday: YOYO, although we might be meeting up with some friends

Thursday: Marinated vegetable kabobs

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Stuffed shells

Sunday: Fish

Of course, check out hundreds of other meal plans at OrgJunkie!

I was at Central Market a few weeks ago. They often have snacks set out for tasting, and this time they had some sweet pepper relish. It was awesome. I wanted to eat the entire bowl right there. However, I couldn’t bring myself to buy a jar of the stuff. Six bucks is too much for me when it comes to a dip. Plus a quick peek at the ingredients let me know that I had everything I needed at home to make it.

Sweet Pepper Relish
makes approx 2 cups

4 San Marzano (or Roma) tomatoes, peeled and chopped
5 sweet peppers, seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt
dash cinnamon
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp paprika

Combine all ingredients in a pot and cook on low, stirring often, until peppers and tomatoes have broken down and mixture has thickened. Pour into a container and let cool to thicken more. Store in fridge.

I made some awesome bison chili yesterday, and I can’t even give you the recipe, because I just threw things together. I know it involved ground bison, sweet pepper, jalapeno, onion, tomatoes, pinto beans in chili sauce, garlic pepper blend, chipotle chili powder, and Cajun seasoning. So at least you have something to work from!

Monday: Curried veggies with lentils

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner

Wednesday:Tuna Pasta Salad

Thursday:Tomato soup

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Grilled sausage

Sunday: Curried pumpkin soup

I realize we’re having soup twice and curry flavors twice, but oh well. We might not have the grilled sausage on Saturday because I forgot to buy some at the farmer’s market this weekend, and I think we’ll have leftovers from dinners the rest of the week to take care of.

Speaking of buying food, I’ve realized that I really need to do all the shopping if I am going to be saving money! I gave my husband a detailed list, and while he returned with the right things, they weren’t quite what I would have gotten. Non-organic milk, a huge tub of plain yogurt instead of one cup, and sort-of expensive broth. Granted the store he went to didn’t have what we normally get, so he improvised instead of going to the other store or coming home without. It just burns me to spend $2.75 on a container of broth!

C’est la vie. We have about $60 to spend on groceries for the rest of the month, although we do have a CSA delivery coming up (that’s prepaid and subtracted from our budget right off). I really want to spend only $250 on groceries this month. It’s been my goal since we started budgeting and we have never made it! I know it can happen, though.

Fairly simple week this time. Last week was great - the hamburger buns I made turned out very well. They were more dense than the buns you buy at the store, of course, but they tasted so much better. I also made Summer Vegetable Latkes, which I blogged the recipe for on Thursday. I was really sad I didn’t make more so I could eat them for lunch the next day! And finally, tonight we had butternut squash and black bean tacos. It’s a nice sweet/spicy combination. Of course, I love tacos, so it would have been really surprising if I didn’t like them.

Monday: out (coupon for Posadas’)

Tuesday: Ravioli

Wednesday: Grilled cheese

Thursday: Chicken fajita crescent braid

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Buffalo chili

Sunday: Cookout at a friend’s

Not much else to say, so don’t forget to check out I’m an Organizing Junkie for hundreds of other meal plans!

Man, I really love scones. There just aren’t enough places to get good scones in Texas. And I mean real scones, not the crazy sugary things Starbucks sells.

Side note: If you’re in Austin one place to get great scones is The Steeping Room at the Domain. They have about five thousand kinds of tea, too. I like to just stand in the front store area and smell all the teas. I can never remember later on which one it was I wanted to drink, but oh, they smell wonderful.

Oh. Anyway. Scones!

There seems to be about one recipe for pumpkin scones floating around the internet, so mine is basically the same. I made a couple of minor changes. Also, I like smaller round scones instead of those huge triangle ones, but feel free to cut your dough into triangles if you prefer.

Pumpkin Scones
adapted from Joy of Baking

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (regular whole wheat will probably work fine too)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup buttermilk
½ cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the egg wash:
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk or cream

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. (Trust me, you will want to use a pastry blender! After using my knives a bit I ended up using a whisk by mashing it down like a pastry blender and it worked much better.) The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the chopped white chocolate. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla, and then add the mixture to the flour. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle about 1/2 inch tall. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out scones. Reform dough and cut again as needed. Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 12 scones.