between {you&me}

{STUDENT LOANS}

I have not blogged in several months. No one has really even said anything, which is fine, good even. I press on.

A lot has changed in my life, I am no longer dirt poor. Well, that’s what I like to tell myself- but really I owe my good friend Sallie Mae a good sum and really have nothing to call my own.

After 4 months of working and going to Starbucks on each break and being generally reckless with my new cash, I have decided that it is time to get down to business and take care of this thorn in my side.

So what to do now. I am one of the fortunate 3 out of 4 people or whatever the stats are with a job so that’s a good start. By no means do I want to be making the minimum monthly payment and paying my loans off for 10+ years- so serious measures have to be taken.

I am about to go into a several part series on how I tried to minimize and how I plan to pay off these loans. Of course, I have not yet done so, so we’ll see how and if it all works out. So we’ll try to get some professional opinions along the way. Alright.

{Sweet Potato Empanadas- My very first made up recipe!}

Given my recent personal budget crisis, I have been having to get very creative with food and making meals only with ingredients I have at home. The perfect storm for my very first made up recipe. As I have previously mentioned, I always have sweet potatoes on hand. And of course the basic spices, flour, etc. Cassandra’s Sweet potato empanadas are born.

Dough

• 3 c. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 c. cold water
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 4 tbsp cold butter
• 1 tbsp cream cheese

Filling

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 1/2 tbsp. butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper

Egg wash:

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cold water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter and cream cheese. In the middle of the flour mixture, create a well.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and egg whites, water, and vinegar. Pour into the middle of the flour/butter mixture. Combine with a fork (or if you get sick of that, your hands).
3. Roll into a ball, cover in saran wrap, and chill for 2 hours.
4. Place the sweet potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until you can easily puncture the pieces with a fork.
5. Drain water from the potatoes. Return to pot, add butter, and mash. Then add the spices. Allow to cool. When the dough is chilled, the filling will be ready to use as well.
6. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
7. Flour the table and roll the dough out until it is about 3 mm thick. Use a biscuit cutter or even just a large glass to cut out circles. Put a teaspoon or so of filling in the center, fold over, and pinch together with fingers and/or a fork. **it helps to stretch out the dough circle, then quickly add the filling and fold over so the filling does not ooze out and cause a mess.
8. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place the empanadas on the tray and brush with egg wash. Using a kitchen scissors, cut a slit in the top of the empanada to let steam out.
9. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
10. Serve warm with honey for dipping.

Let me know what you think!

the original recipe :)

{poor people fun}

So it was January 2nd. Holiday fun was over. All my loan money was gone. I LITERALLY had a budget of $15. “What the heck am I going to do for the next month of my Christmas break,” I asked myself…….

Well, break is done and I had SUCH a good time. Now, I’m not trying to say that these things were mind-blowingly awesome, and I’m not trying to say that you couldn’t have thought of them yourself. But perhaps I can motivate you to have some good free fun and save some money. Or to come up with similar ideas on your own. Here’s what occurred.

cross country skiing. your equivalent -> something that gets your rate up, while also allowing you to enjoy the scenery and doesn’t just feel like exercise. when’s the last time you went on a hike? pack a lunch and go with some friends. how about a bike ride through a cute main street or rollerblading on a path by a lake or the ocean? i know physical activity does not always sound the best and its hard to get off the couch and just do it, but it’s always so rewarding.

Good site for hiking trail ideas

• socal: http://www.trails.com/toptrails.aspx?area=12578
• wi: http://www.trails.com/toptrails.aspx?state=WI
• all states: http://www.trails.com/

go to the borders travel section. or barnes and noble, or whatever. look through books and plan where you want to live and travel. make a top 10 list or something, i don’t know.

make a big cookie. like huge. follow the recipe on the toll house bag, but then make a huge ball of dough and flatten it pretty well so it cooks all the way through. add a friend, ice cream, and a movie.

head downtown. if live close to a nice downtown area, you are extremely fortunate. it usually entails a nice mixture of history, interesting architecture, and a general nice place to just walk around. in milwaukee, an example would be the third ward and the milwaukee public market. here’s a link for some things to do in LA: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/25967/10_things_to_do_in_downtown_los_angeles.html?cat=8

mall games. ok, so my sister and friend and I went to the mall, even though none of us had money. so we made up a game while we were at H&M. so here’s what you do: each person goes around and picks out the ugliest thing they can find in the whole store. then, everybody trades clothes and have to try to make a cute outfit out of the ugly piece. whoever does the best job, wins.

revive the basement games. ping pong, air hockey, etc. one of my favorite nights of my break involved a friend and me blaring elton john on the record player and playing ping pong.

learn a new activity such as knitting. im sure that there are a sprinkling of people in your life that know how to knit or crochet. ask them to teach you how. they usually have an extra crochet hook or knitting needles laying around too.

buy a city transporation day pass and spend the day with a local. in my case, i took the train to chicago. since i have already done all of the touristy things there, i asked my friend to just do what she would if she were bored. we had a great day eating a wonderful falafel sandwich at a hole in the wall place, looking at unique stores, and walking around. we also took the subway to a town that only people who live in chicago would really know about: Wicker park. it was so fun, and we just paid 5.75 to take any bus or subway anywhere we wanted. see if there is an equivalent near you.

hop a train and go on a fun day drip in southern california: http://www.metro.net/index.asp

you tell where you are coming from and where you would like to go. it tells you which lines to take and the fare of each, including how much you would save by not driving

happy hour. i am not advocating going to happy hour to drink as much as you can, but to actually spend less money than you normally would while still having that “going out” feeling. my friends and i went to a restaurant with really good happy hour deals: we had virgin martinis for $1.75 and a calamari appetizer for $4 while having a great time catching up.

Over break, I was forced to put on my thinking cap and be really creative if I were going to have fun on my $15 dollar budget. Even if you don’t want to go out and do exactly these things, I hope that you can see that it is not impossible to have a great time with friends with little or no money. It’s much better than sitting on the couch and watching t.v. all the time (which, by the way, causes dementia, and is the entire reason i try to come up with these things- but that’s a different subject).

Here’s Wicker Park- the village outside Chicago that my friend took me to on our day out

<3 CW

{For the Wisconsinite Doubters…}

Hello from Wisconsin everyone. I recently got back to my home state, and immediately started receiving comments from certain people that restaurant.com was not a good deal. Naturally, I was very saddened and looked into it. Well, turns out there are still very good deals in the Milwaukee area. I used the dream team (Yelp and restaurant.com) to come up with some suggestions for those hailing from the Milwaukee area.

The Wicked Hop in the 3rd Ward

$25 dollar gift certificate

Minimum purchase of $35. 18% Gratuity added prior to discount. Valid for Dinner, Dine In ONLY.

http://www.restaurant.com/microsite.asp?rid=369373&mcn=00072886

I actually might try this one out myself.

Marchese’s Olive Pit

$10 gift certificate

Minimum purchase of $20. 18% Gratuity added prior to discount. Valid for Dine In ONLY.

http://www.restaurant.com/microsite.asp?rid=371512&mcn=00075105

Rustico Pizzeria

$25 gift certificate

Minimum food purchase of $35. 18% gratuity added pre-discount. Dinner/Dine-in only. Sun-Thurs only. Excludes other promotions/holidays.

Yes, there are quite a few that have a minimum purchase of $50, and I agree that it’s not such a good deal with two people. Also, watch out for things like minimum FOOD purchase. Not all of them are very good deals, but there are definitely good deals out there if you are willing to read carefully. I also suggest using yelp.com when you are looking for your certificates. It is usually pretty accurate.
Bon Appetit
<3 CW

Life is definitely in the way of my blog right now. I am finishing up the last semester of my undergraduate career, and when I am not doing that I am looking at Christmas lights while drinking peppermint mochas. I promise that after finals week I will blog about all of my little secrets. Maybe I’ll even do one when I’m procrastinating. Heres what I’m working on (what you have to look forward to)

• A girl’s guide to car buying and maintenance
• My favorite things to do for ten, five, or zero dollars
• Something about thrift stores and outlet stores and stuff
• Grocery shopping for one or two

Well, I hope you have a great next few weeks. Talk to you soon!

<3 CW

tasty treats #1: sweet potato fries

My inspiration for this particular post comes from the delicious cinnamon-sugary smell wafting from my oven at this very moment. I thought it would be mean of me to not share it with you.

Sweet potatoes are my latest food obsession. Yes, I have some obsessions with food. I will keep a large supply of a certain type in my pantry and I will prepare and eat it many different ways for a couple months straight. The other month it was artichokes, this month it happens to be sweet potatoes. These seemingly useless little tuberous roots have actually been added to my list of versatile, delicious (not to mention nutritious) foods due to some recent experimentation in the kitchen in the form of sweet potato fries. The possibilities are endless. Currently I have chosen a paprika, cinnamon, brown sugar type. But another favorite is cumin and paprika, while i have also just done plain sea salt salt and pepper ones. Additionally, I have done them with Italian seasoning or rosemary, lemon pepper, and sea salt. As you can see, you pretty much can’t go wrong.

OK, so, here’s what you do.

Sweet Potato Fries

{I am aware that these do not follow my cutting guidelines. Forgive me, I did not intend originally to write about this. I was very hungry, and this is the result}

You will need:

• one large sweet potato
• sea salt (coarse)
• freshly ground black pepper
• other spices if desired (see below for some ideas)
• olive oil
• a peeler
• a sharp knife
• a cutting board
• a large baking sheet

Then, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

You can peel your potato if you want (if there are lots of blemishes and whatnot). Then cut in half width-wise first, and slice off the pointy ends (because they burn and make it nasty). Now, take a half of the sweet potato and cut it into large slices about 3/4 inch thick. You’ll then cut the larger slices into fries. Your fries should be 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.

Then, put them all on your baking sheet. Sprinkle your spices over them and drizzle with olive oil (about 2 tablespoons). Make sure they are coated, but do not put any excess on or they will be soggy. Mix it all together, then spread evenly in a single layer on the baking sheet, trying not to let them touch each other. Bake for about 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes. They should be brown and nice and crispy.

Some good combos

(I usually just eyeball it, so these measurements are approximated.)

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• {the sugar burns easily so make sure you are being vigilant and turning these sufficiently!}

• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• freshly ground pepper

• course sea salt
• lots of freshly ground pepper

• 1 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp lemon pepper
• sea salt
• freshly ground pepper

• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• sea salt freshly ground pepper

If you come up with/know any good combos, let me know!

I hope that you will give these little tubers a chance. Enjoy!

<3 CW

Good Deals #1: Restaurant.com

This one I can not credit to my own wile ways, I must give the credit to my boyfriend, Pierce. We have been able to go on some amazing dinner dates and get a ton of food because of this website he discovered. We went to a nice Greek place on 2nd Street in Long Beach, a bunch of cool restaurants in downtown Fullerton, a restaurant at Pike Place in Long Beach, and many more.

What you do is go on restaurant.com, find a restaurant you want to try (there are so many all over the country), and buy a $25 dollar gift certificate for $10. But wait, there’s more. Every week you can get a certain amount off of the $10. Right now, it is 70% off, so you can get a $25 dollar gift certificate for $3 bucks! It’s amazing. I have even seen it be 90% off.

To get the extra discount, you get an account on restaurant.com. They will send you the special coupon codes every week, but the one right now is PUMPKIN in case you don’t want to wait for the e-mail (ends Sunday, October 25). Just type it in the coupon code box at checkout and you are set.

Yes, I understand that this seems too good to be true and there must be a big catch. Well, you’re wrong. You only need to look at the minimum amount you need to spend (usually $35), and they still require you to tip the server the normal amount. Also, you can only use one coupon per restaurant per month. But that’s it. Pierce and I have done it about 10 times so far and we have never run into an issue.

So boys- think you can’t treat your girlfriend to a nice meal? Think again.

www.restaurant.com

Creative Titles and Other Things not to Expect from Me

Well here I go. Beginning my very own blog despite the fact that I was a blog hater not too long ago. For this I apologize.

I’m pretty sure that if you are reading this you already know who I am, but if for some strange and wonderful reason you are reading this out of interest, welcome. My name is Cassandra and I am currently a senior at Biola University in California. I really like to cook and find ways to have fun and get what I want for free/cheap. I became slightly good at these things and decided to share them with you. To enrich your life or something like that.

When I make something pleasing to the palate, I will share the recipe with you. If I find a good deal I will tell you about it. I will also tell you things that have worked for me to graduate early, save money, and other things of the like.

(random picture of my sister, Sam, and I at the bean in Chicago)

Well, just to kick it off I’ll share a nice little recipe in the spirit of Fall.

The other day I was in quite the fall cooking mood. I made some chili that was a big hit amongst my housemates and our respective significant others. It sounds weird, but trust me, it was delicious.

CHILI

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 pound beef sirloin, cubed
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle dark beer
• 1 cup coffee brewed strong
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2(15 ounce) cans kidney beans
• 2(15 ounce) cans black beans
• 4 fresh hot chile peppers, seeded and chopped (I used jalapenos)

directions

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onions, garlic, ground beef and cubed sirloin in oil for 10 minutes, or until the meat is well browned and the onions are tender.
• Mix in the diced tomatoes with juice, dark beer, coffee, tomato paste and beef broth. Season with brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, cocoa powder, oregano, cayenne pepper, coriander and salt. Stir in 2 cans of the beans and hot chile peppers. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
• Stir in the 2 remaining cans of beans, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

I actually did mine in a wok. It worked really well. I served mine the night I made it and it was good, but if you could make it the day before you want to serve it, it’s even better because all the flavors can come together in the fridge overnight. Anyway, make some cheddar cornbread or something and you will have a delicious and impressive autumn dinner.

<3 CW

Computer Illiteracy

OK, so, I am very excited to start this blog. Thing is, I want it to look pretty before I do. Other thing is, I have no clue how to do it. Furthermore, I have a Pharmacology test tonight that I haven’t even begun to study for. So I guess we’ll just have to wait one more day to learn about all of the exciting things that go on in my life. Sorry!

<3 CW