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Club Soda is a marvelous substance!!  It has sooo many purposes!  I keep a case of cans on hand and I’ve found it to be a great addition to our house.  Here are just a few of the ways that we use it:

1.) It’s a good cleaning substance!  Use a little club soda on your windows or mirrors and it’ll shine them right up!  If you have an old spray-bottle, just pour some in and spray it out!   

2.) It’s delicious with a little concentrated drink syrup.  We buy blackberry syrup or mango syrup (or whatever flavour you like!) and you pour a little of the concentrate in your glass, top it up with club soda, and it’s a "fancy", yet simple drink!

3.) Club soda works REALLY well marinating meat.  I created a delicious marinade for beef which my husband and I enjoyed recently.  Here’s a rough explanation of what it entailed: 1 can of club soda, 1 cup of soy sauce, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 package of onion soup mix, 1 tsp. crushed red pepper, a dash of chili powder, a tbsp. of garlic salt, 1/2 tsp. of pepper, and any other flavouring you’d like to add in!!  I just went with what was in my cupboard, and it was delicious.  The longer you marinate the meat, the better.  The club soda just tenderizes it beautifully.  YUM!

What do you use club soda for?  Or do you have a "wonder product" that does multiple things?

A lot of recipes call for greasing the pan with some sort of spray oil.  Of course you can buy all kinds of flavours of Pam, or knock-off version of that, but part of me wonders what’s really in those products…especially with some of those flavourings!!

I started thinking about it and around about the same someone gave us a refillable oil mister!  It comes empty, and what you do is fill it up with your own olive oil!  I love this because it means that you can use top quality olive oil, and know exactly what you’re spraying on your pans, and in turn, on your food.

You can see a couple of different options from the following links:

1. A list of Amazon.com’s oil misters.  The one I use looks like #7.

2. Pampered Chef also has an oil mister that you can order through a consultant or online.

Do you use an oil mister?  Do you use good ol’ Pam?  What is your preference?

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Have you joined the h2O challenge?

Read here to find out more about joining in the h2O challenge!

Our spinach, which we planted from seed, is growing up a storm!!  There is so much of it, and the leaves are HUGE!  We enjoyed our first pick the other night as we ate a delicious spinach salad alongside our meal.  And, I even covered it in my delicious blackberry vinaigrette dressing. :)  Here is a picture of me rinsing our spinach:

Everything in our garden has sprouted at this point except for our legume beans that our neighbour gave us.  We aren’t totally sure what they are, but she’s a nice elderly lady with an amazing garden, so we went for it! 

How is your garden growing?

If you’re like me, you like a good classic BBQ Sauce to eat with your burgers, or anything that needs a little zest!  My husband like BBQ Sauce with his fries.  Here are a couple of easy recipe that I like for creating your own BBQ Sauce:

Recipe 1:

1 cup of molasses

1 cup of prepared mustard

1 cup of vinegar

Mix, and serve!

 

Recipe 2:

1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. dried mustard

Mix, and serve!

 

Recipe 3:

1 cup ketchup

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. chili powder

Mix, and serve!

 

Do you have a different BBQ sauce recipe that you want to share?  Leave a comment!  

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Have you joined the h2O challenge?

Read here to find out more about joining in the h2O challenge!   

This post is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday.  

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Out for dinner

Wednesday: Thai Stir Fry (I missed trying this last week, so I will hopefully try it this week!)

Thursday: Beef Soup (I have a leftover bone and some meat from our roast dinner, and I will be making some sort of vegetable beef stew out of this!)

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: BBQ (Burgers, Potato Salad, etc.!)

Sunday: Leftovers 

I apologize that there isn’t really anything remarkable on this list, but we have quite a bit of leftovers due to company last week, and we have new guests arriving to stay with us for the summer this coming weekend, so this menu is yummy, but not as recipe-filled! 

Things to look forward to this week: h2O Challenge update and ideas; Garden update; BBQ Sauce recipe and more depending on the time!   

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Have you joined the h2O challenge?

Read here to find out more about joining in the h2O challenge!  

I wanted to try making a raspberry vinaigrette recipe, but I realized that I could make a blackberry vinaigrette recipe even more frugally because we have many, many blackberries stored in our freezer from picking last summer!  Here is the recipe I came up with:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup honey

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup of blackberries, mushed with a fork (including juice!!)

Place in a jar with a lid and shake till sugar has dissolved.  Store in the fridge.