With spring comes tornado season…and boy has it roared into gear this week. The twisters outside of Dallas destroyed about 200 homes and damaged 650 more.

If you live in tornado alley (or even close to it) do you have a preparedness plan?

Lisa Rebstock had a preparedness kit ready with diapers and supplies and knew where to go when disaster struck—and was huddled in the bathroom with her children as a tornado roared overhead—and survived unscathed. See this clip as she describes the horror.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you’re wondering where to get started, our emergency preparedness checklist will help. And in this case, we also highly recommend this fantastic one put together by The American Red Cross to help as you prepare kits and emergency plans.

You should also be sure to catalog your valuables so that you can be sure you have adequate insurance for the items in your home.

And if you’re on the fence about taking the steps you need to be prepared (we’ve heard every excuse and none of them are good enough), re-watch this clip. The scary thing about tornadoes is their utter randomness. It CAN happen to you. Be ready.

Good financial intentions: we all have them. Yet, with the American savings rate at an anemic 4.6% of income and the average household credit card debt load of $15,956 (for households with credit card debt) – our good intentions aren’t amounting to much financial good.

Happily our failure on this front has a silver lining: the chance to learn.

There are probably as many reasons for failing to control your financial life as there are people. Dip your toe into financial self-help literature and you’re sure to be wowed by the often deeply rooted emotional reasons why we overspend and under-save. It’s fascinating stuff. But reading about it will only take you so far. If you really want to pull yourself out of your financial rut, you will have to stop being an armchair observer of other people’s failures and become a student of your own.

Here are four critical steps to embracing your financial failures in a way that will enrich you over the long haul.

Step 1: Keep track

We know it sounds depressing: track my failures?!? Why on earth would I want to do that?

The fact is if you aren’t willing to take an honest look at where you are going off the rails, you will not ever learn how to stay on them. Nobody is perfect; we all fail at one point or another. Those who succeed quickly get over their fear of failure and figure out how to learn from it. As Samuel Beckett said so eloquently: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Thus, when it comes to getting your financial house in order, you must establish a ritual for documenting your financial failures. Pick one night a week where you look back over the previous seven days and identify any missteps. Did you overshoot your food budget? Jot down how much you went over and why you did. Did you compulsively shop? Note when, how you felt before you went shopping, and what kinds of things you felt compelled to buy. Did you feel better after? Or worse? The more detail you can put around the event, the more likely you will be to learn from it over time. And don’t be tempted to skip this step. You may think, “oh I’ll remember this.” But you won’t. Or you may, but you may not want to think about it too much. There’s something about having to face the cold, hard facts – both when you write it down and then again when it’s time for your weekly review – that leads to real learning and inspires permanent lifestyle changes.

Step 2: Identify critical patterns

As you gain experience documenting your financial mistakes and missteps, clear patterns will start to emerge. Perhaps you are chronically over budget when it comes to food, or once a month you hit the mall without any plan and do some damage with your credit cards.

At least once a quarter, and ideally once a month, review your spending patterns and ask yourself if there are any recurring patterns of note. Take the time to capture any in your journal or virtual notebook, wherever you are keeping track of your failure stats. Again, writing it down is critical; it helps you truly internalize the information.

Step 3: Synthesize and cement lessons learned

Any time you identify a negative pattern in your finances, force yourself to get to the root of the problem. Perhaps you are chronically over your food budget because you’re trying to wing it without a weekly menu and turn to take-out and expensive prepared foods at the grocery store more than you realize. Maybe you are in the habit of going shopping with a friend who makes a lot more money than you do and feel compelled to keep up appearances, or worse, hit the stores when you’re feeling vulnerable and try cloak your lagging self-esteem in fancy badge brands.

The point of this step is to dig deep for the reasons behind your sabotaging behavior. As soon as you identify a pattern in step two, start a running tally of possible reasons why the pattern exists. Keep asking yourself why until you get to a satisfying answer. It will often be emotional in nature.

Once you’ve identified the root cause(s), take a few moments to capture your failure in the form of a complete sentence and then list each valuable lesson you have learned.

Step 4: Brainstorm “back on the bandwagon” tactics

The final step is to come up with a few tactics that you can employ to stay ahead of the negative pattern and/or to interrupt it and get yourself quickly back on track.

Do you track your financial failures or do you bury your head in the sand? If you do track, what are some of the best lessons you’ve learned from doing so? We’d love to hear.

Many people put off organizing their finances because they believe it will be a time-intensive chore. Fortunately in this technological day and age, it doesn’t have to be. A wide variety of free and fee-based tools exist that can make the entire process as easy as pushing a button or two. Unfortunately, with over 4,000 personal financial websites to comb through and app libraries filled with hundreds of options, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

That’s why I have taken the time to create a short list of the top tools for streamlining and organizing your finances. I’ve organized them into three critical categories: financial aggregators, expense trackers, and debt monitors.

Financial Aggregators (for getting clear on the big picture)

When was the last time you zoomed out and took a look at your personal financial big picture?

It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day management of your accounts. But when you approach finances exclusively from a tactical standpoint, it can be a bit like shooting in the dark. You may cross off tasks, like balancing your checkbook and paying your bills on time, but you cannot be sure your individual steps are taking you where you really want to go in the long run. Happily there are a variety of (mostly) free tools that can help you get a handle on your big financial picture within minutes. If you are one of the 61% of Americans who either has no household budget or fails to stick with one, you should absolutely start by organizing your big picture using one of these tools.

Top Web Aggregator: Mint.com

This comprehensive web-based financial aggregator is owned by Intuit. It organizes all of your financial account information in one spot, the cloud, which makes it accessible from any device – desktop, tablet or mobile phone. It connects with virtually every US bank (as long as it has internet banking), which means setting up your account takes mere minutes. It has excellent security, which you can read about in this New York Times article. Best of all it is free. The interface is both beautiful and incredibly easy to navigate. Once you have set up your accounts, Mint calculates your average spending in every category to help you easily create a budget based on your historical spending (increasing the likelihood you will stick to it). You can also input financial goals and monitor your progress against your goals. Bottom line: if you use this tool, your big financial picture will be buttoned up in fairly short order.

High Quality Alternates

While I feel Mint.com is the best option in this category, I understand that not everyone is comfortable having their financial information in “the cloud.” For those wanting a computer-based option, we recommend these two paid programs: Quicken, and MoneyDance or this free one: GnuCash.

Tracking Receipts and Expenses

If you don’t track where your dollars are going each month, it is only a matter of time until you break your budget. When that happens, you land right back in that spot where your finances are controlling you, not the other way around. Happily breaking this vicious cycle has never been easier. There are literally hundreds of apps that make it a cinch to track every penny you spend. We’ve zeroed in on our three favorite.

Top 3 Tools for Organizing Receipts & Expenses

• Mint.com: When you create a Mint.com account, you can also download their Apple or Android app for free so that you have your complete financial picture with you wherever you go. If you’re wondering whether or not you should buy those shoes, take a gander at your budget before splurging. Mint.com automatically updates expenditures made with an ATM or credit card. But you can also manually enter transactions too. The app is password protected for an added layer of security.

• Balance: While auto-updating programs like Mint.com are nice, it is often helpful from an accountability standpoint to have to enter information by hand. Balance is a basic app that tracks the balances on all of your accounts. Every time you make a purchase or a deposit, enter the transaction amount into the app. It then automatically updates your balance information. You’ll see pretty quickly how those little ATM fees and lattes add up.

• Expensify: If you are in business for yourself or are an employee that has to frequently incur business-related expenses, you know how painful the process of filling out expense reports can be. But it is critical; ill-managed expense reimbursements wreak havoc on personal cash flows and budgets. Fortunately there’s Expensify, a spiffy free app that imports expenses and receipts from credit cards, lets you send copies of paper receipts using your mobile phone camera, and makes it possible to submit expense reports through email, and even get reimbursed via direct deposit.

Of course, sometimes a pencil and paper is the best way to keep yourself honest about what you are spending, just as writing down your calorie intake is often the best way to keep yourself honest about what you are eating. In that case, there is always this free printable budget tracker from Buttoned Up.

Reducing Debt

Quite a few people mentioned on our Buttoned Up facebook page recently that their top financial goal included paying off student loans. Having climbed out of that hole myself, I know that it can be a slog. When you’re trying to pay down any kind of debt, you need all the help you can get tracking not only what you have due, but the progress you are making in paying it off. Happily there are a few programs and apps that do a wonderful job of just that.

Top Tool: Debt Snowball Pro

This simple app is designed to help you power through your debt. It has a very clean, easy to use interface. The app’s designers have given users three different approaches to eliminating their debt. Your accountant will love option 1: pay off your higher interest loans first and save the most money. Your amygdala will prefer option 2: pay off the smallest debts first and work your way up to larger ones so you see a “snowball” effect in paying off debts. Your local stores will like option 3: pay off the minimum due each month (so you have more to spend with them). Regardless of the option you choose, all you have to do is enter all of your debt information into a debt list once and the app will take it from there.

High Quality Alternates

While I personally love the streamlined interface of Debt Snowball Pro, there are quite a few good apps and spreadsheets in this area. Other notable options include: the Vertex42 Excel Spreadsheet Calculator, Pay Off Debt, Debt Payoff Planner, and iQuick Debt Payoff. Regardless of which option you choose to go with, having a complete picture of how much you have to pay off is a powerful deterrent to profligate spending. Of course, any debt reduction plan is likely to be aided by a low tech tool: scissors.

Are you comfortable using tech tools to organize your finances? Which tools do you swear by? I’d love to hear.

There are so many incredible writers out there on these interwebs and some shady ones too – especially in the area of personal finance, the focus of our March Challenge).

I thought it might be helpful to highlight five posts worthy of your time here. When you get a sec, or get stuck on a boring conference call, give these a read. You’ll be richer for it.

The Happiest Mom – Food Waste My Sneaky Money-Waster

Get Rich Slowly – Stealth Savings

Getting Finances Done: The Easiest Way to Organize Your Budget

Zen Habits: 10 Habits to Develop for Financial Stability & Success

Daily Worth: My Weight-Watchers Inspired Money Diet

As I mentioned on my post over at BabyCenter this morning, the mere mention of the word finance unleashes Olympic-level procrastination in me.

In all honesty, I’d rather be Pinning healthy dinner ideas than balancing my checkbook.

But the fact is, there are lots of things that you (and I) can do in ten minutes or less to improve the overall state of your finances. And some of them are downright enjoyable! Read on for ten ideas and then try kicking that procrastination to the curb – see how many of these you can cross off of your list within the next seven days.

1. Cancel Recurring Services You No Longer Use.

We all have signed up at one time or another for a service that we eventually (or maybe never) fully used. Scour your credit card statement for any such charges and cancel them. Keep a tally of the money you save and celebrate your savings. I recently checked my bills as part of the March GetButtoned Up Challenge and found money that I was essentially throwing away on online services I didn’t really use. It wasn’t hundreds of dollars, but if I just sweep that same amount into my savings account each month, it will add up significantly over time.

2. Eliminate Unnecessary Financial Accounts.

The more complex your finances are to manage, the less likely you are to keep them buttoned up over the long haul. If you have more than one (max two) credit card accounts, consolidate them.

3. Create a Bill Pay Station.

Establish one spot in your home where you organize and pay all bills. You should have a container to hold pending bills (a colorful bin, file folder or basket is always nice) as well as a basic filing system to keep receipts and stubs organized. If you don’t have one set up, pick the spot and order the components online in one ten minute block. Then set up your filing system in the other.

4. Opt Out of Pre-Approved Card Offers.

Nobody needs more temptation on the credit card front. The consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian, and Innovis) are required by law to offer consumers the opportunity to take their names off of lists sold to credit card and insurance marketers. Do yourself a favor and take them up on their offer to opt-out today. Simply visit this website: listhttps://www.optoutprescreen.com/, enter your information, and you will be taken off the list for 5 years. For a more permanent solution, mail in an opt-out request – details on the same website.

5. Make a Date to Pay Bills.

In our latest book Pretty Neat, we spoke about the power of simple routines that you do on autopilot. The principle can absolutely be applied to bill paying. If you’re paying bills as they come in, you’re spending too much time on them and likely making your blood pressure higher than it needs to be. Pick two or three set days each month when none of your bills will be late and set a recurring 10 minute appointment on each day to pay all due bills.

6. Set a Recurring Appointment to Track Your Weekly Spending.

If you don’t know what you’re spending on a regular basis, you simply cannot be in control of your finances. Set up a ten-minute appointment with yourself once a week to tally up everything you have spent. Make it easier on yourself by using this free monthly spending worksheet from Buttoned Up.

7. Prepare Your Car to Capture Car Expenses.

Keep a small notebook and pen or a Receipt.catcher for your car in your glove compartment. Use it to organize receipts and keep track of gas purchases, mileage, and any repairs done on your car.

8. Set Up a Digital Hub.

The more visibility you have into your financial situation, the more you will be in control your finances, and not the other way around. We are huge fans of digital programs and services that organize your total financial picture in one spot. Mint.com happens to be Sarah’s favorite while Quicken is Alicia’s preferred program. If you don’t already have one, pick a program that easily integrates with your existing financial accounts and then take ten minutes each day until you have it completely set up.

9. Establish an Automatic Savings Sweep.

People often make the mistake of saving last, not first. Put yourself on track to save more by setting up an automatic sweep from your checking account to a savings account. Ideally set up a savings account in a non-linked account so it is harder to “raid” when you’re facing a moment of weakness. Another easy option: sign up with your employer to receive two direct deposits from your job – one for your checking account and the other for your savings account.

10. Make a Change Jar.

It’s so simple. But if you save rather than spend the change that you get each time you pay cash on something, you’ll have a nice little bucket of savings at the end of the year. Multiply that by all of the spenders in your household and you could have hundreds of dollars in coins come December. Go get an empty bell jar or tall Tupperware container, label it CHANGE, and at the end of every day, empty any loose change you have accumulated into the jar.

If we picked your house at random for an impromptu inspection of your financial filing system would we find a streamlined filing cabinet or one that was overrun with paper clutter?

Don’t feel bad if you are in the latter camp. When it comes to financial records, most of us err on the side of caution. For some reason, our fear of “what if” keeps us holding on to things like phone bills, old bank statements, and health insurance records way longer than necessary.

As it turns out, those fears are largely unfounded. Use this list to help you weed out unnecessary papers and get your financial files organized for good.

Click here to download.

Sometimes it helps to look at the cost of clutter from a different angle.

Do you ever think about the hidden costs of the stuff you buy?

This chart below, courtesy of Seeing Finance, shows you in graphic detail how long it would take to pay off credit cart debt if you just make the minimum payment – and more importantly – how much additional interest you would pay over time.

If you use credit cards to purchase things and pay them off over time, do you ever factor in the added cost of interest to the purchase price?

I hadn’t previously. But this visualization made me think it might be a good idea…

Have you ever started a budget only to throw your hands up in disgust because “it’s not working” after a few months? Are you perhaps afraid to make one because you equate budgeting with financial dieting and deprivation? Whatever your reason, if you are currently one of the 60% of Americans who avoid the budgeting process, keep reading.

Proper budgeting is an essential ingredient to financial success. Do it right and you will be in control of your money, not the other way around. The good news is: creating a budget that works is neither painful nor difficult. The trick is to avoid the most common mistakes that discourage even the most well-intentioned budgeter.

Mistake #1: You don’t track your spending.

A lot of budgeting processes are overly general and will have you list your monthly bills and estimate reasonable amounts for other things such as lunches, gas, groceries, etc. The problem with such a general approach is that your estimates may be way off base. Marsha Baker, CPA and Professor of Consumer Finance at Lindenwood University, explains, “A lot of people are absolutely amazed as to where they spend their money. They have no idea that their daily coffee habit adds up quickly or that going out every weekend pushes them beyond their means.” If you haven’t tracked and observed your spending (and earning) habits, what you don’t know will almost always knock you off track and lead you to conclude: “budgeting just doesn’t work,” a conclusion that’s just plain, wrong.

Solution:
You must track your spending for at least one or two complete months before creating your first budget. There are high-tech and low-tech ways to do this, but the bottom line is you have to take a clear-eyed look at where your money is going. If you’re a fan of pencil and paper like we both are, you can download a free monthly spending chart (or two) from GetButtonedUp.com. Keep a copy in your wallet or purse, stick a copy on the fridge, and put one on your desk so you’re always ready to jot down what you spent right away. At the end of the month, tally it all up in a fresh worksheet. If you’re more digitally inclined, there is no better free tool than Mint.com. Register for free to create your account and link all your bank and credit card accounts to it easily. Just remember though, unless you pay for every, single thing with a linked debit card, you will still have to manually input cash expenditures so you can track them too.

Mistake #2: You mingle fixed & variable expenses in the same accounts.

Fixed expenses, like mortgages and car payments, recur every month with little to no variation in the amount due. Variable expenses, like groceries and entertainment, fluctuate. By co-mingling fixed and variable expenses in the same account, you increase the complexity of managing your money and budget unnecessarily. You also put your money for critical fixed expenses at risk from “oopsy” (or shall we say, unplanned) overspending on variable items.

Solution:
Lee Roesner, entrepreneur and developer of the MoneySlinger Speed-Budgeting Personal Finance System, advocates managing each of these two groups independently by first determining the average monthly cost for each group of expenses: fixed and variable. He explains, “these two figures simply become monthly deposits into two separate bank accounts; each dedicated to one of these groups. Throughout the month, individual expenses are paid out of each account accordingly.” Untangling the two accounts makes your budget far easier to manage, and we can both say from experience, the easier something like a budget is to manage, the more likely to you are to stick with it.

Mistake #3: You consider savings last.

When you are forced to cutback or micromanage your budget, it’s painful. But rather than associating that pain with budgeting, recognize it for what it really is: a warning sign that you’re failing to save adequately. Too many people think about saving last, when in reality, it should drive the budget.

Solution:
Amy Suardi, our savings expert and author of Frugal-Mama.com, advocates what she calls reverse budgeting for savings. She explains, “you put as much as you can into savings at the beginning of the month, and then you let things work themselves out for the rest of the month.” The folks at DailyWorth.com call this same approach the “Save-to-Spend” plan. No matter what you call it, saving first ensures that you are socking away for the important stuff, but still allowing yourself freedom to spend when things come up.

Mistake #4: You forget take into account expenses that recur irregularly, but frequently.

Every August for the past 75 years, my dad has a birthday. For at least half of those years, I’ve gotten him a present. Every Christmas I also buy presents for my rather large family. Then there’s school clothes and supplies for Will & Lachlan, car insurance, property taxes, etc. While these kinds of expenses aren’t regular in the sense they come up every month, they DO come up every year, or quarter. The same is true for everyone and if you fail to plan for them, your budget gets stressed and often you incur debt to meet the unexpected expenses – a budget breaker for sure.

Solution:
Marsha Baker, CPA advises tallying up these recurring non-monthly expenses, dividing them by 12 and depositing that amount into a discretionary savings account on a monthly basis. If you get a paycheck directly deposited, split the deposit accordingly so you don’t have to think about it, or just sweep the amount into a savings account each month. Then when the inevitable expense comes up, there’s no stress, just an online transfer to cover the expenses. Easy peasy.

Mistake #5: You don’t comparison shop.

From grocery stores to clothing stores, if you’re not in the habit of comparing before you buy, you’re throwing away money that could be channeled into discretionary or emergency savings funds. You are also much, much more likely to engage in budget-busting impulse buying.

Solution:
The internet has made it much, much easier to get what you need and stick to your budget, so before you head anywhere to buy something, check online first. Many times retailers have better deals online than they do at their brick and mortar stores. In addition, websites like KeyCode.com compile promotional codes for everything from tax software to baby furniture from all the biggest retailers. Sites like GiftCardGranny.com sell gift cards for up to 35% off the face value and you can find discount gift cards for most any purchase need including apparel, groceries, gas, electronics, home goods, travel like airfare and lodging, movie tickets and much more. The bottom line: if you’re not comparison shopping, you’re hurting your bottom line.

Do you make any of these mistakes? Which ones get you? Do you have any other budget “watch-outs” that you think others should be careful to avoid?

It’s time to get your finances (and some of your stuff) buttoned up!

Good luck and lots of green; that’s what March is all about. We’d love for you to have lots of luck at maximizing your personal green, so that’s the main thrust of the challenge this month. But we know – both from personal experience AND from just being out in the world – that most people want to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to financial organization (hello – two-thirds of Americans don’t have a budget). So we’ve also lightened the challenge up with some general decluttering exercises too.

By the end of this challenge, you will:

1. Have taken over 17 baby steps to get your finances organized…painlessly
2. Impress yourself (and family members/friends) with your MacGuyver-like abilities in the kitchen.
3. Detox your Tupperware drawers.
4. Make significant tax-prep progress well in advance of April 15th.

And much, much more!

How the March #GetButtonedUp Challenge Will Work

Each day during the month of March we have a specific organizational task for you to complete. Download the March calendar by clicking on the link below.

Get Buttoned Up Challenge – March

When you complete the task, let the buttoned up team know your status by commenting on the Facebook check-in post for that day and either email or Tweet the picture of your completed task. We will enter anyone who has completed all 27 days of the challenge successfully into a grand prize drawing. All winners will be selected using random.org.

Participating in the #GetButtonedUp Challenge is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Let us know you’re in by commenting on this post below by March 5th AND by heading over to Facebook to comment under the post about being a part of the March Challenge.
2. Letting us know you completed your daily task by commenting on the Facebook GetButtonedUp Challenge Check-In post each day
3. Where applicable, sending a picture of your completed task to Sarah – via email sarah @ getbuttonedup dot com OR via TwitPic to @SarahButtonedUp & using the #getbuttonedup hashtag.

Grand Prize

Grand Prize: $150 Amex gift card to add to your savings!

Join In By Commenting Below!

NOTE: All are welcome to join in the challenge.

]]> http://getbuttonedup.com/2012/02/29/enter-the-march-getbuttonedup-challenge/feed/ 96 http://getbuttonedup.com/2012/02/27/part-iii-from-frozen-dinner-queen-to-healthy-weeknight-cook/ http://getbuttonedup.com/2012/02/27/part-iii-from-frozen-dinner-queen-to-healthy-weeknight-cook/#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:00:26 +0000 Sarah http://getbuttonedup.com/?p=19008

This is the third installment of a four-part series on how I transformed myself from frozen food queen to healthy weeknight chef. Yes, it is possible to go from almost never cooking anything from scratch to cooking virtually everything from scratch. Even if you work full-time like I do. It may take awhile (I took a full year), but you can do it.

If you missed the other installments, you can read about phase I (Fits & Starts) here and phase II (Mastering the Basics) here.

Experimenting with New and Fun

This third phase of the year of my transformation was all about branching out from the basics and experimenting a bit.

As we headed into the summer months, our local farmers market opened and shopping suddenly became really fun for the whole family. We got in the habit of walking to it every Sunday and discovering new things to try, from leeks to kale, mustard greens, pasture raised chickens, and tomatillos…

Typically I’d create the week’s menu by outlining the building blocks for our meals, namely the proteins and the grains. But then I’d leave the vegetables and sauces up for grabs. The overflowing bins of vegetables at the market never failed to steer me in interesting directions.

One evening, a tomatillo salsa verde made a wonderful accompaniment to talapia.

The kids loved it, and my husband begged me to make the salsa again just to have on hand. It was that good.
{image & recipe via: Pinch My Salt}

Another night, I whipped together a leek tart. This is a wonderfully fast and relatively easy dinner to make. Perfect for those nights when you look in the fridge and don’t have too much left in there. I had tried my hand at an apple pie or two, so making my own crust wasn’t entirely a new thing. The good thing about a homemade crust is that it is generally delicious – even if it doesn’t come out perfectly flaky. Don’t be intimidated.

While at the beach with family, on my night to cook, I tried my hand at homemade pizza.

While not something I recommend for large parties (we were 28 people – oven space fell a little short), it is a great and really easy dinner for a single family. I have fallen in love with Tyler Florence’s pizza sauce recipe and use the pizza dough recipe from the back of a package of Fleischman’s pizza yeast. It has become our new go-to Friday night recipe.

Quinoa burgers made it in to the menu set.

I’ve tried these with and without eggs (without when my vegan relatives were visiting at Christmas). When making them without the eggs, just use something like cornstarch or a little extra flour to make them stick together. The tzatziki sauce that goes with this recipe is insanely good, but I’ve found you only need 1/2 to 1/4 of what’s called for, so I usually half the recipe. In general, Eating Well Living Thin is a wonderful resource for delicious and healthy recipes. I highly recommend perusing her blog.

Fish tacos were another hit of the summer.

And super, super easy. The tangy sauce is delish, but like the tzatziki sauce for the quinoa burgers, a little goes a long way. Definitely 1/2 the recipe for it.
{image and recipe by Daisy Cooks Sometimes}

And how could I forget this beautiful recipe for Thyme Scented Salmon with Tuscan White Bean Salad that I found in a Cooking Light Magazine from May 2003? I had stashed it away with my cookbooks and forgotten about it until I was hunting for some new and different dishes. It took a little longer to make as there are quite a few fresh ingredients to chop. But aside from all the chopping, there is nothing complicated about it. I think the elbow grease is worth it as it is both melt-in-your-mouth delicious and wonderfully nutritious.

The bottom line is, once you’ve mastered some basics, branching out an adding new and exciting dishes to the menu set is critical in helping maintain momentum. For me, I found that experimenting kept interested and excited about cooking in this stage. It kept me from stagnating.

Of course, not every dish I tried came out beautifully. But as I gained confidence, my fear of failure melted away. Nothing was ever so bad it was inedible.

My rule of thumb is that I have to prepare a dish three or four times before I really “get” how to both cook and flavor it to my (and my boys’) taste.

Confection Heaven

Dinners weren’t the only thing that I experimented with in this phase. I also threw my hat into the baking and confections arena. Because I love me some sugar.

It all started with my oldest son’s birthday. We decided to throw him a monster truck themed birthday party in our back yard, and I felt compelled to bake him a proper monster truck cake.

Miraculously, my gamble paid off. You can read the step-by-step monster truck cake tutorial here.

Bolstered by my monster truck cake coup, I leaned on my aunt to teach me how to make bread from scratch and she kindly obliged.

Now, once a month, I turn to this step-by-step bread-making tutorial and make four loaves for the month. I keep one loaf out and freeze the others, pulling them out as needed.

Once you start making your own bread, it’s pretty impossible to go back to the store bought kind. I’ve only had to buy bread twice since last summer. Once when we were just back from vacation and had nothing in the pantry, the other when I was battling the flu.

As the summer fruit season kicked into high gear, we also enjoyed

Strawberry shortcakes

{image and recipe via Fine Cooking}

Julia Child’s apple tarts

I followed the recipe from Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking, but this recipe from the Little Blue Hen looks about the same.
{image and recipe via: Little Blue Hen}

Paula Deen’s peach cobbler

Now, this one isn’t for every day as it is not the healthiest concoction. But can I just say, we all went weak at the knees on this one. With fresh picked peaches, it is simply divine.
{image and recipe via: Food Network}

A doggie birthday cake for my youngest


And my personal favorite, raspberry jam.

Since raspberry jam was the very last thing my mom ever made, making it held special significance for me. Surprisingly, it only took 35 minutes from start to finish. And wow, so good. Next summer, I will be making lots, lots, lots more as we plowed through ours before winter really ever set it.

Looking back, the key to maintaining my momentum in this arena was clearly just being willing to experiment – and fail. My first apple tart looked pretty sad. But it tasted great. Each time I make it, it gets prettier and prettier. My first batch of raspberry jam was a disaster. I had to toss the lot because I overcooked it. But I tried again and it turned out beautifully.

Indeed, the overarching theme to this entire journey has been: if at first you don’t succeed…try, try again.

What would you cook if you weren’t afraid to fail?

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