Carrot Ginger Milkshake?!

I was experimenting today with my vitamix and I came up with this tasty treat to ward off my nausea. I get nauseated a lot, because I suffer from IBS. Luckily, you'll want to drink this even if you're feeling great. I sure felt great after I drank it!

Carrot Ginger Milkshake
1C almond milk
1 1/2C baby carrots, or 1C carrot juice
1Tbsp maple syrup
1/2 inch piece fresh peeled ginger
1 frozen banana

Place carrots, ginger and almond milk in a blender and blend on high until smooth (about a minute). Add the maple syrup and banana and blend for another 30 seconds or so. If you are using a fresh banana, I would recommend adding ice and blending again until smooth.
This shake really tastes great and has a nice thick texture. Almond milk is really easy to make (1C almonds and 4C water blended on high for 1 1/2 minutes when using a vitamix!), but you can buy it as well. This shake would probably taste great with cow milk or soymilk as well. By the way, my kids LOVE this shake! I tell them it's dessert.:P

So my $25 menu is going to have to be a $35 menu

I have tried and tried, but I just can't make $25 work! I could actually do it for my family, because we can shop at the commissary, but no other store around here even comes close to matching commissary prices. I've decided to make it a $35 emergency menu instead. I probably could make the $25 work, if I included a lot of ramen noodles and other junk food, but it's really important to me to create an actual viable meal, that won't cause harm. So now I have more to work with and I think the $35 menu plan should be up soon!:P This project has really turned out to be harder than I thought it would.

Recently I had a reader e-mail me with the question, "Liz, what is your favorite, frugal way to use up vegetable odds and ends in the fridge, so they don't get wasted? Just this week, I had 3 zuchinni, 1 leftover baked potato, a lone carrot, 1/2 of a cucumber, and half a pint of grape tomatoes go bad!" I have two words for her: ROASTED VEGETABLES! Roasting vegetables is so easy! Here is my favorite way to do it:

FRUGAL VEGETABLE ROAST!
Zuchinni cut into big chunks
carrots, peeled and julienned
bell peppers, cut into big chunks
potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
any other vegetables you want! Leave quick cooking vegetables in big pieces and slower cooking vegetables should be cut up small, so that everything finishes cooking at the same time.
seasoned salt
olive oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees
Place all vegetables in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with seasoned salt and drizzle with olive oil. Stir to mix well. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and nicely crisped and browned. Enjoy! Sometimes I like to eat the roasted vegetables with some raw tomato and cucumber, diced up small and sprinkled on top.

I like to serve these vegetables with rice or pasta!