One of my favorite vegetarian dishes is pasta. My boyfriend likes his with canned Alfredo sauce and mushrooms on it. I like that too, but when I make it I usually use herbs, sometimes with chunks of fresh tomato tossed in for flavor, color, and health.

While cooking the pasta I heat a frying pan containing a small amount of oil and sliced fresh garlic. My choices for oil are olive oil, coconut oil, or sunflower oil… all organic. For this, I usually choose olive oil because I love the flavor. To my garlic I add salt, thyme, parsley, kelp flakes, oregano and basil. When the pasta is cooked and drained, I put some in the frying pan with my oil and herbs, and mix it together. The fresh tomatoes go in last, when the heat is turned off. Then I put it all on a plate with Parmesan cheese on top, and sometimes a little grated sharp cheddar right under the Parmesan. Mmmmm… I am such a pasta lover.

You notice I share my recipes but usually don’t mention amounts. I expect that we all have have an inner instinct for knowing how much to use. Learning to rely on that is part of becoming a confident cook. My grandmother never used measuring cups or spoons, and I rarely do.

Pasta choices… my boyfriend likes fettuccine. Honestly, I like it all but usually use fettuccine, spaghetti, or macaroni.

A few nights ago I went to the regular Friday evening fund-raising dinner at our local art center. This is a vegan/vegetarian dinner. They served big pasta shells with some kind of sauce (I should have asked) along with a green salad, cooked beets, and a slice of homemade bread. The dinner was satisfying and delicious, and for five dollars, I enjoyed the meal and the company of artistically minded people. The money is to be used to build a new art center in our remote mountain town.

Yes, I’ve been poking around the Internet this week, and last, ever since I lost my job at this town’s finest pizzaria… the Pizza House. Yay! No more having to work with… oh, never mind. I’m just so happy not to have to work outside my home for a while, I could sing and dance. More about that later.

I’m getting back into the mindset of a blogger and work at home person. I’m re-arranging my life to make Internet income acquisition more feasible. I’m reacquainting myself with my blogs… blowing the dust off, and making them all homey and cozy again.

For the last couple of months I was not only working hard at the pizza place - I was also working toward achieving an online goal. I wanted to be part of the Giant Squid program at Squidoo.Com. (See my lensography.)This may sound strange to many of you, but I love the Squidness of it all.. it shows a complete lack of taking ourselves too seriously. After all, if we’re not online for fun and profit - what are we here for? Okay, so maybe some of you could do without the profit part… but seriously, I can’t. This will have to be part of my required income from here on in, and Squidoo is a place where you can easily earn money online.

Let me be a bit honest with you about my situation.

I’ve given most of my life over to the care of my children, in that I took care of them for more than thirty years. My oldest is 35 this year. My youngest just turned 18 and moved out in July. So for the first time in my adult life - ever since I was twenty (when I had my first baby) - I am suddenly childless, in that none of them live with me. YES, I get to experience “Empty Nest Syndrome” first hand. So far it hasn’t been difficult.

My main income for the last year and a half was via working at the local pizza restaurant. I live in a VERY small town with few job opportunities. I felt lucky to have the job even though it was just part time.

Early in September the woman I worked with, the morning supervisor, suddenly quit her job after being there twelve years. She’d been offered a better job with benefits at the grocery store. I got promoted into the morning supervisor job on September 8. Unfortunately the evening supervisor who had worked there on and off for more than fifteen years didn’t like me. At the time I got promoted she was plotting and planning to get me out of there. I know that because later I ran into someone who told me the other supervisor offered her MY job at about the same time I got the promotion. This woman apparently was badmouthing me to the business owner and undermining me in every way she could. Eventually she got her way and only two weeks after getting promoted, I got fired for no particular reason other than that the other supervisor didn’t want to work with me! Wow, that was a big surprise to me because I was a very good employee. For some reason that old woman (age 69) is very manipulative and always gets her way with the business owner, who seems to be a pushover, letting her run the show even if it is unfair to others involved. I’m not the first person I’ve seen affected by this phenomena.

Anyhow, to my surprise, my first emotions after being fired were relief as if a burden had been lifted from me, and then joy. Suddenly I realized how happy I was that I wouldn’t have to work in that environment anymore, and especially not around that old woman plus her progeny who also work there due to the nepotism that’s so much a part of that business. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, stretched, smiled, and started feeling like I was doing internal happy dances. Like I really NEEDED to be treated so badly? How much money is it worth to go to work daily in a hostile environment… especially one where I have to work with meats even though I’m a vegetarian?

Fortunately I’d saved some money, and am earning a bit online. Since as I said, there are few job opportunities here, I’m not expecting to get another job right away. Of course, you never know and I’m not going to turn any jobs down… but for now I’m exceedingly happy to work at home as a blogger, Squidooer, and ad salesperson. I’m not earning a living wage at this time but it might get better if I keep trying. Right?

The good news is that my expenses are few. I’ve become an expert at practicing economy. My rent is super low - I live in a small backwoods cabin (some might call it a shack)… three bedrooms, but definitely not upscale. I drive an old but economical car so there are no car payments and gas… well, let’s not mention that right now. I just won’t drive it much. I plan to save on gas and ride a bicycle. Plus I walk a lot… often to the post office and back in the late afternoon. Two miles… good exercise. And I’m stocked up on food and continually adding more staples to my collection. There are very few things I really NEED to buy. I CAN DO THIS!!! I mean, I can learn to live on a much lower income.

I know that a lot of you out there in the rest of civilization are going through financial difficulties right now. I know with the bank failure, lots of people have lost retirement funds and home equity. My heart is with you as I feel the pains of so many who aren’t used to having to cut back, suddenly finding the rug pulled out from beneath them. And I guess what I’d like to do now is share some of my techniques for living economically. I feel like I’m pretty close to the bottom of the income scale, yet living comfortably and happily because of the choices I’ve made in the past. Maybe I have some ideas I can share with others - especially the idea that we can stay cheerful and happy in hard economic times.

Enough for now. If you’ve read this far, you must be a saint, and I love you! Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back.

Since I work at a restaurant that serves awesome deli sandwiches, I get to bring home empty pickle jars that are very helpful as far as keeping my staples goes. Each is filled with a different vegetarian delight food like hummus mix, lentils, brown rice, and falafel mix. I truly enjoy looking at the jars full of goodies. They are so colorful - and the textures are all different.

I think falafel mix is particularly good, health-wise. It is made from chick peas. I’ve had some that was too spicy, but what I buy up in Medford, Oregon is excellent quality and enjoyable. If I were hiking in the wilderness with a little stove, this is one food I’d take with me for nutrition and to provide lightweight staples. You can mix falafel mix with cooked, crushed beans to produce a thick textured burger patty. Fry that up, and eat in a hamburger bun with all the condiments, lettuce, onion, and tomato.

Recently my significant other, the magnificent Bob, decided to make beans and rice the new staple of his diet. First let me say I’m very proud of this man. He was a meat eater all his life until gout stopped him from eating 90% of the foods he loved, including red meat. Now he’s recovering thanks to some medication, but rather than going back to the bad diet, he’s adjusted to being mostly vegetarian, though he still eats fish. I don’t, so we usually don’t share meals. He cooks what he wants and I cook what I want. I’ve gone on a vegan diet. Anyhow, as I was about to say, Bob wants to eat rice and beans. So I’ve been cooking them, keeping them on hand in the fridge. I’ve been using pinto beans. The rice and beans fill several jars in my pantry. I find that when I’m cooking them constantly, I go through the beans pretty fast - so I need more than one of the gallon jars full of them.

I have granola in one jar. I’ve been using that to make the sweet treat I mentioned in my last post. More on that in another post. I’ve morphed the recipe into breakfast bars! Recipe to be announced SOON. I keep the rice flour in another gallon jar, and cinnamon I bought in bulk in another smaller jar. Cinnamon and rice flour provide the outer coating for these treats.

Anyhow, if you need jars, ask at your local restaurant or deli. If they use pickles, they probably have more jars than they want. The one gallon mayonnaise jars are plastic, but they’re handy too… I use them for pasta and beans.

Suggestion: Stock up on as many dry staples as you can.