ynab

Ahhh budgeting.

In the span of six years, I've graduated from pencil and paper, to increasingly fancy excel templates, to YNAB (referral link).

Over the past couple of years, whenever my brother's been in town or I've been visiting him, I noticed he'd say "Y-NAB!" and whip out his phone after every purchase. It was easy to forget what "YNAB" (why-nab) meant, but every time he spelled it out for me again ("you need a budget!")  it was like hearing a word of advice (which I had already taken, as we've been budgeting since 2007).

The first time we created a budget, we realized just how much we were spending, for instance, on eating out. It was shocking, considering we rarely went out to an actual restaurant. All the little snacks and treats were adding up. Setting up a budget and consciously spending (and saving) allowed us to save nearly $1000 a month at that point in our lives (which was great because we returned to the US at the start of the recession in 2008) . The budget also had unintended results. I realized that I could make (food-wise) almost anything I wanted. For instance, if we were tempted by white chocolate cranberry muffins, I'd go home and make two dozen, freeze them, and then have them on hand for whenever the craving came. I acquired a new level of creativity in the kitchen while saving money.

So here I am today, 2014, and yes, I still need a budget. I must admit, I had been slacking on budgeting since starting graduate school. It was easy not to plan ahead for lunch and instead grab something from a campus cafe. Then, I wouldn't record the purchase as if that would make it disappear. I kept telling myself that I'd remember lunch next week. Guess what...it never happened. Poor L was still plugging in all the expenses he made. I wasn't being fair to him, the budget or myself. So the winter break gave me needed time to reflect on my life and the ways in which I have been slipping away from conscious living.

YNAB has a free 34-day trial, so I gave it a shot. I didn't need 34 days. It's really, really well-designed and pretty awesome. The graphics are fun, and even while the screen is loading you are reminded of why you want to save with shiny jars full of palm trees and safes overflowing with savings. I recently started using a smart phone after a long resistance, and I added the app to try tracking expenses on the go (like my brother!). It's really worth the price, but I always look for coupon codes before buying things online. Luckily, I found one after I read this. After purchasing YNAB, they sent me an e-mail with my own referral link, so now you can save $6 too (and earn me the same) by using it.

Happy saving.

strawberry rhubarb pie

Yesterday, having an abundance of strawberries given to us by our friends after their juicing party, I made this delicious pie. It was my first time using rhubarb, and making a pie with a lattice crust. Whenever I look up recipes and get them from blogs, I get a bit irritated by all the chitchat about the food by the blogger before they finally get to the recipe, but I do see the appeal now that I'm typing one up. 

I modified this from a marthastewart.com recipe. I highly recommend that website for all your baking recipes, and feel free to go straight there now, but I always end up changing something to suit my desires and circumvent eggs, which I can't eat. In short, I used less sugar, less rhubarb, added cardamom, did not use egg and replaced about half of the crust flour with almond meal.

But I'll get to the point, here is the recipe! Enjoy:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make the filling: Mix together rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, zest and juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

• Filling
  
  
  • 1 1/2 pounds strawberries, cut roughly into quarters
  • 1 large stalk of rhubarb, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
  • 1 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • zest of one orange, and its juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
  • sea salt
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  • Make the crust: 
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  • Crust
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  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use white flour, but why, when it's still good with whole grain?)
  • 1 1/4 cups almond meal
  • 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1/3 cup ice water
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  • Whisk flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mash in with a fork (or pastry blender if you have one) until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle in ice water over the mixture and mix in (I used my hands) until it holds when pressed together. Add more water if needed to achieve this.
  • Shape dough into 2 disks and chill in the fridge until firm (this was about 20 min for me)
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  • Roll out 1 disk of dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface (or parchment paper). Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Pour in filling. Refrigerate while making top crust.
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  • Roll remaining dough out as you did with the first disk. Cut into about 15 or so 1/2 inch (or smaller, like I did) strips using a knife or pasty cutter. 
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  • Lay 8 strips across the pie. Fold back every other strip, and lay a horizontal strip across the center of the pie. Unfold folded strips, then fold back remaining strips. Lay another horizontal strip across pie. Repeat folding and unfolding strips to weave a lattice pattern. Repeat on remaining side.
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  • Press together edges of top and bottom crusts to seal. Push the excess dough up to form a ridge of crust. Use a fork to crimp if desired. I used a chopstick to press into the dough at intervals. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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  • Bake pie on the middle rack on a parchment paper or foil lined baking sheet to catch juices. Bake 1 hour, then check on the pie. If the crust is getting too brown, loosely drape foil over the pie. Then bake for about another 30 min. Let cool so it can set before serving.
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  • When serving, this would be amazing with vanilla ice cream. I think the pie was luxurious enough, so I served it with 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt draped on top. Yum!
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