Terrific Tuesday.

It's  PT day.   Busy day, I've posted  a zone cleaning schedule, we'll see how good it works for us,    It's a good way to schedule your cleaning and chores so that life doesn't get too overwhelming,    That doesn't take into consideration the major projects we need to do  before winter sets in.   LOL.

O was reminded yesterday about a muffin basic recipe.    It makes the baking of muffins super easy and let's you use  whatever you have on hand to design your own muffins.   It is very flexible and is a good go to recipe-- one  of those keep it on the refrigerator recipes.   I have several of them in a large magnetic clip on the refrigerator.    Beer bread, split pea soup, rice crispy treats...things I should know by heart, but I have them at hand in case someone else needs them or I have a brain  fart.    I am getting old...I think.....

Yesterday was kitchen management day.  I did a lot making bread crumbs and cleaning the fridge out.   I had already made a double batch of chicken enchiladas filling, so all I had to do was assemble a casserole, and make another batch of sauce.    I'm loving the new white sauce mix recipe.    It is, however, more fat than it prolly should be.    My first rendition is low salt and low fat,,,    Surprise, it doesn't taste as good.    LOL.   I had already got a head start the day before cooking chickens.  

I'm all about easy recipes.    I don't have the stamina that I did when I was younger, and when I was younger, I had  a house, three kids and two jobs to juggle.  I want to cook good, nutritious food from scratch and still grocery shop in an efficient way and net my food at 1/2 price.     I feel like if I pay full price, I'm wasting my money. We all have to eat, we all need to eat nutritious meals; but, if I get food for 1/2 price, we can have something else in life besides food.    

I am on a mission to cook scratch food easy.    Whatever your reason, many of us will benefit from easy, cheap  scratch food.  


Here's the high five for the day.....
Five easy quick meals.    

1. Split pea soup, beer bread .    I can get split peas for under a dollar at grocery outlet .  Beer bread is four  ingredients. The soup can be made in about five minutes in-passive time either I'm the slow cooker  or the pressure cooker.    The bread on the oven.   Bisquick, beer, sugar and top with butter.    Dinner with 15 minutes effort.    
2. Bean vegetable soup is a dump and run in the slow cooker.  Add an apple dump cake.  Three ingredients.  
3. Sausage and oven roasted veggies.   Drizzle olive oil on a baking pan with sides.    Add cut up potatoes. Washed cut up carrots, radishes .  Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.   Place them on a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or Intel vegetables are soft.  Torn them 1/2 way through.  The last 20 minutes, add sausages while, or cut into pieces depending on what kind of sausage you buy,    Costco has really good chicken sausage.    
4. Shrimp or chicken stir fry.    I always have frozen shrimp, and bulk cooking chicken leaves pieces of chicken I keep in the freezer.   Pour a small amount of olive oil in a large fry pan.   Add stir fry veggies  ( I got Kroger for .66 last week) stir  until almost soft.   Add cooked shrimp or chicken and some hydrated top ramen noodles . Season with soy sauce or teriyaki sauce .   You can thicken the liquid with cornstarch slurry if you like .   Mandarin oranges are a dollar for a large jar at the tree   
5. Meat ball subs and salad.   Make a green salad with lettuce and anything you have to add to it.    Slice lengthwise and hollow  out a baguette enough to accommodate the meatballs: saving  the bread for bread crumbs . Use a baguette you have made  or brown and serve from Costco or French bread from Winco (sometimes .88) . The  brown and serve is about .95. You own takes time, but it's cheaper- a little bit.   Use  cooked ,frozen meatballs and place them in a microwave safe bowl and add a little BBQ sauce to baste.   Heat until warm.    Place meatballs in hollowed out bread and top with a little fried cheese.   Toast a few minutes under the broiler until the cheese melts. Top with the other side of the bread. Under a three dollar dinner for three.   

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until they goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the 
locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen )by
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending