Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Taco Tuesday is our pizza Tuesday

Tuesday is pizza day here.   Our catch up day to make appointments and clear up loose ends.    Paper bags are piling up because we use grab bags , but our daughter doesn't use  when she has them.   The food bank loves to get clean usable paper grocery bags.   They might as well be used twice before they meet the recycle bin.  

Yesterday, I went to Winco to get a food safe bucket for the 25 pounds of flour that I got at Costco.   That makes flour just under seven cents a cup.    We tried to get a bucket at the bakery first, but they were out.    I also got two bags of frozen veggies because I had a coupon that was going to expire.   I got a small bag because the coupon  did not have a size restriction, and the smaller bag gives you the most bang for your buck in that semerio.    I also bought a bag of stir fry veggies.   They were cheap with the coupon and I can add the chicken pieces from the ribs I cut off of chicken breast and make a meal - a quick fix when life delivers a :);(; storm.    LOL fresh hot salsa was 138.
Not a lot, and I am still less than half our already low average.    I do believe I can go another month, We are under 21.00 plus a 40.00 budget for replenishing things  we are almost out of.    I am far from  needing to replentish protein.

It's a game and I'm having fun and the savings account is staying intact.

I found a bulk pizza recipe that can be frozen.   I'm toying with the idea, but there isn't any room in the freezers yet.   The other drawback I see is that you have to pull the dough out 12 hours ahead, and then wait 30 minutes with it in the counter.    Our thin crust pizza recipe only takes ten minutes to make.   I'm not sure make ahead is worth it.

I did do the soft rolls recipe for meatball subs or a jus sandwiches, it's really easy with the kitchen aid- a lot of passive time when you can be doing other things,  

Peasant bread is really good and another hard crusty bread that takes minutes to make, not counting passive time.   And, it's cheap and doesn't call for anything not generally on the pantry besides the yeast.   Total cost less than a quarter.  

I made the sandwich bread, it worked out fine, I haven't used the pull,am pans yet.  Because I had already made bread that day. I made the recipe on the bread machine.

That leaves refrigerator bread.   It's a King Arthur flour  recipe.   The first two small loaves didn't rose enough to suit me,   I made a larger loaf the last time and it was better.  I am using the small oven that doesn't have an element on the bottom.   Having trouble with the bottom of the bread getting done even on the pizza stone.    I'll try the regular oven next time that has a bottom element. I don't use it often because it's big and most of the time, the small oven is more efficient.  

All of these bread are efficient.   They take little non-passive time.    They take time, and you have to be near the kitchen for some of them, but you can be cooking other things or folding laundry etc while they are doing their thing.  

They all save a lot of money.  The sandwich bread and the soft rolls take additional ingredients that bring the cost beyond a quarter.   Dry milk powder cost more than liquid milk.    I keep it for emergencies and use it for cream soup mix-- another real money saver.  

A lot of little things grouped together can save a lot of money and not alter your quality of life.   Scratch is always better  than a box or bag.    The trick is to learn ways to cook scratch without soending your whole day on the kitchen.  Most of us don't have that luxury and spending less time on the kitchen and more time planning and shopping wisely ismthe key to cutting your food bill
drastically.

Happy 😊 shopping and eating,.   Please share.


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