Wednesday Notes

Last  night we went out for snacks with friends,   I had a flat bread with chicken, bacon, so,e chopped tomato and a drizzling if a sauce.   It would make a good meal with a salad and would use leftover chicken and bacon.   Not that we would ever have a piece of leftover bacon.   😆

Ideas for non conventional meals are all around us.  Pinterest and u tube are great sources of inspiration.   I have found that life is so much easier when we have a small stock of food on the house and snow doesn’t clog up our wheels.    I don’t have to go out if I don’t want to.   It makes life a lot easier.    Getting to that point takes a little time, but in the long run it is a lot less stressful. Now I go to the store to fill in what I need — mostly fruits and veggies and dairy.  I always check the pantry before heading out and can see at a glance if we are running low on something and know  to watch for a sale.

Getting there is easy, but takes a bit of time if you don’t have an influx of extra cash.  Its a good way to use a few dollars of an income tax return.    Otherwise You can take baby steps.

1. Start with a less than 25.00 purchase of staples at Costco or your warehouse store    Here, we can get a 20 pound bag of flour and a twenty pound bag of Quaker Oats.   That alone saves a bundle    Add a 3.55 bag of yeast. 
2. Start setting aside five bucks a week for a stockpile.  Make a list of your top 10 easy, eco omical meals.   Now list the ingredients you use for those meals. We, like a lot of families  eat a lot   Of Italian and Tex mex.   
3. Watch sales and buy anything you use in a regular basis to make meals.    Our list would be cans of green beans , cans of corn, diced tomatoes , pasta sauce, pasta. I add diced green chillis from Winco for .66 and sliced black olives    A few instant mashed potatoes are good because they work in a pinch when you are short of time or the potatoes are bad.    Little by little, it will grow   After you master that, go on to rotation protein.  
4. Choosing bulk meats that are versatile for meal planning.   At our house that would be boneless skinless chicken breast  , pork loin, and hamburger.   Add cheese and beans .   I want to average less than two dollars a pound    I’ve been getting pork loin for between a dollar and  a dollar and sixty nine cents.  I got chicken breast for a dollar, but they are 1.77 a lot of times at Fred Meyers (Kroger) .  I like nine percent fat hamburger, but recently bought 80/20 for 2.66.  We eat beef once or twice a week.   It also helps that we eat vegetarian meals twice a week. Rotation protein is a concept where you watch for a RBP on you chosen meat and buy enough for a month to six weeks.  The next week, you find a different deal .  If you eat pork once a week, you need enough for 4-6 meals.  Then watch for a chicken or beef good sale .  When you get it home, portion control the batch and freeze.   Cook it if it makes sense .  Some people make freezer meals .  I dint want to fill the freezer with food that didn’t have to be frozen in the first place.  I cook hamburger and de-fat it and freeze it in portion controlled bags.   I use cheap  quart bags and put them in a labeled gallon bag. 
5. Buy dairy when it is on sale. Some pull dates are out a month.   Fred Meyers usually has it for cheap once or so a month.  I buy Costco butter unless I can find it cheaper.  QFC has had it on a digital coupon for 2.00 lately.   Watch for coupons  I got Darigold for 1.50.  
6. Learn the RBP for the things you buy on a regular basis.   Don’t  buy anything if it isn’t your price unless it is a dire necessity.   Prices cycle,  if you get enough for a month to six weeks, you can just about bet you will find another sale.  The exception will be seasonal items.   Baking items are best bought at Christmas holidays and Easter  .   Ditto cream of mushroom soup.   BBQ sauce and suddenly salad along with ketchup will be on sale at picnic time.

If this is over whelming, take one step at a time.