Tuesday - on inspiration

 Part of groceries on the cheap is using what you have and not wasting. There are several web sites out there that let you put an ingredient in the search engine and out pops a multitude of recipes that use the ingredient.  The online free Betty Crocker cookbook is one that we use.   Also, a few old cookbooks.  Back in the 40’s and 50’s , salads that used winter vegetables and inexpensive fruits in season were prevalent.  Salads like carrot and raisin; apple, celery and  walnuts, pineapple or other fruits and cottage cheese come to mind.  Our grandmothers used canned fruit and winter veggies to get through the winter.  

This weekend we made a carrot and honey quick bread.  It is a healthier bread using honey instead of refined sugar and part whole wheat flour.  It was good, bit s more dense bread.  We grated the last of the oldest carrots in the vegetable drawer and had some left over grated carrot after making the bread.  We had carrot and raisin salad for dinner with acorn squash and part of a rope sausage.  

We had purchased chicken basil sausage on a buy 10 at Fred Meyers.  There is always half a sausage left.  I entered sausage into the Betty Crocker  search engine.  Out popped a recipe for  gumbo.  I had never made gumbo before, but it called for cooked chicken, shrimp and sausage and we had all three.  I omitted the black eyed peas.   It was good and we tried something different.  My husband made a pot of rice to go with it in the insta pot.

Thinking outside the box can stretch your food dollar, avoid waste, and spice things up so that dinner  is a bit less boring — all on four dollars a day.  

I have been w arching videos of people that attempt to buy food on four dollars a day.  Mostly single people.  Buying food for one person is a hard job at best, and doing it in four dollars a day is a challenge.  Grocery stores are not set up to have small quantities and when they do, they are costly.   The only way to do it is to buy a month at a time and portion control.  Your freezer will be your best friend.  Another alternative is to set up a food pool where others in your position get together and each of you makes a family meal, portion controls it, and you do a food swap.   You get several different meals and cook a family meal.   There would have to be a discussion of food preferences and a monetary limit on ingredients, but it could and has worked.

You can still eat on the same principles as groceries on the cheap, just on a smaller scale.   There are two of us,   It works.   It also works for larger families.  

I am making an effort to be,o as many people as I can,  of anyone has an idea of what they would like to see here, please feel free to comment.  Thank you for stopping by.  Please share,  you,never know who you might be helping.  

Taco seasoning,

Taco 🌮  seasoning can be a dollar for an ounce packet.   Making your own can save a ton of money and you can tweek it to your families taste.   I tend to use taco seasoning in any southwest dish that calls for southwest spices.  It’s just easier.

1/2 cup plus 2T chili powder

2/3 cup paprika

1/2 cup plus 1T cumin

1/3 cup onion powder

1/3 cup garlic powder

1-1/2 tsp cumin

Red pepper flakes as desired

Mix together and store in jar with tight fitting lid.

Monday kitchen management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool to make life easier when it is time for the sometimes hectic dinner hour.  Otmafords hou the luxury of cleaning as you go and not having to deep clean the kitchen of you rotate the larger chores.

• De fating hamburger is on a different bkog we did yesterday.  It takes a lot of the fat out of your meat and makes for easy, quick meals when time is in short supply. 
•  Carrot and honey bread was a good more nutritious addition to a meal.   Grating more carrots than needed meant carrot and raisin salad for dinner.   Doing double duty saves time.

•  Wash kitchen floor.  

• Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains . 

• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. Note foods to be eaten soon. 

• Chop any veggies needed for dinner. 

•  Wash potatoes for the oven fries. 

• Make refried beans . 

•  Straighten the pantry.

 

Ten ways to eat healthy on four dollars a day

Just because you have limited funds, or not, you can still eat healthy.

• Avoid junk food.  Substitute veggies and peanut butter or hummus for those potato chips or other salt or sugar laden snacks.  If you don’t buy junk food, you won’t eat junk food,   Popcorn is a good alternative.  Costco has popcorn to be air popped inexpensive.  
• Eat fruit instead if drinking juice,  it is better for you and doesn’t have added sugar.  Avoid those individual servings .  Packaging sometimes cost more than the product. You save in garbage too. 
• Use garlic pepper instead of garlic salt . 
• Avoid too much salt, sugar, hydrogenated oils, HFCS, and fat. 
• Pick inexpensice of meat and pick ones that are low fat.  De fat your ground beef, cut the fat layer off the pork loin, amd use  boneless, skinless chicken. breast. They are all very versatile cuts if meat and if you buy them in bulk, you save time and money. 
• Keep a stock of fresh fruits and veggies in season.  In season veggies and fruit are more favorable and cost less.   Potatoes, carrots, celery. Grapes, strawberries, apples, zucchini, acorn squash were all reasonable prices this  week at Winco.    Peppers were a dollar at qfc.  I suspect that is the case at any discount store in other parts of the country. 
• Buy basic foods and learn recipes that are efficient scratch cooking.  Teach older children how to bake and cook basic things,  that’s good for their future well being as well as your time constraints.  When you scratch cook, you control the preservatives and sugars.  Baby carrots are just a farmers way to sell his rejects for twice the price of the regular carrots.   A great mRketing ploy that has made millions.  
• Pick mozzarella cheese becaise it is made With part skim milk.  Hard cheese like Parmesean does not have the lactose that other cheese have. 

• Avoid the so called healthy fads.   It’s supply and demand.  If it is a fad, the price is going to go up. I recently saw cauliflower for over three dollars. It’s a fad.   Like the pet rock!   Avoid it.  Get the same nutrition elsewhere. Buy a whole head when it is a dollar a pound.  A dollar is my buy price for veggies.   A bit more for fruit.  
• Invest in good equipment,  a little at a time if you need to.  Shop estate sales amd garage sales, the goodwill.  Life is easier and you will be more inclined to grate that carrot or make that pizza dough if it is easy.  Many will pay for themselves in the long run.  A can of beans can cost upwards of a dollar.   It costs a nickel  to make them scratch.  Ninety percent profit.  

Don’t eat this!

This is the fat that you don’t eat when you denfat your ground beef.   80/20.

Taking up to 17 percent of the fat out of ground meat

Taking the fat out of your hamburger is a healthy thing to do. Cooking it on batches and freezing it makes for faster meals at dinner time and is a way to cut costs and waste.

Frozen hamburger meat 

Fry until no longer pink and it tests done with your thermometer. 

Partially Cooked meat

Drain in colander over a pot.  

Pour boiling wTer over colander.  Use a pan to collect the fat if you have too much to go down the drain. 

Portion control for meals and place in quart bags and place quart bags in a gallon bag and label and freeze.   

You are on your way to fast, more healthy meals.   

Meal plans week of November 12-18

Meal Plans are a tool that saves time and money.  Life just goes more smoothly with a plan.  When you add a meal prep aka kitchen management time to the mix, life is just easier.

My meal plans are here to jump start your mental process and to show you my thought process.

We have a bulk purchase of hamburger from the Zaycon order from last summer.  It’s time for me to cook up and de fat another batch,   That, too, is a way to make life easier and more healthy,
Consequently, we are eating beef twice this week.  Portion controlling your meat and buy8ng in bulk saves time and money also.  It’s the waste not. Want not thing.

Hamburger buns will do double duty because there are only four if us here and we need to use up a eight pack of buns.

I bought two pounds of carrots for a dollar at Winco.  Usually we get a five pound bag, but the five pound bags were nasty,   This cost is comparable,  baby carrots are at best twice as much.

We work in a matrix based on protein choices.   There are many other matrix out there, that is just the one we use.

1. Chicken soup, rolls 
2. Pizza 
3. Tacos, insta pot refried beans 
4. Chicken pot pie 
5. Tuna patties, seasoned rice, peas and carrots 
6. Sloppy joes, oven fries, veggie sticks 
7. Breakfast for dinner, 

Notes 

1. Chicken soup is a good way to stretch the food dollar and soup in a slow cooker works well if you have a day where people have to eat early.  
2. Pizza is a mainstay around here.  I found a recipe for a months worth of pizza dough that was easy in the kitchen aid and freezes. 
3. Tacos are a snap from frozen, cooked hamburger and refried beans on the insta oarsmen while nit any cheaper than the canned ones, are no fat and more nutrients, 
4. Chicken pot pie uses the rest of a batch of chicken cooked in the insta pot.  It can, or course, be cooked in a number of other ways . 
5. Tuna cakes are an old recipe that satisfies our fish option.   They , too are quick and not too expensive,  we use Costco solid albacore tuna. 
6. Sloppy joes take advantage of the cooked hamburger and are made in a matter of minutes.  Using a scratch recipe saves money.   Oven fries are made with a little olive oil and “fresh potatoes 🥔 “.  Add carrots and celery sticks.
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair and everyone cooks,   

We all have those days.

We all have those days...those days where the washer decides to wash the floor instead of the clothes. Those days where the car battery decides to take a rest, or the kids forget their lunch money or their book bag or, whatever.  Those days , those glorious days that test our patience and try their best to stress us out.

Que the no brainier meals.

Having a core of nonbrainer meals is a necessity on this day and age.   No one is indespensible , but there are culinary challenged family members in any household.  Most people can do at least one go to dinner well.   But, having easy, fast, healthy meals in your “ personal cookbook” is a great asset.

• Impossible pie.   Great for the culinary challenged or not and in five minutes flat you can have dinner in the oven .  Add a vegetabke or salad and you have a balanced meal.  The recipes are varied and can scan the gambit from Mac and cheese to a breakfast pie.  We usually make it on a small rectangle baking dish instead of a pie plate.   Basically, you spray the baking pan, fill it with basic,my meat and cheese or vegetables and pasta or so,e other bulk, amd add a mixture of milk, eggs, amd bisquick.  Make the bisquick portion in a blender and it is easier,.  It is also easier if you have orecooked your ground meats and de fatted them.  A quick smash on the counter and the meat is broken up and ready for the oven or you can put on on defrost in the microwave for a minute while you gather the other ingredients. 
• Tacos.  Again the fast here is having the meat already cooked and portioned,   You can prep the meat as above , put your homemade taco seasoning on a small pan and add some water,   Put your meat on the pan and place on a low heat whikemyoumchop the lettuce, and gather cheese and tomato, onion? Probably 10 minutes. 
• Spaghetti in the insta pot takes about five minutes if you are slow to load and processes for 8 minutes.  It’s one of those things that an adult or teenager can do easily, challenged or not as long as they understand that all the ingredients have to be on the pot and you need to set the seal lever.   As long as you Always add liquid, don’t add flour or other thickener, amd Always set the seal lever, the insta pot is safe and a good time and money saver. 
• Breakfast for dinner.  Vegetabke omlettes, a little fruit and an English muffin works and almost anyone in the family can contribute to the dinner.   Granddaughter has been buttering bread since she was three. 
• One day, when granddaughter was three, I was cutting vegetables for oven roasted vegetables and sausage .  My mother always said it was easier to engage a child in what you are doing than it was to clean up the mess they were making while you were working,   I set my granddaughter buttering the French bread across the island from me,   She got half way through the project, and said,   “I can’t believe I get to do this,   “ oven roasted vegetables is a sheet pan dinner that we were eating before the term sheet pan dinner was made popular.   Potatoes, carrots, radishes or any other root vegetable  is washed cut into uniform sized pieces and tossed with olive oil and garlic pepper.   Bake close to an hour in a 400 degree oven .  

We all have those days, but there are always ways to get dinner in a hurry, or have recipes that even the culinary challenged can master.  

The case for a replenish mindset.

If your financial adviser told you to buy stocks high and sell low, you probably wouldn’t hire him or her.  It doesn’t make much sense to buy your food at their highest price either.

You essentially can make 50-70 percent on your money without paying income tax on the savings or taking any large risk.  

Many people are living from paycheck to paycheck.   It’s hard when at minimum wage with no benefits you can’t rent a two bedroom apartment in any state in the union.   But, you can with a little effort always have food in the house,  studies have shown that not having food in the house reduces your life expectancy.  The stress always me is not good for your health.  

Making healthy choices in your food purchases , simplified food lists, efficiently scratch cooking that allows for less preservatives and fat control will allow you to eat better for less.

Paying 2.79 for a .79 cake mix is just plain stupid.  Anticipate how many cake mixes you will use in a six month period and buy as many as you will need.   We don’t eat cake everyday,   Birthdays and special occasions are easy to predict.   The same goes for about any other staple  item you may have in your kitchen.  I know that I use two to four cans of diced tomatoes a week.   It’s not hard for me to predict that in six months I will need 48 cans of diced tomatoes, or two cases.   When I can find diced tomatoes in case lot for .49 instead of the dollar they cost, I can afford two cases instead of one.  Some things like frozen veggies are pretty much a staple, stable priced item, and don’t need to be stocked.   We know that the price would be a dollar a pound.  Buy enough to last you until you can find them for a dollar or less.   Sometimes , Costco business has five pound bags cheaper that would work for a large family.

Buying bulk meat when it is at a rock bottom price and buying it on a rotation basis over 4-6 weeks saves a lot of time and money.   Portion control, butcher it of you need to and precook and de fat ground meat.   It is healthier and makes dinner on a flash possible when you need it to.    Spaghetti in the insta pot takes 8 minutes.   You can make a salad while the pressure is coming up and you need to manually release.   Tacos are a 15 minute or less dinner.  

Baking and holiday meal supplies go on sale once a year at thanksgiving and Christmas time,   Less of them go on sale at Easter.  You can plan ahead and save a bit to stock.  I have seen cream based soup for 1.58 a can.   It as .49 and their were coupons I used prematurely, or I could have had an additional .08 off our .49 price.   That dollar times the 20  cans I purchased for the year saved twenty dollars.  It is enough to snowball the savings into ten or more pounds of pork loin that saves 1.50 a pound off center cut pork chops that saves.....the snowball effect.  

Stick to basic food.   We never , or almost never had potato chips in our house growing up.  If we did it was part of a treat dinner,   We didn’t miss them.  These days , if you buy 10 bags of chips, the kids will eat 10 bags of chips.  If they aren’t there and there are carrot and celery sticks and peanut butter or hummus, they will be more inclined to eat a healthier snack.  

Meal plans help to reduce the cost of groceries and meals.   They make life easier and take a matter of minutes.  Use time wisely, I wrote notes for this blog in the doctors office while I was waiting.  You could jot down 7 meals in a hurry waiting for the kids to get out of school or while having your morning coffee break.  Just take a quick inventory of what you have in the fridge to use up.   Having a stock of basic food means that you don’t have a huge grocery list and time in the grocery stores is limited.  

Never, I say never , go to just one store if at all possible,  two grocery stores give you the option of two sets of produce in case  some doesn’t look as good or is too high a price.  It also gives you the best of prices.   You can bet, if one store has a special on hot dogs or hamburgers, then The buns to go with is not going to be on sale.  If you have stocked the grocery essentials like canned goods or the few packaged things you still buy, you can shop the perimeter of he store and get in and out fast.   Pick the two stores that have the best prices. Here that would probably be Fred  Meyers (Kroger store) and Winco, a discount  store that is employee owned. Grocery outlet came in first, but their stock is limited.   I personally don’t buy produce or meat there.   I had a bad experience with apples and they wouldn’t make it good and the meat is all prepackaged.   The deli department, however is wonderful. The place to get specialty cheeses .  I digress.  

Plan your trips of stores are not close together. Piggy back it on to a trip to the doctor or on the. Way home from whatever.   We used to go to Winco when it was ten mikes away...once every four to six weeks.   Costco is in a need toilet paper basis.  They still carry toilet paper. But have discontinued many staples or run out for the replacement hemp or seaweed.  They do not carry regular eggs.  

I have buy prices in my head.   I used to keep a small notebook in my purse.   If something is,not my buy price, unless it is a dire necessity and I haven’t stocked it, I don’t buy it.   You can usually substitute something else.  It is the key to eating well on a low budget.  

We eat on less than four dollars a day.  We have a stock of food.   Somethings  less, somethings more.
You can’t say you eat on four dollars a day and spend 8.00 a day buying the ingredients.   That’s why Tahini  crusted eggplant for dinner doesn’t work.    Besides the fact that most of us wouldn’t eat it.   Lol 😝.

Basically, when cheese is running six dollars a pound, and you see it on a limited sale for two dollars a pound , you buy, as much as you can safely use or as much as they will let you buy (limits). You just spend your cheese money in something different on sale the next week.   They key to not hoarding is knowing what your family eats on a regular basis and limiting the supply to a four to six weeks supply unless it is something that only goes on sale once or twice a year.  

Hauls 11/8

Winco
Spinach 1.98
Strawberries 1.98
Pears 1.03. (.78 lb)

4.99

Fred Meyers
Note :  when things are 67 percent off, you buy a years supply.  Now is the tome to buy baking supplies and things associated with the fall holidays.  They will be at their lowest prices and you save a bundle not buy8ng them again.

Tillamook ice cream 3.49
Nalleys chili .89 (13)
Cake mix Bc .79 (2) I have seen it for 2.79
Tomatoes BOGO 3.99
Goya beans double can .89
Foldgers coffee 5.49(2)
Chicken sausage (2) 2.49
Campbell’s cr soup (20) .49
Milk  .99

Total.  52.59

Total 57.58

1.58 over

Chain store ads including turkey

The best of the chain store ads.  

The comparison everyone wants to hear

Fred Meyers has turkey for free with 150.00 purchase.  Or .47 with a 50.00 purchase.
QFC has turkey for .67 and you get 10.00 off a purchase of 75.00.
Safeways is free turkey with 150.00 or .47 if you buy 50.00
Winco usually matches the lowest.

Please also note that the latest market research shows that grocery outlet, Fred Meyers amd Winco are the top  three cheapest stores in our area.   If your free turkey is predicated on how much you soend, Winco or Fred Meyers would probably be better.  

The digital buy 5 thing at qfc has turkey breast for .99. That’s krill better for a small family,  

QFC

Peppers .99
Eggs .99

Buy10. Save 5
Butter 2.49
American beauty pasta .49
Apple, cherry, peach pies 3.49
Campbell’s soup .49

Fred Meyers
Buy 10, save 5
Butter 2.49
Progresso soup .99
Hormel chili .99
BC cake mix .79
Tillamook ice cream 3.99

Crescent rolls 2/4$$

Alberways
Eggs .99@@
Bread .89@@
Campbell’s soup .89@@
Boxed potatoes .99@@
Cream cheese 1.29@@


@@. Code means in ad coupon needed
$$ code means there are coupons out there . Check coupons,com first.

Another episode of how did she do That!

Almost free pizza.    Now that I have your attention......lol

Cheese pizza when purchased ingredients are at RBP cost about a buck.  The thin crust recioemcosts .19.   My cheese “buy” price is 2-2.50 a pound.  I get my best shit at hat either at Costco business in five pound bags or watching for Kroger sales.

Pizza sauce is cheapest at the dollar tree.   It is a name brand and cheaper than any other store I have found.  freeze it in an ice cube tray and place the frozen sauce on a zip lock on a specified freezer door shelf .  Two ice cubes tops a pizza.

On the same shelf, put in bags anything that goes on a pizza that is left from other meals.  In other words, if we are frying bulk sausage, I pull off a couple of tablespoons and place it in a bag for the pizza shelf.   Coloured peppers when they are at a dollar or less are cut into strips after the top has been sliced off.  The top gets chopped done and —you guessed it, goes into a bag for the pizza shelf,

Pretty soon, you have enough fillings for a pizza.   When pizza day comes, you make the dough and the fillings are already chopped and ready for the pizza.

Any pizza menu off the internet will give you many ideas for pizzas.

Pizza and breakfast for dinner are always hits at our house and both can be real money stretchers.   Any meal that your family likes that is economical is a winner in my book.    And, if it isn’t labor intensive it’s just divine! Lol

Monday kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that takes a hour when time is more manageable Kane saves a lot of tome during the hectic dinner hour.

Reminder of meals

1. Sausage, and oven roasted veggies 
2. Pizza 
3. Mac and cheese, peas and carrots 
4. Spaghetti and meatballs 
5. Pork stew skillet pie 
6. Shrimp fettuccine 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
4. Make a nit to incorporate any thing that is nearing expiration, 
5. Wash root veggies , dry 
6. Make a note to thaw pork? 
7. Make carrot honey bread 
8. Thaw pizza dough 

Meal plans for week of 11/5

Meal plans are a necessary part of your meal prep.   Theynsave tome and money and make life a bit less hectic in the dinner hour.  A mantra is to soend a little bit more time planning and shopping and less time cooking if you are time crunched.   You save money and have better meals if you can efficientkymscratch cook and buy your food at rock bottom prices.  I want my financial adviser to buy stock  high and sell low said no one ever, so why buy  your food thensame way?

I digress mea Plans .   We use a protein based matrix for variety.

• Chicken basil sausage, oven roasted veggies 

•  Pizza 

•  Mac and cheese, peas and carrots 

• Spaghetti and meatballs 

•  Pork stew skillet pie -taste of home 

•  Shrimp fettuccine 

•  Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

1.  Chicken sausage was in sale  at Fred Meyers for 2.50 on a buy 10  mix or match.  
2. Pizza crust is on the freezer, I made a monthly batch to save time and money. 
3. Mac and cheese was a request. Using multiple kinds of cheese makes the flavor interesting. 
4. Spaghetti and meatballs cooks in 8 minutes in the insta pot.   
5. Pork stew is from m the pork loin that we purchased for 1.69 a pound .
6. Shrimp fettuccine used the other half of the fettuccine noodles from last week. 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair and everyone cooks.   

Incorporating what is on sale at the store is an age old trick to save money.  Eating in season hero’s greatly too.    Taste of home has a honey carrot bread I am going to try this week.   It sounded good and carrots are a good way to get vegetables into someone that doesn’t eat vegetables often and should,   

Eggs

Eggs in previous years have gotten a bad wrap.  They are a good source of protein, inexpensive  most of the year and are very versatile.

Last year, when eggs were .78 a dozen, I dehydrated some.  It is not an easy task, but it allows you to have the option not to buy them when the cost is prohibitive.

Breakfast for dinner is a good alternative to a traditional meal.  At our house we all cook or contribute to the meal.  Little ones can butter toast or English muffins or with help set the table.

Nutritional content of eggs

Saturated fat 1.6 grams
Polyunsaturated fat .07
Monosatursted 2 grams

Cholesterol 187 mg
Potassium 63mg
Sodium 62mg
Total carbs .6 grams
Protein 6 grams

Vitamin A 5 percent
Calcium 2 percent
Vitamin D 1 percent
B12 10 percent
Vitamin C zero
Iron 3 percent
B6 5 percent
Magnesium 1 percent

Vitamins are percent of daily requirement for a 2000 calorie diet
Saturated fat should be 16-22 per day,

Cocoanut oil has 12 grams per tablespoon of saturated fat
Butter has 7 grams per tablespoon
Top sirloin steak has 6 grams per 9 ounce steak.

How to cook hard cooks eggs

In the oven
Place eggs one each in the cups of a muffin tin .
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place muffin tin cups on oven and bake for 30 minutes
Immediately place eggs in an ice water bath.
Store on refrigerator.

To cook hard cooked eggs on the insta pot. This is for a 6 quart pot
Place 1 cup water on the pot.
Place trivet in pot.
Stack 6-12 eggs on trivet
Process manually for 7 minutes
Quick release .
Immediately put eggs in an ice bath for 1 minute.
Store in refrigerator.

As a protein for a meal, Eggs  are actually lower in fat than some alternative. It is also lower in protein.
1 cup of chicken has 5 grams of fat. And 25 grams of protein

Balancing your protein sources gives you the best case senero and a variety of  meals.

Friday hits and misses

We try to eat the old favorites and mix it up with some new recipes to be a little adventurous and keep growing as people.   They say that’s what keeps you young.  Use your brain or loose it. Right?

Last night was a hit.  Dinner took all of five minutes and it cost less than 2.25.  It could have been less, but that would have taken more time.  I used a premade pie crust (1/2 a box ) instead if making my own.  I already had .88 a pound chicken cooked, debined and on a bag on the freezer,  we have had a lot of meals off that .88 a pound chicken and I have at least one or two portions left.   I used the dregs if two bags of frozen vegetables lurking around the freezer and some red and yellow peppers,  the cream of mushroom soup we bought for .49 finished it.

Last week I made chicken tamale  pie. That recipe went in the recycle bin.  It had good ingredients, but turned out just a wrong  consistency.  It was dense for  lack of a better word.   The taste wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t appealing,

Pizza, glorious pizza , wasn’t that glorious.  I guess we are spoiled,  I have to admit it took another five minutes, but it tasted like it took five minutes too.   I should have defrosted a batch of pizza dough and made scratch instead of using the premade ones for 1.50 at the Winco.   It would have been cheaper and taste a lot better,   It was Halloween and I was cutting time to be on trick or treat detail.   As it was, We only had one group of children.  Most of the children went downtown.

White bean vegetable soup was good,   It took a bit more time because even in the insta pot, you  have to make the beans and drain them, and then add your soup ingredients on slow cooker mode.
It was inexpensive and fed us enough for a couple of lunches too.  

My husband made hamburgers from some patties we got for a discount a few weeks back.  It made the hamburger two dollars a pound .  A few oven fries in the hot air fryer and some tomato and lettuce finished it off.   It was a winner and I didn’t have to stand with health issues this week,  

Hits or misses, life goes on and we survive, a little smarter than we we re before.   We still made it I. Less than four dollars a day and have a pantry and freezer.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained,

We are going to try garlic linguine today.  We have all the ingredients.  QFC and Fred Meyers have farmland bacon for 2.99 a pound Friday and Saturday only with a digital here.  It will  be another stock up, but well worth it.  It freezes.

Garlic linguine has spinach, bacon, cherry tomatoes, and a sauce.  We have all of that because I have been eating vegetable omelettes for breakfast to reduce my carbs.    Eggs are still cheap and I get a free carton from Safeways on just for you.

Hauls 11/1 18

QFC

Pumpkin pie 1.99

Safeways

Ice Cream - free
Apples .88
Eggs
Total 5.05

Grand total 7.04

Winco
6 pasta sauces (charity) .88

Mission low carb tortillas 3.09
Darigold butter (2) 2.98 minus coupon 1.00 total 4.96
2 pizza crust 3.48 coupon attached
Diced tomatoes 6 at .58 for 3.48
Acorn squash .54
Salsa 1.98
Grapes  4.79
Pears .75
Stove  top 2 pack 1.98
Syrup 2.47
Lettuce .98
Turkey 2.88
Taco chips 2.28
Croissants 3.48
Ham 2.18
Raspberries. Double pack. 3.98
Cake mix .88

Total 44.18

Grand total 51.22

Chain store ads

First, Alberways would not be otmthos week.  Sorry, other than cucumbers and bell peppers for .79, I’m not feeling the love.  

Fred Meyers

Friday and Saturday inky, digital coupon, you can buy 5
Farmland bacon, full pound 2.99


Buy 10, save 5 
Foldgers 5.49
Tillamook ice cream 3.49
Nalleys chilli .89 
Land  of lakes butter 2.99
Cream soup .49
American beauty pasta .49
Cheerios 1.99 $$

80 percent ground beef 2.99 sold in 3 pound chubs 8.97

Grapes 1.99
Milk .99


QFC
Grapes, organic 1.48
Broccolli .99

Buy 10, save 5

Land of lakes butter 2.99
Ritz crackers 1.99$$
Cream soups .49 
Hillshire Farms sausage 2.49


Pears are .99. They are  .79 at winco,

Same digital deal Friday and Saturday as Fred Meyers.  

Another episode of “ How did she do that ?”

Meal plans.

We recently got a magazine from QFC ( Kroger) .  It had recipes with by lines that sparked my imagination.

Low maintenance Monday
Taco Tuesday
Worldly wednesday
Thrifty Thursday
Meat free Friday

Having a theme of some kind to make a matrix for meal planning makes the job easier and faster.

Our matrix is based on protein .  That gives us variety and makes everyone happy at least part of the time.   You can’t please all the people all of the time.  Fact of life.

Others use a matrix of those of meals,  pasta, Tex mex, Sunday dinner, etc. There are a lot of meal planning videos on u tube.   It helps to find one or two you can identify with and follow them,

The bottom  line is that if you plan meals and prep food ahead of time, you save time and money.

This is on a clipboard folder I got at target.   You can put recipes inside that you are using for the week and the form has a master grocery list to mark ff what you have and what you might need.  I made the form on an excel spread sheet.

Monday kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a too, to save time and money on the kitchen.  We all have to eat and a little prep for an hour when Time os more relaxed wil, save a lot of to,e when it’s not,  

Reminder of our meal plan

• White bean soup and rolls
• Buffalo chicken pizza
• Bacon burgers 
• Linguine with garlic sauce 
• Creamed chicken on mashed potatoes 
• Tuna puff sandwiches 
• Breakfast for dinner 

To do : 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect kitchen counters , sinks and drains. 
3. Clean refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Put the stove vent screen through the dishwasher.
5. Start the beans for the soup. 
6. Wash and chop vegetables for weeks meals. 
7. Cook chicken and freeze of not already on freezer, 
8. Copy recipes . 
9. Make bread crumbs 
10. Fill any salt bins etc that are low. 

.

Meal plans

These meals . are based on the Taste  of Home “Busy Family Favorites” cookbook,   Most Taste of Home recipes can  be found on the Internet,  

• ‘White bean soup, rolls pg 46
• Buffalo chicken pizza, salad 
• Bacon burgers, salad oven fries  pg 71
• Linguine with garlic sauce, green beans, cheesy bread pg 94
• Creamed chicken on mashed potatoes, 
• Tuna puff sandwiches page 164
• Breakfast for dinner, 

Notes 

Based on a protein source matrix: 

• 1 beef 
• 1 fish or seafood 
• 3 chicken or pork 
• 2 vegetarian 

We all have our favorites, this makes everyone happy at least part of the time.

1. There are vegetarian and with ham versions on the cookbook,   Mostly white beans, broth, and carrots, celery, and zucchini, I have dehydrated zucchini and it can be made smaller in the food processor.   
2. Buffalo chicken pizza starts with the bulk pizza crust that I made last week and put in the freezer, but the shells at Winco were really cheap too.   Instead of red pizza sauce, use ranch or blue cheese dressing,  add cooked chicken cut up small, some red pepper cut into small cubes, mozzarella and blue cheese.   
3. Bacon burgers have cheese, onion, and an egg and seasonings in them.   Oven fries are raw potato wedges , soaked on water, drained and sprayed with olive oil and cooked in a hot fryer or in the oven on convection.  This makes for almost no fat and what fat there is is the good kind because it boosts you good cholesterol.  
4. Linguine is on our meal plan because when I sent my hubby to the store for spaghetti on sale with a coupon, he grabbed linguine instead! Lol.  It has spinach, cream cheese and nuts,  I have spinach from last week and I got cream cheese with far out pull dates for a dollar a few weeks back.   Using things that are versatile that you got on sale helps reduce your costs. 
5. Creamed chicken on mashed potatoes 🥔 is quick and easy.  I have chicken in the freezer from the whole chicken I cooked in the insta pot a few weeks back . 
6. Tuna puff is from tuna bought at Costco when it had a markdown.   It is quick, cooked in the oven and goes together on about 11 minutes,   
7. Breakfast for dinner is always a staple here,   It can be expensive, or cheap and always a family affair. Everyone participates.   

The notes here are to show my train of thought.  It’s nit necessarily what you need to do, it’s an Example of how I get to where I got.  Groceries on the cheap is a mindset.   You can eat well and still keep a very low budget.   

A recent test of prices here found the following stores with the best overall prices .  Note grocery outlet is not a complete  store and I avoid meat and produce.  

Grocery outlet 

Winco

Fred Meyers 

Saturday concepts...why ?

This blog all started with my daughter who at the time was teaching some children  from low income families.  The mothers were lamenting that they couldn’t get to the end of the month without running out of food,  my daughter said, oh my mother knows how to stretch a buck in that department!   It was my children’s idea that I start a blog,   I’m really,nit very tech savvy, but with their help, I started a blog.

I was a single mother during the time of double digit inflation and we didn’t get a raise in three years.  I had learned a lot from my mother, but I set out to learn anything I could to lower our food bills,   The rent was going sky high...from 145 to 285 dollars a month and the discretionary spending was all that we could economize on.

When I started the blog, I again, started researching all I could.   Three years ago, we had a big shake up in the supermarket industry,   Two grocery stores, Albertsons and Safeways merged.   A third company bought Albertsons and Safeways,   They didn’t make it and declared bankruptcy.  One major store ( Top Foods ) closed for a year before Winco went in to the building, .  This meant that we basically had two major chains monopolizing the supermarket industry here— Kroger and Albertsons who now owned Safeways.  There was no competition and prices were high.  Winco was a ten mile drive one way,   We didn’t go often.   I was spending 72.00 a week on food.  Now, my daughter was not vegan yet so she ate more of our food was a part of it too.

Having lower prices on food, and continuing my life long learning how to economize on food has helped reduce our expense to the 51.90 that it has been for the last almost two years.

• We bought beef and chicken from Zaycon which is no longer in business, but another company has tweaked  their business plan.

•  I learned to bake sourdough bread and buns.
•  I got a insta pot.  The savings on rice and beans alone have laid for the pot.

I think the point I am trying to make is that you don’t get to four dollars a week overnight.  It is a process of learning a trick and getting to know what you can do to make it happen, one idea at a time.

Stocking a four to six weeks supply of food is not going to happen overnight even if you got a windfall of money,   You are buying things as they go on sale or you find a good source.   Sometimes it has to be a can at a time.  Like one lady I found recently said, she is not going to stock anything that her children will eat in a heartbeat if she brings it in the house. Mayonnaise  or green beans work, chips or cold cereal won’t.   My mother solved that problem,  we didn’t get pop, a lot of cold cereal and what cold cereal we got was cornflakes or wheat  puffs,  and absolutely no chips or what she considered garbage food.   If it had no food food value, she didn’t buy it.  If we wanted cookies, we were certainly welcome to make some.   Snicker doodles, peanut bitter, and a blond brownie were our favorites.   She always had the ingredients in the house.

Start slow and build.  Save a few dollars a week  and dump it into a stock fund.   Try a vegetarian meal once or twice a week. Study the ads and make your meals around what is in sale.  Our Winco does not have an ad.  If there is something really inexpensive, I post it because of that.   If you get a good meat sale, you can save enough for a few more things another week that you don’t have to buy the meat.   Meanwhile, you are stocking meat.   The case lots should be coming in soon.   Many times they are store brands so coupons won’t work,   I just happened to luck out last year because Safeway's had a basket coupon the same week as the case lot sales.

I have tried to make this happen in a realistic way.  Not all of what you read on the Internet makes
sense for a growing family with a working mother,   I’m not a working mother now, but I was
for many years.  An hour once a week to do food prep to save hectic dinner hour time is believable,  a three hour meal prep is not.  It is all a balancing act .

It is not realistic to feed your family toasted  peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner—that’s my opinion anyway.  My husband has gotten a lot more relaxed in his eating habits , but that would receive a oh no 🤦‍♂️ I am sure.
I do remember  a time when we had the boat.  I had not stocked the pantry for the season.  We still had a few things from the previous summer,   He wanted to get on the water before the weather turned, so we took off early,   He assured me we would grocery shop when we go to our destination.  That didn’t happen.  He ran into a long lost friend and got carried away chatting.  We had green beans and a emergency hamburger helper with a can of beans taking up the space that the hamburger would have it I had some,   He didn’t say a word and had seconds!   Lol  we hit Albertsons the next morning.

Changing a few little habits can make a difference in the food budget.   Just making muffins for breakfast and your own pancakes and waffles instead of buying frozen is a drastic difference in price. Buying your flour  in bulk and storing it in a food safe five gallon  bucket can save over a hundred dollars.   The cost of a pizza crust is two dollars, the cost of making it is .19. Muffins cost five dollars, the basic cost is .30 plus the fruit or spices,  pancakes are expensive in the frozen food section.  They cost well under a dollar.   French Toast bread is a dollar at the  DT.  Our DT gets orowheat delivery Tuesdays.   Eggs continue to be cheap.   I have been getting them for a buck.  I keep a four dozen supply.   Rotating and only buying them when they are under 1.50.   Last year when they were .78, we dehydrated some and put them in a mason jar and sucked the air out with the food saver.  That’s our back up for an emergency.  French Toast can be made and frozen.  It takes just a few minutes to toast it on the toaster or heat it on the microwave.  Seconds in the microwave or you
will have a hockey puck.
LOL.

Making your own bread crumbs from bread heels or bread that is getting old saves a bundle. Even at Winco it is a dollar a pound.  I have seen it upwards of 2.50.  You are buying someone else’s dry bread.

Watching your prices and going to more than one store is a total bargain.  Prices between stores on some things can be as much as two dollars.  Figure 40 items in a grocery cart and the math is staggering.   Now, not all things are that much, but a lot of them are.

Another easy way to save a lot of bucks is to buy basic spices in bulk or at a discount store,  you can usually find dry slices for a buck somewhere,   Winco and QFC both have bulk spices.   Making your own blends affords you the best way to cater to your family’s taste and save a lot of money.  Things like taco seasoning and fajitas seasoning, onion soup mix, ranch dressing mix and seasoned rice can save a lot of money with little effort.

Rice bought in a twenty pound bag is fractions of what it costs to buy the redi rice or even the instant rice that has mess food value.  It is so easy with a rice cooker or in the insta pot .   The insta pot is a rice cooker, a slowmcooker, a pressure cooker , and some make yogurt.

The switch from canned beans to dry beans was made in our house when we got the insta pot.  I was not going to spend two hours to make two cups of scratch beans.  The savings was not worth it.  Rice and beans have a short refrigerator life.   That’s one of the first things that you learn when studying for a food handlers permit.   We don’t eat that much beans and rice to warrant a big batch.  But with the insta pot, you wash the beans and pick anything not a bean out of it, place them in the

insta pot, cover them past your second knuckle with water and close the lid, turn it to seal, and press the bean button,   Done,   Rice is simpler,   Place equal parts of rice and water
ormbeoth on the pot, shit the lid, turn it on seal.  And push the rice button.  It keeps it warm until you get back to it within reason.

The last trick to save money is to fry your hamburger or other ground meat as soon or soon after you take the bulk package from the store.   Fry it, de fat it, amd portion control it on bags for the freezer.  We put the cooked meat in quart bags from the dollar store, then put the quart bags in a zip lock gallon bag and label and freeze.  It makes the hamburger cheaper because you are buying it in bulk and you are nit wast8ng any, and more convenient because you cut your hands on time at dinner t8me drastically.  Tacos in fifteen minutes.   Lol

Hope this answers the question of how to begin to stock.

Saturday concepts.

Grocery shopping.

Needless to say, you should go to the grocery store with a plan.   I shopped yesterday inbetween physical therapy and picking up granddaughter from school.   This meant that I had more time than usual.   The more time you spend in a store, the more money you are going to spend.   It is orchestrated that way.  The bigger the cart, the more you feel the need to fill it up.   I didn’t have my normal bags that clip on the cart.   They are well worth the cost,  an alternative would be the ones made out of what we used to call  oil cloth. Fill the bags, put the food on the conveyer belt and put the food back in the bags.  In addition, we have had checkers remark that the bags make their job a lot easier.   They aren’t lifting bags and we have hit and cold bags.

My plan was to get fruit and veggies that were a good price for the week and look for butter and diced tomatoes,   We use a lot of both and I always keep a stock.   There is less saturated fat in a tablespoon of butter than there is in a tablespoon of coconut oil.   November should be a good time for any baking supplies to go on sale.   Winco has a whole wall of pumpkin everything.  Name it, it’s there.

Soon, the new crop of vegetables should have hit .and canned goods from last years crop should go on case lots.   There is still over a year on most cans for a pull date.   It’s a good time to stock. Last year I got corn , green beans diced tomatoes for .39 because safeways also had a basket coupon for 10.00 off of fifty dollars.  I made sure that I stuck to my fifty dollars.

Diced tomatoes have been a dollar a can even at the grocery outlet,   Winco has them for .58 so I have been adding six  cans a shopping trip.   Hopefully I will find a case lot.

Adapting your meal plan to include what you can find that is a good price is an easy way to reduce your food budget.   I found acorn squash for .39 a pound at Winco,   It’s a dollar elsewhere.   It’s good nutrition and easily baked in the microwave.  Microwave for a few minutes after you poke it with a fork a few times so it won’t blow up.  It makes it easy to cut in half .  Then scoop out the seeds and fill with a little butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Yum.

Pork roast was well under two dollars a pound,   We didn’t buy any because I bough loins last week, but it would be a good purchase of you needed meat for the week,   You can cut off part of it onto stew meat.  Stew cooks in 35 minutes in the insta pot.   It’s an easy hearty meal.

Roasted pork and acorn squash and a vegetable would be good too.

Taking advantage of vegetables and fruit on season and incorporating them into your meals can make a dismal four dollar a day budget look a whole lot more appealing.

Peppers were a dollar each.   Chicken fajitas comes to mind,   I use red peppers a lot on anything that is too white..you eat first with your eyes.

Grapes  were a buck last week, lettuce was a dollar at Winco, nuts  are in the bulk isle, add chicken and have chicken salad,

A hole bag of croissants were featured inexpensive  and ham and turkey were also within reason.   What a treat for lunch,  you could also use them with some chicken salad the kind that is chicken and mayo based.

I picked up stove top stuffing for 1.98 for a two packet box.  Adding apples and Craisens and pork chops that have been browned on the stove and baking it off is a good meal and not to time consuming.

If you spend more time  shopping and planning, and less time efficiently cooking, you will be better off with your budget and still have time for you other life.

Premade pizza crust was 3.49 for two and a coupon for a dollar off if you bought two PACKAGES.  That makes the crusts 1.50 each,   It is only .19 to make a crust, but in a pinch, or for a fast lunch, that is still really cheap alternative, even considering fake and bake,

Huge container of salsa was 1.98.  Chips were 2.28.  That makes nachos a good alternative for a Friday night movie dinner.

I saw cheese for six dollars a pound.  My buy price for cheese is two to two fifty a pound,  I can usually find it, but not if I were to buy one bag at a time.   Grated cheese has a good refrigerator life and you can freeze it with success.

Cake mix was .88.  Cake mix has been as much as 2.76.   Same cake mix.  Same brand.

Buying the same things every week.  Just what you need without cost observing is not going to cut your food bill.   Would I buy 10 bags of chips. No, if I bought ten bags of chips, they would eat ten bags of chips.   The only bags of chips I buy is tortilla chips.   For an occasional chips and salsa, or to have nachos for dinner or as a condiment for taco soup or chili.

Studies  say that 50 percent of a average market basket is snacks and drinks, cut the snacks and drinks, and you have saved a bundle.   Coffee, tea, and vegetable juice is it here.   Anything else
comes out of an entertainment budget.  It makes how much you are spending on garbage more
visible.

You can do this, it’s just about changing habits, the reward is better food and you s gay within a limited budget.

What we ate on 4.00 a day.

1.  Chili, beer bread 
2. Chicken bowl  
3. Chili burrito bowl
4. Tacos 
5. Chicken fajitas 
6. Tomato blue cheese , basil soup, rolls 
7. Vegetable bean soup 
8. Spaghetti 
9. Hamburgers, fries 
10. Spanish rice, homemade sausages , acorn squash 
11. Pasta primavera 
12. Tacos 
13. Pizza 
14. Bbq ribs , acorn squash 
15. Bacon, lettuce and tomato sliders, fries , salad 
16. Beef sliders, fries, fruit 
17. Cheeseburger macaroni 
18. Shrimp scampi with herb butter sauce, wild and brown rice, mixed veggies, 
19. Bbq pork sandwiches, oven fries, salad 
20. Chicken noodle soup, cheese biscuits 
21. Pumpkin French Toast,  reakfast sausage, fruit
22. Chicken tamale pie, salad 
23. Pizza 
24. Chilli, beer bread 
25. Leftover chilli and rice 
26. Birthday dinner 
27. Pork chops with mushroom gravy, acorn squash, green beans 
28. Pork stew and rolls 
29. White bean soup. 
30. Hamburgers, and Ben fries, salad 
31. Pizza

Our three quarter average for food is 51.90 a week.  Four dollars a say equals 59.05.  

Hauls to 10/ 25

Winco
Hamburger 2.98
Milk 1.28
Yellow cake mix Bc .88
Strawberries 1.98
Buns .92
Acorn squash .79
Grapes 1.58
Parmesesn 4.98
Pork riblet 5.21

Total 23.43


Grocery outlet

Black beans .99
Pumpkin .50
Tarter sauce 1.29
Sliced cheese 1.99
Bacon full pound 2.99

Total 17.52


Safeways

Barilla 5.94 charity

French fries 2.00
Pork loins 8.5 lbs 14.11 with coupon
Hormel pepperoni 3.00 with coupon
Cucumbers .88
Total 21.99

Total 62.94

Big lots
Vanilla wafers
Jelly
Peaches
6.00

68.94

Chain store ads

A lesson in patience.....no mailman ads.  Safeways ad on line was 2 inches by 1.5 inches.
Safeways is the only one that refuses to be on Flipp.

Fred Meyers

Digital, Friday/Saturday only , limit 5
Oscar Mayer hotdogs 1.99
Red barron pizza 1.99

Grapes .99
90/10 hamburger 3.99
Brats 3.99

Progresso soup .99 must buy 8

Foldgers coffee 7.49
Canned chicken breast 6/8.99

QFC

Draper valley chicken breast BOGO
Ore Ida Potatoes BOGO
Orowheat bread BOGO-note that select varieties are at the DT

Oranges, pears, .88
Cottage cheese/sour cream 4/5


Free Friday 9 ounces sausage (hot)

Peppers .99
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Alberways

Eggs .99@@
Ragu 1.99@@-you can use a paper coupon and stack
Pasta .70@@
Bacon 2.99@@


Country ribs 1.99
80/20 hamburger 2.99
Hebrew National 3.99
Hormel pepperoni 2/7$$


Gala apples .88

Peanut butter 2/4   16 Oz

Kellogg’s cereal 4/10 free milk - this would be good if you have coupons

Tuesday : how did she do that?

Que bisquick Impossibke Pies

Last night we had chicken tamale pie.  I didn’t realize it until I started cooking that it was basically an impossible pie.   It was good, I would serve it with salsa and a salad,  

Impossible lies are a good go to when you have little tome and need dinner.   They can be prepared in five minutes and go in the oven about a half hour.  

They come in many many varieties,   From sweet to savory.   From taco to pumpkin pie and everything in between.

Basically you oil the bottom of a pie plate or small, shallow baking pan, dump your ingredients in layers into the pan.   Then mix egg, milk and bisquick together,  I use the blender thing so everything is homogeneous.  Pour the liquid over the solid and place it on the oven.   You are done.  There is protein, sometimes a vegetable, and it comes out with a biscuit topping.

You can make your own bisquick and there is a recipe for it with vegetable oil that has no preservatives and no hydrogenated oil.

It’s not something we eat on even weekly basis, but it is a good go to when times are tough and time  is in short supply,   Anything you can set it and forget it so to speak is a good thing.  I had three active kids and I am well aware of how hectic dinner time can be especially  if you work outside the home.  You hit the door and the kids want to tell you how there day went, the mail comes in, there is homework to do, and the  last thing you want to do is to put dinner on the table.   But, life goes on,  that’s why it is a real help to spend an hour or so prepping on the weekend to make things run smoothly.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen management is a tool that takes usually about an hour.  Sometimes that includes putting on the nights dinner.   An hour doing deep cleaning of a small area and prepping goes a long ways towards making the dinner hour go smoothly.

Recap of menus

• Chicken tamale pie 
• Pizza
• Smoked paprika garlic chicken, yellow rice, green beans 
• Chili , cornbread or beer bread 
• Salmon, scalloped potatoes, peas 
• Breakfast for dinner

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
4. Clean the microwave. 
5. Thaw the chicken for tamale pie and paprika garlic chicken .
6. Make a batch of pizza dough-Noreen’s kitchen u tube 
7. Make muffins 

Notes 

Muffin mix takes most of the work out of making muffins.  I will use the rest of the pumpkin I didn’t use for the pumpkin French Toast we had last night for dinner.  Using all of your food saves a lot of money. Waste not, want not as our great grandmothers would’ve said. 

Pizza dough is anrecioe from Noreen’s kitchen on u tube,   It makes a batch of pizza dough and you can freeze part of it for other weeks.  It doesn’t take any longer to make 3 batches of dough than it does one and you eat all month...well, almost.  

Yellow rice is a dollar at the DT and is the same product as the one at Winco.  

Beer bread is our substitute for cornbread because some people on our family don’t like cornbread,   It is easy to make and tastes good.  

Turn on some peppy music and happy cooking!

Meal Plans

plans change and we deviate, but it is still important to have a plan.  Having a plan keeps us organized and takes stress out ifmthenhectic dinner hour,  it answers that nagging question, “ what’s for dinner? “  the leaves are falling, fall is on the air.

• Chicken tamale pie 
• Pizza
• Smoked paprika garlic chicken , yellow rice, green beans 
• Chili, beer bread or cornbread 
• Pork stew
• Salmon, scalloped potatoes, peas and carrots 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Chicken tamale pie is a Betty Crocker recipe.  You can find it on line.  
2. Pizza is a mainstay around here.  Noreen’s kitchen has a new pizza crust recipe.  You can freeze some for another day, 
3. Smoked paprika chicken is a taste of home recipe and yellow rice is everywhere, but also cheaper at the DT, 
4. Chili In the insta pot and slow cooker button is easy,   Beer bread is even easier.  Cornbread is an option of your family likes it.  Adding mild chillies and cheese is an option, 
5. Pork stew is from the pork loin we bought this week.  35 minutes in the insta pot.   There are also oven and slow cooker options, 
6. Salmon is frozen from Costco,   
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family affair and we all cook.  Fun times.   Even small children can butter the English muffins or set the table.

You can eat on four dollars a day and eat real food.   It just takes some key concepts. 

• Eat fresh fruits and veggies in season, or eat frozen if they are a good price. Watch your frozen vegetables and fruit, produce from China can be found at other stores too.   
• Try to never pay full price,  there can be as much as a two dollar swing between the exact same foods between stores.   Remember RBP on the things you use most  often.   That can of cranberry sauce you buy once a year won’t make much impact on your budget, but the can of diced tomatoes you use twice a week will. 
• Scratch cook when it makes sense.  Some things can be prepped ahead of time when things are more quiet, or delegated to an older child.   Making mixes ahead helps.  
• Buy when prices are low and eat when they aren’t.  Stock a four to six weeks supply.
• Consider eating taste preferences not  in season.  That gingerbread protein bar that is still in its lull date is just as good in August as it was in December, it’s jut 75 percent off.  
• Avoid convenience foods,  you are laying for someone else’s labor and they often have ingredients you don’t want to eat.  Read labels.  There actually are foods that contain soap and wood pulp along other science ingredients.  
• Cut up fruit and vegetables cost more and you risk contamination.  There are more recalls on those products.  Just sayin.
• Simplify.   Less variety makes for less work.   Choose foods that are versatile ingredients for many meals. Basics are best and buy in bulk when it makes sense.  A seven dollar 25 pound bag of flour can save hundreds of dollars.   Pizza is a buck, bread a quarter, muffins .50 plus a fruit,  pancakes are pennies.  They are all much less than ready made.
• Invest in a few well thought out appliances.  They pay for themselves in a shirt period of time. We are nit talking about hot dog makers here, but, rather, insta pot, griddle if you don’t have one for the stove, air fryer to reduce the fat in food, a good food processor, and a blender he,o a lot.   My husband would tell you that the toaster and the coffee pot were necessities.   

Simply Saturday

Unfirtunateky, the coupons on the Sunday paper are almost non existent for anything worth buying.  There  is the usual Cheerios and tube biscuits.  

I am working in haunted house boxes for my granddaughters class for Halloween.   

There is another recall for English cucumbers bought at Costco and for salads and entree bought at Trader Joe’s.   It seems as if Trader Joe’s has more than their fair share of recalls.   It could be that they just carry a lot more hand made entrees  or salads.   Whenever fruit is processed by human hands it is more expensive and you risk the possibility of getting germs from the food.   Consider how much time it takes to cut up a cantaloupe and how much more you are laying for the privilege of having it done for you,   It’s what we call virtual paycheck.  If it takes you ten minutes to cut up a cantaloupe and you pay 4.00 extra for the bowl.  You are paying 24.00 an hour for someone to cut up your food.   

Or to look at it another way, you just made 24.00 an hour,   

That is a good concept when deciding if it is worth it to make scratch vs, buying somethings  ready made.   Making your own tortillas doesn’t pay.  They are so labor intensive that I think you make ten cents an hour.  Especially when I got hem for fifty cents during cinco de mayo.   I just refrigerated them or you can freeze them.  They are a dollar at the DT and reading the labels, they don’t all have bad fats.   

Homemade waffles, pancakes, muffins, and sourdough bread, however, have a huge payday.

If you don’t have time, consider teaching older children how to cook them.  We started baking goodies at 9yo.  I remember making 7 minute frosting.   Our favorites were snicker doodles and a blond brownie because they called for ingredients mom always had in the house.   Peanut butter was another favorite.   Some of those are good for children to help with with washed hands.  Flattening cookies with a glass or fork, or rolling balls are easy and keeps them from making a mess while you are baking.  

Our six yo just set the table complete with silverware and goblets.   You would be surprised what children can do and it give them a sense of accomplishment and belonging,  

Another labor moneymaker is cutting up your own meats.  Pork loin can be as cheap as a dollar a pound.  My buy price is under two dollars.  Center cut pork chops are sometimes 3.50 a pound.  At a dollar or even 1.69 a pound cutting your own is a great savings for a few minutes work.  The end cuts can be stew meat or sausage without sulphates. Also, stir fry meat.  

This also holds true for split chicken breast.  .88 instead of 8.00.  

And deli chicken vs making a whole chicken is another huge savings. 

Grinding your own hamburger works if you find a roast really cheap.   

You can wind up with less fat and you control the far.   

Having proper appliances a good thing and can be paid for in savings if you pick them carefully.  They can make scratch cooking easy and inexpensive. 

Friday recipe

Part of feeding a family on four dollars a day or less is not wasting.  When there are two or three members of a family,  that sometimes means leftovers or planned overs.  Having leftovers for lunch helps.

Spaghetti and meatballs can use the rest of the batch of meatballs on meatball subs.  It helps to skip a day and serve a leftover the next day.  Morphing it into another dish helps.

Eggs are cheap and a good way to stretch your food dollar.   A vegetabke omelette, toast or an English muffin, and fruit makes a good breakfast for dinner.  If your breakfast for dinner has pancakes or another dish that is short on protein, try adding a yogurt parfait with yogurt, fruit, and granola.  

Soup and bread is a good hearty meal and can be really easy and inexpensive.
Peasant bread is .25 to make and takes two sessions of ten minutes or less to make hands on.
A loaf of sourdough bread costs upwards of two dollars.

A twenty five pound bag of flour from Costco can give you many times it’s cost in savings.

A recipe for muffin mix is on the Internet,   I don’t think I can resist it without violating copyright laws.   It’s from taste of home and it’s the one that takes a egg, I stick of butter, and a cup of milk in addition to the mix.  It goes together quickly, and it only takes about five minutes hands on time to make muffins,  you add the extra you want,   Last time I washed and cut up an apple and added cinnamon.  Blueberries can be frozen or fresh.  There are many possibilities.

Pancakes are very expensive the frozen food section of the grocery store.  They take minutes.  And having an electric grill helps.

Bread  is the biggest savings .   Yeast is a bit over three  dollars a jar .  It goes a long ways.  Some recipes call for a quarter teaspoon.   There are breads that take little time.  And, quick breads Re a big savings too.

Finding recipes that you family likes that are inexpensive to cook and don’t take all your time on the kitchen is key to making a four dollar a day budget work.  

Hauls to 10/18

Dollar Tree

Bread 4.00

Winco
Grapes 1.58
Salad 1,98
Salad 1.98 spinach
Sauerkraut 1.36
Diced tomatoes .58
Celery .99
Beef boullion 1.39
Grape tomatoes

Total 19.47

Grand 23.47

Fred Meyers

Ritz crackers 1.49
Barilla pasta 1.00
Pumpkin pie 4.00
Tomatoes .88
Cheese 4.99
Goldfish ..99
Cottage cheese 1.25
Eggs .99
Total 32.00

Total 55.47

Chain store good buys

QFC

Progresso soup .99 - must buy eight

Lean cuisine entree 1.88

Alberways

Clementines  -2lbs 1.99
Classico sauce 1.49

Milk 1.99@@
Pork loin 1.69@@
Bread .89@@

Cucumbers  .88

Pepperoni 6 Oz 2/7 $$

Frozen  potatoes 2 lbs 1.69@@

Barilla pasta.99@@

Note @@ means in ad coupon needed
$$ means there are coupons  s out there

Note coupon for 5.00 off 50.  That’s 10 percent,   Of the prices are below other stores and you stick to the 50.00 that might be a savings. Alberways  tends to be more pricy  than other stores on non sale items.


Fred Meyers
Foster Farms chicken -.88
Whole, legs, or thighs

Lean cuisine 1.88
Progresso .99  must buy 8
Naval oranges .99

Buy  5 save 5

Canola oil 1.99
Pasta sauce store brand, 1.49
Yuban 5.99
Cheese 4.99
Ritz 1.49
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.79

———-
Insta pot 79.99
Includes 15.00 worth of meat or seafood in their. Meat department.  +

Tuesday how did she do that? Beer bread

Quick breads are a class of breads all by themselves.   Chocolate zucchini bread is a favorite,   Summers around here oriduce a literal ton of zucchini.   The biggest thing to remember about quick breads is that they are inexpensive, filling, and easy to make.  The one thing to remember is that they can become tough if you overmix.   It is best to mix your wet  ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls and then fold the two together just until all the dry ingredients are combined with the wet ingredients.

Beer bread is the simplest bread to make.

Grease thembottom of your loaf pan.   An oil spray works well for this,  

Mix 3 cups bisquick, amd 1 /3 cup sugar together in a bowl,
pour ancan of beer over the dry ingredients and fold in to the dry ingredients.  Don’t  overmix, mix just until no dry pockets of flour remain.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.  Bread should test done,  cake tester comes out clean and bread is pulling away from sides if pan.  

Take bread out of the oven, brush with butter .  Let sit 10 minutes and turn the bread out of the pan,

Just about any fruit or vegetabke can be made into a bread. Years ago, I used to make a carrot bread.  I’ve kost the recipe now, it was in an instruction  manual for my blender,    You mixed the oil and wet ingredients in the blender and chopped the carrots in the mixture, then folded into the dry mixture,  

Monday Kitchen Management aka food prep

Kitchen  management is a tool that saves time and energy in the kitchen.  ‘A little work when life is less hectic, saves a lot of work when life isn’t.

Reminder if meals

• Soup, bread 
• Pizza
• Mac and cheese, peas and carrots 
• Bbq pork sliders , salad, oven fries 
• Scampi. Seasoned rice , peas 
• Pumpkin pasta, salad (QFC mag) 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters and sinks and drains.
3. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀.
4. Take the garbage out . 
5. Make soup and bread 
6. Wash potatoes for fries later in the week 
7. Check to be sure the seasoned rice mix is full
8. Wash kitchen cabinets and microwave, 

1. 
   

Meal plans

Meal  plans are a tool that helps you stay on track and saves money and time.

• Bow tie soup , rolls 
• Pizza 
• Mac n cheese, peas and carrots 
• Bbq pork sliders, salad, oven fries 
• Shrimp scampi, seasoned rice with peas, 
• Pumpkin pasta , salad (QFC cookbook) 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

• Soup is a good meal when you are feeding the family at different times,   A slow cooker on low is a good thing.   The house smells divine and e wry ost gets fed when life becomes busy .
• Pizza is a mainstay.  Everyone likes it and a cheese pizza costs a dollar and is easy to make.  My granddaughter at 4 could make it if the dough and ingredients were gathered for her,   We got 😃 Happy   face pizza, but what the heck, right? 
• Mac and cheese, peas and carrots another happy meal, 
• Bbq pork sliders are from bbq beef meat we got on sale with a coupon.   Cheaper than making it ourselves.   Oven fries are scratch, no fat and done in the hot fryer, 
• Scampi was from when we got BOGO on the shrimp.  I wouldn’t buy it again, there were 16 small shrimp and the cost without the BOGO would have been eight dollars. A bit too pricy for what you get.  Seasoned rice is a homemade mix with chicken broth, and herbs. 
• Pumpkin pasta is from a magazine we got in the mail from the local grocery store along with coupons.  I good to try something new . 
• Breakfast for dinner is a good meal. Everyone cooks and it can be economical, or not. 

Groceries on the cheap takes a different approach to your grocery shopping.   Instead of going once a day or week to buy your food, you go to buy what is on sale that you can use to make meals, and stock up on your food when it’s in a RBP.   The result is that you can cut your grocery budget in half and still eat well.   Our food budget is about half what the USDA has listed.   Cost of food at home including adding  part of grandchild’s food.    We eat regular food that is typical of a family with children.  We have maintained this budget for almost two years now and have grown a stock.   The basis is to keep a stock of versatile foods instead of buying one meal at a time.  You pay a lot less for your food, food purchases are simplified and this, more efficient, and you always have food in the house.   

Concept Saturday.-easy and simple

Groceries  on the cheap is as much economizing on time as it is money.   We all have to put food on the table, but we all have to  wear many other hats too.

The concept we are about to talk about is nothing new.  Business models have used it for years and have been successful.

Simplify.

We all have meals that we love 💕.   Usually they fall into a catagory,   We love Tex mex, Italian, and what I will call modified mid century.  That is, things like Mac and cheese, chicken pot pie, meatloaf, chicken noodle made more healthy.

Concept

If you identify the ingredients of favorite economy meals you will find that you are buying some ingredients that do more than double duty.  We all buy about the same things every week.   By finding the lowest prices  on those ingredients and buying a four  to six week supply of them,  you don’t have to buy it again for a while.  It saves money because you aren’t paying full price, and you save time because you have less items in your cart to have to put away when you get home.  You might have five items in your cart, not fourteen.

Pretty soon, you will find that you are just walking around the perimeter of the store.
You are buying raw ingredients vs things in a package that have ingredients that you can’t pronounce  and take up more room in the pantry.

Basic, efficient food;  Food that does double or triple duty,

With flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda you can bake muffins, pancakes, cakes, and many more baked goods, thicken gravy. bread  meat, and make pizza. All a lot cheaper than buying  the ready made counterparts.

Chicken breast or thighs, hamburger, pork loin, and you have many meals, but only three compartments  in the freezer.  You have purchased it at RBP and you purchase it once in weeks.

Buy dairy on sale, buy enough for a month except maybe milk,   Most dairy has a month pull date.
Sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, cheese.   I have a “buy price”.  If it isn’t something I just have to have, and it is expensive, I don’t buy it.  Cheese freezes well in the grated form.  Eggs can be dehydrated.

Fruits and vegetables are bought in season,   They taste better and are less expensive.  We can still find frozen vegetables for a dollar a pound.  In some ways , they are fresher  because they are picked at their peak and flash frozen.

Pasta is a labor of love, as well as tortillas.   Buy them when they are on sale,   Pasta has a ....eight year shelf life.   Tortillas can be stored in the refrigerator.

Some canned goods are a necessary part of life.  Everyone should have some on case of an emergency,   In this part of the country, we have hills and trees.   Lots of trees and lots of rain.
Having a tree  fall on power lines and wiping out our power can happen during  the winter.   Snow cripples is because of the hills.  Having food  that can be cooked outside in a bbq or in a fireplace is a
necessity
  Some things are just cheaper than making scratch.

To recap. Buy low and eat high,   It’s a concept the stockbrokers know well.   You profit when you buy the shelf stable food that is on sale or with a coupon cheap, and have enough to last you until it comes on sale again.  It’s just logic if you think about it.

Buy food when it is at its lowest price, eat it when it’s high, and never be without food.   Studies have proven that not having food in the house is putting a stress on you that actually lowers your life span.

We bought mayonnaise for .66 with coupons,.  It is  on sale this week for over two dollars...I want to say 2.69.   That’s a big difference.  Multiply that a few times and you have half price food.

It works, amd it makes eating for as low as four dolkrs a day the difference between potato chops and top ramen like I’ve heard of, and eating a balanced regular meal.   Tacos and refried beans, roasted chicken, potatoes and a vegetable, pork roast, baked potatoes and broccolli.   You can eat well on odor dollars a day.  We have done it for almost two years now and we have a stock of food.   There is a smug satisfaction on knowing you beat the high cost of food and still have food on the house. LOL.

Friday recipe :Pasta Primavera

Pasta Primavera

1/2 package (8 ounces) of Barilla spaghetti

1 T Olive oil
1 tsp Garlic
1/2 cup Grape tomatoes cut in half
3/4 cup frozen Peas
2 handfuls Spinach
6 slices Red and yellow peppers , chopped
Parmesean cheese

Cook the spaghetti in the insta pot for 2 minutes.   Break the spaghetti in two and place in pot loosely as to resemble a bird nest.  Add 1 quart of water.  Place lid on pot and set it to the seal function,   Process on manual for 2 minutes.  Manually de pressurize.  Drain the pasta.       After the spaghetti is cooked start the veggies.


In a sauté pan, place the olive oil and turn on medium heat.
Add vegetables, in order listed.   Sauté until they are warm and the spinach is wilted.

Toss the veggies with the spaghetti.  Top with parm and garnish with parsley.

Haul to 10/11

QFC
Barilla spaghetti (5) 4.00 -charity

Ice cream 3.00
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Total 6.99

Safeways
Coffee 5.99
16 cream soups .88 ea
6 Pillsbury biscuits 4.00
Total 23.93

Fred Meyers
Yoplait 10/ .24 ea
Strawberries 2.99
Hawaiian rolls 3.00
Grapes 1.91
Grapes 1.41
Lemonade apples 3.21
English muffins
Total 16.17

Total  47.09


QFC chicken 4.71

51.80

Winco

Tomato soup .98
Potato rounds 1.98
Olives 2.34
Chillies 2.07
Squash .51
5 lb carrots 2.28
Chili .78
Strawberries 1.98
Total 22.29

74.09

Chain store ads

No ads yet, because of the holiday. This is  from the Internet.   I do the work so you don’t have to.  Please follow or share.  

QFC
Grapes 1.88
Draper valley chicken breast BOGO - don’t know if that’s a bargain or not,

B 5, S 5
Cheese 4.99
Eggs .99
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.99 $$
Ritz 1.79
Nathan’s 3.99

ALBERWAYS

Cucumbers 1.00
Foster Farms Whole chicken .97
Grapes 1.88

Ny style sausage 1.99@@
Cheese, 2 lbs limit 2, 4.99@@

Frozen vegetables, 1.00 check pkg size you want a lb
Classico pasta sauce 2.00 **

**note - the jar is the size that a mason jar lid fits.   I don’t know aboutmcanning, but you can use it for dried foods and seal the top with the food saver. Mason jars are close to a dollar empty.

Fred Meyers

Both Kroger stores have Friday and Saturday digital deals for ice cream at 1.99

2 lbs strawberries 2.99
Tomatoes ..88
Bread, eggs 1.00
FF split chicken breast 1.29 not the best price, but better than any I’ve seen lately.  
Campbell’s chunky soup 1.25 $$
Barilla pasta 1.00
Frozen veggies 1.00 some 16 ounces
Cottage cheese, sour cream. 1.25

B 5, S 5
Cheese 4.99
Ritz 1.49
Goldfish .99
Cheerios 1.79$$


Notes - @@ means an in ad coupon is required
$$ means that there aremxohpins out there

Winco does not have an ad
Green peppers. Grapes, Strawberries, Nalleys chili, and Yoplait are all good prices as of yesterday. .

Tuesday : how did she do that ?

Vegetable bean soup  is a recipe I developed a few years back.  Otmosmheaety, but also satisfied the vegetarians in the family




Vegetable Bean Soup

Sauté carrots and celery . This was on the insta pot, but you can do it on the stove also .

Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, and 4 cups vegetable broth or broth of your choice. 

Add 2 cans or 4 cups of cooked beans of choice.  A Tablespoon of Italian seasoning and a teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder.   

If using insta pot, program to slow cooker and cook for 4-8 hours.

   If using slow cooker, sauté vegetables, add remaining ingredients along with the veggies to the slowcooker pot and cook on low for 4-8 hours. 

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen Management is a tool to keep your kitchen clean and your meals prepped so that the dinner hour is less hectic. A little work in an hour or so time set aside when things are mess hectic can save a lot of time later.

Reminder if next week’s meals

• Chicken pot pie 
• Pizza
• Spaghetti 
• Sliders
• Tacos 
• Vegetable bean soup 
• Breakfast for dinner 

1. Clean the refrigerator and dump anything dead and note things that need to be used up soon, 
2. Wash kitchen floor. 
3. Clean and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains.
4. Cook chicken in the insta pot. -done yesterday 
5. Make spaghetti in the insta pot 
6. Cook beans 
7. Make vegetabke bean soup. 
8. Cut up chicken and freeze. 
9. Make scratch sausage and cook.   

Notes

I did the kitchen management yesterday since we have a busy week.   Foil containers with licks are a dollar at the DT in a three pack.    They are a good thing to have occasionally when you are making a lot  of freezer meals and have a small family. They also come on a large family size.   I pretty much got a head start on this week’s dinners.