Weeknight dinners

I had a chicken panini for lunch yesterday. It made me go looking for more! I used the George Foreman grill,but you can use a stovetop grill or a frying pan.

CUBAN PANNINI

1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tso mayo and 1/2 tsp olive oil.

8 pieces artisan bread

Assorted thin slices of smoked turkey, ham, and Swiss cheese.

Dill pickle,

Raw spinach
Assemble sandwich, and toast.

Serve with dill pickle

CHICKEN NACHOS

Nacho chips
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 T vegetable oil
3 cups shredded chicken
2T taco seasoning
Salsa
1cup cheese
Roma tomato, seeded and diced

Cook onion , garlic, in oil. Add chicken, taco seasoning.
Heat through.
Pour over chips in a baking pan. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 350 until cheese has melted.Top with salsa and tomatoes,Serve immediately.

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Jane :)

Dinner

Last night we had roast chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans and green salad for dinner. It cost 2.80.

By balancing a more expensive dinner with a low cost dinner , you can still eat well for less. Take advantage of everything offered to you and the nest buys.

Chicken .88 a pound. The almost 5 pound chicken cost 4.27. The salad was free at Safeways. The green beams were .49. The sweet potatoes were .79. A tomato was .27.

It could have been cheaper if I had made cut broccoli for a veggie that I got for free.

Tonight we will have chicken burritos.

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Jane

Breakfast for dinner?

About once every two weeks we have breakfast for dinner. It is an easy way to balance an expemsive dinner. A seven dollar dinner and a three dollar dinner averages 5.00.

I find Texas toast sometimes at grocery outlet (.50) and can find itmat the bakery outlet. Eggs this time are free becauseni have a coupon from QFC.
I got berries for 1.50'a box.


Oven French toast

1/4 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
1cup milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 slices Texas toast

Cover bottom of a baking pan with sides with melted butter.

Beat eggs, milk, and cinnamon .

Dip both sides of bread in egg mixture.

Place in pan.

Bake at 375 for 20- 25 minutes or until browned.


The other thing that my family loves is Impossable Pie ( eggs and sausage or ham)
See bisquick box for recipe. It uses few eggs and sausage or ham and cheese.

I get ham cubes sometimes at grocery outlet or WinCo. A little goes a long way.

Thats all for today. I had a rough night LOL

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Jane

Notes from my book written in the early 1990's

Back in the mid eighties, I wrote A booklet Feed a family of four for fifty dollars a week. I updated it in the 1990's to Feed a family of four for sixty dollars a week.
Now, in 2012, I am up to feed a family of four for 75.00 a week. Seventy five dollars a week feeds your family, and grows a stock. I have done it for years. Now, I could skip a week and we might not have fresh perishables, but we could still eat.

Rich people don't spend their money on consumables, they spend their money on appreciables.( investments that go up in value). Obviously, I wrote that before the economy went in the toilet!

Another concept that I haven't talked a out is that there are four styles of cooking dinner. only you know what mealtime is like aroumd your house and can choose what works for you. What works this week, might not work next week. LOL

1) FAST. Includes steaks, chops, pressure cooker meals, and stir frys.

2) MAKE AHEAD. Includes marathon cooking and batch cooking.

3) SET IT AND FORGET IT. Slow cookers and quick fix and forget meals are included here.
Things that you can assemble in the crockpot or oven, and walk away to get something
Else done.

4) STAIR-STEP METHOD. Cook double of something too get a head start on the next night.
Sundays roast becomes roast beef a jus sandwiches on Tuesday. Some of the rice you cooked for stir fry becomes Spanish rice the next day. Rice and beans have a short refer life.

QUICK TAKES

1) reference cookbook

2) meal plans combat the "Blank stare at the fridge, what's for dinner syndrome"

3) keep a price log for your staples

4) be brave enough to make substitutions if you like a recipe that calls for an expensive ingredient. a good reference book is The Kitchen Companion by Polly Clingerman.

5) stock your staples, never get stuck paying full price. If you dont have storage, find it. Under your bed? When I was living in a small apartment I had an ottoman that
Had a lid. My parents always had a storage room in the basement.

6) don't buy snack foods out of your food budget. Growing up, we never had pop, potato chips or Kool aid in the house. we all survived! LOL

7) decide on a dollar amount for protein for a meal. In the 70's when there were three of us, it was 2.00. By the 90's with two teenagers, I had to imcrease it to 3.00.
I still average about three dollars, but it is getting harder and harder. The operative word is average.

8) avoid impulse buying at the grocery store. Make a list, get in and get out.
Don't frequent the fancy stores --somebody has to pay for those live lobsters and water fountains! And don't go to the store multiple times during the week. If you run out of something, you're not doing your shopping right.

9) in the 90's an average family spent 120 a week on food. That was twenty years ago.
Inflation has hit hard in twenty years. Green beans were always 3 cans for a dollar, for example. Now they are 1.29 a can.

10) cook from scratch. The first letter in convenience foods is $. There are a few ready made items that are cheaper, and a few that are too labor intensive unless you have all day to cook.

11) almost free pizza! We will go into that on a future blog.

12) making your own breadcrumbs and croutons saves a bundle. As does taco seasoning. I recently saw taco seasoning on "sale" for 1.25

That's all for today.
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Jane

Gone shopping

I just finished shopping, putting things away and eating lunch. QFC has a good sale this week. I came out of there with 1/2 price. Saving more than I spent.
Cream of mushroom soup was .69. Stuffing mix was really low priced. Green beans were.49. That was cheaper than TOP.

Chicken was .88 a pound? Hebrew national was 3.00.
Berries were buy one, get one and I had a coupon for a buck off. So berries were 1.50 instead of 4.00.

Doughnuts were 4.79 a dozen.

Frozen broccoli was free with a coupon.

That's all.

Thanks for stopping by

Jane

Dinner

Tonight we had oven roasted root veggies and salmon, and a green salad.
French bread with dipping oil would have been good too.

The point I am making is that I heard this advertised as an restraunt entre on the tv today. It sounded good, so I made it from stock that I had on hand. Inspiration is all around us. Just because we are on a budget, doesn't mean that we have to eat budget food.

Spending more time on the front end of the meal train and less on the back end makes the difference. Many ethnic recipes are budget recipes.

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Jane

Back to the basics

I can't bellieve it, but ut has been a month since I covered the basics of 1/2 price groceries.

The USDA comes out with stats on how much it should coat to feed your family based om the age of the family members. I am trying for 1/2 the price.

I am trying to help people feed their family better, cheaper, faster. If you are looking any of these, I hope I can help.

My approach comes from many years when I had to economize. I read everything I could find to educate myself on eating well for less.

This takes a three pronged approach : plannng and organizing, shopping, and cooking from scratch.

1) planning and organizing:

Develop a book of recipes that use inexpensive sources of protein. Start with seven and try for 14. This gives you a variety of meals.

If you have to answer the question " what's for dinner? "after a long hard day, it is to easy to say "take out". you need a plan, even if you don't always follow it.

The object is to never pay full price for your food. Make a list of the staple items you use often. At our house that would be beans, pasta, pasta sauce, tuna, salmon,
re fried beans, and diced tomatoes. You want to buy them when they are at their lowest price. When that happens buy, as many as you can afford, as many as the store will let you buy, or as many as you need to meet your target quanity-- whichever comes first.

Track what price you pay, where you bought it, and when. You can use a spiral notebook or a spreadsheet. If you use a spiral notebook, you can take it with you. Mark a sheet with the item and the size of the package. Now record on a line, the date, store and amount you paid.

1 lb pasta

10/25/12. Safeways .88

You are not tracking everything you buy, just the things that you buy often. You will soon see what the rock bottom price is.

If I use the item once a week, I keep a stock of 24. If we use it once a month I keep a stock of 6.

Watch pull dates. Canned goods have a three year shelf life, except meat and fish that have a shorter life. Pasta has a eight year shelf life.


2) shopping

When the ads come out for the week, take a sheet of paper, draw lines to quarter it. Put the name of the stores on top . Now write down whatever is cheap that is either on your stock up list, or fresh food and meat that is on sale cheap. Not everything in an ad is cheap. Then cross off anything you don't need more of or that is cheaper elsewhere. Now pick the two stores that have your best prices. Go there, get what's on your list and your dire necessities, and get out. The more time you spend in a store, the more money you will spend.

Avoid snack foods and pre packaged foods. They are a sure way to de rail your budget.

3) Cooking from scratch

Cooking from scratch doesn't have to mean all day cooking . There are ways to cut your time in the kitchen. Make good use of slow cookers and a pressure cooker if you have
one. Oven meals are a time saver. If you can put something in a pan and shove it in the oven and walk away to do other household chores, you make best use of your time.

You can precook ( batch cook) when you have free time, and it saves a lot of time at dinnertime. It seems like dinner time in many households is hectic.

That's what this blog is about. Recipes that are on the cheap and ways to cook faster and more healthy.


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Jane

Meals from the ads

This week is a good week to stock up. A lot of the canned goods are on sale at TOP for .67. the beans especially are cheap. I have been paying less for tomatoes and I am not sure how much the green beans are at Costco. I don't usually stock a lot of canned veggies.

Chicken is .88 at QFC. That's about half the cost of a three pound deli chicken.
That's the cheapest I have seen them. It's a good buy if it isn't southern grown.
It's not hard to get three or four meals off of a five pound chicken. Most deli chickens are three pounds. Anything under three pounds means you are paying for too much bone, and not enough meat. It's really quick to roast off a Ken. See earlier posts.

I got a coupon from QFC for free eggs. I don't spend a lot on food at QFC, but we spend a lot on meds.

Cream of mushroom soup is .69 and tuna is on sale as well.


Meals:

1) roast chicken
2) chicken chimichungas
3) quiche
4) pizza
5) stuffed acorn squash
6) meat ball subs
7) tuna casserole


It has long been a trick if our mothers to make best use of the sales to plan the weeks meals.

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Jane

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This weeks ads

So I am getting a head start on this weeks ads .

TOP

Veggies, tomatoes, soup, beans 15/10.00
Olives 10/10.00
Tuna .80

Drumsticks 1.00 lb
Sirloin tip 3.00
Butter 2/5.00
Pears .79

QFC

Whole chicken .88
20 percent hamburgerv2.49
Berries b1g1. Nets 2.00
Camp bells soup / cr mushroom .69 ...buy 5
Stove top stuffing .79 ?.. Buy 5

Hebrew national 3.00

Safeways

Turkey .99
Pumpkin, canned. 3/5.00 (5 ounce cans

Country ribs 1.99

5 dollar Friday

Sub sandwich
Cookies

Albertsons
Apple.99
Lettuce .88
Veggies, canned.67


That's about all.

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Jane

Notes and more Tex Mex

I have been reading a lot of blogs on budget food. It goes back to eating cheap food, or food cheap. I feel that eating well balanced and a variety of foods is better than eating very little and empty calories. In Other words, you can pay full price for top ramen and a box of imitation cheese, or you can pay 1/2 price for real vegetables and real meat. Don't skimp om the food value, skimp on the amount you pay for good food.


Beefy Spanish Rice

1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes
1tsp celery salt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1cup ( 4 ounces) shredded cheese


1) cook rice
2) cook beef and onions until meat is no longer pink, drain.
3) Stir in tomatoes, seasoning, and rice.
4) put in greased baking dish
5) cover and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
6) uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted


Note. You can sauté onion, or zap in the microwave and add it to already cooked beef.
1 pound of ground beef nets about 3/4 of a pound cooked.

Rice can be cooked ahead, but don't hold it longer than two days. Cooked rice and veins have a short refer life.


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Jane

Let's talk about Mexican

Mexican food is a Popular cuisine in the US. Growing up, we had a lot of spaghetti.
We will probably go in cycles, like the type of television shows that are popular.
Remember westerns? And game shows?

I digress.

Beef and Bean chimichangas.

1.5 poumds ground beef
1 Medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1clove garlic, minced


2 cans re fried beans
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1/2cup taco sauce

16 - 10 inch flour tortillas

Vegetable oil

Toppings

Lettuce
Sour cream
Chopped ripe olives
Chopped tomatoes
Cheddar cheese


In large skillet, cook meat and vegetables until meat is no longer pink.
Add the beans, cheese, and taco sauce. Stir until cheese has melted.

Spoon about a third of a cup of mixture in the center of each tortilla.
Fold up the edge nearest the filling. Fold on the sides, and roll up. Secure with a toothpick. Fry, seam side down in oil 2-3 minutes a side. Makes 16.

Note: you could use shredded chicken instead of ground beef.

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Jane

It's fall, you all!

I am going back to basics on this one.
For review, I try to do 5 dollar dinners. I average them so that we get a variety of meats and some more expensive cuts and shrimp or fish. I try to pay about 2 plus dollars a pound for meat. It used to be 2.25 until meat prices went up. I can still get pork, chicken, ground beef, beef roast, round and sirloin and chuck, for my target amount. Turkey breast was in that model as well last week.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

2acorn squash, halved and seeded
1cup water
3/4 pound ground beef
1celery rib
1small onion
1tart apple, chopped
1 cup cooked rice
1/4 cup sunflower kernels
1egg, beaten
5 tsp brown sugar, divided
1 -1/2 tsp salt, divided
Generous tablespoon of butter

1) turn squash upside down in baking pan, add water, and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.
See notes!
2) cook celery, onion and beef until beef is no longer pink and vegetables are tender, drain. See notes
3)Add rice, apple, sunflower kernels, stir and cook for 3-5 minutes until apple is tender. Stir in egg, 1tsp brn sugar and 1 tsp salt.
4) put squash cut side up in baking pan. Place 1 tsp EACH of butter and brown sugar into bottom of squash halves.
5) salt, fill with meat mixture.
6) bake uncovered at 375 15-20 minutes.

NOTES:

If you poke acorn squash several times with a fork, you can microwave it for 3 minutes or so and it will be easier to cut. You can also "bake" off the squash in a pan in the microwave until almost done. Fill and finish baking in the oven.

Sunflower kernels are at the dollar store.
Acorn squash has been a buck a pound, but I got it for .70 net at Safeways last week.
( 20 percent off vegetables, and another ten percent off the entire bill. )I think that doesn't compound so it should be 30 percent off).

You can use your already defatted hamburger and just microwave or sauté the veggies and put them together.

FOIL PACKET MEAL

1pound hamburger, shaped into 4 patties
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into strips or a handful of baby carrots.
1medium pepper, cut into strips
1envelope onion gravy mix
2 tomatoes, cut in half and seeded.

1) cut 4 pieces of heavy foil about 14 inches square.
2) place a meat patty on each.
3) arrange vegetables aroumd the patty.
4) sprinkle with onion gravy mix
5) put tomato cut side down on top
6) tightly seal foil and arrange on a sheet pan or other pan with sides.
7) bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
8) uncover one and check tom see if the meat is done (no longer pink) and veggies are tender.

Note: gravy mix is inexpensive at business Costco or add onion to the vegetables and add beef better than bouillon and a little flour mixture on top.


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Jane

Let's talk about just for you and compare grocery stores

No, I don't have stock in Safeways. I have found that besides the regular low prices, the people are really nice and helpful if you can't find something. They are one of the few stores that carry no sugar added ice cream. You sign up for "Just 4 You" there is an additional discounts on your grocery bill.

I got 5 dollars off, if I spent fifty dollars--not a hard feat at the grocery store.
That's ten percent. Add that to the 3 dollars I got off veggies if I spent 15.00 and I got my veggies for 30 percent off. Some of the vegetables were already marked down because of the just 4 you. Roma tomatoes were .79 less 30 percent (.58)

There was five dollars off twenty dollars worth of ranchers reserve meat, but I haven't figured out how that works yet. I haven't needed that much meat.

It is well worth signing up for it.


I don't know what's Up with Albertsons, but I don't find many real bargains there anymore. After they left Edmonds , they are hard to get to, and I do t see the bargains.

QFC used to be the most expensive of the regular chains. They are still expensive unless you find a good sale.

Years ago, the herald made up a typical grocery list and sent people out to buy the exact list at four different stores. QFC was the most expensive, Fred Meyer was the cheapest. How ironic that now vote are owned by the same parent company!

Top has bargains at times, lately it has been meat. I always find the beans on sale more frequently there. It's worth watching, because I often find up to a dollar a can savings on canned goods.

Hagan brands are often as good or better than the big name brands.

WinCo is a bit far for is, so we go about every six weeks. They have a very large selection of Mexican food cheap. They're vegetables are almost always lower, as well as some canned goods-- soup and pasta sauce in particular.

Costco isn't always the cheapest for food, but some things are. Just remember to take a calculator if you're not a math whizz. They give you the breakdown of the price in ounces often, and my brain is wrapped around per can prices. LOL. It is convenient to get bisquick in the large box..ditto tp and paper towels. We don't use a lot of paper towels, but they are handy when you need them. I buy micro fiber rags from Costco in the automotive section. They are supposed to take away germs even of you use them plain . They are cheap, and I use several in a cooking session so I don't cross comtaminate. I keep a bucket just for kitchen towels and wash them by themselves im hot water.


Grocery outlet has bargains. They are put of our way, so we go about once a month. Regular coffee is a fraction of the price on the stores. They have a large selection of cheeses. You never know what you are going to find. Just watch the pull dates. many are far out, but some are not. but, we have got baby food at top that was past it's pull date, and when we went back for more, the whole shelf was past it's pull date! Oops! I watch carefully the produce, sometimes, it's not as fresh as I would like.

Keep your eyes open where ever you go, the dollar store and big lots are good sources too. The dollar store takes snap, the big lots does not. Again, watch pull dates.

If you are savvy to prices, it doesn't take a lot of extra time to save about half on your bill. It is ome of the largest expenses of your discressiomary income.

What's the old sayimg, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I have the feeling that with the drought,many more people are going to be experiencing bargain shopping, unless they have a limitless flow of money LOL.

That's all my rambling for today. If you have a topic you want to read about, let me know.

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Jane

Meals from the ads

I thought I would go through my process for meal plans. I try to balance meats and costs. My mantra is 4 +1=5. Four people, ome meal, five bucks.


2 beef
2 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian
1 fish

1) pork loin roast, mashed sweet potatoes, salad, broccoli
2) sausage, peppers, potatoes, French bread
3) London broil, baked potato, salad,
4) tacos , retried bean, lettuce, tomatoes
5) Mac and cheese, broccoli,
6) quiche , fruit cup
7) salmon, a grautin potatoes, salad


Notes:
Salmon was 5 dollars at SAFEWAYS last week.
Pork loin is 1.99 a pound for the fill loin. I would try to split it with a friend or slice off pork chops and a roast and freeze them in meal sized portions.

London broil is 2.49 a pound. There is a discount JFU if you buy twenty dollars worth of ranchers reserve.

Broccoli is a buck at QFC. I bought peppers for 2/1.00 at grocery outlet. Carrots are a buck a pound at QFC as well.

In other words, buy the meats and veggies that your family will eat, and balance the meats to minimize your fat intake and average your budget.

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Jane

All about ground beef

Next to chicken, ground beef is the most popular meat of families. They are the most popular of the least expensive meats. Kids are partial to them.

It used to be that ground beef came from certain parts of the cow, and were marked accordingly. Now we grade ground beef by the fat content. The good news is that they now have ground beef that is as low as 7 percent fat. If you de-fat it, it will be even lower. This meat, however, won't make the best hamburgers. It is better off in taco meat or a casserole where it will pick up more liquid and not be dried out.

If I use hamburger,if at all possible, I cook it where it drains into something, rather than stew in it's own juices. Meatballs are cooked om the oven over a rack on a sheet pan. Meatloaf is cooked in a meatloaf pan that drains the fat into a second pan.

The book I read said to use ground beef with 2-3 days from purchasing it. The book was from the 70's. That would be another reason to batch cook ground beef soon after you bring it home.

Fall meatballs

2 eggs, beaten
1cup dry breadcrumbs
1 cup granny smith apple, grated.
1/4 cup grated cheese
Garlic, salt, pepper,
1 pound ground beef

Sauce:
1can diced tomatoes
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp w sauce.

Mix all meatball ingredients except the meat together in a large bowl. Add meat and mix together. Do not over mix, meatballs can become tough.

Shape into balls. Place into baking dish. Blend tomatoes in a blender. Add w sauce and ketchup.

Pour over meatballs and bake at 350 for an hour or until meat is done.

I would serve with rice or noodles.

SLOW COOKER BEEF VEGETABLE SOUP

1 pound ground beef, cooked
1tsp onion powder
1tsp minced garlic
16 ounces of tomato sauce
2cans kidney beans,rinsed and drained
1 cup corn
1cup carrots, diced
1/2 green pepper ,diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 Cup chopped, fresh tomato
1T chili powder
1/2 tsp basil
Salt



Shredded cheese, sour cream or tortilla chips for garnish.

Place all ingredients except garnish in a slow cooker. Cook on low 8 hours.

Notes: if tomatoes are not in season, you could use a can of diced tomatoes. Drain the tomatoes, add the juice of the tomatoes to an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and add enough tomato paste to make the right consistency.

1 pound of ground beef cooked, should yield 12 ounces of cooked meat, I am assuming that the article I read was using 25 percent fat hamburger.


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Jane

This weeks ads

Yesterday we talked about how to analyze the ads.
This weeks ads

TOP

Pasta 1.00
Apples .79
Turkey breast 1.99
20 percent ground beef 1.99
Pork shoulder 1.99
Bottom round steak or roast 2.99


Coleslaw .89

SAFEWAYS

FRIDAY ONLY
Boston cream cake 5.00
Grapes 3/ 5.00

Pork loin 1.99
Beef chuck cross robed B1G1 nets 2.50
Spinach 1.00j
Avocados .88
London broil 2.49
JFU
TORTILLA CHIPS .99
squash .99

5 lbs potatoes 1.00
NOTE. When figuring produce prices at safe ways, be sure to remember that just fornu gives you twenty percent (3.00) off of 15.00 worth od veggies.

QFC
broccoli 1.00
Sour cream 16 oz 1.00
Hunts pasta sauce 1.00
Pasta 1.00

Note repaid .88 for the same brand of pasta last week at safe ways. PSta sauce is usually ..80 cents or less on sale.

ALBERTSOMS

Berries 1.99
Chicken or tomato soup .75
Hillshire farm sausage 2.49 ( coupon)

That's about it. I don't see a lot of bargains maybe a few meat ones, at the "new" meat.

There are no ads for WinCo or Grocery Outlet. We were just at grocery outlet, but haven't checked out WinCo for about six weeks.

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Jane


prices.

Shopping !

I thought I would talk about shopping in depth. You will need to set aside a block of time to do this. Remember, you basically are getting paid for your trouble. If you spend an extra hour shopping,and you save 75.00 In the process, you are making 75.00 an hour, you would have to make an additional about twenty percent to net that 75.00. That's 90.00 dollars an hour!

Before you start, clean out the fridge and your bread bin and dump everything dead and note anything you need to use soon. Hopefully, you have done a quick mid week appraisal and used up things thar needed to be used soon.

First, take about ten minutes and gather the ads from the mail. Take a piece of computer paper and divide it into four. Mark each section with the grocery store on top. I have Safeways, Top, QFC, and Albertsons.

Now go through the ad, you are quickly looking for anyhing that is on your stock up list, and fresh fruits and veggies and meat that is a bargain. Jot down the item and the price. The quanity if appropriate for comparison. Mark it with a circled c if you need a coupon.

Now go through and mark off anything that is more expensive somewhere else, and anything you already have adequate stock of.

Now pick the two best stores. Plan your trip so you use the least amount of gas.

Take your savings list, coupons, and the ads.

Get in the store, get your food, and get out. The more time you spend in a sore, the more money you will spend.

I take a cooler bag with me to keep food cold between stores.

When you get home, put things away quickly. There are storage solutions that keep fresh foods fresh longer. It is an investment that pays for itself.

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Happy shopping

Jane

Ps I hear A rumor that we are gettimg a WinCo in Edmonds!! Yeah.
I can only hot there once every six weeks or so because it is so far away. A

Odds and ends

I don't know what to talk about, I wish I could get feed back so I know what you want to see. Don't think that all food has to come from the major grocery chains. Many bargains come from the dollar store, grocery outlet, and big lots. I am sure there are more stores, but I haven't the time to hit them all. BARTELLS has sales frequently too. I try to cluster my shopping trips so I dont waste gas.

Just a few notes. My daughter got sweet potatoes at the dollar store yesterday. Betty Crocker made them. They , I believe ,no longer make them. The pull date is far out.
They are really good and are easy to make. Think chicken, pork chops, turkey.

I found baby green beans, organic, for .25 and Gerber snacks for 4.00 for three cans at big lots. I also found bread dipping oil in a unusual bottle.

The grocery outlet always has cheap regular coffee. I think that they have some designer ones too.

They usually have an assortment of specialty cheeses , some low fat. Red peppers were.50. You have to know your prices, not everything is a bargain and check pull dates.

They have a yummy chicken, artichoke and cheese sausage. YUM. My husband likes it, and he hates chicken! I don't think that I would pair it with sauerkraut though! The Mexican peppers in a can were 1.00 and .69. I bought one of each so I could compare.I have been looking for peppers that were under a buck. Parmesan cheese was 3.00.

The main thing, is that you have to know what things cost elsewhere to know if something is a bargain.

The way I look at it, if I find something for .50 instead of 1.59 I have 1.09 left in my budget to spend on something that adds to our quality of life. We can go out to dinner or to a concert, or buy things for the women's shelter, or take our grandchild on a boat ride.

Years ago, I grocery shopped on the cheap because I had little money and I really needed to. It became a habit. Now it is a game to see just how good we could eat on a limited amount of money. It's a challenge. Anyone can go through a store and just pick up everything they want to eat, but it is a challenge to do it for 70.00 a week and grow a stock.

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Happy bargain hunting! Jane

It's chicken again!

I seem ro find more chicken recipes than I do any other meat-- except maybe ground beef.Probably because it is a favorite and it is less expensive than any other meat.
It's rumored that it is better for you. I don't exactly buy into that. Many cuts of beef when cooked properly nave less or the same fat as chicken. I have seen people with only chicken and pork end up anemic. I think that moderation is the key unless your doctor tells you different.

Now, Freezer chicken.

Chickens totaling 7-9 pounds.
Parsley
2 stalks celery,rough cut
2 carrots,rough cut
1medium onion, sliced
2 tsp salt
Pepper

1-1/4 cups water
1cup flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1) place chicken in a six quart soup pot and cover with water. Add vegetables and salt and pepper.

2) heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done. About 45 minutes. Remove chicken from broth. Refrigerate until cool.
3) remove chicken from bones and skin. Cut into pieces. Return to refrigerator.

4) strain broth. Place 6 cups in saucepan. Shake water, flour, salt and pepper in container with a TIGHT-fitting lid. ( a jar, a lock and lock. )
gradually stir into broth. Heat to boiling. Boil and stir one minute.

5) divide chicken pieces into freezer containers. use two cups chicken each in quart containers. Pour two cups gravy over each. Cover and freeze.

Makes chicken a la king or the base for chicken pot pie, chicken broccoli, or chicken chowder.

CHICKEN CHOWDER

1 container freezer chicken
1six ounce package frozen hash browns.
1can corn
6 cups milk
1T parsley
Salt
1/2 tsp paprika

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled ( optional for garnish)

2)Thaw chicken either in microwave on the thaw cycle, or in the refrigerator.

3) put in pan and add hash browns and the can of corn ( don't drain the can )
Add milk, seasonings and heat over medium heat stirring occasionally until the potatoes are tender. About 20 minutes.

NOTE. You could also use a couple of potatoes that were diced .

CHICKEN A LA KING

1 container chicken
1 can mushroom stems and pieces
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/4 cup dry white wine

Cooked rice
Slivered



1) thaw chicken ( in the microwave or in the refrigerator.

In pan, add chicken, mushrooms , and vegetables . Heat to boiling, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are done. Stir in wine. Serve over rice. Garnish with almonds

to make chicken pot pie, make above recipe adding frozen peas and carrots until you get to the bringing to a boil part. After bringing it to a boil, place mixture in a casserole dish and top with a bisquick crust. ( see the bisquick label or prior post. Bake off the crust.

CHICKEN BROCCOLI
1 container chicken
1cup sour cream
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives
Nutmeg
1 pound broccoli, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup Parma

1) thaw chicken . Put in pan and heat to boiling. Add Sour cream, olives and nutmeg. Heat just to warm.
2) cook broccoli and drain.
3) place broccoli ima broil proof baking dish.
Pour chicken over it.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Broil 3-5 inches from heat about 5 minutes, cheese will be brown.

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Happy eating!
Jane

Apples and other fall favorites

Yesterday , when we went grocery shopping, my husband and my granddaughter picked out a pumpkin. They were a buck at safe ways. She is supposed to go to the pumpkin farm, but
That will depend on the weather. We are expecting a storm. This marks the start of fall, besides the fact that the leaves are starting to turn colors.

Last weekend we went to the off price mall. Our twice yearly trek for some time to ourselves and our clothing shopping for the year. We save enough on clothes to pay for the hotel. We go during the off season so it is cheaper. We got 70 per cent off the last marked price on clothes. Of course, I had to hit the Carters outlet for the grand baby. It's a nice get away for little money in the scheme of things. I couldn't afford it on retirement income if I didn't economize on food.

While shopping yesterday, I met a guy in the egg isle buying eggs. I told him that there was a coupon for the eggs he was buying and there was flyers at the front of the store. He acted in-different. It gave me an idea. If all the people who aren't in to watching their bottom line on their food bill were to take advantage of all the store coupons and specials for one week and give the savings to the food bank, it would feed a lot of people. We all hope that we will never fall on hard times, but if we know how to economize on food,we will be prepared to face the challenge if it ever comes.

On to recipes:
Apples are in season. I got 5 pounds for 5 bucks yesterday. We like to have sliced apples with a drizzle of caramel sauce. Yesterday on the chew, they fixed sliced apples on a skewer that were dipped on caramel and nuts etc. Like a caramel apple, but easier to eat. I'm sure the recipe is on the Internet. It is really quick to spread a single pie crust om a cookie sheet, put apples with cinnamon, sugar, and cornstarch or flour in the middle of it and fold the edges over the filling. Bake it off until the crust is dome and the apples are tender. You cam add cranberries or blueberries.

I had a quick no fault pie crust recipe, but I can't remember it and didn't write it down. It was flour and fat and salt. A flour and water mixture was added until it came together. If I find it again, I will post it. If I gave this to someone, please let me know. It was on KING 5 TV when they had a morning show.

Apple crisp is really easy and nutritious. There is a recipe for apple pie on the Bisquick cookbook that my mother in law used to make often. It has a sour cream top crust. She always was a wonderful baker.

Apples cut the acidity of sauerkraut. Sausage and sauerkraut or spareribs and sauerkraut. My husband will not eat cabbage, but he loves sauerkraut. It is cheapest at big lots.

Apples and cinnamon in oatmeal for breakfast ?

I have an apple peeler I got from my mother. I use it for apples, but also for potatoes. It makes fast work of potatoes for scalloped potatoes or French fries.
French fries can be made on the oven. Toss them with olive oil . Season of you want, and bake them off at 375 or 400 degrees. Stir them half way through cooking. This works for red potatoes too. I add rosemary to the red potatoes.

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Jane