Friday Recipes

Note:  this week I am not going to shop.   We don’t necessarily need to and I didn’t find anything that reached out to me shouting “buy me” !    I did purchase a box of bisquick at costco.

Today I am making an apple pie  and spareribs along with a pasta salad.   We are using up what we have in stock.  

I will take you along on Dinner: better, cheaper, faster.  
That fits with my mantra:   Spend less time cooking, and more time planning a shopping trip and your pocketbook will love you for it.

Spareribs.  Brown spareribs in a little olive oil in a skillet.  Place in (slow cooker/insta pot) and pour a beer over top.   Set insta pot on slow cook and let cook for 6-8 hours.  

Pasta salad starts with suddenly salad I purchased for .75 last summer.    Add tomatoes, black olives, and any vegetable you have hanging around.  

Apple pie is one my husband’s mother used to make.  Its part custard and part apple pie with a crumb topping.   ( bisquick cookbook).

Sometimes, it is just a good thing to balance dinner with a desert.   Add fruit to the vegetables in the salad and you have well balanced—protein, starch, and fruit and veggies.  

Staples that don't break the bank .

Buying staples that don’t break the bank on bulk sales is a good way to always have food in the house without a lot of capital outlay.   A good sale, properly planned can save a lot of money.   Its a matter of taking advantage of a good sale.

• Canned veggies are at best regularly .68 .  They can be more.  They have a good shelf life an are a good go to in the winter when the quality of fresh is not as good and the cost is expensive.                              Safeways had case lot (12) for .49 each.  Cue in a basket coupon for 20 percent and the cost is .39.   A case was less than five dollars, you have a case of green beans.  I only buy canned green beans and corn.  
• You can almost always find pasta sauce with coupons.   Canned pasta sauce is almost always less than a dollar at Winco.   The sauce in a jar can be close to a dollar with coupons and sales. Don’t use a coupon without matching it with a sale if you can help it.   Pasta sauce is one thing that is cheaper than making it yourself.   You can always add spices and meat if you want.   
• Pasta has a eight YEAR shelf life.  Buy it when you can get it with coupons and sales.   I usually buy Barilla at less than a dollar.   Never pay more than a dollar.   Its sometimes at the dollar tree.   
• Dried beans are a lot cheaper than canned.   With the insta pot, they are about as fast to make as opening the can.   (Hands on time) .   I keep a few for emergencies in case out power goes out, but it’s pretty easy to store dried.   The dollar tree is the cheapest for pinto beans I have found.  They are non GMO, and grown in USA.   
• Flour and rice are cheapest in 20-25 lb bags at costco.  I am assuming that they are comparably priced at Sam's club.   A food safe bucket works best for us and you can sometimes get them at a bakery inexpensive.   
• Diced tomatoes are a good shelf stable staple.   Instead of buying numerous forms of tomatoes, if you stick to diced tomatoes, you can pretty much make them work for any recipe.   You an always drain them reserving the juice for soup, and processes them in a food processor or food mill to make tomato sauce.  You can also use drained tomatoes for a salad, salsa, or to top nachos when tomatoes are expensive in the winter.   Lately, I have been getting organic diced tomatoes for .50 at Dollar Tree and Grocery Outlet .   I also got them for .39 at safeways on their stock up sale with a basket coupon .   

With those few stock up items, you can do a lot to make a meal in a pinch.  You can also get tortillas at the dollar tree and costco inexpensive.   

Chain store ads - Alberways

QFC last week was a two week ad

Alberways

Grapes 1.47
Ice cream 2/5

Cheese 4.99@@
Bread .88 @
Extra lean ground beef 2.99@@.

Oranges /or apples 1.49
Red delicious apples .99

Pillsbury Bisquits 1.00 $$
di Giorgio pizza 5.99 $$

Cookie mix 2/5 $$ still cheaper at DT, but DT only. Has chocolate chip the last time I looked.  

Tuesday Notes

If you haven’t guessed, I have a “thing” about saving money on food.   I started this blog because my daughter has been teaching children from low income homes for years.  She was hearing from mothers that they were having a hard time making their snap money last the month.   My daughter piped up and said, my mother knows how to do that.   I racked my brain to think of how I could help and my children encouraged me to write a blog.   Not being tech savvy , it was a learning experience.   That was over 5 years ago.

There is nothing more stressful for a mother than to not have food for your children to eat.  Fortunately, I learned a lot from my mother, and when I found myself a single mother with double digit inflation, rarely child support, and a stagnate paycheck , I set out to learn everything I could to stretch a buck.   Those days were before computer 💻 and there wasn’t much on the television when we had one.   Nevertheless, I prevailed.   I had a lot of misses.....soybeans that cooked for hours an were rocks....but there were hits too.

Fast forward 50 years, and I think I got it down.  Now its just a habit.   Even with a limited budget, you can still help those that don't have food.   I’m not sure that I am reaching the audience I set out to reach, but I hope I am helping.   Something as small as a can of pasta sauce ( less than a dollar at winco ) and a package of pasta ( often on sale with coupons) can cost less than that cup of coffe at a coffee shop or drive through.   It can make a meal for a family.

I am always learning.....yesterday I learned that the way to get good ground chicken is to partially freeze chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) and chop them in the food processor.   I have never liked ground chicken because of the fine mushy texture.   I did find that a few pulses in the food processor chopped beef  to make ground beef from a sirloin roast cheaper than buying the ground beef.   I only want extra lean ground beef.

You can have it all.....good quality, low prices, and scratch cooking without a extraordinary amount of time and energy.   It just takes a little learning curve.

We eat a variety of good food and keep a small stock for emergencies by:

• Listing the foods that we need to cook healthy meals.  Avoid excess salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS , and limit processed meats. 
• Finding the lowest prices and buying quantity of anything that is shelf or freezer stable.  
• Buying a limited variety of meats and buying them in bulk when they are at a RBP. 
• Finding scratch recipes that are 5 ingredients or less and making time to make your own mixes.  
• Using every available means to cut your costs:  ibotta, coupons, digital signups for coupons.  Freebies.   We pass up unhealthy freebies, but if there is one that we don't eat and is shelf stable, its a good thing to put it in the food bank barrel.   
• Portion control.   Its good for your waistline and good for your budget.   If you have children with hollow legs, buy certain foods that they know they are allowed to eat as much as they want for snacks.   Providing they don't have a weight issue.   When our children were teens, that was peanut butter sandwiches, beef an bean burritos, top ramen (no one knew it was bad then.) veggie sticks, and popcorn (air popped) 

Hope I helped somebody somewhere.   

Monday Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a tool that enables you to prep for the weeks dinners and rotate deep cleaning chores to make life easier and cut stress during the dinner hour.    Anything you can do ahead for dinneer preparation, makes less work at the end of the day when quite possibly you are tired.  


Meals:
Nutty chicken strips
Oven baked fries
Vegetable platter

Pizza

Ribs
Pasta salad
Rolls

Minestroni with chicken
Parm
Bread

Beef stew,
Potatoes, carrots, celery
Rolls

Salmon patties
Oven baked fries
Stuffed tomatoes

Breakfast for Dinner

1. Wash kitchen floor 
2. Wash and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains.
3. Wax north side cabinets. 
4. Wash potatoes with vinegar water.  3 days 
5. Wash carrots with vinegar water 
6. Make pumpkin breads 
7. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead
8. Straighten pantry.

1. 
   

Winco and FM hauls

Winco vegetable run

Cucumbers .48
Lettuce .98
Winco green chillis ..66 ( about 1/2 the price of the name brand )
Peas, carrots,  white corn, green beans, frozen, .88 a lb bag
Roma tomatoes 1.25
Grape. Tomatoes 3.98

Fred Meyer

.99 sale for bulk

3 cream cheese
4 cake mix ( fail:  winco has them for 88)
2 four pound sugars
1. Peanut butter

Taco shells .99
Peppermint ice cream 2.50
Ham 4.99

Raspberries 1.50

Meals eaten last week.

1. Turkey cassarole 
2. Pizza 
3. Shrimp stir fry :  shrimp , stir fry veggies, rice 
4. Tacos 
5. Pork Roast, sweet potatoes, green beans. 
6. Pork roast, bread dressing , peas and carrots. 
7. Salmon patties oven fries, stuffed tomatoes 

Meal plans week of th 4th of December

Meal plans for week of December 4 - 10th

• Nutty chicken strips, oven baked fries, veggie sticks - Movie night 
• Pizza
• Ribs, pasta salad, rolls 
• Minestroni with chicken , rolls 
• Salmon patties, seasoned potato wedges, peas and carrots 
• Beef stew with potatoes, carrots, celery - rolls 
• Out : children breakfast for dinner.   

2 meatless

1 beef

1 fish 

3 chicken or pork.   This week is heavier on the chicken because last week we had pork roast and planned overs .

Notes 

1. Nutty chicken strips are a Taste of Home recipe.   Oven fries are cut, soaked in vinegar water and dried before seasoning with olive oil and garlic pepper and baked in the convection  oven.   split chicken breast is on sale this week at FM. 
2. Pizza with the deals I got on cheese is still about a dollar a pizza . 
3. Ribs are from a bulk package on sale.  Pasta salad is from bulk purchases in the summer -like .75 .
4. Minestrone is from Taste of Home.  Add cube cooked chicken.  Serve with real parm an bra.   Peasant Bread is .25 a loaf and easy to make. No kneading, no second rise.   
5. Salmon patties from canned salmon (costco-3.00 off a ‘case” . 
6. Beef stew is from the roast bought for 2.40 a lb at Alberways this week.  (2.99 less 20 percent coupon) 
7. Parents out....children:  breakfast for dinner.    

Fred Meyer Sunday ad

Sunday ad....

Roast sale:  bogo : when they don't give prices , it’s difficult to tell if it’s a bargain or not.

Blackberries or raspberries 2/3

Apples 1.49

Milk 1.79

Ritz 3/5

Mix or Match - must buy 5ea at .99
Cream cheese
18 count eggs
Sugar 4 lbs
Cake mix
Peanut butter

Insta pot frozen pork roast

As usual, we forgot to take the pork roast out of the freezer.   Too. Many appointments these days.    LOL . 

I put a cup of water in the Insta Pot , added a few drops of apple cider vinegar, and a chopped apple.   I put my 1.5 lb roast on the rack and cooked it on meat for 40 minutes.   After 40 minutes, it wasnt done yet.  So, I put it on a rack in the oven and baked it 15 minutes on 375.  That finished it off.   I think that 45 minutes in the insta pot would have finished it, but this way we got the outside crispy.   

We should have a roast dinner (two of us ) and enough for a bbq pork sandwich Saturday. 

Thursday notes

Just a few notes on bargains found this week.   This was the last week that Alberways  has a twenty percent off basket coupon.   We got them in the mail.   This is the first week that it made sense to use it.   If the prices are too high, it doesn’t make sense to use the coupon.  You need to look at the bottom line price to see if it is a RBP.   I got roast that I made stew meat and hamburger out of for 2.40 a lb.  it was really lean : probably 2 per cent fat.   When you grind your own, you can control the fat.   Sirloin is one of the least fat cuts there is.   We also got coffee for 4.80 cents a ‘three pound ‘ can.
Sour cream for 1.00 as well as cottage cheese.   Eggs were .78 a dozen.   Apples were 1.18 a lb.  
Conversly, a cake mix was 1.79. I did t buy it.  I paid .79 for the same cake mix a few weeks ago.  

Buying food just as you need it at full price is one of the worst mistakes you can make if you want to keep your food budget down.  The difference between finding the RBP and using all the tools you have at your disposal ( ibotta, coupons, basket coupons, stacking coupons, checking the scratch and dent shelves) makes your grocery bill drastically different.   We operate on about 40 percent of the USDA. Stats for poor people.   We eat normal food.   The last 3 nights , we had a turkey casserole with the last of the Thanksgiving  turkey , pizza, and shrimp stir fry with vegetables, shrimp, and rice.  

Organic, Hunts brand, diced tomatoes 🍅 are .50 at the dollar tree.   I found them at the same price at Grocery Outlet.   We have used them, they are fine and have a far out pull date.   Organic tomatoes are more than twice that price.   We use diced tomatoes for everything.   If you need them to be more the consistency of tomato sauce, just drain them , save the ‘water” for soup stock (freeze) and put the pulp through the food processor, blender, or ricer.  

Simplify your food.  By picking a basic cut of meat and buying it in bulk , you save a lot of time and money.   Pick cuts that are versatile.  The same concept works for tomato’s and basic veggies.  
Less means more.  

The food prices this week were beyond expensive.   Five dollar a pound for cheese and they ride to get you to believe that was 2.00 less than regular price.   I had just paid .99 for 8 ounces.   1.98 is a far cry from 7.00.   At a dollar for 8 ounces, you don't buy just what you need for the week.   You can freeze cheese.   When you consider that you are getting your food at at least 50 percent off, you can justify buying a 139.00 freezer at costco.   I had an extra refrigerator in my small 2 bedroom apartment.   I also used an ottoman to store extra canned goods.   My 4yo kept busy while i cooked dinner looking for the green beans !  

This is the time to stock the foods that are traditional for the holidays.   They will probably never bee cheaper.   Things like cream of mushroom soup, cream cheese, green beans, were the thing to buy in bulk for thanksgiving and beyond.   Baking supplies are the thing to look for in thee coming weeks.  Anything that can be frozen or is shelf stable with a good shelf life should be bought in enough quantity to last you at least six months.  

Anything that you use on a regular basis that you can purchase for a dollar or more less, or at least 50 percent off a realistic base price is a good thing to buy in bulk.  

Think of it this way.   I was getting 2/10 of a percent on my retirement CD at Chase and I was paying  for the privilege of having it.   Nowhere that I know of can you get 50 percent on your money.   At least not somewhere that is safe and legal.  LOL.  An added bonus is that you have the  luxury of always having food in the house.  

Studies have shown that the poor people have more stress during their lives just getting the necessities of living and it contributes to their life expectancy.   Always having food in the cupboards, reduces that stress.  

Making best use of the Safeways basket coupon .

We have a basket coupon for the month of December.  Twenty percent off of fifty.   

Apples 1.47 

Eggs 98

Milk 1.77

Bacon 2.99 lb 

Sirloin roast (hamburger ) 2.99 lb 

Sour cream/ cottage cheese 1.25

I plan to get what I can and fill in to 50.00 with the roast.    At 2.99 less twenty percent , you are getting 10 percent hamburger for 2.39 a lb.    You stretch your meat dollar more with hamburger than you do with roast.    

The trick is to spend as close to 50.00 as possible to get the most bang for your buck.    

Chain store ads

Not much here.    Note Safeways has a 20 percent coupon that they sent out for sales of 50.00/

Alberways

Milk 1.79
Honeycrisp apples 1.47
Eggs .98@@
Top round or sirloin tip roast 2.99 ( makes for good ground beef )


QFC

4 days only
Sirloin tip roast 2.99 ( makes for good ground beef )

Buy 4, save 4

Johnsonville breakfast sausage 1.99
Brownies mix 1.49
Cream cheese 1.49 $$
Kleenex 160 count .99
NOTE: orowheat bread is at the dollar tree with coupon for .45


QFC regular
Berries 2/4
Avacados 1.00
Pie 3.99
Ritz 2/4
Mangos 1.00
Pars .99

Bullet list : Easy steps

Groceries on the cheap is not a one day process.   It takes time and a commitment.   The good news is that any one thing that you do will help you get to your goal—whatever that goal is.  

• The easiest change you can make is to go over the ads and mark things that are a good buy—the ones that are healthy and are ingredients for a meal.   Pay special attention to any stock up items that are an extra special price.   This week, I found kroger cheese for .99 an 8 ounce package.   The same Kroger cheese was on a buy 4 , save 4 for 2.50.(the net price).  That’s the same as getting 2.5 lbs of cheese instead of 1 lb of cheese.    Cheese is a basic in our house.  There is a lot you can do with cheese and its a good source of protein and calcium.   
• Installing a good basic cookbook to your computer or tablet helps too.   Betty Crocker has basic recipes and a search engine that allows you to put in an ingredient that you need to us up and receipts appear...LOL. They also send you a calander every year if you ask for it and occasionally have coupons.  Many times I adapt recipes to include scratch instead of prepackaged items, but the basis is there.   Not all their recipes start with a mix.   
• When a muffin mix calls for yogurt, I have been known to substitute sour cream without a problem.   
• Often times, when you hear about recipe from Taste of Home, you can google it and the words taste of home and you can print it off the computer.   Taste of Home magazines and books are a good resource for home made recipies.   They are discounted at Winco and sometimes I find them at the Goodwill for .50.   I read them, download the recipes I might want to keep, an give the magazine back to the Goodwill to sell again.  A win, win situation.   
• If your family eats oatmeal, the box of oatmeal (10 lbs) is around 8.00 at costco. It makes a serving of oatmeal around .08 and takes 1.5 minutes in the microwave.   A serving of the regular oatmeal has FOUR times the nutrition as the little packets that are at least .10.   
• Watch your brands.   Some brands on the BUYXX, SAVEXX sales are not good quality.   If your family won’t eat something, its not a bargain.   Nothing is a bargain if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   Ditto Organic foods that spoil before you can use them.   I bought ten pounds of organic carrots one time at costco.   It was the second day when I discovered they were rotting.   I should have taken them back , but I set out and blanched and froze the ten pounds.   If you spend a little time planning a buyxx, savexx sale, you can clean up.   Buy matching coupons with the sale, I have saved as much as 78 percent, especially when there is a basket coupon running at the same time.   
• Eating a no meat dinner once or twice a week saves money.   
• Learning one scratch item a month makes a lot of difference.   The difference between a take and bake pizza can be 10.00 or 1.00.   And the time is probably no more than driving to the store to pick it up or making it.   Our 5yo can make it with supervision .   Its not hard.   Ditto something like peasant bread.  A loaf of sourdough costs 3.00 here at the lowest price I can find.   A loaf of peasant bread takes about 10 minutes if you are slow (hands on time ) an d costs under a quarter.   No preservatives.   Muffins are another item that takes almost no time, but saves a bundle.   Muffins can cost up to a dollar each.   
• Rotisserie chicken is a rip off......just saying....   another 10 minutes hands on time.   

This weeks haul 32.00

This week , we took inventory and bought just what I could fill in with that was a good price.


25 lb flour
20 lbs rice

2.5 lbs of cheese
5 lbs butter

2 doz eggs.

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management along with meal plans just takes a few minutes, but saves a lot of time and stress come dinnertime.   Also incorporated is rotating chores that keep the kitchen clean.

1. Wash and disinfect countertops, sinks, and drains.  
2. Wash kitchen floor. 
3. Wash refrigerator and ‘dump anything dead” and note things that need to be used up soon. 
4. First of the month:   Put the stove vent screen through the dishwasher.   
5. Wash potatoes and carrots with vinegar water 
6. Cut stir fry veggies 
7. Make rolls for sliders. 
8. Straighten pantry
9. Wax north side cabinets. 

Meal plans for week of 11/27/17

Meal plans are a necessary tool to efficiently put dinner on the table.  The holiday time can be stressful with extra projects added to our already full lives.   Making double batches of dinner and freezing 1/2 is a good way to reduce some of the stress.   Having a few ‘dinners on the shelf” is another.   Teaching a teen or preteen how to cook a meal is a good thing.  It gives them confidence and teaches tem a life skill that apparently they are not getting at school.  

Note:  when making meal plans, take an inventory of the food you already have, especially the perishables.    If you do rotation protein, you already know what is in your freeezer.    This weeks rotation. Protein would be the 87 cent a pound chicken at FM.  

Meal Plans

• Turkey Cassarole , peas and carrots 
• Pizza
• Pork Roast, potatoes, carrots, celery, rolls 
• Tourtieres (meat pie) 
• Shrimp stir fry 
• BBQ Pork sliders, oven fries, salad 
• Breakfast for dinner 

 Notes:

1. Turkey leftover from Thanksgiving 
2. Pizza is a staple, a cheese pizza cost less than 1.04 considering I got cheese for as low as 1.86 an 2.00 a lb lately. 
3. Pork roast is from a whole pork loin.  It is easy to butcher, an cuts the cost dramatically.   
4. Pork slides are planned overs from the roast
5. Shrimp stir fry.   Rice 
6. Breakfast for dinner.
7. Tourtieres ( Meat pie) make double batch - a taste of home recipe.   Google it. 

Fred Meyer SUNDAY ad

This is a prime expample why I preach KNOW YOUR PRICES.  

FM has a buy four, save 4, promotion.   Most of it is either cheap quality, junk food, or over priced even with the discount.   I found :

Tide: 4.99 - probably coupons out there 
Ghirardelli brownie mix 1.49. ——just say YUMM
Johnsonville bratts 1.99
Tillamook ice cream 2.99


Kroger cheese is 2.49-that makes it 5.00 a lb.   I just got it for 1.98 a pound at qfc.   It was a friday coupon.   There is also a coupon for sunday for 2.00 butter.  

Orowheat bread is 2.50....It is a dollar at the dollar store and there is a .55 coupon out three.  Makes it .45 centts.   That’s a 2.05 savings.  

Now, to the good stuff.......

Foster Farms chicken parts or whole chicken .87 a lb 
Hamburger, 10 percent fat....3.99 with an added note that it is 10 percent.off on Tuesday for seniors with the in ad coupon .   Nets 3.60 a lb. 

Avacados .77
Berries 2/5
Pears .99
Cucumbers. 2/1 


Note: canned tomatoes have shrunk to 14.5 ounce cans.   They are a dollar.   I have been getting tomatoes for as low as.39 cents.   That’s a big thing.

Leftovers

The best part of Thanksgiving besides friends and family is the leftovers.  

I did see a lady that added chicken broth and leftover vegetables to leftover mashed potatoes and called it soup.  

Just about anything you can do with chicken , you can do with turkey.  

Turkey and noodles comes to mind.
How about a turkey and cheese quesadilla.

Turkey in a Cobb salad.

Pesto chicken (turkey) Tacos

Wild rice chicken dinner.  

Crustless chicken  quiche (taste of home) -eggs, whipping cream, chicken , cheese , bacon

Just warming a plate of leftovers is good too.  I gauged pretty close this year and we dont have a lot of leftovers.   Maybe one meal.   I bought a turkey breast because there were.only three adults and a child eating meat.  

Happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving....

Last night I finished making sweet dinner rolls.   The easiest recipe I could find.   Thanksgiving is for all to enjoy.....even the cook.......

I found a recipe for rolls that start in the bread machine and you finish them off by hand.    

The cranberry sauce is scratch, but it was only cranberries, water, honey and orange peel.   Granddaughter helped by stirring and licking the honey measuring cup.   LOL

I will make pumpkin pies this morning.   

Clean up the house is to be a family affair.   Uncle is working.   

My goal is to make this a relaxing holiday.   No stress.