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.  

Meal plans

Meal plans are a tool that saves time and money and a lot of frustration.  Anything that takes a little to,e and saves a lot of time and frustration during the hectic dinner hour is a good thing.

Starting with a good stash if basic food helps the creative process.  Having a matrix is a good start.   Everything on life starts with a foundation and an outline.

• Chicken pot pie 
• Pizza
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes and carrots 
• Sliders , salad 
• Tacos, refried beans Spanish rice 
• Vegetable bean soup , rolls 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes :

We bought a dozen rolls formsloders because they were a good price.   Besides sliders, I plan to add them to any meal that seems to work. 

Chicken was .88 a pound at QGC (Kroger) .  I cooked it on the insta pot.   It didn’t turn out with a crispy crust, but it was thirialky cooked and we have already had a chicken salad and fajitas with it, 

I still have enough for a couple of lunches and a pot pie or two.    All from about 4.50. 

Pork roast is from a pork loin purchased for . $.99 a pound. 

Re fried beans are cooked in the insta pot.   The price comes out to about the same as the cans on the cheap, but this has more food value and no fat.  

Vegetable bean soup is a recipe I made up years ago.   It weighs in at a couple of dollars for enough to feed an army and it too, has no preservatives or fat. 

Breakfast for dinner is always a winner.   Everyone cooks and it’s good quality family time. 

This week, the new crop of food must be coming on because the canned goods are starting to show good sale prices.   We got Nalleys chili for .75 and Campbell’s soup for a dollar less coupons made it .88.   

I expect the diced tomatoes I am running short of should be cheaper soon.   Replenishing stock only when things are on sale drastically reduces you food bill.   Some things I buy when the price is low, id We run out, , oh well, we can get by with something else.   I have “buy” prices.  If so,etching isn’t my buy price or less, we have to really need it, or we don’t buy it.   

A little planning goes a long ways to cutting your food bill.    We are still averaging at or below four dollars a day, supplement grandchild, and have grown a stock.   Having a stock of food isn’t hoarding, it is saving money and having the security of knowing, on a disaster, you will always have food.   We can’t predict the future, but we can do something to make us better prepared .  

Saturday concepts 10/6/18

Saturday concepts.

 10 things never to buy: 

1.  Bread crumbs,  why pay upwards of two dollars a pound for someone else’s dry bread and throw away the heels of your bread or bread that is getting stale.  Break it up and put it in the  food processor. Pulse until crumbs amd place of sheet pan in the oven after you have cooked something,  when dry, place in a mason jar or storage container,   
2. Baby carrots,   Baby carrots started as a way for a farmer to palm off his ugly carrots.  He devised a way to cut them into Baby carrots  and sell them for more than two times the price of a regular carrots.  One pound of baby carrots are upwards of a dollar.   Five pounds of carrots are 2.28 at Winco.  Less than half price. 
3. Parmesan cheese in a green can.   It’s old, it’s dried out, and it has wood pulp in it.   You can get Parmesans cheese or a blend or Romano for a good price.   Use any hard cheese that has a good price,   It’s just better and you aren’t eating a tree. 
4. Junk food.   Studies of people’s grocery carts show that 1/2 of a typical cart is drinks and snack foods.  Yes, Virginia, there are people that are paid to study your cart.   Their object is to get you to spend more money,   Your health will thank you not to oblige the marketing tactics.  I bought a quart of root beer the first time in years,   I thought granddaughter should taste a root beer float once in her life.   1.67 plus .17 sin tax.  I could serve a whole meal for that! 
5. Cut up fruit.  Many times lately, it is the thing on the tainted list.  Anytime you are buying something that takes a persons time to prepare, you are going to pay more.   Simple fact.   
6. Baked goods.   Caveat here. Pumpkin pie has been 2.99 to 3.99 here,   By the time you buy pumpkin, canned milk and eggs and pastry shell, you are spending more for scratch than buying the pie.  Especially of you have a dollar off coupon,   Bit, making a muffin mix, you can have a muffin made in a matter of five minutes and six muffins are five  bucks.  
7. Hamburger meal in a box.   If you break down what you are getting in that box and look at the science experiment ingredients, it would tell you it’s just plain rip off and nit good for you,   When my daughter and I dissected a box that cost upwards  of two dollars. (Yes, I know you can get them at the DT) . It had 1.57 ounces of a cheese sauce mix that didn’t contain cheese and 4.2 ounces of pasta.   At the time, you could get pasta for 88 cents a pound.   
8. Some cold cereals and boxed Mac and cheese have detergent in them.  Tsp is what we sold at the paint store to people that wanted to get the grease off of kitchen walls before painting,  you needed to wear rubber gloves because it ate  your hands up.   Just saying. 
9. Spices in jars.   Bulk spices are really a lot cheaper and if you already have jars, you can just refill them.  I went to the store for dill weed.  A one inch jar of dill was six dollars.   I went to the bulk section and bought enough to fill a jar, and..wait for it.....it was .17.   
10. Seasoning mixes.   Ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, sausage seasoning..all a fraction of buying it in that envelope.   Many times, the packaging of something costs more than the product.   Dry buttermilk is really expensive.  It was fractions of that price when I bought it on amazon in a plastic bag.   Save your jars.  Especially ones like the Classico pasta sauce jars.   A mason jar lid works for them.  I have got Classico for as cheap as a buck and it costs .80 for the jar.

And, one thing to buy...

It doesn’t pay to make your own pasta sauce,   Hunts and Del Monte  sauce is less than a dollar at Winco .  Sometimes, you can get sauce in a jar for close to a dollar.   By the to,e you buy he tomatoes, you aren’t saving any money to scratch cook the sauce.

Always buy tomatoes with the seasoning already on them if you can for the same price as the 

tomatoes themselves,   It just saves time and money,   

It is a falsehood to say that cheese is cheaper in a brick than grated cheese,  Cheese is cheese.  A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese whatever shape it is in.   Check your prices.   Often grated cheese is cheaper..  now, sliced cheese is always more expensive.  

Friday recipe -easy whole chicken

Draper valley whole chicken is .88 a pound at QFC.   Re,e,bermnomchicken osma bargain if it’s under 3 pounds

Preface : One  super bowl weekend, I walked into QFC and fresh chickens were .50 a pound in the mark down section of the meat department,   I bought three.  Because that’s what I do.  It’s a sure fire way to cut your food costs and still eat well.   Now, I had the problem of cooking all this chicken in a hurry because the pull date was the next day.  I researched and after putting two of them in the ovens, I put the other one on the slow cooker.   The slowmcooker one was tender and by far, the fastest chicken I ever cooked considering non passive time,  

Slow cooker chicken,  

• Place a peeled onion, or two small peeled onions in the bottom of the slowmcooker.  This is strictly for flavoring, but a must. 
• Take the chicken out if the package, working on a sheet pan, dry the chicken with paper towels.  Rub a dry rub all over the chicken.  Use gloves or wash your hands thoroughly afterward. Place chicken on top of the onions.  Cover and cook on high heat for an hour per pound.  Don’t forget to plug the slow cooker in. Lol
• Test the chicken when the time is up.  I want 180 degrees, and the meat will fall off the bone.
• You miraculously, you will have a full vessel of chicken stock.   

In the insta pot FROM FROZEN.

• Place chicken in pot on top of the trivet. 
• Add 1 cup of water. 
• Cook for 10 minutes PER POUND. 
• Natural release. 

Insta pot for fresh chicken 

•  Place chicken on trivet on the insta pot, 
• Place an orange, lemon, onion, or apple in the cavity. 
• Pour  1 cup of water in the pot. 
• Process : 
• 3 lb chicken 18 minutes, 4 lb chicken 24 minutes , 5 lb chicken 30 minutes.over 5 lbs, add 6 minutes per pound,  add three minutes for an additional 1/2 pound. 
• Natural release at least 10 minutes. 

• 
  

Grocery Hauls / 10/5

Winco
Fries 2.14
Low carb tortillas 4.96
Chillies .69
Grapes 2.99
Strawberries 2.48
Salad 1.98

Total 15.18

QFC
Pie 3.99
Milk .99
Total 4.98



Winco
Strawberries .98
Grapes 🍇 3.79

Total 5.75

Total 25.91

Safeways
Frozen veggies 2.00
Salad 3.75
Eggs 1.98
Brdad .89

DT
Artisan bread 1.00

Grand total 35.53


Safeways
Bacon -🥓 double coupons, netted 2.49 ea
4.98

Total 40.56