What not to buy — just my ideas

Caviat :  this is my opinion and based on research if many years. The optimum end result is lower food bills without sacrificing good food.

• Bread crumbs.  We just took the last three slices of bread from the french Toast  on Christmas and made bread crumbs.  It took barely a few minutes and our almost 7 yo granddaughter knows how.  According to an ad from grocery outlet, their pound of breadcrumbs would retail for 6.80.  Even dollar tree bread crumbs are 2.00 a pound,   Why pay two dollars a pound  for someone else’s dry bread.   Break it up into a food processer bowl, process until it becomes crumbs.  Put it on a sheet pan and place it on an oven that you have just baked something in,  or just put  it in the oven for a day or two.  When I didn’t have a food processer, I just out the slices in the oven until they were dry and grated them with a box grater that I set on a sheet pan.  Costco business has 1/2 and 1/4 sheet pans really inexpensive.  If you don’t like using aluminum, consider covering them with dollar store parchment paper.   It makes clean up easier and you aren’t cooking in aluminum.   
• Parmesan cheese in a green canister.  It is laced with wood pulp and is old.  Fresh parm is well worth the additional money.  We buy parm, a blend of cheeses, or any hard cheese that I can find that is reasonable.  Costco has one for 12.00 for a huge wedge. I can’t remember what it is called, but it lasts a long time.  They all impart a good flavor to enhance some dishes. 
• Mac and cheese in a box.  Even the organic kind is not the best.  They have tsp in them. And the organic one has more fat than the blue box kind.  It’s nit hard to make scratch Mac and cheese and the quality is much better. 
• Fake butter.   Some of them have palm oil on them and other oils that are not healthy,   Hydrogenated oils, so I read, thicken your blood.   You are better off using a smaller amount of real butter. My nutritionist told me that a skim of butter was better than margarine or fake butter.  I was amused that an article click bated that Nutella was so bad for your children. So, I looked up the ingredients .  Skim milk, ok.  Chocolate, ok. Peanut butter, ok.  Palm oil....not so ok.   So, Nutella will kill your children, so they say, but fake butter is not ok?   My accountant logic doesn’t see that.   Lol.   
• Anything fake.  I read the ingredients in my daughters fake cheese. A few tablespoons of coconut oil has more saturated fat than a big beef steak.  All fake cheese was just oils and a stabilizer.  I don’t know how that can be better or you.   If you have to be dairy free, just avoid dairy. Nut butters can be a better alternative, so I hear. 
• Enchilada sauces are really expensive and take minutes to make.  They are basically the roux technique.   Cheap ingredients and a can of enchilada sauce  can cost more than the enchiladas.   
• Instant oatmeal.  The cost of instant oatmeal is ten cents a pack at best.   It takes 4 packages to get the same nutrition as a serving of regular oatmeal.  The cooking time difference is minimal. One cup water, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1-1/2 minutes in the microwave.  Use a bowl or mug bigger than you think you need.  We got sprinkles for oatmeal with a coupon at winco for a dollar,  they are 1-2 carbs a serving.  You can also add cinnamon sugar, a bit if apple, or raisins.  The cost of a serving of oatmeal when purchased in the 10 pound box at Costco is .085 a serving.  No, there is no mistake in the decimal point. 
• Bakery goods are cheaper made from scratch than store bought.  It takes a matter of minutes, real hands on time to make a loaf of peasant bread.  The cost is upwards of 2.50.  The cost of making it scratch is about a quarter.  90 percent savings.  When we go to the bread outlet, the bread is 1.25 .  Then you have to factor on that we get 10 percent for seniors or military, and freebies.  One loaf for 10.00. Two loaves for 15.00, and last time we got a 2.50 box of donuts.  I figured we averaged .93 or so each including bagels, English muffins, French bread, Texas toast, and hoagie rolls.   It pays us to buy in  bulk because  it is five miles to the store. We combine it with other errands if we can . 
• We buy pizza sauce from the dollar tree (DT) .  It is a name brand  and is at least 1/2 the price of any other jar at Winco.  Winco is about the cheapest store in our area, except for the grocery outlet that isn’t a full service store.  The  (GO) is one of those stores that items are here today, gone tomorrow.  They are overstocks for the most part and it’s a treasure hunt. Freeze it on ice cube trays, then snap it out into a quart bag and freeze.  We use 2 ice cubes per 12-14 inch pizza.  One jar makes 5 pizzas.   The alternative would be to find a sale prices 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and Italian seasoning and freeze it yourself.  
• A jus mix, ranch dressing mix, and taco seasoning.  Those envelopes can cost 16.00 a pound.  And, of you don’t need the whole envelope, some is likely to get wasted.   Meal h cheaper to make your own,  slices are cheap on the bulk isle at Winco. Any Mexican spice  is usually cheaper in packages found on the Mexican Foods isle.
• Individual juice or fruit cups.  Juice is nit the best for you.   The nutritionist for my daughter told me 40 years ago that she would be better off eating the apple than drinking our natural juice.  Fruit cups are loaded with sugar and expensive.  Fresh fruit is best,  it the alternative would be unsweetened applesauce in a individual container .

New year, new you

We have all heard that one.   If your goal for the year is to reduce your food bills , this one is for you.  With the stock market going up and down, mostly down, more of us on  retirement income are feeling the pinch.  They are talking recession again.  Not what we want to hear, but preparing by lowering our basic costs can head off a disaster or at least help.  If it doesn’t happen, you still are richer than you were last year.

We have lived on a four dollar a day budget for food for 2 years.  In fact, our budget this year comes to five dollars a week less .  And, we are eating down the pantry , so we are basically buying perishables and replenishing what we are out of.   Our pantry was purchased with the regular budget.  Our COL is 28 percent higher than the average in America.

It is little steps that most of us will find easy to implement.  I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by saying it doesn’t take any effort.  I will say the rewards are great and you can implement ideas a little at a time.

There are many articles and  books out there and some are good, some not.  You can’t spend ten dollars a day to eat four dollars a day.  I was an accountant for 50 years, it doesn’t pass the logic test . You need to eat more on the healthy side than some dire straights food blogs.   We don’t eat fake food .  The occasional times that we eat hot dogs, we eat the best quality ones with wholesome ingredients.   We buy real food.  Real Parmesan cheese, real maple syrup, real butter, real milk and real cheese.

The secret is in not paying full price for your food and sourcing your food from different places.  Not different than most retail establishments work.  You buy in bulk when it makes sense, you always buy a limited stock when something is half price or less.

Take advantage of sales and if you can pair a coupon, or two coupons with a sale, it just makes sense.  You can pair a manufacturers coupon (coupons,com) and a store coupon in the same transaction.  You can also take advantage of basket coupons and buy just what the coupon dictates.  F you have a ten dollars off of a basket of fifty dollars. You are getting 20 percent off.  But, only I’d you keep your basket to fifty dollars.   Buy anything you need to stock that is a good price.  If you go to a store that is twenty percent over regular price and buy full price items , You haven’t saved.

One of the first things you can do is invest 20-25 dollars in a bulk bag of flour, oatmeal, and yeast from Costco.  I assume sams club will be a about the same, we do not have sams club here.
The savings between buying muffins, bread, frozen pancakes or waffles and making your own is remarkable.  Many times 90 percent savings .  There are recipes  for mixes and quick recipes all over the internet to make life easy.  Oatmeal is healthy and costs .085 a serving when bought in a 10 pound box.  Takes no longer than making a microwave bag.  You can add a bit of apple. Bananas, or brown sugar, honey, whatever you like.

Buy baking supplies at holiday time.  Buy picnic supplies like BBQ sauce with coupons at picnic time.  Buy enough to last you all  year.  The savings will make it worth your while.   The cost can be a third of the cost.

Get into a routine of buying bulk protein on a rotation basis.  You will spend less and have a supply of protein ahead.  We have pork loin that we “slice” ourselves. Chicken breast that are  sometimes   De boned ourselves, and good hamburger.  Add cheese on sale, dry beans, and some ham or sausage if you want.  The cost between a can of beans and cooking your own beans is about 90 percent cheaper.

Simplify your food pantry. It is easier to control and takes less time to shop.  Group items together are on the shelf.  You can tell at a glance what you need to watch for a sale to buy.

 Set a specified amount of any one thing that you are putting in your pantry to stock. Start with a four to six weeks  supply.  If you use two cans of diced tomatoes a week, you need to keep 8-12 cans.  If you know your target price is .50 and no more than .58, you can also know where to find that item and stick when you see white space on your shelf.

Some things like sugar, catsup, BBQ sauce, cream soup, chocolate for baking, or marshmallows, if you buy them are best bought in sale during holiday months.  Like picnic time or the fall holidays like thanksgiving, Halloween, or Christmas.   Buy a years supply of anything that will not go bad.   The difference, between 1.58 for a can of cream soup and the .41 we paid with coupons is remarkable enough to make it worth your while and getting 75 percent off means that your bulk  purchase costs not much more than buying a few at full price.

Meal plan.   List the meals your family likes that take inexpensive sources of protein. Now, list the items you need to buy to make the dish.  We use a matrix for meal planning that is protein based.  It affords you a variety of meals and helps to judge how much of things you need to stock.

One last thought.  Studies have shown that not having food in your cupboards lowers your life expectancy.  No child should live not knowing where the next meal is coming from.  It makes for stress.  S t r e t c h i n g  a dollar 💵 is not  hard, it just takes a concentrated effort.

Note - typing on a reader can be a blessing or a curse.  This thing puts words where it thinks you want them.  It  is convenient when my back is out or my hip is giving me hell, but it is a challenge to avoid mis-spelling words.    Every effort has been made to correct errors.   There will still be judgmental  people that are perfect and not understand .  I get that.

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen  management is a tool to save time and money 💰 in the kitchen.  Prepping for dinners saves stress at the sometimes hectic dinner hour.

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect counter tops and sinks and drains.
• Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Note anything that needs to be used up soon 
• Wash any veggies  with vinegar water and set to dry that you will use this week. 
• Make beans for vegetable soup. 
• Clean out pantry for pantry challenge. 
• Take inventory 

Keeping a four to six weeks supply of basic foods that are non perishable and meat/ protein in your freezer is a good way to hedge yourself against life.   Life happens.  Right now, there are government workers that have to show up to work, but they are not going to get a paycheck.   They still have daycare bills and food to buy.   Having a food pantry is a way to get by in an emergency.  

Meal Plans

Meal plans are a tool that saves time and money.  It totally saves answeringnthe what’s for dinner question.   If you are organized, you are less stressed.   We re still on a no soend, which means we are on a 30.00 or less week budget.  It’s to,e to reduce the pantry to make room for the new bulk sales that should be appearing at your local chain store soon.

• Movie night- nachos or taco soup 
• Pizza
• Pork chops, mashed potatoes, honey ginger glazed carrots 
• Ranch Mac and cheese 
• SASON chicken pasta 
• Vegetable bean soup 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

1. New Year’s Eve is a good time to have a family movie.   Simple dinner fare , especially finger foods  is festive and easy.
2. Pizza is a mainstay around here.  The cost of a cheese pizza is a dollar when ingredients are purchased at RBP and it is made from scratch.  
3. Pork chops are from a pork loin purchased at .99 a pound.   The insta pot makes it with mushroom gravy on a matter of minutes.   Glazed carrots 🥕 are simple and tasty.  Carrots at Winco are 2.28 for five pounds as opposed  to baby carrots for a dollar or more a pound.  Inventing baby carrots  was a way for a farmer to sell his misshapen carrots instead of having to sell the, for animal feed.   
4. Ranch Mac and cheese lowers the amount of flour in the cheese sauce.   Boxed Mac and cheese has soap in it.   TSP was a soap that we used to sell at the paint store to wash the walls so the grease etc was off the walls and the paint would adhere better.   You needed to wear rubber gloves so it didn’t eat your hands up.   Another sink in moment. Lol 
5. SASON chicken pasta.   Uses a chicken breast that we got for a dollar a  pound. SASON is a spice blend that isn’t spicy hot , but has Tex mex flavors.   
6. Vegetable bean soup is full of protein, but doesn’t have meat in it,   It’s really healthy and a good contrast to the two pasta dishes this week.    
7. Breakfast for dinner is a family meal. Everyone cooks.  It can be French Toast. Waffles, pancakes. Or egg omelette, or a quiche.  Fruit or yogurt parfaits round out the meal.   

None of these meals are over five dollars.   None of them are extra time consuming.  J

Basic Pantry

Yesterday was a good day to clean the pantry and organize, take inventory.  We have gone with a thirty dollar a week pantry challenge  and went a little over, bit  we can  go another month easy and save some more towards the real estate taxes.   It is no secret that our stock market has taken a dump and anyone with  a 401k has taken gas.

Keeping a stock on  a four dollars a day budget is totally believable.   We have a decent stock and we averaged five dollars a week LESS than four dollars a day per person.

The basis for groceries in the cheap is to stock basic food when the price is low and stock enough to last you until it goes on sale again.   This is not a new concept, my mother had done it for years.  The trick is to simplify your stock list .  It just makes life easier.  Buying in bulk simplifies your grocery cart and gets you in and out of the store faster.   It also helps you with the concept of having a stock of food on hand in case of an emergency. Remember, if the power goes out, opening yoir refrigerator or freezer is not a good idea.   The longer the door is shut, the more cold  stays in and the longer you food will stay frozen,  having even a few things that are shelf stable, like cans or jars of dry food kits will facilitate you having emergency food and keep your freezer in tact as long as possible.   It is a concept that not everyone can grasp.

Buying a limited variety of meats allows you the luxury of buying it in bulk at the lowest possible price.  Picking a versatile meat allows you to eat a variety of dishes, while taking advantage of bargain prices.  Rotate your protein selections.  On our house, that would be hamburger, pork loin, chicken breast, and cheese, beans, and eggs.  I want to keep four dozen eggs at a time.  That is about a months supply.  The pull dates are usually a month out. So, buy purchasing two dozen at a time when they are at a low price, you can rotate out about every few weeks and always have fresh cheap eggs,  our eggs are about a dollar to one and a half dollars a dozen,  if they are more than the highest price, we don’t buy them.  I call that my “buy “ price or a target price.   Nothing to do with the store with the red balls.

Shelf ready pantry

1. Diced tomatoes.  Buy price .58 or less, Winco has no BPA in their cans . 
2. Pasta - it has an 8 YEAR shelf life.  Buy price 1.00 a POUND. Some packages are 12 ounces.  A four serving size is 1/2 a box. 
3. Pasta sauce.  I have been getting jars for a dollar  .  Classico comes in a canning jar size and the jars are a dollar alone. You  can’t can in them but  they are super for dehydrated foods and can be food saver sucked. 
4. Keep one ahead on catsup, mustard, and we have a few bbq sauce.  I want less than a dollar.   Use coupons when it is picnic time.  Also mayo.  Our last one was .67 with coupons and a sale. 
5. Instant mashed potatoes.  Try the bulk isle. 
6. Salad dressing.  Again, use sales and coupons. A dollar is a good price. You can make it yourself, but it is wasteful. 
7. Some canned soups for an emergency,  sales and coupons are great,  some of ours were  41 cents.  Cream soup base is inexpensive and quick the make. 
8. Chili, canned (some) cost less than a dollar. Bulk purchases. 
9. Dry beans.   Pintos are 67 a pound at the dollar  tree.  Non gmo, grown in USA. 
10. Popcorn, bulk from Costco 
11. A few cake mixes. Some at .68. Also brownie. 
12. Oatmeal one box at a time. 10 pounds at Costco is close to 8.00.  It comes out to .085 a serving.  There is no typo there. It is that cheap. 

1. Flour, sugar, yeast.   Costco for flour and sugar during the holidays when baking supplies are their cheapest.   Easter is the next one, 

I dry veggies and fruit when they look like I am not going to use all we have before they will go bad.  I have zucchini that we grated in the food processor and dried.  It is a good way to sneak veggies into a soup. 

Keeping a back up of some things and a small four to six week supply of other things is a good way to accommodate having food in the house and doing it at RBP.  (Rock bottom prices) soon, there will be case lot sales to move canned goods that are last years crop and make room for this years.  There is still usually well over a year on the pull dates.  The usda web site has listings of how past a pull date still makes your food safe.  It is not necessarily a day past the pull date, as much as some adult children think. Lol 

I am always reminded of a conversation I heard on the today show.  It made a lot more impression to me when I discovered that the host asking the question loved in a ten MILLION dollar house. He asked a lady what she would say to naysayers about couponing.  She matter of factory said, I would say, If you don’t understand, you have never been broke enough.  

Appliances that save you money and/or time

The Christmas world s full of appliances that, in my estimation are gadgets.  Hot dog cookers, breakfast machines come to mind.

There are, in reality some appliances that are worth their weight in gold.   Of course, if you are going to leave them in the box to collect dish because you don’t like appliances, they aren’t going to do you any good.  Lol.

10 appliances that will save you money —

1. Air pop corn popper.   Uses no oil, and replaces the nasty microwave popcorn. When  you make air popped popcorn, you control what goes on it and it doesn’t have any chemicals or ingredients  you can’t pronounce.  It is also really cheap compared to microwave popcorn. A very large canister at Costco was close to 12.00 last time I bought it.  
2. Drip coffee maker.   Compared to the big bucks store.....anyway, it makes a lot more coffee for the same price as a cup of Joe at one of those coffee shops.   
3. Toasters are nice, most people have them, but I can’t say that they save money,   
4. Food processor.   Again, worth its space on the counter.   Grind meat.  Make breadcrumbs.  Breadcrumbs, even at the dollar store are two dollars a pound.  It takes minutes to make them from the bread that you might ordinarily throw away.  So easy, my 6 yo granddaughter has been doing it for years.   Pizza dough.  The cost of pizza dough is .19.   It costs anywhere from 1.50 to 2.00 to buy in the deli department.  The dregs of a pork loin if I have any  are pulsed in the food processor to be added to good beef for a flavorful meatloaf.   
5. Hot air fryer.  Cooks fries or other would be deep fried foods in little or no fat— fast.    The savings here are in your health and time.  
6. Insta pot.   Cooks things easier and in less time than cooking scratch and watching the pot.   A can of beans can cost upwards of a dollar.   Even at Winco they are .58.   The equivalent of beans cooked on the insta pot are .05 .  A nickel.   Cooking scratch beans is an ordeal at best and you have to be home for hours.   Beans don’t freeze well, and they have a short refrigerator life as does rice.  The insta pot takes 1 footprint on the counter, but does the work of a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, and some make yogurt.   They even make cheesecake.  Don’t let it overwhelm you, take 1 item to cook at a time.  How many times did you make something else for dinner or order pizza because you forgot to pull out the chicken to thaw and defrosted chicken in the microwave is yuk yuk,  cook a frozen chicken breast in a few minutes.   
7. Upside down blender.  There is a name for this, but I don’t know what it is,   It makes smoothies and blends or “ beats “ things like eggs to a homogeneous consistency .  Not money saving , but time savings.  I guess of you are buying smoothies, they are probably cheaper to make at home. 
8. Waffle iron.  You can get waffle irons at reasonable price if you don’t get a commercial one.  The price of waffles in the frozen food case is about 90 percent more than making scratch.  You can  still make more than you need for Sunday breakfast and freeze them. Chocolate waffles are to die for!   Lol
9. A food saver extends the life of freezer meat and dehydrated veggies in mason jars. 
10. Our electric grill was about 20.00 on same at kohl’s. It doesn’t save money, but it makes French Toast, pancakes, and toasted sandwiches a whole lot easier to cook and in less time because  you can cook them in one batch instead of the many batches that you might have to cook if using a frying pan.  

December what we ate

1. Beef stroganoff 
2. Spaghetti 
3. Pork roast , mashed potatoes, green beans 
4. Pizza
5. Pork sliders , tater tots, fruit 
6. Loaded potato soup 
7. Pork chops, dressing with apple and Craisens, green beans pear salad 
8. Meatball subs, oven fries 
9. Fajitas, rice 
10. Spaghetti 
11. Meatballs, white gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans 
12. Steak, baked potatoes, mixed veg, sslad 
13. Chicken pot pie 
14. Nachos 
15. Chicken noodle soup 
16. Taco soup 
17. Leftovers 
18. Chicken chimichanga 
19. Potato soup 
20. Leftovers 
21. Spaghetti 
22. Roast beef a jus 
23. Baked potato bar 
24. Christmas Eve. Greenbeans with pecans and blue cheese or bacon 
25. French Toast, berry compote. Bacon, sparkling cider 
26. Chicken enchaladas with green sauce, 
27. French bread pizza. 
28. 
    
29. 
    
30. 
    
31.  
32. 
    

Hauls to 12/26 Left 22.75

left 6.12

Budget 30.00
Total 36.12

Olives 1.00
Pumpkin 2 ea .50
Tomato sauce  3 /1.00
Bacon 3 lbs 5.00
Cream cheese .50
Sliced cheese 2.19

Total. 13.37

Left 22.75

Hauls to 1/2 /19

Winco

Carrots (5#) 2.28

Roast beef 1.84

Grapes 6.20

Boullion 4.98

Total 

15.30

QFC
Bacon (5) 14.95

Total 30,25

December recap hauls

No spend 30.00 budget for December

12/6 to 12/13
21.24

12/13-12/19
32.64

12/19-12/26
44.93


12/26-1/2 19
30.25

Average 32.26

Includes  bulk bacon and cheese.

The best of the chains store ads

note that Winco does. It have an ad.  I post when I have been to the store and can verify a good deal. 

Safeways 

Berries  BOGO

Digital coupon for nakkys chili .90 limit 2

QFC 

Clementines, 5 lb bag 4.88

Milk .99

Eggs .99

Oranges .99

Pork shoulder roast BOGO 

Fred Meyers 

Foster Farms whole chicken .99

Note the legs, thighs and quarters are the same price, but nit a bargain 

Digital 5, FRIDAY to Monday. Breakfast sausage 1.50

Barilla pasta 1.00

Pillsbury tube rolls 2/4 $$

B5 S 5

Crisco oil 1.99

Coffee, foldgers 6.99

Red Barron pizza 3/10

Traditionally  , the holiday ads are more, what’s FOR  sale than they are what’s ON sale.   

Not many bargains here, exception would be milk and eggs at qfc. 

Eggs have a long refrigerator life and are a good stores of protein and versatile.  You can easily keep a months supply and rotate out as they come on sale.  This affords you to always buy eggs at a good price most of the time.   We have buy prices or target prices for things,   If the item isn’t better than the buy price, we just don’t buy it unless there is no substitute and we have to have it.  If you stock a 4-6 week supply, you can usually avoid getting stuck paying a top dollar price.   

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. 

Stories from Christmas past


The Christmas the Grinch was pranked.

One Christmas our family was invited to  tea by a Greek captain of a ship.  We had marvelous tea and Greek cookies in the captains quarters.   When we got home, some naughty little elves had broken into  my parents home and stole my gift.   I can only imagine the look on their faces when what to their wandering eyes should appear, but an empty box saying my present wasn’t here .   My mom had ordered sewing scissors for me and they hadn’t come yet .


The Christmas miracle.
My best Christmas was the one when I brought my youngest son home  from the hospital.  My husband picked me up and we picked the rest of the kids from his family’s Christmas and we went to my parents home  on the island.  They had served canned chicken Chinese food for dinner at the hospital. I was grateful, for the plate my mother saved for me...roast beef.   I was especially grateful that my mother and my husband took turns feeding my son so I could get a much needed full night’s sleep.

Home for Christmas
Then there was the Christmas that we had to decide to pull the plug on my dad’s respirator.  A really memorable night to remember.   My sisters and mom ate leftovers together. That hadn’t happened for a long time and hasn’t happened since.  It was the Christmas that dad went to see his mom he hadn’t seen since he was 14 .


The rock.
The Christmas that my eldest son got a rock!  It was just too funny .  We had bought him a bike for Christmas.  He was 10 yo and got home  from school  a few minutes before I got home from work.  I just knew he would snoop .  So, we left the bike in Grampas garage.   Early Christmas Eve, my husband went to fetch the bike. Meanwhile , our eldest was very upset because there weren’t any packages under the tree for him .  Did I say he would snoop!   So, I went outside and picked up the big rock that was in the flower bed next to the front door.  I wrapped it up complete with fancy bow.  He shook that package until it was thread bare.  He kept saying, what is it?   I finally  said it was a rock .  Yah, right mom was his answer.  We let him open the rock while  my husband went down and got the bike.

The Barbie Christmas
My daughter walked in on me wrapping gifts.  She was getting Barbie stuff for Christmas .  I told her they were for her cousin, Kristin.   I didn’t want to spoil her Christmas.  She then proceed to be get upset  because  Kristin was getting all the Barbie stuff !

Merry Christmas !  Hope that  you new year is filled with new beginnings and memorable moments.

Insta pot tutorials

It’s  Christmas Eve and Monday Kitchen Management  has been preempted.   In case  someone is getting an insta pot for Christmas, or you have one and am wondering what to do with it, this is for you,   

Modern pressure cookers  are a far cry from our grandmothers.  They are much safer and most are electronic.   The insta pot is a pressure cooker, a rice cooker, a slow cooker  and some are yogurt makers too.   Unlike some appliances that fall into the trap where if they are multi task, they don’t  do anything well, the insta pot is a workhorse in the kitchen and take a lot less of a footprint on your countertop.   No, I don’t have stock in insta pot!   Lol

Just a few basics. It is important to check you seals every now and then and make sure that they are all in tact and clean.  Also the pressure valve — a little bump out inside the lid needs  to be clean. 

Always use the pressure cooker function with a clear LIQUID.   And, never make split pea soup on the pressure mode, unless you want to be cleaning for e v e r.  Lol 

Many foods that can take a lot of time and attention can be made a lot more efficiently.  

• Rice : measure rice, wash it if you  ordinarily wash your rice,   Place equal parts of rice and water or stock in the bowl, cover, seal, and push the rice button. 
• Beans: pick over your beans and discard any foreign material. Rinse in colander,   Poor beans in the bowl. Cover with water to above your second knuckle.  Cover, seal, and push the bean button.   Seal means place your valve to the seal position. 
• Spaghetti with meat sauce.   Place cooked meat on the bottom of the bowl. Alternative,y, you can set the cooker to sauté and cook your raw meat until no longer pink and drain off the fat.  If you cook raw meat, you then need to turn off the cooker.  Add 1/2 a package (8 ounces) of spaghetti that has been broken in half over the meat in a bird nest fashion,   That will insure that your noodles won’t stick together.  Norm pour a can or jar of pasta sauce over the noodles, Pour 2 cups of water or broth AROUND the outside of the bowl as to not disturb the sauce and noodles.   Place the cover on the insta pot, set to seal, and manually program it for 8 minutes.   You can finish the salad or bread or whatever else you are going to eat, because you,need to catch the pot when it finishes cooking or shortly after and manually release.  Be careful and use a wooden spoon type instrument to release.  You can also put a dish towel over the vent .  Not manually releasing will result in over cooked pasta.   
• Cooking just pasta.  Place pasta in the bowl, you will need a quart of water for a package of pasta.  Cover, set the valve to seal and process on manual for 2 minutes.  Again, don’t let the pasta sit on the water .  Most of the water will be absorbed and sitting will make it over cooked.  
• Cook frozen chicken breast on a trivet, with at least a cup of water or stock and cook for anywhere from 8-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your  chicken breast.  Test for doneness with a meat thermometer and make sure you have no pink in the center.  This is good for anything you are making that calls for cooker chicken.  

We make pork or beef stew in 35 minutes.   You can make pork chops with cream of mushroom gravy in a matter of minutes.   I prefer a pork roast in the oven.  Cheesecake is marvelous.  Also, a taco pie that is another ten minute meal. 

The. Internet is full of ideas and recipes.  Six  sisters on  U tube is a good resource .  

As well as a guy that is called something like Pressure Luck. 

Meal Plans

Meal plans are an necessary tool  to save  time and money.  It’s one ofnthe things along with kitchen management that takes away a lot of the stress of making dinner during the busy dinner hour.

• Christmas Eve:  green beans with blue cheese and oceans, or green beans with bacon on the side. 
• Christmas breakfast: sparkling juice, waffles or French Toast, bacon, fruit, yogurt, English muffins, 
• Pork roast, mashed potatoes. Green beans, 
• Pork sliders , oven fries, 
• Pizza
• Enchaladas, rice, beans 
• Breakfast for dinner 

We continue to have no spend.   Christmas Eve comes out of the entertainment budget.  Christmas Day is food at home.   Our average for the YEAR is under four dollars a day per person, and we still have a stock. We saved almostmfive dollars a week, 

Simplify your shopping list , make efficient scratch meals, buy groceries at their lowest orice, stock up on non perishables when they are cheap, and rotate buying protein in bulk. 

Try a soup  once or twice a week.  

Try breakfast for dinner .  We don’t mean cereal here, but a full diner breakfast will put you over.

Pizza costs a dollar a pizza.  Add topping from leftover meals.   

Pork and chicken are rmeoeated and varied over weekmbecaise with two of us, we use a larger piece of meat twice in the same week,   Pork roast becomes pork sliders.  Chicken breast becomes chicken pot pie and maybe chicken enchaladas or pizza.   

Portion control.  Portion control, portion control. Your waistline and your health will appreciate it. 

Be Prepared

Every Part of our great country has some weather phenomenon that can put us high and dry so to speak.   Windstorms, tornados, floods, earthquakes among a few,   It is always good to have some back up plans to eat with little or no ingredients or prep.   

I’m an remember a snowstorm where we lost power.   We had a power box to he,o for a short time.  I made a fire in the fireplace and let the fire die down to coals.   We put a cast iron Dutch oven in the coals and heated soup and I made sandwiches from things in the pantry.  If you open the freezer or refrigerator, you let air n and you loose their efficiency.   

While others were driving in the snow looking for a restraint that had lower, we were eating and listening to the basketball game, warm and dry, 

Meals n a jar is a good way to be prepared,   Most take a bit of water and can be made on the fireplace or on a bbq.   In your desk drawer , it makes for a quick bit of food if you are stuck in the office in a deadline.   

Potato soup in a jar. 

2/3 cup mix to a cup of hot water. Or use water until the consistency you desire, 

Mix 

2 cups dried potatoes 

1-1/4 cups dry milk powder 

1-1/2 T chicken boullion 

1/2 tsp parsley 

1/4 tsp pepper 

Mix and store  in a clean dry jar.  Shake before using, 

Cream soup base 

2 cups dry milk 

1-1/2 cups cornstarch 

1/2 cup chicken granulated stock 

4 T onion powder 

2 tsp basil

2 tsp thyme 

1 tsp pepper 

Place 2/3 cup in a pint jar and add dried veggie of your choice. 

Cook with 1 part mix to two parts water,   

Note :  you can get non msg and low sodium chicken granules, 

Saxon 

Equal parts 

Coriander 

Cumin

Paprika 

Garlic POWDER 

Salt 

Use in any Mexican type dish 

Hauls to 12/26

Left 6.12


franz bread

14.81

Cheese snacks
6 large French bread
5 bagels. English muffins, Texas toast
1 hoagie rolls
1 oganic whole grain
1 chocolate donuts
2 white bread


Fred Meyers
Tortilla chips
4 boxes raspberries, blueberries
Grapes
Sour cream
Total 13.97

Total 28.76

Left 7.34

Milk 1.37
Eggs 1.53

Friday Recipe Day

Last  night we made insta pot potato soup.   This was in the insta pot, but it could be made on the stove, it would just take a bit more watching . the whole thing comes in at 1.50 to feed four .

2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 large, or two small carrots, peeled and sliced thin,
1 stalk celery, chopped onto cubes.
3 cups chicken or vegetabke stock
Pouches of :
Thyme, salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic, minced

Place ingredients in insta pot and close lid and set vent to “seal”
Program to process manually for 3 minutes.

When done  processing, let partially de pressure and then finish it manually. Open the lid and turn  the pot off.  Switch  to sauté mode.

Mix 1 cup milk with 2 Tablespoons of corn starch.  Stir until thickened


Optional garnish with cooked crumbled bacon, green onion tops or cheese .

We served it with  French bread 🥖 buttered and sprinkled  with parmesean cheese and parsley,

This can also be made by putting the ingredients all but the milk and cornstarch inna pot on the stove and simmering until the potatoes and vegetables are tender. Turn the heat up and add the milk and cornstarch .

Bread from Franz Outlet Store

Franz Outlet Store is on 164th street near Wall Mart.  It is well worth the trip every month or so for us.  Yes, it is cheaper to make bread from scratch.  That doesn’t always happen here. Especially when talking bagels and English muffins. Also, the high fiber breads.

Wednesday’s and Sunday’s are ten percent off for military and seniors.  
Also, there are free bread for bulk purchases.  We spent 15.00 to get two loads of white bread. They gave us a box of chocolate donuts as well.

We got
6 only 12 inch French breads
6 inky smaller hoagie rolls
2 English muffins
1 blueberry bagels
1 loaf bread for French Toast
1 package cheese snacks
1 loaf of high fiber bread, organic
Totaled 14.81

10 items, one of which was six loaves of bread, so really 16 loaves for 14.81 or less than .92.5 cents a loaf . English muffins were 1.99 someplace, the grain bread would have been at least 4.00 and the Texas  Toast loaf is on sale for 2.00 and I’ve seen it for 4.00.  Bread has taken a big hike lately. Even Winco wanted 1.19 for hamburger buns.  

Hauls to 12/19

8.76 left

30.00

Total 38.76

Winco 

18 eggs 1.89

Yellow squash .70

Cucumber .48

Pears 1.26

Brownie mix 2 - 1.36

Grapes 4.54

Ice cream 2.98

Parm 2.38

Tomatoes 1.69

Egg rolls 2.48

Diced tomatoes (10) 5.80

Total 25.44

Left 13.32

QFC
5 cheese .99
10 Yoplait 2.15

Total 7.20

Left 6.12 

Chain store ads - the best of

QFC

Spiral ham 1.27
Strawberries, blackberries 2/5

Tillamook brick cheese 4.99
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Digital coupons

Progresso soup  2/2
Cake mix .79
Yoplait 10/4 $$
American beauty pasta 4/3

*****
Sour cream 4/5

Marie callnders pie 4.99 with FREE ice cream
Crescent rolls 3/5$$
Ritz crackers 1.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Safeways

Mandarines 2.99 - 3 lbs
Potatoes 1.99 10 lbs


Butter 1.99@@

Extra lean ground beef 3.99
Jimmy Dean sausage 2/6$$
Foldgers coffee 5.99@@
Frozen veggies 1.49 -2lbs @@




Fred Meyers

Ham 1.27
Berries 2/3
Oranges 2.99
Sweet potatoes .99

Pork loin BOGO

Ritz crackers 1.77

DIGITAL COUPONS
Cake mix .79 ( note Alberways wants 1.25)
Artisan bread 1.99
Hillshire farm sausage 2/5


B4S4

Sausage 2.49$$
Frozen fruit 2.99 -  best if 16 ounces 

$$ means there are coupons out there 
@@ means with an in ad coupon