Monday kitchen management

Kitchen  management takes an hour  so when things are less hectic to prep food for the weeks dinners and do some deep cleaning. In management school, we learned that the Swiss cheese treatment was the best way to tackle a large job.

1. Manage the six pound chicken we cooked yesterday, 
2. Make chicken noodle soup and chicken stock, 
3. Make bread dough 
4. Wash kitchen floor 
5. Clean and disinfect counter tops and sinks and drains. 
6. Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
7. Straighten the pantry. 

Meal plans

Meal plans are necessary to make life easier, cheaper, and for a more organized dinner time.

• Roast chicken , mashed potatoes, veggie, strawberries 
• Pizza
• Sausage, cream, penne, peppers. 
• Chicken enchiladas with green sauce, salad 
• Tacos, refried beans, Spanish rice 
• Chicken noodle soup , beer bread 
• Breakfast for dinner 

Notes 

1. Chicken was a dollar a pound,   I bought a six pound one, 
2. Pizza is a mainstay.  Cost of a scratch cheese pizza is a dollar. 
3. Sausage is chicken basil.  Yum 
4. Chicken enchiladas are easy and a way to stretch your chicken.  Remember, you are adding cheese  so you don’t need a lot of chicken .
5. Tacos. Uses already cooked and de fatted meat.
6. Chicken noodle soup is easy on the insta pot and another s t r e t c h of chicken.  Beer or cheezy bread is a good addition and easy, 
7. Breakfast for dinner is a fami,y affair and everyone cooks, 

Back to basics

I have been watching a lot of food hauls.  Some are good use of budget friendly items and some not so much.  Not everyone takes the word budget the same way.

• Shop two stores.   Get on and get out,   Two stores give you the best choice of vegetables and fruit and specials.  
• Buy your protein on a a rotation basis using the RBP principle.   Usually at least one grocery store will have a loss leader on protein. If you buy a months worth of that protein and portion control it, you will spend less and always have food in the house.   Ie: if you eat chicken three times a week , you will need enough chicken for 12 meals,   At a quarter pound serving for four oeople is a pound,   Or, 12 pounds of chicken.  Today, chicken breasts are .99 a pound,   You will spend 12.00.  That’s cheaper than buying three packages of different meats.  You have better portion control and it is cheaper.  
• Groceries on the cheap is not about inferior food.  It’s about getting the best quality you can at the lowest price.  Instead of a panic shopping method—- “It is payday and there is nothing thing in the house or refrigerator “ , you have a replenish method.  It’s buying produce and dairy, your rotation protein, and filling in staples that are on sale and you are depleting. Keeping a specified amount of certain staple items keeps it real.   
•  Making a list of things you buy on a regular basis to complete meals simplifies your grocery list and helps keep you away from impulse  buys.  Some accounts have impulse buys at 70 percent of a market basket.  Impulse buys is what jacks up you grocery bill.   Having a basic list saves time.  We have perishables on the meal plan to check off what we already have. 
• Purchasing foods that are versatile simplifies the buying experience.  We buy a basic of chicken breast, pork loin, amd hamburger.  Add eggs , cheese, beans.  Limit our tomato products to tomato powder, diced tomatoes, and pasta sauce.
• Keeping a basic stock means you will always have food in the house.   Being organized and having a section of pantry or cupboard for each thing means you can tell at a glance what might be running low and you can watch for a sale.  The idea is to buy everything at its RBP.  That means you have to buy more than one of a lot of things. One week it might be 6 cans of green beans. Another week, to might be six bags of frozen vegetables. You will spend less in the long run.  Most refrigerator freezers will keep a months worth of food for a family of four. Food insecurity is a bad thing.  Not having enough food on the house reduces your expected life span.   
• Cook from scratch.  Efficient cooking can save time and a ton of money,   A batch of muffins made from a homemade mix costs .30 plus any flavoring.  Like an apple and some cinnamon.  A Six  pack of muffins can cost 5.00 or more amd you can control the sugar.   A loaf of artisan bread was 3.99 last  week, the cost is .25 and about ten minutes.  The difference between a frozen waffle and scratch is astronomical.  Consider sneaking on some whole wheat flour with your regular flour. You can control the ingredients.  The more boxed meals you buy, the more expensive they are and the more chemicals you are putting in your family. 
• If you are on a four dollar a day budget or less, you can’t be looking at organic and alternative  foods.  Not a popular idea with the younger people, I know. But, organic food costs 38 percent more and add a 20 percent depletion  rate means you are paying almost 60 percent more for your food.  The sad, but true reality is that you have to eat all month.  Running out is not an option. Most pesticides are water solvable.  Wash your produce with vinegar water.  Peel what makes sense to peel.  
• Balanced meal- a protein, a starch or carbohydrate as it’s called, and fruits and vegetables.  
• You have a limited budget don’t waste it on empty calories.  Go for food value.  The back of every box has a nutrition label.   Read labels and ingredients.  Ingredients are listed in order of volume.  Fake cheese.....the first ingredient is emulsifiers.  Then a peleferia of oils, os,e good, some not. 
• Becaise you are buying your food on the cheap doesn’t have to mean it isn’t healthy,   We avoid salt, sugar, trans fats, hydroginated oil, GMO.  HFCS, preservatives and chemicals.  Soap and wood pulp are a good thing to avoid too.   LOL 

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Friday recipe : magic mix

It is all about saving time and money.

Magic Mix - store in the refrigerator or freezer. 

Makes basically a white sauce with adding just water.   

Use for Mac and cheese, instead of cream soups on any recipe. 

You can make by hand, or use a food processor.   

• 4 cups dry milk (not instant) 
• 1 cup flour 
• 2 sticks of butter 

Cut butter into dry ingredients.   Store in container with  a right fitting lid in refrigerator or freezer. 

Use 2/3 cup mix to 1 cup water.  

For the consistency of a white sauce, use 1/2 cup to 1 cup water. 

Lists - things we don’t buy

Now, things we don’t buy ...

• Microwave popcorn 
• Boxed Mac and cheese.  Some  of it has harsh detergent in it. The other has more fat .
• Cold sugary cereals.   Again, some of it has harsh detergent, and avoiding a lot of sugar is a good thing. 
• Fake anything. 
• Pop and sugary sodas.  Water, herbal teas are good iced and hot, milk in moderation, 
• Potato chips  and like junk foods.   Empty calories.  Get more bang for your buck, 
• Premade cookies, cakes, rolls most of the time.  There are recipes that take little time and avoiding a lot of those items is better nutrition.  We almost always have some kind of fresh fruit.  Ready made treats can bump your food bill up a lot, 
• Any canned item that is easier and cheaper to make from scratch.  Winco does nit have BPA in their cans.  
• Southern grown chicken 
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Hauls to 3/21

QFC

10# cheese @2,00

Strawberries 2/5

Nectarines .99

Bread 1.49

Cottfe cheese 1.49

32.56

Winco 

Paprika 1.59

Garlic 1.02

Onion powder .87

Spinach 1.98(

Chili powder .79

Sausage .98

Pinto beans 2.46

Grapes 2.99

Total 12.68

Grand total 45.24

Ten pounds of cheese at 4.00 a pound is 40.00

It pays to buy bulk when it is on sale of anything you use a lot of.   Cheese freezes.   

Dollar tree
Tamales
Noodles
2.00

Safeways
Mixed vegetables 1.00
Peas and carrots1.00
Crab cakes 4.24
Grapes 3.70

Total spent 1.52
Grand total 48.76


Costco
Bisquick 5.49
Total 54.25

Best of the ads 3/20

QFC
Grapes 1.48

Milk 1.25
Butter 2.50
Sour cream/ cottage cheese 4/5

Buy5, Save 5
Tillamook ice cream 2.99
Dbl cream cheese 2.99


Sprouts

Apples .98
Pears .98
Jumbo avacados .98
Minincucumbers 2/5 -1.5#

Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Blackberries .98
Blues, raspberries. 2/5

Alberways

Apples, oranges .99
Apple juice 1.25

Tuna .59@@
Hot dog or hamburger buns .99@@

Fred Meyers

Oranges 5# 4.99

Sirloin steak 2.97

Peppers, eng cucumbers .99

FF whole, drums, split breasts .99

Milk 1.25

Strawberries 2/5

Note : it is real easy to cut off the rib portion of chicken breast and I use them for stock and chicken pieces by cooking them in a slow cooker.

Lists: Thinking out of the box

Things that are cheaper to watch for.   Sometimes getting something a lot cheaper is just a matter of thinking out of the box literally.  Most boxed food has preservatives and is more expensive than making scratch.  Making scratch doesn’t have to take all day conjuring up memories of I Love Lucy and her flour shenanigans. Lol

• Pinto beans in the bulk isle were cheaper than the DT and a lot cheaper than a regular grocery store in a bag. 
• Pepperoni ends were a lot cheaper at grocery outlet. Pepperoni is pepperoni no matter what shape it is in,   
• Bacon ends were really inexpensive at Winco . I rendered  them down while I cleaned and made muffins, draining off the fat out  of the grill pan as I went with a turkey baster.  This keeps the fat from leaching back onto the meat.  I will use it to season and add protein to dishes.  Green beans and so,e soups come to mind. A little bit goes a long ways 
• Buying nut pieces in the bulk isle when they have them saves time and money.
• Buying seasonal food off season is pennies on the dollar .  The pull dates are still in compliance, the food value is the same.  Being flexible really pays off.  
• Buying spices in the bulk isle is a good price and you can reuse your jars you already have. 
• Making your own taco seasoning is a whole lot cheaper.  Anything that is 90 percent cheaper is worth taking a little time to do. 
• Making a batch of bread that stores in the refrigerator takes minutes and saves a lot . Artisan bread was 3.99 at Safeway's. 3 loaves would cost 12.00.  The cost.....75.   94 percent savings. Hands on time...about 7 minutes a loaf.   
• Muffin mix is easy, it’s cheaper than the box and a whole lot cheaper than than frozen  counterparts.  If you use the frozen ones to save morning time, make them in your kitchen Management day and freeze them in bags,  save the bags and reuse them for the next batch. Waffle mix just adds oil.  You can do the same with them.  
• Magic mix is basically a roux mix.  Makes Mac and cheese in a hurry, or the cream soup that you use for casserole or chicken pot pie and costs less.  Takes not much more time than finding the can and opening it.   

Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen  management is a good tool to save time and money in the kitchen and make dinner time less stressful.   By doing a little deep cleaning each week, the deep clean job is less time consuming and easier.

• Wash kitchen floor. 
• Wash and disinfect countertops and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out the refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Make a note of things that need to be used up.  You can search ingredients on the on line Betty Crocker cookbook for ideas of you need to. 
• Wash potatoes and carrots for stew and chicken pot pie , potato soup 
• Fill cheese containers. 
• Make pumpkin muffins 
• Make pumpkin pancakes and freeze . ( uses a 15 ounce can of pumpkin up) 
• Make a loaf of artisan bread. Oven is still  hot. 

Meal plans

Meal plans are necessary to be organized and save time and money.  Being organized reduces stress and just makes life easier.

• Stew, bread 
• Pizza
• Creamy sausage with pasta 
• Nachos 
• Chicken pot pie 
• Potato soup, cheezy rolls 
• Breakfast for dinner, 

Notes 

1. Stew in the insta pot takes 35 minutes .
2. Pizza is a mainstay.  Easy and a dollar each plus any toppings.   We recently got pepperoni ends cheap. Something as simple as changing the shape of a product can save a lot of money,   
3. Creamy, sausage with pasta (Big  Family Homestead - u tube ) chicken basil sausage .
4. Nachos are simple. Especially  if you have already  cooked hamburger.  
5. Chicken pot pie is easy and uses magic mix.
6. Potato soup is another dollar dinner and cheezy biscuits add to the protein. Quick and easy Yum! We got cheese for 2.00 a pound at QFC.  
7. Breakfast for dinner is another mainstay.  Everyone cooks. 

One thing at a time

Saturday blog for a while is going to be one thing in detail that you can do to save  time and money on food.   One concept at a time.  It’s the snowball effect.   You start with a little snow ball, add to it and pretty soon it’s a snowman.

First up...one of the easiest.  Bulk protein. If you do a protein rotation, you can get your meat cheaper and control portions.  Use the ads to find what is on sale,  we buy pork loin, good hamburger, and boneless chicken breast.  Add eggs, cheese, and beans.  Maybe sausage .

• Hamburger can be cooked, de fatted, and portion controlled.   It makes some meals a matter of minutes to make.  And you clean up once.   You are nit likely to stop and de fat hamburger when you need dinner in a hurry.  But de fatting meat can reduce the fat content up to 17 percent.  Tacos don’t need as much for a portion than say, spaghetti sauce.  You are adding cheese for an additional protein with the tacos.  It takes almost no time to knock a bag of ground meat on the countertop or pit it in a pan with water and taco seasoning.  Pit a little water in the pan and add seasoning,  stir together, add the hamburger.  Meanwhile, chop what you need for toppings.
• Chicken is just separated into breasts in quart bags,. To save money, you can put individual chicken breasts in a dollar tree bag and then put the quart bags in a gallon bag. Be sure to roll the excess bag around the breast so you get neat packages to pull. Putting the bag into a container like a deli carton  and folding the zipper  over the edge makes it easy to take things and dump each breast in the bag.  
• Pork loin.  You can get a good pork loin for between one and two dollars a pound. Open the bag and drain off any liquid.  Cut the ends of they taker down.  Use this for stir fry meat or cut cubes for stew.  Now cut a roast from one side, pork chops from the middle and leave enough for another roast.  Bag the, for the freezer..

Sales go on a four to six week cycle.  If you buy a four to six week supply of that protein a week, you should be able to always get your meat at a RBP.  Add cheese, dry beans, and sausage when it is appropriate.  

We buy eggs when the price is right. We have a target price of no more ham 1.50.  Obviously, a dollar is better.   If you keep a two to odor week supply, you can usually keep the stack going at a reasonable price.   Save your cartons, some people hat keep chickens will trade you for eggs. 

Cheese has a target price of 2-2.50 a pound.  You can freeze cheese especially if it is grated.  It is a misnomer that grating it yourself is cheaper.  A pound of cheese is a pound of cheese, no matter what shape it is in.  Go by the price ore pound.   Watch for sales.   Sometimes  Costco is cheap.  Simplify.  Usually we keep mozzarella and Mexican blend.  I add others if the small bags are a dollar.   

Pinto beans are cheapest in the big bags at Costco. For smaller quantities. They are cheapest at the dollar tree.   1.5 pounds are a dollar.  That’s .67 a pound.   The large bags at Winco are higher.   

Check bulk departments on other beans .  We saved the popcorn canisters from Costco for storage.   Having them all the same just looks neater on the pantry and saves space because they nest.   

Slow cookers and insta pots make cooking beans easier.  Be sure to wash and pick out any bad ones or rocks before you cook and do t keep cooked beans more than three days in the refrigerator.  Beans and rice have a short refrigerator life.  Some beans in cans are a good thing because they are harder to find raw or are expensive.  Wait for a sale.  Fifty cents is my target price.   The equivalent of a can of cooked beans cost .05.  A can can cost upwards of a dollar.   Even at .50, you are saving 90 percent.   

Sausage has taken a leap.  You can still find it for about two dollars a pound of you watch.  Use coupons of you find them.  We try to eat sausage sparingly.  Bacon and pepperoni can be purchased in bulk ends.  Bacon recently was two dollar a pound in a vacuums sealed bag.  Just put it on a big frying pan or grill pan with sides a d let it cook on low heat.  Use a badger to pull the fat as it accumulates.  It is good for seasoning green beans or adding a little flavor to soups.  Bean and bacon soup is a good meal stretcher.  Now they are making chicken alternatives and some with no nitrates.  

 Chicken and basil is to die for. 

 Buying a 4 to 6  week supply of  protein I’m bulk saves time and money.  It uses portion control so there is less chance of waste.  A four week supply is the amount you need for a meal Times the number of times you will serve that meal in a four week period.  In other words. If you eat chicken twice a week, you will need 8 meal sized portions.  

Groceries on the cheap uses a replenish shopping strategy rather than a week by week shopping strategy,  the benefits is that you always have food on the house and you lower your food budget drastically.  We have been growing a stick and eating on four dollars a day for over two years.   

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Friday recipe -taco seasoning

Seasoning Packets can cost a dollar an ounce.  For a few ingredients most of which you already have in your cupboards you can have multi packs.

This recipe is for taco seasoning.  It is based on parts, so that you can make as much or as little as you want.  If you are taco eaters or you eat chili 🌶  Or burritos, enchaladas, you might want to make a pint jar. You can omit anything you don’t want and tailor it to your family. 

Look on the ethnic isle for small packages or in the bulk isle for spices.  You can buy just what you want and refill spice jars.  Dollar tree and Big Lots are also a resource.   

Parts : use Tabkesooons, or the same measuring cup in units . 

1 - each of 

Garlic powder 

Onion powder 

Red pepper flakes 

Oregano 

2 - paprika 

6- cumin

3 - sea salt 

4-black pepper

12- chili powder 

Use 1 Tbls per pound of meat 

One thing at a time

Part of a series to tackle lowering your food budget. Tackling change one thing at a time.

• We have already talked about a rotating bulk protein plan.  Ie meat. 

One easy step is to go over the ads for the week and circle or star the things that are truly on sale, not just for sale, and analyzing what grocery stores have the good prices on what you need.   

Pick 2 stores, preferably ones close to each other, or close to somewhere you have to go.   Like the gym or doctor or ???.

Make a list or at least have a basic idea of what you are going to te store for.

• Our basic idea would be :  a rotation protein, replentish eggs, replentish dairy, and fruits and veggies.   Basically, this week we will do the perimeter of the store.
• We have already looked at the local stores prices and will go to the one store that has no ad first to compare.   

Get in the store and get out.  The more time you spend in the store, the more you will spend.

• We have bags that lock on the cart.  This is for sanitary reasons.  It also makes the cart smaller. This saves money.

Hauls to 3/14

Sprouts

3 peppers 3.00

3 avacados .98

Roma tomatoes .98

Strawberries 1.98

Total 7.50

Winco 

Tortillas 3.09

Buns .92

Sausage .98

Swiss cheese 2.18

Havarti cheese 2.18

Black olives (4) 2.18

Strawberries 1.98

Salsa .98

15.31

Total 22.81

Grocery outlet

Foldgers 6.99
Ripe olives (2) 1.38
Rope sausage 2.50
Chicken garlic sausage 2.50
Pepperoni 1# 2.79
2 pkg, bacon 4.98

Total 21.14

Grand total 43.95

The best of the ads

QFC

RBP alert

Digital coupons , can buy 5
Friday, Sat,  Sunday 
Cheese 3.99 - 2#
Nathan’s hot dogs 1.99

Apples .99

Draper valley chicken BOGO

Lean cuisine 1.88 

Strawberries 2/5

Sprouts 
Grapes .98
Green beans .98
Blackberries .98
Cabbage 3#1.00
Avacados 2/1 
Oranges 2/1
Cantaloupe 2/4 

Note artisan bread 3.99 - a loaf of artisan bread takes about ten minutes and costs a quarter.  The ingredients : salt, water, flour and yeast.  Sometimes a half a teaspoon of yeast.   A half teaspoon of yeast costs half a cent. 

Alberways 
Green peppers 2/1 

Milk 1.99@@

Buy 4 mix or match 
Manwich  .88
Cream cheese 1.49
Skippy 3.99

Fred Meyers

Avacados .88
Foster Farms  BSCB bogo 

Lean cuisine 1.88
Greeen peppers/  cucumbers 2/1
Hillshire farms sausage 2/5 

Digi Dreyers Ice cream 2/5 

Tuesday lists : March first ten

Meals for the first 10 days of March

• Chicken Normandy, green beans, mashed potatoes 
• Breakfast for dinner : eggs, fruit, bread 
• Pizza
• Potato soup. Cheezy biscuits 
• Chimichangas, salad 
• Potato soup , fruit 
• Spaghetti with meatballs, garlic Parmesan  bread 
• Taco casserole 
• Pork chops with garlic, thyme bitter sauce, baked potato, mixed veggies 
• Egg omelette, orange slices, sausage and cheezy biscuits. 

Cheezy biscuits are a nice addition and take almost no time,   

2 cups bisquick, 1/2 cup grated cheese, 2/3 cup milk.  Drop by 

Heaping  tabkesooons into parchment paper on a baking sheet, bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes. 

Makes 8 biscuits. 

From the bisquick cookbook, 

Monday Kitchen Management aka meal prep

Kitchen Management is a tool that can help you save your money and time in the kitchen .  The hardest part of prepping can be the clean up.  Doing the prep prep in batches instead of one meal at a time saves clean up time.  Prepped food makes meal time faster and easier.   Deep cleaning a little at a time saves the chore of deep cleaning the whole kitchen in one day.

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect counter tops and sinks and drains. 
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead 💀. 
• Wash outside of refrigerator. 
• Wash carrots, celery, and fruit. 
• Make a green salad .  
• Clean toaster and microwave. 

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Meal plans

Last night we had baked potatoes, mixed vegetables and garlic, thyme butter pork chops.

Meal plans are a way to keep organized and avoid the panic or stress of answering the question, “What’s for dinner,

• Chicken stew 
• Pizza
• Chili, tortilla chips or bread 
• Hamburgers, oven fries, vegetabke platter
• Cream, chicken basil sausage, pasta , salad 
• Tuna casserole m peas and carrots 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

Notes:

• Chicken cubes from chicken breasts bought in bulk, new potatoes, carrots 
• Pizza is a mainstay and costs a dikkar a cheese pizza from scratch.  Bulk pizza dough is made in the kitchenaid and frozen,  makes a months worth of pizza dough, 
• Chili is made on the insta pot with already  cooked hamburger,   
• Hamburgers are from hamburger patties we got at Sprouts fir a dikkr a pound,  loss leader,   
• Cream, sausage, tomato pasta is a recipe is from the  Big Family Homestead on u tube, 
• Tuna casserole, peas and carrots, 
• Breakfast for dinner is a family dinner and everyone cooks.  

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Grocery lists

Meal plan, grocery list
Groceries on the cheap is based on a replenish shopping, as opposed to buying one day or one week at a time.  Once you are set up, it will actually take you less time to go to two stores than it does going to the store for one day or one week’s worth of food at a time.   Rarely will you need to run to the store for that thing you forgot.

• List ten to 14 dinners you cook that your family likes.  Pick things that take an inexpensive protein if you are on a low budget.   
• Now list the item you need to make those meals. 
• Add things you eat for breakfast and dinner if you eat those items at home. There are  children get breakfast and lunch at school. 
•  Now, estimate how many of those items you will need on a four  to six week period .
• Separate the items that are perishables that are freezer and shelf stable. 
• Now you have a basic list .

Once you have a supply of the shelf stable items, you just need to look for a sale on the things that are becoming  short in supply.  

Add to your list the basic dairy and pantry will give you the list.  A brief glance in the fridge and pantry will make your list.   

Our meal plan sheet has a list to check off.   This can be done on a matter of minutes.   

So, any grocery trip is prefaced by looking over the ads, picking a rotation meat or protein that is at your target price. Noting the things that you are showing short  and matching of any of those things are on sale .  Add your produce and dairy list and you are done.  

Shopping is quick because while you are going to two stores, you are buying less items.  Try to plan your trip to use less gas and try to go when it’s nit prime time  it just makes life easier.

Milk
Butter
Sour cream
Cottage cheese
Parmesan
Cheese , white. Yellow
Eggs
Carrots
Celery
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Potatoes
Onion

Bananas
Apples
Cantaloupe
Blueberries
Strawberries
Oranges
Grapes

Bread
Tortilla chips
Tortillas


******
Diced tomatoes
Pasta sauce
Pasta
Replentish backup catsup, mustard, salad dressing
Bbq sauce
Canned corn, green beans
Chili
Sliced black olives
Mild green chilies

Cream soup
Tomato soup

Friday Recipe

Yesterday, I spent some time looking through u tube for recipes for the bread baker and scratch bread.  I decided  to write them in a Spiral  notebook so I didn’t have bots of papers all over.   I usually try a recipe and then put the ones we like in a personal cookbook.

There are literally thousands of recipes out them. We have a basic list of groceries that I keep in stock. That diminishes the list accordingly.

Groceries on the cheap is based on a theory that includes replenishing a basic stock  of food  instead of going to the store and buying just what you need for a day or a week.  This theory cuts you food bill on half or more.   Our groceries cost less than four dollars over person per day last year, and four dollars per day the year before.   We eat well, we don’t eat fake food, and we eat basic food.
We eat a lot of comfort food that has been adapted to be low salt, sugar, hydrogenated oil, trans fats, HFCS, GMO, and preservatives.   Efficient scratch cooking is the key.  A lot of recipes, take no more time to make then their boxed or bagged counterparts and are free from the garbage.

Keeping a small stock of food and rotating the buying when the price is right saves money and assures you that when bleep happens, and bleep will happen— you will always have so,e food on the house.

I digress
Last night we had spaghetti and meatballs in the insta pot.  Total hands on time was three minutes.

• 1/2 package of spaghetti (1#) , broken in half and layer in the bottom of the pot like a bird nest, 
• 1 jar or can of pasta sauce , pour over pasta 
• Meatballs placed on top. ( ready made meatballs on sale are cheaper than scratch) 
• 2 cups of a stock poured along the sides of the pot. 
• Cover, seal, and process 8 minutes on manual.  
• Quick release. 
• Cost 2.38

Bread on the bread baker

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 beaten egg
• 2T butter
• 3 cups flour 
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese ( we used shaved real cheese) 
• 2 T sugar 
• 1-1/2 tsp garlic 
• 2-1/2 tsp yeast

Process 1.5 pound loaf with light crust