Recipe remake - stuffed tomatoes.

Stuffed tomatoes.    You could use this recipe for tomatoes on season or any peppers.

4 medium round tomatoes. ( or 1/2 peppers )
3/4 lb ground meat
2tsp onion flakes
2 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper
Healing quarter cup of grated cheese
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 egg, beaten


Directions
Cut a slice of the top of the tomato and scoop out the insides.  
Reserve the pulp and hold out about a drained cup and drain the tomatoes.  

Cook beef and onion over medium heat on skillet until the meat is no longer pink.
Stir on the seasonings and the reserved pulp.  Simmer aBout ten minutes or until liquid is reduced.  
Stir on rice, cheese and beaten egg.  Heat.   Fill shells.

Place stiffed vegetable in a baking pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or intilheated through.  

When using pepper shells ,you may want to cook the shells a few minutes in the microwave until they are crisp tender.

Safeway haul -

Quick Safeways haul.
First, a porkloin didn't exist.

Catalina coupon for 1.50 off folders coffee

Food 11.36 less 2.55 overcharge is 8.81
Treat 6.23

We bought the sparkling water, no sodium, no sugar for  2.00
And cherries for 4.23 they are inky in season here a short time and a real treat.


Barilla ready pasta 1.50 less a dollar coupon it is only 8 plus ounces and I surely wouldn't pay 150, but for fifty cents it would be a quick fix for granddaughter if we were going out.


Eggs  seventy eight cents

Butter one dollar ninty nine cents

Pork cube steaks were BOGO. Each steak will cost .57 or 1.14 a meal.

Please excuse the lack of numbers, my reader sometimes decides to quit using the shift keys,    Lol.

Ways to bulk cook hamburger / ground meat

Buying a bulk package of ground meat when it is a RBP is a good tool to use in lowering your food bill.     It's not only good for the bottom line, but it also affords you no wasted portion control.   In some families, if you cook 1.25 pounds and put 1.25 pounds on the table, they will eat 1.25 lbs, even if they do t need to,  

I usually cook between three and five pounds because there are three meat eaters here.    I wouldn't tackle more than ten pounds.   Divide or up after you decide which meals you might prep for.  

• A two pound meatloaf - save some for sandwiches or fake meatballs.   
• Hamburger crumbles 
• Taco meat 
• Meatballs 

Meatballs can have seasonings, catsup and breadcrumbs (homemade, of course) or oatmeal for filler same as meatloaf.   I use a portion scoop- ( Amazon or Costco business) and place them on a rack over a sheet pan.   The grease drips into the sheet pan and it takes only a short time to cook small meatballs,   Check them frequently.    Allow to cool and place in bags or containers in portion controlled  meal  portions.   Date the bags.    

Meat balls. And be speghetti and meatballs, meatball subs, or just meatballs in a cream sauce or gravy over noodles or rice or mashed potatoes.   

I usually eat meatloaf the day I am bulk cooking of I make meatloaf.  

Hamburger crumbles and taco meat take a lot of time out of dinner at dinner time.   Tacos can be a matter of minites.   

5 food items to buy at the DT.

OMGosh.  Yes I said dollar tree.    One caveat here, not all DT food are created equal.   You,need to read labels and check their origins and pull dares.    But, there are good buys on some foods.   These are name brands and made in America for the most part. Somethings are temporary and some things are almost always in stock.    Dollar tree and grocery outlet buy food that I surmise was a food that was test marketed,    Its good food .  many times its national brands, and it always is far below the market price.

A few years ago it was a meal sauce.    You know, add this to your meat and make a meal.   The sauce cost more than the meat.    It didn't fly.   There were coupons out there and I bought all that I had coupons for.   It made it FREE.   It goes without saying, FREE is a very good word when you are feeding a family and money is tight.

1. New now.   Hunts  tomato paste in packets.   The ounce weight is similar to a small can and it's cheaper than a small can and there is no waste.    Good for pizza sauce or any time you need tomato in a sauce.    How many times have you opened a can and then had to figure out what to do with the other half of the can. Ingredients : tomato paste  and citric acid.  Period.   
2. Pepperoni.    There are almost always coupons out there, 1.00 off two.   That makes 2 packages for a dollar and 1/2 a package can do a pizza, especially when you add bits of sausage, or leftover meats and a lot of veggies.    The same package is 1.69 at Winco.   
3. Suddenly salad.   A good start to a pasta salad.   It has pasta and dried veggies.   You can use the seasoning packet, or add your own.    It's upwards of two dollars in the stores.  Like closer to 2.50.   
4. Pretzels.    Many shapes.  Some name brands 
5. Name brand pizza sauce.    Cheapest ever.   Another savings of about half or more.    Take what you need and freeze the rest on ice cube trays and after it freezes, place in a freezer bag and pull what you need.   It defrosts quickly on the counter or you can zap it a few seconds in the microwave.   

Five things NOT to buy: 

1. Garlic 
2. Frozen fruit : I did get ore ida  potatoes one time.   
3. Cake mix : it's cheaper and a better brand at Winco.  
4. Instant potatoes : again cheaper at Winco: I paid .38 . 
5. Canned veggies. Again cheaper at Winco or on sale at FM.   

Chain store ads 6/21

Alberways 

Cherries 1.88

Salads 8-14 ounces 5/5

Butter 1.99

Eggs .78

Nathan's 3.99

QFC

Peppers .99

Strawberries 3/5 

Buy 6, save 3 - your best bet is when there are coupons to stack 

Milk, including  chocolate .99

 Breyer 3.49

Lean cuisine 1.99

Ragu 1.99

FIber one bars 199

That's about it.    

I'm not finding any rotation meat.    Safeways has some BOGO , but they aren't touting prices, sour can't tell if they are bargains or not.   

Facebook posts

This climate we are living in has given way to sensational post titles on facebook  that, if at first glance sound sensational rhetoric.  

Case in point:   KIRO  posted a piece ....you're going to die if you eat French fries.    if you just took the heading as gospel, you would never eat another French fry in your life. After reading the article, what it is saying is that trans fats that some people cook the potatoes in us bad for you.   we all know that trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS, too much salt, sugar, fake sugar, and processed meats are not good for you.  

In truth, potatoes are good for you.   they have vitamins and protein . If you cook them in the oven and toss them with olive  oil and some non salt seasoning, they actually taste good and are better for you.    I also cook carrots, potatoes, radishes, and sometimes broccoli the same way.  Oven roasted root vegetables.    Yes, I know, broccoli isn't a root vegetable.    radishes take on a sweet taste.   you could also add turnips and rutabagas, although they aren't a fan of most people.

The same thing happened when they were bad mouthing Nutella.   the reason why Nutella is supposed to be bad is that it has palm oil in it.  True, palm oil is bad for you.  It is a hydrogenated oil. but, it is curious to me that Nutella is bad for you, but fake butter is not.    Many fake butters that people are buying because they are supposed to be healthier than butter have hydrogenated oils in them too.  Some studies have found that hydrogenated oils thicken the blood.   Not exactly what a heart patient needs.    the only oils that are not hydrogenated are olive oil and canola oil has had some bad press too because it has GMO?  you have to use something and without vegetable oil, shortening, or hydrogenated oils, there is not much left.  we all need some fats in our diet.  I guess you have to take the least of the evils.  Peanut butter has hydrogenated oil too, some more than others.  Read the labels.   T

It seems that these days everything is bad for you.  My take is that everything in moderation. and I can omit some things that history has showed us is bad for you and use moderation for the rest.

I remember when liver was supposed to be good for you.   Eggs for a while were supposed to be bad for you, now they say that they are some of the best protein and the cholesterol is good cholesterol like olive oil is.

Bottom line, you can eat reasonably healthy avoiding the foods that are age old proven bad for you, avoid salt, sugar, trans fats, HFCS, and hydrogenated oils and still maintain a small grocery allowance.  

that's  what this blog is supposed to be all about.  

Add on: last night on Facebook,  it came out about how there were 11 things that are not good buys at Costco.   The funny thing about that article, is the one thing that they thought was a great buy, isn't a great buy at all.    Fake news has become a buzz word since the hacking of our election.  It seem to have given way a new kind of news.  

For the record.  Anyone, especially the poor, can benefit from buying some food items in bulk.   It, as usual, takes some common sense.  Like the lady on extreme couponing  that bought 52 boxes of couscous and her family that had never eaten it before,  you probably shouldn't buy something you don't ordinarily buy in quantity.   We buy rice, flour and oatmeal in bulk.    Rice and floor come in 25 pound bags and oatmeal comes in ten pounds.    That lasts is about three months for the flour and rice, and less on the oatmeal.     It is, not wasted as the article stated.  

What the article did say was that the five dollar rotisserie chicken was a bargain.   Not so much.  It's true it is a convenience and it is cheaper than going out to eat. But, pound for pound, it is one of the most expensive purchases of chicken you can make.

Let me explain,  the break even point on a whole chicken is three pounds.  At three pounds, you are paying for as much bone as you are meat.   So, a three pound chicken at Costco deli is 3.33 a pound,   Whole chickens , the best local brands are .87 a pound frequently.    Costco s chickens here are Draper valley.  

There are ways to cook a chicken 🍗 fast and easy.

Dont believe everything you read. ......

the internet is full of fake news these days.   kiro , for instance, posted a piece a few days ago that would give you the impression that French fries were bad for you and you were going to die if you ate them.    If you took the headline at face value, you might not eat another fry in your life.    The actual truth is that French fries cooked in hydrogenated , trans fats are bad for you.

Potatoes, although a starch, are actually good for you if you cook them in olive oil or canola oil.   they can be cooked in the oven when tossed with olive oil and seasoned with a non salt seasoning.    of course, anything in moderation.    

This post was done on a lap top that I am trying to get to work.    actually, I am pulling my hair out by the roots and wanting to throw it through the window.   lucky for it, our windows are too small for it to fit.   LOL.    

kitchen management June 19

Kitchen management is a tool used to organize and prep your meals for the week in a block of time, usually about 1 to 2 hours.  A hour or so once a week can save a lot of time when you are getting dinner on the table during the hectic dinner hour.

Based on sundays post for meal plans, here is a sample of a kitchen management.

• chicken can be cooked in the insta pot from frozen.   wash potatoes enough for baked potatoes and french fries in the oven.  I use a dedicated brush and vinegar water.   store in colander for air circulation.   
• pizza dough can be made ahead for a day, or you can make it the day of the meal.   
• wash and cut veggie sticks and store in fresh container. 
• mark the meal plan the day before you are going to have pork chops to set them in the fridge to thaw.   
• wash veggies for green salad and place in fresh container. 
• wash and disinfect counter tops and drains.   j
• clean fridge, dump anything to bad to salvage and salvage anything that might be on the edge.  Blanch and freeze or dehydrate if appropriate,    
• Wash the floor. 
• Pick a monthly cleaning chore and rotate it.   Waxing cupboards, or washing them if they are painted, putting the stove fan screen through the dishwasher ,   (Metal) .  Organizing the pantry,or clean the oven,       

A few minutes can save a lot of time and clean up down the line.   I usually take that opportunity to bake something so it can be baking while I clean , or start bread dough so it can be rising while I go on with the other tasks,    

I would probably make rice at the same time I cook the noodles for speghetti.   Multi tasking saves time,   

Winco haul

wimco haul with prices


Hamburger and hot dog buns .75
Ic cream 300
Blueberries 4.98
Strawberries 1.58
Raspberries 2.98
Granny Smith apples 398
Cucumbers .48
Hot sauce , salsa 1.58
Tortilla chips 1.68

Total 23.90
Prev  17.00
Total  40.90

Meal plans -week of 619/17

Meal  plans for the week that is taking advantage of the bulk purchases I got at grocery outlet .

• Pizza 🍕- granddaughters favorite because she can make it.    LOL 
• Breakfast 4 dinner 
• Hot dogs , oven fries, veggie sticks 
• Pork chops, sweet potatoes. Peas and carrots 
• Chicken, baked potatoes. Chopped broccoli 
•  Speghetti and meatballs , salad 
• Tacos. Spanish rice 

Notes 

•  pizza cost 1.30 
• Eggs were .78 and are still .79 at FM this week,     Total quiche and fruit 3.19 
• Hot dogs are Nathan's that I got for 2/5 so a 1/2 a package is 1.25 bums are cheapest at winco, 2.75
• Pork chops were from 1.49 pork loin.   Sweet potatoes are .33 at grocery outlet, and green beans were .33.  ( 1.12, .33, .33) 1.78 /3 =.59 
• Chicken was free. Potatoes are cheapest at Winco, chopped  broccoli was .89. Total .77 w chicken 1.65 
• Tacos: taco kit was a dollar at grocery outlet. Taco meat was from 3.28 a pound 1/4 lb.   add cheese, lettuce and tomato.    Rice is almost free- .03 per serving.    2.67
• spaghetti and meatballs: spaghetti .44, meatballs 1.00. Lettuce .75, tomato 🍅.50.  Total 2.69

Total.   16.03 or .76 a serving.   Now, we are seniors and a small child and I plate the normal RDA for protein .   I also do not add pantry items such as flour, sugar, oil for cooking  etc in my calculations.  

Bullets - kitchen hacks

Just a few kitchen hacks

• When cutting vegetables, olives , etc for a salad, hold a little back of anything that can go on a pizza.   Stick it on a quart bag and out in the freezer door.    I also get pizza sauce at the Dollar Tree and freeze it on ice cubes.   It takes two or theee cubes for a 14 inch pizza of younsoread it with a pastry brush,  ( silicone ) we call this almost free pizza.    Any bots of meats like the end of the sausage or a couple of tablespoons of ham cubes go on the door shelf too.    
• Don't store coffee, hot pepper sauce, onions, tomatoes, garlic in the fridge. 
• You can cut the top part of onions, green onions, lettuce, celery, and put them in water,   Then plant them.    Green onions just keep growing and you can cit parts off as you need hem,    
• Always start the thing that takes the longest to cook when prepping a meal.    You can fit in the rest while the first thing is cooking.    Cook the pasta for a pasta salad, while the pasta is cooking , you can chop veggies and make the dressing, for example. 
• One of the best timesavers for dinner prep so to cook all the bulk ground meat including sausage at a time,    De- fat it to reduce your trans fats by up to 17 percent,    This is especially important for sausage or more than 7 percent fat content ground meat,   Portion control on quart bags the ground beef and place the quart bags in a gallon bag.   Date the gallon bag and label.    Dinner is amsnap when the meat is already cooked and you will find that you are more likely to de-fat a batch at your leisure than you would of you are doing it on the fly,   
• Always buy multiples of anything that won't spoil and you use on a regular basis of it's a steal of a price.    It's just more bang for your buck.   Some people think they need to be minimalist, but you can be a minimalist so,where else in your life. There is a line between hoarder and being prepared and cutting your food bill.     You don't have to have a coat closet full of sodas. Lol.   But six cans instead of one can of green beans when you are paying .33 instead of .58 really helps you bottom line,   Just buy something else on sale the next week in place of,the beans , buy the corn or diced  tomatoes.    It all comes out on the end, but the end result is that you paid 1/2 or less for your food.    So,emfor this week, so,e for next if ):);  happens  in your life.    A job loss. The streets flood so trucks can't get to the stores. the kids get sick.    Any number of reasons 

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

Cherries 199

Chick roast 2.97 

Eggs .79

Peppers, 99

 English cucumbers .99

Note : this is a good example why you buy things ahead of time and when the orice is low.   The retailers know you are likely to buy at any cost when their is a  holiday.  Sweet baby rays is 4/5.  That's 1.25 each.   A few weeks back, they were 1.00 and with the coupon , they were .65.   That's half price.   

Buns are 3/5.   That's 1.67.   They are .88 or less at Winco,    That's half price again.  

Johmsonville  sausage 2/5 

Kroger ice cream 2/5 

Nathan's franks 7.99/ 2 lbs. 

strawberries 2/5 

Zucchini .99

Radishes 2/.99

Tortinos paety pizza 100$$ for 1.00 off 4 

Foster Farms split chicken breast 1.69. A few weeks ago they were .87.  (give or take  a penny ) again , that's half price.    

The insert with the Sunday paper has coupons for hummus and blue bunny ice cream .    

Who says there isn't coupons for real food.   LOL.  

Protein.

Protein is the highest priced group of foods.   That means to save on protein it is imperative  to save on your grocery bill and cut your grocery expense in  half.   Duh!
Most of us eat far more protein than we need.

The RDA for protein is .08 grams for killagram of your weight.  That's far to technical for me to fathom.   The bottom line is about 46 grams for women and 56 for men.  

To put thing in perspective there is 61 grams in 8 ounces of chicken breast,   A woman would need six ounces of chicken breast and 1 egg ( 6 grams) .

Consider that protein is in a lot of incidental foods.   There was 5 grams in our tomato soup and that was before I added some blue cheese.   We also had cheese in cheesy garlic biscuits and milk in our chocolate desert.

I think what I am saying, is that no one needs to eat the best part of a two pound roast.

Eating realistic amounts of protein can drastically cut yournfood budget.   Almost always serving a slice or whole chicken breast is eating too much protein and increasing  your cost.   Americans eat far more protein than any other nation.    A whole piece of meat shouldn't cover more than the palm of your hand,  your plate should be a quarter meat, a quarter starch, and a half vegetable to be healthy.

I find that easier in the summer where you can eat more salads.  Lettuce this week was two dollars a head at QFC.  The darker the green, the more food value it has.   Romaine is better than head lettuce.

Again, NO food is going to do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.
There was a joke om Facebook about kale and cocoanit oil .  Cocoanit oil has MORE saturated fat than a four ounce piece of sirloin   steak.   It's a fad.   Fads might as well start with a Dollar sign surrounding them.   Learn to differentiate between a trend to be more healthy and a trend to separate you from  your money.   I think some trends  are marketing ploys to get you to spend more money at places like Trader Joe's and PCC, and Whole Foods.

Case in point ....I bought a carton of strawberries 🍓 at QFC.  They put the organic strawberries in woth the regular ones.  The organic ones were five dollars, the regular ones were a dollar and eighty eight cents or more than double the price.    In two days they were rotten.  Again. No food will do your family any good if you are  feeding it to the garbage disposal. I had the same thing Halle to carrots at Costco.

Organic doesn't mean that your food has no pesticides.   They can still grow organic in a field that has been pesticide free for three years.   HEY people, some  pesticides live  longer than three years in soil that has been full of pesticides for years. Wash your produce in vinegar water, peel it if appropriate.   Never buy organic bananas.  Themskin id too thick for anything to penetrate and you are paying more for nothing.   I'm not convinced that organic is better.   This is my opinion, take it or leave it.

Thursday bullets- emergency recipes

Five things you can make yourself in a pinch

1. Soda crackers 
2. Cheese from dry milk 
3. Sour cream from dry milk 
4. Buttermilk 
5. Sweetened condensed milk 

Recipe - low sodium, low fat white sauce mix

This  is a low salt, low fat version of a cream soup mix .    Also used  for white sauce or cheese sauce.

2 cups dry milk powder
1-1/2 cups cornstarch
1/2 cup low sodium chicken granules.

You can substitute vegetable broth granules .
This is stored in the cabinet, but you do have to adhere to the sell by date on the cornstarch.

Recipe : 1/3 cup  mix to 1-1/4 cups water.    Stir together in saucepan over medium heat until,

Makes equivalent to 18 cans of soup.

To make: place ingredient together in saucepan and stir  with wisk  over medium heat until thickened.
For cheese sauce, add cheese of choice.

Thursday Bullets : so you forgot to thaw the meat!

Ten quick dinners for when a ;););) storm happens, or you just forgot to prep  dinner.

1. Nachos,   Remember the ground meat bulk hack 
2. Tacos 
3. Sausage, peppers, corn on the cob and red potatoes 
4. Mac and cheese 
5. Pancakes and bacon or sausage 
6. Chicken parm ( use FF chicken patties from the freezer section, 
7. Hot dogs 
8. Hamburgers 
9. Speghetti and meatballs ( freezer or bulk made) 
10. Baked potato bar  ( leftovers or cheese, broccoli, sour cream, canned chilli, bacon.   

DInner

The sausage is separated from the veggies because my daughter is vegan,    Potatoes, red peppers, and onion was oven roasted.    Tossed with olive oil and sorinkked with garlic pepper and pink sea salt.  

Thursday bullets : poverty

There are a lot of stats and proven theories that stem around poverty.   Many can be corrected even if you have a strict budget.

1. People that are on a position to wonder where the next meal is coming from have stress and it has been proven that the stress reduces your life expectancy.    
2. People that wonder where the next meal is coming from tend to over eat to compensate . 
3. Not knowing how to  s t r e t c h your dollar forces people to buy garbage food or on other words, cheap food that has little nutrition, but makes the tummy happy.    
4. This purchasing of junk food tends to make people obese, which in turn, also reduces their life expectancy.   
5. This is exactly why I wrote this blog.    I have and am still developing ideas that make it possible to eat well on a strict budget.   

If you are r easing this and,not on a strict budget you can still save  money and be more efficient on the kitchen while making scratch dinners.    And, you might consider sharing the web site with someone that is having trouble.   Thanks, 

No spend week Winco haul

The freezer and pantry are full.    It's time for a no soend week.   Of course, no soend never means absolutely no spend .   There are always fresh fruits and veggies needed to  fill-in.  

Mustard. .78
Blue bunny ice cream 2.78
4 lbs carrots @ .96 -1.96
Potatoes, 10 lbs 1.78
Strawberries, lrg 1.78
Frozen French fries , 2 lbs .98

Total 10.00.


Fresh food  and the mustard we were out of and  who can live without ice cream!  😂
I realized we had some hash browns, but no French  fries, and sometimes it's just easier to make frozen,    Window fries are not perfect, all the fries aren't all the same size.    They all eat the same and the fiidmvakue is the same, they are half the price of other fries.    One time, I got ore ida at the dollar tree and when I can get regular ones with coupons , I do that.   Being flexible helps you stay on a strict budget.  

Chain store ads 6/14-17

Alberways,

Grapes .88
Cheerios 3/5$$
Hamburger and hot dog buns 2/100@@
Sweet baby rays - .49 limit 2 @@. Digital only


QFC

Cantaloupe .49 lb
Berries 1.88
Eggs .99
Dijiorno 2/9

????    GM cereals 4/8 with free milk. ?????

10-10
Popcycles
Cream cheese
Sour cream / cottage cheesec



About it.