Morning cooking

It's always a good thing when you can cook dinner early  and not have to cook at the crazy dinner time.  

Cheese sauce made from white sauce mix and grated cheeses.   I used regular cheddar, sharp cheddR and motts.  

Making elbows in the microwave for Mac and cheese.   Serving mixed veggies with it.  

Refrigerator artisan bread dough from King Arthur flour.  Doing its 2 hour rest on the counter.    

Dinner, Friday 

Tonight , Pork chops on cranberry apple bread dressing, broccoli 

Fred Meyers ad for tomorrow

The ad s

Berries :  strawberries or blackberries 2/4
Pears .99
Dreyers ice cream 2/5
Smoked sausage 2/5@@

Fruit pie 3.49

Tomatoes and beans .59.   - really want .50

Foster farms, thighs, drumsticks, whole chicken .99


About it.   New year new higher prices.  

Onward and upward.....or downward .....

This blog started out I be to teach people on snap peas r a limited budget how to nit run out of money before they ran out of month,   That was 4.5 years ago. people from all different stages of their liv s have been reading, and from all over the world.    I really thought that it was only going to be local.    I'm not complaining, I think it's really neat.  

Based in the political climate that America finds themselves in, I am attempting to take e conomy a step further.   I am trying new recipes and trying to find the quickest, easiest bread recipes I can in order to cut the bread bill.   Bread is expensive and there is something about a piece of crusty bread straight from the oven that makes dinner special.  One can lay up to twenty dollars for a pizza.   Pizza crust dough costs 1.50.   Pizza dough bought with bulk flour costs .17.   That's a remarkable difference,   Toppings can be what's hanging around the fridge and some cheese.   The last motzerella I bought was two dollars a pound at Costco.  A cheese pizza can cost a dollar or less.    Pizza sauce is a dollar at the dollar store.   It's a name brand that can be found in a lot of grocery stores.  You can freeze it in ice cube tray and pull just enough to use on a pizza.  
Pepperoni is .50 with a coupon for Hormel at the dollar  store,  The  same box at Winco is 1.69.

I make a thin crust.  I don't  need the carbs and hubby prefers a thin crust,   Yesterday I tried a new recipe for crust that is done in the kitchen aid .  Granddaughter spread pizza  sauce on the 1/2 cooked crust with a basting brush,   We added cooked sausage from the freezer, cheese, red peppers that I cut with kitchen shears frozen, and granddaughter put a half package of pepperoni on it.  
Pizza is always a hit with most families.    This one is really inexpensive.  

Night before last we had cowboy speghetti.   It is a recipe from Betty Crocker,    I used vegetable speghetti, 7 percent hamburger that I had already cooked  and de-fatted , some peppers, diced tomatoes and cheese on top.  It is baked in a cassarole dish and you can make it in the morning and bake it at dinner time.    Buying some diced tomatoes with seasoning akreadynon them saves time and money.   I used tomatoes that had Italian type seasoning  in them and omitted the herbs it called for.   They also come fire roasted and with chilies for Tex mex dishes.    You aren't saving a lot, but every little bit helps.    We eat a lot of Italian and Tex mex and judging from what I see on the internet, a lot of other families do too.

On another note , our QFC has free downloads on Friday,   My husband just called me because he wanted something from the store and wondered if there was a free Friday download.    It is refried beans and his week.  I don't take a free download if we aren't going to use it unless it is something I can bring to the food bank or know someone that can use it.   Like cat food for the grandcat! Lol
Free when you are on a tight budget is a very nice word.

To recap, I'm on a mission to learn easy, cheap bread recipes in order to lower our food bill more.   Without compromising good nutrition. I will keep looking for easy, nutritious food for the smallest amount of money,   Looking at grocery hauls on u tube, I am finding all kinds of prices all over the us.   Eggs can be as low as .29 a dozen and as much as 3.69. For example.  Prices are relative.   I can only speak for the PNW,   I can, however, speak to stretching your food dollar, no matter where you are.   Techniques don't change. Find your cheapest stores.   Shop two stores if possible.  Shop sales, buy in quanity when prices are their lowest and your food can be frozen or is shelf  stable.    Don't get caught having to pay  that nasty f word- full price.   😂.

The habit of going to the store every week and buying the same things for a weeks worth of food is not in your best interest.   There is always someplace to store extra food.   When I had a two bedroom apartment, I used an ottoman that had storage on it for canned goods.  My 3 yo loved  to go hunting for that can of green beans we needed for dinner,   It kept him busy, in my eyesight and I could cook the rest of dinner.   Whatever works.  I have seen people pit their canned goods on a plastic storage crate and put it in the corner of the kitchen. Or use a linen closet.  
What ever works.


Thanks for stopping by.    Happy frugal eating!

PNW target prices.

Note : a target price is the lowest price I have found on the list of items that we buy on a regular basis.   It has nothing to do with the sogremwith the red balls.    LOL


Ground beef- 7 percent fat 3.00.

Shredded cheese 2.00

Chicken breast 2.00

Pork loin 1.69

Sausage 3 pounds  8.00 - Costco

Whole chickens 1.00

Sliced cheese 2.39

Canned diced tomatoes 🍅.50

Canned vegetables .50

Frozen veggies -16 ounces 1.00

Pasta -16 ounces 1.00 - blue box

Cake mix .88

Dry beans 1.00 a pound

Idahoan  mashed potatoes .87

Diced green chillis .58

Sliced olives .68

While black olives 1.00

Milk 2.00 gallon
Yogurt .50

Ten things to do with chicken breast

Whole chicken is often a dollar a pound,    You can cook it on the slow cooker. ( season the skin, place it on a bed  of  roughly cut onions, and cook it in high for an hour a pound.   

By far, the fastest way to cook a chicken whole.   

Roasting chicken.  Stuff the chicken with just about anything you have hanging around the kitchen.  A onion, 🍎 apple , 🍊 orange , lemon 🍋 .    Place it on a rack in a roasting pan and oil the skin with olive oil and salt and pepper it.    Bake at 375 until it is done.   The juices will run clear and the internal temperature in the thickest  part of the thigh will be 180 degrees.    

We can get four meals from a chicken- chicken soup, a meal from the dark meat ( thighs and legs ) and 2 meals from the breast.  Three of us eat meat.   

We make chicken noodle soup, I brush hencooked dark meat pieces with BBQ sauce and warm on the oven, and we have a meal of roast chicken and a meal of a cassarole or chicken enchaladas with  the other half of the breast. 

The other alternative is to buy split chicken breasts,   The latest price imcouldmfindmthem isn2.28 a pound.   Bonkess, skinkess chicken  breast here can be as much as eight dollars a pound and you don't know where they came from.   It is easy and quick to cut the rib portion off and put in a stockpot with water and herbs to make stock.  The chicken you gleam from the bones is an added advantage to use for taco meat, pizza, or a cassarole or soup.   I bag each chicken breast and out the bags in angallon bag,   Easy to find on the freezer.   We have a side by side and I mark the baskets so things are easy to find,   Using bins from the dollar store hemisphere in the upright freezer,   

Ten ways with boneless , skinless chicken  breast.  Note, of you cook chicken breast with the skin on and then remove the skin, your chicken will be juicer.  I have been cooking the frozen breast in the pressure cooker for 8 minutes.    

1. BBQ chicken pizza 
2. Buffalo chicken pizza 
3. Chicken noodle cassarole 
4. Italian chicken in the skin cooker : diced tomatoes, black olives, Italian seasoning, choooed onion.  Cook on low and add cooked chicken cubes just before serving, or brown raw chicken in a pan and add to the slow cooker.   Cook raw chicken like 8-10 hours on low.  
5. Chicken potato soup. 
6. Chicken and spinach stuffed pasta rolls. 
7. Chicken pot pie 
8. Chicken enchiladas 
9. Chicken tacos 
10. Chicken stir fry w ramen noodles 
11. Chicken chow mein 
12. Cobb salad 
13. Chefs salad 
14. Tacos 
15. Chicken noodle soup 

Morning in the kitchen

I didn't finish kitchen management on Monday because I had another commitment.    I have been on a mission to learn easy ways to make bread.   Store bought bread is appreciably more expensive than home made and tastes better and fresher.    It has s extreme,y cheap price if you buy bulk flour at Costco, but even five pound bags at Winco are a remarkable savings,   The trick is to find recipes that you can make quick and easy so that you don't spending all day on the kitchen.

Today, I cooked and de-fated the two pounds of sausage I bought for 4.21 a Winco with a coupon.
made the cowboy spaghetti for tonight's dinner and put it on the fridge.   I'll just cook it a. It longer or take it out to warm up.  

Next, I'm trying to make small bread loaves with the kitchen aid.   They take two rises, but I can set timers and work in  my studio in between.

Back later with pics

The ads

Alberways

Cheese 3.99 @@
Milk 1.79
Sirloin tip roast    2.99 -   Note cheaper than good hamburger- grind it.

QFC

Blues 3.99
Oranges .88



That's about it.  

Don't sell yourself short

Being on a very small budget doesn't mean you have to buy the cheapest of cheap.    You can pick inexpensive sources ofmorotein and still buy the best quality there is.    We have 7 percent hamburger that I de- fat.   If it is too dry, I add olive oil.    Olive oil boosts your good cholesterol, trans fats don't.

If I buy tuna, I buy solid albacore from Costco.    I do hear that bumble bee light is the healthiest.  

I only buy Foster farms (local ) chicken.   I know it isn't dirty and it's fresh .    Solitmchicken breast is up to 2.28 a pound and it is easy to cut the ribs off and make stock and gleam some chicken pieces for other recipes.    Boneless, skinlessmchicken breast are as much as 8.00 a pound here.  Even frozen ones at Costco are pricy.  They are also flat and small.    I can cook a chicken breast from frozen on 8 minutes in the pressure cooker.    It doesn't have a crispy crust, but normally o am adding it to a cassarole or chicken pot pie or salad.  

A pork loin is easy to d- fat  and makes many meals cheap.  

The dollar store has many name brand items that are cheaper than the regular grocery stores.   You have to know your prices and your package sizing,    Pizza 🍕 sauce, hormel pepperoni with coupons or without. Tortillas. Pound cake, some frozen potatoes.   Watch the frozen department, some come from china.

Always watch your garlic.  Many garlic products ( already chopped) come from china.   I looked at four before I found American garlic.   The garlic at Costco is American.    It's more expensive,   Sometimes you need to bite the bullet and buy something that is more expensive to win at the health thing.   I bought regular dry garlic.   It wasn't cheap either.    I can use garlic powder.  

You have to pick your battles.   Some things are easily economize on  - regular carrots instead of baby carrots,   They wash the baby carrots in bleach.  Cutting carrots is nitmthat hard of a job.   Some recipes can be done in a food processor.  

Buy quality food, don't lay full price.   Buy in quantity.    Pick your battles.    I buy regular rice.    It's a stretch to get hubby to eat rice, period.    Brown rice would be a real stretch.    I buy pasta when I can that is double fiber or vegetable.    There are ways to get more bang for your buck without sacrificing the budget.    It just takes a mindset.  

Meals on a tight budget

Breakfast 4 dinner Sunday 

Granddaughter buttered the English muffins while I cooked the rest of dinner.    

Tonight's dinner is Italian  chicken over rice.   The rice is cooked, the Italian chicken is in the slow cooker and peasant bread I just took out of the oven.   It's 11:00 am . Add broccoli for a side . 

Tomorrow is pizza night.   It's flexible so those that are on special diets can adjust To fit their perceived needs.   A cheese pizza costs a dollar or less to make.    Even adding toppings is still not expensive .   You can make almost free pizza.   It's a concept where every time you chop things for other dinners that have a pizza topping in them you save a bit and put it on a bag in the freezer  door.   

When you have enough for a pizza, you are ready.   I always have pepperoni that I o lay buy when I have a coupon at the dollar tree.   Name brand pepperoni that is 1.69 at Winco , is a dollar at dollar tree.  Now, factor in the 1.00 off two coupon and the cost is .50 a box.   I fry sausage and defatted it for the freezer.    Sometimes we have chicken pizza, sometimes  we have just cheese pizza or vegetarian.   Pizza sauce is a dollar for the same name brands as the other stores at the dollar tree.   Put the sauce in an ice cube tray and freeze.   Dump the cubes after they freeE into a zip lock bag.   Two or three cubes can be thawed on the counter or in the microwave for a pizza.    Granddaughter loves to brush it on it's a basting brush.    

Wednesday is cowboy speghetti.  It can be made ahead and put in the oven to heat through.  It's a Betty Crocker recipe.    Mexican flavors meet up with speghetti.    

That takes us through Wednesday.    

Grocery haul

We went to Fred Meyers, the dollar tree, and Winco.  

I did replentish a couple of things because I  got good prices.   Most were not freezer  except what  something we were completely out of.   

Dollar tree 3.00

12 flour tortillas 

10 cans of enchalada sauce 

2 packages of pepperoni. 

Total value 15.40 

Winco 

English cucumber .78 

2 cans chilli 1.98

2 Jimmy Dean sausage 4.21

2 lbs peas - 1.53 

5 lbs apples 4.80

13.22

Fred Meyers 

2 milk 1.98

Sour cream .99

Bananas .52

Cantaloupe 2.50

Salsa 1.67

6 green beans 3.00

 10.66

26.88 

2.00 left from last week plus 25.00 is 27.00

Left .12 

It's a mindset.

Lowering your food bill is a lot about changing your mindset.    There are all kinds of little things that make for a big thing when collected together.  

• Don't just pick up the same brand of things out of habit,  price compare,   Case in point:  dishwasher detergent.  I always bought Finish,  I stopped to compare prices.    Costco brand is remarkably cheaper and you don't have to open the individual package. 
• Off brands are sometimes cheaper, but sometimes to buy the brand name in sale with coupons are a lower price.   Compare.   
• Finding EASY scratch recipes lowers your food bill.   Unless your hobby is being a foodie and you like soending all day in the kitchen, finding simple scratch cooking recipes is a good thing.  Most of us have busy lives and children to take care of, or jobs etc.  It's desirable to do grand recipes and your enthusiasm for new year, new you is high in January, but when ;$;)() Haines, your enthusiasm will wane.    Start out as you can hold out,   Easy scratch recipes will be more sustainable as life goes on.   
• Having the right equipment makes scratch cooking a lot more desireable  and efficient.   Case in point,   With foirmofmusm I dint make huge pots of dried beans,   Dried beans are a lot cheaper and more healthy than canned beans, but it's just too much work to make a cup or two ofmbeans,  beans do not freeze well.  They loose their texture.  I usually have too much basic food in the freezer to take room up with premade items or bread.     Enter a pressure cooker.   The insta pot makes rice, has a slow cooker function, and is a pressure cooker.   I can make beans with no pre soak  and it takes seconds of prep time.   Wash and pick beans,   Drop in pot. Add water, put the top on the cooker, check valve and push the bean button.    Done.  
•    We all will eat too much of a good thing if we are not paying  attention.  Obesity is a big problem  in the United States.    Too much junk food.   If you don't buy it, you won't eat it.   Simple solution.   If you are hankering for something crunchy, make peanut butter celery.   
• Use 8 inch plates and smaller glasses for juice and milk.   Or tricks the brain into using smaller portions.   Read the nutritional requirements for your children and adults.   Eating correct portions and avoiding junk food is good for your pocketbook and your health.   
• Think well balanced, portion controlled diet.    Well balanced is eating from the food pyramid.   Unless your medical doctor is telling you that you have a medical problem, eat normal, regular, balanced diet in moderation.   When you take something out of your diet, you are playing with fire and unless you have someone that is educated in nutrition telling you how to compensate for your loss, you are going to get burned.   It might take until you get older to take its toll, but, it will take its toll.    The internet is full of people telling you this and that is bad for you,  like everything in the grocery store, someone has an opinion of.   Almond milk has too much sugar, kale can make you have lead poisoning.    Milk has hormones, soy milk has more.   Wait ten minutes and they will change their mind.   
• Stick to tried and true.    We know certain things are bad for you.  It's kinda like listening to a child at Christmas time and their Santa list.  It changes daily.   I always waited until I saw a distinctive pattern to know what the child really wanted.   We know that too much salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS is bad for you.   Your body needs some salt and some oils and carbs to function,    It's all about moderation and balance.    
• Go back to basics.    You can eat well balanced, nutritious food and still avoid a lot of the unhealthy food out there.    Moderation is truly the key.     When a item is a fad item , thenorice goes up.    The more yuppie the environment, the higher the price.  I have been looking at a lot of grocery hauls from all over the country.   I think it really remarkable that our prices in the PNW are appreciably higher than the same thing in the mid-west.    A lot of things don't make sense.   Eggs are as low as 29 cents a dozen in upstate ny, but the lowest I have got them for ism.79 with a coupon, and most of the time they are at least a dollar.   Beef is cheaper on sale than ground turkey here.  Ground turkey is as low as a dollar back east.   In other words, it's what the traffic will bear.  There should be no difference in frozen food procesmbetween the mid west and the PNW.   

Meals in review

1-7-2017

Chicken Alfredo , broccoli, artisan sourdough bread

Nachos.   Refried beans, olives, grape tomatoes, cheese, mild green peppers , salsa.   Served with. Organic tortilla chips free from QFC .  

Homemade tomato soup, chicken quesedas.   

Chicken sandwiches, fries, fruit cup 

Sausage and cheese quiche, mixed berries 

Pork tacos, Spanish rice 

Roasted root vegetables and Pork cubes.   

The ads for fm tomorrow

Note : these are for tomorrow.  

Pineapple .99
Oranges 4 lb bags 2/5
Milk .99
Cottage cheese/ sour cream .99@@
Bumble bee tuna 2/1@@ limit 10
Blues 4.99

About it.  

Meal plans

Meal plans using stock  items and perishables.     I have 3.69 left in budget plus 25.00 is 28.69

1. Slow cooker Italian chicken on rice,    Chicken cubes, Italian seasoning, black olives, diced tomatoes.    
2.  Pizza
3. Breakfast 4 dinner 
4. Cowboy speghetti -Betty Crocker - French bread 
5. Tuna melts, veggie sticks 
6. Pork chops on apple cranberry dressing , salad 
7. 4 cheese Mac and cheese (scratch) and peas and carrots 

Notes : 

1. Slow cooker chicken dish used a chicken breast,   Serve over rice.   Add a salad 
2. Pizza from scratch.    Cheese and veggies, save some black olives from yesterday,    
3. Cowboy speghetti is a cassarole, can be made ahead and out in the oven before dinner,  allow more time if it is pre made  and cold. Make sour dough quick bread 
4. Tuna melts , veggie sticks.     
5. Pork chops browned  on the stove.   Make stove top tyoe stuffing and add choooed appkemand craisens or cut up cranberries.  Stove top was two dollars , Winco  brand was a dollar.   Target had the double package for eighty eight cents after Christmas.    
6. Mac and cheese.    Scratch White sauce from homemade mix,   Clean out the cheese drawer using bits of cheese.   Never pay more than a buck for elbows.   Most of the time I can find them for less.   All else fails, Barilla is a buck at the dollar store.    Peas and carrots are cheapest at Winco with a coupon.   
7. Breakfast 4 dinner. Cooked  and de-fatted sausage in the freezer is a quick step to a sausage and cheese quiche.  Add a fruit salad.   We are still getting berries cheap.    

3.69 left

It's been two week  in no spend January .  I started right after Christmas.    I have 3.69 left of a 25.00 a week budget for perishables.   I did buy ten pounds of flour with that.

We are going to have nachos tonight for dinner.    QFC ( Kroger) is giving away nacho chips this week.   I will make some refried beans and pull taco meat from the freezer.   We have grape tomatoes 🍅 and cheese and peppers.  Sour cream.   I still have sour cream from before and cranberries, so I'll make another batch of cranberry bread.

Tomorrow's meal is breakfast for dinner and I have English muffins and pork sausage thawed.    I'll make sausage patties while I am in the kitchen.  

Planning m als makes things more efficient,   The more efficient you are, the easier it is to make dinner when you aren't in the mood or life throws you a curve ball.  

We are still under five dollars a dinner.    Some dinners are well under five dollars.    Last nights dinner was pretty much gleamed from other dinners.    The flour tortillas were left from the dollar taco kit that we used last week, the chicken 🍗 was left from the stock I made from rib bones left when I de-boned our chicken breast.   Tomato soup was made from one garlic clove, a carrot, and two cans of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning,   Buying tomatoes with the seasoning in the, when you can saves time and money,    I added the chicken stock from the bones.   Total added ingredients was 1.50 for cheese and tomatoes.    None of that took much non passive time.

The more you cook, the faster you get at it.    I am on a mission to lower our food costs and still eat well balanced meals - protein, starch, and fruits and veggies.    It has worked for decades: don't  fix what isn't broken.  

Write  lists, make meal plans.   If things seem overwhelming, writing a list a list, prioritizing the list and work your way down the list.  It is one of the first things we learned in management school.   It works hard so you don't have to.  

Thanks for stopping by,   Fred Meyer ads later.

😇waste not, want not

One of the ways to s t r e t c h your food dollar is not to waste.  That seems like a given.    It just takes being mindful of what's in your fridge and what you can do with it.

Yesterday I made blueberry muffins for breakfast.   I was having a meeting at my house.    After that , I set out to think about dinner and assessing the fridge,   I had cranberries left from Christmas that needed  to be used up.   I searched in the search box on Betty Crocker  on line cookbook.  I have hundreds of cookbooks, but find myself looking at the on line cookbook when I need to use up something.

I found a cranberry bread recipe that used up not only the cranberries , but sour cream and and orange peel.    I had all of that.    I made it on my smaller loaf pans so that it would take less time to cook and save energy.   Making more  than one thing in succession saves energy costs because you are not preheating the oven multiple times.  I also made baked hard cooked eggs.   It's easy and makes perfect eggs every time.

We had chicken sandwiches and French fries for dinner with a fruit salad,  I used the orange that I had made orange zest with in the salad.  

 Tonight we are having homemade tomato soup and chicken quesadillas   .   I will use the soft taco shells  from the taco kit we had last week and the chicken left  from the bones  that I cooked when I de-boned chicken breasts.    The tomato soup calls for three cans of diced tomatoes, a carrot, and some chicken stock,   I have that from the chicken bones.

That's why planning your meals helps to stretch your dollars And why it's important to keep ahead of your fridge.

I am on a no spend January mission.   The goal this year is to eat well on less than we did last year.    Our medical insurance went up and it's been a brutal winter so far for the heat  bill.  Our social security did not go up one dime: they gave us a small raise and took it back for Medicare.    It's a challenge to put  good food on the table for less.   I am enjoying trying new recipes and the challenge, I always want to be learning something- it's how we grow at any age,     Our granddaughter is learning that food  doesn't come out of a box or a bag.    It a good thing for children  to learn.  

Last nights dinner. 

Homemade tomato soup and chicken quesedas.  

Pizza 🍕 toppings

last night we had pizza.    I had made the dough and oartiallynbakedmotmthemnightmbefife, but my daughter didn't eat it.  

We made buffalo chicken  pizza.   I had previously de-boned chicken breast and cooked the bones to make chicken broth.  I leave meat on the rib bones and pucknthemchicken ( like making chicken soup) after the broth is done,   I reduce the chicken  stock  so it takes less room on the freezer.  

Buffalo chicken pizza starts with ranch or blue cheese dressing instead of the traditional red pizza sauce.  

Next: the chicken pieces that have been tossed with a few drops of Tabasco or the "hot  sauce" of your choosing,

Top with blue cheese, regular mottserella cheese grated, or a combination,  

I add choooed red pepper for color.   You could also add parsley or red pepper flakes.    Mushrooms.  

I kept it more mellow because granddaughter was eating it and grandpa doesn't like mushrooms.  


Bake at 425 on a cookie sheet or pizza stone until the cheese is melted.    The dough was partially cooked.    

The ads

the ads

First : Winco had binkess, skinless chicken breast for 200 per pound.

QFC

Drawer valley whole chickens .99
Lean cuisine lunches 2/3$$

Buyn5, save 5

Blue bunny 2.99$$
String cheese 2.99
Cereal 1.49
Dawn 1.99


Alberways

Blues 3.99
Yoplait 10/4
Eggs .99
Cottage cheesec2/4

That's about it.  

Bread - the staff of life.

I'm on a mission.   Please feel free to come along for the ride.
I started out years ago trying to feed my family on a dime.   Sometimes literally,    I can remember a day in the 70's that I bought a package of chicken necks and backs for a dime a pound .  I cooked them , gleamed the meat, and set out to make dinner,    I made noodles from scratch , made a filling from  with the chicken , white sauce and a few mushrooms chopped fine and some Parmesan cheese and rolled them up.  Literally made dinner from bits of what was in the house,  

I'm doing it now to teach another generation how to shop and eat balanced good food for less than four dollars  a day.   It's possible.  I have been doing it for years.    We eat well.    It's a growing experience.  I want it all: I want good food cheap, good food easily prepared without resorting to boxed stuff. And I want it healthy,   I can do this,   Healthy doesn't mean trendy to me.   It means low salt, sugar, saturated fat, no HFCS , the least  amount of hydrogenated oils I can deal with, and as much scratch cooking without preservatives I can make happen,   I don't want to sound my whole day on the kitchen,   It is not practical for most people,   I'm retired, but most people trying to eat on four dollars a day have active families and some have jobs.

I'm on a mission to provide easy, quick, good tasting, scratch meals on a tight budget.    Not everyone reading this is trying to live on a four dollar  a day budget : but many are trying to eat less processed foods and don't want to live in the kitchen!

My focus lately is homemade bread,    Bread is expensive.   Homemade bread is cheap.   It all starts with the flour and yeast.   I set out this week to find the cheapest all purpose flour.   The cheapest I have found is 5.99 for 25 pounds at Costco,    The yeast seems to be cheapest at Costco too.    I don't have a Sams  club membership, so I don't know about them.

I started with pizza dough,   We were buying cheap pizzas and filling them with more ingredients.  They were still three dollars.   Pizza dough on sale is about 1.50.   With the lowest cost flour , pizza dough costs .17.   That is a remarkable savings--and it tastes better.   You can also make bread sticks out of the dough.  Easy, no rise,  

Pizza dough.   I make it in the food processor, but you don't have to.  

1) put 2 cups of all purpose flour in the bowl.   Add  3/4 tsp salt and 1-1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast. Blend just long enough to mix the ingredients- a few seconds.  

2) measure  6 ounces of 105 -110 degree (tepid) water in a glass measuring cup.  Add 2 tsp. Olive oil.

3) with the processor running, add the water mixture through the tube slowly.  Process just long enough for the dough to form a ball.

4) remove dough ball from bowl and on a floured surface add just enough flour to make the dough not be sticky.

5) place dough in a bowl that has some oil in it and turn the dough ball  over.    Cover and let rest 10 minutes or so.

This is a good time to gather your toppings.   I get pizza sauce (name brand ) from the dollar tree and freeze it in ice cube tray.  A couple of large cubes is enough for a pizza.  pizza cheese   is cheapest at Costco.    You can freeze it.

6) roll or pat  dough into desired shape and fill.  Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until dough is done and cheese is melted.   I use a cookie sheet and bake dough a few minutes before we fill it.

Hands on dough time is ten minutes or so.    Clean as you go and dinner is a snap.

no spend January -1st real week ,1/2 -2017

Chicken breast, 1.28 a pound, de-boned.    Cooked from frozen 8 minutes in the insta pot. 

,

Sour dough type bread.   .27 a loaf.  Quick, but  a lot of standing time.    

The start of chicken Alfredo dinner.    

Bread has no preservatives, I don't think it will last that long.    

14.00 Winco haul.   Flour is the  cheapest  in five pound bags.  Go figure . Even cheaper than bulk or 25 pound sacks.    I will check Costco when I am ready for more.    Tomatoes  a buck,  Romas give you the most bang for your buck.   Diced green chilies are,cheapest at Winco.   I got dried buttermilk for ranch dressing and bread and garlic- hard to find garlic not made in china.   Packed on USA  is nit made in USA .   Beginning balance .65- total 25.65 

Tonight's dinner chicken Alfredo and  sour dough bread and broccoli.    

Dinner 1/2/17

Costco haul 1.39 bananas plus 14.23 Winco is 15.62 

January 3rd

Parents night out

 Made pizza crust (.17) total cost of a cheese pizza is about a dollar.   

Note: Costco flour is 5.99 for 25 pounds 

Balance 15.62 plus 7.55 and .88 for English muffins, blueberries, sour cream, and hamburger buns  total 24.05 plus j2 doz gigs 1.98.   -26.03

Chicken sandwich, fries made fruit salad.   , 

  

5 kitchen hacks

five easy kitchen hacks to make your kitchen time easier and cheaper.  

1. Make your own taco 🌮 and other seasoning,   I am hearing about sausage seasoning and complete seasoning as well as ranch dressing mix,    Saves time measuring when you have a mix firmthings you make often.    I use taco seasoning in many dishes,    
2. Enchalada sauce is 3/1 at the dollar store for old El Paso.   My go to recipe for sloppy joes called for catsup as a base.    Catsup has HFCS.    You can use enchalada sauce, taco seasoning instead.    You can add cooked beans if you want to stretch your hamburger.   
3. Portion scoops are at  restrauant   supply or Costco wholesale.   I got a new cookie sheet this year at target that had the portion scoop and a cookie mix for 14.00 less 15 percent.   Portion smcoops are great formcookies so they all cook at the same time, but I also use them for filling muffin tins and meatballs.   
4. Meatballs can be made ahead when you are doing batch cooking,    I usually buy three to five pounds of ground meat on a rotation for three of us.    I have done as much as ten pounds when all the kids were home and ate meat.    Taco meat, hamburger crumbles - de-fatted and a meat loaf and meat balls gives you variety and stretches your meat,    Meatballs can be portion scooped onto a rack that is placed over a sheet pan and baked in the oven.  I start looking at 10 minutes with a 350 - 375 degree oven.   The rack drains the fat and you have more healthy meat.    Meatballs can be meatball subs, on soeghetti w sauce, with gravy on rice or noodles 🍝- just a real versitle and quick meal when you have them ready made in the freezer.    
5. Make your own binder of easy, inexpensive recipes.  Plastic sheet protesters help to keep them clean.  Having go to recipes that are cheap, family favorites, and easy keeps the fast food gremilins away.    More healthy, less money  a winning combination.    

Note : my mother had a kitchen that looked like a showroom .   You would never know she ever cooked.   There was a plate stand with a wedge wood plate next to the stove.    No appliances except the microwave were on the counter.    Not so with  me.  I recently out all the appliances I don't use on a regular basis in the cupboards.  I put all the stainless steel pots and pans away in the blind cupboard and out the plastics that were in the blind cupboard in the own cupboard so they weren't buried.    I use enameled cast iron pans and just leave them on the stove.    I have crocks of cooking implements near where I use them.   Cupboards are organized with the things I use in that part of the kitchen - zone organization,   Baking, salad making and cooking from the island, table setting, coffee bar.  

The easier you make it, the more likely you will cook scratch.   

Some people, I understand, would be really uncomfortable of their kitchen didn't look like my mothers.    If you aren't that personality, zone organization and keeping often used appliances on the counters make things more efficient,    I did that with a 8 x8 kitchen with an eating area.  It can be done.   I did add a rolling chopping cart in the middle of the kitchen for Prep work.    

If your kitchen is set up to be convenient and you have easy, scratch recipes , you will be more likely to stay on track and scratch cook.     It's easy to start out enthusiastic, and wane when life's ;););  storms Happen,    LOL.   

Not so quick CHEAP bread

🍞 About the cheapest bread you can make.   I'm trying it tomorrow.   Looks delicious and it can't get much cheaper.   That bread would be five dollars at the bakery.  Actual cost .27

3 cups flour
1-3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1.5 cups 105 degree water.  

The salt, yeast and water are not measurable costs.   The flour cost is .27

Mix ingredients together.

Cover and let sit at least 12 hours, up to 24 hours .

Knead slightly,

Preheat Oven safe Dutch oven with lid in 450 degree oven.   Place bread in pan, cover and bake for 30 minutes.   Uncover and bake 10-20 minutes longer or until done.   Bread should reach 200 degrees when it is done..  

Be very careful and use heavy hot pads when working with the high heat.    Make sure you have some safe place to set things down when you take them out of the oven.  safety first.    Keep children out of the kitchen when working with hot pans.   

Happy new year.

happy new year!     I already did a recap of our food expenses for the last year,  I am index budget!  Yah!    

This year I am joining a movement for ambo soend January on food.    We have a large stock built on our 3778.75 budget amount and it's a challenge to feed us on 100.00 for perishables for the month,   It  frees up money for savings and uses up some ofmthenfreezer and pantry to start fresh for the new year.    We are at half the usda stats for the cheapest budget amount And have replaced and maintained a large pantry and freezer.    

That doesn't mean we don't eat or that we don't eat well.     We eat balanced.   None of us are over weight.    I am also on a therapeutic  diet.    The secret is to buy your food 1/2 price.    Buy what's on sale and work your meals around it.    

Groceries on the cheap has nothing to do with cheap quality; it's more about shopping in a different way,    Instead if going daily or even weekly and buying a weeks worth of groceries, you buy from three different categories.   Those being a loss leader protein enough for a months worth of that meal.   

In other words, if you eat beef once a week, you need to buy enough for four meals.   This saves time, money, and waste.  If aoorompriate, you batch cook the meat and portion control it for the freezer.  Beef, most of the time for our budget, is 7 percent hamburger.  I fry it and de-fat it and portion control it on quart bags and out the quart bags in a labeled gallon bag.  The gallon bag can be reused and it makes for easy retrieval from the freezer.    Dinner time is half way done and less hectic.    

I have target prices for almost everything we buy on a regular basis.  If it's more than my target price, I have to think hard before I buy it; we have to need it really bad.    LOL.    My target price for 7 percent hamburger is close to three dollars a pound: most other meats are under two.   I get chicken breast for 1.28 last time, and de-bone  them myself , making stick and soup meat from the bones.  Boneless, skinless chicken breast that is a good brand is eight dollars a pound.   That's a great savings, even when they are BOGO.   

Pork loin has a two dollar limit for me.  I got it last time for 1.49.    Jimmy Dean sausage is the cheapest at Costco unless infind a sale and coupons.   I fry it and de-fat it as well.   I try to limit our processed meat to once a week or less.    I have been buying some that is natural.   

Fresh veggies have a dollar a pound target price: that's not always doable, but I try hard.   Averaging helps.   I was any vegetables that are apropriate   in vinegar water.    

We have target prices for the staple items that we use on a regular basis.   In our house that would be diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, chicken noodle soup, dry and canned beans, green beans, tuna, salmon, some emergency chicken, and pasta .    I buy the best quality I can afford, on sale, with coupons and Ibotta if possible.     I only buy them when they are at a RBP.  I buy as many as I can afford, as many as I can (store limits ) or as many as I need to bring my stock to my self imposed limit,   I trynfir a six months supply.   

To recap. When I shop, I go to the store with three groups of food in mind.   I have already taken a quick look at what we have in the fridge and freezer.   Having an organized fridge is a real time saver.  I have a,

Lso looked at the ads and noted what is on sale that I can use to fill out my groups.    

I am going for : 

1. Perishables : dairy, eggs, fruits and veggies,   I always keep carrots, celery, eggs, milk, sour cream and some yogurt.  Cheese is purchased on the oritein rotation and I want to lay about two dollars a pound.  
2. A rotation protein:  based on what meat might be on sale for my target amount or less.   Besides beef, Pork, and chicken, I am looking for cheese, fish, bulk beans , and 25 lb bags of rice.   
3. Any stock item that is on sale.  Popcorn and bisquick etc I keep one ahead.  Picnic supplies are best bought in the summer around the holidays, and baking supplies are best around thanksgiving time. 

A meal plan is a must.    If you don't make a plan, you plan to fail 

My most profound quote : NO FOOD WILL DO YOUR FAMILY ANY GOOD IF YOU ARE FEEDING IT TO THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL.  

No spend January - day 4 , 5

day 4

Veggie  spaghetti, meatballs, and homemade bread sticks.  

Veggie spaghetti is the same price as regular speghetti, but has a whole serving of veggies in it.  Homemade bread sticks are made in a sheet pan and cut with a pizza cutter,   Fast. Simple, and delicious.   Topped with olive oil. Sea salt, and parm cheese.  

Budget left 2.05.  

2 pumpkin pies 

Sliced cheese 

No sugar added  applesauce

Apples 

Oranges 

Lettuce

Peppers 

5 lbs carrots 

2 can progresso soup

Milk 

The rest was stock foods.      

2.05 less loaf of bread 1.40 balance .65

Day 5 

Quiche with sausage, cheese, mixed berry compote. 

Balance forward .65 

Tomorrow's Fred Meyer ad

blues 3.88 - 18 ounces
Tomatoes on vine .99



Coupons in ad
Greek yogurt .69@@


Progresso soup 4/5 - @@ - Note  QFC is a dollar until Tuesday and there are coupons out there
boneless Pork loin  chop 299 a pound - note Pork loin was 149 at Costco wholesale.  That's 1/2 price

Seniors- coupon for 10 percent off January 3rd blanket coupon with some exceptions,  private reserve food is the only food covered with the coupon,  

 Heritage farm chicken is Tyson,

Note of interest :   Lean cuisine frozen lunch entries are 2/3.   There is a coupon in the paper insert for 1.00 off of three.    Makes them 1.17 each.   A cheap, calorie controlled lunch,  

No spend January : week 1

no spend January :25.00 four weeks budget.

2 pumpkin pies 4.00
Applesauce, no sugar added 1.50
Tillamook cheese 2.00


Winco
8 lbs oranges
10 apples
1head lettuce
5 lbs carrots
1can green chillis

Left 4.70

,

1 st day dinner 

Pork roast, salad, broccoli, baked potato 

Day 2 

 

Oven roasted vegetables and Pork cubes.   

Day 3 

Tacos, Spanish rice.    

I got a taco kit for a dollar at grocery outlet.   Normally I would have bought taco shells for a dollar.   But, obviously, getting two kinds of shells, taco sauce and taco seasoning into is a better buy,   Week will use the hard shells tonight and I'll make tomato soup and chicken quesedas for dinner another night.  Planning meals creates less waste and stretches your food dollar.     

Chop leftover pork. 

Seasoning packet : just add water and stir.    

Cook until flavors meld. 

Chopped lettuce Is cheaper if you diy.  

Rice cooked in the insta pot.   One to one ratio.   Rice button, auto pressure release.    

Dinner finished.  

Purchase : 2 cans progresso soup on sale with coupon. .50.  Milk, half gallon 1.25.   

The truth is in the pudding

I just did the recap of our grocery  expenses for the year.    Bear on mind that we have a full two freezers and a full pantry and I replentished  the frozen meat because we had a freezer malfunction.  

Total food purchased for the year 3777.80 or 72.65 a week.    The acid test will be how far this month we can go on a no spend January.    That figure, by the way is half of what  the national average is for a family of three.  

5 ways to cut your food bill

FIve  ways to cut your food bill.  

1. If something is not on a real sale, don't buy it.     Everything's no is FOR sale.    But is it a real sale.   Know your prices if the things that you use in a regular basis.    Set yourself target prices -  nothing to do with h the store with the red balls.   LOL.   I pay two dollars a pound for butter.   I want real butter.    When mymsupply is low, I star looking for a sale.   Grocery outlet has butter on sale for three dollars.   It's not  a bargain.    Buy in quantity when it is a good sale, so you never pay full price.    Be aware of how much you can use up before it goes bad.  Make an effort to use up things that are nearing their date.    If milk is close, maybe it's time to have pudding or potato soup for dinner.    

2. Set criteria for ready made food.    The less you buy, the better off you are in regards to quality of life and prices.   Pasta sauce is cheaper to buy ready made with coupons and sales,   Tortillas, in my opinion, are too time consuming to make scratch.  I have found them as cheap as a dime a ten pack.   Get your basic appliances that make life easy, one at a time if necessary.   If you can't afford them, look for estate sales or sometimes thrift stores.  Bread bakers can be had for as little as three dollars.   A s,ow cooker is a must have for a economy family.   If you have the right equipment. You are more likely to scratch cook more things.   

3. Portion control.  This is especially true with protein.    Picking a so called loss leader protein and buying a months worth of that protein on bulk is a real money saver.    To clarify, if you eat beef once a week, buy enough for four weeks worth.  Most of the time for us, that is 7 percent hamburger.   If I can't find it for around three dollars a pound and I can get a hunk of lean meat for that, we grind our own,   When I get the meat home, I cook it, de-fat it and portion control packages for the freezer.    You can do the same thing with split chicken breasts ( de-bone, cook the bones for stock, and portion control the breasts.   I wrap each one separately and put all of them on a marked gallon bag.    My target price is a dollar,   Last time I had to lay 1.28.   It is a lot cheaper than the six dollars a pound for boneless, skinless breasts and I get chicken stick and some cassarole chicken as a bonus,    Another  meat to consider is a pork loin.   My target price for that is 1.69.   I paid 1.49 at Costco wholesale this week,   I took it home, cut the uneven ends off and made stew meat, cut Pork chops through the middle and made two roasts.   That's none of our dinners for 15.00.    Sausage at less than two dollars a pound can be cooked, defatted and frozen ready for soups, quiche, omlettes, pizza.      

4. Use every available tool you have to lower food costs.  Ibotta is an ap that gives you rebates on grocery purchases.  - lot is expensive stuff you don't buy or need, but you can also get money back on any brand of bread, milk, eggs, cheese, veggies.   It ads up and takes just a few minutes when you are putting away groceries.  It is easy enough for a tec wavy ore teen to do it.    Coupons can be had for regular food.   Coupons,com is a web site where you can print coupons.   The Sunday paper is a dollar at the dollar store.   Some come in the mail with ads.    Take advantage of everything you can to lower bills.  

5. Meal plan.   If you don't plan, you plan to fail.   Without a plan that has room for that Alexander day, you will be tempted for take out to cope .   The nasty take out gremilins will derail a food budget quickly.    Be flexible, but have a plan.    Take into  consideration, what you have to use up soon .  Making a matrix helps do a meal plan quickly.  Some people have a theme based matrix using soup, pizza, Italian, Mexican, etc for inspiration,    We use a protein based matrix.   1 fish, 1 beef, 2 vegetarian, and 3 chicken or pork.    Most people have about 10 go to meals in their head.   Try new things, mix things up.   Some people go on a three week rotation and use the same meal plans.   Whatever works for you.   

I save about five thousand dollars a year.    I'm not going to say it doesn't take any effort.   But it's a lot less work than what I had to do to make five thousand dollars  tax free when I worked.  

The ads

My expenses  are 7.50.    - pumpkin pie , cheese slices, apple sauce for granddaughters lunches.

ALBERWAYS

3 days FSS

Beef 2.99 - 7 percent hamburger

5 dollar weekend
8 lbs oranges
Salad 5/5

L


Foster farms chicken cooked frozen 4.99@@$$?



QFC

Blues 4.99
Milk 4/5
Tillamook sliced cheese 2/4

Buy 5, save 5
Ice cream 1.99
Salsa 199



That's about it.  

Grocery outlet haul

not much there, but some good buys,  

Pumpkin pies, frozen were 2.00.   I can't make a pumpkin pie for two dollars.     

No sugar added applesauce was 1.50.   Funny how things are more expensive when they don't add ingredients!   

sliced cheese , Tillamook, 2.00

Coffee, maxwell house. 44.5 ounces 5.99

Food 7.50 

Pork roast

We did go to Costco wholesale yesterday.   It was pleasentky quiet.  No line waiting.    I needed food storage.bags and coffee cheap.   I know, nobody NEEDS coffee syrup. But it's mymsolurge.  I use a serving a day the rest if the day I drink tap water.    

Fresh berries were inexpensive as well as broccoli.     Whole Pork loin was 1.49 a pound,  it was two dollars at Safeways,    At a fifty cent savings, we could afford to buy a whole one.    I took it home and cut the first few inches off the ends,  they weren't uniform enough to make pork chops out of thatboart,   I made pork cubes for pie, tacos, burritos, soup?     Imcut the rest if it in half to make it more manageable and cut several packages of pork chops from the middle section.   That left me two roasts.   I got nine  meals from 15.00 worth of Pork loin is 1.67 a meal.    

Costco wholesale  has a few things that regular Costco doesn't carry.   We don't go often, but I stock the things that I can't get .   We don't have to go more than a couple times a year.    

I am still under budget  for the year.    The end of the year  is a good time  to reflect and readjust.    Set new goals.   I don't believe in New Years resolutions,  theynare alwaysmbroken and out unrealistic expectations on yourself.    You can set new goals and strive for better.    

The biggest excuse I hear about nit going to Costco is that everything is in such large quantities.    Something's  are not worth  the effort to bring home,   Some bulk things last forever almost and you just don't have to worry about buying them for a while.    We go through Somethings  on a regular basis.    Some things I like to buy once and forget about them for six months or so.    

1. Zip lock freezer bags. - two packages last about six months and they are better quality than the dollar store.   
2. Oatmeal is .80 a pound,   Better quality and less expensive than the dollar store that is the cheapest price out there.    
3. Butter is the best price.   
4. Sour cream is better quality and lasts long enough to use it up before the pull date.   
5. Tortilla chips are cheapest and we use them up before they go bad.    We don't buy any other kind of chips and nachos are a favorite.   
6. Bulk popcorn is inexpensive, doesn't go bad after and is better quality than bulk Winco, although bulk Winco is cheaper.   
7. Bulk Jimmy Dean snausage is cheaper.   Fry, de- fat , freeze.    
8. Cheese is almost always cheaper.    I like two dollars  a pound or near that.   
9. Bananas are cheaper and you almost always get more than three pounds in a bag.    
10. Blue cheese is  reasonable.    

Portion controlling and bulk cooking saves money because you have less waste.    If you bulk cook sausage or hamburger, you can just pull what you need and don't have leftovers to get shoved to the back of the fridge and hide to grow hair.   

No food can do your family any good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   

Thanks for stopping by.   I would love it if you would share.    With the new administrations ckimate, I have the feeling more of us will need all the help we can get to stretch our food dollar.   

No spend January

There is a movement out there that is for a no spend January.    Actually, you are allowed twenty dollars  a week for perishables.  

We have a full pantry,   I am going to fill in today with a pork loin.   I wrote a three week meal plan last night.   I know that I will need to add eggs and a few perishables.  Keep a list of anything you might need to  replenish  after the month is done.   Rotating stock  is a good thing.  

On to other items,     One of the biggest obstacles to eating on. A small budget is how to deal with those down days where your world is, it kind and you just done have the gumption to cook a scratch three course meal.  

The thing that will discourage me the fastest is walking into a dirty kitchen,   I hate it when children have cooked and not bothered to clean up after themselves.    I can't cook in a dirty kitchen,    I do keep a few go to easy dinners in my arsenal for days when I am sick, or just sick of cooking,   Foster farms makes  chicken 🍗 Already cooked and with coupons, can be very affordable,   Add frozen potatoes and a veggie or already cut up vegetable sticks and dinner can be made by just about anyone, challenged in the kitchen or not.   A few cans of chinky soup  bought on sale with coupons is another go to.   Or frozen skow cooker  dinners that you have made ahead.    Many recipes out there these days that take a few minutes in the morning to dump in the slow cooker and walk away.  

Planning is the key.    We had Belgian waffles for breakfast yesterday.   I cooked what we were going to eat.  After breakfast and package opening, I made up the rest of the batch.   The mix, was purchased for a dollar at grocery outlet.    I added oil, eggs, and water.    That still made a lot of waffles for about a dollar and a half or less.   The rest of the waffles are on the freezer for breakfast for dinner later in the week.    

Watching waste is another way to stretch a dollar.  

Three weeks of meal plans

Three  weeks of meal plans with almost no shopping

1. Pork chops , apple, cranberry bread stuffing. Green beans 
2. Pizza 
3. Breakfast 4 dinner 
4. Chicken pot pie 
5. Meatballs, speghetti 
6.  Fish and chips 
7. Chicken tacos 
8. Chicken and pasta 
9. Pizza
10. Breakfast 4 dinner 
11. Ham and noodle cassarole 
12. Chicken tortilla soup. 
13. Tuna cassarole 
14. Porcupines, rice 
15.  Pizza 
16. Breakfast 4 dinner 
17. Tomato soup, chicken quesedas 
18. Pork roast , oven roasted veggies 
19. Chicken rice cassarole 
20. Meatball sibs 
21. Salmon, rice medley, peas and carrots 

Based on dump dinners  and dining on a dime cookbooks.    

1. 
   

Christmas

🎄 Christmas  🎄

Christmas is a time for family and joy.      I'm just not feeling it.     I should, I know I should.   We have a lot to be thankful for.    I'm going threw the motions, but it's just not there.  

I'll be back after I kick myself on the butt.