Basics: part 8: are we eating too much?

Basics: Part 8 : Are we eating too much?

Portion control is important for several reasons, namely maintaining a good body weight and keeping a budget.    This information is from the best source on the internet I could find,  nothing can take the place of an consultation of your own nutritionist.    These are basic guidelines and should be taken as such.  I'm am not a nutritionist and you have to make your own decisions  regarding your nutrition. 

Dairy : 2-3 servings a day ( some of this doubles for protein )

A serving of dairy is

8 ounces of milk for an adult, six for  a child

1cup  yogurt

2 cups of cottage  cheese

1/2 cup  non fat milk

1 cup frozen yogurt

Vegetables - 5 servings a day

Protein

The basic guideline are for .08 grams per kilograms of weight.   In American language, that's .65 grams per pound of body weight.

Average is 56-91 grams for a male, depending in activity levels.

Average for a woman is 46-75 grams depending on activity level.   The 75 is if you are an athlete or do heavy manual labor at work. 

Animal protein provides all essential amino acids for the right ratio for us to make full use of them.    This only makes sense because animal fossils are like our own.   

In obese men, protein at 25 percent of total calories makes you feel full and helps you to loose weight.

Beef has 7 grams per ounce of protein

Chicken has 21 grams in three ounces of cooked chicken breast

Chicken thighs have 10 grams in a average thigh, 

Eggs have 6 grams - and good fat

Yogurt has 5 grams per serving average. . Greek yogurt has more.   Check the label.   

Note  bread and peanut butter.  - 15 grams of protein

My daughters nutritionalist when she was a toddler said not to give her juices.   She was better off eating the fruit.  Fruit juice from concentrate has more sugar than pop. 

Sugar, beer, and too much meat will cause your kidneys to go bad a I just read that and have some doctors info to assume it is true. 

It goes without saying, if you let your kid fill up on snack garbage, they won't have room for good food, especially if they are picky or light eaters. 

Personally, we stick to three to four ounces per person for meat for a dinner,   By the time we add breakfast, dairy, and lunch, we have more than enough to meet the RDA for seniors.   Obviously, a teen age boy in sports needs more calories and more meat,   They don't , however, need to eat a whole 2 pound roast.    Lol. 

Kitchen Managment

Kitchen management is a tool to save time and stress at the dinner hour and deep clean the kitchen a little at a time.  

Recap of meals :

1. Hamburger soup, bread 
2. Pizza
3. Pork stew rolls : cranberry sauce, rolls for tomorrow 
4. Thankgiving:  turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, relish tray , cranberry sauce , salad 
5. Salmon and rice with peas 
6. Leftovers 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

Things to do : 

• Make soup and bread
• Wash potatoes and carrots 
• Put thanksgiving serving dishes through the dishwasher. 
• Gather special ingredients on tray. 
• Make list and timeline for thanksgiving 
• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean and disinfect counters, sinks, and drains.   
• Wax east side cabinets.   
• Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. 
• Gather recipes. 
• Fill the flour and rice canisters/ bucket 
• Breathe.    

Basics; part 7: Oh NO - that dreaded scratch cooking

Basics : Part 7:  Oh No. that dreaded scratch cooking.....

I saved this one for almost the last.  It was one of my last hold outs.    I got our food budget down to 72.00 a week.   The stats  were close to 150.00.   But, I wanted to challenge myself to see just how low are expense can be and still eat well balanced good food.    It was a game by now,   My original object if this blog was to help people on low incomes or SNAP to stretch their food dollars so they could have good food and still build a small emergency stock.   I started cooking a lot more things from scratch and I cut our budget  to 53.00 a week and we still are building our stock. The USDA stats  are based on actual food eaten at home, they don't count  school lunches or stock .   We are sitting at 45 percent of the USDA stats.   We eat well. We eat fresh fruits and veggies, we portion control,  none of us are overweight.   We try to avoid extra salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, HFCS and fake food. 

The words scratch cooking scares some people and they envision spending all day in the kitchen while the laundry stacks up , the house is a mess and you don't get to work.    Not so. I set out to scratch cook efficiently,    My mantra is that  if you spend  a little more time planning  and shopping wisely, you can spend less time cooking.   Of course, with a five yo in the house, the neat house doesn't always happen.   

The internet is full of scratch recipes-  some efficient, some not so much.   Developing your personal cookbook  one recipe at a time will take time.  It's totally worth it,   I have my first one from 1970.   I brought a new one up to date with more healthy choices-- times have changed and some things never change.   Grandmas recipes have just got a little more healthy, 

Spending a block of time to make your own mixes helps greatly,   You have the convenience of mixes, but not the cost  or preservatives.   Engage your children,   I have been following some people on u tube.   I have learned  a lot.   There is one family of nine  that all work together at maintaining their  quality of life.   Children as young as 1.5 years are "helping " in the kitchen. Consequently, their 13 yo can cook remarkable dinners.    It is a good thing to do at home since the schools don't have the same home ec departments they once had.  It is really a necessity if life to learn to cook.    My daughter never wanted to, my son wanted to learn to bake.   My granddaughter wants to do anything she can.   Engage them.    Mixes are good for learning fractions, counting, and children love to stir or push the buttons on the food processor.  My mother used to say that if children were helping, they weren't making a mess for you to clean up afterwords .   How true. 

 Making your own spice blends and mixes saves a lot of money,   You can get small amounts of spices in the bulk isle of some grocery stores pretty cheap. I needed dill one time .  It was six dollars for a tiny one by one inch bottle.   That much dill in the bulk isle was.    W a i t.   For it........   seventeen cents.  

Baking mix, pancake mix, or muffin mix are all cheap especially when you get bulk flour. 

Making your own bread can take all day, or you can make easy ones that take ten minutes hands  on time,    The time that you let something sit on the counter while you grocery shop, or do the laundry , or take the kids to the park doesn't count ! Lol. 

Anything you can throw in the slow cooker or insta pot and walk way from is a good thing. 

I don't have stock in insta pot, but I wish I Did! Lol.   It's one of the most versatile work horses in the kitchen.   It's a slow cooker, it's a rice cooker, it is a pressure cooker that is almost fool proof.  Remember to put it on seal to pressure cook , and remember to add enough water.   That s about it.   Don't put more than 1/2 full  when cooking anything that expands like pasta or beans.   Easy peasy.  And saves sooo much time!   Scratch soups in five minutes, Pork chops in three,   Chicken from frozen in 8 minutes..   considering that it is three appliances that  all  work well in one footprint, it's a real bargain. It also sautés. 

Going out on a limb and trying to do  all this at once is a deal breaker.   Terminal burnout.  Take baby steps and build your talent.   Every little thing will save money.   The snowball effect is a 
wonderful phenomenon.  It works.   Give it time. 

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com 

Meal Plans for week of November 20, 2017

Thanksgiving food is included in our budget calculations.  

Meal plans help take the stress out of the question “ What’s for Dinner”.  .

• Hamburger Soup , bread 
• Pizza 
• Pork stew, rolls (make cranberry sauce and dinner rolls ) 
• Thanksgiving :   Roast Turkey Breast, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, relish tray:  pickled veggies, stuffed celery, pumpkin pie with whipping cream.  
• Salmon, rice with peas 
• Leftovers 
• Breakfast for dinner.  

Notes :   Having easy meals before the holiday saves some terminal burnout with marathon cookig of a thanksgiving meal.    Doing some things ahead helps too.   A spacer between turkey dinner and leftovers is a nice respid.   

The only things I bought for Thanksgiving dinner were the turkey breast , celery i would have bought anyway, and the pies.   I would have made pies, but GO had them for two dollars.   I cant buy the ingredients for two dollars.    I did buy sparkling cider for 1.33 a bottle.    It just makes things festive.  

Grocery Outlet Haul

Grocery Outlet is a grocery /misc store that carries overstocks.   They do not take coupons., but often you can get good buys.   Sometimes their merchandise is products that had test markets that didn’t test well.



Cream of Chicken soup , campbells .66
Pies 2.00 - pumpkin and cherry
Sparkling cider 1.33 a bottle

Deli Swiss cheese slices 2.39
Smoked Gouda 2.39
Salsa .99
Lunchables .50


Total 16.72

Sparkling cider and pies are for Thanksgiving.

Dollar tree

Whole wheat orowheat bread
Flour tortillas

Fred Meyer Sunday ad

Holiday ads are not the best times for good prices on staples.    Too much of the ad is spent on booze and snack type items.   It is, however, a good time to stock things that we tradionally use for the holiday.   Summer picnic supplies are always cheaper around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July .  It’s the time to by a years supply of catsup and bbq sauce with coupons.  Baking supplies are their best prices now through the first part of December.   Closer to the holiday, prices go up for the last minute shoppers.   Planning ahead is the key.   

The ad.....

Turkey, Foster Farms 1.29 lb

Turkey breasts 1.59

NY Holiday roast 3.99

Honeycrisp apples 1.49 

Asparagus 1.99

Cranberries 2/5

Broccolli .99

Brussel sprouts 1.99

Berries 2/5 

Celery .99

Butter 2.99

Sour cream 4/5 

Pillsbury biscuits 2/3$$

Ice cream 2/6

Orowheat bread 2.49 (note:  its a dollar at DT and there are .55 coupons out thre. 

Fruit pie 3.99 

Basics : part 6 : bulk buying—when is it logical.

Basics, part 6 : Bulk buying: when is it logical

We covered protein, the most expensive part of your food budget.  To recap, picking bulk meats that are  versatile are your best bet in reducing the cost of protein.  Eating a vegetarian meal once or twice a week helps greatly too.    Buy bulk meat enough to rotate that meal for a month.  In other words, if you want to eat Pork for two nights a week, you will need enough for 8 meals.   Portions should be around four ounces.   The RDA for protein is 45 grams for women and 55 for men, minimum, for low activity people.     There are 61 in a 8 ounce boneless, skinless chicken  breast.

 Knowing the RBP of rotation meats is key,   Chicken breasts should be no more than a dollar and a half a pound.   In most places, you can get them for that.  Seattle is one of the most costly places to live and I can get chicken breasts with ribs for 1.50 and cut the ribs off for stock, pick the bones for more meals.   Pork loins are between 1.50 and 1.79.   Good (7 percent ) hamburger is 3.77 here.   Ground turkey a dollar  a pound chub  in other parts of the country, frozen.

Buying other things in bulk only makes sense if you use it regularity,   There are three of us basically.    I can still buy certain things in bulk.  Rice is one.   Rice has a long shelf life.   It is 8.47 for 25 lbs at Costco.   That makes a rice serving pennies.

Oatmeal is close to 8.50 at Costco for ten pounds,   We eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast and I use it for oatmeal, blueberry, banana bread and oatmeal cookies. 

Flour is  6.39 for 25 pounds.  25 pounds lasts us about three months,  I make our own  baking mix, cream soup base, muffin mix and bread.   Bread cost about .25-30 cents a loaf.  It takes about ten hands on minutes.    Making your own mixes means you can control the fats and avoid hydroginated  oils and too much sugar.    Cream soup base is a lot less than opening a can of cream of....soup and takes not much more time. 

Bulk yeast is a good investment if you are going to make bread.    For little more  the cost of one packet you can have enough for dozens of loaves. 

I don't buy pinto beans on bulk because we don't eat enough to use them up before they are hard to cook.     The cost difference is ten cents a pound.  I can  get 1.5 pounds at the dollar tree for a buck and they are non gmo and grown on the USA. 

Our Winco has a bulk food isle and some things are cheaper. .   It is especially good for anyone that wants to try something or need just a little bit  - yeast comes to  mind if you just want to try bread baking.  Don't give up, it may take a few loaves to get the hang of it.   

We like the chocolate and white chocolate chips. Dry milk, and spices.    Look on your area for a  bulk isle.   Our Kroger has one, but the prices are a lot higher.

Cold cereal in bags are a lot cheaper than in the boxes.   We don't eat a lot of cold cereal.  I buy chocolate rice crispies for rice crispy treats.   Store them in a sealed canister.   

Contrary to some opinions out there, bulk buying can be a money saver.   You need to exercise caution and buy the things that you use a lot of on a regular basis.  One pound  of rice at the dollar  tree is a buck. Twenty five pounds of rice cost 8.47.   For the cost of  8.5 pounds, you can have 25 poumds,    That's a remarkable difference,    That's almost three times as much.

It just makes sense. 

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com 

Basics: Part 5 RBP- what is it.

Basics , part 5:  RBP. What is it 

Finding the best prices on food is not such a hard task.   It can be overwhelming, but not of you break it down to a few steps

You have already--

• Identified sources of protein  that you will use in your meal plans.    These should be less than two dollars a pound of you are trying for a four dollar a day budget.   (Snap guidelines ) 
• Identified the items you buy on a regular basis to prepare meals from those protein sources. 
• Now, gather your ads,    Our Winco doesn't have an ad, so you just have to visit the store. Every Winco has different prices because they work  off of a list to provide prices lower than  the competitors.  It's important to note, that no one store can have the best prices on everything,   
• Take a short inventory of your fridge,pantry  and freezer.    This will tell you what you are missing.  
• Now, start circling everything that you need that is a good price.   Check for coupons to  remember what you clipped.   $$.    I usually do that for people on the Seattle area.  There are some sites that work in other areas.   Try favado.   
• Soon, you might start seeing better prices at one store over another in an item.  
• Circle, star, or tag any item you intend to buy,   I put a check mark on anything I might have a coupon for,   The best use of coupons is when you find a good buy and can stack a coupon with it.  You can't stack an electronic coupon with a paper one. Most  all stores take them.   
• I have a meal plan form I made in excell.   It has seven blocks in one side of the landscape sheet and two columns on the other,   In one column I have listed the things we buy on a regular basis that are perishable to fill in meals,    The second column is blank so I can either mark how many we have or note that we need it.   This  makes doing an inventory a couple of minutes. 
• Now, decide who has the RBP  on what you need.   Here, it is usually Fred Meyers and Winco,    Occasionally, we find a good sale with coupons at Safeways or QFC.   Costco is always go to to for bulk Purchases.    I continue to check prices, but unless something is in a huge sale, you can't beat the few things I get from Costco,   Not everything is a bargain at Costco.   Look for a rotation meat.    My standby if I can't find pork loin cheap is to look at Costco business.    It's in the next town, so I don't go unless I'm out of a few things that they have that regular Costco doesn't carry.  Costco has grains 
• that were not part of our vocabulary in the fifties, and seaweed.   But, they 
• don't carry corn starch, or large canisters of broth granules or some spices.    I bought a larger than large sack of salt and soda.   I will never have to buy them again! Lol.  They were cheap.    They can be used for cleaning as well as food.    
• Having a target figure ( nothing to do with the store with the red balls ) for your basics list is basic necessity  in knowing if something is a stock up price.  Try to never lay full price  for your basic needs list.    Canned veggies should be less than fifty cents,   Ditto diced tomatoes, beans of you buy canned.   I want 149-1.69 a pound for pork loins,   I want .88-1.00 a pound for Foster Farms chicken,    (Locally grown ) hamburger  3.28 or less for 7 percent fat.   I want pasta sauce in glass for close to a dollar.   In cans for under a dollar, pasta ( Barilla) should be under a  dollar...preferably .50-.75 cents.    It is always a dollar at the DT. ( dollar tree) as is canned pasta sauce and they take coupons- up to four a  day, and some won't take two  coupons for two   of the same thing.    That's not the written coupon policy, but best not to argue.  They have the last word.   I want frozen veggies for under a dollar a POUND.   Many vegetables are in 12 ounce pkg.  Cheese  should be less than 2.35 a pound.  Different stores have different prices.   
• If you live where there isn't a variety of stores, you probably have higher prices,because there is no competition.  Consider scoping out the next big town and finding the best priced stores.   You can sometimes get the store to send you the ad, or find it on line.  Or get a family member or friend to take a snapshot of other and Facebook it to you.  Find the best sale week and go once a month,   if it isn't  near other errands you,need to do, consider carpooling with a friend or neighbor.  Split the gas bill, or take turns.    We used to drive ten mikes to Winco once a month before we got one in our town.   I hear Aldi is expanding to almost double stores.  Think outside the box.    
• The best prices you can get with coupons is when you can find something on a mark down table and have a coupon. ( I got two cans of s and w beans for .08  total.    ) or you have a buy XX things, save XX dollar sale .  Our Kroger has those often,    You have to make your choices carefully, a lot of junk food here sometimes, but with careful planning, you can match coupons and make out.  I saved 91 percent one time.   
• You can also make out with a basket coupon ,   That's where they give you  XX number of dollars off a XX dollar basket of food.   Do the math,    Find the percentage of discount,    A five dollar off of fifty dollar basket is only ten percent,   If the prices are already high, it doesn't  pay.  This is another time when buying what's on sale with a coupon and adding the basket coupon can make you really clean up.   IF.  You stick to buying the maximum of the blanket or basket coupon.  Any amount over will lower your percentage off.   

Why bother, my time is worth more than that!  Is the most heard excuse about coupons and target shopping.    Let's break that down.     The average family our size spends 7800 a year on food.   We are at a pace to spend 2700 dollars his year and maintain a small emergency stock.    That's FIVE  THOUSAND dollars.    That's one nice trip to Disneyland or Hawaii.    Or covers the cable and the heat bill.   Or makes a car payment.     

Using every available tool to reduce your food costs just makes sense as long as it doesn't consume you.   

Daily blogs at www.janegrocerysavy.blogspot.com 

Thanksgiving, on the dime

Winco haul 

Carrots 5 lbs 2.28

Celery 1.96

Cranberries 1.96

Turkey breast:  cook from frozen 10.88

Pickled vegetables 2.48

Frozen veggies .95, .88

Lunch 1.58

Total 22.87

Thanksgiving Dinner 

Stuffed celery, pickled veggies : relish tray 

Turkey breast 

Stuffing w apples 

Cranberry sauce 

Sweet potatoes 

Mashed potatoes 

Green beans 

Rolls/ butter 

Pumpkin pie, cream 

Part 4: Meal Plans

We have covered the two little things that you can do to cut your food bill  and contribute to better health too.  We have found ways to get your protein at the RBP a start the journey to build a stock for emergencies. Emergencies can be as little as a snow storm, a sick child,  or the flooding of the main road so that the grocery stores can’t restock.   Yes, that happened and it was Christmas to boot.

Let’s  talk about meal plans.   Meal plans save you from the pizza delivery demons.   Being organized reduces stress.  If things are set up, almost anyone in the family can finish dinner if you are otherwise occcupied.

Have a plan or plan to fail.   There are no magic surprises if you have a basic stock of food on hand that you can make meals from.   Having a few aces in your hole doesn’t hurt either.   Always have a few easy, cheap meals in your pantry or freezer.   I buy Foster Farms chicken patties when I find them on sale .  If you have pasta and pasta sauce , you have chicken parm in a snap.

We always have ground beef , already cooked , in the freezer packed in meal sized portions.   It is a versitle base for any number of meals.

The basis for a lot of this organization is making a list of ten to fourteen meals your family will eat.
After your list is complete, and you have analyzed it for budget breakers, you can list the ingredients that you will need to stock.   This list should include economical sources of protein (2.00 a pound is my target price ) and the ingredients and side dishes as well.  Asparagus and water chestnuts are out of reach for most super economy meals.   Stick to basics.

Ideas:
Spaghetti and meatballs
Mac n cheese (real scratch)
Pork chops and dressing
Pork Roast
Pulled pork sandwiches
Nachos
Chilli
Vegetable bean soup
Chicken Roasted with garlic bread and oven roasted root veggies
Chicken soup
Chicken Pot Pie (one crust )
Chicken stir fry
Breakfast for dinner
Quiche (impossible pie )
Sloppy joes
Chicken chimichanga
Chicken and noodles
Pork stir fry
Shrimp stir fry
Baked lemon salmon
Tuna cassarole
Tuna patties
Salmon patties
Pork stew

Make a list of ingredients you will use to make your meals.  Note the things you can buy in bulk and
use for several dishes.

In our house that would be diced tomatoes, Other that tomato paste, I dot buy a lot of other tomato
products.   Simplifying your list by using versatile ingredients makes life and budgets a lot easier.

Pasta sauce and pasta are items you can find on sale often and thre are almost always coupons for them and that doubles your savings.

Buy 5 and save 5 sales can be a little time consuming to plan, but they can save a lot of money especially  if you can pair them with coupons.   I have saved as much as 91 percent with coupons.   So much for coupons are a waste of time.

Our groceries for the three of us has been less than 55.00 a week.   That is 45 percent of th USDA stats for poor people.   They call it thrifty.   We eat well and we dont eat rice and beans  as a steady
diet.   We dont have our food delivered, we dont eat junk food a lot, we cook scratch food efficiently. I rarely spend more than twenty minutes cooking dinners.   Bulk cooking and propeer  kitchen appliances help remarkably.

We have a matrix for meal planning to make the whole process fast and easy.

1 beef, 3 chicken or pork , 2 vegetarian, and 1 fish or shellfish.
This  affords us a variety of foods.

Others use a these based matrix.   Soup, Tex-mex, italian, etc.

On going basics is on Dinner: better, cheaper, faster.

Thanksgiving chain store ads

         Let’s talk turkey

Alberways:   Free with 100.00 purchase
OR .39 a lb with card and a 50.00 purchase
Hormel spiral ham 1.39
Pork Loin 1.69

QFC
Turkey .47 with card and 20.00 purchase
Turkey breast 2.69
Spiral ham 1.49

Fred Meyers
Turkey .47 with 50.00 purchase
Spiral ham 1.79

Nuts and bolts of it.....
Alberways is .39 with a 50.00 purchase
Or QFC is .47 with a 20.00 purchase

Usually holiday ads are not the cheapest prices on a lot of things.   Cream soup I got for .39 a week or so ago are 1.00 now.   If you are stuck, there is a .80 for four coupon at coupons.com .

The rest of the story:

Alberways :
Broccolli, yams, cauli, sweet potatoes, onions.  .88 lb
2 lb clementines 2.77 limit 2
Cream cheese .88@@
2lbs cheese 4.88@@

Digital coupons,  hard copy in ad - note you cannot use a coupon with a digital coupon at Safeways

Cream soup .69
Cranberry sauce 1.39


Baking mixes and condiments too numerous to log....BOGO.  Buy at your own risk...you need to know prices.

 Asparagus 2.49

Pumpkin 2/4 -this is Libby’s:   Off brand at the DT is a dollar.


QFC

ASPARAGUS 1.99
Butter 2/5
Ice cream 2/5
Fresh cranberries 2/5
Yams .99
Berries 2/5
Brussels sprouts  1.99

Fred Meyers

Broccolli .99\\
Butter 2/5
Pie 3.99

Basics....part 2

Little steps : a new concept 

Back to basics.  Groceries on the cheap takes a different  look at traditional grocery shopping.   Instead of going to a store and buying a weeks worth of groceries and coming home and planning meals, you go to two stores and buy :  a rotation protein, what's on  sale that you can make meals from, and replenish   dairy and fresh veggies hopefully on sale / and/or in season.

This takes a little time, but the rewards are amazing,   You eat better and have enough to take you through the month,   No one , especially children , should suffer the anxiety, stress, or insecurity of having no food in the house.   

The thought of doing this is a bit overwhelming to some people.    Basically, it is not hard nor impossible ,     You think you don't have enough money to do that,   But, in actuality you have more than you think.    If you buy 1 chicken a week for 1.68 a pound, you get 1 chicken,   If you don't buy one this week, and buy 2 chickens for .88 a pound next week, you have 2 chickens,    If you know how to stretch that chicken, you can have 8 dinners from those 2 chickens.   That's a quarter of the month  covered for dinners.  If you do that with all your food, and you have meals plus a stock built to cover you if you can't get to the store for some reason or another mishap happens. 

Monday Kitchen Management

Kitchen management is a tool that preps dinner ingredients, does the weekly baking.and tackles the deep cleaning of the kitchen on a rotation basis.   Its an efficient way to make your kitchen always clean and have dinner on the table with little effort during the hectic dinner hour.  

• Wash the kitchen floor. 
• Clean and sanitize the sinks, counters, and sink drains. 
• Wash the inside of the refrigerator and note thing that need to be used up soon and dump anything you missed that is a science experiment.   Hopefully that won’t be much. 
• Wash veggies with vinegar water.   
• Use your meal plan as a guide to chop anything you will need during the week. 
• Make breakfast muffins.  This week I am making cheerio cereal bars .  They are better than rice crispy treats. Instead of marashmellows, they have peanut butter and honey.    Added nuts. We got chocolate cheerios for free. 
• Scrub carrots 🥕 and potatoes 🥔.  Run some carrots through the food processor, cut some for lunches, and leave some for the stew.   
• Wash an cut celery sticks. 
• Make hard cooked eggs in the oven.   350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Put in a muffin pan.   When done, dump into ice water to stop the cooking.   
• Make pizza dough and put in fridge for tonight.  

The basics, one step at a time.....

In this series, we will take one step at a time. Baby steps. Habits.   For many people making a drastic change that takes a lot of time, doesn't work because it isn't sustainable.   We eat for a small amount of money and have asmall stock for emergencies.  It didn't happen in a day; rather, it's been an ongoing mantra for fifty years.  I just kept perfecting the concept  and adjusting to fluctuating  prices and new revelations of foods that can effect your health .   Baby steps.   They all save. One year and your savings will grow.

• Write down and gather recipes if you need to for 10-14 meals your family likes to eat.  These meals should be made from low cost sources of protein.  
• In our house that would be 1) pork loin that can become chops, roast, or stew cubes; home butchered boneless, skinless, chicken breast; 7 percent hamburger, or home ground  low fat hamburger; cheese, beans, and some tuna, shrimp, or salmon. 
• Now, find two stores in your area that consistently  have the lowest prices.
•  Research the prices in your area for those sources of protein.  You are looking for the RBP ( rock bottom price ) .  In the PNW, I can get split chicken breast , locally grown, for  1.50 a pound. This turns into boneless, skinless, chicken  breast and chicken stock and loose meat. Pork loin is 149-1.69 a pound,  this turns out to be roast, chops, and stew meat. Hamburger is 3.77 a pound for 7 percent fat,   If a roast or steak is cheaper and has little fat, we will grind our own. Cheese can be purchased for 2.35 a pound or less, and sausage with coupons or at Costco in a chub is around  3.50 dollars a  pound.  I just got rope sausage for two dollars a pound, fry it and de-fat it, and freeze it. 
• Protein is probably the most expensive group of foods you buy, starting with it gives you more return on your time,   
• Next : what to go with the protein  .   Remember, baby steps,    

Meal Plans - November 13

Meal Plans are a tool that saves time and frustration.  Our form was made in excell.   There are forms tto buy out there.   We have a matrix of 1 beef, 1 fish or shellfish 3 chicken or pork, an 2 vegetarian.   This is to be balanced and make everyone happy.   LOL.

• Pork chops , cranberry/apple stuffing, green beans 

•  Pizza 

•  Tacos, (tomato, lettuce, cheese) homemade refried beans  

•  Chicken Pot Pie  

•  Lemon glazed salmon, rice medley, broccoli  

•  Pork stew, bread  

•  Breakfast for dinner 

Notes:

1.  Pork chops are cut from a whole pork loin.   (Center cut)  .  The difference is between paying 1.50 an 3.50 a pound.  Brown pork chops.  Make bread stuffing with cranberries (dried) and apple.  Put browned pork chops on top of stuffing in a baking pan an bake off until the chops 
2. are done and the stuffing is warm.  
3. Pizza from scratch.   Ez pizza dough .   Cheese is low fat and the last we paid for it was 1.82 a pound.   On sale with a basket coupon.  The cost of a cheese pizza 🍕 with 2.39 a lb cheese is 1.04 . 
4. Taco shells we paid .66 for on  sale with coupons at safeways.   We buy 10 percent ground sirloin  when its on sale in bulk and precook it and freeze in portion  controlled packages.   Just take it out an add taco seasoning in a small skillet and warm through with a little water. 
5. Chicken pot pie uses cubed cooked chicken, mixed veggies or peas and whole carrots, sliced and a batch of cream soup base.  Either a pie crust top crust or biscuit crust.  Chicken is split chicken breast that is on sale for less than 1.50 a lb.   Cut off the ribs , cook for extra meat and chicken stock, and portion control breasts and freeze. 
6. Salmon is purchased from costco.   Rice medley is a homemade mix with herbs and chicken 
7. base.   Broccoli is frozen . 
8. Pork stew if from the ends of the pork loin.  A beer bread, or peasant bread is a good thing. 
9. Breakfast for dinner is a mainstay here .  The whole family cooks .   Granddaughter is in charge of setting the table or buttering English muffins or toast.   

On first glance, this sounds lik a lot of work.   Efficient scratch cooking is key.   Buying bulk meat on sale an buying enough to get you through a month to six weeks.  Rotate using the sales as guidelines. The price is lower. The food is portion controlled so there is little waste, By limiting the costs to a few versatile cuts of meat, you simplify and can make best use of your protein Dollars.   

FM haul - charity

12 spaghetti.49.    
Candy @1.50


Butter R 3.48.     Paid 2.50
Progresso soup R 1.68.  Paid .75 w coupon
Cr/mushroom soup. R 1.25 Paid .49
Ragu pasta sauce R 2.50 paid 1.29 less 1.25 coupon for one, 1.29 for the other.


 Savings 49 percent

Fred Meyer Sunday Ad

Food for thought: When one goes to the store ,one day at a time and buys something for three dollars that can be bought for a dollar, they are throwing 2.00 out the window.  That might be two dollars that  would feed someone that doesn’t have any food.   Waste not, want not.   Your waste might be someone elses need.   Just a thought.....

• Turkey .47 a lb:   With 50.00 purchase and one per customer/  
• Broccolli .99
• 5 lbs satsumas 4.99
• Butter 2/5 
• Ground sirloin , 10 percent 3.77
• Brats 2.99
• Sausag 3.00
• Sour cream 4/5  u dont have to buy 4
• Grapes 1.99
• Berries 2/5 
• Sweet potatoes .99
• Celery .99

Bullets: 5 go to dinners

Having a small stock and a plan is especially helpful when you have a bleep storm day and the question of what’s for dinner doesn’t rare its ugly head until 5 o’clock.   LOL.
Planning one or two pantry dinners can save you from the take out demons.  

• Spaghetti and meatballs. Buy pasta when you find it on sale and have coupons. I even found Ready pasta for .70 using a coupon .   You can make meatballs using a portion scoop and baking them o a baking rack over a sheet pan or you can buy them cheaper than the cost of the meat.   Either way, spaghetti and meatballs is a quick dinner.  I have found pasta sauce as low as .04 lately using a coupon.  
• Chicken parm.    The speedy chicken parm is spaghetti, Foster Farms breaded chicken patties , and pasta sauce.  Add parmesan to the top.   Another 15 minute meal . 
• Tacos:   By batch cooking your ground meat and freezing it, you have a head start on tacos.  Taco shells, bring out the frozen portion controlled meat, place it in a small skillet an add taco seasoning and a little water.   While its cooking, chop lettuce, tomato,and pull the grated cheese out of the fridge. 
• Toasted cheese, or cheese and ham, and tomato soup.   We buy roasted red pepper and tomato soup in a box from costco and add a little milk, blue cheese, and basil. 
• Meat ball subs.   Having brown and serve rolls on hand is the key here.   Add a salad.   Buy bbq sauce on sale with coupons during the summer holidays.   It will be its lowest price.  
• Impossible chicken pie.  Chicken can be cooked from frozen in the insta pot.  

Make it your own.

Tortilla soup

I found a tortilla soup recipe on facebook yesterday.    Having family members that are pricky eaters, I adapted it to satisfy all.  


1 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained.
3 cups cooked black beans
6 cups vegetable stock

1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded.

Avacado , jack cheese, tortilla chips

• Cook the chicken in the insta pot.  ( 2 cups water, chicken on rack, 8-12 minutes depending o size from frozen.   Check for doneness. Shred chicken 
• Cook the beans in insta pot.   Wash and pick beans, place in pot, cover with water up to your second knuckle. Set the lid and gauge.  Push the bean button.   When de pressurized, dozen an drain beans. 
• In stock pot. Cook garlic in olive oil a few seconds.   Add corn,  tomatoes, beans and stock.   Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour on low heat.  

To eat: 

Place shredded chicken in bottom of bowl.  Add soup, top with with tortillas, cheese and avocado.  

Chain store ads

QFC is the same as last week.   Honestly, FM (also Kroger ) is better in some ways.   Also note that veterans get 10 percent off on friday at safeways.

Satsumas 5 lbs 4.99
Grapes 1.49

Buy 10, save 5
Milk .99
Water , sparkling. 1.99
Land of Lakes butter 2.49
Cake mix .79
Kleenex 160ct .99
Coffee 5.99
Diced tomatoes .49
Kroger cresent rolls .99
BBQ sauce .79

*****
Berries 2/5
Apples 1.99
Pineapple 2/5

Note over charged :
Ground turkey 4.49
Pork chops 3.99

Alberways 

Free turkey with purchase of 100 dollars

Milk 1.77
10 lbs potatoes .97
Ham 1.39
Apples .99
Cranberries 2/5

5 dollar Friday
Sausage links 2/5
Avacados 5/5
Strawberries 2/5
Cranberry sauce 4/5

NOTE overcharged
Dinner brea 2.99.   The cost of a large loaf of bread is .30

Waste not, want not.

I recently saw a u tube post where a mother of seven fed their family for a month with what they had in the house.  Now, its true that they had a very large productive garden and a 1/2 a cow in the freezer, but still, I think that was remarkable.  

Yesterday, I made blueberry muffins.   I used blueberries that needed to be used up and some sour cream that was about next to its pull date.   Having recipes that are economical and use the last of things in the fridge are a good way to  s-t-r-e-t-c-h your food budget.  

These recipes are from Taste of Home and probably can be googled.   I cant post them here legally.  There are cookbook programs that are free on the Internet that allow you to plug in an ingredient and will provide recipes that use a specific ingredient.   Betty Crocker is one.  

• Strawberry watermelon slush.
• Dandelion salad 
• Taco avocado wraps.( vegetarian ) 
• Creamy carrot and tomato soup 
• Apple chicken quesadilla 
• Fried rice 
• Apple slaw burgers 
• Creole corn bread ( uses leftover rice ) 
• Apple and banana bread -uses over ripe bananas and chopped apple 
• Lemon blueberry muffins.  (Uses lemon peel , not necessary for the muffins if you dont have any) 
• Smoothies 
• Vanilla french toast 
• 
  
•  

Kitchen Management

Kitchen management along with meal plans take little time and afford you the piece of mind that dinner is under control and your kitchen is being deep cleaned as you go.   A long time ago, I went to management school for work.   When it came to time management, one of the concepts for tackling a big project was called the Swiss cheese treatment.   Basically, write down the steps you need to accomplish the task, and proceed to poke holes in it until you have seen your project to finish.   Sometimes a task is hard to even start if it seems so overwhelming.  

• Wash kitchen floor 
• Clean refrigerator and dump anything with hair prettier than yours, and note things that need to be used up .
• Clean and disinfect the counters, sinks, and drains. 
• Wash the stove and clean any dirty drip trays.
• Make taco cassarole from rice and beans that need to be used up. 
• Make meal plan for the day chicken needs to be thawed. 
• Make muffins 

Coupons worth the time?

Dinner for Four.  .92 cents total.   

Sausage FREE

Green beans w coupon .39

Pasta .49

Pasta sauce 1.29 less 1.25 coupon nets .04 

Meal Plans

Meal plans take but a few minutes and make meals easier to happen during the hectic dinner hour.

I generally use a matrix of : 1 beef, 1 fish or seafood, 3 chicken or pork and 2 non meat.

• Potato and cheese soup, beer bread 
• Pizza 
• Curried squash and sausage (free sausage ) save some for pizza 
• Chicken nuggets (homemade) oven fries, veggie sticks 
• Salmon, rice, broccolli 
• Taco cassarole w lettuce, tomato, sour cream 
• Breakfast for dinner. 

By alternating some really inexpensive meals with some more expensive ones, you ave variety and dont feel deprived.   You can still maintain a five dollar dinner budget.    Pizza 🍕 with cheese cost 1.04 .  Ours is a little cheaper because we got cheese on sale with the added bonus of a basket coupon.   

The squash is still over a dollar, but our sausage was free. 

Homemade chicken nuggets from 1.49 a lb chicken breast.  Fries are cut from potatoes purchased at winco.   (The cheapest price ) . 

Salmon is a more expensive meal.   Balance with rice that is cheap and a frozen bag of broccolli. 

Taco cassarole is rice (cook once, eat twice ) , beans, taco meat from already cooked ground meat, cheese , and tomato.   

Breakfast for dinner is always a good choice.   Eggs were .79 a lb.  berries are 2/3 at FM.   Add hash browns, toast ( orowheat bread is .45 with a coupon at DT.) 

Fred Meyer buy 10, save 5

buy xx, save, xx 😘 sales can be a useful tool to get the RBP on things you will use.  This time it coincides with upcoming holidays.   Its time as well to look for baking items .  They will be the lowest prices of the year.  

2 - 5.5 ounce pepperoni @ 2.99 less 1.00 coupon nets.   4.98 or 2.49 

1 hillshire farms smoked sausage 2.49

4 cream of mushroom soups (reg 1.29). .49 less .40/4 coupon.   Nets .39 each or a ninety cent or can discount. 

2 ragu pasta sauce.  1.29 ea less 1.25 coupon makes one almost free.  Nets 1.33 for TWO....67         

1 spaghetti .49 

Del monte veggies 2/1 less .40 coupon on four makes them .40.   Just in time for green bean casserole. 

Fred Meyer ad for Sunday

Sunday’s ad

BlackBerry, blueberry , raspberries 2/3
Avacados .88
Del monte veggies. 2/1

Grapes 1.99


Buy 10, save 5
Mix and match

Milk .99

Land of lakes butter 2.49

Cream of mushroom soup ,49 ck for coupons stock for holidays

Smoked sausage 2.49

Pepperoni 2.99$$

Ragu 1.29

Chilli, progresso soup .99$$

Pasta .49

Best haul ever

qfc

Ready rice
1 lb Jimmy dean sausage
Chocolate cheerios
Loaf of white bread

Total cost 1.25

Total retail 11.93   About 90 percent off.  

Burrito bowls

Simple meal that is easy to prepare.  

Taco meat
Beans
Rice
Green chilies
Salsa
Sliced black olives

Gather ingredients and let everyone make their own.  

Notes :

• Taco meat is made from cooked ground meat or cooked chicken that has been warmed with taco seasoning.   We cook ground meat in bulk and de-fat it.   
• Beans can be precooked or use canned 
• Rice is cooked with tomato boullion.  
• Green chillis are cheapest at winco.   Salsa and black olives are purchased.  
• You can serve with chopped lettuce, tomato, sour cream, avacados, for garnish.   Your choice. 

Bullets : 5 ways to spend less on groceries....

...and still eat well balanced meals.

• Spread the wealth:   Shop at two chain stores a week and buy the sale items that you can make meals from.   Put on blinders and stick to basics.   
• Waste not, want not....find ways to use up things in the fridge and leftovers before they develop hair prettier than yours.   Google an ingredient in a recipe finder ap that you need to use to get ideas. 
• Use every trick that is available to you to get better prices on the things you use on a regular basis.   Ibotta, coupons, sales that are really sales, bulk items when that makes sense.  
• Stock the key items you use for scratch cooking.   Buy them in bulk when they ar at their lowest price (RBP) .   Things like catsup, mustard, bbq sauce are cheapest and have the most generous coupons near picnic holiday times:   Memorial Day to Labor Day.  
• Plan.    Make a plan or plan to fail.   Make meal plans and plan your grocery trip if you are really short on money or you have a basket coupon.   At bare minimum, use the ads to determine what your rotation protein should be and check the fridge for your stock of dairy and produce.   Check pantry for any shelf stable staple that is on sale for need.   

Note:  rotation protein is a tool to buy bulk protein on a rotation basis when it is a so called loss leader.   Stick to a few basic cuts of meat and buy bulk when they are on sale.  If you rotate at a four to six week interval, you will have variety and pay the lowest possible price for your protein.  Protein is the most expensive element of a balanced diet.   When a protein is at a RBP, by enough to last you four to six weeks of meals.  In other words, if you eat hamburger twice a week, buy enough to fix eight meals and break bulk packaging into eight meal sized portions.   I cook and d-fat ground meat before freezing.  Its a real time saver.   Besides ground meat, I buy chicken breast, and pork loin .  Choose versitle cuts of meat to afford variety in your meals.   

QFC last basket coupon. 10.00 off 40.

I spent 40.08

Also included is 4 packs of flavored sparkling water. 

Kleenex .99 nets .74

Diced tomatoes .49 nets .37

Top ramen .29 nets .22

Cake mixes , BC .79 nets .40

Land of lakes butter 2.49 nets 1.87

Folders coffee .6.00 nets 4.50

Eggs ..78 nets .58

Sparkling water drinks 2.00 nets 1.50

Peanut butter 1.99 nets 1.49

Bread 1.25 nets .94

Coffee, paper products  and sparkling water are not part of the grocery budget net is 18.00 off 

Net is 12.08.

Chain store ads.

QFC:  buy 10 save 5.    This only works if the price are a RBP.   Our qfc also has a 10.00 off of 40.00 basket coupon.   That takes another 25 percent off if you stick to the 40.00.

Eggs .78
Draper valley chicken whole .79


Buy 10, save 5

Folgers 5.99
Diced tomatoes .49
Campbells soups -chicken, cream of mushroom .75 - use coupons
BC cake mixes .79
160 ct Kleenex .99
Butter 2.49
Sparkling water 1.99

Peanut butter 1.99
Bread 1.25


Alberways

Satsumas 2.77 limit 2
Chicken thighs or quarter .77
Cheese 2 lbs 4.97 limit 2
Bacon 2.99@@

Salad .99
Coffee 8.49.  NOTE difference in price from qfc.   An example of why you shop 2 stores.
Pork loin 1.99 -  the top of the RBP
Hamburger -7 percent fat......3.99

Barilla pasta .99@@
Cream cheese 1.29@@

Note @@ means that there is an in ad coupon for the item.  

Happy Halloween : Insta Pot chili

Halloween brings back memories of chilli on the stove  when we got home from school.   There wasn't microwaves or insta pots those days.   There was a deep well cooker on the stove.

Insta Pot Chili

1.5 cups dry pinto beans
Water

2 T olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell pepper
2 T garlic

1.5 lbs ground meat, cooked

5T taco seasoning
2T cocoa powder ( not hot cocoa mix )
Salt, pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne

4 cups beef broth
2 cups crushed tomatoes ( diced tomatoes can be zapped in the blender.


Rinse and drain the beans.   Place in insta pot with enough water to be 1 inch over the beans.   Process 5 minutes.  Use a natural release.

Drain beans.

Switch to sauté mode.   Sauté vegetables in olive oil.   Add seasonings.

Switch sauté mode off.  Add drained beans, cooked meat, broth and tomatoes.   Process on manual setting 20 minutes.   Allow for a natural release.

Serve with cheese, tortilla chips, avacado, sour cream.....

Kitchen Management - October 30th 2017

Kitchen management is a tool that saves time and energy with dinners in mind.   Meal prep in advance and a rotation of deep cleaning chores help keep you on top of things.

• Turn on snappy music....you work faster.LOL. 
• Disinfect counter tops, sinks, and drains. 
• Wash kitchen floor. 
• Clean out refrigerator and note things to be incorporated into meals.  
• Wash veggies you are going to use this week with vinegar and a dedicated brush if appropriate. 
• Precook anything that can be precooked.   Cook rotation meat if appropriate.
• Wash the stove and put the filter through the dishwasher.   (1st of the month) 
• Straighten the pantry.   
• Bake something.   
• 
  
• 
  

Fred Meyer Haul

Fred Meyer and the buy 10, save 5

This only works if the end cost is at or lower than your RBP.

Swiss Miss cocoa packets 1.00

2 avacadoes at .88. (Chicken Burrito Bowls )

2 spaghetti ( charity) .50

1 mission low carb tortillas

Grapes

Kleenex - 160 ct tissue .99

Bag cranberries 3.00

Butter 3.00

Parmesean cheese 3.59

Meal plans

Meal plans take a couple of mnutes , but make life a whole lot easier.  Its the answer to “What’s for Dinner and goes a long way towards making your meals for efficient.  It aids in the concept of using everything up out of the fridge and avoiding waste.

• Sloppy Joes, oven fries, veggie platter 
• Chilli ....traditional Halloween fare.  
• Chicken stir fry 
• Salmon cakes, rice, broccolli (make rice once, eat twice) 
• Chicken burrito bowls 
• Pork Pot Pie.  Fruit salad 
• Breakfast for Dinner 

Notes : 

1. We have buns to use up.   
2. Chili  is easily made in the insta pot, or its on sale at Alberways this week.  Its a traditional Halloween fare.   Warm the children’s tummy before they go out in the cold. LOL 
3. Chicken stir fry and the burrito bowls are stair step menus.  Cook once, eat twice. Ditto the rice. 
4. Breakfast for dinner is a mainstay here.  Its a family affair and everyone does something. Granddaughter a few years ago got the job of buttering the bread.   She got half way through and announced, “I cant believe I get to do this!”

Stair stepping ingredients is another way to save time in the kitchen.   

Spending more time planning and shopping, and less time cooking scratch is to your benefit. 

You don't get paid to cook, but spending some planning and research on the shopping end can save a lot of money.   It can very well cut your food bill in half or more without sacrificing good nutrition.  

My aim is for balanced meals: protein, starch, fruit or veggies and avoiding too much salt, sugar, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and HFCS.  

 

Fred Meyer Sunday ad

Halloween sale :   3 days = doesn’t say what days....assuming SMT

Apple juice .99
Hebrew National Hot dogs. 2.99
Ground turkey 2/5

Foster Farms boneless chicken breasts 1.97
Avocados .88

Yogurt : tillamook or yoplait 10/5 **

Buy 10, save 5
Net costs
Land of lakes butter 2.99
Chilli or progresso soup .99 $$
Milk .99
Campbells cr/mushroom or chicken noodle .75**
Cocoa mix .99
Sparkling cider 1.99
Tide 5.49
Kleenex tissue  -160 count .99


Canned corn or green beans 2/1 -RBP
Peanut butter 1.49
 Strawberries blackberries 2/5


** soup usually has a coupon
** yoplait is a better price because there are coupons for a dime off each carton.

I got canned veggies for .39 , but that was with a basket coupon.  My RBP is 50 cents for diced tomatoes, beans, and veggies.  

Bullets: soups in the insta pot

It was dark at 7:30 this morning....time for hot hearty soups and a chunk of bread for dinner . These soups can be made in the insta pot in minutes, or can be made in a slow cooker early in the day and make the house smell divine all day.   

• Ham and bean soup 
• Vegetable bean soup with or without sausage 
• Potato soup/ potato cheese soup, clam chowder
• Pumpkin or butternut squash soup 
• Chilli 
• Lentil stew 
• Minestrone

Recipes on request 

Basket coupon qfc and costco haul

So here goes....I was .04 over!

Treat bags .30
Ice cream 2.77
Beef patties 7.99X2
Sargento cheese 3.50X2 less 1.00 coupon
Dishwashing tabs 5.00
Paper towels 5.00
Chicken dunking lunchable 1.00
Pumpkin pie 3.99

Net 30.04


Costco

Bananas 1.39
Bacon 16.99
Blue cheese 7.63
Parm 10.49

Planning for a basket coupon

Making the best use of a basket coupon means you need to keep your basket total to as close as you can to the amount of the coupon’s basket dollars.   In other words , if the coupon is for 10.00 off of a forty dollar basket, you are going to get 25 percent off if you stick to forty dollars worth of merchandise.   It is also helpful if you only buy the things that are on a real sale and use coupons if you can.   I have got as much as 78 percent off using basket coupon, regular coupons and sale prices. It pays to plan.   We have more time than we do money.   We are retired.  If you dont have time, enlist help.   Children at early ages are computer savy.   A pre teen can click take items on a coupon web site for the things that they know you buy on a regular basis.  

QFC master plan 10 dollars off of forty

• 1 lunchable 1.00
• 2 pkg. hamburgers 7.99
• 1 pkg bounty paper towels 2/10
• 1 pkg cascade dishwashing detergent 
• 1 pumpkin pie 3.99
• 2 sargento sliced cheese 2/7 -use coupon 
• 1 Tillamook   ice cream 2.77 

40.74 less .55 coupon is 40.19

Chain store ads

Alberways

Fresh whole chicken .77 ( Mystery brand name)
Gala apples, or Bartlett pears .67
Top or bottom round roast 2.77 ***
Nalley’s chilli .88@@

Coleslaw and garden salad .99
Cucumbers .69

Friday only
Avocados 5/5
Foster farms breaded chicken 5.00


QFC
Honeycrisp apples 1.49
Tillamook ice cream 2.77
Avocados 2/3

** at 2.77 for roast, it would be a good time to grind your own hamburger.   Less price, low fat because you control the fat.  

Lists .. for emergencies.

My goal for Groceries on the Cheap is to maintain a small stock of the basic foods we iuse to cook .
By shopping your pantry instead of going to the store an buying 1 weeks worth of garoceries you can cut your food bill because you are never paying full price for your food.   Top dollar was my mother’s buzz word.   The trick is to assess what you use on a regular basis, design meal plans to work with a minimum of proteins, and decide how far out you can buy food.   Usually four to six weeks will afford you the luxury of finding another sale.   Buying too much that can go stale dated is not in your best interest.  

One key to make life easy is to make an informed decision on a limited variety of meat.   We stick to chicken breast, hamburger , pork loin and sausage.   I can get all of these.except good hamburger, for 2.00 or less a pound.   All of these are versitle cuts of meat.   The internet and Pinterest are full of recipes.  This affords enough variety of meals so we don’t get bored.  

I’m not going to pretend that this doesn’t take work to get set up.  Once you have set yourself up, itnactually takes less time than trying to remember if you have all the ingredients to make something for dinner.    Stick to basics.  

We are going to have a harsh winter, according to the weather people.   Its a good time to stock because stocking reduces the stress of having to embrace the weather to go out shopping.   Stocking assures you the luxury of never being out of food.  

Things to stock in case of emergency.  

• Dry milk:  you can get dry milk that has fat in it.   It’s a lot better tasting than the non fat version that we had as children.  It is more expensive than regular milk, but it is a good thing in a pinch.   There are also shelf stable milks these days.  I don't drink them, but my daughter does.
• Yeast:   Storage in freezer prolongs its life.   It is a staple here, so we use it up.   There are recipes for easy breads.   The most economical way to buy it is in a bulk block at Costco. —like three dollars or so.   
• Flour:   Another staple here, we buy it in the 25 lb bag.   
• Eggs.   A few dehydrated eggs are a good thing. 
• Water - especially if you rely on a well for your water.   

With those shelf stable ingredients, and canned goods you can survive without going to the store for some time and still maintain a regular diet.   

Bleep storms happen to everybody sometimes.   We have had emergency surgeries, the snow plow dump the snow in front of our driveway that turned to a big ice mound, any number of things can happen.   Having basic ingredients that are usually purchased fresh goes a long way to reducing your stress.   We have power outages here because of storms and trees.  We keep logs and a power box charged and oil lamps and battery powered candles.   

Cutting your food bill in half or less affords you the opportunity even on a small budget to prepare for emergencies—small or large.   

No spend October meals

1. Hamburgers, french fries, salad 
2. Soup, beer bread
3. Pizza 
4. Hamburgers, oven fries, salad 
5. Stuffed baked potato bar. 
6. Tuna casserole, peas and carrots, apple dump cake 
7. Hamburgers, french fries, veggie sticks 
8. Pumpkin pancakes, turkey bacon, fruit 
9. Sausage and cheese quiche, broccoli
10. Potato soup with bacon , rolls 
11. Night out 
12. Pizza
13. Spaghetti with meatballs  
14. Fish and chips 
15. Egg mc muffins, strawberries 
16. Soup, bread
17. Sausage patties, hash browns, fruit 
18. Pot roast soup 
19. Sausage., eggs, fruit 
20. Salmon, rice medley, broccolli, blackberries
21. Potato cheese soup, peasant breads
22. Quiche, fruit cup 
23. Chicken and noodles 
24. Pizza
25. Tacos
26. Pizza
27. 
    

Monday Kitchen Managemenat

Kitchen Management is a tool you can use to save time and some of the stress of dinner time and rotation  chores for deep cleaning.

Review of meal plans:

1. Pork stew, w potatoes and carrots, bread 
2. Pizza
3. Chicken and noodles, carrots and peas r
4. Enfrijoladas 
5. Chicken parm 
6. Salmon cakes, rice medley, broccoli 
7. Breakfast for dinner 

• Wash and disinfect kitchen counters and sinks and drains. 
• Wash kitchen floor. 
• Wax east side cabinets. 
• Clean drip pans 
• Clean out fridge and incorporate anything that needs to be eaten soon in your meals. 
• Wash potatoes and carrots.  
• Make refried beans if necessary . 
• Check mixes and make any that are low. 
• Bake hard cooked eggs with the remainder of the last batch of eggs. Place an egg in each muffin cup of a muffin pan , bake at 350 for 30 minutes.   Immediately , dumps eggs into a bowl of ice water.   
• Bulk cook any rotating meat if necessary.  Ours is sausage that needs to be fried and de-fatted.   
• Wash fruit .   
• Precook dinner if appropriate.   

Mini Hauls

Yesterday we went to Winco  and Dollar Tree.    At Dollar Tree i purchased a lined , white board that had the capital and lower case letters on it.  It is so granddaughter can practice her letters.

I also got :
4 cans pumpkin
1 package chocolate covered graham crackers
(Because everyone needs chocolate!)
1 package pepperoni -didnt have a coupon.

At winco we just bought a bag of potatoes.

Planning to get blackberries and eggs at Fred Meyers.

Meal Plans

A note on perspective —we have a ton of carrots to use up because we had a vegetable try last week . Some meals didnt happen last week, we had alternatives so they are reappearing on the meal plan.   Pizza and breakfast for dinner are staples in this house.  

1. Pork stew , with carrots, potatoes, celery.   Bread 
2. Pizza
3. Chicken and noodles in the insta pot.  Add carrots and peas 
4. Enfrijoladas. Greens, tomatoes, salsa,sour cream
5. Chicken parm, speghetti, greens, bread
6. Salmon patties, rice medley, broccolli 
7. Breakfast 4 dinner. 

Notes: 

1. pork stew meat comes from the end of a pork loin.  Pork loin is 2.00 this week.   A little higher than I like to pay, I have some in the freezer that I got for 1.79.  Using up carrots.   
2. Pizza costs 1.04....a little cheaper now that we got cheese for 2.05 a lb.   
3. trying chicken and noodles in the insta pot—four minutes.   
4. Enfrijoladas are a new to me Tex mex dish from Betty Crocker.  
5. Chicken parm is a good go to when you dont have a lot of time.   Pasta was purchased on sale for .72 and sauce for .59.   
6. Salmon patties from canned salmon from costco bought on sale for 3.00 off a ‘case” .  Aka stack.  
7. Breakfast for dinner.  Eggs are .78 at FM (kroger) .   

Getting virtually everything on sale at as close to 1/2 price as I can and limiting the diversity of products is how I feed us on about 40 percent of the USDA stats for “poor” people.   They call it thrifty.   We eat well.  We eat balanced.  There is always fresh fruit in the house of some kind.  This week it’s will probably be bananas, apples, blackberries, blueberries, and grapes.   I make our own bread sometimes.   I also have been getting orowheat bread , double fiber, for a dollar at the DT.   

I limit my meat purchases to split chicken breast (foster farms). Whole pork loin that I butcher myself, and extra lean (7-10 percent ) ground sirloin and we eat meatless about 2 times a week.   

Fred Meyer Sunday ad

Ground sirloin (10%) fat 3.77

Apples 1.49

Eggs .79

Blackberries .99

Sour cream 2/4

Red Barron 2.88. $$

Hebrew National hot dogs 3.49

Pumpkin pie 3.99

Half Pork Loi. 1.99 (top of my target list price )



My vote for the best place to shop this week would be Alberways .   Safeways has a just for you basket coupon for 5 off of 25.  If you stay close to 25, thats 20 percent.

They have diced tomatoes , greenbeans and corn for .49. Which with a basket coupon.makes them .39.   A good time to stock up for the winter.   Diced tomatoes are the most versatile of the tomato products and I saw BPA free cans at Safeways.

Don’t underestimate the close out bin at qfc.   I got pasta sauce for .79.   Our QFC had a 25 percent basket coupon that made it .59.   Add sale Barilla pasta, some parm cheese, and a can of green beans and a loaf of peasant bread and you have a meal for four at a cost of 2.30. TOTAL. Not per plate.
You can still use coupons on the closeout baskets.   One time I got low sodium beans for free.

Using every available means of discounting food is a way to cut your grocery bill dramatically.  We are averaging less than 55.00 a week for the first three quarters of the year/.  Last year it was 72.00.   Since then, I bought a  insta pot and that allowed me to scratch cook rice and beans and make scratch cooking easier.   I spend an hour to an hour and a half on Mondays doing kitchen management . But, I rarely spend more than twenty minutes at dinner time making dinner.  The  55.00 includes maintaining a small stock.

Peasant Bread

3 cups flour
1-3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water. 105-110 degrees

Mix ingredients.  Cover.   Let rest on counter 12-24 hours

Turn onto floured counter.  Fold on itself to shape into a round or loaf

Heat oven safe Dutch oven in 450 degree oven until oven comes up to temp.

With very good oven mitts, remove lid from pan in oven .  Place bread dough in pan.  Cover an bake covered for 30 minutes.   Again, with very good oven mitt, remove lid and cook an additional 10-20 minutes or until bread is 200 degrees.

Extremely easy recipe.  The hardest part is to be every careful and use proper oven mitts so you don’t burn yourself.   Always have a designated safe place to set hot pans.   It’s helps to make a sling out of parchment paper to drop the dough into the pan,