Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Chain store ads for today

Alberways

Basket coupon for 5 dollars off of 50.   It’s something , but not enough with their prices to entice me.

Grapes 1.79
Hamburger buns .89@@
Cheese 4.99@@
Medium avacados .88
Hillshire Farms sausage 2/5
Nathan’s hot dogs 3.99

QFC

Cream cheese 1.00

Buy 6, save 5
Tillamook ice cream 2.99
Goldfish .99
Chunky soup .99
Pasta .49
Milk .99
Classico pasta sauce 1.49
Pace Salsa 1.49
Pepperoni 2.99

NOTE:
Download coupons for Friday or Saturday only
Buy ten dollars worth of food,
80/20 hamburger 1.99
Dijorno pizza 2.99
Sausage 1.99

Buy up to 5 ea

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Tuesday Notes

It’s definitely Tuesday and I dont have a clue what I want to talk about.  Yesterday it was Kitcenn Management day ,   I made Wednesdays Spicy Pork Tacos filling.    This comes from a very old cookbook from the 70s.  Its like fifty years old.   Some things are still economical.   And healthy enough to add to your good cheap meal list.   I stick with good cheap meals here because everyone can make a meal that costs ten bucks a plate.   If you cant, there are meal services out there that will deliver your food and instructions for ten dollars a plate.   If you know how to eat good food cheap, its not a big stretch to make more expensive dinners.   Knowing how to do it on the cheap gives you the confidence to know you can handle anything life throws at  you.  

I had ground my own pork when I made pork stew meat and ground pork from a pork sirloin I got from Winco for 1.69, and i got 12 taco shells for less than 50 with a coupon .   (And, who says you cant get real food with coupons ?). This made spicy pork tacos an interesting  experiment.

SPICY PORK TACOS

Oil
Chopped onion or onion powder
Garlic
Celery , 1 stalk
8 ounces of tomato sauce
Diced green chillies
Oregano
Salt
1.5 cups ground pork (1/2 lb ).  

Sauté onion, celery, garlic in the oil.  Add tomato sauce.  
Pour into a bowl .  
Fry ground pork until no longer pink and tests done.
Add 1/2 can of green chilies.  
Add back reserved tomato mixture.
Simmer for a few minutes or until the meat sauce is somewhat reduced.

Serve in taco shells with cheese and lettuce.


Notes:
Because of family members personal preferences , i used onion and garlic powder.
I used the top skinny part of the celery stalk.   It just made chopping easier and used what some people throw away. Tomato sauce can be less than thirty five cents, I used tomato paste and water I
got for .16.   Green chilies are cheapest at Winco.  Their brand is .66 —half the National brand.
Ground pork was 1.69 a lb. or .85.  This made 2 cups of meat .  

Total cost :   Celery .10, tomato sauce .16, chillies .33, ground pork .85.   Total 1.44. Add .50 for taco shells, .50 for cheese and .25 for lettuce.   Total 2.69.

At a five dollar meal, you could still add Spanish rice / and /or refried beans.  








Monday, January 29, 2018

It’s Monday, Kitchen Management

No surprise, Kitchen Management day.
Kitchen management is a tool that keeps your kitchen clean and preps diners so the dinner hour  is less hectic. It is an hour well spent.


  • Wash kitchen floor 
  • Disinfect kitchen counters and sinks and drains. 
  • Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead. Wash shelves. 
  • Put stove fan screen through the dishwasher .
  • Mark the meal plan with anything that needs to be defrosted before the day of dinner. 
  • make salad , put in container with a paper towel . Wash tomatoes . 
  • Wash carrots and potatoes in vinegar water and dry. 
  • Wash cheese containers and fill. 
  • Clean and straighten pantry.   
  • Deep clean the self serve coffee pot.   Clean under the hot boards.   
Like bulk buying, prepping saves time and money.  It saves money because you are prepping a sink of vinegar water once and washing all your veggies at the same time.   It, by the way, is a favorite chore of our 5 yo.   Maybe because our vegetable brush is a lady bug.   LOL.  

There is something to be said for having a small stock of food on hand. You can eat well and have a stock on hand even on a budget that is less than SNAP allotment. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t take some planning and some work at first, but it is surprisingly low maintenance once you get the hang of it.   Being organized is key.   Having all of one thing in the same place helps.   A few plastic baskets from the dollar store makes a big difference.   That black hole of a freezer becomes manageable and you can see at a glance what you need to replenish.  Most of the time, you don’t put yourself in the  position of having to go to the store.   

We are on the emergency ration toilet paper.  We do have to go to Costco today.  LOL.  A simple trick. Buy yourself a four pack of TP at the DT.  Put it in the back of the closet.  When you hit the DT stuff, it’s time to go to Costco, but you have avoided a disaster!!  LOL





Sunday, January 28, 2018

Meal Plans -Jan 29

First of all, I am under budget so far this year.   Seattle is the 6th highest COL in the United States.   Our grocery budget was 55.05 a week all last year for three of us.   It is less so far this year.   I did buy a case of chicken breasts and a case of ground beef.  It isn’t here yet, but I have deducted the cost of the meat to make our budget 44.00 a week.   The cost of the meat was a dollar a pound cheaper than my cheapest price and it is fresher because it comes directly from the farmer.  But, because we already had a somewhat full freezer, we will be eating down the freezer for a couple of months to make room.           .



  1. Pizza 
  2. Breakfast for Dinner 
  3. Meatball subs and salad 
  4. Spicy Pork tacos, refried beans. Homemade 
  5. Chicken with apples and onions , rice, peas 
  6. Orange chicken , rice, green beans 
  7. Bacon wrapped shrimp, oven fried potatoes , glazed carrots.  
Notes :   
  1. Pizza is a family favorite.   Cost of a pizza crust is .19.   We use part of a jar of pizza sauce from the DT and freeze the rest in ice cube trays.   The last cheese I bought was two dollars a pound.   Totals .89 for a cheese pizza.   Add leftover meats and veggies for a fuller pizza.   Pepperoni , sausage, peppers, olives, chicken, green chilies all are candidates.  Adding a few still keeps the meal less than five dollars for four people. 
  2. Breakfast for dinner can cost less than five dollars too. 
  3. Rolls for meatball subs can be made or purchased at the DT for a dollar.   
  4. Chicken breast cost 1.77 a lb last time.   New batch is .99 a lb.   Apples are between a dollar an a dollar an a half a lb.
  5. Orange chicken uses a orange and oranges were .57 a lb in recent weeks.  
  6. We purchased bacon for 3.00 a package and shrimp are in the freezer.   This is more than a five dollar meal, but the pizza and breakfast for dinner balance the budget out.   
  7. Spicy pork tacos are from meat bought for 1.69 a lb and ground ourselves .   The taco shells were .48 for 12 and adding cheese, lettuce and tomato adds another few cents.

Its not what you buy as much as when and where you buy it.   Buying almost everything you need on sale and using coupons can reduce your food bill by 50-60 percent.   That, for most families, is a chunk of change over a year.   



Saturday, January 27, 2018

Winco Food Haul

Winco Food Haul
—some good buys here

Total 27.24

Holiday almonds @ .99
Parm cheese 1.96
Large eggs .98
Yellow cake mix .88
Taco shells .98 -buy two, uses coupon on display (in diary department)
For 1.00 off nets 2/ .96 for 12 packs

Apples .98 lb
Canned green chilies .66
Bar s bacon 2.98
Cucumber .48
Better than boullion , beef 3.48
2 grape tomatoes 1.28 ea
Lettuce .98
Black olives, sliced .68


Fred Meyers ad for Sunday, 3 day Alberways sale

Alberways 3 day sale.

Mushrooms 2/4
Ground turkey 2/5
Pasta sauce .99 limit 4
StarKist tu a .58

BOGO
Cheerios 
Progresso 

There are coupons that would match with this.


Fred Meyers

Strawberries 1.97
Avocados .97
Sirloin steak 2.97
Hebrew National Franks 2/7

Buy 6, save 3
Tillamook ice cream 2.99
Freshetta pizza 4.49
Hidden valley ranch 2.49



Cheerios 1.79 $$
Kroger Brats 2.99
Cream cheese 1.00
Grapes 2.49






Friday, January 26, 2018

Friday Notes

Zaycon has boneless, skinless chicken breast for .99 a lb through today with the promo code WELCOME99. Forty pound lots.   I bought one lot and it will be here mid march.   Tat gives me time to clean out the freezer and save up the forty dollars out of the grocery budget.  I am already below budget, so it shouldn’t be hard.   What that does do for us, is provide enough chicken breast for the rest of the year at a cost of less than a dollar a week.   We usually have chicken two times a week and pork one times week and alternate with pork twice, chicken once.   This gives me the opportunity to cook once, eat twice.

Using every trick available to you can lower your food bill dramatically.  Closing your mind to available tools that can reduce your grocery bill does not help you.   If you try something and it doesn’t work for you, then don't do it.  I can see where , if you don't have someone to pick up a syringe order for you and you work, it could be a loser.   You prepay for the meat, so it might be possible for you to get a gramps or someone to pick it up for you and share a few pieces of meat.
The good part of ts is that your meat s coming straight fro the farmer and it is coming from your state so its fresher than the eat you generally get from your  grocery store.










Thursday, January 25, 2018

Stairstepping to cut costs

Stair stepping is a name I gave the concept of morphing a batch of food to cover two or more meals.
This blog is related to the last blog on Dollar Tree (DT) meals.   This cuts waste and money.   However, the concept can be used for any budget regardless of where you buy your food.   We buy our rice, flour and oatmeal in.bulk at costco.


  1. Chicken stir fry :  Cook 1/2 cup raw rice .  .25; 1 package of stir fry veggies, 1 packsage of chicken -raw or canned.   2.25 (oil and soy sauce) 
  2. Beans and rice :   1/2 cup rice .25, 1 cup of beans .33 ( reserve 1 cup for tomrrow._ add a can of diced tomatoes and spices..    1.83. Note:  tomatoes are cheaper at other stores.   DT has had them for 50 and they were organic. 
Nachos:   1 pkg. tortilla chips, 1 cup beans from yesterday, 1 pouch of cheese sauce, 1 pkg diced tomatoes, drained, black olives, chopped or sliced.


Total cost :   Nine dollars and you have leftover raw rice and beans.  It would be less if yu got your tomatoes on sale cheaper or if your DT still has organic tomatoes 2/1.


Senecio no. 2

1 package of pasta -extra volume if they have it.
1 package of frozen veggies:  broccoli /or mixed California blend

1 package of cheese sauce
1 can of pasta sauce

Makes :
Mac and cheese and veggies
Pasta sauce and pasta with veggies

4.00/ 2 meals

Add 1.00 for diced tomatoes and have a second rice and beans.

Total now 14.00

Pizza crust, some sauce from pasta dish, cheese, cost 2.00

Sixtee dollars total for seven meals or .57 a meal.


Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Yes, you could eat from the DT.

Yes, you could eat from the DT.   I did see a gal on a vlog that actually bought organic and healthy food from the DT.   She got her weeks food for 22.00.    Now, I am not suggesting that you buy all your food from the DT.   Some of it is nasty, some is over priced.  ( veggies are .79 a can when you can get them for .39).  But, just for entertainment sake, I took on the challenge of seeing how many meals you could get from the DT.   No, I didn't buy all this stuff.   I guess what you could take from this is how to make dollar tree food work in a pinch.

  Actually, we went to the beach off season for our anniversary one year. The lodging was really inexpensive.  When we got there, we found out why. There was virtually no food.   One place  was open that had fish and chips and fish and chips and 2 cheap drinks was 40.00.   I had brought food -some snacks like I always do, but we were pretty much on our own.   The one grocery store was dirty, and had almost no food that you could cook with a microwave.  A dollar tree would have been a pleasant site.  LOL.  I googled subway and we found a gas station 4 miles away that had a subway and that is what we ate for two days along with the yogurt and fruit I had brought from home.

Dollar tree meals - note the frozen veggies are mostly from China..


  • Meatball subs, green beans 
  • Pizza , pepperoni 
  • Chili and cornbread 
  • Tuna noodle casserole , peas 
  • Mac and cheese
  • Turkey bacon, eggs, toast, fruit 
  • Creamed tuna on toast 
  • Rice and beans 
  • Uncle Ben’s rice, ham and vegetable 
  • Pasta and pasta sauce 
  • Chili cheese fries 
  • Nachos 
  • Greek pizza 
  • Potato dumplings with tomato and spinach. 
  • Tiki masala 
  • Meatballs and gravy over noodles 
  • Chicken tacos , rice, beans 
  • Chicken and noodles 
  • Oatmeal, fruit.   
  • Smoothies , muffins 
  • Peanut butter sandwiches 
  • Chicken stir fry and mandarin oranges 
  • Egg omelettes 
  • Ham, scalloped potatoes 







Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Chain store ads

Chain store ads 

Alberways 

Petite sirloin steak or 
Cross rib roast 2.88

Blues 3.88

Tuna .58@@

There are some bogo’s , but without the regular price, it is hard to know if they are a bargain or not. 


QFC 

Buy 6,, save 3 sale;   Net prices 

Milk .99
Marie C or  healthy choice dinners 1.79
Dreyers ice cream 2.99
Bacon 3.99
Mayonaise 2.49

Campbells chunky soup .99
Goldfish .99


———-

Mandarins 2.99
Fruit pie 2.99
Yoplait 10/5.00 $$
Pears .99

Grocery Outlet and dollar tree hauls

We made a Kenmore run today.   

Grocery Outlet 
A lot of GO lately is food from Mars....there are, however, still some good buys 


Sliced ripe olives .69
Relish 1.29
Thin mint cupcakes (Girl Scouts) .99

`low carb tortillas 2.99

Pizza crust .99

Beer cheese 2.30

Total 11.23

Dollar Tree

Orowheat bread wth flaxseed .45
Buns 1.00


Total. 1.45 


5 life change to cut your grocery bill in half

Its January.   Our yearly goals this year is to de clutter the house and pay off debt.   If your year goals is to cut your grocery spending and eat more healthy, this blog is for you.


5 things to change in your life to cut your grocery bill in half.

Whenever I find myself stuck in bed for a while, I tend to watch others peoples grocery hauls.   Its an eye opener . While, I never comment on their mistakes, I certainly note them to myself.

I digress....5 things


  1. If you go to one grocery store, buy just what you need for a week or a day, you are setting yourself up to fail.  The odds are against you, the same as if you go to the casino.   The HOUSE is going to win.   No one store has the cheapest price on everything.   Pick the two cheapest stores and buy what’s on sale that you need.   If there is a good sale at a particular store, plan your trip.
  2. 50 percent of the average grocery cart is drinks and salty snacks.   Stick to coffee and tea and skip the rest.   NO-ONE NEEDS POP.  And NO-ONE NEEDS POTATO CHIPS.  Your diet will love you.   Fruit juice is not good for you or your teeth.   You are better off eating the fruit.  
  3. Pick a few basic cuts of meat that are versatile—like pork loin, chicken breast, and hamburger. Rotate buying them in bulk— enough for the number of meals you will be eating that particular cut in a month to six weeks.  This will depend on the size of your family.   There is less waste and you are buying the meat at its lowest possible price. 
  4. Learn to cook scratch food when it makes sense.  Not all premade items in the grocery store are more expensive than homemade.   Pasta sauce and tortillas come to mind.   But, there are a lot of things that you can efficiently make homemade that take little more time than opening that box or bag.   You can make bread for as little as a quarter.   The same bread is three dollars.   
  5. Don’t overlook non traditional stores for food.   Sometimes there are good buys.   They don't have a wide variety of foods but what they do have can be a good price.   Know what the RBP is on the things you buy on a regular basis. My mother used to say ‘some people could have a bargain get up and bite them in the butt, and they wouldn't see it.”  Don't be that person.  
  6. A bonus:    No food will do your family good if you are feeding it to the garbage disposal.   




Monday, January 22, 2018

Kitchen Management Monday

Kitchen management is a tool that maintains the deep cleaning of the kitchen and provides a head start for dinners during the week.   This helps make the hectic dinner hour a bit easier.

Refresh dinner meals


  • Vegetable beef soup, bread 
  • Pizza
  • Meatballs and spaghetti 
  • Pasta with sausage and spinach 
  • Chix nuggets and oven fries, veggie tray 
  • Baked potato bar 
  • Breakfast for dinner 
  1. Wash kitchen floor 
  2. Wash and disinfect counters and clean sinks and drains 
  3. Clean out refrigerator and dump anything dead.  Wash inside the refrigerator.
  4. Wash carrots and potatoes ( soup, oven fries, baked potatoes ) we have parts of 3 bags of potatoes. My regular and red potatoes and a bag my daughter brought me. 
  5. Mark meal plan to thaw chicken the day before chicken nuggets. 
  6. Empty toaster crumb tray


Sunday, January 21, 2018

Week 4 FM haul

Week 4 FM Haul

Total 15.72

The Nalleys chili was substituted with Hormel.   I had .55 on two coupons.  

4 hormel chili
1 strawberry
Kraft mayo
1 ice cream
1 split peas
1 blue cheese

Tips and tricks

These are tips and tricks that save time and/or money anyone can use.

  1. If you are using blueberries for cooking, check the price of frozen vs fresh.   When blueberries arent. Season, froze can work as well as fresh.   If making muffins , try dusting the berries with some of the dry batter first.   
  2. Making your own bread crumbs is a lot cheaper than buying them and throwing away your crusts.  
  3. Breadcrumbs , chopped nuts, and parmesan makes a good breading for chicken cubes / chicken nuggets.   Air frying or baking in a convection oven is more healthy.   
  4. When using nuts for baking, try buying broken nuts in the bulk isle (winco) saves time and money.  
  5. Buying small amounts of spices that you don't use on a regular basis are best purchased in the bulk isle.   The cost difference between that 1 inch square ‘jar’ and the bulk price is remarkable.  When I bought enough dill to fill the once inch bottle it was .17.   The bottle cost over six dollars.  
  6. If you are new to bread baking and don’t want the investment of a three plus package of yeast at cosco, you can buy small amounts of yeast in the bulk isle. 
  7. Anything you eat on a regular basis that doesn’t spoil quickly is a good candidate for bulk.   We buy flour, rice and real oatmeal at Costco in bulk.   The beans are not a good choice for us.   We don’t use enough.  Sometimes it makes sense if you have a group of people that would split a bag of something.   
  8. Prepping for dinners in a marathon hour session can make dinner time a lot less hectic.  Those of us that wake up early can be wasted by dinner.   LOL
  9. Scratch cooking most things is a great budget stretcher.   Tortillas, pasta sauce, and mayonnaise is not a good candidate for scratch.   Either they are too labor intensive or expensive.   
  10. You can preserve lemons with kosher salt (not course ) and lemons in a jar with a tight fitting lid.   You can also dehydrate eggs when they are cheap and plentiful.  It beats paying over two dollars a dozen.  Drying the plentiful zucchini  is also a great money saver.  Most of us can get it free from friends and neighbours.   Dried parsley is sooo much fresher than what you buy in a jar.   Save jars.   

Week 4 meal plans : Jan 22.

Meal Plans are a neesssary tool to cut food costs and be organized.   We use a matrix (outline) to do meal plans . It saves time and money.   This week I am concentrating on using up hanging around food and food we have an excess of. 

  • Monday Soup:   A good meal when people are eating on different schedules.   Hamburger vegetable soup. - 3.00, bread .30 equals 3.30 with bread leftover. 
  • Pizza - 1.05 ea 
  • Meatballs and spaghetti.  : Pasta sauce 1.00; pasta .75; meatballs 1.50#.   3.25 plus .39 green beans equals 3,64 
  • Breakfast 4 dinner:  eggs .80, English muffins .64 , fried potatoes .40, fruit 1.00.  2.84 
  • Pasta with sausage and spinach .  Spinach is on sale and i can make sausage from the groundpork I made last week.   Sausage 1.69, 1/2 pkg pasta .50; spinach 1/2 .50, leftover cream  cheese.   2.69 plus carrots .50 equals 3.19
  • Homemade chicken nuggets, 1.77. Oven fries .50, veggie sticks .50.   3.77 
  • Baked potato bar. : Potatoes 1.00. Chili .69, sour cream .35, broccolli .50, cheese.50.  3.04

Total 21.88 or .78 a plate 
This does not include things that are part of a basic kitchen like olive oil, spices, boullion etc.   



Saturday, January 20, 2018

Fred Meyer for tomorrow, and a 3 day at Alberways

Fred Meyers

FF Chicken, whole .97
California mandarins 2.99 - 3 lbs
Milk .99

Ground beef 7 percent 3.49 ****

Berries 2/4

Sour cream/ cottage cheese 1.25

Spinach .99

Cabbage .49

Oranges .88


Buy 6, save 3 —not the best mega event -net prices

Dreyers ice cream 2.99

Campbells chunky soup .99

Dave killer  3.49

Nalleys chili .89 - there is a .40/2 coupon out there makin g it .69



ALBERWAYS

GARDEN SALADS .79

Lean ground beef 2.77 =20 percent fat *****

Tortillas, 30 count .99

Signature select ice cream 1.99@@@

Remember case lot sale

****

Comparing hamburgers

Fred meyers hamburger is 7 percent for 3.49 or translates to 3.49 X 1.07 equals 3.73 a lb

Alberways is 2.77 a b and 20 percent fat.  Or translates to 3.22

I prefer the less fat, but at 3.22 you can defat the hamburger.   Defeating hamburgerlooses u to 17 percent of the fat.  

You can also watch for a sirloin sale and grind yours ow.   The last time I did that it was a net of 2.40 a lb and it was almost no fat visible.  



Friday, January 19, 2018

11 things NEVER to buy at the grocery store.

There are just some things that are not a friend of your budget and /or your heath


  • Snack salty foods:  its no accident that the first thing that you see when you walk into some stores is the chips, and other salty snacks.   There are whole isles dedicated to them.   They are also some of the most expensive things per pound in the store.  If you want a ‘salty snack” you are much better off having a homemade air popped real popcorn.   A huge canister is a good price at Costco and it lasts forever.   I use the container for storage of dry goods.  
  • Baked goods.   We all buy a loaf of bread.   The cheapest price these days is at Dollar Tree (orowheat) and there are coupons in inserts that net it out at .45 a loaf.  This includes double fiber and whole wheat, and some rolls.   It is extremely cheaper to make your bread and it can take a matter of minutes and about a quarter or so to make a rustic loaf of bread or french bread.   For a bit of a 6.00 bag of flour and a 3.oo plus change bag of yeast, you can have many many loaves of bread.   Artisan bread can cost 3.00 a loaf.   Muffins can have healthy additive and can cost as little as 50 cents a dozen.   A few minutes of your time can make a .50 investment make as much as what cost 6.00
  • Rotisserie chicken .   Another case where a ten minute investment of time can save a lot of money. 
  • Fruit juices.   Yippee cups of fruit juice are not good for children’s teeth.   A nutritionist told me that my children were much better off eating the apple instead of a cup of juice. 
  • Bread crumbs.  Why pay upwards of 2.40 cents a pound for someone elses dry bread and tosss yours out.?   
  • Pizza sauce.   Pizza sauce is very expensive at the regular grocery stores.   The dollar tree has name brand sauce for a dollar.   Use what you need and put the rest in an ice cube tray and freeze it.   When it is frozen, dump the cubes into a zip lock.   Or, use part of a jar of pasta sauce you are using for another meal or a part of a 8 ounce can of tomato sauce you have purchased for less than .33.   Freeze any leftovers.
  • Cans or jars of broth.   Again you are paying for someone elses garbage.   A lot for someone else’s garbage.   Debone chicken breasts and put the bones in your slow cooker with some water and vegetable scraps (celery and carrot, onion) before you go to bed.   When you get up, you will have chicken broth.   Ditto vegetable broth, or buy reduced sodium boullion.   
  • Croutons.   I usually just skip them.  But, they, too, can be made from your dry bread.   
  • Pizza crust costs less than 20 cents and takes about five mnutes to make if you are slow.  Pizza purchased even at the grocery store is at least 3.00 .   The cost of a cheese pizza is 1.05.  You can do wonders with a little pepperoni purchased at the dollar store or leftover meat and veggies.    Save a few pieces of cooked meat or fresh veggies every time you chop something that you could put on a pizza.  Keep a few bags in the freezer door.   
  • Hamburger Meal Boxes.   Very little product for a lot of money....even at a dollar at the DT.  The one my daughter and I dissected had a little more than 4 ounces of pasta and an envelope of sauce mix full of things I couldn’t pronounce.                          





Pesto Pasta

Pesto

1 bunch basil
1/4 cups walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parm
4 cloves garlic

Mix together in food processer or blender.


Pesto Pizza Dish

8 ounces bow tie pasta , cooked
2 cups broccolli or cauliflower or combo of both , blanched
2 cups leftover chicken or turkey, cubed
1 can diced tomatoes wtth italian seasonings , not drained
1/4 cup pesto

Toss all ingredients.   Top with parm or Romano cheese.
Bake at 350 deg for 30 minutes or until heated through








Thursday, January 18, 2018

Thursday Bullets: Morphing meals

There is just something about the word leftover that sends some husband’s screaming from the building.   It is still a good idea to be able to cook once and eat twice.   Its more efficient .  So, instead of reheating the same dinner, you can reinvent the ingredients and morph the meal.   It helps to space the leftover (morphed) meal in between another meal.  


  • Pork roast can become pork sliders with bbq sauce. 
  • Meatballs and speghetti can become meatball subs. 
  • Cooked chicken breast can become chicken broccoli salad , or chicken pot pie , Thai noodles 
  • Leftover cooked chicken or pork can become stuffing for a calzone
  • Shredded chicken can become tortilla soup 
  • Leftover beef can become beef and blue cheese pizza
  • Leftover beef can become sliders
  • Leftover beef can become bbq beef pizza 
  • Leftover just about any meat can become a coconut  curry noodle bowl
  • Shredded meat can be a meat for tacos. 
  • Leftover cooked meat can go into a Denver  potato casserole 
  • Ham can morph into seasoning for split pea soup 
  • Leftover chicken can become a chicken Alfredo pizza or 
  • A buffalo chicken pizza
  • Meatloaf one day can become meatballs on noodles another.   (Just cube the meatloaf) 
Chili or a vegetable soup can be served over rice another day.
  • Leftover taco meat can become a burrito bowl another day 
  • The black beans you cooked for a Mexican dish can become black bean cakes . 
  • Meatball stew