So the bird that I cooked for our Thanksgiving feast was a 19 pounder…. which meant that there was a LOT of left overs since the only ones eating with us were Stu’s parents. I meant for there to be leftovers though because if I’m going to go to the trouble of digging out turkey guts (eww) and baking the thing then I want there to be plenty to show for it.

So far this week we have had Turkey Tortilla Soup, Turkey Shepherd’s pie (which was absolutely delish, by the way and used up all the “other” leftovers like stuffing, smashed taters, and gravy! Yum!!) and today I’ll be cookin up some BBQ turkey sandwiches in the crock pot!

Now not only do I have left over Turkey in my fridge, but left over Tortilla soup, left over shepherd’s pie, and we’ll see if we have left over bbq turkey.

My plans for today for whatever turkey doesn’t get sauced is to cube it and freeze it in soup sized portions that I can use for soups later. That way instead of pulling out the handy dandy canned chicken breast which is my usual “go to” for speedy soups, I can just grab a baggie of Turkey out of the freezer.

It makes my frugal lil heart happy to have such good meat stored away in our freezer at an unbeatable price, ha ha!! I have 2 “full sized” turkeys in my freezer that will be baked later, and one “itty bitty” one that I’m hoping to be able to fit in my crockpot at some point. But after this week, I’ll give my family a little turkey break.

But my frugal side has been driving me to shop there because they typically are cheaper than any other grocery store in the area. Until I started thinking…. They actually are NOT cheaper on fresh food items. Their meat is always outrageously high, and their milk is always higher than Safeway. Their fruits and veggies are usually the same or higher than Safeway’s price as well. So what WAS cheaper?? The canned/boxed items.

Still, I usually shopped there to get most of those things, and I’d jaunt over to Safeway to get meat on sale and milk. But I hate to go to a bunch of different places, and since it’s a 45 min drive to town anyway, it already seems like a chore, so I found myself shopping at the Wal-Mart for the convenience and cheapness sake and just swallowing my irritation every time I went. BUT that ever impressive straw that broke poor humpy’s back finally came. A few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon (because that’s when we were already in town) I dropped off my men at the “depot” as Myles calls it (Home Depot) and Ella and I ran over to WM to get the groceries. Well, I got de Bella out of her seat and was making my way across the parking lot high stepping over piles of trash and filth! Seriously, it looked like a trash truck with a severe leak had been making it’s rounds through there! Just as I was about to step onto the sidewalk, I had to hop over a used condom. (insert fury)

I was beyond done with that place at that point. That store is making money hand over fist, if the hordes of people constantly in the store and shelves that they simply cannot keep stocked are any indication. They could put a leeeeetle effort into keeping that store presentable and decent. I’m done with them. I refuse, even going against my frugal bent (which is saying a lot) to shop at that store. I’m not going to put up with it any more! I will be writing the manager a letter, not that they will care of course, just to appease my conscience, and then I’m moving my business to Safeway.

I have decided in an effort to reconcile my thrifty self and my outraged sense of propriety to stock up on the nonperishable items that I would normally get at that store. That way, I can still feel like I’m getting the best deal for my money, and I can shop at Safeway for the meat, dairy and produce.

I will be going to wal-mart stores in other locations. While I feel like the quality of service has declined dramatically in Walmart, they do have good prices on a lot of goods, and not every store is as much of a slum as the one we have access to.

I’m anticipating my shopping trips to be much more pleasant now that I know I won’t have to deal with the multitude of irritations that are present in that WM store. Safeway has a clean environment, helpful and FRIENDLY employees, and security to keep the parking lot clear! Plus they have a Starbucks!!! Ahhhhh…. bliss.

I just can’t get over the “convenience” of it. Ha! And since I didn’t see the end of the show, I don’t know what he used instead. I don’t used creamed soups a lot, but there are dishes that I use it for. The easy potato soup I love! Over slow-cooked beef roast! And, of course, the various and sundry casseroles. I don’t make casseroles very much, but I came across a couple recipes recently that I think I’d like to try.

Anyway, all of that to say that the other day while browsing on pinterest, I discovered a recipe for “Cream of Something Soup Mix.” Wow! I decided right away to make some, and since I was going to the store the next day, I got what I needed. I actually had most of the ingredients on hand so it all worked out well. I made a double batch of the mix, because I figure if you’re going to make a mess, you might as well have 2x as long before you have to do it again! It’s really not a messy recipe, but I make anything that’s kinda powdery a mess, unfortunately.

The mix smells yummy, and I’m pretty interested to see how it works! I’m a little doubtful of how it will do in the potato soup, because I like to use cream of celery in it. Maybe if I add some finely cut fresh celery or some celery salt it’ll still have the flavor. But for casseroles I think this mix is going to be perfect! I’m so thrilled!! Even if I didn’t get all the advice from Alton Brown, I still managed to find an “unprocessed” way of making the ingredients I need. Oh, and this is supposed to be much cheaper than buying condensed soups as well. Always a nice perk!

So in case you’ve decided to give it a go as well, here’s the recipe! Let me know if you use it and your “verdict.”

Cream of “something” soup recipe
1 cup non-fat dried milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup bouillon cubes
4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme (I couldn’t find the thyme so I used dried parsley instead)
1 teaspoon pepper
(For the equivalent of one can of condensed cream soup, mix 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook until thick)

I’d probably still be in a ho-hum coffee relationship had I not stumbled upon a second blog post about the “perfect iced coffee.” I had seen it once on Pioneer Woman’s blog, but this was someone else and the photos of the coffee just totally sucked me in and I knew I wouldn’t rest till I had made that “cold brewed” coffee! Actually, I did rest though. I had to wait till I got a gallon sized pitcher I could use. The cold brewed coffee is splendid, but this is NOT about the coffee. It’s about the creamer!!

With the iced coffee instructions was also the ‘recipe’ for “sweet cream” to go in the coffee. It’s so simple!! A can of sweetened condensed milk and a can of evaporated milk. That’s it! Once I tasted it in my first cup of iced coffee, I knew. I had found IT! Now I’m going to be using it for my regular creamer. That is after I finish up the other “stuff” that I have. My frugal little soul can’t bear to waste it, but I’m already drooling over the thought of my sweet cream that I will be enjoying after this!

I’ll probably still throw in some vanilla and a splash of almond, just because I love the flavor! But the “new” creamer recipe is so much sweeter and thicker, I know I won’t have to use as much. YES!!! I’m super excited about this. I know it’s just a coffee creamer, but it’s the little things that make ya happy!

So you all should try it and see what you think. Oh, and if you ever want to taste an amazing, smooth and lovely iced coffee, you have to try cold brew! It’s awesome!!!!

Anyway, I’m making some bread today and it got me thinking again of Mrs. Nutz. I’ll put the recipe on here, since I’m not sure I’ve done it before. If you bake bread at all, you really need to try this! It’s like no bread you’ve ever had and will completely spoil all that store bought stuff forever. If that’s not incentive to try it, I don’t know what is! I thought that Stuart would have a hard time switching from store bread to homemade when I first got the bread maker, but after tasting this stuff he said (more than once) that he NEVER wants to go back! Ha ha!! Today will be my first trial run since our oven came home, so I’m anxious to see how it turns out. Also I ditched my dollar store bread pans after the black bread incident, and splurged on some sturdy glass ones, and this will be the first time using those. They are larger than the others, so I only got 3 of them. I think it’ll work out fine with the amount of dough that this recipe makes. That’s the thing, this does make a LOT of dough, so if you’re using a machine, like me, you need to be sure it can handle this much. Some of them are smaller, so you’d need to probably half the recipe for one of those. If you do decide to do it by hand it won’t matter. Ha!

So here you go, from Mrs. Nutz, via me, King’s Hawaiian Bread:

You’ll have to put the ingredients in the way your bread maker suggests. This is what I do.

6 c. flour (I usually do 4 AP and 2 Whole wheat)
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 c. margarine (I used butter one time and it was a dismal failure, if you do use butter be sure to really soften it first)
3 eggs (recipe calls for beating them, but I just chuck em’ in)
1 t. vanilla
1 c. pineapple juice
1 c. water
2 pkg yeast. (I use bulk yeast from Costco so I put in about 4 t.)

I always do it on dough mode and then shape loaves and let them rise before baking them in the oven. So they rise for about 45 min then bake at 350* for 20-30 min. Makes 3 9×5 loaves or 4 8×4 loaves.

Let me know if you try it and what you think of the bread. You can also use the dough to make delish clover rolls by putting 3 small balls of dough in each cup of a muffin tin. Bake and brush with melted butter after baking. YUMMERS!!

Here’s what I use. I got the calendar off of frugalmom.net. I don’t visit that site much, but if you’re interested I’m sure there are some tips there that can help you! One problem is that it seems to be a daunting task to fill in a whole month of meals. I try to simplify it. I only actually “plan” dinner on my menu. Our breakfast and lunch options are pretty standard. Oatmeal and PB&J or ham and cheese make up a lot of it. But there is plenty of room if you do want to do a B: L: D: on each day… or if you’re from the south it would be B: D: S: Ha ha ha!! Sorry… couldn’t help myself.

So I generally begin by filling in the “leftovers” day that is the same each week. I always want a leftovers day!!! Mine happens to be Thursday, because it’s my favorite day and I feel that it’s nice to “take it easy” that day. Ha! So that’s one day a week down. I usually put at least 1 crockpot meal on each week… sometimes 2, because those are also low-maintenance. Another thing I do is to have one meal a week that is “easy” like grilled cheese/tomato soup or pancakes (yes for dinner!). So that takes care of 3 meals a week. In the summer months I schedule one “grill” night a week. That way Stu gets to take care of the meat and I just fix veggies or chop fruit to go with. That’s 4 down. Now I fill in the holes with recipes that I know are family favorites or things that I find easy to cook like spaghetti, quesadillas, fajitas, or casseroles of some kind. After that I will chose one or 2 meals a month to experiment with a new recipe or make something that’s a little more complicated. So this is what my menu for this month looks like. IT’s a little ratty, sorry about that. And yes, there are gaps on Sunday because it’s difficult to plan for that day when they are so crazy. We usually end up doing something simple like nachos or leftovers on that day as well.

I know some of the chicken scratch is illegible, but ya get the idea. I make notes to myself on there where to find the recipe. That’s why you see AYOSC on there because as I mentioned before I’m using recipes from that blog “A Year of Slow Cooking” yum!

It might still seem daunting to put that much thought into what you eat. Here’s the deal. Start slowly!!! Do only ONE week at first if you’ve never done this before. Then fill in the next week and so on. In a month you’ll have a month’s worth of meals. Do it again for another month or 2 and you’ll have 3!! Then it gets really easy! Most people eat the same meals over and over anyway…. seriously. So if you end up with 3 monthly menus to go through it’ll make each months planing easy because you can just transfer the winners over. And you always have the flexibility to swap something out with a “new” item if it floats your boat.

Now how does all this planning pay off???? Thanks for asking! First off, it’s going to shrink your grocery budget because you’ll know EXACTLY what you need for the whole week of groceries! Make a list and stick to that… no, you don’t need all the extras… you don’t! You’ll be surprised how this cuts down time and money in the store! Next it will save you time in the long run because you won’t have to scramble each day to find something to fix for dinner. Cool and calm will reign. LOL!!!

This is getting longer than I meant so I’ll wrap it up for now. Tune in next time to read about shopping in your own pantry and freezer.

Toodles!

Happy microwaving!

It is:
Water
Sugar Partially Hydrogenated Soybean oil and/or
Cottonseed Oil
Less than 2% of Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative(
Natural and artificial flavors (whatever that means)
Dipotassium phosphate
Polysorbate 80
Datem
Color added
Carrageenan

Oh my!! That’s the first time I ever looked at the ingredients list on those creamers, and now I’m so disgusted that I’ve been drinking that stuff!!! Ugh! Blah!! It’s no wonder we’re all dying of cancer. *sigh* Okay, so that’s what is in the store bought flavored non-dairy creamers and uh… they charge you nearly $4 a quart for all that …. stuff.

Well, I knew there could be a cheaper way to be getting my flavor fix with my coffee. A bonus I’m now realizing is that it’s much healthier as well!!!! My creamer is not “non-dairy” though so if you’re lactose intolerant then I guess you’re out of luck with this one. Sorry.

I used a quart of half and half (It was a buck and some change), 8 tablespoons of REAL Maple Syrup, about a tablespoon Vanilla Extract and about a teaspoon Almond extract. I didn’t actually measure the extracts so that’s just a guesstimate! Mix all together in a pot and warm, don’t bring to a boil though. Once it’s all combined and warmed through, poor into container (I used the empty creamer container) and refrigerate. There will be slightly more than a quart, obviously, so I had some for my coffee right then, and a FULL quart container for the fridge! I like my creamer SWEET, so I found that the 8 T syrup wasn’t quite enough and I added some agave nectar after the fact. If you don’t mind sugar then you could certainly use that as well. I think I’ll try honey next time and see how that goes.

This made what turned out to taste like an Amaretto flavored creamer. The almond can be really strong so I’d do no more than a teaspoon and then test it to see if you want more.

I’m so excited about doing this! It makes me so happy to be SAVING money and actually drinking something REAL instead of a bunch of chemicals. Woo-Hoo!! Give it a try. I’m going to do some cinnamon flavored stuff and some caramel/vanilla sometime soon. You’re only limited by your imagination. It would be totally easy to add some coca and make a mocha flavored one as well!! Yay!!

Let me know if you try this and what flavors you came up with!

Toodles!

I thought I’d do a couple of blog post about how I do our meal planning and shopping. One thing that I really want to do this year is to cut down on our grocery costs. I bought THIS BOOK awhile back and while it has some great ideas on cutting grocery costs, some I simply can’t do because of our remote location and most of the rest I was already doing. So don’t buy it… if you seriously think you need it, look on paperbackswap.com because chances are I’ll be listing it there very soon. One way that is the simplest for me to save mulah is shop for meat on sale and then freeze it.

This week I spent $28.97 on some chicken and pork that was marked down to $1.9something a lb. That’s pretty good. So while it added quite a bit to our bill this time, just wait! Once I got it home my job was to divide it up into “meal sized” portions. With meat, I try to make sure that it’s a “main” ingredient because I have some carnivores who live in my house. But I still want to “stretch” it with the sides and veggies as much as possible. Today I mixed up some different marinades and started sorting. I ended up with 11 freezer packages of meat. That will end up being MORE than 11 meals because some will double with the leftovers being used for stir fry or fried rice or tacos.

So even just counting the 11 meals that would break down to $2.63 a meal, or $.65 a person. Now that’s just the meat, so to add in the veggies or rice or noodles whatever will obviously add cost to the meal, but seriously, you can’t get anything at McDonalds for $.65! So this is turning out to be a pretty cheap meal especially since the sides like rice and noodles are usually very cheap as well.

The great part is, this helps eliminate that on-no-it’s-4:00-what-do-I-fix-for-dinner-? feeling. The next few weeks I’ll be shopping in my fridge for dinner! I’m interested to see how much this actually does cut down on the grocery costs since I will have all of the “main” dishes on hand. I’m also going to be doing more “shopping” in the pantry because there is stuff in there that just NEEDS to be used.

Next time I’ll tell you about my menu planning and how it helps save LOADS of stress, cuts down on trips to the store, AND saves you money!

HERE is a link to a site that will give you more info than you will EVER use on uses for vinegar. It’s white vinegar, but there are also things you can use Cider Vinegar for with better results…. I don’t know why, but the hair rinse is one of them.

THIS is a post written by my friend on the Oil Cleansing Method. I’m loving it!! Even though a lot of things I read on it suggest using a blend of castor and EVOO, I’m really liking the Coconut oil because the smell and feel is so pleasant! Wow, you’ve got to try this. Oh, and I’m sure you can find coconut oil in stores like Trader Joes and others, but I found it on Amazon for $13 for 2 15oz containers. They will last a LONG time as this is all I’m using it for.

HERE is another blogger raving about the amazing effects of going “no-poo” and using Baking Soda washes and cider vinegar rinses for your hair. You’ll notice her hair is pretty short. I honestly think that is the key. My long hair just wasn’t getting enough moisture with this method though I really enjoyed getting it clean w/o the effects of shampoo. Now I’m totally loving using the baking soda in the conditioner and my hair is very pretty and soft and touchable as well! Last night Stuart was rubbing my head and he said, “Wow your hair does feel good!” So that works for me!! I know that conditioners still have small amounts of those chemicals in them, but for now it’s working. I’ll keep looking for a natural method, but as the co-wash suggests using some of the cheapest conditioners anyway, I think it’s still frugal. Just my own take.

Okay, well I’m off. I have 4 children in this house who in the next half hour need to be gotten up from naps, changed if applicable, and packed into the car. I’m dropping off 2 with their dad and then hauling the lads with me to my first midwife appt. *sigh* It’s going to be an adventuresome afternoon!