Day Three - Tips and Tricks

Because I shop sales and buy a lot of what's on sale and because our family is tiny, I have found a few creative tricks that help make food prep and storage easy peezy.

Meat is pretty pricey, agree? Sure, you do, who wouldn't. So when meat is on sale, I buy quite a bit of it. The problem is, I have to separate all the meats into servings of three for freezing. The other problem is I don't always need three servings. Sometimes I need just one. How to solve this dilemma? I wrap my meat individually. Like this.

Then, I put all the meats into one bag. Like this. Then I put it in the freezer, like this. Oh stop it. You didn't really think I was going to show you a picture of the meat in the freezer did you?

Sure I am. Here it is. I got a little camera happy.

That's my meat shelf. Only meat goes there. Don't put anything other than meat there. I get really, really feisty if you do, so don't do it. Of course, in your freezer, you can do whatever the heck you want.

While we're taking a look into the freezer, let me show you how I store some other things. This is the veggie drawer. Look at those happy veggies!

And here's the fruit. Look at that happy fruit.

This concludes our freezer tour.

Day One - Shopping and Meal Planning

This my pantry. Larger than most, I will admit. We are very lucky. If you don't have a pantry the size of a cave, no stress. A cabinet or two works just as well.

It has been my experience that no matter the size of your family, one, two, three or eight, shopping and meal planning is essential. It has also been my experience, that cooking for just one or two is not always easy. I will show you what we do and hope that these tips can help your family avoid eating out as much as possible and save those valuable dollars for more important things.

First, I don't meal plan until I go shopping. For the simple fact that I am never sure what's going to be on sale and I always buy on sale. Second, I buy frozen. Frozen is better than fresh. (See here for scientific data) I even buy frozen fruit like strawberries and melon. The shelf life is a trillion times longer so your money is never wasted. Third, I buy in bulk and store. When things are on sale I buy A LOT! Or at least what my storage space permits. Last, I buy generic. Plain and simple. Unless of course, brand name is on sale and cheaper. Duh.

Once I get everything home and organized into it's respective home, I can plan.

Since Dan and I both work, it is my goal to make dinner as quickly as possible. By the time I leave work, get Emma and get home, it's 6pm. Now, Rachel Ray is great with her 30-minute meals, but have you seen the ingredient lists? Most of the time it's things my store doesn't even have. And while Mac-n-Cheese is fast, it's not the best thing to be eating day in and day out.

The most essential thing for fast easy cooking is to be well stocked beforehand. So, let's go shopping. This is a list of everything in my pantry, fridge or freezer right now for dinner making.

Bread, eggs, milk, butter, bag of potatoes, bag of onions, garlic, Lawry's Season Salt (can't live without it!), cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, canned tuna, canned salmon, frozen vegetables (whatever you like), frozen fruit (berries and melon), frozen fish (not the Gordon's battered kind) tilapia or halibut, chicken, hamburger, pork chops, pork loin, ham, flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, crackers, big blocks of cheese, spaghetti, rice, yogurt (plain), sour cream and cottage cheese.

I think that pretty much covers the bases for dinner makin'. You can also include oatmeal, honey, cinnamon, peanut butter and jelly, and applesauce if you like. I spend about $85.00 per month on groceries. AND, I don't clip coupons either because who has time for that?

Tomorrow, I start giving you the goods.

Watching the Old Budget

I have been busy taking pictures all week. Pictures of my refridgerator, freezer, pantry. Why? You see, I am incredibly frugal, a quality instilled by my mother I am sure. Dan, on the other hand, not so much, something my mother had nothing to do with. In this moment, in this life, I feel it important to share my frugal tips with you.

I would like to invite you to my kitchen extroidinaire. You can look into my fridge, my pantry and my freezer. You can see my well worn pots and pans. I am not going to promise you Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart, but, I can promise you quick, tasty, inexpensive family meals as well as some tips and tricks along the way.

Sweet Potato Pumpkin

Emma loves sweet potatoes, except she doesn't call them sweet potatoes, she calls them pumpkin. Heaven forbid you should say we are having sweet potatoes for dinner, cries of anguish are heard throughout the house. It must be pumpkin, and it must have warshmellows.

During Halloween, she brought home several pumkins from various festivites and demanded that I make "pumpkin" for dinner.

This is how it goes down, peel and slice about three large sweet potatoes, boil them for about 10-15 minutes, puree them into a mush with a little cinnamon and brown sugar, place them in pie dish, top with warshmellows then in a 350 oven for about 10 more minutes. Save "real" pumkin for pie.

It's A Grilled Cheese Day

The weather has been ferocious today, windy, rainy and downright gloomy. Days like this call for grilled cheese and tomato soup. Being that I am at work, writing this happy blog, I had to steal a picture of aforementioned grilled cheese and tomato soup. The wonderful sammich featured above can be found here.

I would also like to make note, that while I am at work, it is after 5pm and I am not, I repeat, I am not, doing this on work time. (Just in case the bosses are reading. This thing is time stamped right?)

Back to the topic at hand, which is grilled cheese and tomato soup. I love it on cold rainy days. It makes me happy and all warm and fuzzy on the inside. One day, I am sure that Emma will love it as much as I do. Right now though, I can't get that child to eat anything except sweet potatoes. She loves herself some sweet potatoes, which she incidentally calls "Pumpkin". And in case you were wondering or had any desire to know, her little poops are orange and she calls them "pumkin poops".

How in the world did I transition from grilled cheese to pumpkin poop?

Hey Honey!

You put your toast in You put your peanut butter on

Then....then....then.....

And voila, you have the best dessert known to man (or at least to woman, this woman that is)

Ice Cream in a Bag (For hot steamy summer days)

What you'll need:

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size plastic food storage bag (e.g., Ziploc)
1 gallon-size plastic food storage bag
Ice cubes

How to make it:

Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes.
Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

Tips:

A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don't increase the proportions more that that -- a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.

OR

You can purchase one of these fancy dancy things.

I think making your own in a bag is more fun though.

Cookin'

Oh, how happy I am to be able to share with you this most wonderful find. If you are anything like me and love to create, concoct and otherwise destroy a kitchen with the makings of good things, then this website is for you. How in the world did I ever even make it through my life without knowing about this fantastic site before?

http://smittenkitchen.com/

Tastefully Simple

One of my co-workers is also a Tastefully Simple consultant. I had never heard of Tastefully Simple, but was coerced into having a party. I was pleasantly suprised at the number of guests who attended (7) and with the food. I am a made from scratch girl myself, but if you (a) are not a good cook (b) don't have time to cook or (c) just like new things, you should have a party of your very own. The spices and sauces are very flavorful and have adorable names such as Garlic Garlic and Onion Onion (which for the record, are both very fitting as the amount of Garlic (and onion)in the dip mix could keep the vampires away for months)Of course, Dan won't even get near me to for a kiss right now, so it is also effective at keeping away over zealous husbands. If you happen to have one of those.

Dan, Emma and I were left with dips and desserts galore, which would have been great had this been Superbowl weekend. But, it wasn't, so now to the trash they go. I hate to waste food, but I just don't normally eat that kind of stuff on a regular basis.

Did I mention the killer garlic breath? Yes, I can't seem to eliminate the tast from my mouth these three hours later. Parsley I hear is a good cure.

Maybe I will make a quick run to the grocery store.

What's for Dinner?

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup salsa

1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning

1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 whole zucchini's

1 package instant brown rice

Directions

Add chicken to slow cooker. Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.Pour salsa and soup over chicken.Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. About 5 minutes before dinnertime, slice zucchini into long thin slices and grill. Serve with rice.

So easy, so good, so healthy.

What's for Dinner?

1 pound fresh shrimp, de-veined. Bring large pot of water to rolling boil with a few pinches of course salt and 1 tsp. Zatarain's crab boil oil. Toss shrimp into hot boiling water until they float (approx. 2 minutes) Remove and drain. Oh, make sure the shrimp are dead and beheaded. They are not lobster like.

Roughly chop arugula and thinly slice 1 container of strawberries. Mix up a balsamic vinergarette with 1 or 2 packets of Splenda and drizzle over salad. Yummaliscious!

Grab two or three potatoes, give em a good scrub, poke some holes in 'em and toss them in the microwave oven for a few minutes, until soft. While the taters are in the oven, crush 2 cloves of garlic and saute over medium heat. Be careful not burn the garlic, they will be bitter and yucky! Throw the garlic, tatoes and a little bit of milk into a bowl and mash to your little heart's content.

Make yourself a plate and have some dinner!