Plain Ol' Food

Stretching the grocery budget dollars

2008-05-22T15:07:00.002-05:00

According to experts, food prices are higher than they were in March of 2007. Umm, I think most of us know that, though we're not 'experts'. But do you know how much higher? A loaf of white bread has increased 16%, milk has increased 23%, and eggs have climbed 35%. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Americans spent an average of $1,926 per person on groceries in 2007, up 4.2% from 2006 and they project another 4.5% increase in 2008, to $2,013.

Obviously, food prices are an issue here as in many other places around the world. Food shortages are a worrisome possibility (probability?) and many U.S. food banks are struggling with rising costs and plummeting donations. But is it time for those of us in the U.S. to panic? I think not. I do think, however, we need to take stock of what we have, what we need, and what we might need in the near future, and maximize our purchases.

I already do those things but am in the process of creating a plan to enable us to stretch our grocery dollars even more. I'll hammer out my thoughts on that here and will post the final plan.

As a side note, I peruse the USDA's food plans regularly and for April of this year, their "Thrifty Plan" figure for a household of two adults the ages of DH and I is $300. We spent less than $200 on food in April and the only times we've gone over their "Thrifty Plan" amount is when we did huge stocking up two or three weeks in one month. The figures in the USDA charts aren't representative of our household but they seem to be a good average for the typical American family.

Where does your family fall in those averages? If you're above the average, why do you think that's so and what could you do to change it? And if you're below, what things do you do or not do that put you there?

On college graduations and white sauce

2008-05-22T10:39:00.001-05:00

My oldest son graduated from the University of Texas at Austin this last week and for a couple of weeks prior to the big event I didn't do much but work and fret over miscellaneous things. The deed is done, though, and I'm much less stressed now. If I could explain just how proud I am of my son, I would. But I can't. In the last few years he's overcome personal hardships that would have flattened most of us. He persevered, though, and got his bachelor's degree in Philosophy. He plans to work for a year or so then pursue his Ph.D. What a guy! And he's getting married in August to a wonderful young woman I can't wait to call daughter in love! Anyway, that's the main reason I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks.

Now on to cooking thangs. A friend of mine recently complained about the high cost and high sodium content of canned cream of whatever soups. I suggested she try the ones at Dollar General as they're much cheaper than the name brand versions and just as tasty when mixed with other items, though I don't like the taste of them on their own. She's something of a food snob, though, and doesn't want to try that brand so I told her she could simply make her own. Oh my, you'd have thought I told her to kick her dog in the rear! She just couldn't imagine making her own and told me she wouldn't know where to begin.

Well, since I do know where to begin I sent her an email with the instructions. I also posted it to a Yahoo Group I'm in and thought I'd share it here, too. It really isn't difficult at all. The key is to keep the heat low and to stir, stir, stir!

This sauce is great for meat pies and the addition of cheese turns it into a very tasty sauce for macaroni and cheese. Add a few vegetables and you have a great creamed vegetable dish. You can increase or decrease the salt and other spices as you see fit. It's so versatile and easy and there's just no reason I can think of to not try it! So, in all it's glory(ehem)here it is.

In a small heavy saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over low heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of flour and add salt to taste. I use about 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt. If I want the sauce to have pepper or garlic, I add these, too. Now and then I add a few drops of Louisiana hot sauce if the white sauce is to be used in a spicy dish.

Cook over low heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cooking it this long helps eliminate the flour flavor that some white sauces have.

Keep stirring and slowly add 1 cup of milk. Continue cooking over low heat until the sauce is smooth and thickened. If you want to add cheese or sauteed vegetables, add them here and keep stirring for awhile until everything is smooth and well blended.

For thin white sauce I use 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour. I use the thin white sauce in cream soups that will be eaten individually.

For thick white sauce I use 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of flour. I use the thick sauce when making sauce to be used with pasta.

For heavy white sauce, I use 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of flour. I rarely use the heavy sauce but now and then it's great as a binder. A little leftover heavy sauce is also good to thicken a soupy dish.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how it turned out. It's just so easy to make and use and I'd love to know what you did with it!

Wednesday Wanderings...

2008-05-07T02:02:00.000-05:00

It's about 2 AM and I'm wide awake. I got to sleep at about 11 but had a nightmare and was awakened by it a bit ago. So here I am, checking email and such and hoping to get back to sleep soon.

Last night I cooked two more beef roasts in the pressure cooker. This time I dumped one package of brown gravy mix, a package of onion soup mix, and about 3/4 cup of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce into a 4 cup measuring cup and added enough water to make 2 cups of liquid.

I brought it to pressure and cooked it for 15 minutes, then used the quick release and added a bag of frozen green beans, some carrots and potatoes, and set the PC for another 12 minutes. When it was finished, I used slow release and the resulting beef roast is so very tender and very delicious!

The meat, vegetables, and juice were divided into 2 large freezer bags and I got a small freezer bag of just sauce and vegetables. All of it went into the freezer to be used in the future. I'll use part of it for stew, part to be served over rice, some will be used in a crockpot beef pie, etc. Those two roasts should provide us with at least 12 meals.

Tuesday night dinner was a #9 from Long John Silver's. I didn't get off until 6 and Rod wanted to go out for fish so we did. Ehh, it wasn't frugal or healthy but it sure was good!

Today is a day off for and I got the laundry done yesterday so today I'm going to rest. Dinner will be leftover cheesy chicken pulled from the freezer and used to make chicken and rice that we'll have with a salad and green beans. Yum!

Terrific Tuesday & tonight's dinner

2008-05-06T11:33:00.000-05:00

So far this has been a great Tuesday. Since I don't have to go to work until 2, I slept in until a little after 8. That's rare for me and it was sooo nice! I got up, did a little cleaning, checked email, set the beef roast out to defrost, and am going to head out in just a few minutes to do laundry before going to work. While I'm out I might pick up a few fresh vegetables since we're running very low.

We don't have a garden this year, unfortunately. There's not really space for one but we are going to put three or four tomato plants in pots. If all we can grow is those wonderful tasty tomatoes that will work, though we would prefer to grow much more. As they say, though...if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Anyway, tonight's dinner is Beef Quesadillas made from last week's leftover beef roast, low carb tortillas, a mix of several grated cheeses, roma tomatoes, and some plain yogurt mixed with sour cream. We'll have them with a salad if I get the vegetables while I'm out. I get off work at 6 so it might be a late dinner but it should be great.

Okay, I'm off to do laundry then head to work...

Menu Plan Monday and menu for the week

2008-05-05T04:45:00.000-05:00

Continued thanks to Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie for her Menu Plan Monday. Participating in the memes really seems to help me keep on track so I'm in for the duration!

Here's our menu for the week with the first meal being tonight's dinner. The rest will just kind of happen when the time seems right for them.

Chicken and brown rice, green beans, and salad (I'll make enough rice for the other two rice containing meals and put that in the fridge)

Slow cooker bean enchilada casserole

'Beef tips', rice, gravy, spinach, and salad (made with leftover beef roast from last week)

Slow cooker Swiss Steak, green beans, and salad

Cheesy Beef, buttered new potatoes, and mixed greens

Leftover Red Beans and brown rice with salad

Beef salad sandwiches (made with leftover beef roast from last week) with kettle cooked chips

Sunday dinner - Beef and Cheese Rollups

2008-05-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

I didn't get off work until 2 hours past my scheduled time and am tired this afternoon. I really didn't feel like cooking a lot but was hungry and came up with something quick and very tasty.

I used some of the Carne Picada from Wal-Mart in tonight's dinner. I dumped it all into the electric skillet in about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil, added some sliced onion, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic, and browned it well. When the meat was cooked, I removed half of it to the freezer for later this week. The other half still in the skillet I topped with shredded Mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses, a small hand full of each. Then I turned off the skillet, no stirring of the meat and cheese, and let it sit until the cheese melted, about four minutes. I put some on a low carb tortilla, added a little chopped tomato and picante sauce, rolled that puppy up and ate it! It's very good that way - tasty and filling. Black olives and green onions would have made it better but since I'm out of green onions I settled for what I had and was happy to have it. As my sister said earlier today during a phone conversation about her breakfast, "I'll just shut my mouth and eat it and be grateful to have it". Uh huh, that's it!

Anyway, if you come across Carne Picada in your local store, give it a try. It's good stuff!

Pantry meals

2008-05-04T05:00:00.000-05:00

The business has been a little slow lately and since most weeks I work less than 30 hours, money is a little tight. Bills are paid and we have gas in the truck and plenty of food stored up so we're trying to eat from the pantry. We spent about $58 on groceries last week and I'd like to keep it under $15 this week with that $15 beingly mainly for bread and milk. We're pretty well stocked on everything else, I think, so eating from the pantry shouldn't be difficult.

The menu for the coming week is comprised of things we have on hand already. There's always the chance that my man person will decide he wants to go out at least once but we've found a pretty reasonable way to do that. There's a Chinese restaurant near us that charges $10.80 for two lunch take outs from their very large and good buffet. They don't mind if we really stuff our containers full so we can get 2 meals for each of us for $10.80 total. Not bad at all! If we do decide to go out, we'll more than likely do that. It's better than spending $20 or more for one meal and gives us a little diversion.

Hopefully business will pick up again soon but it's so nice to know that we have enough food to keep us fed for quite awhile.

What if your next meal was also your last?

2008-05-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

What would you request for your last meal?

I read Dead Man Eating regularly and find the entries to be oddly and gruesomely fascinating, very much akin to the books and sites I read about medical anomalies. Reading what people about to be put to death ask to eat before they depart from this world is a little unsettling and sad. I can't seem to stop myself from peeking, though!

I checked it today to see if there was a new entry. Alas, there isn't. But each time I look at that site, I wonder what I'd order for my last meal. Oh my, what a tough choice that would be!

Diabetes be damned! Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn on the cob with chocolate cream pie for dessert?

Porterhouse steak, 2 inches thick and barely cooked, with a sour cream, cheese, and green onion topped baked potato, and pineapple lemon cheesecake?

Crispy turkey bacon, eggs scrambled with cheese and bell pepper, and grits?

I might ask for my granny's apple cake, the aforementioned cheesecake, and a bag of fig newtons!

Honestly, I haven't a clue what I'd request.

What would you request for your last meal on this earth?

And would you actually be able to eat it? That's the real question.

Freezer Food Friday

2008-05-02T04:09:00.005-05:00

Thanks to What a Crock! for hosting Freezer Food Friday. This is my first time participating but it won't be my last. Participating in the memes seems to help me stay on track.

Tonight's menu is Red Beans and Wild Rice. I don't freeze the rice but the beans freeze beautifully and tonight they're going to contain some of the leftover 'smoked' chicken a la crock, chopped. Yum!!

We love to eat red beans and rice with hot water cornbread but that's really a carb-a-rific meal so we'll not have the cornbread tonight.

There are a lot of great recipes for Red Beans but we don't like ours too hot and spicy. Savory, yes, flavorful, yes, but not so hot we can't eat them. So here's how we prepare them.

1 pound dry red kidney beans, rinsed, sorted, and soaked for at least 6 hours
2 green onions, stalk and all
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup meat(I use turkey ham or chicken, ground beef, homemade turkey sausage, etc.)
1 to 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
Additional seasonings such as pepper, etc.

Pour the water off the beans, put the beans in a soup pot or slow cooker, and add water to two inches above the beans. Add the chopped onion, garlic, and meat and bring to a boil. Boil 10 minutes then reduce heat to simmer and let simmer (or cook on low if using a slow cooker) until done. Add the chicken bouillon and creole seasoning and let cook another 30 minutes or so.

To prepare the rice, use two cups of water to each cup of rice. Boil the water then reduce to a simmer and add the rice and any seasonings you like. I add just a little chopped green onion and garlic. Bring to a boil again, reduce to simmer, cover and let cook about 45 minutes. Wild rice has a crunchier texture than white rice so if you haven't eaten it before, don't expect it to cook up as soft as white rice.

Put some of the rice into a bowl and top with the beans, including the pot liquor, which should be fairly thick and rich. I like to garnish mine with a little cilantro and chopped fresh tomato.

After you've eaten your fill, freeze the remainder of the beans in air tight containers. When you're ready to eat some more, let them thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in a sauce pan or microwave.

Pantry update

2008-05-01T13:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it was time to update my pantry contents list so I did part of that this afternoon. So far I've only gone through the main closet. I have to head to work soon so I'll probably do the freezer tomorrow. Here's what's in the main closet, though. You know, looking at this list, it looks like all we eat is convenience food but most of this is kept for emergency use and times when I can't cook for some reason. It's nice to have this stuff on hand just in case!

1 13 ounce box instant potatoes
3 Jiffy corn muffin mixes
3 Keto Mac & Cheese
1 box Ronzoni spaghetti
25 pounds of varyious legumes
2 pounds wild rice
1 pound white rice
10 pkg popcorn
7 boxes store brand pasta dishes like hamburger helper
2 boxes Taco Bell taco dinner
2 boxes tostado shells
2 cans chili
2 jars peanut butter
1 box saltine crackers

1 jar mayo
3 bottles Dorothy Lynch dressing
1 jar Classico sauce
1 gallon barbecue sauce
1 jar Ortega taco sauce
1 jar Archer Farms mild red enchilada sauce
1 28 ounce can red enchilada sauce
2 10 ounce cans red enchilada sauce
1 bottle mustard

9 cans salmon
10 cans tuna

3 jars instant coffee
2 cans regular coffee
1 box Swiss Miss cocoa
1 can vegetable juice

42 cans of stewed or whole tomatoes
16 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 27 ounce can spinach
4 cans spinach
5 cans potatoes
4 cans carrots
2 cans corn
12 cans green beans
4 cans mixed greens
5 cans mixed vegetables
7 cans of vegetarian beans
12 cans ranch style beans
2 cans refried beans
7 cans green chiles
2 cans artichoke hearts
3 cans mushrooms
12 cans chicken broth
9 cans cream of soup
2 cans pepper jack soup

large quantity of varying spices and baking items

"Smoked" Chicken A la Crock!

2008-05-01T03:22:00.005-05:00

**Note to self - get batteries for the digital camera. The blog just isn't the same without pictures!**

Tonight's dinner is "Smoked" Chicken A la Crock, baked sweet potatoes, and salad.

I love the flavor of smoked chicken but without a smoker (heck, I don't even have an oven or stove right now!) I have to get creative to get that flavor. After a little experimentation I hit on the right combination of things to get a decent smoky flavor in my slow cooker. This is very simple but tasty and the leftover chicken makes delicious chicken salad.

Wash and rinse chicken pieces or a whole chicken. I prefer to use the whole chicken. Pat it dry and season with a little pepper, salt, and garlic. Put the chicken in the crock of your slow cooker and add 2 Tablespoons of Liquid Smoke. Add sliced onions, bell peppers, squash or any other vegetable you like, put the lid on the crock, set it to low and let cook about 6 hours. Because I don't like the boiled chicken thing that often happens in slow cookers, I drain the broth a few times during the cooking process, freezing it for later use.

When the chicken is cooked, carefully remove it from the crock. It will more than likely fall apart so you might want to put the chicken and vegetables in some netting before you put it in the crock. I don't do that normally but do it sometimes if I think I won't want to mess with fishing out pieces of chicken.

We usually have this with a salad and although it isn't exactly like smoked chicken, it's awfully tasty and is as close as I can get without paying $5 for one from the store! Try it and let me know what you think.

Confessions of a late night foodie...

2008-05-01T00:40:00.001-05:00

It's 12:40 AM and I can't sleep. Rather than watch television, which would be difficult since I don't have one right now, I'm eating leftover spaghetti pulled from the freezer and nuked and perusing food blogs. I'm also drooling over some of the recipes I've found. Some are for sweets and others are for just good sounding dishes but a few have definitely gotten my attention. One that has is Copycat Macaroni Grill Reese’s Peanut Butter Cake. Reading this recipe gave me chills! And I'm trying to figure out if there's any way I can make it or a good facsimile in a slow cooker. I don't think it would work out well but I might try it soon just to see if I can do it. Now, back to my blog blunderings...

Carne Picada - Just what does it mean?

2008-04-30T20:31:00.000-05:00

Some time ago I bought a package of meat labeled 'Carne Picada' from Wal-Mart. The meat was something like a cross between ground beef and beef steak cut in strips. It's absolutely fantastic cooked in a skillet with sliced onins until the meat is just slightly pink then topped with shredded cheese. Rod eats his between slices of bread and I just pile it on a plate and eat it with a fork. It reminds me of the steak used in a Philly sandwich or omelet.

Anyway, we picked some of that up at Wal-Mart a couple of days ago and I'll more than likely use it this weekend.

But I wonder... what the heck does 'Carne Picada' mean? A google search turns up many references to it and several that claim it means 'minced meat' but this meat isn't minced. It isn't quite ground, either. It's more like shredded.

So, do any of you know what Carne Picada means and do you know the meat I'm talking about?

Also, if you have other ideas on how to use it, I'd love to know them!

Today's excitement

2008-04-30T15:19:00.001-05:00

My youngest son's girlfriend came over this morning and we went to Target. I had a gift card with $27 on it and we both needed a few things so we shopped a little and had a nice time together. She got a great little Chefmate slow cooker for $8.99 and we both bought some clearanced food items including red and green enchilada sauces, refried beans, and taco shells. Those are nice items to add to the pantry. Ole!

They also had some clearanced Del Monte canned vegetables but I didn't have my coupons with me so I'll take the coupons with me tomorrow and get a few cans of vegetables to add to our pantry.

After shopping we went to lunch then she had to head out to get her son from school so I came back home and am about to head out again to do laundry.

Tonight's dinner is wild rice with beef roast gravy, green beans, and salad. Yum!

Tonight's dinner & a little grocery shopping

2008-04-29T21:58:00.001-05:00

I got home from work about 6:00 PM and was very hungry so I ate the beef roast, vegetables and gravy I'd taken for lunch and hadn't had time to eat. DH shared it with me then we went to Wal-Mart to get our free redbox rental. While there we bought a few groceries, about $19 worth. We decided that tomorrow night's dinner will be the gravy leftover from the roast with a little bit of the meat cut up into it, served over wild rice and with a salad and green beans. It won't be quite meatless but will be very close and will be both tasty and frugal.

I'm off tomorrow and don't go back to work until 2:45 Thursday so I'll probably make the slow cooked smoked chicken Thursday. If I get it started early I can take some to work to eat during my lunch break. So, that's my plan.

Minor change to tonight's dinner

2008-04-28T17:43:00.002-05:00

Rather than make gravy with the broth, spices, and cornstarch, I decided to make Ray's 3 Envelope Roast then when I realized I lacked one of the four ingredients, I adapted it slightly to use what I had on hand. Oh, the resulting roast and vegetables are amazing! Ray's recipe is so good I don't know why I bother cooking a roast any other way and tonight's dinner reminded me of that! The gravy that it makes is excellent and the meat turns out tender every time. I'll take some of the leftovers to work with me tomorrow and if my coworkers are nice, I might share!

So, without further fuss, here's the recipe Ray shares with others in his PressureCookerRecipes Yahoo Group.

3 pound roast
1 envelope of dry Italian salad dressing mix (I didn't have this on hand so I used an envelope of chicken gravy mix)
1 envelope of dry ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope of dry brown gravy mix
Water - for a pressure cooker 1 cup water for slow cooker 1/2 cup water in a slow cooker.

In a slow cooker you can cut in half the dry ingredients if you find it overpowering. In the pressure cooker use the whole envelopes.

Put the water in a measuring cup that is larger than the amount of water you are using. Now add and mix all three envelopes of dry salad dressings. Mix until blended completely or as best you can.

Brown the roast, if desired. I brown it in the PC itself. Add the meat to your cooker. Pour the water and salad dressing mixture over the roast and cook as usual. I cooked mine tonight for 20 minutes, then used quick release, and added the vegetables and cooked another 15 minutes.

If you want to make this in a slow cooker, cook it on high for about 4 hours on low about 8 hours.

Menu Plan Monday and menu for the week

2008-04-28T01:51:00.004-05:00

I decided to join Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie for her Menu Plan Monday. It looks like a fun way to keep my menu planning on track and I can always use ideas for meals. I've read some of the other MPM posts and it sounds like there are some great cooks out there. Since I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal and like a little freedom in my planning and cooking, I plan the meals but rarely assign nights and menus are subject to change. We do try to keep to the general plan, though, since that's part of our budgeting efforts.

So in no particular order except for tonight's dinner of beef roast, here are the meals for the next week.

Beef roast cooked in my Cook's Essentials 8 quart pressure cooker with carrots, potatoes, and onions. Gravy will be made in the cooker, also, using the cooking liquid, spices, and a little cornstarch.

Beef vegetable soup made with the leftover roast and vegetables. If there's any soup leftover it will be frozen and later thickened and used to make beef pot pie.

Slow cooked "smoked" chicken. To make this, I season well a whole chicken with garlic, freshly ground black pepper and a little salt and throw it in the slow cooker with about 2 Tablespoons of Liquid Smoke and cook it all day. The meat falls off the bone, is moist and savory and has a very nice smoked flavor. We'll have some of the chicken with large salads and green beans.

Chicken and rice made with the leftover chicken, rice pulled from the freezer, and served with cooked mixed greens and tossed salad.

Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and wheat toast.

Red beans and rice with salad.

Saturday and Sunday night's eatin'...

2008-04-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

When I got home from work tonight I was ravenous so I ate some leftover split pea soup from a few days ago. It was good but not quite filling so DH took me to Long John Silver's. After eating a #9 with an extra piece of fish, I'm stuffed!

I have limas soaking and will put them in the slow cooker in the morning before I head off to work. I'll spice them a little and add some turkey pastrami and they'll be yummy! We'll have them with a salad and that meal will be both thrifty and hearty.

I'm working on my menu for the next week right now and will post it tonight or in the morning.

The cost of food

2008-04-25T18:19:00.000-05:00

is outrageous! Between gas and food, it's a wonder any of us can get to work to earn money to buy food so we can have the energy to drive to work to earn money to buy food... yada, yada, ad nauseam.

Anyway, tonight's dinner is spaghetti made with whole wheat spaghetti bought on sale & with a coupon, sauce bought on sale and with a coupon, and 1/3 lb. of ground beef, alos bought on sale but with no coupon. Since there are only two of us eating there's no need to make a ton of it so I'm making just enough for dinner and lunch tomorrow. We'll have it with green beans and some garlic bread. Not too exciting but pretty good and inexpensive.

No exciting food news...

2008-04-19T21:43:00.000-05:00

I've been working a lot lately so the meals have been very easy and quick ones.

Tonight we went to the local Chinese/Italian/American buffet. I haven't tried the Italian food as it looks pretty rough to me but the other dishes are very good. I always overeat, though! That's the bad things about buffets, I think. It's simply too easy to eat too much.

I've ordered some Insulow in the hopes that supplementing my diet with that will help me get a better handle on my blood sugar. I've heard some very good things about it and will post the results here.

Other than that, life rocks on...and on...and on. :)

Denise's skillet stuff....

2008-04-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

Tonight was another quick and cheap dinner. It's one I've made for so long that I can't remember where I learned about it. Not that it's hard but it isn't something I grew up eating. My kids liked it when they were little and it's very easy to make. I just call it "skillet stuff".

Here's how it's done:

Brown chopped potatoes and green onion in a little olive oil and add some garlic pepper seasoning salt or whatever seasoning you like. When the potatoes are done, add a few slices of smoked sausage (we use beef or turkey) and a can of green beans. Season it a little more if needed and heat through. We usually have it with a tossed salad and now and then a little garlic bread.

I've made it with green peas rather than green beans and have used many seasonings over the years but our favorite is the green beans and garlic pepper seasoning salt.

Tomorrow's dinner is soaking right now - beans! Yes, the humble bean will grace our serving bowls tomorrow night. :)

Chicken & dressing, yum yum!!

2008-04-17T21:45:00.000-05:00

I worked til 3:30 this afternoon and today was long and stressful so I didn't want to spend a lot of time cooking. However, we didn't want to eat out, either. So we had chicken and dressing with gravy, carrots, and tossed salad. It was so good!

When I make this I use a box of stuffing mix from Wal-Mart. Not even a name brand, just the Great Value brand. I dump the box of stuffing mix into a large glass bowl, add about 1 1/2 cups water to it, stir a little, and microwave it for about 6 minutes. While that's cooking, I cut into bite sized pieces a medium sized chicken breast or a couple of thighs. When the dressing is cooked I add the chicken and microwave it another three minutes or so until the chicken is hot. Once it's done I just use a fork to kind of fluff it, prepare the gravy and vegetable and voila, dinner is served!

It's quick, it's not too horribly unhealthy, and it's a lot cheaper than eating out...

Shame, shame, shame!

2008-04-14T21:10:00.002-05:00

I didn't get off work until 5:00 tonight and we had our 10th Financial Peace University class at 6:30 so we stopped at Taco Bell on the way for dinner. No, that isn't healthy and no, eating out didn't help us pay any debt but it was good and fast and not too expensive at $11.00 for the two of us.

Tomorrow night we're having chicken and cornbread dressing with gravy, green beans, and tossed salad.

Yum yum!

By the way, I highly recommend the FPU class to anyone who wonders where their money is going or wants to get out of debt. We're taking it at a local church and the $100 we paid for the class is well worth it. In the 10 weeks since the class started, we've learned a lot, paid off some debts, and have managed to get some money saved. We have a long way to go but we didn't get into debt overnight and we won't get out of it overnight. We have hope now and that's definitely worth a lot more to us than $100.

Update

2008-04-14T09:31:00.001-05:00

My last entry was December 31st of 2007. My job has kept me busy and I just haven't had the heart to blog for awhile but I'm back.

Rising food costs have a lot of people concerned and I think there's reason to be. But I'm not in a panic. Instead, I'm using the knowledge I already have and am seeking more to help me prepare healthy, good tasting food at a reasonable price. I'm pretty darn good at that but there's always room for improvement. :)

Anyway, this evening or tomorrow I'll try to post an updated inventory of the food we have on hand and will share our dinner menu for the next week or two with y'all.

In the meantime, I'm off to work!

Food inventory and meals for the next week

2007-12-31T19:42:00.000-06:00

Part of my pre New Year activities is taking an inventory of the food on hand and planning meals. Between the weird work hours I have now and the steadily increasing food prices, meal planning is more important to me than ever. So here's my inventory and the meals for the next week.

In the freezer:

6 whole chickens
5 lbs ground beef
10 lb ground turkey
3.5 lb chuck roast
2 packages of Gorton's fish fillets (the grilled kind, 2 fillets in each package)
3 lb turkey ham
2 lb turkey bacon
several varieties of shredded cheese
20 lb whole tomatoes
green beans, lima beans
mustard greens, collard greens, and spinach
broccoli and cauliflower

In the refrigerator:

eggs
1/2 gallon of milk
butter and margarine
Country Bob's sauce
worcestershire sauce
salad dressing and mayonnaise
baby carrots
green onions
american, mozzarella, cream and cottage cheeses

In the cupboard:

numerous cans of the vegetables we eat
a few cans of fruit
black and green olives
marinated artichoke hearts
canned marinated mushrooms and plain mushrooms
chopped garlic
cream of whatever soups and the ingredients to make homemade versions
canned chili (which I prefer for chili corn chip pie)
brown, white, and wild rices
dried beans and peas
plenty of spices and condiments

I also have 5 avocadoes and 4 bananas

Tonight we ended up getting a smoked chicken from the local grocery deli. There's enough left to use later in the week so it will get eaten quickly.

Tomorrow I'm preparing the Gorton's fish fillets and black eyed peas. Not so much because it's New Year's Day as because I like that combination. ;)

The rest of the week we'll have, in no particular order:

Chicken & dressing casserole (made with the leftover chicken from tonight), tossed salad, and green beans

Leftover black eyed peas with tossed salad

Chili made with 1/2 lb ground turkey and Ranch Style Beans and served with tossed salad

Hamburger skillet dish (homemade) with broccoli and green beans

Super salads with several leaf lettuces, tomato, green onions, bean sprouts, and shredded cheese