Frugal Meals with out the Meat

Grocery money is very limited this week so we will be eating foods for "our grocery store". Our meals will constist of alot of beans and sale priced cheese.

Kirk, who has been doing alot of the cooking, has recently discover meatless meals. The meatless aspect is great for those trying to save on the grocery bills.

For lunch, we had sandwiches on homemade bread with fresh veggies from the garden and cheese. No meat! The kids and I have been enjoying these types of sandwiches for years but Kirk has always added the meat. I guess, the unemployment line has created a healthier Kirk!

Make your own McDonalds's Breakfast Sandwich

I have been making these homemade breakfast sandwiches for years now. In lieu of just skipping breakfast, Kirk will grab a couple on his way out the door. The kids will also take them and eat in the van on the way to school. And of course, there is nothing wrong with having a breakfast sandwich for a snack when mom has nothing else prepared in the frig!

I make them in mass quantities and store them in the freezer. It is quite easy, really!:) Just pick up a bag of English muffins or croissants from the bakery outlet store. Or refrigerator biscuits work nice from the grocery store. Search your area to find the best prices or sale items. For those who have more time, English muffins, biscuits, and croissants are actually economical, healthier and taste good homemade.

Once you have selected the bread then top with egg, cheese and meat of your choice. This type of sandwich is handy and simple to keep on hand. And I guaranty, they will make your co-workers drool!

Save Vegetable Water for Money Saving Soup

Here is a kitchen tip for saving money and still eating healthy.

The next time you make vegetables for a meal save the water and store in the freezer. Keep adding new vegetable water to the container until you have enough to make a batch of soup.

Viola! Great flavor and vitamins right out of some thing you would have just thrown away!

Prepare Tender Dry Beans using the One Hour Soak Method

This month my grocery budget is really getting the squeeze. This happens from time to time in my household. It is one of the reasons why we stock up on sales and other dry goods. We most likely will be eating out of our grocery store for the rest of the month. The large quantities of beans, wheat, rice and some misc freezer items along with a few fresh vegetables from our garden with keep us fed until the grocery cash is following again.

Dealing with dry beans has not always been easy for me. My mother always made such wonderful baked beans while mine always seemed to be a gamble. Would they be hard or would they soften up? Could I serve them to company or take them to the potluck? In fact, I was once told that some beans just don’t soften and doesn’t matter how long you cook them. Well, I no longer believe that because it is all in the method! I gave up overnight soaking and have been using this method of preparation for about a year now. Here is the best way I have found to prepare beans no matter how long they have aged.

2 ½ cups of dry beans or about 1 lbs
2 quarts of cold water

First rinse and sort the beans. Transfer the beans to a pot add the cold water and cover with a lid. Bring the beans to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand for 1 hour. Next bring the water level back to the starting level by adding hot water and replace cover. Bring the beans to a boil again, reduce heat and simmer for 3/4 to 1 hour. If the beans are fresh, they won’t need to full hour in order to become tender. If they are well aged, it may even take a bit longer just watch them closely. Once the beans are tender transfer them into a jar and store in refrigerator until ready to use in your favorite bean recipe.

Saving Water While Washing Dishes

We live in town and pay for the water used our household. Then the sewer charges are calculated off the amount used. So basically, we pay for water in and out even if it doesn't leave through the sewer lines! I know we need water but paying a water bill is still fairly new and bothersome to me.

No automatic dish washer here, I wash dishes by hand. Cooking from scratch most of the time creates many a dirty dish! So I try to save on the dish water as much as possible.

I hand wash my dishes and stack them on the empty side (left side of the picture) of the sink. Once the water is dirty, I rinse ketchup plates, lasagna pans, chili bowls, the Foreman Grille or any other messy items and place them back on the dirty side. By rinsing the dirty dishes in the dirty water, I can really maximize the next batch of clean dish water. The water stays cleaner longer allowing me to just keep on washin'. :)

The next step is to rinse the clean dishes. While filling the dish water for the next load, I rinse the dishes from the left side. The water can not be running wide open for this. The sink ends up half full before I am done rinsing. I usually use only about 1/4 of the pressure available. (It is amazing how much clean water is drained down the sink just for rinsing.) Then I stack them on a clean towel laid on the counter top to dry. Once dry, the children are responsible to put them away.

It always feel sooo good to have all the dishes done and put away at the end of the day. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen in Hughville very often!

Using Buckets for Long Term Food Storage

Food grade 5 gallon buckets with sealing lids are excellent for storing dry goods. They keep out vermin, are hard to puncture and the seal is air tight. Bakeries will often have these types of buckets left over from large quantities of frosting or jelling filling. Delis may also have them from items like potato salad. Some stores will just give them away, others will charge you for the bucket. I know you can also find them on Ebay and food co-ops carry them but be prepared to pay more. From my experience, it is best to just be patient and shop local for this item.

I called around this am trying to locate some additional buckets for my dry goods. After six calls, I was able to locate six buckets. Five for free and one for $1.00! Also I added my name to the Walmart Bakery list for five buckets when they become available. One small Bakery was charging $2.50. I thought that might be a little much so I passed it up.

Why so many buckets?

I have been buying dry goods in large quantities and storing for later use. Some weeks cash is short therefore I need to keep food on hand. And other weeks, there just isn't much to my liking on sale so I don't shop. Dry beans, oatmeal, popcorn, sugar, rice and wheat varieties all store well in these buckets. Some food can be kept for a really long period of time. For example, dry beans stored in a dark cool places will last eight years or more! And with constant price increases it maybe better to invest money in food rather that the stock market! :)

Anyway in my quest for these buckets, I discovered that not all buckets are created equal. The five I picked up for free where more cloudy like an ice cream bucket not solid white like my previous buckets. That means more light will flow through into the buckets. For long term storage, there needs to be as little light as possible. So I plan on using the cloudy buckets for things like sugar, flour and probably soft white wheat since those items usually last for six months or less around here. I expect that the beans will last longer and will need to be stored in a solid bucket. It will just a little planning however I am still very thankful for the free buckets!

Reusing plastic grocery store bags in the kitchen garbage

Since we recycle and compost, I have a smaller sized can for garbage in the kitchen. The plastic bags from our local grocery store fit nicely but Wal-mart bags are just a tad too small. The mouth of the bag doesn't quite fit around the rim of the can and sometimes fails in making a mess.

I picked up a bag of little hooks for $.25 last week at a yard sale but our dollar store also carries them. The Commands are nice but pricey. I save them for the cupboards, walls and valuable items. Anyway, I attached these little hooks to prevent the bags from falling down inside the can.

First I cleaned the plastic can thoroughly with a small cloth and rubbing alcohol. Then I attached the hooks upside down on the outer edge of the rim. Now when a bag is just a bit to small, I can link it around the upside down hook and the side will stay up.

Another option would be to attach the hooks right side up on the interior of the can. It all depends on the size of the can verses the size of your bags you are dealing with. Adjust accordingly to your situation and the bag will be held upright in correct position.

Buying food in bulk

The constant rising food costs and never ending gas price increases are whittling away at everyone’s food budget. Bulk buy is one of the ways, I have been able to somewhat maintain my family’s food costs. I buy food in bulk quanities and fill “our grocery” located in the basement. Our in home grocery store has saved me more than once from making that quick trip to the store which saves gas and reduced trips avoids impulse buying.

My two main sources are Azure Standard and Sam’s Club. Azure Standard is a food co-op that has a delivery route to this area. They offer a variety of healthy and organic items. I usually purchase items like beans, wheat berries, oats, essential oils and glycerin from them. Sam’s club is another source which is about 75 miles away so I don’t visit often. I buy a three month supplies of various items like #10 cans of tomato sauce, ketchup, spices, dog food, and toilet paper and bar soap. Like Costco and other warehouse stores, there are deals to be found in this store. The trick is to avoid all the impulses! Know your prices by keeping a price book and understand how to calculate the per unit price. These stores have impulse items lurking around every corner and especially the convenient frozen food isle as much as possible. These stores have a great selection of pre-packaged frozen food items like Buffalo wings, prepared breakfast sandwiches, frozen pizzas that taste really good but simply out of my budget. Not to mention the fact, many are not a health option.

Another source often forgot about is the local grocery store. I stock up on food items that are on good sale prices. Quite often store brand items will be on sale for less than Sam’s club leading brand prices. In that case, I buy up enough to get the family through to the next sale. Generally we see the same items rotate through about every six to eight weeks. It is not usual for best prices will have limit and of course, I pick up the limit. I will return later in the week to purchase another limit if I am already out for some other reason otherwise inflated gas prices may just eat up the savings.

Our grocery store consists of a large Rubbermaid 6 shelving unit. I keep everything from toilet paper to noodles to coffee to sugar here. If it is on sale and a regular item in my home, I usually pick it up to store here. I also have some food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids that house rice, wheat berries, dry beans and oats. The buckets were previously from our local store (bakery section) and they will give them away, if you ask. You could also check the Deli section since potato salad also comes in these 5 gallon buckets. A 25# bag of grain fits just about right and the tight sealing lid locks out bugs, dust and the occassional rodent! Even if you need to pay $1.00 or so, food grade 5 gallon buckets are a good storage idea for large quantity items.

Keeping staple ingredients on hand has many benefits. It saves on additional trips to the store and allows buying extra when prices are low. It also gives a stockpile for when there is not much on sale or when our grocery budget had been exhausted for the month. Although storage space maybe an issue for some be creative because stocking up on best prices is good defense against our times of rising costs.

Contain the toaster crumbs

An easy way to container crumbs under the toaster is to place the toaster itself on a serving platter. This way all the crumbs that fall out of the bottom of the toaster will end up on the platter and not on your counter. It makes for easy clean up and your toaster can be moved around as needed.

When not in use my toaster resides in the cupboard in order to free up much needed counter space. With this method the crumbs are not an issue since the platter containers them all and I just wipe up the platter as needed.

A neat idea to avoid a mess!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

I made these great Blueberry Muffins for breakfast today. It is nice to have something different. The kids each had two muffins with some pears before going to school. I thought there might be some complaints since I used 50% whole wheat flour. However nothing was said about "tasting different". I love how easily my family is making the change over to whole wheat flour.

If my family can do it, any family can do it.
I explained the benefits of whole wheat to them before changing. Since my kids appear to be more health conscious these days, they had no objections to trying the healthier version. From there, I converged by recipes by using 50-50 mix of flour in everything from breads, cookies, bars, and now muffins.
This is easy change to a healthier life style.