Eating It Up

Potato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:16:00 +0000

Last week my mom gave me most of a 10 lb bag of potatoes. I made Crash Hot Potatoes with some of them and decided to make Potato Soup with the rest of it. Here is the recipe I made up with what I had on hand:

~6 lbs of potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 T minced garlic
2 T butter
2 cans of evaporated milk
8 oz cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste

Cook potatoes in water until tender. Saute onions and celery in the butter just until brown, then add garlic. Heat through until you can really smell the garlic.

Once potatoes are tender, drain off half of the liquid and half of the potatoes. Use your hand mixed (or masher I suppose) to create a puree right in the pan with the remaining water and potatoes. Stir in sauted vegetables, evaporated milk, and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted then add in the remaining potato cubes.

***
Apart from the time spent peeling and cubing the potatoes, this was very simple to make. If I had it, I would have tossed in crumbled bacon and then topped with green onions. But they weren't on hand today. You could also use heavy cream instead of evaporated milk.

This recipe is one that is hard to mess up though. So, if you have less or more of something it probably wouldn't matter much.

What do you do with extra potatoes?

Week 1 Progress Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:43:00 +0000

So far we are doing really good with the January Eat From the Pantry Challenge. I went to the grocery store Sunday night and spent $28, including 2 newspapers. I hadn't planned to buy clementines, but since the 5 lb box was on sale for $5.99, I picked it up. That is a good price where I live.

Our meals so far haven't been too far off the reservation, though tonight's dinner was a little unusual for us. My mom had a 10 lb bag of potatoes she wasn't going to use up so she gave them to me yesterday. I made our favorite potato recipe, Crash Hot Potatoes. That was the star of the meal, along with some appetizer type foods I had around - mini frozen crab cakes, summer sausage, crackers, and block cheese.

I did realize though, I will need to buy sliced bread. We eat way too many sandwiches around here to give that up and I don't have time this month to learn how to make an excellent sandwich bread. But I am still collecting recipes and tips in case anyone wants to chime in.

The more I look into our pantry, the more I know we can do this. There is just so much food in there!

Have you had to start stretching yet, or are your menus still pretty normal?

Week 1 Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:23:00 +0000

After browsing through my pantry and trying to figure out what we might eat that doesn't require a trip to the grocery store, I came up with a week's worth of dinner menus.

1 - Spaghetti w/ jar sauce
2 - Summer Sausage w/ crackers, cheese, and fruit
3 - Canned soup w/ crackers
4 - Caribbean Bean's & Rice (from recipe on light kidney bean bag)
5 - TBD Prepared meal from the freezer (I have several to choose from)

I realized that I don't have a very wide variety of items in my pantry. Spaghetti, soup, and rice dishes will likely be on the menu every week because I have a lot of those.

There are several cans of tomatoes - crushed, diced, whole, etc... that need to be used as well. I think they will work for chili a few nights. I wonder if my husband, Bruce, will miss having meat since I don't have a lot of that stockpiled.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge - January 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:08:00 +0000

I have once again accumulated more food than my family can reasonably eat so long as my food buying habits continue. My pantry items are spilling out and being stored in grocery bags on the kitchen floor. Because of that, I am delighted to participate in Crystal's (of Money Saving Mom) Eat From the Pantry Challenge.

I have created my own customized set of rules to set my family up for a healthy, frugal January. The timing of this is good too, since we go a little more than 5 weeks between paychecks this time of year.

Here are my three rules for January 2009:

Only buy produce and dairy items at the grocery store or farmer's market.
Go to the grocery store no more than once a week.
No eating take-out food because I had a busy day and forgot to defrost something. (Planned dining out for dates or social occasions is acceptable.)

And here is my first exception:

January 2nd is my dad's birthday and the party is at my house. I'll be providing the meal and dessert so those groceries and that trip to the store won't count - it is one of my gifts to him.

I already know I have a lot of canned tomato products in my pantry so I will specifically be looking for yummy recipes to use those up. If you have any, pass them along by leaving a link (or the recipe itself) in the comments.

Check back in a couple of days to see how well I am doing and if I can master homemade sandwich bread!

Hello Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:36:00 +0000

I have been absent from posting on this blog for awhile. You can read my excuses over at my family blog if you like.

I also have a new food website that I L-O-V-E! It is from Alltop and has everything to do with food. If you aren't familiar with Alltop, let me tell you about it. They take the top 100 sites in any given category (Food, Mom Blogs, etc...) and share the 5 most recent posts with the world.

It makes browsing the top content in any category perfectly easy and way too time consuming! The variety of their food coverage is amazing... everything from ethnic food and stories to southern cooking, as well as NPR Food coverage and the regular home cook.

Click on over today and check it out!

(By the way, this isn't a sponsored post, just something that I found through Buzz Agent and loved!)

One Million Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:41:00 +0000

I am not sure how many blogs there are in the world. One source said that there are as many as 70,000,000. Whether or not those are active, who knows? But I do know that someone has started an interesting wiki to try and collect links to at least 1,000,000 of those blogs.

I did my part to help by adding both of my blogs to the list. My main blog, Family Musings, is number 1511. This blog, EatingItUp, is number 1512.

If you keep a blog, join the social experiment and head over to add it yourself. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click,"Add your blog to the list."

F is for Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:01:00 +0000

This list, my 9th edition of Thursday Thirteen, wasn't too difficult. I came up with it pretty quickly.

Fruit Loops - Not my personal favorite cereal, but I did see it featured on a poster I liked. It said, "Be the Fruit Loop in a bowl full of Cheerios."
French Fries - Is it safe to assume that we all know they aren't really french, they are Belgium?
French Toast - This isn't really French either, I don't think.
Funnel Cake - Greasy, fattening fair food doesn't get better than this. Unless it is topped with powdered sugar and mascerated strawberries.
Flounder (or just plain fish) - This was the only kid of fish I remember even knowing about as a kid. I didn't discover salmon or tilapia until after I graduated from college.
Fudge - I am not a huge fudge fan, but I do like fudgey brownies and fudgey cake frosting.
Frosted Flakes - Another cereal! I like these better than #1, and they are best with bananas or strawberries on top.
Fruit Salad - Just like with a regular vegetable salad, this tastes better when someone else makes it. One time a long time ago, my friend Barbara made one with sour cream in it. I think it was the best fruit salad I ever tasted.
Filet Mignon - Beefy heaven. I can't afford these at restaurants anymore, but oh man, these are good. Makes me wanna go and grill something.
Fruit Juice/Punch - I don't drink this sort of thing because it has a ton of sugar. I'd rather waste my sugar on chocolate.
Flour - OK. Technically, not a food in and of itself, but it makes all the baked goodness in the world possible. And who wants to live without baked goodness?
Figs - The first time I tried these I was an assistant teacher for a 3rd grade Vacation Bible School class. We were sampling biblical foods. I was surprised that I liked them, though I don't think I've had then ever since.
Flapjacks - Hey, no one said I couldn't use slang terms in my list. Who doesn't love a stack of fresh and fluffy flapjacks?!

Can you think of anymore F foods to add to my list?

Visit the home of Thursday Thirteen for more list fun!

Thanks Edi

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:50:00 +0000

Thanks to the awesome Edi at Exotic Eating Experiment, I have my very own copy of Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market!

I am so excited because this is one of the giveaways I really wanted to win. It arrived in the mail this weekend and I have already used it. I bought a mango at the store and was unsure how to prepare it for eating, so I looked it up in my new Field Guide.

You see, I've never had a mango before, but it was so cheap, I thought I'd give it a try. This little book sure came in handy, providing instructions on the best way to peel and serve the mango. I can now say that there will be many more mangoes in my future!

Thanks Edi!

Non-food Stash

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 04 May 2008 02:51:00 +0000

I mentioned my non-food stash at the very beginning of this blog and made the decision that it wouldn't be part of my experiment here. Instead, it has become its own game, a whole other creature. I thought it might be fun for some of you to see what I did at CVS this week to build my non-food stash, and to see pictures of where it is currently organized.

First, here is a picture of what I bought today. I spent $5.12 for everything you see in the first picture. I did this by rolling my ECBs and using CVS coupons that I either got at the store or in the mail. In exchange for my time and diligence, CVS gave me another $78.04 to spend next time I am in their store. To make it easier to spend, that amount is spread out over several ECB coupons though.

(2 blood sugar monitors, 3 boxes allergy tablets, 5 toothbrushes, 3 tubes of toothpste, 3 dental picks, 2 boxes of Tums, and a pop-up tape dispenser with 2 refills)

I have 6 shelves to hold my non-food stash. This is pretty much everything that I have, except for a few items that I know we will use in the very near future. Those are stored in our master bathroom. Here are the top two shelves. They hold cleaning supplies, some office supplies, and, on the bottom left, lotions. Some of the lotions were in gift packs, but most of them came to me free. As a matter of fact, everything in my stash was free or nearly free (less than $0.50).

On the middle two shelves, I have health and beauty aid heaven! More than 12 bottles of body wash, 20 tubes of toothpaste, several deodorants, toothbrushes, various hair care products and lots of sponges.

Finally, the bottom of this pantry is pretty random. I have smelly things (like the kind you plug in, spray, or leave on the counter), various medicinal items, and women's razors (mostly Intuition).

As I look at my well-organized pantry, I do see that I am very blessed to have discovered CVS and ECBs. If I can keep this up, I will never have to pay for toothpaste, tooth brushes, body wash, deodorant, or lotion again!

New Design

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:17:00 +0000

I changed the template on my blog... what do you think?

The background is courtesy of Cutest Blog on the Block. I will just say it was the easiest thing to install too! If you want to add some pizazz to your Blogger blog, I suggest you head over and snag one of her many free backgrounds!

Free Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:37:00 +0000

Who doesn't like free coffee? Hey, if it's good enough for Rachel Ray, it's good enough for me!

RSS Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:09:00 +0000

I was all set to give my readers a different kind of recipe... one that provided all the ingredients and how to for utilizing RSS feeds to their best advantage. Then, I woke up today and read Abraham Piper's easy-peasy explanation in my Google Reader account. I really can't say it any better than he does. Go check it out then come back and subscribe to my feed in your new Reader account!

Cross posted at Family Musings.

E is for Egg

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:55:00 +0000

I must admit that coming up with my E foods list was a little tougher than expected. Let's just say the cows ought to be happy this week because I'm pickin' on the chickens!

Eggs - fried, poached, scrambled, over-easy, sunny-side-up, hard-boiled, soft-boiled. Can you think of any more?
Elephant Ears - One of the ultimate fair foods ever! I remember thinking this was the bet way to spend my food money at the fair because they are so big and relatively cheap. As a little kid, anything bigger than my head was sure to fill me up.
Egg Salad Sandwich - This is one of my favorite comfort foods. I ate these a lot in college, and prefer them on the Publix White Mountain Bread. Mmmm...
Egg nog - I only buy this once, maybe twice a year. And then, just the small container. My husband liked it so much and knows he can only have it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He doesn't want to waste it so he only has a little bit at a time. We usually end up throwing half of the first container because it expired before he finished it.
Eel - the only way I like to eat eel is on my sushi, teriyaki style. As a matter of fact, I think eel is my favorite kind of sushi.
Edible Paper - I had some of this recently. It was wrapped around a Japanese candy. Edi and her kids ate something like this last December.
Energy Drinks - Given my need for sleep you'd think I'd know all about these. But I don't. I've seen people drink them and practically jump out of their skin. These drinks scare me.
Eggplant - I've successfully eaten this in restaurants. I remember a napoleon made with eggplant once that was divine. My attempts at cooking this deep-purple vegetable at home have been less so.
Endive - This has to be one of the most elegant vegetables ever. Once, at a fancy restaurant, I had an endive salad. It was 3 single leafs of endive, drizzled with a bacon vinaigrette with crumbled goat cheese. Yummy!
Eggo Waffles - Lego my eggo! My brother and I used to reenact the the commercials in our kitchen. Pretty dorky, isn't it?
Earth's Best Baby Food - except for food that I have made myself, the only food my daughter has eaten is Earth's Best. It is all organic and comes in cute little glass jars I can reuse for canning.
Earl Grey Tea - This is my mom's favorite tea. I don't drink tea as often as I would like.
Extract - My favorites are vanilla and almond. I've even used them to make homemade coffee creamer.

On a side note, while I did not use it for this list, I found a neat food encyclopedia online.

Check out more Thursday Thirteen fun here.

Shredded Beef Tacos

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Dinner tonight was yummy! And, I got to turn a doubting husband into a believer. A believer in the idea that is is indeed OK to use chicken stock in a beef dish.

I made shredded beef in my crockpot. And I know you are just dieing to read how I completed this culinary feat, given my recent crockpot failures. It was quite simple really. So simple, I'm surprised I made it up all by myself. Or at least I think I did. I don't remember reading this recipe any where.

I started by remembering to defrost the meat. That is the most important step in making a meat dish. Don't forget that girls... Actually, to confess, I only partially defrosted the meat. It was a big 3 lb. slab of chuck roast and
it was still a little frozen when it hit my chopping block. I cut the roast up into 2" cubes and tossed them in the crockpot. I added 1 can of organic diced tomatoes (purchased for just $0.16 at Wal-Mart), 1 can of chicken broth, lots of pepper, and a good bit of salt.

Setting it on low, I came back about 10 hours later. Because I had added enough broth to cover the meat, I now had a huge soupy mess. Or so I thought. Hidden in that mess was chunks of delicious beef. I used a slotted spoon and transferred the beef and diced tomatoes into another bowl. Then, I attacked it with 2 forks until I had tender, shredded goodness.

I had thought I would use this to make quesadillas, but as the beef began to pile up on my flour tortilla, I knew it was destined to become a soft taco.

A yummy soft taco. This was restaurant quality folks. No joke. Bruce ate 4 of them. I had considerable restraint and only ate 2. I think we'll be repeating this one tomorrow night.

From my stash I used the bee and the chicken stock. The tomatoes were only purchased this past weekend, so I don't think they count as stash quite yet. I try to keep cheese and tortillas in the house because they can be used for so many different recipes.

D is for DumDum

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Here we are... already in the 4th week of my journey with food through the alphabet. I think this is my 7th TT post? Wow... time flies!

DumDums - This little pops are so cute. I like to pass them out to my students when they get a question right. Ironic?
Doritos - Just like the Cheetos from last week, my favorite part is licking the cheesy residue off my fingers.
Duck - I ate this for the first time when I was in China. I was amazed at how much I liked it.
Donuts - Krispy Kreme??? Take my advice, don't try to eat these warm with ice cold milk. When it all mixes up in your stomach, the feeling isn't right.
Drumsticks - This is my favorite piece of the bird. I love cold, fried chicken and would eat both drumsticks if the dark meat wasn't as good for you as the white meat.
Drumsticks - This is one of my favorite ice cream novelties. I remember getting them from the ice cream truck when I was a kid.
Dumplings - I've only really had these at Cracker Barrel, though I do have a package of frozen dumplins in my freezer.
Dates - I ate my first one when I was teaching VBS in high school. It was much stickier and sweeter than I thought it would be. I should try them again some day.
Dill - I've already made it clear that this is my favorite spice.
Dip - Onion Dip, spinach-artichoke dip, cheese dip, anything that I can scoop onto a hearty tortilla chip or ruffles is A-OK in my book!
Daichon - I have no idea what this is. Isn't it kind of like a radish? I'd google it, but am trying to avoid that. I hope someone leaves a comment telling me.
Do-si-dos - I am not a fan of this particular Girl Scout Cookie, even though it does contain peanute butter. I am told though that they are quite popular in my area, along with Samoas, something else I don't understand.
Deer Meat - Technically this is called venison, but my V list is still a long ways off and you will have forgotten by then that I have already used this food. I've had it once that I can recall and it was sooooo... yummy! Anyone want to kill a deer and have me over for dinner? I'll bring the bacon to wrap it in.

Go to the official home for Thursday Thirteen for more list fun.

C is for Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:01:00 +0000

I could just list 13 different casserole recipes, but then I'd probably have to go online to look for them. So instead, here are 13 foods that start with the letter C.

Carrots - yummy steamed with a light sprinkle of Splenda

Cottage Cheese - I would not eat this on a train. I would not eat this in the rain.

Candy Corn - I eagerly wait for this each Halloween season and by the time I finish 1 bag am so sick of it I don't need it again until the following October.

Chicken - fried, diced, grilled, baked, broiled, roasted, just call me Bubba!

Cereal - Lucky Charms anyone? I seriously think I could live on cereal alone if I needed too.

Cherries - Ranier cherries in the summer might be my all-time favorite fruit. I just wish they didn't cost $7+ a quart!

Cheetos - my favorite part of eating this snack, licking the cheese off my fingers!

Chocolate Cake - everyone thinks devil's food is the evil cake, but they are wrong... it is just chocolate cake that will be my undoing, especially when it is moist with rich, fudge-like frosting!

Coca Cola - or coke, soda, cola, pop, or whatever you call it in your part of the world. This reminds me of one of my favorite things to do at EPCOT. They have this little station where you can taste all different types of soda from around the world. Some are pretty yucky, like the apertif from Italy. But I really like the watermelon one from Japan.

Cheese - makes everything better, except Chocolate Cake, you can't really improve on perfection.

Cranberry Sauce - I tried to make this once in a blender. My cranberries wouldn't stay in the bottom so I pushed them down with a wooden spoon. Big mistake. There was no cranberry sauce at Christmas dinner that year!

Candy - put some peanut butter and choclate together and stick it in my mouth... these two ingredients make the perfect candy

Cookies - for that matter, peanut butter and chocolate also make the best cookies. A Girl Scout Tag-along anyone?

I made it through my 6th edition and am already working on future lists. Visit Thursday Thirteen for more list fun!

Breakdown

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:01:00 +0000

I broke down last week and went back to My Girlfriend's Kitchen. They were running a great deal - 10 petite meals for $70, that is a 30% savings over the regular price and WAY lower than any other deals they've had recently. At that price, I couldn't really pass it up.

Yes, I know... that is still more than I would spend by going to the grocery store, shopping sales, and making the meals myself. But given the way we've been eating lately, this is just something that my pantry and freezer needed to keep us from alternating between cereal and spaghetti. My husband loves me, but I am starting to push the boundaries of that love; if you know what I mean.

After my most recent trip to the grocery store (last Friday), I am re-committed to keeping my weekly trip under $25. I just have such a hard time passing up good sales when I can combine them with coupons. Case in point, Honey Bunches of Oats was on sale BOGO Free. I happened to have coupons for $2 off 1 box. Sooo... I bought 4 boxes for $1.16. Can you blame me? It was a good sale and we do eat a lot of cereal, but I need to just stick with buying milk to put on top of the cereal.

My total was ~$35, but that included buying breakfast for our Life Group class to eat on Sunday morning. I've done that for 3 weeks in a row now and think it is time for someone else to take care of it. The only problem is, I keep forgetting to pass the sign-up sheet around.

Casserole City

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:06:00 +0000

Tonight I got a little creative and pulled some random items from my pantry and freezer to make dinner. Bruce isn't a huge fan of casseroles, but if I add enough meat and flavor he can handle them on occasion.

For tonight's casserole, I took the 3 chicken breasts that Bruce defrosted and cut them into chicken strips. This was easier because they were still partially frozen. I browned the strips in olive oil then set them aside. While they were hanging out in a bowl next to my stove, I dumped in what was left of a bag of frozen peas along with 1 1/3 cup of water.

I let that heat up then added a box of whole wheat chicken flavored stuffing. I mixed that in just until moistened then placed the chicken over the top.

On top of the chicken, I put two things. First, I poured a mix of cream of celery soup mixed with 1/2 milk. Then, I shredded about 1/3 cup of cheddar cheese over that. Placing the lid on the pan, I let it heat up for about 5-6 minutes.

While this was cooking up, I made a green bean casserole for the oven. I did not have any french onions, so I decided to use Ritz crackers. This was a gross miscalculation. They got super soggy in the soupy mix. Plus, I was reminded that I do not like frozen green beans. I have made them a hundred different ways and have never liked them. So, I won't be buying them anymore, and I still have 1 bag left.

From my stash I used - frozen chicken, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 bag of frozen peas, 1 bag of frozen green beans, and a box of instant stuffing.

Soggy Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Last night Bruce dug down deep into our chest freezer and found a package of chicken dated sometime in October of 2007. He seemed concerned, but I pointed out that some pork we had last week was dated May of 2006 and it was fine, so the chicken probably was too.

They were chicken tenders, I decided they needed to be breaded and let Bruce pick the liquid for dredging. As a yummy and spicy choice he used Lawry's Louisiana Red Pepper Marinade. It made for a great flavor on the finished product, but since there was so much of it, the breading was soggy. It was too bad really because the taste was fine.

Lesson learned - make you you use your liquid sparingly when trying to bread meat.

Sorry there are no pictures of the soggy meat. We're a little sleep deprived at the Sabin house these days.

Still On Track

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:43:00 +0000

One might think that my ~2 week absence from posting on this site means that I have abandoned my EatingItUp experiment. But that is not the case. I just haven't had a lot of time lately to take pictures of and post my receipts. This week I am pretty much on target, having spent a little bit over $30, counting my trip to the bread store. It helped that I found a $30 Publix gift card lurking in my wallet. I was prepared to over spend a little today anyway because I decided to make some lasagna and a dinner for a friend who just had a baby. As it turns out, I only needed the cheese for the 2 pans of lasagna and the pasta for the Fiesta Chicken dish I made my friend.

My receipt looks super long because my favorite Green Giant frozen vegetables were on sale for $1 this week. I bought 10 and the cashier decided to ring them up individually. I am a little low on the produce purchases for the week and still need to find ways to add fruits and vegetables to our diet. I can honestly say it is not a budget issue, but a taste issue. My husband and I like main dishes and pasta. Even I, who grew up always being served a vegetable with dinner, sometimes just forget to prepare one. And by the time I've got the rest of the meal done, I don't feel like waiting for the veggies to be made. At least we still have the applesauce in our lunches.

I'll post a menu for next week when we get closer. Right now, I'm on Spring Break and am going to go play with my daughter while my lasagna finishes baking in the over!

Chicken Feet

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:19:00 +0000

I haven't abandoned this project... just been busy and out of town. I'm back now and while catching up on my blog reading, I found this post from Holly. It reminded me of my visit to China in 2005 and some of the food we ate.

I never had the guts to try a chicken foot while there, but I did buy one... and then put it in a friend's hot pot for fun. :) Thankfully, he was a good sport about it.

If I remember correctly, the foot only cost around $0.15 USD. Not bad for a practical joke!

B is for Banana

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Carrying on in my new TT tradition (this is my 5th edition)... here are 13 foods that start with the letter B.

Bananas - my daughter's first food
Bacon - makes any sandwich better
Blueberry muffins - best when warm
Burritos - the more stuffed the better
Buns - Merita Lite Wheat, 'nuff said
Borscht - do people really eat beet soup?
Bread - we've been trying to avoid breads made with high fructose corn syrup, but that is hard to do
Bass - as in seabass... caught some once on a deep-sea fishing trip and blackened it up for dinner... yummiest bass I ever ate
Butter - not really a food in and of itself, but definitely a worthy ingredient!
Butterscotch - my palate isn't discerning enough I suppose because suddenly I can't remember the different between this and caramel
Beans - great for vegetarian dinner nights
Bagels & Bialys - a two-fer here... both great breakfast treats, especiall the Cinamon Crunch bagel from Panera Bread
Buffalo - I've never eaten this myself, but heard it is a very lean and good for you protein

Head on over to Thursday 13 for more list fun!

Gobble, Gobble

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:29:00 +0000

At about 9 pm this evening, I e-mailed Murray's Farm about the place our new turkey grew up on. And wouldn't you know it, by 10:20 pm I had a response! I can't believe someone was up working this late on a Sunday. I sure hope he at least gets next Sunday (Easter) off!

The nice guy working this late, Steve Gold, fixed up the problem I was having and now I know - my turkey came from Koch's Turkey Farm. I'm not going to take the step of naming my new turkey (that is now frozen waiting for the right time to be eaten), but it is neat to know that he had a whole farm to roam around on and ate lots of yummy veggies.

Since I don't live anywhere near a Whole Food's and I can't normally afford a $35 turkey, I will make sure I enjoy every bite of our new turkey! And remember, I promised to tell you all about it once we cook the bird up!

Free Bird

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:03:00 +0000

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be travelling on, now,

cause there's too many places I've got to see.

But, if I stayed here with you, girl,

Things just couldn't be the same.

cause I'm as free as a bird now,

And this bird you can not change.

I'm not really "free as a bird," but I did get a free bird today during my grocery trip. A dear family friend gave me a coupon for a free Norbest Turkey and I finally had a chance to use it today. It was an even better deal though because my Publix doesn't sell Norbest birds, so I got a Murray's Farm turkey! Their birds are raised the way nature intended on a family farm with no antibiotics nor hormones. There is even a really neat feature to learn more about the family farm your bird was raised on. I had some trouble with the code on the front of my turkey so I don't know which farm my turkey grew up on, but I do know my turkey was raised in "idyllic Blue Mountains in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster countryside." This was a $35 turkey that I got for free! Thanks Debbie! I did freeze it and will let you know when we cook it and all the wonderful things I use it for.

Since I only used $9 of last week's budget, I had $41 to spend this week. With that, so far I've only spent $30.79, which puts me UNDER BUDGET for 2 weeks in a row! Woo hoo! I might go back out tomorrow to buy some more frozen or canned veggies, thereby just being on budget. We'll see how the schedule goes.

And finally, since this post is already long, I think I'll make it just a tad longer and ask for your help. I purchased a bag of lentils today ($1.29) at Publix because I really want to try them. I understand they are incredibly healthy and a very frugal food. Maybe I even read somewhere that they are very good at taking on the flavor of other ingredients. (I'd compare them to tofu on that point, but then my husband might not eat them.) Here is where you, my wonderful readers, come in.

Please share with me ideas for preparing lentils. Sure, I could google lentil recipes (and probably will anyway), but how will I know if they are any good? Leave a comment with your time-tested, family-tasted favorite lentil recipes so that I know what the heck to do with these little green beans.

Oops!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Last week I didn't plan a menu. That resulted in us eating spaghetti and sandwiches for dinner most nights. Surprisingly, Bruce was a very good sport about the spartan meals. I don't think he minded too much though since it meant fewer pots and pans for him to clean up.

I didn't post it yet, but I did make a run to the grocery store last week. It was a little early on in the week, but I went on Friday night. Here is my receipt:

I know, I know... I altered it. I spent over $30 and you are probably wondering why did I scratch through some of the items? The explanation is simple... we went to Disney the next day and I needed to pack a lunch. I knew it would be cheaper to buy sandwich stuff than try and eat in the park (it was), so really those groceries took the place of a meal out while we entertained some friends for the day. That's why they don't count and I officially declare myself UNDER BUDGET for the week. :)

Now, I am preparing to go out and do our grocery shopping for this coming week. I'll be back later to post my receipt and my menu.