Last week, I visited the bakery outlet bread store and bought over $20 worth of bread.  Most items were .69 cents a loaf up to $1.  I froze loaf bread, bagels and buns. 

Yesterday, I was able to take advantage of some really great grocery deals this week at Kroger and Publix which helped in the area of my freezer and pantry stockpile.  I came home with a ton of stuff and saved over $130 in coupons combined with sales.  It was a very fruitful trip, especially since the coupons I used were internet printable coupons, hang tag coupons I found, peelie coupons and blinkie machine coupons!  I also stopped off at Kroger and found lots of clearanced out bakery breads for .49 cents to $1 which I froze for using for french toast and pizza subs.  I found cheap Bolthouse drinks as well.  They had them clearanced out to $1.64, which is a great price anyway, but they also had “save .55 cents” hangtag coupons all over them as well!  The expiration dates weren’t until October, so I stocked up on some drinks for me. 

I was thrilled to find free sour cream, .25 cent yogurt, $1 cheese and $1.09 Bolthouse.  I pay regular price for the Stonyfield yogurt even if I don’t have coupons for it.  I love the plain whole yogurt and add organic frozen blueberries (from Costco) or I mix other Stonyfield flavors with the plain whole yogurt to make it not so sweet. 

Here are some of the sweet Publix deals:

French’s Classic Yellow Mustard, 14 oz, BOGO $1.87
-$0.50/1 French’s Mustard
I used the $.50/1 printable to get FREE mustard!

Mueller’s Pasta, 12 or 16 oz box or 100% All Natural Whole Wheat Pasta, 13.25 oz box, BOGO $1.29
-$2/5 Mueller’s Pasta
Pay 25¢ using the $2/5!  This coupon does not have a limit on how many you can print, however, I had problems printing it.  I had to adjust my printer settings to landscape and adjust size to get it to print.  Even then, it took up the entire paper.  The store took it though even if it was a huge coupon!

Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Cake Mix or Cupcake, Assorted Varieties, 18.5 oz box, BOGO $1.59
-$1/2 Duncan Hines Products Publix Store Coupon– GA Toss 4 Cash Booklet (located at the front of the store)
2 boxes for .59 cents!! 

Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt, Assorted Varieties, 4 pk, 4 oz cup, BOGO $2.50
-$0.50/1 Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt, 4 pk
-$1/1 YoPlus Yogurt, 4-pk
-$0.50/1 Yoplus Yo Plus Yogurt, 4 pk 8/22/2010 SS Insert (exp 10/16/2010)
-$0.50/1 YoPlus Yogurt 4pk. 8/8/2010 GM Insert (exp 10/2/2010)
-$0.50/1 Yoplus Yogurt 4pk 7/25/2010 SS Insert (exp 9/18/2010)
I used the $.50/1 and paid 25¢ per package!

Dixie Plates or Bowls, Assorted Varieties, 20 to 48-ct pkg, BOGO $2.99
-$1/2 Dixie or Dixie Ultra Paper Plates
I also used the Publix store coupon in the Grill Up Some Savings booklet at the front of the store to get free Dixie napkins when you purchase 2 Dixie products.  Check out the napkins (160 count packages), mine had .55 cents off Dixie napkins peelie coupons on them—that I also used!  I bought 2 packs of plates, 2 packs of bowls and two packages of napkins (160 ct.) for a total of $2.88!!!

Newman’s Own Pasta Sauce, Assorted Varieties, 15 or 24-oz jar, BOGO $2.69
-$0.50/1 Newman’s Own Dressing, Marinade, Pasta Sauce, Salsa, Popcorn or Drink (IE) 2010-7-24 Bricks (exp 12/31/2020)
-$.50/1 Newman’s Own Pasta Sauce, Salsa, Marinade, Lemonade, Popcorn, or Cereal, any (8-15-10 RP)
 35¢ per jar when doubled!

Breakstone’s Sour Cream 16 oz, 2/$2  (Kraft Product)
-$5/5 Kraft Cheese Printable  If your having trouble printing the Kraft products printable, try going to www.kraftcheese.com and printing from there.  Limit 2 prints per computer. 
FREE after $5/5 coupon!!!

Kraft cheese blocks are on sale 2 for $4.  Using the $5/5 Kraft printable, cheese was $1 a package. 

Check out more Publix deals for this week over at  I Heart Publix….

You can top crepes with most any type of fruit topping.  I usually use frozen fruit, like strawberries, add a little water and sweetener and let them boil into a wonderful smelling and great tasting fruit syrup crepe topping.  Today, instead of sugar, I added small amount of black strap molasses as the sweetener.  It wasn’t as “sweet” as sugar, but it was still delicious as well as much more nutritious than sugar.  Black strap molasses has a high iron content and I have been using it whenever I can to help boost my iron levels. 

I took a basic crepe recipe and embellished it a bit by adding a bit of cinnamon, a dab of vanilla, a bit of molasses and just a tad more flour to thicken them a bit more so they weren’t paper thin.  Allrecipes.com has a lot of crepe recipes to choose from.  I also found several crepe recipes in cookbooks I had as well.  Basically crepes are eggs, milk, flour, a bit of oil and salt.  Crepes are a great thing to make when you need to use up eggs!

I also skimmed some cream off of our raw cow’s milk and made whipped cream by shaking it up in a mason jar for a few minutes.  I rolled cream cheese in the crepes, added the strawberry fruit topping and the raw whipped cream….it was delicious!  Just what I needed…all without sugar and using basic ingredients that I had on hand.  (Except the cream cheese–I haven’t figured out how to make that yet!)

  Little overboard on the whipped cream don’t you think???   

 I splurge on it…a lot!!

A Target a few weeks ago, I was able to get BIC pens, 10 packs, for $.16 cents each, crayons for $.20 cents and pencil boxes for my little kids to keep up with their crayons for .50 cents each.  Since the office supply stores and Target are over an hour from me, this week I settled for my most unfavorite store, Wally World, which is about 25 minutes from me.  Most exciting to me was the fact that I was able to use coupons for BIC supplies and the Post-It notes. 

• .50 cents for Dictionary or Thesaurus books.  I needed these for my 3 older children for their writing class…and was pleased to see they were .50 cents each!!!
• .15 cents for one subject spiral notebooks.  I bought 12 and probably should get more.  That’s cheaper than notebook paper!
• .75 cent packages of notebook paper. 
• .20 cent crayons (.25 cents for the Crayola brand)
• Free Post-It notes with this printable coupon!!!!  I bought 7 and used 7 coupons without any problems.  The single packs are on sale for a $1 at Walmart and Target and the coupon is for $1 off.  No limit on prints. 
• .64 cents for notecards
• .50 cent BIC pens, mechanical pencils and other various BIC products - used these $1 off 2 coupons here and here.  I was able to buy 8 packages of BIC products by printing out 2 prints from each link. 
• .25 cent glue sticks
• $1 Sharpie markers
• .97 cent dividers and pencil sharpeners and a few other under a dollar items. 
• Expo multi-pack dry erase markers from $1.50 to $3

I was glad to get out of there with what I needed for all the kids for just about $25 and without having to drive an hour!

If you live around any office supply stores, I’d encourage you to check their sales fliers.  They have been having amazing school supply deals lately.  Here’s a link to some of the current school supply deals this week at a variety of stores. 

Ohhh yeah…and school starts back this month!!!  I’m a little overwhelmed at starting school and having a baby at the same time, however, I’m trying to be ultra proactive in being more organized than normal.  This week, I’m gathering school supplies, making meal plans for the next month and altering my schedule to work with my down time. Lately,  I’ve learned a lot from some more experienced homeschooling moms which has helped me put a lot of things in perspective.  We’re excited about the upcoming school year, the coming fall weather and the arrival of the new baby. 

It’s Monday and I had grand plans for getting my house in order on Monday morning to start the week off right.  Pregnancy does strange things and in my case, it makes me completely intolerant of chaos.  I guess it is that nesting instinct going into hyper-drive.  However, all my good intentions of getting the house in order are still sitting on paper as great ideas and haven’t jumped off the page into reality. 

Reality is that our air conditioning  just went out and it’s incredibly, unseasonably hot and humid.  Reality messed up my grand intentions for making bulk spaghetti sauce today and catching up on laundry because now I’m not turning on anything that generates heat.  Reality is that I am 8 months pregnant.  Reality is that I’m also trying to potty train a 2 year old boy.  Instead, we are doing a general pickup, waiting on the AC people and getting ready to take a trip into town.

Most likely, my Monday morning house cleaning won’t get done today and I’m trying to be ok with that.  As a large family homemaker, I still have to force myself to be happy with flexibility, expect alterations to the plan and know that my reality doesn’t always match up to my expectations. 

Maybe tomorrow….or next week…

I’ve been working my way through all the corn I bought at the produce auction last week.  I ended up giving several grocery sacks of corn and zucchini away to several different friends.  I froze more off the cob corn and I gave the pigs a treat by giving them almost the entire last bag to grow big and fat on.  I figured I’d get it back later in ham anyway. 

This week,  I’m working on an extensive meal plan to help me get through the third trimester of pregnancy!  My first thoughts on it are to make several weeks of meal plans and rotate them.  Also, I would love to build up my supplies of paper products, dish soap, laundry supplies, trash bags etc. so I don’t have to worry about running out for the next 3 months or so.  I’ll see how that goes after I get it all down on paper. 

Now if I could just snap my fingers and the house would automatically clean itself…..

1. Steamed:  Squash and zucchini are great vegetables to steam.  I add some crushed garlic and sliced onions and steam it tender.  These steamed vegetables are wonderful to pair up over rice as a great side dish. 
2. Added to omelets:  Chopped onions, chopped tomatoes and peppers and chopped squash or shredded zucchini are great additions to add to omelets. 
3. Fried:  Ok…so maybe not the healthiest of options, but we had a great time last week making fried okra, fried green tomatoes and fried squash.  For making the squash, I sliced them, coated them in egg and dipped in a flour, cornmeal, salt mixture.  I then fried them in my iron skillet.  They were delicious! 
4. In the skillet:  I sauteed squash and zucchini this week with a little butter and had with our breakfast.  I made grits, sausage and the sauteed veggies for a yummy southern breakfast.  Sauteed vegetables are great additions to supper meals as well. 
5. In casseroles:  We love squash casseroles!  For a 9 X 12 pyrex glass dish, I use 4 or 5 eggs, three large dollops of mayo and about 1 cup of milk.  I pour this over chopped tomatoes, onions and sliced squash in my 9×12 pyrex glass baking dish.  You can add chopped ham, sausage or hamburger or chopped up bacon.  You can also add shredded cheese.  I like to make sure my egg mixture completely coats the squash, so sometimes I whip up another egg with some milk and mayo and add it if the dry ingredients outweigh the wet.   I then bake it at 350 for about 25 minutes.  Check the middle to make sure the egg mixture is done. 

I made two squash casseroles last week and added hamburger to the mix.  Here’s the picture before baking.  I also made two iron skillets full of corn bread to go along with the squash casseroles. 

The Plow Boy Auction is open from May to October each year.  The auctions are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 pm until around 5 to 6 pm.  The Amish bring their wagon loads of produce to be auctioned off.  The food is auctioned off in lots of all different sizes, some very large and some small.  Many CSA’s (community supported agriculture) groups, farmer’s markets and others attend to buy a large amount of produce for pennies on the dollar!  Many other home canners and serious pantry builders also buy large quantities of auction produce and bring it home to freeze and can up! 

Here’s what I came home with from my last produce auction trip and how I used it to build my pantry and freezer stockpile: 

$48 for hundreds of pounds of fresh garden produce!

• 5 bags of fresh sweet corn picked that morning and that were pesticide free and non-gmo for $6 a bag.  That’s 250 lbs of corn! 
• 20 lbs of tomatoes for $3.00!!!  That’s $.15 cents a pound!  Wow!
• Bushel of Italian zucchini squash (42 lbs) $.10 cents a pound!
• Bushel of Round ball zucchini (42lbs) $.10 cents a pound!
• 1/2 bushel of yellow summer squash (20 lbs) $.10 cents a pound!
• Peck of purple hull peas for $3  (10 lbs)
•  6 lbs of potatoes for $1
• 10 pounds of yellow squash for $.25 cents!! (That was basically free squash!  Everyone had enough squash I guess)
• Pint of cayenne peppers for $.15 cents

Here are a series of posts on how I preserved the bulk food I bought from the Amish auction and the market:

I put my 5 year old to work today washing and cutting lots of zucchini, tomatoes and squash.  She did an amazing job!  I had the boys bring in a 5 gallon bucket so we could throw all the scraps into the bucket for them to take out later to the pigs.  It quickly got the scraps off the counter tops and out of our way. 

We peeled the tomatoes.  Normally, I like to freeze the tomatoes whole and then take them out and put them in a large bowl of warm water.  The skin will come right off.  But I just peeled them with a peeler and a knife this time and then my 5 year old cut them up for me.  The fresh garden tomato smell filled the air and they tasted wonderful!

These tomatoes were the $.15 cent a pound tomatoes I bought at the produce auction. 

This time I lightly blanched the cut zucchini and squash and then added the chopped up tomatoes to a big bowl and stirred it up.  I was able to get more food per jar than the last batch that I raw packed. 

I ended up with 7 quart jars and 9 pint jars of zucchini, tomatoes and squash.  I’m planning on using the zucchini, tomatoes and squash mixture for soup and adding to casseroles. 

Here are the peaches, the dark peach jam and the zucchini mixture we canned up today. 

My canning efforts are starting to multiply and it makes me smile.  It’s a lot of work taking garden fresh food and  canning it, but it is well worth the effort especially when you can look on your pantry shelves and see all the goodness God provided and being satisfied with the work you’ve done in preparing ahead of time.  It’s even more exciting getting to use your canned food in your pantry and provide meals for your family. 

I plan on continuing the work to stock my pantry shelves next week.  Stay tuned for lots more food preservation adventures!!!

Our solution is that we make our own jams and jellies for much cheaper and with an incredibly impressive taste. 

Today, we started making peach jam with some of the $.37 cent a pound peaches I bought from one of my favorite Amish markets.  I ordered two boxes of peaches…each 3/4 bushel boxes.  So far, we have eaten a lot of fresh peaches, made peach cobblers, eaten peaches and cream oatmeal, canned halved peaches and today….made peach jam. 

I had hoped to get 2 batches, which would have given me 6 pint jars, however, I didn’t have enough sugar so I only made one batch.  We chopped peaches and I added them to a 6 qt. pot with some lemon juice and a package of pectin.  Once it boiled, I added the dark raw sugar.

If you use raw sugar (like demerara sugar or raw cane sugar) your jelly and jam will turn out dark but this does not make it taste any less. 

I put my jam into pint jars and then I put them in a water bath for 10 minutes. 

Next week, I need to go get a 50 lb bag of sugar and restock my pantry with sugar for things like making jelly and jam.