Hard Boiled Eggs
I know Easter is a couple of weeks away but you need to buy your eggs now if you are going to hard boil them. For years I tried every method known to hard boil my eggs and have them peel easily. Nothing worked. Then I found out the secret.
The kids and I lived in the country for awhile with our own chickens ( that was a hoot, we were all afraid to touch them). Anyway we did manage to pull the eggs out from under the hens and one of the first things I did was hard boil some. What a mess. I could not get the shells off to save me. After several weeks of hard boiled egg disasters I was talking to an older woman and telling her my egg woes when she said “The fresher the egg the harder it is to peel.”
Sure enough she was right. Over the years I have tested this theory by boiling a pan of eggs; half fresh and half older. Each time I do it half of them will peel and the other half won’t not matter what method I uses – starting them in cold water, rinsing them right away in cold water, bring them to a boil and setting off the burner and on and on. Always the old eggs would peel like a breeze and the the new were a mess.
So make your life easier on Easter morning and buy your eggs now.
Jill
Continue reading Hard Boiled Eggs …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Monroe MI grocery fliers March 22
Danny’s Fine Foods and Hi-Lite Supermarket of Monroe, Mich., run their grocery ads in Monday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News.
Hi-Lite has whole frying chickens at 79 cents a pound, bananas at 29 cents a pound, eggs at 99 cents a dozen, Imperial margarine 39 cents a pound, Jif peanut butter $1.49. The 10 for [...]
Continue reading Monroe MI grocery fliers March 22 …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Monroe MI grocery fliers March 22
Danny’s Fine Foods and Hi-Lite Supermarket of Monroe, Mich., run their grocery ads in Monday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News.
Hi-Lite has whole frying chickens at 79 cents a pound, bananas at 29 cents a pound, eggs at 99 cents a dozen, Imperial margarine 39 cents a pound, Jif peanut butter $1.49. The 10 for [...]
Continue reading Monroe MI grocery fliers March 22 …
From Monroe on a Budget.
Make Inexpensive And Healthy Broth – Frugal Challenge
I’ve fallen victim to a rather lazy trap and I guess it’s time to confess – I love having cans of chicken broth in my pantry. Lots and lots of cans of chicken broth.
I discovered this addiction while I was cleaning out my pantry recently. There they were – six big cans of chicken broth. Adding up the money is what got me thinking about this wasteful habit.
Of course, approximately 9 out of 10 recipes call for chicken broth, so why not stock up? The answer is simple. The cost is crazy.
Typically, I would now be offering up my recipe for making your own chicken broth. But wait. Before you go out and buy a bunch of whole chickens to make your own chicken broth, I had another epiphany. Why chicken broth?
The last time I made a chicken casserole that called for chicken broth to be added, it should have struck me then. You already have the chicken in the casserole, why do you need more chicken in the added broth. What would you miss if you used vegetable broth?
Of course, I checked the price of vegetable broth in the grocery store before I took my next step and found that even the vegetable broth was outrageously expensive. The next logical step, of course, was to make my own vegetable broth and use that as the basis for my casseroles, soups, and stews.
That’s what I will share with you today. Here is the process I used to make my very own tasty, frugal, and nutritious vegetable broth.
I scrubbed and washed some carrots.
I didn’t bother to peel them; just took my vegetable scrubber and got them clean.
A coarse chop was next.
I washed and cut up celery, including the tops.
A coarse chop with the celery is just fine as well because everything gets strained out anyway. Nothing in a vegetable broth has to be bite sized because once the vegetables are boiled and simmered for hours, there’s no flavor left in them.
I had some radishes on hand so I scrubbed those, cut them in half, and threw them in.
Why? I like the peppery flavor and I had them on hand. They probably will add a little color to the vegetable broth as well.
I scrubbed up some yellow onions, cut them in half, and threw them in the pot. I am of the Jamie Oliver school of cooking when it comes to this sort of rough cooking. Wash the onions and put them in skin and all. Not only does it add nutritional value but the yellow skins add rich color to the broth. Scrub the roots well, but if you’re squeamish about the roots, just cut them off.
Then a handful of salt and about 10 whole peppercorns, garlic if you like, and cover with fresh, cold water, and voila!
You have the beginning of a beautiful broth!
Let me share my final secret ingredient here for a successful vegetable broth that looks like chicken broth and tastes rich and wonderful. Olive oil.
Yes, drizzle about a tablespoon or so of olive oil in your vegetable broth and you won’t miss the chicken!
Cover and bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook as long as possible to get the most flavor. Adjust your seasonings.
The next time I make my vegetable broth I would cut the amount of carrots in half. Too many carrots make for a sweet broth and I prefer my broth a bit less sweet. I also would stick with yellow onions and not try the sweet onions for the same reason – just not enough onion flavor, which I prefer.
I ladled out a bit of the broth before I poured it into my freezer containers so you could see the results. It did turn out pretty colorful and rich.
For the cost of a couple carrots, a bunch of celery, a half dozen or so yellow onions, some water and spices, I have a nice supply of flavorful broth stored in my freezer. What other broth do I really need?
This is one frugal tip worth trying today!
Continue reading Make Inexpensive And Healthy Broth – Frugal Challenge …
From Hillbilly Housewife Blog.
Angel Food Ministries
This post is part of FAQ Friday. Yes, I know it’s Saturday, but I really enjoy FAQ Friday, so I’m doing it anyway, because it’s my blog and I can do what I want to.
Question:
Why don’t you use Angel Food Ministries?
Answer:
First, to explain, Angel Foods Ministries sells boxes of food for $30 which are supposed to be worth $60, so that sounds like quite a bargain. It is not a handout, as you pay for the groceries, and it is not bound by income restrictions, as WIC, Food Stamps, and often food pantries are. Anyone of any income level can take advantage of it. I have been asked about it several times.
I don’t use Angel Food for a simple reason: it’s not a good deal.
I have some general food shopping rules:
Produce: I don’t buy produce for more than $1.00 per pound. I sometimes stretch this rule to allow for $1.00 to be the average in a meal. This rule allows me to regularly purchase: oranges, apples, pears, bananas, berries, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots along with a larger variety during various seasons when other items go on sale.
Meat: I don’t pay more than $1.50 per pound for meat. Within that I can get chicken quarters, whole turkey, whole chickens, ground beef, brisket beef, beef ribs, ground turkey, pork shoulder, ham and eggs. I break this rule for bacon, like yesterday for Christmas, or tuna, which often goes on sale.
Grains and Spices: I have no rule for grains and spices, but I shop around for prices and buy in bulk if it saves. I count some produce as a spice, like ginger, chili peppers, and garlic.
I looked for the best prices for the Angel Food Ministries boxes. You have to buy a whole box, you can’t just buy individual items. Angel Foods Ministries best price on meat, for example, in their December menu, is 10 pounds of poultry for $20, or $2.00 per pound. You can get whole chickens for $0.88 per pound without looking too hard, so you can get 10 pounds for $8.80.
Their fruit and veggie box, for $22.00 includes 3 pounds sweet potatoes ($0.75), four large russet potatoes ($0.50), 3 pound bag of onions ($1.20), 1 pound carrots ($0.45), 1 head cabbage ($0.80), one stalk celery ($1.30), four lemons ($1.20), six oranges ($2.00), four grapefruit ($3.00), 1 mango ($2.00), one avacado ($0.79), one pound kiwi ($2.00). It’s been a while since I’ve priced kiwis, mangoes or grapefruits, so I guessed high for those. So, for $22.00, you can get $16.00 worth of produce. No one in my family likes grapefruit, so those might even go to waste. I would rather buy produce that I know we like for a reasonable price.
Even worse, the meat and produce boxes are additional boxes. You have to buy their $30 signature box to get the meat and produce box. Their signature box, in December, includes nutritional gems such as: chicken nuggets, fish sticks, french fries, shelf stable milk, white flour tortillas and a “dessert.”
It’s possible that in some areas, like maybe Hawaii, the prices of Angel Food Ministry boxes beat out shopping around. However, I use a price chart, find the best prices for the food my family eats the most of and get lower prices than Angel Food Ministries. I’m not going to say it is not worthwhile. For people who live in an area with a very high cost of living, and for the perpetually lazy who can’t bother to make themselves a price chart*, this is a good deal.
* (A price chart, or price book, is made by listing the foods you most frequently buy and checking local stores to see where you can get the best price on each. I don’t stop at every store every week. I buy a few week’s worth of an item each time I go to the store.)
Continue reading Angel Food Ministries …
From Under $1000 Per Month.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking
Do you ever wish you could take advantage of grocery sales more? How about the last time chicken breast went on sale for example. Unfortunately there’s only so much chicken your family can eat in a week (without complaining). Freezer cooking allows you to take advantage of these sales and enjoy the rewards for weeks to come. Here’s how…
Take a look at grocery sales flyers each week. I like to keep a price book to make sure a sale really is a good deal.
“Price Book – A small notebook you carry in your purse that contains prices of the items you buy most often. It allows you to tell at a glance if something really is a good deal or not”.
If it is, think about how many different meals you could make with that meat that your family enjoys. I usually stick to 4 recipes or less. Let’s look at some examples.
Ground Beef – Spaghetti Sauce, Tacos, Meat Loaf, Beef and Vegetable Soup
Beef Roast – Pot Roast, Sauerbraten, Crockpot Pulled Beef, Beef BBQ Sandwiches
Stew Meat – Beef Stew, Chili, Goulash, Beef and Potato Soup
Whole Chickens – Roasted Chicken, Chicken Salad, Curried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas
By the way, if more than one meat is on sale, I choose the one that’s the best deal for this.
Next, decide how many of these dishes you can store in your freezer at any given time. It may depend on the size of your freezer, how much is already in there and depending on what you’re cooking how many dishes you have (for casseroles for example). You also want to make sure you only make and freeze dishes you think you and your family will eat within the next 3 months.
Then it’s time to shop. Be sure to get enough of the sale item and all ingredients to cook multiple versions of each of the dishes you’ve decided on. Get them all home and then work on a game plan. Are there any steps that you can combine for all or most of the dishes? In our ground beef example, 3 out of the 4 dishes require me to brown the ground beef first. In this case I’d go ahead and make my meatloaves first and store them in the freezer, then I’d brown the rest of the ground beef in two or three large pans and keep working on the dishes from there.
The more organized you are with this, the smoother the cooking process will be. The first time you do this you may want to focus on making just one or two versions of the dish. As you become more comfortable with it, add more dishes for a maximum of four.
Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it.
Continue reading Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking
Do you ever wish you could take advantage of grocery sales more? How about the last time chicken breast went on sale for example. Unfortunately there’s only so much chicken your family can eat in a week (without complaining). Freezer cooking allows you to take advantage of these sales and enjoy the rewards for weeks to come. Here’s how…
Take a look at grocery sales flyers each week. I like to keep a price book to make sure a sale really is a good deal.
“Price Book – A small notebook you carry in your purse that contains prices of the items you buy most often. It allows you to tell at a glance if something really is a good deal or not”.
If it is, think about how many different meals you could make with that meat that your family enjoys. I usually stick to 4 recipes or less. Let’s look at some examples.
Ground Beef – Spaghetti Sauce, Tacos, Meat Loaf, Beef and Vegetable Soup
Beef Roast – Pot Roast, Sauerbraten, Crockpot Pulled Beef, Beef BBQ Sandwiches
Stew Meat – Beef Stew, Chili, Goulash, Beef and Potato Soup
Whole Chickens – Roasted Chicken, Chicken Salad, Curried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas
By the way, if more than one meat is on sale, I choose the one that’s the best deal for this.
Next, decide how many of these dishes you can store in your freezer at any given time. It may depend on the size of your freezer, how much is already in there and depending on what you’re cooking how many dishes you have (for casseroles for example). You also want to make sure you only make and freeze dishes you think you and your family will eat within the next 3 months.
Then it’s time to shop. Be sure to get enough of the sale item and all ingredients to cook multiple versions of each of the dishes you’ve decided on. Get them all home and then work on a game plan. Are there any steps that you can combine for all or most of the dishes? In our ground beef example, 3 out of the 4 dishes require me to brown the ground beef first. In this case I’d go ahead and make my meatloaves first and store them in the freezer, then I’d brown the rest of the ground beef in two or three large pans and keep working on the dishes from there.
The more organized you are with this, the smoother the cooking process will be. The first time you do this you may want to focus on making just one or two versions of the dish. As you become more comfortable with it, add more dishes for a maximum of four.
Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it.
Continue reading Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking
Do you ever wish you could take advantage of grocery sales more? How about the last time chicken breast went on sale for example. Unfortunately there’s only so much chicken your family can eat in a week (without complaining). Freezer cooking allows you to take advantage of these sales and enjoy the rewards for weeks to come. Here’s how…
Take a look at grocery sales flyers each week. I like to keep a price book to make sure a sale really is a good deal.
“Price Book – A small notebook you carry in your purse that contains prices of the items you buy most often. It allows you to tell at a glance if something really is a good deal or not”.
If it is, think about how many different meals you could make with that meat that your family enjoys. I usually stick to 4 recipes or less. Let’s look at some examples.
Ground Beef – Spaghetti Sauce, Tacos, Meat Loaf, Beef and Vegetable Soup
Beef Roast – Pot Roast, Sauerbraten, Crockpot Pulled Beef, Beef BBQ Sandwiches
Stew Meat – Beef Stew, Chili, Goulash, Beef and Potato Soup
Whole Chickens – Roasted Chicken, Chicken Salad, Curried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas
By the way, if more than one meat is on sale, I choose the one that’s the best deal for this.
Next, decide how many of these dishes you can store in your freezer at any given time. It may depend on the size of your freezer, how much is already in there and depending on what you’re cooking how many dishes you have (for casseroles for example). You also want to make sure you only make and freeze dishes you think you and your family will eat within the next 3 months.
Then it’s time to shop. Be sure to get enough of the sale item and all ingredients to cook multiple versions of each of the dishes you’ve decided on. Get them all home and then work on a game plan. Are there any steps that you can combine for all or most of the dishes? In our ground beef example, 3 out of the 4 dishes require me to brown the ground beef first. In this case I’d go ahead and make my meatloaves first and store them in the freezer, then I’d brown the rest of the ground beef in two or three large pans and keep working on the dishes from there.
The more organized you are with this, the smoother the cooking process will be. The first time you do this you may want to focus on making just one or two versions of the dish. As you become more comfortable with it, add more dishes for a maximum of four.
Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it.
Continue reading Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking
Do you ever wish you could take advantage of grocery sales more? How about the last time chicken breast went on sale for example. Unfortunately there’s only so much chicken your family can eat in a week (without complaining). Freezer cooking allows you to take advantage of these sales and enjoy the rewards for weeks to come. Here’s how…
Take a look at grocery sales flyers each week. I like to keep a price book to make sure a sale really is a good deal.
“Price Book – A small notebook you carry in your purse that contains prices of the items you buy most often. It allows you to tell at a glance if something really is a good deal or not”.
If it is, think about how many different meals you could make with that meat that your family enjoys. I usually stick to 4 recipes or less. Let’s look at some examples.
Ground Beef – Spaghetti Sauce, Tacos, Meat Loaf, Beef and Vegetable Soup
Beef Roast – Pot Roast, Sauerbraten, Crockpot Pulled Beef, Beef BBQ Sandwiches
Stew Meat – Beef Stew, Chili, Goulash, Beef and Potato Soup
Whole Chickens – Roasted Chicken, Chicken Salad, Curried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas
By the way, if more than one meat is on sale, I choose the one that’s the best deal for this.
Next, decide how many of these dishes you can store in your freezer at any given time. It may depend on the size of your freezer, how much is already in there and depending on what you’re cooking how many dishes you have (for casseroles for example). You also want to make sure you only make and freeze dishes you think you and your family will eat within the next 3 months.
Then it’s time to shop. Be sure to get enough of the sale item and all ingredients to cook multiple versions of each of the dishes you’ve decided on. Get them all home and then work on a game plan. Are there any steps that you can combine for all or most of the dishes? In our ground beef example, 3 out of the 4 dishes require me to brown the ground beef first. In this case I’d go ahead and make my meatloaves first and store them in the freezer, then I’d brown the rest of the ground beef in two or three large pans and keep working on the dishes from there.
The more organized you are with this, the smoother the cooking process will be. The first time you do this you may want to focus on making just one or two versions of the dish. As you become more comfortable with it, add more dishes for a maximum of four.
Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it.
Continue reading Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking …
From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking
Do you ever wish you could take advantage of grocery sales more? How about the last time chicken breast went on sale for example. Unfortunately there’s only so much chicken your family can eat in a week (without complaining). Freezer cooking allows you to take advantage of these sales and enjoy the rewards for weeks to come. Here’s how…
Take a look at grocery sales flyers each week. I like to keep a price book to make sure a sale really is a good deal.
“Price Book – A small notebook you carry in your purse that contains prices of the items you buy most often. It allows you to tell at a glance if something really is a good deal or not”.
If it is, think about how many different meals you could make with that meat that your family enjoys. I usually stick to 4 recipes or less. Let’s look at some examples.
Ground Beef – Spaghetti Sauce, Tacos, Meat Loaf, Beef and Vegetable Soup
Beef Roast – Pot Roast, Sauerbraten, Crockpot Pulled Beef, Beef BBQ Sandwiches
Stew Meat – Beef Stew, Chili, Goulash, Beef and Potato Soup
Whole Chickens – Roasted Chicken, Chicken Salad, Curried Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas
By the way, if more than one meat is on sale, I choose the one that’s the best deal for this.
Next, decide how many of these dishes you can store in your freezer at any given time. It may depend on the size of your freezer, how much is already in there and depending on what you’re cooking how many dishes you have (for casseroles for example). You also want to make sure you only make and freeze dishes you think you and your family will eat within the next 3 months.
Then it’s time to shop. Be sure to get enough of the sale item and all ingredients to cook multiple versions of each of the dishes you’ve decided on. Get them all home and then work on a game plan. Are there any steps that you can combine for all or most of the dishes? In our ground beef example, 3 out of the 4 dishes require me to brown the ground beef first. In this case I’d go ahead and make my meatloaves first and store them in the freezer, then I’d brown the rest of the ground beef in two or three large pans and keep working on the dishes from there.
The more organized you are with this, the smoother the cooking process will be. The first time you do this you may want to focus on making just one or two versions of the dish. As you become more comfortable with it, add more dishes for a maximum of four.
Susanne Myers – The Hillbilly Housewife
P.S. As a special thank you for reading this blog and Tawra and Jill’s newsletter, we put together a deal on my popular Freezer Cooking ebook and the recipe collections I’ve developed for it. Until midnight on October 19th 2009 you can get my entire freezer cooking system for 75% OFF (yes, you read that right)
Here’s where you can grab your entire freezer cooking system for a fraction of what you’d usually pay for it.
Continue reading Take Advantage Of Grocery Sales Using Freezer Cooking …