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Here's what I wrote over on my other blog Hummingbird Homemaking:

"I started my other blog Grocery Store Plan because I didn't want this blog to become all about grocery store "stuff". Now I'm finding that my life doesn't revolve around loss leaders since we started shopping differently. Beef and pork are in the freezer from local farmers. I get my Azure Standard order monthly. I will be getting eggs locally as well. It's a different kind of shopping and doesn't require it's own blog."

I won't be posting over here any longer.

Shopping for Company

Just wanted to tell you that I bought $50 worth of food today. This food doesn't come out of my grocery budget. I keep our budget as low as I can during "normal" weeks.

When we have company, it was way too stressful for me to try and fit those needs/wants into my grocery budget. Now we use entertainment money, vacation money or other random money. It takes a load of stress off of me! You have to do what works for you!

September Once a Month Cooking

I haven't done any OAMC (once a month cooking) since June where I did very little cooking...but a little bit is better than nothing!

I have family coming here over the Labor Day weekend so I'd like to get my plan started now. I was planning a trip to get more pork today and some things I needed, but unfortunately I needed a new fuel pump in my Tahoe. You have no idea how grateful I am that I wasn't on the road by myself or with my kids when it went out. We weren't pulling the camper through the hills...we weren't on our trip to Montana....so yeah, it's $712 that we didn't plan on, but I'm grateful. How can that be? Probably because we have money in the bank. We own vehicles - two of them...both have over 100,000 miles on them. How can it be a surprise that they need to have work done on them. I must admit that it was a surprise only because that's our "new" vehicle. Our other vehicle needs some major work too. But I tell you...money in the bank has a way of changing your stinkin' thinkin'!

Wow - that was off topic, anyway....

I made something yesterday that was a huge hit for breakfast today. I made taco omelet muffins:

1. Scramble 3 eggs...add 2 T. water (if your kid isn't allergic to milk that would be good too - cream even better!)
2. Fry hamburger and add taco seasoning
3. Mix the two together
4. Add whatever else sounds good, cheese, onions, tomatoes, etc.
5. Spray oil in a muffin tin
6. Add mixture until muffin tin is about 2/3 full
7. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes
8. Serve with salsa

They don't look pretty, but they were a huge hit! This made 6 muffins. I think it'd be easier to put this in a 9X13 pan, cut into squares and freeze the squares so you can pull out as many as you need.

Not sure what else I need to whip up and freeze, but it makes your life so much easier. I'll have to look back at what I've done previously and see what fits in with my new cooking plans. If nothing else, having cooked meats on hand will simplify my life! Actually chili and soups that I can send in a thermos would be good as well.

I don't do a true OAMC cooking session where I don't have to cook dinner for the entire month - that's way over my head and too complicated for me. What I have found though is that one day of dedicated cooking a month makes my life so much easier. It's an extremely tiring day, but when I'm playing mom taxi or watching a cross country meet and a volleyball match in the afternoon, I can enjoy those instead of thinking about what I'll serve for dinner.

Are We Eating?

I tried making up a menu plan.

Then I looked in my wallet - why does my money keep disappearing from my envelope? When I become lazy in food preparation, unfortunately I always pay for it later...now that the kids are back in school I'll have more time to record my spending!

For now, I'm cleaning out the fridge/freezer and taking it one day at a time. I was going to run into a store today to grab just a few things, but I'm going to see how long I can make it.

Breakfast was toast and ham
Lunch was chicken salad on a tortilla (note: when one is allergic to wheat don't eat the tortilla!)
Dinner will be pork steaks, zucchini and garden tomatoes - not my garden :-(

Breakfast tomorrow will be a scrambled egg "muffin" with taco meat. I'll have to put a lot of cheese on top because they look disgusting.
Lunch - chicken salad or ham sandwich
Dinner - ???? I should make soup since it's supposed to be 72 degrees. I'll have to dig in the freezer and see what I can find.

Pantry Challenge

I've been spending WAY WAY WAY too much money on food so I'm doing a pantry challenge. Remember my pantry is any "stored food" that I have. Could be in the freezer, fridge or cupboards. We have plenty of fresh and frozen veggies to eat. Some dried fruit and frozen fruit as well.

Monday I made steaks...well technically my husband grilled them
Tuesday we had leftover steaks
Wednesday we had shredded beef taco salads and healthy ice cream
Tonight we are having beer butt chicken on the BBQ and sauteed green beans

The rest of the week will be interesting....we have 4 dozen eggs, canned tomatoes, garlic, onions, frozen cauliflower, broccoli, peas, green beans,  blueberries, strawberries, bananas as well as an assortment of meat.

Azure Standard Order

Let me just tell you that Julie's brand of ice cream is AMAZING! It's quite pricey, organic and I can read every word on the label. I will not order this every time, well maybe I will. Yummy! The hemp milk....EWWWWWW. Almond milk - ummmm not so good, but maybe we can figure out something to do with it. We're learning that my son doesn't do well eating a lot of dairy so we're trying to figure out what amounts he can tolerate.

Anyway, here's what I got:

• 10 pounds organic carrots (remember when I said I'd never buy organic - never say never). Last time we ate 5 pounds within 10 days!
• 10 pounds of frozen blueberries. Eaten plain and used in our healthy ice cream. Shared with a friend
• 3 pounds organic onions $3.40
• 1 coconut...this should be an interesting experiment!
• Dehydrated pears...these are delicious! You can only eat one though because they are so sweet. What a wonderful treat! I don't care for the pineapple, way too sweet!
• Almond meal flour to try out some baked goodies.
• The Rumiano sweet cream butter is so good you can eat it plain. Oh yeah, sometimes I do.
• some mustard, cashews, and spices
• Total with shipping $109.00
• I budget $50 per month for my Azure Standard order. I had to "find" $59 from my cash envies: $20 came from entertainment/kid stuff for the ice cream and the hemp/almond milk. $20 came from my change. $10 I pulled from my "weekly grocery shopping envelopes" and $9 I pulled from my misc. envelope.

I NEVER thought they'd deliver to my neck of the woods so call them today to find out if they deliver in your area!

This is not a paid advertisement for Azure Standard, I just like what I buy from them!

This post is linked to:
Money Saving Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge

Horse Trailer Grocery Shopping

Bought from a horse trailer - there weren't any horses in there in case you are worried. South Dakota grown food:

6 chickens
2 smoked chickens
8 dozen eggs
1 quart of honey
Cost: $73.40

Supporting your local community instead of a big chain grocery store: Priceless


This post is linked to:
Money Saving Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge

Grocery Shopping 7/21/10

• Farmer's Market
• $7.00 for tomatoes and 1 zucchini
• Gas Station
• $10 Homemade Sausage (small gas station/small butcher drops off some sausage! Best sausage around)
• Walmart
• 2 apples $1.44
• 2 plums $.38
• bunch of bananas $.75
• 1 avocado $.78
• 1 honey dew melon $2.50
• 8 oz sugar snap peas $2.58
• 1 cucumber $.62
• 2 limes $.66
• leaf lettuce $1.88
• organic spinach $2.98
• broccoli crown $.37
• $14.94 with tax

Total spent today: $32.00

Tonight we're having a big ole salad with steak on top. I'm trying out this recipe from premeditated leftovers - with a few changes.

Good thing I'm not doing the All You challenge because I'm stocking my freezer with locally grown food! Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a big order... eggs, chicken, honey....I can't wait!

I will have to pick up a 1/2 gallon of milk and possibly a few other things. We have company spending the night so I will grab a bit of money from the entertainment envelope!

My daughter is hiding in the background - too funny. We realized today that they'll be going back to school before we know it (Aug 21). My son (6th grade) is okay with it, my daughter - not so much (8th grade). I'm not ready either! I love having them home even though it means more conflict. I enjoy each day that I have with them!

Grocery Shopping Last Week

I know the kids and I went to the store last week. I know for a fact we bought food.

My awesome kids put away all of the groceries for me (without a picture) because when we got home my vacationing caught up with me and I wasn't feeling great for a few hours. We have been eating, I haven't been updating!

I am placing my Azure Standard coop order today and will pick that order up on Monday.  My order is getting bigger and bigger from them.

This week I get to pick up some locally grown food on Thursday. I can't wait to post it and eat it!

I have a friend and her family spending the night with us on Thursday...you know the friend that you have had since you were 7 years old. Wow - friends for 33 years. Holy cow now that's a lot of years! I can't wait to catch up with her!

Menu Plan and Program

I get tired of menu planning. I get tired of cooking and trying to figure out what to make. I get tired of making the same thing over and over again. I get tired of trying something new and the food not tasting great. Sometimes I just get tired.

Then, I will find something new try and it'll make my life a bit easier for a bit. Here's my latest menu planning find.

Menu Planner 

I took the time to input our favorite dinners, side dishes and breakfasts. Then I printed out all of these options and put them in my menu planning binder. I also printed out blank planners so I can hand write ideas down. The biggest problem that I see is that I can't easily put my menu on my blog with links to recipes.

For now, I'm over my "I'm tired" phase. Here's a very basic menu planner that I created a while back. Regardless of what planner you use, it's beneficial to plan out a few meals. Check your fridge, freezers and cupboards to see what you have on hand.

Dinners will be very boring this week. I'm trying to use up what we have before we go on vacation.

1. Pork Chops marinated in 1/2 lemon juice, 2 T olive oil and 1 t. oregano. I'm still trying to come up with a good and cheap "pantry" marinade!
2. Breakfast for Dinner. YUMMY!
3. Quiche w/ whatever I can find in the house. I add more eggs to this recipe! I need to post my version
4. Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce (Pork instead)
5. We're on vacation for a couple of days.

We have frozen peas, green beans, broccoli and cauliflower. I need to buy some farm fresh eggs though. I might hit the farmer's market at some point to see if they have anything. Last week they had greenhouse tomatoes and 1 cucumber. If it ever warms up outside maybe my own garden will grow! We have had some lettuce from it and that's it.

This morning I need to make some peanut butter oatmeal so we can eat that for a few breakfasts and then we'll eat whatever we can find the other mornings.

Check out Orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas!

The ALL YOU Grocery Challenge

So I've been keeping track of my grocery purchases in hopes of winning the All You Grocery Challenge. I'm glad I signed up and I'm glad that I am failing. Here is why I believe that the challenge is a failure. You get $25 per person per week.

• You get $25 for a one year old and $25 for a 17 year old boy?
• You get $25 for a one year old and $25 for a marathon runner?
• Area you live in (some places are much cheaper, some places much more - Hawaii anyone?)
• You can't save money from one week and spend it the next week. In other words, you can't use the pantry principle.
• It doesn't take dietary restrictions into account.
• It could be encouraging cheap processed yucky for you food

Here is why I believe the challenge is a success for me.

• I am recording my purchases again with a lot of detail.  I am questioning every purchase that I make. I'm asking myself if my purchase fits in with my priorities. Is my spending in alignment with my goals and values.

I see what they are trying to do and I have no idea how it would be fair. Here is a picture of my freezer because I've been buying in bulk:

It looks like I'm not spending very much money. I've spent $133 so far this month for my family of 4. I make bulk purchases at Sam's Club, Azure Standard, a local rancher for a side of beef and a local butcher shop for a 1/2 pig. 

My grocery budget happens to be $400 for my family of 4, but I don't spend $100 maximum a week. Here's my budget break down:

• $100 for bulk meat purchases
• $50 Sam's Club
• $50 Azure Standard
• $45 weekly (carry over any amount that I don't use)

Again, I'm glad I participated, but it doesn't look like I'll win the challenge. This month I will continue to record everything in detail so I know where my money is going. Maybe I did win after all?

Grocery Shopping

Here's the link for grocery items that I purchased on Thursday. You can see what we bought at the end of this post, but the formatting doesn't copy over!

I've tried every way of grocery shopping...often, weekly, semi monthly, monthly. Weekly trips to the local grocery stores, monthly order to Azure and monthly trip to Sam's Club seems to work best for my family.

I realized that while I love to have a set schedule, it is best to be F-L-E-X-I-B-L-E. Seriously? Flexible? Okay, I can't figure out how to spell that word so help me out! If I can't spell it, how in the world am I going to do it? I don't want to be flexible! Whew - deep breath in, deep breath out. Okay...

I can choose to shop whatever day works for my schedule that week and do all of my shopping in one day. This week Thursday was the best day. Next week I'm going to try not to shop if at all possible because we're leaving on Friday to go on vacation. Or is it to go on holiday? My friend from Canada always said holiday instead of vacation. She's so cute. That had absolutely NOTHING to do with my grocery purchase...just thought I'd share.

You'll see many many stops on my trip. It was SO.NOT.FUN. I do not recommend it. There's another stop that I made that's not on there. It's a store called the Farmer's Market that had just opened for the season. They aren't quite ready yet. Maybe next time I go there I'll be able to eliminate some of my other stops.

This post is linked to:
Money Saving Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge
29-Jun Breadroot Food Co-Op


Sucanat $0.24

1 vanilla bean $1.50

Tax $0.10



29-Jun Sam's Club

6 Peppers $6.98

Tomatoes $5.98

Frozen Green Beans $5.48

Frozen Green Peas $4.88

Frozen Broccoli $4.98

Peanuts $5.76

Fish Oil Pills $12.87

Tax $2.82





1-Jul Walmart

Bananas $0.70

Avocado $0.78

Hot Dog Buns for Brats $1.00

Miracle Whip $1.97

Mayo $1.97

Whipping Cream $2.13

1% gallon milk $2.48



1-Jul Butcher Shop

1 dozen eggs - YIKES! $3.90

** my egg source for $2.00 won't have eggs for two months UGGGG!



1-Jul Lueders

**I realized (again) today just how much I love love love shopping here!!!

** They sell SD items too!



4 corn on the cob - yes, it's a grain $1.60

watermelon - YUMMY for the 4th $3.84

Bing Cherries from Washington $3.26

Asparagus $1.20

** enough for myself and DH - kids don't care for it

1 onion $0.92

Raisin Bran $2.99

Parmesean Cheese $1.89

**for my daughter who wants to make alfredo tonight

** this has gone up in price a LOT! Rock bottom price used to be $1.00 now it's $1.50



BBQ Sauce $0.99

** sometimes I'm lazy :-)

Smart Chicken breasts $5.44

** Still undecided about this. Better than regular chicken breasts, but not as good as pastured chickens

** Question: Can I afford to buy pastured chickens? Can I afford the time to prepare all of the time?

Tax $1.33





1-Jul Valley Corner Gas Station

1 package brat $4.74

** My friend sells/creates labels for a local SD person who sells brats & sausages at this little gas station





Total for week of June 28, 2010



$94.72

Azure Standard

My Azure Standard order came yesterday. I cannot believe how much I enjoy getting my order. It's almost like opening Christmas presents! Oh the things I get excited about nowadays! Check out my spread sheet in google docs to see what I bought.

Check out Grocery Cart Challenge for more money saving inspiration!

Grocery Shopping

My Trip to WalMart and Leuders:

You can read what I spent $40 on when you click over to my google spreadsheet. We had a huge salad last night using the leftover steak we had from Father's Day. I am LOVING the 1/4 of a beef in my freezer!

In order to get more vegetables and fruits into our diet, I am trying to get everything washed  right when I get home from the store. I pour a blob of vinegar in a bowl, fill it with water and then add the veggie/fruit. After they have soaked for a bit, I scrub them and then rinse a few times. Here's the mess I made yesterday...which sat out all day long until we got home at 8:00 last night from the baseball game. Making the salad was easy though!

Frugal Tip: Don't buy veggies already cut up for you...save yourself the money and do it yourself. 

Find more frugal tips over at Life as Mom!

Check out Money Saving Mom for grocery deals.

Grocery Shopping

Look at those imperfect eggs! I love knowing they came from a chicken that eats what they should be eating, raised the way they should be raised. I love knowing who I am supporting. For a low low price of $2.00 per dozen. The only problem is, they are "molting" right now...I have no idea if that is how you spell it, but it's eye opening for me. They aren't laying as many eggs right now. So why is it that I never have any problems buying eggs at the store whenever I want? Don't their chickens ever molt?

17-Jun Lueders - Small Hometown Store

• Plain Yogurt for starting my own yogurt $0.34
• Butter $2.49
• Avocado $1.50
• 1 Roma Tomato $0.36  ** bought to see how much they each cost/how good they are

Other thing on receipt:
Frozen- Ice cream sandwiches - kids pay $.35 every time they eat one $3.49 total

You can see this in my google doc. I am realizing that I much prefer to shop once a week and only once a week. I used to shop on the same day every week and it worked out well. Something I need to think about....

Grocery Shopping 6/16/10

If my google spreadsheet doesn't work please let me know...I copied it over here, but lost the format.

What in the world are we eating? Well, it's easy when you have a 1/2 of a pig and a 1/4 of a cow in the freezer as well as many other goodies in the "pantry" (including fridge, freezer and cupboards)!

1. Monday I can't remember, but I did make homemade sausage with ground pork. Oh MY was it good! I know we nibbled on that and something else - Oh yeah, leftovers! We had leftover soup and hamburgers.
2. Tues - I put a frozen pork roast in the crock pot on high about noon, turned it down to low then we ate it after the baseball game. I also put frozen peas in a pan so all we had to do was heat them up when we got home.
3. Wed - I put the chicken legs in the crock pot and made a salad. We had pineapple as well.
4. Thursday - I'm going to brown hamburger, add taco seasonings, sauteed leeks, kale and garlic and then throw some scrambled eggs in it for a Mexican omelet thingie. Wonder how that is going to go over? Maybe I'll actually attempt an omelet. Hmmm....I'm making homemade salsa as well.
5. I bought a whole chicken from the Butcher Shop earlier and I will ATTEMPT to cut it up and make buffalo chicken. Say a prayer for me...that I keep all of my fingers. We will have celery and carrots to go with it.
6. We're going camping on Saturday and we'll be having traveling tacos. I swear health goes out the window when we camp. I love that we don't have dishes to do though because we put the taco stuff in the Doritos bag.
7. Steaks for Father's Day. Probably with green beans sauteed in bacon grease. YUMMY! Kids are making scotcharoos at their Dad's request.

We have stuff for smoothies (frozen bananas, homemade yogurt and blueberries), cereal, eggs, bacon, homemade granola, cheese, milk, and apples on hand for breakfast and lunch.

For more inspiration check out Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom




Here's my spreadsheet copied over:
Priorities in order:


1 - Stay within $400 budget

2 - Buy Meat/Protein Locally

3 - Buy a LOT of veggies (if budget allows, Locally)

4 - Fats - buy good fats that will help with hypoglycemic issues

5 - Read Labels - buy items without a bunch of junk (sour cream, whipping cream)



Meat/Protein Vegetables Dairy/Fats Fruits Cereal Bread



6/16/2010 Walmart

4 lbs Chicken Drumsticks ($1.32/lb) $5.28

Spur of the moment - said it didn't have hormones

** want to buy local chickens $1.65 at Butcher Shop



1 lb Frozen Cauliflower $1.38

14 oz Broccoli Florets $0.98

1 pkg Celery $1.32

** not much nutrition, but we like it with Buffalo Chicken

Leeks $2.24

*** too much waste - buy onions/garlic next time

1 lb Baby Carrots $1.48

1 tomato on the vine $0.96

** DUMB! Almost $1.00 for a yucky tomato

1 pkg Green leaf Lettuce $1.88

Fresh Broccoli (small bit of it) $0.36

Zucchini (1 small) $0.89

** Not a great idea. Soon I'll be getting these free or very cheap!



Bananas $1.52

** these will be used for smoothies as well

1 Pineapple $2.88

** Another dumb purchase. Spur of the moment/not on the list

** I was planning on buying cherries with that money!



Raisins $1.58

** To mix with peanuts for trail mix



Whipping Cream $2.13

** Only place I can find cream that is not Ultra Pasteurized with a bunch of extra junk in it

Hot Dog buns

Cereal $4.32

** we don't eat cereal often, but my husband loves it

Other things on receipt:

face cream bought with "house money"

J bought nail file

Tracking Expenses

One of the questions I am often asked is "how do you keep your grocery bill so low?"

The biggest way to save money is to buy items for their nutrients, not because you want it. I think I could eat fruit all day long, but there would be big consequences for that!

We've made some big changes during the last six weeks. We've bumped up our food budget to $400, I started serving more meat and veggies, bought a 1/4 of a beef and a 1/2 of a pig, cut out almost all grains, and I'm trying to buy local items as often as possible. With a $400 food budget, I need to be very careful in how I spend our money.

Previously, I mentioned that I was able to cut our food bill down to $260 per month because I tracked all of our spending by category (protein, veggies, dairy, fruit, bread, junk, etc.). I decided that I needed to do this again.

I tracked all of the groceries that I purchased from the 1st-15th.

• I found that I spent $17.00 on almonds. ALMONDS, PEOPLE. With everything that I'm trying to do that was a  DUMB purchase! Plus, I don't have any control when it comes to almonds so I don't really want too many of them around.
• I spent $5.00 on tinned fish... healthy, but we have cheaper alternatives!
• I picked up a package of hot dogs - spur of the moment (Yuck - why hot dogs?)
• Asparagus spent $2.50 per pound while green beans are only $1.00 per pound (while this is a nice change, it shouldn't be something I get into the habit of picking up every week)
• Spent $2.58 on canned chicken broth. When I make my own, I get twice as much broth for about $1.00.
• Local raw honey - love this honey, it's amazing! I know now that I can get it at our "market in the park" for a couple dollars cheaper. I didn't know this until Saturday though.

Now, am I beating myself up? Yeah, just a tiny bit. Enough to make some changes. It doesn't do any good if I record all of my spending if I don't make changes.

Frugal Tip: Taking the time to record and review your purchases will definitely open your eyes!

Check out WFMW at We are THAT Family for more tips!

Grocery Shopping

Spent $10.84 at Walmart and $2.00 for farm fresh eggs (not pictured). Fairly unexciting, but you can see my partial menu plan from yesterday to see what's cooking!

• Cereal (that my kids don't like) $2.00
• 2 bananas $.33
• Kipper Snacks $2.52 (don't judge a book by it's cover - these are delicious and I don't usually like canned meat!)
• Sardines in olive oil $2.44 (same thing!)
• 1 avocado $.78
• 1/2 and 1/2 $1.18
• 1 bag of broccoli for Broccoli Beeef recipe

Riding our bikes to the store together - scary and priceless. I swear it's uphill both ways!!!

This post is linked to Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Plan Monday Focusing on Meat and Veggies

I’m menu planning a few days at a time. I plan to go to two different stores during the week (on our bikes) so this helps me from overspending since I’m buying only things I need.

Items I need are things that we need for dinner or that are on sale that I need to put in my pantry (fridge, freezer, cupboards.) For example canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, fresh veggies, cheese, milk, cream, etc.
This week I still have a lot of apples in my fridge and bananas in the freezer for smoothies. We still have a lot of frozen blueberries as well. Veggies on hand: Green beans, peas, carrots and lettuce.

Monday: Curry meatballs and salad (I opened a can of coconut milk yesterday and I have curry seasoning on hand. I'm hoping I can figure something out. I have a great recipe for this, but can't find red curry paste in our town so I can make the recipe.)

Tuesday: Taco Bake with “Rice” Taco bake = fried hamburger with taco seasonings, can of tomatoes, spinach (from the freezer), onion, garlic and cheese. The “rice” is a bag cauliflower that I put in my food processor so it looks like rice. More nutritious than rice! Salsa poured over it all. I’ll serve carrots and guacomole on the side

Wednesday: Broccoli Beef in the Crock Pot served with green beans on the side. New recipe to try!

Check out orgjunkie.com for more ideas!

OAMC Tip

The trick to OAMC/Batch Cooking - Wash the dishes and re-use the dishes. Wash the dishes then put away the dishes you know you won't need again (ie. food processor). Wash the dishes....re-use the dishes. You must keep your sink clean or you'll end up overwhelmed with a dirty kitchen!

OAMC - June details

Chopping all of the veggies helps with clean up time!   

Yogurt is cooking!

 BBQ Sauce and bacon are cooking!

Here is what I said I wanted to do (click on the link for more details and recipes):

2 quiche (with 6 eggs) with bacon, spinach, onions, tomatoes and cheese. Bake 1 today and freeze one raw.

•2 breakfasts of sausage - 1 pound of burger gives us 10 sausage patties. Fry all of them and re-heat.

•2 dinners of meatballs (30 meatballs that have ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, garlic and onions with a bit of LA hot sauce) Bake all of the meatballs, make BBQ sauce (recipe coming soon) for one meal and freeze the remaining meatballs for another night

•Yogurt


•Salsa (recipe coming soon)


•Simple Caribbean Jerk Chicken (this was a bit too sweet for us so I'll decrease the amount of brown sugar - probably 1T instead of 2T) Note: 1T brown sugar was perfect!

Now that I'm finished, I'm so grateful that I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen. Yesterday, I was able to feed my family even though I didn't cook at all. I spent the morning planting my garden and the afternoon pricing my garage sale items.

Find other OAMC success stories at Life as Mom.

OAMC - June Plan

That is pretty much how my menu looks right now!

I have a bunch of excuses about why I don't want to do a OAMC session for June. Why is that when March,  April and May were so successful?

Excuses:

1. I stopped eating most grains so that totally changes the focus of our eating. I'm focusing more on meat and veggies. I haven't been following recipes as much as just winging it. Throwing a frozen roast in a crock pot or throwing frozen chicken breasts on the grill. This kind of cooking is okay, but I think it will get old after a while!
2. I don't want to do it. I want to be outside where it's beautiful. YES, DEAR! That's the whole point of OAMC or batch cooking. So you don't have to be indoors every single night cooking and cleaning up!
3. I don't have time. YES, DEAR! That's the whole point...(see #2)
4. I really don't have time today to do a full blown Once a Month Cooking session or even a huge batch cooking session. Tonight is a baseball game, I have an appointment tomorrow morning, my house is a disaster from our weekend of camping, I have a garden to plant - but wait, I have to put some stucco stuff on the side of my house before I can plant my garden, Mt. Washmore to get through (FLYLADY speaking...) as well as a garage sale on Friday that I'm not prepared for yet. Yet, my family comes first and these people like to eat! My kids and I will be doing a mini session today and tomorrow. They don't know this yet, but they do love to help out in the kitchen.

Here's the OAMC plan/ Batch Cooking plan:

• 2 quiche (with 6 eggs) with bacon, spinach, onions, tomatoes and cheese. Bake 1 today and freeze one raw.
• 2 breakfasts of sausage - 1 pound of burger gives us 10 sausage patties. Fry all of them and re-heat.
• 2 dinners of meatballs (30 meatballs that have ground beef, egg, salt, pepper, garlic and onions with a bit of LA hot sauce) Bake all of the meatballs, make BBQ sauce (recipe coming soon) for one meal and freeze the remaining meatballs for another night
• Yogurt
• Salsa (recipe coming soon)
• Simple Caribbean Jerk Chicken (this was a bit too sweet for us so I'll decrease the amount of brown sugar - probably 1T instead of 2T)

The kids are still in bed so I need to get them up pretty soon so we can get going on this. They're going to love me because they get bacon! Yummy!

1. Start Yogurt
2. Fry Bacon
3. Chop 3 onions and a bunch of garlic in the food processor
4. Crack 12 eggs for Quiche
5. Crack 4 eggs for Burger
6. Cut tomatoes and spinach for quiche
7. Grate cheese for quiche
8. Make BBQ sauce
9. Make Salsa
10. Make Simple Caribbean Jerk Chicken seasoning and pour over bag of frozen chicken breasts (BBQ them tomorrow)

The result will be 3 dinners, several lunches, 4 breakfasts plus snacks. I think this will probably take about an hour now that I have everything written down. In two weeks I could easily repeat this so we have more for our freezer. I'll keep you posted!

Feed your Freezer!!! It's the best way to save time in the kitchen and money so you don't go out to eat!

This post is linked to Life as Mom. Find more wonderful ideas over there.

The $400 Grocery Store Plan

$400 budget for food, $50 for supplies, and $50 misc. money.

Keeping CASH in separate envelopes definitely helps so I can see how much money I have left for the next few weeks.

• $100 goes to my "meat savings account" held at our local Credit Union. I *think* my meat is costing about $100 per month. I truly have NO idea, I'm just guessing! This will go towards beef and pork. We haven't gotten our pork yet, I'm hoping to pick that up next week.
• $100 Azure Standard and Sam's Club (includes frozen blueberries, real farm fresh butter, apples, fish oil pills, frozen veggies, almonds, canned tomatoes and peanuts)
• $100 1st-15th
• $100 16th- 30th

Is this new budget going to work? I have absolutely no idea. I'm going to make it work though! Is it going to be easy? Probably not.

As long as the majority of the food we're eating is from a local source and we're eating mostly protein, vegetables and fruits (instead of grains), then I'll be a happy camper.

I'm still wasting/throwing out food and that drives me crazy!

I will keep updating this post as I figure out how we need to spend our grocery cash. Start making a plan...it will save you money!

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom.

Grocery Shopping at Sam's Club

• 3 lbs bacon $7.78
• 3 lbs almonds ($4.00/lb) $11.96
• 150 count fish oil pills $12.87
• 8 cans tomatoes $5.98
• Peanuts $5.76
• $47.00 total with tax

   $300.00 food budget ($100 went to my "meat savings" account)
-     47.00 at Sam's club
-       5.09 Almonds($3.70/lb) at Local Food Co-op
----------
   $247.91 remaining for June

This very unexciting post is linked to Grocery Cart Challenge. Check out previous posts to find out how the pantry principle can save you money!

Grocery Shopping

My second Azure Standard order (total spent $63.28):

10 pounds of frozen blueberries $13
20 pounds of organic apples $20
Yummy chocolate bar $2.40
1 quarter organic raw apple cider vinegar $2.65 (now if only I can remember why I bought this!)
Paprika $3.90 (that was a silly purchase! we don't go through that much paprika!)
2 1/2 pounds raw almonds $12

Sweet Cream Butter $2.95

By far the best purchase was the butter. It is sooooo sooooo soooo much better than the store brand that I've been buying. I don't usually like butter on veggies, but this stuff I can eat plain! They didn't have the organic shredded coconut or the peanuts. I'm bummed about the coconut! Hopefully next time they'll have some. I'll have to reserve more money to spend at Azure - I really like everything that I've bought so far!



Here's what I bought at Lueders/Safeway:


Total spent: $24.00

I have a little bit of cash left, but I don't really know how much I've spent for the month. Probably $350??? Next month I'll keep track of things a little bit better.




Check out Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom to see how everyone else did!

Grocery Shopping 5/17/10

Shhhhhh...I hid the ice cream from my family! I'll pull it out in a few weeks. My family LOVES ice cream and I rarely buy it because I don't really care if I have it or not. Recently, I read over at Heavenly Homemakers about the nasty stuff in "cheap" ice cream, so I decided if I was going to get ice cream, it was going to be the real stuff!

I can't read my receipt from Safeway. They also charged me $8.?? for cauliflower which I did not buy, but didn't charge me for cantaloupe. I caught that before I left the store, but just now I'm trying to write down how much I spent for ice cream and all I see is $3.?? I know the sign said $2.29 when I was there, so once again I was overcharged. I have this problem often at Safeway!

Frugal tip:

CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS PEOPLE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE STORE.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday:
B - Quiche from OAMC and blueberries
L - Leftover Fried Rice from OAMC and apples (buy milk at school)
D - Some kind of Mexican something with leftover roast beef, cream cheese, cumin, chili powder, cheese and salsa over it. I'm making it up as I go! I'm going to BBQ the chicken for tomorrow night's salad. I'm busy on Tuesday and it's supposed to be rainy. Served with: carrots, guacamole and fresh fruit salad

Tuesday:
B - sausage and leftover quiche or yogurt with blueberries and granola
L - I'm taking my daughter out for lunch and my son will have chili from OAMC
D - BBQ'd chicken over salad. I think I'll make homemade croutons by melting butter and sprinkling salt, garlic powder and Italian seasonings over cubed bread. I bake them at 350 until golden brown.

Wednesday:
B - PB Baked Oatmeal with some kind of fruit
L - Lettuce Wraps (try homemade hoisin) and Hmmm??? veggie????
D - Spaghetti Pie from OAMC served with salad and sweet potato

Thursday:
B- leftovers (or French Toast that's in the freezer)

I'm only planning through Thursday morning and then I'll go to the store if needed....I'm only buying what I need to get through a few days. I'm throwing away way too much food!

Find other menu plans at Orgjunkie.com.

Grocery Shopping

Total spent $15.00. I absolutely love avocados. I wouldn't buy them for the longest time because nobody else would eat them. Ummmm helllooooo....I'm SOMEBODY! They are so good for you! Don't let people say that they are too high in fat to eat. They are high in fat, but it's a good fat. No, you can't sit and eat 3 at one time, well I could, but then I would be eating too many calories. Moderation is the key!

This post is linked to Money Saving Mom and Grocery Cart Challenge!

Grocery Shopping on May 10, 2010

Quick trip this morning, here's what I purchased:

1. 4 jalapenos $.41
2. 8 cans diced tomatoes $.79 each
3. 1 can of salmon $2.99 (wonder if we'll like this?)
4. 1 gallon whole milk for yogurt $2.49
5. bananas $1.32
6. 1 avocado $1.25
7. 2 lbs organic carrots $1.79
8. Yuban coffee $5.99

Total at both stores: $ 23.89

I've spent $99.43 so far this month. Well, and of course the big bunch of meat for my freezer!

This post is linked to Grocery Cart Challenge.

Buying a 1/4 of a Beef

After watching Food, Inc., I became very interested in where our meat comes from and how it is processed. Prior to watching this movie ALL I cared about was getting the cheapest beef. In fact, I did a taste test and found that the $1.50/lb hamburger tasted the same as the $3.50 burger I bought at a butcher shop. In fact, I may have liked the $1.50/lb better.

However, recently a local rancher sold me a few pounds of burger and that was AMAZING!

My reasons for wanting to buy a part of a beef:

• I want to have my burger come from one cow.
• Ease of menu planning.
• Support the local economy.

I only buy steaks once a year, so I can't say that the price averages out for our family because we wouldn't have bought the extra steaks anyway.  My husband wants to know if the reasons I listed,  justify paying an extra $1.00/lb.

Hmmmmmm.....good question. I think I'll know the answer in a few more months!

I spent $383 and got the following:

• 38 pounds of beef
• 8 packs cube steaks
• 6 packs sirloins
• 4 packs t-bones
• 3 packs rib steak
• 3 packs stew meat
• 1 tenderloin
• 1 rib steak
• 6 - 3lb roasts
• 4 packs ribs

I haven't bought a side of a beef for years so I am not sure how long this meat will last. I am going to try to have a simplified summer menu including meals of chicken, beans, veggies and beef so we don't use up all of the beef in a few months!

This post is linked to:
Money Saving Mom
Grocery Cart Challenge

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - The End

Apparently when I get tired I forget to take pictures!

Here is what I ended up with from my OAMC - Dedicated Cooking Day - Freezer cooking day:


Tonight's Dinner:  Turkey Soup w/ homemade noodles

I ended up making a "creation for supper on May 1st". Note to self - make sure you look through the fridge before you make food or you might not put everything in the chili that you wanted to, thus leaving a lot of leftovers. Make sure you read the recipe so you don't make twice as many noodles as you needed. Thus THE CREATION! If it's good I'll tell you about it. If it's not good, then my husband made it :-)

You can see a few of the recipes from an earlier post:

• Eggs w/ Salty Sausage (hoping the eggs will absorb some of the salt!) 
• Nachos (have chips, cheese, meat in the freezer) ** make salsa
• Pork shoulder Roast (BBQ sauce in the freezer - will dump in a crock pot)
• Keilbalsa (Mary's jambalaya) ** burger, tom sauce, chix, 4 c chx broth -all ingredients in freezer ready to assemble
• Chef salad (use jerk marinade + 2 chx breasts & ham) boiled eggs, peas, cheese, broccoli, bell pepper, onion, carrots, celery
• Lasagna w/ Italian Sausage and Spinach
• Quiche
• Fish on BBQ
• Fried Rice w/ Ham, Chx egg rolls
• Ham Dinner - with cherry pie filling/red hots (make mini cheese cakes using pie filling and graham cracker crumbs in the freezer)
• Buffalo Meatballs (I add Louisana hot sauce to meatballs. I may or may not add cream cheese and celery)
• Refried Beans - NO MEAT w/ rice
• Burgers (from Sleep's) (buns in freezer)
• Enchiladas w/ burger ** make tortillas and assemble
• Meatball Subs ** make hoagies
• Breakfast for dinner w/ sausage and scrambled eggs
• Spaghetti Pie w/ Sausage and Spinach
• Brat and Smoked Sausage ** make buns
• Chili - lunches for the kiddos
• Yogurt will be ready tomorrow
• I need to finish granola, pancake and waffle mixes, and PB oatmeal dry mix too. We'll see if that gets done!

I am determined. DETERMINED I tell you, to serve all of these dinners BEFORE I decide to make something else! I will buy veggies next week if NEEDED. Seriously NEEDED. I have milk and fruit so I'm good there. I am pretty sure I have enough veggies too, but we'll see!

Check out Money Saving Mom for more OAMC inspiration!

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 2:30PM

Lasagna and Spaghetti Pie are done.

Cinnamon rolls, buns and one loaf of bread are rising.

1 batch of spinach has been blanched so I can put it in the freezer for a future meal. I bought 1 pound of spinach when I was at Sam's and I want to make sure it doesn't go bad.






So it took me 2 hours to do this much???? I better get  moving! Yikes! Surely I must have done something else....hmmmmm.....

After my break I'm off to finish the fried rice and make the egg rolls. Hopefully I'll still have enough energy to do my breakfast stuff.

I made myself an iced coffee - yes, it's snowing here in South Dakota on April 30th, but I'm pretending it's a nice sunny day!

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 12:46PM

Lunch is Served! Meatball & Salad

Meatballs for meatball subs and buffalo meatballs.

Dough for hamburger and hot dog buns.

Milk that is cooling so I can make yogurt.

Dough rising for 2 loaves of bread  1 loaf of bread and cinnamon rolls.

Chicken bones & veggies so I have chicken broth.








It's about this time every month that I start pooping out and wonder why in the world I'm doing this. I am such a morning person that it seems like so much fun in the beginning! I'm sure after I eat and rest a bit I'll be fine.

After I eat lunch I'm going to assemble lasagna and spaghetti pie.

OAMC - Dedicated Cooking - 10AM

Here's what I have so far:

 I found that if I chop up all the veggies at the same time, it's a huge time save. Unfortunately I couldn't remember what veggie went where. Sticky notes to the rescue!

My clipboard with my list of stuff to do is sitting there as well. My water glass is filled at all times - the day goes much better when you are well hydrated!


 

I made spaghetti noodles for spaghetti pie and have my bread making ingredients ready to go!

 

Spaghetti sauce is cooking, tortilla balls are ready and resting, bowl of fresh veggies ready for after school snacks (and for me too!)

                                                                    BBQ sauce is cooking on the back burner, refried beans in the front as well as chili.

 

                  For some reason I felt like you should see my messes.

 This apron MAKES MY DAY! My son made it for me when he was in Kindergarten. Now he's in 5th grade. This makes me so happy.








Next up - a 15 minute break, an apple with peanut butter, then onto the rest of my list. I'll start the meatballs, make taco seasoning and get my baking going.

I have yogurt in the crock pot and the chicken has been in the oven since 6:45 so I'm hoping it'll be done by 11:00. Stay tuned!