Busy Bee in The Kitchen

One of the ways I save money is by grinding my own flour for baking.  When stores have their case lot sales, I'll buy a couple of 50 lb bags of whole wheat for under $20 each and then use them all year to grind into wholesome whole wheat and make homemade bread and other goodies with.  I do still buy white flour to use in things like cookies and other baked goods, but I buy that during the case lot sales too at about $8 for a big 20 lb bag.

Yesterday I spent the day baking.  I made a double batch of my 

Awesome Whole Wheat Bread and turned that into three loaves and 10 big cinnamon rolls.  

 I stuck one of the loaves of bread in the freezer to use next week and kept the other two out for this week's use.  The cinnamon rolls acted as an after school snack for my boys, dessert for my husband and breakfast for my boys this morning.  We still have two leftover that will be snacked on today as well.

To make the cinnamon rolls, I melted 1 Tablespoons of butter and spread that out onto the rolled out dough.  Then I sprinkled with brown sugar until it was covered lightly and then added a thin layer of cinnamon and a couple of handfuls of raisins.  I then rolled them up and cut them and let them rise in the pan.  They were then baked along with the bread for about 25 minutes.  Once they were out and had cooled for a few minutes I made a very simple glaze out of 2 Tablespoons melted butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, a dash of vanilla and a couple tablespoons of milk.  Easy, frugal and delicious!

Total cost for 3 loaves of bread and 10 big cinnamon rolls: 

About $2

While I was in the kitchen, I took out a dozen eggs and boiled them.  I like to keep boiled eggs in the fridge for quick breakfasts before the boys get on the bus in the morning.  My daughter also likes to snack on them during the day.  At under .11 cents each, they make for a thrifty handy snack to have on hand.

Total cost for 12 boiled eggs: $1.30

We had a busy night last night.  The kids wanted to head over to the library for a Planes Party at 6pm and I had a Church activity to be to at 7pm, so we quickly ate these Indian Tacos and Tostadas and were out the door.  

To make these, I found 6 rhodes rolls in my freezer, took them out and let them rise and then fried them right before serving, I also fried some corn tortillas for tostada shells.  Topped with some leftover homemade refried beans, ground venison from the freezer seasoned with taco seasoning, a little bit of shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, guacamole, sour cream and hot sauce.  All that makes for a filling dinner on the cheap!

Total cost for Indian Tacos and Tostadas with leftovers for lunch: about $3

Thanks for stopping by!

What's Been Cooking? Cheater Lemon Cake, Buffalo Chicken Dip and Honey Mustard Pork Chops

Tonight we have dinner with the Boy Scouts for the Blue & Gold Banquet, 

so I don't have to cook dinner!  Gotta love that!  

Every family has been asked to either bring a dessert or salad.  Normally I'd bring a nice green salad or a yummy quinoa salad, but since I'm trying to reserve my veggies for my family's dinners this week, I decided to bring a dessert.  

I took a look in my pantry to see what I had that needed to be used up and came out with a lemon cake mix.  I usually try to buy cake mixes when they are on sale for $1 or less per box.  So, I baked up the cake, according to the box directions.

Once it was done cooling I made a very simple glaze to go on top.  I figured a glaze would be more cost effective than a frosting.  

Simple Lemon Glaze for Cheater Lemon Cake:

• 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon water

Whisk all ingredients together and then pour over baked and cooled cake.

The total cost for my pot luck worthy Cheater Lemon Cake: about $2

Since I'm not making dinner tonight and the banquet isn't until 7pm, I decided to make the kids a yummy after school snack that should hold them over until the later dinner.  We didn't watch The Super Bowl this past Sunday, since we got rid of satellite TV in 2014 and now only have Netflix.  Not that any of us actually missed watching the game, but we did miss out on all of the yummy game time foods that we usually eat while watching for the commercials.  

Enter Buffalo Chicken Dip!  Served with a sleeve or two of club crackers, this dip hit the spot for my boys when they got off the bus.  

Back when I started this blog, Pinterest wasn't a thing yet.  And now, we can type in any kind of dish we want to make and have tons of recipes pop up WITH pictures!  I eat with my eyes first, so Pinterest makes picking recipes out, so much easier.  

I found this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip and decided to give it a try.  Of course I changed things up a little, to use what I had.  And cooking on a budget is all about flexibility!  You must be able to alter recipes to fit what you already have in your house if you want to save money.  

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 1 large can chicken, drained
• 1/2 cup shredded Sharp cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients, except for the shredded cheese, in a baking dish.  No need to dirty two dishes, so just mix it all up in what you are going to bake it in. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, add the cheese on top and bake for about 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Total cost for Buffalo Chicken Dip: about $4, plus the cost of crackers.

The picture above is before baking, I didn't get one after it was cooked.  But, my boys loved it and it was much appreciated by them when they got off of the bus. 

Since I'm not cooking dinner tonight, I thought I'd link over to the recipe that I used last night to make Honey Mustard Pork Chops.  They were a hit!!  Served along with roasted potatoes that we gleaned back in October from local Potato fields (which equals lots of free potatoes!) and a side of honey glazed carrots (can we say cheap!?), our entire dinner last night cost us about $4 or so.  Since we have to pay for the pigs to be butchered, that's our main cost.

Thanks for stopping by!

$65 A Week Grocery Challenge

The price of food seems to be getting higher and higher and I've found myself spending an easy $150+ a week on groceries for my family of 5.  Most months we're in over $600 just for food.  So, I've decided to take action and put my family on a strict $65 a week grocery budget.  This budget will be for only food items.  No household products, although I do plan on being very thrifty in that department also.  

February 2015 is my first month doing this.  And here is the picture of my first week's shopping.   Here's a breakdown of what I got: 5 dozen eggs, 3 gallons of milk, mayonnaise,  a large container of yogurt, a large container or sour cream, 8 oz mushrooms, 1.4 lbs broccoli, 3 jalapeno peppers, 4 (8 oz) packages of shredded cheese, 1.5 lbs zucchini, 1 head lettuce, 1 package hot dogs, 6 heart lollipops, 2 lbs real butter, 1.71 lbs roma tomatoes, 1 lb bulk raisins, 2.24 lbs pears, 2 lbs carrots, 2.35 lbs bananas, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 head cabbage, 2 lbs oranges, 2.5 lbs apples, 5 avocados, 2 green bell peppers, 12 pack diet mt. dew and 1 box conversation hearts

My grand total for all that was $62.66, so I have $2.34 left for this week.  If I choose not to use that $2.34 this week, I'll roll it over into the next week.  My goal is to keep my monthly food budget under $275 a month.  

Now, to make things clear, I have a very well stocked freezer, full of meat that my husband hunted for.  I've got elk and venison hamburger, steaks, stew meat, sausage... Pretty much if you can think of it, we've got it.  This is a huge blessing to us and helps immensely with our food budget.  Yet, I'd still find myself spending $150+ a week at the grocery store.  

I also have about 1 1/2 pigs worth of pork in my freezer.  This last Spring, my family raised two pigs for meat and we are greatly benefiting from that now!  We plan on doing the same this coming Spring, so that we always have a steady flow of pork in the freezer.  I also occasionally will order a 40 lb. box of boneless skinless chicken breasts from Zaycon Foods at only $1.99 or less a pound.  

So, as you can see, I will not be purchasing meat very often.  I simply just don't need to!  

I also keep a fairly well stocked pantry.  I have lots of beans, grains, flours and sugars.  I will occasionally need to re-stock these items, but not very often.  And I will usually do that when our local stores have Case Lot sales.  

I will not be purchasing many pre-made items.  Pretty much no frozen pizzas or dinners.  Not many snack type items or breads.  Cookies from a box...What are those?  About once a week I'll have a baking day, where I bake all of the bread and treats that my family will eat for the week.  

Join me on this new money saving adventure!