Tag: what we eat

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Every Day

Today and This Past Weekend

We had a very quiet weekend, 15 inches of snow, and frigid temperatures. Needless to say we didn’t go anywhere.

On Saturday, I cooked the ham that I purchased on sale in December. We had pineapple, brussel sprouts, and mashed potatoes with it. On Sunday, I made a ham, noodle, and cheese casserole and served the rest of the pineapple and brussel sprouts with it.

On Sunday morning I fried up mashed potato cakes with those leftovers, scrambled eggs, and fried up some ham.

Saturday night, Hubby took most of the ham off the bone. We left some on to make bean soup. I also made some dices for the soup. That was all frozen until sometime in the future when we want soup.

The rest of the ham was sliced for sandwiches and breakfasts and diced for ham salad and casseroles. Most of it has been frozen.

Our Buffalo Bills playoff game was moved from Sunday to this afternoon because the snow and winds were very dangerous yesterday. We had gusts up to 65 miles per hour. It snowed most of the day and the wind blew it everywhere. I was glad that they changed the game day because I was really worried about my son and daughter-in-law making their way there. Right now, they are making their way to the stadium and hoping to get a parking spot. It is still snowing at the stadium right now but it is supposed to ease up. Just shoveling the roads for people to get there, the stadium, and the parking lots is a huge issue. It will be really, really cold there. But that won’t stop the fans from showing up.

We watched a movie “Let It Go” on Saturday. Then there were other playoff games on. Yesterday was another lazy day and Hubby watched more football and basketball. I did wash a large load of clothes in cold water and hung most of them to dry. Then I read my book.

Later I started looking in my pantries and freezer to see what we could find to eat during the game today. I dug deep in the freezer and found these yummy appetizers that are pictured above. We will air fry them in our 11 in one oven. I also have some ranch dressing and carrots and celery sticks to add for some nutrition. It will all be a nice treat during halftime and will be our dinner.

Not much else going on here now. I am off to read and then watch the game later.

I hope you all has a warm and safe weekend.

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Every Day

Frugal Things The Past Few Days

I want to let you know that most of the things that I showed you that were leftovers in my recent post have been eaten or frozen.

So here is a new group of leftovers plus 2 other ingredients that I made into a couple of different meals this week.

I had leftover hot Italian sausage in the spaghetti sauce from the other night. I cut it up and used 1/2 of it on pizza along with some mushrooms also. Hubby likes the sausage. I love mushrooms. I also used an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce from my storage on the pizza because I find leftover spaghetti sauce too much on pizza. I make pizza on the artisan bread that I purchased at Aldi. Just add mozzarella cheese and seasonings and it is delicious.

Last night I heated the leftover spaghetti sauce after I took the rest of the sausage out and cut it up for another pizza which I will make soon. I added the sauce that was left in the jar too to the pan. Some of the mushrooms and the spaghetti were microwaved to heat them through.

Meanwhile I air fried two pieces of chicken after preparing them with the Shake and Bake. I added some mozzarella cheese at the end. So we had chicken parmesian on the leftover spaghetti and I added some mushrooms to mine.

All I have left is the sausage, some mushrooms, the tomato sauce for pizza. The leftover spaghetti sauce was frozen for our next spaghetti meal. We also have two pieces of chicken breast to use tonight. I haven’t decided yet how I will fix that. Depending on the weather, we may grill it and add BBQ sauce.

We did have a lot of Italian meals this week but we haven’t had them in a long time and we were craving them. Rather than waste leftovers, neither one of us care if we eat the same things made into new meals over and over again.

I had to run to the drugstore for a prescription yesterday so I stopped for a loaf of bread. That cost me $ 2.99 so now my grocery budget that is left for the month is $ 346.71.

Our lawn is so dry that we scheduled the sprinkler system to run every other day. But if I get up in the morning and it has rained overnight, I turn it off until the next day that it is scheduled for. I believe our water bill the end of this month will be much less than last year’s. Our system broke this year and we had to wait 6 weeks for them to come out to repair it. That is how booked up they were.

We only eat two meals a day and have been doing this for a very long time now. That is saving us money but honestly we didn’t do it to save money. We just aren’t hungry in the morning. Coffee is enough.

We continue to drive our 10 year old SUV. We take immaculate care of it and make sure to take it to the garage for necessities like inspections and oil changes. It only has 47,000 miles on it and has never had a repair. The only time it has been to the dealer is for recalls. Maintaining things that you own pays off in the long run. My son has done some brakes for us.

Hubby is cutting my hair again tomorrow. Finally all the color from my salon appointments will be gone. My white hair I like and so does Hubby so I will not be coloring it again.

I ran the dishwasher really full. I am using the auto wash setting which I find uses less water and electricity.

That is it for today. What have you done recently to save some money?

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Every Day

My Journey To Keep My Grocery Shopping Under Control

We had the spaghetti with Hot Italian Sausage last night. It was so good. Since we have sauce and sausage leftover, I will make a pizza tonight using that and the Artisan flatbread I purchased today. I will also add some mushrooms for me.

I ran errands today to Top’s and Aldi’s. At Aldi’s I purchased three of the Artisan bread. Each package makes 2 pizzas for us. Since this is our favorite pizza crust and it is often out of stock, I put one package in the fridge and the other two in the freezer. Six crusts will last about 6 months for us. My total cost for this at Aldi’s was $ 10.77.

Last stop was Top’s where I purchased 5 Shake and Bake. When you bought 5 you paid $ 2.99 each. I love using these for a quick meal in the air fryer for pork or chicken. Especially in the winter when we are not grilling outside. The cucumber was $ 1.00. The celery and carrots were on B1G1F and ended up costing me $ 3.49 for both. The half and half was $ 5.99 for a half gallon. I stock this ahead in my fridge because it has far out expiration dates. We use it in our coffee and for any milk that we need. We used to buy milk for pudding, cereal, etc. but it always went bad before we could use it up. So I quit buying milk and we use half and half instead for everything. It works well for us. Out total for Top’s was $ 25.43. My total for today is $36.20. I also purchased a 60 ct. box of eggs at Walmart this week for $ 5.18. So my total for the week is $ 41.38.

I started with $ 391.08 in my grocery budget less the $ 41.38 leaves $349.70 left for the rest of the month.

I am off to do some cleaning. I hope you all have a great day!

Did you get any bargains at the grocery store this week?

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Every Day

Frugal Things We Have Done the Past Few Days

I had every intention of writing to you about our special day last Saturday. However our celebration turned into the entire weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, we celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary. Because we went out to dinner with friends last week, we decided to cook at home on both days. We had the same dinner each night which included a drink before dinner. Then Hubby grilled filet mignon each night for each of us. I baked a dozen potatoes in the air fryer so as to not heat up the house with the oven. We each ate one and one ear of corn on the cob each night. Dessert was cherry ices. With the exception of our son and grandson coming for breakfast on Sunday, we had a quiet weekend just enjoying each other’s company. We spent a bit of time outside in our yard because it was so beautiful outside.

On Sunday, I made scrambled eggs, French toast, many sausages and a pound of bacon. Our grandson is now a teenager and he can sure pack the food away. After breakfast, we played rummy.

It was a wonderful weekend full of good food purchased on sale, good conversation, and no cleaning.

On Monday morning, I made scrambled eggs and sliced up the leftover filet mignon and heated it through with some garlic and butter. We had leftover cold cut sandwiches and potato salad for dinner. Hubby made it from the leftover baked potatoes.

On Tuesday night, we had potato salad and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Breakfast was easy over eggs and leftover sausage and bacon from the weekend.

Breakfast this morning was a big slice of cantaloupe. Tonight I will be making spaghetti with Hot Italian sausage and sauce. We have not had spaghetti in quite a while and we are craving it.

I will be grocery shopping tomorrow for just a few things we need.

Hubby has been busy around here. The hinge on our bottom folding cupboard door broke. He found a hinge on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0879F97QV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details . Boy, it was expensive.

It turned into a bigger project than he thought though. The hinge is installed on the cupboard but it does not line up with the original holes. So Hubby will fix it as soon as he can get the stuff he needs to do it.

He also has been doing a great job keeping up with the weed whacking and dead heading the flowers. I have been pulling weeds as I see them.

Our lawn is lush and green again after having the sprinkler system repaired. Now it gets water every other day that it doesn’t rain.

I have done two loads of laundry this week using cold water. Some of the clothes were hung to dry and others were done in the dryer.

We should be getting our prompt from the utility company to read our meters in a few days. I can’t wait to see what difference the new efficient A/C does for our bill looking at the same period last year and accounting for the high heat we have had this time including some 90+ days.

What have you guys been doing to save some money?