Thursday, April 1, 2010
I have learned a variety of different ways to save money since we have become a one-income family. Because that one income only comes once a century…I mean once a month, I have learned how to stretch a dollar until it squeaks!
One great way to save is to challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to eat all of the groceries in the pantry/fridge/freezer until it is gone.
How? Make it a game of sorts. Create a list of all of the main dishes, side dishes, and odds and ends that you have. Create the BEST pairings with the things that you have. Once you have done this, make a store list of the necessities that you CANNOT make it through the week without: milk, eggs, diapers, and the like. Then, look at the meals you’ve created with what’s left in your kitchen, and add several odds and ends to make additional meals.
Have leftover roast? Pick up a couple of bolillo rolls and have barbeque sandwiches.
Have a can of fruit and some frozen chicken breasts? Grab some romaine lettuce, marinade your chicken in orange juice and you have Hawaiian chicken salads!
Remember the bolillo rolls that you bought for bbq sandwiches? (They usually come 8 in a bag for about $2 at the bakery) And the romaine lettuce from the Hawaiian chicken salads? Have some bacon? Pick up a large, fresh tomato and serve BLTs for dinner tonight!
These are just a few examples of things that I’ve done in the past. This will keep you from spending money at a restaurant, and cut your grocery bill significantly when you use things that you already have in the pantry. I am a BIG TIME list-checker-offer, so I love to cross off the meals that we’ve eaten or the side/main dishes we have used.
I hope you find this helpful as we all have to make changes in our lifestyles and become good stewards of what we have.
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
10-Bean-Soup...delicious and nearly free!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
I am always looking for ways to save at the grocery store and still feed my family nutritious, tasty dinners.
Dinners that cost me less than $1 per person are always a bonus! I have been shopping at Sprouts more frequently lately, and found something I wanted to try on a recommendation from my Mom. Ten-bean soup is something that you purchase dry by the scoop at Sprouts. It costs about $1.75 per pound, and you’d be STUNNED at how much soup you can get for a pound!
After purchasing the soup, I began searching for recipes in Google and stumbled upon a recipe that looked SO delicious. My recipe came from HERE by Meenakshi Matai. She was very gracious and willing to let me blog about my experience using her recipe.
There were a few things that I found to be attractive about her recipe. #1 – I already had most of the ingredients needed to make the soup. #2 – You can soak the beans while you are sleeping, and begin preparing the soup in the morning. One of my favorite things to do is, after lunches are packed, beds are made, and breakfast is served, I like to have SOME idea of what is for dinner, and prepare what I can ahead of time. With this recipe, you have already soaked the beans the night before, and you add all of the ingredients to your Crockpot or slow cooker, and you are done with dinner! How sweet is that?! #3 – this meal is quite low in calories because it contains only beans, vegetables, water and spices. You can feel completely guiltless after eating dinner!
My recipe varied slightly from Meenakshi’s because I did not have a green pepper to add to my 10-bean soup. I also didn’t have any fresh tomatoes, but I DID have a can of whole tomatoes seasoned with basil. I added these to my soup. It smelled absolutely delicious in the house all day long, and I couldn’t WAIT to try my new, nearly free soup! The soup was very flavorful and tasty. I made 1.5 of her recipes because I bought 1.5 cups of 10-beans, and WHOA did it make a lot of soup! I didn’t buy NEARLY a pound of beans, so I only spent pennies on our dinner. I froze the leftovers, and we will have them again next week – so that cuts in HALF what I spent because we will be eating it TWICE! I served a small salad with our soup, and it was a delicious dinner, indeed!
Speaking of Sprouts – I purchase something exclusively from Sprouts that I MUST tell you about! Organic lollipops! My Mom first purchased these lollipops for my daughter when she was around 6 months old. We were going to get brave and cut her hair, but we needed something to distract her and keep her still for long enough to trim! My Mom is a huge Sprouts shopper, and she stumbled upon them during one of her shopping trips. The flavors are so intense and delicious that you feel like you have the authentic fruit in your mouth. Emily loves them and they have saved my butt numerous times on long phone conversations, plane rides, and salon haircuts! You can purchase them in a small bag, or individually (6 suckers for $1) at the register. Sprouts is also running a special for Easter and a GIANT bag of assorted flavors of these organic lollipops is $4.99 right now.
I am always looking for ways to save at the grocery store and still feed my family nutritious, tasty dinners.
Dinners that cost me less than $1 per person are always a bonus! I have been shopping at Sprouts more frequently lately, and found something I wanted to try on a recommendation from my Mom. Ten-bean soup is something that you purchase dry by the scoop at Sprouts. It costs about $1.75 per pound, and you’d be STUNNED at how much soup you can get for a pound!
After purchasing the soup, I began searching for recipes in Google and stumbled upon a recipe that looked SO delicious. My recipe came from HERE by Meenakshi Matai. She was very gracious and willing to let me blog about my experience using her recipe.
There were a few things that I found to be attractive about her recipe. #1 – I already had most of the ingredients needed to make the soup. #2 – You can soak the beans while you are sleeping, and begin preparing the soup in the morning. One of my favorite things to do is, after lunches are packed, beds are made, and breakfast is served, I like to have SOME idea of what is for dinner, and prepare what I can ahead of time. With this recipe, you have already soaked the beans the night before, and you add all of the ingredients to your Crockpot or slow cooker, and you are done with dinner! How sweet is that?! #3 – this meal is quite low in calories because it contains only beans, vegetables, water and spices. You can feel completely guiltless after eating dinner!
My recipe varied slightly from Meenakshi’s because I did not have a green pepper to add to my 10-bean soup. I also didn’t have any fresh tomatoes, but I DID have a can of whole tomatoes seasoned with basil. I added these to my soup. It smelled absolutely delicious in the house all day long, and I couldn’t WAIT to try my new, nearly free soup! The soup was very flavorful and tasty. I made 1.5 of her recipes because I bought 1.5 cups of 10-beans, and WHOA did it make a lot of soup! I didn’t buy NEARLY a pound of beans, so I only spent pennies on our dinner. I froze the leftovers, and we will have them again next week – so that cuts in HALF what I spent because we will be eating it TWICE! I served a small salad with our soup, and it was a delicious dinner, indeed!
Speaking of Sprouts – I purchase something exclusively from Sprouts that I MUST tell you about! Organic lollipops! My Mom first purchased these lollipops for my daughter when she was around 6 months old. We were going to get brave and cut her hair, but we needed something to distract her and keep her still for long enough to trim! My Mom is a huge Sprouts shopper, and she stumbled upon them during one of her shopping trips. The flavors are so intense and delicious that you feel like you have the authentic fruit in your mouth. Emily loves them and they have saved my butt numerous times on long phone conversations, plane rides, and salon haircuts! You can purchase them in a small bag, or individually (6 suckers for $1) at the register. Sprouts is also running a special for Easter and a GIANT bag of assorted flavors of these organic lollipops is $4.99 right now.
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