Friday, February 28, 2014

Menu for the week of 2/23 thru 3/1

SUNDAY:
Leftover pork roast and UnPotato Salad
Salsa Sausage Quiche

MONDAY:
Leftovers

TUESDAY:
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Green Beans

WEDNESDAY:
Leftovers
Cheese Quiche

THURSDAY:
Oven Fried Fish
Vegetable

FRIDAY:
Atkins Meatloaf
Skillet Carrots or Creamy Squash Casserole (not sure which yet)

SATURDAY:
Leftovers

I'm not sure yet if I will bake some muffins or make some kind of low carb dessert next week.

UNPOTATO SALAD
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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Favorite Recipe: Italian Meatball Burgers

ITALIAN MEATBALL BURGERS
I just made Italian Meatball Burgers today for dinner and got to use my new broiler for the first time. It worked a lot better than my old one did but there does seem to be one corner that isn't quite as hot. I'll just have to remember to rotate the pan.
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Shopping List - Week of February 23 - March 1

FOOD TOWN (Tuesday):
  • 2 pkg. marked down Oscar Mayer Bacon Dogs @ .99 each - $1.98
  • 1 pkg. marked down ground chuck @ 1.99lb - $2.89
  • 4 pkg. marked down ground beef @ 1.88lb - $12.91
  • 1 red onion - .62
  • 1 bunch celery - .99
  • 1 head cauliflower - $2.49
  • 1 tube Colgate toothpaste @ 1.19 (minus .50 coupon) - .74
TOTAL - $22.62

HEB (Tuesday):
  • 1 quart heavy cream - $3.56
  • Sugar free Passion fruit drink mix - $1.88
  • 2 cans marked down coconut milk @ 1.00 each - $2.00
  • 2 bags pork rinds @ 1.49 each - $2.98
TOTAL - $10.58

Walmart (Thursday):
  • Clean Shower spray - $1.97
  • Dish soap - .97
  • 4-pack 100wt light bulbs - $3.88
  • 18 eggs - $2.88
  • 1 3/4 pounds Farmland smoked ham pieces @ 2.38lb - $4.07
TOTAL - $14.33

Kroger (Thursday):
  • Sugar free lemon ice tea mix @ 1.87 (minus 10% discount) - $1.68
  • 5 CARBmaster yogurt @ .40 each (minus 10% discount) - $1.80
  • 2 8-ounce shredded cheddar cheese @ 2.50 each (minus 10% discount) - $4.50
  • Parmesan cheese @ 2.77 (minus 10% discount) - $2.49
  • Boneless chicken thighs @ 1.79lb - $4.56
TOTAL - $15.03

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE WEEK - $62.56
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Favorite Recipe: Mock Rice Pudding

I usually make a batch of Mock Rice Pudding whenever Kroger has cottage cheese on sale. It's easy to make and my husband loves it (I do too). I usually double the recipe and put in a 16-ounce container of cottage cheese. If I have a 24-ounce container of cottage cheese, I'll double everything else and put in the whole container of cottage cheese. 

 
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Menu for the week of 2/23 thru 3/1

Oops! I was just about to post another favorite recipe when I noticed that I'd never posted my menu for this week. I typed it out but forgot to post it here on the blog in all the excitement over the new stove.

SUNDAY:
Ham & Swiss Cheese Quiche
Leftover Mushroom Burger Scramble

MONDAY:
Mushroom Chicken & Sausage Casserole

TUESDAY:
Leftovers
Mock Rice Pudding

WEDNESDAY:
Texas Sweet Onion Quiche
Leftovers

THURSDAY:
Italian Meatball Burgers
Vegetable

FRIDAY:
Leftovers

SATURDAY:
Pork shoulder roast
UnPotato Salad

There will also be CARBmaster yogurt, cheese, pork rinds and plenty of eggs to make things like egg salad, deviled eggs to have on hand for snacks. I can also cook things like eggs, low carb pancakes and muffins, etc. if we need them. My husband tends to only eat two meals per day so a piece of quiche and some sort of main meal is all that I really need to plan for most days. 

Here's a preview of what I bought today. I'll post the details at the end of the week.

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Friday, February 21, 2014

I have a stove!

Just a quick post to say that the stove was installed this afternoon and I used the stove top and the oven to make Mushroom Burger Scramble. It works great!


Click HERE to see my old stove.
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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Shopping List - Week of February 16-22

I'm done with my shopping for the week. It's kind of odd because I didn't buy any non-food items at all this week. I do have a few items that I need to restock soon but I decided to wait so that I could spend my money on a few good deals this week. I did spend a bit more than I should have but I didn't want to pass up that marked down ground beef on Tuesday. 

I don't think I did too bad but I should try to keep to a budget of $50.00 per week or less. We're having to make do on $200 less per month that our son was paying for room and board plus I now have an added monthly expense of about $39 per month for Obamacare. I chose the absolute cheapest plan that didn't have an outrageously high deductible. I could have chosen one of the zero monthly premium plans but the deductibles were thousands of dollars. The one I have has a $500 deductible. If I don't end up having to use the insurance at all this year, maybe I'll switch to a zero premium plan next year. That would save me over $450 per year but that's assuming that the rates don't go up and/or my subsidy goes down next year.

 Also, our son is going to have our U-verse TV shut off soon because he was paying for that. We'll keep the internet, which we've been paying for. But, if we drop the TV, AT&T is going to start charging $4-5 more for the internet if we don't bundle it with something else. So, we might pick up their "Voice" phone plan. They have a $25 one that is only a dollar more than our basic phone service now and it would give us up to 200 minutes of local and long distance. Our current plan is $24 per month but then there's another $4.99 for long distance service plus any long distance calls that we make. And, on top of that, we are paying another $17 in fees and taxes. Basically, we're paying about $44 per month even when we don't make any phone calls. It's crazy how much phone service has gone up in the past few years. Ten years ago, the plan that we're paying $24 for now was only $4.55 per month. It's called "measured service" so we can only make so many local calls per month before we are charged a small fee per call. In over 30 years we've never gone over that limit because we rarely use the phone. Anyway, I think we will save at least $10 per month by switching to U-verse phone service plus we'll save another $4.00 on our internet by bundling the internet and phone. We don't own cell phones and the phone plan we have now is the very cheapest option that AT&T offers.

Here's the break-down for this week:

FOOD TOWN (Tuesday):
  • 1 package pork steaks @ .99lb - $2.31
  • Ground beef @ 1.99lb - $6.07
  • 10 ounce bottle Kikkoman soy sauce - .99
  • Garlic - .36
TOTAL - $9.73

HEB (Tuesday):
  • 1 jar salsa - $1.98
  • Quart heavy cream - $3.56
  • 2 bags pork rinds @ $1.49 each - $2.98
TOTAL - $8.52

KROGER (Tuesday):
  • Ground beef @ $1.99lb - $22.72
  • 12 CARBmaster yogurt @ .40 each (minus 3 free coupon + 10% discount) - $3.24 (.27 each)
TOTAL - $25.96

ALDI (Thursday):
  • 2 8-ounce containers mushrooms @ .79 each - $1.58
  • 3-pound bag onions - .69
  • 16-ounce bag frozen thin green beans - $1.49
  • 8 ounce Colby cheese - $1.99
  • 2 bags pork rinds @ .99 each - $1.98
  • 8 ounces sliced smoked cheddar - $2.69
  • 1 dozen eggs - $1.19
TOTAL - $11.61

KROGER (Thursday):
  • 16 ounces shredded mozzarella (sale price 3/$10 + 10% discount) $3.01
  • 2 Hormel giant pepperoni @ $1.00 each (minus $1.00 coupon) - $1.00
  • 16 ounce Kroger Deluxe American cheese (on sale for $3.49 + 10% discount) - $3.14
TOTAL - $7.15

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE WEEK - $62.97

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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Today's menu

EGG & TUNA SALAD
This morning I made a batch of my Egg & Tuna Salad to have on hand for snacks and lunches. There is one leftover steak from Sunday and also a serving of Quick Asian Pork Stir-Fry. I made chicken fajitas last week and there is still some Cilantro Pepita Sauce left and a little sour cream. So, for my breakfast this morning, I made myself a yummy "Taco Bowl" using some of the ground beef I cooked yesterday, a little taco seasoning, salsa, some cilantro sauce and sour cream.
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Non-food inventory

I thought I should also post an inventory of some of the non-food items that I buy since they also come out of my shopping budget. I always keep at least one back-up of everything. As soon as I use up the current supply of anything, I add that item to my shopping list and replace it either on my next shopping trip or very soon. I generally buy a replacement right away so that I never run out of anything. I also stock up whenever I see a good sale and/or I've got a coupon.

Here's what I have on hand in addition to the currently being used items:

Bar soap - 7
Blush - 5
Conditioner - 3
Cover stick - 4
Deodorant - 4
Dishwasher gel
Disposable shavers (men's) - 20
Disposable shavers (women's) - 22
Eye shadow - 4
Eyebrow pencils - 12
Eyeliner pencils - 10
Face powder - 5
Foundation - 3
Hairspray - 6
Hand lotion
Kitchen trash bags
Laundry detergent - 5 bottles
Lip balm - 8
Liquid soap refill
Long heavy duty foil
Paper towels - 6 rolls
Parchment paper
Plastic wrap
Q-tips
Regular foil
Shampoo - 6
Shout - 3
Shower spray refill
Tissue - 4
Toilet paper - 3 1/2 12-packs
Toothbrushes - 9
Toothpaste - 4
Twist tie storage bags
Wax paper

There are a lot of other items that I didn't bother to list but these are the main staples. When I post my weekly shopping lists, I will include non-food items on them as well.

Here is a photo of my cosmetics stash. I do have particular products that I like to use so I usually buy more whenever I have a good coupon and/or I see them on sale.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

I hit the motherload

I'm going to wait until the end of the week to post a list of all of my shopping deals for this week but I wanted to show you the haul that I got today. I'm so happy because I found some ground beef for $1.99lb at Food Town and Kroger. Considering that the regular price is about $4.00 per pound now, I think that $1.99 per pound is a bargain. I bought all the packages that they had which came to about 14 1/2 pounds total. I'm relieved that I've got a nice stash of hamburger in my freezer again. 

I cooked up two pounds of the hamburger with some onions when I got home from the store. I like to make "burger bowls" with it. Sometimes I'll top my bowl with the standard burger toppings (ketchup, mustard, mayo and relish) or I'll add some cheese and my homemade BBQ sauce to it. I add whatever I'm in the mood for at the time.

The package that says "Pork" on it has pork steaks in it. I got them for a steal because they were apparently marked wrong. All of the other pork steak packages at Food Town were marked $1.99 pound. But, this one package said "country pork ribs" on it and they were only 99-cents per pound. They're most definitely pork steaks though, not ribs. They're really good cooked outside on the grill and brushed with BBQ sauce.

I got a nice deal on the Kroger CARBmaster yogurt too. I got a coupon in the mail the other day where you got 3 free containers if you bought nine. So, after my senior discount, I got 12 of them for 27-cents each. Now that my husband is "sort of" going low carb, he will also eat some of the yogurt. I say "sort of" because he still has some high carb stuff to use up before he officially starts his diet.
 
We got a call about the new stove and they're going to bring it on Friday. Hopefully nothing will come up this time. 
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Monday, February 17, 2014

Food inventory

I'm still waiting to get my new stove but I'll go ahead and post an inventory of all of the food in the house so you can get an idea of what I have to work with. As you'll see, I've got a pretty good stash which allows me to mostly just buy what I see on sale. I very rarely need to pay full price for meat. I try to plan my meals around what I already have on hand so that I don't end up having to pay full price.

I'm a little nervous at the moment though because I'm down to only one package of ground beef in the freezer. Normally I would find a good deal on marked down ground beef before my supply got this low. I'm wondering if the good deals are going to be a thing of the past because last week the cheapest hamburger was $3.99 pound! I won't pay that much so we'll just have to eat chicken and pork until the price comes down or I find it marked down. Kroger had pork shoulder roasts for 99-cents per pound last week so I bought another one for the freezer. I will probably roast one of those as soon as I get my new stove. They're big so they'll feed the two of us for several days. 

By the way, our son really did move out over the weekend so it IS just the two of us now!

IN THE FREEZER:
Bacon rinds (cut from jowl bacon)
Boneless chicken breasts (4 packages)
Butter (9 pounds)
Chicken thighs, bone-in (2 packages)
Chicken thighs, boneless (3 packages)
Chicken bones (from a roast chicken)
Chicken tenders (2 packages)
Chicken broth (2 1/2 cups)
Chopped celery
Chuck roast (2)
Coconut flour
Cranberries
Creamed coconut
Dry buttermilk powder
Flax meal
Frozen cauliflower (3)
Frozen green beans
Frozen parsley
Frozen roasted Anaheim chiles
Frozen Asian vegetable mixture
Frozen chopped green peppers
Frozen enchilada sauce
Frozen tomato paste (in 1 tablespoon "blobs")
Frozen pizza sauce
Giant pepperoni
Good parmesan cheese
Ground pork (2 packages)
Ground beef (1 1/2 pounds)
Guacamole (1 packet)
Ham pieces (4 packages)
Hazelnuts
Hot dogs
Italian sausage (2)
Lemon juice
Lemon zest
Pepitas
Pepperoni
Pork shoulder roast (4)
Pork sausage (2)
Pork rind crumbs
Psyllium husk
Raw hamburger patties (9)
Sesame seeds
Sliced almonds
Smoked sausage
Sunflower kernels
Tilapia filets (about 11)
Unblanched almond flour
Unflavored whey protein powder
Unsweetened coconut
*************************************************
IN THE PANTRY:
10 ounce can whole green chiles
8 ounce cans tomato sauce (8)
Baking powder
Baking soda
Blackstrap molasses
Caesar salad dressing
Canned tuna (2)
Canned soybeans (2)
Canned asparagus
Canned beef broth
Cider vinegar
Cocoa
Coconut oil
Coconut Da Vinci syrup
Coffee
Cooking oil
Dill pickle relish
Flavoring extracts
Granular Splenda
Hot sauce (4)
Kernel Seasonings (2)
Large can crushed tomatoes
Liquid smoke
Liquid Splenda
Liquid stevia
Mayonnaise (3)
Mexican green salsa (2)
Pineapple Da Vinci syrup
Pizza sauce (2)
Pork rinds
Red wine vinegar
Rice vinegar
Sambal Oelek (3)
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Spices
Sriracha sauce
Sugar free drink mixes
Sweet pickle relish (sugar free) (2)
True Lemon
True Lime
True Orange
Truvia
Unflavored gelatin (2)
Walden Farms pancake syrup
White vinegar
Worcestershire sauce
Xanthan gum
*************************************************
IN THE FRIDGE:
8 ounces Colby cheese
8 ounces Swiss cheese (3)
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (2)
Better Than Bouillon (chicken)
Caesar salad dressing
Cream cheese (6)
Deluxe American cheese
Dijon mustard
Dill pickle relish
Fish sauce
Garlic
Heavy cream
Homemade BBQ sauce
Homemade ketchup
Hot sauce
Mayonnaise
Onions
Parmesan cheese, "Green can"
Sambal Oelek
Sesame oil
Sour cream
Soy sauce
Spicy brown mustard
Sriracha sauce
Sweet pickle relish (sugar free)
Taco Bell hot sauce
Thai red curry paste
Thai green curry paste
Walden Farms pancake syrup
Yellow mustard
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Sunday, February 16, 2014

My old stove

I just happen to have a photo of my old stove so I thought I'd post it now and then take a picture of the new one after it gets here. I took this photo a few years ago so there are a few things that aren't in the same places now.


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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Still no stove...

I had to tell them not to deliver the stove yesterday because our son has boxes all over the living room. There was no way that they could get the stove through the house and into the kitchen. We also had no place to move the microwave cabinet to with all the junk all over the room. Our son will start moving stuff to his apartment after work tonight and do most of the moving tomorrow.

So, my menus are still being planned on a day-to-day basis for now. With me being such a planner and organizer it's a little unsettling for me but I'm trying not to think about it. We won't starve or anything. We've got plenty of eggs and cheese in the fridge and I can cook on the stove top. We've got leftover fajitas and today I'm going to make a stir-fry with ground pork and frozen Asian veggies. I've got some steaks thawing for tomorrow.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Stove update

We just got a call to let us know that the new stove, and a new range hood, will be delivered on Friday!
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Monday, February 10, 2014

Changing today's menu

CHICKEN WITH PEANUT CURRY SAUCE
Well, grilling Seoul Chicken outside is out for today. It's pouring rain. I think I'll make a peanut chicken curry instead. I'm pretty sure that I've got everything I need to make that. If I don't have any frozen green beans, I know that I do have an Asian blend that will work just as well. I will need to thaw some creamed coconut for the sauce though. I have a few boxes of the stuff that my friend sent me from England and I keep it in the freezer. It comes in a block that looks like a bar of soap and you have to chop off chunks of it and mix with water.

I just checked the freezer and I've got two boxes of the creamed coconut left plus a small chunk. One box is equal to a can of liquid coconut milk. I don't have any cut green beans, only French cut, so I'll use the Asian vegetable mixture. I've also got a bag of frozen bell pepper and onion blend and there is enough peanut butter left in the jar. It's the regular kind with sugar in it but the carb count is the same as the natural kind. A carb is a carb and it's the only peanut butter in the house. 
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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Update

My son said this morning that he'll probably be moving out next weekend. I'm not going to hold my breath! 

SEOUL CHICKEN
I would take this opportunity to start planning my low carb menus for after he's gone but there's a snag. Early last week our oven died. The landlord has approved a new stove/oven to be installed but we're still waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, I'm having to come up with things to cook that don't require an oven (thankfully the stove top still works). It's not as easy as you might think. For one thing, Jerry likes to have quiche for breakfast every day and he ate the last piece yesterday. I can't bake another one until I've got an oven again. I'm planning to make Seoul Chicken tomorrow outside on the grill but I'm not sure if the weather is going to cooperate. I may end up doing it stir-fry style or something. 

Since I have no idea what day they're going to call and say that they're going to install the new stove, I have to plan the meals one day at a time and expect that I might not be able to cook anything the day that they install the stove. The other glitch is that we're going to have to empty and move a large cabinet that's near the entry to the kitchen. We can't do that too far in advance because that's where the microwave is kept. Obviously, I'm relying on the microwave even more right now without an oven. What fun!
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