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Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:18 pm
by alliesmama4
The Mexican casserole that I made with the homemade corn tortillas was really good. I have been busy so just ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. I added sour cream, chopped onions, and pickled jalapeno peppers.. I have three tortilla's left. I put them in the freezer and will use them to make another casserole some time in the future. I used the the soaking water from the peaches as a drink. It was a nice addition to the meals with the peach flavor making a nice refreshing contrast to the spicy casserole. Dessert has been plain yogurt with some of the hydrated peaches.

I was in the basement earlier today and was organizing things and found a can of dehydrated strawberries ...woo hoo. I do not know why I did not see them before they are on the shelf with all of the other long term storage items. Anyway will be bringing them up and alternate them with the peaches. I see strawberry shortcake in my future made with almond flour.

I am making tuna fish salad tonight for lunch tomorrow. I will use 3 eggs. They were on sale for .59 cents a doz. So about .15 cents. Tuna was about $1.25 a can (albacore). None of that pitiful flaky tuna floating in oil. Mayo from Dollar Tree (1.00). I do not use much just enough to bind I do not like it dripping in mayo..Also going to make keto sausage gravy that will last me the rest of the week for breakfast. Cream cheese (.79 cents a block) and the sausage was about $3.79 and I will only use 10 oz.. so a very frugal breakfast. I will serve it over keto English muffins. One egg, some coconut flour (2 tsp)and Parmesan cheese (1 TBS). Another cheap item to fix.
Dinner will be a broccoli, onion, and cheese quiche using the last of the broccoli from my dinner a few day ago. Broccoli about .75 cent since it was $1.00 originally from Dollar Tree and I had already used some; eggs (3) about .15 cents and cheese 1.79 a block. Milk .69 cent half gal and I am using around 1 cup. I will get about 6 meals from this. I sometimes freeze some for later.

My roofing contractor called today. He is trying to work in all of his clients in between the few nice days of dry weather we might have this week and next week he is hoping to get mine done by the end of next week. Although we are expecting rain tomorrow afternoon and storms on Wed. Hopefully I will have a new roof by the end of next week. That will be wonderful. My brother has watched him do his neighbor's and he said they do a great job doing it all in one day with a lot of workers not a couple of men and a hammer. My brother even got the contractor to come down a couple of thousand dollars from his original BID and it will almost be completely covered by my insurance company. My brother is having some new kind of roofing ventilating system put in so that is why it will go over a little bit. My brother did send me a very large check a while back for any kind of overrun that might occur. They will not know if the boards underneath need to be replaced until they tear the shingles off. My insurance does not cover board replacement. I am very blessed to have such a wonderful and caring brother.

So now it is hi ho, hi ho, off to the kitchen I go to get my food prepped and made for tomorrow. I really have to work hard at keeping ahead since I am making everything from scratch.

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:25 am
by alliesmama4
I am in use it up mode. I am making cornmeal muffins with the last of the masa harina and the last of the store bought gluten free all-purpose flour. I will measure out the remaining GF all-purpose flour to see how much is left and then try to find a recipe that correlates with what I have. I have one large chicken breast thawing out in the fridge. It is the last of any kind of meat in my freezer. I do have canned salmon, canned tuna, as well as canned cheese. The cheese is from emergency supply storage and it is sort of like cheddar but does not have the texture or taste of store bought cheese that is refrigerated. I have a lot of it since they had a big discount on case purchases a long time ago. I am just filling in today with fresh produce like lettuce, cabbage, radishes, and potatoes. My aide is shopping for me right now so not sure how much eggs are but hopefully they will be as cheap as last time..59 cents doz.

I cut my hair a few weeks ago. I put it in a pony tail and cut six inches off. I wanted to be able to put it in a pony tail so that I could still use my clip on hair piece. My hair is still long to just about my collar bone. The hair piece makes it so nice to get ready in a hurry and not have to fuss over curling it and you still look presentable.

I have a vegetarian cook book that I like to use but is getting long in the tooth. About 25 years old. The plastic ring binder was starting to break off. I did not want to throw it away but knew the end was near. Then last night remembered I have rings in my sewing room. They are used for putting your current embroidery thread on them to keep them all in one area while working. I found the smallest one and it worked perfectly just putting it through the second from the top holes on each page. I may have to to reinforce the hole as time goes on but I do have those little ring thingy's that they sell for just such a purpose. Not sure what they are called.

Next on my list of things to find a solution for was with the A/C is on and makes it fairly cool in the house. I want to make a loaf of gluten free bread but have no draft free warm place to let it rise. The other day I realized I might be able to use my old microwave that no longer works. It is over the stove and it cannot be used to microwave but kept it there to prevent a big gap in the kitchen cabinet area and use it to store thing that might attract a mouse ie flour, noodles etc. I removed everything and turned the light on over the stove and put two cooking thermometers in there. The light added just the right amount of heat to help yeast rise. Problem solved.

Teddi went to the Vet the other day for his rabies shot, tag, and heart worm medicine another $53.00 out the door. He has been doing ok on and off. However about 10 min after we came home he jumped in to my lap and started to throw up. Poor little guy. Since he got sick last month his usual care and medical bills have come to over $500.00.. Yikes!! I really need to rework my budget somehow to start to save more for his "just in case" medical needs.

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:29 pm
by alliesmama4
My cornmeal muffins made with masa haraina were really good. I also made chocolate pudding from scratch using pantry items. I did use real sugar as a test to see how it tasted but have decided from now on to use stevia in powder form. I am going to make up some packets and put them in my pantry and next time it will be just as easy to pull a packet out of a can in my pantry and much cheaper than buying it from the store. I have a lot of cocoa powder on hand due to buying it on sale and then never getting around to using it.

I found two very large cans of dehydrated corn in my emergency supplies. I had bought a sample box of the various things from Honeyville (2007). I wanted to try all of the different dried veggies but you did not have a choice you had to take what they offered in the box you do not get to pick and chose. Currently using the dried onions, carrots, celery, instant potatoes but not sure what to do with the corn. I am not big on corn except for a once in a blue moon serving and this can will last forever once I open it. Then had another ah-ha moment. I wondered if it can be ground up to make cornmeal which I am out of right now.. Yes you can. I have a Vita-Mixer so will be working on making cornmeal in the near future. There also are 2 big cans of peas. Not fond of canned or dehydrated peas but keep seeing pea flour on various sites. Not sure what it is or what it taste like but will be looking in to it to see what it is all about.

Eggs were .69 cents up from .59 cents a dozen still a bargain. Just buying a few veggies and treats it came to $10.77 for groceries this week. The treats were generic cool whip for .90 cent. You have to have cool whip when you have strawberry shortcake and chocolate pudding. You have to have some simple pleasures in life. Then I also had her buy some bananas ( 4) .55 cents and tortillas chips (.89 cents) to use with the homemade salsa I made the other day. My budget was $12.22 for the month of July. That was with rolling over $ 6.22 from last month and making $6.00 in survey's recently. I planned on buying a rotisserie chicken this Sunday but will hold off for a while since I found a large chicken breast in the freezer last night and will be cooking it tomorrow or Saturday.

Although I no longer have money in my emergency fund I do have a little bit of money in my slush fund for extras in the way of food. So will see if I can squeak through the rest of the month with what I have or will have to dip in to the slush fund. When I do decide to buy the chicken it will be with store rewards $2.00 and survey money $3.00 so out of pocket it will come to $1.46.. It is going to be an interesting rest of the month and fun to see what I come up with.

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:23 pm
by 2dogs+someCats
Janet, thank you for your inspiring ways of obtaining and using ingredients for meals! When I get home from the library, I will be making oat bars to have as snacks for the coming week My recipe is normally made with dates but I'm out of dates - so I'll be digging through the pantry and improvising.

It's a lovely day so I'm off. Take care.

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:47 pm
by alliesmama4
2dogs+someCats wrote: Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:23 pm Janet, thank you for your inspiring ways of obtaining and using ingredients for meals! When I get home from the library, I will be making oat bars to have as snacks for the coming week My recipe is normally made with dates but I'm out of dates - so I'll be digging through the pantry and improvising.

It's a lovely day so I'm off. Take care.
Sheila hope you found something to improvise with. I love doing it. Yum on the oat bars..

Hope you really enjoyed your lovely day.

Re: Our 2019 No Spend Challenge

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 1:19 pm
by alliesmama4
I really, really, really need to start to mark things when I put them in the freezer. I am out of freezer tape so did not have anything to write on the freezer bag to indicate what was in it. What I thought was a large chicken breast was a large bag of chicken skin..Bummer. After I discovered what it was I remembered taking it off of a large family sized package of chicken thighs. The keto diet uses the skins for a lot of different things which right now turns me off.. Who wants to fry up a bunch of skins and eat them just like that. Although I hear some restaurants are actually doing that for keto patrons. So threw it back in the freezer. Was going to throw it away next trash day but a friend said to render the skins down to make schmaltz. I am thinking of doing that but not for a while. Anyway what to fix for dinner since I was out of chicken and beef. I decided on vegetarian Thai yellow curry. I had Thai yellow curry paste in the freezer so I rummaged through the veggies and decided to make it with potatoes, cabbage, onions, and a half jar of mushrooms. The mushrooms were large slices and gave it more of a meaty texture. I have coconut cream powder so made a cup of that and within about 20 min had a yummy dinner. There was enough sauce leftover so I made another meal last night with the same ingredients. Today having a salad with homemade ranch dressing using a keto recipe. Dinner will be salmon patties, potato salad, and coleslaw. With a new batch of chocolate pudding using stevia powder and reconstituted milk. I found enough the other day to make a half gallon of milk so I am using it to cook with. Not fond of powdered milk to drink but it is good in cooking and baking. I do have a product called "Better Than Milk" and it does taste good to drink it but not good for coffee or to use in instant pudding from the store.

I am finally going to crack open a can of dehydrated pork chops. I have been saving them for hard times and I think it has arrived...lol. I like to soak them in water and then put them in the fridge overnight.. They seem to me just like a nice lean pork chops. I will not hydrate all of them since once hydrated you have to treat them like fresh pork and use right away. The can go in the fridge for up to 1 year.

That's it for now off to do kitchen duty..Just call me Cinderella except no evil stepmother or sisters..

Side note.. one of my cousins was doing family genealogy and someone in our family, a long time ago, actually named their DD Cinderella. Another distant relative was named "Mourning." I wish I could time travel to talk to these people to get their real life stories and how why your would name a DD Mourning.