Crash and Burn Items

 I went to Walmart today to see if they had any ground beef marked down, but didn't find any meat, although I did find some canned goods marked down.

They had these small cans of Spaghettios marked down to 15¢ each. (They were the small cans) The middle school here makes snack packs for the students and they ask for canned pasta and soup regularly, so I will be passing these along to them. They only had four cans, but I could not pass them up for that price. 

They also had Campbell's Home Style soup for 25¢. It is the Italian Style Wedding Soup, but I couldn't pass it up for that price and bought four cans. I don't know if students would eat this or not. What do you think?

And last but not least, for our pantry, I found six cans of cut Hanover Italian Green Beans. They are the big cans, 38 ounces, and were only 50¢ a can, so I bought them all. What a great deal.  :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

The Weekend Edition

Good morning! Food City has a great sale on tomatoes through Tuesday. The 28 ounce cans are only 79¢ with a limit of twelve cans. There is a big variety available. I made sure to pick up my twelve cans this week.

 They also have cream cheese for 99¢ and one dozen eggs for 49¢. You will have to buy four items to get the sale price, but you can mix and match. I bought four dozen eggs and four cream cheeses. 

On Saturday, I made Cauliflower Taco meat for dinner. This is the second time I have made this recipe from Brand New Vegan.
 Here is a link:  Cauliflower Taco Meat
As with most recipes, I did change some things. I  didn't have any mushrooms either time, so I simply left those out. Last time I used all the spices involved, but this time I just added taco seasoning mix and smoked paprika. 
I also used Worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce because that is what I had on hand. Also, I wanted a Mexican type dish and I think soy sauce would make it more Asian. 
I think this would be a very versatile recipe too. I could see adding chopped up potatoes, which I do with ground beef for tacos, would be a great addition. I also think black olives would be a good addition. 

Cauliflower Taco Meat
Ingredients:
One small head cauliflower 4 ounces fresh mushrooms 1 cup walnuts 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp ground pepper 1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the core from the cauliflower and cut up into small pieces and wash. Pulse in the food processor until you have a rice like consistency. Place in a mixing bowl.  Pulse the mushrooms in a food process until  you have a rice like consistency. Do the same with the walnuts.  Stir in the soy sauce and spices and mix well.  Bake for 45 minutes stirring about half way through. 
My daughter loves this dish already. She has even eaten it cold right out of the fridge. I love that fact that it is plant based and healthy. When I was hand washing the dishes after dinner I loved that fact that there was no grease on any of the dishes like there is after we've had tacos made with ground beef.  

I have a busy week ahead of me as I am working everyday.
 I hope you all have a good week!

Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Hurst's Pizza Beans

Hurst's Pizza Beans

I made Hurst's Pizza Beans for dinner on Saturday night. They were very good and hearty and I will be adding these to our menu rotation. 
You can find the recipe by clicking on the link above or here. 
Ingredients:
1 package HamBeens® 15 BEAN SOUP®1 white onion, diced2 green bell peppers, diced3 cloves garlic, chopped1lb. ground Italian sausage (mild, sweet, or hot)6oz. sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters7 cups chicken stock24oz. of your favorite marinara sauceShredded mozzarella for topping
Directions:
Rinse and sort through the beans. Check for any debris and discard. Pour beans into a large bowl or pot, cover with water by 2" and allow to soak overnight (or at minimum 4 hours). When ready to cook, discard the excess water.
Turn stove to medium-high, and in a large Dutch oven sauté the ground sausage and pepperoni until sausage is completely browned.
Spoon out the meats, pour off any excess grease, then add the onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock and turn heat to high. Use your spoon to scrape off any browned bits on the bottom of the pot as this will add great flavor. Add the meats & soaked beans (no marinara yet!) back into the pot and bring to a boil.
Cover the pot and place into a 350º oven for 2 hours, stir the beans halfway through the time.
When beans are completely tender, stir in the marinara sauce. Put pot back in the oven for an additional 20 minutes, then turn oven to warm until ready to serve.
The recipe can be very versatile. For example, the recipe calls for green peppers, which I like, but other family members don't and they do tend to permeate a dish when they are included, so I simply left them out. 
There is a list of suggested add-ins at the recipe site, which includes black olives. As we were eating these I was thinking black olives would be a good addition. 
The recipe actually says to add any of your favorite pizza toppings to the beans. 
My daughter said the dish reminded her of lasagna. Probably because of the use of the marinara sauce. We didn't even use much cheese either, just a small sprinkling on top, so there is a big savings on cheese for this dish verses actual lasagna. 
And of course using beans instead of noodles helps to keep my blood sugar stable. 
Please let me know if you decide to try the recipe and what you think of it.   :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

It's Not All Bad News

This past week was Fall Break from school, so I had some extra time to get some things done around the house. 
One job was to take my old car to the tire shop to repair the tire with the slow leak. 
This tire had a nail in it and was breaking down inside, which meant it could not be repaired. Rather than go with a new tire for $87 I bought a used tire for $25, which saved me some money. I only drive this car for certain errands and as a backup vehicle, so this works for me. 
Another thing I did this week was to hand wash my old car. It had several areas that were really dirty and moldy and it definitely benefited from hand washing. It looks so much better and didn't cost me anything except a few sore muscles. Getting older is not for the faint of heart.  :)
In other bad news this week, the breaker on our freezer tripped last week and we did not notice until it was too late. So, I had to throw away all the food inside and clean it out. 
This freezer sits on our back porch, which is located on the second floor of our home. I was able to bring the outside hose upstairs to clean it out, which helped a great deal. It was a big job, but I'm glad it's done. I have it plugged in again, but will not be using it until I purchase a freezer alarm for it. 
This is the time of year where one of my favorite apples is available, which is the honey crisp apple, but they can be expensive. I've seen them priced at $2.99 and higher. 
However, I have found one way to save money on them. Since these apples are expensive, I figure that not many people are buying them, so they tend to be the type of apples that I find on produce markdown shelves. 
I went to Food City today to pick up a prescription and naturally went to check the produce mark downs and sure enough there were two packages of Honey Crisp Apples on markdown. 
I was apple to get 12 apples for $2.98 or 25¢ each, which is a great deal and much cheaper than paying for them at the regular retail price. 
Blog Business
For the time being I wanted to let my readers know that I've turned the comment section from being able to post automatically to moderated for the time being. I had spam from the same user on multiple posts, which have already been deleted. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~