Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen ~ Menu Plan Monday

 

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen

My Frugal Week

One of my friends gave me some sweet potatoes this week and it was more than we could reasonable eat right now, so I baked them in the oven and then peeled and mashed them up and stored them in freezer containers and placed in our freezer. Now we will have sweet potatoes for months to come.

On Friday I took a bag of chicken leg quarters out of the freezer to thaw and then cooked them on Saturday and pulled all the meat off the bones. I ended up with four cups of chicken meat. 

I used part of the chicken to make White Chicken Enchiladas for dinner and then made a second batch of enchilada filling, but put that into the freezer for another meal later. Bailey, who didn’t know I used dark meat, complimented how good they were. She thinks dark meat has a lot more flavor than white meat. 

What was for Dinner…

Meatless Monday ~ BBQ Pork, Corn on the Cob, Cucumber Salad. 

Tuesday ~ Homemade pizzas for movie night along with garden salad. 

Wednesday & Thursday~ Pizza Beans~ It's been a while since I've made these and I forgot how good they taste. We definitely need to be making them more often. 

Friday ~ Grilled Chicken, Steamed Broccoli. 

Saturday ~ Pizza Bowls, Corn on the Cob, Deviled Eggs, Golden Honeydew Melon. 

Sunday ~ White Chicken Enchiladas, Garden Salads. 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

These are some of the meals I am considering making this week based on food we have on hand. 

Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Grilled Salmon

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

Soup Beans & Cornbread

Be sure to come back next week to see what other main dishes and sides we serve with these main dishes. 

 resourceful and raid your cupboards or

Belinda

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Homemade yogurt that didn’t set up well – mixed with some homemade jam;

Leftover Jell-O that didn’t set up well or Jell-O that you make for this purpose from a store brand.

Juice or syrup left over from canned fruit. 

Juice that has been in the fridge and needs to be used up.

Kool-Aid or lemonade mixes bought on sale.

Fourth Frugal Friday of August 2023

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
We went to multiple yard sales on Saturday and Bailey picked up fifteen pieces for her online shops. I found a really nice Kitchen Aid stand mixer for $30, but was able to easily haggle the guy down to $20. I’ve not decided if I want to keep it or flip it yet. 
My Dad is back in town for the time being, so I brought lunch to him on Monday and we had a really nice visit. 
Our power went off on Tuesday evening for about 1 & 1/2 hours. It got hot really quickly with no fan running, so I was very happy when it came back on that night. Speaking of electric, you remember that our a/c was struck by lightning recently. Our electric bill for the month came to $246.23, which is $77.63 less than our electric bill last month. 
We also called Verizon this week and changed our plan with them to save money on our monthly cell phone plan. Since we no longer use their internet, we do not need an unlimited plan with them. This should save us approximately $30 per month. 
What I've been Reading This Week
The 1940’s Experiment ~ Carolyn has a free pandemic cookbook on her blog if you’re interested. She also has a YouTube channel located here. 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

BelindaMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Menu Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in our Frugal Kitchen

 

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen

My Frugal Week

We had a very frugal week this past week eating every meal at home. 

Recipe of the Week

Green Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

16 ounces green salsa verde

8 ounce block cream cheese

Chicken Breast

Directions: 

I used a bag of Tyson oven roasted diced chicken breast and put that in the crockpot on low for a couple of hours. About an hour before dinner I added a block of cream cheese and let that melt well. 

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Chicken Nachos, with Lettuce, Tomatoes and Onions. 

Taco Tuesday ~ I actually made Tacos for Taco Tuesday. Tacos with cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions. 

Wednesday ~ Bailey had a dentist appointment and stopped in at Walmart afterwards and found four hamburgers on markdown. So, we had those for dinner on Keto buns along with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. I also had a ginger gstirfry vegetable kit to go with them. 

Thursday ~ I made a new to us recipe for Green Chicken Chili from Tonya on TikTok. She made this into a cottage cheese bowl, but we left the cottage cheese out. The recipe was very rich even though I used the low-fat cream cheese. I think half a block of cream cheese could be used instead of the whole block. I served this with baked potatoes and broccoli. 

Friday ~ Bailey had a movie night with her dear friend, so I was on my own for dinner. I had a nice salad with romaine, broccoli, cucumbers, green olives, beets, tomatoes, nuts, light ranch, and rotisserie chicken. It was delicious. 

Saturday ~ Grilled Blackened Chicken on Garden Salads. I made this with olive oil and some spices and then cooked the chicken on 400 degrees for 12 minutes in the air fryer. 

Sunday ~ Sunday Tea~Spa Day ~ I used some of the chicken from Saturday night dinner and chopped it in the food processor and made chicken salad with grapes and pecans. We had plenty of fruit on hand to accompany the chicken salad, such as peaches, nectarines, cantaloupe, and golden honey dew. 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

The items we have on hand to make meals this week include chicken, pork, canned salmon, eggs, frozen salmon filets, and ground beef. Vegetables include sweet potatoes, romaine, corn, peas, green beans, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes. 

I’m definitely going to be making pizza beans this week. Maybe a quiche or breakfast for dinner too?

Be sure to come back next week to see what main dishes we decide on and what side dishes we serve with them. 

your cupboards or

Belinda

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Homemade yogurt that didn’t set up well – mixed with some homemade jam;

Leftover Jell-O that didn’t set up well or Jell-O that you make for this purpose from a store brand.

Juice or syrup left over from canned fruit. 

Juice that has been in the fridge and needs to be used up.

Kool-Aid or lemonade mixes bought on sale.

Third Frugal Friday of August 2023

 

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week
On Monday I went to the retina specialist for another injection in my left eye. He said it was better than it was last time, but still needs work. And now he said my right eye might need an injection also. I certainly hope that does not happen. 
We picked up a Walmart grocery order afterwards, and an RX from CVS before heading home for the day. 
On Tuesday I washed all the towels and wash clothes, folded them and put  them away. And did the same thing with my laundry on Wednesday. I’ve been doing laundry early in the mornings and limiting the laundry to two loads to avoid heating up the laundry room. 
We sorted things for the consignment sale coming up in September. We always think we won’t have anything to sell this time, but then we usually find something. I love having everything decluttered. It makes it so much easier to find the things I use and need easily. 
Freebies
Bailey went to the trading post last Sunday and picked up a few freebies for us to enjoy. Potatoes, green beans, Jiffy mix, and also a Perdue roasting chicken, which is not in the photo as I had already stuck it in the freezer. 

We also received a free copy of Good Housekeeping in the mail this week. There was a section inside on the Mediterranean Diet. 

It was a pretty quiet week here with lots of sunshine and warm weather. Today is yard sale day. Is anyone going to check those out?

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.

BelindaMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Menu Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in our Frugal Kitchen

 

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen

My Frugal Week

We ran to town on Thursday to pick up a new water filter for our kitchen faucet and stopped in at Aldi for a few groceries. Red grapes are on sale for 99¢ a pound this week, so we picked up a couple of bags of those, along with five cartons of eggs for 98¢ each. Lettuce, tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon were also added to our cart. 

On Friday evening I washed all the melons and cut them up to be stored in the refrigerator. I like to cut melons on Fridays, so the rinds can go off with the garbage on Saturday. Then on Saturday I rearranged items in the refrigerator to avoid food waste. We eat onions every day,  and I usually have a small bowl of them in there and and I don’t want any of them them to go to waste. 

Recipe of the Week

Back in 1996 some friends and I were members of the Slim & Trim diet club and we would meet once a week, share recipes and support one another on a low carb diet.

This recipe for "Almost Spaghetti" uses bean sprouts rather than spaghetti noodles to avoid the carbs in the pasta. I used to make it quite often back then and remember it being tasty. 

Almost Spaghetti

Ingredients:

10 ounces ground beef

14 ounce can bean sprouts

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions: 

 

Brown ground beef in heavy skillet and drain.

Add pepper, onion, tomato sauce, and spices.

Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add bean sprouts and heat through.

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ I took the second part of the rotisserie chicken from last week out of the freezer and added enchilada sauce, corn, pinto beans, and cheese and rolled them into enchiladas. I topped with more enchilada sauce and cheese and then served them with green peas and black olives. 

Tuesday ~ It was movie night at the actual theater, so we picked up a pizza at the local Italian restaurant and enjoyed that once we arrived home. 

Wednesday ~ I had some rice in the refrigerator that I needed to use up, so I split it into two and made both Fiesta Rice and Rice & Cheese (Like Mac & Cheese, but with rice instead) for dinner. I served both with a garden salad on the side. I was out of American cheese, so I used cheddar instead and it was a big hit. 

Thursday ~ Chicken Fajitas with Onions, Tortillas, Lettuce, Onions, Tomatoes, and Corn. We have plenty of leftovers for lunch on Friday. 

Friday ~ Bailey had a movie night with one of her friends and had pizza for dinner. So, I had the night off from cooking and had a delicious peach over cottage cheese. 

Saturday & Sunday ~ I decided to make  Chicken & Chili Chimichangas, which is one of my favorite dishes. I used mild green chilies, so there is no spicy heat involved, which I prefer. I served this with corn on the cob, lettuce, tomatoes and diced onions. Watermelon for afterwards. 🍉 

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

I'm wanting to try a new recipe this week for Green Chicken Chili and if it works out I will share it with you next week. We are also having Almost Spaghetti and we have chicken, pork, and bacon on hand. And we have plenty of beans for meatless dishes also. So, be sure to come back next week to see what sides we serve with these main dishes. 

Belinda

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Homemade yogurt that didn’t set up well – mixed with some homemade jam;

Leftover Jell-O that didn’t set up well or Jell-O that you make for this purpose from a store brand.

Juice or syrup left over from canned fruit. 

Juice that has been in the fridge and needs to be used up.

Kool-Aid or lemonade mixes bought on sale.

Second Frugal Friday August 2023

Welcome to Frugal Friday! 
My Frugal Week

Walgreens is offering a free 8x10 photograph this week using code Summer-Fun. I went through my photos and picked this one of my sister and me with Mom back from the early 1970s. That is me in front with my bangs cut at home, obviously. 😂 My sister has a birthday in October, so I will send it to her then. 
I received a $10 settlement in the Sure deodorant class action lawsuit this week. 
On Tuesday we went to Bargain Tuesday at the local theater and watched the new Barbie movie. We are members of their rewards program, so we also both got a free popcorn. The movie takes us on a journey of valuable life lessons, and sends a message of self acceptance needed in today’s world. I was delightfully surprised by the film.
Saving Money YouTube Videos
Low Dough Family
Saving on Entertainment
Did you know that the final episode of M*A*S*H is on YouTube? I remember where  I was on February 28, 1983 when the final episode aired. I was with my dear friend Tina, and we were at her house and we watched it together.  That was over forty years ago, but it is till one of my favorite television shows. 

Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here. 
 It was a quiet week around here, so this is a short blog post. 

BelindaMortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Menu Plan Monday ~ Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen August 7, 2023

Saving Money in my Frugal Kitchen

My Frugal Week

I perused the grocery store sale ads online as usual looking for any good loss leaders to stock up on this week. We went to Kroger on Wednesday and picked up several loss leaders. 

First off was this eight ounce block of mozzarella cheese for 63 cents. That almost trumps the time we bought cheese for 50 cents a block at the close out store, but that was twenty years ago. We also used a digital coupon and picked up the 32 ounce blocks of cheese for $4.99, normally priced at $7.99, which is also a great price. 

Second were these containers with four yogurts inside for $1.20. I normally pay $2.47 for the Great Value brand at Walmart, so this was a very good deal. 

Next was a 33 ounce container of Noosa strawberry yogurt for $1.76, which normally sells for $5.49, so another good deal. This has the best flavor and was so good!

Next was this container of Everything Bagel dip for 66 cents.

We also picked up a garlic and herb rotisserie chicken on mark down for $3.20, which works out to $1.60 per pound. 

And finally from Food City, which I stopped in after my dentist appointment on Tuesday. I found this later in the afternoon around four o'clock, which surprised me that it was still there. The price worked out to $2.29 per pound, which is good these days. 

Recipe of the Week

This is my recipe I use for Dirty Rice. I’ve used smoked sausage, Polish sausage, pecan smoked sausage, pork sausage, and Andouille sausage. This week we used Holmes Smokehouse Pecan Smoked Kielbasa, which we bought from Publix and was delicious.

Dirty Rice

Ingredients:

Your choice of meat (12 to 16 ounces)

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups cooked rice

1 onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun Spice Mix (recipe below)

Directions:

I cook my rice ahead of time using 1 part rice to 2 parts broth or water. 

Then I have leftover rice for another meal later in the week.

You can also cook your rice in with the meat after it’s browned, if you prefer.

Pan fry your meat selection in a skillet with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

Add the holy trinity of onions, celery, and bell peppers.

Cook for five minutes or until softened.

Add rice and stir well.

Add two to three teaspoons of Cajun seasoning mix.

Mix well and heat throughout.

Serve and enjoy.

Cajun Seasoning Mix

If you want to make this more Creole style you can add some chili powder to the mix. I like making my own Cajun seasoning mix because I can control the hot spices that go into the mix. Feel free to add cayenne pepper to your spice mix if you prefer.

Ingredients:

5 teaspoons paprika

3 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons garlic powder

4 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried thyme

Directions:

Add all spices together in a small mason jar.

Stir together well, label, and store with other spices.

What’s for Dinner

Monday ~ Dirty Rice with Pecan Smoked Sausage, Cole Slaw, Green Peas. 

Tuesday ~ I made extra rice on Monday, so today I made some Chicken Fried Rice. Of course, this is movie night for Bailey, so she had her usual movie night pizza with chicken and red onions. 

Wednesday ~ Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy. 

Thursday ~ Taco Thursday ~ We bought some ground chuck at Food City on markdown, so I fixed that for supper using my homemade taco seasoning mix. I served it with lettuce, tomatoes. And onions. 

Friday ~ Taco Meat with Cottage Cheese and Tomatoes.

Saturday & Sunday ~ White Chicken Enchiladas, Corn, Salad. I used the rotisserie chicken we bought on mark down for this dish, and I used blended cottage cheese instead of sour cream. I also made some more popsicles today using black cherry koolaid and jello along with some monk fruit as sweetener.

What’s on the Menu for This Coming Week

These are the items we have on hand that I can use to make meals this week. We have a lot of chicken on hand, bacon, and pork, so I can make Chicken Fried Rice,  BLTs, and Quiche. Be sure to come back next week to see what sides we serve with these main dishes. 

 resourceful and raid your cupboards or

Belinda

Mortgage & Debt Free~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27

Homemade yogurt that didn’t set up well – mixed with some homemade jam;

Leftover Jell-O that didn’t set up well or Jell-O that you make for this purpose from a store brand.

Juice or syrup left over from canned fruit. 

Juice that has been in the fridge and needs to be used up.

Kool-Aid or lemonade mixes bought on sale.