Frugal In Florida

NOTE: This is a repost from a while ago ... Hubby was requesting I make a batch of this for the upcoming week ... It's been quite a while since I've been to Olive Garden ... but man, I loved the never ending salad and breadsticks .... yummmmm .... I bet I ate a whole batch of them damn breadsticks. Now, I can't walk in there ... I know I have NO willpower and well, I would just pay the price for it a few days later ... There are a LOT of recipes out there that claim to be "Just Like Olive Garden", however, they use cream cheese, ranch dressing packets, and so on. This one does NOT. It's fairly healthy, with the exception of the corn syrup, which if anyone has a substitution, by all means, LET ME KNOW! This is a very very thin dressing, not thick and creamy like you would expect .... I would recommend you double IF you like your salad dressing and plan on sharing! Italian Dressing - just like OG ... 1/2 cup mayo 1/3 cup white vinegar 1 tsp veg oi

Note: I had this post all ready to go Sunday but got sidetracked with my list ... then Monday came around and it was time for the every few week visit to the hospital with my dad (he's ok, I think, migraine headache and blurry vision but nothing is visible so far on cat/mri and such). It's Sunday and time to put up the menu plan for the week ... BUT ... I'm dragging today ... too much fun Saturday night, and this old girl is paying the price ... should had a bottle of water instead of that last beer at 1am ... live and learn, I suppose. Not a whole lot of stuff going on this week that I know of ... hoping to keep the meals under control and stay focused on the following: Healthier choices AND frugal choices. Doesn't sound so difficult, does it? Yeah, right. I know ... So in my attempt to keep using up what we have (which is starting to show slim pickins in areas ... like chicken ...), here's what I'm planning .... Sunday - leftovers from Saturday

Last nights Halloween festivities went over pretty well ... we actually had a blast and I'm so thankful that we can walk there and back ... The weather was cool, a little breezy and thankfully, NO RAIN for once. We did however have to deal with a bit of water on the ground from the extreme high tides and since we live on the water, the water comes up through the drainage so there was quite a bit of water to skirt around in areas. But FUN FUN FUN ... and my wooden ruler was apparently a well executed after thought (um, I dressed as a Nun and Hubby was a Priest ... adult versions on both sides if you can just imagine). So today, it's 11:30am, and I'm draggin. Yeah, a 'little' hangover, but nothing serious. Just tired and no energy. And leg cramps. I need to drink MORE WATER as I know I'm dehydrated. Regardless, I have tons of things that I want to accomplish today ... will be interesting to see just what gets done! Make biscuits laundry, iron and put away

Finally, I got ONE freezer done ... geesh. It's only been on my to do list for oh, 3 months? Really. And I still have 2 others to hit on but at least I got 1/3 of the list done! Curious about what I found? I was a little apprehensive ... and sort of hoped to find a secret stash of chicken ... but NOPE, not in this one! Here's what I found ... 1 pkg turkey breakfast sausage (hubby eats this stuff) 1 pkg of turkey burgers 2 bags of precooked steak strips (Costco) 1 pkg of bacon 1 pkg of honey ham 1 pkg turkey sausage links 1 pkg of pork sausage patties (hubby ate both of these Sunday) 1 pkg Chicago style hot dogs 4 Bubba burgers half package of Costco Dinner Franks 1/2 bag of honey BBQ Chicken strips 6 White Castle burgers 1/2 bag of raw chicken strips 1 1/2 lb raw shrimp 3 1/2 bags of cooked shrimp, 1 lb each large bag of red shrimp, only a handful removed 2 chicken mango sausage links 6 pkgs of chicken breakfast sausage 1/2 bag flame roasted chicken

Not a whole lot going on this week, so to speak. I do have to work and I will be busy but do not foresee anything popping up and ruining potential meal plans! Hubby is home, thankfully. So I will need to be back on track, cooking things that he enjoys too.  I will hold off on any major full meal plan changes until after Halloween ... I'm playing with the idea of doing a real, whole food menu plan for 3 weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I just don't know if he will hop on willingly ... he's sort of set in his ways with food ... I am still going to try and use what we have on hand, for the most part ... but I also need to hit up Doris Italian Market for the $1.69/lb boneless skinless chicken breast, Winn Dixie has 80/20 ground beef for $2.49 (um, yes, I HATE Winn Dixie, but still, that's a GREAT price) and I've not bought any veggies this weekend yet ... so there will be a few small stops Monday and Tuesday, shooting for about $40 or so... So here you have it,

At least I've been home all week, but it's been BUSY ... plus Hubby came home (at last!), and I spent 6 hours yesterday doing something that I thought would take 2 hours (dad stuff) so I need to get caught up ... ready for the list? menu plan (need to be sure to link OR pull the recipes for easier living). Pull ONE new recipe. Make menu based on what's in house.   inventory main freezer  and post   make chili   make biscuits   make crackers   slice and dice veggies for week   laundry, fold and iron. Lastly, put away!   clean laundry room (the dust bunnies sort of freak me out!)   pay bills   balance checkbook   discuss Halloween festivities with Hubby for Saturday night (in other words, what ARE we going to do???)   redo linen closet in hallway. This closet holds ONLY towels and good grief, it's a mess.   Evaluate guest hall closet. I've cleaned it out previously and I think I can clear it out a step further.  

I had mentioned over on my Menu Plan that I would post the recipe, and well, here it is. It's nothing overly exciting. But anything that changes up the boring, same ole' same ole' chicken is good for me! And the fact that it's super easy to throw together makes it a huge bonus for me! Just for the record: the broccoli was NOT consumed by me ...   My original recipe comes from both Health Bent and the Practical Paleo cookbook. One used honey, the other used maple syrup. I have an abundance of both. Such problems to be found in my pantry, let me tell you! So, using both recipes, I came up with my own. Which is still pretty much like using both recipes ... so few ingredients do not leave a whole lot of room to switch it up ... 4 lbs of bone in chicken thighs. Only because they were cheaper at the store. AND they didn't have skin on them. I like my chicken thighs naked. Too much fatty stuff for me otherwise. 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup dijon mustard 6 tbs