Frugal In Florida

I'm hoping that you all are enjoying the DIY series that I've been trying to keep up with ... I know this week I'm a little late ... I wanted to share the Ketchup this week but things have gotten away from me, so I will recycle an all time favorite:   MAYO.   Yes, mayonnaise!   I'm a mayo snob, I'll admit it. Do NOT ever put that Miracle stuff anywhere near my plate ... and no, I do not like Kraft either. Only Hellman's ... thank you very much.   BUT ... once I made the stuff from scratch (it's really easy, I promise!) I never ever looked at another sale jar of mayo again.   Oh. Well. Sort of ... I do buy the jar, I think maybe 2 in the last 12 months? Only because if we are doing something with heavy mayo, I'd be dying in the kitchen to keep up, you know?   For the most part though, it's the stuff from scratch. Hubby will even inquire if we have enough for say, Blackened Chicken Sandwiches (birthday party, 10 people), or Blue Cheese Dre...

I sort of like keeping track of what I did to be a little more frugal ... so much so that I've started to really track ALL my spending ... I created a spreadsheet in excel and have categories like "entertainment" which covers dinners out and Netflix, "booze" because I wanted to move that out of the food budget (seriously, I spent about $50 or so a month on beer/wine) and a few other categories I wouldn't normally have set up ... I'm hoping I can get a better grip on the spending and really get refocused on being more frugal. Here are a few things that we did this past week:   1.  Hosted a last minute 23rd birthday party on Saturday night ... Hubby made the cake and frosting with what we had on hand, opted to make blackened chicken sandwiches because I had lots of thin cut chicken breast and we also made Italian taters (boiled red taters, marinate in Italian dressing and finish off on charcoal grill) ... I made the warmed onion dip and salsa for app...

AND ... entering Week 33 of Hubby's Unemployment Adventures. Hmmm ... that's a little unsettling to see 33 weeks of being out of work. I did a pretty big shop at Costco this past Friday night after work. Didn't feel like I bought a lot of "food" so to speak, frozen fruit, yes, bratwursts, yes, hemp hearts, yes, eggs, bacon, and a few other odds and ends ... but not a lot of food ... hmmm We are still doing a "pantry challenge" sort of. I suppose maybe I should be calling it a reduced spending challenge as that might be more appropriate? So, continuing forward ... here's what we are planning for the week: Sunday - Chopped Steaks with Mushrooms and Sauce ... watch for the recipe this week! Beef from freezer (I think that's the last package?) shrooms in fridge and the balance of ingredients from pantry/fridge Monday - I was going to do salads tonight, but we have leftovers: pulled pork from Friday, steak from Saturday and chopped steak ...

I suppose the title probably gives it all away ... They aren't really boiled! Doh! Honestly. I've seen this pinned so many times and I think I've probably re pinned it numerous times and finally, FINALLY, I tried it. Guess what? It works, and can I just tell you that this is how I will be doing it from here on out? So easy and so convenient! Ready for the nitty gritty details? Get yourself one dozen eggs (that's twelve total!) Get yourself a muffin tin. Hopefully, you won't be like me and say "hmmm...where is the muffin pan?" due to lack of use ... yes, I found it! Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place an egg in each tin. It's meant to be: one dozen eggs fits a 12 cup muffin tin perfect. The stars have finally aligned! Place the pan in the oven and set the oven to cook for 30 minutes. Since you are doing something to save time and money, just leave the light off. You really don't need to peek at them to see the stat...