Frugal In Florida

I really like posting this every week (when I have the time!) as it keeps me more accountable and makes me think twice about some things :-) It's been a real busy week for me, work wise ... which is good, I suppose in that it keeps me out of the stores for the most part ... and with Hubby being busy too, we are not likely to say "lets go grab dinner" if we both get home late and the menu plan falls on the wayside. Yes, the menu plan DID fall on the wayside, but its all good in the neighborhood :-) Thankful I still have this lovely premade margarita stuff and the salt and THE LIMES (crap, they were 3 for $1.99 last week at Publix!) Here are some of the Frugal Activities we did this past week: 1.  Stayed home all weekend long. Granted, I did spend a ton of money on Friday before the holiday weekend, but had everything I need to get through 3 days of bbq, pool party type entertaining. Thankfully. 2.  I'm really low on coffee for the Keurig. I was using the...

It's been a little while since I've posted a DIY recipe ... Sometimes these ideas and things work GREAT, other times, not as well as we'd hoped ... the ketchup is a perfect example ... I just couldn't get the family to embrace it with open arms ... although, it did work great for the cocktail sauce and I bet it would have been excellent for this recipe! This is a Hubby recipe and it's one that I've been on him to make for a while ... imagine that, we had NO BBQ sauce in the house for about a month as I stopped buying it a while ago ... and then we were just using the stuff up in the pantry that I had stockpiled a few years ago ... yes, some of it was beyond the date on the bottle but still perfectly fine (please, no hate mail! I don't believe all expiration dates are to be minded!). Because we finally had NONE left, and Memorial Day weekend was approaching, as is summer, he finally made some! It's pretty simple to make, doesn't reall...

I hope everyone had a wonderful 3 day weekend in honor of Memorial Day! We fished on Saturday ... grilled and partied on Sunday and cleaned and relaxed on Monday. Oy! I couldn't deal with the kitchen and bar floor when I woke up at 7am Monday ... went back to bed and just fidgeted ... was mopping by 7:45am ... headache or not, it was driving me nuts knowing that there was sticky stuff all over. Where it came from, I'm not sure, but having 15 to 18 people going in and out of the pool, grilling, eating, drinking (them baby Guinness's??!!) and then repeat about 100 times and the floor took a beating. But it was fun and I would do it again! :-) ... However, it should be noted that I am on the wagon in more ways than one: Food (both intake and purchasing) has been a little out of control. Been a long time since I've seen the $200 on the screen at PUBLIX (Costco, I can accept, but NOT Publix). Even though I menu plan each and every week, we don,'t always stick to th...

For years, Hubby would make this killer appetizer and I had NO idea it was actually called "CAPRESE SALAD" I've had friends request that I bring this for a gathering ... Doh. I've seen the NAME numerous times, just had no idea what it WAS! Yeah, coming for a self-proclaimed, self-taught foodie, that was slightly embarrassing. So of course, the next time we were out at a more upscale Italian restaurant, we ordered it for the appetizer. Bleh.  What a disappointment. Seriously. Do NOT spend the money for this in the restaurant when you can make a much larger, better tasting version in your own kitchen with little effort. Seriously...tomato season is fast approaching (whee!!!) and you can always pick up the Sorrento sliced "fresh" mozzarella at your local grocery store to create this ... Now remember, this is a Hubby recipe, so things are estimates, NEVER ever measured ;-) 3 nice size, ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced medium thickness.  If th...