Frugal In Florida

You all know that I am NO longer allowed to drink Fireball, right?  Apparently, if I drink it too late in the night, I tend to drink MORE and then I get all pukey ... not a good thing by any one's standards, trust me.  The thought of Fireball makes me shudder now. Any way. Vodka, on the other hand ... well, that certainly got Hubby's attention ... and then we were thinking, ahhh, Indiana in the winter ... how comforting! Maybe? I don't know.  All I DO know is that I made this in a small batch (Hubby wanted a whole bottle's worth!) to make a apple cider grown up drink and I'm hooked now!  I do wish I had made a double batch as this lasted one evening! It's easy to make and remember, the longer you let it sit, the hotter it will be! 1 cup vodka (seriously, I always say go with a better quality when it comes to booze) 1 cinnamon stick (courtesy of Aldis!) 1 tsp sugar Put the vodka in a pint size canning jar. Add the cinnamon stick and sugar. Put the...

It's that time of the week again ... and I'll be honest, sometimes I HATE doing a menu plan ... but I know that even if it's not followed 100%, it's going to save me money at the end of the week! Having an idea of WHAT you have on hand to prepare for a meal keeps you from making that last minute dash to the grocery store for something to throw together quickly, or worse, doing the drive through and the $1 menu. Yikes. I keep telling myself how bad that stuff is for my body in an attempt to stay focused and eat healthier ... it works, most of the time. So. What should I make this week? Hubby is out all this week and comes home NEXT Friday. I could so take an easy way out and make nachos and microwave popcorn BUT like I said above, I'm trying to be a little more conscious of what goes in my mouth. So, with him gone, I can make some of my favorite stand bys with avocados and mangos! Wheee! NOTE: I am slowly STILL working my way through the pantry and freezer inve...

I really like doing this post weekly as it keeps me a little more accountable and does make me think twice about some things ;-) Not an overly frugal week if you ask me ... but all in all, we did good.  I stopped at Aldis on Wednesday as I misread the sales paper and thought they had the boneless pork butt on sale for $1.99 that day ... doh, it's this week coming up. Mental note to stop on Wednesday, yet again! Hubby will be traveling this week coming up and into the following week so I'm hoping to have a real frugal week coming up! Here are some of the Frugal Activities that we did this past week: 1.  Ate all but ONE meal at home ... nothing fancy but still satisfying. 2.  Had to take my dad to the VA in Miami for his eye appointment. Basically a 3 hour road trip after the traffic jams/accidents/rain we had to deal with.  I knew that he would be looking for a quick stop for food so I was proactive and filled up 2 large water bottles and cut up a few apples...

Honestly, I don't know WHAT to call this drink ... Peach Mojito? Wrong, it's made with BOURBON. And well, I don't have a particular fondness for Mojitos anyway ... BUT, it is still the same process ... sort of ;-) So ... as usual, it's a Sunday morning, I'm up in the kitchen, cleaning, making coffee, back in bed with the Kindle, reading, beating Level 76 of Candy Crush browsing, Hubby's still in bed, being lazy, watching, what else? FoodTV and it's Bobby Flay's BBQ Addiction ... of course! We don't normally get drawn in to the last part of the show where he makes his cocktail ... but today? We did!  And this is what we made! I had everything on hand, except the mint (my plant got crispified) and peaches (because none of us our peach fans) ... so I thought HEY ... lets make these for pool time later! A quick trip to the store and $10 later, I had more than enough to make these drinks (I bought 6 peaches, SO not necessary!) Such great ...

We usually watch FoodTV in the morning both Saturday and Sunday as we putz around getting the bedroom cleaned up and in the kitchen doing stuff ... sometimes I get a little inspiration and other times I get a complete recipe ;-) Another keeper that I picked up from FoodTV's Trisha Yearwood show ... most of her recipes are super simple to make and use everyday ingredients that you probably already have in stock!  That's what makes this one another winner! I'm trying really hard to NOT buy premade sweet stuff for the house as I have a HARD time saying no ... but if I have to mix up a bunch of ingredients and PREPARE the sweet treat, I'm ok with that ... at least I know exactly whats in there! This recipe is really simple, and chances are,  you have everything to whip up a batch right this second 1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted 2 cups of pretzel sticks, crushed (um, I tossed mine in the Vitamix and gave it a quick whirl) 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 cup plus ...