Frugal In Florida

Hi hi! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing weekend afterwards?  We did. Well, I seriously considered starting the new round of the Whole30 on Saturday as that past week has had way to much alcohol floating around. I wasn't hung over on Saturday but dang, just tired and blah. Instead, I made myself a bowl of leftovers: beef tenderloin, green beans and riced cauliflower, all heated up in the skillet with a little ghee ... had a cup of coffee and then threw myself on the couch to watch a few movies ;-) We did really good in not killing ourselves financially or mentally on Christmas this year. I'm actually quite proud of ourselves. A lot of things have gone down around here and well, it was just more about everyone coming together and showing our love for one another. It was sunny and hot and the pool cover came off for all (except me) to jump in and play with the pool toys for a bit. That was nice. Ok ... so moving forward. the end of the year is fast approa

*This is a repost from last New Years and well, it's rather fitting again this year! I currently do not have the Prosecco, but DO have 4  now 6 bottles of Champagne in the freezer  fridge (2 Moet, 3 Cuerve and 1 less expensive brand, NOT Korbel!)  Seriously, this is what I will most likely be drinking on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve!  Definitly on New Years Eve since I figured I'm starting another round of Whole30 on Friday and I sure as hell do NOT want to be hungover!  I have 6 bottles of champagne which should be more than adequate for the dinner toastings, the mimosas AND the midnight toast ... if necessary and see it on sale, will buy a few more bottles of Processo ( if it's on sale). I DO have the POM so that's not a problem! Let's face it ... on a whim, I will sometimes buy things spontaneously, with good intentions ... just like when I bought 2 bottles of Prosecco a few months back. By the time I got around to wanting to use them, I couldn't

Hey hey hey, it's getting close to that time of the year where you make all those resolutions and over-acheiver mode goals ;-) Also ... probably time for a Whole30 if you've been following me! So ... here's what we got today:  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 Dressing  ... or ... well, a lot o

Hi Hi! It's that time of the week again and whoa .... we are coming in to the HOLIDAYS fast!! Is anyone else in panic mode that Christmas is like, FIVE days away?? How did that happen?? And then the following week is the New Year ... which also starts a new Whole30 for January! I started a new blog just for that and have been posting my Whole30 recipes over there. I'm also hoping to share my experience there as well so go check it out ! Anyway.  I haven't been posting the menu plan the past few weeks as it's just been busy as heck at work and we've been traveling so really, not a whole lot to share. Doesn't mean that I don't plan, I do! I've started writing on the whiteboard the plan for the week so the rest of the folks in the house can see what I'm looking at too ...  Are you ready for Christmas?? I'm so not. But this year, I said I wasn't going to kill myself (mentally or financially) and so far, so good. Although, I am feelin

I don't know why, but I love to read what other bloggers are buying at the grocery store. Yeah. I guess you could say I'm obsessed with food ... but I 'think' I have a healthy relationship with it ;-) So, with that said, I thought, what the heck, I'll try to share my weekly grocery trips ... and if everything is going according to plan, you would even get a picture or two ... but of course, things don't always go as planned ... but this week, I DO have pics! A bonus for me to share weekly is to keep my grocery budget in check (hopefully!) *My goal for 2016 is $100 per person, per month. That's $300.00 a month, based on my household right now. I need to figure out how to add in the additional visitors, friends, family members that frequently come for dinner and happy hours ... but that is my intended upcoming budget! Oh ... and possible Whole30 to boot in January for two of us! So ... we had a trip up to Northwest Indiana this last week. Flew out on Th

First up, let me just say, this recipe is NOT mine ... nope. Not at all ... it belongs to Gimme Some Oven and if you've never been there, go check it out! I'm trying to reduce the spending on food and stuff and pretty much have walked away from the booze and beer aisles lately ... I mean, shoot, we've got quite a bit of hard liquor on hand and as far as beer goes, I'm trying really hard to avoid that as it's the number one thing I consume that has gluten ... so cutting way back on that stuff ... hard as it may be .... But tequila is abundant around here. Uhm, I have 6 bottles that I see off the top ... I'm sure there is one or two tucked away in the back of the cabinet. I've specifically requested NO MORE tequila til I drink some of these ... and then along came Whole30 ... ahhh.... But ... it's holiday time and well, I DO have those 6 bottles of tequila .. and a bottle or two of cranberry juice is usually floating around. Most of the

This recipe comes from a book I got a while ago, Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals . which prompted me to get back in to the actual cookbook mode ... even though I have tons of them, I need more that are on track with this new way of eating! By the way, in case you didn't know, 450  Swagbucks  will  give you $5 in Amazon cash ... and that's how I've been buying the cookbooks ... Another side note ... I do NOT like to have them on my Kindle. I mean, yeah, it's sort of cool to just open up the Kindle BUT I don't like the layout/format whatever. It's not the same as looking at the 2 pages, side by side ... so I've decided no more cookbooks on the Kindle. Anyways ...  It's Whole30 Compliant! Sweet! Perfect for January 2016 which is RIGHT around the corner, you know? I renamed the recipe to Island Shrimp with Avocado, then, just Island Shrimp ... more appealing to ME than Tropical Avocado & Shrimp. And yes, there were a few modific

*We are heading up North to visit some family for a few days and of course, whenever we do that, we make soup since the Midwest weather is so much cooler than Paradise! Hubbby keeps telling me, Clam Chowder! Clam Chowder! You gotta make the Clam Chowder! Fine, fine, ok, ok, I got it!  So here you go, folks, the Clam Chowder! It has been a while since we've made soup ... especially this yummy, super easy New England Clam Chowder ...  As you know, New England style is creamy ... Manhattan is red and chunky. And if you've been reading for any length of time, you probably picked up that Hubby HATES chunky tomatoes in cooked dishes. For someone who is a big fan of food, he certainly can be picky at times ;-) Just for the record, I was set NOT to like this ... I mean, all the ingredients were pretty much processed and well, I'm trying to avoid that stuff ... but, hell, it was  a Saturday night, smelled good, he made some lovely ciabatta bread and it was to die for ...

I don't know why, but I love to read what other bloggers are buying at the grocery store. Yeah. I guess you could say I'm obsessed with food ... but I 'think' I have a healthy relationship with it ;-) So, with that said, I thought, what the heck, I'll try to share my weekly grocery trips ... and if everything is going according to plan, you would even get a picture or two ... but of course, things don't always go as planned ... but this week, I DO have pics! A bonus for me to share weekly is to keep my grocery budget in check (hopefully!) *My goal for 2016 is $100 per person, per month. That's $300.00 a month, based on my household right now. I need to figure out how to add in the additional visitors, friends, family members that frequently come for dinner and happy hours ... but that is my intended upcoming budget! Oh ... and possible Whole30 to boot in January for two of us! 2 stops this week. TWO. And I realized that we are down to ONE rol