Frugal In Florida

Hey, hey, even though it's a holiday weekend, I'm still trying to stay on task with things around here, so here you are, another Grocery Cart Sunday post! PUBLIX  Where shopping is a pleasure ... well, it used to be anyway. Now, not so much. It seems that their prices are high and the produce is just so-so ... am I getting spoiled from Aldi's you think? I originally intended to go on Friday after work with the thought process that I'd get out of work earlier since we've been slammed and working late every night, but no such luck, I could have left early but I just had to finish up a bunch of stuff just for my own peace of mind over the weekend. So, instead, I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, with the intention of going to Publix to buy the paper products and use my $5 off $40, then drive to Aldi's to get my fruits and veggies and then BACK to Publix to by the cold stuff and use my other $5 off $40 coupon. Guess what? It was pouring rain

*Time for a favorite salad to have at your BBQ parties and holiday get togethers! It's on my menu today! Most people like this, even if it's based on cabbage. Just an absolute delicious salad for those summer bbqs! Bag of coleslaw (or just plain cabbage, shredded, small to medium size head) 8 green onions, sliced thin 1/2 red pepper, diced 1/2 cup peanuts (or other nuts you like), toasted and cooled 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted and cooled (can be skipped if you don't have!) 2 pkgs ramen noodles, crushed 1/2 red pepper, chopped Dressing: 4 tbs sugar. You can use a sugar substitute of choice if desired (I  used 3 packets of Stevia in the Raw and it was perfect!! I may do it this way from now on) 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 cup olive oil (or oil of choice) 2 tsp salt (I've always used less) 6 tbs rice wine vinegar *or, you can do like I sometimes do and just use the seasoning packet and omit the salt and pepper* Place all veggies in a large mixing bowl.

Not very long ago, I shared with you how to  Deconstruct a Watermelon . What? You didn't see that yet? Ok, go ahead, click on  that there link  and go check it out. It's ok, I'll chill here and wait for you to come back ... Seriously. E A S Y  I figured with Memorial Day Weekend here and a bunch of BBQ parties are happening, now is the time to share! Ready? Let's do this! 1 small, seedless watermelon, deconstructed and cut in to bite size cubes handful of mint, leaves only, rough chopped 1 lemon, cut in half Himalayian (pink) salt Toss the watermelon on a larger serving platter. I ended up using this mint as there were NO mint plants to be found at the store! Squeeze lemon juice over the watermelon. Give a quick shake/stir of the watermelon. Sprinkle salt over the watermelon. I'm not a big fan of salt so I was conservative ... Sprinkle mint leaves over the top. Spear a bunch of cubes with toothpicks and serve up! Enjoy! Looking

It's time for the big start to summer for many this weekend and well, we are like, O M G it's summertime now AND Hurricane Season ! Eek! So, what do we do? We start evaluating the pantry and freezers to see what we have in there that might need to be moved in a hurry and used up in the event of a pending storm coming at us ...  And then, we see that can of water chestnuts sitting in the pantry and think "uhm, bacon wrapped water chestnuts sound really good right about now" ... and then you just pull the can off the shelf, grab some bacon out of the fridge and go to it ... it's that easy! *And if you are doing Whole30, use a sugar free bacon (normally MOST low sodium bacon IS sugar free, but read your labels!) and you've got yourself a pretty nifty little appetizer to share ... Here you go: 2 cans of WHOLE water chestnuts (not the sliced ones!)  1 pkg of bacon - slices cut in two toothpicks Grab a large baking sheet and lay out a large piece o

*Here's another re-post of a favorite!* I knew the minute I added the diced avocado and mango that Hubby wasn't going to be in love with it, but Princess and I devoured it, therefore, a HIT and keeper for us, but only for the girls ... Easy enough to do, and surprisingly, I can pretty much eyeball the dressing measurements as I chat with Princess about her adventures as an Office Queen Bee while I make it ... a very fun moment for a mom to see their daughter become something more than just the little girl who so needed her mommy all those years ago... what a relief it is that she is still growing into a fine young lady. Makes me love her even more than I already do ... Ok, back to the recipe ... 1 bag of coleslaw mix ... the one with carrots and such in it 1 lb of cooked shrimp, rough chopped and remove them pesky tails 1 avocado, diced 1 mango, diced 6 radishes, sliced thin and cut in half (totally omitted them this time around and still yummy) 2 green onion

Did you see yesterday's Grocery Cart Sunday post? Oops ... that was a lot of money out for not a very good amount of food, don't you agree? And to make matters WORSE is that Memorial Day is THIS WEEKEND and well, I need to carefully consider what we are going to do and cook now! $136 for what should have been a simple stop at the store for breakfast foods (to take on the boat) and sandwich material (to take on the boat) ... and I sooooo over bought which is half my problem! To make matters worse, for the first time in my whole life, I was seasick. O M G that made for a very long 7 hours ... I was fine for the first 2 hours and then I just felt like poo. Seriously, like poo. And the boat is open with no enclosed cabin and not a whole lot of shade. Had we not been so far out (10 miles?) I would have begged Hubby to take me back to shore, that's how bad it was.  When we got home, I jumped in the pool to cool myself down and then went and tossed my cookies FINALLY!  Put dry c

We had family coming in for the weekend and we planned to go offshore fishing on Saturday so when I left the office on Friday, I stopped at Publix. What a shop that was! Not in a good way, necessarily. I've realized that YES prices have been creeping up ... I mean, geesh, I spent ELEVEN DOLLARS on white seedless grapes. I didn't realize that until I was home but wow.  I've told everyone that we are eating every last one of those grapes and the stems too! One stop this week and it was way over what my self imposed, unwritten budget is: $136.03 Yes, really. I had to put groceries away fairly quickly by the time I got home but this was the stuff going to the other kitchen fridge. Let's take a look and see what I bought and then we can do an evaluation, ok? Cracker Barrel cheese slices X 4 @ $2.50 each Chicken breakfast sausage that were B!G!F x 6 total @ $3.29 for two Hillshire Farms lunchmeat X 8 @ $3.67 each Toasted pita chips $3.69

So we had some friends over for the Birthday/Cinco de Mayo/Mother's Day/Air and Sea Show/Kentucky Derby Weekend ... and since it might be our last bash for such a weekend in this house, we went a little bit all out with food stuff. However, I was trying to be mindful since one of my friends is trying vegan style food right now, another is a body builder, yet another is a trainer and then of course, the majority of us our middle age with that middle age weight issue coming on ... So I opted to serve a few healthier things and kept the junk food (chips and dip) to a minimum. It didn't help that Hubby served up a nice Spinach and Artichoke Dip ... but at least I said no to the bean dip that we are so in famous for. I opted to make the cucumber and tomato salad, but I wanted it to be HEALTHY and SUGAR FREE but still yummy.  This totally worked out in my favor!  I will say, if you like that syrupy stuff, this is NOT the recipe for you. BUT if you are looking for a health

Ok, ok, I'll admit it, I'm not a fan of "iced coffee" AND I've only been to Starbucks two times in my 52 years. TWO TIMES! Ahem.  So I'm not coffee connoisseur, you could say. BUT I do follow food trends. Sometimes that's a GOOD thing, and other times, not so much. Cold Brewed Coffee? Good trend!! It's really easy to make and I like that I can control just how sweet it is. Mind you ... my first sample of Cold Brewed Coffee was this bottle of Califia ... I didn't realize it was Salted Caramel til I was at a stoplight and snapped a picture of it ... tons of sugar in that. But it was good and at $2.99 a bottle, I figured I owed it to myself to try and make it ... I'm not sure why I was a little intimidated at first to make it because, in all honestly, it's pretty dang easy and the end results are awesome! Here's how I made MINE: 3/4 cup ground coffee (I used this Costa Rica stuff I had picked up not too long a

It's been a little while since I've posted a Menu Plan post ... not that I haven't been planning, somewhat, but, man, life has been busy as heck around here ... but I did make time to hit up the grocery store on Sunday morning, do a little prep (salad stuff, made regular mayo and basil mayo and divied up the chicken thighs for lunches) and I also have a few blog post set up for the week ... This is my morning view Monday through Friday as I drive to work ... it's a great way to start the morning, see those lovely palm trees (and the ocean behind them) and then when I get to work, the next 8 to 10 hours are consumed and just make my mind frazzled ... then I come home, Hubby has cooked dinner 75% of the time, eat, change clothes and then hop on the laptop for an hour or three of my new side gig I've been doing ... which honestly, I LOVE as I'm averaging $20 to $25 an hour which is pretty sweet for a work at home job (before you hound me for details, let me j

It's been a while since I've shared a Grocery Cart Sunday post!  Mostly because I've not been shopping a whole lot ... Hubby's been doing some but honestly, we've been trying to be more conservative with our dollars and using up what we have because ... hopefully  sooner than later, we will be moving and well, moving food just doesn't sound like fun, you know? BUT I am bound and determined to get this sad ole body to a happy place ... and I'm fully aware that WHAT I eat plays a big role in how I feel ... so what the heck, lets load up on VEGGIES this week! One stop ... Aldi's, of course because my main goal was veggies and eggs... 2 pints of grape tomatoes $1.79 each 24 oz pk of gourmet medley tomatoes $1.99 2 pkgs taco seasoning 35 cents each 4 pkgs of mushrooms $1.29 each garlic powder 99 cents onion powder 99 cents carton of organic unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk $3.49      *upcoming recipe that uses this* gallon of milk $2.99

*Sorry, it's another repost from the past BUT this is a GREAT tip to share with summertime coming up!!* Whenever I walk through the produce section at Whole Foods and Publix, I'm amazed at the amount of prepackage, cut up fruit. Like really? $4.99 per pound for YOU to cut up MY fruit? No thank you. That's not very kind to my wallet and well, to ME, nothing beats the smell of fresh cut watermelon in the kitchen ... too bad we can't bottle it and sell it as a room freshener! We'd all be rich! Anyway. I do understand the fact that some people just don't want the hassle dealing with a whole melon. BUT really, the mini melons they have now days make it much more dealable! I picked up 2 melons the other day for $5. And I promptly cut one up on a Wednesday evening, AFTER I got home from working all day and grocery shopping. Yup, I did. Because, really, it's not so very difficult. Wash melon and dry. Place on cutting board and get out your

We've kind of left the Instant Pot alone for a few weeks and I just felt like I needed to bring it out again ... so what the heck, let's make a super simple meal, shall we? Just a little inside scoop: Hubby has used the thing MORE than me ... he's become the designated cook lately and well, he doesn't always follow the directions and we've had a few flops ... Back to an EASY meal that only uses a few ingredients.  All you need is the following: 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp cumin black pepper generous dash of oregano 1 jar chunky salsa (about 2 cups worth) Ready?? Mix the salt, cumin pepper and oregano in a small bowl and season the chicken on both sides. Toss them bad boys in the pot and dump the salsa over the chicken. Secure the lid, making sure your vent is CLOSED and press the poultry button, adding another 5 minutes so you have a total of 20 minutes cook time.    Rule #1 - always make sure the

Hey hey, Cinco de Mayo is coming up and it's time to pull out all your Mexican festivity recipes!  And you know me, I like to keep things simple and this recipe more than fits the bill! It's considered a "condiment" but I can stand at the kitchen counter and eat this stuff by the spoonful! Salsa Fresca aka Pico de Gallo Now. It's really easy for me to chop chop chop as I've got that handy dandy Vidalia Chop Wizard ! What? You don't have one?? What are you waiting for? Go get one pronto!  This saves sooooo much time chopping AND everything is a nice uniform dice. Go, go go! Go get one right now! $14.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond if you use your little handy 20% off coupon.  Or else you can click that link above for Amazon and if you have Prime, you'll get it in 2 days. Have I stressed how *important* this is (and yes, I am a frugal gal and I highly recommend this little gadget!* (ahem, I didn't realize they've gotten as expensive as that on