Frugal In Florida

For years, and years, like every other veggie out there, I wouldn't go near asparagus ... that's like, a tree stalk, right?  It's right up there with the green tree shrubs ( broccoli ) and that funky white stuff ( cauliflower )! And then, I tried these little skinny stalks with garlic and olive oil and since then, I've been addicted to asparagus ... I'm the one in the produce section tossing the fat things aside, looking for the wimpy, skinny things. Yup. That's ME!! Hi! Sorry if I held you up!  If nothing else, Whole30 has made me branch out and try all kinds of different veggies ... that in itself is a NSV, you know? So a few weeks ago, Aldi's had asparagus. Imagine that!? $2.99 for a one pound bag. Now, mind you've I've seen asparagus there before, but it was either, you guessed it, fat and woody OR the tips were all mush which is a no-no in the asparagus world. So whenever, I see them model thin stalks, I scoop them up, run home and promptly s

Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday but pretty much keep Sunday out of the picture as I try to keep that as a stay home, entertain family and relax day! Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1. Only hit up the grocery store one time, and that was at Walmart and it was a proactive trip for the potential of a storm hitting us. Luckily, that fizzled out and well, what I bought we will be using. It was MORE than I anticipated, $130 ... 2.  Ate all 5 breakfast at home and packed my lunch for 4 of the 5 work days. The one day I didn't pack was Friday as my boss was taking me out to my favorite place, yet again. I'm telling you, I really do have the best boss! 

We've been working on eating down the freezers AND staying on budget. Just for the record, eating down the freezers DOES help the budget, except when you see a great sale on some frozen foods and think, hey, I've got plenty of room in the freezers for that! Ahem. It happens ;-) So, I was out of shrimp. Who would have thought that day would come? But never fear, there's always a sale on shrimp somewhere so of course, I bought more! Not stock up more, but more. Because I wanted to make this ... *Sorry the pictures are crappy, they are OLD and well, if I can, I'll try and take NEW pics when we make it this week!* When I came across  this recipe , I immediately fell in love with the picture ... and then the SUPER SIMPLE list of ingredients. Awww, yeah, we can do this. Of course, I had to stop at the store to get me a chili ... which brings me to the next point: Are all chilis created equal? No, they aren't. But heck if I know the difference from one to a

Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday but pretty much keep Sunday out of the picture as I try to keep that as a stay home, entertain family and relax day! Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1. Hit up the grocery store (Publix) on Monday after work. Uhm, spent a little more than I wanted, $70, but that included quite a few cleaning supplies, salad stuff, milk and a few other things. My goal was to hit up Aldi once later in the week for salad stuff and Walmart for my Dad ... that worked out, NOT so much (see #1 below!) 2.  Ate all 5 breakfast at home and packed my lunch for 4 of the 5 work days. The one day I didn't pack was for a social luncheon that we were

Somedays, all I want to do is head out to Sweet Tomatoes and have an all you can eat salad buffet with unlimited soups and a few other starchy things on the side. I never opt for dessert because I'm usually a stuffed pig by the time everyone is ready to hit the yogurt bar.  No thank you. They do NOT serve Cobb Salads there but whenever I get around to making this, I'm always like, YUMMMM, we should do this more often!  So again, after making this for dinner the other night, only because I didn't have anything thawed, AND Hubby had made 6 hard boiled eggs, I got to chopping. Took me a whole 15, maybe 20 minutes top ... even to make it pretty like so! It's really easy to make and I figure it's a bonus that I generally have everything on hand for the most part since I try to keep a healthy fridge! I even had a little bit of blue cheese crumbles left to put on Hubby's since that's what HE looks forward to when he orders it! Me? I just stuck to t

Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday but pretty much keep Sunday out of the picture as I try to keep that as a stay home, entertain family and relax day! Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1.  Stuck with my cash in pocket and budget for the most part ... $100 for groceries and $50 for miscellaneous stuff (hair/clothes/additional food, etc.) ... I carried over the $20 from last week. 2.  Paid off the credit card that had my new laptop on it. 3 months, not so bad and it was interest free since I opted for that plan when I made the purchase. Can I just tell you what a life saver Digit has been? It's a great passive savings tool that I use to make additional debt

*I made Cobb Salads for Hubby and I this past week and was so glad that I opted to make mine with Honey Mustard Dressing! I'm sharing the recipe again as it's been a little while and it's always great to have some quick recipes to throw together at the last minute! It's NOT Whole30 approved BUT it is Paleo with the lack of dairy, grains and of course, processed sugar!* I love making my own salad dressings ... I have a much better handle on what I'm consuming when I do so. You know that MOST shelf stable salad dressing are full of funky ingredients, right? So why not just take a few extra minutes and make your own and be healthier? This is a dressing that I've been making for several years now. Back in the day, it was all about Kens Honey Mustard Dressing ... until I started reading labels. Whoops. The 2nd ingredient was HFCG. So ... I had to pretty much kick my all time favorite dressing to the curb. *See how it says "Great for DIPPING"??

I wanted to type Golden Brown Legs in the Crockpot but figured that might freak some people out. Better than Golden Brown Thighs in the Crockpot , don't you think? Ok. Nevermind. Most folks know I've got an extremely odd sense of humor. LAUGH! So. This recipe came about for a few reasons: 1.  Hubby had bought a few packages of bone in chicken thighs AND legs a while ago. I am NOT a fan of legs, drumsticks, whatever you want to call them things. 2.  The bag of legs in the freezer have been getting in my way because we are getting low on protein products in the freezer and they seem to be just about the ONLY thing left in there! 3.  Whole Foods had their chicken legs on sale for 99 cents per pound. Being that I really like Whole Foods chicken (the air chilled or whatever it's called) and this IS a great price for said yard birds, I was all over it figuring this recipe looked good ... (update, I opted to forgo the Whole Foods sale as I know that I would walk ou

Hey hey, it's time to share the Frugal Activities post and I know a lot of you liked them because of my full disclosure too! So, what the heck, since I seem to have fallen off the Menu Plan Post, let's revive the Frugal Activities shall we? I generally try to start my week on Monday with it ending on Sunday but pretty much keep Sunday out of the picture as I try to keep that as a stay home, entertain family and relax day! Here are some of our Frugal Activities that we did this past week! 1.  Hit Aldis on my way home from work on Monday night, AFTER I went to the bank, made a deposit and withdrew my grocery cash for the week!  Spent $51 and supplied the refrigerator with plenty of green stuff (veggies), 4 super large chicken breast and a massive boneless pork shoulder/butt. Oh, and some eggs. And a couple of avocados. And green beans. Because, you know, I could live on those 3 things alone and be perfectly content. Hubby, not so much ;-)  THAT was the one and only

You probably already know that I LOVE margaritas ... uh huh ... but not the heartburn at 2am after a few of the ones using the pre-made margarita mix ... Hubby already has the system worked out where he just pulls out the bottle of Prilosec and sets it next to my glass. Pretty pathetic, don't you think? ;-) I had shared this recipe a while ago and decided to make these again since I am having a few friends over ... I mean, heck, I have frozen strawberries, a ton of them, after freezing nearly 2 pounds last week to keep from having food waste ! And we still have a lot of tequila in the bar area ...  (and I can't find my favorite bottle ... I'm concerned but at least I have 3 bottles of Patron!)   This makes ONE generous drink ... last time, I had a couple and let me just tell you that 1 cup of tequila is a LOT ;-)  Take a few Tylenol or Advil with a large glass of water before you go to bed! 1/2 cup tequila 1/2 cup frozen strawberries juice of half a lime 1/2 tb