Frugal In Florida

This stuff kicks butt for removing ALL KINDS OF STAINS!   And being that I'm a Dawn dish soap kind of girl, it's perfect! I hate buying stain remover ... that little bottle of Shout that you could never get the last bit out of (the little straw thing was about 1/4 inch too short in the bottle costs me around $3 to $4 back in the day. I just hated using that stuff, not to mention, honestly, I don't think that stuff worked all that well if you didn't spot it immediately ... So today's little tip will make you very excited if you think like me ... If you have white t-shirts or them damn dress shirts that hubby used to wear to work every day that are starting to get that dingy armpit ring (and collars too!) go grab them R I G H T now!!! I promise you, it works and I am amazed every time I use it!  Original idea came from  One Good Thing By Jillee  (gosh I HOPE you've visited her site before, she's a wealth of information!) Here's how I did it: ...

So. Apparently, you can toast sweet potato slices in your toaster. And have "toast". Huh. Who would have thought THAT up? I mean, I'd be worried about the taters oozing their orange stuff all over the innards of the toaster, emitting smoke and possibly, flames. Oh. But what the hell? I'm in for a new adventure! *Fingers crossed that the toaster survives and I don't need to grab the fire extinguisher* Guess what? It works! I kid you not! Grab yourself a medium size sweet potato and scrub it clean.  Grab a mandoline, or if you don't have that, grab a super sharp, heavy duty knife and cutting board. Slice the potato in to 1/4 inch slices, be careful you don't slice off your finger tips in the process. Cuz that's just no fun! Take two slices and put them in the toaster. Toast on high for a full cycle and then toast a 2nd time.  Keep an eye on your toaster ... I didn't have any issues, but I'm just saying, be...

Hey hey, it's been awhile since I've shared a Grocery Cart Sunday post and since Soup has taken over that day, I thought I would change it up and move it to Monday ... which makes sense, if you think about it. Hmmm Maybe not? Ok, whatever. It's moved to Mondays, that all there is to it. Executive decision and all that stuff ... DONE! *Full disclosure: the first 10 days are unaccounted for as we were visiting family in Indiana and well, that kind of fell into the vacation funds, as far as I'm concerned :-) Publix 11/10 (Hubby stopped) No receipt but was under $20 he said 10 pk coffee gallon milk cucumbers 2 heads of lettuce tomatoes Publix (11/11/2016) $24.73 2 pkgs of sliced cheese (cracker size) $3 each 1 pound pkg of matchstick carrots $1.99 2 large onions $2.29 (!!) 1 red onion $1.35 bag of tortilla chips $2.00 2 pkgs slider rolls $3.29 each 1 pkg of wheat slider rolls $3.89 Aldi 11/12 $45.70 2 bags of hashbrowns $1.9...

This idea came from  Made It Love It Paleo  ... and of course, because the concept was so simple, I hopped right to the kitchen and made one just for kicks. Yes, it was Day Two of my September Whole30 and a Tuesday morning. Cloudy, but still, already 85 degrees outside.  At 7:30am. BUT I had leftover stuff from the holiday weekend.  And because I was kind of on a No Spend Week, I was trying to use what I had on hand, yeah, even in the beginning stages of a Whole30 ...  and what the hell, leftover chicken was in the house and only 18 eggs left ... so let's do it!   *AND NOW ... Thanksgiving ... leftover turkey ... ohhhhh yeah baby!* Uhm, hello? It's a keeper due to the simplicity of the whole thing!  Again, it's just the concept of the whole thing ... Ready? Here's how I made my bowl of yumminess! 1 1/2 to 2 cups of stock/broth of choice, I used chicken this time around (Costco, organic, totally clean because you know some of them have...

It's that time of the year where we are opening our doors to friends and family for the holidays ... If you got a party or gathering going on, make these as they are a perfect finger food to have on the table! Here's what you need ... obviously, if your gathering is large, you will want to double up on the ingredients! 1 package of dinner rolls (12 count), try to slice the whole package in half as one sheet of bread 3/4 pound of ham 10 to 11 slices of cheese. I used Asiago as it's what I had in the fridge 1/2 stick butter 1 tbs worcestershire sauce 1 tbs gray poupon mustard 1 tbs black sesame seeds (not required, but I did have them in the pantry!) 1 tbs dehydrated onions (alternatively, you can use fresh diced if you don't have) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grab a 11x13 glass baking dish and spritz it with some non-stick spray! Lay the bottom half of the rolls on in the glass dish. Mine broke in two pieces when I picked it up but no w...

There comes a time when you just got have something "carby" like ... generally, for me, it's on Saturday or Sunday morning, usually after I've had one too many adult beverages the night before. Carby stuff in the morning just makes me feel better, what can I say?  Of course, when you are avoiding grains and trying to stay low carb, it sort of sucks! AND, seriously, IF I was truly committed to avoiding grains and staying low carb, I would have booted the alcohol out the door, right?  HAPPY THANKSGIVING! *I kind of figured this would be good for FRIDAY morning  after a day of good eats and drinks so wanted to share it again!* Back in the old days, I'd do a drive through at BK or McD's and buy a breakfast sandwich ... and THEN I started to make these breakfast sandwiches , which were the bomb. However, LOTS and LOTS of grains, carbs, etc. ... things that I just try to avoid to keep the inflammation down.  *Sorry, OLD picture 😑 Whatever.  ...

*Repost alert ... I plan to make this in the very near future as I'm seeing bok choy everywhere again and now that I know what happens I will NOT cut it up small ;-)* This has been a week for new recipes, TWO in one week! One was so-so (ok, actually, Hubby said, lets say we don't make THIS again) ... I think only because I myself, do NOT like cooked cabbage, and heck, if the recipe says to STEAM said cabbage leaves, and then roll them up and STEAM some more, then you can be safe in saying I will NOT LIKE IT! Not sure where I missed the connection. The filling was good and we both ended up putting that in lettuce leaves. Oh. And Hubby said it was missing something and promptly doused his in soy sauce. Uh huh. Fortunately, this recipe was better. Thankfully! I modified it to what we had on hand ... of course! 2.25 lbs London Broil 1/2 cup beef broth 1 whole onion, cut in half and sliced 1 tsp chopped garlic (are you prepping yours?) 1/4 cup soy sauce (I used co...

Hey hey, it's fall time and time to get all those soup recipes out! Sadly, we don't get that cold down here in Paradise BUT we still try to make soups just because it's the season!  So here we are, Taco Soup time! Honestly, I have never had taco soup until recently. I know, what's wrong with that picture??!! So, since we haven't been sticking to the Taco Tuesday theme in a while, I figured, what the heck, lets make it a Taco Soup Tuesday ... works for me! Which leads me to think maybe I should start a Soup Sunday routine? Here's what you need: 1 pound ground beef (I used ground veal as that's what was in the freezer) 1 onion, chopped taco seasoning to taste (I used 1 1/2 packets) 1 carton of beef broth OR 3 to 4 cups water 1 can of corn 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used 2 cans of Mexican Rotel which was spicy - I recommend one plain can of tomatoes and one Rotel if that's the way you go) 1 can ...

It's the most wonderful time of the year .... The perfect time of the year to make special adult beverages! We've been trying to reduce our expenses on food and booze as well as trying to clear out all the excess stuff we have sitting around.  We used to have a TON of booze on the bar and have been whittling away at it, and some things have just gotten tossed as we aren't sure WHAT the purpose was!  But tequila is abundant around here. Uhm, I used to have 6+ bottles and now, I'm down to 2 small bottles of Patron, 1 bottle of the skullhead stuff (very very special, don't touch that!) and a bottle tucked in the back of the cabinet. Ahem, friends, I am now open to gifts of tequila again! 🍸 *This bottle is long gone and I will admit it, this was my least favorite tequila. Not that I'm a Tequila Connoisseur or anything like that So, it's holiday time and well, I DO have those 3 bottles of tequila (no, don't count the skullhead dude, he...

*I had these on my list of things to cook while visiting family but it just never happened...glad I didn't even buy the legs as I hate when I overbuy on the food when we visit! I ended up making these when we got back home since I had a package of legs in the freezer still! 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 9...

We went to Indiana to visit family and figured I'd keep the Soup Sunday routine going! It was a little chilly, by our standards and Hubby and I had agreed that we should make this soup since the original recipe came from my sister in law and it had been awhile since we made it ... a quick stop at Costco (and a couple hundred dollars less), we had the essentials to making this! 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 do not like clam chowder, normally. And this recipe, I mean, all the ingredients were pretty much processed and well, I'm trying to avoid that stuff ... but, heck, its the holiday and we are with a large family ... so why not! Yes, it is a little indulgent and I would suggest you not make it every day. But ...

I'm a big fan of the warmed spinach and artichoke dip, but Hubby prefers the cold one and especially served in a bread bowl (!!) so of course, I do try and keep the man somewhat happy and occasionally cater to his wants ;-) Then I realized, that even though it's fairly common, some of you out there in blog land may not know about the simplicity OR at all! So, here you go, the ORIGINAL COLD SPINACH DIP ... so easy to make! Because I only make this when we are entertaining and sometimes our parties are large, the last time I made this, I doubled the recipe and that's how it's shown: 2 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed 2 cans of water chestnuts, drained and chopped (I can never find the chopped ones in store) 2 cups of mayo (I do NOT use my homemade stuff here, Hellmans is the choice...at least it's gluten free?)    2 containers (16 ounce) of sour cream (I use full fat, feel free to use low/no fat) 6 stalks green onions, sliced 2 packages of ...

It's been a LONG time since I've been inside an Olive Garden restaurant ... the unlimited salad and bread sticks used to always get me ... I am a sucker for warm, soft bread, you know? Oh, and I just love that salad too ... the dressing, luckily, is easy to replicate, as is the salad itself. The salad is simple: 1 head of iceberg lettuce, rinsed, dried and torn into bite size pieces half of a red onion, sliced thin and rings separated out 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges handful of sliced black olives handful of banana pepper rings (or pepperoncini) handful of shredded carrot Layer all in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate. The most important part of this salad is the dressing ... here's  my ORIGINAL recipe , but I've since modified it as follows and personally, prefer THIS now! The main difference is NO corn syrup or garlic AND I used avocado oil instead of the previously called for vegetable oil! In large wide mouth jar, add the following ingredient...