Frugal In Florida

I envy all of you who have a garden out there ... I wish I had the time to babysit one. Here in Florida, we have that scorching hot sun, monsoon rains and well, you can't just plant stuff and pay attention to it every week ... it needs daily attention otherwise it will either shrivel up and die OR wash away ... I've experienced both and the frustration level is just too much. Ugh. IF I had a garden, I'd plant tomatoes and then green beans. Yup, I'd love nothing more than a wall of green beans. And well, maybe, cucumbers. And strawberries. Oh, and yes, blueberry bushes!  In my dreams. So, instead, I spend money at the grocery store. And normally, I spend a little more getting the skinny dudes. I apparently have a thing for skinny veggies . Costco. 2 pounds $4.99 Whatever. It seems everyone has a specific way of making green beans. And then, there are lots of folks out there who will have nothing to do with them. I was one of those people ... th...

Beef?  Check! BBQ Sauce? Check! Bacon? Check! Paleo? You bet! Whole30? Maybe not so much, however, Jessica DOES share a recipe with sauce sweetened with dates, not sugar or honey or anything else like that ... so maybe ... But ... I'm not aiming for Whole30 with this meal. IF I was, I would just use this bottle of Tessemae's Barbeque Sauce for simplicity. Psst ... I did use Tessemae's sauce anyway! Anyways ... I've had this recipe saved for a little while from Jays Baking Me Crazy (go check it out!) and figured, what the heck, it's Saturday *God Bless Saturdays!* (bonus point if you can tell me who sings that?), I've got 2 pounds of ground beef in the fridge that needs cooked, 1 pound of low sodium bacon (aka, sugar free from Aldi), onions and that there BBQ Sauce, so why NOT?! This cost $2.99 after the markdown ... scooped up 4 packages and tossed them in the freezer a few months ago.  What I really wanted to do was make the Sweet Pota...

Whee ... I'm entering in to WEEK 2 of single girl status! Ok, again, not really. I'm still married to Hubby but he's up in Indiana indefinitely taking care of some business.  Oh, yeah, and the Boy and the cats are still here too ... so single girl status is far from accurate! What I do  mean though is that I get to cook the way I want to ... the Boy is vegetarian and eats odd stuff at even odder times so it's just me! Normally that would mean an abundance of avocados, mangos and steak salad ... but not this time around.  This time, I'm trying to be very mindful and keep a clean meal plan ... not quite Whole30 or Paleo but pretty close ;-) I bought a LOT of stuff last week so I should be good to go without any side trips ... although I am sad that I'm out of the Chameleon Vanilla Cold Brewed Coffee Concentrate ... may make the Boy but it this time since he drinks quite a bit of it as well ... otherwise, I have no intention of stepping foot in a store ...

Well, I survived my first week with single girl status. It was fine! Ok, maybe I wasn't totally single ... I'm still married to Hubby, he's just in Indiana ... the Boy is still here and the cats too.  It's kind of nice in that the Boy and I did a few things, such as watched Suicide Squad (!!??) and then did a few grocery shops together ... how nice! First stop: Aldi June13, 2017 Total Spent - $82.72 Purpose of shop was for some veggies and protein to get me through the week.  Guess which things were for the Boy? He offered to pay for his own stuff and I just gave him that look. Just buy me a margarita kid! 2 dozen large eggs $.99 each 3 8 oz pkgs of mushrooms $1.29 each 2 pkgs zucchini $1.69 each 2 containers of butter lettuce $1.69 each Pineapple Slicer $3.99 *kinda cheesy but the boy wanted it. Even at 24 he can still give me that look and make me cave in 2 bags of shredded hash browns $1.99 each Cilantro $.99 Organic grape tomatoes $1.99 2 pkgs ...

Hubby heads out of town today for a week or so. Probably 2 weeks or so. I'm actually looking forward to a little quiet time! Whee!!!  My first thought was to have a girls night but then I thought NO because I really want to just ditch the booze while he's out of town. I won't drink alone so I might as well embrace the time, right? Right! Strawberry Margaritas This is actually good for my eating habits in that I can make WHAT I want, the way I want! And if I should happen to eat something that makes me not so very happy (in other words, a bad food choice!) then it's no one's fault but mine. Stop playing the blame game! I anticipate that IF I cook as much as I'd like to be doing, I'll be able to meal prep and freeze some future meals in the process which would make me a very happy camper! I'm hoping to hit up Costco at some point this week for a few things such as chicken thighs, chicken breast and a small amount of veggies but I might just...

About 2 weeks ago, I implemented another No Spend Week and it went fairly well. So well, actually that we were kind of "out of food". Ok, not really. I mean, heck, have you seen my freezers lately? They still have a mish-mash of meats and stuff ... there just wasn't anything that jumped out at us OR that wasn't frozen solid still. This is what the main kitchen freezer looks like: red solo cup: pina colada from TWO weeks ago ... a LOT of cans of bacardi mix ... a bottle of moonshine, 3 bags of arrowroot powder and then a mish-mash on the shelves! QUESTION: does anyone know how to get the handle 'white' again? It's yellowed and it may be from trying to clean it with softscrub years ago And the guest freezer: Do you see all the empty space?? The bag of walnuts or pecans is going to have to go soon as they've been there for awhile. Lots of food ... but nothing ready to go. That, my friends, is what happens when you don't Mea...

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 )! #WHOLE30 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. *I've since seen it for around $1.69 a package ... wish t...

This recipe comes from  Paleo Girl 99  who I found on Instagram a while ago ... doing the Whole30 had introduced me to a whole new class of bloggers! So. The first time I made this, I didn't have the dehydrated shallots, but had dehydrated onions, so I improvised and used the onions. Yeah. Hubby was in love.  Asked me for 3 days if this was really the only thing that I did to make it taste so good. Was I sure it was just the dehydrated onions and not the "fried onions"  and on and on. Good grief. He just can't accept that something so simple would be so tasty. I did NOT share that this was  Whole30  approved as some things just don't need to be said out loud. Then I put this on the menu again and said, hmmm, let me just order some shallots from Amazon. Well. The first thing that popped up was $1xx.00 to buy. No thank you ... so I kept shopping and finally came across a  $12 bottle . Thank you one click ordering! *I still have the bottle all...

That would seem to be the question of the day lately. A Lot of folks are like, oh, I don't know, that's pretty expensive to eat like that (I get that comment with Paleo as well) ... But it's NOT true! I'm going to share a FEW tips on how to make a Whole30 AFFORDABLE ... I think you'll be surprised! 1.  You do NOT need to buy all organic. Meaning you don't have to shop at Whole Foods!  You can shop at your local grocery store or even Aldi. I've found Aldi to be my FAVORITE store when doing a Whole30. Please, don't leave negative comments ;-) Organic is not a requirement. It is  preferred but NOT required. Aldi stop ... notice some things are organic, for regular grocery store prices! 2.  Same thing with meat! You do NOT need to buy grass-fed, petted and tucked in at night protein.  I would strongly suggest that you DO buy a lower fat content of meat that is NOT grass-fed or at least trim off the excess fat when visible as that is where the ...

*I'm sitting at home this fine Tuesday morning ... it's pouring down rain with thunder and lightning and I'm nursing a major headache ... does anyone else have a barometer head like me? Whenever the pressure changes and the rain comes my sinuses just flare up ... waiting for all the meds to kick in before I drive to work (2 hours late already) ...  So ... I shared this recipe back in January and figured since it's JUNE and some of you are playing the Whole30 game with me, I'm sharing it again ... mind you, I am NOT doing a Whole30 right this moment! #JuneWhole30 Yes, I do have a  Whole30 Compliant chili recipe  but Hubby isn't a HUGE fan of the chocolate in it ... as minimal as it is ... so when I saw  this recipe , I thought, sure, why not, lets give it a whirl. I'm glad I did! AND ... it's perfect for the Sunday Soup theme! Here's how I did it! 2 pounds ground beef (score, I even have marked down grassfed stuff in the f...

Are YOU thinking of doing a June 2017 Whole30 this month? If so, I've got a few TIPS for you! I've not committed to it and honestly, I've YET to complete 30 days ... it's dang hard folks, I don't care WHAT you say! Yes, I know, it's just food and drinks AND it's only 30 days but my downfall is BEER. Yes. Beer. Who would have thought?? I can handle everything else. Except Beer.  Huh. BUT I might just play it day by day ... we shall see. I have been eating mostly Paleo lately - grain and dairy free about 85% ... and then of course, there's that beer again! And wine. And margaritas ... oh and let's not forget about them pina coladas! So yeah, maybe I will play it day by day?   Ok ... resources! 1.  If you haven't done it YET ... you need to read the book, It Starts With Food ... don't buy it if you don't' want, just get it from the library then! That's what I did ... and then I bought it for a few friends and FINA...