Frugal In Florida

Happy Valentine's Day!  We probably won't be doing anything special today ... because a) I think every day should be Valentine's Day and b) we are dealing with a few things around the house ... Hubby is having some medical stuff going on (go check out The Mark and Jan Show and you'll see what I'm talking about) :-( I had picked up some italian sausage from Costco on my last trip ... I finally used up the last of what I had in the freezer and well, not having any in the freezer was driving me crazy!   I'm a fan of that little pizza bowl and there's a few other cool things to do with italian sausage, including Sausage and Peppers ... and even though I like to do it as a foil packet (reduced the flare ups and kept the cleaning to a minimum) I wanted something that wouldn't require a whole lot of hands on babysitting ... of course, when the Instant Pot  enters the picture, everything changes! I started this at 10:30 am because it was a little...

Over Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year, I discovered my love for apple pie! At 53, apple pie entered my life. I was the one saying "ooohhhhh, apple pie!" A little embarrassing, I might add! And not so great for the waistline! So when I came across this recipe in Pretty Intense , I bookmarked it and said I'm going to make that one day in the near future. It happened much sooner than most of my bookmarked recipes! It's an easy recipe and ended with great results. My pictures are horrible, only because I still have not gotten around to perfecting my picture taking skills, but I promise, it's on my list of things to do! ahem, I didn't use the cinnamon STICKS Oh ... do you know the differences between a Crumble and a Crisp? I would have called this a Crisp, but NOPE, it's a Crumble ... I much rather say crisp, but that would be incorrect! The Kitchn shares the differences in case you are wondering! So ... a few notes:   ...

If you are looking for a healthier alternative to Ranch Dressing ... this IS IT! Dairy Free.  Grain Free. Sugar Free. Gluten Free. AND EASY It's also Whole30 approved, just in case you were wondering! This recipe is totally from  Whole Sisters  and I give them FULL credit ... this is just me saying I made it, I loved it and I want to share it with the world!! Give the girls a drive by and check out their site, it's chock-full of good stuff! Here's how I made it egg, room temperature 1 tbs lemon juice, room temperature 1 cup olive oil 2 tbs red wine vinegar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 3/4 tsp onion powder 3/4 tsp garlic powder 1/2 cup canned coconut milk handful of parsley, leaves pulled off and stems discarded dash of dried dill Grab yourself a tall jar and make sure your  immersion blender  fits in the top ;-) I speak from experience! Place everything in jar, insert your immersion blender and let it rip. Make sure ...

*Repost alert ... I'm planning to make this over the weekend as I have everything on hand except the radishes which a quick, "frugal" stop at the store can be done on the way home from the office ... enjoy! Another new recipe from another new cookbook,  Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals . I've decided that I really want to get back in to the cookbook mode ... I LOVE cookbooks, and have tons of them ... but with my new way of eating, I need some inspiration, here and there. 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. So anyways ... I have everything, EVE...

This is a repost but I'm adding it to my list of things to make in November so I'm sharing again! I'm also going to try and get some better pics!  I had this recipe  pinned  forever and finally gave it a try a few years ago. Yes, YEARS ago ... almost 4 years to be exact. I've been pinning and blogging that long!  Being that I'm pulling out some good chicken recipes for the month of February, I felt that I needed to put this out again and yes, I am making it too! Yum Yum Chicken Thighs! And I followed the recipe pretty darn close ... and realized, when I was about to bake it, it's a LOT like my  Sweet Mustard Chicken  recipe ... but that's ok ... any recipe that works out well is always a GOOD thing :-) So here's what I did ... 2-3 lbs chicken thighs, boneless/skinless thighs (I've been stocking up on these WHENEVER I see them marked down at Walmart and freeze them as soon as I get home) a little less than 1/2 cup of dijon mustard  ...

Well, this is the week I head back home. Hubby was to be coming too, but a few things came up so looks like he will be staying a little longer, maybe a week? That’s fine, I have a lot of things to catch up on at the office so I’ll have a few late nights as well when I get back to South Florida. I miss that view! And yes, I am still menu planning and meal prepping!  Prepping is really an understatement as Sunday morning, I believe a mouse might have moved in and died a slow death in the laundry room of the house … sad because Hubby and I have a joke when we open the doors: "come on in family of mice! Come on in out of the cold!" Well, apparently, one did and now (as of 11:30am  10:30am (did you turn back your clocks yet???) Sunday) we still can’t locate him! *The joke is because my father in law makes it sound like the mice are lined up around the corner waiting to dash in the door and garage as soon as an opportunity arises. I will no longer laugh at him as he ma...

This recipe comes from  Paleo Girl 99  who I found on Instagram ... doing the Whole30 a while back 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! So, here's how I made it t...

When you got a long day in the office, it's nice to come home to a home that smells like dinner is ready to be served ... Doing the Whole30 will sometimes make you feel like an outcast ... it will be a little difficult to go out for dinner and drinks with friends, and forget the fast food or take out joints! BUT ... this might, just maybe, fill that void! Grab yourself a bag of riced cauliflower from Trader Joe's (or any store now!) and you can almost call it a take out meal! 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces *I strongly recommend using thighs so you won't have dried out chicken ! 4 cups of stir fry veggies (frozen is fine, just check the ingredients to make sure no funky stuff added to "preserve") 1.5 tsp of ginger 1 tsp of red pepper flakes 1/4  c coconut aminos (most grocery stores are carrying this now!) 5 cloves of garlic, minced 2 tsp sesame oil 1/4 cup of green onions, sliced thin salt and pepper ...

It's time again for another NEW to me recipe! Wheee!!! Ok, so the original recipe comes from PaleOMG ... and I've made a few revisions to fit our household AND what we have on hand ... Love leftovers for lunch the next day! Note that Hubby really hates 'simple' meals as he always thinks that you'll be missing that certain long drawn out component that makes a dish super yummy ... doh, he needs to learn a thing or two from me! This is the battle in my kitchen as we both love to cook and at times will argue over who's turn it is! FYI - this would also be WHOLE30 approved as potatoes are allowed! Here's how we did it! And yes, we . I let him in on the cooking this time! 1 bag of fingerling taters OR petite potatoes - I used mini reds (Publix B1G1F a few weeks ago) 6 to 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (just picked up at Publix and discovered they were only skinless!) 1/4 cup avocado oil (or olive) lemon, zested and juiced 3 tbs grey...