Frugal In Florida

Whoa, where did the short month of February go to?? Geesh, if I was to look at the status of my goals this morning, I could spiral into a great depression ... ick. After cleaning out two shelves of the pantry over the weekend, and pulling a few things from the freezer (chops, pork loin, chicken), I see that I still have tons of food to go through, even after a 7 week or so Pantry Challenge. Then again, when I did go to to store last week, I was surprised at the prices ... they've really gone up since the first of the year! Disappointing and here's hopes that the crisis in the Middle East clears up quickly ($3.59 for a gallon of regular gas!?) ... we've got a lot of gas guzzling items so it would be most apprecited to lower the price soon .... Anyways, Monday means Menu Planning ... I've started to put together a rough MONTH menu, but knowing that Hubby is traveling but not sure WHEN makes it a little more difficult! But here's what we have for the week: Monday...

Living in South Florida has certainly exposed me to more foods than living in the small town in the Midwest.  One of the things that surprisingly enough I love, is the pork sandwich, cuban style, or, Cubanos. These have things that I normally do NOT care for in eating, such as mustard and pickles (bleck) but I can, and do eat them in a Cubano without a second thought. That says a lot, trust me! This is a great way to use up leftover pork ... but in my case, I almost always make sure I have extras so I can make Cubanos ... and using the paninni press from Aldi's made it even better! Loaf of cuban bread (or french-I used this , italian, whatever hearty stuff you have) cooked pork. sliced thin cooked ham, sliced thin pickles, sliced thin (I used hot & spicy dills) mustard swiss cheese (or any other cheese you have on hand) butter Cut bread in half and then open up long ways. Lay flat and butter the outside pieces.  For easier loading up, I layer (on a pl...

I have a few favorite sites that I try to visit a few times a week ... and one of them is the Frugal Girl .  One of my favorite features is her Wednesday Baking posts. This girl can BAKE. So, the other night, as we were making pork chops and rice with brocolli and cheese, I was wishing for some bread to grill up too ... but alas, all I had was the pepperidge farm stuff and that just wasn't going to cut it, you know? So, at 6pm at night (we don't eat til late on Saturdays), I pulled out my breadmachine and added: 1 cup of warm water 3 cups of flour 1 tbs sugar 1 tsp salt 1 pkg of yeast Turned it on dough cycle and walked away. Came back, rolled it out: Let it rise for about 40 minutes and then baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes Believe it or not, we had french bread by 9pm on the grill toasting. Yes, I did bake the bread in the oven. It was so dang easy (even a Cave Man can do it) that I made another loaf again on Sunday for the Cubanos, by memory and s...

Or in this case, 30 minutes. What started as a hunt for mayo (seriously) turned in to an utterly disgusted attitude and a cleanout and organinzing of two shelves in the pantry. Yes. It needed to be done. NOW. Before... Salad dressings, 14 bottles BBQ sauc bottles (um, sad considering Hubby MAKES it) Steak sauce (A1) 9 bottles Worchestershire sauce (large bottles) 2 Dales seasoning, low sodium 2 Sesame marinade 2 Chili sauce 2 grey poupon chinese mustard thai peanut sauce baby dills 2 dill chips cherries jams x 4 canned pumpkin 3 bacon bit (costco size bag) various nuts2 nutella magic shell chocolate tea bags 12 boxes (and a ziploc) crystal lite 10 plus ziploc countrytime lemonade crystalite pure fitness 2 coffee 5 plus container filters syrup x 4 pancake mix x 4 plus container nesquik mocha vanilla protein powder x 2 (plus large bag in other kitchen!) chocolate protein powder x 2 Here's how it looks now: AND no mayo or ketchup! And in the...

As I confessed over here on the dishwashing issues (that I'd rather wash dishes by hand) ... sort of led me to another post ... the magic towels. Microfiber. Picked them up at Target, 6 pack for $5 on clearance. They were in the automotive section, so I'm guessing they are for car exteriors ... but seriously, can someone tell me what the difference really is in these things (I have another 3 pack that each is for a specific use) ... I love love love my little green towels!

We all know the general rule, whites with whites, darks with darks, etc. But every once in a while, a stray item will sneak in, typically in my house, a black sock with the white towels. But this time, well, I think we may have really done it. Look. Huh. I stepped away to put some of the kitchen towels away and came back to this. Figured he found a great hiding spot from Kitty Kitty. Unfortunately, I believe he slept there for most of the day and I ended up booting him out that night and redoing the rest of those WHITES. *This is Gman, the old kitty that we are "fostering" for oh, 7 months now??*

I admit it, I'd much rather wash dishes by HAND (gasp) then use my dishwasher. For years, I didn't have a dishwasher and just could not wait for the day ... then when we renovated the house 11 years ago, I got one. Hmmm. It's not all that and more after all ... It's a GE Profile brand. From day one I've had gripes with it. Didn't dry totally, even on heated dry and hot rinse. Didn't seem to really clean dishes. There was always water standing in the bottom of the tub, which just didn't seem "right". So I've called the service people several times all those years ago. And they just told me that is the way it is. Ok. Not quite like that. :) But, they suggested that I turn up my hot water heater. Hmmm. I thought 120 was the recommended temperature. They suggested that I wipe and rinse my dishes before loading. Hmmm....that would be pretty much the same as HAND WASHING, wouldn't it? They suggested that I dry the tub out ...