Frugal In Florida

Hmmm...I think I use this title quite frequently, don't I? Well, it's FRIDAY (everyone sing THE SONG but don't yell at me!) and that means two things right off the top of my head: 1. Last Friday of the Summertime Pantry Challenge (which I'm continuing on into August because we apparently have way more food than I thought) and ... 2. Jessica over at Life as Mom has her Frugal Friday link up happening! So. Let's see.  What have we been making do with? Alot actually. But the one thing that I'm most thrilled with is fries. French fries. Uh huh.I admit it. We buy the frozen SEASONED fries. The ones that sent my BIL through the roof because he HATES them and everyone knows that. Well, apparently we DO now :) Did you know that they are basically battered? Ummm...yeah. And then we fry them? Uh huh. Any hooo..... I've seen lots of links lately for grilled fries. And golly gee, I've got a ton of taters that are just waiting patiently to be noticed an...

Yeah, you've heard me say it time and time again, I'm busy. Real busy. I love to cook, but just do not have that much free time in the evenings during the week to do so. Hey, I like to get 8 hours of sleep occasionally and NOT waking up to a dirty kitchen is an added bonus! So what do I do? I make intentional leftovers. Of course. But not leftovers, like meatloaf and mashed taters for 3 nights straight. Uh uh. I would not do THAT. I do stuff like, grilled chicken and pasta on Sunday. But grill more chicken than I need for that night. Come Tuesday, we have chicken Cesar salad. Hmmm... just how does that work, you ask? Easy. Grill extra chicken on Sunday night when you have had all the live long day to putz around and take it easy. Set aside what you want for later in the week and serve the rest. Trust me, if you've got big eaters in the house, you MUST set aside before serving (even hide if you must). Then when you are ready to recreate those leftovers, ju...

Wow, it's the last WEEK! I think I may have to extend this in through August ... I've got a full pantry and 3 freezers still. Yeah, we are making some progress but not like I had hoped. And I've not really bought anything to add to the pantry. The freezer, a little (great meat deals lately, still want to go get the 59 cent per lb chickens!) Here's what we've been doing, to the best of my recollection (it's been a whirlwind week) Monday. July 25th. Breakfast was the usual ham and egg on a bagel (with provolone, I broke down and bought cheese and sour cream at Aldi's Saturday). Hubby had cheerios. We both had fruit. Lunch was salad for Hubby and we both had chicken and rice from Saturday night. Dinner was Bangin Shrimp. Pretty good. Sunday. July 24th. Breakfast was a fend for yourself situation. Unexpected guests from Saturday night. Google Party In Your Stomach on youtube and you will see what I mean. Lunch was an offering of snacks (nachos, chips, ca...

I have so many recipes bookmarked to try that I've started making folders for the months to try because I KNOW I can't really try more than 5 or 6 a month, let alone 30+! This one is from the the month of June, which means I added it in May! But hey, I finally got around to trying it ... and luckily I had EVERYTHING in house except the Sweet Chili Sauce. No biggie, it was like $1.89 (couldn't find the Thai Kitchen brand...what I get for going to some obsolete store) ... So. Wanna know what we thought? It was good. Flavorful. But I'm not a fan of iceburg lettuce and next time I will use shredded romaine and maybe add some spinach too? I of course, try to follow directions, but apparently I have an issue with that. I even wrote down the list of ingredients .... and had it sitting on the counter. I also had the site loaded. Somehow, I missed that I was suppose to coat the shrimp in cornstarch and fry in a little oil. Ummm, I boiled mine (rather, steamed the...

Well, getting close to the final week of the pantry challenge and oddly enough, I've not made THAT much headway. Hmmm. Maybe we should just extend it ... This week should be a fairly easy week in that I'm only going to the gym 2 times instead of the proposed usual 3. I've got to take the Tahoe to the shop as the coolant leak is bad and rather than chance something drastic happening, we will just give in and let someone take care of it. Back in the old days, Hubby would have fixed it himself but key words were "old days", before he had the accident, we got old, etc. :) And then Tuesday through Thursday is a pressure test on the a/c for the west side of the house. It's HOT. No cooling anymore so we've been babying it along this weekend. But it's HOT. On with the plan ... Sunday - ziti with jarred sauce, grilled texas toast and chicken breast (odd combination but the Animals wanted pasta) Monday - Bangin Shrimp . Will link up for now and post MY...

We are big meat eaters in this house and it will be interesting to see what the comments will be on this ... (Sunday dinner, serving with potato salad) Got the shrooms at Aldi's for $1.69 per package (each had 2 caps) along with tomatoes. Lettuce from Penn Dutch last week (69 cents a head). Basil & rosemary from garden (ha, what garden is that??). Kaiser rolls from bread store for 89 cents for 12. Um, yes, I am still on the pantry challenge. But the stuff I bought sticks with my challenge of dairy, veggies/fruits and bread :) 1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped (garden) 1 clove of garlic, pressed (fridge) 3 tbs oil (pantry) 3 tbs mayo (fridge) 2 tbs basil leaves, finely chopped (garden) 4 large portobello shroom caps (aldi) salt and pepper (pantry) 4 crusty rolls (I'm using kaiser rolls) (freezer now) 4 iceburg lettuce leaves (boy, this is my 2nd recipe calling for iceburg lettuce. Glad I bought TWO heads) 1 oz parmesean cheese, shaved or shredded (fridge) 4 ...

I love Costco. But hate dealing with the super sized packages. So here's what I do .... Downsize. And you probably thought I was talking about moving into a smaller house and getting smaller cars, huh? Nahhh, not yet. Actually, thinking about that causes me major anxiety! So lets take this gigantic bag of Muscle Milk Protein Powder. Great deal at Costco by the way, if you drink them! I've got chocolate and vanilla ... They are annoying bags, and hold the air in no matter what you do ... of course, as you try to squeeze the air out, you inhale delightfully scented vanilla and chocolate dust. Not necessarily a good thing, you know? Grab yourself a couple of containers that are sized appropriately to: a. fit in your pantry easily b. has opening large enough to be scoopable c. has large enough space to WRITE what it is with directions I can buy a 6 pack of these for $2.99 from Gordens Food Service And fill em' up. Tada. If you are lucky like me, yo...