Frugal In Florida

WHAT Grocery Budget?? Since Sonny Boy has been gone (wow, a whopping 10 days!) and probably even BEFORE that since I was doing the pantry challenge in July, I've not made a long grocery list, carried an envelope stuffed with coupons or had to make more than 2 trips to the car to unload. Yeah, we've been to the store. A gallon of milk, 3pk of lettuce, half and half was the list on the receipt last week. This past weekend consisted of a trip to Publix ($30 as Hubby HAD to have his olive bar selection) and the produce store. But last night. Ahhh. Last night, I told Hubby I'd stop and get him something to sleep...he's fighting the battle of sickness now and is just about down for the count. So I had a few things I wanted, carrots, celery, lettuce, and NyQuil. And silly me, I swung in to the parking lot of .... Whole Foods. What was I thinking? $73 later, I walk out with a few carrots, a package of celery, some grapes ($6?? They better be good), some apples, ...

It's busy around here lately. Getting a kid shipped off to school. Work. Sickness. Life in general. The life in general thing really takes over my time it seems...and before I know it, the weekend is OVER and it's Monday morning again! The number one thing I do is make sure I always, always, ALWAYS have something prepped for lunches (Hubby and I take our lunches 99% of the time to work) ... And we normally eat salads and leftovers if they are appealing for lunches (um, take my advice, skip the leftover broccoli, ok? Just not a good thing to reheat in an office building). And we take LARGE salads. So I make it a point to wash the lettuce, slice the cukes, the sweet peppers and a few tomatoes (I don't normally do a whole week of tomatoes as they will get icky rather quickly) ... And keep them in separate containers.  Every morning, I grab a handful of lettuce, a handful of spinach (I buy it in large containers, triple washed, don't tell me bad things please!...

It's Monday, yet again. At least THIS week I'm feeling so much better, have a little spring in my step AND Sonny Boy will ride the bus home Friday afternoon to spend the long weekend with us ... woohoo!! Oddly enough, it feels like the weight of the world has temporarily fallen off my shoulders, thankfully. Which allowed me to sit yesterday, in the FRESH, CLEAN Florida Room and make out a menu for the WHOLE month of September (and these last 3 days of August). Of course, if I stick with the whole month, it would be nice, but we all know the reality of that! So here's what I have for the upcoming week: Sunday - leftover chicken breast (from Hubbys Saturday night experiment, brining) with salad and fresh grated parmesan cheese Monday - Steak with onions and shrooms Tuesday - Asian Chicken Soup Wednesday - Bangin Shrimp Thursday - Chicken with philly cream and pasta Friday - Sonny Boy home! Pizza? With the garlicky crust? Saturday - Sonny Boy home! I'm ...

Hubby did his first cooking class at the cooking school Friday. Lord please help me. This man has the fire in his belly to start cooking again. Don't get me wrong, I love his cooking and he was the master chef of the household before his accident years ago.  And I'm glad that a two hour class brought it back to life for him. He's ready to start experimenting ... But in the meantime, I will still be cooking at least 50% of the meals in this house. So today's recipe comes from one of those magazine ads, you know, for mayo. And surprisingly enough, it's tasty ... Here it is, as we made: Parmesan Crust Chicken 1/2 cup mayo (we used olive oil based) 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (preferably not the green can!) 4 chicken breast 4 tsp italian seasoned breadcrumbs (we used Panko, that's what I had on hand) Combine mayo and Parmesan cheese. Spray a baking sheet (which we covered with tin foil for easy cleaning) with some cooking spray. Arrange the chi...

There is a time and a place for everything in life. And today, I speak of frozen convenience foods. No, I'm not necessarily talking about frozen pizzas or bagel bites because {sob} we've sort of moved on from that kind of stuff for now. I am however, talking about GROWN UP convenience foods. With a little bit better quality and taste than the above mentioned stuff :) Saturday night, we got home from delivering Sonny Boy to college. I was SICK, getting ready to speed downhill in to a full fledged sinus infection.  I was also being hormonal, and the fact that I just threw my baby boy to the wolves, well, I was a mess. Hubby took charge. He dug around in the freezers (which, look, they are getting emptier!) and came up with this: And 45 minutes later, we were eating a fairly decent meal all things considering. Princess came home and wanted to eat too, as those chicken things are like her all time favorite (and I'm shocked that there were 2 boxes left as she will...

I notice I go in cycles on cleaning tips. This week, yet again, has a tip utilizing those dryer sheets. Now I've found 2 useful things to do with them ... This time around, we will clean the plate of the iron. Have you ever ironed something that wasn't MEANT to have heat applied? You know, an applique. Or a stray piece of leather (why did they do that!) .. and then it just burns right on the iron plate. Uggg. Well, never fear, here's a tip that will clean that right up ... and it will also polish up the plate so it won't catch the fabric and crease it. Take a dryer sheet, and 2 pieces of paper towel. Turn iron on high (but don't turn on the steam option) Lay one piece of paper towel down on the board, and place dryer sheet on top. Lay other paper towel sheet down next to them. Iron the dryer sheet for oh, 30 seconds. Smells good, doesn't it? Then iron the paper towel for oh, 30 seconds. The point is to remove the fabric softener from the iron...

Yeah, I know. It's Tuesday. NOT Monday. I'm well aware of that. I've been sick. Since last week. A WEEK ago, matter of fact. Started as a scratchy throat. Then a painful throat. As in, wake up in the middle of the night mewling because it hurt so bad. Not a good thing. Of course, we were in Orlando, at a hotel, that had magnificent sheets, pillows and a large TV (for Hubby). Me, I just wanted to stay there forever. But alas, life calls. So we finished getting Sonny Boy settled in. Said our goodbyes. Shed some tears. And drove back home. Saturday night, dinner was simple: Smashed taters (freezer) and chicken cordon blue (freezer). Sunday night, Hubby fended for himself as I was sprawled on the coach, a weeping mess. Not sure if it was from the fact that my baby boy was 300 miles away (and what is he eating??) or if it was because I was running a fever and still mewling with the very sore throat. Hubby rustled up some cheese sticks, breaded mushrooms, pigs in a ...