Frugal In Florida

I am not a huge fan of veggies, I'm sure you already know that! And of course, butternut squash is running rampant at the grocery stores lately, with Whole Foods having the organic stuff at 89 cents a pound! Really? Nothing is ever 89 cents a pound at Whole Foods, you know, so yes, I grabbed a small squash. Mind you, every 2 weeks, I get the bug, and pick up a butternut squash, a spaghetti squash, an acorn squash AND some zucchini. Generally it's the pretty display and the less than $1 per pound sign that lures me in ... after all, it's Frugal and it's supposed to be good for you ... so hook me up and reel me in, every time. Then, 10 days later, I see the variety of squash STILL sitting in the guest kitchen refrigerator and end up tossing them out ... FOOD WASTE EXTRAORDINAIRE! There. I said it. :-( Boo. So this time around, it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I've left the butternut and spaghetti squash sitting on the counter in the MAIN kitchen, so ever...

It's been a while since I've done a Frugal Tip ... so here you go! I bought a large loaf of udi's gluten free bread from Costco a while ago knowing full well that no one but ME would most likely be eating it ... and of course, I try not to eat a whole lot of bread ... so what's a girl to do? Freeze it! But, oops, have you seen the insides of my freezers? No way a whole loaf was going to get squished in any of them, not to mention, I sort of wanted to protect this pricey bread from freezer burn AND be able to use a little as I go along ... not the whole loaf. Brainstorm! Remember those sandwich bags I picked up to freeze the chicken breast? Remember the concept behind freezing the chicken breast individually ? Yup, applied the same thought process to freezing the bread. I simply froze 2 slices in each baggie. Folded them close and stuck them in a LARGE freezer style ziploc bag and stored that bag in the door of the garage freezer. Sweet. So ...

We used to do Italian Sunday's back when the Sopranos came on every Sunday at 10pm ... and this was one of the things I always had on standby in the freezers ... It also happens to be the ONE thing that I am in charge of making whenever we run out ... normally Hubby will try to out do me, but not on this one ... this is the ONE thing I am 100% responsible for making! Sweet. I have him one upped! So ... just a reminder ... Hubby does NOT like chunky cooked tomatoes. Totally turns him off the dish if it happens. And ... he has this bay leaf phobia thing ... if there is a piece of bay leaf floating around, he will get it, bite it and totally flip out. I know this for a fact. First time, amuzing, second time, frightning ;-) Needless to say, I like to start this when he's still sleeping or just out of the house! You will need several hours for it to simmer and get happy so don't expect to start this at 5pm for chowing by 6, ain't happening! This makes a fairl...