Frugal In Florida

Ok, ok, let's face it ...

Eating a lettuce wrapped ANYTHING is not a pleasurable experience.

There.

I said it.

Out loud.  For all the blogworld / internet to see.

Come on, you are in agreement. I see you over there nodding your head. And YOU, I saw that tilt of the head. Don't be ashamed, it's the truth!

So, I'm here to show YOU how I do it ...

This all came from one of my meal prep posts and someone sent me an email inquiring just how I was going to eat that at the office. At my desk. In front of others. In my work clothes.

Good question(s).

So here you go:

Wash that lettuce up and dry it out well.

Layer it like so:


Just lay it side by side and overlap the edges a bit. I was using the mini romaine lettuce leaves that are just little mini things and fairly firm.


Set a few leaves off to the side ... you'll need these later.

Place your burger in the upper portion of the lettuce "nest"


Just like so ... and yes, that burger looks slightly over cooked. I'm…

I tried to stay away from the grocery stores all week long and was somewhat successful.

Only thing ... well, three things ... friends over Wednesday night for dinner, Princess and her Hubby came in on Thursday night, and we hosted a small get together of about 12 people on Friday night.

Not a problem!
Wednesday night we had burgers and hot dogs (from the freezer!) ... glad I had bought the buns last week!  I also made a bag of Handsome Fries (Trader Joes) and then serve up some diced tomatoes, onions and shredded cheese to go along with everything.

Thursday night was a crockpot dinner ... General Tso Chicken (recipe coming soon!) with chicken from freezer and a batch of Un-Rolled Egg Rolls (slaw in fridge) and 2 bags of Trader Joe's Veggie Fried Rice (freezer).  Hubby did stop at the store to get 2 small bags of stir fry veggies.

Friday night I opted to just do a Mexican/taco fiesta. Ground beef from freezer, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and onions from fridge. I had the boy bring me …

Hey hey ... have I got something pretty cool to share with you today!


You know I don't normally do dairy but lately I've added it back into my daily food intake, in moderation ... if I eat to much I can certainly tell with the tummy issues (bloating, rumbling, all that fun stuff, TMI?).

Yes, I still eat Paleo BUT cheese is NOT paleo. I can't even say I eat Primal because it's not raw cheese 😏 ...

I am finding that if I focus on LOW CARB I do a little better.

BUT WAIT! PALEO IS NOT CONSIDERED A LOW CARB DIET.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's not. But it is at the end of the day. Anytime you kick pasta, bread and all other grains to the curb, you are eating low carb. Take that, Paleo Police! And if this replaces them crackers and chips, I'm good.


Now that we got THAT out of the way, let's get to this cool little recipe!

Cheese Crisps.

Crackers. Chips. Whatever you want to call them, they are the bestest thing I've discovered. Well, outside that Chicken Crusted Piz…

Hey hey, Happy Saturday! Time for me to share my recent grocery trips!

Hubby and I took a little staycation last week at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Hilton Hotel. We Ubered there Friday afternoon and had the Boy pick us up on Sunday afternoon. It was a nice little getaway, not all that frugal but we made the best of it while we were there!  The only reason I share that is because I didn't do a whole lot of grocery shopping the week before!


Ok, here's what I did buy this past week! Three trips ... could have skipped one or the other but whatever!

Publix - August 14, 2017
Total Spent - $85.61

Jalapeno pepper $.28
4 Chobi greek yogurts $5 for all 4
organic shredded carrots $2.79 (not that I wanted organic)
spring mix $2
container grape tomatoes $3
3 (all that was on shelf) large bottles of coconut water $3.99 each
Chameleon Cold Brew Coffee $7.99
sweet onion (2) $3.31
mini sweet peppers $7.19
4 pound bag of naval oranges $3.99 (that were horrible)
2 4 pks of Pure Leaf Tea $5.99 each
…

Hey hey, it's Sunday and normally I'd be putting my best foot forward to get some meal prep stuff done ... BUT we just got back from a little 3 day get away and we are just exhausted!

I didn't get to the grocery store and don't plan on going today so I decided to make a few things up using what I had on hand.


Up first was these yummy little Deli Snack Bistro Boxes ....

By all means, feel free to say they look kind of like grown up Lunchables.

I'm fine with that.


I had the ham in the fridge (Costco) and the cheese as well (Costco and Trader Joe's). The hard boiled eggs are also from Costco. As I'm out of eggs at this very moment (I have TWO) I opted to go ahead and make these for a few morning breakfast options ... figured it might be a nice change of pace!

Here's what you need:

Ham (or lunch meat of choice) rolled up
1 hard boiled egg, sliced in half
4 to 6 small cheese slices (optional, I skipped out this time around)
Cucumber spears (I almost always b…

A few weeks ago, since Hubby was out of town, I opted to meal prep all THREE meals for 4 days ... just to see how it would go.


I wanted to see how much more work was involved.

I wanted to see if it made my food choices a little simpler.


I wanted to see if it would make me stay on track, food wise.

I wanted to see if it was worth it, period.

It was.

So I did it again on Sunday ... started at 9am and was in the pool by 1:30pm. I was aiming for 1pm but my girlfriend showed up and kind of threw me off my game for a bit.


The kitchen was CLEAN before I lathered up with sunscreen and grabbed the first wine of the day.

So, just a few little notes and tips here:

1.  I only use one pan at a time, so therefore, I am NOT using my time efficiently in the kitchen. If I was cooking the bacon and the green beans AND the broccoli all in different skillets/pots, I would have shaved a bit of time off my all around time in the kitchen. Yes, I washed the skillet in between things.


2.  Having a PLAN is cru…

For years, and Ido mean YEARS, I would turn my nose up at egg rolls ... I mean, seriously, it was a fried, greasy 'thing' filled with icky cabbage, carrots and protein. Oh, wait, are there eggs in there? I honestly don't know because I can count on one hand the number of egg rolls I have consciously consumed in my lifetime.



Just NOT A FAN of them ... I supposed because I've always had an overly fried, borderline cold egg roll that I've just not been drawn to them. #WHOLE30
#PALEO


However, THIS recipe appeals to me in so many ways:
1. It's loaded with veggies which is always a good thing 2. It's grain and dairy free 3. It's a knock off, make it yourself Chinese food 4. It's frugal to make 5. It's damn tasty 6. It's fast and easy AND 7. It fits in with MY Whole30 plan (when I'm on!)
Yup. Scored on 7 of 7 points ... I'm in!


Here's what you need:
1 bag of tri-color coleslaw (cabbage, carrots and red cabbage) mix ... NOT the angel hair mix! 1/4 onio…

I remember the first time I made these biscuits ... I had them on my radar to make for a few weeks ... I priced almond flour. All I wanted was one measly cup of almond flour. And it was going to cost me like $10. Yikes. In case you forgot, the name of the blog is FRUGAL in Florida. $10 for one pound of flour is NOT frugal. But a little research, and checking the post over and over and drooling, I finally thought "heck, I've got almonds coming out my ears in this house!" ... and then I found that I could MAKE MY OWN ALMOND FLOUR! I was so excited so I hopped right to it and got baking!


1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup butter, cut in small cubes
4 egg whites
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a medium size bowl, mix the flour and butter and mix with fork until you have little pea size crumbles of butter and flour. Add egg, salt and baking powder, mix to combine. Divide in to 4 portions, try to keep them mounded as they will want to spread (thin mixture) and place on a baking sh…