Frugal In Florida

I'm bringing back an OLD favorite of mine ... Meal Prep and Menu Planning! I think  I can pull this off ;-) Sunday - pork chops and baked potatoes! Chops were picked up at Costco on Saturday as were the taters. The fixings for the taters are all in the fridge already ... I have a TON of foil to be used up as it's taking up way too much space in the #tinykitchen Monday - paninis ... using up the leftover lunch meat and cheese that's hanging around in the fridge and needs to either be used up or tossed ... to prove my point, I'm going to pull out the Cuisinart Griddler ... if it doesn't cut it, to the donate/kids box it goes #tinykitchen Tuesday - most likely out as Hubby flies out Wednesday morning Wednesday - whee ... I'm a single girl! I'm thinking BLT Boats ... bacon in fridge, I have a head of iceberg that I'm hopeful will make it to this day ... Thursday - looking at a Teriyaki Chicken recipe for the crockpot ... we'll see but I ...

Did you see the Breakfast Bistro Boxes I finally shared a while ago? I can't believe I didn't get it up sooner! Well, then I made myself a Breakfast Bowl that really was really yummy! And I shared pics on Instagram and such but never got around to sharing with YOU! So here you are, my Breakfast Bowls for the week ... meal preppin' at it's finest! 1 bag of riced cauliflower (Trader Joe's or any stores frozen food section!) 8 eggs 1 bag of sausage crumbles (I used Jimmy Deans as it was on sale before the holidays) ... you can make this yourself if you'd like! frozen veggies (broccoli is my choice as that's what I had on hand) ghee seasonings Ok, this is a very loose recipe and certainly open for you to expand and customize to YOUR liking! Add some ghee to your large skillet and dump in the riced cauliflower.  Season with some salt/pepper/onion/garlic and cook until the moisture is evaporated. Divide that into 4 bowls. Add a little m...

It's been a while since I've acutally planned a full menu  and then prepped it too!  We've been slacking off ... life has been so very busy and well, let's face it, our eating habits have gotten really bad again ;-( So. Hubby is up in Indiana (dropped him at the airport on Sunday morning), I went to Costco and stocked up on a few things and then spent a little bit of time cooking a few things on Sunday.  Nothing like I had planned to do but at least I have the green beans and the bacon ready. Oh, and that chicken ... it's ripped apart and in a container in the fridge. Not sure why I just don't like whole chickens?? Anyway.  I'll be meal prepping in the mornings and hoping to stash a few dishes in the freezer for quick grab and go when I'm really busy like I was this last week (I grabbed a sausage/shrooms/marinara sauce with riced cauliflower and it was DELICIOUS!)  My plan is to make 4 servings of each and freeze 2 or 3 of each with the exception of...

Ahem ... I may have a problem here! The Starbucks Bistro Boxes have consumed my life...every waking moment I think of them, wondering what else I can make to make MY life a little easier and I suppose, cooler ... cuz we all just want to be cool and liked, right? Yeah. Whatever. I think it's more of a fascination that these things are scooped up like crazy. Since the first one I posted here I've been seeing these Boxes EVERYWHERE! No joke. So ... how about a Breakfast Bistro Box?? I don't know why I hadn't ventured to making BREAKFAST a meal prep priority ... those mornings when I'm running late and just grab an apple are gone forever! 8 eggs 8 slices of bacon (for those of you who really like bacon, feel free to cook more) Green beans (because my breakfast is NOT complete without green beans) or other veggie (broccoli runs a close 2nd for me along with riced cauliflower) Red grapes or cuties or whatever "stable" fruit you want *optiona...

Well, this is the week I head back home. Hubby was to be coming too, but a few things came up so looks like he will be staying a little longer, maybe a week? That’s fine, I have a lot of things to catch up on at the office so I’ll have a few late nights as well when I get back to South Florida. I miss that view! And yes, I am still menu planning and meal prepping!  Prepping is really an understatement as Sunday morning, I believe a mouse might have moved in and died a slow death in the laundry room of the house … sad because Hubby and I have a joke when we open the doors: "come on in family of mice! Come on in out of the cold!" Well, apparently, one did and now (as of 11:30am  10:30am (did you turn back your clocks yet???) Sunday) we still can’t locate him! *The joke is because my father in law makes it sound like the mice are lined up around the corner waiting to dash in the door and garage as soon as an opportunity arises. I will no longer laugh at him as he ma...

Still here in NW Indiana ... NO internet to be provided to the house as of yet. Good grief. I ended up going to Verizon in town and just buying a pay as you go phone with hotspot as our little jetpack bit the dust and it was more expensive to buy a new one of those than an actual phone. AND it's cheaper on a per month basis so I figured what the heck ... at least I'll have a phone that works here too ... And that, my friends, is not so very frugal and it will show up on the Frugal Activities report later this week so check back ... Otherwise, everything is just fine! Cold? Yup! Snow flurries? Yup! Laundry mat? Yup! Just like the old days! What's not like the old days is the menu planning and meal prepping! Never did that when I was younger ... my parents would get paid on Friday, so we'd do Friday night at Shakee's, Saturday night at Red Lobster, Sunday night at Arbies, Monday at McDonalds or KFC and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be the boxed ...

Hey, did you see the latest Grocery Shops in Review post? Spent a lot of money but don't see a whole lot of food! Don't you hate when that happens?? That means I'm going to have to Menu Plan and Meal Prep! Wheee!! We had new appliances finally delivered the previous week ... everything is installed, just waiting for the tile to set under the dishwasher so we can slide that bad boy in ... sooooo excited to use all the new stuff! I even had Hubby swap out the faucet on the sink and the lights overhead. What a difference. AND if someone decides they want to buy the house NOW, I'm fine with that as well ... I can do the same to a new house! We are hosting the Princess Baby Shower in two weeks so I need to stay ultra-focused on money and food ... after that party, we head out of town for a few weeks which means I really  need to stay focused!! Sunday - Chinese at Home - going to make up a bag or two of that chicken I picked up at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago,...

We are finally getting back to normal around here. The Princess and her Hubby, along with the cat and obtrusive dog left Sunday morning. The boy's girlfriend is back at her parents house as they got power Thursday (I think? My days are so messed up right now!). The Boy is back to work and the gym, I'm back to work as of Monday and Hubby is back to his usual whatever routine. I am still shocked at people I know who do NOT have power still ! That's just crazy! I figured now is a time to menu plan to get us back on schedule AND because we head out of town next week, hopefully. HOPEFULLY. Yeah, I said that. We are supposed to be driving the Jeep up to NW Indiana to leave it there for a vehicle to use when we visit. Long story but whatever. We are also waiting on the arrival of a new refrigerator, oven/microwave combo AND dishwasher for the main kitchen. It should have shipped this past week but with the hurricane we didn't get any notification of that happening, so n...

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 spe...

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 th...

Friends who meal prep together, stay together. Right? Right! Hubby's out of town for another 10 days so I asked a girlfriend of mine if she wanted to come over during the weekend and do a little cooking session. I don't think she quite understood what I meant by that.  She just heard, Jan's cooking, a few yummy things and yada yada yada. And to make life even sweeter? I was using protein (meat) that is already on hand to clear out the guest kitchen freezer ... Hmmm.... I made a list of a few things to make and shared with her by email. A couple of suggestions were things I've made before and enjoyed and figured she'd like for some future lunches and dinners ... and there were a few things I've had on my list of things to try that finally, maybe, I could get around to! First up: Mexican Beef in the Instant Pot Yup, roast was in the freezer and the balance of stuff in the pantry (tomato paste from freezer as you really should be freezing ...

Hey hey, it's that time of week again! Meal Prep and Menu Planning time! Whee!!! Yeah, I'm excited ... not! Hubby heads out of town again on Tuesday morning, bright and early ... I'm trying to convince him to take Uber for a the $10 or so it will costs as opposed to ME getting in the car at 5am and driving him there ... ugh. I'm also waiting to hear if Princess and her Hubby will be here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night as Matt might need to work on this side of the state for 3 days so that could be fun for me to see Princess again! She's starting to really get her baby bump going and I want to see her! So with some of the uncertainties pending, my menu plan could change up a little bit but I'm trying to plan it where I can just fluctuate the amount of food cooked ;-) I did hit up Publix on Saturday while Hubby ran to Target and spent way too much so I'm hoping to hold off on the grocery store til the end of the week! Saturday - $5 Digiornos...