Grocery Planning For August

Our supplies were hit hard in the month of July. We ran out of so many things and had very little wiggle room to restock. I sacrificed the purchase of all-purpose flour so that I could buy more milk, fresh produce and take advantage of a deal on tomato paste. The good news is that we have a 9 or 10 month supply of tomato paste. That's a lot of pizza, spaghetti, tomato soup, and ketchup. With the all-purpose flour, I hid away a small stash (about 2 quarts) in another closet, only using it when absolutely necessary. We used whole wheat flour exclusively for everything else, pancakes, waffles, muffins, bread, and as a thickener. This worked -- we got through a long month on very little white flour. I also ran out of decaffeinated coffee. I'm on to my stock of various herb teas. They are quite good, but I do miss the taste of coffee first thing in the morning. We finished off the fresh eggs (from the 15 dozen case I bought a couple of months ago); however, we still a some frozen eggs. And we just kept running out of milk. I pre-spent some of August's grocery money on 2 gallons of milk over the weekend, as I had a coupon. I thought this would be August's milk, but I noticed yesterday that one of those gallons had been brought into the kitchen from the garage fridge. Sigh. We've gone through 10 gallons of milk this month. That is double what we had been using. I think someone must be watering the garden with the milk. What this must mean, though, is that if we're going through so much milk, then we must be going through less of something else. Produce needed constant replenishing. Even with a garden, I had to buy additional produce all month long. So for this next month, I need a better plan.

I have 13 cents leftover from July, but I pre-spent $3.98 on milk for August. For the rest of my August budget, then, I have $121.15.

Given how much milk we went through, I need to up my milk purchase to about 9 additional gallons. Flipp.com indicates that milk will be on sale at Fred Meyer through next Tuesday (Senior Discount day), so a gallon will cost me $1.71. Next item, even though the all-purpose flour is not on sale at Cash & Carry, I'll buy the 50-lb bag that I had planned for this past month. And I'll get my jar of instant decaf the next time I'm down by Walmart. Hopefully we can get by with an additional $15 for produce for the month, beyond the bananas and watermelon. We'll see. But I do think I need an extra $10 that isn't allocated to any item, just to be on the safe side to get us through till September.

Let's see how this all works out, now.

13 cents leftover from July, 2 gallons milk pre-bought ($3.98) -- $121.15 for the rest of August's groceries.

Cash & Carry/SmartFood Service

old fashioned rolled oats, 25 lb bag, 15.89 (63 cents/lb, check WinCo’s prices first)

Simply Value egg yolk mayo, gal, 5.97, thru 8/4

ADM hotel and rest. flour, 50 lbs, 13.09

First Street large loose eggs, 15 doz. 8.99

so far at C & C 43.94

WinCo

chocolate chips 1.88

oats, maybe if under 63 cents/lb

garlic powder if less than $4.61/lb

bananas, 42 cents/lb, 6 lbs total, 2.52

corn tortillas, 80 ct, 2.29

cocoa powder, about $1 worth

WinCo so far – 7.69 (w/o oats and garlic powder)

Fred Meyer -- Senior Day

butter, Moovelous 2.51 ea, get 2 (5.04),  get 1

milk – 9 gals, 16.11

instant coffee, One of the Perks, 2.69

Heritage Farms hot dogs, 75 cents, 2 packs

almond milk, 1/2 gallon, 2.25
kroger canned tuna, 71 cents, get 2 (1.42)

Fred Meyer, so far 29.01 $26.50

Walmart

decaf coffee 3.58

bananas, 42 cents/lb (if don't get at WinCo)

garlic powder 98 cents

chicken leg quarters 5.98

Great Value orange juice, 12-oz 1.23

shortening great value 3.44

Walmart so far 15.21 $14.23

Sprouts

watermelon, 1.98 whole (w/ raincheck)

That is $97.83, so far. A bit more than I would like to have already allocated. So, I went out to the garden to check on the garlic. Remember the garlic scapes from a couple of weeks ago? Well, some of my garlic is ready for digging. This means I can x out the garlic powder for the month. In addition, I thought I'd cut back on the butter to just 1 pound. After digging a little garlic, I made some soft butter just as I have done in the past (see this link).

In addition, I thought we could use oil that I flavor with herbs and garlic from the garden. Have you ever seen flavored oils for dipping bread? The oil base is usually olive oil. Desperate times call for desperate measures, or so they say, so I just used my ordinary vegetable oil (that I bought in a 35 lb box a couple of months ago -- gee, I knew that would come in handy). For this first batch I chose rosemary, garlic, and kosher salt. The salt is completely optional. I just thought it would ease the transition between salted butter and oil for my family. I made just a very small jar of this seasoned oil. In case you haven't heard this, you shouldn't make flavored oils with garlic and then store at room temperature or for too long. There's a slight risk of botulism growing in homemade garlic-infused oil that is kept unrefrigerated or for too long. (See this article for more info.) The FDA recommends using homemade garlic-infused oils within a week and to keep these oils refrigerated. So, that will be on my radar for the beginning of next week. I'll plan a dinner that incorporates any remaining seasoned oil for Sunday or Monday. (Hmmm, pasta salad might be good with this oil.)  After making the oil, I made something else that can be used for spreading on bread -- pesto! I know this won't last more than a day or two, but it will be very appreciated, here. We should be able to manage just fine with buying only 1 pound of butter this next month. (I still have 2 pounds in the freezer, but I'll be saving those for the holidays.)

This now brings me to $94.34. That will leave $26.81 for wiggle room, extra produce as we need it, and a little leftover in case I find a great sale on something. Another tight month, but I think we're doing okay. I'll be stocking up on oats for the cold weather season. (It's not that far off,  shudder.) The mayo is on sale and will replace our current container sometime this fall when it runs out. The eggs will last at least 3 months, perhaps 4 months. Our stockpile of staples is very slowly growing.

Blackberry Season Has Begun!

My daughter walked in the door all excited one evening last week and said the blackberries were ripening at the school that is along her walk home from the bus. This local school gets ripe berries about 2 weeks before the ones on our property, so this is always exciting to get a jump-start on the blackberry season. My two daughters took the car and a small ladder to the school after dinner that evening and picked 2 and a half quarts of ripe berries. In addition to eating them fresh and in a couple of smoothies, I just had to bake one of these:

I don't know if you can tell, but I tried to cut a sunflower in the top crust for venting. One of my daughters knew right away what it was, so maybe I wasn't too far off.

We will be eating fresh blackberries until the end of August. Can you guess what is on my shopping list for August? Shortening -- for making pie pastry dough. I know I have linked to this recipe several times before, but it really is one of the easiest and most reliable pie crust recipes that I know. It's named "Fool-Proof Pie Pastry" for a reason. It really does come out great every time. Here's the link to the recipe. The recipe makes enough dough for 5 crusts. When I make a batch, I divide the dough into 5 parts and make 5 round patties, about 3/4-inch thick and 4 to 5 inches across. I then wrap each in plastic wrap and keep in a bag in the freezer. To use, I simply thaw a patty on the counter for about 45 minutes to an hour and then roll out. I like to sub 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the white flour. The whole wheat adds a nice crispness to the crust. But the all-white flour crust is also quite good -- light and flakey.

Anyway, blackberry pie is a seasonal favorite of mine, and because we have all of these wild blackberries in our area, whole blackberry pies cost me about $1 each to make. We're hoping to freeze lots of quarts of blackberries in the next few weeks, so that we can enjoy blackberry pies all winter long.

Watermelon Rind Bread and Butter Pickles

I wore myself out completely earlier this week and have spent several days pulling myself back together. I still feel very fatigued, though, but I wanted to share this with you.

On my sandwich today, I used homemade bread and butter pickles made with watermelon rind. With my last watermelon (from the 4th of July), I made both watermelon chunk pickles, using the recipe in this link, as well as thinly sliced bread and butter pickles, adapting this zucchini pickle recipe in this link, here. My regular watermelon pickles are cubes or chunks of watermelon rind. For the bread and butter ones, I sliced the trimmed watermelon rind into thin pieces before simmering in clear water briefly to soften them up. Then I added thinly sliced onions and cooked in the pickling solution I use for the zucchini pickles, increasing the turmeric a bit to add color to the white watermelon rind slices.

These pickles turned out well, a delicious addition to my sandwich. I'm making do with what I've got.

Those Bar Cookies Were Yummy Using Just Pretzels and Peanuts

I made these bar cookies again, this time using peanuts in place of mixed nuts, plus the pretzels. I made these for our church's coffee hour, along with some gingersnaps. The pretzel and peanut cookies went over well. And here I was afraid they wouldn't look as good using just the peanut/pretzel combo. Anyway, a few people asked me how to make them and said they'd never seen pretzels used in cookies.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for July

Friday
barbecued chicken leg quarters with a homemade marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger powder, and red pepper flakes
canned corn (dented can from the markdown rack at Fred Meyer)
salad of garden greens in scratch homemade dressing
fruit salad of garden blueberries, raspberries, and a banana in a yogurt and honey dressing

Saturday
basic lentils and rice
cooked carrots
garden greens salad with homemade dressing

Sunday
lentil and vegetable soup using chicken stock made from the bones of Friday's BBQ chicken
homemade French bread

Monday
Swiss chard quiche, using a scratch crust, frozen eggs, milk, garden greens, onions, and cheese
garden greens salad
homemade bread and butter

Tuesday
refried beans and cheese
corny cornbread (using leftover corn in a scratch cornbread batter)
leftover soup from Sunday
fruit salad using last of the watermelon, banana, and some garden berries

Wednesday
falafel (I had leftover cooked lentils from making the curry, so turned them into falafel)
coconut curried lentils with homemade chutney
multi-grain and vegetable pilaf, using leftover rice, leftover bulgur wheat, and some millet, plus carrots, peas, and seasonings, all cooked in chicken stock
cucumber salad in yogurt, garlic, cumin, salt, and mint dressing
homemade ginger snaps (I had to bake a big batch of cookies to take to our church's coffee hour this Sunday-- these were from the reject pile)

Thursday
leftovers of falafel, curry, pilaf, and refried beans
red grapes (bargain-priced at 49 cents/lb at a local ethnic market)
ginger snaps



This was a typical week of summer menus for our household. As you can see, I cook less meat in summer. It just doesn't sound as good to me as bean or lentil-based meals. But, one of my family members mentioned missing meat, so tonight I'll make spaghetti in a meat sauce.

A second thing that's pretty evident is how much I cook using basic ingredients and rarely use mixes or convenience foods. It saves us a ton of money, and also means we can tailor the ingredients to what works for our own bodies. This past week, not only did I cook completely from scratch, but so did my two daughters and husband on their nights. I've tried to teach my kids how to scratch-cook as much as possible. I've shown them how to make salad dressings, pasta and pizza sauces, flour tortillas, pie pastry and so much more. When you are young and starting out in a career, paychecks can be small. As a result, food costs can seem to take up a large chunk of meager pay, especially if you're eating out or buying prepared, convenience foods. By learning how to cook from scratch, my daughters will at least have the choice to spend less on food. It will be up to them to make that choice, but I feel I have given them the tools.

I have another batch of cookies to bake for Sunday's coffee hour. Since I still have pretzel sticks and now have peanuts, I think I'll make the caramel nutty bars using peanuts and pretzels. I think they'll be a hit.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Odd Sense of Fun or Just Plain Sensible: An Afternoon Spent Scouting Out the Produce Bargains

Our fridge had that forlorn, empty look these past few days. You know -- when you mostly shop once per month, and it's now mid-month and time to pick up more milk and fresh produce. I actually thought I had bought all of the milk we'd need for the month, but we breezed through those 7 gallons in less than 3 weeks. In addition, despite keeping a fruit and vegetable garden, we like to have a few extra produce items that I don't grow or won't be ready for a while yet.

One of my daughters was home for the afternoon and she wanted to spend some time with me, so we packed up our lunches to-go and made an outing of scouring the local produce and ethnic markets. These markets don't advertise online the way that traditional stores do. So to know the prices, you have to go out and see first-hand. I'm fortunate as far as ethnic markets go. Our area is generously sprinkled with them. I like to check them all out at least once per summer. Then I have a reference point for lowest possible price on many of our produce items. We stopped at 6 markets, breaking for lunch mid-way, finding a park with picnic tables to enjoy an alfresco lunch. One market which has a good reputation for low prices didn't actually have anything that I wanted today. I keep that thought in the back of my mind -- just because I go into a shop or market does not mean that I am obligated to buy anything.

For $8.87 we bought 2 gallons of milk, 1 green pepper, almost 2 pounds of red grapes, a head of cabbage, 3 1/2 lbs of bananas, and 2 cucumbers. The red grapes were a real steal at 49 cents/lb. There were a few soft or moldy grapes at the bottom of the bags, but I knew that I could salvage the majority of the grapes with a wash and sort right after getting home. Upon close inspection, I ended up throwing out about 20 grapes from the entire bag, so I think we did quite well. We used half of the bag for tonight's dinner and the rest are in the fridge for tomorrow and Saturday. The cabbage was 10 cents less per pound (at 39 cents/ lb) than my other lowest price cabbage spot. Some great deals and we're now topped off to get through the last couple of weeks of July.

Bargain-hunting is my idea of a fun day. When I spy a mark-down rack, my eyes light up, conversation trails off, and I am completely distracted at the prospect of a deal to be found. Paired with time spent with one of my kids, and I'd say I had the perfect afternoon.

Satisfying My Take-out Cravings at Home Using What I Have

Repetitive chimes this morning woke me from a deep sleep. It was my phone. In a fog, I reached out to find it on the table next to the bed. Unknown caller. Click reject call. Despite staying up very late last night, then waking earlier than my body thought it should, I felt very refreshed today. For  3 weeks I've struggled with daily bouts of grass allergies. I snort, clear, cough, and itch my way through each day and night. Something is different with my hay fever this year. I check the pollen count for my area each day. Sometimes I find that on a day that is particularly bad for me the general grass count has been low. Anyway, 2 nights ago I gave up and took some of my daughter's cold and allergy medicine. I avoid antihistamines because some ingredients cause heart arrhythmia for me, which I find more unpleasant and unnerving than the allergies. I thought with the liquid format of my daughter's stuff I could take slightly less than is recommended for adult. The first night that I took it I was sleepy, but still had all of my allergy symptoms.

Last night was much, much better. I took it at the first sign of any itchiness for the night. The medicine made me extremely sleepy and altered my breathing in a way than would have scared me if I hadn't been so sleepy, but I slept so well. I got up in the morning and tackled my household chores, my side hustle work, financial stuff, and ran a couple of errands. It was after 1 PM when I was running errands and I had yet to eat lunch. I had the strongest craving for a Starbucks-style salad and coffee drink that I could practically imagine the taste of what I would choose. I have pretty restrictive with my spending these past few months, so I felt like it wouldn't be that big of a financial deal to just swing by Starbucks and get my lunch there. I also felt that I had in some way "earned" a treat by enduring allergies.

But then I thought about Starbucks' prices. A salad would cost about $7 and a coffee drink would add another $3.50 -- over $10 for the convenience of someone else preparing my lunch. I thought to myself, I can make a similar lunch at home, using garden-fresh produce and ingredients from my fridge, freezer, and pantry and not spend a single extra penny. That's why I grocery shop and stock the kitchen, right? So that we can prepare foods at home ourselves.

I decided to leave Starbucks to those who lack the time, skills, or interest to prepare delicious foods for themselves and made myself this yummy salad, using garden kale, Romaine, and blueberries, plus some bulgur wheat, chopped almonds, mayo, honey, vinegar, and salt. To go with it I made a cup of instant decaf, flavored with vanilla extract, stevia, and coconut milk. Lunch was really delicious, and now having eaten all of it, I don't feel the least bit deprived for not spending additional money for my lunch. Now, I think I'll go make a microwave mug brownie for dessert.

Free Seeds for My Garden

In my garden a year ago spring, I planted Tuscan kale (Lacinato) seedlings purchased in the garden center at Fred Meyer. I paid about $2 for a 6-pack of this type of seedlings. When the kale began to go to seed this spring, I left one plant in the garden bed and pulled up the others. The plant is just now ripening the seeds that it set a month or so ago. I chose the plant that was closest to the edge of the bed and wouldn't get in the way of new plants developing by creating too much shade.

There are about 50 seed pods on the plant and each pod holds about a dozen seeds. I should harvest over 500 seeds from this one plant. Stored in a cool, airtight, and dry container, kale seeds retain a good germination rate for about 2 to 5 years, with germination dropping off after the 2nd year. Even so, I can usually count of a 30-50% germination rate with the older seeds. So, planting 3 seeds per cell will usually result in at least 1 plant per cell.

As I only need about 12 plants of this type of kale per year, and the seeds will remain viable for a max of 5 years, the greatest amount of seeds that I expect I should need of the Tuscan kale is about 150. That leaves 350 remaining seeds that I won't need for my garden from this one plant.

What's my plan for the remaining seeds? I plan on using the rest of the seeds in a couple of batches of kale micro-greens this winter, grown indoors under a light. Here's an interesting thing about seeds saved from your garden. You can use these saved seeds for growing micro-greens indoors in winter. I also plan on saving chive and green onion seeds for micro-greens. These micro-greens, along with sprouted lentils, will add freshness and texture to some of our winter meals, with very little expense.

How do I store these garden seeds? I use envelopes that come in junk mail and bills for seeds storage, then place them in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. I store these with the rest of my seeds in the refrigerator, and they seem to perform okay for me.

The seed pods don't ripen all at once but over the course of a week or two. However, it's important to get the pods off of the plants before the pods naturally explode open, scattering the seeds. So, I pick them as I see them at the ripe-enough stage (tan-colored on the outside). Even if I can't take the time to shell the pods right away, having them in an envelope indoors contains the seeds for my use later. Occasionally, as I am shelling the seeds, I will come across one or two seeds that have already begun to sprout. I carefully transplant these out to my garden and hope for a new plant this season.

There's always the risk that these were hybrid seeds and they won't grow true to the plant which they were harvested. However, I feel that with plants like kale or other leafy greens, that any version of this type of plant will work for my needs in the garden, and for growing micro-greens, the variety won't matter at all.

Do you save seeds from your garden? What's your experience been? Have you used them for more garden plants, sprouts, or micro-greens?

My Nasturtium Blossoms are Ready for Salads

Perhaps you recall that this spring I decided to plant nasturtiums in hanging baskets and focal pots around my home in place of non-edible annuals. I bought a packet of seeds and started some of them directly in the pots and others in cells. Although the germination rate seemed low to me, enough of them sprouted and have now filled 5 hangings baskets and 2 large pots.

The blossoms are just now forming, ready for use in salads. The flavor is very mild, and they look so pretty mixed in with the greens. The whole blossoms would make a beautiful garnish on a plate, or as I did for the lunch salads today, I tore the petals into colorful pieces of confetti on a field of green leaves. I'll try the leaves in a salad later this week.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early July

sauteed garlic scapes

Friday (I gave myself the night off from cooking by making extra the day before)
leftover chicken from the 4th
leftover dinner rolls
leftover rhubarb jello
leftover blueberry pie

Saturday
pizza (another take-out pizza using the balance on the same gift card from a week ago)
green salad
garden raspberries
fresh cherries
candy-coated pretzel rods

Sunday
lentil, barley and vegetable soup
homemade French bread

Monday
bean and cheese burritos using homemade tortillas and scratch refried beans
watermelon
sauteed Swiss chard and onions

Tuesday
ham sandwich
microwave-baked potato
watermelon

Wednesday
baked beans and ham
scratch macaroni and cheese
watermelon
sweet and tangy cole slaw (with dehydrated, sweetened rhubarb bits in with the cabbage)
scratch brownies

Thursday
leftover baked beans and ham
leftover macaroni and cheese
oven-roasted carrot sticks
sauteed garlic scapes
toast, using whole wheat bread and the leftover salted oil from the carrot-roasting pan and some of the oil from the scapes

It's summer and my family, like others, likes to do as many outdoorsy things as possible while the weather is nice and the days are long. Saturday evening, we wanted to have dinner at the beach. dinner at the beach, bringing our own food, is my family's way of "eating out" during good weather. We sacrifice the table service that a traditional restaurant would offer, but we get the most amazing view of the water and really enjoy our evening. We had the balance on a gift card that we could use to pick up a pizza, ordering off of a "specials" menu for a $7.99 large 3-topping pizza. We paired the pizza with a salad made with greens from our garden and a scratch vinaigrette, raspberries and cherries freshly picked from our property and the last of the candy-coated pretzel rods. Like many of us here, I have an assortment of leftover paper plates and napkins (from various celebrations and parties), and plastic cutlery (washed and reused). Once at the beach, we found a bench that was front and center for viewing a spectacular evening on the waterfront. After we had dinner, we played some frisbee and walked along the water's edge. I think that evening picnics are even more enjoyable than midday ones, as the public areas are not as crowded, the evenings are cooling off, you don't need sunscreen, and sunset views are beautiful. This is cheap and cheerful dining at its finest.

I wanted to talk a bit about the garlic scapes. If you don't have a garden or don't grow garlic then you may not know what I'm talking about. So I'll fill you in. Garlic plants send up a flower stalk in June or July. The leaves of a garlic plant are flat and tender like grass. The green part of the flower stalks are thicker, sometimes as thick as thin asparagus, and curl noticeably. The head of the flower stalk is pointed before it opens. It is at this point that garlic scapes are harvested, cutting off the curled section of the stalk along with the unopened blossom end.

This is how I use the scapes:
As is, the scapes have a very strong flavor. To temper this, I blanch the scapes in a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or just until the stalks turn bright green. I then heat a small skillet with about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and saute the scapes in the oil until they are a darker green and very tender, turning frequently. Warning -- in this much oil, they do pop and splatter some oil., so after the initial cooking, I turn the heat down to low for the rest of the cooking.

Once cooked, I remove with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with a bit of salt. These are so yummy, as is. I could eat a whole pile just snacking. But they are also delicious chopped and sprinkled over other dishes, such as a cream-based pasta dish, on pizza, or inside sandwiches. I pour off the extra, now garlic-infused oil and use to flavor other foods, such as focaccia and French breads, plain pasta or rice, meat and veggies, or as a dipping oil for breadsticks. Do any of you cook with garlic scapes? Have you ever noticed them at the farmer's market or in a CSA box? They're very tasty, so if you do come across some, either in your garden or in a CSA box, definitely try them.

In a home-garden, there are many opportunities to harvest produce items that you never see in traditional grocery stores, such as the blossoms from summer and winter squash plants, edible flowers and leaves such as nasturtiums, rose hips, currant leaves, young pea vines, grape leaves, and the flower stalks of garlic.

Most of our produce this week has come from our garden and included Swiss chard, lettuce, baby kale, garlic scapes, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, snow peas, oregano, rosemary, and basil. With the money that our garden is saving us, I am stocking up for winter with an extra purchase or two. This past week, I was able to buy a case of #10 cans of tomato paste. At Cash & Carry, the tomato paste was on sale for about $1 less per #10 can, saving me about $6 by buying a  6 to 9-month supply now. I paid $4.79 per #10 can, 6 cans total. Each can contains 111 ounces. I previously would buy 6-oz cans of tomato paste for making spaghetti sauce, ketchup, or tomato soup and would spend between 50 and 60 cents for each 6-oz can. My #10 can purchase yielded 6-ounce portions at about 26 cents each, or half of what I would typically pay at Fred Meyer. For the most part, the rest of this summer we'll be using fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes and will save these cans of paste for fall and winter. So this was truly a winter stock-up item.

Canned tomato products in the smaller sizes go on sale in grocery stores in my area a couple of times per year. One of those sale cycles usually hits in August or early September, as stores clear out last year's stock before replenishing with this year's. The cans are stamped with sell-by dates, so it's easy to see if stocking up with a year or semi-year supply at a sale price will work for one's household.

In other news for my area -- we had an earthquake in the night last night. Just before 3 AM, my entire household was awoken by the shaking. The epi-center was about 12 to 15 miles from my home. It wasn't a huge quake, just a 4.6, but it was definitely felt here. At first, I thought someone had jumped onto the bed or broken into the house. Then one daughter shrieked. We all poured into the hallway and talked about what we each had felt. One daughter and I stayed up for an hour reading tweets online then when the news finally caught up, we watched for updates. I checked the house and discovered that nothing was damaged. Exciting night, but I think I'd rather have less excitement. Anyway, hopefully you had a much better night's sleep than I did, and that you week was pleasant.

What I Do with the Leftover Waste from Homemade Yogurt

This afternoon, I am making more yogurt. We go through a 3-quart batch of yogurt every two weeks. Homemade yogurt has more "waste" for the consumer than commercial yogurt. I'm sure there is "waste" with commercial yogurt, too. It's probably just processed and sold off as an additive (such as whey) to be used in other products. Have you ever read the ingredients' list on a box of mac and cheese? The cheese sauce mix contains these dairy products: whey, milkfat, and milk protein concentrate. The whey (and perhaps the milkfat and/or milk protein concentrate) is a by-product from some other dairy food processing, such as cheese-making or yogurt-making.

Anyway, when I make my own yogurt I end up with waste during the yogurt-making process and then throughout the month. During yogurt-making, there is a point when I'm filling my jars and I strain the heated milk to produce a smooth texture. Stuff like the skin that develops on the surface of heated milk is removed in the straining. There is nothing wrong with milk skin, except that it's not a desirable texture when in yogurt. (Oddly, I love milk skin in pudding!) I set the stuff from straining aside in a container for the fridge. In addition, throughout the month, homemade yogurt seems to separate into yogurt and whey (the watery stuff that some yogurt gives off). It's been my experience that higher-quality yogurt will yield more whey as it ages than lower quality yogurt. Perhaps this is because the higher quality yogurts are made with fewer additives or thickeners. You can stir the whey back into the yogurt, or as I do, pour it off and save it to use in cooking. I just pour it into the same container as the strained milk skin, until I have the opportunity to use it all. These yogurt waste products seem to keep in my fridge for 2 to 3 weeks, by the way.

So, I save the yogurt waste until there is a food in which I want to use it. Whey and milk skimmings can be used in place of milk in recipes where the tangy flavor doesn't really matter, such as quick breads and muffins, cream of vegetable soup, or as I did with this batch, I made  scratch macaroni and cheese, substituting the yogurt waste for some of the milk and cheese in the cheese sauce. I puree the skimmings with my stick blender, yielding a product with a thickness much like heavy cream.

I agree, the curdled-looking stuff is rather unappealing. However, it does have flavor and nutritional value, and it is a dairy product. So, why not use it in cooking?

Giving Commercial Frozen Fruit and Vegetable Bags a Second Life (or - Free Freezer Bags)

You all know that I am freezing and canning as much as I possibly can from my garden this summer. I just wanted to point out a free source of freezer bags that I am tapping for my own use -- used commercial frozen fruit and vegetable bags. After all, these are freezer bags, right? I keep a pair of scissors tucked to the side of my mixer on the kitchen counter. I encourage all family members to cut all packages open (instead of tearing them open). We save all non-animal product (non-meat/cheese) food bags to re-use, such as the bags that hold cereal, crackers, ramen, frozen fruits/vegetables, chocolate chips, potato chips/pretzels, candy, etc. I've been able to find use for even the smallest bags, you know, portioning out small amounts of raisins or holding a sandwich. As we empty the bags, we turn them inside out and give them a quick wash, then air-dry on the kitchen counter before turning right side out and storing in a box in the pantry.

The commercial bags from fruits and vegetables are perfect for freezing my prepared garden produce. This week, we are harvesting all of the Swiss chard that is about to go to seed. I shred the leaves, steam briefly in the microwave, then pack into one of these frozen blueberry bags. I've been using twist ties to hold the bags closed. When the supply of twist ties runs out, I'll just staple the bags closed. I use a Sharpie to mark each bag's contents. Perhaps you can see where I've labeled this one "Swiss chard."

Great Value quart-size freezers bags are $2.68 for 40, or about 7 cents each at my local Walmart. Using a repurposed freezer bag saves a little money, but it also reuses something that is durable enough for multiple uses. By delaying (or even avoiding) the purchase of freezer bags, less plastic waste is added to our landfills. This in one of those areas where frugality overlaps with preservation of our environment, so it's a double win!

And So the Race Begins . . .

Summer has just barely begun, but I am working doggedly, as I strive to make the best use of our garden and orchard. It is primarily my responsibility to put away as much of our produce as I can to see us through the lean months of winter. However, I have enlisted help from my family members whenever they are free. It's a race to put away as much from our garden as possible before the cold weather returns in fall.

My morning mind is often hazy, so I made my list of chores the evening before. After taking care of other business (side-hustle to earn a little spending money), I charged out to the kitchen with purpose. The small stockpot sits on the top shelf in the pantry, only taken down for occasional jar sterilizing. With space at a premium, the small stockpot is nestled inside of the larger stockpot that I use for making yogurt, tomato salsa, and large batches of applesauce, jam, or preserves. The small stockpot was a bargain piece bought at Fred Meyer 30 years ago. At the time it was my largest pot. I used it for putting up the fruit that grew on the property of our rented duplex. There were 2 apple trees, 2 plum trees, 1 sour cherry tree, and 1 crabapple tree. There was also a pear tree but it never set fruit while we lived in the rental. My guess is it needed a rooster tree and either none had ever been planted or the rooster had died and been removed many years before we moved in. That first summer, there, was a game-changer in my strategy for economizing on groceries. We moved in during the month of April. We had just relocated to the Seattle area, and my husband was looking for work. The fruit trees would prove to be a real blessing that summer and fall. The landlord encouraged us to use whatever we could pick and we did. The neighbors in the other half of the rental were a couple of bachelors. The two of them were more interested in finding dates for the weekend than picking and canning fruit. All of the apples, plums, cherries, and crabapples were ours, all ours. I need to take a step back and tell you that neither my husband nor I had any experience with home-grown fruit or processing it to save. I knew extraordinarily little about canning or making jam. My mother had on occasion made plum jam with farmer's market plums, but I was too little at that time to have made any mental notes about the process. Fortunately, this first summer in the duplex, I had a Joy of Cooking cookbook which had simplified instructions for a wide variety of jams, jellies, and preserves.

When the fruit trees first began to bloom, we had no idea what would grow on any of the trees. The cherry tree was to first to bloom and set fruit. The tiny fruits looked almost like little lemons. For a week or two we imagined that we had a lemon tree in our yard. Of course, being up in the Pacific Northwest, the likelihood of a lemon tree surviving our cold weather and then actually setting fruit is nil. Tell that to us greenhorns who knew nothing about growing fruit! By the middle of June we could see that those tiny fruits would be cherries, but it took a little grilling of the locals to determine if the cherries would be sweet or sour. They turned out to be sour cherries, and there were a lot of them. I quickly learned how to make cherry pie, making two pies at a time to have for breakfasts and desserts. My son was not quite two years old, and was he ever in heaven! Pie for breakfast was a favorite of his. I thought it all through, and logically I couldn't see why pie couldn't be a breakfast food. After all, my homemade pies using fresh-picked fruit were surely healthier than Pop-Tarts. There were so many cherries that summer that I gave away large bagfuls to neighbors and friends. And I still had a lot to freeze for winter pies. I laugh now at the thought of us believing that we might have had a lemon tree. Silly, young me!

The small stockpot was purchased when the crabapples began to show color. I had never made jelly before, but that fact didn't stop me. By mid-summer, my husband had a temporary job, but we knew it would only last another few weeks. With so much financial uncertainty, I was determined to use whatever God put in front of us. The stockpot was nothing fancy. It was on clearance, and it was cheap. I knew I could return its cost to our bank account in just a couple of batches of jelly and some applesauce for the freezer. I told myself that someday I would have more attractive pots and pans. This one was strictly functional. So it's rather ironic that I still use this stockpot every time that I need to sterilize jars, which since I make yogurt a couple of times per month, that's actually kind of often.

Pulling out the small step stool, I prepare to start my day of preserving the rhubarb. What shall it be? Should I make the vanilla-rhubarb curd or the rhubarb and rosemary preserves? The rosemary is still rather puny-looking, so I chose the curd. Today, I would be making as large of a batch of the rosemary curd as I could, so I took down both the small and the large stockpots.

It's difficult to motivate oneself to do the hard work of preserving the garden fruits and vegetables when I know that the grocery stores have an abundance of all manner of produce year-round. So, I summoned up my inner Victorian prairie girl and transported my thoughts to another century. A prairie family would not have the luxury of abundant fresh produce at the market in winter. All family members would pull together to harvest and preserve every last morsel from the soil. To do otherwise would simply be wasteful and foolish.

While I chopped and measured and stirred, I entertained myself with survivalist musings. You know, what could I plant and where on the property, should we ever need to provide the bulk of our food using just what God has provided in land, water, and weather. I would plant more winter squash, pumpkins, and potatoes -- produce items on the higher calorie side. I would also grow even more kale, simply because it is so prolific and dependable here. By sequential plantings, I could be harvesting kale from the middle of March clear through the first of December, if I'm willing to go out and harvest it in the bone-chilling rain. While much of these thoughts were just entertainment, they did make me realize that I could start even more kale than I had originally planned for planting out later this summer to harvest in fall and spring. Right now, I've got my summer kale growing in the garden. I've been able to harvest baby leaves to add to salads already and expect the plants to be mature by the middle of the month. One of the wonderful things about kale is that if it does attract any bugs, the smooth leaves don't offer any place for them to hide, unlike garden broccoli or cauliflower.

I continued to stir and taste, cook and puree, until the rhubarb curd had just the right amount of sweetness and smooth texture. The added vanilla extract makes this fruit butter sublime. I added a small amount of pectin to give the curd some body. While the whole pot bubbled for that last minute, I quickly removed all of the jars and lids from hot water in the smaller stockpot.

By the end of the weekend I had made 20 jars of vanilla-rhubarb curd. As I am not buying very much fruit this summer, I have decided that we shall eat the berries, apples, plums, and pears as fresh fruit and make sweet spreads from the over-abundance of rhubarb in my garden and the wild blackberries that we will forage later in summer. The vanilla-rhubarb curd can be used on toast, with biscuits or scones, or as filling between cake layers for a simple Victoria sandwich tea cake. I think my inner-prairie girl did a fine job this past weekend. I'll have to summon her again and again this summer, as I endeavor to put away as much as I can from what we've been given.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Summer Holiday Week

Friday
leftover rice topped with garden snow peas and peanut butter/soy sauce sauce
corn on the cob (Sprout's sale 20 cents/cob- we use 1/2 cob per person)
deviled eggs (remember those eggs bought at 55 cents dozen?)
watermelon (Fred Meyer, for 21 cents/lb)

Saturday
baked chicken leg quarters (bought at Walmart in 10-lb bag)
rice and lentils
corn on the cob

Sunday
hot dogs in homemade buns
corn on the cob
green salad with garden lettuce, chard, and strawberries, tossed with vinaigrette

Monday
egg, cheese, and waffle sandwiches
cherries from our tree
bananas

Tuesday
cabbage, onions, and hotdogs over
brown rice

Wednesday
coconut curried lentils (got a deal on coconut milk with a coupon -- 45 cents/half-gallon)
homemade plum chutney
millet pilaf
cucumber, plain yogurt, garlic, and mint salad

Thursday -- 4th of July Holiday
barbecued chicken leg quarters
pan rolls
canned corn tossed with browned green pepper and onion dices, plus seasonings (canned corn from clearance rack -- dented can, 35 cents each)
creamy rhubarb gelatin salad
tossed salad of garden greens and Parmesan shavings (leftover from reception) in homemade Italian dressing
blueberry pie (frozen blueberries from last summer in a scratch crust)
watermelon infused water (lots and lots of small slices of watermelon in a large pitcher of tap water, infused for 36 hours)
soda brought by son and DIL

As this was a holiday week, I spent a good share of my time cooking. Keeping up with daily meals while preparing for a couple of holiday meals is a difficult task, as you all know. one thing that I did to make this a little easier for myself was to concentrate the bulk of my "holiday" cooking on one day. On that day, I made the daily dinner before lunch, so that I could have some of dinner for my lunch. Then I cooked for the rest of the afternoon and into evening, baking a 2-week supply of bread, a pie, marinating the chicken, preparing for a picnic, chopping veggies and rhubarb, harvesting and cleaning greens, making dressing, making jello -- you get the picture, I'm sure. I was so exhausted when that was done, but glad to know that the holiday meals would be easier to pull together in the moment.

We had not just the dinner on the 4th of July, but we also took a picnic to the zoo for the day. One daughter had to work on the 4th (at the zoo), so we brought a picnic there and had lunch with her while she took her break. As an employee at the zoo, my daughter was able to get discounted tickets for the other 3 of us. It was still a kind of expensive day for our budget, but worth being able to share the holiday as a family. I did try to make the picnic lunch simpler, but still within our budget. For the picnic, we brought cheese, crackers, and breadsticks (leftover and stashed from the reception), cut-up watermelon, deviled eggs, candy-coated pretzel wands, chocolates (from reception), and canned soda (leftover from Easter, brought by son and DIL). The picnic was quite frugal, in that I didn't buy a single extra thing. Whenever we have a party or celebration and I buy goodies, the leftovers get stashed to use for another special occasion. My family is used to and accepts this, knowing that the goodies will show up and make another event special.

I'm most proud that we ate within our budget for the entire week. While at the zoo, I was very tempted to buy myself a cup of coffee, but I resisted and had water from the drinking fountain instead. The dinner was fantastic. My daughters did the grilling and even did so without charcoal briquettes. They pre-baked the chicken in the oven, then used the sticks and small branches from the cherry tree that I pruned in the spring, in place of briquettes to finish the cooking, add wood smoke flavor and grilled texture to the chicken skin and meat. I cooked the used marinade on the stove to kill bacteria and thicken it to a sauce, then my daughters used this to baste the chicken as it grilled.

And now, we have enough leftovers that I don't have to cook tonight! Yay!

I hope that your week went well, that you had good weather, and you experienced moments of joy!

Red, White and Blue Pretzel Rods

A little treat to go with a picnic this week. I had the white melting chocolate, red melting disks, and blue sugar crystals. I bought a 10-oz bag of pretzel rods from Dollar Tree for $1. The whole batch took about 15 minutes -- faster than baking cookies.

Senior Shopping Day Today, Shopping List Revisions, and the Menu Plan for a 4th of July Dinner Using What's on Hand

I love that I qualify for the Senior discount at a couple of places. I just wish the art museum would extend that privilege as early as AARP and a few others do.

Anyway, this morning I'll be up early to snag a couple of deals at Fred Meyer, using a $5 off any purchase of $25 coupon. I actually won't be buying many food items at FM this month. Even though Fred Meyer has the rep of being a low-cost grocery store, I have found better deals at other stores. Thanks to Lona (in the comments), I used flipp to find milk at a better price that FM with the Senior Discount. Although I check the websites for the grocery stores in my area, I don't check the drug stores. Flipp inventories the advertisements for drug stores, traditional grocery stores, and a couple of the big alternative stores, like SmartFood Service Cash & Carry and Ranch 99, a large Asian market chain.

My revised shopping list now has me spending $111.43 for July, with a budgeted amount of $128.20. I should have $16.77 leftover to use on an unexpected great deal or roll over into next month's budget. Besides buying milk at one of our local drugstores, I also rethought the couscous I had planned and opted for millet and bulgur wheat in its place. Couscous is $2.49/lb in the bulk sections of a couple of stores. That's a bit pricey for something that is just pasta. My intended use for the couscous was a couple of pilafs or grain salads this month. Millet makes a nice pilaf and is almost $1 less per pound compared to couscous, at $1.69/lb at Fred Meyer in the bulk bins. Bulgur wheat is the commonly-found grain in tabouli, a grain, bean, and fresh vegetable salad in a vinaigrette dressing, AND it's only $1.29/lb at Fred Meyer in the bulk bins. So, I thought I'd buy a half pound of each of these grains and save myself $1 to use elsewhere. (A half-pound of either bulgur wheat or millet is a little over 1 cup, dry, or enough to make just over 3 cups of reconstituted, the amount I need for either a pilaf or a main dish salad.) When I first made July's list, I had forgotten about a $5 off coupon that I had received. I mentioned this in a subsequent post that I decided to use that coupon toward 2 additional pounds of butter. So, not only will I spend less money this month, but I will be buying more.

This is the path that my monthly grocery planning takes. I think and rethink the plan, remember other savings options, look for better deals, and revise my lists two or three times during the month.

For the most part, I am using what I have on hand for the menu for the 4th. I have about 15 pounds of chicken leg quarters in the freezer. The obvious thing to make is barbecued chicken. I'll marinate a half-dozen leg quarters in a simple blend of oil, lemon juice, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, salt, and pepper overnight before grilling the following day. A little marinade can do wonders with basic chicken pieces. I have a couple of bags of blueberries from last summer and some pie pastry in the freezer. So, it looks like a blueberry pie for us. My garden is overflowing with greens these days, which would make for a wonderful tossed, mix-green salad with a homemade Italian dressing. And my garden rhubarb continues to produce, so I'll make this creamy rhubarb gelatin salad, substituting some homemade vanilla yogurt for the cream cheese. To round out the meal, I'll bake a pan of honey-glazed dinner rolls, the kind that only need a 30 minute rise-time in the pan. That should about do it for a simple, summertime holiday meal.

Patriotic Tie-Dye

Over the weekend, the four of us tie-dyed some shirts to wear on the 4th of July. We already had some of the supplies -- the dye bottles, a little red dye, rubber bands, and gloves, plus I had a white t-shirt I could use. We bought 1 t-shirt at Dollar Tree for $1, another at JoAnn Fabrics on sale for $3.14, a tank top at H & M for $2.99, and one refill packet each of blue and red dyes, on sale for 50% off (about $3.50 each). Adding up all of the costs and dividing by 4, each shirt cost about $3.50.

Dollar Tree had a bunch of t-shirts. The sizes and colors were variable, and each shirt needed a close looking-over, as some had holes or marks. But the brand was the exact same as the shirt we bought for my husband at JoAnn Fabrics.

A fun activity, and we each have a new shirt!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early Summer

Friday
egg fried rice with garden Swiss chard, garden snow peas, carrots, frozen peas, garlic, onions, ginger, and mushroom soy sauce
garden strawberries

Saturday
The four of us had an evening event to attend and would miss the chance to eat dinner at home at a normal hour, so we made a tossed salad with garden greens plus fresh strawberries and set aside, went the the event, then used a gift card for a pizza on the way home late that night. Free and delicious. (But a little late!)

Sunday
lentils and rice (basically rice cooked in one pot, lentils in another, then the two of them fried in a little oil, just a bit until crispy)
carrot sticks

Monday
baked garden kale and Swiss chard frittata, with onions and mozzarella cheese (veggies sauteed in oil, then put in a buttered glass pie plate, topped with cheese, then milk mixed with eggs poured over all. Baked in a moderate oven.)
garden strawberries
rhubarb muffins (just a basic muffin recipe flavored with almond extract and diced rhubarb folded in)
cereal crispy treats (using some old breakfast cereal that no one wanted, marshmallows, vanilla, oil, and butter. I made these in the microwave, then pressed into a buttered pan. Super easy.)

Tuesday
lentil, vegetable, and hot dog soup, with canned tomatoes, onions, and carrots
rice as a side dish, as I'm not eating a lot of bread these days

Wednesday
bean burger patties (cooked extra pinto beans for Thursday's chili)
herbed rice (leftover rice heated in the pan from the bean burgers, adding extra oil, garlic powder, dried chives, salt, and butter)
tossed green salad (lettuce, chard, and kale) dressed with homemade Italian dressing
strawberry shortcake (scratch drop biscuits, garden strawberries, and whipped cream found buried in the freezer)

Thursday
vegetarian chili topped with cheddar cheese
scratch cornbread
carrot sticks


We're scrounging in the freezers and pantry to find some interesting food items this week. I found some chocolate-mint breakfast cereal that my daughter had bought in the fall, but abandoned as well as some whipped cream from late 2017. Both of those items became part of desserts this week.

I opened the jug of mushroom soy sauce and we liked it. To me, it just tastes a bit more earthy than regular soy sauce. I bought the mushroom soy sauce because it worked out to be more cost effective for us this time.

Just a lot of basic meals this week. Breakfasts were often toast, eggs, yogurt, fruit, or leftovers from previous meals. I discovered that I really like having a bean burger patty for breakfast. So then next time I make them, I'll do a few extras just for by breakfasts. Lunches were often soup, salad, or peanut butter on bread, with fresh strawberries and raspberries as a side dish. I'm still picking strawberries every other day or so. Strawberry season is coming to a close, but raspberries are just now beginning to ripen.

We didn't eat a lot of meat this week. That wasn't deliberate. Meat just didn't sound appealing, I guess.

Do you have some basic recipes memorized? I've done this with a basic muffin/coffee cake/pancake recipe and the biscuit/scone recipe. I vary the amounts to suit what I'm aiming for. So, for instance, with the muffins this week, I made the basic recipe of flour, salt, baking powder (or my substitution of baking soda and vinegar), sugar, egg, oil, milk, but I increased the sugar and added almond extract and rhubarb dices. If I were to make pancakes, I'd use the basic muffin recipe, but decrease the sugar just a bit and increase the milk. Cornbread can be made by substituting cornmeal for part of the flour and decreasing the milk slightly. Biscuits can be turned into scones by subbing some butter for the oil/shortening and adding some sugar. Having these two basic recipes memorized means that I can quickly bake something to go with a meal, without having to find recipes. I'm sure that others must also do this, but I just don't hear people mentioning it. Anyway, this week I used those basic recipes for a few meals.

I hope you all had a great week and are anticipating a relaxing weekend!

Caramel Nutty Bars

A family favorite, these bar cookies are part of my Christmas repertoire.


1  1/2 cups of buttered, divided
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup honey (corn syrup also works)
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream (I use milk)
1 can (12 ounces) lightly salted mixed nuts, about 2  1/2 cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 X 9 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream 1 cup of the butter with granulated sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour. Press mixture evenly into prepared pan. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly-browned and center looks dry. Remove from oven and set on a rack.

Meanwhile, in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, combine remaining 1/2 cup of butter with honey (or corn syrup). Heat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the butter is melted. Stir in brown sugar and bring to a boil. Boil exactly 2 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the cream (milk) and nuts. Immediately spoon evenly over the baked crust. Return to a 350 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until the caramel topping bubbles.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Once cool, cut into squares or bars. Store in tightly- covered container at room temperature.



So, that's the official recipe. As you know, I substituted about 1 cup of halved pretzel sticks for 1 cup of the nuts. The results were delicious, and the pretzels stayed crunchy. I also didn't bake the full recipe, but baked a half-recipe in an 8 X 8 inch baking pan. I used half of an egg and saved the other half in the fridge to use in when making scrambled eggs the next day. I substituted granulated sugar plus a dash of molasses for the brown sugar and used corn syrup in place of honey. Later this summer, I plan to make these again using peanuts and pretzels and skipping the mixed nuts altogether. I think this recipe could be open to other savory or snacky topping additions, such as Chex mix, Cheerios, or raisins mixed in with nuts.

Mitigating Rising Food Costs

So I've been thinking about how to manage the rising costs of food this summer. This is what I've come up with so far. What else can we do? Add your suggestions in the comments!

• waste nothing. You know that I try hard not to waste anything, but now more than ever I need to stay on to of all of our supplies to ensure nothing is going bad. This extends to what's in the garden. I have some Swiss chard going to seed. I've been using the leaves off of the plants despite their increasing toughness. The flavor is fine. I just find that I need to shred the leaves even finer to reduce the toughness. I'm doing what I can to use most of the abundant rhubarb, dehydrating sweetened chunks and making preserves to use in fall and winter. 
• when buying root vegetables that have the greens still attached, pay attention to the condition of the greens as well as the roots. The greens can also be used in cooking. An example, last month I bought a bunch of radishes. We cooked the greens in soup and egg dishes. I have some beets growing in my garden. I plan on using the leaves as well as the roots when I harvest them.
• minimize the purchase of prepared foods and focus all or almost all of the budget on basic ingredients.
• stick to the super cheap produce items or cuts of meat. I'd like to eat some of the pricier cuts of beef or parts of chicken, but for this summer at least, we'll be sticking to chicken leg quarters and ground beef. Ditto with produce. We will enjoy the produce that is on the less expensive side, with an occasional treat of the more expensive items, such as the peaches that I bought this week for 77 cents per pound.
• shop at the budget grocery stores, even if they're not my favorite in terms of shopping experience. The local Walmart near us is lacking in ambiance. But they do have good prices on many of the items that I might buy. I can suck it up for 20 minutes to get the things I need there and save money. 
• shop at ethnic markets. Some of the larger ethnic markets have online ads or price searches on their websites, but many of the smaller ones do not. I try to stop in at one of our local Hispanic markets when I go to Home Depot, as it's just a half of a block down the road from HD. I sometimes find the best produce prices in that market, and I'd never know it if I didn't make a stop there. (No website or ads.)
• use coupons and rewards judiciously. I received a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase at Fred Meyer to use before the end of July. I considered buying a splurge item for myself, like good coffee. Instead, I decided to buy 2 extra pounds of butter, as Fred Meyer carries a house brand of butter that is my go-to bargain butter, at $2.51 per pound when buying on Senior Discount day. This will put us "ahead" on the butter by 1 month, freeing up funds in a future month to go toward other foods.
• make substitutions in recipes whenever possible, finding a less expensive alternative for the pricier ingredients. The pretzels worked just fine in cookies in place of nuts. I don't have heavy cream for making ice cream, but I have found that homemade yogurt, once sweetened and flavored, makes a good base for a homemade frozen dessert.
• stock up now on non-perishable basic foods when I see a good price, such as dried beans or rice.
• grow more produce in the off-season. I just started another batch of kale seeds for our fall, early winter, and mid-spring kale. This year, I started twice as many seeds as usual for this supply of kale. I will also be growing lentil sprouts indoors throughout the fall, winter, and spring. I have some plastic tunnels that fit over our garden beds. I'll be using those to add 2 to 3 weeks onto the harvest period of the lower growing, tender vegetables (like lettuce) this fall.
• forage for the wild foods in your area. In the PNW, we have blackberries that grow everywhere. They ripen over several weeks, giving us lots of opportunities to pick and freeze or preserve many quarts. 
• compare, compare, compare. Check prices for as many shopping venues in my area as possible, online through individual store websites, with ads from each store, or with tools such as flipp which compare various store ads in your area for items. (Thanks Lona!) 
• it doesn't hurt to check in person, too. When you happen to be in a store to pick up specific items, check the other items on your list, too. As an example, I found milk on sale when shopping for something else and saved myself about $1 over what I was prepared to spend.
• make a shopping list in advance, sticking to a budget if that fits your circumstances. As you shop throughout the month, revise your shopping list. If you've found better deals than you anticipated, use the "extra" money to buy more of the essentials or sock it away for a future month. You all know that I make my shopping list for an entire month at a time. That doesn't mean that I do all of the shopping in one go. My shopping is spread out over the month. As I have found deals on my items or rethought plans for meals, I've revised my shopping list to make the most of all of my budget. My lists typically go through 4 revisions in a month. I use the list to update and track my spending as well as plan for what to buy. I can see in just a minute or two how much money I have left and could allocate for additional food. My style of planning is very methodical, but also very effective for staying within a tight budget. While I have vague ideas of what I'll prepare for meals, I don't have a specific monthly menu plan. That level of organization is more than I can manage. However, we seem to do well just planning a day or two in advance, using what I have bought or we have on hand as inspiration. It's not perfect, but it is working -- and that's what matters. Decide on the level of organization that works best for you and work to stick with it.
• create your splurges at home with what you have on hand instead of shopping for your splurges. Make your own coffee drinks. Put together a nice cheese plate with crackers or bread and some cut up fruit. Have meals outdoors. 

Remember, there are lots of ways to manage the rising cost of food. You don't have to do all of them. But do try something new to you and that feels a bit outside of your comfort zone. This is do-able!