Grocery Planning for June

One week left in May, which means that I am planning what we need for the month of June.

I have 90 cents leftover from May, which means that I have $125.90 for June’s grocery budget. I’m including a couple of Father’s Day menu items in the budget, which squeezes things a little, but I think that we’re okay. The stock-up items for June are 50 pounds of sugar, 15 dozen eggs, and 25 pounds of brown rice. The sugar and eggs were on special, while the brown rice is a regular item for us, and I typically buy this in 25 or 50 pound bags. In about 2 weeks, I'll freeze about 10 dozen eggs to use in July and August.

It’s really good to see that my pantry is looking a wee bit more stocked these days. The garden is producing enough for us that I don’t need to buy much at all in the way of produce. In June, I should be able to harvest Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, snow peas, sorrel, strawberries, rhubarb, beet greens, and lentil sprouts. (You’ll notice that I skipped the raisins this month, as we’re using the dehydrated rhubarb in its place.) Plus, I still have some canned and frozen fruits and vegetables. I’ll be adding more rhubarb to the freezer throughout the season, plus I’ll make several jars of vanilla-rhubarb jam to add to refrigerator storage.

This morning, I compared 6 stores online as I made and then whittled my list. I didn't have to make as many compromises as I have had to in the previous 3 months. In this list, I am $1.52 under budget, so I have a tiny bit of spare money this month.

June Grocery list (124.38 out of 125.90 budget)

SmartFood Service Cash and Carry (71.59)

White Satin granulated sugar, 50 lbs, 21.98 stock-up item

Golden International mushroom soy sauce, 3.09, 5 lbs

First Street almond extract, 16 oz, 5.98

Simply Value imitation vanilla 2.99

Simply Value whole tomatoes, #10, 2.89

First Street large loose eggs, 15 dz, 8.30 (55 cents/dz)-- limited availability, stock-up item

yellow onions, 10-lb bag, 4.84

First Street medium grain brown rice, 25-lb, 10.97, stock-up item

First Street mozzarella cheese, 5-lb, 10.55

WinCo (12.19)

lentils, 4 lbs. 3.32  83 cents/lb bulk

soybeans- $1 worth

garlic granules – $1.15 worth (1/4 lb)

chocolate chips- Winco 1.68

graham crackers, WinCo, 1.68

bananas 8 lbs, WinCo/Walmart, 3.36, 42 cents/lb

Fred Meyer - senior discount day, (23.26)

hot dogs, 3 packs, 75 cents ea, (2.25)

milk, 10.43, 5 gals, (get 1 whole, rest 2 %)

butter, 2 lbs, 2.51 lb (5.02)

orange juice- FM 1.61,

smoked sausage, Father’s Day, 3.50

biscuit dough 45 cents, donuts on Father’s Day

Walmart (12.44)

Great value decaf, 3.52 (or 2 at Dollar Tree)

Gold Leaf chicken leg quarters, 10-lb Walmart $5.98

Great Value cocoa powder, 8-oz, 1.98

Great Value marshmallows, 96 cents, 10-oz

watermelon, Sprouts or Country Farms, 49 cts/lb 10-lb (4.90)

I pre-spent/purchased the sugar and eggs, as they were on sale or of limited quantity at a very low price. Since we're not using these two items at all in May, I am still counting these them as part of June's budget. This month, we'll be trying mushroom soy sauce for the first time. It worked out to be less expensive than the regular soy sauce, so we'll see how we like it. 

For meat, I'm buying chicken leg quarters, smoked sausage, and hot dogs. I still have ham, two chicken leg quarters, ground beef, and smoked salmon in the freezer and cans of tuna in the pantry. I have green beans, peas, spinach, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, tomato paste, whole tomatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, onions, carrots, orange juice, apple juice, pineapple, raisins, and corn for fruits and vegetables in the pantry, freezer, or refrigerator. In grains, I have all-purpose and whole wheat flour, coarse corn meal (polenta), steel cut and regular oats, barley, popping corn, and quinoa in the pantry. And I still have a lot of pinto beans left from April's shopping.

I have a separate budget for the reception after my daughter's graduation, and I expect there will be some nice treats leftover, including some fruits and vegetables, meats, and cheeses to round out our supplies. Knowing this in advance gave me some freedom in making out this month's grocery list.

That's about it for June's grocery list.

My Creative Mind's Eye

Right now, more than ever, I have to work with what I've got. That includes meals, clothing, tools, and landscaping. You may remember, last year we hosted a reception after one daughter's university graduation. Our other daughter will be graduating this year and we are hosting a reception for her, too. I've allocated some funds from the budget for the food for her reception (although this will be scaled back a bit from last year), but there is extremely little in the budget for sprucing up the entry garden, back deck, or yard. A lot of what needs doing is plain old labor to clean, prune, and weed. Last year, though, I had some money for flowers in pots, and that made a big difference in the first glance impression, I thought.

Seeing the ordinary in a new way
Working with what I've got involves taking a second look at many plants, rocks, and pots in our yard and finding the "new" in it all. Here's an example of what I mean.

What do you see in this picture? You probably see a bunch of ivy surrounding a dead shrub of some sort in a pot. Yes, that's what I saw, too. My regular me would think, "let's go to Home Depot and buy a new shrub for this pot." The creative me needs to find a way to use what I've got right here.

And what my creative side saw was the potential for an ivy topiary. After rubbing all of the dead needles off of the shrub I had something that would work as a frame for the ivy.

I also had a terra cotta finial sitting on a shelf in the garage. I trimmed the top of the dead shrub a little and fitted the finial firmly in place. Then I untangled the strands of ivy and wound them around the dead shrub, tucking the ends under to secure them. As luck would have it, there was a twin to this dead shrub surrounded by ivy about 15 feet from this one, and I had a second finial to use. So, I used the same treatment for the second potted shrub and I now have a pair of ivy topiaries, at no cost.  I think they look lightyears better than before.

Another example of seeing things with fresh eyes involves 2 pots at our front door. I usually buy flowers for these two pots. This year, I scavenged the yard for various succulents to fill both of these pots. I found 3 different succulents thriving in my yard. The variety in texture, scale, and color of the succulents makes up for the lack of blossoms. The bonus to using succulents is that I often forget to water the pots in the front of the house, and the succulents are very forgiving in that respect.

Another pot also needed some flowers of some sort. I scavenged some volunteer plants from the yard and popped them into that pot. Sure, I don't get to have exactly what I want. But that's the trade-off to saving money. I get free plants, but I just don't get to choose what they are.

I've got a couple of weeks to get the house and yard into shape, so I'm keeping myself quite busy with this work. I thrive on this sort of thing, though. I'm the type who does well with projects with a specific termination as opposed to ongoing work. So, this is a good thing.

I hope you're all doing well and that some of you were able to use the link for a free Kind bar yesterday. I'll be back tomorrow!

A Kind Bar Freebie to Send to Someone Special

This is not necessarily a promotion of one company over another, but it is a freebie of a bar that I enjoy. I thought I'd share the link, in case this interests you. Basically, you thank someone you know who has shown kindness by sending them an email with instructions for receiving a free Kind bar. I don't know how long this offer is active.

Here's the link.
Click through and then click on "SEND A KIND SNACK." Choose how you wish to notify your recipient (twitter, facebook, or email), and enter the necessary information.

(And just so you know, the only thing that I get out of posting this here is knowing that you might benefit from this freebie offer.)

Growing Lentil Sprouts in My Kitchen

This is my batch of lentil sprouts. They took 5 days to reach this stage. I began with 2 tablespoons of dried lentils (bought in the bulk bins at WinCo) and now, I have about 2 cups of sprouted lentils.

Lentil sprouts are good in stir-fries, salads, and sandwiches. Their flavor is much like alfalfa sprouts, and their texture is crunchy and mildly starchy when raw.

I sprouted mine in a pint-sized canning jar that I covered with a square of cheesecloth and propped at an angle in a cereal bowl with the open end down. I kept the jar in a dark corner on the kitchen counter.

So simple -- this is how I made mine:

I rinsed the lentils in the canning jar, then drained them. I filled the jar with water, covered with the cloth (secured with a rubber band), and allowed to soak overnight. The next morning, I drained the lentils, poured fresh water into the jar, and drained once more. Propped in the cereal bowl, the lentils were able to shed any excess water (which could cause them to rot). I rinsed and drained them in the jar twice a day. After 5 days, I rinsed them one final time, drained well in a sieve, and placed them on a paper towel to dry for 20-40 minutes. They're now wrapped in the same paper towel inside of a plastic bag. Stored this way, lentil sprouts will keep in the fridge for 5 days or so. Some sites say that sprouts can keep for weeks in the fridge, but I'll just count on a week at most. Since it's so easy to sprout more, there's no need to make a huge batch.

I just had a small pile of sprouts with ranch dressing. Very tasty! As we near the end of the month, and I find myself looking for something new to eat from our supplies, lentil sprouts will add that fresh bit of something to meals around here.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-May

homemade crystalized ginger

Friday (cost for 4 -- about $1.20)
scrambled eggs with garden chives
steamed carrots
apple wedges
rhubarb muffins
small amount of leftover rice and refried beans, topped with seasonings and cheese

Saturday 
went to a dinner party

Sunday (cost for 4 -- about $1.95)
beef and bean burritos
cole slaw (homemade dressing on shredded cabbage)
chocolate covered strawberries (I used dipping chocolate bought on clearance after Christmas)

Monday (cost for 4 -- about $2.05)
Mexican-inspired soup, made with leftover taco meat, refried beans, canned corn, canned tomatoes, Swiss chard, onions, and seasonings, topped with a small amount of shredded cheese and some fried tortilla strips
toasted homemade rye bread with butter
fruit salad of banana and strawberries

Tuesday (cost for 4 -- about $1.10)
leftover soup from the previous night, just plain tonight
homemade whole wheat toast with butter
(Three members of the family went out to the movies as a gift to their dad. The kids paid for treats at the movies, so that cost is not factored into my budget. However, the additional treats meant I didn't need to cook as much for dinner.)

Wednesday (cost for 4 -- about $1.05)
rice, pinto bean, and vegetable medley (using cabbage, carrots, onions, and chives)

Thursday (cost for 4 -- about $1.45)
Swiss chard, onion, and mozzarella frittata
steamed carrots
homemade whole wheat toast with butter

Once again, this was a week that was low on meat consumption. I used a grand total of 1/2 pound of ground beef for the burrito filling and Mexican soup. However, we did have cheese (which is just as expensive as meat) on 3 nights. We continue to use the inexpensive or even free fruits and vegetables, such as rhubarb (free), Swiss chard (free), chives (free), whole carrots, cabbage, and onions. The one exception was the purchase of strawberries -- 2 lbs of strawberries at Sprouts for $1.98.

We spent $8.80 on family suppers this week. That left $19.42 for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for 4 people for the week. That's achievable if using less-expensive basic foods and what we can gather from our garden, combined with cooking from scratch for 95% of what we consume.


Breakfasts this week consisted of crockpot steel cuts oats, toast from homemade bread, homemade yogurt, rhu-sins (dried, sweetened rhubarb), scratch pancakes, raisins, bananas, granola, and milk.

Lunches included leftover soup, eggs, various sandwiches (using homemade bread, bean spread, and peanut butter), yogurt, various concoctions of fruits and vegetables (which included carrots, rhu-sins, raisins, bananas, juice, Swiss chard, cabbage, chives, onions), and ramen.


A few experiments this week:

• dehydrated carrot pieces to make single servings of instant soup
• sprouted lentils (thanks, YHF) to use on sandwiches and in soups and salads
• made crystalized ginger (using some aging and wrinkled fresh ginger) to use in baking

What was on your menu this week? Do you like experimenting in the kitchen, or do you prefer to use the same set of recipes?

Would You or Wouldn't You?

I'd love it if you'd weigh in on what you would do and why. Would you save white tissue gift wrap for the purpose of draining cooked meat or fried foods?

Some very lovely friends of ours gave me a beautiful Mother's Day gift, and it was wrapped in several layers of white tissue wrapping paper. I saved the non-torn sheets to reuse for gift wrap of my own. However, I still have several sheets of slightly torn tissue. I'm thinking of using this to drain fried foods or cooked ground beef.

My reservations: first, that it wouldn't perform well for this use (bits of paper might get stuck to foods); and second, it's pure white, which means it was bleached. Would it concern you that dioxins from the bleaching process might contaminate foods as they're draining?

Or should I just compost the slightly torn sheets? I already composted the mostly torn sections.

What are your thoughts?

An Easy Topping to Make a Bowl of Soup Seem Special

I often serve soup in bowls, just as is. However, sometimes I'm in the mood for something a bit more special. Maybe I need to bump up the calories, carbs or protein in a serving of soup, or I may just want the soup to be more visually appealing. Anyhow, here's one topping that I make from time to time -- deep-fried corn tortilla strips.

I know, the phrase "deep-fried" puts a lot of people off of the idea of making these. But they are simpler and produce far less excess oil than the phrase would connote. They are not at all fried in a deep amount of oil. In fact, I use about 4 tablespoons of oil to fry a batch for a few bowls of soup. There is normally about 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil remaining, which I save in a custard cup to use the next time or for sauteeing vegetables.

This is what I use:

• a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, about 5.5 inches in diameter across the bottom of the pan and 3.5 inches high
• about 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil to start the frying
• 4 corn tortillas, cut into halves and then into thin strips
• a slotted frying scoop
• repurposed paper, such as the torn-open paper bag that sugar comes in

I heat the oil over a medium flame while I begin cutting the corn tortillas into thin strips. I test the oil by dropping 1 strip into the pan. If it sizzles and fries fairly quickly, the oil is ready. I remove that strip to the paper to drain. 

I fry the strips about 2/3 of a tortilla's worth at a time (a good-sized handful), turning the batch over a few times until they look lightly-browned. For a soup topping, the strips don't need to be perfectly fried as I would expect from making chips. Some will be more done than others, but on the whole they will be crispy. A batch that is large enough to top 4 bowls of soup takes about 5 minutes from start to finish and costs me about 25 cents.

By using a small-diameter saucepan, an oil depth sufficient for frying is achieved with less oil than a larger pot. In addition, because I turn the strips a few times during frying, the pieces do not need to be fully submerged in the oil to crisp up, as the sides of the strips are repeatedly exposed to the higher temperatures of the hot oil with the turns. 

After I'm done frying and the oil has cooled, I store any residual oil in a custard cup to use another time.

The soup in the above photo was a Mexican-inspired one, made with leftover taco meat, refried beans, canned corn, canned tomatoes, onions, seasonings, and Swiss chard from the garden. I topped this soup with a bit of shredded cheese and a handful of fried tortilla strips per bowl. The crispy texture of the tortillas contrasts nicely with the soup and gradually morphs into chewy morsels in the time from the serving of the soup to its full consumption. I served this soup with toast for most of my family. For me, with a smaller appetite, a bowl of soup like this is a full meal in itself.

Finding Less-Expensive Substitutes, Pt. 2 (This Time I Needed a Substitute for Commercial Ice Cream)

When I was grocery shopping last week, I really wanted to buy a pail of ice cream for my family. This is hard. When I can't afford the treats for my family that I know they'd enjoy, I feel terrible. Anyway, with my senior discount, the 3-qt. pail would have cost about $4. I actually had a pail in my shopping cart for a minute, then I thought of something I could make at home, with the ingredients that I was already purchasing. I put the pail of ice cream back in the store's freezer and finished my shopping.

Fast forward a couple of days. You may know that I make my own yogurt from whole milk and starter that I've saved from previous batches. I had just made another 3 and 1/2-quart batch of plain, whole milk yogurt. I took some of that yogurt, along with vanilla extract, and sugar, and I made one quart of frozen yogurt. (Savings -- no heavy cream to buy!)

To make this, I pre-froze the chilling chamber of my Donvier. The next day, I strained 1 quart of yogurt until about 1/3 of a cup of whey had strained off. In a large bowl, I blended sugar and vanilla with the yogurt until it tasted right to me. Homemade yogurt can be more tart than commercial, so this really is a YMMV thing and needs tasting to see when the flavor is right. I followed the regular instructions on my Donvier until the frozen yogurt was the right consistency, then scooping it into a freezer container to ripen (firm up) for a couple of hours.

Real frozen yogurt is not quite like ice cream. It doesn't have the butter fat that ice cream does. And its tanginess comes through in the flavor. However, it's delicious in its own right.

I'm old enough to remember the first frozen yogurt shops in the US, back in the mid to late-1970s. There were usually 2 flavors from which to choose, and the toppings bar consisted of granola, trail mix, plus dried and fresh fruit. The frozen yogurt definitely tasted like frozen yogurt, and could not be confused with ice cream. But those of us wearing Earth shoes liked that this tasted healthier. We (or our parents) were already granola-eaters and sprouts-growers. A tart frozen treat was just about right for the times. Today, frozen yogurt shops boast 15 or more varieties, have toppings bars with candy and cookie pieces, and the flavor is much more like an ice cream shop than a health food stop. The usual set-up is serve-yourself. If one is not careful, a single dish of their sweet treat can costs a small fortune, ranging from $6 to $10 (or more as we've accidentally discovered).

My homemade frozen yogurt cost me about 90 cents a quart. I've made my own granola and strawberry syrup (from last summer's frozen strawberries) to top our dishes of frozen yogurt. I'd estimate a single sundae of homemade, from scratch fro-yo with equally from-scratch toppings is somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 cents.

This was indeed a pretty good substitute for my ice cream dilemma. I suspect that I will be making frozen yogurt a lot this summer.

A Donvier is a hand-crank, no-rock-salt-needed ice cream maker, popular in the 1980s and 1990s. I got mine as a wedding gift and have used it every summer since.

Finding Less-Expensive Substitutes

The substitute this time is for raisins. I've been buying a 4-lb bag of raisins for $9.37 each month. Now that we have rhubarb in abundance, I am making sweetened, dehydrated rhubarb bits. I have set aside some of May's raisins, to add back to the supply of available foods in June, and am encouraging the household to use these rhu-sins, instead. If this works out for my family, I will spare $9.37 from June's budget to use for other foods.

I posted about how I make rhu-sins back in 2013. Here's a link to that post, explaining how I do this.

The rhu-sins are great in oatmeal, granola, cookies, and salads, as well as snacking on as is. Basically, any place dried cranberries would go, rhu-sins can too.

A Quick and Inexpensive May Gift

This is a gift for a daughter of some friends. It was quick to make and used items that I had on hand: strawberries (bought for Mother's Day), dipping chocolate, a clean fast food paper tray, gold spray paint, and a paper doily.

The clean and unused fast food tray was white with a red basket-weave pattern, and looked more like it should have fries in it. So, I grabbed my can of gold spray paint and gave the bottom and outside a couple of coats. I then lined it with a paper doily. I think it looks nice enough for a small gift.

I selected the biggest, nicest-looking berries from the batch that I bought this morning and washed then dried them thoroughly. Next, I dipped them in melted candy-coating milk chocolate, then drizzled with a tiny bit of melted white chocolate. 4 large strawberries used 1 ounce of dipping milk chocolate and 1/4-ounce of white dipping chocolate.

I wrapped the tray of dipped berries in plastic wrap then placed them in a clear cellophane bag, which I tied with a deep red ribbon.

I think this would also make a lovely and inexpensive Mother's Day gift, should anyone be looking for a last-minute idea.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-Spring

Friday
Mexican casserole, layering Spanish rice with taco meat, refried beans, and cheddar cheese, then baked in the oven until bubbly
cole slaw with a dressing of dried chives, garlic powder, chive vinegar and mayonnaise
leftover cake

Saturday (everyone thought tonight's dinner was really delicious)
walking tacos-- homemade fried corn tortilla chips, topped with taco meat, refried beans, cheddar, and salsa
Spanish rice
cole slaw with the same dressing as the previous night
last bit of cake

Sunday- Cinco de Mayo (this dinner was unanimously voted the best of the 5 Mexican meals)
nachos- leftover tortilla chips, beans, meat, cheese broiled in oven, then topped with yogurt/salsa
steamed carrots
rhubarb custard

Monday
homemade cheese pizza
carrot sticks
leftover blackberry-rhubarb sauce and rhubarb custard combined
cocoa-chocolate chip meringues (I made another batch to send to my step-mom)

Tuesday
curried lentils over brown rice

Wednesday - cook-out
hot dogs in homemade buns
nutty rhubarb coleslaw
garden Swiss chard and carrots in garlic butter
s'mores

Thursday - snacks/hors d'oeuvres at daughter's art show
bean spread sandwiches
raisins

The weeks seem so busy, and this one was no exception. I continue to try and be thoughtful about my choices that impact our finances. This week:

• For meat, this week, I used 1 pound, total, of ground beef for all of the Mexican dinners, and 6 ounces of hot dogs for the cook-out. That's not even a pound and a half of meat for a week, for a family of 4! 
• On Sunday, I baked the pie filling for rhubarb custard pie, without the pie crust. My family really enjoyed this. (I missed the pie crust, though.)
• Breakfasts continued to be simple ones: steel cut oats, rhubarb muffins, and toast topped with peanut butter, bean spread, jam, or jelly. We're using less and less butter these days. 
• Lunches for the week consisted of leftover refried beans and Spanish rice, sandwiches on homemade bread, boiled eggs, salads from the garden or carrot sticks and cabbage from the store, raisins, fruit juice, apples, rhubarb sauce, homemade brownies.
• I made ketchup. There are copy cat recipes online, but I just combined to taste some tomato paste, sugar, vinegar, salt, and water in a saucepan and heated through to dissolve the sugar. I am not the big ketchup-lover in our household, so my idea of what constitutes a good ketchup may fall short of the mark with a real ketchup connoisseur. Hopefully this will be okay enough for my family members. I needed to use up some tomato paste in the fridge and we were about out of ketchup, so this seemed like a good mini project.
• I baked several loaves of French bread this week. We are out of whole wheat sandwich loaves and I haven't had the time at home to dedicate to doing a large batch. My large batch makes 5 loaves and requires me to be around the house for several hours. So, French bread it has been.
• Our 5 nights of Mexican meals was a hit. The last night deemed the best of all (I guess that means that I'll be making nachos again soon)
• I put together a package to send to my step-mom for Mother's Day. I included some jars of homemade jam and some home-baked meringue cookies, along with some purchased tea and bath bombs (both bought with coupons and discounts) and the birthday gifts that I had for her. I packed the box completely -- there was little room for anything else. Because it seemed like my box would be heavy for its size, I opted for the flat-rate shipping box. I saved about one dollar over using my own box and using regular shipping. If you have a postal scale at home, you can estimate your shipping charges and compare the price to ship your parcel on https://postcalc.usps.com/. The price on the flat rate boxes keeps increasing, so they don't always save money. However, if you know you'll be shipping heavy items, or your items are going to Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico, the flat rate Priority Mail shipping boxes can save several dollars.
• My daughter had an art exhibition in the city on Thursday. I knew there would be some snacky type foods, but I wasn't sure it would be enough for our family's dinner (we all went), so I packed bean spread sandwiches and raisins for the drive home for any hungry travelers (it's a long drive from downtown). The evening was enjoyable and we are super proud of her work.
• I transplanted some of my seedlings (the basil, pumpkin, and cucumbers) to larger containers. These seedlings need consistently warmer temperatures than we have in May before planting out in the garden. For the last 2 years, I've been buying my basil as starter plants from a local shop. The quality of those plants was outstanding, but at $4 each, it seemed like I should go back to starting my own from seed. Basil is such a slow grower from seed that my plants seem so tiny. So, I am taking extra good care of these seedlings, keeping them under lights, indoors where I can monitor their warmth and moisture as the roots settle into new soil. In recent years, I have had 2 good-sized basil plants, kept in large pots to provide for all of our summer basil needs. With starting from seeds, I now have 12 tiny, but healthy little plants. I may plant a couple of these seedlings each into the large pots, leaving a few plants to give to friends in the area who have been a great support or who could use a little support from me.
• The furnace is now turned off for the season. I look forward to opening those heat bills to find them substantially lower from previous months. We're using cold water only for laundry and encouraging everyone to take shorter showers. Our water heater, furnace and stove-top are gas. I can't really cook less, but I can use the crock-pot and microwave more often. In addition, with longer days, again, we're using less indoor lighting. So, our electricity bills should be lower for several months, too.

That's about it for my week. I wish all of you a lovely Mother's Day, either for yourself or for the mom's in your life. We'll just be having a nice family gathering at home, using foods that I already have at home, plus 1 container of strawberries from the store. I'm not sure that I've ever eaten in a restaurant for Mother's Day since I became a mom. But then again, I don't think I'd like the noise and crowds of a restaurant on that day anyway. The gift on Mother's Day is to be with my children and to live up to the example of motherhood set by own mother.

Enjoy the weekend!

The Dough Blade for the Food Processor: A Real Time-Saver

You may recognize these 2 kitchen tools. But if you don't -- they are food processor blades. The silver one to the left is the regular chop/puree blade. I use this tool most often in my food processor. The plastic tool to the right is the bread dough blade. It's for mixing and kneading yeast bread dough.

I find this blade to be most helpful when I need to get a loaf of bread made quickly, with minimal time spent on my part. I add the ingredients to my food processor bowl, then mix and knead with this blade. I allow the dough to rise right in the processor. Once it has risen one time, I pulse the processor to punch down the dough. Again, I let the dough rest in the processor while I grease my baking sheet.

The only actual hands-on work that I need to perform with this blade is forming the loaf. French bread is the easiest and fastest bread in my baking repertoire, so I mostly make this variety when I'm using my fp.

The other day, I saw that we were running low on sandwich and toast bread, a staple for those taking their lunches with them during the day. I also knew that I had to leave the house in just over 2 hours (and get ready to go in that same time frame). That's not enough time for me to make whole wheat sandwich bread. However, with my fp and the dough blade, I was able to make a loaf of French bread, from start to finish, in almost exactly 2 hours, using a slightly warm oven to raise the formed loaf before baking. I was also able to do many tasks around the house and get myself ready during that same time period.

I just wanted to share this bit of information about the dough blade because I've had friends say they never knew what that one tool was for. If you don't have a bread machine, but do have a fp with a blade like this, you can bake bread, with minimal hands-on time.

Nutty Rhubarb Coleslaw

I've been mulling over the idea of using rhubarb in non-desserts for the past couple of weeks. As I have so much tender, young rhubarb right now, I wanted to offset some of the other ingredients that I have to purchase by adding rhubarb in their place. The idea of coleslaw sounded promising, and I still have a couple of heads of cabbage from my purchase in mid-March. I tried it for my own lunch and was so impressed that I decided to make a large batch for our family dinner. This salad received a huge thumbs up from my family members.

A few things to keep in mind:

• use tender, crisp young stalks. Thin stalks seemed to work well for me. Older, thicker stalks may be too stringy to slice thin.
• I used the slicing blade on my food processor. A mandolin would also work very well. Basically, you want very thin slices. With my food processor, I had less of a stringy mess at the end if I didn't use the pusher that forces the stalks through the feed tube. I just allowed the stalks to "fall" through the tube, then picked out the larger chunks after slicing.
• Which brings me to this, you'll want to pick out any large pieces that didn't slice into nice thin bit. You can chop this and freeze to add to a batch of rhubarb sauce, or just compost it if you have plenty of rhubarb growing right now.

Ingredients:

thinly sliced spring rhubarb

chopped, toasted almonds

shredded cabbage

dressing:

mayonnaise

vinegar

salt

sugar

Now this is as close to a recipe as I have, for now. Use about 1 part rhubarb, 2/3 part chopped, toasted almonds, 5 to 6 parts shredded cabbage. Toss with a dressing of mayonnaise mixed with a dash of vinegar, pinch of salt, and one or two spoonfuls of granulated sugar. This should be a sweet, creamy dressing.

Rhubarb and ginger are natural a natural pair. A bit of diced, crystallized ginger would be a wonderful addition to this salad. 

A Variation of Rhubarb Sauce That is Delicious, Uses Less Sugar, and Takes Advantage of Our Surplus Rhubarb

This is baked egg custard topped with blueberry-rhubarb sauce

In the comments the other day, Allie was asking about a recipe for blueberry-rhubarb sauce. Here is how I make rhubarb sauce that gets devoured in my house.

My rhubarb sauce follows 4 points to reduce the sugar, the tartness, and the intensity.

• I mix with berries, about 1 part berries (frozen or fresh) to 3 parts chopped rhubarb. Blueberries are our favorite, but blackberries and strawberries are also yummy in rhubarb sauce. When I see blueberries at Dollar Tree in the freezer section (10-oz bag for $1), I scoop up several bags and hoard them at home until I find something special in which to use them. I was inspired to try blueberries in rhubarb sauce after a comment in my early blogging days.
• I reduce the amount of added sugar by stirring a bit of baking soda into the sauce. When the fruit has cooked to a mush, I stir in about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. The reaction causes a gray foam to bubble up. This is stirred down quickly and the gray color disappears. After the baking soda, I then add the sugar to sweeten, using taste as my best judge. Every 1/4 teaspoon of baking sugar has the ability to lessen the need for sugar by about 1/3 cup. When I'm really conserving on sugar, I add even more baking soda, a pinch at a time, again using taste as my guide. I wrote more about using baking soda to reduce tartness in baking and cooking in this post.
• I thin the intensity of the rhubarb with a slurry of cornstarch in water, which is stirred in after sweetening the sauce. About 2 tablespoons of corn starch stirred into 1/2 to 2/3 cup of water, then added to the rhubarb sauce and cooked until thickened will do the trick.
• Finally, at the very end, I add about 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (imitation works fine). The vanilla has a warming effect on the flavor of the rhubarb. Vanilla is a delicious counterpoint to sweet and tangy rhubarb concoctions. I love it in rhubarb jam, too.

Free Nutrients for My Vegetable Garden

This is about a dozen egg shells ground to a fine meal. Egg shells contain calcium, a mineral that some vegetables need to thrive and inhibit disease. As I use eggs, I rinse the shells and set them aside until I have about a dozen. They dry over the course of several days and then are easy to pulverize.*

When I have enough, I mash them quickly with a potato masher, then run them through the food processor until the particles are fine. Some of the particles are as fine as dust, so I let them settle for a few minutes before taking off the lid.

Finally, I stir a tablespoon into the soil where I'm transplanting a seedling, along with whatever else I'm adding at the time. In the case of this batch of eggshell meal, I also added epsom salts, as I was transplanting tomato seedlings. Epsom salts are an available source of magnesium, a nutrient that tomato plants need along with the calcium.

It's free. It benefits my vegetable production. And it does something useful with the eggshells.


*Damp eggshells don't pulverize into a meal very easily. If using freshly rinsed egg shells, it's best to dry them in a warm oven on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes, like right after you take baking out of the oven, and the oven is still hot to warm.

Fred Meyer House Brands for Senior and Military Discount Days

This coming Tuesday (first Tuesday of the month) is Senior Discount day at Fred Meyer, where a 10% discount on Fred Meyer brand groceries is offered to those who are 55 years old or older. This post is for those of us, here, who want to use this shopping discount to its fullest.

Fred Meyer (and its parent company Kroger) has many brands that they consider amongst their house brands, and for which they extend the 10% discount on one day per month to the 55+ crowd. Some of these are obvious, but a few are more obscure.

Here's what I've come up with so far, and what I've bought in each brand:

Kroger

• wide variety of groceries

Fred Meyer

• wide variety of groceries

Pssst

• canned biscuit dough
• butter (now replaced with Simply Moovelous)
• flour tortillas
• saltine and oyster crackers
• white rice
• frozen fish sticks
• facial tissue
• chocolate chips (haven't seen in a while)

Moovelous

• butter
• cheese

One of the Perks

• instant coffee
• decaf and regular tea bags
• powdered coffee creamer

Smidge & Spoon

• granulated sugar
• distilled white vinegar
• imitation vanilla flavoring
• various seasonings in the spice aisle, most priced at $1

Heritage Farms (note: the Heritage Farms fresh chicken parts, in with other fresh meat, have not qualified for the discount for me)

• meat hot dogs and smoked sausage
• lunch meat
• sliced bacon

Simple Truth

• a wide variety of organic and natural foods, including milk and alternative milks, cheese, canned vegetables, packaged snacks, packaged meats, and packaged produce. As with the Heritage Farm brand of fresh meat, the Simple Truth fresh meats may not qualify for the discount. But I have received the discount on the cartons of soy and almond milk in this brand.

Mountain Dairy

• milk, heavy whipping cream, half and half

Private Selection

• a wide variety of premium foods, including frozen items like appetizers, cooked meats, crackers, bread, packaged deli items found near the deli, pure maple syrup, seasonings, and more. This is the brand of pure maple syrup that I buy when I have a high value coupon to stack with the Senior discount, usually in the fall months.

Good to Dough (The quality is like Wonder Bread -- fluffy and soft.)

• sliced bread
• hamburger and hot dog buns

Hemisfares (I've not tried any of these products.)

• premium imported pasta and sauces, olive oil, coffee, and smoked salmon

Home Sense

• dishwashing detergent (both auto and hand), bleach, spray cleaners, furniture polish
• facial and bathroom tissue
• sandwich and storage bags, foil, plastic wrap, plastic storage containers
• disposable picnic supplies
• garbage bags

Big K

• soda pop in cans and 2-liters

Office Works

• copy/print paper
• envelopes
• white glue, tape
• assorted desk supplies

Abound

• dog and cat food

Check This Out

• paper towels, napkins, and paper plates
• bathroom tissue
• liquid hand dishwashing detergent, bleach

Comforts

• baby food, toddler snacks, electrolyte drinks, pediatric nutritional supplement shakes, purified water, formula
• diapers, training pants, wipes, baby shampoo, baby wash, petroleum jelly, baby powder, baby oil, diaper rash ointment, hand sanitizer
• feeding accessories, such as bottle brushes, feeding spoons, nursing pads, breast milk storage bags
• digital thermometers, baby nail clippers

Kivu

• ground and whole bean coffee in bags

Luvsome

• cat food and litter
• dog food and dog toys
• flea and tick applications

Nature's Song

• bird seed and squirrel food

Pet Pride

• cat food and litter
• dog food and treats
• dog leashes, toys
• flea applications for cats and dogs

Tampico

• punch in 1 gallon jugs

Turkey Hill

• ice cream
• iced tea

Vita Bee

• nutrient-dense, whole grain sliced bread

Everyday Living

• a variety of small kitchen utensils and household items

For more information on what else is included, see this page on fredmeyer.com.

In addition to Senior Discount day, Fred Meyer also extends the same 10% discount one day per month (different from Senior Day) to members of the military, their families, and veterans with id. The details of the Military Discount are the same as the Senior Discount. Details can be found at this page on fredmeyer.com's website.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Late April and Early May

Friday
scrambled eggs (4 yolks from making meringues and a couple of whole eggs)
leftover ham and baked beans
swiss chard and ham
mashed potatoes with mozzarella cheese, garlic, and plain yogurt

Saturday
kale frittata with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese
scratch drop biscuits
carrot sticks and dip (made with plain yogurt and an old dip packet found in the pantry)

Sunday (cook-out)
roasted hot dogs in home-baked buns
Swiss chard and onions, sauteed in ham fat
s'mores, using graham crackers purchased in winter, marshmallows (Walmart) and a dark chocolate bar from Dollar Tree that was bought last summer

Monday
cream of green soup
Yorkshire pudding
baked egg custard topped with blueberry-rhubarb sauce

Tuesday
scrambled eggs, veggies, and ham
pancakes and homemade syrup

Wednesday (first day of 5 days of Mexi-meals)
burrito bowls, with refried beans, Spanish rice, homemade salsa, cheese, plain yogurt
vanilla blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Thursday
bean and cheese enchiladas
corn


Breakfasts this week were overnight crockpot steel cut oats, leftover pancakes from Tuesday's dinner, and toast with homemade soybean hummus. I baked caraway-rye bread this week and the hummus was very popular on it, even for breakfast.

Lunches this week included sandwiches with the following fillings: soybean hummus, peanut butter, and egg salad. I also cooked a large batch of mustard-glazed carrots and a quart and a half of vanilla blackberry-rhubarb sauce to supplement lunches. In addition, there have been apples, raisins, and juice this week.

On Monday, I served a green soup as the main dish. Because this soup is on the low side for protein content, I supplemented it with 2 additional egg items, the Yorkshire pudding and the egg custard. I used the recipe posted in this link for the Yorkshire pudding. I modified the recipe by using all vegetable oil and no butter. This recipe has 2 eggs, and makes 8 wedges. The 4 of us ate all 8 wedges, so in this dish alone, we eat received the protein from half an egg, as well as 1/4 cup of milk (plus whatever protein is in whole wheat flour). I used 1 egg and 1 cup of milk in the egg custard, in order to make 4 small servings. While this only gave us each a fraction of a serving of protein in the custard, it is more than many other desserts would contain, and helped boost our intake at this one meal.

For the most part, our meals are humbly created with basic ingredients. However, my family thinks they are tasty, and we save a considerable amount of money on our grocery bill.


Other wallet-enhancing things that we've done this week include:

• using a bunch of partially-used gift cards to pay for a birthday lunch out for 6 people; the meal as well as tip were covered by the gift cards
• I received $10 in ebay bucks in my email a few weeks ago, and I used them this week to buy 2 things that I wanted (1- a hair color product that I wanted to try and 2- a fat-quarter of fabric that looked like interesting craft material). I spent just under the $10 amount, so these didn't cost me anything.
• I've been cutting and dehydrating chives from my garden. After they're dried, I run them through the food processor to make a powder, to use in soups, and homemade dip and salad dressing mixes.
• I have lots of vegetable and herb seeds started indoors, in place of buying seedlings. So far, I have started parsley, basil, cucumber, summer squash, acorn squash, pumpkin, lettuce, and kale. I have also started the nasturtium seeds directly in the hanging baskets. I bought these hanging baskets last summer to add color to our front entry and back deck, 5 in total. Since nasturtiums perform better in less fertile soil, I didn't do anything to the soil in last years' baskets, except stir it up. I'm still waiting for the seeds to sprout. I also directly planted the seeds for beets in a large trough planter on my deck. I moved one of our blueberry bushes to a better spot in the yard. Before replanting the bush, I dug out tiny potatoes and transplanted them all into another spot of the garden. These potatoes are descendants from a planting about 5 years ago. Every year, we dig as many as we easily find, then the next year, more come up. I had thought I was done growing potatoes, but the potatoes think otherwise. I've been watering what is planted in the garden with free rain water collected in rain barrels.
• My daughters baked a cake for us, completely from scratch. (Boston Cream Pie, one of my favorites!) I made a pot of tea to go with the cake, using some nice, looseleaf tea that I received as a Christmas gift. I used a blank card from a box of cards bought at Goodwill for a birthday card, and used my improved penmanship skills to letter a message.
• We ran out of laundry detergent, so I made a large batch of emergency laundry soap, using half of a bar of soap melted in water, then mixed with some liquid hand dishwashing soap. I made enough to completely refill the old detergent bottle, or enough for about 4-5 weeks (we use more homemade soap than we do commercial to get the same laundry results).
• We've been shopping refurbished laptops and tablets to replace an old, broken computer.
• I used gasbuddy.com to find the least expensive gas in our area for a fill-up.
• I answered surveys and redeemed enough points for $50 in gift cards.
• We batched our errands and everyone who needed to get or do something came in the car with us for one outing.
• Instead of turning on the heat, we've all been wearing more layers whenever chilled. April is still a chilly-enough month that we have typically used our furnace this time of year. With a fleece jacket indoors, though, the temperature is okay. 
• I used a camera that we already had to make a video, then edited the video in the free software that came with my computer before uploading to this blog. I helped to make another video for a video audition for my daughter, using her smartphone to record her dialogue. 
• We used our public library to check-out movies and books for some of our entertainment for the week. We also watched video content online for free. I used an exercise video that I found for free on youtube to get some cardio in most days this week. 

That's about all I can think of for this week. I hope you had a wonderful week!

Five Days of Mexi-Foods Began Last Night!

Our family is trying out something fun to liven up the cooking around here. For five consecutive nights leading up to Cinco de Mayo, we're dining on Mexican-inspired cuisine every night. While this may sound redundant, the motivation is to minimize our meal-prep for this week. We're all pretty busy right now, so making meals simpler while staying on a tight budget is a priority.

How we are doing this:

Each night, the dinner-cook prepares a large quantity of one or two Mexi-themed items, as part of their menu. There should be leftovers of these basic foods, from one night to the next, so that the other cooks can quickly and easily put together their Mexi-dinner.

Here's an example of what we're doing: last night was my cooking night and I made a large batch of refried beans, a large pot of Spanish rice, and a large jar of quickie salsa (quickie salsa uses chopped canned tomatoes, vinegar, salt, garlic, oregano, chopped onions, chili powder, red pepper flakes, pinch of sugar, and lemon juice, all cooked on the stove for about 15 minutes, following the proportions in this post).

My dinner plan for last night was for burrito bowls. I set out the refried beans, salsa, seasoned rice, shredded cheese, and plain yogurt. Everyone assembled their own bowl. Dinner was hearty and filled everyone. (I also made a batch of vanilla blackberry-rhubarb sauce, as a side/dessert.)

Tonight is my daughter's night. She's planning on making enchiladas. So, she'll use some of the leftover beans, rice, and shredded cheese, along with packaged corn tortillas and a homemade enchilada sauce. She'll make enough extra enchilada sauce for another night, too.

Friday is my night, again. I'll make a large batch of taco meat with some ground beef and seasonings. Then, I'll put together a casserole of sorts using many of the leftovers, along with the beef.

Saturday is my husband's night. He'll take any leftovers, make a large batch of fried tortilla chips, and make a family meal.

Sunday is Cinco de Mayo. We'll take all of the leftovers and make a Mexican buffet, using up as much of everything as we can.

The whole idea is to shake up our menu planning for the week, use budget-friendly foods, make cooking a bit easier for all, and celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Maybe I'll even get out the maracas!

Do you make anything special for Cinco de Mayo? Or is it just another day for you? Do you make salsa yourself? We have discovered that while we like to have jalapenos in salsa, our quickie salsa is equally tasty.

May's Grocery Haul

Since you've read my grocery plans for the month (in this post), I thought you might want to see what my May groceries actually look like -- The deals, surprises, size of packages, variety of foods, and some brief explanations of how I manage the larger sizes. If you have any questions, I am more than happy to 'splain (as in "Lucy, you've got some splaining to do"). 

I hope this works -- she says crossing fingers.

My apologies for the rough editing. After I taped this, I discovered it was too big (in MBs) for blogger and therefore, had to edit it down substantially.

Just a note: the bathroom tissue is not calculated in my grocery budget, but in a non-food household item budget, and the carrots are stored in the garage fridge, not the garage freezer.

Cream of Green Soup

or, why plant a garden if you're not going to eat everything that comes out of it?

Those who keep gardens know that, for the most part, greens are the first item to come up in abundance. For my garden, that means fall-planted kale and Swiss chard, second-year parsley, watercress, sorrel, chives, and garlic chives. That's a lot of greenness. When I have so much green that needs eating, I have a basic soup that I like to make -- Cream of Green. It doesn't really matter if the green is kale, chard, spinach, broccoli, or any of the spring herbs. They all make a delicious soup.

This week, I made a cream of kale, chard, chives, and immature garlic (greens and bulbs) soup. I used ham fat (from Easter's ham), 1/4 of a whole onion, 1 potato, chicken soup stock (simmered the bones and skin from chicken leg quarters 2 weeks ago), whey strained off of homemade yogurt over a period of days, homemade plain yogurt, milk, salt, and flour plus water to thicken.

To make this batch, I cooked the onion in the ham fat, then added the chicken stock and the peeled and cubed potato, then cooked until the potato was tender. Next, I added the greens and herbs, rough-chopped, and simmered about 15 minutes. I pureed the mixture with an immersion blender and then added the whey, milk, and yogurt. Once the soup was smooth, I seasoned with salt and thickened with a slurry of flour and water.

The family agreed -- this soup was delicious. It was also extremely frugal. I used greens and herbs from the garden. The only purchased ingredients were the potato, 1/4 onion, salt, flour, and milk. I also used several scratch-made ingredients, including the yogurt (and resulting whey), the chicken stock, and the rendered ham fat. The bonus is that a soup like this uses items that might have otherwise been thrown away, such as the fat, the bones and skins to make the stock, and the whey which was drained off of the yogurt.

In addition to using spring greens from one's garden, a cream of green soup is also an excellent way to use aging and wilting purchased green produce. Leafy greens like kale, beet greens, and chard are pricy in the supermarket and have a short shelf-life. They wilt quickly and become much less appealing. In soup-making, any wilting is completely obscured.

Although its spring, it's still soup weather where I live. Nights are cold and evenings are chilly. Soup is warming in this shoulder season. As a result, soups are still featured on our family's menus until the end June.

Cream of green soup is just one frugal soup choice. Do you have any favorite frugal soups using garden produce or inexpensive purchased ingredients? Or soups that use items that most people tend to throw away, such as the green leaves on radishes? I'm looking for new ideas. URLs and suggestions are most welcome in the comments' section!

A Trio of Meringues

Here's how my meringues turned out. These are the treats that I had mentioned I would make to take to our church's coffee hour. I baked three kinds: cocoa-chocolate chip kisses, coconut, and cherry chunk. They were well-received and enjoyed. The recipe for the chocolate meringues and how I varied the recipe for the other two varieties is in this post.

What always surprises me is how easy meringues are to make, yet they have the appearance and texture of something "special." The bonuses are that for those on low to no-fat eating plans or gluten-free, these have no added fat (except the fat that is in chocolate chips) and no flour. In addition, they're very inexpensive to make. The chocolate ones are my favorite -- they are very chocolate-y. I've promised my family that I'll make them again later this month, and they might be a good treat to make for my second daughter's graduation reception in June.

Thank you again, Kris, for the suggestion!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Last Week of April

Thursday's dinner
ham and beans, baby green salad, steamed kale with cheddar, toast

Saturday
bean and vegetable soup
buttered toast
apple wedges
raisins

Sunday -- Easter dinner
baked ham
sweet potato casserole
green bean casserole
curried pea and peanut slaw
French bread with herbed "cream cheese" and butter spread
watermelon pickles
rhubarb custard pie

Monday
bean and grilled onion chimichangas
carrot sticks
leftover green bean casserole
leftover sweet potato casserole
chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting

Tuesday
ham sandwiches on homemade French bread, with a spread of leftover herbed "cream cheese"
cole slaw
leftover chocolate cake

Wednesday's dinner
baked beans and ham, spinach and onions, rice and ham gravy

Wednesday
baked beans and ham
small cup of leftover bean soup from Saturday
frozen spinach sauteed with onions in ham fat
brown rice with ham gravy
leftover rhubarb pie

Thursday
leftover baked beans and ham combined with leftover refried beans from Monday
buttered toast
steamed garden kale with salt, garlic, and cheddar cheese
spring green garden salad of watercress, sorrel, chard, and chives in a homemade orange vinaigrette
rhubarb pie

this week's Swiss chard from the garden

Other Meals This Week

Easter breakfast
Using my crockpot, an overnight breakfast casserole. I stole a couple of slices from the Easter ham on Saturday evening and added an egg, potato, onion, milk, and cheese filling. Many crockpot breakfast casserole recipes call for commercial hash browns. For this recipe, I used whole potatoes that I shredded in the food processor. No complaints. Using home-shredded, fresh potatoes worked just fine.

Breakfasts
Most days we have steel cut oats, cooked overnight in the crockpot. About a year ago, I bought a huge bag of steel cut oats -- 25 pounds. This is a lot of oats! I figure we have enough left to last through summer and maybe into fall. To the cooked oats, we each add our own toppings, which include, raisins, peanut butter, butter, jam/jelly, bananas, sugar, and milk.

Some of us have toast, topped with butter, homemade jam/jelly, cinnamon & sugar, peanut butter, or bean spread.

And I also bake muffins from scratch. This week, I made a batch of rhubarb muffins. I used up some pancake mix and corn muffin mix that I had in the pantry, plus garden rhubarb, and topped with the crumb topping from rhubarb pie-making over the weekend.

On the weekends, one or two of us might cook up an egg to go with breakfast. The eggs are simple, just fried, scrambled, or egg-in-the-hole. If anything is added, it is greens or herbs from the garden (such as chives), plus milk.

Lunches
Meat-based leftovers are usually saved for another dinner. But bean-based ones are often up for grabs when making lunches. Otherwise, we have bean spread, peanut butter, or egg salad on home-baked whole wheat sandwich bread or home-baked French baguettes. Whole eggs are also available for frying or scrambling. With the sandwiches, family members also choose from raw carrots, raisins, bananas, juice, frozen fruit, homemade yogurt, any greens from the garden, cole slaw from the March-purchased heads of cabbage, and any home-baked cookies, muffins, or snack cakes we may have. Sometimes, there is cheese available for lunches, depending on what else is still in stock and plentiful.

I vary the bean spreads each time I make a batch, so that there is always something new to try (and encourages us to eat the less-expensive beans in comparison to other sandwich toppings). This week, I made a pinto bean spread with salsa, fried onions, and some cheese powder which had begun to harden into clumps. The hot dogs which were available for lunches last month are now set aside for weekend cook-outs around the fire ring.

part of my afternoon snack yesterday -- bean spread
on home-baked baguette, topped with chives

Snacks
The least expensive snack foods are not snack foods at all, but some of the foods that I prepare for suppers, such as fruits and vegetables from the garden or foraged, baked or mashed potatoes, toast, leftover baked or refried beans, homemade tortillas, and leftover rice and gravy. We'll also snack on snack cake, cookies, muffins, peanut butter or bean spread on bread or by the spoon, popcorn, carrot sticks, raisins, and any fresh fruit.

I make yogurt once every 3 weeks and bake bread about once per week, alternating between whole wheat sandwich and French baguettes. I found some rye flour in my pantry and will begin a batch of sourdough caraway-rye bread this afternoon (it's a 2-day process).

About the Meat Fat . . .
Remember the conversation about using meat fat the other week? Well, we've been using the beef fat from the meatloaf, chicken fat from making the chicken pot pie, and ham fat from the Easter ham for our cooking this past week. The level of oil in the vegetable oil bottle has only gone down a little. On Wednesday, I rendered the fat from the fatty bits of the ham. Doing so gave me enough cooking fat for a few suppers. In addition, I simmered the meaty bone in the crockpot, and then skimmed more fat off of the stock. Plus, I still have 2 sticks of butter hidden in the freezer. I bring out one stick at a time and have discouraged the use of butter in baking for the time being.

this week's kale from our garden

About Our Vegetable Supply . . .
I know that when reading my grocery shopping list it appears that we have little in the way of produce. I still have fruit in the freezer from last summer, frozen veggies purchased in fall and winter, plus now our vegetable garden is in production. Just the other day I harvested a large bowl of Swiss chard, a medium-sized bowl of kale, a mix of baby greens and herbs for salad, and a large bundle of chives for the fridge for adding to cooking throughout the week.

The Cheaper Chocolate Chip Cookie: Cocoa-Chocolate Chip Kisses

A while back, I mentioned that I needed to bring treats to our church's coffee hour at the end of the month. Well, here we are, last weekend of the month. When talking about running low on butter and oil, Kris suggested that I make meringues. Meringues are not only an excellent suggestion when thinking of baking with minimal fat, but they are super-duper frugal all around, comprised of sugar, egg whites, and flavorings of choice. Today, I'm baking cocoa-chocolate chip meringues. A batch of 2  1/2 dozen cost me about 55 cents, or 22 cents per dozen. That is about one-third of what I spend to make the traditional chocolate chip cookie. So, what accounts for the cost difference? Meringues have no butter, flour, salt, or baking soda, and less sugar. In addition, for this batch, I substituted chopped dipping chocolate for the chocolate chips.

Here's my sister-in-law's recipe that I use:

Gini's Cocoa-Chocolate Chip Kisses

2 large egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tablespoon chocolate jimmies/sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment or foil.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, continuing to beat.
Add vanilla, reduce speed and add cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon at a time. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Optional - sprinkle the chocolate jimmies onto the mounds of meringue.

Bake for 1 hour. Do not open oven door. Turn oven off and dry the meringues in the oven for 2 additional hours.

Remove from parchment or foil and store in an airtight container. (Foil can be washed and reused, BTW.)

I was out of chocolate chips, so I turned to my supply of clearance-purchased dipping chocolate (the chocolate that I used to make the candy bunnies).

I paid $1.69 for a 16-oz package and used 1.75 ounces for today's batch of meringues. For price comparison, I normally pay about $2.50/lb for chocolate chips in a 12-oz bag. It should be noted, the dipping/coating chocolate is only a good deal when it's on clearance. If I had used store-brand chocolate chips, then my cost per 2  1/2 dozen batch would have been around 79 cents, or 31 cents per dozen, still about half of what traditional chocolate chip cookies (made with butter, flour, and brown sugar) would have cost.

Anyway, aside from the savings, these Cocoa-Chocolate Chip Kisses are a real winner.

I'll also be baking coconut meringues and cherry meringues for this weekend. For the coconut meringues, I follow the above directions and omit the cocoa powder, chocolate chips, vanilla, and chocolate jimmies, and include about 3/4 cup of shredded coconut and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. For the cherry meringues, I omit the cocoa powder, chocolate chips, vanilla, and chocolate jimmies, and include about 3/4 cup chopped candied cherries, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, and a bit of red food coloring. I'll post a photo when I bake those two.