Budget-Friendly Stock-up at WinCo: What I Bought, How I'll Store It, and How I'll Use It All

an abundant garden has left room in the budget
 for stocking up on other foods

I saved almost $10 on 4 foods by stocking up this last week, buying my regular foods but at a lower price. WinCo is already known as a low price leader in my region. So to save an additional $10 over my usual spending for the same groceries is a good savings. I don't intend for any of it to go to waste. I will store all of it smartly and make a plan for how to use it.

Last Friday was my every-other-week shopping at WinCo. I arrived at the store with bags in hand and a pocket full of cash.

Stocking up on mayo, tuna, butter, and cocoa powder

When I come across a sale in-store, I quickly calculate a reasonable stock-up amount. I check expiration dates on packages and think through our family's usage of that item. For example, mayo was on sale, down 40 cents per jar from the regular price. Based on my family's usage and the expiration date, I bought 3 jars, saving our budget $1.20. 

Tuna was on sale for 10 cents less a can than usual. I normally buy 2 cans every time I'm at WinCo. This time I bought 10 cans. The expiry is over a year away on the tuna. I saved a buck by buying the 10 cans. I also know that WinCo's sales last longer than a week. I believe their sales last a month. So I will have another opportunity to buy more mayo and tuna. 

Butter was still on sale this week (as it had been two weeks ago). So I knew it was unlikely it would also be on sale in another 2 weeks. As I've mentioned in my freezer cleaning posts, I've been well-stocked on butter all summer. But butter is an often-used food in our house, hence a regular purchase for me. So a little more is welcome. I bought 8 pounds of butter this week, at a savings of 40 cents/pound, or $3.20 savings total. 

In addition to finding sales, I also checked the bulk bins of cocoa powder. While cocoa powder in the bulk bins was not marked down, it's a stock-up item nonetheless, as they are usually out of cocoa powder. The containers of WinCo brand cocoa powder sell for $3.99/8 oz or almost $8/lb (it's even more at Walmart in a container), while the bulk bin cocoa powder price is $3.88/lb. I bought about 1 pound of cocoa powder and consider myself lucky to have found it in stock.

My storage for each of the stock-ups

the cool storage pantry

If I had a basement of cellar, I'd store my canned and jarred foods there. Our 1970s house was built for convenience, not long-term food storage. So I've made do with the space I have. We use a room in the coolest part of the house (furthest from the furnace and with a northern exposure) as extra pantry storage. Extra mayonnaise and canned tuna are stored in our cool pantry. If we come within a month of expiry on the mayo, I'll refrigerate even the unopened jars to prolong their lifespan several additional weeks (see article in this link).

Butter is always stored in the freezer. We take out 1 pound at a time. Butter stored in the refrigerator begins to take on off odors and tastes after a few months. Whereas in the freezer, butter can remain fresh in taste and odor for a year or more.

Bulk bin cocoa powder is akin to an opened container of cocoa powder. Once a container is opened, it's at its best for up to a year.  It's still "safe" to consume after that, but its flavor may begin to go off. However, cocoa powder can be stored in the freezer. I keep about a pound of cocoa powder in the cool storage room in a glass jar (with just a small amount in the kitchen cupboard) and the rest I double-bag and store in the freezer. 

Plans to use these stock-up foods

I've been in the position of having too much mayo on hand and scrambling to use it up before expiry. I've baked cakes and biscuits with mayo, added a dollop to quiche a time or two, and used it in coating chicken pieces before a crumb layer for baking a nice crispy skin. But this time, I'm hoping I've made a prudent guess as to how much we will use before the date on the jar.

We have tuna a couple of times per week, in casseroles, tuna salad to top greens on spread on bread, and in tasty hot tuna boats and melts. I'm not a fan of creamed tuna or tuna patties, so I will plan for tuna boats and salads as the primary way to use this up.

chocolate chips cookies made with part butter, part applesauce

We use butter primarily as a spread on toasted and untoasted bread and as topping for potatoes and vegetables. I use part butter/part oil/part lard or shortening/part applesauce or other puree in baking to stretch the butter. 

highly recommend --bread, cheese, and jam

I try to find other spreads, like mustard, mayo, jams, and peanut butter, for sandwiches. I had a delicious cheese and fig jam sandwich for lunch the other day. Jams are also tasty on meat sandwiches, like sliced chicken and red currant jelly or plum jam. 

Cocoa powder is a budget-friendly way to get a chocolate taste. One of my favorites is a very chocolatey scratch brownie. See the recipe at the bottom of this post. I also really enjoy a cup of hot cocoa for a chocolate treat. And when it comes to cake, my family thinks chocolate cake is lackluster in the chocolate department. So we make vanilla cake and frost with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Now that's a great chocolate experience at a fraction of the cost of chocolate candy. 

Pros and cons

Stocking up on frequently used items is not only a good budget strategy, but it can also be back-up stock when there are shortages or price hikes. In spring of 2020 I bought a couple of cases (5 dozen each) of eggs for $5 each to freeze. I just this last month finished off our last container of frozen eggs. This whole past winter and spring exorbitant cost for chicken eggs thing wasn't nearly as hard on my budget as it could have been. I was able to get through several months on a measly purchase of 5 or so dozen eggs by relying on my freezer stash of stock-up eggs.

There are caveats, however. Buying too much, expiring food, not being able to store it all properly, having a change of preference/taste leaving one with foods no one will eat are all very real possibilities. I try to err on the side of caution with my stocking up these days. 

I'm not perfect at stocking up. I always have some hesitancy around buying large quantities (and spending a lot of money). I remind myself that even if I didn't stock up as much as I could have, I still saved money and made our tight grocery budget stretch that much further.

Best Brownies Ever (conventional or microwave oven)

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted (or half butter/half oil)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Beat together the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Stir in the butter. Mix in flour and cocoa powder.

Spread evenly in a greased 8-inch square Pyrex baking dish.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 to 22 minutes.

Or

Microwave on HIGH for 4 to 5 minutes, rotating dish 1/2 turn after 1 1/2 minutes, if no turntable. When done, the top will look dry, mostly, with a dime-sized center that still looks moist.

Would you trust a recipe from ChatGPT?

My daughter really wanted to replicate the cookies she remembered from her childhood, the ones given to her when we shopped at Albertsons grocery store. So, she consulted ChatGPT.

I must add that both of my daughters love to bake and have made many treats for us over the years. It's not like they don't know how to bake. But one daughter was looking for a recipe for a specific cookie.

When she was asking ChatGPT about this cookie, she gave it feedback and tried to provide as much information as she could, questioning some advice and offering her own opinion here and there. When she thought she was finally given a good recipe, she headed out to the store to buy the special ingredients AI suggested. This recipe called for Crisco, butter, margarine, instant pudding, corn syrup, as well as eggs, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, salt, and baking soda. I'm not sure why ChatGPT thought the cookies needed pudding mix, corn syrup, or three types of fat.

She followed ChatGPT's recipe to the letter, using specific ingredients, refrigerating the dough, and doing everything ChatGPT called for. Here's how they turned out.

They spread a lot, were overdone on the edges, and were under-baked at the centers.

For reference, they should have looked something like this, from Albertsons' own website.

While my daughters have baked many batches of cookies, I must say that there are some things they just haven't thought through about recipes. When I saw how her batch turned out, I asked her for details from ChatGPT's recipe. I could tell right away that ChatGPT's recipe called for far too much sugar and fat, both ingredients that can cause cookies to spread. Like many women my age, I have many years of experience baking cookies and can kind of guess how a cookie will turn out based on the ratio of some of the ingredients. At the very least, I can think of "fixes" when a cookie doesn't turn out as I'd thought it would.

What I told my daughter was that when it comes to coming up with baking recipes, she's really better off consulting a seasoned baker instead of AI. AI might sometimes have a good recipe, but you can't count on it.

When AI was becoming a thing, about a year or so ago, I recall folks talking about it "hallucinating." That is, when AI didn't have an answer, instead of saying "I don't have the answer," it sometimes gave information based on nothing. I wonder how much of that was happening when my daughter asked for help coming up with a recipe for these cookies. I heard today that ChatGPT just released its version 5. Perhaps this improved version will address this issue of sometimes providing incorrect or not-quite-correct information. I will say that the recipe my daughter tried at least produced cookies and contained cookie ingredients. It just couldn't get a specific kind of cookie right. But my family still ate almost all of them. As my daughter said, "they're cookies. What's not to like. But they're not at all like the Albertsons' cookies. The taste and texture are way off." 

After the cookies were done baking my daughter went back to ChatGPT and explained the recipe it had given her and how the cookies looked and tasted. Funnily, ChatGPT told her the exact things I said, that excess sugar and fats caused the cookies to spread too much. Nice to know that when it comes to baking cookies, I'm as smart as AI.

So what kind of information is ChatGPT good for? I've used it for suggestions for movies for our family to watch. I can give parameters and ask it to recommend a movie list for me. It's good at making lists. However, it's up to me to then research every movie on the list to see if it would be right for our family. Like other lists or suggestions, I'd recommend researching anything AI says before acting on that information. It's a starting point, only, in my mind.

Anyway, my daughter will be sourcing recipes from a wider pool of information in the future.

Freezer Finds This Week

So I've cleaned out and organized both stand alone freezers. I had to do those because they needed defrosting. But I also have 2 freezer compartments of fridge/freezer combination units, the kitchen one and our old kitchen one (now in the garage). Neither of these need defrosting, but they do need cleaning out and organizing. So I am slowly going through both as I have a few minutes here and there.

it's dark because the lightbulb burned out several years ago --
the absolute only thing that has ever failed in this fridge/freezer

Here's what the freezer section of the old fridge/freezer looks like now after about 6 weeks. Goodness! This is about as empty as I've seen it in years. And this photo was taken right after I put 2 new loaves of bread in there. It was emptier than this when I opened the door. And yes, it is avocado green. How very 1970s!

And here's the kitchen fridge/freezer's freezer after 6 weeks of trying to use up its contents. It's getting there. It's still a jumble of stuff, but at least there's room in the freezer basket now, and I can find foods. These lower basket freezers are difficult to keep organized, as the basket slopes, so you can't easily stack containers.

Here's what I found this week:

• more chicken stock
• pumpkin stock (the liquid that I strain off of cooked, pureed fresh pumpkin)
• 2 containers of unknown contents, likely someone's leftovers. One looks like it might be baked beans. I'll need to thaw them just to find out what they are.
• ground cumin
• phyllo dough (very old, but I may try doing something with it)
• grape juice concentrate
• a partial can of apple-raspberry concentrate
• 2 1/2 burritos, homemade
• 1/2 eggroll, homemade
• multiple ice cream containers (5) with about 1 scoop left in each
• whipped cream
• 2 cups of sour milk
• 1/2 cup chicken gravy
• 1 cup of ham drippings
• candied orange peel scones, several

What I did with our finds:

• I used 1 quart of chicken stock divided between some chicken gravy to go with roasted chicken and a small pot of chicken noodle soup.
• 1 quart of pumpkin stock has been used as the liquid in my breakfast smoothies.
• cumin was used to refill the kitchen spice jar
• 1/2 burrito was part of my lunch yesterday. 
• the sour milk went into a large batch of pancakes for my family this week for breakfasts and snacks
• the 1/2 cup of chicken gravy was mixed with the fresh homemade gravy this week, allowing us to get 3 dinners of roast chicken and gravy from one whole chicken.

What's left? And what I plan for these items:

• the 2 containers of unknown contents, perhaps one is baked beans -- I plan on thawing at least one of them at lunch one day this week, getting my family's approval, and seeing if a family member recalls freezing it. Then it will become part of their lunch for that day. I'll do the same with the second container the following week.
• phyllo dough -- I don't want to waste other good ingredients on something that is old, so I may just layer the sheets with butter, sugar, and cinnamon and bake. Any other suggestions?
• The juices will be beverages at a picnic or cookout in the next month.
• 2 burritos -- these will be used in lunches this next week.
• 1/2 egg roll -- this is my daughter's. I'll encourage her to eat it.
• ice cream -- this is easy. We'll have an ice cream moment on Saturday afternoon when the warm weather returns.
• the whipped cream is a few years old -- I'll use it in a batch of scones or pancakes, thinned with some water. Or do you have any suggestions?
• ham drippings -- I saved these drippings for making gravy. Do you have any suggestions on using the drippings or for what to use a gravy made with them?
• no one remembers baking the scones. So I'm guessing I baked them. Using candied orange peel sounds like something I'd bake. (My daughters thought so, too.) They likely have dairy milk in them, so I can't eat any. I think I'll thaw a few at a time and set them out for breakfast choices.

What are your suggestions for the foods I haven't used yet?

It feels like summer is waning in my area -- there's still much to do

tonight's dessert -- rice pudding under homegrown fruit and runny blackberry-raspberry jam,
inspired by a fruit and custard tart in the bakery case
 at the market the other day

This week I have felt in a rush to get some summer chores finished, as if summer were soon coming to an end. I started washing the heavy part of bedding (quilts, blankets, mattress pads). This will take several dry days to complete, and tomorrow we expect rain. Today I hosed down the seed starting trays for next season. As you know, I've now defrosted the freezers. What I haven't mentioned is I'm also in the process of cleaning up the garage (where the freezers are located). I need to get this one done before storing patio furniture. At least I can work in the garage when it rains this week. Anyway, I'm pushing myself to work faster.

Perhaps it's harvesting apples and pears that has put me into an end-of-summer mindset. Or perhaps it's the turn toward cool and cloudy weather this week. Or maybe it's the changing angle of the sun that is making me think summer is nearly done for my area. I know that warm weather will return after tomorrow and Thursday rain, but somehow summer won't feel the same.

So we are frantically rushing to plan picnics in the park, dinner at the beach, finish painting the deck railing, and having multiple cookouts and BBQs. At least I've been enjoying lots of time outdoors this summer and making lots of fruity desserts. So I won't feel like summer completely passed me by.

There is an upside to feeling rushed to complete projects -- I will work harder, faster, and with greater intent as I do my once-per-summer work. I tend to work more efficiently when faced with a deadline. 

How about you? What are the must-dos on your list for the remainder of summer? Do you have a plan for accomplishing those activities? Or do you just wing it?

Easy Sautéed, Spiced Apple Chunks

I've mentioned making this many times, and I thought it was finally time I showed you what I mean by these. 

I picked more early apples this morning and managed to knock several off while doing so. I also found several apples on the ground under the tree that had been there for a couple of days. These apples were bruised but still mostly okay. I picked them up, washed, cut off bruises, and cut into chunks. I freeze the good chunks to use in sautéed apples. Today, since I was roasting a whole chicken, and it was a cool and cloudy day, I thought sautéed, spiced apples would be a nice side dish. So I used about half of the apple chunks tonight and froze the rest. 

To serve 4 adults, I use the chunks from about 5 or 6 fist-sized apples (small compared to grocery store apples). As you can see, I leave the skins on.

To make, heat a skillet with about 2 to 3 teaspoons of butter. Drop the apples in and sauté while stirring periodically. When soft but still hold their shape add some cinnamon and a teaspoon or two of sweetening, sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, whatever you like. The sweetening should just bring out the natural sweetness of the apples, not make them apple pie-like sweet.

I like to serve these warm. So if I make them early in the day, I will add a couple of tablespoons of water while I reheat them.

Each year I have enough apple chunks in the freezer from fallen or knocked apples to last us the winter. Bruised apples simply wouldn't keep in the fridge. But freezing the good parts (which is most of the apple) keeps them for many months. 

While it's still summer, here in the northern hemisphere, our cool and cloudy week brought to mind our family's fall festivities. I usually make sautéed apples using maple syrup to go with Thanksgiving dinner. They're always a big hit with our family.

An easy-peasy side dish that salvages fruit which might otherwise be tossed out.

Riches

It's not bars of gold, nor shares of stocks, nor fancy jewelry that makes me feel wealthy. It's an abundant garden. 

Today was apple picking day for our early apples. This apple tree is an overachiever. It outdoes itself each year, giving my family buckets of apples. I filled 3 produce drawers with apples today and there are still more on the tree. I think this is the most apples we've had in a season from this tree. It's a good thing this tree is so productive, as our two late season apples don't do as well. (But they're great pollinators.) Early apples are generally not good keepers. Along with our abundance of cabbage, we'll be eating apples morning, noon, and night from now until mid-September. I also collect all of the apples that I knock off, or dropped, and cut off bruises, chop the good parts, and freeze those in chunks. I have 3 gallon ziplock bags in the freezer of apple chunks. I use the frozen chunks in sautéed spiced apples to serve as a side dish in fall and winter. So, in one way or another, we'll be eating our own tree apples from now until next spring.

As with the apples, we're eating cabbage daily, too. Tuesday's cabbage was raw with grated carrots in a salad topped with a fresh basil dressing at lunch and stuffed cabbage rolls at dinner. Yesterday's cabbage was raw in a Thai slaw at lunch and shredded, cooked, in a beef and vegetable soup. Today's cabbage was the vegetable component of fried rice for 3 at lunch time, and, surprise, no cabbage in tonight's dinner. (We needed to also eat the abundant Swiss chard.)

In addition to the apples and cabbage, we have kale yet to pick, 100 or so garlic bulbs to dig later this month, and I now have 8 pumpkins and 11 winter squash in the pumpkin patch! These are my worldly riches. I'd rather have abundant good food than any other worldly good or service.

I feel so blessed.

Well, it's done

I'm starting to freeze garden produce, so it became imperative that I defrost the chest freezer now. 

I got an early start in the morning, before the day grew too warm. As I mentioned before, most of the contents are already bagged. Bagging like items has helped us keep the freezer organized this last month. But it also made for a very quick and easy transfer of contents to other freezer spaces and styrofoam containers, and then back again to the chest freezer once I had defrosted and wiped it out.

Once everything was out, I just let the freezer do its thing while I baked cookies.

After an hour, I came back and checked the insides. I used a plastic pancake-turner type of spatula (flimsy Dollar Tree variety) to scrape the insides periodically. It took about 3 hours total to get it all cleaned out and dried (don't want residual moisture to turn to new frost).

I don't know if you do this, but I line the floor of my chest freezer with two large plastic bags. So I had to wipe those off as well. The plastic bags keep containers of food from freezing to the floor of the freezer should something spill or burst. The worst case scenario if something bursts is I pull the bottom food items out of the freezer attached to the bags. A few years ago I had a jug of milk that burst in the freezer and froze several items to the floor of the freezer. I had to wait until I defrosted the freezer before I could get those foods out.

As I said, the foods were quick and easy to transfer back into the clean freezer. The whole thing is really an easy job. I don't know why I put it off each year. But I am glad to have this done for the summer.

For those still reluctant to get their freezer defrosted this summer, here are the upsides I found in doing mine.

• It forced me to go through all the frozen food, and I found several very pleasant surprises (croissants, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, blueberries, pecans, and eggs when I needed them).
• It also gave me the opportunity to reorganize all of our frozen foods. As I put foods back into the cleaned freezer, I moved some foods to other freezer spaces and others into this freezer space. We now have a plan for where we will try to store the different types of foods, so we will be able to find things faster, easier, and before foods develop freezer burn.
• It will save us money on electricity. Excess frost inside a freezer makes the motor work harder. Defrosting a freezer regularly should also prolong its lifespan.
• It gave us more room to store foods. 
• And it gave me a sense of accomplishment in completing this one chore.

I need to continue working on organizing our food storage spaces. If it were just me accessing foods, I could remember where I put something. But with four of us getting in and out of fridge, freezer, and pantry, things get moved around, and not necessarily to spots that seem logical to me. Kitchen organization is a never ending chore, but it is satisfying as I get things tidied up.

Tonight's Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Using the Large Outer Leaves and Leftover Pot Roast

My family all agreed tonight's dinner was delicious. So I thought I'd share with you.

This year I have 12 heads of garden cabbage at varying stages of development. We've picked 3 so far. I expect they will last through sometime in September. When I pick the heads I cut most of the loose large outer leaves as well as the tight heads. We've been shredding these dark leaves and adding them to salads. When I picked the third head on Sunday, I set aside the large dark green outer leaves. In tonight's dinner I used the ones that were about 7 or 8 inches in diameter.

filling of leftover beef roast, slice of bread, onion, seasonings

To fill the cabbage leaves I used leftover cooked beef pot roast, a slice of bread, some onion, garlic powder, onion powder, herbs (thyme, oregano), red pepper flakes, and salt. I chopped the meat, bread and onion before grinding in the food processor, adding the seasonings to taste. The benefit of working with a cooked meat was I could taste the filling as I put it together.

Once I had a filling that I thought was good, I began the rolling process. I steamed the leaves one at a time in the microwave for 20 seconds. To make the roll work with the thick core end, I cut about 2 inches through this end, allowing it to split as I rolled. 

Cabbage rolls are assembled like burritos or egg rolls, filling at one end, fold in the sides, and roll up.

Once filled, these need to be steamed or baked in a sauce, usually a tomato sauce. As I'm low on tomato products right now, I chose to steam these, covered, in the oven, using some of the liquid from the pot roast as my steaming liquid. At serving I spooned the residual liquid over each roll.

These were a tasty way to use both the outer cabbage leaves and leftover beef pot roast. My family asked me to make these again this summer. I may try other filling combinations, perhaps leftover pork roast or chicken and vegetables or a cheesy-beef filling.

I realize that most of us here don't grow their own cabbage each summer. Other leaves can be used for filling with great success, too, such as Swiss chard, collard greens and kale. 

Just thought I'd share.

My once every two weeks shopping at WinCo: *sigh* spent more

Friday was my every other week trip to WinCo. I spent more on that shopping trip than my previous WinCo runs. Despite spending more, I did refrain from buying a bunch of foods for the freezer, with exception to 2 pounds of butter, a piece of fish, breakfast sausage, and 1 whole chicken to replace the chicken I roasted this past week, but no frozen vegetables or packaged frozen foods. In the refrigerated section, I only bought a bunch of celery, some pepperoni for pizza, a block of cheddar cheese (again no block of mozzarella), a bag of carrots and a container of natural peanut butter -- no milk or eggs. I also bought a bunch of bananas, but those aren't refrigerated. 

What I spent, what I bought

So my total at WinCo came to $119.79, about $10 over my average prior to the last WinCo run. So, how did I spend my money this week? I stocked the pantry. I bought flour, sugar, peanuts, raisins, cocoa powder (it was back in stock in the bulk bins -- half the price of containers of cocoa), dates, mayo, canned tuna, popping corn, potatoes, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, baking powder, salt, powdered milk, corn starch, and dried cranberries. The cranberries and dates were perhaps a treat item for my family, to make meals and desserts more interesting. But I'm glad I bought both.

Souring milk and the last of the frozen eggs

What I didn't buy? Milk and eggs. I took the last container of frozen eggs out of the freezer over the weekend. That's a half dozen eggs (less one I used last night). And I have 4 fresh eggs remaining. I also pulled a quart of drinking milk out of the freezer on Friday and have another quart of drinking milk remaining in the freezer. These two quarts are from the last gallon I bought. When we were about a week away from the sell by date, I realized we just weren't going through the milk as fast as usual. So I froze 2 quarts. Good thing I did that, as yesterday at dinner, one of my family members informed me the milk was souring. I smelled it, and yes, it was souring. There was just a cup left. So after dinner I made a batch of pancakes for my family to enjoy with Monday's breakfast. If I had not frozen half of that gallon, we would have had a half-gallon of sour milk on our hands.

Why was this shopping trip more costly?

So, I'm asking myself, how did I spend so much more than my last WinCo trip, but not buy freezer foods or lots of meat? To figure this out I needed to compare my receipts from the two shopping trips. So, two weeks ago I spent $89.13 and bought 22 items. This week I spent the above mentioned $119.79 and bought 34 items. In those 34 items are some extra meats over last time (an extra bag of sausage, pepperoni, fish, although one less chicken), seasonings and baking ingredients not bought last time (cocoa powder was almost $4, and the other ingredients just add up), the popping corn (5 lbs at 88 cents/lb), and the dried fruit (dates and cranberries). I only bought a small amount of dried cranberries to use in kale salads, but the dates came in a 2-lb bag, and that was over $11. I also bought 2 lbs of butter, as it was on sale. If it hadn't been on sale, I wouldn't have bought any butter. I think all of the small packages of various items simply add up. And it didn't help that I was in a spending mood and splurged on the large package of dates, some fish, and a large bag of popcorn. It's funny, I just assumed that since I wasn't buying much produce or a whole lot of meat, that the final bill wouldn't be very high. Fortunately, I had plenty of cash with me (WinCo is cash or debit only).

The good news

So, trying to be optimistic -- at least my shopping at Walmart later this week is not expected to be expensive with food items. So far, the only food item on my list is hot dogs (the good beef kind). I would skip Walmart altogether this week, except I need to stock up on paper products for the household and buy some hair conditioner for myself. On my last shopping at Walmart I bought a lot of chocolate -- bars and chocolate chips. I'm still stocked on chocolate, so it'll just be the hot dogs. Plus, it's the cumulative spending over a season that matters, as grocery spending can vary considerably from one week to the next.

In case you're wondering, I'm still working on eating down the freezer. I'm getting close enough that I could transfer the contents to other freezers while the big one defrosts. Very soon.

Just for a Giggle: Adjustable Waist Jeans

These make me giggle every time I put the jeans on. 

They're my multi-purpose, around the house, cleaning, gardening, neighborhood walking jeans. This pair are hand-me-downs, and as such have fit problems.

The waistband has 3 buttons (one that came on the jeans, two that I added). The 3 buttons allow me to tailor the fit to whatever I need for the day. Going for a walk around the neighborhood and don't want to look gangster? The brass button on the far left in the photo gives me the tightest fit and holds the jeans all the way up. Scrubbing the kitchen floor or weeding the garden and want a sort of loose fit as I get up and down from my knees? The middle button provides a fit tight enough so the pants don't fall down, but loose enough to handle a lot of movement. Just eaten a H-U-G-E meal plus dessert? The original silver-tone button provides the loosest of fits.

The downsides -- none of the buttons match. The two that I added were selected from my mother's button box based on their size (so they would easily fit through the buttonhole) and not appearance. And the front of the jeans do look a little odd (being pulled over at the waist beyond the natural point when zipped) when I've got the tightest fit. 

But these are practical jeans. They're made from all cotton, thick denim that can take a beating. And they were free to me. Can't beat that price.

Despite their practicality, seeing the 3 odd buttons makes me laugh to myself in the morning when pulling the jeans on.

This is one of those things that only other frugal people would understand. Adding buttons to my jeans to make them fit better is akin to drying out a barely used paper towel to use again, or cutting open a toothpaste tube to get that last bit, or washing and reusing ziploc bags until the sides split and even then taping the split up with dict tape. Making do or using up are hallmarks of historic frugality.  But sometimes, even we laugh at our own frugality.

When you know ahead of time that you've got a very busy day coming up

Tomorrow, Thursday, will be a busy day from the moment I wake up until dinnertime. As life would have it, my husband will be busy with work all day and has a deadline he's working on. And both daughters will be busy all day, as well. Problem -- somebody's got to make dinner.

I considered getting burgers at dinnertime. But then I thought about all of the wonderful food that we have at home. And honestly, home-cooked meals are so much tastier than burgers to me.

So, this afternoon I came up with a plan. Between my daughters and myself, we could cook 2 complete meals this evening, one to eat tonight and the other ready to heat and eat tomorrow. That's what we did. I've found that as long as I'm in the kitchen preparing dinner for us, I have lots of small bits of time to do other kitchen work. Often times that means baking a dessert or making granola for the next morning. This afternoon I was able to do both main dishes, a dessert, and get a start on sides. My daughters took over after dinner and completed all sides for tomorrow. We even came up with a plan for all of our lunches for tomorrow, so none of us waste time in the morning figuring out what to pack for lunch. Planning and preparing two nights of meals in one afternoon made it possible for us to continue eating down our freezers, have tasty home-cooked foods, eat healthier both nights, and save some money.  

Of course, you all probably do this sort of thing on a regular basis. My mother always cooked meals fresh every evening, and I learned her habits. So for me to prepare in advance is a big deal. I will say that I sometimes double up recipes to freeze half for another night. But this is probably the first time I've (with help of daughters) made two completely different dinners on one day to feed us two days in a row.

Anyway, have a wonderful day, friends.

Ingredients challenge -- what would you make?

You have 2 hot dogs, cabbage, rice, potatoes, carrots, cheese, apples, 2 previously frozen eggs, fresh raspberries, and milk (dairy and soy), plus usual baking and seasoning ingredients. What would you make with this to feed 4 adults?

Just so you know, we have lots of other foods, but need to use some foods sooner than later. I'm curious how others would see my ingredients. Leave your suggestions in the comments, please.

We're continuing to make great progress on eating down the freezer. This past week I pulled out a couple of containers of stock, a container of 6 beaten eggs, a container of crab applesauce, more pumpkin/squash seeds, a large container of blackberries, chopped celery leaves, beef fat, bacon fat, a container of ham chunks in stock, assorted frozen vegetables, ice cream/sorbet, and various bread products. We need to work quickly this week, as we're now beginning to freeze raspberries. 

I'm really exercising my kitchen creativity right now.

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds, Second Try -- Better

Our warm spell gave way to a cool and autumn-like weekend. We don't quite get dog days of summer, here. More like puppy days of summer. 

While I missed the heat, it made for a good opportunity to try the sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds again. I'm getting real close, friends.

The key to crispy pumpkin seeds that aren't scorched is to bake low and slow. This time I reduced the temperature to 325 F. I needed to bake them longer as a result. But the texture was crispy, just what I'm after. (Soggy pumpkin seeds are not very appealing.)

I also reduced the sweetening and oil, plus I added a tablespoon of water to the sweetened spice mixture to help coat the seeds evenly.

My husband really likes this batch. I think I want to increase the sweetening just slightly. I also think I'll cut the oil even more. I don't like greasy pumpkin seeds. I'm sort of following instructions for making granola. However, pumpkin seeds don't absorb oil like oats do.

I'm very close to getting these just right. I'll do another batch tomorrow or Wednesday.

Do you ever find yourself working at getting an invented recipe just right, making the item over and over? I like to experiment, so doing this is right up my alley. And I'm using up more foods from the freezer while I'm at it.

In other news, I finished my long journey to dental implant today. Yes, it took over a year and a half to get this done. I haven't written much about the steps, as my situation has been less common. But the good news is it's now done! And today's installation of the crown went smoothly, no hiccups whatsoever. It feels a little weird right now. But I'm guessing that I'll get used to it soon. I'm just glad to have a full set of teeth again.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and your dog days of summer aren't too hot and humid.

Grocery Shopping in the Odd Week

I don't normally post over the weekend. However, I was thinking through my grocery shopping this week and wanted to write it out (for my benefit more than anyone else's).

As I've mentioned, my main grocery store is WinCo (every other week), and in the odd weeks I make a quick run (around the corner) to Walmart. I have specific foods, supplements, and OTCs that I buy at Walmart. So I wait for the odd week to pick those items up.

This week I needed a couple of supplements that both my husband and I take and some band-aids. So even though I didn't really need any foods, I went anyway and did pick up a couple of food items, too. I'm not sure why, but this was a chocolate-heavy shopping trip.

I bought the mega bag (36 oz) of GV chocolate chips ($9.42) ,a 3.52-oz bar of GV milk chocolate ($1.67), a 3.2-oz bar of GV dark chocolate ($1.67), and a 4-oz bar of GV unsweetened chocolate. ($3.14) The milk and dark chocolate bars are for future s'mores at our house, and the unsweetened chocolate is for making unsweetened chocolate-covered dried fruits or mixing with other chocolates when melting to make a darker chocolate. So a lot of chocolate. In addition, I bought a jar of GV coffee ($6.94), now my preferred coffee. I spent $22.84 at Walmart. I used some of the chocolate already in chocolate-covered raisins (sometimes I've just gotta have a bit of candy) and homemade magic shell.

I also stopped at Town & Country (a small regional chain in the Puget Sound area). They have an awesome natural foods bulk section. As much as I love WinCo's bulk bins, T & C has a few extra foods that WinCo doesn't sell. This time I bought some white whole wheat flour ($2.07) and also a dozen brown eggs ($3.99).  I can find eggs for less than $3.99/dozen now, but T & C's brown eggs (and maybe the white ones, I haven't tried them) are better than Walmart's regular eggs.  I spent $6.06 here.

My grand total for this week came to $28.94.

This coming week will be another WinCo week. I've been adding items to my list all week. My husband wants to come with me again. So I'll have to work around his work schedule. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!

Adding Years to the Lives of My Summer Socks

I don't know about you, but I can't stand the feeling of a hole in a sock on my foot. It just annoys me to no end. So when I see holes developing, I try to make time to repair them.

I'd reached the point of almost as many of my summer socks that needed repairs as those that were in good condition. This morning would be a good day to do a little mending, I thought. Then I looked out the window and the summer sun called me out to the deck and garden. I almost put off mending for another day. That's when I had the good thought to take my mending outdoors. Why not, right? The morning weather was good. The sunlight would provide better light for my old eyes. And I could get a little fresh air while taking care of a chore.

Some of the socks have already been mended in one spot and now have thin patches elsewhere on the toe.

This stitching shows, but I'm not picky about the look of the sock inside my shoe, just the feel.

Other socks will be repaired for the first time. For speed, I'll just use the white thread that I'm using on the white, gray, blue socks.

I use a rather untidy looking whip stitch to sew the holes and thin spots closed.

A few of my socks now have thin patches on the soles and heels. I only mended the smallest of those thin patches, as too much stitching under my foot would annoy me.

Some of my socks are on their last legs, especially those with numerous thin spots. Other socks should last through this summer and perhaps through next summer. What I've discovered is if I catch the holes when they're tiny, I can add a couple of extra years onto the lives of my socks, as holes in knits grow quickly with wear and movement.

I'm thinking that I will put  a couple of pairs of new socks on my wish list for this coming Christmas. 

Spray-Painted Cans as Plant Containers Two Years Later

Because sometimes people like to see how well something held up or lasted, I thought I'd share with you my institutional-sized cans (#10) that I spray-painted two years ago to use for potting basil plants.

These cans have lived outside for two full years. In fall, just before the rain season begins, I pull them under the eaves of the house, so they're not exposed to excessive rain, snow and freezing for the winter months. Then in late spring, after the worst of the rains are finished, I pull them back out from the shelter, amend the soil, then pot them with new basil plants or seeds.

They've surprised me how well they have held up. The paint has not chipped or cracked so far. And the bottoms haven't rusted out yet. I suspect they will fall apart at some point. But maybe I'll get another couple of years out of these cans.

In any case, I think I've made good use of the cans and had a place on the deck to grow my basil each summer.

For those waiting for my better sweet and spicy pumpkin seed recipe, it will be a couple more days. We've had a heat wave here and I've not wanted to use the oven. Once I've had a chance to make another batch, I'll write up a recipe. Thanks for hanging in there. I'm sure you all can relate to not wanting to heat the kitchen when it's already too hot.

When the Cat's Away, the Mice Will Play: Dinner Date for Two at Home

One night recently, both daughters were out and didn't want dinner saved for them. This is fairly rare for them both to be gone at dinner *and* not want something saved. Usually at least one daughter will want us to save a plate for them to eat later or have at lunch the next day. Not so this time.

My husband and I were completely free to do whatever we pleased for dinner. We talked about going out for dinner. We did that last fall when both daughters were out. But then I thought of the abundance of wonderful foods that we have in the freezer, fridge, pantry, and garden. So I set out to put together a first class meal using what we have.

Here's the menu:

fillet steak -- a good, but small beef fillet, the size that's just right for one or two
sautéed mushrooms -- rehydrated dried mushrooms given to me at Christmas from son and daughter-in-law
grilled zucchini -- from the garden
tossed salad -- garden greens, homemade croutons, homemade mustard vinaigrette
baked potatoes -- from a bag in the pantry

and let's not forget dessert!

strawberry sorbet topped with homemade dark chocolate magic shell -- sorbet, s & dil brought at birthdays; magic shell, melted chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate and coconut oil

My husband asked what I thought we'd pay at a restaurant for this type of dinner. My guess -- if we split a steak dinner at a casual steakhouse, but each got a small scoop of ice cream for dessert, I think we'd spend around $30 plus tax and tip. I'm certain our own cost for a steak dinner at home was under $10, likely closer to $7.

Every last bite was delicious!

What's one of your best homemade meals in recent memory?

Did my plan to eat down the freezer and not buy so much at the grocery store pay off?

I'm sitting here with the last 3 receipts from my WinCo shopping trips. I shop at WinCo every other week and do a fairly big stock-up to mostly last 2 weeks each time. I fill in where needed in the off weeks at our local Walmart, but don't spend much on those shopping trips.

So a little over a month ago, I spent $108.82 and bought  34 items at WinCo. Two weeks ago I spent $111.00 and again bought 31 items at WinCo. This past Friday I shopped again at WinCo and spent $83.19, buying 22 items. 

Where I cut back

I harvested the beets this week, using the leaves in meals and freezing the leftovers.

Since I'm trying to reduce the excess in my freezers before we fill it again with summer produce, my main focus of cutbacks this week over prior weeks was fruits and vegetables. This last week, all I bought in produce were some bananas, a watermelon, and a bag of carrots. By buying less fresh produce, I'll be forced to use the frozen produce I already have and the garden produce now ready to harvest. My usual number of produce items (fresh and frozen) seems to be between 12 and 14 for each shopping trip. Only purchasing 3 items was a significant reduction for me.

Instead of buying a head of cabbage on my last WinCo run,
 I harvested our first head of cabbage from this year's garden the other day.

I thought I would have saved more money than I did, though. My savings this week over previous ones was only about $30. In looking closer at my receipt, I can see that I bought several sort of expensive items, which bumped up my total cost. I bought 3 bags of organic flour that I use for bread and any baked goods that I eat (this flour contains only wheat, no enzymes, barley malt or malt extract which I can't tolerate, $6.63 each) and 2 whole chickens of the more expensive Just Bare brand ($8.98 each). Although I'm trying to use up ingredients that we have on hand, particularly in the fridge and freezer, I'm also starting to stock-up for the fall, this week buying extra flour and chicken.

using garden greens in salads instead of buying fresh or frozen green vegetables

So, taking the purchase of those stock-up items into account, I do think that curtailing my produce purchases paid off.

Using more garden produce the last week reminded me of how folks in England prepared meals during WW2. The government in England urged it citizens to grow a garden wherever they could find space and to plan meals around these homegrown vegetables. Heavy homegrown vegetable consumption would not only fill bellies without taxing the national supply of foods for sale, but the use of some vegetables could offset the need to use some purchased and highly rationed foods. For example, home grown carrots found their way into cakes, cookies, and oatmeal as a sweetener to spare precious (and imported) sugar. 

The only fruit I bought this week was a watermelon and some bananas (for smoothies). We've been using frozen blackberries and garden cherries, strawberries, and raspberries to heavily supplement our purchased fruit.

While I haven't been baking with carrots to save sugar this last week, I have been filling more of our plates each meal with homegrown produce and less with purchased foods. This not only saves us some money, but we are eating healthier. An example, the sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds that I've been experimenting with -- I could snack on cookies which contain sugar, flour, butter, egg, maybe chocolate, and other ingredients, at a cost of about $3 for a small 35-count batch. Or I can make the pumpkin seeds using less sugar, less fat, some spices and the free pumpkin seeds (collected from our garden pumpkins) for a cost of about 20 to 30 cents a 16-snack batch (each snack about 1-ounce per various nutrition guides). The pumpkin seeds are still a sweet treat, but they also come with protein, fiber, zinc, iron, copper, and antioxidants. For dessert tonight, we had homegrown raspberries. The main plate of our dinner had a large green salad along with a beef and veggie stir fry plus rice. Lunch included fresh cherries and homegrown cabbage, this produce taking up about 3/4 of my plate.

And here's today's progress report on our large freezer. 

It's almost bare enough to defrost!!! Woo hoo!!!

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds -- First Try

All in my family agree -- these were tasty!!

I'm going to adjust the recipe a bit and then I'll post how I made them. Today's batch were a tad too sweet for me, a tiny bit greasy, not quite salty enough, and perhaps a bit too hot. I really enjoyed the sweet spices that I used (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg).  I used a combo of maple syrup and brown sugar to sweeten. The finished seeds had a very fall vibe. I think this is a winning way to roast pumpkin seeds if you like sweet and spicy nuts in general.

As you already know, I cook up several pumpkins each fall. I puree the cooked flesh and wash the seeds, then freeze both for future use. I keep the cleaned, dry seeds in sandwich-sized baggies in the freezer. There's right around 2 cups of seeds in each bag. To use, I simply thaw the baggie of seeds on the kitchen counter for a few hours, then blot to dry on a paper towel or non-linty tea towel before roasting.

I'll give a second batch a go over the weekend and post my recipe early next week.

Your Best Budget Picnic Ideas

We have about two months left of summer picnics, from big family reunions, to church potlucks, to just one or two at a park or the beach. Our family has a couple of picnics coming up later this month, and I was thinking about the many food options for picnicking on a budget. Of course, I thought I would turn to you friends for your suggestions. Let's swap ideas.

So, I'm looking for very budget-friendly ideas in each of the following categories:

• main dishes
• fruit and vegetable sides
• starchy sides
• desserts
• beverages

Here's my list.

main dish: non-mayo chicken salad sandwiches on buns, using leftover roasted chicken, lemon juice, dijon mustard, olive oil, celery, salt, pepper, herbs, garlic/onion powder

fruits and vegetables: watermelon slices

starchy sides: pasta salad with vegetables added, vinaigrette dressing

dessert: fruit layer bar cookies, the kind with a cookie base, a layer of fruit filling, and a topping of crumb mixture

beverages: infused water -- cucumber, mint, and melon infused water, or raspberry and basil infused water

What would you bring on a picnic while sticking to a budget?

Back to the annual eating down of the freezers

So, last week I disciplined myself and bought very little at the grocery store. Okay, the truth is it was a Walmart week and I don't buy that much at Walmart. I buy most of our groceries at WinCo because their prices are better than Walmart. But Walmart is the nearby store, so I go there to fill in gaps every other week. But I like to think that I was disciplined last week.

Here's where I find out if I have any discipline in me. This week is a WinCo week. I've been making out my shopping list with the understanding that I have a lot of food that needs being used in meals still in the freezers. So, first off, no new frozen vegetables and no more butter. Also no new fresh apples. I have 2 bags of apples still. No mozzarella cheese. I discovered we have 2 blocks of mozzarella in the spare fridge. We only use mozzarella for pizza. I had become in the habit of picking up a new block every time I went to WinCo. Due to actually opening my eyes this week, I realized we have enough pizza cheese. I'm on the fence whether to buy a whole chicken again this week. I buy a specific brand and it's a much better price at WinCo than any other store in town. And I did roast one of the three that I had just this week. So, I may buy one more whole chicken.

In previous shopping trips I've bought perhaps 8 to 9 different produce items every other week. This week, I've only put bananas (need in smoothies), carrots, and watermelon on my shopping list for produce. I will continue to use frozen vegetables. But also, we're at a point in the summer where I can harvest more and more from the garden each week. When we finish our last head of store cabbage (by the weekend), I'll begin harvesting the garden cabbage. I'm harvesting lettuce and cooking greens several days per week. I have a bell pepper ready to pick. And last night we had the first of the zucchini harvest. This is a long-winded way of saying we have a lot of both garden and frozen produce right now and don't need that much more.

So my list for this week's "big" shopping trip -- in addition to bananas, carrots, and watermelon, we need milk, peanut butter, salt, raisins, peanuts, cheddar, canned tuna, and a bag of flour. Even though I have some flour at home, I want to work up to a 30 lb supply of whole wheat, a 30 lb supply of bread flour, and a 30 lb supply of all-purpose flour. So each time I shop I add a bag or two of flour to my cart. That's a pretty small grocery list, isn't it?

For the freezer -- here's the current state of the chest freezer.

As you can see, there's lots more room at the top of the freezer, and that's with adding 6 quarts of cherries this week (on the right side). My daughters have been good about using up their own foods (in the center). And I have been using frozen fruit and vegetables from the left side. I need to make more of a point to roast pumpkin seeds. That hanging bin is full of pumpkin and squash seeds. My family really enjoys sweet and spicy mixed nuts. I think I'll try a batch of sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds and see what they think. Do you roast pumpkin seeds? Have you found a tasty way to roast them?

We've used quite a bit of food from the freezers in the last 2 weeks. Tonight's dinner used a whole chicken, a quart of chicken stock, various leftover bread products (corn bread and stale ends of loaf bread), and celery leaves. Tomorrow night I'll serve leftover chicken and gravy, plus I'll use some frozen apple chunks in spiced apples for dessert, frozen peas, lettuce from the garden, a tomato from the fridge, and potatoes with frozen rosemary.

In some ways, it has seemed like we made room in the freezer rather quickly. But when I think about all of the other frozen foods left to use up, it seems like it will take a long, long time to use it all.

What's the state of your freezer?

Yes, you can use unripe sweet cherries in pies and cobblers

Every year we battle the raccoons, squirrels, and blackbirds for our sweet cherries. We've come up with a few tricks to outsmart them, fence them out, and entice them to eat something else. But it's still a battle. 

Last year, I decided that I would pick as many not-quite-ripe cherries as I could before the critters discovered the tree had cherries. I picked, pitted, and froze enough for 11 pies. This year, with warmer weather, the cherries began ripening a little sooner, and I fell behind.

This morning I woke up to a couple of raccoons having breakfast in the cherry tree. The raccoons are really very cute. One was lounging on the lawn, feeling full and happy while his partner was up in the tree. The two of them made such a cute picture. But I do have to defend my territory. 

So after my breakfast I began picking as many underripe cherries as I could reach. I spent 4 hours picking and pitting cherries. (I think the rest of the cherries will be better as fresh eating cherries, as they're ripening quickly.) I froze 6 quarts of the underripe ones, which will be enough for 3 large pies. And I still have 7 quarts of cherries in the freezer from last year.

You may wonder if I could freeze the ripe cherries. The issue is pitting ripe cherries. Our ripe cherries are on the soft side. The pitter doesn't work well on soft cherries. In contrast, underripe cherries have a dense firmness similar to sour cherries. The pitter I have is really made for a firm cherry.

The flavor of underripe sweet cherries is mild and not as acidic as sour cherries. So I add lemon juice when making pie and cobbler filling. To amp up the cherry flavor I add a few drops of almond extract. I realize some folks don't like almond extract. I'm sure that could be left out. We had a sour cherry tree many years ago, and I baked a lot of cherry pies each summer. I've been ver pleased that I could replicate a sour cherry pie using underripe sweet cherries, lemon juice, and almond extract.

Here's the stage of under-ripeness that seems to work. When fully ripe, these cherries are dark purple. For pies, I pick them when red.

For freezing I add sugar to the containers, but I don't bother with citric acid or lemon juice, as I figure preserving the color of the cherries is not as important in pie filling.  I note on the lid of each container the quantities of cherries and sugar. Later, when I go to make cherry filling, I know what I have. I also note that each container has enough for 1/2 a pie.

When I'm turning the cherries into pie filling, I add a bit of natural red color in the way of beet root powder. About 1/4 teaspoon beet powder to 2 quarts of cherries results in a dark red pie filling and has no beet taste.

Have I shown you how I vent juicy pies like cherry pie? After the top crust is set onto the pie filling, I use a sharp knife to quickly cut 4 wide leaf-shaped pieces out of the top crust dough. This seems to be enough to vent this sort of pie and is so much faster than doing a lattice top.

We've been eating the sweeter cherries on the tree for several days now. I do feel full of cherries at this point, and I will be okay if the critters enjoy a good portion of what remains on the tree. I have several pies worth of cherries in the freezer, and that was my aim.

Our use-it-up Independence Day dinner menu

I mostly try to use what we have on hand for other holidays. For this year's Independence Day, I am especially motivated to use frozen and refrigerated foods. It's just my "thing" this month. I'll save money and make space in our freezer.

So, here's my menu plan for the 4th of July:

• smoked short ribs (freezer)
• hot dogs (I'll have to buy, but we do enjoy cooking over a fire on the 4th)
• buns (scratch, using pantry supplies)
• sautéed corn (freezer), onion (pantry), green pepper (garden), garlic scapes (garden) in beef fat (freezer) with seasonings
• watermelon (bought a week ago and have saved for the 4th)
• curried pea and peanut slaw (peas-freezer, cabbage-bought a week ago and saved, peanuts-pantry) 
• oven-roasted potatoes (pantry) with rosemary (garden)
• fresh cherries (garden) and fresh raspberries (garden)
• cherry pie (freezer)
• s'mores (marshmallows-pantry, graham crackers-pantry, chocolate chips to make chocolate patties-pantry)
• iced peach tea (pantry tea bags)
• blackberry lemonade (blackberry juice-freezer, lemon juice-fridge, sugar-pantry)
• sparkling water (pantry)

The only thing I will buy tomorrow is hot dogs. Yep, that's it!

How will you be spending Independence Day (if you're in the US, that is)? 

This is my last post of the week. I'll be busy tomorrow getting stuff prepped. have a wonderful weekend. And happy 4th to all my American friends!

Not every cooking experiment has to turn out awesome

I used several items from the freezer in tonight's dinner. 

I was down to just one can of tuna, and I wanted to make a tuna casserole for 4 adults. 

I remembered the fish sticks in the freezer and thought they might work mixed in with the canned tuna. 

I also had some frozen pinto beans leftover from making Saturday's dinner. I thought those would add to the protein in my experimental tuna casserole.

I made a cream soup using up another container of frozen chicken stock and some frozen celery leaves.

In addition to macaroni, tuna, broken fish sticks and cream soup, I used more of the surplus frozen peas.

To top the casserole, I used all of the crumbs at the bottom of the fish stick bag plus some shredded cheddar cheese.

The verdict? It was okay. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was okay. I think that's fine with family meals, if they're just okay and not spectacular. Everyone ate all of their portion, so it wasn't bad in any way. Many of our family meals are "okay," and that's fine with us. I don't shoot for Bon Appétit or Gourmet magazine level meals for everyday. As long as we eat it and it's nutritious, then I'm satisfied.

What I did determine is that it would not be a good use of our resources to use fish sticks in tuna casserole on a regular basis. Their flavor and texture was lost in the casserole. But as it was, there were only 3  1/2 fish sticks at the bottom of the bag, and no realistic way to divide those up between 4 adults. So they fit their purpose this time, using something up in my attempt to eat down the freezer.