A question from a reader: frugal winter breakfasts?

Breakfast Rice Pudding may look like oatmeal here,
but it's nothing like oatmeal

Kath writes:

"Help! My family H-A-T-E-S oatmeal, and I'm struggling to find something to make for school day breakfasts, that is cheap, healthy, filling, and quick. My husband, two kids and I go through 3 boxes of cereal a week! This is getting expensive. Can you ask your readers for breakfast ideas that are inexpensive, but healthy and quick to make? TIA, Kath"


I do get a bit of email each week. I do my best to answer questions, and help with various things. (I've had a fair amount of email on making yogurt, especially with non-dairy milk -- a lot of people must be trying to make their own soy yogurt!)

Anyway, here's my answer. The rest of you, can you add to Kath's school day breakfast repertoire?

Kath, don't despair, there are many frugal options that don't involve oatmeal. Here's what we're having this week for breakfast -- Breakfast Rice Pudding. If your family likes rice pudding for dessert, they may enjoy this for breakfast, as well.

It has milk, eggs, brown rice, dried fruit (I used prunes this week), nuts (I used toasted, chopped almonds), hardly any sugar (1 tablespoon for the entire recipe), and spices (cinnamon this week, but nutmeg would also be good).

I baked this on Sunday afternoon, and it keeps in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. To serve, spoon a single portion into a microwaveable bowl, microwave for 30 seconds (just until warm), add preserves, pancake syrup and/or milk.

My one daughter, who doesn't eat refined sugar, has hers plain. My other daughter adds milk. I add preserves and soy milk. In all cases, because the eggs, milk, nuts and fruit are baked in, I feel that we're getting a healthy start to the day.

It's not at all like oatmeal, in my opinion. Here's the recipe, if you want to give it a try:

Breakfast Rice Pudding

2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled (I just make extra rice with dinner one night)
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 to 4 tablespoons sugar (I just use 1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon, and/or 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dried fruit
1/3 cup chopped, toasted nuts (almonds are my favorite)

In a medium mixing bowl, mix until thoroughly combined, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, spices and vanilla.

In a 1-qt. greased casserole dish, combine cooked rice, dried fruit and nuts. Pour the milk and egg mixture over the rice, and stir.

Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 1 hour, until thoroughly set.


Any other suggestions for Kath? What's your favorite weekday winter breakfast?

Frugal birthday cakes -- 7-minute frosting, and our own birthday celebration this week

Butter cream frosting is fantastic for piping designs and messages on cakes. But when I'm in a hurry, or short on powdered sugar and butter, 7-minute frosting is my choice.

I practically always have the ingredients for 7-minute frosting -- granulated sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and either corn syrup, cream of tartar, vinegar or lemon juice (these ingredients allow the egg whites to beat up nice and fluffy). Bonus, these ingredients are very economical, too! One batch of 7-minute frosting cost me about 35 cents. The same amount of butter cream frosting would have cost me about $1.75.

Today is my son's birthday, although we celebrated on Saturday. I had baked the layers on Friday and wrapped them in plastic. Then late Saturday afternoon, one of my daughters helped me make the 7-minute frosting, and place the M&Ms (leftovers from Hallowe'en) on top. The whole frosting/decorating took about 15 minutes, which is really pretty fast, for me.

Some years, my cakes look almost professional. Other years, colorful and cheerful are words that best describe my cakes. What matters most, I think, is that the cake tastes delicious, and everyone enjoys the celebration.


One of the gifts

a winter car emergency kit

One of my son's gifts was inspired from comments by Katie @ Life lived intentionally, on an earlier blog post about gifts on a small budget -- the car repair/emergency kit.

With winter on the horizon, a winter car emergency kit seemed appropriate for my son's birthday. The total cost for this "kit" was under $20.

In the basket, I put a bag of kitty litter (for traction when stuck in the snow), a snow and ice scraper, a road-side triangle reflector, a flashlight (with batteries), an emergency rations food bar, and an emergency blanket. I found the basket, flashlight, batteries, kitty litter, and snow/ice scraper at Dollar Tree. Finding so many items for just a dollar each was a great help to my budget.

Anyway, my son put the whole basket in the back of his car right away, and seemed very appreciative of the gift.

For the rest of the celebration, the 5 of us went out for Chinese food, then came home for cake and gifts. It was a fun evening, and I think the birthday guy had a great time!

More homemade gifts for a small budget (for tween to teen girls)

Jingle bell earrings -- super-duper easy!

I was able to put the finishing touches on a few gifts this past week. If you're struggling to find an inexpensive gift or two for tween to teen girls, either gift may work for you.

In my sewing box I came across these tiny red bells. Cute, huh? I had intended to sew them onto the face of a Christmas pillow several years ago, but came up with something else, instead. When I saw the jingle bells the other day, I instantly thought what fun earrings they would make for one of my daughters. She's the jingle bell type, all the way! I rummaged through my jewelry box for earring pieces that I could hang them on and found these stainless ones. Perfect. It took me all of 5 minutes to put the bells on the earrings, and pinch the loop closed enough so the bells don't slide off (I used tweezers to pinch the tiny loop). Total cost of this gift -- absolutely nothing! Jingle bells come in many sizes and colors at craft and fabric stores. These would be a very quick and fun gift to make for any "girl" on your list! (If only my piercings hadn't closed up -- I'd be saving these for myself!)

Next up, for my other daughter, more the "pearls and lace" sort, I had picked up some basic long underwear that I had intended to embellish in some way.

In going through sewing scraps, I found this piece of lace that I salvaged from toddler girl clothing. (When I was sewing a quilt from baby clothing, I set aside pieces of lace, cute buttons and ribbon flowers.)

I hand-sewed the lace to the neckline of the long undies.

Then, I added a few pearl beads to the lace (leftovers from another sewing project). It was quick and easy hand-sewing, taking about 1 hour total. I think the top turned out nicely -- just a way to make something plain a little more special. I'll be adding a bit of lace to the cuffs of the long undie pants, too. (Photo when that's done.) These will definitely suit my "pearls and lace" daughter. My only cost was for the long underwear itself (WalMart, about $8 for top and bottom combined).

easy bangle bracelets -- I'll post a step-by-step when I'm done

I'm working on bracelets for each daughter this week, as well, using plastic rings that scarves came on from the store last year (I really do save a lot of stuff), strips of fabric, and some beads and charms. When I finish these both up, I'll show you how they turned out. The same idea would work for a small girl, using shower curtain rings as the bracelet base, or for an older girl, using plain plastic bangles. Here's how the denim one is looking, so far.

How are your Christmas gifts coming along? I've found that by just doing a little bit every day, I am making progress.

November meals -- easy for me, but still bargain basement cheap

Over these last few weeks, I've had some days where making dinner was all I could get done. I found that if I got a start before noon, chopping vegetables, making rice, or getting the dry ingredients for baking thrown together, then I could pace myself throughout the afternoon.

I managed to get a home-cooked meal onto the table every day, with weekend help from my kids. But I did find that I really needed to simplify meals. You'll notice some meals are very basic, or are merely leftovers from earlier in the week. And there are numerous repeats. If I found something super easy to put together, then we had that a couple of times. But we all survived!

Here's a sampling of what the 5 of us have been eating, and sticking to our budget of $170/month.

Monday

Lentil-vegetable soup (lentils cook up so quickly that even if I'm getting a late start making dinner, I can still pull it all together in under an hour)
toast
cookies

Tuesday

Turkey burritos, with beans, onions and peppers, in homemade tortillas
sweet potato fries

Wednesday

Vegetarian tamale pie
stewed pumpkin
steamed broccoli

Thursday (easy dinner, babysitting day)

turkey and dumplings, with frozen turkey in gravy, carrots, potatoes and chard

Friday

leftover tamale pie
garden vegetable medley (last of zucchini, tomatoes, Swiss chard, onions and garlic)

Saturday (family outing to fro-yo place after dinner)

nachos

Sunday

hot dogs (homemade buns in freezer),
baked beans from freezer,
carrot sticks and dip

Monday

lentil-vegetable chili
avocado and pomegranate salad
pumpkin donuts

Tuesday

homemade pizza (make 2), with green and red peppers, pepperoni
carrot sticks and dip

Wednesday

Turkey and gravy from freezer
roasted potatoes and carrots
leftover baked beans

Thursday

leftover chili
cornbread
caramel apples

Friday

turkey teriyaki
rice sauteed with kale, broccoli and carrots

Saturday

turkey-lentil burritos
winter squash
sauteed onions and peppers

Sunday

hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough
cole slaw
roasted carrots

Monday

turkey and dumplings
winter squash

Tuesday

vegetarian chili
toasted cheddar sandwiches with apple slices
cole slaw

Wednesday

kale and onion frittata
brown rice
sweet potato fries

Thursday (easy dinner)\

pizza from freezer
apple wedges
leftover chili

Friday

bean burgers, topped with avocados and salsa
rice with canned tomato dices
pears

Saturday

turkey burritos
carrot sticks and dip

Sunday

hot dogs in biscuit dough
winter squash
oranges


My main goals these last few weeks have been to clear enough room in the freezer for frozen turkeys and hams, as well as use veggies from the garden, and the fresh produce that we have in store. I am saving the frozen fruits and vegetables for mid-winter meals. One of my favorite items that we've been enjoying is sweet potato fries. Yes, I do them the not-so-healthy way, in oil. And are they ever yummy! Thin and crisp is how I like them. With a sprinkling of salt! Oh not at all healthy, but one has to live a little, right? The other really delicious item we made were caramel apples. I made the caramel from scratch. It came out curdled looking, but nobody complained. I'll keep working on making good caramel.

October grocery money journal: the stock-up begins!!

I get excited about stocking my pantry for winter. Do you? I recall one of the Little House books, where Laura peeks into the surveyor's pantry for the first time, and sees a winter's supply of ingredients that will keep her family and others very well-fed for the months ahead.

So here I begin, with my own pantry (and fridge/freezer) stock-up. Let me preface with last month I went over budget by $6.30, so that will be deducted this month. But -- and a big but -- I still have my surplus of $112.11 (from August's minimal spending) to tap into. So, my net surplus now stands at $105.81. Add that to this month's budget (of $170), and I have $275.81 to spend on stocking up. I hope I don't spend it all, and that there is something extra left over for special gatherings in November and December. We'll see.

Oct.1  I have some store coupons to use at Albertson's on butter (1.79/lb), eggs (.98/dozen), and sugar (1.49/4 lbs). I buy my limits and also find orange juice in 64 oz containers on markdown for $1.49. This is cheaper than frozen concentrate in our area, so I buy all that's left (8 containers). Once home, I pour off a couple of cups of oj from each container into other freezer containers, and freeze the whole lot. We'll have a decent supply of orange juice this January and February. I also find bacon on markdown (2.99/lb) -- 3 one-pound packages of maple bacon. At home, I split each pack in half and froze. We'll have 6 breakfasts with bacon in the next couple of months. Total spent -- $46.45.

Oct.1  Need to stop in at Cash and Carry for flour (50 lbs), more canned tomatoes (whole tomatoes this time, 2.77 per #10 cans, I buy a case of 6 #10 cans), frozen peas (5 lb bags - two), mozza cheese. While there I also find a dented can of coffee for $5.77.  Total spent $50.97, for a start of the month spending of $97.42

Oct.2  Trader Joe's for cocoa powder. $2.49

Oct. 2  Produce stand since I'm in the area I stop in. I find corn on cob 7/$1, whole cantaloupes for 50 cents each, a bag of peppers marked down for 99 cents, and red delicious apples for 50 cents/lb. spent $6.54, for a month to date spending of $106.45

Oct. 2  Dollar Tree. They have peanut butter again (they've been out for a few weeks). I buy 12 jars. Spent $12. total month to date -- $118.45

Oct.2  One last stop today, hoping to find milk on markdown. QFC is right next to pharmacy where I pick up a prescription. I find 3 gallons of 1% milk at $1.99/gal. Spent $5.97, for a month total of $124.42. Whew! We're getting up there!

Oct. 8  Albertson's coupons this week are for whole milk (1.89/gallon) and Parmesan cheese (1.59/6 ounces). I buy 2 gals milk and 3 packets cheese. Spent $8.85 for a month total of $133.27

Oct. 9  At the nursery picking up bulbs, right next door to Fred Meyer. I find more milk (89 cents a half gal) and some marked down bananas. Spent $4.28 for a total of $137.55

I seem to be stopping in at a lot of stores this week and last. I find myself on the road taking the girls to and from various bus stops and transit centers, depending on their schedule of the day. Consequently, I am out and about a lot these days. But that's okay, I can take advantage of it by stopping at stores along the way.

Oct. 11  Trader Joe's once again, on my way to the produce stand. It's just down the street. I pick up almonds (2 lbs at $4.99/lb -- marked wrong but they gave me that price anyways, saved $1 per pound), pecans (1 lb at $7.98/lb), a couple of bananas (19cents ea)  and more cocoa powder. Spent $21.02 for a total of $158.57.

Oct. 11  Produce stand. I'm scouting out their prices and supplies before the end of the month clearance. While there I find melons for 50 cents again, and also need garlic (50 cents a head -- ouch!). Spent $1.50 for a total of $160.07

Oct. 20  Albertson's coupons this week, again on the whole milk (2 gallons), this time $1.99/gal, and English muffins (50 cents a package). Spent $4.48 for a total of $164.55

Oct.22  Produce stand. Pick up 15 lbs of apples at 50 cents/lb, 6 avocados for 3/$1, 2 yams at 69 cents/lb, and some large squash at 39 cents/lb. Spent $13.26 for a total of $177.81

Oct. 25  Albertson's coupons for apple juice (99 cents for 64 ounces, limit 2). Also buy a family pack of ground beef (1.99/lb). The beef I'll divide and freeze to use in meatballs a couple of times this winter. Spent $8.67 for a total of $186.48

Oct.29  Produce stand for more squash, apples, oranges and yams. But no large bags of carrots left. Spent $12.58

Oct. 29  Top foods for 25 lb bag of carrots. Same price as produce stand had them last week, $7.98. Also buy a large head of cabbage and some cut bananas. Spent $12.70 for a total of $211.76


No more spending until November!! I spent $211.76 out of my $275.81 budget plus surplus. I now have a surplus of $64.05 to carry forward into November. While our pantry, fridge and freezer are stuffed to the gills, I feel like this is going to be a squeaker as to whether or not we can maintain an average of $170 per month grocery spending.

My pantry is full of grains, beans, oil, canned tomatoes, spices/herbs, baking supplies and squash. My freezer has enough fruit to get through the months of January, February and March. My fridge is packed with oranges, carrots, apples, pears and onions. We have some butter and eggs, and a good deal of frozen veggies, My garden is still producing greens. I picked Swiss chard this morning. The garden will continue to give us greens for another 3 weeks. So, maybe we'll do okay over the next 2 months after all. I've been organizing my freezer space to make room for turkeys and hams. So far, I have one entire shelf cleared and half of another. I'll keep working on the freezers.

Saving money on produce: buying juicing carrots

Carrots are one of the inexpensive, long-keeping vegetables, essential for my frugal autumn and winter cooking. We go through a little more than 5 pounds of carrots per month, here.

Every fall, I buy at least one, sometimes two, bags of juicing carrots. They come in 25 lb plastic bags. Yes, that's 25 pounds! I have found them at the produce stand as well as several of our area markets, alongside the other bagged carrots.

Juicing carrots are just like regular carrots, perfectly clean, edible and suitable for table use. It's just that there may be broken carrots (most often broken during the mechanical sorting), carrots with blemishes, and irregular shaped carrots. I've never found a moldy carrot in a bag of juicing carrots, and only one or two floppy carrots per bag.


To give you an idea of how much I save on carrots by buying the 25 lb bag of juicing carrots, instead of the 5 pound bag -- this month, the 25 lb bag was $7.98, about 32 cents per pound. At the same store, the 5 lb bag was selling for $2.79, or 56 cents per pound. I saved 24 cents per pound, or $6 (on the 25 lbs) by buying our carrots in the 25 lb bag.


Keeping and using a 25 pound bag of carrots


When I get the bag home, I sort them right away. Getting the carrots out of the plastic is essential. Trapped moisture could lead to rot.

I have one pile of broken pieces, one pile of blemished or floppy carrots, and one large pile of good keeping carrots.

these may look bad now, but after peeling and trimming,
they are good for eating

I deal with the blemished/floppy carrots, first. These are the ones that could be lost to spoilage if not cooked or frozen right away.  Some may be split (I cut those portions off). Others may be blemished (again, I trim those portions out). And one or two may be a bit on the floppy side (best to use or freeze today).

ready for the freezer

I peel, trim and chop them for the freezer. They'll be handy when I need some diced carrots for soups or stews.

good keeping carrots

Next, I bag the good keeping carrots. I divide these carrots into about 5 lb. parcels each. I do a double layer of paper inside of plastic, to keep the carrots fresh and crisp for months.

I wrap them in paper towels, or loosely place in small paper bags, then slide into plastic grocery bags.

The paper absorbs excess moisture, while the plastic bags hold hold just enough moisture in, to keep them fresh.

I loosely tie the plastic bag closed and store in the fridge. (This is a great use for those plastic bags with small holes in the bottom along the bag's seam.)

four bundles of carrots, to use through fall and winter

I check on each parcel of carrots every other week. (If I find that the carrots seem a bit dry -- going floppy -- I sprinkle the carrots with about 1 teaspoon of water, wrap back up and check again the next day. A quick sprinkling of water will usually cure the "floppies".) They will keep for 3 months or more in my garage fridge, when stored this way (I usually run out of carrots in late January).

it's been one week since I bought the bag of carrots,
I just finished off the salad spinner of broken pieces for tonight's dinner

Finally, I place the broken carrot pieces into the salad spinner, cover and keep in the kitchen fridge, to use within a week.


Our family can easily use 25 pounds of carrots in just a few months. We make carrot soup, carrot desserts, roasted carrots, carrot salad, carrot sticks, carrot-potato puree, and I add them to soups and stews all season long.

Do you use carrots often in your cool-season cooking, too? What are you favorite ways to use carrots? I am always looking for new and interesting flavor combinations.

Feeding a family of 5 on $170/month: the produce stand clearance sale

I'm not posting this for bragging sake, but wanted to show you what's possible by shopping an open-air produce stand's clearance sale. I realize that in many parts of the country, produce stands are shuttered already for the winter. However, in some of the southern tier states, produce stands will continue for a few more weeks. And, this is information that can be tucked away for use next year.

Open-air produce stands typically have great prices. Not to be confused with a farrner's market, I'm talking about the type of place that sits by the side of a highway, has 1 owner/operator, has minimal exterior walls, and is semi-permanently set up. With such exposure to the elements, they close for winter and open again in spring, when threat of frost is reduced.

This morning was my fav produce stand's clearance day. It's always Nov.1. They open at 8 AM to a waiting crowd. I scouted out their supply earlier this week, and picked up a few things I thought they might run short of. But today, I went for their clearance sale, and bought all of this for

$22.76

Yes, that's right, 4 sugar pumpkins, 3 delicata squash, 3 acorn squash, 2 buttercup squash,

10 lbs of oranges, some golden delicious apples, 3 limes, 2 grapefruit,

4 green bell peppers, a bag of marked down pimento peppers, a dozen heads of garlic, and 4 avocados, for $22.76.

I already have quite a bit of fresh produce in storage here. Adding what I bought this morning, it looks like we have enough fresh produce to last through the end of the year, if need be.

You'll notice that for the most part, I stuck with good keeping produce. I won't worry about losing any produce to spoilage, should we not eat all of this soon.

As we're always interested in other people's prices, here's what I paid today:

apples -- 39 cents/lb.
sugar pumpkins -- 29 cents/lb
assorted squash -- 33 cents/lb
limes -- 20 cents/each
ruby red grapefruit -- 50 cents/each (bit of a splurge for us)
garlic -- 3 heads/ $1
avocados -- 4/ $1
green bell pepper -- 39 cents/each
bag of 12 pimento pepper -- 99 cents
10 lb bag of small navel oranges -- $4.49

I think I'll be able to beat some of their other prices just before Thanksgiving, such as on potatoes, and celery.

I'd say, for the month of November, we're off to a good start.

Gifts on a small budget: throwaway containers become gift containers

Thinking ahead to Christmas . . .

These containers still have life in them before being tossed into recycling. The coffee cans will be overwrapped in Christmas paper and filled with flavored popcorn for hubby -- 1 cheese and 1 nutty-caramel popcorn.

And the sparkling cider bottles will be filled with dry, fizzy bath salts -- 1 each, for my two daughters' Christmas stockings. I'll tie on a measuring scoop, and make my own label, and voila -- large, stocking-filling gifts for very little cost. (Dry, fizzy bath salts are just a mixture of epsom salts, baking soda, citric acid, color and essential oils/fragrance. They're even easier than making bath bombs, as you don't have to worry about them not solidifying.)

Making pumpkin-spice doughnuts at home

pudgy mini donuts 

Does any flavor define autumn better than pumpkin? Okay, perhaps apple. A mug of hot apple cider, with a freshly made pumpkin donut just makes me smile!

if using home-cooked pumpkin, strain for 30 minutes,
to reduce and thicken
the strained liquid can be added to soups or stews

Here's my own personal recipe for pumpkin donuts.
You can make them as puffs (balls), o-shaped, or twists. My favorite, with these donuts, are the pudgy little o-shaped ones.

Makes 32 mini-donuts, or puffs, or 16 twists.

You'll need:

1 & 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon butter (or margarine)
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) canned pumpkin (if using home-cooked pumpkin, strain off liquid in a mesh strainer for 30 minutes)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 & 1/4 cups flour, white or a blend of white and whole wheat (adding more as needed)

To get started:

Soften yeast, in a medium bowl with warm water.
Stir in sugar and salt.

In another bowl or microwaveable container, heat milk until warm, and add butter (or margarine).
When butter is melted, stir in pumpkin puree. Allow to cool to room temp.

Combine milk, butter and pumpkin mixture with softened yeast, sugar and salt.

Stir in spices. Begin mixing in flour, 1 cup at a time. Add extra flour as needed for a dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Knead for 7 to 8 minutes. Place in a bowl, cover with a cloth, and allow to rise at room temp for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until doubled).

To shape and fry the donuts:

Punch dough down. Divide dough into 2 portions.

For each portion, if making puffs (or balls), or mini-donuts, roll on the counter to make a rope about 1 & 1/2 inches thick. Cut into 16 pieces. If making twists, with each portion, divide into 8 pieces.

For puffs *or* mini-donuts, form each piece into a ball, by pinching the edges to the back of the ball, and set to rise on a floured surface, seam side down, about an inch or two apart, and cover with a cloth for 30-40 minutes. Repeat with other half of dough.

In the last 10 minutes of rising, begin heating your oil, to 375-385 degrees. (A cube of bread should brown in 1 minute in the right temp oil.) When oil is hot --

Puffs
for puffs, drop the balls of dough, a couple at a time, into oil. Only fry a couple at a time. Too many will cool your oil too quickly, and donuts will be heavy and dense. Turn as needed, cooking until browned.

Mini-donuts
For mini-donuts, use your two thumbs to pull a hole into the center of each ball, stretching and pulling as needed. Only form a few at a time. Drop these mini-donuts into the hot oil, again just a couple at a time. Turn over when underside is browned, and fry until both sides are well-browned.

Twists
For twists, on a large floured surface (the extra space will allow you to roll and twist more easily) roll each piece into a snake about 12 inches long.

Place the snake in the center of your floured surface. Now, place your right hand on the right end of the snake and left hand on the left end of the snake.

Roll your right hand away from you, about 8-9 inches, simultaneously rolling your left hand towards you, about 8-9 inches.

Your snake should look like it has diagonal twists all up and down the length. I cheated and added extra rolls by lifting my hands from time to time. But who cares about that.

Now lift the snake up by the ends and hold them together. Your dough should begin to twist itself. Give it a little help with the twisting.

Pinch the ends together, and set on a floured surface to rise. If your first one doesn't look fab, keep at it. It gets easier with practice. Repeat with other half of dough. Once all are formed, cover and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes.
(Thanks to frugal spinster, a professional baker and cake decorator, for the twisting instructions!)

Begin heating oil in last 10 minutes of rise time. When oil is hot, drop a couple of twists at a time into oil. Turn over when underside has browned. Remove from oil when twists are well-browned.

For all shapes of donuts:

Drain on paper, or paper toweling, placed on a cooling rack. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar, or glaze with a thin icing. These are lightly sweet, and delicious without anything extra. When I make these to go with soup or chili, I serve them plain.


This dough also bakes very nicely, for occasions when I don't want all the artery-clogging, deep-frying.

Increase the butter in the recipe to 3 tablespoons, for a more tender dough. For baking, after the first rise in the bowl, punch dough down, and shape for dinner rolls (crescents, Parker House, pan rolls), place on a buttered baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 350 degrees, for about 18-25 minutes (until browned).

Pumpkin donuts -- one of our autumn traditions that can't be skipped!

When you roast a turkey, do you have a hard time using all the leftovers?

I roasted my last turkey from autumn 2012, just a few weeks ago. We ate the traditional turkey dinner on night one, then moved to more creative recipes that use turkey, but mask the flavor with seasonings.

Turkey is by far the least expensive meat in our area, if bought on sale in the fall. The problem is, we're not terribly keen on turkey flavor, at least not dozens of meals worth of turkey per year.

Up until a few years ago, my problem was using all the leftover meat.  I would enthusiastically buy up several turkeys. I would, then, happily roast them, one every couple of months. But, the leftovers would linger in the freezer, until I managed, rather reluctantly, to prepare those turkey leftovers for family suppers. Being a reluctant cook is no fun, in my book.

I needed to come up with a better method for dealing with turkey leftovers. This is what works for me, and may work for you, as well.

I season and flavor the leftover meat before freezing, for ready-to-go meals from my freezer, using these turkey leftovers.

Preparing the cooked turkey for the freezer: getting a variety of flavors from one bird

I've discovered that I am more inclined to use the turkey leftovers, if I season the meat before freezing. The meat takes on the flavors of the spices and seasonings, while it freezes, often completely camouflaging the turkey-ness completely.

To give you an idea of how well this works for my family, with teriyaki turkey, my husband never fails to ask if it's beef. And with the Mexi-turkey, used in burritos last week, my son asked if it was chicken or beef, used in dinner. He has a good sense of smell and taste, so to "fool" him, I took as a victory.

Turkey in gravy

The day after roasting, I slice and freeze much of the breast meat, in the leftover gravy. I can usually get 2 turkey-in-gravy freezer meals for 5 people, with the remaining gravy. This is the obvious way to have  heat and eat turkey meals in the freezer.


A day or two later, I pull the remaining meat off the bones, chop, and divide into family meal portions. I season each meal portion right in the freezer container, as I work.

Teriyaki turkey

Some of the meat, I cover with homemade teriyaki sauce and freeze. The turkey will marinate in the teriyaki sauce during freezing and thawing. My usual teriyaki sauce is simply vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic and water to taste. This last batch, I used chive blossom vinegar, for a mild onion flavor.

Cooking this up, I saute some onions and vegetables in a little oil, then add the turkey using a slotted spoon, reserving the teriyaki sauce. I stir a spoonful of corn starch into the reserved teriyaki sauce, and cook until thick, in the skillet with the veggies and meat.

Ready-to-use turkey in onion, sage and celery gravy, for pot pie *or* turkey and dumplings

I use stock that I make from the carcass to cook a thin gravy, season with a lot of chopped onions, celery and crumbled sage. To this gravy, I add some of the chopped turkey meat, in portions large enough to use in turkey pot pie or turkey and dumplings, for the 5 of us.

To make a pot pie or turkey and dumplings, I add chopped carrots, green veggies and diced potatoes, to the container of turkey in gravy. I either heat in the stockpot (for turkey and dumplings), or cook briefly in a saucepan, before pouring into a pie plate (for turkey pot pie). Then, I top with biscuit dough or pie pastry, and finish up the cooking.

Mexi-turkey

To flavor cooked turkey for Mexican-inspired meals, I toss the chopped meat with salsa, chili powder, cumin, a bit of vinegar, tomato paste and some stock, before freezing in 2 to 3 cup containers.

To prepare for burritos or tacos, I heat, adding some chopped green or red pepper, and salt to taste.

BBQ turkey

This is simply chopped turkey in a container with some thin, homemade BBQ sauce. To reheat, I add chopped peppers, and serve on buns or over noodles.


The end result -- by seasoning the turkey before freezing, I actually have to pace myself with using the leftovers, so that they will last a month or more. Now that's a switch!


Why would I buy so many turkeys? You must be wondering.

Each November, I purchase an extra couple of whole turkeys, using the Thanksgiving sales to get a rock-bottom price per pound. Last year, I spent about 30 cents per pound for whole, frozen turkeys. That's a phenomenal price per pound for meat, in our area.

I keep the extra turkeys in one of the freezers, to roast in months to come. It should be noted that frozen foods of any kind keep longest and best in stand-alone freezers. Freezers that are attached to refrigerators have more frequent temperature fluctuations. This affects the flavor and texture of the food, but not necessarily the safety.

In a stand-alone freezer, expect a whole turkey to retain its desirable texture and flavor for up to one year (according to Jennie-O). For frozen storage of a whole turkey in your kitchen freezer (combination fridge/freezer, set to 0 degrees F), quality will begin to degrade around 8 or 9 months. However, it may still be totally safe to consume. Cooked turkey, kept frozen, has a freezer life of 4 to 6 months.

With that knowledge, I make sure that we roast our last turkey of the year in late September or early October. After roasting these extra turkeys, we'll have one or two Thanksgiving-like meals, and I'll package up the leftovers for the freezer. According to foodsafety.gov, cooked turkey will keep refrigerated for 3 to 4 days. So, I try to get my cooked turkey packaged up for the freezer in that time-frame.

I'm always looking for new ways to use leftover turkey. Do you have any favorite recipes?

I got a good deal on 175 spring-flowering bulbs -- woo hoo!

Winter is hard on anyone with Seasonal Affective Disorder. And symptoms began early for many folks in the greater Seattle area, this year. We're in the midst of Fog-tober. It's been quite dark and dreary for about 10 days now.

One of the ways that I combat the winter blues is to plan ahead for cheer in early spring, by planting spring-flowering bulbs. My long-term plan is to blanket both the front and back yards with bulbs. I just completed a small area in the backyard, and have already picked out my spot to work on, in the front yard. (I've been pulling ivy in this area, in prep for landscaping next spring, summer and fall.)

This is the area of the back yard, that I began work on this past spring.

This is about what it looked like at the beginning. It lies along the side edge of the property, just along the gravel path to the wood lot. As it's an area in view from the house, and alongside a pleasant walk, I wanted to spruce it up, but keep it cohesive with more native plantings.

I was at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago, and I found King Alfred daffodils and Darwin hybrid tulips for a decent price. The daffodils were about $15 for 45 (about 33 cents per bulb), and the tulips were about $4 for 10 bulbs (about 40 cents per bulb). Home Depot didn't have the mix I was looking for in crocus bulbs (I only wanted purple and white bulbs, no yellows, for this area). But, at a nearby garden center, I found bulbs marked down for end of season. I paid about $20 for 120 crocus bulbs (about 17 cents per bulb).

This last week, I've been spending some of my time in the garden, cleaning up the ornamental beds and planting these bulbs, 175 in total.

The yellow daffodils are planted under the river rock "stream". And the crocus bulbs are planted in the bare earth between the river rock and the stepping stones. The crocus will be overplanted with hostas, as I divide my existing hostas over the years. (In my yard, crocus are done blooming by the time the hostas begin poking through the soil.) In addition, I have begun moving grape hyacinth to the sliver of soil right along the walkway, where I have a couple of hydrangeas for summer blooms.

my tulip spot

For the tulips, I have a spot in view of the master bedroom, where I plant about 10 or 20 tulips each year. I use only Darwin hybrids, as they tend to naturalize very well in my yard. This year I found these red and cream tulips. I think they're quite cheery!

Making plans for late winter and early spring color helps get me over the hump with my SAD. I know that in just a few short months, my yard will be beckoning me to come take a look at it's cheer.

Teaching friends and a crafting exchange

a fun afternoon -- making English toffee with friends 

A couple of friends and I get together about once per month or 6 weeks, as both a social get-together, and as a teaching moment, sharing, with one another, something fun that we know how to do. We are just an informal, small group of women, who enjoy cooking and crafts.

To give you an idea of what we do: in July, we met at one friend's house where she showed us other two how she makes her delightful green pepper jelly. In September, they came to my house and we made rosemary vinegar together. This past Saturday, we met at the third friend's house and she showed us how she makes her fantastic English Toffee. Yummy, yummy stuff!

In November, I am hoping we can gather at my house, again, this time to craft/prepare gifts for the holidays. The plan is for each of us to come up with one craft/recipe that we've made as gifts before, and arrange for the supplies for all three of us to produce that gift item. By the end of the afternoon/evening, we should each have produced 3 different gifts, suitable for gifting in the holiday season.

For my own gift-craft, I'm thinking of bath fizzies, packaged in home-sewn sheer fabric bags. And as just a quick and fun item, to add on, I have some rubber stamps and ink pads, for us to make to/from gift tags.

With this crafting exchange, we'll share our knowledge, have some fun creating and chatting, and get a few more small gifts taken care of for the holidays.


If you'd like to put together your own crafting exchange, the plan for one is quite simple. Find 2 friends who would enjoy such an afternoon. Have each person:  come up with a home-made gift idea, make one sample (to show each other how it will turn out), and put together the supplies for each person in the group. Our group also brings snack-y foods for some time to just sit and chat a while.

Orange-spice tea for a penny per teacup

 

I still have a nice supply of good tea, from my husband's generous gift last Christmas. However, I've been fancying a cup of orange and spice flavored black tea, reminiscent of Constant Comment, if you're familiar with that tea. Here in the Seattle area, there's also the well-known Market Spice tea, I believe named for the Pike Place Market. Anyway, it's a nice orange, spice and black tea blend, perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are about to enter the fresh orange season. Oranges may be available year round, but in late fall and early winter I often find them at rock bottom prices. If you remember, I use my orange peels extensively. I infuse vinegar with the peels. I make candied orange peel in sugar syrup. And I zest the oranges (using a veg peeler and my food processor), to save in the freezer for baking and tea.

Our limited grocery budget now means that my afternoon tea has to either come from my current supply, or be cheap, cheap, cheap! Here's my version of orange-spice tea, using dollar store black tea, orange zest, ground cloves and cinnamon and a bit of sugar.


In a small teapot (about 10 oz.), I infuse about 1/2 teaspoon of frozen orange zest in a full pot (10 oz) of water. I do this by microwaving the water and orange zest for about 1 minute 20 seconds. The orange zest is slower to infuse than tea, so I give it this first infusion.

Next, I add 1 cheapo black tea bag and a tiny pinch of ground cloves, plus 1 slightly larger, but still tiny, pinch of ground cinnamon. I microwave this infusion for about 40 seconds, and allow to steep for a minute or two.

I add a bit of sweetening (sugar, stevia or honey), and reheat my infusion, as needed. I have 2 lovely teacups of orange-spice black tea, for the cost of a cheap bag of black tea, a penny's worth of sugar and spices, and the zest of an orange that I might otherwise consider as garbage.


You can bet that this year, of all years, I'll be making the most of every last orange peel that comes my way. I still have a small amount of zest and candied orange peel in the freezer from last year, but that supply is going fast. I used some of the orange zest in a batch of cookies this past weekend, along with chopped dried cherries, pecan pieces, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Oooh yum! I'm glad that it's cookie baking season again!

Early autumn menus on $170/month for a family of 5

So far, so good, with keeping the grocery budget around $170 per month. Time will tell when the garden is put to bed for the winter, as to whether or not we can continue spending this amount on groceries.

Early autumn for us is late September through mid October. I've listed our dinner menus for this time period.

Upon returning from our vacation, I jumped right into my busy season. So, you will find repetition in some of the meals (I made double and triple batches of many main dishes, for easy cooking on busy nights).

As with August meals, we continued in September with many vegetarian dinners. In early October I roasted our last turkey, purchased last November for about 30 cents per pound. The leftover turkey was frozen in ready to use family-size portions, to be used throughout October and into early November.

The autumn garden is producing kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, mustard greens, sugar snap peas, beets, potatoes, pumpkins and carrots. Our cranberries, late pears and apples are now harvested. The crabapples will be harvested this coming weekend. Homegrown produce is now supplemented with some canned tomatoes and produce stand deals. I have been stopping by the produce stand about once a week, finding bell peppers, hot peppers, cantaloupe and corn on the cob, for very good prices.

Here's what we've been eating:

Monday

lentil curry (make double to freeze) with brown rice
sliced pears from our trees

Tuesday

black bean, tomato, bell pepper salad
corn on the cob (fantastic deal at the produce stand 7/$1)
French bread

Wednesday

veggie chili (make super large batch for later in week)
corn on the cob
garden salad
French bread (leftover)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

leftover lentil curry with brown rice
sauteed garden kale and onions

Friday

roast turkey (last one from the freezer), gravy
roasted garden potatoes and onions
mashed garden pumpkin
bread and butter

Saturday

leftover turkey in gravy on homemade buns (make double batch of buns)
grilled onions
cantaloupe
garden zucchini pickles

Sunday

turkey in homemade BBQ sauce on buns
cantaloupe
garden tomato and basil salad

Monday

turkey teriyaki with garden kale and broccoli
brown rice

Tuesday

Italian lentil-vegetable-sausage soup (make large batch)
sourdough biscuits
cookies and pears

Wednesday

leftover lentil soup
mashed winter squash
pizza (make an extra pizza for freezer)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

baked beans
Yorkshire pudding wedges
sauteed garden kale and onions
sliced pears (from our trees), smothered with almond custard and topped with cherry preserves (I finally got my appetite back on this day -- can you tell?)

Friday

night out with daughters for the girls, leftover soup and garlic bread for the guys

Saturday

homemade pasta (fettuccini), with sauteed garden tomatoes (the last), garden zucchini, onions, and some of big batch pasta sauce (made several containers for the freezer), topped with cheese
cantaloupe (twice this month I found a deal on cantaloupe -- 50 cents each)

Sunday

turkey pot pie (leftover turkey in gravy, onions, sage, parsley, chard, carrots, potatoes, green beans, topped with pastry crust)
mashed garden pumpkin
cranberry sauce (with homegrown cranberries, picked this day)

Monday

clean-out-the-freezer casserole (rice, tomatoes, cooked lentils, turkey stock, chives, chopped onions, tomato paste, pizza sauce, combined, then topped with bread crumbs mixed with herbs and grated cheese)
cantaloupe

Tuesday

split pea soup
sourdough biscuits
cantaloupe
cookies

Wednesday

teriyaki turkey (from freezer) with garden broccoli and kale
brown rice
apple salad (apples, chopped dried fruit, nuts in a fruity dressing)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

homemade pizza from the freezer
tomato-basil soup (made with canned tomato paste, fresh basil, onions, lemon juice, salt, water)
cantaloupe

Friday

leftover turkey in gravy from the freezer, with leftover cranberry sauce
stovetop stuffing (made with bread bits and pieces in freezer, turkey stock, onions, butter and sage)
sauteed garden Swiss chard and garlic
pumpkin pie

Saturday

homemade pasta (it was so good the other Saturday that we want it again, and the kids help a lot with it) with sauce and turkey Italian sausage from freezer
garden veggie medley (whatever is left in the garden) with onions and garlic
leftover pumpkin pie

Sunday (quick and easy dinner)

scrambled eggs
pancakes
sliced pears


Breakfasts have consisted of protein shakes (for the daughter trying to gain weight), toast, pancakes, muffins, cinnamon buns, oatmeal, granola, and yogurt. To-go lunches have had a combination of a sandwich (peanut butter and jam or vegetarian bean spread), a container of soup, a piece of fruit, a container of rhubarb sauce, applesauce or pear sauce, a muffin, bag of popped corn, and/or cookies. Weekend lunches have often been leftover soup, fried rice, or toasted cheese sandwiches. I am working on planning my own weekday lunches. Without a plan, I tend towards a series of snacks, and no real lunch. But I'm working on that.

With cooler weather, we are eating more soups and chili, and fewer salads. I like keeping a large container of homemade tomato soup in the fridge. It makes a delicious and warming quick bite to eat for anyone who is hungry, and also can be packed into microwaveable containers for to-go lunches.

You can see, we eat a lot of basic, humble meals. I really haven't the time or energy to do gourmet-ish meals. And that suits us just fine.

Humble cooking -- that's what's for dinner.

Making room in a tight budget for a little bit of fun

I double-checked my schedule, and getting sick repeatedly was definitely not in my plans. While I haven't been feeling very well, I have been pushing on in things. The worst of feeling bad, for me, was that I just didn't have brain energy to write anything.

There have been some moments of fun this past week, however. A girlfriend came over, one morning, with a big sack of apples from her neighbor's tree. The neighbor didn't want the apples, I think because they were basically flavorless. My friend and I turned those bland apples into some very delicious applesauce, adding lemon juice, cinnamon and a bit of sugar.

Another fun moment came about when my daughter announced that as a theater student at the university, she was obligated to usher some performances on campus. Universities put on a wide variety of productions, many of which are absolutely free to anyone willing to come. Some of the free offerings are recitals put on by faculty or students. This past Friday, there was a piano concert performed by a well-known faculty member.

The one hitch, we discovered with these obligations, is transportation for my daughter. These ushering requirements are fulfilled after hours that commuter buses operate. So, it meant that I'd have to drive downtown to pick her up, after the concert. It's not a huge deal, but the roundtrip drive takes about 1  & 1/2 hours, in the dark (when I can't see to read the signs in unfamiliar neighborhoods).

So, what to do, what to do? We decided to just make the best of the situation. If I'm going to have to drive down to get my daughter, I might as well go down early and enjoy the concert myself.

That's what I did. I met up with both of my daughters in the late afternoon. We had a bite to eat, then went and enjoyed a lovely piano concert.

About that bite to eat  --  we had origainally planned for it to just be a very small bite, then we'd eat something more substantial once home. But when we went over to the student union building, to check out the quick service places, we discovered that all perishable foods were 50% off after 5 PM. Well, lucky us! It was probably 5:02 when we walked in. If my drive to the campus had gone any faster, we'd have paid the full price! For $11, I had a large chipotle chicken salad, one daughter had a fruit salad, and the other daughter had a very large ham club sandwich. Not a bad deal at all!


In our budget, I leave a small amount of money for fun outings. Right now, that amount is $10 per month. (In the past, that amount has been as low as $4.) With our budget feeling so squeezed these days, it really helps morale to keep just a small amount for something out of our ordinary frugal pattern. We can look back and say to ourselves, "wasn't that fun the evening we went to the piano concert and had dinner in the SUB?" or, "getting ice cream cones at the $1 cone place really made that day feel special".

I know, $10 per month adds up to $120 per year, which does sound like a lot to us right now. If our budget begins to feel any tighter, then I could see us reducing that amount again. For now, we're willing to make concessions in other areas of the budget, to afford a very inexpensive outing or two per month.

What do you think? Do you think leaving a small amount like $10 per month, for fun, is reasonable, given our reduced income? What would you do? Do you budget for fun outings for your family?

I'm back

For the last 10 days I've felt really crummy. I've had 3 colds and 1 sinus infection, so far this fall. I know that it's all due to putting in really long work days, and shortchanging myself on sleep. Right now, there's just a lot ot take care of. But I think I'm nearing the end of the super long work days. Just a lot to do, and fewer hands to do the work this year. Combine that with a computer that is having some age issues. I may be able to borrow a computer, so that I can keep up with online stuff.

Anyways, I'll take some time later today, to begin writing up some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks. Have a great day!

Beautiful Everyday Living: cozy October evenings by the fireside

In an effort to put aside a bit more money for our winter heat bill, we're not turning on the furnace just yet, even though the daytime high temps are hovering around the 55 degree F mark, and overnights are in the upper 40s to 50 F. Yes, it is a bit chilly in the far corners of the house. But we're keeping the core of the house (the kitchen, the family room and the dining room) warm enough with a fire in the heatilator fireplace. (We're using the fan in the corner of the photo, to blow the hot air off the bricks and into some of the other living areas of the house, in case you're wondering.)

My husband starts a fire when he gets up (around 5 AM). I keep it going all day, gathering wood in the afternoons and bringing it into the garage, for easy access throughout the evening.

In the late afternoon, as the sun is waning and the chill begins to set in outside, I stoke up the fire, turn on the ambient lighting in the room, and make the family room the coziest place in the house for the returning family.

Most evenings, we eat dinner, in the glow of the firelight. More wood is added to the fire, for a cozy October evening with the family. This fireside living has turned a home-finance need into a desirable family gathering. I got lemons -- but I made lemonade!

Have I shown you this?

My garden club made these a couple of years ago. This is one of my favorite autumn decor pieces. I pull it out of the closet every October and place it in a new spot for the season. This year, it has become part of the ambient lighting in the family room.

It's simply an empty wine bottle, with a string of mini white Christmas lights stuffed inside. I, then, decorated the outside of the bottle with some faux grapes, grapevine and a bit of raffia. A gilded ribbon is tied onto the neck of the bottle as a crowning touch.

I have my lighted bottle on the side table (AKA a small filing cabinet covered in an autumn throw) next to the sofa. Two of our electrical outlets, in this room, are connected to a wall switch. I have the bottle plugged into one of these outlets, using an extension cord, so that I can easily switch this light on and off each evening.

A simple touch that adds so much to our cozy evening enjoyment.

Do you have any favorite autumn decorations for your home?

September grocery money journal

It's the end of September, already! We did okay with grocery spending this month. Our pantry had some large gaps, at the end of August. So, it was time for a restock of some basics. But with a smaller grocery budget, I would have to be smart about this.

I did two things differently from my usual monthly shopping. One, I limited myself to basic ingredients. I wanted some bananas, popcorn and chocolate chips. But we have plenty of fruit right now (there will be a time for bananas this winter). Popcorn prices (at the cash and carry) are still reflecting the poor corn harvest from 2012 (79 cents/pound is too high for my budget for a grain). And chocolate chips are too snackable. I went with cocoa powder instead. At least with cocoa powder, you have to actually "do" something with it, to turn it into a snack. (I later found popcorn on sale at a price within my range for grains :-) )

As I posted earlier in the month, the other change I made was to think of grocery shopping as if I were stocking an institutional kitchen. For example, a case of canned tomato paste gave me a savings of 50 cents on each #10 can, over buying one or two of the large cans. So I bought the case.

I barely went over my $170 budget this month, spending a total of $176.30. I think that is pretty good. So, here's what I bought.

Sept. 1. Made a trip to the cash and carry, bought a case (6 #10 cans) of tomato paste, a case (4 gallons) of white vinegar, 50 lbs of whole wheat flour, 50 lbs of white sugar, 50 lbs of brown rice, 25 lb bag of lentils, 1 gallon of lemon juice, 35 lb container of vegetable oil, and 50 lb sack of onions. I spent $152.95

Sept. 1 Trader Joe's is just down the street from the cash and carry. I stopped in for a 9 oz container of cocoa powder. Spent $2.49

Sept. 1 Buying a turkey roasting pan at Wal-Mart, checked their price on salt, 48 cents a canister. I bought 2. Spent 96 cents.

Sept 4. Dollar Tree for kosher salt (good for pickling). Spent $1

Sept 4. Fred Meyer for bulk spices (ground cloves, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, cream of tartar). Also found popcorn on sale for $1.09/2 lb bag (that's 55 cents/pound). I bought 4 bags of popcorn (8 lbs) Spent $8.44.

Sept. 5. Albertson's for milk, whole milk at $1.79/gallon (limit 2 w/ coupon). Spent $3.58

Sept. 24. Albertson's for whole milk, 2 gallons at $1.99/gal, and salt for 25 cents a canister (really great price for salt, here). I bought 12 canisters of salt. Salt keeps indefinitely. This supply will last 1&1/2 to 2 years.

Total spent for the month, $176.30, $6.30 over budget, which will be deducted from October's budget.

At month's end, I am completely out of all-purpose flour, and will need canned tomatoes, too, this month. I'll be making a trip to the cash and carry this week. The new store special flyer is posted on Monday for each week. So, I'll be checking online to see what my store has on offer right now. (BTW, I believe that there are 52 Cash and Carry's on the west coast, most of which are in Washington state and Oregon, but a handful in California, Idaho and Nevada.) I'll also go by the produce stand to pick up jalepenos and garlic for making salsa. Even with buying most of the ingredients for salsa, it's still far more economical for me to make my own, than to buy salsa pre-made.

That's about it for now. I hope you've been finding deals at the grocery store this month, too!

Meals on a budget for the family vacation

I realize that family vacation time is on hiatus for the fall school-term for most families. But if I don't post this now, I'll forget all about it later. So . . .

Last week we were on our pre-university family vacation. Much of the vacation had been pre-booked and paid in advance. But the one area still open for changes, to help ease the budget, was meals.

Our usual frugal way with meals on vacation -- book a hotel/motel with free breakfast, find a local grocery store to pick up sandwich fixings and snacks, and eat out several dinners (but at somewhat budget-friendly restaurants and sharing meals).

This vacation -- we did much of the above, booked a place with complimentary breakfast, complimentary fresh fruit in the lobby of the hotel daily, fridge and microwave in room, and in-room coffee/tea, and we budgeted enough $$ for 3 lunches out and 1 dinner out (all sharing meals at counter-service restaurants).

However, instead of shopping at a grocery store at our destination, we packed all of our groceries with us on the drive.

I "shopped" my pantry, fridge, freezer and garden for most of our food.

I baked and cooked at home, freezing as I went. Then I packed this all into a large cooler and two insulated bags, where it stayed cold enough for the drive down. Once there, we popped it all in the in-room fridge, to continue thawing, and used through the first half of the week.

I also shopped the dollar store at home, for treats like chips, pretzels, and candy, for "fun" snacky stuff, to keep us from buying much more expensive snacks and goodies on vacation. This saved us a bundle!

I made up a menu plan, on paper, for each day's meals we would be gone, and included our dinner once we returned home at the end of the trip. We planned for 4 meals out, over the course of 9 days. The rest, we put together in our hotel room. I brought a copy of this menu plan, and for the most part stuck to it. We did switch around two meals in the hotel room, as one entree thawed faster than anticipated, and the other thawed slower.

I cooked the week before leaving, and froze enough for the 5 of us to have on the trip. I made mostly vegan entrees, to reduce the risk of food spoilage/illness for us. And I froze everything *solid* before packing in the cooler. These items stayed partially frozen, at the least, for the entire two-day drive. At the hotel on the first night, I brought the cooler into the room and put everything in the in-room fridge for the night, where it continued to thaw at a very slow pace.

The home-cooked items were consumed early in the week. For later in the week meals, we had canned refried bean and packaged flour tortilla burritos, and pbj sandwiches. I even baked enough bread for all of our sandwiches (I baked, sliced and froze the loaves, then kept in the hotel room fridge, and amazingly none of it developed mold!).


Items that I baked or cooked, and froze, for the trip:

2 jars of pinto and black bean sandwich spread
2 loaves of sandwich bread, sliced then frozen
1 loaf of French bread, frozen
1 batch of home made hot dog buns
1 vegan lasagna casserole
1 rice and black bean casserole
1 container of bean and vegetable soup
2 batches of cookies
1 batch of apple muffins for breakfast on the road on day one, and mini muffins for snacking later
5 gallon ziplocs of popped popcorn for the drive down, to snack on (these lasted all week, and we even had one bag left for the drive home)

Items I had in the pantry, fridge or garden, that we brought for the trip:

hot dogs, frozen solid
2 jars of peanut butter (only needed 1)
2 large packages of dried fruit (prunes and apricots)
Kool-aid (we decided to forgo any soda pop for this trip)
tea bags
hot cocoa mix
carton of soymilk
pineapple juice
carrot sticks
tomatoes, cherry and slicing for sandwiches (these came out of the garden the day before we left, and lasted the entire week)

Items that I bought, for the trip:

from Dollar Tree--
candy corn, mellow-creme pumpkins, Tootsie Roll Midgies
potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels

from regular grocery store--
tortillas
canned refried beans
Fig Newtons (I had a craving, and they're healthier than many cookie types)

In all, I spent about $15 on purchased items, which came out of the vacation budget.

The menu--

Saturday

breakfast: apple muffins, milk and coffee in the car
lunch: egg salad sandwiches, popcorn, pineapple juice, carrot sticks, cookies
dinner: half-way to destination, in-room microwaved hot dogs, cherry tomatoes, cookies, (this hotel had fresh-baked cookies in the lobby)

Sunday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: in car, bean spread sandwiches, dried fruit, carrot sticks, cookies, popcorn
dinner: counter service -- split 2 entrees, candy/cookies from home

Monday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: fast food -- split 3 entrees, brought carrot sticks and dried fruit with us
dinner: in-room -- rice and bean casserole brought from home, with fresh tomatoes on the side, Kool-aid

Tuesday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: bean spread sandwiches, pretels, fruit (from hotel lobby), bought  onion rings to share
dinner: in-room -- lasgana brought from home, with carrot sticks

Wednesday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: bean spread sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies, carrot sticks
dinner: in room -- bean-veggie soup from home, French bread, last of apple muffins

Thursday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: bean spread sandwiches, dried fruit, pretzels, bought sweet potato fries to share
dinner: split 3 fast food dinners, fresh fruit/candy/cookies for dessert

Friday

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: pbj sandwiches, dried fruit, chips, cookies
dinner: Mexican counter-service, split 2 large entrees, ate outdoors, also had bag of tortilla chips from home

Saturday (on the road)

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: in car -- mix of sandwiches, dried fruit, Kool-aid, microwave popcorn, fresh fruit, cookies
dinner: in room (half-way point home) -- bean burritos with packaged tortillas and canned beans, fresh tomatoes, cookies (complimentary fresh-baked in hotel lobby)

Sunday (last day)

breakfast: hotel provided, complimentary
lunch: in car -- mix of sandwiches, mix of leftover chips and dried fruit, Kool-aid, cookies
dinner: at home -- homemade pizza, made before trip and kept in freezer, reheated once home

I've bold-printed the meals/side items that we actually bought on the trip. In addition, we bought a caramel apple to share, a piece of pumpkin fudge to share, and a package of honeycomb candy. Our budget was $100 for purchased food. We spent $117 -- a bit over budget, but we made up for it with spending less on gas for our trip. Based on previous vacations, I estimated that we saved about $70 on eating out on this trip. For a 9-day vacation, I think we did pretty well on the cost of meals.