Budget Friendly Meals and Menu Planning
Couldn’t agree more with this post.
Growing up with a mother who couponed like a fiend made me forever averse to creating a grocery list centered exclusively upon sale items. Not only is the process tedious and time-consuming, but it also forces you to buy larger quantities of food than you need. All of these extra items then must either be […]
via Shopping Sales & Looking Beyond The Coupon — The Thrifty Gourmand
When the temps start getting as high as they have been we will do anything possible to keep the heat out of the house.
Recently we discovered grilled foil packets because they don’t heat up the house. As it turns out the whole family loves them, and there is NO MESS (that is the best part, really).
There really isn’t much to them– they are so easy to do! You just throw all the food in, fold it up and put it over a grill, a campfire, or even in the oven
Tonight we tried a Continue reading “Guess #whatsfordinner tonight 7/25/2016 #food”
You can’t go wrong with foil packets. They are a complete meal in one package.
These are especially tasty.
Continue reading “Cajun-Style Grilled Foil Packets”
It was hot this week, really hot. I am so glad we have been focusing on our “Summer Electric Plan.” We had one oven baked dish this week. All the other dishes fell within the cooking methods the meet our “Summer Electric Plan” methods. (No Cook, Grilled, Slow Cooker, Microwave, Quick Stove Top)
Unfortunately, we had a really crazy weekend and had to skip grilling. The good news is, the meat we were going to use is in the freezer. So no worries. We can grill this week or next.
Normally, the weekends are ‘fluid’ and we don’t really have menus planned this past week though we did. Well that backfired a little. This past week we ended up with a really busy weekend. We have friends who are moving (sadness) and helped them pack up. As a result a couple of our menu items have been shifted around from what was originally planned for.
We had planned to ‘bulk’ grill Friday night and carry several of those items forward during the week. We will instead be doing the grilling Monday evening. As a result we shifted the meal we had planned for last Friday to Monday. That is why you won’t see any items for those dishes in the shopping list below.
Here is what we have to look forward too:
Well it looks like summer is in full swing here. Again today we were hit with another critical alert from our electric company. Another 42 cent/kwh rate day.
That is exactly why we started really looking hard for good crock pot meals. Tonight’s has moved into the realm of a family favorite. In fact, Jaque said that when our son came into the kitchen and smelled it cooking he said something like “oh good, I love that chili”. Well we don’t call it that but it is just as good as a bowl of chili. What we had was Continue reading “Guess #whatsfordinner tonight 7/21/2016 #food”
Last night we mentioned we got a ‘critical alert’ from our ‘Smart Hours’ thermostat. Between the hours of 2 and 7 p.m. we were told the electric rate for this evening would be 42 cents per kwh.
That is why we adjusted our menu so that we could prep a delicious meal using a crock pot. The great thing about cooking in a slow cooker or crock pot is that most of the cooking is done well before the higher rates start. Once they do start, a crock pot only used a tiny bit of electricity and generates very little heat, at least when compared to an oven.
Continue reading “Guess #whatsfordinner tonight 7/20/2016 its #food”
This is a truly delicious way to make use of the last bit of a bone in ham.
The ham bone create a wonderfully flavored broth. The beans make it thick and hearty.
Continue reading “Black Beans with Rice”
That doesn’t look much like Black Bean Soup with Rice. Your right.
We’ve mentioned before that we participate in our electric companies ‘Smart Hours’ program. Between the hours of 2 and 7 p.m. the adjust their rates based on demand. This evening that rate was 18 cents per kwh. If they predict what they call a ‘critical’ rate they notify us in advance. Tonight they predicted the rate for tomorrow to be 42 cents per kwh Continue reading “Guess #whatsfordinner tonight 7/19/2016 its #food”
This shopping trip for the weeks including the Menu for Week Starting 7/17/2016 and 7/24/2016 really turned out great, this time we included the middle weekend for a total of 11 evening meals for 4.
This week we finish up using the last of the ham from last week. We really like ham but it is really easy to over do it. So knowing that we left plenty of trimmings on the ham bone and froze it. This week we will be using it to season some beans. That makes for a really inexpensive meal
Given that and other meals of that type we had a really successful shopping trip. Continue reading “#groceryshopping results for the #menuplan for the weeks of 7/17/2016 and 7/24/2016”
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