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5/29-6/4 Dinner Menu – still working out of the freezer
Since the grocery sales run Wednesday or Thursday through Tuesday or Wednesday around here, that is the cycle I use for menu planning. I usually come up with a rough plan when I see the new grocery...
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Trying something new: Summer Squash Squares
My new Penzey’s catalog came in the mail yesterday and along with the coupon for free creamy peppercorn base, this recipe caught my attention as I sat eathing lunch with my daughter. I happen to have...
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6/5-6/11 Dinner Menu
Since most of the grocery sales run Wednesday through Tuesday around here, that is the cycle I use for menu planning. I usually come up with a rough plan when I see the new grocery ads each Tuesday. I...
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Farmers’ Market Find: Swiss Chard
Most Saturday mornings on my way home from yoga, my husband daughter meet me at the Oak Park Farmers’ Market for coffee, donuts, and browsing. As might imagine, my frugality prevents me from buying...
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6/12-6/18 Dinner Menu
Since most of the grocery sales run Wednesday through Tuesday around here, that is the cycle I use for menu planning. I usually come up with a rough plan when I see the new grocery ads each Tuesday....
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Oven Fried Chicken
This is barely a recipe. It is more like a general technique that you can adapt to your tastes, needs, and ingredients. When I first made chicken this way, back before my husband and I were married,...
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Frugal extravagance: Wild salmon, saffron, fresh herbs
It isn’t necessary to spend a fortune for a great meal. Depending on the ingredients you want to use, you might be able to find more frugal sources, substitutes, better times of year, or other ways to...
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Biscuits and gravy
This is so easy. Impress your guests or family with a meal far superior to what they had at a restaurant! The frugal part This week, 1 lb rolls of Bob Evans sausage are $1.98 at Ultra, which is a...
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Scrambled eggs
This is incredibly simple, but is possibly the item most requested by family and friends who find themselves here for breakfast. To some, this may seem like a strange way to cook eggs, but the results...
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Experiment: Salmon stock and salmon risotto
After picking up an almost-whole salmon, I challenged myself to use as much of it as possible. While I managed to avoid learning to cut up a fish by convincing them to fillet the fish for me, I did...
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Sauteed kale
Check out this awesome kale! I am proud to say that this came from my garden and that there is plenty more after the harvest. Kale is great because it has all of the great qualities of leafy greens...
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Roasted carrots
When it first occurred to me to make carrots this way, it was like a revolution. On the frugal side, carrots are cheap and last a really long time after purchase. They are also sweet (even more so...
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Homemade natural peanut butter
After some label-reading frustration, it dawned on me that I could make peanut butter myself (duh!). Peanut butter isn’t cheap, and it seems like the fewer ingredients it contains, the more expensive...
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DIY Yoga Bolster!
Okay, so this is not food and I am no seamstress, but this miraculously worked so I just had to share! It has been my intention lately to practice yoga at home more often. Schedules sometimes make it...
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Cooking cheap this week of 7/17/13
Every Tuesday when the grocery ads are dropped on my doorstep, I look through them all for fresh food to cook for the week and staples to stock up on. This isn’t necessarily a list of what I am going...
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Welcome!
The frugal part A little over two years ago, my household underwent a grocery budget overhaul. Within a few months, we were spending 40% of the previous year’s monthly average. At this point, it is...
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Baked macaroni and cheese
We’ve all had bad homemade macaroni and cheese. Even at restaurants, I am often shocked at how poorly this dish is executed. This is a true treat, and something this indulgent had better be delicious....
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Pizza with homemade sauce
Homemade pizza can be so much healthier than delivery or take-out, but just as satisfying. It is also, of course, a much more frugal option than ordering in or even a decent frozen pizza. Infinitely...
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Cooking cheap this week of 7/24/13
Every Tuesday when the grocery ads are dropped on my doorstep, I look through them all for fresh food to cook for the week and staples to stock up on. Most of these stores’ ads run Wednesday through...
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Fresh egg pasta
Most of us have things that we like to make from scratch despite the fact that there is a much easier, not overly processed, and still frugal substitute. For some it is bread, others yogurt. For me,...
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