Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop

[swick]

Thanks!  I had fun trying to figure out the best combination and permutation of what to buy to get the most bang for my buck, without buying to much junk food (or even too much "regular" food of the kind that I have little self-control with!)

I'm pretty sucky at optimizing points/deals stuff like that -lived too long in a community with zero choices. One fun thing we did discover is our PC plus points sometimes give is 600 points for a package of Azami noodles (Think Mr. Noodle just tastier and slightly higher quality)
Hubs likes to have them on hand for easy meals or to add to stir-fries. We make packages of our own Asian veggie mix and freeze them for simple meals.  Anyways, they cost .35 and we get .60 in points so... free noodles! and we make a profit of .25 per package :)

I figure we can buy them for as long as they let us, and we can donate some packages too.

Today I am making some sort of bean dip to go with the crackers we made yesterday. Thinking about making some Quinoa patties for dinner.

[PJ]

I'm pretty sucky at optimizing points/deals stuff like that -lived too long in a community with zero choices. One fun thing we did discover is our PC plus points sometimes give is 600 points for a package of Azami noodles (Think Mr. Noodle just tastier and slightly higher quality)
Hubs likes to have them on hand for easy meals or to add to stir-fries. We make packages of our own Asian veggie mix and freeze them for simple meals.  Anyways, they cost .35 and we get .60 in points so... free noodles! and we make a profit of .25 per package :)

I figure we can buy them for as long as they let us, and we can donate some packages too.

Nice!  $0.25 is $0.25, and it all adds up!

[swick]

Why oh why do my potatoes always insist on trying to go green before I can use them. Sometimes within days of getting them home from the store?

I tried a "Steakhouse" style way of roasting whole potatoes. http://www.tasteslovely.com/steakhouse-style-baked-potato/ So planning on having a baked potato for lunch and having leftovers. Might separate out the flesh and make some gnocchi and use the skins for some loaded potato skins for a treat tonight...and will still have some leftover for hashbrowns.

[1967mama]

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/potato/green-skin-on-potatoes.htm

Above is a good article on why potatoes go green, @Swick -- I found this out a few years ago and proper storage has really helped. Walmart potatoes are the worst -- I think they sit out in the lights for weeks, or something, because they are always green within a day of getting them home. Superstore potatoes store much better for me :-)

[Thegoblinchief]

Even a day's worth of light exposure can be enough to green a potato but few stores bother to rotate stock. And just FYI, the entire potato is inedible if it shows green. Unlike sprouts, which can be trimmed off, if the potato has ANY green it should be composted. Green is just chlorophyll, but if the spud is producing chlorophyll, it is also producing the toxic glycoalkaloids that make the rest of the potato plant poisonous to humans.

[Juliekay]

Waiting for my child support check so having a make-do day.  I get veggies and fruit from a food reclamation project from grocery store cast offs here.  Well today they had dry beans; someone had bagged them up from the bulk bins and then didn't end up purchasing them. I combined with zucchini, red and orange bell pepper, onion, chicken and homemade chicken broth to make mostly FREE soup.  This will be lunch and dinner for several days.

[Thegoblinchief]

Since others have posted meal plans, for remainder of week:

All days:

Breakfast - eggs/toast/bacon for me, granola or toast for kids as preference
Lunch - sandwiches and leftovers.
Dinners:
Last night - skillet baked ziti, only with a dusty box of farfalle I found in the basement pantry
Tonight- bison and pork tacos with homemade tortillas.
Tues - grilled pork and veggies with rice.
Wed/Thu - my standard quadruple pizza batch, 2 eaten each night.
Fri: my bag of pork bones in freezer is full to bursting, so make a soup with them. Probably broth, carrots, lentils, not much else. Maybe make noodles to put in it.
Sat/Sun: haven't decided yet.

[swick]

Interesting link. Thank you 1967momma and goblinchief. I usually just peel the potatoes if they are "just" starting to green, otherwise I compost them. I didn't realize they were "so" sensitive to light though.  We get ours from No Frills, don't have a superstore close by. Definitely going to rethink storage for them.

The baked potatoes did turn our really well though, crispy skins and light and fluffy insides...I think dropping them on the counter before cutting it open really made a difference!

Good sounding meal plan, goblincheif!

[swick]

So...hit my first snag. I was counting on an egg delivery on the weekend. It didn't come. Called today and due to some family issues I won't be able to get a delivery this week. This leaves me with one egg. I was going to make Quinoa patties for dinner which uses egg to bind. Instead, I ended up with a pretty darn tasty (and healthier) Quinoa salad.  Used up quite a bit of pantry and freezer stuff and Hubby really liked it.

Going to have to rethink most of my plans for the rest of the week as I was planning on using eggs. That means oatmeal for breakfast and...hmm...have to come up with something for the rest of my baked potatoes.

How is everyone else doing?

[PJ]

Going to have to rethink most of my plans for the rest of the week as I was planning on using eggs. That means oatmeal for breakfast and...hmm...have to come up with something for the rest of my baked potatoes.

Hey, eggs are one of the things that I often buy, and end up tossing half of.  I'm really trying to reduce my food waste these days, but I bought a carton of eggs in my super-saving-points-redemption shop the other day.  Maybe I should share?  Take as many as you'd like!

[Thegoblinchief]

Hey, eggs are one of the things that I often buy, and end up tossing half of.  I'm really trying to reduce my food waste these days, but I bought a carton of eggs in my super-saving-points-redemption shop the other day.  Maybe I should share?  Take as many as you'd like!
[/quote]

Really? This is alien to me. I average 9 dozen a month.

Keep in mind you can freeze eggs very well. Pick a common portion (say, 2 eggs), beat them with a pinch of salt and freeze in a small container.

Or, at least in the States, you can get half-dozens, though your unit cost goes up a lot.

--

Also, I'll plug a much harder challenge for those who might want to partake now or in a future month: Erica's eat from the pantry/larder for a MONTH challenge: http://www.nwedible.com/eat-from-the-larder-2015/

I'm not ready for it but maybe will be in a future month.

[swick]

--
Also, I'll plug a much harder challenge for those who might want to partake now or in a future month: Erica's eat from the pantry/larder for a MONTH challenge: http://www.nwedible.com/eat-from-the-larder-2015/

I'm not ready for it but maybe will be in a future month.

Erica sure is an inspiration! Just having the garden end egg access that she does would go a long ways (we currently have neither, but are working on it - at least the garden Don't have the space for ducks) Sept for us might be possible to do a whole month challenge. Something to work towards anyways :)

[PJ]

Hey, eggs are one of the things that I often buy, and end up tossing half of.  I'm really trying to reduce my food waste these days, but I bought a carton of eggs in my super-saving-points-redemption shop the other day.  Maybe I should share?  Take as many as you'd like!

Really? This is alien to me. I average 9 dozen a month.

Keep in mind you can freeze eggs very well. Pick a common portion (say, 2 eggs), beat them with a pinch of salt and freeze in a small container.
[/quote]

lol ... yes, but I have no little goblins to feed :-) 

I'm single, living alone, and vegetarian, and although I do eat eggs, my appetite for them comes and goes.  Usually when I buy them, I have grand plans of baking, or making and freezing quiche, or something like that.  Such plans do not always come to fruition!

However, the idea of freezing them is a good one ... I never really thought of doing that, except already cooked.  Is the salt necessary for freezing, or can I just beat them and freeze, in case I want to use them for baked goods?

[Thegoblinchief]

I don't the salt is necessary.

[jengod]

Made minestrone soup and banana bread today to use up various odds and ends. Minestrone was delightful, banana bread needed more cinnamon and sugar. Also made a bowl of garlicky chard for lunch that was all homegrown, so that was fun.

Tomorrow will be homemade crockpot oatmeal for breakfast, something light for lunch and then we'll go to my mom's for homemade lasagna dinner.

[Thegoblinchief]

Rainbow trout on the grill was yummy! Grilled fish is so easy IF you have a skin-on fillet. Season flesh side with salt and pepper, place over direct heat, pull the instant it is opaque all the way through. The skin acts like natural aluminum foil and keeps the fish (usually, not always) from sticking to the grates. Then just flake the flesh away from the skin to eat.

Decided I was sick of the frozen veggies, but didn't have any greens for a green salad, so I made one of my childhood favorites. My mom called it "carrot salad": it's grated carrots, a few raisins, dressed in mayonnaise or Miracle Whip to taste. 4/5 family members liked it, which is awesome - I haven't made it in ages and forgot how much I liked it.

Tonight and tomorrow will be pizza as planned. Nice weather, so the kids and I will have a park afternoon. Across the street is a supermarket the Alchemist got $15 gc for her birthday to buy treats. Gonna get some cheez-its and maybe kringle or other pastry for her with that.

[swick]

Wow, Chief! You basically summed up my childhood in one post! Catching and BBQ-ing Rainbow Trout, Carrot salad (we called it sunshine Salad) and Kringle! Thanks for sharing, brought up some fun memories!

For dinner we had Kumpier (basically how Turkey does baked potatoes) and ended up using a bunch of bits and pieces from the fridge. Left over chorizo I made up from a grounded up ham steak, green onion, little bit of bean dip I made earlier in the week, shredded cheese, home canned salsa, sour cream, chopped cilantro - so kinda unintentionally the dinner went Mexican. Which is awesome! Hubs and I sat around eating and brain storming a Turkish Mexican Fusion Food truck (Our ideal Post FIRE life is a food truck) It would combine our two favorite ethnic food groups and the ones we have the most experience with...

So fun times :) Still enjoying this challenge and trying to decide what to do with that last duck egg I have horded. I have some butternut squash to still use up so I am thinking maybe butternut squash pancakes.

ETA: Chief, is your Kringle the same as mine? Danish pastry with almond paste? We had it for our wedding, actually saved some in the freezer instead of cake for our first anniversary :)

[Thegoblinchief]

Yes, Kringle means the same thing here, only there's a lot of different fillings. Sadly, the store didn't carry any, so I got her mostly salty snacks and then some ingredients to make sweet stuff at home.

[swick]

hmm...so sweet potato pancakes were not a success. They took FOREVER to cook and never lost their gummy unbaked feeling. I tried thinning the patter so they were almost crape-like and those ended up as some weird overcooked version of a sweet chip. I would have been better off saving my last egg and using the squash in something else, but I do have more squash....ah well can't win them all.

I am enjoying the extra space in my fridge. I still REALLY have to work on the freezer though. People just keep giving us stuff though - and MIL said she was planning on sending us home with a whole bunch of huckleberries, which we are out of, so I'm happy, but I do need to figure out how we are going to fit in our lamb, I know it doesn't take up a lot of room - but I expect the 10 chickens will, and I do want to be able to put up as much new berries as we can this fall. 

My grocery goal for May is to spend 100.00 (75.00 Stretch goal) including fruits and veg as our CSA doesn't start till June. We have quite a few family gatherings in May -Hubby's birthday, two mother's day celebrations, friend's birthday, which we are all providing food for - but we are heading on vacation end of the month so May for us only has about 21 days.

[Thegoblinchief]

I make a pumpkin/squash pancake and it definitely has a denser, some times gummy texture. Best with fresh purée and fried in copious amounts of oil.

Good luck with the $100 goal - that's awesome. Our food spending will probably tick back up this month, as I can only put off the Costco run so much longer.

[swick]

I make a pumpkin/squash pancake and it definitely has a denser, some times gummy texture. Best with fresh purée and fried in copious amounts of oil.

Good luck with the $100 goal - that's awesome. Our food spending will probably tick back up this month, as I can only put off the Costco run so much longer.

Thanks :) We will probably hit up costco and Trader Joe's on our way home for a good supply of cheese if nothing else :) It's just so so so much cheaper in the US it is worth it!

It would appear I did the pancakes all wrong then! Ahh well :)

[swick]

Grocery shopped today and spent 56.00 which leaves 19.00 for the rest of the month if I meet my 75.00 stretch goal. Apparently my sister volunteered us to take 1/2 of her lamb, so we have 2.5 coming in. Not to stressed since we get such an amazing deal on it, but still have to fit it in the freezer somehow.

My eggs came in! So that is awesome, I think 19.00 will be fine - that will allow us to get some veggies and milk if needed.

I bought the few things I need for hubby's birthday pizza request and Mother's Day. We are going up to my parents house and making fresh pasta as a family - that was what my mom wanted. I'm making a braised oxtail and red wine ragu beforehand we can reheat (tastes better that way) and convinced my sister to make cantuccini since I know she has a stash of almonds and I don't :)

I discovered some "Ice Tea" tea bags in the pantry that I have moved three times with and never gotten around to using. Hubs loved unsweetened ice tea so made some up and presented him with a glass when he got home from work last night. He said it was like a "cool hug for his tummy" so that was fun.

[swick]

Allrighty - we are at 81.35 for the month and that *should* be it. my plan of 75.00- got derailed when MIL asked us to pick up some "Gluten free BBQ Sauce and Non-dairy ice cream" for extend family member who came to Hubby's birthday lunch.  Was slightly put out because if the request had come before we were on our way out the door, I could have made both using up pantry ingredients - and it ended up being over 18% of our 75.00 budget!  It made me feel very, very lucky and fortunate that we don't have any food allergies or strict dietary concerns in our house.

Finally cooked up bones for Ramen broth - discovered we had some Ramen noodles at the back of the pantry, saves me from having to make my own so decided to have duck Ramen with soy marinated, soft boiled duck eggs for dinner tonight. Not sure how the duck eggs will turn out, never made them before. I'm excited to try!