5 Grocery Budget Killers and How to Avoid Them Part I

Part 1 - D.I.Y.

There's a new commercial out right now for Perdue Chicken perfect portions and while they look easy and delicious you are simply paying Mr. Perdue to do something you can do for yourself.

When we buy meat we usually buy a lot of it. If I can get the Family Pack or Supervalue pack it will generally save you around $.50# which isn't huge but it adds up when you think that by buying 10# you just saved $5!!

I buy a lot of it and once I bring it home I take 1/2 an hour to sort out my groceries. Instead of immediately freezing all the meat, I portion it off for our family. If I place all the meat straight in the freezer in the big pack, when I try and pull it out I'll have to bash it on the countertop to separate it! (got the mental picture of me smacking chicken??!!!) Instead I know we need 3 pieces of chicken per meal or 2 big pieces of pork. I line up opened ziploc bags and portion the meat out. Then I label it and freeze it flat for next time.

We love hosting and don't always know how many people are coming over so sometimes I'll freeze it individually so that in a pinch we can just take out 1 or 2 portions for dinner. The way to do this is to Flash Freeze. Lay your meat on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 2 hours until frozen. Pull it out and then place it in a ziploc. That way if you want 1, 2 or 5 chicken breasts/chops/steaks they'll be ready. If you think you may forget that you put it in the freezer, set an alarm clock so it doesn't get petrified.

Finally, we like to eat roasts but can't eat a lot. However I don't want to go to the grocery store often so I'll buy big roasts. When I get it home I'll cut it into 2 or 3 portions. One portion I'll cut into pork chops/steaks and freeze like that. One portion I'll throw in a ziploc and throw a marinade over it like Italian dressing and the final portion will just be placed in a bag ready for the crockpot. I then label them and freeze.

When you buy in bulk but do the work yourself, it doesn't take a lot of time but will save you money. If you're going to do a lot of this, I'd recommend a vaccuum sealer. We don't have one yet but my MIL swears by hers. It keeps the meat fresh for longer and is super easy to use.

For the other 4 tips check this out:

Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

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How to Freeze

Although not everything can be frozen, the things that can sometimes require a little prep work. Here's some tips I've learnt over the years:

Casseroles
Okay, so you doubled your recipe and have made two casseroles - one for now and one for the freezer. But, you don't want all your casserole dishes in the freezer so what do you do?
Line the casserole dish with clear plastic wrap or foil and then spray with cookin spray. Place your casserole in the dish, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours until completely frozen. Remove from the freezer and take it out of the dish. Then tightly wrap the food in more plastic wrap/foil, label and place back in the freezer.
When you're ready to eat it take all the plastic wrap off, place back in the original dish and place in the fridge to defrost. Then cook!

Fruit/Veg
I love to have fresh produce around and sometimes I see great sales but I know we can't eat that much before it goes bad. Last week onions were $.79 for a 4LB bag at ALDI so I grabbed some, brought them home and chopped them up. I then put them on a baking tray and put them in the freezer for about 2 hours. You don't want them in there too long or they'll get freezer burn.
I pulled them out of the freezer and put them in a ziploc bag. I then threw them back in the freezer.
The advantage is that when you need some you can just go and grab a few and they're not all stuck together in a big ball! I've also done it with peppers, blueberries and other fruits.

Ice Cubes
Want to make fun ice cubes for drinks? Add a small piece of fruit (strawberry, cranberry, blueberry etc) to an ice-cube tray and then add water. Freeze and then serve in drinks!

What other freezing tips do you have?

First Published 1/28/09

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Pancakes

It's Saturday morning and you want a good breakfast. I mean a really good one. But you don't wanna eat out and you don't wanna cook. What's a girl to do? Freeze darlings!!! I just got this email from Janice,
In my ongoing effort to save on groceries, I realized I could make pancakes from scratch and freeze them myself. However, I am not sure how to do that so they don't stick together. Any ideas?

Thanks to my dear dear friend, Katie, and her buddy Bill Phillips, I've got this amazing, healthy recipe for pancakes that freezes great and lots of you have asked for it. It's also pretty inexpensive as it all can be bought at ALDI. So here it is - Welcome to the Weekend, Friends!!

Body for Life Pancakes. Makes about 6 small ones (you only need a couple!). Cost: $2.31
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats - $.25 (if that much!)
6 egg whites - $.50
1 cup fat free cottage cheese - $.76
1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla - $.25
1/4 tsp cinnamon - $.5
2 packets sugar substitute. I had some free from WAGS deal on Equal. If not, around $.25
Sugar free syrup - $.25

• Lightly coat non-stick pan with cooking spray
• Combine ingredients in blender until smooth. Blend about 1 minute.
• Pour batter into skillet and cook til bubbly on top and dry around the edges. Turn and cook for another couple of minutes.
• Serve with syrup and fresh berries if desired. Yum-o!!

Freezing them:
I like to double/triple or even quadruple this as my mornings are too precious to be cooking (read: I like sleep!!) so I make them and let them cool.
Then I place them on a tray and flash freeze them. This is when you put them uncovered in the freezer for about an hour. I then transfer them to a freezer ziploc bag

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Freezing Tip

In conjunction with this week's freezing deals, I just got this email:

"We purchased a food vacuum sealer, and it is great for when you buy larger packages of meat because you can divide the items up into amounts more suitable for your family and freeze. The vacuum seal means you do not have to use right away, as you do not need to worry about freezer burn, which can happen when just using zip lock freezer bags. We found a vacuum sealer at Aldi, for only $35. And it works great." Thanks JTS!

What about you, do you use one?

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Can I Freeze.............

There are a couple of things you shouldn't freeze accoding to the University of Illinois Extension service. These are listed below. A couple of things I've tried in vain are cream soups and potatoes. Although sweet potatoes freeze great (see here), regular ones are nasty after a visit with Jack Frost!

Food	Result of Freezing
Cheese in blocks	Crumbles
Cooked egg white	Crumbles
Cottage cheese	Separates; becomes mushy
Cream pies	Watery custard; soggy crust
Custards	Watery
Eggs	Cooked eggs become rubbery; raw yolks and whites become gummy
Gravy	Fat separates; whisk when reheating
Green onions, tomatoes	Watery, limp; OK for cooking
Lettuce	Watery, limp
Mayonnaise, milk, milk sauces, sour cream, yogurt	Some separation
Potatoes, raw	Texture changes; may darken
Radishes	Poor texture; pithy

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Guest Post - Erin at $5 Dinners

Many of you have asked about how to cook on a budget and I want to point you in the direction of a site that I L.O.V.E!! Erin at $5 Dinners does just that - she makes $5 dinners for her family of 4 (both kids have food allergies too so she's cooking for that too!). The great thing is she shares her recipes too so that you can cook frugally. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to be looking at how to cut your grocery bill but one way I want to encourage you to start is by cooking dinners that are around $5. You'll see a difference I promise!

Erin and I also have something in common - she spent some time in the Dominican Republic as a missionary and my hubby and I were in Thailand for 3 years as missionaries. So, with that in mind she's sharing a DR recipe here and I've given her a Thai one for her website here. Thanks, Erin!!!

Clair asked me to share a favorite Dominican dish for her Freezer Week! To be quite honest, I was a bit stumped. Dominicans make their food fresh everyday and many live without freezer, and even refrigeration. The power is just not dependable!

I decided to share this recipe, as I believe that the beans could be made in large batches and easily frozen. To thaw, remove container from freezer and let sit in a bowl with warm water for at least an hour. Add to saucepan and warm them up!

Ingredients
1 cup rice

2-3 Tbsp oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup dried red kidney beans

1/2 of a 6 oz can tomato paste

1/4 green pepper

1/2 onion

1 large sprig of fresh cilantro

Adobo Seasoning

Salt/pepper

Traditional Dominican Sides: Salad with avocado slices, fried chicken, tostones (twice fried plantains), potato salad, macaroni salad, cabbage slaw salad

Directions
1. Rinse beans in colander. Soak beans overnight in lukewarm or for at least 2 hours in HOT water. Drain beans. Replace beans in pot (the pot you see in the pictures is from the DR!) and cover with at least 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat slightly (I set mine to 8 on my burner) and let boil/simmer for 1.5 hours, or until soft. You will add seasonings as they are cooking (see #4!) Keep an eye on the water level, and add water more if necessary.

2. In saucepan or medium pot, add 2-3 Tbsp oil. Turn on heat. When oil starts to bubble, add rice. Stir rice through to cover it all with oil. Stir rice continuously for approximately one minute. Some rice kernals will turn color and brown slightly. This is your cue. Add 2.5-3 cups HOT water and stir. Once it returns to a boil reduce heat (6-7 on my stove) and cook for 20 minutes. If all the water has not boiled off, cook a little longer.

3. Rice will "sizzle" once its reached the right "consistency" (I didn't know rice had a consistency! What I mean is that the right amount of water will have boiled off.)

4. Thinly slice and dice green pepper and onion. After beans have been cooking for about an hour, add tomato paste, diced green pepper and onion. Add seasoning and cilantro sprig (you can remove it later if you like). Let the beans finish boiling (another 30 minutes), giving the flavors time to mix and mingle!

5. Scoop rice onto plate and ladle beans with lots of juice over the rice. Serve with favorite side of vegetables.

For more great frugal and healthy meals, come by and visit me at 5DollarDinners.com!

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What is that in the Freezer?

Ever been to the freezer only to find something in there that you don't errr, well, know what it is??!! Don't worry, you're not the only one! I've done it a couple of times now to the point that I now rigidly label everything in there. Even if it looks really obvious now, in 2 months it may not resemble it's former self, you throw it out and that not only wastes money but time. Here's a couple of recommendations:

If foods are prepared for freezing appropriately and kept in a freezer at 0 degrees F or below, they can be held for 3 to 12 months.

Fruits can retain good quality for 12 months, vegetables for 8 to 12 months, beef 8 to 12 months, and poultry 6 to 12 months. Generally speaking, sliced foods, cured foods such as ham and bacon, and foods containing larger amounts of fat lose quality more rapidly during frozen storage.

Here are some other examples of other recommended storage times:

• Lean Fish: Cod & Flounder, 6 months
• Fatty Fish: Salmon & Swordfish, 3 months
• Shellfish : 3-4 months
• Whole, beaten Eggs: 12 + months
• Cakes and Cookies: 4–6 months
• Ham: 4-7 months
• Bacon: 3 months

You should label anything you freeze with the date on it so you know if it's ok. Most food is safe to eat after this time but with freezer burn and time working against it, it probably won't taste so great!

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Guest Post from the Girls at Don't Panic

Susie Martinez, Vanda Howell, and Bonnie Garcia are the ladies behind the great book Don't Panic It's in the Freezer. Did you enter to win it yet???? Anyway, they kindly put their heads together for a guest post for us!

Loss Leaders

The term “loss leaders” refers to items that supermarkets sell below cost to entice you to shop at their store.

Supermarkets usually rotate their loss leaders on a weekly basis. Stores will promote these items through weekly advertisements distributed in a local newspaper or through the mail. To track loss leaders, you will need to consistently consult weekly supermarket ads. As you do this regularly, it becomes easier to recognize and take advantage of great loss leaders.

To illustrate how you can save big by shopping loss leaders, consider this example which uses Grilled Coconut Lime Chicken Tenders as the Don’t Panic~ entrée. If you are cooking with two friends, you will need approximately fifteen pounds of boneless chicken. If boneless chicken is a loss leader in a local supermarket, it will be advertised at around $1.99 per pound. That’s $29.85 for fifteen pounds of chicken. On the other hand, if the chicken was purchased at the regular price of $4.99 per pound you would have spent $74.85. By simply shopping loss leaders and planning your cooking menu accordingly, you just saved $45.00 on the meat item alone! By doing this consistently, you will never pay full price for your entrees.

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How to Freeze

Although not everything can be frozen, the things that can sometimes require a little prep work. Here's some tips I've learnt over the years:

Casseroles
Okay, so you doubled your recipe and have made two casseroles - one for now and one for the freezer. But, you don't want all your casserole dishes in the freezer so what do you do?
Line the casserole dish with clear plastic wrap or foil and then spray with cookin spray. Place your casserole in the dish, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours until completely frozen. Remove from the freezer and take it out of the dish. Then tightly wrap the food in more plastic wrap/foil, label and place back in the freezer.
When you're ready to eat it take all the plastic wrap off, place back in the original dish and place in the fridge to defrost. Then cook!

Fruit/Veg
I love to have fresh produce around and sometimes I see great sales but I know we can't eat that much before it goes bad. Last week onions were $.79 for a 4LB bag at ALDI so I grabbed some, brought them home and chopped them up. I then put them on a baking tray and put them in the freezer for about 2 hours. You don't want them in there too long or they'll get freezer burn.
I pulled them out of the freezer and put them in a ziploc bag. I then threw them back in the freezer.
The advantage is that when you need some you can just go and grab a few and they're not all stuck together in a big ball! I've also done it with peppers, blueberries and other fruits.

Ice Cubes
Want to make fun ice cubes for drinks? Add a small piece of fruit (strawberry, cranberry, blueberry etc) to an ice-cube tray and then add water. Freeze and then serve in drinks!

Read more...

Whys of freezing

A lot of my friends in similar situations (small children, one income) can't believe that my grocery bill is only $50/week. Although I know it's not possible for everyone to have a bill this low due to larger families/organics, I do know that most people can cut down on their bills and one great way is to freeze.

If you have a deep freezer, you are really in luck. It means that when meat goes on sale, you can stock up. I even have friends that share a cow just to save money.

Even if you don't have a freezer, it's possible to stock up a little by shopping the sales and only cooking what's on sale that week.

Ever stood looking at the cupboards wondering what to cook that night only to end up with MacNCheese? Freezing helps eliminate that because you can pre-make meals and pop them in the freezer for later use. It also helps to save money on produce. That's one area that we really won't cut down on. Our weekly produce bill sometimes is $20!!! I love fresh fruit and veg and hate to compromise on that so sometimes I'll freeze it. My son is teething right now and the fresh blueberries from the freezer are great for his teething.

Not only does it save time but money as you can buy on sale and then stock some away for later.

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Your Turn - What do you Freeze?

Welcome to our Week of Freezing! Maybe it's the fact that the temperature here hasn't gone above freezing in well, a long stinking time that's got me thinking about freezing but for those of you in Florida (catch my jealousy as I type?!) you can still join in!!

Mama B (my mother in law) has always had a deep freeze into which she's thrown cheap meats and other things on sale. A few years ago I stopped laughing at her Y2K stockpile and started realizing that maybe she had something smart going on here! Then we bought the house we're in and it came complete with a standing freezer! - now I'm a Class A Freez-aholic!

For me, freezing is great when there's only 2 of you to cook for. I love fresh, healthy meals but let's face it, how many of you buy produce only to find it spoil before you get to eat it? That was the situation we were in and I decided to take action. Now I wrap up lots of things that I buy in bulk when they're on sale and then pop some of them in the freezer for later use.

My favourite things to freeze are meat and produce. A few weeks ago I bought pork butt roast at $.98/LB. I got it home and hubby and I cut it up and froze it for later use. We cut it into pork chops, roasts and also small pieces for Garlic Pork. Then we threw it in the freezer.
I love freezing fruits and veg too. I just bought some onions at ALDI. I got 3LBs for $.79. There's no way we can eat those before they spoil so I cut them up and froze them.

How about you? Is this a new concept? What do you freeze? Tomorrow we'll be looking at How To Freeze and of course check back for tomorrow's great giveaway!

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