Stockpiling

Stockpiling Works for Me.

I know there are many people out there who cannot stand the clutter of stockpiling (my sister included - it drives her nuts.) But, for me, this is one of the best ways of keeping our grocery budget low and keeping things on hand that I use nearly every day.

I prefer to buy things as they go on sale, especially if they are on a good sale and I have a matching coupon (see these posts). The "clutter" doesn't bother me, as long as I have a place to put it. I will stockpile almost any grocery item - as long as it has a long shelf life. At the moment I have 3 packs of toilet paper (24 rolls each) stored in the attic. I'm still working on the 5-6 boxes of dishwasher detergent I bought last spring; I have more toothpaste, toothbrushes and soap than we will use in a year; enough Pop-Tarts and granola bars to last through the school year; 8-10 boxes of cereal, 6 jars of spaghetti sauce, lots of extra baggies, 8 bottles of apple juice, and the list goes on.

There are some rules I live by when it comes to stockpiling.

1. Never stockpile an item your family does not use or does not eat.
2. Only stockpile items when they are on a good sale. (Not all sales are good!)
3. Only stockpile as much as you have space for. (I do not stockpile milk - too little freezer space.)
4. Be extremely careful of stockpiling items with a short shelf life, i.e., produce, dairy products. (If the food goes bad before your family can eat it then it didn't save you money.)
5. Sales go in seasons - watch for which items are on sale at what time of year.

This is the beginning of a new month, so it's time to examine what items are likely to be on sale in October. I was reminded by Hot Coupon World these categories will probably be on good sales sometime this month:

• Halloween items (of course)
• Apples (good for canning)
• Pumpkins (good for freezing)
• Kraft items
• crackers
• baking and candy making items
• some holiday foods (gravy, broth, Stove Top, etc.)
• more items here.

There are several good deals this week at our local grocery stores. Tomorrow I'll be posting about some of the deals I'll be hitting to add to my current stockpile.

Does stockpiling work for you? Or are you a "clutter-phobe" like my sister? I'd love to hear your thoughts on stockpiling.

For more kitchen organization ideas visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Kitchen Tip NEEDED

Okay, I have a confession to make...

I hate beans. Well, maybe I don't hate them. I just have a very strong dislike for them. I like green beans, but I prefer them young & tender with more pod and not much bean.

It's not so much a taste thing, as it is a texture thing for me. I've never liked beans. Somehow in my extremely-picky-eater-childhood we never had beans very much (maybe because I was so picky?), as an adult I've never cooked them and so I've never developed a taste for them - and yes I believe it must be a developed taste.

For most of my life this bean hating thing has not been a problem because - I just didn't eat them. I learned to cook partly so that I could cook (and eat) what I like! Over the years as chief-cook I have sought out recipes for foods that were not my favorite and have learned to eat many things that I did not eat in my picky-eater-childhood.

However, beans have never been one of them.

Until Now.

As a grown-up I have learned that beans are quite healthy and they are much less expensive than meat (which I soooo love).

So now in my journey to being more frugal, I am asking for help. I am looking for good bean recipes. So, all you great cooks out there... Please send me bean recipes. For me, bean recipes that do not have the "mealy texture" my brain associates with beans, would be helpful. But really, any delicious bean recipe would be appreciated.

Thank you.

For real kitchen tips (not just requests) please visit Tammy at her wonderful site.

Whole Wheat Peach Muffins

This recipe took me a while to figure out. I tried two different recipes, made several bad attempts and several bad revisions before finally getting it right with this recipe. My husband and I love them.

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/2 cup + 2 Tblsp sugar
1 1/2 cup peeled, pitted, chopped peaches (3-4 med.)

Directions:
1. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix with large whisk.
2. In small bowl mix milk, oil, egg and sugar.
3. Mix together dry and wet ingredients. Do not stir too much; batter should be lumpy.
4. Fold 1 + 1/4 cup peaches into batter, reserving 1/4 cup for tops.
5. Heat oven to 375. Grease muffin tin very well.
6. Fill muffin cups approx. 2/3 full (about 1/3 cup)
7. Sprinkle reserved peaches over tops of each muffin cup.
8. Place in oven. Raise temperature to 400. Bake approx. 20 minutes.
10. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto dishcloth. Keep inverted while cooling.

Note: Be sure to grease the tin VERY WELL as they have a tendency to stick.

For more kitchen tips go to Tammy's Recipes.

Cheap Shake N Bake

Today I'm posting the recipe I recently came up with for a homemade "Shake 'N Bake" chicken coating. I was inspired by a recipe found in "The Tightwad Gazette" but, have changed it sufficiently, that I feel I can claim it as my own.

• 1 cup homemade bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup unbleached flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ (can be left out to be even cheaper)
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 T paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 2 T vegetable oil

Mix well. Use just like you would "Shake 'N Bake". Store indefinitely in the refrigerator in a covered container.

This version is a whole lot cheaper than the store-bought variety.

For more Kitchen Tips go to Tammy's Recipes.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Today's Kitchen Tip I originally got from an issue of Cook's Country and morphed into my own.

This is my method of keeping track of kitchen sponges: When I get out a new sponge it is used strictly for washing dishes. When it gets a bit stained/icky, I clip two corners and it gets demoted to the counters. When it gets even ickier, I clip the last two corners and it is demoted again - this time to the floor. When I started doing this, suddenly my husband was able to remember which sponge to use where - and that means my "dishes sponge" doesn't get used on an icky floor mess!

Another tip about sponges - did you know they can be washed/sterilized in your dishwasher?! This tip from a friend has lengthened the use of my sponges and saved me lots of money on sponges.

For more Kitchen tips go to Tammy's Recipes.

Chicken Stir Fry

One of my husband's favorite meals is stir-fry, and I love it because it's fairly inexpensive, healthy and quick to make. That means it's a home run in our family. I usually make it without paying much attention to quantities, but since I planned to post this one, I decided to measure a bit. This recipe feeds my family of 2 adults + 2 small children and leaves leftovers for lunch for the adults as well.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of rice, prepared according to directions on bag
  
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast - cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1 each of 3-4 vegetables - cut into 1 inch chunks: choose veggies you already have on hand and your family likes or choose what's inexpensive that week. (The picture above includes, onions, carrots, celery and yellow pepper that was on a good sale that week.)

Sauce:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 T white cooking wine (optional - substitute water or leave out)
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T cornstarch

Directions:

1. Put rice on to cook
2. While rice is cooking, prepare meat and vegetables. Be sure all meat and veggies are ready before you begin cooking. Once you start cooking this moves very fast.
   
3. Heat wok (or large skillet) on high heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons canola oil.
4. When oil begins to shimmer, place meat in wok (be prepared it may "spit"). Spread it out a bit so all pieces of meat are touching the wok bottom. While the meat is cooking, mix the sauce ingredients together. Cook meat 2-3 minutes, then stir to cook completely through. When meat is completely cooked through (about 4-5 minutes), remove from pan to serving bowl. Cover serving bowl so meat stays warm while remaining veggies are cooked.
5. You probably won't need more oil, but if it's looking dry, you can add a bit. Be sure the oil is good and hot before adding veggies. Cook veggies in descending order of how long they will take to get hot-through. You want them crunchy, not soft and squishy. Here's the order I cooked our veggies in: onion, carrots, celery, sweet pepper, mushrooms. I cook each vegetable about 1 minute, stir, move them to the outside, then add the next vegetable. After 1 more minute I stir the vegetables, move them to the outside, and add the next vegetable. This continues until all the veggies are hot, but still crunchy.
6. Pour the meat back into the wok and give everything a good stir. Move meat and veggies around so that there's a small well in the middle of the pan.
   
7. Pour the sauce into the middle and immediately begin to stir. The sauce will thicken quickly and coat the meat and vegetables. When the sauce is thickened and everything is well coated (about 1-1 1/2 minutes), pour the whole mixture into the serving dish.
8. Serve with rice and soy sauce.
   

My Note:
This recipe is very adaptable. Don't have chicken thawed? Leave it out, make it vegetarian. Have an uncooked pork chop? Use that instead. Have a bit of broccoli left? add it in. Use whatever veggies you have available. These are all veggies I have tried & used at one time or another: broccoli, onions - any variety, carrots, mushrooms, sweet peppers, celery, green beans. I'm sure you could play around with other veggies as well, though I don't recommend tomatoes or potatoes or anything that doesn't stand up to high heat.

Enjoy!

For more kitchen tips go to Tammy's Recipes. And for more Frugal recipes and ideas go to Frugal Friday at BiblicalWomanhood.

Frugal Granola Bars

Several months ago, after Dear Husband (DH) was diagnosed with reflux, I started making my own granola bars. He needs to eat many small meals each day, rather than 3 larger meals. There are also a host of foods he cannot eat. Granola bars were a good choice for him, but buying them was expensive. So I began a search for recipes and found: this one

I started with this basic recipe and have tried a few variations, some successfully, some not so much. The original recipe is still very good, though I usually leave out the cinnamon and add peanut butter instead. AND, it’s cheaper than store-bought. Here’s how it breaks down:

Nature Valley Granola $2.50/12 (if bought on sale) = $.21/bar

Mix Together:
3 C Rolled Oats @ $0.22/Cup = $0.66
1 C Wheat Bran @ $0.38/Cup = $0.38
1 t baking powder @ $0.02/tsp = $0.02

Melt Together:
1 C Butter @ $2.00/lb = $1.00
1 ½ C Brown Sugar @ $0.29/Cup = $0.44
1 t Vanilla @ $0.10/tsp = $0.10

Pour melted ingredients over dry ingredients and mix until completely wet. Press mixture into greased 10 x 15 ½ bar pan. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Let cool for a while, refrigerate several hours or overnight before cutting.

Total cost for Home-Made Granola Bars $2.60/33 bars = $0.08/bar

Savings per bar: $0.13! So making the bars from scratch is less than half the cost of buying them! My family eats A LOT of granola bars. Over the course of a year if we eat only 1 bar per day that’s $47.45 saved. That’s enough to fill the gas tank – even at $4.00/gallon.

Despite many tries, I still haven't gotten them as crunchy as my son likes them, so I may revise this recipe in the future. I'm planning to try them with canola oil instead of butter next.

Make your own granola bars is my Kitchen Tip for Tuesday. For more ideas visit Tammy's Recipes here.