Super Couponing

I've always been a leeetle bit skeptical of the folks who clip coupons, and shop sales, and buy hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for a buck. Lets face it, who can really do that? Well, I tried it this weekend. Look what I got for $19!*


If you want to know more about how to do this, you need to visit my friend Michelle's Bargains Rock! blog, and follow her links and advice.

One thing that I've learned is that it is worth looking and planning before buying. I know that this sounds elementary, and I usually have a list and a plan. But since I usually eschew regular grocery stores for Aldi, and name brand products for store brand, I don't usually even look to see if there are coupons that would be appropriate for me. Sure this is one more step, but I think it took me a total of 20 minutes or so to look at the sale flier, decide what I needed from it, check for coupons and print them out. Doing so saved me $97. That comes to $291 per hour to do this. Okay, so no one is actually paying me $291 an hour to check coupons, but you still get the idea.

The second thing I learned is to take a calulator to the store. I was busy jotting down numbers, and calculator would have made it so much easier to keep a running total.

*This is $19 after I subtract the $15 coupons I have still in my purse. Actually, the out of pocket was $34, which is still really good, considering that the regular price for all this stuff is about $116 bucks.

Using it up!

So, what do you do with 1 lonely chicken leg quarter, half a box of arborio rice, some sprouted onions, and some leftover cooked broccoli? You make Chicken-Broccoli Risotto, of course.

This is adapted from the Weight Watchers New 365 Day Menu Cookbook.

Chicken-Broccoli Risotto

2 cups small broccoli florets (or in my case, the broccoli leftover at the back of the fridge)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I didn't need - more later)
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon reduced calorie tub margerine (butter)
10 ounces chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces (1 slightly freezer burned, lonely chicken leg quarter)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped onion (cut the soft parts and the sprouts off, and you're good to go!!)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 ounces Arborio Rice (Look at the back of the cupboard for this one - slightly less than half a box)
4 fluid ounces white wine (just pour part of your glass in there)
2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or use Kraft, in the plastic container)
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest (I didn't even see this when I made it, and it was just fine without.)

1. fill a large saucepan with 1" water, set the steamer rack into saucepan. Place broccoli onto rack. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat to low. Steam broccoli over simmering water, covered, 4-5 minutes, until just tender. (Or, rummage around at the back of the fridge. Pull out a container of cooked broccoli from the other night. Chop a little more.)

2. In a small saucepan, combine broth with 1 cup water; bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to low; let simmer while preparing chicken.

3. In a large saucepan, melt 2 teaspoons of margarine, add chicken and salt. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, 4 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. With a slotted spoon remove cooked chicken from saucepan, set aside.

(Ok, take the poor, lonely leg of chicken and joint it between the thigh and leg. Put it in a pretty big pot with about a quart of water in it, and let it boil for a while. After a bit, the water will have cooked down, and the chicken will be all cooked. Take the chicken out, and let it cool until you can handle it. Pick the skin off, and the meat off the bones. Chop the meat up more, and throw the bones back into the broth. Keep it simmering while you make the rest of the dish.)

4. In the same saucepan, melt the remaining 2 teaspoons of margarine; add onions and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, 5 minutes, and onion is softened. Add rice; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add wine; cook, stirring constantly, until most of the liquid is absorbed.

5. Add 1/2 cup hot broth to the rice mixture; cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is absorbed. Continuing to stir, add all but 1/4 cup (or so) of the broth , 1/2 cup at a time; cook, stirring constantly after each addition, about 18 to 20 minutes, until all broth is absorbed, rice is tender and mixture is creamy.

6. Stir cheese, zest (if you remembered it), broccoli, chicken and remaining broth into the rice mixture; cook stirring frequently, 2 minutes, until heated through.

Serves 4

Use-It-Up Week Update

So far for Use-it-up week, I've used up: A ham end that was in the freezer, half a package of split peas, all the bread, a really old can of pumpkin, a box of couscous, all the Christmas cookies in the deep-freeze (like that was hard!), two partial packages of ground beef, two nearly empty bottles of barbecue sauce, several partial boxes of cereal, various canned tomato products and some odds and ends frozen vegetables.

So, it's not as good as I had thought. I guess then, that next week will be Use-it-up week 2 (or maybe "Return of Use-it-Up week!) Not sure on the title yet. I've got some frozen pie crusts to use, some phyllo dough, and frozen pasta primavera sauce in the freezer that I've got to do something with. Plus, I've got many packages of beans with about 1/3 cup of beans in the pack. I don't really know how this happens. Additionally, I've got some weird black lentils from a gourmet store that are taking up valuable real estate in the pantry. On top of that, there are a few chunks of meat (1 steak, 2 porkchops, 1 chicken leg quarter) that are just... odd.

Let's see how this week goes. There's a lot there, so I should be able to get through the week without a major shopping trip, except for milk and eggs and possibly bread.

On a somewhat related note - my bread maker died. It mixes just fine, but does not bake the bread. So I guess I used that up as well.

Use-It-Up Week pt. 2 - Split Pea Soup

I was wondering what I put in the M&M tin at the back of the cupboard. Surely not M&M's?? of course not. It was a package of spit peas! What better for a cold night than Split Pea soup? Here is the recipe I use. It is from an old, very frugal cookbook called "Good Recipes For Hard Times" by Louise Newton. It is out of print, but has some great helps on stretching your food dollar.

This Split Pea Soup is the bare minimum. It is vegan (unless, like me, you throw in ham) and super easy and delish:

Split Pea Soup

1 pound dried split peas
2 qts. boiling water
bay leaf
3-4 cloves garlic
3 whole cloves
2 tsp. salt

Add peas slowly enough to the boiling water to keep it boiling. Add bay leaf, garlic, cloves and salt. Simmer, covered 1 to 2 hours. It is better with longer cooking. This soup is delicious just as it is, but you may add onion, carrots, and celery, first sauteed in margerine, 15 minutes before serving. And like I said, I throw in ham.

I'm serving it with some Foccocia Bread. Yum!

Use-It-Up Week

I'm going to try to NOT go the grocery store this week unless it is for milk or eggs. There's a lot in our pantry and freezer, and who knows how old any of it is??(!)

Well, a while ago, I made the nasty discovery that many of the things in the pantry were infested (ick) with meal bugs. (ick, ick, ick.) I've chucked all the food that I KNOW is infested, but while doing so, I've discovered that there is a lot that I've bought, then just shoved to the back.

So this week is Use-it-up week. For dinner this week we are having left over chili, that I put some other left over chili beans into, and cornmeal muffins. I'm planning split pea and ham for tomorrow, using the end of the ham that I had bought last year and tossed in the freezer. I think Wed. will be meatloaf, with the odds and ends of ground beef that I'm finding in the freezer. Who knows, by the end of the week I may actually NEED to go grocery shopping!

Spring Cleaning

It's late for the Organizational Challenge, but I wanted to at least post pictures of my before and after of one of the cupboards in my kitchen. The kids keep their candy there, and the ants get in every year and just make a humongous yucky mess, eating and spreading the candy around. We also keep kitchen appliances there, so as you can imagine, this cupboard was a huge pile of ick.

This is the Before picture:

Anyway, after taking everything out, wiping it all down, sorting out the useless and unwanted and broken stuff, pitching the candy we had from 3 years ago (!!!!) and making a new shelf, this is what our nightmare cupboard looks like now. I'm doing the happy dance!!


This is the After picture:
I think you can agree that this is a giant improvement. Now I'm itching to get at another one, but it is so nice outside that I think I'll go outside and play for a while.

Getting Things in Order

My friend came over to help me organize tonight. We went through a bottle of Merlot trying to get my bookcases in order. I must say, with her help, I did manage to get two crates of books off the book cases, and down into storage until we actually need them upstairs. I found some items to give away, and I found the lost yellow cuisanart rod that was missing for about a year. I also found two socks tucked behind some books. They didn't match each other.

I also moved the items that we use EVERY DAY to the middle of the cases, where I can easily access them, rather than waayyy on the end, behind the baby swing (my friend is pretty smart!!)

I've also got all the nature study things altogether in a bin for when we want to do that. (yay!)

Of course there are still some things that don't belong on the school bookshelves, like cookbooks, cross-stitch books, and things like that, and I still haven't had the courage to go through the kids' coloring books, but I think that the way things look now, the shelves will be a lot more usable, and using them will be a lot more pleasant. Next task is to tackle my desk. (ick.)

Booby-Trapping myself

Maybe I should have my plastic cupboard as my organizational challenge. I think I've saved every cottage cheese container and yogurt container our family has emptied since 1999. On top of that, we keep the plastic pitchers, water bottles (and for some reason) the colander in the same cupboard, so every time I need something, I get a plasticalanche.

Or maybe I should organize my "bags" cupboard. This is the sinkhole wherein the garbage can liners, plastic grocery bags, other plastic shopping bags, paper plates, cups and napkins, and (once again inexplicably) the bubbles and flashlights (?) are kept. If I want anything, I end up shoving everything back in as hard as I can, so it can spring out at me again the next time I open the cupboard. Nothing like getting hit in the face with a flashlight to get you thinking about organization is there?

30-Day Org. Challenge part I

Planning:

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?
This is supposed to be our school room, where my kids will be able to do their schoolwork, without taking it all over the house.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?
The schoolbooks and materials we are currently using, plus any teachers guides or sourcebooks that I need to spice it up from time to time.

3. What can I remove from the room?
Everything we are not currently using, books that belong in bookcases in other rooms, toys, clutter that seems to find its way on, in or under my desk, bookcases, school table, or kids' desk.

4. What problems do I see with the room?
Theres not much light, and there is limited space for four kids plus everything we need for school, plus baby swing. There is currently the only window big enough to sustain houseplants for the winter, so I know that they will also be moving in here soon as well.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?
Getting the unused stuff out of here first will help. Perhaps I can give each child their own shelf, where their books can be kept, then they can replace them to their places after using?

Also it will help for me to clean out this desk and get the items that have been jammed in the drawers out of here - to the garbage - most of this stuff has been in place for 5+ years, I use only a very small part of it.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?
Putting things back after we use them, and not using the school table as a dumping ground will be a good first step.

7. What kind of a budget do I have to create the organized room of my dreams?
Zilch.

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room?
I hope to get this done in a couple of weeks.

9. What is my plan of action?
First, do the desk, then attack the shelves.

Read the complete article with descriptions of each of the questions here.

Finally ask yourself:

10. Who can I ask to help me with this?
Kids can help with some.

30-Day Org. Challenge

I've decided to give the 30 day Organizational Challenge a try. Our school room is horribly disorganized. What's worse, is that with it so cluttered, the kids don't want to do their school work there, so they take it to all the other rooms, making them cluttered with school stuff as well. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a designated school space.

Here are the before pictures. The only thing giving me the courage to post them is the knowledge that next to nobody (except you, Mom) reads this blog. Brace yourself.

How do you like the jumbled bookcases?

This is my desk. Those drawers are as bad as the surface.

Here is the kids' desk and computer. It has enough junk underneath. Ironically, there are some boxes there from the last time I attempted to organize. Never used.

Well, wish me some luck.