Deciding on A Grocery Budget: Step Two

Now that you have a list of meals and grocery items that you'd like to incorporate into your monthly menu, it's time to find out how much everything is going to cost. This is my list that I came up with a couple of years ago when I did this for myself. Some things are slightly out of date- but still shows a good representation of the cost of food. There are a lot of things on this list that are cheaper now, like grains. There are also several items that are more expensive, like canned goods. Overall, I've noticed that on average groceries are substantially cheaper right now than they were two years ago. Remember when wheat went up to $30 for a 45lb bucket?! You can now buy it for about $14/bucket. Phew! But keep in mind, food is definitely on the rise again, so now is a good time to stock up.
So on to Step Two:

Make a Master Price List

Food Prices 2

Just in case you've never made a price list for every little grocery item that you buy before. here are some pointers. First, gather all of your receipts. Anything at all that may have any type of grocery item on it. If you haven't been saving them then start now! By saving your receipts you will not only be able to keep track of food prices, but you'll be able to see just how much you are currently spending on groceries. I know I've asked a lot of people how much they spend each month and there are quite a few who didn't even know. Write down everything, even if it's not a regular purchase.
If you are one who normally writes out a shopping list already, then start saving those and fill in the prices of food as you cross them off your list. You could even just bring a pen and notepad with you to the store. When you see an item that you normally (or even occasionally) purchase, write down the price per ounce or pound or however you normally buy it.
Also make a notation whether the price is a "normal" price or not. Normal to me is always a sale because with some careful planning, you'll never have to buy anything that's not on sale. I can usually count on ground beef, for example, going on sale somewhere for aout $2/pound at least once per month, so that's the price I use on my list.
Once you've started keeping track of prices, make sure you have a way to organize your information that's easy for you. I just make a table on my word processor which makes it easy to delete and add rows as necessary. Excel would be easy too. I just don't have it, therefor I do not use it. I know... ridiculous...
In addition to my computer file, I print a copy to keep in my grocery folder. This way I can bring the list with me on grocery trips and update prices as I go. I can also use it to gauge the quality of a sale. Is it a deal or a steal? Nothing else will do!

Zucchini Lasagna

Wow, I'm just terrible sometimes at remembering to take a picture! This is an old standby recipe that I use at the end of every Summer to use up some zucchini. I also make it because it's delicious... (We LOVE zucchini around here!) In fact when I make this one, if I have enough squash, I make several to freeze so I can enjoy this yummy recipe even when zucchini is so expensive over the winter.

Zucchini Lasagna
2 large zucchini
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound ground beef
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 cup tomato paste
1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/4 cup Marsala cooking wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
hot water as needed
1 egg
1 (16 ounce) container low-fat cottage cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
10 ounces chopped greens (I use chard because that's what I have in my garden but you may also use frozen spinache, thawed and drained or any other green)
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (I substitute canned, drained, if fresh are too expensive)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
8 ounces grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a deep 9x13 inch baking pan. Slice zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices. Sprinkle slices lightly with salt; set aside to drain in a colander. To prepare the meat sauce, cook and stir ground beef and black pepper in a large skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Add in green pepper and onion; cook and stir until meat is no longer pink. Stir in tomato sauce, wine, basil, and oregano. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer sauce for about 20 minutes or until desired consistency, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, stir egg, cottage cheese,  and parsley in a bowl until well combined.

To assemble lasagna: spread 1/2 of the meat sauce into the bottom of prepared pan. Then layer 1/2 the zucchini slices, 1/2 the ricotta mixture, all of the spinach, followed by all of the mushrooms, then 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Repeat by layering the remaining meat sauce, zucchini slices, ricotta mixture, and mozzarella. Spread Parmesan cheese evenly over the top; cover with foil.

Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil; raise oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

To freeze: assemble as directed into a prepared foil pan or line a 9x13 pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Allow to freeze solid then remove foil "pan" from 9x13 dish and cover completely with an airtight seal of heavy duty aluminum foil. If you are using a foil pan you may wrap the entire thing before freezing solid.
To reheat: Allow to thaw overnight in your refrigerator. Cook as directed above except increase initial baking time to 60 minutes. If you forget to thaw overnight, you can add it frozen to the oven, but then be sure to at least double baking time while lasagna is covered.

**If I'm short on time when I'm preparing this recipe, I use some of my pre-made sauce that I keep in the freezer.

Deciding on A Grocery Budget: Step One

A friend of mine recently commented to me that she's perused my blog, looked at tips and recipes and still couldn't figure out just how I make it all work for the budget amount I use (which is about $250/month for our family). So I decided to clear things up a little bit and give a step-by-step tutorial on just what I did to make things work for us.Who knows, maybe it will help you too! I've added a seperate label that should help to keep things in order, since I can't promise to make consecutive posts on this subject. I will try to finish them as soon as possible, but I'm sure I'll be adding recipes once in a while in between posts.

Step One: Make A List of Your Favorites

Before you decide on a budget amount, you need to stop and think about what's truly reasonable for your family at this point. You don't want to go from eating like a king to eating rice and beans. Your goal should be to eat like a king without having to pay a king's ransom!
So first you need to decide what's important to you in your menu. What do you love to eat? Make a list of your favorite meals including when you go out to eat. Does your family love snacks and dessert? Don't forget to add those to the list!
Here's a list that my family uses. Of course it's a work in progress. We add things all the time and even take things off the list as our tastes change.  As I try new recipes, my family votes on whether or not they make "the list." If it falls short, it is promptly discarded... unless of course I veto the vote, which is my right as a mother. Overall, this is a good guide and gives me great ideas when I'm planning my menu. This list is not all-inclusive, nor is it meant to be. But it is a good starting point and everybody needs to start somewhere, right?

THE LIST

Baked Spaghetti
Beef Stew
BBQ Pork
Burritos
Calzones
Chef Salad
Chicken and Broccoli
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Chicken Casserole
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Stir-fry
Chicken and Stuffing
Chili
Chili Verde
Cobb Salad
Company Casserole
Corned Beef & Cabbage
Eggs Fu-Yung
Egg Sandwiches
Egg Drop Soup
Enchiladas
Enchilada Casserole
Flat Bread Sandwiches
Fried Rice
Gnocci
Golden Chicken
Ham & Beans
Hamburgers
Lasagna
Lemon Pepper Chicken
Macaroni And Cheese
Minestrone
Meatloaf
Mini Pizzas
Nachos
Navajo Tacos
Pastafazool
Pintos, Rice and Cheese
Pizza
Quiche
Raviolis
Red Beans and Rice
Runzas
Salmon
Sloppy Joes
Shepherd Pie
Spaghetti
Stroganoff
Stuffed Peppers
Sunday Dinners
Swedish Meatballs
Tacos
Taco Casserole
Taco Pizza
Tortilla Soup
Vegetable Beef Soup
Vegetable Lasagna
Zucchini Bake

Notice "the list" consists only of dinners. Two reasons why.. One: Dinner is the most expensive meal. It's easy for me to add breakfasts as needed without a big upset to my budget so I don't do as much planning for them. Lunches are usually just leftovers from the previous night's dinner so nothing fancy needed there either. And Two: My family HATES having breakfast for dinner. I totally love it though, so should I ever find myself familyless in my days ahead I will have to have breakfast for dinner every night to make up for the past decade or so. So basically I plan my biggest expense first. Then I add in my "Extras" list. These are things that my family loves to have but can go without if necessary.

THE "EXTRAS" LIST

Juice
Cookies
Ice Cream
Cheese Sticks
Crackers
Other Desserts

Ok, so the extras list looks pretty short for us. Keep in mind, though, crackers means ALL crackers and so on. A good way to start making your list is to think back on what your family has eaten for the past few weeks. Also peruse your grocery receipts if you keep them (which you should) to see what other things you've been buying. If it's something that comes up often then it should probably be on the list. Now get busy with making your list while I work on my next post!

Banana Bread and Banana Bread Bites

When my sister came to town a couple of weeks ago she brought with her about 3 lbs of overripe bananas knowing I could (and would) turn them into something yummy. Naturally we chose banana bread. This is a recipe from my mother-in-law that I've adapted over the past several years to my own taste and, in my opinion at least, it is hands-down the best banana bread ever!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup NF dry milk powder (If you like it sweeter, omit milk and use 3/4 cup sugar instead)
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 medium mashed bananas
1/2 cup LF plain yogurt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add bananas, yogurt, eggs and dry milk and blend well. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and stir into banana mixture until moistened. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in the pan; remove and cool completely.

Of course having 3 lbs of bananas allowed me to do a double double batch of this recipe. Nobody complained about having so much banana bread around, but to make things interesting I turned 2 loaves worth of the mix into some yummy Banana Bread Bites by using my mini-muffin tins.

Banana Bread Bites

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease 1 mini muffin tin (should make at least 24 mini muffins). Use the above recipe for mixture. Add about 1 teaspoonful mixture into each mini muffin cup filling it about 2/3 full. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before removing from pan or they will fall apart!

Cregg's BBQ Sauce, BBQ Pulled Pork

My sister's family came to visit us a couple of weeks ago and while they were here my brother-in-law shared his recipe for his BBQ sauce. This is some of the most delicious sauce you will ever have on your BBQ so it would be a crime not to share it! The night that he shared his sauce with us, I grilled some chicken and pork loin to go with it. That's right, we had some meat with our sauce. It's that good. You'll grill just so you can have something to go with your sauce! The rest of the sauce I used a few days later as BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches. YUM!

Cregg's Delicious BBQ Sauce (aka the best sauce ever)

1 1/2 cups tart berries (He usually uses blackberries, but we subbed in rasberries)
24 oz tomato paste
1 1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cayenne pepper
6 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp black pepper
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

Puree berries in a food processor or blender. If you'd like, strain the berries through cheese cloth to remove seeds. We didn't do this, but I would suggest this step if you don't like the crunch of the seeds. In a large bowl, combine berries with remaining ingredients. Add more cayenne pepper if you like it HOT or less if you like it mild. Use this sauce over grilled meat, as a marinade or add 3-4 cups of it in your slow cooker with a 2-3 pound pork roast. This recipe makes about 8 cups.

Slow-Cooked BBQ Pulled Pork

4-5 cups Cregg's BBQ Sauce
2-3 lb pork loin roast

Add pork roast to a large slow-cooker. Pour BBQ sauce over top of the roast, filling slow-cooker at least half way up the side of the roast (about 4 cups). Cook on LOW 7 hours. Shred pork with a large fork and return to cooker. Cook an additional 1-2 hours on LOW. Serve on toasted buns with a slice of sharp provolone cheese.

My Very Own Bountiful Basket

All Summer long I've been waiting for the week when I didn't have to actually buy produce and could just go pick it from my garden. For at least the last month I've kept saying, "Maybe next week.." And now the next week is finally here! My garden is finally starting to feed us. What a weird season we've had this year! I have to say, though, it was totally strange not to go online last night and order my basket from http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.
So today in my "basket" I got

8 lb tomatoes
1 cantaloupe
1 lb tomatillos
1 lb anaheim peppers
6 large bell peppers
2 dozen jalapenos
1 dozen onions
1 lb carrots
3 lb potatoes
2 lb green beans
handful of rasberries
handful of strawberries
3 bulbs garlic
1/2 lb yellow pear tomatoes
3 zucchini
1 monster zucchini (whoops!)
3 white scallop squash
2 yellow scallop squash
2 pumpkins
1 lb chard

And don't worry, there's PLENTY more where that came from! So this week I will be making: Stuffed Zucchini, Fajitas, Zucchini Lasagna, tomatillo salsa, tomato salsa (for canning), Cuevish, Minestrone soup... and we'll see from there!

Soy beans.. not ready yet but I'm anxious to try them!

Whoops! Sometimes these guys are so perfectly camoflauged they get missed when I'm doing my daily garden pick. Oh well, this will still be great as a stuffed zucchini..

Later this week I also want to start adding some more budgeting tips. I have lots of really great charts and tables that are really helpful for planning your menu and your budget. I just need to figure out a pdf document and I'll be all set!

Sugar Lime Cookies

My Mellissa is so cute (my 3 year old). Every morning she wakes up and as she is walking down the stairs with the cutest little smile on her face she says, "Hi mommy! What are we making today?" A few days ago the answer to that question was sugar cookies.

Sugar cookies have always been and will always be my favorite. But not just any sugar cookie. It needs to be soft and moist with just the right amount of frosting (the frosting also must be either sour cream or cream cheese frosting- nothing else will do). For this cookie I experimented a little with a couple limes I had hanging around in my refrigerator. 

Sugar Lime Cookie

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup dry powdered NF milk

3 eggs

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

zest from two limes

Cream together butter, sugar and dry milk. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Grate the zest from the limes directly into the mixing bowl. Add salt and soda. Mix thoroughly. Add flour 1 cup at a time while slowly mixing until all the flour is incorporated. At this point you can cover bowl and refrigerate dough for about 2 hours so you can roll it out or do as I do and just drop dough by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your spoon or with a fork. Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes. Allow to cool and then frost if desired.

Sour Cream Lime Frosting

juice from 2 limes

1 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

3-5 cups powdered sugar

(I like my frosting more like a glaze so I use less sugar)

Combine lime juice, butter and sour cream in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. Refrigerate leftover frosting for later use.