Get your own Free Home PageI will be adding recipes to this page as I have the time.
Good luck taming your grocery budget.
If you have ideas or recipes I could add, please email me.
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I use the frozen onion and pepper bits
I have a friend who does tomatoes this way as well,
I am planning to freeze more sweet corn this year.
Fresh green beans can be blanched
Many fresh fruits -- peaches, apples,
In the winter, we eat a lot of appplesauce
Frozen seedless grapes are great treats for the kids, healthy and fun.
Have a salad and several choices of vegetables
The boys often eat dry cereal instead of cookies or other snacks.
My children and I drink water with dinner each night.
Avoid Prepared Foods (Boxes & Cans)
I used when working full-time outside the home.
I can make a "Hamburger Helper" type meal
-- which my sons love --
without the actual box of "Hamburger Helper."
I make mac/cheese (from scratch)
and add cooked hamburger to it
(or a can of tuna for a change once in a while).
The boys finally noticed
that I am not using the boxed stuff,
and have declared mine "better."
Meat
I try to buy chicken, pork, and hamburger
in the "Family Size" packages
because it costs less per pound.
Then I repackage it in smaller amounts
in zip-loc bags for the freezer.
Be sure to rotate these by putting
the meat you just bought behind or under
what's already in the freezer.
Canned Vegetables
and really stock up when they are on sale.
You can store them for a long time,
so it makes sense not to buy when they're regular price,
unless you're absolutely out and must have some.
I have also done some home-canning
of fresh vegetables in the past.
I'm not physically able to do that any more,
but loads of things can be frozen quite easily.
Fresh Vegetables
when they are plentiful and cheap.
I chop them, freeze them on a cookie sheet,
and then transfer the frozen pieces to zip-loc bags
to store in the freezer.
in my cooking for great flavor,
and then I have green peppers to cook with
even in the winter when they're terribly expensive
and sort of sad-looking compared to the summer ones.
but I don't cook much with fresh tomatoes,
so I've never tried it.
Corn frozen this way tastes fresh!
(dipped in boiling water for a few moments)and frozen as well.
Fruit
(right now that's peaches, watermelons,
and apples which are grown in this area).
berries, pears, plums, nectarines --
can be frozen to use in pies
and cobblers all winter long.
However, don't freeze melons,
they only taste good fresh.
which is less expensive than most canned fruits.
Casseroles and Soups
I eat the leftovers for my lunch
while the boys are at school.
When I cook spaghetti or homemade soup,
I always cook enough to make more
than a single family meal of it,
but I skip a night or 2 before serving it again.
Meatless Meals
a week or for Saturday lunch.
(some of which might be leftovers from earlier dinners).
You could have
(your own home-frozen from fresh in season)
see recipe below
with carrot sticks, celery sticks, radishes,
cauliflower, broccoli -- adjust with your family's favorites;
and mozzarella cheese (zucchini are cheap in season
or if a friend planted any, he probably has loads to give away!)
Cereal
like "Captain Crunch", "Fruit Loops", "Lucky Charms",etc.
I have made this choice mostly for nutrition reasons,
but my ex buys them for the boys and recently revealed
that they almost never finish a box.
I usually buy the
"Rice Krispies", and occasionally, "Corn Pops".
Because they are less expensive and never wasted,
it's good for my budget as well as our health.
In the winter, I feed them instant oatmeal for a warm cereal.
Milk and Water
to use in your cooking.
A friend of mine mixes reconstituted powdered milk
with fresh milk to make it go farther,
but I didn't know about that when my kids were small.
(I invested in a Brita water filter to combat
the problems of the taste of tap water
and the expense of the bottled waters.)
It's much healthier than iced tea or expensive sodas,
and my boys are old enough to not need to drink as much milk.
I wouldn't do this with your children
until they are around 5 or 6
(check with your doctor to be sure),
but older children and adults could certainly drink water instead.
Homemade Baby Food
and it was very satisfying, yet time-consuming,
but with the younger one
I only made baby food occasionally
(fresh fruits or homemade specialties).
It is very good for them, and well worth the effort,
if you realize going in that it isn't just a matter
of using the blender on whatever you've prepared
for the rest of the family.
Check the library for baby food cookbooks and ideas.