Freezer Cooking Weekend

I have been encouraged after reading about the freezer cooking days going on at the Money Saving Mom and FishMama homes to do one of my own. Nothing huge, just a good start for the month.

Yesterday, I ran by Farm Fresh to get a few extras before the big snow came (I can't believe I'm writing that, but it's real). They had an incredible deal on chicken, and I scored 9 lbs. for $15. So I have had a 3 lb. package of chicken cooking the crockpot with chicken broth and a packet of taco seasoning all day. I just shredded it, and now have 4 freezer bags with 2 cups of chicken each. I am going to refer back to the list of 58 recipes using shredded chicken that I found on recipe zzar for future ways to use my stash.

I also cooked up every grain of rice that I had in my pantry, which wasn't all that much. In all I think I probably have about 8 cups or so to freeze. Rice is just one of those foods that I often want to use in a casserole or with beans, but in a pinch don't have time to wait for it to cook. Got that taken care of for a while.

Now I'm on to making a few batches of pizza dough in the bread machine, and baking some bran muffin batter that I have refridgerated and need to bake.

Farm Fresh: 75.38 in groceries for 21.80!!

Well I'm pretty pleased with this!

Quaker Instant Oatmeal
Aunt Jemima Pancake/Waffle Mix x2
Quaker Granola Bars x2
Ragu spaghetti sauce x2
Post Cereals (shredded wheat and raisin bran) x4
Old El Paso Taco Seasoning x2
Old El Paso Heat 'n Serve Sides (2 rice, 2 beans) x4
Skippy peanut butter x2
Helman's mayo
Arnold whole wheat bread x2
Dreamfields pasta x2
~2 lbs. bananas
~2.5 lbs. grapes
baby carrots
lactose free milk half gallons x2
I can't believe it's not butter margarine and baking sticks
Sargento shredded cheese x2
band-aids
Quaker rice cakes x2
All liquid detergent
Dole frozen strawberries
Welch's orange/pineapple juice

Total: 21.80
And this, is why I just LOVE Farm Fresh!!!

Eat from the pantry challenge

My pantry is full of food that I have gotten for free or really cheap, but it's not such a great deal if I don't actually use it.

When I read about the eat from the pantry challenge on my favorite blog moneysavingmom, I knew that this was the month to use some of those interesting ingredients I've collected. Next week, I'll start off with my meal plan, but I have had such a hard time planning meals this week. It seems that all I can do is plan the next meal.

Tonight it was black bean burgers and corn. I used a new recipe for the burgers and I liked them, although I thought they needed lettuce and tomato.

Blogging about my frugal adventures

It all started when I stumbled upon a blog about frugal living (thanks to the coupon consultant). It became my portal to the world of coupons, match-ups, rebates and all that is frugal. Six months later, I am ready to start blogging about my adventures. And I have high hopes for what I will accomplish with my new frugal lifestyle. You see, this is going to be the year that my husband and I take a big chunk out of our debt. If only I had known five years ago that there was a way to live frugally without any pain, I would have started then. Since I have had to make some dumb mistakes to find this way of life, I'll just be grateful that I am on a positive path and hopefully will help others along the way!