Homemade pizza night

Well Monday night was pizza night on my menu and I had a pre-made pizza crust still in my freezer (yes, from scratch). I wanted to have a "white" pizza this time and usually do a heavy cream portabella garlic pizza but had not portabella's. No fresh mushrooms left at all- insert boo-hoo. So I decided to make my homemade Alfredo sauce, left over spinach and chicken from the night before; also a can of mushrooms was lurking in the cabinet and we love mushrooms. There is still about 6 ounces of chopped green onion left in my freezer from the garden that I thought needed to top this pizza along with about 5 ounces of freshly shredded mozzarella cheese and a couple extra shakes of Parmesan cheese. It turned out fantastic and my husband raved- he didn't even need ranch dressing for dipping! Ha ha ha!

Here is the recipe for the Alfredo sauce (food for thought, if you make this for pasta and think you can reheat this sauce, it will separate)

1 Pint heavy cream
1 stick of margarine
2 tbs cream cheese
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder

In a large sauce pan melt margarine and add cream cheese to melt. Next add heavy cream while constantly stirring, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder.

I spread 3/4 of this recipe on my large pizza crust then added the cooked spinach, mushrooms and cooked chicken on my pizza. Then I topped it with the mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and green onion.

We've been reheating this for a couple days now and it is so yummy!

How to REALLY shop at Giant Eagle in Ohio

As you may know, all you savvy shoppers, many grocery stores have their ad cycles, department specific cycles and reduction cycles. Many of them have promotional offers like ad match, competitor coupon match and more. I'm sure you also know how important it is to know your stores well; from these changing cycles, promotional and coupon rules and even the lay out of your favorite stores.You probably already know the difference in each city, county, region and state there is a difference in pricing that don't really reflect on the competition in the area, and policies can vary under the same banner as well. The better the deals in stores, the more you educate yourself about those stores.I have had the inside look for 19+ years on one company, which has given me insight on most grocery/retail companies.

Giant Eagle in North Eastern Ohio has higher prices, yes it is true. The basis of their higher pricing is not only to blame on the fact that they came into the area and purchased a Union ran grocery chain (not sure if any of you recall Stop n Shop stores called Rini's, Rini-Rego, Rego's, Catalano's, Reiders etc) but their idea of total customer service. They wanted to be a higher standard of quality, not quite what Heinens is or as high priced as Heinens but not like the lower standard box stores out there.
If you know your sales and offerings than you know that Giant Eagle offers great deals as long as you know how to shop them. Not like the propaganda spin that competitors advertise; but this means you MUST educate yourself.

Giant Eagle offers couponing doubling up to .99 cents, though many times you can not stack coupons. I have argued, and won the case on some as their policy states they can not stack manufacture coupons (ie coupons that specifically come from or state that they are manufacture coupons as some catalina's at the register do); the booklet coupons you can find in the store in places like their Eagles Nest and their pharmacy do not state that they're manufacture coupons. Thus, they are to be treated much like the Eoffers- stackable coupons generated from Giant Eagle itself. Mind you, I am not trying to be a vulture but I am trying to get my best deal possible for my family or I can not afford to shop. On the gianteagle.com website you can find their Eoffers (coupons generated from Giant Eagle/ Cellfire.com ) and you can also get the latest list of available catalina coupons that will generate with specific purchases in the store.

**When I get their newest ad I evaluate what coupons I have available, what Eoffers are available to stack with sales of items we use or need for the week and also if there are any "rebate" offers from Ibota.com or savingstar.com.

THE most valuable coupons for Giant Eagle are obviously the ones that are .99 cents or less; I love the .75 cents off single items!

When Giant Eagle ad breaks on Thursday is usually a good day to hit the store and here the best time is no later than 9:00 AM because they mark down many of the meat items (this is how their dates run). I know I can usually find markdowns on select fresh produce as well, like mushrooms. Speaking of markdowns, many of the stores typically have markdowns of seasonal-holiday items following a holiday. Like the approaching Easter holiday that falls on Sunday March 31st. I know on April 1st they will send down the price changes for their file maintenance crew to scan, check and tag. While every store operates a bit differently, depending if they are still a 24 hour store or how their current store manager runs their schedules, their file maintenance persons are usually overwhelmed with work following ad changes and holiday change overs. What this means is that if you visit the store early enough (say around 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM) you will find a selection of unsold mark down items. Again, depending on how the current store manager operates, the holiday mark downs could be any where from 25% off to 75% off. Usually will depend on space available and if there are immediate holidays following (such as the change over of Thanksgiving to Christmas). Other departments to watch for regarding markdowns are the floral departments- Chocolates for Easter, Christmas, Valentine and Sweetest Day AND Produce- usually following Christmas. Other departments to watch just before a holiday for mark downs, usually the day before or the day of are Bakery, Dairy and sometimes Deli as they move out their product quickly to restock cleanly the day after a holiday. Seasonal items that you see for Summer, Spring etc will change prior to a new marketing need. Like Summer, which gets changed over at least by mid August for Back to School sales. Spring will change over to make room for Summer- usually before Memorial day with all the red, white and blue items to usher in the fourth of July.

Here is where it gets tricky- have you seen their mark down racks? They are usually in the very back of their stores and in my favorites to visit I know they are right by the customer rest rooms. These mark downs will be the remaining holiday/seasonal items and other close dated items they need to move. However usually about one time monthly they have their re-set crews in the stores changing over the shelves for manufactures newest items and the big manufactures who pay premiums for the best shelf space. You have most likely seen them at any given time as they do not wear the Giant Eagle uniforms and there are several persons moving items into and out of carts in 1 to 3 isles on one given day. When this happens, they park the carts of items they pull from their shelves that Giant Eagle does not want to sell any longer and await for their file maintenance crew to mark them down for quick sale. This is usually at least 50% or more off their retail price and CAN have coupons out there you can use for additional savings! ALWAYS check and pay attention to your store and what they are doing!

LASTLY Giant Eagle has Fuel Perks which you can earn .10 cents off every gallon of gas with every $50.00 you spend on your groceries, at their GetGo gas stations! Giant Eagle was an innovator in this field and nobody has been able to match this offer with success. This is the icing on the cake of savings and I myself have us gotten 30 gallons of gas (their limit) for free! That's my truck and 4 gas cans for the 4 wheelers, tractors and more! lol

How I learned to shop and save

When I first learned that I was pregnant with my third child at the ripe age of 41, I knew I would have to go back to my roots of my childhood and become the bargain shopper my mother was. I started slowly as I knew there was no way I was going to accomplish my goals quickly and painlessly (and let me tell you) it was rather painful at first.

While I was still working for a local grocery store company I started to learn the art of couping and shopping the deals. It wasn't easy by any means. Anyone who lives in the North-most part of Ohio would tell you it is not easy to get those great bargains of TV lore. There was sacrifice in the beginning as I did have to spend money to establish a working stock pile of items. I watched other customers stock up on the great sales and using many coupons (Yes, this was before they limited your coupon usage).

So I started by keeping an organized binder, studied ad/coupon cycles and where the best real deals were. You wouldn't think it would take that much time, but it took me at least a year; all while creating a stock-pile that was worth having for my family. These persons who great these great deals and purchase things they have no need for are not really on a necessary budget as I am. My example of this is when I got a fantastic deal once on Miracle Whip and stock up with about 8 jars. While I got this great price on something my family does like, it doesn't have a long enough shelf life to warrant purchasing 8 jars; thus creating waste, which I detest! So I started keeping track of items my family uses by dating items, writing down when it was used by and calculate how many we would need per year of each thing. This way I can stock up on about a year supply of any item, as long as I can get a good deal and not waste it.

My next learning curve was when I realized I can not spend my budget on getting all the deals and adding to the stock pile all the time. I couldn't make a dinner on all deals; so I had to pass on some "deals"; I had to buy sensibly to get my meats, dairy, produce etc. This meant I had to learn to make monthly (dinner) menu plans and this seemed so daunting of a task.  So I made a list of our favorite recipes and ones I wanted to try, most of which I got off
www.allrecipes.com. I made individual monthly Shopping List(s) with recipes I wanted to make for each month which broke down a list of shopping needs to make each recipe, which I could edit from what I already have in stock.

While taking note of our wish list of recipes that we would want for a given month I needed to come up with an inventory of my items I had in my freezer. Not only for rotation but so I knew how much of what I would need for a monthly menu. Here is what I made via Excel

I searched for a site that gave me info on how long items were good for in my freezer and I came across StillTasty.com. Though there are a few items I found conflicting in their data base, all and all they are a very useful tool to cut down on waste. Now I rarely have any waste out of my freezer. I found a great, free tool to create my monthly (dinner) menu as well from Vertex42.com 

I can add favorites on a drop down tab for each day, change the month and save as needed on this program. There is even area's I can add side dishes which I am not proficient in as of yet, but side dishes to me are more flexible; I still have much in the freezer from last years garden.

Last tool I came across was with the wonderful gift my husband gave me for Christmas. My Ipad! I got a great AP for my Ipad called CouponKeeper2. This AP allows me to keep an inventory at hand for every coupon in my binder, which I can scan in simply and adjust if needed.

I can mark my favorites for items we use, Items I know will go on sale and more! I especially love this because I can track which coupons will get me the most value in stores such as Giant Eagle which doubles coupons up to .99 cents. Knowing which products they typically put on sale and which I will get the most value on, I will star them as excellent. Right now I have a coupon count of 620 coupons (ones I know we would use) at a savings value of $694.84. I have redeemed 85 coupons since uploading this AP and have saved $97.74 in manufacture coupons. Not reflecting Saving Star, www.ibotta.com, Eoffers or www.gianteagle.com doubling program.

I have now gotten my budget down to around $400 a month or less of all grocery items for a family of 2 teens, 1 husband, 1 toddler in diapers, 3 dogs and myself and am still tracking less with each passing month!

Cleaning out the fridge- for dinner

Yes, at the end of my week just before my grocery shopping day I have to start using up the items I had left in the fridge. Had on my menu plan to make our Venison Back-Strap steaks for dinner but I still have issues with my wonderful can opener, so any canned veggie or anything else for that matter is out of the question. I had last struggled to open the last can of pineapple rings to use the juice for a marinade on chicken breast a couple days prior, so I thought I should make my husbands favorite- Pineapple upside-down cake!

Now I know I usually have a nice brown sugar/cinnamon crumble on the (bottom) top, but this time I thought I would try something different and make it gooey! I melted margarine and mixed it in with the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and poured it in the bottom of my pan and then poured the cake mixture into the pan.

I also made some pepperoni bites with some Pillsbury crescent rolls, pepperoni and a small slice chunk of mozzarella cheese. I shook on some Parmesan- garlic bread topping on each as well. Next time I think I will just stick to shaking on plain Parmesan cheese though.

Quick and Easy, hectic mom menu rescue

Don't you just hate when you plan a specific dinner recipe only to realize the recipe called for something you don't have in stock? Well, that was my Tuesday; however I was able to adapt quickly because of my stockpile. I ended up making a family favorite Hamburger Helper Philly Cheesesteak.
Now I love a great homemade meal but I also am a realistic
mom of a fun filled toddler and 3 dogs. I have to quickly adapt
but I can still add my own touch to anything, as I usually do!

What we like about this is making it the way we love our
Philly Cheesesteaks- With onions, green peppers, garlic, seasoned
salt and pepper. I also add MORE fried onions on top and
mozzarella cheese. I have to confess, I rarely ever make a box
of Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper or Chicken Helper with
out adding something.

For us realistic moms who are usually in some kind of rush during the every day functions, this is so handy and usually good tasting. I love to hear of new adaptations to all Betty Crocker helpers. I really miss the day when they use to print suggestions for adaptations on their boxes. Wondering how many other people out there do the same?

Oh venison stew review...

Oh my computer is wonkie, so I have to work off my iPad; my Christmas present that I haven't fully mastered yet. Kind of like a blog. Yes, I'm a blog virgin and that's ok. I still love to learn. It's the time factor that never seems to be on my side. The life of a stay at home mom.

Well I thought I should ketch everyone up. Today is Friday, the day two older children come to stay with us. The day my baby looks forward to seeing her big sissy! Thursday I made a wonderful venison stew in the crock pot. I cut up a decent sized cut of venison roast, seared it and dropped into the crock. Deglazed the pan with a cup of water and added 2 more to the crock, 2 cloves of chopped garlic 1 tbs of Worcestershire sauce, 1 bay leaf and 1 tbs kosher salt. I let it cook about 2 hours until i cut up red potatoes and added those to my crock pot.

I then chopped onion and sliced some mushrooms to sauté in butter with a tbs of chopped garlic. Yum.

I love sautéed mushrooms and onions in garlic! Think I could eat them all by themselves!  Well I put these in my crock pot and deglazed that pan with a cup of water with beef bullion. The reason I had to do this is because I had shattered my crock pot lid a month ago and have been trying to use it by covering it with foil. Moisture leaked out from the pot so I didn't want to loose more. I allowed another half an hour on low and made a rue of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour, to thicken slightly. Though very hot, as my crock runs quite intensely, my venison stew was flavorful and tender. 

I want to talk about something that I suffer with that many do not understand and quite frankly feel as though it is something to laugh about. Honestly, if you felt the pain I have to deal with you may have a different outlook. I am talking about IBS.

I was diagnosed back in the late 90's (best estimate is maybe 1997) when a simple plate of salad at a wonderful restaurant had my gut so wrenched up with pain, I laid on my bathroom floor naked, shaking from chills while sweating profusely and unable to throw up or go to the bathroom. Not sure as to the cause then, I thought the usual- maybe something in the food preparation, maybe I had the stomach flu, maybe... I had no idea. My then husband called 911 when I couldn't resolve the pain, which was so intense it was much like the worse labor pains imaginable. By the time the paramedics came, I was able to use the toilet and felt some relief. To their encouragement I went with them to the hospital, which was a good decision because in route I was in agony again. When I reached the hospital I was producing a stool that was liquid and bright red with nothing but blood. The nurse attending me was shocked! It wasn't till the next day when they had me see a Gastroentrologist and after a colonoscopy and biopsy I found I had IBS. In some ways I was kind of relieved because he had pre-warned me I could have Crohn's disease and it was horrible from what I understood.

Now I had been told by my pediatrician when in Jr. High School that I had a "nervous stomach" for the pain and problems I was having and I now believe it was probably the start of IBS. I don't know, but believe the medical community had little to know info/knowledge of IBS much like Asthma. I was only told that if I didn't learn to settle down that I would end up getting an ulcer!

The reason I think people find it funny or just don't talk about it comes down to old childish behavior. The attitude that "pooping" is funny, or you just don't talk about it in any way. For me, it's not what goes into the toilet but the horrible pain in my gut that I have to just deal with any day (it has no commonality or schedule). I have had to stay away, for the most part, from the things I love the most; all green veggies! I LOVE broccoli, Brussels sprouts and more but if I have it more than 1x a month and more than about a cup full I will end up in agony. I haven't had a plate of salad in years and that is sad. Stress really kills me and my favorite pop plays hell with me many times; though I recently found I have had a hard time dealing with drinking water. I mean, I don't really like water like some do but it gave me such stomach pain because I couldn't burp, I was just as miserable.

I am currently in my 3rd study related to the treatment of IBS and today I am finding myself miserable. I am using this moment to distract myself away from the horrible pain I am feeling. I can't even bring myself to make dinner at the moment because the thought of food is beyond me; not to mention the pain doesn't allow me to move much. Curling into a ball is usually how it goes when it is this bad. I think to myself, after so many years of having no contact with my fathers family, only to be brought together a couple years ago I hear that several persons on his side have many intestinal problems. A couple of my cousins have Crohn's disease and have even had much of their digestive system removed!

I can only describe to you the pain that comes with this affliction with a scene in the movie Alien when that thing bursts through the mans stomach; but it's more like something moving through your large intestine with extreme force that you feel. Along with pain that equals labor, feeling as though someone giving you a stomach upper cut would actually improve the way you feel. Then add in the bloating that makes me, all 110 lbs of me feel as though I just gained 10+ pounds in little time. Yes, I get horrible gas (the horn on a turd, the husband calls it) and all the pain that goes with that as well.

It was difficult for my job, when I was working to understand what I would go through. Making fun of me, making it out as though I was using the restroom to get out of work. Even worse is that I would get punished by Giant Eagles system of points for being late when many times on my long 45 min drive into work I would be in horrible pain and have to stop at many restrooms on the way to work. Working retail, it was torture to assist the customer, keep a happy face and wretch in agony. I wish there was more understanding in people about this affliction, along with what my family has endured with Crohn's disease.

I end this with some info from the medical community.
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/ibs_ez/

It's Sunny inside and out

I'm here to say, and possibly jinx myself but today is about as great of a day as a day can get here. The only thing missing at the moment is more caffine. lol! That aside, I am happy to say two young and wonderful men from Home Depot delivered my new dishwasher after just over a week with out. Not that I have never washed dishes by hand because that is how I was raised but I will say once you have one, you realize just how much you love it because it makes life so much easier.

So my wonderful husband managed to take the day off of work to be here for the arrival of our new baby Maytag  dishwasher, and install it quickly. To our joy, it runs super quiet AND he managed to get the dang thing half off the origional retail price on the last day of the sale! Yippy to the Skippy- Frugal woman loves her redneck man! lol!

 

 

The End Result?

 



A nap afterwards.....

 

I'm happy to say we are really enjoying having daddy home, even if he still has work to do for work. Nothing like being the boss as work NEVER leaves you and it does play hell on the family. For me though, his hard work and sacrifices have given me time with Emily I was never able to have with Dylan or Kalyn; though I was never sad about that. I was lucky to have my mother to watch my two older children and nourish them with everything she/we are about. It saddened me when my mothers health became so bad that she had to stop watching the kids as they got older; yet by then they were already in school. Oh how I sorely miss her and would love to hear again about her stories of growing up in Montrose South Dakota, WWII and being a frugal stay at home mom. 

The Passion Continued into Dinner

Yes, I carried on with a hard to beat dinner last night of Swiss Spareribs in the crock pot, Restaurant-Style Smashed Potatoes (thanks to thepioneerwoman.com) and maple bacon baked beans. Everything was packed with huge flavor and incredibly belly stuffing good!

I should probably tell you I am by far not a professional photographer, in fact I kinda stink really; but my IPhone and The Cloud make my picture taking a little bit easier.

Swedish Spareribs

1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbs white sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 lbs country style pork ribs
1/4 (or 1/2 stick) margarine
10 oz. water to 1 1/4 tsp beef bullion granules- dissolved

In a small bowl, mix together sugar and all spices. Sprinkle the spices generously on all sides of the ribs.
In a large skillet, melt margarine over medium to medium high heat. Brown/sear each side of the ribs and remove into crock pot. Add beef bullion/water mixture to pan to mix flavors and then add to crock pot. Cover and cook on low for approx 4-6 hours; depending on how hot your crock pot runs. Mine runs quite hot on low and cooks most things that say 6 hours in only 4.

Restaurant-Style Smashed Potatoes

5 large red potatoes
1 stick margarine, softened and cut into pieces
5 slices thick maple bacon, cooked & crumbled (I sliced mine)
2 whole green onions, sliced
3/4 C. sour cream
Salt to taste (add plenty)
Pepper to taste (ditto)
3/4 c. french fried onions for topping

Preparation-
**I made mine differently. I baked my potatoes for 1 1/2 hours at 325 in my oven (you must poke holes in potatoes as they will explode if you do not).
In a large bowl or in my case a large casserole dish, place potatoes in and SMASH not mash potatoes. I found my redskins were still a bit big so I also used my kitchen sheers to cut them to smaller pieces. Stir in softened margarine (it is important it is softened and not melted), sour cream, green onions, bacon, salt & pepper to the smashed potatoes and fold carefully as you don't want the consistency of traditional mashed potatoes. Top with french fried onions.
**I also added a few shakes of Parmesan cheese on top and then tossed them into the oven at 350 for 10 minutes.

These potatoes, which mixed wonderfully with the "gravy" sauce that the Swiss spareribs had produce was fantastic!
I do have to add, the baked beans were Bushes, which my hubby loves!

When the passion strikes

Ever have those days when your passion for cooking fills you and you want to tackle everything? Well that was my day yesterday. I have been thinking since the addition of a local cupcake shop here in Perry called Cora Cupcakes, what can I make different than the norm. I pondered how they make a fruity pepples cupcake and other breakfast or cereal cupcakes, I wanted to think of some other way (than the obvious coffee cake type) to have a breakfast item as a cupcake. Though not extreme like their recent concoction of buttermilk maple cupcake with maple frosting & a candied bacon slice on top, I wanted to do a Bisquick cupcake -homage to pancakes and a maple frosting (like maple syrup). I managed to find an old recipe for cupcakes made from Bisquick and let me tell you they are very yummy.

I used the double pan method to ensure they came out moist and the results were golden and moist! Then I made a maple butter glaze type "frosting" to keep it simple for my first time experiment by using:
2 Cups powder sugar
1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 tbs milk
1 tbs heavy cream
1/2 tsp maple extract
Which I had to refrigerate to get it to a spreadable consistency, only to find it was still a bit difficult to control with a frosting spatula, but the end result is finger licking good.

 

I once again treated my garbage men to my pancake cupcakes and they in turn brought my garbage can all the way back to the barn; I do appreciate their hard work! I wasn't able to try any last night as I had to fast for a doctor appointment today for a new medical study.

 

The Bisquick recipe was from the 1930's and is tasty. I made only one minor change to the original recipe; instead of 1 cup of sugar I used 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar. 

Loaf Cake or Cup Cakes

2 cups Bisquick
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup top milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine Bisquick and sugar. Add top milk, well beaten eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat to smooth up batter. Pour quickly into greased and floured 8 inch square pan, or muffin cups. Bake square cake 30 minutes, or cupcakes 20 minutes in a moderately hot oven 400 F.