Frugal Friday: Frugal Fun!

Okay well for this Fridays frugal tip I will tell you what I did this week. After spending $36.00 on 3 cook books at amazon I also decided I needed to start watching for cook books at yard sales/swap meets to keep expanding my collection. So last Saturday we went to the swap meet and I got 3 cook books. They were 3/$5.00. So $1.66 each. Tonight I searched amazon to see how much they are going for. I found 2/3 on amazon.

The first one is a bed and breakfast cook book which I love and have already used twice. Click here to see me ramble in another post about this book.
The Bed and Breakfast Cookbook: Great American B & Bs and Their Recipes from All Fifty States by Martha W. Murphy. I looked on amazon tonight and this book is selling right now for $16.93. I spent only $1.66 so that is a savings of $15.27.

The next book is Jenny Craig's No Diet Required: Recipes for Healthy Living It is selling for $14.99 and I got it in great condition for $1.66. So I saved $13.33. The third book I couldn't find at amazon but I am sure I saved money there as well. ;)

Another tip is to look at discount outlets like Ross. My friend Zsuzanna mentioned the other day finding a pizza stone for a great price at Ross so Joe and I happened to be out there today looking to see if I could find any cookware I was interested in. We did find a few mini muffin pans. I was trying on an outfit in the womens room and Joe seen a stand of books and he found me this one. It looked good. I liked also that it had the calorie counts. He said he flipped thru it and saw yummy food he wants to eat. It said $5.99, that sounded fair enough so we bought it. By the way this book is HEAVY!!! It says it has over 1000 recipes and has 564 pages(including index, but still)All-new Complete Cooking Light Cookbook

Since it was brand new and not a used book I decided to take a peek and see how much amazon was selling this book for. It says "regularly" $34.95 but on sale for $23.07! I paid $6.00 for it so we saved $17.07. Now a really frugal tip would obviously be to borrow these from your library. ;)but for the cost of gas nowadays you can't beat $1.66 at the swap meet. In addition you don't have to give them back. They can be part of your ever growing collection and stab at feeding your family lots of yummy wholesome food.

For more frugal tips check out Biblical Womanhood.

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

Here is my tip for Tuesday. Add hummus to your tuna or salmon as a nice healthy alternative to mayonnaise. I rarely ever use mayonnaise. I stick with mustard most of the time, well except when I am at In and Out Burger, then I pile on the thousand island dressing. haha But mustard doesn't taste good on tuna.

The hummus I buy is from Costco. It is Sabra hummus with roasted pine nuts. The ingredients are chick peas(garbanzo beans), water, tahini(sesame), soybean and/or canola oil, garlic, salt, pine nuts and a few other things to season it and keep it fresh. I hope someday to make this myself and use olive oil instead of soybean oil. But the point is it makes a nice spread and you get the benefit of eating one of the worlds healthiest foods. Don't believe me? Go here and check out why chickpeas are so good for you. Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

Chickpeas can help lower your cholesterol level, lower your risk of a heart attack and even help stabilize your blood sugar. This makes a nice dip for crackers too. I took 4 T of hummus, 1/2 cup of canned salmon, a few tomatoes and a few pieces of chopped up onion and mixed it all together. Add some whole wheat crackers and Voila! A nice healthy snack.
Have you ever had hummus before? Have you ever made your own?

Check out Tammy's Recipes for more tips!

Chicken Vegetable Rice Bowls

Same concept as last post except we used the chicken breast this time. I also used all the stirfry vegis on the beef bowls so we just used onion, bell pepper, broccoli and cauliflour. I used 4 cups of chicken and 6 1/2 cups of vegetables. I made it a little meatier than last time because I try to watch red meat more closely than I do chicken.

I used the orange chicken marinade this time and am now all out. I need to pick more up. Well I guess dh gets to be the guinea pig today cause he took a chicken bowl with him to work today. haha I know all this taste great fresh, I am just wondering how it will translate with the microwave. I did something similiar a few months ago, but different. I made up a batch of rice and froze it in 1 cup portions in a sandwich bag, the same with the chicken but separate. I then microwaved it or cooked it on the stove, I can't remember but it was fine then I added sweet n sour sauce. But I have never done it this way. I hope it works out cause this is really convenient!

Do you make your own freezer meals?

Beef with Rice & Vegetables Strifry

I like rice and vegetables and meat. Not plain, but with some kind of marinade on it, sweet n sour sauce(the kind with the bell peppers and pineapples), oriental stirfry sauce(the kind with the high fructose corn syrup in it), orange chicken. Yes I know there is some sugary substances in it but it is a great way to get alot of vegis eaten.
Do you know why alot of Chinese/Oriental/Japanese people are thin and healthy? Because they eat a little bit of meat, a litle bit of rice and a WHOLE LOT OF vegetables! I am not kidding. I need to get more on the ball here. I think I average about once a week eating something like this. If I have something prepped and just ready to heat up I am more likely to eat it for lunch or something.

So Sunday I cooked up 2 beef tri tip roast that were about 3.5 lbs each. One in the oven, one in the crock pot. I also cooked up 8 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts. I also cooked 1.25 lbs of ground turkey. I also made 112 oz of Mexican home made enchilada sauce.
After cutting up all the meat into tiny pieces I put everything in the fridge for Monday. Monday was a very busy day. I was in the kitchen from 7:00-2:45 and I think I sat down for about 15 minutes total. I chopped up 3 onions, 10 cloves of garlic, got the frozen bell peppers out of the freezer, got out the broccoli and cauliflour, got out a bag of stirfry vegetables, the olive oil, the stirfry marinade/sauce, the orange chicken marinade/sauce.

I also cooked up 2 lbs of brown rice. That was in addition to the other 2 lbs of brown rice I made into spanish rice to go with the enchiladas.

Normally I would of wanted about 6 onions but that is all I had left. I mixed 1 3/4 cups of beef with 7 1/2 cups of vegis. My eldest dd was helping and complaining. That is not enough beef so I told her that was the whole point. A little beef, ALOT of vegis. lol That didn't stop her from eating a whole bowl for lunch and she loved every bite of it and even wanted more. ;)

I used my new rubbermaid bowls and made up beef vegi bowls for everyone and froze them. We wound up with 6 adult, 3 kids size and 3 youngest dd's size. I need to pick up some more marinade at Smart N final or learn to make my own, we are almost out!

Do you ever make stirfry? Do you make your own marinades?

Mexican Food To Go Favorite Salsa Recipes

A little blurry but the other two were worse.

So I decided to try a new salsa recipe tonight. I will update with pictures tomorrow. It was actually pretty good. We had chicken tacos and beans with it. I am going to have to have more before I can form a real opinion. I like that it has olive oil and vinegar in it. Olive oil is one of the, "healthier, good for you", fats. Vinegar is supposed to help lower blood sugar in all people. I tried oil and vinegar on a salad before and just couldn't do it again any time soon. haha There was a bit of tang to it so maybe I should tweak it a bit, we'll see.

Normally for salsa I just chop up tomatoes, onion, garlic, and maybe some cilantro, throw in a few chili flakes. Alot of times I add some tomato sauce to it. Pretty simple.

This is the recipe we tried tonight.
Mexican Food To Go Favorite Salsa Recipes

4 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (up to 1 cup)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper (bell pepper)
1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp finely chopped green chiles
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp cilantro (coriander) seed, crushed (or fresh cilantro leaves)
1 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients. Cover and chill, stirring occasionally. Serve with corn chips.

I doubled this and substituted apple cider vinegar and I don't believe I have any mustard seed on hand. I used the whole bunch of cilantro, not just a few tsp's. You know what I want? I want a recipe for the salsa that the local Mexican restaurant has. Maybe I will figure it out eventually. What is your favorite salsa recipe? I have some corn flour, tomorrow I just may try my hand at fresh corn tortillas as well.