Del Monte Coupon

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Organize Your Dinners

How many people have ever sat down and organized your dinners?

This post is a How-To-Guide to organizing your dinners. The reason for organizing your dinners is because with times the way they are every cent matters and why buy something if you don't need it.

Step 1
Take inventory of what you have. This means if your starting out, to take everything out and see what you have to work with. Check your pantry, refrigerator and freezer it is best if your new at this to take everything out this will also help you organize your food supplies

Step 2
Figure out how many meals you will need to make and how many people you need to feed. This will depend on how often you can go shopping. I shop for 2 weeks at a time and I feed 4 people and 7 animals.

Step 3
Once you have step 1 and 2 complete, take out your calendar and figure out what you will serve for breakfast, lunch and dinner for that time period. The amount of meals may change because your children may eat lunch at school some of the time or your spouse may take a day out of the week that they may eat out for lunch.

Step 4
The most important step in this process is work with what you have first. For example you have enough chicken for 6 meals make sure you do not purchase any more until you have used what you have first.

Step 5
There are staples in every household. What the staples may be will change from family to family. Some basic staples are flour, sugar, salt, pepper, corn meal, milk and bread. These may not be your staples but they give you an idea.

Step 6
Most families use about 20 to 30 different recipes on average. I recommend you looking at those recipes and figure out ways to change them up using the same ingredients. This makes it look and feel like a change without extra cost.

Step 7
Now your armed with what you need to purchase at the grocery store. Make a list and include everything you need on that list. The most important thing is to take the list with you to the store and only get what is on the list.

I will post another How-To-Guide on locating the coupons needed and how to shop for what you need and save big bucks while you do it.

Very Cold Day in DC

It is a very cold here in Washington DC today, picture here is our out door fire pit, can't even tell what it is from this picture. We are having our 2nd blizzard today which gives me the chance to make Chili. It is actually my husband's recipe but I wanted to share it because it is so yummy!

1 pound of lean meat (I am using hamburger because it is what I already have)

2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 cup of onions

1 can kidney beans

1 can of black beans

1 can of chili starter beans

Fry meat drain add everything in the crock pot for 3 hours.

If you want to get really frugal you can use dry beans but honestly that takes a lot of time, and everything for this meal the way I cook it cost about 3.50 and it feeds a family of 4 with one teenager and another child I can't keep full.

Chicken Fajitas Recipe

3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (Get Chicken Breats that are on the bone and do it yourself
it is worth a little extra work for price of .99 a pound)

4-6 Flour Tortillas (You can make them from scratch but they are cheap enough if you don't
have time just buy them.)


****make a note you can use whatever you have the frig for filling***

1 medium onion chopped thin
1 green pepper chopped thin

2 teaspoons of Canola Oil
Pinch of lemon juice
Pinch of Soy Sauce
Half a package of Taco Season
*****if you don't have this already work with what you do have to make the same taste*****
For Example:

• Chile Powder
• Garlic Salt
• Onion Power

Heat in a frying pan serve the Tortillas warm.

For Sides and extras
Serve Black Beans on the side
Lettuce
Cheese
Tomatos
for the fajitas

Cutting Back and Not Realizing It

Cutting back is hard to do when you notice cutting back. But what if there were ways you could cut back without even realizing.

There are simple ways to cut back on items you use everyday without feeling like you don't have enough. I am not going to tell you the simple ones everyone knows and to be honest I am not sure how well the noticable ideas work.

Well, this is how I look at it...

The idea of cutting back doesn't mean you have to never eat meat again or you must bake everything including bread. Cutting back can also mean on time while cooking. Lets say you have had a long and tiring day and the last thing you want to do is to cook dinner. Well, in my house there is always option 2. It could be a quick home-made pizza ready in 20 minutes or it could be and yes I am saying it chicken strips and tater tots. Even with an expensive ready done dinner is still 75% cheaper than eating out.

Breaking up by price:
home-made Pizza cost me to make 2 about 3.00
Chicken strips and tator tots still only cost about 4.50

Either way I go, I am saving over 20 dollars because I am not going thru the drive thru at some fast food place and getting a heart attack in a bag. I will add recipes for some of my fast and frugal dinners here on my blog in the next few days.

Busy! Ok, I know I haven't posted in a while but I am back in full force. I have chosen to stop working it is starting to interfere with my family and my health and I have come to the fact that can't happen.

I wanted to share with you a good cheap breakfast idea that was a big hit!

1 can cheap biscuits I get mine for .59 cents
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon

Cut the biscuits into small bits
Cook in oil for about 2 minutes
Then roll in Sugar and Cinnamon

You can serve them with cream icing or not they are awesome!