Faith, Food and Family

Do you ever check out your nearby thrift stores? I hadn't much until one of my friends, Wendy told me about a couple of neat ones in a nearby town. We rode with her one day and went and then went again yesterday. Check out what I found. A neutral colored Martha Stewart (still in the package) tablecloth for $3 A new fabric show curtain (the tag says Kohls, it was out of the package) $3 I also got Princess a couple of pairs of nice fuzzy warm socks for $1 each and found her a brand new pair of jeans for $4. I always thought of thrift stores as used items and some are. Which isn't a bad thing, I have no problem buying used. A thrift shop like this is such a neat find though because they carry things from Kohl's, Kmart, etc. Most things are still with tags or in the package. And you can find some awesome deals. So do you have any thrift stores in your area? Have you explored them yet? If you haven't, I can't encourage you enough to do so! You just never know what you mi...

Yesterday I went to our local Food Lion . I hadn't been in awhile and decided to check out their meat department. They had several packages of beef marked down and I bought almost every package. I got: Top round steak (I think 2.20lbs had sliced into stir fry strips) $3.93 London Broil (1.8lbs) $3.58 Chuck Roast (2.9lbs) $4.96 2 NY Strip steaks (1.6lbs) $3.48 2 packages of cubed steak (about 1 pound each) total for both $4.25 Beef kabob or stew meat (.90lbs) $1.63 For a grand total of $21.83 That should provide at least 7 meals (and should be leftovers for several of those). So if I said 10 meals (including leftovers) that would be around $2.20 meat cost per meal! That is an awesome deal! Here's a picture of my receipt. Sorry it's not better quality. It's kind of hard to photograph a receipt! :) It's best to go early and check your stores. Now, I was at Food Lion at about 11:00am but usually most stores have the most markdowns early. So make sure and check your stor...

Yesterday, a few friends and I got together like we do pretty much every Thursday morning when school is in. We fellowship and everyone brings something to share. Yesterday I decided to bring Bacon, Egg and Cheese Bagels. And you'll be amazed at how much I spent. First lets get to the recipe. Baked egg squares 12 eggs 1/2 cup of water salt and pepper to taste Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease baking sheet liberally with butter (I used a 15x10x1 heavy sheet pan). In a bowl, whisk eggs, water, salt and pepper together. Then pour into buttered sheet pan. I have to add in here that I mixed the eggs the night before so that I just had to pour them in the pan in the morning. Just store in the fridge till you're ready to bake. Then bake until set. Mine cooked for about 20 minutes. Slice into squares to use on breakfast sandwiches. Yields: 12 squares The eggs did have a couple bubble up spots. I just poked them down with a fork and that worked just fine. I made 6 sandwiches. So here...

The last couple weeks of the month is usually the tightest for us. Especially since I'm out of work right now. So I'm trying to implement one night every week of breakfast for dinner. Tonight we had french toast. I just added three eggs, a tsp of vanilla, some cinnamon and some milk in a bowl. I didn't measure the milk. There are some recipes I'd like to try for french toast but tonight was just going to be quick so I didn't have time to find the recipes. Served it with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. My daughter had a little syrup on hers. Everyone really enjoyed it so I am going to have to make it more often. So here's a cost breakdown... milk- .25 cinnnamon- .05 vanilla- .25 three eggs- .25 half a loaf of texas toast- .60 (bought on sale at kroger) So about a $1.40 for that. Now, that was only for three people. My husband had eaten a bit before and wasn't hungry and my 4 year old ate a hot dog). But even if you double it for 6 people let's say, i...

One of my favorite meals is at a place called Huck Finn's in Pigeon Forge, TN. I love the "vittles" they bring out to you, served family style all you can eat. White beans, cole slaw, hush puppies, pickles and onions. I love their catfish as well. I haven't been there in a long time. Yesterday I decided to make white beans, coleslaw and corn cakes (instead of hushpuppies). I served it with dill pickles and sliced tomatoes. It was a frugal yet yummy meal! I hadn't cooked beans in the crockpot before but I looked a bit online and it seemed easy enough. This is what I did. Crockpot white beans 2 16 oz bags of white beans water bacon paste (from Soupbase.com) 1 packet of onion soup mix (I only used 1/2 and it definitely could have used a whole pack if not more) salt Look through beans and discard any stones, broken beans, etc. Rinse beans and place in crockpot. Add water (go about 2-3 inches above beans), bacon paste (I used about 2 tsp, you could use more or use so...

When I made the pork fried won tons , I had bought a whole pork loin because they were on sale for $1.49 a pound. I put two meals of chops in the freezer. Then used one pound and had them grind it for the won tons. Then I roasted the rest in the crockpot. We had it for dinner that night and then ate it for lunch a couple of times. Then one night for dinner, my husband wanted quesadillas. Now my husband is the king of picky with our youngest son coming in right behind him. So he just had chicken and cheese on his. Our 6 year old had his that way too. But my daughter and I decided to do something different. Why not use pork? Pork and sauteed onion quesadillas leftover pork (I used probably 1/2 a cup or so, shredded or chunked one vidalia onion, quartered and sliced 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp fajita seasoning (I use McCormick) colby and monterey jack shredded cheese 4 tortillas butter Start heating pan over medium heat. Add about a tablespoon or two of butter in the pan. I always try to use as lit...

I love my crockpot! I have had a crockpot for years and never really used it.That is until I tasted a boston butt pork roast that my friend cooked in hers. It was so tender and yummy! I couldn't believe that's what happened in a crockpot! So I decided I was going to dig out my crockpot and make one too. I made a boston butt pork roast in mine and it was really good. I do my roasts in there if I can. I never want to put another roast in the oven! Last night I cooked a pork loin in there (on sale for $1.49/lb!). It turned out so yummy and just so tender. It was delicious! And one of the best parts, it didn't heat up my house! Which is wonderful during the summer. I got my electric bill yesterday and was shocked how much it jumped from last month's. It was way more than we had planned for so any savings in electricity is very good! I have to admit, I haven't tried much other than roasting meats in it. I'd like to try some other recipes in my crockpot since I now l...

I just have to share with you what we had for lunch today. Our local Kroger's had (and I think they still do this week) the Pillsbury Pizza Crust in the refrigerated section 4/$5. Then when you buy 4 you get an extra $1 off so you get them for 4/$4. But on top of that, our Kroger had those little coupons in the refrigerated section for .75 off three refrigerated products (excludes cookie dough). So that made them 4/$3.25. So about .80 per pizza crust. So we made pizza for lunch today. One for hubby and one for me and the kids. I would have taken a picture but my battery is dead so I have to wait for it to charge. So sorry about that. Here is a cost breakdown for the pizzas. 2 cans of dough $1.60 for both 1 and a half cans of tomato sauce (garlic flavored) .50 italian seasoning (just sprinkled it over the tomato sauce) maybe .10 3 cups of cheese $1.50 (this is on sale at a local store for 1.00 for an 8oz bag) mushrooms on half of one of the pizzas .50 (also on sale for $1.00 a pack...

Okay, I just have to share my excitement!! We have only a few more days until our Aldi's is open! I am so excited! The building has been finished for a couple of months. I'm not real sure why they didn't open yet but the official date is the 21st! Which is Saturday! They even have all the grocery carts ready to go. So I'd love to hear any of your favorite Aldi's products. I went to one a few times when we lived in Ohio but that's been quite some time ago. I just know that they can really help a mom's budget. Have a blessed day! God bless, Amanda

I just wanted to share this with you as something that works for me. I get soup bases from Soupbase.com . This stuff is amazing. And I think I figured that the chicken base that makes 5 gallons works out to about .15 a cup! That's a great savings even over store brands. I usually try to order several things of it at once to save on shipping. They have a email list you can join to receive specials and such. This is restaurant quality stuff. I love having this in the freezer ready to go. It keeps longer in the freezer than the fridge. I used the bacon base the other day in my green beans to make them all yummy with southerny goodness. :) You have to cook them an hour or two as well. I'm not affilated with them in any way but absolutely love their products! I have used the bacon base, beef base, chicken base, and vegetable base. So these soup bases definitely work for me! I've decided to join What Works for Me Wednesday today! To see what works for others go to We Are THAT Fam...