Following the wonderful advice in FF (Family Feasts for $75 a week by Mary Ostyn) I went to the bulk foods department at one of my local Safeways (we have several of them). I picked up all the spices I would need for my next 12 meals and saved a bundle! I then went to the meat department and they were having a buy 1 get 1 free sale on all the meat on my shopping list! I totally stocked up! I will have to check my grocery log to see how I did price wise but I am feeling like I got quite a bargain so we will see. I also purchased store brand items for a lot of my purchases today which I don't usually do (I know I should). According to the sales receipt I saved $60.07! So for my shopping I got $196.77 worth of groceries for $136.70. Still sounds high until you take into consideration that I bought 22lbs of meat and 8 of those pounds are 7% hamburger (I always buy this and pay a premium because I am trying to keep fat out of our diet and you don't have to drain this hamburger which also saves a step). So far I am feeling good about this trip :)
Now to portion out all the meat, and log my purchases into my grocery log. Hopefully tonight I will be able to start logging my purchases into Quicken as well.
While I am in the kitchen I am going to start cooking dinner ( I know it's early but I am making Chicken Adobo and I am thinking that I can start it now and finish it after I pick up my daughter from school). This will also have the added benefit of me not having to package up meat that I am going to use today. The recipe my girlfriend Ashley gave me uses 6 pounds of chicken so I am sure that we will have tons of leftovers to put into containers for other nights and for Mike's lunch.
I am thinking that after our trip to Florida that we should seriously consider getting a second freezer. I noticed on Mary Ostyn's blog that she had a butcher prepare a whole cow for her freezer and I have friends who also stock pile meat this way and everyone says what a great price per pound it is and that is better quality meat as well. I would love to be able to do this!
Tomorrow we are having our first dinner guests at our new place! I am so excited to be able to play hostess :) While at Safeway I picked up some steaks (BOGO) and I am planning on serving them with baked potatoes, salad, green beans, fresh bread and apple crisp! It has been so long since I have had people over for dinner so I am probably making too much food but left overs are always nice to have on hand for lunches. I am planning on using the Apple crisp with crunchy oat brown sugar topping (page 246 for those of you playing along) from Mary's book but I am going to use some of the apples that I canned in ultra light syrup instead of fresh apples. I have a wonderful friend named Nora who is already a complete Domestic Goddess and she adds quick cook tapioca to her canned fruit when she is making pies. I am wondering if I added tapioca to my apples and then used Mary's recipe for the crumb and seasoning how that would turn out. I think I will try making it tonight so that if it bombs I can try again tomorrow and no one (but anyone reading this blog) will be the wiser :)
Well enough stalling... Time to get to work implementing my evil plans bwah ha ha :P
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