Menu with what's on sale for the week of Feb. 24-Mar. 2

Some smokin deals this week on oranges at Sprouts, chuck roast at Safeway and peanut butter at Albertson's. I was going to have an inspiring paragraph heading into the budget menus but I am finding the past two Sundays, my head and mind are fried by the time I sit down to type this up. Maybe it will get better but I doubt it. I do my best and clearest thinking in the shower, and the keyboard might get too wet if I tried that.

$77.21

Breakfast
1-Eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice. Save some bacon for the Pasta Primavera
2-Oatmeal
3-Yogurt, toast
4-Oatmeal, orange juice
5-Yogurt, toast
6-Oatmeal, orange juice
7-Yogurt, toast

Lunch
1-Fruit and cottage cheese, pudding cup
2-PB&J sandwich, orange
3-Tuna sandwich, apple, pudding cup
4-PB&J sandwich, carrots, strawberries
5-Bologna sandwich, orange
6-PB&J sandwich, apple
7-Hot dog, orange

Dinner
1-Chicken Caesar Salad sandwich. So I'm thinking...you could halve a french bread loaf, put grilled or fried chicken breasts or strips of chicken on the bread, some caesar dressing and shreds or leaves of iceberg on top, put the other bread half on top and then slice into sandwiches. And I saw this on a blog or site somewhere but now I can't remember where.

2-Cheddar corn chowder (Jane Maynard version), french bread. See http://thisweekfordinner.com/2010/02/24/corn-chowder/ I didn't allow for the celery in the grocery budget

3-Beef Pot Roast, carrots, Rice A Roni

4-Pork chops, baked potato with sour cream, green beans (canned)

5-Pasta Primavera, salad. Sautee diced bacon first and let cook, then add some diced onion, chopped fresh asparagus, mushrooms, add cooked pasta and cream, and herbs and powdered garlic to taste, cook until thickened slightly.

6-Leftovers

7-Ground beef/cheese quesadillas

Grocery List:
Albertsons
Boneless skinless chicken breast, $1.67 lb, buy 3 lbs. at $5.01
Skippy peanut butter, 10/$10, buy 1
Albertsons concord grape jelly, 10/$10, buy 1
Sunny D orange drink, 10/$10, buy 2
Albertson eggs, 10/$10, buy 1
Albertsons butter, 8 oz., 10/$10, buy 1
TJ Farms hash browns, 10/$10, buy 1
Bar S bologna, 10/$10
French bread, 10/$10, buy 2
Calidad tortillas, 10/$10, buy 1

Bashas
Iceberg lettuce, 2/$1, buy 1
Bashas milk, .99 for 1/2 gallon, first 2, buy 2
Farmland pork chops, .99 lb., packages are aproximately $4
5# bag russet potatoes, .79
Food Club cheese, 3/$5, buy 3
Tyson bacon, 2.88
Hunt's snack pack pudding cups, .99, buy 2

Fresh & Easy
Fresh & Easy ground beef, $1.49 lb., with purchase of 2 lbs. or more, $2.98
NOTE: If you don't want to go to Fresh and Easy, then get a lb. of chuck roast at Safeway ground into hamburger

Fry's
Fry's canned vegetables, 2/$1, buy 2 corn and 1 green bean, $1.50
Rice A Roni, $1
Kroger cottage cheese, $1
Kroger sour cream, $1
Kroger yogurt, 3/$1, buy 12 at $4.00
Bar S jumbo meat franks, 10/$10
mushrooms, $1
Kroger mini peeled carrots, $1
Fry's canned fruit, 4/$5, buy 2 cans
Mission flour tortillas, $1
chicken of the Sea light tuna, 2/$1, buy 1 at .50
Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4
Heavy cream or half and half, I allowed for $4.00 worth. You'll need it for the chowder and the primavera, however you could supplement some in the chowder with a little whole milk
Asparagus, $1.00 lb.
Fry's hot dog buns, allowed for $1.50
2 cans chicken broth, allowed for .99 each, buy 2

Safeway
Rancher's Reserve 7-bone chuck pot roast, $1.47 lb, buy 3 lbs. at $4.41
Strawberries, 16 oz., $1.88

Sprouts
Large navel oranges, .19 lb., they are big, aproximately a little under a lb. each. 12 oranges at $2.28
large roma tomatoes, .67 lb.
yellow onions, .39 lb., buy a lb. worth
Green onions, radishes, .39 each, buy one of each
Braeburn organic apples, .67 lbs. at $3.35
Oatmeal, .79 lb., buy 2 lbs. at $1.58

Items not on the list:
spices, bay leaves
flour
mayonnaise

Other great deals:
Chicken of the sea salmon, 10/$10-albertsons
chicken parmesan sausage, $2.99 lb.-sprouts NOTE: put this in the primavera if you want to spend an additional $2.99
Green cabbage .39 lb.-Sprouts
Fry's canned beans, 2/$1-Fry's
Fry's canned tomatoes, 2/$1-Fry's
Kellogg's cereal, 4/$10, get 2 free gallons of Fry's milk-Fry's
Milk, $2.19 gallon-Fry's

Week 8

Week number eight of the drawer/shelf/box/cabinet a day challenge and it's gone completely down the toilet this week. The good news is that I intend to start again on Monday with renewed fervor, energy and enthusiasm. Today I need to make a dent in the photos spread across my dining room table. If I organize them today, then I can put them away and pull out a few pages worth each night to assemble, right? Looks good in writing anyway, whether I can pull the plan together will remain to be seen. I get overwhelmed really easy. Or I get lazy. Or both. I plan to sit down and do it and someone needs to be taken somewhere or someone needs me to go with them somewhere or actually just wants my company to go somewhere with them. How can I refuse someone wanting me to go with them? Or dinner needs to be made or dogs need to be fed, I become distracted and forget what I was going to do next. Don't laugh, it will happen to you sooner or later. And the thing with photos...they pull a lot from you. A lot of memories, and they trigger memories of emotions. Like looking at the baby photo of my son, all roley poley oley at six months of age, I was the first and only woman in his life for a long time, then looking at the photo of him at sixteen with his arm around a girl the night he went on his first date. Or looking at baby pictures of my daughter, who was a clingy baby, then finding the photos of her that someone took of her, her first year at Girl's Camp, happy and having the time of her life, the first time she ever went on a trip away from home without us. And finding pictures of my parents, which at the same time will make me smile and sends a stabbing sensation through my "heart". Not because of anything that they did or didn't do but because, through no fault of their own, they are not "here". Some pictures pull at your heart in a warm fuzzy way, and others sometimes in a gutwrenching, painful way. There are usually tears associated with Album looking for the adults in our household. I guess that comes from being half a century old. The kids haven't lived long enough yet to cry over photos. Speaking of that...have you seen the commercial for VISA narrated by Morgan Freeman that is about Dan Jansen, the Olympic skater who promised his sister Jane that he would win a gold medal in her honor in 1988? She died six hrs. before he skated. He fell losing all chances for gold that time, then as the commercial goes on to say, he went back six years later and won gold in Lillehamer, Norway in 1994, then took a victory lap around the rink with his daughter....Jane. My big 200 lb. 17 yr. old son cannot watch that commercial without tearing up. Gives me a lump in my throat just writing about it.

Life

Here's the deal. There is just so much that needs to be done. Where I live anyway. So I've decided to add yet another thing to my life, just one a day, to get it done. Just like the one drawer a day challenge that Sooz and I are doing. I challenged Sooz to do one menu a day. She hasn't given me an answer yet either. This refers to the Wendy DeWitt method of Food Storage planning, buying and storing. If you are scratching your head and saying, "What?" right now, then refer to the left hand side and click onto the YouTube videos that were taken of one of Wendy's seminars on food storage. Her blog is also on the left side. It's called Everything Under the Sun it also explains her method and has recipes and ideas and explains the card system. If you're not LDS you might also find the videos and blog helpful, interesting and they might answer a lot of questions you may have had about your weird mormon neighbors and their food hoarding. Actually, I hear that even the U.S. government now encourages people to have at least a 3 month supply of food. So, I've decided to implement Wendy's card system for food storage and do a meal a day. For me it may be as simple as just deciding on the meal on one day and figuring out the ingredients and how much I'll need for 26 weeks (I plan on doing 14 menu ideas) another day. Join me.

Menu with what's on sale the week of Feb. 17- Feb. 23

I am failing lately at getting this out early in the ad week. I wanted to get it done Thursday. Then I wanted to get it done and posted last night and then this afternoon. And I had some awesome thoughts to go with it. HAD. Here I sit after a busy day with "I Believe that My Redeemer Lives" being pounded on the piano directly behind me. My brain can hardly function in dead quiet, so throw crash bang piano playing at me and it's crazy.

Maybe my thoughts will come back to me before I'm through with this post. Maybe not.

Now I remember. There are some great deals and stock up your pantry prices to be had this week. Definitely get out and do some stock up shopping this week. You can totally spend less than the $75 posted on this post if you don't get the snack items this week. S&W beans at Bashas. May I just say FREE!?! Even if you don't have the coupon that was in last week's coupon inserts 50 cents is a great buy for these. Canned beans are a great pantry item to have if your family will eat beans. And if they say they don't like beans, try black beans. My family didn't think that they liked beans until they tried black beans. Also the broccoli at Albertson's this week. It is so stinkin cheap I am going to get some, blanch it and freeze it.

$73.61

Breakfast
1-Oatmeal
2-Oatmeal, muffins
3-Oatmeal, cranberry juice cocktail
4-Egg biscuits
5-Oatmeal, yogurt
6-Oatmeal, donuts
7-French toast

Lunch
1-Tuna sandwich, orange, pudding cup
2-PB&J sandwich, apple
3-Tuna sandwich, string cheese
4-PB&J sandwich, apple, popcorn
5-Tuna sandwich, popcorn, string cheese
6-Chef Boy ardee pasta, string cheese, brownie
7-Bagel/cream cheese, orange

Dinner
1-Butternut squash soup, crusty bread ( I don't have a recipe for butternut squash soup. I allowed some vegetable broth to be the base with the the squash and some onion to be cooked with it. If it were me, I would bake the squash in the oven, then scoop out the pulp and whir in the blender with the veg. broth, and add some diced sauteed onion. Use water or cream to thin it out. Salt and pepper or ginger to taste. Or google Butternut squash soup to get a good recipe)

2-Spaghetti Alfredo, steamed asparagus.

3-Beef teriyaki kabobs, steamed broccoli.

4-Chicken Caesar Salad, hummus and crackers. Add crackers to the shopping list if you didn't stock up during Super Bowl week. (make the hummus out of the can of garbanzos(chickpeas)

5-Sausage gravy over biscuits, salad

6-Green Chicken and cheese Enchiladas, black bean and corn salad (I use a can of drained corn, and can of drained and rinsed black bean, some sweet onion or shallot diced, some sugar, maybe 1 T. and some basalmic vinegar. But, if I didn't have basalmic, I would use rice vinegar or white or cider vinegar.)

7-Leftovers, Coke or Sprite

Desserts and snacks
Popcorn
Brownies
hummus

Grocery List:
Albertsons
Broccoli, .68 lb., buy 2 lbs.
London Broil, $1.88 lb., buy 2 lbs.
Albertsons cream cheese, 2$3, buy 1
Albertsons green enchilada sauce, .79, buy 2

Bashas
Stokeley's vegetables, 2/$1, buy 1 corn
S&W beans, 2/$1, buy 1 black, 1 garbanzo (for the hummus)
Bashas large eggs, $1.29
Food Club cheese, $2.47
Food Club string cheese, $2.47
Imperial spread, .88
Food Club pudding snacks, .88
Food Club microwave popcorn, 2/$3, buy 1
Crusty bread, $1.19
Bashas milk, $2.19, buy 2
Navel oranges, .99, buy 2 lbs.

Fresh & Easy
Fresh & Easy bagels, $1.99

Fry's
Fresh Roma tomatoes, .77 lb.
Chicken of the Sea chunk light tuna, 2/.88, buy 3
Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail, $1.98
Van de Camps donuts, 2/$3, buy 1
Yoplait yogurt, 20/$10
Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4
Boneless skinless chicken breast, $1.67, buy 3 lbs.
Kroger Value Peanut butter, $1.47
Flour tortillas, I've allowed for $2.99
Vegetable broth, I've allowed for .99, buy 2 cans
Onion, I've allowed for .50, buy 1 (used half for the bean/corn salad, half for the butternut soup)
Kroger spaghetti, .88
Buy 10 deal
1-Ragu alfredo pasta sauce, $1.28
2-Kroger salad dressing, $1.28
3-Chef Boy ardee pasta, .67
4-Chef Boy ardee pasta, .67
5-Banquet brown and serve sausage, .89
6-Betty Crocker muffin mix, $1.69
7-Betty Crocker brownie mix, $1.69
8-coke or Sprite, .89
9-Pillsbury Grands!, .89
10-Pillsbury Grands!, .89


Sprouts
Asparagus, .97 lb.
Braeburn or Fuji apples, .88 lb., buy 3 lbs.
Squash, butternut, .88 lb., buy 3 lbs. That may not be realistic, I don't know.
Oats, 2 lbs./$1, buy 4 lbs. at $2. You may need to buy more for your family's needs.
Romaine, .88

Some other great deals:
If you have a Smart & Final close by and have a card
First Street long grain rice, 10 lbs., $3.99
Fresh russet potatoes, 10 lbs., $1.49
Mission corn tortillas, 72 count, $1.79

Items not on the grocery list:
Mayonnaise
syrup or powdered sugar for the french toast
fresh or powdered ginger
basalmic vinegar
jelly
soy sauce
brown sugar
molasses
parmesan for the caesar salad
croutons for the caesar salad
crackers for the hummus
lemon juice for the hummus

Week 7

Week number 7 of the drawer a day challenge and I've slacked off a little this week. I intend on doing 3 or 4 today or tomorrow to make up for it though. I did go through a big tub of what I thought were just pictures and scrapbooking supplies and was horrified with what I found. Papers that should have been filed in the filing cabinet. I am amazed by how many boxes of papers I'm finding that just get stashed somewhere. In another tub of picutures I found a pair of my daughter's jeans. HUH? What was clothing doing in the picture tub? What happened is, in a mad dash to clean the house for a party months ago, things got piled into the two tubs and I never got back to them to make things right. And my daughter wouldn't let me throw the pants away at that particular moment in time. She wanted to make a skirt or a purse or something out of them, so they got put in the tub. She reads my blog so I can't write the final outcome of my purging. "Purging" being the key word in that sentence. I also found Christmas cards sent in 1961-1963. Sure glad I still have those(said in a sarcastic morning voice). Also found another baggie of baby teeth. Yuck. Sorry, if you're eating breakfast while reading this. It is a weird obsession I am trying to get a handle on and deal with. Hopefully I can get rid of all of the weird baggie stuff before I die and other people go through my junk. Or maybe Kim's suggestion of a jar of teeth is the answer. I draw the line at jars of fingernail and toenail clippings though. Yuck. I do have my standards. LOL. I am rambling. I still have the second tub to go through, hopefully sometime today. I got distracted yesterday by making homemade oreos for a YW's thing(sorry, more LDS speak). If I can just organize the photos my life will be on track. It is an overwhelmingly mountainous task. Discouraged on Wednesday by what I found in those tubs, Sooz reminded me that making and taking "baby steps" is good. Some day, maybe I'll walk, jog and then run in the dejunking world instead of just doing baby steps.

Seasonal

When I figured this out my whole view of grocery shopping changed. If you notice, the sale items that run are seasonal. Now that we are in the Lenten season, canned tuna, fresh fish, beans, lentils, rice, they all are on sale. When Easter gets closer, baking mixes and ingredients, ham, canned broths will go on sale. Salsa is cheap around super bowl Sunday and Cinco de Mayo. Sales around three day summer weekends are the time to get BBQ sauce and condiments. As well as the week of Super Bowl Sunday. Peanut butter around the time school starts. Canned soups when the weather is supposed to change to coolish and then again around early February, I guess when they are trying to get rid of their mega stock of it. Baking goods, nuts, cooking soups, canned broth, canned fruit, canned vegetables, etc. around the winter holidays. Asparagus and filet mignon are always cheaper around Valentine's day.

Beans, beans the musical fruit

I just went through all of the grocery store ads for this week this morning. A few screamin deals. Grab your coupon insert from last Sunday's paper, if you don't live in Arizona then go get a snack and ignore this, clip out the S&W beans coupon (.50 off of 2). That will double to $1.00 off, get in your car and head to Bashas and get two cans of S&W beans, which are on sale for 2/$1.00. FREE BEANS. Fry's has tuna for 2 cans for .88 and most stores have tuna for .50 per can as the Lenten season starts today. Actually if you don't live in Arizona you may still find screamin deals on beans, lentils, tuna, fresh or frozen fish, etc.