~Weekly Shopping Travels ~

Okay!  Here it is, my weekly shopping trip for household groceries for January 16th!!  

My goal is to keep the groceries/basic household items at or under $100/week for our family of four, and I help out two of my brothers who need a bit of help making ends meet, so I do buy things in mind for them sometimes.  It's an ambitious goal, but over the course of the year, I think I can do this.  I typically buy beef, pork, and chicken in bulk at our local packing house, but sometimes run out before I get back out there for another order, or sometimes I find a great deal that it hard to justify passing up, that usually happens after a holiday.

This is what I bought yesterday for our weekly groceries.  Everything on this table cost a total of $114.75.  That was a pretty big success for me, because I bought some typically more expensive non food items this week, and a few 'treats for the family to keep them in line with my strict grocery budget'!  I was able to get the Purina One dog food, 16 lbs. for $16.99, typically it's almost $21.00/bag.  It was on special and I had a competitor's coupon for another $2.00 off.  Now the big thing here is that I got lucky, this store is not going to accept competitor coupons after January 21st, and the coupon didn't scan, and the cashier told me they would only accept coupons that scanned, but luckily, I called first to make sure they would take the coupon, then told the cashier and they had to override the system to accept the coupon, BUT, even though they accept the competitor's coupons until next week, they already had it out of their system!  ALWAYS SPEAK UP, MOST STORES ARE COUNTING ON YOU NOT ASKING QUESTIONS OUT OF FEAR OF BEING WRONG OR EMBARRASSMENT! But don't be, ask, it saved me $2.00 and the frustration of going back next month with a coupon they won't accept any longer!  I also got a much needed covered garbage can for the bathroom for $8.99 and some Loreal hair color for $3.99 with my $3.00 off coupon!  (Sometimes WE need to feel good too, and I got the better hair color for the price of the hair color that typically will do funny things to your hair!)  :)  Coupons also were used for the dish soap.  That empty crumpled baggie in the center of the pic is from a jalapeno/cheddar bagel I bought for 89 cents...not smart, but I forgot to eat and this was the first stop of three stores I was shopping at, so it prevented me from eating something more stupid and expensive later!

Deal of the day!!  I was thinking of buying a ham from the first store, Giant Eagle, but decided against it because it was a whole ham and we don't eat a lot of ham, so I thought I could save that 99 cents/lb. for something else.  Another thing I always do while shopping is LOOK FOR UNADVERTISED SPECIALS IN THE STORE!  As I mentioned above, sometimes certain meats or seasonal items will be drastically reduced after a holiday.  At Aldi, one of my favorite stores to shop at, I always look for their tags that just simply say 'Manager's Special' usually with a red tag. As I was walking past a freezer, I spotted the ham and the $5.00 off sticker!  I bought two for just under $10.00.  That was an exciting buy, because I put one in the freezer as soon as I got home, and the other I've cooked and already sliced for sandwiches, maybe some ham barbecue, and saved the bones for some split pea soup I'll make on Sunday or Monday!  I'll freeze most of the sliced ham too, I've found that it defrosts quite nicely!

Now, none of the stores around here offer the 'bring your own bag' discount anymore, it used to be 2-5 cents, depending on the store, but that nice little reward for not wasting plastic has gone away, but I love my shopping totes!  Totes in general, they can be used for almost carrying anything, not just groceries!  I haven't been to Joshua Tree National Park (in California), but my daughter and son in law have.  They have a lifetime goal to visit every National Park, and currently live out west, so they are getting a bunch off their list!  A perk for me is that they buy me a bag at most of the parks they visit!  I also have one from Yellowstone, and two from the Grand Canyon. One I got myself when we visited last year...awesome place, but that's another post!

My tally:  Total spent: $114.75
               Food:        82.00 (I still have enough to buy five more gallons of milk for the week)
               Non-food: 36.75
               Gas:           75.00 ~ so far, I'll probably have to add another $25. (I decided to keep track of this too, since gas prices are crazy.  This will help me stay on track with the cost of driving too!)
'Til next time, have a great day!!  :)

My Weekly Shopping List ~ Scanning Through the Weekly Ads

My main resolution/goal for 2014 is to become financially healthy, and that is a big task that will require big commitment on my part.  I have always shopped the weekly ads looking for specials, but have often wandered and bought unnecessary or items that weren't on sale several times.  It usually has to do with family impulses!  I have to be on a mission to keep the rest of the family on board, and sometimes that will require me to buy things I might not have bought otherwise, but I will check for sales on their 'treat' items, and when I can buy them in bulk, I need to find a better hiding place!  I'll explain why further in the post ~ you'll spot the 'treat' items right away!!

Every Tuesday, we get the sales circulars in the mail, usually along with the coupon pack just like the ones that are in the Sunday paper.  I usually look through the new coupons before I check out the sales for the week.  I have three major stores I look at each week, they are Aldi, Bottom Dollar, and our local grocery store chain, Giant Eagle.  Here's what I'm looking at buying this week:

Aldi has a very nice produce section which I utilize in the winter and non-gardening months.  During the growing season, I grow most of my own veggies.  Anyway, Aldi has nice and very affordable produce.  I like that the handling is minimal too.  this week I'll be buying some pineapple to make some pineapple jam, grapefruit, bananas, and the organic spring mix lettuce mix, it comes in a plastic container which keeps the tender lettuces and swiss chards from bruising and being crushed, that's a big plus in decreasing waste of food, and the container can be either used for another purpose or recycled.

I've needed this for a long time, we adopted a dog from the Humane Society last year who loves to dig in the rubbish!  I've checked out small lidded garbage cans and the cheapest I could find was for $13.96 and it seemed, well, very cheap.  I  like the $8.99 price here, and they have an amazing buyer I'm guessing who can buy quality items at a great price.  It's non food, but a necessary item for this house!

  On to Giant Eagle, our grocery store chain. There prices are higher overall, so I sale shop with coupons there.  This week is Uncle Ben's Ready Rice.  I have a coupon for $1.00 off on 4 packages, and I like to keep some of the brown, wild grain and brown, or Santa Fe brown rice on hand for days when I suddenly realize I need a side dish in 5 minutes!  I tend to forget about side dishes sometimes, and with gardening season coming up in a couple of months, I'll need to prepare meals fast!  I usually buy the bulk brown rice, but we all forget sometimes, and there's no super quick way to cook brown rice, so this is a stock up item.  I'll probably buy 10 packages since the usual price, even at Walmart is $1.74.

Dog food!  I almost usually feed our two dogs Purina One dog food since years ago, my old Sadie girl dog had allergies to the food dyes and artificial flavors in the cheaper and colorful food, and we didn't know that for years, so now, I play it safe.  The usual price for this dog food is almost $21 for the 16 lb. bag, it's on sale this week for $18.99 AND I have a competitors coupon for $2 off!!  Yay, Giant Eagle accepts competitor coupons, so I'll get it for $16.99!!

We use Ken's Chunky Blue Cheese salad dressing for our homemade wings and for buffalo chicken dip, so when I have a coupon, I'll stock up on some of the blue cheese or the Aged Romano Italian.  I have a $1 off on 2, so I'll get  them for $1 each.

I like to buy produce in season, and oranges are a good price right now.  I'll buy these if they look good.  I'm a very picky produce buyer, that comes from growing up on a farm and knowing what really fresh food looks and tastes like!  (I've embarrassed friends who have shopped with me before by inspecting each and every fruit or veggie item I buy, but I pay good money for it, so why not?!?)

 Now on to Bottom Dollar, they also have a very nice produce section where they don't 'display' fruits or veggies, but leave them in the boxes/crates so they are usually not over handled or bruised  They usually have good buys on onions and potatoes, but I have plenty of local potatoes I bought at our local ag. auction this week, so I'll pick up some onions for 98 cents/3 lbs.  We use onions in so many things around here, I never have enough

And to impulse items to keep the family feeling special and loved!   We usually make our own cookies and cakes for snacks and desserts, but every once in a while, I'll buy Oreo's or Cheez It's.  This week the Oreo's are on sale with a limit of 4 per person/per day.  I'll buy 4 packages IF I can find a good hiding spot at home, otherwise, my family can smell them and will hunt the pantry!  It's crazy how my kids and hubby can go crazy over a store bought cookie when I am a good baker, and my kids like to bake too, but they do!!

It's always like they hit the jackpot when the come home to find a package of Oreo's in the cupboard!

So that's it for the week.  I try to buy sale items, so I will add staple items that aren't on 'sale' usually from Aldi, or from a specialty store that carries the whole grain flours and bulk spices, that sort of thing.  I also buy meat in bulk at our local packing house where I get locally raised beef, pork, and chicken at a great price and get great service and support local farmers and this small business at the same time!  My grocery shopping list may seem a little 'mish mash', but since I like to shop the deals of the week, I'm able to stock up on other items that make a meal come together.  Even including the bathroom rubbish can and the dog food, and the family splurge items that I have to hide, I'll keep our weekly list at our under $100 for a family of four.  That still seems like too much, being that I want to save $$$.  I guess it's a balancing act between being frugal, and the rest of the family not feeling neglected.  My hope is that once they see money saved, it will become easier for them to willingly participate in saving every where we can!!  What do you think?  Does your family pitch in to save the family budget, or is it a hassle? Do you have to hide away snack foods so they aren't all gone in a week?!?  Till next time, have a great day!!  :)

Mmmmmmm.....Pumpkin Roll!!!

I'm hesitant to usher in fall.  I't's not that I don't like it, I just know what comes after it.  I love crisp evening air, falling leaves ~ both the color, crunching sound they make when I walk on them and the smell, falling leaves smell wonderful!  I also love pumpkin and cinnamon, and I'm not sure there is a better pairing of the two than in a nice pumpkin roll.  :)

Here's my recipe, I've had this one for a long time now.  I can't remember who gave it to me originally, but as per my usual, I've changed a few things from the original recipe to suit our tastes...or my taste!

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup flour (all purpose works just fine)
1 generous teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon + some for dusting
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (or more) chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Beat eggs in mixer for 5 minutes on high speed.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice.
Fold dry ingredients into mixture, you can mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl, or to keep things simpler, I add them individually to the pumpkin mixture, starting with the spices, baking powder and salt, then the flour last.
Spread pumpkin batter on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper in a rectangular shape.  Sprinkle on walnuts if desired.  ( I use more than a cup, unless I'm making it with my kids in mind, then I leave them out, it's just a matter of what you like!)  Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes.
  While the pumpkin roll is baking, sprinkle a good amount of powdered sugar on a clean tea towel. ( I have found lining that tea towel with parchment paper in which I have sprinkled the powdered sugar onto it works great, and the towel stays much cleaner, and is much easier to clean up, but that too is a matter of preference.)
Upon removing the cookie sheet from the oven, immediately remove and turn upside down on to the powdered sugar lined tea towel and roll up in cloth and let sit on cooling rack until completely cool.  Unroll and fill with cream cheese filling, re-roll and chill.  Dust with powdered sugar and cinnamon if desired before serving.

Cream Cheese Filling

1 cup powdered sugar
1 8 oz. package cream cheese ~ softened a bit to mix easier
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients in mixer until light and fluffy,


I have found too, that I like to store the finished pumpkin roll in waxed paper or parchment paper then aluminum foil to keep it sealed in the fridge.  I've used plastic wrap for years, but I didn't like how the roll itself would hold moisture and get a rubbery or gummy texture on the outside of the roll.  The waxed paper and parchment paper allows it to breathe, so the roll stays nice and cakey.

Not much more to say about this...it's delicious...enjoy!!

An Apple a Day...with a Healthy Dose of Imagination! How to Keep the Doctor Away

An Apple a Day...or Two.

Wow!  Being that it has either been super cold here or raining like Noah should be building another Arc, most of us have been cooped up inside for way too long this winter!  The weather here can get quite nasty, but usually there are spells of 'lets get outside' kind of weather, but not so much this year.  Spring and Summer ~ you guys have to make up for all of this!  I can see why people in super harsh environments go stir crazy...and we aren't even in that kind of climate!  Bring on spring!  But all of this dreaming of summery days has me looking back to summer's past, and the fact that I try to get my middle daughter to eat different kinds of fruit.  She's pretty finicky when it comes to stuff like that.  She eats apples and fresh from her garden cantaloupe, and some grapes...must be red, sweet, and she usually likes the seeded ones.  That's about it on fruit!  Last night, I made her try some pineapple...and...she liked it! Yay.  But just before she tried it, she said "I eat plenty of fruit!  And apple a day...or two!"  So that got me thinkng.

This was a good day...we found so many apples.  My Mom planted these when I was a kid, and they have gotten so big.  They grow along our treeline marking the property line, and to help keep animals on their own farms!  This tree was loaded with sweet and crisp reddish apples.  I don't remember the variety, but a wonderful crisp snacking apple!

This is a golden delicious tree, and my youngest daughter's preference.  It was loaded too!

 Sometimes it's not just apples that can keep the doctor away, I think a good dose of fresh air can do wonders. No hurry, no phone, no TV or internet...just fresh air and a mind for exploration.  I love days when we can just explore!  I have no idea what this weed is, but it blooms very prolifically in the fields around the farm.  It's gorgeous, and the yellow sprays sort of cascade towards the ground.

This is an old piece of apple wood near the big old trees on the hill.  We decided that this could be passed off as an old dinosaur skeleton!  A two horned dinosaur.

Along the banks of the pond are tons of plant life.  I've always called this pig weed,  I'm not really sure of the proper name, but again, it's plentiful around here!  Garter snakes love to hid out at the base of these weeds and the water line of the pond.  We got to watch one as it was sipping some water, or at least that's what it looked like it was doing!  Snakes don't gross me out at all, they are wonderful for my garden.  I like the black rat snakes too, but they are much more likely to be found near the woods, not the pond.  Snakes are like a natural critter control!

This frog, was just floating in the middle of the pond as we walked by, motionless.  I wasn't sure if it was even alive!  We took a tight zoom shot here, so we couldn't see that he was most likely hunting the smaller tadpole in the upper left of this shot.  As it float motionless in the middle of the pond, we tossed a rock in to see if it would move, and it did...like lightning!  It wasn't until we got back to our house, and uploaded these pics, that we realized we cost him his lunch...but we did, at least, prolong the life of that little tadpole!  But we did interrupt nature...next time we see a frog floating in the pond....we'll leave it alone!

Well, I shall continue to dream of warm sunny weather and keep looking at lovely summer memories on the computer. Till next time...have a great one!

Gardening...It's a Family Affair

It's still too cold to get outside and play in the dirt to get my garden and hopefully my new chicken coop ready and running for the summer season yet, so I continue to dream and plan big.  Mother Nature better give us the warm break we need soon, because the more I'm cooped up inside, the more ideas I get for the garden...oh, the ideas swirling around in my head!  I need my own full time garden staff!!!  Really.

This is my family, minus my oldest who now lives in the Arizona desert...a whole different world and different gardening world too.  My hubby and girls like to explore around the farm usually while I work in the garden.

They do get involved though, my youngest found and planted a volunteer tomato she found growing, and this is what came of it.  I think it's the parent of some Sweet 100's I had planted nearby the previous year.  Sweet 100 is a hybrid, so the seed from them may or may not come true to what was planted, ususally not.  So this is most likely an heirloom at this point, but I'm not sure the variety, some are smaller like cherry type tomatoes, but some larger than than a golf ball.  They were however, very sweet and the plant took up about one half of her raised bed!  She grew this tomato, cabbage, and kohlrabi.  Somehow this kid, doesn't like brussell's sprouts!  Go figure!

My hubby's love is hot peppers.  The hotter the better.  I guess it's a guy thing.  I can barely take any heat at all!  These are Ristra Cayenne peppers.  We got the seed from Burpee, I haven't seen it anywhere else.  They are a hybrid and mature to very bright reds, oranges, some yellows.  It can be eaten at this stage, and is quite hot, I think just hotter when they mature.  Peppers like the heat too...they love hot dry summers!  We were lucky last year, we got a great crop for his salsa.  Salsa is another story and another post.  Making it from scratch is definitely a labor of love...hours of chopping tomatoes, peppers, onion, parsley (I like parsley over cilantro, but I make some special jars just for the hubby with the cilantro).  Also, once you eat salsa made from the garden veggies that you grew and nurtured yourself, it takes on a whole new level, not only is it something you put on the table with your own hands and hard work, but the taste is not comparable to store bought salsa...I call it 'summer in a jar'.  The taste and texture are incredible.  My sister says it isn't salsa, it's a summer salad because you can literally eat it with a fork!  It's incredible. Yum.  I"m hungry just writing about it!

My other daughter is more into flowers right now.  She planted an entire raised garden bed with these beauties...Cockscomb Celosia.  Thomas Jefferson grew these in his Presidential Garden at Monticello.  His were scarlet, on of the colors of these, they bloomed in a variety of colors; reds, pinks, orange, yellow, and cream. This one is just starting to bloom, but the flower heads get huge...the size of your hand, and contain hundreds and hundreds of tiny florets that make a great show in the garden.  The bees and wasps absolutely loved to visit them, which in turn was great for my veggies...flying critters are the best pollinators and absolutely essential for a successful garden.  She also loves cantaloupe fresh off the vine.   It's the only melon she'll eat...Hale's Best Jumbo.  They are pretty and have an intense aroma on and off the vine.  That's how you can tell they are ripe, the aroma is unbelievable! The taste, again, not comparable with anything you can buy in the store.  I don't usually like cantaloupe, but I found out it's because of the shipping and handling, and them not being fully ripe when harvested.  When you pick one off the vine, it's intensely sweet and crisp...nothing mushy or soft about them, and no blah flavor.  She also fell in love with cosmos last year, so she'll be planting some this year too!

So, this is a mix of our peppers...it was a great year for them.  There are some Pinot Nior's here (the purple blush ones) that we primarily eat fresh, that is when my younger brother doesn't get to them first...they are his favorite.  Also shown are some regular sweet belle's cayenne, Thai Red's, Ristra, and Pinata, another hot hybrid from Burpee. They are similar to the Ristra, but offer more yellows and are brighter.  A good salsa pepper.  Actually, all but the Pinot Nior's are salsa peppers.  Just like a great apple pie, I believe a variety of flavors and tastes is what makes a great salsa!

One of my greatest loves are birds.  Any birds.  I find them fascinating...modern day dinosaurs.  They are so graceful in flight and amazingly efficient while hunting, foraging, nest building, and taking care of their young.  Each one is adapted for it's environment, as are plants.  I grow sunflowers just for the birds. Well, other critters too!  I have any kind of bird around visit them, minus hawks, but they will come around to hunt the critters that feed on the seeds...squirrels, chipmunks, smaller birds sometimes too, but they prefer the four legged critters!  I even have hummingbirds visit too for the pollen in summer.  This was a surprise to me, one day my next door neighbor told me that she saw 4 or 5 visiting at one time!  Incredible!  For years, I thought they only liked red.  My Dad used to buy only red or purple flowers just to attract the hummingbirds!  If only he knew they loved the sunflowers too!  They are natures perfect food for the animals  In the foreground of this pic are some of my daughter's celosia's.  Notice how some are spiked?

This is another post topic too!  Compost piles!  I always have something growing out the sides of mine, but I"ve started to intentionally add potatoes to the bottom of the pile.  Through the growing season, I just add to the pile as normal, but don't turn it except to mix the top.  I do add some dirt along the way to help things break down easier since the whole thing isn't turned until fall, but I found I can get a great harvest of potatoes this way.  Potatoes grow along with the compost pile and need hilled up anyway throughout the year, so I just add kitchen scraps, weeds, leaves, dirt, hay, paper, whatever, and dig the whole thing up in the fall.  It's fun for the kids.  They love to dig the potato crop from the 'black gold'!  I pick an all purpose potato for this, the season is long for them, and when the vine dies, we know it's time to harvest the potatoes!

I think these are the favorite components of our family garden, everyone's individual favorites.  I love that they love food fresh from the garden...now I just have to figure out a way for them to love to help me with all of the planting, the weeding, the mulching.  They are pretty good at helping with the harvest and enjoying the beauty of a garden, so that's a good thing...but I still want them to love the planting and weeding part of it too!  Maybe I should bury some money and prizes in the soil and tell them the one who finds the prize gets to keep it...really, I think that might be a good idea. And then there's the dream of adding chickens to the mix this year!!!

Till later, have a great one!!

Winter Finally Giving Way to Spring....Ahhhhh....

The dark eyed juncos are gone for the winter.

The cardinals are getting bright to attract a honey for the spring and summer.

The downy woodpeckers are looking for a honey too.

I saw my first robin a few weeks ago.  They are cold this past week with all of the cold weather we are having here.

The sap is coming up in the maples, and the squirrels are enjoying chewing on the ends of the branches.  They must taste good because they are all over the yard.  The blue skies make these colder days feel so much better!

The crocus' aren't out yet, but will be soon.  My daffodils and hyanciths are already peeking out of the ground. 

I can't wait for spring.  I think it might be most anticipated season of the year, at least around here.

Only Sometimes Clever Blog Giveaway

I love to garden...it's in my blood, and I'll grow just about anything I can get my hands on.  That's why I love to enter contests for seed giveaways.  Only Sometimes Clever is conducting such a giveaway of a wide range of seeds from Botanical Interests.  Here are a few of the favorites in our summer garden.

I love brussel's sprouts!  They are divine, and I can never seem to get enough of them.  I've found my 'new' favorite way to prepare them is sliced in half and baked or pan fried with just a bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of asiago cheese (any grated fresh italian type cheese is delicious!)  Add just a dab of butter right at the end, and the side dish suddenly gets a lot of attention!

Our garden isn't just about vegetables.  We grow flowers and veggies together harmoniously!  This is a cockscomb celosia, grown by my daughter in her raised garden bed that Botanical Interest's carried a few years ago, unfortunately, they don't carry this particular variety any longer, but since it's an heirloom, I can save the seeds, and luckily we did.  It also reseeds itself quite nicely, at least in our area, southwest PA, zone 6.  They are so gorgeous, and we have a mix of several colors.  They are stunning in the garden, and my daughter's favorite!

Now this beauty is a cabbage plant grown by my other daughter in her raised bed.  She's more of a vegetable farmer and loves to grow cabbage and tomatoes!  See how this one has some holes in the outher leaves?  No worry, the head of cabbage was just fine, we grow an organic garden, so sometimes the little critters get a bit hungry and can't resist the cabbage!  Bad critters, but hey, the cabbage is delicious and healthy, I can see why they would want to sneak a bite!  It's more work and more frustration to garden in an organic way, worth it to me in every way.

Now time for my fun favorite thing to grow, for pure pleasure. Sunflowers. They are amazing in every way. They grow strong from the start, rise above everything else, wake up and smile at the sun every morning, and provide a snack to eat and a perch to rest upon for so many birds in my yard and garden!  The squirrels and chipmunks love them too!


 Now, the thing I love about Only Sometimes Clever's blog giveaway, is that there is wide variety of prize packages; a children's garden, a flower garden, and container garden, and a heat tolerant garden for hot, dry climates.  Something for everyone!

Now, I shall continue to dream of spring, and thawed soil, and May when I can get my little baby seedlings and seeds into this chilled Pennsylvania soil!  Have a great one!