Enchiladas

My momma asked me for my recipe so, here it is;

1lb ground beef or chicken

onion

green pepper

Enchilada Sauce

Tortillas

Cheese, shredded

Brown your meat, onion, and pepper. Spoon it into a tortilla. Add a couple tablespoonfuls of the enchilada sauce. Roll it up and place it seam side down in your 9x13. Do this until your pan is full. Now, spoon the rest of the enchilada sauce over the tops of the tortillas. Top with shredded cheese. Now you can either bake it until the cheese melts and serve with sour cream or you can freeze them for later! Don't forget to line your 9x13 with foil if you are going to freeze them and they are great for a very easy clean up!

Garden Bounty

One great way to save money is by having a garden. This year we doubled the size of our's. We planted 2 types of tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, lettuce, onions, peas, green beans, and corn. We have had great success. I love sitting down to dinner and enjoying fresh snapped beans, peas, or corn, along with a fresh salad with tomatoes all from our backyard.

Fresh picked lettuce

Lil man thinks they are leaves and that he is eating something forbidden which makes it more fun for him! Hey, if he'll eat it I don't care what he calls it.

Fresh green beans. They have done great this year! Can't wait to enjoy them from the freezer in the dead of winter.

Sweet Corn. If my husband had his way his garden would consist of sweet corn and zucchini only. So, far we have gotten a dozen ears. The squirrels have declared war on our sweet corn and have been stripping the stalks and breaking them in half. I'm waiting for my husband to camp out there in a lawn chair with his BB gun. Hasn't happened yet.

First Little Girl Dress

I have never attempted to make clothes before and I found an adorable pattern The Abbey Dress made by Shwin & Shwin. She has the most adorable little girl clothing and shoe tutorials. What's great about this dress is it can be worn as a top the next year.

So, here's the finished product and I think it turned out well especially for my first try. I want to make the pleated mary jane shoes too so someone hurry up and have a girl for me to dress!

Cake Mix Cookies

Orange Cake Mix Cookies

1 box (18-19oz) Cake Mix any flavor

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 Tbsp of water

1/3 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cake mix, egg, oil, and water. Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar if desired.

Makes 3 Dozen

Lil Man giving his seal of approval!

Milk

We go through 2 gallons of milk per week! Did I mention that we are a family of THREE? I can't imagine how many gallons everyone else is going through. My husband keeps joking that with milk prices rivaling the price of gas (ridiculous) that we should invest in a cow. Too bad we live in town. It would be tempting. I have been researching other ways to save on milk. I found an article that shared a way of saving on milk that I had never even considered. The article can be found Here.

Another tip about saving on milk is buy it when it is the cheapest. Right now the cheapest I can find it is $2.19. If you are really super duper lucky you can once in a blue moon find it for $1.99. When you buy it at these prices STOCK UP! You can FREEZE Milk! The trick is to drink a glass before placing it in the freezer to allow for the liquid to expand as it freezes. If you don't you will have a serious mess.

If you have any tips on saving on milk I'd love to hear them!

Freezer Cooking Day

After I lugged all the meat into the house I got busy! Lil man thought it was a holiday because I let him watch movies to keep him entertained while I was in the kitchen.

The Pork Blade Steaks were seperated into 2 freezer bags, labeled, and dated. There were 4 huge steaks in the package and that will easily make 2 meals for our family.

I did the same thing with the Pork ribs.

There were 2 Pot Roasts in the package so one was placed in the freezer while the other one was thrown into the crock pot. Might as well conquer dinner now. I cut up 3 potatoes and dumped in some carrots too and "POOF" dinner is done!!

Now the 8lbs of hamburger. Out of it I made;
1 Meatloaf
12 extra large meatballs
4 hamburger patties
6 Enchiladas
1 Lasagna
1lb cooked taco meat
2 (1lb) bags of unseasoned cooked hamburger (to be used for spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes, etc.)

Extra Large Meatballs

Lasagna

Enchiladas

Pot Roast

My Freezer. We have a chest freezer in the garage too.

From all of the meat we will get a total of 13 meals, plus leftovers. The total of the meat alone was $36.02. When you divide that by 13 it comes out to $2.77 per main course. When you divide that by the total number of people you are feeding it becomes even smaller! In our family that's 3, which makes it $0.92 per person! On top of the money it saves it also saves me TIME! The most dreaded question of my day is, "What's for dinner?" Now we just have to pull something out and pop it into the oven. No prep work involved and minimal dishes!  You might say this is time consuming but, it really wasn't. I started at 9am and had prepared everything, stuck it in the freezer, and did all the kitchen clean up by 12pm. Plus, there were many interruptions and also lunch during this time. Don't get me wrong I was really tired after and took a nap when my son took his. Later that night I froze 1 quart of corn and 3 quarts of green beans from our garden. Then, I made homemade blueberry ice cream. This is not a normal cooking day for me. I hope this encourages you in your efforts to freezer cook.

IGA Meat Sale

I have slowly worked myself into freezer cooking. I started out with little things like chopped onions and peppers. Now, I'm doing main courses. Yesterday, lil man and I went to IGA. This is his fav place to shop because he gets to drive the car at the front of the cart plus, the cashiers always give him a sucker. They were having their family pack meat sale. This is my fav sale! Here's a run down of what I bought;

Hamburger 8lbs- It was on sale for $2.49/lb but, I got there early and got the reduced price meat for $1.99/lb = $15.52

Pork Blade Steaks - $3.76

Beef Chuck Pot Roast (2)- $8.48

Pork Boneless Ribs- $8.26

Pillsbury Biscuits 10/$10- I bought 6 and used 2 $0.30MCs, making them $0.90 per tube

Parkay Stick Margarine 10/$10- I bought 2 and used a $1.00MC, making them $0.50 each

Hamburger Helper 10/$10- I bought 8 and used 2 $0.80 off 4 MCs, making them $0.80 per box
I haven't bought Hamburger Helper in a long time but my husband likes to make it when he cooks so, if I get a night off of cooking I won't complain!

I spent a total of $47.32    According to the receipt I saved $17.90 or 27%. But, they didn't include the sale meat into that so, I saved more than that!