Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Our heat level is back to the normal 80's around here but our treat level is still high. Those kids and their summer treats. They seem to think that summer means special food everyday. One of their favorites among Popsicles, some form of pizza, and lemonade are frozen grapes.

When I first saw a friend pull a grape out of the freezer and pop it in their mouth I was shocked. I had never heard of such a thing. But the minute she let me have one I got it. It's like a healthy, grape-flavored Popsicle in a bite size package.

So, no recipe for this one. Just wash and dry some grapes and stick them in the freezer. Then you can pop them in your mouth or use them as ice cubes in your favorite summer drink.

What's cooking at your house?

If you'd like to share a recipe...

• Please link directly to your post, not your homepage. And...


• Please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

An Ice Bath Sounds Pretty Good Right Now

So....I've kind of thrown my menu plan out the window this week. It's been so freakishly hot that we've been hiding in my basement and the thought of coming upstairs and turning anything on that makes heat, makes me gag. In fact, sitting here with my laptop burning a hole through my bare legs is creating even more sweat. My only solace is the cold shower I'm going to take before getting into bed tonight and the fact that in the recesses of my freezer I found a box of frozen ho-ho's.

God is so very very good!

One dinner this week was cold cottage cheese, cold veggies and dip, and frozen blueberries with cold vanilla yogurt.

Notice the theme here?

Tonight....cold hard boiled eggs, more cold veggies and yogurt with fruit.

So what do you feed your family when it's too hot to cook?

GCC Shopping Round Up

I found that I had lots of produce either leftover from last week or growing in my garden (yahoo) so I didn't have to buy those things. Also I had a meaty chicken carcass from last week that will be used up this week.

AND, it's stinkin' hot here. We're talking 108 today when an average summer is in the 70's and 80's around here. So I caved and bought pre-made very un-frugal Popsicles today because the only energy I have left is used for sweating and that alone is exhausting.

Franz

3 loaves of bread, 1 bag of bagels, 1 bag of English Muffins $4.70

S & S Liquidators

3 bottles of dressing $1.00

2 bags of chocolate chips $1.98

Olive Oil $3.99

Starbucks Coffee $2.00

Grocery Outlet

TP $2.99

razors $1.99

Soap $.99

Linguine $.99

Feta $1.59

Parmesan $1.99

2 bottles lemon juice $1.98

Olives $.79

2 breath sprays $1.98

Win-co
Bulk Sea Salt $.11

5 dozen eggs $3.98

2 sausage links $1.96

Yogurt $1.78

Bulk brown sugar $1.64

Bulk white sugar $1.92

Deodorant $1.98

Broccoli $1.92

Ice cream push-ups $2.48

Fudgesicles $2.38

Bulk granola $2.07

Margarine $1.98

Bananas $1.90

Grand Total $55.06

If you'd like to show the rest of us how your shopping trip went this week, please do!

• Please link directly to your shopping post, not your homepage.
• Please include a link from your post back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Plan Monday

This week I'll be shipping off two of my youngest kids to their annual beach trip with Grandma so I will have a few less tummies to feed. But I'll also be adding a baby appetite. A friend is off on a mission trip so I'll be watching her 18 month old for a few days. Also, one of my dinners last week got skipped as we went to a family dinner instead. I'll be adding it back into this weeks menu. Here's what's cooking this week.

Breakfasts

Leftover Freezer Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Muffins and fruit

Blueberry sour cream scones and fruit

Toasted bagels and fruit

Apple and Oats Breakfast Pudding

Yogurt Parfaits

Leftover Muffins

Dinners

Fusilli with no cook tomato sauce, green beans

Greek Couscous with chicken

Broccoli and Pasta, marinated tomato salad

Scrambled Eggs, Hashbrowns, Toast, Sausage

Chef Salad made with garden veggies

Ground Beef Stroganoff with rice and hot buttered peas

Leftover Buffet

Check back tomorrow to see how my $60 stretched to feed us this week and you can go see Organizing Junkie for more Menu Plans.

Weekend Link Luv

My sister found this story about a man who has been living for years with no money. None. It's quite interesting to read up on how he does it. While it's too extreme for me, it's really an interesting concept to live without the pressure of working for, needing, or spending money. Go check it out HERE.


There's Pampered Chef parties and Avon parties and Tupperware parties and Candle parties....but have you ever been to a clothing swap party? Clean out your closets, get some friends together and go shopping without the need to check price tags. I love it! Go Here to find out the details on how to host your own clothes swap. How cool!

Have a great weekend and see you on Menu Plan Monday!

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Hi all! I've been so busy visiting with bloggy friends tonight that I didn't put together a recipe to share. But feel free to participate.

If you would like to share a recipe...

• Please link directly to your post, not your homepage.


• Please include a link back to the Grocery Cart Challenge from your post.

Here we go!

Clothing Kids For Cheap

My newest newspaper column is up. You can read it HERE. It's all about how to clothe your kids on a small budget.

Cleaning Cloth Diapers With Homemade Laundry Soap

One of many frugal regrets I have is that I wasn't savvy enough to use cloth diapers. I still was a newby at frugality when my first was a baby, over 13 years ago, and the gross factor had much more power over me than it does now.

So when Colleen sent me an email asking about using my Homemade Laundry Soap to clean cloth diapers, I drew a blank. Here's her e-mail...

Hi Gayle,

I have been using your homemade laundry detergent for a little over a year now w/o any trouble. So, I want to first thank you and then ask if any of your readers have said that they safely wash cloth diapers w/ the homemade detergent. I am concerned b/c some sites warn against using borax claiming that is is abrasive. I already wash my baby's clothes w/ the homemade detergent, but wanted to play it safe with the diapers since they come into such close contact w/ a delicate area. :)

Thanks, for your time and all of the great ideas that you put out there for all of us!

Sincerely,
Colleen

Does anyone have an answer to Colleen's question?

GCC Shopping Round Up - She Used A Coupon!!!

A lot of people do one of two things when they read my blog. They either assume that I use coupons to get my budget this low or they try and convince me that I should be using coupons. In fact the coupon crowd is a very passionate one and I'm hesitant to even bring up my lack of couponing because as I result I sometimes get "YOU FREAK, YOU NEED TO BE USING COUPONS" hate-mail, or I get rudely discussed on coupon forums whenever I talk about the fact that I very seldom use them. I'm not anti-coupon, I'm just not willing to invest the time and education into figuring out all the creative ways to manipulate them to get the best deals...YET. I'm not saying never. Just saying IF I ADD ANYTHING MORE TO MY PLATE RIGHT NOW I MIGHT JUST HAVE A TOTAL BREAKDOWN.

So, for where I'm at right now, I have a few rules in my personal coupon use...

• If it's for something I would normally buy, I'll use one.
• If it creates a price cheaper than my local liquidators, I'll use one.
• If I don't have to travel miles out of my way to redeem it, I'll use one.
• If it's simple (no figuring out what to match, no buying extra newspapers, no research, no educating myself on doubling or tripling) I'll use one.

So today I actually found one that I could use. My local liquidator had a "buy $15, get $5 off". I almost screamed because THAT is a coupon I could use. I normally spend that much anyway so I ended up getting $5 of free stuff. Plus I ran a quick errand at a local Safeway last week and picked up a prescription and received a "buy $10 in produce and receive $3 off". So I'll try and figure out how to make the most of that one soon.

So here's how the shopping went...

S & S Liquidators (I accidentally got the bandaids in the wrong picture so disregard these)

2 cans of pears $1.38

garbage bags $.99

2 packs of strawberries $1.98

2 diced tomatoes $.78

2 cans beans $.78

1 can artichoke hearts $.69

soy milk $.99

grape tomatoes $.99

12 apples $3.00

Coffee $1.99

Bananas $.79

4 candy bars (not in picture $1.00

(-$5.00 off coupon)

Grocery Outlet

Bandaids $.99

3 Mac & Cheese $1.00

Olives $.79

Whole Chicken $6.33 (-$1 off)

Sliced turkey $1.99

Mozzarella $1.99

Parmesan $1.99

Win-co

2 gallons milk $3.96

Lemon juice $1.79

Cilantro $.38

Tomatoes $1.85

French Bread $1.48

Frozen corn $.98

Grapes $2.32

Bulk Fusilli Pasta $.89

Bulk Couscous $.82

Bulk cranberries $.57

Bulk pine nuts $1.81

Bulk chicken soup base $1.29

Bulk dried mango $.65

Bulk granola $1.72

Bulk oats $.21

Bulk cumin $.24

Bulk tortellini $5.15

Bulk whole wheat flour $1.23

Celery $.71

2 margarine $1.56

2 yogurt $3.56

Lime juice $.54

Grand Total $58.15

If you'd like to share your shopping trip please make sure to link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Menu Plan Monday - It's Totally Hot!

When the summer months hit I usually plan my menu around the weather. Last week we had a few rainy cool days before it started to heat up to the 90's. This week, we're talking heat, heat and more heat. In an effort to keep it cool, I've planned lots of cold meals that I can put together early in the day and just pull from the fridge in the evening.

I'm also going to whip up a batch of Whole Wheat Honey dough and keep it in the fridge this week. Each morning I'll pull off what I need for that days bread. I'll be making rolls, breadsticks and loaves with it this week. I'll just shape it in the morning, let it have one rise, and then bake it early in the day before the house heats up.

Breakfasts

Toast with homemade jam and fruit

Summer Oatmeal

Yogurt, Berry and Granola Parfait

Pancakes with Homemade Syrup

Chocolate Chip Muffins and fruit

Scrambled eggs and toast

Leftover pancakes or muffins

Dinners

Black Bean & Couscous Salad, French Bread

Cheese Tortellini Pesto Pasta Salad (homemade Pesto made with my garden basil) Peasant Bread

Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken, Fresh veggies and dip, Whole Wheat Honey Breadsticks

No Mayo Waldorf Salad, Whole Wheat Honey Rolls

Fusilli with No Cook Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella, garden salad

Chef Salad with thick sliced Whole Wheat Honey Bread and garlic butter

Leftovers

Go see more delicious menus at Organizing Junkie.

Weekend Link Luv

Hot summer but no air conditioning? Here's how to make a homemade air conditioner for around $30.

Got a garage sale planned for the summer? Here's a link to some great tips for a successful sale from the Yard Sale Queen.

Got a dog with fleas, upset tummy or skin problems? Check out this site for natural and frugal health remedies. A lot of vet visits can be avoided with home treatment for minor ailments.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Menu Plan Monday.

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Prepping for my parents moving sale and helping them put their house on the market has been kickin' my butt this week. It's almost like working a part time job. I have the morning to get all my work at home done and then the afternoon is filled with sorting and pricing and organizing and running errands and all kinds of stuff.

Along with that we are training and breaking in our new sweet dog Tucker. He's had a few accidents that were purely our fault because we weren't able to read the "Dude, I have to pee!" signals that he was giving us. I think we finally have it figured out but not without a few spot removal treatments on my carpet.

Having a dog has been an education in itself. It's amazing how much cruddy food and treats there are out there and a poorly fed dog can result in some seriously expensive vet bills. So we've opted for a pricier and higher quality dog food in an effort to avoid exorbitant health care costs. And while we're willing to pay a bit more for good food, I've found that I can make healthy and nutritious dog treats for a pennies, saving us even more money. And since we're in training mode, dog treats are very important at this point.

So here's a great doggy treat recipe. These can be stored in the freezer if you make a big batch, or in an airtight container for about a week. The ingredients are thrifty and nutritious and Tucker gave us several happy licks of gratefulness.

Homemade Doggy Treats

2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup powdered milk

1 egg, beaten
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
2 jars strained baby food (, any flavor, all natural and no preservatives)

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. In a large bowl combine all ingredients together and make a thick dough. Knead on a slightly floured surface for about 4 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth. Sprinkle a little more flour over the dough to make rolling easy. Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters or a small drinking glass to cut out shapes. Bake on a ungreased cookie sheet for about 2o minutes. Let doggie biscuits cool for at least 1/2 hr before serving.

If you'd like to share a recipe...

• Please link directly to your post, not your homepage.


• Please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge from the body of your post.

Thrifty Beauty Products

I try to be frugal with all things, not just food. Beauty products are SO overpriced anymore that any way I can cut on cosmetic costs is a great thing. On that note, one of my favorite beauty rituals is to exfoliate.

I like to slough off the dead skin and oils that can accumulate on my skin overtime to reveal the last vestiges of my youth full face. (There's not a whole lot of youth left anymore so I have to work with what little I have left.) And instead of spending $10 on a bottle of fancy exfoliater I've found a quick, simple and cheap way to reveal the fresh skin underneath.

When washing my face I suds up my hands with the soap and then I sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar or salt to provide a grainy texture. Then I wash my face with the mixture, rubbing in a circular pattern, and rinse.

Voila! Fresh rosy skin.

For more WFMW tips visit HERE.

GCC Shopping Round Up

I feed off my routine and when there is a change I feel all disoriented and weird. That's how my shopping trip went today. Normally my Monday mornings start with rushing out the door to my mother's with my four kids. She babysits on Monday mornings so I can shop alone. Today it was four kids and a dog, since Tucker isn't ready to be left alone in the house yet. Then I usually have tea with a friend before my shopping starts but she was on vacation so I was just in a daze, not knowing what to do with my free time.



Is that sad or what? All that free time and I didn't know what to do with it!



So here's what I came home with...



S & S Liquidators

Mayo $.99
2 lbs Strawberries $1.98
Dishwasher detergent $.99
3 cans spaghetti sauce $1.00
2 toothpaste $1.98
2 chocolate chips $1.98
8 apples $2.00



Grocery Outlet

4 cans tuna $2.76
TP $2.99
Toothbrush $.79
Green beans $.59
3 mac & cheese $1.00
Smoked Sausage $3.49
Conditioner $3.49
2 lbs Shredded cheese $.4.99



Win-co


Bulk granola $1.41
Bulk dry milk $2.99
Cream cheese $.88
Bulk walnuts $3.66
Bulk wagon wheel pasta $1.02
Bulk brown sugar $1.13
Broccoli $1.45
Onion $.43
Bananas $2.15
Bulk linguine $.66
2 gallons milk (not pictured) $3.96
10 lbs flour (not pictured) $3.32


Grand Total $54.08


Would you like to share your shopping trip with us?

1. Please link to your post, not your homepage.
2. Please include a link back to the Grocery Cart Challenge from the body of your post.

***Mr. Linky seems to have mysteriously disappeared and so has their site. Hmmm. If you have a link please leave it in the comments. I'm hoping it will magically re-appear at some point so you can see all the links that were already entered. I'm sorry guys. It's beyond my control at this point.

Menu Plan Monday

We have a busy week ahead as we work on a moving sale and get ready to put my parents old house on the market. 30 years of stuff is a lot of work but their new house is amazing and they were ready for a change. I tried to plan my menu with meals that could be prepared ahead of time or were simple to throw together when I could grab a few minutes, while still basing my meals around items that are already in my cupboards.

Breakfasts

Oatmeal and apples

Triple Threat Oatmeal Bars and fruit

Apple Enchiladas

Yogurt, berry, and granola parfaits

Poached eggs and toast

Toast and fruit

Leftover Oatmeal Bars

Dinners

Broccoli and Pasta, tomato salad

Vegetarian Meatballs (doubled for later in the week) for Divine Meatball Sandwiches, Cole slaw

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans

Kielbasa Pasta Skillet Dinner

Easy Crockpot Spaghetti and Meatballs, garden salad

Tuna Sandwiches, veggies and dip

Leftover Night

For more great menu plans go see orgjunkie.com.

Weekend Link Luv

I've been experimenting with all kinds of homemade dish washing detergent over the last year with no success. I'm not kidding either and I'm frustrated as heck. About the only consistent thing it does is leave a film all over my dishes and gum up the works in my dishwasher. So periodically I need to clean it out. HERE is a great way to clean out your dishwasher in a safe, thrifty and sparkly way.

I love the Instructables sight. It has so many do it yourself projects on it and they break it down nice and simple. HERE'S a great one if you've been thinking about starting your own square foot garden. It's easy and you can grow an amazing amount of food in a small space with very little weeding.

Pauline asked me for a homemade oven cleaner recipe and I came across THIS list with several options. That's about the only thing in my house that cleans itself so I haven't tried these yet but they look like good ones.

And news on the home front....Have you wondered why I've been putting my posts up later than usual? Well, we added a fifth mouth to feed to the family this week so I've been a little busy getting to know the little guy.

Meet Tucker.

No, not a baby....a dog.

My teenage son wanted a dog, found his own work, and managed to save several hundred dollars to cover the adoption fee, vet visit, neuter, and food for his dog all by himself. It was a great money management/responsibility lesson as he learned to budget, plan and work diligently. This won't increase MY monthly budget, but now I get to pass down my budgeting lessons for my son to learn.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend and we'll see you on Menu Plan Monday.

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

We have four sinks, three showers and three toilets and with six people living in this house they can get clogged. Instead of expensive chemicals to unclog our drains, we use an inexpensive alternative that doesn't have any nasty fumes.

Homemade Drain Cleaner

1/4 cup baking soda

1/2 cup vinegar

Pour baking soda down drain and follow with vinegar. Let sit for 20 minutes.

This cleans our grease clogs, most hairballs, and even helps clogged toilets that plunging hasn't helped. We let it sit and foam up in a clogged toilet and then a few more plunges and down it goes.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to share?

• Please link directly to your post, not your homepage.


• Please include a link back to the Grocery Cart Challenge from your post.

Grocery Cart Challenge Around The Net

You can check out my latest Common Cents article in The Daily News HERE today. It's all about frugal recipes for potluck dishes this summer.

And if you visit Tip Junkie you'll see my Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe was featured along with several other great ideas.

Have a great Wednesday!

How To Make Homemade Frozen Hashbrowns

Comfort food is my weakness...specifically carbs. Aside from chocolate all it takes is potatoes or pasta or bread to fill my cravings. I really love frozen hash brown casseroles and hash browns fried up all golden and crispy with my eggs. But have you seen the price of the packages of frozen hash browns? Seriously. There better be some kinda crazy cracker jack prize inside for me to pay that.

So when I came across 2-15lb bags of free potatoes this week that only had 6 rotten ones in the whole bunch (and I'm kicking myself for not grabbing all 6 bags) the first thing I thought was "Homemade Frozen Hash browns!" So here is how it's done.

First peel each potato, cut it in half and put it in a pot of cold water.

Boil for 10 minutes or until just tender. They will feel sticky on the outside but still give a bit of resistance to a fork being poked into them. This short cooking time will give them just enough heat to keep them from turning brown in the freezer.

Remove potatoes from pot of boiling water and place in a large bowl.

Cover with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Refrigerate overnight.

The next day drain your potatoes.

Either grate them or shred them in your food processor.

Then fill a freezer bag with your shredded potatoes. I store them in serving sizes so for the six of us that's a gallon bag. That's also a similar size to store bought hash browns so if you're using them in a casserole you'll have the right amount. Make sure to squeeze out any extra air.

Store them flat in your freezer so it takes up minimum space.

To cook them heat frying pan over medium-high heat. Add butter or margarine. Place shredded potatoes in pan. Cook for approximately until bottom is browned. Flip potatoes and cook until browned again. Season with salt and pepper. Or use in your favorite recipe.

This post is part of WFMW.

GCC Shopping Round Up - FREE STUFF!

I was so pleased to find that I had arrived at my favorite liquidator to see that their produce truck had just finished unloading fresh goods. That was also the clue to check by their back freight door to see what they might have cleared out of their bins and put outside for the pickers like me. Many times grocery stores will take the produce that might not look fresh anymore and set it out by a back door for people to pick through before it goes into the garbage. Most fruit and vegetables sell when they are pre-ripened. So when it starts to look ripe or less than perfect they can't sell it anymore.

What I ended up with was 30 lbs of potatoes, 21 Roma tomatoes, 2 heads of cabbage, and 3 heads of broccoli.

FREE!

So this week I'll be letting you in on some secrets for using up produce that has a very short shelf life.

Here's how the rest of the trip went...

S & S Liquidators

Can crushed pineapple $.79
Frosting $.33
Mustard $.99
Sweet n low $1.99
8 apples $2.00
8 tomatoes $2.00
4 nectarines $1.00
4 lbs strawberries $3.96
Dressing $.99
2 cucumbers $1.00
Broth $.99
Oil $3.99

Grocery Outlet

2 pkgs. Shredded Cheese $3.98
graham crackers $1.39
Parmesan $1.99
Sour Cream $3.99
3 mac and cheese $1.00
Feta $1.79
2 cans olives $1.58


Win-co

8lbs sugar $3.90
Tea bags $1.12
Milk $1.98
Margarine $.78
Whole milk $1.18
5 dozen eggs $3.88
5 cream cheese $4.40
Bulk oats $.29
Yogurt $1.78
Bulk brown sugar $.96
Bulk almonds $1.02
Bulk granola $.96
Bulk powdered sugar $.62
Bulk tortellini $2.94
Bulk yeast $1.66
Bulk bowties $.47
Bulk sea salt $.16
5 lb carrots $2.48
Pepperoni $2.47
3 lbs bananas $1.76

Grand Total $70.56 A little over but not bad.

If you'd like to share your grocery shopping experience here are the rules to participate...

• Please link directly to your post not your homepage
• Please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge from your post.

Menu Plan Monday

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. We were invited to a party where my kids spent five straight hours in the pool punctuated only by bathroom breaks and a quick raid of the buffet table. I soaked up every ounce of sunshine I could get and played lifeguard with one eye while catching up with my sweet friend during the whole five hours. It was a good day.

This week the weather looks to be a little cooler so I'll be firing up the oven once again. We also are hosting a family dinner at our house so I get to cook for company which is always fun.

Breakfasts

Oats with apples and cinnamon

Yogurt and fruit parfaits

Cream Cheese Almond Coffee Cake with fruit

Pancakes with homemade syrup

Carrot Cake Muffins and fruit

Farina Breakfast Pudding

Leftover Muffins

Dinners

Lentil Burritos

Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Veggies with dip

Mock Tuna Salad Sandwiches, pickles, fruit

Stir Fry over rice

Marinated Deer Roast with roasted veggies, green salad, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls, Strawberry Cheesecake

Tortellini and Bow Tie Pasta Salad, Peasant Bread

Leftover Buffet Night

For more great menu's go visit HERE. Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see my perform magic tricks with my $60 budget.

Frugal Summer Dinner

The weather here has been beautiful, but also hot. It's been in the 90's for the past few days and since that's rare in the Pacific Northwest, not many of us have air conditioning. So the thought of heating up my house by cooking dinner made me sweat just thinking about it.

Instead I noticed that my first batch of garden lettuce was ready to be used. Yay! My first meal from the garden this year. I tore up the lettuce in a salad bowl, cut the sweet corn off the leftover cob in the fridge from earlier in the week and put that on top of the lettuce. Next went some hard boiled eggs for protein, sliced tomatoes, and my freezer held some boneless pork that I thinly sliced and pan fried in olive oil.

A few slices of my homemade Peasant Bread and Voila! A low-heat dinner.

While the hot days of summer are here, our dinner standby is usually some sort of salad. This was one that turned out good enough to photograph.

Weekend Link Luv

HERE'S a great article on how to frugally keep your kids clothed. We use a lot of these methods ourselves but there were a few new ones in there.

I've always wanted to make homemade vanilla and when Heavenly Homemaker did a tutorial that was all I needed to take the leap. I really liked her tutorial but I wasn't completely satisfied with the total cost so I found another article HERE that uses less vanilla beans, less maturing time and different alcohol options that might cut the costs. I would love to bottle these up for Christmas gifts.

Several of you sent me a link to a great article on determining whether you're getting a good deal on your toilet paper purchases. HERE'S the link to figure out whether you're getting the best wipe for your butt...er...I mean BUCK!

Amy in Horseshoe Lake, AR was looking for a recipe for homemade Nestle Quick to make cold chocolate milk. I scoured the Internet and all the recipes I could find were for a chocolate syrup, or using powdered milk. (sorry Amy, that's what's been taking me so stinking long to answer your e-mail.) Does anyone have a recipe for the powder that you stir into a glass of milk?

Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Menu Plan Monday!

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Oops. This week got away from me so I'm just going to let you jump right in to the recipe swap.

If you have a recipe you'd like to share please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and please include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge from your post. Feel free to grab the button at the top if you'd like.

Emergency...Come Pick These Raspberries!

My parents bought a new house with an amazing yard full of different types of berries and fruit trees. And as they experience their first summer, and find all the goodies that are planted there, I get to reap the benefits. Mom called today to help pick the raspberries as they were starting to fall on the ground. How could I resist?

We came home with a bucket full.

I knew that if I didn't do something with them quickly they would get nibbled until they disappeared. I scoured the cupboards and found 2 boxes of sure-jell, plenty of pint size jars with lids and enough sugar to do two batches of freezer jam. I did have to add some blueberries from the freezer to have enough berries for the second batch but, Oooh Baby, was it yummy.

Jam and jelly isn't usually on our menu so this is a big treat for us. It usually falls in the "want" category instead of the "need" category so it's so fun to have some put away.

I now have 4 pints of raspberry jam and 4 pints of raspberry/blueberry jam. I used the recipe off the box and it turned out great.

I feel like a rich woman.

Use It Up Breakfast Turns Gourmet

I found myself with pancakes on the menu but several ingredients that I wanted to use up. We came up with a frugal-gourmet breakfast that was picture worthy.

I made pancakes from scratch adding in some oats, and OJ that needed to be used up.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup rolled oats

2 Tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup OJ

4 Tablespoons cooking oil

I also found that I had some strawberries that had a life span of about 30 seconds and way, way in the back of the fridge.....a can of whipped cream.

Jackpot!

That left us with fiber filled pancakes with a hint of orange topped with berries and cream.

Frugality ain't just beans and rice folks!