Life was less complex before computers came along...
…But life was not nearly as much fun, either! Why are we discussing computers on a food blog? Simply because yesterday there were gremlins on the internet, messing with Mother Connie’s blog! She spent quality time, inserting great ideas for leftover turkey fixings from here, there and everywhere, only to have the entire post disappear into cyberspace. Not only is yesterday’s post AWOL, many of the great comments our Club Members left for one another have come up missing! OUCH!
Such is life. But here we all are – still standing, nobody died and we all had dinner last night. Proof positive that life does go on. GRIN
Give Mother Connie time to regroup and maybe even recreate yesterday’s “masterpiece”. Sincere thanks to all the Club Members who did their best to access the post and the comments. Your support is so greatly appreciated.
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
Who knew our Thanksgiving luncheon would yield such great FRUGAL and tasty ideas?
Today our little community gathered at the Baptist Fellowship Hall for a traditional Thanksgiving luncheon and devotional. There must have been 75 souls there and probably that many salads from which to choose!
It was our great good fortune to sit with Mr. and Mrs. Gieser, who also happen to be paper customers of ours. As they were seated, they reminded one another that their stash of rubber bands was still in the pantry, waiting to be donated to their paper carrier!
There was a lot of small talk around the table but when women gather, you have to know that the subject always gets around to food!
Mrs. Gieser had been visiting Mrs. Barden, who happens to be in her late 90′s and lives in the block next to the Giesers. They got talking about the garden and Mrs. B was surprised to learn that Mrs. G is STILL GARDENING IN LATE NOVEMBER!
SIDEBAR: The Normanator, an accomplished master gardener and certified Ag Man, really took note of this piece of news! We were floored that anyone would continue to harvest garden goods in Nebraska at this stage of the growing season. END SIDEBAR.
You have to know Mrs. G. is a darling little woman…she is modest and productive, and even though she carries a Medicare card she gets around town and gets things done BIG TIME. She smiled sweetly and told us how she had found plastic wading pools that were either to be discarded or were found at yard sales and filled them with soil. Those pools-turned-gardens live under the giant umbrella of the back yard shade trees and have been carefully covered, yielding sumptuous, luxurious greens for this bride of 50+ years to prepare for her and her groom!
I admired her pluck and her resourcefulness. Everyone within earshot at our table agreed that this was the best frugality we had heard of all day!
Our own pastor gave a lovely devotional thought about how Thanksgiving is observed in Mexico. I had always thought Thanksgiving was an American tradition even if the original feast did not take place the way we were taught. We learned today that in Mexico there is a celebration of thanks for all cultures, all races, all beliefs and all people.
Hey. That works for ME. And next year I’ll do all in my power to get some plastic wading pools and make an “everlasting” garden like Mrs. Gieser’s.
By the way, she was thrilled to know about the recipe we had recently for Swiss Chard and lentils. Kale and Swiss Chard are pretty much interchangeable and both are scrumptious. AND, I might add, they are very frugal menu items!
For people who use SNAP or WIC’s EBT cards or those dependent upon food commodities and food pantry food, this could really be useful information. Well, even those who have Angel Food Ministries food or ordinary gardens; those who love to be thrifty and frugal and grow their own food can appreciate the worth of Mrs. Gieser’s Yankee Ingenuity!
Here’s hoping all your Turkey Day plans are falling into place just the way you’d planned. We hope to hear from you at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com because we love being in your loop!
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
We’ve been in a dither around the Club House, making nice, looking for bargains, cooking and baking…today we want to stop the busyness and take time to let you know how we REALLY feel…
This little blog started out as a helpful offering to help solve the issues of rising food prices. It never occurred to your humble blogger that it would become the force it has. I could not have envisioned the sense of community that has risen here out of the ethers of intention and care.
It has become the mover and shaker it is, not because of Mother Connie, but because of YOU, the Club Members and contributors. You all are home cooks, thrifty shoppers, parents, grandmothers-even fellow bloggers and you have given yourselves to a cause greater than yourselves.
Those of you who have written comments, recipes, blog posts, and been encouraging in so many ways offline, too, are in my eternal debt of gratitude.
For each of you I ask God’s richest blessings on you and yours this Thanksgiving holiday. May you be well and happy and may you all return for more fun as this holiday passes and the next one pops up!
Remember that each of you is deeply loved, appreciated and cherished. Please consider yourselves hugged!
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
This young man is responsible for today's post! He wrote an insightful piece for his newspaper, The Columbia Tribune. You'll love it, especially if you ever frequent Farmers Markets!
This handsome YOUNG man-I swear he looks to be too young to drive!-is T J Greaney and his well written article caught my eye. I have his permission to reprint what appeared in the Columbia, Missouri DailyTribune on Sunday, November 21, 2010:
At the Columbia Farmers Market yesterday, Stephanie McGuire used an EBT card given to all recipients of food stamps. The mother of two asked for only $24 worth of wooden tokens, which are redeemable as cash at the stalls in the outdoor market, but instead she received double that amount.
It wasn’t a mistake.
McGuire is part of a pilot program sponsored by Sustainable Farms and Communities Inc. that is doubling the food stamp dollars for shoppers at the market.
“Everything here is so amazing,” McGuire said while toting a bag of butternut squash, acorn squash and potatoes. “We never realized how big the farmers market is and how bountiful it is, really.”
The program will officially launch in March and organizers hope they can raise $50,000 to fully fund it, making it available to all local food stamp recipients. The program now is in a trial stage with only a handful of participants.
Casey Corbin, executive director of Sustainable Farms and Communities Inc., said the idea behind the project is to give people who live on a fixed budget access to locally grown produce, meats and dairy.Many of the healthy foods found at the outdoor market are more expensive than those in supermarkets, and food stamp recipients typically are unable to pay a premium for higher quality.
The pilot program seeks to eliminate that barrier.
“It’s like walking through the market and everything’s 50 percent off,” Corbin said. “And some vendors have already pledged to offer further discounts for people with the cards.”
Congress created the Farmers Market Nutrition Program for WIC participants in 1992 and expanded those benefits to low-income seniors in 2000. However, the funds for those programs are limited, typically maxing out at $30 per recipient per year. In 2008, a private organization based in Connecticut, Wholesome Wave, pushed the concept even further by doubling food stamps used at participating markets. That program has been successfully implemented at dozens of markets across the nation.
Sustainable Farms and Communities Inc. hopes to bring the Wholesome Wave model to Columbia.
Yesterday, Corbin and others held a fundraiser at Orr Street Studios to kick off what advocates hope will be a successful winter of fundraising from private donors.
In addition to doubling food stamps, the group also plans to hold community cooking classes and hand out free pots, pans, utensils and cookbooks to needy families.
Corbin said the instructional classes will be held in local churches and teach basic food safety and recipes.
“One of the big concerns in our community meetings was, ‘What good is it to have great access to healthy foods you can afford, when most people who have been living off frozen foods from Sam’s Club don’t know how to cook anymore?’” Corbin said. “I personally don’t know that many people who know how to cook.”
McGuire, who works part time as a breastfeeding peer counselor, said she likes the fact that the trips to the market are opening her daughters’ eyes to new foods.
Yesterday as father, Shane Capuano, cuddled 6-month-old Keira in his arms, the couple’s 3-year-old Rhiannon excitedly walked from stall to stall.
She watched eagerly as an accordion player belted out “Old McDonald.” This wasn’t like a typical trip to the supermarket.
“I think she’s tried a lot of things here that she wouldn’t normally, because a lot of the sellers here will hand you pieces of different kinds of vegetables just as samples,” McGuire said.
“Last time we were here, someone said, ‘Hey, would you like to try a turnip?’ And she was like “OK” and that’s not something we eat a lot of. It definitely gives her a new perspective.”’
SO! There you have it, kids. If YOU are a user of an EBT card for SNAP or WIC; if you love fresh fruits and veggies and other goodies readily available at Farmers Markets or if YOU use foods from a food pantry or YOU have food commodities, this item is no doubt of interest to you. If you use Angel Food bundles this should appeal to you, as those can be purchased with EBT cards. Even if you are just cost conscious about YOUR own food budget, this article should give you hope about getting families fed.
We at the Club want to thank Mr. T J Greaney and his newspaper for granting us permission to use the article. I hope you will cruise on over to his newspaper and leave your comment…AFTER you leave one HERE, of course. Grinning and winking…Here’s hoping you will find time to send us a message at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com, too.
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
After a big dinner, there'll be time for coffee and relaxation. Then it's on to the leftovers!
When the Thanksgiving feast has satisfied your appetite and you are so full you think you’ll never be hungry again-ever-the last thing on your mind is the next meal!
But we all know those next meals come around with precision and the remains of our feast can be the beginning of wonderful new and fresh culinary offerings.
Take, for instance, Maxine’s turkey club sammies and her potato salad. She mentioned those in yesterday’s post; I twisted her arm a bit to coax a recipe from her. My personal belief is that we all make potato salad the way our mothers did.
SIDEBAR: Maxine put her recipe in as a comment but I added it here, just in case you overlooked it in the comments section. END SIDEBAR.
Is it even possible to make a little bit of potato salad???????
***Mother Connie here: Not in my world!
You probably all know this trick, but it came to me late in life, LOL. Instead of slicing/chopping the hard-boiled eggs, mash them in the bottom of the bowl. You can use a fork or a pastry blender, or ??? Makes the salad taste lots better!! Also, I use both sweet and dill pickles in my potato salad.
Boiled potatoes
Mashed hard boiled eggs
Green onions, including some of the tops
Chopped celery
Chopped dill pickle
Chopped sweet pickle
A little finely chopped red or green bell pepper, if I have any
A slosh of sweet pickle brine – good flavor and reduces amount of mayo
Mayonnaise – I use lite
Dab of prepared mustard
Salt
Pepper
Dried dill weed
My daughter likes black olives, too, but I normally don’t bother.
Maxine, the idea of using a pastry blender to chop the eggs is pure genius! Thanks for that tip AND the recipe!
We have another tip from Club Member, Loris. We thank her for sharing this idea:
‘For anyone who is having trouble chopping onions without the crying, here’s an incredibly simple tip – put them in the fridge first, then chop them straight away after taking them out! No more tears!’
~Loris
Loris also sent along a list of soup recipes. If you are interested to have that info, please shoot an email to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com
Are you using goods from a food pantry or Farmers Market? Do you have food commodities? How about SNAP or WIC – do you have an EBT card for either of those? Do you have a bundle from Angel Food Ministries?It could be such a thing that you are by nature a frugal person, careful as can be with your food budget. In any case, this little blog was designed with YOU in mind. We love hearing from you about what goes on in YOUR kitchen and around YOUR table, so please feel free to share your stories. This is YOUR blog as much as anybody’s.
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
Under the big top of the pumpkin is a frugal, festive feast!
Okay, kids! We are really close to the Big Day!
This is good news if you have been following the sage advice Maxine has been dishing up for us. This is particularly so if you are users of an EBT card from SNAP or WIC or if you have goods from a food pantry or you are using food commodities. If you have Angel Food bundles, you have the fixings Maxine suggests, too. Or, maybe you are just frugal by nature and love to grab bargains so your holiday table groans from the weight of your great finds in the bargain bins!
Here is what Maxine has to share with us today: The big week has arrived! You gotta love a holiday devoted to eating!
The absolute cheapest price for turkeys where I live is .23 lb. with $50 purchase. I ended up with a 20 lb. bird to feed 6 people–my husband and myself, our two thirtysomething kids and a couple who don’t have any relatives living in the area. They’re bringing the homemade cornbread stuffing and a pumpkin pie.
Speaking of pumpkin pie, I love the picture Connie has been running. It looks like something I might make–definitely not a food stylist’s dream. I make good-tasting pies, but they aren’t always beautiful, LOL.
This is the week that we should all swap recipes calling for leftover turkey. You might want to try doubling whatever recipe you choose and freezing half for a later meal, when you don’t have the time or inclination to cook. Frozen dishes are better if they have a lot of sauce.
Or, do what I do–freeze 2 cups of turkey in zippy bags and use as needed. If you don’t have much freezer space, this takes up much less room. I’ll be spending Thursday night cleaning the kitchen and stripping the leftover meat off the bones. I might even start the turkey soup.
Sometime during the weekend, we will definitely have club house sandwiches for dinner with a special salad. No idea yet what it will be. For each sandwich, toast 3 slices of bread. Spread with butter or mayo, if you wish. Top the bottom slice with turkey and lettuce, add the second piece of toast, top it with tomato and cooked bacon, and cover with the third piece of toast. Cut crosswise into 4 triangles and poke a toothpick through each piece to hold it together. Plate them up surrounding a mound of salad in the middle–potato salad is the classic go-with.
Back to the big day….
We have pretty much the same menu every year…although I do fiddle with it from time to time. For years I made something akin to a sweet potato souffle, with evaporated milk, eggs and frozen orange juice concentrate. After my mother-in-law died, I realized I was the only person who ate it. Last year I tried this recipe, and it was a hit!
MAPLE-GLAZED SWEET POTATOES WITH CRANBERRIES 4 lbs. sweet potatoes (5 medium), peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup pure maple syrup
1-1/2 cup cranberries (half of a 12 ounce bag)
3 tablespoons real butter
Heat whole sweet potatoes, salt and enough water to cover to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, about 30 minutes or just until potatoes are fork-tender. Drain. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile, heat maple syrup to boiling on high. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently 10 to 15 minutes, or until reduced to 1/2 cup. Stir in cranberries, butter and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until cranberries pop, about 5 minutes longer.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut cooled sweet potatoes cross-wise into 1 inch thick slices-look like coins-and arrange in a shallow 3 quart ceramic or glass baking dish, overlapping slices if necessary. Spoon maple-cranberry syrup evenly over potatoes. Bake uncovered, 20 minutes or until hot. Makes 10 side-dish servings.
You can prepare the sweet potatoes–even arrange the casserole–and syrup up to one day ahead and refrigerate separately. Fresh or canned yams may be substituted.
Quick and possibly cheaper version–Arrange cooked sweets or yams in a greased baking dish. Dot with butter. Spoon fresh cranberries or cranberry sauce around the potatoes. Pour pancake syrup over the top and bake as above.
The best price I found for sweet potatoes/yams in my area was .38 lb. I bought enough for a couple of meals.
Oh, you just make my heart SING, Maxine! Such a delicious sounding recipe; so many good ideas for the leftover bird; and what great shopping expertise you have displayed for our Members. Thank you so much!
For those of you who might be new here-we’ve had lots of new faces showing up in the Club House-we thank you for coming by and joining in the fun. You are most welcome to send your thoughts to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com or you might like to leave a comment on this post. WE LOVE THAT!
The holiday hubbub might have your head spinning but if you find yourself with some time to relax, you might like to pop by our sister sites or our sponsors for a look-see. There is one devoted to health: Mother Connie Sez; we have another that deals with health and boosting your income: The Healthy and Wealthy You. We also have a site devoted to saving money on dental care we call SoapyTeeth. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our sponsors, Rapid Cash Marketing and ToothSoap. If you cruise by their places, just let them know Mother Connie sent you, won’t you please? THANKS OODLES, boys and girls.
We hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving week and holiday. We hope you hold close to you those who are dear to your hearts and that you make delicious, delightful memories to file in the scrapbook of your heart.
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
Maxine makes shopping for our Thanksgiving meal easy as pie!
That Maxine! She has gone and done it AGAIN! She has brought us her sage wisdom and her proven strategies for getting things together for a memorable meal ON A SKINNY BUDGET!
This is fabulous news for those who depend on public assistance and use their EBT card for SNAP or WIC at the grocery store. It’s good for users of Angel Food Ministries, too-they accept the EBT cards, as well. For those who get things to eat from a food pantry or have food commodities on their pantry shelves, this is indeed very good news.
“It’s the week before Thanksgiving—the most exciting week of the year for those of us who shop on a shoestring.
So much good food is on sale that it’s hard to know where to start—or stop.
This is the week when turkeys will be a loss leader at every grocery store in America. I’m waiting to see the grocery ads before deciding where to buy. Gotta get the absolute cheapest bird in town, right? Turkey prices started being advertised last week, and it looks like–where I live–.29 lb. with a $25 purchase is the price to beat.
I’ve been seeing Butterballs for .99 lb., but, honestly, I haven’t found them to be any better than a cheap old loss leader. The main difference seems to be that they are available all year round and they are advertised. I roasted a fresh turkey one year-when the neighbor dog ate my turkey!-and it wasn’t any better, either. So…I’m buying on price.
We are having guests for Thanksgiving, so I’m planning on a 16-18 lb. bird for the table and a bigger one, to be cut in half while frozen, for the freezer. I’d consider getting a third turkey, since I have the freezer space, except I’ve already got a frozen whole turkey breast, too.
If you don’t have a deep freeze, this is my third reminder for you to ask a friend or relative if you can store an extra turkey in their freezer, LOL. Do it, dang it! Turkey is going to taste wonderful again toward the end of January, when—with 31 days–you may run out of grocery money before you run out of month. It would also make a splendid Christmas dinner, and turkeys will cost more then.
This past week was fabulous for picking up specials that you rarely see at other times of the year. I bought Gold Medal flour for .99/5 lbs., Wesson canola oil, $1.99/48 ounces; Crisco sticks, $1.99 less .55 coupon from last Sunday’s paper; 4 lbs. Domino sugar, $1.79; two 18 ounce packages of Sunmaid raisins, 2/$4 less $1 coupon from last Sunday’s paper; 42 ounce boxes of Quaker oats, $1.99; small sizes of Clabber Girl baking powder and cornstarch, plus baking soda and salt, for 2/$1. I also got several General Mills cereals for $1.68 box.
Don’t overlook drug and discount stores for grocery items. Some of them, including Walgreens, accept EBT cards. The sugar, baking powder, cornstarch, Crisco, raisins, etc., came from Walgreens with coupons from their Sunday ad. Wags also accepts manufacturer coupons, which I had for the Crisco and raisins.
This is going to be a great week for Sunday coupon supplements. I’m writing this on Saturday night, and I can hardly wait until the paper comes tomorrow. If you do not normally get the newspaper, be sure to buy a Sunday paper this week. Monroe on a Budget advises people buying the Sunday paper to get it from an inside location, to make sure someone hasn’t previously cleaned out the ad stacks from vending machine papers.
With all of the coupons and specials, this is also the week to make a store-by-store list of what you want to buy. Yep, this week it’s definitely worth it to “burn up gas running all over town to get the specials”—the argument used by many who only shop at one store. I can hit all of the stores in my town in less than one mile. As for time, it’s quick to zip in and zip out when you have a list. It’s walking up and down all of the aisles, trying to decide what to buy, that takes the time.
I don’t necessarily do all of my shopping at once. I keep my list with me all week and stop at stores when I am going by. No worries if I don’t happen to make it to all of the stores on my list…as long as I get the turkey!
If the store is out of stock of an item, be sure to ask for a rain check. Not only will you get the good price, you’ll get it later…when you may have more money, anyway. A rain check, usually good for 30 days, will extend the deals until after payday.
In the produce department, be sure to buy celery, white potatoes and sweet potatoes or yams. Onions, too. Thanksgiving week, and the one before, are the cheapest time of the year for most these items, and they keep a long time.
If you’ve never made your own cranberry sauce, this should be the year. It’s dead simple and a hundred times better than what anyone puts in a can. CT on a Budget reports that she bought fresh cranberries after the holidays last year for .99 bag. If someone at your house likes cranberry sauce, keep your eyes open for a deal like this. Freezing them merely consists of throwing the plastic bag in the freezer.
I know several people, including myself, who have committed themselves to buying and storing more food this year. Hard weather and hard times are two good reasons. If you are among us, this week is going to give you plenty to be thankful for.
Oh, Maxine! If we don’t have a Turkey Day feast to beat them all, it won’t be YOUR fault! Thanks for such a great piece!
Boys and girls, we love that you have been leaving your comments and sending those in your circle to submit their name and email in order to get our series of cooking tips. It is gratifying and it makes us think we are helping you. We hope that’s true. We’d like to meet your needs and exceed your expectations.
If you have the time-I know things are busy in every household-it would be fun for you to cruise by our sponsors and check them out. They make this page possible so we like to pay them homage.
Make getting ready for the holiday a fun time, guys n gals. And Maxine, keep the neighbor’s dog out of your kitchen this year, okay?
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
This could be your fall garden, uncovered! How grateful we are that our Swiss chard was brought into the house before the weather got ugly!
Did you plant a fall garden? If so, it’s probably covered with leaves and/or snow; maybe you’ve plowed your garden spot to make ready for the next growing season.
We covered the last of the rainbow Swiss chard and gathered it just before the cold, wet weather set in. On the radio, I heard some woman giving ideas about how to make interesting European food with very little money and fascinating ingredients. When she mentioned Swiss chard and lentils in the same breath, she got my attention.
Hoping I remembered any of what I’d heard, this is what I did:
I put ¾ cup of lentils into a pot with 1 ½ cups of water. I sprinkled a bit of salt over it and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat and let it simmer.
As the lentils simmered I sliced a large onion into rings and caramelized the onion in a bit of butter. Into that I stirred in about a dozen leaves of chard. I had removed the spines and cut those generous leaves into ribbons. They wilted almost immediately and the smell that filled the kitchen was hard to resist! The lentils were added and stirred in and the whole thing had been rocked out in record time.
This offering made a great side dish for the braised chicken that waited in the oven; it was ready to put on the table in about 20 minutes. PLUS, it cost almost nothing to prepare!
I know. There is no photo. Well, Mother Connie was busy cooking and photography is not her forte’…my bad. The point here is that you can take a little of nothing and make a great dish of it. I told The Normanator we were eating European Frugal. He is down with anything frugal; I noticed he eagerly slicked up his plate!
All the Club Members would be interested to know what frugal offerings YOU are coming up with in YOUR kitchen. Please share by commenting on this blog or dropping us a line at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com
For those of you who have Angel Food Ministries bundles or if your food comes from public assistance such as WIC or SNAP-even food commodities or a food pantry it is our sincere hope that food ideas like today’s recipe will give you the help you need to stretch those food dollars. There are many frugal folks, also, who can benefit from the ideas set forth here. WE HOPE WE ARE MEETING YOUR NEEDS AND EXCEEDING YOUR EXPECTATIONS.
You might enjoy cruising by Mother Connie Sez to check out the award she won; you might like to see the latest healthy notions on The Healthy and Wealthy You blog, too. If you are on the lookout for adding income to your household you might appreciate Rapid Cash Review. If you are concerned about the high cost of dental care you might like to read what’s on SoapyTeeth. These are our sister blogs and we are always jonesin’ for comments there, too! hint/hint
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
If you are concerned about costs associated with the upcoming holidays, Tawra and Jill have come to your rescue with satisfaction GUARANTEED!
Do the upcoming holidays have you sweating bullets?They might, if you depend on public assistance like SNAP or WIC for your food budget. Those of you who use Angel Food Ministries bundles will be collecting November’s foodstuffs soon…and even if you visit a food pantry or use food commodities, you are going to need all the suggestions you can gather to make those food dollars s-t-r-e-t-c-h and still be able to enjoy the holiday season!
The good folks at Living On a Dime have taken note of our little club and they have offered the following for your consideration:
The best way to relieve stress at the Holidays is not with a bubble bath-although they are fun-but by being organized. Even though I’m not normally a big “list” person, at Christmas I not only write a list but I write enough lists to fill a book, making up for my lack of lists the rest of the year .
We wanted to create a cute calendar for readers that would list what you should do on each day, but every household is so different it was hard to put together something that would tell everyone when to do what and we didn’t want to make anyone feel locked into a particular plan. It can almost be more stressful trying to follow someone else’s plan than to have no plan at all.
So we came up with a compromise. It’s a list of some general things that need to be done at Christmas. If you are attached to the calendar idea, take a calendar or day planner and, using this list, write down the day you want to get something done. For example on December 1, “Put up inside decorations.”
If it is easier, simply hang the list by the calendar and then just mark things off as you do them. This is just a guide with our own hints and ideas. You can add to or take away from it as necessary.
The key to a low stress holiday season is to remember that the more you spread things out, the easier it will be. Doing just a few things each day is much easier than waiting for the last minute “Holiday Squeeze” and it won’t make you look like you accidentally fell into the clothes dryer.
Make your list of all of the people who you plan to buy gifts, including their sizes, things they would like and how much you can spend.
Make your list of the people you are sending Christmas cards to and write the cards or at least get the envelopes addressed. You can then keep a few cards with you to write in during those “waiting minutes” when you’re at the doctor, picking the kids up from school or on your break at work.
Get those sewing and craft projects done now! Don’t wait until Christmas Eve.
Decide on what you are going to have for holiday dinners. Pull out the recipes.
Many types of cookies freeze well. Mix up the dough several weeks ahead and freeze. That way all you have to do later is bake them.
For cookies that you can’t freeze, measure all the dry ingredients and put them in a plastic bag. I often do this three months early. Be sure to label the bag so you remember what is in it.
If you make your own pie crusts, make them ahead of time and freeze until you need them.
Several months ahead of time, put a bag or container in the freezer and throw in those unused heels of bread or slices of dry bread to use for dressing.
If you make cornbread dressing, make up you dressing in early November and freeze.
Set up a wrapping table or collect your wrapping things all together in one area so you can quickly and easily pull everything out to use. Wrap gifts as you buy them, not all at once at the last minute.
Make a list of linens and dishes you will need for meals.
Put up outside decorations.
Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts although our club members are experts at frugal living, too! They are the authors of the Dining On A Dime Cookbook.Dining On A Dime will help you save money on groceries and get out of debt, by cooking quick and simple homemade meals. For free tips & recipes please do visit Jill and Tawra at Living on a Dime and tell them Mother Connie sent you.
As you know, there is a series of tips at no cost to you by submitting your name and email address in the upper right hand corner of this very page. We are happy to add new members every day and we look forward to hearing from each of you!
Send your thoughts our way: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com or leave your comment below this post. WE LOVE MAIL!
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
Maxine has us ALL excited about turkeys! These guys' days are numbered and we have more info about their preparation!
Ready or not, Turkey Day is coming! We know and understand about celebrating and giving thanks when food budgets are as tight as they are for users of EBT cards for WIC or SNAP; we know how frugal folks and users of food pantry goods or food commodities appreciate all the information available about getting the most for their food dollar. Our pals at Living On a Dime have done a good job of covering the subject and we are featuring them today:
It’s really hard to find ways to save on your Thanksgiving dinner because, let’s face it — It doesn’t get a whole lot cheaper than a turkey dinner!Still, I have found some ways that you can save and today I’ll pass them on to you!
For starters, the larger turkeys are usually cheaper so buy the largest one you can.I hear some of you groaning now about what to do with all those leftovers because you really don’t need a 22 pound turkey for 6 people. Not to worry — just don’t bake the whole thing.
I discovered one year by accident that my butcher (at a regular national chain grocery store) would cut the turkey in half for me. Even if it is frozen, he can still cut the turkey in half. This discovery really changed my life. That sounds dramatic, but I was really having a problem becoming “one” with my turkeys.
I suddenly had the revelation that I didn’t have to deal with the mounds of leftover turkey that haunted my post-Thanksgiving menu for years. I had just enough for a good old turkey sandwich and some soup. I mean Thanksgiving really isn’t Thanksgiving without a fewleftovers, is it?
It was so much easier to handle and prepare an 11 pound turkey rather than to manhandle a 22 pound one. Getting the turkey cleaned and into the pan was a breeze and getting it in and out of the oven was just plain simple.
Just wrap the other half and freeze it to use for Christmas. I’ve often made ham for Christmas just because by Christmas we are so sick of turkey that we don’t want to think of preparing another one — ever! By not creating so many leftovers, your family might not mind having turkey again. That’s also potentially one less thing to buy for Christmas dinner.
If you still don’t want to have turkey for Christmas, save it for some cold day in January. If you have a large enough crockpot, cook the turkey it the crockpot. If not, cook it on very low in the oven so that it slow cooks all day. Do you know how delightful it is to come home to the yummy smell of slow cooked turkey?
Save money by making your own pies instead of buying the expensive pre-made ones. If you are daunted by the thought of making pie crust, just buy a ready made one. They are usually on sale for very little around Thanksgiving.
It really isn’t that hard to make the filling for most pies. Often they are easier to make than cakes or cookies. If you like the traditional pumpkin pie, most cans have the recipe on the back.
If your family and friends aren’t fussy about having the traditional pumpkin pie, then you can make banana cream, chocolate, or butterscotch pie. Just take a box of banana pudding, mix it and pour it into a baked pie crust. Cover with sliced bananas and whipped topping. For the chocolate pie, use chocolate pudding with chocolate chips in it and cover it with whipped topping. For the butterscotch, use butterscotch pudding, whipped topping and sprinkle with butterscotch chips. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
You don’t have to make so many pies that you could open a bakery. I have found that most kids are just as happy with a platter of cookies. Don’t overdo it. You’ll just wear yourself out! If you have time, make the cookies in the shapes of pumpkins and turkeys.
Save on your relish dish.Buying ingredients for a relish dish can get expensive, especially where we live. One year I paid more for my relish dish items than my turkey. If you’re having this problem, only use 3-4 veggies on it instead of 10 and cut out on the more expensive veggies. For example broccoli and cauliflower are very high priced for us so I would probably use carrots and celery. I fill the celery with cheese or peanut butter or cut them into fancy shapes. On this occasion, the turkey is the star and most people won’t even notice that you cut back on the relish dish.
Don’t make so many side dishes– Like I said the turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes are more important than everything else. By the time everyone stuffs themselves with those, they only eat a token amount of the side dishes. Why? –Because, of course, everyone wants to save room for dessert!!!!!”
Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts and the authors of the Dining On A Dime Cookbook. Dining On A Dime will help you save money on groceries and get out of debt by cooking quick and simple homemade meals. For free tips & recipes visit LivingOnADime.com
Thanks oodles, Jill. All the Food Stamps Cooking Clubbers need help in getting the turkey on the table without raiding the bank account!
The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.
High Tech Health sells a water ionizer that cleans your tap water while simultaneously making it an anti-oxidant. The water is also guaranteed to fix digestive problems in 30 days.
.
.gif)
