Shopping trip

Friday I went to the Lands End warehouse sale and I found some pretty good bargains. I purchased a very cute Aqua skort for $11.50 and a pair of wedge sandals for $9.00.  I bought Braxton a long sleeved tie dyed shirt for $5 and $7.00 for a yellow puff vest for him.  I also bought a really heavy beach towel for $4.00.  It has someone else's name Monogrammed on it, but 20 min and a seam ripper and I will have that taken right out.  If you are willing to take the time to remove the monograms all of those items are 50% off whatever sale price they have on them. 

This is a trip my Mom and I Make every year and it is so WORTH It!

Garden time

Oh it is my favorite time of year!!!  The garden is growing and the veggies are fresh and I am in heaven.  I have already harvested beans and got them in the freezer and I have more ready to pick.  My Mom says the Cucumbers are going crazy the last couple of days.

 We lost a lot of our garden to early rain that rotted many of our seeds before they got the chance to grow, but we will survive it.  we have plenty of beans, peppers, onions, cucumbers, broccoli, Swiss chard, and beets to get us through the winter.

Since WI isn't the best place to grow fruit (besides Apples) I do buy a bushel of Peaches or Pears every year to can.  I'm actually going to get my Peaches this afternoon.  I also make Applesauce but that has to wait until Fall.  Today however I can go pick up some peaches.

This week in a nut shell is pick up peaches today, pick and freeze beans on Tuesday, can peaches on Wednesday, then Thursday is pickles, Friday however is a Warehouse shopping event at Lands End so I will not be in the garden.  I'll try to keep everyone updated on progress of freezing and canning, and I will definitely let you know how much Money I saved at the warehouse event. 

Happy Gardening!!

summer sales

Since this was a holiday week there were some pretty good sales in the flier from my local grocery store.  One thing that was a HUGE bargain was Boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 lb. I just wish now I would have bought a few more packages, the other BIG item was a package of Klement's brats (have to support WI) for $3.99.  The only problem with that one was that it was limit One and you had to have a separate purchase of $5 (which isn't hard to do).  I also picked up 2 pounds of strawberries for $3.00 and 1 pint of Blueberries for $1.99.

So for lunch yesterday we all just snacked on bowls of fresh fruit, it was very refreshing and super Yummy.

I did have to try to come up with something for supper and since I had the chicken and was in a mood for light and refreshing I decided to make Chicken fajita salad with homemade tortilla strips.

To make the salad I marinated 2 breasts of chicken in Lemon juice, fajita seasoning, garlic, and cilantro for 1 1/2 hours. Then I grilled them on my stove top grill pan.  I also lightly grilled a green pepper and some red onion.

The salad was just iceberg lettuce, sweet corn, tomatoes, and Colby jack cheese.  When the chicken was done I sliced it into strips and tossed it with the salad, pepper and onion and used some fat free ranch salad spritzers on it.

The tortilla strips were super easy to make and made a great addition and added some crunch to the salad.
I took 2 10" tortillas, brushed a little butter on both sides then sprinkles them with Garlic granules, onion salt, and cilantro.  I then cut them into strips and backed them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  My son LOVED them and had 1/3 of them eaten before the salads were ready.

I have some tortillas in my fridge that are getting a little old so I think I am going to make them all into these strips and have them around for a little snack.

New recipe

I had a pork roast in my freezer and decided today was a good day to throw it in the slow cooker. I didn't want potatoes cooked in with it so I needed to find something new to do with them.  As usual I hit up Allrecipes.com for ideas.  What I found was a recipe for Neapolitan potatoes, however I only have regular potatoes, not red, I have 6 cheese Italian, not fresh Grated Parmesan, and all of my herbs are dried as I didn't get around to doing an herb garden this year.

Tonight's Supper:

Slow cooker Pork shoulder roast and Neapolitan Potatoes

1 Pork shoulder roast (free for me) about $2.50 lb at the store
1 package of Onion Soup mix $0.50 ..I had bought a package of 2 for $1 earlier in the month
1 cup of water
Combine in a slow cooker and cook on Med/high for 5 hours

Potatoes
5 large Idaho potatoes Sliced...around $0.50 as I got a 10lb bag for $1.99 last week on sale
1/2 med onion chopped
2 T. garlic (minced)
2 T. Oregano
2 T. Parsley
2 T.  Basil
1 tsp salt and pepper
1 can Diced tomatoes $1.00
1/2 cup Cheese I'm using the 6 cheese Italian
5 T. Olive oil

Combine 1 T. oil, Potatoes, garlic herbs and spices
Place 1/3 of mixture in 9x12 pan add 1/3 of the tomatoes and sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese
Repeat 2 more times and bake at 375 for 1 hour or until the potatoes are tender. 

Just a reminder that I just found this recipe and I am experimenting so I am going to decide if I like it myself tonight.

I think I'm going to have my hubby stop at a roadside stand on the way home and grab some sweet corn too.

Just another Healthy but inexpensive meal to feed the whole family and feel good about.

Clearance fun.

Because I love to shop but have minimal money to do so the clearance rack is my best friend.  I always check out stores like Old Navy when I am near one because their clothes are relatively inexpensive to start with so the clearance items are usually under $10.

My favorite way to shop clearance however is a store remodel.  Most stores now days keep so many items on hand that when they do a remodel they need to clear as much space as possible to begin rearranging.  I am currently in heaven with our local Wal-mart doing a complete remodel.  I bought my husband a pair of bibs for winter for $9 and and myself a Bra and underwear set for $7.

The one thing I do recommend is to not get carried away and watch what you are buying.  People tend to see clearance and just buy. Make sure you watch the prices, a store like Wal-mart will put a clearance sign up and not actually mark down the price.

Happy Clearance Shopping Everyone.

Left overs

Earlier I was reading a article about how complicated we have made our diets with processed foods.  I am by no means claiming to be the queen of healthy and I love convenience, but I do my best to keeps to food some what healthy. So with the combination of reading the article about how much crap goes into Doritos (my favorite) I started to think about what to make for supper tonight.

Well I decided to use some leftover pulled pork that was in my freezer from a party and make Pulled pork tacos.  It is a very simple, inexpensive, especially if you have leftovers, and tasty.  I especially love that it is primarily fresh ingredients.  I really wish we were a little further into summer so I would have my own fresh veggies, but oh well.

So here is how I make them
1 lb of pulled pork - $0 for me since it was leftover
1 package taco seasoning -$0.50
1/2 cup salsa - $0 it's my homemade salsa
1 can chicken stock (only because it's left overs and already cooked) -$1.00
1 package of whole wheat taco shells -$3.00
veggie toppings of your choice
Fat free sour cream (optional)

I will put the pork taco seasoning, salsa and chicken stock in the slow cooker on low for about 6 hours, just to heat it through and get the flavors into the pork. then at supper time build the taco to my specs.

Yep THAT"S IT!!

I love these they are such nice change from a regular beef taco

If you don't have leftover pork, just buy a small pork roast add all the same ingredients, except chicken stock, put in slow cooker and cook on medium for about 4-6 hours or until the pork starts to fall apart.  take pork out put it on a cutting board and pull it apart then place it back in juice and cook on low for another hour.

I have been planning on making these for about 3 days but it hasn't worked out so it is going to happen tonight!!

Garden growing

I went to my parents house this morning to get some dirt so I could get  my squash and pumpkins planted and I checked on the garden and it looks GREAT.

For anyone that knows me the know I love to garden, I plant more food than I ever know what to do with but it's OK.  I plant vegetables galore..I have 51 tomato plants this year and hopefully they will stave off the blight and produce well.  I absolutely love making my own salsa and sauces..everything from pizza to pasta. I might even try Ketchup this year.  Today I put in zucchini, pumpkins, butternut, and 2 kinds of winter squash along with musk melon.  I am so excited to grow them at my house this year.

Just for fun  I planted one tomato plant and 2 green bean plants (my son started them in the house) in an old fashion wash tub in front of my house.

I think my next project is going to be a homemade compost bin. Simple enough to make I just need to decide where to put it.

It is a lot of work to grow a huge garden, but the money I save in the long run, and the health benefits make it worth it to me.