Our Claim To Fame

Remember when I blogged about The Incredible Food show here? Well, it was totally worth the $10!! We were so full after the yummy appetizers that it covered breakfast and lunch. If you haven't gone yet, it's still going on tomorrow. There was a Bobby Flay show that was too expensive but... we did see him signing autographs. Here is the video:

Local Entertainment - The Incredible Food Show!

There is a fun event coming up next weekend (Oct. 3-4) in Lexington. It's $12.oo for adults, $5.00 for children 4 and up. I was exploring the website it looks really fun - free food samples, classes, and demonstrations. And if you decide to splurge you can spend an extra $35 per person to see Bobby Flay and get his autograph. Click here to go to the site and find out more info!

From the website:

The Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show is the event of the year for everyone who loves food, cooking and entertaining.

Coming to Lexington Center and Rupp Arena October 3 – 4, this two-day food lover’s dream will be packed with over 100 exhibitors including Kentucky Proud producers and growers, specialty food companies, cookbook authors, cooking-related equipment and products. In addition, cooking demonstrations and seminars by regional and local chefs will be presented by Sullivan University Culinary School.

FREE Bowling With Purchase of Tony's Pizza

Need something to do? Go bowling for free thanks to Tony's Pizza. Find out if a bowling lane is participating in your city here.

Click here to get a $1.00 coupon.

FREE Ice Cream

If you have ever been to Bruster's you know they have AMAZING ice cream. And...guess what?? You can get a FREE single scoop waffle cone when you where you PJ's this Saturday! It's going to be a nice 70 degrees on Saturday so a perfect day for ice cream! Click here for the official announcement.

Frugal Ideas for Bananas and Yogurt

Bananas were only $0.39 a pound at Kroger last week and you can always find a deal on yogurt between sales, manufacture coupons, online coupons, and coupons you can load onto your Kroger card. If you are wanting to stock up on some of these items but don't want them to go bad before they get eaten, here is a simple way they can be used.

Make a Banana Smoothie

I like to slice up the bananas as soon as I get them and stick them in the freezer. Then, when I am ready to make the smoothie all I do it throw in some yogurt and the frozen banana slices and blend it all up in the blender. It's that easy! And healthy too.

You might want to add sugar, vanilla, other fruits, or even peanut butter. If you have any left over, pour it into an ice tray with toothpicks and now you have frozen yogurt pops for later!

What to do with Stale Bread

If you have some stale bread sitting around, don't throw it out yet! OR, buy bread on the day old shelf at the store - it's usually nicely discounted. Try a couple of these things:

Make croutons. First, cut the bread into cubes. Spray with vegetable oil and then sprinkle with Italian or other seasonings. Be sure and package them in an airtight container.


-OR-

Sprinkle the bread with water or milk and wrap it in aluminum foil. Bake it at 350 degrees for about 7-9 minutes to soften it up. French or Italian bread should be baked for 3-5 minutes more, with the foil open for the last few minutes.


Enjoy!

Mmmm.. Garbage Soup

Here is a great frugal recipe that has been previously experimented on by my husband and has proved to be quite tasty.

You know all that leftover food that either a) doesn't get eaten in a couple of days or b) there are just a few green beans (or other food) left that's not worth saving for another meal. Get a bowl and put those extras in that bowl - and then freeze it. Each time you have those leftovers (veggies preferably) pull that bowl out of the freezer and add to it.

What's next?

• Thaw out that bowl of vegetables and boil it in broth with a couple of bouillon cubes.
• Add any leftover meat.
• Pasta and/or beans are good fillers.
• Throw in some oregano, basil, garlic, and chili powder.
• Pull it out together with either tomato sauce or ketchup and a couple of teaspoons of butter.

And there you have it - Tasty Garbage Soup

Keep Your Fruit Salad Fresh!

According to a Reader's Digest article, 12% of the food you purchase at the grocery store is wasted. It happens, no matter how hard you try. Well, here is one more way to keep your food lasting longer.

To keep your fruit salad fresh and free of browning add a little lemon juice. Why does this work? Here is the short answer: The ascorbic acid serves as a buffer which prevents oxidation. If you want a longer explanation, click here.

Keep These Foods Fresh For Longer!

There are a lot of tips out there about how to preserve foods longer. And in fact, I have several tricks up my sleeve, but today I am going to share with you FOUR common foods that you can keep fresh for longer - and that you probably have in your kitchen right now. This may be old news to you or maybe you have never heard of it before. Whatever the case, share it with a neighbor, friend, or co-worker who might just benefit from these quick kitchen tips.

Do you eat tortilla chips? I do. Quite often in fact. However, sometimes I find that they become a little stale before I can get through the whole bag. Instead of throwing away a few servings of chips, stick them in the oven at...

• 350 degrees for about 5-7 minutes.

Pull them out of the oven and you have warm and crisp chips ready to go!


Another tasty treat you may have lying around is cheese. And cheese molds...ewww. But, if you are anything like our family, cheese doesn't last too long, so worrying about mold is usually not a big issue around here. However, if you are a little more disciplined about rationing your cheese, here is an interesting idea on keeping that mold away.

• Take a sugar cube and wrap tightly with the cheese or you could just stick it into a container with the cheese.

Pretty simple right?

Wait a minute! What if you don't want to go out and spend money on sugar cubes? Well, you are in luck because you can make your own! I am still in the experimenting phase of this, but let me share with you what I have learned so far.

• All you do is mix sugar and water in an ice tray. The trick is getting the correct ratio for the sugar and water. I have heard a three to one ratio and I have also heard that you want to make sure your sugar is clumpy and not runny.

• Let it sit for a day - and then you should have your very own cube.

Here is a link on where I received my info on making sugar cubes.


Next up - fresh celery. In my house, I eat celery, my husband does not. So that leaves quite a bit of celery for one person to eat. The solution is simple:

• wrap your celery in aluminum foil and it will stay fresh for weeks!

Lastly, let's consider our bags of sugar sitting in the pantry. A quick and easy way to keep your sugar from clumping, is to...

• stick a saltine cracker right in the package.

So next time you are out to dinner and they give you all of those cracker packages for your soup, hang on to one and put in your sugar container!

As apart of our experiment, we have wrapped up some cheese and celery using our preservation tricks as well as the way we have wrapped them up in the past . We are planning to find out how long these foods will stay fresh using these new tips. Stay tuned!

What can HALF do for you?

What are some items in your home that you use only HALF of to help save some money?

Here are few things I have found:

1. Use half a cup of detergent
2. Fill up your dishwasher with only half the dishwashing liquid it asks for
3. Don't use a whole paper towel for tiny spills (if you use them at all!)
4. How much shampoo or body wash are you squeezing out of that bottle?
5. Cut your electricity bill in half by turning off unused lights, unplugging electronics when being unused, and keeping your thermostat at 68 degrees.
6. Cut your water bill in half by taking shorter showers, not running the water while brushing your teeth, and only running your washer and dishwasher when full.
7. When eating a snack, don't eat directly out of the box or bag. Put a portion on your plate.
8. Consider your recipes. Does that dish really need that much cheese? (My husband would say yes. Ok...I would too)
9. Take some scissors and cut your sponges in half.
10. Cut your t.v. watching in half. It's important to be frugal with your time too.

These are just few. What are your ideas to cut things in half to save money (and time)?

Here are a couple of links to some interesting articles on this topic:

Cutting Food Expenses in Half
A study done on dividing your money

Share Food Program

What is it? It's called the Share Food Program and for $18 and 2 hours of community service you can get a box valued at $35-$40 full of meats, fruits, vegetables, and staples.

Who can participate? Anyone!

Where do I get it? Go here and here to find a host site in your area. Keep in mind that this program is very geographically limited and you may not find one in your state. Even if you don't find one in your state, be sure and contact friends and families that may be able to participate in this program.

How can I get involved? Go here to find out how to be a host site.

What kind of community service is involved? From what I understand pretty much anything you do from volunteering at a homeless shelter to cooking for your sick neighbor counts as community service.

You also can donate money to the program, volunteer to assist with events, and order online.

Click here and here for more information...

I am not as familiar with this program as I am with Angel Food Ministries. However, the website has a lot of great information and it sounds like a great program. If anyone has had any experience with this organization, I would love to hear from you at rmbronson@gmail.com or you can leave a comment!

Mostly Food and Drink @ CVS!

1st CVS Gallon of Water = $1.39
2nd CVS Gallon of Water = $0.69
1st Gold Emblem Apple Juice = $2.59
2nd Gold Emblem Apple Juice = $1.29
Gallon of Milk = $3.49
Nutter Butter = $1.00
Cheez It = $1.00
Betty Crocker Warm Delights = $2.19
(2) 90 ct. Pepcid AC = $15.00 Each
Garnier Fructis Shampoo = $2.99
(2) Orbit Gum = $1.29 Each

Coupons:

• $10/$50 off total purchase (received out of CVS machine)
• $5/$25 off total purchase (received in email)
• $5/$25 worth of medicinal products (received in mail)
• $3 off CVS brand purchase. Get it here.
• $5 ECB (received in email)
• $1 off a Nabisco produce when your purchase milk (on the freezer door in the store)
• $2.00 off any Pepcid product (received in a Pepcid package a while ago)
• $1.00 off any Pepcid product (not sure what date this came out, but couponmom.com reports there is a $4.00 off coupon in todays insert)
• $15.98 ECB's used

Original Total: $50 and some change
OOP: $1.23
ECB's Earned: $13.00

Angel Food Ministries

Many of you know about www.angelfoodministries.org. If you don't, let me tell you a something about it.

What is it? This is directly from their site: Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States.

Who qualifies? Anyone!

How much does it cost and what do I get? For $30 you can get a box of quite a variety of food that is worth around $60. Additionally, they have meat, fruit/vegetable, and the occasional coffee/dessert box. This month they even have a Convience Box that contains fully cooked meals that you just heat and serve. These specialty boxes can range anywhere from $20-$28. Click here to see this month's menu.

Where do I get it? When visiting the site here plug in your city and state, and a list of churches in your area will pop up on the screen. Each church has a different set of deadlines and pick up times so contact them for that information.

How can I get involved? Click here to find out how your church can become a host site.

For additional information visit the website or check out the FAQ page.