I worked and worked, trying to get my purchases whittled down to the weekly budgeted amount. In spite of the fact that I was buying NO meat, I just couldn't get it down to where I wanted it. I chopped some items off the list entirely, some I substituted smaller sizes, I diligently checked for coupons and found almost nothing.............And after all that, I discovered it has actually been 13 days, or right at 2 weeks, since I grocery shopped. So, my total being almost double my budget was okay after all. Phew!
I have about decided that I am going to buy nothing that is not on sale. And, if something I normally use goes on sale, I'll buy some, whether or not I think I need it. If that fails, I'll have to try to go into the stores to shop. In general the pick up prices are the same as in store. However, in the store, it is possible to get items on clearance that are not reflected on the flyer. Meat, for example. If it has only one or two days before the "best buy" date, they'll put it in a special area. I'm gonna buy that stuff and freeze it immediately anyway, just as I always have. Maybe that will help.
I bought 4 cans of beans--2 each black beans and red kidney beans. I grabbed 2 pints of home canned garbanzo beans and a store-bought can of green beans from the shelves. I dumped everything into a strainer and rinsed thoroughly. Then I made the "sauce". Two cups of Apple Cider vinegar, 3 cups sugar, a cup of water, and 1/2 c olive oil all went into a saucepan. I added 1 Tablespoon each of mustard seed and celery seed and started it cooking. I used some freeze dried onion which I added to the mix and 1 tsp of tarragon. I let it boil about 5 minutes and then poured it over the strained and rinsed beans. Stirred and voila! Yummy bean salad. I am full as a tick and I have a huge amount leftover. The beans will "pickle" in the sauce. And, when I've eaten all the beans I think I am going to shred some cabbage and make some cole slaw using this for the dressing. It was really tasty and it even was nutritious as well.
I did 2 tax returns today. Tomorrow I have one more to do and I also have plans to can some chicken. It behooves me to have some shelf stable chicken rather than frozen, just in case the power goes out. I've kind of picked Fridays for cooking/canning day for the next few weeks. I don't want to get caught with a whole lot of frozen meat if there's some kind of power outage. I have two large packages, about 5 breasts each, to work with. I'm pretty well set up. Meat is defrosting in the fridge. Canner has a new pressure gauge installed and 3 inches of water in it. And I've sterilized a dozen pint jars which should be more than enough.
I'm about to start scouring the weekly food ads for this week's purchases, somewhere between now and next Tuesday. The Smith's ad looks pretty good this week. Wish me luck.........
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