The Last of the Toothpaste

I have no idea where I read this tip years ago, but I know it's not my own idea.



If you get to end of your toothpaste tube, instead of wrestling with it every morning for two weeks to squeeze those last bits out of the top, just snip off one of the back corners. You'll be able to easily & efficiently get all of the toothpaste remnants to move to the new exit (the bottom of the tube).

Macaroni & Cheese Pie

Yesterday I made the meals for my monthly meal swap. I have been wanting to make a family favorite, macaroni 'n' cheese pie, for several months, but needed to have enough pie tins and to bake a ham. We just had two ladies drop out of our group so I only had to make 6 pans, but I also wanted extra for my family and for families with new babies who we sometimes take meals to. I decided to make 10.



First I had to prepare & measure the ingredients. I planned to make 5 double batches but didn't think to take a picture until I was already into the first batch. As it turned out I only made 4 double batches because the double batches were filling about 2 1/2 pie tins. I think my recipe is for a 9" pie plate and I had 8" tins. It took me a lot of time to put these together because I had my own kids plus a friend to play and, as you can imagine, I had a lot of interruptions.



This was a pretty inexpensive meal overall because I was able to buy all the ingredients on awesome sales and the meat was free. I always try to keep prices down, obviously, but meal swap meals tend to be a little more expensive because of lots of meat, cheese, or ingredients that are hard to find on sale. Here's the breakdown:

2 cups breadcrumbs $.50
3 cups butter $2.50
4 cups diced onions $.75
2 2/3 cups flour $.25
mustard & spices - $.25
20 cups milk ~ 1 1/4 gallon $3.50 (organic on clearance!)
16 cups pasta $2.76
3# cheese $6.49
8 cups diced ham - free gift
parmesan topping $3.49

Overall $20.50 / 10 pans = $2.05 each

Here's the recipe for Macaroni & Cheese Pie:

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. olive oil
2 c. uncooked macaroni
6 T. butter
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/3 c. flour
3/4 t. dry mustard
1/2 t. white pepper
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 1/2 c. milk
2 1/2 c. shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease/spray 9" pie plate & sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
2. Cook noodles with 1 t. olive oil - should make about 5 cups cooked.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter at med/high heat. Add onion & sautee about 5 minutes so onions get really soft. Stir in flour, salt, mustard, white pepper, & nutmeg. It should bubble quickly.
4. Gradually add milk until sauce thickens. Add cheese reserving 1/2 cup for topping.
5. Remove from heat and stir in cooked noodles. Spoon mixture into pie plate and sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup cheesse.
6. Bake until golden & bubbly, 25-30 minutes, and let stand 15 minutes to set. Slice it into pie wedges and serve.

This recipe also suggests adding food coloring as the sauce thickens to make it more orange, but I prefer to leave it out. Also, when I add one cup of ham to this recipe I leave out the salt. Usually the ham is salty enough to flavor this dish. I used 2 c. of cheese in the sauce and sprinkled grated parmesan on top instead of the additional 1/2 c. of cheddar.

Let me know if you try it out and enjoy it.

Katie

Double Coupons Again

Just a reminder that Albertson's had three double coupons in the Sunday paper again. Go see what kind of deals you can snag!

Katie

Weekend Groceries

QFC is having a sale this week on tomatoes & bagged lettuce so I headed over and discovered there was another deal I hadn't seen that was Buy 8/Get $4 off (or $.50 off each item). The items included in that promotion are things we normally buy and I happened to have related coupons so the prices were low enough to justify buying and I spent $25.00.

Here's what I got as part of the Buy 8/Get $4 deal:

2 Yoplus yogurt 4-packs. Sale price $1.99 ($.50 deal)($1.00/2)= $.99 each
Fiber One Yogurt 4-pack. Sale price $1.99 ($.50 deal) ($.50) = $.99
Yoplait Delights yogurt 4-pack. Sale price $1.99 ($.50 deal) ($1.00) = $.49
2 Itnat'l Delight Coffee Creamers. Sale price $2.99 ($.50 deal) ($1.00/2) = $1.99 each
2 boxes of Go-Gurt yogurt. Sale price $1.99 ($.50 deal) ($1.00/2) = $.99 each

I also found markdown organic yogurt tubes for $1.50 each, cottage cheese for $1.00, the lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, & finally, a sale priced wedge of parmesan. I went for the parmesan for the freezer meals I am making today. I don't want to be the meal swap slacker, so I thought adding parmesan to the homemade mac'n'cheese pie would help. Also, I have gotten better prices on coffee creamer but $2.00 is my max for quart size and we were almost out. DH needs this stuff to make his coffee drinkable and he definitely needs his coffee!


This was a quick trip to Fred Meyer to pick up cheddar and onions for the meal swap. I obviously found a few more things.

Here's what I got for $11.96 without any coupons:

2# cheddar $4.49
10# potatoes $1.50
3# onion $1.99
Fred Meyer slow-churned vanilla ice cream $1.25 markdown
Fred Meyer caramel sweet surprise ice cream $1.25 markdown
organic stir fry veggies (pre-cut) $.99 markdown
package of 6 english muffine $.49 markdown

We were having company for dinner and having a Razzleberry pie out of the freezer for dessert so I was very excited to find ice cream on markdown! I also bought the potatoes so we'd have real and not instant out of my pantry for company. I was reminded this week that DH loves english muffins when we received some as a gift, so I was also delighted to find the markdown package. There were also lots of markdown bread & buns, but I was able to resist by reminding myself that I want to empty my freezer and I already have several loaves of bread. Yay for resisting!

OK - back to those 10 macaroni & cheese pies.

Katie

Planted Seeds

Gardening does seem to be an alternative to lawn care...

I finally got the seeds started for the garden. I picked out the seeds that need 4 weeks or less of growing indoors because I'll probably put the garden in the ground near the end of April. The plants that need longer to grow indoors, like tomatoes, will have to be purchased because I don't have 8 weeks to get them started.

Note to self: Start plants next year in February. First task following taxes.

The seeds packets had clear directions on how deep to plant the seeds and how to thin them if more than one seed starts growing. All the directions said to keep the soil moist during germination. This is the big mistake I made last year, so this year I will keep everything well-watered!

I started zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, broccoli, and pumpkin. I'm headed to the store later today to buy green beans and pea packets - I think those are sown straight into the dirt, but I'm buying the packets today to make sure.

A friend asked where I bought my seeds, so I'll tell you my packets are a variety of brands including Lilly Miller, Ed Hume, and whatever cheap company is at The Dollar Store. Usually I find gardening supplies/plants at Home Depot or Fred Meyer since I don't frequent nurseries. My cousin & another major gardening friend do visit nurseries, though, so they are surely worth checking out.

I'm also wanting to grow blueberries and raspberries, but I'm not sure how to work that out yet. I've seen small bushes advertised in pots and I know a blueberry bush will be easy enough to put in, but I want to be careful that any raspberries I plant don't go crazy like blackberries would. I might try the raspberries in a small pot. My cousin also has a raspberry plant in a container with a trellis that keeps it contained.

Quarterly Seventh Generation Coupons

Don't forget to print your Seventh Generation coupons by March 31st! The site resets all the coupons on April 1st for the next three month period. You are allowed to print each coupon twice each calendar quarter so head over to their site and make sure you've printed your quota.

Also, be sure your printer is ready to go. I accidentally sent about 5 coupons to print before I realized DH's computer was off which meant I couldn't network to that printer. Rats! I hope you are smarter than I am!

katie

Menu Plan

We are headed out of town for a week on April 2nd so I am planning meals through that date.

Last week we ended up having more leftovers than I planned so the broccoli quiche got carried over and we ate it last night. I am still trying to use the contents of the freezer and pantry primarily & am looking forward to defrosting our garage freezer in sometime in April. Today the top shelf is completely frosted over and the next shelf is getting a nice start. It's an old freezer so we have to be nice to it and defrost at least once a year. I am hoping I might even be able to leave it unplugged for a month or two to save the electricity. We'll see.



Starting today here's the plan:
Friday - Russian Chicken in the crockpot - company for dinner
Saturday - Ham & potatoes - company for dinner
Sunday - Leftovers
Monday - Cheesy Chicken Casserole
Tuesday - Tamale Pie (freezer meal)
Wednesday - Chicken Barley Soup (freezer meal)
Thursday - Lasagna (freezer meal)
Friday to Friday - Out of town with lots of leftovers for DH

Lunches:
Lunch out at Applebees
Grilled Cheese
Tuna Melt
Macaroni & Cheese (homemade)
PB & J
Nachos
Chicken Nuggets
Lunch on road

I have lots of bread in the freezer so that's why we're having sandwiches 3 times this week. I also have to make my freezer meals this week for the swap I do each month. On Monday I'll likely make 8 pans of homemade macaroni & cheese pie with ham & parmesan. We all love this at our house, and I'm hoping the other families in the swap enjoy it, too.

Katie

Freezer Bag Alternative

One thing I grow weary of buying is Ziploc bags for the freezer. I regularly wash these out to reuse, both gallon and quart size. However, if a bag has contained any meat I throw it out. I don't want to risk contamination.

Anyway, the cost of those freezer bags add up so I was delighted to find a tip in the February All You magazine. I can't find my copy so I'm completely paraphrasing a reader tip. Apparently she uses the thick plastic cereal bags in the freezer as a ziploc alternative. These are the plastic liners inside the boxes. I decided to give it a try since it does appear the plastic is thick and dense.

I found the cereal bags to be comparable to most other freezer bags with the obvious exception of no zip closure. I just used a wire twist and it did the job. The cereal bags, however, aren't as good as the double guard ziploc bags that actually have a liner inside the bag - those are awesome.

I think I'll go ahead and keep using the cereal bags in addition to my regular supply of freezer bags because I can easily collect them and so far, they work well enough.