Our Frugal Journey

Welcome to week No. 3 of our No-Spend Challenge! We’re eating from the pantry, freezer and fridge without heading to the grocery store for any extra ingredients. Thanks to a huge turkey breast, a forgotten steak in the back of the freezer and some previous double-batch cooking, this week looks pretty good.
Monday:  Hot browns, mashed [...]

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I couldn’t resist showing off my Valentine’s Day cheesecakes, made from scratch (OK, I cheated on the crust), made with love and made without spending any money.
I made one with chocolate chips and sauce drizzled on the top, as I had planned, and I made a second with cherry topping, which I happened to find [...]

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Since I posted my plans for celebrating Valentine’s Day in the midst of our No-Spend Challenge, I’ve had lots of requests for my recipe for cheesecake. 
It seems there are lots of folks out there who have the same overabundance of cream cheese that I do after a great sale with coupons several weeks back.
I am thrilled to share [...]

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Monday:  Grilled cheese and tomato soup. After so many rich goodies consumed around the house this past week, this simple menu seemed just right.
Tuesday: Sloppy joes, baked french fries, Jello with fruit. Check out my sloppy joe recipe at the bottom of this post. I’ve been making it since my first year of junior high home [...]

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As much as I’ve tried to stay sane this Christmas season, I’ve found myself playing catch-up with my regular duties. Because, let’s face it, making home-made goodies with sweet Caroline is way more fun than folding laundry or menu planning.
But, as Monday morning turned into Monday late afternoon, I knew there was no putting it [...]

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Stephanie O’Dea made a New Year’s resolution to use her handy dandy crock pot every single day of the year.
Not only did she stick to that resolution, but she blogged about it. Day in, day out. For 365 days. The successes, the failures, the reviews from her husband and kids.
Her little adventure in slow cooking began Jan. [...]

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With cookies to bake and homemade gifts to make and assemble this month, I decided to put meals on this week’s menu that can be easily made in double and triple batches to save me time and save my sanity. A little extra time spent in the kitchen this week will be well worth it in the [...]

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I’m not sure what I enjoy more: the feast or the leftovers.
It’s a tough call for me.
While I enjoy the family gathering around the dining room table eating all the traditional Thanksgiving Day foods, for the chief cook (me) and bottle washer (dear hubby) it’s a lot of work from start to finish.
The leftovers are kind of [...]

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Our Thanksgiving Day menu is pretty standard: turkey, stuffing, green beans in one form or another, along with the ubiquitous sweet potato — some years with and some years without the marshmallows. Topped off, of course, with pumpkin pie.
But as much as the menu has stayed the same, I have to say it has evolved, with our [...]

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Awhile back, I confessed my unabashed love for my crock pot. There are few things closer to a frugal cook’s heart, I dare say, than her (or his!) slow cooker.
But I do have a few more beloved objects on my list of favorite frugal things. And my apple peeler-corer-slicer is among them.
Mine happens to be from Pampered [...]

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