I have been avoiding the store. Trying to use what I have in the cupboards and not buy a bunch of things when I have perfectly good food that needs to be used up. So after I served cereal and ramen for a few days, I have resorted to getting more creative. Last night we had 2 kinds of pasta, found some meat balls in the freezer and mixed it with a jar of sauce. I served that with corn and green beans from the farm produce. It was a great meal and didn't seem odd at all. This morning I am serving muffins and hot cocoa. Now, lunch might get a little more creative and I haven't given too much thought to our dinner. I want to use up the produce before it goes bad and I hate to waste food. It kind of is a game. To see how long I can go with out going to the store for food. Now the snack food like chips and crackers ended days ago, but we might be better off with out it.
This morning, the girls were thrilled to have muffins. They love muffin mornings. My mom used to make muffins when we were little and we loved it too. We even had a very unique tradition of hiding coins in the muffins cups. Has anyone else heard of that? I am assuming my mom would clean the coin and then drop them in the bottom of the paper liner before the batter went in. I haven't done it yet with my girls because I haven't taken the time to sanitize the money. Just wondered if anyone else has heard of that idea.
So, just call me Old Mother Hubbard...I am going to try and pick these cupboards bare.
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12 comments:
I am not good at this at all. We spend way to much at the grocery because I keep making trips for this and that rather than being creative enough to use what we have.
Oh, we love to put coins in our muffins....we do it often in Japan. Such fun. Although I usually make my muffins without paper liners, so then it's always a trick to get the coin to stay IN the muffin and not stick to the bottom of the muffin tin. Those coins are pretty heavy and sink fast. Usually we have coins soaking in a cup of water to clean them afterwards. HAVE FUN!
I love hearing your creative ideas....keep letting us know how it goes. I often want to just clean out the pantry before going and spending more money, so maybe I can learn some things here.
I love the challenge of cleaning out the cabinets. I do it every once in a while when it gets really cluttered. You've inspired me to make muffins for breakfast tomorrow. I have some wheat that I ground (or is it grinded?) at Julie's.
I try hard to use everything as well, but sometimes I am not creative at all with the stuff in the pantry. Other times I can whip up a good meal with odd ingredients and all love it...... I guess it all depends on the day : ) Cheers to you, Old Mother Hubbard~
I have never heard of putting coins in muffins.
My pantry is getting a bit cluttered up (OK, a lot cluttered), so maybe it's time for me to declare a week off from pantry shopping.
This "tradition" came from my mom. I'll ask her if it came from her mom. I think Sue does it too. What fun. BTW your muffins looked great!
I usually go to the store - every day. The reason is, when I plan ahead "things" happen....we end up not eating at home for three days and I see bad or at least severely vitamin-depleted produce in there. However a few times I have done just what you are doing. Pasta and "sauce" is usually available in there....we have had some distinctly "odd" meals, however....
The coins in the muffins is a charming idea. My mother one time, concerned about someone complaining about finding a pit in the cherry pie, offered a quarter to anyone finding a pit. She later walked into the kitchen where we'd been pitting the cherries and caught my brother putting a few pits into the pie filling.
We call this "eating skinny".
We do it quite a bit.
What an awesome idea. I am going to follow suit. :)
You make me laugh! I also do this... it really feels good to use all of what we have and really not let anything go to waste! It is sometimes fun to see what we can come up with from what we have :) We live in a world of wasted food... we should really strive to do this every week!!
Blessings~
At the beginning of summer, my hubby and I established a food budget and tried to see if we could just have one shopping trip per seven days. I thought it would not be possible. During the school year I was going about every-other-day, and spending way too much money.
Guess what?! It has totally worked!! Having the kids do the calculator, one pushes and gets the items off the shelves, sticking to my one shopping list ... we go every Wednesday (which I have also found in my grocery store is the day all the coupons for the week start and extra deals too).
We got back from vacation yesterday, had a stack of odds and ends in the pantry that we STUCK WITH for today...tomorrow is Wednesday, we made it!! It has worked amazingly well for us.
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