Couponing has brought my frugality to a whole new level. I feel like I now have all the pieces to the puzzle to truly bless my family with smart food choices. One of my frugal tips is BUY when the price is at its lowest. I regularly buy meat, potatoes, onions and bread in bulk when at their lowest price. These are things for which I do not regularly have coupons. Then I come home and process these for easy use. Here is a breakdown of a recent bulk buying day:

Split Chicken Breast @ $.88/lb : I bought 3 family size packages. I came home skinned, and deboned the chicken, making nice boneless, skinless chicken breasts in portions for our family into the freezer. I then took the skin and bones (with some meat left on), added celery, onion, sage and basil. (I use carrots if I have them.) I brought it to a boil, covered and simmered for two hours. Sometimes I do this and freeze the broth for future use. This particular day, I pulled the remaining meat from the bones, discarded the scraps, skimmed the fat, ran the veggies thru the blender, put it all back together along with noodles and had soup for supper. YUMMY

10lbs Russet Potatoes, $2.99: I took out the 12 largest potatoes for twice baked potatoes and put the rest away for later use. With these 12, I scrubbed them clean, and put them in the oven at 350 for one hour to bake. Once done, I cut each potato in half and scooped out the pulp into a large bowl. Next step, I just guess at the amount and taste. I added 2-4 tablespoons butter, some salt and pepper then began to mash the potatoes, next added approximately 10 oz. sour cream and mixed well. Finally, I stirred in 2 cups shredded cheese. All of this gets put back into the reserved shell halves. I top it all with a scant sprinkling of real bacon bits. Everything gets placed onto a baking sheet(s) and placed in the freezer to quick freeze. Once frozen (maybe an hour) put into freezer bags. These are great to pull out a specific portion and heat in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes as needed.

Onions, I can't remember the price I paid for these. But do want to share a tip. I did not do this on this trip, because I have plenty in the freezer now. I like to chop a lot of onions at once, mostly because I do not like to chop onions! Usually I do it in the food processor. Once chopped, use an old ice tray to freeze in portions. Once frozen, remove from ice trays to a freezer bag. Great convenience!

Ground beef

• 1-1/12 lb. portions in the freezer
  
• Brown a large quantity of ground beef, bag in meal size portions
  
• Make Hamburger Patties, wrap individually in wax paper, place in gallon freezer bag for the freezer
  

1 more tip before I go. Anytime you cook or plan to cook, consider making double batches. I've tried this and it works out wonderfully. Same pots and pans, same clean up, double the reward! Here are a few things I've done recently: spaghetti sauce and pancakes. Both freeze well.

Thanksgiving is probably the wrong holiday to be on diet.  But, that is where I found myself.  I told myself this morning if the scale was kind to me, that I would be good and eat according to the low carb diet plan I am on.  Well, I was down a full pound.  Yippee!!  So I put on a tight snug pair of jeans and made several mental promises to myself. 
I knew that the traditional thanksgiving fare would not be a temptation for me as I was not going to be cooking for the first time in a few years.  Gary announced earlier in the week that we would be eating out today.  I was a bit bummed at first.  Then I got up this morning.  I could have been persuaded to cook early on but, as 10 or 11 in the morning rolled around, I thought eating out sounded really relaxing, maybe we could even catch a movie! 
Lunch time came and we all loaded up in the van and headed off to Lonestar.  I enjoyed steak and the salad wedge.  The broccoli was way too salty.  Aside from the handful of peanuts I had, staying on the diet was relatively easy.  We arrived home and I put Bekah Grace and Gary down for their nap.  :)  Jaela and Micah had to lay down as well and Danny went to his room and hid out.  So it was just me and Quin hanging out in the livingroom.  I fixed myself a cup of coffee and then saw the cake.  Leftover cake from Kim's surprise party.  Pfft.  I took a teeny weeny little bit and fled the kitchen. 
At dinner time we all sat around and tried to develop a plan.  I perused the refridgerator and the pantry to see if any ideas leapt out at me.  The only thing I was coming up with was spaghetti and garlic bread.  So we went to TGI Fridays.  I had a gift certificate.  I also had another steak with a salad.  But, I stayed on the diet plan, all the while getting texts from my bff who is supposed to be dieting with me, talking about how full she was.  I could only think that she could not possibly be that full from plain turkey and green beans.  I have yet to officially confirm, but I think she had rolls, gravy, and dressing. 
So now I am at the end of my day.  Looking back, I am glad I did what I wanted to and needed to today. Dieting on thanksgiving proved to not be that difficult when not faced with old family favorites.   Hopefully it will wear over to other days that I am not feeling so strong and I actually cook something.
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I was in Kroger a couple of weeks ago when I saw it.  It was huge.  It was beautiful.  It was cheap.  It was something I have never done before.  Because I love a good challenge, I picked it up.  A Burgers’ blue label, brown sugar cured country ham.  The label proclaimed it’s weight to be a hefty 18.65 pounds.  At right around a dollar a pound, I knew I had scored a deal.  I brought it home and put it in the freezer.  Then buyer’s remorse set in.  I did not know how to cook it.  I don’t particularly care for country ham.  When I eat it, I feel like I may as well be chewing on a salt block.  But, my wonderful husband loves it so, I decided that I could cook it and have a ton in the freezer for him and his biscuits.  

I called around to a few people and did some searching via Swagbucks and came up with a plan.   The directions on the Burger’s website said to thaw it overnight on the counter.  I put it on the countertop next to the roaster over and went to bed.  The next morning I unwrapped it.  In the packaging I found a slightly smelly, dark colored, slightly moldy ham.  And a full color brochure!  With instructions!  

So, as you can see, it was pretty icky looking.  I put it in the sink.  The directions said to scrub it with a stiff brush.  My mama said to ‘wash the tar out of it.’  So I gave it a long bath and washed it and washed it.  When I thought it was clean, I scrubbed it again.

I put it in the roaster.  I was cooking it in the roaster oven that sits on the counter top.  The instructions said to fill the roaster with water until it was two inches from the top and roast it uncovered.  I decided those instructions did not apply to me because I was not using the oven on the stove.  So, at this point I was unsure of what to do.  I called the 800 number on the brochure.  A very nice lady answered the phone and gave some very good instructions on how to proceed.  She was very patient in answering all of my questions.  I put a couple of inches of water and a cup of molasses in the roaster with the ham, set the temp to 250 degrees, put the lid on it, and planned to ignore it for the next nine hours or so.  Of course I could not resist peeking at it every so often.  But for the most part I was able to leave it alone.  When it started to look like this seven hours later:

I took it’s temperature.  165 degrees.  Done.  I cut it all off the bone and gave it a taste.  I was prepared for that salty, ‘off’ taste that country hams tend to have.  To my surprise, it did not have it!  It was really, really good!  I served it for supper.  Everyone loved it.  I put the rest into freezer bags and put them into the freezer.  I am glad that I took the chance and got it.  I am mostly glad that this did not turn out to be one of those horror stories that get passed around the table at thanksgiving.  My husband has some for his biscuits but he will have to share!

I have finally got this page up and running.  I am so excited about what the future holds for this blog!  I hope and pray that we can be a blessing to all of our readers!