CALLING ALL GENTLY USED CHILDREN'S SPRING & SUMMER CLOTHES!

I need my house to look like this! That means I have new clothes to add to my consignment space!  Let me know if you have clothes you want to consign with me.

I saved 83% off at Safeway!

So I did another quick trip to Safeway to pick up an early edition of the Sunday newspaper, so glad I did.  Look what I picked up:

• 4 bags of spinach - Here (scroll down to yellow oval) .75/1 coupon
• Sunday newspaper
• 2 Pantiliners - 3/25 SS $1/1 coupon
• 1 Nivea lipstick - Here $1/1 coupon

Not bad for $2.97, an 83% off orginially was $14.96.  I'm thinking we'll be eating ALOT of salads for the next few days or I might try my hand at cooking the spinach so I can freeze it.  I think these prices are good through 3/27, so you have time to pick them up.  Have fun!

Watch out world, I'm learning something new!

Look what I picked up (for free) from my library!  I'm hoping to find some good cost cutting ideas from these books.  Unfortunately, we can't have bee hives, goats, or cows in town, but I will be letting you know if they have any good ideas that we "suburbanites" can use.



A funny thing happen in Safeway today

So I dropped my youngest off at school today in the midst of a snow storm.  SNOW!  It's the beginning of spring and we have snow, I guess this is response to the sunny winter we had.  I stopped off quickly to make my rounds at Safeway, look what I found:



I was able to get 4 packages of yogurt for 80 cents!  That's 5 cents each!  A STOCK UP PRICE!  I will guarantee my children will snarf eat these during Spring Break.  I also picked up a pound of ground beef for 30% off, which made it $1.88, a good price.  We have a few packages of ground beef, but I wanted to make meat balls & freeze them so I picked it up.  And what household with children don't have banana's, it's a staple in our home, even though the price is 64 cents/lb.  If you can find a better price, let me know.  So the entire purchase was $5.44. 

Blackberries: Oregon's state weed?

Blackberries are abundant here in Oregon.  At this point they are so annoying that sometimes I classify them as a weed.  But I have to admit that I love it on summer days I can send the kids out to eat as much as they want right off the vine.  I think last summer I froze about 6-8 gallon size Ziploc bags for future enjoyment.

Future enjoyment?  Oh yea, my husband has a sweet tooth.  A close second is a berry tooth, any kind of berries it doesn't matter.  So how do I show my appreciation to him for all the hard work he does?  BLACKBERRY PIE.

Here is my recipe for blackberry pie:

Filling:

4 C blackberries

3/4 to 1 C sugar

1/4 C flour

Add all ingredients into bowl, mix, & set aside

Double crust:

2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 C shortening

6-7 T cold water

Mix together flour & salt.  Cut in shortening until size of small peas.  Sprinkle 1 T of water at a time over mixture.  Mix until dough is moistened.  Cut dough in half.  Roll out over floured surface until size of pie dish.   Put dough into dish & press edges to remove air bubbles.  Add filling into pie dish.  Repeat with second half of dough.  Place on top of filling.  Trim edges of dough, press edges with fork to seal edges, & make slits in top dough for air removal.

Cover edges with foil & place in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Remove foil 7 bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Lasagna - just a bit different

I have a friend who introduced me to this thrifty tip. 

Use cottage cheese in place of ricotta cheese in lasagna.  The thought of cottage cheese makes my stomach turn, but she said ricotta cheese is just a smaller curd.  So I gave it a try.  Know what?  It was good.  I thought I'd hate it, but it tasted just the same.  Give it a try. 

Cottage cheese is cheaper than ricotta.  You can even place the entire tub in the freezer.   AND BTW, I see a lot more coupons for cottage cheese than ricotta now. Enjoy your dinner! 

If you wanna know my recipe for lasagna here it is: 1 can spaghetti sauce, lasagna noodles (either ready to make- add 1/2+ C water to sauce for ready to make or cooked yourself), shredded cheese, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese.  Layer noodles, spread cottage cheese, sprinkle shredded & Parmesan cheese, cover with sauce.  Bake in 375 oven for 20-30 minutes.

Irish eye's are smilin' Part 2

Eureka!  I found a way to make hash browns better!  For those who missed part 1 go here.

Soak the shredded potatoes for a few minutes until the water becomes milky white & has bubbles.  Squeeze the water out of the potatoes, fry in a few tablespoons of oil, & cover.  Cook for at least 5 minutes or until desired crispiness & turn.  I add all season salt to mine & they are WONDERFUL!