The Allure of Chocolate

I have to admit, I was glad to see Halloween come and go. It's not my favorite holiday, although we do buy candy and hand it out to the neighborhood kids...of which there were quite a few this year, by the way. They came, they got candy, and we had just a little of the good stuff left. I made sure that I gave out the boxes of Dots and the Tootsie rolls to the little goblins and saved a few of the good ones for us. And by good ones, I mean chocolate of course!

And then it happened. I was in Walgreens buying my weekly ad specials when I spied the sign. 75% off Halloween candy. And I fell for it. Totally. Come on home with me Snickers, little Baby Ruth, and you cute little Crunchs (dark, even which my hubby will love me for!).

I was just telling my hubby that my thighs are getting fat and look at what I do to make that situation worse! Oh well, what's a few little bite sized morsels of chocolatey goodness here and there, right? Tis the season...and it's only going to get worse.

Did you fall for it too?

Money Saving Tips on Groceries?

Hasn't the price of groceries just astounded you lately? I know I've been shocked. Everytime I go in there to get groceries, I come out with a little bit of stuff and it's at least $40-50 just about every trip. We used to take for granted that bread, milk and eggs were staples that most could afford to have around all the time, but even those items are getting out of sight! The state of our economy is pretty alarming to me, so I thought it would be fun to share some grocery tips with each other. How do you save money on groceries each week? Do you have any great ideas on buying groceries and keeping the costs down?
It definitely pays to shop around. This chili mix that we love is $1.00 cheaper at Walmart than it is at Publix. That adds up!

I used to be pretty good about clipping coupons, but have gotten out of the habit in the last few years, as I have gone to using store brands for so many items now, that cutting coupons for national products just doesn't seem to be such a great deal anymore. Now, I still buy some name brand products, but I try to buy them on sale. For instance, our main grocery store here in B'ham is Publix. I love this store and have been shopping with them ever since they came to Atlanta in the early 90's. Great store, great service and the products are wonderful. So, that's my favorite grocery store to shop in. Unfortunately, their prices are not the lowest all the time and their meat prices are definitely not that great. So, I shop them for weekly specials and meat specials and go to other stores, like Bruno's and Winn-Dixie to stock up on meat buys for the most part. Wish we had Kroger here, as in Atlanta they have to compete with Publix prices.

I do buy a lot of Publix store brands, whenever I can and I can honestly say their store brands are excellent. Everything from milk, bread, frozen foods, crackers, and even that cheese ravioli you see above. Good stuff! So, that's one of my ways to save money. Buy store brands whenever possible.

Frozen veggies Their milk is fine too, but I will get milk on sale sometimes at Walgreens when they put the local dairy milk, Barber's, on sale, so I will try to pick it up on sale whenever possible. At over $4.00 a gallon, you have to look at saving money wherever you can, even on milk! Who would have thought we would be paying that much for milk?? It's crazy! My hubby likes 1/2 and 1/2 for his coffee, so we get that at Publix too. Now, I do shop at Walmart the rest of the time for staple items, like canned goods, name brand crackers or cheese, paper products, cleaning products, soft drinks, etc. I will pick up a lot of items there and then fill in with Publix specials each week. I look at the weekly grocery sale papers when they come out each Wednesday and make note of meat specials first.
For instance, this week, Publix had sweet potatoes for 49 cents a pound, so I bought some of those. We love sweet potatoes, but when they are about $1.00 a pound, I usually pass on them. Asparagus is another favorite, but I will only buy it on sale too. I think it's coming in season now, so we should be able to get it reasonably priced for the next few weeks. This week it was $1.99 on sale. I won't pay $4.00 a lb. for asparagus. I try to work my cooking around what is in season for fresh veggies and fruits. Then stock up on things then. And during the winter, we eat mostly frozen veggies.

Publix has a lot of items each week, Buy One Get One, so I definitely go for those items that I need when those BOGO's run. For instance, I was almost out of mayo and they were running BOGO on Kraft mayo, so I got a new one and saved 1/2 that way. That's how I do most of my shopping at Publix, buying the specials for the most part and then supplementing from Walmart, since they are cheaper overall on everything else. This week they had Kelloggs Raisin Bran BOGO (usually 2 for $4.00 or less), so I stock up on those sales, but otherwise, I'll buy Publix Raisin Bran which isn't bad at regular price ($2.69 for 25 oz).

I cook from scratch for the most part and don't buy a lot of boxed items. The only exception is I keep canned soup (Progresso) around in the pantry for something quick to eat, as well as rice packets and sometimes ravioli, like I showed above. Other than that, I'm a from-scratch cook. What about you? I think buying boxed foods is so much more expensive from what I can tell.

So, what do you do to save money on groceries? This is a topic that many of us are concerned about right now, with the price of everything going up so drastically. We have to do what we can to keep those costs down, but we gotta eat too! Let's all share ways that we save money on food....chime in, please! Do you all still clip coupons? Let's hear from you!

My parents are coming today, so I'm going to enjoy a few days with them. Here's hoping the weather cooperates and we can get outside for a project.

Food Looks Better on a White Plate

My Pfaltzgraff Filigree dishes looking pretty in the cupboard. After eating all the cookies, candy, sugared nuts, pie, cake, and whatever else I could get my hands on over the last month or so, it's nice to go back to some healthier choices food-wise. First of all, let me just say....I love pizza! If you do too & are looking for a good pizza crust from the grocery store that you can add toppings to, this is a good one. Mama Mary's. I found out about their products from my former company. They have a food division under the company I worked for & own several well-known smaller food products (just one part of what my company did). This is their latest acquisition from what I understood right before I left. We got in several boxes back in the fall from this company & were very happy to sample the products. They have wheat crust, regular thin crust, 7" and 12" varieties. Anyway, all that to say this...it's really good. We got more gift boxes in right before Christmas, so I brought home more. We love this pizza crust. It's not frozen, so you have to eat it pretty fast or freeze it for later. You can find it at Walmart (although one of my Walmart's didn't have it, & the other one did, but no wheat crust at all), the crust for sure, & hopefully the pizza sauce too. If you love to make pizza at home like we do, give it a try! I will definitely be buying more of their products. Side salad of baby spinach goes very well.
Here's the three 7" pizzas right out of the oven. Now you may ask if pizza is a good healthy food choice. Well, we do vegetarian, so I think it's OK. I will never get my hubby to cut out the carbs, so this is fairly healthy with olives, roasted red peppers, & mushrooms, topped with some fresh mozzarella. I think we could do worse. My favorite frozen pizza is DiGiorno, Spinach & Mushrooms, but I can see this one will be right up there too. They do a wheat crust, so that is what I'll buy most of the time. These are the 7" ones & it was plenty for both of us. Yum! Baby spinach salad and a Diet Dr. Pepper (did I mention this is my favorite soft drink...oh, yes...it is!). It doesn't get much better than this. I love pizza. In fact, we are having our friends Rick & Debbie over tonight & pizza is what I'm making.

Another recent food choice was definitely healthy. We had fish for a Sunday lunch right after the Holidays. Doesn't this look so nutricious & delicious? It was. Talapia for me & salmon for the hubby. The Holidays always seem to bring on the binge eating & we are usually craving some normal food after a short time & this year is no exception. It's back to the gym for the regular schedule & back to some healthier food! I do use Zaterain's rice mixes, they are very good.
For Christmas, I told Peter that all I wanted was another set of 4 place settings of my pretty white dishes. If you remember, these are the ones (8 piece place setting) I found at a yardsale last Fall for $10. I was able to find a brand new set of 4 on Ebay for a decent price, so now I have 12 place settings. These are by Pfaltzgraff & are called Filigree & I couldn't be happier with them. I know several of you said you had these too. I have always heard that white dishes make for the best looking food & now I'm convinced! Almost as pretty as a Southern Living spread.

Speaking of white, this is a timely post, as my good friend, Maureen, over at Penchants, Ponderings & Posies is having a giveway! It's all about winter white & your favorite pictures of that particular shade & wait til you see the beautiful white birdies that she is giving away. I really hate to send more people over there, as it will lessen my chances of winning those beauties...but, because I really, really like ya'll (& adore Maureen), go on over & check it out!