Gluten Free Eating Just Got Cheaper!!

Gluten Free Eating Just Got Cheaper!! Aldi now has a full line of gluten free products! Aldi a German company has always clearly labeled their foods as gluten free (if they are) and that has made for easy shopping for me. I just glanced at the label and if it said gluten free I bought it. No more searching the ingredient list. The new US labeling laws have been passed but not yet implemented by food manufactures across the board.

Aldi now has gluten free Mac N Cheese, granola bars, cake mixes, granola cereal, cookie mix, pizza crust mix, cornbread mix, pizzas, brownie mix, baking mix, stuffed sandwiches (like Hot Pockets), lasagna, stuffed shells, pancakes, soft baked cookies, chicken nuggets and pretzels.

Now mind you these are not available in all areas and I also can't find the ingredients for these products to check for other allergens. Sorry about that, I will have to go to Aldi and I don't have one near me, but I will go check it out in the near future because chicken nuggets sure sound good!

If you have seen or tried these products let us know what you think.

Thanks,
Moe

Soup recipe for you

Come on over to one of my favorite blogs "The Gluten-Free Homemaker" she has a wonderful recipe for beef vegetable soup slow cooker just click on the link and make a big crockpot full of this yummy goodness!

If you are not gluten free, just use regular flour in this recipe.

While the crockpot is cooking away, relax with  good book and your kids snuggled up around you and make some memories.
Enjoy!
Moe

Pantry Challenge day 8

I found some grilled burgers in the freezer from late this summer and we had those for one dinner, then I made Salisbury steaks for the next night. I used up the rest of the hamburgers and 2 cans of beef broth mixed with some cornstarch and dried onions. I put those into a pot with a lid and put them on med/low for about 45 min minutes, I served with green beans (1 can cut & 1 can string) and packaged rice mix (all from the pantry).

Any good recipes coming your way? Share them with us.
Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 7

Had to do a bit of grocery shopping. Went to Mejiers (Chorus of Angels music.......lol) shopped the produce, I think it's the lighting in that place! I could go broke shopping the produce section in that store. It's like the Garden of Eden in there! lol. They had those huge deli trays of cut of veggies & dip on clearance for $3.50, I bought one and my guys have gobbled it up. I got a few carrots, 1 piece of cauliflower and a few pieces of broccoli. I normally don't buy those trays, but the regular price was $7.99 so I snatched one up. I also bought some apples, mushrooms, eggs (we like store bought hard boiled eggs, better than our fresh eggs from our ranch, they are very hard to peel since they are so fresh) fresh green beans, cantaloupe (threw it away, it was very sour and cost me $2.99), bananas, almond milk and regular milk, kiwis, cherries ($2.99 lbs could not pass those up!), carrots and a case of Pepsi (cheaper for me to buy it, than for Dh to get it out of a machine at work. So this week I spent $33.31 on groceries this week for 3 people. I don't think that was too bad at all.
How did you do?
Moe

Pantry Challenege Day 6

We cleaned out the refrigerator and had leftovers, along with corn from the freezer, canned fruit and veggies from the pantry. Sent hubby to work with cookies from the freezer and our large stash of fresh giant oranges from the local school band.

How are you doing? I have a large can of black beans, got any suggestions to hide those in something? We are not big bean eaters (well we like greenbeans......lol) and I bought those when I was on a 'lets get healthy kick.'  Yeah, the family really likes when mom gets on that high horse. lol

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 5

I thought I would share some pictures of my stockpiles.......lol. I have a few.

First here is my stash of food that sits above my washer & dryer.

This is my NON gluten free stash of things that I need to use up.

My top of the refrigerator stash......ignore the dust up there! I'm too short to see it, so I don't dust if often :O)

My Lazy-Susan cabinet or better known as "The finger pinching spinner thing" to my toddler son back in the day. lol. Yes I have a ton of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce because the Amish salvage store has it for like .95¢ per bottle and the expiration date is 2013. YUM!

For some reason the server is rejecting my final picture, which is of a tiny cabinet that my Dh and Ds have munchies & snacks stored in. It's not real large, but it has Ritz Crackers, hot cocoa packets and stuff like that in it.

Feel free to share your stash photos with us. I've not even ventured to take pictures of the freezers yet.......lol. Maybe next week.

Happy frugal cooking this month.

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 4

I used up some zucchinis, mushrooms, carrots, garlic and chicken (from freezer). I put all that in a pan with some olive oil, cooked it up and sprinkled on a tough of seasoning salt. Went over well and I cleaned out some veggies that I had on hand. I think I will make some brown rice that I have (sitting in the pantry in the far back dark corner!) and add that along with a scrambled egg to last nights leftovers to make a fried rice. YUM!

What have you made?
Moe

Pantry Challenge!!!

How about it?? Anyone game for a pantry challenge? It's easy, before you head to the grocery store, shop your freezer, refrigerator and cabinets to see what you can use up. For the first 3 weeks I try to only buy milk, butter and bread, since I usually have an abundance of canned fruits and veggies on hand. If you don't have chickens you may need to buy eggs  :-p    Make a family game out of this, let the kids pick some can goodies from the cabinet, find some meat in the freezer and go from there.

Feel free to post here and let us know how it's going for you, ask for hints and tips on how to go about doing your pantry challenge. I for one sometimes need some help using up those odd cans of black beans, pinto beans and mole sauce that I bought for some odd reason....lol.

This is a great money saver to start the new year out. I think about many of my readers that are saving to adopt and homeschool moms that are eeking out a tight budget. I hope that this post will be a blessing to your household.

What kind of weird things do you have in your cabinet, freezer or refrigerator that need used up? Use things up before they go bad. Get creative and see what interesting things you can make.

Have a wonderful week!
Moe

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had a wonderful time last night, I spent the evening scrapbooking with our son, he worked on his camp pictures and I worked on his 6th birthday pictures. Around 11:00pm we both decided that we were tired and so we cleaned up our area and headed off to the living room to snuggle up and read. Dad was putting in some overtime at work so he missed out on the fun. But I packed him up some goodies in his dinner, bacon wrapped green olives, deviled eggs and some special Munchies chips.

Today we vegged out, I did a bunch of cooking and our son fell asleep on the couch from 1pm-5pm lol.....so a quiet day all the way around. I spent some time going over things for the next semester, since I may be facing a major surgery, I needed to look some things over and plan ahead.

Heard an interesting thought on Christian radio this week, it talked about waiting on God and how we need to look at it as "a waiting room experience", thought that was pretty neat. So as I wait for my medical tests at the end of January, I can just sit back relax in the GREAT physicians waiting room, it really removed some stress for me.

As you take down your Christmas decorations and pack them away, don't pack away Jesus, keep Him out this year and enjoy fellowship with Him each and every day.

Thanks for spending 2011 with me as we learned about raising chickens, butchered chickens, became gluten free, waited on the Lord, learned more from the Lord, looked through the Word of God and home educated.

Moe

Favorite stocking stuffer & it's FREE!

This is a favorite stocking stuffer in our house. The coupon booklet, click the link and you can design your very own coupon booklet!!  Click on gift certificate (large size) or father's day coupon booklet (smaller size). After that you can pick your holiday theme, then just follow the prompts and pick what you want. I always type in my own ideas for coupons. Our son likes the following ones that I have made up in the past.
GET OUT OF SCHOOL FREE DAY! (get out jail free card basically: we love Monopoly)
Double lesson in any subject (sometimes you just can't put down that history book since you want to know what happens next in history!!)
Lunch out (Pizza Hut book-it or a friend's son like Crazy Bread from Little Caesars)
Lego play day!
Media day with Popcorn (movies or Wii)
Bowling (our local place is $2.50 per game with shoes during the week)
Skip a subject of your choice
Library day (lay around at the library reading all day)
Chore free day-this one is pretty popular........lol

Above is a sample of the coupon booklet that I made this year.
I normally put 2 of each in the pack and they are good until 12/31/12.

This is a fun thing and it's free.......we like free!!

Merry Christmas,
Moe