Bananas!

It’s garbage day and you know what that means. I’m taking stock of how much food we waste, which thankfully, has greatly improved since I started paying attention.

I can’t seem to win with bananas. Either I have too many and am stuck with a whole bunch of brown ones, or I run out and they are a ‘go-to’ food item for my one-year-old when he won’t eat. And with bananas quickly approaching $1/lb around here, I really don’t want to waste them.

Bananas will last in the refrigerator for about a week. The skin will become very dark brown but the insides will be fine. I also slice them up and make banana pancakes which my kids love.

Of course, there’s always banana bread, right? I got a recipe from my mother-in-law, it was the house recipe from Braddock’s Tavern in Medford, NJ. I don’t know what happened, but recently that recipe has just failed me. It doesn’t work, I don’t know if I was recopying it and missed an ingredient, but it would always undercook, overcook or not congeal. It would just become really hot batter, and not form bread.

So for now, I’ve switched to this recipe. It’s easy and it’s ok, not great like the Braddock’s recipe, not nearly as rich or as fattening. Oh well.

Sunday eats-even yummier when it’s free!

First, Kevin and I made these cookies. I’m working on some dexterity things with him, so we worked on peeling the kisses together. And except for one egg, the rest of the ingredients were free!

On to dinner-Made the Mario Batali meatballs that I’ve blogged about before. And they are simmering in a free jar of sauce, I just don’t have time to make my own. Add in a $0.59 box of pasta and some spinach with free dressing, and we’re having a cheap and tasty meal.

Pssst….

Have I told you about Pssst? It’s a website run by General Mills to promote GM products. Easy to sign up and free to sign up. You’ll get recipes, coupons and the occasional freebie mailed to you. It’s sort of a sneak peek at new products and changes to existing products, in hopes that you’ll share the information with friends.

Is it worth it? My cheap eats

Yes, I think couponing and bargain shopping is worth it.

This is what we had for dinner the past two nights:

Saturday-
3.99 broiled turkey tenderloin (Favorite four at Acme, minus $1 coupon)
Cheesy hash brown casserole-
2.50 hash browns (still on sale at Acme for this price)
free can of chik soup (coupons that doubled)
free shredded cheddar cheese (Kraft catalina deal combined with coupons)
0.33 sour cream ( a third of a 0.99 container)
free box of Green Giant veggies (GM catalina deal combined with coupons)
1.00-incidentals, pat of butter for casserole, salt, pepper, seasonings

Final-$7.82, total of six servings or $1.30 each.
BTW-I really liked the Hash Brown Casserole. I left out the onions because hubby didn’t want them, and I wasout of corn flakes. Very yummy!

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Sunday-
2.83 chicken scallopini (clearance chicken!)
0.59 box of penne
free jar of alfredo sauce
0.88 fresh broccoli
1.00 incidentals, bit of olive oil for sauteeing, garlic, salt, pepper

Final-$5.30, fed the four of us tonight, enough pasta left over for boys to take for lunch one day.
So about $1.25 per serving.

Yes, this is why I think it’s worth it. The boys had free Eggos for breakfast, topped with almost free syrup (I think it was $1 a bottle, but I really limit how much they can use). And a banana, but what does a banana cost? And milk. For lunch they had a free gogurt, a PB&J with free PB&J, I only paid for the bread. And milk and they split an orange which was $0.50. And above I listed our dinners. So yes, I absolutely think it’s worth the extra effort. Now, if I can just keep up with the boys as hungry teenagers!