Let’s start with food..........

Good morning everyone

I just looked at the possible blog photos I’ve taken recently and they seem to be all related to food, bargain shopping and home sprucing up. 

So I’ll post the food highlights today and move on to the others later this week.  

OK? 

That way each post won’t be as long a book 😃

We really like okra and in the south, it’s usually battered or coated with cornmeal and fried in lots of oil.  It’s delicious that way but not healthy. 

I recently read to just cook okra plain and we like it so much this way. 

I’ve been buying frozen sliced okra at Walmart. 

To cook, I heat up a nonstick skillet with just a teaspoon of olive oil.  Then I add a single layer of frozen okra and cook it on medium high, flipping it as need to get both cut sides nice and brown.  Add salt and pepper as desired and some diced onions toward the end of the cooking so they don’t burn.  

It’s isn’t slimy and is just so good! 

If you try this,  remember the single layer is important.  If you try to cook a big batch for a group, in 1 pan, like I did 😱 You Will End Up With Okra Mush.  

Naked Fried Okra is my new favorite side dish and I’ve been cooking it at least twice a week this summer.  

I usually buy our weekly produce at Aldi.  I’m thankful Aldi is close by and ours is very nice with a quick turnover on everything.

This week’s produce is not a rainbow but seems to be all red and green.

The tiny tomatoes are not from Aldi but from our little backyard garden.



I offered to help my daughter out by making freezer sandwiches for her 2 children that are starting school soon and like to take homemade lunches.  

Below are all the ingredients set out before I started assembling.


I shopped at Walmart for these ingredients and found French bread for .32 a loaf. 

When we have big dinners,  everyone likes bread.  So I got 4 loaves. 

 

I sliced them all lengthwise and spread them with softened butter.  

I used 2 sticks for the 4 loaves.

Then I sliced each loaf about every inch or so.

Then I wrapped each loaf in foil and put them in the freezer.  

When we need bread for a meal, these will either get heated in the oven or outside on the grill depending on what meal we have.

I’m not picky about many brands but I do prefer the Reynolds foil in the Heavy Duty for wrapping food.  

For sandwiches,  I made ham and cheese on both tortillas and soft white bread.  

No condiments were used as the online advice says the condiments make the sandwiches soggy and these 2 grands aren’t crazy about condiments anyway.


I also made peanut butter and jelly on seed bread, the Walmart variety that is so much like Killer Dave bread, but half the price. 

I made 2 PBJ on tortillas but I don’t recommend them as I think they will be very messy as the fillings seem to just  squeeze out when I rolled them up.  

And everything was put in zipper bags and into the freezer, ready for lunchboxes when school starts for them this Thursday.  

I hope you all are having a great August 

I plan to post tomorrow some shopping deals.  

❤️

Monday list and some coupon shopping

I started the week with a new to do list.  

As always, I don’t use a fancy planner.  I just hand write out what I plan to do in a week.  It’s on notebook paper and decorated with Dollar Tree washi tape and some older rubber stamps.  

It hangs on a clipboard outside the pantry door.  I just check things off when they get done and  

sometimes I refer back to the list when I feel scatterbrained and can’t remember what to do 😂

Monday’s supper was soft tacos and Tuesday’s supper will be hamburgers so I chopped and sliced the toppings for both at the same time,

The burger toppings are in the fridge and will be fine tomorrow evening.

I have done very little coupon shopping for several months but our laundry supplies were getting low and I saw these great deals at Dollar General.  

I used some DG digital coupons and some newspaper coupons, and also the $5/25 coupon that Dollar General usually offers in Saturday.  

After all were deducted,  I paid just $11.20 for 4 Tides and 3 fabric softeners.

Dollar General has a very similar sale going in this week too.  

On our beach vacation,  we stopped at a CVS to get some supplies.  After that purchase,  I ended up with a $5 ExtracareBuck and a $8/60 purchase coupon.  

I didn’t want to waste them so I looked over the new ad and we stopped at CVS before church Sunday morning.

I had worked out what I wanted to purchase and had it organized with prices, sizes and coupons.

CVS deal shopping requires a good bit of planning and organization.  But it’s worth it.  

Before coupons, my total was over $80. 

After coupons, I paid $25

And I got back $20 in ExtracareBucks and a $5/40 coupon on my next purchase.  

At CVS, I used the coupons in the above photo as well as 2 CVS digital coupons and a $1 coupon that printed at the  CVS red machine.

I don’t coupon shop everyday but when I see deals as good as these,  I try to do them. 

Tide cleans our laundry best and I’m very happy to be stocked up with it.  

I hope you’ve all had a nice Monday ❤️