Honestly, I will very rarely post recipes here, especially recipes I’ve “created.” I’m not a fanciful cook and I don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen (if I can help it). But this is one of my favorite soups, pretty healthy and frugal too.
Chicken Tortilla Soup al la Kelly
1 can – yellow or white corn, drained
2 cups – carrots, sliced or diced or cubed
2 small green peppers, diced
1 small white or yellow onion, diced
4-5 cups chicken stock
shredded chicken (as much or as little as you like, I add about 2 cups)
10 corn tortillas, cut into slices
Helpful hint: Last week I got a whole organic chicken for around $4. I threw it in the crock pot with 3 cups of water and some spices. Four hours later the meat was falling off the bone. Literally. I cut the breastbone with a plastic spoon! I let it cool and picked out the bones and skin, threw the meat in the fridge and put the juice in a jar. When I started the soup I first skimmed off all that fat and put the stock in the crock pot to heat up. There wasn’t quite enough so I added an 8 oz. can of stock.
First I throw the chicken stock into the crockpot, turn it to low.
Second, drain the corn, cut up the peppers, carrots and onions (that is if you manage to remember the onion, I did not)
Third, Slice the corn tortillas into long strips
Fourth, chop up the chicken
Fifth, cover and cook on low for at least 3 hours, more if you’re at work or sleeping or lazy.
When it’s done (yummmmmm) you can serve with cheese or sour cream, whatever you like. If you have a million little chips at the bottom of the bag, throw those on the bottom of the bowl for a crunch.
The soup can be bottled and refridgerated or frozen but I usually eat it all too quickly.
My grandma worked as a cook and then manager of the local school district kitchens up until she retired. As such she was able to take the summers off to spend with her family and got many items very cheap or at cost. When she moved to Assisted Living we found a nearly full box of kitchen drying towels and the dozen or so I kept are still in use. She also had a two foot long rolling pin that doubled as a weapon!
One of my favorite childhood memories was to come to town to visit Grandma and Grandpa and play in the backyard for hours. We quickly learned that Grandma’s old chest freezer – which was probably 4 feet long and 2 feet wide – contained an unnatural amount of sweets. Grandma would buy whole fruit popsicles and stock up for the summer. Two of us kids could removed the 50 lb crowbar that held the lid shut and enjoy a popsicle in the 100* weather.
If I could find the company that made those popsicles I would sell my internal organs to buy it.
Anywho, since buying my first chest freezer this week I have filled it with the following:
- Otterpops
- Fudgesicles
- Fruit popsicles
- Sherbet
- Vanilla Ice Cream
I don’t usually have dessert, per se, but I’m hoping that a blue otterpop on a hot day will let me relive some of those frugal memories. Not to mention my four young cousins arrive from Texas in two days and the tradition must continue!
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If you’ve been following my 99 days list, you know that I’ve already finished two items prior to buying this chest freezer:
10 Price chest freezers Garage – DONE June 3rd
15 Measure space for chest freezer Garage – DONE June 1st
Through my research I found I could expect to spend around $250 for a medium sized freezer and up to $450 for a large one. However, the more I mulled over this decision, it became apparent that as a single woman I don’t need a large or even medium sized freezer. For now, the smallest size will work just fine. Here’s my new freezer which was on sale at Target for just $140:
baby freezer
This is one case where planning and contemplating a decision clearly paid off. Not to mention I was uniquely lucky to have a good friend send me a message about this deal which I would not have found on my own!
This past week a friend of the family died and since my Mom was out of the state on vacation I volunteered to attend one of the services and take flowers. Now it would be easy enough to order a bouqet from the florist or even a plant from the nursey. But it would also be expensive. So I created my own. Here’s what I did:
Picked out a sturdy square vase and flower foam:
basic supplies
A variety of cutting instruments:
beware of sharp edges
The knife was used to cut the foam, the shears to cut the stems and the scissors to cut off leaves.
And of course the flowers:
uncut flowers
The flowers came from Costco where the prices are surprisingly reasonable. I paid $15 for one bouquet and $9 for the other. Since our friend who passed was a woman and the base I had was pink I decided to go with pink and purple pastels. First up was to take out all that greenery and cut the stems. It’s advisable to cut the stems at an angle and submerge them immediately into water. I don’t know who figured this out as I asked the plants and they refused to respond. There are NO pictures of me trimming stems because me + camera + shears = ER visit. This is also a good time to pull out any flowers that are snapped in half or stems without blooms. Once the stems were cut I threw them into a trash can filled with water:
nice pot
Now that was so pretty I almost considered leaving it as is. Maybe the next time a friend of mine moves into a new house a new trash can + flowers will be a fun gift…
Instead I started to take out the blooms and put them into the water drenched foam. Most websites will tell you to put the open blooms in the middle, closed blooms along the outside. Yeah, I ignore that advice. After all, when the older ones start to shrivel it’s much less noticable if you trim them back from the sides, otherwise they’ll be a big hole in the middle of the arrangement. So I started with the pink ones:
work on the center first
I also vary the heights so that they will bloom and fill out the bouqet. After the pink flowers I added the carnations and purple ones (I’m terrible at names in case you can’t tell…)
filling it out
adding more blooms
Now that all the flowers are in I did a little rearranging, mostly turning flowers and making sure they were mostly visable. I decided it looked a little sparse so I added in some greenery, the baby’s breath and eucalyptus leaves. Here’s the finished product:
And there you go! A $25 bouquet that looked great next to the other arrangements, was fun and easy to put together and conveys just some of the sympathy for the family who lost a loved one. Showing people that you care doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.
*
Happy Sunday! This is by far my favorite day of the week and the one that has the most predictability. I start whenever I wake up and leisurely get dressed and feed the dogs. Then I head out to the Dollar Store where I can pick up two copies of the Sunday Paper for $2.16. Then comes the fun part. I usually lounge on the couch with my recycling bin and a movie while I go through the paper. It’s important the movie does not require much attention as I’m rapidly distracted by the week’s deals. The BBC series Planet Earth is a favorite.
I set aside the bulk of the paper to read through the articles during the week but today I focus on the inserts. There’s a quick perusal through the Parade magazine and the cartoons before I turn to the advertisements.
My favorites (in order) are:
- Walgreens
- Target
- Rite-Aid
- Staples & Office Depot
Most others are set aside as I either have no interest in their merchandise (Sports Authority), hate going to their stores (Long’s Drugs) or need to avoid temptation (Best Buy, Circuit City).
I cannot wait until CVS completely takes over our Long’s Drugs. I have access to their corporate head quarters, maybe I should call and ask.
Now there are many people out there who catalog each and every coupon, its value, restrictions, origination point, etc.
I’m not that ambitious.
This is the most I’ll record:
January 4, 2009: $2.16
- 4 Red Plum total value is $338.85
- 4 Smart Source total value of $275.30
- 2 General Mills total value of coupons $22.20
My reasoning is simple. Why duplicate what others already do? I use the wonderful site MoneySavingMom for help on rebate deals at the drugstores.
In contrast to the General Mills inserts which yielded a coupon or three on every page, all of them for food and therefore useful, the 4 inserts from Smart Source are full of fillers and other useless coupons. Smart Source contains $275.30 in coupons plus 9 Buy One Get One Free coupons and finally the Red Plum inserts contain $338.85 in coupon offers plus 2 Boy One Get One Free coupons.
The coupon totals for two papers is $636.35.
Want to know why I spend two hours a week buying papers and going through the coupons? I have $600 reasons why. Even if I don’t use a majority of the coupons they do yield a large amount of savings each week.
Here’s my Walgreen’s plan for this week (contrary to the title I don’t do all my shopping on Sunday, just plan for it):
(2) Garnier Fructis Shampoo & Conditioner
Sale price $2.99
E.S. Coupon ($2.00)
MF Coupon ($1.00)
Final Price Free
(2) Healthy Choice Café Steamers
Sale Price $2.50
MF Coupon ($1.00) off two
Final Price $4.00
(2) Reynolds Foil
Sale Price $0.99
MF Coupon ($1.00)
Final Price Free
(2) Excedrin Extra Strength Tablets
Sale Price $5.00 each
MF Coupon ($2.00) each
Out of Pocket $6.00
RR Coupon $5.00
Final Price $1.00 on two
(2) Softsoap Liquid Soap
Sale Price $0.99
MF Coupon $0.34
Final Price $0.64
Total cost out of pocket $11.26
RR coupons earned previously: $10.50
Real out of pocket: $0.76
Receive back in RR Coupons: $5.00
I have an unhealthy obsession with furniture. Not just any furniture but a desk. A beautiful wood desk that belonged to my grandmother.
I should back up.
On the MSN Message Boards today poster berkgal33 mentioned seeing an elderly neighbor searching for recycling in order to earn money for groceries. I found myself very grateful for the frugal living example my grandparents set for me. I write this at my grandmother’s desk. A beautiful solid wood desk that my grandma used to pay bills, plan vacations and take care of her family.
This desk represents my grandma’s independence as a working woman providing for her family while my grandfather was away on trucking runs. It represents the place where she paid the bills, sent money to savings and wrote birthday cards to us grandkids.
My grandparents drove sensible cars, they had to be sensible to haul four kids from Oklahoma to California and back during the summer. They took sensible vacations, usually home to visit the family, bunking with cousins and aunts, staying in small motels along the way. A “true vacation” was camping in a tiny camper trailer and later a motorhome. There were no boat rentals and jet skis, just a tin fishing boat and lots of fish. My grandparents have lived in this town for over 45 years, bought this house over 30 years ago. They didn’t trade up but made this house what it is today through a process of slow renovations paid in cash when they could afford it.
I have pictures of my mom in this backyard, pregnant with me. I have pictures of myself crawling in the kitchen, learning to walk in the driveway and recovering from chickenpox swimming in the bathtub. Entertainment for us grandkids consisted of PBS, thift store stuffed animals, a sprinkler and dominos. With the park just blocks away we had full access to the swings, slides and plenty of room to run.
My grandparents have never been on an international vacation or travelled the world though they certainly had the savings to do so on occasion. They were content to see their family as much as possible, raise children and grandchildren with modest means and provide us with scholarships to school, old cars to drive and enough love to fill a lifetime.
Last year when my grandmother returned from their lunch at the senior citizen’s center she told me with great excitement about the cruise advertised for retired folks. As much as I love that my grandparents have the savings for their care for the rest of their lives and will never have to scrounge for plastic bottles to recycle to get by, I truly wish they had taken a vacation together, maybe even a cruise, to celebrate their accomplishments. But mostly I wish that Alzheimer’s Disease had not taken grandma’s prime of life away and made such a trip an impossibility.
