Black Friday Guest Post!

I'm excited to have my first guest post by Brett H. of the Blog Content Guild!  I decided to post this today since many of us are looking for good deals on Black Friday.  Read below for great grocery shopping tips!

Underrated Versatile Grocery List Items
Does it seem like the items from the grocery store don’t last long enough? Or that you’re always in and out of the grocery store, making several trips a week? If this is the case, then you may want to reconsider the items on your grocery list. It’s all right to have an impulse buy once in a while, but making several trips a week can be costly.

Many of us know about the advantages of buying in bulk or getting 2-for-1 deals, as well as couponing. However there are other ways that you can save money on your groceries while saving yourself that extra trip to the grocery store. Here are some items that you can both buy and store for months and use for a variety of things, minimizing your grocery store jaunts.

• Condensed cream soup - Whether you prefer the trusty mushroom or want to change up your soup with chicken, broccoli, or potato, the choice is yours when you want to take a shortcut from making a creamy base from scratch. By adding chopped, cooked meat and one package of frozen mixed vegetables in a slow cooker for about 2 hours, you can have one easy entree. Soups also make great leftovers allowing you to enjoy this treat for days to come -- no extra trips to the grocery store needed.

• Dry milk - As far as drinking this type of product by itself, dry milk can be an acquired taste, however, this ingredient is excellent for mixing in dishes that call for regular milk. If you want to minimize your time in the kitchen, make a one-quart bottle of liquid and use for cooking and baking. If you bake sporadically, you can just add dry milk to dry ingredients when recipes call for regular milk (3 tablespoons of dry milk for every cup of liquid milk). Additionally, dry milk can be added to the bathtub, an at-home spa treatment that will leave your skin soft and moisturized. Forget those expensive bath products!

• Food storage bags - These bags are excellent for marinating meat overnight providing more coverage without the bulkiness of a large bowl. They can also take the place of a dredging station. For coating meat and vegetables, add your dry ingredients to a quart-size (or larger) bag. Shake to ensure even mixing and, after food is added, secure and shake for a few seconds. Once all of your food is coated, dispose of immediately. Make your own instant rice by pouring in one cup of regular rice and mix in a ¾ cup of warm water. Refrigerate and heat bag contents for 1-2 minutes and add a teaspoon of water if necessary. These bags can also be used to freeze food for a short period of time.

• Ginger root - Besides adding a spicy kick to international dishes, ginger root is helpful to those with gastrointestinal problems. Chop a ¼ inch piece and steep in 1.5 cups of hot water for at least 15 minutes. Add honey or raw sugar and drink as hot as possible. In a matter of minutes, indigestion or stomach pain will be relieved.

• Plain yogurt - Not only is it better for than sour cream if you’re trying to watch your weight, but yogurt but can be used to make fruit and cereal parfaits that can be enjoyed any time of day.

New Finds...

Many of you know that I'm not a big fan of peanut butter (meaning that I never eat it unless it's packed with sugar and surrounded by chocolate in a reese's cup!).  I've finally found some alternatives.  My friend, Sally, told me in college that I should try almond butter - a few months ago I finally gave it a try!  And it's amazing!  Unfortunately, some grocery stores either don't carry it or only carry the organic brand that cost $20+ for a jar!  So, recently, I found sunflower seed butter.  If possible, it's even more amazing than almond butter - and it costs about the same as peanut butter.  So far, I've only eaten these new finds with apples as a snack.  I haven't ventured into sandwiches with jelly yet - one step at a time...

Tuesday's Tips - Coffee

Bialletti Moka Express

Kent and I are both big coffee drinkers.  In fact, I started drinking a coffee/milk/sugar mixture as a small child with my father on Sunday mornings.  When Kent and I first got married, we had a standard drip coffee maker.  It took up a lot of counter space and didn't produce the best tasting coffee.  So we soon got a Bialetti Moka Express stovetop coffee maker.  I love using it to make lattes.  I got an inexpensive milk frother, but it takes a lot of time since you need to heat up the milk in a kettle before frothing it.



French Press Mug

For a regular cup of coffee, we've found that a french press works best.  Kent had been talking about getting one for a while, so his sister gave him a french press coffee mug for Christmas last year.  It's great because you can make a cup of coffee in it and then store extra grinds underneath the mug to make two more cups of coffee in the mug later in the day.  Since then, we've also gotten a 10 cup french press to replace our drip coffee maker.  We use it all the time!  



French Press



We like to buy whole bean coffee from O'Henry's and World Market (or Dunkin' Donuts original blend from the grocery store) and grind it there since we don't have a grinder at home.  I bought an inexpensive blade grinder in college, but it couldn't grind the beans into a uniform size and eventually broke.  For more even grinding, burr grinders are definitely better, though more expensive.



Tuesday's Tips

I baked a pound cake yesterday for a neighbor and it reminded me of a few good tips to share that might make your baking a little easier.

1. When baking a cake, you'll know it's ready to take out of the oven when you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean. Then, let it rest for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan. It you don't let it cool any, it will probably fall apart when you turn it out. If you let it cool too much, it will stick to pan and not look very pretty (this has happened to me several times!).

2. Always break your eggs one at a time into a clear dish and then add them to your mixture. I had been hearing this for a long time before I really understood the importance of this step. One time in college I was baking a cake (and had just enough ingredients) and was cracking the eggs directly into the batter. One of these eggs was red on the inside, which seems to mean that some blood vessels popped while the egg was developing. Apparently, these are not dangerous to eat - but I certainly didn't want to eat it! So I had to throw all of the batter out! You should also look for any pink or green/blue tints which would mean that the eggs are spoiled. Cloudy egg whites generally mean that the eggs are extremely fresh, but some people prefer to stay away from those as well.