Wow, Liz, your recipe sounds like the taquitos or burritos that a native Mexican friend of my DD's makes. She brought over a bag full of these little taquitos or burritos now to think of it maybe enchiladas. They are wrapped in corn husks. There is homemade cornmeal with shredded roast beef and cheese. Very good and not as spicy hot as her homemade salsa. Which now a days I can barely eat cilantro my tongue is so sensitive. So when she adds the other peppers it can be really spicy!

So I was surprised that I could eat her taquitos or tamales. I would have to look at the bag to get what she called them.

Beaglelady-I like your recipes and ideas for fruit smoothies, also the Broccoli Soup sounds yummy! When I get more organized I will try making your soup. DH does the shopping, which is at the big stores and he comes home with stuff to feed an army. Also stuff that he thinks I'm going to cook, but I don't cook much right now. So since we are basically empty nesters, food gets wasted.

We do share our supply w/the adult children, sort of "the store" for them. I do think DH buys too much candy and cookies though.

BL: Yes, I made banana bread with the overripe bananas and the loaf is all but gone!

Kimberly: I imagine that sticking to the grocery budget can be quite a challenge with 2 chefs in residence! Do post your plans to bring the spending closer to the budgeted amount.

For me, the budget category I seem to be consistently overspending on is the one for gas for the car! But that's the subject for another thread. On the grocery front, I am doing OK. Keeping to my $150/month budget for food items only for 2 females; eating out is a separate budget; paper goods/cleaning supplies, etc. is a separate budget too; and so is pet food.

UGH Bless, tell me about it. I almost never go anywhere and we spent close to $5500 on gas last year. DH has a 50 mi rt commute every day.

I've been giving it a lot of thought. There are things I could cut expenses on that I'm not willing to - like spending $2.50/gallon regular milk instead of $5.00/gallon on organic.

We need to be better about not wasting food. It's always been a downfall. I bought these really cute small dry erase magnets (they look like cartoon thought bubbles) and have started jotting on them when I put leftovers in the fridge. If I put food in the laundry room fridge, I tend to forget.

Since we rarely go out to eat, food is part of our entertainment. We like to experiment, try things and yes, we eat well. High quality ingredients are a must. That being said, if a cheaper product is just as good, I won't buy the brand name just to buy it.

That's pretty much what I'm doing now too. My freezer is full! First time since my exh moved out. Only difference is that it is all stuff I found on sale and it WILL get eaten, not tossed. I rarely toss food in my "new life". I'm also finding I have to turn it down I think, the ice cream is rock hard all of the sudden and I think it's because it's so full.

The plus side to this is I find we are spending a bit less as we don't actualy have to buy 7 nights worth of food every week. I just have to get him a little more accustomed to buying more of his items in bulk. He lived on a once a week shopping trip for so long he's having a hard time getting himself out of that habit with things like coffee and cereal.

There's an old saying, you can throw away more by the teaspoon from the kitchen than you can bring in by the bucket through the front door (meaning, waste adds up)... I certainly see it here, too!

We do homemade tamales (those are the corn-husk-wrapped ones) and burrito/soft tacos as well, because I like both. We also tend to like things on the spicier side, in general (favorite kid cookie is not chocolate chip, but Really Gingery Gingersnaps!) and I can't afford to eat out as often as we would like to eat spicy things. LOL Doing the homemade versions is a time investment, but I love tailoring the seasonings and ingredients, and it's only a time investment about once every 3-4 months, so that's workable. Time to make more tamales, though. Generally I ask friends over (they bring ingredients to share) and we do a BIG tamale party, and make dozens upon dozens upon dozens (12 dozen for my family alone, and equal amounts for other households.) Takes a good 4 hours, but that's for something along the lines of 50 dozen tamales, for multiple families, and we get the social time, too. (Our former neighbors used to have their family over for tamale days, where they'd do SOOO many tamales, enough for five households of Mexican families to take home enough for six-eight months!!)

Diane, I find the same thing with food. If I plan meals for 30 nights, we actually have a meal plan for at least 40, because of leftovers and creative re-use. I like that part... helps me build my pantry over time.

Kimberly, definitely cut only those expenses you are willing to cut and make the changes you are willing to make. Taking steps to reduce waste is a great starting point. It is something I, too, need to be more diligent about.

Diane, I, too, watch the sales. There are only a few items I will buy at regular price.

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I have gone grocery shopping twice, so far, this month, on the 3rd and on the 9th. Spent $30.10 on 1/3; spent $23.76 on 1/9 (over 1/2 of it in various "healthy" snacks for DD - "green machine" juice & luna bars).

Also, today, I stopped by the Farmers' Market during lunch and picked up one bunch of baby bok choy for $1.

Total spent on groceries so far: 30.10 + 23.76 + 1 = $54.86

I don't really need to go grocery shopping this weekend, excpet for bread.

However, whole chickens are on sale again, this week, for $.79/lb., limit 3 - I believe I still have 2 whole chickens plus several portions of cooked chicken in the freezer (need to do a freezer inventory). So, debating on whether to buy 2 more chickens for the freezer or not...

Liz, that's great about your tamale party, I'm wondering if my DD's friend who is older than her has these parties as well. She's been a real good influence on my adult DD and we help her out with her car and other things as she has had to raise her family alone after a divorce. So she likes to bring over yummy authentic Mexican food.

Kimberly-What are these dry erase magnet things you talk about. Are you talking about the dry erase boards that look like a Thought Bubble and they are magnetized to go on your fridge?
I at first, am thinking about dry erase sponges that are in the shape of a thought bubble and was trying to figure out how are you writing on them...LOL!

I'm the same way, our extra fridge might have a few leftovers in it, but mainly it is full of milk to take care of the needs of all our adult children that don't live in our home. Plus large supplies of butter, eggs, whipping cream, soda pop, bread, stuff like that.

Karalin, I will PM you a link.

Liz~ Would love the tamale recipe!

Vicki, if you go to the blog in my signature file, you can find the recipe under Food Nifty: Tamales. There are also some great recipes on-line! I use a plastic putty knife (the kind you'd use when taping drywall, though of course, these are reserved for the kitchen!) to spread the masa. (I use the masa recipe from the product bag... best place to buy the flour is at a Mexican grocery, or in the Mexican aisle.) Once you get into a rhythm, they're really quite a lot of fun.

Supper tonight was "chicken on the bone" (request from my 4yo), raw veggies, raw Greek salad, and a pasta side... tasty, but would have been more economical if I'd used the chicken I already had frozen.

I also roasted some pork; we'll do it up shredded tomorrow. YUM.