tell us about the avocado pudding as a dessert item. SO and I both love avocados but never thought about it as a dessert item.

Avacado pudding, interesting.

I made 12 breakfast sandwiches for the freezer. I put eggs and seasonings into a jelly roll pan. They cooked very quickly and I cut them into portions for the sandwiches with enough left over eggs for either dinner or breakfast. I'll have to see how I would like to use them.

I do have 10 pounds of ground beef to brown and add to the freezer.

This weekend we ate up the rest of the ice cream.

Avocado pudding is made with ripe avocados, mashed with condensed milk AND sugar. Definitely not low calorie.

How do you cook it at that point? Sounds similar to my soup but without the broth and will add some bulk to the meal. (I can't believe I am am saying that, I don't like my food mixed!!)

Diane, the meat and the veggies have been sauted together and seasoned with salt, pepper, etc. I can use it to add to pasta sauce, for fried rice, for a filling in meat pies, etc. I'd probably add more veggies to it (diced bell peppers, corn, green peas, etc.) and potato, when I go to use it.

Hi All:

I am going to jump on this thread with you. I have been doing pretty well in the last few months trying to not let anything go to waste and buying minimal. I use what I can save out of the grocery budget to go toward purchase for the house (example: was able to save half the price of a new couch and loveseat for the den).

Sooo, I want a new refrigerator - and I mean I REALLY WANT A NEW REFRIGERATOR for a long time. Got DH to agree that we need one -yeah! that was half the battle.

I have been able to save $526.00 so far in the last three months. I am challenging myself for the month of February to see how little I can spend on groceries, what ever is left over will go toward the FRIG FUND. I already have groceries for dinners for the next week. I am going to inventory my freezer and pantry to see what creative (putting it lightly) meals I can come up with. I may be inlisting the help of all of you for ideas with items that I have.

Come on juju needs a new frig!!!

Juju: That's an impressive amount to have saved in 3 months! You are going to have that new fridge in no time! Let us know what items you have on hand and I am sure we can all chime in with menu suggestions.

I took a break from my own grocery planning today, and had fun chatting with a dear friend about their groceries; she has a back injury, and we'll (DD-15.5, DS-12.75, and I) be helping with her shopping, plus doing at least one bulk cooking session at her house to get some easy breakfast things and dinner portions in the freezer. She has a turkey and a ham in her freezer, so we'll convert those to MEALS that will take up a lot less space, but be more easily used. It was a blast to plan with her!

Supper tonight was a pleaser, all around: "chicken on the bone" (just oven-fried, nothing fancy), green salad, raw carrot coins (sliced thin, on a bias angle, and my kids eat 'em like potato chips), apples for dessert. I do believe I have managed to make a Thousand Island dressing I really like. Now, if I could master a Bleu cheese dressing for the other half of the family... working on that.

I was impressed by the streamlined nature of my friend's condiment section in the fridge, and think I probably ought to weed our jars a bit... it's kind of scary in the door of the fridge right now.

I did get my produce basket ordered; pick-up is Saturday morning. The contents will influence next week's menu. To round out the week, we'll do:

* Meatloaf, oven-roasted potatoes, salad, raw fruit, raw veg
* Oven roasted chicken (lemon-dill this time, I think) with rice, spinach salad, raw veg, possibly a peach pie
* Friday is a Robert Burn's supper, so I need to make meat pies Friday morning)
* Saturday? Possibly just a wild mish-mash of stuff from the produce basket!
* Sunday, crock-pot or oven-roasted pork, gravy from the broth, or possibly making it into shredded pork for sandwiches.

We'll be making a few big batches of cookies tomorrow (soft ginger-molasses, and chocolate chip); the choc chip dough will be rolled into logs, frozen a bit, and sliced, then fully frozen, as a birthday present for a little fellow who adores TRON (disc cookies!), in anticipation of his birthday party Thursday.

Bless: Thank you. I was fortunate to have a pretty good stock pile to start.

First request for ideas is I have some grass feed beef steaks and buffalo steaks [which taste and cook the same]in the freezer. I had a hind quarter of grass feed beef and have stretched it for over a year. I am now down to the steaks and one roast. Grass feed can be dry if you are not careful. Did fine with the ground beef I had, grilled some steaks but I found them too dry. There is no fat in this meat. So looking for recipes I could do without grilling the meat. Any ideas?

I am working on a full inventory, but I know I will need to come up with some recipes for this meat in my quest to spend as little as possible this month and pad the FRIG FUND!

THANKS ALL!!

Juju, How about braising it?