How to Pick the Best Apples for Cooking- With Apple Chart

October 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

I am so excited, since this is the time of year apples go on sale. How can you pick the best apples for cooking at the store? It can be overwhelming when there are so many delicious and juicy apples with a wide variety of colors. It really depends on your preference as to sweet or tart and what you are planning on using the apple to make. I am a sweet girl myself if I want the best apples to eat.

How to Pick the Best Apples

 How to Pick the Best Apples
Here is an awesome picture of an apple chart I took while I was at Sprouts the other day. This wheel pretty much sums it up to help you pick the best apples of your dreams. As you can see color doesn’t really matter when it comes to the sweetness of the apple. That is why it is so difficult to choose the pick the best apples for your needs.

The best ones for baking fall into the tart area. The Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Braeburn will make the most delicious apple pies, apple tarts and apple crisps. While the Honey Crisp and Red Delicious seem to be the most popular for just eating. My favorite is the Golden Delicious in the Less Sweet category. The apples in the Less Sweet category are amazing to use to make great applesauce, apple juice or apple butter. And you can use less sugar than the recipe calls for if you use the Less Sweet apples. The Most Sweet Apples are great just for eating too.

There is some truth to an apple a day keeps the Dr  away. Just think if you replaced eating a candy bar with an apple instead? Your body is processing something natural, not all that processed sugar and ingredients no one  can pronounce. This will improve your waistline too! I always try to provide fresh fruit as an alternative to my kids  instead of candy. What is your favorite apple or what is your favorite apple dish to make?

Filed Under: Time Saving Tips Tagged With:

How to Freeze Fresh Vegetables

May 14, 2012 by 5 Comments

I just love this time of year, since we get to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. We are trying to grow a garden this year. You can check out my garden posts and ways to go green to get some tips on gardening and creating your own garden this year. 

If our bountiful harvest comes in, what are we going to do with all those fresh vegetables? We will need to put them up and fast. One of the easiest and quickest ways to preserve vegetables, is to freeze fresh vegetables right after they have been picked. First lay them out on a cookie sheet. You can line this with wax paper to make it easier to get them off. Then place in the freezer for an hour or two. Them take them out and put them in a ziplock bag to label and keep in your freezer. Then you can take them out one at a time and enjoy. This is good for peppers, celery, tomatoes and all types of fruit. I like to dice the peppers, celery and fruit before I freeze, so I can take out however much I would like to use. 

For things like beans, broccoli, cauliflower you should blanch them in a little hot water for a few minutes before you freeze them. I usually let them steam or blanch for around 5-6 minutes. This allows them to be a bit under cooked so when you defrost them you can complete the cooking process.  Allow them to cool and place in a plastic baggie and freeze the bag flat. I freeze all my items this way so you can stack more items in your freezer. See the above picture the top shelf is ground meat frozen flat to stack.

Freezeing fresh herbs. Another great item to freeze is fresh herbs. I know I love cilantro, but I never use the whole bunch. Now I will take the remaining cilantro and put it in a blender with a little water and freeze them in ice cube tray. Once frozen pop them out and into a bag. Whenever you need fresh herbs for a dish just pop a couple of herb cubes in there and you have a flavorful dish.

The same with fruit. I love to make healthy smoothies for the kids during the summer. What better way to have a nice cold drink than to have the fruit already frozen. If you blend this with frozen yogurt it comes out like ice cream. The best part is you don’t even have to tell them it is good for them. Click to learn how to make healthy smoothies for kids in a previous post.

Here you can find a list of Freezer Items to keep in your freezer to ensure you have a great quantity of food on hand when you need it. It is also a good idea to have a few freezer meals on hand for those days you don’t feel like cooking and going out to eat is not in the budget. I might suggest having homemade pizza rolls and biscuit empanadas in your freezer for these occasions. 

Do you have any favorite foods you freeze? Do you have any freezer meals that must always be in your freezer? I love to hear from my readers. Please leave a comment below.

Filed Under: Organization, Stockpiling, Time Saving Tips

Recipe Cinnamon Swirl French Toast

March 14, 2012 by 14 Comments

I normally get the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread loaf at Kroger when it is in the discount section for $1.00. I take it home and freeze it right away. This recipe will feed all five of us for one meal; However, I like to make this on a weekend afternoon on my electric griddle and freeze it, so the kids have this for breakfast instead of cold cereal. I warm it up in the toaster on a higher setting and press the frozen button. This past week they were lucky enough to have freezer muffins and Cinnamon Swirl French Toast to choose from.

If you do not have an electric griddle here is one from Amazon that is very similar to mine. This makes an awesome gift too.



~   ~   ~
Cinnamon Swirl French Toast
1 loaf Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread
4-6 Eggs
½ Cup of Milk


1. Toast both sides of the Cinnamon Swirl bread on and electric griddle set for 350 degrees for a couple of minutes on each side or until starting to turn golden. After the bread is toasted allow to cool for a few mintues. Otherwise the bread gets too soggy.
2. Take 2 eggs and crack them in a large flat bottom bowl and add ¼ cup milk. Mix well.
3. Dip the bread in the egg mixture and let it soak a minute or two on each side. The egg should soak into the bread. Keep dipping pieces until the egg mixture is gone. Once gone add another couple of eggs and the remaining milk until all bread is soaked and on the griddle.
4. Spray electric griddle with spray oil and lay the egg soaked bread on the electric griddle. Let fry for a couple of minutes. The egg will get brown around the edges of the toast. Flip and let the other side brown.
5. Once complete serve with powdered sugar, apple butter, apple sauce or syrup.
~   ~   ~
Last time I made Cinnamon Swirl French Toast I only used four eggs and a little milk. This costs me $1.00 for the bread and $0.44 for the eggs. So for the main part of the meal I spent $1.44 to feed a family of five for breakfast. This meal includes protein, carbs and a fruit.
How much do you spend on breakfast for your family?

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Filed Under: Frugal living, meals, Money Saving Tips, Recipes, Time Saving Tips

Tips 4 Tuesday – Why I Never Shopped at Walgreens. Until TODAY!

February 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
One thing you have to realize when you are first starting to coupon is you can’t always get all the deals all the time. There are just too many stores and the amount of gas you would use would offset the saving you were getting anyway. That is mainly why I never shopped at Walgreens. It was too far away for me to justify making a trip out that way to get just a few items each week. Even if it was FREE. Since most of the time the FREE item was gone off the shelf by the time I got there. So all I did was waste gas and drive around for nothing. I spent time planning my scenarios, gathering my coupons. Instead of being excited about the awesome deals I was about to get, all I got was disappointment. This was not worth my time, gas or energy. I did this on several occasions. I vowed I would not go to Walgreens anymore.


Until now! I just realized that there is a Walgreens close to my son’s preschool, since this is on my way and I won’t waste any gas money. I thought to myself “How can I now add Walgreens into my shopping rotation?” I stopped by there today, and the cashiers were so much nicer than the Walgreens closest one to my house. Someone in the aisle even asked if I needed help. They even had a ton of the sale items still in stock, and it was Tuesday. I was very impressed and I will go back to this store.

My new plan of savings is to hit Walgreens and CVS on Tuesdays. Then do my grocery shopping at Tom Thumb, Kroger and Sprouts on Thursdays. This way I will not waste any gas, since all of these are on the way home from my son’s daycare. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the closest to when the new sales cycles start for those stores. Woo Hoo more savings!


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Filed Under: Couponing, Couponing 101, Frugal living, How to Start Couponing, Money Saving Tips, Time Saving Tips, Walgreens Shopping, Weekly Shopping

Tips for Tuesday – Quick and Easy Breakfast

January 24, 2012 by 10 Comments


Most of us are looking for a quick and easy way to start the day. Let’s face it if the morning starts off bad, the rest of the day goes with it. Breakfast can be one of those moments where you can save a little bit of time and money. Cereal coupons are not always easy to find or always a good buy. Most of the time cereal is packed full of sugar and carbohydrates and not the most nutritious way to send the kids off to school. They will be on a sugar high and it will be difficult for them to focus during the morning. They will be hyper at first and then hit that crash after about an hour or more.
How can you reduce your morning stress, save money,
and provide good nutritious food for your kids in the morning?
One thing you can do is prepare a nutritious breakfast for the kids ahead of time. On the weekend try cooking a double batch of what you are eating on the weekends. Then you can take the leftovers and have those during the week. This provides the kids with options for breakfast.
Instead of making one pound of breakfast sausage, make two. One for eating on the weekend and put the leftovers in a container to heat up during the week. If you like bacon, make the entire package of bacon. Drain and let cool, then freeze it. Take it out as needed and pop it into the microwave for 30-60 seconds. This is also great for instant bacon bits. Bacon freezes great and comes out crispy in the microwave. This will save time and provide a great protein for the morning. 

There aren’t many people I know who like dirty dishes or like to cook a big breakfast on school mornings. A quick idea for making scrambled eggs is to spray a coffee cup with cooking spray. Then crack the egg and scramble it up in the cup and cook for 1 minute in the microwave. As soon as you get it out. Cut it up some more. This is quick and easy. You could also mix it with some of the sausage, a little cheese, put it in a tortilla and have a quick breakfast taco.
Make a double batch of muffins on the weekends and place the leftovers in the freezer. As soon as they come out of the oven put them on a cooling rack. Once they are cooled place them in a freezer bag and then in the freezer. To thaw and eat, take two out and place in the microwave for 1 min. They usually come out perfect. I use whole grain wheat and a fruit to make this a heartier muffin. I normally make them from scratch for pennies a piece. 
Pancakes are so easy to freeze and to have ready for the kids on school mornings . To add more protein to your pancakes add a half cup or whole cup Greek yogurt to your batter and decrease your liquid. Another bit of nutrition, add some frozen berries or pureed fruit to the mix. If you do both you are providing a protein and a fruit along with the carbs to make the pancake a complete meal. This will keep your kids full longer and avoid the carb crash later. I also use a multigrain pancake mix. Make a double batch. Once the pancakes are done, place them on a cooling rack to cool. Then place them in the freezer. I find they don’t stick together nearly as much after they are frozen. Then you can pop them in the toaster or microwave to thaw. Instead of syrup to top them off with some powdered sugar. It gives them the sweet taste, but they will not eat as much sugar.

If you start doing these things for your morning routine, you will find that you will not only save time, but you may also find you save money too. I have a pantry full of cereal that has not been eaten in while. The kids love the muffins and pancakes and little do they know it is good for them too! Do you any great time saving tips for the morning?

Want to find more great deals? Join Pounds4Pennies BlogFrog community. I will be posting more deals on BlogFrog than on my blog site. If you want to find Blogfrog and check out the latest deals, it is a little further down on the left hand side. Feel free to check back often to find some awesome deals.

Stay connected with Pounds4Pennies on Facebook  for MUCH MORE great savings and deals and steals.
Filed Under: Frugal living, meals, pounds 4 pennies, Recipes, Stretch meals, Time Saving Tips

Product Review – MISTO olive oil sprayer

January 19, 2012 by 2 Comments
I found this great little gadget when I was shopping for Christmas gifts this year. It is the MISTOOlive Oil Sprayer. This serves two purposes for me. One I can put whatever oil I want to inside and two it is a GREEN product. I love the fact I can purchase oil on sale and I can put this into the can and use it for all my cooking. Also, I am not filling up some land fill with emptied spray oil bottles. I use mine more than I used the spray can oil and I am using far less oil on my food. I am not only saving money, but calories too!


This is so easy to use. You fill the MISTOcontainer about half way full of oil. The extra space is needed to provide air pressure for the fine mist spray. Then you just pump the top about 10 times or so and spray oil on the surface you want to use. This is great for spraying muffin pans, cake pans, frying pans or whatever else you don’t want to stick. You can even mix up a salad dressing and spray on your salad. I use mine all the time.
MISTOis around $10 for the bottle. After four uses it pays for itself. Since normal aerosol spray oil cans cost over $3 a piece. I used mine for a while before I wrote an article on this fabulous product, since I wanted to make sure it would last. I have used it and refilled it once. Once you see how little oil is in the product you purchased before, you will so thankful for how much money you will save.
MISTOis not paying me to write this article. All opinions are my own. This contains affiliate links and I may be compensated from this article.


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Filed Under: Money Saving Tips, product review, Time Saving Tips

Money Saving Monday – How to Save With a Kroger Plus Card

December 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
How to Save More With a Kroger Plus Card
Even though Kroger has taken away the double and triple couponing you can still save at Kroger using your Kroger Plus Card. Some people have even decided to give up on couponing altogether. Let’s face it we no longer really shop, we are shopping to save. I want to show you how to get the most savings from shopping for groceries and things you need even without using coupons. First go to Kroger and get your Kroger Plus card. You need to make one small purchase to take advantage of the online e-Coupons. Buy a gift card.

GIFT CARDS
Right now is a great time to buy gift cards at Kroger. You can receive 4 times fuel points you spend on gift cards towards gas purchases. If you buy one $25.00 gift card, that is 100 point or $0.10 off per gallon of gas. Kroger has a wide selection of gift cards you can purchase. I do all my gift card shopping at Kroger in order to save big on gas.

GAS
I usually fill up our SUV at Kroger, since I get such a great savings on gas. Gas is one area that is very difficult to save in a budget. We all use gas and it is not going away or going down in cost real soon. I might as well get as much savings as possible whenever I can on gas. I do this buy shopping at Kroger.

e-COUPONS
Not only does Kroger have e-couponsonline, but they also have and app you can download to load coupons directly onto your Kroger card. Each week Kroger adds new coupons you can add to your card, so check back often. They have coupons for store brand items too. You can’t go wrong with adding coupons to your card. This applies to all Kroger affiliate companies too. I traveled to Arizona this summer where they have Fry’s stores and my e-coupons worked there too. This is great especially for someone who doesn’t want to clip and use coupons. However, Kroger will not allow you to use a digital coupon and a paper coupon together. If you have a better paper coupons, just remove that ecoupon from your card.

There are other e-coupon sites where you can load coupons to your cards too. Take a moment to sign up for UPromise and  Savings Star and easily load digital coupons to your card. Come back here after you finish.


Savings Star is great site, since these coupons are tied to your card, but they are not loaded to your card. You can load as many coupons as you want. You register your Kroger Plus card  and when you use it the savings will sit in an account until you reach the limit to redeem a FREE gift card. I LOVE FREE!


BUYING NECESSITIES
I like to purchase things like milk, eggs and my papers at Kroger. I need to buy these things nearly every week why not get the benefit of extra saving on purchasing them here. Milk is the same price at Walmart, Kroger and Tom Thumb. There may be a sale here and there and I will take advantage of those, but for the most part milk is the same price. Kroger usually has a better price on eggs than Tom Thumb, so I buy my eggs at Kroger. I spend around $10.00 to purchase 4 papers every week. So I will get 10 Kroger fuel points for just purchasing my papers there.


CREDIT CARD SAVINGS
Credit Cards are a good way to get additional savings. This sounds crazy right. How can you get savings from a credit card? This will only work if your credit card is paid in full at the end of every month by not carrying over a balance that will earn you additional interest. However, some credit cards offer a percentage cash back for all purchases made on that card or you could have a card that accumulates airline miles for each purchase you make with that card. Therefore you are making money by purchasing things you already need. This is a good way to replace your debit card for making purchases. This does take a little getting used to using your card this way, but you have to remember you are going to pay this off at the end of the month this is not a loan.

RECAP
Let’s have a little recap of way to get the most out of using your Kroger Plus Card:

1. Gift Cards – 4 Times Dollar Amount for fuel Points right now
2. Gas – savings from Fuel Points
3. e-Coupons – Just click and load
4. Buy Necessities – Milk, Eggs, Papers, ect…
5. Credit Cards – + 2% or more additional savings on Cash Back Credit Cards or FREE miles

Now go out there and start saving! 
Filed Under: Couponing, Couponing 101, Frugal living, Grocery Sales, How to Start Couponing, Kroger Shopping, Money Saving Tips, Stockpiling, Time Saving Tips, Weekly Shopping

Tips for Tuesday – Black Friday

November 22, 2011 by 2 Comments

It is almost here, Black Friday. I really like finding out the history of things. Most people don’t know why it’s called Black Friday. This is the day of the year most retailers go from operating “in the red” (a deficit) to operating “in the black” (making a profit). Thus Black Friday. This is a big day for retailers, and I think it should remain to just Friday. Let the employees enjoy their thanksgiving with their families and not be so greedy to make them work on thanksgiving. Ok that is my two cents. If you agree please do not shop on Thursday.

Here are a few of my tips for surviving the day. Do your research on the items that are going on sale to make sure that is the item you want. Sometimes it is last years model at a deep discount to clear the shelves. The item may not be the quality you really want.

Just like grocery shopping, you should have a plan and a budget and stick to it. Start by planning which stores are open earliest and have the item(s) you really want.

If you can convince someone to go with you, divide and conquer. Have one person go to one store while you go to another to get the most out of the time limited deals.

Don’t worry if you don’t get the deal you wanted. Another deal will come along during the holiday season.

Remember to:

1. Research

2. Have a plan and budget and stick to it.

3. Divide and conquer

4. Don’t worry if you don’t get the deal, another one will come along.

I enjoy shopping online and staying with my family on that day. I really don’t like the crowds, but I would love to hear from my readers and I will have an additional black Friday linky for you to share your great deals you find on that day. I can’t wait to hear from you.

Filed Under: Frugal living, Great Gifts, Money Saving Tips, Time Saving Tips

Tips 4 Tuesday

November 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

First I would like to make sure you are getting all you can from Pounds4Pennies. I offer additional savings information and HOT coupons on my Facebook page and in my BlogFrog community. Please be sure to LIKE me on Facebook to keep up with the latest coupons and savings deals. I also offer additional tips and coupons on BLOGFROG. If you do like my site be sure to click Top Mommy Blogsand vote for me. One click = one vote. I am 108 and would love to get into the top 100 this week just eight more places to go. I know all my fabulous readers can take a few moments to vote for me. THANKS in advance.

I have a few tips to share with you about not throwing things out. My wonderful husband and I try to avoid throwing anything away. If something is about to spoil or we don’t think we will use it in time, we just pop it into the freezer. Why let something go bad and have to throw it away. You might as well take that money and throw it in the trash that you purchased that food with. It is basically the same thing.
Do you ever make a pot of coffee and have some left over? Don’t throw it out. My husband and I love ice coffee. We make a little extra during the summer, so we can have ice coffee in the afternoons. We take the left over coffee and put it a plastic cup or make ice cubes out of it. We use plastic cups, since this is water and it will expand and break a glass container. We then put confectioners sugar and creamer and blend to make a great tasting frappe or just have iced coffee. The confectioners sugar dissolves quickly in ice coffee and you don’t have to worry about the grainy texture from granulated sugar.
What do you do with the left over heels of a piece of bread? Again don’t throw them out. There are several great uses for these. I put some butter on them and toast them in the toaster. Then I place them in my food processor to finely chop them up. I never need to buy bread crumbs. Another thing I do with the bread is make croutons. I butter them and cut them into cubes. Then place them on a cookie sheet and put the oven on broil. Watch very closely as these can burn quickly. I even sprinkle some seasonings on them to make them extra tasty. The kids all time favorite is to save these for duck food. We also keep a bag in the freezer and put left over hot dog buns, hamburger buns or bread crusts in there. When we want to go to the park we automatically have duck food ready for the kids to feed the ducks. This also make a great time for family photos.
My husband and I try not to throw anything out. I hope you will be able to use these tips in the future. Do you have any great tips on how to save or use the extra things you might consider throwing out? I love your comments and I would love to hear from you.
Filed Under: Family, Frugal living, meals, Money Saving Tips, pounds 4 pennies, Recipes, recycling, Stretch meals, Time Saving Tips
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