My rescue pup

My sweet baby Bud. I came in from the library this afternoon & plopped my books down on the couch. When I came back downstairs, he'd climbed up on the couch & plunked his head on the books. He is so sweet.

I had to sit back for a minute and think of how far this dog has come. When we got him, he was a day from death (county kill shelter). He had been terribly abused, starved and was barely the shell of a dog. It took him a long, long time to trust us, but finally he came around, even though he still winces if we move too fast around him. :( I'd beat the crap out of his previous owner if I could... and that's no lie. BUT.... look at him. Just laying there waiting for me to come sit beside him... and I always try to. He will put his head on my lap or on the edge of my laptop tray thingy, just looking up at me.

I gave him a plushie today ... he doesn't know what to do with it - which made me sad. He tried to play with it, but he honestly doesn't know how. Instead, he put it on the floor in front of him and rested his head on it.

Later, I took it to him and kinda shook it. He put it in his mouth and looked up at me. I encouraged him to "take it" but...

*sigh*

I expect that he won't live too long. Pyrs don't have an extensive life span anyway, but with the starvation will come health problems. He will need some dental work before a lot longer & then he'll have to eat mush food. I suspect that he's developing arthritis in his hips, he won't jump up in the kia any more - he'll put his front legs up on the seat but that's it. We have to pick him up .... which is not an easy task.

I want him to have as good of a life as he can have.

Fattening YumYum Casserole

This isn't for every day, I don't want to know how many fat grams or calories was in this baby, but it had to be a lot. However. YUM!

Preheat oven 400
Serves 4 well

1 lb hamburger ($4.31)
1 onion (I used onion salt)(.05)
garlic powder (.05)
1 can corn (.79)
8 oz cream cheese (I used reduced fat) ($2.29) (cut into spoon sized chunks)
half bag egg noodles (1.25)
1/2 c 1% milk ($.25)
2/3 c shredded cheese ($.50)

Brown the cow. Cook the noodles to a tender consistency. Drain the fat off the cow (I rinse it with hot water to remove as much of the fat as possible). Return the hamburger to the stove. Add cream cheese then milk, stirring continually. (I "helped" the cream cheese along, smooshing it with my spoon) & add drained corn. If the mix is too thick, add a little more milk, but don't make it saucy. When mixture is heated and cream cheese is melted, add to drained noodles (or add drained noodles to mix.. it doesn't matter. Stir the whole mess til noodles are covered with the mix. Transfer the whole mess to an 8x8 baking dish and sprinkle the cheese over the noodles. Throw it in the oven for 7-10 minutes (until the cheese melts). Remove and let stand for a few minutes. Total comfort food!

Total cost: $9.49
Cost per serving: $2.37

One of my summer photos

A Crockpot Semi-disaster

Well - half asleep this morning, I managed to get chicken skinned & put in the crock pot with all the right ingredients, plugged the crock in ... turned it on, even... but ... I turned it on high instead of low. So ... all of my ingredients boiled and baked up the sides of my crock-pot. Fortunately I had a dr's appointment and came home 4 hrs earlier than normal. However, temperature mistake set aside, the grub turned out pretty well! This is my deviation of the original recipe... since I had to improvise a bit.

Kicken' Chicken

3 chicken leg/thighs ($2.32)
1/3 packet taco seasoning (reduced sodium) ($1.15/3= .38)
1 c hot salsa (of course pick the right temperature for yourself) ($1.00)
1 can cream of chicken soup (.78)
1/3 c. reduced fat sour cream (.40)

-sides-
1.5 c store-brand Minute Rice ($.60)
1 can store-brand baked beans (1.09)
1 pat butter (.05)
3T brown sugar (.05)

Toss chicken (skinned) into the crock pot. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the bird. Mix the salsa & soup together cover chicken pieces. Turn crock-pot to LOW and cook for 6-8 hrs. When done, remove chicken from crock pot & stir in sour cream forming a thickish sauce. Drizzle over chicken (and I put mine on the rice too... mmmmmm).

Cost of meal: $6.67
Cost per serving: $2.23

Dish rating: Nummiessssssmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :) (that's positive, btw.. lol)

I love this stuff... I found the recipe on Sparkpeople.com which has a great database of low-fat recipes. (I am Susalaska on there should you join up (it's 100% free.)

Found freebie: Spenda is giving away samples of Splenda. Might as well request one if you use no-cal sweetener. www.SplendidLife.com

Frugal... Gawd I hate that word!

I can't think of another word for frugal - if you can, send it to me... :)

So - here's the cost of tonight's dinner & the recipe. Remember... I live in Alaska, so the prices are quite a bit higher than most of the U.S.

Home-style Hamburger Goolash

1 lb lean ground beef ($4.03)
8 oz light sour cream ($1.20) (1/2 16 oz carton)
1 Can of store brand cream of chicken soup (.78)
1/2 bag of egg noodles ($1.25)
1/2 c 1% milk ($.35)
dash (I put a lot... yum) cayenne pepper ($.05)
dash of garlic powder ($.05)

Boil noodles while browning ground beef. Drain the hamburger (I rinse mine cause beef-fat is nasty ~lol~ & I'm on a diet, so low-fat is important to me). Dump the soup in the pan with your clean hamburger, add sour cream & and milk. Stir til hot. Put it in a bowl & eat it. There was enough for two bowls & another for my lunch tomorrow.

Review: Not bad - definitely better than Hamburger Helper.

Price: $7.71
Price per serving: $2.57

Next large purchase or luck finding on Free-cycle: deep freeze

Free-cycle rocks, btw!

A New Beginning

It's amazing... the cost of groceries are super high, the price of gas is unaffordable, housing... psht... I don't even want to talk about that. So I've decided, I CAN save money. I don't know how, exactly, but I'm gonna get out of debt and turn into a penny-pinching tightwad --- LOL! :) Starting here, starting now!

There are, of course - a ton of frugal blogs & websites, so this will be another one - but hopefully it will be my tool to actually keep me on track.